Hello, all!
This week has been all over the place.
Of course, I shipped books to the winners of the giveaway. One even reviewed it for her blog, and put the review up on Goodreads. For those of you who don’t write, reviews are EVERYTHING to Indie authors.
So please, please, please, leave reviews.
Books aren’t typically cheap (except when they’re on sale, which Annabelle currently is *shameless plug*). So people look at reviews before buying, as they do with many other things. Reviews are make or break.
That being said, I was pretty nervous pulling up the review for Annabelle. It isn’t like feedback from beta readers, who point out issues before a work is published. If a reviewer finds a problem, it’s already too late to fix it.
Alas, I had no reason to stress. Five stars (out of five) is AMAZING! I was ecstatic. Ms. Roth said that Annabelle was full of “real and raw” emotion, that it’s “well written,” and makes you feel a lot despite its short length. Of course, its length is quite deliberate, which you’ll understand if you read it.
No spoilers here. Lol.
Anyway, I’m absolutely over the moon about it.
So, next time you read a book, take a second to leave a review. Unless the author is mega-millionaire receiving tons of reviews, they WILL see it. Somehow, some way. Lol. Be honest. We need to know if we messed up, and we need to know if we hit it out of the park.
That way we know what to do, or not do, in the future.
Anyway… *steps off soap box*
I was busy with advertising stuff, and shipping books, and pulling more overtime than usual at work, so I didn’t have another 9,000 word week. Shucks. Lol. I did get about 3,500 though. Which is still pretty good. I’m almost done with Salt and Silver, which will apparently be a novella.
But I now have plans for a follow-up novella, working title Sugar and Cinnamon, from the perspective of two other characters in that world, which will continue the story, as well as the potential for a third, depending on how the second goes. Given their status as novellas, I’ll probably lump them into one book, which I think I’ll call Tales of the Eternal.
Funny story about that plan, though. I briefly considered completely rewriting what i have of Salt and Silver. All because of one song.
You see, I listen to music while I work, and I came across “Various Storms and Saints” by Florence and the Machine while building tires. It seemed to perfectly embody one of the characters. Listening to it while thinking of that character…my mind started begging for a certain ending that I hadn’t at all intended.
The thought of scrapping it all, and starting over was daunting, to say the least. It took some real creativity to arrive at the ending I’ve come up with, now. It isn’t the one the song pulled up from the depths. It’s actually better, I think.
So, in the future, when that book is eventually published (as I intend all of them to be), remember that that song is Nolan’s song. Lol. I will listen to that song A LOT while writing Sugar and Cinnamon.
Anywho, it’s exciting to be drawing Salt and Silver to a close. Not to mention the fact that I’m almost done editing book one of the Regonia Chronicles.
After that, I’ll be moving into editing what I’ve got done of book two, before continuing to write it. I definitely needed the refresher, though. It’d been way too long for me to just pick it back up, and charge ahead. I had to reacquaint myself with the characters, their personalities, and their little quirks. Of course, I have notes, but getting back into their heads after so long demanded a reread.
Sorry for the winding, weaving nature of this blog. It just kinda happened that way, and that seems to be an accurate depiction of this past week.
So, I’m going to leave it this way.
Lol.
Keep reading. Keep writing.
Later.