Updates and Junk

The second pass of edit notes is done for Duke Noble P.I.: Rumor Has It.  This round, I ended up with 12 pages of notes.  And I've already entered 8 of those.  I'll enter those last 5 suckers and make one more pass for typos.  Then I can send it off to readers definitely by the end of the week.  The waiting is nearly over.  Yay.

I really need to get to work on a cover now.  Gah.  I actually have an idea in my head of how I want it to look.  The question now is whether I can pull it off.

And I need to do a blurb.  I have no ideas there.  

But I have an idea for the second book in this series.  Derp.

This book... which will hopefully be part of a series... is a throwback to the old noir crime novels.  It's set in a time before computers and to-go coffee.  When people still smoked without worrying about being harassed for it.  When men could still ogle a woman and she took it as a compliment.  

I hope I got it right.  

Anyway, I enjoyed writing it.  I hope people enjoy reading it.  

Last night, as a reward for finishing the edit pass, I started reading Uptown Blues: Herbert and Melancon #5 by Seth Pevey.  I'm kind of addicted to this series and Seth knows it, so he messages me when he's got a new book out.  Unfortunately, I was in the middle of the edit pass, so I couldn't start reading it immediately like I usually do.  But I sure as hell got my buns in gear to make that edit pass go quickly.  ;o)

So far, so awesome.  That boy can write.

And that's where I'm at.  How are things with you?

Release Update and News of A Different Release

Yesterday was full enough of life stuff that by the time I had time to work, I was too tired to do anything but sit.  But that's okay.  

In an effort to be more 'marketing minded', I've decided to put the release of this book off until November 2nd anyway.  Since I already have a sale set up for the genie books starting on Monday and running through the 1st, that is.  I don't want to release right before the sale for another series and I don't want to release in the middle of that sale.  Hopefully, the genie sale will build interest for the model books.  You know - paranormal series sales leading to sales for the other paranormal series.  Or some such thing.

If I can get the 'A Model Curse' series finished and Cinder Ugly loaded for pre-order, then I could conceivably have links to the whole series in the 'Once Upon a Djinn' books.  Umm, I don't actually see that happening unless I get off my dead ass, but there's hope in there somewhere.

Anyway, if you're looking for something to read and you like spicy/sexy in your paranormal, my BIF (best internet friend) released her latest book last night - NIGHT WISH (Nightrider MC Book 5).  It's only $2.99 right now.  I scored mine this morning, so I haven't read it yet, but I know it'll be awesome.  Her books are always full of awesome.  (And I'm not just saying that because she's my friend.  I loved her books long before we became friends.)

As for my book, hang in there.  It'll be out soon.  And to that end, I will be having a sale for Sleeping Ugly and Ugly and the Beast once I know for sure when Cinder Ugly will be live.   If you haven't tried these books, they're fun and snarky paranormal mystery.  (And as a slight warning - if you're offended by swearing, they probably aren't for you.  Jeni swears a lot.)

Yep, Slight Delay

Okay, so the possible delay has turned into a definite delay.  Sorry about that, folks.  My grasp exceeded my reach this time.  Don't despair, though.  It'll be done by Monday at the latest.

It's a good thing I'm doing this.  Man, am I finding a lot of typos that I unintentionally inserted as I was fixing other things.  Blerg.  On the bright side, they're getting gone, bit by bit.  As of last night, I had done through pg 146 of 231 pages.  And I'm fixing the errors in batches along the way, so I won't have to do them all when I finish reading, which will save time. 

I'd be further along if I didn't blow Wednesday all to hell by going grocery shopping.  I was wiped out for the rest of the day there.  One thing I did get done Wednesday was the blurb - pre-shopping, of course. 

Jeni Braxxon’s life as a up-and-coming supermodel hit the skids when she found herself cursed.  The asshole who did this to her is rotting in jail, but the curse remains, leaving her as ugly as the north end of a southbound warthog.  Every damn night.  

As if this case of the gruesomes and her impending unemployment wasn’t enough for a gal with serious esteem issues, someone snatches her nephew.  The fight is on to find the boy before something seriously heinous happens.  With the help of her friends and a bit of beastly assistance, Jeni will face down anything this plane or the next throws at her.  If she’s lucky, she might just make it out alive.

And another thing I did was add a series title to the book covers.  I'm going with... drumroll... A Model Curse.  It was the only one I wrote down during brainstorming that didn't suck mightily and was short enough to fit on the covers without being super small.

Succinct and cute.  At least, I think so.  It's pretty much set in stone now, so if you think it's lame, keep it to yourself, k?  (Set in stone because I'm tired of thinking about it and I don't want to have to redo the covers again.)

Right now, it's sitting at about 65K words.  That'll expand some as I put in front and back matter during formatting, but that's the meat of the story without the sauce. 

Again, sorry about the delay.  I'd blame the chaos, but this last delay is on me.  I'll let y'all know when it goes live.  Until then, have a great day and an awesome weekend.  =o)

Possible Slight Delay

I'm working as fast as I can, but with only two days left, I'm probably going to miss my deadline.  Right now, I'm in the middle of scouring the book for flaws.  Yesterday, I got a whole page worth of notes and fixed them and that was only the first 33 pages.  Little things, like a missed comma here and a weird word there and a 'why did she call him that?'.  Nothing major, but it all needs to be fixed before I send it out into the world.

I also realized that I still have formatting to do once all these things are fixed.

And I remembered that before I can sell the book I need a blurb.  Frankly, I have no clue what to write there.  Jeni did some stuff again?

AND I have to think of a series title and put it on the covers of both books.

If I work like a madwoman, I might be able to get it all done in two days, but I am not inclined to work like a madwoman.  I still have household management, a sneezing geriatric cat, and an unplanned shopping trip to squeeze in there.

So, I will do my damnedest to get this done on time, but don't hold your breath.  If not Friday, I will have it done by Monday at the latest - barring acts of man, nature, and Armageddon.

Thanks for your patience.  And here's a taste of what I'll be sending out into the world soon...

 Ugly and the Beast

Chapter One

“Oh, my gawd, Jeni!  What happened to your face?  Ewww!”

Apparently, only Sleeping Beauty gets to awaken to princely smooches and happy woodland creatures.  As Sleeping Ugly, I got a short, shrieking supermodel instead.

I hadn’t planned on Mara Lightfoot, my best frenemy finding out anything about the curse I was under.  All I wanted was a little normal after the utter strangeness my life had become.  A movie marathon with my best friend sounded like an amazing idea.  After which, I’d quickly usher her out the door before midnight struck. 

But we’d gotten to drinking.  Time passed.  Then I got kind of snoozy.  And WHAM! I switched from the pretty phase of the curse to the morning fuglies. She’d squeaked like a midget mouse and then began laughing.  And pointing.  And then laughing some more. 

“What the hell happened to you?” she asked once she caught her breath.

My shoulders slumped.  “It’s a curse.”

“Well, duh.  It’s sure as hell not a gift.”  She poured herself another shot of cinnamon whiskey and downed it in one gulp.  Once the fire subsided, she said, “No wonder you missed all those photo shoots.  I tried to cover for you because you told me you were sick.  And let me tell you, hon, this is certainly sick.  So, tell me, who cursed you?  Jealous wife?  Jilted guy?  Oh, I know, psycho stalker!”

I’d already ruled out all three of her options.  And I didn’t want to tell her the truth right then.  First, I needed to figure out why she was taking this so well and wasn’t on the phone with the police or a mental hospital.

“Curses don’t exist, you know.”

Updates and Junk

Well, hello there!  It's been almost a month since I posted here, because, well, it's been longer than that since I actually did anything writerly or had anything writerly to talk about.  If you want to see what I was up to, go to The Writing Spectacle.  When I'm not here, I'm generally over there.

Things have been bad here with regard to writing or anything writing related.  The last time I worked was March 15th - you know, before it all went to hell.  The last time I sold anything was March 20th.

Since it had all gone to hell in March, I didn't even bother updating my spreadsheets to show the month of April.  And it's already getting near time to do May.  Yep, yep.

All of that changed over the weekend.  I made it change.  As I said on yesterday's Sunday Update post, this chaos crap has already taken up too much of my time and mental real estate, and it's time to get back to business.

To that end, I made myself sit down and work on getting Ugly and the Beast ready for publication.  I had hoped to have it to you by the end of last month. Well, hope in one hand... right?   The new hope is to have it to you by the end of this month.  Good lord willin' and the crick don't rise.  All I have to do is finish these edits my wonderful proofer friends sent along to me last month, weed out some crutch words, check it all over again, and then format the sucker.  (Your work was not wasted, proofer friends, just delayed a bit.)

Meanwhile, I have the next scenes for Cinder Ugly waiting for me to write.  I'm not promising anything with regard to dates for that yet.  Until I have the first draft completed, I can't even hint at a date.  All I can promise is that I seem to be back on track again.

Not sure what this'll mean in the long run.  Will sales climb out of the dumper?  Time will tell.  All I know is that I've had enough of this and I'm ready for a return to normal again.  I have no control over what happens out there in the world, but I can control what happens in here.  Time to take control again.

No More Excuses

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty damn sick of myself.  I keep intending to work on my books, but like Dad always said 'intentions are for shit'.  Meaning, of course, that you can have all the intentions in the world, but they aren't good for much of anything without action.

It's action I'm lacking.

I mean, I talk about... check that... whine about not having gumption or getting anything done.  But I don't actually DO anything about it.  Slacker.

Okay, so now's the time to do something.  As such, I'm making the commitment to have Ugly and the Beast ready to go out to one or two people for beta reading / proofing by the end of the month.  I was on page 115 of my edits as of quittin' time yesterday.  That leaves about 100 pages to go, understanding that I'm adding words and pages as I edit, and nine days in which to get those pages into shape.  How long it takes the readers to do their magic and me to fix what they find will dictate when UatB goes live, but it will go live.  Dammit.

Then I'm going to finish writing Cinder Ugly if it kills me.  Which it might.  It's a pretty ugly manuscript so far.  Like 'monster in Wish Hits the Fan' ugly.  (If you haven't read it, I can't help you understand it better.  Think big, nasty, gruesome bitch.)  I'll kill the beast and hang her head on my wall.

No more excuses.  No more whining.  Just get 'er done. 

Publishing Goals for 2019

As you all know, I've been having a tough time looking ahead to this year.  I'm in kind of a limbo about it all.  But time and publishing waits for no man, so here I am trying to set some publishing goals for the new year.

1)  Finish Ugly and the Beast and get it published.
2)  Write SCIU #4.
3)  Write Dennis Haggarty #3.
4)  Write Cinder-Ugly.
5)  Get at least one of those three other books published.

I'm leery about setting sales goals for the year.  But I'd like to see if I can sell at least as many books this year as I did last year with like a 10% increase.  So, like 616 books. That sounds kind of sad, but setting attainable goals is what it's all about.  I'd love to sell thousands of books, but history has shown that's not realistic.  So...

6) Sell at least 616 books.

I should probably try to resurrect my newsletter, but I'm not promising anything.

7)  Have a sale with advertising at least once a month.

That's a big one because sales take a lot of out of me - time and energy and money.  But they work, so I should just bite my lip and do it.

I should also try to network more.  But the thought of that gives me intestinal issues.  It's like walking into a party that's been going on for a long long time, where everyone knows each other, and saying
'hey, hi, you don't know me at all, but I'd like to dance and no, I'm not a newbie'.  Plus, I hate social interaction for the sake of social interaction.  It feels forced and unnatural to me.  :shrug:

I'd also like to finish re-editing my first book, Fear Itself, this year.  I'm not even sure it's still a viable storyline, but if I can get it publish-worthy, maybe I can just put it out there and see what happens. Not a goal, just a hope.

So, there they are.  My 2019 publishing goals.  I think they're doable.  We'll see how I did when I wrap things up this time in 2020.

Have you set any goals for the new year?  How'd you do on your 2018 goals? 

Looking Ahead

I may have said before that I am horrible at looking ahead.  Always have been, as far as I can tell.  Being with Hubs has gone a long way toward getting me to plan for the future, but I still find it really hard to think about next year or next month.  Hell, even next week is too far away.  Making an appointment months in advance sends me into spasms.  Ahem...

Anyway, I'm trying to look ahead.  I actually got off my butt and planned a sale for the end of the month.  AND I set up advertising.  (Already paid for advertising that's 3 weeks off.  :shudder:)  All the SCIU books will be discounted from the 24th thru the night of the 30th and the ads will go out for DE on the 26th.  The ads are with Bargain Booksy (again) and Book Adrenaline (new to me).  Fingers crossed.

I've got to plan ahead for releases and junk.  Get covers and editing way in advance, which I've been pretty good about.  Plan the time it will take me to edit a book and how much time it'll take AWE to do her part, etc. 

As I said earlier this week, I need to start thinking about spreadsheets for 2019.  Which really should be completed before 2018 ends.

Doing stuff in 2019?  Not a friggin' clue.  I have no idea what the publication schedule will look like.  And every time I think about it the spasms begin.  It's like, for some reason, 2019 is a void to me.  And thus, I am avoiding it.  Hehe.

At the beginning of 2018, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to accomplish in the year.  Publish 4 books.  With the release of Unequal in a couple weeks, I will have done that.  I even had a good idea of which books would go out.  This coming year?  No clue.  I know I should probably publish the next two Sleeping Ugly books, but I can't wrap my brain around either of those at the moment.  I have ideas for another SCIU and another Dennis Haggarty.  But I would need to write those before I could even begin to think about publishing them.  I have two other older manuscripts I'd like to see in print, but they need a lot of work before I inflict them upon my AWE.

So, the question becomes, do I bust my ass and write four books so I can publish them in 2019?  Or do I cut back and only do a couple?  Do I go back to edit older books that are already written?  Gah.

Anyway, you see my quandary.  Things will happen in 2019.  What those things will be?  :shrug:  You got me.

But first... Finish editing Unequal and get it out there.  The rest will handle itself somewhere along the way.

Decision Made - Part Two

If you've been reading along, you know I had a couple decisions to make here.  The first one was whether I would keep stumping along with a book that I just wasn't feeling.  Made that one and stopped work on Ugly and the Beast.  The other decision was whether to keep my reserved spot with my cover artist and what to do with it if I did.

So, over the weekend, my cover artist announced that she's booked through December of 2019.  Which pretty much made the decision about what to do with my October spot for me.  I'm going ahead with the cover of Ugly and the Beast, even though it isn't finished.  It's either that or wait until my spring spot and then not have a spot reserved for Cinder Ugly.  And while I'm behind in writing this series, I do not want to have to wait until 2020 to have a cover.

Yesterday morning, I went through the photo site, picked several poses for the Jeni model, and then picked a couple of other things I'd like to see on the cover.  We'll see what she does with them.

Now I have until February (or was it March?) to figure out what the hell CU is going to be about so I have ideas to send to Jessica. 

Life was so much easier when she wasn't so popular.  I didn't have these scheduling problems when she did the Once Upon a Djinn series.  Ugh.

On the other hand, my cover artist is so good, she's in high demand.  Yay.

On the bright side, looking at photos for UatB kinda makes me want to start writing it again.  Too bad I have the edits for Unequal to focus on right now.  Maybe I'll make finishing the damn book my NaNoWriMo project. 

:shrug:

An Even Dozen

With the publication of Sleeping Ugly on Saturday, I'm at an even dozen published novels now. 

Five years ago, I couldn't even conceive of having that many book published, let alone publishing them all myself.  Of course, about five years ago was when I sat myself down and did some serious thinking about where my career was headed and how I was going to achieve my goal of being published when I kept running into the traditional publishing brick wall. 

About this time, fourteen years ago, I finished the first draft of my first novel.  Back then, I had been so certain I'd snag an agent and a publisher lickety-split.  (Waits for laughter to subside.)  Nine years of writing books and querying later and I'd had quite enough, thank you very much.  I decided to quit beating myself into a bloody pulp and do all of it my own damn self.

It was scary as hell. 

It's still scary as hell sometimes.

But I wouldn't go back.  I can't even imagine what going back would be like. 

Anyway, it's been a wild ride.  Twelve books.  My first book just rolled over $1K in sales.  I'm hoping to make it to $3K overall by the end of the year.  And I've spent - with the last payments made for Sleeping Ugly - just over $10K.  That's about $833 spent per book on average.

Umm, yeah, following the dream ain't cheap.  But the hope is always there that a book or two (or all of them... heh) will take off and turn my 'in the red' to 'in the black'. 

I keep plodding forward.  Book #13 - Unequal - should be out by the end of the year.  Thirteen books over the course of four years.  Not a bad bit of production there.  And not one I'd likely see if I was traditionally published.  From the time I first send a book to my editor to the time it's available for you to read takes about three months.  Tradpub takes way longer, from what I understand.  Nope, not going back.

I'll keep publishing books as long I have money to pay my editor and cover artist.  And as long as I still have fingers to type.  Good lord willin' and the crick don't rise.

Short Stuffs and Mini Updates

I had an idea for Ugly and the Beast the other night.  I didn't get up and write it down and now it's gone.  All I'm left with is the memory of thinking it was really awesome.

Sleeping Ugly should be back to me tomorrow for final edits on my end.  As long as they aren't numerous or lengthy, I should be able to put this up for pre-order sometime before the 25th.  Or would you rather I just put the book up for sale when it's ready?

Part of me wants to put books up for pre-order.  Another part doesn't see the point. As a reader, I rarely pre-order books.  I don't like buying something and then waiting for the cost to come out of my bank account at some future date.  Cuz I might forget about it. 

Obviously, I am not going to have Ugly and the Beast ready to send to AWE any time soon.  So, I'm going to send her Unequal next, in order to have a fourth book come out this year.  From a sales standpoint, I probably should've buckled down and busted my ass to get UatB out next, but apparently that's not how I roll, baby. 

If you're keeping track, Sleeping Ugly will be my 12th published novel.

I had planned to do some marketing for the Once Upon a Djinn series this month, but since the stuff I had planned fell through, I scrapped the idea and went ahead and raised all the prices for those books to $3.99.  Now I have to wait 30 days to hold any kind of sales for those, so maybe next month I'll do something sparky. 

I still haven't done paperbacks for my last two books.  Do any of you care?  Cuz if I thought anyone cared, I'd be more motivated to get that stuff done. 

My cover artist is doing a paperback cover for Sleeping Ugly.  I'm still not sure if I'll go paperback with that book yet, but I'll have the option. 

Okay.  That's it.  Does anyone have any questions?  Comments?  Wisdoms?

Schedules and Panicking

Not to beat a dead horse, but self-publishing isn't just about sitting at your desk, happily plunking away as the stories flow freely from your fingertips.  It's a business.  And, as such, it requires scheduling.

You need to find time to write, of course.  And to edit.  That is all part of the job.  But it's not all of the job.  You need to find time to market.  You need to find time to network.  You need to find time to sell.  And then there's the paperwork and the accounting and the...  :collapses under the weight of the to-do list:

And that's just what's on you.  But like any good business, you have to coordinate with others as well.  You have to figure when your editor can schedule you in, because you're most likely not their only client.  And they have lives.  (Imagine.  The nerve.  LOL)  Like I know my editor takes a break in May.  Not the whole month, mind you, but it's usually a good idea to not have a lot going on in that month.  She gets a break, too, so I try to leave her alone to recharge her batteries.  (Lord knows she probably needs it after editing for me.  Heh.)

You also have to find a place to squeeze into your cover artist's schedule.  Because, like the editor, she has other clients and a life.  I totally brainfarted out on this one and then I saw my artist post to FB that she was full up for work until July.  I emailed her straight off and we worked it out so I can still have an August release, but those harrowing hours between wouldn't have been necessary if I had planned better.

Another thing you need to remember is scheduling for marketing.  Most marketing venues fill up fast and you'd better get in touch with them around three weeks in advance (at least) or you'll find they're full up for the dates you want an ad to go out.  I run afoul of this more often than not because I am such a bad marketer and planner.

The point of all this is that planning and scheduling can leave you with less to panic about.  If I'd thought to shoot my artist an email at the beginning of the year when I knew what my publishing schedule was going to be, I would've saved myself from panic now.  If I'd taken time last month to schedule marketing for Early Grave, the release might've been a bang instead of a whimper.

This is all a learning experience, but we shouldn't all have to learn things the hard way.  I would've been a little screwed if my artist hadn't posted to FB and then been able to work with me to get me what I need when I need it.  Don't be me.  When you have a publishing schedule in place, think about all the other people who will need to contribute to that and plan accordingly.  Jus' sayin'.

A Few Things

1)  I had my dates wrong for getting Early Grave back from the editor.  She said the 28th.  I had it written in my date book as the 26th, I assume because I had originally planned to have it to her on the 26th of January and so the return would be one month later.  Derp.  Anyway, we're still all on track for a late April / early May release.  It all depends on how much work there is to be done and whether life intervenes.  :fingers crossed:

2)  I posted a little snip of Sleeping Ugly over at Silver James' blog this morning.  (Edited to add: In the comment section.)  And reading it this morning reminds me that I still love it.  Look for it to be published by the end of summer, good lord willin' and the crick don't rise.

3)  If you don't remember, Sleeping Ugly is about a supermodel who gets cursed so she becomes ugly when she sleeps and then gets prettier throughout the day until she looks like herself right about the time she's ready to go to sleep again.  Oh, and there's a dude who got the curse, too, only he's normal throughout the day and ugly at night.  So they're working together to figure our who cursed them and fix this crap.  Then the cops show up to question her about the murder of her estranged brother...  It's weird and wild and fun.

4) But first, Early Grave.  Agent Ned Washington of the SCIU has been sent to Toledo to figure out if they have a serial killer who's murdering old people in nursing homes and then catch the heinous bitch.  If you read Fertile Ground, you might remember Ned from the scene when Teri first gets to the Detroit office.  If you've read either of the SCIU novels, you'll remember Lynn - the tech gal.  She plays an important role in this book.

That's about it for me this morning.  If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. 

Where I'm at Right Now

So, I got the edits for Blink of an I back from my editor yesterday evening.  Yay!  But I'm still not ready to send her Early Grave.  Boo!  I did a little mental panic dance at that moment.  And then I told myself to chill out. 

I can still finish Early Grave's edit pass and send it off to AWE tonight or tomorrow morning.  I could even, if I had to, work on both of them at the same time.  The skillset needed for each task is different enough I wouldn't be getting myself all confuzapated.  (Confused + addlepated = confuzapated.)

Early Grave - reading it on the Kindle and making edit notes, then entering edit notes I made into the manuscript.

Blink of an I - Opening my working copy and her edited copy side by side and entering her edit notes as I go down the pages.

It could be done.  If I had to.  I guess.  Right now, I'd prefer sitting down today and cranking through Early Grave until it's done, then tackling Blink after I send EG off to my editor.  We'll see how much I can get done and whether I reach a point where EG is 'editor ready' by the time I want to do Blink.

And that's where I'm at right now.  All editing, all the time.  Except for when I need a break and wander out into the woods.

The Publishing Schedule... Or Part of It Anyway

An kind of serendipity occurred this week.  My deadline got pushed back by a few days. And I felt bad celebrating.  You see, Early Grave is almost ready to go to the editor, so when she told me she might have to delay getting the edits for Blink of an I to me today, I was happy dancing.  Because if the edits had come in today, I would've felt bad putting them off until I was done with EG.  But if I worked on them and not EG, I would've felt bad because I know me and I know it's hard to get back into a project after I set it down to work on something else. 

Yeah, it gives me a headache, too.

No worries, though.  She'll get the edits to me by Monday and I'll have EG ready for her by Monday.  Win win.  And I have space built into the schedule, so Blink won't actually be delayed.  Then again, I never did quite give y'all a firm date for Blink.  Sometime in February is a large enough target I'll have a hard time missing it. 

So, here's how it'll go.  She'll get me Blink on Monday (or I'll start working on it Monday if she gets it to me sooner).  Two weeks for me to input all her edits and to read-through one last time.  One week for formatting.  That should put Blink of an I available for upload the week of the 19st... say the 20th or the 21st.  Barring any major snafus or the Apocalypse, that is.

AND, having just worked stuff out in my datebook, if all goes according to plan, Early Grave could be out late April/early May instead of May or June.  Still doesn't make Sleeping Ugly come out any sooner, though.  I'm still looking at an August release for that.  I won't get a chance to start beating the stuffings out of that first draft until sometime in March.  And my editor usually takes a vacay sometime in there.  And spring fishing.  And... Well, you get the gist.

So, here's how the 2018 production schedule is looking right now:

Blink of an I - February 21st (at the latest)
Early Grave - Late April / EarlyMay
Sleeping Ugly - August
DH3 or Unequal - November

DH3 hasn't actually been written yet, so I would need to cobble out about 6 weeks to do that.  If I get it done, then it'll be the one that goes live in November.  If not, then Unequal goes.  And if DH3 is the winner, Unequal will be published in 2019.  Beyond that, I have no clue.

Whew.  I'm tired just thinking about all that.  Is it too early for naptime? 

Things at OTB

First, the contest is still open on my Pick a Cover post.  Thus far, I have two votes for A on the blog, one private vote for C, and one private vote for either C or D.  (Yes, I will take private votes - especially if you're not interested in entering the contest.)  I'll most likely close it up on Friday and announce a winner on Monday. 

Next, I'm 29% done on the read-through, note-making stage of Early Grave.  And I got with my editor, who will take the first round of EG when I'm ready to send it.  I'm hoping to get thru this phase by Saturday and then use the next two weeks to make all the changes, so I can have this to her after she finished up with Blink and the end of the month. 

This year is on track.  So far.  Fingers crossed it stays this way.

My big sales extravaganza at the end of 2017 wrapped up the end of the year nicely.  Surprising since I didn't put any advertising in place for that one and only did some stuff on FB and Twitter.  That blog review really helped, although it wasn't planned or even expected until it happened.  Unfortunately, that's where the sales ended - last year.  I had kinda hoped for some residual stuff.  :sigh: 

Anyway, I'm going to try not to worry about that stuff.  I mean, I'm still going to advertise when I can and junk, but I'm working on not sweating the lack of sales.  My books are out there.  More will be out there this year.  Different stuff, similar stuff.  Blink is definitely different stuff.  Early Grave is the third book in the SCIU series, but with Ned Washington as the main character.  Then I plan on publishing Sleeping Ugly - which is a paranormal but not djinn.  And if I can manage to get some inspiration somewhere and finish it, the third book in the Dennis Haggarty series should round out 2018.  If not, I might go ahead with another dystopian - Unequal.   Time will tell.

Those are about all the things I can think of at the moment.  Any questions? 

Looking Ahead to 2016

Hey All! 

In case you don't subscribe to my newsletter, here's what the publishing schedule looks like for 2016:

Winter - In Deep Wish: Mayweather Genies Book 2 (currently with the editor, cover being created) - March release

Spring - Fertile Ground: SCIU Book 2 (currently pre-editing*) - May release

Summer - Up Wish Creek: Mayweather Genies Book 3 (written, waiting its turn in the editing phase) - August release

Fall - Natural Causes: Dennis Haggarty Book 2 (partially written) - November release

This may change a little, but I'm pretty sure that's how it'll turn out.  If I had more money and more time (and I wanted to beat my editor like a rented mule), I'd put out more books. 

Currently, there are no plans to make a series out of BloodFlow, but that could change, too.  I would like to publish one of my dystopian novels at some point, but the time and money thing has me wondering when I'll ever fit that in.

I love publishing books.  I love that my readers have asked when the next book is coming out.  I wish I could give everyone the timeframes they want.  But like Jo always says 'wishes don't work that way'.  I hope this schedule works for the majority of readers. 

Thanks for sticking with me this year.  Thanks for all your support and for your purchases.  Here's hoping we're all pleased with the way 2016 turns out.  

*pre-editing consists of me sitting with my Kindle, reading it through and making notes of things that need changing.

Decisions Decisions

I'm rethinking my publishing schedule. 

Main reason?  Sales of Wish in One Hand have not been spectacular.  Sales of Dying Embers and Accidental Death, on the other hand, have been way better.  So it would make sense to give the readers what they want and publish more along those lines.  Right?

I had expected to publish the sequel to WIOH this coming February or March with the third book coming out next August or September.  Now, I don't know.  This genie thing hasn't found its niche market.  A few people here and there love it.  (Thanks!)  But it's not really catching fire anywhere. 

Mulling it all around in my head.

I just finished the second book in the SCIU series - Fertile Ground.  And I'm really excited about that, which may be skewing my choices a little.  I have the sequel to Accidental Death started and on the back burner.  But I already have two more genie books in the bag.  Less work for me to get those ready for publication.  (Well, except for the cover art part.  That's a long story that I'd rather not tell online.)

:shrug:  I dunno.

BloodFlow should still be out next month.  My editor is calling it a political thriller.  Which is good because medical-technical-political suspense is too wordy.  She says it's my best book yet.  We'll see what the public thinks toward the end of this year.  Still, it's another book in the thriller/mystery/suspense vein.  Maybe I should set the paranormal thing aside while I focus on that sort of stuff. 

Decisions decisions. 

So, if I do adjust the production schedule, it'll look like this:

November 2015 - BloodFlow
February/March 2016 - Fertile Ground (SCIU #2)
May/June 2016 - Natural Causes (Dennis Haggarty #2)
August/September 2016 - In Deep Wish (Djinn #2)
November/December 2016 - Something totally different (maybe resurrect Fear Itself or Nature of Destruction - my first and second books - OR do a dystopian)

Anyway, that's one of the awesome things about self-publishing.  I have the freedom to do whatever I want and the market will tell me if I did the right thing or bombed horribly. 

What do you think I should do?  Suggestions are welcome, but don't be bummed if, after mulling over everything, I go my own way.  K?

The Production Schedule

Yesterday, I went out and about in the world with my swag to see how my local fans responded to news of the next book.

There was some squeeing, some yaying, and a couple curious responses.  The first makes me wonder if I have a typo on my postcard somewhere.  "How many of these do you get printed at one time?"  I'll address that one after I've had some more coffee.

The next made me wonder how the average person is perceiving my books with this production schedule I've created.  "Wow.  Another book?  Already?"  The look in her eyes seemed skeptical to me.  Like 'how it is even possible' and had me wondering whether she was thinking I couldn't possible put out this many books in one year and have them all still be good.  (Yeah,  I might've read more into that than was there, but I do tend to overthink interpersonal interludes.)

Of course, I explained that since I have been writing books for ten years, I have a lot of books in the hopper ready to move forward - with professional editing and cover art, of course.  She didn't seem convinced.  Especially after I told her I plan on a fourth book this year. :shrug:

If you received my newsletter*, you know the upcoming production schedule.  It's at the end of the email - right above how to contact me.  Anyway, here's this quarter's 'Future Stuff' section:

In near future stuff, my fourth book - the one I am currently referring to as Bloodflow - is under way and should be ready for a November launch.  It's another suspense, but more in the techological / political vein.  Government conspiracies, kick ass good guys, evil villains.  I can't wait to share it with all of you.

Further down the road, the production schedule still looks something like this in 2016:

Winter: Fifth book - In Deep Wish (Djinn 2) (paranormal suspense)

Spring: Sixth book - SCIU 2 (suspense) or Dennis Haggarty 2 (mystery)

Summer: Seventh book - Up Wish Creek (Djinn 3) (paranormal suspense)

Fall: Eighth book - Whichever book didn't go live in the Spring.

You see, of the books in the future schedule, two are already written.  This year, all the books were already written and simply needed to be edited.  That tends to make things a lot quicker.  The other two books for next year are each started and written partway through.  Those should be easy enough to complete and slide right into the schedule. 

So no worries about me rushing, or the quality of the work taking a hit.  K?  This is just how I roll.  I will not put out work I don't feel is the best possible work I can offer you.  Hopefully, you'll agree.

*If you have signed up for my newsletter, but did not get a copy on Saturday morning, please let me know.   If you'd like a copy, ask.  I can forward mine.  If you'd like to sign up for the next newsletter - due in November - go here.