Photo by Kristine Tanne on Unsplash

I meant to write a new post some time ago, but like so many of my best intentions, I found myself diverted by mostly tedious events I’d rather forget. You know, like filling in for someone going on vacation. Only when you get there to do a job you hate even on the good days, you find it’s a billion times worse because several other people have failed to do their jobs properly. This had a lot to do with the fact that the OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commission) has no sense of humor and refuses to have sympathy for poor accountants trying to deal with the mistakes of others attempting to use the commission’s archaic register software. Bah, enough said.

I did have a shiny moment. I went to see the Downton Abbey movie with my father and a pair of good friends. Some of the critics grumped that the movie was nothing more than an extra long episode. It just so happens, that most of the fans wanted exactly that. The acting was superb, of course. Most of the story wrapped up quite nicely, while a few threads were tossed out there giving fans hope for a sequel. Since the movie has done much better financially than expected, there could very well be a second movie.

I have continued to work diligently on book IV, and I’m happy to say it is about halfway done. A few things have changed along the way. While I create a general outline to get me from point A to point B, as the story unfolds I sometimes find that something I’d originally plotted out would work better either altered or removed entirely. The characters grow, or at least change, as the circumstances they struggle through have an impact on them. I also find I have to learn a few things along the way, right along with the characters. Research is inevitable, even when writing fantasy. I find I know just enough about many subjects, as they say, to be dangerous. In fact, as I type this out, I know I need to go back and rework a scene where Chalice Renoir attempts to explain economics to a couple of new supporting characters I’ve introduced as the architects designing the rebuild of Teresland. They have big – BIG – plans, but Elven naivete leaves them struggling to comprehend why humans won’t simply do what they (the elves) want.

Even with all of that going on, I’ve spent quite a bit of time taking an online class about effectively using Amazon advertising to market my books. I can say at this point, if you are also a writer, it is possible to grow your readership with Amazon ads, but it is not for the faint-of-heart. It is not a fast process either. It takes months to gather keywords, design ads, monitor how the ads do, adjust daily budgets and determine how high to bid.

For those of you unfamiliar with sponsored ads on Amazon, the person placing the ad has to choose how much they’re willing to pay to get their book displayed to a potential buyer when said buyer types in a search word or phrase. You do not get charged unless the viewer clicks on your book to check it out. As a seller, your hope is to get at least one sale for every ten clicks. Fewer clicks is, of course, preferable. In my case, my first book is currently priced at .99, which means I get .35 in royalties if someone buys it. If I’m spending .45 to get my ad placed in front of a potential buyer and it gets clicked (it could be less than the .45, but if I explain every detail your eyes will glaze over and you’ll wake up with keyboard face), I’ve just lost money even if they buy the book. Maybe. The expectation (I should say, hope) is that once they read the first book, they’ll go on to buy or borrow the second and third books creating what is called read-thru profit. Yes, fun times. Fortunately, I enjoy ciphering, so I don’t mind messing with the whole thing.

So, that leads me to two final things.

Starting October 1st, the price of the first book will get bumped back up to $2.99. This is in part an experiment to see how it does at that price with ads running. It will drop back down to .99 at the end of November since I have some email ads set up for the holidays. Just wanted to warn people in case for some reason they’re coming to this site and haven’t already read the first book. If you don’t have KU and don’t want to pay $2.99, wait until after Thanksgiving to pick it up.

The second item is that I took my print books off of expanded distribution, which means Amazon doesn’t require me to charge as much to put them up for sale. It allowed me to lower the price of all three print books by $2. I’d assumed expanded distribution would be of benefit to libraries and such, but as it turns out, the likelihood of libraries stocking indie books is pretty rare (though I did find out one library in Canada has my books – how weird is that?).

Okay, gonna go read someone else’s book now before I go to bed. I hope all of you have tons of fun books to read too. Cheers!