Kind of a Cascading Sale Thing

Okay, so I totally forgot to post here on Wednesday.  Which is kinda stupid of me, since I had a sale start on Wednesday.  Oh, I did all the marketing posts to FB and MeWe, but not here.  Derp.

Anyway, here's the deal...

DYING EMBERS is on sale now.  99c if you're in the US.  99p if you're in the UK.  This sale will last through to the 16th.  Then FERTILE GROUND goes on sale for 99 through the 23rd.  Then EARLY GRAVE goes on sale for 99 through the 2nd of March.

:shrug:  I'm trying something there.  Kind of a cascading sale thing.  Of course, I think the sales for FG and EG would be dependent on sales for DE, and so far it's been crickets for DE.  I'm not holding out a lot of hope.  

But hey, you can't win if you don't try.  Right?  

In other news, I've been so wrapped up in preparing for and worrying about the weather (it's frigid now and they're predicting 3-9 inches of snow for next week), I haven't used much brain power to actually work.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  One would think because I'm stuck inside, it would be the perfect time to work.  Umm, nope.  

Hopefully, now that we're as prepared as we're going to get, I can settle down and work.  I need to poke myself in the ass and just get it done.  Sheesh.  

Updates and Stuff

Yeah, I know it's not a day when I usually post here, but hey, it's good to shake things up a little every now and then. 

Anyway, I finished the edit-note phase of Duke Noble: Rumor Has It.  (Still not sure about that title.)  I ended up with thirteen college-rule, notebook pages chocked full of notes.  Typically, it takes me about an hour to input a page of notes.  I'll start that today.  If I can squeeze three hours out of each day to edit, I'll be done by the end of the week.  However, the chances of me editing for three hours a day is slim.  I hate editing.

The saving grace of editing is that it's a step toward having this book published.  I love the thought of that.  Having this book out into your hands is the goal.  Editing moves me toward that goal.  Thus, I will edit.  

Let me amend that slightly.  Having this book out - and worthy of being read by you - is the goal.  I could write THE END and shoot this sucker into space right now.  But it would suck and I can't do that to you.  You deserve better.  This book deserves better.  So, I edit.

And I bitch about editing.  Heh.  It's my process.

In case you're new here and haven't seen the process before, it goes like this: 

1) Write the book.
2) Send the book to my Kindle and read through the whole thing while making notes in a notebook.
3) Input the notes
3) Repeat steps 2 & 3 until I feel it's ready to send to readers
4) Send to readers
5) Input notes from readers
6) Read through entire manuscript again, making notes if there are any
7) Input notes
8) Format for publication
9) Publish

The other day I had a gal who read Dying Embers ask me how long it takes me to get a book all the way through from start to publication.  If all goes well, I can complete steps 1-9 in three months.  Things rarely go as planned.  Lord knows, this book has taken longer.  I started writing DN in August.  In August and September, I got about 8000 words down and then the wheels fell off.  I restarted this in December, finished it 6 weeks later.  It took me two and half weeks to actually do this edit round.  It should roll faster now.  Good lord willin' and the creek don't rise.

I hope to have this into the hands of readers by the end of the month.  They'll take however long they take.  Once they're done, publication won't be too long after that.  End of March maybe?  

I still have to make a cover.  Blerg.

So, Duke Noble will be born into the hands of readers soon.  Well, soon-ish... for varying definitions of soon.  Sooner than traditional publishing could make it happen.  =o)

Kicking My Own Ass, Yet Again

It's been a hard couple of weeks and I've been letting things overwhelm me when I should be working.  I know it's natural.  I also know it can become an excuse rather than a reason.

All in all, despite the grief and the changes and the fears of what lies ahead, things really haven't changed that much here at Sanderson Publishing (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanderson, Inc. LLC*.)  I still have a computer to write on and internet access to communicate with the outside world.  My brain still works and so do my fingers.

So, yesterday I took myself in hand.  I didn't make huge strides into the editing, but it was a start.  

Also, I'm thinking about a sale.  My 6-year anniversary for publishing is coming up on the 13th, so that's cause for celebration.  It would be a nice time to market something.  I'll let you know what I decide.

Allowing myself to be derailed is not an option.  Not for any length of time anyway.  It's a luxury I can't afford.  I let myself be derailed for most of last year.  And we all know how that went...  $108.50 in sales** for an entire year (November 2019 - October 2020), that's how it went.

I have to do better.  I cannot wallow in my misery or let outside stuff live rent-free in my head to the point where the work isn't getting done.  

Consider this a personal ass-kicking.  And expect to see more writerly work out of me from here on out.  Feel free to jump on the ass-kicking bandwagon if you don't.

*Not a real company, folks.  It's just me and Hubs.  But I like to joke about being a company.

**According to Amazon's 1099.  If you haven't downloaded your 1099, best get to it.

New Releases by Cedar Sanderson

Breaking from the schedule, today, I'm bumping up the signal for a new release I read at the end of 2020 (you know, a couple weeks ago) - The East Witch by Cedar Sanderson (no relation).  It was a helluva good read with great characters, an awesome plot, harrowing adventure, fun mythology, and a little romance.  

Click the link and snag yourself a copy.

Also, for the younger set, there's a children's book that Cedar illustrated coming out 1/31/21 - The Hungry Werewolf.  (She's a woman of many talents.)  At the time of this posting, it's #136 in Children's Scary Stories.  Not sure if it's actually scary or not, but I was totally into this stuff when I was a kid.

When you're a werewolf, you make your own friends...
Step inside the covers and meet the monsters so creepy and so adorable that you may want to invent a new word to describe them! We like "creepydorable" but you could come up with your own.
Inside you'll find blobs, a mad scientist, and an awful lot of bats, but we invite you to begin at the beginning, with just...
One Hungry Werewolf.

I haven't read the above, but I assume if Cedar's associated with it, it's got some pretty good stuffs in there.  Pre-order a copy for your little reader of scary tales today.  

Enjoy!

Another First Draft

Last night, I finished the first draft of Duke Noble: Consequences...  I'm still not sure about that title... I like the end.  I like the book overall.  I know it's any unholy mess and will need a lot of editing, but I'm okay with that.  The point is it's done.  The first draft word count is 51280.

Tomorrow, I'll email it to my Kindle and drag out the notebook and the red pen to start the editing process.  We'll see how that goes.  I'm not promising anything.  Frankly, with the way the world is, I can't promise anything.  But I would like to have this out to people mid-February and published by the end of March.  :fingers crossed:

I've written all but 7 days since 12/8/20, so I'm taking today off.  From writerly pursuits at least.  I'll be around here somewhere doing something.

Jackals

Just now as I was commenting on a friend's blog, I started thinking... and I think there only a couple ways to go right now - either a person writes like mad to keep the jackals away or the jackals overwhelm them to a point where they can't write.

I was in the latter place for most of this year.  Obviously, that wasn't working for me.  Sales sucked.  My writing suffered.  And the jackals were never satisfied.

Now I'm in the former place.  I think.

Anyway, I'm writing.  I'm climbing toward the climax of this novel as fast as my little fingers can take me.  Last night, I cranked out over 3100 words and rolled over 40K words by a good margin.  That's the most I've written in a single sitting since forever.  The best I did last year was 2400+ words last May, when I forced myself to sit down and work on Cinder Ugly.  (That lasted like 3 days and then I fell apart again.)

Of course, I'm throwing things out there I never intended to.  There's no basis for it.  There's no groundwork laid ahead of time.  It's a hot mess.  But it fits in the grand scheme.  I'll have to go back and edit the earlier stuff so it makes sense.  Hey, that's what edits are for.

I feel good about this.  In a spot where I feel good about little else.  Will the rest of the world meet Duke Noble with the same excitement?  :shrug:  I can't worry about the rest of the world right now.  I can only worry about this.  And write like mad to keep the jackals at bay.

Not sure what'll happen when this book is finished.  I'll dive into edits and hope that works the same as writing like mad.  Then I''ll work on publishing.  Then?  Maybe Duke will talk to me some more.  Maybe Dennis Haggarty will put his foot down.  Maybe the gang at the SCIU will demand their place again.  

Whether you're pushing to keep the jackals away or hiding from the little bastards, it's okay.  We all do what we have to do to survive right now.  Hang in there as best you can.  :hugs:

Wrapping up 2020

Whew, I made it out of 2020 alive and with my sanity intact... mostly.  Time to wrap that puppy up and shove it into storage.  Here's how my writerly year shook out...

I wrote 73044 new words last year.  For the most part, that was finishing Cinder Ugly and writing Duke Noble .  I also laid some words down on several other books - another SCIU novel, the Arthurian UF thing, a quirky thing, and an attempt to start a sequel series to the model books.

I edited and published two books last year - Ugly and the Beast and Cinder Ugly.  That brought my total number of published novels to 15.

In sales, it was not a good year.  I sold a grand total of 65.39 books for a whopping $79.89 - an average of $1.49 a book. The only book I didn't sell any copies of was Project Hermes.  :sigh:  Of course, I didn't do any paid advertising last year for the nine free or sale things I did.  It was all on me and I didn't have the heart to do much marketing.  

I had five freebies.  I moved 359 books that way. 

Goals for the new year?  Well, I'm trying to take it day by day.  Lord knows my goals for last year didn't pan out.  And I quote: "If I can swing that, I'd like to see Ugly and the Beast and Cinder Ugly hit your ereaders in 2020.  I'd also like to get another SCIU and another Dennis Haggarty at least written, if not out there in public."  I did get UatB and CU out to the world.  As for the other two... umm, no.

This year, I will get Duke Noble's first book finished and out there.  Yes, I hope he will be a series.  No, I have no clue where I'll go after this one is in the can.  I still want to get another SCIU and another Dennis Haggarty out there.  Then there's the idea I had for more from Jeni Braxxon.  We'll see what happens.  I'm not promising anything but Duke at this point in time.

Other than that, the hope is to just keep plodding along and not let whatever happens this year derail me as much as last year's events derailed me.  

How was your 2020?  Do you have plans and goals for this year?  What are they?