WORK IN PROGRESS

Yesterday saw a major milestone hit for THEIR RIGHT TO VENGEANCE as I completed the first revision and I’m straight back into the new editing pass. I’m hoping this one will be much quicker but after already having completed the first chapter, I’m not so sure. However, it is what it is!

I’ve had an offer from an audiobook narrator I’m Facebook friends with to undertake a narration of YOUR BOOK WON’T SELL ITSELF. I previously hadn’t really considered getting it produced on audio as I thought it would be a niche book that would mainly be for my craft fairs, however it’s receiving such good reviews, currently three on the US and three on the UK Amazon marketplaces, all five star, plus more sales in the first week than I expected, that I think I will get it recorded. The next thing to consider would be whether to take up the narrator’s offer of doing a royalty share. Again, it’s something I hadn’t considered and could be a no-brainer. It would cut out the roughly £600 cost for the production. He’s already sent me a sample of his narration and I have to say his voice suits the work.

Something more to think on!

EVENTS

My appearance at Newbury Craft Fair last weekend went better than the previous event and I made a profit, although not a huge amount. I sold two of my new publishing books, which I’m very pleased about and I think two online sales of the book can also be credited to the appearance as well, helped with my new leaflets.

Next week is in Devizes, an event that did very well last year. Hopefully I can repeat the success!

OTHER NEWS

If you didn’t already know, Amazon plan to raise the production costs of their paperbacks on June 20th, the first time since KDP print started, so well over five year. The community seemed to have been expecting it and the platform is giving plenty of notice to raise prices to accommodate the change. The base costs are going up by around 10% but I would expect more authors to put their books up by a £1 / $1 to account for this.

I will look at how it effects me, but I’m likely to increase my sales prices too. I may keep them same for my in-person sales as the margins are much larger, plus I plan to buy a lot of stock before the price increase to at least offset some of the increase. It’s only FATE’S AMBITION I don’t want to hold too much of because I plan to redo the cover, along with the cover for the new book.

For marketing, my main focus is getting reviews and sales for STOPPING POWER and YOUR BOOK WON’T SELL ITSELF so that’s what’s occupying a lot of the space in my head. I ran a giveaway in the zombie group earlier this week where people could win a signed copy of either of these book, and they had to comment which one they were interested in. This has helped me identify who my targets can be for future sales of these books if they do not win.

I’m also thinking about my expert edition of YBWSI, or add on book, trying to come up with new content. So far I plan to include more detail about Amazon Ads, which means I will soon start testing on that platform, Amazon A+ content, Direct Marketing, Amazon Quality Dashboard and Facebook Advertising.

On that note it’s worth commenting that my Facebook ads are still going strong and I think I’m about on course to match last month’s performance. I will do a side by side review when they complete and before I choose another ad image to restart for June.

That’s your lot for this week. See you next time.