Book Sales- July 2012

  Such a guessing game! Should I post sales numbers so readers will know how few books I sell yet, or should I post them because they aren't too bad for a relatively new self-published author?

I'm going to do it for the past month, because I did make a personal goal, whatever its significance.

With all venues together that I know about (North Country Cache is in a number of bookstores on consignment. I won't know those sales numbers for months), here are the July results. All the others are ebook sales.

Devotions for Hikers- 1
Fall Off the Couch Laughing- 2

North Country Cache (paperback only)- 2

News from Dead Mule Swamp- 43
The Hollow Tree at Dead Mule Swamp- 977 (free)
Paddy Plays in Dead Mule Swamp- 27

Total ebooks sold for money- 73

My goal was to have more than 2 sales a day, and I made that. I've been promoting quite a lot, so my goal for August is 3 sales a day.

Sometimes it's really discouraging. It takes a ton of work to get people to buy, even with good reviews. All of the books now have several reviews by people who are not friends, but how is a potential buyer to know that? How does one continually find new pools of people to promote to?

It's a challenge!

Hey- if you haven't "liked" the books on Amazon, or agreed with the tags, it would be great if you would do that. It only takes a minute!

My Amazon author page

(A month after I made this post I realized that I had not been checking the Smashwords report from their other distribution outlets. So in addition to the above, I sold 16 News from DMS, 2 Paddy Plays in DMS, 1 Toby & Harry, for a total of 19 more books.)

Blood and Tea!

Come to beautiful Ludington, Michigan for a Mystery Writers' Conference, September 21,22, 2012.

Presenters are: Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli lives back in the woods between Mancelona and Kalkaska, on a small lake, much like the protagonist of her Emily Kincaid mystery series.

D.E. (Dan) Johnson, a graduate of Central Michigan University, is a history buff who has been writing fiction since childhood but had to hit his midlife crisis to get serious about it. His first novel, a historical mystery entitled The Detroit Electric Scheme, was published in 2010 by St. Martin’s Minotaur Books

Lev Raphael is the author of 22 books, including 7 mystery novels, two novels, Winter Eyes and The German Money, and three memoirs, Journeys & Arrivals, Writing a Jewish Life, and My Germany.

Aaron Stander spent most of his adult years in the Detroit area, where he taught English and trained writing teachers. In 2000 he and his wife left college teaching positions and moved permanently to their cottage near Traverse City. Aaron is the author of Summer People, a mystery set in Northern Michigan.

Registration is only $175. You need to find your own lodging.

See more at Ludington Visiting Writers

Chapter 2 of Bury the Hatchet in Dead Mule Swamp

Chapter 2 is at least done in draft- ready to read to the West Side Gang tomorrow night.

One of the trials of mysteries in series is how to bring in the backstory for the characters without just doing a boring info dump. This chapter has Ana and Cora driving to town, and talking about the bloody hatchet. In the process, they cover a lot of Cora's history. Hopefully it's not too dull, and it moves the hatchet to the Sheriff's office.

Here's an excerpt:

    “I’m surprised the Post Office delivered it. I heard they were really cracking down on vague addresses, and packages without a return label,” I said. But I thought maybe rural areas were still more forgiving.
    “There wasn’t a street address, and whoever sent it knew I have a museum, but they still addressed the box to Mrs. Gerald Caulfield.”
    “That is funny. Maybe it’s some kind of warning for Jerry.”
    “Then they don’t know that I’m not speaking to him,” Cora said through tight lips.

How do you feel about the backstory in mystery series? Do you like bits woven in as the plot unfolds, or do you prefer getting a hefty dose of information right at the beginning of the book?

Received the Proof for Elements of Life

I just received a proof sheet for the Elements of Life anthology. I have one poem in this book! These are stories and poems that were winners in Accentuate Services contests. Some of my stories have been winners, but these themes, birth, life, death, were just before I began entering.

However, after the fact, they called for some poems to be used as fillers, and one of mine was accepted. It's called "Now Then When" and was written in one of my darker moods.

It takes a long, long time to get stories from contests to/through editing, and actual printing of a book. I'm glad to see something of mine in this anthology, and I will have several stories in the next volume.

The book can be pre-ordered for a discount at Twin Trinity Books

Promotion is such a huge part of making sales for INDIE authors. My publisher page, Books Leaving Footprints is where people can find all my writings that are available, a long author bio, interviews, publicity materials, and info on how to book me as a speaker.

Today, I updated the home page, making sure that my recent publications are there. I organized the page better, by categories.

Check it out!

Fall Off the Couch Laughing is Published

Fall Off the Couch Laughing is a collection of ten humorous essays written over the last several years. Most previously appeared in the Ludington Daily News in my monthly column "Get Off the Couch." One essay has never been published prior to this collection.

Titles included are:
• Do Ticks Go to Heaven?
• The Top Ten Reasons to Stay On the Couch
• sKumquats and InYourFace vs My www
• Snowshoes? Just Give Me a Couple of Months
• The Arrival of Unwanted Body Parts
• Neologism Snowclone - Ramblings of a Cold Brain
• Not Sleeping at Sleeping Bear
• The Evolution of the Sock
• Not Men of the Liberated Mind Set
• The Hike from Heaven or Hell- You’re Invited

Although eBooks aren't generally a great venue for picture books, these essay collections include photographs. This book features ten carefully selected pictures.

My monthly column has been running for six full years, totaling more than 70 installments. I'm slowing collecting them into sets with similar themes. Columns are not available online unless you have an e-subscription to the newspaper. These collections are economical, and gathered into topical groups.

Only $1.89. Only on Smashwords.

Fall Off the Couch Laughing
Get Off the Couch with Joan

Bury the Hatchet in Dead Mule Swamp - Chapter 1

Yes, I've gotten started on the fourth story in the Anastasia Raven mystery series. This book is the most complex yet, and should also have some really fun parts. However, I've had trouble with the motivation to really get busy.

Despite several pages of notes on how the plot unfolds, one still has to eventually get busy and actually write. I'm doing it!

Here's the opening:

    “Points of crinkly tissue paper peeled open under my fingers like the white petals of a flower around an irregular umber center. The curved stem ended in a rubber grip. My breath escaped in a ragged gasp as my brain rearranged the imaginary flower into the actual contents of the carton. I pulled my hands away from the hatchet, its blade stained a dark reddish-brown. It was a good thing I’d placed the box solidly on Cora’s desk or it might now be on the floor. I sat down with a thump in the rolling office chair and skidded into the wall.”

You can buy book 1, News from Dead Mule Swamp, for only 99¢, the second story The Hollow Tree at Dead Mule Swamp is free, and the third installment is Paddy Plays in Dead Mule Swamp. Find them at Smashwords, or Amazon