The magic carpet ride at the Kindle Store has stalled after five months. Unless something changes in the next week, that gives me a shelf life of approximately five months per marketing campaign.
At the same time, sales at Kobo, Sony and Apple are starting to stream in. Smashwords sales have been slightly revitalized.
As this is an ongoing experiment, it is interesting to note these patterns to see if it holds true for the process at large. The next release will need to be observed to see if the pattern repeats. Research tells me that this may not be true, that e-books are untamable consumer products that defy all sorts of metrics.
I’m not convinced that this is true, but it may be unpredictable as the segment develops.
In the meantime, a new round of marketing is needed to inflate sales. Perhaps this is the perfect time to release the second cookbook.
The real interesting test is how much time I can give to this effort as I concentrate on getting back to the rat race. Finding a job is a job in itself. Having two jobs that do not bring in a steady income is a different kind of experience.
Self-publishing is not for the weak or for slackers, there is serious effort and ingenuity required and even that may not bring success (depending on how you define success). It remains a fascinating experience, though.
On the creative front, I started writing a story that made my heart sink. I was writing to keep the juices flowing, not necessarily to start a new project or to augment those in the hopper, but suddenly it started looking like a romance. I can’t write one of those! I have no frame of reference, unless it ends badly (and it does).
Then I did a small survey on the Kindle boards, despite the obvious Romeo and Juliet thing (and it is not so obvious), nobody wants to read a romance that ends in bloodshed. It turns out that as I went along and wrote more, it’s a crime story with a romantic interlude, so no . . . Barbara Bretton is not going to get any competition from me.
This was a great relief. Not because I fear a little friendly competition but because of all the travesties allowed to make it to print a romance by yours truly is one best avoided. One shudders to think of it!
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