Good morning, everyone! I hope you had a good weekend. I actually got some writing done on ‘Alaric’s Bow’. Felt great to have it moving forward again.

As authors, we walk a fine line. It’s a war between being grateful that our voice is being heard, our books being read. And not having sales meet our expectations.

So we turn to promotional sites and contests. Hoping that the outlay of entrance fees or the cost of the exposure will increase our sales. That a shiny sticker on our cover attracts readers, or the email touting our book on sale to thousands translates into getting people curious enough to open their wallets. Here’s the catch, though. Like everything else, it’s a risk. There is no guarantee you’ll win, or have that sales increase.

We have to decide if the risk, the cost, is worth the reward if we succeed. Not all promotions work for every title. Why? Because you cannot force people to buy your titles. Any more than you can make them leave a review.

I’ve been at this for around 3 1/2 years. It’s been that long since ‘Daughter of Hauk’ had its’ initial release. In that time, I’ve released 10 more titles. I promote, I stay positive, I enter contests. And I work on building my readership. But I don’t expect sales. I know most of those who follow my blog or FB page haven’t even bought a single book of mine yet. It’s possible they plan to, but they haven’t gotten around to it. Which is fine.

It’s the author who doesn’t make demands of his or her readers that gets the loyal base. Not the ones who would rather expect the rewards without taking the risk or be willing to put in the work.

BB