I haven’t advertised my books for a while, kinda horrified at the amount of money I was spending. But sales stagnate when I stop – that’s business I guess. At least the monthly payments from Amazon are staying marginally ahead of advertising spend. So I’ve set up a few campaigns this morning, mostly for Glasdrum, and this includes an imminent 99p ebook offer which will run from 18-24 Sept 2017 (normal price £3.99).

With regard to the paperbacks, as well as being stocked in the Highland Bookshop, Fort William, and in Picaresque Books, Dingwall, I’m making some progress towards being stocked in Waterstones. The local Inverness store has ordered my books ahead of my appearance there at 1pm on 8 Oct to talk about my books and self-publishing as part of Ness Book Fest (*exciting* please come along if you can – click here for link to programme, there are loads of brilliant, free events: https://nessbookfest.wordpress.com/2017-programme/). I’ve had some positive feedback from Waterstones central office that they have been selling my books in various stores, and they will monitor and top up accordingly – they are available for ordering via all Waterstones branches, with actual limited stock in some – apparently! These things, as with much in the publishing industry I’ve discovered, are very difficult to pin down. My books are still ‘print on demand’ but since my correspondence with Waterstones I have been day dreaming about a ‘proper’ print run… much lower unit cost, and a more polished looking cover (*fantasises about embossed lettering*). You have to order hundreds and hundreds and hundreds though…

So, while the big print run is still very much a dream, I was recently surprised to discover that the $80 I paid a few months back for Daughter, Disappeared to appear in the Ingram Sparks catalogue (which goes to bookstores), had resulted in 328 sales, bringing a total royalty of £162, most of which were in the USA, to my astonishment! I had gambled on the $80 outlay with no idea whether it would bring any benefit. See how the money is rolling in, LOL.

In the meantime, here’s a plea that if anyone has read either book and is willing to leave a review on Amazon (long or short, good or bad, anonymous or not, every review helps enormously to have the books taken seriously), here are the links:

Glasdrum: http://amzn.to/2o0dnnI

Daughter, Disappeared: http://amzn.to/2eCnZRf

Many thanks

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