In sticking to my goal of putting myself (and my career) out there, I participated in my local library’s Indie Author Day on Saturday, October 8th.

As a (mostly) self-published author, I’m part of the independent community. It’s an exciting field full of challenges, goals, and successes. But more than anything, I’m glad for the other writers I’ve “met.” I’ve learned a lot about craft (how to tell the best story), technical (how to format for print and digital), and marketing.

Combining both sides of my brain (creative and business) in this career is what drives my growth.

 

Here are a few things to share:

Self-e

This is a website to help get ebooks into library systems. I’m a big supporter of my local library (and vice versa). At this point in my career, I’m working on trying to grow my audience. I have donated paperback copies of my book to my library and love this way to get into even more libraries. Check it out for more information.

ePublish or Bust

A site to help connect indie authors with events at libraries. At the moment, this primarily focuses on Kentucky but the goal is to reach libraries in every state. The idea is that you can go on this site and set-up book signings, meet and greets, and such at libraries (especially if you know you’re going to be in a certain town on a certain date).

Because this event was focused on indie authors in general, not specifically the romance genre, a big mention was made about authors helping authors. I love the romance genre specifically because this is a just part of our nature. We believe in helping other authors, supporting each other, promoting each other. A rising tide raises all ships.

All in all, it was a great event and I’d encourage everyone to reach out to their local libraries. You never know what opportunities are out there until you ask.

 

 

And what a month it’s going to be!

If you aren’t familiar, #NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every November, aspiring and published authors set a goal to write a 50,000 word novel this month. If you check out the hashtag on Social Media you’ll start to see all sort of activities designed to help authors raise each other up and over their goal.

My first #NaNoWriMo I didn’t finish in the four week timetable. But I did start working on my goal and ever since, I’ve used #NaNoWriMo and in the summer #CampNaNoWriMo as inspiration to buckle down and write. I’m in the midst of a lot of projects at the moment.

The third story in my Golden Shores series is coming out next month. I have two short stories for the world of True North at the editor (to be released in 2017). And I’m working on a three-book series to start sending out to some of the major publishers. Add in an idea for another two novels, and you start to see why I’m feeling a tad overwhelmed.

But I’m pushing all of that to the side.

I’m really excited about this new trilogy. It’s something different for me and I think a great set of stories. Because the three books are so tied in together, I’m writing them and editing them before I submit to the publishers. Considering that it can take up to six months to hear back from a publisher whether or not they’ll work with you on a book, I want to really focus and get these stories done. It’s a hurry up wait scenario.

My goal is to finish the stories, get through editing them all once, polish the first book, and then submit in January. So yeah…I’ve got my work cut out for me. This month, though, I’m going to focus on finishing the book and maybe even starting the next.

If you want to follow along on my progress to 50,000 words this month, come hang out with me on twitter.

I’ll check back in at the end of the month! If you’re also participating this year, good luck 🙂