[Writer Post] Welcome to 2012
It’s a new year now. Hello, 2012. Pull up a chair. Stay a while. These first posts of the year are generally seen as “what I intend to do” posts. My sum up on that? More of “getting things done, darn it”. That’s always my goal – along with consistent writing (both in skill and amount).
The first quick and dirty thing I’ve managed to accomplish is a clean-up read of my collection When the Party’s Over. Not quite 2 years into the first run, we’re about to do a second printing. We have less than 20 copies of the first print run and a convention season starting. I’m pretty pleased with that, since I’ve “hand sold” each and every copy.
“Hand sold” for those who don’t know means copies are sold at conventions/appearances/family events on an individual basis and not through a store/distribution route. Most self-published (print) and small press books are sold this way – and through a website (occasionally Amazon if it’s a small press). And even if you do have distribution through a major publisher – you’ll still end up “hand selling” most of your books. It’s still one of the best marketing tools for writers…word of mouth.
I am currently rewriting my first novel – which I wrote in the early 1990s. Yeah, there was no revision, just rewriting. I’m basically reading a bit and then redoing it. Expanding word count, fixing the stuff that’s no longer acceptable, cutting a character…that kind of thing. It will (hopefully) be a much better book when it’s done. I want it out into submission processes by the end of the year.
While updating the book, I did come across a nifty tool…Time and Date.com. I had to bring the book forward to “now” and then 100+ years into the future. I did mention a day and date, so I needed to do some checking. It’s much easier NOW to come up with a future calendar than it was in 1991. Time and Date.com lets you create calendars for any year you need – at least through the 23rd century, because I created one for 2201, but I might back it off by quite a bit.
If you’re working with specific dates for something, please make use of this tool. Fans are notorious for calling “bull” on things that are – NOW – easily verified on line. Some things I could’ve gotten away with in the 1990s because there wasn’t such a thing as Google…not so much now.
And now, I need to get back to it. Convention season is upon us, which is the season of Time Management. Welcome to 2012.