Hi guys,
Well, Three Ways
has been available on Amazon for two weeks. Kind of limiting, really, but I
don’t have a cover outside of what I could knock up on Kindle Direct
Publishing, and can’t spread the love via Smashwords. Next on the menu, a
cover, something that will have to wait until tax time. Baby steps…
And as of the
6th of March, I’VE SOLD A COPY! One person has purchased 3W:TWI for their
reading pleasure! I’ve succeeded as an author! Yes, one or one million, a
reader is success. Now about the other 999,999…
For a start,
this is, well, just the start.
Having not put
TWI up for free, but at the introductory low of US$0.90 kindle, US$10
paperback, I haven’t moved the nearly-400 copies I did when I put TSH up out
for nothing. Even with the Faceplant ad (read my book and see what I did there,
nudge nudge) I ran for 10 days. Maybe giving away for nothing would be a better
move, and maybe the price points are too low to take seriously? I don’t know.
Then there’s
that title-du-clickbait, potential turnoff. A risk I’m taking, working for the ways
to look at relationships, the self, the world, showing up like a bedroom
activity. In a book that isn’t about that bedroom activity. Okay, I’m hoping
for the clickbait to work, but I’m not loaded or connected like a certain
author who put their book out at $10. Eek alert.
Then there’s the
swearing on the first page – granted, from Jimmy as a counterpoint to Cole –
but still risky. But the book is set in Australia, the characters are
Australian, and, yeah, we swear. And I do believe if there wasn’t swearing, I’d
get more complaints for it. What’s an author to do to tell their own story,
from their own, blue-collar viewpoint? “This above all, to thine own self be
true.”
(Speaking of
which, I went to the fancy sail-shaped building for Hamlet last weekend, with
Hamlet played by a Harriet who brought a butch haircut and the batcrap crazy,
and sat on the stage edge to share, ‘To be, or not to be,’ with us. Awesome.
And the ending is intense AF. Money well spent!)
Then there’s
that big risk I’m taking on page one. “This novel contains traumatic themes and
scenes, and may be triggering. Please use your discretion before reading, and
maintain your safety.” Am I showing a duty of care? Or am I screaming from atop
a neon sign the words upon it, “DON’T READ MY BOOK!”? This is a toughie in a
world where you never know who might be reading, or what they’ve been subjected
to.
Or is it just
not quite the time, the sales yet to come, hidden away in a pocket of the
internet waiting for the click to enable them? Let’s face it, I don’t have
reviews yet, I’m on Twitter hiatus for Lent, advertising is going to be a matter
of once a month with present funding, no spare change lying around to pull off
a virtual book tour, blah, blah, and blah…
I don’t know.
And feelings-wise, I’m a little meh, expectant of this subtle start, and ready
to kick the can as needed. It might not net me a gazillion sales, or ten for a
couple of months, but I’m tiny, a bit part, a voice crying out in a wilderness
the size of the Milky Way. That poor player who struts and frets his hour on
the stage. (Yes, I do like my Shakespearean nihilism).
I’m not sure
what else to say, but if you’ve come across this, please head on over to the
sample page, see what and my writing and especially my dialogue does for you,
if the characters move you, and maybe, just maybe, click those links for the
rest. Shameless promotion, yes, bit of a plea, indeed, but this is the lot of
an Indie author.
And that’s me
signing off. Hope you all have a good one!
T. M.
Three Ways – The Ways In
Presently Available on Kindle and in Paperback
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