IWSG: Success!

It’s the first…er…second Wednesday of the month.

Time for Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s been a very busy time for me lately.  I finally finished my second book, Leverage, the sequel to my first, The Mistaken, and I  must say, even though I haven’t gotten a whole lot back yet from my CPs (it’s only been a couple days after all), I do feel pretty good about it.  What they have said is they can’t put it down, so I’m feeling pretty solid.  No rookie mistakes this time around.  And where most of my reviewers called The Mistaken a rollercoaster, Leverage is  more of an amped-on-steroids rocket ride. 

Speaking of The Mistaken, November was a rather dreary month for sales.  Most all of my author friends had the same complaint, so I felt in good company.  But I decided it was time for a shot to the arm, so I placed it on sale for 99¢ for five days in early December to celebrate turning 50. 

Prior to that, I’d applied for a very expensive BookBub ad to run on the 4^th day of my sale and was accepted, but it was well worth the price.  The Mistaken went as low as #87 overall out of all Amazon Kindle ebooks.  I made several bestseller and top-rated lists and have managed to hold on to two of them so far.  And while it’s slowly creeping back up in rank, it’s still in a nice, comfortable range, so mission accomplished! 

Also very exciting, The Mistaken audiobook was finally released by Cherry Hill Publishing and can now be found on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. 

My point to all this?  Well, in this rather sucky business of publishing, it’s always an uphill battle and can be downright depressing at times.  But don’t give up.  Figure out how to deal with it and move forward.  There are a lot people out there in the same boat or who’ve experienced the same thing and have managed to pull through it.  Ask them for advice.  I bet they’d be only too willing to help out.  That’s how I was able to experience success last month.  I’ve found that all of my author friends are very Pay-It-Forward people.  It’s how we stay sane in an industry that will eat you alive if you’re not willing to play. 

IWSG: Holding On

It’s the first Wednesday of the month.

Time for Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

When times get tough, I latch on to the smallest of things to help me through, to make me feel better until things actually get better.  That’s the way it’s been for the last three weeks or so.  Sales are sluggish to the point of being non-existent at times.  It’s hard to remain optimistic when I see that everyday.

But amidst it all, there is always something that seems to brighten even the darkest of my professional days.  Yes, sales are lagging recently, but I just got word that my audiobook will be launched the week of Christmas.  It will go on sale first at Cherry Hill Publishing then go live on Amazon right after that, then on to Audible and iTunes shortly thereafter.  Seriously, I can’t express how exciting that is for me.  In fact, you can sample the audiotrailer here if you’re interested.

And while, being traditionally published, I don’t have much control over my own book, my publisher has agreed to a 99¢ sale on The Mistaken from December 6^th through the 9th, so I’m optimistic things will improve on that front.

To top it all off, tomorrow, December 5^th, is my birthday, but not just any birthday.  It’s my 50^th.  A half century.  A whole new demographic.  I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, if I should party or cry, but I can tell you, my friends and family have already or are planning to make tomorrow a very special day.  What more could I possibly ask for?   

Oh, yeah, one last thing, if you're interested, I'll be over at Dauntless tomorrow, December 5th with a post on The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the publishing business, so stop on by and say hi!  

IWSG: Blazing a New Trail and Meeting a New Friend!

It’s the first Wednesday of the month.

Time for Alex J. Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group.

This last month has been a mixed bag for me.  Some ups.  Some downs.  It all levels out in the end.  At least, I hope it will.  My worst bit of news is something I can’t really share, not without possibly hurting those who’ve been good to me thus far, even if I now find myself in a big, dark, black hole of insecurity. 

What I can share is that I sold the audio rights to my novel, The Mistaken, to Cherry Hill Publishing.  Just look, The Mistaken has been added to their website's homepage as “In Development”. 

Pretty cool, right?  Now, I’ve never listened to an audio book before.  But then again, I’d never read an ebook before I was published either. 

Anyway, before signing, I found out a few interesting facts about CHP.  In the past, their catalog has consisted primarily of public domain titles—think Moby Dick, War of the Worlds and Pride and Prejudice.  Because of this, they have 100% coverage of the US public library market.  That’s huge!  100%! 

Now, CHP is venturing into the world of private titles, such as my own.  Besides physical forms (CD), they distribute electronically via Audible and iTunes, where most people purchase from these days.  Best of all, out of the blue, this publisher came to me, instead of me querying them.  That was very gratifying, let me tell you, and definitely helped relieve some of my insecurity.

So now, in 7 or 8 months, barring any problems, I should have an audiobook version available of The Mistaken!  That’s very exciting to me and helps make up for the rather devastating news I received a couple weeks ago.  Like I said, it all kind of levels out.

In addition to that good news, I got to meet one of my online bloggy buddies & Facebook friends.  None other than the vivacious Tammy Theriault!  We’d been emailing and FB messaging and texting a lot lately, and have grown to be good friends, though only virtually, as in the Internet, even though we only live about an hour or so apart, something I only recently discovered.

Well, on Saturday, I noticed Tammy had posted a picture of a Bellevue, WA landmark on her Facebook page, so I suspected she was very near my home.  I commented on her photo, and the next thing I knew, like an hour later, we were having lunch together at Outback! 

And you know what, we clicked.  Just like that.  Very natural.  Very easy.  Very comfortable.  I had a blast!  My only regret was that she had to run home after only 90 minutes—long drive and all.  But I’m thrilled to have met in person yet another “virtual” friend, and another writer, not to mention one so genuinely sweet and terribly funny!

That’s just the kind of fuel I need to get me through those insecure days.

Happy June, you guys!