You may be pleased to hear I made it back from Exeter, apparently there is no fuel crisis in the South West of the country and I arrived home with the same amount of fuel in the tank as when I left. I took the mini victory as I passed the long lines outside petrol stations when I got back.

This week we’re off to Southampton to look around another university.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Agent Carrie Harris Book 3 – The manuscript itself is still with the copyeditor but there’s plenty to do before I get it back. This week I’ve still be racking my brain for titles and I think I’ve settled on one.

The Gemini Assignment will, probably, be the title for the third full novel. Finished writing the dreaded blurb, which I started this week, will be my deadline for a decision.

I’ve also queued up Deborah Balm, the series narrator, to begin production of the audiobook as soon as proof reading is completed.

Purple Rain Series – Book 1 – The MS is bulging at 95,000 words so far and I’m about 48,000 words in to the current major revision, so over half way. Despite that, the majority of the work is still to come as the quality of the draft drops off quite rapidly over the next few chapters.

James Fisher Series – Book 2 – Still slow progress on this, and part of me is regretting doing this review on paper as the amount of red ink on the page is ridiculous and is going to be a nightmare to type up. However I’m only editing it when I don’t have access to my laptop, so if I didn’t do it this way then it wouldn’t get done in the foreseeable future.

Whilst watching TV this week I had some great inspiration for a Carrie Harris scene in a future book. It centred around a failed insertion to a foreign land by submarine. I wanted to write it down but chose not to as unless the new covers and renewed marketing effort on the series yield significant results, I have no plans in the short or medium term to write any more Carrie Harris. It’s just not economically viable I’m sad to say.

NEW FACEBOOK GROUP – THE OPS CENTRE

Speaking of renewed marketing efforts for the Carrie Harris series, I’ve been working on a project behind the scenes for a little while and finally I’ve been able to move in it. It’s a new Facebook group modelled in the Written Undead (the zombie fiction group I’m part of) and backed by the same people, but it’s for the spy, action and thriller genres. The group’s aim is to gather loads of featured authors and their fans and build a community so I can soft sell my books to them. Here’s the introduction to the group.

---

James Bond. Jack Reacher. Carrie Harris. Mitch Rapp. George Smiley. Eve Polastri. Jack Ryan. Alex Swan. Sydney Bristow. Ethan Hunt. Jack Bauer. Perry the Platypus. Jason Bourne.

If you’ve ever enjoyed reading about any of these characters then I’m setting up a new place you’ll love to hang out in.

The Ops Centre is a brand new Facebook group from some of the people behind The Written Undead. We aim to provide a place to talk spies, espionage and kick-ass moves, plus we’ll introduce you to new characters and authors, and no doubt drop free stuff.

If it sounds like your kind of thing, click the link and join in the conversation.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/opscentre/

---

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

After taking the advice RK Lander added in the comments for last post, I’m now running AMS brand ads. These are ads that rather than promoting a single book, promote a series of books (when used by authors). It’s only been running for a week but the immediate effect is a halving of my projected profit. There has only been two recorded sales, but as always there is no way to tell page reads via KU or audiobook sales, (the effect of which could be delayed by weeks if not more), other than seeing a general increase. I will run these at least until the end of the month to see if I think they’re worth keeping. I need to research more keywords to add to the targeting mix.

Along with writing, preparing my next release, marketing, posting in my fan club, posting in Written Undead and now The Ops Centre, I’m also constantly trying to think of cool new designs for t-shirts, especially ones that might go down for Halloween. I definitely could make a full time job out of this whole business, if only it would pay a decent wage!

I also realised that now I’ve been forced to use a paid MailChimp I have the option to add in new automations. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get time to put a follow up email into the loop after a week or a month, perhaps both.

That’s if for this post. Back to writing. Comments and suggestions welcomed as always.