It's been a long time...

Jackieleigh | Flickr

Well, it's been ten days since my last post. Bad blogger! I wish I could report that I've been wonderfully productive during all that time, typing away at my book, but I haven't. At least, I haven't been productive on that front. 

There were a few things taking up my time over the past week and half, not the least of which was work. I've just had a crappy schedule recently, which hasn't allowed me much time for myself. What time I did have was taken up by other things. I obsessed over a British period courtroom drama called Garrow's Law for a while. Plus, I helped my dad with planting the garden, which looks amazing, if I do say so. 

Beyond that, Inkpop and my commitments there, such as they are, have been taking up my time. I've made a couple of deals to create book covers for people and these easily take four to six hours each, depending on the complexity. I absolutely love the challenge, though, and to be able to design cover after cover has been create. When I finished making all the covers for my current projects, I was kind of depressed that I had no reason to make more. But thanks to Inkpop, now I do!

Very soon I'm going to be adding a book cover section to this blog. There I will show a gallery of my work, plus possibly start offering my services for a modest fee. These covers would be available for commercial use, such as ebooks and print on demand. So far I've only worked with free materials, but if I could get paid for my covers, I could then purchase better images and thus make better covers. All of this is in the very early stage of planning, but I'd love to be able to help fellow authors, while also doing something I love. 

Anyhoo, I will be back more consistently from now on, I promise. Happy Tuesday!

Book Update

I've spent the past two days trying to improve my author presence on the internet. It's all a part of 'marketing' and 'author platform building'. Erg. Just saying those things make me sick.

As with most people, I'm terrified of putting myself out there and asking, "Hey, could you look at me, please?" People who know me know that I don't really have a problem talking about my book in real life. I've wrangled practically everyone I know into reading it. (If I haven't asked you and you're interested, just let me know!) I actually feel bad about how much I talk about it, so I've tried to cut back.

On the net, however, I don't feel comfortable seeking out readers. It's not that I have a problem talking. I doubt very many people will actually read this post, but I'm writing it anyway. I just don't know how to sell my book. I've only just figured out an acceptable jacket copy--the little blurb that usually goes on the back of the book or the inside flap. Though funnily enough I have no intention of putting it on the actual book jacket. A lack of jacket copy had made setting up professional pages for my book a little difficult, since all I was able to post was the cover and title. This problem has been fixed and information on my book can now be found in a few places:

• Under the My Fiction tap at the top of this blog
• On Goodreads.com, where I finally managed to get my Goodreads Author status working properly.
• On Inkpop.com, where I've also uploaded the first four chapters of the book for previewing/reviewing purposes. The first chapter is on Goodreads, as well, but it's so much easier to view on Inkpop. 

Tied into my presence on these sites, I've also set up an author fan page on Facebook. The little 'like' button on the right there lets you add me to your feed. I use Facebook regularly and have always posted my blog updates for my friends. I will also use my author page as a way to share information and make announcements. I know everyone is flocking to Twitter these days, but I have to admit that I don't get it. I can barely wrap my head around Tumblr (got one of those, too, but it's fairly useless). I know that makes me sound like an octogenarian, but I don't care. If I get super (or even mildly) popular and there is a request for a Twitter feed, then I guess I'll get one, but in the meantime... 

One big thing I've been avoiding on the whole book launch front is diving into the world of Kindle. I just need to get over this stigma I feel against Amazon. Their policies just irk me. They're my Wal-Mart. But this is no place for a soap box lecture. I've made my Kindle Direct Publishing account and I'll get used to using it. The next step after that would be chatting people up on Kindleboards and Nookboards. Let me tell you, I'm totally looking forward to that. Ug. 

All right, that's enough ranting for the day. I've worked myself into a bit of a depression, so I need to stop. I need to find a new book to read. Something light and happy. Any suggestions?

Progress? A Writer's Rant

Look at that mess...

I've been staring down the final chapters of my book for quite a while now. I've got it all outlined (for the most part) and I know exactly what I need to write. 

But I can't bring myself to write anything. 

I think I'm worrying about the fact that the denouement is somewhat long, which can be a complete turn-off for some readers. I love that word, by the way. Denouement. I took French for six years, so I tend to like saying the French loan words with my crappy French accent. It makes me laugh. 

All in all, I've taken way too long to edit this book. I wrote the first (horrible) draft over the span of six months, and that was with easily two months' worth of breaks thrown in the mix. Since then, I've been editing it for two years. TWO YEARS. Granted, during those two years I've completely rewritten the darn thing, so I guess that counts as much as writing a whole new book. 

This final rewrite has been difficult and miraculously easy all at the same time. About a month or two ago I had an eureka moment. By adding a new character and a certain background story, I had somehow managed to make all of those awkward edges smooth out and work perfectly. It was as if that little plot point had existed in the story all along, but I had just forgotten to write it in. Once I worked it into the existing manuscript, everything started flowing very nicely. It made me grin from ear to ear, it truly did. 

I've also done the very naughty thing of taking time out to outline the next book in the series. So there it is now, sitting on my hard drive and in my brain, trying to distract me from finishing the first book. I need to start thinking of it as the carrot on the end of the stick. "Now, now, half-witted author. You can start writing book two once you've finished book one."

I'm starting to feel myself drowning in doubt again, which does me no good. Every time I write a new draft, I start off thinking it's a billion times better than the last one, but then I slowly grow numb to its wonders and I begin to doubt the quality all over again. Will it catch the reader's interest? Is this scene thrilling? Are my characters likable? Blah blah blah. 

Oh, and another little seemingly insignificant thing that is bothering me? It's so short. Like, holy cow that might just be a novella short. This bothers me to no end because no one could ever accuse me of brevity when it comes to my writing. The reason why it is short is because I've made the decision to break the original novel up into three parts because the original was too long. Like, 200,000 words worth of too long. But here I have part one probably clocking in under 70k. What the heck...?

cover design © h.m.resch

I know I just need pick myself up by my bootstraps and soldier on and whatnot. If I plow through and just finish the darn thing, then I can make it pretty during the final editing stage. 

Either way, come hell or high water, this book will be published sometime in June. In the mean time I've pretty much figured out the cover. This is still a work in progress, but I don't expect it to change too much before the release. 

Sorry for the ranting. I don't have very many people I can talk to about my writing so sometimes it just spews out and I can't stop it. I hope to have a chapter or two up for perusal sometime soon. Keep checking back and thanks if you actually read this far! <3