Kate Copeseeley's Blog - Posts Tagged "writer"

I think it shocked my family when I wrote a book. I mean, how many authors do you know? I didn't tell anyone until it was written, not even my parents. And when I got myself a beautiful proof complete with a professionally designed cover, they were even more surprised. I had written a book, and there it was, in physical form. The proof was incontrovertible.

Since then, the main question has been, "How did you write a book?" It's a fair question, since I had a son and an almost full time job during the period in question. Let me tell you how.

Writing this book took: 5 years, 4 rewrites, 7 different .mobi Kindle conversions, 3 uploads to online bookstores, 4 author profiles on various websites, 2 ad campaigns, 1 facebook page, and a partridge in a pear tree.

At this point in time, I know I'm supposed to care about my book and my readers, but I'm so tired. Self-publishing, and self-marketing is quite the task.

"You need a blog"
"You need to join Author's Den"
"You need to join Booksie"
"You need to put your book in Listmania on Amazon"
"You need to make sure you've got plenty of tags on your book"
"You need to have an ebook"
"You need to have a physical book"

Need, need, need... the advice is endless. Really, all I need is for someone to read my book and like it.

I'm really excited right now, my sister -my amazingly talented, graphic artist sister- came up last week and we worked on the cover of my new book, Compis. It seems like a bit too soon to do it, since I'm only about halfway done with the book. Almost exactly halfway. But it was so fun to do that I couldn't resist.
Keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks, because I'll be posting a preview of the cover, and also releasing a few samples of the new book for early reading.
I was pretty excited to finish Six Keys, but this is the book that feels like my baby. I've poured a lot of my heart into the characters and I really like where they are going.

So, thanks to a comment posted by a reader, and some research, I did decide to enter my new book in the Breakthrough Novel Award that Amazon is sponsoring. Why you ask? I so decisively stated earlier that I would never enter a contest again.

I don't have a icicles chance in hell of winning it, I know that. I've looked at the other contestants from previous years. But I don't care, because all I have to do is make it to the 2nd round. If I make it to the 2nd round, I will get 2 reviews by their panel of expert. Can you imagine? Actual feedback from someone who isn't a family member or friend.

It's too tempting to pass up. But in order to do so, I had to have a product. I originally planned for this new novel to include 4 sections. The total product would be over 400 pages. I thought that would be a nice hefty size for a novel, and it would leave me with a trilogy.

If I end the new novel (which is revised up to part 2) after the first two sections, tidying it up for the contest, I have two options. I can hold onto it until I've finished the next two sections or I can release it now, at about 200 pages -it has a cover. It would also mean my trilogy would have 5 books, and the wait for each part would be a little longer, as I would have to write a new section at a time, instead of sandwiching 4 together for one big read.

I'm torn. It is my new dilemma. Which is more palatable for an ebook? 200 pages or 400 pages? I haven't read enough to have a decent opinion.