Skip to main content

IWSG - When To Let Go?

Photo courtesy of PIXABY

Howdy. New month means it's once again time for the IWSG monthly blog hop. You know, that event that takes place the first Wednesday of each month where authors from all levels open up about the ups and/or downs they are currently facing.

With so much going on in the last couple of weeks, it wasn't a matter of what I was insecure about, it was more what topic did I want to highlight. Last month I talked about the Why Bother Monster and the ratty bastard is still hanging around. More so now thanks to the latest happenings in Romancelandia. But even in the face of all the current BS, I was trying to forge ahead.

I did manage to get my long overdue WIP completed last week, so I was happy about that. And I'd made the decision in February to put two of my indie titles in Amazon's Kindle Unlimited program. Because my time in KU is an experiment, I have to do something I haven't done before which is track my sales.

It's a rather sad state of affairs to watch my numbers or lack there of.

The two indie books I have in KU are Not Broken and it's companion The Lists.

Not Broken has been my problem child for some reason. Overall, it's the one I've probably put the most effort into marketing and it's yielded me like next to nothing in return.

Malcolm and Calida's story seems to be unloved.

Now don't think I'm producing large numbers for my other books, because I'm not. But this is the worst...well I guess technically The Lists performs worse by default of it being a companion of a book no one wants to read in the first place.

And when I say no one wants to read, I'm not exaggerating. A few months back I did a second blog tour for it with a different company because the first one I used was very lack luster and I know for a fact they didn't promote it like they promote other books.

So I tried something new with a new company and the company owner basically told me no one signed up for it.

Let that sink in. 

I paid a tour company to organize something for this book and got next to no interest in it. Talk about heart shattering. The owner was very nice, she called me, and we talked through options, but it was still very disheartening.

I've done sales, Facebook takeovers, promos, ads all for very little return. The latest, trying my hand at AMS ads in conjunction with the KU experiment. I admittedly have a low budget compared to most I'm sure, but still didn't expect it to be as big of a trending flop that it's turning out to be. For a little context on that, I have a $5 per day budget, ads started running on Friday, and at the time of me writing this post I've only had enough interest in said ads to spend $2.70. Over the course of FOUR days.

So this brings me to the question that is the title for this post. At what point do I cut my losses with this book and it's companion and stop trying to find readers that will hopefully enjoy the story? When is enough, enough and I have to face reality that for whatever mysterious reason, this story doesn't interest people.

That's where I'm at now. The writing advice people say about selling more books is to write more books so you build your backlist, but when that logic isn't working out even remotely in your favor, then what?

That's it for me.

Until next time
~Meka


The Insecure Writer’s Support Group is a home for writers in all stages; from unpublished to bestsellers. Our goal is to offer assistance and guidance. We want to help writers overcome their insecurities, and by offering encouragement we are creating a community of support.

The awesome co-hosts for the April 3 posting of the IWSG are: J.H. Moncrieff, Natalie Aguirre, Patsy Collins, and Chemist Ken!

Comments

  1. I'm sorry! That sucks.
    They say the best marketing is to write the next book. Keep putting out more books and readers will find those two after reading the newer ones.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah I've been in a mood lately. They do say that the best marketing is to write the next book. I know this writing gig is a marathon not a sprint, but I am feeling stuck in the mud most days.

      thanks for stopping by

      Delete
  2. That must be challenging. Maybe try something new like a short story for one of our group's anthologies or something to submit to a small press that can help you market your next book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah. Have to look forward instead of back I supposed. The releases I had at the beginning of the year were both with small presses. They don't do a ton of marketing for you, so a lot of it is still left up to the author.

      thanks for stopping by

      Delete
  3. I feel for you. Got the only 1 poetry chapbook out and though I'm only on Kindle, stopped long ago tracking sales. Thing is it generates a lot of interest on Goodreads and had a good blog tour on its relaunch. But there's been next to none sales interest on Amazon. I figure it's poetry, that not everyone into it. But maybe with the second book I'm working on might piggyback some interest to it.

    I agree with Alex. Keep putting out more books. Even try writing books featuring side/supporting characters from "Not Broken." Usually as a reader I'd read a book and get interested in another set of characters. Find out they actually had their own story and go back to read it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's hard. Like in your head you know these things take time, but still seeing next to no progress sucks. Like with anything, it's about finding 'your' readers which has been an elusive thing thus far for us both it seems. LOL

      I'm trying to keep moving forward. There aren't many characters in Not Broken that warrant their own story. We pretty much saw Macy's romance play out in Fiendish. I am working on one I hadn't planned featuring Calida's sister. We'll see how that goes. Just have to keep moving forward.

      thanks for stopping by

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Come Find Me - #MFRWauthor

Another week. Another post for the #MFRWauthor blog hop. This week will be a short and sweet post. It's all about my social media hangouts.

I Wish I May, I Wish I Might - #MFRWauthor

Welcome to week 16 of the #MFRWauthor blog hop. We've covered an array of topics over the last few weeks, with many more to come. This week is all about our biggest dreams.

IWSG - 2021 Let's Do This

Happy New Year! Man 2020 is finally over. I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday season. It’s January so that means new month new IWSG blog post. To finish off the year, last month I posted about how well I did or didn’t hit the goals I’d set for myself.