daviddelaney70

Promoting Book 1, Writing Book 2 and A One Star Review

Blank notepad over laptop and coffee cup on office wooden table

Okay to start with I’m still having an awesome time floating around the sea of self publishing. It’s a wonderful place to be but has it’s ups and down like everything else we do in life.

First to promoting book 1. I’ve found some really good places to promote The Vanishing. Bknights, who came to me as a recommendation from other writers was great. The result was nice and again were a very easy place to do business with. Pixelscroll were just okay. I sold some but not a lot for the price I paid for them.
Overall though the book has been within the top 20 and top 50 in it’s categories which I’ve been incredibly happy about. The enigmatic Amazon algorithms Gods have picked it up and advertising it here and there.
I also did an Author interview with R J Madigan over on her blog. If you want to check it out head over to http://swordofair.net/blog

Writing book 2 is a tough one. I seem to be taking my time with it. I had a decent 15k done but scrapped it when I felt it just wasn’t what I wanted for book 2 in the Dean Cornell series. I went back to the drawing board. Rewrote the outline in it’s entirety and started the book again. It’s sitting at 4,237 words and I’m happier with it. Not sure what the upper word count is for this one but it’ll be in the 65k to 75k range again.

Now to the one star review. I know this happens to all writers and believe me I’ve now started reading other review of writer who I love to read. Some of the one and two star reviews are just plain mean. Now when I saw mine on Amazon I felt a little shocked, mainly I think because it’s the first but I needed an analogy. Something to compare it to and here it is.
…Do you know when you’re on holiday or it’s been really humid day and mosquitoes decide your exposed skin looks like an all you can eat buffet. Some people spray repellent on themselves. I lather it on because I hate being bitten. So most of us know the feeling that comes from knowing you’ve been eaten alive by the little pests even though you’ve covered yourself in repellent. It’s a feeling of pissed off combined with ‘why me?’…
That’s my analogy. I knew it was going to happen but I still had the shocked feeling of ‘why me?’ Now the next phase (the scratching of those bites) has comes from reading other writers reviews and writing this post but I knew like all itches it’ll pass and I’ll be bitten again someday. I’ll take the One Star on the chin, write the next book and laugh off the next… or buy stronger repellent.

Now lastly I want to let people know what I’m reading and what I’m going to read next as well as links to find these great books.

Reading:
The Witness by Zach Bohannon. Grab a copy on Amazon.
Black Star Canyon, Season One by C.C. Wall. Also available on Amazon.
The Dream Engine (Audiobook) by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant. Amazon link here (o:

Gonna Read:
On Writing by Stephen King. Think I need some inspiration.
Sixth Cycle by Carl Sinclair and Darren Wearmouth. This book is smashing the upper end of the Amazon charts and the authors are really nice guys.
Super Charge Your Kindle Sales by Nick Stephenson. This man is obviously some kind of Indie Author genius and if I can learn something from him I’ll sure try.

Anyway, that’s me.

How have things been going for people out there?

Published by daviddelaney70

Weaving words into characters and worlds is something I live for. Writing is something I used to love as a kid. Sitting through English class as a teenager was the only period in school where I stayed awake and learned something. When I left I followed a path that would take me away from my passion. Now I’ve finally taken the road less traveled and decided to commit words to page and screen in order to imagine worlds filled with characters all with their own stories to tell and me as the guide. If a story causes you to feel any one of the myriad of emotions we all possess as human beings then I’ve done my job as a writer. I’m an Irishman hailing from Dublin but now living in Sydney, Australia. I’ve come to meet people from all over the globe. I love listening and learning about others. We’ve all got a story to tell whether we write it down or not. There’s not a form of entertainment I don’t like. Movies such as Ghostbusters, Beetlejuice, Jurassic Park and Blade Runner kept me up late into the night as a kid (even if I shouldn’t have been watching them). Later on I found video games. Resident Evil and Silent Hill on the original iteration of the PlayStation blew me away. Books were a constant though. While I fall in and out of love with movies and games, books have always stayed with me. The first book I ever read cover to cover was ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes when I was 8. I borrowed it from a traveling library that came to my school. I moved on to the Famous Five, The Hardy Boys and every Roald Dahl novel I could get my hands on. As I got older I began to love the likes of King, Koontz and Barker. Their magical ability with the written word transported me to somewhere new each time I opened the pages of their books… books that I still love today. I am inspired by all of the above as well as other great writers such as Neil Gaimon, Kylie Chan, Sean Platt, Johnny B. Truant, David W. Wright, J. Thorn, J. F. Penn and David Gaughran. These are just some of the amazing writers who I follow and learn from through their meticulously crafted works of fiction and non-fiction. If you want to join me on this journey and check out my future works please sign up to my mailing list. You’ll be the first and foremost to hear of new releases. No spam, I promise (it’s bad for you).

6 comments

  2. I keep reminding myself that a person does not grow or become better with out some challenges to over come and use to gain experience and knowledge. I don’t think it will help me either with one star reviews, but it’s all I got 🙂

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  3. I know its a cliche David but ‘don’t let the haters in.’ I think it’s hard for us writers because we are also a sensitive bunch. Haters will always hate. I got a 3 star review on goodreads – not disastrous I know but I was just getting a bit too used to 5 star reviews and I cried for about a week. I was only pulled out of my pit by my husband and a published author who told me The Sword of Air was beautifully written. Then I thought what does some fifteen year old kid on goodreads know about writing. Chin up. You are doing well. You’ve made a better crack at book two than I have. Maybe we should start a virtual support group for when we get bad reviews – a bit like AA with other authors online to help us all cope. Really enjoyed the Q@A author interviews we did! Rae

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