One month on - Introducing Pewtory the Lesser Bard

Wow what a month it has been! Ritual of the Stones was published almost a month ago exactly (have I mentioned that at all) and so far it has sold as well as I hoped. I am very conscious that 80% of the sales are from people I know on social networking sites etc – but one has to start somewhere.

 

The feedback so far has been positive and I now have four nice reviews spread over the UK and US amazon sites and on Goodreads.com. Hopefully word of mouth will start to have an effect and I will see more downloads. 

I have been interviewed twice since the book was published. One will be appearing on Monday (again I will post a link) and the other by a magazine at work. This one in particular was rather unexpected and a nice bonus as it is circulated to over 14,000 staff.  I am hoping for at least a couple of sales out of that one. 

So what is the big idea you’ve had in marketing the book Rob? One of the biggest decisions I made when publishing the book was the price I set the book at. With so many new authors giving away their books for free in terms to reach an audience, it seemed like this was the done thing to do.

 I was never comfortable with the idea though. Not because I am not generous, but I wanted to see how well my book would sell on its own. Anyone would download a book if it was free, it doesn’t mean they would read it though. If they paid money for the book, they are more than likely to read it having parted with their cash. Besides, I also put a lot of effort into Ritual of the Stones, I figure it is worth something to someone – right? Right?

 I wanted to do something nice to mark the occasion though and to let people experience my style of writing. This lead to the invention of, “Pewtory the Lesser bard.”

Over the next few weeks (every Wednesday starting this Wednesday) I will write about 1,000 words each time following a character called (you guessed it), “Pewtory the Lesser bard.” Although Pewtory the Lesser does not feature in “Ritual of the Stones,” he will be making his was to Lilyon where the Ritual of the Stones is due to take place.

On the way he will either tell tales of or meet the main characters in “Ritual of the Stones” before the main story takes place. The way things are shaping up, he may even influence events in the future.

I figure this will be a great way to introduce you to Frindoth and if you like what you read and haven’t purchased the book, it may encourage you to do so.

Do I need the added pressure of committing to 1,000 words a week, when I am holding down a full time job, have two children under four, dedicated to this blog and am trying to find time to write the sequel as it is? Probably not, but I am having great fun doing it.

Look out for the first chapter on Wednesday. Let me know what you think.

 

Regarding book 2:

 Still no title but another chapter done. I had a minor heartache on Friday where for an hour or so it looked like I had lost 50,000 words. I managed to recover all except 500 of them in the end and so my heart is fine thanks for asking.  Horrible waste of time though.

That’s it for the update. I hope you enjoy the interview and Pewtory the Lesser bard, I would love to hear your thoughts, so please feel free to comment you shy cats.

Kind regards

Rob