Clockwatching

Like most self-published ebook authors I’m constantly engaged in a struggle against an obsessive need to check my sale stats – or clockwatching as I call it. I strive to avoid checking more than once a week since my mood can crash if I fail to sell anything in a 24 hour period. Nuerosis comes with the territory when you’re endeavouring to write stuff for which people may actually part with money so logging in to my sales report every five minutes really isn’t healthy. However, during my last permitted period of obsession I sat down to calculate just how many books I would have to publish in order to generate enough income at the current rate of sale to keep myself in the luxuriant style to which I’m accustomed. Turns out, once taxes are factored in, I need to publish 30 books. Pshaw! Easy you might think. However, it took me the best part of six and a half years to write my first book. At that rate I should make it to full time writer status by the age of 237.

To anyone worried that the above post means the sequel to Blood Song won’t be out for another six and a half years – all I can say is I intend to be writing pretty much every day from 1st April to 31st July after which I may have a first draft, if I don’t die in the attempt. If you like my work and want the sequel to appear as quickly as possible, I will be spurred to greater efforts by good reviews on Amazon or your bookseller of choice – and of course more sales, despite the fact that I’ll only be checking once a week (or once a month if I can manage it).