Counting Down

Whether you are "into" the holidays or not we are in the countdown to the end of this crazy year of 2020. A mere 31 days until we enter what we hope to be a better next year.

Some of you will find great comfort in the traditions you normally share around this time of year. Some will take joy in the creativeness of modifying your typical rituals, while others will continue to do their normal and retract into their own world and look forward to all of it to being over.

Whatever you choose, I wish you well and success in your endeavors.

For me, the count down brings me just that much closer to the deadline of getting my manuscript completed. I have a due date in mid-April but am pressing myself to be completed way before that. Before I can send in my proposal and sample chapters I'll need to get a few beta readers to spell check me and confirm that my story flows along smoothly. So much to do, so much to do.

Getting all of my ducks in a row in the middle of holiday season is a tall order since I am not one to retreat, regardless of how I am feeling. There are decorations to arrange and presents to wrap. I'm told there are cookies that need to be baked and I actually wrangled my teen into helping write out holiday cards this year, so I feel like a scored "a win" there. I'm really not to different than any of you with kids who have seasonal expectations. I spend my days dealing with extra school homework all while assuring children that the teachers are not being hateful or a scrooge just because they're giving a little extra work to cover for the time they'll have off, sharing the wish lists with family members, organizing doctors and lab appointments around asynchronous school days and my husbands meeting schedule....you get it. The list goes on and on and somewhere in there I have a book to finish writing.

I've asked Santa for some extra energy and a few extra days in the week. Easy, right?

No matter what your December looks like I hope you handle it with love and grace. Be gentle with yourself and your loved ones.

**If you'd like to share a creative way you've modified or altered a holiday tradition I would love to hear about it.

In the mean time I've got some ornaments to hang, oh.. and some writing to do but I'll give you guys a shout out again soon.

Sign Up compared to Follow?

Here's the question:

What makes you sign up for an email list compared to just following someone on a social media platform like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter?

If you have an answer I would truly be interested in your take.

The reason I ask is serious, not heart attack serious, but this isn't mere curiosity.

In the publishing world, where authors are expected to do most all of their own marketing, it is impressed upon us that having an email list is important. They expect that you are coming to the table with hundreds, hopefully thousands, of potential book sales ready to go.

I know it sounds a bit insane but inside the publishing realm books are churned out and sent into the world on the heels of the one before it and the one that will be following yours is already sharing your chair. On top of that, If you are going the traditional publishing route it's best to know that even if your agent and the publishing house loves your book and signs you it will probably be another solid year, if not more, before you see your actual printed book.

Yes, You can absolutely self publish. Self edit, partially pay an editor, pay for your cover art or do that yourself too. There are a million ways to get a book out to the masses but it still leads you back to selling your book....if that's why you wrote it and that's what you are hoping to do.

So, Email sign up?

What do I need to do to get you to sign up on my email list?

*cute smile* points to link -----> Email sign up

Should I give stuff away? Offer a copy of my book, once it's published?

Help a girl out and let me know.

Thanks!

Getting it done, sort of.

Whew, what a past week this has been.

I'm sure like most people, whether American citizen or not, the election of our next president has taken up a bit of your time, social media attention or your television viewing.

This is not a political post, FYI. So no worries there, you can relax.

I, too, have been engrossed in the details of the election which naturally has taken me away from my main focus of writing this book. Keeping up with any regular task can be difficult when there is something newsworthy grabbing at you but today I have managed to reign it back in, Thank goodness.

While I haven't done a ton of writing today what I did accomplish was getting my notes in order to place them into their proper chapters. You see, a good portion of my book has been written by dictation. I have spent the last couple of years going over phrases, passages and title ideas entirely in my head. As soon as I was able I dictated them into my phone's notepad so that I could then email them to myself at a later date to be sorted. Today was printing and sorting day!

Besides the actual writing portion, I've mentioned this on other platforms, I will need to do the marketing of my book as well. I wasn't quite aware to what extent until I took a couple writing workshops that spelled out quite clearly that it is almost completely up to me. That entails the set up and upkeep of each of my social media platforms regularly. Engaging with others and dropping in bits about writing, my book or current blog post is essential and that is how I spend my mornings usually. I'm guessing if you are reading this that you probably participate in at least one social media platform. If not, I highly recommend it. I have met and chatted with some of the most wonderful, warm and welcoming people from all over the world.

So today was notes day and website maintenance day. I think I did some good work and with this little blog post, it's the cherry on top.

Coming up in the near future there will be a contest for some swag....So if you want to be included in that I would highly recommend signing up for email updates. It will only be for email subscribers.

Until then....