Smugglers at Whistling Sands to get a new ending

I've spent a few hours today, including the extra one from the clocks going back an hour overnight, mapping out a new structure for the closing chapters of Smugglers at Whistling Sands.

As I explained in my previous post, because this is major surgery and not just minor tweaks, I no longer wish to be selling a version I am not happy with and am poised to replace and for that reason the book can't be bought any more.

Such is the flexibility of publishing a novel as an ebook, one can make these changes without having to wait for the end of a print run. I absolutely guarantee to allow those who have bought my book so far to have a copy of the revised ending.
I am very pleased at the progress I have made today in mapping out what I believe to be a better, more satisfying, more exciting ending for Smugglers at Whistling Sands and one which does proper justice to the confident, capable, strong-willed lead character, Lou (Louise) Elliott.

That now leaves me with the small matter of a complete re-write of the last 4,000 words. If the book becomes longer, and it might, then this will be possibly a writing job of some 6,000 words, some of which will ultimately be cut away in editing.

I do feel that I have grown as a writer since I penned this book. I can see flaws in it now that I could not see when writing it. By putting those flaws right, I will then have a novel which I feel I can be proud of and be confident in offering for sale.

How long will it take before I am in a position to sell it again? I'm not sure, but I've set myself a month to get it sorted and back on sale from December 1, 2011. It's frustrating in a way, because I want to be getting on with writing a second book, not fiddling with my debut one. But by getting this one right, I've got more chance of getting my next one right as well.

I've stopped selling Smugglers while I make a few adjustments

At the risk of annoying some people, not least those who have already bought my children's adventure novel Smugglers at Whistling Sands, I have decided to withdraw it from sale in Amazon's Kindle store. This is only a temporary measure to allow me breathing space while I make changes which I believe are necessary.

If these were just purely cosmetic I would keep the book on sale and just upload a revised version to over-write the existing file. But I have grown dissatisfied with a few aspects of the book, in particular, the ending.

I cannot explain why and what I intend to change without introducing a spoiler but I will say this: Lou is the lead character in the novel and I feel I let her down towards the end, cutting short her important role. If I am not happy with the book as things stand, then it is not fair of me to continue to sell it until I am.

For those who have already bought the book, I am more than willing to email you the revised ending when it is ready, just drop me a line.

Writing my first-ever novel has proved a big learning curve for me but it is the act of publishing it, the feedback I've got and the greater awareness I feel I now have about writing a good children's book that has persuaded me to go back into Smugglers and give it a few tweaks.

I can do that best by withdrawing it until the changes are in place.

Price promotion - price of book reduced from £1.71 to 86p

I've decided to cut the price of my Kindle ebook Smugglers at Whistling Sands from £1.71 to 86p for now. Sales have tailed off in the last fortnight, it's my fault because I haven't had the time to promote the book properly but I'm going to start pushing it with a straightforward price drop.

I was worried before that selling it so cheaply could be taken as a sign of poor quality or lack of confidence on the part of the author, but there are so many good books out there for 86p or less. Incidentally, you cannot set your price for less than 86p, but if Amazon become aware it is for sale for less than 86p elsewhere on the internet, such as on Smashwords, then they will cut the price to match. I only sell on Amazon at the moment, so 86p is the lowest it can be sold for.

I have to face facts, I am still an unknown author - I have had 47 sales since mid-summer, none of which have (to my knowledge) gone to friends and family, since I only wanted what I call "genunine" purchases. Forty-seven is a lot better than none, which is the fate of quite a few unknown authors selling their self-published novels. But if I want more I have got to raise my game. Writing the book in the first place is proving to be only half the battle - possibly the easier half.

Planning out my second book - but the ideas are slow to come

I've been turning my thoughts to what my next book should be, now that Smugglers at Whistling Sands is selling as an ebook on Amazon. Should I write a sequel to it, or branch off in a completely different direction? Or maybe I should do both.

I feel a desire to write a sequel and bring back my characters, Jack aged 12, brother David, 11, sister Emily, 10, and their 12-year-old headstrong friend Lou to Abersoch for another adventure of some kind. But I'm also yearning to write a book aimed more directly at the adult market - in fact two for adults. One about a guy who is fed up with his life in increasingly insufferable modern Britain and another, a thriller of some sort or even one with a paranormal theme or something.

So I'm feeling torn in different directions, and they all seem to be sort of cancelling each other out, since until I settle on one or two clear themes, it is very difficult to map out a clear plot.

On that note, some people of course just get writing and allow the action to unfold on the screen in front of them. Its great to allow inspiration to just carry you along and we are all different, but I believe strongly in knowing where you are going with a story first - who is in it, what you think will happen to them and what sort of ending you envisage there will be.

That was my approach with Smugglers at Whistling Sands. I knew that meeting adventurous Lou would be the catalyst for the other rather boring kids to escape from beneath the wing of mum and dad and be dragged along on an adventure. I was aware of the subplot involving Lou's less than happy home life - the soft underbelly to an otherwise tough female character.

There is more I want to say about all of them and more that I think they could do together, and they do rather live in my head now. So as I'm typing this I am rather thinking out loud and feeling that it would be good to get them back together again for a sequel. And it would be nice to give all my readers so far the opportunity to get to know them all better and share another adventure with them.

If you want to buy my novel - remember that you can use the product links on right of screen

Assuming you want to buy it, that is. I shouldn't presume. But my statistics show that almost nobody uses the product links on this page to purchase my ebook, Smugglers at Whistling Sands.

Instead, people seem to feel that they have to log on to Amazon on a separate page and search for it. You don't need to do that - just simply click in the box advertising my ebook - either the one for Amazon.co.uk or the other one lower down for Amazon.com. This will take you to my Amazon listing where you'll see my book cover and book description. At this point you can choose whether to buy it or not and/or continue shopping on Amazon.

I've put a few other Amazon product links on further down to books that I think viewers of this blog might enjoy, a couple of Enid Blyton's Famous Fives; John Locke's useful advice book on how indie authors can get good sales on Kindle; the current no.1 bestseller on Kindle, Scott Mariani's The Alchemist's Secret, and my all-time favourite book, The Lord of the Rings. I've also put a link to Amazon's new, cheaper Kindle which I think is an excellent product for the price.

It is very much in my interests and all authors who sell their wares on Kindle, that people should have the proper kit to read ebooks. You don't need a Kindle, of course, you can just read an ebook on your computer with easily downloadable softwar, but I think the Kindle, particularly the excellent and more affordable new version really does take some beating.

I intend to put further product links on this blog to books which I personally recommend, in particular of independent authors whose work I am aware of and which deserves pushing.

New book cover for Smugglers has just gone live on my Amazon listing

If you look towards the top of your screen, you will see a tab for a new page on which I have posted all three of my covers so far, including my new one, on a blue background.

I feel my original cover was simply too simple - and was potentially hampering sales. It simply wasn't striking enough and I hope that this one will be more inviting. I had been meaning to replace the other one for some time and am glad that I have now done so. As the saying goes, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but people do - and probably all the more so with an ebook which you can't physically flick through.

I know myself that a cover can subtly affect my own decision to purchase a book and the experience of reading it. I suppose, when you think about a fine wine will taste better drunk from a cut-glass goblet than a paper cup - perhaps it shouldn't but it does. And bearing in mind how difficult it is for independent, self-published writers to get their work in front of readers, doing one's best to get a decent cover is an investment worth making.

SALES UPDATE (Monday, October 10th at 9am): A dry few days meant there was no chance of me reaching my target of 50 sales within my first 80 days of having published Abersoch-based Smugglers at Whistling Sands, ie. Sunday October 9th. By midnight I remained on 43 sales but overnight, I've had a 44th buyer - so maybe that's a good omen for my new cover!

A bad week for sales - I think I need to push my book a bit more

Pride comes before a fall and I was proud - or certainly pleased at any rate - to have sold four books last weekend. What have I sold since? Erm, norra lot, as Cilla Black might put it.

So it's somewhat disappointing. Actually my sales flurry last weekend was largely due I think to a regular holidaymaker at Abersoch who came across my book, bought it, told all his friends about it, and three of them also bought it on his recommendation.

But that is exactly the way a self-published ebook like this will either stand or fall in the end. It isn't enough to just upload it onto Amazon's bookstore and leave the rest to Google. Writing a book is just half the battle - marketing it is at least as difficult and I haven't done anywhere near as much as I should.

You cannot get a better accolade than when a complete stranger like Paul comes across the book and he and his young daughter like it so much they recommend it others who then also buy it. This is absolutely the way to do it. On that basis, and considering I deliberately haven't knowingly sold any to friends and family, I should be pleased to have 43 buyers so far. I need to keep pushing it and I am keen to write another - in fact at least a couple more, one of which will be a sequel to Smugglers at Whistling Sands and will also be based at Abersoch / Llyn peninsula using the same core characters: Jack, David, sister Emily and their friend Lou.

I did say that if I were to reach 50 sales by the end of Sunday, October 9, I would guarantee to write that sequel. I am all but relieved of that pledge now by the fact that there is no way I will get seven sales over the next 48 hours. However, I still want to write it - but it may not be my next book. This weekend I am going to think hard about which direction I now wish to take. I have half a mind for my next book to be pitched directly to the adult market, but I'll have to see which way my muse takes me!

A bit about my book, Smugglers at Whistling Sands

I said in my last blog I'd give people a bit more of an insight into my children's adventure novel, Smugglers at Whistling Sands, based at Abersoch, North Wales.

Actually, looking back through my earlier blogs, I did talk about it a bit in my entry on August 20th, that said, it's probably well worth offering a reminder, especially for those of you who have only recently discovered my blog.

As I mentioned just over a month ago, Abersoch and the surrounding area is in my blood - I love the place and have been going there on holiday all my life - ie. for 44 years! So when I decided to write a children's adventure novel, the part of the world which has such fond memories for me seemed the obvious location.

The title makes no reference to Abersoch, but refers to Whistling Sands as in "Smugglers At Whistling Sands". As you'll gather from that, this beach does feature prominently in the book, and the sand on that beach does whistle by the way. Well, not whistle exactly, it's more of a squeak - but in all the beaches I've ever walked on, I've known any other sand to make that noise as you walk across it.

The youngsters who feature in this book are on holiday at Abersoch but they do not just stay put there. Their adventure takes them to a number of places including Whistling Sands obviously but also the St Tudwal's Islands, Aberdaron and Porth Ysgo - a remote beach nearby, and the hillside above - and the disused manganese mine to be found there.

The owners of the Vaynol Arms public house in Abersoch might be pleased (I hope) to discover that their premises features in the novel. Oh and the grotty hotel where one of the smugglers stays is, I hasten to add, a figment of my imagination!

The action centres around the Johnson children, Jack, David and Emily (aged 12, 11 and 10 respectively) and a headstrong girl called Lou whom they meet on the beach. It is she who is the catalyst for these rather dull Johnson siblings to spread their wings a bit. And what better time to do that than when they should happen across the activities of smugglers!

As I said in August, there is quite a lot of realism in this story, for all the fact that it is a rather post-modern children's adventure owing some of its inspiration to Enid Blyton's novels which I enjoyed a great deal as a child.The activities of the smugglers are based on real life occurences and if you do a search on Google at the point when the children do their Google search, you might well come across references to real-life smuggling which was in part the raw material for the book.

I could say more, but Downton Abbey is about to start. (Martin in Canada, you may not know what I mean by that but all UK residents will!)

PS: Sales update: four sales over the weekend takes tally to 43 - will I make the big 50 by next Sunday? If I do, as I said before, I guarantee to write a sequel.