James P. Sumner's Blog, page 2

Sorry it’s been a while…

Hello, my loyal followers!

Apologies for not posting for a few weeks. Personal life has been hectic and, to be honest, I’ve not done much writing either. But all that is changing!

Remember that Goodreads promotion I’m running? Well, it finishes this Friday (November 7th) and the copies I’m giving away, signed, arrived in the mail yesterday. Got over 500 people to enter it as well, which is great exposure!

Also, my own copies of each of my books arrived…

There’s me, looking like a proud father with my three bestsellers!

As great as the digital revolution is, and as great as the opportunities it’s given me are, it’s always nice to hold an actual book – especially one you created. Just need to get them bad boys in the book stores now!

We’re back in the swing of things with Adrian Hell 4: Brave New World (Part 1) now. I’ve been re-reading the 25,000 words I’ve already written over the past couple of days, and have already added another 2,000 words as I’ve been going along. This book, along with Part 2, has the potential to be my magnum opus and I’m very excited to get them written.

So, we’re in November – quickly approaching a new year… what does 2015 hold for James Sumner and Adrian Hell? Well, I’m certainly planning on getting Books 4, 5 and 6 released, as well as expanding my awareness and my “brand” as much as I can.

Audiobooks have recently been suggested to me as a way to go, so that’s on my list of things to investigate.

I do intend keeping the blog active and trying to increase its presence online. I’ve signed with a Blog Tour website, so will try and feature guest blogs by other authors on here, as well as guest post on other people’s. In fact, keep your eyes open over the next couple of days for my first guest blogger!

Right, that’s it from me. Thank you as always for your continued support. I leave you with this question:

For those of you who have read the books, who would you like to see cast as Adrian Hell in a movie of Crucible?

Enjoy!

JPS

ONE LAST BULLET PROMOTION – DAY FIVE

Hi Everyone,

This is the last blog update for the promotion, as it has now ended. So, without further ado, the final download total is…

805 downloads in 7 countries!

A massive thank you to everyone’s support, especially the 403 people in the UK who downloaded the book and sent it as high as 169th on the Overall Amazon Free Chart!

The hard work starts now, keeping Adrian Hell in the minds of all thriller lovers across the world, getting those all-important sales and reviews in while working on Book 4 and 5! An independent author’s work is never done!

There are still just over three weeks left on the Goodreads promotion to win 1 of 3 signed copies of the paperback edition of One Last Bullet, so get yourselves over there and sign up for it now. Free to join, free to enter and we already have over 200 people trying to win one, which is fantastic!

I’m going to leave you in peace for a few days now, but I leave you with this:

Don’t forget the new website is up and running, and is there for information purposes only at the moment. It can be found at http://iamadrianhell.wix.com/iamadrianhell.

I can be found on Facebook (search for James P. Sumner) and Twitter (@TheFirstHellion) also.

And finally, I’ve been invited to do a couple of blog tours over the coming weeks, which will be great exposure, so stay turned for information on that!

That’s all folks!

JPS

ONE LAST BULLET PROMOTION – DAY FOUR

Hi Everyone,

Four days are in the bag now, and we’re on the last day and at the end of the week.

So far, we’ve done 633 downloads in 7 countries, and as of 9am this morning, both the US and the UK have done exactly 300 a piece! Happy with the impact on my home turf, and the effect on the rankings has been brilliant. The climb is slowing down now – understandably so, as we start the last day – but so far, OLB has peaked at 187th overall on the Amazon UK Free Listings, which is amazing!

At one point yesterday, a particular UK chart looked like this:

Thriller > Assassinations [TOP 100 FREE]: 1st – “One Last Bullet” by James P. Sumner

Thriller > Assassinations [TOP 100 PAID]: 1st – “Personal” by Lee Child

Me and Lee, side by side…! If it was the other way around, I’d be happier, but still nice to be in the same league as the Man himself, even if it is just on paper! Haha!

So, it’s been an exciting week overall. I’ve got more writing done than I thought I would – always a distraction having to deal with the addiction of tracking downloads very 5 minutes!

If I can hit 825 downloads by midnight tonight, I’ll have beaten both the 3-day and the 5-day Free Promotions I ran for Crucible, so I’d be very happy with that – a sign I’m improving. Hunter’s Games remains the beautiful exception, rather than the rule, I think!

Will post the final update tomorrow, then leave you in peace for a few days while I put Adrian Hell through his paces a bit more!

Thanks as always!

JPS

ONE LAST BULLET PROMOTION – DAY THREE

Some exciting developments after three days of promotion to share!

Firstly, we’ve done 407 downloads in 7 countries, which is really good. I’m happy with the exposure it’s getting – especially the split. Despite previous promotions on my other books being fairly one-sided, the split between US and UK in terms of downloads is quite close: 218 US vs. 165 UK.

But the most amazing news from my point of view is the Amazon UK rankings as a result of this surge on my home turf:

Overall: 254

Thriller: 32

Thriller > Assassinations: 1

Thriller > Action: 10

Fiction > Action: 16

Fiction > Action > Thriller: 12

Hitting No.1, or even the Top 10, of any chart is always a great feeling. But to be that close to the Top 250 overall is incredible! It’s the highest any of my releases have made it in any country during a promotion, and you can bet your a$$ I’m shooting for the Top 100 now!

Again, a massive thank you to everyone’s continued support of the Adrian Hell brand.

A bit of an update for you in terms of what I’m working on at the moment, in case you’re interested:

Adrian Hell #4 is still coming along nicely, approaching the 30,000 word mark now. Want an exclusive? The next adventure, as we know, is called Brave New World… what you don’t know is that it will be in two parts! That’s right, Adrian Hell #4 and #5 will be parts one and two of the Brave New World story. It’s just simply too big and too epic to contain in one release.

I’m also looking at releasing a few short stories in the coming months, with an eye on the Kindle Singles scheme that Amazon runs. What will these be? Well, there are a couple of one-shot stories I’ve had brewing that would work well in the

Early days, but watch this space! I fully intend 2015 being a very big year for James P. Sumner!

See you soon!

JPS

ONE LAST BULLET PROMOTION – DAY TWO

Hi everyone!

Quick update on yesterday’s performance for you. We’re currently on 247 downloads in 7 countries!

My personal target was 1000 downloads in total for the week. Maybe that was a bit ambitious, looking at the last two days’ performance, but if you’re going to aim for something – aim big!

There’s that old saying: “Shoot for the moon… even if you miss, you’ll land in the stars!”

End of the day, that’s 247 more people now aware of Adrian Hell, which is 247 more than last week, so that’s a victory for me. Had a few sales of Crucible and Hunter’s Games as well as a result of the promo, which is great news.

The Goodreads Giveaway, to win 1 of 3 signed copies of One Last Bullet is up to 160 entrants now, which is nice to see, and Adrian Hell #3 is on 70 people’s To-Read list!

That’s it for now, folks!

JPS

ONE LAST BULLET PROMOTION – DAY ONE

Hello!

With the first day in the books of the 5-day Amazon promotion, I thought I’d give you the facts and figures so far.

In total, we’ve done 170 downloads in 6 countries since 9am yesterday, which is a very solid start!

In terms of charting in the Free rankings, in the US we’re at:

Overall: 1,743

Thriller: 68

Thriller > Assassinations: 5

General Fiction > Action: 76

General Fiction > Action > Thriller: 22

And in the UK, we’re at:

Overall: 1172

Thriller: 69

Thriller > Assassinations: 2

Thriller > Action: 24

General Fiction > Action: 64

General Fiction > Action > Thriller: 31

So, all in all, a very good first day and I’m very happy indeed! Thank you to everyone for their ongoing support.

In other news, I’m all fully set up on Goodreads now, which is one of the most important book readers’ community sites in the world, with over 45,000,000 visits each month! All of my books are on there, and Crucible and Hunter’s Games have been getting some great exposure and reviews! I’m also running a promotion over there, where you can register to win 1 of 3 signed copies of the paperback edition of One Last Bullet! It’s free to sign up for it, and I’ve already had 106 people enter, which is fantastic!

So, after 24 hours, we’re slowly but surely taking over the world. That’s it for now – more updates and news tomorrow!

Thanks

JPS

The first week in review!

Hi everyone!

As we approach the last working day of the week, I thought I’d give you a little update on how things are going. But first, I’d like to share with you an experience I had recently while travelling home from work.

On my journey home the other evening, my train stopped at a particular station. I happened to look out of the window at the platform on the other side of the tracks and saw a woman stood, leaning against a post with her earphones in. She looked early-30’s, not unattractive, clearly just spent a day at the office. However, I happened to look over at her at the exact same moment she stuck her index finger straight up her left nostril! And I mean right up there, like, to the first knuckle! She had a proper good feel around too! Then she pulled it out, inspected the tip of her finger (which I can only assume now had on it the world’s biggest snotball) then put in her mouth and sucked like she had a lollipop in there! The worst part was, not five seconds later, she did the exact same thing with the other nostril. I just stared at her ’til the train set off again, shocked, appalled and holding back vomit!

Just thought I’d share that with you!

Speaking of sharing, you may have seen on the Facebook page the new artwork for Adrian Hell #3! If you’ve not, here it is:

Check that bad boy out! Very excited about releasing it. Not settled on a date yet, but it will definitely be soon.

Whilst I was originally playing around with the idea of NOT using the Kindle Free Promotion tool this time round, after much research and failed attempts at marketing Crucible, I’ve decided it’s still too early on in the career of James P. Sumner to be able to get away with not running those kinds of promos. So, from the day of release for 5 days, One Last Bullet will be completely FREE!

It gets it out there quickly and to a large audience, which in turn helps generate interest, awareness and those all important reviews.

So, where are we up to with the new projects? Well, Adrian Hell #4 is coming along nicely, and I’ve now hit the 20,000 word mark, which isn’t bad for 2 weeks’ of work. Once I’m happy with how it’s going and where it’s going, I might give you a sneak preview right here on this blog, if you’re really nice!

Also, the top secret new project is slowly taking shape. Not much I can share with you at this stage, but it’s a different approach than I’ve taken with the Adrian Hell series – namely, writing in the third person and telling the story from multiple viewpoints. At the moment, it certainly has potential to be similar to the Bourne trilogy (the original one that Matt Damon immortalised on screen), which isn’t a bad thing. That one’s a slow burner for now though, as my priority is the next Adrian Hell novel.

Right, that’s it for now. As always, if you want to get in touch, please feel free!

Oh, did anyone check out the new Gotham series earlier in the week? Holy Excellent TV Show, Batman!

See ya later, guys.

JPS

A little about me!

Welcome to the first post on my official blog. Having been writing as a self-published, independent author for almost a year, I’m finally branching out to the world of social media and online blogging.

 

WRITING NEWS

I’ve recently finished writing my third novel, featuring my central character, Adrian Hell, which will be released in a few weeks’ time and is entitled One Last Bullet. I’ll get to that in a moment. First, I want to show you where it all began.

Crucible was my debut novel, and introduced the world to Adrian Hell. He’s a hitman who travels North America, assisted by his best friend, Josh Winters, carrying out contracts for a variety of unsavory people. Released back in February, and recently re-released as a second edition (following some extensive re-editing), it tells the story of how a standard contract in the city of Heaven’s Valley, Nevada quickly went wrong – resulting in him becoming the target of the mafia who hired him, an extremist militia intent on starting World War 3 and a government defense contractor who has a vested interest in everything that’s happening.

I followed this up in April (and again with a re-edited second edition recently) with Hunter’s Games. This performed extremely during it’s week-long Free Amazon Promotion, hitting 6,500 downloads and reaching Number 1 in it’s relevant charts as well as the general Thriller chart on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. I was overwhelmed by the feedback I received for this book as well, getting some really great reviews.

The story is set a year after Crucible, and focuses on an individual carrying out attacks on San Francisco at the same time Adrian Hell happens to be there on job. The terrorist seems to have a vendetta with Adrian and plays a deadly game with him to exact whatever revenge he feels he needs. Adrian finds himself relying on the help of the FBI to stop this maniac before more people die.

With the help of http://www.booksgosocial.com, Crucible will be receiving a nice marketing push this coming week, in the hope of gaining some visibility ahead of the release of One Last Bullet in a few weeks’ time.

This latest offering follows on immediately from the end of Hunter’s Games, and sees Adrian finally confront the demons from his past that have haunted him for so many years. It’s a violent yet emotional journey for him and one that I know fans will have anticipated after reading the earlier books. I’m excited about releasing it, as it took the same amount of time to write.edit as the first two did together. For me, I started planning Book 3 at the same time as Book 1, knowing where Adrian would inevitably end up, so to get to that point and finish telling that part of Adrian’s life is a big thing for me, and I genuinely hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

 

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

I’m well into the first draft of Adrian Hell’s fourth book, entitled Brave New World. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away at this stage, for two reasons. One, it will spoil Book 3 for you, and two, I’ve not finished deciding how the story will pan out and eventually end myself! What I will say is that Adrian is very much out of his comfort zone in this latest book, and conflicted by what he wants from life. But there’s already been plenty of action, with plenty more to come, and the added political aspect of the story opens up new avenues for me to explore creatively. Needless to say, it’s very exciting to be writing once again and I look forward to bringing you more Adrian Hell adventures very soon.

 

ABOUT ME

Seeing as this is my first blog, and I might as well tell you all a little about myself.

I’m a regular guy with a regular job. I live in the UK and I’m married with a wonderful son. I write in my spare time, as much as possible. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, and toyed with many ideas over the years that never really came to anything. I think it was an age/maturity thing, to be honest. But having recently turned 32, I’m in a good place and I’m happy and it feels very natural to me now to write seriously.

I’ve always been a fan of the thriller genre, and I always enjoyed reading books that gripped me quickly, kept a good pace and held me ’til the very end. I’ve followed Lee Child’s career since his first Jack Reacher novel, as well as discovering John Locke’s Donovan Creed series in recent years. He was very much my inspiration, as he’s a very successful, self-published author and I liked his style of writing. I thought I could do the same, but with my own ideas, in my own style, so I picked up the pen and started writing. And here I am, three books later. Am I ready to retire? Not quite! Making those millions happens to a small few, but being successful can happen to anyone – it just takes hard work and patience. I’m getting there, slowly but surely, one step at a time and I’m loving every second of it. My only hope is that you, the loyal reader, does too.

If you wish to contact me, I can be found on Twitter (@TheFirstHellion), although I’ll be honest, I’ve not been that active as yet. I’m also on Facebook, and you can drop me a line any time at iamadrianhell@gmail.com. I always answer any questions personally, and love a chance to interact with my fans!

That’s it for this week. It’s been a blast, folks! Take care!

JPS

PROMOTION!

Greetings to all my Hellions!

Crucible is now available on all Amazon sites in both Kindle and Paperback format.

You can also purchase the Paperback edition from my CreateSpace store, found here: https://www.createspace.com/4662284.

Now, the great news... starting 01 Apr 14 and continuing for three days, the Kindle version will be FREE to download off all Amazon sites!

Spread the word and check out the debut adventure of Adrian Hell!