Writer's Journey
Continuing the theme I started last week of following my career journey into insanity…
Last Monday morning, I met with my “mastermind” group via Skype. Lovely ladies. Other writers. One is a self-published, NYT bestseller and a computer/marketing/branding whiz. One is a hybrid author, both SP and traditionally published, who is also an editor and fairly good with social media. And two of us are on the cusp. We’ve been traditionally published and we are looking at our options this year.
Smart group.
In my “time” with them, I talked about wanting to write romantic suspense. (I do. I really, really do. And sometimes you have to indulge the creative side. Otherwise as an artist you’d go a little insane. It can’t always be about money. Seriously.)
Anyway, when all of us had talked about our careers and current projects, we drifted into general conversation, and somehow it came up that I had 10 reverted rights books that I’d done nothing with. You can imagine the gasp.
That’s how the whole “let’s come up with a new schedule” thing came about. There’s a lot of work I have to fit into a week. I am working on a book for Harlequin. I’m working on the romantic suspense (which is new territory for me and as difficult as it is fun) and now I will be weeding through the reverted rights books (doing some editing because -- let’s face it -- if I’m not a better writer than I was 20 years ago, I should apply at Sheetz and get it over with).
But there’s more to it than that. One of the predominant things we talk about in our Mastermind conversations is branding. Bringing back my reverted rights books doesn’t affect my brand. Those books are how I created my brand. But adding a sexy romantic suspense to a long list of sweet, traditional romances…Hmmm.
As I’ve mentioned. Lots of think about. I’m a planner, so, okay, I’ll confess I love rolling all this around in my head. But time is now money in this industry. So I can’t think too long. Though I want to. Who doesn’t want to ponder all the fun possibilities? And wouldn’t I be foolish not to consider the down side…that my books could sit on Amazon, ranked at 8,485,983,211 if I don’t do this correctly?
There are no guarantees. Part of the fun? Or the thing that keeps us up at night? Especially after spending money on a cover, ISBN, formatting, a proofer.
My writing friends are probably nodding sagely right now.
Last Monday morning, I met with my “mastermind” group via Skype. Lovely ladies. Other writers. One is a self-published, NYT bestseller and a computer/marketing/branding whiz. One is a hybrid author, both SP and traditionally published, who is also an editor and fairly good with social media. And two of us are on the cusp. We’ve been traditionally published and we are looking at our options this year.
Smart group.
In my “time” with them, I talked about wanting to write romantic suspense. (I do. I really, really do. And sometimes you have to indulge the creative side. Otherwise as an artist you’d go a little insane. It can’t always be about money. Seriously.)
Anyway, when all of us had talked about our careers and current projects, we drifted into general conversation, and somehow it came up that I had 10 reverted rights books that I’d done nothing with. You can imagine the gasp.
That’s how the whole “let’s come up with a new schedule” thing came about. There’s a lot of work I have to fit into a week. I am working on a book for Harlequin. I’m working on the romantic suspense (which is new territory for me and as difficult as it is fun) and now I will be weeding through the reverted rights books (doing some editing because -- let’s face it -- if I’m not a better writer than I was 20 years ago, I should apply at Sheetz and get it over with).
But there’s more to it than that. One of the predominant things we talk about in our Mastermind conversations is branding. Bringing back my reverted rights books doesn’t affect my brand. Those books are how I created my brand. But adding a sexy romantic suspense to a long list of sweet, traditional romances…Hmmm.
As I’ve mentioned. Lots of think about. I’m a planner, so, okay, I’ll confess I love rolling all this around in my head. But time is now money in this industry. So I can’t think too long. Though I want to. Who doesn’t want to ponder all the fun possibilities? And wouldn’t I be foolish not to consider the down side…that my books could sit on Amazon, ranked at 8,485,983,211 if I don’t do this correctly?
There are no guarantees. Part of the fun? Or the thing that keeps us up at night? Especially after spending money on a cover, ISBN, formatting, a proofer.
My writing friends are probably nodding sagely right now.
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