The snow is melting here in Maine. If it weren’t for the date on the calendar, I would be celebrating the arrival of spring. Because boy does it feel like it. I even feel the spring thaw in my psyche. My creative energy is branching out with new roots. At the same time, the urge to travel is racing through my blood. I want to pull my motorcycle out of winter storage, point the fender south and go for it!
I’m sure reality will kick in all too soon. It is only the ides of January for goodness sakes. But spring hungers are alive and well nonetheless!
Since my energy has been picking up from a bad December low, I’ve tried to put some of it into new projects and outreach. I’m happy to say that the new (and hopefully final!) cover for Born of Water should be uploaded by the end of this coming weekend. I have a few more tweaks suggested by my reliable group of hawk eyed friends. I’m very excited as I think this is a great cover, one that tells you something about the story and is visually captivating. I hope potential readers like it as well!
I’ve almost been full of question recently. Things like “Who out there is making it as a full-time or part-time writer (with only a part-time job)?” and just really needing some fellow writer discussions. Ever since my writing group broke up, my family has been subjected to my intense need to discuss the strange phenomenon that is the creative writing process. I feel fortunate I haven’t been banned from gatherings.
I happened to be reading Mark Coker’s Book Marketing Guide about the same time the above thoughts were nibbling at me. He suggested forums and even provided a few. After looking around, I’m happy to say I joined Goodreads. The reason I chose it was because not only does it offer me places to connect with other writers, it provides plenty of opportunities to connect with readers.
I have an author account activated and I’m setting up my profile over there. I will be uploading a new book cover and pulling in my two books they don’t have listed soon. This week is a nightmare work schedule wise, so I’m not making any promises other than to survive it. Beyond that, a lot will be as I find time to keep the pressure reasonable. You can check out my progress though. My author profile page is here.
I had one last surprise that really cheered me up. I realized through finally paying a bit of attention and looking around the site more that I’ve had over 200 downloads of Born of Water’s Companion Book through Smashword’s distribution markets! Nothing like a feew book sales to lighten up an afternoon! Most were at Sony and Barnes and Nobles. I have the Companion listed for free through them (will Amazon ever catch up??), so these weren’t paid sales but they made me feel good. 🙂
If that weren’t enough some of Smashwords reporting caught up and I realized I had some PAID sales of Born of Water! That made me quite happy. I’m sending Smashwords lots of happy karma right now.
Hoping you are having a good spring . .. errr, winter. This is winter?