Returning to Teaser Tuesday without a New Release

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Charles Yallowitz

The above picture is what I got when I did a Yahoo Image Search for ‘Tough Call Meme’.  I laughed, so it stuck.  It doesn’t help me at all though.

I took some time this week to schedule enough Teaser Tuesday posts to get me to the end of May.  I had begun doing them for Legends of Windemere and stopped when War of Nytefall: Eradication came out to focus on that.  Well, I sold all of 5 copies of the latter, so I might as well jump back to the original plan.  Anyway, I’m posted all the way through Volume 12 and the final 3 with spin-off will carry me near the end of June.  It covers a lot of ground, but I have a problem.

All I’m doing is taking teasers from years ago and reposting them with some polishing on the introduction.  I have a lot of trouble figuring out what will and will not work in terms of teasers.  This means I’m going to have to junk the concept entirely if I can’t figure out new ones.  Yet, it’s really the only consistent promotional post that I have, so I would need to replace it with something equally useful.  No idea what that could be.

Character interviews?  Those never go well because most people don’t get involved.

Character profiles?  Done those several times and nothing new there.

Questions about my series or characters?  Maybe, but I find that I don’t get a lot of bites with this.  Same issue with the interviews.

Hate to say it, but I’m running out of faith and steam here.  Due to my schedule of work, parenting, and trying to be a human being, I get very little time to wander blogs.  I end up stumbling onto a lot of reblogs too, which causes trouble.  Through my phone, I’m not able to comment because it seems to believe that I’ve unfollowed most people.  Unless I can find it in the WordPress app, I can’t do anything and it’s been that way for nearly two years.  I don’t get to my laptop until the evening and we’re talking LATE.  I can’t spend the 1-2 hours I get going over blogs every night.  So, I’m not able to interact and that’s definitely hurting me.  The situation keeps getting worse, huh?

This is more of a rant post than anything else.  I can’t think of anything special to do with Tuesdays over the summer.  Even if I tack on Ichabod Brooks, Nytefall, and Bedlam, that only gets me into August and prolongs the inevitable.  Are there any scenes that people who have read my books want to see on here?  Any characters that they want to see get more attention?  I really can’t tell what works and what doesn’t anymore.  People seem much more interested in my Saturday rants and goals than anything relating to my actual books and the art of writing.  Be nice to get some feedback.  Thanks.

About Charles Yallowitz

Charles E. Yallowitz was born, raised, and educated in New York. Then he spent a few years in Florida, realized his fear of alligators, and moved back to the Empire State. When he isn't working hard on his epic fantasy stories, Charles can be found cooking or going on whatever adventure his son has planned for the day. 'Legends of Windemere' is his first series, but it certainly won't be his last.
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20 Responses to Returning to Teaser Tuesday without a New Release

  1. John W. Howell says:
    April 5, 2020 at 9:25 am

    Not sure I can be helpful here. I read every post you publish. Sometimes the teasers really make me want to get the book but my time to read is very limited. Between a seven-day blog schedule and working on a current book plus life duties pretty much uses the time. I still have your books on my kindle which I haven’t read yet. If the focus is to sell books I don’t think your blog is the place to do it. You have regular visitors who are supportive but what you need is to reach new folks and I’m not sure a blog will do that. I don’t have an answer on what does. I have been trying to figure out the Amazon marketing system for two years now and am no closer to a solution. My blog is 100% dedicated to entertainment of the readers. I no longer even hope to sell books there. I guess your readers are saying the same when you get better responses from your Saturday posts. I wish I could offer a suggestion that was a breakthrough. Maybe offering a $0.99 book once a month and tying the teaser around that might work. Who knows.

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    • Charles Yallowitz says:
      April 5, 2020 at 9:33 am

      I tried making all the Nytefall books 99 cents last year. Teasers connected to it and nothing sold. Honestly, if I’m only entertaining people with my blog and not making any headway with my books then I really don’t have a purpose here. With work and parenting, I have limited time and what I put towards blogging could go towards writing. There’s no promotional stuff I can afford now either and the free works about as well as a newspaper raincoat in a hurricane. So, what’s the point of having an author blog if my audience doesn’t see me as a book author, but a blogger?

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  2. coldhandboyack says:
    April 5, 2020 at 9:32 am

    I find that anything that relies upon interaction doesn’t do that well. If I post something that’s all me talking about something, it does okay. If I post something with Lisa it does very well. Her interviews are set up that all the required interaction happens before they post. If I had answers I’d share them with you. Excerpts and teasers don’t seem to do as well as they used to. Mine are all coming soon related and aimed at new stories these days.

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  3. ospreyshire says:
    April 5, 2020 at 10:24 am

    I’m sorry to hear about what you’re going through as an author. I feel the same about not enough people caring about your work. It’s crazy writing all these books and not feeling appreciated. Things have been getting crazier with me balancing work, the blogs, Camp NaNoWriMo, and other things.

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    • Charles Yallowitz says:
      April 5, 2020 at 10:39 am

      I think a big part of the frustration is that it was different years ago. People cared and authors were jumping around everyone’s blog. Readers were everywhere. Then, things seemed to change and indie authors didn’t get as much attention as they used to. My life falling apart didn’t help and I’d hoped to rebuild here, but it’s like once I fell, I was done.

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      • ospreyshire says:
        April 6, 2020 at 10:04 am

        I see. That’s too bad how more authors aren’t checking out each other’s works. I certainly had doubts since I had books written all the way since 2014, but didn’t publish them until a couple of years ago. That and I didn’t unveil any major stories until I serialized Hollandus Landing on my fiction blog 3 years ago. I do hope you can rebuild in some way, shape, or form.

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  4. Chelsea Owens says:
    April 5, 2020 at 1:03 pm

    I can’t speak for all your statistics, but I’m just busy. I don’t get a lot of time and only get Thursdays and Sundays to read blogs. I go for short, simple things, in consequence. 🙂

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  5. DebyFredericks says:
    April 6, 2020 at 12:49 pm

    FWIW, I’m doing a book event in June, that I had planned before everything changed. It’s called Queen Titania’s Court, and it features indy fantasy authors. You have to pick one character from one of your books and they will visit a grand ball on Midsummer Night. E-mail me know if you’re interested. Actually, anyone whose book could be tagged as fantasy is welcome to check it out.

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