Writing Update: February Goals and My Writing Space

 

Happy Wednesday!

Since there are five Wednesdays this month, I have my goals post today. Otherwise, it'll be with Bookworm News posts.

Here are my February goals:

• Create a map of the Kingdom of Amora. I know how long it takes the characters to get from place to place. Now it's time to figure distances and draw the map for the trilogy.
• Finish outlining Redestined. I've finished through Chapter 27 in my outline for book three of The Fate Challenges, but I still have a few chapters left in Part II and all of Part III to outline. My guess is Redestined will have around forty-five or so chapters and will be the longest book of the trilogy.
• Continue working on Reforged. With NaNoWriMo 2013, I wrote up to Chapter 16 in Reforged. In January, I've been editing/rewriting the beginning. I'm hoping to be able to write new chapters by the end of February.
• Edit an old short story. Untethered Realms is putting together an anthology. I originally thought about writing a new story, but I found an old story of mine that'll work, I think. It's time to do an edit on it, so I can get it ready for the anthology.

I'll be taking a break from Reborn as soon as I finish this final edit, so my proofreader can have a go at it. If I get it back sooner than March 1st, then I'll start working on it again in February, but it can wait until March. I'd like a fairly clean copy to go to my reviewers in mid-March.

I've also made a decision about Neighbors of Foxwick. Originally, I planned to release this seven-story collection in February. With the stress of Reborn as well as having some health issues (I'm having some out-patient surgery on February 12th) and editing so much in December, I was finding it difficult to get into the right frame of mind to edit these stories. I had planned to tackle them again in February, so I could still release the collection in late February or sometime in March, but then I realized something. This Fall, I'm publishing People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors, a collection which will include Women of Foxwick, Men of Foxwick, and Neighbors of Foxwick, so instead of publishing a new collection and then combining all three, I can just combine all three and publish them, so there will be new stories for people. [By the way, here's the cover art for People of Foxwick. Isn't it lovely? The talented Laura Sava illustrated the cover art like she did with Reborn. The cover features Umbria a.k.a. Lady Death and her pet black unicorn. There is a back cover too, since the collection will be in print and ebook formats, but you'll have to wait to see it.]

Personally, I've found most people want the complete collection instead of individual ones, especially when it comes to shorter works. For example, I sell almost two times more Gravity: The Complete Trilogy than I do the individual ebooks put together. Last year, I had four months I didn't sell a single copy of Defying Gravity, nine for Fighting Gravity, and ten for Pull of Gravity, yet I sell copies every month of the complete collection. It's different for my horror works, since I had Once Upon a December Nightmare free for so long, but I'm curious to see if that changes, since it's $0.99 again (sequel is $2.99 and entire collection is $2.99). I know they say having more works out there leads to more discovery of your work, but to be honest, I sold more when I had one ebook out than I do now.

I'd like to eventually take down the individual ebooks and keep the collections only of my shorter works. I'll likely do that sometime this year with Gravity and do the same with my Foxwick Chronicles short stories. So if I'm going to take down the shorter collections this year, then why put a new one out when I'll likely take it down in six months? I can wait and release the entire People of Foxwick and Their Neighbors (an 80,000-word short story collection) and put it for a cheaper introductory price for a couple weeks and then raise it to its normal price. That way people who have purchased the shorter collections can get the entire collection for the same price I would've sold Neighbors of Foxwick.

That said, I plan to start working on People of Foxwick in May/June, since Reborn will be out of the way. I will likely write Loveless (Book One of Less Than Princess Perfect series) during this time, since it's part of the Foxwick world. Then, it'll be time to go back to Amora in August/September for Reigned (Prequel) and then Redestined (Book Three) after that.

Also, A-Z Blogging Challenge sign-ups are going on! Unfortunately, this year I won't be able to participate on this blog. With publishing my debut novel in May, I just have a bit too much to do in April, but I will be participating with the authors of Untethered Realms. We're going to be talking about creatures--and not the normal kind.

What are your goals for next month?

2014 Stats

4,095 Words Written

259 Pages Edited

*Stats taken from 1/1/2014 - 1/28/2014*

Also, I'm over at Nutshell's blog today where she featured me and my writing space, so pull up a chair and see where the magic happens.