Crunch Time…

Crunch time!

Captain Cobbler: the Lincolnshire Uprising 1536

OK folks – it is CRUNCH time for me here – and maybe for you out there in cyber world, reading this post. I have to now swallow my modesty… (“MODESTY, I hear you shout?! What modesty, he’s been telling us about this blasted novel for ages now!”) … and ask a favour or two of you.

You can stop reading at this point if you like…I won’t hold it against you, but for the brave hearts amongst you please read on…

… …

… OK …Thank you for staying with me!

I think, perhaps, that you know I finished my novel…? Yes, OK, I thought you would say that… and I am sure that most of you probably know it is about to be launched onto the unsuspecting public. I will launch it “officially” in Louth, Lincolnshire, England on 1st October 2013, which is the 477th anniversary of the start of the event which was sparked off by my namesake Nicholas Melton, a shoemaker in Louth, in the reign of Henry VIII.

Notwithstanding the fact that I wrote the novel, the STORY, itself, (the true story that is) is quite an important one for people in Lincolnshire, particularly, since it is part of our heritage. And, for people not in Lincolnshire, it is a tale of some naïveté on the part of ordinary people faced with change and a tyrannical regime with an overbearing King. But I will say no more on that for those of you who wish to read the story!

So, Why is it CRUNCH time?

For this reason… I would like the novel to make as big a “SPLASH!” as possible in the 2013 Christmas gift market and – for an independently published book – this will only happen if ordinary booksellers are persuaded that there is a market out there and decide they want to stock and display the book. You realise, of course, that I am marketing this book myself since it is being printed-on-demand in the “Indie market”, rather than through the traditional publishing route.

I did this for two reasons:-

1 I wanted to tell the story ‘my way’ rather than have it heavily edited and that has led to the second reason –

2 It is a substantial book – about 530 pages – and I was given to understand that the traditional publishers would only look at a book this size from a previously recognised author – Dan Brown, John Grisham and JK Rowling spring to mind.

Actually there is a third reason, too, “it is much more FUN, for a marketing professional like me!”

So, Where do you come in…?

I cannot do this myself. And I therefore need to rely on the goodwill of friends and relations to help me start the ball rolling, please. Actually you do not have to buy the book yourself – but, of course, I do hope you will!

What I really need to do is to generate some awareness and excitement around the launch (I am doing quite a lot myself, by the way. I will give you all the details in my next blog post in a day or so, to convince you, if you need it, that I am very serious about all of this – but the proof that I believe in this book, myself, is that I am flying from Brazil to England this week to undertake its promotion. And then, in a month’s time, I shall be flying back to Brazil via New York to launch the book in the United States. So I really am putting my money where my mouth is …or in this case, where my computer keyboard is!)

Book stores – WHSmith, Waterstones in the UK, and Barnes and Noble in the US, just to name a few – will only stock the book and put it on display if its early sales look promising. And that means getting the book onto the so-called “best-seller” lists – so we need to generate LOTS of sales in the first week or so of the book’s life in the market. Literally the first week – so let us say we need the sales to reach an early peak during the week commencing Monday 30th September.

The saving grace of this situation is the rapid market shift to ELECTRONIC books, of course – so I have taken a strategic decision to price the e-book at a level which should mean relatively easy sales via the internet, once people know it is there. More about pricing in the next post as well.

The e-books will be $2.99 and about £1.99 respectively – so price should not be a barrier against purchase, even if someone is only vaguely interested. And if they are disappointed they won’t feel too cross at how much they have “wasted”! By the way my first review said the following about the book…

“With a cast of more than a hundred characters—many genuine historical figures”, the author, “…channels the spirit of his namesake…while presenting a vivid portrait of early 16th-century England during a most tumultuous time. With a thread of insurrection sewn throughout, the novel unfolds a colourful tapestry of the townsfolk of Louth and surrounding Lincolnshire as they debate and execute their plan to take on the royals.” (Kirkus reviews)

So, I hope readers will NOT be disappointed anyway!

What am I asking you to do…?

1 For those of you who want to buy the book, then please do so, and, if you have time to read it soon and would like to post a “customer review” on the online site where you bought it that would be great. And please be honest, if you don’t really like it please don’t ‘fib’ for me!
2 Please pass this information on to your circle of friends and family – for example you can email people and simply refer them to this blog-post. This should have a great “multiplier effect”, something marketers love to have. Remember 1st October is the key date for action!
3 If you DO like it and you are in a position to influence a library, or a school history course, or literature course, or whatever and you want to recommend the book – then don’t let me stop you!
4 If you have any sympathetic media contacts then please tell ‘em about me and put them in touch with me.
5 I shall Tweet about this post, so if you want to Retweet RT, then please do so – we might as well take advantage of our ‘new’ technology!
6 If you have a Facebook page – then please put this on YOUR timeline – it will go on mine anyway. …and finally…
7 If you are near where I am having a book-signing then please come along and I will happily sign your book for you …oh …and REALLY finally…

8 If you can think of anything else that might work please add a comment below

I will tell you more about what I am going to be doing in my next post – probably tomorrow before I fly to England.

And THANK YOU for Reading this far!

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