I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I should have posted October book sales results several days ago. Of course, sharing bad news isn’t a pleasant thing. Perhaps that was in the back of my mind.

In October I had only eight book sales. Seven of those were on Kindle, and one was a hard copy of The Candy Store Generation that I sold at work. I actually had one more sale, at Smashwords, but the reader returned it. So I’m not counting that as a sale. Here are the numbers for October, and the totals since the items were published.

Mom’s Letter – 0 in October/23 overall

Documenting America – 0/34

Too Old To Play – 0/3

Doctor Luke’s Assistant – 3/93

The Candy Store Generation – 1/13

Documenting America, Homeschool Edition – 1/1

In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People – 1/3

Whiskey, Zebra, Tango – 2/6

The Gutter Chronicles – 0/0

8 in October/177 overall

The sales graph looks like this. Clearly I have a long way to go to having a viable writing career. Click on the graph below if you want to see it in its un-distorted condition.

Here are my book sales for August 2012, along with totals since publishing. Pretty dismal. I don’t have my spreadsheet here at home. I’ll have to add the chart from that on Tuesday when I return to the office. Numbers are August Sales/Total Sales.

“Mom’s Letter” 0/22
Documenting America 0/35
“Too Old To Play” 0/3
Doctor Luke’s Assistant 7/84
Documenting America – Homeschool Edition 0/0
The Candy Store Generation 0/12
In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People 1/1

Editing on 9/5/2012 to add a new graph in three different sizes.

I’m mostly out of energy today. I’m not sure why, since it’s raining (the remnants of the hurricane) and rain usually perks me up and energizes me. I assume it’s because my diet lately hasn’t been so good. Maybe I’ll eat right this weekend and, with the extra day of rest, will come into the office suitably energized on Tuesday.

I recently left the Yahoo group The Writers View 2 (TWV2) over comments being made, by one individual in particular but echoed by others, concerning how those who opt to self-publish are lazy. They are lazy because they don’t want to go through the process that writer did. Before he left the ministry and went full-time as a writer in 1984, he apparently went through a lengthy break-in period. He wrote magazine articles. He wrote other short pieces, he was a ghost writer or collaborator. He wrote under more than one name. And finally he published some books of his own, and his income rose to the point where he could go full-time. Of course, for many years he supplemented his income by teaching at writers conferences and mentoring other writers for a fee.

At some point about two months ago (unfortunately I didn’t save the e-mail) he said that those who opt to self-publish are lazy, that they don’t want to take the time to learn the art and craft of writing or the business of publishing, i.e. trade publishing. This, however, requires translation: Those who self-publish are trying to short-circuit the route I took, which because I took it that is the only legitimate route to being published.

Then, a couple of weeks ago he wrote this in an e-mail to the group:

if you can’t take criticism–and some people can’t–forget what I said, don’t take advantage of learning opportunities, and spend your money on self-publishing your books. Let your readers tell you how badly you write.

This also requires translation: Those who are self-published can’t take criticism. That’s why they self-publish: so that they don’t have to have editors critique their work. The don’t learn. Their readers will be the ones to critique their work.

Sorry, Mr. Experienced Full-Time Writer. I’m not lazy. Nor have I decided to short-circuit the route to being published. It’s just another route, as legitimate as the one you took. And I can take critique as well as anyone can, I’m sure as well as you can.

I chose to self-publish when it became clear to me that many publishable works were being turned down simply because of a shortage of slots at publishers; that the decision on which 1 or 2 of 10 or 20 publishable works to publish was made on sequential gatekeepers whose criteria was a guesstimate of which book would sell best, and that their track record in making these choices was abysmal.

I chose to self-publish in part because you wrote that you didn’t feel your publishers gave you much in the way of editorial services, which was a change from when you broke in. Several others agreed, and most publishing professionals (writers, agents, editors) now advise that the person who wants to break into trade publishing should hire a freelance editor to go over their manuscript before they submit to an agent or editor. These same insiders advise the writer considering self-publishing to do the same. So what’s the difference?

Anyhow, having been called lazy, having been accused of not being able to take criticism, having been accused of not being willing to learn, I left TWV2. If I want to be abused, better it come from someone who bought my book and left a 1 star review than by a bunch of out of touch publishing insiders. At least I would have a sale.

Today the monthly newsletter of Mr. Experienced Full-Time Writer arrived in my e-inbox. I forgot I was subscribed to it. Another bridge burned, though silently as this writer’s un-subscription service doesn’t ask you for a reason for unsubscribing.

I think I’ll enjoy this holiday weekend.

This weekend just passed, my writing work was mainly publishing. I had finished review of the proof copy of The Candy Store Generation sometime last week, and typed the edits in the CreateSpace file for the print book. However, I decided I needed to do whatever I could to improve the print graphics, and so began work on those. I think by Friday evening I had four graphs re-done, at a higher resolution, ready to insert into the print book.

But the graphs were fine as they were for the e-book. So I decided to make the edits on the Kindle and Smashwords files and upload them. I think I had about 15 typos to correct, and maybe 20 places where I improved the wording. So I had to type these three times, once in each previously formatted file. I had that completed by Saturday morning, and uploaded the new versions.

I also have in hand the proof copy of the homeschool edition of Documenting America. Friday evening, while watching the Olympics, I proofread the material added for the homeschool edition. It’s about 30 pages of material, but a lot of that is pasted-in URLs that don’t require proofing. This was done by evening’s end, and I typed those edits on Saturday and uploaded the new version to both Kindle and Smashwords.

I did not, however, do anything on the two print books. Documenting America will be fairly easy to do, as I think there were only six or seven typos to correct, and no graphics. The Candy Store Generation will be harder. I should have taken the hour required to get Documenting America done and off my to-do list, but after correcting four book files and uploading them, I was kind of weary, and decided to put it off till tonight or tomorrow.

Which leads me to a conclusion I’d noted before, but haven’t written about. I’m finding being my own published to be a wearying enterprise. Writing tends to excite and energize me. I feel as if I could write for hours without any loss of desire to keep going.

But when I do publishing tasks, it’s all I can do to keep going, to finish those items I need to do get the book uploaded (and hence “published”) and go on to the next publishing task. And that’s with essentially zero self-promotion of my books. I don’t know how weary I’ll feel once I start doing some of that.

Just a quick post to post my July 2012 book sales numbers. Compared to June it was a disappointing month. Compared to all months before June it was stellar.

I’m not any further along on understanding how to work with digital graphic files than I was last time I wrote about it. I consulted with some people who are in the know, and the consensus was that CreateSpace was being overly picky on the requirement of 300 dpi when the graphics were not photographs. So I went ahead and ordered the proof copy. I’m hoping it will be here today, and I can finalize the book within two days.

But beyond the graphics issue, I’m still traveling the learning curve on all this self-publishing stuff, not just the mechanics of layout and publishing but also the necessity and tasks of promotion. I have a similar situation at work. We use two different computer programs in our floodplain simulations. One we use on every project; the other we use infrequently. The one we use all the time had a steep learning curve. If I used it in 2002 then didn’t have another project with it until 2003, I had to learn the program all over again. Finally, after a project every year, I think I have mastered the basic use of it, though I don’t think anyone would call me a power user.

The other program I’ve used three times since 2009. If I had to use it now, I wouldn’t be able to without some significant re-study of how to do it. It wouldn’t be as bad as the first time, when I learned how to use it from reading manuals and trial and error, but it would still be a slow process.

Right now it’s the same with the three self-publishing platforms I’m dealing with: Kindle, Smashwords, and CreateSpace (for print). The interior formatting requirements are so different for e-books and print books that I still have difficulty switching between them. I’ve now uploaded six items to both Kindle and Smashwords, and am starting to feel comfortable with them. Next time I upload something, which I hope will be in less than two weeks, I think it will go smoothly.

But with the print layout I’m still far down on the learning curve. I’ve done the layout of three books, two uploaded and one ready to go once I get the cover. I have one more to do: Doctor Luke’s Assistant. That’s so big at 155,000 words that I’m somewhat intimidated by it. I think it will be such an expensive book that it won’t sell at POD prices, so I don’t mind putting off the formatting. Plus, I’ve had plenty of other things to do on my writing and publishing to-do lists.

I’ll work through it all. I feel good about my progress. Someday I might even get to the point where I don’t fear clicking the “submit” button. It might take three or four more e-book items, and at least that many print, but I’ll get there.

I interrupt this series on the genesis, goals, research, writing, and publishing of Doctor Luke’s Assistant to present my book sales graph. This is from the beginning of my self-publishing in Februrary 2011 through the end of June 2012. Big jump, big encouragement. Lots of work ahead.