Mark Dawson's Blog
April 11, 2014
The best laid plans...
My next three releases will be the books in the Blood & Roses trilogy. Those of you who have read Ghosts will remember Beatrix Rose, one of John Milton's predecessors as the primary agent of Group 15. I knew by the end of that book that she was a strong and compelling character. I wanted to write a little more about her and so I decided that I would take a very short break from the Milton series and create something to conclude her story.
My initial plan was simple: three short novellas, released a month apart, then bundled together as an omnibus. That would give me a tight deadline to stick to and also give me four new landing pages on Amazon where new readers could find me (discoverability is a big thing in keeping sales up). The books would clock in at around 20,000 words each and they would be fast paced and punchy.
That was the plan.
And then I started writing.
The way I usually go about things is to loosely plot something and then let the character I'm writing about guide me along the way between point A and point B. I might have a few action beats that I want to hit along the way, but I find the books often write themselves. When the writing is going really well, I don't have to think too much about what comes next. It just comes.
It quickly became apparent with this book that Beatrix wasn't going to be happy with her story being told in an abbreviated form.
The first book, In Cold Blood, went from being a 20,000 word novella to a 50,000 novel, and it hasn't lost any of its punch and speed. It's got more action than the Milton books and I think that my aim - to write something that I could easily imagine Tarantino filming - has been met.
It's quite Kill Bill. You'll see what I mean when you read it.
I've been writing all three books in the series simultaneously and the second, A Good Day for Bad Blood, has also jumped from 18,000 or so words to something nearer 45,000. I suspect it'll match In Cold Blood by the time I'm through.
Same goes for the final book, Blood and Roses.
It just just to show that the old military adage is true: no plan survives the first contact with the enemy.
I'm experienced enough by now to know that there is no point in ignoring my instincts. These books wouldn't be half as good if they were cut down to their originally planned lengths. They need those extra words in order that I might do justice to what has turned into a pretty exciting story arc.
All things being equal, In Cold Blood will be out next week.
I can't wait to share Rose's adventures with you.
My initial plan was simple: three short novellas, released a month apart, then bundled together as an omnibus. That would give me a tight deadline to stick to and also give me four new landing pages on Amazon where new readers could find me (discoverability is a big thing in keeping sales up). The books would clock in at around 20,000 words each and they would be fast paced and punchy.
That was the plan.
And then I started writing.
The way I usually go about things is to loosely plot something and then let the character I'm writing about guide me along the way between point A and point B. I might have a few action beats that I want to hit along the way, but I find the books often write themselves. When the writing is going really well, I don't have to think too much about what comes next. It just comes.
It quickly became apparent with this book that Beatrix wasn't going to be happy with her story being told in an abbreviated form.
The first book, In Cold Blood, went from being a 20,000 word novella to a 50,000 novel, and it hasn't lost any of its punch and speed. It's got more action than the Milton books and I think that my aim - to write something that I could easily imagine Tarantino filming - has been met.
It's quite Kill Bill. You'll see what I mean when you read it.
I've been writing all three books in the series simultaneously and the second, A Good Day for Bad Blood, has also jumped from 18,000 or so words to something nearer 45,000. I suspect it'll match In Cold Blood by the time I'm through.
Same goes for the final book, Blood and Roses.
It just just to show that the old military adage is true: no plan survives the first contact with the enemy.
I'm experienced enough by now to know that there is no point in ignoring my instincts. These books wouldn't be half as good if they were cut down to their originally planned lengths. They need those extra words in order that I might do justice to what has turned into a pretty exciting story arc.
All things being equal, In Cold Blood will be out next week.
I can't wait to share Rose's adventures with you.
December 29, 2013
HAPPY NEW YEAR ... and please help yourself to a free book!
Building a mailing list has been one of the most rewarding things that I've done this year. It's a bit of a cliché (so forgive me...) but it makes the effort of writing new stories worthwhile to know that readers have found them and have enjoyed them enough to want to know about what I'm up to and when my new stuff is ready. I'm always happy to answer questions about the books or about writing in general and I've had some great conversations this year. Basically, it's all good and I want some more of it.
So one of the new things I'm going to be doing next year is putting a little rocket fuel into building the list. I'm going to offer a copy of my best-seller, THE BLACK MILE, to anyone who signs up. The book has a big soft spot for me: it's the first thing I published myself after leaving my legacy publisher and it's been a best-seller both when promoted and when on paid. Amazon asked me if I would put the book in their Twelve Days of Christmas promo over the festive period and (since you don't say no to Amazon) it is available at a special reduced price at the moment. When it comes out of promo in a few days it'll be back up to $5.99 again. The book has been downloaded many thousands of times since it's been available and I've been delighted with the positive reviews that it has received.
Here's the blurb:
London, 1940: the Luftwaffe blitzes London every night for fifty-seven nights. Houses, shops and entire streets are wiped from the map. The underworld is in flux: the Italian criminals who dominated the West End have been interned and now their rivals are fighting to replace them. Meanwhile, hidden in the shadows, the Black-Out Ripper sharpens his knife and sets to his grisly work.
Henry Irving is a disgraced reporter on a Fleet Street scandal rag. Genius detective sergeant Charlie Murphy is a fresh face in the Metropolitan police, hunting corrupt colleagues but blinkered by ambition and jealousy. His brother, detective inspector Frank Murphy, searches frantically for his runaway daughter, terrified that she will be the killer's next victim.
As the Ripper stalks the terrified streets, the three men discover that his handiwork is not quite what it seems. Conspirators are afoot, taking advantage of the chaos to settle old scores. The murders invade the lives of the victims and victimizers on both sides of the law, as everyone is sucked deeper and deeper into Soho's black heart.
Based on a little known true story, The Black Mile is a rollercoaster ride of a novel that was previously the most downloaded novel on the Kindle Store.
If you enjoy the thrillers of James Elroy, Peter James and Dennis Lehane, you'll love THE BLACK MILE.
If you'd like a copy of THE BLACK MILE then just sign up at this link:
http://eepurl.com/Cai5X
I will email you back and you can then let me know whether you would prefer a PDF, .mobi (for Kindle) or .epub (for anything else). If you don't know how to sideload a file to your eReader, let me know and I'll you send a tutorial.
Happy new year to one and all.
Best wishes,
Mark
So one of the new things I'm going to be doing next year is putting a little rocket fuel into building the list. I'm going to offer a copy of my best-seller, THE BLACK MILE, to anyone who signs up. The book has a big soft spot for me: it's the first thing I published myself after leaving my legacy publisher and it's been a best-seller both when promoted and when on paid. Amazon asked me if I would put the book in their Twelve Days of Christmas promo over the festive period and (since you don't say no to Amazon) it is available at a special reduced price at the moment. When it comes out of promo in a few days it'll be back up to $5.99 again. The book has been downloaded many thousands of times since it's been available and I've been delighted with the positive reviews that it has received.
Here's the blurb:
London, 1940: the Luftwaffe blitzes London every night for fifty-seven nights. Houses, shops and entire streets are wiped from the map. The underworld is in flux: the Italian criminals who dominated the West End have been interned and now their rivals are fighting to replace them. Meanwhile, hidden in the shadows, the Black-Out Ripper sharpens his knife and sets to his grisly work.
Henry Irving is a disgraced reporter on a Fleet Street scandal rag. Genius detective sergeant Charlie Murphy is a fresh face in the Metropolitan police, hunting corrupt colleagues but blinkered by ambition and jealousy. His brother, detective inspector Frank Murphy, searches frantically for his runaway daughter, terrified that she will be the killer's next victim.
As the Ripper stalks the terrified streets, the three men discover that his handiwork is not quite what it seems. Conspirators are afoot, taking advantage of the chaos to settle old scores. The murders invade the lives of the victims and victimizers on both sides of the law, as everyone is sucked deeper and deeper into Soho's black heart.
Based on a little known true story, The Black Mile is a rollercoaster ride of a novel that was previously the most downloaded novel on the Kindle Store.
If you enjoy the thrillers of James Elroy, Peter James and Dennis Lehane, you'll love THE BLACK MILE.
If you'd like a copy of THE BLACK MILE then just sign up at this link:
http://eepurl.com/Cai5X
I will email you back and you can then let me know whether you would prefer a PDF, .mobi (for Kindle) or .epub (for anything else). If you don't know how to sideload a file to your eReader, let me know and I'll you send a tutorial.
Happy new year to one and all.
Best wishes,
Mark
December 18, 2013
The new John Milton book launches today
After a busy few days, and following a slight delay caused by me getting chickenpox (if you haven't had it, get vaccinated - seriously!) I'm very pleased to say that the fourth novel in the John Milton series, THE DRIVER, is now available at Amazon US and Amazon UK.
The book was fun and fast to write (always a good sign for me) and sees our favourite renegade MI6 assassin resurface in San Francisco following the events at the end of SAINT DEATH. Milton has been in town for six months. He has a place to live, a job and, seemingly, the peace and quiet that he has been looking for. But then a girl goes missing and Milton's name is dragged into a murder investigation and everything starts to unravel. For a man who needs to stay below the radar, this kind of attention is the last thing he needs...
More news tomorrow but, for the moment, I hope you and yours are having a great run-up to Christmas.
Here are the links:
http://www.amazon.com/Driver-John-Mil...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Driver-John-M...
The book was fun and fast to write (always a good sign for me) and sees our favourite renegade MI6 assassin resurface in San Francisco following the events at the end of SAINT DEATH. Milton has been in town for six months. He has a place to live, a job and, seemingly, the peace and quiet that he has been looking for. But then a girl goes missing and Milton's name is dragged into a murder investigation and everything starts to unravel. For a man who needs to stay below the radar, this kind of attention is the last thing he needs...
More news tomorrow but, for the moment, I hope you and yours are having a great run-up to Christmas.
Here are the links:
http://www.amazon.com/Driver-John-Mil...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Driver-John-M...
September 26, 2013
Ever wanted to star in a best-selling novel?
I've been thinking about running a competition as I close in on the halfway point of writing the new Milton novel. Something cool. A little bit different. So I had a think. A good novel should pull you in until you're living and breathing the story. But what if you were in the story? That could be pretty cool.
That's what I've decided to put up for grabs. This is an opportunity to have your name or a name of your choice featured as a character in the new book. THE CLEANER recently hit #1 in its category and outsold the new Bond and some other big name authors, so it should certainly get some readers. I'll offer the winners a list of potential characters (including who they are and the role that they play in the story) from which they can choose. I'm not sure who the characters will be yet - got to finish the first draft to work that out - but I suspect there will be between 5 and 10 available.
I'll throw in free copies of all the books in the series (print or e-copies) to the first five that I draw from the hat and each winner will be thanked in the new novel's acknowledgements page. The first winner picked will also get a £20 Amazon voucher.
There's not much to do to enter - you just need to LIKE this FB page.
https://www.facebook.com/markdawsonau...
Winners will be drawn at random when the first draft is done and dusted (current ETA: another month).
Thanks, and, if you're entering, best of luck!
That's what I've decided to put up for grabs. This is an opportunity to have your name or a name of your choice featured as a character in the new book. THE CLEANER recently hit #1 in its category and outsold the new Bond and some other big name authors, so it should certainly get some readers. I'll offer the winners a list of potential characters (including who they are and the role that they play in the story) from which they can choose. I'm not sure who the characters will be yet - got to finish the first draft to work that out - but I suspect there will be between 5 and 10 available.
I'll throw in free copies of all the books in the series (print or e-copies) to the first five that I draw from the hat and each winner will be thanked in the new novel's acknowledgements page. The first winner picked will also get a £20 Amazon voucher.
There's not much to do to enter - you just need to LIKE this FB page.
https://www.facebook.com/markdawsonau...
Winners will be drawn at random when the first draft is done and dusted (current ETA: another month).
Thanks, and, if you're entering, best of luck!
September 22, 2013
Marketing books - it's not all about creation...
An early Sunday morning a quick blather about marketing books.
So - I tool out an ad for The Cleaner with BookBub, a very powerful marketing company based in the States. It's a solid premise: they've spent time (and a lot of advertising money) building up a list of subscribers who want to be informed when eBooks are going to be made available at special prices. Then, using that list - which has 1.5m subscribers now - they sell slots on a daily email to authors who want to publicise the deals that they are offering.
They are expensive: depending on the size of the genre list you are targeting and the price of the book you are selling, it can be over a thousand bucks. Unfortunately for me, my books are in their most subscribed categories - thrillers - but since I was offering The Cleaner for free I got away with a comparatively miserly $100. Deal!
The promotion was on Friday and, as before, I was blown away by the response. The Cleaner was downloaded nearly 27,000 times in the States and, since it has been taken off deal and put back to its usual $5.99 price I've seen 80 sales, with a very noticeable boost to the other titles in the series.
This has tied in nicely with the other tactic I've been using. While we were away in Spain earlier in the year, I used the couple of hours a day that Freya slept to knock out a 17,000 novella - 1000 Yards. It's a prequel of sorts, introducing Milton before everything goes bad for him. I made the book free on Barnes and Noble and Apple and waited for Amazon - still the only player in town, really - to price-match it. Now that they have, I've been seeing a steady flow of downloads: 21,000 this month alone. The book is fast and punchy and ends with the first chapter of The Cleaner plus links to where it can be picked up. It's (very pleasingly) gone to #1 in its category and is getting a steady amount of reviews and, obviously, is funneling readers into the rest of the series, for which they seem happy to pay.
Things are going very well at the moment. The key to driving home the advantage is to put out new content, all the time. I've written two novels and a novella this year, plus significantly re-editing The Imposter. I'm halfway through another Milton and I'm confident that it'll be finished before Christmas. That's certainly the most productive I've ever been but, then, when you have a tangible effect in income and positive reviews that tell you that your readers are enjoying what you're doing, it's not hard to find the motivation to write.
Which reminds me...
So - I tool out an ad for The Cleaner with BookBub, a very powerful marketing company based in the States. It's a solid premise: they've spent time (and a lot of advertising money) building up a list of subscribers who want to be informed when eBooks are going to be made available at special prices. Then, using that list - which has 1.5m subscribers now - they sell slots on a daily email to authors who want to publicise the deals that they are offering.
They are expensive: depending on the size of the genre list you are targeting and the price of the book you are selling, it can be over a thousand bucks. Unfortunately for me, my books are in their most subscribed categories - thrillers - but since I was offering The Cleaner for free I got away with a comparatively miserly $100. Deal!
The promotion was on Friday and, as before, I was blown away by the response. The Cleaner was downloaded nearly 27,000 times in the States and, since it has been taken off deal and put back to its usual $5.99 price I've seen 80 sales, with a very noticeable boost to the other titles in the series.
This has tied in nicely with the other tactic I've been using. While we were away in Spain earlier in the year, I used the couple of hours a day that Freya slept to knock out a 17,000 novella - 1000 Yards. It's a prequel of sorts, introducing Milton before everything goes bad for him. I made the book free on Barnes and Noble and Apple and waited for Amazon - still the only player in town, really - to price-match it. Now that they have, I've been seeing a steady flow of downloads: 21,000 this month alone. The book is fast and punchy and ends with the first chapter of The Cleaner plus links to where it can be picked up. It's (very pleasingly) gone to #1 in its category and is getting a steady amount of reviews and, obviously, is funneling readers into the rest of the series, for which they seem happy to pay.
Things are going very well at the moment. The key to driving home the advantage is to put out new content, all the time. I've written two novels and a novella this year, plus significantly re-editing The Imposter. I'm halfway through another Milton and I'm confident that it'll be finished before Christmas. That's certainly the most productive I've ever been but, then, when you have a tangible effect in income and positive reviews that tell you that your readers are enjoying what you're doing, it's not hard to find the motivation to write.
Which reminds me...
September 12, 2013
Writing on the Train
So, there I was, the 1020 from London to Salisbury last night. An excellent chance to write, so I get the laptop out and start at it. Dude sits down next to me. Looks a bit hinky: balding with a pony tail, never the best look. Obviously drunk. After a couple of stops he types a message on his phone and shows it to me - "I've been reading your book. I can help." I take off my headphones and say hello. He says he likes what he has been reading. He asks for a card. I give him one, catching sight of what looks like a police badge inside his wallet. I ask what he does. He is shady, eventually saying he is (1) Canadian and (2) works in counter-terrorism. He won't tell me his name. He says he'll be in touch. He leaves at Basingstoke.
Question is: should I be concerned?
Question is: should I be concerned?
September 9, 2013
Bad Reviews
It's a good piece of advice: don't allow yourself to get too excited about the good reviews nor too depressed about the bad ones. I've been lucky, on the whole: of the 70 reviews for The Black Mile on Amazon.com, 39 are 5/5 and 22 are 4/5. I'll take that every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
If would be fair to say that three readers didn't really get my murky soup of death and mayhem on the streets of wartorn London and, of those who gave it just 1/5, I suspect a couple would have given it zero if Amazon would have allowed it.
The latest review was a 1 star. Entitled "Dire," the reader fires in a number of eye-watering body blows. It is "absolute rubbish," I am "pretentious" (who knew?) and "sloppy" and the book is "utter drivel."
Read it and weep here:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Mile-Soho...
So - not a fan there, then. No surprise that I didn't get a mailing list sign-up.
That might have really bothered me back when I started to write but I'm confident enough in my stuff nowadays that I can - just about - filter through the diatribe and pick out some useful criticism. This reader has picked up a couple of continuity errors that have slipped the net and a straight-up error where I use "Sunny Jim" rather than "Sonny Jim." That's a bad one. The beauty of self-pubbing is that I can go in, fix the mistakes, and upload the corrected version - all within the space of a couple of hours.
None of this can compare with the critique I once received for Subpoena Colada. The book was spotted by a friend in a charity shop (criticism enough, you might say) with a sheet of paper neatly folded inside its pages. The reader - who must surely have had a bit of legal training themselves - had noted down the inaccuracies in the procedure for obtaining a Freezing Order. And he or she was right. On this occasion, I had abbreviated the technicalities in order to speed up the narrative but it was a good lesson learnt: readers spot mistakes, even small ones, and it can affect their enjoyment of the book.
I'm lucky enough to have several beta-readers, including my dear lady wife, and that means that most snafus - although perhaps not all, going on present evidence - are spotted and squashed. It's definitely worth the effort.
If would be fair to say that three readers didn't really get my murky soup of death and mayhem on the streets of wartorn London and, of those who gave it just 1/5, I suspect a couple would have given it zero if Amazon would have allowed it.
The latest review was a 1 star. Entitled "Dire," the reader fires in a number of eye-watering body blows. It is "absolute rubbish," I am "pretentious" (who knew?) and "sloppy" and the book is "utter drivel."
Read it and weep here:
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Mile-Soho...
So - not a fan there, then. No surprise that I didn't get a mailing list sign-up.
That might have really bothered me back when I started to write but I'm confident enough in my stuff nowadays that I can - just about - filter through the diatribe and pick out some useful criticism. This reader has picked up a couple of continuity errors that have slipped the net and a straight-up error where I use "Sunny Jim" rather than "Sonny Jim." That's a bad one. The beauty of self-pubbing is that I can go in, fix the mistakes, and upload the corrected version - all within the space of a couple of hours.
None of this can compare with the critique I once received for Subpoena Colada. The book was spotted by a friend in a charity shop (criticism enough, you might say) with a sheet of paper neatly folded inside its pages. The reader - who must surely have had a bit of legal training themselves - had noted down the inaccuracies in the procedure for obtaining a Freezing Order. And he or she was right. On this occasion, I had abbreviated the technicalities in order to speed up the narrative but it was a good lesson learnt: readers spot mistakes, even small ones, and it can affect their enjoyment of the book.
I'm lucky enough to have several beta-readers, including my dear lady wife, and that means that most snafus - although perhaps not all, going on present evidence - are spotted and squashed. It's definitely worth the effort.
September 6, 2013
The new John Milton book launches today
The latest book in my successful JOHN MILTON series is available from today, at Amazon to start with and then all other reputable estores as I gradually get my act together. You can get it at the US and UK stores, links below:
US: http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Death-Joh...
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saint-Death-J...
It was an absolute blast to write and quick, too, which is always a good sign for me. The research was, as ever, one of the most enjoyable parts and I am now pretty confident that I can swear in Spanish. Milton is developing into a bit of a bad ass and it is a lot of fun to drop him into various criminal hotspots and watch him wreak havoc.
As ever, delighted to talk about it, or any other book or writerly thing.
Enjoy the weekend!
Mark
SAINT DEATH
John Milton has been off the grid for six months. He surfaces in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and immediately finds himself drawn into a vicious battle with the narco-gangs that control the borderlands.
He saves the life of an idealistic young journalist who has been targeted for execution. The only way to keep her safe is to smuggle her into Texas. Working with the only untouchable cops in the city, and a bounty hunter whose motives are unclear, Milton must keep her safe until the crossing can be made.
But when the man looking for her is the legendary assassin Santa Muerta - Saint Death - that's a lot easier said than done.
US: http://www.amazon.com/Saint-Death-Joh...
UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Saint-Death-J...
It was an absolute blast to write and quick, too, which is always a good sign for me. The research was, as ever, one of the most enjoyable parts and I am now pretty confident that I can swear in Spanish. Milton is developing into a bit of a bad ass and it is a lot of fun to drop him into various criminal hotspots and watch him wreak havoc.
As ever, delighted to talk about it, or any other book or writerly thing.
Enjoy the weekend!
Mark
SAINT DEATH
John Milton has been off the grid for six months. He surfaces in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and immediately finds himself drawn into a vicious battle with the narco-gangs that control the borderlands.
He saves the life of an idealistic young journalist who has been targeted for execution. The only way to keep her safe is to smuggle her into Texas. Working with the only untouchable cops in the city, and a bounty hunter whose motives are unclear, Milton must keep her safe until the crossing can be made.
But when the man looking for her is the legendary assassin Santa Muerta - Saint Death - that's a lot easier said than done.
