One of the things I take into account when deciding whether I want to buy a book is whether the author has written more than one. It may not be fair but it's hard to escape the logic that if the first one was popular they will have written another.
I have wanted to make this post for ages but my second... and third only came out yesterday. I hope you will take a look - they are both available at Amazon. Thai Kiss is also available on Kobo and Barnes & Noble
Thai Kiss - a novel
Paul Murphy desperately wants to be a big shot but the pursuit of
fortune often comes with a heavy price. For Paul, it was the life of
his best friend and partner, Tommy, apparently murdered for encroaching
on a local drug gang's turf. Paul, a lowly hospital porter, fearful
that he'll be next, flees to Thailand to lay low while reconnecting with
Tommy's supplier in Pattaya. He meets the enchanting Yim and, veering
from his intended plan, starts to rebuild his life running a chain of
bars. Sonthi, a local heavy, offers protection for a price and the
corrupt Mongkut ensures that the police will always turn a blind eye.
So many want a share of Paul's success, but when greed prevails and they
get tired of sharing, it's Paul's liberty and life itself that are on
the line.
Something Must Be Done - a short story
America is rocked by another high school shooting. Something must be
done and the solution is simple. When evil people have guns, the only
way to protect the vulnerable, is to arm the good guys. After all, God
made men but Samuel Colt made them equal.
Sam Bailey is only twelve
years old when he arrives in the USA from a sleepy village on the east
coast of England. He has already experienced at first hand how violence
can tear a family apart, but nothing can prepare him for life in the
loudest, brashest and most confident country in the world.
When the
latest massacre occurs only a hundred miles away, the question everyone
is asking is: could this happen at Sam's school?.
"Before you
make your mind up about how children should be kept safe at school, read
Something Must Be Done, it will make you think again."
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Seeing it in print - your first book.
It was a real thrill to get a small third party publisher interested in my manuscript. They definitely gave the book a polish that I could never have achieved on my own. To be fair they also pointed out some plot inconsistencies and timing issues that I couldn't see any more. I'd just got too close to the story.
The only downside was that they only wanted to do an e-book launch until we could prove that the book had a market. It took four months before we finally agreed that the e-book had sold enough to demonstrate that a print run would be worth the effort.
It was amazing to see my first book on Amazon when it was only available as a download. When you finally get a professionally printed book in your hands you start to believe that you are in the foothills, at least, of being an author.
Some friends were kind enough to buy the first few copies, then a bookshop in Thailand agreed to stock it. We are miles away from seeing it in high street bookshops but its still a great feeling to see your work on a bookshelf instead of just a screen.
If you've self published an e-book and are trying to make up your mind, you really have to go for it. There are plenty of small printing firms that specialise in short run prints - we used a company called Russell Press in the UK. I am now seeing copies of the paperback notching up sales through Amazon and it feels a little more real than all the e-book sales that preceded it.
If you are thinking of doing a print run, do it.
Mine is here - Thai Lottery - paperback version
The only downside was that they only wanted to do an e-book launch until we could prove that the book had a market. It took four months before we finally agreed that the e-book had sold enough to demonstrate that a print run would be worth the effort.
It was amazing to see my first book on Amazon when it was only available as a download. When you finally get a professionally printed book in your hands you start to believe that you are in the foothills, at least, of being an author.
Some friends were kind enough to buy the first few copies, then a bookshop in Thailand agreed to stock it. We are miles away from seeing it in high street bookshops but its still a great feeling to see your work on a bookshelf instead of just a screen.
If you've self published an e-book and are trying to make up your mind, you really have to go for it. There are plenty of small printing firms that specialise in short run prints - we used a company called Russell Press in the UK. I am now seeing copies of the paperback notching up sales through Amazon and it feels a little more real than all the e-book sales that preceded it.
If you are thinking of doing a print run, do it.
Mine is here - Thai Lottery - paperback version
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Using Twitter to attract new readers
Authors who are not backed by the huge publishing houses have to work really hard to get their books noticed. Mercifully, social media like Facebook and Twitter provide a handy mechanism for doing just that. If you have ideas that you are willing to share, please contact me or post a comment on this blog. In the meantime, I wanted to share an approach that has worked really well for me just recently.
The approach is predicated on being able to identify a group of people who would be interested in your book and therefore the type of people they might follow on Twitter.
I believe my book has broad appeal, I have received as many positive comments from women as I have from men. Nonetheless, the book is about the Thai bar scene and the people who fall in love, or think they are in love, with the country and its women.
The scatter gun approach may work for some, by that I mean:
1. Do whatever you can to get as many followers as you can
2. Tweet other users asking them to read your book.
I have avoided both methods, in favour of:
1. Identifying those people on Twitter who will have followers who might like your book. I chose users who run forums on Thailand and the bar scene in particular, those who run bars and clubs and authors who have written exclusively about Thailand.
Clearly you should follow them but it's their followers you are really interested in.
2. Either manually or using a free service like JustUnfollow (@justunfollow on Twitter) you can look at their followers and select those you think might be interesting. I chose those who looked like they had a strong presence on Twitter and appeared, from their profile, to be most likely to buy a book (trust me you can tell that quite a few won't be).
3. At this stage, you could obviously tweet the person you have found. Instead I just followed them, believing that most people follow back if your profile looks interesting.
4. As soon as I get a follow back message - I send them a thank you, with some reference to my book, my web-site or the free stories i have posted on Facebook, depending on what they appear to be interested in.
5. Once a week I use Justunfollow again to clear out the people I followed who have shown no interest.
The method sounds a bit laborious but it has had a clear impact on sales. People I have found on Twitter have subsequently posted 5 star reviews on Amazon.
If you have ideas you are willing to share please post them here or e-mail me at mattcarrellbooks@gmail.com
The approach is predicated on being able to identify a group of people who would be interested in your book and therefore the type of people they might follow on Twitter.
I believe my book has broad appeal, I have received as many positive comments from women as I have from men. Nonetheless, the book is about the Thai bar scene and the people who fall in love, or think they are in love, with the country and its women.
The scatter gun approach may work for some, by that I mean:
1. Do whatever you can to get as many followers as you can
2. Tweet other users asking them to read your book.
I have avoided both methods, in favour of:
1. Identifying those people on Twitter who will have followers who might like your book. I chose users who run forums on Thailand and the bar scene in particular, those who run bars and clubs and authors who have written exclusively about Thailand.
Clearly you should follow them but it's their followers you are really interested in.
2. Either manually or using a free service like JustUnfollow (@justunfollow on Twitter) you can look at their followers and select those you think might be interesting. I chose those who looked like they had a strong presence on Twitter and appeared, from their profile, to be most likely to buy a book (trust me you can tell that quite a few won't be).
3. At this stage, you could obviously tweet the person you have found. Instead I just followed them, believing that most people follow back if your profile looks interesting.
4. As soon as I get a follow back message - I send them a thank you, with some reference to my book, my web-site or the free stories i have posted on Facebook, depending on what they appear to be interested in.
5. Once a week I use Justunfollow again to clear out the people I followed who have shown no interest.
The method sounds a bit laborious but it has had a clear impact on sales. People I have found on Twitter have subsequently posted 5 star reviews on Amazon.
If you have ideas you are willing to share please post them here or e-mail me at mattcarrellbooks@gmail.com
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
Twitter - an addicts tale
You know it’s about
the quality not the weight, but when you are writing a new book you just have
to keep checking the word-count in that little box at the bottom of the screen.
Once it starts to approach the 80,000 mark, you know you have made on huge step
towards getting published. My book, Thai Lottery… and Other Stories from
Pattaya, Thailand (www.thai-lottery.net)
is around the 103,000 word mark which equates to well over 400,000 characters.
How on earth, can an author express any idea worth listening to, in 160
characters or less? I was scornful, dismissive and certain that Twitter was for
the shallow and the inarticulate. I could see why professional footballers
might use it. I doubted that most would have the concentration span for
anything longer. I would not even look at Twitter let alone start using it
myself.
Then my publisher said
the words I dreaded hearing more than any other. “If you want to get this book
moving, you have to get on social media. You have to get yourself a Twitter
account.” It ranked with the day the
doctor pulled on a rubber glove and said, “You are over 40 now, you really
should have the examination.”
I did as I was told
and started to experiment. Trying to work out why a bloke who had not posted a
single tweet still had six followers, looking at some of the successful
twitterers to see what was so interesting. I put up a few references to my
book, that got me a few followers. I found a few members who shared my
interests and all of a sudden I was up and running. Then I saw a few things
that were genuinely funny and entertaining. I found out about #hashtags and
trending and how to find people I might be really interested in. They often led
me to web-sites that were definitely worth a look. I was seriously hooked.
There is a vast amount of garbage out there, people who tweet and retweet those
terrible sayings that your grandmother used to deliver, “turn that frown upside
down” and similar trite garbage, but there are plenty of gems too. And they are
not that hard to find.
The “following” thing
can seem like a pointless popularity contest sometimes. People say they will
follow you if you follow them back, they have nothing interesting to say and
you can be certain they will never look at what you tweet. But its so tempting,
it gets you one more follower and what the hell? Someone good might look at you
and decide you must be interesting because you have lots of followers. So you
swallow your pride and click “follow”.
Two days ago I would
have described myself as an avid van of Twitter, a complete convert. Then it
happened. My book is about the Thai bar scene. There is one book about the
subject against which every other is judged. It’s called Private Dancer,
written by Stephen Leather, who has 29,000 followers on Twitter. I sent him a
message saying that I loved his books and that his web-site had genuinely
helped me to get published. I mentioned that I had written a book myself and
told him the name of it. He retweeted my message within the day.
If someone had told me
a few weeks ago that I could approach an author I really liked and tell him he
had helped me get published and he would respond by passing the information to
29,000 people who like his work too, I would have not have believed it was
possible.
Then I discovered
Twitter.
Saturday, 15 December 2012
Facebook update - another lesson learned
Just realised I can have a page dedicated to the book itself as well as my author page. Gives more options for being picked up by anyone using the search function.
Mine is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thai-Lottery-and-Other-Stories-from-Pattaya-Thailand/455407351182975
There are a couple of great pictures - which will give you an idea how a small Thai fishing village can change in the space of 60 years.
If you like the page - please click the "like" box.
Mine is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Thai-Lottery-and-Other-Stories-from-Pattaya-Thailand/455407351182975
There are a couple of great pictures - which will give you an idea how a small Thai fishing village can change in the space of 60 years.
If you like the page - please click the "like" box.
Getting noticed
I read today that there are 700,000 self published authors in the USA alone. The web is full of sites likes GoodReads, which offer encouragement and support to aspiring writers and there are myriad places where you can advertise your new book. A cautionary tale, however, from John Locke, the only self published author to sell 1 million e-books. As a rich man he was in a position to place a six foot advertisement outside a major book store. He couldn't get the store to stock his book or even take orders from people who expressed an interest. Self published authors evidently carry a stigma.
I was lucky enough to find a small publishing house for my book and it changes the opening dynamic of any conversation on the subject. I am usually asked whether my book is self published with a look I would only adopt personally if the wine I had been keeping for a special occasion turned out to be corked. When I explain that it was taken by a professional publisher, the mood changes and I am given the benefit of the doubt that I might be a real author. Of course they haven't read my book at that stage!
Anyone trying to sell a book is up against it, self published authors even more so.
My book has been out for just two weeks so I am no position to offer you a John Locke type guide (for more click here:http://www.amazon.com/John-Locke/e/B003ATT1YO/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1355570722&sr=1-2-ent)
Like the rest of this blog I am just sharing an insight into some of the things I wish I had known at the start. I thought I would do this as a list, in no particular order:
1. Obvious but you have to have a web-site: mine is here: www.thai-lottery.net. I have offered a sample story from the book, some genuine reviews, links to other sites of interest and most important of all, a page saying where you can buy the book. There are lots of links to that page from elsewhere in the site.
2. Twitter can seem to be a pointless popularity contest, an endless search for followers who don't read your stuff anyway. I was convinced it was essential and am now mildly addicted. It's fun, you do see some interesting stuff amongst the dross and I challenge you not to get a little kick out of it when you get another follower.
3. You need a Facebook page - the business variety seems to be the thing, that is one mistake I have yet to rectify. There are better ones but take a look at this - http://www.facebook.com/matt.carrell.75
4. Technical issues - for the first two weeks I did not know what a hashtag was, how important it is to retweet or even how to link Twitter to my Facebook page. The help features on each of the sites will tell you more about this than I ever could. I also tried Pinterest - but can't get the hang of it. If you do, please let me know. It also took me thirty minutes to discover the "hash" key on my Apple keyboard (Alt 3).
5. Trawl the net for sites that cover your subject matter. My book is about the Thai bar scene and I found sites that were willing to give me free coverage, post reviews of my book and generally point me in the right direction for potential readers. Particular thanks to Canterbury Tales Cafe (http://www.canterburytalescafe.com/) and Living Thai (http://www.livingthai.org/short-stories-about-pattaya.html) .
6. Forums. My task was easy, there are stacks of forums on the Thai bar scene e.g. www.pattaya-addicts.com/forum. I joined and the members have been great. Don't come on too strong with the book at first. If possible you should try to become part of the forum community before your book is even published, you may have a potential mailing list as your book gets out there.
That's my top 6 in no particular order. Feedback and any other pointers welcome.
I was lucky enough to find a small publishing house for my book and it changes the opening dynamic of any conversation on the subject. I am usually asked whether my book is self published with a look I would only adopt personally if the wine I had been keeping for a special occasion turned out to be corked. When I explain that it was taken by a professional publisher, the mood changes and I am given the benefit of the doubt that I might be a real author. Of course they haven't read my book at that stage!
Anyone trying to sell a book is up against it, self published authors even more so.
My book has been out for just two weeks so I am no position to offer you a John Locke type guide (for more click here:http://www.amazon.com/John-Locke/e/B003ATT1YO/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1355570722&sr=1-2-ent)
Like the rest of this blog I am just sharing an insight into some of the things I wish I had known at the start. I thought I would do this as a list, in no particular order:
1. Obvious but you have to have a web-site: mine is here: www.thai-lottery.net. I have offered a sample story from the book, some genuine reviews, links to other sites of interest and most important of all, a page saying where you can buy the book. There are lots of links to that page from elsewhere in the site.
2. Twitter can seem to be a pointless popularity contest, an endless search for followers who don't read your stuff anyway. I was convinced it was essential and am now mildly addicted. It's fun, you do see some interesting stuff amongst the dross and I challenge you not to get a little kick out of it when you get another follower.
3. You need a Facebook page - the business variety seems to be the thing, that is one mistake I have yet to rectify. There are better ones but take a look at this - http://www.facebook.com/matt.carrell.75
4. Technical issues - for the first two weeks I did not know what a hashtag was, how important it is to retweet or even how to link Twitter to my Facebook page. The help features on each of the sites will tell you more about this than I ever could. I also tried Pinterest - but can't get the hang of it. If you do, please let me know. It also took me thirty minutes to discover the "hash" key on my Apple keyboard (Alt 3).
5. Trawl the net for sites that cover your subject matter. My book is about the Thai bar scene and I found sites that were willing to give me free coverage, post reviews of my book and generally point me in the right direction for potential readers. Particular thanks to Canterbury Tales Cafe (http://www.canterburytalescafe.com/) and Living Thai (http://www.livingthai.org/short-stories-about-pattaya.html) .
6. Forums. My task was easy, there are stacks of forums on the Thai bar scene e.g. www.pattaya-addicts.com/forum. I joined and the members have been great. Don't come on too strong with the book at first. If possible you should try to become part of the forum community before your book is even published, you may have a potential mailing list as your book gets out there.
That's my top 6 in no particular order. Feedback and any other pointers welcome.
Monday, 10 December 2012
Will a blog be successful in promoting your book?
I have absolutely no
idea. I hope this one will be, that people will enjoy the content and let me
have their thoughts on writing an e-book. I imagine you will be able to judge
how successful this one is by its size and the activity that goes across it. If
it seems a bit quiet now, check back in a few months, maybe we will have got it
going by then.
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