January 2012

Here I sit, broken hearted...

Not really, actually.  I'm quite heartened, as a matter of fact.  And you should be too, for a variety of reasons.  But, since this is my blog, we'll just talk about me.  Yay!

First, I like new years.  They are a chance to wipe the slate clean and start over.  Forget all of oopsies, scatter-brained moments, brain farts, etc.  This year is no exception.  I'm trying to incorporate new habits into my life, including setting up a new yearly word writing goal.  So here it is, for all the world to mock.  My goal for this year is to write 100,000 words.  That might or might not sound ambitious, but it's my goal and I'm the only one that has to care.  Of course, if you'd like to inquire about how I'm doing on my goal, you can.  I might even do an update post to let you all know how it's going.  But, so far so good.  At least until this week, that is.  Which leads me into my next point.

Probably my biggest accomplishment since I've started writing happened this past Sunday.  I finally finished the first draft of my debut novel!  Thank you, thank you.  But now I'm into the editing phase, which is taking longer than I anticipated.  But then again, writing the dang thing took me longer than anticipated too, so what do I know?  But, because of the editing thing, I'm not writing as much, or at all, for the time being.  But that's okay, because I'm making progress on my ultimate goal which is to have my novel released to the world soon.  My target month right now is February, and since we're nearly to the middle of the month of January already, I better get my butt in gear!

What else is new?  Well, I'm starting to get a just a trickle of sales of my short story, "Pins and Dolls" (available everywhere - go a buy a copy now!  The links are over there, on your right!).  A couple of people that bought it are friends of mine (thank you!), but a couple of people I have no clue as to who they are, which is a complete rush!  (and thank you as well!)  It's really fun to see things start to happen, especially when I haven't put any serious effort to "spread the word" about it.  Which leads into my next point (gosh I'm good at segues, aren't I?).

Last month I posted that I was against the KDP Select program from Amazon.  And I still think my reasons are sound - for those with already published works that have solid sales figures on multiple ebook platforms.  However, I think I need to modify my thinking a bit.  With my new novel, which isn't for sale anywhere currently, I would be remiss if I didn't explore options for promotion that didn't really hurt the sales overall, and didn't tax me with stealing my writing time or my money.  Because the KDP Select program offers me the option to offer my works for free for 5 days during a 90-day period, AND the fact that any borrows by Amazon Prime members will also net me at least a little additional funds, I'm seriously tempted to put my novel up on Amazon only and enter it immediately in the KDP Select program to help bring some additional exposure to it quickly.  This would fulfill the above mentioned requirements that I'm looking for in promotions, and I've now gotten a little bit of first-hand feedback on the program from a fellow writer (thank you, Donna!) that is encouraging.  Still thinking about it, but if any readers have some opinions, please spell those out in the comments section - I do read them all!

Lastly, for those that made it this far, and if you haven't already noticed, I figured that I would post the cover of my debut novel.  It's over on the right hand side near the top.  I'm super-thrilled with the cover, and the lady who did it is just amazing.  She has amazing prices as well, so if you're in the market for a book cover design, ebook or print book, give her a shout, and let her know that I sent you.  Her name is Lindsay Breen, and you can find her here:
 
http://lindsaybreencovers.com/

So, make 2012 a great year for yourself!  Do the things you've always wanted to do, and stop making excuses.  I should know how that goes, I have the crown to the kingdom of procrastination!