I find connection between the theory of parallel universes, the multiverse, and the unlived lives we all could have lived had we made different choices. And very often, popular culture makes that connection for me.
 
Case in point, ELO's (Electric Light Orchestra), "The Rain is Falling".

"With their brand new time transporter, they'll think maybe I fought to get away.
But with all their great inventions, and all their good intentions, here I stay."

Here I stay...in the life I do live. I don't think about my unlived lives to "get away" from anything.

I think about them because I spend so much time writing about the unlived lives of my characters.

And so do many who have read Raymond's story based on their questions and comments. They often now reflect on their own what-might-have-beens.

Don't fight it.

Your life choices, both those you value as well as those you don't, are all a part of the life you do live.  

One of the most important jobs a self-published author has is identifying the reader/listener most likely to buy his or her book. I used to own a market research company. I've successfully identified customers for hundreds of clients. Not a problem.

I also initially sucked at identifying who would be interested enough in The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn to buy it.

I assumed those who read fiction, who have at least some interest in the multiverse, who like to read mysteries, would be the target. Demographically, probably mid 30's to mid 60's, mostly male.

I got some of that right, but not nearly enough. I assumed, not researched who the Raymond Quinn buyer would be, and as a result, I significantly underestimated women 55+.

I won't do that again.

If you're interested in who buys books in the US, you'll find that here.  

If you're writing/self publishing a book, put researching your audience at the head of your to-do list. And do it way before you even think of running ads (you will have to run ads.)

When you do start marketing, verify or change your audience assumptions doing click testing.

​What I do is too much to go into here, reach out to me if you want to know, I'll be happy to help you.   

The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn is doing quite well thanks to all who have purchased the print or digital versions, as well those waiting for the audiobook, due any day now.

I receive lots of emails, texts, and comments asking me to explain the scientific/philosophical debate regarding the possible existence of the multiverse. And along with that, the possible existence of our doppelgangers in those parallel universes.

In short, people want to know, is there is an infinite number of themselves out "there" somewhere?

😐️ Beats me. I took high school botany, got a C+.

Regardless, the book doesn't take sides in that debate. It (me) just assumes there is a multiverse full of universes parallel to the one in which we exist. That being the case, it then describes individuals stuck between their mortal and immortal beings, attempting to make sense of their predicament.

In other words, it's just for fun the same way books about time travel, reincarnation, and extrasensory perception are for fun. (No offense intended if you are writing one of those as a serious research work.)

However, warning to those considering reading or listening to Raymond's story, you do have to concentrate on what you read/hear to understand where it takes you.

It is a "word maze". You will think your know where the story's going only to find you don't. It forces you to think about what you read/hear. As one reader said, "I finished it, it gave me a headache."

Headaches notwithstanding, concentration and thinking are good for you. Food for the brain, particularly in this time of mind numbing political "leaders", most of whom I would be happy to see shipped off to some universe, parallel or not, far, far away from the one I'm in.

I began writing The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn almost seven years ago. Five and a half years writing it, another half year to get it ready to publish this past fall.

I began the sequel the first week of January this year. The draft was complete in six weeks. I'm doing read throughs now, number six currently. I'll keep doing them until I see no more I want to change.

When that happens, I'll send it to Valerie, my editor, for copyediting/proofreading. When she's done it goes to Paula for marketing assistance/preparation for publishing this fall.

I'll write the third installment this summer in about the time it took to write the second one; six weeks.

Why the big difference in time to write the first book relative to the second and third books, all essentially the same length?

Laziness!

I had nothing pushing me to finish the first until it was time to publish.

So what's pushing me now?

I'm spending real money for outside help, advertising, and assorted other things relating to RQ's story and the sequel. Even more with the third book.

I can no longer lollygag.

Like it or not, it's become a second career I wasn't looking to have. 

Writing a book? Thinking about writing a book?

Retired?

Not if you want to stay that way.

Each day, I review the narrator's latest chapter recordings of The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn audiobook. I will finish the last ten this morning, the audiobook should be available by mid April at the latest. I will let you know when it is.

The last "audiobook" I listened to (I prefer to read books) was an audio tape of "Jurassic Park" I played in the car for the family while on vacation thirty-five years ago. I don't recall what I thought about it at the time.

I've read Raymond's story twenty plus times getting it ready for the editor, and now I'm listening to the narration of each chapter for the audiobook. A very different experience from what will be true for those hearing or reading the book.

When I read Raymond's story, and now the RQ unlived lives sequel drafts, in my head I "hear" the character's "voices". Literally!

Women speaking as women, men as men. Raymond and Shelly's voices slightly different depending on their age and the story line. All the characters "sound" different to me (again, in my head) in Antigua, Vietnam, Germany, the US, Switzerland, and Zimbabwe. My brain is creating those "voices" based on what my eyes read.

That doesn't happen nearly as much when I listen to the audio narration, nor are Raymond's thoughts, which in print are italicized, as clearly separated from what he says.

Subvocalization comes up when you search this topic, and much of what I find has to do with preventing it. I don't want to do that. I prefer imagining each character based both on what they say as well as their thoughts. "Hearing" those "voices" helps me do that.

Maybe this has to do with fiction versus nonfiction. With fiction there is dialog and character's thoughts. Nonfiction is a story told by the author with much less, if any, dialog or thoughts.

Do me a favor. If you read some books while listening to others as audiobooks, let me know if you've noticed anything similar.

​It is what it is; audiobooks can only present spoken words. But I am interested to know if book readers/listeners feel they miss any of the detail only hearing the story as opposed to reading it.

The title says it all.

Authors, in general, self-published authors, in particular, need to know three extremely important things if they are to have any financial success writing books:

1. Your book has to be worth reading.
2. You have to market your book, and to do that . . .
3. You have to know how to market your book.

If your book isn't, and/or you don't, you will join millions of self-published authors who sell far fewer than 50 copies, most of which will be bought by friends and family.

That's not a recipe for breakeven much less making money.

Until a couple of years ago, I had the cart way before the horse:

Write the book then worry about marketing the book.

I have a marketing background, how hard could it be?

Terribly-terribly-unbelievably-you-have-no-idea-hard, to which I will add, expensive!

I've made great progress learning the marketing side of writing/publishing The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn these past six or so months.

Enough to achieve breakeven, possibly make a little money?

Not even close nor will I until/unless I wisely, strategically spend thousands more. And this includes writing/publishing a sequel, fall 2025, followed by a threequel spring 2026. (Writing more books is a big part of marketing the first book.)

If you are about to or currently are writing a book, and have doubts about how to market your book, feel free to reach out to me.

I'm not a book marketing consultant, I have nothing related to book marketing to sell you. No cost to you for us talking, emailing; I'd be happy to help you however possible.

And if you don't believe you need help from others, you are one of two things:

1) A well known, highly regarded, successful author. Congratulations! 
or:
2) About to waste a lot of time and money with little or nothing to show for it.

​You have only so many friends and family.
​
​Good luck! 

Those of you requesting an audiobook option for The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn won't have to wait much longer.

I'm in the process of providing the narrator what he needs to do the project. You might think that would be simple enough, I certainly did. But consider the complexity of the story:

• Multiple male and female characters, some at different ages requiring altered voicing.
• A half dozen different nationalities with different speech patterns.
• Scenes in the US, Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Antigua, Switzerland, Germany, France, each with different pronunciation requirements.

When the narrator begins recording, I will receive and need to listen to each day's output, noting errors and/or requesting changes  requiring rework.

Knowing this, I now view the story very differently than I did writing or reading it. On paper or digital, Raymond's story is multidimensional. In audio, the work to create it even more so.

Will it be worth the time and money? That depends on how many who read books would prefer listening to an audiobook. And the answer to that depends on which source you trust.

I've researched it; I don't trust any of the statistics I found. Those who print books show much higher preference for print books. Those who create audiobooks, the opposite.

I'm moving ahead with this based on requests I've received for an audio version. I'll do the same this summer for the sequel coming out in the fall.

I certainly hope having one justifies the time and expense to create it.

​For now, let's just leave it at that. I hope so. 

I can't help myself, articles like this or this one are just too good to pass up. However, what I write and what these authors write are infinite parallel universes apart. I can't understand much more than the bottom line of the underlying parallel universe/multiverse theory debate:
​
There may be an infinite number of universes parallel to the only one many believe exists. And if there are, wouldn't it be cool if we could somehow get to them using inner parallel universe time travel machines?

Raymond's story, and soon to be Shelly's sequel, are fiction accounts assuming parallel universes (the multiverse if you prefer) along with the ability to access them, does exist. I'm proposing what might happen when Ray and Shelly find themself dead, visiting some of their unlived lives in universes parallel to the one in which they died. You know, the fun stuff.

Writing their stories has sometimes been trippy. I occasionally get so lost in the process of writing a scene, creating dialog between two characters, I subconsciously envision myself with them.

If they're depressed, I'm depressed. If they're surprised, I'm surprised.

Maybe writing this is my inner parallel universe time travel machine.

If you're not currently thinking about or in the process of writing a book, you may want to skip this post. This is for those who are. 

It's been awhile since I last posted about my experience with Click Testing for Authors (CTA); a course teaching those planning to run ads to sell their books how to create more effective ads. In my case, in support of The Unlived Lives of Raymond Quinn, followed by the second and third editions to be released this fall, and spring 2026.

As creative as you might think you are, you don't just slam pretty pictures together with words you're certain will the cause the public to buy your book. Much more often than not they won't.

The CTA approach is a slow, methodical progression testing individual ad elements defining who the target consumer actually is along with what you should say to them. This includes testing slogans, headlines, testimonials, and images, first separately, and later, putting the "winners" together in ads you also test. And as if that weren't enough, you have to do this within Meta's ad manager, itself a daunting task.

How hard can that be?

The image you see in this post is just partially showing one of approximately 30 inputs for just one ad, in just one section, of one of six separate tests. In my case, five variants to twenty-two variants in each of those six tests.

It's hard!

None of this guarantees I will sell more books. As the course says, if my books are crap the course won't fix them, nothing will. But if they are good, and I've created good ads, there's still the need to spend money running the ads.

You have to pay to play.

I'm satisfied, often surprised with what I've learned writing Raymond's story, and now Shelly's, including that coming from the CTA course.

Time will tell if I'm trying to sell crap.

"I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole—and yet—and yet—it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life!" 

My original intent for Raymond's story was for it to be one and done; a literary "only child". Unfortunately, that dog don't hunt.

The further down the book marketing rabbit hole I've gone the more I realize how important is marketing. And near if not at the top of the book marketing list of things to do is this truism.

Write more books, you will sell more books. 

Book readers want to read a book that is part of a series rather than one, one and done. They do because (assuming they read and enjoy the first book) they want, and will pay to read more of the same.

I doubted this at first, or maybe I just didn't want it to be true. But after connecting with self-published authors, learning what they do, many with six, a few with seven figure incomes from selling their own books, it's definitely true.

It took me a little over a year to write Raymond's first draft. Another four plus years doing twenty plus wordsmithing rewrites before sending it off to an editor (who, having read it, couldn't believe I ever had a course in grammar.😐️)

As of today, February 21, I am a day or so away from completing the first draft of Shelly's Unlived Lives story, the sequel to Raymond's story. I began writing it January 2nd this year. It will be published on or about October 15 this year, no later.

I have the framework for the third and final in the Unlived Lives series. It will be published in the spring of 2026.

I've turned over a new writing "leaf".

I write more, more often. I will publish much sooner. I will market much more of what I write. 

Alice knew it; it is rather curious, you know, this sort of life!