Two Out of Four Ain't Bad

Today's blog is about goal-setting, specifically expectations versus achievements. I set some pretty high goals for myself as part of my New Year's resolutions. I expected this first week to be as much about learning how to meet those goals as actually hitting them, and I was right. In that same vein, the coming week will be about learning how to recover from missed goals.

Goal #1 is 400k by year's end, broken down into 10k a week (which leaves me every 4th or 5th week off, ie. plenty of room for screw-ups.) And this week was a screw-up. Between my addiction to the Wii game Fortune Street, my organizational efforts in other areas, and a dollop of laziness, I have only manage about 3,800 words this week. So that's one out of four missed so far.

In order to counteract the seductive pull of Fortune Street, and deftly sidestep my natural inertial laziness--or lazinertia--I am adopting the following new rule/guideline: My weekly minimum is 8k, broken into 1,150 per day. Both metrics leave a little breathing room. This is required to be met pre-Internet anything, video game, reading, or anything else I like. The goal is still 2k daily, 10k weekly; the minimum should at least keep me from falling behind.

Goal #2 is to self-epub (and what an awkward term that is) 40 titles this year, which breaks down into 1 a week (again leaving every 4th or 5th week off for a margin of safety.) I have a few JPEGs and a vague idea how to arrange them to make a cover for the title I intend to publish later today. I am not nearly confident enough in my work habits to take this for granted as likely to happen, however. So that's two out of four missed so far.

Seeing a pattern here?

My countermeasure for this is simple: when I finish my wordcount for the day, I will work on my ESP (a way cool acronym for E-Self-Pubbing.) Leisure time comes after my wordcount is done and after I have a title pubbed for the week. Gosh darnit and doggone dagnabit. To heck.

Goal #3 is to lose forty pounds this year, to the tune of one pound a week (same margin of error.) I am happy to announce that I have dropped from 235 to 233. I am keeping meticulous records of my weight, eating habits, and exercise habits; this will keep me on track. So one out of four made, and comfortably at that.

Go me.

Goal #4 is to be 40% nicer. Which I totally have, in so far as this one is even measurable. I have noticed a distinctly pleasant uptick in my daily interactions as a result, and thus my general level of happiness. So two out of four made, for a batting average of .500. Not that bad, actually.

The two I missed are fixable, with some tighter discipline on my part. The two I made are arguably more important, health and happiness trump productivity any day. And may actually improve my productivity long-term.

I will do a more condensed version of this weekly weigh-in next week, and every week after until I make my goals, the year is over, or I die. Hopefully the first rather than the last.

Weekly Media breakdown - Tried to watch "Bag of Bones"--made for TV movie based on the Stephen King book. Only made it about 15 minutes in. No dice. That's all I watched this week. I haven't read anything, either (been busy not writing.) My son likes G1 Transformers better than Voltron and Xena, but he likes Planet hulk even better still. And... erm... that's it. Short segment this week, huh?

Other stuff--I've been using the heck out of the Olympus VN8100PC I got for Xmas. Plan on putting up an in depth review later in the week, but tl;dr is: this is the best cheap-voice-recorder-for-writers currently available.

Writing on a voice recorder is a very different experience from typing. More difficult, definitely, because of the lack of visual input and editing capabilities. Even so, I am finding it quite usable for a zero-draft level of writing. It's probably not much of a time-saver just yet, but I think with practice it will be.

As I get more competent with the process/workflow I will do a blog on how to get the most from spare time and a voice recorder (for writers.) Nitty gritty sirt if stuff.

For now, though, I will say that he key is practice, and lots of it. You can't expect a new productivity tool to change your life immediately. Sometimes they do, but often it's the work put in now that pays off down the line. Like an investment in yourself.

I learned this from Fortune Street.

And that's all I got for this week. Next week will be quarterly report number three (slightly overdue.) See you then.

Hot News - First Ebook Now Available

Big news - I just published my first ebook. This is otherwise known as putting your money where your mouth is. The story is called Tes-Nin's Elbows, and it is available via Smashwords for free. It's a novelette, about 9,500 words, or 38 pages.

Go here to download it for free.

I have it in submission to Amazon as well, but their review process will take a day or so. I am fairly sure, based on my experience with Smashwords, that I will end up having to reformat and re-upload it to Amazon.

Technical notes - I created the cover myself using Gimp (Linux's answer to photoshop.) It looks a bit plain, but decent enough for a first try. I wanted to avoid dealing with photos and licensing. I also don't much care for the photo with text slapped on look of many ebooks. I will likely go back and re-do the cover later, when I have my sea-legs.

It took me about 6 hours to get the whole thing done, from opening my browser to typing this blog. I think I can get it done in an hour or so next time. The covers might take a bit longer, if I continue to do them sans photos. We'll see.

I have a few more stories that I haven't had any success selling to the high-paying markets, so once all the dust has settled from this little hoo-haw, I will likely get to work on those titles.

Plus, Tes-Nin's Elbows is only the first story in the Hammers and Hexes series.

The First Rule of Self Publishing

There are lots of first rules. Goodkind promulgated the Wizard's First Rule. Asimov put forth the First Law of Robotics. You do not talk about Fight Club. And so on.

One of my favorite first rules is the first rule of gunfighting - Have a gun. This rule can be applied to many situations besides an armed encounter. Like self publishing electronically. Or, for that matter, submitting traditionally. The rule? Have a manuscript.

Sounds dumb, I know, but it is a very useful reminder for me. It's easy to get caught up in the internet hubbub, social media and publishing gossip. Promotions seem alluring, gotta get the word out, right? Wrong.

The first and most important thing I need to be doing, every day I can, is writing new work. Absolutely has to come first. When I have a manuscript to show for my efforts, and it's up for sale, then maybe some promotion is in order. But, it's all to easy to get the horse before the cart.

I am currently of the belief that the best promo I can do is to put out new works, though. And one of the rules of gunfighting that many people put second is - have a back-up gun. So the second rule of Book Club is the nearly same as the first rule - Have another manuscript.

My Take on Gatekeepers, As a Reader

First things first, a personal note - I cannot stand arrogance. The attitude that people have sometimes that they are better than me. Not more skilled at some certain activity, or more accomplished. I'm talking flat-out snobbishness.

I'm just saying. We're all big boys and girls. We should be pretty well capable of picking out the books we want to read, right?

My reaction to the gatekeeper argument, the idea that big publishers are necessary as gatekeepers, to tell the readers what is or isn't good? I don't buy it. Every time I pick up a book in a library, browse it, and decide not to read it, I'm being my own gatekeeper.

No matter how much crap is out there, it's easy to avoid.
Especially with book sampling, social networks, and so on. I have a huge to be read list, and it's all stuff recommended by friends. Not publishers.

If a gatekeeper function is all big publishers offer readers, I don't see readers continuing to be willing to pay three times the price for a paper book vs an ebook. I certainly don't see why an author would want to accept 1/4 the royalties just for the approval of a publisher.

This all may read as bitter, but I assure you it isn't. I have no ill-will towards any publisher, big, small, or self. Nor do I have any bias against any writer's choice on how they disseminate their work.

As a reader, however, and a consumer (which every reader is), I don't see the value in dealing with intermediaries, when the cost is so high.

Tes-Nin's Elbows

It looks like it is time for me to self publish my first short story. In the last few months I've written a bunch of them, and many of them are in submissions various places. I would love to sell all of them to magazines first, before I put them up, but that is probably unrealistic.

I also need to get some experience with epubbing, need a story to podcast, and want to start getting some stuff out top the readers. I am prolific enough (so far) that sacrificing a few stories to this end is no big deal. Especially if they exceed my expectations, which are pretty low.

To clarify that last point, I think Tes-Nin's Elbows is a great story. It's funny, it has lots of clever bits, my wife liked it and my mom hated it. What more could any writer ask for?

But, selling fiction online really needs a presence. Even if the story is actually good (I'll find out soon enough, right?), it will be the only one I have up until I get the next one up. And it will be thirty or so more times doing that before I have a decent, interconnected web of content, which is necessary to snare all those readers. Like flies, muah ha ha ha ha.

So this is mostly just a test-case/DIY workshop for me. Laying down that first brick on the (yellow) road sort of thing. I'll  let y'all know how it goes, when it goes. And of course put up a link.

The other salient points about this particular story are that it is fairly long, I have already written another story in the same universe, and it is ripe for a sequel, or more. If it does well, tomorrow or ten years from now, it has potential for expansion as an IP.

It also has potty jokes, orcs, and a really big hammer.

I'm planning on making it free on smashwords, because I want readers more than money right now. Maybe always keep the latest story free, I haven't planned that far ahead yet. The podcast will be free as well. If I ever get my own web-site, I may put them up for free there as well. We'll see.