It’s been a helter-skelter sort of a week.
It started with me writing out my goals for 2016 (it’s a new year, after all) which, of course, included several related to my writing: publishing Balance of Betrayal; completing the next book in the series (it’s called Age of Oppression, but don’t tell anyone!); setting up my own sales pages on my website; building an active following on Twitter.
All very exciting and also quite challenging. As any author who isn’t the writer of a massive blockbusting bestseller will tell you, you also need to work for a living and that takes a huge bite out of the time you have available. So, in four weeks’ time, I return to work and my employers are, quite reasonably, going to expect me to give them my full attention. Writing returns to the evenings and the commute to and from home. Hey-ho!
In the middle of the week, a couple of domestic crises provided me with some distraction (and not in a good way!). My car has terminal gearbox failure and needs to be replaced – and yes, it is as expensive as it sounds! Then my PC decided to have a terminal failure of its own, and I had to reinstall the operating system three times before I could get things to work again. I didn’t get much writing done that day, as you might imagine. I am very, VERY grateful for backups and for the fact that all my writing is held online so nothing was lost.
The highlight of the week was on Friday when I launched my “Penny Sale” for my three e-books. It has been a journey of discovery to learn how to set up a sales page and not all the discoveries have been to my liking. As well as my own lack of experience, my web host is also learning because their sales pages are in “Beta” (for the not technical, that means it isn’t a final product). That makes the portal pretty limited and I’ve had to juggle things around so that my 1p e-book wasn’t also demanding £4 postage (!). Nevertheless, I did it. Everything was set up, I’ve been working hard to build my following, I’ve been Tweeting all week that the sale was coming and, on Friday, I launched it. And….
……
……
No one bought my book!
So much for my expectations of the whole stock being snapped up in seconds (after all, who could resist such a tempting offer?). I have to say, I felt pretty gloomy on Saturday morning – after all, if I can’t sell my books for a penny, the prospects for my future don’t look too bright do they? But then, it happened. That glorious, wonderful moment when THAT e-mail arrived:
“You received a new order in your webshop.”
Nothing can beat that feeling! I’ve done it. I’ve made a sale.
I know it’s only one sale and I know it only earned me 3p but out of tiny acorns….
Cate Caruth is the author of the Bremmand Chronicles. To buy her books or learn more about them, go to www.bremmandchronicles.co.uk
You can follow Cate on Twitter at www.twitter.com/catec23
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