Jen Black's Blog

 It may be that selling books on Kindle (otherwise Amazon KDP) is no longer A Good Thing To Do. Sales for the last year have not been anything like they have in the past. Amazon tells me I have clicks, for which they charge, but the charge for clicks outweighs the profit from sales.

KENP  (page reads)are also just about vanished. My career as an author is just about over even though I am 40,000 words into a new Regency romance.

Audible (talking books) is taking over so they say and I think that is sad on many levels. Reading is a skill that needs to be practiced, whereas anyone can listen. Every time I have tried listening to a book, I have fallen asleep, only to wake  a little later to find I have missed a good deal of the book. Often it is two in the morning and then I struggle to get back to sleep, so maybe this colours my view!  The less one reads over time the harder it seems to be when one comes back to it.

I look at this photo of Stac Polly and think once upon a time I climbed to the top of that (and almost got eaten alive by the infamous Scottish midgie) but now the thought of doing it again makes me smile, sit down and read a book.

 Today I thought I would pop down to the Metrocentre to buy a pair of slippers (boot style) to keep my feet warm these cold windy nights. Thought the traffic was rather heavy on the way in but got parked with no problems. M&S did not have the kind of slipper I wanted, Hotel Chocolate charges far too much for 6  - yes, six, chocolates. At £4.95 that's 82p per sweetie, and nearby Pavers didn't have the slippers I wanted. After that I considered searching the Metrocentre for said slippers, thought of the building traffic and my dog waiting at home, and opted to go home. Got in the mini, drove to the exit lane and found a nose-to-tail line of cars, two lanes actually, waiting to exit said carpark. We didn't move for about ten minutes. I phoned home. "Are there any accidents?" I asked and explained why I was sitting in my car wasting petrol. He phoned back. "No accidents but every road around the Metrocentre is scarlet. That means its clogged."

I tried to visualise where I was. Surely there must be another route out of the car park? I knew te locality, but until I could get out of the car park, I couldn't do a thing.Checked the map on my phone. Nope. One way in, one way out and we were all at a standstill. Of course people didn't behave well.  Some drivers came back to their cars, saw what was happening and we watched as they drove to the lane closest to the exit and then expected to be let into the stream of cars at once.

  Jaws were set and drivers of waiting cars stared straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge someone trying to butt in. Picture a tiny 24 year-old-mini trying to change lanes once we were in spitting distance of the exit and all the big modern cars ignoring us. But we got there, and ducked round the silly creature ahead of me waiting for three lanes of traffic all to stop and let s/he into the far lane. 

We made it out of the Metrocentre into Dunstan but that was bogged down with escapees. Took ages to get to the over pass where I could escape up the hill and into Whickam then to Blaydon and out west. Now I safe and warm at home, recounting the story to hubby, all I can say is I think the one way in, one way out system is basically unsafe. If a bomb had gone off in the middle, no one could move. Escape would be impossible, and emergency vehicles couldn't get in. Food for thought. Anyway, I have decided I'm buying the boots online! It's early October, for goodness sake. Nowhere near Christmas!

 

I regret to report that the pink salt trick has done little for me. Over six days of imbibing said pink crystals, water, lemon juice and honey (not all at once) I report that I am now half a pound heavier than day one. Day 2 was encouraging as I seemed to have lost one whole pound. But regrettably this was not to last.

Perhaps you have to be exceedingly fat to lose much. While I carry a little more than I would like, I don't think anyone would call me fat. I will take a break and perhaps try again in a week or so.

It was Nala's birthday yesterday. She reached the grand old age of 8 and so she got to chomp down on a piece of raw steak for her dinner. Gone in a minute and a half, I should think - if I ever thought of timing it! This morning while I was weeding in the sunshine, I heard her chewing something close by, looked round and here she is trying to break off a dead lavender branch. Very hurt when I told her she couldn't do that - no no no.

 Another re-vamp done. I suspect I could do better on the cover and may do some extra work on it but it will remain essentially the same. I am working on writing a new book  but every now and then the urge to do some photoshopping grabs me. I used to paint and draw as a hobby so I suppose this stems from the same spring.

I have unpublished most of my paperbacks. They didn't sell well, especially not for the effort they took to get the full cover at exactly the right proportions, but one or two copies may still hang about under their old titles and covers. There's nothing I can do about that. Amazon's rules are strict and unbreakable. 

Yesterday Fb was flooded with The Pink Salt Trick articles which were remarkably coy about telling the fourth and final ingredient. I finally discovered it was berberine or maybe resveratrol - neither of which I have ever heard of and certainly don't keep in my kitchen. I don't even keep green tea powder. Pink salt we do have. I may drink a little pink salt and lemon juice and see if it makes me sick. Salt is supposed to, isn't it?

 Another re-edit/new cover complete!

This is quite an experiment to see if covers and titles really do make a difference. I am following stats and reports keenly, and all I can say is this has been the nest month this year which kind of proves something.The next three months will be interesting. I don't know what I'm going to do now. I think everything has been done that needs doing. 
However this coming week will be busy. I have  a hair appointment on the same day my dog is booked in for an ultrasound scan. That's Wednesday and we are having lunch at the Black Sheep in Masham on Saturday. Bill has a lunch date on Tuesday but I stay at home or walk the dog while is out enjoying himself. 
I shall have to think about writing a totally new story soon, but so far nothing is consolidating in my brain. 

  

Doubtful Bride has replaced The Matfen Affair and I'm currently working on re-editing The Gavington Affair which will become Runaway Duchess.

I have yet to make a cover for the Duchess.  There seems to be a dearth of pics of Victorian ladies but I'll find one somewhere - if I have to use my grandmother's picture, that would be authentic, wouldn't it? Not that she was a duchess...

Gardening has been a major thing in my life this year. It is the first year we haven't gone to France but the journey to the Dordogne has grown less and less appealing over the last three or four years. We've had French weather here in our own back garden this year, so I should think we have still had our ration of vitamin D. On these hot days we are just lying around like the proverbial loppy dog. Sometimes we give up and go inside to be cool. Unheard of, I know. But not going to France has certainly given me time to think about and do something about my books, so that cannot be bad.

Changes have been made!

So far, I've put new covers/titles on 3 books

New titles are: Sold into Wedlock (Unblissful Wedlock)

The Richest Heiress (Gybford Affair) (see previous post)

Escaping her Guardian (Styford Affair)

Along the way I've adjusted the Keywords, Categories and the blurb.

I brightened the cover of The Elsdon Affair and may leave that title as it is. 

I've come to the conclusion that paperback copies don't really pay off the hard work, but since I made them, I think I shall keep some of them. One or two I have "unpublished" if I couldn't face the task of re-editing them!

I've printed out facts and figures so now I shall wait and see if  anything pays off with better results. I suppose control is one of the joys of indie publishing!
 

 I made those decisions - a new title and a new cover.

A Fine Regency Romance. Frances and Jack are off into the world again. Let's hope this time I've handled everything in a way that will give them some success. 

It's the old problem with  lone authors self-publishing - not many people  know you exist, to paraphrase Michael Caine. I'm the first to admit that maybe the title I chose initially did not help. It could have been a murder mystery - overtones of the Mystery at Styles or something of that type. 

The cover was indisputably mine but rather unexciting and this one, with the heroine wearing shot green silk is far more Regency than the earlier one. Now all I need are a few people to notice and for word to get around...here's hoping.

Thinking of a new title for one of my books.

The Gybford Affair is about to become the Unwilling Marquess.

I've re-edited the entire book, which was fun and went by really quickly but for some time now I've thought the Affair series wasn't a good selling point. Many of the names I chose - all placenames in the UK, seem to cause the internet and Amazon problems. Craigmuir was never really accepted, so I changed it to Cragstone, which did better. 

Now I am thinking of renaming the entire series so that the genre is more easily seen by prospective buyers. Titles that include buzz words for genres ie Duke, heiress and Marquess for Regency stories. I understand it means unpublishing on Amazon and republishing so I am hoping all goes smoothly.

 I can now get into GoodReads

I made some slight adjustments, but  still find it infuriating in the way it persists with old, outdated covers. I listened to A. Torre's webinar in the hope of enlightenment and began to wonder if she has a different version of GoodReads to me. However, I am in it and though I am mortified by those old covers on my early books, there seems to be nothing I can do about it.

I managed to get The Silver Season up on the I Want to Read section, so that is a start. I chose that book because the heroine is a rich American married to an English nobleman and that seemed appropriate. There is a definite American bias on GoodReads rather than an international one.