Wednesday, June 03, 2020

June IWSG: No Secrets, Just Plans

It's hard to believe it's June, isn't it? I hope you have some perfect days this month. But first, it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook, and Twitter. Our hosts this month are Pat Garcia, J.Q. Rose, and Natalie Aguirre. We've been posed the following question: Writers have secrets! What are one or two of yours, something readers would never know from your work?
Well, when it comes to revealing secrets, especially online, there's only one thing for me to say, and that's...
no GIF

So, let me tell you how my writing is going instead.

My main focus at the moment is a cozy mystery with paranormal elements. It's called Murder at Magic Lake, and I currently have about 22,000 words drafted. (Yes, this is a quarantine novel.) I aim to write about 500 new words each day, or at least enough to get me to the next 500 or 1,000 mark. If I have enough time afterwards, I also try to work on Dryads and Dragons, the third book in my urban fantasy trilogy. After losing most of my first draft back in February, I'm over 24,000 words with that. A short story I submitted to an anthology back in February was rejected, though the editor was very encouraging and urged me to submit to next year's anthology. I should look it over again and send it to another market. However, I've drawn up a new marketing plan based on advice from indie author Susan Kaye Quinn, and that's going to take priority. I'll be publishing my work directly to Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Apple, but first I may update some blurbs and keywords for my novels. It might also be time to update the covers for Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes, since they're from 2011 and 2012. There's a lot to do, so I need to break it down into manageable tasks.We may not be able to travel anywhere this summer, but I'll still have plenty of uses for my vacation time!

Are you revealing a secret for IWSG, or did you choose another topic? Feel free to share in the comments. In the meantime, it's back to writing for me.

 

7 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I'm tired just reading that. Think it's great you've been able to work so hard on writing during a time when most are struggling.

L. Diane Wolfe said...

I highly recommend Publisher Rocket for keywords. It shows you what people REALLY search for and where a book is most likely to be found.

emaginette said...

The only secret I shared was my memory is crap. I use some techniques to keep me on track. :-)

Anna from elements of emaginette

Steven Arellano Rose Jr. said...

I didn't answer the question about writers' secrets. I don't really have any that come to mind probably because the ones I have I take for granted so much. So I just kind of did what you did, discussed my current writing projects particularly my novella that I'm revising with the help of a "story map".

It does help to update your book's cover and blurbs. I know I'm due for updating one of my books' cover. I think it's good that you're publishing your book directly to outlets such as Kobo and Apple. One of the things I'm thinking about doing is diversifying my books to outlets outside of Amazon and so I'd like to try to work on that in the upcoming months. More outlets means more chances of selling!

Diane Burton said...

I didn’t give away any secrets. Instead I wrote what readers could learn about me from my stories. I love the optional questions because they stir up ideas to write about.

Sandra Ulbrich Almazan said...

Alex, no wonder I'm always tired!

Thanks for the recommendation, Diane!

I'll have to check out your techniques, Anna.

Steven, I was using Draft2Digital to distribute to Apple, Kobo, and other outlets, but if you publish directly on some sites, you have additional promotions available to you. That's why I'm transitioning to direct.

Diane, I agree that stories reveal a lot about their authors.

Nina Aisna said...
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