After touring Europe by rail, I have begun work on the second draft of the fifth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, The Favourite Murder. My intention with this book is to submit it to one of the independent publishers such as Joffe, Storm, Bloodhound, Boldwood, or Hobeck. I hope that the quality of the manuscript, the back catalogue, and the reviews by Kirkus, Love Reading and the Historical Fiction Company may sway one of them to publish.
If that fails, then I can continue with KDP. Yes there are the expenses of an editor, the cover designs, reviews, audio book narrator, etc., but there are positives too. I have read many authors saying that there is a sweet spot between five and seven books where sales develop a momentum. If I did develop that momentum then at least I would take all the royalties.
Talking of momentum, my website seems to be gaining it. It was just over three years ago that a book publicist, Brian Feinblum, told me that I had to have a website, and that I had to post every day. Well finally I seem to be getting noticed by Google. Something seemed to click around the 6th of June, and the referrals are growing. So I shall keep posting, and keep working on the SEO (search engine optimization). Hopefully publishers will like my marketing efforts, and if not, I’ll stick with it anyway.
You may be wondering about the tour of Europe. No it wasn’t a book tour, just a holiday. However we did visit cities which feature in my books. Galileo appears in Fire and Earth and it was wonderful to visit the University of Padua, see his desk, and visit the room where he lectured. I had forgotten that Francis Walsingham studied in Padua. It was Walsingham that Sir Anthony Standen (the elder brother of my 10th great-grandfather) provided with detailed intelligence on the Spanish Armada. Claire and I agree that our favourite city was Mantua. Neither of us had heard of it before I began writing The Favourite Murder. Marie de Medici had to deal, amongst many other things, with the Crisis of the Mantuan Succession. It’s a wonderful city.