Things Are Getting Worse in the World, Especially the Food

There's the Gaza crisis, the Russia-Ukraine War, U.S. troops stationed in Los Angeles for no reason other than Tribblehead's ego, Tribblehead arbitrarily bombing Iran (okay, GK and I will probably "discuss" that one the next time I see him in person), and a lot of other shit going on in the world.

But when close to twenty percent of Denny's go under, you know the shit has hit the fan.

For those of my readers outside of the U.S., Denny's is a chain modeled after the classic 1950's diners. Greasy food, black coffee, and shakes. Not exactly healthy, but comfort food after a late night partying or when you're pregnant and can't keep anything else down.

(Don't ask me why on that last one. It's the one place my stomach could tolerate when I had morning sickness and after I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.)

I wasn't surprised when my sales dropped shortly after Tribblehead's inauguration. The same thing had happened during his first term, and that's accounting for me doing elder care for the in-laws.

But this time around, things are much, much worse. ICE is kidnapping brown folks, whether they're legally in the U.S. or not. White folks don't want to admit brown folks are the backbone of the restaurant business.

The quality of a lot of restaurants' food has gone downhill, especially fast-food joints. The last Big Mac I ate had more special sauce than burger. My last two sandwiches from Arby's were not cooked all the way through.The last cheesy fries I ordered from Wendy's were. . .let's just say there was a quarter inch layer of oil in the bottom of the container making the fries very, VERY soggy.

Look, I've had diabetes and been immunocompromised for the last twenty-six years. But I still treat myself once in a while. But even DH was grossed out the last three times we hit a fast food place. And he has a cast-iron stomach. Needless to say, I've been cooking cheeseburgers, pizza, and tacos from my own recipes at home, and not just because it's cheaper and healthier.

Which brings me to my second point. With retail prices for everyday needs staying near the levels they were during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people don't have the extra money for eating out. And if my experiences with really shitty take-out are any indication, people just aren't going to splurge at those restaurants anymore.

It's not just Denny's closing thousands of stores. I scrolled through other restaurant news. McDonald's sales are down as is everyone else's in the fast food market. Red Lobster nearly collapsed. In fact, the one in our town was originally slated for closer, but somehow, they found a CEO who pulled them out of the tailspin. By the way, the new CEO is . . .what for it. . . . . . . .brown!

In the meantime, DH and I aren't wasting money at these franchises anymore. We've been patronizing locally-owned restaurants at the rare times we go out, mainly out of a sense of self-preservation. I don't feel like dying from fast-food food poisoning. I've got a ton of books to write.

What Constitutes Quality?

For those of you worried about Wednesday's post--No, I did not have a psychotic break. Thank you for those of you who expressed your concern. And yes, I did notice y'all defaulted to remote methods to contact me. *grin*

One of the big bugaboos in the current "The sky is falling" rhetoric is that indies lack the quality traditional publishers can provide. The question is exactly what kind of quality are we referring to here?

This week, I started and finished reading two stories during my free time. Charlaine Harris's latest Sookie Stackhouse novel, Deadlocked, (a traditionally published novel) and Volume 5 of Bebe Smith's The Honey Trap Files, The Priest (an indie published short story).

One hand, we've got a NYT bestselling paranormal mystery series. On the other, an indie sexcapade.

But, but, the indies don't even proofread!


Hate to tell you, but Charlaine's book had three very noticeable typos. Bebe's had none.

The short story only has sex in it. Sex is bad!


Sookie and Eric definitely got it on, even though Charlaine didn't give explicit detail. She did give a little more detail about the orgy in Eric's living room. (Just in case y'all want to confirm anything. *grin*)

You're comparing apples to oranges, Suzan!


Yep, but then so is everyone else.

Here's the point--both women entertained me with their stories. They made me forget about politics at the Day Job, that both of my cars are in the shop, that GK needs oral surgery, and a myriad of other problems I needed a break from.

That, my friends, is the definition of quality.

Marketing - The Last Word . . . For Now

I know a lot of you out there have been reading the Marketing series of posts looking for ideas on selling your books.  That's great!  And I hope I helped a little.

But the one thing you absolutely cannot forget is that all the fabulous marketing in the world won't make a difference if you are putting out crappy product.

An indie-published commentor on another website (no names to protect both the guilty and the innocent) complained that a certain indie-published blogger's sales figures were bullshit.

I checked out both the blogger and the commenter's books on Amanzon's sample downloads.  [For the record, I have both the Kindle for PC and Nook for PC apps loaded on my laptop.]

The blogger's sample had a simple cover design with an eye-catching color.  The formatting was neat and in an easy-to-read font.  The text itself only had one typo in the first eighty pages (the article 'a' was left out of one sentence).

The commentor's sample had a very dark cover with dark lettering that was difficult to read.  The formatting didn't have any chapter breaks.  (I can deal with a couple of lines between chapters instead of a page break, but this all ran together.)  The spelling and basic grammar errors were too numerous to mention.

I could see why the commentor's sales were so low.  She may have the greatest story since the Iliad, but if the package it comes in is unattractive, people will pass it by.

So don't rush to throw something up on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.  Make sure your books are the best they can possibly be before you unleash them in the wild.  You won't regret it.