So, I put off doing the weekly round up yesterday because I didn’t feel like doing a vlog, and I found myself doing the same thing today, so I was like, “Okay, no vlog this week. Let’s just get it done.”
What’s up this week? Uh, not much. I haven’t done any writing. At all. And I’m really bummed about it. I was writing this post on one of my writer’s forums trying to explain how weird it is that words don’t work anymore. Like, I can completely write this with no problem. Words form in my head, and I type them. But when I try to write fiction, it’s like the words come out weird. They’re garbled. They come out in the wrong order. I’ll lose my train of thought midway through the sentence, and I won’t be able to remember what I was saying. It’s like trying to write with a hangover or something.
Because I feel worthless and useless, I decided I needed to do something. So… I made a quilt.
I’ve been wanting to make a quilt for a very long time, but I’ve never done it, because all I have for fabric are old clothes, and I thought I’d need to get a big piece of fabric for the back and to buy batting for in the middle. Both of those things sounded expensive. As I’ve pointed out, not exactly rich right now–especially not for indulging in hobbies. But then I found about rag quilts, which are cool, because you sew a bunch of square sandwiches together and then sew the sandwiches into a quilt, leaving the edges ragged so that they’ll fray and look nifty, sort of framing the squares.
So, I made this out of old corduroys and jeans, and I think it came out really well. I’m proud of myself. And now that I’ve practiced, I’m going to make a baby one out of t-shirts for Stormageddon.
Yes, that is my kitty Isis on there. She loves lying on this thing and rolling around on her back on it. I think the rag parts are little ridges that feel good to rub against for her.
All right… what else?
Um… the boxed set. The boxed set has sold a total of 180 copies, and made me $65 thus far. But it wasn’t intended to really make me money itself. It was intended to get people hooked on the other series. And, honestly, it’s not really getting the visibility to do that. Two hundred-ish people is not really enough to have spillover, considering that most people pick up a book like that just because it’s cheap and then don’t ever read it.
I did book blitz with Xpresso book tours, and it was kind of a bust. Last time I did one (with Wuther) I sold like 400 copies of the book and got up to about #1000 in the Kindle store, and I was hoping for similar results. But instead, it’s been more like 40-50 copies, and I can’t be sure how many of them are coming from the blitz and how many just organically on Amazon. I don’t blame the blitz itself. The organizer did a great job, and so did the bloggers. Everyone delivered exactly what I paid for. But it was $20 more this time than last time, I had less blogs sign up, and it wasn’t as effective. So, I don’t know if I’ll do one ever again. I think the problem is oversaturation. Every day in my blitz, on every blog, my book was buried with like five or six other books all being promoted on the same day. That’s just insane. It’s waaay too much product for an average consumer to look at, especially if it’s happening day-in, day-out. So, I think blogs are overstuffed with tours and blitzes. I think if you already have an audience waiting for a book, it’s probably helpful, because it spreads the word about something that people want to read… I don’t know.
So… I applied for a Bookbub ad. Bookbub has rejected me the last five times I applied with them, so please keep your fingers crossed for me! A Bookbub ad might get the boxed set into the Top 100. At the very least, it would sell tons of books, and get me a lot of exposure, and probably get me up to the place where I’d start seeing spillover to the various series. Aaaand… it goes without saying. If you haven’t purchased the boxed set… DO IT!!
About writing.
I want to try a serial. I’m thinking that only having to write 20-30K before publishing might make it easier to get something done? I don’t know. I’m probably looking at a genre switch too. I’m not feeling in a romancey mood these days, possibly because being pregnant has totally zapped my sex drive. (Is that TMI? Sorry.) Anyway, it’s hard to write books about yummy, bangable dudes when I’m really not interested in that at all. *grin*
I don’t know. I just want it all fixed, mostly. I want to be able to write again. I want to be making enough money to live comfortably without worrying. If I had those two things…
Oh, who am I kidding? If I had those two things, I’d find something else to worry about.
