Writer Ramblings: Torn

I have been a little down in the dumps lately. Between being sick, feeling the pressure of job, husband, housework, family, and career (sad that comes last) everything has been taking a toll. I started some advertising campaigns for my books and have been torn by the success/ failure of the money spent. (Success being I have "amazing" click thru rates. Failure, I have a ridiculously high bounce rate and have not seen any increase in sales.)

On top of all that frustration, Fifty Shades of Grey the movie just came out. I read the first two pages of the book just to see what all the hype was about back when it first came out. All I found was writing so horrendous that I couldn't bring myself to read more even if the story had appealed to me.  How does that trash become such a huge seller and lead to an even more horrible movie that grossed $90 million it's first weekend? I can't even make a dent.

 I have been reading about marketing trying to figure out where things are going wrong. I feel like nothing helps. So to curb that depressing insight, I have been reading uplifting posts on Linkedin and I came across one that was meant to be uplifting, but left me all the more depressed. It talked about the key to success being a singular focus. putting all of my energy and focus into my goal and letting nothing stand in my way. A great message, but for me it is so depressing. I am so torn.

Torn between marketing, blogging, writing Fresh Meat, working on the sequel for The Hunters, thinking about the next book in the Clear Angel Chronicles, content creation, social media promotion, managing my ads, trying to read and promote other authors. And that is just in my career. Looking at my job, continuing education for that, keeping up my job as a mother of two teen boys, trying to be a good wife, forget about having time for friends.

Then I read a hysterical post on Alex J Cavanaugh's Ninja News. A guest post by Elizabeth Seckman about How to Become a Best Selling Author in One Week and it put everything in perspective.

Thank you, both of you, for giving me a laugh and making me feel better! I still feel torn, but that depressing article on singular focus is just a haunting memory.