April Challenges

April thought it would sneak up on me, but last night I discovered it’s only a two week’s away. 2020 has NOT been kind to me, but I intend to make all the April Challenges and turn things around. I completed last year’s April writing challenges, and I intend again. 

Camp NaNoWriMo

This is a modified version of NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. I’ve set the word count at 5,600 and titled my entry: The Tales of Balder the Bartending Bard. This is the same entry I am using for the Blogging A-Z Challenge.

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge:

The Tales of Balder the Bartending Bard

My plan is to write an epic. Last year, I started this project and wrote sections as prose poems (thus they also qualified for the NaPoWriMo challenge), but halfway through, I realized I was missing the overall arch of the story, and sometimes the individual tales came out a little muddy. So this year, I’m taking the various stories and putting them into flash/short fiction stories. I’m hoping my brain will link these together, forming the overall story arch. Once that’s done, then I will turn it into an epic. 

NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo2020

My Balder project will cover Camp NaNoWriMo and Blogging A-Z as they did 2019, but it won’t cover NaPoWriMo. Instead, I will continue my study in poetic forms, but concentrate on lyrical poetry. This includes the sonnet in all its forms. For a subject, I’m uncertain. I may use a daily prompt, or I may tie them to my Balder project. I better decide soon.

Lots of work to prep. Peace

Newsletters?

Book Marketing: I’m classifying it as a necessary evil. Well, I’ll classify it as such untill I make my million dollars by hitting the bestseller list. Hahahahahha (Yes, you can laugh just as hard as I am.) 

There are so many folks out there teaching their “the right way” to market books, my head is spinning and spinning and spinning. Book marketing is the “necessary evil” of publishing.  I’ll keep researching and practicing them, one plan at a time, and let you know what works  – for me. Maybe it will help you.  Amazon Ads are not working, but I’m not giving up. I will give them the old “college try.” (Sorry, Bill.)  I’m adding more ads and have been running enough to dissect them.

I’m also learning lots about newsletters. In the process, I’ve run across a question. Since I found out how to do surveys and pols here in WordPress, I’d like to try it out with you.  Appreciate your help. 

Do you subscribe to an author’s newsletter?

A Pleasant Break

A cold day at the Dallas Arboretum but so many blooms!

So, been miserable since the end of January with sinus infection – again, but had a nice break this week. Meds are kicking in. So I spent two days with mom, and we went for tea at the Dallas Arboretum – Yummy! The day was cold, wet, and blustery, but the Spring is making itself known. Flowers are gorgeous! An all-around great trip.

To top off a pleasant trip, I now have a good ending to a short story I’ve been working on. The story now ends at the Arboretum. 

Where I’m at with:

Amazon Ads: Still running, still adding campaigns, still making no sales. Sigh. 

Newsletter: I’ve had a newsletter for a while, not that I do much with it, but I’m running it if for another other reason than I’m supposed to be. However, I’ve just read Tammi Labrecque’s Newsletter Ninja and I’ve been following Nick Stephenson’s blog on newsletters. Of all I’ve read about the role newsletters play in the success of publishing, these two sources seem to have their act together in giving the bare-bones info necessary to run a successful newsletter. It feels like I’m getting my head around the business side of writing. Look for more information next time.

Now that I’m back home, I’m taking a day to relax and gather my notes and to-do items. Fingers crossed my sinus infection doesn’t come back and I can get back to work.

Peace,

Completed the 5-Day Amazon Ad Challenge

The other side of authoring – marketing.

Took Bryan Cohen’s 5 Day Amazon Ad Challenge to learn as much as I could about running book ads on Amazon without paying for the full course he offers. I learned lots, and I’m running ads.  I am not making any money, but that’s okay. Everything I’ve read says to give it time. Still –

Let me start off saying that I love Amazon. I need anything from a new pencil to a new water filter, to a new baking pan, I click into Amazon and the next day it’s on my doorstep. That being said, I’ve never imagined making much money selling books on Amazon. Let’s face it, thousands of books are loaded into Amazon every day and listed for sale. Amazon makes a cut of every book sold on Amazon, and it’s only right they do. They’re doing all the work housing and enabling people to purchase and download my books. Now, I’m supposed to pay them to advertise, too?  How much money am I giving to Amazon?

Still, it’s worth testing out. 

If you’re interested in running book ads on Amazon, Bryan offers a course(s) that I’ve heard plenty of good things about. When my collection Midnight Whispers books are complete, I may enroll in the course. (Fingers crosses I’m making a little money before then to pay for the course.) His free course provided the basics for running ads, and his ability to convey what I once thought of as complex and nonsensical, makes me feel like I, too, can run ads like the pros (almost).

Hopefully, I’ll have something positive to report next time I check in. 

Writing projects for 2020

Cover of Midnight in Line and Form part 2

I’ve narrowed down the big writing projects for 2020 – sort of. Since I’m terrible about over committing myself, I’m keeping my options open. 

Midnight in Line and Form part 2:

Yes, this is in release mode. (There is one on my calendar, but I’m not sharing – yet.) Meant to get it out in December, but I needed time to heal, and I’m glad I did.

Midnight Bites (working title):

This novel “completes” the Midnight Whispers series. That being said, I’m leaving the ending open as I like several characters. It’s 90% roughed out.

That leaves one more book. I have two in process, but I’m torn on which one to complete. What do you think based on theses descriptions?

Dreams of Xolotl (working title – it will do for now):

Sissy loves her little dog more than anything in the world, and the little dog loves Sissy. Only Sissy and Great Grandmother know how the love of a little dog creates so much power and only costs a little blood.

The Goblin Twins (working title):

The twins, Erin and Erika Goblin, know they’re special but don’t how special until their fifteenth birthday deals them and the city of Las Vegas with more than a bad hand. Creatures from the Night World flood the family casino with dark magic forcing them and their body guard into hiding. The twins learn how much alike and different they are while securing their futures and bringing peace back to the Day World.