August 4, 2021
Day 307, Week 43
- Emotional State: Feeling Goofy & Taking Risks
The First Book
Layout is done. Mainly because I just couldn’t stand to look at my book one more time or my eyes would bleed out of my skull. That is not to say that I dislike my book; I love it. BUT… I’ve read it too many times in a short period and I’m over it right now.
Ask me how I’ll feel when I hold it in my hot little hands, though, and you’ll get a different response.
This week is all about comparative titles, more Amazon category research, launch parties and more. First of all, who had the brilliant idea to write a book that falls squarely in a category that typically features romance where no romance exists? And then to have that same story feature a human as most of who talks in the book, with again no hot romance and not a lot of other fantasy people? And then to have that person share their body with a completely made up entity that doesn’t fall squarely into any of the fantasy tropes?
Me. That’s who. And let me tell you – trying to find comparative titles that are in the realm of my book and don’t skew it in any way is impossible. I know one. Buffy. That’s it. Buffy fits, except there’s no Scooby gang and my protagonist is out of college. We have a Giles character, sort of, in Finn Hanes (the Troll bookshop owner), but I don’t exactly see Demi, the little Boobrach Elf, fitting as one of the Scooby gang… Maybe Xander. Okay. Definitely Xander.
And see? This is where my brain is at! I’ve got quite a few books to read in order to figure out if my book falls within the realm of theirs. I hope I can get them all done by posting time (which is really really soon).
On top of that, I have to plan a party. And figure out when to hold it when I have fans from all time zones in the US, the UK and Australia. Yeah, good luck making that work. Sigh. But hey, I’ll worry about that later.
Because, you guessed it, I’m still whining about marketing. Yes, I have not yet figured out a sustainable plan for marketing. But I added another platform to focus on! Yes, that’s right. I didn’t have enough to do with Medium, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, so I thought I’ll add Tiktok. That won’t be a time suck, right?
It is. And it isn’t. And I’m kind of having fun even though I am way too old and don’t understand what trends well and why. But my audience is there, so I’m going for it. If I can get eyeballs on my book on TikTok, then I’ll take it. If it doesn’t kill me first adding another platform to the mix. Add to that having to videotape myself when I don’t even like taking selfies, and you see my conundrum.
But goofy is in. In fact, I’m wearing braided pigtails right now, even though I had writer calls. Because I can. And did. So there.
In other news, I’ve been working away trying to get early praise and marketing blurbs for my book. As part of that, another author in the program and I swapped manuscripts. And she gushed about my book. Like, GUSHED about it. And it was awesome and amazing. It made me cry. And made me think maybe my not-so-terrible book isn’t so terrible after all.
I’d check it to see, but I can’t bear to read it right now.
The Second Book
I got worried this week about this book. I wasn’t writing it. I wasn’t even dreaming up scenes on it. I wasn’t really writing at all, except social media posts and a few blog posts here or there. And I worried, that with all the hullabaloo about my first book, if I lost my mojo and can’t write another.
One of the reasons for not writing (I determined at 5:47 am this morning – why brain?!) was that I was waiting for my world builder to address some of my questions on new features in the book. I was waiting for him to do something so that I had permission to write it (he has no idea I was waiting. It’s not how we roll, but it’s how my brain apparently works). And then I realized this morning that whatever changes he makes in the world building can be added/fixed/edited in draft 2. And so I sat down and wrote 1,457 words.
And while it wasn’t great writing, it felt good to have some ideas and to move the plot forward. Even if I scrap the entire thing (like I did with book 1), at least I have something done.
I gave myself permission to write my book… as if I needed it.
I thought I did. But I did not.
To read more of my weekly whine fests and writing journal journey posts, click here.