Month: October 2018

Better Than You Cover Reveal

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Here’s another reason you should like, plan ahead and be smart with your business decisions: I had my heart set on yellow for the Better Than You font, but the background color that I LOVE for my first and second book does not support the bright yellow I’d had in mind for this one. Orange looked a little better…but no. No. No. No.

☹

I went with purple, because, you know, it was kinda of the only color left (there are reasons) and even though I really, really like it—and although this in NO WAY affects anything that I had in motion—it’s not what I wanted. But, cry me a river, right? Seriously, people. Not the end of the world here, but maybe if I’d put a bit more into planning, and not made a split-second decision to publish three months apart without any sort of marketing plan in place, I wouldn’t be slightly disappointed. But again, all good. I’m announcing this cover reveal to the special few of you who 1) read this blog 2) actually care 3) stumbled upon this post: (welcome. 😊)

So, I guess without further ado, the cover of Better Than You, Book 3 in the Better Than This series:

 

Looks just like 1 & 2 right? Yup 😊 But, there are different words, and behind the front cover lies an entirely new adventure EIGHT YEARS AFTER THE LAST BOOK ENDS!!!

Alright, so I’ve got the book cover done. Check. I’ve got the release date announcement on my sidebar done. Check. Now I’ve got to do the thing every writer dreads: write the blurb.

::shudder::

There’s a rough first paragraph started….and that’s about it.

I should probably get on it so y’all know what this book is actually about…

November 16th, folks (same day as Crimes of Grindelwald releases)  😊

P.S. Oh, and Happy Halloween! What’re you being? I’m Janet Snakehole and Batman is Burt Macklin from Parks & Rec. If you haven’t seen it, do it now! Or the ghost of whatever scares you will haunt you! Muahahahaha!

I Hate These Bleh Days.

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I’m feeling kind of bleh. ☹

The woes of self-publishing have got me down again, but I’m distracting myself with candy intended for the Trick or Treaters. It’s yummy, and makes me feel better. 😊 (Plus, it’s an excuse to go out and buy more candy. So, win-win.)

The bleh-ness comes from just being so, so bad at the whole business side of this thing. Because there is no business side. It’s just me chucking finished books out into the great void and turning around to write the next. That’s great and all (and go me for having such an awesome work ethic!) but there’s no other part of this business. Just manufacturing. No marketing. No marketing strategy, no strategy whatsoever. I’m telling you I literally have *no* strategy, which is not cool, because living off my writing is like, the goal. Someday. Someday soon? (God, I hope so). Which means I need to get a strategy. Which means I need to be smart and do this business side but again, I’m so, so bad at it.

But I can learn, right? I don’t know. I can be kind of stupid. It feels like this whole process is taking forever, and I’m not getting any traction, which is my own fault, but still. I hate these bleh days. I need a pick me up. Maybe extra snuggles with Appa? I’d say something sweet, but I’ve already dipped into the kids’ chocolate, and it hasn’t helped much.

P.S. The cover for Better Than You IS coming. Like, maybe in a couple days. See? Business side of me is doing VERY POORLY but flaky artistic side of me is ROCKING IT. Maybe one day I’ll master both.

Maybe…

I’ll Try Again Next Time

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I’m back to no bars on my sales graph again ☹

I’m bar-less ☹

You know what that means: I’ve done diddly when it comes to marketing. Less than diddly, and I’m not even sure that’s a thing. But it is for our purposes because seriously, my patient has flatlined. Not even a heartbeat since early September, and only two tiny blimps at that. I’m not surprised. I haven’t done any of the advertising earlier-this-year-me planned on doing which sucks, but it is what it is. And I’ve learned what I’ve learned. What’s that saying?

I never lose. Either I win or I learn.

Yeah, we’ll go ahead and apply that. I learned not to release books so close together, regardless of them being pretty much written (and regardless of my excitement as an author to have you read them!) because there is so, so much more that goes into a release day then just ‘releasing’ it. You have to let the whole friggin world know about it days, weeks, months in advance—and I definitely didn’t do that. At all. Not even close. Oh, well. I’ll try again next time. But what’s next time, you ask??

*********drrrrrruuuummmrrrrooollll*************

I’m happy to announce, that after BTY releases, I’m writing the FIFTH and FINAL book of Arizal Wars, so STOP ASKING ME, BATMAN.

To be honest, I needed a break from AZ since I started writing it in 2011. These last two years have been a nice vacation with Autumn and Alex, and I think the newness of their world has given me the rejuvenating boost I’ll need to face the final battle in AZ. Because oh yeah, shit goes down. It’s bittersweet to be finishing up my Better Than This series since I love my characters so much, but part of me is dying to get back into writing battle scenes. And prophecies. And alien races. And forbidden love and—ahh the goosebumps!

Anyway, that’s later this year. Or early next year. Not sure where I’m going with this post, but that’s a true panster at heart. Happy Wednesday 😊

Short and Sweet

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I’m going to keep this short and sweet (like me!) because I’m already behind as you might’ve read last week so every moment—EVERY PRECIOUS FREE MOMENT—is now dedicated to finishing BYY. But shouldn’t it be finished by now? Yes, it should. Shut up. It will definitely be ready for release on 11/16 (same day as The Crimes of Grindelwald!) but only if I use EVERY PRECIOUS FREE MOMENT to write and perfect and edit and re-perfect. Which means again, I’m keeping this short and sweet.

But why jump on if I have nothing to say? Two things:

  • We always have a date. Me and you. Wednesdays at that hot internet spot.
  • I saw A Star is Born

So……………I did like it, but it wasn’t the movie I thought it was going to be. Again, haven’t seen the first two, so I’m not sure if the plot is like, spot on, but it just…just kind of took me by surprise. With sadness. And I hate feeling sad because it pops up far too often in life and I wasn’t expecting it on my fun girl’s night out. Anyway, Bradley Cooper was hot. So, there’s that. 😊

Alright, off to write! Have a lovely hump day!

Until our next rendezvous – 😉

Oh, the Insecurities IWSG

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Actually, I am a little insecure this month. ☹

September—while awesome—flew by and stole with it all my time to write. I’m not making excuses for myself because I did write, just not as much as I’d like. Not as much as I needed to stay on my timeline, which means I’m thrown off, people. Which means I won’t be able to do a pre-order now ☹. My own fault. All the lessons are being learned, but it does still make me feel insecure. Will I finish in time? Will I make my promised release date? Will it all come together in the end? Will I finally take up drinking fulltime?

The comforting thing is that I’m feeling good about what I’m writing. I’ll finish a scene (knowing I’ll revisit it 1-2 more times) and think, ‘can’t wait for them to read it!’ That’s one of the best things as an author. Knowing you get to share something you’re excited about with everyone, hoping they’ll enjoy it as much as you do. It’s super scary, but worth it! So, yes, I’m insecure that I fucked up with how I decided to publish this whole thing, but beyond thrilled to be able to share it .

Also: have you seen the trailer for A Star is Born? I haven’t seen the other two, but this third version looks amazing. So amazing in fact that I’ve watched the trailer twice daily for the past few days. I’m like one of those fourteen year old girls who watched Titanic ten times in the movie theaters (I WASN’T—I only saw it once) but my love for this trailer seems on par with their intense feelings of Leo’s stirring performance. I don’t know what it is—the song, the movie clips, the actors? I don’t care. It looks amazing and I can’t wait to see Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga this weekend 😊

Now that I think about it, maybe I’m so into this trailer because I’ve been writing about a musician in love. It’s kind of giving me that extra oomph to finish Better Than You because I see a finish line every time I watch it.

Anyway, I’m going to go watch it again because we talked about this. Then, more writing. Happy IWSG day! Try to rise above your insecurities and to make all your dreams come true. And try not to fuck up your timeline like I did. 😊

Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) is a monthly blog hop for writers at all levels to share their fears and insecurities in a safe and encouraging place. Please drop by and say hi to Alex Cavanaugh who started this nifty concept in bringing us all together.