E.J. Gette's Blog, page 4

Debut Novel Publication

It’s finally here! I have completed and published my debut novel, Beyond the Great Wood It has been an unbelievably long road to this point. I cannot even begin to describe my excitement at having come this far on my writing journey.

Of course, now I have to rename the subtitle for my blog…

Thank you to all of my follows and anyone who has been waiting for this release with me. The novel will be available in all markets as an ebook only for now. I am still mulling over the paperback option.

Please, if you need something to read take a look at Beyond the Great Wood.

What a month!

Hi all, I know I have been absent from here for quite a while now. I am actually going to double post, which I don’t usually do but two separate thoughts need to be put out.

I have worked long and hard, using every available spare minute to finish the edit on my novel. This also meant taking out as many distractions as I could. No binge watching netflix, no movies, no games and that also meant no blogging.

What usually happens when I post a blog then I turn around and read read read all of the great stuff you guys post as well. It was not very conducive to completing my edit.

Now that the novel is done, I will be on here and there as I work on the story arc for book 2. I will also be on a 10 vacation, which I think I’ve earned in many many ways.

Happy Writing.

Gears of ideas

I think one of the best parts of writing is when new ideas suddenly start popping into your head.

As I edit my first novel I have been brainstorming on ideas to continue the story. I have always planned for there to be multiple books with Keysa and Kalin, but I never really had a long term story arc. This past weekend changed all of that and I have a long term ending to shoot for. I am very excited now for the new and upcoming adventures these two young elves will take and I hope that I will garner some readers that will feel the same.

Editing continues to move along. A little addition here and there, mostly description of places and things that still seem a bit flat. Mostly I am just going through the arduous task of making sure my T’s are crossed and my I’s are dotted.

Happy writing!

One big bite!

Copy editing is so much worse than story editing. I say this because it can be fun and exciting adding new things and in turn improving your story. Copy editing is long and slow and monotonous.

I will be pushing back my self imposed deadline. The purpose of my deadline was in part to keep me writing, which it has done, and to let my readers know when they can expect new work. I apologize but at the same time it would be worse to give you a story that is not ready to be read.

I admit now that I have bitten off more than I can chew. This has become much more than I imagined. I do not regret the bite. I have learned much on preparing to release a proper novel.

I plan to push my release date to the end of July.

Stay tuned and happy writing.

The Final Stretch

Hello all. I have been a little absent from my blog. I hope you will forgive me. A thank you to Nicole Horlings at Elderberry Tea for sending me a comment over the weekend which reminded me to be here.

As I said I have spent the last week or so working as diligently as I can on my editing. I have just about completed story line editing with one small edition to the plot left. I have started work on copy edits.  I spent a few days connecting with some editors and I will say I was not ready for the cost of hiring one. I know that having a good edit is critical to a story’s success, but I have been in business long enough to know how to run numbers too.

For those who may be interested, here is what I came up with. Let’s say for my 80,000 word novel, a copy edit only, will be about $3,000. I will pause here for anyone who choked on their coffee as I did…. If I assume my novel will go out at about the same rate as my current short story at the price I have decided upon(which I will not post here), I will need to sell the book for 3 years to make that money back. In which time I hope to publish at least two more books, costing another 3k each to edit. I will have at that point spent $9000 and only have made one third of that back. This is not good business.

What am I going to do then? I have already purchased some software that plugs right into Microsoft Word. So far I have been very happy with the results. After which I hope that my advanced reading team will help point out any other obvious errors.

The plus side to ebook publishing is you can correct and republish infinitely. I will eventually release the novel in paperback, but not until I am sure of that route.

If anyone is interested in the steps I have taken so far to continue on this journey under my own steam, feel free to contact me.

Happy Writing!

100 reads!

My Familiar, my short story prequel to my novel has surpassed 100 reads!

I feel fantastic about this. I know starting authors that struggle to get one or two grabs on their books. I am so close to the publication of my novel and I hope this is good omens for my success.

Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to read my stories.

If you haven’t read it yet, please do. My Familiar is available on all ebook formats currently and is free to grab right now.

Happy Monday!

I had a fantastic 3 generation fathers day. I took my own son and we went to go visit my father for a while. It was a needed and pleasant visit.

I came back today to another poor review on my second short story. Left by the same person who gave me the poor review on my first story. It seems I have already acquired myself a troll.

Now, I know that bad reviews happen. You simply cannot write something that all the world will love. There are even bad reviews on Harry Potter books. I know right?! The review is harsh, and the reader apparently liked nothing about it. This person also completely missed the point of putting out a prequel short story. I wont go into the review or the reviewer themselves. It is clearly posted on Amazon and thus Goodreads and if you have a mind to, can look at it for yourself. The part that makes me suspicious is the last of it. The reader claims my story misogynistic. I can assure you that there is not one ounce of misogyny in any of my bones.

Of course this struck a nerve with me, but it quickly passed. One, I give little credit to this review other than that it will be on the internet forever. Two, on the day of the review I received twice the amount of my average sales on this story.

So, in reality, I should thank this person.

Edits continue on my novel and I am very pleased with it. I hope to gain a lot of ground this week.

Happy writing to all!

Too much life…

Hello all, I am posting from my phone today. This is not something I do very often so please excuse the mistakes that are sure to follow.

I have not been very active this week. There have been a lot of things going on that has nothing to do with writing. Life has reared its head at me and seeks to block my path. Next week I will be assessing where I am at on my novel and whether I can meet my self imposed deadline.

I apologize to those who may be waiting for its completion.

I will be away for the weekend. I have a 3 generation fathers day trip planned.

Happy writing to all and happy father’s day to the fathers out there.

Muse Fuel

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Sometimes it feels like there is a fuel tank on my muse. If I sit and jot down 500 words, sure then I can go back later and do 500 more, and 500 more before bed. Slowly depleting the tank but then having some reserve for later until it refuels. But if I have a really good day and pound out 2000 words it seems as if the tank is empty then. I’ve used up all the muse fuel for a while and I have to wait for a refill before I can write again.

Monday I had a good sitting adding an entirely new scene to my novel. A fairly brilliant scene that I feel helps flesh out my MC. Although I may be a bit biased on my own craft. Then yesterday was a dry day, no new ideas, and I sat and read over a few scenes but with no spark. You may have noticed I did not post anything here as well.

Today will be better. I hope the tank is full, I need to gain some ground on this novel this week. The clock keeps ticking. Time waits for no man.

Happy writing!

Bump in the road

I hope everyone had a good weekend! Mine turned out to be quite unproductive.

Now as authors we would all like to make some money with our craft there is no doubt. Some authors hope to be the next big thing and make millions. While that would certainly be nice, that’s not my goal. Some just want to write and put their stories out there, this is more me. So, for authors in this category, aside from any possible income, reviews are what make our world go around. Hearing what our readers think of our story, and hopefully why they enjoyed it.

Over the weekend I garnered a review on my first short story. It was not good. This review basically said my story was not worth reading. That’s saying something considering it is currently free. Now I know as much as the next guy, bad reviews are going to happen. Not everyone is going to like your work and some of those people are going to voice there opinion. But I will admit that this review threw me for a loop. It hit me kind of hard and I spent yesterday in a slump.

I have gone over the hump though and the ideas are once again spinning in my head. I have just under 30 days until my publication date for my novel and the editing continues.

Happy writing and may all your reviews be gold!