Mixi J. Applebottom's Blog, page 9

So, how many free downloads do you get in five days?

313.  That’s the answer, for me anyways.

I think that’s a good start.  I’m hopeful I will have reviews starting up soon.  But I mean, I gotta give them time to actually READ the book.

I got a little stuck on the sequel, I just couldn’t seem to GO anywhere with the story.  Where was I heading again?  And then, with a sudden realization I had a loose end I needed to fix.  And as they say, if you pull a loose thread you might unravel the sweater.

So, from dinking around writing 500-1000 words at a time and mostly re-reading and treading water, I sat down and wrote 3,000 words.  THERE we go.  That’s how a story gets told.  Big chunks.

My target is 4,000 per day, but I haven’t quite made it to that yet.  I only had seven pies to make today so I intend on writing my four thousand or so help me!

I’m not really much of a blogger yet, but give it time.

At four thousand a day, that is a theoretical novel a month.  I think I can do that.  Really, the target is two per month, but I”m still working a day job so I have to have limits.

Customers are the strangest thing, sure, I like them.  But they are just odd.  This week I have had four different people say, “I hope you don’t sell.”

That is, by far, the worst thing you could say to someone. I always want to reply with, “I hope you fail at your life goals too!”  Or, “Yes, I hope I just get foreclosed on!”

Instead I ‘polite giggle’ and say, “Oh man, I am gonna miss this place when we do!”  It’s not a total lie.  It is quite possible to both love and hate the thing you are doing.

How’s the free book promotion going?

Very well, thank you, over a hundred downloads so far.  I’ll keep you posted, no worries.  First book, new author, no reviews, and yet, already a hundred downloads.  So there is hope I think.  I was worried that, it being my first book etc, that maybe I would be unfindable.  Too many books, too many choices.  Maybe just the sheer amount of books would wash mine away to the pit of no mans land.

But I have been found.  And I will be quite fine at this.  Just give it some time.

I keep thinking about my house that I want to buy.

The walls, the floors, the doors, the ceilings.  I am going to make something amazing out of it.

But, not yet.  Because, I don’t own it yet.  My impatience for such things is short.  I am ready to move yesterday.  I need to stop baking pies and start cooking stories.  Stop baking pies and start painting walls.  Stop baking pies and start flooring.

Stop lingering where I shouldn’t be and stepping towards where I should be.

The thing is, you have to try things.  You have to try things.  And fail at them, and learn from them, and try something smarter and better.  Be fearless.  Keep going.  Don’t worry.  You’ll learn.  So try I do, and try I must.  And soon, soon I will succeed at whatever it is I am doing.  I will succeed by my definition, nobody else’s.

I have been so many things in these short years.  Mathematician, chicken farmer, seamstress, button salesmen, secretary, pie maker, farmer, and now author.  I am not afraid to keep trying.  I know what I am looking for.  I think that’s the point.  I already know what I am looking for.  I’m just finding a way to do it.  Writing has felt the most… the most closest.  So let’s give it a go.  I gotta get the pies off my back so I can really try it.  It’s been frustrating to farm and pie full time.  It’s more work then money.  I don’t mind work.  Really, I chose this.  I choose working.  But I dislike the unfair trade of hours to pay.  Writing you say may also be unfair to me.  That is true.  But it is less demanding and more demanding simulateously.

Front load the work.  Write the book, then wait for the pay.  But don’t stop.  Dont’ write one.  Writing one is a waste.  Write ten.  And then success will start creeping at you.  That’s my theory.  Write ten.  Write twenty.  Write a hundred.

But don’t stop at one like some lost kitten who thinks they can win the lottery with just one game, just one ticket.

Your odds of making a living with books is much better then the lottery by the way.  Maybe you suck and all you can possible make is 5k per book.  And I mean, over the lifetime of your sales.  So, you gotta write ten a year just to make it work, and you aren’t even paid for the first year.

Or maybe you are better then average and you only need to write five a year.

Maybe you are spectacularly talented and people love you.  Maybe you are.  Maybe you just write a book a year and that’s enough to buy a big house and feed your people.

Me?  I’m new.  And who knows if I am loveable or not.  Nobody can tell you that.  Sales tell you that.  I gotta write ten.  Or twenty, or fifty.

But it’s okay. It’s okay to work hard.  Just don’t stop at one book.  Just don’t finish ten and see if you can hack it.

KDP select program

Just sign up for it.  Amazon is number one. Why would you post your stuff on the number two sites?

 

Anyways, I set my book for a free promotion and have already had it downloaded 40 times.  This is good, hopefully someone will review it!  I know I could totally pay for reviews, or even review it myself, or have my actual friends and family review it.  But. really.  Why bother?  It’s the random strangers I will never meet who will raise me to stardom or drop me like a hot potato.

 

I only have three pies left this afternoon, probably should make some more, but instead I”ll just let them sell out and I will go home early and do something regular.  Like laundry.

 

A bit about cornstarch.  People ask me pie related questions all the time.  Here is a cheat sheet on pies and cornstarch information.

Cornstarch thickens sauces because the molecules inflate at a certain temperature.  If you are making a pie (sauce, gravy, pudding etc) and it suddenly thickens, but you want it thicker, then you have to add more cornstarch.  The molecules can only inflate the once. If you cook it longer to ‘thicken it further’ eventually you will heat it enough to make the molecules explode.  Then it will be runny again.  Hilarious I know.  If you cook something with cornstarch it must fully boil to hit the temp where the cornstarch thickens it.

So, boil a pie all the way to the center to ensure that the cornstarch has hit the right temp.  Don’t bother cooking it longer.  Once it has boiled the filling is done.

If the filling is boiling and the crust is not done,  turn up the temp.

If the filling is not boiling and the crust is done, turn down the temp.

 

Easy as pie.

 

Peach Pie

 

This pie was one of the first few I made.  I actually picked the peaches off my tree, peeled, sliced, and pie’d ’em.  I know.  Aren’t I a bit enthusiastic.

Things are changing.

Do I sound cooler already now that I am a published author?  You better believe it!  I have self published my first book, Jaspierre.  Check it out here:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NMRQJD0/ref=rdr_kindle_ext_tmb

It’ll be free from Sept 21st to Sept 25th this 2014.

Today I am running my pie shop, it’s pretty slow being a thursday in September.  The busy season is officially winding down for the year, only one big weekend left.  (THIS weekend in fact!  It’s winefest!)

After that I make the shift back to winter hours.

With any luck I will sell this place and move before Thanksgiving.  Not that I mind making Thanksgiving pies.  It’s just a lotta work.  We did 252 last year.  Which is more pies then you can shake a stick at.

I don’t hate making pies.  I’ve probably done about six or seven thousand now.  It’s pleasant, mindless work.  Really works out the arms too.

But I am sick and tired of this house.  I couldn’t possibly be more sick and tired of it.  It’s a thousand sq ft ‘house” that was, apparently, at one point, an ostrich barn.  It’s in bad shape, and despite my attempts to fix it up it is still just unpleasant to live in it.

Anyways, house was part of the game.  To buy the pie shop, I had to be willing to give the house a go.  So I sold my pretty fancy house and bought a dumpy yucky one.  Made a lot of pies.  Now I’m selling my dumpy little house and my shop and buying…

well.

With any luck I’ll be buying something ridiculous.

Well, here we go

I’ve just finished up editing.  I have had a cover for a while, and so I am ready to go.  As soon as I find the time I will hit publish.

But not tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will have to make pies.  And cheesecakes.

Monday I think.  Monday is when I will publish my first book on kindle.  Roll of the dice, find out where we land.

Will you like it?  I sure hope so.