I'm eating Sixlets! You remember Sixlets, right? Those round M&M knockoffs that never tasted quite as good but were more fun to eat because you got to push each one out of that tiny little plastic sleeve and pop them into your mouth without touching them? Yeah, those. Except there are eight of them in this particular package, which hurts my brain a bit. Ah well. At least they're gluten free now, that's a good thing right? Or perhaps they were always gluten free, only now they can justify the use of ink to say so. What? You don't analyze product packaging? Must be the graphic designer in me.
***
Anyway.
How is everyone doing today? It's the first week of December, and everyone's in 'holy-crap-I-have-exactly-three-weeks-to-buy-everyone's-Christmas-presents-and-ohshit-I-only-have-until-December-14th-to-pay-off-my-Walmart-layaway' mode. Personally, I am broke as crap so it's more like oh hey, I only have three weeks to make everyone Christmas presents, because well damn, I can't exactly give free copies of my erotic stories to my parents. Hah. If only. Speaking of erotic fiction...
November went well. I wasn't nearly as productive as I'd hoped to be, owing to my 'real' job taking over my life for a hot minute, but I plan to wrap a few projects up in the next few weeks so I can get some titles published before the new year. Right now I'm close to finishing the sequel to Gender Confused, which will be my first experiment with a breeding erotica. I'm still not sure if I'm grasping the concept entirely, but hopefully you guys will enjoy it nonetheless. There are tons of other titles in the works as well, including a sequel to The Whipping Boy. I know you're dying to see that story resolved. Sorry for ending the first book on something of a cliff-hanger, but it had to be done! No ifs, ands or buts. Well. Maybe a few butts. ;) Moving on.
The Whipping Boy, in fact, was part of what made November super awesome for me. First, the book jumped up onto Amazon's Top 100 list for Gay/Lesbian erotica, which made my day. Second, my sales last month totaled up to nearly quadruple the amount of my next highest grossing month, thanks to The Whipping Boy's popularity. It's only a difference of less than a hundred dollars since I'm still fairly new at this, but it's a huge confidence boost for me personally. It means I'm headed in the right direction- that I made the right choice. I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be, but it's a great first step. These things don't happen overnight, after all! I'm hoping that December will see the same volume in sales or greater, so I can say November was part of a trend and not a fluke, haha. In any case. Even that small success is thanks to you, my readers. I will never forget that you are what makes me a writer, not my own ability to write. And so I will humbly ask for your continued support throughout the month of December and into the new year! If you've read my work, please, let me know what you think! Reviews are great, but if you can't do that, then even a quick e-mail or tweet would be greatly appreciated.
Okay, on to the last thing I want to talk about today, and this is where I could use your help. I would like to discuss Amazon's KDP select program. Ah, Amazon. We all love it, we all less than love it at times. I've often been tempted by KDP's select program, with its tantalizing promise of shares, made even MORE tempting this month, with the global fund doubled for December. Even though I sell substantially more copies on Amazon than any of my other outlets, I've never used the program for fear of limiting my readers. Also, the idea of taking my work off sale on places like Smashwords and Barnes and Noble in order to enroll them, when they're already in circulation, pains me. So my question is this, to anyone who has taken advantage of the KDP select program: Is it worth it? Have you seen a significant increase in revenue, sales, and reviews? Have you had to take books out of circulation in order to enroll them? It makes more sense, if you're going to use this program, to use it for new releases only, so you don't have to backtrack like that, however... I guess I'm just trying to find out from the source if the program is really all it's cracked up to be. Any and all input is greatly appreciated.
I would like to thank you all one more time for helping me on what I hope is the greatest journey of my life.
-Pepper
***
Anyway.
How is everyone doing today? It's the first week of December, and everyone's in 'holy-crap-I-have-exactly-three-weeks-to-buy-everyone's-Christmas-presents-and-ohshit-I-only-have-until-December-14th-to-pay-off-my-Walmart-layaway' mode. Personally, I am broke as crap so it's more like oh hey, I only have three weeks to make everyone Christmas presents, because well damn, I can't exactly give free copies of my erotic stories to my parents. Hah. If only. Speaking of erotic fiction...
November went well. I wasn't nearly as productive as I'd hoped to be, owing to my 'real' job taking over my life for a hot minute, but I plan to wrap a few projects up in the next few weeks so I can get some titles published before the new year. Right now I'm close to finishing the sequel to Gender Confused, which will be my first experiment with a breeding erotica. I'm still not sure if I'm grasping the concept entirely, but hopefully you guys will enjoy it nonetheless. There are tons of other titles in the works as well, including a sequel to The Whipping Boy. I know you're dying to see that story resolved. Sorry for ending the first book on something of a cliff-hanger, but it had to be done! No ifs, ands or buts. Well. Maybe a few butts. ;) Moving on.
The Whipping Boy, in fact, was part of what made November super awesome for me. First, the book jumped up onto Amazon's Top 100 list for Gay/Lesbian erotica, which made my day. Second, my sales last month totaled up to nearly quadruple the amount of my next highest grossing month, thanks to The Whipping Boy's popularity. It's only a difference of less than a hundred dollars since I'm still fairly new at this, but it's a huge confidence boost for me personally. It means I'm headed in the right direction- that I made the right choice. I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be, but it's a great first step. These things don't happen overnight, after all! I'm hoping that December will see the same volume in sales or greater, so I can say November was part of a trend and not a fluke, haha. In any case. Even that small success is thanks to you, my readers. I will never forget that you are what makes me a writer, not my own ability to write. And so I will humbly ask for your continued support throughout the month of December and into the new year! If you've read my work, please, let me know what you think! Reviews are great, but if you can't do that, then even a quick e-mail or tweet would be greatly appreciated.
Okay, on to the last thing I want to talk about today, and this is where I could use your help. I would like to discuss Amazon's KDP select program. Ah, Amazon. We all love it, we all less than love it at times. I've often been tempted by KDP's select program, with its tantalizing promise of shares, made even MORE tempting this month, with the global fund doubled for December. Even though I sell substantially more copies on Amazon than any of my other outlets, I've never used the program for fear of limiting my readers. Also, the idea of taking my work off sale on places like Smashwords and Barnes and Noble in order to enroll them, when they're already in circulation, pains me. So my question is this, to anyone who has taken advantage of the KDP select program: Is it worth it? Have you seen a significant increase in revenue, sales, and reviews? Have you had to take books out of circulation in order to enroll them? It makes more sense, if you're going to use this program, to use it for new releases only, so you don't have to backtrack like that, however... I guess I'm just trying to find out from the source if the program is really all it's cracked up to be. Any and all input is greatly appreciated.
I would like to thank you all one more time for helping me on what I hope is the greatest journey of my life.
-Pepper