The FOMO Countdown

I had tried to write blog post last week and I was getting on my own nerves so never posted it. I’m not sleeping, which is partly my personality and partly stress because I’m so behind with everything due to events this spring, and it’s harder to watch what I’m saying with my outside voice. I have tried, again, multiple times to post this and I keep deleting paragraphs.

A couple of us have been watching the StoryBundle stats update every morning, hoping for a miracle. It jumped up eleven sold overnight, so we’re hoping the Fear of Missing Out will give it a kick with just two days left.

I have been…frustrated, to say the least, by the High School Group Project Dynamic present here. I have a very small following but worked hard to hustle and promote everyone. Others…could not even be bothered to tell their followers about it. 🙃

I have had to cut a lot out of this post because my frustrations are better expressed in DMs. A lot of us really tried to promote everyone and have fun. Others did try to boost. And then there were dismissive remarks from other quadrants, and dragged heels at being asked to mention it at all, and it’s just heaped on more stress the past few weeks.

We’ve sold far less than the other bundle I was in, and I know this is very much first-world problems with everything going on in the world, but after rent/utilities, taxes, business expenses, private health insurance, and pet needs, on average I have about $120-$150/month to live on (sometimes more, sometimes a lot less). For groceries, for non-covered medication, for buying the odd movie on sale, for donating to charity (outside the $10/month I give to Amnesty International), for paying back taxes. Book sales have tanked the last several months; patrons are cancelling (largely due to their own job losses–I get it). I’m really scared about how things will look a year from now.

I needed this to do better. Especially coming off how demoralizing April’s new release was, when all but one friend could not even be bothered to acknowledge the book that day. I am disappointed for others, too, but yeah, I really needed something.

I have just deleted another paragraph here as I’m struggling with balancing honesty vs whining. This is far more negative than I intended but, you know, this is my blog–very few people read it and I’m allowed to be negative here after I’ve tried to be fun and enthusiastic everywhere else. (I have thoughts about not being passive aggressive when talking about our work as creatives or treating it like a chore/thing we’re ashamed of, and I am not ashamed at all of this bundle–I am just disappointed in people.)

I have tremendous respect for the curator, who not only put together a stellar lineup of books but actually read them all, which I understand not all curators even bother to do, and promoted the hell out of this despite so much stress she had this spring. She runs a quality small press and has just launched her first Kickstarter to help fund an upcoming anthology, so please have a look at this wintery gothic project Hauntings & Hoarfrost and consider backing (I did!).

I have sworn off group projects, yes, but I will do another if she asks me, because she’s just one of those people.

There are just two days left to get SO MUCH MURDER at StoryBundle.

Here’s hoping for that final FOMO boost. 🤞