WORK IN PROGRESS

After having said last week that I was officially behind on my schedule, I realised that episodes 8 to 10 were all right at the maximum of 10,000 words. I reviewed the chapter conclusions and ended up refactoring where the episodes finished. This has meant that these episodes are now between 7,000 and 8,000 words each, which is typical for a completed episode, and the three episodes of content have now spaced out to fill four episodes (8 through to 11).

Along with this I have sent episode 8 off for editing and it will be back with me next week. I am now in the process of undertaking revision runs on 9 and 10. Episode 9 is nearly complete so I’m pretty confident for the time being that I can keep to my two week release schedule. Having some time off from my day job and also writing on the weekends has helped as well.

In addition to bringing my schedule back in line it has also solved an issue that I had in the back of my mind that I didn’t have enough content to fill my published plan for fifteen episodes.

If you’re confused following all this then don’t worry, it’s pretty hard to follow unless you’re right in the middle of it.

Also, if you hadn’t spotted it yet, episode eight marks the middle of series and is certainly something for me to celebrate!

A couple of nights ago I woke up a four in the morning and just had to write down the beginning of an idea for another Agent Carrie Harris story, possibly a short. It was after having a dream about something pretty benign I saw on the news. Now I’ve written down a few lines to jog my memory, I’ll leave it alone to brew in my head as there will be no chance I can write anything new at the moment.

EVENTS

I’ve being trying to come up with new things to sell at my events, and to preferably tie in with Christmas. I’ve had the idea of offering Christmas cards from an author. I have bought a nice set of Christmas cards that I can dedicate and sign, offering them in particular to those who are buying my signed books as Christmas gifts for other people. I will try it out at Cranleigh this weekend if they arrive in time.

MARKETING AND PROMOTION

I’m still trying to give away signed copies of the first episode. At the most recent count I have given away over 400 copies. I’m very comfortable with the sale rate of the other paperbacks which I offer direct, and page reads on Kindle Unlimited are slowly ramping up. Kindle sales are not blowing me away, but they are coming in sporadically. I think I am also seeing general background sales rising though, which could be another aspect I hadn’t accounted for.

Either way, I still see any sales whilst the work is only released in the episode format, rather than the completed novel format, as a bonus whilst I continue to write.

In other news, IN THE END has recently passed 300 reviews on both the US and UK market places (and is over 4 out of 5 stars). The number of reviews could have been at this level for a while not but I have only just noticed! It seems quite nice that on Monday the dyslexia friendly version will be released as if to mark the occasion.

That’s it for this week and I’ll be back in seven days with the next release, and to give the lowdown on the Cranleigh event.