Ads, posts, ideas and more

In light of my rather self-bashing previous post and the realisation, I lack the skill, expertise and connections to sell my books without the aid of an agency clever-bod I decided to try some new avenues and see what happens.

In the first stage, I contacted Amazon to ask why they have not got the option to make my eBook for Book 1 (Origins Of The Magdon: Vercovicium) FREE to purchase. On al other platforms I have made the book free but could not for the life of me get Amazon to price match. Several months of emailing and querying got me nowhere so I got in touch on live chat and eventually, 48 hours later, the book appeared free on Amazon…..at last.

So then to spread the word. I managed a few Ad campaigns – Facebook, Instagram and Goodreads. So far neither have really spiked any sort of massive increase in downloads, just steady figures all the same both in and out of Ads. The Goodreads one seems more accountable, more able to see a Cost Per Click return and revenue. Again though not massively amazing in the figures department.

I have also started pre-planning Twitter posts (using Tiny Torch at the moment) which lets me be a bit more on the ball with my Twitter posting.

The biggest change and plan ahead is free-booking – my method will be covered in a future post as it is a work in progress and I will have more ability to say if it worked or not!

Aside from the new attempts at marketing I have had a great time out and about. Work has been demanding as ever but I had a lovely day in the Peak District with my to boys which worked wonders to clear my head.

As I have scanned through my writing and gone through some edits of Book 4 pre-summer release I can see where my head has been whilst writing. The latter chapters, whilst emotional, were quite sad. Sadder in many respects than they needed to be as I had hoped for the emotional “impact” when I finally brought Archy’s story to a close at the end of the final book in the series.

Looking back I think it was clear to see I had forgotten the way your subconscious affects your writing. Having had a recent family loss I’m all for “carry on and keep normal” when it comes to emotional adventures. Clearly, the impact I have decided to bury down has manifested on the page and made the ending a little too sombre. With a full edit in swing, I had to tone down the sadness and emotional impact for the fourth book. But in essence, it was nice to see I still have a human side, even if it does largely survive as a suppressed aspect of me!

Back to the walk, it was again another representation of me and my whimsical nature. There we were (three explorers aged 33, 8 and 6) stood on the Pennine Pass faced with a choice…..stick to the common path or explore a less used path and deviate. What did we do? Deviate of course and some two and a half hours later finally we reach the peak. Scrambling across water, rocks, landslide debris and such like the boys loved every minutes. I feared it was just to humour me but apparently, as we neared the car after 9 miles and four-and-a-half hours both of them asked if we could do another mountain!

And there lies my motivation. These boys are the reason I have put my “ass on the line” and dared to self-publish. If it wasn’t for them I would have lots of unfinished manuscripts gathering e-dust in forgotten hard drives on lost laptops (much like some stories I wrote over the years but never did anything with).

So really, today has been a time of self-reflection and acting to address my shortcomings in the arena of PR and marketing. Standing on the mountaintop with nothing but my boys with me there was nothing to disturb me, sod the demands, forget the niggles and distractions and just enjoy. Sometimes I wish I could spend my whole life in those sorts of moments.

So, in conclusion, I will bore you all with images of mountains, smiling me and my motivation…..the boys!