On Deck, 2014
You may have noticed that i didn’t post on Monday. Having posted on both Friday and Saturday as part of the official launch of Thank You for Ten I thought it best to take a step back from the blog for a few days, and meet up with everyone today instead.
I want to eventually give my initial impressions of the launch now that it is underway, and books are being sold. But I want to put some more distance between the launch and my post about same, so look for that probably next week.
Today I want to mention briefly what I’m up to next besides promoting Thank You for Ten. (Posts about the promotion experience will certainly be written as time goes on as well.)
To begin with, I will return to the Open Letter Continuum next Thursday. I commandeered in regular spot every other Thursday in order to talk up the launch and the prep leading up to it. Now that that has evening out, I’ll resume regular programming for those days, so keep checking back for those.
I’ll be tinkering with my daily schedule a bit, starting next week, so I can make time for various projects, large and small, that I want to get done by the end of the year.
For example I already posted recently about the future of Novel 2.
I also want to resume work on my stage play, which for the time being on the blog I will refer to as Five. Just before I started to final push on Thank You for Ten I finished up act one of this play. One of my writing goals is to complete a first draft by the end of the year. I’ve got some outlining to do before I start the actual writing. I know where I want the play to end up, and act 2, as for most plays, will be shorter than act one, but I’m not yet sure how I will get to the ending yet. And I also want to make sure I have some character development issues in there. I hate rushed scripts. So that’s Major Project Number 2 at the moment. (Novel 2 would be major project 1. It’s okay to be confused, as it hardly matters outside of my mind.)
Then I have a robust goal of writing about 125 more short stories of various types by the end of the year. In some ways short stories are more difficult to complete than the longer fiction. I’ve said before that I’m behind in my writing goals for 2014, and nowhere more than in my short story production. I have a few ideas for literary pieces that I’ve been meaning to get to. And then there is my adventure series on Wattpad. That series is more for fun, and in theory was supposed to be something to work on at a relaxed pace with less pressure between more pressing short fiction projects. I think I need to be having more fun with them going forward.
I also intend to make good on a long standing promise to myself concerning my other website. Yes, I have one. It’s called Always Off Book. It’s my theater-oriented blog, and I’ve had it for nearly eight years. Each year of the last few has seen fewer and fewer posts, however. That’s mainly because I haven’t been in a show for about three years, and most of what I posted there related to my thoughts about rehearsals and performances. I didn’t think it would be that much time between shows; that is in fact a source of sadness to me. But I have resolved several times to begin writing more theater-centric posts there between shows. Articles that express my views and feelings on theatre issues, particularly for the actor. Advice for actors, responses to theatre posts I find elsewhere. I’m starting to collect such ideas and bookmark such posts online. Slowly but surely I’ve been posting there more frequently, though its reach has never matched that if this website in terms of followers. (The followers of that one are just as quiet and stingy with comments however…) So I hope to be writing on theatre matters more often.
On the subject of theatre, this isn’t technically a writing goal but I’ve written a one-man show that incorporates Shakespeare. It’s been written since early this year, but I still have to memorize it, and tweak it as I go. I can no perform act one without referring to the script. I’ll be working on memorizing act two in the coming weeks and months. Ideally, it would be performance ready for at least some kind of preview audience by autumn of this year.
And I hope to keep writing my form poetry. That, whoever, is under no specific deadline.
So that’s where I am outside of the book launch, in case any of you thought I was doing nothing else with my time and energy.
But I still want you to buy Thank You for Ten, either here or possibly here. You’ve got 99 cents someplace, and I’d be honored if you spent it on my short story collection.
What are you hoping to accomplish creatively with the rest of 2014?
Launch! “Thank You for Ten” is now live!
Friends, the time is at last here. If you are reading this blog post now, you can, as of this minute, purchase your own electronic copy of Thank You for Ten: Short Fiction About a Little Theater.
If you would like to purchase it for Kindle devices, go here. If you’d like to purchase it for something other than Kindle, go here. For you non-Kindle types, it should be directly available in various other online stores over the coming days, including Apple and Kobo. But it’s the same file and such that you can purchase in the above link, which can be read in most non-Kindle devices.
The price is 99 cents wherever you choose to get it.
I won’t belabor points and observations I’ve already made about this process and this product right now. (Though don’t expect me to stop mentioning it!) I have marketing work and other things that I need to continue to do in the coming time, for such is the life of a self-published author. Yet today is about the launch, and at last letting all of you know how to purchase it.
Today is also about thanks. Almost nobody who self-publishes does so without other people along the way, especially during their first time. I want to thank friend and fellow author, J. Lea Lopez for all of her advice and work on the cover. (And no jokes from you, Jen, about helping someone with their “first time”.) Her help has been invaluable in the last two months, and without her, the book would not be possible at this time. Do buy some of her own work to enjoy as well. Jen, in the future, I will work harder to not let you down again!
I’s also like to specifically thank Bee Javier, photographer and designer of the cover image for the book. (By way of selfpubbookcovers.com/beejavier) As I shopped for a good image to use, I knew almost right away this is the one I would choose to project just the right amount of theatricality to the cover. My thanks to you again. I hope you consider my words an acceptable compliment to your design!
I thank all of you, my blog followers, tweeps, and especially my friends, for not disowning me as I talked so much about the book the process of publishing it over the last few weeks. I tried to strike the proper balance between effective promotion and obnoxious spamming. Believe it or not, I did blog and tweet about other things during this time. And as I said, I have much more talking and promoting still to do. But those who buy the book will hopefully find it worth all the talk I’ve put into it.
Also, I thank all relevant Divinities up/out/over/in/ there for the ability and chance to do this.
My thanks to my supportive family as well.
And I thank myself. Yes. I owe myself some thanks for being willing to commit to this process.
But no more reading my blog, for today, go read my stories! And if you like them, if they speak to you or move you in some way, the biggest compliment you can ever give me is to tell other people about the book, and recommend they get it as well. Writing positive reviews wouldn’t hurt either, as that helps visibility, but word of mouth is still the best, and most satisfying way to succeed at such an endeavor.
I close with officially asking you to please go purchase my book. They say people still like to be asked, after all…
“Thank You for Ten”: Some Pre-Launch Thoughts
Well, tomorrow is it. I will launch “Thank You for Ten: Short Fiction About a Little Theater” and make it available for purchase. All technical aspects have to the best of my understanding been taken care of. I’ve talked it up quite a bit over the last eight weeks or so, and I’ve processed the experience of self-publishing as best as I can. All that remains now, barring something I have forgotten, is to say “go buy it!” starting tomorrow. (I’ll be a bit more civilized than that when the time comes, I assure you.)
A lot of things to think about and to say, which is why I am writing this rare Friday blog post. I wanted to say some things on the day right before I launched. It just seems like a natural progression to me that way.
As for the actual process of self-publishing a book of this nature, much of what I’m feeling today can be summed up by saying that it wasn’t as bad as I feared it might be.
Yes, there’s been much about the technical aspects that I found frustrating at times, yet it wasn’t as frustrating or as worrisome as I initially feared. Typing with the proper formatting for ebooks takes some getting used to, and I know I haven’t memorized all of that nuance of it. I’ll need to refer to the guide again the next time I self-publish. But at least I won’t be doing it cold. I’ll have some acquired knowledge with which to work, and I need only remind myself of the how-to. It’s contrary to much much of how I’ve typed over my life, but a certain logic emerges from the new rules as you practice them.
The snafu with the cover is probably the chapter in this mini-saga that put me off of the process the most. I think that’s because I thought I had that totally covered without the need for help. I’m grateful of course for the quick help I got with that issue, but there was just something about messing that up that rubbed me the wrong way at the time, (and I admit it still does slightly, even today.) But even that didn’t sink the ship. With the aforementioned help I got out of that virtually unscathed and still on schedule. Covers will probably remain the trickiest part of this for me, but I don’t have to worry about that again for a while.
I foresee a minimalist approach to most of my future writings, when it comes to technical aspects. Not only because its easier to handle, but because I don’t believe in a lot of extra bells and whistles for my fiction anyway. I can’t say I won’t ever try to insert a graphic into a book I’m publishing, or experiment with less common fonts. But I didn’t this time, and don’t intend to in the foreseeable future. To me a clean, professional presentation within my ebooks is the best service I can render to my readers and to the stories I write.
And it is, in the end, about the stories. Writing a solid, enjoyable story that can speak for itself so long as it’s well formatted and edited and clean to read in most devices. However far this collection goes with readers, however many copies I sell, I can rest at the end of the publishing process knowing that I’ve taken great care to be professional and presentable, (even if minimalist in my approach.) I can relax knowing that everything I’ve done is in service to the stories.
This of course brings up the topic of marketing and selling the stories. I do have a sales goal, but I won’t share that out loud right now. I’d like to keep that private, and see how that feels for a while. I may share that goal with all of you later, if I feel I am near meeting it, or it be sharing it I can serve fellow writers thinking about self-publishing. But for now I want that particular metric to be between me and myself. I can say though, to all who may be worried about such things, that I have modest expectations, but am prepared for lofty results that exceed them, should they come my way.
I don’t plan to read many reviews I get on the work, at least not for a long while. I do write stories to be enjoyed, but at the same time, once they are out there for sale, I won’t be changing them based on what other people say about them. Anyone who writes a negative review on this collection is certainly entitled to their opinion, but I don’t think it benefits anyone involved for me to read every single thought someone has on it. People are going to like what I’ve created or they’re not.
That doesn’t mean I’m not at all nervous about making my stories available tomorrow. I am. It’s not crippling, but I can’t help but feel that I’m crossing a different kind of threshold tomorrow. Like opening night feels just before curtain; I know I’ve worked hard and believe in what I’ve accomplished, but in the end I can’t control what people think of my performance. No artist can, and though they mustn’t let themselves be devastated by a lack of response, any artist would be lying if they claimed they didn’t care at all about the reception of their work. They do. I do. Falling short of my goals for this collection, as with any other project, would be sad to me, and I won’t pretend that I can move heaven and earth in order to assure otherwise.
What I can do is remind myself that this experience, both the creative and the technical aspects, are the best they can possibly be given the resources and skills that I have at this time. There’s always room for improvement, but for the first time out I’m secure in the knowledge that I’ve made available a professional product that I’m proud to put my name to.
Come back tomorrow for all of the information you will need to purchase your own copy of Thank You for Ten: Short Fiction About a Little Theater .
Last Call for Novel 2
Hard as it may be to believe based on my blog and Twitter over the last eight weeks, I actually do have other writing projects that require my consideration besides Thank You for Ten: Short Fiction About a Little Theater. (Launching this Saturday, hard as that is the believe!) Chief among them, my second novel, which I have for the last two years or so been calling Novel 2.
Use the search function on this blog to search for “Novel 2” and you’ll become acquainted with its troubled history. Years ago a short story, then an idea for a novel. Then a meticulous outline for half the novel, which I then used as a template for Nanowrimo 2012. The resultant first-half sat for a while before I realized I’d created an over-plotted confused mess with a still-promising premise. Cue a reboot of the first half, with severe edits and streamlining, paving the way for me to at last outline and draft the second half. Doing so, producing at last a complete first draft of Novel 2 was one of my stated goals for 2014.
I’ve yet to do anything with it this year, and the year is nearly half over. But even scarier than that? I think, once again, I need to start over with the damn thing.
Though I’ve done no work on it this year, I’ve done plenty of thinking about it as I complete other projects and read other novels and consume advice and observations about writing from various sources. I’ve realized that perhaps the whole thing needs to start about five chapters in from the current draft. I’ve even rehearsed in my head how that might go about, and though I haven’t done it yet, I can see how I might do so, and it already makes sense. If such a drastic change in narrative already sounds like it will save that many pages, chances are I never should have started the story where I did in the first place.
Taking this approach will require me to reconsider what I want the plot to do, of course. That’s not horrible, as last summer I brainstormed various alternate paths for this story to take. So this isn’t coming out of nowhere. But along with the simpler arc, I feel a major tone shift is required. I think the pacing and the atmosphere need to be different than they have been this far. In fact, it may now trend more toward literary than genre suspense, if you can believe that. Sounds like a hell of a jump and it probably is. I’ll find out soon, as I start to draft it from the beginning again, (though using large chunks of already written material.) Not long after the launch of Thank You for Ten, I’ll return to working on Novel 2 in earnest. And I will have to work fast and furious if I am to meet my goal of finishing it by the end of the year.
I will say though that this will in all likelihood by me last attempt at it. If this new approach stalls, after a few months, I won’t be carrying the project into 2015. I will, with regret, shelf it- at least for several years while I pursue another second novel. I’ve given this idea, (which still won’t go away) enough time to come together. This altering of the tone, and probably the very genre of the piece is the last, best effort to see if what I’ve been thinking of has a novel in it somewhere. Little tweaks didn’t work, and entire reboots have so far not worked. If a major tone shift isn’t the answer, (born of the project incubating for about eight months during this recent hiatus) then I’m not meant to have the answer for the foreseeable future. Other work awaits my time and energy.
It may work, though. This final change in strategy may at last open the door on Novel 2. I hope it does, as I have been dancing with these ideas and characters for a while now. But at some point the dance ends, and the relationship begins or ends. By the end of this month, I will begin the process of finding out just where this relationship is going. Even after all this work, if it’s over, it’s over.
But it’s not over yet…
What’s the biggest writing project you ever shelved? Did you ever go back to it? Would you ever?
Publishing Update: Kindle Preview
Last night, I uploaded Thank You for Ten: Short Fiction About a Little Theater to the Kindle preview thing they have over at Amazon. I’m happy to report that if the preview is any indication, (and it is of course supposed to be), the Kindle version will look quite tidy and professional.
There are a few minor issues that I may need to address with the manuscript. None of them, left undone, would result in a sloppy e-book, from what I could tell. But tending to them may just give it the extra aesthetic…something. I conceded that for one of the things I may be the only one to notice, but I do notice. So I’ll be pondering that and consulting with some other self-publishers I know in the coming days.
On the whole, though, it looks how I want it to look. Not one for cute fonts and fancy typesetting gimmicks, I just wanted the links to work properly, and there not to be any gaping spaces in the text where they didn’t belong. I also wanted the differentiation between the stories to be clear. All of the above are true, if the preview is to be trusted, and I’m more than a bit excited about that.
Truth be told, I wasn’t aware one could preview how a file would look on Kindle devices until someone mentioned it to me a few days ago. As I had yet to fully open author account over at Amazon, I went and did everything in one sitting in regards to that.
On the subject of opening the account, it began to feel real at that point. Once you start giving your tax information and such to a distributor, it hits you that you’re about to sell something you created to essentially the whole Western World. That is, it will be available to the whole Western World, at any rate. Even if you don’t become rich or famous from your fiction, the act of getting the financial machinery in order for what may happen brings it all home in a way that buying covers, promoting, and even writing the first drafts doesn’t quite match. This experience will only apply to this very first self-published adventure, I’m sure, as by the next time I’ll already have established accounts and tax IDs and the like. But for today, it’s a focusing agent if ever there was one. This is all fun and exciting, and I imagine one day will be rewarding, but it is not a game.
So what remains for me to do, nine days before the official launch? There’s the aforementioned minor issues with the Kindle file to look into. Then I need to do another pass or two over the non-Kindle file I’ll be uploading elsewhere. (No, I’m not going with Amazon exclusively. I don’t want to limit myself.) Which means I’ll have similar business oriented tasks to perform elsewhere soon. I also want to see which places, if any, need me to have an author account so to speak, in case people want to learn more about me and such, when they download from that distributor.
I’ve got keywords and categories to fine tune for classification purposes. Some technical machinery to familiarize myself with. And there are a few more soft-sell places to mention the book’s upcoming launch I’ll probably look into.
As much as any of that, though, is the mental component, which I’ve mentioned before. I mustn’t forget to take some time during each of the busy days remaining to clear my head of anxiety about this project, and to be feel confident in the aspects of it I can control, and prepared for the aspects which I cannot control. And I need to prepare for the sensation of having it out there for that previously mentioned Western Civilization to see.
Quiet reflection on the undertaking each day would not be out of order at this point.
Yet not too much quiet reflection for now; I have a book to launch, on June 21st! I hope all of my readers who’ve tracked my progress on this blog so far will purchase a copy of Thank You for Ten when the time comes. I’m asking all of you to do so. Your readership of this blog is appreciated, and I’d like you to enjoy reading my fiction as well.
Yet that’s still nine days off. For now, I am going to examine the Kindle file, and see what I can improve.
Ty Unglebower 