From Where I Sit

The world is still full of unease. All of last week, that steady stream of unease was impacting my ability to write. Yes, I was able to complete all of my day job work--content writing/marketing is muscle memory now. But when it came to anything else, including just journaling for myself, I couldn't find the words. I've adjusted my outlook and pushed through to get back to writing, but the unease will stick around for a while no matter what.

I couldn't help but add to my own general unease. I took a look back at some of the content I've written, and I realized that it has a long way to go before it sells. I've been creating content for businesses such a gyms, event venues, and trade show display companies in the past few weeks. Since I write on spec, I'm pretty sure these now-closed businesses are going to need some time before they need this content. I've focused on picking up assignments for businesses that are still going strong content-wise, which has led to a good amount of content writing on the topic of content writing itself. The good news is that I can work all day long if I want. The not-so-good news is businesses may not need it. That's the situation, and it's out of my hands. I know eventually it will change, but it's the not knowing when this will end that makes a lot of what I do seem futile. But I've got good news anyway:

Entire Catalog on Sale

Since there aren't many things I can control these days, I decided I would work with what I did have control over. From now until April 30, my entire catalog of ebooks will be on sale for $0.99 each. That includes Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers. At Smashwords, I'm participating in the Authors Give Back sitewide promotion, which discounts the book 30%, but if you still want to get it for $0.99, use the code QJ78B at checkout. My universal book links will get you where you need to go:

If It Was New York, Summer 2009: https://books2read.com/u/mBro0O
Seeing What Develops: https://books2read.com/u/3k0WzL
Unfolding Life: A Book of Haiku: https://books2read.com/u/4DAAvQ

The Life and Times of a House Detective -- Episode 1 Now Available

In addition to the $0.99 sale, I've also released the first episode of my detective serial. It is available for free in a handful of formats including epub and PDF. You can download it from my Patreon post, or you can download it from Prolific Works. If you like it, let me know and I might get writing on episode 2 a little faster.

That's what I have for this week. What are you doing to stay writing and stay sane through these strange days?

News and Notes from the Writing Desk: March Edition

March is roaring in like the MGM lion. So here's what's up around here:

My February Experiment

February was dedicated to the fine art of marketing. I marketed myself, my online work, my works in print. Did I see a significant increase in any metric that would point to better conversions and more sales? Eh. Not really. I did all of these things on a small scale, but from what I see, there was little benefit from the time I spent. A few more views on articles, no new patrons, no jump in sales. At this point, if I want to see real results, I've got to throw a little cash at the problem. It's time to formulate a strategy so I can maximize my money and my effort in the next round.

NY09 Now on Smashwords

I've been trying to expand my reach with my last published work, so I've uploaded If It Was New York, Summer 2009 to Smashwords. It is currently available in their store. I was just notified that it didn't pass the expanded distribution tests (who wants to mess with a table of contents?), but I was only planning on distributing to other library systems that Draft2Digital didn't have. Otherwise, the book is still available at all major ebook retailers worldwide. (By the way, library borrows put the same or slightly more royalties in my pockets than individual sales, so check me out from your local branch's ebook system if they have one). 

If you want to download it from Smashwords for only $0.99, I do have a coupon code on one of my Patreon posts. The post is public, but you may have to have a free Patreon account to sign and see it. I know, I know--another username and password to remember, but I promise you, my public posts are worth the hassle.

The Plan for March

I'm just a girl, looking for that path to success, trying to get things done. I have a backlog of movie reviews I haven't finished editing, plus an essay I plan to write about writing because that seems to be the topic that gets views on Medium.

I also restarted the work on one of the 70s-inspired stories I had. But for this one, I think it would work much better to be split up into novellas because the story spans 25+ years. Each novella would be a key moment in the main character's life leading up to what I think is a satisfying ending. What I'm not sure about is where I want to put it. I could throw it up on Wattpad for free, though I think my time and effort is worth more than what that platform gives in return. I could try Channillo, but considering their application page hasn't been updating since September (of what year isn't quite clear), I'm going to pass for now. The other option (besides straight to KDP Select) is to offer it to higher tiers on my Patreon page. I'm still in the first draft of the first novella, so I have some time to consider these options.

I also have to consider what I will use as my Camp NaNo project for March. The obvious answer is poetry, since April is National Poetry Month. I started a new chapbook a few weeks ago, so I think I may want to use that--especially since one of the poems is already done and was published in my last collection.

I haven't finished writing out all of my lists. If I don't, critical steps often get lost in the shuffle. I still have to make a list for transferring the blog to its own site, plans for fun things to do with poetry in April, and other marketing options I want to try. Once that's out of the way, I'm going to pretend that the rest is smooth sailing.

Big Book Sale

If you follow me on Twitter (and you should), you know that If It Was New York, Summer 2009 is on sale for just $0.99 the entire month of June. However, what you may not know is that all of my titles are on sale for $0.99 in June. A pretty good bargain*, if I do say so myself. Check out the links below to find your favorite ebook retailer:

If It Was New York, Summer 2009: https://books2read.com/u/mBro0O

Seeing What Develops: https://books2read.com/u/3k0WzL

Unfolding Life:  https://books2read.com/u/4DAAvQ

A Note on Amazon

To be clear, the $0.99 sale price point may or may not be on Amazon. If you wade through all of the advice like I did when it comes to price changes on Amazon without being in KDP Select, it's sometimes better to not change the price and let the market do it's thing. If you are dying to get it at this price and only from Amazon, you can always tell Amazon about a lower price (I believe there is a link on each book's Amazon page to report this). From reading through other experiences, I see that sometimes this gets Amazon to lower the price to match other stores, sometimes it doesn't. We shall see what happens.


*psst! You can get an even better bargain if you sign up to be a 2019 All-Star on Patreon. For just $1 a month, you can get access to digital downloads of all three titles, plus my three out-of-print Kindle Worlds novellas all bundled together.

The Realities of Launch Week

It is still the launch week for If It Was New York, Summer 2009 and I'm seeing all of the positives and the negatives of my marketing process.

The first place I always go when I want to get some traction is Reader's Favorite. All of my books (except the last Kindle Worlds novella) have bee reviewed by the service and it works well to get a review out there, even though most of the reviews are not posted directly to Amazon by the reviewer. I'm still waiting on this review--if I get one at all. Hopefully I do, but I will probably still be waiting a few weeks for it.

Next, I posted about it on Twitter which is always iffy--I can't post too many tweets about it because I'll get unfollowed, but not enough and no one sees it. Balance. It's a good thing.

Then there's BookBub. No, I'm not talking about getting into the email blast, I'm talking about on their website. I set up an author profile awhile ago because it was recommended for all authors, even if they are not intending to buy a BookBub email placement. So I did, and I set up this book before the release date so that BookBub would notify my followers about it on the day of release. And they did, because I got the lovely email that would have sold me on checking it out had I not written myself. The catch? I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who received that email blast.

New Release email.

Continuing with BookBub, I got curious and decided to check where I was on the New Releases page. In the poetry category, my book landed on page four.

Page Four.

I'm a bit disappointed by this, but I then I looked at page one. I was competing what a bunch of poets I read, including Laurie Halse Anderson (I thought it was a memoir, not a poetry book, but whatevs...) and two of those wildly popular Instagram poets, Tyler Knott Gregson and Amanda Lovelace. Occasionally I let myself believe I'm their poetic equals, then I have to remind myself they have publisher backing, which still counts to reach higher sales numbers in the publishing world, thought Lovelace did publish her first collection on Amazon before Andrews McMeel got a hold of it. The verdict? Not jealous, but inspired to make it to a better position next time.

The Top Dogs.

My next avenue is all of those things are never seen, such as approaching book bloggers and trying to get people in one of the Goodreads groups to request a free copy, which I've had some mild success with in the past. But book bloggers usually require free paperbacks (of which I'm not satisfied... but that's a complaint for another day) and/or payment, so we'll see. I've decided to skip trying a NetGalley listing this time around, mostly due to the cost, but also because the places where I can buy a listing from don't actually list poetry as one of their genres. I thought about trying the Reedsy Discovery site as well, but again there's a fee and it's new, so I would need to see some positive outcomes before I take a $50 chance.

If you haven't picked up your copy of If It Was New York, Summer 2009 yet, please check it out on Amazon and other retailers.

News and Notes from the Writing Desk: March Edition

It's getting quite busy over here. There are a lot of projects in the air, and I'm trying to give equal time to it all before my mind decides it wants to go off and create something new.

If It Was New York, Summer 2009

The preorder is good to go--I have nothing left to do but promote it. I still have to work on the cover for the print edition, but other than that, it's just getting you to buy. And you want to buy it. Of course, you could also jump on the Patreon bandwagon and get it before anyone else... just think about it. 

In Another Life

I've dug this out of the huge virtual pile. Before opening the first file, I looked and noticed that I haven't opened and changed anything on the file for two and a half years. Yeah, that's the pace I'm going with this one.

I'm also kicking myself a bit because when I started this one, I thought it would be so much better to have a different file for every chapter. I was insane. I'm starting this revision process by simply putting it all together into one file like the Book Gods intended. Once that is finished, I have to pump up the action and intrigue, otherwise this title falls a little flat.

Short Stories

There has been no progress on this aspect. I would love to sit down and write a whole short story every day, but many of my ideas are not fully formulated, and those that are, I already wrote half the story and forgot where I was heading. That's a whole twisted ball of yarn to figure out in itself. I'll try to get one out of my head this weekend and see what it looks like.

Camp NaNo

I'm starting to get emails from Camp NaNo, and I'm not sure whether I want to participate this year or not. I know I could dig up something to concentrate on fully, I just don't know what that is yet. Maybe something else from that list I made...

I have a lot of writing to do. Let's get to it!

A Preorder and a New Project

The time has come: If It Was New York, Summer 2009 is finally available for preorder. I'm a little anxious because I submitted an incomplete manuscript to get this ball rolling, so I have about 11 days to get the last two poems polished and the back matter completed. If you join Patreon ($1 level or higher) before March 12th, you can get an ebook download before anyone else!

The book is currently available for preorder at Amazon and these online retailers. If you don't see your favorite retailer on that second link, keep checking back because new ones are still being added. The ebook and the paperback versions will go on sale March 26th.

Once those few last details are sorted and the final files are uploaded, I'm onto the new project. After a lot of debate with myself (that would have been fun to witness, I'm sure...) I decided to finally finished In Another Life. This one has been sitting around for awhile. The last time I worked on it, I decided to take the first and second books of what I thought would be a trilogy and merge them together. The third (now second) book only has two chapters written, but once I get on a roll with the revisions of the first one, who knows.

As part of my write-revise-advertise monthly schedule, In Another Life fits into the revise stage. So that means the write part is up for grabs. I've decided to concentrate on short stories since I have so many sitting around half written. I need to have more in the bank for submissions--right now there is only one short and one flash that I keep sending out.

That's the plan for March. More writing, more writing, and more writing!

An Afternoon at the Strand

It's Valentine's Day. Whether you have a love to celebrate or are actively boycotting this greeting card holiday, I've got a poem for you about my one true love--books. It comes from If It Was New York, Summer 2009 and it's a sneak peek at what the collection has to offer.

An Afternoon at the Strand

Miles and miles to keep you entertained

Practically calling out to you with all its musty glory

New and old, there's no shame in what you happen to like

Diving deep into stacks, submerged until the last call

No more room left for you to bring home another treasure

Another stack places more tension on an already worn shoulder

But it's a habit, a hobby, an obsession

You need it more than it needs you

Those words, billions of them floating around you

And a million more trying to get out of your own head

You just need to focus, focus

...focus...

Then maybe you'll find the gem you've been looking for

The one that will twist your insides, clamp down on your lungs

At just the right moment to scare yourself at the thought

A book is just a book, until it's not, then you give it life

Calmly breathing culture, giving birth endlessly to another

And another until you can't stand it—you must have them all

Maybe you'll turn into a maniac, consuming thousands of words

Bloated, but still ready for the next delicious stack

It has a different taste, and you can't wait to try some more

And you situate your tote, and you check your wallet

Another stack for home, another stack for the pleasure of it all.




Interested in more from the upcoming collection? Check out Patreon for more exclusive excerpts and extras.

New Book Trailer

If It Was New York, Summer 2009 is getting closer to being complete. The pre-order will be up very soon. So here's your first look at the book trailer (kindly created by K.R. Smith). Let me know what you think!

The Finish Line in Sight

This whole poetry book project is quickly coming to an end. It's to the point that I can see the finish line ahead. But if you've ever ran a race, you know that this is the time that you push harder, yet you feel like you're standing still and the finish line will never cross under your feet.

There is still work to do. Every Friday for the past month I've marked my calendar with the words "put up for pre-order" and every week so far it just hasn't been ready. That's what this weekend is for.

If I want to stick to my original 2019 schedule by having one writing, one editing, and one promoting per month, I need to get on the ball about finishing up the last of the editing. This weekend will be dedicated to this, and I hope to have everything put into place by Monday, not getting distracted like I have been. I mean everything seemed to stop my progress, including flipping the calendar above my desk this morning and seeing this photo that is just so gosh darn cute I can't stand it.

After the weekend, I'll touch base again--done or not, there will be another update and some more fun exclusives. I can't wait to share!

News and Notes from the Writing Desk: January Edition

It's been busy around here: fifteen pieces sent to five publications. One entry fee. This should help me beat the odds and continue my momentum of getting new pieces out there. If these things ever do get published, it also gives me a little more room to get them out of my mind and make way for new pieces to be created. I still have a long list of publications and an even longer list of unpublished works, so this is just a start.

Upcoming Projects

Along with submitting work, I'm still getting bigger projects ready to go. My entire focus this month is on the poetry collection If It Was New York, Summer 2009. I wanted to have all the writing done by the end of 2018, but there are still about ten poems yet to be written. I also have to really sit down and think of the book blurb/synopsis. Those are a lot easier to write for regular fiction. Poetry covers so much, even in a collection that has a major theme tying everything together.

Whenever I move onto the formatting/pre-ordering phase of my poetry collection, I will be getting back to my YA novel. It's been waiting patiently for me to return to it--at least I hope Lola hasn't stood up and walked out with her story. You never know with teens.

You're a Star, Aren't You?

According to my Patreon page, there aren't any 2019 all-stars. I know you want to be an all-star with all the perks that come with it. What are you waiting for? Sign up to be an all-star and get a crazy amount of perks and exclusives. There are only 10 spots available, so wouldn't hesitate, especially if you are interested in getting both my entire digital backlist and a digital ARC of If It Was New York, Summer 2009 two weeks before it is officially released.

New Year, New Tier

2019 is here, folks. I'm cautiously optimistic about it because last year I was able to accomplish most of the goals I set for myself, but there's still caution for the future because 2019 is an odd-numbered year. I tend to not do so well professionally in odd-numbered years. Don't ask me why, it just happens. I'm looking to break that streak this year by again setting the same goal as last year. I'm aiming for four published works by the end of 2019, which I now know is doable since I already accomplished it once. However, this time there won't be unfinished live projects to lean on. I'm making 2019's pieces all new and all polished to a shine when they are revealed.

I'm nearly twenty-five percent into my goal already with the upcoming poetry collection If It Was New York, Summer 2009. This collection will be available for pre-order soon. I've hit a few behind-the-scenes snags, otherwise the pre-order would be available now. But I've got a plan to fix all of that. I just need to strap myself to my computer and get all of it done, though it's difficult because I find myself in input mode rather than output mode. I'm consuming a lot of content, but the original stuff just isn't flowing out at a fast enough rate. 

In other news, if you have been interested in checking out my work or my Patreon page but still haven't done so, I've got a deal for you. There are ten spots available to sign up as a 2019 All-Star on my Patreon page. What does this mean? It means that you get access to all posts and tier rewards available and for only a $1. That includes exclusive excerpts of new projects, cover reveals, early access to ARCs, and my entire backlist--including the out-of-print Melody of Love novella series. Since there are only 10 spots available, I wouldn't hesitate to sign up.

What are your writing goals this year? What do you want to see happen for yourself in 2019?