Monday 5 February 2018

Itching to Scribble

So my book sales seem to be falling. Not the books with the publishers, but my self-pubbed titles. The ones I can monitor on Amazon. I check these once a month and I have noticed of late that sales have dropped. I haven't had any negative reviews for The Chupplejeep Series  and they sell pretty well so I'm not sure what has suddenly caused this. Another author I spoke to recently has said the same of her novels, it makes me wonder that if in this world of self publishing if there are just so many new books (from relatively unknown authors like moi) coming to the market that it is just flooded.

Possibly. Possibly not. I can't say that I monitor trends (I used to -but I just don't have the time now) but what I can say is that over the past year I haven't done much marketing for my books at all. What did I do previously? Not much. I had my old blog, which I never believed contributed to sales, a Facebook page, a Twitter account that I hardly used (I tried and was really good to begin with, but then I tired of it. I just felt there was too much noise on Twitter and frankly I didn't have the patience for it. But maybe I will venture back there) and more recently an Instagram account which I used more for checking out pictures of food I'd like to eat and following my favourite shops to see when they so on sale (also feeds into to on-line shopping addiction). But perhaps the little I was doing was working. My prices are pretty static. I like to keep them that way so that readers don't feel cheated if they see it for a lower price the week after they have bought it. Although from my own reading experience I don't really check on book prices after I have read a book...

Now I need to do something to boost sales again. Perhaps I will reduce the prices. They are already low, but it is a price sensitive market. And I am definitely planning to do a series of posts on Instagram and possibly my Facebook page called the Chupplejeep Diaries. This will be pictures mostly of Goa on Instagram with links to my Chupplejeep Series which will promote the books. Another thing on my increasingly long list of things to do!

One constant on my to do list is to moisturise N ALL THE TIME. Why? Because he has Eczema. It started at four months about a week after I saw an eczemous baby at a playgroup and thanked my lucky stars that N didn't have it! Since he has had this terrible skin condition. I have tried everything on his skin from Aquaphor to Zeroderm. The best thing that worked was oatmeal in a pair of tights soaked in his bath and rubbed on his skin. It pretty much kept the eczema at bay over the summer. But in the winter with the central heating - it is back - back with a vengeance. So more money has been spent - a humidifier installed in his room, a water softener filter too (this was a cheap one and needs to be replaced with a proper system). Several other creams and oils have been tried - nothing works. Even steroids seem to be temperamental.  The next product on my to-buy list is Moo Goo Udder cream. It's supposed to be good, but can I find a stockist in the UK - nope and their website is very slow so my purchase never goes through. I will persist - I  will get there. But I'm not holding out much hope for the cream as so far no cream  has worked (apart from Aquaphor which got rid of his eczema for a whole two weeks before it stopped working)

I have struggled with N's Eczema because sometimes his skin has been so raw I want to cry.  I hate using steroid creams on him too so that hasn't helped my state of mind when I have had to use the creams ( and then they are tempremental). The moisturising is relentless and doesn't really appear to help and you feel so helpless. I have been told to just accept it and do what you can to minimise irritation. I have been told that he will grow out of it. I hope so.



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