Looking Back A Year Ago...

Something happened on Facebook the other day that kind of bummed me out, and I've been trying not to let it get the best of me, but it's hard. So Facebook does this thing where it shows you posts  from back in the day of the exact day it is in the present. I hope that makes sense. It goes something like, 'This is what you were doing 1 year ago'. Anyways, normally those are pretty cool, sometimes they are lame, and sometimes they aren't that easy to see. Today was one of the latter. 

This is the exact post from May 3, 2015:

It's almost been a year since I began publishing my books. I remember my royalties for the first month: $3.06. I sold 9 copies of my books. Last month I sold 637 total books, the month before I sold 510 total books. 

I have sold just over 2400 books this past year. It's nothing huge by any means, but my books are selling. 

I have published 8 books in 1 year. I will be releasing my 9th novel, A Date with the Devil on June 5th. 

I've written an ugly cry novel, I've written a zombie series, I've written a romantic thriller. I don't like to be confined. I have so many other genres I can't wait to try out.

I'm still nowhere near where I want to be, but this shows that persistence pays off.

Pretty cool post, right? I'm still sticker-shocked that I was doing so well back then. Wondering why I would be upset about seeing something like this? Because I haven't been selling well for over 9 months. I went from selling 500 books in a month to 15-25 if I'm lucky. I went from having people read 2000+ kindle unlimited pages of mine in a day to anywhere from 0-500 most days. I wish I could say I don't know what happened...but deep down I do. 

I started back up at a full-time job in March of 2015, and it took away a lot of the time I used for marketing, writing, implementing edits, etc. I used to be so much more hands on with my brand, and I used to release a new book every 3 months...but I haven't been able to catch up. Throw in the fact that I have chronic gastritis, which is exhausting in of itself...I haven't been able to find my balance. I used to make it a point to promote myself on Facebook in groups every other night. I would make it a goal to post in at least 25-50. I never thought it made much of a difference, but maybe I was wrong.

My street team, my beta readers, my reviewers, hell, even my fans used to be so much more engaged, but now I rarely hear from them. I'm worried it's because I can't stay relevant. It's hard because I know all of my street team members still love me, I just can't figure out what I'm doing wrong there. 

I would love to hear from some other indie authors who self-published, if they've ever had a dry spell like I am having? I went 17 days recently without 1 sale or 1 page read through KU. It was absolutely devastating. 

Lately, I've been wondering if I'm not selling well because my books are available on every pirate site known to man. It's inevitable as an author, and as much as I'd love to send every single person my novel direct to their kindle, it's not always that easy, plus I don't like limiting my readers. In the end I think it's better to have the visibility. That doesn't mean I'm okay with all of the people stealing from me, but as JA Konrath has said over and over, it's better that they know about you than not. 

My mom keeps saying this is just my downswing and it won't be long before I have my upswing. I'm not sure she's right, but that would be amazing if she were. I'm still working as hard as I can to get new material into the hands of my readers. I hope I find the recipe to my success soon. 

(Don't ask me why my post is in 3 different colors. Blogger is just being a bitch. Excuse my language.)