Things I Should Have Learned By Now

On this journey to become a (someday full-time) writer, I've learned a few things.

And I've worked really hard to be a learner. Lemme tell ya!

I've pretty much given up TV all together (though things will be changing when Heroes comes back).
I no longer listen to NPR or music while driving or doing mindless chores and only listen to podcasts on writing.
I force myself to read a non-fiction book after every fiction book, so I can keep on learning.

I'm feeling pretty dedicated here.

But, I'm learning that there is a BIG difference between KNOWING better and DOING better. 

So, here's some things that I've learned that I should do, but have yet to actually do to become a better-selling writer.

#1: Write Consistently

I struggle with this so much.
And the guilt, the GUILT! that I feel for not writing consistently nags at me.
To whom do I owe this feeling of guilt? I have no idea. It's not like I have an editor tapping impatient fingers on the table while I type away on my laptop.

I have tried SO MANY times to make a schedule for writing on a regular basis. Alas, I am the Queen of INconsistency it seems. I know this will make me a better writer, and a better selling writer (after all, the more books I have out there, the more books there are for readers to purchse), but it's still something I struggle with fitting into my very busy schedule of day job, kids, dinner, sports, and bedtime. But, I need to commit to writing on a regular basis if I'm going to reach my goals.

#2: Diversify

Self-published authors know that though Amazon is the biggest game in town, it's not the only game in town. In fact, being published on multiple platforms like Kobo, Apple iBooks, Smashwords, and other online book retailers that host self-published authors will only help increase sales.

Why haven't I done it yet? The time factor again. Seriously, I have issues with time management. If I have any spare time, I always feel like I should be spending it writing.

(Hence, the reason why this blog is often neglected for long periods of time. Because, let's face it, if I'm blogging here and chatting with you, I'm not working on my next book. And I really need to spend some time working on my next book.)

#3:  Connect With Readers

I try, I really do try. I promise. I'm just not very good at small talk. I know having a strong online presence, especially utilizing social media, is a helpful step in building relationships with readers. But, I suck at it.

I use Facebook mainly to keep up with friends and family, and haven't yet made an author page there. (Part of me is scared that if I do, no one will join! Boo-hoo, poor little me on my author page all alone.)

And with Twitter, I feel like I'm poking around in the dark. I'm never sure if what I'm sending out is being seen, or has relevance for anyone else.

And let's not get started on my mailing list. My poor, dusty, neglected mailing list. On one hand, I don't want to bother people with emails when I don't have anything much to say, but on the other hand, I don't want to send out an email when my next book comes out and have people go, "Who is this lady? Did I really sign up for this?"  Finding balance seems like the key here.

Okay, so now I have some things to strive for. I've learned these important lessons. Now it's time to implement them.

Write. Publish. Repeat. Well...trying to, anyway.

I'm trying hard to jump start my indie writing career. Of all the advice I've heard, the advice that has stuck with me the most is for new indie writers to continue to write, write, write, as much as possible, and self-publish as much good writing as they can.

That's what I'm trying to do.

It's hard.

Just so you know.

But, I love it. I love the writing. The revising. The sending off of the manuscript to beta readers and editors for their critiques. I even love spending hours perusing the internet for reviewers and sending hundreds of emails out to potential readers for their reviews.

I love it all.

Except the wait.

The wait sucks.

There's nothing about publishing - traditional or self-publishing - that moves terribly fast.
I can move fast, as the author and publisher, but I can't force other people to move fast. Not my reviewers, or beta readers, or people who find and buy my book. They don't move as fast as I would like. :) Imagine that.

But, that's okay, because it's giving me time to write some more.
Today, I put final (hopefully!) revision touches on two novellas. One is being entered into a writing contest. The other is about to be published on Amazon, and other self-publishing platforms like Smashwords (once I've figured out just how to do that).

By tomorrow, if all goes well, Ai of the Mountain will be my newest ebook for sell on Amazon.com. I'm super excited to have the 2nd story in my Fairy Retelling series coming out! I have ideas for the next two books in the series as well, but let me tell you about this one first.

Ai of the Mountain is a fairy retelling of Beauty and the Beast, set in the southern mountains of feudal Japan.

Ai, a peasant girl, is torn between her sense of duty and honor, and her longing for a future of freedom. Placed into impossible circumstances by the lord of her region, the daimyo, Lord Nakaguchi,  Ai must choose between her family's safety and her own heart.

Ai's nightly dreams of Kaito, a handsome samurai warrior she has fallen in love with, and her friendship with an ancient, talking koi, further complicate her situation. Can Ai leave the mountain to escape Lord Nakaguchi's nefarious plan for her life, even if it means leaving her family and the man she loves?

Uggh, I hate summaries. They're so hard. There's so much more to the book than what is written here. Sigh. I guess you'll just have to read it to find out who is truly the beast in this story.

The next few stories I have in mind are also fairy tale retellings. The next is going to be a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, but set in ancient Egypt.

After that, I'm thinking of doing a retelling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, where the bears are shape-shifters. I'm not sure where to place the setting of that story yet...I'm leaning towards Scotland.

And then, I have in mind the bare bones for a retelling of Snow White, but making it a ghost story. What happens if Snow White truly does die after biting the poisoned apple?  Again, not sure where to put the setting of the story...maybe an African tribe, or something more traditionally spooky, like the mountains of Transylvania. Oooh, maybe Snow White's prince is actually a vampire? Hmmm...who knows at this point.

So many stories are swirling around inside my head, but until I start writing down the outline, and actually putting words on paper, they're very vague and formless. I'm going to try to actually outline my entire next book with a very detailed outline, so I really know what I'm writing before I write it. I think this will really help with my writing speed.

You'll see in my next post all about my writing goals for 2015. They're pretty lofty. I have a lot of writing that I want to do, so I need to make sure that I make the most of my time, and write as quickly as possible.

So, here I go...

Author Highlight - Quinn Loftis

I'm super excited to introduce you to Quinn Loftis, author of YA paranormal & fantasy. 

It is no secret that I am a podcast junkie, and I met Quinn through a podcast interview she did with Jonny Andrews on the Audience Hacker podcast. Although the podcast interview was uploaded months and months ago, I only heard it a few weeks ago for the first time. I've listened to this single podcast episode nearly 10 tens times since then! Every time I listen to it, I learn something new about being a self-published author.

Quinn invited listeners to contact her on her website, and that's just what I did. I was so stoked when she wrote back and answered some questions I had for her. She even agreed to do an interview with me, so that I could introduce you to her as well. 

Let me tell you a little bit more about her story...

Although Quinn enjoyed writing, it wasn't what she studied in school. She was a nurse by trade, and happened to "fall in" to writing. She had the idea for a novel, and pumped it out really quickly (this became her first novel, Prince of Wolves), but she sat on the novel for a year before she got enough gumption to publish it in 2011. Her exact words in the podcast interview were, "I was terrified!"

The book slowly took off, but Quinn used her natural curiosity and ingenuity to Google her way to success, finding answers to her questions, reviewers, and using GoodReads.com to her advantage. Today, Quinn is a full-time writer, having been able to quit her day job merely six months after the publication of her first novel, and after publishing the next two books in the series. She has at least 13 self-published books available, with more on the way, trying to publish a new book every 90 days!

Quinn was gracious enough to answer some of my questions, and I've included them for you here. Enjoy!

Q: When you’re writing, do you have a certain novel length you shoot for, or do you write “until the story is told” whether that’s 100 pages or 500 pages?

A: Typically my books are between 75,000 and 100,000 words but I write until the story is done. Sometimes it's longer and sometimes it just isn't. I refuse to write filler just for the sake of length.

Q: Can you take us back to what your writing life used to be like when you were just starting out, and you were still in the midst of your day job? How did you structure your time, so you were able to write, revise, and market your book?

A: I wrote at night when I was working full time. I remember during the day while at work I was so antsy to get home and write. I had ideas running through my head all day long and it drove me crazy not to be able to get it down right then. Sometimes I miss that eagerness. Now that I can write pretty much whenever I want I don't always feel that hunger. I love to write, don't get me wrong, but it's easy for it to become a job and not a love. I have to be careful not to get stuck in that rut. 

Q: Now that you’re a full-time author, what does a typical day look like?

A: I get up usually around 8 (it's a little different right now since we have a 3 month old and I'm pregnant) I'm up late at night sick a lot and up in the middle of the night to feed Jonivan so I try to sleep in a bit. I'm at the office by 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. Answer emails, FB, Twitter, etc. Then I read back about three chapters where I left off in my latest manuscript and go from there. I try to write about 3,000 words a day, sometimes it's less sometimes it's more. I finish up around 3:30 and then head to the gym for an hour work out. Working out really helps prevent writers block because it creates all the 'feel' good chemicals that help with creativity. So I try to really make that a priority as a part of my job. Then I head home. In the evenings I try to make time to work on things like book trailers, and continue to catch up on social media. I also make a priority to read. One of my favorite quotes of writing advice is by Stephen King. If you want to be a great writer I'm convinced you must do two things. Read a lot and write a lot. There are no short cuts. I totally agree with that. 

Q: Are you a planner/outliner, or a “pantser”/discovery writer? Have you ever tried writing the opposite way?

A: I'm a little of both. I usually start the story and then outline as I go. I don't think I could outline a book before I've developed the characters. The characters come first for me because that's who people need to connect with in order to give a crap about the story. 

Q: What strategies do you use for finding readers to review your books?

A: I use to reach out to bloggers, but Praise God I've built a big enough fan base that usually now people find me, which I am so very thankful for.

Q: What advice can you give to new authors, just starting out in the self-publishing world?

A: Do your research. Don't rely on other authors to explain everything, i'm not saying you can't ask advice, but it goes a long way to an established author when they see you are driven enough to first have sought out the information by googling, or searching on KDP (amazon platform) or iBooks etc. When I started I figured it out all on my own. I didn't know anyone in the self publishing world and I wasn't comfortable asking for help so google became my best friend. Driven people are successful people. If you truly want to be a self published author then you will learn and do what it takes to be successful at it. There truly is NO substitute for hard work.

Q: If you could hop into a time-traveling DeLorean, an H.G. Wells time machine, or (my favorite) a TARDIS, and talk to your ‘just getting started in this biz’ self, what would you tell yourself (without causing a rip in the fabric of space and time, of course)?  Specifically, what would you tell yourself to watch out for, stop doing, stop worrying about, or do more of?

A: Stop focusing on the negative reviews and just keep moving forward. learn from your mistakes and do everything you can to make your next book even better. Enjoy the journey, don't be in such a hurry that you miss out on the here and now. 

What's Coming Down the Pipe?

So many projects are floating around like spinning plates, I sometimes get confused about what I'm working on. Now that the first book in my fairy tale series is out and doing fairly well (real people have actually bought it - other than me!), I'm moving onto other things.

Two of my books are in critique mode right now. One is getting a lot of great critiques...the other is....well, not as much. Hopefully those helpful critiques will roll in soon.

One of the books is a fairy tale retelling that I'm submitting to a contest. If I win, great! If I don't, I'll revise it and then self-publish it myself. Either way, I'm happy. Since it's going to the contest, I'm not getting a cover made. But, if it doesn't win, I'm already considering possible cover ideas. I love coming up with ideas for covers. I actually spend way too much time looking over stock photo pictures that I'd possibly like to use. Then, I favorite them and create a bookmark file of picture ideas for each book. I'm a weirdo. I know. I can live with that.

Today, I got a cover design back from my designer and I am so in LOVE with it! I think it's beautiful. You'll think so, too. I know it!

Isn't it pretty? I think it's gorgeous! I love the colors. Do you love it? I know you love it! Love it!!

Okay, I realize I should calm down, but I'm just super stoked. In fact, I'm so excited, I'm ready to write, so I'd better wrap this up and get back to my story so I can get it finished pronto.

As you can no doubt tell, the story takes place in Japan, and is a Fairy Tale Retelling. I'm not going to give away just which fairy tale I'm using, yet. I want to see if my beta readers can figure it out. If not, well...I may have some editing to do.

I'm already thinking ahead to my next fairy tell retelling. I don't want to give away the premise of that one quite yet, either, but I can tell you that I'm planning on having it set in ancient Egypt.

I love the idea of having these fairy tales set in different times and different cultures. As someone who loves to travel and learn about new places and new people, I think it's fascinating to wonder about what sort of story can happen in a completely different setting than the one I've always read about in traditional fairy tales.

Other things I'm working on right now are my cookie book, which is the other book in the beta reader process. I should have those critiques done by the end of this week, and maybe will even have the book up ready to go on Amazon by Thanksgiving. That's my goal, anyway. My cover designer did a great job for that book, too!

The last thing I have on my plate is my full-length novel that I am slowly, but surely, editing a little. bit. at. a. time.
It's taking forever. I really need to get through my first revision so I can at least pass it on to my first readers. I think from my other experiences with beta readers, I'm going to just ask a couple of very trustworthy  (read "quick" and "gets back to me in a timely manner") first readers to help me out.

I have a couple of amazing readers, who are not only quick and dependable, but are also SPOT ON with their editing. I don't want to embarrass them, so I won't mention their names here, but I do want to pass on to anyone else who is looking for good beta readers, ask an ESL teacher. They are incredible at finding typos, grammar mistakes, and a whole slew of other things you didn't realize you messed up, and are now so glad that you passed the novel on to them, because they have eyes like a hawk, a hawk hooped up on too much caffeine, who can spot on all sorts of taipos, grammar mistakens, run-on sentences, and improper punctuation;

Anywho, I'm excited about the novel. I had planned for it to be part of a series when I first wrote it, but then as I was actually in the midst of getting it down, I decided to make it a stand alone novel. But then, when I got finished, I thought it still had some story left to tell, so, now I want to make it part of a series again. I know, I'm a wishy-washy writer. Something else I can live with.

The novel is titled Maevyn, and is about a girl whose family has been in a horrible accident. Maevyn  finds herself moving in with her grandma, a psychic and medium, in Parkville, Missouri. Just as she begins her senior year of high school, she starts hearing voices in her head, is stalked by a handsome yet mysterious stranger, and begins having dreams of her dead, ghostly father. And that's just the beginning!

Okay, enough book babble here. It's time to actually go and write.

Cursed Beauty Comes Out Tomorrow!

To say I'm excited is a bit of an understatement. I'm SUPER excited to be self-publishing my first fiction work, Cursed Beauty.


I wrote this story a year ago for a writing contest. The only prerequisites were the word count (couldn't be above 20,000 words) and that the story had to be a retelling of Cinderella. I had no trouble writing a retelling, but I did have trouble with the word count. I went way over, and then had to cut out a lot of my story.


Long story short, I didn't win the contest (thank you Anne Elisabeth Stengle for hosting in the first place!), but I did have a blast creating the story. Then, I put it aside. I thought it was done.


Until then, I'd never written anything that long before. Once I wrote that story, and realized I could write more than just a few pages without giving up, I really went for it. I wrote a novel. About something completely different, mind you. I jumped from fairy tale retelling to science fiction.


The novel has been finished since July, and I'm just now getting back to editing it. I've been so neglectful. I kinda wandered around in the nebulous vacuum of not having anything immediate to work on, until I was inspired to enter another writing contest, this time for the fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast.

While I was working on the Beauty story, I had an epiphany. It went something like this: Hey, you! Yeah, you! You spent months and months writing this other story and you've done NOTHING with it. Why don't you revise it and then put it out on Amazon. It wouldn't hurt, you know. Just give it a try.


So, that's exactly what I did. I went back to my original story, revised it, retitled it, had a cover made for it, and now it's on Amazon, ready for people to actually read it.


OMG...people are actually going to read it.
There's typos. I know there are typos.
I don't know where the typos are, otherwise I would have taken them out, but surely they're there. Hiding.
And someone is going to find them.
And point them out.
And give me a bad review because of them.
Oh lord....


Being a writer is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure.
I don't mind bearing my soul on the blog, for you. I know you. I like you.
But strangers might be reading my book.
And reviewing my book.
Nobody reviews me on the blog. Thank goodness.


So, anyway, tomorrow my book gets released. My beautiful, little novella.
If you happen to read a copy, I'd love to know. Even better, I'd love a kind review.
If you hate it, email me instead. :O)

Being Successful

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the Kansas Chapter of SCBWI's (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) annual conference.


It was a good conference. I learned a lot. I met some interesting people. I took away a lot of great tips.


I'm not sure if I'll go back next year.


I might. Or maybe not. I'm a little undecided at this point.


SCBWI, like most writer organizations, is aimed at traditionally published authors. For a long, long time, that is what I thought I wanted to do as well. I've tried in the past. I've queried. Sent out lots of letters. Received nothing back, perhaps a rejection slip if I was lucky. I gave up after awhile, and then life took me other places. I have no regrets about that, but now that I'm older (if not wiser), I'm wondering if traditional publishing will help get me to my goals and whether I can count myself as successful if I only go the independent, self-published route.


I think I can.


Yes, I would love, love, LOVE to have my book on the shelf of a Barnes & Noble. I'd love to walk through Wal-Mart or Target and see something I've written be there for the world to see. That would be fantastic. But, is that what has to happen for me to feel successful.


I don't think so.


I think as long as I reach my goals a bit at a time, that I can feel successful at any point in my writing career.


My first goal is to have 5 books up online for readers to get their hands on.
Once I've accomplished that goal, I think I'll feel successful.


Another goal is to have earned enough in royalties to pay for some much-needed writing tools: scrivener, and a treadmill desk are both at the top of my list.


A great big goal I have is to duplicate, and then replace, my current income so that I can transition to writing full time. That's a mega huge goal!


Not one of these goals is contingent on having my book on the shelf at a bookstore, box store, or the library. But, I will still count myself as a success when I reach these goals.


I think it's important to focus on what really, truly are the goals you want to achieve, and the smaller goals you can set on the way to the great, big, granddaddy goals that will take some time.


What goals are you going to set to help you be successful?

Image Source: By Icely88 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons