Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Status Update - May 2013

It's been a weird ride over the last three months.

- April's sales tanked horribly, but I'm not the only one so I wasn't sweating/griping as much as other folks. As I pointed out to some people, baseball season started, as well as track, spring soccer, softball, etc. Parents were busy. Kids were busy. Grandparents were busy. And before someone gets pissy about the DINKs and the singles, a lot of them I know personally were working on houses, yards and gardens, or otherwise enjoying the spring weather after all that weird-ass April snow they were getting.

- In May, I sold my first story to a traditional market. It resulted in bizarre behavior from friends from both sides of the fence. I don't think I'm telling anyone about trad deals ever again.

- For that matter, I no longer tell friends when I put up an indie story. I've gotten some asinine comments from supposed friends lately about how I write too fast so my writing can't possible be any good. Apparently, no one has ever heard of the saying, "Practice makes perfect." By no means am I saying I'm perfect, but my craft is improving and people are buying my stories. I'm happy.

- Zombie Confidential has spent a year in the Top 100 of the Women Sleuths subcategory of Free Mysteries on Amazon. When I uploaded it, and it hit a couple of free bestseller lists, I told DH I'd pull it off perma-free when it fell of the lists. So, I guess I'm not for now.

- I took Creating a Business Plan for the Indie Writer off the market. So much has changed in the year since I put out the second edition, frankly it's now worthless. Instead of slaving over an update, I'd rather spend the time on my fiction.

- Apple sales are outstripping Amazon sales for me. I'm still a little shocked by this. Even with April's low sales across the board for all retailers, 3.9 of my books sold on Apple for every 1 book on Amazon. Yeah, it blew my mind too when I got the numbers last week. It'll be interesting to see what happens for May.

-  I've been afraid of B&N sales tanking with all the hubbub of Nook splitting off from B&N and possibly being discontinued, but so far, May sales have bounced back from the bizarreness of April.

- Once I get Blood Sacrifice published and a good chunk of Zombie Goddess written, I'm going to step back this fall and see about getting my novels and novella/short story collections into print. I meant to do that last summer, but Alter Ego's career took off and kept me busier than expected.

I guess that's about all I can say for now. I'm going back to my happy place and torture some characters. Toodles!

4 comments:

  1. - In May, I sold my first story to a traditional market. It resulted in bizarre behavior from friends from both sides of the fence. I don't think I'm telling anyone about trad deals ever again.

    - For that matter, I know longer tell friends when I put up an indie story. I've gotten some asinine comments from supposed friends lately about how I write too fast so my writing can't possible be any good.


    I know you know this, but just for drill, and because it can be nice to hear it, I'll say it -- this kind of crap says more about them than it does about you. Ignore the idiots and do your thing, which is obviously working. {{}}

    Angie

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  2. Thanks, Angie. I will try to keep your advice in mind. *smile*

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  3. Yikes on the tanks - but I have no doubts things will go back up for you.

    No doubts.

    As for the wankers you mentioned, well, wankers will be wankers. That's why I call them wankers.

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  4. Book sales are very seasonal, Whisk. I was expecting a small dip in April. It was just deeper than even I expected. I'm not worried because May has been doing just dandy. June will probably be even better. By looking at my daily sales, you can see when school lets out and starts back up again!

    As for the wankers, I think I'm disappointed in people's behavior more than anything. This business is very subjective. One person's success does not mean sales are taken away from another writer. In fact, it usually means just the opposite.

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