Writing and Marketing, oh my!

I'm delighted to report that I'm not far from writing 'the end' on the first draft of my latest project. It is the sequel to For the Greater Good, a story in which Imperial agents, Brent Walker and Tian Axmar, first meet an alien feline. The auralfang, dubbed Puss, is now part of the team

This story was a long time in the making. I tried to make a start, hated my ideas and dropped it. Tried again, no better. Then I took a little course based on the notion of starting with a theme. That kind of worked. The story starts off pretty much where For the Greater Good left off and the concept of revenge is strong. With that in mind, I went off on a totally different tack from my first efforts. But while it wasn't bad, it lacked the drama and one-on-one conflict of my original ideas.

Then I joined a Camp Nanowrimo team - which gave me the discipline to write every day. Writing was still like extracting teeth but I persevered and soon the ideas began to flow again. And I'm happy with the result, which combines the 'theme' approach with my earlier efforts. There's still a ways to go, though. Editing this one will be even more crucial than usual.

Apart from that, the compulsory 'stay home' orders have caused me to take a closer look at my 'marketing' endeavours. I've updated my website with a new theme and all my books are now on Google Play - as reported a few weeks ago. I've found having a free book works for me. The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy is free everywhere and I've had reasonable sales of the other books in the series. I used Freebooksy to get the word out again. Let's hope the exposure attracts new readers.

I've also been busy setting up my books on Payhip. The Payhip website allows readers to buy books in whatever formats the author provides (epub and mobi for me). Buyers pay direct to the author's Paypal account. There are other payment options but I've stuck to Paypal. Here's a good run-down on Payhip for authors.

The advantage of using Payhip is that authors get a bigger cut. Paypal takes a transaction fee, then Payhip takes another 5% and the author doesn't have to wait for the money. Because the fees are lower, I've offered a 20% discount on all books. But I can't afford to upset the Mighty Zon so the prices for the books are the same. You need to use coupon code G4U677DOVK at the checkout.

Come and visit my store.

It'll be interesting to see how it all works out.