Progress Report

It’s been a while since I last wrote a progress report. I’ve working so hard the last six months I haven’t had much time to blog. I’m a bit further along than I was two years ago. Not where I want to be but I’m still making progress.

 

One of the reasons I haven’t had much time to blog is because I’ve been real busy on the livestream circuit on social media. I made a bunch of appearances on Gboot2786’s show on Thursdays, and been busy doing livestreams almost every Friday. Continuing to build my audience online and trying to use that web presence to sell my fiction and nonfiction.

 

In addition to the livestreams and the videos I got my first paying job editing comics this spring. I edited the script for Omega Black this spring. It was a challenge editing a 175 plus page Manga script, but I managed to get it put together in a professional manner.

 

And I got a free-lance editing job editing articles for the B1 Daily, a website for a couple of months. I got a lot of experience working with the website owner and learned a lot about editing and working with deadlines. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic the website had to shut down. Hopefully when it starts up again the webmaster will consider me for another gig.

 

In between the livestreams, the YouTube videos and the editing I spent many nights getting the books of the SJS DIRECT Fall 2020 catalog together for sale. It was a LOT of work, but I got my eighth novel up for sale by Halloween.

 

The Halloween launch of Eternal Night was a HUGE success. Eternal Night has sold more copies on its debut than previous SJS DIRECT best sellers like The Thetas, Spellbound and THE MAN CRISIS.

 

Feedback on Eternal Night has been extremely positive, most people who read Eternal Night have told me they love the book on Facebook and livestreams and the book has two five-star rankings on Amazon right now.

 

I was surprised to hear T-Bird & Throttle artist Josh Howard picked up a copy of Eternal Night this fall. His livestream on Vampires, Werewolves and spirituality inspired me to write Lilith’s story, and I would love to hear what he thought of the novel.

 

And legendary Comic Book writer Mike Baron (Nexus, Flash, The Punisher and Star wars Novels) was friended me on Amazon Goodreads.

 

 

The other SJS DIRECT Fall relase, E’steem Blast From thePast did some sales on the launch, but not as strong as Eternal Night. While readers liked the follow up story to E’steem: The Sands of Time, they LOVED Bill Walko’s No Good Deed comic strip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that I’ve shared it with Patrons and I want to get Bill’s strip in the hands of readers. Maybe on Kindle or Comixology. Maybe sell it for 99 Cents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Had a few sales on Isis: The Main Event this fall. Isis: The Main Event hasn’t really performed like I wanted, but you win some and you lose some. That’s the way it is in the book market.

 

However, Isis: All That Glitters is picking up momentum. The book continues to get sales and now has 4 Five-star rankings on Amazon.com.

 

And Isis: Wrath of the Cybergoddess has picked up some sales as well. Also picked up an Isis: Bride of Dracula sale, and an Amari’s Revenge sale. And a few Isis: The Beauty Myth sales.

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Haynes: The ManWith Nothing to Lose continues to perform well. In fact readers have come back for the two previous John Haynes Series books, John Haynes: A Conversation With Death and John Haynes: Dark Succubus. And a few came back for the refreshed The Temptation of John Haynes.

 

 I even sent a special  John Haynes fan an autographed copy for their birthday!

 

To my surprise John Haynes is building a small following. Got a lot of fanart from viewers of my YouTube channel. I’ll be sharing that fanart with readers in the back of John Haynes: Taking Care of Business this Spring.

 

I’m pondering doing a The Man Who Rules The World Cover refresh to get the Temptation sequel featuring the trade dress of the other books.  More readers to pick up that book so they can have the whole story. But that’s  gonna be part of a cover refresh campaign for later on.

 

I spent my fall finishing up the fifth John Haynes series Book John Haynes: At Death’s Door. This is the action packed follow up to John Haynes: A Conversation With Death. In this one The Man Who Rules The World faces off against Thanatos, the Greek god of Death in a story loosely inspired by Marvel’s Thanos and his obsession with Death. In between the action and adventure, this one applies some of the approaches of my STOP SIMPIN books and shows the psychology of Simps and how they fail at romance.

 

I also wrote a comic script for John Haynes: At Death’s Door. And thanks to the donations of viewers who support the Patreon, the PayPal and the Ca$happ I’m hoping to publish a comic book version of  John Haynes: At Death’s Door and have it available for sale. I’ve talked to a comic book artist and hopefully when his schedule opens up we can start working on the first John Haynes comic!

 

So far I got 2 of 3 2022 SJS DIRECT books finished. All I have to do is write the E’steem book and the 2022 catalog will be done. I’m actually ahead for once!

 

 

Along with the fiction sales, I had a lot of nonfiction sales. THE MAN CRISIS is on its way to 450 sales. And STOP SIMPIN and Manginasand STOP SIMPIN IN THE WORKPLACE continue to sell well with both men and women.  

 

To my surprise A lot of women buy my men’s issues books like STOP SIMPIN and THE MAN CRISIS for their sons, and use them to help teach them the male life skills they’ll need to avoid being taken advantage of by female predators and to set a course for their lives.

 

 And there’s been a surge of sales on Why 70 Percent of Black women are Single over the past few months.  To my surprise Ever since I published the paperback edition of Why 70 Percent of Black women are Single this summer sales have been strong. Can I get 100 paperback sales on Why 70 Percent of Black Women Are Single? We’ll just have to see.

 

People have been asking me what my next nonfiction book will be. I’m pondering writing a nonfiction book on all the Karens out there and what causes them to behave that way, but I think maybe it’s time to do a companion book to THE MAN CRISIS called THE WOMAN CRISIS. To me all the Karens out here acting crazy are a symptom of girls being raised in homes without a father in a gynocentric society that devalues men. It’s an interesting thesis and I think it’d make for a compelling book.

 

On the employment front I came this close to finally getting another full-time job.  I applied for a job with the Post Office for a Mail Handler Assistant position in October. On December 3, 2020 I got a letter telling me I was a conditional hire and did the online background check. Then I followed the instructions I got in my e-mail package and sent the e-mail requesting fingerprints.  Got a Mailer Daemon with my e-mail sent back to me.

 

Sent it again. Got Another Mailer Daemon sending my e-mail back to me.

 

Called Post office HR. Left a message. Never heard from them again.

 

Damn. Just Damn.

 

Thought I was gonna finally gonna get a break after 12 years out of work. Sadly didn’t happen. And the Post office said it was having backlogs this Holidays season. I would’ve been glad to help out. Woulda felt good to be back out there after 12 years, but I guess God didn’t have that job for me.  

 

Made a lot of progress these last few months. Building some momentum. Getting somewhere. Hoping I can get my big break and take my career to the next level.