Amazon Pre-Order is Up!

That escalated rather quickly... I had no idea the pre-order would be ready so soon! I don't know whether I should be excited, scared or both but Ahhhh! It has begun. Now to let the world know!

Kobo:

iBooks:

Pre-Orders

Well, I've done it. I've officially signed up to have Crashing Into Me available for pre-orders but I did it for a different reason than most. I needed a way to get my scheduling in order as procrastination valley has been the town I've hibernated in the last few weeks. Its been hard but I'm fighting my way out of it. With this new anvil hanging over my head, I will HAVE to finish and get to my editor in time for not only the Feb 14th release, but for a very special opportunity to have them passed out during the award sows this year. What an amazing opportunity! I can't let my sadness, overwhelm me and take my focus off of what I need to d. So come hell or high water, this is it. In three days it will available on:

Nook
Amazon
iBooks
Kobo
24Symbols
Page Foundry
Scribd
 and Tolino!

Happy New Year

Its been a few weeks since i've updated. Had a loss in the family that was pretty devastating, so I took a few weeks off. Now its time to get my head back in the game and get this thing as finished as I possibly can, before I start school and other projects. Here's to a better 2017!

Alan Thicke

I took a day off from doing anything yesterday when I heard the news that Alan had died. I worked with him a month ago to the day that he passed. I'm still in shock as he was a very kind, sweet and encouraging person to meet. He had a presence about him that was joyful and welcoming, just so easy going and fun to be around.  Knowing that a few days ago, he reached out to give me and a friend supportive words and I didn't get to respond, hurts so much. He will surely be missed. Rest In Peace.
😢

To Amazon, or not to Amazon...

While I'm hammering away on my edits, I'm still perusing the forums where a lot of discussion has to do with Amazon rules, sales, tricks and trades and even with all of these things, the market there seems so saturated and a lot of indie Authors report dismal if any sales. After watching a video from a best selling indie author, she advised to start elsewhere for the reasons I mentioned above.
I'm considering it, but also am not wanting to NOT, have my book available at every possible venue I can get it in...I wonder how many indie's have tried this?  Would it be silly or strategy and if there is a strategy, what is it?!

Birthday celebration and loong chapter

Well i took some time to de-stress a little and celebrate a couple loved ones birthdays. I did work an hr or so over the weekend, but this chapter is by far the longest. Also i'm finding myself re wording sentences and adding content and I think it will help. Anyway....Still on chapter 5 of 20 and hope to be done before Christmas Eve. My new goal to release is the week before Valentines day since its unlikely I'll be anywhere near my December 20th deadline. Onward!

Book Banner!

Alright so my book banner has been completed by an awesome lady Author Alexis Wills (www.authoralexiswills.com) and I couldn't be more happy with the result! Check it and her out as she has a new book coming out this month and it looks steamy! On to chapter 4!

Book Tours, Beta Readers and Reviews oh my

As I continue the tedious process of printing and physically reading and editing each chapter, I've also been doing more research as well as reading and socializing on the front of promotion more. I didn't know there was such an art form and taboo a subject as it relates to reviews.
I didn't know there were different rankings of reviews, verified vs non on Amazon, then you have Goodreads and there own criteria as well as bloggers who will review if you send a free copy, or in some instances pay for the review. Then there's Kindle free days and a whole algorithm to try and figure that out to your benefit.

And what exactly is a book blog tour? I'm not all together sure yet. I know what a regular book tour is, but I find the blog kind really fascinating and quite fun. You can cover alot more ground and get so much exposure on an electronic level that perhaps a limited physical tour would get you if im correct in my assumption, but i could be wrong...on to chapter 3

Okay

Ya know the slang term "Pimpin' ain't easy"? Same goes for the self publishing process. I was lucky to stumble upon a fellow Goodreads member's review of a book on self publishing: "Navigating Indieworld: A Beginners Guide to Self Publishing and Marketing Your Book" by J.A Gerber, and Carol P. Roman (Say that four times back to back) and got it last night.

 I whizzed through the first 4 chapters before I realized i still had my polishing to finish up so I printed the first chapter, read it, FOUND MISTAKES my computer eyes apparently missed, fixed those, read it out loud, rewrote some sentence structure, and will edit the first chapter according to what is on this physical page. That took two days roughly because I re-read what I did last night, made a few more tweaks and am satisfied with the new chapter flow now. If I can knock out 2 or three chapters a day, I may be able to keep my schedule but who knows... I'm honestly flabbergasted at the difference between reading your material on paper versus the computer and the things you catch... On to chapter two!

Book Cover done

Now that I've FINALLY decided on a Book Cover and title, I'm well into attacking my edits. In a perfect world, I'd love to have this thing released before Christmas or Valentines day the latest, but really in 15 days, I would like to try and make it happen. I've spent so long fretting over every detail, afraid to take the plunge, that I just want to pull the bandaid off already and join the Indie Author Club.....but I still want to make sure I put my best foot forward. If anyone knows good editors, beta readers etc, please share!

Polishing. One. Last. Time

I can't help it. I'm going to jump into editing chapter by chapter  for the final time before i send it off to the editor, and say a prayer. I'm still having trouble with the book cover too. Found some options, some pricey but BEAUTIFUL work, some OK, and then there's what I can do with my own computer. The important thing is that the actual novel is stellar, but as I mentioned in a previous post, people are drawn to the outside first. If that doesn't happen, it wouldn't matter what the pages say. Off to obsess a little more, until next time!

Final Draft?

So it's done. Done enough that I would feel comfortable handing it to an editor, or beta reader for input, before submitting to Kindle or Draft 2 Digital. I have created a checklist for things I still want to go over though:

* A better book blurb
*Scene descriptions
*Am I sold on the new title, or should I keep searching (I know sounds weird, but the story is complex and I want to be subtle, yet have it personify as much as possible)
*Book Cover: Do I just pay to have it done again, or use what I have?

I'm ready to get it out into the world, I am, but I don't want it to be a flop. I guess by now you can tell I have no mentors or other author friends to help guide me on this anxiety train, but I have to push on either way, right?
Hoping to have this list checked of by end of day so I can copyright, and start contacting beta readers and book blogs for possible reviews. Wish me luck and send me Tums!

Where has the time gone? Well, to put it quite simply, I put my book down for the most part to focus on a different business venture that eventually wasn't the business for me. Lot's of time and energy went into something that I should have been dedicating to my craft, HOWEVER, I have learned a GREAT deal and can apply what I've learned, moving forward.
I didn't completely just put my book down, I have gone over it from the beginning and done edits and re-writes over time, which thankfully, has improved the overall story, and for that I'm happy. I find that after taking a hiatus, I catch things all the time that I can make better so in that respect I'm happy I didn't run to to hit the "Publish" button. It wouldn't have served me well if I want to be taken seriously.

All that said, once I "finish" (lol) this last draft, I'm off to find an editor, or someone who can help me improve it even more, as I'm SURE, there are things that will need improving. I have other titles swimming around in my head, some I've started, others I'm playing out in my mind first, before I jump head first into another project. I will be keeping up with this blog on a daily or semi-daily basis, until this is complete. I also changed the name of the book as well as the book cover. I'm still undecided.
I've been told the last, book over gave too much away, then I created a new one, which just looked plain boring to me, then another that would grab someones attention, but I feel may give the wrong impression about what it's about. Ugh, being a creator is tough business. I'll post the pictures below for feedback if anyone ever finds this, lol. Until next time....

1. Boring: When you read the story, the graphic makes all the sense in the world, but does it say "You HAVE to pick me up and read me?" Not in my opinion.

2. This next one catches the eye, BUT, the story is much more than just what he represents. Or am I overthinking? 

UPDATE 12/6/16: I took the time and recreated the cover myself as well as changed the title and its going to stay this way. Hopefully others will like it as well.

Chapter One revision number 7

So I'm learning that nothing in writing is never finished. My genre is mainly screenwriting and its become the norm to need to revise a script for any number of reasons making it never really finished, no matter how much you pour your heart into it. I'm learning the same is true for fiction writing. As a matter of fact, I think fiction writing is much harder. For the screen you cant bog a script down with too much detail or no one will want to read it. In novels if your lacking in description no one will want to read it. For me being neurotic and my worst critic, no matter how good a chapter may be to someone else, i have to find a better way to do it. So i updated the Wattpad again, and updated the first few paragraphs on the blog under the tab The Haven to reflect the changes I've made. Granted no one reads this blog, and if they do, they certainly don't comment, but its OK. I will chalk it up to one day when the books ARE being read and people MIGHT be interested on the beginnings, they will have a detailed road map to my insanity and get to know me better on their own time. In the meantime though, its time to obsess about chapter 2 and 3.

The battle of Chapter One

I had posted this chapter on Wattpad but it bugged me to no end. Something just wasnt right with it, so I redid it. And I redid it AGAIN, and finally I polished it and posted it again. The rest of the book is OK, but this first chapter has plagued me for weeks. I hope its ok and if you want to read it check it out on Wattpad.

Cover Design

I've been working with a really talented guy who has done book covers for 11, yes 11 best sellers right now on amazon. So far everything is looking great and I cant wait to see the finished product!!!!

Editing Process

So after finally being able to validate my word count for NanoWriMo, its onto editing which i intentionally put the manuscript down for a few days to allow me to go over everything with fresh eyes. I'm taking it one chapter at at time and so far I'm loving what I'm adding.

The 50k words are great for the meat of the story I want to tell but that's not balanced enough. Its time for the salad and potatoes to go with it. My hope is to be fully done before Christmas, but with Nursing school and finals coming up, I'm gonna have to put this down once again to ensure I pass.

We will see how it goes and then it'll be off to an actual editor if possible. If not I will take the time to edit myself with a fine tooth comb before I get ready to release this thing. Crossing my fingers!

I did it!

Your Average Per Day

3,713 

Words Written Today

4,274 

Target Word Count

50,000

Target Average Words Per Day

1,667

Total Words Written

51,994 

Words Remaining

0

Current Day

14 

Days Remaining

17

Goal Achieved On

November 14, 2014

Words Per Day To Finish On Time

0

And Im not done yet! By the time Im done I should be close to 55k and then of course there is the editing and rewriting and more description of course. Hopefully i can do all this the rest of the month and hit my target of 75 to 80K. So excited!

Holy Moly 41K

Your Average Per Day

3,445 

Words Written Today

523 

Target Word Count

50,000

Target Average Words Per Day

1,667

Total Words Written

41,348 

Words Remaining

8,652

Current Day

12 

Days Remaining

19

At This Rate You Will Finish On

November 15, 2014

Words Per Day To Finish On Time

456

I have less than 9k words left before the first draft of The Haven is completed! I cant believe how fast this was. I have a TON I'm gonna have to do to get it perfect though and I plan to write an additional 30 K if the story permits. I'm not in the business of fluff. I would often skip whole chapters in books because of it. To me back story is awesome if it is pivotal to what my character is going through RIGHT NOW.

If it doesn't enhance the story it detracts from it and "aint nobody got time for that" lol

Almost at 30K!

I'm almost there with more than half my goal already finished and it's no where near November 30th yet. This is exciting! Even though the draft is rough, and it still needs to be edited and revised, the hardest part is almost done! In a few weeks I should hit my goal of 75K!

I've also been reading tons of advise about word count and how important it is, but also how not to get too caught up in that either. The word count should be secondary as along as you tell the story in the way it needs to.

I like that idea and it makes me less likely to just write for the sake of seeing a page full of letters, rather than telling an honestly good story, that captures my readers and refuses to let go.