Be proud of your achievements.

Be Proud of your achievements. Many talk about writing books but few reach THE END. - Mary Malone

And it's the new year!

So 2014 is here! Where did 2013 go? At the beginning of last year I set myself some writing goals. One of them was to have over 500 twitter followers. I know it’s not a large number but I needed something to get me off the ground. I achieved it! Yay but my tweeting and re-tweets is less than impressive. I think I need to read Nicola Morgan’s Tweet Right again.

Another goal was to reach a total of 2500 sold units of Goa Traffic. I have accomplished this too! Even now as I type Goa Traffic is selling well it ranks around 12,000 on the kindle charts (UK) which is good enough for me. I also wanted to publish The Bittersweet Vine. I managed to do this. Originally I was all set to self publish it but after getting a deal with Thames River Press I have been lucky enough to experience what it is like to work with an agent and a small press. 2013 has therefore been fab! The one thing I haven’t done is sign up for that publishing grammar course – therefore you can see my punctuation is still horrendous.

The first (sketchy) draft of Under the Coconut Tree has been written and I can finally say I have finished the first draft of my next novel, Poison in the water (think sketchy skeleton draft!). So I have reached my goals and I have written another book but really I need to get The Bittersweet Vine selling.  January is a time when there are  many new e-readers out there - so marketing my existing books has to be my main priority!

I feel Goa Traffic has settled in the market but it has a connection- Goa. What does The Bittersweet Vine have? How can I get it out there to the public – for free? I have been lucky enough to get some initial publicity through my book launch and my radio interview and with the Good Reads book giveaway (A hearty congratulations to the three winners in the US!) but what next?  I can explore the whole sibling rivalry route along with betrayal and then there is the hysterical amnesia aspect as well. But how can I turn these plot thickeners in to sales?

Goa Traffic is labelled under 'India' on Amazon and that is the reason it gets noticed. I have 31 Fab reviews for the book as well. Is the reason because it is a couple of years old now? Word of mouth is a wonderful thing. But what of The Bittersweet? Will it establish itself too and this time next year as I begin to publish Poison in the Water will I be laughing as Bittersweet climbs the Amazon ranking list?

If I don’t put in the hard work I doubt it! Work is immensely busy at the moment which means fewer lunch hours scanning the net for writers blogs, marketing tips, reading etc. It also means my brain is half dead by the time I go home and I find myself lately not wanting to do any marketing. I must snap out of it and soon… where will I go with my marketing in 2014? Watch this space!