Interest from Sloane Crosley

 More books raising interest

Interest in my Writing

The Chronicles of Mark Johnson

Among the stories which are gathering interest is my Award Winning eBook short story selection, The Chronicles of Mark Johnson.

This week Sloane Crosley asked a question I had been asked many times, how much of your character is based on yourself?

The truth is quite a lot, that is probably why Mark feels so real, I put a lot of my personality into him, most notably our distain for the cult of the celebrity.

At the moment, the story is not for sale, as I closed my Draft2Digital page, it never made money. The selection earned an an award in 2012, but never sold. My friend who died last year, asked if she could refine the few errors in editing the story, that began a 13-year friendship.

I planned to re-edit the story, but thought better

Books on Amazon

 Why Bother?

Book Promoters of Twitter

In the last quarter - 3 months - I have been approached by several book promoters on Twitter, the first question I get asked is always, is your book on Amazon?

My reply is No; I did have books on there, but they never sold, so I took them down.

They always tell me, they can boost my sales, what they mean is they can boost their profiles; apparently, there is a lot of interest in my last book, where I don't know. The only interest I have aroused is from a group of promoters in Nigeria, these are no more than college kids with no experience. 

Is this all I am worth?

Out of my League

 It probably wouldn't have worked

                                           Alan Place - Free Agent

For the moment, I am a free agent, until Svitlana and I decide where we wish the friendship to go.

I was looking at the ladies who are taking an interest in me on the mature dating app I use. There are some very attractive ladies looking my way, one of the problems is some of them are out of my league. They are CEO's, business managers, and ladies with a much higher education level than me. It isn't that I feel threatened by their eduaction level, I had a friend in Seattle for over a decade, who was had a University degree, and we got on well. I often suprised her with my ability with words, and my books I was reading.

The issue is what would we talk about?

Collaborative Writing: My Journey with Charity Projects

I wrote for several Charity books 

Alan Place - Award Winning Author

My award winning book of short stories (shown above) was not the first time I had been asked to collaborate with a writer.

Several years before my friend Julia, in Seattle, asked to edit the book, I was invited to write for a series of books for a children's charity.

I was also invited to contribute to a book for the benefit of the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre. One friend asked me to write a romance for her friend who had lost the use of her legs in a riding accident, that project didn't materialise as the lady who had the accident lost interest before we got started.

I was invited to write about my time in the Royal Air Force for a book to help a forces charity, that fell though because of a lack of funding. I have been many times to write about my time in the RAF, the truth is I have no idea where to start; I have vague memories, that is all

Twitter Book Maketeers

 Too little and too late

A forlorn hope

The term "Forlorn Hope," goes back along way; the term means a last stand. It came into public usage during the wars in Spain, when men were promised either a rise in rank, or pay if they succedded in storming a fortress.

The men knew they had little chance to succed, but the "promise" of a better life pushed them forward, few, if any, got their reward.

That is the situation with book marketeers on Twitter about my writing.

1n 2012, when I earned an award, and my eBooks were selling; I may have considered the concept of marketing, now over a decade later with no sales; I have no interest. Another factor is I doubt I would cover my outlay, even if my books sold, before I passed away

Alan Place - Blog Guest

 What made my posts interesting?

About me

Several years ago, I was a regular guest blogger on sites run by colleagues in writing.

What made me a regualr guest?

My posts were rarely about me, my books, or self-promotion. I tried to vary my posts as much as I could, yes, I did post about things of interest to me, but not often. At one time, I was the main blogger on one site, because I was online most days, and the writer in the group with no contract, so I could be relied on to write at a moments notice, and did often

Author in Demand

The Allure of the Older Lady

                              More books raising interest

Again, I have been approached about the promotion of one of my books. This time the book is my Adult Romance set across Europe, the Middle East, and settling in India - Secrets - the book may upset some readers, I didn't intend the story to have LGBT+ themes, but it has some. The story ends with an open ending, if it sold, there is room to begin a series of stories.

As you see from the photo, the cover does NOT feature a young lady with little on the actress on the cover is from Belgium

Are you interested in me?

 Pretty Woman

                                     The Allure of the Older Lady

My story for sale on Amazon, is a break from my usual genre area. This story has a political theme theme, laced with an adult LGBT+ scenario, and a possible series if it sells.

If I am to believe, which I don't believe, it got the interest of a man "claiming" to work for Netflix. I have said often, I can write better than some of the stories I saw on the channel, that is no idle boast. But, with no books published, or an agent to promote my work, the possibility of being noticed is slight, not impossible.

Though I have not considered the possibility of remarrying, I have not discounted the possibility either. The lady would need to be in her late-50's, at the youngest, and interested in me as a person, not only be attracted to me as a lover.

Are you Curious?

The story behind the eBook 

A topic of interest

Many of my eBook stories have interesting back stories; if you are intrigued as to what lies behind a story drop me a note on the blog.

For example the story here - Nerja - this is a story about faith.

The story is set in Canada, far from where I had the idea, my concept was more a science fiction mystery than a short story on religious beliefs.

The only link between my original idea, and the story which earned TWO 5 star ratings on Amazon is they both feature an aircraft in difficulty.

I had the idea of the story while watching a video of a light aircraft flying over Manchester. The aircraft was flying over office blocks, and I thought "What would happen if it disappeared with all those people in view?"

The story could be considered close to the book The Lost Mesa by Louis L'Amour. Though he is a respected writer of western fiction, this book, his last, I found hard to read. That is something I found with other writers who died shortly after their final books. It raises the question, did they care about the book as they knew they were dying, or did they rely on past glories to sell a lack-lustre story?

What do I believe?

 Few sales

Many words are spoken without meaning.

If, BIG if, I am to believe what I have read about my book causing a lot of interest, I could be led to thinking this is a good sign; however I have been here before, and nothing happens.

People tell me that I am a cynic, I won't deny I am, there again having read the words "Where can I get your books," hundreds of times without a sale, can you blame me?

I am not expecting any miracle in book sales, despite the apparent interest, I wonder if the interest is in the USA, or Nigeria?

Not Nigeria again :(

Was I being bullied?

                                                                        A lot of Interest

I have come to attention of readers in Nigeria according to one lady who was supposed to promote my book (above), the book is getting a lot of attention, the question is where, all I get is a lot of attention from book promoters in Nigeria who know less about books, than I do about sex on Mars.

I can't prove it, but I think it was a scam, she hasn't been in touch from mid-July when she posted her link to the book on Twitter, and she doesn't go to the site now.

The writer who pointed me in her direction has also had her account terminates, after harrying me to spend a further $50.00 to have the book added to Amazon, when I had already paid $150.00, after being told it would only cost $100.00

Why did I get so many Twitter followers?

There is no secret

                 I never considered myself attractive to ladies

I was chatting to a young lady on Twitter last week, we were talking about books, and decided to check her profile. The thing which struck me is she will not succeed on Twitter for one reason. Her posts are about her books.

One reason I gained many followers quickly last year is my posts are rarely about me, and are varied ranging across many areas of interest.

One aspect of my rise in followers still amazes me, why do ladies find me attractive? Will I see myself as attractive? Probably not.

One reason could be I treat everyone with respect, and unlike some men, I don't view a lady online as a lady looking for a hook-up.