A sophisticated deep-dive into the world of quantum mechanics with original concepts
Henry Cox has delivered his most sophisticated story yet and tackles the world of quantum mechanics by way of clever and original story telling. This really is a deep dive into the theory of all things quantum partnered with concepts I’ve not seen explored in fiction before.
The ‘Deceit’ series continues to grow with this latest edition that fuses history, memory, time and genetics while also retaining a thrilling spy theme as ‘Benjamin Oliver’ a retired lawyer returns to his spy roots in what becomes a rescue mission. He isn’t the only recurring character back as this series starts to become a genre in its own right with previous ‘Deceit’ stories intermingling. How the reader gets there is a journey of clever scientific theory combined with Cox’s brand of thriller that reads very much like high end fiction. We’re taken through different eras of time as ancestors and how their story relates to the present day characters unfolds with a blend of language and events delivered in a unique way.
The quantum concepts explored within have a lot of depth and theory which gives a feeling of sophistication and this is exactly what stories like this should be – clever and also thought provoking. Technology and data is out there and in certain hands can be dangerous or even wild – especially so when big business is involved. This is definitely a story that lives up to the title by having a way of playing with the reader’s mind into thinking one way but then taking you on another unexpected path.
‘From ancient times to the present, despite its pure definition, science has always been the prisoner of politics, religion, and even the created dogma of academics, in the name of science – often influenced by the purse. The theory of human evolution has become an academic theology, despite its provable inconsistences.’
A great third book by Henry Cox – I feel cleverer for reading it and that’s a feeling I haven’t had for many years and that’s exactly what this book should do.
This guide first premiered over on my Patreon which contains many different guides/resources much like this post. If you signup to be a Royal Rock Star Patron you’ll receive a free digital copy of my author/blogger/social media guide book Consistent Creative Content. Check out my Patreon here.
It has been a long time since I’ve paid to promote any of my books. Most of my reasoning for this is because my book sales, page reads and reviews have been rising without the real need for any investment in advertising. My last book promo effort was all the way back in September of 2022 and combined the release of my 8th book with my 1st book securing a BookBub Featured Deal. What followed was probably my best ever run of months for sales.
As someone who is constantly analysing things, I predicted that perhaps my run of luck would dry up soon enough and so I decided to book some much needed advertising but from the title you can see this is just part 1 of my April 2023 plans to sell a bunch of books.
You shall find my analysis, results and who I advertised with below. Let us dive in.
2022 was strong…
2022 happened to be my successful year ever as an indie author but it took a bunch of years to get there. It was the year of my best ever book launch and royalties – that is without mentioning the personal sales records I smashed but enough with the boasting. How did I make 2022 my best? There were lots of factors and I’ll link some further reading below but a good book promotion will bring results long after it has happened.
Having a complete book series all available via kindle unlimited has become a lucrative endeavour for me in recent times and my advice for series writers would be simple: get that book series finished – readers want a complete series and they will read them all if they are available. Much like my next bit of advice – backlist is King.
Having a backlist that includes a completed series and then advertising that successfully has brought me rewards that only really tailed off in the early days of April this year. As you can see above, the spike in the first graph represents that BookBub featured deal and then the results kept coming in.
As well as page reads, sales remained consistently strong and the amazing thing about these sales is that they were driven mostly by social media and most likely returning readers. Until April 2023 I had not advertised since September 2022. If you want to know how I sell regularly on via social media, check out my Twitter coaching sessions – they lay it out in detail.
This year started brightly and consistently…
The Promotion
Knowing I hadn’t advertised in a while, I thought maybe it was time to, but this would be a multiple book and multiple week plan of attack. Week 1 of my plan would be to run one of my oldest promo tricks in the book. A free book promo while also linking others in the series and reducing their price. My Order of the Following Series would be the instigator of this method with book 1 Open Evening being free to download while the others in the series were 99 cents or equivalent to download.
My best results from a free promo with other books attached comes from just doing this for a day or two. The factor of time and this being a ‘one off’ or once a year type of deal will entice potential readers and when it comes to a free promo, quantity is key.
The second part of this process would be to then bring the price of book 1 up to 99 cents for day 2 and advertise the whole series as discounted.
Results
On Friday April 7th 2023 Open Evening was free to download with the 4 other books in the Order of the Following Series discounted to 99 cents. Here are the results:
521 total free downloads – a great number.
82 paid sales of the 4 books in the rest of the series with Darke Apocalypse leading the way on day 1. As you can see with this graph sales continued for a few days after as the series remained discounted.
Total combined sales with free and paid came to 676 a week after the promotion. A decent spike in readers for me and probably a much needed influx of potential new readers.
A good book promo will drive sales and potential page reads for some time after. Although it is still early days, this promo brings promise of more.
Advertisers
This promo was advertised by the following book promo sites:
Freebooksy – Horror Series Promotion
My Book Place
E Reader News Today
Other Factors for Success
Advertising was a big driving factor for these results but here are some other factors that helped:
Free promos are a please all and hope to appeal to as many as possible types of deal. No matter what many people say, free promos do result in some readers.
Time – this was a limited time deal, this can tap into urgency or even impulse for potential readers to grab a deal.
Existing reviews/Ratings – the earlier books in the Order of the Following Series have a good number of reviews. Darke Blood hit 70 Amazon ratings just before the promo. You can also see that my books have decent professional covers that I invested in. Visual is everything when it comes to potential readers finding your works.
Social media is something I tend to pick and choose my moments with. I didn’t mention the free promo but the day after I did mention that all books in the series were discounted. I also put a blog post out advertising the fact.
Final Thought
An important a probably needed book promo. The Order of the Following Series sells better during fall/winter months and so I shall put my promotional efforts for it on hold over the spring/summer. Of course this is just part 1 and you can expect the next part to cover another book with another promo – stay tuned and thanks for reading.
A masterful collection of wonderful and powerful tales…
Dave Grohl has put together a fantastic collection of life stories told through the eyes of a son, musician, family man, kid and band member that has graduated life with honours. From his humble beginnings of using just pillows as make shift drums to the grand heights of playing in two of the world’s biggest rock bands all the way to his heart-warming relationship with a mother who did so much to shape him and of course his three daughters.
This book is a gem and told in a kind of unique way – each chapter is basically a series of stories or moments that then have stories within them. I found myself immersed in every one and whisked away on this awesome journey Grohl has embarked over a life of so many cool things. There really is a lot of good stuff here and it is told with a style that is grounded much like the man seems in real life, like us he is just a fan of this stuff too and through some cool decisions and a lot of hard work he made it to the top of rock and roll – to me anyway and those who are a fan of emerging punk rock music to simply just creativity will find something inspiring within.
“Courage is a defining factor in the life of any artist. The courage to bare your innermost feelings, to reveal your true voice, or to stand in front of an audience and lay it out there for the world to see…”
Every experience is captured by Grohl who becomes the storyteller in this labour of love for a life he has led. Whether it is as the struggling musician between places and living in a van to even his friendship with a Beatle or his Foo Fighters band mates. I found myself not wanting to put down the book after each chapter which begins with symbolism and ends that way also. There are plethora of fantastic quotes I would love to include but I’d also like to leave them out just so any prospective reader can experience them for themselves.
Red on White is an intriguing tale of one young man’s battle to survive after an earthquake and subsequent tsunami hits Oregon. Soon enough chaos ensues as ‘James’ is about to head home from his farming job but the elements beg to differ. The huge wave rolls in along with the destruction taking everything in its path.
“Maybe his best friend was floating in that soup. Each face looked like a friend, a relative, a loved one…”
With this being my 2nd J.P. Biddlecome experience I can see his growth as a story teller is apparent through a story of adversity drawing some similarities to ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ alongside elements of ‘Castaway’. There’s a running metaphor throughout that compares the many days James spends trying to survive as a pack of wolves begin to circle and grow. Survival is the key word here as this candid descriptive reading experience drew me in from very start.
4 Stars – Thank you to the author for reaching out and providing a copy of the book. Reviews left via Amazon and Goodreads
Everyday I am on twitter. And over some years I’ve learned a lot about the platform as well as a lot about myself. Reaching 30,000 followers wasn’t a solo effort because like most social media platforms, success is mainly defined by those you interact with and others ultimately decide your success. In this post I am going to reflect on how I got to that number.
There was a time not too long ago where my tweets seemingly fell upon deaf ears. And back in April of 2020 my Twitter was nothing like it is now but then things started to gradually change. During a time of uncertainty I was granted probably the greatest gift you can give a writer; time. And looking back, I spent it figuring out the best possible way to turn my Twitter into something much more than it was. And to me, much like writing, Twitter is a journey of self discovery.
With 3,000 or so followers at that time and not a lot of engagement I dove in to the platform. Using some stuff I’d already realised about the platform’s potential and with some consistency, things began to change. It took time, it took effort and it took a boat load of constant trial and error. Everyone’s Twitter is different but the application of trial and error is something everyone can do pretty much everyday, even just for a few minutes.
From figuring out what time the majority of my following is online to see my tweets to simply learning that replying to those who reply to you is incredibly beneficial for visibility amongst so many vital lessons. The time I spent self-learning about this strange but wonderful conversation driven app started to churn out results. From book sales to blog views, from followers to friendships and even important contacts who would help me with BETA reading or even editing of future works.
I was talking and people from all over the world started listening whilst that following was gradually growing. By the end of 2020 I reached 5,000 followers and year later it was 20,000. All of this was driven by spending time and figuring out the value of being conversational. That’s all this is at the end of the day and for someone who finds dialogue a natural habitat – lets face it, most writers do. I eventually turned my Twitter into something truly worth having in my life.
Books were selling every 10 days in 2020 and today its near enough every few days which is also driven by mainly Twitter. My presence and persistence has paid off in so many ways, from building friendships to even having a purpose to those sales.
All of what I figured out gave me the best chance for others to ultimately decide my success, and if I could sum up everything I have done for people to decide my success on the platform it would simply be this:
For all the things you want to be on social media, just be kind. Kindness sticks out these days and good people will remember you for it.
To those who do follow me on Twitter, now over 30,000 of you, thank you. I’ll be recording a special celebration Twitter coaching session this week which will be free to listen to.
Below you’ll find some of my better resources for Twitter success.
From the first time I saw her I knew I had to taste those soft, cherry lips. I watched as she slid the lip gloss wand over her lower lip, how it glistened in the summer sun. She rubbed her lips together, giving a kiss to the air.
We were attending summer session at the University. It was a hot, dry summer, and Debbie was fond of wearing white denim shorts with purple flowers printed on them. She wore them rolled up exposing her slender upper thigh, how I longed to touch her smooth, tanned skin. To run my fingers through her long wavy dirty blonde hair, that she kept pulled back in a loose braid. She gathered her things and headed towards class. I followed her, mesmerized by her swaying hips and the click clack of her sandals against the pavement. My obsession now had a purpose…
An alternative but realistic take on vampires with sharp political and biological edges…
Those who know the vampire genre will also know the usual tropes that come with it. This book doesn’t have any of that. Chris Hepler has brought the concept of vampirism into a brand new light and territory that see’s it as a type of pathogen in a believable reactive world. This is of course something very relevant today and the depth of this story is found in it’s characters along with the exploration of biological and political impacts vampirism comes to have.
“…human beings are now at risk from a plague. It is crueler than cancer, crueler than AIDS, a disease that makes its victims into villains.”
There are very few books where every scene feels meticulously constructed like this one and while it is a longer read it’s clear the author has thought of everything in a story with a gritty spy thriller/espionage feel. We get to see a future that’s realistic and there are some cool gadgets that help a group of agent/spy types try to trace and put a stop to this spreading vampiric infection. All it’s going to take is for the right or wrong person with connections to ‘catch’ it and well there’s the story – but it’s way more than that.
Giving any more away would be pulling the rug under from readers who will find it original, gripping and overall engrossing, for anyone who’s interested in a political thriller with a vampire edge – something rarely seen before in literature I recommend this one highly.
Winding down… only kidding, I wouldn’t know how. Lee Hall is only Lee Hall if he is writing. Third person narration aside (because I am nowhere near notable enough for that) I’m going to keep going – the results were too goo not to…
Normally by this time of the year it’s the off season for me. I’ve spent the last 9 months writing and fashioning all of my efforts into promoting the 6th book release to worthwhile results. Now I would normally look to calm down into what is supposed to be a rest phase. Until after January I usually spend these winter months playing around with experimental writing projects, theatre writing and perhaps some initial drafting. Not this time as this isn’t our usual year.
I’m near enough most of the way through that guide book I might have mentioned once or twice. It’s turned out well and will be around 30,000 words of relaying experiences from everything that’s brought me to 2021 in writing. It’s an attempt to capture what it takes to be an author and blogger in the social media age – something I’ve got some experience in after nearly 7 years or so. From selling books effectively to blog subject ideas, there should be something for everyone looking to either blog or author in the social media age.
My hope is to be able to pass on something worthwhile and also to steer the literary world in a better direction through persuading more indie authors to review books from their peers. Trust me when I say this whole deal turned a massive corner when I started offering reviews for indie authors. It’s fostered connectivity and the right kind of engagement. Reviews are something authors can never ever have enough of and so that presents an unlimited amount of need for them – something that I have stumbled into and made myself a name with. To convince the world your intentions are genuine will sell more books than anything else, I shall share more in the guide book coming soon. Watch this space and until then you can expect more book reviews along with other writing related content including another promo of my Ghost romance for Halloween!
It’s been 4 months since I joined book review platform Reedsy Discovery and my experience so far has been mostly good. Not only have I read some pretty cool books but I’ve also connected with some awesome authors. Let’s take a look at what I’ve read recently…
American Blasphemer by John Gillen is a potential read of the year for me and what a way to arrive on a new book reviewing platform. This contemporary/literary fiction story reads like an autobiography and its a dysfunctional one at that. If you’re okay with profanity, swearing and sexual stuff that’s turned all the way up to the extreme you’ll probably enjoy this one although it’s about way more than that trust me. It’s a series of encounters that make up an anti bible of sorts told through the eyes of someone trying to make their way through life in modern America. Like my review said it’s “a masterful labour of modern honesty, told through the lens of a lonesome soul trying to figure out this world and life… “
Rites of Passageby Chad Lehrmannis “a twisting unpredictable creature feature set in a small town with a big secret…“ and it’s my second Reedsy Discovery Review. Although I am a sucker for small town horror this one did have quite a few tropes usually seen in the genre along with it being the typical ‘chosen one’ story. Saying that this book did enough to hold my attention, it’s well paced and the pages fly by. Full review here.
Senescenceby Denver Scott is another potential read of the year and was also my first 5 star Reedsy Review because it’s an incredible deep dive into our potential future. Science fiction and non fiction merge in what is a plethora of all things cosmos and wider science that looks at the many aspects of humankind. Just what will our future look like? Find out with this highly readable and accessible book that boldly goes where not a lot of books have been before – seriously check it out. My full review is here….
The Dreamophile’s Diary by Shazrina is both unique and surreal which is exactly what dreams can be like – the very essence of that weirdness is captured quite well in this series of short stories all based on, you guessed it, dreams. “Life is strange indeed, sometimes what you most desire becomes futile for you the very next moment…” You can read my full review here….
Noxious by Bruce Knapp is a book for those who love their horror with variety. From witchcraft to possessions and everything else that could possibly be enveloped by the shadows of the macabre this one is a page turner. Of course Bruce Knapp is no stranger to the Hall of Information as last year we reviewed the short stories that make up his Night Audit series and now he’s back with another series all based around the town of Blackwater. Watch this shadowy and dark space! Full review here….
And so that wraps up Issue 1 of what I hope will be a quarterly exploration of Reedsy Discovery Reads. If you’re on the platform come and say hi. Until next time, peace out!
Lee's Hall of information 
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