A little discouraged

Despite all the positive things that seem to be happening, I must admit feeling pretty discouraged. On the plus side I am seeing more exposure via Smashwords, Publisher's Weekly, and my Goodreads campaign (I decided to invest in ad ad), but so nothing has increased sales. Without my KENP from Amazon's Kindle Select library I don't even have a Pages Read feed to keep me going. In addition, while I have received very positive feedback on the book, I did get another negative review on Kyla's behavior at the beginning of the book. I expected that sort of thing, as I knew she would be a divisive character at the beginning of the book, I spent so much time on her character development that it kind of feels like my kid. I'm sure many parents have kids that they love to death, that are great kids with great potential, and can't help feel a bit let down when someone else can't see it. Of course, your kid may also be a dud. That said, Kyla's perception has been more positive than negative, but those who don't like her in the beginning of the book seem to REALLY hate her. My mom, of course, was one of these. Yet it perplexes me, as her only real flaw is her sheltered upbringing and lack of inexperience with the world, which she quickly works to overcome. She isn't selfish; has no malice; strives to help others, etc, yet it feels like some people are more bothered by her ignorance and naivete than they would be by actual evil traits. In a way this is curious to me, and particularly that everyone who has noted frustration with her are women over 30. I'm sure there is some sociological explanation for this. I had a discussion with a friend of mine (girl in her early 20s, a demographic which so far likes Kyla as is in the beginning) and wondered if this frustration of women at Kyla is related to the notoriously high tension between mothers and their teenage daughters.

Anyway, as I've mentioned before, I anticipated this, and stand by Kyla as a character. So far everyone likes her by the end, which is fantastic, but I know I lose some readers on the way as they have a hard time with Kyla's relative immaturity at the beginning of the book.