Keith's June Newsletter

Keith's June Newsletter

July 01, 2022

Hi All

Life has been a roller coaster of emotion the past few days, which is why this newsletter is a day late. From stress at work to bad reviews to scrabbling to get ready for my first con, I am physically and emotionally spent.

Anyway, here's what happened this month, in slightly more detail.

Work Hard, Work Hard

I hate training. From the stress of not knowing what you're doing, to the aggro of dealing with other people, to the sheer bullsh*t of being quizzed by them about what you've learned because most people's experience of teaching stems from school where exams and treating people like idiots is the norm, if I never had to learn anything new ever again I'd die a happy man. So you can imagine how thrilled I am to be doing TEN WEEKS of training in work for a job I really don't want to do. Honestly I've no idea why I agreed to do it. I'm such a chump sometimes.

News From The Steam Factory

I have two big bits of news for you this month.

First,

is out in the world. The launch went well enough, and feedback so far has been mostly positive. I did a reading on Instagram to launch it, which you can

if you are so inclined. It starts off with me looking like a baffled old man as I try to figure out if the live is working or not, lol.

My thanks to everyone who has bought the book so far. There's been a steady trickle of sales since launch, which is great, and long may they continue.

A bar graph. 28 sales over a two week period, peaking early at 6 near the end of week one, before dropping down to one a day, with the odd day with no sales.

If any of you have finished it already (unlikely, I know) I would strongly encourage you to pop over to Amazon to write a wee review. It doesn't have any yet, and the Amazon algorithm loooooves reviews.

At the same time as bringing out book two I made book one,

, free to download for a couple of days, which I then promoted with the email newsletter Freebooksy.com. That went out to up to 200,000 subscribers, but even so I wasn't expecting lots of downloads.

Guess how many downloads it got? Go on, guess...

This many!

Dexter and Sinister download bar chart with two big lines on it. 1550 on day one, and 350 on day two. 1908 in total.

Over one thousand nine hundred people downloaded my book. That is FAR more people than have bought it so far, let me tell you. I have no idea how many of them will actually read it, or if reading it will prompt them to buy book two, but if even ten percent of those downloads convert into sales I'll be well chuffed.

It was enough to push it to number one in the Amazon steampunk charts. Admittedly it was in the Top 100 Free section but still, I've got the screenshots now and there's nothing anyone can do about it!

Screenshot. Dexter and Sinister at number one in the Amazon steampunk chart.

When I'm Not Writing

There's been a bunch of good stuff out to watch this month. I saw Dune finally, which was really good, but which ended half way through the original movie, which I found a disappointment. I was hoping to see it all in one. And I also saw Matrix Resurrections which was fine, I guess. Controversially, having the legacy cast in there counted against it for me. I was much more interested in the new crew and their story than whatever Trinity and Neo had going on. They should have done a proper reboot IMHO but who knows, maybe next time they will.

Kenobi series promo image. Ben Kenobi on Tatooine, lightsabre out, in front of Luke's boyhood home, lots of brown on brown with brown to match.

The only other thing I've watched in full is the new Star Wars series Kenobi, on Disney+.

Now I'm not a Star Wars nerd, so for me it was perfectly fine. I enjoyed it a great deal. I wasn't bothered about the non-canon elements which have infuriated so many people, although I could have done without the whole precocious child thing (I'm not a fan of that archetype). And some of the production choices were a tad iffy (laser gates, anyone?) but overall it's very enjoyable. And Moses Ingram who plays Inquisitor Reva does such an outstanding job as the main baddie (Vader not withstanding) I could watch her being deliciously evil all day.

This week I'll be crazy busy getting ready for

, my first ever 'con'. I'm excited but also stressed and nervous. I've no idea how it will go. Right now I don't even know how I'll get down there. But I'm most of the way organised so it should work out alright. I just need the books I ordered to show up now.

If you're in the Iron Bridge / Telford area do think about stopping by. Blists Hill is a great place to visit, with loads to see and do, as well as all the steampunk stuff that'll be there. It's on Sat 9th and Sun 10th July, and the entry fee is just the normal museum admission price.

If you do go come say hi! It'd be great to meet some of you in person.

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith