Another week, another round of pondering. Revisions to The Warden of Everfeld: Memento are coming along. I have about 40 pages to go to complete my first read-through. I’d like to do that by Sunday so I can start gearing up for NaNo 2016.

It’s been difficult to push forward to the end of this novel revision, because I already have an idea of how much of the final three or four chapters will change. A growing part of me just wants to start revising. But, I also know that I want to create an outline of the changes I intend to make before tackling my alpha readers’ manuscripts — it’s likely they’ll all point issues out that I did not see, or overlooked as minor.

One other aspect of this process has been bugging me recently: how to efficiently distribute my novel. I’m not  delusional enough to assume that I’ll be selling hundreds of copies; I’d be happy with a couple dozen. But still, receiving orders and shipping out copies myself doesn’t seem viable. I know that I can sell copies to Amazon to keep at their warehouses, but that’s about as far as I’ve gotten. So, can any self-published authors out there give me a little insight? What channels do you use to actually distribute your novels?

NaNo 2016 Prep!

As I said earlier, I plan to have my read-through of WoEM finished by Sunday. That means that I can begin preparing for Naitonal Novel Writing Month coming up on November 1. And that means I need to decide on a project.

Okay, that’s mostly a lie. I’m 98% sure that I will be working on the follow-up to WoEM. I’m calling it a follow-up rather than a sequel, because I’m shifting focus a bit between books one and two. But that means I’ll be spending the next two weeks outlining an all-new story, which is… exciting!

I honestly think it will be good for me to cut my worn writing teeth on a raw draft once more. I’ve been so wrapped up in revising and fine-tuning the last three months that just plain writing should actually be a nice change of pace.

I have a title for part two, but I’m not quite ready to announce it. Perhaps when I actually create my project on NaNo I will announce it. Oh! Join NaNo and add me as a writing buddy: dia820.

2016 Reading List

I sort of forgot that I was supposed to be reading 20 books this year. According to my GoodReads profile (also at dia820), I’ve read… three… which cannot be true. I just finished re-reading Game of Thrones for a second time, so that’s really four, but I swear I’ve read another in there somewhere. I don’t know.

The point is, I’ve started reading Parabolis by Eddie Han, a “novelzine”, according to the author, featuring an magazine-esque style of page formatting, not to mention some fantastic illustrations and designs throughout by Curt Merlo. I’ve just scratched the surface of this world with about 35 pages under my belt, but I’m already pumped to be neck-deep in this story. I anticipate talking about this one a lot more in the coming weeks.

Closing Statements

As usual with NaNo (since this is my third go-around), I’ll provide at least weekly updates on my progress.

Also, any writers starting to think about publishing and promoting your novels, check out my new series on marketing. I dropped part two on Tuesday, providing a more detailed survey of the major indirect marketing channels you can use. I’m thinking I’ll do a “Marketing Your Novel” post about every third Tuesday, so keep your eyes peeled.

Be good, and happy writing!

Steve D