Pubit! has become Nook Press. Awesome. I don’t care for the exclamation mark at the end of Pubit. It seriously annoys my AutoCorrect thingie. Transferring my files from one service to the other went easier than expected. But when I tried to lower the price of my novels I had a problem. Seems I could only do this through my old Pubit! account. Good thing I hadn’t deleted it, yet. I’ve noticed something odd with Barnes & Noble. I used to sell quite a few books on Nook. Except for January, when I only sold five books, I’ve been selling exactly two books every month since last November. Exactly two. No clue what has caused this trend.
I turned Serial Quiller, a completed stand-alone novel, into the Bad Mojo series without first waiting to see if anyone would even be interested in this kind of story. It’s dark fiction: sex, violence, and voodoo. And then there’s that horrifying scene with locusts and honey at an abandoned farmhouse. Clearly not romantic fluff even though a love story is slowly rising to the surface. But instead of trying to build a fan base by promoting some of my other books I stayed focused on writing the next book in the series.
The end result? Overall, sales are slim to none. Reviews? Almost non-existent. Sales Rankings? Through the roof! Trying to ignore the numbers and concentrate on finishing the series has become increasingly difficult. One click, and I can see my daily or weekly totals. I’m taking steps to alleviate some of the stress so I can get back to writing. I started by lowering the price of my novels to $2.99 and my short stories to 99 cents.
I’m still working part-time at the grocery store. It had taken me two weeks to get used to staying up all night and sleeping during the day. I’m not nicking my fingers on the box cutter or dropping the end of empty pallets on my toes anymore while trying to stack them (the pallets, not my toes), so I think it’s safe to say I am now a professional stocker. By the way, I have a bit of a southern accent. Sounds like I’m calling myself a stalker... and a professional one, at that. The store is in walking distance of our RV, but I have to ride my bike just to outrun the big ol’ hulkin’ skeeters they have down here.
Friday~
I discovered there is a new e-book distribution service in town: Draft2Digital, a modern and easy-to-use alternative to Smashword’s outmoded Meatgrinder. Many good things have been said about this company. I’m really pleased that I no longer have to put Smashwords Edition or Nook Edition or Kindle Edition on the title page. For that matter, I don’t even have to make a title page. D2D generates one, a nice one, along with the copyright page and a Table of Contents (an Apple requirement).
To test the waters, I uploaded Killing Summer to D2D. I couldn’t believe how professional the content looks compared to the plain Word doc sent straight from my computer to Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. I was equally amazed at the speed in which Apple put up the new copy and took down the other version.
For more than two years Killing Summer has been sitting on the virtual shelves in Amazon’s e-bookstore providing a breeding ground for dust bunnies while elsewhere I’ve sold several copies of this book. It’ll be interesting to see whether or not there’s any difference between submitting a book directly to Amazon or coming at them through Draft2Digital.
Saturday~
I’m making a list of reviewers and promotional sites to send Serial Quiller. My Quiller, BJ Donovan, is a witch. Witches are in this year, or so I’ve heard. While I promote this novel as a stand-alone psychological thriller I’m not going to make any more noise about the series until the last book has been written. Another thing I thought of is to set up a coupon code through Smashwords so reviewers can get a free copy of the book.
I’m also putting together a list of promotional sites to send my mystery novel Smoke on the Water while it’s on sale for only 99 cents.
Sunday~
As I compose this blog post a thunderstorm is rattling the RV. Maybe the gods are trying to tell me something. Like, it’s time to do some real writing (before they zap my electricity... or worse).
It’s three o’clock in the morning. Listening to rain tapping on the metal roof, keeping one eye on an old movie on TV and the other on the weather radar where red and yellow blobs surrounded by dark green are passing by a little ways north of here, I’m thinking about fixing a cup of coffee, then reading Serial Quiller 5.
Monday~
This morning I uploaded Smoke on the Water, Fire Flicks, and Ashes of Vengeance to D2D. This afternoon, I worked on the series. Tonight, when I checked e-mail, Smoke on the Water, Serial Quiller, and Killing Summer have all been published at Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple. Wow. That was really fast. I noticed I sold two D2D copies of Smoke on the Water. How cool is that? As soon as the other two books in the Hellfire Trilogy mystery set have been published at these retailers I’m moving my short stories to Draft2Digital.
I’m smiling, folks. It’s been a while.
Now, if I could only figure out why Blogger won't let me line up the text with the image above...
