TIme for a K-Pop Break!

Yes, I'm old, and I like K-Pop. Sue me.

With the End of the Pandemic, Entertainment Sales Fall

It's spring, Dr. Anthony Fauci says the pandemic is over*, and Americans are suffering from a major case of cabin fever after two years of limited in-person social contact. So people are out doing the things they've missed--sporting events, graduation parties, barbeques with neighbors, etc.

Toss in the current inflation spike which is a long term effect of the pandemic plus the invasion of Ukraine. People no longer buying a lot of indoor entertainment.

Netflix stock dropped by almost 50%  last week after thousands of subscribers eliminated the service. The other streaming services are starting to see similar results.

Movie theaters haven't recovered. New releases are lucky to break eight-figures on their opening weekend, much less the nine or ten figures some of these movies would have made prior to the pandemic.

Now, both trad and indie publishing are seeing a loss of sales. And writers are panicking. "We aren't making as much as we did in <name the year>."

I'm really confused by everyone's surprise at this. First, the pandemic growth simply wasn't sustainable. People are no longer trapped at home with limited entertainment choices. Heck, even I'm getting outside of the house. DH and I went to dinner at my favorite Mexican restaurant in town last night. It's been two and half years since I sat down INSIDE this place. And damn was it delicious!

Second, it doesn't mean everybody has quit reading (or watching) forever. This is a a short-term lull. Why do I believe that?

If an introvert like me is getting out, my readers are too. And you know something? That's okay. I'll have new books ready for them when winter rolls back around and we're stuck at home because of ice and snow.

*Don't take either me or  Dr. Fauci wrong, COVID-19 is still a dangerous disease, but the U.S. is no longer suffering from millions of infections per day and most of our hospitals have normal capacity again.

Awesome News!

The news is awesome on two fronts!

First, Apocalypse? Not Now! and Pestilence in Pumpkin Spice are going through their final tweaks with my formatter. I swear it doesn't matter how many eyes I have on a manuscript. Invariably, I will find a typo or five when I go through the e-book and print files. So, Jaye is slipping the final corrections in, and the Kickstarter backers will have their e-book copies before the end of the month.

Second, our plumber had a cancellation and will be at the house tomorrow! For those who might have missed the tragedy of our primary bathroom, DH managed to yanked the entire shower arm out of the wall our second night in the house.

Then the painter accidentally broke the toilet lid while he was painting the bathroom a couple of days later. He offered to replace the lid, but I declined. The previous owner is a tiny woman. (Seriously, she'd reach five-feet with hair extensions and an entire bottle of Aquanet.) And she had a tiny toilet. Which was killing both mine and DH's knees to the point where we didn't use it. I used the broken toilet as an excuse to replace it with a bigger unit.

And then both sinks and the garden tub developed leaks. I was beginning to think I was never going to use the primary bathroom as it should be used.

I put off getting the stuff in the bathroom fixed right away because the new grandbaby took precedence last year. Then we came home early from that when our basement flooded. And then,a couple of weeks into the new year, the dishwasher croaked.

Upon receiving our tax refunds, we called our plumber with the list of issues. She came out on Monday to take look so she could write up the estimate, but she was booked for the rest of the week and had vacation scheduled for next week. No problem, we said.

But she texted yesterday and said she could come tomorrow! Yay! I can finally use my purple bathroom!

Now, I'm off to get some editing done on a different book before I have to clean out the cupboards in the kitchen and bathroom.

May everyone's toilet flush properly and their sinks, showers, and tubs not leak!

Sunshine, Spring, and Shorts

This weekend was pretty damn near perfect. In the low '80's, lots of sunshine, and the flowers blooming like crazy. I wore shorts while doing yardwork on Saturday, and I didn't mind so much taking allergy meds, decongestant, and eye drops.

Needless to say, my body said enough after the yardwork and cleaning the family room. (Centipedes coming out of hibernation and racing around the floor looking to hook up under my couch were the cause of the family room cleaning.) Sunday was spent writing and editing.

Yesterday, I hit the fake-out problem before the climax on A Measure of Knowledge. Still trying to decide which ending to use in that book. I'm not looking to piss off readers, but what I think is awesome might not translate. Just because Michael Moorcock did it doesn't mean I can pull it off.

It's not like me to second-guess myself. But I've also been digging deeper into my soul for the Anthea stories. I'm not oo sure what this all means at the moment. Today's rain isn't helping my moodiness one bit.

But I do know I need to finish and get cracking on all my other projects. As they say, no rest for the wicked.

Time for a K-Pop Break!

How can you not like these kids!

More Drizzles, More Editing

Most of our spring flowers survived Monday's snow. The first bunch of daffodils to bloom were already on their way out. The heavy slush merely accelerated the process. And I found decongestant in stock at the grocery store this week!

*damn allergies*

It's feeling more like spring. Warm drizzlies were just starting as Bella and I stepped outside for her constitutional. However, she got her hair and nails done yesterday, so she had no desire to sniff around after her business was finished. She's a princess pup after all.

I'm trying to wrap up the last proofing of some things. Later tonight, I'll be loading the stretch rewards into BookFunnel to send to the backers. And then for the rest of the weekend, I settle into the last scenes of A Measure of Knowledge.

I've been debating on whether or not to end it on a cliff-hanger. I'll probably write both endings and have my alpha readers let me know which one they prefer.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

A Drizzly Day for Editing

Mother Nature is running the gamut of weather this week. On Monday, it snowed. Yesterday was chilly, but bright and sunny. Today's a lot warmer, but the rain we weren't supposed to get until after sundown arrived a little early.

Which means it's an excellent day for text-to-voice editing and proofing with a peppermint mocha to sip. Even though it's 4/20, caffeine is still my drug of choice.

Despite the picture, I'll probably make my own here at home. I don't feel like putting on my shoes to go out.

Enjoy your day wherever you are!

Plague, War, Taxes, and Snow

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 769
Known COVID-19 cases in the U.S. - 80,612,681
Known COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. - 988,558

This will be my last COVID-19 numbers update. A large amount of local and state government health and welfare departments have stopped reporting. The official number above are no longer accurate. And all this is being dropped as Omicron-b is wending it's way through the nation. I need to ask my own general practitioner about another booster when I go in for my quarterly checkup in June.

In the meantime, the invasion of Ukraine continues. Atrocities rise, and President Zelensky pleads for help from an uncaring world.

Today is Tax Day in the U.S., but the government is being incredibly slow in processing returns, even if you got yours in early and are due a refund. I don't mind paying taxes because I like good roads and good schools, but no one in Washington can pull their heads out of their asses long enough to compromise a tiny bit in order to get things accomplished. *sigh*

And then, I woke up to the picture above. The early spring flowers bloomed like crazy last week. These two little daffodils had some protection from the eaves, but the rest are frozen and drooping on all sides of the house. It's supposed to be sunny and dry tomorrow and Wednesday, so I'll try to get the rest of the pruning and trimming done.

I don't know about the rest of you, but as much as I like sipping coffee while watching the snow fall, I'm ready for some shorts weather!

I Love the '10's!

Want a hit? Stick Bruno Mars on your record!

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Animated Series

I saw this on Wil Wheaton's blog. Talk about reliving my childhood! I want this so bad!

Your Work Isn't Everything

I've been busy getting everything lined up for delivery for my campaign's rewards. Between juggling all that and working on A Measure of Knowledge, I found myself stretched in too many directions. To the point where I accidentally blew off plans with a friend yesterday because I overslept.

I apologized profusely, and she was kind to me about the situation. However, I don't like being the flaky friend. And I've been doing it way too much lately.

So today is a day to take a step back and do things for the family and friends in my life.

Princess Bella and I rode with DH to his dad's accountant to turn over the documents and reports. FIL started having cognitive issues toward the end of last year. We didn't realize how bad it was until DH took over his dad's finances. It took DH the last six months to get everything entered into FIL's home accounting software and correct the entries prior to him taking over.

I'm getting Easter boxes ready to send to Genius Kid and Adorable Spawn. I returned a text to a friend. I texted another friend. Sending out a couple of birthday cards. Mailing a Christmas/Birthday package that's really, REALLY late.

As much as I love writing, I have to remind myself that people make the world go 'round, and I need to be kind.

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

I was so frickin' happy to see Jon Batiste win the Record for the Year last Sunday. WE ARE is an awesome album.

The Great Resignation Hits the Publishing Industry

Traditional publishing ("tradpub") is cannibalizing itself. As more and more writers are bypassing tradpub and publishing their own books, the book audience is finally fractioning into niches much like the TV, movie, and music industries did.

Bigger publishing companies are losing income. The reasons for this are among the following:

1) Not only are the mass market writers leaving tradpub, the bigger writers are starting to leave, wooed away from their old publisher by another one of the Big Five (or Four depending on how the DOJ antitrust lawsuit goes with the Randy Penguin-Simon & Schuster merger). So the tradpubs are having to cough up more money to keep their cash cows happy.

2) New writers are doing a better job investigating opportunities. If they do take a tradpub offer, they are seeing lower advances from the tradpubs who want more rights. Furthermore, the tradpubs are doing a smaller print runs for unproven authors. So, it's a catch-22. The tradpub are putting out enough books to break even, but aren't putting the money into promoting a new writer with a small print run so then they get bitchy when the new writer doesn't catch fire instantly.

3) Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in new independent bookstores crashed. We're back to bookstores going under because couldn't browse in-person for the last two years.

4) The big chain bookstore like Barnes & Noble are suffering from the same lack of foot traffic as the independent stores. However, they have the added problem of the decline of shoppers in their home malls.

Like nearly every other company in the U.S., tradpubs are increasing the workload of their staff without any commiserate increase in salary or  benefits. The corresponding burn-out leads to employees abruptly quitting.

One of the issues is the lack of stability across all industries. Why would any employee fear losing their job when they know they could lose it on a random whim anyway? At a certain point, it's a matter of survival for any employee, including those in tradpub, to quit the abusive environment and take their chances somewhere else.

I say this because I've been there. Burnout and it's corresponding effects on my health is part of the reason I stopped practicing law and started writing and running my own publishing company.

All I have to do is look at my Fitbit and see the decrease in my blood pressure and heart rate while I write to know I made the best decision for me. I hope those people leaving the tradpubs find something equally relaxing and gratifying.

My Kickstarter Campaign Blew My Mind!

My Kickstarter campaign for Soccer Moms of the Apocalypse ended last night. The final pledge amount was $7,639. Yep, $7000 over my original goal.

I'm well aware this isn't a typical publishing campaign on the platform. Soccer Moms rode the slipstream of Brandon Sanderson's record-breaking Kickstarter for four brand-new novels.

However, this was my experiment to see if Kickstarter was a viable alternative revenue generator for my books. Adjusting for the Brandon effect, I believe my experiment succeeded in its original goal.

The work isn't finished yet with the ending of the campaign. In fact, the real work is just beginning. I'm getting the same thrill I get when gift-giving, and I really hope all these new readers love my stories.

Unrealistic Return Expectations of of the Indie Writer - 9 Years Later

Below is an essay I posted on my blog almost nine years to the day. It bears repeating because the same ridiculousness is rising again.

Take a look at the previews of the books from some of the authors bitching about returns. There's more than a couple with some really bad editing and formatting. Fix your damn problems, people, before bitching about returns and bad reviews!

Hell, I got ripped for bad editing before. Did I blame the reviewer? No, I fixed the book he/she/they complained about.

I'd also like to point out my current Kickstarter campaign is running at a less that three percent backer cancellation rate. I'd much rather have a potential backer check out my other books and decide the brand new series isn't their cup of tea rather than give me a crappy review because of their buyer's remorse. I'm sure as hell not going to bitch them out publicly any more than I would bitch out the reader who returned A Question of Balance this year.

In fact, I'd like to say to that reader, "Thank for trying one of my books. I'm sorry it didn't meet your expectations."

**************

There's a petition circulating right now through Change.org asking Amazon to refuse refunds on e-books that have been read.

I understand the sentiment. No one wants to feel they've been taken advantage of. But there's major problems with this stance:

1) I doubt many of the signers of this petition have owned a retail store of any kind. When my husband and I looked into purchasing a brick-and-mortar store ten years ago, the statistics we received from the Small Business Administration said to expect 5% in returns. (When I find the blasted file in my office, I'll give you the source.)

According the the National Retail Federation ("NRF"), retail returns were expected to hit 8.7 percent during the 2008 Christmas shopping season, the height of the housing financial disaster. They actually hit 8.9 per cent and climbed over subsequent years.

According to Businessweek, retail returns hit a yearly average of 6 percent for 2007. A 2012 article by Businessweek said the yearly average was back down to 5 percent.

What does that mean for us indie authors? Alter Ego's first book, Book A, is my bestselling book to date. It also has the highest number of return. So, let's calculate it

Total books sold through Feb. 2013 = 1558
Total returns through Feb. 2013 = 9
Percentage of returns = 0.57 %

Not even the national average of 5%, but a tenth of that. If I add in my other seventeen books, the percentage drops even lower. That's damn good!

If your return percentage is higher than 5%, you need to take an honest, objective look at your book. Is the cover or blurb misleading? Are you calling it a romance when it doesn't have a "happily ever after" or "happy for now" ending? Is the beginning polished to perfection and the middle or ending need a major overhaul? Your readers may be feeling cheated or misled and want their money back. Not all of them leave nasty 1-star reviews.

2) Changing the policy punishes people who are not cheating the system. Haven't you ever accidentally clicked on something you shouldn't have? Have you ever bought a book where the formatting was so screwed up it was unreadable? The NRF survey for Christmas of 2012 estimates that 4.6% OF THE RETURNS are fraudulant. In other words, only 23 fraudulent returns out of every 10,000 sales.

That means out of all my sales, statistically speaking, less than one of them was a fraudulent return.

Were any of them fraudulent? Yes, I suspect two were because Book A was bought on Day 1 and returned on Day 2 when suspiciously Book B was bought...and then returned on Day 2 when Book C was purchased. So, is punishing these two idiots worth pissing off 1,556 other customers?

In my opinion, no, it's not.

3) Are you absolutely sure the book has been read? The reason I say this is? Sure, Amazon can track where you leave off on your Kindle, but both my mom and mother-in-law jump to the end of the file and READ THE END FIRST. If they don't like how the writer ends the story, they don't read the rest.

Yeah, I've had the argument with Mom thirty years ago that reading the end first ruins the book. I don't dare say a word to the MIL. LOL

4) Contrary to popular belief, Amazon does cut off customers who abuse their return policy.

5) Be very, VERY careful about throwing stones. Norwegian author Anne B. Ragde slammed e-book piracy in a 2010 article in Dagens Naeringsliv, only to have her own teenage son out Anne's music piracy.

Are there always going to be people who steal? Unfortunately, yes.

Will these people buy your books if you prevent them from stealing them? Probably not.

Will Amazon change its return policy? I have no fucking clue.

Will having print-only editions save your books from piracy? Seriously, do I have to explain to you what a scanner does?

I recommend that indie writers take a deep breath, grab their favorite beverage and get back to working on that current wip. I will because I know I have a thousand people waiting on Alter Ego's Book D.

Songs I Can't Get Out Of My Head

This Juliard-trained wunderkind makes me feel whatever his music says. His entire album WE ARE is fabulous! I hope he gets all the Grammys he deserves tomorrow night!

Reality Strikes

If you're reading this on Friday morning, I'm at the vet. It's time for Bella's six-month check-up. I also need to make an appointment with the groomer while I'm here. For Bella, that is, though I need a haircut and my nails trimmed, too.

I've been dealing with my Kickstarter campaign so much over the past couple of weeks I got behind on household tasks. So yesterday, I tried to get caught up on personal and business accounting tasks. People want to be paid.

I get it. I like to be paid, too. And I really can't afford to have my electricity or internet turned off.

Reality has been weird. My Kickstarter campaign has been going gangbusters, but the flip side is my FIL has been in and out of the hospital over this same time period. He fell and broke his hand and his hip. This was roughly six weeks after he fell and broke a couple of bones in his opposite foot.

He had to have surgery to repair the hip. Then he got a MRSA infection at the surgical site. Needless to say, DH and his sisters are worried as hell. March has been a rough month, and I haven't listed everything that's happened.

I'm exhausted with the roller coaster ride our lives have been over the last twenty-eight years. What I'd like is not to retire from writing and publishing, but to retire from the constant drama. A weekend away would be awesome, but I don't dare make any plans because the minute I do, the One True God Murphy will throw something at me.

And none of this is a stupid April Fool's joke. I'm too tired for that nonsense.