Help the journey to Slay the Bull

Yesterday, in my writing life, I continued to work on the Slaying of the Bull (Book 1 in the Tocharian Gospel Series), which is probably not much of a surprise as it will be published in May (join my Launch Squad by voicing interest here). I also researched around and did a bit of book promotion for the Island of Stone. The day before, I updated my Amazon keywords as I saw a dip in readership (if you’ve self-published with Amazon you know the bane of keywords), and those tweaks seemed to work as I saw a little bump yesterday and today for the Island.

I will not lie to you, it is hard not to get discouraged. There is just so much competition out there. I kick myself for not embarking on this journey earlier when Kindle was fresh and exciting. I can actually clearly remember when Kindle first came out, and like many others, rushed to purchase one. But to e-publish back then, it seemed so untested, unproven, and with little credibility. To live is to learn. If I had dipped by toe into that pool then, maybe I would have gained a readership by now and there would be less competition for my voice to be heard. I was naive to think that I could throw my work out to the publishing world, and someone would just be so enamored with my prose that they would publish it without question. These things rarely, if ever happen to an unproven, unknown writer. It is hard to make a buck in publishing regardless, so trying to push an unknowns work is just not worth their time. Trying to do this myself has put that into crystalline clarity.

Everything about the Amazon system is about numbers, and you don’t get rewarded unless you have these numbers. This is why I need your help, my dear readers, with the Amazon reviews for Island of Stone. If you’ve had a chance to read the book and it stimulated you even just a little bit, please take a moment to write a quick review. Until the Island gains some credibility with starred reviews, I don’t know if it will gain traction and I need it to gain some traction so I can continue building my readership. My next book, the Slaying of the Bull and the series it will start is a story that is too profound just to wallow. It needs to get out there into the world because it really is an epic yarn. I hope that the Island of Stone can help me do this! If you don’t think the Island is worthy of a review, or the Island just wasn’t for you (all our tastes are different) give me some feedback, and I will try to make it better (comment below, click here, or sent me a message on Facebook). And, if you see potential in my writing and think I should keep going, let me know!

Thank you all for your continued support. I can’t do this without you.

Cheers!