Silence on the Blog

I went the entire month of July without posting a blog - after a year of faithfully posting every week. Why? I have lots of excuses: I've redesigned my website to include a blog and it's extra steps to post both there and back at Wordpress, but I'm not really sure which is better, because I have less control over my content at Wordpress, but at least I had some followers there and has anyone found my website? Besides, there are so many other things I need to be working on, and I'm not even sure anyone's actually reading my blog. And I really need to focus on one thing, except I can't because publishing my new novel requires marketing, which requires dozens of tasks to be juggled all at once, and I really need to do more editing work to boost my income for this year... and besides, I like editing. There are clear-cut limits to the tasks and real deadlines. When I set deadlines for my own tasks, they're way to easy to push on to another week... Like I said, lots of excuses.

When overwhelmed, I stop doing what I need to to altogether. Instead, I binged the four seasons of Outlander.

Then I got back to making progress on my promotional plan for my new novel, including making improvements to my website that were recommended months ago and setting up a nine-month calendar on which I'm entering deadlines for tasks that need to be completed to have a successful launch (successful meaning a reasonable number of sales and reviews). I've also updated the front and back matter of the eBook version of Running Away so I can do a re-launch of that first. Why? Because the new novel, Peg's Story: Detours, is about the mom in Running Away. Readers asked for her story. So getting new readers for Running Away should help those initial sales of Peg's Story: Detours.

The calendar is helping me stay on task better with the promotional plan, and it has days marked off for a family trip that will occupy a week, and a ten-day adventure planned. More editing jobs are coming in, but that will simply mean working more hours per week, and I seem to accomplish more when there's more pressure, so...

I've started reading the Outlander books, but there will be no bingeing!

You've got to enter to win

You've got to enter to win - and Suzanne Blaney's Impressionism: Inspiration & Evolution got runner up in San Francisco Book Festival Awards. I've helped a few authors with their books, but so far as I know, Suzanne Blaney is the first to enter her book into a contest. We worked hard on this book, for months, making sure quotations and images were properly attributed, getting the wording just right, etc. I was really happy when we got the paperback from Amazon and it looked so nice. Getting this award is really nice validation.

Of course you won't always win, but if you don't enter you definitely won't.

SF Book Festival Award!

Suzanne Blaney's Impressionism: Inspiration & Evolution got runner up in the Photography/Art category of the San Francisco Book Festival Awards!

First major award for one of the books I've prepped for publication. (Actually, it may have been the first one entered into a contest - thank you for doing that, Suzanne.)

Suzanne worked on this book for years, I worked on it for months - and pushed her to do a lot of work to make it the best she could. I'm so glad she decided to enter it in the festival.

Getting this award is really nice validation for both of us.