I had a little success with a post. I got a review that says my book is filled with graphic sex. The reviewer said three times in the review, Force of Corruption contains graphic sex, so be warned. But they also said it was a fantastic story with great characters and they gave it four stars stating if it had less graphic sex, they would have rated it five stars. I love this review now. At first, I was confused and a little concerned. I’ve gotten other reviews that said it didn’t have enough spice. (Spice=sex). What if the way this reviewer wrote it as a warning causes potential readers to skip my book because of this review?
I decided to ask in a few reader groups on Facebook if they would read a book with this review. The answer was overwhelmingly YES! Whew! What a relief. Interestingly, my post asking this question generated almost a hundred responses in one group of readers interested in knowing what book the review was about. I was concerned the admins of the group would stop me from posting, because I was self-promoting my book if I posted that info. They didn’t. Did I get any sales from this social media boost?
I did. I also met another author and she and I agreed to post each other’s books, buy, and read them. She’s super sweet and actively posting my book. I bought her book and I’m reading it. She’s in the UK so it has all those lovely sayings and spellings. I adore UK English and love learning new sayings. In this book I learned, “downed tools”. This means they stopped working to take a break, or put down their tools for a break. You can use the phrase even if you’re not using tools to work.
I learned from yet another author about a company called Hero Forge. You can make characters and have them digitally printed; you can bring any character to life. In a tiny little statue, but a real 3D figurine! I made my main character for my WIP. It’s my standalone horror, VioleNt. The character is a serial killer who kills child abusers. I also placed her found cat next to her, he's named Sawyer. It will take several weeks.to receive my character, but with any luck I’ll have it when I’m ready to post this blog. If not, I’ll definitely include a photo in a future blog.
I’ve been slacking on my Instagram and Tiktok posts, I don’t have many followers to lose on TT, but I have over 1000 on Instagram. If you’re inactive they quickly disappear. I’m going to try to make a schedule to follow. I post this blog every Thursday so maybe I can do social media posts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I also need to make my first post of my reading videos. I’ve been procrastinating on those, it scares me so I avoid it.
I find marketing so difficult to keep up with. My author friend Louise is so dedicated, she spends hours every day posting marketing for her books. I wish I had her tenacity. She has health struggles like me, maybe worse. If she can do it, I can too, I choose not to. Because I don’t like it. It explains why she has lots of sales and I don’t. If you want to sell more books you have to share your book all the time. It’s a lot of work, and it takes time every day for success. If I ever get there, I’ll let you know.
The honest truth is, I would rather write or read than post. Or join writing competitions. I may need to check into a writing competition rehab center. I’m SO addicted. I signed up for another one even though I promised myself I was taking a break. I just love the challenge and I like to write with the pressure of A deadline. I know, I freaked out over my deadlines.for my first book.
Now I’m not setting any for the second book and it’s not moving through editing as fast as I need. I want to release it by summer. When is that? June 21st? I need to get in gear and get it finished. My editor is also dragging her feet but my lack of urgency is probably causing it. I know she’s reading it, so that’s something. This is where the gigantic size of the book is a factor.
With all of my competitions, I’ve got results coming up, finally. If I made the top ten in the Writer's Digest short story competition, I'll hear something on or before February 28th. The most recent 24 hour competition should post results in the next couple weeks. The Writing Battle should have all results posted on or before March 10th. I won’t find out if my story was accepted for the anthology until the end of April. It’s really difficult waiting to see how I did.
I was talking to my husband about this blog. I was telling him about my numerous mistakes and how I tell you guys how not to do things. He laughed and said something that resonated with me. He said, “They aren’t mistakes they’re learning opportunities.” I have learned so much on this writing journey. I don’t write the same as when I started. I’m fully aware of my bad habits and I actively avoid partaking in them. I almost want to go back and self-edit both of my books and put them where I would be happy now.
But then I think, what happens next year when I’ve grown even more? Will I just rewrite my stories every year and never finish anything new? Nah! I can’t do that, so my stories will stay as they are, except I may still fix the actual errors in FOC. It just bugs me to know they exist. Does that happen to you? Mistakes haunt you until you fix them?
In case you’re keeping score:
ARC campaign= semi-succesful
Beta readers= highly successful
Post with s.e.x.= highly successful
Marketing book=not successful yet
Writing competitions=fun, unknown success status
Things I’m procrastinating accomplishing:
Finishing my WIP VioleNt
Making reading videos
Marketing more/better
Editing Force Majeure
Fixing the errors in FOC
Videos/Reels for TT and IG EVERY few days
Maybe I should have you guys send me emails to harass me into finishing the items on this list. What do you say? Want to nag me like you’re my mom? I’m kidding! Please don’t do that, it would be as uncomfortable for you as it would be for me.
I’ve got nothing else to say, for now. As always, thanks for reading!