Grabbing the Minotaur by the Horns
Greetings and welcome back, my dear readers!
Today's blog is all about an update on my author's progress. I'm writing it on the fly, so be prepared. There may be a dollop or two of psychobabble added for good measure.
So no shit there my author was, struggling with her path forward in her writing business. It wasn't that she was struggling with ideas. Nope she was struggling with her inner writer--aka, the little bugger inside her who dictates the emotional writing mojo-jo-jo on the journey to insanity. See my writer has been (and still is) getting new ideas. Heck, less than a week ago, she had a dream for a new short story. It's been added to the ever growing list. She's also been doing her due diligence homework and studying on the craft. That due diligence paid off in the form of a lovely little epiphany that has everything to do with figuring out how to use a few "how to plot a well plotted story" craft books she's got cluttering up the office. And no, she didn't use them as foot rests or cannon fodder or lining in the bottom of the imaginary, pink parrot's bird cage that sits in her office. Although before the epiphany, I can honestly say that she'd considered it.
Now, even with all of that, our dear writer had a problem. She was doing the backend--studying, planning, plotting, world building, et cetera--stuff, but nothing concrete on the front end for her writing business. Something that was brought home to her when she attended a webinar on entrepreneurial success. After attending that little gem of a talk show, my writer sat up and took stock in where she was in her journey.
Which forces me to say that I'll be the first to admit that we're living in strange times--what with the publishing industry paradigm shift and the big push to self publish. I've got to say that my author and her OCD left brain ways has looked at the self publishing trend and... it's a great tool to use to get yourself out there. To get noticed by the big 6--7 if you include Harlequin (occasionally referred to as HQN by me when I'm scribbling notes)--NY romance genre publishers. I mean, seriously, if I were in the tough business of publishing books in this economy, then I'd seriously ONLY want to concentrate on a sure bet. You know the type: a solid author who has a mega fan base and in name alone sells books. Doesn't mean that I wouldn't look at new authors, but publishing books is an expensive industry with lots of mouths to feed. That said, any new author hunting for NY needs to hedge their bet (IMHO). Market themselves as a sure thing. Showcase their talents. Write a damn good book.
But back to my author and her lack of action on the front end... well, the truth of the matter is you can't get published if you don't put yourself out there. Period. This nugget of wisdom (repeated over and over) propelled my author jump on the bandwagon. The self pub bandwagon. She's good with it. I'm good with it. Hell, even her inner writer kid is happy with the decision. Everyone is so damned happy with it that she's almost finished with line edits for her manuscript. She's had two hours of sleep in 48 hours. But in that 48 hours, she's got the book formatted and almost ready to go--once the final edits are added to the final draft. She's got a book cover almost complete--just needs one final touch to make it to her high expectations. Bottom line... the book will be done within the week, then posted onto Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. (Can we get a WOOT? LOL.)
So yeah, my author is in the happy writer zone (hooray! and there was much rejoicing!), because she's made progress on her journey. All because she took the invisible, pink Minotaur by the horns and turned him into a coat rack to hang her hat on.
And there ya have it. An update on where Elijana's author is. Oh wait. I forgot to mention the book. The title is EMILY'S AFFAIR and it's ~60K words long. Once final edits are done, I'll get the book blurb, cover, and a sample up to whet your appetite.
Until then... take are and happy musing!
~EK
Today's blog is all about an update on my author's progress. I'm writing it on the fly, so be prepared. There may be a dollop or two of psychobabble added for good measure.
So no shit there my author was, struggling with her path forward in her writing business. It wasn't that she was struggling with ideas. Nope she was struggling with her inner writer--aka, the little bugger inside her who dictates the emotional writing mojo-jo-jo on the journey to insanity. See my writer has been (and still is) getting new ideas. Heck, less than a week ago, she had a dream for a new short story. It's been added to the ever growing list. She's also been doing her due diligence homework and studying on the craft. That due diligence paid off in the form of a lovely little epiphany that has everything to do with figuring out how to use a few "how to plot a well plotted story" craft books she's got cluttering up the office. And no, she didn't use them as foot rests or cannon fodder or lining in the bottom of the imaginary, pink parrot's bird cage that sits in her office. Although before the epiphany, I can honestly say that she'd considered it.
Now, even with all of that, our dear writer had a problem. She was doing the backend--studying, planning, plotting, world building, et cetera--stuff, but nothing concrete on the front end for her writing business. Something that was brought home to her when she attended a webinar on entrepreneurial success. After attending that little gem of a talk show, my writer sat up and took stock in where she was in her journey.
Which forces me to say that I'll be the first to admit that we're living in strange times--what with the publishing industry paradigm shift and the big push to self publish. I've got to say that my author and her OCD left brain ways has looked at the self publishing trend and... it's a great tool to use to get yourself out there. To get noticed by the big 6--7 if you include Harlequin (occasionally referred to as HQN by me when I'm scribbling notes)--NY romance genre publishers. I mean, seriously, if I were in the tough business of publishing books in this economy, then I'd seriously ONLY want to concentrate on a sure bet. You know the type: a solid author who has a mega fan base and in name alone sells books. Doesn't mean that I wouldn't look at new authors, but publishing books is an expensive industry with lots of mouths to feed. That said, any new author hunting for NY needs to hedge their bet (IMHO). Market themselves as a sure thing. Showcase their talents. Write a damn good book.
But back to my author and her lack of action on the front end... well, the truth of the matter is you can't get published if you don't put yourself out there. Period. This nugget of wisdom (repeated over and over) propelled my author jump on the bandwagon. The self pub bandwagon. She's good with it. I'm good with it. Hell, even her inner writer kid is happy with the decision. Everyone is so damned happy with it that she's almost finished with line edits for her manuscript. She's had two hours of sleep in 48 hours. But in that 48 hours, she's got the book formatted and almost ready to go--once the final edits are added to the final draft. She's got a book cover almost complete--just needs one final touch to make it to her high expectations. Bottom line... the book will be done within the week, then posted onto Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. (Can we get a WOOT? LOL.)
So yeah, my author is in the happy writer zone (hooray! and there was much rejoicing!), because she's made progress on her journey. All because she took the invisible, pink Minotaur by the horns and turned him into a coat rack to hang her hat on.
And there ya have it. An update on where Elijana's author is. Oh wait. I forgot to mention the book. The title is EMILY'S AFFAIR and it's ~60K words long. Once final edits are done, I'll get the book blurb, cover, and a sample up to whet your appetite.
Until then... take are and happy musing!
~EK
Comments
Take care!
~EK