Let's get personal!

Hey Fabulous Readers! 💖

The poll in the last newsletter was instructive: those of you who responded said that you wanted to know more about being an indie author, and more personal stuff about me. So I shall pay attention to your desires and restructure things a bit, going. I will start newsletters with the indie author section, and put the personal section beneath it, so you can easily get to what you want to read 😊

And hey, here’s a NEW poll!

INDIELIFE: I hate all of this…But new covers coming!

So the last six or so years have taught me that my books sell best at events/conventions/goth markets—basically, anywhere I can talk to the customers about the books. I have had exhausting but exhilarating days where I sold a book to almost everyone who walked past. So I know that the series can build an audience who is enthusiastic and excited for more. (This would be YOU. And thank you for that!)

However, Amazon sales have always been dismal, and continue that way. And as much as I hate-hate-HATE it, I cannot make it as a writer without the biggest bookseller on the planet.

I tried getting help two years ago with an Amazon marketing company. That was a serious waste of my time and money, and taught me a very real lesson that selling sprockets (or self-sealing stem-bolts) on Amazon is completely different than selling books. (Also, that company was very unprofessional and it was a deeply unpleasant experience.)

Last year I worked with an agency which was much better to deal with, who focused on helping authors who wanted to run Amazon ads. After six months, they had not moved the needle, and after kindly giving me money back, they shrugged and said, “Some books just don’t sell well on Amazon”

That was frustrating, because my books are a good, quality product, with covers that people adore, and there has to be a way to get Amazon readers to give them a try. I have redone the book descriptions, gone through every few months and updated the categories—this is a terribly important thing that no one tells you about, and Amazon keeps changing the categories and will actually penalize you if you choose the wrong ones. I have jumped through the flaming hoops to make A+ content (which I was assured would entirely change the situation. Spoiler alert: it did not.)

Two weeks ago, I finally found another company who helps authors with Amazon sales. And finally, I found people with knowledge of how Amazon works, and years of experience selling books there. (I wish I had found them years ago!)

After a somewhat brutal first meeting, I have learned that my beautiful and unique covers are not selling because they are not what people expect to see when they look for books in my genre. And I do not have their attention like I do people standing in front of my table at a vampire market—they are standing in line in the grocery store or watching TV, anything but give it their full attention. So my books at first impression need to look like something they want to buy.

Now I can hear you say, “But your books are cross-genre!” That is exactly what I said, too. It was explained to me that we are looking for the most “forgiving” genre readers. For example, science fiction readers will read a science fiction book with a mystery in it, but mystery readers won’t read a book with a space ship on the cover. While I am an omnivorous reader (and most of you are, too) that rings all-too-true for me.

So the new plan is to look at best selling dark fantasy books and see what their covers have in common, and get new covers for the series that look exactly like that.

It breaks my heart into tiny pieces, and goes against everything I believe as an artist—I want my works to stand out from the crowd, dammit! But I need to actually sell enough copies of my books to afford to keep writing them. So we are doing this (and more—stay tuned to this newsletter for those future items.)

For those of you who adore the Kwasi covers, do not fear. Now matter what else is done, I will keep selling the Kwasi covered versions in person, as they do very well in that context.

It has been a real kick in the stomach for me to hear all of that, and to know that I’ve been accidentally sabotaging my own sales by trying to offer something fresh and new (everyone always says the vampire genre is “dead”—so stop buying shit with the same damn covers already! ) but I do feel strongly this is the right direction for the series, at least in terms of increasing the readership. However, ugh, I still hate everything about it!

Where In The World…?

Now that I have made the announcement to you all about Caaisho, I can start tracking her movements through the novel along with Noosh.

This—um, infographic, I guess?—is slightly out of date, because I’ve just finished reworking Chapter Five, and Caaisho is a little further on her journey of meeting the am’r, but I really wanted to show where her story starts, so enjoy this hint, and there will be more in the next newsletter.

For those of you who have read Interview with the Vagabond King, you’ll remember that the infamous Boysie Singh is located in “Trinbago.” So could that mean that he makes a guest appearance in Blood Depths…? Oh, com’on, you know me! No way I could pass that opportunity up 😂

Anyway, if you haven’t read it, it’s still only .99¢ on Amazon. Although it doesn’t seem to sell well at that price point, so I’m thinking about raising it. Which means now is the best time to grab it, before is gets more expensive!

I’m still doing my “get to know your character by cooking the foods she grew up with” thing

And maaaaan, does it beat any other sorts of research 🤤

The above video is me making malai kismayo (Somali fried fish), curried cauliflower, and the delicious flatbread muufo. I cannot begin to express how delicious Somali foods are. All the recipes I’m making are from Soo Fariista / Come Sit Down: A Somali American Cookbook and if you cook, you need to get it.

Oh! In making the above reel, I discovered Somalian funk band Dur-Dur Band (who had an album called “Mogadisco” which I think may be the finest album name in all of time and space) so now I don’t just have new flavors for my mouth, but new ones for my ears as well 🎧

RAVENLIFE: You want in…❓

Since there are a bunch of new readers here, I should mention again that I have Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and I’ve had it since I was 17, which was, uh, a minute ago 😉

I had written a whole long thing about my life history of having that chronic illness, but it was super depressing and I’ve just deleted the whole thing…

There is no way to write about ME/CFS without it being tedious and miserable, because that’s what having a chronic illness is. I have the damn illness and I myself can’t stand reading other people writing about it, so I can only imagine how much non-chronically ill people don’t want to read a whole long thing about it 🙄

How do I let you all into my life more, however, and not explain it? It shapes every decision I make, every action I take (mostly actions I don’t get to take, that is) and how I plan both my life and writing career

When I post images to social media, it’s of me getting out and living life. But then I don’t post the images in the 1-3 days following, where I “pay for” my reckless expense of energy—or spoons, for those in the know 🥄🥄🥄

Who wants to see pictures of me in bed feeling exhausted and in pain for three days running? Absolutely nobody. A chronic illness is not something useful for social media, the way recovering from a broken leg would be. With the latter, you can post pictures of the cast being put on, the cast coming off, inspirational pictures of you at physical therapy, and then eventually, a tearfully grateful post about how you are back to normal and what a journey it was.

I don’t get that. My illness looks the same every day. I can post the things I get done despite it, but after those triumphs are an unknown period of recovery for having inevitably pushed too hard, and we are back to me lying in bed, feeling miserable, hoping the “crash” won’t last too long. There is no feel-good story to attach to my invisible illness, and to tell the honest truth would scare most followers away—if only from sheer boredom 🙄

So there is a real temptation to only let you into the pretty, shiny parts of my life, but I would like to actually be honest and show the whole picture somehow…

Anyway, I will be working on how to give you the “full Raven experience” in the coming newsletters, because the fact is that I have learned a lot about managing a chronic illness since I was 17, and I have managed to have a rich life around it/despite it. And I have lots of stories to tell!

Until two weeks from now, know that you are cherished readers, and I hope in all your endeavours you follow the helpful guideline of “Be good or be good at it!” 😘

💭 I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: drop me a note 📨

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