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A Life Less Ordinary

Tag: sailing memoir

Three Years after Publishing “Plunge” – Where Am I with My Book?

March 2, 2024 / / 46 Comments

It’s been a while since I posted an update about the life and sales of my first – and so far, only – travel memoir, Plunge. That post appeared in June 2023; you can read it here.

The idea was to share a bit more news three years in, but I have been extremely busy with our traveling lifestyle and other blog posts, so this one is a few months late. I published Plunge on November 28th, 2020 (on my 45th birthday and in the midst of the Covid pandemic), which is now three years and three months ago.

As you can imagine, not much exciting is happening this far into the shelf life of my (or any) book. Sales are close to non-existent, reviews have pretty much come to a halt, and I am not putting any effort in promotion and marketing anymore. Not because I’m not motivated, but because I have limited time to work and that time is better spent making “real” money.

In July of 2023, the wonderfully supportive and encouraging author Sally Cronin published an excerpt of Plunge on her website Smorgasbord, which gained some traction. I answered the comments and sold a few books as a result.

The leading story on CNN was about us!
Front page article on another news outlet
Our story on CNN
Still on the front page of CNN
Small mention on the home page of CNN

The biggest and most powerful event in 2023 also took place in July of that year. A CNN article about us, written by Francesca Street for the Chance Encounters series, became very popular and successful. Some of you might have read it – or stumbled upon it – before. You can read that “love story” here. As it was big news at the time, I mentioned the article and reactions previously on my blog here.

We have become world news, haha
Many friends unexpectedly saw us pop up on the news channel of their device
Apparently, we showed up in many forms

Upon my request, Francesca included a link to our blog and – more importantly – my memoir, which jumped off the charts as a result.

My book sales kept rising…
… and rising
July 2023 was an awesome month for book sales!
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Two Years after Publishing “Plunge” – Am I Still Selling Books?

December 2, 2022 / / 47 Comments

November 28th, 2022 marked the second book anniversary of my travel memoir Plunge – One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary. You can read about its one-year anniversary here. It’s been a while since I posted an update about this first book of mine, because not much is going on with it and I don’t want to bore the non-authors amongst you.

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that the less I focus on book promotion, the less I sell. My goal for this past year was to maintain one sale a day. I failed. Because, how do you achieve this result by ignoring the book’s existence for weeks at the time? To this day, I still haven’t spent a dime on ads and it’s no secret that “to make money, you have to spend money.” So, paid promos and ads might be a thing to consider in 2023. Then again, I am the most frugal person I know. 🙂

Social media posts

Once in a while, I join a free Draft2Digital promo with Plunge, post some news, a new five-star review, or an enticing blurb on Facebook, or lower the book’s purchase price. Usually, this amounts to maybe one or two sales. Occasionally, I get it right (no idea how to predict this) by posting in an attentive, interested social media group or by creating an enticing blurb. In those cases, the correlation between effort and sales is obvious.

And, when that happens, my heart skips a beat, my lips curl upward, and an adrenaline rush improves my wellbeing. Like that time one of my posts on the Sailing Women on Yachts Facebook group took off.

Successful post on the Sailing Women on Yachts Facebook group three months ago
Best sales month since releasing Plunge

If enough sales occur in a day, my status on Amazon goes to #1 bestseller in one or more categories, which, I have to imagine, encourages more sales. And that’s the upshot every author dreams of. Until the spiral spins downward again and sales dry up.

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Book & Promo Update June 2022 – Reaching another Milestone

June 24, 2022 / / 34 Comments

Now that my travel/sailing/adventure memoir Plunge – One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary has been launched more than 1.5 years ago, these book updates, or better, promo updates, will become less frequent. I’m thinking of sharing book news here a few times a year for the following reasons: to update people interested in the journey of an indie author, to inspire/inform fellow authors about my process, successes, and failures, and to – hopefully – entice new blog readers to check out Plunge. This page here provides the blurb, reviews, free chapters, and more. You can find my previous update here.

My book news

Let’s start with the biggest accomplishment… After I published Plunge in November 2020 (on my 45th birthday), I had three quantifiable goals for the first year after publication: 

  1. Make back my investment in the book, which was $2,700. This chunk of money was spent on an editor (two rounds), cover artist, a packet of ten ISBN numbers, and miscellaneous costs related to the publication process.
  2. Gather 100 ratings/reviews for my book on Amazon.
  3. Sell 1,000 copies of Plunge.

I only managed to reach the first two goals by November 2021, one year in.

Eighteen months after publication, I’m happy to report that I achieved my third goal (in May 2022): 1,000 copies sold on Amazon; this is a combination of eBooks and paperbacks. If you add other markets and personal sales to this, the number is slightly higher. While this might not seem like much (it isn’t), all these books have been sold via word of mouth, personal efforts, and free “promo posts” on Facebook. I have yet to pay money for advertising, which I probably have to do soon if I want to keep selling books.

Crossing the 1,000 mark

If you are curious about my actual earnings for these sales (and who isn’t?), here is my royalty statement for those 1,020 books sold above. Don’t forget that $2,700 of this number went to creating Plunge. So far, I’ve made about $1,400 on a book that took five years to write. 🙂

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Book Update March 2022 – Ups and Downs of an Indie Author

March 5, 2022 / / 54 Comments

It’s been a while (three months to be precise) since I put together a post about how my travel/sailing/adventure memoir Plunge – One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary (published in November 2020) is doing. So… time for a little overview. I share this information for a few reasons: to update people interested in the journey of an indie author, to inspire/inform fellow authors about my process, successes, and failures, and to – hopefully – entice new blog readers to check out Plunge. You can find the blurb, reviews, free chapters, and more here.

Exploring the “undiscovered” sand dunes with Maya
Camping along Camino Cabo Este, Baja California
Camped next to our “private” beach, which is too soft to park on

My book news

As most of you know, Mark, Maya, and I have been nomads for almost twenty years and are currently “on the road” in Baja California, Mexico. This means not much is going on regarding promoting or selling Plunge, because I’m often without internet. If I don’t actively try to sell my book, not much happens. In December and January, when internet was still part of my life, these events occurred:

  • I (mostly unsuccessfully) tried to encourage members of specific Facebook groups, like Women Who Sail, All Things Sailing, and Women Reading Great Books to check out my book on days when promotional posts are allowed. I’d pick an incredible photo from my sailing life and write up a compelling anecdote, putting links in the comments. Because these groups are so large, any post that doesn’t stand out immediately disappears in a big, black hole. Sometimes, a troll enjoys bashing me.

Somebody bashing my book, without even reading it. This comment was removed by the admins of this sailing group.

  • Plunge was mentioned in SpinSheet, the local sailing magazine of Annapolis, MD, in January 2022. The cute city of Annapolis plays an important role in Mark and my life and a couple of the early chapters are set there. I was counting on a review in this magazine instead of a short mention, so I was a bit disappointed.
Plunge mentioned in SpinSheet
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Plunge Release & Happy Birthday to Me

November 28, 2020 / / 68 Comments

Today is the day. It’s the moment I have been anticipating for a few years. I decided to pick a special date for this special occasion: my 45th birthday.

Mark and I did it! We finalized the work on my travel memoir, Plunge, and it is now available on Amazon as an eBook and paperback. Wider distribution will follow in December.

Plunge blurb:

Tropical waters turn tumultuous in this travel memoir as a free-spirited woman jumps headfirst into a sailing adventure with a new man and his two dogs.

Join Liesbet as she faces a decision that sends her into a whirlwind of love, loss, and living in the moment. When she swaps life as she knows it for an uncertain future on a sailboat, she succumbs to seasickness and a growing desire to be alone.

Guided by impulsiveness and the joys of an alternative lifestyle, she must navigate personal storms, trouble with US immigration, adverse weather conditions, and doubts about her newfound love.

Does Liesbet find happiness? Will the dogs outlast the man? Or is this just another reality check on a dream to live at sea?

To read early impressions of Plunge, have a look here. These 5-star reviews for my writing and my story delight me!

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Plunge, check out this universal link or go to one of the specific Amazon sites for your country:

To buy Plunge in the US, click here.

To buy Plunge in Canada, click here. 

To buy Plunge in the UK, click here.

To buy Plunge in Germany, click here. 

To buy Plunge in Australia, click here (I don’t see the paperback yet, but hope that will appear soon).

To buy Plunge in Belgium and the Netherlands, click here (only the eBook is available on this site; for the paperback, please go to the German website). 

Thank you for purchasing Plunge and spreading the word.

Happy reading!

My sincere appreciation goes to all of you, my readers and blog followers. You have encouraged me along the way; your enthusiasm and support led to this special day!

Here is where I am celebrating my birthday and the launch of my debut travel memoir in the company of a small bubble of friends…

Socially distanced campers in the desert
Ironwood National Monument in Arizona
Zesty – and all of us – at peace and ready to celebrate

Plunge on Pre-order & A Special Dedication

November 15, 2020 / / 73 Comments

Today, November 15th, 2020, would have been my dear oma‘s 100th birthday. Mark and I planned a trip to Belgium to celebrate that special event. Covid or not, we’d do the effort and make the commitment. Unfortunately, she passed away in the spring of 2017, at age 97. I wrote about my relationship with her here and posted a Dutch poem about her here.

Oma and Liesbet in 2014

I think about my oma a lot. She played an important role in my life – when I was a toddler, a teenager, and, especially, an adult. I often said she was my best friend and savored every chance I had to visit her when in Belgium. My travel memoir, Plunge, is dedicated to her (and one other person). While she wouldn’t have been able to read the book – she didn’t speak English – she would have been immensely proud of her “favorite” grandchild!

It was my intention to launch Plunge today, but that timing was too tight. If Mark, Maya, and I would have remained in “our room above the garage” in Newburyport, Massachusetts, it might have been possible. Working full-time from the road is tricky. But… the next best thing to commemorate my dear oma on the day she would have become a centenarian is by putting Plunge (the eBook anyway; it wasn’t possible for the paperback) on pre-sale.

Yes!!! The digital version of my book is ready for pre-order on Amazon as of today, for the special price of US$4.99. This will go up to US$5.99 on the date of the actual release, which is set for November 28th. On that day – if Amazon cooperates ???? – both the eBook and the paperback of Plunge will be available. Leaving reviews are possible on Amazon starting that day and on Goodreads any time.

Plunge available for eReaders

Thank you, everyone, for following my journey – on the blog and in the book – and for sharing in the excitement!

To pre-order Plunge in the US: click here.

To pre-order Plunge in Canada: click here.

To pre-order Plunge in the UK: click here.

To pre-order Plunge in Germany: click here.

To pre-order Plunge in Australia: click here.

To pre-order Plunge in Belgium and the Netherlands: click here.

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