Adventures in Self-Publishing (4)
Hello, and welcome back to my blog about my writing journey so far! It’s been very exciting to see how many have actually been reading this! Thank you so much for taking the time and I hope it’s been either interesting or useful (ideally a bit of both!). Quite a lot has happened since my last post two weeks ago!
Smashwords (finally) approved my book, The Broken Doll, and entered it into their premium catalogue which means that it has been distributed to an additional nine retailers, in addition to Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The major two are Apple and Kobo so it has a good chance of increasing sales. Sales, as I mentioned in my last post, had slumped a little since the launch spike but, with the help of a 50% off sale for a week, they are beginning to rise again. That, and my constant posting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram anyway. I am spending as much time marketing the book as I am writing the next one but, without a big publishing house backing the project, this seems to be inevitable.
On Amazon I have so far had eight reviews, only a small portion of the sales, but it seems to be difficult to get people to leave one which is a little frustrating as it helps with sales, of course. All I can hope is that it is something which builds up over time. The reviews that I have received are rather good, with one rating The Broken Doll as 3/5 and seven giving it the full 5 stars! www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1544180993/ref=sr...
As I mentioned on my last blog post, if I had managed to stick to my writing plan then I should have completed the first draft of Chapter 9 of my sequel novel. The Easter school holidays set me back quite a bit but, after a frantic weekend of writing (12000 words over two days!) I am currently half way through Chapter 8. Not too far to go now! The plot is throwing new things at me regularly and it’s been quite a journey so far, not fully knowing what is going to happen next.
For those who haven’t read it, I will be attaching the first two chapters of The Broken Doll to this week’s email list so feel free to get in touch and sign up. I only send an email each fortnight with some updates and there are some giveaways in the pipeline as well. If you want to sign up then either send me an email first, to pjblakey-novis@outlook.com, or message me through this site, or any of my social media accounts.
On the subject of giveaways, I am currently offering the chance to win one of three signed copies of the paperback version via GoodReads so do check that out, it runs until midnight on April 30th.
You may recall from my earlier posts that I had set up a page on Patreon, whereby people can subscribe for exclusive material. Subscriptions start at just $1 a month (about 80p) and give you access to short stories which are not available anywhere else! The number of Patrons is still small but has increased since last time so I am hopeful that it will continue to grow. The story available on there at the moment is Dream Catcher, as short horror tale. I have completed another short story, also a horror, entitled The Devil’s Pocket Watch which will be uploaded on May 1st. I’d be hugely appreciative if you felt able to pledge even just a little to the page, and would love to hear any feedback on the stories so far. www.patreon.com/pjbnauthor
On the subject of short stories, my first short horror was accepted as part of an upcoming anthology as the contract arrived a few days ago. It was extremely exciting to see an actual publishing contract and, although it’s not a huge sum of money, it’s great validation that my work is worth paying for. I’m hoping that there will be good exposure from the book and, having spoken to some other writers online, it seems like a good deal. There was an upfront payment, rather than royalties, but it also features a bit about myself inside the book as well as on the publisher’s website.
Regarding my children’s book, the illustrator that I came into contact with through this blog, Cristina, is working on the designs at this very moment and once they are with me we will be taking that to the next step. The intention is to make it available as both an ebook and print book and I’m hoping that I will be able to get it into some local school libraries. Perhaps by the time I post another update on here, I will have it almost ready to go!
I think that is all for this time, feel free to get in touch if you have any comments or questions, it’s good to connect!
Peter
Smashwords (finally) approved my book, The Broken Doll, and entered it into their premium catalogue which means that it has been distributed to an additional nine retailers, in addition to Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The major two are Apple and Kobo so it has a good chance of increasing sales. Sales, as I mentioned in my last post, had slumped a little since the launch spike but, with the help of a 50% off sale for a week, they are beginning to rise again. That, and my constant posting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram anyway. I am spending as much time marketing the book as I am writing the next one but, without a big publishing house backing the project, this seems to be inevitable.
On Amazon I have so far had eight reviews, only a small portion of the sales, but it seems to be difficult to get people to leave one which is a little frustrating as it helps with sales, of course. All I can hope is that it is something which builds up over time. The reviews that I have received are rather good, with one rating The Broken Doll as 3/5 and seven giving it the full 5 stars! www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1544180993/ref=sr...
As I mentioned on my last blog post, if I had managed to stick to my writing plan then I should have completed the first draft of Chapter 9 of my sequel novel. The Easter school holidays set me back quite a bit but, after a frantic weekend of writing (12000 words over two days!) I am currently half way through Chapter 8. Not too far to go now! The plot is throwing new things at me regularly and it’s been quite a journey so far, not fully knowing what is going to happen next.
For those who haven’t read it, I will be attaching the first two chapters of The Broken Doll to this week’s email list so feel free to get in touch and sign up. I only send an email each fortnight with some updates and there are some giveaways in the pipeline as well. If you want to sign up then either send me an email first, to pjblakey-novis@outlook.com, or message me through this site, or any of my social media accounts.
On the subject of giveaways, I am currently offering the chance to win one of three signed copies of the paperback version via GoodReads so do check that out, it runs until midnight on April 30th.
You may recall from my earlier posts that I had set up a page on Patreon, whereby people can subscribe for exclusive material. Subscriptions start at just $1 a month (about 80p) and give you access to short stories which are not available anywhere else! The number of Patrons is still small but has increased since last time so I am hopeful that it will continue to grow. The story available on there at the moment is Dream Catcher, as short horror tale. I have completed another short story, also a horror, entitled The Devil’s Pocket Watch which will be uploaded on May 1st. I’d be hugely appreciative if you felt able to pledge even just a little to the page, and would love to hear any feedback on the stories so far. www.patreon.com/pjbnauthor
On the subject of short stories, my first short horror was accepted as part of an upcoming anthology as the contract arrived a few days ago. It was extremely exciting to see an actual publishing contract and, although it’s not a huge sum of money, it’s great validation that my work is worth paying for. I’m hoping that there will be good exposure from the book and, having spoken to some other writers online, it seems like a good deal. There was an upfront payment, rather than royalties, but it also features a bit about myself inside the book as well as on the publisher’s website.
Regarding my children’s book, the illustrator that I came into contact with through this blog, Cristina, is working on the designs at this very moment and once they are with me we will be taking that to the next step. The intention is to make it available as both an ebook and print book and I’m hoping that I will be able to get it into some local school libraries. Perhaps by the time I post another update on here, I will have it almost ready to go!
I think that is all for this time, feel free to get in touch if you have any comments or questions, it’s good to connect!
Peter
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