Sale For Poetry Month

Un-Clenched Emotion, Kindle Edition, will once again be on sale for ninety nine cents (.99) for poetry month. The book normally costs $2.99. Get it by going to this link: https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y The sale starts on Monday April 22nd 2024 and will end Monday April 29th 2024. I have not been successful with these sales before, but maybe this time will be better. I wasn't ordinally successful giving my book away for free at first either. However last year, I made the best seller for free books list on Amazon. I have set some advertising up this time which I haven't tried before. Fingers crossed. It's also April, poetry month, and this blog get more traffic this month. Here's one of my poems from the book to give you a taste of what it is like:

YouTube Video of The Sea

Obviously, for poetry month I have been working on marketing. I learned about Amazon Ads. There was a rumor going around on Facebook that a book would get in Amazon's newsletter if it had 50 ratings and over a four star review. I asked Alexa, and she said it was not enough. She pretty much said that it was secret the way Amazon chooses to place books in their newsletter. This stuff is hardly poetic. I have done a lot of work on my next book, Seasons of Sensation. It's still nowhere near complete but is really coming along. That's what I have REALLY done for poetry month. I haven't decided how I am going to publish Seasons of Sensation, whether I'll try a traditional publisher or if I'll publish on my own. I hope that you choose to buy Un-Clenched Emotion this time and decide that you would like to read more of my stuff.

Should Poems Have a Title?

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If you read a lot of poetry, you will notice that there are many poems out there without a title. In fact, a very famous poet, Emily Dickinson, did not title any of her poems. The choice to title poems is up to the author. It is the readers right to have an opinion on whether a title should be placed or not. I am of the belief that the choice of titling a poem is a matter of artistic expression.

There was a time in my life when I titled some of my poems and left others without a title. Now I title everything. The reason for that is because, submitting a poem for publication, I got rejected. The reason they gave me was that they could not figure out what the poem was about. I realized that adding a title would add clarity and add a little extra something to the poem. I titled the rejected piece, "It's All About The Sky," and don't remember if I submitted it for publication anywhere else.

I also choose to add titles to my poems for easier organization and recognition. When writing many pieces, it is helpful to have an indicator of which piece is being talked about in a conversation or in a paper. It also helps in poetry collection books. It can be argued that a title to a poem is unnecessary for organization. When a poem has no title, its first line becomes the title. That has been the case with Dickson's poems in my English books. Still, I think titles are beneficial for clarities sake.

I have run into the problem of giving some of my works the same title. It will be quite a project going through my writings and figuring which titles should be changed, or if I am willing to have some of my poetry titled the same. I have so many poems that giving every piece a different title might be unattainable. It is possible that I may choose to have the first line of my poem become the new title. If this is the case, I will write that one line down twice. There's nothing wrong with a little repetition in poetry.

 

It is kind of weird that some poets choose to go without. An author would probably not write a book without a title. That would be weird. It may be that some poets don't title their poetry for the very sake of weirdness. That's fine. Titling poetry is a choice. I have nothing against authors who choose not to title their poems. I, however, now choose to title mine.

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They Left Out the Title

Empty words expected to be gleaned through inference.
But how can we tell when the line before and the line after is left blank?
It puts a new meaning to 'reading in between the lines'.
Reading the words after blank spaces,
our hearts may be captivated
and our creativity may spell the subject out.
Our own interpretation.
That must be the hope of those who left the title without.

Is Writing Work? Even If You Don't Get Paid?

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I think a lot of writers are unintentionally modest. I know I am. I have a hard time mentioning that I have written a poetry book, even to people I know. I think maybe it's not that big of deal, especially since I know so many people have done it. But it is a big deal, and authors need to mention that they have written books in order to sell them. Part of the reason I don't mention that I write is because somewhere deep inside, and untruly, I think that writing is not work. The biggest reason I suspect I think that is because I don't get paid much for my work. Some authors may say writing is not work because it's fun. But it is work, work can be enjoyable!

I was at a family reunion and was asked the dreaded question, "so what do you do?" by my aunt. I mentioned taking care of my Autistic daughter, feeling inadequate because despite being paid to take care of my 22 year old daughter, I am her mother and am supposed to do that. I also felt depressed because I had to quit my job earlier in the year because of my health. I felt inferior. Then I mentioned taking a proof reading and editing class with my goal to get paid in that sector of English. My aunt then surprised me by asking me if I still wrote poetry. I was happy to say, "yes I do!" I suddenly felt better about myself because I realized I am doing something, I am working.

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I also remembered that in my last job, I had put writer on my resume. I was hesitant to do that, but I had made a little money through freelancing on Upwork.  I felt that I could honestly put that as work experience on there since I got paid. I was surprised a few years later when one of my boss's said they were excited to hire me because I had writer on my resume. Even though I had trouble accepting it as an actual job, other people didn't.  You never know what is going to happen. In the case of looking for a job or making money, don't be modest!

Even if an author is not getting paid they are still working. They still spend valuable time putting pen to paper, and/or typing their stories or poems up. Then going back and making sure their work is polished.  Some people stop there, but all the time put in is the equivalent of an actual job. And then there are the writers who try to get published, either through traditional means or by self-publishing. It takes time to send out manuscripts and then a lot of waiting for rejection or acceptance. If an author gets rejected they have to send out their manuscript somewhere else. It takes time, and is work, to find who to send your manuscript to. Then there are those who may self-publish or who decide to self-publish after getting rejected. Now that's a lot of work! You have to choose which market you're going to publish with, and learn about their requirements. There may be a lot of tutorials or web pages to go through to do it right. Additionally, self-published authors have to market their own work. That truly feels like a job to me, yet, and contradictorily, because I've made so few sales my head tells me it's not a job. I may not be extremely successful but I am realizing, that yes I do actually work, by marketing and writing. I hope other writers out there proudly exclaim that they're authors, even if they're not making any money yet!

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Selling Indie Books

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First, for those of you are curious, I was once again unsuccessful in selling "Un-Clenched Emotion" for 99 cents. I had made 2 full price sales before that, so not the end of the world. Speaking of selling books, I recently sold to 2 other countries. Usually KDP reports shows how many sales you have a week (or how many Kindle Unlimited pages are read) a month, year etc. So I waited a week to check the reports, and those foreign sales were not on my KDP reports. However, I did get money in my bank account for those sales. All is good. Speaking of making money, for the first time since I published my book in 2016, I was emailed a tax form for the royalties on my book this year. What I made is in the extremely low double digits, but it was still exciting to get that tax form.

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I do believe in order to make money and more sales, I need to spend something on advertising. Previously I was questioning whether Amazon Ads was worth it. Now, I am pretty sure it is. Many Indie Authors that I am in contact with expressed their success with the program. I really need to take a closer look on how to use these ads. Amazon has a lot of guides. I looked at some of them and find them daunting. I have bought some marketing through other companies in the past. I have to say, never pay for social media shout outs. You can do that yourself for free. Many people on X (Previously twitter) will retweet your post for free, especially if you retweet their posts. Someone once even made an unsolicited post advertising my book on Instagram. You can get Facebook friends to help you too. I really need to make a Facebook page to promote my writing.

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I may soon have free advertising through Amazon. It has been said that if you have over 50 reviews of above a certain star rating, Amazon will put your book in their newsletter. I have strong doubts about this. I am not that far away from 50 reviews. My star rating is definitely high enough. I am hoping that I will be pleasantly surprised and get "Un-Clenched Emotion" in a newsletter because of this. For all of those Indie Authors out there, I wish you success in your marketing ventures. For curious readers, please leave reviews for those authors!