Growing Pains of An Indie-Author

I'm still trying to navigate this overwhelming new world of marketing for writers, especially self-published writers like me.  There's so much to do that I have to keep a notebook and jot down all the notes, all the websites, all the tips that everyone else swears will work to promote your book - turns out I'm such a visual-kinesthetic learner that I have to actually jot down, scribble, sketch the ideas on paper before it makes its mark a bit more permanently than just plain reading or watching some how-to video on Youtube.   And while my notes are constantly growing, the toughest part will be the execution of these tips successfully.

And in the process of the execution, there will be mistakes.  And because I'm easily distracted, there will be lots of mistakes.

Take Loving Ashe for example, which is going through a re-release party of sorts in mid-November, when the paperback version will be released.

When I first published Loving Ashe, it was to no fanfare at all. Why? Probably just excitement, but part of the reason was that I wanted to gather reader reviews on sites such as Amazon and Goodreads, even Smashwords.  Then barely one month after publication, I made the decision (as an experiment) to have the book exclusive to a Amazon's Kindle Direct Select or KDP for 90 days.  I figured, I'd see if that would help increase my sales.  It's also part of the Kindle Unlimited lending library.

With only one month left to go in the 3-month term, I've un-checked the box that says "Automatically renew this book to KDP in another 90 days..." because while there are sales, right now 1 book per day and sometimes 2, when I went to check my Smashwords dashboard, I found out that I made more money selling Loving Ashe on iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and even Scribd in less than a month than I have on Amazon.

And I also hate having all my eggs in one basket.

There are also many people who refuse to buy from Amazon, and from among my bodywork clients alone, I've counted 6 people alone.  That's 6 sales I would have lost - and am losing - while my book remains solely on Amazon.

So starting November 10th, Loving Ashe will be back up on Smashwords and made available to other retailers like iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, though I think Scribd is out of the running if Loving Ashe is categorized under Romance since they've pulled out romance books from their library. Turns out, romance readers were driving their company model to the ground - they were gobbling up more books in a month than was financially feasible.  I'm actually a Scribd subscriber and one who barely has enough time to read any of the books that I've earmarked in my library. Most of the books I read on Scribd happens to be Charles Bukowski's poetry - go figure.

Anyway, so if you haven't yet gotten your copy of Loving Ashe because you refuse to buy it from Amazon, which is the only place you can get it right now, don't despair.  November 11 (hey, that's 11/11!) is the date it will go back up to all the other online retailers and I'll be doing a happy dance then, too.  Now my only problem is figuring out how to get the paperback available from sites other than Amazon.  But then you can always buy that from me :)

Juggling Life As A Writer, Or At For Least Me

One of my greatest weaknesses is the inability to juggle two things at once - like writing and being a mom.  Or writing and having a life outside of the writing in general.

On the outside I think I do a good job pretending I do know how to juggle all those things, but the truth is, I struggle.  I remember during the days when I was starting out my massage practice 15 years ago, I had to draw a pie chart which represented my overall life.  How much time was I going to devote to massage as a career, marketing it, hanging out with friends, being with family, and setting aside time for myself?

Strange that when I went into massage as a field, it was actually so that I'd have the flexibility to write - yet when I wrote that pie chart, writing never even made it in there anywhere because to me, setting aside time for myself = writing.  It was a no-brainer.  Taking care of myself didn't even involve getting myself a massage knowing full well that I was usually plotting out my novels while lying on the massage table pretending to relax.

After all, it's why I write - to sort out things in my life that I need to look into more and glean lessons from them.  It's a very roundabout way of solving problems, but that's the main reason I write - besides the escapist part of it, of course.  Who wouldn't want to live the life of the rich and famous, or solve mysteries while jetting in private planes, or stand before a packed Broadway theater and act their hearts out?

But now that writing has taken over most of the pie chart once reserved for my private massage practice which has now been relegated to a tiny tiny sliver to represent just being at my office once a week, how do I balance that with everything else?  These days I have a high-functioning 5-year old kid on the spectrum who should be getting a lot of therapy to address behavioral concerns, a house to look after and laundry to do, even meals to prepare.  There are playdates with other kids for the little one, and time with friends.

But with me being writer, blogger, marketer and all around juggler, it's hard to find the balance to be all that.  But I try.  It's the only thing I can do, really, while trying to find the time to blog about my book or about writing in general, even if I end up sounding like I'm whining like I am now, learn how to engage reviewers to read my book, or find the right book cover designers to convey the covers I want without having to waste any more money as I have on plain stock photo covers, and so much more.

Even my iPhone 6Plus, with its hundreds of organizing apps can't hold a candle to all the things I have to do without me needing to have a battery reserve somewhere in my purse amidst the snacks I have to take for my kid and myself. Hell, most days I even forget to eat.

It's an ongoing battle each and every day just to get everything done amidst the writing.  It's what gets me up at 7 in the morning, already working while still under the covers and dragging myself to bed at midnight or 1am just to get some shut-eye before the whole process starts again - and yet I'm behind, and most days, feeling like the lousiest parent on the playground.

I've even gotten myself notebooks again to write everything down just in case my beloved phone runs out of battery, and usually by 10 am, it's at 40% from all the writerly things I have to do on it while on the go.  Maybe that's why I'm still rambling right now instead of hopping in the shower and grabbing something to eat before picking up the kid from kindergarten and taking him to the Titanic exhibit just like I promised him last week (he reminds me these things because I think he's figured out how scatterbrained his mom is - and he's only 5).

Which reminds me - I so need to get a day planner again. But then, do they even sell them still?

The Morning After

It's the morning after I finished Collateral, my entry in SYTYCW15 competition and the delirium has finally subsided.  Reality has set in, and as I sit here in front of my laptop with its busted keyboard from too much writing and waiting for the coffee to kick in, I have only one thought in mind.

I'll never do that again.

Next time, instead of writing from scratch, and deliriously editing like crazy during the final days just to get to a decent word count, without even finishing the epilogue or last chapter of the novel, before hitting Complete while still wondering if the ending was right, I'm submitting a finished and edited work.  Not one that just got the NaNoWriMo first month treatment - nothing against NaNoWriMo as I've done it three years in a row but, well, you know what I mean.  I'm usually very attached to my characters but with this one, it feels like Heath and Billie were introduced to me and before I could warm up to them, they were quickly pushed out the door and out into the competition world to be judged.

So next time I hear of a writing competition, I need to go in prepared and just submit something that's already been polished.

Still, I really can't complain. I churned out a 90K+ novel in 88 days, pared down to 85K and after a bit of time away from it, I can return to it and start editing and adding in the bits and pieces that got left out from the rush.  The contest results don't even matter at all, because at the end of the day, I learned two things:

1. I learned how to do a blurb the right way.
2. I learned how to write according to a plot I had written down versus just pants-ing the story all the way. And for a self-admitted pants-er (converted from years of being an overdone plotter), that's a huge thing.  

So, I'm taking it easy the next couple of days, though there's still a lot of writing to do, as well as writing-related stuff.  I'm editing Loving Riley, my sequel to Loving Ashe, which I published in August, and while I finalize some things with the paperback version for Createspace, I'm working on a major change for Loving Ashe which I can't wait to share with you all soon.  

Date Night - A Short Story Collection

For me, writing short stories is a way to tease out the muses, new characters who come out of the cracks of my psyche. It’s a way to get to know them, to figure out the things they want to say. It’s an exploration of sorts - of new people, ideas, situations and their consequences, even sex (without having to write a full-length novella with sex in every chapter - though there’s nothing wrong with that). It’s a product of sitting too long in airports and standing in line at the coffee shop as a couple argues in the corner in silence, their eyes doing all the talking. Or even the lack of exchanges between peopleIt’s many things, and at the same time not so many.

After all, they say that all stories have been told, with the only differences in the telling. I don’t even know if these stories connect. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But if they have one thing in common, it’s falling in love, being in love, or starting over after falling out of love.

Date Night is my latest collection of short stories (five in this collection) which is now available from Amazon. These are stories between people who are just getting to know each other, or couples who’ve known each other too long, yet there’s something still there - love, passion, trust.