Novel – Page 112

As I move on with the third draft of my romantic thriller I’ve taken the step of sharing my jacket blurb on Facebook. I’ve also shared Chapter 1 to give a taste of my writing style. My theory is that even if only 1 in 10 people who see the post actually go in and read either one of them then my marketing has started successfully. If I am fortunate enough to attract any reasonable comments I’ll add a second chapter to my blog next month.

Ten Days - Cover idea — A working cover for the e-Book

My graphic is a working cover page for the e-Book and may not resemble the finished article. I’ll use Twitter and local media when the time is right and I’ll continue to plug the story on Facebook. My other intention is to print off and distribute five copies to readers for market research purposes.

The jacket blurb I’ve used is only an experiment and may well change, but the first chapter is close to the finished article as it stands now.

My main investment has been time and effort but depending on the result of my strategy I may have to put money into the pot. I’ve worked out at the moment that a single photocopy of the manuscript is going to cost me £9. If all goes well I hope to recoup whatever outlay I have in that area.

I will very shortly live up to my promise to myself to reduce my retail working hours which will mean a serious drop in pay, but a vast increase in time invested in writing. In order that I don’t look as if my retail work is actually going backwards and out of control, I fully intend to alter my status and profession on any social media with which I’m connected – so watch this space.

Andrew's Walls — The 7 foot x 4 foot mural in preparation

I would suggest that it’s accepted, not all foundations are to do with buildings. For example in my first graphic I’ve demonstrated how I prepared our son’s bedroom wall (a few years ago) before we hung up his Airfix models from the ceiling. It would have been okay to hang them up, but with the backdrop of the Red Arrows in a flypast and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight underneath … now there’s a more complete scene.

Once the wall was painted we then moved on with the job that was well underway; finishing off a couple of models to hang in the corner of the room in front of the mural. So a lot of work was done before, then some support put in place … and the job was complete.

Andrew's Wall plus Airfix (Gouache) — The corner complete with haphazard ariel display

Once again, as is my way, I’ve tried using some sort of analogy for what’s going on with my writing. My action thriller ‘HAWK’, based in Glasgow, is already written up to the end in it’s second draft and waiting to be re-written a third time. I’m happy enough with that for now. I’ve still got my character profiles and relevant information so I’m confident with where I have to go on that one.

My more recent project, which is a collaboration with a distant friend is a romantic tale, interspersed with action. The working title is ‘TEN DAYS’ and it’s set for the main part in Central America. It is now reaching the end of the second draft and as it happens is taking up almost every waking hour. You, dear reader will be able to see from that … I am keen to see it completed.

My aim is to get TEN DAYS completed first and then I have a chosen few who will read it and give me some honest feedback. If it gets the go-ahead from those readers or needs a little more work then it will be dealt with quickly. I’d like to get it up to publishable standard by end of December this year. My aim is self-publishing as an e-book. I have cover and blurb ideas in hand already.

So what’s all the foundation stuff about then? I know I will be responsible for marketing so in an effort to broaden my platform, apart from this blog with it’s new domain name and Facebook, I have joined Twitter and about.me … and added my pages to Google. There will be the small matter of maybe taking out an ad in a local newspaper but we’ll see if I consider that a reasonable idea when I’ve got the book written.

I have to say that although it’s time-consuming and hard work I am thoroughly enjoying the novel writing process. The need for more than one draft becomes fairly obvious after the first attempt at the story and then the second draft highlights just how much more work has to be done! I will get there and one day in the not too distant future I’ll write of it here. I still have no wish to be famous, only successful! That in essence is what all the foundation stuff is about.