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	<title>Mike Grist</title>
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	<link>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com</link>
	<description>Author of the Chris Wren, Girl Zero &#38; Sally Rogers thrillers.</description>
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		<title>False Flag rework 2024 and Readthrough Report</title>
		<link>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/false-flag-rework-2024-and-readthrough-report/</link>
					<comments>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/false-flag-rework-2024-and-readthrough-report/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Grist]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Jun 2024 13:42:16 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/?p=15676</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[In the past 6 months I reworked Saint Justice, No Mercy and Make Them Pay to make them the best they could be for audio re-records with WF Howes (narrated by Jeff Harding), with the major goal of increasing read and listen-through. If I can increase readthrough, I both entertain more readers with more books, improve my own storytelling skills and also increase profitability, which takes me closer to making writing these books my full-time gig. So now I just finished the rewrite of False Flag. Here&#8217;s the changelog of everything I altered, followed by the latest Readthrough report. Reduce ... <a href="https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/false-flag-rework-2024-and-readthrough-report/" class="more-link">Read More</a>]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		
		
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		<title>No Mercy &#038; Make Them Pay reworks 2024</title>
		<link>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/no-mercy-make-them-pay-reworks-2024/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Grist]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 24 Mar 2024 20:07:30 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/?p=15582</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[I wrote a pretty epic report on how I rewrote Saint Justice back in Sept 2023 &#8211; a process which has since continued as I have rewritten books 2 and 3, No Mercy and Make Them Pay &#8211; ultimately by much more than I&#8217;d expected. I&#8217;m doing this for multiple reasons, primarily because I think the books have weaknesses and can be better and get better readthrough &#8211; and I&#8217;m doing it now because the series is getting re-recorded by WF Howes using Jeff Harding as narrator, and we have a launch schedule to meet. First, though, a report on ... <a href="https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/no-mercy-make-them-pay-reworks-2024/" class="more-link">Read More</a>]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Saint Justice rework 2023</title>
		<link>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/saint-justice-rework-2023/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Grist]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 30 Sep 2023 21:31:54 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Editing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Story Craft]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/?p=15512</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve made no secret of the fact that I sometimes go back to earlier, already-published works and rework them. Reworking the early Wren books to be more in line with the genre and reader expectation was what led to my sales breakthrough in 2021. I&#8217;ve talked about all the things I changed several times here, here, here and probably other places too. In summary, I: I did lots more things too, including new covers, titles and blurbs, not all of which I remember. All these changes transformed the uptake of book 1 as well as the readthrough to book 2. ... <a href="https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/saint-justice-rework-2023/" class="more-link">Read More</a>]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>Zero Day launches today!!</title>
		<link>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/zero-day-launches-today/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Grist]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 06 Aug 2023 08:20:41 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/?p=15507</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
		
		
		
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		<title>New Wren series blurb &#038; analysis!!</title>
		<link>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/new-wren-series-blurb-analysis/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Grist]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Apr 2023 15:08:29 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/?p=15503</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[On Amazon as authors we&#8217;re afforded a series page for our books &#8211; for years I&#8217;ve been sending my FB ad clicks to the series page for Wren, and on that page I had a series blurb that was identical to the blurb for book 1 &#8211; https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07TFBG5XD &#8216;They stole his truck. Big mistake yadda yadda&#8230;&#8217; In the earliest days of March 2021, this new blurb combined with new covers, new opening chapters and altered body text, led people to one-click buy the whole series (then about 4 books long). That led to a lovely influx of sudden cash, as ... <a href="https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/new-wren-series-blurb-analysis/" class="more-link">Read More</a>]]></description>
		
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Realism in the Chris Wren books</title>
		<link>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/realism-in-the-chris-wren-books/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Grist]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 24 Mar 2023 12:44:57 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/?p=15500</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Anyone who reads this blog knows I take on board reader feedback and use it to improve my writing. I have no qualms about changing books that have already been published, and have written about this plenty before &#8211; I changed the Wren series in many ways both small and large: taking out political elements, removing swearing, reducing the graphic horror, removing the time spent in the heads of creepy people, speeding up slow sections and adding more descriptive parts at times. I&#8217;ve done all that. The Wren books started to sell because I did it &#8211; but for a ... <a href="https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/realism-in-the-chris-wren-books/" class="more-link">Read More</a>]]></description>
		
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>2023 Writing Plans!!</title>
		<link>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2023-writing-plans/</link>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Grist]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sun, 22 Jan 2023 13:14:18 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/?p=15474</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[The last two years have been transformational in my author career. For the first time I actually made decent money from my books &#8211; after learning some important lessons about writing to market and giving the audience more of what they want. Both years I comfortably earned &#8216;replacement&#8217; money &#8211; enough to trade out my job and go full time as an author. I held back, since my job&#8217;s pretty good about allowing me time to write anyway, and because I expected it was better to save and get some runway. Boy, am I glad I did. In this last ... <a href="https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/2023-writing-plans/" class="more-link">Read More</a>]]></description>
		
		
		
			</item>
		<item>
		<title>Alt covers for Saint Justice</title>
		<link>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/alt-covers-for-saint-justice/</link>
					<comments>https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/alt-covers-for-saint-justice/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Mike Grist]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 May 2022 15:06:48 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/?p=15270</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been reading and analyzing a lot of thrillers recently &#8211; mostly Michael Connelly but also Jeffery Deaver, and that includes looking at their covers. Here&#8217;s a few: Granted, this selection is limited, but reasonably representative. Let&#8217;s compare to the Saint Justice cover: Let&#8217;s break down a quick analysis by area. Author name &#38; Title &#8211; The other books all have the author name first, mostly at the top and above the title, taking up approx a quarter to a third of the cover. They largely seem to use the same font for the title. Saint Justice by contrast has ... <a href="https://www.michaeljohngrist.com/alt-covers-for-saint-justice/" class="more-link">Read More</a>]]></description>
		
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			<slash:comments>5</slash:comments>
		
		
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