Scribbles

A quick word...

I can’t really say that I have a set program here. I’d like to. But things get a little hectic when you least expect it. Last week was the only time I had to release a new video—and I did it. I read THE CAT IN THE HAT—something for the kids, I thought, but I couldn’t upload it for some reason. I used to enjoy reading it to the kids. Even if I had to read it every night, twice a night, for at least two years.

I say I didn’t have time to get to it again because of all the shit going down on this end. Renu had two weeks off. From the middle of August until the beginning of September. We were supposed to have the “End Of Summer Bar-b-Que Bash”, but didn’t have a kitchen, and so had to put a hold on that. But I had her home with me for the full two weeks. We couldn’t go anywhere because we weren’t expecting to be sidelined like that. So we went for lunches, walks, that sort of stuff. All my plans were put on hold. Okay, no big deal. I still managed to get my stories up.

And then she got a phone call from the Ear doctor.

She’s gone deaf in one ear. They told her the little “anvil” in her ear was damaged and would have to be replaced by a titanium piece. It would be day surgery. She’d be out for two hours and then a week off to recover. So, she went back to work last week, which was a four day week, and had the operation on Tuesday. She needs this week to recover. Recover? She spent her day in the kitchen baking. She says she doesn’t bake, but I beg to differ. She made something called an Apple Sheet. It’s like an apple crumble, but not. She made it in a big cookie sheet. And then she made a peaches and cream sheet, with a strudel topping. She used the same, big cookie sheet for that, too. Sorry I didn’t take any pictures, we don’t think that way. We don’t take pictures of food to share on line, we eat it first, and then go, “D’oh! We should’ve taken a picture!”

So the week that she was at work—the four day work week—I thought I’d do my second chapter of my Courtesan story (I still don’t call it a book). I got half-way through reading it and the phone rang. Really? I had to stop. I was half an hour into it. So I started again, and thinking everything was great, it rang again. What! I’m home every day, and the damn thing NEVER rings, the one day I want to do something, I get two phone calls. By then it was too late. Renu was coming home and I was going to have to help with dinner—and by help, I mean open the wine. I told myself, I’ll just do it tomorrow.

So the next day I was prepared to do it all over again, and the landscapers come in. Lawn mowers outside, below my window, and the leaf blowers. Next thing you know, she’s home from work and I gotta help with dinner—a well deserved opening of wine. And the next day? Who knows? Can’t remember, except to say that there was running around involved and I had to get my chapter ready for “Redux.” So I was editing, marketing, and trying to get things out because I’m supposed to be a writer now. I’m also working on trying to get another story up.

AT NIGHT WE PAINT THE STARS, the story of an artist who hears voices in her head. She meets a drifter who comes to work on the farm picking apples. A love story, with a twist. They all have a twist don’t they, but that’s because if they didn’t, they wouldn’t be worth writing, or reading. I’ll put that up Sunday night. Then Redux edits on Tuesday (that’s on the Paid page), with the edited version on Thursday. I’m thinking Friday might be a good day to do my readings.

Those will be FREE.

I’ve been trying to sort things out as to HOW I can get more subscribers. I’ll always have the PAID page because I have friends that believe and want to support me. One of them bought a Subscription and told me after. She was my first, but she was among the first dozen people who signed on. The next one came a month later, and bought a whole year, just because. The third one told me he didn’t care what it cost, he wanted to sign up and support me.

But I want to keep this page as free as I can. I can’t market it and expect people to pay without knowing what I have to offer. JACK OF DIAMONDS will be behind the pay wall. My stories though, they’re all long. This next one is about 16,000 words. That works out to about 40-45 pages. I can divide them into sections, market them on FACEBOOK, TWITTER and LINKEDiN, as well as INSTAGRAM. The best way for marketing, they say, is through email. You can by lists of emails. I haven’t made enough money doing this yet. Not with three PAID subscribers. That’s why I have to leave it FREE for as long as possible. I was going to push hard on the PAID when I hit 100 readers. But that’s not the way to do it I’m reading. One person has a following of 20,000 FREE subscribers, 6,500 of them are PAID. It proves that if people like what you write, they’re willing to buy you that cup of coffee. 6,500 PAID subscribers. That’s about $30,000/month. My goal has always been about 1500 PAID subscribers. I didn’t want to get too far ahead of myself. It was a modest number. I’m thinking it will take at least 2-3 years to get that. I’ve got 43 subscribers. I’ve told other writers here that I’ve only got 43 readers and have been doing this since June. What am I doing wrong? One said having 40 readers in that short period of time is good. He told me he’s been on it for a year and has just hit 100.

I suppose I’ll have to push harder with my marketing. I’ll be sending out emails asking people to forward them to friends (because that’s how you do it), and hoping one or two of them will sign on. It’s like that old shampoo commercial, you tell two friends, and they tell two friend, and so on and so on. So tell your friends and tell your neighbours, folks, because you know why? Marketing sucks.

But that guy that had 20,000 subscribers? Yeah, he had no one for the first five months. And then he changed things up on his page, and people started to pay attention to what he was saying. I’ll have to buy a FACEBOOK ad and see how many I can pick up that way, because I am determined.

On a side note, some time in the future when I make enough money with my subscriptions, I want to print up some books—real books—and offer them to PAID subscribers. THE BASHFUL COURTESAN will be my first one, but at this rate, that may take a while.