Alex Hunter's Blog
December 9, 2012
Select KDP?
A last Free Promotion
As you probably know, Amazon will only allow books to be given away (i.e. downloaded free of charge) if they are first enrolled in their KDP Select scheme, and even then, only for a maximum of five days during the three month enrollment period.
I enrolled with KDP Select when The Testing of Archie Rathbone was published in June, and renewed the enrollment in September. That takes me through to December 20th, but I have decided not to renew again (more on that another time). The upshot of this is that once I have taken advantage of the allocated free days this month, my book won't then be free to download again for a while (never say never).
So, The Testing of Archie Rathbone will be free to download from Amazon for two days, on December 14th and 15th.
The Testing of Archie Rathbone
Joo's Author Interrogations
This promotion will coincide with the posting on the web of a short interview (of me, not by me). Our very own Joo will be posting my interview on her excellent Author Interrogations and book reviews blog on December 14th. Joo's Reviews and Interviews
Downhill Career / Career downhill?
As a small aside, my ongoing efforts to find a job continue to be frustrated. It's been a long time now, and it would be all too easy to give in to the rising background sense of panic. I don't mention this because I'm blurring the boundaries between my two careers - the writer I'd like to be, and the other one I need in order to pay the bills - but because at the moment my worries about the continued absence of the latter are getting in the way of the creative processes of the former. I continue to hope that the rapidly approaching new year will see a change for the better on both fronts.
As you probably know, Amazon will only allow books to be given away (i.e. downloaded free of charge) if they are first enrolled in their KDP Select scheme, and even then, only for a maximum of five days during the three month enrollment period.
I enrolled with KDP Select when The Testing of Archie Rathbone was published in June, and renewed the enrollment in September. That takes me through to December 20th, but I have decided not to renew again (more on that another time). The upshot of this is that once I have taken advantage of the allocated free days this month, my book won't then be free to download again for a while (never say never).
So, The Testing of Archie Rathbone will be free to download from Amazon for two days, on December 14th and 15th.
The Testing of Archie Rathbone
Joo's Author Interrogations
This promotion will coincide with the posting on the web of a short interview (of me, not by me). Our very own Joo will be posting my interview on her excellent Author Interrogations and book reviews blog on December 14th. Joo's Reviews and Interviews
Downhill Career / Career downhill?
As a small aside, my ongoing efforts to find a job continue to be frustrated. It's been a long time now, and it would be all too easy to give in to the rising background sense of panic. I don't mention this because I'm blurring the boundaries between my two careers - the writer I'd like to be, and the other one I need in order to pay the bills - but because at the moment my worries about the continued absence of the latter are getting in the way of the creative processes of the former. I continue to hope that the rapidly approaching new year will see a change for the better on both fronts.
November 9, 2012
The Amazon Adventure continues
It's been a while since I last wrote an update on my experiences of trying to sell my book.
The Testing of Archie Rathbone hasn't exactly flown off the e-shelves, but then from what my friendly fellow authors have said, that is very much par for the course for first books, and particularly self-published ones. As I've posted previously, downloads have come in dribs and drabs, although during September there was a definite spike in sales, following my last promotion. That spike petered out during the month, with the last residual effects finally vanishing in early October. Now, it just so happened that this coincided with a serious change of focus in my life - I've been out of work for several months, and at that point I realised that looking for work had to become a full-time exercise. Consequently, my author-related networking activity vanished as my job hunting activity increased, and although it was quite incidental, this has provided the circumstances for an interesting (for me at least) experiment:
Assuming that the sales in early October were as a residual effect of September's promotional activity, then it seems that a near-total lack of networking activity during the month resulted in a corresponding total lack of book sales. Looking at this from the current point (more than a week into November), and still without a single additional download, I'm now planning a three day free promotion this month (from November 16th to 18th inclusive), accompanied by all the associated visibility I can manage.
What will this prove? Well, free books tend to attract downloads - that doesn't prove anything. But, if the downloads continue after the price reverts at the end of the promotion then that can only be as a direct result of the promotion (otherwise I'd have seen some paid downloads over the last month). I shall let you know what happens!
Oh, and in case you're wondering - no, I still haven't found a job...
The Testing of Archie Rathbone hasn't exactly flown off the e-shelves, but then from what my friendly fellow authors have said, that is very much par for the course for first books, and particularly self-published ones. As I've posted previously, downloads have come in dribs and drabs, although during September there was a definite spike in sales, following my last promotion. That spike petered out during the month, with the last residual effects finally vanishing in early October. Now, it just so happened that this coincided with a serious change of focus in my life - I've been out of work for several months, and at that point I realised that looking for work had to become a full-time exercise. Consequently, my author-related networking activity vanished as my job hunting activity increased, and although it was quite incidental, this has provided the circumstances for an interesting (for me at least) experiment:
Assuming that the sales in early October were as a residual effect of September's promotional activity, then it seems that a near-total lack of networking activity during the month resulted in a corresponding total lack of book sales. Looking at this from the current point (more than a week into November), and still without a single additional download, I'm now planning a three day free promotion this month (from November 16th to 18th inclusive), accompanied by all the associated visibility I can manage.
What will this prove? Well, free books tend to attract downloads - that doesn't prove anything. But, if the downloads continue after the price reverts at the end of the promotion then that can only be as a direct result of the promotion (otherwise I'd have seen some paid downloads over the last month). I shall let you know what happens!
Oh, and in case you're wondering - no, I still haven't found a job...
October 10, 2012
The Watchmaker's Chain - update
Better late than never, or so they say.
The Watchmaker's Chain spent many months in a state of suspended animation, and as I've reported before, when I came to try to re-animate it, I found that I was suffering from a severe case of writer's block.
It wasn't so much that I couldn't think what to write, but that I had suspended the creative process at a point in the story where some critical information was just about to be shared with the reader, and a necessary prerequisite of breathing life into the story was that I was completely clear as to what that information was, how much of it would immediately be made clear, and how it would be presented. To make matters worse, the rest of the book (and the plot's 'critical path') is heavily dependent upon that information, and upon my getting the balance of detail and revellation right. Sadly, this proved to be a difficult, protracted and painful process.
Well, several weeks later, I'm happy to report that I did eventually overcome this problem and with it the writer's block. The Watchmaker's Chain has now advanced by another eight thousand words (the total now stands at just over 40,000), and counting.
The Watchmaker's Chain spent many months in a state of suspended animation, and as I've reported before, when I came to try to re-animate it, I found that I was suffering from a severe case of writer's block.
It wasn't so much that I couldn't think what to write, but that I had suspended the creative process at a point in the story where some critical information was just about to be shared with the reader, and a necessary prerequisite of breathing life into the story was that I was completely clear as to what that information was, how much of it would immediately be made clear, and how it would be presented. To make matters worse, the rest of the book (and the plot's 'critical path') is heavily dependent upon that information, and upon my getting the balance of detail and revellation right. Sadly, this proved to be a difficult, protracted and painful process.
Well, several weeks later, I'm happy to report that I did eventually overcome this problem and with it the writer's block. The Watchmaker's Chain has now advanced by another eight thousand words (the total now stands at just over 40,000), and counting.
October 5, 2012
New Review on Amazon.co.uk
When I saw that The Testing of Archie Rathbone had received another review on Anazon, it was with the usual trepidation that I started to read. It was a five star review, so perhaps I shouldn't have been so nervous, but I was delighted with what I read:
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Entertaining, 5 Oct 2012
This review is from: The Testing of Archie Rathbone (Kindle Edition)
After reading the reviews on this book, I was a little bit wary about trying it. Using strange or humorous names for some of your characters worked well for Douglas Adams & Charles Dickens, but nowadays I tend to think it's often a lazy device used by writers who are trying (usually unsuccessfully) to inject a bit of comedy into a rather limp offering.
Well allow me to eat those words, because I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and once I started reading, I just couldn't stop. It's hard to pin down exactly what genre it would fit into, it's not comedy (though it does have some amusing twists), and somehow it doesn't quite fit the fantasy genre. It does however have an unusual, eccentric plot that keeps you entertained from beginning to end, is well written and full of interesting characters (like the tailors Bolt, Upright & Clench). If I tell you that the main character Archie Rathbone starts the book, trapped on a desert island that is <spoiler> contained within a can of tuna </spoiler>, you'll understand what I mean when I say "eccentric". Sounds daft, but this really is a very readable book, and I'm looking forward to reading more of this author's work in future.
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Entertaining, 5 Oct 2012
This review is from: The Testing of Archie Rathbone (Kindle Edition)
After reading the reviews on this book, I was a little bit wary about trying it. Using strange or humorous names for some of your characters worked well for Douglas Adams & Charles Dickens, but nowadays I tend to think it's often a lazy device used by writers who are trying (usually unsuccessfully) to inject a bit of comedy into a rather limp offering.
Well allow me to eat those words, because I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and once I started reading, I just couldn't stop. It's hard to pin down exactly what genre it would fit into, it's not comedy (though it does have some amusing twists), and somehow it doesn't quite fit the fantasy genre. It does however have an unusual, eccentric plot that keeps you entertained from beginning to end, is well written and full of interesting characters (like the tailors Bolt, Upright & Clench). If I tell you that the main character Archie Rathbone starts the book, trapped on a desert island that is <spoiler> contained within a can of tuna </spoiler>, you'll understand what I mean when I say "eccentric". Sounds daft, but this really is a very readable book, and I'm looking forward to reading more of this author's work in future.
September 25, 2012
The Watchmaker's Chain - update
I've mentioned before that I've been struggling for some time with aspects of the plot of my new book The Watchmaker's Chain - aspects that were complex, but critical to subsequent plot structure - and that this had prevented me from writing any more of the book.
Well, I'm glad to report that after what seems like a very long time in the wilderness, I've managed, finally, to pin down those plot details, and The Watchmaker's Chain is once more a work in progress!
This new book is a contemporary mystery thriller, seasoned with a little science fiction. I started writing it in 2011, but decided to put it on ice last autumn while I worked on getting The Testing of Archie Rathbone">The Testing of Archie Rathbone ready for publication. I have to say that picking up the pieces like this has been much more difficult than I would have expected, and I'll certainly try to avoid having to repeat the process. I hadn't realised quite how complex and involved the various plot strands were that I'd left hanging there, so when it came to picking them up again it wasn't just a case of trying to resolve the unresolved details I referred to earlier, but also of having to remind myself of all those little complexities of interdependency that I'd already designed in - the details I'd sown as seeds earlier in the story that later on would grow into plot twists, or clues to other mysteries.
This is one aspect of writing that I find particularly challenging - not the process of designing a necessarily complex plot, but judging just how complex it really is. If you 'engineer' a complex and interwoven set of plot strands that ultimately lead the reader to what you hope will be a satisfactory conclusion, it's very difficult for you the writer to see it as the reader will - you already know the answer to every riddle you place before the reader.
The Watchmaker's Chain currently stands at around 32,000 words - that's 72 pages of A4 (if that's any more meaningful), or perhaps equivalent to around 110 pages of a 'traditional' book. I don't know how that will compare to its ultimate size, but I'd guess that I'm about a third of the way there.
If you're interested, I'm going to try to post regular updates as to how The Watchmaker's Chain progresses (along with occasional updates on the download figures for The Testing of Archie Rathbone). If you've read The Testing of Archie Rathbone then you'll find my second book quite different, but still, I hope, enjoyable.
Well, I'm glad to report that after what seems like a very long time in the wilderness, I've managed, finally, to pin down those plot details, and The Watchmaker's Chain is once more a work in progress!
This new book is a contemporary mystery thriller, seasoned with a little science fiction. I started writing it in 2011, but decided to put it on ice last autumn while I worked on getting The Testing of Archie Rathbone">The Testing of Archie Rathbone ready for publication. I have to say that picking up the pieces like this has been much more difficult than I would have expected, and I'll certainly try to avoid having to repeat the process. I hadn't realised quite how complex and involved the various plot strands were that I'd left hanging there, so when it came to picking them up again it wasn't just a case of trying to resolve the unresolved details I referred to earlier, but also of having to remind myself of all those little complexities of interdependency that I'd already designed in - the details I'd sown as seeds earlier in the story that later on would grow into plot twists, or clues to other mysteries.
This is one aspect of writing that I find particularly challenging - not the process of designing a necessarily complex plot, but judging just how complex it really is. If you 'engineer' a complex and interwoven set of plot strands that ultimately lead the reader to what you hope will be a satisfactory conclusion, it's very difficult for you the writer to see it as the reader will - you already know the answer to every riddle you place before the reader.
The Watchmaker's Chain currently stands at around 32,000 words - that's 72 pages of A4 (if that's any more meaningful), or perhaps equivalent to around 110 pages of a 'traditional' book. I don't know how that will compare to its ultimate size, but I'd guess that I'm about a third of the way there.
If you're interested, I'm going to try to post regular updates as to how The Watchmaker's Chain progresses (along with occasional updates on the download figures for The Testing of Archie Rathbone). If you've read The Testing of Archie Rathbone then you'll find my second book quite different, but still, I hope, enjoyable.
September 1, 2012
Free Today - The Testing of Archie Rathbone
The Testing of Archie Rathbone
My book is free to download from Amazon today (last KDP Select promotional day).
Please do take advantage of this, and if you read it I'd be very grateful for any feedback and/or reviews.
On Amazon.co.uk
On Amazon.com
August 24, 2012
September 1st Promotion
The Testing of Archie Rathbone
Free on 1st September 2012
Having enrolled on Amazon's KDP Select programme, I am allowed to run up to five days of promotions during which The Testing of Archie Rathbone can be downloaded free of charge. There have been two previous promotions over the last few months and I've decided to use my final 'free' day on 1st September 2012.
If you haven't already, then please do take advantage of this opportunity. If you don't have a Kindle then there are Kindle Reader apps that allow you to read Kindle ebooks on a number of other devices including phones, PCs iPads and so on.
If you do manage to read my book then I'd love to hear what you thought of it, and perhaps you'd like to write a short (or long) review on Goodreads or on Amazon, or send me a PM if you prefer.
I'll probably renew my KDP Select membership in September so there may well be further promotions over the following three months. Dates to be decided...
Free on 1st September 2012
Having enrolled on Amazon's KDP Select programme, I am allowed to run up to five days of promotions during which The Testing of Archie Rathbone can be downloaded free of charge. There have been two previous promotions over the last few months and I've decided to use my final 'free' day on 1st September 2012.
If you haven't already, then please do take advantage of this opportunity. If you don't have a Kindle then there are Kindle Reader apps that allow you to read Kindle ebooks on a number of other devices including phones, PCs iPads and so on.
If you do manage to read my book then I'd love to hear what you thought of it, and perhaps you'd like to write a short (or long) review on Goodreads or on Amazon, or send me a PM if you prefer.
I'll probably renew my KDP Select membership in September so there may well be further promotions over the following three months. Dates to be decided...
August 18, 2012
Footprints in the sand
I'd never been to Scotland before - at least not if you don't count a few business trips to Edinburgh and Glasgow - a quick flight in, heather strewn moors laid out beneath the plane, mountains glimpsed though grimy taxi windows... No, I'd never really been to Scotland before. Just to drive the point home, the scenery of the West Coast is even more impossibly beautiful than I'd dared hope. So often, when you've invested so much money and hard-fought annual leave allocation in one holiday, you want - no you need it to be special, but nothing had prepared me for the reality of the mist-shrouded mountains of the Inner Hebrides, viewed across the glassy waters of the North Atlantic, shell-white sand between my toes.
I'd wanted to see this fabled land for myself, but as Archie Rathbone had been there before me, I also wanted to see if it really was as reported. I can only conclude that he and Emma didn't see it at its best.
If there was anything that cast a pale shadow over this idylic scene, it was the presence of some footprints in the sand. I've written elsewhere about the ominous suggestion that Trenchfoote (a Herring Gull of ill repute) has escaped from the pages of my book... well, let's just hope I was wrong...
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I'd wanted to see this fabled land for myself, but as Archie Rathbone had been there before me, I also wanted to see if it really was as reported. I can only conclude that he and Emma didn't see it at its best.
If there was anything that cast a pale shadow over this idylic scene, it was the presence of some footprints in the sand. I've written elsewhere about the ominous suggestion that Trenchfoote (a Herring Gull of ill repute) has escaped from the pages of my book... well, let's just hope I was wrong...
[image error]
July 30, 2012
Writer's Block
The last few months have been difficult.
Perhaps I could have said that at almost any point in my recent life... I don't know. Anyway, in this case, having been made redundant last March, and still being out of work now (with a family to support) is not conducive to getting a good night's sleep, and as the time ticks past, it's not getting any easier!
I mention this, not in the hope of garnering sympathy, but so that I can try to explain somthing of my writing habits. I'd thought (or at least hoped) that some of the last few months would have been spent writing my latest novel - I know I've also been working on the house (in case I have to sell it, but the work needs doing anyway), but that doesn't take up all of the day. And yet I have hardly been able to bring myself to write a word in four months. What a waste!
Looking back though, this was entirely predictable. I've been here before. I can write when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm neither. But I don't seem able to write when I'm worried - preoccupied with something that seems bigger than me - when I feel that I've lost control of my life, and it's been taken over by some sort of malevolent force...
It's a shame - The Watchmaker's Chain was coming on well. I'd written eight chapters - my main character had taken shape, he'd introduced several other significant characters, been presented with some shocking news which had developed into a lot of questions that demanded answers, and... well, you get the idea. Anyway, at the end of last year I'd left things rather up in the air, and poised to explode in several interesting directions, and there they've stayed.
I've managed to read it through (in the hope that I would be inspired to write again), and I did expand the last chapter a little (to explain some things that needed explaining) but so far the whole writing thing just doesn't want to happen.
I'd love to think that my next post will start with 'I've written chapter nine...', and perhaps it will. I hope so. As I say, I've been here before, and I know that I sometimes have to have a break from writing, but always come back to it, refreshed and itching to be at it. Failing that, perhaps my next post will start with 'I've got a new job...'.
Perhaps I could have said that at almost any point in my recent life... I don't know. Anyway, in this case, having been made redundant last March, and still being out of work now (with a family to support) is not conducive to getting a good night's sleep, and as the time ticks past, it's not getting any easier!
I mention this, not in the hope of garnering sympathy, but so that I can try to explain somthing of my writing habits. I'd thought (or at least hoped) that some of the last few months would have been spent writing my latest novel - I know I've also been working on the house (in case I have to sell it, but the work needs doing anyway), but that doesn't take up all of the day. And yet I have hardly been able to bring myself to write a word in four months. What a waste!
Looking back though, this was entirely predictable. I've been here before. I can write when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm neither. But I don't seem able to write when I'm worried - preoccupied with something that seems bigger than me - when I feel that I've lost control of my life, and it's been taken over by some sort of malevolent force...
It's a shame - The Watchmaker's Chain was coming on well. I'd written eight chapters - my main character had taken shape, he'd introduced several other significant characters, been presented with some shocking news which had developed into a lot of questions that demanded answers, and... well, you get the idea. Anyway, at the end of last year I'd left things rather up in the air, and poised to explode in several interesting directions, and there they've stayed.
I've managed to read it through (in the hope that I would be inspired to write again), and I did expand the last chapter a little (to explain some things that needed explaining) but so far the whole writing thing just doesn't want to happen.
I'd love to think that my next post will start with 'I've written chapter nine...', and perhaps it will. I hope so. As I say, I've been here before, and I know that I sometimes have to have a break from writing, but always come back to it, refreshed and itching to be at it. Failing that, perhaps my next post will start with 'I've got a new job...'.
July 21, 2012
A writer, by any other name...
"I wonder when I can legitimately call myself a writer?" I wondered, gazing thoughtfully into the middle-distance.
"Well, you're writing a book aren't you?" my mother's voice emerged from the telephone.
"Yes, but... is that it...?"
I was in my early twenties and unemployed (though trying to find my first full-time job). I'd been searching for employment for months, but despite tens of interviews (at which I was generally told I was over-qualified) I hadn't had any success. It had all started earlier that year - I'd been sat on a bench in the park, wracking my brains for new approaches to job-hunting. This was years before the internet took off - you couldn't just sit in front of a PC for a few hours and look for new job adverts - I had to scour the papers, trudge the streets looking in office windows, and that's on top of the regular visits to the Job Centre. I'd even been cold-calling potential employers and arranged to speak to them in the hope that they would see potential in me and take a chance. It hadn't happened.
(It occurrs to me how ironic it is that I'm back in that position again now!)
Anyway, there I was, sat on that park bench in the sunshine, wondering how long I was going to have to continue to respond to questions about my occupation with a falsely optimistic "Oh, I'm unemployed, but...", when it suddenly occurred to me that there was another way...
Ever since I could remember, I'd wanted to write - not in the when I grow up I want to be a writer sense, more in the sense that every so often I have to write in order to stay sane. I think I'd even thought wistfully that one day I might write books, but until that moment it hadn't occurred to me that if I actually picked up my pen and applied ink to paper then I would no longer have to say "oh, I'm unemployed, but...".
So, I did pick up my pen, and judiciously applied it to paper (computers back in the nineteen-eighties were not widely owned, nor the sort of item you could take down to the park for a spot of creative writing). I started to write my first book, and ever since that I've been a writer. I've been a number of other things as well, and that has really got in the way of the creative process, but for me at least -once a writer, always a writer.
That said, I still have to check, from time to time - can I really call myself a writer?
"Well, you're writing a book aren't you?" my mother's voice emerged from the telephone.
"Yes, but... is that it...?"
I was in my early twenties and unemployed (though trying to find my first full-time job). I'd been searching for employment for months, but despite tens of interviews (at which I was generally told I was over-qualified) I hadn't had any success. It had all started earlier that year - I'd been sat on a bench in the park, wracking my brains for new approaches to job-hunting. This was years before the internet took off - you couldn't just sit in front of a PC for a few hours and look for new job adverts - I had to scour the papers, trudge the streets looking in office windows, and that's on top of the regular visits to the Job Centre. I'd even been cold-calling potential employers and arranged to speak to them in the hope that they would see potential in me and take a chance. It hadn't happened.
(It occurrs to me how ironic it is that I'm back in that position again now!)
Anyway, there I was, sat on that park bench in the sunshine, wondering how long I was going to have to continue to respond to questions about my occupation with a falsely optimistic "Oh, I'm unemployed, but...", when it suddenly occurred to me that there was another way...
Ever since I could remember, I'd wanted to write - not in the when I grow up I want to be a writer sense, more in the sense that every so often I have to write in order to stay sane. I think I'd even thought wistfully that one day I might write books, but until that moment it hadn't occurred to me that if I actually picked up my pen and applied ink to paper then I would no longer have to say "oh, I'm unemployed, but...".
So, I did pick up my pen, and judiciously applied it to paper (computers back in the nineteen-eighties were not widely owned, nor the sort of item you could take down to the park for a spot of creative writing). I started to write my first book, and ever since that I've been a writer. I've been a number of other things as well, and that has really got in the way of the creative process, but for me at least -once a writer, always a writer.
That said, I still have to check, from time to time - can I really call myself a writer?
