David N. Robinson's Blog, page 2

A light bulb moment!

When I started writing thrillers five years ago, I admit that I was probably naive about book marketing and promotion. Let's scrub that: I was naive, no probably about it. I was a social media novice, hankering after the old school method of getting noticed and published - i.e. find myself a literary agent, hopefully attract a publisher and, with luck, it would all be book signings and author speaking sessions as book sales grew exponentially. Yes, well, as I say: naive!Early on, I did find a literary agent. She allowed me to begin the journey I'd been hoping to embark on. Following an Amazon promotion, my second book, The Dossier, reached #1 on Amazon UK's thriller rankings for 6 weeks. I was quietly optimistic. Then my third book, The Gambit, launched, this time Amazon didn't promote me and it was a setback. Meanwhile, I was being encouraged by my agent to Tweet my books incessantly to get them noticed. Whilst I hated this "Buy my book" mentality that pervades tweets by authors on Twitter, I joined the crowd.By the time I got to my fourth book, The Reluctant Trader, I decided to part company with my agent and go it alone. Same old process - "buy my book" tweets on Twitter and paid advertising on Facebook - but this time I was on my own. The book again did well but, to be frank, not as well as I believed it capable of - and yes, Amazon again didn't promote me. On the plus side, I received a large number of very positive reviews: on the minus side, I was now totally convinced that the Twitter route to market was flawed and no longer appropriate. It was time (temporarily) to put down my pen and take a long hard look at both what I wrote and how I should go about promoting my writing in future.Between then and now, I had my 'light bulb moment'. It dawned on me, perhaps all too late, that I needed to do so much more - in order to target the people who really like the kind of books that I write - than I'd been doing. I needed to encourage interested readers to sample my writing - and, assuming they liked it, to come back for more. I needed to interact with people more effectively on-line, to communicate with them in a more appropriate manner and allow faithful supporters to feel loved and appreciated. This sounds a bit like a confessional - and to the extent that I have failed to do this up until now, I apologise for my naivety. I’ve had my lightbulb moment – and I promise from now on to try to do this so much better!So, starting this summer 2018, a LOT is about to change. The good news is that I am launching TWO new thrillers: a short story, Powder Day, on 22 June; and a full-length thriller, The Markov Encryption, on August 22. Both are Ben Lewis thrillers (back by popular demand!). Powder Day is set before The Dossier and helps to provide more backstory to Ben Lewis's character. I have invested in professionalising both my manuscripts (thanks to Carrie O'Grady, by new-found professional copy-editor) and my book covers (thanks to Peter at BespokeBookCovers for the Markov Encryption's cover and a soon-to be-released, newly redesigned, cover for The Reluctant Trader). I have also completely overhauled my website and the story it is trying to tell. I am hoping that it will become a much more effective portal for displaying my writing, allowing interested readers to access giveaways and promotions and learn about my new books and read sample chapters before anyone else. The site continues to evolve. Please take a look over the coming weeks and let me know what you think!Above all, these last two years I have expanded my store of knowledge about how successful authors run websites, marketing databases, promotions and giveaways. I have tried to emulate many of these in my new, ‘post-lightbulb’ moment website! My aim is to make it look high quality - so that the book promotion side in future can operate as professionally and smoothly as possible. I hope you find these positive developments. I look forward to your feedback!

The wait is nearly over . . . .

The good news for all fans of Ben Lewis is that the summer of 2018 sees the lead protagonist of both The Dossier and The Gambit returning in a brand new fast-paced, action and adventure mystery: The Markov Encryption. To give everyone a sneak preview . . . .Ben Lewis never expects to be blackmailed by a dead man – but when confronted by a fellow ex-Marine reportedly killed a year ago who tells him that he has kidnapped former girlfriend, Holly, all bets are off. Suddenly wrongly implicated for murder he didn’t commit, Lewis disappears off the radar as he searches desperately for Holly. Foreign agents, meanwhile, believe that Lewis alone holds the key to an encrypted post made by a notorious Korean hacker, Markov, and are desperate to locate Lewis first. In a high-octane race against time both to find Holly and recover the encryption key, it becomes clear that Markov's secrets, if revealed, are likely to cause explosive repercussions between Moscow and the rest of the world.

Two weeks post launch and great reviews coming in, thank you!

I find this the most nerve wracking part of being an Independent Author - launching a new book, telling as many people as possible about your book and then hoping that they enjoy it enough to start telling all their friends as well.  2 weeks post-launch and it is doing well: despite, that is, and not necessarily because of, Amazon.  Let me explain.  I decided to launch this as both an e-book on Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform and in paperback via Amazon' Createspace company.  The paperback launched about 2 days after the e-book.  I began to do really well in the early sales ranking figures. Three days in, however, I couldn't work out why I was suddenly slipping down the rankings when I knew so many were telling me that they had been buying a paperback version of the book.  The answer, I eventually discover, is that although my only sales outlet is via Amazon, when you see the sales ranking figures on their website: a) they show rankings separately for e-book sales to paperback sales and do not combine the two rankings for the same title at all.  Thus if more people buy my paperback than my e-book, my e-book rankings drop and physical book ranking goes up - BUT Amazon are only really interested in promoting e-books in their KDP store, so the only measure of success really is the e-book ranking: and b) the Amazon rankings only represent the sales ranking in the Amazon country store you happen to shop in - i.e. it is not a global ranking. Any non-UK sales do not influence the ranking shown for my book in the UK.  So with that off my chest, I think I am doing pretty well end of week 2, thank you to everyone who has been attracted to buy my book.  If this is you, I hope you might also feel able to post me a review as well as soon as you have finished reading it?  Thank you.

The Reluctant Trader Now out in paperback!

For those who, like me, prefer an old fashioned book from time to time, you can from today buy my latest book in paperback form as well as an e-book!https://www.amazon.co.uk/Reluctant-Tr...

The Reluctant Trader is now published!

So, after more than a few hours of fast learning about book formatting on both KDP and Createspace, I have now published my first political thriller, The Reluctant Trader.  For those who know what this means when you do it yourself (rather than have someone do it for you!), you will know that this is an achievement.  All that remains is for me to persuade as many avid readers out there to buy it – it is today available as a Kindle e-book and, within the next 24 hours, it should be out in paperback (via Amazon only) as well - and then please post me a review.This is not another Ben Lewis story but something different.  There has been so much change that has impacted British political life these last few months - in no particular order: the Panama Papers leak, the murky world of tax havens and certain tax evasive non-doms who live there; the plummeting price of oil; the UK’s increasing involvement in the war against ISIS in both Syria and Iraq; the Referendum and the looming Brexit process; and, if that wasn’t enough, a rapid change of UK political leadership.  And that was just in the first 6 months!!It seemed to me that, out of what has felt like a turbulent melting pot of perhaps unconnected events, there could perhaps be a really exciting plot for a political thriller that drew some of these strands together.  At a time when the Night Manager television series was gripping the nation during the thick of all this, I was busy writing this, my next book, trying to weave an equally intriguing plot that I hoped might be just as thrilling.I hope that you enjoy The Reluctant Trader.  I have certainly enjoyed writing it.  I have tried to give it a fast-paced storyline and some hidden twists that, fingers crossed, most may not guess until the very final reveals.As ever, do let me know what you think!

Just Published today!

My next book is nearly ready! The Reluctant Trader should be published by early October!

Decisions, decisions!

Imagine.  You've given up the day job to focus on a new career as an author.  So far you've been doing well - your second book, The Dossier, reached #1 in Amazon's best seller list list for 6 weeks. You have had an agent thus far but no published book deal yet.  Book 3 did okay but was not promoted by Amazon for reasons known only to them.  Now the fourth book is nearly ready to publish.  This is a different book, more of a political/ mystery/ suspense novel, different characters.  You feel very excited about this book.  It will feel hugely topical and relevant to those living in the UK in 2016.  The question is, do you go through the same launch process as you've done to launch the last three books or this time try something different?My decision today, faced with the above issues, is to take a few risks and try something different.  I am going to self publish this next book.  It will be called The Reluctant Trader and I am going to publish and market it myself, not use an agent.  I might be mad, but the world of publishing is changing and I want to give it my best shot.  Being in control of my own launch should allow me more control over the marketing and promotion of this new book.  Which means more blogs and Social Media, something at aged 58 I still find less intuitive than perhaps I should.  Perhaps you could help me?  Anyway, more anon.The near final versions of The Reluctant Trader are with my wonderful proof reading team and my hope is to get the book published by the end of September.  Wish me luck!!

I feel the need to apologise

I am somewhat appalled that the last post to my blog was over a year ago.  I very much feel the need to apologise!What excuses do I have?Well, remarkably few that I find even the slightest bit compelling which makes it worse.  My trouble is that I find taking time and space to attend to Blogs and Social Media when I am also trying both to research and write a new novel very distracting.  It is made worse since, in the absence of any feedback from any of the reading public out there, there is always part of one's mind that niggles with the thought: "is any one going to read this stuff anyway?" which is never an excuse not to write anything or to seek to inform people what is going on, but gnaws away.  So, no more excuses.  I apologise and will try and do better.  Here goes!Last time I blogged, I was launching my second Ben Lewis book The Gambit.  I had some lovely initial reviews and it sold well initially.  My problem was, and remains, Amazon.  Unlike with my previous book, The Dossier, where Amazon promoted me as a monthly deal in month 3 after launch and I hit the #1 slot for six weeks as a result, this time around, Amazon chose not to promote The Gambit at all.  It was very frustrating for what I still believe is a strong book with a credible plot.So, The Gambit did well, but not nearly as well as I would have liked.  That also required a lot of digging deep and made me reflect whether I needed to change my whole writing to see if I could write fast-paced, suspenseful novels but based around a different set of characters.Anyone living in the UK this last 12 months knows that it has been a roller coaster time politically.  We have had a referendum in Scotland, another one recently about the UK's membership of the EU.  We have had an oil price that has hit the floor and is now slowly rebounding, politicians and Prime Ministers changing left right and centre.  In the Middle East, ISIS has moved off the front foot and is now being bombarded not only by the US and its Allies from the air, but also by Russia.  Then, in amongst all this, we have the Panama papers leak, and a huge media outcry about tax evaders using offshore tax havens for all sorts of nefarious activities.  What an amazing backdrop for a new novel, I thought . . . .So, the good news is that I have now completed my fourth novel.  I put the finishing touches to it last week and it is currently with Sonia, my agent, to see whether she likes it.  At the moment, it has the working title "The Reluctant Trader".  I will tell more as soon as I get some feedback from Sonia.  If she likes it, I hope to get this published sometime in September.

The Gambit now also available as paperback as well as e-book!

The print-on-demand version of The Gambit is now available as well as the e-book. Just follow the links on this website to the Amazon store and buy or download your copy today!