NaNoWriMo - You are a fickle, fickle, whore. And so is your mother.

I was going to say bitch in the title but I'm trying to keep this blog PG.  Quick update on my writing this month – it is sucking.  Literally.  It is sucking the life right out of me.  Why is one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening so hard?  I'll tell you why – because if you don't accomplish it, you fall behind very quickly.  Then you begin to question your very skills as a writer, and motivation is fleeting.  The first week went well, the second week – not so much.  A few things I have definitely learned:

1 – The month of October needs to be WAY busier than the month of November.  Meaning, October should be filled with researching, planning and plotting.  It is fine if you write well on a whim, but it is soooo, soooo necessary to have a plan for when your muse fails you.  Additionally, if you already have books out, October should be spent pre-marketing for November.  This means blog posts, interviews, giveaways and blog hops all planned in advance so it is a quick copy and paste exercise in November, allowing you to return to your wonderful cocoon-like writing world.

2 – They should shut down Twitter AND Facebook for the month of November.  Unless you are counting your tweets and posts toward your 50,000 word goal, which I do.  The trick to writing is setting aside time, but the secret to productive writing is turning off all the gadgets during your time.  I firmly believe there are little 'time' demons running around, that have some sort of agenda against NaNoWriMo, who cause your phone to buzz when someone @mentions you on Twitter or makes the little red circle next to the Goodreads mail icon to pop up.  In fact, I may write a book about these demons.  The nemesis of whom, will be the angels sending e-mail notifications alerting you someone has bought your book on Smashwords.  Those are interruptions I welcome. 

3 – December is going to suck worse than November.  I am not looking forward to the many hours ahead of reviewing, editing and revising the crap I am producing.  But, I will march on, and at least turn it into polished crap.  Then my editor and critique group will march on and turn it into the most wonderful piece of writing forever and ever.  Well, maybe not forever.  Forever is a long time and I just can't be sure.

4 – Hate mail works!  For some reason, giving myself an outlet to spew curse words at NaNoWriMo about how much this sucks, has allowed me to break though that writer's block.  I was able to churn out this post in less than 10 minutes.  Ain't blogs grand?

So my goals for the third week?  Catch up on my goals for the second week.  And for the fourth week?  This will be the week I use writing as an excuse to avoid holiday get-togethers with my in-laws as much as possible.  I take what I said about you back, NaNoWriMo, perhaps you aren't so bad after all.  Are we still friends?  No?  Fine - you take the bed tonight.  I have writing to do anyway.  

And now I can add another 558 words toward my 50,000.  Score!

In a Shock and Awe Sort of Way

Decided to do a last minute post before I delve into NaNoWriMo.  If I do what I'm supposed to be doing, there won't be many blog posts during the month of November.  I'll try to focus solely on writing new material and will be judiciously ignoring my laundry, kids, cleaning duty and most marketing efforts.  I say 'most' marketing efforts because I will continue to participate in blog hops and giveaways.  I've decided to cordon off an upper section of my blog to devote to these announcements.  The Spooktacular Blog Hop Giveaway has led to an increase in blog followers; I have yet to find out if it has led to an increase in sales; I'll do the science later – after November.  No Science in November (NoSciNo).

I will also release another vampire short, a prequel to Gleaming White.  The only thing left to do is cover art – and out it goes!  You may see a tweet or two when it is done.

I find myself at an awkward stage in the publishing process; I have two polished ebooks published that have made ok sales, but certainly not enough to turn a profit (50 or so book sales between the two of them).  Meanwhile, I anxiously await the posting of reviews.  I have certainly expected some to churn out by now, but I am holding off on harassing the reviewers for fear of being black-listed.

I have resorted to other methods of garnering reviews:

1 – E-book giveaways on Goodreads (offered the first of my vampire short story book to the first ten commenter's, then offered the second in the series for free if they post a review before a certain date).

2 – E-book giveaways on blog hops: Same premise – give away the first, offer the second if they post a review.

3 – If a reviewer doesn't have the time to read your book, counter with an offer to do a guest blog post, interview, or giveaway on their site.  I've recently received a lot of exposure this way.

But now what do I do while I sit back and wait for the reviews to flow in, thereby magically increasing my sales numbers?  I write more books...duh!  With all this marketing, researching, and experimenting, it is easy to forget that above all, we are writers.  I am hoping that the month of November will bring me back to that concept (in a shock-and-awe sort of way).

Good luck to all you Twain Wannabes attempting NaNoWriMo, and follow me afterwards to figure out what to do next!

I am done stalking reviewers...for now.

Spent the last week sending out rounds of review requests to book review bloggers; got some interesting responses.  First, I will reiterate – taking the time to add a comment specific to their blog, or connecting with them in a personal way, will be 4.287 times as likely to illicit a response (I would know – I did science).  I have a list of book review sites for you other Twain Wannabes under my resources section; I'll add to it occasionally.  Keep in mind these are mostly fiction, fantasy-type bloggers.

Figuring out something personal to say may take some time, but it will be worth it.  If you can't find a connection – they probably wouldn't be interested in your book anyway.   

Check out this response from a reviewer (click on image to enlarge):

 Yes – this made me angry; this is the first time I got a response suggesting I pay for the review.  I immediately wrote a response, making very good use of my 'four-letter-word' vocabulary.  Then I...wait for it...wait for it...deleted what I wrote.  Instead, I sent this:

And got this in return:

Not sure if the radio show will actually happen.  I will of course blog, tweet, facebook and throw it in your face any way I know how if it does happen.

In addition, my cover art will be featured on some blogger websites, and I have set up some promotions on Goodreads within a few fantasy reader groups.  I am hoping within the next half year, I'll see some sales as a result of all this work.  It could happen...right?

In the meantime, I will leave you to revel in the glory and awesomeness of my review request for Water: