My temp job is over, but I made some very good contacts there, including the CEO through my friend John. (Remember him? I blogged about him on here when he left the long term temp job we were working, thinking I'd never hear from him again. He's managed to stay in touch, and I'm delighted about that)
So, here I am with nothing to do except apply for more jobs, go on interviews and practically finish my second book. It's really close to being done, I just need to flesh out a few scenes (ugh, and then edit it) but all in all I'm pretty pleased with it. Book one is not doing so hot; my nephew sent me an email with a bunch of suggestions on doing some P.R., but I had to send him back a note and let him know it's almost impossible for me to do any of the things he suggested.
There's only one I'm even faintly comfortable with and that's lowering the price a bit. It's set at 2.99, and that's only because I've been working on it for about 4 years; really hate to lower it even more. He suggested other things like starting a book blog, but I have enough trouble even keeping up with THIS one, much less another, and also going on Science Fiction and Fantasy sites and making some comments and then after people get used to me on the sites, mentioning the book to try and drum up some traffic. Well. See. I don't really consider this book to be either Science Fiction or Fantasy. Yes, it does take place in a non-designated time in the future, and yes, it does have some pretty, um, fantastical elements to it, but it's basically a story about two best friends who run a delivery service and all the trouble and problems they run into.
On the aggressive marketing part - I grew up with a Southern Belle for a mother. We wore white gloves to church, and those little hats that wouldn't stay on my head unless there was some sort of elastic restraint digging into my throat. She drummed it into me there are just some things, as a lady, you do NOT do. 1) You never ask anyone how much money they make or what they paid for anything. 2) You never, ever call a boy. (I managed to get over this one, but only if we were dating.) 3) If someone takes you out to eat, eat before you leave the house so you won't make a pig of yourself at the restaurant and 4) You never push yourself on anyone for any reason, or beg on bended knee for anyone to buy your book you just put online. Okay, she didn't actually say that last one quite that way, but she did always tell me to never be pushy about anything; it was just plain rude and a lady didn't do it. So I'm kinda stuck being not-pushy and so not aggressive. I mentioned it to my brother over Easter steaks and he just nodded - he's not very aggressive either. Of course, the really funny thing about my mother is my friends used to be very intimidated by her; she really was a tough lady, but she was always a 'Lady' first, sort of on a Julia Sugarbaker aspect.
I've mentioned the book on here a couple of times and put the website url up, I've mentioned it several times on Facebook, but got no response from that either. Several of my close friends downloaded it to help me check the payment process - love you guys! The best response I've gotten was when I mentioned my first 'review' by my friend Jan up in Oregon. As a matter of fact, I'm going to mention it here, just because it makes me feel good that the book made her feel good.
"I finished reading ‘Dude’ last night and it put me in the best mood I’ve been in for awhile. I’m a mostly non-fiction reader, so getting into fiction is always a bit of a challenge for me. I really liked it. I liked the main characters and I think your character development is a real strength along with strong humor and subtle points. It sort of reminds me of good fiction I’ve read in ‘Yankee Magazine’ and ‘The New Yorker’."
So, if you stumble across this blog while looking for something else, please, I'm on bended knee, begging, please go to www.spacedude.co (yes, co., not com.) and read the first two chapters for free and buy the book for 3 bucks if you like it. I know there's some typos; they've been corrected but we haven't put the corrected version online yet. Wait a week or so if you want the non-typo'ed one, but even with typos it's not bad. At least Jan in Oregon didn't think so. Oh, and if you're on Facebook, check out 'Space Dude - the Novel'. Thanks folks, I appreciate it. Tell your friends and neighbors too! There, that's as aggressive as I can be, looks like.
Whoa. This is long. Well, I do have a photo of the Jypster and her absolute favorite toy...a stick.
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