Stephen Taylor's Blog

Firstly thank you to all the people who have been reading their way through the series. You will be glad to know the next Danny Pearson Thriller, Alive Until I Die is available for pre-order with the release date of Saturday 31st October.

https://geni.us/QEbx


Grab yourself a copy and jump into another rollercoaster ride of action and adventure.

Regards
Stephen Taylor

Or to put it another way, working your arse off.

Ok so it’s 18 months since I published my first book Execution Of Faith. To be honest that seems like a lifetime ago. I was looking back at a blog I did in March 2019, titled, Past 1000 Downloads. At the time I was extremely excited that 1000 people had downloaded my book, trust me its a big thing for an author.

Just trying to get any traction in the book market when you start is unbelievably hard. Your little book floating around in cyberspace drowning in a sea of millions of other little books, all written by people like your self, all hopeful that it might lead to bigger and better things. Sadly for the majority it probably won’t.

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That doesn’t mean you should give up.

It just means you need to persevere, you need to write more, you need to grow your audience. Most importantly you need to learn a lot of things that have nothing to do with writing. Its not going to be easy. I’ve had a few businesses over the years and none of them even come close to how hard it is to get noticed as an author.

Having more than one book helps if you have a series even better. Good cover design with something a little different that distinguishes your books from other peoples. If you have a permanent free book that can be downloaded off your website in exchange for an email sign up, that will help. One you get a marketing mailing list of people who want to read your books and two people are 99% more likely to download a free book than a paid one.

I know, it makes your head spin. If you think thats bad wait until you have to try and fathom the minefield that is advertising, Facebook, Amazon Ads, Instagram, Blogs, Bookbub, the list is endless and until you figure out what works and what doesn’t most of them will result in you losing money without result. But if you want to make your writing a success, its something you need to do.

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Where are we now

Well we’re are a little further along, I have six books out on Amazon and I’ve just hit 10,000 downloads, Woo Hoo.

Daily downloads are up to around 100, most of these are still the permalinks free book but the way I see it hopefully a fair percentage will come back and buy the next book and the next and maybe the next.

When I started this I took the view that this would be a five year project and take 5 books to make it work. I’m a couple of years in and have changed my view a little, I now thing 10 books is probably closer to the mark.

If you want to be a successful author it takes a lot different things to make it happen, a great book or books, luck, an image, a brand, a website, fans, social media, adverts and a lot of time to do it in.

I’m no expert, believe me. As I learn a little more, I write a blog in the hope it will help another writer struggling to find their way.

So good luck to all of you and remember celebrate the little milestones, your first great review, your first 100 book sales and then your 1000, 10,000. Its only when you look back you can see how far you’ve come.

Thanks for reading

Stephen Taylor

I know, I know. You don’t write, you don’t call. What can I say I’m a lousy blogger. In my defence I have written two books while I’ve been away. The long awaited third in the Danny Pearson Thriller Series, Beware the Chinaman. Which I’m very excited about and is on Pre-order Now.

And because Snipe has been so successful, with countless reviews and solid #1 positions in multiple categories since it launched way back in August last year. Ive written a brand new short called Heavy Traffic. Also available for Pre-order Now.

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Anyone still there? Did I get away with that shameless plug ?

Anyway back to 2020, a new year and I’m full of new enthusiasm on February 29th I’ll have 5 books out and I have plans for another 3 books this year. That might be a bit ambitious but I’m going to give it a go.

Right that’s book news done, what about sale and promotion tips, I hear you cry. Well it would seem that perseverance pays off, giving away one of your books as a reader magnet for free may seem like a mad thing to do, but the series sales will eventually pay dividends. Add the email marketing from your readers list and you start to build a powerful base that will sell you’re books for you for years to come. All you have to do is get the systems in place and write more books. That’s a very simplified version of the process but you get the point. If you’re writing your own book and feel like you’re getting nowhere, have faith, keep going and eventually you’ll get there.

That’s it from me, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next blog

Regards

Stephen taylor

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Fairly good advice but also a load of bollocks at the same time.

Hi everyone, I haven’t blogged for a while. sorry. I’ve been rather busy, what with writing Beware the Chinaman, creating new book covers, marketing, building a subscribers list, trying to master facebook advertising, Amazon advertising. Phew… pause for breath. Trying to work out book hooks, updating web site and reading about every smug bastard with a 5 step plan to make you a 6 figure sales income the second you buy their book.

Ignore that last bit, I’m suffering from a little sales bollocks fatigue.

Let’s get back on track, Always believe in yourself. If like me you’ve done all of the above, sales are up, subscribers are subscribing and reviews are positive and trickling in on all titles.

You should be happy right?

Well, yes and no, I’m happy for the positives, reviews, subscribers etc. But I’m unhappy with the paid sales figures, the enormous amount of time and effort put in for the rewards that come out.

What to do?

I think it boils down to two answers.

Give up or keep plugging away, personally I have to keep going. I love writing and I refuse to give up, It’s not in my nature. But if I read one more self motivational statement like “Always believe in yourself,” I’m likely to recreate a scene out of SNIPE, and I’m not talking about a nice one.

Thats me done, for all the people who have downloaded and read my books. Thank you and to all the self published and aspiring writers out there, keep at it and always believe in yourself.

Thanks for reading

Stephen Taylor

Well I’d like to think that’s true, but who knows, either way I’m back.

Anyway here we are again, huge apologies for not writing for so long. It’s been a crazy, busy summer, I’ve totally changed the web site ( hope you like it. ) Launched the second in the series Vodka and Jellied Eels. Written a Danny Pearson Short which is called SNIPE it’s out now permanently free on Amazon, Nook, iBooks and Kobo. Phew, what else. Oh yeah, I’m about a third the way writing the next Danny Pearson thriller, Beware the Chinaman. Which I would like to get finished by Christmas but could be the new year.

Right, what shall we talk about today. I ranted and raved on about all the negatives you come across once you’ve written your novel in previous blogs , so this time I’m going to tell you about some of the positive things I’ve learnt since I last wrote. Firstly write more books, one book on its own has nowhere to go, you’ll have to advertise it heavily to get it seen. Then people will read it and that’s the end of your sale forever. It’s highly unlikely it will suddenly become a best seller and you skip off into the sunset with a big bag of cash.

I came across a guy called Nick Stephenson, he’s written a series of Leopold Blake Thrillers and also sells book marketing courses, one being your first 10,000 readers. I can hear you groaning, but bare with me. He does however give you quite a lot of insight away for free, the principle idea being give a book away permanently free. Inside the book give an offer for a free second book once you sign up for the VIP mailing list. long and short of it, promote and pump you free book out, which is considerably easier to do than a paid book from an unknown author. Then you build an e-mail marketing list and a fan base to sell all your future books.

It makes sense to me, so I rebuilt my web site, wrote the short story as a giveaway and released it. That was two weeks ago and SNIP has shifted around 1000 copies, with the help of a few targeted Facebook ads. I’m chuffed with that for a start. The mailing list is growing slowly and I can see through Google Analytics that the right landing and downloading pages are being hit for the second free book. Remember this is not a quick hit, you have to allow time for people to read the free book then sign up and read the second one. eventually you should get a constant stream of people entering with the free book and purchasing the third with an ever growing email list to promote your new books as the get launched.

How long that all takes, I don’t know. But I’m hopeful that six months from now I’ll show regular sales, maybe even a small profit. You have to combine a lot of this with advertising, I’m having a lot of success with targeted Facebook ads at the moment, especially after a consultation with the Facebook business team on setting Audience profiles. Still can’t get Amazon advertising to do anything though, That’s my next challenge.

So if your writing a book or launching one, good luck and I’ll talk more about stuff I’ve learned in the next blog. Hopefully Ive had some success with Amazon advertising by then.

The Link for Nick Stephenson’s Blog is below, might be useful if your trying to sell your book.

Nick Stephenson’s Blog

Thanks Nick I found your content extremely helpful and enjoyed your webinar with Bryan Cohen on Amazon Advertising.

To everyone else thanks for reading

Stephen taylor

Book No2 Vodka and Jellied Eels

Just launched my second book, I have to say the second time around I found the whole experience far more enjoyable than the first. After the success of my debut novel Execution of Faith the nerves, self doubt and insecurities, involved in putting your creation out there for all the world to see diminish considerably. There’s still some excited butterflies in the stomach, followed by the great feeling when the first sales come in and the first 5* reviews appear.

This is not a boastful or look at how great I am blog, I am gaining followers and selling books, but I’m still a long way off making any money or god forbid making a living for my efforts. This is a message of positivity for all the self-published authors out there. The first book is the hardest, going from nowhere to getting noticed is the hardest and getting people to leave reviews is the hardest.

From personal experience apart from writing something of good quality and of a subject matter people want to read, you need to learn to be all things to promote your work. I have spent as much time building a website, writing blog posts and running social media posts as I did writing the book in the first place.

If that all sound a bit daunting, sorry no hiding it, it is. There’s no avoiding it, if you publish a book and don’t promote it, nobodies going to see it. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; I’ve made plenty. You probably will pay for adverts and promotions that don’t work, just try them with small budgets and learn what works and what doesn’t.

I have a theory, which could be wrong but I’m going with it anyway. To make any money from my novels, I need to have at least 5 books on amazon and keep up the promotions constantly. The fans and cross selling of different titles in the series will multiply themselves with every new title released. So my advice to you is keep writing, keep promoting and most of all keep loving what you do.

Thanks for reading

Stephen Taylor

No this isn’t an attack on the worlds largest search engine, no lawsuits please.

I doubt any author, either self published or traditionally published, hasn’t typed the words “how do I get my book published and sell it.” Into a google search.

If you’re just about to, prepare to have your head scrambled. When I finished writing Execution of Faith in 2018, that’s exactly what I did. The pages of results are mind blowing but I’ll try and break them down and simplify them.

1/ Ego boosting results with dubious success stories. How I made a bazillion dollars as the greatest author on the planet. This is usually followed by a great offer. Buy Now!!! How to write and get published the greatest book on earth and earn a bazillion dollars by A Smug Bastard. Really!!

2/ Depressing results, there are apparently 3.4million E-Books on Amazons Kindle store. If you self publish it, the average self published authors only sells around 100 copies ever. If you try to get a literary agent, most won’t look at you without a sales history. If they will, each agent is estimated to get around 2000 submissions a year and might, I mean might pick one of those if they aren’t too committed with their existing clients. Trow me a rope I’m going to hang myself.

3/ Rip off and scam results, so you’ve managed to self publish you masterpiece. Brilliant I’m pleased for you. Now you google selling it and promoting it, Oh my god the results are even worse than publishing it. There are thousands of promotional sites, some free, most claiming to be free but aren’t. Paid for sites that will sell you thousands of copies, Mmm, thats not going to happen. And sites that seem reasonably priced for social media promotions but they quickly add up and you don’t get any sales. Anyone still reading?

4/ The nice stuff, Somewhere in amongst that lot are the genuinely helpful articles and blogs from authors, writers and literary agents. Some are successful, sadly most are not, but at least they have tried and taken the road before you. Never leave sight of what you’ve achieved, you have fulfilled your ambition to write a book. 97% of writers never finish their novels. Fact, well, thats what google says anyway. If you’ve self published it even better, it’s up there for all to see and buy forever.

If you were expecting me to have all the answers, sorry I’m just muddling along with everyone else. I haven’t sold a trillion books and I’m not trying to sell you the secret of my success. I’m just wishing you all the best and sincerely hope you achieve you dreams.

Thanks for reading

Stephen Taylor

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Letting your creative monster out can be a liberating and life changing experience. The problem is once the monsters had a taste of freedom, he’s not going to want to go back in his cage again. How good or bad your creation is, to some extent is irrelevant. How much of a void, a hole or need it fills most certainly isn’t.

This brings me to the down side of releasing the beast. He’s out, you’ve written your book and self published it for all to see. The problem is several million other people did the same thing and your book is lost in amongst them, like the winning lottery ticket waiting for the right person to buy it. You get a few sales which is nice, they may pay for a few take outs a month but your not giving up the day job just yet.

But the creative monster is out, he’s inside your head. The love of writing has taken over, and the day job is just the pain in the arse thing you have to do to pay the bills. Now the second book is nearly complete, and the third and fourth ones are swirling around in your head. On top of that comes the waves of emotions, high and lows. Good sales weeks and a great review surge you on, while quiet weeks no reviews and a crap week at work pull you down.

Is it worth it? For me hell yeah. I can’t stop and won’t stop.

I love writing and am determined to eventually get a book deal and have my books in book stores for all to see.

And if your creative monster is on the loose, I hope you do the same.

Thanks for reading.

Stephen Taylor

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It may not seem a lot to some, but to me 1000 copies of Execution of Faith sold since November is huge. Perseverance is defiantly what you need and KDP Select free promotion really does help sales, 250 of the 1000 downloads happen last weekend in a 2 day free book promotion. Every time I’ve done one of these, its out preformed the last, if you combine the promotion with facebook ADs it boosts the result. OK it’s still small potatoes in the great scheme of things, but after the free promotion I still get book sales and more importantly I’m gaining good reviews on Amazon and goodreads

On the money side of things I’m still spending more on promotion than the book makes, but I expected that. The main thing for me is that people are genuinely enjoying the book, it boosts your confidence and has enabled me to write the second book in the series with enthusiasm. I have an idea that it will take about five years, and five or six books before any sort of noticeable income can be made.

On a more cheerful note, I could be wrong. Maybe I’ll manage to find one of the elusive book deals with a literary agent, and get my books into books store with the backing of professional promotion. Who Knows.

Until that happens I suppose I’d better do some work to pay the bills.

Thanks for reading

Stephen Taylor

It may not seem a lot to some, but to me 1000 copies of Execution of Faith sold since November is huge. Perseverance is defiantly what you need and KDP Select free promotion really does help sales, 250 of the 1000 downloads happen last weekend in a 2 day free book promotion. Every time I’ve done one of these, its out preformed the last, if you combine the promotion with facebook ADs it boosts the result. OK it’s still small potatoes in the great scheme of things, but after the free promotion I still get book sales and more importantly I’m gaining good reviews on Amazon and goodreads

On the money side of things I’m still spending more on promotion than the book makes, but I expected that. The main thing for me is that people are genuinely enjoying the book, it boosts your confidence and has enabled me to write the second book in the series with enthusiasm. I have an idea that it will take about five years, and five or six books before any sort of noticeable income can be made.

On a more cheerful note, I could be wrong. Maybe I’ll manage to find one of the elusive book deals with a literary agent, and get my books into books store with the backing of professional promotion. Who Knows.

Until that happens I suppose I’d better do some work to pay the bills.

Thanks for reading

Stephen Taylor

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