Jason Writes Again!

However you say it, it has been a strange few weeks.

Ups and downs, a roller-coaster ride, swings and roundabouts, rough with the smooth … I could carry on with all these phrases, but you get the idea. I've been working through one of those times that some of you will be familiar with, some won't. It's like working for nothing, or working and never getting anything right, or working and then hitting yourself around the head with a big self-criticism stick … again, I could carry on.

Don't get me wrong, it's not been horrendous and I have still grabbed my work every day, edited this, wrote that, posted about such and such, but there have been some 'WHY???' moments involved as well. Some have annoyed me more than others, some have been dismissed quite easily, some have lingered around, nagging at me.

I shall try and explain …

So, I suck at sales. It's fine, I freely admit it. It's never been one of my strong points and I remember a long time ago, actually arguing with someone about sales. I don't have that 'Push for the sale' element. If I do, it is asleep, or on holiday, or reading a book … but I know that if I was to ask somebody to buy X, and they said no, that would be it. No more hassling from me, they have made up their mind and I am not going to try to change it.

This can be an annoying quality to have when you are trying to sell books, especially your own books. It adds more pressure. Well, YOU add the pressure to yourself.

It just so happens that I am also being assisted by some friends at the moment, posting and tweeting about me and my books … yet still the sales are non-existent to low.

:( <~~~ I've added in Mr. Unhappy here but I'm smiling as I type this :) :D see?

I am in charge of everything when it concerns my writing/ books. Everything. One decision will lead to another, or this makes that better … I'll do this today and link with that tomorrow …

Having low sales is not unusual. Every author will have spells of this. I have and they don't bother me … usually. It's when I add the other factors in that my roller-coaster sets off.

'My books must be rubbish!'

'If I just had a bit more money to spend, I could afford that advertising, or buy those bookmarks, or run that event …'

'There has to be something wrong with the cover! My genre isn't popular!'

See? See what happened?

Yeah, everything adds together. Silly thoughts breed silly thoughts and then they marry sillier thoughts and have ridiculously silly offspring.

My last post on here was about swag. I had tons of ideas. More importantly, they were ideas that could be achieved without the bank hiring big and scary people to come after me(in other words, home-made and relatively free). I've still included that, though, in the mix of 'What shall I moan at myself about next?'

If I could just sell a bit more, push harder, get to the readers, then I wouldn't have to take time out from writing to make swag, or design swag to make later. I could just buy it with the money I receive from … SALES!!! ;)

This all sounds a bit erratic on my part. I agree … and I don't. I'm a professional at prioritising my thoughts, so can kick out the ones I don't want, much the same as I move a new book idea to a room inside my head when I'm too busy to develop it. I will always come back to a few important points/ thoughts in these times;

I have authored many books :)

I will author many new books :)

I have met some amazing authors/ friends(Emily, the blog boss being one of these:) )

You can't please everyone :)

Even if one reader enjoys my work, I have succeeded :)

I love tea :) (Okay, irrelevant but I'm being soulful)

There are people in the world born to sell, and they enjoy it. I write. I create worlds that didn't exist yesterday. I create characters that live inside these worlds … they live and breathe because I have made them do so. Their lives and adventures and tales of mystery are because I HAVE THOUGHT OF THEM :D

I can't be great at every aspect of the work I do, but I will never give up :)

Aww, look at all those smiley faces … awwww :)

I'm just about to start posting and tweeting about a new sales idea that I had last night. Nothing extreme or one-of-a-kind or spectacular. Who knows, it might work???

Jay Ellis.

P.S. New author logo that I created … like?