Pearl A. Gardner's Blog, page 8
June 30, 2014
Playing God
If I’ve been quiet for a while, please forgive me. I’ve been busy playing at being God.
I’m halfway through the process of writing my second, World War Two romantic saga, and I realised that I’m a very lucky person to be doing something I enjoy so much. I spend days at my computer, writing and researching as I go to fill in the historical details as accurately as I can while keeping the flow and the tempo of the story.
It occurred to me today that writing fiction is like playing God. I create my fictional world, adding details as I go, filling in the streets and workplaces to make the stage as realistic as possible for my characters to dance across. Then I add the characters. I sculpt them with words and describe how they look in an unobtrusive way so as not to jar the course of the story. I have control of their emotions and feelings, I can make them happy or sad, angry or wilful. I can decide if they are to be lovable rogues or demons, simpering idiots or suave heroes, heroines or harridans. It’s a huge responsibility, but I love to make my little people believable in whatever role I choose for them to play.
As the story progresses, I have big decisions to make about the individuals who populate my world. Do I make them fall in love or do I make them become bitter enemies? Do I create more life by including a birth? Will I decide to kill anyone off? How will a death help to push the story forward? Who has a secret to hide, and what will that secret be?
I can become any one of those characters and get inside their head. I can hear what they are thinking, and I know how they will react to anything I wish to throw at them. I journey with them through years of their lives, and then I have to decide where to leave them. I like a happy ending and I think most readers do too, but I’m tempted, now and then, to allow the villain to triumph for a change.
It’s not easy to play God, but I wouldn’t swap my life as an author for anything else. It’s so good to be in control of a microcosm of humanity. To see the final product of my imagination in print is the ultimate pleasure. My little world is complete and I set it free to spin through the universe of literature, watching and hoping that my creation finds its own momentum and attracts a following of happy readers.
The Scent of Bluebells
Now
Available at all Amazon stores as a kindle eBook and in paperback.
A Snowdrop's Promise - coming soon.....
I’m halfway through the process of writing my second, World War Two romantic saga, and I realised that I’m a very lucky person to be doing something I enjoy so much. I spend days at my computer, writing and researching as I go to fill in the historical details as accurately as I can while keeping the flow and the tempo of the story.
It occurred to me today that writing fiction is like playing God. I create my fictional world, adding details as I go, filling in the streets and workplaces to make the stage as realistic as possible for my characters to dance across. Then I add the characters. I sculpt them with words and describe how they look in an unobtrusive way so as not to jar the course of the story. I have control of their emotions and feelings, I can make them happy or sad, angry or wilful. I can decide if they are to be lovable rogues or demons, simpering idiots or suave heroes, heroines or harridans. It’s a huge responsibility, but I love to make my little people believable in whatever role I choose for them to play.
As the story progresses, I have big decisions to make about the individuals who populate my world. Do I make them fall in love or do I make them become bitter enemies? Do I create more life by including a birth? Will I decide to kill anyone off? How will a death help to push the story forward? Who has a secret to hide, and what will that secret be?
I can become any one of those characters and get inside their head. I can hear what they are thinking, and I know how they will react to anything I wish to throw at them. I journey with them through years of their lives, and then I have to decide where to leave them. I like a happy ending and I think most readers do too, but I’m tempted, now and then, to allow the villain to triumph for a change.
It’s not easy to play God, but I wouldn’t swap my life as an author for anything else. It’s so good to be in control of a microcosm of humanity. To see the final product of my imagination in print is the ultimate pleasure. My little world is complete and I set it free to spin through the universe of literature, watching and hoping that my creation finds its own momentum and attracts a following of happy readers.
The Scent of Bluebells
Now
Available at all Amazon stores as a kindle eBook and in paperback.
A Snowdrop's Promise - coming soon.....
May 20, 2014
Marketing Experiment is proving to be a runaway success!
Any self published author must have heard about the maze of square holes. If you haven't, you are about to learn of it here. Marketing self published books is like confronting the maze full of bottomless square holes. Square one has a sign declaring, 'Invest in me and I'll invest in you!' Square two says something like, 'Do it my way for instant fame and fortune!' Square three promises, 'Give me your money and I'll sell your books!' You get the picture? In reality, each hole is simply waiting to swallow up your hard-earned cash and spit out zilch in the way of sales results. What's a poor struggling author to do?
Well, this author turned away from the maze and looked at ways to market my work without spending a great deal of money. I first invested in some good editing software and polished my work until my eyes bled! I republished every single book, once I had made sure that they were as good as I could possibly make them in terms of a cracking great read, with little to no errors.
I made a website and filled it with samples of my work, pictures and links, blogs and excerpts of upcoming work. You can see it here if you are interested. www.pearlagardner.co.uk Then I joined Facebook and spent a few pounds(£15) on advertising, joined Twitter and tweeted my life away, began blogging and started to get a small following on all these sites, but no real sales!
I joined Goodreads and did a free giveaway of The Scent of Bluebells. This resulted in a few friends, five fans, and some sales after the giveaway ended, but the royalties from these sales didn't cover the cost of sending out two free paperbacks! Should I go back to the maze and square one? Not yet!
I tried free promotions to lift the ranking of my books in Amazon, believing that a higher ranking will get more exposure, and a free book will surely bring more reviews. The Scent of Bluebells got more than 1500 downloads in the first 2 days of a free promotion. That's 1500 sales I didn't get any royalty payment for! It barely rose in the rankings, got no reviews from that process that I know of, and the book sank into oblivion days after the promotion ended. A very similar scenario followed when I put the same book on the Kindle countdown promo a few weeks later. I DID get a few sales, but again, the book dropped away to insignificance very quickly.
So I contemplated the maze again and stared at the first square hole for hours. Should I take the plunge? NO WAY! I can do this, I told myself. I just have to think outside the box! (Or outside the square hole.)
I looked at the results of the Kindle countdown deal. People seemed to want to buy the book if it was for sale at a rock bottom price. I wouldn't earn as much per sale, but I wasn't earning much anyway, so what did I have to lose? I took a deep breath, crossed all my digits and lowered every one of my published books to .99c or .99p and then I waited, trembling and peering through my fingers every time I dared to look at the sales figures. It was a slow and painful first month, but sales were happening. I couldn't deny that my books were selling. It was there on the screen, and the line on the graph was rising!
Two months later, The Scent of Bluebells is averaging 50 sales a day in the UK, has risen in the rankings on Amazon.co.uk to the top 500 overall, and around the top 20 in 3 sub categories. Whoop whoop!!!! (I'm jumping around in my chair now!)
The other works are all selling slowly but surely, but they ARE selling! I guess I can't pay off the mortgage yet, but I can start saving for a nice little holiday! Maybe a writers retreat where there are no mentions of the maze of square holes. Maybe I'll see you there?
Happy reading
x
Pearl A Gardner
Well, this author turned away from the maze and looked at ways to market my work without spending a great deal of money. I first invested in some good editing software and polished my work until my eyes bled! I republished every single book, once I had made sure that they were as good as I could possibly make them in terms of a cracking great read, with little to no errors.
I made a website and filled it with samples of my work, pictures and links, blogs and excerpts of upcoming work. You can see it here if you are interested. www.pearlagardner.co.uk Then I joined Facebook and spent a few pounds(£15) on advertising, joined Twitter and tweeted my life away, began blogging and started to get a small following on all these sites, but no real sales!
I joined Goodreads and did a free giveaway of The Scent of Bluebells. This resulted in a few friends, five fans, and some sales after the giveaway ended, but the royalties from these sales didn't cover the cost of sending out two free paperbacks! Should I go back to the maze and square one? Not yet!
I tried free promotions to lift the ranking of my books in Amazon, believing that a higher ranking will get more exposure, and a free book will surely bring more reviews. The Scent of Bluebells got more than 1500 downloads in the first 2 days of a free promotion. That's 1500 sales I didn't get any royalty payment for! It barely rose in the rankings, got no reviews from that process that I know of, and the book sank into oblivion days after the promotion ended. A very similar scenario followed when I put the same book on the Kindle countdown promo a few weeks later. I DID get a few sales, but again, the book dropped away to insignificance very quickly.
So I contemplated the maze again and stared at the first square hole for hours. Should I take the plunge? NO WAY! I can do this, I told myself. I just have to think outside the box! (Or outside the square hole.)
I looked at the results of the Kindle countdown deal. People seemed to want to buy the book if it was for sale at a rock bottom price. I wouldn't earn as much per sale, but I wasn't earning much anyway, so what did I have to lose? I took a deep breath, crossed all my digits and lowered every one of my published books to .99c or .99p and then I waited, trembling and peering through my fingers every time I dared to look at the sales figures. It was a slow and painful first month, but sales were happening. I couldn't deny that my books were selling. It was there on the screen, and the line on the graph was rising!
Two months later, The Scent of Bluebells is averaging 50 sales a day in the UK, has risen in the rankings on Amazon.co.uk to the top 500 overall, and around the top 20 in 3 sub categories. Whoop whoop!!!! (I'm jumping around in my chair now!)
The other works are all selling slowly but surely, but they ARE selling! I guess I can't pay off the mortgage yet, but I can start saving for a nice little holiday! Maybe a writers retreat where there are no mentions of the maze of square holes. Maybe I'll see you there?
Happy reading
x
Pearl A Gardner
May 2, 2014
Goodreads Giveaway 'It's Penguin Shooting Day'
Released in paperback 2nd May 2014.
Be one of the first to read the paperback edition of this amazing true life story of hope and inspiration. Enter the Goodreads Giveaway, starting midnight 3rd May and ending 10th June. Two copies are available to win.
Reviews on Amazon for the kindle version:-
‘This is based on a true story and it is very emotional and very touching.
It is very well written and make you feel the pain and the joys of those actually involved.’
‘This is a book about family and the feelings of love and responsibility that start when your child is born and never diminish. I enjoyed it from start to finish.’
The story
The phone call that parents dread came on the 29th June 2008 at 11am.
Natalie’s voice shook when she told us, ‘Mum, Simon’s had a car crash, he’s in a coma.’
Compounding this awful news was the fact that my family lived at the other side of the world in Australia. Within hours I boarded my flight to be with them and started a diary of Simon’s journey back to us.
From Simon’s point of view, he wakes in a bizarre place full of strangers and doesn’t know why he is there. His yesterday is ten years ago and the only memories he has between then and now are hazy fragments.
Amazingly, his emotions are still intact, even though his memories don’t support them. He has no recollection of his wedding day, or of his daughter’s birth, but the love he feels for his wife and child are overwhelming in their intensity.
So we use Simon’s emotional strength and Natalie’s inspirational positive attitude to help him through the first traumatic weeks and try to set the foundations of a future we can only begin to imagine how to build.
The family now hope this novel will offer encouragement to others in a similar situation. This is a ‘must read’ for anyone who loves an emotional and touching story.
Be one of the first to read the paperback edition of this amazing true life story of hope and inspiration. Enter the Goodreads Giveaway, starting midnight 3rd May and ending 10th June. Two copies are available to win.
Reviews on Amazon for the kindle version:-
‘This is based on a true story and it is very emotional and very touching.
It is very well written and make you feel the pain and the joys of those actually involved.’
‘This is a book about family and the feelings of love and responsibility that start when your child is born and never diminish. I enjoyed it from start to finish.’
The story
The phone call that parents dread came on the 29th June 2008 at 11am.
Natalie’s voice shook when she told us, ‘Mum, Simon’s had a car crash, he’s in a coma.’
Compounding this awful news was the fact that my family lived at the other side of the world in Australia. Within hours I boarded my flight to be with them and started a diary of Simon’s journey back to us.
From Simon’s point of view, he wakes in a bizarre place full of strangers and doesn’t know why he is there. His yesterday is ten years ago and the only memories he has between then and now are hazy fragments.
Amazingly, his emotions are still intact, even though his memories don’t support them. He has no recollection of his wedding day, or of his daughter’s birth, but the love he feels for his wife and child are overwhelming in their intensity.
So we use Simon’s emotional strength and Natalie’s inspirational positive attitude to help him through the first traumatic weeks and try to set the foundations of a future we can only begin to imagine how to build.
The family now hope this novel will offer encouragement to others in a similar situation. This is a ‘must read’ for anyone who loves an emotional and touching story.
Update for marketing experiment price promotion.
All my eBook publications have been available for $0.99 or £0.99, (or equivalent to US dollars in your country), for six weeks now. I’m amazed by the response. Compared to the previous 6 weeks sales, the promotional sales have more than doubled in quantity, and the line on the graph is still rising! All without any additional marketing.
My ratings on Amazon are also rising, and reviews are beginning to come in too, so it’s all good news.
My overall profit has decreased slightly due to the difference in the level of Royalties paid on the lower price, but I am confidant that this will improve over time. I was never in this game to make a load of money. Sales numbers and people reading and enjoying my work have always been my number one goal.
The good news for my readers and fans is that the price promotion will continue for the foreseeable future.
I’m currently working to get the all my eBook publications into Smashwords so they will be available to an even wider audience. So even if you don’t have an Amazon Kindle, you can soon enjoy my work on other devices of your choosing.
Happy reading
X
Pearl
My ratings on Amazon are also rising, and reviews are beginning to come in too, so it’s all good news.
My overall profit has decreased slightly due to the difference in the level of Royalties paid on the lower price, but I am confidant that this will improve over time. I was never in this game to make a load of money. Sales numbers and people reading and enjoying my work have always been my number one goal.
The good news for my readers and fans is that the price promotion will continue for the foreseeable future.
I’m currently working to get the all my eBook publications into Smashwords so they will be available to an even wider audience. So even if you don’t have an Amazon Kindle, you can soon enjoy my work on other devices of your choosing.
Happy reading
X
Pearl
March 29, 2014
The Scent of Bluebells joins the price promotion
As a marketing experiment, all my eBooks are now priced at $0.99 or £0.99 or equivalent in your country.
As 'The Scent of Bluebells, has recently enjoyed a promotion, I had to wait to bring the price down to match my other titles, but it is now available at the promotional price.
I will be blogging the results of this experiment at the beginning of May. It will be very interesting to see if lower prices equal larger sales numbers overall.
So far, one title, 'It's Penguin Shooting Day: A True Account of the First Weeks Living with Brain injury, has taken a huge leap in numbers sold. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the readers will be enthused enough to write a review.
Watch this space.....
As 'The Scent of Bluebells, has recently enjoyed a promotion, I had to wait to bring the price down to match my other titles, but it is now available at the promotional price.
I will be blogging the results of this experiment at the beginning of May. It will be very interesting to see if lower prices equal larger sales numbers overall.
So far, one title, 'It's Penguin Shooting Day: A True Account of the First Weeks Living with Brain injury, has taken a huge leap in numbers sold. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the readers will be enthused enough to write a review.
Watch this space.....
March 22, 2014
eBooks promotion sale!
Marketing is a cutthroat business, and as an author, I don't profess to know much about it apart from what I've gleaned on forums.
Once the cover, blurb and price are set, there's not much more the author can do - or is there?
Writing blogs, creating a Facebook author page, Twitter account, and website are all advised marketing strategies, but unless you can reach the target audience by these methods, what good are they, really?
It's all well and good putting all these marketing aids in place, but if the likes, tweets and followers are not actually interested in the books the author writes, what is the point? A Facebook page can have hundreds of likes from fellow authors and a twitter account can have as many followers, but if they don't lead to actual sales, what is the author actually achieving?
I have all those strategies viable and I update them and keep them active on a regular basis, but the only way my books gain popularity is by lowering the price for a limited time.
As an experiment in marketing, I'm lowering all my eBook prices on Amazon to $0.99 or £0.99 or equivalent in your country. Promotional prices on all titles will be effective from 23rd March, but for The Scent of Bluebells, which will be effective from 31st March.
The price promotion will last until the first week in May, but may be prolonged if the experiment is successful.
I will be blogging the results as a percentage increase or decrease per title at the end of the experiment.
It will be very interesting to see what happens.
Once the cover, blurb and price are set, there's not much more the author can do - or is there?
Writing blogs, creating a Facebook author page, Twitter account, and website are all advised marketing strategies, but unless you can reach the target audience by these methods, what good are they, really?
It's all well and good putting all these marketing aids in place, but if the likes, tweets and followers are not actually interested in the books the author writes, what is the point? A Facebook page can have hundreds of likes from fellow authors and a twitter account can have as many followers, but if they don't lead to actual sales, what is the author actually achieving?
I have all those strategies viable and I update them and keep them active on a regular basis, but the only way my books gain popularity is by lowering the price for a limited time.
As an experiment in marketing, I'm lowering all my eBook prices on Amazon to $0.99 or £0.99 or equivalent in your country. Promotional prices on all titles will be effective from 23rd March, but for The Scent of Bluebells, which will be effective from 31st March.
The price promotion will last until the first week in May, but may be prolonged if the experiment is successful.
I will be blogging the results as a percentage increase or decrease per title at the end of the experiment.
It will be very interesting to see what happens.
March 6, 2014
GOODREADS GIVEAWAY ENDED, BUT PROMO CONTINUES
Thank you to all who entered my free ‘book giveaway’ for The Scent of Bluebells on Goodreads. This has now ended, and two books are on the way to the lucky winners, Emily in Idaho and Diane in North Carolina. Happy reading girls. I hope you enjoy the story.
I was amazed at the response to my giveaway draw, with more than 1100 requests and a further 500 or so adding it to their ‘to read’ shelf.
As a gesture of thanks to all you lovely people, I am putting this book on Kindle countdown promotion from 8am, 8th March to 12 noon, 15th March. PST and GMT times apply. Buy early for the best price!
X
Pearl
February 24, 2014
'Lightning Spheres' promotion
Lightning Spheres, will be featured in the kindle countdown deal from February 28th to March 7th on Amazon.com and on Amazon.co.ukGrab yourself a bargain on the first two days, price increases in two stages. The longer you wait, the more it goes up.
This is also available in paperback.
Lightning Spheres is a sci-fi novel about alien abduction for preteens, but could be enjoyed by adults.
Story in brief:-
Eleven year old Jodie struggles to concentrate so disrupts her lessons and has earned the reputation of classroom clown.
Her younger brother suffers severe nightmares that make him ill.
She secretly fears that her brother’s illness is connected to her own night terrors. She dreams that balls of lightning take her to a place where aliens do painful things to her head.
Jodie is terrified the aliens are behind her brother’s illness and fears that she will become ill too. She decides to stay awake to discover more about the weird lightning spheres.
Where do they take her?
What are the Aliens doing to her?
Are her dreams real?
Can she save her brother?
Will she survive?
February 8, 2014
My self publishing journey
I’m enjoying being a self publisher, but finding it harder than I expected. It has been a steep learning curve and I’m still climbing!
I’m disappointed that I can’t devote as much time to writing books because I also take charge of editing, cover design, publishing and marketing. Fortunately I have great motivation and the drive and ambition to keep me functioning in all these directions to get the job done. I’m looking forward to the day when all my worthy works are in print and I can settle to concentrate on the next new project.
The rewards are starting to come through and with each new sale, good review or new follower on any number of social network sites, I feel elated. I may never be a millionaire, but I thank the stars that I’m rich in health and happiness. Having lots of money in the bank has always been a secondary goal, though still a target I would like to reach.
As my first full length fiction goes to print, I feel a great sense of satisfaction. The journey from computer file to paperback has not been easy, but I have learned some important lessons along the way and feel I have grown spiritually throughout the process.
My first adult paperback is The Scent of Bluebells and is available from Amazon and Createspace among other outlets. It is also available as a kindle eBook from Amazon.
From midnight 6th February to midnight 6th March 2014 I am offering two FREE copies of the paperback in the Goodreads giveaway. Good luck if you decide to enter the draw.
I’m disappointed that I can’t devote as much time to writing books because I also take charge of editing, cover design, publishing and marketing. Fortunately I have great motivation and the drive and ambition to keep me functioning in all these directions to get the job done. I’m looking forward to the day when all my worthy works are in print and I can settle to concentrate on the next new project.
The rewards are starting to come through and with each new sale, good review or new follower on any number of social network sites, I feel elated. I may never be a millionaire, but I thank the stars that I’m rich in health and happiness. Having lots of money in the bank has always been a secondary goal, though still a target I would like to reach.
As my first full length fiction goes to print, I feel a great sense of satisfaction. The journey from computer file to paperback has not been easy, but I have learned some important lessons along the way and feel I have grown spiritually throughout the process.
My first adult paperback is The Scent of Bluebells and is available from Amazon and Createspace among other outlets. It is also available as a kindle eBook from Amazon.
From midnight 6th February to midnight 6th March 2014 I am offering two FREE copies of the paperback in the Goodreads giveaway. Good luck if you decide to enter the draw.
January 17, 2014
Alien Abduction, Myth or Fact?
I became interested in UFOs a few years ago after seeing strange flying objects in the sky above my home town of Wakefield, West Yorkshire. I discussed my sightings with a police officer friend, and he warned me that I would not be taken seriously if I reported it to the authorities. I was astonished when he also confided in me that he had been abducted by aliens, but was too afraid to talk openly of his experience.
I decided to do some research on the issue. I talked with more abductees, attended UFO conferences, read many books on the subject and trawled the Internet for more information. I was surprised how much I found. I had no idea where my investigations would lead, but I was totally unprepared for what I uncovered.
Sifting the genuine stories from the fake accounts was challenging. Unfortunately, this subject is often trivialised and ridiculed, and I know that some will believe ALL the accounts are phony, no matter how much compelling testimony and physical evidence can be found.
I was drawn to a series of accounts that followed the same theme. Balls of light were seen in the sky, followed by abduction to a strange place, where physical examinations were made on the abductees by alien beings. Some abductees mention a breeding programme of some kind between aliens and human beings. How can so many similar stories, from individuals around the world, be false?
The idea of a book began to take shape. I wanted to expose the facts that I had discovered, but my police officer friend had warned me that nobody would listen. So I wrote a fictional account, using details from my research. You can start to read the story here.
Fact or fiction?
Urban myth or government cover-up?
You decide.
Please read, They Take our Children, Book One, The Truth Revealed.
They Take Our Children
I decided to do some research on the issue. I talked with more abductees, attended UFO conferences, read many books on the subject and trawled the Internet for more information. I was surprised how much I found. I had no idea where my investigations would lead, but I was totally unprepared for what I uncovered.
Sifting the genuine stories from the fake accounts was challenging. Unfortunately, this subject is often trivialised and ridiculed, and I know that some will believe ALL the accounts are phony, no matter how much compelling testimony and physical evidence can be found.
I was drawn to a series of accounts that followed the same theme. Balls of light were seen in the sky, followed by abduction to a strange place, where physical examinations were made on the abductees by alien beings. Some abductees mention a breeding programme of some kind between aliens and human beings. How can so many similar stories, from individuals around the world, be false?
The idea of a book began to take shape. I wanted to expose the facts that I had discovered, but my police officer friend had warned me that nobody would listen. So I wrote a fictional account, using details from my research. You can start to read the story here.
Fact or fiction?
Urban myth or government cover-up?
You decide.
Please read, They Take our Children, Book One, The Truth Revealed.
They Take Our Children
