Hello Bloglandia!
So June was an amazing month in my writing world. Unfortunately the month had to end with The Horrible Heat Wave That Proves the Evils of 2020 Aren’t Done With Us Yet.
Not to load you down with a lengthy weather report, but here in Portland we’re normally in the high 70s at the end of June…maybe 80 (around 25-26C). Well, we jumped up to a hellacious final June weekend of 106 (41C), then 112 (44C), then 116 47C).
And no, we don’t have AC in my house, which was a toasty 94F (34C) by the end of it all. Thankfully, the fridge held out and I was able to live on a steady diet of ice cubes while sitting in front of the fan.
But enough with the weather woes (since I’m sure they won’t be the last for the summer…ugh). It’s time for a little update, happy news time three, and some numbers….
I’ve Been Experimenting!
Don’t worry, this doesn’t end with me accidentally blowing up the neighborhood….yet.
I’ve already covered this a couple posts ago, but in early June I zipped through writing the first draft of the first novel in my next series. And I did it in a way I’d never really tried before.
If you missed that experiment-filled update, just give the image below a little click or head to THIS POST.
A Double Dose of Happy Library News
Anyone who knows me knows I love my libraries. I mean, an endless supply of books for the taking… What’s not to love?
Well, the libraries returned some of that love in June with a couple hits of happy tidings.
First, each year Multnomah County Library puts out a call for local, indie authors to submit their recently-published books for a contest called the Library Writers Project.
The librarians then scrutinize the entries and pick around 15 books to add to their collection and to highlight on their website. I’ve had a couple novels accepted in years past and had planned on submitting The Undead Mr. Tenpenny this year.
Now they normally take entries in the fall, so the LWP wasn’t even on my mind when one day in March I just happened across an Instagram post from the library announcing there was only one week left to enter.
Eek!
I scrambled to get The Undead Mr Tenpenny ready for submission and hurriedly hit Submit. Then of course, fretted I’d messed up the entry form in my haste.
I’m sure you know how this ends since I’ve already noted I have happy news to share. But yes, Mr. Tenpenny was one of the winners and the library added 20 copies of the ebook to their collection. Yay!
Even better? Last I checked, every single copy had been checked out. Yay again!
The second bit of good news was winning the Summer Reading drawing at my local library.
And they have kindly fed my book addiction with a $15 gift certificate for a local used bookstore. Enablers!!
Even More Happy News…This time from a fellow author : )
If you caught my reading update last week, you’ll remember me gushing about the fabulously funny book Baking Bad by Kim M Watt.
Well, in another dose of happy news for the month (like I said, except for a potentially deadly heat wave, June was a GREAT month), Kim recommended my darkly humorous short story Mrs. Morris Meets Death to her own readers, calling it “very entertaining”. Squeee!!!
This unexpected recommendation absolutely floored me and I was running around in giddy excitement to have an author who I really, truly admire mention my silly little story along with her other favorite reads (which included authors I also enjoy).
Anyway, if you’d like to check out Kim’s video, you can find it HERE.
And if you happen to have missed out on getting your free copy of Mrs. Morris Meets Death, you can grab your copy HERE.
And if you missed that reading round-up, you can find the post HERE, or watch me rambling about my favorite June reads in the video below.
And Finally…the Numbers
As expected, June’s book sales were slightly lower than May’s. I didn’t have a new release and I didn’t do any advertising.
However, June was still one of my top book sales months ever and compared to June 2020, I sold 5 times as many tomes to unsuspecting victims…I mean, readers.
Where did the sales come from? Well, Overdrive (which are library sales) was a big part of my numbers and was my third best “retailer” for June. The second best was Apple. Amazon limped along as it has been doing. And Google Play is still a joke (seriously, my own Payhip BookStore outsells Google Play).
My top retailer for the month was Kobo!! After a really slow start with them this year, I seem to have cracked some Kobo code and my books are flying off the virtual shelves. So, THANK YOU, Kobo!!!
Looking Forward to July
July is going to be spent working on the second draft of the new book and on testing some ads.
I’ve tried running ads before, but never put much effort into it, but now that I actually have some book royalties to put toward testing, I figure it’s about time to invest in my writing business.
What about you? How was your June? Any heat horror stories? Any fun plans for June? Do share, I love hearing from you!!!
Have a great week!
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Tammie Painter 
Yay! I mean how awesome is that for your book to be at your community library AND people are checking it out! Glad you made it through the heatwave and yikes it was hot in your house!
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Tell me about it. I think it took a couple days to get it fully cooled down to something closer to normal inside temps for summer. And it is crazy amazing to see all 40 copies of the book still being checked out. It that I’m checking or anything…haha!
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(Tammie P. obsessively looks at library website…)
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