SFF stories, plus squid (self-publishing diary)

Polenth

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I’m sorry about your loss. I’m late to the party, but I just wanted to let you know I just bought your book, Werecockroach, through Apple, and I’m looking forward to reading it. Congratulations on getting your short stories published :)

It’s good that Amazon apologized to you. It seems like the site keeps messing up more and more, screwing authors

Thank you! I've had my share of issues with various sellers, so I put it down more to being a problem with big businesses in general, rather than a specific big business. I just try to work through it, as I need them to sell stuff.

I just ordered Werecockroach - it sounds great! I bought it under my wrong Amazon account, returned it, and bought it again under the right account. So something might look weird in your sales...

Yay! It's not showing a return, though I've noticed before that quick returns don't always show. I guess it doesn't count sales/returns that appear to be misclicks.
 

Polenth

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Another family member died, so my novel release is delayed until next year. This hasn't been good for my Amazon rankings and sales have dropped off. Twitter's changes also seem to be making it harder to get stuff seen. In better news, I'm starting to review again, Zazzle sales are fine, and I was paid well for the two short stories I sold. But it does demonstrate why relying on only one place is not a good idea.

On that note, I've been looking at YouTube this year as another possible thing to do. This month, I started work and have set up the channel and done a few new videos (I had a small number from years back). It's mainly nature stuff and my pets. Unlike other things, you can't really start small on YouTube, as there's no way to earn money until 1000 subscribers. But it's a project I can do in the spaces and might mean another source of income in the future.

YouTube is here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOLiLFmI6UTNYyMI860cXuQ
 

Polenth

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Needless to say, any hope of things going back to normal this year are gone. I had been managing to post a YouTube video every week, but filming is going to be harder with everyone home and visits out being limited. My last big video also used some writing skills, because it's a somewhat eldritch roleplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZeAXGKkCTE

I gathered up the short stories I was planning for my next collection into a free collection called "Patchwork". This will only be available to download this year (2020). After that, the stories will reappear when I'm ready to do the full collection. I figured people could use something to read before that: https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-short-story-35162492

"Werecockroach" has been selling well in the last few months and picking up more reviews. Goodreads now has a range of star ratings, so it looks more natural (my all-five-stars was natural and nothing to do with me, but it did look a bit odd).

My plan had been to put out the second book in my series... but I'm being realistic that my series doesn't sell and that family won't be earning as much this year, so I may end up writing something unrelated. I don't really know right now and it's difficult to plan without knowing what's happening.

I'm safe though at the moment and hope everyone else is doing well.
 

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This is the final update for the thread. I'll still be around doing stuff on Twitter and my signature here will change if I publish something new.

The bad news is I was likely exposed to COVID-19 earlier in the year and developed reactive arthritis. I still have that, though I'm able to think again and my joints are improving. That means I didn't do a whole lot outside of surviving.

To end on a positive note, I managed to raise my prices and still sell books. This was not a thing when I first started, when only romance and erotica could get away with higher price points. So my novella is now $2.99 and the longer works $4.99. Sales were comparable in the first month after I did this (they dropped in November, but book buying wasn't the biggest thing in that month).

Good luck with your own self-publishing journeys and I hope there was something useful in all the rambling.
 
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