Why?
I have two WIPS, one a non-fic that I have been taking notes on for years. Both over 30,000 words, mind crawling with ideas. Word file won't open. I have Word 2007 on another machine which I used today. Like that keyboard better. All my work is on USB sticks. I am procrastinating like a nitwit. Why? My blog hit average is higher than ever, comments rising. Timing is SO ripe for the non-fic. What is the step that I cannot take here? It doesn't feel like burn-out. I feel restless about it, a common side effect of my condition, so I just need to get on with it.
I did a batch of promos for Anymore today, and my Smashwords views and samples are up and down to an extreme, up today. This doesn't relate to sales as they download to Kobo, nook, apple, Kindle etc from there. Only the spreadsheet shows sales and mine is stalled at January. I don't know. One dear writer I admire gave me a link that set off a grenade in my head and all my promos on Book Blogs today were a new format. We shall see. Maybe that is where the spike came from. As soon as I think I am learning how to play the system, I feel like I have been cut loose in a riptide.
Any words of advice, how you reacted when you were in such a place, hints, commiseration (well, not that so much) would be appreciated.
I think you'd be fascinated by Elizabeth Craig's post yesterday about her sales, and non-sales. She's at http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteI can't figure any of it out, to be honest. Totally inexplicable.
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ReplyDeleteMaybe you feel ready for non-fiction but your body is telling you it's not yet sure it's not stepping outside your comfort zone. It's really harder to tell the truth in a he said-she said situation than to just allow the mind to float on invention and free idea. The natural excitement should soon overcome the reticence though and I wish you all the luck in the world at ploughing in successfully.Once started it should get easier.
ReplyDeleteI asked similar questions about spikes in sales followed by slumps. My slump seems to have moved full time to the doldrums permanently which could reflect on genre, writing skills (surely not. LOL)or even personality coming through in promotions. The main answer I was given....Seasonal.pre and post Christmas ( October to March) are the heaviest times for selling, after which most sales go to known Authors for birthday gifts. Newer authors are picked up on freebies. This may or may not be true but if true it would account for your drops from March and you should be close to seeing things move with a new sales push and promotion.
Lets hope it's true. Best of luck Virginia.