My Week in Publishing

 

It's inevitable that events in my publishing life will slow down. I'm not pushing any books or nagging people on social media (same thing, actually). So, as Running From Herself approaches its one-year mark, all is quiet. 

The trouble is, I like it when things happen. What author doesn't? Not bad things, of course, which is why I never go to Goodreads to check for new reviews. I suppose this quietude should spur me on to begin editing my sophomore novel, in order to have something to do.

I'm "pumped" that I've had 1,301 KENP pages read this month. Well, not pumped, really; heartened that the coroner hasn't paid a visit...yet. With Kindle Unlimited, it's impossible to know if five people read it in its entirety or if 1,301 people each read the first page and gave up. (I mean, c'mon, at least give it 2 pages!)

I did finally get my interview published online, but it's rather irrelevant at this point, after I had to claw and scratch just to get it done. If you're interested, you can find it here. It wasn't as if I thought it would do anything for me. I was just mad that the magazine kept publishing other interviews well after I'd completed mine.

 

In full disclosure, I did pay for an ad or placement or whatever one wants to call it, this time with a new place, BooKecCenTric. Yes, that's seriously how its name is formatted. I'd been cold-contacted by them and they were offering 80% off, so I paid $7.80 for a two-week homepage spot. I'm sort of, kind of, sure that the site is more for authors than for readers, especially since its homepage prominently features a guest post titled, "Dear New Writer, Here's Your Head Start".  But supposedly it has a mailing list, which I signed up for, but haven't received an issue of yet. Thus, I'm questioning whether my KENP reads originated there, but who knows? Kindle Unlimited is an unsolvable mystery.

I do still have my (actual) magazine article coming up in January--the 300-word thing I wrote, which I think is pretty so-so, but which the editor said is "great".

(Yes, it's Meme Day on the blog.)

I did confirm that my novel will be situated alongside my article, so there's that.

On a (maybe) unrelated note, I was asked to read and review a new book (okay, it's totally related), and I'm in a quandary. On the one hand, I don't want to risk offending this person by not reviewing it, but I did start to read it and it's far too esoteric for me. I thought the subject matter sounded mildly interesting, but wow--wading through all the citations and background was overwhelming. Then I realized I hadn't even gotten to Chapter One yet! And I was on Page 238! (of 2,479 pages) You know, that's kind of a big ask. There's no doubt that the author is very good, in a scholarly way, but this is not what I would label a "fun read". I'm pretty sure that since she's reviewed two of my books, she knows the kind of writer I am, so this is like asking someone who writes in Pig Latin to review Mandarin. 

But I don't go back on my word, so I'm going to need to devise a way to somehow compact my assignment into bits I can handle. And damn, she must have worked long and hard on this! Plus, who else is going to do it? Sure, she probably secured a few takers, who, like me, didn't know what they were agreeing to, but how many of them will follow through? A writer who works hard (as opposed to one who "writes" a book with AI) deserves recognition. (Ask me how I know.)

After I loaded this tome into my Kindle Previewer, it hit me that maybe this was something I should do with my current project. I actually did pull up the Word doc yesterday, but got nowhere with it, mainly because the thought of editing it was just too boring. But perhaps if I view it in a Kindle format, that might spark something that Microsoft Word hasn't so far. Thus, I converted it into an epub--even added my sh*tty cover, which it truly is, now that I see it on the Kindle version, and I'm going to start from there.

This could be the week, folks! The week when progress occurs! Sure, I've been saying that to myself for about a month now, but this time I really, really mean it.