desiresdd17 | Running in place... (Reply)

Greetings again...

And yes, I have another hot man up there to begin my post. Don't I always? Yeah well, I did it to not only catch your attention but illustrate how I feel right now. All wet... sweaty... even though that ain't sweat on this hottie... *winks*

Anyways, I feel pressured to produce. Why? I haven't subbed ANYTHING until the last couple of days. I've been busy learning, reading books on writing, taking classes and doing the freebie stories for BL's The Wretched. I did manage to finish Jayden for Rawiya which I'm rather excited about but until I subbed ML3 and UTG the new version by BL, I hadn't sent anything into publishers since like, oh I dunno, the first of the year?

Well, not counting the sub I just did for the charity anthology anyway. Seems like I'm running in place as far as my writing is concerned. I'm keeping up with word count, reading, learning but right now, I have no new releases to come out for the year.

So very different from last year when I think I had like 15 books come out with pubs as well as self pub. The royalties started rolling in and I even ended the year with a couple of best selling books on Amazon. This year it's been all about the Wretched, keeping up the monthly bit with Corey and company while I try fitting Michael and Rawiya around BL's rigorous schedule. The number of downloads say we should continue to do the freebies since they all have at least 2-300 downloads at Smashwords where I hardly make any money. Someone's paying attention there and so, I continue to churn out the Wretched Tales.

But even with those stories, I still feel like I've hit a wall. With the debacle at NBP, the pub that went down the tubes as well as troubles with another over moneys and statements, it makes me weary to sub anywhere. Sure I still want to see in work to publishers but I'd rather deal with those that have a good track record. No more small presses for me. I need to go bigger and ask my peers more questions. Although this is my plan, I'm also feeling a sense of self-doubt. Am I good enough to be with some of the bigger pubs? Can I produce a story that people will pick up when I sub to say Dreamspinner or LooseID? That theory was tested when I tried doing the subcall for MLR and because I didn;t feel the story was ready I nixed subbing to them.

Despite this, I still want to sub Jayden before the end of this year. It will most likely be my last sub of the year. On the Run won't be ready for subbing until January most likely and other that I Love it Rough, The Wretched Tales, and a possible Xmas Tale, I don't see myself with many new stories for this year.

It may seem like i'm panicking a little and well that's because I am. I recall when I first started how I was so prolific. I subbed short stories to pubs and they were accepted in anthologies. Then my first couple of stories came out for Michael, then BL, then Rawiya with NNP. Wow, I was on a roll but this year its the exact opposite. I sincerely hope that changes. I blame it on stress, the day job for one, takes a lot of my time and well, I have a family so a lot of my brain power goes there.

I wonder how people are able to juggle all of it. Working FT, writing, family, etc. I guess I'm just not that strong. At least not yet but I hope to be stronger as I continue to strive to be the best author I can be!

* * * * *

Progress

Sent Something Like Jayden to the betas
Subbed UTG by BL and ML3, editing UTG2
Writing Ryland and Ryder's third book and about to do I Love it Rough
Thinking about a possible print or full volume for the Wretched
Halloween short for the Wretched and or Nathan/Bryant
Christmas story... not sure what characters