Number of sales>. 10

And I probably know who those ten people are. So thank you people for your kind support. I've got  a couple of reviews on Amazon now and I definitely know who wrote those.

Well I expect you're wondering what happened to the big marketing campaign. If you remember, I was about to launch myself onto social media. Well the truth is, it's all so extremely tedious - sitting in front of the computer for ages trying to decide which discussion forum to join and what I could possibly write that might be of interest to anyone. I'd rather take the dog for a walk. Frankly, most of the discussion forums seem to be taken up with people saying hello to each other -  perhaps they're thinly disguised dating sites.

And there's another problem. Most of these sites don't work properly. Having mastered registering on Facebook, I then managed to get my profile pictute up there. All very good. But why then on the same page, does another picture show a very large close up of my forehead taken from the profile picture. Not that my forehead doesn't deserve global promotion - it does  - but it wasn't where I wanted to concentrate my marketing strategy. All very mysterious so I spent two hours trying to do something about that when I should have been having witty and pithy dialogues with other like minded forum members. 

I'm busy now trying to navigate the mysteries of UK Kindle users forum www.kuforum.co.uk and the Good Read site . www.goodreads.com . Both purport to be author friendly and offer advice on reaching their millions of insatiable literary fans. First results not good. Having  spent ages registering myself and my treasured work on goodreads.com - I sneakily logged onto the site from another computer and typed my name and title into the search function. Result? - 'we have no record of that book or that author' 

Perhaps I'm speading my net too wide. Next week I'll concentrate aggressively on one site and report back.

And don't forget - www.theguestwhostayed.com  Thanks.

OK - so JK Rowling may be beating me in the e book stakes, but watch out. I'm about to launch my marketing campaign. I have software that will integrate my twitter account with my facebook account, with my blog, with my linked in account and probably prepare my shopping list if I ask it. Its going to be subtle. No cold calling - just edging my way into various chat forums and leaving my cyber business card.

On a more pedestrian note, still meeting people who have downloaded the first 2 chapters for free but have failed to flock to the Amazon site for the remaining 18. Makes me think that next time, the end of chapter 2 will have to contain some absurdly gripping story line which forces people to read on. Suggestions welcome.

Total sales: 7 - well they're inching up but not yet 'viral'. Just read John Locke's book - How I sold a million e books in 5 months.' It's all down to intensive blogging and twittering. You've got to create large 'friendship groups' who will always buy your product. It reminds me, I must try to increase my number of friends on facebook - 6 seems a bit wanting. But John Locke's book is good. Some of it's familiar - know your market - communicate with your market and get to know what they want. But the social media insights are interesting.

Had a consultant visit today to bring me up to date on the world of social media. Head still buzzing from the encounter. Ron's an old friend who's reinvented himself as a social media consultant. We covered twitter, facebook, linkedin, blogging etc and he showed me software that can integrate the lot. After he left I spent 2 hours trying to upload my picture onto my twitter page. Doesn't bode too well for the future.

I'm going to sit down to write a business plan now and set sales targets. I'm not going to tell you what they are in case I fail abysmally.

Ok - so I've sold 6 e books. Not a lot I know, but it's a start. I got stopped by a lady friend in the local shop who wanted to know if there was any sex in it. I promised her there was. I'm just beginning to realise how vast the task is. Just downloaded John Locke's 'How to sell I million books on Kindle'. It's full of breathless enthusiasm and strident exhortations about building  a marketing plan. I think I might post a comment on my own blog so it looks like someone is reading it.!!

Kindle arrived today. Much better than viewing on an i phone. Can get more than 5 words on the screen at one time.   And - no formatting problems. It all looks great. So I'm ready to start marketing. Have signed up with facebook and twitter. Must find a few more facebook friends!! Have started working through my contact list and sending out cringing e mails to people I haven't spoken to for years. It's all part of building up my network beore going 'viral'!!! Promised to make myself not look at sales figures every day. It becomes compulsive.

OK, so it's Day 1 and the book's published on Kindle.  Mixed emotions.  Great to have it up there - love the cover but some of the font sizes are wrong.  Have been sifting through Kindle info sites and visiting forums but can't crack it.  It's just not as easy as they say.  Still, two sales today so that's it - I'm an author!