Steven E. Wedel's Blog, page 5

February Goals

January was a month of writing. First Born, begun on November 1, had to be finished, and then Dust in the Wind had to be written (I’d only written the first chapter beforehand). February will be a month of editing.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was the OWFI contest. A couple of months ago I got talked into being a contest judge again. Then my old friend Vickey came at me in the middle of January urging me to enter the contest. I haven’t been a member of any writing organizatio...

January Report Card

The first month in the year I hope to go full-time as an author has passed. It was not the launch I was hoping for. Despite my preparation, things just didn’t pop the way I’d hoped.

You’ll remember a couple of weeks ago I posted a list of things I wanted to accomplish in January. Let’s see how I did…

Subscribe to and set up a BookFunnel account and upload some content, then join at least one promotion event.

Success! I paid the $100 for BookFunnel and have been offering the first chapte...

January Goals

I’m writing this on January 18, so it might be cheating. Mostly it’s procrastinating. One thing I’ve learned on this quest to become a full-time author is that the non-writing stuff is tedious and takes a ton of time. Nonetheless, here are the goals for this month.

Subscribe to and set up a BookFunnel account and upload some content, then join at least one promotion event.Establish a Patreon with a few layers of support.Set up my Amazon Ads dashboard and run at least one ad for a...

2022 Books in Review

I set my 2022 reading goal to the usual 50 books, but fell well short. I might have forgotten to record some, but if so, not many. The total books read on record is only 25.

The end of the year was dominated by books about marketing novels. This is where I think I lost some titles I read. But, some of the ones I remembered to list on GoodReads include How to Make a Living with Your Writing: Turn Your Words into Multiple Streams Of Income and Successful Self-Publishing: How to self-publish and...

NaNoWriMo2022 Completed

About 20 minutes ago I reached the end of chapter 29 on a novel I’m not calling First Born. That put me at 50,258 words, which made me a winner of NaNoWriMo for the third straight year.

It’s been an interesting and enlightening month of writing and reading and listening to podcasts about marketing. When Shara came out, I insisted it was a horror novel despite the fact the protagonist was the werewolf. After Ulrik was released the first time, the whole “urban fantasy” genre was taking off ...

NaNoWriMo2022

Last November 17, I crossed the 50,000-word mark on a literary book I call Yes or No and won NaNoWriMo for the second year, giving me a perfect 2-of-2 record. (I wrote Mother for NaNoWrimo2020.) Tonight I reached 26,647 words. There are a few reasons for the slower progress.

The biggest one is the day job. I was still teaching high school the last two years and we were reading novels with the audiobooks. Students read (or slept) and I wrote. Now, teaching middle school, every moment is devote...

I miss the SASE

I began submitting manuscripts in the mid-1980s. It was all horror. Mostly short stories; novel submissions didn’t begin until the early 1990s. I think. But it’s been a while, so maybe I was sending out The Prometheus Syndrome in the late ’80s. Anyway …

I’d put the story (or sample chapters) into the big tan envelope with my query letter telling the editor I didn’t have any publishing credits, but hopefully you’ll be my first. Be gentle. Then off I’d go to the big post office in Enid, Oklaho...

Help me decide…

In my continuing quest for employment independence, I’m considering creating a Patreon. What is that? Well, here’s a video that will explain it better than me, but basically, patrons sign up to give me money each month and in exchange I give them free stuff, advance looks, advice, etc.

For a really good example, look at what my friend and sometimes co-author Carrie Jones has set up here.

My question to you, dear reader, is this: What would you like to receive from me? What would entice you...

1st Progress Report

In my quest to become self-employed by June 2023, I have made a few small steps forward. There’s nothing major to report yet, as there is a lot of prep work, but I have accomplished a little, so I thought I’d share it.

I have created a spreadsheet listing all of my published titles under my real name and pseudonyms. I recorded the dates they were published with KDP in paperback, as Kindle e-books, and Audible audiobooks through ACX. Tonight I recorded the dates the e-books will no longer be p...

Quest for Independence

Teaching has lost its luster.

I’m not actually teaching. My job, really, is to maintain a tenuous grip on sanity as I battle the chaos that is a room full of 8th graders. It’s stressful. It’s unfulfilling. It’s hell!

I fully suspect this will be my last year in education, and that’s IF I make it to the end of this school year.

So, what am I going to do?

I hope to make a living off my writing, and writing related side hustles (with some Uber driving sprinkled in). To that end, I’ve be...