Tag: BTT

Repeat After Me: I Got This

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Well, I did it.

I finished the first draft of my third book. It took me a month. Mind you, I’ve been unemployed for nearly two weeks of it, but it’s done. It needs, like, *ridiculous* amounts of revisions but I know what’s going to happen now, which is better than only having the snippets of scenes in my head before. There’s an actual story line with conflicts and events and there’s an ending, guys. I have A LAST BOOK ENDING. It’s not very good, but it’s there. Ready to be tweaked and worked on all that stuff.

So… what to do now? This is the part that sucks—the in between part. The part where I have nothing specific to work on because the next sentence, scene and chapter has already been written. I don’t know if any other writers out there have this WTF do I do now? moment but it’s here for me and it sucks.

I’m still not sure when I’m going to release this first book, Better Than This. I’m thinking maybe… mid-May? June? I still need to have it professionally edited, along with getting a cover completed and some sort of advertisement/marketing plan needs to be in place.  THINGS. There are so many things needing to be done and that next step is all blurry and weird and not specific.

Anyone heard of Patreon? It’s this cool (kind of old) idea where people will become a patron of your work either on a monthly or creation basis. It’s a tiered structure where someone can pay a certain amount ($1/$5/$10/whatever) to support your work in exchange for different things like early access to new content, deleted or behind the scenes and such. It’s kind of an awesome idea. I keep peeking at it and wondering if/when/how I should join and what I would do. I also keep wondering how to work this angle while also marketing BTT in time for this questionable release. Again, THINGS. SO MANY THINGS.

Authors (and really anyone who has an opinion/suggestion) what is my next step here? Am I jumping off in the marketing quicksand or do I have to get the book edited first? And what about the cover? And what about blog tours and hard copies? And what about—

NOPE. Not going crazy like usual. I got this. I have to keep telling myself I got this or I won’t have this. I’ll have a headache and a drinking problem and neither of those are sexy. To me. (But, you know, to each their own.) I’m also job-hunting, so throw that on the pile along with whoever grabbed a hold of my email address and started applying for credit cards under my name. And the car is in the shop. And the IRS sent me a letter. SO MANY THINGS.

But it’s cool 😊 Life’s good. Just have to repeat my mantra:

I got this.

I got this.

I MOTHERFUCKING GOT THIS BITCH.

😉

P.S. This week’s theme is “Last Line” for Friday’s #Fridaykiss. I have no idea what I’ll be posting but I’ll figure it out. Know why? See above.

Goals and Things

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First off, let me start by wishing you a Merry Christmas! /Happy Hanukah! /Happy Festivus! /Merry Kwanza! /Happy Holidays! (Did I cover everyone? I hope so.)

How were the holidays for you? I hope you didn’t kill anybody and that you had plenty of excuses to escape from your relatives. I won the lottery by catching the plague a day before my four-day break, so it’s been lots of drugs, coughing all night, a full body ache and a constant battle with an evil sea-bitch to use my voice. (I totally won, but it hurt like a mother every time). Other than that, I had a marvelous time 😊 I hope you had a good time with your family or friends or whomever you chose to share your holiday with, even if it was just yourself. 😊

Okay, so apparently 2018 is already knocking which is good because Januarys are typically a great time for new beginnings (although October also seems to work) and I’d like to make some changes. Some of them are health wise: not be such an Oreo fatty and be more active with Appa. Like, actually exercise with him and Batman instead of watching Appa exercise while Batman and I eat junk-food. So, big one right there. Other things I want to change include my bank account and the email Bank of America sends me every week to make sure—in case I somehow missed it—that I’m pretty much broke from Sunday to Thursday. But, I’d also like to take positive strives in my writing.

So, here we go, 2018 writing thing I’d like to change:

Main Goal:

  • Maybe not be so terrible at marketing

That’s right. ‘Not Be So Terrible At Marketing’ shall be the numero uno goal of 2018. I’m fully expecting to still suck at it, but I’m hoping to have more failures under my belt which means more things I’ve tried which is more than I’m doing now (which is nothing.) Aiming for *slightly* more ripples than the still water I’m standing in. Goals!

How do I do that?

Realistic (and more specific) Goals:

  • Keep up with the Wednesday posts. Seems reasonable.
  • Maybe put up a video once or twice a month. Not sure what the content would consist of other than me being my wonderful fabulous self and talking about writing and life and things (oh, and promoting my new series—obvi) That could work. I hear people like vlogs and I’m not totally Quasimoding-it, so maybe I’ll try that.
  • Start a newsletter. I probably should’ve had one of these for a while now, but I haven’t. I have no excuse other than I just haven’t. Like the vlog, I’m not sure what I would say other than talk about the series, my work and maybe something to do with the craft of writing. I’m just weird with commitments, but I guess by this point, I’m pretty committed (but shouldn’t be committed. Big difference.)
  • Make friends with/support other Indies. I’ve kind of backed off a bit for no other reason than that I’m using the time to write. Or to not be on my phone. But I did enjoy meeting other indie authors (shout out to BookBorn and IWSG!) and I need to get back into it. It’s mutually beneficial and there’s so much to learn from each other.

There are other things I could/should probably list here, but I’m being realistic with myself. If I pack too much on, it’ll seem unattainable and scary and I’ll look the other way and grab Oreos and cry. Because that’s what I do. So. Yeah. Small steps equate to large steps equate to things actually happening.

P.S. I sent BTT to a few BETAs! Yay! Would you like to BETA read my latest YA contemporary romance featuring a musician (the answer is yes)? If so, please reach out to me! I’d love to get a few more opinions 🙂

P. P. S. My books are free on Smashwords until January 1st. This is another me doing something. Telling you I enrolled in a giveaway. So, if you’re at all curious about my books but can’t afford the monetary risk (which hey—I get! Ms. Betty Broke over here) you can check them out for totally free (use coupon EY100. And there are *bunches* of other good books to discover as well!

P.P. P. S. I have to share some pictures of Appa because I don’t think people realize the CUTENESS level of my baby 😊 And I haven’t posted lots of pictures of him recently… so here you go.

Loves the window down car ride.

Who’s handsome?

I’m a sexy bitch.

My view from the computer.

 

P.P.P.P.S. Reasons I love Batman: he knows things like what P.S. stands for so I know which letter to multiply. (Does that make me stupid that I didn’t know that? I don’t care. I love that he’s so smart.)