Now that I was getting a higher click through rate I returned again to the bounce rate. (The number of people who arrive at the website then bounce away without going to another page on the site) I had used Google’s website optimiser for the front page and experimented with the content until it was the best I could get it. Unfortunately the bounce rate refused to go lower than 50%

After thinking long and hard I wondered if some of the trouble was the boring navigation. I was using a standard template design with text navigation tabs across the top of the website just like 75% of sites on the net.

I decided to redesign the site using a template that allowed icon navigation. After two days of hard work I had a new site ready to go live. I uploaded the site to my host server and waited for the analytics data to build up.

You can view the new site here www.guardianscifi.com

The bounce rate immediately reduced to around 35%. Result!

So if your not getting the bounce rate you expect from your website then perhaps try improving the navigation.  Make your visitor want to look at other pages on your site.

No update on Guardian Generations yet. The publisher has the cover artwork and the manuscript. I am waiting for the first edited version to come through from them.  For the latest news please visit www.guardianscifi.com

I have spent most of last week working through the changes to Guardian Generations required by the Publisher.  Most of the issues were to do with the time lines of the story and the linking of the characters.

I had move chapters around so that the events were chronological. I originally jumped from one character to another and back again. However the action was taking place in different time frames. As they were not connected during that part of the story I did not think it mattered. The publisher’s reader thought otherwise!

The second issue was I had stayed on each of the characters for too long. This would apparently have an effect of causing the reader to forget what was happening with the other characters storyline. So I have broken the chapters up and ensured the narrative does not stay too long on one set of characters once the time lines converge.

Hopefully it is now satisfactory, fingers crossed.

Most of the previous week I spent building a shop (e-commerce) website for a friend. www.7designs.co.uk . I have to say I was impressed with the result (Nothing like blowing your own trumpet!    )

I suddenly had a thought, why not have a go at advertising the fact I can construct websites?  So tongue in cheek I have started to put together another website.  www.corweb.co.uk (Clive Osborne Rapley Web! Have I been lucky with the domain names so far or what??)

The website is live now but I still have a few more pages to add. Once it is finished I can sit back and see what, if anything comes of it. I do have book three of the Guardian series to continue with while I’m waiting so there is plenty to do in the mean time. 

Guardian book three: 9000 words.

To ensure a website maintains or improves its position with the search engines such as google it is good practice to add or change content reasonably regularly.

For my personal website it is this blog. My book website www.guardianscifi.com gets updated occasionally as does www.partnership-publishing.com.

The latest update for the book website is a new page consisting of part of the synopsis. It gives more of the plot than the first chapter but is not as long (better for reading online).

The full synopsis will be used as an example on www.partnership-publishing.com as part of a page showing how a synopsis is written. There will of course be a spoiler warning just in case someone wants to read the book first

GUARDIAN

Short Synopsis

Tristan is a Naval officer who volunteers for a brain implant as part of an experimental weapons program. The experiment goes wrong and leaves him with minor brain damage. He is discharged from the Navy, and becomes a recluse in an isolated cottage on the edge of Exmoor.

Aurelia is a fighter pilot from the planet Dacia who is running for her life from a superior enemy force. In her desperation, she finds an inhabited planet in an uncharted solar system. She crashes on Earth, just behind Tristan’s cottage.

Tristan pulls her unconscious body from her damaged craft and discovers she is not quite human. He has a further surprise when he finds that he can control her ship’s systems with his thoughts.

Aurelia awakens to find she has been rescued by one of Earth’s primitive beings. Aurelia’s people, the Dacians, believe that they are superior to all other races. They make it their mission to search throughout space for new races to conquer and enslave. She attempts to trick Tristan into becoming her slave.

A small enemy scout ship of rebel slaves lands on Earth to find and kill Aurelia. Tristan rescues her and they take off into space to avoid capture and find her people.

During the flight, she teaches Tristan her language and explains that her enemies are a slave race that rebelled against their Dacian masters. Their spacecraft suffers from engine and partial system failure, so Tristan and Aurelia make an emergency landing on an uninhabited planet that has a Dacian navigation beacon.

They crash land several hundred miles from the beacon and have no option but to walk to it to change its broadcast to a distress signal. During the long walk facing many dangers together, Aurelia and Tristan develop a relationship, which overpowers Aurelia’s belief that Tristan is of a lesser, potential slave race.

They reach the beacon after many days of struggle and Aurelia reconfigures it to send a distress signal. A passing Dacian fleet rescues them, but unfortunately for Aurelia, it is quickly discovered that she has consorted with an inferior being. She is dishonourably discharged from the Dacian military and sent home in disgrace. Tristan is taken to a cell and scheduled for interrogation and termination.

Tristan finds he is sharing his cell with several Mylians, rebels who have been fighting a losing battle with the Dacians. Tristan is shocked to learn the brutal and tyrannical nature of the Dacians; their advanced interfacing abilities and technology have given them an edge over the races they enslave.  Tristan uses his ability to interface with the Dacian computers on the ship to escape and free the slaves.

Tristan and the rebels steal a small ship and travel to a Mylian colony. When they arrive, they find a small Dacian force about to destroy the colony……..

Read the first chapter on www.guardianscifi.com

I have completed the redesign of my book website www.guardianscifi.com using a new template and graphics I have produced myself using the same 3D package I use for my pictures. Please go and have a look and tell me what you think.

Guardian Generations is FINISHED! Other than tidying it up and reviewing what I have written it is ready for the first edit.  The word count has ended up at just over 76000 words so the book will be approximately the same thickness as Guardian (Look good as a pair on your bookshelf).

Once the first edit is complete it will be sent off to the publisher for review. Fingers crossed it is accepted. I have learnt a great deal since I started writing Guardian and personally I think Guardian Generations better. Lets hope the publisher thinks so too (Fingers Crossed)

A  Guardian Sci Fi fan club has been started on Facebook that is  definitely worth a look.  One advantage to membership is I agreed to make a few more sample chapters of both books available for members to download.  So if you cannot make your mind up whether to purchase Guardian from reading the first chapter on the website then join the Facebook fan club and you can download the first three chapters of Guardian and Guardian Generations.  If you cannot make your mind up after reading that lot then my advice is just purchase a copy anyway!

Guardian Generations word count 76350

I am running a special Christmas offer on my Guardian Sci Fi website. An author signed copy of Guardian for £6.50. I will include a personal dedication of your choice just add it to your order or email me separately.

A signed copy would make an excellent Christmas present and you never know in the future you might be able to sell it on ebay for more than you paid for it

I am coming to the end of Guardian Generations. The word count I now 63000. I should have it finished and ready for the first round of editing within the next two weeks.

Once it is edited I will submit it to the publishers. So with any luck the book will be ready by April next year.

This time the cover will be my own and I am in the process of developing it. The Mark II version is now on the Guardian website. I am in the process of producing the MK III version so visit the website regularly if you are interested.

As I have got to grips with the graphics software I have started to produce other pictures with a Sci Fi or Fantasy theme.  I will be adding them to a new section on the Guardian website as I produce them.  I am also looking at the possibility of printing some of the pictures as posters.

I will let you know how that progresses. In the mean time if there is a particular picture you would like a copy of please let me know and I will see what I can do for you.