He was proud of this
This week’s goals are going to be really trimmed down due to the holiday. Not that I celebrate Christmas, but a holiday means the toddler is home for the rest of the year. Plus side is that I get to play with him throughout the day and possibly sleep in. Downside is that I probably won’t get much work done. He’s taken to talking from the moment he wakes up to the point he goes to sleep. You might say the television can be an answer, but he has opted to become bored with his shows since Friday. Nope, his favorite toys at this present time are the adults of the house.
To prepare for this, I’m taking a chunk of the day away from the house. Seeing a movie and having a lunch. For those wondering, I’m seeing ‘Anchorman 2’ because I need some laughs and I don’t have it in me to watch ‘The Hobbit 2’. That book is one of my preciousssss memories and I need to be in the right mindset to see the padded middle of this. That and people have told me a lot of what happens, so I wouldn’t be going in with any suspense. Smaug and Bilbo have a rap battle? You’ve gone too far, Mr. Jackson. Seriously, I’d probably respect that more than one or two things he really did.Anyway, the goals and then a question:
- Write a chapter of Curse of the Dark Wind.
- Try not to drive Ionia crazy with ‘Save me from the wee one!’ texts.
- Read more of Kings of Clonmel.
- Keep blogging.
- Decide on if I should post Allure of the Gypsies sale results. Might make a post later today doing a $2.99 and 99 cent comparison.
- Eat, sleep, and give up trying to get to the exercise bike until 2014.
Question: Do people think the Allure of the Gypsies Hype Week last month and blog tour this month was interesting? I know the blog tour isn’t made to be exciting because it’s the same post to a wide audience. One concern I have is that after the cover reveal, the rest of my Hype Week bombed. Not sure if it was solely because of Thanksgiving or the types of posts I put up were boring. The interviews have fallen flat again, so they’re back out of the rotation. Maybe it’s just the end of the year and being Jewish means I don’t quite understand it.
Legends of Windemere 
Great goals. 🙂
Hmm, I’m not sure about the Hype Week thing…. Thanksgiving would be a tough time for sure. I do think end of the year blogging is diminished. Rara had a post talking about how that happens etc, so I kind of think that is it.
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I was wondering about that. I started blogging December 1st, 2012. So, I never noticed if it was slow or not around here because I was still figuring things out. As for Thanksgiving, I’m wondering if I should do one post a day instead of many next year. I’m setting up to follow the same time table I used this year, so it’s going to be an issue again. Then again, who knows what my situation will be by that point.
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Oh yeah, maybe just one post a day. Probably a good idea.
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It’ll be hard to figure out exactly. Two big characters debut in the next book, so I might have more to work with than this time around. Unless I dedicate one day to poetry and then one post on every other day.
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The question is; what do you mean bombed and fallen flat? (especially the interviews) No comments or no sales? If it’s no comments I think reblogs generally are comment free unless there is some emotional pull. Interview comments are also rare unless it is some famous person. If it’s no sales then I think you can credit the holidays, but should eventually kick in, I thought the blog tour was genus. The entire blogosphere covered for the month. Gotta mean something in the end. The one down side is the bloggers are writers as well and there are just so many books one can buy and read. I still need to get to Tower and it’s not like I am sitting on my butt, but in the end I only have so much time after posting, editing, and writing. I think your whole program is working, but that is just me. Also I don’t know what will come of the sales number posting unless you want to point out how well a book sells at a certain price. This comparison might not be valid given the changing circumstances. Hope this helps.
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I meant comments and likes. Sorry about that. The interviews were designed for people to ask questions to characters like the Twubs Chat. One interview got nothing and the others got maybe 1 or 2 questions. I don’t think anything beyond the Cover Reveal really did me any good, but the holiday might be to blame. Something to consider for next year.
I’m leery of posting my sales numbers these days. I might simply go by rankings, which were public and use vague comparisons. I do want to do a post about the difference in the two prices I used since I think it’s something people might be curious about as they try to figure out their own pricing. A Pro/Con list might be the best I do.
The full month blog tour was Ionia’s idea. I gotta give her credit there.
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John had some really good points. Perhaps sales will pick up in January. Christmas really is a hectic time of year for many people. I wouldn’t think December would be a good month to release a book. Just enjoy your son – isn’t your wife around to help? Text her instead of Ionia since she would be closer and could actually do something.
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Ionia mentioned yesterday that people get Kindles for the holidays. That means Indie Authors might see an end of the year surge. December is apparently a good month because people are buying at the beginning and you can pull in a few sales. That New Release list gets checked out a lot. It’s actually November that’s one of the dead months because people are saving for Christmas. My wife will be around a bit, but she’s as long as the toddler. That and he waits for her to get distracted by something then comes running to see what I’m doing. Besides, my wife will be working part of the week too.
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I will try a repost if the blog tour post on December 25. And maybe my reviews early January. Don’t know if it will help but I can try.
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Thanks. I appreciate it. Every little bit helps.
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I’ve got a blog set up for January 1 that shows all three book reviews – hope this will help give you a boost. If you would rather I did it on a different day, just let me know.
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Very cool. Thank you so much. 🙂
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I, too, can’t muster the interest to see Hobbit 2. I’ve lost interest in the characters and the neverending telling of the tale. And I have read The Hobbit and LOTR countless times over the years.
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I’ll see it eventually. I always had issues with the trilogy idea, but I could understand two movies. Three seems a little too stretched.
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Exactly. The idea of sitting through another 6 or 7 hours of this style of telling the story is just too much.
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I don’t even want to think about the third one. I heard the ending here is rather mean considering it’s a year until the next movie.
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The holiday season (any religion) are a great time to spend more time with the family, especially the little ones who can rejuvenate us with curiosity and energy, and take more breaks away from writing and marketing.
I wouldn’t just look at the numbers of likes, views, and comments. I’m sure many people saw much of your marketing strategy, but didn’t click on every post or engage with it, yet it still left the impression that you’re a professional author, which has value in itself. That doesn’t necessarily mean you should do the same thing again next time; just don’t get too discouraged. 🙂
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I’m taking the approach of play with toddler until he tells me to go away. Then return to writing until he blesses me with his attention again. So, it’s going to be touch and go some days.
Thanks for the advice. I think the posts that required a lot of interaction is what will be cut next time. The interviews needed people to ask questions and I tried one every day. Maybe do it only for the important characters that are debuting.
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I am always too opinionated so i shall ignore the questions. i remember that picture, one of my favourites and I shall wait for you to inform me of what to do with the bike so you don’t have to see it until January.
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Currently, it’s holding up my thermal hoodie and become Aidan’s new toy. He just sits there and announces that he’s riding a big boy bike. Then he messes with the tension controls.
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