Personal Update

The new COVID rules from the government aren’t really going to effect me much, the rule of six has already put pay to meeting with our friends for a night at their house anyway. I broadly support the restrictions as we have to keep everyone safe whilst not putting a wreaking ball to the economy.

In between writing and working I’ve been listening to more from the Bad People podcast from BBC Sounds and True Spies on the Apple podcast player. I also have a guilt secret! My wife and I have become hooked on Below Deck. It’s proper trash TV but turns out to be compelling viewing. We’re two seasons in and it’s great to be able to watch and turn off your brain!

Work in Progress

There’s no news on the edit or beta reading of my two books out of my hands, so I’ve been cracking on with the edits of FROM THE DEAD and I have about 10% left to go in this round. I’m getting to the point where I really have to nail down the technicalities of a certain aspect of the plot, then it will be another editing round, this time for readability.

Sales & Marketing

This week I’ve been doing my best to use all of my audio codes for IN THE END and BEFORE THE END as they’re a valuable resource that I should make the most of. I’ve been following up with all the people I have previously given codes to, gently checking they had given a review. I’ve then been offering BEFORE THE END for free. This has netted me with around another ten audible reviews and I’m nearly at the point of 50 reviews on the US site!

I’ve also made use of a site called Audiobookboom. It’s a paid service which promotes your book and their subscribers can request codes. You can review each requestor’s audible profile and send them a code if they’re a fit. I had13 requests, mostly in the US, and have given out 10 codes. This will net an income of around £30, so it’s well worth it. Plus they are strongly encouraged to review the book on completion.

I will try the same service with OPERATION DAWN WOLF in the coming weeks, although I don’t get paid when those codes are redeemed, I hopefully will get reviews. I’m currently at 2 reviews (4&5 star) but have given away 17 codes to date.

My ads for IN THE END on Facebook have been waining, heading down to breakeven and I’ve found that rather than starting and stopping a campaign to increase delivery / click through (Facebook ads favour new content), if you add new adverts to the campaign it will do the same. This has the added benefit that it leaves Facebooks delivery algorithm to do its thing and not retarget those who have been sufficiently exposed in the campaign already.

I’ve created two new adverts and the darker of the two has already achieved significantly more clicks than the one on the left and each of the other 5 different ad images I’m running. I have the campaign set to optimise delivery, which basically means if one advert is more successful than the rest then it will deliver it more than the others.

I’ll wait and see if this is maintained and if it really is a winner amongst the buyers of the book. I’d love to know what you think of the new adverts?

• 

• 

There are also versions of each ad which show just the first book.

That’s about it for today. Next week should see me complete the editing round for FROM THE DEAD, unless either of the books I have out with others come back. Comments and suggestions welcomed as always. Stay safe.