My Week in Publishing

Things in my publishing world are so slow right now, I...zzzzz.

Oops! Wake up! Surely, something must have happened!

Now, with my eyes open, I do recall a couple of things. Not necessarily interesting things, but still things. 

1. The interesting event was my five-star review from a book blogger. Plus, I found that he also posted the review on Amazon and Goodreads. I certainly can use all the help I can get. Cross posting is a nice touch! I'm very appreciative.

2. An uninteresting event was my AuthorsXP 99-cent promotion, during which I sold a grand total of two copies. I blame myself. I can be impulsive to a fault. I'd already lowered my novel's price to 99 cents, so when I received the email touting a "99 Cents on the Ninth" opportunity, I fell for it. It was only $10.00, but that's ten dollars I no longer have.

3. Greg from eReader News Today is nice. I love running across nice people. I've been a giant PITA regarding my upcoming Book of the Day feature, mainly because I'm still finding my selection hard to believe. So, I kept in mind that I was told I'd get an email reminder 1 - 2 weeks prior to my feature, so that I made sure to lower my price. Well, I didn't receive it, so I panicked and just went ahead and changed my price. Next, I was informed that the invoice for my promotion would be arriving about a week before the actual date. No invoice! OMG! Maybe this is a mirage, after all! So, I contacted Greg, who assured me he'd be sending the invoice in a couple of days. It doesn't end there. My PayPal account is under my actual name, so when the invoice came, I paid, then received an "Attention" email, reiterating that my remittance was due. Yikes! Again, back to Greg, who I informed that I did in fact pay, but under a different name. Greg is endlessly patient, despite having me pegged as a moron by now. I, of course, thanked him profusely every time, and he enthusiastically acknowledged my thanks and even wished me a great day (with an exclamation point!) Great company--give them a spin. If I hypothetically had a new book to promote, I'd definitely utilize their service.

4. Now something that's been bothering me. I post reviews of services I've used, sometimes to vent; sometimes to praise, but mainly because that's the express purpose of this blog. A "failed author" should at least impart the reasons they failed, as a caution to my fellow writers. A long time ago I reviewed a particular service--not favorably. My review was honest and obviously only from my perspective. Well, somehow the CEO found that post, probably via a Google alert (Google must really be time lagged), and he contacted me. First--get this--he wanted to schedule a 60-minute Zoom meeting with me so we could go over the points I'd made and "revise my article". My PC doesn't have a webcam, but I could have used my phone. More importantly, just no. Why do you think this blog identifies me with an avatar? I refuse to be on camera--still photo or video. 

Nice person that I strive to be, I declined, but invited him to share his points via email. Once he did that, I inexplicably felt guilty, so I finally deleted my original post and published a new one. No, I didn't expressly tout the service, but I did come across as subtly cheerlead-y. Although "it's free to try, so why not check it out?" is, I think, noncommittal.  

Throughout my years in corporate management I often had to publicly advocate for policies I didn't agree with, one of which was the disbandment of my own department, which not only put hundreds of people out of work, but put me out of work as well. But I was a good soldier. One tends to dislike herself when forced to do things like that, so I rather dislike myself for kowtowing to this impertinent overstepper. Does he do this with every review he doesn't like? Wish sometimes I could argue with some of my reviews, but I would never, ever do that. 

What's done is done. I refuse to dwell on it. Henceforth, any review I post will be labeled "an honest review". If it doesn't carry that label, well...

5. Thank you for being endlessly patient with my inner monologues, like this one. My experiences may not be universal, but hopefully, the recounting of them is interesting.

 

Now, on to the week ahead, which will, happily or unhappily, tell the tale of my novel's viability. However it goes, I'll finally be able to put this book to rest. And who knows? I could potentially start revising that ever-looming past novel, which I vowed to do months ago. 

It could happen.