Thank you so much to the 31 people who purchased A Precarious Magic, and to the one person who bought a paperback!

As it happens, Dear Paperback Reader, you’re probably going to see the paperback edition before I do. Author copies get delivered remarkably slowly unless you’re willing to pay for expedited shipping, which I was not. But I also didn’t want to wait through the proof copy routine, because again, that takes a while. The proof copy is when Amazon prints a single copy of the title with a gray bar across the front & sends it to the author for review, before letting the paperback go live. Technically, you have to approve the proof copy before you can release the paperback.

I skipped that step, though, because I’m planning to send paperbacks to a couple of people (the ones mentioned in the dedication) and I was hoping I could get them out by Christmas. I decided to wait to send them, however just in case something was wrong with my files. I did not anticipate that someone else would buy a paperback first. I do hope the back cover turned out as nicely as I think it did.

So yes, you, Dear Paperback Reader, will be the first person to find out how the print edition looks and whether it’s all okay. I hope that knowledge is fun for you. 🙂 I also hope it does all turn out okay, but if it has any problems, do let me know and I’ll replace your copy if necessary.

In other news, I’m still working on Cici 2. I’m well aware that this is a stupid financial decision and I’m trying not to let that knowledge affect my outlook on life. But I had a long and lovely conversation with my friend Suzanne yesterday and she assures me that pet sitters can earn $40/day in Arcata, so there we go — future career assured. I will be an excellent pet sitter.

Meanwhile, a snippet:

The flunkey led Cici through the glittering foyer, past a luxurious reception room with thick carpeting and delicate chairs, and into an elegant office. The walls were paneled with blue Arguvian hardwood, with a floor made of the same wood inlaid with lighter blue patterns. Shelves against two walls held a selection of intriguing artifacts as well as traditional paper-bound books. In the center of the room, a large desk beautifully carved of more Arguvian hardwood held a comm terminal. 

Cici did not roll her eyes. 

Through still gritted teeth, she said to the flunkey, “Not here. Take me someplace less…” She cast an eye around the room. “…flammable.” 

The flunkey swallowed. “Yes, ma’am.” 

He led her back to the elevator. In silence, the two of them descended another two levels. This time, the elevator doors opened into a nondescript corridor, with doors leading off on both sides. Most of the doors were open and the corridor bustled with energy, beings moving, voices calling. 

Cici caught snatches of conversation as they passed along the corridor. 

“After the last time, there’s no way…” 

“Are you watching the news? They’re saying…” 

“Maybe we’ll finally get that upgrade to the…” 

“She’ll want to review the progress on the weather station. Do you have those reports…” 

“Twenty credits says she fires the Planetary Administrator.” 

“Fifty credits says she sets fire to the Planetary Administrator.” 

The last comment was said with a laugh, but Cici felt herself flushing. 

How had the news of her loss of control spread so quickly? Had Asuke started talking about her brush with near death by dragon fire the very second they’d separated? 

Cici glanced in the open door to see the speaker, feet up on his desk, leaning back in his chair. With a tiny spurt of magic — the merest smidgen of it — Cici pushed his chair away from his desk, almost out from under him. He yelped and scrambled to recover as she continued down the hallway. 

She felt a little guilty. That had been petty of her. Better than flaming him would have been, of course, but still… She shouldn’t take her temper out on hirelings. Even hirelings who were making fun of her. 

Although, she thought, feeling more cheerful, Randall would have done much worse. And her mother would have eviscerated the man with a single tilt of an eyebrow. Honestly, that guy ought to be grateful she’d been so restrained. Why, she’d practically been nice. 

Almost nice, anyway. 

Well, maybe not quite nice. But close enough. 

*****

Happy Monday!

This is going to be another boring post for anyone not interested in self-publishing, but it’s the most efficient way for me to keep a record so skip it if you’re not interested. I suppose it would be more efficient of me to post it on my seldom-used business blog — which I haven’t even updated with Cici, oops — but I’d never remember to look for it there, so it goes here. 

So, I published Cici a week ago, to all the usual spots. Much though I love her, I have very low expectations for Cici. My most similar title is A Lonely Magic, which is the book that I spent the most money on by far — professional editing, professional covers, advertising on multiple sites, NetGalley membership to get reviews, etc.  and which… well, has not rewarded said expenses. ALM was the book where I tried to get serious about self-publishing and while it was an interesting experiment, being serious did not lead to success. (Grace has earned more money in its first four months than ALM has in over four years. Ouch. Sadly, this is not because Grace is making me rich.) 

Anyway, I’m sure a self-publishing guru would tell me that I need to spend money to make money, etc, but eh. Maybe someday, if I ever get a real job and have extra money floating around. Meanwhile, I would prefer to continue to eat. So I’m not spending money on Cici, much though I adore her.

My sum total of marketing dollars on Cici was $5 on a Facebook ad sent exclusively to people who have liked my page. That ad reached 161 people, had 37 engagements, and 6 clicks. So if each of those clicks led to a sale, I might have sold 6 copies because of the FB ad, therefore spending $5 to earn $15, for a profit of $10. 

I also sent out an email to people who have subscribed to my mailing list. Mailing lists are such an interesting thing: I bought a book recently about being a mailing list ninja, something like that, and apparently I should be using my mailing list to chat with readers, “engage them,” and most definitely not to simply tell them when I have something new published. Because apparently telling readers that there’s a new book is asking them for something as opposed to providing them with information that they supposedly wanted to receive? But I honestly hate email, I don’t want junk cluttering up my inbox, and I really think that if anyone actually wants to hear from me on a regular basis they could just read my blog. I view my mailing list as being the people who simply want to know about new books. But apparently not so much: of the 1415 readers who have signed up for my mailing list, 474 opened the email, and 100 clicked on the link. 14 unsubscribed. 2 reported me for spam, sigh. These are, of course, not terrible results: the industry average open rate is 17.2 and mine was 33.7 and the industry average click rate is 3.6 and mine was 7.1. So at least I’m running better than average. 

BookBub also sent out an email to my followers there, approximately 6000 some. I know they did because I follow myself and I got their email. And the chance exists that Amazon will also let people know, those who follow me on Amazon. (I just started following myself so I didn’t get anything this time but maybe I will next time.) 

So, potential marketing outreach: 1415 mailing list readers, 6000+ Bookbub followers, 500+ FB followers, 300+ Twitter followers, and the 30+ of you who read my blog.

Total sales for week one – 103: 

• Amazon: 85
• Barnes & Noble: 16
• Kobo: 2
• Draft2Digital (Apple, Scribd, Tolino, Overdrive, etc.): 0
• Google Play: 0

I think there’s some conversion rate thing that I’m supposed to figure out — around 1% of the people reached decided to buy?  That’s probably not a bad number for professional marketers. 

Anyway, I’m really just saving this data for future reference. Cici obviously doesn’t look like my other books, so it’s no surprise that she’s a niche read. Someday I might have to separate out my identities so that people who like true fantasy, no romance involved, aren’t mixed into the audience who likes romance with a little fantasy involved. But at the moment that’s far too much work and I’d rather spend my time writing. Or doing laundry, which is what I should be doing right now! 

And meanwhile, far more importantly with Cici, I have been really delighted to hear from people who enjoyed her and loved the ending and even more delighted that no one’s spoiling it. I usually try to avoid reading reviews because they are not good for me, but I’m totally reading every Cici review that comes my way because I so enjoyed writing her and really like reading that people enjoyed reading her.