Can I sell half a million E-books by Christmas, 2011?

    Well at this rate, the answer is a definitive NO! However, I have a plan............

   Allow me to introduce myself. I am M.L. Stewart. Reformed English law-breaker and currently hiding behind the guise of an author. I reside in a beach-front villa on the Costa Del Kindle, from where I spend most of my days (and nights) attempting to refine the art of crime-fiction writing. Truth-be-told there is a hell of a lot of fact, rather than fiction, in my books (but fear not, my old comrades, I have changed the names to protect the guilty).

   I published my first e-book on Kindle ten days ago. I have been overwhelmed by the results. One sale. That means I'm $0.35 richer. I'm planning to build an extension on the villa when I receive the cheque (or check if you're Stateside)

   But seriously, I write because I enjoy it and I feel that I can possibly offer a small insight into the murky world in which I made my money. I was, what is called, "a planner", an organiser and refiner of dubious activities (mainly around London and the Home Counties) which involved obtaining items of high value, including cash, which belonged to someone else for the benefit of my clients.  So as you can probably gather, my current aim isn't so much for personal financial gain but more of a social study into self-promotion.

    With sales so low, I have taken the obvious routes to ascertain how to promote your self-published works and I will follow the advice, hence, this blog. But! Being a self-confessed maverick I have come up with some more peculiar ideas to achieve my goal of selling 500,000 books by December 25th, 2011. These will become clearer as this blog develops.

   However, for the time being, I will follow the normal advice (contributing to online forums etc... all the usual boring stuff)  Stay tuned to find out my daily sales reports and rest-assured I won't be buying any of my books personally (for once in my life, this will be above board and following the rules) I only have another 499,999 books to sell and only 174 days to go.

   Oh, by the way, if I achieve my goal. The profits from my first book published in 2012 will go directly to charity.

THE SUNDAY CLUB.

    This 78,000 word novel is based upon a true story. It was a planned-robbery which never took place due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. two of the clients were jailed for unrelated offences before it could be carried out). Now I don't mean to blow my own trumpet, but this "job" would have been the biggest heist in British history, it would make the Great Train Robbery look like a toy Hornby train set. It was a robbery set to be so blindingly obvious that noone on this planet has ever thought about it, except me. When you realise the simplicity of stealing millions of pounds in cash, you'll wish you hadn't read the book but actually done the job. Don't try this at home!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057HYKYS  The Sunday Club. $0.99



THE FACEBOOK KILLER: Part One. (46,000 words)

    Based upon a true situation: Ask yourself a question! If someone had murdered your family and walked away from the courts a free man, would you want to seek revenge? I thought so. Now ask yourself another! If you wanted to track down his friends and family, where could you find them all in one nice, little, happy place. Exactly! The book title says it all.
    That innocent picture next to the car (where he can see the registration plate) or the recurring photographs, always in the same bar (where he can recognise that famous landmark through the window behind), If you are one of Abdul Hamid's Facebook Friends, it's time to close your account 'cos Dermott Madison knows exactly who and where you are.

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0057Z2MEK  The Facebook Killer: Part One. $0.99


    Sorry, I forgot to mention the limitations I have imposed upon myself for this task. I am using a satellite internet connection which costs $20 / £10 for 100 MG. So I am allowing myself only one hour per day for the promotion.