wow, where has all the time gone?  in the midst of all the olympic pandemonium, i’ve practically forgotten to update this here blog. =P  anyways, better get to it:

it’s been a little over two months since i’ve published my novelette on amazon.  much of the time’s been spent on promotional stuff.  i’ve emailed a few more reviewers, and jim chambers was good enough to write this nice review. =)  he mentioned that, despite his massive TBR list, he could get to my novelette quickly because it was short, so didn’t require much time to read – another good reason to start with a short story or two:  readers won’t have to invest a lot of reading time on a writer they’ve never heard of, so they’ll be more likely to give your story a try.  immediately after he posted his review, i saw my sales increase significantly throughout the following week, before slowing back down.  i also emailed the good folks at e-book friendly for a review; they replied that they didn’t do reviews, but ultimately decided to put my novelette on their list of staff picks!  and of course, there was the twitter #SampleSunday promo, which i did for a few sundays and asked some friends to re-tweet for me.  the #SampleSunday didn’t have any immediate effects, but i’ll probably still tweet it every now and then, just in case. ;O)

numbers-wise, i went through a slump for a couple of weeks, where i wasn’t selling any copies at all and my sales rank began to slide down into an abyss. =(  so, in a panic, i scoured the web for answers and luckily came across lindsay buroker‘s very helpful website.  she had some great articles with very sensible advice, saying how it takes time (about a year) and multiple titles before significant sales start coming through.  i also liked her marketing tips about starting a mailing list and using short story freebies to promote your novels, as well as releasing short stories between novels so that readers remember you.  after reading my novelette, a few people have already asked to be notified when my novels are out, so i’ve spent all day today trying to decipher the ins & outs of the newsletter provider, mailchimp. =P  anyhow, i think i’ve now got the basics down and have managed to install the sign-up link at the upper left-hand corner of this blog – so go ahead and sign up! =D  i may be running a few newsletter tests this week.

in terms of sales, my ranking has since climbed back to about 100,000, which is encouraging.  hopefully, once i have multiple titles out, things will start to get more exciting. =)

. rese