PERSONAL UPDATE

After a relaxing Christmas it’s been great to get back into the the swing of my writing routine sandwiching my day job, despite the temperature falling through the floor when I get up early in the morning. I enjoyed writing my review of last year and it helped me set my goals for the year to give me some clarity.

A FLASH OF INSPIRATION

Over the holidays, and in the quiet times at work, I listened to a string of indie author podcasts, and one episode in particular inspired me to write a short story in the Agent Carrie Harris world. So on the morning of New Year’s Day, with no hangover because we stayed at home and celebrated in front of the TV, I tapped out an idea for a story that I aimed to be somewhere between three and seven thousand words. Over the course of the next three days I’d written, revised and polished a compact adventure for Carrie across 4,300 words and packed it off to some hastily recruited beta readers from my fan club.

The feedback was great, and they loved the twists and turns I’d jammed into 7 very short chapters. One in particular drove me to make some small additions which fixed an issue, and then the story developed a little more as I read it again, and now it’s done and ready for editing.

The story is called Harm’s Way and I’ve even put together a cover image. It’s not worth me getting a professional cover as it will cost too much, but I think I did a pretty good job of getting close. When I came up with the name I had to make another change to fit the title in one of the chapters and it just so happened that was also a decent improvement. I might do a bit more tinkering with the image, but you get the idea.

I plan to put it on sale and give it away free to my mailing list, I may even have it printed as a booklet but I haven’t decided yet. I will share it for free far and wide, on the socials and anywhere else I can, using it as another tool to get the series more readership. This has already worked for at least one of the beta readers who plans to check out the series after they loved the story.

For me personally, writing this kind of work has been a revelation and I’m going to do more. It helps sate my need to write about Carrie and because I’m doing it at a time when I would not normally be writing, it’s not detracting from my primary works. Maybe if I get enough of a collection, I can publish it as a book.

WORK IN PROGRESS

The Gemini Assignment – Audiobook – This is nearly complete and it won’t be long until it’s back with me to review and comment.

Purple Rain Series – Book 1 – I’m still using the purple rain name for the series for now even though I’ve changed the colour, as I said I would. We’ll see if the new appearance of the rain works as I run through the latest edit. I’m currently 9,000 words through and the MS is slowly shrinking down.

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

As I’m prone to, I turned off my ads for all the series in both regions. I decided that whilst I’m trying other marketing methods, I would kill the paid ads so I can see the effect and it’s a great feeling to not have the pressure of them for the moment.

I’m currently in a mailing list swap promotion with BookFunnel and I’ve had fifty new Capital Action signups since the start of the week, with more happening each day. The author running the promotion is very pleased with my participation and the traffic I’m generating from my efforts. The BookFunnel system allows you to see loads of stats, even more when you’re in charge of the promotion.

I have another promo for the same book starting next week and then one for Beginning of the End at the end of the month, plus BOTE is appearing in an author friend’s newsletter shortly as well.

I’ve finally deleted my mailing list from Mailchimp, after doing one more download of the list, and downgrading the account, so no more massive fees for me! I have kept it live incase someone uses an old link to sign up, then I can just transfer them over manually. As long as I keep it below 1,000 I don’t have to pay.

I think that’s probably it for this jam-packed week. Catch you next week and your comments and suggestions are welcomed as always.