Buzz and Bust

This week I have sold zero copies of UMA & IMP through Amazon. Yep, zero – and that’s not to mention the sorry state of my Number. It’s quite distressing in an overly ambitious, megalomaniac sort of way.

On the other hand, I’ve done two sale/signing events so between those and other ‘flogging’ efforts, a grand total of 47 copies have been sold. And that’s what this week’s blog post is about – the other hand …

… the buzz of getting a Chatterbox reading event at Chelsea library two weeks ago – supported and organized by a super-enthusiastic team of librarians … tempered by the bust of getting less than the tiniest miasma of interest from Battersea library.

… the excitement of getting a mention in the local paper (again a couple of weeks back) … contrasted to the flop of not having any other print publicity success despite getting a few seemingly interested (well, a little bit interested) journalists on the end of the phone.

… the grind of calling, then writing to, numerous schools about the possibility of doing author workshops only to get NO response from ANYONE … balanced by the breakthrough success of scheduling workshops for next term at my daughter’s school.

… the thrill of knowing that a couple of copies of UMA & IMP found a (temporary?) home in my local independent bookshop … followed by the reality check that, at best, they will take a couple of months (!) to sell. Cripes.

… the fantastic opportunity of being able to get into school Christmas fairs to sell the book … juxtaposed against the dawning realisation that Christmas madness has officially descended and this is a terrible time of year to try and approach people about something as tenuously positive as a self-published book by an unknown author who has not even the faintest claim to fame.

And such is life. Good and bad. Positive and negative. The last ten days seem to have been more bust than buzz but hopefully the balance will shift the other way soon too.

Last week I noticed a slow down in my marketing efforts, and this week things have ground to a near halt. The run-up to Christmas isn’t a great time for the stimulation-challenged and I’ve felt myself retreat … because (buzz!) it is a great time of year to hunker down and relish staying snuggled and still on cold, dark nights.

My instinct is to pull back on contacting reviewers, newspapers/magazines, bookshops until January descends. Everyone has their plates full. But all is not lost because I still have a few sale/signing events lined up – four to be exact. Two of those are more about exposure than sales, but I’ll take what I can get!

This week, apart from the sales, I have:

– Put out feelers for some more independent reviews and managed to secure one (yey!).

– Got my Associate membership for the Society of Authors through (www.societyofauthors.org) … today. I still need to go through the ‘bumpf’ so that I make the most of it, because at the moment apart from liking the sound of being a member, I’m not too sure what the tangible benefits are.

– Written an Imp interview as ‘guest blogger’ on Victoria Addis’ The Hermit’s Progress. It was fun!

Despite selling a decent amount of books (just call me Zoella!), I’m a little panicked and feeling like I’m not doing enough … saying it will be a long haul seems to be easier than actually being ok with it being a long haul!

Thanks for reading,

Larisa

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