Brenda released into the wild

On Thanksgiving Day 2024, I pushed the button. The button on the KDP Dashboard (Kindle Direct Publishing) that starts the wheels turning, opening the door for book 3, Brenda's Story to be published.

Pushing a virtual button really shouldn't be this difficult. But it is. My head is filled with the 'what ifs'.

What if it's still filled with typos, grammar mistakes and punctuation errors? What if it's boring? What if no one buys it? What if I get only bad reviews, or worse, no reviews at all? But the over riding what if, is: What if I never publish it? After all that work writing it, what a waste that would be. 

So, in a matter of about 72 hours (according to Amazon) Brenda would be out there, waiting to build her own fan base and make me proud. And I will be moving on to work on polishing book 4, which I'm hoping will be ready to join Caitlin, Sally and Brenda, in March of next year.

I spend most of my time writing, but I do set aside a part of each day to try to learn how to market. Marketing is something I really do not like doing. In my mind, it comes under the heading, 'Showing Off', and my mother's voice still rings in my ears: "Stop showing off, dear." Despite being a highly intelligent, very independent woman, she had the belief of her time, women shouldn't show off. Or, in my mind as a child, perhaps she thought I was just way too full of myself. Whatever the reason, I grew up believing marketing myself was showing off, and unacceptable. Now I'm having to retrain myself. How else would you all have an opportunity to discover and enjoy my Escape Route Series? I'm doing you a favor, right?

So, a few months ago, I found a YouTube video on how to create FaceBook ads. Much as I was afraid of wasting money, I took a deep breath and created a couple, following Matt Holmes instructions (I'll tell you about him in a minute). I didn't have the nerve to let them run indefinitely, setting just a three week period. To my amazement, my books starting selling. Both Caitlin's Escape Route and Sally's Story. And even after the ads had finished running, people were buying the books and reading via Kindle Unlimted.

As I got ready to prepare Brenda for publication, I signed up for a full course on Facebook marketing, on Matt's website. Matt's wife, Lori Holmes is a prolific writer of fantasy fiction and he handles all of her advertising, plus he has an online presence, helping other writers sell themselves.

He has many other courses which I will probably indulge in over time. I've got to say, I highly recommend Matt's training to any of you authors out there. I now had two ads ready to go live as soon as Brenda's Story is available to purchase. 

While working on my next book, I took a break every so often, to hit refresh on my KDP author dashboard, to see where Brenda is on her journey. Until finally, there she was, less than 24 hours later, 'Published'. I then pushed the button, well, actually, set the start date, on the ads I had prepared. And now you can buy Brenda. Of course, if you haven't read Caitlin or Sally yet, you should do that too. They can be read out of order though I do recommend reading book 1 first, it's not essential.

And please, after you have read them, take a minute to revisit and review. I would really appreciate it.

Why do I write?

Lots of reasons. The main one is that I can't not write. I'm not saying my head is bursting with stories that can't wait to turn into books. It's more like I feel the need to flush out my mind of all the debris of my life, and turning that into stories is inevitable. It's therapeutic, and it keeps me occupied. Retirement could be horribly boring without my writing. I guess the fact that it's not easy is why I keep doing it. The challenge keeps me engaged.

The hardest part is getting started on a new outline for the next book. It's the best feeling when you finish a first draft. To have found the right starting point and, even more difficult, the closing act. And in the middle, between finishing a first draft and starting a new outline, there is the revision process. This takes longer than writing the full first draft, and consists of reading and rereading, fixing and tweaking and working with a critique partner, if you are lucky enough to find a good one. I am that lucky. Then there is the difficulty in finding reliable beta readers and incorporating their feedback.

One of the main things that keeps me writing is Nanowrimo. I love a challenge and it helps to have a deadline. Most of my books were drafted during a Nanowrimo month. Either the November challenge to write at least 50K words in one month, or the camps held in April and July, where you set your own goal. The prize for completing the challenge isn't just a winner certificate, it is the fact that you now have a first draft of another novel. I have four certificates and four novels. And it's almost November and time for my fifth.

I wrote Peeling the Onion over a period of years, never intending it to be published, or even to be a book. It was written as a therapy. I did self publish it back in 2013. And while I refer to it as a memoir, it's more a series of essays covering my experiences growing up and finding myself. When I wrote it I had no clue about the craft of writing. I also had no clue about self publishing. I had no plans to do any marketing. In fact I couldn't imagine anyone ever buying, or reading it.

My first novel, Caitlin's Escape Route, took me over two years to write. When I unexpectedly found myself retired (you can read about that here), I had dozens of false starts. I knew I wanted to write a novel, but I had no clue how to go about it. I wrote every day, but everything I wrote turned out to be a weak short story. Then I got a Masterclass membership. I watched each writing class over and over again. After that I found The Writing Mastery Academy. That was when I finally got my teeth into The Escape Route Book 1—Caitlin's Escape Route. I didn't know it would be a series when I started, but by the time the first draft was complete, I realized where I could go with it.

The idea for each of my books has started with a character. I spend some time getting to know that character, building a family and back story. Only when I really know who they are can I start on the story outline. The bare bones of an outline that is. Once I start writing, I discover the story, and the outline grows with that discovery. Caitlin's Escape Route is filled with characters. The premise is an escape route for victims of domestic violence. Therefore, we briefly meet many victims as they utilize the escape route. Each of these victims become the main character in another book in the series, as we follow their progress towards healing and rebuilding their lives.

After Peeling the Onion was published, I had to learn to accept that I was opening myself up to criticism. Although I didn't do any marketing, over a period of months a few people found it, read it and reviewed it. While most of the reviews were very complimentary, there was one two star review that was particularly scathing. It took a few days to digest that. But I finally figured out that someone bought the book, then read it, and then took the time to write a review. She didn't have to like it, but she also didn't have to go to the trouble of reviewing it. I did some research on reviews and eventually posted this blog about it. Then I moved on. But not before learning the lesson, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. I decided to stay in the kitchen.

Fast forward to January 2024, when I published my first novel. Again, I decided not to do any marketing. For two reasons, one: I didn't want to. Marketing is just not something I ever wanted to do, but I also read that when a second book in a series is published, it generates interest in the first book. Naturally, I skipped the fact that the second one has to be marketed before that can happen.

But, before publishing Sally's Story, in September 2024. I spent some time learning about Amazon and Facebook Ads. I created a campaign on Facebook and it ran for the first two weeks of September with what I consider some success. That is, between sales and Kindle Unlimited page reads, I earned more in royalties over the period the campaign ran, than it cost me. It was somewhat nerve wracking I do admit. I watched carefully as the income and cost ran neck and neck for a few days, but after the first week, the royalties won the race.

So, what next? The third book in the series, Brenda's Story, is almost ready to publish. That, I expect, will be in December 2024. Meanwhile, I am running another test campaign. The first one was in the US only. This second one will run in both the US and the UK. So, fingers crossed they will perform at least as well as the last one. The fourth book, Gerry's Story, is in revision and I am working on getting to know my character for book five in the series. 

Meanwhile, if you want to check them out, they are available on Amazon, and if you want to know more about my books, please follow me here.

And Book 2 in the Escape Route Series is live

As promised in my last post, Sally's Story is now live and available on Amazon. In paperback, ebook and on Kindle Unlimited (KU). I'm actually surprised and pleased at the number of sales already, in particular, the number of KU reads. For those of you who are not familiar with KU, it's a subscription program on Amazon, you pay a montly fee and for that you can read as many books enrolled in the program as you wish. The advantage is that if you start a book you don't like, you can drop it and find something else, no extra cost. For authors, we get paid per page read. Now, it isn't a huge amount per page, but if you keep reading, it mounts up. And the measure of a book is how many people keep reading. 

What's very gratifying is that there has also been a surge of interesting Caitlin's Escape Route, the first book in the series. I had read that would be likely to happen, I just didn't really believe it. I believe it now. I do wish that more people would take the time to write a review. Not only does it help readers to get a better idea of the book, before they decide to read it, but it is difficult being an author. You spend months, sometimes years working on a book then, when you finally push the button to publish it, the silence can be deafening. It would be wonderful to see what readers think about it, good, bad or indifferent—just something is better than silence. And, books with reviews tend to sell better. To those of you who did take the time, thank you!

Talking about pushing the button. That's more difficult than actually writing the book. You read, listen, revise and repeat so many times, it is hard to know, or accept, when the book is ready to go out into the world. But, push it I did and now I am ready to get on with revising book number three, Brenda's Story. I expect to push the button on her around Christmas time. I know, I keep talking about that button. It's scary.

Meanwhile, you can find Sally's Story on Amazon, here. And if you would like to follow me on Amazon, my author page is here. 

Sally's Story

I'm back. To be fair, I wasn't gone, just working away silently, on my series of books. The thing about writing is, it takes up all of my time. I don't want to be distracted from it. And while blog posts are also writing, they don't get the story written. Once I start on a novel, I get sucked into it. I'm obsessed with finishing it, finding out what's going to happen next.

Since my last blog post, way back in April, I've finished Sally's Story. Sally made the rounds of critique partners and beta readers. While I still have a few beta readers who haven't come back to me yet, I decided to stick to my original schedule. If they find time to give me feedback, I can decide if I should revisit and work on an update. The thing about feedback is, it's just suggestions. I get to decide if I'll use it or not.

As it is, Sally has been revised multiple times and finally, this month, I decided to polish and push her out the door. When I say, out the door, I mean what I hope is the final draft has been uploaded and will be available on Amazon in just a few weeks, assuming I'm happy with the final proof copy. I expect to recieve that on Monday. 

My last post had this picture of the keyring I had made, every one of the books in that image are now written. Soon, as I said, number three, the second in the Escape Route Series will be published, and I'll move on to revising Brenda's Story. At the same time, I'm busy outlining the fifth book in the series, Victor's Story. That doesn't appear on the keyring, perhaps I need to order a new one.

I find it useful to hop from story to story, the break allows me to return with fresh eyes. So, after I get a first draft of Victor done, I'll do a revision of Gerry, then perhaps, polish Brenda.

If you don't know the premise for the series, you really should read Caitlin's Escape Route. And, while this is a series, I've made every effort to ensure that you can read the books in any order and not be confused. 

Caitlin's Escape Route: Caitlin & Terri are twins. They were born in Californian. When their mother is killed in a car crash, their Irish father moves them back to Ireland. He works as a foreign correspondent and when he is killed in Iraq they inherit a large amount of money. After completing their degrees in Dublin, Terri marries and moves to California.

The book opens with Caitlin discovering that Terri is in hospital. Keith, Terri’s husband, attacked her and leaves her unconscious in their home, to which he sets fire. Caitlin returns to California. She convinces Terri to move from California to Texas, as she believes Keith will try to silence her.

Once settled in Texas, they work with the local battered women’s shelter. They set up an escape route, helping victims get away from their abusers. Meanwhile, in the background, Keith is closing in. When he tracks them down, all hell breaks loose.

The next book in the series, Sally's Story follows one of the victims to use the Escape Route.

The book opens when Caitlin meets Sally in a restaurant and, having observed her boyfriend being abusive, she gives her information on the Escape Route. Sally leaves her abusive boyfriend and moves to Cambridge, just outside Boston, where she had lived with her Uncle and Aunt while attending College. She gets a job, attends psychotherapy and starts to build a new life for herself. Her abuser, Malcolm, tracks her down and convinces her that he's a changed man, having attended anger management. She gives him a second chance. It doesn't go well.

As soon as Sally is published and available for you to purchase, I will let you know here. Naturally, I'll also tout each of the other books in the series, as they get pushed out the door. I expect Brenda's Story to be published next January.

To all of you out there who bought and read Caitlin's Escape Route, or even Peeling the Onion, my memoir published in 2013. Thank you. If you wrote a review, thank you very much. A special thank you to my critique partners and beta readers. You are invaluable.

Anyone interested in beta reading? Fill in the contact form to the right and I'll send you something to read and review.

Working away in silence

Writing is a very isolating occupation.

I have been writing almost all my life, my first published book was a memoir, written as a form of therapy, I wrote about that process, in my personal blog here. I wanted to write a novel but I didn't have any solid idea, and if I am being honest, I didn't believe I would be able to.

Then I found myself unexpectedly retired. Okay, it shouldn't have been so unexpected. I was way past retirement age, but I didn't believe I would ever do it. The universe has a way of pushing you into what you should be doing, whether you like it or not. So, almost three years ago, I did retire. I didn't like it then and it took me the best part of two years to come to terms with it. You can read about it here.

It was in the middle of COVID, and we had moved out to the lake, living in a small community mostly consisting of weekenders, and then only during the summer months. Between the pandemic, the fact that my family were scattered across two continents and four countries, lack of immediate neighbors, and a husband who is mostly anti-social, we were very isolated. I would have gone completely insane if I hadn't had my writing to keep me occupied.

I spent the first year attempting to learn the craft. I watched Masterclass writing classes over and over again. Then I discovered The WMA—The Writing Mastery Academy. There I found a wealth of information and training. I test out a few ideas most of which came to nothing, or at least, some resulted in a short story and nothing worth attempting to publish. Finally I signed up for NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month. I committed to writing 50K words that November. I am very competitive, so I succeeded in doing that. Of course, then came the editing and revision. Long story short (no pun intended) I did finally end up with a novel. Caitlin's Escape Route. I was excited about it because it brought up a number of ideas for follow on novels. A series. I had never considered that before.

I didn't have that first novel ready to publish until January of 2024, but by that time I had completed the first draft of the second book, Sally's Story, and an outline for the third, Brenda's Story. 

Meanwhile, I have sold quite a few copies of Caitlin's Escape Route, and received some good feedback from readers, but so far, no reviews on Amazon. And it is reviews that sell books more than anything else. I have done some advertising, using Amazon Ads. So far that has not resulted in any sales. However, I did read that once the second book in a series is released, it often stokes up interest in the first. So, I am hopeful that I can publish Sally's Story in September, and Brenda's Story in January of next year. 

If you bought Caitlin's Escape Route, thank you. If you read it, thank you very much! And whether you liked it or not, I would truly appreciate a review. Obviously, an honest one is all I ask for.

As I said, writing is a very isolating occupation, moreso because my husband doesn't read fiction of any sort, therefore not only doesn't read what I write, he is not in the least bit interested in it. Mostly I think that is a good thing, on balance. But it also means I can't talk out issues I am having with my characters, or the story. And something I discovered is that it is difficult to leave them behind when you finish writing for the day. If I am in the middle of a particularly emotional section of the story, I find myself carrying those emotions with me for at least an hour after I shut down my computer. And the problem is that it takes me a while to realize why I am feeling emotional. Then I have to deliberately let go of the made up emotions of fictional characters! 

If you have read Caitlin's Escape Route, you will know that it deals with domestic abuse. When I was writing that I had to make a huge effort to not be angry with every male on the planet, and as I was only in close proximity to one, my husband, who is most definitely not a perpetrator of abuse, I needed to not respond to him as though he were.

Recently I became involved in a Critique Group. A group of fellow writers who take the time to read and critique each other's work in progress. Three years ago that would have been a very daunting prospect for me. To have another writer read your rough drafts and tell you what is wrong with it? Also, if you are a good critique partner, what is right, of course. After finally publishing one book, and all the critique partners and beta readers that entailed, I have developed, not a thick skin, because that is not what is needed, but an objective attitude. Not everything other's have to say about your writing is fact, it is opinion. The nice thing about a group is that you get to read their writing also, so you can form an opinion of their skill set and also their taste. That is a useful tool when deciding how much salt or sugar their critique requires before it is palatable, or even believable.

Beta readers are a slightly different issue. What you want from them is a reader's opinion and response to your overall story, as opposed to the critique partner whose feedback is that of a writer. Critique partner's get payment via your feedback on their writing. All beta readers get is a free read of what may or may not be worth their time, and then they are expected to supply you with feedback, that takes more time. So for the first book, my beta readers were two people I had previously worked with, and my daughter-in-law's book club. I got great feedback from all of them and in return I gave them each a copy of the book when it was published, plus a bookmark. I plan to do the same for the second, and future books.

Caitlin's Escape Route is live and selling

That is to say, I have sold a few copies. A first novel is very much a chicken and egg situation I believe. If you have no previous novels, you are an unknown, few are interested in buying. If you have no reviews, no one wants to be the first. Very understandable but without reviews, sales are very unlikely and without sales reviews are never going to be forthcoming.

I spent a few weeks before the release, and all of the last week since then, studying up on the various marketing avenues. Some, of course, are just too expensive to rush into so soon. I have set up a few ads on Amazon, but so far, these are not doing great. I need to revisit them and keep tweaking till I get the hang of it.

Here's the thing. Your (in this case, my) ads only show if you have selected the correct key words, and someone uses these keywords to search for a book, and you have bid high enough that you beat all the other thousands of writers attempting to get their book planted in the face of a potential buyer. If you get to that point, and your book appears at the top of a search result, then the potential buyer has to click on it. If they do click on it, you get charged whatever your bid was—now the important step, they have to buy the book, then read it, hopefully like it and then write a review. That's a lot to ask of someone who just wants to find something to read that they will enjoy.

However, I am not going to spend much time worrying about it. I have also read that when there is more than one book in a series available, people are more likely to purchase. I know I love to read a series. One of my favorite authors is David Baldacci. He has a number if great series, and it is so nice to return to characters you already know and like. So, I am busy getting number two in the series ready to publish. It is written, I have received and incorporated feedback from my main alpha reader, my very talented daughter in law, a gifted writer. Now I am working on getting beta readers lined up to help me polish Sally's Story.

If you have read Caitlin's Escape Route, or when you get around to reading it, you will meet Sally, and you can follow her through the second novel. My hope is to have Sally's Story ready to publish by early September. That is dependant on getting timely feedback from beta readers.

The problem with beta readers is that you are asking them to do a whole lot in return for very little. They have to read your less than perfect manuscript, making notes of all the places where they feel something is not quite right, either moving too fast, or too slow, or holes in the story, or characters who don't seem real enough, dialogue that doesn't sound realistic. I could go on. But, in return for that, what do they get? a free read they might not even like, and a thank you. Actually I also offer them a signed copy of the book after it has been published, but that is hardly a huge payment, especially as they have already read the book.

The online writers community that I am a member of, are starting up a critique partner group and I am hopeful that will be in action in time for Sally's Story, if not I am already working on Brenda's Story, number three in the series.

I pressed the button

The button in question is the Publish button, two in fact. One to publish the paperback and one to publish the Kindle version. I have to tell you, that was one of the hardest things I have done in a while. 

My first novel is now 'IN REVIEW' as you can see from this image. I could have spent the next year editing, revising and rereading but at some point you have to say "enough is enough" and let it go out into the world to fend for itself.

I have a wait of up to three days before I know if the book is on the market or back on my desk for further editing. That is, if the review turns up some formatting issue that Amazon objects to, it will bounce it back to me to fix. While I am waiting I am learning all I can about Amazon Ads. That is not as easy as it sounds, but also a lot more interesting that it sounds.

The problem with self-publishing is that you also have to do self-marketing, not so easy. As a first step, I need you all to follow me on my author page on Amazon. Apart from making me feel good, it will mean that as my books are released for sale, you will hear about it. I promise I will not spam you, but I need to get some hype going.

The sum total of the marketing I did for Peeling the Onion was to leave a copy sitting on my desk at work. Even then, if anyone showed an interest in it, I let them borrow that copy, so no sale there. That was not the only reason I never considered marketing as a career, but definitely a good one. I suck at it.

Once Caitlin's Escape Route is approved and out there, I hope that at least some of you will purchase it, and if you do, and if you manage to read it, please return to Amazon and leave a review. I don't mind if it is an honest one, in fact I would prefer if it were, any review is better than no reviews at all. Plus, I want to get better at this and an honest review, good or bad, will help me do that.

I actually got a few reviews for Peeling the Onion, despite no marketing. One was bad enough that I blogged about it here. As I said in that post, the reviewer bought the book, read it, and took the trouble to return and leave a review. That was something I had to be grateful for.

As soon as the book is available, I will purchasae author copies and send one to each of my beta readers. I will also leave one on my desk, this time of course, as I am retired, I will be the only one to see it. I can't begin to explain what an amazing feeling it is to hold in your hands, a book that you created. As for the 72 hour wait, my guess is we are waiting for internal data to be moved into an external facing database. With the amount of data that Amazon moves along that pipeline, I am not surprised it will take three days.

Meanwhile, the second in the series is with beta readers, while the third is beginning to form in my head. And I need to get back to my studies, figuring out how Amazon Ads will best work for me.

PS: I have received notification that my book passed the review, so I guess it is now in the pipeline heading to the external world.