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Writing Insight
I'm not the fastest writer in the world. I tend to be an early riser, normally getting up at around 5AM on weekdays, taking a break for breakfast with Mrs L at about 7:30 before she heads off to her "home" office and then I wrap things up at about midday. After that, I normally go for a walk along the beach which gives me some head space to mull over any tricky plot situations or misbehaving characters.
I started writing Helix Nexus on the the 5th of May 2020. I finished the final draft on the 28th of January 2021. Elapsed time: 270 days of which 104 were spent actually writing or editing. Word count: just over 80,000. Average words per day for first draft: 1179. Yes, I have a spreadsheet in case you were wondering!
Since then, I've made a few extra tweaks as the proofing and typesetting for the paperback have progressed. I do the formatting of the ebook myself thanks to having spent more than 20 years working in Technology. The typesetting is a bit beyond me and while I could save some money doing it myself, I really can't be bothered to learn another bit of software. There are alternatives online, but in my opinion the quality isn't great. I don't sell a huge number of paperbacks but I want the quality to be as good as anything you might pick up in a bookshop or from your favourite online store.
Marketing
So, the book's done but it won't sell itself. Over the last week or so, I've been putting together my marketing plan and booking my advertising slots. Apart from sharing the good news with all you folks, I have taken out ads with - checks marketing spreadsheet - seven bargain book newsletter services. I'll be launching the ebook at $0.99, £0.99 and €0.99 - other currencies are available. I've used most of these services before because they actually work. The newsletter campaigns are spaced out to work with Amazon who will promote the book if they can see a prolonged rise in sales. If you go all in on a single day, that doesn't fool their clever algorithms, they prefer to see sustained sales over time.
I don't tend to go in for social media (Facebook, Instagram) marketing because for me it doesn't seem to drive sales and is pretty expensive. I'll just stick to a few posts to my 2500+ Instagram followers.
So, the bargain book newsletter ads are great for authors. But they're also great for readers. Most allow you to sign up for a particular genre and not only include reduced priced books but also freebies. I've listed the services I use below with links. These are not affiliate links because the services are all free to join.
Bargain Booksy
Ereader Cafe
Fussy Librarian
EreaderIQ
Robin Reads
Book Adrenaline
Book Raid
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