Book 3 coming along

Well, I have been fairly humming along with the next book in the Martin Chalk series.

Now that there’s some momentum behind it, I need to push through. I’d sketched up such a complicated plotline that the first time I’d left it for a while, it took me a week of reading through the backstory to remember where the heck the story was headed and why.

I found Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ very useful. He says 2000 words a day, every day, no excuses. At first I was like, “Pfft! Is that all?” and proceeded to knock out 3500 words the first day on the job. I felt like a hero. The next day, just over 2000. The day after … 1500 and those came hard.  The last two days have been fruitless, and I’ve been telling myself that marketing is work too.

LOL.

Sometimes, writing is just not easy, but you have to sit and shovel the words regardless. You can always edit out later. But you can’t edit out if there’s zero.

Sales, but from where?

Interestingly enough, I've had a small burst of sales lately.

As a self-pubbed author, it it pretty important to know what caused those sales, and unfortunately, I don't have a clue.

I've been pursuing two forms of advertising lately.

One is the Amazon keywords thing where your book appears as "recommended" below other books with hopefully the same characteristics. I've received a modest amount of impressions (times that people have seen the book) but rather low click through rate. None of those clicks have resulted in sales. Yet, sales I am getting.

The book Martin Chalk and the Case of the Underworld King was recently on free promo. Again, only a modest number of people downloaded it, and it seems strange that all the sales I've had were from that book, which folks probably picked up for free anyway.

Head-scratching time.

Either the folks that downloaded it as free came back to buy it, which was cool of them ... or they possibly recommended it to friends who then bought it. 'Tis only 99c after all.

Anyway, I wish I knew what was pushing the sales :)

Martin Chalk and the Underworld King on free promotion

Martin Chalk and the Underworld King is on free promotion from the 18th till the 22nd. That is from today until Tuesday. First free promo I've done so I'm hoping for downloads and especially for reviews. Getting traction on Amazon is pretty much as hard as pulling teeth unfortunately.

Martin Chalk and the Search in Sheona published

Well I'm pretty chuffed that the latest in the Martin Chalk series has just been published on Amazon, last night as a matter of fact.

The story is starting to hit its groove and is becoming more fun to write. It feels less like me pushing events and more like the events are unfolding and I'm merely documenting what happens. A narrative often feels like a train to me ... slow to really get going fast but once it does, hard to stop.

The city of Sheona is, to me, a natural evolution of lawfulness being carried a bit too far, and I had fun with putting the straight-laced Martin into a situation where he was the guy that was the rebel and flirting with ending up on the wrong side of the Law.

I also had fun in creating the Nightcleaner, and something tells me we'll be seeing him again ;)

Martin Chalk: The Search in Sheona coming soon

The second installment of the Martin Chalk series is coming out soon.

It's been finished, edited and re-edited. Cover done, and that's going to look a little different from other covers. More on this later.

Why so long, though?

Well, for one reason, its financial.

Writing hasn't so much as paid for an ice cream so far and unfortunately real-life hassles like paying the electrical bill and putting food on the table have interfered with writing for fun. I'm now in a position to give my writing some much needed attention and to see whether something that I do for the love of it can't become a viable sub-career.

The second reason is my own tendency to devolve into complexity. Nothing I do (except for one-off short stories) seems to be simple and to the point.

The Martin Chalk series was originally meant to be knocked out in a year (LOL) and then I was going to get a move on with Book 2 of Tergin's Tale. It's burning in the back of my mind and I need to write it.

Unfortunately I can't turn out porridge and be happy with it.

My characters took on a life of their own and needed back stories. The plot linking the 5 books needed a thoroughly worked out backstory. That plot developed subplots. I ended up having to hack my way out of the spider's web through sheer dint of effort. Now that I've re-ignited the Chalk series I'm not going to stop till it's done, in case I forget who was doing what and why.

Getting back into it

After quite a while of treating my writing as a fun diversion from my usual activities (metalwork mostly) I've decided to actually go for it in a serious manner.

Writing a book is the easy part. Hell, I've been doing it since I was 12.

Actually getting anybody to read it is another entirely. Getting people to read them thar books means marketing, and if there's anything I'm not a fan of it's punting my stuff as though its something special - the same as all the other 21 350 000* authors out there. For some reason marketing has been my achilles heel since forever.

But apparently that's how its done, so Tergin and Martin Chalk will have to do their little dance and juggle some flaming balls on the street corner. Sorry, Martin, I know you have better things to do, but, just this one jig and that's it**.

* Figure entirely sucked from my thumb.

** A lie, obviously.

After an absurdly long transfer process, we purchased the plot and moved in.

Working my ass off is an understatement. I have lost 5kg since moving in, and my old friend sweat and I have become reacquainted intimately. Since I am a guy who will rather spend five minutes doing something myself than pay somebody a buck to do it for him, I suppose this was predictable.

Digging holes, mixing concrete, laying bricks, planting poles, stringing fences and razor wire up ... have all featured in the greatest hits parade of the daily chores.

Unfortunately this also means that the writing has suffered, and Martin Chalk is still in his home, knocking back the meals with his little band. I'd better hurry and write a few lines before he gets cholesterol poisoning.

:)