I said it last year for the 2019 roundup and I’ll say it again here – this was the biggest year of my writing career so far, with 4 audiobooks out, ad spend up, pre-orders climbing, 2 new Wren releases and pretty regular income of $100-$200 a day. 3 major efforts defined the year: Getting Wren on genre Much of 2020 was spent learning just what I’d written with Christopher Wren, learning to market it, and then getting over various major downers that threw the whole series into doubt. I’ve said it countless times through the year in different ways …
Wren 2 cover evolution – 2020 Writing Week 52/3
2020 is over!! I’ll write a proper 2020 roundup and 2021 plans post later, but first I need to close out the pressing business of the last 2 weeks. No writing!! It is has been a super slug-like 2 weeks off, and I have loved every minute of it. I actually watched little TV or movies, rather I spent my time playing Civilization 6 – a game I thought for years was empty and unfun. Now I am seeing some greater depth and competitiveness. Going for a culture victory is way more fun than either science or domnation. But I …
Wren 1 cover evolution – 2020 Writing Week 51
Here at the edge of closing out 2020, it’s time for a retrospective on Wren book 1 covers. I just bought a new cover, and am kick-starting the process to get all 4 remaining books re-covered, and I’m extremely pleased. Here’s the new cover, absolutely fitting, expertly made, and pretty eye-catching: It’s gorgeous. It draws the eye. It looks totally pro and I believe can hold it’s own against competitors in the store – something my old covers couldn’t really claim. It’s been a long road. I think Wren’s found a home. Here’s where we’ve been over the past year …
Wren 6, community & 99designs – 2020 Writing Week 50
This week was busy but movement very stop-start – got a handful of words written on Wren 6, expanded the London Indie Authors meetup group, and had second thoughts about my brand new Wren 1 cover. Wren 6 words This time last week I had 2,000 words on Wren 6. Somehow, I have only bumped that up to 4,000 since. That includes the prolog, which may or may not be great, and chapter 2. I got carried away with Internet tinkering instead – as per the next two items: London Indie Authors FB group 2 weeks ago the co-organizer of …
Onto Wren 6! – 2020 Writing Week 49
Lots of movement on writing and marketing, with Wren 5 capped and sent to ARC readers, work on Wren 6 beginning, and some exciting new marketing opportunities in play. Wren 5 – Firestorm I polished up Wren 5 early in the week, ended up adding a new capstone as the final chapter, then sent it off to ARC readers right away. I’ve yet to hear back, but it’s only been 2 days. My goal is to launch on Monday 7th Dec. I’ve already had 97 pre-orders, which is a record for me. It has been available to pre-order for 6 …
Wren 5 final edits – 2020 Writing Week 48
Well well well, last week I said I’d be done with latter edits on Wren 5 Firestorm by Friday, and that is almost exactly what happened. On Friday I finished first draft editing up to the ante-penultimate chapter, leaving only 2 to go which I polished off on Saturday. Today I am beginning the final polish. Thus far I covered 7 chapters out of 50, but the beginning is always the slowest to polish – the most wrinkles need to be ironed out, dead trails removed, a few hints added in. Through the middle should be fast, the end pretty …
Wren 5 middle edits – 2020 Writing Week 47
This time last week I dreamed of finishing up Wren book 5 edits, but anticipated getting halfway, and that is exactly what has happened. I’m currently sitting at chapter 27 in the edits – I probably could have done more but for whatever reason procrastinated instead. I think I’ll be done in a week. It’s good, is my thinking so far. The engine looks tuned, and once that’s rolling in the background Wren gets to have some real fun. Promotion Today I have two decent-sized promotional pushes going on. The boxset of books 1-3, which has never had any kind …
Wren 5 early edits – 2020 Writing Week 46
This last week has been consumed with editing Wren 5 Firestorm. In the first half of the week I worked on the final few chapters which I’d blitzed out in a rush. I had been worried they wouldn’t be so hot, would need a lot of reworking, but they were pretty solid. The latter half of the week I started from the beginning. This is the heavy draft, for the deepest ‘ironing’ out of plot wrinkles. One thing I’m finding with all these books, I hit tangles around chapter 8. It’s the point where the opening fight is over, and …
Finished Wren 5! – 2020 Writing Week 44 & 45
After a hectic 2 weeks of writing, matched by the crazy American election going on in the background, Wren book 5 is done! This one is political, no doubt. Presidential politics, inauguration, mass rallies in Washington – as I was putting the finishing words to the final chapter, Joe Biden was finaly eking out his lead in Pennsylvania. The two felt absolutely entwined. I thought I might, coincidentally, finish the book on election day. I almost got there. Each day after I got a few thousands words a day, until Friday when it capped off, I logged back into CNN, …
Last 20k words of Wren 5! – 2020 Writing Week 43
The main news this week has been fresh words laid down on Firestorm – and they’ve been very revelatory for me. Last week closed out at 56,000, and this week closed at 64,000. That’s 8,000, which may not sound impressive, but it really felt like a lot. We covered a couple of major steps forward that I had to wind up to, and which even now need a fair bit of work. Deep backstory coming into play in beautiful, unexpected ways. I love it when things that I only fuzzily envisaged years ago click into place as if they’d been …