Start up publishing company

Check! Doing it was easy. Finding a name for the publishing company was hard. It took almost two months of thinking, putting up ideas on a dry-erase board, and researching domain names before I settled on “Star Catcher Publishing.”

Set up Distribution and Retailer Accounts

Again, [...]]]> 2011 Business Plan in Review

Start up publishing company

Check! Doing it was easy. Finding a name for the publishing company was hard. It took almost two months of thinking, putting up ideas on a dry-erase board, and researching domain names before I settled on “Star Catcher Publishing.”

Set up Distribution and Retailer Accounts

Again, rather easy and straight-forward. This took maybe an hour.

Publishing Goals

Then came the plan of what projects to finish and publish. This was a short list of three novellas and one novel. Good news is that I achieved this goal.

The better news is that I also achieved the second-year goal, and most of the third and fourth. This was good for business, no question, but it made me thing about what the goals should be going into 2012.

New Types of Goals

The one thing I’ve learned this past year is the need to be flexible in the writing business. Sometimes one or another project is working better. Sometimes another project needs to be brought forward because of increased interest in a sub-genre. Sometimes a cover is ready for one but not another.

I kept this in mind in deciding the goals for 2012.

2012 Writing Plan

2012 Business plan

Writing Goals:
500,000 new words
250,000 revision words

Publication Goals:
12 new releases in 2012.
Get out paperback versions of the novels.

Nice and simple. I did not define any of the goals down to the point of naming exact books or series. I did not decide it would be so many novels, novellas, novelettes, and short stories.

Nope. I kept it at overall word count for both new words and revision words. Doing it this way I can keep going without guilt. Work on the projects that need to be worked on. Bring projects forward in the queue if I think they need to be. Push back books that are having problems.

At the same time, I’m also stretching myself. I’ve never tried 500,000 new words in a year. For the second half of 2011 I was able to write 300,000 with the help of NaNoWriMo, so I have high hopes of achieving the goal. Even if I don’t make it, I’m sure to come out of 2012 with a heck of a lot of new words!

I’m not as fast at revision, so I’m working towards a lower goal on that with the hopes of building up so that the new words and revision words will eventually be the same each year. In 2011 I’ve taken great strides in it, which is what happens when you practice something a lot. Here’s to 2012 being even better! :clink:

2012 promises to be a year of stretching the writing wings, trying new things, continuing to learn to be flexible, and most of all, telling ever more stories. I can’t wait!

____________________

J.A. Marlow

Coffee Cup Dreams

She wasn’t supposed to wake up when dead…

During what should have been a simple operation, Tish Douglas died. And yet, she also awoke… in what the doctors called a ‘psi event.’

Despite having no memory of the incident, it means she’s required to go on a life-time course of debilitating drugs designed to reign in her supposedly new psi gifts. She’s left with the option of existing on Earth in a drug-haze, or leave the planet.

When an opportunity for a good paying job on a space station known as Redpoint One is offered, she jumps at the chance. Even though she doesn’t have any experience as a ‘maintenance engineer.’ Even though the station sits in the middle of nowhere, a still-operating construct of a long-gone alien species.

Between pirate attacks, intelligent repair robots, and maintenance emergencies, Tish must find a place for herself.

All complicated by a growing attraction to the one person on the station she can’t have: boss Arthur Getty.

A stand-alone 48400 word, 193 page (approximate), science fiction romance novel.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

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A few tweaks, fully develop the ideas already present in the first draft, and it should [...]]]> Today I started revision on Book 3 of the Salmon Run series. The book needs a bit of work, but I was pleasantly surprised during a recent read-through that it’s not as rough as I originally thought it was.

A few tweaks, fully develop the ideas already present in the first draft, and it should be fine. I’m aiming to have the revision finished in 6 weeks at which point I will hand it off to my two editors. Estimate goal for handing it off to the editors: July 10th. If I manage to finish it a bit earlier, even better!

One of the things I want to do is increase the wordcount. The first draft sits at 25500. I would like to bring it up to around 35,000 which is around where the other two books sit (37800 for Night of the Aurora and 35100 for Alien Winter). Considering that I need to flesh out the subplots and I added four scenes to the revision-outline, I should make it.

I’m so excited about the prospect of having 3 books in the series released. For me, that’s a milestone. The characters are really developing, I’m enjoying the town of Salmon Run and the fun with the aliens. Plus, it looks great in the book listings.

It has me rethinking this upcoming National Novel Writing Month. I originally planned to write a new trilogy, possibly writing the first drafts of all three in one month. However, I still have a lot of outlining to do on that series. Writing out the next three books of the Salmon Run series might make more sense, and would be a lot of fun.

I want to see what the characters will be up to next, too!

Then would come figuring out the cover. Hmmm. I’ll have to chew on that as I’m revising.

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I think that phrase needs to add, “and uncertainty.”

Life changes fast, often broad-siding us from unexpected directions. January has been a month filled with events. I won’t go into the details, but suffice to say that I’m [...]]]> “…in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” – Benjamin Franklin

I think that phrase needs to add, “and uncertainty.”

Life changes fast, often broad-siding us from unexpected directions. January has been a month filled with events. I won’t go into the details, but suffice to say that I’m now a month behind on almost everything because of it.

And it brought to mind another benefit of going the Indie route: Flexibility.

My household had a bad month, including me personally. Choosing to go Indie meant that I could give all my attention to those events without worry of losing a contract or angering an editor. Or all the other fall-out that can occur.

Several Indie authors I’ve been following have mentioned that they try not to announce hard and fast release dates because of this sort of thing. It’s one reason I chose not to announce release dates on my first work. Instead, I gave a ball-park estimated time of year. I’ll miss the very first part of that estimation, but perhaps I can hit the latter part.

What this means is that “Night of the Aurora”, the first book in the Salmon Run series is going to be delayed at least into March. After losing January, there’s no other option. Family and health had to come first.

Life happens. I like having the flexibility to roll with it.

The good news is that in February I’ll have a couple novelettes ready to go and perhaps another short story. The novel “Into the Forest Shadows” is also almost ready.

Spring is shaping up to be an interesting release time.

_______________________________

“The E-Book Experiment” chronicles the business and creative side of an experiment with the business opportunities new technology and creative outlets now afford content producers. Will it fail? Will it succeed? The only way to know is to approach it with a solid plan and try. No regrets!

I hope the details of this journey will be a help to other authors. As the process proceeds to selling the final products I will also share hard data that might be useful in the decision making process of other authors who recognize that only they can take charge of their careers. For a listing of all the posts in this series, please click here.

If you find this information useful or interesting, please encourage others to come on by and visit.

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On a world of valuable giant trees and intelligent animals, a red-cloaked headstrong teen struggles to save her family from a planetary conspiracy awaiting her at Grandmother’s house.

The above 2009 NaNoWriMo book was the novel I used to go through Holly Lisle’s “How to Revise Your Novel” class. The class [...]]]> Into the Forest Shadows

On a world of valuable giant trees and intelligent animals, a red-cloaked headstrong teen struggles to save her family from a planetary conspiracy awaiting her at Grandmother’s house.

The above 2009 NaNoWriMo book was the novel I used to go through Holly Lisle’s “How to Revise Your Novel” class. The class started on December 1st of 2009 and finished in April. Only now have I finished one of the final stages, and that was to type in all the changes I marked up on the printed-out manuscript.

The original first draft: 81877 words

Revised draft: 79855 words

Considering I had several new scenes and no cut scenes, I’m surprised the word count didn’t go up. But, there you go. I was snipping a word here and a sentence there. Every so often a portion of a page. It all added up.

Hehe, or deleted up.

Whew, what a lot of work, but definitely worth it! I’m really happy with the way the story came out. Now to format it into chapters and prepare it for the beta-readers, who will then rip it to shreds.

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