Lowrywrites.com

I did a deep dive into my business today. I’m very disappointed in myself. It’s like looking in the mirror and seeing a gut grow. I know how it got there. I stopped running. Stopped eating right. Drank more beer. All the things that got me into the best shape of my life, I quit doing them. Same thing for the business. I can complain that the algorthym changed or that the market shifted or blah blah blah. I can also look in the mirror and see what I did. Or what I didn’t do. Let’s look at last quarter. I did soft releases of four new books. In four separate series.   I preach staying in one series until you master it and are making the money from it you want. I didn’t practice it. I launched at full price in a new genre where I have no presence and no list. This worked for a couple of other writers. I wanted it to work for me. It did not. So it’s back to the basics for me. That means running at least a mil...

How to reach 1,000 fans in 24 Hours I needed some cash. Fast. Isn’t that always the case? I remember reading a book when I was younger that talked about opportunity. Most people miss out for two main reasons. They don’t have enough time to pursue the opportunity because they are working a 40 hour a week job, have a family, etc. Or they don’t have the cash to make it happen. Time and money. Two things that are the main ingredients to building success. It should be easier to create both now. Take my book covers for example. I have a guy in Bangladesh that builds my book covers. I send him an order during the day on my time, and he wakes up and builds it on his time. He works while I sleep. I have the cover when I wake up the next day. I can do the same with ten other tasks. Reaching fans is another thing. A fan is someone who will go into their pocket and give you money for your product. Book promotion i...

365 thoughts. I have a thousand per day. Maybe more. A lot revolve around money. Or dinner. A lot more about marketing. And writing. I think about telling stories all the time. But can i write 365 thoughts as blog posts in one year? I published 85 in October. I got advice to put it out there. To share more and list ideas. I did. I made .30 cents. I don't think I found new readers. Nobody went to KU to read through a whole series.  Maybe that wasn't the point. Maybe the point isn't a lot of money.  Maybe the point is to practice. Practice makes permanent. When instated running long distance, the best days were five to nine mile runs. I did them after work. They would take an hour. Or an hour and a half. I had my loop picked out and distances mapped. I knew the playlist.  It wasn't easy. But it was good practice for longer runs on the weekend. Practice made permanent. ...

Ever time travel? Most people don’t think it’s real, but if you’re like me, you believe in it. Still skeptical? Ever hear a song that takes you back to a special place in your life? How about a smell that sparks a memory? Or that shiver you get from déjà vu’? That’s time travelling. If you believe in quantum theory, there are a number of reasons for it. Parallel universe kind of stuff. Or maybe the Sherlock explanation works best. It’s just a simple pleasant memory. For me, I have a lot of fond memories. I don’t think my childhood was easy. I grew up so broke, we were just Po. We couldn’t afford the or to be poor. Single hippie mom. Cigarettes and beer were number one and two on the grocery list with food a distant third after a dime bag for Friday night. I had grandparents though and I’ve talked about Mamaw and Papaw before.   Grew their own food. Hunted their own meat. Built things with their hands. And always always had some...

SHADOWBOXER - THE FALL The Fall He sat on the edge of the creaky wooden porch, rocking back and forth in the scratched rockers that old lady Walden kept out there for her guests.   He wanted a cigarette, could almost taste it, but he gave up that habit ten years ago.   He wasn't about to start again. "They're late," he said to no one in particular. He was alone out here, except for the crickets, and lightening bugs winking in the thick, humid air.   He had been on the porch for over an hour, forty-five minutes longer than he was scheduled to wait.   He didn't mind. When he was a young man, what felt like a thousand years ago, he had crouched in a hollowed out tree stump barely three feet tall, and half that deep for nine hours.   He was on a mission to shoot a North Vietnamese Army General that intelligence said would pass by with a convoy.   He did, Bog sniped him, and had to be folded out of the stump by a Green Beret patrol.   They c...

"I must confess Marshal, you are not the man I expected you to be." Eldridge turned his head to take in the room. Empty whisky bottles liked the shelves like glass flytraps. Judging from the number of black bodies crawling and buzzing around them, they were effective at that task. "Not a Marshal," Eldridge answered. "Not anymore." He pointed to an empty spot on his chest where a tin star might have been. "I was misinformed," the women's lips compressed into a thin line of determination. "Never the less, I have heard of your reputation." Eldridge blinked away some of the cobwebs gumming up his eyes, but he could do naught for the ones that fogged up his mind. He wondered for a brief moment how the woman came to be in his room and glanced over her shoulder to the open door leading out to a hallway beyond. She walked right in. Some alarm bell went off in the back of his skull. If she could walk right in while he was...

The only thing standing between you and what you want is you. Have you ever heard of the goal setting expression quote gun to your head unquote moment? It means how would you reach your goal and the shortest amount of time possible if you had a gun to your head. It is an exercise designed to make you think out of the box and come up with solutions you might not normally think of. Often small business owners use it as a way to think about revenue or growth or how to reach a monetary goal. But what if I told you the secret was discipline. This secret formula is proven over and over again and if you took him on it and think about it and reflect you would discovered that discipline is the key to anything. Let's say you want to lose 20 lb. You could wish it away. The law of attraction States if you focus on your goal hard enough the universe and God will reward you by giving you that gold. Do it right now. Wish on a start to lose 20 lb. Did it happen? ...