Sales, promo and followers

Evening folks,

It's been a sunny week here. Perfect for walking along the canal or on the beach. Sadly I've spent most of it in a warehouse working. But it's the weekend now and I'm off to Scotland tomorrow to catch up with chums.

The positives of this week are I received my first ever comment on one of my blog posts which was super. I have also sold 78 books this month which is a new high. I remain convinced that if I ever find the time to promote more I'd sell pretty well. Anyway there is one more day of March left so I'd like to pass the 80 mark if possible. Given that my latest effort, All the fun of the Fair, is priced slightly higher, it's all good.

If you are reading this, tell your friends to buy my book! If you don't have any friends, open the window and shout to a passing stranger. All help gratefully accepted.

Finally, I entered a competition this week. It was in Good Housekeeping magazine believe it or not, shown to me by the wife's Aunt. The prize is publication of the novel by Orion and a £25,000 advance, as well as an introduction to the agent Luigi Bonomi. Results not announced until May. Needless to say I submitted a chunk of The 24 Hour Jazz cafe so fingers crossed. Bottle of champagne (or summat else nice) for Auntie Helen if I win.

That's it for now. I'm going to try and write a few words of the follow up to The Jazz Cafe before bed.

Thanks for reading, following and buying. As ever, it's appreciated and keeps me from going postal during working hours.

5* Amazon Review

Evening folks,

That's right gang, I have received my first five star review for Playground Cool! Ironically, or not, it's from the same lady who posted such a favourable review of All the Fun of the Fair. She is now my number one fan!

Needless to say I've tweeted about the review, put it on Goodreads and on Kindleboards, it's satisfying stuff.

Anyway, here's an extract:

Mr Sinclair has certainly mastered the art of writing credible fiction from both a woman's and a man's point of view. The story held my attention right the way through and had me laughing, crying, getting angry, rooting for the underdogs and screaming at the lying, cheating sc*mbags!
I think it is a little grittier than the mainstream Chick-lit I have previously read and I personally think that actually makes it better.

First sale of All the Fun of the Fair

Afternoon kids,

Much satisfaction today as I sold my first copy of All the Fun of the Fair in the UK. As regular readers will know this is my third Indie publication and the first which I have listed at a higher price. I can't help but think the recent positive review I received has helped.

Fingers crossed it's only the beginning.

4 * review of my new book

Evening folks,

I received a great review of my latest effort All the Fun of the Fair today. Here's the review in full:

This book is not my usual genre but I was looking for something a little different, bimbled across this and thought I'd give it a crack.
As the blurb says, this book revolves around Alfie, a man with a dark past, and how a chance meeting sends his life down a different route.
But it is so much more than just his story. It is also the stories of several other people connected to Alfie - be it by location, job or just friends/acquaintances. Minor characters in Alfie's story become major characters with their own tales, often told from several perspectives. In this way the book comes across sometimes as episodic. It takes you through highs and lows, love, heartbreak, quite a few tears and some pretty funny laugh out loud moments.
The characterisation is fantastically imaginative in parts and this works extremely well. Spelling, grammar (to the best of my knowledge) and formatting spot on. If I have any criticism, it would be the author's tendency to us obscure words that I had to keep looking up. Admittedly not too much of a chore with the Kindle's on-board dictionary, and certainly not enough to ruin the enjoyment of the story, but mildly irksome nonetheless.
As the book featured so many interesting characters - both major and minor - there is plenty of potential for future continuation and I, for one, would be up for reading more.

Thanks

Network blogs and Amazon tags

Evening dear reader,

Today's big news is that I've changed my Twitter profile pic to be the cover of my latest book All the fun of the Fair. Will it help sales? Unlikely. But it looks good.

Also, I've joined Networked Blogs and as such now have five followers for this blog! Hello followers!! Welcome aboard. Spread the word.

I'm also making a bit more effort on Kindleboards which has resulted in a sharp increase in the number of 'likes' and clicks on my book tags on Amazon which can be no bad thing, although it has yet to led to an increase in sales.

With that in mind I've sold just shy of sixty copies so far this month which is great by my own standards. I have also written 2500 words of the second in my crime thriller series.

Crikey, I nearly forgot. In a fit of drunken ambition last night I submitted an extract of The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe to a couple of agents. I won't name them in case they read this and feel obliged to represent me (HA!) but based on past experience I'm not holding my breath.

Until next time...

Facebook, Twitter, Book Promotion!

Me again folks,

Today marks my first full day on Facebook. So far I have 14 friends and 10 'Likes' of my Book Promo Page. Obviously this is pretty good but I'll need it to be a lot better if it's going to translate into significant sales.

As such, get yourself there and 'Like' my page. The more the merrier. Then, tell your friends and finally, buy my books, it's the only way. Look upon it as a kindness. I want to be full-time writer. I can't do that unless you buy stuff I write. Then I can write more stuff and the process will feed itself!

So to recap, Like, Share, Buy.

Thanks

Look out - I'm only on Facebook

Evening folks!

I've arrived on Facebook at last. I suspect I am the person they've been waiting for to complete their mission.

My page is here.

The plan is to use it as a marketing tool since, like it or not, it's the biggest social network there has ever been. I was reading Ben Cheetham's blog the other day and since October, through promo on social networks and with a slice of luck (and talent obviously, after all he wrote the book), he has shifted over 80,000 copies of his book Blood Guilt. I kid you not, if I shift that many of mine, I'm not working in a warehouse anymore.

I've also sold over fifty books so far this month which, if it carries on, will be my most successful month to date.

Carry on.

Lots of positives!!

Evening dear reader,

Today began badly. I got a puncture on the main road on the way to work and had to dodge traffic to change the tyre. I arrived at work, late and covered in dirt and oil.

But the day improved!

I have now linked this blog to my Goodreads account. Also, Playground Cool and my latest effort All the Fun of the Fair are now available to buy or preview direct from the Goodreads site. There's more! I am also doing a free giveaway of All the Fun of the Fair. The first 100 people who email me will receive a free copy of All the Fun of the Fair to review. I have already had one response!!! Search for me on Goodreads to learn more.

There's even more! I have also sold 41 copies of my books so far this month (just 13 days) which is awesome. This on the back of about 1500 freebie downloads.

I am also working on my Facebook author page which I hope to launch in the next week or so. I have also written 2000 words of my next book which is the second in my crime thriller series set in Morecambe.

It's all happening!

Promo Results

Afternoon kids,

My latest KDP promo has just finished and it was pretty successful. Overall Playground Cool and The Storyteller were downloaded over 1600 times.

The majority, as you might expect, were in America via Amazon US. There were about a thousand downloads there. About another 500 came via Amazon UK with the rest from Amazon Germany. However, this time I had 1 download from France and 1 from Italy which has never happened before!

The plan now is to wait and see if these downloads translate into sales of All the Fun of the Fair. I'll give it a couple of weeks and if not, then I'll lower the price.

In other news there seems to be trouble brewing in terms of price hikes for ebooks. Apparently five of the big publishers are supposedly colluding to raise prices. Apple are involved because of their Ibook platform. There's a link to the article here.

That's it for now.

Promotion - All the fun of the fair

Evening (or morning as it turns out).

Another late one this week. I've very much reverted to type and have been staying up until the very small hours of the morning. Tonight, it's promo!

I've done various posts on Amazon UK and US regarding the new novel. I've posted stuff on Goodreads as well, done a press release, put a message on Twitter and, not least, am now writing about all of this on my blog!

As expected the free giveaway of the repackaged books is going well, but it's a free giveaway of electronic books, so if it was going badly then I'd have serious problems. Last time I checked I'd been downloaded about 900 times since this morning. However, this has yet to translate into any sales of All the fun of the Fair.

I'm disappointed, there's no two ways about it but then I have gambled and increased the price and it is day one. If people bother to read the freebie then they will only stumble across the free sample at the end which includes the link to All the fun. As such, it could be days or weeks before I see sales relating to this promo. If I see any at all.

The plan is to give it a month at most and if I've sold none then I'll lower the price and do a free giveaway to kick start sales.

To perk myself up I'm planning to enter another writing competition tomorrow and I might even email a couple of agents. That always goes well he says sarcastically while rolling his eyes and then sighing.

Anyway, if you're reading this, stop! Go to Amazon and buy something I've written. I live like I'm rich, but I'm not.

Night

New book started!

Me again gang,

As you might well have gathered I am off work this week and what joy that brings. As well as the publishing I have also finally begun to write the second Mitch and Rupert novel, the follow up to the 24 Hour Jazz Cafe.

The first one took me the best part of two years to write, with vast breaks along the way as work took over. Hopefully this one will be finished over the summer as the likelihood is that I will be made redundant in/around June which will allow me the freedom to write full time, at least for a few months.

I'm genuinely excited about it as I'll be able to focus fully on the writing without distraction so I'll have no excuses. The plan is to get it published, one way or another, and then find another job. Assuming of course I don't get a book deal or win the lottery.

Either way, it's all positive. One book just launched, another with a publisher and the new one just started. As I've said before, there really isn't time for work!

It's go time!

All the fun of the Fair is now available for Kindle!

As part of the promotion my first two books, Playground Cool and The Storyteller are available free for the next two days!

The plan, if I pull my finger out and support the promotion, is that the two freebies will feed sales of All the fun of the Fair as I have added a sample of it to the free downloads.

Stop reading this and go download all of them.

Thanks

First version of new cover

Evening folks.

I've had a very productive couple of days which, in my mind, only serves to reinforce that there isn't time to go to work.

I've repackaged the stuff already available on Amazon to include an extract of All the fun of the fair and have finished the first version of the cover. I've included it below for you to ponder, any feedback welcomed. Unless I decide to start again I anticipate publishing tomorrow or Wednesday.

Rejection and Royalties

Afternoon all,

On the 21st January I submitted an extract of The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe to The Writing Room. They were running a bursary competition which, if memory serves, was £10,000. Sadly, on the 28th I received an email saying that my piece had not been selected but they did offer positive feedback so no harm done.

The other positive is that I had an email from my chums at Amazon US informing me that my first royalty payment from US sales would be in the bank shortly. It's only a few quid but it's international royalties so there's really no downside.

Meanwhile All the fun of the fair is fully edited and formatted and will be launched within the next week so keep your eyes peeled.

Right I'd best go because I'm watching the final of the tennis from Dubai and I've got a pre pub pizza in the oven.