The swings and roundabouts of sales

I know that some of you read this blog with a more commercial eye, curious to know whether it’s possible to make a living at self-publishing, and I promised at the outset to tell you the unvarnished truth about all aspects of this writing adventure.  And this week I have mixed fortunes to report.

You may remember that back in October 2016 I scored something of a coup when I convinced the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge to stock three copies of “Portraits of Pretence”, as it is about art fraud.  I supplied the copies – as I do for most bookshops – on a sale or return basis, and they very promptly paid my invoice for the three copies supplied.  I sidled into the shop from time to time, feigning interest in other items but really checking out the bookshelves, and the trio of “Portraits” was still there.  This week I decided that it would be impolite, and not in the spirit of our original agreement, to stay silent, and so I contacted the stock manager and asked her if she would like to return the books, and she has – I collected them this morning.  To be fair, the staff tried hard: they put the books on different shelves, spine out, front out – they tried it all – but it seems that their visitors buy non-fiction art tomes rather than novels.

On the other hand, Sam is going great guns at Daunt Books in Cheapside.  I find this particularly pleasing because it is directly over the road from where Edward Freame’s bank is in the series (actually a Café Nespresso in real life).  This week Daunt ordered eight more books and my husband kindly delivered them on his Brompton folding bike and collected cash payment for the eight that had sold – some of which found its way pretty sharpish into the till of the aforementioned café (pedalling/peddling is thirsty work in hot weather).  It’s a busy bookshop, this one (it’s not the famous Marylebone Daunt – it’s the City cousin) and the customers are very much my target audience, with their interest in financial (mis)doings.

In short, it’s eight out and three in, and as long as I’m in credit, I’m happy!

Flight of fancy

Just a quick update today, so that you know that I’m not resting on my laurels.  (I’m a bit pleased with myself, as I see that in the past few days I have sold seven paperback copies of “Portraits of Pretence”, and that’s quite a heady pace for my books!)

Ever on the lookout for promotional opportunities, I was on a plane the other day and spotted that in their in-flight magazine they had an interview with an author, talking about the city where her book is set (the link is that the airline flies there).  Well, thought I, they also fly to London, where my books are set, and so I mocked up a similar interview with myself and sent it in to the magazine editor.  It might not – realistically, probably won’t – lead anywhere, but they certainly weren’t going to come looking for me, and it was a diverting way to spend the flight.

I have had a cheque from the Fitzwilliam Museum for their three copies of “Portraits”, so I don’t know whether that means they have sold them, or they just pay their bills very promptly (rather unusual in the book world, I have found!).  I will have to skulk in there soon to see if the shelf is bare…

As for “Plank 5”, I am going to start this week with my usual method: adding some relevant pictures to my Sam Pinterest board.  I’m not generally a very visual person, preferring words, but I do find that it puts me in the mood to look for illustrations of things that were happening in the right year – “Plank 5” takes place in 1828.

Forgiving Flora

Well, I think we all knew it wouldn’t last – my resolve, that is, not to go back to Sam for a while.  The truth is that I am listening to the audiobook version of “The Man in the Canary Waistcoat”, which my fab narrator Guy is working on and sending to me chapter by chapter, and it has made me miss Sam even more.  And so yesterday I prepared the space for “Plank 5”.

Those of you who followed my writing retreat progress over the summer will know that my Macbook gave up the ghost, taking with her two days’ work on “Portraits of Pretence” (which thankfully I was able to recreate – probably not exactly but perhaps even better than the first time round) and all of my research for the three previous books (which I could not retrieve).  Luckily I had what I call “main Plank research”, which went with the first book, backed up on a memory stick, but for some dotty reason I had not bothered to do that same for the files that went with the second and third books.  So now I have the final text for these, but not all the research that went along with them.  My own fault, of course, for not backing up more assiduously.  My Macbook – Flora – was herself revived and even upgraded by a local Mac resuscitation expert, but I did wonder whether I would trust her again…

So yesterday I had to decide: would “Plank 5” be written on Flora, like its four predecessors, or would I stick with my laptop, which came to the rescue when Flora had her nervous collapse?  I have always liked having a separation between my day job and my Plank writing, and Scrivener (the writing package I use) looks nicer on the Mac than on the laptop, and Flora was very remorseful, so I have decided to stick with her.  I have copied across the research files I do have, and have set up my blank “Plank 5” file, complete with the character files that I carry across each time, where I note details that I have given about the main people so that I can be consistent.  So now I’m heading for 1828…

And I am trying not to go into the Fitzwilliam Museum shop more than once a week to enjoy the sight of my books on their rather erudite shelf of books about art.

“Portraits” goes promotion potty!

This is turning into quite a day.  The lovely Toppings bookshop in Ely has agreed to stock “Portraits of Pretence” and so I planned a delivery run today.  Realising that this gives me the perfect excuse to celebrate (again!) the publication of the book in the very building where I first worked on the Sam Plank series (while I was enrolled on the Gold Dust mentoring programme, when “Fatal Forgery” was a twinkle in my eye, my mentor Jill Dawson and I would meet here for cake), I have booked lunch at the Old Fire Engine House.  But before that I had to cycle out to the Fitzwilliam Museum shop to drop off the three copies that they have agreed to try to sell – that’s two stockists in one day!

As if that wasn’t enough, I wandered over to Amazon this morning (three stockists in one day!) and spotted that I have two five-star reviews for “Portraits”.  With comments like “beautifully researched”, “immense charm” and “assured and entertaining”, my cup runneth over.

And then – and then! – my generous reviewer Jo (she of the delightful book blog Jaffareadstoo) has featured me and a chapter of “Portraits” on her blog today.  So far I have been a very selfish blogger; every post I have done has been written by me, and in essence has been about me.  This will change, as I can’t continue to benefit from all this kindness without reciprocating.  But for today, I am wallowing, wallowing I tell you, in “Portraits” promotion.  And you know what?  It’s made me start to miss Sam, and I know I have two years in which to write “Plank 5” but perhaps I’ll just write a few notes, and read up on the weather in 1828, and do some research on slavery in the Caribbean-but-not-the-places-you-think-of, and…