Writing and Selling Fiction - My Week

Feeling Better – It seemed to take too long – seven weeks, but at last, I am feeling better. So much better that my wife and I have got in a couple of nice hikes in the park. Now, come on spring.

Writing Week – A good one for me, this week a bit over 3,000 words. Three thousand might not be a lot for some writers, but for me, that is not a bad week. I saw a tweet this morning where someone's goal for the day was 5,000 words – wow.

Book Sales – January was okay, not great, but not bad. I did not sell as many books or eBooks, but my KDP pages read was up. Up for me means above 10,000 pages, about $50.00 worth. Some books sell, and others do not do so well seems to be a fact that everyone selling books has to face. My historical western mystery- Commitment – has been a consistent and reliable seller. If all my books sold as well as Commitment, I would be making thousands, not a hundred or two each month. As one of my kids used to say, “Oh well!”

My nonfiction gardening, humor and mystery book - Beginning Gardening & Other Entertaining Lies: Including - 4 Garden Murder Mysteries, is, at this time my slowest seller. Going to try a new cover and maybe with spring coming, some advertising to see if it picks up a bit. The gardening book I really like, and thought it was a unique idea with the chapters of garden tips broken up with short, murder in the garden mysteries, but, alas, it never caught on. Maybe someday.

It is still too early yet to tell how my newest and fourth in the series of kids chapter books, Howling at the Moon, is going to do. It will be the second to the last book in the series, and I have been told it has a great cover – hope that helps.

Writing Goals – I seem to be on track for my goal of a quarter million words this year, and that’s good.

  

From the Old West – Do not tamper with the natural ignorance of a Greenhorn.

Photo of the Week –

As always, you can find all of my books here on Amazon

Follow me here on twitter at @wyohistoryguy

Keep on Reading and keep on Writing

& 

Have a wonderful February.

Writing, Reading, and the Distractions of Summer

Spring seemed quick, we are now into some summer-like temperatures, and it feels wonderful - until it gets too hot.

Yard Work - At one time, not so long ago, I enjoyed mowing and trimming the lawn. The lawn care only took a few hours a week, not much, but now I look at mowing as a chore that has to be done more than something I really like. In that vein, we do have some nice flowers started to show off in the yard, and that I like.

Writing Outside - I am writing churning along at five to seven hundred words a day. Right now I am doing most of my writing sitting outside on our deck. Writing outside can be a bit of a distraction watching birds at the feeder and the squirrels arriving to get their share. Living in a military town I also like to watch the helicopters, C-17s, and 

C-130s, as they circle practicing touch and goes and helicopters practice their version of the bucket brigade, for the fire season in the west.

Book Sales – My KDP pages read are way down, sales of both eBooks and soft cover books are down some but not nearly as much as the pages read has dropped. Not sure why thinks have tumbled so far on the financial side of my writing, I can only speculate.

10 Reasons Book Sales are down – My best guess

1.     People are spending all their free time mowing and trimming their lawns leaving no time to read.

2.     Fishing is picking up

3.     It is the start of picnic time

4.     School is out and adults, along with their kids, decide they will play video games on their phones instead of reading during their summer off.

5.     Too many baseball games to watch and not enough time

6.     Readers are turning to, summer romance on the beach books, instead of what they normally read

7.     Invaders from another galaxy have entered reader’s brains, and have them reading endless political and royal wedding articles online.

8.     Sunstroke

9.     Everyone has decided to reread old books

10.   Summer reruns have started on television and are too captivating to miss.

What Am I Reading? Mountains and Molehills, by Frank Marryat. I am also beta reading a book, far out of my normal genre, for an indie-author, so far it has been a fun read.

Enjoy the rest of the week, and please, keep on reading, even if the yard is calling.