The Art of Deadlines

My Kindle Worlds titles are officially no longer available on Amazon. We all knew it was coming, but I didn't know that I would also be getting a parting ding to my author ranking to go along with it:

So with Kindle Worlds officially kaput, I've been thinking about all of my new projects in progress. My mind doesn't focus on characters or linger on plots twists, but delves into the business side of writing. The next project needs a good launch, so I have been considering giving myself a hard deadline to get it out. I always set deadlines for myself, but the thing with being a freelance writer working on your own projects is that all of your deadlines end up being soft. This is because you pick up a new client, you suddenly get swamped with one-time gigs, or you simply don't feel that your project is quite ready yet. And there's no one to hold you accountable for your deadlines--unless you announce them to the world.

I'm considering putting the next project on pre-order so that I have a hard deadline to meet. It also helps so I can work with all of the marketing options that could generate buzz, and so I know that I'm continuing to move forward with my career. The only question is: which project will it be? Right now it's a toss up between Pieces, which is being released in pieces (ha ha) on Patreon and Wattpad. Putting this project on pre-order for the ebook would give me a strong deadline to complete it, but the problem with this one is that I still don't know how long it will be. I always aim for 100 pages for a poetry project, so I still have awhile to go. And since this project was released for free, I would need to come up with some sort of additional value for grabbing the completed book other than the convenience of having it in one place.

I could also go with something totally new--maybe even something that I've never talked about before. I don't actually think I have a project I've never talked about, but you never know when inspiration will strike!