Words: 1802
Time to read: 10 minutes

I truly cannot believe we’re half way through 2024 already. Time flies, even if you’re not having fun. There has been so much that happened since January, but I think the second half the year will be even busier. Let’s catch up:

Health Update
So, I think you all know by now that I had a really crappy last four years. I had undiagnosed vulva lichen sclerosis, something that I got when I used a certain brand of dryer sheets. My skin must have had a reaction, and for four years, a hysterectomy, and twenty-two visits to the clinic, I lived with it. No one here knew what was wrong with me, and in February of this year, I finally went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. My nurse practitioner was a star, and she knew the second she looked at me and since then I’ve been on a treatment plan. I’m doing well in a lot of ways, but mentally, I’m still struggling. I don’t want to go into it anymore than that, but I do blog about it, and if you want to follow along there, you can look here: www.chaoscoffeeandconfessions.blogspot.com. Suffice to say, I’m on the mend, and after living so long with that condition, it’s a miracle I can say it at all.

King’s Crossing Series Update
Another topic that is all too familiar, so I won’t spend much time on it. I haven’t published since November, and I think my sales are taking a hit for it. The last two weeks of May were really hard, and the beginning of June isn’t shaping up to be that much better. Amazon has forgotten I exist, but it’s a tough market out there, so I’m not surprised. To catch their attention again, the only thing I can do is publish, and I’m happy to say I’m nearer to that goal. I ordered my series proofs yesterday, and I’ll read through them looking for any typos I missed and formatting errors I have to fix, and that will be that. Reading six books will take me a couple of weeks, but proofreading will be faster than editing and I should be able to put up my ARC copies at the beginning of July. I’ll have to give ARC readers time to read and review, so my first book, fingers crossed, will go live at the end of July or the beginning of August. It sounds easy, but there’s a lot of work that will be involved with that. I’m going to create a separate page on my author website especially for those ARCs, and I’m going to need to list the release dates and the dates the ARC links will come down as they can’t be up when my books drop into KU. There is only one entry point, book one, and not everyone is going to want to sink their teeth into a series like this, especially if they’ve never heard of me before. Also, four of the six books end on cliffhangers, and that will need to be posted front and center because I know some readers won’t read if there are cliffhangers. The short amount of time between releases should help–cliffhangers are the worst if you have to wait months or even years for a resolution. That won’t be a problem here, and listing the release dates and having them all up on preorder so readers know they’re coming should help. I’ll need to make graphics and pull quotes, but once all that’s done and things are posted, I should be able to sit back and let the wheels turn on their own. I’m not going to do ARC forms (you can read my thoughts on them here: https://vaniamargene.com/2023/11/06/arc-forms-creating-a-review-team/) and readers can review in their own time and where they want. I’ll put them up on Booksprout, too, so I guess I’m thinking I’ll give away about 150 copies of each (100 on my website and 50 through Booksprout). That’s 900 copies, but if they can get this series running, it will be worth it. I feel like I just haven’t handled my releases very well and I’d like to do what I can push this series. That will take up my summer and they’ll release six weeks apart through February. After those are done, I’ll have another standalone ready to go, and I’ll release that, maybe in June. I can’t say what will happen after that because what will be published toward the end of 2025 into 2026 hasn’t been written yet. That’s enough for that series, and if you want more in-depth musings, you can look here: https://vaniamargene.com/2024/04/29/author-update-kings-crossing-series/

Ad Spend vs. Royalties Update
It’s probably a good idea I do this because I’m terrible at keeping track of my ad spend. That I have a little to play with and that my royalties leave me in the barely black aren’t excuses. Not keeping track isn’t the best way to level up, so I’ll go through what I’ve made and what I’ve spent so far.

As far as royalties go, I’ve made $3,1839.91 this year. That’s $1400.00 shy of what I made the entire year last year, so unless something serious happens to me, I can safely assume I’ll surpass that. Having so many releases this year will help a lot, I think, if I can give this series some traction and it sells. $2,500.00 of that is from KU reads, $643.00 was from Kindle sales, and there was a handful of dollars from print sales. My top sellers were my rockstars, but that’s not a surprise because that’s where I shove my ad money.

So, speaking of ad money, let me pull up what I’ve spent–more on Amazon ads than I wanted, at $711.83 so far. I think I’ll turn them off and not spend anymore on them this year. I have FOMO, and I give in to running Amazon ads even though I haven’t seen ROI using them in a long time. I panic whenever my sales dip, but sales naturally ebb and I shouldn’t be scared of it. FB ads, at least I can say my $2140.97 brought in what I spent and I still have two that are running with no end date because I get likes on shares on them on a daily basis. Social proof is what keeps them going and at .12 and .8 cents a click, they’re cheaper than Amazon ads will ever be. I have to remember that the next time I want to start my Amazon ads up again. They are too costly to keep going. With all the other extras I pay for, like Bookfunnel and Booksprout, my Canva account that renewed, etc, I’m just breaking even.

If I don’t run Amazon ads for the rest of the year and only leave the two FB ads going, I’m curious what the rest of 2024 will look like for me. It will be a skewed experiment at best because I won’t always have a series to rapid release, but I won’t be throwing money out the window. I’m proud of the books I’ve sold so far this year, but eventually it would be nice not to have to pay for every sale. I may have to start investing more time in social media than ads. You pay in money or time, but I haven’t given much time since I haven’t been feeling well, and while I’m not feeling 100% and never will be, I might have to dust off my social media accounts whether I want to or not. The big players are on socials and that could be a turning point for me–if I can stick with it long enough to see some movement.

Bits and Pieces Update
As for anything else, I’ve been keeping an eye on my Amazon followers for my pen name and I’m up to 266. At least people are reading and liking my books enough to follow me. I’ve said in the past I’ve given away more of my reader magnet since switching my newsletter to a blog format than when I was sending out a real newsletter through MailerLite. I’ve given away 35 in the last 30 days, so I’m glad to know people are still clicking and downloading. Turning to blogging isn’t ideal, but that whole debacle was so heartbreaking and I’m happy it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. At least I had the smarts to back up my mailing list and import them into my WordPress website. I see some authors who don’t back up their lists and something happens and they lose all their subscribers.

There are a few other odds and ends, like my blog posts. The updated blog post I did for my Canva tutorial (Updated! Creating a full wrap paperback book cover using Canva (plus more screenshots!)) is finally surpassing the original (Doing a Full Paperback Wrap in Canva for KDP Print (plus screen grabs)). The updated blog post has been read 2,214 times this year and the original 928. I’m glad those posts are helping people.

I haven’t been on TikTok since December and I haven’t posted on Instagram since March. I was cross posting, so more than likely I haven’t posted anything on my FB author page in about as long. I’ll need to see what I can do about that–especially since things are slowing down with my series now and pretty soon they’ll be done.

That’s about it for my mid-year recap. My health and my series have taken so much of my time that I’m not sure what I’ll do next. I’m working on a standalone I wrote in 2021 to get ready to publish, but there’s no rush to get that done, for obvious reasons. I’d like to read and clean out my TBR list on my Kindle, but I’ll have to charge it. I’ve lost a lot of joy in the past four years, feeling how I am and dealing with some other things, like breaking up with my fiancé, and I know “finding myself” however cliché that may be will take time. It would be nice if I could slow down and just enjoy the summer, but I always say I’m going to take a break and never do. As much as I’m burnt out, writing and publishing has been my safe haven the past few years, and not having to hide will be a change. Not wanting to hide will be a change. I know what my health issues are now, and that’s a big deal, so I’ll take it one day at a time and see where I land at the end of the year.

One thing I know for sure–no more Amazon ads.

Have a good week!