Z.L. Arkadie Midweek Update! 3-15-2023
Greetings!
Okay, so I’m up in the wee hours of the morning.
However, I had to take some time off this weekend and let my brain craft more of the ending to Uncommitted. I feel as if I move too fast, then I’ll miss the best story. And since I have freed myself to move slower than usual, I will let the extra days work for me!
However, I do have an update. The first 51k words are undergoing a beta read at the moment. I’ll send Star Tree Editing the ending when I’ve completed it. I probably have another 30k words to finish. This is a long one, ya’ll. I’m done writing under tight deadlines. I work every day, writing eight hours a day. Sure, sometimes I doodle with covers, which is why I turn out so many (um, that’s not a good thing), but in the recesses of my mind, I’m moving the story forward as well.
But as soon as I complete the book, which I hope will be before Sunday, I’ll start working on posting more promotional material like an audio clip, and I’ll possibly do more than one! This goodie will be thanks to a young and gifted narrator who goes by the name Ian Bold. You’ll love him! As you can imagine, I also have plenty of deleted scenes, being how long it’s taking me to finish! LOL! And also, more sneak peeks of my favorite chapters and some featuring characters you already know.
But I crafted some entertaining prose today. I would’ve never arrived at this point if I had rushed to the finish line in three months. However, I do want to write at least three books a year. Heck, I work eight hours a day! I should be able to produce at least four a year!
Also, I am considering taking The Lord Brothers of Manhattan wide again when Kindle Unlimited is up on Crossimh the Line and A Fake Love Deal. I’ve worked the program for six months, and now that the Lord brothers’ stories are complete and I’m heading into Grove territory, I want to give the series a chance to succeed while wide.
Because…
Okay. So I attended a conference as an online participant in November of last year. On November 4th, which was the last day, Amazon reps presented. They’re always so cagey like they’re afraid of giving away the family recipe. I was very exhausted by then. Listen, I know they have to protect their algorithm because they want to maintain the quality of their store. But I asked a question about the seven keywords they allow us because their best-practices advice is so confusing, and their answer was cryptic. And so exhausted me, got tetchy. I think I wrote something like “Sigh… Really?” in the comments of Zoom. And then later that night, Boss On Notice was pulling up to 45k page reads a day, and sometimes more started dropping. It’s now pulling about 10k page reads a day.
I can’t confirm that what’s happening to that book is related to that Amazon segment of the conference, but I can’t rule it out! I wish I could, but I can’t. Not entirely, and that’s A LOT of power to give one retail outlet. However, also, I could’ve made some kind of change in the keywords or description on that day that I didn’t log. I’m telling you, one keyword change can make you a winner or a loser. And I was so tired. I was hardly sane. I would’ve never been tetchy if I were in my right mind. I would’ve rolled my eyes in private and yelled at my screen. As the song says, You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, and know when to zip it!
IDK. For some reason, I think I made keyword changes that did me in. I have a long record of changes I make, but I just didn’t log them on that day because I was soooo exhausted!
Which again. It is not a good thing. Although. It was my fault for messing with crap when I didn’t need to. I think someone said something that made me go, “Ooh, I’ll try that now!”
Oh, and plus, pay per page read sucks.
Anyway, The Lord of Manhattan Brothers will soon be coming to all stores. Also, I changed the title of Crossing Love Lines back to Crossing The Line. Sigh… You see how often I change crap, messing things up? Believe me; I’m working on it. But Crossing the Line and A Fake Love Deal should be wide before the end of the month. I’ll see if Amazon will release Boss On Notice before its end date on April 28th. I want it to be available to wide readers before the release of Uncommitted.
So, that’s the plan for now.
Okay, so now it’s going on 3:00 a.m.. I’m going to bed. I just finished this entire post through Gramarly so it should’ve been smooth reading. I’m not able to write my entire manuscript with the benefit of Grammarly which makes it easier for my editors. Uncommitted will be my first full Grammarly assisted book that I’ve written pre-release! Yay.
Alright, good night from me and perhaps now, it’s good norning to you!
Much Love,
Z