A few reasons why you may want to join KBoards

No, it’s not a kiteboarding forum. Maybe that’s why it took me until now to join – even though I’ve seen references to it throughout my 2.5 years of blogging. Or maybe because it looks so huge and intimidating on the first glance…see for yourself.

Whatever the reason, I decided to join last Monday, during my procrastination/self-torture phase, when I was trying to decide on an editor for Indiot. True to myself, I went overboard, reading just about every post, creating a profile complete with my books in the signature, and creating book pages for Shizzle, Inc and Indiot. It’s been a week, and so far I keep wondering why I have not done that sooner. You may be on KBoards already, but if not – here are a few reasons why you should join me:

More visits to your blog – after a week and 45 comments so far (told you, I went overboard), stats show 72 referrals from KBoards alone during the same time.
There have been new followers as a result.
I feel incredibly motivated after coming across a post which asked full-time writers about the consistency of their income. Before, I was only aware of a few multi-millionaires that “made it” and a huge army of “shrimp” like me that are swimming around, picking up a few sales here and there. Turns out there’s also a “middle class” of writers that have substantial portfolios. Those writers, with 12-16 books to their name are making 100-500 THOUSAND a year. So what if it takes me five years to get there – the main point is that it seems possible with a goal, focus, and hard work.
I have found a second editor, a young woman with incredible feedback by the members. I contacted her about editing Shizzle, Inc (yes, a fourth round, by a fourth editor!) and she offered me a crazy deal of $376 for the whole thing, because it’s already clean, and because I was willing to work with her schedule. This means a second edition of Shizzle, Inc will come out at the same time as Indiot goes live. It will be the same story, but with tighter and cleaner prose, and hopefully not a single Australianism.
I have found a very cheap and seemingly good designer. Yes, I am going to try a third designer, hopefully in a collaborative fashion this time. I really like my designs and I have good feedback on them, but I don’t like my topography and even worse – I don’t know what to do about it. Plus, I have now accepted that my current cover for Indiot does not let people know it’s a sequel to Shizzle, Inc and that needs to change. I am now thinking of taking the paper rip concept across all the books in Isa Maxwell series, since in each installment her life is turned upside down by the antagonist – so on the cover, the rip will be between her and the antagonist. More on this in a couple of weeks.
I’ve downloaded Scrivner! Then I cried, because at the first glance it (and the user guide) seems so complicated. But now I’m excited again! I feel like I’ve graduated into the class of professional writers, and the third book’s skeleton is already underway. I will definitely post my impressions after a few weeks, but so far I’m very hopeful – Scrivner will replace the first phase of the project, where I ruin walls with sticky notes.
I’ve given other people advice, and they’ve thanked me, and what can I say – it’s like a fix for a junkie…
I’ve learned a lot about book launches. Decided to lower the pre-order price for Indiot (Isabella Maxwell’s Escapades Book 2) to $0.99, because that’s what everyone on KBoards seems to be doing. It will stay that way throughout the first week of launch, going back to $2.99 (or $3.99, not sure yet) around 23 July. I got just one preorder during the last three weeks, so let’s see what happens with this low offer.
It’s fun! New topics get posted every few minutes, and you just never know what new bit you will learn next.

That’s a lot in just one week, isn’t it? To tell you the truth, I’ve felt intimidated at times, because there are so many pros on there, but you get used to the signatures containing a string of covers after a while. Everyone is really nice, and a few people are even funny, which is a huge bonus in my book.

So go check it out – but do come back! This here blog ain’t no KBoards, but it is a place where you can watch a dark horse race for gold in real time.