Sorry for the lack of posts lately. So far, August for me on a private level has been the month from Hell. But I wrote this post at the end of July, so I thought I’d post it now, just to try to cheer myself up. It’s not meant to be a list of how wonderful I am, just a reminder to myself during the darker times, that things can go well.
What a month July has been as an author! To start with, at the beginning of the month, I heard about the Smashwords Summer/Winter Promotion. I decided to add Treespeaker to it, to see what happened if I just gave it away free for a while. The answer was, it did a whole lot better than selling it, the high point being one day, early on, when I gave away eighteen in one day.
Later in the month, a lovely little site called Love Thy Author, which features Indie books and links them back to Amazon, included Treespeaker, listing it as an “Undiscovered Gem”. While I was still high from that, I received a great review from Tracy at Booked Up.
Still flying, I sent an interview to India Drummond as I’d arranged to do months before. It was only supposed to stay up on her site for a few days, but was actually there for two weeks and I began selling books at Amazon, even though I was still giving copies away via Smashwords. At the same time the number of people ‘adding’ my book on Goodreads began to grow.
The cover of Treespeaker was also featured on Cover Art Review. That was less successful, with the few comments it got being rather negative, but at least they were looking at it!
In the meantime, I had two projects on the go – firstly to get a new website up and running and secondly, to get my children’s book ready for epublication (as I mentioned in my last post)*. My website was sadly out of date and because I’d done it myself and then lost all the files when the computer crashed, I couldn’t do much about it. I couldn’t even take it down and start again, because the most up-to-date Microsoft Office no longer has Front Page, which is what I’d used. Then I discovered Weebly, which allowed me to do everything I needed free-of-charge and keep my old domain name. If I’d know how easy it would be, I would have done it ages ago. It’s simple, but I can add to it as I go along.
Towards the end of the month, as an experiment, I changed the category that Treespeaker was listed under to “Christian Fantasy”. It’s not a book about Christianity, but it does have Christian themes and nothing that might offend sensibilities, so I thought it might appeal to that market. I sold two books in Britain one weekend and it shot to #6 in Christian SciFi and Fantasy which was a thrill while it lasted!
I also added a tag to the book of ‘Environmentalism’. Within days the book was being advertised on various environmental websites. I’m not sure that it led to sales but it was interesting to see that happen!
Another thrill was when only three days after joining iAuthors.org, my book was chosen as ‘Book of the Day’. Not only that, but a piece on ‘professionalism’ was put with it to explain why it had been chosen.
So, that was the month of July. Now to try and get this month back onto an even keel personally, so that I can relax again and start writing.
*The book, ‘The Dragon Box’, edited and with the cover approved by a class of ten-year-olds is now available on Amazon
3 comments:
Katie, that list of achievements in the course of one month is hugely impressive - and that's before factoring in work and family life.
Give yourself the pat on the back you so much deserve and when the going gets tough - as it is just now - look back and be proud of yourself and your hard work.
The clouds will lift and the sun will shine again - remember it takes rain and sunshine to make a rainbow. Right now you'd probably be happy to settle for a clear sky forever but when the sun returns and the rainbow starts to appear, so will the magic!
Remember, you're not writing into a void - your words are reaching out and touching people, as is your art.
Stay strong and may the doves of peace accompany your rainbow.
That's an impressive list of achievements! A formidable list of good stuff to keep you going when life throws less good stuff at you.
Clare, thanks! You should be a writer, you know?
Thanks to you, too, Esmeraldamac. It is good to look back on. I forgot to mention that I had a great birthday amongst all that, too!
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