Two in Two Days!

Blog No. 334

I forgot how fun it can be to go to an event and actually sell some books. Don’t get me wrong. It’s work. It’s making sure everything is organized and packed ahead of time, getting up early and piling everything into the car, finding where you are supposed to go and where you can (or can’t) park, then carrying everything to your table, sitting there for eight or more hours, packing it all up, and heading home. Most of the day is spent sitting at the table, greeting the people who wander by, giving the same pitch over and over again. It seems like no big deal, but it can be exhausting. When you have two events in two day, in two cities (though it’s easier when one of them is in your home town) the fatigue is magnified. Those days can feel like years. Sure, it can be fun and when you go year after year, you make friends, but the one thing that helps more than anything else is getting the first sale and keeping the momentum from there.

The Neon Heart – Release

Blog No. 333

The Neon Heart is out! It’s official, it’s available, and it has a very loud cover. The book took me a lot longer to finish than I had hoped. It is a lot longer than I had planned too, though. The initial idea for the series was to capture the crowd that wants to read, but doesn’t have a lot of time. I got a lot of good feedback from people who bought No Light Tomorrow just to be nice, but ended up finding it approachable and really liked it. I figured, why not make a fun, fast paced book, at a non-intimidating length? They’ll eat it up. They did not. The Thinking Machine sold okay, but it did not have the monster sales I had hoped. It was, however, a new book that I could bring to events and advertise. For The Neon Heart, I changed gears a little. I listened to the feedback from the people who did buy the last one. Thinking Machine was too short and felt rushed. They loved the format, though. With that in mind, I let the story in Neon Heart drive the size. Now I have a book two in the Novella Series and it is the best thing I’ve ever written.

It Begins… Event-a-Palooza 2019

Blog No. 324

I’ve already had a workshop this year (thanks to Vanessa over at Gertrude’s Writing Room) and I’ve even had an interview (also thanks to Vanessa and the good folks at Scribes and Songsters). I’ have yet to have a traditional event such as a convention or reading. All that is about to change—starting this weekend. I’m heading up to Guelph with Christian for GenreCon. I haven’t been to Guelph since a couple of my friends were living there. I went up for St. Patrick’s Day and had a wonderful time. That was years ago now. I have been as close as Kitchener for book related stuff, but this will be a new city for an event. Hopefully it’s going to be a good one.

Event-A-Polooza

Blog No. 281

Still no word on The Thinking Machine. I am in talks with the printer and hope it will be a matter of days, but we’ll see how that turns out. I’m rather disappointed because Saturday is the Windsor Small Press Book Fair and I was really looking forward to launching my new book there. It’s local, it’s filled with authors I like, and I know I will spend too much money, so having my new book could have helped recoup the funds. That is, because I assume that everyone will want one because they are so cool. I’m not going to put up a cover until I know they are on the way. With any luck, that will be next week’s post.

Different Worlds

Blog No. 280

I had a strange thing happen to me last weekend. Nothing. For a long weekend, that’s rather unusual. Most weekends I have a combination of work, events, or family gatherings. With it being the Easter long weekend, you’d think there would be some family tradition, but with my parents out of town, no book events, and the day job closed, I found myself with nothing to do for the first time in a long time. I say nothing to do, but I have plenty. My review copy of The Thinking Machine is still in transit from Etobicoke, so it’s at a standstill, but I still have the followup to write, some short stories to write, and a ton of stuff to do for Flags and High Fives. I did spend a little time on work, but to be honest, I relished in the time off. I built a whole settlement in Minecraft.

Next, After, Later

Blog No. 279

The Thinking Machine is in the proof stage (as stressful as they come) and with any luck, I should have some physical copies by the end of the week. There always seems to be something in the proof that looks weird, has to be quadruple checked, or is just a screw-up. The looks weird stuff is mostly out of my hands. I can read all the printer’s documentation and review my own constructed pages, but no matter how much it seems like things should come out fine in the printed copies, there is doubt. I’ve sent an email, but got a stock response that tells me to look at the documentation. I’ve reviewed my own files and everything should be okay, but. As soon as I give my okay, I am responsible for how the book looks, errors or not (my fault or not). You can see my dilemma. I suppose working with a smaller, more local printer would solve that issue, but I’ve tried that route, and there is a whole mess of other issues that come out of that. Plus, you don’t get any distribution that way.