Ruth Ann Nordin's Blog, page 13

I’m Still Alive

I kind of joke about this. I received a couple of emails asking if I was okay. To be fair, it has been a long time since I’ve blogged. We just got our beds on Friday. Long story short, the furniture salesman forgot to schedule us in for delivery, so that pushed things back. We are all now officially moved into the new house. I don’t know if many friendships could survive two months of being under the same roof, but Janet Nitsick, a wonderful friend who is also a historical western romance author, and I are still on good terms. The time just flew by, and I had a lot of fun staying with her. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been in Omaha since January 7th. It was definitely the right move. Looking back, I feel like it was a huge mistake to move to Montana. I’m back where I belong.

Even though I’m officially in my new home, there’s still stuff I need to do before I’m ready to get back to writing. My youngest opted to be homeschooled shortly after trying the high school in town. I had to look up homeschool laws and requirements for Nebraska since I was only familiar with the process in Montana. I am working on his assignments and trying to get him caught up in the required hours he needs for the semester. That’s taking up most of my free time. My guess is that I can’t even pick up on my writing for another week or two.

I was planning to have Secret Admirer out in March, but there’s no way I’m ready to even finish up with the edits and format for that story. So maybe April will be the month. In the meantime, Janet and I have come up with a really fun idea that I think some of you will enjoy. I’ll go more into that in a future post.

I saw that a couple of people commented on my last post, and I did read and enjoyed the comments, but it’s been so long that I made the post that I have decided to let them go unanswered. I’m sorry for that to those who commented. I’ll try to do a better job of responding in the future. I would like to focus on getting back to writing before I pick up on blogging regularly again. My guess is that I’ll have the time to sit and blog in another month. Because of that, I’m going to turn off comments for this post. I don’t want to forget to comment on two posts in a row. There’s still a few things I need to get done before I can get into a routine.

To those who emailed me asking if I’m okay, I appreciate the concern. Thankfully, everything is fine. I’m just busy, that’s all.

Writing for Passion Means Being Unique (And this is big plus in a world of change.)

Why AI Intimidated Me

Changes can suck. Once you get comfortable with something, you want to stick with it, especially if it’s something that has worked for you in the past. But, technology is advancing, and the landscape of writing and publishing is changing with it. When I first heard about AI tools for writing back in 2019, I panicked. Then I refused to acknowledge it. I spent the next two years pretending it didn’t exist.

The whole thing scared me. I didn’t like the idea of AI replacing me. I didn’t like the thought of AI replacing any human writer. Unlike people, AI doesn’t get tired, and AI doesn’t face burnout. AI can outpace every human writer, and at some point, it will probably be able to create a story specifically tailored to a reader’s every whim. Imagine a reader being able to fill out a form for everything they want in a story and AI creating it for that reader. I don’t know if such a story would be any good, but if AI learns by taking words human writers created, then it might be. What if retailers who sell books could utilize this AI software so they could produce stories on demand without having to give human authors a cut of the royalties? If AI can be as good as human writers but produce books faster and tailored to individual readers, then what could a human writer offer that would make their books worth buying? AI doesn’t need money. Human writers do. Human writers have to eat, put a roof over their heads, and wear clothes. If they don’t get paid, they can’t continue to write.

Benefits of Having AI

While I do have concerns about AI and where it’s heading, I can’t keep my head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist. There was a time when I used to read road maps when going into unfamiliar territory. Today, the AI program on my phone will tell me in real time which lane I need, what light I need, and when to turn. I am unable to pay for a human narrator, but AI is allowing me to create audiobooks so I can listen to them. Since I can no longer read ebooks or paperbacks due to my eyes getting worse with age, this has given me a way to “read” my stories. I can also “read” other books because of AI narration. AI, while scary in some respects, has also opened up doors that have been good for me.

Times are changing. They were always changing. As much as we might not like it, we have to adapt. I have to adapt. This post is more for me than anyone else. I need to hear this so I can get past my apprehensions and learn how to use AI to improve my writing. I do believe that AI can help writers. I don’t think AI should write stories FOR authors, but I think that AI can ASSIST with the writing process. The one perk a human writer has is the “human” factor. A human writer can “feel” the story. A human can communicate authentically with a reader. Humans aren’t perfect, but the value of the human touch will always be special. Each human is unique.

Writing for Passion will be More Important in the Future

You can’t replace a human. You can come close, but you can’t replace someone who has come to mean a lot to you. I don’t care who this person is. It can be a parent, it can be a friend, or it can be someone in the public eye. When you develop a special attachment to someone, that person’s absence will always be there no matter how much you try to find someone else to replace that hole. After my mom died in 1995, I looked all over for a mother figure to fill that slot. That slot is still empty. Each friend I’ve had over the years and have lost touch with couldn’t be replaced, either. I have also developed attachments to public figures, like authors and actors. I might not have known these public figures personally, but the content they produced was important to me. When that person was no longer able to keep producing content, I missed that “special something” that person brought to the table. Other people might produce similar content, but they don’t produce it the exact way (with the same flavor and tone) that the original person did. As close as the others come, they are not “that” person.

Human writers are unique. Every human writer has their own personality, their own interests, their own weaknesses (for better or worse), their own way of looking at the world, and their own way of telling a story. AI isn’t going to replace that. Another human isn’t going to replace that. AI and another person might come close, but they will never be that specific writer. When you write to market, you take yourself out of the story because you are not writing stories you love; you are writing stories that you believe will sell the most copies possible. So you write with others in mind. You are not writing what most inspires you. There’s nothing wrong with that, but AI might one day be able to do that, too. If AI does it, then it’ll do it much faster than any human can. Will AI hurt write-for-passion writers? I’m sure it will, but writers who are focused on passion will be buffered better than those writing to market.

Writing to market means playing it safe. You’re always trying to please someone else. You’re not looking for unexpected twists and turns. You’re not willing to upset the critic. You are not going to take any chances. AI will be able to write to market, too. In fact, I’m sure that is how AI is going to be programmed. I’m sure there will be a time when AI will produce stories that are good enough for most readers to enjoy. I hate saying that, but I think that’s where this technology is heading. I’ve seen samples of AI work, and it’s not bad. It’s not ready for a complete story, but it can come up with poems and scenes that are okay. That AI technology is only going to improve from here.

A writer who writes for passion has the advantage of being unique. These writers are willing to take risks that those writing to market won’t. These writers will insert themselves into what they write. Readers who fall in love with these writers’ storytelling abilities will still want to buy from these writers because even if other writers can come close, no other writer (whether human or AI) can be exactly like this specific writer. Your unique voice matters. Putting your specific interests into your books matter. Allowing your creativity to go in directions it wants to go (instead of restraining it to fit what the market wants) matters. Writers who embrace passion take risks. They risk not appealing to the largest audience. They cater, for the most part, to a smaller audience, and while that audience is smaller, that audience is often more engaged and more loyal because that audience has connected on a personal level with the author. Writing for passion a slow build. It’s not sensational. It’s not going to impress anyone in the writing world. But if you can find your core group of readers who appreciate what you bring to the table, you have what it takes to withstand the changes that will come to the world of publishing.

How AI Can Help Writers Who Write for Passion

This year, I am going to experiment with using AI as a tool. I don’t plan for it to write for me. I will write the book. But what if I get stuck in a scene and want to brainstorm possible ways to proceed? I don’t always have a writing buddy to bounce ideas off of, and I can get stuck in a story for days or even a couple of weeks. What if I have trouble describing something? AI could help me cut down the time I currently spend on the internet looking up things like what a certain type of house looks like or how brandy tastes. What if AI could help me come up with names so I’m not repeating the same ones across stories? I’ve done over 100 books, and it is hard to come up with new names for characters. What if I want help coming up with the book description? I’d love some help coming up with words to better describe my book because my descriptions aren’t that great. I think AI could be useful as a “helper”, but I don’t see using it to write my stories for me. Writers who write for passion need to tell the story that is their vision, and they need to tell it their way. This is what separates passion writers from the writing-to-market crowd and from AI. Passion writers are square pegs that won’t fit in round holes. Things that don’t fit stand out. They are noticeable. They are memorable. They have intrinsic value to the people who love them.

I believe that writers who are embracing passion are much better off because they can’t be replaced. This is why I no longer fear AI technology in the writing world. I no longer have to bury my head in the sand and pretend AI doesn’t exist. I’m not sure how the changes will look, but the change is here. I’m sure the debate of copyright will be a big debate coming up. Can someone copyright a book AI writes? Who will own the material? What can be done with it? Will someone target a certain author and attempt to “mimic” that author by using AI software to write stories using that author’s backlist as material? (That is a scary thought, but with all of the scammers out there, I believe it’s only a matter of time before that one happens.) I think we’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg on AI and what it means for the future of writing. But we can better keep up with the changing landscape by writing stories true to ourselves.

Secret Admirer Will Be Removed from Pre-Order for a Short Time

I don’t know how many people are aware of the merger between Smashwords and Draft2Digital. The merger is going in stages, and later this year, authors will have to use the Draft2Digital dashboard to publish their books. I have been publishing through the Smashwords dashboard to get onto retailers like B&N, Kobo, Apple, Scribd, etc for over ten years. I do have a Draft2Digital account but have primarily used it for my pen name and for paperbacks.

Now that Smashwords’ authors are encouraged to start using Draft2Digital’s dashboard to publish their ebooks, I have decided to unpublish Secret Admirer from my Smashwords’ dashboard. I will then put it up on my Draft2Digital dashboard, so it will be on pre-order again. If you already pre-ordered it, the retailer will cancel the pre-order. You will not be charged for it. So you won’t be losing any money.

The book I am removing from pre-order temporarily:

Secret Admirer (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 1)

I have just officially moved from Montana to Omaha, Nebraska. The house in Montana sold, and the process went pretty smoothly. Moving is always a pain, but everything just fell into place with this move so it was the right thing to do. At the moment, I’m in the process of enrolling my youngest two in high school and getting things ready for the new house. My official date for moving into the new house is January 27.

I probably won’t be able to get this book back up on pre-order until February. Draft2Digital will probably issue a new ISBN for the book, so that means you will need to pre-order it again if you want it on pre-order. If you would rather wait until the book is released before getting it, I will make a post announcing when it’s out.

Another reason I decided to take Secret Admirer off of my Smashwords’ dashboard is that Secret Admirer is Book 1 of a series. I want all of the books in the series to link to each other. I think it’s easier to do that if the books are all published in the Draft2Digital dashboard. Having one book in the Smashwords dashboard but the rest in the Draft2Digital dashboard could confuse the retailers. This way, it’s a lot simpler. (I currently do not have the other books in the series on pre-order, so you don’t have to worry about those.)

Here is my list for the series:

I don’t know if I’ll be adding another book to this series or not. I think I might because I’d like to see Horatio (one of my characters in Secret Admirer) fall in love. My problem is that I currently have no plot for him that interests me. I have a great idea for a secondary character in Midnight Wedding, but I’m not sure his story belongs with this particular series. His story “feels” like it belongs to another series. When writing, I go by instinct. I can’t force someone into a series if they don’t fit there.

So that’s where everything stands at the moment. I’ll keep you updated on what happens with Secret Admirer and the other books in this series.

Heiress of Misfortune (Marriage by Necessity Series: Book 3) is Now Available!

Can you believe I haven’t had a new book out since July? I haven’t gone that long between releases since I started publishing ebooks back in 2009.

Anyway, I’m happy to announce that Heiress of Misfortune is finally out, and better yet, it completes the Marriage by Necessity Series.

Here are the books in this series:

 

Here is the information for Heiress of Misfortune:

When Mr. Byron Tumilson was hired to protect Lady Eleanor from the person who is trying to kill her, the last thing he expected was to play the role of her suitor. But, as it turns out, that’s exactly what her father, the Duke of Dormondton, requires him to do. Her father wants her to have a successful first Season, and no one has shown any interest in her. He is convinced that if Byron pretends to be in love with her, then she’ll attract real suitors.

So Byron is stuck attending boring balls and lavish dinner parties under the guise of being a wealthy gentleman. As if that isn’t painful enough, he needs to find a way to make this wallflower of a lady into someone gentlemen will actually desire. At least, that’s what he most wants until Lady Eleanor pretties herself up and learns how to flirt. Then he starts to realize he’s fallen in love with her, and that’s the worst thing a nobody like him could do with a fine noble lady.

If interested, you can find the book through the links below.

Ebook version:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Smashwords

Google Play

Radish

Audiobook version (narrated by AI):

Google Play

As We Go into the New Year (A Writer Post)

I came across this video today, and while it’s not about writing, it inspired me to think of ways to apply this to us as writers.

1. Own less. Fewer possessions take up less energy and less time.

My writerly approach to this tip:

The more we try to do, the more we can get ourselves into trouble. We only have 24 hours in a day, and while it’s attractive to think about doing a whole list of things, it might not be realistic. This might be a good time to prioritize the things in your life. Even writers need time off from writing, publishing, and book promotion. In order to thrive in this environment long term, you have to get a proper balance. You need time for rest. You need time to eat well and exercise. You need time with family and friends. You need time for other interests. Maybe you even need time to work.

First of all, what are your goals? Second, what things do you do as a writer that gets you closer to your goals? Is there anything that ends up being a time suck? I can’t speak for other writers, but for me, my first goal is to write the next book because it’s what I enjoy doing the most and it’s my best marketing tool. (I don’t make as much money when I don’t publish a new book.) So writing is the priority. The biggest time suck for me is social media. In this case, the “possession” in my writing life is social media. By limiting my social media usage, I greatly improve my writing output.

I don’t know if that example resonates with anyone. Maybe there’s another area in your life that distracts you from the writerly goals you have. If so, can you eliminate it or limit it so that you can see more improvement toward reading those goals?

2. Watch less TV. (This includes You Tube, etc.)

Okay, this is just good advice in general. But here’s my writerly twist on it:

TV might provide inspiration to get your creative juices going. Writes often get inspiration from other creative sources. But I bet if we watched less of these things and focused more on writing the next book or maybe do a little more marketing, we’d get closer to our goals as writers. I like his approach to removing a small amount of TV. What would happen if you removed that TV viewing for an hour a week? What else could you be doing with that time? You know, it only takes an hour to write about 1,000 words if you can pull off 250 words every 15 minutes. There are 52 weeks in a year. You could write 52,000 words in one year simply by devoting an hour every week to writing instead of watching TV. Little changes can lead to big results.

3. Eat a healthier diet.

There’s not much of a writerly twist to put on this one. The better you eat, the better you’ll feel, and the better you feel, the better you’ll be for writing the next book and promoting it. I like the idea of adding a little change to the diet at a time.

4. Spend less money on unnecessary things.

My writerly twist:

Is there anything you’re spending money on as an author that isn’t giving you the results you want? Can you do something yourself instead? Can you barter services with someone? For example, I know someone who edits books in exchange for free covers. You don’t have to pay out for services if you can find a medium of exchange. You just need to be willing to put in the time to do the work for the other person.

Regarding marketing, tally up your return on investment. What are you doing to market your books? How long have you been doing these marketing strategies? How well are they paying out for you? I wouldn’t quit a certain marketing strategy right away. I’d give it about six months to a year to see if there’s a benefit to doing it. Writing is a long-term game. But if you’ve dedicated a serious amount of time and effort into something but aren’t seeing the results you’re looking for, then it may be time to call it quits.

5. Read more books.

My writerly thoughts:

I doubt most writers have a problem with reading books, but let’s say you are writing in a genre you’re not familiar with. Read the popular books in that genre. Figure out what those readers want. You can’t successfully tell a good story in a genre you’re not familiar with because you won’t know why readers love that particular genre. I hear of a lot of authors writing stuff they never read, and I don’t understand it. It’s always best to know what the expectations of your genre are. For example, these authors writing a love story where the main character dies or ends up breaking up with the other main character are missing the point of “romance”. I don’t care how many times these authors argue they wrote a romance. They did not write a romance. They wrote a love story. In romance, there is always a happy ending for the main characters. Always. This is a hard-and-fast rule for romance. If you miss this, you will piss off a lot of romance readers.

6. Become more generous.

My writerly thoughts:

In the video, he points out that the most fulfilled lives are those lived for others. I’m not saying you need to volunteer to do something for other writers all the time. Believe me, plenty of people will take advantage of your time and energy if you’re not careful. But there’s nothing wrong with sharing your knowledge with another writer, and there’s nothing wrong with lending encouragement if you can. Maybe an author is looking for a good pre-made cover site, and you happen to know of one. Or maybe someone is looking for a good editor, and you happen to know one. Why not speak up and let that writer know? This is where I think social media shines. The writing community is full of a lot of wonderful writers who will share their experience and knowledge with others. Be a part of it. And don’t just be someone who asks for information. Be willing to share it, too. We all do better when we help each other.

7. Ask more questions.

I don’t know where to go with this one from a writer’s perspective except maybe to ask yourself what plots work best for your interests and the characters you want to write about. If you love figuring out your characters outside of the story, maybe ask your characters questions in order to get to know them better. Oh, okay. Here’s a thought. Why not participate in writing groups? If you have a social media page, why not ask your readers questions to get know them better?

8. Complain less.

Talk about a hard one.

My writerly thoughts:

Maybe as an author, instead of complaining, look for solutions. Is there something you can change to make things better? Maybe you need to say no to something so you can say yes to more writing. What can you change to put you closer to your goals as a writer? Some things are out of our control. We can’t control the economy. We can’t control if readers want to read KU books or want to “wide” books. We can’t control who likes our books or the reviews that come in. We can market in ways to help boost our book’s exposure, but we can’t control who buys it. We can weigh the pros and cons of being in KU, wide, or both. We can weigh the pros and cons of writing to market or writing for passion. We can take a look at our marketing strategies and pinpoint what is working and what isn’t. Then we can take steps to go in the direction we want to end up. While I think there is a time and place to vent our frustrations, we could also focus some time and energy into what we can do to make things better.

9. Appreciate people important to you more.

My writerly twist:

Appreciate the process of writing the story more. Appreciate the journey you’re taking the characters on. Instead of thinking of the sales you hope to get, maybe spend more time simply enjoying the storytelling process. Get to know your characters. Savor each writing session you get to spend with them. When I tell non-writers that my characters feel like real people to me, they think I’m nuts, but I bet those of you who write understand exactly what I mean. It’s fun to get attached to the characters. It’s fun to learn who they are, and it’s fun to watch their story unfold. Appreciate the gift that writing is because it is a beautiful gift. Not everyone can tell a story.

10. Get more exercise.

I was wondering when he was going to bring this up. This piggybacks off of #3.

11. Pray more.

Writerly thought:

I didn’t expect this tangent from the video, but I guess the idea of taking quiet time out of the day would be the writerly aspect of this one. The creative mind flourishes on moments when we allow everything to go quiet around us. Too much going on all the time is probably bad for your health, too. It never hurts to rest.

12. Dream big.

Writerly thoughts:

Usually, people think of “more sales” in this area, but I’m going to go in a direction that is specific to writers who write for passion. How about this? When you write, don’t hold back. Dream big. Let the story take on whatever twist is best for it. As writers, we have a temptation to tone our books down to appease the people who might read them. That is what writing to market is all about, and it’s why I hate it. Writing to market prevents writers from being authentic because instead of being true to the vision you have for the story, you are writing a story with the reader’s vision in mind. While this might be a winning formula commercially, writing the story burning in our soul is a winning formula for our creativity.

Book sales rise and fall. Income is not consistent. This year, I made $20,000 less than I did last year. Back in 2015, this would have devastated me because I was focused on my sales. But back then, I wrote books where I was afraid to “dream big”. I didn’t follow the stories exactly the way I wanted them. I let the critic in the back of my mind tone some things down. Don’t get me wrong. I do like those stories. I even listen to some of them from time to time. But there is a huge difference in books I allowed to “go all the way” with my vision for the story and the books where I “held back” on some things. I no longer hold back. I give each and every story 100%. And I have never regretted writing those stories, nor do I ever wish I had done something in the story differently. Those books I wrote around the 2013-2017 time period when I was focus on the market aren’t making me much anymore. Each new book I have earns me the most money for the year. So the books I wrote in 2022 are earning more than the books written from 2013-2017. That’s why I’m always focused on writing the next story instead of spending a lot of time marketing. I would rather be writing the next book instead of marketing the older books anyway because writing is why I got into this gig. When you write for passion, your mindset is different from someone who write to market. I’m pretty sure someone writing to market is screaming, “Ruth, you NEED to market that backlist. Market hard.” I would rather write the next book. That’s where the fun is for me. So that’s what I do. Is there a trade-off? Yes. I am swapping marketing time and energy for writing. This is what makes me happy. And when I dream big for my stories, I am at my best as a writer. If dreaming big means more sales for you, then you should dream big in that area.

***

I want to get this post about before 2023 here in the US. Happy New Year’s, everyone! May we write our best books yet!

Examples of How I Get Story Ideas

In this post, I’m going to offer a couple examples of how I came up with ideas for stories. I will go with the most recent examples since they are fresh in my mind.

Idea #1: Brainstorming session with a friend.

Heiress of Misfortune (Marriage by Necessity Series: Book 3)

Books in the Marriage by Necessity Series:

I believe it was in 2020 when I hit a dry spell with new ideas, so a good author friend (Stephannie Beman) helped me brainstorm. This particular book stemmed from that brainstorming session. We bounced ideas around with fresh new characters I had never done before in any of my Regencies. That is how Byron was born. Sometimes having the stories in a series figured out in advance helps you to set the stage for the overall series. You get to do a better job of developing the characters’ backgrounds so that when their book comes along, you already have a foundation in place. This is why I brought Byron into the other books in this series.

I had introduced the foundation for Miss Eris Tumilson’s story with a sentence I wrote in The Marriage Contract (Marriage by Fairytale Series: Book 1). In that book, one of the characters mentioned Miss Tumilson (a notorious spinster) finally getting married. So I thought I’d write her story in A Perilous Marriage and begin a new series. Yep, sometimes one little sentence is all it takes to spawn an idea for a new book.

Byron’s character was born before I started A Perilous Marriage, but A Perilous Marriage is where I introduced him. The plot of A Perilous Marriage is that Eris’ first husband died, and the hero (Mr. Charles Duff) suspects her of murder. So I thought it would be perfect to make her brother a Runner since he would have a hand in helping solve the crime. I didn’t feel that Bryon’s story was ready for the Book 2 slot. I wanted to give him a little more lead-up time, so I inserted Algernon and Reina’s story into this slot. (I’ll speak more about this book in a moment.) I got the chance to bring Byron into this story when it became clear that someone was trying to get rid of Algernon. When writing a series, I do look for opportunities to bring in key characters of that series to give them more “screen time” so people have a chance to develop an attachment to them.

In case someone starts looking for this book, it’s not out yet, but I do have it on pre-order. It’s due out January 7.

Idea #2: Inspiration from movies. (And how the idea will spin off into something else.)

The Cursed Earl (Marriage by Necessity Series: Book 2)

Anyone hear of the Don Knott’s movie, The Ghost and Mr. Chicken? Sometimes a movie will give an author an idea for a story. This particular movie made me think, “What a cute romantic comedy this would be for one of my characters.” This book was supposed to be a gothic romantic comedy where the hero is out in a secluded country estate with the heroine, and he is supposed to believe the manor was haunted. If you read The Cursed Earl, you’ll think, “The Cursed Earl is NOTHING like that.” It’s true. This one went off the rails pretty much right away, and it just kept zooming off into the abyss. Halfway into the story, I gave up and embraced the fact that I would have to give this plot idea to someone else in another story.

As a fun fact, I tried this plot in the past with Perfectly Matched, too, except in Perfectly Matched, the hero was supposed to be worried the place was haunted in a house located in Omaha.

If you read Perfectly Matched, you know that I never went into that plot idea at all, though I did try to build up to it with that house Mark Larson showed Jim when he first moved to Nebraska. I had originally planned for the original owners of that house to be pretending to be ghosts to scare him and Patricia out of the home. (The motive never came to me since I didn’t go in the direction with the story.)

BUT, I have good news. I didn’t have to throw out the idea because of this book I’m currently writing…

Midnight Wedding (Marriage by Obligation Series: Book 2)

After all this time of waiting for the right character to come along, I finally found a home for my plot, except I dropped the “ghost” idea because the hero is already superstitious and doesn’t need the “haunted” element to be paranoid that something bad is lurking around the corner. So I did adjust the plot to fit Lord Quinton (the hero). This is a book that definitely has some comedic moments, but unlike the movie that inspired it, this book has turned dark along the way.

The thing with ideas stemming from other forms of entertainment (movies and other books) is that a writer will start with the original idea presented, but as the story is being written, the execution of that idea will change as the story progresses. This is why you can give 100 writers in a room the same prompt but end up with a different story when they finish writing. Every writer will have their own interests in how to execute the tale. So when you read Midnight Wedding, you won’t recognize the movie this is inspired from. The setup is different. Instead of a town where the goal is to spend one night in a haunted house, the hero of my book has been hauled off to a remote country estate by the heroine and her two brothers, and they spend the entire book out there. The characters are all different. The hero isn’t goofy. He is serious. The brothers, while exasperated with the hero at times, aren’t trying to ruin his reputation. In fact, one of the brothers believes there might be a monster lurking around the manor, and the others are led to ask if the brother is getting drunk when he’s supposed to be sober or if his fears are based off of nightmares (rather than reality).

Idea #3: From the current work-in-progress.

Book has not been started yet so no cover or title to show.

This brings me to my last idea. While writing a scene in Midnight Wedding, I got an idea for a book that I will write in the future. Most ideas come to me while I am writing a book.

Sometimes a character or a scene will spawn a new story. For example, I fell in love with Dave Larson’s family, so I wrote about his siblings. I wasn’t planning to write other books about the Nebraska Larson family, but while writing Eye of the Beholder, Jessica talked about how clumsy Tom was and how she fell in love with him anyway, and I thought it would make for a cute story. Then I wrote about Joel in Tom’s story and loved how Tom and Joel interacted and had to write Joel’s story. It’s harder to come up with stories based off of characters because I have to wait until the right plot comes along to fit their personalities. This is why I can’t just write about a certain character, even if someone is interested in it. To this day, I still haven’t received the right plot to go with some past characters. And if I can’t get the right plot, I don’t write the book. The book will feel forced, and forced books end up boring.

To give a recent example, I wrote this paragraph in Midnight Wedding earlier this month:

         Oscar blinked as if he’d forgotten he’d brought the topic up. “Oh, well, shortly before we left London, Felix got drunk and made a lot of accusations about a gentleman’s sister. While there’s nothing to prove Felix’s claims, it did tarnish her reputation, and she lost a couple of suitors. Last time Felix saw this gentleman, the gentleman tried to haul him out of London to have a duel with him. Had I not been there to stop him, I’m sure he would have succeeded, and Felix would be dead. This gentleman is going to move to another country with his sister in hopes of preventing her from having to deal with the horrors of spinsterhood. They’ll be gone by May.”

As soon as I wrote this, I knew that Felix would end up going back to London and marrying this gentleman’s sister. I don’t know if that book will be in this current series I’m writing or if it’ll be in another series, but this is something I’m exciting about writing.

You Need to Adjust With the Times (A Writer Post)

This post is inspired by a couple of resources. One is the Dave Ramsey show. A caller asked if the baby emergency fund of $1000 should be raised to adjust for inflation. Two is the post by Kristine Kathryn Rusch on how writers fail.

On the Dave Ramsey show, Dave Ramsey and company argue that $1000 is just as valid today as it was when Dave came up with his plan. Well, that would all be well and good IF the cost of things remained stagnant, but the problem is that inflation is a real thing. Fixing or replacing things is more expensive today than it used to be. I love the Dave Ramsey show, but I wish they would adjust with the times. Their other baby steps might still work, but, in my opinion, the baby emergency fund of $1000 isn’t one of them. Yes, you want to be uncomfortable so you’re motivated to get out of debt, but you don’t need to be so uncomfortable that you can’t breathe.

Life is always changing. Nothing stays constant. This is not only true with finances, but it’s true for writers. I really enjoyed Kris’ post about how authors fail because she points out how life is always changing, and, as writers, we need to adjust with those changes. There is always something we can do to improve things in our favor. Maybe those things won’t work, but if you don’t try them, how will you know? Not doing anything at all will guarantee failure.

I’m not a big proponent of trying every new fad that comes along. You only have so much time in a day. I suggest picking the things that most interest you because if you choose something you’re interested in, you will be more likely to stick with it long enough to see results. Just because another writer loves to do something and is seeing success with it, it doesn’t mean you have to do it. For example, I hate click ads. I don’t care how many authors see more sales from Amazon and Facebook ads. I don’t feel like spending my time adjusting keywords or tracking clicks or even creating a banner for the ad. But if click ads are your cup of tea, you should give them a try and see if they work for you. Also, a lot of authors say they are seeing success on TikTok or You Tube. I tried video, and I don’t care for it, but it’s an area that has some success. I’ll stick with writing blog posts, free book strategy, my email list, and my one-and-done ads. Marketing is something that has to be tailored to your specific strengths and interests.

While we’re discussing changes, I want to tackle the fact that technology is going to impact how we need to move forward as authors. Earlier this year, I got a lot of push back on the AI audiobook thing. A lot of people came to me and said that if a human narrator isn’t making the book, then it’s going to fail. Just the other day, I heard that Apple is now coming out with their own AI narration tool for authors to use. AI narration is not going away. It’s only getting started. AI narration is what ebooks were back in 2010. A lot of authors didn’t believe ebooks were going to take off, but they did. Amazon (through ACX) is going to have to get into AI narration at some point because they’ll leave a lot of money on the table if they don’t. I believe Findaway Voices will finally allow AI narrated books in the upcoming future. Kobo is already allowing AI narrated books on their store. Google Play was ahead of its time by making it easy and efficient for their authors to make AI narrated books earlier this year. You can protest all you want about changes, but you can’t stop the changes from happening.

In another post, I pointed out that only 14% of authors make $35K or more a year. Maybe putting your book in a new format won’t earn you more sales. Maybe it’ll be a bust. But if you don’t do it, you’ll never have the chance to increase your income with that new format. Take a lesson from the Big Trad Publishers who dragged their feet on adapting with the times. In Kris’ post on how writers fail, she pointed this out:

But one particular statistic shocked all of us. From Jane Friedman’s industry newsletter, The Hot Sheet, on August 31, 2022:

…of the 58,000 trade titles published per year, fully half of those titles “sell fewer than one dozen books.” (Not a typo, that’s one dozen.)

That’s very eye opening, and it should make every indie author feel a lot better about their situation. Most indie authors I know sell more than one dozen books. Plus, as indies, we keep full control over our content, and we can put that book into different formats (paperback, ebook, audio, serial, etc) to help increase our possible revenue streams. We don’t need to hope a publisher will do that for us. Now, if you were to find a small publishing house with people on staff who know how to market effectively, I suppose that would be a win if you really don’t want to be an indie publisher. But I prefer publishing my own books because I get full say over everything that happens with the book.

However, let’s say in some future time, the retailers decide they will no longer take indie books. (I don’t see it happening, but let’s say it happens.) At that time, I would look into a small publisher. I would have to be willing to adapt with the changes. Or let’s say that every retailer offers a subscription service for ebooks. Amazon, Kobo, and Scribd all have them. I think this is a very real possibility. Fortunately, I don’t see any retailer besides Amazon requiring exclusivity to be in this kind of program. Amazon just has too many customers in their basket. If an author has to be exclusive, they would go with Amazon instead of another retailer, even if Amazon has a bad reputation for suspending accounts of innocent authors.

Now, I do think there are some things that authors can do to help buffer themselves against the unpredictable future, and these are things that are in our control. The first is to write a story that compels the reader to keep reading. Granted, a good story is the eye of the beholder, but if you can deliver on a story that makes someone excited about your work, you will have one less obstacle in your way. Remember, you’re not writing for everyone. You are writing for the people who embrace your vision for storytelling. Deliver on every book to this group. The second is to make sure you let your readers know when you have a new book out so they know it’s available. This can be in a newsletter you mail out to people on your email list or in a blog post that people signed up to follow. I prefer to get into people’s inboxes over just announcing it on social media. Posts in social media don’t always reach the intended audience. The third is to try to make the next story better than the one that came before it. I know that it might not be better as far as the reader is concerned, but I’m saying that it should be something you try to make better. You want to keep up the quality in every story you write. That means no cutting corners on the storytelling. Give the story the full attention it deserves. I know it’s tempting to try to skimp on things when you’re trying to get more books published in a year in hopes of earning more money. (The more time you spend in a story with writing and editing, the longer it will take to get it out into the world.) But if you keep delivering a solid story to your readers, you better your chances that they’ll keep buying your books. Also, they might spread word about your books to others. Word of mouth is very important.

My Thoughts on “The Making of A Six Figure Author: How Authors Evolve With Their Income” post by Written Word Media

I really love the posts Written Word Media come up with. This one looks into a survey results from over 1,300 authors. Here is the post if you want to read it.

Today, I’m just going to focus on the things that stood out to me while reading their post. There is a lot of information in that post. I think it’s worth taking the time to read through it.

My initial thought while looking at the chart in the post was that Bookbub Deals is still credited for having a good marketing impact. From the Facebook posts I’ve seen this year, I was under the assumption that Bookbub was no longer as effective as it once was, but this survey seems to argue that Bookbub is still a good player in an author’s marketing arsenal.

My second thought was that authors making good money are not necessarily writing all the time. They’re also not marketing all the time. This means these authors have time in the week to pursue other things. So this idea that a writer has to be stuck at a computer 40 hours a week in order to make a living at their work, is a myth. When I’m not trying to move, I typically spend about four hours a day out of five days a week on writing. Then I spend about maybe ten hours a week on marketing. Knowing what you’re going to write before you sit down at the computer goes a long way in making the most of your writing time. Even a panster (like me) can make some good progress if I know what is going to happen when I sit down at the computer. My trick is to leave a writing session with a couple of sentences that lead into the next writing session. Plotters will have a more defined system in place. But it is good news that an author doesn’t have to wear themselves out by putting in long work days in order to complete their books.

Also, it’s good news that you don’t have to wear yourself out by marketing all the time. Seventeen hours a week was the most authors in this survey put in for marketing, though it’s more like ten to thirteen for some. Marketing is a large category. It’s not just ads. Marketing can be things like updating your site, making a blog post, doing a video, and engaging with readers in some way (including social media and emails). Every little bit adds up. Now, the priority should be the writing. It’s hard to market a book that isn’t published.

Stage 1 writers (those making $0-$249 a month) do most of their own editing or have family/friends edit for them. In my opinion, people should not hate on these authors for choosing this method of editing. These authors are barely making anything, and with people feeling the effects of inflation, it is hard for them to have the spare money to spend on a professional editor. We should also not assume that every indie author lacks editing skills. Some authors are acquainted with the grammar rules and have a solid feel for storytelling. As for what these authors spend on covers, you don’t need to spend a lot on a cover in order to have an attractive one. There are pre-made covers that make it very affordable to get something of good quality. I spend about $100 on my covers. If you have the money to spare, then by all means, invest in a professional editor and a cover artist. If you don’t, don’t go into debt for this stuff. You need to cash flow things when you’re a writer. Writing income is too much of a roller coaster to take on the risk of debt. Also, you can always barter services to get your stuff done. You don’t need to spend money.

Stage 2 writers (those making $250-$499 a month) find social media to be a waste of time. I thought that was interesting. I agree with them about social media taking up way too much time and yielding too little results. Time is better spent elsewhere if you’re going to market your book. I don’t participate in newsletter swaps because it is so hard to find someone who writes books comparable to mine, but I did find it interesting that quite a few authors benefit from this strategy. If you are going to engage in newsletter swaps, you need to be a good fit for that swap. You are looking to gain an audience that another author already has and vice versa. It makes no sense for a steamy romance author, for example, to do a newsletter swap with a clean romance author. Also, it does no good for a wide author to do a newsletter swap with a KU author. The two have very different audiences. So if you do these swaps, make sure you are a good fit for it.

Stage 3 writers (those making $500-$999 a month) take the initial dip into audiobooks. You start making some good money by this time, and that prompts you to start thinking about alternative formats to get your books into. Each format is a different avenue to get onto a reader’s radar. I also found it interesting that this particular group pointed out free books as a key element in their success. If I had to choose between running a promo on a free book versus running an Amazon or Facebook ad, I would go with the free book promo. I realize this doesn’t work for all genres, but if you’re in romance, I would definitely give the free book a try, esp. if that book is the first book in a series.

Stage 4 writers (those making $1,000-$2,499 a month) have not ruled out editing their own books, though it’s a smaller amount than those in Stage 1. I thought that was interesting. So not all the “poorly selling books” out there have been self-edited. Some books that have gained traction have authors who do their own editing, too. As I mentioned earlier, you can’t say that all authors are unqualified to edit their own book. That aside, I thought it was also interesting that this is where the value of in-person events took a downturn for most authors. I have found in-person events to be a waste of time if you’re looking to make money. Most people will just sit and talk to you without buying the book, and while that is fine if you have a lot of free time on your hands, it’s not fine when you need to make the most of your time. Online sales is where the bulk of the money is at.

At Stage 5 (those making $2,500-$4,999 a month), writers are starting to hire assistants to help with marketing. This tells me that quite a few authors would rather write than market. That makes me feel better since I hate marketing. I would rather just sit and write, too. But I have met a few authors who would rather market than write. (It boggles my mind, but I’m sure I make no sense to them, too. :P) Anyway, this group of writers also seem to realize that doing most of what works is better than wasting your time on every new thing that pops up. This is the stage where most authors get focused. I think it takes time to figure out where each individual author finds the most success. We all have different strengths to pull from. Just because one author sees wild success in one area, it doesn’t mean another author will. At this stage, my guess is that these authors are finding out where their sweet spots are.

From this point on, the blog post pretty much came up with same results that boiled down to this: authors making the most money will be more likely to pay an editor, a cover artist, and someone to help with marketing. These authors have the money to do it, so it makes sense. Also, they have learned that the by giving someone else these tasks to do, it frees them up to write more books. So even if an author can edit their own book, make their own cover, and do their own marketing, they might not want to do it simply so they can do more writing (or maybe they want to spend more time with family/friends, etc). We don’t all end up wanting to seal ourselves in a room to write all the time when we’ve been at this writing gig for a good number of years. It’s easy to be consumed by writing when you’re starting out. It’s like being in love. At first, you want to spend all of your time with your love interest, but the day comes when you’d rather hang out with a friend or be alone. It doesn’t mean you don’t love the person; it just means you remember all the fun you had with other people or by yourself. Writing is like that. It consumes you for a while, but eventually, you start to want to go back to some other interests, too. This is why I think that none of these authors are writing 40 hours a week. We want to also have a life.

Back from Omaha

Well, I went down to Omaha, Nebraska to look at houses. I did find one, but I will need to sell my current home in order to fulfill my contract to buy it. I am not going to get stuck having to make a mortgage payment without selling my current home first. I did put that into the contract with the Omaha house so that the seller is aware of my situation. I’ve made a lot of money mistakes in my life, but this isn’t going to be one of them. I’m not sure if that will go through because the first buyer on my Montana place backed out. I’m currently waiting to see what the second buyer will want to do. This is why I didn’t want to tell the schools about the move. As long as a house is pending, it doesn’t mean the sale will go through. I’m thinking if this buyer changes their mind and backs out, I’ll probably just stay in Montana. It is a pain to deal with selling a house. It’s a lot easier to buy one.

However, on that note, I did learn that it’s important to check the plumbing, look for cracks in walls, and search for any signs of water damage while checking out a home to buy. This is in addition to checking the neighborhood. It’s amazing how many homes I looked through had some kind of plumbing issue. I only went through 15 total, but only 5 had plumbing that worked right through the entire house. In all of the others, there was a toilet that didn’t flush, a faucet that didn’t work, or was faucet that was loose. To be fair, I didn’t check the plumbing in two of the homes, but they were still being constructed. I didn’t go with one of the new homes because they came with HOAs, and after reading through the HOA 30-page guide to rules and regulations, I decided that an HOA wasn’t for me. I found out that some of these homes that people buy to fix up and sell aren’t so great, either. Two of those homes had evidence of work where the people fixing the place up cut some corners. So check the closets when going through one of these homes. There needs to be more than a pretty kitchen, new paint, and new flooring to sell a place.

Because I have been on the road and looking at houses, I have gotten nothing written. Today was the first day I got back to the computer, and it was like pulling teeth to write. Some authors get tons of energy when they take a long break from writing. I don’t. I lose momentum. It’s easier for me to write at a slow and steady pace and take a couple of days to a week off. I have had to go through the three stories I’m working on to reacquaint myself with the characters. I can only hope the stories end up making sense when they’re all done. I actually got scared when I sat down to write today because my first thought was, “I don’t think I can complete these books.” But I had to remind myself to just focus on what I will write today instead of looking at the entire story. When you think of completing the whole project, it can get overwhelming. So I went back to the “baby steps”. My goal was 500 words (instead of 1000) in each story today, and it took about the whole day to do it, but I finally managed to get it done. It also helped to put on some music that I usually listen to while writing.

So we’ll see what happens from here. Either way, I am going to keep on writing.

Updates On What I’m Doing

A New Chapter Might Open in my Life

Things are hectic around here right now because I spent the past two weeks getting the house ready to put up for sale. My time in Montana is coming to an end. It’s time to return to Nebraska. Of course, this is ultimately up to God. If He decides I should stay here, then things will work out so that I can’t move. If He decides I should go, then a door will open for me to go. I’ve finally learned that I need to follow God’s leading. I’ve been hit on top of the head enough by now to have figured that out. If God wills it, I’ll get another chance to live in Nebraska, and that would be an exciting prospect if it happens.

There is something about physical work and getting away from the computer that opens up the creative mind. I have this current Regency series I’m working on but no idea on what I’ll do for the next one. Then yesterday morning when I finally had a chance to get a good writing session in, I got the idea for Book 1 in a new Regency series. Today as I was writing, the idea has been getting fleshed out because the heroine’s brother in Midnight Wedding is the person I have the idea. Since I’m writing Midnight Wedding, more ideas for his story is working out in the back of my mind. My mind is blank on the historical westerns. I have a fragment of two different ideas, but sometimes those fragments lose their spark, and if there’s not a spark, I refuse to write the story.

I Made Small Progress in my Stories

This is probably the way it’s going to be for a while. I’ll be going at these books at a snail’s pace. My writing is going to be here and there. I have no idea how many books I’ll get out next year, so I’m glad I held off on getting Heiress of Misfortune out in January. That puts off the pressure of having to get to the computer so I can focus on any moving stuff I need to deal with.

Here is the Marriage by Obligation Series and the order of the books:

     

I managed to get up to 32,000 words in Midnight Wedding. Now we’re shifting into the second part of the book where things take an unexpected turn. I’ve almost completed 100 romances, and I’m just now realizing I have a second part within the middle of the story that marks the transition toward the end. How weird is that? Still, I wouldn’t want to bore myself by plotting a book out first. It’s more fun when I get to find out what happens as I go along. Like today, I discovered that something surprising that is going to happen in the course of this story. That “ah-ha” moment made me fall in love with writing all over again. I don’t want to know exactly how things will play out ahead of time.

I am at 22,000 in The Earl’s Jilted Bride. I have not hit the second part within the middle of the story yet. The heroine is still adjusting to her new marriage and has not been accused of murder yet. I have something that needs to take place before that happens.

I am at 19,000 words in Worth the Risk, and today while I was writing, I wrote out a nightmare scene our hero is going through. I didn’t intend it, but while writing, I picked out the elements in the nightmare and what they represent in the character’s waking life. This romance is turning out to be more psychological in nature than I expected. I guess my Psychology degree didn’t go wasted after all.

Secret Admirer is still in the editing stage. My estimated release month for that book is March.