Best Guilty Pleasure, Ever!

It has been two months, give or take a few days, since I began this journey in self-publishing. I said it then and still maintain that this is a marathon and not a sprint. It goes without saying that any success is a great accomplishment, considering the competition and that I am new at this.

It’s early in the experience, but I want to track it here because I am learning as I go and hope that I can share my successes as well as my mistakes with those who also wish to take a plunge.

The numbers are not the most important thing, but it does allow for at least one kind of quantifying tool to value how well a book is doing. Let’s face it, if it doesn’t sell, it hardly matters whether it is brilliant or not. It is sales that drive more sales, reviews and word of mouth. Promotion helps and the price determines the willingness for readers to take a chance with your title.

Smashwords’ downloads seem stuck at 1498 for the cookbook, 43 for the novel and 18 for the short story. Over at the Nook Store, I’ve sold 3 copies of the novel. The Kindle Store has been the great revelation in the last couple of days. There I have sold a total 9000 units of the cookbook, 3 copies of the novel and 1 short story.

If these numbers are any indication, the idea to publish a second cookbook is the most rational. And at the end of the third quarter, I will actually get royalties paid out!

I just posted a “summer reading” entry in both the Nook and Kindle boards and we’ll see if there are any takers. It is time to release another promotional campaign, but I am probably doing too many things at once, especially since I have been feeling a little under the weather.

It is still too early to get numbers from the overseas distributors, but I am curious as to how well the books will do outside the U.S.

If God sends you lemons, make lemonade...

In the last week of May, Amazon posted sales upwards of 5800 units of the cookbook. The downloads at Smashwords for the free version are at 1500. You may set your price at Smashwords, with a suggested price of $2.99.

This is good news, not only because I have a few dollars in royalty building up, but because I am 13 pages into the follow-up volume with the working title Kali: The Food Goddess, Fruits of the Family Tree. (That is not the cover, just a placeholder.)

Researching your heritage in culinary terms can be eye-opening and sometimes a shocking experience.

Geez, no wonder they left and never looked back. Ewww!

On the other hand, it is interesting to see how colonialism influenced other cultural cuisines. Fusion is not as modern a trend as the media would have you believe.

As with the first volume and the food column that originated it, I will only share recipes that I have tested or tasted. If I won’t make it or eat it, I will not share it. Thankfully, I am not necessarily finicky or it would seriously limit my ability to write about food. There are some foods and cuisines that are not palate friendly for me, but that millions of others enjoy. Other authors can tackle that stuff.

My ancestors come from a variety of places, but their cultural heritage was not necessarily carried through to my generation. In these instances, I have shared what I know and like or a good facsimile created by the very fusion that made me possible.

I am a great proponent of multiculturalism. Not only do we make pretty babies, but the combining of food traditions produce spectacular results. I hope to make that clear in this new book. And I hope to have it ready for sale before the end of summer.

First Victory!

I had a doctor’s appointment this morning. Ironically, on the TV in the waiting room they were showing “The Doctors” – explaining how doctors don’t “overbook” the way patients believe they do. Waiting for hours is nothing more than the result of unexpected emergencies that arise during the day. Of course, at this point I had been sitting there for an hour and a half waiting to get pricked with a needle and further enhance the awesome experience by peeing in a cup . . . all before having my first cup of coffee!

When I left the office, I had to take a nap. I awoke and found a message that the cookbook had reached #1 on Amazon. That tickled me, of course. The real kicker was that I shared the top of the Kindle gastronomy downloads with one of my favorite books.

I had a second review in Amazon, but it was an indignant accusation that I dared use the image of the Goddess I was named after and that I am not even Hindu. Of course, the person who wrote it probably has no way of knowing that my paternal great great grandmother, Veronique Narine, was born in Madras. This is immaterial because the review ignores the entire content of the book so its usefulness is moot. Another user chastised the first one for the review. I will not get involved.

This cannot take the small victory away from me: Kali and Flaco Sitting atop the List! Talkin’ about e-a-t-i-n-g!!!

Memorial Day Sale!

The numbers steadily go up and I cannot complain about that. The more downloads the more chance of people taking time to read my work. The cookbook has reached 1393. The number is up to 37 and the short story is up to 18.

As it is Memorial Day, I have slashed the price of the short story to $1.99 – get it here. I also increased the sampling to 30% if any of you would like to read some of it first.

No writing these last couple of days. Instead, we have dedicated ourselves to watching a marathon of “Damages”. Interesting that despite the nonlinear storytelling, it never hampers the enjoyment of putting the puzzle together. There is a method to the madness and it is brilliantly put together.

This is research for me because they jumping off between flashback and flashforwards may become part of the steampunk series if it goes the way I think it will. I have a good idea what I want as an arc but I am not sure how to make it happen on paper. Details. God is in the details. The divine escapes me at the moment.

Looking for an Organic Thang

Right now, the cookbook continues to add downloads to its history with a total 1317. The novel now has 34 and 18 for the short story.

It’s time to start thinking of a summer reading promotion for the novel. “Leave the stress at the job and burn the rest of it with laughter and a good shooting!”

I have not written in the last couple of days. I did make notes and apparently Nixon makes a brief appearance in the steampunk story. I am playing with a continuing arc (the thing I was missing when I started writing). I don’t know all the details yet, but I need a central character to help me move that action forward and possibly another to embody it. I want to be able to have the first book out before the end of summer. Wish I knew where it is headed.

I think I need to put up my Victorian costume prints back up on my wall and dress the part. Maybe it’ll go faster and easier, you know, like a fine tuned machine but funny.

Stream of Consciousness

Some days you wake up with ideas literally busting to come out, and a line feeds another and one image turns into another picture altogether and it surprises you!

Today was one of those days. I got three chapters in for “Beating the Devil”. This is an interesting way to write a novel. I have the first and last chapter. Today I wrote the second, third and another that belongs somewhere in the middle. Altogether I now have five chapters. I hope to finish this novel before November, because although I intended it to be my next NaNoWriMo project, it looks like I’ll have to do something else.

I know it’s just May, and if the Rapture does come later this afternoon, then I may be busy fighting the minions of hell or partying to death by November. You know, whatev!

But if not, I may do the second steampunk book (assuming I finish the first one by then) or the first of the sci-fi novel that I haven’t started yet.

I just hope I can keep it all straight in my head.

Finally, this is the progress report on downloads: cookbook – 1234, novel – 32, short – 17. 

In these shoes?!

Little details on my on-going adventure keep trickling in.

There is an independent review on Smashwords for the cookbook. Apparently, I made the gentleman hungry and left him yearning to make a cocido. 

There was one sale for the short story yesterday at one of the retailers. The Spanish version will be available in the next couple of weeks (with a different cover that is hilarious).

Downloads have increased: 1186 for the cookbook, 29 for the novel and 19 for the short story.

In the meantime, I keep plugging away at the quasi-steampunk/alternate universe story. If I do it right, it will introduce this new world, the main characters and establish an on-going storyline, each with its own adventures and travails.

I did not plan this one and continue to pretty much make it up as I go. The only thing that seems clear right now is that the first book will concentrate on Dani’s first week in her new world – which I have decided to simply name Nieuwendam (instead of the more obvious New Amsterdam and after my favorite dance partner).

I still need an end. Something that has a killer hook! I’m not there, but I am enjoying getting there…

My favorite line so far:

Am I to exist in a world without stilettos?