Confessions of a New Author

Ever start something new and wonder, “What the heck am I doing?” It seems to be the story of my life. I might appear to have it all together but you don’t have the front row seat my husband has of my ups and downs in life. Thankfully, he’s always supportive… he’s a great guy.

So, after revising my manuscript with a book reviewer nineteen times, four editors, four proposal requests, multiple rejections and a lot of time and money, I finally decided to self-publish my book November or 2020. Sound easy? Nope. I’ve considered quitting more times than I can count.

But Escape From Nowhere is out in cyber space for all to see. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, many other sites for the e-version of the book. Great! I’ve sold some and actually got my first author payment. Yipee! I won’t tell you how much but it’s less than one hundred. I’m rich! Ha Ha.

The question is how do I promote? I signed up for a free Amazon Ad five-day challenge. Wow. That was hard, but I stumbled my way through, learning as I went. Of course, they try to then sell you all these other programs to boost your sells. I have a feeling there are a lot of people out there making good money off of people like me, people who want to share their work and have entertain and bless others.

I check my ad reports every couple days. It counts impressions, which means your book showed at the bottom of another author’s book page. I have no control over when or how they chose this. It also counts clicks, which I have to pay for. This means someone actually opened the book and took a look. Finally, it counts sales.

Here’s where I stand with these ads after three weeks. I have a little over 1,400 impressions. Sound like a lot? Nope. I have three clicks and zero sales from the ads. That encouraging, right?

The thing is, it’s not about getting rich (because I’m currently in the deep red). I really believe in the message of the book. I’m working on others but it’s slow going. My prayer is for Escape From Nowhere to have a snowball effect, with a slow start but gradually gaining momentum, until it’s just on a roll.

I’m just trying to figure out what else I should be doing. So, yeah, I have days when I feel discouraged but I’m still going, even if I don’t know what the heck I’m doing.