Sales Are Down and Why It Isn't a Bad Thing

Sales are down for the month of November, and I see a lot of writers wringing their hands over it.

Frankly, the reasons are many, but everyone's blaming inflation, and some folks are considering raising their prices. However, I believe that's not a good idea at this time.

1) For the last eleven years, November has been notoriously slow for indies and busy for trad publishing. This is the time of year where trad really pushes sales for holiday giving. Bestsellers like the latest Grisham, Patterson, and Sparks novels rule the sales, and then there's the specialty items like Paul McCartney's Lyrics. Shoppers like getting a physical object they can wrap and hand over to a loved one.

2) Are we having an inflation issue? Yes, we are, but it's a factor I've been expecting with the shortages and hangups in the U.S. ports. We are still in the middle of a world-wide crisis, and until shipping gets back to normal, prices are going to rise. But raising book prices is a catch twenty-two. Books are a luxury item. If someone is struggling to feed their kids, they're not going to buy your book. And if they do have a little extra for some cheap entertainment, they're not going to buy your e-book that's the same price as a mass market paperback.

3) I won't be worried unless Kindlemas totally tanks. Kindlemas is the nickname for the roughly forty-five days after Christmas when people use their new devices and redeem their giftcards for books. For indies, it's the cyber equivalent of Black Friday. However, I do expect Kindlemas sales to be lower this year because there's a ton of devices already on backorder thanks to the shortage of compute chips.

For now, I'm staying the course--writing and publishing on a regular schedule. Any revisions in my business plan won't happen until February at the earliest.

I hope y'all have a safe, pleasant Cyber Monday!

Look Out! Scary Weekend Ahead!

I avoid Black Friday like the plague.

It didn't used to be that way. In high school and college, my sister and I would pick up our maternal grandmother and hit the early sales. By early, it meant K-mart opened at 8 a.m. We'd hit a few other stores for some odds and ends. We ended the morning at Bob Evans for breakfast.

Now, you're lucky if someone doesn't pull a gun on you while you camp out in front of some store or customers don't trample you to death while you're trying to unlock your employer's main doors.

Unfortunately, Black Friday is not the only "crazy people" day in our part of the country.

But we need to make the trek up to Detroit to deliver my father-in-law's car to a buyer. (He's nearly ninety and voluntarily stopped driving for which we are profoundly grateful.)

Darling Husband suggested instead of taking the car up on Friday, why don't we do it on Saturday?

I just stared at him.

"What's wrong with Saturday?"

"Ohio State and Michigan."

"Oh, shit," he muttered. Along with a few other words I don't feel comfortable repeating in public.

And I'm the one with the potty mouth.

You see, our little town is on the route that a large number of folks from Columbus, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, take to each other's stadiums. Since Michigan is hosting the game, we'd be sharing the road north for a good chunk of the way with pumped up, and possibly drunk, Buckeyes fans.

So, despite my Black Friday fears, and if you're reading this on Friday morning, we're heading up north to deliver the car.

I just wish I knew where my Michigan University sweatshirt is.

Black Friday Sucks!

Yesterday as we drove to my father-in-law's for Thanksgiving, we notice that the Elder-Beerman department store at our local mall was open.  Elder-Beerman was the second largest regional department store in Ohio until Macy's parent company Federated Department Stores bought out Lazarus and subsequently re-branded them under the Macy's name. It's also the last big anchor store at our mall since JC Penney closed this summer.

But the Goddess-damned store was open at 10 a.m. on fucking Thanksgiving Day.

Maybe I'm turning into the get-off-my-lawn guy. Maybe it's the lovely symptoms of menopause. But damn! Stores can't give their people one fucking holiday off?

I mean, yeah, I sell books for a living. But I rarely, and I mean RARELY see a sale on a holiday.

Which is how it should be. You should be celebrating the holiday, and if it's not with the family of blood, then it should be with the family you made.

And even for the holidays I've spent alone, and there's been a few, I wouldn't want to put someone else out, keep them away from their family, out of some selfish need.

I'm not going to suggest or ask or beg you not to shop on Thanksgiving or Black Friday. You gotta do what your own conscience tells you.

But me? I'm not shopping on Thanksgiving or Black Friday.

What I will ask you is this: please, PLEASE show a little compassion for the folks in stores and restaurants who are just trying to make their rent and put food on their table for their kids. And these people are told they will be fired if they don't show up on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. There's a lot more of them than you realize, and even a decent tip or a smile can make the difference.

So if you need to shop, please be kind.

Black Friday

My insomnia has been giving me fits for the first time in over a year. Funny how the last time I had a problem was right before I left my day job.

Anyway, it's gotten so bad over the last month that I have to do this weird trick to reset my internal clock. I stay up an extra 2-3 hours per night (the time I would have spent tossing and turning) until I'm going to bed at a reasonable hour and actually falling asleep.

What this means is that I went to bed about 8 a.m. this morning and woke up about 4 p.m. DH finds the whole thing hysterically funny. GK simply chalks it up to another one of his mom's weird issues.

They are each going out with friends tonight for dinner. Personally, I'm glad to be missing the Black Friday madness on the streets.

Instead, I'll have a quiet house to work on my last 2K for my NaNo project. Yay, me!

And maybe, I'll be awake for the Texans v. Patriots game on Sunday.

Black Friday

Currently Reading - Wonder Woman comics

There was a time when I loved Black Friday.  My sister and I would be up at 6AM, pick up our grandmother and head into town.  Of course, this was back in the day when a store opening at 7AM was highly unusual.  We'd get a majority of our holiday shopping done, then head to Bob Evans for breakfast.  (Which by the way, still serves cornmeal mush.  I love Bob's!)

This morning, you can't pay me enough to go out shopping, even if I wasn't coughing up a lung.  What started as a fun little tradition has turned into a free-for-all that puts Ultimate Fighting matches to shame.  Last year, a security guard was trampled to death when shoppers stormed the LOCKED DOORS of an East Coast Wal-Mart.  Turns out a riot is stronger than the bolts holding glass doors to a concrete frame.

What is it with the human race?  In the grand scheme of things, does it make a difference if little Johnny is the first kid on the block to get a Wii or whatever is this year's must-have item?

Any of you braving the hordes today?