Megan Bostic's Blog, page 26

F³A: Jaded

I think that's what I've become. Jaded. Jaded about the publishing industry. I know I shouldn't bitch this much, but when you keep hearing about reviews and awards and contests and book deals yadda yadda yadda, for some of us, at times it becomes too much. Especially those of us whose experience was perhaps less than ideal. I mean, don't get me wrong, I had some great experiences too. I met some AWESOME writers and made some AMAZING connections. I received OUTSTANDING reviews from INCREDIBLE readers, bloggers, reviewers, etc. It's the process, the lack of backing that has made me jaded.

Am I whining? Um, yeah, I suppose so. Am I jealous? Um, yeah I guess. Am I exhausted, tired, and frustrated? Definitely. That's why I want to go it alone. I want to try my hand at it myself and see if I get the same results or better. If I can do it myself and get the same results, why throw myself into the lion's den, ya know?

And I know I'm probably pissing some non published writers off right now, thinking I should be happy I was published. Don't get me wrong. I am, that is a HUGE accomplishment and it's not my intention to piss you off. I'm just speaking from my mind, my heart, and my soul. This is my experience. Not everyone's will be the same. Losing an agent mid-year and not having that support really sucked. It closes a lot of options.

I know this is something I need to get over, right now I just don't know how. Maybe putting this book out will help, will give me some of the peace I'm looking for you know, because I don't like feeling this way. It's painful and ugly and not someone I like to be.

Anyway, I think I'll stop ranting and give you my Friday Scribbles now.

Next in the Pandora Lineup:


Netflix of the Week: Submarine awesome quirky coming of age movie.

Book of the Week: Fellow 2k12er Katy Longshore's follow up to Gilt, Tarnish, came out this week, check it out.

Quote of the Week: "I find that it's nice to work with somebody and spin off on someone else's feelings. You get a little jaded by yourself." ~ Herb Alpert

The Indie Process

I suppose while I'm in the midst of going indie I could keep you abreast of the process. So, I've already put the covers out there, which you've seen and weighed in on, and I've done some research on young adult covers and chosen one. I know many of you like the glass heart, but after the research, the cover needs to convey what the story is about, and young adult readers like to see a person on the cover, so this is the one I went with.
I've already done the formatting for the most part. Now I'm waiting to hear back from my beta readers. I've heard back from three of them, and here is a couple of things they had to say.

"Dissected is amazing, but it's a hard, painful read. I believe it's important because it reminds me so much of Go Ask Alice, which changed my life." ~ fellow writer

"I started reading it and well I couldn't stop until I finished it. I love the detail that you put into and it makes it seem like you are right there with Syd." ~ reader

"I liked it. I am disturbed by it. I was sucked in by it...... Your writing allows you to speak to the reader's heart, and that is a gift." ~ school librarian

Once I hear back from the others (I think there are two more), I will press on from there. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. There is definitely a learning curve to this process.

SPAMMERS SERIOUSLY GO AWAY

You know, no one wants you here. Get lost. You're going to force me to use captcha and up to this point I've avoided it and Bloggers captcha doesn't always work for everyone.

No one cares about you. No one in their right minds are going to follow your links. Most people that come to my blog don't read Chinese although I used to find that amusing, I don't anymore. Seriously. Go away.

You have caught me on the wrong week, seriously, if I could reach out and bitch slap you through this monitor, I'd totally do it.

I mean, really, I've had this blog for years.  YEARS!!! Why all of a sudden am I being bombarded with spam now? UGH!

Many I've had a shitty few days.

Ptth!

Dissected Trailer & Fundraising Campaign

First of all, let me give you the cute Monday Monkey.

Now, I'm very excited to announce that I finished the book trailer for Dissected. So, without further ado, here it is. Let me know what you think.

 
Okay, I think I've already mentioned this, but I've started an Indiegogo page to raise some funds to publish Dissected. I'm really not asking for much, just enough to get me started. Find the campaign here. You'll get "perks" for donating, such as SWAG packs and signed books. So you don't get a double dose if info, I'll let you go to the page to see the why's of going indie and the summary of Dissected.
If you can't contribute, it would be awesome if you'd just share the link.
Have a happy Monday. Mine's been pretty shitty so far, but it's looking up.

F³A: Heavy Heart

Do you ever have those days where you know everything is not right with your world, but you can't put your finger on it? I mean, I suppose I have plenty of reasons to have a heavy heart today:

the graythe rainlosing weight my nose hurtsI have a big zit on my cheek that doesn't want to go awaygoing indie on my next novelasking for money to go indie on my next novelbeing away from my boyfriend for 5 dayscoming to the realization that both my kids are driving which means I'm getting olderdisenchantment with the publishing worldnot enough time to do everything I want or need toslowly seeing my dream of being a full time writer  slipping away...
But today shouldn't be any worse than yesterday or the day before. Nothing has changed. Why all of a sudden do I feel gloom and doom today.

I think I'll just blame it on the rain *do NOT, I repeat NOT cue Milli Vanilli* Today the rain is loud, and though that may have helped me in my sleeping endeavors, it certainly isn't helping in my waking life. I think today I need some rainbows and sunshine and for this rain to go away.

Here are the Friday Scribbles:

Pandora Playlist Song:  St. Walker by Young the Giant.

Book of the Week: Um, I've been so busy, I kind of forget what a book is. Maybe next week.

Netflix of the Week: Desperate Housewives season two. Just started it last night.

Quote of the Week: "The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of. ~ Blaise Pascal  
Happy Friday all. Have a good weekend.

Covers again and a little fundraising

So, after polling and much research and whatnot, I've chosen a cover. I'm not going to reveal it yet, because I'm still tweaking it. I've also decided, even though I really don't like asking for money, to try to raise the funds for costs of getting the book published. If you're interested in just checking out the campaign, or donating, you can find it here. Even if you don't want to donate, the site is kind of interesting.

Now, you're not giving and getting nothing in return. Oh no. With Indiegogo you get perks. So depending on the level of contribution, you'll get something. My undying gratitude, some SWAG, a signed book, and if you're a local, you could get more.

I'm getting pretty excited about this project. It's taking a lot of research about formatting, publicity (which I know pretty well already, but you can always learn more), book covers, ISBN numbers, distributing, and crap like that. I was thinking about an April release date, but foolish me forgot that I started marketing Never Eighteen long before three months ahead of time.

So now, I'm going for June/July.

That's all the begging I'll do for the day. I'm hoping to have a cover done in the next week. Maybe I can get one of my awesome blogger pals to do a reveal for me. *hint hint*

Time to get back to vlogging

I know I know, I've promised this a million times before, but this time I mean it. *cough* I'm going to try to mean it.

I've missed it and believe it or don't, people have missed me *cue head swelling*. Life has just been so crazy these past few months...

So, I'm heading to the coast for some R&R this weekend and I'm going to make out my weekly schedule. One I'm hoping to stick to. And I'm going to stick vlogging on there at least once a week (if not two because hey, I'm a narcissist).

But how do you juggle it all, grocery shopping, dinner cooking, writing, editing, formatting, designing book covers,*takes deep breath* kickboxing, chillin', cleaning, networking, marketing, blogging, vlogging, going to kids soccer games, music gigs, Netflixing, hanging out with BF, hanging out with girlfriends, hanging out with kids?

Huh? How?

Yeah, schedule.

We'll see if that works.

For now, writing is being set aside in order to get my novel Dissected out into the world. I'm very excited. I was going for an early April release, but realistically, I think late April would be better. For my sanity.

How the hell do you squeeze in everything you do? I don't even work full time and I still don't seem to find the time to do it all.

Formatting and other tragedies

First I'll give you a monkey, because there was no monkey in my blog yesterday.



There's a lot to do when you decide to become an indie publisher. Formatting is one of them. It's really not THAT difficult. Createspace has pretty clear instructions on how to do it. But unfortunately, I apparently was not indenting my manuscript correctly and that made it a little bit of a bitch. Luckily I have some Facebook friends that are Word masters and they helped me through my idiotic mistake and now I'm cruising along, in fact, I'm pretty much done with the formatting part.

Next step is more editing. I have some betas reading it as we speak. One is already finished with it. He read it in a day. Good sign. I'm hoping the others will have it done in two weeks time. I'm hoping for an April release.

After that, I have a friend who is a great editor who is going to go through a all in one editing process for me. She's going to go through my formatting, do line editing and copy editing.

Then I had an offer from someone to help me with formatting, so I hope she'll also take a look at my formatting, just to have one more set of eyes look at it.

Then the hopefully last round of edits, formatting fixes and voila, finishing up the other details and I have a book out.

If you're thinking about self publishing, my friend Karla Brady has a great blog that lays out the process for you step by step. Check it out here.

That is all. Have a great Tuesday!

Help me choose my book cover

I posted this on my author page on Facebook, but I know some of you aren't on there, so I wanted to post it here too and get your input. Here are the top three covers from facebook, will you please vote on your favorite for my new book Dissected. To help you out, here is a short summary:

Sydney Warner, a teenage girl, whom after being abandoned by her mother at a young age, becomes a thrill seeker with a penchant for extreme sports and a fascination with death. She’s brash, she’s spunky, and she doesn’t take crap from anyone. 
 
Withdrawn and broody David, from English class, is the boy of Syd's dreams, but love soon becomes just another extreme sport when Syd finds out that David has cheated on her with her best friend. Betrayal, loneliness, and a mishap with a picture frame set Syd on a course of self-destruction that includes alcohol, drugs, and self-mutilation in the form of cutting.

 After nearly bleeding to death during an arm carving mishap, Syd is tossed unwillingly
into a teen psyche ward where she comes to realize she’s not alone. Through new friendships, unwelcomed therapy, and her love of the stars, she finds alternate ways to cope with her emotions on her path to forgiveness and redemption. 

I'm putting numbers in the captions, so you can just give me the cover #. Thanks in advance! You can also let me know if there is a particular font you like as well.


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Changed My Mind

I'm gung ho. I've decided not to send Dissected to the agent again. (notice how I changed the name again?) I'm just going to throw my hat into the self publishing ring.

And I'm excited...really excited.

I'm doing a lot of research. I've had many friends who've gone before me who are willing to help out. I'm designing the cover. If this one goes well, I may just do them all this way and forgo traditional publishing all together. Who knows?

Any of you out there self pubbed? If so, how's it going?