August 24, 2022
Week 98
Emotional State: Celebrating the Wins
Book Birthday!
One year ago today, I became a published author when The Deep Space Between launched. It’s been a crazy year, with a lot of highs and lows, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Not only did I achieve my dream of being an author – a dream I never thought I’d see happen in my lifetime.
During the last year, here are the things I’ve learned:
- Writing is addictive
- Impostor syndrome will knock you out in the most unexpected of ways
- Book marketing, aka author fight club, is a slog
- It’s a marathon that lasts years, not months
- Every book gets better
- Don’t rush editing, no matter what your timeline demands
- Figure out your market BEFORE you publish
- There’s a lot of great advice out there, but it might not be for you
The other thing I learned, and something I should’ve guessed based on the writing process, is keep it simple and then add complexity as you go. This is specific to characters, scenes, chapters, plot, and also marketing, websites, newsletters, and strategies. I’m proud of my book. It may not be the best book ever written, but it is the best book I could write at the time I wrote it and that’s good enough for me.
Happy Book Birthday, The Deep Space Between. May the upcoming releases of the series go smoother, and more readers find themselves consumed within their pages.
Books, Books, and More Books
Life is getting crunchy. I have a lot going on in my personal life, which is impacting my stress levels. On top of that, there is a lot of movement happening in my other books.
First, the prequel novella, The Tidal Space Between, is in the final stages of publishing. I’m waiting on the finalized cover, but it’s very close to where I want it to be. A few tweaks to the spine and the words on the cover and then I can release it.
I’ve been messing around with formatting in Atticus and I have to say, it’s not nearly as ‘user friendly’ as I expected it to be. I am fighting it a little while trying to make it as similar to my first book as possible. It may end up being very different and require me to take the final PDF of my first book and updating the innards to make it consistent across the series. We’ll see if I want to go that route right now.
I’ve also been working on updating the reader magnet, The Prior Space Between. It’s been more of a journey than I expected because it was not as good as I remember. I had to do quite a bit of editing to fix it and inwardly, I’m cringing at how bad the first chapter was. No wonder people aren’t buying the next book in the series.
So, I’m fixing that up and planning on using the new formatting setup for it so that it flows well into the prequel. It’s my guinea pig before I throw the prequel into it.
And somewhere in all of this I have to do marketing, website updates, and newsletter fixes so that I’ve pulling people into my funnel in a way that drives book sales, the ultimate goal.
And last, but not least, my cozy mystery is plonking along. Have I gotten anyone past the fifth episode? No. Do I hope someone eventually will read the next part of this story? Absolutely. If nothing else, it’s doling out the editing, which will make the final book a lot easier to put together.
Somewhere in between all of this, I have to edit Book 2, write a new cozy mystery and work on the novella with Angwyndith and Joshua, which requires research.
When I list it all out and add the silent to do list in my personal life, it stresses me out. So instead of focusing on all of that, I’m going to focus on the good stuff.
One year as a published author. Three more books ready to go out by the end of 2022. Numerous articles on Medium that people love. And the continuous drive toward being a full-time author.
I can see it, the light at the end of the tunnel. There may be a lot of obstacles in the way, but it’s there and I’m just going to keep reaching for it.
One task at a time.