February was...interesting. To say the least.
I've figured out that being dramatic to the point of melodrama is actually important during a book release. I have a countdown that initially I got just for my own self esteem (and so that every time I visit my blog I am reminded to
get off my ass and go write more. Because I'm starting to have lots of awesome conversations with cool people and it is eating WAY too much of my time). But I've found that when the numbers on the countdown get small, the numbers on the blog visit counter get big. So my rule will now be to throw a big fuss. Not overly much so--as in, still maintain entertaining non-book related blog material, but mention that the book is coming, the book is coming, here's a cover, here's a sample, here's today's whatever, and oh yeah, did I mention that the book is coming?
I sold less of Sci-fi book 2 than I expected (one. copy.) given that Sci fi book one is my bestseller. Right now, I'm blaming it on front matter that I haven't updated in six months. It is now updated. We will see if that works out.
That said...I sold
more of the new release than I expected, given that I didn't pull any of my usual tricks (KDP Select giveaways, mostly) when I have a new release. I'm SLOWLY migrating everything over to other platforms as well (as soon as the KDP period runs out). My expectations were four sales. I sold six. Three of which were on either Smashwords or Barnes and Noble.
That said...I did not make my sales goal.
24 sales in February brought me to 179 sales total so far. That said, my first sale in March happened before I even woke up properly. No brown bar of shame this month! (seriously. Am I the only person who hates that?)
I fully expect this month to suck. I have no release planned for March because I am
tired. Six releases in seven months. Yes. They're only 30K a pop or so, but that still feels like a lot, and my job decided not to have a slow season this year. April will be the third installment of the Sci-fi book and I want to get that right without having to deal with the usual ungodly rush to publication. The only good news is, I will FINALLY get the first sci-fi book off of KDP Select, and also a couple other titles I can pop into Smashwords and use as free giveaways on every platform except Amazon. (Because I can't get a straight answer re: the pricematch thing. So I'm not screwing with it.)
It's kind of funny, though, when you announce to everybody "I'm taking a break this month" and you don't actually take a break. But "I can't meet any goals this month because I gave myself unrealistic deadlines" doesn't have the same saucy ring to it.