Beef Jerky Time!

 Originally posted on August 29, 2020 at https://ailovestogrow.wixsite.com/mysite/post/beef-jerky-time

An exchange student from Cameroon, an Irish priest, a girl from Sweden (or Austria) and a jivin' dude from the African Education Conference step into a train car. They all order a glass of orange juice. The punchline involves a gorilla, but most people still find it funny.

Ch26 is done, around 4000 words. This week was more my fault, spent a lot of time working on marketing and then Factorio 1.0 gave its siren call to me so I put in a few hours. ImKibitz's amusing new run of it is to blame. I am still working on the book and I believe I've worked out all the Factorio for right now.

Marketing is more of what I find pulls me away. Not just the effort to research possible avenues, but the constant waiting and checking to see if the marketing was effective. Marketing is a headache, stress and ultimately a time-waster that drives a woman nuts! In many ways it feels like I'm nickel and diming myself with every dollar spent. And I do see upticks, just no giant surges. Then I have to sit and look and wonder whether some KU is from Amazon's advertising or from a forum post I made. Then I have to weigh to pay for more Amazon or pay into another group. Altogether, I'm seeing some increase, but not enough to justify what I'm paying in. Thus far I'm riding high on the huge bump I got when CENSORED hit the market, so my marketing efforts are going to slant off by next month, but I'll also then have a good idea what works and what doesn't.

For those of you who are interested, Amazon's marketing wing is the most effective when selling on Amazon. However, long term, using groups like WhizBuzz will put my book out there in SEO optimizing and it'll mean more visibility when people start looking around for a futa monster harem on other search engines. If this sounds like a lot of work 7 months after publication, you are probably right. I didn't know what I was doing when I published BM:GP in February, I just put it out there and hoped people would see it. I was so very wrong.

A book has a very narrow window to get noticed, erotica or any other genre. After that, WOM is the only way that book can get noticed like a tree in a forest. Well, WOM or the author writing another book. This is how erotica authors survive, the nature of smut making WOM almost impossible. It is why erotica is almost always so short. I hate short erotica, or at least how so little good smut is long enough to make any reasonable character progression. However, I understand WHY it is short: authors gotta eat, easiest way for people to get pulled in is to publish the next work.

Back on track, why am I worrying about marketing NOW? Simple: by improving my SEO and visibility, when Book 2 gets out, I'll have a lot of pieces in place so that when launch happens, in that narrow window I'll make enough sales and get enough reviews to create momentum to push through until Book 3 cums out. Which, the more I think about it, the more I feel like I'm getting another ulcer.

This is why authors have tried so hard through all the years - and even still today! - to get those lucrative publishing deals. It makes sense, not because authors make more money (most do not), but because when a publisher pays an author their royalties, they handle all the other stuff. Most of that stuff is marketing, and I have had to become more of an expert in marketing than I ever thought I would need to be.

I now drink a bottle of Pepto a week for heartburn and my poop has been black for months.

I think I had a dream as a teen and that dream was different than what I wanted it to be. I wanted to write and...that was it. When I got through college, I realized writing didn't just happen, editors needed to be a part of the process. I agree, all great writers have great editors. Don't have to look farther than these blog posts to see I'm someone who needs an editor. So when I got Growing Problems ready for publication, I didn't think about all the little things. I got the editing done, I made a stupid cover, then pushed a button and BAM! PUBLISHED!

Then...girl, I didn't even KNOW! February 19th is when Growing Problems got out there and my life got turned upside down. Honestly, I didn't think my book would sell Harry Potter numbers, but I didn't expect...what I got those first few months. It scared me. I started looking around and got a cover artist. I got the audioporn made. I tried a few marketing ideas that didn't work. Really, CENSORED has been my most successful move, but some others have worked to varying degrees. I got writing again because I knew Book 2 needed to work but I desperately wanted Book 1 to stand on its own.

I guess what I'm saying is no book is just about getting it written, there is so much work that goes into it that is besides writing. And I wasn't...emotionally equipped to deal with all the other stuff. It messes with me and drives my stress to record heights.

*breathe...calming breath*

You know, I don't know much of what you all like to hear about in these blog posts. I see them as a way to keep myself in check, a way to keep myself honest with how much and how often I write. I could post a word count and be done with it, but then I feel like people want to know more about me. Since I have no intention of talking too much about myself or politics, all I have left is pop culture and the frustrations of being an author.

Welcome all you new folks from WhizBuzz and all the other places I've been frequenting recently! Also, thanks to John for his review on GoodReads. It disheartens me to see your single star, but mostly I would like to hear what you didn't like about my story. A wordless critical review doesn't help me to improve or let others know what specifically you didn't appreciate about my story. I hope anyone else in the future gives me honest reviews so I can know how to be a better writer.

I like being a writer. I don't think I'm cut out to be a marketer.

Keep harmonizing!

#ailovestogrow #onedollarbet #marketingshmarketing #heartburn