Happy Father’s Day

To every writer out there who is a father and to every reader who is one too

 

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!

 

May you get a chance to hang out and curl up with a good book on a bright and sunny day.

If not, there is always next year.

Terra

oh where did the time go

I walked out into the brisk night air and looked up at the sparkling stars.  My mind went back to last year when I stood up looking and dreaming of this year.  Now here I am looking and dreaming still of another moment.  Where did the time go?

Where did the whole year go?

Writing!  Drafts!  Yes, I was busy trying to get my novel done but it seems to have sped by without my novel being finished.  Now I dream of next year and its finished date.  I’m keeping it a secret this time but I’m dreaming of it.  Wishing it would get here.

I dream with one exception to last years dream.  Last year I was dreaming of the date but not the actual finished product.  This year is all about it being finished.  Crossing my fingers my dream comes true!

Terra

Looking forward to a day of writing and yeah work

I plan to write this morning, do some chores and head off to work this afternoon. I think the only thing I’m excited about is my writing.  Wonder how long this trend will last?  I know I have to really struggle through the next round of ‘writing sucks’ to finally get to be the writer I know I am.  It’s the hardest part for any author and it drives me crazy when my writing bug leaves and I’m left with the blahs.

No need to worry too much about it though as I’m pumped up and ready to hit the keys.

Morning Writing World!  Try to have an awesome day and get some writing done!  I will.  🙂

Terra

A network for writers… thought this might be of interest

Grammar-ease: Then versus than.

Michelle Proulx, my fellow author and her wonderful blog!

iUniverse Royalty Report (Jan-Mar 2013).

Kickstarter.. to Kick it or not?

So here I am working on a novel as I have been for years.  I start to think of all the work I’ve done and am going to do and it freaks me out.  I want it to be a success.  I want my novel to be read and talked about like every author out there.  I want.

So how to do that?

I know I need money to do ads.  I need to get the word out about my novel once its done.

Money.

Yep, it boils down to money.  I have nothing left after bills so having a budget is like having a fancy fast car right now.  Not going to happen.

Next comes in Kickstarter.  Could I do something up to get people to help me out?  Can I get the ad money by launching myself as an author with more than a novel?  I guess, maybe.  Big maybe.  I would have to come up with something like an item or web-based idea to get people to back me.  I don’t think ads alone are really what Kickstarter is about but I haven’t read the fine print to know.

Anyone out there ever done Kickstarter or something similar?  Much luck?  What are the rules?

To kick or not is the question.  My answer is far from concrete at this point with the novel still in process mode.  I’ll let you know when I do.  In the meantime, please comment or link me to other sites or blogs on this.  Love to learn as I keep pounding my fingers against the keyboard.  tap, click, tap, tap…….

Terra

Self Pusblishing Overhead Nightmare

Overhead is the money you put into writing and selling your book.  This includes things like the programs used to write it, ads you did to sell it or money given to an outside company to sell it for you.

Why does this matter?

Let’s say you made $1.00 on every $2.00 book you sold.  You sell 100 books.  Great you made $100.  Yes you did but in company standards you have to look at how much you spent to make the 100.  So let’s say you used a program to write the book and it cost you $20.   And here are a few other things you spent money on.

Program $20

Company to print up 50 books at $1.00 a piece… cost $50.

Ads to do yourself…. $50.

Company you used to put your book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other hot spots online… $100.

This isn’t really even close to true costs but in this example your total spent money on this book would be $220.  So if you only made $100, you would have lost $120 you didn’t make back yet.  You’re losing money big time.

Tons of self published authors forget this side of things and shouldn’t as it really is important to understand how much bang for your buck you’re getting.  If you used a company and didn’t make over how much they cost, don’t use them again.  If you did an ad and it didn’t get you more sales, try a different one next time.  Pay attention to how much your spending up front and how much your selling, over all you always want to sell more than you spend to sell it.

So far for me… my overhead is pretty low.  Granted I’m in the hole because I haven’t finished it yet and haven’t sold anything but my overhead at this point is under $50.  If I get a website, that has to go into my overhead money so I will have to make sure it will be worth the extra cash before deciding to do one.  I have my word press blog and that is free! 🙂  I have my word of mouth from those around me, that is free.  I plan to do some ads when I finally finish the darn thing but I want to keep my ad money under $100.  I know really low but I want to make sure I’m getting a good return on the money I spend first before putting out more money.

Blog about how much your overhead has been, how much you’ve made and what you might do different next time to avoid the high up front costs or how you might change it up to make more money next time.  It would be great to read how we as authors are learning about overhead, up front costs and what is working and what isn’t.

Terra

Layoffs and writing

No I didn’t get laid off as of yet.  At my job, there has been some layoffs due to a slower work situation but that seems to be working for me.  The lack of voices and friends to chat away break time is allowing me writing time at work.   I eat my meal by myself and grab the pen.  I scribble out some words or description of the scene.  I write it all over again and so forth.  Not bad considering I did well at keeping my breaks in check and wrote a third into the chapter I was working on.  I did two drafts of the part of the chapter too which was the bonus on the cake.

I have the next two days off so the plan…and it is a loose plan at that… is to finish up the two drafts and chapter.  Afterwards, I plan to plug it in and see what my word count is at.  So hoping in a few days there will be a drum roll, excited eyes and a few yells from the guests who visit about my new word count.

Crossing my fingers for somewhere between 54,000 and 57,000.   Anything higher will get a yell or two from me! 🙂

Terra

life biting at me

well, maybe not life itself but the writer in me has been gnawing at me the last few days.  Nothing painful but a reminder; a memory of liking to write at one point.  It keeps making me look at my reference stuff, my novel in its printed out form shoved in a binder and my notes.  My eyes look and a faint desire to write sparks and fads in me.

Than I do what most writers do at this moment, play a game.  Silly yes but true.  Most writers and yes, I fall into the most type, fail to heed to the spark.  They spend countless hours on Facebook, playing some random video game or reading someone else’s work.  They daydream up the fame, the reviews and peer envy.  They wish for more and do little to create it.  That is me in sentence form.  A ball of wishes, a desire to success and an overwhelming lack of follow through.  Maybe later, maybe tomorrow, maybe …

So as I get ready for work, the spark fads again and filters into the mass memories of other almost writing moments.  I do wonder if I ever take a few seconds to act on the spark would life be different.  Would my wishes become my life?  Would my fear turn to strength?  Or would I blend into the world of a million self published random writers who poured their lives into words and watched the readers pass them by for more mainstream books?

Terra

rain and cold

what a blah day.  I would think it might be good for writing if I didn’t feel stuffed up, out of it and tired.  I would have, could have done so many things today.  Now the moment is just a past memory of wishing as it fads into the background of my life.  Maybe tomorrow before work will be a better day if I can shake this stuffed up nose… I can hope.

Terra