Hello, Readers! Clevenger here. Hope everyone had a good holiday season and are doing well. As for myself, well… it’s been a slight struggle.

Around the holidays, I came down with an illness. That illness started to sap my motivation. But even before then, it had started to wane. Why? Well, because I feel like I’m grinding my gears and not moving forward. It’s been tough.

I look at sales figures for December. Or the lack thereof. Seeing no printed copies moving for 30 days. 2 ebooks from December and January. It’s disheartening. At first.

So, what’s the answer.

Well? Remembering that publication, writing, and creation is a marathon, not a sprint.

So, what have we done? We sold 110 physical copies through our retail platforms. 11 ebooks through Ingram sources, and 2 through KDP. That is 123 copies sold since November 12. Yeah, it was a big spike and tailed off, but that’s just a first wave in the curve. We’ll see more eventually.

We sold 17 copies in physical events. 2 small events. We have big ones that we are planning for soon. (And contingencies if those fall through).

So, our debut novel has sold 140 copies so far. That’s not too shabby.

So, I have to focus on the “big picture.” I have to focus on the victories. I have to remind myself that this “lull” is temporary, and get back to work. Book 2 (Old Bones, Old Ways) is about 1/3 of the way through revisions. I had hoped to be WAY further than that. Months of progress has been lost. is that a bad thing? It’s not good… but it’s also not that bad. What is the impact of a few months in the long term plan of a decade that I have in my mind? Overall, it’s pretty negligible.

So, I’m going to take a moment, and coast through this little “downturn” and catch my breath. Then, set my pace and begin running in earnest. Marathon… not sprint.

Also, depression sucks.

Until next time,

Be Kind.

Clevenger.