Texty Ladies » NaNoWriMo

Timing is Everything

Jacquie Rogers — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:05:05 +0000

Things happen.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my experience with publishing a novella on the Kindle, called Faery Merry Christmas. Publishing is one thing–selling books is something else altogether. It requires time, effort, a little (lot of) money, and a boatload of luck (which you get only if you invest the time, effort and money so luck can come around). That’s how it works.

But sometimes it’s not to be. I haven’t had any chance at all to publicize this book. There are about three of us who know it exists and only one of us owns a Kindle.

Like I said, things happen. My father-in-law passed away two weeks ago (not unexpected, but death is always a shock), and his funeral was last Monday. My husband and I had to travel out of state, and of course several things needed to be handled before we could return. Why am I mentioning my personal affairs in a writing column? Because we’re writers, and things do happen that sometimes puts the kibosh on our best-laid plans.

Faery Merry Christmas is a Christmas story (of course). When do you sell Christmas stories? You’ve got it–Halloween!!! Yep, all marketing for Christmas publications need to have the reviews done, the web pages finished, the book video done, and probably a contest laid out, ready to roll the first of November.

Faery Merry Christmas

Not going to happen. But since my novella is set in 1956, it can be sold next year just as well. I’ll prepare a marketing campaign for autumn of 2010, but meantime I’ll do what I can this year.

I guess the moral of the story is to not procrastinate — get everything done before you think it’s necessary. In this case, I hadn’t decided to publish the book until a friend urged me to, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Yes, I knew it was late to start publicity, then Kindle took 3 days to go live so I was late to start with. So the timing went awry in a major way right from the get-go.

I fully intend to carry on, pretending as if I didn’t lose the prime two weeks of promo and writing time–after all, being with family was time well-spent. First priority is to get some writing done. My critique partner and I are heading to her resort condo for a five-day writing retreat. My AlphaSmart has eight empty files and my goal is to fill all eight of them by the time I return home on Friday evening.

While this article is about promotion and the timing gone south, it’s always good to remember that if you don’t finish new stories, you have nothing else to sell.

Speaking of which, who’s doing NaNoWriMo? Again, the timing is terrible for me, but I can still give it a whirl. November is the month where we can put our heads down and write, write, write!

And you know, things don’t always go the way we wrote it down in our Daily Planners. Sometimes we just have to go with the flow.

Next week, I’ll let you know all about the writers’ retreat I’m attending this week. I’m really excited to spend five days doing nothing but brainstorming, writing, or drinking wine. Oh, did I say that? No wine. Okay, not much wine. Or cheese. I’ll have brie, please.

Jacquie

Down Home Ever Lovin’ Mule Blues (See the Book Video featuring Justin Saragueta)
Jacquie’s Website * 1st Turning Point * Myspace * Twitter * Facebook
Faery Special Romances * Book Video Royalties go to Children’s Tumor Foundation, ending Neurofibromatosis through Research

I Want Your Ghosts!

Jane E. — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:01:19 +0000

Hi everyone!

My recent interview with RF Long got me to thinking about spirits and the people who see them. RF said that she’d had a couple of encounters with ghosts, and I asked her if she’d tell me about those encounters so I could post them up next Tuesday. She said yes

So, next Tuesday I’ll post true life accounts of encounters with spirits, and that’s where I need your help. I need your true ghost stories!

Please send them to me via the contact page on this site, or email them to me at janeejones00@gmail.com.

I can’t wait to read them! Send them to me, and next Tuesday I’ll post them up.

~*~

How is everyone doing with NaNoWriMo? I’m doing pretty well, but got second-and hopefully last-edits for Puppy Love, plus have been trying to revise another ms, so I’m going more slowly than I like. My NaNo page is http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/440363 if you’d like to add me as a writing buddy.

~Jane

NaNoWriMo: It’s Almost Here!

Pamela Sweet — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:33:51 +0000

NaNoWriMo is just one week away. Lord have mercy on us all! This is my first attempt at NaNoWriMo and I pray it is a successful one!

If you’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. Each November 1st of the past nine years, several crazier than crazy souls set out on a quest to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in one month. This year is the tenth anniversary of that first year when Chris Baty and 20 others started the madness of which you can read about in Mr. Baty’s novel No Plot? No Problem! You can also read more about it at the NaNoWriMo site. I highly recommend reading Mr. Baty’s novel if you plan to participate.

If you participate in NaNoWriMo, quantity not quality is key. The idea is to lock up your Internal Editor for the month so you can get words down on paper and only let him or her out again at 12:01 a.m. on December 1st. My Internal Editor can be particularly vicious so I gleefully look foward to hiding that key!

I’ve posted a badge on the sidebar here at Texty Ladies and also at my Dreaming in Digital blog that allows people to sponsor me and pledge a few dollars toward the NaNoWriMo cause. The pledge money goes to the Young Adult Writers Program and also to the upkeep of the adult NaNoWriMo program. You can read more about it by pressing on the Firstgiving Sponsor Me badge that takes you to my fundraising page. Anything you’re willing to share will be greatly appreciated! I selfishly hope to accomplish two things by taking part in the fundraiser: (1) raise money for a good cause, and (2) be spurred on by your pledges to accomplish my goal of completing a 50,000 word novel! Thank you for your support!

Are any of you joining me at NaNoWriMo this year? Let me know where I can find you and I’ll support you in any way I can. I can be found there under the name of Indya44. I’d also love to hear about the story you plan to write.

Good luck to my fellow Nanos!

Writing Exercise & More

Pamela Sweet — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:08:14 +0000

The Texty Ladies would like to thank Leigh Royals for her entry in this week’s Monday Mix Writing Contest. Since we’re not receiving many entries yet, we’ll treat it as a writing exercise. It can always be changed back into a contest when we start receiving more entries. We’re having a little something prepared to give to each of the participants so please do give it a try! I know we all enjoy reading what people come up with and we hope you’ll just have fun with it.

With regard to other matters:

BB is available to review ebooks so if you’ve got one you’d like her to review, please contact her by email at textyladies@gmail.com or you can use our contact page.

I’m excited to report that we have some fantastic interviews coming up in the next few weeks! I won’t give you any clues about who they’re with so you’ll just have to check back and see.

Since I’ve got the floor, I’d like to ask for your opinion on something. I’m considering signing up for this year and would like to hear from anyone who has tried it or from anyone with a strong opinion on the subject. If you haven’t heard of it, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and is held every November. To become a “winner”, you must write a 50,000 word story in one month (November). I believe the goal is to focus on quantity rather than quality to help you learn how to write first and edit later. I know this is a ways off yet but I’ve had the idea in the back of my brain all year. Plus, if I do decide to enter, I’ll have told the world of my interest and will feel like a heel if I don’t complete it. There’s motivation for ya!