"Because I'm worth it"

This is going up a day earlier than planned as I'm doing something shocking: I'm going out, and to a place that isn't my local supermarket - I'm even getting on a bus and everything. I say it's shocking because my life has been hermit chic for quite a few months now and my days on the whole follow the same pattern: up at 6 a.m. - eat breakfast and work for an hour or two, followed by a power walk that ends in a trip to Sainsbury's before I sit for the rest of the day in front of my laptop. Living the dream basically. I should probably be lamenting the fact I haven't got much of a life at the moment, especially for a woman in her late twenties, but really, more than anything, I just want to get on with the hope that if I keep working hard and don't give up, maybe my life might be a bit different someday soon.

After realising last week that I was going to do book marketing MY way - less businesslike and more creative - I've been very busy. One of the first things I did last weekend (I think it was then anyway) was put up the prices of all my books on Amazon. WEIGHTING TO LIVE went from 99p to £2.39 for the eBook (here) and from £5.99 to £6.99 for the paperback (here). The eBooks for CHANGES and SIXTEEN MONTHS went from 99p to £1.99 and the paperback for CHANGES (here) went from £2.99 to £3.99. There were many reasons for the price increase, one being that potential buyers might have thought a lower price meant my books weren't as good but mostly, I did it because I'm proud of my little book series and a lot of time and love has gone into them and I think they deserve to be a higher price. Surprisingly, with the relatively small amount of marketing I've done so far, I've had a few sales, so it hasn't seem to put anyone off.

I also did something a little cheeky. On my Pinterest page under my real name, one of my boards (called FASHION LUST) has over three thousands followers (no idea why though) and so I decided to pin one of my book trailers for WEIGHTING TO LIVE to the board as I felt the move wasn't IN YOUR FACE marketing and could easily get lost, but there might be a chance that at least one of those three thousand people might watch the video and want to find out more. On Monday, I also posted one of the quote pictures I talked about in my last blog post and plan to put one up on Twitter and Pinterest most days until they run out. I also set up a brand new Facebook page for Lily Divine as for reasons unknown to me, it's apparently imperative I have one and finally, much to my abject shock, I've continued to tweet and really enjoyed myself.

On Tuesday afternoon, I decided to tackle a few books I really wanted to read and after finishing #GirlBoss, I moved onto Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2017 (here) and had the most wonderful time reading it. With every page I devoured, the more excited I felt about writing. If you are an aspiring writer like me, the book is a MUST - not only is it a directory for all the publishers, literary agents etc out there, but it also includes many wonderful articles from established writers and industry professionals that I found so helpful and gave me a lot of insight. It's the kind of book I'll continue to dip in and out of in the future because I learned so much. Feeling inspired yesterday, I then reread a few of my favourite bits from Stephen King's On Writing which I adore before I had a massive clearout. A perfect couple of days basically.

And so here we are, on a chilly Thursday morning at the start of a new month with the hint of spring in the air and a faint hope that things will work out ok.

Until next time.