Work continues on a couple of projects which will probably hit the internet bookshelves sometime either late this year or early next.

At the same time, I am continuing my efforts to sell as many copies of The Secret of Possum Hollow as possible both here and hopefully on WordPress where I will offer signed copies to those who want them. Until I am satisfied with the WordPress links, requests for signed copies can be made through the messenger on my Facebook account.

I doubt that I will be asked to hold a signing at a bookstore at anytime soon. It’s just the way these things work.

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I was scanning through my e-mails just now (Friday afternoon) and noted a large number of “Get Rich Quick” schemes littering the junk portion of my e-mails.

Many of these schemes come from sources which cater to independent authors like me. The pitch is usually the same, with the pitch usually stating that if I invest in such and such, sales of my book will skyrocket like I never dreamed possible. Yeah, it would be nice – and so would having sex with some young, large-breasted female who is inviting me to “chat” with her in a junk e-mail a few lines down.

In a word, it ain’t gonna happen.

One of my tasks this morning was having a chat with my broker (stock, not pawn) about certain investments I have set aside for the proverbial rainy day. We discussed the stock market and the various ups and downs associated with the markets… and came to the conclusion that money spent with an eye toward the long run will seldom, if ever disappoint the investor. If one keeps a close eye on the stock market and panics when the markets start trending down, they’ll end up being sorry they never thought of looking ahead.

I look at my investment of time and money into my writing in much the same way. In the short term, it’s a losing proposition, what with costs for covers, typesetting and distribution are concerned. At this stage of the game, I’d have to sell roughly 500 books through either channel (Amazon or incidental from my author’s stock) just to break even. If the time I’ve spent writing (and re-writing and re-writing and re-writing) were factored in, that break-even point would be more like 5,000 books. All adding another layer of advice from “someone who knows” would do would be to boost the number of books I’d need to sell to hit that break-even point.

If the advice is valid, it would be money well spent. If the advice is trash, it’s money down the drain. My take on the offers: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

So, I’ll go it alone… unless I’m contacted by an agent who believes as I do that my writing has potential. Then it’s goodbye suburbia and hello country living!

Be Seeing You!

bdharrell