This and That

You may be wondering how my all-new book covers have affected my sales. I'm here to report ~ not at all. In fact, my last book sale was on August 30. I don't check my reports anymore, but I was curious whether the new covers might spur something. They didn't. I changed my covers too late in the game for any of them to register. I don't know what the cutoff age is, and I can't find an answer by Googling, but it's clear that the majority of my books will never be found by anyone on Amazon. Even a title search, although no one searches that way except for bestsellers, still reveals that my books are buried. My first novel, with the overused title, Once in a Blue Moon, only shows up on the fourth page of search results. No, all eleven of my published books have missed their chance. Nice relics, though, I guess.

My writing journey has come to a complete stop, and I don't know how upset I am about that. I was very upset at first, but I find myself getting used to it. I still dislike leaving Second Chance unfinished, just hanging out on my hard drive in limbo, but whereas I was so keen on continuing the story while I was writing regularly, I'm now unsure where it would go if I was writing. I did pull up the manuscript yesterday and wrote one line. Yea, that's it. I knew I wouldn't have uninterrupted time to get back into it, so why bother? Given three or four hours, sure, but that's an impossibility in my current circumstances. I'm finding myself very resentful.

In lieu of writing, I've been watching a lot of podcasts. One hosted by a very successful author contained kind of a throwaway line: "I don't make very much money off the sales of my books." That struck me. I hadn't thought about it, but I assumed that bestselling authors made a ton of money. I suppose they rake it in on advances, but per copy sold? My research tells me that bestselling authors earn about 15% in royalties from each sale. So, if a hardcover sells for $28.00, the author earns $4.20. Of course, one must multiply that times the huge number of copies sold. I'd take it. I earn thirty-five cents for each book I manage to sell. I don't even make $4.20 in a month ~ or two months, or three. In fact, I won't be receiving a royalty check this time around.

I've thought a bit about things I used to do to promote my work and how silly they seem now; how naive I was. And how little it all mattered. I've never gone back to LibraryThing to find out if Inn Dreams got any reviews from the four people who won a copy. What difference would it make? I've also vowed never to return to Goodreads, so if any new reviews are out there, I'm better off not knowing. And my newsletter is deceased. 

Out of curiosity I checked my Amazon Author Central page to see if any new reviews appeared, and there is one ~ but apparently it's about someone else's book. It says the main character's name is "Eliza Hart". Her actual name is Karen Grace, so I don't know what book the person was reviewing, but hey, she gave it four stars, so...

And so my life goes. Boring, listless, without purpose. But there's always tomorrow.