Any progress on getting it out there?

A small article about me leaving Last Things in places in Solihull centre before it comes to our local Waterstones store has appeared in our local paper. I say small advisedly because it was so easy to miss. No photograph this time which makes a big difference so don't expect much publicity from it. i ahve started to leave books in Solihull and actually saw someone pick one up and take it with them this morning. They actually took it with them! Looked inside and carried it away. Just hope they read it and tell others. Still no guarantee of a sale though. Have you read this does not mean someone goes and buys it. They either borrow or read and hand on. Still it means it is being read. A big difference though between 'being read' having thought it worth buying and being read 'cos someone gave you it. No sign of it appearing in Waterstones yet and so sign of any order. Don't see my contact around much. perhaps she has already moved on and was just trying to be nice. Still I suppose the 'ordering process' can take a long time. It did for Herod Dreams.

My brother phoned and said he read it in two nights and enjoyed it. Wondered if it was true as he had heard of a girl going missing and someone being found hanging. Assured him it was not true at all, I had made it up.
Asked him to let his friends know about it and perhaps encourage them to buy it. Didn't fell too god about that, rather cheap, but what else are you supposed to do? I am writing and trying to become an author. Won't be that until people are not just reading what I have written but are buying the stuff!

No sales for the month on kindle. Found a discussion forum on ebooks and it is full of people like me, trying to promote their book and having very little success. One or two you find have sold thousands. Maybe marketed at 73p but they are rare and have not created that market by promoting their work on the discussion site. They seem to have found that right moment, right tag, right review that enables their book to suddenly take off. The rest of us just complain about the injustice of big publishers' influence and the need to keep plugging away, believing that one day...

Any progress on Authonmy site seems to have stopped and I am gradually losing interest and so the book begins to fall from its dizzy heights of 143.

Found Alan Guthrie, who is keen on crime novellas, on the discussion site. His blog is worth looking at again, perhaps, although his success is based on a long career in writing and he has a well organised publiciy machine worked out. Steven Leather's advice about to become a write you have to have been writing for 10,000 hours and stop writing shit is a bit hard.

Crime Novellas

Had an email from a friend who has just finished reading LT. Although she enjoyed it a great deal she thought it was too short. Needed more about Peter and Simon. What happened to them? To be honest I couldn't say, only guess. They are both at important moments in their lives and I don't know if their lives are going to turn out for the best or not. I can guess but that would be unfair. Maybe I am waiting for them to tell me. For now I think they want to be left alone because I don't hear them any more. Young Foskett on the other hand keeps whispering and hinting at more to come.
Found a man who is enthusiastically promoting crime novellas as well as his own on his own sites and on a amazon discussion site. Emailed him about LT and now wait with bated  breath.
No sign of order from Waterstones, nor of any article in local paper. Oh how it tests your patience. Promisd my selfto go in and see person at local paper tomorrow.
In the mean time, in the real world, a friend has been diagnosed with kidney cancer and it does not look good. Sod it.

Still trying

Contact at my local Waterstones seemed quite positive about being able to 'market book' after only reading five pages and says she has ordered four copies. Four copies! Doesn't seem very much. But its the risk they have to take, I suppose. They only had three copies of Herod Dreams and still have one left tucked away on its shelf between Sparks and Steinbeck. Mind you Steinbeck's book has been there for just as long! She seems to think that Last Things will be put on the local author section with its face pointing outwards. Wonder if cover is enough for people to pick up on a whim?
Also dropped off a copy and small article for local newspaper to see if they might be interested. Can never find the place open. Sign in the window today saying, due to cut backs and shortage of  staff, office only open for three days/week. Envelope had gone from floor so might have got to David Irwin. Check tomorrow.
Gave copy to hairdresser who cuts Ethan's hair. He was pleased to get copy and seemed enthusiastic. Might be the sort of person who will pass it around or tell people about it and create an interest. Enough for Solihull to buy four copies from Waterstones? Who can tell?
No sales on Kindle nor Amazon yet!