Friday, April 24, 2009

Working Hard For The Money

~Claire Collins

Sia is recovering from surgery so I will be your hostess today.
Who am I? Some of you may know me already and for those who don't, my name is Claire Collins. I am the author of Images of Betrayal and Fate and Destiny.

Don't worry, Sia will return soon. Grab a cup of coffee and pull up a chair.

So what do you do for a living? That whole real job thing is tough isn't it?

I have a real job. Yes, believe it or not, I don’t just sit around all day living the lives of my imaginary people. Shocking, I know. Yes, I have an actual job where I leave home every morning to go work for someone else and I come home at the same time every night. Like most people I know, I fight rush hour and have more than one boss.

Do I want to write instead? Absolutely. Don't you? I’d gladly trade my eight to five job for ten hours of sitting at my computer clicking away at the latest story. The problem, of course, is that I have bills to pay. Oh yes, and children. Lots and lots of children. They like to eat... and argue. So even if I didn’t have to feed them, the chances of me sitting at my computer and clicking away at keys for ten hours is simply never going to happen until they all move away.

I know there are lots of other people out there who have the same desire to get lost in a good novel whether they are writing it or reading it. No matter which end of the spectrum you are, I thought I would share the Association of America Publishers sales reports for the month of December and released February 12, 2009. You can read the whole article here: http://www.publishers.org/Dec08stats.htm I’ll share a few things here with you.

Domestic net sales

  • Adult Paperback sales increased 12.5 percent for the month ($132.8 million) and increased by 3.6 percent for the year.
  • The Children’s/YA Paperback category was also up by 37.0 percent in December with sales totaling $54.4 million; sales increased by 6.4 percent for the year.
  • E-books sales jumped up by 119.9 percent for the month ($6.5 million), reflecting an increase of 68.4 percent for the year.
Oh, did I mention that in my real job, I’m an accountant? I have this ‘thing’ for numbers…

Check out the increase in ebook sales compared to the changes in the other categories. Interesting, isn't it? So what does this really mean?
Any thoughts?
***
Claire Collins lives in sunny Arizona with her husband and their four children. She put aside her love of writing while she obtained a dual Bachelors degree in Business Administration and Accounting.

Claire began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk, and she hasn't stopped telling stories-- or talking--since. After decades of writing in the closet, Claire entered a story Romance Writing contest where she ended up a semi finalist. That little stroke to her ego was enough to make Claire stretch out and seek publication in earnest. She has two books published by Second Wind LLC, a small Indie press, and her third will be released the fall of 2009.

Abandoned by her family, Tysan supports herself waiting tables. One evening, a beguiling, rugged young man walks out of a blizzard and into her life. He possesses the remarkable ability to take photographs of events that have not yet happened.



Snowed in at his mountaintop cabin, Andrew finds Destiny—a young woman left for dead. He assumes that she is in great danger—at least until she shoots him. No one is what they seem in this romantic thriller.