Getting my priorities straight

I find myself in limbo.  I have a full-time job (although I do work for myself and therefore have more flexibility in my working pattern than do traditional employees) and my main hobby during my free time is writing historical fiction.  But writing is no longer the solitary and focussed activity it once was.  The advent of self-publishing (which is gradually renaming itself “independent publishing” – I suppose to remove the suggestion of vanity and self-indulgence) means that those of us who fail to find an agent and traditional publisher can still publish our books, but this leads inevitably to a vary crowded marketplace.  Even taking as a tiny and unscientific sample the “indie authors” whom I “know” through my own membership of the Society of Authors and the Alliance of Independent Authors, hundreds of books a day are being published.  It’s marvellous, in that there is going to be the perfect book for every reader, but as an author, how do we elbow our way to the front and shout, “Here it is, your perfect book – it’s the one I’ve written!”?

And this is really the nub of my post today: how can the hobbyist author – as opposed to the full-time professional – find time to do what is necessary to stay afloat and visible in the publishing world?  Before you get out your notepad, I should confess that I don’t have the answer – or at least, nothing more revolutionary than “you just have to find the time – as with most human endeavour, effort in will lead to results out”.  For myself, I concentrate on my monthly Sam Plank update distributed via Mailchimp to my mailing list of (I’ve just checked) 43 subscribers.  It works for me because (a) I’m doing the research anyway and it’s fun to distil some of it into an update, and (b) all the received wisdom about book marketing says that a mailing list of loyal readers is more important than anything.  But I know I’m dabbling in an amateur fashion, and when I see what full-time authors can do – probably ably supported by publicists and publishers – I am green with envy and mournful with inadequacy.

In my darker, more envious moments I remind myself of two things.  One: when I retire from full-time work (hah!) I will be able to do all this publishing and promotion properly.  And two: if I have an hour or two to devote to the author side of my life, I should spend it on writing and not on worrying about publicity and marketing.  After all, I could have the slickest sales campaign in the world, glitzy enough to make John Grisham weep into his inkwell, and it would be worth nothing without having the words between the covers, ready to sell.  So that’s my moan for today, and I’m off to write a scene where poor Wilson has to tell a mother that her son has died.  Cheery.

Guiding light

As I mentioned, I went to the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival at the weekend and as well as taking part, I also had time to attend a couple of sessions as an audience member.  And at one of those I picked up an excellent tip, to create a free guide to the Sam Plank series.  The idea is that people who have never heard of me or of the books might – quite rightly – be uneasy about parting with their money but might be willing to download a free taster guide to see if it’s to their taste.

So today’s task has been to create said guide.  What I have included is the cover blurb and first chapter for each book and a shortened glossary at the end, as well as plentiful links to encourage people to sign up to my monthly newsletter and/or actually buy a book or five.

My remaining problem is listing it on Amazon for free; they are understandably not really in the business of offering free books (as they can’t retain a royalty percentage of nothing) but apparently there are dastardly ways and sneaky means of doing it.  But while I research that, there is no reason why I can’t start handing out the guide anyway – so here it is!

The Official Guide to the Sam Plank Mysteries book series

It’s in the form of a PDF (albeit formatted for Kindle-ish dimensions, hence the small pages), and I’d be delighted if you would download it with gusto and forward it in a wanton fashion to friends, family and even slight acquaintances.  And I’ll keep you posted on my Amazon endeavours.

Shopping for publicity

It’s all been a bit quiet here recently, hasn’t it?  That’s mainly because just sitting and writing, with occasional forays into research, is not much of a spectator sport, but rest assured that work continues apace with “Plank 6”.  And here’s what else I’ve been doing recently:

• Booked time with my fabulous cover designer – that’s Design for Writers – to make sure that they will be available to work on that sixth cover next summer
• Done some fun, extra research on Regency jewellery in preparation for my November monthly update – if you fancy getting your mitts on that, you can subscribe by clicking on the map to the left…
• Appeared in the magazine published by our local shopping mall, the “Grafton Press” – you can see it online here.

The idea for this last one came to me a few months ago when I was walking through the Grafton Centre in Cambridge and spotted that they had their own publication, promoting the shops and businesses in the centre but also highlighting Cambridge-y things – presumably to tempt out-of-town visitors to return again and again.  And friends who work in periodical publishing tell me that freebies like this are always on the look-out for contributed content because they rarely have the budget to buy in the services of more than a couple of writers.  I contacted the editorial email address given in the magazine, suggesting a piece on local authors, and they sent back a set of about six questions – which, as you can see, basically form the piece.

So that would be my top marketing tip for this month: look around for local or trade publications that might welcome unsolicited contact, and think of a way to connect you and/or your writing to their target market.  You might remember that I managed to get into Flybe’s in-flight magazine last year, by writing a piece about London as a destination, while managing to mention Sam Plank or my writing in every paragraph…  I’m cunning like that.  If you can send them a fairly finished piece (with the Flybe one, I looked at past issues of the column and used the same questions to formulate my own submission), they might well use it pretty much unchanged, just to be able to fill a page with minimal effort.  And who knows who might be off on their hols on Flybe, or doing their Christmas shopping at the Grafton Centre – it might be that TV executive casting around for inspiration for their next Sunday evening costume drama, and there will be Sam and Martha, just waiting.

Plan it of the Chimps

A new era of updates has started today, in my latest marketing initiative for the Sam Plank novels.  A while ago I explained that I was focusing on assembling an opt-in MailChimp mailing list of people who were actively interested in hearing more about Sam, and the books, and the history behind the books.  It’s been a fairly slow start, but then I think that’s the nature of the beast: word of mouth (or rather, word of inbox) takes time to spread.

In my mind the theme of these regular updates (they will be coming out monthly) is now clear: they will deal with extra detail pertaining to the novels themselves.  (As opposed to these blog posts, which talk about writing and plotting and self-publishing and book design and marketing and anything else that is preoccupying me as an author.)  And the first one, which I sent out this very morning, looks at the history of the Berners Street Hotel, which took over the buildings where Henry Fauntleroy – the banker in “Fatal Forgery” – both worked (number 6 Berners Street) and lived (number 7 Berners Street).  If you’re now thinking, darn, I wish I knew more about that, well, why not head over to my subscriber page and sign up so that you don’t miss any more monthly gems.

As anyone who knows me will testify, I am a fantastically organised person.  There are few things I love more than a plan, except maybe a timetable.  And I have indulged myself by creating a mash-up of the two with regard to these updates: I have spent the past hour putting together an outline of the updates that I plan to issue – and the giveaways that I plan to feature – from now until the end of 2019.  It’s the level of organisation of which Sam’s Quaker banker friend Mr Freame would have wholeheartedly approved.

Clarity at last

Sam would be very disappointed in me.  As a man with a deep love of concision and order, he would despair at the confusion I have created in recent days.  As you know, I am always trying to learn more about the marketing of self-published books, and the received wisdom is that a sign-up emailing list is the way to go.  Quite what I can do with the email addresses I gather – apart from send my own updates – is not yet clear, but it’s a learning curve, and frankly I am such a Sam-obsessive that I like the idea of another channel through which I can spread the love.  But by encouraging you to sign up, I have created confusion – not least in my own mind.  So here’s what’s on offer.

Anyone can read this blog.  It’s public: type in the URL and this page will appear.  Some of you have kindly decided that you never want to miss a single word of it, and so you have “followed” the blog.  How you have done this depends entirely on your computer system – your search engine, your email program and its server, and so on.  And – this is the crucial bit – I have no control over that.  I have no access to the “master list” of who is following the blog, which means that I know only that there are 236 of you (it says that in the left-hand column of this blog, when it encourages new followers), and not who you are, where you are, or what email addresses you use.  So you are, as far as I am concerned, anonymous.

The “occasional updates” that I am now proposing are different.  These are administered through a mailing system called MailChimp, which takes me by the hand and helps me to create mailing “campaigns”.  And for anyone to be party to these campaigns, you have to tell MailChimp that you want to do that (via this sign-up form), and – here’s the thing – I know who you are.  I am provided with a list of the names and email addresses of people who subscribe.  As I say, I’m not quite sure how that will be better, but I am assured that people are more loyal to, and more interested in, updates to which they have actively subscribed, so we shall see.

Of course, I need to differentiate between the two – between the content of the blog posts and that of the occasional updates.

• The blog posts will continue to appear on an ad hoc basis, as and when I feel I have something useful to share, and will remain focused on the writing and self-publishing process.
• The occasional updates will go out once a month, and will be more aimed at the Sam fan – looking in detail at some of the issues raised in the books (e.g. more history concerning the locations, as I always learn much more than I ever put in the books).  And subscribers to the occasional updates will regularly be offered freebie downloads (e.g. a cut-out-and-keep glossary of Regency slang used in the books).

I think it comes down to whether you’re more interested in writing and self-publishing (the blog’s the place for you), or Sam and the stories (occasional updates will feed your fancy), or indeed both.

I am off on my hols soon, and this blog will go quiet for the first two weeks of June.  Rest assured that Sam is coming with me; I’m off to Switzerland and he always seems to flourish in the clear mountain air.

Sam and the Chimp

Set up a mailing list, they say glibly – those experts on book marketing.  Your contacts are your best sales-force, they say.  Amazon will fulfil demand, they say, but it will not create demand – that is the job of your mailing list.  And, they say, the simplest tool for marketing novices is MailChimp – which has the added benefit, given my recent tax calculation, of being free.

Some of you who have been around for a while will be wondering, didn’t we try this before?  And yes, we did: back in November 2013 I enrolled with MailChimp and implored blog readers to sign up for updates.  They did not, apart from one reader in Suffolk who supports every effort I make – you know who you are.  And with only two of us ready to read updates (of course I signed up myself: how else could I test the MailChimp system?), I let it die a quiet death.

But now, with the experts insisting that I would be a fool not to, I am giving it another go.  I’m putting more effort into it this time, principally by offering a bribe.  In short, if you sign up by the end of June 2018 to receive my occasional updates via MailChimp, I will put your name into a hat (metaphorical – more likely to be a bowl or bin of some kind) and pick out three lucky people to receive a blank notebook.  I have laid in stocks of suitable notebooks, of designs that might have pleased Sam, and if you’re a winner I’ll send your notebook to you wherever in the world you might be.  (You don’t provide your mailing address as part of the sign-up; I’ll ask for it only if I need it.)

I have encouraged Facebook friends to spread the word.  And I am telling all of you about it.  I now have three subscribers: the two original ones, and me using another email address (how else could I test, etc.).  Although it’s a 50% increase on that time round, it’s not much to write home (or indeed, occasional updates) about.  So please, do sign up by clicking on the notebooks picture at the top of the column to the left: after all, the experts recommend it.