This week I discuss first feedback for LESSON LEARNED, advertising for the new book and for the IN THE END series, along with work in progress.

ARC Lesson Learned

With my next novel due to be released on 5th June 2020 it has been with the ARC readers for a few weeks now and I’ve had the first feedback. It’s great to hear the book is both enjoyable and forces the reader to read past their bedtime!

Sales & Marketing

Sales on the current IN THE END campaign are going extremely well, returning around more than double the amount spent on Facebook advertising. I think it would be reasonable to say that I’ve had my best sales week ever.

It seems the little tweak on the copy was all I needed to have a successful campaign. I’m now just waiting for the results to tail off then I’ll copy and restart the campaign in hope to boost the effectiveness as Facebook always favours new content of longer running ads. Facebook say the sweet spot is 3 weeks.

The success of the campaign is also boosted by the removal of UK VAT on eBooks from 1st May. For all UK sales of IN THE END it boosts income from around 58p to around 70p and from £1.70 to £2 for BEFORE THE END. I haven’t factored in the additional 5% royalty for audiobooks for April, May and June.

With increased sales come increased reviews. I had three 4 star reviews on Goodreads on 5th May which is always nice. I got a one star at the beginning of the month, but you can’t please everyone!

I’ve been looking ahead to the release of LESSON LEARNED and preparing for the marketing campaign. The campaign will focus on driving people to my mailing list to read OPERATION DAWN WOLF and then maybe to buy LESSON LEARNED.

I’ve produced an ad, shown below, a matching mailing list sign up page and this weekend I need to update the back matter for OPERATION DAWN WOLF. The major task in this will be trying to hone down the target audience for the adverts.

Work in Progress

Despite only slacking for one day this week, (a slow day, not slacking) I’m a little behind where I wanted to be with the big edit of AFTER THE END. Without factoring a couple of days I have off work at the end of this month, I’m about eight days behind where I want to be, but more importantly I’m not rushing off, ensuring I’m happy with the quality of what i’m producing.

I’m itching to get on with the next project, the companion novella, but that will have to wait until AFTER THE END if off for beta read.

That’s it for this week. Feel free to drop your comments and questions.