Hello,
In September I made 20 sales of Watermyth, which means that 71 copies of my novel have been sold since its debut on 7 JANUARY 2024. While I’m keeping the baseline price for all ebooks at USD9.99, I intend to keep having longer discount periods for people who cannot afford that price. For now, I’m extending the discount price of USD4.99 through till 15 JANUARY 2025 because the first year for any novel is important.
I would love to keep this momentum going but being extremely present on social media in order to keep that momentum going is not possible right now. October is going to be super-busy for me. In fact, it’s going to be a super-busy semester for me because I’m teaching four courses (I took on an additional set for the sake of my newest PhD student who is based in the West Bank, Palestine because she needs her class to be online). I’m also applying for a couple more research grants and need to be submitting articles, not to mention ongoing work on my academic monograph that has been postponed for years. Apart from that I do have 20 PhD supervisees at various stages of their PhD journey and am part of the internal audit team for my centre. This means I need to preserve my energy and my focus.
While I’m all for “all things in moderation”, sometimes you really do need to step away from some things in order to get other very important things done. I’m at that crucial stage right now, particularly since I’ve been switched to two insulin dosages a day and I’m still getting used to that (it requires a lot of time working out my eating schedule, increased blood-letting re checking my glucose levels etc). So, even though I said I would take a break from social media (masto and bsky) for around a week, it’s going to be a month. My energy levels and overall health dictates everything, as does my job which does not just involve my own sustenance and livelihood but the well-being of those under my charge. I take these things extremely seriously.
The last time I did a month of silence (March-April), I lost a whole month of sales (0 sales). I’m hoping it won’t happen again since there’s more word of mouth around Watermyth now, but I’m not optimistic. But I have to make this decision for my job, for my health, and for my students/supervisees.
(Edit: I returned sometime mid-October after I cleared some big deadlines)
PS: 71 copies of Watermyth have now been sold. When I reach 100 copies, there is totally going to be a 💯 cake! Since I’m diabetic, it’s going to be a cake I will share with others. I know this number may not seem like much but given everything I have to struggle against and my very low profile, I consider it a triumph.
To buy Book 1 of the Cantata of the Fourfold Realms, Watermyth, you can click here.