Melksham author Ted Tayler, who now has 18 titles listed on Amazon, has made a major breakthrough on a US-based book site.
“I had spent six years writing three books a year,” said Ted. “As I’ve told Melksham News readers before when I’ve sent in updates, the writing was always the easy part. Progress on the marketing side was slow but steady. Each year was better than the last. The final episode in my 12-book thriller series ‘Larcombe Manor’ featuring The Phoenix was published last July. I decided I needed to step away from writing to take a hard look at whether it was possible to make a significant leap forward.
“I spent the second half of 2018 re-evaluating everything. I invested in new covers with the help of a terrific company ‘The Cover Collection’ based in Leeds. I wrote new blurbs, carried out a further series of edits and researched keywords designed to impact the Amazon algorithm more positively.
“As 2019 began, I saw signs my efforts were paying off. The biggest test was tackling the US-based site BookBub. They are a free site helping readers discover books through unbeatable deals and handpicked recommendations. It’s notoriously difficult to secure a featured deal with them, only 10% of writers succeed. They have 3.5 million thriller readers worldwide who subscribe to their daily emails which makes it the Holy Grail for those who write in the genre.
“Something I did last year must have worked, because I got a US deal with my first submission. ‘The Olympus Project’ Book #1 in The Phoenix Series. It was featured on Monday, March 18th and was an unqualified success. As a result of the 21,000 downloads over the 24-hour period, my book reached #1 Assassination Thriller; #1Conspiracy Thriller; #1 Terrorism Thriller and #1 Crime Thriller. It also got to #2 in the Mystery, Thrillers & Suspense category and #2 on Thrillers in general.
“It was the significant leap forward I hoped for. An overnight success that took six years of hard graft. The lessons learned on that journey have taught me it will need a lot of work to realise the potential that deal unlocked. The average read-through on a series for thriller writers is 10%, so my task now is to ensure at least 2,000 of those new readers buy the remaining 11 titles and count the days until I can secure my next BookBub deal.
“Exciting times lay ahead and the incentive to write a new series to provide more material for a growing number of fans has never been greater. Onwards and upwards!”
