I know it’s silly, but I do a little snoopy dance inside every time somebody says they like my writing. The comments here, the emails…well, I just want to thank everyone.
I’m experiencing a curious dilemma…I’m sitting here with six new books that I just want so badly to put up all at once, but marketing sense (not to mention the fact I haven’t done covers for any of them yet) cautions me to dole them out slowly, even after I have them ready to publish.
For one thing, we need to keep CC fresh with new material. Every time we put something new on the main page, that generates web activity, which hopefully brings us new visitors. For another, there are two other people involved here and we need to coordinate so we don’t all put new stuff up at once.
And there are the problems involved with a new publication. If we screw something up and need to send out links to new “versions” that’s a whole lot easier with only one publication involved! Thankfully, most people who bought Heavy Time bought Hellburner and vice versa so I could just send the “new links” email to everyone. But if we had like five new books up there by all of us and had to sort out what to send whom, well, that w/b intrustin’!
Anyway, I’ll be playing with section illos for Ring during Nationals and will have it ready to post in a week or so.
I’ll also be working on ideas for the covers of those six new books.
So much to do…and the pond is beginning to wake up. I’m thinking I want to put up my little “incubator” for “hatchling plants” soon. (A metal rack with a plastic cover.) I’ve never done that before. Any advice from my fellow gardeners? When do you start seedlings?
Like the idea of releasing the books one at a time….think it might be much better for sanity etc.
We live about as far apart as possible but from what I can see of ‘planting zone maps’ we are both right on the edge between zone 6 (-10 to 0) and zone 5 (-10 to -20) You probably go a little more toward zone 5. I think it is way too early to be thinking of seedlings unless you are doing something like geraniums. Generally look at the recommended time for planting out and count back eight to ten weeks. Around here I don’t put anything out permanently until the middle of May. The world is made up of microclimates…I think you or CJ mentioned a ten degree difference between your front and back yards. In the last ten years we have had two snowfalls on Easter weekend…ouch!
It takes planning, but you can winter over stuff like petunias, impatiens…..watch for allergies…..I love mums but they are death for me inside.
BTW whatever happened to the mum cuttings you were trying to root?
I’m blithering……
Thanks for the planting advice! One thing I want to get started as soon as it’s sensible are my morning glories/moon flowers. I’d love to see them cover the arbor this year.
It’s insidious out there this year. So warm, after last year’s epic snowfall.
Of the three we tried, one mum has rooted…nice healthy roots, but nothing of growth above ground yet. Weird, eh?
Trying to recall mum lore from my past…I *think* the rooting is good….the time of year has something to do with it….when we have more sunlight around march you should see green growth….mums that are wintered over inside often die back to nothing and grow again in the spring….you may have several little stems come up in which case you can separate them into several plants.
If you start morning glories and moon flowers…put them into separate seed packs and don’t try to transplant them to larger pots …..they hate having their roots disturbed…..if mine don’t do well as seedlings I buy six or four packs from my garden center and start more seed directly in the ground…when you put them out hot caps help at night…..this makes for a nice long season…..moon flowers are a crap shoot for me….last year they were amazing….year before one flower at a time!
This is probably more than you want or need to know.
Jane, I love your books. One of me says “WANT, WANT ALL, WANT ALL NOW.” Another side of me says “You know you aren’t going to finish all the books you have in the “to be read” pile before the next batch appears. My recommendation is that between you, CJ, and Lynn you release a book a week until you are down to two books each left for release. Then start releasing books and short stories one new work every 15 days or so. Between three prolific authors such as yourselves, you should be able to keep people coming back for more. With eBook readers, I think people want to have a batch of books and stories available for travel, commuting, or reading away from their library/home/computer, so you don’t want to have too few new works, but you don’t want to run out of newly released material either.
Choose a day (Monday or Tuesday would probably be best) and do releases on that day. Take into account that you will be attending Cons, and have a life as well, and there will be times when RL intrudes. You’ll be able to train your readers to check in at least weekly in very little time. I’ll continue to check almost daily and contribute occasionally
I’m much stricter on release dates. Once a month is often enough for novels. For your new novels once every 3-4 months. You don’t want to exhaust what you have on hand too quickly. How long does it take you to write a novel? Normal release on a series is about once a year, isn’t it?
Are there other tidbits, not exactly short stories, that could come out more frequently? The Freebies. Considering that some people may never get to the main web pages, why not some of CJ’s items on her website as freebies. Things like the Latin lessons. I still have the old newsletters and they may have some other FAQs that people would enjoy. The background information. Or, collect the background on the cultures as “from the worlds of …” to be sold when you’re antiques. I know there are collections on both Pern and Valdemar that are fan written.
I’m trying to think in terms of 10 years from now, when the web site won’t show how you created the fabulous covers. I bought books speculating on Harry Potter and explaining some items (fan/pro written) that won’t be available when my neice and nephews finally read the books. (They’re 8, 5 and 3.) By the time they’re in college and may need to analyse the series, these books will be in my collection for them to use.
Good ideas, everyone! Thanks! (taking notes….)
OK, I just deleted a rather long reply I almost posted, but thought better because, frankly, who I am to tell a professional writer anything about the publishing business !
As a reader and fan, I like having new things on the web site periodically including new things to buy and read. As someone with a large backlog of work continually breathing down my neck, I appreciate having “due dates” for these projects that are staggered, because otherwise I would feel like I had to have them all done tomorrow.
Now, off to sleep with me before the FIOS installer comes in the morning..
- S
Actually, Sandor, you….all of you…are a very important part of what will make CC work in the long run. Basically, the three of us really just want to write. Stuff like production and timing is why New York always got the lion’s share (to put it mildly) of any book sold. We need/want all the help we can get.
So…thanks!
Jane, February has traditionally been Spokane’s snowiest month. I don’t think winter is over yet, despite the unseasonable warmness. I would hold off.
That is a good idea of mmberries regarding the freebies. During the old days when I was starved for something by CJ when a new book wasn’t forthcoming I would scan both your sites for tidbits just to keep the diction fresh in my mind. there is lots there that could be mined, from both of you. The A/U time line would be fun to have, eg. It wouldn’t even have to be a freebie, I guess.
What about the art work, too? your various illustrations of the older books, portraits of the characters? Maybe they can be part of cafe press also? the Mondragon portrait I remember very well, eg.
My only concern with Cafe Press is I haven’t been able to get out of them their printer profile, and so I have no idea the quality of the printing job. I work with a lot of subtle color and a lot of darks and those could easily be ruined by a bad printing job.
We could also do something like an essay of the week/month on writing. Have it free until the next is ready to load, then eventually gather them all together in a single download for purchase….