Doing the happy dance around the living room. Snapping my fingers, waving my arms, wiggling my booty. (Sorry for the visual) Why? Cause I got my first ever revision letter!) And, and, and, I have the bestest editor evah! She gets the book, really gets it and her suggestions are dead on accurate.
I know I only have a few short weeks to get it in. I know I have to finish DASH. I know I have to keep up in the query challenge to drum up more nonfiction... but right now I am reveling!
This business rocks, people.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Monday, June 25, 2007
The Weekly To Do
yeah, yeah, I know. To do lists are boring, but I have to blog about something besides the post coital horror my characters are undergoing... you know that point in the book where they have sex and yet you have to sustain conflict? LOL Love the term:)
As you can see from the list that working on DASH is going to take up most of my week. I think I'll have my revision letter by the end of the week, as well. Not to mention I joined a query challenge to drum up more nonfiction work than I usually get... higher paying gigs:) Like most people I want to work less for a lot more money. I'll let you know how it goes!
My list
Write What’s Next
Rewrite teen article
Get sources for two articles
Make out questions for experts
Rewrite eight
Rewrite nine
Rewrite ten
Study markets
Write and send six queries
As you can see from the list that working on DASH is going to take up most of my week. I think I'll have my revision letter by the end of the week, as well. Not to mention I joined a query challenge to drum up more nonfiction work than I usually get... higher paying gigs:) Like most people I want to work less for a lot more money. I'll let you know how it goes!
My list
Write What’s Next
Rewrite teen article
Get sources for two articles
Make out questions for experts
Rewrite eight
Rewrite nine
Rewrite ten
Study markets
Write and send six queries
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Beyond Busy
Yep, that's me. Been sitting here at the computer for days except for time off to water my yard and play scrabble with my teenager. DASH is... coming along. I have some great CP's. I'm also thinking of sending it to an editor I know who has a part time critiquing business... She's fabulous, published, knowledgable, and reasonably priced.
Just a thought.
Hopefully, I will be able to finish with eight and nine today. I have one more article to do, but think I'm going to put it off for another day. I don't have much time to blog but wanted to leave you with a few thoughts.
1. Amanda Ashby wonders why books don't write themselves. I looked at chapters eight and nine and decided that they must write themselves, because I certainly couldn't have written such crap!
2. Coffee and M&Ms are the breakfast of writing champions. I have heard it was true, but never believed it. Now I know just how long they'll sustain you.
3.An hour of yard work can completely remove the aches from six hours of sitting in a chair. Plus, it's productive. Who knew?!!
Just a thought.
Hopefully, I will be able to finish with eight and nine today. I have one more article to do, but think I'm going to put it off for another day. I don't have much time to blog but wanted to leave you with a few thoughts.
1. Amanda Ashby wonders why books don't write themselves. I looked at chapters eight and nine and decided that they must write themselves, because I certainly couldn't have written such crap!
2. Coffee and M&Ms are the breakfast of writing champions. I have heard it was true, but never believed it. Now I know just how long they'll sustain you.
3.An hour of yard work can completely remove the aches from six hours of sitting in a chair. Plus, it's productive. Who knew?!!
Monday, June 18, 2007
YIKES!
So like I just decided to put DASH away for a while because it was frustrating me and I get a request for a full. Merde!
I spent most of yesterday plotting a fab tween story I had an idea for and then woke up to an email from a coordinater for the Gotcha contest saying that Susan Litman wants to see the full. And this from 15 pages of manuscript. So I must put everything aside and get this sucker out the door. Trouble is, it is SO not ready. But that's what I get from entering a contest when the manuscript isn't polished yet! It's done, it's just crap.
So guess what I'm going to be doing for the next week or so? How long can I wait before sending without her losing interest? I haven't received the critique package yet, the coordinator said today or tomorrow. What do you think?
Still have two articles to get out the door this week and one for the first week of July. isn't life just amazing?
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
I spent most of yesterday plotting a fab tween story I had an idea for and then woke up to an email from a coordinater for the Gotcha contest saying that Susan Litman wants to see the full. And this from 15 pages of manuscript. So I must put everything aside and get this sucker out the door. Trouble is, it is SO not ready. But that's what I get from entering a contest when the manuscript isn't polished yet! It's done, it's just crap.
So guess what I'm going to be doing for the next week or so? How long can I wait before sending without her losing interest? I haven't received the critique package yet, the coordinator said today or tomorrow. What do you think?
Still have two articles to get out the door this week and one for the first week of July. isn't life just amazing?
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Thursday, June 14, 2007
To Market To Market
Once the book is sold a writer's mind natuarally turns to things like marketing. How can a writer help to ensure that their publisher will want to buy another book and another one? How can they ensure that the reader will buy another one and another one. Because frankly, you get the reader on board with you and you got the publisher. So number one would be write a good book. Number two would be write a good book.
Got that. Understand it. But this is a business and the business is to sell books. How do I help sell my book? I need to put together a marketing plan. Anyone have a marketing plan they'll sell for cheap?
Actually, come to think of it, I could use a template some kind. Or perhaps just a road map. Something to help me take the ideas I have floating around in my head and organize them on paper in a way that doesn't look uber stupid. Because these things just keep whirling around in my mind... website, group blog, database, launch parties...
I don't have enough room in my head for all that. I still have more writing to do.
So if any of you have any ideas on how to organize my marketing ideas, I would greatly appreciate it.
Got that. Understand it. But this is a business and the business is to sell books. How do I help sell my book? I need to put together a marketing plan. Anyone have a marketing plan they'll sell for cheap?
Actually, come to think of it, I could use a template some kind. Or perhaps just a road map. Something to help me take the ideas I have floating around in my head and organize them on paper in a way that doesn't look uber stupid. Because these things just keep whirling around in my mind... website, group blog, database, launch parties...
I don't have enough room in my head for all that. I still have more writing to do.
So if any of you have any ideas on how to organize my marketing ideas, I would greatly appreciate it.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Weekends End, Road Trip, Strange Dream and Monday's To Do
What do you get when you combine a 91-year old man with I am never satisfied syndrome, a 71-year-old woman with cancer, a two year old wwf wrestler, a three-year old with whyitus, a sixteen year old girl with an I don't want a relationship right now bug up her arse, another sixteen year old lovelorn boy who is devoted for life (with the aforementioned girl), a seventeen year old with a four page final essay due in writing, one stressed out husband and one slightly tipsy wife?
A family bbq at the Browns!
And fun was had by all. Viva le vino!
Which will put me in a prime mood for a road trip tomorrow! Shirley Karr (What an Earl Wants, A Kiss from a Rogue and Confessions of a Viscount) and I will be traveling tomorrow to see our sister writers in the Emerald City! (Seattles Eastside RWA chapter) I think Shirley has a book signing or a workship at the meeting tomorrow night and wanted the company. Since some of my bestest friends and agent sistahs are from that chapter, I'm going along for the ride! Shannon McKeldon (Venus Envy) is going to pick me up at the mall (which one has yet to be determined) and we are going out to dinner with other writers! YAY! Because Shirley has an abnormal love for all things pirate (the pirate scenes in her books are fab!) we will be stopping at a ship wreck somewhere. I CAN'T WAIT!
I had a very strange dream last night. I was following a pair of shoes through the sand. No, it wasn't on a beach, it was in a large gym and the shoes were moving by themselves.(What's really strange is that the shoes weren't even a matching pair!) They disappeared into the sand which turned out to be quicksand. To get them back I had to hangout in the large concrete bunker and have a garage sale. When we tried to leave, we discovered that we couldn't fit all the stuff in the truck. To get everything into the truck, I had to lead a group of children through another maze which morphed into a haunted house.
Me thinks I should abstain from the vino!
And finally, Mondays To Do!
Send DASH sex to a writer freind who said she would look at it for me.
Revisions on chapters six and seven of DASH
Check out website designers
Write adoption after birth
Write constipated babies (don't ask)
Get sources for perineum
Join query race (for nonfiction)
Study some markets and target queries for those markets
What's on your to do list for the week??
A family bbq at the Browns!
And fun was had by all. Viva le vino!
Which will put me in a prime mood for a road trip tomorrow! Shirley Karr (What an Earl Wants, A Kiss from a Rogue and Confessions of a Viscount) and I will be traveling tomorrow to see our sister writers in the Emerald City! (Seattles Eastside RWA chapter) I think Shirley has a book signing or a workship at the meeting tomorrow night and wanted the company. Since some of my bestest friends and agent sistahs are from that chapter, I'm going along for the ride! Shannon McKeldon (Venus Envy) is going to pick me up at the mall (which one has yet to be determined) and we are going out to dinner with other writers! YAY! Because Shirley has an abnormal love for all things pirate (the pirate scenes in her books are fab!) we will be stopping at a ship wreck somewhere. I CAN'T WAIT!
I had a very strange dream last night. I was following a pair of shoes through the sand. No, it wasn't on a beach, it was in a large gym and the shoes were moving by themselves.(What's really strange is that the shoes weren't even a matching pair!) They disappeared into the sand which turned out to be quicksand. To get them back I had to hangout in the large concrete bunker and have a garage sale. When we tried to leave, we discovered that we couldn't fit all the stuff in the truck. To get everything into the truck, I had to lead a group of children through another maze which morphed into a haunted house.
Me thinks I should abstain from the vino!
And finally, Mondays To Do!
Send DASH sex to a writer freind who said she would look at it for me.
Revisions on chapters six and seven of DASH
Check out website designers
Write adoption after birth
Write constipated babies (don't ask)
Get sources for perineum
Join query race (for nonfiction)
Study some markets and target queries for those markets
What's on your to do list for the week??
Friday, June 08, 2007
Tag Trauma and After Sale Let Down
My editor shot down my tag line suggestion. She said it made the book sound too much like a thriller. I can see that. So I am giving you some different tag lines to see what you think. Here's the marketplace blurb.
Children's:
Young Adult Teri Brown's READ MY LIPS, in which a deaf skater chick moves to a new school and uses her amazing lip reading ability to infiltrate the popular crowd, bust up an exclusive secret sorority, and tame the school rebel, to Caroline Abbey at Simon Pulse, in a nice deal, by Jenny Bent at Trident Media Group (world).
Read my lips (just don't read my mind). (Thanks, Tina for this one.)
Reading lips has never been so much fun.
There are no secrets to a lip reader.
Even when you whisper she knows your secrets.
School gossip isn't safe anymore.
Or how about this one Cindy just sent me?
Some secrets are just too good not to share
Anything? Help me brainstorm people:)
On another note... Has anyone else sold a book and then had trouble getting back into the writing mode? maybe it's just the problems I'm having with DASH, but I haven't so much as opened the file all week. Is this some sort of post first sale trauma?
Children's:
Young Adult Teri Brown's READ MY LIPS, in which a deaf skater chick moves to a new school and uses her amazing lip reading ability to infiltrate the popular crowd, bust up an exclusive secret sorority, and tame the school rebel, to Caroline Abbey at Simon Pulse, in a nice deal, by Jenny Bent at Trident Media Group (world).
Read my lips (just don't read my mind). (Thanks, Tina for this one.)
Reading lips has never been so much fun.
There are no secrets to a lip reader.
Even when you whisper she knows your secrets.
School gossip isn't safe anymore.
Or how about this one Cindy just sent me?
Some secrets are just too good not to share
Anything? Help me brainstorm people:)
On another note... Has anyone else sold a book and then had trouble getting back into the writing mode? maybe it's just the problems I'm having with DASH, but I haven't so much as opened the file all week. Is this some sort of post first sale trauma?
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
What's Wrong with this Scene?
I have three scenes in DASH that are not working out well.I get comments from my Cp's like... This is, um, better, but...
That's always frightening. Maybe I'll work on nonfiction today and let them sit. Scary that the book is already written, but I can't seem to get past chapters five and six in the revisions.
Still waiting on help for the tag line. What do you think about Watch what you say... you never know who might be reading your lips. ??? Thoughts anyone?
And congrats to Diana Peterfreund who had a blurb in Publishers Marketplace the same day mine was in. She sold a YA book called Rampant, about killer unicorns. Yeah, I can't wait either!
Waiting for my daughter to finish my My Space. Will friend you all once I am done.
Then on to getting a website. Do I really have to spend a thousand dollars to get a good one? YIKES!
That's always frightening. Maybe I'll work on nonfiction today and let them sit. Scary that the book is already written, but I can't seem to get past chapters five and six in the revisions.
Still waiting on help for the tag line. What do you think about Watch what you say... you never know who might be reading your lips. ??? Thoughts anyone?
And congrats to Diana Peterfreund who had a blurb in Publishers Marketplace the same day mine was in. She sold a YA book called Rampant, about killer unicorns. Yeah, I can't wait either!
Waiting for my daughter to finish my My Space. Will friend you all once I am done.
Then on to getting a website. Do I really have to spend a thousand dollars to get a good one? YIKES!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
