Check your Sales Entries

      This one is for authors who have their publications up on Amazon. Don't we all! From time to time, look at your entries on this venue and others. I have thirty-six books in print. Once a day, I check my up and down status which really means nothing other than someone might have viewed your page. It doesn't mean a sale though you can tell if this happens if you suddenly have a huge status change for the better. My sales page is so cluttered with sponsored ads (paid) that I sometimes have trouble finding my own titles which now runs to three pages because of all the extra ads. I don't know about others, but I rarely respond to any of these ads and some are so far from what I write, I wonder why Amazon placed them there. For a year, I tried sponsored ads which are very reasonably priced though I rarely saw them appear anywhere. Instead of gaining readers, I lost them with four of my books going to No Sales Report which had never happened before. Two were part of my long running and modestly successful Sinners Sports Romances which always sold previously.

     So, I took a look at these entries on my page and found some glaring errors. Sister of a Sinner, one of my shorter books, was listed for sale for $26.45 in soft cover while other titles printed around the same time were $16.00. A used copy was also listed for $26.45, ridiculous when this book is still in print and can be purchased for $16.99 online from Barnes and Noble. No wonder it wasn't selling. I did report this-no answer, no change in pricing. It was also listed as a fantasy which it is not. The young woman in the story does see auras, but despite her special skill, she is kidnapped and rescued by one of the Sinners team members. Well, maybe that is a fantasy but not the kind most people envision.

     Moving on to another in the same series, She's a Sinner, about the first woman punter in the NFL. I predict this will  happen soon. The cover has a woman who really could be a kicker, not some fantasy league babe in a skimpy uniform. The soft cover is fairly priced at $14.99--but it is also offered as a mass market paperback for $53. I wish I had mass market books, but all of mine are print on demand and still in print for $14.99.  Who would pay this ridiculous price for a used book. My only idea is a money laundering scheme. I did report this.  The mass market offering was taken down, only to pop up again a few months later where it still remains. They seem only to target this one book out of my thirty-six over and over. Still can't figure out why. But, do check your entries for such scams.

     I used to post monthly, but can't really see the point anymore as I rarely get any comments though I do get a small number of views and love seeing where these views come from. Today, I had one from Kazakhstan and a large number from China which seems odd but interesting. Possibly, someone is using my blog for other purposes, but I am not computer literate enough to know. So for now, goodbye to my single reader in Kazakhstan.

The Pitfalls of Writing a Long, Long Series

      I love to write series.  My Sinners Sports Romances has now come to a conclusion after fifteen books spanning two generations on the lives and loves of a football dynasty. Sales for this series simply disappeared two years ago for no reason I could discover whether it was the TikTok scam to get free books or as one editor told me, my books were too old fashioned. Young people today want highly emotional one person narrators who spend most of the books trying to solve one problem rather than third person narratives that are often funny, i.e. my books.  Strange, when I first began writing I was told readers no longer wanted first person narratives, funny or not. The book I had offered at the time was Mardi Gras Madness. Eventually, it sold along with Courir de Mardi Gras with three POVS and Queen of the Mardi Gras Ball having one. They remain among my bestsellers and are easy to vend at authors' events but I haven't written anymore. Trends come and trends go, and one of those trends might kill a long running series.

      I wrote four books featuring bull riders that petered out after four books.  I had planned two more. They are still in the back of my mind, and some of the characters have done cameos in other books so they do live on.  Currently, I am working on a ten book series, The Longleigh Chronicles, Regency set historicals that are only now catching on as I finish up book nine. I found that as I worked on this ninth book, I'd forgotten some details as I went along. Fortunately, all of my books are stored on my desk top computer (and a data stick and a Toshiba external drive). I can go back into those files and verify some character's eye color or the name of a servant, etc. that I'd long forgotten. I also keep a list of characters in a paper file with their characteristics written down just in case of computer failure.  As the series expands, I need to keep track of the children born, age, and appearance. It takes a good memory and many backups to write a long series.

    Then there are the things I never considered important.  In Queen of the Mardi Gras Ball which takes place in the 1920s, the heroine buys several Picasso paintings that her bully of a husband hates. She loses everything to get a divorce and starts life over in another town. I forgot all about those Picassos until a reader asked me what happened to them. Gee, I don't know.  Her ex might have slashed them or given them to the maid to sell.  Perhaps they are still in the attic of the house on Prytania Street where Roz once lived.  Interesting question. Maybe they will turn up in another unrelated book some day.

     Once I finish the Longleigh Chronicles, I don't know what I will do.  Perhaps some single titles.  Maybe bring the Longleigh offspring into the Victorian era. I have no idea right now with the tenth book still to write. I am sure something will come to me as I cannot fathom giving up writing, successful or not.