Make the day count....

Things are moving along in the plan that I have for this year. My goal is to publish the first novel of the Heaven Hill series Meant to Be in August. I don’t want to give an exact date. I’ve read the horror stories of other self-pub authors who gave a date and then it uploaded late to Amazon or B&N or Smashwords. So for right now, I’m just planning on it being August.

I emailed a cover artist and am pretty sure that I’ll be working with her in the near future. I emailed a couple and she seemed to be the only one that got what I was going for. When it’s official, I’ll link her up and everything. 

Now all I’ve got to do is finish the re-write and edits…then it will be going to the editor. I’ve been working really hard lately, doing my best to do something every day and not to let anything get to me.

Recently I was called selfish. It hurt me at the time, but now I understand that I am selfish. I’m selfish with my time and I’m selfish with my stories. I’m that way because I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished and because I want to accomplish more. It’s not about being a ‘celebrity’ or being ‘famous’ – whatever people want to call it and however they want to interpret it. It’s simply about me wanting to do something for myself. It’s about me wanting to be able to support myself doing what I love.

If writing seemed like work, then it wouldn’t be something that I love to do. So really, I do this because it makes me feel better about me. I don’t need other people to tell me I’m good or they like what I’ve created. Yes, it makes me feel accomplished and puts a smile on my face, but this is about what I want to do. This is about what I’m doing to make a difference with my own life.

If there was one thing my Dad taught me. It was to have a dream.

My Dad always had a dream and he died before he could make it a reality – at 39.  He only had 8 more years than me on this earth and he always talked about making his dreams come true. He worked toward it yes, but he was never able to make that happen. I want badly to make my dreams come true….not only for me, but for him too. If I have to be selfish to do that – then I’m okay with it and I would hope that people who truly believe in me would understand that.

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My Business Plan

This is rough, pretty rough actually. The thing is, you can never predict how others are going to interpret your work and if they are willing to pay their hard earned dollars to buy something that you created. I'm counting that some people will...so this is what I've made for myself. It's very simple, but my wants and needs are also very simple.

2013

1. February and March

•  Re-write and revise ‘Meant to Be’ 

2. April

•  Start the professional revision process

3. May & June

•  Begin the cover art process 

• Format all different files 

4. July

•  Market the hell out of it 

5. August

•  Release ‘Meant to Be’ 

6. Rest of the year

•  I want to try to sell 500 copies before the end of the year. There will be a time where it will be free, but I want to sell 500 copies for whatever price I set it for. 

•  Get the next story ‘Out of Darkness’ ready to go for the first of the year 2014. 

Once I see how this goes – I will make the rest of the plan. My overall plan is to be working for myself doing this in the next 3-5 years.

This is my tentative plan and like I said earlier - you never can predict how this is going to go.  You can only work hard, hope, pray and dream!

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