Luck, timing, and who you know?

Very early in my writing, someone told me that "success" depends on luck, timing, and who you know.

At first, I firmly believed that "luck" was the biggest factor. That writing a good book wasn't enough--you also needed something unusual to happen for people to notice. (Such things as quality being equal.)

As I became more experienced, I started to believe that "who you know" was maybe the most important part.

Now, after many books under my belt, I come to the conclusion that "timing" is the most important factor.

Of course, all three of these things are intrinsically linked.  The luck of timing, the timing of luck, the luck of knowing someone....

I think this is probably true of all the arts.

I know that timing-wise, my forward momentum has stalled several times because of gaps in publishing that were beyond control. On the other hand, just when it seemed that I was near the end of my thread, something would pop up to revive my little career.

I can dream about what might have happened if the momentum could have been maintained and the luck had happened too. It wasn't anyone's fault. I know that a couple of my publishers who reached for the mass market brass ring probably felt it was worth the gamble. Even my first publisher, who went MIA between my second and third books, I can't be too mad about because he was the one who gave me entry, and who gave "Led to the Slaughter" a good start.

So I've had a bit of luck, and a bit of good timing, and I've known a couple authors--but I probably need much more of all three. 

Thursday:

International BookBub starts tomorrow. In truth, it's already Friday the 13th in Australia. It's probably going to be a lot harder to earn back the investment since the book is only 99 cents. (Amazon reduces the royalty from 70% to 30%, plus the much lower price.) I figure I have to sell at least 800 copies. I don't know what will happen. But "Deadfall Ridge" was already having a good month, so I might be halfway there under the usual price.

I'll be haunting the Australia, UK, and Canada Amazon lists for a couple of days.

I'll be working at Pegasus on Friday through Monday so Sabrina can go to the Portland comic convention. That will be my first four-day stretch in a long time. I'm having to relearn to pace myself. I have a tendency to blow all my social energy in the first couple of hours and ride on empty for the rest of the day, so I need to watch that.

That said, I'm really enjoying it. I'm fully engaged in the new book ordering, and that is keeping me interested. I did about 60% of the debt reduction I wanted to do this summer--on the other hand, I did that without scrimping in the slightest. That is, I could have gotten the other 40% if I'd just stopped buying anything the last couple months, but then the store would be depleted going into the slow months, so that's Pyrrhic victory, at best. If I can get 2/3rds of the debt reduced by the end of the year while keeping the store fully stocked, that would be fantastic.

The debt has proven to be worth it: sales on new books and graphic novels fully justify it. That's a level of sales that will pay off for years, long after the debt is repaid.

Saturday:

Haunted the webs yesterday. It took awhile for the promotion to take effect in England and Australia. Reached the top hundred in Canada and Australia, the top ten in suspense novels in Canada. But didn't quite displace Stephen King's new book. Heh.

I used the enthusiasm of the moment to sell my books in the store. "Look!" I point at my computer screen. "I'm the #7 bestselling thriller in Canada!'

Anyway, sold about 12 paperbacks. I probably won't try so hard today, because it's exhausting and I am never totally sure if I'm taking advantage of people. I always try to give them an out.

Apparently, my publisher thought I was going to get a different promotion for the US, and I assumed that he was going to do it. Miscommunication. Probably because he did BookBub on his own, so when he mentioned other promotions, I figured it was his thing to do. So having the book for only .99 in USA might have actually hurt a little. (The book had been selling as well or better at the full price.) Was told by publisher we need to sell 570 copies.

Anyway, that was fun. Nice to see my name in lights.

Enjoying being back at Pegasus.

I'm really enjoying being back working at Pegasus Books. Bookstore customers are generally interesting people.

I had a customer yesterday who helped me fix my computer, which has been going on the fritzz for  a while now. It started making grinding noises last year, so I bought a new laptop. But I still favor my old laptop like an old shoe--besides which it has a version of Word that I like much better.

Anyway, in the middle of the day the slight grinding noise became alarmingly loud.

"Shut it down, quick!" someone said.

So this customer came forward and says, "There is a trick you might try." Showed me how to do it, and blammo, the damn thing settled down. I don't know if it's permanent.

The customer turned out to be a physics graduate major at the U of O. Obviously super-smart, and they were also gender fluid.  "They" is the term they wanted. I think a couple of years ago I might have been intimidated but because of my experience with Sabrina, I was perfectly comfortable.

I happen to be reading a book called, "The Scientists," which is a big tome about the history of scientists. I made the joke: "I love reading books about science though in most cases I don't have a clue about what they're saying."

But on the other hand, they mentioned something about Isaac Newton being a bastard and how he destroyed the career of someone who estimated correctly the speed of light, and I was able to contribute that he also kept those who thought light had a wave function from being taken seriously, so that was fun. (My knowledge is superficial but wide.)

The point being, I'm actually talking to human beings about interesting stuff, instead of snippets on the internet, which was how I was getting most of conversational stimulation over the past few years. Besides Linda, of course.

I'm working Sundays and Mondays if anyone wants to come in and chat.

The sequel to Deadfall Ridge

The sequel to "Deadfall Ridge" is live on September 10th.

The paperback is already available for order.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1950565211/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=takeover+duncan+mcgeary&qid=1567898411&s=books&sr=1-2

"When a peaceful protest at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument becomes an armed takeover, Hart Davis knows he has to play along with the occupiers to protect his former girlfriend, park ranger Nicole Nelson, and her co-workers. Amid escalating tension and factionalism within the armed camp, and surrounded by the FBI and the media, Hart and Nicole try to negotiate a peaceful end to the volatile situation. But what they don’t know is that, with help from inside, actual terrorists are about to take over the camp. Suddenly, the sides aren’t so clear-cut, and former antagonists must become allies as they try to survive the crossfire, protect the hostages, and escape with their lives."

Pretty exciting for me. 

Taking time fo gravitas.

When I first finished "Eden's Return" I thought it was more or less ready for publication. After a quick rewrite.

Then I wondered if I shouldn't try harder to flesh out the philosophical underpinnings of the story. When I wrote it, I was doing it by feel, a sort intuitive mysticism. It felt right, though I'm not sure I could have explained it.

When I finally came back to the rewrite, I decided that keeping it vague actually worked in its favor. It was a slight book, only 52,000 words.

I set out to do a light rewrite, and then decided it needed to be at least 60K words, so I started looking for places to expand and flesh out.

I'm more than halfway through that process--which has been much, much slower than usual. I don't need to really have anything ready to publish for 4 or 5 more months, to give "Takeover" and "Deadfall Ridge" time to play out.

I ordered a book about Eden online, and Linda supplied another from her rather voluminous religious library. So I'm going to dip into those and see what I can use. Meanwhile, I also decided that the heroine of the story--who has been brought up alone by her mother--is a big Dickens fan, so much so that she has memorized his books. That will give me the excuse to drop some pertinent Dickens quotes into the story.

All of which meant I didn't turn over "Eden's Return" to my editor on September 1 as planned. Instead, I'm going to shoot for Oct. 1.

The story was good the way it was, but I'm trying to bring more gravitas to my writing, by researching and thinking and taking more time.

Lots of good news.

"Deadfall Ridge" is going to be a BookBub international promotion on Sept. 13th, which means it will be a selection everywhere but the USA. The publisher is going to lower to price of the book to 99 cents in the USA too.

Just in time for the sequel, "Takeover (A Hart Davis Adventure)" to be released on the 10th of September.

 https://www.amazon.com/Takeover-Davis-Adventure-Duncan-McGeary-ebook/dp/B07WHK6QR8/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=takeover+duncan+mcgeary&qid=1567553882&s=books&sr=1-1

So that's an exciting double whammy.

It's pretty hard to get a BookBub promotion--about a 3% chance according to them, though it's probably easier for an international selection. Still, a big deal.

It's encouraging enough to keep me going. I have a couple of ideas for Hart Davis Adventures, and this is obviously the direction to go.

Please buy these books-yes, I'm saying it outright. ✊

Especially since you can get "Deadfall Ridge" my best-selling book for only 99 cents in about a week or so.

But if you don't feel like buying my books, I still thank you for reading this blog. It helps to know that there are people out there paying attention.



So meanwhile, I've started working at the store again, on Sundays and Mondays and whenever Sabrina needs extra time. It's very rejuvenating. The only reason I wasn't working was that my guys needed their hours.

The store has now "beat last year" in 8 out of the last 9 months. It's especially gratifying to see books and graphic novels doing so well.

So I'm feeling pretty encouraged. I'll just keep hoping for magic.

Dare I not say it?

More and more, I'm leaning toward not having opinions about everything. Or more accurately, not having a response. Which in the modern world of social media is like not existing.

Not everything needs a response. Most things don't need a conclusion. Information is fluid, and incomplete, and yes, I have a reaction, but not all of it needs to be specified and expressed.

Sabrina makes fun of me because of my usual critical response. "Pretty much what I expected." or "It's pretty good for what it is."

Which are really not answers at all. But sometimes I haven't quite decided--or my response is confused and conflicted. And expressing a critical opinion sort of ties me down to one response.

Social media also means that whoever I'm criticizing, there is a chance they'll see it. Now that I've been on the receiving end of reviews, I'm much more careful.

So I'm just sort of taking information in, and unless there is a necessity, I try not to come to a final conclusion.

Except when it comes to Trump. Fuck that guy.