Tag: Edinburgh International Book Festival

The Temple Series

The Temple Legacy – making #1 in its Amazon.com categories

One of the biggest problems faced by independent authors is achieving visibility in a very busy international marketplace. It’s tough, though I have been happy with the progress made during the past couple of years. Even so, following publication of The Temple Deliverance, the fourth book in the series, I decided to try a little extra promotional push at the start of the summer.

The goal was to raise awareness of my work amongst more readers in both the UK and USA. The particular focus was on the first book in the series, The Temple Legacy, using the BookBub advertising platform for the main thrust of a discount promotion campaign.

The results surpassed my highest hopes. I am really delighted with the outcome. The Temple Legacy made number one in two separate categories at Amazon.com during the promotion.

 The Temple Legacy’s achievement as badged on Amazon.com:

This post is written in large part to express my gratitude to all those readers who previously chanced upon my writing and were prepared to invest their time in reading the novels. Thank you, your early commitment provided the encouragement that supported my writing of the full series.

Thank you too, to all those many, many readers who chose to engage with my recent publicity drive; you propelled The Temple Legacy to number one in its categories at Amazon.com, the world’s biggest online bookstore – brilliant.

and

Still savouring the pleasure of seeing The Temple Legacy hit number one spot in its Amazon.com bookshop categories, I chanced upon another Amazon.com nugget that truly delighted me. This is something that might not happen too often – perhaps only with the frequency of lightning striking twice. So I was pleased to snatch the freeze frame shown below.

On one day only, in Amazon.com’s Most Popular Author Rank – Action & Adventure Category, D.C. Macey and the Temple Series were placed at 25, ranked above George R.R. Martin with his Game of Thrones series at 26!


I have been absolutely thrilled at the response to my marketing and publicity push of late June/early July and intend to undertake some further promotional activities soon. In the meantime, I’m very much aware there is more writing to be done. I hope my next work will prove of interest to readers too – more on that later.

Once again, a sincere thank you to all readers, old and new.

With my very best wishes. D.C.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Party’s Over – again

Festival Crowds

Festival Crowds

Well, August has come and gone. Once again, it’s been a hectic time. The great atmosphere in Edinburgh during the summer festival period never fails to delight – for residents and visitors alike. As in previous years, I’ve spent plenty of time soaking up the atmosphere and attending a wide variety of events.

 

Actors canvas in the Royal Mile

Actors canvas in the Royal Mile

I’ve been to a range of shows, mostly comedy, including some stand up and all great fun. I also took the opportunity to revisit the Celts Exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland – a building that plays a significant part in my first novel, The Temple Legacy.

National Museum of Scotland

National Museum of Scotland

 As might be expected, I’ve made several visits to the Book Festival – some for specific events and on other occasions just to browse around and get a coffee. Its location is really convenient, set in Charlotte Square Gardens at the very heart of the New Town.

 Book Festival

Hats off to the Book Festival, it really takes engaging with younger readers very seriously. Providing lots of good age appropriate events and safe areas for younger children makes it so much easier for families to visit. And with such a wide variety of offerings in the programme, it would be almost impossible for any reader not to find things to enjoy. Talks and engagements were on offer from a wide range of authors who between them seemed to span every theme and genre. Then there were experts giving insights into science, the future, history, business and politics – everything. It has been a really rich and varied programme that offered something new for every taste, every day.

Some high points for me included talks and readings by friends. At the Blackwell’s Writers at the Fringe event, Toni Jenkins gave a great insight into her novel The Sender. On another afternoon, I joined others in the Book Festival’s Spiegeltent where Sarah Eakin was reading as part of the Story Shop event. The author of Wed, White & Blue, Sarah’s seamless delivery was very impressive.   

Sarah Eakin

Sarah Eakin

Of the other events I took in, all were fascinating and met or exceeded my expectations while often providing unexpected insights that have got me thinking about aspects of my own work. These included events on both fiction and nonfiction.

Kate Summerscale’s writing is renowned for lifting the lid on true historical crime incidents. She talked about her research methods, story selection and her latest book The Wicked Boy. Her use of creative narrative to bring real events back to life always provides new insight, knowledge and entertainment. Her new book explores an incident of matricide during the Victorian era to offer an insight into human character and experience. Of course, it explores a shocking crime, the consequent punishment and, eventually, perhaps even some form of redemption.

Well done to Scottish crime writer Val McDermitt who did a great job of interviewing Kate Summerscale and directing the course of the event.

Kate Summerscale

Kate Summerscale

One of my favourite historical fiction writers is Conn Iggulden so I was delighted to take the opportunity to see him at this year’s Book Festival. Having delivered several series of novels, his range of writing is clearly very impressive. With equal success, he’s explored Rome and the world of Julius Caesar, the emergence of the Mongol super power under Genghis Khan and, more recently, the Wars of the Roses. Ostensibly, his session at the Book Festival was to consider the tensions and processes involved in drawing a series to a close. But his talk, both on topic and the frequent asides, was such good entertainment value that I’m sure I would have been happy whatever his focus.

Conn Iggulden

Conn Iggulden

Another summer festival season has come to an end but that’s never it in the Festival City. There’s always something else coming up on the horizon and it won’t be long before there’s something new to see.

Festival Street Crowds

Festival Street Crowds

 

 

Edinburgh Festival 2016

It’s Festival time again and as usual, there’s Lots to see and do – it’s looking really exciting.

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2016 - Programme

Edinburgh International Book Festival 2016 – Programme

After a hectic few weeks, there’s finally a bit of time to take the foot of the gas and enjoy the festivals. And like every year, there’s so much to take in it’s going to be impossible to see even a fraction of the shows and events that catch the eye.

I’m mainly focusing on two areas this year, the Book Festival and the Festival Fringe – including some comedy and two or three exhibitions that look really interesting.

I’ve already organised tickets for some Book Festival events. There are several writers who I think are going to give really interesting talks. The Book Festival always has such a good atmosphere that I’ll be dropping in to visit on other occasions too, just to wander about and soak it all in – maybe take in one or two extra events in the process. I’ll look forward to passing on some observations as the Book Festival plays through.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016 - Programme

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016 – Programme

It’s a similar approach for the Fringe Festival. With so many shows on offer, it’s almost a fulltime job just to study the programme. Edinburgh is such a big event that just about every well-known comedian and performer turns up to do a gig at some point. So I’ve booked up a couple of shows that we know we’ll enjoy. Then plan to follow the performance reviews as they’re published to see what’s catching attention – to pick out something extra to see. Finally, we’ll mix in a bit of pot luck, just drop in and take what’s on offer.

Should be lots of fun. I highly recommend the whole experience. If you haven’t been before just try it. Follow the links to check out the programmes. There really is plenty of choice with lots to suit every conceivable taste.

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