If you've been poking around the website and noticed a few buy links gone missing, be warned that I'm currently removing most of my titles from other outlets and concentrating them at Amazon, at least for a while. At the moment, I have thirteen titles published under two names (not counting non-fiction). By the end of the year, that number should swell to about nineteen. Multiply that by the number of different files per title (at least four: the master file, one for Smashwords, one for Amazon, and the one for Scrivener, which I use only to format stories for review copies) and you'll see why I'm trying to simplify. Some day, I may actually have an assistant who can take care of the changes to back and front matter in older stories when a new one is released, but for now, simplify it is.
For those of you who are curious, the initial formatting per title takes less than half an hour total across all formats. It's maintaining the files that presents the biggest problem.
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I'm currently about halfway through the first draft of Say Yes, Levi's story. You'll be introduced to him in Tempered (due out in early December). I would really, really like to finish SY prior to the end of the month, since I absolutely have to start writing the next story on my schedule (In All Things, Balance) on 1 October. I'm hoping to have that one mostly finished in time to participate in NaNoWriMo in November, during which I hope to write the first draft of a story for my other pen name. At any rate, these three stories plus the main story I'm writing under that other pen name are the ones I'll likely concentrate on for the remainder of the year. Notice there's a lot of hoping going on and you'll see why I'm not, er, hopeful that I'll get all this done in the next three-odd months. Fingers crossed!
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Normally, I market, update the website, and perform other chores during the afternoon and focus on writing, editing, and revision from around eight or nine at night to around four in the morning. (I'm a night owl. My brain functions better during the dark, so my whole schedule is flipped from most people's.) Last night, I was up until 6:30 a.m. working on Chapter Ten of SY. Levi and Sera had a big to-do and I simply could not stop writing and leave them hanging. (I love this story, by the way. No one else may ever enjoy it, but I sure do.)
Levi's story brings up an interesting conundrum, one I didn't consider before setting out to write the Daughters of the People Series. I base my writing schedule on my publication schedule. To me, four months between series titles (published by an indie author) seems reasonable. Any less, and people will forget about you. Any more, and I won't have adequate time to write and polish each installment.
At the time I set my writing schedule, I was pretty gung-ho about writing within the DoP world and didn't stop to consider a couple of important points: First, I get bored. I like breaking up writing in one series by working on another. Second, the ideas never really stop. Levi's story was a completely unexpected surprise. A pleasant one, but still. And though I was absolutely compelled to work on it, I didn't really have time in my schedule to begin work on a new story, either. Two stories at a time (one for each pen name) is usually about all I can handle, so I had to drop SY for about a month and a half while I finished up everything else, and I hated it.
The obvious solution would be to not have a set publication schedule. This would allow me to write on stories as they call to me, rather than focusing on what needs to be written because it's scheduled for publication. (I'm pretty sure this was at least part of the reason I struggled with "Second Chance Christmas.") There are a couple of serious drawbacks to this approach, however. Writing on a schedule keeps me productive, and it's comforting for both me and readers. I know what to expect, everything gets lined up well in advance, ideally leaving few surprises all the way around, and readers aren't left waiting months for the next installment in a series. If I didn't have my schedule, it would be much more difficult for me to produce consistently and regularly, unless I could somehow finish writing the first draft of a manuscript a year before its expected release date. (I'm actually working on adding time between writing and publication, but it'll take me a long, long time to build up that kind of lead time.)
I'll be doing some serious consideration about this whole issue as I wind down the DoP series and formulate my writing goals and plans for 2016 and 2017. (ETA: 2015 is already set.) Naturally, the books already scheduled in this series will continue to be published on time, barring an unforeseen problem (family emergency or an act of nature). Future books, should I choose to continue writing, might be published on a different schedule. We'll see!