Online Book Awards: the end of the year mentions that make the year's work so worthwhile

At the end of each year I look forward to putting together my 'Best of' list of the memorable books of the year.  I love to spread the word about my favourites, especially if they're self-published, just starting out, don't have a huge following, or whatever, because it's so damn hard to gain recognition in these days of total market saturation and goodness knows how many millions of books on Amazon already, with thousands more being released each month.   So here's my favourite books of 2016, if you aren't amongst the *large number* of people who've already looked at it on my book blog!

Another reason I like to put this list together each year is that there is nothing quite like discovering your book on someone else's 'best of the year' list.  Almost more than anything, these accolades make all the hard work and the 'oh God I've just written 30K words of total garbage' days worth it.  I was over the moon to see The Devil You Know on four book blogger 'best of the year' posts.  So a big huge enormous thank you to Lizanne: Lost in a good book, Between The Lines, Mrs Bloggs' Books and Alison Williams :).  

I was also delighted to see The House of York named in EmmabBooks' list of 5* rated books for 2016.  I'm so grateful for all the reviews for both books this year, and for my novella Best Seller which I released in March.  I was surprised and bowled over to see it named as 'Favourite Overall' for 2016 on Ellie Firestone's blog.  I got this book ready for publication whilst laid up in bed after a knee op.  Being immobile had its upside!  My husband got me one of those table things like they have in hospitals, for my laptop; through February, March and April my world was my bed, my crutches and my laptop on that table.

I think anyone who tries to sell something they've produced, be it a book, music, art, whatever, spends half the time assailed by self-doubt, and the validation of a reader considering your work good enough for a 'best of' post is such a confidence booster.

   
So, will I be calling myself 'award winning'???  I love what fellow writer Carl Rackman said.  He's going to call himself an award winning author, because he won awards for swimming in 1987, and he's an author.  My husband made the same suggestion to me a while back: "They don't know the award is for the backstroke" (and no, I won't be calling myself an 'award winning author'!). 

 

Thank you :)

I've just finished the first Kindle Countdown promotion for my latest book (yes, I'm fed up with the sight of it too, can't even bear to type the title), and it's been even more successful than I'd hoped.  All the posts I've ever read about maintaining success after a sales spike tell me you have to keep madly promoting to capitalise on your potential Amazon algorithm fab-ness, but to be honest I can't face it.  Perhaps I'm fairly crap at this marketing stuff after all.  Last week's sales hardly put me in the bestseller leagues, but they show what you can do without paid promotion, and with a bit of hard work ~ and help.

.... which is what this post is about.  I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped me spread the word around :)

The highest point it reached in the Amazon UK chart was #2124, and it actually slipped into the Psychological Top 100 chart, which is a really hard one to get into, as it's filled with all those hugely popular and mega-selling 'exciting new psychological thriller busting at the seams with suspense and unguessable plot twists so astounding that you will spontaneously combust in amazement and your house might explode too' books that are the new black.  Nearly all the 'also boughts' on my book's Amazon page are now of this type, so I am hoping it will contine to appeal to readers who love this 'grip lit', as my online friend Louise Marley told me it's called.  And that they won't be disappointed about the lack of abducted children/girls on trains/dodgy teachers/gender surprises (though there is a bit of domestic abuse in The Devil You Know.  Okay.  I admit it).

Anyway... much of the success of this promotion has been down to the sharing and retweeting of others, so THANK YOU.  It's also down to some great reviews from book bloggers that, simply by luck, happened to come out this week ~ so a double big thank you to Mrs Bloggs' Books, Whispering Stories and Alison Williams, and to judithanne and thrillergirl who also reviewed it on Amazon this week.  And to all Mrs Bloggs, Alison and Whispering followers who shared the reviews of my book, and everyone who has enjoyed and taken the time to review it since it came out last month, because it's those reviews that make people think, "yeah, I'll risk 99p on this."

I know some writers don't rate Kindle Countdown, but if you wait until the book has a fair few good reviews then really push it to the point of people threatening to slice your head off if you tweet it once more, you can get good results.  I didn't promote it anywhere else (didn't mention it on Facebook or Goodreads).

Michonne: 'If I see one more tweet about that wretched book....'

A word about not paying loads of money out.  I don't have an editor; everything you read is all my own work, ha ha!  Editing your own stuff is something you can learn to do, it just takes practice, hard and repetitive work, and not being precious about what you've written.  By which I mean being as honest as the strictest editor would be about whether something works or not.  I get that not everyone has the mindset to do this (because we're all different), which is why those really good editors exist!  Of course I have a proofreader, because everyone needs one.  I've never paid a penny for promotion, either.  Which is, clearly, why I am not as successful as I might be, but the freedom that my choice of self-publishing brings means that the promotion is all on YOU, too.  Amazon sales are all about visibility.  The problem with most low selling books that are just as worth reading as those in the top 1000 is simply that hardly anyone knows they're there.  If they did, they might buy them. 

THANK YOU again to everyone who helped make this a success for me :)

(Btw, The Devil You Know is always free on Kindle Unlimited.... oh shut up).

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW at half price

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is on offer: just 99p/99c from Oct 4-10

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon.com, (and all other Amazon sites).  Lots of very good reviews, from both book bloggers and the reading public :)

What would you do if you feared the serial killer was someone you knew, loved, or maybe even a member of your family?

Every serial killer is someone's friend, spouse, lover or child.... 

Young women are being murdered in the Lincolnshire town of Lyndford, where five people fear someone close to them might be the monster the police are searching for.

One of them is right.

Juliet sees an expert's profile of the average serial killer and realises that her abusive husband, Paul, ticks ALL the boxes.  

Maisie thinks her mum's new boyfriend seems too good to be true.  Is she the only person who can see through Gary's friendly, sensitive façade? 

Tamsin is besotted with her office crush, Jake.  Then love turns to suspicion... 

Steve is used to his childhood friend, Dan, being a loud mouthed Lothario with little respect for the truth.  But is a new influence in his life leading him down a more sinister path? 

Dorothy's beloved son, Orlando, is keeping a secret from her—a chilling discovery forces her to confront her worst fears. 

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is a character-driven psychological drama that will keep you guessing until the very end.

The Devil You Know ~ out on October 4th!

Every serial killer is someone's friend, spouse, lover or child....

Young women are being murdered in the Lincolnshire town of Lyndford, where five people fear someone close to them might be the monster the police are searching for.

One of them is right.

Juliet sees an expert's profile of the average serial killer and realises that her abusive husband, Paul, ticks ALL the boxes. 

Everyone likes Pru's new boyfriend—except her teenage daughter, Maisie.  Is she the only one who can see through Gary's friendly façade?

Jake fancies Tamsin.  Tamsin loves Jake.  But then her love turns to suspicion...

Steve is worried.  Is his childhood friend, Dan, just being his usual, misogynistic self, or has a new friend's influence taken him down a more sinister path?

Dorothy's beloved son, Orlando, is keeping a secret from her, and a chilling discovery forces her to confront her worst fears.

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is a twist-rich, character-driven psychological drama/thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end!

The Devil You Know

Looking at release in early October or possibly before, cross fingers and touch wood!  It's just taken off on its last proof/test read.....

Every killer is someone's son, husband or boyfriend...

The Devil You Know is a psychological drama/thriller/murder mystery.  A move sideways for me, rather than a complete change in genre, because it's still very much character-driven and based on close human relationships.

So what's it about?  There's a serial killer at large in my fictional town of Lyndford in south Lincolnshire, and five people fear that he might be someone close to them.  One of them is right....

It's not a detective or police procedural novel and doesn't centre around the solving of a crime, but is still a 'whodunnit', beause the killer's identity is a mystery until late in the book.  A few chapters are told through the eyes of the victims, with snapshots from the points of view of the detectives, but, essentially, the story centres around these five:

Juliet wonders where her controlling, violent husband goes at night, and when a TV crime expert lists the characteristics of your average multiple murderer, she realises they could be describing the man she's been married to for twenty-four years.

Steve has been friends with Dan since childhood, but a new friend has brought out the worst in him.  Is 'the worst' more terrifying that Steve dares to imagine?

Tamsin is in love with her colleague on the local newspaper.  When Jake rejects her, she begins to look at him with new eyes.

Maisie loathes her mother's new boyfriend.  Her best friend teases her that Gary is the Lyndford Strangler, but could her joke have hit the nail on the head?

Dorothy loves her son, Orlando, more than life itself ~ which makes her suspicions about his secret life so heartbreaking that she fears for her sanity.

Fun version done with some Vincent Van Gogh stylee thing - makes it look like a horror novel!

I'm aiming to get it out in early October (possibly September), cross fingers.  Thanks for reading :)