Saturday, March 12, 2022

Saturday Updates

This is post 4864.

We had two sessions with the machines this week and two walks. Our body feels fatigued. The weather was nice this week. We allowed ourselves a cigar and beer. Which was nice. That was out third cigar this year. Let's stay on this pace

The things.

Book sales are an art, not a science.

Sales of The Great Nuclear War of 1975 got off to a good start on the release day and have increased by small increments every day since. We feel confident saying 75 is not a flop. But it remains to be seen if 75 will do as well as the typical World War 1990 novel. We've checked and 75 has not yet hit the daily sales number that Battle of the Three Seas hit. We don't think the algorithm has really kicked in yet. Readers posting 75 on their social media would spur sales along. Seven ratings now on Goodreads, so we know 75 doesn't suck. Exit question: is it worth shelling out a few hundred bucks on magazine advertisements? 

Book sales usually drop about 20% off their peek each month, that's cumulative.

We've hammered away at The Weser all week with great success. The text is getting as perfect as we can get it. The constant hammering has opened up a few cracks for us to make the novel even better. The British part needs an opening explainer scene from Corps HQ. Actually, that should probably be from SACEUR. This has been a great editing process so far. 

No one really knows how the Amazon sales algorithm works, not entirely. What we do know is mysterious and complex. 

The Weser presents a few unique challenges. We have four different tanks which means four tank crews and four men per. We have various division and corps commanders in their TAC CPs. This means we have a lot of staffers, aids, comms officers. Their handing Danger-6 the radio receiver, raising Echo-6, calling in TAC AIR etc etc. It all must needs be kept straight. And summer 2021 Will didn't necessarily care that this would be a gigantic pain in the ass for late winter 2022 Will. Summer 2021 Will is kind of a jerk.

By the time we're finished, World War 1990: The Weser will be 70,000 words. We remain on track to turn The Weser over to the editor in April. [In April? That's a little vague. Didn't you say 1 April?-Ed] We shrug as indifferently as possible. We may want/need more time, not because editing is going badly, but because editing is going so well.

We've got the juju (and books) to write Battle of the GIUK Gap this summer, but from a purely sales perspective, wouldn't Esercito Italiano make more sense? Italy remains an unrealized market. 

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