Lovely Easter weekend away

We had a great Easter weekend away last week in Suffolk, where we rented a barn conversion for three nights. The barn, called Middleton Granary, was really stunning—beautifully appointed, very clean and furnished to an extremely high standard. The owners even left us a homemade coffee and walnut cake, which we particularly enjoyed with our afternoon tea! You can check out photos of the barn on the owners’ website.

Suffolk is a very beautiful part of the UK—largely rural and very unspoilt in parts—and we thoroughly enjoyed the peace, quiet and resident wildlife. We also managed to fit in visits to several local attractions. Things that we particularly enjoyed were: Thelnetham Windmill—a windmill dating from 1891 which has been restored, is now working again, and can sometimes be visited. We were given a guided tour by a couple of very knowledgeable local volunteers. Ickworth—a beautiful Italianate mansion run by the National Trust. We particularly enjoyed the extensive 'below stairs' exhibition which really gave you an insight into the workings of a grand stately home. We also enjoyed eating our lunch in the sunshine on the terrace overlooking the croquet lawn. And, one especially for the kids, Bressingham Steam and Gardens—where you can ride on narrow gauge steam engines, play on the adventure playground, ride on a carousel, and enjoy 17 acres of beautifully planted gardens.

At the same time as all of this, I was running a free promotion for my latest novel, "Travels on a Greyhound Bus", and so keeping an eagle eye on its chart position and sales figures. Happily, it did really well—visit the post on my News page for details!

Very successful free promotion!

My first free promotion for my novel "Travels on a Greyhound Bus" finished at eight o'clock this morning, and it was a good one.

I had over 3,000 downloads, the book stormed into the Amazon.com free charts at #2 in the Family Life genre, and someone who had downloaded the book during its free period read it immediately and gave it a five star review! Throughout the free period, "Travels" fluctuated between #2 and #5 in Family Life, and #7 and #18 in Women's Fiction. Result!

Having been sceptical at first, I have to say that I now really enjoy the whole independent publishing scene. I have two books independently published so far and am working on a third. I love the freedom that you have to design your book how you want to, to price it as you wish, to decide whether and how to run free promotions. And I love the speed of the whole process -- once you've decided to publish, you can just go ahead and do it.

Despite the success of this promotion, there is one thing that I do find frustrating.You can never quite work out why your promotion has gone well. So, this book did really well in the US during its promotional period, but less well in the UK, whereas my other book, "A Matter of Degree", did much better in the UK in its free promotional period. Why? I don't know.

But maybe that's a perennial marketing problem, rather than an independent publishing one. Maybe its never that clear why one approach goes well and another less well. Still, if the formula works, stick to it -- and that's what I intend to do!

"A Matter of Degree" tops the bestseller lists!

I ran a four-day free promotion for my book "A Matter of Degree" last week and it went fantastically. At its peak, my book reached #3 in Contemporary Fiction and #4 in Women's Fiction in the Amazon.com free Kindle books charts. And downloads were in the thousands.

I hadn't expected this at all. And, as all authors who do free promotions will tell you, it's impossible to know why a particular promotion goes so well. But, whatever the reason, I am very, very pleased.

So far, paid downloads after the promotion are also doing well. So fingers crossed this continues!

You can download your copy of "A Matter of Degree" from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

"A Matter of Degree" FREE 4-7 July

Following the success of my last free promo, I'm going to do another one!

My novel "A Matter of Degree" will be FREE for four days -- Thursday 4 July until Sunday 7 July -- on Amazon.

This is a fun, light read which blends romance and mystery. It has good reviews and is rated 4.5 stars on Amazon.

You can download your free copy at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com.

Enjoy!