June catch-up – what’s happened to summer?

First the good news – having seen someone questioning on Twitter whether self-published writers really only sell 250 books on average, which sparked a discussion about whether this meant 250 altogether or per published book, I decided to check my Amazon author reports page to see how many I had sold overall. I was slightly stunned by the overall figure.

In case anyone reading this leaps to the conclusion that I’m a secret billionaire and could possibly give them a quick loan, I must point out that about 180,000 of these ‘orders’ were for free downloads of ‘Crime in the Community’, the first of the Pitkirtly Mysteries. Most of the other figures are a good deal smaller. Also, it was easier to sell lots of books right back at the beginning, when there weren’t so many other books for people to choose from, than it is now. Still, I am quite pleased with the thought that so many people have had the chance to sample my writing. This chart of course doesn’t include sales from Apple, Kobo etc, which oddly seem to have been creeping up as the Amazon ones creep downwards.

This brings me to writing news, which people might think is also good. I’ve managed to get past 30,000 words in my work in progress, now provisionally entitled The Great Calamity, and the books shown in the image here are some of the sources I’ve had to use for research. The National Library of Scotland digitised historic maps have also been a great help, as I’ve had to move much of the action to Edinburgh for logistical reasons, although the story starts on the Isle of Wight. I’m currently wrestling with the urge to buy a book about the architecture of the Advocates’ Library, which is situated behind St Giles Cathedral in the same building as the pre-1707 Scottish Parliament. This is because I would really like to set one particular scene there but I am weighing up feasibility against dramatic effect.

I have also just signed up for ‘Camp NaNoWriMo’ in July with the aim of finishing this novel then so that I can move on to the next thing, which will, I hope, be easier to write! I am enjoying the challenge of this current one though, and because I’m waiting to get treatment for an annoying but definitely treatable heart thing, I’ve had more thinking time and less activity than usual, including some time spent in an MRI scanner as part of a related research project! I recommend this to anyone who is trying to work out a tricky plot point, as there were long spells of just lying there and then a disembodied voice at intervals telling me to breathe. I thought this might be scary but it was quite cosy and the radiographer thought I was asleep at one point, but I was just trying to decide whether to change the name of one of the main characters.

If I can get this novel finished next month as planned, I might even move on to Pitkirtly XXVIII, but in the mean-time, as part of a June short writing challenge, I’m in the middle of a Pitkirtly short story that was meant to be about time travel but may or may not really end up about anything of the kind. I hope to share that here once it’s finished.