Matthew Williams's Blog: My Diary as an Author, page 2

BBC Radio

I look back now and ask myself, "why so nervous?" So easy to feel that way after the event.

My radio interview went really well. Don't take my word for it, have a listen for yourself - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5VIm... - I was very pleased and have had nothing but good feedback since - Thanks BBC!

I need to pull together all my readers now, I need the reviews, on here and on amazon. So if you're reading this and you've read my books, please get thoses reviews posted - I really need your help to spread the word.

Thanks for reading and please stay tuned for my next post - In the meantime - Happy Reading All! :-)

So far so GREAT!

Okay so April didn't see any new reviews, and sales were pretty slow. Sort of a steady trickle throughout with only the occasional lunge into the triple digits in the Amazon rankings.

That said, it was highly productive on the networking front. Many new friends, followers & contacts, and some good media related bits and bobs cropping up too.

1st May - Drum roll please, I bet the suspense from the end of my last post is killing you, right?
Shadowchild crowned cover of the Month for the month of April by www.allauthor.com - well chuffed :-)

2nd May - An uneasy feeling knowing that copies of my books sent out for review were due to bear fruit very soon. Nervous about what the reviews will say if I'm honest lol.

3rd May - Arcticle in the Hinckley times went live, it's such an exciting time, I'm buzzing :-)

4th May - Star Wars day so it's bound to be good :-) It certainly started well, I got some reviews come through and they were excellent. It seems my writing isn't quite perfect, but it certainly seems to stand up against most in the horror genre. I had a tear in my eye when I read some of them, they were so good!

Lunchtime and BBC Radio Leicester call me up saying they saw the piece in the Hinckley Times and want me as the lead story on the morning show on Tuesday 9th May - WOW! How cool is that?

7th May - Article in The Hinckley Times goes from print to internet; extra facebook, twitter, web exposure - Awesome!

8th May - Now I'm all caught up and nervous about being live on the radio tomorrow. Some people are never happy lol

Thanks for reading and please stay tuned :-)

Still catching up with the past!

Still trying to get on top of this blog. Hence, I'm still writing this as historical events rather than in the now. (Bit like I do in my novels sometimes lol)

As I mentioned in an earlier post. March was a good month for sales and some nice reviews came in on Amazon UK. I also mentioned that I'd set the ball rolling on a few other things, some of which are now bearing fruit, while others are still lurking in the shadows waiting to leap out hit me with another high or a cheap low blow! (Here's hoping it's the former lol)

http://AllAuthor.com invited me to enter my novel Shadowchild in the cover of the month awards for the month of April. I love a good competition and signed up.

April 1st - My cover campaign began and I took an early lead. That lasted all of a day before I was rudely shoved out of the top ten - Grrrr!
I picked myself up and decided to focus on staying in the top 25 so I at least made the cut onto the shortlist, it proved to be a little easier than expected and I ended the first week hovering around 3rd place. Okay I may not win but 3rd place still gets a prize and a month of promotion, I'll take that :-) I figured.

10th April - My publisher sent out my press release for Shadowchild. I have to say that I was extremely doubtful it would have an impact, but it was offered for free so, of course, I took it gladly. I worked tirelessly, following up with all the local media outlets, just trying to generate some interest in Matthew Williams and his new book Shadowchild. I mean, seriously! What do the media care about nobody publishing something? But I'd worked bloody hard on this novel so I wasn't giving up easily.

14th April - Cover competition going nicely, Shadowchild poked its head into the top 500 kindle books on Amazon UK. Then, BOOM! Contact from a local newspaper - The Hinckley Times wanted to run a story on me and after the interview they found an angle to go with.

19th April - www.myranour.net/horror Blog invited me to write a piece which is due to go live on the 22nd May. Awesome!

20th April - A friend, Stephen Helmes,
author of Nightly Visits invited me to write a piece for www.lisaswritopia.com as the spotlight author for June. More great news!

21st April - Another newspaper (The Redditch Standard) local to where I grew up wanted to do an article on me. This was becoming a brilliant month!

28th April - A friend who I grew up with messaged me on facebook saying 'Wow Mat your in the Redditch Standard!' My first small taste of newspaper fame lol. Actually that's not quite true, I was on the front page on the Daily Mirror when I was 18 months old - The Bionic baby they called me, after I shrugged off a car.

30th April - Final day of the cover of the month competition, I had a slender lead and rallied every last vote I could muster from my facebook followers (who are all awesome, thanks!) Was it enough? Can you feel the tension :-) lol

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the my next post, I'm nearly caught up to the present now - PHEW!

March 2017 Reviews

Just wanted to share some reviews that I picked up on Amazon UK for my books during March 2017

The Shady Corner

5.0 out of 5 stars - A fantastic well written book from start to finish
By Amazon Customer on 4 March 2017
Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase
A fantastic well written book from start to finish. I couldn't put it down. Lots of twists and turns all through and gripping to the very end. I would highly recommend this book if you like a good murder and lots of gore. Absolutely brilliant with a good story line.

5.0 out of 5 stars - Disturbingly Good!
By W. Jones on 20 March 2017
Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase
This book really got in my head and I do mean right in there. The character of David Wilcox is superbly written and very dark. Everytime I put the book down he was still in my head, not that I put it down much, I devoured the book in just 3 days. The twists and turns, the horror and the gratifying ending alone make this book good, David's character makes it Great!

Shadowchild

5.0 out of 5 stars - Really enjoyed the book from start to finish
By Amazon Customer on 6 Mar. 2017
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
Cracking read. Really enjoyed the book from start to finish.

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
By Amazon Customer on 31 Mar. 2017
Format: Paperback
Shadow child. Another fantastic well written book by Matthew Williams. Packed full of horror, gore, the supernatural and romance. It keeps you gripped the whole way through while getting to know the characters in great detail. I couldn't put it down wondering what is going to happen next. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it!
By W. Jones on 31 Mar. 2017
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
A creepy and mysterious journey to a pretty gruesome finale. Loved the characters and really enjoyed the story. A great read!

March 2017 was a good month and although sales and reviews took a downward turn for April. There was still plenty for me to be proud of :-)

Thanks for reading and please stay tuned for my next post!

World Book Day!

Thursday 2nd March 2017 - The very first copy of Shadowchild landed on my doorstep and it was world book day!

Do I believe in omens? I guess maybe I should after that happened :-) Wow! I was so proud, even if I say so myself it's a great looking book.

What do you think? Answers in the comments box please :-)

Okay so now I have my first two novels ready, both available in print & ebook.
website - www.matthewwilliamsauthor.com - CHECK!
Facebook page - www.facebook.com/theshadycorner - CHECK!
Twitter page - www.twitter.com/theshadycorner1 - CHECK!
Time to get marketing then!

Friday 3rd through to Sunday 5th March 2017 'The Shady Corner' & 'Shadowchild' both clawed their way into the top 500 on Amazon UK -Kindle Store>Kindle eBooks>Literature&Fiction>Horror, and they stayed there all weekend!

All the effort of my facebook and twitter marketing seemed to have paid off, at least until my Amazon sales began to die off :-(

No worries though, physical books sales in my local area kept coming for the next few weeks. I think from the release of my second novel until the end of March I sold books everyday, either in person locally or through Amazon and Barnes & Noble online.

Things were looking good! Sadly it didn't last beyond March!

At least I'd set a few other things in motion that I will talk about later - Thanks for reading and please stay tuned :-)

The start of the journey

Being an author began for me on June 13th 2008 with the publication of my first novel The Shady Corner. Of course my journey began way before that but I've already started this blog 9 years too late as it is, so I'm skipping over that :-)

Please read the detailed Biography on my website http://www.matthewwilliamsauthor.com/... if you want to learn more about me.

I got my first published novel in my hand and aside from a little local advertising, I did absolutely nothing else to promote it. Looking back, it's no surprise that sales were poor, but my eagerness and bad judgement soon lead to a couple of terrible reviews based largely on the fact that the first edition of my book was very badly proofread.

July 18th 2012 saw the 2nd edition of The Shady Corner in print. Edited and proofread by Ronald Marsh, an avid reader and former editor of a national newspaper. The Shady Corner was now in good shape (my goodness I learned a lot about writing and editing - thanks Ronald)

I still have loads more to learn though!

The decision to do nothing in the way of advertising at this point was driven mainly by my idea that having both my books out there would be easier (it isn't by the way). At the time my second novel was flowing nicely and couldn't possibly be more than 12 months from publication. Wrong again Mat!

March 2017, nearly 5 years on before I finally had both my novels in print and ready for marketing.

That just about brings me to where I wanted to start this blog - Thanks for reading and please stay tuned for future posts :-)