Massive Rewrites? Blame the Beta Reader

I finished the manuscript, asked my daughter to give it a look over, she had some suggestions. I put the book aside and let her comments vegetate in my brain. Sometimes leaving these things in the back of my mind will sprout forth the solution to the plot problems.

The plot itself wasn't that big a deal, but there was something missing? I knew what I wanted to say, but from the reader comments I could see my emphasis was in the wrong place. (I hope that makes sense!)

So this book sat on a shelf for a few months while I occupied my brain with other ramblings of the mind. Then something fell into place and I knew. One morning I flipped on my computer and saw the little icon on my desk top labeled "Body Count" (It's the file where I keep all my WIPS) and knew where the story had to go and exactly what I needed to do to change it.

So, I'm rewriting and rewriting and ...oy! Rewriting. Chapters in, paragraphs out, one major change, and a big change in the ending.

Don't you love your beta reader? That one who points out all your flaws? And to think we ask (beg?) for this treatment. The beta reader comments are like suddenly putting on those prescription glasses you didn't know you needed. The world clears, the horizon is in sight and the sails go up.

I really like this story. Its post apocalypse, a new genre for me, but it had been fighting to come out for a while.  The characters speak to me and someday, I hope they'll speak to the readers.

So? How's your latest rewrite going? 

Rainy Day Writing

It's supposed to rain all day today. What a great day to lock myself in my office and get some writing done!

At work everyone is really into those books about being successful and obtaining goals. Some are encouraging, some are a kick in the pants. Just get up and get it done!

Although I've never considered myself a self help needed kind of person, apparently I am. 

It started with The Secret. Willing yourself to make things happen. Like using a mantra of success in your endeavors to make you believe, which will make things happen. What you put out into the Universe, will come back to you. 

Then I read Selling with a Nobel Purpose. Really, its a book about how to be a successful sales person, but it's message can carry over into regular life. (It was required reading since I'm a sales coordinator. I don't actually sell, I organized the team that sells)  The message in that book is to do whatever you do with "Noble Purpose." To know that whatever you're doing is important, is helping other people. That even if one person is touched by what you do, you've done a good thing. 

Next I read The Power. Sort of a sequel to The Secret but where The Secret was about positive thinking, The Power spoke of the power of love and how to put that into your everyday life. Love what you do, find things to love about others, and use this power to change your life. By finding something to love about your job, your circumstance, or what ever is affecting you, can change it into something more positive.

The Darren Hardy podcasts I mentioned in the last post were shared with me and I signed up to get an email everyday. He talks of getting things done. Forget about failing. You will fail, not everyone will like you, do it anyway. Believe in yourself enough to follow through with your dreams. He also talks of always learning. 

What does all this have to do with writing? From the Secret I'll take a mantra to sit down and write. From Selling with a Nobel Purpose I'll take comfort in knowing/hoping my writing will give someone some entertainment. From the power? Love what I write, and love everything connected with it; the readers, the reviewers, and Amazon. From those podcasts I get the determination to keep going. Everyday encouragement and sometimes a kick in the pants to stop making excuses. 

Although a lot of these books are directed toward entrepreneurship I think they can apply to a writing career, too. Go forth and conquer. Know what you're doing is important. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.   

Write on, my friends. 

Always Inspiring Darren Daily Podcast

Someone at work turned me on to this series of podcasts from Darren Hardy.  Always good advice on motivation and getting what you want out of life. 

Something, I think, as writers, we struggle with. Writing is a lonely business. Friends and relatives might not understand that getting a book launched off your desk and published is a lot of work. Hours taken from your home and family as you huddle over the computer, covered in ink stains, guzzling coffee, killing off  characters you put a lot of work into creating. Oy! And then comes the editing and more editing and finally your beta reader who hands it back to you for more editing... need I go on? 

So here's two minutes of inspiration; 

Write on my friends...you can do it! 

Word Count Writing Challenge

After a crazy February where I didn't have time to think, its time to get back to writing.
Sometimes, after a short hiatus from a writing schedule, it's hard to get the mojo back. While talking to my daughter and fellow writer about getting inspired to rebuild that writer's schedule, we came up with a plan.

We were ready to challenge each other to make a word count.

Yeah, that would be easy to blow off. Oops! Didn't make my word count....and the challenge dies. Kind of like my NANO.

So we added prizes. We made a list of things we'd like and then went back and forth matching the prizes to the word count. This works on two levels; if you really like the prize, you might work harder to get it or if you lose that word count goal, you have to pay up.

Then we made up rules.

• It had to be a totally new story, not something you've been working on. 
• We agreed to start writing on a specific date. We started it on Monday, March 7th. (I was up at 4 a.m. so that worked for me.) 
• Every Wednesday we had to check in with each other on our word count. 
• If you hit the word count for a prize you must notify the other party immediately and send your work as proof. 
• Prizes must be sent as soon as possible.

Here's the prizes we chose: 

2,500 Notebook
5,000 Fancy Pen
7,500 The First Line Mug
10,000 Book about Writing
12,500 Writer's Game
15,000 Aqua Notes
17,500 Writer's T-Shirt/Tank Top
20,000 On Writing by Stephen King
22,500 Writing Wall Art
25,000 Writer's Digest Subscription
27,000 Writing Jewelry
30,000 Tea Basket
32,500 Writing Book
35,000 Snack Basket
37,500 Travel Coffee Mug
40,000 Wish List Surprise!
42,000 Full Book Editing with one week turnaround
45,000 Writer's Throw
47,500 Writer Movie Gift Basket
50,000 Amazon Gift Card $100

I hit 2520 words this past Wednesday and won the notebook. Yay! 

Seek inspiration and write on, my friends. The next great novel is inside you. 

Amazon Ad - Rejected!

Tried to place the Amazon ad last night and this morning I got the rejection letter. (It's okay, I'm a writer, I'm used to rejection)

Apparently, No Apologies' cover art is too hot to handle.

Hey! She's dressed (sort of) and he's just shirtless. 

Amazon has a list of rules for ads here.

No Apologies just doesn't make the cut. Maybe too much skin per square inch?
When a my cover designer first gave me this cover I liked the beach because the opening scene is a woman on a beach. She moves back home and is thrown together with the man she left at the altar. Cue the suspense and she needs his help because she's being stalked by a man who wants to auction her off to the highest bidder. Although there are several suggestive scenes, they never actually have sex. So maybe my cover is too hot?

All day long I've been thinking about whether or not I should change the cover. If Amazon doesn't like it, maybe others are turned off, too?

Is my cover too sexy for my book? 

After asking around, (friends & family) the general consensus is not to change the cover.

I wanted to promote this book for more reviews, get it some face time on the Internet. I guess I could turn to AdSense or something like that? Spend the same budget there that I had marked for Amazon? I'm going to have to think about this for a day or two.

Of course I could put one of my other books in the Amazon ad, they all need more reviews, but I'm thinking its better to concentrate on this one book for awhile to kind of kick it off the ground.

Maybe I should just be writing?

Blizzards, Chocolate Wine & Ad Campaigns

I blame the wine. And the Blizzard. Maybe cabin fever?
The east coast got walloped by high winds and 2+ feet of snow and ice. But hey, we're Jersey Strong so this Jersey girl don't care.  We stocked up on soup fixin's and wine and we're good. Besides, snow removal in NJ is a twenty-four/seven job from the first flake. We clear out fast. Today the roads are clear and everyone is probably going to work tomorrow. Some schools may close but that's only because of the school buses and amount of snow piled up on the sides of the streets.

So whatever possessed me to do another  ad campaign for one of my books???

This time I'm trying an Amazon ad.

Really, it all started when I saw Robert Gregory Brown say on facebook that his book Linger was at #5 on Amazon's best sellers. So that made me curious to see what else was up there. I found #1 The Good Neighbor and read terrible reviews. (as I check it now that book is #8) So I started to wonder how a book with over 4000 reviews got to #1 with so many bad reviews. Hmmmm, curious. Could it be marketing? Some reviewers said they got the book for free. So perhaps there was a small, "Take this book for free" campaign?

Eh. I've done that and it didn't lead anywhere great. Lots of downloads, not a lot of reviews. I don't remember what it did to my rank and probably didn't check it at that point.

So, I looked at Amazon ads and had another glass of chocolate wine and made some popcorn. For a minimum of $100 you can run an ad, say how much a click through would be, and pick your dates. Recommended click throughs are based on competing ads.

Quick! I ran over to my bank website and slipped another $100 on my Amazon credit card so as not to blow it out, and started the ad process.

I had to pick my target audience. Since No Apologies is kind of like Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels, half suspense, half humor,  I toddled on over to check out her page. Her's had tags like Romantic Comedy, Romantic Suspense, and mystery. I used those target audience tags for my book.

You pick the money, I did .45 per click and set the limit at $100. I set my dates from today through Feb 13th. I also clicked the button for Amazon to set the pace of the ads. See the help button is popped to explain what that means.

The hardest part was the name and blurb. At 150 characters my regular blurb wasn't going to work. So I wrote this;

"Romance, Suspense & the man she left at the altar! Throw in a crazy rescue dog and you got a page turner full of laughs & surprises. "

Please don't laugh, that was my third glass of wine blurb. The wine helps, right? Right?

Then you hit submit and it goes in for review.  Now I wait and see.
I'll keep you posted.

Maybe I'll switch to Moscato for the next blizzard.....

Writing During the Holidays

Finding time to write during the Holidays season seems like a struggle. Can I slip into my office for an hour or so or should i be finishing my Christmas shopping? Get those decorations up? And all that normal household stuff like laundry, dishes, vacuuming. I was once a stay at home mom. When that was my job I took the keeping of the house seriously. Old habits die hard. If I see something that needs to be taken care of in the house, I itch to get it done. Not doing it is like watching a job you loved for many years, fall apart.  

Carving out writing time without guilt is always a challenge. Doing it with the holidays here is like living in crazy-land. I sometimes wonder if I should just put it on hold until January when we're trapped in the house by snow.

I need to find a way to get rid of the guilt. Being a writer with a day job is like having two full time jobs and only time for one. Still feeling the need to fulfill the responsibilities of a stay at home mom, make for full time job number 3.  Yes, my husband helps but he also has an hour commute to and from work. Since he's doing that two hour drive every day I don't ask him to  do too much housework. He has enough with yard work, home repairs/improvements, bringing wood in for the wood stove, and shoveling snow. He does his part.

Back to finding that time to write. It used to be easy. I used to get up and write at 6 a.m. before work. Lately, bouts of insomnia screw up that schedule.

 I think I need to make up a new schedule for all this stuff and writing. Help!

What's your writing schedule during the holidays? Do you go to your desk at the same time every day?