Our Adventures at the Book Festival

We spent last weekend at the Sunshine State Book Festival in Gainesville, FL. This was the second time I was there, and the first time for my hubby.

We drove up Friday afternoon, arriving just around supper time. We unloaded our car (except for the books we’d brought) to our hotel room, and then went to the hotel bar to have supper. The hotel also had a restaurant, but after seeing the prices at the bar, the restaurant was probably too pricey for our budget. At about 7 pm, we went down to the conference center for the meet & greet reception. We talked with several other authors, and ran into Joe Haldeman and his wife, Gay, which made hubby happy. But before too long, hubby either got uncomfortable or tired, so we went back to our room, watched a little tv, and went to bed.

Check in for the festival started at 8 AM on Saturday. Our tables were supposed to be set up and ready to go by 10 AM. I wasn’t worried about getting there right at 8, because I knew it wouldn’t take very long to set up our table. Hubby must have been tired, because he didn’t get up until 8, and he was worried about missing out on the breakfast that the festival was providing for the authors. So we went down and found our table, then I sent him off to have breakfast while I unloaded the books from our car. I wasn’t worried about breakfast, because I’d had a couple pop tarts with my morning pills.

After I brought in our books, I unloaded the 3 boxes and began to set up the table. Hubby arrived in the middle of that, so we were all done by 9:30, ready for the crowds of customers to come in.

At noon, I sent hubby to the buffet being supplied by the festival. When he got back, he sat at the table and I went to get some lunch. Lunch consisted of build-your-own tacos, churros and key lime pie. When I got back to the table, I could tell Hubby was tired, so I sent him to our room to rest. He came back a couple hours later, feeling a little better.

Throughout the day, we talked to various people. One children’s author told me where he got his books printed for a lot less than anyplace I had found. Of course, getting them printed is only half the battle; then you need a distributor to get them into the book stores. He was negotiating with a distributor.

Another author told me how to indicate the reader was going into a flashback. One of our books has multiple flashbacks, which at least one reader found confusing. Now I can fix that problem.

Another author gave me information on two cover artists he’s worked with and recommended. He also gave me some information on potentially getting our books in his wife’s bookstore.

And then a potential customer stopped by, and we started talking about book covers. I always thought the book cover should be an indication of what you would find inside the book, which should make it fairly unique. She agreed but had gone to a publishing seminar a few months ago where everybody was saying, “No, you want the book cover to look like every other book in your genre.” In any case, she had nice things to say about our book covers.

And then, at the very end, the President of the organization that hosted the festival came to us and said, “I sold 2 books, how did you do?” We told her we hadn’t actually sold any books, but we did hand out lots of coupons to get our eBooks at a discount. At least one person came by and picked up one of each coupon, while her mother picked up one. We ran the gamut of coupon dispersal; some took several while others took only one.

In the days before the festival, I had repacked our books, trying to get it down from 5 boxes to 4. I actually got them down to 3. But, when it came time to pack them all up again, I didn’t have room for the two coupon holders. I had to put them in with my laptop and hope they didn’t get squashed and broken. (They didn’t.)

We took the books back to the car, had supper in the bar, and went back to our room for the night. Hubby doesn’t seem to think that selling our books face to face is the way to sell our books, but he doesn’t want me to ‘waste’ my time studying marketing, either. But I’m not ready to give up.

Believe it or not, I had fun. I also had a disadvantage. We were located near one of the entrances, which was good. But sitting right next to me, even closer to the entrance, was a very out-going author who greeted every potential customer with, “What do you like to read?” Which is what I usually say. And then, depending on what they said, he would regale them with some variation of his elevator pitch for his series of 5 books. I felt a little silly asking the same question as him, and so I fumbled several times, looking for something to engage their interest. Also, he had dragon stickers he was giving away, and I only had boring coupons.

I’m still processing what I can learn from this experience. I’ve often thought of having things to give away, but I’ve never gotten around to doing it. Maybe it’s time I do that. Among other things. Then if the person next to me is asking, “What do you like to read?”, I can fall back to “Would you like a free sticker/trading card/temporary tattoo?”

Report on Necronomicon 2023

We got home from Necronomicon about 7 PM on Sunday. We left everything in the car to be unloaded in the morning, because we were tired. (We aren’t spring chickens any more!) But I’m counting the convention a success!

We left about 8:15 AM on Friday to pick up Mark, who was going with us. His house is about an hour from our home, and the convention hotel was a little more than an hour from his house. Being old and intimidated by our smart phones, we tend to print the route we need to take by using mapquest or google maps on our desk computers. It worked well for this trip except at the end, where the instructions said things like, turn right and go 387 feet, make a u-turn and go 219 feet, turn right and go 121 feet. How are we supposed to measure feet when we’re in a car? Anyway, I told my hubby to make a u-turn at the first intersection, only to realize that intersection led to the parking lot of the hotel we wanted! By the time I realized that, he had made the u-turn and was at the lights where we had originally turned right. Eventually, we turned around and got to the hotel.

It was a little after 11 AM, and my table was supposed to be set up by noon, so we decided to get a luggage cart to take my 5 boxes of books to my table. But we actually unloaded everything onto the luggage cart and I went inside to see if we could check in for our hotel room. Yes, we could! So John and Mark took the boxes to my table, where John started unpacking the books; Mark took the luggage to our hotel room; and I got us all registered for the con. Then I went back to the table, handed out badges and program books, and finished setting up the table. Now I could settle in for the rest of the day, talking to the other authors in the Author Alley and trying to be friendly to potential customers that walked by.

John and Mark sometimes sat with me at the table, studying the schedule, reading the program book and talking about whatever was on their mind. At times one or both would wander away to check out a panel or activity, the art show, the dealer’s room. I made a fast walk around the dealer’s room, but never got to the art show. I tried to talk to the other authors, but on Friday, the tables to the left of me and directly across from me were empty. And after a couple of hours, the table across from me and to the left was suddenly empty too. There had been an author there, with his book, but now he was gone, and nobody saw him pack up and go.

The con had an activity called ‘Cthulu Crafts’ all 3 days of the con, which John went to see what it involved, looking for something that Klingons might be able to use. He talked to the host and mentioned that Klingons had an activity they did called ‘Paint and Take’. Later on Saturday, the young man in charge of scheduling stopped John in the hall and asked if might be interested in doing a ‘Paint and Take’ at the next con. So John and Mark started talking about finding other Klingons to come with them next year and what they might be able to do besides a Paint & Take. I wonder what customers would say if I manned my table as a Klingon for a day at next year’s con.

John and I had 2 panels to do. The first was on Saturday at 11:15 AM, and it was on ‘What Inspired Me to Write’. I had come up with 7 questions to help keep the conversation going. With 6 panelists, we filled up the hour and didn’t get too repetitive, so I was feeling pretty good. We also had an author there who was one of the con’s Guests of Honor, and he sometimes put in his 2 cents worth, which was also an ego boost for me.

Our 2^nd panel was Sunday at 11 AM, and this one was about “How I Write.” Again, 4 other authors joined us, and only 1 was a repeat from the day before. I had 9 questions to ask, and the answers were diverse, pointing out that there is no one ‘correct’ way to right, er, I mean write.

Two people approached me during the convention. One was an editor who was looking for free-lance work. It is very hard to edit your own books, so I may be looking her up. The other woman was a free lance graphic artist. I may soon have work for her, too.

At 8 PM on Saturday, there was a panel on self-publishing that I wanted to go to, so John and I took down the table about 6:30 so I could get supper, since I hadn’t gotten any lunch. The restaurant was quick at getting our food to us, and I had some time to spare before the panel, so I went up to the con suite, and had some chips, a glass of cola, and some pop corn before I went to the panel.

Now, self-publishing is a big subject to cover in 1 hour. And when the hour was over, Brenda (only 1 panelist showed up) decided to take us to Salon G, which was supposed to be empty for the next hour. But when we got there, another group had been given the room to use, so a few of us die-hards who wanted to know more gathered around an empty table in Author Alley and talked for another 1 ½ hours. By then I was the only one left listening. Brenda gave me her personal email address, in case I had more questions, and promised to introduce me to Kevin on Sunday, who could give me more information on email lists.

Sure enough, as soon as I got my table set up on Sunday, Brenda was there with 2 men to talk to me; Kevin about email lists, and Robert of Westerfield Studios. So I had a talk with Kevin about email lists and bookfunnel. And then I had a nice talk with Robert about multi-media and how he could help me get the word out about our books. He mentioned some things that I knew existed but didn’t have a clue how to do.

And everybody told me to start getting our books made into audible books!

I considered it a very productive convention for me, having made those contacts and had those conversations.

And the cherry on top of the whole convention was that I sold 4 books! That’s the biggest sales I’ve had at any convention. My sales actually covered the cost of the table for once!

Two of the books were John’s ‘The Stone Builders’, which you can download for free at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/565000. In it, Humans and Wassarans have co-colonized a planet, and now they discovered it was colonized once before by a race who built everything out of stone. But the Stone Builders had abandoned their colony in a hurry. Why? And was the threat still here?

The third book was John’s ‘The Waste Gun’, where a scientist has found a way to get rid of radioactive waste permanently. But an eco-terrorist sees it as poisoning the Earth and is determined to stop him. This one isn’t available as an e-book right now, as I flubbed up the formatting of the manuscript before I got it published as an e-book, but I’ll let you know when it is published.

The final book was an anthology of short stories about vampires called ‘These Vampires Don’t Sparkle’. This one wasn’t published by me, but I have a story in it, on page 155. I don’t know if it was ever published as an e-book, but the hard copy was put out 9 years ago by Sky Warrior Book Publishing. There is a 2^nd volume called ‘These Vampires Still Don’t Sparkle’. I just checked with Amazon, which said volume 1 was out of print, and they only have 1 used paperback of volume 2 for sale. So my chances of getting any more of either one of them are pretty slim.

I look forward to going back to Necronomicon in 2024.

A Personal Appearance

I’m getting excited! For the first time in a lo-o-ng time, MoonPhaze is sending both of its authors to make an appearance together. That’s me and my husband, John Lars Shoberg. Both of us. At the same event. Namely, Necronomicon in Tampa FL.

We were supposed to go together to Gainesville in January, to sell our books at a bookfair that’s held there annually. Unfortunately, John’s health at that time was pretty poor, and I went without him. It wasn’t the same at all. He’s the one who can talk to just about anyone, on a large variety of subjects, so I usually rely on him to help break the ice with potential customers. I tried to engage people in conversation, but I’m just not as good at it as he is. I was completely drained by the end of the day.

This time, his health still isn’t very good, but he’s going with me. It will be up to me to sell the books, while he will wander around, attending panels and making new friends. We are on 2 panels together: “How I Do My Job (Writing)” and “What Inspired Me to Do This Job (Writing)”. They were the suggestions I made when the person doing the panel scheduling told me he had been informed that it was not acceptable to have authors who are not The Guest of Honor do readings. That’s so different from Mid-West cons. So that’s what I came up with off the top of my head. And the scheduler said, “Great! Let’s do them both!”

If you come to Necronomicon this weekend (Sept 22-24, 2023), look for the MoonPhaze table. I will be manning that. And watch for John among the other attendees. We’d both love to talk to you. Feel free to browse through our books, and I won’t be averse to sell you some. Or if you prefer e-books, I have a bunch of coupons I’d like to hand out this weekend. You can get the ebooks for 50% off or for free, and not have to carry books around with you all weekend. And we don’t charge for autographs, if you want one of those!

Yes, I’m getting excited. Which is different than being nervous. Nervous is me at a table, trying to sell books or at least talk to people about books. You’d think I’d get used to it and not get so nervous anymore. Here’s hoping the nervousness isn’t as bad this time.

One Important Step in Marketing

Most of you know that I publish books that my husband and I write. It means I wear a lot of different hats. The most difficult job, out of all the jobs that I do, is to try to convince potential readers to give our books a chance. Quite frankly, I don’t know what I’m doing, in that respect. I’ve taken classes, I’ve read books, I’ve gone to seminars, and I still don’t really know what I’m doing. It’s very frustrating.

One thing I did a few years ago was to set up website for my company. And last year, I set up a second website, just to deal with the e-versions of our books. That 2^nd website worked well enough to get me the beginnings of an email list, but even when I ran some ridiculously priced sales, I never sold any ebooks from that site. I finally figured out why; I had never set up the ‘accept payment’ part of the website.

It had a well-known e-commerce software package ready to be used, but I had never activated it. This spring, I spent the better part of a month trying to jump through the hoops to get that software activated. And that was with plenty of help from the support team of my hosting company. Trying to follow the instructions was as bad as trying to read a legal document. I was so confused!

But I got it done. At least, they tell me I have.

But it made me think… Had I ever set up the ‘accept payment’ part of my first website? I did not know. I knew I should look into that, and the sooner, the better. But a broken arm got in my way, and I couldn’t really do much on the computer. When the arm got better, life in general intruded… okay, I procrastinated, because I was afraid it would have the same well-known e-commerce software package attached to it, and I didn’t know if the support team for that hosting company would be as helpful. I very much cringed at the thought of going through that same confusing set-up process.

But, I’m happy to reveal, I took a deep breath earlier this week, and I tackled my original website. I did not find that dreaded e-commerce software when I looked at my website’s dashboard. I contacted the support team to find out how I do it. The chat bots didn’t understand my question, but I finally got a real person, who explained how to set it up and even gave me the website for doing so. Sounded simple, but was it really? I am here to report that it was as easy as setting up a Paypal account, and I got it done within half an hour. Hooray for me!

Now, how do I get people to buy something? That seems to be my perpetual question.

By the way, the original website is www.MoonPhaze.com, and the website for ebooks is www.MoonPhazeBooks.com. One needs a drastic overhaul, and the other needs a firm tweaking. Those will keep me busy for the next several months.

Marketing - the Bane of Writing

I decided to write about marketing this week. It's been on my mind quite a bit lately, and I'll tell you why.

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a blog about how authors could market themselves and their work globally. Nothing they suggested in their blog seemed too far out there or difficult to do. So I took their 10 suggestions, broke them into small chunks, and scattered them throughout my infamous To Do List to be tackled over the next couple of months.

Four days ago, I was cleaning out my email box when I found I had been sent Lesson 1 in a 7-part series of lessons on how an author can best and most easily market their goods. I was familiar with the teacher, so I went through that first lesson and took copious notes. Turns out those are DAILY lessons for a full week, so I have been going through each lesson every day, taking detailed notes. I have to take notes, because the lessons take up so much of my time, I can't actually act on what he wants me to do.

And I'm not very tech-savvy. When I set up my last website, following his instructions, it took me 3-4 months to get it ready to publish. He had at least twice as many books to include as I did, and got his done in an afternoon.

And unfortunately, I don't get a lot of support for my marketing efforts. Granted, they haven't done much good so far, but if you want to get anywhere, you have to persevere, right?

I have a good friend (who also writes books), who tells me to forget about marketing. "Just write your books, get 10 or 12 printed, hand them out to friends and family and be done with it." He has a different philosophy about writing than I do. I want to entertain people by telling them stories. And yeah, I'd like to make some money doing it, if I can.

This friend has no concept of what I'm telling him. Every time this subject comes up between us, he gets mad because I won't give in and live life the way he thinks I should. "But you hate marketing! Life is too short to make yourself miserable. Just do the writing, which you enjoy."

It's true, I haven't found any 'fun' in marketing. So far. Maybe because I haven't yet managed to find anything that works. But now I am gathering new steps to take, things to research, tweaks to make... I have a goal to reach for.

It's hard to make progress when you don't know where you're going.

 

My First Book Festival, Part 3

Saturday. The big day.

My room was cold when I got up. I checked the thermostat. It was set for 74, but the actual temperature was 64. I checked the unit under the window, and it said it was set for heat, to the temperature of 64. I tried to bump it up to 74, but it immediately went back to 64. I didn't have time to mess with it. I went downstairs to get some breakfast. I chose some oatmeal, bacon and orange juice, since I don't drink coffee. The breakfast lounge was humming with people.

When it came time to go to the festival site, I had to scrape frost off all my car windows. Well, actually, I turned on the car, set the defrost to high and scraped the side windows. By the time I got that done, the windshield and rear windows were clear. I wasn't sure we still had an ice scraper in my car, so I had originally had visions of trying to clear my windows with a credit card. Thank goodness I didn't need to do that.

It was a 15-minute drive to the site, and then waiting in line to unload of about the same amount of time. An aide showed up with a cart, and I unloaded my 5 boxes. She went to park the cart in the lobby while I took my car to 'the grassy area' and walked back to the building. It was probably 8:45 or so when I got my books transferred to our table, and the aide came to take the cart away so it could be used again.

The festival opened to the public at 10 am, and I had our table all set up by 9:30, so I pulled out my phone and my square reader and tried to figure out how to use it. I couldn't get it to connect to the church's wifi, no matter how hard I tried. Consequently, every time I opened the square app, it had a bright red banner across the top saying I wasn't connected to the internet. I got up and consulted with a couple other authors to see if they were having problems, but they weren't.

In sheer desperation, I called one of my sons to see if he had any suggestions. And it was sheer desperation, because he doesn't use the square app, so he was making things up as he went along. Eventually, he and his wife were going out for breakfast, so I knew I was on my own with my problem. But something he said made me look in my settings, and my data connection wasn't turned on. I turned it on, and opened my square app... and I no longer had that bright red banner about not being connected to the internet.

I breathed a sigh of relief and tried to figure out how to navigate the square app. It was a lesson in frustration, because it seemed to open to a different page each time I opened it, leaving me with no idea where I was at in the app, and even less of an idea how to get where I wanted to go. Thankfully, I only needed to use it once that entire day. A young man wanted to buy 2 books, so I discounted the price. I got the amount put in the app, but when I ran his card through the reader... it didn't register, and therefore didn't charge him. But I didn't realize that until later.

I now have a new chore on my 'to do' list: Practice with the square app.

It was not a tremendously busy day. They had 150 authors in attendance. They may or may not have had that many people come in and shop. Our table was in the 'science fiction' section, but there were no signs to indicate what section had what kind of books. When customers were scarce, I pulled myself away from our table to go network with other authors. That was actually kind of fun. I always started the conversation the same way; "What type of books do you write?"

And I talked to people who walked by, usually starting with, "What type of book do you like to read?" Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't, but at least I wasn't just sitting there like a bump on a log. My husband would have been proud of me.

About 4:45, they announced it was time to start packing up what books we had left and leave. I hadn't sold that many books, and I was trying to pack them away in the same boxes they came in, so it was about 5:30 before I found a cart, loaded up my boxes and went to get my car. A helpful person saw me pushing the cart towards my car, and helped me transfer the boxes into the trunk. She was very helpful, and upon hearing where I was from, she got my phone number and sent me the contact information for the 'book festival' being held in Orlando. I thanked her profusely and went back to the hotel.

All I'd had for 'lunch' was some pumpkin seeds and a bottle of pop I had bought from the hotel before I had left that morning. There were supposed to be food trucks at the festival site for most of the day, but they never announced that they had arrived, and I didn't have my husband there to watch the table, so I ate my seeds and was glad to have them. By the time I got back to the hotel, nearly 6 pm, I was hungry, so I went to bar and ordered loaded nachoes and a piece of cheesecake. I should have forgotten about the cheesecake, because there were enough nachoes on that plate to feed 2 of me. But I finished most of them, and the cheesecake, then I went to my room and watched tv to let my nerves settle down.

The whole experience had been so-o-o-o far outside my comfort zone! Even going for supper was uncomfortable, because I was by myself, the bar was busy and noisy. I was pretty desperate for some solitude by the time I reached my room.

The room was still cold. I had neglected to bring a jacket or sweater with me, so I climbed into bed and watched tv.

At one point, my youngest son called me. He had signed up for an online class on IT, one that would 'probably' take him 6 months to finish. He had finished it in 3 weeks, and he wanted to crow a little bit about it. I understood the feeling, I wanted to crow a little too, about how well I had handled the book festival. So we talked a little bit, and then I promised to call him back on Sunday afternoon, after I got home.

So, about 11 (I'm usually up until midnight), I turned off the tv and the lights, pulled the blankets up to my ears to keep the chill air away, and went to sleep.

Hope Springs...

Well, here it is, a new year. And even though the pandemic is still with us, making life miserable, I still keep hoping that Things Will Be Better This Year.

You know, that all my Loved Ones (including myself) will stay healthy, that Truth and Justice will win in the end, that I will get better at getting our books published On Time, and not have to keep delaying the publication date. Mostly, that we will sell more books. Or cosplay prosthetics. That we will sell more of something.

I seldom write about how we are doing, sales wise, because I'm embarrassed. Strangely, it never seems to matter that we get payments from our distributor regularly. They aren't for 1000s of dollars. And yet, everywhere I look, I see ads proclaiming things like, "Sell thousands of books overnight with no effort!", or "Learn from this fledgling author who hit #1 on the Best Seller Lists!", or something similar.

If it's too good to be true...

But hope springs eternal, right?

I've fallen for a couple of these, trying to learn how to market more effectively. I mean, if people don't know about our books, how can we hope to sell more of them? Alas, these programs all seem to call for skills I don't really have.

I mean, if I had an IT department I could go to and say, "Here are 3 pages I need added to my website. How long do you need to get them functional?" That would be one thing. I'd even give them exactly what the page should look like and what it should say. I can do that much. But it's the behind the scenes type of stuff that often leaves me confused and feeling inadequate. Where does this button link to? How do you set up a link between a file-sharing website and the buttons on this webpage? How do I include detailed instructions for doing something I've never done?

Okay, pity party is over. I am not my only resource. I have friends and family and groups who can help me figure out all those things I need to figure out in order to do what I want to do. No, I don't like marketing, but I can't afford to have somebody else do it for me. And, most of the marketing plans I've listened to are simply more of the same stuff I've already tried. So, time for new stuff. Time to get a little creative. That I can do. 

An Update on MoonPhaze Authors

 Okay, I don’t do this very often, so I hope you’ll bear with me. Things have been busy here, and I thought I would let you sneak a peek into the lives of a pair of authors.

In August, I saw a call for submissions to a themed anthology, with a 30-day deadline. I told my husband, who writes science fiction. I knew he was busy with some of  his hobbies, but I wanted to give him the chance to participate. The first thing I sold was a story to a themed anthology, so I have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for them.

Meanwhile, I tried to think up a plot for a suitable story. It only took me a couple days to realize I had 2 plots! So I wrote both of them. When I asked if they would accept multiple submissions, they said yes, so a few days before the deadline, I sent both of them in.

We are not sitting around, chewing our fingernails and climbing the walls waiting for word on whether or not we were accepted. The contributors do not, generally, make a lot of money from anthologies, but it’s nice to be able to put them on our ‘resume’, so to speak. And yes, we are competing with each other, but I am also competing with myself!

In other news, I recently took an on-line class on how to effectively use Goodreads to let people know about our books. So I have spent some time getting my husband’s books listed on Goodreads, including 2 that have not been published yet, but have been edited and are waiting for the cover to be done. I never imagined how much marketing in involved before the book is published! I had to make an entire new ‘To Do’ list for the Goodreads site, to keep me on track.

I also spent some time this week trying to upload the files for his next book, “De-Evolution” to our printer. They changed the way files are uploaded, so I had to re-learn the entire procedure again. And I’m not done, because somehow I managed to come up with 2 chapter titles for each chapter, so I’m exchanging emails with their support crew, trying to figure out how to eliminate one set of chapter titles, preferably the ones they added.

I should also upload the file for the e-book, but I figure, one problem at a time.

Upcoming books by John Lars Shoberg include “De-Evolution”, with a tentative release date of November 15, 2020 and “The Stone Ship”, with a tentative release date of May 15, 2021, and which is a sequel to his first book (The Stone Builders). Both of these books are currently having the covers done. I have a book, “Hank’s Widow”, tentatively scheduled for release on July 15, 2021. Actually, the author name will be Linda (NMI) Joy, which is my pen name for romances.

And there you have it. In among all the other things in our lives, I have accomplished this in the last couple of weeks, with other on-line seminars on Sunday and next Tuesday. In the meantime, it’s time to start editing yet another of John’s books, “And the Meek Shall Inherit”.

I need clocks that run slower.

Author Blogs

The worst part of being an indie author is that you are required to do all of your own marketing and promotion. You always wonder if you are missing something, some way of connecting to your audience. There’s lots of advice out there about having your own blog, so this week, I did some research of what other authors talk about in their blogs.

I was lucky enough to find a list of ‘well-crafted’ author blogs compiled by a well-known site for authors. So I checked out the first dozen or so.

The first thing I noticed was that all of the blogs I was connected to were over a decade old, even though these blogs got points for being ‘frequently updated’. In one or two cases, newer posts were easy to find; but in most of them, I was stuck with the post I landed on, looking for similarities, differences, anything that might tell me what made a successful author’s blog.

Two or three of them were down-right political in nature. I have my political views, of course, but I don’t like cramming my views down other people’s throats, nor do I like having other people’s views crammed down mine. I didn’t spend much time on those sites.

One blog page consisted of boxes with a headline in each box. The headlines did not make much sense to me, perhaps because I wasn’t familiar with that author’s work, and that’s what they pertained to.

One blog page was a guest blog by a friend of the author, who waxed poetic about how much better his life was, now that he had adopted just one of the attitudes suggested is the author’s non-fiction self-help book. Well, that was an interesting possibility... if I wrote non-fiction self-help books.

Several of them talked about their current Work In Progress, which was pretty much what I expected. But even now, I’m not sure how that can be done effectively, given a blog that gets a new post every week, which is the absolute minimum suggested by all the advice given to authors that I’ve seen.

Now, I don’t write 8 hours a day. I am an editor and publisher (and person) as well as an author, and so I spend 8 hours (and more) at my computer, I do not spend 8 hours a days working on my own stories. Not even 8 hours writing, re-writing and editing my own stories. But let’s look at some math:

Suppose an author writes 8,000 words a day ( that’s 1,000 words per hour, and boy, is that fast!) 5 days a week produces 40,000 words. To the best of my knowledge, a typical romance is about 80,000 words, so that’s 2 weeks of work, just for a rough draft. One romance writer complained that she had finished her rough draft, only to have her editor tell her it had problems, problems so bad that she (the author) was going to have to step back and rethink the entire story. And yet, that author still managed to include in her blog post an excerpt from that story.

I’m left wondering, does she include an excerpt with every blog post? Even if all she did was tell her audience about whatever she had written that week, she is basically telling them the story before it ever gets published.

And that’s during the rough draft stage. What does she do during the rewrites? More excerpts? Explanations of what she’s changed?

I don’t really understand, so I guess I’ll have to continue studying blogs by other authors, preferably more than one post by the same author. Do any of you know of an author whose blog you feel would be a good example for me to study?

In the meantime, I’ll return to writing about the science I’ve self-studied.

A Tell of Caution

It’s easy enough to do. But just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should do it. Especially when you are trying to establish yourself as an up-and-coming author.

I’m sure most working mothers know what I’m talking about: Spreading yourself too thin. Most working mothers are still expected to do (most, if not all of) the housework, get the groceries, do the cooking, take care of the kids, AND do their job. Even without adding any hobbies to help them stay sane, they are spread mighty thin. It gets to the point where you have to get sick, just to get some time to yourself.

Been there, done that.

When I took early retirement, I wanted my next ‘career’ to be ‘author’. I had been working at it for years. I had numerous short stories already written and polished, but none had found a home yet. I had a novel ready for submission, one in the polishing stage, and another drafted, besides several started, and many more ‘stewing’ in the back of my mind.

But suddenly finding yourself without a job to go to can leave you floundering. Without thinking about it, I dithered through my days watching tv, surfing the net, half-heartedly doing aspects of house cleaning I had never bothered to do before. (BTW, I hate housekeeping. It never gets done!) I signed up for six or a dozen newsletters on writing, and more on ‘promoting your book’. Anything to keep from actually writing, it seemed.

I even hired myself out as a free-lance editor. I told myself I needed to do that; I no longer belonged to a writing critique group, and editing would give me a chance to recognize ‘problems’ and try to solve them. Yeah, I can find other people’s problem areas, but I’m not sure I’m any better at finding my own.

I started new hobbies, took classes on leatherworking, theatrical makeup and making prosthetics, photoshop and illustrator… you get the idea. I volunteered for a position with Broad Universe (broaduniverse.org). And because I was frustrated with my pace in the writing world, I started my own publishing company. Why not? It seems like everybody else is doing it.

Somewhere in there, when I wasn’t paying attention, I got thin. Not physically, although I have lost a few pounds. But in terms of energy, I have none. In terms of organization, that’s pretty sketchy. I start each day with breakfast, doing my Broad Universe chore, and checking through my (main) email account. After that…

I have a loooong list of Things To Do. And unfortunately, ‘writing’ is not very high on that list.

How can I be an author if I don’t write? Why are all these other things coming before ‘writing’? I’m juggling a multitude of activities, but what I really want isn’t even in the mix.

I think it’s time to snap back and not be so thin.

How Many Hats?

Long, long ago - they tell me - all an author needed to do was write. And maybe go on a speaking tour from time to time.

Now, an author wears many hats. How many hats can one person balance on their head before their neck snaps?

First, there's the Writing Hat. You have to get that rough draft done, or your writing career will go nowhere.

At some point, you will probably need the Research Hat, even if you write fiction. If your story involves some military, how is it organized? What ranks does it have? If it's science fiction involving humans, you might research militaries throughout history, and extrapolate from what you've learned. If you're writing a fantasy about dwarves, you might study the tales about dwarves, and try to figure out how they might organize an army. (Hint: A dwarf army is not likely to have cavalry. At least, not a cavalry on something as big as a horse.)

Next comes the Self-Critiquing Hat. You go through your rough draft and make it better by smoothing out rough spots and inconsistencies, adding description and explanation where it's needed, making sure you've said what you intended to say. Actually, you wear this hat more than you wear the Writing Hat.

Next comes the Listening Hat. You ask for feedback on what you've written, and you listen to what they say. Maybe your hero's eyes changed color mid-book, or you use the same phrase over and over, or 3 out of 4 readers didn't understand the first half of chapter eleven.

Back to the Self-Critiquing Hat as you go through your manuscript, considering the feedback, whether or not to change anything, and if so, what's the best way to do that?

Many authors are opting to self publish, these days. Once they've gotten their manuscript as good as they think they can get it, they probably hire an editor, maybe a copy editor, possibly a proofreader, and some will even hire someone to format the manuscript into e-book and print templates.

Or maybe they don't. In which case, those are all hats they should make sure fit their head; the Editor Hat, the Copy Editor Hat, the Proofreader Hat, and the Formatting Hat.

If they are making print copies, they must wear a Deciding Hat (What company will I hire to print this? Where do I get cover art, and who can do the cover layout?), the Receipts Payable Hat (How did the final printing bill get 30% higher than the quote they gave me?), and the Signing Hat (I only ordered *** copies, so why are there so many big, heavy boxes on my doorstep?).

Think they're done? Oh, no, not yet. This part is for all authors, even those with a publishing company, whatever that company's size. Very few authors don't have to wear the following hats:

The Marketing Hat (How do I let people know about my book?) often leads to The Social Media Hat (How many times can I announce something about my book on fb, twitter, linkedin, goodreads...?), the Webmaster Hat (How do I get this shopping cart to work?), the Personal Appearance Organizing Hat (Did that bookstore ever respond about the reading I wanted to do?), the Merchant Hat (Step right up! Get your brand new red hot sf book by that upcoming new author, me!), which, of course, leads to the dreaded Bookkeeper Hat (I gave away 5 books. There's no money involved, so how do I put those in the bookkeeping records?).

I will be wearing the Merchant Hat this weekend. I have rented a table in the Dealer's Room at a Dr Who convention in Wichita KS. Tomorrow, I will be madly trying to wear both the Publicity Hat and the Organizing Hat as I try to design some way to 'decorate' that table and decide how many copies of each book to take with me. A full box of John's book, because, you know, I still have 6 full boxes to sell, 15 of my first book, 12 of the anthology I'm in (plus 6 of the companion volume for that anthology), and 12 of my latest book. Wait, will all those fit in the car with John's suitcase, my suitcase, the costume suitcase and my full make-up case?

Too many hats!

The Secret

This year's World Science Fiction Convention was in Spokane, WA. The layout of the convention center made absolutely no sense. You entered on ground level, only to take an escalator to the 2nd level, where you could find registration, the dealer's room and the art show. From there, you could do one of 5 things:

·       Take an escalator down to one set of rooms,

·       go down a few steps to a down escalator to another set of rooms,

·       walk down a long corridor, turn left, follow a hallway to an (inadequate) bank of elevators to get to the hotel lobby, which you walked across to another set of rooms (I never personally made this trip, although I did try, once.),

·       don't turn left but continue down that long corridor to a down escalator to another set of rooms, or

·       walk past that set of rooms to take an elevator up a floor to yet another set of rooms.

Rumor has it that there were even rooms in another building that one had to go outside to get to.

Even with a map in the pocket program book, convention center staff were stationed at corners so people could ask, "How do I get to X?" We got our exercise!

There were wild fires in Washington, one of them north of Spokane. The city wasn't threatened, but on Friday, the smoke was as thick as heavy fog. Even inside, you could smell it. Played heck with people's sinuses.

But the thing I will probably remember most was The Secret. I heard it in a panel given by authors, and one of them quite nonchalantly stated, "I hate to give away secrets, but we authors don't come to conventions to see our fans; we come to network with other authors and people in the business."

I was shocked!

Now that I have thought about it, I wonder, Then why do they attend the smaller conventions? I mean the smaller, regional conventions where they may be the only 'known' author attending. No editors, no agents, only small press publishers. What would local authors and small press people offer?

I suppose networking is networking, and you never know, the person who is completely unknown this year could the Big Item next year. But still, the fan is in that mix somewhere, right?

How can you sell books if nobody wants to read it? If fans aren't important, why are newbie and wanna-be authors advised to produce the most excellent work they can, because "Your first book is what sells (or doesn't sell) your next book."

Okay, maybe this 'Secret' doesn't say it all. Maybe it was just my personal wake-up to use conventions, not just to have fun, but to network with like-minded people. That's not an easy thing for me to do. But I can talk to people, one or two at a time. Time to give it a try.

Personal Appearances

These days, it is the responsibility of the author to do most - if not all - of the marketing for their book. One way to do that is to make ‘personal appearances’ - talks, readings, book signings, that sort of thing. For authors who write science fiction, fantasy or something fairly close to those genres, much of those activities can be done at science fiction conventions.

1) You can participate on ‘panels’, either alone or with other speakers. Panels are discussions or talks on a particular subject, and the marketing involved includes mentioning your (most recent or most known) work when you introduce yourself. 2) Readings are falling out of favor with some sf conventions, but others will still give you a time slot. 3) Most sf conventions have a ‘freebie’ table, where you can place fliers about your work. 4) The author or a group of authors can rent a table in the dealer’s room, where they can sell copies of their books. 5) Autograph sessions can be organized at that dealer’s table. 6) Get out there and mix with people! The more people have met you and had a conversation with you, the more they are likely to buy a copy of your work.

My first appearance this convention season is Willycon, held April 10-12. Held at the college in Wayne, Nebraska, it is the smallest convention we attend each year, but it is a good way of ‘easing’ back into the convention scene after a long winter of hibernation. John and I have been going since the convention got started, and a number of former students are now friends with us on facebook.

I like Willycon because I am not always at my best after that long hibernation, so a small convention lets me get my groove on, so to speak. I always take some fliers for the freebie table, and participate in at least one panel or workshop. This year, as lack-of-planning will have it, I am having a stubborn tooth root surgically removed the day before Willycon, so I have deliberately limited myself to one panel, but it will be fun!

“Well, this is it; We’re all going to die!” will be an audience-participation-expected panel, where we will compile a list of all the various ways humans (or at least most of them) could be wiped off the face of the Earth.

John Lars Shoberg has a few panels that he is giving, including the ‘flip side’ of my panel, which he calls “Surviving the Apocalypse”, or something similar. After I and my audience come up with a list of dooms, he and his audience will figure out how humans could survive each awful fate.

Hope to see you there, or at one of the other conventions we’ll be attending this year. More info on those other conventions in the future.

Help Wanted

Oh, the hassles of being a writer in this day and age! A couple years ago, I faced my growing frustration with submitting my work, only to get a “No, thank you” response. Everybody tells writers not to take it personally, but after a few years, you start wondering what is wrong with your writing. And the truth is, there might not be anything wrong with it, it’s possible you just aren’t hitting that market with that story at the right time.

A lot of authors - even established authors - were going into self-publishing, so... why not? Could it be any worse? A friend said she would help.

But then the novel we were going to start with (Cali) was accepted by a different small press. Great news! But it left us looking for a different novel to publish. I had a couple in the clean-up stage, but most were in the rough draft or 2nd draft stage. So we took on my husband’s sf novel (The Stone Builders) as our first publication. [Side note; since he agreed to this several months ago, he has finished a 2nd novel and started a 3rd. Apparently, he just needed some encouragement.]

I am no longer ‘just’ an author and free-lance editor, I am a publisher. I learned how to prepare manuscripts and format them, and I knew artists to hire for book covers. Editing can be time-consuming, but I was prepared for that. The big problem is the marketing involved!

We were trying to learn marketing even before we made this decision, because most marketing is left to the author anyway. But to be effective, we need to post on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, and any other appropriate social media outlets. Unfortunately, trying to do all of this has left me with no time to write, and my friend is more technology-challenged than I am. Plus, it’s driving us crazy, trying to come up things to say and learn how post in various websites. Therefore,

Help Wanted: Social media handler. Someone to help decide what to post, when and where to post it, and do the posting. Knowledge and/or willingness to learn is more important than experience.

Help Wanted: Freelance Editor/proofreader. Knowledge of American English grammar, spelling, vocabulary and punctuation a necessity. I do not want to be the final editor of my own work.

The pay for either position is crummy, since we are just getting started. Both positions are ‘as needed’. If interested in either, contact Tommee@MoonPhazePublishing.com

I think we’ve tapped the talents of family members as far as we can. If you (or someone you know) wants to break into one of these fields, this just might be the opportunity!

2014 Successes

Okay, here it is; that dreaded ‘Buy my book’ issue I warned you would happen.

Hubby hates when all the authors make a wall of books between them and the audience at science fiction convention panels. He sees it as a crass commercial. But these days, almost all marketing is left for the author to do; very little is done by the publisher, and that includes the ‘Big Boys’. Most authors - especially new ones - do not have lots of money for marketing, so they take every chance they can to let people know about their book. If you don’t know it exists, how can you buy it?

I made 3 sales in 2014. (So this won’t be that long.)

The Secret in Morris Valley - A paranormal gothic romance novella published by Alban Lake (albanlake.com). It is a trade paperback selling for $6.00. If you are in Omaha and want to see a copy, the Book Worm, currently on 90th Street just north of W Center Rd, has a few copies through the holidays. They only took 3, so I can’t guarantee they still have any. [Note: Since this a romance, I used my pen name, Linda Joy.]

Ondrea is sent by her favorite professor to gather information on the wolves in Morris Valley. But Barry Morris, her host, won’t allow her to do field work on the wolves, saying it’s too dangerous to go out without a well-armed pack of men and vicious dogs. Barry has plans for Ondrea. So do the wolves.

“Truck Driving Women” - This the first published story of Vamps and Cheyenne. It is in the middle of an anthology published by Sky Warrior Books (skywarriorbooks.com) called These Vampires Don’t Sparkle. You can get a paper copy from Amazon for $13.33, an e-book is $4.99. If you really like vampire stories, there is a second volume of this anthology called These Vampires Still Don’t Sparkle that is available as an e-book. No, I don’t have a story in Vol. 2, just letting you know about it.

When terrorists hijack Vamps and Cheyenne, they bite off more than they anticipated.

Cali: A Journey of Discovery - This is a lightly romantic fantasy novel that Alban Lake (albanlake.com) accepted and originally planned to publish in 2014, but its publication has been pushed to February 2015. It will be a trade paperback and e-book. I don’t have any more details, but if you’re interested, keep an eye on the left side bar of this blog; that’s where I’ll post more information when I have it.

Witches don’t drown when they have a thirst for revenge. Sidek had seen a lot of strange cultures, but when he rescued Cali from a flooding river, he made contact with the strangest one yet. Cali was an Atlan, hunting men who had tortured & killed 2 children. She didn’t need a man’s help. But she wasn’t well enough to keep Sidek from tagging along.

Okay, it’s done now, you can breathe again. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled blog. Eh. Not exactly, because this turned out to take up all of this week’s space. Soooooo... Tune in again next week!

PS. If you want to keep up to date on my sales and appearances, consider subscribing to the free monthly MoonPhaze Publishing e-newsletter. Just send a request to be enrolled at MoonPhazePub@hotmail.com, and we’ll send you a sample copy. You can always unsubscribe at any time.

What Does That Mean?

I’ve been doing research on marketing and promotion. The only thing I know about marketing and promotion is that I don’t know anything. So I picked up a book on how to do internet marketing by a so-called expert.

Have you ever read a book that became so ridiculous, you wanted to throw it against the wall? Yeah, I know, but what did the wall ever do to you?

I was almost making sense out of what the author was saying, it was kind of starting to gel:

* Think of my website as a billboard, rather than a tome. Okay, that means keep the copy short and to the point; use the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) Principal. Ok.

* Get on several social media sites and participate, long before you mention your book is for sale. Yeah, just what every introvert author wants to do; get on several social sites every date and relate to people. Have you seen my newest t-shirt? Probably not. I got it after I came home to hibernate hide write for the winter. All it says is, “You’ve read my t-shirt. That’s enough social interaction for one day.” Still, I do belong to 3 social sites, and I participate fairly regularly. So, okay.

* The next step is to have a blog. Hey, I’m ahead of the game; I’ve had a blog for... 4 years? But the book says I should use the blog to talk about what I’ve written, to show my blog readers that I’m an expert in my field, and to tease them into finding out more by buying my book.

Expert? I write fiction! I’ve made up characters, setting, circumstances... If I am not an expert on the culture, the biology, the geology, the religion, and everything else, then there isn’t an expert. Period.

And wouldn’t that get boring awfully fast? Can you imagine reading my blog every week to get one more tidbit of information about my Atlans, Mac and Bugalu, my vampire/werewolf team, or my paranormal debunker who has a ghost for a partner? I mean, I have touched on my writing from time to time in this blog, but week after week after week? Puhlease! I suspect you readers would be looking for fresher subjects within a month.

I also am of the opinion that the book’s blurb is supposed to whet your appetite to read the book. That’s why it’s there. That’s why I (frequently) labor over the blurb far more intensely than I did over the entire book, trying to get the essence boiled down to grab your attention. If it does, then you’ll read the book.

Anyway, if the book doesn’t make sense without me spelling everything out to potential readers, then I didn’t write it well enough.

So, I’ll be sticking to my type of blog, I think. But I do need to find a new source of science-type news articles. The source I had been using seems to have gone totally technology, which is fine, but not what I’m interested in. Maybe an occasional random subject, like this one. And also occasionally, something about what I’m writing, because some days, my characters just WILL NOT shut up!

Okay, where’s that book? Maybe I can skip the part about blogs and see what it says on other methods of marketing.

[WARNING Unless I forget, sometime between now and the end of the year, I will have a blog about my Successes in 2014. But only one.]

Learning New Tricks

There is a drawback to waiting for retirement before starting a new career as an author. These days, you are expected to do your own marketing. And, in this Age of the Internet, a lot of that marketing is in cyberspace. I’ve read enough marketing articles to figure that out.

In my first career, I worked my way up to secretary, which meant I knew grammar and punctuation, and when to ask for clarification when doing an assignment. On a computer, I knew Office Word and Office Excel, and was actively discouraged from using the internet at work. Now I have a lot of catching up to do.

I thought I was. Catching up. I started - years ago - with MySpace. Does anybody use that anymore? No, I don’t, either.

Eventually, I got on Facebook with a personal page. Now those articles tell me I need a fan page. They are full of reasons for having a fan page, but they don’t explain HOW to set up a fan page. And I still don’t know how to post pictures to my personal page. Guess I’ll have to take an afternoon see if I can figure it out.

Twitter is another big ‘must be on’ to do marketing. MoonPhaze has an account, but the thought of only having 140 characters sends me into a tizzy fit. Remember when I set out to write a 6,000 word short, and ended up with 15,000 words? Yeah, I tend to run off at the keyboard, as I’ve said many times. I don’t suppose half-sentences will do the trick, huh?

And Pinterest. I have some ideas for that, actually, but I’m not an artist. And I don’t want to surf the net for hours, looking for one perfect picture. Chances are, I won’t find it. And if I do, how does the licensing for that picture work when you just want to pin it?

And always, those articles encourage using photos and inforgraphtics. Right.

I got Photoshop installed on my desktop today. I took a couple Continuing Education classes for it, but the program was on the old computer, and I haven’t been able to play with it recently. I have done basic drawings in Paint. I know how to fill an area with a color in Paint. It’s nowhere near the same in Photoshop.

The more I learn about Marketing, the more questions I have, the more things get put on my To-Do list. And most of the things getting put on my list involve a long learning curve. We’ll see if this old dog can learn any new tricks.

A Comparison: Megacon vs Planet Comicon

Ten days ago, John and I went to our first Planet Comicon in Kansas City. For the past several years, we have spent time at this point in the year in Orlando, where we attended Megacon. Both are 'comic' conventions, but - as always - each has its own flavor. I could not keep myself from comparing them, and I'd like to share my thoughts with you.

A comic convention is, to my mind, a giant dealer's room first and foremost. A huge room, it contains dealers selling t-shirts, toys, models, comics and all sorts of retail items; artists showing and selling their artwork; authors selling their books; fans selling their craft items; fan groups looking for new members; media guests selling autographs and photo shoots; and at least one school trying to drum up new students. If I had to guess, I'd say Planet Comicon's dealer room was about the size of a football field. Happily, they did have some empty chairs lined up against the one empty wall, and I was not the only person who used those chairs. Megacon's dealer room is even larger, with more of all of the above types. There are no chairs along the wall to let your tired feet rest for a moment. I managed to get about halfway through Planet Comicon's dealer room on Friday before I wandered off to see what else was going on, and on that day, it was not horrendously crowded. Megacon's dealer room is always packed with shopping sardines, on any day, and I can't stand being in it for more than a few minutes at a time.

Planet Comicon also had a gaming room, 4 rooms for panels, and 1 room for large panels (panels, for instance, with the media guests tend to have a huge line forming in the hallway at least an hour before-hand). Megacon has a lot of rooms, of various sizes; rooms devoted to gaming, to anime, to costuming, to assorted and sundry other subjects. The largest rooms with the stages are for those panels with the media guests, of course, and there, too, you had better arrive early if you want a seat.

The food vendors at Planet Comicon were mostly brands I had heard of, and their prices were a little high, but not ridiculously so. The food vendors at Megacon are brands I had never heard of before, and their prices are sky high. The one time we bought something from a Megacon food vendor, it didn't taste any good, so we tend to fill our pockets with simple snacks and refill our water bottles from the water fountains.

After a long day at Megacon, one has to walk back all the way through the west wing of the Orange County Convention Center, find your way outside, take your bearings, and then - walk to the furthest end of the colossal parking lot to find your car. I always felt I was hiking back to Nebraska. If I had a similar thought at the end of a Planet Comicon day, as we made our way to our car, at least Nebraska wasn't nearly as far a hike!

Any comments on comic conventions you've attended?

Resolutions vs Goals

Have you made New Year's resolutions yet? If you read my blog last week, you know I've got lots of writing to work on in 2014. I didn't frame them as 'resolutions', because - let's face it - my resolutions last about one week.

Nearly all the blogs I've been reading talked about 'plans for the new year'. Those blogs are not calling them 'resolutions'. I think one called them 'hopes', but that seems nebulous and a source of pressure, so I prefer the term I saw more often: goals.

Resolutions tend to be vague; I'm going to diet, exercise, lose weight and get in shape this year! How do you succeed at that? If next Christmas, you have a piece of pecan pie, have you failed to diet? If you really can't find time to consistently work out, have you failed to exercise? If you only lose 40 of the 100 pounds you wanted to lose, have you failed? If on Jan 1, you can hardly walk from the bedroom to the kitchen, but by Dec 31, you can get all the way to the end of the block and back - even though you're still overweight and you still can't run a marathon - have you failed?

Goals need to be specific AND something that you can control. I'm going to get my first book published! is a resolution. I will continue to send my first manuscript to agents and editors this year sounds more like a goal.

With that in mind, I have started to look at my 'plans' for 2014, and turning them into goals:

·      >  I will lose an average of 1 pound a week through diet and exercise.

·       > Each time a manuscript is rejected, I will immediately send it to another market. (If suggestions were made on how it could be improved, I will take a week to go through and consider those suggestions before sending it out.)

·     >   I will compose 1,000 words per day and edit 1,000 words per day an average of 5 days a week.

·       > I will find opportunities to make personal appearances as an author an average of once a month.

Those are all things I have some control over. They are specific, but flexible. (If I have to arrange 12 appearances next December because I've been lazy and haven't done any all year, that averages to one a month, and I've succeeded.)

Believe it or not, I can do the 3rd one. I am currently writing 3 different projects and editing another. This past couple of weeks (yes, even in the confused haziness of impending Christmas), have been aiming at 1,000 words a day on the project with a short deadline, and about 500 words a day for the other two, then editing 1,000 words in the evening. And I try to work 7 days a week, so if I don't have a great day, I can make up for it.

Are you going to make resolutions? Or set goals? Let me know, and - if you don't mind - tell me just one of yours.

Looking Ahead

Okay, last week I looked back at 2013, so this week I'll try to figure out what I'm going to do in 2014 to get me closer to my goal.

The first thing that comes to mind is I've got to overhaul / reinvent the website. (www.MoonPhazePub.wix.com/MoonPhaze) I can't afford to hire anybody, so it's up to me. I've been gathering notes on what makes a good website, and I have people I can consult for their opinion, so maybe it won't be too bad. Still, it's not my favorite activity, so it will be slow-going.

Hubby and I will be attending the World Science Fiction convention in London, and the European Science Fiction convention in Dublin the following weekend. That has been occupying a lot of my time, trying to figure out the travel arrangements and all that. That long a trip will suck up a lot of our resources, so as far as personal appearances, the 'usual' local conventions may be the only ones I can plan to get to. Still, that doesn't mean I can't schedule some appearances at book stores, libraries or corn fields in the region that I can drive to in a day, so I will be trying to organize some of those.

MoonPhaze Publishing has wanted to print its first hard-copy book. We'll be looking at means of doing it that will not require thousands of dollars up front, like going with POD. Of course, if we happen to find a few thousand dollars to go to a regular printer, we'll switch gears again. In any case, having a paper-back book on hand could make those appearances mentioned in the previous paragraph more enjoyable, both for me and for anybody who attends them.

I've signed up for some classes in leatherwork! In at least two of my universes, I have a segment of the population who work with leather, and this will help me 'identify' with them. Besides, I like to learn new things.

As far as writing, I've got 4 contests/anthologies to submit to during the first 2 months of 2014. It's time for my second novel (romance) to start looking for a home. My third novel needs some rewriting & polishing, the roughs of 2 other novels need to be finished, and I've started a sf novel rough. If I keep finding more contests and anthologies, I should be plenty busy!

Maybe I should get an early start on some of that, don't you think?