Novella cover...~Sweet as Candy~

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EN3IK0C/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_m5Jesb01AZJP9

I think I can...I think I can...I think I can...CR*P I can't...wait, yes I can!

First off...a confession!  I apparently SUCK on this whole blogging deal.

Or...

I could just be uber busy working on my up and coming books!  I'm going to claim the latter of the two.  If only because it makes me sound so proactived.

     I will admit though it has been the the truth especially of lately.  We released my first novella in the CROOKED E RANCH series, ~Sweet as Candy~.  So, back again to waiting for any reviews to come rolling in.  I've been practicing the "I don't care face." And the "I just do it for my work not for the praise" face.  Yet, crossing my fingers every time I pull up my link and wait for the page from amazon to appear.  So far? Nuthin'! Not sure about that but I can be a rather impatient girl at times...so after some meditation A.K.A. A shot or two of cotton candy vodka I wait calmly.

     Today the sales rank was in the 12,Xxx which means someone, somewhere has downloaded my newest baby.  That's the least I can ask for.  My first book has started moving some also since my novella was released.

    Oh,oh,oh!  That reminds me that I need to share my woes from the worst release day like evahhh!  *First it took amazon quite a bit longer than it had before-so unplanned but not unmanageable.  Finally, its been okayed and its ready to go up!  Yay! Press the PUBLISH button and soar birdie soar! 

* Wait?  What?  My novella is up and available for the masses BUT WITH NO F-in' COVER!  The sexy cowboy abs of steel are no longer gracing my cover.  My pink is there but the black is a light,light gray and my name is nowhere to be seen. Sh*t! Cr*p! And all sorts of other words that I could so cleverly add cute little stars instead of vowels so you can guess the word but yet, I appear so much less vulgar than I really am. (Yay-you got an extra confession!). Back to the book.  We need this fixed and like now!  I call my amazing assistant who was informed "no changes could be made until ~Sweet as Candy~ is LIVE)-whew!  I wipe my forehead and sigh.  Thankful it's not live so that means nobody can buy it yet then but after a long wait I try the link and I can't control the urge to know for sure!  I have to!  I don't have the power captain-to resist!  Yep, I one clicked that book so fast my pointer was slightly bruised for days following.  Guess what?  My "NOT LIVE" book was on my iPad within seconds-impressive but that's besides the point.  Still not allowing us to fix the cover I snoop inside the downloaded novella as does my assistant J.M. Edwards...Sh*t!<---note the cute lil' star! Aren't I sweet?  The text is all messed up!  can this get worse?  Wait, wait, wait...we actually got confused for a moment.  Are we self pubbing or waiting for the cable guy to show up?

*Thank ya sweet baby Jesus!  The novella has been up and downloadable for a couple hours with no cover and we couldn't do anything to stop it.  Now J was able to take down that upload and submit a new one.  Back to waiting...by this point it's somewhere around 9:00 p.m.

*At 3-something in the morning my novella is finally up and with a gorgeous cover!  Thank you!

     Now to make up for my release day debacle I promote and promote and promote!  I post on at least 40 Facebook pages and groups and of course on all 3 of my author pages.  I tweeted, I posted, I shared, I emailed, I even pinned on Pinterest.  Then a few emails came in...

"Your link doesn't work"

"I can't get your book"

"Is it just me or what?  I can't get to your book to download it."

WHAT?

     So, once again I check my link...only to be greeted with a message from Amazon.

"Amazon is temporarily unavailable"

REALLY?

    I wonder if I should stand still or run in circles as the sky falls on me?

Amazon was off then on then off then on.  I have never heard of this happening before so I'm sure it's a fluke but it really had to happen after my horroriffic release day-that I had promoted the livin' h*ll out of...ALL WASTED?!?

     I'm not an overly sensitive kinda chick by any means but I was so frustrated that solo much work and hours spent on everything leading up to my novellas release was wasted.  Work and time I spent as well as J.  By this point I'm fully and certifiably p*ssed off and expecting a dreadful sales ranking-if I even made any rank.  Then I looked, stomach churning, mouth dry, eyes closed tight...a final deep breath and was shocked to find ~Sweet as Candy~ at 20,XXX sales ranking, really?  How in the h*ll did that happen?

    The only answer?  Is that readers were patient and went back when they had been turned away.  To me that's the greatest.  Anyone can one click like a crackhead on pixie stix and RedBull but for buyers to have to come back at a later time for the link and site to be working is humbling.  

      My release day may have SUCKED but readers didn't disappoint in the next couple days.  Now, I can only hope that readers will find a special spot for the novella's in the CROOKED E RANCH Series in their kindles-you thought I was going to say heart, didn't you?  Kindle, iPad, computers, tablets, smartphones and of course hearts...I hope my books make it into everyone  of those and readers come back for the next ones coming in the series.  Next novella in the CROOKED E RANCH Series will be ~Pure as Honey~!

     

Thanks for listening!  You guys are so much cheaper than a therapist and you don't file restraining orders on me.

Sidda

Rumbles and rambling along with gambles and grumbling!

     Soooo....been awhile-sorry.  Been a busy girl and such but I know I completely need to upgrade my blogging skills.

    Novella-big ol' fat check mark! Done!  Yay!  ~Sweet as Candy~ has been completed and is being proofed and reviewed and I'm excited for its future.  I'm not going to lie...I had my OWN serious doubts about the novella itself.  I have a hard time believing that I can get a full story crammed into such a little word count BUT I think I just may have done it!  When I read I like a BOOK a big, fat, hard...what was I talking about? OH! A book!  I don't want no short, short book.  I like 'em long.  Nothing worse than thinking you are getting a full length one and once you start you find out-kidding its a mini! BOOKS PEOPLE!  As a avid amazon customer I download with the best of them but sometimes get tricked into buying what I think is a novel only to find out its a measly little 4,000 word short story.  I paid $3 for that?  Never, never again I say!  A week later....sh*t I paid $1.99 for a 3,500 short?

     I didn't want people having these reactions to my novella so no matter how hard I tried to tell myself that if I posted word count and was honest they would no what they were getting into.  Can't do it!  I just can't!  I want readers to know I want to give them a good story at a fair price.  

     I read this article the other day saying new indie authors need to have; a short story, novella, novel, boxed set and there was another thing-which I can't remember....great now I'm going to fail!  Anyways, it said to have new product aka written work out there every 30 days.  Ummmm....how in the hell am I supposed to do that?  I wish I wrote 20,000 words a day but sorry to disappoint I tend to type around 2,000-5,000 on days when I'm feeling chatty.  I have no doubt there are authors out there that can do it.  I mean I just saw Jasinda Wilder has a treadmill she can walk on while she types...I can barely walk while chewing gum.  Not trying to be funny there...it's true.  I am trying my hand at the novella idea and I'm coming around to love the idea of the Crooked E Ranch series but I'm not sure i could ever publish a short story or a collection of them.  I'm all over the novel part but I'm planning on hopefully releasing 2 a year not one every 30 days.  Boxed set?  I'm game BUT you have to have enough to make a boxed set.  So, here I stand again...reading, attempting to follow advice from fellow authors but yet again I have to twist and turn everything to work for me.  I know, I know that's not how it's supposed to work but what the hell call me a pathfinder or a trailblazer-ohhh I like that one!  Makes it sound like I'm doing something amazing instead of trying to attempt this without being a failure.

     I've been social networking my lil' heart out...I've come to hate the word Tweet and my left eye starts twitching when I read the word "status" but I'm doing it!  Yet, I see my sales rank number slowly getting worse.  Less and less people are downloading ~Quick on the Trigger~ but what do I expect right?  It's been downloaded thousands of times and hopefully word of mouth will keep it moving somewhat and that takes time.  I've come to accept that it's time to move on.  Let ~Quick on the Trigger~ wonder freely through the big bad world of published works and move forward with my life...as an author.  Move onto the 2nd novel in the DIRTY DENIM series ~Steel Horse Cowboy~ not just writing but promoting, pushing basically pimping.  As well as pimping my novella ~Sweet As Candy~.  Time to move on but like an crazy ex I can't help looking back, I can't help spying on sales rank, I can't help stalking Google I can't help trying to bait ~Quick on the Trigger~ into becoming a runaway success through bloggers, pages, reviewers, Ect.

     ~Sweet as Candy~ has been MAN approved! I love that!  Women, we tend to thrive on the written word like a lifeline.  Men-not so much.  Now, now, calm down!  Not all men but the kind I'm talking about.  The kind of men who are doers, physical worker bees, alpha tendencies-at least some.  There is something special when I get one of those kind and they like my work.  I write erotic romance so a I take "gave me a hard on" or "that was f*ckin' hot" as a major compliment.  Where most women praise the storyline or characters the men tend to praise the scenes or the banter.  That's good, that's exactly what I want.  I want a book the wifey can read and then hand over and hubby likes it to-who wouldn't want that?

     Novel-conquered, novella-conquering, social media-I got that sh*t covered, blogging-work in progress...next adventure in self pubbing? (Insert theme from Jaws here-hello, shark week people!). Next adventure for Miss Sidda Lee Rain to attempt...BLOG TOUR!  Yep, a frickin' blog tour!?!?  Me and a blog tour...perhaps this is the one I won't succeed at, maybe it's the one I'll fall flat on my face on but I as I walk through the valley of the shadow of...okay maybe that's a little "quick on the trigger" (see what I did there?) like everything I'm going to research and ask a million questions and drive everyone crazy I figured or I could just set it up with an outside vendor.  That sounds perfect!  Someone who knows what they are doing!  Someone who tells me what I need to write about and to who, what I need to send, what to sign...oh yeah sounds perfect!  Now...to find the right vendor? Sh*t and to think I once thought I'll just "toss it up on amazon"!