End of an experiment.

I stopped checking rankings, sales and reviews of my books on April 10.

The results were surprising.

I felt very isolated, very disconnected.  It didn't seem to be much of a benefit at all.  In fact, it seemed like a negative.

I also made the mistake of not putting an end-date to the experience, so after a month I started to ask myself when I would check, and whether waiting too long could be even more of a negative.

So I'm ending the experiment.

Checking the rankings, sales and reviews today, I'd have to say that not all that much has changed.  A good review there, a mediocre review there, surprising strong sales on the Books of the Dead titles which haven't been pushed that much.

Led to the Slaughter continues to get great reviews.

My vampire books are selling at B & N better than I expected.

So here's the thing.  There's no such thing as too much information for me -- even if it's bad.  I mean, I'd much rather know where I stand.  Not knowing didn't reignite daydreams of glory, rather the opposite, it brought about trepidation.

I have enough material out there that I can almost always find a positive somewhere in the mix.  For instance, Rule of Vampire is in the top 2% of horror books on B & N.  So I can take that little bit of positive news and nourish it.

So I'm back.