She Has Arisen

My book sale for the month is about to fall off my Kindle Reports page. Yes, that’s right, sale, not sales. I’m surprised I sold one this month. I’ve done absolutely nothing in the way of promotions for several months now.

One reason is that I have taken on a number of family related responsibilities in the past several months. There’s a common misconception that retired people have nothing to do with their time, and need other people to give them things to do in order to make them feel useful. Another reason is that I’m a pushover for needy people.

And then, in a successful effort at healthier living, I’m making the time to walk three to five miles a day and I’ve been driving around four counties sourcing farm grown/raised foods and trying to stay out of the middle aisles at the supermarket. Now that I’m signed on with a collective, that should get easier.

Other excuses aside, I’ve also been writing and editing. I’m not the multi-tasker I was back in my nursing days. But I’ve made lots of progress. I’m going over the final, fully edited draft of “Naked Alliances”. It’s down to choosing a cover and getting the book formatted. I’m leaning toward Kindle Select with this one. I only sold hundreds of copies of my Red Clay and Roses on Amazon, usually during ninety-nine cent promos. Sales on other retail platforms really haven’t worked out for me, but that could be due to the genre/nature of the book. I used Facebook and FB through ENT for most of those sales. It’s no wonder that my audience is 35+ year old women and that’s also the majority of people who use FB. I’ve also had some success with blog interviews.

Which brings me to my next point: I had planned to have at least three books in this series set to go before publishing the first but, since it has taken nearly two years to get this one as polished as I wanted it to be, I’m concerned that four, or more, years just might be too long to wait. I’ve already lost a lot of momentum on Naked Alliances. I feel it. That’s not good.

I have the second book in the series roughed out and the third outlined. (sort of) So I am expecting them to be a bit less complicated to execute. But even a few years will crush any momentum I have left. I’m thinking book one’s reception might have a great influence on the production of my works-in-progress.

And then, there’s “The Conduit”, a totally unrelated paranormal crime novel. It won’t have the comedic undertones that “The Naked Eye Series” does. I’m still tossing around the idea of pen names, but I’m hearing that all books should remain on one Author Central page. Elmore Leonard’s great westerns are alongside his unforgettable crime novels, and the covers don’t always indicate the genre. However, many authors do have all their books: romance, paranormal, fantasy under one author name and do quite well, differentiating covers for separate genre. And, surely people will read the blurb before buying the book. And then, there’s another historical novel that’s been shelved for a bit while I get my head together on that one.

Back to “Naked Alliances”, I was hoping to have it published before Christmas, but it’s not looking like that’s going to happen. I’ll be looking for a cover artist soon. I’m open to doing interviews to get if off the ground. I have a list of bloggers who do interviews, but please let me know if you do interviews and would like to know more about me or the book/series.

I’ve fallen in love with Brandi. She’s developed into my muse, encouraging me to move along with her brassy cynicism. The chemistry between Richard Noggin, P.I. and Brandi is fun to write and fun to read.

BTW, I pulled back from doing book reviews on my blog until Amazon settles down a bit. It bothers me that they would pull reviews from authors who know other authors. I hardly think that’s fair, given that all authors are readers, and thus, customers. You may have noticed that I changed my review name on Amazon to a more anonymous name. I had several reasons for doing that. I may change it back, but remain undecided. I’ve always purchased the books I read, mainly as a way of offering additional support to the author. It’s funny to me, considering the scope of Facebook, that they might possibly be using FB as a way to see who “knows” who. There’s not a book that I have read in the past five years that I didn’t “like” the author’s FB page, or at least check them out. I’m “friends” with many indie authors, but also some well renowned traditional authors, as well, and have exchanged comments and emails with many of them, establishing a more personal relationship over time.

If you’ve stayed with me through this lengthy post, I’d love to hear from you. Though I find time to read some blogs and comment when possible. I’ve deeply missed the interactions on this blog. I’ve been isolated. I’m feeling as if I have been on a long journey from home and just returned.

To recap: I’m looking for a cover artist, someone to help with formatting, and opportunities for interviews. I won’t be joining any reciprocal book review clubs due to Amazon’s current policies. I may start posting book reviews along with some interviews that I’ll be doing later this year or next year.

Ideas? Thoughts? Suggestions?