April 28, 2021
Day 205, Week 29
- Words: 76,969
- Revised Words v2: 25,570
- Campaign funded: 38%
- Ego Size: Peppercorn
- Emotional State: Minor Wobble
The Book
The book is going well. I’m on target to revise 10k a week. In fact, I get more than that done because I’ve already done the big revision and now I’m doing the refining.
One thing that has been incredibly helpful to create deeper secondary characters has been to write the chapters they’re in from their perspectives. And the most amazing things happen when I do. Not only does the chapter get better, but later chapters where they feature also get better. Why? Because I’m adding layers to the book that were there, I just hadn’t articulated it out fully.
And I am wiggle-in-my-seat excited about it. Like, yelling out, “Hey you guys!!!” to tell everyone about it and why it’s so so good. Once my book is published, I’m most likely going to publish these side character chapters as a separate novella or for my superfans. I’ve not decided yet, but I do know I’m going to keep on doing it. And, probably write a blog post about it.
Life, Marketing, Medium.com
This leads to not the exact reason for the emotional state of a wobble, but part of the reason. Bear with me while I set the stage. As part of my journey to write more, and promote my book, I am currently managing the following:
- This blog – anywhere from 2-3 posts a week, which will slow down to maybe 1 a week moving forward.
- Social Media – creating and posting on Instagram, posting and interacting on Twitter, posting and interacting less on LinkedIn and Facebook.
- Medium.com – I decided to push for more writing and potential fans of my writing by posting on Medium.com. Making money is a bonus.
It’s a lot. Last Thursday I got my first vaccine shot – random tangent but it’s connected. We had to drive 1.5 hours to get to the megasite, but once there, it was very well done. We got the shot and headed back. To fill the time on the rather tame ride, I brought up all the things I do for the book. I wanted to talk it through.
My husband (aka my worldbuilder) took the ball and ran with it, treating it more like a business strategy session than the whinefest I was looking for (which was a good thing. I whine enough.). And what we came up with is a label for each activity & a priority as to what it does – advertising/promoting, support, author community. That then decided how much time is spent where in an average week.
Great. Now I knew where to spend more of my time until or unless something shifts. But that leads me to my wobble. I planned to post book reviews on the blog, starting on Monday for new books and every other Thursday for older books. But now on Medium, I’ve signed on to be a writer for a publication and planned on submitting book reviews. But they can’t be published anywhere else first and you don’t want to post on Medium and then on your blog due to SEO issues.
Medium gets more eyeballs on your writing. My blog is about building up a brand and a fan base for my books. Medium can do that too, though, especially if I cross-post certain things from my blog and drive traffic back. But everything I plan to post on my blog is also planned to be posted on Medium, except for my weekly writing journal.
Gah.
So maybe I post select reviews on Medium. See where it takes me and plan on posting my throwback Thursday reviews just on the blog, until I see how my reviews work on Medium. Or maybe I pick one to post on Medium a month and do the rest here. You know what, I was circling round and round this topic this morning and I think I have a path forward.
I love when that happens.
The Preorder Campaign
Okay. On to my next major wobble. The big one. The one that made me sad. The one that I keep fighting myself about. My presale campaign. I’m at 38%. Even with the small amount of people still to purchase, I’m nowhere near the point where I’ll pony up the rest of the funds. So I can reach out as much as possible and…not get there. And I really really really want to publish with NDP for this first book so that I get the hang of it while working with someone who knows how to do it.
I don’t have to though. I could self-publish and stick with the plan of publishing this year, just in a different way. And that would be okay.
Maybe this would give me the space I need to figure out what I’m doing, where I’m going and not be so scattered in my approach. Because I’m feeling a little chaotic here and regretting some choices (not for my book, but for my blog and other things). Maybe I need more space, but with a deadline.
Or maybe a miracle will happen and my campaign will fund enough to get me there.
We shall see. Only 4 days left.
To read more of my weekly whine fests and writing journal journey posts, click here.