Where did the first half go?

I can't believe that on Wednesday we will start the second half of the year. Where has the first half gone?
I appreciate I have been a little off the radar as far as writing has been concerned so here's an update of what's been happening and what I hope to achieve in the second half of the year, assuming it doesn't go as  quickly as the first half.
As many of you know I have been having a lot of surgery for my throat and I won't go into that in detail, but needless to say the recuperation has curtailed my writing some what.
In an attempt to get my writing kick started I have set up a weekend writing challenge on Scribophile. This challenge involves an object being left and then a story has to be written which includes the object. This is going great except I am one of the few people failing to write the story. Motivation seems to have left me along with my thyroid and vocal chords.
I have also set up a group on facebook to promote any books which are available free through Kindle Owners Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited. I am happy to say a number of people have signed up to this and hopefully they have seen their books being borrowed thanks to the exposure.
Finally for me I have decided to split my novel 'Stripper of the Yard' into two parts. Part 1 is free and part 2 is the same price as the full book (only £1.99 or $2.99). The idea is that hopefully people will download part 1, enjoy it, and wanting to know what happens next, buy part 2. So far I have had 307 downloads of part 1 and 7 sales of part 2 or the entire book. This is all in the last 2 weeks which considering I had had no sales in the last 6 months is brilliant.
The hardest part of the whole thing was getting Amazon to list the book for free. With Smashwords and Barnes & Noble you can chose to list a book for free. However with Amazon you have to list a book for at least 99p. In order to list a book for free you have to get Amazon to price match the book in line with Smashwords and Barnes & Nobel. This means listing the book with those other sites and then writing to Amazon to request that they price match. Amazon then email saying they will think about it and take a week to decide. In my case they price matched in the USA and then I had to request that they did the same in the UK, which took another week.
But the books are now listed and if you want to check them out they're here....
Part 1 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ZAQOT2O/
Part 2 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00ZAQOHIK/

Going forwards I have 2 projects on the go at the moment, both of which need more attention than I have given them recently.
I have my 2013 NaNoWriMo winner to edit and then publish. This is the story of an East-end gangster whose wife can get pregnant and pretends she is to keep him, while at the same time his girlfriend is pregnant and pretends not to be to keep him. When his brother introduces the two women the consequences could be dire. I am hoping to have this ready to publish by the end of the year.
My second project is to write my story. In the last 7 months I have had intensive surgery and been in most of the departments in the local hospital (except the maternity ward and the mortuary) and Guy's Hospital in London. I knew nothing about my condition and have learnt as I have gone a long and I thought it would be interesting to get everything down on paper to reflect on the journey I have been through. As my treatment has not yet finished I don't know when it will be available but hopefully some time next year.

So lots has happened and lots still has to happen.
How have you coped with the first half of the year?
Do you have big plans for the second half?

KDP – How I became a bestselling author

Sales for the Stripper of the Yard had gone well for the first three weeks but having run out of family and friends, I needed to find other ways to get the news of my book out to the world at large.

First I advertised on a number of free author platforms. Unfortunately there is no way of knowing if anyone is viewing these. Still no new sales.

Then up pops a request for me to support another author’s thunderclap promotion. I had never heard of thunderclap and for those who haven’t, it is a crowd sourcing platform. Rather than asking people to give you their money, it asks people to give you access to their social media platform. You need to get a minimum of 100 people to offer you their support and if your target is achieved at an appointed time a tweet or Facebook advert is sent out to all the connections of your supporters. I was amazed that my book was being tweeted to over 217,000 people.

My book was tweeted and while I am still hopeful, I have yet to see any new sales.

Looking for new ideas I was quite pleased to see my monthly newsletter from KDP pop up into my in box.

There at the top of the email was a link to a YouTube video of a KDP bestselling author. These appear each month and unfortunately this one was exactly the same as all the others. In the video an author sits and tells of her journey to bestselling authorship through using KDP and createspace. Yet again when it gets to the point as to how the author attracted readers she says she did nothing and that the readers came to her.

How can this be?

How does this help those of us who need to attract readers?

Why does KDP feel the need to only share the stories of people who magically sold thousands of books over night?

I do not begrudge the success of other authors but can’t we see the story of an author who struggled in the start, but has achieved greatness now. It would be great to know that one day all this hard work would pay off. If the ability to attract readers is all written in the stars is there any point pushing my book? There must be some way to let readers know I exist without being ‘traditionally’ published.

Come on KDP give those of us who are struggling some hope. Show us authors who never gave up hope and struggled to start with. Show us how the hard work is worth it.

 

Jenny Cartwright Interview

Today I am very lucky and happy to be joined by Jenny Cartwright the main character in ‘Stripper of the Yard’ and she has agreed to answer a few questions for us.

Jo Jenner (JJ): Good Morning Jenny. Great to see you here today.

Jenny Cartwright (JC): Thank you for asking me Jo although I can’t see why you want to interview me.

JJ : How like you Jenny. The folks at home would just like to get to know you a little more, so how about we start by you telling us a little about yourself.

JC: Okay. My name as you know is Jenny Cartwright, I am 35 years old and I work at the Blue Lagoon Gentlemen’s Club.

JJ: And what do you do there?

JC: I am one of the strippers. I used to be a waitress but you get better tips and touched up less as one of the dancers, so I moved over as soon as I could.

JJ: What type of establishment is The Blue Lagoon Gentlemen’s Club?

JC: It’s an old fashioned back alley strip club in the centre of Nottingham.

JJ: How did you end up there?

JC: It’s a long story, which will be partially revealed in the book, but let me just say I was brought up in Nottingham and once I left care there wasn’t really anything else I knew how to do. I started behind the bar and things just progressed from there.

JJ: Why don’t you tell us about some of the other people you work with?

JC: Of course. First of all there’s Mike. He owns the club and is just great. He has helped a lot of the girls and makes sure we keep a clean club and all the girls are safe.

In fact he won one of my best friends in a poker match. Blossom had got herself into a lot of trouble in her teenage years. She was very lucky that Mike found her when he did.

JJ: Mike’s not the only one who’s helped some of the girls get out of trouble is he?

JC: I have been involved in helping women who are victims of domestic violence. Sometimes they just need a friendly face and sometimes they need to know where to go to get help. I met Mindy, another one of the girls, while I was visiting a victim of domestic violence. Mindy is a wonderful girl and she works with me now.

JJ: Is there anyone else special in the club?

JC: Yes. There’s Carly. She’s a student doctor and she works with us to help pay off her student debts. She has a very different back ground to the rest of us, but she gelled with the group real well, and is now a key member of our group.

JJ: I think that’s all we’ve got time for today. Thank you for coming in to see us.

JC: My pleasure. I hope to see you all again at the Stripper of the Yard launch party on 3rd August

https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/693967973984710/

Get your copy of Stripper from amazon

for Kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00LRF6X44

and for paperback http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1500267430

Busy Week Ahead

Looks like another busy week here at Jenner Towers. Everything is geared towards the 'Stripper of the Yard' launch on 3rd August. There is a launch party online and there will be giveaways and chats with the characters. The launch party lasts five hours but feel free to pop in when you can. Don’t forget to click going and then facebook will send you reminders and let you know as the competitions and conversations happen.

I have ordered plenty of promotional items, so keep an eye out and you might be in line for some great freebees.

 

Also this week I am very honoured to announce I have been selected as the 'Spotlight Author' for Rave Reviews Book Club. I have a live interview booked on twitter for 5pm BST on Thursday 10th July. Watch out for the #Spotlightauthorchat and come and join in.

I will have the pleasure of meeting Nonnie Jules for 'Who's on the shelf?' interview and I will be on a week-long blog tour. Check out the spotlight author tour page to see my blog tour and stop by each day and visit the next stop on my tour.

 

Make sure you keep your eye on my author page for the latest announcements and let me know what you think. I love to hear your feedback, so don't be shy.

 

Thanks you all for the support you have shown so far and I hope you continue to enjoy my posts.

See you on the blog tour.