What's Up Wednesday

This week...

My current WIP (work in progress): I'm haven't missed a day yet in the 100 day challenge so that's still ongoing. I reached a point in my manuscript that made me realize I have to go back and change a couple of things. One is very minor, but the other is going to require some rewriting. I'm hoping to get this done as well as a significant amount of new pages this week. The 4th of July is going to be just a quiet day at home so I'm planning on using a good portion of the day writing.

News from the publishing world: Book Sales Dipped in 2013 - this article posted 6/27/14 by Jim Milliot is from Publisher's Weekly. It isn't very encouraging for those of us who hope to make a living from our writing. Link: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/63131-book-sales-dipped-in-2013.html

Quote of the week: "Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." ~ Jim Rohn.  I picked this quote for the week because it fits in with my post from Monday.

Health news: According to a small study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, people who drank watermelon juice before working out had less muscle soreness the next day. Watermelon contains large amounts of L-citrulline, an amino acid that can improve oxygen delivery to muscles. I'm not sure if you can buy watermelon juice, but blending a cup of frozen watermelon cubes, 1/2 cup of strawberries, and 1/4 cup of orange juice makes a great smoothie.

Random things: Monday was my mom's birthday. I took the day off from work and we went out to breakfast and to the movies in the afternoon. It was a great day.

Random photo of the week:

 This is the cat's new favorite place. There's not a lot of space but he manages to jump in there, turn around, and get comfortable.

This I know for sure...

I try to keep these posts to more random topics and not writing related as those are usually my Monday posts. That being said, today I want to write a bit about promoting a book.

I can't tell you how often I've heard, "You just need to promote your book and the sales will come." Um, no, not necessarily. You can tweet, post on Facebook, post on various loops, do giveaways, have friends help spread the word, but if no one shows up to purchase, all that promotion is wasted. There are hundreds of thousands of books on the market and trying to get your voice heard and attention focused on your book is a time consuming, often thankless task that may generate a few sales but without people reading your book and spreading the word about how great it is, sales won't grow.

Let me qualify that, my sales are okay but what writer wouldn't like them to be better? In my case, I want them to grow to the point where they will allow me to quit the dreaded day job and write full time. I don't need an 8 figure contract like the one Sylvia Day just signed, I'd just like make about the same income I make from the day job so I can quit and write full time.

What I do know for sure is that book reviewers are amazing at getting the word out to their followers on how great a book is or how much they enjoyed a particular book and encourage others to purchase a copy. It's one of the reasons I started posting reviews of the books I've read rather than just listing the book's title, author, and summary.

So to all the blogging book reviewers, I just have one thing to say -- Thank you for reading and posting reviews, good and bad, and helping authors spread the word about their books. It's appreciated more than you know.

This I know for sure...

When we were young adults in those last years of high school (and sometimes when we were in college), we couldn't wait to be done with school so we could do what we wanted when we wanted and not be tied down with homework, term papers, and having to sit through another boring class on a subject we hated.

Then we graduated and got a job and found out how misinformed we were. While there may be no more homework, our time is still not our own to do with what we please, now we answer to managers and supervisors and have even less time off than we did while in school. (And we thought that wasn't enough time.)

The reasoning behind this posting is so many of us who are struggling writers and hold down a job outside the home would love to have more time to write, promote, and perhaps have a little bit of leisure time to just be, to just sit and breathe for a bit without having to worry what or who is being neglected during those few stolen moments.

I would love to write full time and not have to hold down a job outside the home but, right now, that's not feasible. The only income I have is mine so I can't rely on a spouse or partner to pay the bills while I try to earn a living from writing. More than just wanting to devote more than a couple of hours per day to my writing, I want to be able to spend as much time as I want with my mom. She's essentially been my only parent my entire life and though I've seen 40 come and go, I'm still very attached to her.  Thankfully, she's in great health given her age, but I don't want to miss a single minute I could be spending with her by having to sit at a desk in an office for 8 hours a day doing a job I don't hate, but I certainly don't love either.

So my dilemma is much like other struggling writers, other than writing the best books I can, how do I maximize sales so I can write full time?