Battling the Blues

No, this blog post isn't about trying to wrestle into my service blues uniform- thank you, I no longer have to wear them- yeah!!! No, this is about feeling "blue" when you don't get any sales. Yeah, I'm there right now. Haven't sold a book in over 20 days- nada, nothing, zip, zilch. Kinda makes you feel down. And not to add insult, I finally got my first royalties payment from Kindle- for 8 months of sales, I got paid $10.72. I know, some people would be thrilled to get that, but you must realize, I've had some of my books out over a year, and I'da thought by then my sales would have been better. I also sell on Smashwords, and tend to do a bit better there. But still, nothing to be considered impressive.

So, what am I doing to lift my funk? Well, a little poo-pooing to my best friend was somewhat helpful- she's great at pep talks. I read a few good blogs by other people (one of them a struggling screenwriter); learned that I'm not the only one (of course I knew this). Then I spent a whopping .99 on a Kindle book on sales and marketing of books- I have been reading this. And I've been Facebooking with a few friends who assure me that I'm not a crappy writer-- thanks all.

Deciding there is no point in wallowing in my own self pity (although with the chaos going on in my life right now, it kinda feels good), I decided to do some marketing. I went on Twitter and made a few posts, including my Amazon author's page, and my Smashwords page. I also posted Project Dragonslayers on Smashwords at 75% off for the 4th of July weekend. Have I gotten any sales? No, but I'm hoping. I've posted them as much as possible on FB- without hopefully being considered a pest or rude. Will this generate sales? Maybe. And I also got a link to another blog for listing Kindle books- I jumped on this one. I am learning not to look a gift horse in the mouth- I have three of them to feed, I need to sell books!

All said and done, I put in a few hours over the last couple of days in marketing. I know, you seasoned vets are laughing, saying you need to do 2x that much. Well, considering I'm retiring from the Air Force next week, moving from NJ to KY, and won't have internet right away, I'm doing the best I can until we get hooked up. And I'll have a house in complete disorder until we can actually move into the house we're supposed to be living in. Yeah, fun, wish me luck. But once all the dust settles, I hope to get my butt in gear, write like a mad woman, and do as much marketing as I can. I'd like to see my royalties checks come in with more digits in front of the decimal point. Yeah, that would fight the blues.

Until next time, my creatively obsessed friends,

Kathy