Summer Progress Report

Working during the summer reading season was a struggle this year. Due to my long-term unemployment and shortage of funds I couldn’t afford to pay for any new covers for many the 2017 books I planned to publish. And most of the 2017 catalog wound up delayed. With no new titles to launch for the summer reading season I had to change the way I marketed books.  And by the Grace of God I actually managed to make some progress.

Isis: Samurai Goddess performed fairly well throughout the summer. After getting a four-star review from a reader on Smashwords, readers continued to pick up the action packed Martial arts Isis series adventure. I even pulled a paperback sale of the book!

E’steem Little Girl Lost was a surprise hit on Smashwords, performing far better than Isis: Samurai Goddess! Even with a generic cover, the tale where the Devilish Diva she helps a lost little girl find her way home went over HUGE with readers. Whenever I posted links the book on numerous Facebook groups people shared those links with other people, and the book got a strong word of mouth online.

I have to wonder: Was Little Girl Lost popular because it featured E’steem helping a child? Or was it the return to wardrobe malfunctions and jiggle humor? The villain Brimstone Jack? Or was it the Demon Strippers?

 The success of E’steem Little Girl Lost showed me that a basic comic book story where heroes take on bad guys still can find an audience with casual readers. I wish Marvel and DC would make this kind of story, because I believe it’s the kind of story that would bring readers back to comics.

My campaign to promote older titles was a complete bust. Most people weren’t interested in trying older titles I offered for free on Smashwords in spite of a heavy promotional campaign featuring videos on YouTube and a big push on social media like Twitter and Facebook. To cut the losses, I cut the campaign short in July and moved on.

However, to my surprise there was a run on Spinsterella in July. When I made the book a part of Smashwords July campaign the eBook got a LOT of downloads. And this was BEFORE I uploaded the new cover by rundoteexe.

 Spinsterella and Spellbound continue to sell well on other platforms like Kindle. And over the spring and summer, people have been asking me when the final book in the Spinsterella Trilogy, The Legendary Mad Matilda would be coming out. With people asking about the book, I’ve been working hard throughout the summer to get the book ready for print so readers could get the final part of the Spinsterella Trilogy this year.

Over the Summer I did a couple of articles for Oshay Duke Jacksons’ Negromanosphere.com. One was on Black Barbershops, another was about how Single mothers teach their sons a feminine work ethic. I had a couple more planned but he didn’t need anymore right now. So I’m holding onto those until he’s ready for em.

With the money I received from writing the articles for Negromanosphere.com and a donation I got from a YouTube viewer, I hired Mike Williams, artist of the Deak Sledge Webcomic to design the cover for The Legendary Mad Matilda. Mike did an AMAZING job on the Legendary Mad Matilda cover; with a single image he tells a very compelling story that’s definitely going to get readers’ attention when the book is released this Halloween. After seeing his work on The Legendary Mad Matilda Cover, I definitely want Mike to do the cover for Isis: Imitation of Life. His style definitely fits the time and tone of that story!

Thanks to God, Oshay Jackson and Mike Williams, The Legendary Mad Matilda got put back on the publishing schedule. And working with them this summer I got to participate in Black Group Economics. I took Black dollars I got from working on a Black Website and paid a Black artist to design the cover for my book. So Black dollars got flipped in the Black community three times. That’s something I’m proud of doing, working with Black men on something positive and keeping Black dollars in the Black community.

On the nonfiction side The Simp Trilogy eBooks also got a surge of sales on e-readers. Men continue to pick up all the Simp books on the regular, and the books continue to get an audience in the U.S. and abroad.

My YouTube Channel has grown quite a bit over the past few months. Right now I’m getting closer to 4,000 subscribers. As I’ve built my audience on YouTube, I’ve been told that people online have been talking about me on numerous other forums. And some say that I should have way more subscribers on my YouTube Channel than I have right now. While I haven’t ever been concerned about popularity, if people want to make my subscription numbers go up, subscribe my YouTube Channel so we can get to the 10,000 mark many say I should have or the 100,000 mark that’d get me a silver play button.

Still Struggling. But I managed to make a little progress. I’m still working towards getting the other four books Isis: Imitation of Life, Isis: House of Isis, E’steem Ascension, and Isis: Escape From Transylvania back on the publishing schedule. If I get another job or enough money in donations to PayPal and Patreon to pay for covers, more books will go back up on the schedule. I’m hoping to get more books up sooner rather than later!