Words and Wealth

Another month begins and I hope to make more progress with my sales and with the word count for my current mss. Although my book sales are not meteoric, I have seen the increased figures for August published on Novel Rank (not entirely accurate), which is always good to see, and I have increased my word count to 76000 words. If both those figures remain on an upward trend, I should get past the one hundred for sales and reach 100,000 word count by the end of the month. But when things are going well, there’s always something cropping up and getting in the way. Last week I had a medical problem that needed sorting out, and as a consequence of that I have spent more than a few hours in waiting rooms. I still have a way to go yet, but I’m expecting to be out of the woods fairly soon. Its times like these when I think of people who cannot be in my position because of constant ill-health or financial problems. My life ticks along fairly evenly: no dramas. I mix my time between my hobbies and pursuits (I like football and speedway), my church, reading and watching TV. I’ve seen statistics that put me and my wife in the top 5% of the world population when it comes to health, wealth and happiness. By my own standards I am definitely not wealthy, but compared to a lot of people I must be. But what constitutes wealth? An income that covers your bills for one. It doesn’t have to be an enormous income so long as you have sufficient. A holiday once a year? Well, I’m retired and live in Spain where the sun is virtually guaranteed all year round, but yes; we do go on holiday. Last year we went to Australia, dropping in at Singapore and Bangkok. This year we spent time in UK. Next week we are having a break in Valencia with friends. And the other thing for happiness is, of course, good health. I admit that good health is relative: I’m not as healthy as I was in my twenties, but I mustn't grumble. And I have a loving wife and we have God in our lives, so it can’t be bad, can it? Getting back to the book sales, I believe it’s all about promotion first then sales to follow. This month I kick off with a promotion for ROSELLI’S GOLD. This will be with the Kindle Book Review. I can only gauge the success of that promo if I see an increase in the graph when I check my Amazon sales rank. So what next? Well, I must keep my head down, keep writing and get to that target of 100,000 words. But even then I won’t be finished because I will need to read it through, edit it and then pass it on to my wife who will read it and point out all the mistakes I’ve missed. What would I do without her? Wish me luck!