Authors Electric

On the first day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me A large mast in a fir tree. On the second day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me Two service texts, and a large mast in a fir tree. On the third day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me Three whats-apps, two service texts, and a large mast in a fir tree. On the fourth day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me Four calling mates, three whats-apps, two service texts, and a large mast in a fir tree, On the fifth day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me Five ri-i-ng tones... On the sixth day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me Six apps alerting... On the seventh day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me Seven sites a-scrolling... On the eighth day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me Eight friends a-liking... On the ninth day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me Nine e-cards playing... On the tenth day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me Ten orders pending... On the eleventh day of Christmas my smartphone sent to me Eleven s...

What's the point of blogging? As others here have pointed out, strenuously blogging and Facebooking your book and/or yourself doesn't necessarily result in attracting new readers or produce much by way of increased sales.  Halloween countdown ... Christmas countdown ... I nearly pulled a muscle in my brain thinking up things to post on the FB page for Haunting Hounds each day during October last year, counting down to Halloween. And then did it all over again for December, producing an Advent Calendar countdown to Christmas (another traditional time for telling spooky tales).  And then let off steam by adding a 12 Days of Christmas countdown (or count up) too.  The people that saw the posts seemed to quite like them and they got shared about, but it didn't crank sales up by more than a few copies. It's a shame as my share of the profits all go to Scruples Whippet Rescue ... 12 days of Christmas ... Blogging and FB-ing can be pretty...

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my fairy-godmother gave to me: 12 drummers drumming - they're always the best looking guys in the rock band, aren't they? A bit noisy if they're all drumming at the same time, though. 11 pipers. Really not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, and I don't think the neighbours will appreciate them practising. Especially with the drummers. 10 lauds, praise and glory from people who love my books. Amazon reviews will do nicely, thank you. Or smashwords. Perhaps The Times literary supplement is aiming a bit high? 9 ladies to appear on Loose Women, Oprah and any other chat shows and discuss my books. My own personal book club. If they want to dance, that's fine by me. 8 maids to clean my house and wash my clothes so that I don't have to bother with housework and can concentrate on writing. Actually, one of them can pretend to be me and do my day job. 7 swans-a-swimming on the lake in the grounds of the Jacobean mansion...