Monday Miscellany: Things I've Done Instead of Editing

Wow. I am just having a hell of a time editing. In fact, it's so bad that I've avoided looking at the story altogether for the last two days. Instead, I've been watching New Girl to get all caught up (I love Zooey Deschanel and am glad she's finally got a starring role, but I wasn't sure about the show... I was wrong, it's hilarious) and reading. I'm still working on Candlelight Sinner but I've finished Mockingjay (not as satisfying as I thought it would be, which I guess is kind of the point of the whole revolution) and The Haunted Vagina (gross and weird and I've totally found a new genre to explore).

Today, we took the kiddo to the Frankfurt Zoo. That place is so nice. It wasn't busy, so she could run around without me worrying. She loves monkeys. And birds. The thing that surprised me most was the number of baboons the zoo has. I counted 22 in one pen alone. They were all eating, which was just so fascinating to watch. This is the husband's last week of vacation (though we're looking at taking the kid to Disneyland Paris next month) so we're trying to do some fun things. Saarbrucken won't happen, but swimming and shopping probably will.

I have also purchased Tim Timebomb's new album and the first episode of Rock'N'Roll Theater. I'm waiting for my PayPal transaction to go through (I am so tired of using them) but as soon as it does, I will be in heaven. I love Tim Armstrong.

Blog Roundup: April 9 - 15, 2012

Chuck Wendig was en fuego this week with two great posts: 25 Reasons I Hate Your Main Character and A Long Look At "Show, Don't Tell." I think both of these posts are must-reads for beginning writers... and it probably couldn't hurt those of us who have been doing it a while.

Laura Bradford's post on writing as an invisible business really hit home for me. When my sister was here, it was nearly impossible to get any work done. Now that my husband is home on leave, same story. It takes great, concentrated effort to get my toddler to play by herself for short periods of time ever since she had a constant companion in my sister. Writing itself is hard--finding the time to do it without distraction or interruption is even harder. More than once, I've questioned why I even bother. (And then I remember that I really do love it and it really does matter to me and I think I'm okay at it, so all the extra hard work seems worth it. And then I have a drink because I really must be crazy.)

Girl Who Reads offered up an analysis of the star rating system in her Tips on Thursday post. I like the star rating system, personally; it gives me a lot of information at first glance. But I either don't really care what other people think of a book and will read it if I want to, anyway, or--if it's a book I'm uncertain of, like The Hunger Games--I will read the reviews with one through three stars. Two and three star reviews, in my experience, tend to be the most tell-tale.

Last week was Indie Author Week at Into the Morning (a great blog you should be following, anyway) and my favorite post was this one about indie book covers. We all judge books by their covers. No sense saying we don't. And independent books... well... they're frequently lacking. The most glaring problem I see is that we use a lot of the same stock photos. I like her quickie review of the good and the bad book covers. I think, especially for those of us designing our own, it's a good idea to look at all the criticism and praise for book covers that we possibly can. (Related: I tend to take inspiration from the traditionally-published erotica books I enjoyed. So I've based my covers on books like Breathless by Bonnie Edwards and pretty much everything by Delilah Devlin, as two examples.)

James Killick shared a short list of Five Things More Important Than Knowledge. The thing about knowledge is that it can be acquired. Or it can be rejected in favor of blissful ignorance. His list is comprised of things that are pretty hard to reject and ignore, at least in my experience.

Keystrokes and Word Counts has a short review of KDP free days. If it's something you're considering, I'd advise reading as much as possible on the experiences of other authors. I have a project in the works that I am planning to enroll in KDP select when the time comes, so posts like this are helpful to me.

Sierra Godfrey had a thought-provoking post asking where to find the self-pubbed books. She has a point. A good one. In my case, I don't market so much as I tailor my keywords for searches... because that's pretty much how I find the books I want to read.

Stella Deleuze advised that authors choose a publisher wisely. Personally, I'd do a ton of research--on the company and the people I'm working with. I'd check out the other books they'd published, not just the sales rankings, but the cover designs and reviews and the books themselves. I don't have an answer for Ms. Deleuze. I don't know what I'd do if my book was at the mercy of an editor who didn't know what she was doing. I sincerely hope I never have to answer that question.

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.

Self-Publishing: On Sales (February 2012)

Remember my last sales posts? (Here, here, and here if you'd like a refresher.) Well, sales were funny in February of 2012.

I left January visible for side-by-side comparison. As you can see, sales through Amazon took a significant hit while sales through the outlets Smashwords handles got a boost. I have no answers. I mean, I expected to see a decrease in Amazon sales, so that's not even a little surprising. Sales were so impressive in December and January that I believed they had peaked. The bump in sales, especially through Kobo, left me scratching my head a bit.

This month, I also thought it would be interesting to take a look at sales for the first six months my books were available.

You can click on the photo to enlarge it. What it boils down to is the number in the bottom left corner of the image: 8,996. In the first six months, I sold a total of 8,996 books through all outlets. The bulk of those sales came through Amazon.com and the bulk of even those sales came from a single book.

So there's the data. I'm not an analyst, so the only real conclusion I've drawn is that I'm pretty happy with the numbers and I'm going to keep at it.

Monday Miscellany: Vacation, Speculation, Coming Soon

My husband signs out on leave tonight at midnight. We're not going anywhere big, but he needed some time off work. This will be the first time in the nearly two years of her life that he will get to spend "normal" time with our daughter. No grandparents, no reverse work schedule, just the three of us. It's going to be... interesting. We have plans to visit a city on the French-German border and maybe take a camping trip to the Black Forest, but for the most part, I think we're just going to stick around here and enjoy being a family.

I've been toying with the idea of raising the prices on my books. I suspect I've tapped out the target audience willing to pay $0.99 for my short ebooks, so I raised the price of my oldest one--the anthology--to $1.99 just to see what happens. I have the feeling I'll be playing with prices a lot in the next few weeks. It can't hurt. As I mentioned to the husband, this will be a lean month (sales have dropped dramatically over the last few weeks), so I might as well take advantage of the leanness and experiment. As usual, I'm sure you can expect to read about my findings.

Over the weekend, I finished drafting the next short story. I think I even have a title for it: Right This Time. I was able to find a lovely photograph at Dreamstime for the cover and downloaded a comp image (which means it's not full size and has watermarks) in order to play around with cover design. I've mentioned that I take a lot of inspiration from my favorite and other popular book covers, right? If I start to flounder, it's good to know where to go for guidance. Honestly, I can say I hope to have the story finished by the end of the week. I'm not sure that will happen, but I can try. I'm sure there are readers among you shaking your head and tsking me for such a quick turnaround. Four months is a ridiculous length of time, for me, to spend on anything under 10,000 words. At most, I should have spent two months on the last story. Short stories are kind of my Thing. And this one, Right This Time, I've had it in the works (for real--outlined, action-drafted, and a draft 1.5) for a little over six weeks.

I think a lot of confidence and comfort with writing comes from knowing your strengths and playing to those as you strengthen your weaknesses.

This week, expect at least one blog post on February's sales figures. I'm still trying to figure out which other posts I'd like to do, too.

Blog Roundup: April 2 - 8, 2012

Chuck Wendig told us all how to be a full-time writer. He's so smart.

Guess what? Greta van der Rol's latest, Starheart, is free on Amazon for the next day! You know you want it.

Amandan Hocking wrote about her outlining and note-taking process. I am always interested in how other authors approach getting the facts and doing their research, so I liked the post.

Avery Olive had her First Book Signing recently and she offered up some lessons learned. Useful! I've never done a book signing and I assume that, if I ever do, I'm still years away, but this is a great post. I bet the tips she offers would work at book launch parties, too.

Isis Rushdan wrote about learning to surrender. Really, I think that's the key to writing well: surrendering to your process, whatever that is. Don't fight it, don't try to do things the way you "think" they should be done.

Paperback Writer's Query No-Nos post is funny at first glance, but I suspect it's all too true. If you're going to write a query, or you've written one, I think it's worth reading that post.

Sierra Godfrey's Google Reader Roundup is a bit light this week, but that's okay because the links are still good ones.

Sirra compiled her writing and editing tips from Twitter. I love these posts from her since I don't get over to Twitter as much as I wish I did.

Stella Deleuze's post on zero sales is quite a sobering look at the impact enrolling in KDP Select can have on your sales. If you're considering it, I would advise doing as much research as possible first.

SitRep Saturday: Behind the Curtain

This week has mostly been more behind-the-scenes work. I finished One Good Cowboy and got it formatted and up at Smashwords and Amazon, I updated the bookcovers on Smashwords and one or two on Amazon (I need to do the rest still), I updated my website (but I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but there's always next week), and I made a list of the blog posts I'd like to work on. So. Progress.

More progress? I drafted one new short story and I started work on a second. The thing is, the second has kind of gotten away from me and it might actually turn into an erotic novella complete with multiple points of view. I'm not sure. I need to play around with it some more. If that's the case, then I'm going to have to put another story into my planned three-story anthology, and, man, I hate when I underestimate stories like that.

It's all good, though. I am back on track. So what if I lost four months? I'll make it up.

Release News Update: One Good Cowboy

All right! So guess what? One Good Cowboy is up over at Smashwords, which is fab because you can get it for FREE right now until April 9 if you use coupon code XE88V at checkout.

It's also up over at Amazon: US, UK, DE, ES, FR, IT.

I'm still waiting on the approval and distribution through the premium catalogue over at Smashwords, but you all probably know how that goes, ha.

Believe it or not, I actually updated my website this week. I still have a ton of work to do: the excerpt page for One Good Cowboy is all wonky and I'd really love to redesign the site into a section for readers and a section for writers (with the writer section having a collection of my blog posts on writing and self-publishing and the like). The program I use to design and publish my website is just so incredibly slow that I get very easily frustrated.

Anyway, I thought I'd share an excerpt of the short with you dear readers:

Heather rolled her eyes. Knowing she didn't have a real shot with Justin lessened the sting of rejection but it did nothing for her exasperation with Ty. "Oh, and I suppose you're good enough for me?"

Ty lifted his shoulders in an eloquent shrug. "No." One corner of his mouth quirked up in a self-deprecating half-smile. "I know you're too good for me. I want you anyway."

Heat flared low in her belly and spread through her, a summer wildfire of desire. Seven years ago, she would have given anything to hear him say that.

Seven years ago.

Things had changed since then.

"Shut up, Ty."

"You owe me a beer," he countered.

"You're supposed to be leaving."

"I want a beer."

He wouldn't leave until he got that beer, she knew. She looked at him, at the hat he hadn't taken off and the new wrinkles around his eyes, at the long thin nose that had been broken more than once and now sat a little crooked on his handsome face, at the shape of his mouth so frequently set in a firm line but the lips still so kissable. Exhaustion swept through her. The fight melted away, taking the square of her shoulders with it. She just wanted the night to be over. Fighting with him would only make it longer.

"Fine." She served another beer from the cooler.

"Thank you."

Heather went to finish washing the dirty drinking glasses. "Why did you come back?"

Resignation passed over Ty's face. "Where else was I going to go? My family is here. Crystal left me. Denver gets cold."

"Canyon gets cold," she pointed out.

"Not as cold as Denver," he said, giving her the feeling that he wasn't talking about the weather.

Silence stretched between them, a tenuous thing punctuated by the splash of her hands in water and the wet sound of him sipping from the bottle. Heather wondered how he was, really, surprising herself; despite everything, she guessed she still cared at least as much as a friend would. He had done well for himself in the eight years he rode professionally. Being forced out because of an injury had to hurt more than the reconstructed bone in his leg and the pins in his hip. She winced. Ty was strong. He was confident. The mental image of him injured and weak was wrong. Some men were supposed to be invincible.

Heather shied from that particular thought. She rinsed the glasses under the tap, telling herself that the last thing she needed was a rekindled case of hero worship. What had that ever gotten her before? A broken heart, that's what, and more than once. She thought about Crystal instead, a pretty redhead with a sweet face and kind eyes. It had been long enough that Heather might have understood why her father walked out on her mother--family life wasn't exactly the thrill-a-minute Buck seemed to need, and Bobbi had bought the Wild Card with the intention of settling for good in order to give them a place that was home once he retired--but she didn't understand what would make a woman walk away from the man she loved when he needed her most.

"I'm sorry Crystal left."

"It wasn't meant to be."

"You don't believe in that fate bullshit?" Heather couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice.

"Why wouldn't I?" Ty frowned at her.

She shook her head, disappointed in him. "Love isn't like that."

"Maybe it is for some people."

She tamped down the sudden bitterness and mustered some semblance of humor. "Ty Youngblood is a romantic. Who knew?"

"Shh. Keep it down." His eyes darted furtively to the left and right.

Her lips twisted into a smirk. "What? Afraid someone will hear? Oh, no, your reputation will be ruined!" She gasped theatrically.

"I have a reputation?" He cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Hmm." She frowned. "You know, not really." Mostly, gossip came through idle chitchat while she was serving drinks, or she overheard it from the girls at the Wild Hearts across the highway. But everything she had heard about Ty since he'd left had come straight from his mother. Heather doubted anything Mrs. Youngblood had told her was less than a fact served with a liberal dose of pride. Or worry.

Ty heaved a sigh. "I guess I'm not special enough to talk about."

"Oh, you're special all right."

He grinned at her. "And what do they say about you, Heather Wild?"

Frozen fingers closed around her throat. No, she wasn't going there. She jerked the bag of glass bottles from the bin. "I have to take these outside."

"Want some company?"

"No." Heather hefted the bag and started for the back door.

The rumors after Cooper had bailed were graphic and vicious. She scratched the heat-prickled skin beneath the hollow of her throat. They didn't matter. Not then, not now. She wasn't that scared and lonely sixteen-year-old anymore, damn it. She was an adult. She didn't need anyone's approval, certainly not Ty's.

Heather sighed. She pushed through the back door, into the mid-spring night. Who was she kidding? As long as she remained in Canyon, she would forever be the child her father abandoned, the easy target for sleazy older guys. Labels thrived in small communities and the only way to escape the label was to escape the community.

She tossed the bag into the recycling dumpster and stepped back. Eyes closed, face turned up, she took a deep breath. The dry scent of the desert and the sweet-sick stink of the dumpsters filled her nose, her mind, pushed away the thoughts she didn't want to think. The night was nearly silent here. For a few moments, she could be alone.

Pursuing Justin was single-minded of her. He wasn't a cowboy. He was as far from being a cowboy as he could possibly be. He was only a poor replacement for what she really wanted. If she was honest with herself--and she really hated that kind of honesty because it meant she'd lied to herself at some point--deep down she knew that going after Justin was nothing but misguided rebellion against herself. She knew what she wanted. What she'd always wanted.

Ty.

Stupid cowboy.

The sound of boots scuffing on concrete caught her attention. A breeze moved her hair across her face. She stifled a sigh and brushed away the errant curls as she turned around.

He stood on the stoop, door shut behind him, hands tucked into the front pockets of his jeans. His body was loose, legs bowed, stance relaxed. He'd taken off his hat and the breeze ruffled his black hair. He smiled at her.

"I said no." But there was no venom in her voice.

"I'm not keeping you company," he said. He breathed in deeply and exhaled slowly. "It's a nice night. I wanted some fresh air."

"Out by the dumpsters." Skepticism colored her voice.

"There are drunks out front."

Heather frowned, brow furrowed. "What has gotten into you?"

"Me?" He shook his head. "Nothing. Why?"

"I don't remember you being like this before."

Ty said simply, "I've changed."

He had. In a way she couldn't quite define. She looked away, rubbing absently at her upper arms. "Haven't we all," she murmured to herself.

"You sure have." He stepped off the stoop. "You used to be sweet. You used to like me." Regret tinged his voice.

"I still like you."

"Yeah?" He sauntered close, so close her nose nearly touched the pearl-snap button in the center of his chest. "Prove it."

Heather rocked back, tipping her head up to search his face. "What?"

"Kiss me."

***

Monday Miscellany: Book Release, Rewards, Work To Do

Guess what's out? One Good Cowboy! Yes, I finally finished! I'm pretty happy with it. It's nothing at all what I thought it would be when I first started it (four months ago), but it's good. I'm proud of it. And now I can be done with it.

Until April 9, you can get it for free at Smashwords with coupon code XE88V.

I'll be updating my website, of course, with a sample and the summary, and I'll have that for you here later on this week, too. But for now, I'm trying to get caught up on some other stuff.

And I'm indulging in my reward. Oh, yes, I am.

See, I finally caved and read The Hunger Games. And then, on Saturday morning, I left my husband and daughter alone together in order to go see the movie. I haven't been to the movies alone in two years, I haven't sat through a whole movie in the theater in a year. It was quite a treat for me and it was well worth it. I've been just dying to read the next book, Catching Fire, but I wouldn't let myself get it for my Kindle until I was done with this cowboy. Well. Now I'm done and now I have the book. I've been reading snippets all afternoon. It's fabulous. I completely understand the appeal.

While I was formatting One Good Cowboy for Smashwords, I took screenshots of every step. I'm going to squeeze a week's worth of how-to posts out of it, so check back for that. If you use Open Office and have trouble getting your book to look the way you want, I might be able to help. Of course, I still have four book reviews to do, a couple of editorial-like posts, and a handful of other posts on finding the time to write, expanding your vocabulary, and being inspired. We'll get there. Now that this story isn't consuming my every waking moment, I can move on.

If it ever takes me four months to make 8,500 words work together, I just might shoot myself.

Blog Roundup: March 27 - April 1, 2012

Chuck Wendig shared this list of 25 Lies Writers Tell and, yeah, it's pretty spot on. (Who hasn't told themselves they don't have time? There is always time.)

Greta van der Rol touched on a subject dear to my heart this week: editing. Why is it such a struggle? Stupid editing.

James Killick offered up five reasons to keep writing. We've all been there, when it just doesn't seem worth it anymore, or it's too hard, or too frustrating. But there is always at least one good reason to keep going.

This cute post from Paperback Writer is worth it for the chuckles, but check out her favorite porn site link. It'll probably make you smile and it's totally safe for work.

...it was a slow week. I'm so glad it wasn't just me!