Sunday, June 17, 2012

Big Head-Small Paycheck

I've been skirting my responsibilities as a blogger. Mainly because I'm not sure if it is a good use of my time. I received my Q1 sales spreadsheet and I am only making about $150 a month even though I have five novels on the market. It's mainly Cinderella Club selling. Apparently I did not sell a single Cinderella Thyme during the month of March.

So I think- maybe I should be doing more to promote? But that just gets me into more time spent on a dream. The books are available. People will eventually find them if they are good. It's that simple. Writing takes a long time. I can't whip something up and get it out there like the full time authors seem to be able to do. And as you all know, I'm not a people person. I'd rather make the art and let someone else sell it.

I'm almost done with the art stuff then I can spend the better part of the summer finishing my trilogy. After that I will reassess. It is phenomenal when I think about all the people who have read or bought and plan to read my stuff. I don't exist in the real world as a writer. Lunch conversation with my family turned into who's read Fifty Shades of Grey? I cannot believe how that book has sunk its teeth into American pop culture. But even so the next line is not I write erotica too. I'm Mia Natasha.

It feels so strange. But good strange because I wouldn't do it if people knew. It's like when I make art, there needs to be some element of wow-ie. The same as when you make an entrance into a room looking stunning. If people are looking over my shoulder, I'm out. Out for good.

2 comments:

  1. Reading your post here, I found you were echoing some of the same feelings I've had this past summer. Not long after you wrote this, I released my first novel on KDP and in Trade paperback. I'd been selling on KDP for about a year by then, but only one genre review journal and a couple of short stories. When the novel hit the digital and PoD shelves, I thought to myself, "YES! Finally, something that will really pull people in! MY DAY HAS COME!!!"

    I mean, after all, I run a blog that gets some fair amount of traffic, I have a good Twitter following, I'm on some FB groups where people know me. That should help, right? And it's a revenge thriller, not some esoteric niche-market book that only the smallest percentage of buyers will ever find interesting. I'll sell books, right?

    So far...wrong. In two months I've sold maybe a dozen copies. It's gotten good reviews - one of my favorite bloggers, a veteran writer of many decades, said it was one of the best books he'd read all year - but it just isn't going anywhere. In August, I've sold two copies.

    On the other hand, I've put a new novel on sale back at the beginning of August, and so far it's doing much better; averaging about 1.5 books a day. Since it has to do with British Commandos in WW2, my UK sales so far are soundly beating my Amazon.com sales, but even so I'll be lucky to break 30 copies sold total this month.

    And the worst part is, the deck is clear. That last novel was the final project I had on the back burner, and right now I'm at something of a loss to find my next project. Write the sequel to the WW2 book? Sounds like the best idea, since it's really the only thing that's selling at the moment, but even if I start right now, it won't hit the market until probably Christmas time. Try to write some short fiction? Maybe, but $0.35 a sale isn't going to add up to much.

    Wow, I've just banged out a whole lot of emotional baggage on your blog. Sorry! I guess it's a sign of respect for your post and an empathy for what you're going through, because I certainly don't go on like this through my own blog.

    Still and all, I hope things have warmed up sales-wise. Always good to hear from other writers who're facing the same problems.

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    1. Thanks for commenting even if it was to commiserate. At least someone is reading my blog posts, right?

      I finished the draft of my third novel in the Cinderella series and it is on target for its November 30th release. Not sure what's next for me either.

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