Being Spastic, Listening to Country Music, Watching TV

I've mentioned before that I can be a rather scattered worker. Since I sent off Prince Dead to Mills and Boon, I have not had a clear direction in which to work. I can't work on the sequel until I know which version of the original I will use, so I have basically been playing. I’ve written 70 pages each for two different projects and 30 pages for a third one and am now deciding which one I’m really invested in at this point. That’s right; I could have 180 pages written on one novel right now if I had stuck to one topic! This is another reason I'm considering pursuing traditional publishing again. Deadlines actually excite and motivate me.

I’ve mentioned before that I obsessively listen to music while I write and lately I’ve latched onto country music. Though I spent my formative years in the middle of nowhere, raised pretty much any animal you can name, preserved 200 pounds of fruit a year, and spun my own wool, I’ve never been interested in the country scene. Mainstream music is just so intolerable right now that I’m branching out. Honestly, I’m kind of obsessed with George Strait, which probably means all three of my books will be sad. Also, Jake Owen’s hair is my hero. If you have a current country favorite, please let me know so I can e-stalk them.

There, now that I’ve given an update, I’m going to crowd-source my next move. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to re-brand So Many Secrets as purely a romance novel? That’s what it is at its heart anyway, and I’ve noticed that fiction which fits strongly into genre categories is the only thing that seems to sell for indie authors. I’m considering re-writing descriptions to change the focus, designing a new cover which will probably feature a standard topless male photo, and then running a massive free promo with the help of a packet of advertising sites another author sent me. Does this sound like a good idea? 

I’ve been letting marketing slip lately because no amount of work seems to increase sales, so I feel like I need to do something drastically different. I only wish I had written one Druid or magic sword into Nottingham so that I could brand it as fantasy. 

Next week, I’ll be talking about The History Channel’s new fictional series Vikings (which btw is branding itself as fantasy when it has no element of that so far). How could I not talk about that show? Please tell me you’ve been watching it!

New Listings and Stress Dreams

Lately, I've been trying to expand my marketing for my two novels, so I've been looking for websites that list indie books for free. So far, I've found a couple and I have one new live listing as of today. I don't have much of a marketing budget, but I would spend for a website I knew got results. However, it's difficult to tell what will and what won't. Obviously, most of the paid versions are probably going to be better than the free versions, but the free ones don't have a risk so I've been focusing on those. Do any of you have any hot tips for website listings that get results? I feel like I'm just taking shots in the dark right now.

I haven't updated since the whole Harlequin/ Mills and Boon debacle, but a couple of things have happened. First, my email did eventually get a response telling me to resubmit to the London office. By that point, I had already mailed a package to them with my original submission, plus a letter explaining what had happened, and the entire manuscript. I sent the manuscript because mailing over-seas takes time and money and I figured that if they don't want it, they can always toss it. I had every intention of sending return postage, but alas there is not a single place in my county that sells inter-national money orders to England. I could have gotten one to South Africa, Switzerland, Brazil, Antartica, and a host of other places, but not Great Britain. So, I asked in my cover letter for them to please reply by email. It was a risk, but it was all I could do.

Last week, I received a letter from them letting me know that my submission had been received and providing me with a reference number. I have to say, I am very impressed with this company's response time and willingness to pay postage. I was scared I had put myself out of the running completely when I was unable to pay postage. My best hope was for an email, but no, they actually paid to send me a letter (it was mysteriously addressed to Miss Scott, as I mentioned on Twitter, but close enough).

Ever since I received the letter, I have been having stress dreams about their actual response. In reality, I know I will either get a standard form rejection or good news. In my dreams, I get really odd, insulting responses. For example, the other night I dreamt that they returned the whole manuscript, but wrote the address in blue ink. When I opened the package, I found a letter written in sloppy cursive with a not-sharp pencil on a yellow legal pad sheet of paper. Yeah... I dream in details. The letter stated that I was an adequate writer, but would never be great. It continued to say that the premise of the novel was the only reason they were willing to accept it, but the deal was on the contingency of re-writes. The list of re-writes was very specific, but basically they wanted everyone to have the manners of a regency romance which was bizarre since it's about Dark Age Vikings. My main concern in the dream? That whoever had written the letter couldn't be bothered to type it, or to sharpen their pencil, or even just to use a white sheet of paper.

Am I officially insane? During the day, I'm not that stressed out about it. I have my official (thick) file of rejection letters, as any writer should. I have never been crushed by a single one. Of course, I know that no professional company would write a letter like that. I have a back-up plan. I'm doing fine on my own. I know that I am a good writer. So, why do I keep have these dreams? Have you ever had dreams like this? A superstitious friend thinks it means something good will happen, but I think all it means is I am my own worst critic.

Ye Olde Tweet Tweet

I told you a while back that I was going to talk a little more about how I run my Twitter account, so I’m going to do that today.

You will get exactly one automated direct message from me. I’m set up to welcome all new followers with a dm. In this way, I can thank all of my new followers without actually typing 20-50 dm’s per day. I’ll be honest: I’m just not patient enough to do that. I do appreciate each and every person who follows me though, and I do read all of their profiles.

As for auto-tweets, you’ll see shout-outs to new followers. Again, it’s my stream-lined approach to thanking people. You will also see a count of how many people follow and unfollow me each day. That is mostly for myself. I like to see how I’m doing.

That’s it! Nothing else is automated. All of the rest of my tweets and messages are my own. I try not to inundate the site, because I have followed some people who tweet up to a hundred times a day and I find that annoying. So, counting the auto-tweets, there will usually only be six to seven tweets from me per day.

I follow everyone individually. No auto-followe. I read each and every profile and a good half a page of tweets before I follow. Basically, I don’t want anyone who posts overtly sexual, inflammatory, bigoted, hateful, or otherwise offensive tweets. I also won’t follow people who are selling things other than books or hand-crafts. So, no weight loss gurus, crystal therapists, etc. That stuff is fine and good in its way, but I’m not interested.

I have been re-tweeting quite a bit recently. My purpose in that is to help indie authors sell their books. So, I do give some preference to those with fewer followers and to tweets that have not already been re-tweeting. I also re-tweet the occasional quote that catches my fancy.

That’s it. I try to keep it as personal and non-irritating as possible.  

Liebester Award

Clare Adams kindly nominated me for this award.

The Liebster award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. What is a Liebster? The meaning: Liebster is German and means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

Here are the rules for receiving this award:
1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.
2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.
3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. No tag backs!
6. Post an image of the award on your blog. There are many versions available.

In a Corner

After my puzzling response from Mills and Boon, I tried emailing and calling them, but received no answers. At first, I was discouraged, thinking I had gotten lost in some netherworld between the slush pile and the submissions which held interest. My melancholy was somewhat fueled by a bout of bronchitis (I am still coughing two weeks later you guys!) but in a couple of days I pushed past that. I then decided that perhaps because Harlequin and Mills and Boon are two different companies, though they are owned by the same people, perhaps Mills and Boon was prohibited from soliciting work that had not been sent directly to them. 

            With this hope/delusion/dream in place, I decided to resubmit to Mills and Boon. This time I sent the required query and synopsis, but also included a cover letter explaining what had happened, the envelope in which they sent me their submission guidelines hoping that someone would recognize the hand-writing, and the full manuscript. I know it is presumptuous to send a whole manuscript, but I decided to act confident and imply that they had asked for it. Besides, mailing anything over-seas is time-consuming and I did not want to fritter away my opportunity. 

            So, that’s that. Mills and Boon can take up to six months to respond to submissions, so I expect it to be quite a while before I hear anything. 

            Sigh… waiting is no fun. 

            In the meantime, I’ve pushed myself into a corner. I had about sixty page of the sequel to the novel I submitted written. The second novel was originally going to be much more action/adventure oriented, but if Mills and Boon picks it up, that obviously won’t work, especially as I was planning a few particularly brutal action scenes. Now, I don’t know what to do. Obviously, if they don’t pick up the first book I will want to stick with my original plan and self-publish.  

            I need to work on the second book, but I don’t know what direction to steer it right now. To complicate things further, I have a new idea I want to work with, but I know I need to focus. I guess I just need to write something. Even if it’s a haiku, you’ve got to keep yourself working. 

            I’ve been getting many questions about my Twitter account lately. I’ve passed up that magical 2,000 followers and people are getting suspicious of me. Rest assured my tweets are mine, save for the welcome to new followers and daily stats which are auto-generated. I want to show my gratitude to my new followers, but unfortunately it takes too much time to do that myself, so I have enlisted a tool to do it for me. Everything else is typed by my own fingers. I will post more about how I run my Twitter feed later. 

            Thanks to everyone for their interest and support! 

Help! Harlequin + Mills and Boon

Writers, I would appreciate your help right now:

As you know, a couple of weeks ago I sent a submission to Harlequin's NY office. Their website states that it often takes 6-8 weeks for them to process submissions and that one should not give up hope of a reply for 3 months. I sent my submission snail mail which means you can figure it was about 3 days until they recieved it. So, with that in mind, it has been a very short time span since I submitted.

Today, I arrived home to a hand-addressed manilla envelope from Harlequin. It was not my SASE. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited. I opened it up to find a print-out of sumission guidlines from Mills and Boon. Going back to the envelope, I realized it had been sent all the way from the Mills and Boon office in the UK. I did not pay for postage. There is no other note in the package.

I don't understand what has happened here. Do you think they want me to re-submit to Mills and Boon this time? Why would a company pay the $2-3 of airmail charges to sent me a print-out of their submission guidlines which are posted clearly on the internet. I never requested guidlines and never contacted this office.

I am confounded. Help!

Free, Free, Free

Hey guys, this is just a short post to let you know that I am running a promotion today and tomorrow wherein both of my books will be free on kindle. I hope you read and enjoy. If you do, please remember that reviews are an indie author's best tool and leave a few words on Amazon. I'd really appreciate it and I love to hear people's thoughts on my work (even bad ones).

The Gates of Nottingham

So Many Secrets