Featured at Bibliocracy

Morning folks,

Just a quickie. A couple of my books are on the front page of Bibliocracy as featured books this morning which is nice. So if you don't fancy buying them from Amazon get yourself over there. All four of my books can be downloaded from Bibliocracy right now. Just search for Jamie Sinclair.

Will this Blog Post lead to a book sale?

Hi folks and welcome to my first post since announcing the relaunch of my blog. The purpose of this post? To see if a single post can lead to

a) more traffic to this blog
b) more followers of this blog
c) increased sales of my books

It's a big ask but here we go.

Today I changed the title and description of my blog. I am going to mention that I am an English author of crime thriller books in this post. I am also going to tell you that they are set in a small seaside town called Morecambe where I grew up. Hopefully you'll wonder where that is and click the link I put in the word Morecambe. The reason I'm sharing this is because it's relevant and also because I hope that people like you will search for these terms and find my blog.

If you're still here you might wonder what my books are about. You can learn about them from this very blog or from my Facebook page or even my Amazon author page. It shouldn't be a surprise that I've put links to all these in the text too.

If you are a fan of romantic fiction you'll hopefully like my book Playground Cool or All the fun of the Fair. If you're not sure why not download a sample? You can do that via Amazon or Smashwords and, soon, Bibliocracy.

Do you like crime thrillers? Great, try my latest book The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe. It's set in Morecambe and you can try a sample fo that for free too. If you've been paying attention you'll know the link was in the title of the book.

As part of my new strategy to meet aa many people as I can and introduce them to my books, today I aso updated my LinkedIn profile, did a press release and made sure that my entire online presence is linked. That means this blog post will go straight to this Facebook page. It will also appear on my Goodreads page too. If I post a Tweet that will appear on this blog and on my LinkedIN account.

Why? Because I want you to know about me and where I'm from. Then I want you to buy my books, and enjoy them. Then, finally, I want you to tell all your friends about me.

But it all starts with you reading this blog post. Welcome aboard.

Welcome new friends!

Evening all,

Just a short post tonight to welcome along all my lovely new Twitter and Facebook chums. I hope we can exchange thoughts and ideas and generally interact in a way that benefits everyone. I've already looked at some of the blogs, Facebook pages and websites of some of my new friends and it seems you are all a busy bunch. It's all very impressive and, I hope, just the start.

As ever, if anyone takes the time to follow this blog, follow me on Twitter or indeed Like my Facebook page then it is much appreciated and will be reciprocated.

Now if I could just translate all this into book sales....

The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe has arrived!

Evening folks.

So, in November last year I started this blog with a view to creating a chronicle of my writing. The title of the blog made reference to the Jazz Cafe. Now, finally, that book is available to buy on Kindle.

It's my first foray into crime/detective fiction and is also the first in what is going to be a series of books featuring Mitch and Rupert, the lifelong friends who find themselves caught up in murder, corruption and a tale full of twists and turns. It's also set at the seaside! Winner.

Here are the links to Amazon:

The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe Amazon US

The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe Amazon UK

I hope you enjoy it!

Morning all,

Bit of a late night which isn't clever after a long week at work. I've been up for twenty hours but I've had a productive day (once the day job was out of the way).

I've got a bit of a side project on at the moment - I'm decorating/refurbing my home cinema so I've been removing skirting boards, plastering, hammering, sanding and generally making a mess of what was the best room in the house.

Aside from that the writing is progressing well. I've completed 12,000 words of the new book and finished formatting the Jazz Cafe for paperback. Yes, that's right. The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe will be coming out in paperback shortly. I've also formatted about 50% of it for Kindle so that should also be out very soon. I'll post links on here when available.

The other big news is that today I received my proof copy of Playground Cool and very nice it is too. I've spent this evening tweaking the front cover and altering the page number layout and have resubmitted it for checking. I should have a revised proof within 48 hours and if I like it, then Playground Cool will be my first novel in print. Exciting times. I can tell you that it will be priced at $9. It's a bit steep but the price is determined by the size of the book. However, it's only about £5.50 to us Brits which isn't bad I don't think.

The book is sitting quietly on my bedside cabinet as I type. It's quite a strange feeling to know that something I wrote over ten years ago is now a real book. The fact that it's sold as many as it has on Kindle continues to amaze me.

Anyway, that's it for today. I'm aiming to start designing the cover for the Jazz Cafe this weekend as well as write a bit more of the new book. In between tidying up my mess in the home cinema of course. But all of that can wait until I've enjoyed a significant lie in!

Thanks to everyone who continues to follow my blog, retweet me, Facebook me and buy my books. It means more than even my stellar vocabulary can articulate.

FREE BOOK!!

Afternoon folks,

All the Fun of the Fair will be free for 24 hours as of tomorrow the 23rd April.

It's had 5 star reviews and is apparently rather good. The fact that it's free removes any excuse you previously had for not reading it. Unless you can't read, in which case get someone else to download a copy and make them read it to you.

If you do download it and read it, please review it. I'll be suitably appreciative.

Thanks

Book Sales and Blog Views

Morning,

Lovely day for it! By it, I mean not working. The sun is shining, I've already written 500 words of the latest book and I've yet to have breakfast. Mind you, I did eat enough Calzone yesterday to sink a Venetian Water taxi.

Anyway, I was getting a tiny bit concerned that I hadn't sold a book in 24 hours. I know, I know, ridiculous. But I generally sell at least one a day. Anyway, all is well. I woke up and checked my sales and have shifted four copies over night so we're back on track.

I also took a look at traffic to this blog. I've had about 1200 visitors since I began posting and this week there has been more American visitors than UK or anywhere else. You are all most welcome of course.

In other news I'm hoping to launch a new book this week so expect updates on that shortly. Until then, if you haven't already, drag yourselves over to Amazon and buy a copy of something I've written. Or, tell someone else too instead.

Bye for now...

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

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

Latest Kindle Sales Report

Evening/Morning folks,

Since I'm off work I've reverted to type and am existing in the small hours of the morning. It suits me and I'm getting loads done and am far happier. I feel a tiny bit sorry for my colleagues as they will have to tolerate me failing to tolerate them when I go back to work next week following about two hours sleep.

Still, in more interesting news I have some sales reports to report!

Overall, in the 3 months I've been an indie publisher I have had 1800 copies of my books downloaded of which about 160 were paid sales (the rest being free promo copies). These figures don't take into account books which have been lent to people via Kindle but a quick glance at the report tells me that almost a 100 folk have borrowed my books off someone else who has a copy.

This means that about 1900 people have a copy of something I've written and that this has happened in about 90 days. Given that my promotional efforts have been sporadic at best and non-existent since the 21st of January, I'm pretty happy.

Of course this doesn't translate into much in terms of royalties (an Xbox game, 3 cases of lager, one third of a Hugo Boss shirt, a month's water bill) but that's not the point at this early stage. To all those people who have made the effort to download, and more importantly, actually bothered to read, something I have written, many thanks. There is much, much, more to come! In years to come you will be the annoying, but cool, people, who will be able to say, "I read his debut novel, it wasn't very good as I recall. I never imagined he'd be as big as Stephen King!"

Until next time.

Editing Complete!

Evening folks,

Despite many obstacles (children staying with us, a new front door to paint, sand, repaint) I have just finished the edit of All the fun of the fair, the latest novel from my back catalogue which I plan to launch as an ebook.

I'm hoping to start the formatting tomorrow and then will design a cover. As ever, I'll post cover version updates on here so you can see how it progresses. I'm going away for the weekend and I don't want to rush it and overlook something. But hopefully I might have it ready for launch by the beginning of next week. I will then do some actual promotion as I've done nothing since the 21st January. Thankfully, you wonderful people are still buying my books.

That's all for now. Keep your eyes peeled for All the fun of the fair!

Next Big Author

Evening folks,

Our chums at You Write On are running a competition of sorts whereby the lucky winners receive a critique of their work by a leading publisher (Random House or Orion) via the Next Big Author website. I've uploaded the first few chapters of my upcoming novel The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe for consideration so feel free to go to the You Write On website and seek it out to review.

Ta for now.

Book Sales, Self Promotion and a Netbook

Morning dear reader,

This is the latest/earliest I've written anything on here and there are two reasons for this. The first is that it's Christmas so I'm off work and therefore up late making merry. The second is that I've bought myself a new netbook in the Christmas Sales. My laptop was four years old and struggling and, as my wonderful wife will tell you, I am not blessed with patience. As such, the laptop was beaten to death so I am now blogging on the new machine and very pleasing it is.

Anyway, first things first. A belated Merry Christmas and a pre-emptive Happy New Year to you all. Huge thanks to those who have bought my book, all thirty of you. I know this is not a vast amount, but my promo has been limited to posts on Amazon - lately via my phone - and it's only been available for a month. The fact that I'm averaging a copy a day thrills me as I think that with dedicated promotion and increased availability, my sales can only increase.

Which brings me to self-promotion. Amazon seem to have a real bee in their multi-billion dollar bonnet about 'indie' authors touting their wares. I would have thought that more promotion was a good thing as it benefits everyone. That said, Amazon are doing us all a favour by allowing us to sell in the first place so I'm not complaining. My plan is to make more effort via other means such as press releases and Facebook.

Finally, editing on my latest novel The 24 Hours Jazz Cafe is progressing with a view that an exract will appear on this blog soon before I send stuff to agents and then, depending on the results, publish as an e-book.

Stick with me, we're going places. Thank as ever for taking the time to read this.

The Trials and Tribulations of Self Promotion

Afternoon readers,

It's been a frustrating week. The books are selling which is, of course, fantastic and the whole point of the exercise. But the trick seems to be to constantly self promote via amazon forums, social media etc and I simply don't have the time to do that.

I have added my books to Goodreads and Librarything but without promoting this presence I'm dubious about seeing any benefit in terms of sales. So I'll persevere and see what happens. Hopefully being available in formats other than kindle wll help.

Christmas Short Story Out Now!

Evening everyone,

It's been a quick, but very busy week and I'm shattered. But, hot on the heels of my debut novel, which has already sold more than I feared it might, my festive short story is now available. The Storyteller - A Ghostly Tale for Christmas, is out now on Kindle.

It is also available via Smashwords and should be available on Sony E-Reader, WH Smiths Kobo, Barnes & Noble and pretty much every other format within the next week.

It's priced less than a quid and would make the perfect gift what with it being set on Christmas Eve. Plus it's suitably magical too and will hopefully leave you with a warm glow similar to drinking a single malt in front of a roaring log fire while stroking the head of your beloved hound. Or not.

Either way, I hope you like it.

Debut Novel - Playground Cool - Available Now!

Good evening,

So here it is. After much formatting and pondering of keywords, Playground Cool is now available to purchase worldwide. It's available on Kindle right now via our chums at Amazon, both here, Europe and America. It's also available via Smashwords where the first copy sold within 90 minutes of it going on sale. I know it's not going to change the world, but it's the first copy of my work I have ever sold, so to me it's exciting as I am now a published author with an international readership.

If you need further encouragement, the book is selling at just 99p in the UK or $0.99 in the US. Pre Christmas bargain!

All being well, at least if all goes well with the good people at Smashwords, within the next week or so my book will also be available via Apple's ibook store, WH Smith's Kobo, Sony's E-Reader (which means you can buy it from Waterstones or WH Smiths online in the UK), Barnes and Noble and a couple of other spots. I've included links to all of these within this paragraph.

Feel free to leave reviews and comments on the sites you buy from, assuming they're positive. I'm too fragile to stand much negative feedback.

I'm aiming to begin formatting my Christmas short story this week so that should be available soon.

Now stop reading this and please buy my book!

The Storyteller Final Front Cover

Afternoon dear reader,

Here is the final version of the front cover for my soon to be released short story for Christmas. I've finished the editing so I'm going to have a final read through this week and then away we go. The draft cover is in a previous post. I think this version is much more representative of the story and feels slightly darker and altogether more Christmassy!

The Storyteller Front Cover

Me again.

As promised earlier, here is the first version of the front cover for my upcoming festive short story.

Short Story for Christmas

Afternoon folks,

It's been a while since my last post but I've been a busy boy. Not least securing five tickets for the first night of The Stone Roses reunion tour. I was very popular that day once word spread that I had the tickets.

Just as a quick aside I went to see the Bad Shepherds last night. Met the band afterwards too. If you've never seen them they're well worth a visit, properly entertaining versions of songs you will know. My favourites were Up The Junction and Down in the Tube Station at Midnight. There's links if you click the band name and song titles.

Anyway, the point of today's post is to announce the impending launch of a short story I've written for Christmas. This effort is called The Storyteller: A Ghostly Tale for Christmas. I wrote it about five years ago for the young lady who is now my wife. She cried at the time as I recall. Presumably due to the quality of the writing. Interpret that as you will.

Anyway, I was reading Susan Hill's The Small Hand recently, that got me thinking about my story, although the two are nothing alike. I dug it out, and quite liked it. I've tweaked it a bit and it's currently in the final stages of being edited. I've done a preliminary cover for it too which I'll post on here for you to look at.

Essentially, the story uses A Christmas Carol as it's influence, the idea of reflecting upon one's life by looking at the past, present and future. It's only just over 11,000 words but it's quite a nice little story I think. Anyway, I'm hoping to launch it on Kindle etc, by the end of this month. I'll follow it up with the release of Playground Cool pretty much straight away I think.

Then, if all goes to plan, The 24 Hour Jazz Cafe will be ready to go early in the new year.

Until next time...

Playground Cool - Final Cover

Evening folks.

After several attempts this is the version I've settled on. I think it sums up the novel pretty well. Of course to find out if it does or not you'll have to buy the book when it comes out! Hopefully that day is weeks, rather than months, away.