My Dream Office

Last night I had this really amazing dream that I was at a video game and comic book store with a friend of mine. For some reason I dream about video game stores and dvd rental places a lot. Anyway, in this dream the video games were all older games and they were displayed on the most beautiful set of shelves that I had ever seen. One of my dreams as an author has always been that I could get my own office with a beautiful bookshelf, where I could display not only my books but also the books that I love to read. I also would love one of those cool ink pens with a crown on the top, and some super nice work space for my desk. I would have a dry erase board in the office. I love dry erase boards, they help me when I am working on a novel. I would also have assorted artwork. I have never really owned any artwork, or had any artwork that I was in love with displayed in any of my homes. I guess that my dragons could count as artwork that I loved, but I also want artwork done by other people. It amazes me what other people can come up with and I have always been an art lover. I would also have some things in there which display my nerdy side. I love funko pop vinyls and had started to collect them. I had four of them Stitch from Lilo and Stitch was my first and Raphael from TMNT was my second and they would go in there for sure (the other two were the TMNT van with Mikey driving and Leo from TMNT, but I gave them back to my ex so I would have to rebuy them). I would want a few disney ones as well and some comic book related pop vinyls. I would get the ones from Supernatural and the Walking Dead as well. I would also make sure the office was very colorful. I love colorful things, they fuel my creativity. I would have at least one dog bed in my office because my dogs like to go wherever I am and I am sure they would want to be in the office with me. The dog bed would probably be pink because my dogs are girls and I also really like the color pink.

My blog does not equal my book

I don't know why I feel the need to post this. No one has questioned my blog or my writing, but I just wanted to make a post about my blog and how it differs from my writing. My blog is not polished. I have not read and reread my blog hundreds of times. I write my blog more from my emotions and need to connect with people who may like my writing more than anything else. My writing is polished. I've read and reread my own work many times. I've edited. I've thought about the story and if I like the direction it's going. I've written and rewritten chapters. I've deleted things or added them. I know it's not perfect. It's my first book, but I've put effort into it. Not that I haven't put effort into blogging. I try to blog everyday. I try to blog about things people might find interesting about writing, but my blog is different than my writing. There are typos, it's far from perfect, but if it helps me connect with urban fantasy readers than its all it needs to be.

Do I need a website?

Right now I'm not getting a lot of views, but I think if I had a website I might get a few more. I don't really know how to build a website, but I'm sure if I found the right book I could. I read that having a website makes it easier for search engines to notice you. I'm not sure if the search engines are picking me up now, but I think it would be nice to have a bigger audience. I just don't know if having a website is better than having social media.

Word Count

I had been avoiding doing a word count on the novel I'm about to release. Well, it's more like a novella. I know it was going to be short, but I had no idea how short. 16,884 words 89,861 characters. Is that even a novella, or just a short story? How can I justify selling it? I've worked really hard on it, although I did let life get in the way. I know the word count may change since I am still doing edits, but I don't think it'll change that much. The average novella is 30,000. It's still a story, it's still complete. I just don't think I can add words unless they add to the story. I do have a few parts I'm going to edit, a few things I've decided to add, but I'm not sure how many words that will add up to. I'm just so nervous about my novella. I should have googled word count before I started writing, but I didn't want it to effect my story.

How can I draw in more attention?

I've been thinking about the marketing part of self publishing a lot lately. I know when you self publish you are more than just an author. Your job is doing everything that needs to be down for the book. Promotions, giveaways, advertisements, paying for ads, paying for covers, paying for editing, asking people to review your book. It's all up to you, and it's a big job. How would I be able to get my name out there? I know I will have to make a facebook page soon. I was also thinking about making business cards and giving them to people that I come across who actually want to read my work. I don't have much money to put into self publishing, so I would like to focus on the things that will pay off for me. I think the reviewers are the most important part of self publishing, but how do I approach them? When is the right time? Do I approach them now, or when my book is on sale? I just feel a little lost when it comes to marketing.

Book Quotes

Whenever I visit the library or Barnes and Noble I can't help but notice that there are author quotes on the covers of some books. Well, I guess some are from authors and some are from other reviewers. I never see any quotes on the covers of Indie books. Probably because as an indie book seller you're rely on yourself. I don't know if the books would sell any better if they had quotes on them. I've never personally bought a book because of a quote, but I usually do read the quotes if they are from authors I like. I usually just want to know what the author I like had to say about the book I'm reading. I do consider reading a book if my favorite author has blogged about it/reviewed it. I usually don't see this in indie, and maybe it's because I'm not looking in the right places, but I think indie authors should help each other. I'm not published yet (soon, I promise), but I know when I do publish there won't be as much of a support system for me. There's not a publisher/editor/person in marketing to do all the difficult stuff. I have to do it all myself. It would be nice if the indie authors joined together in the same way the traditionally published ones do. Would building personal relationships, providing a quote for another indie author, and re tweeting each other sell more copies of our books? I know I'm not published yet and don't know how the publishing/marketing part of this works, but I've always admired the relationship some of my favorite traditionally published authors share with each other.

Query letters

Before I decided that self-publishing was the route for me, I tried to find an agent. I made a lot of mistakes looking for an agent, mainly trying to find an agent before my work was finished. I don't think I ever told any of the agents I emailed that my work wasn't complete, I just figured having a deadline would help me rush the story. I was so poor at the time that I saw the idea of an advance as a tiny miracle, so I guess that's part of the reason I was so eager to get my work out there. I probably ended up in a few slush piles by sending out my unedited mess of a project. I remember querying Nancy Yost twice. She was the agent that I really wanted. She represented some of the authors I liked reading and I thought that my work fit the same catagory. She said that my query letter was nice, but my project wasn't for her. I was crushed, but now I know what a mess my work was. I got some other responses from other agents, but most of them didn't stick with me. There was one agency that responded and adressed me by my character's name! I thought that was disrespectful, and that's when I gave up querying. I haven't sent a query since 2009. I don't know if I kept any of the responses, but I probably didn't. I felt so disappointed each time I got a response and it was negative, but in all honesty, my work was nowhere near ready. I needed to grow as a writer before putting my work out there for the universe to see. I still need to grow as a writer and will always need to grow. Anyway, I found one of the old queries that I wrote and decided to share it here.


In the short time that I’ve been querying literary agents, I’ve learned a little about sending query letters. Query letters are a lot like job interviews, while I’m not going to get every job I apply for, I have to prepare myself as much I can, in hopes that each letter I send might be the one that gets me “hired“. I’ve gotten form rejection letters before, but I writing is a lot like trying on clothes, if the story isn‘t a good fit for the author it‘ll show in their writing, and honestly what I previously queried probably wasn’t a right fit for me yet. I needed time to grow as a writer and find a story that was right for me. I think I’ve finally found my right fit, a story I couldn’t get out of my head until I sat down at my computer and wrote it. The title is the story is Angel’s Blood, and it’s about a half-vampire, half-angel, who struggles to maintain control as she seeks revenge for her sister’s death. I think the reason this character was so interesting to me is that she’s always having an inner struggle, since, despite being half-angel she has to earn her place in Heaven, of course, she’s already dead, but she can’t pass on until it’s her time. Here’s my synopsis, told from my main character’s point of view.

My thoughts on Amanda Hocking

It's hard to be involved in the self-publishing world without knowing who Amanda Hocking is. She got rich by self publishing young adult books similar to Twilight. I tried to read one of her books, but I couldn't. I think it just wasn't my cup of tea. I don't normally read young adult novels. I remember hearing about her sometime in 2011, when I first started to research self publishing. This was way before I decided to self publish. Her story was one of the reasons that I decided to self publish. Not because I think I could make a fortune doing so, but because I could control my publishing experience. I'm one of those people who likes to experience things for herself, even if I'm not successful. Every now and then I google Amanda Hocking to see what she's up to, and it seems like she's disappeared. No more blog posts, no more twitter remarks. Is she forgetting that her interactions with her fans are what made her so rich and somewhat famous? She got to live her dream because of people she now ignores. Maybe she doesn't have time for all the posting anymore, but she also has an attitude that I don't like toward her publishers. Someone at a publishing house sent her flowers and she dismissed them by saying they were from 'people'. She failed to mention that those people were now busting their butts to promote her stuff. Her old blog posts are mostly about her wanting to get published. She doesn't go into detail about why she decided to self publish. I think Amanda Hocking only made it so far because of her fans. She was able to reach out to the younger crowd and sell them a product they were looking for at the time. Her story is one about her fans more than it is about herself.

Blogging is a great tool that I don't know how to use.

I'm sure this translates through the current state of my blog, but I don't know how to blog. I don't know anything about layouts or what content I should include. I have no idea how much I should share. It's hard for me to share information with people I know offline, which makes it even harder to share with people I've never met. Not that anyone is reading this blog. I'd be surprised if anyone looked past the boring layout at all. Most of the traffic I get is probably from people browsing through blogs. This is all my fault. I could devote more time to researching layouts and what content I should include. Blogging is a great tool and can help me reach lots of readers, if I include the right content.

Do people shop the same way they review books?

Maybe I've been in retail for too long, but I think there's a link between the way people shop and the way they review books. I've recently been reading book reviews of authors who are self-published (like I plan to be). I wanted to know what I should expect when the time comes to release my book into the world. Every review I've read, the good, the bad, and the ugly, have all been like customers I've had. There's the customers that don't want to be bothered, they probably won't review at all. The customers who look at the item from every angle: the reviewers who pick the book apart. The customer who happily asks for suggestions: the reviewer who reads and comments on other people's reviews. I think the customers/reviewers who are open to suggestions are my favorites and that's probably the category I fall under when I shop or review. I'm always looking for something new to read so if you have any suggestions just leave a comment. There's the customer who knows what they want and often leave happy: the reviewer who reads the same types of books or authors all the time. Then there's my least favorite, the customer who finds a blemish and wants something free. This type of customer is equal to a review who isn't reviewing the actual book, but instead something like the font size or formatting. They don't actually review the book, but they do give it a negative amount of stars. I hate seeing that type of review for anyone's book, but I know I'm bound to get a few of those myself. Despite that, I'm still looking forward to starting my journey and living my dreams.

The job I want vs. the job I need

I can't recall a time where I applied for a job because I wanted it, and not because I was in need of a job or a bigger paycheck. As a result, I have grown unhappy with every job I've had in a matter of months. I always feel like I'm stuck and I need to get out there and find something better. I don't know how to explain it, just a feeling like I should be doing better. I know I could do better, but I've never been sure how to approach getting a job I actually want. To be honest, I'm not even sure I know what job I actually want. I had to pick a major when I attended college, but the major I picked isn't something I can see myself doing for the rest of my life. The only thing I can see myself doing for the rest of my life is writing, and I'm frustrated with myself for putting my writing off. I have a ebook that's already written, I just have to edit it, but I keep letting things get in the way. From work to my own laziness. I managed to beat the new pokemon game this month, but haven't put in any real time writing. I guess I feel like if I had a job that I actually enjoyed everything else would fall into place.

About my ebook

I realize that I haven't posted much about what my ebook is actually going to be about. I guess that's because I'm nervous to share. I actually started writing a zombie story, which I plan to finish, just not now. Then I came across a werewolf story I'd started a long time ago. I reread it and noticed that it had a better storyline. Without another thought I started editing it. I'm really pleased with the way it came together, so I decided that it should be the first ebook I release. So what is it about? Well it's not that short story that I linked to the top of my blog. That story was a school project from when my writing was young and immature. I've grown since then. I might go back and edit/complete that story, but if I do that will be my first young adult fiction. Right now I'm putting the finishing touch on a ebook about a werewolf named Anyssa who works for the FBI, her life is turned upside down when her ex-boyfriend is murdered and she's assigned to find the killer. Right now that's all I can say about it, but I am going to try to aim for a release date late this month or early next month. It all depends on how soon I can get a cover.

Nervous

I'm about to publish my first novel, but I'm nervous. I keep going over every detail,  trying to perfect it. I know it won't be perfect, and I know some people will hate it. I don't intend for anyone to hate it, that's just what happens with any piece of art. I feel like I'm ready for the reviews, both the good and the bad. To be honest, I only read bad book reviews so I know what to expect. There are some people who pick over everything they read, then they write a review telling you how miserable the book made them feel. I don't want reviews like that,  no author does. I'm nervous because this is going to be my first book. I'm still learning, and I will only learn more with each book I release. I plan to read as many of my negative reviews as I can, not because I want to punish myself,  because I can learn from them. The negative reviews will only make me a stronger writer.