Be Grateful

 When I see pics/posts like this one to the left on Facebook I almost always roll my eyes and scroll by. Believe me, I am grateful for what I have. I worked hard for it. I've sacrificed, I've scrimped, and I've gone without. I've lived through my rock bottom and I came out on the other side humbled and determined. So, forgive me if I sneer at these sort of things. I haven't been seeing them in the right light.

Today I came across a pin on Pinterest that caught my eye. 101 Ways to Build the Writer Platform of Your Dreams. This pin leads to the site yourwriterplatform.com and a list of 39 Things to Remember While Building Your Writing Career. I love finding  bits of info like this through Pinterest. There is always room for improvement. #26 is what shook my tree today.

Change "I have to" to "I get to"

The above is credited to James Clear and his illuminating site, jamesclear.com/how-to-be-thankful.
I could go on and on about this, but the point of this post is to share the awesome things I get to do and remember often to be grateful because I get to do them.

You should do this, too. Try it. It feels really good.

• I get to write about falling in love.
• I get to stay home with my kids.
• I get to wake up to the sound of baby coo's and not an alarm.
• I get to take a sick day whenever I need it, regardless of whether or not I'm actually sick. 
• I get to see family whenever I want.

• I never have to say "I can't, I have to work" ever again. I shape my work around my family life.

These things mean everything to me. During this post alone I've stopped multiple times to snuggle my daughter and peeled a squished strawberry off a pillow. #momlife

The moral of the story is, change the way you see being grateful. Its isn't just about what you have, especially if what you have kinda sucks. It's ok to want more if you are willing to do the work. But don't skip over the little things. Appreciate them, feel the accomplishment they represent. They are the stepping stones to your dreams. 

I recommend reading through the list I linked above. Always make time to learn something new for your craft. Absorb what resonates with you and leave the rest.
 

Cheers,
Ella

This Is For All The Little Fish

Source: Jokeroo/Krasaveca

I just released my debut Contemporary Romance Flash Point. Yay! There was very little fan fare and as of now there has only been 4 units sold and 5 KU/KOLL units. Awesome right? Be grateful for every sale or borrow. Every reader counts.
 Financially it's a little less awesome. I jumped off a cliff into the self-publishing ocean two years ago and am still treading the vast waters.

So, what does this have to do with little fish? Well, as my current income and sales numbers prove, I am a little fish in a big ocean of self and traditionally published authors fighting for the spotlight and perhaps the person reading this is, too. How do we become big fish? If anybody has this answer please tell me.

With this new release I tried pre-orders. I discounted the pre-order price and advertised it on Facebook. I did not boost posts because I haven't heard good things about it and I can't risk wasting money I don't have. I shared on my page and profile. Results? A whopping four pre-orders. The lesson? When you are a little fish and your readership is small, pre-orders and Facebook promotion are not effective. I've come to the conclusion that what I need to focus on is writing. I can post promo's until I'm blue in the face, but only the same people will see them and those same people are not new readers.

Building a readership takes time. Time better spent writing and publishing books for readers to find, and very little of it spent on Facebook. Post occasionally about yourself, your writing, and being a genuine person for your readers to connect with, but don't expect to find new readers. I'm not saying it can't happen--its does, but your time is better spent on writing.  As for pre-orders? It doesn't hurt to do it, but it doesn't help the little fish. It was a bit stressful for me to meet that deadline. I haven't decided if I will do it again.

Flash Point pre-ordered for $ 0.99 and was set to increase to $2.99 after release, but given it's debut status and novella length I decided to keep it at $0.99. I want to find new readers and I want them to take a chance on me. $0.99 is a good price point for attracting new readers with  shorter works.

My other recent fails have been going all in with KDP Select. The numbers were pathetic. By August I will be distributing everywhere I can again. Also, doing a Kindle countdown deal was a waste. I was lucky and scored a Bookbub ad for Mine, All Mine which will feature next week and I'm praying to God that it will boost my sales back up to what they used to be. Bookbub has always been a great investment for me. It works best when you have a finished or mostly finished series and advertise the first book free. If readers like it they go on to buy the rest. If you only have one book published, try a *free promo to get readers and reviews. It's safe to say you won't get a Bookbub ad for a book with no reviews.

If you can't get an ad, and your free promo had dismal results this is what you should do.

Write. Keep writing. Publish a quality, properly edited, and formatted book with a professional cover. Try and try again. Self-publishing isn't just a marathon, it's a ultra-marathon. You could get a lightning strike and hit it big, get a book deal with the big 5, or you could gain a reader a day at a time, write to your hearts content, and build your career from the bottom like most of us are doing. The common denominator is writing. Don't stop writing.

Don't give up. Life is too short to give up on dreams and keep working a dead end job that barely pays the bills and sucks the life from you. There is no American dream, there is only YOUR dream. 

Cheers,
Ella 




*To do a free promo on Amazon without being in Kindle select you will have to have your book free on another site and the Amazon bots will find it and match it on Amazon. This can take a few days but is worth it. This is how it's done with perma free books. You can do this through Draft2Digital or Smashwords. I strongly recommend Draft2Digital over Smashwords. Smashwords is an unnecessary headache.