Finally got the pins out of my thumb and I get to start physical therapy. At least I’m on the road to having use of two hands. For a little while. I need surgery on my left hand too. It’s such fun, sarcasm at its best.
My new release has been less than spectacular, but it’s my lack of marketing that caused the lackluster results. Trying to recover from surgery while editing another book limits the time a person has to devote to marketing properly. I’m hopeful it will get better over the next few weeks. I’m debating an Amazon ad for a few days. First, I’d like to fix the few typos reported by ARC readers.
This is my fiftieth blog! Yes, 50, five-zero! I can hardly believe it. At first, I didn’t write them every week, but since the first few I’ve been pretty dedicated to getting them out every week. I believe it’s been about a year since the first one. This year has gone by so fast, I’ve published three books, two short stories and a novella. Technically, one book and the novella aren’t out yet, but the ARCs go out tomorrow, so I’m including them. Maybe I should do a giveaway…
You wouldn’t believe all the issues we had getting Violent formatted over the last couple weeks. Every time my formatter tried to send me the formatted file, it erased all the edits. The two of us went over and over it trying to fix it and get the formatting to stick. It changed words, took off italics, cut sentences in half, and pushed words together. It was a mess. Eventually between the two of us we got it straightened out. But when you look at something so many times you stop seeing the errors. Your brain sees what’s supposed to be there. Hopefully my ARC readers will let me know if we missed anything.
It's got me thinking more about getting my own formatting software. She uses Atticus and it was the problem so I’m not sure about that one. But lots of people swear by it so I need to so some research. I have Scrivner and I don’t know how to use it. I should probably learn it first. But it’s definitely not as user friendly as Atticus. I’ll let you know what I decide.
I’m planning for more marketing about the upcoming release of Origin of Violet and VioleNt. It definitely helps to have my books on KU, people are much more inclined to read additional books by me if they’re available for free on KU. The decision to put all of my novels on KU seems to be a good one.
The Readers Break the Internet Horror Edition hasn’t gained much traction. The host is planning to make some changes to garner more interest. Specifically, she’s considering changing it to a TikTok live event and recording it to be posted around. I think this is a great idea. I have too much cool swag so I will figure out something to do with a signed copy and a gift card raffle for ARC reviewers. Not sure yet. I have some awesome stuff for a giveaway. I’m also doing another charity auction for Books for Crisis, same host as Books for Boobs charity auction.
I decided to register my author's name as a fictitious name. In my state it allows you to open and operate a company under a name other than your legal name. Here it costs $50, add $30 for a certificate, and $10 for a certificate of status. So, for $50-$90, I’m an official fictitious entity. To open the actual business, I need to register with my town as a company. Not sure yet on the cost, but I believe it’s around $40. For around $150 I will be the sole proprietor of E.N. Chanting Author. I also opened a P.O. Box, it cost $182 for 15 months, they gave me three months free. There, my total costs to be official.
The reason I chose to do this now is because I’ve spent a lot of money on this enterprise this year. Professional editing and book covers aren’t cheap. By being a company, I can claim those expenses on my taxes to counteract the royalties I’ve earned. We also needed to hedge off capital gains tax for some stocks we sold in light of the likelihood of a downturn ahead. Please don’t take anything I say here as tax or financial advice, I’m not an accountant or financial advisor and I don’t offer that advice. I’m an author and I’m anecdotally telling you about what I’m doing. Seek the advice of a professional before you do anything that could impact your taxes.
I’m working on finishing writing Vile, the second novel in the duet and a half, Violet's Tales. I’m about seven chapters into it and I’m enjoying the addition of a third love interest for Violet. It’s been a challenge adding him after her relationship with her other two boyfriends is already established. This one is also dual POV, remember what that acronym means? The other two books are only from Violet’s POV. This one is Violet and the new guy, Pierson.
Next, I believe I’m going to write the short story, Deadly-Go-Round. It’s been on my mind quite a bit and I’m excited to get started. It’s going to have the premade cover I purchased. It’s a great cover so I’m excited to see how it comes out. The story is straight up horror. No romance in this one which will be a fun change of pace. I’m debating which POV to go with and I think I might do third person.
I usually prefer 1st person which is the character telling you what’s happening from their POV they even share their thoughts, but you don’t know what anyone outside their view is doing. In 3rd person, the narrator can tell you what’s happening and to whom, and their thoughts. It’s an omnipresent POV.
Then there’s tense. I usually write in present tense. The character or the narrator tells what happens as it takes place. Past tense tells you a story that happened in the past. Like this, “I went to the store yesterday and when I came out of the store, my car had a flat tire.” VS. “I just finished my shopping. Can you believe it? I have a flat tire.” See the difference?
If I decide to go with 3rd person past tense it’ll be completely different than my usual, 1st present. Another interesting challenge. If you’ve read my blogs for a while, you may remember I used to enter writing competitions as often as possible. I had to stop because it was delaying my book writing. Challenging myself with a different style fulfills the need to push my writing into an uncomfortable corner that I need to write my way out of and I love it. Yes, I’m certifiable.
I’ve also been thinking a:out the next book in the Forces of Nature Series. Force of Attraction. I wish I could write as fast as my mind works. I’m dying to write the MC series that branches off from Forces of Nature. Southern Suns MC will be so much fun. In addition to the lack of hours in a day, it also costs a lot to have each book edited and I need to save up a little or time them out so that I don’t need to pay thousands of dollars all at once. I’d love to get an audio book made too. But I’ve heard it can cost upwards of twenty thousand.
Although my husband has a lot of recording equipment, and I’ve heard authors are reading their own books more and more. Who knows, maybe I’ll do it myself. I still haven’t tried posting any readings online yet to see how they’re received. I should probably try that first huh?
Please sign up for my newsletter if you want to hear about new releases and any giveaways I’m planning. You can subscribe at the bottom of my homepage and get a free book in the process.
As always, thanks for reading!
Subscribe here: https://www.enchantingauthor.com
Attend Reader’s Break the Internet Horror Edition registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdfdK684r5E44PaD6rmw9kXC7AQVr9Unx7EkLb1gfN_QZ1jpQ/viewform
Two of my books are FREE on Amazon 9/5-9/9
Force of Corruption: Book One (Forces of Nature 1) https://a.co/d/eBSYiN3
Force of Corruption: Book One (Forces of Nature 1) https://a.co/d/fiqIX2k