What to do?

This fall I was hoping to catch up with some long overdue novellas that my fans have been waiting patiently for - ROGUE HEART and ONE CHOICE – but I’ll be honest. The way time has been flying past has made that highly unliklely, though, and the creative juices are flowing so I’m not promising anything there right now.

The funny thing is, I believe those other ideas are simmering for a couple of reasons. The main one being, I think the erotic romance market is over saturated. I choose to believe this is why my sales are so slow. Because there are so many choices out there, and I’m lost to readers who don’t already know me.  And while I love choices, I also love to be able to pay my bills. I can’t afford to do big promotions, and massive giveaways like I’ve seen some do, and well, to be honest, I don’t know HOW to do a lot of that stuff. I’ve tried to pick up the pace with promotions, and events, but it’s not helping. And when the sales are this slow, well, the writing slows down. So I’ll be going back to a full-time day job this fall. Less writing time.

I’m also rethinking what I’m going to spend that writing time on. I had such high hopes for Overwatch, and my author friends tell me I need to have a few more books in the series before I give up on it, but I just don’t know if I can. I love the characters,and the stories they have to tell, but, well, I gotta live, and they just aren’t selling.  I’ll be blunt so people can understand. NONE of my Overwatch stories have paid through. That means that after putting out money for cover art, editing, formatting, and some small promotions, I have not made a penny in profits. Not one.

And my living expenses are not counted in the books expenses. So once again, I’m back to living on credit. (Yes, this happened when I was writing fro NY publishers too. I made more money, but I spent a lot more on promotions, thinking it was an investment that would eventually pay off. And maybe it would’ve if I hadn’t fallen into a depression and stopped writing for 4 years. But I did, and I think any momentum I had disappeared.

Now, I’m not pumping them out every three months like some do/can, and I’ve come to the realization that if that is what it takes to be a success as an author now-days, then I’m not gonna make it.  It’s that simple. I made writing my life for five years, and it just about killed me. I’m not being dramatic. I’m being honest. I gained over 150 pounds, fell into a depression, and suffered major health problems. I have been fighting for four years to get back to myself. I’m not willing to lose myself to be a full-time writer again.

So, I’m just not sure what to do, and the truly sad thing…I’m not the only one thinking/feeling this way. My associates that are feeling this way are not new to the business either, we’ve all been multi-published for many years, and  were so excited by the chance to go Indie and have some control and maybe make some money, but for whatever reason, we’re drowning now.

Anyone with thoughts or advice, please share.