Two months at home

Writing a daily blog is not as easy as you would think, especially during this time of isolation, where every day is pretty much the same. I get up, make my coffee, answer pressing emails, check my e-publishing related numbers and accounts, and then write my blog post. After, I do work stuff for most of the day, have dinner, go for a walk, write, and then go to bed. Not much has changed with this for the past two months. As I’ve been diligently working on the Slaying of the Bull (book 1 of the Tocharian Gospels Series coming out this month), I don’t have a whole lot of writing updates. I suppose the most significant recent development is I received my 4th Amazon review last night for Island of Stone! My average is 4.5, which ain’t too bad and is extremely exciting. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, it takes about 200 purchases to get 1 Amazon review. Another development is I am working on an Amazon marketing campaign that I will institute soon. I’ve been holding off on this to get some baseline data. Now, I have a good sense of how many copies of the Island of Stone sell organically without paid marketing. It will give me a somewhat accurate accounting of how well marketing is working and whether it is cost-effective. I know that the book won’t succeed unless I spend some money, and I’m just about ready to go down that road. It is a bit scary. My goal is to at least breakeven with this passion. It is very easy to get pulled into a hole of expense when you are dealing with dreams. Hopefully, the marketing will work, and I will at least turn a small profit.

Wow, it has been two months of working from home already. It has been a full 8 weeks since MIT closed. As of right now, that looks like it will continue over the entire summer, and the fall semester is still very much up in the air. It is an extraordinary set of circumstances. Many go their whole lifetimes without such an opportunity to have an abundance of time. I can’t think of a better time to focus on my writing and build my writing business. Wish me luck!

Cheers!