About Me

Tollesbury, Essex, United Kingdom
I was born in the Summer of 1969 in Dagenham, just on the border of East London. School was largely unproductive but enjoyable, setting me up for something of a wayward but interesting life! On leaving school I had various jobs including putting up stalls at Romford Market, working in a record shop, putting up ceilings, gardening and road sweeping. After resigning from an insurance company to play in a band, I found myself unemployed for two years. Then finally I got back on my feet and I've been a psychiatric nurse since 1997. I wrote A Cleansing of Souls when I was 22 years old and followed it up with Tollesbury Time Forever almost twenty years later. I started writing The Bird That Nobody Sees in September 2011 and it was released in July 2012. In terms of writing, my heroes are Jack Kerouac and John Steinbeck. I would also include Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan and Tom Waits as literary influences. So that's me I guess - scruffy, happy and in love with literary fiction, music and life...

Sunday, 15 July 2012

Tollesbury Time Forever - six months on...

On January 3rd 2012, I pressed the 'publish' button and Tollesbury Time Forever became available for download on Kindle. I had no hopes for it and believed that if a hundred people downloaded it in its life-time I would be, as Mississippi John Hurt would say, more than satisfied.

It's been a strange six months in many ways. During that time I have almost finished writing my third novel, I have appeared on Saint FM (the local Maldon station), been mentioned in the local newspaper a couple of times and managed to both undergo a knee operation and get run out for 0 in the annual doctors v nurses cricket match. The England football team disappointed again although the cricket team have continued to sweep all before them.

Anyway, I thought I would post the figures for the first six months with one or two observations along the way. So here goes.


January  February  March  April  May June                                                     
302        155          303       121     72    87         

The split between UK and US sales is as follows:

UK    -     697         67%
US   -      343         33%

Total -     1040

So with an idea that a 100 sales would be magnificent, what has happened has been astounding for me. With my new novel - The Bird That Nobody Sees - being released on July 23rd, I can't be more happy with how things are going.

The situation with regards to reviews on Amazon UK and Amazon US is:

*****  71
****   11
***     1
**       0
*        1 

Tollesbury Time Forever has also made it through to the Kindle Book Review Semi-Final in the Literary Fiction Category - Best Indie Books of 2012. This comprises 15 books that will be reduced to 5 on September 1st.

So what can I say, except thank you!

The Bird That Nobody Sees will be released on 23rd July 2012. If it does half as well I'll be twice as pleased even though I think it is just as good. But I'll leave for you all to decide!!

Cheers!!

Stu 




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5 comments:

David Barber said...

That's a helluva six months, buddy. Congratulations on its success and I'm sure The Bird That Nobody Sees will be just as successful, if not more.

Really well done, Stuart. I wish you continued success.

15 July 2012 at 18:36
Stu Ayris said...

Thanks so much mate. I really appreciate it. People like yourself and Darren have made everything so much more fun and worthwhile. I think The Bird That Nobody Sees may be up your street - it definitely has wider appeal but is no less weird than Tollesbury Time Forever!

15 July 2012 at 18:40
Stefano S. said...

Hi Stuart, happy to see the sales are ok, hope they'll increase.
Looking forward to read The Bird That Nobody Sees and surely I'll buy it on July the 23rd!

16 July 2012 at 12:21
Stu Ayris said...

Thanks Stefano!! Really appreciate your support!

And we'll have no more talk of the penalty-shoot out if that's ok!

16 July 2012 at 17:42
Stefano S. said...

I agree! Learn from your own characters! :)

17 July 2012 at 09:42

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