I got the booster shot last Saturday morning, which set the stage for a rough week. I was fine for that day, but the rest turned into this:
- Sunday- Achy around joints and exhausted.
- Monday- Slightly fatigued and swollen lymph nodes on side where got shot.
- Tuesday- More energy, but still pain on side.
- Wednesday- Pain gone and energy reviving. Stress and little water set off IBS.
- Thursday- Friggin’ IBS making my lower intestines squirm.
- Friday- Lower back got in on the act. Held it together long enough to finish the day, but muscles spent the night spasming.
Needless to say, I didn’t get a lot done since it was all about work, parenting, and physical recovery. I couldn’t get my brain to focus on anything else beyond a few future blog posts and checking sales. By the end of the day, I was too drained to do more than watch more of ‘Burn Notice’ and fiddle with a ‘Witcher’ puzzle. So, I don’t have much more to say about my week. Nothing was accomplished.
Speaking of failing to made an impact, War of Nytefall: Eulogy has sold a total of 2 copies. It debuted last weekend and didn’t give the series a boost either. Frustrating part is that I’ve had around 10 people tell me that they’ve picked up copies. I’ve seen plenty of friends on social media share the promos too. Just isn’t getting me anywhere, which is why I’m routinely trying to figure out what I’m doing here. Doesn’t help that I get promos of others shoved in my face. I’m talking the ones where the author was able to drop thousands of dollars into the campaign and has an army of loyal readers/reviewers at their disposal. Feels like salt on the wound. It shouldn’t, but I think sensing that me promoting my book caused the algorithms to send the others my way made me hate the system even more.
Another thing that gets triggered are people trying to get me to give them for money to promote my book. I’m talking the groups/reviewers who DM you or comment on unrelated posts to get you to say yes. To be honest, I tried one when I released Anarchy and it had absolutely no effect on sales. With money even more restrained now, I can’t be bothered to do a test run. At this point, I don’t feel like any money I put towards promoting will get me anything other than stress. My books simply don’t sell. At least the new stuff while my original series still flickers to life throughout the money. Makes me worry for Darwin and everyone who comes after him.
Really all I’ve got to say this week. It’s a long, busy slog to the break and I need to get my body back into some form of functionality. Was even hard to walk by the end of things, so this weekend is for resting. Promised my son a bunch of fun events between bouts of homework. Though we both want to rest up for next week since this last one wore us down a bunch. Weather is warm for December, which is frustrating because we can’t use the cold as an excuse to be lazy. Now, it’s just that we don’t want to do anything more than play around the house. Some weekends need to be lazy.
Goals of the week:
- Make it to the next weekend.
- Maybe buy some books.
- Parenting and work as usual.
- Finish ‘Burn Notice’
- February blog posts
- Tinker with notebook
- Sleep in this weekend
- Oil change
- Make a better list next weekend
Legends of Windemere 
Sorry it was a rough week, and sales are low on your new book. I don’t know why it keeps showing you less sales than you’re getting, but I hope it catches up with itself. Anyway, good luck surviving the next week.
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Low is an understatement. Sales are non-existent. The previous books had the same issue. Either sales aren’t being recorded or some people are lying. I also wonder if some sales are blocked because my blog followers are reported as friends and family. It’s what happened to reviews.
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I wouldn’t have thought so. I mean, though I definitely don’t agree with it, I can sort of understand the reasoning regarding reviews from people they think might be friends or family (though you’d think they’d have figured out that with all this social media we’re meant to be on having someone follow you doesn’t mean you know them personally) but I wouldn’t have thought it would matter when it comes to sales.
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I get family being banned. The friend thing is difficult. Mostly because anybody can report a person as an author’s friend and that’s it. So, way back, more underhanded authors used this to hurt rivals.
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😦
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I have never figured out the sales end of books. I know what needs to be done but am unwilling to spend the money to do it.
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Same here. Well, lacking the money to drop on it is another thing.
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Lacking funds is the bane of most of us. Fussy did a good job during my October push, and I’m still seeing fallout from that. The Lanternfish push is moving more of the earlier volumes than anything else. Maybe people really do wait for a series to wrap to some degree. That doesn’t seem to reflect your experience, though. I wonder if there might be a sweet spot in publishing. A stand-alone volume doesn’t draw much attention, three is great, more than that requires too much commitment. I admit to guessing completely here.
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Think I remember Fussy. There was a rule about no horror though. I was told that vampires count, so I never submitted. Happened with many of the promo sites I used once I started the new series.
I don’t think there’s a real sweet spot beyond ‘be rich and/or highly charismatic’. Instagram bombards me with successful author promos. All are attractive women writing romance/erotica and making playful videos.
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Yeah, I don’t think we can compete there. I had to put my Halloween push as Fantasy on Fussy. They didn’t have a detailed location for it. It still helped.
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How much is it these days?
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$50. I didn’t do one for every volume, but it helped with one and three, which drove interest in the others.
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Wow. That’s more than I expected. Might have to budget that in for the next series.
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