PERSONAL UPDATE

It’s my birthday next week! Needless to say we’re not doing too much, maybe a BBQ in the garden as the weather is finally getting better, a heat wave for this weekend no less!

WORK IN PROGRESS

Beginning of the End Audiobook – I’ve now signed contracts with a narrator through Findaway Voices and submitted my comments to the narrator to further define the style I want him to narrate in. Hopefully this will be done by the end of June.

Purple Rain Book 1 – This is progressing well. I estimate 5,000 words to go to complete the draft so that should be finished next week. I’m not sure if I should then start on the second draft immediately, adding in and embellishing detail I need based on how the story has progressed, or perhaps to put it to one side for a week. I’m enjoying writing it and I have a momentum so I think I should continue, despite feeling the need to do some more work on the IN THE END stand-alone novel.

From The Dead – The read-through is still going slowly and have about 50 pages still to review. Perhaps when draft 1 of purple rain is completed I’ll put all my time on getting this read and in the drawer to rest before the next review.

SALES & MARKETING

IN THE END Series – Sales are good at the moment, with gross profit 100% higher than last month and 50% higher than a normal month. I’m still running a single low cost Amazon ad in the UK and my background Facebook ads, however I am very active within the Written Undead Facebook group and connecting with a lot of the members which has definitely been the cause of the increased sales. New positive ratings and reviews keep coming in as a result.

I’ve also added a staggering 200 contacts to my mailing list in the last month!

Capital Action – I received my first royalty / distribution statement this week for this free novella and I was surprised to find out I have been paid for library lends. When setting up the title I was advised to add a paid option for libraries to lend out the audiobook.

So far I have had 50 downloads of the book and generated $7 in library revenue. However the important measure on these figures is actually how many additional purchases of the other two full length titles have there been and those sales are so low it’s difficult to tell if the small increase was due to my general increase in exposure or if it was a result of giving away the free audiobook that led to it.

FAN CLUB?

I was about to sign off when I remembered I’ve decided to set up a fan club. If you’ve read my recent posts you’ll know that I couldn’t make a decision on this so I asked my mailing list. I got around ten replies, a 1% response rate, and they were all positive and said they would gladly join. I’ve also had some great advice both from other authors and from the fans as well. The first advice was to come up with a great name and I agree with that, I’d feel uncomfortable with a big banner on the group advertising the GJ Stevens Fan Club.

I just need to come up with that amazing name!

Okay. That really is it for this week. I’ll be back next week with another update, but in the meantime comments and suggestions are welcomed as always.