Happy New Year!

I am a perennial onlooker, astonished as I see people making their new year’s resolutions. I have never been one to set goals around my work at the start of a year. Yet, 2018 arrived with a bang as I woke on January 1st, realizing I had much to achieve this year, and could, for once, see the purpose of resolve. Thus, the first day of the year found me on the run, taking on manifold work-related tasks. My brain buzzed with numerous goals. Despite the festive mood  around me (I live in an area where thousands of people holiday every year), I could hardly wait to get going. And that is because I love doing what I do.

Writing, and latterly, publishing and marketing, is probably the most rewarding ‘work’ I’ve done. That’s it, you’ve guessed right: writing does not feel like work! To be sure, I hate work, but I love being an author—in spite of the fact writing is the most challenging thing I’ve ever done.

I’ve possibly worked harder before, taking on challenges such as becoming an architect and businessman, achieving provincial colors in athletics, and dancing Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake, but none of these has been as challenging intellectually as writing my dissertation, Angelicals Reviewed, and my conspiracy thriller, Blood Symbols.

Analyzing and unraveling some of life’s profound questions is extraordinarily rewarding, especially when you gain new insights. It is that Einsteinian moment, being the first to come up with a solution to a problem that makes life worthwhile: a breakthrough contribution to posterity—your legacy to the world.

So now the festivities are at an end, the dust has settled, and holiday makers have gone home, what better way of getting the creative juices to flow than a free eBook promotion at Amazon Kindle.

Thanks to the positive response I’ve had from readers affording my work high ratings and good reviews, sales of my recently published books are flourishing. Sales of Blood Symbols are escalating exponentially. Readers, it appears, love the book. Yet, one cannot read what one does not know about, so I carry on promoting.

At first, I relied on feedback from advertising on Amazon. Since sales are directly related to the clicks per ad, it is easy to measure the success of the campaign. If all goes well, something new happens: sales increase despite the clicks that did not result in sales. That’s when things get exciting, because it means books are selling by other means—word of mouth. People are talking about the book.

Word of mouth sales are the best! It may be likened to a snowball gathering snow as it rolls down a hill, increasing exponentially in size. Any author’s dream! When readers love and respect what you write, they talk about it, and encourage their friends to share in their experience by getting the book as well. The more people talk, the more others want to know what the buzz is about. And this is happening with my work. So, thank you to all the readers who are contributing to the success of my books.

On another note, the BookLife Prize 2017, which saw Blood Symbols make the semi-finals, scoring 10 out of 10 in all categories, including the overall score, has done wonders for creating awareness of this novel as a worthwhile read. No-one enjoys picking a book, only to be disappointed halfway through the read. That’s why reviews, ratings and awards are useful; they give potential readers the assurance that the product they are about to purchase has been tested and tried, and is likely to ensure a worthy journey.

I also published Angelicals Reviewed last year. Being non-fiction and focusing on an issue many Christian faithful may find challenging—evolution—Angelicals Reviewed has not, so far, achieved equivalent stature to Blood Symbols. To get the buzz going for this work, which introduces the possibility of an evolutionary soul, I have entered it in the free eBook promotional giveaway through Amazon Kindle. So be on the lookout for the promotion, which starts on the 17th and finishes on the 21st of January 2018. Yes, don’t miss out on this opportunity to get your free copy this week.

I wish all of you a fantastic new year and may all your dreams come true. Finally, I thank those of you who have taken the time to read my work, write reviews and give ratings. You have no idea how much I enjoy and respect your feedback.