My Big Goals for 2012!

[moonmomma]

At the end of last year or early this year, I made a very big important exciting scary decision: I'm going pro! I've known for many many years that the traditional publishing path of finding an agent and submitting to publishers just wasn't for me. So for a long time I was content to just write while waiting to decide what my options were, and then when posting online became easy and common, to post my writing online for free. But now with self-publishing online through Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Smashwords, etc. being so viable (as opposed to old fashioned expensive scam-vanity publishing), I've decided to start putting my original fiction up for sale.

My goal all through this year has been to get three of my already-complete novels revised and edited to release in quick succession at the end of this year and early next year. For this, I selected Urdaisunia, The Lost Book of Anggird, and Chosen of Azara. Beneath the Canyons is also complete, but it turned into the first book of a series, so I'm waiting until I get more of the series written to start releasing it. I've been following Dean Wesley Smith's blog www.deanwesleysmith.com/ and one of his best, most important pieces of advice for self-publishers is to get a lot of work up for sale on a regular schedule. So that's what I'm working towards, and as I get these first novels revised and out the door, I'll be writing more new stuff.

Stay tuned for progress reports!

[moonmomma]

Progress report:

From January to July of this year, I took Urdaisunia (aka The Worst Rough Draft EVAR!!!) through Holly Lisle's How to Revise Your Novel course. I can't recommend this course highly enough. It's amazing. You dig down deep into your novel, analyze what works and what doesn't, and then put it all back together using methods she's developed that allow you to objectively analyze and tackle all sorts of story problems. The major revision on Urdaisunia is now complete and it's out to half a dozen test readers. I'm expecting their reports by Aug. 31.

The Lost Book of Anggird: Revised many times; one time too many! On the last revision, I took out stuff that I ended up wishing I'd left it. Now I'm taking it through the How to Revise Your Novel process and finding problems I missed and putting back in the stuff I want to put back in. But also most of the major story problems have already been solved, so it won't need as much work as Urdaisunia.

Beneath the Canyons: I'm working through Holly Lisle's How to Write a Series course (which came as a freebie graduation gift when I completed How to Revise Your Novel) to plan out the rest of this series.