Writer-y Stuff

I spent most of the day doing writer-y stuff. I had a morning Zoom meeting with my virtual assistant, KM, and we spent an hour exploring new categories for The Seaview and Open For Business and we found what we hope are good ones. After we signed off, I spent at least an hour pausing and putting aside 10 old category ads that were under-performing and then making 8 new category ads using the new categories we found. In the afternoon I did my homework for the Marketing Support Group Zoom I have tomorrow evening. 

Then I tried to get to the bottom of why the font size changed in the last batch of copies of Horizon. I tried chatting with Kindle Direct Publishing but was told I would be bucked up the ladder to a supervisor, stayed on the chat for 20 minutes, and gave up when no one showed up. So I accessed the "community" hoping that another KDP user would have some wisdom for me. I got a couple answers and suspect that uploading the manuscript as a Word document instead of a pdf is the root cause. Maybe I'll have to re-upload it and try again.

I realized this morning that I haven't drawn anything for at least a week so I pulled out Half Hour of Pencil Power and drew this. I'm not sure what it is other than an archway with what he calls marshmallow people peeking out. I can't imagine how he thinks of goofy stuff like this to draw. I think it's mostly aimed at kids.

Today's flower was Hydrangea. I was really intimidated when I saw the picture of it but painting it wasn't so bad. I like the way it turned out. I even like the leaves.

Do you want to know how windy it was today? Look at this picture of a Cardinal and a Mourning Dove on the platform feeder. I took the picture straight and level but the feeder sure isn't level. I don't know how the birds managed to land on a swinging feeder but then fighter pilots land on aircraft carriers and I don't suppose those are flat and level very often.

After supper I knitted the thumb of Alpaca Mitten #4, thereby finishing the last one of two pairs of avocado mittens to go with the two avocado hats I knitted before. I'm done with avocado things for a while even though I have three more skeins of the stuff. Two hats and two pairs of mittens used up almost four skeins of yarn.

While I was drawing I heard and saw three squirrels squabbling over the suet cakes feeder. The one on the feeder growl grunts at the ones waiting underneath on the ground and the ones on the ground chase each other around to see who gets to be next, not that the one on the feeder gives up without a fight.

It felt really good to confer with KM finding new categories. I learned a lot about thinking outside the box to find them and how to use Publisher Rocket (a utility/program that helps find categories and keywords for Amazon use) more fully than I knew how. I used my new PR skills to research new categories for other titles. Some that I used initially are called "ghost" categories which means you can choose them but Amazon doesn't acknowledge them so there are no benefits to using them. I have high hopes that the changes I made today will kick in soon and I'll see an increase in sales. Just a little bit would be outstanding.

It sure was cold today. Cold and sunny and windy. When I went out to top up the birdbath it was -1 degree and the wind was whipping. I elected not to go out any more than I had to which was only to get the mail and throw a banana peel in the garage trash. Loved the sunshine. The cold and wind not so much.

--Barbara