So January’s almost over, and I have to say it’s not a bad start to the year. Things are going quite well, both on the writing and publishing end, and on the personal end as well.
First off, I finished draft 3.0 of Gunslinger to the Stars last week. The final draft came in at just under 52k words, which means that I managed to cut a healthy 27% of unnecessary wordage compared to the rough draft. That’s like upgrading from chuck roast to top sirloin, or 80/20 lean ground beef to 93/7 (except I actually prefer 85/15, but you get the point).
The Sci-Fi StoryBundle is doing quite well, enough that it may be a small windfall! That’s always encouraging, especially in today’s publishing climate. I should have some guest posts lined up soon from my fellow authors, which should be fun, so look out for that in the next few days. The bundle is only available for the next ten days, so if you haven’t picked it up yet, now is the time!
With Gunslinger to the Stars 3.0 finished, it’s time to move on to another WIP. The next one lined up is The Sword Keeper 2.0, which should be a lot of fun. This is my first epic fantasy novel, and there’s a bit that still has to be cleaned up, but I can legitimately say that this is one of the best things I’ve written so far. Really excited to get it out, hopfully later this year.
I also wrote a short story last week, and I’m not quite sure what to do with it. It’s so insanely political that it will probably get me blacklisted at half the magazines I submit it to. It’s also insanely short. I’ll probably clean it up a bit, see if I can add anything, and then go straight to self-publishing. Thank goodness that’s an option!
Lots more stuff happening this week. New free books, new release, new WIP, another short story in the works… 2017 is definitely off to a good start! And on that note, I’ll leave you with this awesome Pogo mix:
“especially in today’s publishing climate…”
What did you mean by this? What about today’s publishing climate? I’m a noob to the marketplace so I have no field of reference to compare to.
Nice avatar! Didn’t recognize you for a minute.
A lot of authors that I follow have reported declining sales on Amazon. Also, there are some massive problems with KU that Amazon either denies or hasn’t put much effort into fixing. I’ve heard a lot of stories of KU authors getting their accounts frozen and their books taken down because Amazon flags them as scammer accounts, when a slightly more than cursory glance would be sufficient to show that that isn’t the case.
There’s definitely a lot more churn these days, and the ebook market appears to be maturing. You can still break in just fine, but it’s a lot harder than it used to be to succeed.
Thanks for sharing, and went with something more personal. Plus, it’s fun!
I have been told that breaking in is harder now because the market is fuller. I’m okay with working hard though, so no worries here.