La Riposte

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Facebook Promotion Payoff and a #ROW80 Update!

Adopting a Napoleonesque pose
at the Marine Corps Ball
A busy week gone by, and the little checklists have so far paid dubious dividends… Even the simple things, like “Drink 2 liters of water” are going undone, often as not. Of course, it was an odd week, what with an impromptu send-off party for a fellow officer headed to Afghanistan and my squadron’s Marine Corps Birthday Ball on Thursday night, but even so!

That said, I did get a good bit of writing done, so salvaged that end of things… I also did a little experiment, putting $5.00 of promotional money toward the Facebook post on Chapter 34 of The Perfidious Mister Wickham… The result? So far, with only about $2.50 spent, over 1000 people have seen the Facebook post, and over 100 have visited the book page – an all-time high!

With the book running an estimated 45-50 chapters, about $50 should theoretically bring in quite a lot of potential readers and future customers. Worth the price of admission? I think so, but does anyone else have experience with this feature on Facebook?

WRITING
- Posted Chapter 34 of The Perfidious Mister Wickham
- Posted this ROW80 Update!
- Put up a new post on my GypsyDangerously blog…
- Wrote most of Chapter 35 of The Perfidious Mister Wickham.
- Wrote about a third of a non-fiction piece for Foreign Affairs.

FITNESS
- Attended yoga class on Saturday
- Tracked down a local rugby club to play for.

NEW ECONOMIC
- Well, old economic – put in an offer on a pair of little rental condos in Hilton Head!
- Reduce my personal carbon footprint – I got the electric motor and battery for my little dinghy, and took her out for a spin – read the wholestory here!

So, another somewhat useful week, but lots to do still – will put the little checklists to the test this coming week, where my big goal is to get Ho B-52 published and promoted!

Wish me luck!

Edward

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Another Sunday #ROW80 Update!

One of the medals for an award
that I wrote up this week...
So, it’s been a week or more since my last update… Bad author! Bad!

But I’ve accomplished a few things while I’ve been running silent, running deep…

WRITING
- Posted Chapter 33 of The Perfidious Mister Wickham
- Posted this ROW80 Update!
- Put up a new post on my GypsyDangerously blog…

I’ve also been accepted as a contributor to the blog for The Marine Corps Gazette (the professional journal of the United States Marine Corps) and my sister has asked me to help co-author an article for Foreign Affairs.

On top of all that, I’ve been busy writing at work – a Meritorious Service Medal nomination (3 pages) and a Legion of Merit nomination (4 pages) – an author’s work is never done!

SOCIAL
- Pulled off a bucket list adventure racing NASCAR’s around the short track up in Myrtle Beach (pictures to follow one of these days!)

NETWORKING
- Joined the national Romance Writers of America (RWA) – now I just need to join the local chapter… If this seems like an odd move, it’s because The Perfidious Mister Wickham has elements that will appeal to the same readers that RWA authors generally cater to…

NEW ECONOMIC
- Join Air B&B – complete! Now I just need to get my little vessel ship-shape so I can start bringing in guests from time to time!
- Reduce my personal carbon footprint – I found a lovely little dinghy that comes with a sail, oars, and the mounting block for a little solar-powered electric motor that I plan to install – so, for the cost of about 8 tanks of gas, I should have carbon-free waterborne transportation to work here very shortly!

So, a vaguely productive period of time, but there’s still a lot more to be done in the last 6 weeks of this Round of Words. I’ll be quite honest that I’ve been having difficulty meeting some of my goals, so to ensure they don’t fall through the cracks, I’ll be creating 6 weeks worth of little checklists and making sure that I’m marking something relevant off every day!