The Writing Life

2012 Retrospective

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I was about to begin this post with some banal cliché about what a crazy year it’s been, or what a difference a year makes, or something similar, when it occurred to me that such thoughts were, well, banal and clichéd. It’s a curious habit we have: taking stock of the past 364 (or in this case, 365) days and asking ourselves how things are different. Life changes on a dime, and what difference does it really make where that change happens on the calendar? My life about came to an end almost four years ago with my wife’s cancer diagnosis. Every day since then has been a gift of sorts (still cancer free going on four years!).

Not a lot has changed for us here in the Scott home. I still have the same job I had last year. Same schedule. Same house. Everyone’s a year older. My daughter is now leading worship at our home church, but that’s only been going on for about six weeks now.

We’re still having the same sorts of arguments and disagreements and disagreeableness in a house filled with teenagers that we were last year. Things are a little smoother in some ways, but not so much that I could say things are radically different. The economy still sucks. Politics still suck. And our American culture shows continual signs of severe distress. Life goes on, even as it feels like it’s getting worse all around.

I began this post with the intention of talking about my writing/publishing career, and now it seems it’s taken a more serious tone. Apologies for that.

What’s changed… Well, I have more books available now than I did this time last year. I had just finished Spilled Milk, and Eye of Darkness remained a future hope. The Lost Scrolls came out this year, so that’s good. I now have two more completed novels I’ll be releasing soon (and The Elixir of Life, the sequel to The Lost Scrolls, is due out in Spring), and one more that will be completed shortly (In the Widening Gyre). At the end of 2011, I’d sold 344 books for the year, at an average rate of 29 books a month. I made about $371 on books that year. As of 2012, I’ve sold 1106 books for the year, at an average rate of 92 books per month, and earned about $1,625 for the year. Of course, that includes the major sale in September, which I’ve yet to duplicate. The actual average is about 38 books per month. Still an improvement, but hardly enough to live on.

I’ve now finished nine novels. Soon to be ten.

I think this next year, I want writing to be fun again. These past few months it’s taken on such a push (both the heavy September marketing and the NaNoWriMo contest in November being largely responsible), that I want to back off a bit and have more fun doing this. What’s the point if I’m not enjoying it? Especially given the nature of the world at large to show such signs of rot. I write because I need to – not because I have some kind of message to give (Jefferson’s Road notwithstanding), but because I need the escape from it all, perhaps just as much as my readers (now in excess of 31,000 books being read – that’s new!) need the escape as well. And, of course, there’s always the possibility that I’ll get “discovered,” or that something radical will happen, and my books will take off – thus changing our lives permanently.

Well, one can always hope.

Happy New Year.

Christmas Sale Recap

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So, after making two books with fewer than five reviews available for three days over Christmas – and hitting several pages with announcements about the books – here are the results:

Eye of Darkness – 239 books given away.

Spilled Milk – 656 books given away.

As of this writing, I haven’t sold any additional copies. My only hope now is that I’ll at least garner the missing reviews I need for the books to do a proper giveaway. But even that is questionable at this point.

Post-Mortem:

1) When doing a Christmas sale, it’s probably better to do it either before Christmas, or immediately thereafter. Almost no one appeared to download much of anything on Christmas Day (duh), which means that whatever momentum I hoped to gain was lost.

2) There is definitely something to be gained by having five reviews instead of just three or four. Spilled Milk has one more review than Eye of Darkness, and it sold almost three times as well. While that may be a function of a better cover, better title, or just a genre with a broader audience, it may also have to do with the fact that the reviews on it are more trustworthy for the simple fact that there are more of them. And this is particularly frustrating, because I had promises from three people that they would post reviews for Eye of Darkness, and yet nothing happened (and for the guilty parties: I still love ya, and I hope you will eventually leave the aforementioned reviews).

3) It’s probably better to promote one title at a time, rather than more than one. I think doing two at once diluted my efforts. Rather than one book getting 895 downloads, and thus rising higher in the rankings (thus incurring more downloads), I inadvertently made the two books compete with each other, thus diluting the results and probably bringing the numbers down as a whole.

4) Evidently, I’m missing a crucial step in promoting my books. I don’t know if it’s due to my unfamiliarity with Twitter and Pinterest, but those are two tools I know I’ve underutilized. I wish sometimes that I wasn’t such an internet immigrant (I was born on the boat), so that I understood some of these things a little more intuitively. Alas, I’m gonna have to play catch up along with the rest. I probably don’t make half as much use of Goodreads as I could. And drive-by posts at the various message boards don’t help much. There are many people who are quite active and involved on these sites, and I know they sell well – and they all give the same advice: be involved in the forums. My complaint is that a) this takes away more time from my family, b) I’d rather be writing, and c) I’m so much more of an introvert that relating to people I’ve never met is a little counter-intuitive for me. And I can make all those complaints, and none of it matters, because those who participate sell better than those who don’t – no matter what the excuse.

All of which is to say: there’s definitely value in using a publicist than trying to do it all myself.

All right. Enough whining. I’m getting back to writing now. In the Widening Gyre has about 65K words written, and I’ve already started work on the sequel to Eye of Darkness as well as the next Jonathan Munro Adventure: The Music of the Spheres. TTFN!

One Day to Go…

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I’m nearing the end of the second day of the Christmas sale. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow – whether or not things will spike up now that the holiday is done. The returns haven’t been quite what I’d hoped for, but I believe they’ll still be sufficient to accomplish what I wanted, which was to gain a few more reviews for the books than I currently have. Some of the reviews I’ve requested haven’t appeared as yet (speaking only about books that are currently published), and given that Amazon is currently cracking down on sock puppet reviews (not that I have any) – which has the unintended consequence of eliminating actual reviews from people who received a copy of the book as a gift rather than as a purchase – there’s just been some real difficulty in garnering the reviews needed to promote my books effectively. Thus, the giveaway might just generate enough reviews to put the books over the top.

The second and third reasons are important, but not as significant at this stage. Second, is selling some more books and making a little more money than has been coming in of late. We’ll see what manner of dent this little giveaway has toward that end. I’ll probably see a slight bump, if nothing else. The third reason is finding new readers – which is always important. I’m sure there’ll be a net increase in fans of the books, but again, not as many as I’d like.

The books have fallen off of their high marks. We did break the top 40, but now I’m back down to the top 70. Then again, tomorrow may be the day that changes things, given that people are more apt to buy when they’re not focused on the holiday. I suppose I could chalk that up to the learning curve. In a real sense, everything I do – promotion wise – is totally experimental. If I knew some magic bullet that would create tremendous publicity and help my books sell like I know they can, I’m sure I’d be using it by now. But alas, such charms remain hidden to me. Success in this line of work seems so unbelievably random. But what else can I do besides keep plugging away and trying to do a little better tomorrow than I did today? That, and praying for lightning to strike?

Still, it’s like I told my wife back in 2005, when I started writing with a view toward publishing: “Baby, this is a ten-year plan. Not a one year plan. Ten years to start seeing results.” We’re now seven years in, and I’ve finished nine novels. I’ve got three more years of writing before I can reasonably take stock to see whether or not it’s been worth it. I’m thinking that, by that time, we’ll have made it (maybe just made it, but made it nonetheless). I just need to be patient and diligent and attentive to what the sea change in publishing means for a career as a novelist. And I need to remain confident in the talents and skills God has given me. And the stories that are still begging to be told.

That being said, this next year is swiftly upon us, and along with making sure I try to publish intelligently, I also intend to get back to having fun at this. It’s too much work with to little reward not to enjoy doing it.

Ta-Daah!

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And now, ten days into December, Jefferson’s Road: The Tree of Liberty is finished! I wrote the final words around 6:00 this morning and typed “The End.” Final word count tally: 84,703 words. That means this book is about 10K words longer than the previous “mile” in the road.

My son asks me, “Do you still feel as excited now when you finish a book as the first time?” The answer, of course, is “No.” Finishing a book now is more of a relief than an elation. I still enjoy doing it, but I think I enjoy the process more. Although at this point, the most satisfying part is knowing that I can move yet another project off my over-burdened plate and concentrate on the next project.

In The Widening Gyre is next on the list. There’s 57K words finished on that book, and if I keep to my current pace (50K per month), I’ll have it wrapped up before Christmas. This will give us three books to move forward into the new year. Total of nine books now written (wow!), shortly to become ten.

At this point, I still have some minor editing to do on Tree, as well as writing the first chapter of the fourth book so I can pull a teaser from it for the back of the book. As well as an Afterword, though that isn’t hardly as necessary. I’ve started a draft on Amazon for the book – have to do the same thing for the next two as well, of course. And I have to do the same over at Createspace.

The main thing, however, is getting the book into a suitable kindle format and securing BETA readers to give it a run through. Some of you will be getting an email from me shortly, asking to participate. If you don’t get one and would like to be a BETA reader, drop me a line or leave a comment on this post indicating your interest.

On a related note, I’m almost at six weeks of writing at this accelerated (for me) pace, and it looks like I’ll make it to the “I’ve formed a new habit!” level soon. Good news for my back list!

NaNoWriMo Days 19-25

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19-Nov 1123
20-Nov 0
21-Nov 0
22-Nov 3988
23-Nov 3430
24-Nov 1768
25-Nov 1078

I’ve got 32,083 words finished as of 11/25 (11/26 numbers are still being generated, but they’re in excess of 3,100 at this moment.) I still need to come up with another 15K words or so before Friday. I think I’ll make the threshold just in time.

So far, Topheth has passed the 70K mark, and is rapidly careening toward an end (looks like it’ll wind up somewhere in the 80K range); and The Tree of Liberty has pushed past 62K, and is still climbing. I’m not sure how many words it’ll have. There’s a few hiccups in the plot line I didn’t see coming, which might lengthen the story–I hope, not unnecessarily.

I believe I’ve hit and pushed through the wall, and now only sheer, dogged determination is going to get me across the finish line.

But if I get through this, and then can still wrap up In the Widening Gyre by the end of December (barring any unforeseen-by-any-except-the-Mayan-end-of-the-world events), then I will have successfully completed no less than six different novels this year (Spilled Milk, Eye of Darkness, The Elixir of Life, Topheth, The Tree of Liberty, and In the Widening Gyre). Not too shabby at all!

Next year will be the year of sequels! I hope to write a stand alone for NaNoWrimo 2013, though. I have a number of candidates in mind.

And the series just don’t end. Just the other day I came up with a concept for a space opera based on the political intrigues surrounding a future Silk Road (that’s what happens when I spend too much time watching the History Channel), in which contact with earth has been lost, and the far-flung colonies believe that humans on earth have been wiped out. It’s got a lot of grit, with something resembling a Firefly feel (though without the whole controlling planets and failed revolution type thing). It’ll be less cowboy, too.

Of course, God only knows when I’ll get around to writing it. But this is precisely why I’m aiming to churn out multiple books per year. I’ll never get anything fun written if I don’t ramp up my pace. God willing, at some point in the near future, I’ll be able to do this full time. Then we’ll see what can happen.

All right. Enough rambling. I gotta get my “B” back “IC”. Later!

NaNoWrimo Days 13 – 18

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Day 13 – 0

Day 14 – 1,532

Day 15 – 3,638

Day 16 – 834

Day 17 – 119

Day 18 – 0

Total word count so far: 20,696

I have 62,666 words written in Topheth and 53,978 words written in The Tree of Liberty. At this point, I should have 30k words written, so you can see I’ve fallen behind by about 10K words. Can’t say whether or not I’ll be able to catch up at this point, but there are some positive things on the horizon.

a) Co-op classes are finished for this term, so I don’t have to put in writing time to compose lessons.

b) I have a class to teach on Tuesday, but most of the material is already developed, so even that shouldn’t be too big a problem.

c) This is a holiday week, so I don’t have any overtime, and I think I’ll be able to get caught up on the rest of it. This includes having all day Wednesday available. And even though I’ll be working Thursday evening, the guys will pretty much be in Turkey induced comas at that point, so the house will be fairly quiet. I’m working alone that shift as well, so I ought to get a lot written – even on the holiday.

So there ya go. I have no excuses for not catching up over the next four days. I need to do about 4K words a day to break even, however. Yikes!  My best days were on the 7th and the 15th: 3,766 and 3,638 words respectively. Now I have to break both those records for four days straight. Wish me luck!

NaNoWriMo Days 9-12

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Day 9 – 645 words

Days 10 and 11 – Nothing

Day 12 – 1,150

Total so far: 14,573

Yeah, I’m wa-ay behind. Between writing up a co-op lesson, helping my kid get his video ready for his film-making class, taking a sick kitty to the vet and putting together the “Yes, You Can Be Published (For Free)” course for Tuesday night, I haven’t had a whole lot of time or energy to do much writing. And to make matters worse, Tuesday night into Wednesday morning I’m working an 11 pm to 7 am shift at a new  house in Penfield. This means class will wrap up at 8:30 pm (or so), and then I’ll be crawling back outta bed by 10:30 to run down to Penfield to stay up all night. Oh yeah, I’ve really thought this through.

On a positive note, I have the rest of Wednesday and all day Thursday off. I hope to rest and finally get some words cranked out. My son will, doubtless, want to watch a “guy flick” with me on Thursday, but I should have quite a bit done before that time.

The bright spot is that Tree of Liberty has now (finally!) passed the 50K mark, and once it’s done, I’m gonna be looking for some BETA readers. I’ve got a few in mind, provided that they leave me reviews once I post it on Amazon. I may yet do the same thing with Topheth.

I’ve been rethinking my overall publishing strategy – as in, actually developing one for 2013. I hope to actually plan out my launch and marketing rather than just dumping the books on the market without any regard for when or how I might try to sell them. Yes, this means a slight delay for the books I’m currently completing, but I believe it’ll work in my favor overall to do things a little more deliberatively.

And So It Begins…

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Yay! It’s National November Writing Month!

Egads! It’s National November Writing Month! One thousand, six hundred sixty seven words a day for thirty days straight.

The good news is: I finished the new outline for Tree of Liberty, which means I should be well positioned to git er done before the end of the month. The bad news is: between Tree and Topheth, I’ve got about 55,000 words needed to finish both books. Thus, I’m going to be busy. Very busy.

And, of course, nothing changes during November. I still have to work full time. We still have a major holiday to contend with. I still have to produce a sermon for church every week (and no, none of that writing counts towards NaNo.). And I still have co-op lessons to write.

On top of that, I’ll be teaching my course on how to publish independently at the Webster Public Library on Tuesdays, November 13 and 20 from 6:30-close.

At any rate, if you want to follow my progress, you can check how I’m doing here on the blog, or at IndieAuthors.com, where I’ll be posting daily updates.

Planning Ahead…

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So I’ve agreed (in principle, at least) to use this year’s NaNoWriMo to finish The Tree of Liberty and Topheth… and if I have any time left in December, to wrap up In The Widening Gyre as well.

The Tree of Liberty has been giving me particular fits. I don’t want to give anything away, but let’s just say the whole thing feels like I’ve been swimming through mud. It just doesn’t have that particular urgency to it that I expect it to have. Thing is, I know exactly where this story is going and how the whole series ends, but I’m just sorta stuck right now.

There are two things I’m going to try, beyond just plowing through it in November. One, I want to strip the whole thing back down to outline (and I’ve never outlined a Jefferson’s Road story before), and see if I can’t figure out how to speed things up. The second is an insight my son gave me last night (And I don’t know how he recognized this). In the first two books, my main character, Peter Baird, is primarily reacting to what’s going on around him. He does act and make choices, of course, but he’s essentially a reactive character. In this book, I’ve been using him more as an actor, less as a re-actor (there’s a nuclear joke in there somewhere. Like, maybe that’s why the book has no energy? Guffaw.). So maybe the character himself has been resisting what I’ve been trying to do with him. It’s something to consider, at least.

Topheth is steaming along fine. I should have no real problems finishing it… so long as I can keep the heat on (shameless pun).

In the meantime, I’ve finally started successfully outlining the next Jonathan Munro Adventure. I’ve been wanting to do a story that takes place in Russia called The Music of The Spheres, but until this morning, I just didn’t have a good sense of what happens. But I picked up my pen and paper around 10:00 this morning, and now I’ve got almost six handwritten pages of outline done, with lots and lots of stuff happening that’ll keep it going right on till the end, I expect. This is good, because the second Jonathan Munro book comes out next Spring, and I wanted to have a third one ready to send off to my editor as soon as it does. This will give me a head start for the new year, and I should be able to get the whole thing finished in plenty of time.

So for the rest of the day, I’ll be writing up the outline for The Music of The Spheres, and then tearing into The Tree of Liberty.

As an aside, in a few weeks I’ll be teaching a class on Tuesday nights at the Webster Public Library for how to publish independently. We’ll be meeting in the common area on November 13th and November 20th from 6:30 on. The cost is $20 apiece if you want to attend, but I’ll basically be teaching how to design covers, publish, and promote online. It’s the same material I’m presenting in our homeschooling co-op, just taught in two, two hour sessions instead of eight thirty-five minute classes.

Dude, Where’ve You Been?

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I received this email from a friend this morning, and thought I’d share it with you:

Dude… where’s the writing/publishing updates?

I need to know what’s going on with my writing friend’s authoring endeavors (perhaps because I may somewhat slightly a teensy bit be living vicariously through said endeavors?)  🙂 🙂

Anyway … why is it so quiet on the website?

Hope all is well. And that you’re still selling many books.

And finishing the third book in the Jefferson Road series……….

🙂

Greg

This is what I sent in reply (slightly edited for personal content):

I’m still plugging away at stuff. Concentrating mainly on Topheth (Coppersmith sequel) and previously mentioned JR. Just figured out a major plot point in JR this morning (I do my best writing in the shower for some reason).

The book sales have petered off since the first major push of September. I’m needing reviews on the next two books (Spilled Milk and Eye of Darkness) before I can do any more formal promoting (something about five reviews needed minimally, though my publicist wants ten for the next one we promo. Yikes!).

So I’m just concentrating on getting something new finished. I’ve also been helping a friend with his book covers and formatting. He’s leaving his publisher and going indie, so I’ve been commissioned to assist. It’s good for a couple hundred bucks.

I plan on NaNoing this year (from NaNoWriMo – National November Writing Month and the attempt to crank out 50K words in 30 days), so I’ll use that time to get one or both of these books off my plate.

Other than that, I’ve been doing a lot of home repair. Just finished reinstalling a sump pump in the basement. The seal on the previous pump’s motor broke, and the entire motor housing got contaminated with water. Electric motors and water don’t mix. Anyway, they had an older pump down there that the motor still worked, but the pump fan was damaged. I repaired it with JB Power Weld and reinstalled. Hope it works!

So between housing repairs (washer, dryer, sump and vacuum cleaner), and overtime, I haven’t gotten a lot written. But I am still writing!

How ’bout you? What’s new on the homefront?

– Michael

Yes, it’s true, I’ve been somewhat absent from the site for a while. I should add that I’ve also begun the next installment on The Dragon’s Eye Cycle. Spending time with that when the main projects are just getting a little too frustrating. The advantage of fantasy is that I don’t have to do that much research as with other books.

The other thing I’ve realized – and this is essentially true of the Jefferson’s Road series, is that every new book gives me less and less freedom than the book before. The previous works constrain me in ways that a new novel doesn’t. I have to ensure that I’m maintaining consistency throughout, and the more I write, the harder this gets. My hat goes off to others who’ve done this and done it well (JK Rowling comes to mind – radically different genre, of course, but still: seven sequential books that have to remain consistent with the previous installments, or there’s hell to pay!)

At any rate, I hope to have some new material for y’all soon!