Kate Scott's Blog, page 12

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk.  Head over to Jaime's page for links to find out what's up with everyone else. Here's what's up with me.
What I'm Reading

This week I read Indie Author Survival Guild by Susan Kaye Quinn. I don't read non-fiction industry books very often, but I found this one super informative. I actually wish I'd read it a year ago. If you are thinking about Indie publishing, I highly recommend this book. It gives a lot of useful tips and resource links.

What I'm Writing

I'm super close to finishing The Evolution of Emily. It's funny, I've done a ton of revising and re-writing of the first 30 chapters, but I've never written the end, ever. The first chapter is probably in it's sixth draft by now, and I have never written the last chapter at all. I thought I knew how it was going to end, kind of. I was going to bring all the characters together from some big set piece style conclusion. But I've never know exactly how I wanted to tie it all together. I've written various outlines that have stretched the story anywhere from 32 to 40 chapters, depending upon how much I wanted to cram in to my non-existent ending. I've never written any of them down though.

This week, I got an idea to change one of my minor characters in a very major way. Implementing this change involved revising pretty much the entire manuscript. Which I did this week. 'Cause apparently revising 30 chapters is easier for me than writing 5 chapters.

As I was revising, something struck me. My story is already done. There is a reason why I've never written this big set piece ending. I don't need it. Chapter 29 is the climax of my book. Chapter 29 is amazing, and Chapter 30 is this huge intense fall out that makes me cry every time I read it, and I'm the author.

I can't end it at the end of chapter 30. I do need a little bit of a conclusion. But honestly, I think my final version is going to be 31 or maybe 32 chapters long. I am seriously that close to done. I have revised the crap out of my last few chapters, I just kept telling myself they were only 3/4rds of the way through the book. Except I couldn't figure out what was supposed to happen after that, because the story was already over.

So that's what I did this week. I drastically changed one of my characters for the better, and I realized my story with no ending actually already has an ending. All in all, I'd call it a very good writing week. Now that I know this book does have an ending, do you want to beta read for me? Seriously, I need beta readers, so if you are interested, let me know.

What Inspires Me Right Now

I'm doing the YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Bootcamp. I'm on team Mazama. Yay Bucklers! Yesterday, I posted about how we go two completely divergent names, but that isn't what's inspiring me.

Knowing other people are also writing and revising this spring is inspiring. And finally seeing an end to this book is inspiring too. Because I want to start my third book in April. And I actually think I'm going to finish EoE in time to do it. Yay Mazamas! This proverbial mountain is being climbed.

What Else I've Been Up To

I now have a newsletter. I've heard other authors rave about how important it is to have an email list for years, but I never knew how to get one, or what to do with it. So I just ignored this super important piece of advice, until I read Indie Author Survival Guild. Because as I mentioned above, it gives useful details along with advice, like suggesting using Mail Chimp to maintain your author email list.

So I now have a Mail Chimp account, and will be sending out monthly newsletters to all my fans from now on. If you want to be my fan, it would be super awesome if you subscribed to my email list. There is a link over on my side bar, or you can just sign up right here.

Subscribe to my mailing list 

So what's up with you?

Buckle Up for Writing

It's week two of YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Boot Camp, and I'm happy to announce I'm now a member of Team Mazama.

Originally, we named ourselves the Swashbucklers in honor of YA Buccaneers pirate theme, then shortened that to the YA Bucklers, because if you live on twitter calling yourselves #yabucklers is super entertaining.

Then all the other teams decided to name themselves after mountains. So we rebranded ourselves Team Mazama. Mt. Mazama exploded about 7k years ago and is now Crater Lake. Oregon mountain climbers call themselves Mazamas, and were climbing the mountains of our manuscripts, so we agreed it was a good name.

Now we are the Mazama Bucklers and we are ready to blow the top off our writing, so buckle up. Yeah, it's a lot of mixed metaphors, I know. This is what happens when seven writers are joined together to form an accountability team. We mix our metaphors.

For today's check-in, I'm going to mix my metaphors even more. See that island in the center of Crater Lake in our badge photo? That's the new mountain rebuilding itself. Yay for volcanism. This week, I did a lot of rebuilding too.

Last week, I was super proud of myself, because I was ahead of schedule on my revisions of The Evolution of Emily. I was so far ahead that I set today as my new deadline to finish all my edits. Um, yeah, that didn't happen. Instead, I got a crazy new idea that required me to drastically change one of the major characters. This change makes the story a lot better! I hope it's something my beta readers would have suggested, 'cause it needed to happen. I figured it out on my own though, before bothering to send EoE off to betas.

Of course, this means I needed to re-write the entire book, again. Okay, not the ENTIRE book, only the scenes that this redefined character appeared in. And a few scenes that she wasn't in before but needs to be in now, because this change primarily involved making her a much bigger character. Yeah, it was basically the entire book.

I did it though. Character revised, up to exactly where I was in the story a week ago. Or actually slightly less than that. The Evolution of Emily is now fully polished through chapter 27. I think I was at chapter 30 last week. The last few chapters are still really rough, and will need to change A TON based upon this major character change subplot twist I added last week. So even if I only have a half a dozen or so chapters left, it's a lot of work.

I really do want to send this book off to beta readers the first week of April though. That deadline remains firm. So my goal for next week is the same. Finish all revisions by the end of the week. I'll now have slightly less time to do a final read through before sending it off to betas. But I did just do another full read through this week, so it's all good.

How has your writing been going this week?

Katy's Story

I love to read, and write, because I love stories. Everyone has a story to tell. That's what makes this crazy world we live in so interesting. Every Monday, I interview a different person here and share their stories. At first glance, my guests may appear ordinary, but I promise they're not. They're people. And all people are fascinating. We all have a story to tell.


This week, I'm talking to Katy Upperman. Katy is an aspiring author and blogger that I got to know through What's Up Wednesday. I always love reading Katy's blog and am thrilled to learn more about her today.


Let's get started, Katy, describe yourself in 50 words or less.

KU: I'm a wife, mama, writer, reader, and country music fanatic. I like baking, long runs, yoga, beer, and sunny days at the beach. Jelly Bellies and chocolate are my fuel. I pen contemporary stories for young adults. Most of them feature cool girls, hot boys, and steamy kisses.
Me: See this is why I love you! Those 50 words perfectly describe a person I want to hangout with. What do you love most in the world?


KU: My family. My husband and daughter are my whole life.
Me: What do you fear most?

KU: The unknown, which is crazy because life is full of it. I’m a worrier by nature. It’s definitely something I’m working on.
Me: What's your largest unfulfilled dream, and what are you doing to achieve it?


KU: This is easy… I want to sell a manuscript and see my story made into a real book. I want to spot it on bookstore shelves, flip through its pages, and share its characters with readers. I’m doing everything in my power to make it happen: writing/revising every day, learning all I can about craft, seeking feedback, and reading as much as possible in my preferred genre, and others. Fingers crossed that one day it’ll happen.
Me: I have full faith that you will get there. Since I've been published for a whopping three weeks now, I can attest that the path to publication is always easy, but it's definitely worth it. What is the hardest thing you've ever done?

KU: My husband has been in the Army for almost eleven years and he’s deployed many times, sometimes on short trips (3 months) and sometimes on really long trips (15 months). My hardest moments have been telling him goodbye. Conversely, some of my very best moments are welcoming him home again.
Me: I can't even imagine how hard that must be, especially when your daughter was young. Now that we've gotten to know each other, tell me a story. It can be long or short. From your childhood or last week. Funny, sad, or somewhere in between. Just make sure it's yours. What's your story?

KU: Once upon a time, two super preppy high school seniors decided to go to a Korn concert. They liked Korn’s music quite a lot, though they hardly fit in with the crowd—they were very conspicuous in their pastel GAP button-downs.

Rob Zombie happened to be the opening act, and, unfortunately, neither girl was impressed. So, they wandered around the venue, waiting for the main act to begin. After buying soda and laughing at the items set out on merch tables, the girls came upon some activity, a crowd of people bustling around a roadie, pushing forward to get his attention.
The girls were curious, so they pushed too.
As it turned out, the roadie was collecting concert-goers to dance on stage during Korn’s performance.
“It’s the Korn Kage,” the roadie said.
“Oh, of course,” the girls said.
“You should do it,” the roadie said.
The girls smiled. “We’d love to.”
And so, they spent all of Korn’s set flailing about on stage, among dreadlocks and facial piercings, in a large but cramped “kage.” The band was fantastic and the show was awesome, and while the girls had a blast, they passed on the backstage action that was to take place after the concert.
After all, they had school the next day.  
Me: Katy, you are fabulous, seriously.

So what's your story? If you're interested in participating in a future installment of What's Your Story, please leave your contact information in the comments of this post or email me directly at katherine(dot)elliott(dot)scott(at)gmail(dot)com.

Print On Demand - What Does It Mean For Writers

Last week, I said I was going to start sharing publishing tips for authors hoping to go the indie route. The first thing you need to understand is Print On Demand (POD). POD technology has been around for a few years now, and has completely eliminated the need for large print runs. Publishers no longer need to print thousands of books and then pay for warehouse space to hold them all. Books can be printed one at a time, on demand.

Ebooks are great, but POD is very easy. Plus not everyone has an e-reader, yet, so I would never consider publishing an ebook without a POD counterpart. And if you are going to go POD, use Lightning Source. Create Space and Lulu are two other very widely used POD companies, but they are also a lot more limiting. If you want to actually sell your book, Lighting Source is the only option worth considering, in my opinion.

Ingram, is the largest book warehouser and distributor in the world. All of the biggest publishers use Ingram, and all of the retailers (both on-line and brick and mortar) use Ingram.

Ingram isn't only big, they are also smart. When they saw POD emerging as a very viable new book platform, instead of bemoaning the end of publishers warehousing their books with Ingram, they created Lightning Source.

Lighting Source is a subsidiary company of Ingram, and the two are integrally linked. So every book printed by Lighting Source is listed in the Ingram catalog (and thus available at every on-line bookstore, and order-able at every brick and mortar bookstore) automatically.

Before my launch, I started thinking about distribution and wondered how to get my book up on websites like Amazon and B&N. I couldn't find an easy, sell your book as the publisher here button without using an Amazon publishing platform (aka Create Space). Then a reviewer linked to my books amazon page, that I hadn't even known was there. Because every single book in the Ingram catalog is automatically listed on Amazon, B&N and every other major online book retailer. You don't need to do anything but be in the Ingram catalog. And like I said, Ingram owns Lightning Source, so it's seamless.

In the spirit of honesty, there are two downsides to PODs.

First POD books are more expensive. When publishers print thousands of copies of a book at once, the cost goes way down. That's how mass market paperbacks can sell for $7 or $8. The price of printing a POD book varies slightly by length and size, but in general it costs about $4 to $5 to print a single book. Retailers then require a 40%-55% discount of the purchase price to cover their own expenses. The result is that a POD paperback priced at $7 could actually loose $2 per copy sold.

I priced my POD book at $13.99. Most POD books I've seen fall somewhere in the $12-$16 range. Possibly more if it's a very large book or it has lots of graphics. When you assume the majority of your sales are going to be ebooks, and the only people buying your POD book are committed fans who are willing to pay extra for the paper version, $16 for a paperback starts to sound more reasonable. After all, readers pay $30 for hardbacks all the time. It does require a mental shift in the value of paperbacks though, and leads me to my second POD downside - distribution.

It's very hard to get POD books in physical bookstores. I mentioned before that on-line retailers automatically carry Lighting Source books, but that doesn't mean brick and mortar stores carry them. They don't. Bookstores demand returns. When B&N buys a whole bunch of copies of the latest celebrity tell all that doesn't sell, all those books are shipped back to the publisher. When B&N buys two copies of your POD book and they don't sell, they still expect (and require) to be able to ship them back to the publisher.

Currently Create Space does not allow for returns, period. I don't know about Lulu, because I simply haven't looked into it. Lighting Source does allow for returns, which is great if you want to try and get your POD books in actual stores. But since the books are printed on demand, and not warehoused, what to do with returned books becomes a lot more complicated.

There are currently two return options available with Lightning Source. First, all returned books can be shipped to you the publisher, and you can warehouse them in your basement and then resell them on your own. This requires you, the publisher, to pay for the printing and shipping cost of all the books that have been returned. And since often times the printing cost of a POD is larger than the profit per book, too many returns could lead to not only a crowded basement but also a significant financial loss.

The second return option is pulping. Lightning Source will shred and pulp all returned books upon receipt. In this case, the only cost to the publisher is the cost of shipping, again not free, but at least not as big of a financial loss. But there is the added knowledge that your books are being shredded and pulped, a bit heart breaking.

Authors can of course also select to not allow for returns. But as an author, you should know, making that choice guarantees your book will never be carried in any bookstore. So POD isn't perfect. It is however easy. Lightning Source is super user friendly. I would give you lots of info about how to get started, but honestly, it's all on their website. And the start-up cost to register as a new publisher with Lighting Source is $12. Each title you list with them has an additional $50 processing fee. Still $62 isn't much for the ability to offer physical books your readers can hold in their hands.

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk.  Head over to Jaime's page for links to find out what's up with everyone else. Here's what's up with me.
What I'm Reading

This week I read Solving for Ex  by Leigh Ann Kopans and Wonder by R.J. Palacio. They were both great books in different ways. Solving for Ex is a cute contemporary YA remake of Jane Austin's Mansfield Park that is focused around a mathletes competition. As a former mathlete myself, I found this book super fun.

Wonder on the other hand was a lot heavier, but oh so amazing. It's a middle grade novel about a ten-year-old kid with facial deformities. It has a great anti-bullying message, but bigger than that it also just has a great human message. It's probably the best "diversity" book I've ever read.

I would recommend Solving for Ex to anyone who likes YA romance with a blend of pretentious mean girls and adorable math geeks. I would recommend Wonder to everyone who is human. You should probably also be somewhere between the ages of eight and eighty. Although, my grandmother is 94, and I would probably recommend Wonder to her too.

What I'm Writing

I'm trying to finish my sophomore novel, The Evolution of Emily, by the end of March. I set a goal of finishing all my revisions up through chapter 20 by today. I am happy to report, my manuscript is now polished up through chapter 30. I'm ten chapters ahead of schedule and very happy about it. My new goal is to finish all my revisions of EoE this coming week. It should be ready to pass off to beta readers by the first week of April, or maybe even a little sooner. Which of course means, I need beta readers. If you are interested in reading The Evolution of Emily, let me know.

What Inspires Me Right Now

Creative kids! I lead a creative writing workshop for a bunch of kids last week, and it was so much fun! They came up with the most imaginative stories. All the kids stories were different, because all the kids writing them were different. As someone who writes kidlit, it was inspiring on multiple levels. The world is diverse, and needs lots more stories, including mine. And it needs these kids stories too. I had so much fun, I definitely want to try and line up more creative writing workshops for kids in the future.

What Else I've Been Up To

I'm doing the YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Bootcamp. I would say it's the reason I got so much writing done last week. Except, the bootcamp is just starting, so nothing has really happened on that front yet. I mainly got a ton of writing done, because I didn't have anything else going on to distract me from writing.

If you haven't signed up for the Spring Writing Bootcamp yet, I do have to make one personal plug for it. There are two March prize packs participants can enter to win. And Counting to D  is included in both prizes. So yay for that!

So what's up with you?

Bootcamp Check-In

I'm now one week into YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Boot Camp, and it's time for my first check in.

After several months focused far more on publicity than wringing, I set a goal to finish revising my current WIP, The Evolution of Emily, by the end of March, and send it out to beta readers the first week of April. Last week, I set a goal of finishing polishing up through chapter 20 of EoE.
I am proud to announce that the first 26 chapters of The Evolution of Emily are now clean. I exceeded my goal by 6 chapters. It’s amazing how much progress I can make when I actually spend time writing. As a result, my goal for this coming week is to finish The Evolution of Emily, by next week.
I know, I know, my original goal was March 31st, but I think I can actually make this new March 17th deadline. So I’m going with it. I will finish my WIP this week. Keep me accountable to that.
The YA Buccaneers Spring Book Camp lasts through until the end of May, so I should probably set some longer term goals too. Here is my new writing plan for the next three months.
March:·         Finish The Evolution of Emily. Even though I want to do this in the next week, I will need to read through the whole thing again at least one more time before sending it off to beta readers. So my March 31st goal is still somewhat in place.·         Begin thinking about my next project. I’m a pantser, not a plotter, and refuse to outline. But once I’m done with The Evolution of Emily, I’ll let myself start daydreaming about my SNI more.
April:·         Send The Evolution of Emily to beta readers. If you want to be one of those beta readers, let me know.·         Start drafting new project.
May:·         Design cover for The Evolution of Emily.·         Incorporate feedback from beta readers and make final revisions to The Evolution of Emily.·         Continue drafting new project.
The biggest reason why it has taken me forever to finish The Evolution of Emily is because I spent a lot of my writing time focusing on Counting to D the entire time I was supposed to be working on it. Intentionally dividing my time between two projects again feels like a huge endeavor. But I know it’s something I have to do. If I want to make a career out of writing, I need to write faster. I need to have two projects going at all times.
I do have a shiny new idea that I want to make the third book in the Kennedy High series. And now that EoE is so close to done, I’m starting to get really excited about writing it. Hopefully I can get most (or possibly even all) of the rough draft done this spring while I’m waiting for feedback from beta readers. It would be easy to take April off and focus only on the business side of things while waiting for revision notes, but that’s not what I’m going to do. I’m going to write my next book. And I think it’s going to be a really amazing story.

Christine's Story

I love to read, and write, because I love stories. Everyone has a story to tell. That's what makes this crazy world we live in so interesting. Every Monday, I interview a different person here and share their stories. At first glance, my guests may appear ordinary, but I promise they're not. They're people. And all people are fascinating. We all have a story to tell.


This week, I'm talking to aspiring writer and world traveler Christine Tyler. Let's get started, Christine, describe yourself in 50 words or less.

CT: I'm what happens to a manic pixie dream girl after she falls in love, kisses in the rain, and the credits roll.
Me: I always wondered what happened to that girl. It's nice to meet you. What do you love most in the world?


CT: Creating things. Creating families, creating friendships, creating art, creating stories, creating delicious meals, creating happiness.
Me: Hooray for creation. What do you fear most?

CT: Wasps. Everything else I can buckle down and meet head on. But not wasps..unless it was to save a baby or something. 
Me: It's probably your former pixie self reacting to them. The wings and all... What's your largest unfulfilled dream, and what are you doing to achieve it?


CT: I'm living my greatest dreams right now--enjoying what I love most in the world. While I have goals to see the end-products of my creations (like publishing my book and having grandchildren to love), the act of creating those things is immensely fulfilling. I suppose my biggest dream is to be constantly creating, to be moving and changing, and still enjoying the journey. My greatest dream is to die knowing I deserve the rest. 
Me: I love how happy you seem in this moment. What is the hardest thing you've ever done?

CT: Trusted God. It paid off, though. It always does. 
Me: Now that we've gotten to know each other, tell me a story. It can be long or short. From your childhood or last week. Funny, sad, or somewhere in between. Just make sure it's yours. What's your story?

CT: The lights of Ravenel bridge shimmered like promises across Charleston Harbor. Each wave was the rush of meeting him, catching a hint of his cologne. It was easy to mistake the sudden flux of warmth for southern weather.

We watched our feet, Junior-lieutenant Tyler and I. I wore the purple and blue floral flats with the tiny strap around the ankle. Junior-lieutenant Tyler wore brown leather from Texas. 

The wooden swing was large enough to keep two blind-daters apart the night my sister set us up. But the unthinkable happened, and I liked him.

His ears stuck out and so did his jokes. He was born in Egypt to a ballerina and a bibliophile. He’d skipped class in High School to eat tacos in Mexico. He’d been to Peru twice, streaked across Tecumseh court, majored in electrical engineering, his clock was in binary, and I liked him. 

“I’ll bet you can’t get off this swing and back on without ruining the momentum,” I said.

“Bet I can.” He timed his jump, left the swing, and came back with the amount of grace you’d expect from a half-gringo salsa dancer. “Let’s see you try,” he said.

I did. The swing came back at me, and I caught it, shaking the whole rig. I threw myself back into the seat, smashed right into Junior-lieutenant Tyler, and found the perfect niche in his arms. 

“I win,” I said.

He caught me, laughing. “What are you talking about? You stopped the entire swing! Look at this. We’re going sideways.” He went to straighten the swing. I caught him by the collar. 

“That’s not the momentum I was talking about.”

Me: Too cute! You are definitely living the happily ever after.

So what's your story? If you're interested in participating in a future installment of What's Your Story, please leave your contact information in the comments of this post or email me directly at katherine(dot)elliott(dot)scott(at)gmail(dot)com.

Writing in the Digital Era

When I started writing, I did my homework. I read publishers marketplace, attended conferences, and followed agents on twitter. I learned what agents and editors do, and tried to figure out what I needed to do myself in order to fit into their world. Then their world changed.

I signed with my former agent about a month before Borders went bankrupt. It was a very dark time for traditional publishers. And a very bad time to go out on submission as an author. I got relatively positive feedback, all the rejections I received were supportive. People just weren't buying debuts.

Once Penguin and Random House merged, turning the Big 6 into the Big 5, it seemed even more clear to me I was playing the wrong game. Technically, the Big 5 are still taking on debut authors, technically. But compared to even two or three years ago, the number of debut authors Big 5 publishers are willing to look at is minuscule. Instead, agents are selling their debut author's works to smaller "medium sized" presses.

Small presses have been around forever. Self-publishing has been around forever too. But until recently, small presses were at a serious disadvantage. The bigger publishers can afford larger print runs. They can buy co-op space in bookstores. They have the marketing connections to get books reviewed in the New York Times.

But print run size doesn't matter if everyone reads ebooks. And co-op space at B&N today is about as valuable as co-op space was at Borders three years ago (not worth much). People buy books on-line. And they choose what to read based on amazon and goodreads reviews far more than newspaper accolades. The big press advantage doesn't exist anymore.

But I was invested. I'd done my homework, and found a New York based agent able to broker big press negotiations. Giving up on that dream was a hard pill to swallow. Eventually, I accepted reality, my agent wasn't working for me, she was clinging to a dying industry. So we parted ways.

My plan was to submit to small presses on my own. Which any author can do. And if you are currently at the querying stage, that is my #1 suggestion. Don't query agents, just submit straight to small presses and skip the middle man. I didn't know all that much about small presses though, so the first thing I did was research.

What I discovered was that I could do it all myself. I didn't need a small press, or a big press, or any press period. I could do what 400,000 other authors did last year and publish my own book (yes that is correct 400k books were self-published last year, and 1/3 of all New York Times best sellers and Amazon sale rank best sellers were self-published).

I didn't want to be a hack. It's very easy to post an unedited story that has no market on Amazon and then go on to sell zero copies. And the average self-published title does still sell fewer than 100 copies in the lifetime of the book. I didn't want to be that writer. So I founded a small press, Elliott Books, and published myself.

From the beginning, my goal was to turn Elliott Books into a boutique style publishing company smaller and more nimble than the Big 5, but still playing by many of the old rules I thought I knew and understood. I just started on my own book, so I could make all my mistakes on myself before taking on other authors.

Now I've done it. Counting to D has been out for almost a month now. It's not topping any best seller lists, yet. I have sold significantly more than 100 copies though, so at least I'm better than average. The next step should be clear, I need to open up Elliott Books for submissions and start taking on other authors. But I don't want to.

Not because I don't want to help other authors reach their dream of publication. I absolutely want to do that. I've just published a book now, and know what publishing a book actually entails. I know there is no reason why any author should want to publish their book with me, or any other small press. And I wouldn't feel right taking a share of some other writers hard earned royalties to do something they could easily do themselves.

A year ago, I had a huge ah-ha moment and figured out there is no longer any advantage to going with a Big 5 publisher over a smaller press. That's why I opted to part ways with my agent. But now I've realized something even more important, there is a very clear advantage to indie publishing over using a small press. Money. If you self-publish, you don't get a percentage of the profits from your book, you get all the profits from your book. If you have a book that is good enough to be picked up by a traditional publisher, at a time when publishers are very leery of debut authors, why would you want to share the profits of sales for that sell-able book?

I've been convinced. 2013 was a tipping point year, and in 2014 the indie market is going to completely explode. There are currently far more traditionally published authors trying to figure out how to break their contracts and get their rights back so they can self-publish their own books than there are pre-published authors trying to sign with agents and sell their rights to publishers.

If you are lucky enough to be a pre-published author, get excited. The world is changing. It's already changed. And you can do this, without any gatekeepers. Elliott Books will not be opening to submissions, because you don't need me. Instead, I'll try to post my publishing lessons learned here on a semi-regular basis. Because I do want to help you, I just don't want to take your money.

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk.  Head over to Jaime's page for links to find out what's up with everyone else. Here's what's up with me.
What I'm Reading

This week I read my CP, Kris Atkins, WIP. It is so good! I can't wait until the rest of the world gets a chance to read it too. I love beta reading. There is something about the process of analysing other peoples writing that always seems to improve my own writing at the same time. And having CPs as talented as Kris also makes it super enjoyable. Seriously, her story is brilliant.

What I'm Writing

I've set at goal to finish my sophomore novel, The Evolution of Emily, by the end of March. In an attempt to reach that lofty goal, this week I re-read and made a few polishing tweaks to the first 15 chapters. My goal is to finish polishing the next 5 chapters next week. I've been spending so much time focusing on Counting to D the past few months, I sort of forgot how much I love this next book. It's fun getting back into it. I can't wait until it's done so I can share Emily's story with my readers.

What Inspires Me Right Now

Counting to D has been out for three weeks now. I had a number of positive reviews before it was released. But hearing positive feedback from actual readers is even better. One question I have been getting from a number of my readers is, will me ever see Sam again. So let me answer, yes. While The Evolution of Emily is more of a companion book than a true sequel, Sam will be back. Knowing that I'm not writing not only for myself, but also for my fans is very inspiring.

What Else I've Been Up To

My life settled down a lot this past week, giving me a chance to get back to writing. My husband is away on a business trip all week, leaving me in a quiet house. I enjoy hectic over scheduled weeks every once in a while. But I also enjoy quieter days, where I can loose myself in fiction. This has been one of those weeks, and it's been great.

So what's up with you?

Spring Writing Boot Camp

I am super excited about the YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Boot Camp! Now that my debut novel is out, I really need to finish my second book. I've set a deadline of finishing the manuscript by the end of March. I can get there, but I'm going to need accountability to do it. YA Buccaneers can be that accountability. Super exciting.

As I said, my goal is to finish writing The Evolution of Emily by the end of March. Since I always do What's Your Story posts on Mondays, I'm going to post Spring Boot Camp check ins on Tuesdays. My goal for next Tuesday is to finish polishing the first 20 chapters. These chapters are already pretty clean, so I'll mainly just be re-reading what I already have and making minor tweaks. The later part of the book is where the work will really come in. But in order to get there, the first twenty chapters need to be done by March 11th. I'm trusting you guys to hold me accountable to that.

In addition to creating accountability teams and all sorts of other great stuff. The YA Buccaneers are also giving out prizes to help motivate writers. Here is where things get really exciting. Counting to D is in both of the March prize packs! You can win a paperback of C2D along with a paperback of On Writing by Steven King. Or if you don't win that, you can win an ebook of C2D and an ebook of Will the Real Prince Charming Please Stand Up by Ella Martin. I am in a prize pack with Steven King. This is so exciting.

If your anything like me, you can probably use some writing accountability this spring. Joining the YA Buccaneers Spring Writing Boot Camp is the perfect place to start. Pop over to their sight and sign up. And while your there, enter to win a free copy of my book.

Maybe we will even end up on the same accountability team. That would be great, because I need an accountability team. My next book is not going to write itself. It's time to get to work.