Reidr Daniels

Thanks again, Iain. I appreciate your taking the time to enlighten me. It all seems a little daunting. I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions once I actually get underway.

Congratulations Caroline. What's the one thing that most stands out about your self-publishing experience?

Thanks so much Iain. Questions:

I have no familiarity with Canva. Did it provide the degree of flexibility you wanted? Do you need to have artistic talent to use it? Why Canva rather than a professional designer?

To what do you attribute your success with Bookbub?

How have your sales gone? Have you continued to advertise?

Cheers.

Love the air mattress idea, Holly. Good luck with the move.

Like everyone else, I had a month of "writus interruptus". But I did achieve my first goal: Novel #1, 'Pyrate Rising' is now ready to go. Not sure exactly where yet. 

I only got one-third of the way on my second goal: final edit of Novel #2, 'Pyrate Assassin'. 

For July, I plan to finish editing Novel 2 for the last time and get at least half-way through my final edit of Novel #3, 'Pyrate Crossover'. I'm aiming to have the trilogy ready by August.

Did you see the documentary series on Hemingway? He was rejected often. Just keep pushing...as long as you still enjoy writing.

Well done! Celebrate.

Thanks Eli. Great to hear. Keep us posted on your experiences. I'm crossing my fingers for you.

Congratulations Jordan. I'm excited for you. Hope you're wildly successful.

I'm a writer. I believe it...I just don't tell others that. It seems a little presumptuous. I've told a few people that "I'm witing novels". I've written three completed manuscripts and have two in process. None of them published. At least, not yet. 

I did write a book on family history and sent digital copies to close relatives. One of my cousins self-published it for me on Amazon, so that family members could purchase an actual book. So, in a way, I backed into being an "author". But I won't ever call myself that until I've published my first novel. Then I'll publicly and proudly claim both - writer and author.

Hey Sarita, no need to worry or feel badly. Feedback is simply an opportunity to learn from others. I've had several readers/critics. Their input helps me rethink what I've written. I try to put myself in their shoes and then do my best to incorporate their feedback...in my own way. I don't always accept everything they suggest but I ask myself how their thoughts can help me make my manuscript better. Just keep writing until you, personally, feel excited about what you've written. Then it's ready.

Good for you Holly. Best of luck with the new place...and the new book-in-process.

I had a prodcutive May, though not entirely as-planned. My wife provided outstanding advice on elements of my first novel, Pyrate Rising. I incorporated her input but now have to re-read the entire manuscript, to ensure it still flows and synchs. I'm halfway through and will finish this month. This will be my final self-edit.

I got wrapped up in polishing and repolishing all five of my submissions to Page Turner Awards. The deadline was May 31. The word limit was 3,000 and the logline limit was 300 characters. The obvious challenge was to maxximize the content while minimizing the text. An excellent discipline to master. But...that interrupted my editing goals for novels 2 and 3.

For June, I will wrap up Pyrate Rising and complete the rev 7 edit of Pyrate Assassin (Novel 2). With luck, I'll make good progress on editing rev 7 of Pyrate Crossover as well.