Numbers torture me

I just checked KDP unit sales and I sold nine books yesterday. Four in the U.S. and five in the U.K. Three months ago, I’d be thrilled at those numbers, but after the last two months of relatively heavy sales, these seem kind of low. Now, my depression will set in until those numbers get back up into the twenties. Lately, I’ve noticed a building obsession with checking my sales throughout the day. Having the ability to see books downloaded in real time is an amazing tool for keeping track but it can also drive you freaking crazy. In the pre-electronic age, authors never knew what the sales of their books were until the quarter was up. Having that “ignorant bliss” kept the steam rolling, and usually by the time you got the sales figures you’d be well on your way into your next project. This obsessive checking I do causes my mood to fluctuate greatly throughout the day. A few sales in the morning and I’m off to a wonderful breakfast. No sales at night, and I go into a depressive fear-sleep that I will never have another sale again. And then morning comes and I see a few sales and everything is okay again, for a while. Sometimes, I wish there was a setting where I could only see my sales figures once a week. I don’t have the will power to halt this addiction myself.

As far as the release of DEGENERATES this weekend, I guess we’ll see how it went on Monday. I’ve posted on most of my forums and started a few threads about the story. I also booked sponsorship on Kindle Nation Daily for the end of next month. For anyone who writes for a younger audience, KND is giving a full week on the front page of its new site for half the price of a normal sponsorship. I bought one for SILENT INVASION for the week of April 6^th, figuring with Easter, there will be a lot of kids out of school and surfing the net. We’ll see how that goes.