The Life & Death of a Sex Doll and other writing updates

My publisher has sent me an email for my sale figures for June up to this month for print and ebook copies of The Life & Death of a Sex Doll. Print sales were flat, which should be no surprise to anyone at this point. I’ve never had a print audience, and print sales are so rare on all of my titles that I’m not exactly rushing to fill in my back catalog of e-titles with print editions.

Ebook sales total are 24 since the book was released at the end of June and I’ve sold 14 Kindle editions. For me, the numbers and the time frame to get those sales are both really good. But it’s not going to knock my publisher’s socks off. So, most likely I’ll need to start doing at least two or three ads a day on Twitter for it and hope for some more positive reviews to roll in and give me something to talk about. The book has had nothing but glowing reviews so far, but to get regular sci-fi readers into it, I guess I need a lot more reviews than I’ve got.

I know it annoys you that I ask, but if you read my stuff, I really would appreciate you taking the time to go to Amazon and leave a rating or a short review. Or, if you don’t like Amazon, maybe leave a rating or a review on Goodreads, or on Smashwords? Word-of-mouth advertising is all I have to work with in most cases, so if you read my work and it doesn’t make you gag to death, can you please help me out with a little ratings shout out? And if it does make you gag, but not to death, you too should write a review. Please.

September’s numbers were very low, but this has been the case with all my titles this month. It weird how most of the summer I did well during that time when I was expecting a slump, and then the summer ends, and then I hit a slump. I’m like the literary world’s walking paradox. I just…is there a rulebook I can consult for this? Or maybe some chart I can compare myself to to verify that other people end up with these same odd results?

I did make sales on a number of titles that I’m advertising, and I am grateful for those. I just hope I can do something with the next book release, A Perfectly Empty Vessel (Sin City #1), since it’s a Wendy Stoffel novel, it’s got a great custom cover, and font work by someone far more qualified than me. It was professionally edited by Lisa Boucher, who also handled editing duties on Redemption Lost and my short story Walking Home With Strangers. So this isn’t just my finest work. It’s combination of my work, the work of two artists, and one editor. The only thing I’m missing is a publicist. Damn.

Setting aside the new book’s pedigree, this is a good, fine novel, with many life lessons about friendship, doing the right thing, discovering old rivals, necromancy, and how to pack your own shotgun shells at home. There’s a bit of gore, a bit of violence, and a teensy hint of romance. (translation: nobody loses any clothing except for Cora, and she only loses a half a sleeve and the top layer of her forearm skin to a dark energy attack.)

A Perfectly Empty Vessel should go to the markets in the first week of October, and I’ll be selling it on Amazon too. I’m already selling Wendy’s first three books there, so it makes sense to see if past readers will come back for a fourth book after Jobe and Wendy have split up.

And since I’m talking about writing anyway. there’s still no sales on my bizarro story NINJAWORLD, and very few previews either. I know bizarro is an acquired taste, but I’ve tried to make a story that while visually bizarre does not stray too far off the beaten path for its allegorical underpinnings. At its heart, this is a story about an unlucky underdog becoming a hero on his new home world and learning all over again what an ugly thing racism can be. It’s got ninja octopodes and ant-like pirates and singing ninja mermaids, and it’s really a swell book if you’ll just give it a chance. Please?

I really need to invest in a set of kneepads. This cold tile floor leaves bruises, don’cha know.