Month: July 2018

My novel, Cordell’s Rebellion, has been available for twenty days as an eBook, a little less than that for the paperback. In that time, I’ve sold exactly one copy and given out thirteen. Those aren’t stellar numbers, but I didn’t expect much. I will see what feedback I get from the “promotional” copies I’ve given and, if there isn’t anything embarrassing in them, I will start promoting.

I’m not sure of my promotion plan at this time. There are several things I would like to do that may help, but much will depend on luck. Some of them will depend on money. All of them require time.

The money one is easy; buy some advertising. I could probably afford an ad in the Sunday edition of the state’s largest news paper. I haven’t even looked at the advertising costs for something like the New York Times. I have the money in savings to buy a state-level ad or two and the number of resultant sales to break even is reasonable. However, I’ve just had a cardiac stress test and a colonoscopy and I need to see how much that is going to cost me. If necessary, I may have to wait until my day job kicks in and I use lab differentials to save up my advertising funds.

Another thing I considered was finding notable personages and sending them copies. I know that if a politician or celebrity would discuss my book, for good or bad, word would get around. I’m having trouble thinking of which politicians would be appropriate. Most are busy and probably don’t read random books sent to them. Since I’m an Iowa author, I could try the folks from my state. The book takes place mostly in Missouri, so I could probably send them some too. I’ll give it more thought.

Those are my two main plans, if you can call them that. I still need to look into Google’s AdWords program and maybe a few other affiliate programs. To make matters worse, my day job starts up in a few weeks and it tends to take a lot of my time.

I’ve accepted that I may never be a famous author, but that I still have to keep going through the motions. I will stop writing when I’m dead, maybe. I like the idea of being a storyteller long after that.

This summer has been a killer. Most of my plans died abruptly. I was still able to get some things done. Most important of all, my novel, Cordell’s Rebellion, is now published. It is available in paperback or ebook. You can ask for it at your local Barnes and Noble, or get it online.

The summer started with a case of heat exhaustion. With my heart health, that left be discombobulated for about a week. It was quickly followed with two weeks of upper respiratory infection. The three weeks after that were filled with sinusitis that just would not go away. Each of these things included exhaustion. I spent the month of June in bed.

When July came around, I slowly regained my stamina. The excessive heat didn’t help. People with weak hearts don’t do well with hot weather. Still, I could start on my list of tasks.

I completed some of the things I needed to do for my day job. I wrote some on my next novel (it’s about four-fifths done). I created the cover art for Cordell’s Rebellion and I published the book.

My decision to self-publish was based on the weird feedback I kept getting from agents. The literary fiction people said it sounded too much like action/adventure. The action people said it sounded like literary fiction. Maybe I’ve created something that is either too hard for me to describe or is not really saleable. Either way, I went as far as a I could. Doing the self-publish thing meant that the project was sufficiently complete that I could move on to other things. If I can promote and sell it, great. If I can’t, I’ve at least got copies in existence and can say I finished writing at least one novel, even if it wasn’t popular.

Now the summer winds down. I will have to go back to teaching soon. This time I will no longer have the title of Instructor, but will be an Assistant Professor. Unfortunately, that means I need to make up lost time to preparations for the coming semester. That will limit the time I can spend promoting my book. It will also get in the way of writing. The need to pay bills and have good insurance is a pain.

So, don’t be a “Playtime Peterson”; go buy a copy of Cordell’s Rebellion.