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It’s been a frustrating six months.  We “officially” released Broken Road back in the middle of November.  We distributed over 300 business cards showing a brief blurb from the book, and our website address, beginning in Chicago at the site of the Nat’l Writing Project Annual Convention and the annual convention for English teachers.

We felt sure the website would get some hits from curiosity if nothing else, but the number of visitors to the site was disappointing.  We gave away books on GoodReads to two members who were selected by GoodReads out of 393 people who requested to be part of the giveaway.  So far, only one of the winners has read the book and left a comment on GoodReads.

We re-thought the first two chapters and did a major slash-and-trash on the book in early April; turned it from a 20 chapter book into a 75 chapter book, based on advice from a successful eBook author. (This move, I believe, was a HUGE mistake. I think it immediately puts someone off when they download a sample and see that it has so many chapters.  Also, Smashwords considers a book with more than 300 pages to be an “epic” novel, a description I think the average reader would find dismaying.

On our recent trip to south Alabama and the Gulf, we had magnets made for our car with our QR code that connects to our website, which in turn shows that the eBook of Broken Road is now available for $0.99 on Smashwords.  We’ve had a few more downloads of the sample, but no more purchases.

No two ways about it, I’m bummed. Mike really thinks the sequel, Full Circle, should be ready by Father’s Day.  That ain’t happening.  I can’t read with any positive spin anymore, so I have serious doubts about the editing process right now.

I guess the fact that most of my family has not read the book should have been a clue.  Maybe the average reader needs erotic themes, or blood, guts and gore–I don’t know. 

But I do know that I’ve personally read a great number of books that were really enjoyable reads that didn’t rely on shock or sensationalism.  So I’m holding out hope for the folks from Broken Road.