SitRep Saturday: Prices and Right This Time

This was definitely a vacation week. I tried to stay on top of work but I wasn't terribly successful.

As far as prices go, I saw a boost in sales the first few hours after I upped the price of Cass to $1.99... by a single book. I saw a more significant bump--four books--the night I lowered the price. The book is selling pretty much the same as it was before the price change (approximately two books a day), so it looks like the current price point is as good as it gets. My next experiment, I think, will be either The Cowboy Next Door or the new one, Right This Time.

Speaking of Right This Time, I have it drafted and cleaned up a bit, I have a cover image for it... Oh, here, I'll share:

I think it nicely reflects the tone of the piece. At least, I hope it does.

This story is a bitch to edit, though. I think it's just because I lost sight of the characterization some. I've been so scatterbrained that it's hard to focus. I'm trying to get that--and my muse with his clear, strong voice--back.

SitRep Saturday: One Good Cowboy and Book Covers

I actually did get a little bit done this week on One Good Cowboy. I did about a page and a half of editing, wrote out several pages of meta, and redesigned the book cover.

It needed some work since the story is no longer a novelette.

In that vein, in order to prepare my work for upload to AllRomance (a goal I had for the week, a goal I completely missed), I did a little bit of work to the cover for Cass Gets Her Kicks, too.

I felt like the cover needed a little more information for potential readers. 

The Cowboy Next Door also needs some cover work, and I hope to add taglines to the covers of both Please, Sir and Better with You before I upload to AllRomance.

Self-publishing is a learn-as-you-go business, no matter how much research you do beforehand, but I really enjoy the experience I get these days.

Monday Miscellany: Sales Question and Plans for Writing and Blogging

Every few days, I get a surge in sales. This happened when Cowboy was first starting to take off and it slowed during the holiday season, but I've noticed that since the first of the year, sales will be steady for a few days and then I'll see a daily surge of roughly an extra 30% or so. Does anyone else see this? My assumption, based on the time that passes and the original numbers as I watched them, is that readers are telling their friends. I don't know. I don't dwell because thinking too much about it would make me crazy (for example, if I think about how much I want to know why readers return books, I start feeling like I'm going to die of curiosity), but it does make me curious.

This week, I plan (read: desperately hope) to finish One Good Cowboy. I have a couple of blog posts on editing and one on writing like a reader waiting in draft mode.

A. M. Belrose, the lovely author of Witch in Wolf's Clothing, has graciously agreed to an author interview, so I need to work up questions for her and send them off. Expect to see an interview and a book review sometime in the next few weeks. (But by all means, go buy her book if you're interested, it's worth it.) I have another guest post lined up for the coming weeks, another one by graphic designer and artist Kelsey McCarthy. She's going to help me with a week all about book covers and design.

Basically what I'm saying is that though this week looks kind of bleak, the month of January as a whole is pretty exciting.

SitRep Saturday: Please, Sir

Please, Sir will be available on Smashwords today and it will be available on Amazon within the next few days. I'm putting the finishing touches on the formatting today. It has been edited, beta-read, ignored, and agonized over. It's ready.

I'm going to take a day or two off after this and maybe write up a few more blog posts (that's what I did while I ignored the story for the last half of the week), but I have already started work on the next project. It's another cowboy romance that looks to be longer than The Cowboy Next Door.

Monday Miscellany: Recovering From The Holiday Weekend

Even though we're stationed in Germany (far, far away from our families and most of our friends), we're still American and we tend to act like it. We celebrated Thanksgiving this year for the first time as just a family. No extended family, no friends, just the three of us and the food we wanted and a stress-free day. It was a nice change. I am a master of the traditional Thanksgiving meal thanks to my mother and grandmother (my sisters and I could prepare the whole meal, including the turkey, by the time I was fourteen, and when I moved out on my own the first time, I hosted Thanksgiving alone; we've hosted twice since we've been married, and both times the majority of the meal prep fell to me) and the cooking and cleaning doesn't bother me. I won't lie, though, the people do. Last year, we had some incredibly ungrateful guests. I put my foot down the day after Thanksgiving last year and told my husband that unless I was the only one making the guest list, we would never host Thanksgiving again. People showed up three hours late and my husband, being the decent human being he is, waited for them. As a result, the turkey was dry, everyone was cranky by the time we got to eat, and the people I actually liked left as soon as their plates were empty. The worst part about that is that I couldn't even blame them.

This year, we kept it simple. Husband barbecued a brisket since he isn't a fan of turkey, I roasted an acorn squash, and we made a gigantic pot of cheesy garlic mashed potatoes. The kid, adventurous eater that she is, loved the veggies.

I managed to finish the draft of Please, Sir and even finished the cover, as I posted before. I'm in the carefully editing stages now, but it should be finished very soon. I'm proud of it. It's very me. I have the next project ready to start, too, and that one will be another romance with another slightly-unlikable heroine. I have a weakness for unlikable heroines. Scarlett O'Hara is probably my favorite. What a little brat. I love her so much.

Despite the fact that I am nearing thirty, my grandmother still sends me birthday money. I tried to make her stop about seven years ago, but there's no telling a Texas woman--and a former preacher, no less--what to do, especially if you're just a lowly granddaughter. We did negotiate a smaller amount, at least. Anyway, I put it to good use. I got the accessories kit I've been wanting for my Kindle (a sleeve and a light) and, most importantly, I bought Supertech and Morgan's Choice. Books are so much more exciting when they're presents, aren't they? I can't wait to start reading. I am a legitimate Greta van der Rol fangirl. (For the record, my birthday isn't for a few more weeks. Its proximity to Christmas led to my parents and grandparents overcompensating and I still celebrate it early.)

I am in the planning stages of a website redesign. Now that I've been doing this blogging/social media thing for about six months, I have a better idea of my voice and what I want to offer. I think the website is going to be divided into a section for writers and a section for readers.

Speaking of readers, I'm incredibly grateful for mine. Or, at least, incredibly grateful for Kindle shoppers who thought The Cowboy Next Door looked interesting enough to download. It has been on and off the top 100 contemporary romance lists on Amazon this last week--mostly on--and it has even cracked the top 1000 of all Amazon books. For a quickie little cowboy romance novelette, that feels pretty amazing to me.

Monday Miscellany: WIPs, Recipes, and Blogging

So I have fleshed out the action draft of the new WIP and made some changes and, now, it will be decent to share under my current romance/erotica pen name. I just have to, you know, actually write it. Since it's a short story and I'm only shooting for 10,000 words it should be easy peasy. Well, that, and the fact that I really like it. I've even already found the cover art for it. Once I have a mockup I'm happy with, I'll share.

Last Friday, I made whiskey cookies. I used this recipe, but I would suggest the following changes: use half as much baking soda, add about 1/4 tsp lemon extract, and add an extra tablespoon or two of whiskey. I didn't add the nuts or fruit, but I planned to drizzle them with chocolate. They were still pretty good. Because writers don't have enough ways to ingest booze!

In the draft stages now I have a post on where/how to learn about the publishing industry. I am also planning a post on how and where to buy e-books and a post containing tips on cover design (the last one because I have seen some truly awful self-published covers recently).

Even though I'm not in the States, I'm still celebrating Thanksgiving this week. The hubs and I aren't doing it traditional, either. We have a brisket and a squash and we're planning mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, and some cherry cobbler. Nice and low-key and delicious.

And speaking of giving thanks: for a brief span of time, The Cowboy Next Door was on Amazon's Top 100 contemporary romance list. So a huge THANK YOU to everyone who bought the book!

SitRep Saturday: The Cowboy Next Door and Strawberry Moon

First, news on The Cowboy Next Door: it is now available at Smashwords. Use coupon code HY66N to download it for free until Monday, September 26th.

I have action-drafted the rewrite of chapter one of Strawberry Moon. I am also pretty sure that I'm getting rid of that title, but it will suffice as the working title. Instead of the slow build up until we meet Vincent, the book now opens with a conflict that is going to let the readers know where each character stands, and Vincent will come into the picture much, much sooner. I have made massive changes to the outline and to the plot, and the subplots have been better-defined. Vincent's backstory is different, too. He's just kind of a dick.

The changes have me re-thinking the story's classification as "young adult," but for now, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm going to write, edit, rewrite, revise, edit, and get input and critique, and then I'll worry about its genre.

SitRep Saturday: The Cowboy Next Door

I'm still in the process of making the last round of self-edits while I wait for my beta readers to get back to me with their comments. Right now, I'm looking at a release date between September 23 and September 30.

However, you can now read an excerpt from chapter one here at my website... or click below and read it here on my blog!

The Cowboy Next Door: "Back Cover" Summary

Last night, I finally drafted the "back cover" summary for The Cowboy Next Door and this morning I polished it. I also discovered that, based on its word count and according to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, it is a novelette. 

Lilah Thompson has returned home to Colorado as a Navy widow with an ugly secret. It has been six years since she escaped her parents' expectations and Clay Bradford's hopes. Now, all she wants is to hold it together and bide her time in her father's carpentry workshop until she decides what to do next.

But Clay has other plans. Six years has been time enough as far as he's concerned and Lilah's widowhood is less of an obstacle than she thinks it should be. He wants her back, regardless of her ugly secrets and her aimlessness. He knows exactly what her next move should be.

The Cowboy Next Door is a romance novelette incorporating a little bit of angst and a little bit of erotica for the enjoyment of adults.

I expect to be finished and ready to upload within the next two weeks. This is very exciting!

SitRep Saturday: The Cowboy Next Door

All right, I know it's late, but that's not because I've been slacking. I actually have productivity to report.

This week, I finished the first and the cursory second round of edits. Then I got so sick of looking at it that I sent it off to five beta readers. It's with them now, and most of them have promised to have it back by next Friday or so, so now it's a waiting game. I'll do another round of edits on my own before I go over their notes, but we're getting close!

I also have to finish up the "bonus" chapter, write the "back cover" summary, and work up the layout. I'm not too worried. Formatting was kind of a breeze last time (a time-consuming breeze, but a breeze nonetheless) and I made it into the Smashwords premium catalog on my second try.

SitRep Saturday: The Cowboy Next Door, Interviews, and Other Projects

I am here to admit, sheepishly, that I have only edited the first two chapters and the first page of the third chapter of Cowboy. I hit kind of a slump this week. I did, however, start work on the "bonus" chapter. It's not part of the story, but I thought the characters deserved some fun.

Greta van der Rol has agreed to be interviewed for From the Writer's Desk very soon. I am very, very excited about this. I've had The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy on my to-read list for several weeks. I just started it last night and I am not disappointed. I love science fiction.

A friend of mine who is part of Marginalia Studios has also agreed to be interviewed. I'm stoked about this, too, because I've been wanting to feature her since the blog was new. She's a fantastic artist.

Yesterday's post on why self-publishing isn't career suicide got me thinking about the guide to self-publishing I've been wanting to work on. September may be the month for that.

SitRep Saturday: The Cowboy Next Door

This week, I finished the first draft and started editing. At the end of the draft, it was 14,688 words. It currently sits at 14,693, but I'm only on the first page. Things can change.

I've decided to add a "bonus" chapter. The main relationship is so charged that I thought it could use some couple time. Plus, I really enjoy the hero and I'd like to see him get what he wants.

The layout of the book is basically designed, from chapter headings to summary to acknowledgments. I plan to include an excerpt of Cass Gets Her Kicks.

And, finally, last night, I designed the book cover. Weeks of searching Dreamstime finally paid off, and I found the perfect cover image.

Yes, that image is relevant. (It's my favorite scene, actually.) Does it make you laugh? It makes me laugh.

So! That's what I've been up to this week.

Monday Miscellany: Why I'll Be MIA Tomorrow

First, I'm a thousand words into the second chapter of The Cowboy Next Door. The first chapter has been drafted and comes in at just over 4,000 words, so I think the chances are good that this story will be about 15,000 words. Not bad.

I also did a very rough action-draft of the first part of the book on self-publishing I plan to work on next. I wouldn't normally start a second project like that, but it was nagging me, so I gave in.

Tomorrow, my daughter turns a year old. I know, right? I can't believe it has already been a year. This morning, we took her out so she could pick out gifts with the birthday money her great-grandmother sent her (she chose a toy espresso machine, a toy laptop, and a plastic foam dinosaur) and it was only when she laid down for a nap that I realized I haven't done anything that I normally do today. You know. Blogging, tweeting, checking Smashwords and Amazon... So it occurs to me that I will probably be MIA from social networking for the next day, maybe even two. We have a lot of playing to do.

With the weather here in Germany being so, um, unpredictable, I'm not ruling out much of the next few days being spent at the pool. We went all summer with relatively cool days and lots of rain, but the last few days have been hot and icky. I'm so glad the pool in Kaiserslautern is so nice.

SitRep Saturday: Cass Gets Her Kicks and Announcing The Cowboy Next Door

Cass Gets Her Kicks is for sale at Smashwords and at Amazon. It has been accepted into the premium catalog for distribution at Smashwords, so it'll be available at B&N, Sony, and Apple in the next two weeks or so. The first story, "Galena, KS," is available on the website as a sneak peek and the first 35% of the book is free to preview at Smashwords.

This week, I outlined and action-drafted the next project, a romance novella set in a fictional town in Colorado, starring a Navy widow and a cowboy. The working title is currently The Cowboy Next Door. I'm shooting for a wordcount of 15,000 - 20,000 and I think I can make it, but we'll see how it goes. My hope is to have the whole thing drafted by the end of this week. I started the first chapter last night and got about 200 words in before I decided that I should go to bed early.

I've already been looking at possible cover images, but I haven't found anything that just calls to me the way Cass's pink-and-black image did.

Monday Miscellany

Man, interior design is hard. I think the kid and I are going to plan a trip to IKEA in Mannheim later on this week. It's time to give the living room a bright, fun update. I'm thinking turquoise, lime green, and white with splashes of hot pink and orange.

I've finished the rewrite of "Flagstaff." In my early-morning delirium, I realize that "Vega" doesn't fit with the rest of the stories, so it'll have to be lifted out. This is fine; it will make final edits easier, and make the overall story clearer. I can also edit it and offer it as an extra short for free on the website.

With a little luck and a lot of hard work, I'll be done with Cass Gets Her Kicks by the end of the week, and I can start work on The Widow & The Cowboy while I start the rewrites for Strawberry Moon.

Your Cover Uncovered is an excellent blog that reviews book covers. It's relatively new, but I love it already.  You should check it out!