A running tally of To Do, Done and Not Quite There Yet
I’ve been looking for a place to make a list of To Do items, but I also need to log what I do. For example, just yesterday, I commissioned (I know, big word, sounds so official–I like that) a new cover for The Secret of Kite Hill. It took planning and thought and action to get it into the hands of a designer, but I did it! I need to log, remember, stand up and shout and move on!
I’m just going to list things until I find a better way and then at the end of the month post this post.
April 1
- Kite Hill Book Cover: requested new book cover (complete with lots of links to great covers on Amazon) from Fiverr. $6. 🙂
- Self Publishing Formula: watched Ninja tricks module … while making dinner.
April 2
- FB Like Page Ads: reduced budget from $5 to $1 per day. Bradley Charbonneau Author
- Quiz / Vote: “Brilliant” early-morning idea: post a FB quiz with “Which book would you read first?” and list the 4 books I’m working on ((1) Every Single Day, (2) LiLuStrated, (3) Pride, (4) Paris).
April 3
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The Secret of Kite Hill cover mockup sketch
Kite Hill Cover Sketch: first draft! Asked for revisions (more active characters, entrance to tunnel smaller). Progress!
Well, the daily entry system didn’t work very well and I’m not sure it’s a reliable or even necessary element of such a review. What I really want is a rough idea of what I got done and what I need to do.
Month Wrap Up
Kite Hill
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The Secret of Kite Hill new book cover (April 2017)
Book Cover: got the sketch, then color then done! I really like it. It doesn’t have to win awards or even be the end-all-be-all of covers, but I like it better than the last one. Image to the right is with a quick treatment of fonts and not final.
- Editor: I can’t not think of Steve Martin’s stand-up comedy routine when he’s talking about his books. “This book really took off because this was the first time I started using verbs.” Editor Leah McClellan took a tour with a red pen through Kite Hill and we’re all the better for it. I haven’t finished going through her edits, but it’s been a fantastic experience working with her and I know the book will be the better for it.
Facebook & Amazon Advertising
I plan to keep track of ads and how they’re performing for the different books and ad campaigns, but at this point, I’m just plain happy to have started.
I am seeing real results in the number of Facebook likes on my Bradley Charbonneau Author Facebook page, which I’m really pleased with. Looking forward to expanding that FB page to full Everything You Need to Know about the Author status as I build it.
Really in early stages of FB and Amazon advertising and looking forward to digging deeper and learning, analyzing, selling, buying, repeating.
In the Media
Blogger to Author Podcast
I was a guest on Dr. Beth Brombosz’s Blogger to Author Podcast. We had a great time on the call and went over everything from running, habits, going from a 30-Day Challenge to an almost 2,000-day odyssey, even got into the Book Sales Page Course and touched on a 10-Day Writing Challenge for those who dare take the plunge. She’s filling a great need by helping writers get from blogging to authordom and she was a pleasure to talk with. One of those conversations where we saw eye to eye on so many topics, we could have kept talking for hours.
Please do check out the show and leave her a review on iTunes to help her reach more writers and help them get from blogging to writing books.
Fiction
I was away with my family this week while both boys had the only overlapping week of what’s called the “May Vacation” which is actually in April. Yeah, anyway. Since I didn’t have many moments of peace alone (or quiet in our busy-Italian-city settings), I didn’t get much further with the Book Sales Page Course recordings for the How To section while working on the Every Single Day Book Sales Page. But, out of the blue, I started a story which turned into another chapter the next day and by day three, I was to the point where I couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.
Did you catch that?
I’m the writer. It’s fiction. You’d assume I would know what’s going to happen next. But that’s the beauty of fiction and creating something from nothing. I didn’t have a plan or a plot or much of anything. It just began with a scene and I think it might have morphed into the beginning of a character. I don’t want to say too much more as I truly don’t know where it’s going to go, but I can say that I enjoyed writing this so much, it was almost criminal. I woke up as early as I could and hid out in a corner of our Florentian apartment (and there weren’t too many corners to choose from … ) and the story came to life. It just kept rolling and growing and it would surprise me at most every turn.
Then it got serious and deeper and it might even have, you know, some meaning in there. I think it really could be the beginnings of a character that could live on in future books. Here’s the accidental Not Really Chapter One.
On that last note, I’m going to mark down April 2017 as a roaring success.