2012: The Year in Review

Ok, I've finally made time to do the 2012 roundup. (BTW, happy 2013 everyone!)

I had hoped to make 2012 a year of writing. Unfortunately, much like 2011, 2012 was a year of publishing, but not so much of writing. However, unlike 2011, I now have a year's worth of sales data. :)

Sales numbers tell an interesting story. I sell more titles on Barnes & Noble than anywhere else. In fact, I sold more titles at B&N than at Amazon (all stores), Kobo, Smashwords (just them), and Sony combined. However, I make roughly equivalent dollar amounts between Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords (including Apple, Kobo, etc). Below is a sales chart showing titles sold, as well as some of the data for the free titles:

The top portion includes only sales for which I received money. The bottom portion is for "sales" that were free, either price-match or promotion. Apple and Kobo apparently do not report their free sales to Smashwords. I had some free sales through other Smashwords outlets, but I didn't count them here because they didn't result in any dollar sales through those outlets.

Dollar-wise, here's how those sales translate:
      Amazon US: $227.60 (didn't figure foreign sales as it is a hassle)
      Barnes & Noble: $233.29
      Smashwords (all channels): $299.60

For Amazon and Barnes & Noble, those are the royalties generated for the 2012 calendar year. For Smashwords it's a little trickier because of the delay in reporting and receiving; I basically added up the royalty payments for the calendar year (one of which hasn't gone out yet, of course, but I can see the numbers).

My best selling title is Scent and Shadow (yeay!) at 95, followed closely by "The Sub Fairy" at 88. My three most consistent sellers are Scent and Shadow, "The House That Pip Built", and "Geargirl"; each of those had at least one sale a month across all channels. (Heck, S&S and Pip had at least one sale a month just at B&N; Geargirl missed December or that one would have as well.) The story with the best average sales per month it's been available is "Cry Wolf."

I did manage to publish at least one title a month, which was a goal of mine from 2011. I didn't get any anthologies put together, but I have one that just needs a cover and another that should be ready in the next couple of months.

2012 (not counting unfinished projects):
Short stories written (final drafts written 2012): 4
Short stories sold to tradpub: 2 (one submitted in 2011)
Short story submissions to tradpub: 10
Short story rejections (including revoked submissions): 13
Short stories traditionally published: 1 (one forthcoming)
Total self-published word count (final drafts written 2012): 49,122


The four stories I did this year were Demon's Asylum, Night's Acolyte, "Husband's Little Helper," and "Care Packages." Demon's Asylum was mostly written before 2012, but I obviously didn't count it in last year's total, and the final draft was finished this year, so there you go. I'm not sure how to count The Once and Future Poet, since a large portion of it was, obviously, written over many years. But if we count all of Poet, that brings my writing total up to around 93,622, which isn't too bad.

I didn't get anywhere close to my 4000 words/week goal from last year. Frankly, making writing time is much harder than making publishing time, for some reason. I want to try and keep up my one-title-a-month trend, but I know that's going to be much harder this year. Last year I had stuff sitting around, and titles that had rights coming back. This year, I have only one finished short story (at least, that's long enough to be published as a single) available to pillage, and one title that will have the rights revert late in 2013. So I have at least 9 months to fill up. I might get to use anthologies for a couple, but I'm hoping to not use those as the "new" releases if I don't have to.

My big goal for 2013 actually isn't writing-related at all. I need to start working out consistently, and I need to make that a bigger priority than writing. That being said, some new software for my iPod is making it much easier for me to capture writing time, since I can save doc files between the iPod and my computer now. I got 250 words done the other day while The Husband was in the grocery store, for example. I've also discovered I write better when I can't see how much of the page is left to fill. That's a mental hang-up I didn't even realize I had until I started writing on the iPod.

My big writing goal for 2013 is to finish the first draft of Empire's Shadow. Ideally, I want to publish it this year, but I'm keeping my goals on the small side for now. Depression kicked my ass last year, so I don't want to stress myself out. I write less when I'm stressed about not writing. Weird, no? There are also a handful of print anthologies I have my eye one, so between those and my self-publishing I'm shooting for 10-12 finished short stories this year on top of the novel.

Oh, and I want to do the Scent and Shadow podiobook this year. I have the microphone and the recording space. I just need to suck up learning Audacity. Or maybe I'll hire that part out. (Hmm, if I tell myself that I'll hire it out, I'll be much more likely to start working on it... Writer, know thyself.) But first, I must record!

Print and Progress and 'Puters

Scent and Shadow is now available for order in print at Amazon. I also (as I mentioned on Friday) got a new review over the weekend from my friend Zombie Joe over at Wicked Lil Pixie. Thanks Joe!

I got very little done last week, as I was hit by the dual blows of nasty headaches and a dying computer. The Husband has now set me up with a new computer (new as in new-to-me) and we are mostly done with the setting back up of stuff.

I did get a small start in on the next Gabriel Chapel book, and got hijacked by a completely unrelated idea that would flesh out another section of Aether Vitalis that has been kicking around in the back of my head since I started listening to The Book of Werewolves at work. (I love you, LibriVox!) I might be able to squeeze that one into a short story, more likely a novelette.

Demon's Asylum is partly edited, but I have to compare my saved files to see which one is the most recent. Stupid dying computer. I should have the cover done shortly. Fortunately I hadn't done much on it yet, just made a mock-up before buying my stock photos, so no work lost there. I use CrashPlan, but the computer kept locking up during backup so it was hard to tell what was good and what wasn't. For the most part, everything seems to have come through ok, it just needs a little sorting.

Ow

Migraine no love me. But in the meantime, check out this nice review from Zombie Joe at Wicked Little Pixie!

Thank Yous, Updates, Reviews, Etc

Hey all. Kinda swapping this time: did the long post on Friday and the short post on Tuesday. But I am beat. Just spent 2.5 hours redoing the cover for Scent and Shadow so it'll look right for the print version. I more or less had to start from scratch, but fortunately I've got it just about right now. A few more tweaks and I'll be ready to dive into formatting the manuscript for print as well.

I love the creative control of self-publishing, but wow, it's a lot of work!

Lots of huge thank-yous to everyone who has liked or commented or reviewed one of my stories! Some of the reviews for Scent and Shadow nearly had me in tears! I'm so happy that it seems to be coming across exactly the way I wanted it to. SQUEE! I mean, what's a book without readers, you know?

Speaking of squee, "Not Quite Casper" finally got marked down to free in the Kindle store. As of right now, it's #174 Free in the store, and #11 in the Kindle ebooks erotica category! Check it out if you haven't, it's a fun one. (And did I mention it's free?)

Hopefully they'll mark down "A Wild Hunt" soon too. C'mon, Amazon, everbody's doing it.

I hope to have another new story for y'all this month. (I know, I'm getting down to the wire here.) Next month for sure if not this month. I should also (hopefully) have a new anthology sale to share next month too.

For all my fellow Americans, have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving! See you all on Friday!

Not Quite NaNo, Plus RT and SFWA!

It’s the day of acronyms!

So I'm totally behind as far as NaNoWriMo goes, and I've decided that's ok. While I can do 1667 words a day, it's a lot of stress and pressure one me, and with us only having had The Bulldog for about a month, there's lots of training to be done that's more important to me than chasing a word count goal.

My experience so far has been that when I sit down to write, I think of that number 1667, and it's so big that I get discouraged. Whereas when I sit down to write 500 words, that feels like a good reasonable goal. It's doable, so I'm more likely to do it. Therefore, I'm back to the daily 500-words-a-day word goal. I'm really happy I made the attempt though, as it got me started into my new novel; a feat which, as some of you have seen if you've been reading this for awhile, I've been trying to get going for over a year.

I also wrote a 2300-word short story this month and submitted it, so I feel good about that too. I want to keep doing the short fiction while I work on the novel.

Speaking of short fiction, check out my first-ever review in RT Book Reviews! Six of the twenty-one stories in the anthology were mentioned in the review, and mine was one of them! Sweet! The anthology as a whole got four stars.

Graeme's Fantasy Book Review gave a very in-depth look at the anthology, and had very nice things to say about "White Knight, Black Horse." Thanks Graeme! As a whole we got eight and a half out of ten.

And last but far from least, I'm now an associate member in SFWA! Yeay! One sale down, two to go. I've wanted to be a full active member pretty much since I found out about Science Fiction Writers of America. Why? Because it's hard. A girl's gotta have goals, you know?

Top Image: Paul / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A Review, Love for Zombies, and a New Sale

Lots of exciting things going on! First, the anthology Bedknobs and Beanstalks was voted Book of the Week over at Whipped Cream Erotic Romance Reviews! We got four and a half cherries out of five.

Next up, author Lois Gresh has a zombie love-fest over at her blog for the anthology Hungry For Your Love, which features short blurbs from the authors about how they came up with their stories. And OMG we have endorsements from S.G. Browne and Christopher Golden!

And last but not least, I'm pleased to announce that my short story "Encore" will be appearing in the upcoming anthology Taste Test: Rainy Days and Mondays from Torquere Press.

The October Roundup: Publications, Reviews, a Sale, and an Excerpt

Wow, October was a fabulous month for me, but also very busy! I had a great time at the wedding of two of my good friends last night, a perfect cap to a great month.

First up, Hungry For Your Love released on Thursday, and is already up to #1 on Ravenous Romance's website. This anthology has generated a ton of buzz already, including a quiz to find out if your boyfriend is a zombie, and even a mention in Publisher's Weekly, and the print rights have been sold to St. Martin's Press! The print version is scheduled to be out next year for Halloween.

I am incredibly excited about the print sale. St. Martin's is a big name imprint of Macmillan, and publishes books from such authors as Sherrilyn Kenyon and Sue Grafton. Not that I don't love the other anthologies I'm in, and Bite Me was available in print from the first, but it is going to be so freaking cool to be able to walk into my local Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy of a book that I'm in. Squee! Not to mention getting my name out there, which is half the point of writing the short stories, honestly.

Next up, we've gotten a couple of reviews over at GoodReads for Bedknobs and Beanstalks. Of the anthology as a whole, Carole says "It's always hard to rate an anthology because the writing skill and enjoyment potential is different for each story, but here the stories are of uniformly high quality. All of the stories are cleverly fleshed out, using the original tale as a skeleton and branching out into new and imaginative territory." And Kathy says "I love anthologies, but I've learned to expect that not all the stories in it are going to appeal to me. Well, this anthology threw that assumption out the window! There are nine very different stories and each one of them, in my opinion, is a winner." I'm told there will also be a review posted sometime today over at Rainbow Reviews.

Last week also saw two great reviews for Taste Test: Scared Stiff. The first review is over at Well Read. For the anthology as a whole, the reviewer says: "This trio of mini ghost stories may be perfect for Halloween, but don’t worry you are more likely feel amused and heartened by these romantic stories than scared out of your wits...I had a great deal of fun reading these stories which are perfect Halloween reads." And of my story, "The House That Pip Built By Mercy Loomis was a tongue in cheek look at a haunted house where the ghost is very friendly indeed." This is the second time a reviewer has commented on my tongue-in-cheek humor, which amuses me because that's not something I actually try to do on purpose. (I suppose that's why it apparently works!) There's a link to a longer review over at Reviews by Jesse Wave, but right now the page is not coming up. I'll post snippets from that later.

Two more reviews for Like a Thorn. Dark Diva Reviews says "This is a variation on The Princess and The Pea, and was a nice tale. I enjoyed the interaction between the Princess and her part-time maid/full-time lover. I enjoyed the role changes, in which the maid is the Mistress and the Princess is the submissive. There is a twist at the end that just makes this story." She also calls the story a "charming romp," and gives the anthology as a whole 4.5 out of 5 divas. After reviewing "Skin Deep" and "Last Mistress of the Chatelaine," Lisabet Sarai over at the ERWA website comments "The other three stories in the anthology offer somewhat lighter fare. The brightest is "The Princess and the Peony" by Mercy Loomis." And of the anthology as a whole, she says "The stories in this collection more or less fulfill the promise of the introduction. They are original, well-crafted, and varied. All are laced with at least a bit of darkness. My biggest criticism of this collection is that it is too short."

I also found out that my story "The Sub Fairy" will be published in May 2010 by Cleis Press as part of the Please, Sir anthology edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. Woot! I've been wanting to work with them for awhile now so it's exciting to finally get into one of their anthologies. "The Sub Fairy" is about a married vanilla couple and how they discover a wonderful D/s relationship.

And last but not least, here is an excerpt from Hungry For Your Love. This is the very beginning, because frankly without the beginning I couldn't think of an excerpt that would still make sense... This will also give you a little insight into Dave from "A Wild Hunt," although Dave and Joseph are different people. Enjoy!

"White Knight, Black Horse"
by Mercy Loomis

I don't know if I can rightly describe it to you, what it's like. When you are seized by the loa there is no memory, no knowledge of what passes. The loa, the voodoo spirits that act as intermediaries between God and men, are fond of using humans as their horses when they wish to pass on a message or join in a celebration. It's said that the loa displace their horse's ti bon ange, the little good angel, the spark of their host's personality. Either they hold it safe in their keeping, or no one has been stupid enough to try to steal the soul of a loa's horse.

I would imagine the loa would take a dim view of such a thing.

But God knows, I had been ridden before, and coming out of the ground was nothing like it.

The bokor, the sorcerer, called me from the earth, and I came.

I was bound. I was beaten.

And the bokor stole my ti bon ange.

I can tell you all this, for I remember it. It is not the same as being ridden, not at all.

New Sale, New Review, and a Reminder!

It's been a heck of a week!

First, I'm pleased to announce that my short story "White Knight, Black Horse" will be published next week (I believe) in Hungry For Your Love: An Anthology of Zombie Romance from Ravenous Romance. I haven't had a chance to read the other stories yet, but this looks like an absolutely fabulous anthology. Twenty-one stories of zombie love, just in time for Halloween!


Second, here's a review of Torquere Press's Bite Me anthology, from the folks at Night Owl Romance. The reviewer doesn't comment on the stories individually, but as a whole we got five hearts out of five, to make us a Night Owl Romance Top Pick! Here's what they had to say about it:

Bite me is an Anthology of books written by ten authors. It encompasses romance, love, mythology, magic, mystery, paranormal and sexy love making all in one. Each author brings to the table their own style of writing that transitions into the next story cleanly. From Sean Michael’s When Needed to BA Tortuga’s A Family Business each story gives you their own vision of love with a bit of the paranormal. I found this book to be delightful and will read it over and over...Overall, this is a real winner of an anthology. There is something for everyone.


And last but not least, a reminder to stop on over to Torquere Press's LiveJournal Community and hang out with JL Merrow, Sunny Moraine, and me as we pimp our newly released anthology Taste Test: Scared Stiff.

Nice Review for "Empusa"

There's a nice review of the Bite Me anthology over at Rainbow Reviews.

Here's what reviewer Carole had to say about my story "Empusa":
Mercy Loomis brings us "Empusa," set in Athens in 482 B.C. Empusa is a daimon, summoned by Bennu who wants a spell to attract his master Kleon. Tongue-in-cheek humor is clearly Loomis' specialty. "His frustration perfumed the night air and made my mouth water. Egyptian, by his name and accent, and probably a slave. I hadn't had Egyptian in ages." The characters in this story are all so busy spelling each other, that it takes a daimon to unravel it all, leaving them vulnerable to the hottest spell of all.

And here's what she had to say about the anthology as a whole:
Bite Me is an unusually strong anthology. I don't think I would toss any of the stories out, and I'm a picky reader. K.I.L. Kenny has done a deft job of selection and editing, which leads to an exceptionally pleasurable reading experience. If you like ménage stories, if you like a little bite to your reading, you'll love Bite Me.

Nice Review for "The Princess and Peony"

My story "The Princess and Peony" got a very nice review over at Night Owl Romance. Here's what they had to say:

"The Princess and Peony by Mercy Loomis--A variation on 'The Princess and the Pea', I enjoyed this story the most. The Princess, Cara, arrives at the Prince's castle after chasing down her former lady-in-waiting Peony. Apparently Cara's parents didn't like Cara and Peony's relationship, so they sent her away. It’s a sweet and a treat to read."

Thanks for the compliments, Lexile!

Reviewers, please drop me an email or leave a comment so I can link back to your review. I love feedback, even if you hate my story (as long as you tell me why, of course)!