One Month After Launch…Non-update.

tyunglebower ♦ August 5, 2016 ♦ 1 Comment

So, I launched Murder. Theatre. Solitaire one month ago today. And I have a surprise for you all; I’m uncertain how many copies have sold, because I haven’t checked on the numbers.

That must shock some of you into a coma. I don’t blame you if that’s the case, as at first blush I’ve as much as admitted to going against the very nature of independent publishing-keeping up with the business side of things.

Perhaps it will put your mind at ease to know that I have not been avoiding promotion. I can’t afford as much deep promotion as a lot of indie-authors use, but I have been talking it up on Twitter, and mentioning it in person when applicable. I have friends who are reading it now, and that makes me happy.

I have another idea or two for promoting that won’t cost any money, which I hope to start soon.

But, I’ve not been checking numbers. Why not?

To begin with, that seems like a quick way to take the air out of my sales. The numbers for Flowers of Dionysus  were not, to be frank, ever good. They fell short even of my own modest expectations. While most people would see that and read yet another pile of articles about promotion in an attempt to improve, I saw that and felt somewhat gutted. Call me a bad author for feeling that way if you must, but that just wasn’t as easy to get over and move beyond as was the lack of sales for Thank You For Ten.  (That wasn’t exactly easy either.)

We’re not talking about a lack of fame and fortune here, folks. We’re talking about being very close to nothing happening. After all of the work and excitement leading into releasing that novel, (which I promoted more heavily than I am my current one), seeing that not even most of my friends and colleagues picked up the book was not easy for me to get beyond. In some ways, I’m still bummed about it.

So this time around, I’m not checking. I’ll talk it up, promote it in the best way I am capable with my personality and resources, and thank those who express their enjoyment to me. But the way I see it now, if this novel should become a hit, or even become a hit by my own modest standards, I’ll become aware of that soon enough one way or the other. To me, remaining at least someone optimistic and excited about the idea of writing, editing and publishing a novel to sell by myself is more significant that allowing depressing numbers to push me into studying targeted audience research, paying thousands of dollars to have someone do it for me, or any number of other things which would only in the end drag the bait that is my book across the eyes of more fish who may or may not even bite.

Whatever success I’m going to have will likely be because people meet and converse with me online or in person, or otherwise by word of mouth. In the future I may save money for in depth data analysis and all of the other things I still desperately do not understand and cannot afford. But for now, I’m happy to say the book has been out for a month, and I’m still happy to let people know that I’ve written a murder mystery, if they are in to such things.

I will probably also make this one available eventually in a paper version, which could change things a bit. But that’s for another post.

For now, give Murder.Theatre.Solitaire a try. You can’t go wrong on a quick-paced mystery for only two dollars, can you?