All Aboard the Ventorship

In Which We Discuss a Rebranding of Sorts and These Waters Are Rough for Writers

Howdy y’all, and a mighty big thank you for bearing with me while I promo’d the grandmother-lovin’ cowboy boots out of THE SPELLS WE CAST. A little update for those of you who were following along in our journey to see if we could get 1K copies sold in the first week of publication. Here’s the final first week count:

482 copies, which we could most likely safely roundup to 500 since not every point of sale reports to BookScan who releases sales data (which is one of the things when I go Norma Rae on the publishing industry that I think we should demand: the ability for any author at any point in time to know exactly how many copies of their book have sold…IT’S THEIR F@#%ING BOOK! But that’s for another day). I want to thank each and every one of you who bought a copy, who told their friends about the book, who shared social media posts. Thank you for everything you did to help celebrate SPELLS and to help boost up my books. I wouldn’t be here without you!

I posted the above graphic of the 482 copies sold on most of my socials, and the feedback I got—especially from other authors—was really magnificent. We don’t talk about hard sales numbers a lot, and I think it’s because we fear people will judge us for numbers that aren’t weekly in the five digits like we see from BookTok success stories. But I think that’s all the more reason we should share these things. One, so that other authors know the vast vast VAST majority of us are in the same boat, selling two- or three-digits (or sometimes one, as is the case of RILEY WEAVER) worth of books a week. Two, so that we realize this is not a failure, it’s the norm. And three, so that your average book reader sees that most of their favorite authors truly do need their help. It’s easy for them to assume that since an author is published, their books must be selling all over the country and that must mean they’re getting thousands of sales each and every week. But that’s super duper not the case, as we know, so every sale, social media share, or library request is HUGE to helping authors getting to continue to create.

In thinking about this response from authors and the support from readers who expressed they didn’t realize how low sales numbers can be, I’ve decided to rebrand this newsletter from a Jason June-centric spot to an author-centric one. We’re calling it, the Ventorship with Jason June!

All Aboard THE VENTORSHIP

Yes, you should be reading that in the resounding voice of your favorite icon/deity. The Ventorship is a place where writers who are published or pre-published can write in to get my take on what they’re going through, as well as get crowd-sourced opinions in the comments from other writers. You can write in about literally anything: Is it normal to have this much writer’s block? Why is the second book so hard? Should agents have this amount of say in what I write? Literally everything is on the table. And readers, you can write in about the things that frustrate you as a reader and get an author’s take on it.

All of this comes with the caveat that I am neither the end-all-be-all opinion nor do I know everything and you can absolutely take all that I say and throw it in the trash. But hopefully we’ll get enough comments from other writers/readers that you see either a commonality or a plethora of personalities coming together and finding an answer/opinion that strikes a chord in your heart. Authors have to stick together, and this will be a safe space for us to vent our feelings. In the end, I think us solitary writers will realize we really are all in the same boat together.

Instructions for Venting Aboard the Ventorship

To vent, write in to me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com with the subject VENTORSHIP. Never fear, anything you write will stay anonymous and I will never write your real name in any posts on the website. Also, if any commenters get nasty, their nastiness will get deleted and they will be forced to walk the plank! The Ventorship is a Love Boat after all, buoyed up by the waters of camaraderie!

So, write in! The Ventorship can only stay afloat with writers looking for advice/friendship from other writers. I’m hoping to be able to have at least two posts a month based on folks asking questions, but if those questions dry up, this ship won’t sail (I never steer away from a pun!). So frequency of posts will kind of depend on all of you, but I promise to be a trusty captain and not leave y’all hanging as questions come in.

Can’t wait to chart these waters with you!

-JJ