200 downloads on The Coin Collector! Booya! I believe this means that people have officially downloaded my short story more than my debut novel. Ah well. The short story is short, not to mention free, so I suppose it makes sense. Still, happy day! Round numbers are awesome.
Speaking of short stories, a lovely lady in my writing critique group just published a short story called Chameleon – check it out here. I’ve only read the preview thus far, but it looked pretty darn good, so check it out if you’re looking for a quick read of the sci-fi/action/spy thriller variety!
In other news … yeah, I have no other news. Well, actually, I have officially started re-writes for Chasing Nonconformity. Two paragraphs down, several hundred to go! I stuck my notebook back in my bathroom and took out all the books so that I have no choice but to write during my morning … let’s call it a “sojourn”.
I also have a question for all you WordPress-literate types. My page views and “likes” have been down in recent months, mostly due to me being very lugubrious in my posting frequency, but I still get a few new people following my blog every day. So, no raise in views/likes … but new followers every day. Very suspicious. Any thoughts on this bizarre phenomenon? A mass conspiracy by the internet to mess with me? An unintended and inexplicable result of the recent American government shutdown? Could the United Platypus Alliance be involved?
Unrelated media of the day:
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/s4iVkXA
Michelle Proulx - Author 
Check your spam filter is ON and then check out the links to your followers to see if they are ok or not 🙂
A lot of my followers seem to be assorted corporations, so that might explain some of it 😀
Well, if they’re not bothering you then at least they’re giving you good follower stats LOL 🙂
Congratulations on the downloads! 🙂
Why thank you! And I’ve gotten 5 reviews back, so I know for sure I haven’t wasted at least 5 people’s time with my story, lol.
Well there you go! Only another 195 to go! 🙂
Heh. If only 😀
Make that only 194 to go Michelle, I just posted mine on Smashwords, B&N and Goodreads 🙂
Would you look at that! I had no idea it was even on B&N, lol. Who knew? Hahaha thanks for letting me know, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have figured that out for months! Oh, and thanks again for the review(s) 😀
lots of people reading on tablets or apps don’t have the option of liking or commenting I downloaded the windows 8 wordpress app which is great for reading post on but does not allow any interaction so I have gone back to old fashioned email links to read posts
No kidding? It’s so weird that an app wouldn’t let you interact with the post. Silly programmers!
Congrats on the downloads. I think a lot of people confine their searching for e-reading material to free items; my free ebook gets downloaded often, but the ones that cost 2.99 — not so much. I suspect that free would beat something that cost just 1 cent because of this behaviour. As to all those followers, I’ve noticed something like this as well. As the WordPress elves advise, I check out any new follower’s blog to see what they’re up to, and I find that often they seem to be promoting something like lifestyle coaching. But maybe dubious connections are better than no connections?
Well, at the very least it makes us look more popular than we are, lol.
Congrats on the downloads. I’ve seen my blog numbers drop a lot since I’ve stopped blogging like a fiend. 1 post or 3 poems a day is what I do. Yet, I still gain new followers every day. Maybe it’s connected to a variation in post tags or subject matter that brings people in. Other times, it could just be people hunting for bloggers to follow and get a follow back. I have yet to get a comment from 99% of my new followers.
The weird part is that this is a recent thing – as in, the random followers have started appearing over the last few months, but not so much before that. Maybe once you hit a certain number of followers, you become “big-time” enough to gain random followers?
Maybe. Like I said, it’s been the same for me. It could be that you have more followers, so people are noticing it through them.
Mine have been way down too. I blame summer. Winter is our friend. More indoor activity.
Summer’s the worst! Well, except for the sunshine and warmth and so on. 🙂
I never try to read too much into new follows. I mean, check them out and see what they are about, but don’t try to correlate anything with their decision to follow.
For instance, my wife decided to stop updated her Through the Eyes of A Stranger blog, and focus on Facebook. So she posts that the blog will be shutting down and there is a limited amount to time to change over. This naturally brings new followers? Yeah, ‘cuz that makes sense.
So strange. I guess it’s the same concept as Twitter – I follow you, you follow me. Except they don’t even look at the blog they’re following, so they miss key information, such as the fact that the blog is shut down, lol.
There are occasional spam followers, but I also think some versions of the reader (like Paula mentioned) don’t add to your page views or allow as much interaction. These programmers need to get with the program! 🙂
Agreed! It’s really bizarre that an app specifically designed for WordPress wouldn’t work with WordPress. Then again, what fun is life without a little frustration and bewilderment? 😀
Congrats! Although that story is free, and most people just can’t beat the price of FREE, so… don’t feel too down. xD Maybe at least a few of those readers went on to buy ImminDang, in which case, success!
Also, EVERYTHING is the fault of the American government shutdown.
And if that is not the reason for this strange lack of views, then I am slightly clueless. xD;
Congrats yourself, Madam Novelist! Just read your post … soooo awesome 😀
That’s always the hope – read the free, get drawn in, buy the non-free. I have nothing particularly against the shutdown, unless it affects me, in which case I will rage the heck out.
Ha ha–Madam Novelist. I could get used to that. ;D
And LOL, right? Unfortunately that’s how I feel, but it’s my country. </3 All of the sad.
I’d love to trade notes on your short story efforts. I’m about to embark on the same thing. I have one short (16,000 words) ready to go and am working on two more that are of comparable length — publishing them each individually as e-books for .99, while rotating them in and out of free offers.
Absolutely! What to say … I mean, I’m offering mine for free on Smashwords, so I haven’t done a whole lot of marketing … or making money, lol. Amazon’s probably a much better platform, due to the KDP thing and the worldwide reach. Definitely put a sampler of your other stories (maybe limit it to one other story) at the end of each ebook, and then make sure there are links to EVERYTHING you’ve written, your facebook, your website, etc. etc. I believe there are lots of sites that allow you to advertise cheap ebooks on Amazon, although I’m not sure what they are. Google that shizzle 😀 Also, your pricing sounds good — 16k deserves to make you a dollar, whereas my piddling 2k story is a bit … sparse for such wealth.
I’m thinking about Smashwords rather than KDP, but I’m not sure. The novel I published there did absolutely nothing so I’m ambivalent. And I had already thought that I’d have an excerpt or two of the other stories at the end of each. We shall see. Just need to finish writing the trio now.
I think I missed the memo! Just downloaded it. It should make a nice break from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which I’m finding is like sitting through a series of dental procedures…
Congrats on the 200 Milestone! 🙂
Thanks 😀 I haven’t read 20k Leagues, but I do know all the words to “Whale of a Tale”. So … that counts, right? 😀
That counts 10 times over! You’re not missing much with 20K leagues.
Read the Coin Collector on the train this morning – in less than half my trip. It certainly was short! But you did say it was a short story. I thought it ended a little abruptly, though. Otherwise quite enjoyable! 🙂
Lol. I’ve noticed that I have an ongoing trend when I write short stories, in that the main character always dies — usually via being eaten by the other main character. Perhaps I should release a short story anthology called “Main Characters and the Fantastic Creatures Who Devour Them”.
Haha! Don’t forget to prefix the title with “Spoiler warning!” 😉
Congrats on the downloads, Michelle! I have it on my Nook, and if I ever get it back from my son, I’ll read it! 🙂
Hahaha so I should look for your review sometime next summer? Since I regularly take my mother’s things and take forever to give them back, you might be in for a long wait 😀 But yay for downloading!
Ha, that was awesome. I just downloaded the short story and read it; I certainly didn’t see that coming. A fun, quick read – I liked it! Congrats on the downloads. =D
And I have been getting a lot of followers despite my inactivity too. Methinks they’re all spammers. =/
Yay! And glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Yeah, the follower thing is bizarre, isn’t it? And yet some of them seem to be legitimate people, so … huh. Quite the mystery, I’m afraid.
Congrats on the downloads. The more downloads of your short story, the more people might buy your book. It’s all good marketing to get the word out.
The followers issue is something I’ve noticed as well. I like it when someone reads a few posts, likes a few, maybe comments on some and then follows you. Less good are the ones who only follow you. I think they do it so you go to their blog and poke about when they’ve not done the same to you.
When I’m on the wordpress app or the reader I’ve noticed that you can follow a blogger or like a post without even reading the whole post. I guess people do it to boost their stats.
Booo on them 🙂
Lol. I mean, the follower thing is most telling when I look at my actual view stats. I have almost a thousand followers, but you can bet your bottom dollar I don’t have a fraction of those people actually reading my posts. So yeah, the whole I follow you, you follow me thing going on.
And yay downloads! Many thanks for the congratulations 🙂 I really need to put out more short stories with excerpts. How else shall I conquer the internet?
Conquer the internet one user at a time 🙂
I can totally understand the trolleys.. imagine to carry foie gras insted of frozen steak and kidney pies.. it could make a trolley think life’s worth living.
Absolutely. Although I do have a slight problem with the whole “how” of foie gras. At least steak and kidney only involve harvesting animal’s organs, whereas foie gras has that whole unsavory “stuff the goose” mentality.