Weekly writing progress:
None. I have zero writing progress. Zilch. Nada. Last week I was on vacation and this week I've been sick enough that I couldn't really get much done. I'm also not going to get anything done today because I've spent most of my time catching up at my real job due to how sick I've been all week, and I need a break... dammit.
HOWEVER
The cover for my first book is done and finalized, and so is the cover for my short story. They are amazing and I am so so SO pleased with them. I'll have the novel cover up on my socials soonish for a cover "reveal" for the few people that follow me. Hoping that by the 15th the website will be up and running. I also have all the beta feedback for the second book in and the feedback has been glowing.
What does this mean?
This means I no longer have any bottlenecks delaying the release other than my own efficiency and ability to sink hours into setting things up. What things do I have to set up, you ask? Thank you for asking!
- Create a book funnel account and set up my ARC deliveries as well as my short story deliveries.
- Polish up my mailing list and make a real workflow for sending those out monthly.
- Upload my ebook and paperback to KDP (it's my first time so this is gonna take some research to make sure I get my book in the right categories and have good keywords).
- Set up an ARC questionnaire and FIND ARC readers.
- Marketing - I'll be starting slow with marketing efforts. Low bid amazon ads is all I'll probably start with before I fold in facebook ads. I am not someone who particularly enjoys being a salesman even if it's for my own Thing, so you won't see me pushing for book signings or shouting from the rooftops unless people poke and prod me enough.
Those are the big ones. I'll delay doing my final passes on the second book until I have book one ready to rock. I'm expecting the release to be sometime in early April, but I'll know more once I start lining up ARCs. Book two shouldn't be too long of a wait after that. I don't want to say any dates because I've done nothing but blow past any dates I set for myself. I think I just have to take the stance of "things will be done when they are done", and stop trying to set hard deadlines for myself. I've proven I'm disciplined enough to make progress without a date looming, and all I do by setting dates is stress myself out.
I would like to have a map made, but it probably won't be included in any first editions of these novels. Most likely, I'll have it drawn and posted on my website and sent out to the mailing list. The map I've made personally is incredibly unfit for viewing by anyone, and on top of it there are far too many things out of place, missing, and modified that it would be an undertaking just for me to get it ready for an actual artist to make it pretty. An undertaking that is going to take a back seat to everything else. For now, if someone reads the book they'll just have use their *rainbows* imagination *unicorns*.
What I've been up to:
TV
I finished Love Death + Robots on the plane ride back from Mexico and it was excellent. Can't recommend it enough to anyone who likes animation.
I started Pluto. It's good, really good, but I haven't been able to get to the second episode yet.
The husband and I binged the rest of Hazbin Hotel earlier this week and it was some of the most delightful television I've watched in a long, long while. Everyone brought their A game on that show.
We finished the first season of Percy Jackson and I'm realizing this is the first time I'm mentioning it here. That should tell you all you need to know about my feelings on it.
We're back into Letterkenny. We're into season four now, and it's exactly as I remembered it. The show waffles between laugh out loud stupidity and sequences that I find personally very obnoxious. I'll be having a good time watching them make jokes about the word moist and talking about ants riding sea doos, and then it'll take a hard left into extremely loud music followed by, what I find to be, very boring fight scenes. If I could cut out all the sequences of blaring music and terribly choreographed fights I would do it in a heartbeat. It's a testament to the concept and the writing that I'm willing to stomach them just to watch the rest of the show.
Books
I finished A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness and it was absolutely phenomenal. I laughed and cried and then cried and then cried some more. It was a beautiful little book.
I'm really far into Howl's Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones. It's delightful and whimsical and so different from the movie in such interesting ways. I love it.
Games
I haven't played a lot since returning from Mexico. I'm a decent way into the new Prince of Persia game and I'm really enjoying it. Other than that, it's just been Overwatch 2 baybeeeeeee.
That's it, see ya next week!
Want to chat? Comment here or email me at mjlindemann@mjlindemann.com. I try to respond to everyone :)
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