Rob's HH #12: Sisterhood of the Pattinson

[Tornado]

Hey there!

Off to work again today. It's been okay lately but I'm already exhausted and it's only mid-February! The hot weather doesn't help.

I'm struggling with knowing whether or not to continue trying to be an author. I got a royalties statement yesterday, which was a good one, but that's only because I had a new release last year. It's always good in the first statement after that. I was surprised, however, to see that my new novel has apparently only sold one ebook copy. All three of my other novels, which have now been around for a few years, sold more. It was a devastating piece of information. We had sold quite a few paperbacks locally but those sales are usually harder to maintain. It doesn't help that, now I only have a few bookstores to go to, I'm probably not going to sell a lot of my stock from now on. I need some new places to promote.

Sarah - Baby snuggles are nice ... when you can give them back! We're considering trialling Netflix soon to see what it's like over here.

[TwilightFan87]

It got super quiet around here again :/ my life feels the same way. Just a lot of holding and waiting for things out of my control to figure themselves out.

I'm reading a lot, more Karen Kingsbury, and the newest Robin Jones Gunn. It was called Sandy Toes, a silly name for a decent book. I'm all for marketing but the name was so cliche' I couldn't bear to put it on my Christmas list so I got it from the library.

I actually watched the Oscars for once, mostly because I'm completely enamored with La La Land, and I'm bummed it didn't take Best Picture.

Lynne-oh I'm so sorry!! What would you do if you didn't write anymore? I see how active you are on Goodreads, I can't believe you've only sold one ecopy :/ So does that mean you're not selling hard copies online at all? How in the world do authors make a living now?

[Tornado]

Hey there!

Off to work today, although Little Man tells me he's not feeling well. It's not like him to make that up, especially since he's determined to go today, he just doesn't want to go swimming. Don't know whether I should write him a not or make him do it.

Sarah - Most writers can't make a living, Sarah. That's why we need day jobs. And now that most are self-publishing, they usually spend more money on producing the books than they'll get back. Most authors run at a loss. We do this because we love it, not because we make money. It's one of the things that makes me so angry about people wanting free or only .99c books. The author's the one who loses immediately and bookstores are losing too; closing down in droves. In the end, it will be the reader who suffers, as the quality of books will drop, as the only ones able to publish will be those who've got the money. The rest of us won't.

[TwilightFan87]

Wow, sure is quiet around here!!!

I've been reading a lot, mostly Christian fiction. I've been picking up some old Judy Baer novels that I'm getting at the library. After hearing why you were considering stopping, Lynne, I understand more why she hasn't written anything in a while. She's had a really long career though, wrote a lot of young adult novels in the 90s. I remember them from when I was a kid..and her chick lit has been great. I hope she picks it back up again.

I also saw the new Beauty and the Beast and I loved it. There wasn't much of a gay theme like some Christians were afraid of, La Fou flirted with Gaston a bit and danced with another guy at the end during a big dance number, so it was overblown in my opinion.

Lynne-I'm glad to see you haven't given up! I frequent the library more than anything and only buy occasionally, but I do have more sympathy for you now I can't imagine how hard it is.

[Tornado]

Hey there!

I recently took part in an online science fiction faire, and it seems I sold some kindle copes of The Heir, which is great. Going into it, I didn't know if I'd sell anything at all. It only cost me time (and one giveaway copy) and I wasn't sure if anyone would bother to purchase anything, but fortunately, my Amazon ranking for that book jumped later in the day, so I probably sold one or two copies. Hopefully it will lead to sales of The Crown and The Reign as well. A

I've also started writing another new manuscript. I got the idea for this one one day and started writing it the next. The first 20,000 words were easy but now I've got to the point where I'm not quite as sure exactly where the story goes, although I know where it ends. That's always the hard part for me, especially since I never do outlines. Oh well, I'll get there.

Sarah - yes, it has been quiet around here. I've been visiting every day to see if there's anything going on. I'm glad you liked Beauty and the Beast. I thought the gay thing was probably going to be a storm in a teacup. Glad to hear I was right.

[TwilightFan87]

Quiet quiet quiet!

That's this place and my life currently I've been working and playing the Sims, nothing too exciting. I did introduce a co worker to The Hunger Games trilogy so I hope she'll read the books now that she's seen the first movie. We've already talked about our mutual love of Twilight but she's not a big reader so I loaned her THG to see what happens.

Easter is Sunday and I plan on spending it with my Mom instead of Jason's family, so we had his Mom over Thursday and thankfully she took it well. I wasn't sure if she would or not. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

[Tornado]

Hey there!

We've had a good Easter weekend. We're finally getting around to doing some painting that we've been putting off for ages. With the help of Hubby's parents, we got a good bit done on Saturday. We're hoping to do some more today.

I have my first author gig for the year coming up in a couple of weeks. It's at an arts market about 45 minutes from me. It's the first time I'll have attended this one so it will be interesting to see if I sell anything. I'll be at a table with some other authors, which can be really fun.

Sarah - glad to see Jason's mum took it well. I hope you had a good time on Sunday.

[♥midnight_sun♥]

Hey girls! I'm bored at work tonight and after talking about the Lex days with Caryn the other day I thought I'd pop in again. (And I've been very, very slowly re-reading the series in my downtown.) Caryn and I had went to see The Lost City of Z with another online friend of her's that she met somehow because of them both being Rob fans, I didn't get the whole story there, but we all thought it was very cool that we now all live in the same city together and could go see a movie as a trio.

Lynn~I'm sorry to hear about your book sales. Have you thought about contacting some independent bookshops here in the US to see if they would sell them? It may help you out a bit. I know there's one I used to frequent near where I used to work that was a used book store, but would also display and sell indie author's books (especially YA) right inside the entrance as well.

Sarah~Is Twilight on Netflix again? I haven't really searched for anything new on there in a really long time, I'm still trying to catch up on what seems like a million other shows...I haven't really got the chance to just browse movies in probably 7-8 months or more.

[Tornado]

Hey, Ash! Great to see you back!

I'd like to do that but dealing with bookstores is hard enough from any distance, much less from a country away. Also, the cost of posting the copies would make it probably unaffordable for any bookstore. Now, I could always send them books from Amazon but then I would again have to bump up the price of the books because I'd have to pay full price for them and also cover the postage costs. There are just too many difficulties.

I had a reasonably good day on Saturday at an art and craft market and sold 2 copies of The Heir and 1 of Once Confronted. I had to work hard for those sales but of all the authors there, I did the best, so I shouldn't complain. It was good to finally have a gig, even though it was all day and meant my Saturday was wiped out.

[TwilightFan87]

Hey all!

I've been thinking of you all a lot since I've been re-reading Eclipse and now I'm half way through Breaking Dawn. I've even put the movies back on my phone and listening to them. I think I'll finally watch BD 2 as well. I own it but I haven't seen it in years!

Ashley- All the reviews said the Lost City of Z was good! It looked intriguing. Yes, Twilight is back on Netflix I put it on my phone (Netflix lets you download certain movies/TV shows onto their app and it doesn't suck your data) and listened to it while I worked but now there's apparently a time limit of how long it can remain downloaded for. I own the digital copies of Eclipse and BD1 so I've listened to them a million times

Lynne-I love seeing all your author-y stuff and how well you're doing with it. Easter was okay, thanks for asking.