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.

A little more about my book based at Abersoch and the Llyn peninsula

A number of people are finding this blog from the Abersoch website www.abersoch.co.uk which is very pleasing and I'd like to give  you a quick introduction to the book and its connections to Abersoch and the Llyn or the Lleyn as many people still spell it.

Abersoch and the surrounding area is in my blood - I love the place and have been going there on holiday all my life - so for 44 years to be precise! 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 of course, but instead refers to Whistling Sands as in "Smugglers At Whistling Sands". 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. The owners of the Vaynol Arms public house in Abersoch might be pleased (I hope) to discover that their premises features in the novel.

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!

I don't wish to give too much away about the plot but 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.

My chief hope is that my novel will appeal to youngsters and indeed adults who either have a connection to the Abersoch / Llyn peninsula area or enjoy traditional Blytonesque adventure stories. There's a bit more info on the book's Amazon listing - you can find a link to it on the right hand side of this page.

Well I better close for now because I am still trying to hack the bamboo roots out at the front of the house and pretty difficult work it is too. Oh by the way, for those of you who have been following my blog and my efforts to actually sell my book, my sales tally has now risen majestically from four to . . .  five! I don't care if that isn't very good, I'm pleased (and if I'm pleased, that's the main thing!).

Right, off to be bamboo-zled (groan).

Abersoch's top website tells the world about my book!

I'm delighted to say that www.abersoch.co.uk Abersoch's excellent no.1 website (literally no.1 - check Google) has just announced the existence of my ebook Smugglers At Whistling Sands to the world. They have done so far more effectively than I can.

Search Abersoch on Google, and this website comes up first and in its news section, you will now find a good write up on my book which is of course based at Abersoch and other locations along the Llyn peninsula. The news item contains links both to this blog and to the listing on Amazon.

I think it is a measure of how much I rate being publicsed by this site that I have given them the information about my book exclusively. I have not sought any newspaper publicity for it - I am happy to target it directly towards the two markets which really matter - the Abersoch / Llyn peninsula area and lovers of Enid Blyton's books.

I'll blog more very soon on my thoughts about targeted marketing for ebooks, but for now, I better get on with writing of a different kind - newspaper work (which is of course, what pays the bills!).

I think I'm poised to get my first sale . . .!

Yes folks, you read it here first! I think I might be about to get my first ever sale of my Abersoch-based ebook Smugglers at Whistling Sands on Amazon.

Quite a while ago, I sold a few chapters of the book while still unfinished, on eBay, actually printing them out in mini magazine format and selling them in parts, each containing two chapters each. It was not the most efficient or effective way to do it and ran aground in large part because I realised I wanted to re-edit the book as I was writing it.

However, a chap who bought a few of those opening chapters never entirely gave up on me and has rediscovered my book now that I have launched it on Amazon's Kindle in electronic format. It's pleasing to think that here was somebody who liked the thing enough to still remember my book and look out for it on the web, hoping one day it would get finished. And on that note, my book, although recently published, was started a good while ago in 2006 but then dropped before getting sorted out some two years later.

As I think I mentioned in an earlier post, I got it to one traditional publisher, only for it to be rejected, albeit politely, and I then put it on the back burner, until Kindle Direct Publishing and ebooks came along.

Oh and I've also had a very nice reply from a lady via Facebook who responded to my Facebook campaign targeting a number of individuals in Abersoch to let them know about the novel. No-one has moaned at me for "spamming" them so I think I may send out a few more Facebook messages. After all, isn't that really what social networking is all about - to allow people to contact those that they don't know but with whom they have something in common?

Anyway, here's looking forward to My First Sale - I'll let you know when it happens!