Year: 2015

Lost focus and broke my streak!

Lynn

Well, I’m bummed. I’ve been getting a lot done the last couple of days while fighting that cold, and somehow, on Wednesday, I completely forgot to write anything. Today I had the sudden realization that I hadn’t written anything yesterday and that made me take a look at my daily log, at which point I realized yesterday wasn’t even at issue. Wednesday had already broken my streak.

So I have to start over.

I failed to get started on writing today, but I did work most of the day. I finished the paperback cover for the more recent book and submitted those files to Createspace. I took another look at the cover I did yesterday (or maybe the day before—the days are running together in my head) and made a few tweaks. I’m about to take a final look and decide if I like the adjustments or not.

. . . A few hours later . . .

Yeah, the cover definitely needed the adjustments. I like it much better now. It also fits the look of the whole series better. Someday, I’ll get better at this. ;) I really will.

And now, I’m going to export the sizes and formats I need for publishing and move on to restarting my writing streak before I conk out tonight.

The new book is doing okay

Lynn

So I was worried about the new book, but it’s actually doing okay. :)
Screencap

These are category lists, not the whole store. I’d be dying here if this was my book’s rank in the whole store. ;)

The book is $6.99 and has been from the moment I published it, so these numbers show that you don’t have to price super low to get into the top 100 genre lists. The #68 is only two categories deep.

On the other hand, my books never seem to get sticky, so I don’t expect it to last more than a few more days.

I think my last release in this series was doing a bit better than this one at this point, but it’s been 7 months between novels so I’ll just blame it on that. :) (My other last novel was the first book under a different pen name, so no Amazon algo love for that one.)

Update Friday Morning

Amazon Rank ScreencapThis morning the book is doing a little better than it was last night, so I thought I’d screenshot it for an update.

Of note, I thought only one of those rankings was 2 categories deep, but it’s actually 2 of them.

Hope to write today, but I have puffy eyes

Lynn

Not that puffy eyes will stop me, but I also have sneezing and snot and am very tired! Colds suck.

On the other hand, I’m pretty happy with how yesterday turned out. Sure, I didn’t write, but I did finish a cover that I’ll need in the next two months (I hope) and I finally submitted those paperback files I originally tried to get done before my October vacation this year. :o I never did get back to them when I got back and my reasoning was that I’d decided to update my book blurb to something better and I needed to wait until I’d done that. Didn’t work out and I just gave up. I submitted the book with the description as is. I can always change it later and resubmit the files then as a new edition or something.

(Why don’t most indie publishers publish new editions as new editions? I mean, if the book is linked up properly to the ebook on most stores, wouldn’t that keep all the reviews and stuff? Maybe it’s the rank. A new edition would have its very own rank on stores like Amazon (and we all know Amazon is the big dog for most indie publishers) and it would have to build up to the rank of the old edition.)

I might try it just to see what happens if I ever change my covers or decide to do a new size of paperback. A new book description alone probably doesn’t warrant a new edition. :)

Also, audio. I need to think about it again. I thought about it a few years ago, but not enough upside to the downside for me. ;) Too little reward for the effort and time required, I should say.

Anyway, going away for a while to work on the following, then I’ll start writing if my head starts to feel better.

  1. Paperback formatting for a book I published in the last month
  2. Paperback book cover for that same book
  3. Book cover for the short piece I copy edited today
  4. Corrections for the copy edited short piece
  5. Formatting of the short piece so I can publish it
  6. Publishing the short piece so I can sell it!
  7. So much more stuff I’m not going to bother writing down

As a side note, I do believe I’m going to redo my paperbacks for my main pen name so I can sell them cheaper. The 8 x 5 size is nice to hold, but it makes the price higher because each page holds less text at a reasonable font size and that means my books are longer than they have to be. I’m not really willing to compromise on font size because I like easy to read books. I don’t have reading vision woes (yet) so that’s not it! I like the looks of generous leading and a nice sized font. A slightly larger font (12pt Adobe Caslon or Garamond) looks really nice in a book, IMO. :) Since I don’t sell many anyway, I’ve always just done them for me. That’s what I like. :D

But I did compromise on this latest paperback I formatted and I like that I’m going to be able to sell it at $14.99 and still make the same profit I make on my other pen name books. And I have a feeling this book turned out really well. It looks beautiful on screen. I’m excited to get my proof copy of it and see how it looks in my hands.

It’s an 8.5 x 5.5 book. Just a half inch extra top and side but it made a big difference. I didn’t have to compromise my font size at all. 12pt Adobe Caslon Pro. I also used the native widows/orphan control features of Word* instead of taking the time to match each page in a spread, etc. I looked at the output expecting to hate it but willing to compromise because that had just cut down the time it took me to format a paperback from days to hours. I didn’t mind it at all! And as a reader, I know I wouldn’t care. It still looks good.

*Yes, I format paperbacks in Word. I know people all over the web say you shouldn’t do that, but I like Word and it turns out very nice books for me. InDesign’s learning curve is just more than I want to deal with right now (I did try Scribus, but the text looked IDENTICAL in the test pages I created to compare it to Word’s output. I expected something a lot different, and yet…. the pages were identical! But the set up was a pain in the ass. I later tried InDesign again, and I decided I just didn’t want to put the time in to learn how to do everything I’d need to know to do it “right.” Screw right. Perfection is my enemy and I’ve had to come to terms with that.

No writing of note, but not a loss

Lynn

I’ve been working on book covers today. I have two books I’d like to finish in the next two months. (Three, actually, now that I think about it.) And another I’d like to publish that’s already finished. (That short story I mentioned I wanted to copy edit today.)

Although I haven’t written anything today, I did do the copy edit (I still need to input the corrections), and I’ve been working on book covers. I’ve almost completed a paperback cover, and a cover for one of those books I’ll hopefully be writing as soon as I feel better.

It’s nice to know I’ve gotten several things I needed to do out of the way. It will make publishing those books a lot less stressful when the time comes! Cover design frustrates the crap outta me.

Something else that frustrates me: feeling like I’ve accomplished nothing when I have, in fact, accomplished quite a few things.

Here’s what I need to finish ASAP (practicing follow-through). :)

  1. Book cover I’m working on for an unwritten book DONE
  2. Paperback book cover for a book I published more than 6 months ago (ouch) DONE
  3. Paperback formatting for a book I published in the last month STARTED
  4. Paperback book cover for that same book
  5. Book cover for the short piece I copy edited today
  6. Corrections for the copy edited short piece
  7. So much more stuff I’m not going to bother writing down

I don’t like putting off writing to do these things, but if I’m going to be putting off writing anyway, well… might as well get something done.

Still sick, stayed up too late again, had caffeine

Lynn

Hmm. I have to wonder about the cause of my rash of bad decisions. :) I had caffeine again yesterday, although it wasn’t coffee. After another sick day away from writing, I didn’t want to cook, so we had take out, and that included sweet tea. Shouldn’t have done it, but I did.

So last night, despite being tired, feeling bad, and needing to get to bed early, I stayed up about an hour and a half longer than I should have.

Six and a half hours sleep is not enough for me! Especially when I’m not feeling well.

Yesterday was all about sore sinuses, sneezing, and nostrils; today is all about snot.

Yippee. :o

I’m going to doze this morning while I read/copy edit that short story/novelette I wrote a few months back and then I’m going to write. I’m saving the writing for after the nap and other work because my brain just doesn’t feel up to it at the moment.

Sick day… lesson learned… again… so maybe not

Lynn

I feel like I’m getting a head cold, and I blame the lack of sleep.

I stayed up too late too many days last week and the weekend and now I’m sick. I can’t actually say with certainty that’s why, but I’ve managed to avoid getting sick with lots of the colds and other more unmentionable illnesses everyone around me has suffered through, until now.

Today I’m taking another day off. I say “another” because I wrote only 324 words yesterday (in one 50 minute session) because I stayed up too late into the morning the night before and didn’t feel so well yesterday either. I’ll tinker today and get enough to keep my streak alive, but I think I’m going to nap.

No more staying up late, because I’m never able to make up the sleep the next morning. Lesson learned. Again.

Why am I still up?

Lynn

Coffee. I shouldn’t have drank it and now… I’m still up at 1:00 am and I know better. Tomorrow is supposed to be me getting back to writing one of my books and working on hitting a word count record.

Holy crap. I’ve lost all self-control.

I hate caffeine.

Or maybe not . . .

Lynn

I’m apparently not writing today. It’s 10:30 pm and I haven’t done diddly. Zero words so far, which of course, I’ll have to correct, because I can’t go to bed without keeping my no more zero word days / write everyday streak alive. :o

I worked on a cover upgrade that turned out quite nicely (a tweak really, because I just made some simple adjustments to the artwork and text to make it look nicer). I just didn’t finish it. I should do that. I have a bad habit of starting these things and never doing anything with them.

Hmm.

I’ve just realized I need to practice follow-through. Because not following through isn’t a habit I want to reinforce.

Writing today

Lynn

I know! It was supposed to be Friday, then Saturday. Instead, it’s today.

Every publishing task I did took longer than usual this time. Then, yesterday, it was time to get my accounts in order for the coming months…

I brought my sales spreadsheet up to date, balanced some accounts, and planned my spending for the next few months.

I’m a huge fan of YNAB, a handy little piece of budgeting software that I’ve been using for years (still on version 3 because it does what I need). It works really well with the writing lifestyle and lets me plan my spending months in advance to match incoming royalties. If you depend on your publishing income the way I do, you need to be able to plan months in advance for cash flow if you don’t want finances to stress you out. YNAB is particularly suited to the task and I love it. I don’t go overboard, and I use only 3 master categories: Payments and Bills (Mortgage, Insurance, Electricity, Internet & Phone, etc.), Savings Categories (Maintenance, Doctor, Gifts, Long-term Savings, a.k.a. stuff that’s needed to address the “not if, when” vagaries of life), and Flexible Spending (Food, Clothes, Entertainment, blah blah).

Now I’m all planned up through February and I can turn my attention back to other things. :)

Time to try to break my one day word count record again!

And format a paperback or two, finish some paperback covers, redo some images, make a few typo fixes in a couple of my previously published stories I recently read as research for my next book, and copy edit a story I finished back in October, make a cover for it, and publish the danged thing!

Whew. I have a lot to do.

I kind of wish it wasn’t already 1:42 in the afternoon. I have a feeling my goals today have gotten a little out of hand. :o

Three days off? Make that seven

Lynn

 

Still working on those publishing tasks for that book. The cover took too long, and the copy edit is dragging. I’m going to be lucky to get back to writing on Friday. It was supposed to be Monday. Didn’t happen. So seven days off writing instead of three.

Pulling out my hair here. But … onward. I’ll get it done.

Cover design frustrates me, but I do it anyway

Lynn

Have I mentioned before that designing covers for my books frustrates me? Yes? I thought so.

I’ve been trying to learn more about all of it, but I still can’t visualize what I want and then translate that into something that makes sense. I usually have to have a really good piece of stock art to get what I want quickly. Doesn’t usually happen. I’m not good at picking stock art, because I’m not good at visualizing what I can do with it once I have it. I seem to buy licenses for all the wrong stuff and then have to try again. And again. ;)

Today, I seem to have come up with an okay design for my next release, although something’s still off about it. Still, it will be a record-breaking achievement if I only make a few tweaks to this and consider it done.* It came together so much quicker than I’m used to stuff coming together. Or maybe it just feels that way because my new “publishing days” workflow gives me an entire day for cover design and nothing else! That my dear has turned out to be a genius move for me. I feel a distinct lack of stress about this cover. Also, I have finally accepted that covers just have to be good enough not to suck and they’ll get the job done; I’m sure that attitude is helping too.**

Finally, I do want to devote some more time to tutorials, but I’ve been so focused on increasing my daily word counts that I just haven’t had the energy left for it. Nor to spend on practicing cover design.

I have no interest in doing nothing but writing; I like having hobbies, and designing my own covers would be a great one to have. But I’ve had to focus on priorities right now, which is learning how to get more words written each day without it taking me all day to do it. :D I’ll get there, and then I’ll turn my attention to become a better cover designer for myself.

I want to redo a lot of my covers, and tbh, I would like to hire it out, but every time I consider it, I think about how that will bottleneck my publishing workflow and I really can’t stand the idea. If I had unlimited money where I could get anyone at any price to do the work on my timetable and do it exactly the way I wanted, then I think it would be easier to let go. But there’s also the fact that I want to be a good cover designer. Because of these things, I always keep coming back to the idea that I just need to suck it up and keep trying. If I don’t give up, eventually I’ll learn how to design great covers myself.

*I redid the cover and then redid it again and then again. In the end, I spent three entire days on this particular cover. :o

**Apparently that attitude didn’t help after all. See note * above. :D

Addendum: I tried hiring it out and I learned a valuable lesson: hiring out doesn’t work for me, at all.

Catch Up Post: Haven’t Finished the Book

Lynn

I’m still working on finishing my latest book—you know, the one that’s driving me crazy because it’s about to become the longest book I’ve written yet (since I started indie publishing—cause you know, I’ve definitely written longer books, just not recently).

I haven’t broken my 5,758 one-day word count record, yet. Today won’t be that day either. I’m not sick, but I’m not 100% either. I mean, when you’re sitting in a room with the temp set at 74°F and you’re still cold, I think it’s safe to say something isn’t right.

I’m counting today as a sick day, but I’ve still written over 1,300 words today (so far). I’m definitely writing more today, although probably not as many as I wanted to write.

I think that post about what makes a reasonable word count goal for me really did signal the start of a breakthrough.

I’ve been having some of the best word counts I’ve had in a long while. But this isn’t the first time I’ve thought similarly. I had a great month back in February 2013 and I thought it was going to last. I was consistent. I thought I had the right motivation going. There was just no reason to think it would end. But it did.

That’s my fear with this one: That as soon as the pressure of getting this latest book finished is gone, I’ll slack off and never pick up momentum again.

I get to work every day and remind myself there are lots of things in my world that I can’t control, but this isn’t one of those things. I can change. I can be the prolific writer I want to be.

And this is where I get back to writing so I can get closer to that reasonable word count goal for today.

New theme and yes, that’s my real desk

Lynn

That’s it! I like this theme a lot! I saw it on a website I shouldn’t have been on because no, I haven’t finished my writing today and it’s not dinnertime.

That desk is where I sometimes work. (Update: pic is gone because it was a header pic and another theme change obliterated it.) I have moved it though. Now it’s at a right angle to that window and in the “command position” in that very small room. Oh, and I have a new chair. I wrote posts about both of those things but I can’t remember when. :D (Found them.)

The only thing I don’t like about this theme is how links aren’t underlined and the text color is almost a match for the link color. Hmm. I might have to tweak it! We’ll see, but absolutely not right now.* I must turn my attention to writing or I’m going to want to kick my own rear later tonight. :o

*Ta-da. I fixed the links anyway. Took about 5-10 minutes to install Child Theme Configurator, generate a child theme, find the link css in the original stylesheet, copy it, paste it in my new child theme, and save. I still shouldn’t have done it. :( Boo on me.

Yesterday’s Fail; Today’s Plan To Finish My Book

Lynn

I don’t even want to talk about my fail yesterday, but fail I did.

Today I’m starting even later, and I don’t have any excuse at all except that it’s Saturday and apparently I’m just not “on” today.

I managed to recover enough yesterday to write 2,465 words. That was after writing only 561 (plus 277) by 5:55 pm. I’m proud of myself for one thing only yesterday and that was realizing the spiral I had fallen into and taking corrective measures.

You see, I decided to watch The Big Bang Theory at lunch. New episode. But it was short and I wanted to take a quick look at Hand of God on Amazon while I was sitting there, so I did. I watched two entire episodes, when I realized I was going to spend way too much time watching TV if I didn’t do something to stop myself.

So the something I did was skip straight to the last episode and watch it. :D

It worked. I got closure and the urge to watch more episodes disappeared. I was ready to get back to work without distraction and that was key. I could have given up at my 561 words, but I didn’t. And I ended up with 2,465 words instead.

I’m cut off from the world here, really, and didn’t hear about the terrible violence in France until I read some NPR news last night. I don’t mind admitting that I prefer ignorance when it comes to news. I haven’t stopped thinking about what I read and that kind of anxiety over something I can do nothing about isn’t helpful.

Anyway, moving on.

Despite my late start today, I’m going to try to finish my book today. It’s a personal challenge I’ve set myself for the day. I don’t know how many words that’ll be but the goal is 4,558 words, and if I have to write something else at the end of the day to get them, that’s the plan! Today is a writing day, and I really think how I’ve separated my writing days from my publishing days is a lot better way of working for me.

Updates later, in another post likely.

For now, WIFI is going off and staying off until I’ve hit 4,558 or it’s dinnertime!

Late start, still going for it

Lynn

I’m trying for another record one-day word count today—or to just finish my book! Either one will make me happy. But I’m starting late today because one of my kids had a dead battery and I had to hop in the car and get them to school!

Yesterday I wrote 3,435 words, but today, I immediately deleted 277 of them because I didn’t think about doing that yesterday and I no longer need those words. I’m not going to revise yesterday’s count down since I can’t go back in time and write more words. I like yesterday’s word count right where it is. :D

That means I need a lot of words today to make the record because I also have to make up the 277 words!

The number to beat is 5,758, but to beat it, I’ll need to write 6,036 words. I had better get started.

Now, WIFI off and it’s going to stay off until I’m done writing today.*

*This is currently my secret to success.

Didn’t finish the book but I did break the record

Lynn

Yesterday, I was trying both to break my one-day word count record and finish a book. I didn’t finish the book, but I did break the record. I wrote 5,758 words yesterday! I’m very proud of them. :)

Today I try again to finish this book. I think I can. It feels like I’m almost there. Then again, I did say that yesterday too but the scenes I wrote didn’t seem to move me much closer to the end.

Whatever I do, I’ll be working on getting my 4,558 words today so if I do finish the book today, I can take the next 3–5 days off writing to spend time publishing stuff.

I have a short story that’s either going to be published or scrapped (I’m not sure the plot makes sense, at all, and I need a fresh read before I decide if I want to start it over completely at some point, or go ahead with publishing), a novel to proof, cover to make, blurbs to write, paperback to layout, and one paperback cover to complete for my pen name book (paper layout is done, just been waiting to finish the cover for an entire month!).

I’m going to have to finish it all in those 3 to 5 days. 3 is all I’ve allowed for publishing. The extra 2 would pull from my days-off-writing allowance. (I’ve built in 4 weekend days off each month to my word count goals. Of course, I’ll still write something on every day off, just to keep my “no more zero word days” streak alive. ;) But there’s a big difference between writing 50 to 100 words and aiming for 4,558!)

And, that’s got to be a wrap so I can get started. I’m already slipping into old habits of writing crazy long blog posts about random stuff to keep from having to shut off my WIFI.

So, WIFI off!