50K in 30 Days (actually 29)

I won!  I'm going to bed.

And So It Begins...

I'm off and running with NaNoWriMo. On this blog, I added a widget to display my progress, if you're interested. The first day, Tuesday, I was particularly lucky to have a little extra time and to be very inspired. I was able to write ahead of the minimum to be on track (basically, I wrote two days worth of words). Very helpful the last two days when I couldn't make the 1,667 minimum.  I'm still on track!!!

The story is shaping up nicely. I haven't decided if I started in the right place yet, but the stasis is coming out well. I've just about established my main character and the two side characters that get to join her early on. (Still a little nervous to be holding off introducing the two other major players much later... it seems like I'm withholding or something. Probably because I've never written that way before. I usually introduce all the characters in the first few scenes, major or minor.)

Favorite sentence written tonight: The bindings were as barren as a salted field, but undoubtedly still yielded fruit below the protective sheath.  Refers to old books that don't have text on the binding or the front cover.

Sharing the Joy

Since I published my first book, I've had many ups and downs. Sales are slow which is not unexpected. It's difficult to get the word out about the book. But slow or even nonexistent sales will never sour me about writing (publishing, maybe...).

I had the opportunity to speak  about NaNoWriMo at my daughter's school on Friday, specifically the Young Writers Program. Sharing about writing and the 30 day NaNo challenge with the 4th and 5th grades was definitely one highlight of my year. Not only was it fun for me in the sense that I do love to share in general, but the kids really moved me.

They had amazing questions, thoughts, and ideas. They are originals and ready to write about anything from sports, to video games, to nature, to space, to history. This generation certainly has the potential to outshine the rest of us. Some of them are already writing collaboratively!

I'm going to keep that day locked in memory forever.  :)

Pay and Panic and Positivity

To begin... I've been paid! It's not much, but it's actual money. I made $11.24. This means that I'm officially a paid author.  My hope is that I'll be able to make more off of my second book, but that's in the future.

So, about the panic... I've twisted myself all up in knots. My calendar keeps taking on more and more for November, which is supposed to be the time I'll crank out the first draft of The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic, or at least 50,000 words of it. I don't know how I'm going to squeeze in enough hours to write. I'm trying not to get it in my head that I'm going to fail this year, because I do tend to fulfill negative thoughts. Instead, I'm looking for positive thoughts.

My short list of positive thoughts: I love the idea for my new book. I love the characters I'm creating for my new book. I will enjoy writing the new book.

If any of you out there are positive thinkers and have words of inspiration for me, please leave a comment. I can use all the positivity I can get!

What's in a Name?

Many of my characters for The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic now have names! I try not to let myself struggle with character names because I've always figured that I can change them as I go, or even in an edit. But, I don't change character names. At least not so far. Especially not in an edit... I grow attached to the characters as they are.

So, without further ado, please meet the starring cast of CCIM:

Haley Peters - Owner of "Re-Views on Main: Used and Collectible Books"
Penn Smith - Cryptanalyst at the University and Haley's best friend
Megan Douglas - Owner of “Mystic Moon” Spiritual Books and Supplies
Dorothy "Hypatia" Meadows - Employee of "Mystic Moon"
Deputy Alejandro "Alex" Rossi - Deputy with the County Sheriff

Trouble is coming to South Fork...

Just One More Revision to My Logline

Revision is the butter to the writer's bread. Everything, yes, sadly everything, can probably be improved. I'm a very lucky person to have a good friend who will beta read pretty much anything and everything I give her. She's provided some valuable feedback which helped improve my logline. (Thank you, Richa!) In addition, last night I spotted a flaw in my thinking...

Although my main character's best friend will provide initial antagonism... he will not be the primary antagonist. Instead... this is so much better... he'll be the one arrested for her magical mistake!

I know it's not attractive to toot your own horn, but boy am I pleased with this idea change. While it's extremely threatening to have a Federal criminal case hanging over your own head, how much worse when it's someone you care about and it's your fault! Do you walk, or perhaps crawl, away? Do you "save" him? Ah, so much potential for drama!

The revised logline is below. Again, I am soliciting thoughts and opinions. If you have a suggestion, please comment.

On the verge of a another slow small-town Summer, a shy used book store owner receives an old and incomprehensible tome which she finally interprets as a book of wholly useless magic with the help of her cryptanalyst/hacker best and only friend; but when she uses the text and causes her friend’s arrest for a felony theft he didn’t commit, she must learn to make real-world friends and request their help to undo her mistakes, before the mysterious group attempting to purchase the text decides instead to take it from her or her best friend is convicted. – The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic

Thought for the day

I'm taking the day "off" from planning, meaning I'm not actively sitting at my computer typing. But that doesn't mean I'm not working on my book...

"The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.” - Agatha Christie

Progress on a Logline

I'm not going to pretend that this is the final version of my logline, but it's starting to resemble my vision for this novel. It's time to float it past some people. If you have a comment, please leave it. It can be specific (certain words that don't fit or a question on the plot) or very general (love it or hate it).

If you think you read this genre, but this doesn't look like a winner, I'd especially appreciate hearing from you.

On the verge of a another slow small-town Summer, a shy used book store owner, who prefers the company of books to most people, receives an old and incomprehensible tome which she finally interprets as a book of wholly useless magic with the help of her University-employed cryptanalyst/hacker best friend; but when she uses the text and finds herself a person of interest in a felony theft investigation, she must learn to make real-world friends and request their help to undo her mistakes, before the mysterious group attempting to purchase the text decides instead to take it from her or she finds herself facing a Federal prosecutor. – The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic

Celebration and Preparation

3 P.M. So little time and so much to do...

I completed my first draft of Truce or Consequences on October 1st. With NaNoWriMo right around the corner, I've had to launch myself straight into the preparation phase of my next book with no time off.

It seems appropriate to pause for one moment and celebrate my second novel. No, it isn't finished, but, as I wrote above, I have a completed draft. In December, I'll be able to come back to it and begin editing. If you're a writer, you know how amazing that is. Staring at a blank page is much harder than fixing problems in a manuscript. (I don't mean to imply that making changes is easy or fast, but it's a lot easier to edit something than nothing.)

All right, moment over.  Time to move forward. My next book... I've had an idea I've been kicking around for quite some time, based solely on an idea for a title, The Compendium of Curiosities and Impractical Magic. The last few evenings have been spent trying to turn that title idea into a theme and a plot, and most importantly, I'm trying to create some characters that fit into the world and will drive that plot. This is the first time I've ever started from something as vague as a title. As I've posted before, I usually start with the characters.

In an effort to bring as much together as quickly as possible, I've been re-reading my copies of the "Save the Cat!" books by Blake Snyder. While the focus of these books is on screenwriting, I agree with the woman who turned me on to these books, the storytelling aspects are just as applicable to a book as they are to a movie.

To my surprise, I've spent over five days agonizing (no, I'm not kidding, I'm talking about serious pain) over what kind of story I'm going to be telling. Clearly, my genre is Fantasy. But what kind of a story is it? Is it a quest story? A wish-fulfillment tale? A story of friendship/love? Or a rite of passage?

Those are my top four choices, but there are other possibilities. Overall, I tend to read romantic fiction and, thus far, that's what I write. Logically, unless I plan to stray from my natural inclination, a love story seems to be the choice. This is probably why I'm struggling. Because I look at the scenes I've imagined and keep thinking that this is really either a wish-fulfillment tale or a rite of passage story. There's no reason I can't have a love story intertwined, but I just don't think it's the main focus.

So that leaves me twisting and worrying. Should I change the story (rebuild the characters I've already played around with and upend the plot) or should I stick to what is already simmering in the back of my mind and shape it into a rite of passage or wish-fulfillment tale?

Blake's advice, at least as far as I interpret it, is to give up things that don't work. I can almost hear him add "and don't look back." If I follow that advice, then my move is to pick a story type (I guess I'm leaning toward rite of passage) and start shaping what I've already created so it will work and discard anything that isn't fitting right.

Hmm, how disappointing. I really hoped that by just writing this out, I'd have some kind of epiphany about what I should do. Truly, if I'm to be ready for NaNoWriMo on November 1st, I should have my logline by now and be working on character sketches and maybe even the storyboard. I've only 21 more days to flesh this thing out before I start writing. Oh, who am I kidding? There's nothing to flesh out yet. Not even a choice of story.

This blog post has gone downhill very fast. From celebration to a mild tone of panic. Perhaps even strong panic. I need to make some decisions today.

10:31 P.M.  Deadlines really are magic.

Feeling the pressure helped me make one decision. I'm keeping the characters, just reshaping them a little. My protagonist (yet to be named, poor thing) will be the proprietor of a used bookstore in a small town that boasts of the small town feel, while having a University just outside the city boundaries. The antagonist will be a friend of the protagonist who will initially aid her with her quest to understand the strange book (exact means of acquiring the book to be determined) in her possession but will later discourage her exploration and use of the magic within the book under the guise of protecting her from harm (while in reality stunting her growth).

I've many twists and turns yet to plot out and I can't go much further until I pick my story. Just these decisions however make me more confident that I will figure this out. It's a matter of going deeper. Looking much harder at the conflict. On the surface, it now feels like a story of friendship (and the pitfalls of thinking you know what's best for others). But, I will delve deeper... I did use the word quest.

Onward... to the logline!

Royalties in the Amazon

This will be a short post with an update to the information posted previously about Royalties.  It looks like on Amazon, I'm earning $1.02 for every $2.99, so that's about 34%.  Dramatic difference, no?

Royalties aka Getting Paid

Okay, totally blasé post title, but I'm not feeling especially brilliant regarding titles at the moment. The content, however, I'm much more passionate about... money!

How do I make money off of this eBook? It's actually very much the same as in traditional publishing - royalties. In my case, with the exception of Amazon, my publishing site is Smashwords. While they call me the publisher, the book is still on their site, they process the fees, and they also provide IRS documents, etc. This means that they are taking on some liability and a lot of accounting, so I won't receive all the money from my novel, I receive a percentage.

The difference here is the exact percentage. At Smashwords, I'm selling my eBook at $2.99. Of that $2.99, I receive $2.21! That's almost 74%. Of course, I've also priced the eBook at $2.99. I could have chosen a higher dollar figure and the amount per eBook would seem even more dramatic, why? In traditional publishing, most fiction authors receive somewhere in the neighborhood of a $1 per book sold (after the book earns back any advance money, if there was an advance).

Nice?  I think so. This is heavy on my mind because if my account meets the minimum dollar figure, Smashwords will pay me royalties quarterly.

Note: The other sites that Smashwords has distributed to, such as Barnes & Noble, iTunes, etc. pay at different percentages. If a book is purchased as Barnes & Noble, they'll take a portion of the cost, and then send the rest back to Smashwords, who will also take a percentage. I'll receive the remainder. This is not a complaint; both sites deserve their cut for their work. I'm merely sharing with you how the electronic distribution and royalties are managed.

I'm so pleased to report that I actually made the minimum as of yesterday, so I'll get paid this quarter. Special thanks to my friends who talked about my eBook to other people. Word of mouth is my main sales driver.

Anyway, after the end of this month, I can expect to be paid for my work. That means I'm not just a published author, but a paid author. Will I ever be making living at this? I don't know, but the truth is, I very much hope so.

Qualms and Quirks

In a previous post, I mentioned my concerns about supplying my bank account number to Amazon in order to self-publish my ebook. The concerns revolve around hacking, not Amazon, but I just don't want my numbers out there. My solution: open a new bank account

That's what I did today, and I have since submitted my ebook to Amazon. It should appear in their catalog in 48-72 hours. That will complete my distribution to the ebookstores that I consider most important.  I'm quite certain that there are other ebookstores that do a great deal of business and I'll be missing them, but for the moment I'm accepting that. If you happen to have a favorite online store other than the ones I've listed, please leave a comment. My greatest limitation for distribution is lack of knowledge of all the outlets.

That was all for qualms, now on to quirks.

The theme for my day was upsets and embarrassments, though the majority of those had nothing to do with my writing or publishing. I found a monstrous error in my ebook, the Title Page had the title for my next book! This wasn't true in the early distributions (I updated it once due to a dislike in formatting) but I found it today. The only word I can think of is mortifying! The wrong title!

While I will puzzled on how this happened, I set to correcting it immediately. A fresh upload to Smashwords has been completed and hopefully will distribute rather quickly. I don't have a rush of sales right now, so I'm not too worried anyone will stumble on it.  But still...

Another quirk I ran into was on Barnes&Noble. They don't use ISBNs for ebooks.  Instead, they assigned an EAN to my book. Searching by title will bring up the book, as will searching by EAN... but not the ISBN.  I'm more than a little befuddled, but there it is.

So future self-publishers, you've been educated... not everything in publishing uses the ISBN after all.

It's the Labor Day weekend, so I'll sign off by wishing you a good holiday.  I plan to relax and write.  :)

Spread your wings, my darling...

Heavenly Matchmaking: Meant To Be is now available on Smashwords, Kobo, and (drum roll, please) iTunes.  How awesome is that?  And get this, the estimated print length from iTunes is 472 pages.  I suppose 117K+ words could generate that many pages in print.

My next manuscript is currently at 257K+ words.  Hmm, better wrap it up before it rivals War and Peace.  (And then edit and edit and edit and edit.)

Observation of the day: Driving in the rain, in a vehicle I am unfamiliar with ... struggling with windshield wiper controls, softer breaks, steering uniqueness ... Nightmare.  Taking father to pick up more loving family at the airport in that vehicle, same storm ... Priceless.  Welcome home, Mom and Sis!

And the distribution goes on...

The distribution from Smashwords.com has begun.  Heavenly Matchmaking: Meant To Be is already up on Kobo.com. More locations to come. I've also made a page on Goodreads.com, which is how I discovered the book was available on Kobo.

What I've learned:
1) Instant publication to a single site is possible, it just depends on the site.  Instant publication to multiple sites requires a wonderful little thing called the pre-order. I'll be investigating in more depth when I publish again and will report back.

2) All sites follow their own procedures and therefore have their own cycle time before adding a book to their catalog. I'm also told it is possible to be rejected, but so far so good. Smashwords was instant to their site. I was told to expect up to 3 days for Kobo, it was less than 4 hours.

3) I'm still dragging my feet with regard to publishing to Amazon. Reading all the terms I have to agree to has made me reconsider.  And on top of the many rights you sign away (I'm still not sure I understand that and will be rereading tomorrow), they also want a bank account to electronically pay me.  Sounds good until you think about the fact that then my bank account number is sitting out on some server somewhere just waiting to be hacked. Yes, more thought must go into this one.

4) I thought my coupons would work at any retailer, but I'm having trouble using one on Kobo, so it may only be on Smashwords that I can give discounts. It's also possible that more time is needed for the coupons to be active on other sites. More investigation required.

5) Despite living in a world of "instant" gratification, there are still things that take time, and patience truly is a virtue. (Still waiting to hear back from Goodreads about my author page... patience.)

Best wishes in your current endeavors.

Why Did I Indie Publish?

I'm so wound up after today, with too much excitement for the publication of my first book, that I can't sleep.  (What better time for a blog post than when you're dead tired, but wide-awake?)

I thought tonight I'd spend a few minutes talking about why I chose to be an Indie author/publisher.  I have some comments posted on my author interview at Smashwords, but I'd like to expound a little more here.

What lead me to consider the idea of Indie publishing was, of course, a bit of disappointment from the traditional publishing industry.  I had a real struggle getting any kind of response from anyone.  I will say that the few who were kind enough to reject the work or to reject the work with feedback are my heroes.  Some of that feedback changed the book as you can see it today.  It's hard to believe that with the massive pile of queries coming in to these individuals, that they can take the time to write back.

But plenty of them didn't.  I sent in query letters and heard nothing.  Some websites say things like "you will only hear from us if we are interested" and that's fair.  But it's also very disappointing to an author.  I liken the experience to trying to communicate with a Black Hole, everything goes in, but nothing comes out.

The number of queries I was sending began to drop off as life became busier and I was not only holding down a full-time job, working on my next novel - now tentatively planned for an Indie release in January 2017 - but trying to be a good wife and mother.  Rewriting and trying to perfect the query letter dropped lower and lower on my daily priorities list and eventually I stopped altogether.

Fast forward, I was asked last week how my current book was coming along.  I was proud to say that I'm nearly finished with the first draft.  I'm working on the climax and really hope to finish in the next few weeks.  Then there will be some monstrous editing and it will be ready for publication.

It sounded fairly good, apart from the writer's block I've been having lately, but the question of the publication had come back to the forefront for me.  Did I really intend to finish another book and go through all that querying again?  Probably with the same results?

I'd seen articles about Indie publishing via some of my writers' groups and had read many with more than a little casual curiosity.  But it came on suddenly, after talking to my very kind friend who took the time to ask about the book, the need to publish.

It wasn't about the time it could take to start querying again.  It wasn't about the querying itself or the disappointment.  I just suddenly needed to have my book out in the universe.

A book can't be liked or hated if it's nothing more than bytes on my computer.  It can't share a story when it's in storage.  Nothing would happen if I did... nothing.

So for a few days, I went the last steps investigating Indie publishing, seriously considering platforms and distribution methods and late last night, I suddenly has a plan.  The execution of the plan began today.

I've no idea yet if it's for better or worse, but I know that I finally made that step.  People can read my work, if they choose.  Yes, it's a little terrifying.  I desperately want my work to be loved and I know that it won't be universally.  But, it's also extremely liberating and exciting.

There are other things I really like about Indie publishing that are in my author interview, linked above, so you might take a glance there if you are considering such a step yourself.

Whatever your plans and whatever comes to you tomorrow, good luck and good night!

I'm e-published!

Yesterday, I made the decision to Indie publish and I've published Heavenly Matchmaking: Meant To Be on Smashwords. I'm excited and proud to have put this book out into the Universe. Read a free sample of 20% of the book, available in epub, pdf, lrf, pdb, and the on-line reader.

(Is it weird that I'm thrilled to say "I have an ISBN" out loud? I hope not. ISBN: 9781370893577)

The complete book is available in epub, mobi, pdf, lrf, pdb, and an on-line reader.

Curious about the book? Read the blurb or visit the Goodreads page. I'm looking forward to feedback, both positive and less positive, so please leave a comment after reading!

This novel is currently available as an ebook on:

Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/661637

Kobo at https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/heavenly-matchmaking-meant-to-be

iTunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/heavenly-matchmaking-meant/id1148769514?mt=11

Barnes&Noble at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heavenly-matchmaking-kelly-lopushansky/1124491299?ean=2940153703770

Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Heavenly-Matchmaking-Meant-Kelly-Lopushansky-ebook/dp/B01LGL6MK8

The Worst Kind of Struggle

Okay, I admit the title is a lie, well not a lie... more of an exaggeration.  So many more things worse than this could under the title of the worst kind of struggle.


What is my supposed worst kind of struggle?  It's a lot like a writer's block, but not quite the same.  It's writer's resistance.  I've actually made it to the end of this novel, or should I say I've written to the end section.  Now that I'm staring down the finish line, what do I do?  I stare at the screen for a bit and then turn on the television, or pick up a book, or clean the house... the list goes on from there and gets more and more pitiful.


I'm fighting writing the end of this novel.  It's not like I don't know what happens.  It's not like I don't like the ending I'm heading toward.  So why am I fighting this?  I do know a few possible reasons.


I don't want to say goodbye to characters is a top contender.  But, if I'm honest, I've been thinking quite a bit about my next project.  So how much can I be worried I'll miss them?


There's also the ever popular fear of failure/success.  If I... oops... when I finish this novel, I'll be looking at revising and then the dreaded publishing specter.  I think I kinda like this one.  It has a loaded, psychology punch to it.  What if I actually succeed and get this book out?  What if I don't?  What if I do and I can't write another?  All kinds of good stuff in this one.


The one I dislike the most, that's come to mind in just the last few minutes, is that deep down I'm not really a writer.  The supporting evidence not being the 386 pages I've put down so far.  But a real, quality, scary and panicky kind of thought, none the less.


I've been told all writer's go through times of self-doubt.  I don't know if that's exactly true, but it's certainly believable.  I've questioned my skills and talents in other areas before.  It's probably something we all go through.


So what do I do?  Power through?   Head down and nose to the grindstone? ... and stare at a blankish screen where the end of my novel ought to be.  Honestly, I'm not sure.


Maybe I need to refill my creative cup.  Maybe it's a discipline issue.  (I could definitely buy into a discipline issue...)  Maybe analyzing it will just give me more to distract myself (hmm... that seems likely).


Somewhere inside there used to be a desire to tell this story.  The desire was so great, that I couldn't help but write.  There were days I could barely manage to get through my day job, I was so ready to write.


I can only hope that I can find that again.  And soon.  This story deserves its ending.