Twenty-Eighteen in Retrospect

What can I say about 2018?  It's a blur?  It was busy?  :shrug:  It was what it was.  And now it's time to wrap it up.

I'm still plugging along out here in Self-Publishing Land.  And I met my publication goal.  This past year saw 4 new books published, which brings me to a grand total of 13.  The books in 2018 were Blink of an I, Early Grave, Sleeping Ugly, and Unequal.  One suspense, one paranormal, and two dystopians.

Sales this year were better than last year, but I threw a lot more money at advertising.  I spent $330 on ads in 2018 and made about $470 directly linkable to those ads.  Sales overall went over $600 for the year.  (Yeah, that's the right amount of zeroes.) That was about $300 more than I made in 2017, so I'm calling it a win.  I also went over $3K total sales for the whole shebang and have sold over 2500 books in the four years I've been publishing.  No clue how many books I've given away.  I don't track that.  It depresses me.

Of course, with all the discounts I had this year, my average $ per book went down to $1.12 from my overall average of $1.22.  I didn't hand sell a single book in 2018, though, so I don't have those tugging my averages up.  Gave away a few, but didn't sell any.

A while back, I raised the prices on a majority of my books to make them more in line with other books of the same genres and quality.  It didn't really make a difference in how many books I was selling but when a book did sell at regular price, I made a bit more scratch.

The books didn't gain that many more reviews this year.  I treasure the ones I did get, but I wish there were more.  Then again, who doesn't?

If you're interested, here are the 'copies sold' numbers as of last night:

DE - Overall: 1003.82 / 2018: 152.15
AD - Overall: 572.63 / 2018: 87.12
WIOH - Overall: 363.89 / 2018: 100.76
PH - Overall: 88.06 / 2018: 15.46
IDW - Overall: 124.14 / 2018: 25.54
FG - Overall: 136.89 / 2018: 54.60
UWC - Overall: 81.69 / 15.89
NC - Overall: 28.22 / 2018: 14.57
WHTF - Overall: 53.04 / 2018: 14.87
BOIA - Overall/2018: 11.36
EG - Overall/2018: 49.23
SU - Overall/2018: 12.19
UEQ - Overall/2018: 4.40

Umm, yeah.  Kind of depressing.  Makes my brain hurt.

But I'm still plugging away.  They haven't beaten me into submission yet.  However, I'm at a loss to figure out what I'll be doing in the year to come.  Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  Something has to change, I guess.  Not sure what.  With the slow start I'm looking at, I can be fairly certain I won't be publishing 4 books again.  If I can get two or three out, I'll be pleased. 

On the upside, my books are out there and people are reading them.  Not as many people as I had envisioned when I started this mad ride, but more than it could've been.

All in all, 2018 wasn't horrible.  Still, here's to a better 2019 for us all.

Pondering

As the new year approaches, and I am faced with the fact I need to figure out a game plan for it, I'm sitting here pondering what the hell is wrong with me.

I wonder if I could be burned out.  I did publish 4 books last year, after all.  But that feels like an excuse to me.  I published 4 books, but none of them were actually written in 2018. So I can's see how I could possibly be burned out on writing.

It could be sales.  When sales are slow, especially of new releases, I can fall into the 'why bother' mindset.  You know, why bother publishing more books when the books I've already published aren't exactly selling like hotcakes?  But December sales were up and I hit some sales goals and junk, so I'm not sure if it's that this time.

Possibly it's the money angle.  I did some accounting of income versus outgo, and you do not want to see how that turned out.  The ROI for this publishing thing has been pathetic.  I might as well have just gotten the money in cash and flushed it down the toilet.  There are so many other things that money could've been used for.  I've been driving the same car for over 15 years, for petesakes.  Not that I've spent 'new car' amounts of money, but definitely 'used car' amounts.

Might be that I have too many books waiting to be written.  I really should get those sequels to Sleeping Ugly written.  I already have the cover done for #2 and I'm scheduled to have the cover for #3 in March.  But I also have another SCIU waiting to be written and another Dennis Haggarty.  And then there's that dark urban fantasy I've been wanting to finish.  And that first book I still believe it but that needs a shit-ton of editing before I can even think about sending it to the editor.  Gah.

Could it be that I'm putting too much pressure on myself?  Just writing that last paragraph gave me the panics.  But why?  I mean, there are people out there waiting for more books, but it's not like they'll die if I don't put them out.  My sales might die of neglect, but the actual reader won't.  This isn't brain surgery.  Although, in a way, the patient will bleed out if I don't do something...

I don't know.  I know a few of you out there are in the same boat.  I'm just pondering and trying to figure this out.  And maybe my pondering will help others figure their glitches out.  :shrug:  Some good has got to come out of this. 

Eh, one way or the other I'll figure this out.  The sooner the better, but I'm trying not to put too much pressure on myself.  If it weren't so damn cold and/or windy, I'd go fishing and blow the gunk out of my pipes.

Meet The Three Wise Agents

The Three Wise Agents...

Jace Douglas in Dying Embers.  After losing her family to a blaze when she was a teen, she's terrified of fire.  But she won't let her fears stop her from catching the Car-B-Que Killer.

Teri Buchanan in Fertile Ground.  With a serial rapist/killer hunting Southeast Michigan, she fights against the trauma of her own attack to bring a sick bastard to justice.

Ned Washington of Early Grave.  Haunted by the memories of his own grandmother's mistreatment and death, Ned will find and stop the psycho responsible for ending the lives of the elderly before their times have come.

These guys aren't carrying gifts, but they are on a mission.  To see justice done.

Get the whole SCIU series for under $5 today. 

Yet Another Reason to Never Have an Agent

I know I live in a hole, but I totally missed the hullabaloo surrounding a literary agency, their bookkeeper, and a bunch of authors earlier this year. 

Go here, read this and follow the links.  It's quite an education.

If you're disinclined to do all that, here it is in a nutshell.

Literary agency has bookkeeper to take care of all the financial stuff, including dispersing author royalties.  Bookkeeper has side business slash charitable foundation.  Bookkeeper's side thing is tanking, so he 'borrows' money from the literary agency.  Over the course of 7 years, bookkeeper steals over $3 MILLION dollars. 

Author who was hit the hardest assumes his money is drying up because of piracy and slow sales. 

Gah.

I'm filing this one under 'Yet Another Reason to Never Have an Agent'.

Also, it should be filed under 'Never Trust Anyone Else With Your Money'.  There should've been a dozen sets of eyes watching everything the bookkeeper did, the agency did, etc.  And with the millions of dollars we're talking, a bit of it should've been set aside to pay for a yearly audit.  But no one thought of it and now the agency is bankrupt and the hardest hit author is nearly broke. 

Think about that.  Broke after having several best selling novels and a freakin' hit movie people quote on a regular basis.

So, please, if you're selling enough books to warrant having someone else touch your money, watch them like a freakin' hawk.  If you're not selling that many books, but you have an agent, watch them like a freakin' hawk.  Doesn't matter how awesome and nice and trustworthy you think they are.  Money like that is awfully tempting to a certain type of person.  And there are times when you can't tell if the person you're trusting is that 'certain type of person' until it's too damn late to do anything about it.

I know it's a pain in the ass, and in a rational world, it wouldn't be this way.  But we don't live in a rational world these days.  Not sure if it was ever rational in my lifetime.  =o\

And, yes, despite all the effort and headaches of being an independent author, I'm so glad I don't have an agent.  Now, if there were just a way to audit Amazon...  but that's a post for another time.  At some point, though, you just have to trust and hope the Big A isn't quietly screwing its authors.  Because it would be so easy for them to do...  :shudder:

On the Charger

Okay, I told myself that, once I finished Unequal and sent it out into the world,  I would take time off of writing for the rest of the year.  No writing.  No editing.  Just time to gel and get myself back into a writerly place. 

Of course, there's no rest for the weary... or the wicked, if you will... so I'm not totally taking time off.  I have marketing stuff to do and writerly business stuff to do.  Year end stuff and coming year stuff.  (Plus, pay-job stuff.)  The non-creative half still needs to work.

This past week, I got the 2019 Sales and Book Sales Data spreadsheets done, so when 1/1/19 hits and the sales start rolling... err, trickling in, I'll be ready.

The creative half is storing energy.  Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket.  Storing energy.  Like a squirrel.  Yeah.  Cuz, let's face it - my battery is dead.  Look at this time as me putting the battery on a charger and letting it sit until it's full.  Then maybe when 2019 rolls around, I'll be able to sit down and churn out the words. 

And it's not like the creative half isn't trying.  Like the dead battery in your car, it's trying to turn over, but it just doesn't have the energy to actually start.  Little snips of story ideas wander through my brain.  Nothing worth writing down.  No gumption to actually sit here and write anything yet.  Just Rrr Rrr Rrr clickclickclick :silence: Can't even get the freakin' dome light to flicker.

So, that's where I am right now.  Sitting on the charger, waiting. 

Meanwhile, I have a sale coming up.  Starting Monday, the entire SCIU series will be discounted through the end of the 30th.  $3 off on DE, $2 off on FG and EG.  With ads.  And I'll be out there hawking my wares on FB and Twitter.  :fingers crossed:

How's you battery here at the end of the year?  Are you busy busy or taking some time off? 

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Post-Publication Checklist

Once upon a time, I could keep all the stuff I had to do to get a book out there up in my head.  These are not those days.  Somewhere here I've already posted my checklist for actually publishing a book.  This is my new checklist for all the things I have to do immediately AFTER a book is published.

1. Goodreads listing – add ASIN before the book goes live
2. Add book to your Amazon author page.
3. Verify book is on Amazon UK author page.
4. Update FB header.
5. Add book to all blog sidebars.
6. Update internal links inside book to Amazon
7. Post to the blogs
8. Post to FB pages
9. Post to Twitter
10. Post to MEWE
11. Add book to appropriate Outside the Box book page
12. Update links on book page – US, UK, CA, AU
13. Bookmark Amazon pages – US, UK, CA, AU
14. Update back matter of all other books
15. Post to FB groups
16. Fall apart.

Anyway, I've gotten most everything done except the back matter thing.  Six books down, seven to go.  It's not hard, it's just tedious.  Oh, I haven't done MEWE yet - forgot the password and am too lazy at the moment to look it up.  And FB group thing will be an ongoing thing.  The falling apart began before I started the list.  ;o)

I'm sure I'm forgetting something...  Ugh.

Well, I guess those are the most import things.  Unless you can think of something important I should be doing...

What's on your list?  Do you have a list? 

Unequal is LIVE.

Despite my certainty this book would not be out on time, Unequal actually went live yesterday.  It was the full-on, blitz attack I did on Saturday that put me over the finish line.  Big thanks to Hubs for putting up with me through it. 

Actually, I uploaded it in the morning and it was live a couple hours later, but I didn't receive my email notification until last night.

For a limited time, it's $2.99.  After the first of the year, the price will go up and stay at $4.99. 

I thought about doing a sale on Blink of an I - because it's also dystopian - but I don't have the energy or the brain power to focus on that right now.  And I've got that other sale starting Christmas Eve. 

Anyway, today should be all about Unequal, so let the party begin.  Woohoo!

As you probably know, this one was a bear for me to edit.  But I got it done and it's out in the world.  I hope readers enjoy it.  It's one of those books where I can only hope I was a good enough writer to convey what I wanted it to convey while still making it a suspenseful, entertaining read.

I have PDF copies available for a limited amount of people.  If you want one, tell me in the comments.  If we get more asks than copies, I'll do a drawing.  Fair enough?  I know I'm not supposed to ask for reviews in exchange, so don't worry about it.  But it you do happen to want to post a review, I would be eternally grateful.

Reviews are like prezzies you don't have to wrap.  ;o)