This and That

I haven't really posted a This and That posting in a while - mostly because I haven't had many sales and I've kind of been doing other things, trying to get my writing back on track.

Imagine my surprise when I was looking at my createspace dashboard, just kind of thinking of how many of each book I needed to order and noticed on my royalty bar at the top that I had some royalties from March.  The month is still young but to see 4 books sold off amazon on the same day, something big is coming my way - lol.  This was one of each of the four state books I've published.  Of course, I wouldn't know if the other two sold or not since the second book is actually out of contract and hasn't been republished yet and the third is still under contract for a couple more months with 4RV and I don't know when books are ordered from amazon.  I guess I should check with Vivian to  see if there had been an order for Reservations from Amazon or if she is aware of any sales. 

I also hope to get some more books written in the near future.  I'm anxious to get back to writing the state books.  I've got a campaign going on IndieGoGo to try to raise money to pay Heather so that I can get the state stories going again.  I'd really like to complete the series.  If you  are interested in helping fund my campaign, you can find it here and please pass the word on to your friends.  Ten days into the campaign and no funds yet.  Don't let the number scare you since the campaign is long-term -it will be used to fund the complete series plus allow me to do a few more events in addition to print the books as needed.  I do hope that some funds will come in so that I can at least get book 2 republished and work on book 3.  Paying Heather is the biggest expense for me to get the books published.  I wish I would see thousand print runs for each of the title at a time. That would at least verify me as an author and having a useful tool for classrooms. 

Check out the Writers on the Move blog tomorrow for an followup on ACX and my experience.  For now, signing off and will see you all in the postings.  E :)

This and That

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 :)

This and That

I forgot to post this Sunday so figured while I was posting new blog postings better catch you all up on what happened this past week.

Ebook sales are still at nil.  Nothing since the middle of the December, but it's all good.  Last Wednesday, I went to the Anderson County Library for the showing of Brave and started chatting with another parent who was reading a library book and she bought two of the State books (Successes and Quarries) for her two boys.  I also gave each of them a bookworm and a USA map puzzle. 

Hoping the rest of the year shows some serious sales but that is a decent start to the year.  Now to have about 20 more sales this month - lol - that would really make my day to do that on a monthly basis but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.  I'll take whatever I can get. 

Friday evening while waiting for my supper at the local Wings place here in town (no, I don't eat wings because they are costly and don't satisfy me - I always get a chicken sandwich which is very tasty), a family came up to pay and I offered a bookmark to the older girl and the mother asked if she could have one too because she was a librarian at a school in Greenwood County.  I told her about the writing contest and got her email address to send her the information to pass on to the students.  I'll send out a reminder email to all the schools I've contacted around the 21st so hopefully I'll have many entries.  I've already purchased the envelopes for the schools to send me the entries.  I found some cool ticket reward things for the students whose stories I select at Dollar Tree.  So don't forget if you have a student who  would like to submit an idea for Kelly and Emma Louise, the deadline is the 31st of this month.  All submissions will be considered and I'll probably send a bookworm to each person who submits.  Looking forward to seeing what the students comes up with.  See you all in the postings - Mrs. E ;)

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 :)

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 :)

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 and That

Not much to report this week given that last week was Thanksgiving and I've not really done much of anything.  I did finish three Carolina colored scarves and two of the Clemson colored scarves.  I think I can get one more Clemson one made but that will have to wait until this evening while I'm doing laundry.

I decided to do the drawing for the red, white and blue afghan next Sunday since I'm by myself and will be at our local chapter Sisters in Crime holiday celebration.   I'll have one of the folks pick the winning ticket.  Officially sales are completed but if I get any  online requests this week for chances, I'll add them to the  pot which is well over 300 - thanks to my wonderful book sales from the weekend at the Cascades Verdae.  Good luck to all my readers who have chances already. 

See you all in the postings - E :)

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 :)

This and That

No sales this week.  I do have on event scheduled this coming weekend.  It is a local event at a retirement center.  Apparently the director of the festival has been talking up my books, so hopefully that will generate some decent sales.  I'm glad I've got something scheduled this month as I was feeling a bit antsy about not having anything this month.  I've been trying to contact the museum to get my books in there but every time I call, the person I need to speak to is out or not there.  Maybe this week before the scheduled event I can get my books in the gift shop at the Belton Depot Museum. 

This is the last week to get your raffle chances at the special price of 2/$1.  The drawing will be held December 1 and the afghan mailed out about the 7th of December.  If you purchase any book, you still get the 5 chances in the drawing. 

See you all in the postings - E :)

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 :)

This and That

Not much going on this week.  Halloween is right around the corner and behind that is NaNo (National Novel Writing Month - November) and my writer inspiration friend is back (and particiapting in NaNo also) and I hope to get Imogene's story written during the month. 

I am still running my afghan drawing special through the middle of November for the special deal of 2/$1 - so hurry and get your chances before the deal goes away.

I am also offerig my 8 "Curl up with a good book" afghans at 10% off until October 31 (reduced from $75 to $68 plus shipping - $80 total).  I would love to see them go to good homes and I did have a lot of comments on them at the Sugarfoot festival last weekend.

I've been trying to play catchup with work so I best get over there and really buckle down today since romorrow is laundry day and editing for a friend day.  See you all in the postings - E :)

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 :)

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 :)

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 :)

This and That

The week has flown by but that's because I've been extremely busy with work, since my supervisor was supposed to be off all week and we had to do some of her work. It's all good though. "Train of Clues" (A Mystery Destination story) went on sale Friday both as an ebook and a print book. I haven't put it on smashwords or nook yet as my cover isn't the right size for nook, but it will get there. I did have an ebook sale already - woohooo - made all of 52 cents on that sale - lol. I also have an unreported sale from the week ending 09/22, a copy of "The Tulip Kiss" sold. I'm almost ready for the Georgia COMO event in that I've got all but one afghan completed but I'm not too worried about finishing it since I won't be taking my computer this week and can crochet Wednesday night while I'm chilling. I also need to make up some bookworms in the same color as the afghan and all the crocheting will be behind me. I'll have my tablet with me but that is mostly for taking credit cards and playing games while manning the SELA booth. But hopefully, I'll be so busy that I won't have to play games on the tablet (or read some books I'e recently acquired). I've printed out order forms for the librarians, offering them a 20-25% discount on all orders (some may be just under 20% but all titles are discounted). I've got my tote bag almost packed and ready to go. I'll do laundry tomorrow or Tuesday and pack my suitcase. The car is pretty much packed. Tablet and phone and kindle will be charged and ready to go. So I think I'm pretty close to being prepared. Don't forget that the chances for the red, white and blue afghan are still available through the end of November with the drawing to be held on December 1 and the winner receiving the afghan sometime during the second week of December. If you purchase any book, you get 5 chances for the drawing, so put your orders in now. Books make great gifts. Bookworms make great stocking stuffers and teacher gifts. My Curl Up With A Good Book afghans make excellent winter gifts as well. There are only 8 afghans available - Watercolor, Woodsy, Primary, Aspen, Mirage, Melonberry, Bonbon print, and Marrakesh. If you are wanting an afghan as a gift for someone special, please make sure to order early as I need a three week lead in time to get the yarn and crochet them. No orders will be taken after the end of October, so basically you have one month to place an order. See you all in the postings - have a great week. I may or may not post a WWYWWQ Wednesday but will past next Sunday about the event and everything else that I usually report on. See you all in Macon for the GA COMO - E :)

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 :)

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 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 :)

This and That

Got so wrapped in reading books on my new tablet and working that I forgot to post my report yesterday. Guess it's better late than never - lol.

No online sales this week across the board - kindle, nook and smashwords, but I did sell two copies of Finally Home Friday while at the eye doctor's office waiting for Andi. She had her second surgery Thursday and naturally, I was sitting around crocheting bookworms (have about a dozen more to make and then glue eyes on the remaining 30 or 40 this week). Anyway, two ladies were talking and they happened to be teachers at schools pretty close to me. One of the ladies bought 2 copies to give to the school libraries and she said she was definitely going to tell the librarian about me making school visits and all. So, the possibility of doing school visits in a local area is pretty cool to me. I'm glad I said something to them when they were discussing school.

Preparing for the event Sunday and then Decatur Book Festival right behind that on Labor Day Weekend. Will be posting some random things this week and have a special guest next week. See you all in the postings - E :)

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 :)