Month: December 2015

So I was worried about the new book, but it’s actually doing okay. :)

These are category lists, not the whole store. I’d be dying here if this was my book’s rank in the whole store. ;)

The book is $6.99 and has been from the moment I published it, so these numbers show that you don’t have to price super low to get into the top 100 genre lists. The #68 is only two categories deep.

On the other hand, my books never seem to get sticky, so I don’t expect it to last more than a few more days.

I think my last release in this series was doing a bit better than this one at this point, but it’s been 7 months between novels so I’ll just blame it on that. :) (My other last novel was the first book under a different pen name, so no Amazon algo love for that one.)

Update Friday Morning

This morning the book is doing a little better than it was last night, so I thought I’d screenshot it for an update.

Of note, I thought only one of those rankings was 2 categories deep, but it’s actually 2 of them.

I’ve been finishing things I’ve been putting off, and all because I’ve been sick. I think it’s because I’ve just been “tinkering” instead of working. Funny, that!

But tinkering is more fun than work. :D And no guilt for not writing, because hey, I’m sick. ;)

Not that puffy eyes will stop me, but I also have sneezing and snot and am very tired! Colds suck.

On the other hand, I’m pretty happy with how yesterday turned out. Sure, I didn’t write, but I did finish a cover that I’ll need in the next two months (I hope) and I finally submitted those paperback files I originally tried to get done before my October vacation this year. :o I never did get back to them when I got back and my reasoning was that I’d decided to update my book blurb to something better and I needed to wait until I’d done that. Didn’t work out and I just gave up. I submitted the book with the description as is. I can always change it later and resubmit the files then as a new edition or something.

(Why don’t most indie publishers publish new editions as new editions? I mean, if the book is linked up properly to the ebook on most stores, wouldn’t that keep all the reviews and stuff? Maybe it’s the rank. A new edition would have its very own rank on stores like Amazon (and we all know Amazon is the big dog for most indie publishers) and it would have to build up to the rank of the old edition.)

I might try it just to see what happens if I ever change my covers or decide to do a new size of paperback. A new book description alone probably doesn’t warrant a new edition. :)

Also, audio. I need to think about it again. I thought about it a few years ago, but not enough upside to the downside for me. ;) Too little reward for the effort and time required, I should say.

Anyway, going away for a while to work on the following, then I’ll start writing if my head starts to feel better.

1. Paperback formatting for a book I published in the last month
2. Paperback book cover for that same book
3. Book cover for the short piece I copy edited today
4. Corrections for the copy edited short piece
5. Formatting of the short piece so I can publish it
6. Publishing the short piece so I can sell it!
7. So much more stuff I’m not going to bother writing down

As a side note, I do believe I’m going to redo my paperbacks for my main pen name so I can sell them cheaper. The 8 x 5 size is nice to hold, but it makes the price higher because each page holds less text at a reasonable font size and that means my books are longer than they have to be. I’m not really willing to compromise on font size because I like easy to read books. I don’t have reading vision woes (yet) so that’s not it! I like the looks of generous leading and a nice sized font. A slightly larger font (12pt Adobe Caslon or Garamond) looks really nice in a book, IMO. :) Since I don’t sell many anyway, I’ve always just done them for me. That’s what I like. :D

But I did compromise on this latest paperback I formatted and I like that I’m going to be able to sell it at $14.99 and still make the same profit I make on my other pen name books. And I have a feeling this book turned out really well. It looks beautiful on screen. I’m excited to get my proof copy of it and see how it looks in my hands.

It’s an 8.5 x 5.5 book. Just a half inch extra top and side but it made a big difference. I didn’t have to compromise my font size at all. 12pt Adobe Caslon Pro. I also used the native widows/orphan control features of Word* instead of taking the time to match each page in a spread, etc. I looked at the output expecting to hate it but willing to compromise because that had just cut down the time it took me to format a paperback from days to hours. I didn’t mind it at all! And as a reader, I know I wouldn’t care. It still looks good.

*Yes, I format paperbacks in Word. I know people all over the web say you shouldn’t do that, but I like Word and it turns out very nice books for me. InDesign’s learning curve is just more than I want to deal with right now (I did try Scribus, but the text looked IDENTICAL in the test pages I created to compare it to Word’s output. I expected something a lot different, and yet…. the pages were identical! But the set up was a pain in the ass. I later tried InDesign again, and I decided I just didn’t want to put the time in to learn how to do everything I’d need to know to do it “right.” Screw right. Perfection is my enemy and I’ve had to come to terms with that.

I’ve been working on book covers today. I have two books I’d like to finish in the next two months. (Three, actually, now that I think about it.) And another I’d like to publish that’s already finished. (That short story I mentioned I wanted to copy edit today.)

Although I haven’t written anything today, I did do the copy edit (I still need to input the corrections), and I’ve been working on book covers. I’ve almost completed a paperback cover, and a cover for one of those books I’ll hopefully be writing as soon as I feel better.

It’s nice to know I’ve gotten several things I needed to do out of the way. It will make publishing those books a lot less stressful when the time comes! Cover design frustrates the crap outta me.

Something else that frustrates me: feeling like I’ve accomplished nothing when I have, in fact, accomplished quite a few things.

Here’s what I need to finish ASAP (practicing follow-through). :)

1. Book cover I’m working on for an unwritten book DONE
2. Paperback book cover for a book I published more than 6 months ago (ouch) DONE
3. Paperback formatting for a book I published in the last month STARTED
4. Paperback book cover for that same book
5. Book cover for the short piece I copy edited today
6. Corrections for the copy edited short piece
7. So much more stuff I’m not going to bother writing down

I don’t like putting off writing to do these things, but if I’m going to be putting off writing anyway, well… might as well get something done.

That’s a record! My previous best was 51,396 words in February 2013.

I’d like to reach 95,333 words in December. Even if I don’t, I’m still hoping I’ll beat this new record.

Now, I just have to get started writing again. Right now, that’s looking like a problem.

I feel like I’m getting a head cold, and I blame the lack of sleep.

I stayed up too late too many days last week and the weekend and now I’m sick. I can’t actually say with certainty that’s why, but I’ve managed to avoid getting sick with lots of the colds and other more unmentionable illnesses everyone around me has suffered through, until now.

Today I’m taking another day off. I say “another” because I wrote only 324 words yesterday (in one 50 minute session) because I stayed up too late into the morning the night before and didn’t feel so well yesterday either. I’ll tinker today and get enough to keep my streak alive, but I think I’m going to nap.

No more staying up late, because I’m never able to make up the sleep the next morning. Lesson learned. Again.