Pippa's Journal & The Dreaded 'Sales' Word

Mission Success - Hallow's Eve Tour

So my paranormal short released last week, and this week the tour is in progress. You can check out the tour stops below. And how's it been going?

Well, none of my books are ever a straight tearaway success. Something that is quoted a lot about being a successful author in a niche genre is that it's a marathon, not a sprint. I've spent four years building my platform and readership as a Skiffy Rommer...and at this late stage I'm now diversifying into paranormal, superheroes, YA... So I almost have to start again in terms of finding fans in those genres, particularly the YA.

One thing I can say for sure is setting Hallow's Eve up for pre-order certainly made release day a lot less stress for a self publisher, and I'd do it again. It left me free to pimp, and to update my blog and website for the new release, instead of tearing my hair out when things didn't work and feverishly checking to see if it was up.

Tour Schedule for Hallow's Eve

13^th – Winter Bayne Fairies, Imps and Sprites

15^th - Going from Somebody to Nobody Three Little Things (story inspiration)

17^th – Liza O’Connor Red Hair Rocks

19^th – Kristina Stutts How to make a Woman

20^th - Layna Pimentel Review

21^st – Celia Breslin All Hallows’ Eve

22^nd – Sonya Clark Interview

24^th – Patty Hammond Five Facts about Hallow’s Eve

25^th – Paranormal Reads Review

27^th – Liana Brooks Hodge’s Spiced Elderberry Cordial

26^th+27^th – Paranormal Romantics Interview

30^th - Mark of the Stars Five Facts about Witchcraft

One thing I rarely talk about (in public anyway) is my book sales. Well, other than to occasionally sob on the virtual shoulders of my friends and fellow authors when I have a bad month. Despite the internet, it's harder and harder to get your book noticed because there are soooo many others out there. Like over 10 million on Amazon alone. If you said ten titles per author, that's one million authors. ONE MILLION. How do you get heard out of that lot? I'm still trying to figure it out.

Another reason I don't mention sales figures is because I think it would be disrespectful to my publishers to reveal exact figures. It's like discussing what you get paid with your work colleagues and having them complain to the boss that so-and-so is on a better pay scheme. But one thing that I've seen as being a 'guaranteed' sales boost is more titles (of course, there's no such thing as guaranteed in business, but I'm talking in general terms of relatively). And I'm going to tell you that I think that is true.

Okay, so I'm not in multiple sales figures per day--that much I will tell you. But since Tethered released in July, and with Restless In Peaceville coming out in August, my sales have been steady to date. And they've been my best ever. I don't think I'm going to hit any best seller lists just yet (although Tethered has sat at #5 on my publisher's website for scifi romance since August, then jumped to #4 at the end of September), but steady sales are unusual for me in the two and a half years I've been published. So I am cautiously optimistic. I had another release just last week and the tour kicks off today (details below), and I still have two more to go for this year. It's been exhausting and I don't think I'd do it at this rate again. But it's given me a good range of titles in varying genres, lengths and prices which I hope will give me a broader appeal (scifi romance is still painfully niche). It'll be interesting to see how it goes come January 2015 when they're all out together. Plus I'm attending BristolCon in just over a week, to put myself 'out there' somewhere other than the internet.

No, I won't be giving you exact figures. But I will let you know if it causes any jumps or changes in sales. In the meantime you should check out Cary Caffrey's series on marketing at the Brigade blog (I'm going to confess I've not kept up to date with them myself because I'm so snowed under, but I'll be looking through them after BristolCon).

Happenings

Scream! For the Cure:

Last Friday the first goodie basket was auctioned off for this cancer charity event, and the next is up for display HERE (this time a HUGE bundle of erotic romance). Please consider stopping by and lending your support by sharing the event even if you can't contribute. I even bared my soul and told my own story HERE. I didn't expect talking about it to be quite so painful, but it's for a good cause.

BristolCon:

I am freaking out a bit, I'll admit. I'm not the world's most sociable person, so putting myself in front of strangers is a nerve-racking experience. Fortunately I will not be alone. I did a practice set up of my table (I'm sharing with the awesome Misa Buckley so I think I may have to budge up a bit) but here's what I have so far. If anyone has any advice or suggestions for me, I'd appreciate it! Just ten days to go. *gulp*

Romancing the Genre:

I have my monthly stint on RTG on Friday, this month talking about my near death experience. Come and found out what it was, and what went through my mind HERE.

NaNoWriMo is coming! I was supposed to spend this month planning, but between preparations for BristolCon, releasing Hallow's Eve, and all the usual little tasks I have around the interwebs and at home, I haven't done a whole lot. I tentatively sketched out a plot for the WDF sequel...and got sidetracked by a sequel to Tethered, a sequel to RIP, and trawling through some of my older WIPs that I really should finish off. So what am I doing for NaNo? Come back in November and find out - I might even know myself by then. O.O

In the meantime, I've being doing some work toward Keir. Specifically, a key tattoo on his stomach that is also mentioned elsewhere in the book...and in other related stories. OooooOOOOooooOOO! Yep, not telling you anything else. But these are the two current designs under consideration (the final design will also be going onto the Redemption series books). Which do you prefer?

News

I finally have a definitive release date for my superhero romance! When Dark Falls will be out on the 21st November. You can check out the blurb and add it to your Goodreads TBR shelf HERE. Still loving that cover.

Ping Pong

Congrats to Donna on a safe move and a happily married daughter!