Friday, January 13, 2012

Knock, Knock are the readers in there?

     I was feeling pretty good about myself today.  So good that I rewarded myself with an entire bowl of fresh guacamole and chips.       
     Monday I dragged myself kicking and screaming...that had to be a sight in itself.  Anyway, there was no one there to stop me, or protect me from myself so I was forced to go along.  I dragged myself out to my studio to begin my new book HOKE.  
     I had planned to write it in October, but found myself too busy with absolutely nothing important, but still too busy to write.  Then I planned for November, but Thanksgiving is on Thursday, I always write on Thursdays.  I always write from Monday through Friday several weeks in a row so as not to break my stride.
    So that made November impossible.  I looked into December, but my agent booked me on a three-stop tour.  My sales were great, had my sleuth, Detective Karst along to help charm the crowds.  But, the break in my schedule didn't allow time for writing.
    Monday was it.  No excuses a full block of time for this entire month.  I started out with a bang, twenty pages the first day, then I tapered off to 15 or 16 pages per day.  Less than I wanted to write, but I had extra bits of research to handle when I'd run into a snag or had a new question that I hadn't thought through.
     So I finished the first week of writing, 18,000 words, almost 100 pages in 5 days.  Good enough. 
     I had outstanding holiday sales with my books, sold way beyond my expectations and two books made it to the kindle best seller list one at 78 and one at 33.  Woohoo!!! You go girl, as I pat myself on the back.
     I'm writing, I have fourteen books under my belt, book 15 is well underway.  I've increased my fan base by thousands.  That's why I was feeling pretty good about myself, feeling successful.  But it just took one small heading on a facebook post from another author to pull the rug out from under me.  One small post to make my guacamole churn in my stomach, I don't feel very well at the moment.  One author whom I had met at a conference where we were both speaking posted that he sold $100,000 worth of e-books in three weeks!
     So where are my readers?  My fan mail is so encouraging and my readers, once they discover my books, read their way through the entire series and then move on to find my standalones and kids' books.  
     I'm feeling sorry for myself, feeling defeated.  Maybe I shouldn't write for a few days and lick my wounds....but it's the weekend and I don't write on the weekends anyway.  
     My guess is when Monday arrives, I'll be kicking and screaming and dragging myself back out to my studio for another week of writing.  Another 18,000 words and either finish the manuscript or go back one more week until the first draft is finished.  
    Living in the middle of nowhere on the prairie doesn't give me the opportunity to pop into bookstores and badger people into buying my books.  I have to sit back and let them discover them all by themselves.....but you know what... the letters, the emails, the notes from the adults and from the kids make it all worthwhile.  I'm entertaining them, they're reading and so what if it started off at a snail's pace, then moved up to a fast turtle and now a quick bunny, someday they'll be discovered by even more readers, telling other readers and then those tell others and oh my....I need to get writing I have readers waiting!