Jamie Sinclair's Blog, page 14
July 31, 2012
Am I more successful than Michael Phelps?
The short and obvious answer is a loud and confident NO. He is, as of tonight, the most successful Olympian of all time in terms of medals won and it's a mighty achievement.
But humour me just for a moment. In terms of goals, mine is to be a published author. Done. I wanted to sell books. Done. In multiple countries? Done that too. So that's success right?
But of course we do rather need to quantify our success, to put a number on it and guage the degree of that success. So in those terms I'm something of a failure. I'm not a bestseller, I don't sell millions of books, I don't have a lucractive publishing deal with Hodder or Random House. I'm not Michael Phelps.
But to stick with the theme. I might end up being Michael Phelps. I still have time to sell more books, to become a best seller. At 36 I'm a long way from being too old whereas the most successful Olympic athlete in history is at the tale end of his glittering career. So I'll keep plugging away, putting in the hours, not giving up or being defeated and I will strive to achieve my goals. And that, folks, makes me Michael Phelps! Maybe.
One final note, and this will only mean something to UK readers. I searched for myself on the WH Smith website tonight and one of my books is listed. It was oddly satisfying to see my work being sold by such a British institution. Admittedly I have yet to sell any books through Smiths, but it felt good nonetheless.
Night folks, I think I'm going to do a book promo tomorrow to kickstart sales for August. I will decide exactly what format this will take during tomorrow and announce it after work.
But humour me just for a moment. In terms of goals, mine is to be a published author. Done. I wanted to sell books. Done. In multiple countries? Done that too. So that's success right?
But of course we do rather need to quantify our success, to put a number on it and guage the degree of that success. So in those terms I'm something of a failure. I'm not a bestseller, I don't sell millions of books, I don't have a lucractive publishing deal with Hodder or Random House. I'm not Michael Phelps.
But to stick with the theme. I might end up being Michael Phelps. I still have time to sell more books, to become a best seller. At 36 I'm a long way from being too old whereas the most successful Olympic athlete in history is at the tale end of his glittering career. So I'll keep plugging away, putting in the hours, not giving up or being defeated and I will strive to achieve my goals. And that, folks, makes me Michael Phelps! Maybe.
One final note, and this will only mean something to UK readers. I searched for myself on the WH Smith website tonight and one of my books is listed. It was oddly satisfying to see my work being sold by such a British institution. Admittedly I have yet to sell any books through Smiths, but it felt good nonetheless.
Night folks, I think I'm going to do a book promo tomorrow to kickstart sales for August. I will decide exactly what format this will take during tomorrow and announce it after work.
July 30, 2012
Medals and reviews
Hi folks,
Just a quick post while I have a brew at work.
Federer is cruising inthe Olympic tennis, our omwen set an Olympic record in the rowing earlier and there's Tom Daley to come in the diving shortly. Epic!
But to more pressing news. I stumbled across a review of my book All the fun of the Fair which was quite simply bursting with enthusiasm, to the extent that I've included it here. Huge thanks to the reviewer, it's much appreciated.
"Usually, I only ever read horror. However, after being 'horrored out' on holiday in Corfu I decided to read something from a different genre and had downloaded this book a while ago. I am so glad I did. The story centres around a group of Morecambe residents. The author does an amazing job of inter-twining all the main characters to tell their individual stories. It is funny, sad and heart wrenching. What I especially liked about the book is the fact that Morecambe holds many dear memories for me and it was lovely to read about places I recognised (Happy Mount Park being one) and it gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling! I could picture the streets of Morecambe clearly. This is a really well written book, and after reading it I am eager to read more by Jamie Sinclair. The author portrays his characters exceedingly well and the reader becomes attached to them all. He gets into the minds of the young and the old alike, seamlessly. This is a brilliant book and I am so glad I read it. Look forward to reading more by this author."
Just a quick post while I have a brew at work.
Federer is cruising inthe Olympic tennis, our omwen set an Olympic record in the rowing earlier and there's Tom Daley to come in the diving shortly. Epic!
But to more pressing news. I stumbled across a review of my book All the fun of the Fair which was quite simply bursting with enthusiasm, to the extent that I've included it here. Huge thanks to the reviewer, it's much appreciated.
"Usually, I only ever read horror. However, after being 'horrored out' on holiday in Corfu I decided to read something from a different genre and had downloaded this book a while ago. I am so glad I did. The story centres around a group of Morecambe residents. The author does an amazing job of inter-twining all the main characters to tell their individual stories. It is funny, sad and heart wrenching. What I especially liked about the book is the fact that Morecambe holds many dear memories for me and it was lovely to read about places I recognised (Happy Mount Park being one) and it gave me a nice warm fuzzy feeling! I could picture the streets of Morecambe clearly. This is a really well written book, and after reading it I am eager to read more by Jamie Sinclair. The author portrays his characters exceedingly well and the reader becomes attached to them all. He gets into the minds of the young and the old alike, seamlessly. This is a brilliant book and I am so glad I read it. Look forward to reading more by this author."
July 29, 2012
London 2012 and job applications
Evening folks,
Just a quick one tonight. How utterly awesome is the BBC coverage of the Olympics? I admit some of the commentary might be a bit mundane but in terms of the way the BBC has made the events viewable it's staggering. Press the red button, all the events on live as they happen. I've been like a kid in a sweetshop flicking between Federer on the tennis, Adlington in the pool, bit of archery, bit of Gymnastics, some diving while I had a snack, then some more swimming, bit of cycling. Brilliant!
In between all this I've applied for a new job! Just submitted the forms now. It's a huge step up from what I do now but I have the skills (on paper at least) and if I don't go for it there's next to zero chance it will come up again before I get made redundant. I'll let you know how that goes.
On top of that the new book is pouring from me. 31,800 words completed now. The aim is to keep as much momentum as I can for the next 3 weeks which will be busy at work and then I have a week off so I can hammer it then.
Sold a couple of books over the weekend too, it's never enough but thanks anyway. We also found time to go see Woman in Black in the park. If you follow me on Twitter you'll know this already but it was superb, very atmospheric in the dark with the wind rustling through the trees. Plus a young lady who had too much to drink nodded off and fell off her bench to the floor. She was fine and it was hilarious. Oddly enough the lady in question saw my Tweet about it and retweeted it!
So, as you can see, it's pretty much all go and non-stop but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Just a quick one tonight. How utterly awesome is the BBC coverage of the Olympics? I admit some of the commentary might be a bit mundane but in terms of the way the BBC has made the events viewable it's staggering. Press the red button, all the events on live as they happen. I've been like a kid in a sweetshop flicking between Federer on the tennis, Adlington in the pool, bit of archery, bit of Gymnastics, some diving while I had a snack, then some more swimming, bit of cycling. Brilliant!
In between all this I've applied for a new job! Just submitted the forms now. It's a huge step up from what I do now but I have the skills (on paper at least) and if I don't go for it there's next to zero chance it will come up again before I get made redundant. I'll let you know how that goes.
On top of that the new book is pouring from me. 31,800 words completed now. The aim is to keep as much momentum as I can for the next 3 weeks which will be busy at work and then I have a week off so I can hammer it then.
Sold a couple of books over the weekend too, it's never enough but thanks anyway. We also found time to go see Woman in Black in the park. If you follow me on Twitter you'll know this already but it was superb, very atmospheric in the dark with the wind rustling through the trees. Plus a young lady who had too much to drink nodded off and fell off her bench to the floor. She was fine and it was hilarious. Oddly enough the lady in question saw my Tweet about it and retweeted it!
So, as you can see, it's pretty much all go and non-stop but I wouldn't have it any other way.
July 28, 2012
London 2012 and pink grapefruit
Afternoon everyone,
So then, how good was the opening ceremony then? Apparently 26.5 million folk stayed up to watch here in the UK. The wife and I sat pretty much mesmerised by the whole thing. I can only imagine Danny Boyle and his team will receive some sort of mention in the Queen's next honours list.
It seems that our American chums struggled to see the opening of the largest sporting event on the planet owing to NBC not showing it live. I don't know details only what I've seen on Twitter etc, but a lot of people seemed pretty unhappy that it wasnt being shown live. If it wasn't, it begs the question, what's more important than showing the opening ceremony of the Olympics?
I'm established on the couch today for a full day of olympic viewing - I am going out tonight though. Outdoor showing of Woman in Black in a local park. Hope it stays dry.
The BBC have pulled out all the stops with the coverage. They've got a fancy menu TV guide thingy where you can just click on the sport you want to watch and away you go. Epic.
The other bonus was that I discovered a tin of grapefruit in the cupboard so that became a late breakfast.
Since this is a writing blog I'd best mention the books. I've written 30,500 words of the new book so I'm still on course to have it published this year along with another from the back catalogue. My existing books are also still available on Kindle, Createspace, Smashwords, Kobo, Apple Ibook, Sony Ereader, Bibliocracy and doubtless a few more. They're all priced to sell too, except the paperbacks which are vastly over priced but look superb on a shelf.
Oh, one last thing. An associate of mine went to the local library yesterday and asked if they could order in a copy of one of my books. He was, I believe, armed with the necessary ISBN info. From what I can gather they seemed to suspect that he was, in fact, me trying to abuse the library and use them as some sort of self-promotion tool. I have to admit to being a bit miffed. After all, I thought libraries would order in pretty much any book if a customer asked for it. Add to that the fact that I'm local and it's win win all round. If I end up selling millions all of a sudden they'd have "local author" posters all over the bloody place to drag people in. Poor form!!
Now stop reading this and watch some Olympics!
So then, how good was the opening ceremony then? Apparently 26.5 million folk stayed up to watch here in the UK. The wife and I sat pretty much mesmerised by the whole thing. I can only imagine Danny Boyle and his team will receive some sort of mention in the Queen's next honours list.
It seems that our American chums struggled to see the opening of the largest sporting event on the planet owing to NBC not showing it live. I don't know details only what I've seen on Twitter etc, but a lot of people seemed pretty unhappy that it wasnt being shown live. If it wasn't, it begs the question, what's more important than showing the opening ceremony of the Olympics?
I'm established on the couch today for a full day of olympic viewing - I am going out tonight though. Outdoor showing of Woman in Black in a local park. Hope it stays dry.
The BBC have pulled out all the stops with the coverage. They've got a fancy menu TV guide thingy where you can just click on the sport you want to watch and away you go. Epic.
The other bonus was that I discovered a tin of grapefruit in the cupboard so that became a late breakfast.
Since this is a writing blog I'd best mention the books. I've written 30,500 words of the new book so I'm still on course to have it published this year along with another from the back catalogue. My existing books are also still available on Kindle, Createspace, Smashwords, Kobo, Apple Ibook, Sony Ereader, Bibliocracy and doubtless a few more. They're all priced to sell too, except the paperbacks which are vastly over priced but look superb on a shelf.
Oh, one last thing. An associate of mine went to the local library yesterday and asked if they could order in a copy of one of my books. He was, I believe, armed with the necessary ISBN info. From what I can gather they seemed to suspect that he was, in fact, me trying to abuse the library and use them as some sort of self-promotion tool. I have to admit to being a bit miffed. After all, I thought libraries would order in pretty much any book if a customer asked for it. Add to that the fact that I'm local and it's win win all round. If I end up selling millions all of a sudden they'd have "local author" posters all over the bloody place to drag people in. Poor form!!
Now stop reading this and watch some Olympics!
July 25, 2012
Midland Hotel & the Jazz Cafe
Evening gang! Everyone okay? Excellent.
First off, how on earth does an 11 year old child get from Wythenshawe to Rome via plane on his own without a bloody passport? For God's sake the Olympics starts on Friday. Should we not be on top of security at major airports? Just in case you've missed this story here's the LINK TO THE BBC.
In other news, this picture is of the iconic Midand Hotel.
Awesome photo isn't it? Thanks to Crosby Camera Club for the image.You should see the inside of the hotel. In fact, come to Morecambe and stay there. This hotel features in my book The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. In fact, it's on the front cover.
Not bad is it? Accordng to the reviews it's a pretty good crime thriller too. Sadly in the book the Midland is not open but being redeveloped as it was a few years ago. Then the hotel is burned down at the end. Don't worry, they build something awesome on the site for the follow up!
Anyway, that's the point of this post. I use real places in my books to ground them in reality. Makes the story more believeable. In Edinburgh you can go on an Ian Rankin Rebus tour to see the places featured in the books. I hope one day that folk will come to Morecambe and district for my books in the future and, hopefully, that will help the regeneration of the town.
First off, how on earth does an 11 year old child get from Wythenshawe to Rome via plane on his own without a bloody passport? For God's sake the Olympics starts on Friday. Should we not be on top of security at major airports? Just in case you've missed this story here's the LINK TO THE BBC.
In other news, this picture is of the iconic Midand Hotel.
Awesome photo isn't it? Thanks to Crosby Camera Club for the image.You should see the inside of the hotel. In fact, come to Morecambe and stay there. This hotel features in my book The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. In fact, it's on the front cover.
Not bad is it? Accordng to the reviews it's a pretty good crime thriller too. Sadly in the book the Midland is not open but being redeveloped as it was a few years ago. Then the hotel is burned down at the end. Don't worry, they build something awesome on the site for the follow up!
Anyway, that's the point of this post. I use real places in my books to ground them in reality. Makes the story more believeable. In Edinburgh you can go on an Ian Rankin Rebus tour to see the places featured in the books. I hope one day that folk will come to Morecambe and district for my books in the future and, hopefully, that will help the regeneration of the town.
July 23, 2012
Featured at Bibliocracy
Morning folks,
Just a quickie. A couple of my books are on the front page of Bibliocracy as featured books this morning which is nice. So if you don't fancy buying them from Amazon get yourself over there. All four of my books can be downloaded from Bibliocracy right now. Just search for Jamie Sinclair.
Just a quickie. A couple of my books are on the front page of Bibliocracy as featured books this morning which is nice. So if you don't fancy buying them from Amazon get yourself over there. All four of my books can be downloaded from Bibliocracy right now. Just search for Jamie Sinclair.
July 22, 2012
Is it just about numbers?
Morning gang,
Progress on the new book continues. I had a thinking day yesterday because I suddenly realised I was writing myself into a bit of a cul de sac. That seems to be sorted now and I've written about a 1000 words today to take the total to over 26,500. Hurrah.
I have to admit I've been sidetracked somewhat by The Open on the BBC. As ever, if you've read my profile you'll know this, I was routing for Tiger while knowing that, realistically, he would fall short. It was frustrating viewing because he was basically trying to win a Major tournament without using a driver. Such is his talent he still came third. If he ever manages to recapture his previous magic God help everyone else. The numbers are interesting. Adam Scott was winning but bogeyed the last 4 holes to leave himself level needing to par the last for a playoff with Ernie Els. He didn't. Also a big thumbs up to Team Sky and Bradley Wiggins for winning his first Tour De France. Never been done by a Brit!
Last night also saw Liverpool's first pre-season game take place against Toronto FC. Interesting largely because it was Brendan's first game in charge. What did I take from the game? That Liverpool has a lot of players on it's books, many of whom will never, ever play in the Premier League. The game was a 1-1 draw. It's a miracle I've written anything.
Right, I'd best dash, I've got to be at work in 5 and a half hours and I've got a bottle of beer to finish first.
Night
Progress on the new book continues. I had a thinking day yesterday because I suddenly realised I was writing myself into a bit of a cul de sac. That seems to be sorted now and I've written about a 1000 words today to take the total to over 26,500. Hurrah.
I have to admit I've been sidetracked somewhat by The Open on the BBC. As ever, if you've read my profile you'll know this, I was routing for Tiger while knowing that, realistically, he would fall short. It was frustrating viewing because he was basically trying to win a Major tournament without using a driver. Such is his talent he still came third. If he ever manages to recapture his previous magic God help everyone else. The numbers are interesting. Adam Scott was winning but bogeyed the last 4 holes to leave himself level needing to par the last for a playoff with Ernie Els. He didn't. Also a big thumbs up to Team Sky and Bradley Wiggins for winning his first Tour De France. Never been done by a Brit!
Last night also saw Liverpool's first pre-season game take place against Toronto FC. Interesting largely because it was Brendan's first game in charge. What did I take from the game? That Liverpool has a lot of players on it's books, many of whom will never, ever play in the Premier League. The game was a 1-1 draw. It's a miracle I've written anything.
Right, I'd best dash, I've got to be at work in 5 and a half hours and I've got a bottle of beer to finish first.
Night
July 21, 2012
Will this Blog Post lead to a book sale?
Hi folks and welcome to my first post since announcing the relaunch of my blog. The purpose of this post? To see if a single post can lead to
a) more traffic to this blog
b) more followers of this blog
c) increased sales of my books
It's a big ask but here we go.
Today I changed the title and description of my blog. I am going to mention that I am an English author of crime thriller books in this post. I am also going to tell you that they are set in a small seaside town called Morecambe where I grew up. Hopefully you'll wonder where that is and click the link I put in the word Morecambe. The reason I'm sharing this is because it's relevant and also because I hope that people like you will search for these terms and find my blog.
If you're still here you might wonder what my books are about. You can learn about them from this very blog or from my Facebook page or even my Amazon author page. It shouldn't be a surprise that I've put links to all these in the text too.
If you are a fan of romantic fiction you'll hopefully like my book Playground Cool or All the fun of the Fair. If you're not sure why not download a sample? You can do that via Amazon or Smashwords and, soon, Bibliocracy.
Do you like crime thrillers? Great, try my latest book The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. It's set in Morecambe and you can try a sample fo that for free too. If you've been paying attention you'll know the link was in the title of the book.
As part of my new strategy to meet aa many people as I can and introduce them to my books, today I aso updated my
Why? Because I want you to know about me and where I'm from. Then I want you to buy my books, and enjoy them. Then, finally, I want you to tell all your friends about me.
But it all starts with you reading this blog post. Welcome aboard.
a) more traffic to this blog
b) more followers of this blog
c) increased sales of my books
It's a big ask but here we go.
Today I changed the title and description of my blog. I am going to mention that I am an English author of crime thriller books in this post. I am also going to tell you that they are set in a small seaside town called Morecambe where I grew up. Hopefully you'll wonder where that is and click the link I put in the word Morecambe. The reason I'm sharing this is because it's relevant and also because I hope that people like you will search for these terms and find my blog.
If you're still here you might wonder what my books are about. You can learn about them from this very blog or from my Facebook page or even my Amazon author page. It shouldn't be a surprise that I've put links to all these in the text too.
If you are a fan of romantic fiction you'll hopefully like my book Playground Cool or All the fun of the Fair. If you're not sure why not download a sample? You can do that via Amazon or Smashwords and, soon, Bibliocracy.
Do you like crime thrillers? Great, try my latest book The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. It's set in Morecambe and you can try a sample fo that for free too. If you've been paying attention you'll know the link was in the title of the book.
As part of my new strategy to meet aa many people as I can and introduce them to my books, today I aso updated my
Why? Because I want you to know about me and where I'm from. Then I want you to buy my books, and enjoy them. Then, finally, I want you to tell all your friends about me.
But it all starts with you reading this blog post. Welcome aboard.
SEO. Using Keywords to get seen.
Afternoon folks,
Morecambe. Crime thriller. Romantic saga.
You might have noticed, if you're a regular reader, that the name of the blog has changed. And the description too. Why?
Well, as part of my ongoing efforts to drive traffic to this blog and, ultimately, to drive sales of my books, I am trying to embrace the idea of Search Engine Optimisation. Like most folk, I'm aware it exists but I don't have a great understanding of it. But I've been doing some reading and have decided to give it a go.
The idea seems to be to mention certain keywords regularly throughout blog posts which are then picked up by search engines. These need to be words that are likely to be searched for so there's no point picking something random like Handbag Clasp. So, for this post I'm trying Morecambe because it's where two of my books are set and Crime Thriller, because it's the biggest selling genre of fiction.
Apparently the trick is also to reference old blog posts too, with a view that you drive traffic to yourself. I haven't grasped that yet but I'll persevere. The plan is to keep an eye on my traffic stats for a month and see if there's been an impact and review after that.
So, to recap. My book The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe is a CRIME THRILLER set in MORECAMBE and has received fantastic reviews. My book All the fun of the Fair is a ROMANTIC SAGA and is also set in MORECAMBE. Too subtle? We shall see.
Morecambe. Crime thriller. Romantic saga.
You might have noticed, if you're a regular reader, that the name of the blog has changed. And the description too. Why?
Well, as part of my ongoing efforts to drive traffic to this blog and, ultimately, to drive sales of my books, I am trying to embrace the idea of Search Engine Optimisation. Like most folk, I'm aware it exists but I don't have a great understanding of it. But I've been doing some reading and have decided to give it a go.
The idea seems to be to mention certain keywords regularly throughout blog posts which are then picked up by search engines. These need to be words that are likely to be searched for so there's no point picking something random like Handbag Clasp. So, for this post I'm trying Morecambe because it's where two of my books are set and Crime Thriller, because it's the biggest selling genre of fiction.
Apparently the trick is also to reference old blog posts too, with a view that you drive traffic to yourself. I haven't grasped that yet but I'll persevere. The plan is to keep an eye on my traffic stats for a month and see if there's been an impact and review after that.
So, to recap. My book The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe is a CRIME THRILLER set in MORECAMBE and has received fantastic reviews. My book All the fun of the Fair is a ROMANTIC SAGA and is also set in MORECAMBE. Too subtle? We shall see.
July 20, 2012
Golf, EL James and Bibliocracy.
Evening gang,
So the golf at Lytham is at the halfway stage. Tiger produced a stunning last shot on the 18th to leave himself in contention for the weekend. I shall be planted in front of the tele all weekend.
In other news I was just looking at my last post from Monday where I said the goal for the night was to clear 21000 words. Well as of today I've written 25,500 so it's going well. The weekend plan is to review and tighten up some scenes and then attack it again next week. But if you liked The 24 Hour Jazz cafe, you'll love the new one.
Last thing, as part of my ongoing efforts to increase my online presence I have uploaded my books to Bibliocracy. Essentially a platform to publish and sell work, they take a small cut for the service but no more than Smashwords and a lot less than Amazon. They reckon it'll be about five days before the books appear on their site so I'll post links when I have them.
Until then my books are still available on Amazon everywhere, on Smashwords in every conceivable format and in paperback via Amazon or Createspace. I know how many I've sold so I know lots of you have yet to treat yourself to a copy. You'll regret it when I'm suddenly the next EL James (Fifty Shades of...)
So the golf at Lytham is at the halfway stage. Tiger produced a stunning last shot on the 18th to leave himself in contention for the weekend. I shall be planted in front of the tele all weekend.
In other news I was just looking at my last post from Monday where I said the goal for the night was to clear 21000 words. Well as of today I've written 25,500 so it's going well. The weekend plan is to review and tighten up some scenes and then attack it again next week. But if you liked The 24 Hour Jazz cafe, you'll love the new one.
Last thing, as part of my ongoing efforts to increase my online presence I have uploaded my books to Bibliocracy. Essentially a platform to publish and sell work, they take a small cut for the service but no more than Smashwords and a lot less than Amazon. They reckon it'll be about five days before the books appear on their site so I'll post links when I have them.
Until then my books are still available on Amazon everywhere, on Smashwords in every conceivable format and in paperback via Amazon or Createspace. I know how many I've sold so I know lots of you have yet to treat yourself to a copy. You'll regret it when I'm suddenly the next EL James (Fifty Shades of...)
