My first just-for-me splurge with money from my Kindle sales: a copy of Rosetta Stone for Latin American Spanish. Is it too late in life to master another language? It's not too late to try. That first royalty check hasn't arrived yet, but it should be here soon.
Meanwhile, the big question is how to maintain a level of sales that had been so strong for a month or two and then dropped off? Perhaps one way is to keep new products coming. At the moment there are three in the pipeline--two novels and a short e-book. Of course, no two of my projects have any logical link, which goes against what everyone seems to think a writer should do. You take someone like Sue Grafton. She has a whole alphabet full of novels tightly linked with the same main character. And Janet Evanovich. And Ed McBain, rest his soul, writing 87th Precinct novels by the dozens.
Me? No sequels here. ADD, maybe.
Do any other writers have this problem, that your head gets turned by every new shiny object of an idea?
Oh wait, I was talking about sales. If you haven't tried Twitter, give it a go. It's time-consuming but free, and I think the time has been well spent.
Sunday, April 01, 2012
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7 comments:
I am sure I'll be wandering over to Twitter next week in my rounds.
As for sequels, I did promise readers two more books in my trilogy. That's one way to make sure I do them. Trouble is, I am a slow writer.
Morgan Mandel
http://morganmandel.blogspot.com
There's nothing wrong with being a slow writer, Morgan. Taking time to do it right is a virtue.
Congratulations on the Rosetta program, Bob! if you need any help, or someone to practice LatAm Spanish with, I'll be happy to oblige. I'm Mexican (best LatAm Spanish *ever*, haha) but I live close to Venezuela and Colombia, have a bunch of Argentinian and Uruguayan friends, and you wouldn't believe the amount of variety in language and usage. Most of the time we don't understand each other, and our conversations are peppered with "huh?" "what does that mean?"
Funny story to get you started: I sent an SMS to a Venezuelan friend to make a lunch date ("comida")... And she suggested 8pm. Turns out "comida" is dinner in Venezuela, whereas in Mexico it's lunch. Dinner in Mexico is "cena" :D
Gracias, Guilie. I will most certainly take you up on your kind offer. R.S. will come in the mail, so I won't have it for a week or so. Then perhaps I'll get past uno, dos, tres quickly enough.
One way to maintain sales is to write another book that will help keep interest alive in previous books.
I've found with the release of Opening that Breakthrough has sold more copies. Hopefully this will translate into sales of Opening down the road.
Steve, you're absolutely right. I have three projects in the works, including a novel for later this year and another for next year.
Oh, golly Moses, Bob, my books are as far apart as chalk and cheese! Except for the animal short story collections, I suppose.
As for Spanish, I can say bodega.
Marian Allen
Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes
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