After a short camping trip away with my son, a promise of what’s to come for this year, it’s back to work.

EVENTS

Salisbury for 9th December has been confirmed, and with Abingdon in October cancelled, I’ve added Thame and Cranleigh to replace it on 8th Oct and 29th Oct respectively. I chose Thame because the last event there was great and Cranleigh because I’ve never been there before. My next event is Witney on 21st May.

I had a brainwave the other day and have subsequently been searching for items related to readers I can sell on the stall so that I might be able to boost my income on the day to those numerous readers that aren’t into my genre.

In my search I looked for items that were small (for ease of transportation) and low cost (as I don’t want to risk a huge outlay, and people can buy them on impulse). So far I’ve only found one product that hits the mark perfectly and I have ten on order. They should be here for the next event where I will reveal all. I’ve already achieved a decent quantity discount and I plan to sell them with a profit margin that matches my books. They’ll also be great competition prizes.

If you have any suggestions for other items then feel free to let me know!

WORK IN PROGRESS

Scarlet Rain Series – Book 1 – This is still progressing at a steady rate, 31,000 words and counting. I’ve managed to drop the manuscript below the 90,000 words mark. Although this was an artificial target that doesn’t mean much in the real world, it feels like a success as it was where I wanted the book to be before I started.

Following last week’s post I’ve pretty much decided that the next novel will be the Agent Carrie Harris crossover book that follows on from STOPPING POWER. The feedback from the short story has been awesome and I’m very excited to the write the next instalment, plus as I said last week, it has the added advantage of cross-promoting my other two series.

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

Page reads have really picked up this week and it’s across the spectrum of my books. It’s not stratospheric but it’s nice to see an upturn.

I’ve experimented with an Instagram competition to try and increase my exposure on that platform, but it didn’t really work and only attracted people offering to promote my books for a fee which after looking into them are basically just sharing your post.

I have a steady stream of new people on my mailing list from the promos I’m in.

It’s all quiet on the western front with the agents etc.

That’s all for this week. Next week I’ll be back with a bench update, and perhaps some author stuff too! Comments and suggestions welcomed as always.