Evening,I hope you're having a good week so far. I'm fresh back from the Romanian mountains and, as promised, I wanted to let you know that The Monkey State and In Search of Maya ebooks are currently available for free and 99p respectively until around midnight on Saturday.You can pick them up by clicking on the banana below.>>> Now, as a special offer for subscribing to these rambles—If you send me a screenshot of both books next to each other on the Kindle app, along with your address, I'll...
4 months ago • 1 min read
I was recently chatting with a colleague at work about HBO's plan to adapt Harry Potter into a TV series. It's a bold vision to create a series for each of the 7 books, spread over a decade. My friend went on to claim, 'Original stories are dead!' I had to admit, he had a point... Between endless sequels, reboots, and “reimaginings,” it can feel like the spark of fresh, original storytelling has truly dimmed. But there are exceptions. New explorations of existing story worlds are not without...
4 months ago • 2 min read
I was told from the start that books don't sell themselves. That whatever effort you put into crafting the story, you'd need to double that with your marketing. Like most first time authors I probably paid lip service to this. Nodding along. Reading up on the topic, without acting. Thinking I'll work that out when the time comes... That time does come. The monkeys have done pretty well—from a standing start—with 649 units processed and 9,000+ page reads since 20 Jan this year. Yet, it's still...
5 months ago • 4 min read
Today's email is for those of you interested in a few self-publishing stats.A little rainforest treat shared only with this curious crew. "How's it going with the book(s)?" This tends to be the first thing people ask. My usual answer of, 'It's going okay', tends to be more based on the mood I'm in when you ask and that doesn't really cut the mustard. So grab a banana and let's take a closer look... Sales/UnitsThe Monkey State - 571In Search of Maya - 42Kindle Unlimited Page ReadsThe Monkey...
5 months ago • 2 min read
Morning, So, this one was certainly a struggle, an adventure, and a classic late scramble... all rolled into one. But I'm pleased to say that Book 2: In Search of Maya is now available on Amazon. Thanks to those of you who've already jumped in (before I even put up a post!) And cheers to those who popped a review live for Book 1 last week. I was shooting for 50 and reached 49, with an average of 4.9.There’s some poetic beauty in that. Now what is Book 2 about? Well, of course, you can check...
6 months ago • 1 min read
I wrote this last night but didn't want to trouble your inbox at a late hour. This weekend saw a mini scramble at the Frenchay home office. Tweaks, twiddles and tech challenges. Back & forth with my editor. But we had good fun. It was a success. Hurrah. The paperback and ebook are done. Scheduled on Amazon and ready to read. This Friday, 27 June, if you're up for the challenge.Now, you may think where have I been all this time...As mentioned last week I did take a little break from writing...
6 months ago • 2 min read
Happy Father's Day to all the Dads on the list 👴Sooo, you may (or may not) have noticed there haven't been any emails from me for 5 or 6 weeks. After dropping off the weekly chain I was drawn to take a break from writing them. I'd gotten a slight sense I was doing every Sunday 'just because I said I would'. A dangerous zone to be in. I had a similar thing on Twitter/X a few years back. A decent run of daily posts—yet once I stopped the walls came crashing down and I've barely used the...
6 months ago • 1 min read
I'm just back from a work cruise and mini unplug (tough life I know) so fancied sending you a little teaser of Book 2: In Search Of Maya.It is certainly 'nearing completion' with more info to come this month. A June release on the cards. Of course, if you're getting this email and haven't finished Book 1... then I'd give this email a miss. Spoiler alert 🚨 Chapter Two - Beyond The Pale It’s a hard to describe feeling—leaving behind your old life for an adventure into the unknown. A certain...
7 months ago • 1 min read
Or is there?Last week (on a bit of a whim) I loaded a free promotion for The Monkey State eBook. Given it's only listed at 99 pence or cents, I didn't think much of it. But a quick end of bank holiday KDP dashboard check... And 100+ people had grabbed their free copy. This rose to 173 by the end of the day. Things slowed down from there and yet the 5-day offer gave a real boost to orders: Last week on the KDP dashboard 🐒 It was obviously exciting to see as it propelled the book to the top of...
8 months ago • 1 min read