Thank you, Tiffany.

After nearly a year of intense, painful struggle, I have found that original creative idea, have mapped it out, and as soon as I rebuild my office (with a full 8' x 16' chalkboard next to my writing desk), I will be bolting down the path to my hearts delight.

Hope this article will help your readers.

I do connect - with anyone who wants to talk about writing, and often find someone will buy a copy of PURGATORY or NETHERWORLD as a result.

Kind of them - but so far not resulting in a lot of followup. I'm pretty sure I appeal to introverts.

My best results are always when I find someone whose reviews of the great classics of the past couple of hundred years match mine in some aspects, use their own words against them to persuade them to read mine (not quite flattery - more showing that something that is basic to my background already appealed to them), and land them like fish.

I'm sure they thought that they'd accept a review copy, read a bit, be unconvinced (after all, I'm an indie daring to write mainstream literary fiction), and send a nice little apology. Instead, they are hoist on their own petard, yanked underwater in spite of themselves, and have to justify it to themselves somehow. Their reviews often contain words such as, "I don't normally read this kind of fiction, but..."

Very gratifying, because then I get a review like the ones that made me dare approach in the first place - which is my goal.

Relationships? Even the one guy who decked me a star because he didn't like my definition of 'trilogy' on the first book kindly accepted an ARC of the second book - and gave it 5*.

The only problem is that it takes me precious writing time to find and approach likely prospects - and I have only about a 50% success rate because some are not reviewing right now (life happens).

I'm not unhappy - I'm unavoidably SLOW. This IS my legacy. I have not changed a word for anyone (I wouldn't know how to do that). Accidentally, of course - by lacking the capacity to let other people tell me what to do. By finding there's NO way I could work with an editor.

But I think you should still be happy about all the people YOU pleased with your prior work - even if it wasn't exactly what you wanted to do, it WAS what you DID, and they liked it and bought it. Kudos. And now you can do the other. Maybe you weren't ready to do what you want - and developed tons of skills while 'practicing.' Grist for the mills which grind exceedingly small. Real, impressive, and a force of its own.

BTW - what do YOU like to read? 🙂

Rose, I can only imagine how amazing a memoir would be, and how you could influence the minds and hearts of readers.

I'm so delighted to hear that you found your path again!!

Stay the course -- listen to that still, small, internal voice...it'll tell you the truth of the matter and lead you in the right direction.

I have to say that it's always a challenge when you have people giving their opinions and even counsel. They could be professionals, they could be right, they could also be deadly wrong.

That's when we have to listen to our internal voice. Yet, I'll say here that we need to listen when we are calm, without stress, so we can hear the truth of the matter and not through tainted filters.

Does that make sense?

YOU have what it takes to find the truth, even if you don't know the exact answer. We have, in us, the means to detect falsehoods.

Use it.

Write what you are meant to write.

Alicia, that's amazing. My whole Wanted Hero journey started in 1990, so I get the time frames. I've side stepped cancer for now, and a great deal of what I've created has been while ill as well.

...you sure we're not related? (wink)

As for people willing to read a series already completed, I would agree -- I'm one of them -- but keep in mind that a completed series without reviews also looks suspicious to many.

Here's the absolute truth here -- and many will disagree with me -- but I can't fix stupid:

Much of what we see and experience in the publishing landscape is a racked and riddled with lies for profit. The systems sold to us are more often what worked for those touting it, until it became too hard or the market shifted -- so they sell them to us instead. Those highly successful and rich aren't teaching what they did to make the money. Even Master Class and BBC Maestro courses are about craft and not marketing or making the money. They are NOT sharing their exact steps.

So I had to learn the traditional way -- with broken bones and bloody noses. And I did learn a great deal. I've found marketing to be far more simple, when looked at it in this way...

SALES is finding a person, grabbing them by the scruff of the neck and dragging them from 1% to 100% by any means necessary.

MARKETING is finding those already 90% of the way to the sale and showing them options that will benefit them and letting them choose for themselves.

That means building RELATIONSHIPS.

Now, please keep in mind that all this is from my own perspective and experiences. Others cannot challenge what I'm saying because they're my actual experiences, BUT I do know there are OTHER ways. There are, and you need to hear me say that -- there's SO much I don't know, but I have yet in 30+ years had a marketing system I bought and applied that has worked for me.

Tens of thousands of dollars and far more in dedicated effort to have ZERO results.

I live for the relationships. To introduce a person to a story, such as a kid, and the next think I know he's recommended by books to a friend, then a cousin, then I get a call from a librarian several states away saying my books are both fought over and stolen because the kids love them so much.

That actually happened.

As Indie Authors, you cannot guarantee your success, you can only give yourself a better chance AT success, eliminating weaknesses and planting seeds, until people will naturally find signs of you wherever they look.

That is the way I've made a living. I'm not famous. I'm not even popular. But I can say that I've been writing and drawing and raising a family of 14, allowing my wife to be the stay at home mommy and housewife she requested 33 years ago.

I just want more. Much, much more -- and I believe it's going to be trough relationships. Google-proof, Anti-pay-per-click, Amazon-can-kiss-my-fat-butt relationships.

Relationships work, and you can make those with today's technologies whether healthy or ill, mobile or not.

...it's happening right now.

Someone is going to wonder who I am and likely who YOU are, and because Writers In The Storm is clever and honest by allowing commenters to connect their website to their name (as ALL WEBSITES SHOULD), someone's going to come looking for us.

That's where all the true magic happens, Alicia.

We, as writer/authors, just need to understand what's actually happening around us. There's so much hope, potential, and prosperity at your fingertips -- just look about you.

Then connect.

IF I'm still around, maybe finishing the trilogy will give me the push I need in marketing - and I need to learn a lot about marketing, anyway - but it is easier for readers to try something knowing it's finished. Maybe especially so if you're indie?

The writing is very slow, so I need to spend most of my creative time on it. It's coming along nicely...

Sometimes I admire my persistence while ill; other times I wonder what I was thinking! 22+ years and only 2/3 finished. Happy I still like it.

Go out there and be so brilliant, share so much,...that people will 'see' you.

Show the world why they should listen to you, my friend!

(double High-Five)

No, I agree with you, and I believe I understood you.

If there are such good reviews, there should be more sales,...BUT if there's good sales, why aren't there more reviews?

...which translates into more sales?

See the wheel?

I just happen to live in a world where readers enjoy the books, and they tell others, but I have no "social proof" to show others, which can discourage first timers from picking the book up.

My first book was in the top 10 of its category on Amazon (on the first page) for over three years...but when you looked it up and saw such few reviews, you wondered, "How is this possible??"

As the writer, it's disheartening to see so much confusion and you begin to question yourself. Trust me, sales aren't as satisfying as you might think.

Hehehe, wellll, if I was selling hundreds of thousands of copies, I reserve the right to change that answer.