Working On My Next Book

Recently, I've had a couple of comments on Barnes and Noble asking where to find the rest of my series. The truth is, I'm working as hard as I can to finish the second book in the series.  It'll be out as soon as I can get it done, but I want to make it as good as possible.  Just know that I'm working as hard/fast as I can!  Thanks so much for reading! :)

Does Free For Now Mean Free Forever?

Okay, so I haven't written in a while-- mostly because I've been working on my next novel, but also because I didn't have enough to say. But ha ha, now I do. Today I was planning on blogging about how cool it was that I've finally had over 1000 copies downloaded from Smashwords. And yes, I still think it's cool... although actually selling 1000 copies would be even cooler. But the other day, when I googled myself, strange as that sounds, I found my book being offered on a couple of sites that aren't associated with Smashwords at all.

Well, I moved pretty quickly from feeling confused to annoyed because now if I want to change my book's price from free to $.99, like it is on Amazon, I have to contact all these sites and hope they change it. Okay... so that was the first thing that rushed through my head. But then I decided that, since I'm not planning on charging for my book (in fact, I'm trying to get it changed to free on Amazon as well) then maybe I should look at this as free promotion. Which I guess it is, but it's also a lesson-- a lesson on how making something free on the Web can quickly spiral out of control. This is definitely the only time I'll ever put a book up for free again. (I spent over two years writing and editing Black Waters, and I actually think it's worth something.) Now I know for a fact that there's no way I would have anything close to 1000 downloads on Smashwords if the book wasn't free. My Amazon numbers are closer to 100 than 1000, and I'm only charging $.99! But still, I feel like I've lost control of my product.

Since I'm definitely charging for the next book in my series, my hope is that the people who read and liked the first book, will buy the second. Sadly enough, this is my main marketing strategy because nothing else I've tried has seemed to make a difference. Yes, I'm on Twitter, and I do have a blog. For a while I also tried commenting on other people's sites, but none of these activities really resulted in more books being sold (or in my case sold/downloaded). I've even had a few blogger reviews and interviews... but still. The only thing that consistently boosts my sales are holidays. I get a lot more Smashwords downloads and Amazon sales when people are stuck at home. But that's certainly not the result of anything I've done, and I bet a lot of other authors have noticed this too.

Anyway, I suppose the free thing has helped get my name out there among the ever deepening crevasse of indie/self-published writers. Though the tough part is, it's hard to track your numbers if you're not even clear where your book is. Boy do I still have a lot to learn.