How do you measure success?

I've asked this before I believe as part of this blog.

There's the usual way with sales number, turnover or profit figures.  But then there's other measures, those that are less tangible but none the less make you realise that the work you have produced is having the desired effect on people.

For me one of those measure is fan art.  Look at the fan art you can find for something like How To Train Your Dragon or Harry Potter.  It's everywhere.  Well now George and the Dragon has elicited it's first piece of fan art and I am 'over the moon' about it.

Step forward Ben Nijssen @nijssen1804 who first of all shared this with me on Twitter.

It's been a bit of a lazy week on my part really.

I've written very little this week at all which is very bad of me and generally I've been procrastinating to the nth degree.

Here's a list of things I should really have done by now:

1. Finalised the version of George and the Dragon that will be used for the printed version.
   
2. Paid for and ordered the cover for the printed version of George and the Dragon.
   
3. Update my website; PhilipTolhurst.co.uk to include details of Lupus Animus as I submitted a short story for inclusion within it's pages.
   
4. Updated this blog as per the above.  There's some changes I want to make to the blog layout so it shows the books I have published or had work published in down the right-hand side.
   
5. Created a new on-line advertising posted for George and the Dragon.
   
6. Researched Blog Tours for the release of the printed version - the intention is to offer signed copies of the book as a prizes for the book tour - I have to say I'm pretty sure I now know which blog tour I'm going to go with and then I'll just see what happens.

I should also have written more of Nicholas North - which is changing as I write and so I suspect it will have a change of title before it's released to reflect this.  It's becoming more a Middle Grade Horror book which if I continue down that route should be fun to write and differentiate it more from George.

On a different note George and the Dragon continues to tick over with sales on the post sale price point.  Of course I'm always going to be pushing for more sales but it's really pleasing that they haven't just died a death.

My Twitter account continues to go from strength to strength and this weekend I expect it to top 9000 followers.  Which is not too shabby when you consider I only started using twitter at end of January.

The aim is to get to 10k and then onwards to 15k and to keep going.  The more the merrier.  I will not stop until I have more followers than JK Rowling :)

So that's this weeks round up. Have a good weekend and I hope you write more than I have so far this week :)

Phil

I always thought I was in control, but maybe it was an illusion.

I always thought that somewhere in my mind was that spark of creativity that fed my imagination and what it produced was based on the ideas I fed it.

When I put pen to paper, the words that came to my mind, I believed those words to be mine.  I believed that the story I crafted on the page was conducted by my thoughts and constructed from my life experiences.  Even when I wrote of the fantastical the words that formed on the page did so in such vivid detail and yet I still believed this to be of my own doing.

I was wrong.

The realisation that I am not in control, that some other being has influence on my artistry is a sobering thought and not one that is quieted by the bottom of a bottle.

In those far too rare moments of sanity when I read that which I write, when I realise it is not the writing of man of sanity, then in those moments I want to scream but I cannot and so instead I retreat back to the pen and the page, and back into the madness.

I write about cannibalistic monsters lurking in graveyards or emerging from the sea.  I write about infernal devices that suck the free-will from the minds of men.  I write of gods, old gods of unfathomable power toying with the lives of men.

I write of the Egyptian artisan,  I write his wizardry and technology and of his influence over those that see him perform.  

The words that I write are not my own but the blood they are written in springs forth from my veins like shower of crimson ink.  I carve words into the page with my pen that are written in no language spoken on earth.  The letters crawl across the page screaming at me to be read, to be understood and yet I am not the one that must read them.

I know this now.  I write so that others will learn of the madness and fall under his thrall like I have and yet I can not stop myself.  I must write, I must tell the stories that remain untold, however macabre or ghoulish they are, I have no control over my writing and yet my writing is all I have.

Even now I in this one moment of lucid thought I wonder will the words consume my mind and then my soul or have both already been lost?

Despite being told for a second time that people don't like auto Twitter DMs I will continue to use them in my own imitable style.

Regular readers of Dragon In The Rubble will know I've been asking questions that challenge peoples imagination and get them thinking about dragons and most importantly chatting to me.

It has helped me to sell books - and that's what it is all about.

So I've changed up my question again.

I'm now DM people the following.

"Hello there.  Using your imagination, tell me, what would be the perfect colour or colours for a dragon?"

Although I've had reds, greens, surprisingly greys and other colours the surprising thing for me is the amazing responses I've had.

I though I might share some with you so you can also see how effective this can be:

@AZGreen786

"I always imagined a deep fire red with a blue shimmer, like flames. When they produce fire the colour intensifies. And you? :)"

@TDitcherz

"I like the idea of a Pearlescent dragon :) Reflecting a multitude of colours as it moves. Maybe with a silver lining within its wingspan."

@DossettAngela

"Translucent quality with blue,yellow,green,pink,rose,and purple. Light will reflect all the colors making it perfect!!"

@MyLin1

"Evil: dark purple, near black so its hue is hidden until it moves, then filgrees of color would ripple across its muscles"

@BookLister1

"Vivid red, orange, yellow, blac, green and a little bit of cobalt blue!

@bthorne89

"Garnet, marbled with silver or black. With eyes like lava peeking through a blackened skin of dark rock."

That's just a few I can pick out of the mess that is Twitters DM system - which is atrociously bad.

So there's some pretty imaginative people out there on twitter!

What colour would your perfect dragon be?

Phil

So I am actually writing some of Nicholas North tonight.  I know I know it's come as a shock to my system as well.

However, while writing the chapter I've had to research several different subjects.

So while I have the football on ITV on one tab in my browser and Twitter & Facebook open in two more the rest of my tabs are devoted to researching my book and writing this blog.

I have a tab about the rules of speech marks and punctuation.  Punctuation and grammar are not my strongest points so I often need to double check rules like this.

Next we have a tab about Ghouls.  Specifically Lovecraftian Ghouls.  H.P. Lovecraft was a horror writer and he has a particular type of ghoul appear in his books.  I wanted to ape this in Nicholas North.  They look something like this:


Next up we have a tab showing night-vision images.  You know the sort you seem them all the time in the movies they look like someone has filtered the world with a luminous green filter.  Like this.  I was also looking at the different types of night-vision goggles.


Finally I have a tab about the Salem witch hunts.  I won't go into details about why I have any of these open but I'm hoping it gives you an insight into the novel and some of the research that goes on when I'm trying to write.  It's not all just type whatever springs to mind.

Phil

This is an interesting question.

I recently made a bit of an error.  By error what I actually mean is I made a huge assumption and we all know what that means don't we?  You don't?  Seriously?  Okay well consider this:

When you assume something you make an ass out of you (u) and me.

What I did was to assume everyone uses Twitter like I do.  Actually that's not strictly true few people truly use Twitter quite like I do but in general terms I use Twitter as a marketing tool.  I don't use it as for socially connecting with people.

In fact I find it very hard to comprehend how people do use twitter to socially connect with people.   I cannot help but to compare Twitter to Facebook in this situation.

Firstly you have the issue with tweets being restricted to 140 characters.  I regularly bust this limit when posting on Facebook and have friends that would use 10 tweets to convey half of what they like to write on Facebook.

Pictures on Twitter are hidden until you click on a link, on Facebook they are there for everyone to see.
Recently I shared this picture of my cat Dylan sleeping among my messy pile of books.  Those books are in a fireplace...ironic I know...sorry I'm digressing.


One of my followers tweeted that she couldn't see the cat, this was because twitter was only showing her the top half of the photo.

Direct Messages on twitter are a mess.  It's the worst implemented case of a messaging system I've ever come across.  In comparison Facebook has a system to rival Whatsapp including the ability to use it to make phone calls (this isn't the blog for me to discuss the purchase of Whatsapp by Faceboo so I won't go on about it like I usually do).  In twitter you are lucky if your messages appear in order and that's when they do appear.

Finally and MOST importantly less than a handful of my friends and family use twitter.   So for me Facebook is the better place to keep in touch with them.

I can quite happily accept that people do use Twitter as social media but I don't see it that way.

For me, as an independent author, Twitter is about marketing.  It's about having a global reach something I could never aspire to otherwise.


Take this recent tweet from one of my new followers, oh and feel free to follow Barry too if you like:


Barry is absolutely correct, how else indeed does an indie author spread the word about hers/his work?

This is a record of the post I made in twitter about my cat using the picture above courtesy of Twittonomy.com:






You can see that it was re-tweeted 18 times. The total number of twitter users it is estimate it could have reached is over 150,000.   You have to accept that there's a fair amount of overlap between the different accounts that re-tweeted the post as twitter is, by design, web of highly interconnected individuals.  However, it is likely the tweet had a change of being seen by over 100,000 twitter users.

Where else and how else would you have such a reach and for free?

I tweet an awful lot; approximately every 30-40 minutes and then there's retweets both automatic and those I choose to retweet when pursuing twitter myself.

What I learnt, when I made the assumption I discuss earlier, is that this can come as quite a shock to some who aren't used to this way of using twitter.  It's a lesson I will take on board but I don't intend to change the way I use the program I'll just be a little more mindful of how I offer to help others with respect to my twitter account.

Phil

Hello,

It's Friday the 13th but nothing bad has happened to me.

Having just watched a triumphant Netherlands thump the Spanish 5-1 in the world cup my mind is taken back to this time 4 years ago when I actually went to South Africa to watch the world cup and spend time with my wife's family.   It was a fantastic time and I have great memories of that holiday.

It's been awfully hot this week and I don't think I've really achieved much in a literary sense although I realised the plot to Nicholas North was shot to pieces and I've been reworking it in my head.

I'm putting to bed my current Twitter question; "Just for fun if you had to name a dragon, and had no time to think about it, what name would you give the magnificent, mythical, monster?"

I've grown tired of the number of people that answer with Bob, Fred or Sparky.  There have been highlights though my favourite two being Ash and Ember Dawn.

Also from this I've found names for two minor characters in the sequel to George and the Dragon.  They will be called Captain Dromhurst and Lieutenant Elgard.

I'm toying with what to replace the question with but I'm not sure yet what that will be as of yet.  I'm sure something will come to me in the next couple of day.

I'm still selling books despite the price rising after the sale.  Although the price is now permanently lower than it was at the outset.

I'm also still on track to produce a physical copy of George and the Dragon by the end of the month. With that released I'll make a decision about the audio copy of the book and then hopefully I can then largely put George and the Dragon at the back of my mind while I concentrate on writing new and exciting works for publication.

I've got some great ideas for blog posts for the coming week as well so don't forget to keep an eye on the blog on a daily basis.

Until then have a great weekend and enjoy the world cup if you're into football.

Phil

I had hoped to post an in depth look at my take on twitter tonight but that can wait until tomorrow.

"Why?" I hear you ask, or maybe not.

I have news that just can't wait!

Lupus Animus the charity anthology dedicated to all things Wolves is now available for download on Kindle.

Once of the story within this title's pages was written by none other than yours truly so I have to recommend it to you.  But I also feel bound to point out that I have also bought a copy to do my part for the charity involved.

I guess it's fantastic for readers.  But as an author what use is it to me?

I've 2 friends shy of 1000 friends on Goodreads.   You have a book?  I can recommend it to my 1000 friends but it takes me 1000 clicks of the mouse.

I can't recommend my own book to my friends oh no I guess that stops me spamming them doesn't it.

So I popped onto everybody's favourite search engine and checked out some ideas.

You can link your blog to Goodreads - already done that and I blog fairly frequently as I am sure you can no doubt tell.

It makes your book easier for people to review - this is true but then you can just as easily post reviews to Amazon and I wonder does that dilute the process.  You really want ALL your reviews in once place and that has to be the point of sale.

You can join groups - I've tried joining groups but honestly don't have huge amounts of time to spend participating in them which is a shame.

You can hold events - this is where I think the benefit lies, at least I hope so as I have yet to try it. But I will when I get my hands on some real copies of my book.

As you can tell so far I've been able to increase my influence on the site but don't really know what to do with it.  Don't get me wrong I'm hoping it turns out that Goodreads really does help authors I'm just a bit at a loss at the moment to know how.

Phil

With my one week sale over the question becomes what next?

The thing is this is all part of a longer strategy with regards to marketing and sales.  It's about momentum and trying to kick start the proverbial snow ball that leads to a ramp in sales of the book.

As the sale has now ended one thing I've done is reset the price of the book.  You should now be able to pick it up for £1.99 or $2.99.   One thing I didn't realise is that the book is also available on ScribD.

I found it this evening.  They even make it look like a real book.


Which takes me nicely to the next part of my plan: Createspace.

I deliberately decided not to release the book via Createspace when I started out knowing in my heart of hearts that George and the Dragon would more than likely need to be revise more than once before I was happy for it to become a physical produce.

Also Createspace novels can be reasonably expensive.  However, I know there are people out there who want to purchase the physical copy of the book and who am I to say no to that.

To this end I am aiming for a July release and will look to do a book blog tour to coincide with that release.

That way I can generate some more momentum next month,  until then I'll keep plugging away at expanding my social media empire, writing this blog and hopefully doing so more novel writing.

Phil

The Book of Wrath by Billie-Jo Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An EPIC tale focussing on the heirs to the thrown of Ay and their protector. Their flight from danger and attempts to consolidate their position as those around them seek to take advantage in their time of need.

When their uncle, the Emperor de-facto, is killed and the empire torn asunder by mysterious magical forces the heirs find themselves in a most precarious position. They are aided only by their protector the stalwart and ever diplomatic Kai and must deal with a cast of self serving nobles, mysterious bandits, enigmatic gypsies and mysterious monks. All in the cause of trying to survey and rebuild the empire.

The book is well written and the tale well told. There's a smattering of olden English words like thee, hale and betwixt, to some they may seem annoying to others part of the flavour of the book. Either way they never really get in the way of the story.

The characters are well defined and I found myself associating the Price with the King of France as portrayed in the recent BBC adaptation of the Musketeers.

The lands in the book are named after the signs of the zodiac and I found myself wanting to know more about them and their inhabitants. Speaking of which they are mix of races from werewolves, to dwarves and vampires and even spiders. Yet it is never made clear what race the heirs or Kai are so we assume them to be human.

There's a character called Skander who appears almost out of thin air and promises more than is written about him within the pages of the book. This left me a little unsure of his purpose and questioning why he was there at all.

There are a few little other plot mechanics that were not quite explained well enough that, along with Skander, made me give this book 4 not 5 stars.

However, I would still recommend you buy and read it, it is worth every penny/cent.

View all my reviews

If you want to get a really good buzz from being an author then there's nothing quite like receiving feedback on your book.

Like this I received from an acquaintance on Google+

Here's something I've been puzzling over for a few weeks:


Surely the true measure of success for a blog is how many people actually read it.  Especially as I'm not really that interested in the monetised side of things.

Here are the recent stats for the blog page-views:

Page-views today:  86
Page-views yesterday: 107
Page-views last month: 1,546

So last month's average was just under 50 page-views per day.

Which is great as:-

A: I don't post everyday

and

B: There were a couple of weeks where my post count was way down, lower than I would like in-fact.

Offset against this I have been doing some pro-active tweeting about some of my most helpful posts and because of this they are seeing a lot more attention.

Dazed And Confused...   24 Mar 2014 - 150
A little less conversation  17 Mar 2014  - 105
Ten Tools of the Trade      7 Apr 2014  - 74

Not huge numbers of page-views yet though so they are having an affect but it's small compared to the average daily page view count or last month's total.

In addition to this I continue to develop my social media presence.

I'm now in the circles of more than 300 people on Google+ and each new blog post gets automatically posted to my account so that has to help.

Also as of today I have reached 6000 Twitter followers, a fairly large milestone in my book, and I definitely tweet about my blog several times a day.

All of this means the number of people my blog reaches is constantly increasing and it's something I am very happy with.  It also means I consider my blog to successful but I am not complacent about it.  I will continue to post regularly and continue to find ways to attract more page views.

I'm thinking about allowing the blog to be used for blog tours next.  Should be fun.

Phil

Pearseus Year 18: The Schism by Nicholas C. Rossis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Having crashed landed on an unknown, but life supporting planet, the remaining crew and passengers set about rebuilding their lives. 18 years after the crash and one man's tyranny will provide to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camels back.

This is a novella in length at best and so there's precious few words spent on character development with the story really focussing on three people and a small number of supporting extras.

Where the story is let down is the extra terrestrial influence that plays such a big part of the story is never explained its just used as a plot device to propel the story along. However there appears to be two influencing forces at the outset but the good side is forgotten after the ship crashes.

It's a good read, well written and enjoyable but ultimately left me wanting greater explanations than were offered by the author.

View all my reviews

Let's be honest that's not strictly true is it.

Not only is age relevant to us as authors in regards to our characters and how old they are but the 'age' in which our novels are set is just as relevant to how they act and behave.

Of course I'm bound to reference George and the Dragon because it's the one work I have, so far, published.

In the novel George is 13.  However it's set at a time when there were barely televisions in homes and there's one only 1 television channel.  For entertainment they had radio, books or they could go and play with their friends.  There's a strong likely-hood that in another year George would be expected to work for a living and contribute to the household income.

Nicholas North on the other hand, who is the hero of my second novel to be released around November this year, is 11 but lives in an alternate reality modern England.   His life would be completely alien to that of George.  He'll have access to tablets, games consoles, computers, cable or satellite TV.  Playing outside, climbing trees, getting dirty etc will hardly flash up on Nicholas' radar he is just not that sort of kid.

Age and period, which is probably a better term for when a novel is set, is vitally important to us as authors. Especially when you start setting your book in historical times.

A child before the late 1950s/1960s even in teenage years was treated very differently to the way they are now or were during the rock and roll era.

The term teenager for example was coined in the 1950s.  I think of this era as being the Teenage revolution. It marks the point when, due to economic growth, teenagers were liberated;  they had their own music, fashion, hair-dos etc.

From here you have the vast diversity that makes up teenage life through the 70s,80s,80s and into the 21st Century and then on into the future.

It's interesting to note that Back to the Future heads to 21 October 2015.  So while this blog isn't about predicting the future I wonder if teenagers will be riding hover-boards, with shoes that are self adjusting and food cooked in Hydraters.  I suspect not but that's the difficulty with the future.  With history we don't have to predict it just make sure we are true to it the future on the other hand is a whole different ball game.

The other point of this post is slightly different.  I'm not an 11 year old,  I haven't been one for 31 years truth be told.  I don't have children in this age bracket either.  My eldest being only 6 years of age.

So I have the interesting conundrum of writing about an age bracket with whom I have only passing familiarity.  I suspect I'll be calling on the children of friends who are in that age bracket to double check I'm getting it right.