your new book

Debbie Danford did my cover. I love it! I'm already at four sales, which equals my best day of sales on the first book. As you can imagine, I'm a number guy and like seeing the stats. Thank you for your support and review! Now, if I can get anyone else to post a review....

Once you have product, then you really begin to start understanding marketing and promoting. If you're anything like me, your brain will become very loud. I'm not a number person so watching you with numbers is teaching me a lot.

I got your story read. I wasn't sure what to expect. Here are my observations.

I found it intriguing. Interesting. and a bit unexpected. I'm puzzled about the Priest. Is he a brother by family? or faith? it is the only part that I did not quite understand. The only typo I found was in the name-Tomas. You had Thomas in one spot. Not an issue but if you are a perfectionist and you go into the story for any reason you might want to fix it. I don't think its worth fixing by itself.

I don't know how you set up the keywords. If you did not put in Christian, spiritual, faith, or anything else relating to the Christian market, you might want to. The Christian market is strong if you market it right. It also might be why your numbers aren't as strong for this story as they were for the first one. Mystery is a stronger market than faith-based story.

Also, I know that some days are better than others for releases. I know that most of the big publishers release their books on Tuesdays. So I don't know if weekend is a weaker launch than a weekday would have been. And a holiday weekend containing Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I don't know if a short story gets lost in that or not.

The only criticism, or suggestion, or whatever you want to call it, for stories like this one was the amount of time spent in peoples heads. Not sure how you would have changed it but I tend to think conversation and action hold more interest than reading thoughts. Its a form of telling rather than showing.

That said, I enjoyed the story. Found it inspirational and thought provoking and felt the honesty in the story. I will get a review posted sometime today.

I read really fast and I often go back and reread to pick up the stuff I miss the first time. It probably is clear and I just wasn't expecting it. Nice twist. I'll reread to see if its me speed reading.

Its well written. And I mention release times because its part of my research. I've only had my launches to look at. Now I've got yours. I'm trying to factor in more data. (I love data) and analyze what happens and when. I still think there must be a formula for it if I only knew it. There is so much to the business side that could be taught if I'd only come to this younger, and free-er and more focused. It's useless to regret. The life experiences that I've had have molded who I am. And that makes my writing richer and truer than it would have been without. But I still feel like I'm missing a big chunk of my life.

I started the indie route 4 years ago. At that time it was suggested that you have 6 books in your back list. Now they say 10. The back list is what will give you a living. but new work is what gets you seen. I lost ground when I didn't get my books out in the time limit I gave myself. Some of it is my fault but a lot of it was circumstances. 2015 was the hardest year Joshua ever had healthwise. He wasn't eating well, he was vomiting daily, and he wasn't sleeping. Which meant I was exhausted, stressed, and worried. No way could I be efficient when it was taking everything I had to just get through the days. I know God has a plan but I really wish I knew why we had to endure 2015. Marcella was failing and that took a lot of energy from me too.

Anyway, complaining about it doesn't get me anywhere. What it means is I have to come up with a new business plan, new schedule, and new goals. Anyway, because I don't have my back list in place I haven't budgeted any money toward marketing or promoting. Most everything I've done has been free stuff. I do have a strategy worked out for after the 3rd Cosmic books goes live. They all have to do with packaging and promotionals. I've never had a complete series before. I'm really intrigued to see how a box set would sell vs. individual books.

I had something good happen today. I have the money for putting out Knock Knock in place. I can move forward now.

You'd be surprised at how small streams of income can add up to useful income. I'm trying hard to develop our artwork by making it available on fineartamerica. The artwork is faster to produce and if I can start getting enough of it seen it could work much like selling books. In addition, Joshua and I are working hard to develop a public presence. Joshua already has a board in place for public speaking and by Feb. we're going to add one for his face to face with the agent in April. He'll have almost 3 months to practice it with Kathy before he has to meet with the agent. (if we're lucky enough to get a spot. We got our reservation in the first day so I'm hoping we have a shot at it. Joshua is writing 1 to 3 pages every weekend. and with practice he may increase that but he needs 24 pages. getting 3 done a week is 12 a month. That is one day a week of work. If he can double that, he could have his book written in 30 days. Which would leave us a nice amount of time to add illustrations to it and have a worthwhile presentation package by April.

I may not hit my Jan. 1st deadline for publication of Knock Knock but I will give it a good try. I'll be in KC not this weekend but next weekend. And I'll be gone about 10 days over Christmas. Once I get back from Texas, life will be calm for awhile. I can buckle down and have a schedule. I used to hate Jan. and Feb. because I usually got snowed in and bored. But now I look forward to being snowed in. It means I'm home and nobody can expect me to be anywhere else. Having Marcella gone will free me up emotionally and physically. The strain was getting to me. I feel bad that she passed but I also know she was ready to go and that makes me more peaceful with it.

I want some sort of sign that I'm making progress. Right now, I just keep tossing bait in the water and no bobber moves. I really need some action even if its stealing bait. At least I'd know there is something in water if the bait gets taken. I feel energy building in me again and for a long time it was gone. Simply too tired. Joshua's excitement creates more energy in me.

We were thumbing through a catalog called Russells Men. Lots of leather stuff and sporting stuff. There was a leather briefcase for sale that was really neat and I got all excited about it because it had lots of pockets and it was leather. Joshua just about jumped out of his chair. I have never seen him so excited. Easy enough to see he wanted that briefcase. So I ordered it that night and hoping it gets here in time to take it to Texas so he has a Santa present under the tree and know that its something he truly wants.

I read volume #2 last night. My only complaint was: its too short. I wanted more. These stories were a tiny bit darker. A little bit creepy in a very good way. I got a review written. Keep them coming.