Robert Enright's Blog - Posts Tagged "indie-books"

Well, that's been a fun week.

Out Of Reach, the tenth Sam Pope book, launched on Friday 20th January and the support from you readers has been amazing. Not only did it hit number one in a few Amazon categories, it also broke into the top 200 on all of Kindle. So, thank you for that!

Now, it's time to ramp things up for 2023.

So what does this mean?

Well, Sam Pope 11 is already underway and the plot has now been outlined and fleshed out. It sees a few characters from a few years ago rear their ugly heads once more, and ties a nice bow on a long standing thread in the series.

Bermuda Jones is making his long awaited return, FIVE YEARS after the last book. Worlds Apart will be launching this summer, and the cover looks AMAZING! I cannot wait to return to this world, as for five years, I've written nothing but Sam Pope. Don't get me wrong, I love writing Sam and it's given me a living, but to return to a world of monsters and mayhem is very appealing.

Then, in the latter part of the year, Sam Pope 12 will land on your electronic or paperback shelf, and then I shall focus all my efforts on NaNoWriMo, where the first in a NEW series will begin.

So, yeah...a pretty busy year ahead. Thankfully, next week, I shall be in DisneyLand Paris with my amazing wife and awesome daughter.

Have a great week, stay healthy and keep reading.

Rob

Starting a new book is always a mixed process for me.

I get an idea and I flesh it out in my mind and eventually, it starts to take shape. Action scenes play out and I start to tie them together with a narrative that doesn't just reward the readers who have stuck with Sam through 10 books so far, but also develops the character and brings his story on.

It's a great part of the writing process and one that I adore.

Then I have to start writing it.

Don't get me wrong, I adore writing. The fact I get to do it for a living is incredible and I know I am incredibly privileged to be in such a position.

But the first few chapters are always tricky as I need to introduce new characters and move the pieces into position before the action can ramp up. Establishing brand new characters and locations takes ALOT of time and research and sometimes, it can get a bit heavy. I just want to get to the explosions!

But...saying that, I have written the first five chapters of the new book and that means the story is about to come pouring out of my fingers.

Onwards...

You know what, as a writer, I am appalling at reading books for pleasure.

I don't have a tremendous amount of free time, as when I'm not writing or taking care of the myriad of tasks that come with being a full time independent author, I have a wonderful three year old I spend as much time with as possible.

She is my world, and spending my time off with her and my amazing wife is my favourite thing in the world.

But I also love reading.

I miss reading.

Recently, I restarted The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin, which is my favourite series of books and I completely forgot how much I enjoy reading. The feelings it elicits, and the emotions it brings to the boil. I've laughed, gasped and cried and I'm not even at the end of the first book.

It's fantastic to feel that once again, and if at any point in time, any of my books have done that for a reader, then I consider myself incredibly privileged to have done so.

I've thrown myself back into the Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin over the past month or so and my oh my, isn't it nice to get lost in a book? I know most books aren't sprawling epics that cover over a hundred years, but when you find yourself rushing to bed early to get some more reading in, you know it's a good un!

One of my aims for 2023 was to sort of fall back in love with reading again. Might seem strange to say that seen as how I write books for a living, but sometimes it felt a little like a bus driver's holiday. As in, I spend so much time professionally with books, that doing it in my down time wasn't appealing.

Well thank you Mr. Cronin for bringing it back for me, and as I race towards the end of The Twelve (Book 2 of 3), I am chomping at the bit to read City of Mirrors again. I've only read that book once, and if I recall, it left me a weeping mess on a train back from work.

Bring on the book. Bring on the tears!

There is something to be said about setting yourself a goal and achieving it.

I think we all need to push ourselves, whether that be physically, mentally or professionally, and I promised myself in September 2022 that I was going to give this Indie Author career a proper good go.

After years of working away, I finally became a full time author, and in the 6 months since, I have written two and a half books, with THREE more planned before the end of 2023.

Days Gone By, the ELEVENTH Sam Pope book, has been sent off to the editor this past week, and plans are already in place for The Fighter, the TWELTH book, along with Bermuda 3, and maybe...the start of something else too.

Let's keep working hard, and hopefully, I can keep bringing you some awesome books to read!

Thanks as always,

Rob

The thrill of writing is the unknown. There have been countless times where I've sat down to start writing a chapter and not known where it is going.

Usually, I have a few bullet points per chapter, to provide some overriding structure to my story, but sometimes, out of nowhere, an idea can take you.

That happened to me this last week.

I am currently writing away on Sam Pope 12, and suddenly I had an idea for a set of characters that are in the book, that has now expanded into an entire series. That's right, ANOTHER spin off series for the SPU (Sam Pope Universe).

I'm really excited by it, because if I can get all FOUR series ticking along, the idea of doing cross overs or referencing other books is really appealing to me, and am pretty sure it will be for my readers. Everyone loves a reference or an easter egg and this new idea has got me very excited for it.

Until then, back to Sam Pope 12....

Usually, I blog about what I'm currently writing or reading as a way to keep you all up to date on what's going on in my world.

This week, however, I want to talk about the podcast that I co-host, Two Indie Authors. Each week, myself and David B. Lyons (author of Whatever Happened To Betsy Blake) discuss our indie author careers and usually focus in one on specific talking point.

Usually, it's something to do with marketing or writing, but we also cover off the important parts of the business, like building mailing lists, getting reviews, launching books etc. We also have a different author join us each week to answer the same seven questions, and we have received some fascinating answers from authors all over the world and at varying stages of their indie author careers.

If you have Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon podcasts or any other podcast player, please check us out. We can either help you with a problem, or maybe inspire you to start getting your words down.

Two Indie Authors

Check us out! We'd love to have you along for the ride.

Days Gone By launched last week and it was the best launch to date. Not only is this fantastic for me as this is my job, but it's incredible to see that ELEVEN books in and Sam Pope is as popular as ever.

I was told by both my editor and my proof-reader that it was the most solid story yet, which considering it was my most ambitious, has really boosted my creative confidence.

So what's next?

Sam Pope twelve. The Fighter.

The ending of Days Gone By necessitated the immediate start of the next book and it has literally spilled out of my fingers over the past few weeks. I'm absolutely loving it and the best part is, it is splintering off into so many other possible stories to tell.

So I better get to it...

How remiss of me?

Life has been crazy over the past 5 months or so...

I launched book 12 in the Sam Pope series and wrote an entire new book for a new series.

The Dead of Night is the first book in the DS Jack Townsend series and sees the young detective on the hunt for a brutal serial killer in the picturesque Buckinghamshire. I think it's going to be a great read!

It launches on 10th November so I'll be back before then with some tasty previews...

Until then...

Keep reading!

Rob

Being a writer for a living is beyond a dream come true. It's something I have wanted since I was a teenager and to be able to do it is still something I have to stop and pinch myself about. And I owe it all to Sam Pope.

The Sam Pope series has changed my life, and over the twelve books, I feel like I've created not just a deep and rootable hero, but also a connected thread of rich characters that have helped bring it all to life.

But it's all I've written for five years.

I wanted to try something new, and this Friday sees the launch of the first DS Jack Townsend novel. A gritty detective novel set in the heart of Buckinghamshire, it sees the scouse detective on the hunt for a serial killer as he adopts to a new town and a new team.

Early reviews have been incredibly positive, and I cannot wait to to share a brand new character and story with you. (I say brand new character, Townsend was in The Kingdom - Sam Pope 8) but this really steps away from Sam Pope and the hard hitting action I've been writing.

Let's hope this incredible journey I've been on continues with another hero at the front of it...