When your novel manuscript version number goes up one

I gave my manuscript draft four weeks to cool down. During that time I was able to take a break and enjoy some non-writing things before going back for the first round of revisions.

The first thing that I did was read the box set for Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles. I had gotten it for Christmas last year and after putting it on the shelf never got around to reading it. Now that I've gone through the entire thing I feel a nice little sense of accomplishment that I was able to get the complete story of Taran and company. While I thought the overall story was just OK, what I did enjoy was seeing the historical roots for a lot of fantasy tropes. There's the "chosen one," magical swords, prophecy, comedic sidekicks, wise old wizards, and powerful shadowy antagonists with nebulous motives. My reading slows to almost nothing when I'm writing, so it was night to just relax and read for fun.

Now that I'm back in "Revision Mode," I'm able to take stock of the first draft and see (hopefully with fresh eyes) where the problem spots are and get them fixed. Revising is much easier for me than drafting. Getting the words on the page takes a long time and a lot of effort, but revising feels more natural. There's already something there to build off of and is less intimidating. I've talked on podcasts before about my writing process, and the version numbers go up fairly quickly when revising. My first pass is developmental, where I really try to nail down continuity for the characters (where they are and what they are doing). I also work to keep track of a character's inventory, especially when traveling. Copy and line edits come next, but I'll talk more about those when I get to that part.

On the marketing and promotion front, I've been sending queries out to podcasters and landed one for early July. I'll have more details when it gets closer to recording. I've noticed a pattern that when I send out a pitch to a podcast host that the traffic on my website has a tiny uptick, so I know they got my message. However, more often than not, I never get a direct reply from them. That's a bummer, but the nice thing is that there seems to be new podcasts or YouTube channels popping up all the time. I'll keep plugging away and celebrate the successes when they happen.

I'm also working on getting a table at a regional book fair this October. That's much farther off, but I made sure I put my application in because I wanted to get my books out in front of a crowd. I recently got another royalties check in the mail from my publisher and was very happy to see the dollar amount was higher than last year. I've cleared 50 sales for my debut novel in two years and 30 sales for my follow-up in its first year. Small numbers by any measure, but I'm happy because the commonly stated factoid is that indie authors sell less than 50 copies of any given book. What that tells me is that I'm past the "friends and family" tier and dipping my toe into the "local author" tier. I'll take that because slow progress is still progress.

Thanks for stopping by.