Philip Whiteland - the man behind Josiah and Archibald (which makes it sound like we're in a queue!) Showing 3,151-3,200 of 3,307

[Philip]

Now with a 'Gold Cherry Pick of the Day' award! Really chuffed :-)

https://www.abctales.com/story/philwh...

[Alicia]

Philip wrote: "Now with a 'Gold Cherry Pick of the Day' award! Really chuffed :-)

https://www.abctales.com/story/philwh..."

Very funny. Kudos.

[Philip]

Thanks a lot, Alicia, much appreciated :-)

[Philip]

Currently on track to have no sales whatsoever in August! Whatever happened to holiday reading? ;-)

[Jim]

Philip wrote: "Currently on track to have no sales whatsoever in August! Whatever happened to holiday reading? ;-)"

So far I'm on track for five which is hardly scintillating!

[Philip]

Jim wrote: "Philip wrote: "Currently on track to have no sales whatsoever in August! Whatever happened to holiday reading? ;-)"

So far I'm on track for five which is hardly scintillating!"

It scintillates a lot better than none! Five eh? I dream of having five in a month ;-)

[Jim]

got a sixth today
It's not one I've spent time mentioning recently. My sales seem largely random

[Philip]

Jim wrote: "got a sixth today
It's not one I've spent time mentioning recently. My sales seem largely random"

I'll take random over zilch any day! :-)

[Jim]

true enough, but it would nice to be able to point to something and say, "Look, I spent yesterday doing this and I then sold several books"

[Philip]

Jim wrote: "true enough, but it would nice to be able to point to something and say, "Look, I spent yesterday doing this and I then sold several books""

I have never been able to draw a line between actions I've taken to promote my books and sales. I'm not entirely convinced that there is one!

[Jim]

I suspect we are at one in this :-)

[Alicia]

Philip wrote: "Jim wrote: "got a sixth today
It's not one I've spent time mentioning recently. My sales seem largely random"

I'll take random over zilch any day! :-)"

I would too - none in a month or two now.

[Jim]

Alicia wrote: "Philip wrote: "Jim wrote: "got a sixth today
It's not one I've spent time mentioning recently. My sales seem largely random"

I'll take random over zilch any day! :-)"

I would to - none in a month..."

:-(

[Loretta]

I occasionally have an hour or so handing out flyers with QR codes on. Once at a local market dressed in my medieval clobber. That definitely resulted in a few sales. Local people will sometimes support you if they know you live in their area. The odd (don't overdo it) post in local FB groups can be very encouraging. If you write period drama, dressing in period clothing definitely grabs you some attention when you promote.

[Philip]

Alicia wrote: "Philip wrote: "Jim wrote: "got a sixth today
It's not one I've spent time mentioning recently. My sales seem largely random"

I'll take random over zilch any day! :-)"

I would too - none in a mont..."

Sorry to hear that, Alicia.

[Philip]

Loretta wrote: "I occasionally have an hour or so handing out flyers with QR codes on. Once at a local market dressed in my medieval clobber. That definitely resulted in a few sales. Local people will sometimes su..."

Very inventive of you! You deserve to succeed :-) FB groups are a very dodgy area indeed, they can be very prickly about self-promotion.

[Loretta]

Philip wrote: "Loretta wrote: "I occasionally have an hour or so handing out flyers with QR codes on. Once at a local market dressed in my medieval clobber. That definitely resulted in a few sales. Local people w..."

Thanks, Philip. I'm rubbish at traditional marketing which is why I've learned to think outside the box.
You have to be careful on FB, but if you're doing a free day and ask people if they'd be interested in helping a local author become more visible, that will often be acceptable, especially if you don't add links but leave it to people to ask. And of those who do download the freebie, some will read and enjoy, hopefully, and buy your others. You can also start a group for local readers and authors to help them connect. You'll be able to promote that group very often by inviting people to connect with local authors.
Also, if you haooen to enter any cover competitions, you can often ask people if they'd be kind enough to help a local author by coting for you - but don't keep asking them. Keep the posts few and far between, and stay active on there just with ordinary posts. I find it better by far not to use pester power, lol. It's always worth a shot. If you're unsure, preface your post by saying, 'I hope it's okay to post this here. If not, please delete.'

Good luck.

[Loretta]

Philip wrote: "Loretta wrote: "I occasionally have an hour or so handing out flyers with QR codes on. Once at a local market dressed in my medieval clobber. That definitely resulted in a few sales. Local people w..."

You can also post links to your blog posts if you're talking about something interesting - your life in that town, tips on writing, all that sort of thing.

[Jim]

I think that's good advice Loretta

[Loretta]

Jim wrote: "I think that's good advice Loretta"

Thanks, Jim. It won't reap massive sales, but hey, every sale is a nice boost, eh? And it gets you known where you live, which I really like.

[Jim]

Loretta wrote: "Jim wrote: "I think that's good advice Loretta"

Thanks, Jim. It won't reap massive sales, but hey, every sale is a nice boost, eh? And it gets you known where you live, which I really like."

It's one advantage of publishing in paper as well. You've got something tangible that people can see and a lot of people seem to take you more seriously on the strength of it

[Victoria]

Philip wrote: "Jim wrote: "true enough, but it would nice to be able to point to something and say, "Look, I spent yesterday doing this and I then sold several books""

I have never been able to draw a line betwe..."

My sales have reduced to virtually nil, too, even though I had a new book out in July,and did a 99p offer on another book last month. I've been active on Twitter, but as you say, it's impossible to know if anything one does makes a difference.

Friends have told me, anecdotally, that sales are down for many indie Kindle authors. There are conspiracy theories about Amazon manipulating the algorithms to make indie books less visible, but who knows?

[Jim]

Victoria wrote: "Friends have told me, anecdotally, that sales are down for many indie Kindle authors. There are conspiracy theories about Amazon manipulating the algorithms to make indie books less visible, but who knows?..."

The problem with this as a theory is that as far as I can tell my books are pretty well invisible on Amazon anyway and always have been. I rarely get into the top 10,000 bestsellers rank, so I have always worked on the assumption that Amazon would do nothing with regard selling

I've always felt my job is promoting the book and getting people to go to the website because they were never going to find it on their own.
That's one reason I don't frantically demand reviews. Yes I like, appreciate and value reviews, but they're only seen by people who've found the Amazon page anyway

[David]

I haven't had any sales for several months either.

I haven't written that much for the last few months either.

The one may be partially related to the other, but there have been several other reasons for me not writing much these days, or for me to do much more in the foreseeable future.

I have a book finished, but for the proofreading I'm doing now, and I wonder if it is worth the hassle of getting a cover and so on, and putting it out there.

[Victoria]

I rarely get into the top 10,000 bestsellers rank, so I have always worked on the assumption that Amazon would do nothing with regard selling

A couple of years ago I did get into the top 1,000 in my category for a time, and my books were being recommended by Amazon (I know this because they were recommended to me!) and showing up on 'people who bought this also bought...' But as they've slipped down the ratings they don't get this exposure any more so it's a vicious circle.

I don't pay much attention to reviews; if I think a book looks interesting I download a sample and base my decision to buy on that. Many 5* reviews are total hyperbole anyway.

I haven't had any sales for several months either.
I haven't written that much for the last few months either.

I didn't have a book out in 2018, for various reasons, which I'm sure contributed to the decline. I did get one out in July and have been busy on Twitter, but to very little effect. I am working on something new which I hope to have out early next year; I'm hoping that if I can get back to a regular publishing schedule, things will pick up a bit.

[Philip]

We all seem to be in the same boat, which is rather depressing but somewhat comforting at the same time ;-)

One chink of sunlight in the encircling gloom has been that I received a review, the first new one for a long time!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/customer-...

[Philip]

Oh, and after a two month complete drought in sales, I sold one book the other day too!

[Philip]

I've been threatening, for some time, to put out the literary equivalent of a Christmas Charity Single! I'm nearly there! Just a bit of cover formatting to do and we should be in business.

It will be available as both a print and Kindle edition, will consist of a collection of animal-themed stories both new and old and all profits will go to TURN Education C.I.C. (www.turneducation.co.uk)

More information soon :-)

[Jim]

nice idea

[Philip]

Well, I hope so. Jim. My daughter has started a Community Interest Company specialising in animal-based therapy. It relies on grants and donations, hence this!
www.turneducation.co.uk

[Jim]

a nice idea
Given my entire life has been among animals, I think she's on to something :-)

[Philip]

Jim wrote: "a nice idea
Given my entire life has been among animals, I think she's on to something :-)"

I told her and she was chuffed!

The book will be called 'Animal Turns' and will be initially available as a print edition.

[Jim]

mention it and we'll see if we can mention it about a bit :-)

[Philip]

Jim wrote: "mention it and we'll see if we can mention it about a bit :-)"

Thanks Jim. Much appreciated. I'm just wrestling with the cover at the moment but hope to have it done and dusted this weekend so that I can publicise it and get printing in progress :-)

[Jim]

Good :-)

[Philip]

Now uploaded to Amazon and awaiting manual review. Should be available soon :-)

[Jim]

:-)

[Philip]

AND IT'S AVAILABLE!

http://mybook.to/animalturns

"Philip has gathered together a whole bunch of amusing stories about the animals in his life (with the help of Packham, the chocolate Labrador, of course). All of the profits from this book will go towards helping TURN Education C.I.C. to achieve their objectives of helping children and their families to Tackle Underachievement and Realise New beginnings."

Obviously, whilst I'm delighted if anyone buys this book, the name of the game is to maximise the profit to TURN Education. This will be considerably less if bought through Amazon than if you order a copy directly from me. Not a problem if you don't want to do that (and I would quite understand) but every little helps :-)

[Philip]

The Animals have got a review (at last!) :-)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R6ZIW...

[Philip]

It occurs to me that, if my entire demographic for my books is going to be imprisoned for the foreseeable, this might be a good time to stock up on 'nostalgedy' :-)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nostalgedy-C...

£8.94 gets you 5 books guaranteed to bring a smile to your lips and a warm glow...wherever you want a warm glow to be ;-)

[Jim]

I suggested that mine might be a cheap source of replacement toilet paper

[Philip]

Jim wrote: "I suggested that mine might be a cheap source of replacement toilet paper"

Yes, I saw that, Jim - neat concept! As mine are mostly Kindle books, the idea of virtual toilet paper doesn't really bear scrutiny ;-)

BTW, I felt sort of compelled to write another undertakers' story about all this - https://www.abctales.com/story/philwh...

[Jim]

I stuck it on facebook, it's a nice one :-)

[Philip]

Jim wrote: "I stuck it on facebook, it's a nice one :-)"

Belated thanks, Jim. Oddly, it has gained more comments than most of my stories do but hasn't had as many readers. It's a funny old world at the moment :-)

[Philip]

I've mentioned before about the print edition of 'Animal Turns'. Well, we now have a Kindle version of 'Animal Turns' available. Like many small organisations that rely on grants and small amounts of private income to survive, TURN Education is struggling in the current crisis. Children and families can't access the services but the animals still need feed, bedding and veterinary care. I know everyone is in difficulty at the moment but if you could spare £2.49 for an e-book containing a dozen heart-warming and entertaining animal-themed stories, then you would be donating £1.39 to this really worthwhile cause (the rest goes to Amazon). Why not entertain yourself and do a bit of good at the same time? Thanks :-)

http://getbook.at/animalturns

[Philip]

If you're wondering what TURN Education is all about, try this:

https://www.facebook.com/turneducatio...

[Philip]

Introducing the new book 'A Dubious Undertaking and other stories'! Available now at just 99p. The purpose of this book is to give people a chuckle at a time when it's more needed than ever :-)

Because it isn't about making money, it's going to be FREE over this weekend but I'm rubbish at figuring out when these promotions start and end, so watch this space.

Really hope you enjoy this. It's a bit of a departure for me - my first all-fiction book for a good few years. As always, if you enjoy it please do leave a review on Amazon, it makes such a difference
.
Keep well, keep safe and keep reading :-)

http://getbook.at/ADubiousUndertaking

[Philip]

Philip wrote: "Introducing the new book 'A Dubious Undertaking and other stories'! Available now at just 99p. The purpose of this book is to give people a chuckle at a time when it's more needed than ever :-)

B..."

Well, that met with a massive wave of indifference ;-)

[Jim]

Well I've shared the link on facebook :-)

[Philip]

My grateful thanks to everyone who kindly downloaded 'A Dubious Undertaking' for free over the weekend. You've joined a select band of 21 brave souls! There are one or two others who are reading it on Kindle Prime as well. As always, it would be really helpful if you could leave a short review on Amazon. It's always difficult to get a toe-hold in an entirely different genre, and reviews help a lot. For those of you who missed out on the free promotion, it is only 99p and will stay at that price as I want as many people as possible to enjoy these stories. Thanks again :-)

http://getbook.at/ADubiousUndertaking