AITA

I've been getting these AITA posts in my FB feed.  (For the record, AITA stands for 'am I the asshole?')  And since I stopped and read one, they're showing up with startling frequency.  Anyway, the whole premise of these things is to lay out a story about something you've done and then ask the world at large whether you're the asshole in the situation.

Okay, I'll admit it... these things are kind of addictive.  Unfortunately, in order to see the whole story on any of them, you have to click a link or something, so I'm only going off the parts I can see without clicking.  Still, for the most part, I think the person telling the story is not the asshole.  (Occasionally, the person is definitely the asshole.)

For instance, I read one this morning about a dad who had sole custody of his teenage daughter, and it seemed like every time he got after her about anything, she's play the 'I want to go live with mom' card.  Finally, after she was particularly rotten, he gave her what she wanted.  He packed her bags and dropped her off at her mom's to live.  Within a day, she was asking to come home.  He left her there for four days and then let her come home.  Like I said, I didn't read how it all turned out, but it seemed pretty reasonable to me.  

Thinking about it all now, I feel sad for people who think they need to ask whether they're the asshole in any given situation.  If you thought what you were doing was right when you did it, what exactly is making you think otherwise now?  Explore that before you go looking for validation online.  You can probably tell for yourself whether or not you were the asshole, hindsight being 20/20 and all that.  

I expect those things are probably not all true.  Clickbait, doncha know.  Except I never click because, while the story was interesting to read, I don't really care what the outcome was.  Does that make me the asshole?  ;o)

Rambling About Sales & Marketing

So, here I am... awake at 3 A.M.  I have Sawyer to thank for it.  I guess I can look at it as a positive because this early awakening means I have plenty of time for a blog post.  Not that I didn't have time the past two days, it's just that the time I did have was past the optimal time for posting.  

For the past few mornings, I've been trying to do marketing first thing.  I was up early on Sunday and got my marketing done around 5-5:30.  Monday was an hour later because even though I'd gotten up early enough to post, I forgot.  Those posts were around 6:30.  Yesterday, I woke up late and didn't get my posts done until after I called Mom.  (I call Mom every morning at 7 and we talk for an hour.)  Which means this morning's posts wouldn't be until after 8:30.  Frankly, later morning posts don't garner much attention, so I will probably skip marketing today and hit it hard tomorrow morning.  

Unfortunately, UNEQUAL is not doing as well as BLINK OF AN I.  Kinda sucks.  They're both pretty awesome, IMO.  Personally, I think people really need to read those two books, and not just because I would like to get paid.  They're both looks at what I believe could happen if the world degenerates due to circumstances.  Kind of cautionary tales, but with entertainment value.  

Unequal, if you weren't aware, is free through tomorrow night.  Blink was free last week.  

If they're free, how am I expecting to get paid?  Well, page reads would be lovely.  Unfortunately, I don't expect those for UEQ this time around because the damn 'top free' lists are not showing for that book at this time.  Turds.  BOAI's weren't showing a while back, but I got that fixed.  I thought I fixed UEQ, too, but apparently not.  I'm also hoping that the free readers would tell people about the book and then those people would buy a copy.  And then those readers would tell people... and so on, and so on.  

A gal can dream.

What's next marketing-wise?  I don't know.  Maybe I'll go a little crazy and make a last book free, to see if I can generate interested in the first books.  I offered Natural Causes for free last month and I saw some movement of Accidental Death.  Maybe offering a freebie on Wish Hits the Fan will encourage people to buy books 1-3.  Can't hurt, eh?  Except whenever I snag a later book for free, I just get irritated that I hadn't paid attention to the fact it wasn't a first book in the series and I am rarely inclined to even read it or buy the earlier books.  I could be an anomaly, but I doubt it.

Anyway, I'm just rambling.  I tend to do that when I'm up way too early like this.  Thanks for reading this far.  Feel free to offer a comment, if you're so inclined.  If I don't approve it right away, I probably went back to bed.

Rambling on About Selling

Sales.  How does one get them?  How does one keep them going?  These are questions that have plagued writers since Ogg first put burnt stick to cliff wall, I guess.  Ogg had it harder.  Someone had to walk by his cliff wall and I don't think anyone bothered to pay him.  

I know one thing for certain... marketing my own books is way harder than marketing product manufactured by someone else.  I mean, I was in sales for crying out loud and I could drive up to a business, go into a meeting, and walk out with orders.  Even better if they were already interested in one item but I ferreted out they needed a whole slew of other items.  I was in my element there.  You called me about a little plastic case, eh?  Well, how about these cordsets?  Or how about this wire?  And you'll probably need tools to put all that together, right?  Huzzah.  

Now?  Not in my element so much.  Now it's more like 'say hey do you like to read? oh, you do. great.' or 'oh, you don't? bummer'.  And even if they say they like to read, it's a matter of which genre and what specifically they like in that genre and whether anything you've written would spark their interest.  Or they don't have a Kindle and only like to read paperback, but they don't want to pay the amount I have to charge for those to not lose my ass.  :bangs head on wall:

And let's face it.  Authors aren't just selling books.  They're selling themselves.  Maybe not all of themselves... this isn't slavery (even if some people want everything for free, which would be a form of writer-slavery.)  Still, every story is hatched in our heads and breaks free onto the page, so it's kind of like a teeny-tiny piece of ourselves.  When we go to sell yourself and find rejection, that's hard to take.  Which makes even the attempt like giving yourself a mental Indian burn every time you do it and thus makes one shy away from the attempt.

Still, unless you're interested in only having a book out there that maybe people will run across from time to time, you're going to need to do something to generate sales.  This Facebook Groups thing I do works a little.  Spending a little money on advertising works better, but who's got the scratch for that these days.

I don't know the answer.  If I did, I'd be raking in the dough, but alas, no.  Freebie things tend to generate some residual sales, if you can get your ads out there somehow and get those page reads, and have other things to offer readers... i.e. additional books in the series, etc.  Whatever you do, though, you've got to keep doing it.  Weather the storms.  Suffer the slings and arrows.  :shrug:  You'll see sales.  Maybe not enough to retire on.  (I retired anyway.  It's been good for my mental health if not for my pocketbook.)  Maybe not even enough for a burger and fries and MickeyD's.  The alternative is sitting and staring at your books while no one else even bothers to glance at them.  

Good luck.  If you have the magic answer, I do wish you'd share it.  Otherwise, we can hang together and commiserate.  :hugs:

Rambling at Year's End

Stuck in the between when the holiday is over and the new year hasn't begun, when I have no idea what day it is. (Worse than usual.)  The lost final week of a lost year.

At some point today, I have shopping to do.  They're predicting craptastic weather starting tomorrow, so the big decision is whether to go south and get groceries today and go north for cigarettes tomorrow, OR do both today.  Cigs are a half hour north.  Groceries are a half hour south.  Doing both today would put me on the road for 2 hours today.  Not that I haven't done that in the past.  Yo, former road-warrior here.  But it has been a while since I did hauls like that and these days, if I have to drive a lot, I'm a toad for the rest of the day.  By the time you see this to comment on it, the choice will have been made.  

At some point this week, I have to finish the spreadsheets.  Oh, I finished the ones for the pay-job yesterday - all twelve monthly ones, and three others input to throughout the year.  I also got some smaller personal sheets done - books acquired, the weight/activity log, the one where I keep track of my marketing.  I have the big Sales Totals spreadsheet and the Books Sales Data sheet that feeds it left to do there.  And I have to update the one where I keep all income and outgo for the writing biz.  That one makes me have a sad, but ignoring it doesn't make it go away.  Ignoring it would be like sticking my fingers in my ears and humming to avoid having to hear bad news.  It is what it is.

I also have to do my yearly wrap-up blog posts.  

And I should probably start thinking about taxes.  Blerg.

I have three books left to read by the end of the year to meet my updated goal of 90 books.  The one I'm reading now, though, is longer than I thought it would be, so I might not hit 90.  We'll see.

Eh, it's time to call the office.  I'll catch you all later.  What are you up to this week?  Getting ready for 2021 or trying to hide from it?

Rambling On

It occurs to me that I never wrote a post yesterday.  Derp.  And I'm not sure what to write about today.  Maybe if I ramble on, something will come to me.

I finally got to work on those edit notes last night.  Did one page worth of written notes, which amounted to 23 pages of the book.  Of course, I added a bunch of stuff in those 23 pages - like a brand new beginning - so it was more work than it sounds like.  I may have repeated myself a couple times, so that's something to watch for during the next edit phase.  Eight pages of notes left to go.  Blerg.

I committed a cardinal sin in book creation (maybe several) when I redid the beginning.  And I don't care.  It works for me.  We'll see if it works for the proofers.  

For the most part, I'm a rule-abiding type person, but for certain things, it rubs me the wrong way when I'm told I can't do something.  Part of me is all like 'oh, yeah? watch me.'  When I wrote my first book, I described the heroine by having her look at herself in a detached way on a TV monitor.  I was told by early readers that this was a no-no.  And my hackles rose.  I liked it, so I left it.  Maybe someday, that book will be published and all y'all can tell me whether it works.

I still love that book.  I contacted my editor once to see if she could help me make it publishable.  The amount she quoted me was understandable - it's an unwieldy behemoth - but totally not in the budget.  We'll see what happens in the future.

Looking back, I don't hate any of my older books.  They all need work, but I don't think any of them should be relegated to the trash heap.  They can all be fixed.  Some of them might not be as timely as they were when I wrote them, but the ideas are sound.  :shrug: 

Oh, I go through phases where I'm all like 'I hate this book', and I wonder whether everyone else will hate the book, too, but that's usually while I'm editing it.  Once I get through that, it's all good.  Okay, not ALL good.  Even after I publish, I wonder whether people will hate the books I love.  It's a thing.

Today, I hope to get at least another couple of notes input.  I love how this book turned out, even if I hate it a little.  ;o)

What about you?  Do you have a love/hate thing going on with your writing?  If you're not a writer, do you feel that way about your endeavors sometimes?  Do you have anything to ramble on about?

Ramblings on a Braindead Tuesday Morning

I am slightly braindead today.  Shouldn't come as a shock to anyone.  Some mornings are better than others.  This is not one of the better ones.  More coffee!  STAT!

In computer news, I figured out what the hell is up with my image software.  It's a long story I won't bore you with.  Suffice it to say, it should be fixed later this morning.  I also discovered that I need to transfer my Outlook data - even though we're not using Outlook at the office anymore - because I have old emails in there that I still need.

After not having written for quite some time, I'm writing again and discovering that the writing muscles in my hands and arms have atrophied.  I cranked out a thousand words last night and oh, ow.  If not for the hand cramps, etc., I probably could've written at least another thou.  Stupid atrophy.

You know when someone says something and you can't think of an appropriate response right then, but later you think of all the things you could've said only now it's too late?  I'm like that all the time.  I'm still finishing arguments in my head that occurred years ago.

I was out in the world yesterday.  I only encountered one couple with masks on, and they were sufficiently old that I could understand why they felt the need.  They weren't wearing them right, but if it makes them feel better, more power to them.  I still haven't worn a mask and I won't unless I'm backed into a corner.

I'm not sure what's up with the half-shaved head craze, but I don't think it looks good on anyone.  It's like they're prepping for Thunderdome.  Of course, I'm also not thrilled with oddly-colored hair.  Blue?  Seriously?  It's reminds me of that scene in Jumpin' Jack Flash where Terry is hopped up on truth serum and she runs into a punk couple... "Oh, look!  A tropical fish and its mate!"  Then again, I still want to yell 'Fleet's in!' when I see someone with tattoos.  Yeah, I'm an old fuddy-duddy.

Speaking of Whoopie, she's totally ruined her movies for me.  Which sucks because I really loved Jumpin' Jack Flash.  Stupid celebrities and their shitty opinions.  Can't watch Lethal Weapon anymore.  Can't watch Silence of the Lambs anymore.  Can't watch a lot of things anymore.  I can't divorce the actor from the character long enough to just enjoy the movies.  Wish I could... can't.  Bleh.  And don't get me started on The Simpsons. 

And that's more than enough out of me this morning.  Hopefully I'll think of something less random to talk about tomorrow.

Pre-Christmas Stuffs

I'm getting ready to send out Christmas cards.  If you've changed your address in the past year, or you're a friend who should be getting one and never have, email me your address.  Obviously, I can't send tons, but I hate to think I might've forgotten someone.  In the age of the internet, there are people I care about that I've never physically met and that I have no idea about where they actually live.  If you're one of those, I'd really like to send you a card. 


Other people's cards have started to arrive.  Yay!  We already have three under the tree.

The baking of Christmas gifts is done.  I made two loaves of pumpkin pie bread, two loaves of apple cranberry bread, a batch of oatmeal cookies, and a batch of granola bars.  Who gets what is the big surprise, I guess, since I pretty much outed my prezzies here.  One package is already in the mail.  The other two packages will go out today or tomorrow.  I am not done baking overall.  As we run out of baked goods to eat, I will make more.  Cuz I'm a baking fool. 


The Kid's box was the first to go.  I always send her a box early and send it Priority Mail.  And she knows she can open it on arrival.  That way she can enjoy her prezzies all the way through the Christmas season. 

I may have said before that Hubs and I don't give each other gifts anymore.  Of course, anything out of the ordinary in regard to purchases gets joked about as being a present.  This year, we got each other a new coffee maker!  It's the gift that keeps on giving.  Literally.  I mean, no one should be subjected to me without coffee.  (Either way you take that, it's true.)

Really, though, we don't need anything, so what exactly would we give each other? 

What are you hoping to get for Christmas?  Are you giving any awesome gifts this year?  Do you do Christmas cards? 

Rambling

I woke up this morning thinking it was Monday.  Took me a bit to reset the brain and convince myself it wasn't. 

Saw someone this morning who'd misspelled the title of their own book in the marketing copy of a FB post.  Thankfully, the cover was spelled right.  Proofread, people.

So, I contacted my cover artist yesterday to let her know I was ready when she was.  She's jammed, so I gave her the option of pushing the UatB cover back.  It's not like I need-need it right this month.  Hell, if I don't get off my dead ass, I might not need it this year.  We'll see what she says. 

We took a walk yesterday.  It was only 48 degrees.  I am so not ready for that cold yet, especially considering it was in the 80s last week.  I bundled up in a turtle neck, a sweater, and a fleecy jacket.  I was even wearing gloves.  My core was comfortable, but my face and legs were chilly cold.  Bleh.  I guess I need to get back to exercising inside.

I DNFd another book yesterday.  Which kind of made me sad because it was in a series I had once enjoyed.  But the book was irritating the bejeezus out of me.  Life's too short to continue reading irritating things.  It was probably just me.  There's only so long I can continue reading a series before I'm just annoyed with it.  Familiarity breeds contempt and all that.  I had the same thing happen with The Cat Who series and with the Dresden Files series.  Which is probably why I stopped writing Once Upon a Djinn at four books.  Enough was enough for me.  Sorry to the readers who wanted more but writing more of those wouldn't have been a good thing for anyone.

Sitting and thinking about Ugly and the Beast, I realize the problems I was having were caused by a need to rewrite the thing.  I got off on a weird tangent and it was turning into a book I didn't want to write.  Do-over!  But not right now because I got the edits back for Unequal. 

I am so not ready to face the edits.  But I'm going to get ready because I need to get this book out this year.  I've made a commitment and I'm sticking to it.  So, suck it up, buttercup, and get your butt to work.  =op

That's enough rambling out of me this morning.  Comments?  Questions?  Whips to crack?