No, my frustration isn’t actually with my ROW80 goals. I’m 7864 words ahead of my goal on my current WIP. And I have Haunted Lake ready for print. All is good on that front.
This is my frustration. I never wanted to write a series. I was doing perfectly fine writing stand alone books. But then some readers emailed me and asked me for a series. So I thought I would try one. I released Dark Relic: Vampires’ Curse in June. I’m currently working on the second novella of the Libby Fox series. Here’s the problem…Dark Relic isn’t selling worth a crap. (See, I’m frustrated, because I never use that word in my blog.) Every one of my previous books is outselling it. I thought the whole purpose of making sure you’re constantly putting new material out there is to keep your sales up, and get people to also buy your backlist. But my backlist is what’s selling. No matter what I do, Guardian Vampire continues to be my best seller. What is it about that book that sells? Although, maybe I need to think about something else. Hmmm. Haunted Lake is now keeping up with Guardian Vampire. And that book took seven months to really start selling. So maybe it’s going to take time. I just don’t know. I think Dark Relic has a better cover than Guardian Vampire. Is it the title? Am I just being impatient? Grrrrr.
lauralynnelliott.com 
Maybe a little impatient. 😉 Series are more like investments, they get a boost with each sequel, and some people won’t start on a series until there are already a couple of books. Also, it’s a bad time for sales in general, summer months are slumpy, so if I were you, I would work on getting a sequel out before Christmas and seeing how it does in Jan/Feb. Don’t give yourself time to feel frustrated. Guardian Vampire probably has an advantage partly because of the title—it’s very clear what it’s about iykwim. Maybe that one needs a sequel? 🙂
Thanks for the encouragement, Claire. I was actually wondering if people wait until a second book is out so they don’t have to wait so long to continue a story. I wasn’t sure about summer and how book sales were. Because I figured people would want stuff to read at the beach, etc. And June was the month that one of my novellas, Club Blood took off. But, I have never had better sales than Jan/Feb of this year for Guardian Vampire. I was definitely planning on having the third novella in the Libby Fox series released around Christmas.
I did have a couple of people ask for a sequel to Guardian Vampire. But that novella was done for me. I don’t know what else I could do with it. By the way, the title of Guardian Vampire was actually suggested by the awesome Susan Bischoff. 🙂
I often wait until a series is finished, just so I can pick them all up and read them together. That’s kinda my idea of fun. Sadly. 😉
Sometimes you can’t tell what makes a book take off, I think time and word of mouth often contributes though. Summer is definitely supposed to be a slow part of the year for sales compared to say February. I got a boost from a freebie, otherwise I would probably be feeling a little discouraged right now. I definitely think you should keep going with it – unless you’re not enjoying it. I would also consider a higher price, hope you don’t mind me saying.
I can see why you feel like GV was done, it had a complete ending, but maybe you could use another relationship in the same world instead? And it really is a great title.
I don’t mind you mentioning the price at all. I have mixed feelings about that. One of the reasons I priced my books low to begin with was because I remember when I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on books and I was looking for .99 books just so I could afford them. I wanted readers to be able to buy five books at a time instead of one or two. I actually priced Dark Relic at 1.99 when it first came out. Then I panicked because it wasn’t selling and I thought it was the price. So I lowered it. As it turns out, it’s still not selling. So my plans are to price the second in the series at 1.99 and leave Dark Relic at .99. Then when the third one comes out, I’m going to lower the price of the second one…maybe. Anyway, the next time I write a full length novel, I may go with 2.99. I don’t want to price any higher than that, especially in this economy. So future works will probably be 1.99 for novellas and 2.99 for novels. If they don’t sell at that price, I can always fall back on .99. We’ll see how that goes.
You released Guardian Vampire around Christmas last year–perfect timing for all those paranormal romance readers with a shiny new Kindle or Nook in their hands. I think ‘vampire’ in the title also had to help. I think my first book doesn’t sell well because of the title. (Makes me wish that I’d called The Gardener something like ‘Hot Vampire-like Victorian Ghost Returns to Kill and Love Again’ 🙂
I’m sure the timing of the release of Guardian Vampire is what made it sell so well. In Jan/Feb, I was making more money on it than at my full time job. LOL. But it’s still my best seller now, although Haunted Lake is catching up in July/Aug. I still wonder if Dark Relic isn’t as searchable because it’s Vampires’ instead of Vampire. Who knows?
Maybe the title of The Gardener is what hurts its sales, although it’s a perfect title for the content. I think people are really missing out when they don’t read it. I loved it, and I know Anya did, too.
Oh man, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just write and not have to think about the sales aspect? But unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in. 😐 Good luck on sales picking up! And congratulations on being so far ahead of your goals!
Thanks, Ruth! I love being ahead for a change.
I’ve at least made myself only check sales once a day now. As much as I love to write for the sake of writing, the fact is, this is a business. And it has to be treated as such. So bad sales make me frown. 😦 But I’m staying optimistic. 🙂
They will get there. You’re good, people know it, and maybe it is summer, maybe it is you need the second in the series out, or maybe they are so busy reading everything else you have written they haven’t had time to get this on yet. It’s why I haven’t read it; little busy here trying to keep the bills paid and figuring out where I’m going to land. You’ll get there promise. Look how long it’s taken me to even get started. Thanks.
Thanks, Jon. I’m hoping that sales will pick up after releasing the next in the series. For that one I need an awesome cover and a great title (not that I don’t have other great covers and titles, LOL). I’m seriously thinking about having a book title naming contest on my blog. 🙂
You are killing the word count!
“Are you writing a series?” does seem to be the very first question out of anyone’s mouth when you mention that you’re a writer. I wasn’t planning on it either, but now I’m considering it.
I would love to read one of your books – which one should I start with?
Thanks Tiffany!
I don’t think I’ll do another series after this…unless some wild idea hits me. LOL. I’m all about the next shiny new thing, so I’m not sure my attention span can take another series. LOL
Which book to read first? Do you like ghosts, vampires, or fantasy with elves, wizards, etc? My favorite is Haunted Lake, but I’m partial to ghosts. (A Rocky Path and See Me are also about ghosts. See Me is a pretty light read with quite a bit of humor.) Starfane is the one with elves and wizards, and it has the most sex in it (although by today’s standards, it’s probably pretty mild, LOL). Both of those are novels. Club Blood, Guardian Vampire, and Dark Relic are all about vampires (all are novellas).
I know, you asked a simple question and got a complicated answer. LOL
I love ghosts, I love suspense. Haunted Lake?
I find the new obsession with reading series interesting. I understand readers want more of what they love, but they also seem to be easily disappointed after the first (I am often especially disappointed in the 2nd of a trilogy). But I hope yours is just finding its way!
Thanks, Tia! I hope it’s finding its way, too. 🙂
There are a few series that I like, but they aren’t usually romances. I think the reason for that is I want to wrap up the love story in one book. I want that closure. But detective series or something like that is a little different to me. I did this series because people seemed to want that, but I think this is the last one. I just like fresh new characters and ideas. I just hope when this series is over, I’ll get a new idea! LOL