Almost missed this myself, but it’s one year since I published GHOST IN THE MACHINE…  (One thing to note is that the weather was a lot better this time last year…)
It’s been a hell of a year.  That date was the culmination of four solid months tearing the previous draft apart and getting something that I was pleased with.  Looking back, I think I could have done it a lot better given what I’ve learned in the last year, but I’m not one for revisionism.  Or am I…?
Here are some stats –

• I sold 1,066 copies of it when I was still charging for it, making £339 (using today’s translated currencies)
• I’ve given away 20,158 copies since it became free in January 2013, mostly with Amazon but a large chunk with Barnes & Noble
• I gave away 4,569 copies in Amazon KDP free events in a three month 2012
• It hit #10 in the UK Free chart in September (NOTE – if you’re doing KDP free days and you hit the top 100, add more days after it, you won’t regret it) – the other free days were damp squibs
• It’s currently floating around #80 in the UK Free Chart (oscillating between 60 and 85)
• I’ve sold 29 paperbacks at >£8 on average
• I’ve had 85 x 5*, 45 x 4*, 6 x 3* and 1 x 2* in the UK plus 14 x 5*, 20 x 4*, 1 x 3* and 1 x 2* in the US.  That is an amazing response – I can even forgive the 2* reviews…
• Amazon is far and away the biggest channel –
  • Amazon – 97.94%
  • Apple – 0.02%
  • Barnes & Noble – 1.85%
  • Createspace – 0.14%
  • Smashwords – 0.02%
  • Sony – 0.04%

The biggest thing for me, I guess, is that I expected maybe 300 people to get it, if I was lucky.  It hadn’t clicked that I’d had >25,000 people at least download the book.  That is quite staggering given that I’m just a fat bloke with a MacBook Air!
I’ve written three novels since – the two sequels DEVIL IN THE DETAIL and FIRE IN THE BLOOD, plus the first draft of DYED IN THE WOOL – and that really was the springboard to giving me an outlet for my creativity.  Giving away GHOST for free has launched the sales for the sequels through the roof – last week, with GHOST in the top 100, I made >£250, which is more than I took him from my first job after University…
Most of all, I’m really grateful – and pleased – to all the people who’ve loved the book and have spread the word far and wide.  That’s all I have, other than writing, is you guys helping me out.
— Ed

Just wanted to clear a few things up.  I’ve had a few reviews over the last couple of weeks suggesting that GHOST IN THE MACHINE is sexist.
For clarity, I am not, as a person, in any way sexist.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  In my writing, I have expressed and reflected a certain element of sexism to reflect the reality of the world.  GHOST IN THE MACHINE features elements of blatant sexism from the start, primarily from the mouth of Keith Miller – if you read to the end, you’ll know what I mean by that.  It also features strong female characters, PC Caldwell and DS McNeill among others, and all of the incompetency is from male characters – so much so that I’ve had to introduce competent male officers in later books, such as Bill Lamb and Colin Methven (though you haven’t encountered him yet).
Cullen himself is troubled – he is something of a ‘shagger’, but is growing out of it.  People should understand that you can reflect a real world and deal with those issues without becoming that yourself – Cullen sees a fairly broken world, and has been burnt by a previous relationship.  He knows what he wants but he goes about it the wrong way.
I would hate people to think that I am sexist or a proponent of some of the views of certain characters.  There is no real avatar character in the book, though Cullen does occasionally share some of my thoughts about Edinburgh and its architectures.  You can choose to avoid things or to tackle them head on – I’ve done the latter.
— Ed

Saw some seriously upsetting news yesterday – Iain Banks (to be confused with Iain M Banks) has been diagnosed with terminal cancer –
http://friends.banksophilia.com/
Banks is one of my absolute heroes – THE CROW ROAD is one of my very favourite novels, to the extent that is subconsciously ripped it off for the first novel I ever wrote (you’re not getting to see it). As a small town Scottish boy, he was an inspiration to me, having written such rich and varied works. My English classroom at school had a poster for FEERSUM ENDJINN on the wall which is still fresh in my mind twenty years on. His sci-fi and mainstream fiction are very much at the top of both genres.
He has been a serious inspiration on me, not least in the story of how I started writing Cullen novels – I thought I was picking up the hardback of MATTER that morning and instead picked up SCAREDY CAT by Mark Billingham. The rest is history. Needless to say, I probably would have written space opera had it been the other way round…
I seriously hope this is a mistake and he does what Anthony Burgess did and lives another 30 years, but if not then he’s left a fine body of work and a huge impression on a large number of people.
Slainte.
— Ed

I’ve been quite quiet of late, I know, so I thought I’d give a brief update.  Things have been pretty hectic at work and in my personal life (nothing bad, so don’t worry), so I’ve had to curtail the time I’ve spent doing blogging.  Yeah, okay, so I’ve just got a Playstation 3 as well but that’s to help me chill.
I’m still writing, in case you thought that’s what this post was all about.  I’m trying to focus my efforts more and treat it more as a job.  I’m 70% through the first draft of DYED IN THE WOOL, which is of course CULLEN book four.  I’m pretty pleased with the progress so far – I had 155 scenes in my outline, which I’ve trimmed back to 147, but my previous scene average was roughly 1,000 words per scene, so I have been fearful I was writing a labyrinthine book that I’d not finish.  Needless to say, I’ve kept the scenes quite tight and focused so that I can get through the draft.  The second draft will probably be longer and I’ll need to add quite a bit of description, but the project management side of things is helping me get through this beast.  I’ve still not got a fixed release date (though May/June seems likely) – I got myself into a bit of a bugger’s muddle with the last one, so I want to get it through the Alpha readers before I’ll commit to a publication date.  Needless to say, I think it’s good – I’ll only know how good when I do the editing.
It’s the first I will have fully completed on the MacBook though, using my new technique from idea through to final draft.  It’s been written in Scrivener and it had been pretty easy – a hell of a lot more easy than Word.  The previous Scrivener project was FIRE IN THE BLOOD, but that was starting from a fixed point and editing, and then writing and editing.  It’s definitely making me more productive and three full novels per year feels achievable without too much of a stretch.
Regular readers will know that I’ve got a standalone vampire thriller in the works – working title NAIL IN THE COFFIN, though I don’t want people to think that there are vampires in the universe of Cullen and Bain – that will be written and released between Cullens four and five.  It’s all plotted out but I need to do a few admin-y things on it – basics like what’s my character’s name?  What I’m struggling with is what to do after that – it will definitely be Cullen book five, so rest easy – but which of the many stories I could write, I need to decide.  I’ve got three up my sleeve, and I think I’m moving away from the Christmas one (if only for this year) as there are a couple of stories I want to write which will be fresh when they come out.  I’ll announce something in the next newsletter (another casualty of my busy-ness).
Finally, sales have been excellent since FIRE IN THE BLOOD came out and since I made GHOST IN THE MACHINE free.  It’s clear that it’s really hard to make serious money out of ebooks now – by that, I mean it’s harder than publishing and setting the price to 99p – but my sales figures show that it’s possible to make a decent wedge out of it.  Last week, I made the UK minimum wage (based on a thirty hour working week) for the second time in the last month – sadly it’s taxable.  Maybe there is a future in this writing lark after all…
Oh, and I need to get further editions of FIRE out – it’s only on Kindle just now – but really the sales of non-Amazon channels is pretty crap.  Maybe it’s just me, but I think that’s a widely held view.

Just had my 100th review of GHOST IN THE MACHINE on Amazon UK –
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B007U7GQHM/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending
The breakdown is 66 x 5*, 32 x 4* and 2 x 3*.  I’m not one to be a big head and think that I’m awesome or anything, but I’m pleased that so many people love the book, and seem to have gone on to read the others in the series.  The other two are getting a fair amount of loving.
(I know I’ve been quiet of late – been really busy.  I’m up to 43,000 words of draft one of DYED IN THE WOOL, so it’s getting ready for a summer release for definite)
— Ed

Looks like I’ve made a schoolboy error and uploaded the unproofed kindle file rather than the proofed version. It is now live on Amazon with the stupid mistakes I’d made now corrected.
If you bought it over the last few days, hopefully you will automatically get an updated file, but if now then please follow amazon’s advice –
Amazon UK –
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Scott-Cullen-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00B6RFDX0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359357584&sr=8-1
Amazon US –
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Scott-Cullen-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00B6RFDX0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359357584&sr=8-1

If you’ve already purchased your book and subsequently revise the content and re-publish the updated version, you don’t need to re-purchase the book to get a copy. At this time, it’s not possible for publishers to receive the updated file without contacting KDP Support for help. We’re working to automate this feature and appreciate your understanding with our existing solution to manually send the updated content to your device.
We request your explicit permission, and will do the same for any customers who contact us to receive the updated content, prior to sending the revised file because the new version will not have previously saved Highlights, Last Page Read, Bookmarks, and the location of notes may not match. If this is acceptable, please email kdp-support@amazon.com confirming your permission and which title/s you’d like to have re-sent. Thank you.
Note: Customers who purchased the old content can also contact our Customer Service department to have the new file delivered.

Thanks to everyone who’s notified me – I’d been offline for a few days so wasn’t aware till I saw a 2* review on Amazon.com… 🙁
— Ed

Had an amazing review of GHOST in German –
http://www.amazon.de/review/R3FE51THLC3OIQ/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_asr_qru.F.1F170Y7
Choice quote –

Jeder, der gerne schottische Polizeikrimis liest, wie z.B. von Ian Rankin oder Stuart MacBride, wird ziemlich sicher auch die Scott Cullen Serie von Ed James mögen.

— Ed

Well, I published it.  Cullen book three.  It’s available on Amazon Kindle now for £2.95 & $3.99 at the following links –
Amazon UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Scott-Cullen-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00B6RFDX0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359357584&sr=8-1
Amazon US – http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Scott-Cullen-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B00B6RFDX0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359357584&sr=8-1
Other Amazon sites have it as well but may be slightly delayed. Paperback and other eBook formats will be coming in the next week or so. That’s been a hell of a ride (all documented in the afterword), turning a 3,000 word short story into a 27,000 word novella and finally into an 84,500 word novel (slightly shorter than GHOST IN THE MACHINE).  I’m proud of it – I think it’s a good story, it’s got more of Cullen’s personal life than DEVIL, and it’s set me up nicely for DYED IN THE WOOL, Cullen book four.  I’m sticking to a vague publication date of summer to take stress off and allow my editors to not get fed up of me.
Go to it – enjoy it!  It’s yours now, I’m done with it and I’m moving onto DYED IN THE WOOL as of tomorrow morning.
— Ed
 

Really thoughtful piece on outlining, amongst other things, from scifi writer Gary Gibson (I read three of his last year – very good if you’re into Alastair Reynolds or Iain M Banks) –
http://whitescreenofdespair.blogspot.com/2013/01/book-names-outlining-and-future-projects.html
Yet again, good to see someone with my own philosophy. The key point for me is that you do not lose spontaneity by outlining. You save thousands of words and months of work, you don’t write yourself into corners and you know everything that has to happen to support your conclusion. My dialogue is improvised, particularly the complete arsehole that is DI Brian Bain, and gives me free rein to explore my characters – I put some flesh on subplots in later drafts that may come out of improv but I haven’t buggered my story up by going off on a tangent.
— Ed
GHOST IN THE MACHINE (Scott Cullen book one) is FREE –
UK Kindle – http://amzn.to/Ih2ros
US Kindle – http://amzn.to/IzknfQ

Here we go – the artwork to FIRE IN THE BLOOD, Scott Cullen book three –

The countdown is definitely on now.  I’ll admit to feeling blue over the last few days (probably a result of the travelling I did last week) but this is a shot in the arm.  Not long till it’s out and with you – just going through the edits this week, then it’s off with my proof reader to make sure I’ve not made any stupid mistakes when I’ve been correcting my stupid mistakes.  So, definitely on track for 2nd Feb – and you never know, maybe earlier.
— Ed
 

GHOST IN THE MACHINE (Scott Cullen book one) is FREE –
UK Kindle – http://amzn.to/Ih2ros
US Kindle – http://amzn.to/IzknfQ

I’ve made the potentially mental decision to give away GHOST IN THE MACHINE for free. It’s now free on Amazon US and UK, as well as some other places.
 
Go get GHOST IN THE MACHINE (Scott Cullen book one) –
UK Kindle – http://amzn.to/Ih2ros
US Kindle – http://amzn.to/IzknfQ
There’s a hell of a lot of effort gone into that book so go enjoy it!
(In other news, FIRE IN THE BLOOD is back on track – should be out in the next 7-10 days)
— Ed

Bad news, I’m afraid – FIRE IN THE BLOOD is going to be delayed (at least) two weeks and will come out 02-Feb-13 instead of 19-Jan-13.
Apologies for this, but I think it’s necessary.  Bear in mind that I have really scrunched this down – I planned, wrote and edited a full length novel in six weeks – and the delay is that I stupidly didn’t allow the required amount of time for my editors to like edit the book (I’m not this bad at planning at work, but then I control everything).  The first two books have suffered from a bit of “wet ink” when published and had typos and other editing errors which I fixed after the fact.  I’m not promising perfection, but it will be significantly better than the previous books (and will set the standard for future books).  There’s nothing wrong with the book, by the way – one of the two editors said that it’s the best CULLEN yet.  The artwork for FIRE is good to go and I’ll post it in the next wee while.
One thing to remember is that I’m a wee guy (well, not so wee) doing this on my own, with some astounding help.  Ian Rankin’s excellent STANDING IN ANOTHER MAN’S GRAVE, for instance, was finalised in early July but wasn’t published until November.  I’m doing things a bit quicker and fresher with being an indie – I can literally write something and publish it.  I’ve never been a perfectionist but I want to make sure that I get my books sufficiently polished to stand up to the big boys.
The fourth CULLEN – DYED IN THE WOOL – is pretty much ready to go, and I will actually start writing it on Monday (or maybe over the weekend, who knows).  It’s all plotted out, but probably needs to be reviewed and refined before I set hand to keyboard.  It’s good and builds on the first three (especially the expanded FIRE IN THE BLOOD) and leads the over-riding story I’ve weaved so far to a particular point.  I’ve started the plotting for book five – now called SPANNER IN THE WORKS – and I’m trying to line up a factory process here, where I’ve got three books on the go at any one time in various stages of the process – plotting, writing and editing.  Tricky, but it’s what I want to achieve this year.
In other news, I’ve just finished the plotting for what will be the fifth published ED JAMES novel.  It’s untitled, it has no connection to SCOTT CULLEN (not even a shared universe or anything like that) and it’s about vampires.  It’s not a horror, more of a thriller, and I am really chomping at the bit to write the bugger – but I’ve got DYED IN THE WOOL to get through first.  It’s an idea that I’ve had kicking around for a year or so and sat in the dank, dark recesses of my Evernote notebooks until I took a drive from Haddington to Duns over the Newtonmass break and it sparked my interest in the idea again.  In under two weeks, I’ve fleshed out an entire world and mythology and a completed plot.
I know this is such a horrendous cliche but I think that the primary reason that I’m so productive these days (aside from just committing to writing and getting down to it) is the new MacBook Air I bought in October as a reward for publishing DEVIL IN THE DETAIL.  I’ve managed to go paperless – I used to use loads of notebooks and sheets of A3 to draw my ideas out and work through problems.  Now, I’ve got a slew of Apps on the Mac that really help – Scapple and MindNode Pro for the ideas to plotting stage, Scrivener for the outlining, core writing and publishing, Evernote for storing research (which I’m getting better at) and Wunderlist for managing my To-Do list.  To repeat the cliche – and I know that most of the apps are available in Windows in some form or another – but those apps (and particularly those versions – e.g. the Scrivener OSX app is a version higher than Windows and you can tell) and Scapple isn’t available elsewhere – are really helping me get a solid workflow together.
So, yeah, sorry about the delay – I’ll post updates weekly on a Friday to let you know how FIRE is progressing – but you’ll get another three books out of me this year (at least).  And a huge thanks to Pat and C for doing the editing – unsung heroines but really essential to what I do!
— Ed
 
Buy GHOST IN THE MACHINE (Scott Cullen book one) –
UK Kindle 77p – http://amzn.to/Ih2ros
US Kindle 99c – http://amzn.to/IzknfQ
other channels available – also Scott Cullen book two DEVIL IN THE DETAIL is out now – http://edjamesauthor.com/books/
 

Something that seems to have slipped my mind when I was publishing DEVIL IN THE DETAIL was that the awesome Crime Fiction Lover site reviewed GHOST IN THE MACHINE back in October –

“This squad has an incident room where it is enthralling to be a fly on the wall.  …  Cullen is described with warts-and-all candour; he is not the most instantly admirable crime novel hero, but is all the more convincing for his strengths and weaknesses being revealed.”

Go check it out –
http://www.crimefictionlover.com/2012/10/ghost-in-the-machine/
— Ed
 
Buy GHOST IN THE MACHINE (Scott Cullen book one) –
UK Kindle 77p – http://amzn.to/Ih2ros
US Kindle 99c – http://amzn.to/IzknfQ
other channels available – http://edjamesauthor.com/books/ – also Scott Cullen book two DEVIL IN THE DETAIL is out now!

I’ve just finished FIRE IN THE BLOOD – Scott Cullen book three.
Okay, by that I mean my core writing and editing has been completed.  I’ve sent it to my beta readers for commenting and then line editing.  After that, I’ll make some tweaks but then it’s out there, yours and I have nothing more to do with it.  I’ll start writing DYED IN THE WOOL and forget all about the Crombie clan.  I’ve got a week off this week, where I will do non-writing things and then I think it’s in a good shape to be published on time for the 19th January.
I’ve surprised myself – I’ve finished three full novels in a year.  That’s got to be good.  Considering that I had given up just over a year ago, to have done this is just wow.  There are people I want to thank my other half (for the aggressive editing, the cover art and the support), my parents (for letting me be an idiot), my mate Paul (for encouraging me to dust off GHOST IN THE MACHINE, and the research stuff ) and Pat & Andrew (editing and drinking respectively) for all the support over the last year.  Also, to everyone who has read either of the two published novels, especially those who’ve let me know that they’ve enjoyed it.
Finally, as an early first foot present, here is the first chapter to FIRE IN THE BLOOD (some words may still change but it’ll get you fired up, pardon the pun) –

Doug Strachan stood by a sherry oak barrel mounted on a rack in the damp, cold basement storage room of Dunpender Distillery.  He checked the date on the bottom, and lost himself in reminiscence to eighteen years previously when the barrel had been filled with immature whisky.

Eventually, he set to work and tapped the bung – the stout wooden stopper that kept the barrel whisky-tight – with a large mallet and eased it out slowly, placing it in the pocket of his overcoat for safe-keeping.  He then lowered the dog – a long copper cylinder on a chain – deep into the barrel and allowed it to fill.  Retrieving the dog, he poured the contents into a clear glass bottle and spent a few minutes swirling the bottle and examining the golden liquid.  It looked nice and clean to him, with no noticeable impurities.  It had taken on the lighter colour of the sherry oak cask it had sat in for the last eighteen years and was a worthy candidate for the blend.  Ready to drink, if anything, thought Strachan.  He took a sniff of it and drank in the aroma of the unblended spirit for perhaps a bit too long.

Replacing the bung, he moved over to the second barrel of the pair – this one a darker bourbon cask to compliment the softer sherry oak of its sibling when they were blended together.  He tried to remove its bung but it was stuck fast.  A good few hits with the mallet and it finally slackened off.  He wiped his forehead with a handkerchief – he shouldn’t be sweating in the room given how cold it was, but he hadn’t expect any form of exertion and he was dressed in a few layers.  He dipped a second dog into the barrel.

It hit something hard.

Frowning, he retrieved the dog – it had only filled a fraction.  It danced about on the chain and spilled its contents onto the cracked flagstones of the floor.  He picked the torch up and shone it into the barrel, angling the light to cut through the liquid.

The torch shone on a human head.

(Note that Dunpender is an entirely fictional distillery – Cullen, Irvine and Bain were drinking their produce in DEVIL IN THE DETAIL)
Cheers!
— Ed
 
Buy GHOST IN THE MACHINE (Scott Cullen book one) –
UK Kindle 77p – http://amzn.to/Ih2ros
US Kindle 99c – http://amzn.to/IzknfQ
other channels available – http://edjamesauthor.com/books/ – also Scott Cullen book two DEVIL IN THE DETAIL is out now!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 9 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Just had the fiftieth five star review for GHOST IN THE MACHINE!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B007U7GQHM/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1
I suppose that’s one thing I missed from the stat explosion I had this morning, but it’s the part that’s truly mindblowing for me – people with no connection to me are buying and loving my work!  Overal, I’ve had another 24 4* reviews and two 3* (though I suspect that one is a misplaced 5* but maybe the reviewer had ultra-high standards…) and it’s got an average of 4.6/5.
DEVIL is doing even better, with 18 5* and one 4* (which the reviewer says is a 4 1/2), and an average of 4.9/5.
(Note that I’ve never paid for a review!)
— Ed
Buy GHOST IN THE MACHINE (Scott Cullen book one) –
UK Kindle 77p – http://amzn.to/Ih2ros
US Kindle 99c – http://amzn.to/IzknfQ
other channels are available

Not quite a full year, given that I didn’t publish GHOST IN THE MACHINE until mid-April, but I thought I’d do a summary of the statistics that I’ve managed to acquire in that first year.  Bear in mind that I started with nothing but a book – I had no “author platform” and no big publisher’s marketing budget.  Everything I’ve done is off my own back – I could have used a lot of that time to write more, but I think I’ve got a good blend just now.  I’ve logged my sales on a weekly basis, though I check them hourly sometimes :(, and have done since day one.
So, where to start – ah, yes.

BOOKS

I’ve published 190,000 words over two books, plus I’ve written 82,500 of FIRE IN THE BLOOD.  That’s a shitload – and bear in mind that GHOST went through 9 drafts before I’d sorted it out, including at least two almost starting again, so there’s probably another 50,000 or so words that I’ve written and junked (though they weren’t this year!).  GHOST was picked up last Boxing Day at 55,000 words of a revised edit – I wrote another 20,000 to finish it then edited it furiously, adding another 12,000 words by the time it was eventually published.  Next year, I will hopefully exceed that with FIRE, DYED IN THE WOOL and BOOK FIVE (either DROP IN THE OCEAN or DEAD IN THE WATER)…

SALES

Okay, so I’ve had two books out for over two months now, almost three.
GHOST has been on sale for 37 and has sold 879 as of this morning – and that’s sales where people have spent money on my book (I’ll come on to freebies below).  I dropped the price to 77p in the UK and the sales have gone up a bit (with a staggered increase in DEVIL) but it’s too early to draw inferences from it.
DEVIL has been on sale 12 weeks (just shy of three calendar months) and has sold 246 copies.  Given that the price for that book is £2.95 (and equivalent), I’m gobsmacked by that number of sales.  If I’m ever going to make a living out of this, it’s selling at a high price that gets the bucks in – I’ve made £115 more from DEVIL than GHOST.  I’m pleased to report that the market does seem to support higher priced novels – the challenge I face next is how to get more people to read the first and then move on to others.  It’ll be interesting to see what knock-on effect publishing FIRE IN THE BLOOD in the next three weeks will have on the other two, if any, and whether it follows a similar pattern to DEVIL or dances to its own tune (bear in mind that DEVIL has a large cross-over with events in GHOST whereas FIRE is more standalone).

SALES CHANNELS

One thing that interests me is the number of channels an indie author can publish to these days.  There are a proliferation of eBook stores now – Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Apple’s iBooks and others.  Smashwords is a useful service to get published on the non-Amazon channels as they aggregate and publish for you.
Also, as well as eBooks, I sell paperbacks through Amazon’s Createspace Print-on-Demand subsidiary.  It has picked up a bit recently (potentially because of Christmas) but I’ve sold a tiny fraction of my books there.
Anyway, enough chat – here’s a picture.

The conclusion is stark – Amazon is the only way to go.  Bear in mind that only GHOST is available on non-Amazon platforms, it’s quite alarming how many I’ve sold.  Smashwords itself hasn’t been a roaring success – I’ve sold more in Germany than on Smashwords itself – but I only managed to get through to their premium in December (and GHOST had been exclusive to Amazon for the three months prior to that), so perhaps I’m not an appropriate sample.  That said, tracking and analysing helps me work out my focus for the next activities…
Internationally, I’ve done well – the US has a strong market for Scottish crime fiction seemingly.  I’ve had some sales in Germany, Norway, Denmark, Italy, France and Germany, too.

FREEBIES

I mentioned there that I’d been “exclusive” to Amazon for three months with GHOST.  What that actually means – and it sounds like I’ve got something from them – is that I’ve tied myself to them exclusively for a three month period and in exchange I get some additional promotion (and I’ve had emails from them advertising my own books!) and the ability to give my book away free for five days out of the ninety.  Now, I did that and to varying degrees of success.  I didn’t do this until September – I’d not proofed the book before publishing (lesson learned there!) – and so I’ve only done one set of promos.  The idea is that you give it away for a day or two and you get a sales spike afterwards from Amazon’s “people who bought this also bought” feature.

Day 1 & 2 –

I gave it away in early September on a Saturday and Sunday.  I did no promotion on it at all.  It got to #10 on the overall Amazon chart (there are some fragments in Google still alluding to this) on downloads of 3,064.  The very next day I sold 89 copies, then 23 and then back to the usual, although it was slightly higher.

Day 3 & 4 –

I had read somewhere that staggering it with a day inbetween is better as it gives you a spike day in the middle, so I tried that in mid-October.  Day 3 got me 1,020, more than Day 1.  But I didn’t get much of a spike the next day.  Day 4 only got 271.  If they’d been together, I would probably have repeated the same feat as Day 1 & 2.  Lesson learned there – don’t do that.

Day 5 –

Day 5 was in mid-November.  I had a horrific flu bug but I had managed to preset some blog posts and so on.  This time I promoted it.  … and I had 214 downloads.  Hmmm.

Freebie conclusion –

I think from my experience, the magic of downloads giving sales spikes has gone.  I’ve given away 4,569 books and I imagine that they’re sitting in an unread folder on most of these people’s Kindles.  I have had some nice comments from some freebie readers who’ve gone on to buy DEVIL, but I’d say that this trick has very much had its day.  My 77p price reduction has had a more positive impact – these are people who are committing to your work and generally seem to buy the second book.

SOCIAL MEDIA

I love social media.  Okay, I love Twitter.  Facebook disturbs me in a way I can’t effectively describe – maybe I just find it banal.  Anyway, if you want to chat to me, chat to me on Twitter.  Some social stats – 6,063 Twitter followers, 83 wordpress subscribers, 66 newsletter subscribers, 40 likes on Facebook.
Twitter has been great.  I’ve met so many cool and deliberately uncool people on there, and people who love my book, but also people I’ve connected with – I don’t know if friend is the right word, but people I share serious and unserious banter with.  I’d recommend it to any aspiring author, it’s the place to interact with your readers and it’s given me some good insights into my “author platform” – I’d say about 75% of my readers are female, or maybe just the ones who chat with strangers on the internet (hmm, I’m sure there’s a story in that).
I think next year, I need to focus on Facebook more.  My natural aversion to it – Facebookaphobia? – needs to be overcome!

SUMMARY

In summary, it’s been quite a journey in eight months going from nothing to all of that.  I’ve learnt some tough lessons along the way – I’m paying a proof-reader for FIRE IN THE BLOOD – and I’ve made some good cyberfriends.  Most of all, I’ve really enjoyed writing it all.  Bear in mind that, except for some time at weekends, 80+% of my writing is done on a train commute on my now trusty MacBook Air (and the old netbook, Newton rest its operating system).  That’s a heck of an achievement – I just hope I’m not damaging myself by working this hard…
Now, back to the editing of FIRE IN THE BLOOD.
— Ed
Buy GHOST IN THE MACHINE (Scott Cullen book one) –
UK Kindle 77p – http://amzn.to/Ih2ros
US Kindle 99c – http://amzn.to/IzknfQ
other channels are available

Had a good review of DEVIL from Julie Weight (she reviewed GHOST here) – she’s one of my very favourite book reviewers, so this is a real honour –

“I definitely recommend this series if you like police procedurals. At $3.99 for the Kindle version, this book is a steal.”

http://juliew8.com/book-reviews/review-rating/rated-5/devil-in-the-detail-by-ed-james/
If you haven’t got DEVIL yet, then what are you waiting for?  It’s got 17 5* and one 4* (4 1/2) review on Amazon UK –

And remember, it’s out in paperback too (follow the links to the Amazon Kindle pages).
— Ed

You’ll know from my biography that we’ve got more than a few rescue birds – seven hens, eight ducks (though only three hens). The biggest problem with the birds is that farmers get rid of them every when their egg yield goes down 10% (or just kill the males) and that’s why we rescue them. This happens in free range and organic egg production and is a sensible way to run a business, providing there is an appropriate rehoming going on. Having second year and onwards birds, however, still means you have far more eggs than you know what to do with.
A recent bright idea of ours is to pickle them. My main problem with hard-boiled eggs is getting the shells off. No longer – check this awesome link for a literally magical method:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omBlqW-kZ74
I’ve just done over thirty using that method and it was amazing good fun!
— Ed

… and another book over.  That’s me just finished the writing of FIRE IN THE BLOOD – Scott Cullen book three – and I’m pretty pleased, relieved and comfortable with the end product.  It got a bit hairy towards the end there – I happened down an avenue that I really wasn’t comfortable going down – but I think it’s a sold tale.  Bear in mind that it started out as a 3,000 word short story for Bloody Scotland (rassin’ frassin’ sassin’…), then a 27,000 word novella (that my alpha readers decimated), to turn the world of [well that would be telling] into a 79,647 word novel without stretch is an achievement I’m proud of.  The first two books featured some elements of the surrounding world of Cullen and did it very differently – FIRE features a blend of both and it really enriches the story and the world I’m trying to build up here.  DYED IN THE WOOL features some more of that stuff and this sets a lot of that up nicely and will prevent the sparsity of DEVIL jarring with it.
Also, I’ve pretty much written three full novels in a calendar year (given the state of GHOST twelve months ago…) and I’m just absolutely bowled over by the response I’ve had.  Given that I’m not a name writer (yet :), I’m proud of what I’ve managed to achieve – I’ve had some healthy sales, and I’m pleased with the sales I’ve had for DEVIL (especially at a higher price point).  I can only control so much, and one of the main objectives I’ve got is to get a fair few books out there.  DYED IN THE WOOL is going to follow in April or May, and the fifth Cullen book (DEAD IN THE WATER) is really eating at my synapses just now and I’m aching to plot it out.  I’m grateful to the many loyal readers who are out there reading and loving my work but also recommending it to people – it’s a really hard business this, and I’m so happy to be connecting with people on Twitter than writing in isolation and submitting to agents for rejection after rejection.  I’ve got a big plan that I hope to enact in the next few days, so watch this space.
Now it’s onto a quick copy edit over the holidays.  Then some beta reading.  Then proof reading.  Then published.  Still on track for 19-Jan, but maybe a week or so late…
Now, can I collapse and not get a stinker of a cold…?
Have a great Newtonmas and New Year.
— Ed
 
Buy Scott Cullen books –
http://edjamesauthor.com/books/