Monthly Newsletter |
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December 2020 |
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Hi there,
Remember last month, when I said 2020 were almost over, but to be careful because that light you see at the end of the tunnel might just turn out to be an oncoming train?
Well, there you go. Everyone’s talking about Covid. The second wave is here, there’s a new mutation, and it looks like we’ll be starting 2021 way worse off than we ever were in 2020.
Another thing that’s on everyone’s minds and lips is the vaccine. The vaccine this, the vaccine that, the vaccine will solve all our problems. But as many have pointed out, we’ve produced the COVID-19 vaccine faster than we’ve produced any vaccine for any disease in history. Ever.
So there’s just no way we’ve tested it enough. We’re nowhere close to understanding all the potential side effects or contraindications. How does it affect pregnant women (for that matter, how does it impact long-term fertility and child-bearing prospects, in both men and women)? How does it affect smokers? What about people on Warfarin for DVTs and PEs? What about diabetics? Is it contraindicated for glucose tablets? What about people on chronic pain management for fibromyalgia?
We also don’t know how effective it’ll be — if at all — against the new mutation. Plus, while much of the northern hemisphere is getting it now or will be soon, here in South Africa, it’s unlikely we’ll see it in the first half of next year, because of money and politics.
Don’t get me wrong: I’ll still be taking the vaccine at the first available opportunity. It’s just nowhere near the “silver bullet” that everyone thinks it’ll be.
But never mind. How was your Christmas? 🙂
We had a nice relaxing day. As is tradition, we all sat around the Christmas tree handing out and unwrapping presents, then we had Christmas lunch, which was cold meats and salads, because Christmas Day is always helluva hot here in South Africa. And then we played Pandemic until way too late into the evening... but not too late; we were still home in time to make curfew!
Now, I look cautiously forward to 2021. May it be a more productive year filled with writing, reading, and whatever else we want to achieve.
What are you looking forward to most in the new year?
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End of Year Sale Now On
And now for a bit of good news. The annual Smashwords End-Of-Year Sale is now on, with thousands of deeply discounted (or even free) books!
The sale runs until the end of the week, so click the button below before time runs out:
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My Books Are There Too!
This year, I've included two of my books in the sale. Click on either of the covers below to get either Memoirs of a Guardian Angel or A Petition to Magic at 50% off!
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A Year of Giveaways
At the beginning of 2020, I embarked on an experiment, where I promised to give a $5 gift voucher to the ebook store of your choice, to one lucky person who reviewed one of my books each month.
The first six months or so went great, with Joni Mielke winning all but one of them. But then it stagnated. Probably, like me, people got a bit despondent over Covid and couldn't bring themselves to read.
I still believe in that giveaway, though; I spend about the same on that as I would on Facebook ads, but I feel like real people posting and sharing reviews of my books gives me way more benefit than Facebook.
Besides, you've got nothing to lose, so if you haven't tried before, I urge you to give it a go. If nothing else, writing reviews is fun! 😉
Here's how it works: basically, all you need to do is write a review of one of my books (yes, it can be the one you got free for signing up), publish it on Goodreads, and post a link to it in our special "Members Only" Facebook group.
Of course, you'll have to be a member of that group first, so if you aren't yet, click the button below to visit. Then click the Join button, enter the email address you used to subscribe to this newsletter, and wait for me to approve you.
Once approved, check the Pinned Post at the top for the terms and conditions of the competition.
Good luck.
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What's Your Favourite Book of All Time?
In case you missed it, the shortlist for your Favourite Book of All Time is out.
Of course, unless you got lucky enough to see your pick in the list, it's no longer your favourite book of all time... It's more like, given this list of books, which one (if any) is your favourite?
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Click the image above to visit the blog post and see the list. Then, click on your favourite, and click Submit.
Just like last time, I'll keep this voting open for a month or so, and I'll announce the winner on 19 January 2021.
Good luck!
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Finances: November 2020
If you remember, I needed to sell around 65 copies of Memoirs of a Guardian Angel last month, if I was going to break even on the Bargain Booksy promo I bought in October.
Did I make it??
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No. No, I did not. 😜
Across all retailers, I sold 20 copies of that book (Top performers were Amazon, followed by Barnes and Noble, then Apple, then Lulu).
I sold a few copies of some of my other books too, which was enough to make profit if I only counted November. But that would be cheating because the cost of the promo was actually accrued in October, so for those two months combined it was a massive loss. Maybe not the worst of the year, but certainly up there.
I guess this shows that paid email promos don't work for me. But neither do Facebook ads. I still think giveaways might work, if I could just convince more of you to participate.... 😕
Anyway, here are my figures (for November only), which have been converted to South African Rands using the exchange rate at the time of this writing:
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- Income: R 308.11
- Expense: R 19.00
- Profit: R 289.11
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Want to Help?
If you'd like to help support me and my business, there are plenty of ways.
First, buy and read my books. It sounds obvious, but so many people open this email religiously every month, click on my links, even reply to tell me how happy or proud they are of me... and haven't read any of my books.
Second, if you've read one of my books and enjoyed it, tell a friend. Although authors like me put a lot of effort, and spend a lot of money, on marketing, the very best marketing remains word of mouth. Nobody's going to know about us unless people tell them.
And if you're really passionate about the book, don't stop at just telling your friend about it. Why not buy it for them as a gift? Plenty of ebook stores allow gifting, and if they don't, you'll surely be able to buy them a voucher or gift card, and gently suggest that they use it to buy my book.
Third, write a review. Reviews are word-of-mouth marketing meant to reach people you've never met. It takes very little time to pop onto Goodreads and rate and review one of my books. In fact, my personal philosophy is, "If there's no review, it never happened!"
Finally, if you're really dedicated and want to make a living out of it, have you considered becoming an affiliate marketer? Most stores have this option: sign up for their affiliate programs, then advertise their products (which hopefully includes my books), and earn commission when people buy them. It's a lot of fun, and many people make respectable livings on affiliate marketing alone.
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Year in Books
If you're on Goodreads, you've probably noticed that they've started sending out the annual "Year in Books" email, with all sorts of interesting stats about people's reading activity this year.
Well, here's mine. 33 books read, which is fewer than the 40 I'd planned on reading, and fewer than I've managed in recent years, but still nothing to sneeze at.
Click the image below to view them all, and see some interesting stats about them.
And if you want to know which ones were my favourite, I wrote a blog post about it. Click here to read it.
How about you? How many books did you read this year? Were any of mine on the list (and if so, did you write reviews for them)? 😉
Feel free to reply to this email with links to your Year in Books on Goodreads.
Until then, I'll see you in 2021.
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Affiliate Marketing Notice
Many of the links shared in this newsletter are affiliate links. If you click on any of those links, and make a purchase from the site in question, I stand to earn a small commission from them.
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