Okay, it's been almost four months since I got a newsletter out and I apologize. I don't even have a specific book to talk about this time around, since I'm still working on the same book I said I was last time. But I figured I owed my few fans an update on what has been going on with me. Without being too specific about dates (since this is still a pseudonym I use to protect my true identity), here are a few things which have happened in the past few months:
- I turned 60;
- I started a temp job after being out of work at my "day job" for quite a while;
- I've had that part-time temp job turn into a full-time permanent position (or as permanent as any job is in this economy);
- I applied for survivor's benefits through Social Security as a widower (eligibility is my turning 60), only to find that the income I'm now making through the new job is still enough to subject me to a "you make too much" penalty and to find that SSA not only bases that on a full year's income, despite being eligible for SS benefits for less than 12 months during 2023, and that they don't prorate the penalty across the months you're eligible for benefits but instead negate the first X months and then pay you an undiminished check until the end of the year, after which 2024 will (I assume) see the penalty prorated for 12 months -- so January 2024's check will actually be smaller than December 2023's -- weird way to do it, but that's government thinking for you);
- Actually ran a week-long 50%-OFF sale at my website's store -- and had ZERO sales from it, even on books that were reduced to $0.49, something I can never do at Smashwords -- you have to reduce to free or keep a $0.99 minimum. While Smashwords' sale, the week before, produced only three sales (at 25% off). And Amazon has only produced three sales so far this year.
So, the boost to my income I was hoping to see from Social Security is going to be delayed by several months and won't be as much as I hoped -- which is where book sales could really help me out in the interim (even if SSA does claw back 50% of that income)...
So I guess I managed to make this book related, after all....
