After a two-year hiatus from this book, I have finally accepted what I knew long ago -- I am not going back. And having it sit half-finished has held me back from pursuing other writing exercise books for far too long. It is time to move on.

I was initially excited about this book that tackles the more "business-y" side of writing and being an author, and I read and did the exercises diligently for the first several chapters. But the questions end up being incredibly repetitive and the exercises uninspiring, until my dread of returning to it led to the long break while I coped with the fact that this "finisher" was not going to finish this book.

I guess I'll have to find some other way to train as an author.

5 Nights - Top #100 in New Adult/College for Three Months

Creating a boxed set may have been one of the best decisions I've ever made.  For the last three months that little set above has been in the top #100 of New Adult/College and Romance Anthologies.  All of this books were ones that had seen their day in the sun individually and were starting to lose traction on their own, but bringing them to life was easy when I put them in the set.  I did offer something that I found lacking in other bundle book sets, these were full length stand alones.

Other authors told me it was a mistake to bundle, but as per my normal motto, I did what I felt would work for me.  The set made it to the top #80 overall on Amazon, so I think I'll call that a win!  Was I making a ton of money selling the books this way?  Depends on what you call a ton.  The first month it released I pulled in a $18,000.00 paycheck. Granted that type of forward momentum couldn't last, but in the last two months I've managed to make $6,000.00 and then the fall to $4,000.00 but hey that's a decent payday for three months and has allowed me a little more freedom to write without worrying if I was going to survive on book sales.  

The idea with pricing a book/bundle at 99¢ is numbers.  Obviously if you don't sell a score of books, you won't get the payout.  It was a shot in the dark idea, that paid off.  I think some of the craziest ideas we have as authors usually do pay off.  I'm a big watcher of what's trending on Amazon.  There's not a day that goes by that I don't look at the top 100 bestselling books in my genre.  When I decided to do the book bundle, that's what was trending.  Granted you want to be the ones setting the trend, but sometimes you have to just go with what someone else has already figured out.  I don't look at the free bestsellers, only the paid, because that's where you want to be.

On this free idea.  I don't do it.  I've tried it before, for one book series it worked, but on a whole I think the free scenario is a waste of time.  I'm sure there are authors out there that will call me out saying that it helped them, it just didn't do the trick for me.  I look at that from a readers perspective.  If I have a budget for the month and don't want to get the best books, THEN I will look at the free ones.  When I think quality, I think about paying for what I get.  Instead of going free I will kick off a series with 99¢.  Depending on the length of the book, I'll keep it at that price for anything under 180 pages.  That's a personal thing for me.  I won't pay more than that amount for a book with less than 180 pages.

On to higher priced eBooks.  I'll tell you write now, I'm not paying more than $2.99 for an ebook unless it comes highly recommended from people I really trust.  Which is another friend that's read the book and won't shut up talking about it, so I have to make myself pay the higher cost.  Believe me I don't discriminate either.  You could be J.R. Ward and unless friends are screaming about your book, my stingy little fingers aren't clicking.  I guess you can say I've been trained by reading tons of crap and paying an outrageous amount for an ebook that should have been free in the first place.  Since throwing my Kindle into the fire really isn't an option, I'm going to make sure if I pay $9.99 on an ebook that it's worth my time.

Did I mention I get a little over exuberant when it comes to books I read?  If I waste less than a dollar and hate it, I can live with that.  But ten bucks?  That's the price of a starbucks coffee and bananna bread, so you better be writing pure gold charging that price! A girl has got to have her standards!  So yeah, keep that book at under $3.00 and I'll buy what you're selling without wanting to smack you upside the head if I hate the book.

The boxed set was a great idea for me, and I think we're going to see more trending in that area for the rest of 2014.  People aren't making a ton of money right now, and they still want to be entertained.  Let's not forget that impulse buys are much easier for the reader when they start at lower prices.  As a girl who reads about four books a week, I know I'm more apt to purchase something new by someone I don't know if they keep it a price I don't mind paying.  Just my two cents worth of advice for the day.  Use it as you will!