So the idea of a piece of serial fiction has been bouncing around in this head for a while now, but I was always convinced I lacked the strength to discipline myself and convinced I lacked the commitment and the ability to write linear without going back to edit, and then, this quote rammed me upside the head and a good look at my profile full of serial fanfiction clinched the deal.
Source: shareasimage.com via Liana on Pinterest
So I was actually trying to design a cover for the collection, Gone Hunting, but I ended up with this: a newly branded, much more professional potential cover for "Crossing the Barrier."
I think it appeals more to a younger audience than I was going for, but considering the age of the protagonist, that might not be a bad thing.
I am seriously considering (drafting) a Kickstarter project to help pay to get digital (and printed) editions of Soul (Breath), Radiance (Radiant Lands), and Gone Hunting (Vardin) to be gorgeous, properly covered, and properly copywritten.
And then, I actually come up with a cover I think I like. But will my audience like it?
I'm always surprised that I end up writing the stories I do, instead of the ones I'm excited about, but it turns out that I still require a long percolation period. I'm just going to have to adjust and accept that I write and shelve until the thing finishes coming together. It's at the point when I understand what the story's about that I can actually write it, with a few notable exceptions.
But I have been writing and learning—on "Gone Hunting" of all stories. First, I've found my cross-country muse again. The one who can leave writing and return to the same story over and over while putting the rest of them on hold. In short, the one who can hold a thought. Creating new content on a planned schedule should get easier if I don't let it take a nap at the moment of truth.
Because of this, I've also decided I will be taking a new approach to my publishing, but it will take a while for everything to be implemented, particularly online. There are several main tracks I've been considering.
So I'm guest posting it today over at Rabia Gale's about writing short, long, and tight.
ORIGINAL STUFF
Discovered last night that the ebook sales that went nonexistent in the first quarter are back. Note to the scribbler: double up on getting the updates published. That's a 10+ hour project I haven't had 10+ hours to do.
Discovered new website yesterday with reviewing style I genuinely adore. I've wanted to review a lot of books and stories that really move me, but have taken a hands off approach because the rate at which I inhale fiction leaves very little time for commenting, but... Note to the scribbler: This is worth a try.
Installed a bunch of new plugins to add functionality and better organization to this site. Haven't had time to really do anything about configuring them yet. Note to the scribbler: You do need to get on that.
Finished editing a story in the world of Breath: "The Great Cat and His Soul." I'm holding onto it though until I can collect it. Note to the scribbler: Consider permitting more than just 'myths' in the collection, 'kay?
FANDOM STUFF
Watched last week's Awake. Bawled my eyes out. It's amazing. I know they cancelled the show, but oh, Lordy, I sense huge amounts of fan response brewing on my horizons. Note to the scribbler: Do wait until time opens up, please. Patience is a virtue.
Still am not reading Insurgent. It doesn't come close to the right mood/tone for the writing I need to do today. Note to the scribbler: Patience really is a virtue.
Am writing a Kyro ficlet for arliddian. Dislike my first go and still love the summary: "Kitty always did like complex mathematical equations—like solving for the 'saint' in John." I'm trying too hard to make it match the title: "The Improbability of Forever." Note to the scribbler from your muse: Two fics?
Safe has not beeen coming along, but that is primarily my fault. I've been rereading my own work exactly like we just mentioned we should not. Note to the scribbler: Stop it.
But... in the process I found a snippet I'd been looking for everywhere and thought was gone for good. Yay! Note to the scribbler: You need to work on your organization methods. Badly.
AWESOME TOOLS I USE TO WRITE
Wordle is a handy dandy for revealing all sorts of overused words and phrases. I haven't used it recently because I've been experimenting in just getting. words. down. http://www.wordle.net/
Written? Kitten! is my handy dandy for short fiction. Highly recommend. http://writtenkitten.net/
Mary Sue Tester is new to me, but it came in rather handy making sure I hadn't gone overboard when designing the katchen. (Considering altering spelling to kahtchen—unwieldy but easier to pronounce correctly.) http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysuetests.htm
Pinterest is proving to be a useful place to store writing prompts. I use this tool to add quotes. http://pinterest.com/lianamir/idea-box/
AND BACK TO YOU...
Anything exciting? New tools? New progress? Causes of lack of progress identified? Tips for acquiring patience?
So here goes, a small word on what's up in scribbler-land.
We are creating higher word count compilations of short fiction, preparing fiction and graphics to sell directly in lovely little downloads that I can make truly beautiful, and figuring out how to add extras and new fiction and new chapters to stuff that's been sitting on hold for forever.
Additionally, it's twenty days until Insurgent by Veronica Roth appears and I'm thinking of doing twenty days of fandom goodies to mark off the time. :still thinking:
I want to update my fandom site, but I'm not allowing myself until I earn more original work income. I also want to get cracking on some Awake fanwork, but this must wait until I'm done with my two meme pieces, which are coming along.
Over the next couple weeks, I'm going to try and start posting on some of my fav fiction reads. I'm not counting on it yet because I have a lousy track record with review writing. It's just not my thing, but I want to share some of the awesome stuff I've been reading. :groans: Ah, well. We'll see.
See you all soon!
The Scribbler as Writer
NONFICTION
So here we go. As of March 5, 2012, I have made $108.96 on Textbroker. That's a nice chunk of change and it would be a whole lot higher if I was used to cranking out nonfiction, but we're getting there.
Adding this baby to my sidebar:
You can guess where I wrote those. So I'm copyrighting, so to speak, and anyone that wants to commission something, give me a ring.
FICTION
Summerlight moves forward. It wasn't supposed to, but my muse is the kind that never says die. If I shelve a project, my muse will give me something new, then sneak off every chance it gets to go work on the old one. Go figure.
Storyworlds getting a few dumps and need about a gazillion more: I'm trying to cull all the notes I've scattered through would-be stories set in Vardin and dump them on Worlds of Mir so I can actually use them in Summerlight. I've a sneaking suspicion, I'll always be a little behind on that.
The Scribbler as (Not) Tech
FANDOM
My fandom site, Whispers, needs help. She's out-of-date and mid-process to getting anything like fixed up. :groans: Do not need to add more to my to-do list.
SOCIAL
For anyone who missed the announcement, my twitter has moved: @lianamir1 Now, just to get LiveJournal to actually update it when I post, like it used to!
My tumblr is not oft-updated, but there I throw out worldbuilding stuff I like or wrestle with myself.
The Scribbler as Publisher
So, The Intentional Writer is shippable, once I make a cover and format and do that whole tag/category/meta thing. Yeah. :shudders: But it's done, clocking in at 8752 words, which is not bad for me. Once I get it formatted, I will send the PDF free to anyone who agrees to give it an unbiased review wherever it gets up for sale.
Sorry for getting this out late. Sunday was my grandfather's birthday! I was busy celebrating.
How did your week go? Anything exciting?
Books are changing. One writer whose work I love just wrapped up a Kickstarter project to crowdfund their paperback; another writing friend just asked me about whether I thought their work would be viable to self-publish (it is).
I started early with electronically publishing shorts and flash. I would have preferred to start with long fiction or nonfiction—it sells better and has more meat—but we work with what we have and I tend to start in flash when rebuilding some atrophied original fic muscles.
But since that start, I've seen a need to change things up. I would occasionally publish a book dead. The problem was usually the cover, but sometimes it was the summary. I did one cover experiment that it's now thoroughly safe to say I need to undo. The old cover worked better. Pricing has changed, sales are languishing without the KDP Select boost, and it's just time to make sure all my myriad of items match reader's expectations the way I want.
Pricing Out of the Ghetto
Dean Wesley Smith just published a blog post/article on updated recommended price points. In short, even for short stories, publishing at $0.99 is becoming a bad idea if you don't already have a reputation, which is tough: most of my shorts aren't long enough to warrant a larger price tag.
I've been working on corraling those pesky little drabbles into a meaty and interesting collection with bridging parts, but they've been woefully uncooperative and so I have yet to take all the drabbles down and up the prices on my shorts into a decent slot.
Collections have just become a dramatic priority again, and so has serious evaluation of the works I do have published for whether they are priced correctly.
Organizing Chaos
This post by M. Louisa Locke clued me in to an area I've known I didn't know how to use and what I probably ought to be doing with it and how: the very scary area of tags, categories, and keywords. Optimizing these babies can make or break the sales of your book and they are a bear to try to understand.
I tended to just skate by on mine. I put in stuff, hoping I'd picked the right details, but from the start, I had no idea what was really needed. I'll be going through everything with this article in hand.
Additionally, I admit to needing to tag the posts on this site. They're in dreadful need of some organization themselves. When I had it all by category, that was fine for temporary, but since I changed the home page to dump everything, I think we need to do better.
Summarizing Everything
So trovia gave me some good advice for three of my story summaries. She showed me how I need to cover genre, character, setting, theme, and idea of plot in those 400 characters that I have only rarely taken full advantage of. It makes a difference, and I hope to quickly deal with some other fiction that's been languishing with haphazard summaries.
The three original summaries:
And then there's the new:
Not sure if I've finished making these better, but I did notice they are better.
It might take a while to get all of these things where I want them. It's a big project. I have four pen names for nonfiction, SFF fiction, spiritual fantasy fiction, and then the contemporary Christian stuff. Between the lot of them, I have 22 pieces to evaluate covers, summaries, tags, categories, keywords, and pricing across three profiles on five different sites.
Wish me luck.
So as it so happens, I am apparently lousy at writing summaries (though the person who pointed this out to me, did so kindly). I am requesting a trade: free fiction (the story to be summarized and a new short written to order) in exchange for a summary. I would reserve the right to request one revision if necessary.
The requested fiction can be fandom or original on any topic or to any prompt you wish, but within my general forté. No slash, graphic sex, graphic violence, or swearing.
Original Articles. Constant-Content.