I didn't really have much to report today and I've not done a This and That posting in a few weeks. I'd almost given up hope of seeing sales again but I checked not too long ago and surprise - I sold a copy of "Train of Clues" on amazon -
Was going to run a small contest concerning my bookworms but I've been sick and so haven't accomplished as much as I wanted to, therefore, the contest will be run next week once I've had a chance to play catch up with work and a few other things. Contacting the librarians this week to remind them of the contest an see if they have had any students submit some ideas.
May have some news about the JGDS series but won't get my hopes up nor yours right now. When it happens, it happens and the whole world will know about it. See you in the postings - E :)
Showing posts with label book sales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book sales. Show all posts
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Sunday, December 30, 2012
This and That
Last update for 2012 - hard to believe that 2013 is literally right around the corner. It will take me a few weeks to get used to typing 2013 or writing it but by time I start attending events, I should be able to handle it - lol.
Sales have been slow all year but I can't complain because I have had some sales. I would have loved to have seen twice or three times my actual sales, but there is always next year. Hopefully with new stories coming out, my sales will increase. I wish I knew someone who could do covers fairly inexpensively for both print and ebooks since I'm working on making Kelly and Emma into a series.
What I've decided to do is open the series to 4th through 8th graders who would like to see a new story featuring Kelly and Emma, keeping in the tradition of Nancy Drew or any other type of mystery on those lines. I created a flyer and sent to about 30 or more elementary and middle schools asking for students who would like to have their story idea published to submit a 1-page synopsis of a story with a title that they would like to see turned into a novel. If their idea is chosen, they will receivea signed copy of Finally Home plus a signed copy of their story when it is published. In addition, their school will receive a signed copy of Finally Home plus the student's story when it is published. It is possible that I could give away over 60 copies of Finally Home. Mr. Hughes said it best that this sounds like good publicity for me. I hope most of the schools participate. I decided the other day, while chatting with Mr. Hughes, that I would probably pick one story from each school that participates.
This writing event is open to homeschoolers as well, so if you know any students who are in the age range and would like to participate, please pass this information on so that they have an opportunity to participate. The writing contest ends January 31, 2013, so there is plenty of time to submit ideas. If you would like your student's school to participate, please send me the school librarian's contact information so I can email the information to her and she can pass it on to all the schools.
The red, white and blue afghan drawing was great. I didn't really count how many entries I had but it had to be well over 300 (considering two sales in November ended up with 35 and 40 entries). I will keep the cost of the tickets down to 2/$1 and with every book purchase 5 tickets given. The winner of the afghan was local and she was so surprised and very appreciative of winning. I know with the cold weather that the afghan has probably been used a good bit this month.
I think I have a premade cover for "Butterfly Halves" so hope to be able to get the cover next week and publish it as an ebook. I will be on the lookout for a premade (inexpensive) cover for "La Cave" and "Zombies Amuck" throughout the year plus covers for new stories in the Kelly Watson series. The state books are on hold for now since I can't pay Heather for the covers, illustrations and book designs. I'd love to get back to them but until my sales are up to 500 print runs of each title, it's hard to pay her. I've not forgotten her but she has probably written me off and I may need to look for a new illustrator for the state stories. I'd love to pick up a sponsor for those books so that all I would have to do is write the stories and then shoot them over to Heather to do her illustrations and the covers and get everything ready to go (by having a sponsor, I would be able to pay her immediately and not have to worry about it). I'll keep working on this aspect of the state stories and hope something good turns up this year.
On the sales front, I averaged 28 books sold per quarter, selling a total of 112 books which covered both ebooks available and print books available. Compared to 2011, I almost doubled sales. If I can double sales in 2013, that will be a step in the right direction. My best month was November when I sold 18 books total (3 of Finally Home and 2 of each of the state titles save 4 of Successes plus 1 copy of "Train of Clues"). I will need to order some more of "Train of Clues" and Finally Home to start building my stock again as I am running low on both of those. I'll have to do an inventory so that I can start getting my state stories up in stock as well but I'm pretty good as far as what I do have available right now.
I did sell one of the Carolina (USC) colored scarves; two of the Clemson (University) colored scarves and no other scarves or afghans this year. I ended up giving three of the afghans away to my kids for Christmas, so I still have 5 afghans available. I need to restock yarn for the bookworms and get those done before March so that I have a ton of bookworms going into the event season.
March is the SCASL conference and then I have to decide where to go from there. So here's to a good year and hopefully a spike in sales - See you all in the postings and hope you have a safe and blessed New Year celebration - Mrs. E :)
Sales have been slow all year but I can't complain because I have had some sales. I would have loved to have seen twice or three times my actual sales, but there is always next year. Hopefully with new stories coming out, my sales will increase. I wish I knew someone who could do covers fairly inexpensively for both print and ebooks since I'm working on making Kelly and Emma into a series.
What I've decided to do is open the series to 4th through 8th graders who would like to see a new story featuring Kelly and Emma, keeping in the tradition of Nancy Drew or any other type of mystery on those lines. I created a flyer and sent to about 30 or more elementary and middle schools asking for students who would like to have their story idea published to submit a 1-page synopsis of a story with a title that they would like to see turned into a novel. If their idea is chosen, they will receivea signed copy of Finally Home plus a signed copy of their story when it is published. In addition, their school will receive a signed copy of Finally Home plus the student's story when it is published. It is possible that I could give away over 60 copies of Finally Home. Mr. Hughes said it best that this sounds like good publicity for me. I hope most of the schools participate. I decided the other day, while chatting with Mr. Hughes, that I would probably pick one story from each school that participates.
This writing event is open to homeschoolers as well, so if you know any students who are in the age range and would like to participate, please pass this information on so that they have an opportunity to participate. The writing contest ends January 31, 2013, so there is plenty of time to submit ideas. If you would like your student's school to participate, please send me the school librarian's contact information so I can email the information to her and she can pass it on to all the schools.
The red, white and blue afghan drawing was great. I didn't really count how many entries I had but it had to be well over 300 (considering two sales in November ended up with 35 and 40 entries). I will keep the cost of the tickets down to 2/$1 and with every book purchase 5 tickets given. The winner of the afghan was local and she was so surprised and very appreciative of winning. I know with the cold weather that the afghan has probably been used a good bit this month.
I think I have a premade cover for "Butterfly Halves" so hope to be able to get the cover next week and publish it as an ebook. I will be on the lookout for a premade (inexpensive) cover for "La Cave" and "Zombies Amuck" throughout the year plus covers for new stories in the Kelly Watson series. The state books are on hold for now since I can't pay Heather for the covers, illustrations and book designs. I'd love to get back to them but until my sales are up to 500 print runs of each title, it's hard to pay her. I've not forgotten her but she has probably written me off and I may need to look for a new illustrator for the state stories. I'd love to pick up a sponsor for those books so that all I would have to do is write the stories and then shoot them over to Heather to do her illustrations and the covers and get everything ready to go (by having a sponsor, I would be able to pay her immediately and not have to worry about it). I'll keep working on this aspect of the state stories and hope something good turns up this year.
On the sales front, I averaged 28 books sold per quarter, selling a total of 112 books which covered both ebooks available and print books available. Compared to 2011, I almost doubled sales. If I can double sales in 2013, that will be a step in the right direction. My best month was November when I sold 18 books total (3 of Finally Home and 2 of each of the state titles save 4 of Successes plus 1 copy of "Train of Clues"). I will need to order some more of "Train of Clues" and Finally Home to start building my stock again as I am running low on both of those. I'll have to do an inventory so that I can start getting my state stories up in stock as well but I'm pretty good as far as what I do have available right now.
I did sell one of the Carolina (USC) colored scarves; two of the Clemson (University) colored scarves and no other scarves or afghans this year. I ended up giving three of the afghans away to my kids for Christmas, so I still have 5 afghans available. I need to restock yarn for the bookworms and get those done before March so that I have a ton of bookworms going into the event season.
March is the SCASL conference and then I have to decide where to go from there. So here's to a good year and hopefully a spike in sales - See you all in the postings and hope you have a safe and blessed New Year celebration - Mrs. E :)
Sunday, December 16, 2012
This and That
First, no takers on my deal from last week's postings so basically no sales anywhere - no ebooks have sold since September.
I was reading one of the posts on the Novel Spaces blog the other day and exploring the ebook cover designs and may have found one for "Butterfly Halves" and possibly one for a story that has never been published, "La Cave". I've contacted the first site about the butterfly cover and may be able to get the cover after the holidays, hopefully.
The one for "La Cave" is kind of up in the air right now because I like three covers on the same site that I feel will fit the book pretty much. So I have to think about it.
This Friday, I'll be the guest on Karen Rigley's blog celebrating the Mystery Most Cozy's tenth anniversary. I'm giving away a signed copy of Finally Home for this celebration. In order to be eligible for the drawing, you have to join the MMC facebook page and when Jenny posts the contest announcement, you have to click on join and your name will automatically go in the drawing. So, if you like mysteries, and specifically cozies, stop over on the MysteryMostCozy facebook page and join it to be eligible for any of the drawings going on through January. Help us celebrate ten years.
My last bit of news or an idea I had while sitting here working last night is that I've decided to hold a mini-contest for students. Since everyone who has read Finally Home says I need to make it a series with my characters, Kelly and Emma, I'm going to open the doors to students - write a synopsis of a mystery you would like to see written and receive a copy of Finally Home and once that story is published, a copy of the new story. The contest is open to fourth graders and up (I think that covers the age group of 10 and up) and I will probably pick at least 10 stories. The mystery has to occur in a small town since that is where Kelly and Emma live and has to be something that 13-year-olds can get around town easily to solve. Think on the lines of "Encyclopedia Brown", "Nancy Drew" (minus the ability to drive around to other towns) and "The Boxcar Children."
The mysteries can be anything, remembering that Kelly has a bit of a psychic power (she can touch things and travel back to see things that have happened that lead her to clues to solve the mystery, which is a new trait I just thought of since I hadn't planned on writing a series). Emma is the noseybody neighbor who helps Kelly; she's the mayor's daughter and has ways of getting around without breaking the law - like keys to houses that would be owned by the city or are in limbo (delapitated type houses set for being torn down); she's the first person who greeted Kelly and her family when they moved to the small town where the story is set.
With the holidays coming up and everyone going on winter break soon, I will run this contest through the end of January. I'm going to do a flyer to send out to elementary and middle schools in the area and a few others that I know would probably participate. If any of my readers know of any children who would like to participate by submitting a synopsis of a storyline, please pass the word on. Submissions can be made directly to me via email as an attachment (eeldering@gmail.com) or mailed to me (please email me for mailing address). Looking forward to reading the ideas and getting some new stories out there.
See you all in the postings - E :)
I was reading one of the posts on the Novel Spaces blog the other day and exploring the ebook cover designs and may have found one for "Butterfly Halves" and possibly one for a story that has never been published, "La Cave". I've contacted the first site about the butterfly cover and may be able to get the cover after the holidays, hopefully.
The one for "La Cave" is kind of up in the air right now because I like three covers on the same site that I feel will fit the book pretty much. So I have to think about it.
This Friday, I'll be the guest on Karen Rigley's blog celebrating the Mystery Most Cozy's tenth anniversary. I'm giving away a signed copy of Finally Home for this celebration. In order to be eligible for the drawing, you have to join the MMC facebook page and when Jenny posts the contest announcement, you have to click on join and your name will automatically go in the drawing. So, if you like mysteries, and specifically cozies, stop over on the MysteryMostCozy facebook page and join it to be eligible for any of the drawings going on through January. Help us celebrate ten years.
My last bit of news or an idea I had while sitting here working last night is that I've decided to hold a mini-contest for students. Since everyone who has read Finally Home says I need to make it a series with my characters, Kelly and Emma, I'm going to open the doors to students - write a synopsis of a mystery you would like to see written and receive a copy of Finally Home and once that story is published, a copy of the new story. The contest is open to fourth graders and up (I think that covers the age group of 10 and up) and I will probably pick at least 10 stories. The mystery has to occur in a small town since that is where Kelly and Emma live and has to be something that 13-year-olds can get around town easily to solve. Think on the lines of "Encyclopedia Brown", "Nancy Drew" (minus the ability to drive around to other towns) and "The Boxcar Children."
The mysteries can be anything, remembering that Kelly has a bit of a psychic power (she can touch things and travel back to see things that have happened that lead her to clues to solve the mystery, which is a new trait I just thought of since I hadn't planned on writing a series). Emma is the noseybody neighbor who helps Kelly; she's the mayor's daughter and has ways of getting around without breaking the law - like keys to houses that would be owned by the city or are in limbo (delapitated type houses set for being torn down); she's the first person who greeted Kelly and her family when they moved to the small town where the story is set.
With the holidays coming up and everyone going on winter break soon, I will run this contest through the end of January. I'm going to do a flyer to send out to elementary and middle schools in the area and a few others that I know would probably participate. If any of my readers know of any children who would like to participate by submitting a synopsis of a storyline, please pass the word on. Submissions can be made directly to me via email as an attachment (eeldering@gmail.com) or mailed to me (please email me for mailing address). Looking forward to reading the ideas and getting some new stories out there.
See you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, December 09, 2012
This and That
I totally forgot to post my this and that posting last Sunday but it's not like there was anything to report, so you all didn't miss much. I also was at our local Sisters in Crime holiday party so worked some and really didn't think about posting anything.
This week is a little different. I have things to report.
First, book sales - there have been no ebooks sold this week or this month or the past several months. I'm still running my special over on smashwords for Finally Home with coupon code NL88Q for half off - $1.50 a download. I've had some wonderful praises from readers for this book and it would make a great gift for that young reader who likes mysteries or who likes Nancy Drew mysteries specifically. I'm also considering making this a series but am looking for some ideas on writing more mysteries using Kelly and Emma as my continuing characters. So, for the rest of this year, if you leave a comment on any posting of an idea for Kelly and Emma and I use your idea for another story, you will receive a free Nook or Kindle download of Finally Home; or if you have already read Finally Home, then when a new story is published, you will receive a copy of that story.
Actual physical book sales were not bad this week as I sold seven (7) books to the Belton Museum. The director bought four copies of State of Successes and three (3) copies of Finally Home for the museum. So just from a phone call and a referral from a customer from the Sugarfoot Festival in October, I made a quick sale. Not that I have any of the money left since I went to Walmart and spent it on a few things I needed plus a few things I didn't really need but wanted - I bought some more yarn to make myself an afghan since I picked up a color I really like -it's called Real Teal and I'm pairing it with Aran, which is an offwhite/cream/ecru color. The difference between the solid colors and varigated colors is the skein sizes (7 ounces for solid colors versus 5 ounces for the varigated colors) and how much more I'm getting from one skein. I've finished the first skein of Real Teal (I bought 3 of this color and 2 of the Aran) and used a one-size bigger hook and actually got 20 rows from the skein as opposed to only 12 rows from the varigated using 6 skeins per afghan (30 ounces); so if this holds true for the other skeins, then I will end up with an afghan that is 100 rows deep, which makes it much bigger.
I will continue working with the varigated colors for events but for me personally, I like the solid alternating colors.
I posted Friday evening a special 1-week only deal on bookworms and books. This deal will end at midnight next Saturday night. Place orders via email (eeldering@gmail.com) before then in order to guarantee delivery by Christmas.
This week, on the 12th, I have a posting about 12/12/12 going up on the Writers on the Move blog, so stop on over and leave a comment.
I think this is all I have to report. Don't forget to comment on any posting between now and the end of the year with any ideas you may have for new stories with Kelly and Emma. See you all in the postings - E :)
This week is a little different. I have things to report.
First, book sales - there have been no ebooks sold this week or this month or the past several months. I'm still running my special over on smashwords for Finally Home with coupon code NL88Q for half off - $1.50 a download. I've had some wonderful praises from readers for this book and it would make a great gift for that young reader who likes mysteries or who likes Nancy Drew mysteries specifically. I'm also considering making this a series but am looking for some ideas on writing more mysteries using Kelly and Emma as my continuing characters. So, for the rest of this year, if you leave a comment on any posting of an idea for Kelly and Emma and I use your idea for another story, you will receive a free Nook or Kindle download of Finally Home; or if you have already read Finally Home, then when a new story is published, you will receive a copy of that story.
Actual physical book sales were not bad this week as I sold seven (7) books to the Belton Museum. The director bought four copies of State of Successes and three (3) copies of Finally Home for the museum. So just from a phone call and a referral from a customer from the Sugarfoot Festival in October, I made a quick sale. Not that I have any of the money left since I went to Walmart and spent it on a few things I needed plus a few things I didn't really need but wanted - I bought some more yarn to make myself an afghan since I picked up a color I really like -it's called Real Teal and I'm pairing it with Aran, which is an offwhite/cream/ecru color. The difference between the solid colors and varigated colors is the skein sizes (7 ounces for solid colors versus 5 ounces for the varigated colors) and how much more I'm getting from one skein. I've finished the first skein of Real Teal (I bought 3 of this color and 2 of the Aran) and used a one-size bigger hook and actually got 20 rows from the skein as opposed to only 12 rows from the varigated using 6 skeins per afghan (30 ounces); so if this holds true for the other skeins, then I will end up with an afghan that is 100 rows deep, which makes it much bigger.
I will continue working with the varigated colors for events but for me personally, I like the solid alternating colors.
I posted Friday evening a special 1-week only deal on bookworms and books. This deal will end at midnight next Saturday night. Place orders via email (eeldering@gmail.com) before then in order to guarantee delivery by Christmas.
This week, on the 12th, I have a posting about 12/12/12 going up on the Writers on the Move blog, so stop on over and leave a comment.
I think this is all I have to report. Don't forget to comment on any posting between now and the end of the year with any ideas you may have for new stories with Kelly and Emma. See you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, November 18, 2012
This and That
Let's start this week's post by saying NaNo is a bust of sorts in that I've not had a chance to write. But it's all good, I've written over 4000 words this month. I'll get back to the writing soon.
Ebook sales are nonexistent at this point but it's all good. I'll probably run a special deal on several of my books on smashwords and see if that will boost sales. Of course, if I would publish a few more books, that might help too.
This past weekend I participated in the Holiday Bazaar at the Cascades Verdae (a retirement community) in Greenville. This was Friday and Saturday, so should have done better the second day. That wasn't the case, not that I'm complaining or anythng. I did very well the first day - sold 17 books and 8 bookworms on Friday. On Saturday I sold 1 book and 6 or 8 or 10 (I lost count as there were no shoppers to speak of on Saturday). I had also put some The Girl's duct tape wallets out for her even though she was working and sold four of them for her. I sold the woven one and three small ones. She was very happy with that. I didn't sell any afghans or scarves that I had made up but did purchase some Carolina Gamecocks colored yarn to make up a couple of scarves that way (only got one part way completed not that it mattered as no one was buying anything Saturday) as well as some Clemson colors. As soon as I have those made up - I will post them and put them up for sale. I would have loved to have sold some afghans, and the weather is cold enough, but with old people in a retirement community they already have enough of this type of item or most of the ladies crochet or knit, so selling there wouldn't be a good thing.
I covered my costs and was able to get ink for my printer and a few other items. So overall, I am pleased with the weekend. There may be one more local event for me in Greenville but I'll have to check them out and see if I can still get a spot. I'll keep you all posted and for now signing off so I can get some work done - E :)
Ebook sales are nonexistent at this point but it's all good. I'll probably run a special deal on several of my books on smashwords and see if that will boost sales. Of course, if I would publish a few more books, that might help too.
This past weekend I participated in the Holiday Bazaar at the Cascades Verdae (a retirement community) in Greenville. This was Friday and Saturday, so should have done better the second day. That wasn't the case, not that I'm complaining or anythng. I did very well the first day - sold 17 books and 8 bookworms on Friday. On Saturday I sold 1 book and 6 or 8 or 10 (I lost count as there were no shoppers to speak of on Saturday). I had also put some The Girl's duct tape wallets out for her even though she was working and sold four of them for her. I sold the woven one and three small ones. She was very happy with that. I didn't sell any afghans or scarves that I had made up but did purchase some Carolina Gamecocks colored yarn to make up a couple of scarves that way (only got one part way completed not that it mattered as no one was buying anything Saturday) as well as some Clemson colors. As soon as I have those made up - I will post them and put them up for sale. I would have loved to have sold some afghans, and the weather is cold enough, but with old people in a retirement community they already have enough of this type of item or most of the ladies crochet or knit, so selling there wouldn't be a good thing.
I covered my costs and was able to get ink for my printer and a few other items. So overall, I am pleased with the weekend. There may be one more local event for me in Greenville but I'll have to check them out and see if I can still get a spot. I'll keep you all posted and for now signing off so I can get some work done - E :)
Monday, November 05, 2012
This and That
I was without my internet yesterday so didn't get to post. Nothing new to report. Afghan raffle drawing chances are still on sale 2/$1 and will be until next week - the 15th. I do have a local event on the 16th and 17th - so will report more about that next week.
Writing is going rather slowly - I've written one day and not the others and today is already the 5th, but work first and then I can think of writing - I hope to get on track with this story although I really don't feel it will come together like I envisioned it.
See you all in the postings - E :)
Writing is going rather slowly - I've written one day and not the others and today is already the 5th, but work first and then I can think of writing - I hope to get on track with this story although I really don't feel it will come together like I envisioned it.
See you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, October 21, 2012
This and That
The online sales this week have been nil again.
The Sugarfoot festival this weekend wasn't too bad but I don't think the crowds were nearly what they were a couple of years ago. I did sell 3 books and about a dozen bookworms, no afghans though which I really needed to sell some of them to pay the car payment or get groceries but it will all work out.
I sold 3 (really 6 since I had a 2/$1 special going on) chances for the red, white, and blue afghan and gave 15 chances for the book purchases. This year's drawing will be a good one since I have quite a few chances in the bucket, compared to last year only having 20 but I didn't start the drawing idea until May and didn't do the drawing the same way. Last year I didn't have rolls of tickets for the drawing but used the sales receipts so only those who actually made a purchase got their name in the drawing and only one time regardless of how many books on their purchase. This year the chances are greater since you get several with the purchase of a book and you can buy chances without buying a book.
The people next to me are starting their own "festival company" where they book festivals and invite vendors in to come display their wares and I've been invited to two fairly local ones in November and it may be a good thing as I didn't have anything scheduled in November this year secondary to finances. I can't make the first event since it is a couple of weeks away (although I would love to go to that but I don't get paid until after the event so can't even pay for the booth rental right now). The next one is the middle of November, the week before Thanksgiving, which I will probably do as that will be the Christmas shopping season. I hadn't planned doing any events in November secondary to finances as well as wanting to write Imogene's story during NaNo, but if I can get to the point of being back on track from book sales, et cetera. It will all work out as it is supposed to and if Imogene is meant to be completed next month, she will be.
One of the ladies who bought a State of Successes book works in the museum in the next town over and asked me to contact the person in charge of the gift shop there to put my books there on consignment, which I will do this coming week.
And then I had the 11-year-old who bought a copy of State of Wilderness and Finally Home who wanted to talk my ear off at the end of the day after having been there for over 12 hours. She was sweet and had the heaviest southern accent I've heard on a child but then again she lives in the area and this is a very redneck/hick/southern town/area. I hope I don't sound that southern when I'm talking to folks since I'm not a true southerner, having been born in Japan and lived in quite a few places, although admittedly I have been in the South Carolina/North Carolina area the last 36 years probably makes more more southern than not. She told me jokes, about "kidnapping" her grandmother and taking her to Cracker Barrel for her birthday, about the place in Anderson where her cousin apparently fell in the hay like she was supposed to and hit her head on something and ended up with a mild concussion. She is an avid reader, more than I can claim to read because she read over 17,000 pages during the summer (I think that is the number her mother said or maybe it was more than 1700 pages) so I gave her a bookworm for that accomplishment. After all the jokes and what not, I pulled out a composition book that I had won as a door prize from an event I attended back in March and gave it to her to start writing all her stories down so that when I see her next year at the Sugarfoot festival she can share some of her stories with me. I really think she needs to write down all her little ditties as she has some pretty good stories to tell.
Her mother also encouraged me to try to be at the Standpipe festival which is in Belton, the next town over, which the lady from the museum had also asked if I participated in the festival, because they do a thing called heritage days and that will help get me in the schools since they have local schools doing field trips and what not. I have to double check and see when it is next year since I'm committed to Georgia COMO next year again and I can't have any conflicts - lol.
Lastly, a man came up to the table right near the very end and does some work with one of the children's home in the area and was telling me about the event in December and so I'm looking at a possible book signing or author event there the first weekend of December.
We had a good crowd late in the afternoon but most folks weren't even stopping at the tables - mostly just walking by and not talking. I had printed off some Halloween coloring books for the COMO event to pass on to the librarians but no one wanted them (I think I gave out 2) so had those to pass out and I tried to give them to the smaller kids are into coloring and what not - so I did give all of them away.
You all will probably see me at a few more local events next year with my travel being limited by finances right now, but if the distributors start carrying my books, then I could be at more events - see you all in the postings - E :)
The Sugarfoot festival this weekend wasn't too bad but I don't think the crowds were nearly what they were a couple of years ago. I did sell 3 books and about a dozen bookworms, no afghans though which I really needed to sell some of them to pay the car payment or get groceries but it will all work out.
The people next to me are starting their own "festival company" where they book festivals and invite vendors in to come display their wares and I've been invited to two fairly local ones in November and it may be a good thing as I didn't have anything scheduled in November this year secondary to finances. I can't make the first event since it is a couple of weeks away (although I would love to go to that but I don't get paid until after the event so can't even pay for the booth rental right now). The next one is the middle of November, the week before Thanksgiving, which I will probably do as that will be the Christmas shopping season. I hadn't planned doing any events in November secondary to finances as well as wanting to write Imogene's story during NaNo, but if I can get to the point of being back on track from book sales, et cetera. It will all work out as it is supposed to and if Imogene is meant to be completed next month, she will be.
One of the ladies who bought a State of Successes book works in the museum in the next town over and asked me to contact the person in charge of the gift shop there to put my books there on consignment, which I will do this coming week.
And then I had the 11-year-old who bought a copy of State of Wilderness and Finally Home who wanted to talk my ear off at the end of the day after having been there for over 12 hours. She was sweet and had the heaviest southern accent I've heard on a child but then again she lives in the area and this is a very redneck/hick/southern town/area. I hope I don't sound that southern when I'm talking to folks since I'm not a true southerner, having been born in Japan and lived in quite a few places, although admittedly I have been in the South Carolina/North Carolina area the last 36 years probably makes more more southern than not. She told me jokes, about "kidnapping" her grandmother and taking her to Cracker Barrel for her birthday, about the place in Anderson where her cousin apparently fell in the hay like she was supposed to and hit her head on something and ended up with a mild concussion. She is an avid reader, more than I can claim to read because she read over 17,000 pages during the summer (I think that is the number her mother said or maybe it was more than 1700 pages) so I gave her a bookworm for that accomplishment. After all the jokes and what not, I pulled out a composition book that I had won as a door prize from an event I attended back in March and gave it to her to start writing all her stories down so that when I see her next year at the Sugarfoot festival she can share some of her stories with me. I really think she needs to write down all her little ditties as she has some pretty good stories to tell.
Her mother also encouraged me to try to be at the Standpipe festival which is in Belton, the next town over, which the lady from the museum had also asked if I participated in the festival, because they do a thing called heritage days and that will help get me in the schools since they have local schools doing field trips and what not. I have to double check and see when it is next year since I'm committed to Georgia COMO next year again and I can't have any conflicts - lol.
Lastly, a man came up to the table right near the very end and does some work with one of the children's home in the area and was telling me about the event in December and so I'm looking at a possible book signing or author event there the first weekend of December.
We had a good crowd late in the afternoon but most folks weren't even stopping at the tables - mostly just walking by and not talking. I had printed off some Halloween coloring books for the COMO event to pass on to the librarians but no one wanted them (I think I gave out 2) so had those to pass out and I tried to give them to the smaller kids are into coloring and what not - so I did give all of them away.
You all will probably see me at a few more local events next year with my travel being limited by finances right now, but if the distributors start carrying my books, then I could be at more events - see you all in the postings - E :)
Monday, October 15, 2012
This and That
So sales this week have been nil across the board but it's all good. I'm still hoping the book distributors will pick up my books and start getting them into schools and that I'll be able to hopefully get back to the state stories next year (fingers crossed; without the distributors, I won't be able to pay my illustrator to get back on track, although I guess technically I could write the next four states as I have already picked the clues so we could title them already).
The Sugarfoot Festival is this weekend, which is a local street fair of sorts where there will be lots of entertainment and crafts and food. I hope to sell at least half or more of the afghans and several books to boot, knowing the bookworms will sell as they have been my most popular items since I started doing them last year at the Sugarfoot Festival. The colors have grown so selling out of them would be nice, but the afghans would be icing on the cake.
I'm running a special deal on my red, white and blue afghan chances - 2 for $1.00 - so you can double your chances of being the winner of this beautiful afghan. Thsi deal will run through November 15 and the drawing will be December 1. Tell everyone you know. Remember you can email me for more instructions on how to purchase chances for this drawing. See you all in the postings. - E :)
The Sugarfoot Festival is this weekend, which is a local street fair of sorts where there will be lots of entertainment and crafts and food. I hope to sell at least half or more of the afghans and several books to boot, knowing the bookworms will sell as they have been my most popular items since I started doing them last year at the Sugarfoot Festival. The colors have grown so selling out of them would be nice, but the afghans would be icing on the cake.
Sunday, October 07, 2012
This and That
Sales were low for ebooks again - no sales across the board, but I did sell two books at the GA COMO event and as posted previously made contact with four distributors who will hopefully get my books in schools. I've received a response from createspace regarding how they can acquire my books and am ready to send the information on. The next month or so maybe I'll see a huge influx in my sales.
I did sell 19 bookworms to one of the reps from Rainbow Books (the bikini colored ones which look like the rainbow colors) and then sold 16 or 17 others with two people buying a chance on the red, white and blue afghan.
My presentation went okay; I had 2 ladies show up and found out that possibly my books are being talked about in one of the schools in Cobb County Georgia, which needs further investigation tomorrow.
I am still in need of young writers writing questions for my Wednesday weekly postings, so teachers send in your students' questions and I'll do my best to answer them. If you are a class or writing club participating in NaNo and would like an author visit, please drop me a line and let me know so I can schedule all the class visits.
If you are into zombies or just want some fun stuff for the month of October, stop over on Susanne Drazic's blog and sign up for her email notifications so you know when a new posting is made and leave a comment on her postings to be entered for some zombie related prizes. You never know when the zombies will show up. I wish I had a cover for "Zombies Amuck" and had it up for sale to participate in Susanne's zombie extravaganza but at this point I don't so maybe next year; and by then, she may do ghosts or werewolves or vampires or some other Halloween-y theme. We just have to wait and see. Time to get to work as I have been away from the work since Wednesday morning - see you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, September 23, 2012
This and That
Another week gone, no more sales, one more afghan to finish.
No writing accomplished this week either. I really need to get back to writing. I just have no mojo left right now.
Let's talk about weird dreams. If you know personally, you know I don't sleep well and most nights/mornings will only sleep about 3 or 4 hours - depending on the kind of day I've had, what's stressing me. I'm never rested but sometimes I do dream. Last night I had two kind of off the wall dreams that are a bit bothersome to me. One was about my mother with whom I have very little communication and the other was about me teaching a class of students ranging in age from 6 on up to almost high school who were learning English. I am by no means an English teacher and don't think I have ever been a teacher in any lifetime. I'm wondering if that could be a round about way to get me back to Imogene since most of the students were Asian (kind of like the movie Good Morning, Vietnam ith Robin Williams) and a few Spanish speaking but they were very few. It would make sense that these girls abducted in China would have to go to school to learn to speak and write the local language to fit in, so maybe this was a lead-in to something having to do with my novel. Maybe I'll explore it and see where it leads me.
Gearing up for the Georgia COMO event, which is October 3-5. Waiting to hear back on when I need to be there and what all I need to do. I've also had a recurrent dream about this event being a big break and foot in the door type of thing. One can only hope as you never know what will transpire from event to event, but I've not done an event since the middle/end of August so I'm ready to get out there again and really work on book sales. Don't forget that the afghan drawing chances are still available through Thanksgiving with the drawing to be held on December 1 and the winner receiving the afghan sometime during the week of the 7th of December (not looking at my calendar so can't tell you exactly when it will be shipped out). All chances are only $1 each with 5 extra chances for every 25 you purchase. See you all in the postings - E :)
Gearing up for the Georgia COMO event, which is October 3-5. Waiting to hear back on when I need to be there and what all I need to do. I've also had a recurrent dream about this event being a big break and foot in the door type of thing. One can only hope as you never know what will transpire from event to event, but I've not done an event since the middle/end of August so I'm ready to get out there again and really work on book sales. Don't forget that the afghan drawing chances are still available through Thanksgiving with the drawing to be held on December 1 and the winner receiving the afghan sometime during the week of the 7th of December (not looking at my calendar so can't tell you exactly when it will be shipped out). All chances are only $1 each with 5 extra chances for every 25 you purchase. See you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, September 16, 2012
This and That
The week has flown by but I've not accomplished that much. As far as sales go, nothing to report, no sales across the board again.
This is the last month in the third quarter of the year and looking at my projected sales (had to set my goals high at 500 for overall sales with 10 or 11 books published at this point) I'm very disappointed. Not counting my free days with "Bride-and-Seek", "The Tulip Kiss", or "The Proposal" (except when the 50% coupon was offered in July on smashwords), my sales have been less than 100 so far. Next month is the Georgia COMO conference and I really hope to see a major spike in the sales of books since there are 12 states represented in the SELA group with an overall county total of 1025. I'd love it if every state, each county bought at least one copy of each title I have available. That would make my year and would allow me to get more state stories published (i.e., pay Heather so she can keep doing covers and illustrations for the books).
I have been kind of slack this year as far as attending conferences and being out there but with no sales, no royalties, no money to speak of, it's hard to do all the conferences I would like to do. Conferences get costly - booth rental, travel time, hotel, gas (and the price seems to be hovering around $3.50 something/gallon in this area with higher amounts in different places), food, et cetera. I feel like I could be doing more but have to just take what I can get when I get it. So hopefully the librarians will do their part and order tons of books in October.
As far as my writing goal, that fell flat. I've become disinterested in my story, even after printing it off and reading it to refresh my memory of what I'd written. I still think the story is a good idea but getting Sarah Beth (Imogene's mother) from Washington state to China (still haven't decided which city to set this story in - Bangkok, Shanghai, or Beijing) is mostly personal thoughts, very little interaction between other characters. The interactions come once she is in China but even those are few and far between. This is definitely unfamiliar territory for me to write since I'm used to moving a story along with dialogue. If any of my readers out there have any suggestions or sites that will help me write a "quest/adventure type" story, please share. If anyone would like to brainstorm some ideas on how to move the story along, email me and we can get together on chat and try brainstorming the story so I can get it written.
Last item of business - tablets. Last week I posted a video "A day made of Glass by Corning" showing how Corning is developing glass products (we all know Corning is known for their cookware) that can be used everywhere - in the office, at home, schools, zoos, field trips, bus stops, et cetera. Some of the items they showed reminded me of the tablets that are out there in that they have similar features - can enlarge pictures, move things around, do reports, but what will happen to the tablets and computers in the future? The glass products are basically supposed to replace computers and tablets in such a way that we are wouldn't need our ancient computers and tablets any more. I can't do without my computer unless they find a way to integrate the actual feel of typing on the glass products - lol. That said, I love to type and my job and writing require it, so not sure I can totally give up my computer right now. Maybe one day.
Why do I mention this? About a month ago, I got a tablet - an Acer Iconia Tab 10.1. I mostly got it to use at events for my square device so I could take credit cards. I've been asked numerous times at events if I took credit cards but had to lose a sale because I didn't. Last summer I found about square and set up an account and got the device (with the hopes that I would eventually upgrade my phone to a smartphone of some sort still with straighttalk). I've used the square device a couple of times but both times on someone else's phone (once at the SCSLA and once at the SC Book Festival). Since I won't be places where other people have the devices needed for me to use my device, I decided that a tablet would be my best bet. The problem with the tablet is that unless I have some sort of data plan, I can't use it unless there is free wifi available in the places I am doing events. When I did the Mint Hill Sunday in the Park event, no wifi, so my tablet was useless not that it mattered anyway since I only sold one book that day.
There are pros and cons to my tablet but overall I do like it. The pros are that I can actually use my square on it; the con - I need portable internet service to use it outside of my wifi area. Pro - I can read a book from my kindle account on it with much more ease than on the kindle; the con - it's heavier than my kindle and makes reading in bed difficult. Pro - checking my email and accessing my web browser are faster than on my computer; con - I haven't figured out how to copy and paste things from my emails to websites like plurk so have to open my email on the computer when I post the DK Daily Teach newsletter items. Pro - you can download tons of apps (a lot of them for free); con - you get addicted to the games you download (my favorites so far have been spades (although I don't like the way the computer plays because nothing like interacting with real people when playing card games) and bubble blast). I've been through all the levels of bubble blast Halloween and bubble blast Holiday, now I'm working on the plain bubble blast (I'm up to pack 7, which means I've already been through 600 puzzles on the regular; 400 on each of the Halloween and Holiday packs). I found myself playing bubble blast until after 5:30 this morning and I was upset with myself since that meant I was going to bed in the wee hours of the morning and of course, that means I am so late getting going in the day. I guess I need to set limits on myself and stick to them.
See you all in the postings - have a great weak - and I'm still looking for teachers who teach writing to students grades 3 through 12 who would like to have their writing questions answered - so please pass the word and if you know of any teachers who fit this category, please have them contact me via email so I can get my WWYWWQ column going. I'm totally out of questions and know school has been back in session for a couple of weeks to a month in some places, so surely you teachers out there have students asking general writing questions that an author can answer for you. Thanks - E :)
This is the last month in the third quarter of the year and looking at my projected sales (had to set my goals high at 500 for overall sales with 10 or 11 books published at this point) I'm very disappointed. Not counting my free days with "Bride-and-Seek", "The Tulip Kiss", or "The Proposal" (except when the 50% coupon was offered in July on smashwords), my sales have been less than 100 so far. Next month is the Georgia COMO conference and I really hope to see a major spike in the sales of books since there are 12 states represented in the SELA group with an overall county total of 1025. I'd love it if every state, each county bought at least one copy of each title I have available. That would make my year and would allow me to get more state stories published (i.e., pay Heather so she can keep doing covers and illustrations for the books).
I have been kind of slack this year as far as attending conferences and being out there but with no sales, no royalties, no money to speak of, it's hard to do all the conferences I would like to do. Conferences get costly - booth rental, travel time, hotel, gas (and the price seems to be hovering around $3.50 something/gallon in this area with higher amounts in different places), food, et cetera. I feel like I could be doing more but have to just take what I can get when I get it. So hopefully the librarians will do their part and order tons of books in October.
As far as my writing goal, that fell flat. I've become disinterested in my story, even after printing it off and reading it to refresh my memory of what I'd written. I still think the story is a good idea but getting Sarah Beth (Imogene's mother) from Washington state to China (still haven't decided which city to set this story in - Bangkok, Shanghai, or Beijing) is mostly personal thoughts, very little interaction between other characters. The interactions come once she is in China but even those are few and far between. This is definitely unfamiliar territory for me to write since I'm used to moving a story along with dialogue. If any of my readers out there have any suggestions or sites that will help me write a "quest/adventure type" story, please share. If anyone would like to brainstorm some ideas on how to move the story along, email me and we can get together on chat and try brainstorming the story so I can get it written.
Last item of business - tablets. Last week I posted a video "A day made of Glass by Corning" showing how Corning is developing glass products (we all know Corning is known for their cookware) that can be used everywhere - in the office, at home, schools, zoos, field trips, bus stops, et cetera. Some of the items they showed reminded me of the tablets that are out there in that they have similar features - can enlarge pictures, move things around, do reports, but what will happen to the tablets and computers in the future? The glass products are basically supposed to replace computers and tablets in such a way that we are wouldn't need our ancient computers and tablets any more. I can't do without my computer unless they find a way to integrate the actual feel of typing on the glass products - lol. That said, I love to type and my job and writing require it, so not sure I can totally give up my computer right now. Maybe one day.
Why do I mention this? About a month ago, I got a tablet - an Acer Iconia Tab 10.1. I mostly got it to use at events for my square device so I could take credit cards. I've been asked numerous times at events if I took credit cards but had to lose a sale because I didn't. Last summer I found about square and set up an account and got the device (with the hopes that I would eventually upgrade my phone to a smartphone of some sort still with straighttalk). I've used the square device a couple of times but both times on someone else's phone (once at the SCSLA and once at the SC Book Festival). Since I won't be places where other people have the devices needed for me to use my device, I decided that a tablet would be my best bet. The problem with the tablet is that unless I have some sort of data plan, I can't use it unless there is free wifi available in the places I am doing events. When I did the Mint Hill Sunday in the Park event, no wifi, so my tablet was useless not that it mattered anyway since I only sold one book that day.
There are pros and cons to my tablet but overall I do like it. The pros are that I can actually use my square on it; the con - I need portable internet service to use it outside of my wifi area. Pro - I can read a book from my kindle account on it with much more ease than on the kindle; the con - it's heavier than my kindle and makes reading in bed difficult. Pro - checking my email and accessing my web browser are faster than on my computer; con - I haven't figured out how to copy and paste things from my emails to websites like plurk so have to open my email on the computer when I post the DK Daily Teach newsletter items. Pro - you can download tons of apps (a lot of them for free); con - you get addicted to the games you download (my favorites so far have been spades (although I don't like the way the computer plays because nothing like interacting with real people when playing card games) and bubble blast). I've been through all the levels of bubble blast Halloween and bubble blast Holiday, now I'm working on the plain bubble blast (I'm up to pack 7, which means I've already been through 600 puzzles on the regular; 400 on each of the Halloween and Holiday packs). I found myself playing bubble blast until after 5:30 this morning and I was upset with myself since that meant I was going to bed in the wee hours of the morning and of course, that means I am so late getting going in the day. I guess I need to set limits on myself and stick to them.
See you all in the postings - have a great weak - and I'm still looking for teachers who teach writing to students grades 3 through 12 who would like to have their writing questions answered - so please pass the word and if you know of any teachers who fit this category, please have them contact me via email so I can get my WWYWWQ column going. I'm totally out of questions and know school has been back in session for a couple of weeks to a month in some places, so surely you teachers out there have students asking general writing questions that an author can answer for you. Thanks - E :)
Sunday, September 09, 2012
This and That
23 years - that's how long ago I said "I do". Grant it, the last 8 or so years haven't really been like we've been together; just living under the same roof and have hardly said anything to each other, but it's okay. He did leave me a text message this morning saying "happy anniversary" so at least he hasn't forgotten.
On the sales note, nothing happened this week. I'm trying to get Heather to fix "Train of Clues" for the final time (I've been trying for months now to get it fixed and finalized but to no avail), so hopefully I can get it back on the market before the October events, and maybe even put it up as an ebook. I hope she isn't ignoring me because I really would like to get that project out of the way. I have 3 more ebooks I want to publish but need covers for them. Biggest thing is I can't afford to pay someone to do my covers or my illustrations right now. Until I see mega sales from the state series, and I mean like 1000 print-run per state, then I probably won't ever ba able to pay someone for doing the artwork. I hope that I see a big jump in sales at the Georgia COMO event the first week of October. With SELA being there and with me in their booth all day Thursday and most of Friday, I should see some orders coming in (that is 12 states represented in the association - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia). Me personally, I wouldn't consider Virginia and West Virginia as "southeastern states" but I'll be happy to have each state pick up the states already completed for their collection. If each county in each state would get one copy of the five titles available for their main branch, that would be 1025 copies per title to equal 5125 books. That would be well worth everything. I could continue with the series. But that is wishful/hopeful thinking on my part. It's hard to predict what will happen at any given event.
This week starts the Book-in-a-Week challenge and I've decided to participate but not officially. Their (see my posting from Friday about the BIW and the website to get more information) time starts Monday at 8 AM and ends the following Monday at 8 AM; officially my week will run from 12:01 Sunday AM to 11:59 Saturday night. I've decided to work on Imogene and have decided to make it a 2-month time frame to work on it. My goal is to write 3 pages a day for 20 or 21 pages a week over the course of 10 weeks (starting today, ending November 17, with the goal of having the story almost completed if not fully completed). I think setting goals of number of pages as opposed to number of words per day or week will not feel as frenzied as NaNo, and I'll be writing roughly the same amount of words as expected for NaNo over a longer period of time. This hopefully will let me get Imogene's story developed and written so I can achieve publication goal of next summer or fall. I'll post an update every week here (my "this and that" column) so that you all can see that I am on track or if I'm falling short of meeting my goals and you can all stop by and encourage me or give me a pep talk (I'll need plenty of that to get it done).
Off to work so I can work on my writing - see you all in the postings - E :)
On the sales note, nothing happened this week. I'm trying to get Heather to fix "Train of Clues" for the final time (I've been trying for months now to get it fixed and finalized but to no avail), so hopefully I can get it back on the market before the October events, and maybe even put it up as an ebook. I hope she isn't ignoring me because I really would like to get that project out of the way. I have 3 more ebooks I want to publish but need covers for them. Biggest thing is I can't afford to pay someone to do my covers or my illustrations right now. Until I see mega sales from the state series, and I mean like 1000 print-run per state, then I probably won't ever ba able to pay someone for doing the artwork. I hope that I see a big jump in sales at the Georgia COMO event the first week of October. With SELA being there and with me in their booth all day Thursday and most of Friday, I should see some orders coming in (that is 12 states represented in the association - Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia). Me personally, I wouldn't consider Virginia and West Virginia as "southeastern states" but I'll be happy to have each state pick up the states already completed for their collection. If each county in each state would get one copy of the five titles available for their main branch, that would be 1025 copies per title to equal 5125 books. That would be well worth everything. I could continue with the series. But that is wishful/hopeful thinking on my part. It's hard to predict what will happen at any given event.
This week starts the Book-in-a-Week challenge and I've decided to participate but not officially. Their (see my posting from Friday about the BIW and the website to get more information) time starts Monday at 8 AM and ends the following Monday at 8 AM; officially my week will run from 12:01 Sunday AM to 11:59 Saturday night. I've decided to work on Imogene and have decided to make it a 2-month time frame to work on it. My goal is to write 3 pages a day for 20 or 21 pages a week over the course of 10 weeks (starting today, ending November 17, with the goal of having the story almost completed if not fully completed). I think setting goals of number of pages as opposed to number of words per day or week will not feel as frenzied as NaNo, and I'll be writing roughly the same amount of words as expected for NaNo over a longer period of time. This hopefully will let me get Imogene's story developed and written so I can achieve publication goal of next summer or fall. I'll post an update every week here (my "this and that" column) so that you all can see that I am on track or if I'm falling short of meeting my goals and you can all stop by and encourage me or give me a pep talk (I'll need plenty of that to get it done).
Off to work so I can work on my writing - see you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, September 02, 2012
This and That
Well, the week ending September 1 was filled with anxiety for me but we have gotten over that. I spent last Sunday at the Mint Hill Art in the Park event and sold one book and 8 bookworms - barely enough to put gas in my car to get home, but it was a sale. One copy of Finally Home sold on kindle last week (sometime between Sunday and Tuesday).
So the anxiety came over how I was going to get to Decatur this weekend with no money, no gas and not much to go on. Since I'm posting this on Sunday, you can see I didn't make it to Decatur. Sybil had to come out of her way to get the two boxes of books I've had in my car since the last event and her mother had to come down from North Carolina to meet up with her so she could go help Sybil out in the booth. I had no choice and I really hated it because Decatur is where I got my start. When State of Wilderness was first published, I fronted the cost of booth and hotel for the most part for Vivian and Jacque to come from Oklahoma to meet up in Decatur for the event. It is a huge event and the crowd is always there and this would have been a 5-year celebration for me. I hope that books start selling soon so I can start doing these very large events again but as it is livig paycheck to paycheck is all I can do right now.
School has started back and Thursday was my second time in class with Mr. Hughes' classes and hopefully this weekend he will get a more definite schedule down for me to be with the students. My preference is that I meet with each class on a different day instead of all of them on the same day since that pretty much takes about 3 or more hours of my work schedule in a pretty tight chunk. More when I get that down from him.
I'm going to start my WWYWWQ column this week, and the first question is spurred from a question from one of the students in Mr. Hughes' class and a posting Faye Tollison did on her blog last week. I'm also hoping to get back on schedule with my blog postings this week. I may only post once a week plus the WWYWWQ posting every Wednesday.
I had a guest blogger this past week, Sandra Parshall, a mystery suspense writer, and only one comment was left. That is sad that she is a pretty well known author and not even her readers came over to leave a comment. I hope you all will stop by and read the interview and leave some comment love for Sandra - she said she is okay with answerig questions about her books, her writing, or pretty much anything else the readers might have - so come on over, she won't bite. Spread the word.
For now, signing off - see you all in the postings - E :)
So the anxiety came over how I was going to get to Decatur this weekend with no money, no gas and not much to go on. Since I'm posting this on Sunday, you can see I didn't make it to Decatur. Sybil had to come out of her way to get the two boxes of books I've had in my car since the last event and her mother had to come down from North Carolina to meet up with her so she could go help Sybil out in the booth. I had no choice and I really hated it because Decatur is where I got my start. When State of Wilderness was first published, I fronted the cost of booth and hotel for the most part for Vivian and Jacque to come from Oklahoma to meet up in Decatur for the event. It is a huge event and the crowd is always there and this would have been a 5-year celebration for me. I hope that books start selling soon so I can start doing these very large events again but as it is livig paycheck to paycheck is all I can do right now.
School has started back and Thursday was my second time in class with Mr. Hughes' classes and hopefully this weekend he will get a more definite schedule down for me to be with the students. My preference is that I meet with each class on a different day instead of all of them on the same day since that pretty much takes about 3 or more hours of my work schedule in a pretty tight chunk. More when I get that down from him.
I'm going to start my WWYWWQ column this week, and the first question is spurred from a question from one of the students in Mr. Hughes' class and a posting Faye Tollison did on her blog last week. I'm also hoping to get back on schedule with my blog postings this week. I may only post once a week plus the WWYWWQ posting every Wednesday.
I had a guest blogger this past week, Sandra Parshall, a mystery suspense writer, and only one comment was left. That is sad that she is a pretty well known author and not even her readers came over to leave a comment. I hope you all will stop by and read the interview and leave some comment love for Sandra - she said she is okay with answerig questions about her books, her writing, or pretty much anything else the readers might have - so come on over, she won't bite. Spread the word.
For now, signing off - see you all in the postings - E :)
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Midweek Report
Just a quick update - I was looking at my KDP reports and realized that the copy of Finally Home that sold last week has been returned for a refund - that hurts, especially when no review was made on amazon and there is no reason showing for the refund. This means the person had the book for less than 72 hours as I believe you only have limited to return a book for a refund, it could be up to a week but I don't remember since it's been a while since I actually purchased anything on amazon. Oh well, guess they didn't read the book or didn't like it - such is life. Maybe more sales will show up to offset the loss of those royalties, not that it would have been that much. See you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, August 12, 2012
This and That
It's been a great week as noted by my previous posting of "Miracles and Good News" and sales have been okay this week. All in all, no complaints about book related stuff this week.
For sales, over on kindle, I had a copy of Finally Home and a copy of "Bride-and-Seek" and a copy of State of Heights, so not too bad.
Now for the fussing part. I've been watching some of the Olympics but during times that I've not really been interested in the sports being shown, I've flipped the channels and watched movies or other shows. The commercials are abysmal. There is no modesty or decorum on commercials geared for kids these days. One of the "toys" being advertised is "Doggie Doo" and the catch line is "Doggies do what doggies do" and they show the dog releasing what is supposed to be "doggie doo" (I think it's Play-Doh but it's still disgusting). The other is a Ladybug filled with some sort of jewels or trinkets that when tossed and the tells the girls to clean up the mess - so the ladybug goes around and picks up all the little jewels and one of the things advertised in the commercial is that the ladybug "poops too". I'm sorry but these commercials have gone to extremes - disgusting and totally not child-friendly (yeah, I know kids say more disgusting things but still, no need to advertise this on TV that kids will be watching. No need to encourage the disgusting behavior).
Other than disgusting commercials, I'll be happy for the fall TV season to restart. I've seen a few advertised shows that look pretty interesting but who knows if I'll have time to really watch much TV as I have a lot of events coming up.
Just a sneak peak of what is coming up - the end of the month is Sunday in the Park in Mint Hill; the weekend following that which happens to be Labor Day Weekend will be Decatur Book Festival - the place I got started with my state books and I'm looking forward to being there again. In October there are three scheduled events, just have to come up with the fundings for the last one and I'm good to go. I won't be doing Savannah this year as they have gone up on cost and the table isn't worth $150, even if I were to get a school visit just wouldn't cover enough expenses. Hoping the first event in October leads to several school visits.
Coming in a couple of weeks or so, I have a guest blogger, mystery author Sandra Parshall. So that's what is on the agenda for now. Don't forget you still have 2-1/2 months to purchase your chances for the red, white and blue afghan drawing and that chances are only $1 each. Good luck to everyone who has tickets so far. See you all in the postings - E :)
For sales, over on kindle, I had a copy of Finally Home and a copy of "Bride-and-Seek" and a copy of State of Heights, so not too bad.
Now for the fussing part. I've been watching some of the Olympics but during times that I've not really been interested in the sports being shown, I've flipped the channels and watched movies or other shows. The commercials are abysmal. There is no modesty or decorum on commercials geared for kids these days. One of the "toys" being advertised is "Doggie Doo" and the catch line is "Doggies do what doggies do" and they show the dog releasing what is supposed to be "doggie doo" (I think it's Play-Doh but it's still disgusting). The other is a Ladybug filled with some sort of jewels or trinkets that when tossed and the tells the girls to clean up the mess - so the ladybug goes around and picks up all the little jewels and one of the things advertised in the commercial is that the ladybug "poops too". I'm sorry but these commercials have gone to extremes - disgusting and totally not child-friendly (yeah, I know kids say more disgusting things but still, no need to advertise this on TV that kids will be watching. No need to encourage the disgusting behavior).
Other than disgusting commercials, I'll be happy for the fall TV season to restart. I've seen a few advertised shows that look pretty interesting but who knows if I'll have time to really watch much TV as I have a lot of events coming up.
Just a sneak peak of what is coming up - the end of the month is Sunday in the Park in Mint Hill; the weekend following that which happens to be Labor Day Weekend will be Decatur Book Festival - the place I got started with my state books and I'm looking forward to being there again. In October there are three scheduled events, just have to come up with the fundings for the last one and I'm good to go. I won't be doing Savannah this year as they have gone up on cost and the table isn't worth $150, even if I were to get a school visit just wouldn't cover enough expenses. Hoping the first event in October leads to several school visits.
Coming in a couple of weeks or so, I have a guest blogger, mystery author Sandra Parshall. So that's what is on the agenda for now. Don't forget you still have 2-1/2 months to purchase your chances for the red, white and blue afghan drawing and that chances are only $1 each. Good luck to everyone who has tickets so far. See you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, August 05, 2012
This and That
Weekly report time again. Sales/downloads were down this past week, but I did have a download on smashwords the last day of the month of "The Tulip Kiss". Of course, since it was a freebie, no royalties were made, but hopefully folks will start purchasing copies of my stories either on Kindle, nook or smashwords or in-person.
My Etsy store is up and no sales yet. I need to post my kindle/nook covers and the tablet covers and a few more bookworm colors that I've crocheted recently. I've got three more afghans to complete but with all the back and forth to doctors for my friend Andi, I don't see it as a problem completing everything in my bag. I have several big events coming up the end of the month, so stay tuned for more on those.
School starts back the 21st of August and I'll be away from my desk a good bit as I've volunteered to take Andi back and forth to school except when I have events planned. I'll still be able to post and be online while away so no worries there (hoping to really get back on track work-wise while at the school).
Not much else is going on right now so see you all in the postings - E :)
My Etsy store is up and no sales yet. I need to post my kindle/nook covers and the tablet covers and a few more bookworm colors that I've crocheted recently. I've got three more afghans to complete but with all the back and forth to doctors for my friend Andi, I don't see it as a problem completing everything in my bag. I have several big events coming up the end of the month, so stay tuned for more on those.
School starts back the 21st of August and I'll be away from my desk a good bit as I've volunteered to take Andi back and forth to school except when I have events planned. I'll still be able to post and be online while away so no worries there (hoping to really get back on track work-wise while at the school).
Not much else is going on right now so see you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, July 29, 2012
This and That
Let's get started with sales or downloads. Since technically "The Tulip Kiss" and "The Proposal" are being offered for free, they aren't really sales but I've had a few this week on smashwords, 3 of "The Tulip Kiss" and 1 of "The Proposal", none of Finally Home. On Kindle, there have been no sales this week as well as on Nook. So far this month, though, I've had something sell every week except the week of the 15th with "The Tulip Kiss" having a download on the 1st of the month when I actually started the SSW50 coupon participation on smashwords, Finally Home selling a copy on Kindle the week ending the 7th; Finally Home selling a copy on Nook the 11th; "The Tulip Kiss" selling a copy on Kindle the week ending the 14th; and then this week's downloads on smashwords. None of the downloads on smashwords this month will bring me any royalties unless someone purchases a copy of Finally Home at the half price special in the next couple of days. Tuesday is the final day for the special over on smashwords. So if you haven't received your copy yet and you enjoy reading Nancy Drew mysteries or know someone who would enjoy reading a short mystery similar to Nancy Drew stories, pop over to smashwords and get your copy for only $1.50 (don't forget to use the coupon code SSW50 on checkout).
I've started an Etsy store this week and have put all my bookworms and afghans on there and will be adding the kindle/nook covers and tablet covers soon. I hope you all will stop by and see everything. I'll be adding some more bookworms soon as I picked up three skeins of yarn the other day for bookworm purposes only. For more listings, stop by my shop.
I've been watching the Olympics some but mostly crocheting bookworms and finishing up more afghans. I've got 2 more skeins to finish the Watercolor one and I think I just started the 3rd skein of the Woodsy. All that's left is the Marrakesh. I keep forgetting to take the handheld sewing machine back or purchasing a power cord so I can sew the velcro on the tablet covers but for the most part, everything is finished other than the velcro and a few buttons. I have buttons for half the colors and have sewn those on but need to find buttons for the rest of them. Will be looking for buttons this week.
Nothing else to report for this week so see you all in the postings - E :)
I've started an Etsy store this week and have put all my bookworms and afghans on there and will be adding the kindle/nook covers and tablet covers soon. I hope you all will stop by and see everything. I'll be adding some more bookworms soon as I picked up three skeins of yarn the other day for bookworm purposes only. For more listings, stop by my shop.
I've been watching the Olympics some but mostly crocheting bookworms and finishing up more afghans. I've got 2 more skeins to finish the Watercolor one and I think I just started the 3rd skein of the Woodsy. All that's left is the Marrakesh. I keep forgetting to take the handheld sewing machine back or purchasing a power cord so I can sew the velcro on the tablet covers but for the most part, everything is finished other than the velcro and a few buttons. I have buttons for half the colors and have sewn those on but need to find buttons for the rest of them. Will be looking for buttons this week.
Nothing else to report for this week so see you all in the postings - E :)
Sunday, July 22, 2012
This and That
This past week was a slow week but I did my surprise Susanne with a Random Act of Kindness posting and had several of her followers stop by and leave comments. So thank you all for stopping by and I hope you check back every once in a while and leave comments again.
Sales wise, I did sell an actual copy of Finally Home and last week (I didn't know about it so didn't report it) a copy of Finally Home sold on Nook. So Finally Home is having a late debut time. I've been told by several folks I need to write more and make Kelly and Emma (my two main characters) their own series like Nancy Drew and her friends. I just don't have any ideas to make this a series since Emma and Kelly are both about 13 or 14 and can't drive and the town I've set it in really is one of those quiet places where not much happens that I could build some mysteries around. So again, I'm reaching out to my readers and asking for you all to help shed some ideas on new mysteries for both Kelly and Emma to take on, I'm open to ideas. I would especially love to hear from folks who have read Finally Home and have a feel for my characters.
See you all in the postings - hope to hear from all of you - E :)
Sales wise, I did sell an actual copy of Finally Home and last week (I didn't know about it so didn't report it) a copy of Finally Home sold on Nook. So Finally Home is having a late debut time. I've been told by several folks I need to write more and make Kelly and Emma (my two main characters) their own series like Nancy Drew and her friends. I just don't have any ideas to make this a series since Emma and Kelly are both about 13 or 14 and can't drive and the town I've set it in really is one of those quiet places where not much happens that I could build some mysteries around. So again, I'm reaching out to my readers and asking for you all to help shed some ideas on new mysteries for both Kelly and Emma to take on, I'm open to ideas. I would especially love to hear from folks who have read Finally Home and have a feel for my characters.
See you all in the postings - hope to hear from all of you - E :)
Sunday, July 08, 2012
This and That
July is moving very slowly on my end or maybe it's moving fast but I don't realize it. It is only the 8th of July and i feel like I've already run a marathon and a half. I've watched some of the Olympic trials - swimming, track and gymnastics recently and am unsure what our chances for gold are going to be like at the Olympics this year. I guess I'll have to check them out this summer.
Sales are slow everywhere - 1 copy of Finally Home sold for kindle this week. A copy of "The Proposal" and "The Tulip Kiss" were "sold" on smashwords - given that they are being offered for free right now, no royalties on those.
No one has taken advantage of any of my special deals posted last week. For the month of July, I'm offering a 20% discount on my afghan/kindle sleeve or tablet sleeve/bookworm combo. I'm also going to continue my afghan drawing chances special through the end of the month - $1 each no matter how many you purchase and with each 25, you get an extra 5 chances for free. The smashowrds 1/2 price special is still available on Finally Home as well as the free purchases for both "The Tulip Kiss" and "The Proposal". Coupon code SSW50 is needed at checkout but that is also on the side bar to let you know to use that coupon code to take advantage of the special deal.
I've been steady busy working on completing afghans and bookworms (have to build my collection back up for the August event).
I've been very nonparticipatory in events this year so far. I do have at least three more, maybe four, but most of that will depend on my funds. If I do well with my sales and special offers (the afghan combos, et cetera), I will probably be participating in at least four events with two definitely already booked.
This week, I'll have a book review for Jo Linsdell's "Out and About at the Zoo" as part of her book tour, and look for a surprise posting either this week or next. I need to start working on my guest posts for the upcoming school year and get with all the teachers with whom I've Skyped to start the bal rolling for my WWYWWQ postings so that after Labor Day, I'll be ready. Mr. Hughes has indicated that if the district approved their proposal that I would be working with the fourth, fifth and sixth grade classes this coming fall, so it will be interesting to see where this goes. More on that later - hope you all are staying cool and have a productive week - E :)
Sales are slow everywhere - 1 copy of Finally Home sold for kindle this week. A copy of "The Proposal" and "The Tulip Kiss" were "sold" on smashwords - given that they are being offered for free right now, no royalties on those.
No one has taken advantage of any of my special deals posted last week. For the month of July, I'm offering a 20% discount on my afghan/kindle sleeve or tablet sleeve/bookworm combo. I'm also going to continue my afghan drawing chances special through the end of the month - $1 each no matter how many you purchase and with each 25, you get an extra 5 chances for free. The smashowrds 1/2 price special is still available on Finally Home as well as the free purchases for both "The Tulip Kiss" and "The Proposal". Coupon code SSW50 is needed at checkout but that is also on the side bar to let you know to use that coupon code to take advantage of the special deal.
I've been steady busy working on completing afghans and bookworms (have to build my collection back up for the August event).
I've been very nonparticipatory in events this year so far. I do have at least three more, maybe four, but most of that will depend on my funds. If I do well with my sales and special offers (the afghan combos, et cetera), I will probably be participating in at least four events with two definitely already booked.
This week, I'll have a book review for Jo Linsdell's "Out and About at the Zoo" as part of her book tour, and look for a surprise posting either this week or next. I need to start working on my guest posts for the upcoming school year and get with all the teachers with whom I've Skyped to start the bal rolling for my WWYWWQ postings so that after Labor Day, I'll be ready. Mr. Hughes has indicated that if the district approved their proposal that I would be working with the fourth, fifth and sixth grade classes this coming fall, so it will be interesting to see where this goes. More on that later - hope you all are staying cool and have a productive week - E :)
Sunday, June 17, 2012
This and That
Not a lot to report on the book front this week - no sales across the board - kindle, nook, smashwords. No live sales. Giveaways have been stopped but did send out 3 bookworms finally to the folks who left comments on my birthday blog posting. (UPDATE: 06/20/201 - I checked my createspace and saw that I sold a copy of Finally Home via the expanded distribution on June 10, so that would have been 1 sale for the week ending 06/16/2012.)
On the family front, lots of stuff happening. My son, who basically has not been home for the past three weeks, texted me Friday night demanding I take him to the ER for impacted ear wax. Bear (that's husband and no he's not a teddy bear, more like a grizzly bear) said not to take him to the ER but rather to a doctor. So nothing was done Friday night for son since all the minor care places and urgent care or immediate care places (we have very few in our area) were closed. Saturday morning, daughter and two of her friends (sisters) headed to Carowinds (that is on the other side of Charlotte, NC - about 2-1/2 hours from where we live). They had been planning this little getaway for about three weeks. Both the other mother and myself had concerns and really would have preferred that they postpone it for a bit. There was something huge going on at Carowinds yesterday - something called "Rockin' the Park" (a Christian concert of some sort - lots of church vans/buses, and folks in general attending or just going to Carowinds). My daughter hasn't done much highway driving and had to be on two major highways to get there (I-85 and I-77). They left our area about 7 and got to 1 mile from the exit to the entrance to the park and were involved in an MVA. She called me at about 9:47 which I figured she was just letting me know that they had arrived safe and sound, but thought it odd when she called a second time (my voicemail isn't set up since I went through a semi-upgrade but had to revert back to my old phone for a bit longer) and then a third time (I was kind of indisposed when she called the first time). I did answer on the third call time. She was upset and I knew it was going to be a long day. On my way up there (I rode with the other mother and father as my van was low on gas and I have no funds until payday) I received another text from my son stating "Is no one going to do anything for this excruciating pain?" - I promptly called him and left a voicemail telling him I couldn't do anything and that he would need to call his father to have father take him to minor care as I was on my way to get daughter because she had been in a wreck and I wasn't even home. We made it to about 1-1/2 from the exit we needed when traffic literally halted. This was about 1 or so PM (we left my house about 10:15 or 10:30). The 1-1/2 mile trek to get to the exit took us over 45 minutes to creep through. The traffic was backed up from the entrance of the park to the highway for almost 2 miles, plus apparently there had been several other church bus breakdowns and accidents in that area during the course of the morning.
We made it to my daughter and her friends about 2:15 or so, grabbed a bite to eat, and then I called the insurance to start a claim since time is of the essence in situations like this. We left McDonalds and headed to the towing place so daughter could gather everything she needed out of the car. She was complaining of her shoulders hurting some and the girl who was in the front seat was complaining of her back some. On the way back, we stopped at the other mother's sister's house for a bit and by the time we left there (about half way between Carowinds and home) both girls - my daughter and the other front seat passenger) were complaining of low back, shoulder and neck pain. We had urged them to go to the ER before we got there but they wouldn't go.
Getting home about 10:30 last night, I had enough time to come in the house and go to the bathroom, plug my phone up to charge (forgot to charge it Friday night and ended up with a dead phone before leaving the Charlotte area (spent a long time with claims person), and grab my van keys. Left and went to pick up son from friend's house where he had been staying, went to put a few dollars (I found $3 in my wallet and daughter had $2) worth of gas and then headed to the ER. We got there between 11:15 and 11:30 PM. We got home about 6:30 AM - almost 7 hours in the ER for both of them to be examined and treated.
So it will be a long week in the Eldering home secondary to having to treat a severe ear infection with lots of ear drops and oral antibiotics and pain medications (not impacted ear wax as he thought originally) and trying to keep my daughter comfortable from her whiplash and pain and stiffness. She's hoping to go back to work Tuesday or Wednesday, but I hope they just bump her schedule at least until Thursday.
So this is what has happened in my little corner of the world for the week ending June 16. Happy father's day to all you fathers out there - Mrs. E :)
On the family front, lots of stuff happening. My son, who basically has not been home for the past three weeks, texted me Friday night demanding I take him to the ER for impacted ear wax. Bear (that's husband and no he's not a teddy bear, more like a grizzly bear) said not to take him to the ER but rather to a doctor. So nothing was done Friday night for son since all the minor care places and urgent care or immediate care places (we have very few in our area) were closed. Saturday morning, daughter and two of her friends (sisters) headed to Carowinds (that is on the other side of Charlotte, NC - about 2-1/2 hours from where we live). They had been planning this little getaway for about three weeks. Both the other mother and myself had concerns and really would have preferred that they postpone it for a bit. There was something huge going on at Carowinds yesterday - something called "Rockin' the Park" (a Christian concert of some sort - lots of church vans/buses, and folks in general attending or just going to Carowinds). My daughter hasn't done much highway driving and had to be on two major highways to get there (I-85 and I-77). They left our area about 7 and got to 1 mile from the exit to the entrance to the park and were involved in an MVA. She called me at about 9:47 which I figured she was just letting me know that they had arrived safe and sound, but thought it odd when she called a second time (my voicemail isn't set up since I went through a semi-upgrade but had to revert back to my old phone for a bit longer) and then a third time (I was kind of indisposed when she called the first time). I did answer on the third call time. She was upset and I knew it was going to be a long day. On my way up there (I rode with the other mother and father as my van was low on gas and I have no funds until payday) I received another text from my son stating "Is no one going to do anything for this excruciating pain?" - I promptly called him and left a voicemail telling him I couldn't do anything and that he would need to call his father to have father take him to minor care as I was on my way to get daughter because she had been in a wreck and I wasn't even home. We made it to about 1-1/2 from the exit we needed when traffic literally halted. This was about 1 or so PM (we left my house about 10:15 or 10:30). The 1-1/2 mile trek to get to the exit took us over 45 minutes to creep through. The traffic was backed up from the entrance of the park to the highway for almost 2 miles, plus apparently there had been several other church bus breakdowns and accidents in that area during the course of the morning.
We made it to my daughter and her friends about 2:15 or so, grabbed a bite to eat, and then I called the insurance to start a claim since time is of the essence in situations like this. We left McDonalds and headed to the towing place so daughter could gather everything she needed out of the car. She was complaining of her shoulders hurting some and the girl who was in the front seat was complaining of her back some. On the way back, we stopped at the other mother's sister's house for a bit and by the time we left there (about half way between Carowinds and home) both girls - my daughter and the other front seat passenger) were complaining of low back, shoulder and neck pain. We had urged them to go to the ER before we got there but they wouldn't go.
Getting home about 10:30 last night, I had enough time to come in the house and go to the bathroom, plug my phone up to charge (forgot to charge it Friday night and ended up with a dead phone before leaving the Charlotte area (spent a long time with claims person), and grab my van keys. Left and went to pick up son from friend's house where he had been staying, went to put a few dollars (I found $3 in my wallet and daughter had $2) worth of gas and then headed to the ER. We got there between 11:15 and 11:30 PM. We got home about 6:30 AM - almost 7 hours in the ER for both of them to be examined and treated.
So it will be a long week in the Eldering home secondary to having to treat a severe ear infection with lots of ear drops and oral antibiotics and pain medications (not impacted ear wax as he thought originally) and trying to keep my daughter comfortable from her whiplash and pain and stiffness. She's hoping to go back to work Tuesday or Wednesday, but I hope they just bump her schedule at least until Thursday.
So this is what has happened in my little corner of the world for the week ending June 16. Happy father's day to all you fathers out there - Mrs. E :)
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