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Climbing the Charts

bestsellerDeath of Secrets is zooming up the Kindle bestseller charts lately, thanks to being Thriller of the Week at Kindle Nation Daily. I have mostly turned my focus to finishing Life of Secrets, but when something exciting happens it’s easy to focus on the first book again.

The world of independent publishing is really rewarding. First there’s the writing of the actual book, which is an amazing emotional roller coaster in itself. Then, when it’s out there for people to buy, the ups and downs get that much steeper. There are the days when you check and you check and you check but nothing sells. Then there are the days when the book is rocketing off the shelves — in a digital sense of course.

Seeing my book almost to the top 20 in its category — sitting alongside the likes of Vince Flynn — is pretty heady stuff.

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Reviews

I have to be honest: I love reviews. I know it’s vain, I know it’s a weakness, but every time a new review shows up on Amazon for Death of Secrets, I feel encouraged to keep writing.

It has changed how I interact with purchased products too. I used to be quite sarcastic and arrogant when delivering a harsh review. Now I’m much more likely to only writer a review if I can give it four or five stars, because I know there’s probably an aspiring author on the other end whose mental state will be seriously affected by what I write.

Thank you, everyone who has reviewed Death of Secrets! Your positive reviews not only help sell the book, they encourage and uplift the author.

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Social Media Advertising

The launch of Death of Secrets has been a great opportunity to learn about what works and what doesn’t work for selling books. My conclusion is pretty simple: Social media was almost useless. I did some things with the URL in the ads so that I could have at least some idea of where sales come from. The number of sales that could possibly have come through Twitter ads?

Eight.

That’s infinitesimally small compared to actual sales.

It’s a little harder to exactly track how Facebook and Goodreads performed, but my opinion is not super high so far.

When Life of Secrets launches, the ad budget is going to be allocated much differently.

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Thoughts on cover art for Life of Secrets

I have some very specific ideas for the cover art for Life of Secrets, and nothing I have seen so far really fits. The gentleman who did the cover art for Death of Secrets for me did great work, and I would like to work with him again. My struggle is that his pre-made covers that are available right now don’t quite fit Life of Secrets, and getting a custom one done gets expensive fast.

I am giving some thought to trying it on my own. I’ve learned a lot about this since the last time I tried to do my own cover, and I think I know the tricks that make it look professional.

But I love this story too much to put it out with anything but a first-rate book cover, so I’m not sure whether I’ll be willing to take the risk or not.

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Price cut!

Here’s a great bargain: the Kindle edition of Death of Secrets is now only 99 cents! If you haven’t tried it yet, now is the time!

I want to build up as many readers as possible in the run up to launching Life of Secrets. This should help get as many people as possible looking forward to the next book.

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The ending of Life of Secrets is amazing!

The hardest part about being a writer is keeping an awesome surprise a secret.

I just wrote the ending to Life of Secrets, the prequel to Death of Secrets. I really love it, and I wish I could tell people about it. But there’s no way to really communicate the emotion without knowing the characters. And of course, the only way to get that is to read the book.

You all are in for a treat in June!

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Mike Vincent arrives on stage

I think I just wrote the first scene from Life of Secrets where the protagonist from Death of Secrets appears. (The antagonist is there too)

This is a work in progress. All this may change before it’s published.

***

D.W. Tilman did come back.  In the spring of her senior year, just before she graduated from college, he came back to Alyssa with a new job.

“I’m not working for Russ anymore, and good riddance,” he said. “The new boss isn’t perfect, but at least he doesn’t beat his wife.”

Chambers shrugged. “I’m glad. But really, I care more about what you want me to steal than who you’re trying to elect.”

Tilman sighed. “You have a way of making a man feel guilty Alyssa. To think you were a sweet, innocent girl before you and I got involved.”

“Tilman, you seriously have no idea who I am. Our relationship will be healthier if you stop believing that you do.”

He shrugged. “If you say so. I’m trying to help a friend of mine get elected to office. His name’s Mike Vincent. He’s running for Congress. I’m not officially working for his campaign, and he has no idea I’m here.”

“Safer that way. So what’s the problem?”

“The other side has a mole in Mike’s campaign. I don’t know who it is, but I know they’re getting intel. They know his ads before he runs them. They’re rebutting his spin before it’s even out.

“Find the mole, Alyssa. Find them and make sure Mike believes the accusation when I make it. I like the kid, but he can’t get to Congress on his own. He’s too trusting. He needs me.”

Michael Vincent turned out to be a good-looking guy. His blond hair was blow-dried and moussed into a perfect wavy shape. He had the physique of a guy who spent long-hours in the gym. But at the end of the day what drew Alyssa in was the smile. His infectious grin almost made her forget he was just a job.

She wasn’t the only woman who found him attractive. After forking over the maximum legal donation to Mike’s campaign and his state political party organization, Chambers found herself at a fundraiser where Mike was introducing his supporters to the Speaker of the House. And every female in the room — including the Speaker — seemed to be trying to spend time alone with State Senator Vincent.

 

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Life of Secrets

Here’s my proposed timeline for Life of Secrets:

June 19 I must have paperbacks in hand by this deadline, because a lot of folks at the Montana Republican Convention will want one from me.

June 4 I must order the paperbacks by this date, because experience with Death of Secrets showed me that it can take up to two weeks for paperbacks to ship.

June 3 If I want to order paperbacks by this date, I must  publish and go live by this date

May 12 I must begin making all the changes proposed by my editor by this date. I’m assuming I can make the changes in about three weeks, since that’s the approximate  amount of time it took to make edits for Death of Secrets.

May 1 The current leading contender for the job of editing Life of Secrets told me she needs a week to do it. Give her 12 days to be sure, and that gives us a May 1 deadline for delivering the final pre-editing draft

April 1 I want to have the rough draft done here. That will give me some time to take a complete break from the manuscript, and not look at it for at least a week, and then come back and begin making changes before I send it to the editor.

Wow. I just realize that after the WKO I’ve left myself only one month to finish Life of Secrets.

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Great community

For the past week or so, the main sales channel for Death of Secrets has been people in Helena buying copies locally. Which just causes me to say, I live in a great community! My friends and colleagues have really supported this book. It’s because of them that the launch of Life of Secrets will definitely be funded.

Thanks God, for putting such great people around me.

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Integrating books one and two

So once Death of Secrets was launched and selling, the next challenge was picking out a manuscript to use next. I originally planned to use my fantasy novel. But then, scrolling through my hard drive filled with 20 years of trying to be a novelist, I happened upon a few incomplete chapters about a character I find absolutely fascinating. They were pretty infested with the old Bowen, but as I read them it became more and more apparent that I could salvage them.

The character is completely new, and not connected to Death of Secrets in any way. But it’s another political novel, and very incomplete. So Mike Vincent, D.W. Tilman, and other characters from Death of Secrets can pretty easily be integrated.

The most interesting possibility there is D.W. Tilman. In Death of Secrets, he’s a man whose political career was destroyed when a Presidential campaign he was working on needed a scapegoat for a scandal.

In Life of Secrets, we need one of the characters to be a Presidential campaign staffer who creates a minor scandal. This should be fun!