Post Book Launch: Reflections

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I had a bad cold rolling into the launch of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils.”  It kept me from being as active on social media as I’d planned.  It kept me from feeling either excited or nervous.  Most of me just wanted everything to be over.  It felt like a slow grind towards an inevitable conclusion.  I wasn’t even a little happy, and I don’t feel different now that we launched the book.  

The one bright side to my illness is I also don’t feel let down.  All this time I’ve been pushing for a strong release of “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” and bracing for silence.  It’s been hard to stay so positive and strong while trying to keep expectations low.  Realistically, only my friends, family, and husband’s friends/family will read or buy this book.  And that stings because I’ve gone way out of my comfort zone to promote this book.  I’ve spent a lot of time and energy trying to be friendly and charming and trying to find the right audience to enjoy my book.  And I love “Follow Me: Tattered Veils” like it’s a living person and part of me feels like I’ve failed her.  I’m like that parent that couldn’t figure out how their kid’s skill set could land them a successful career… or I saw that potential, but I couldn’t steer the kid in the right direction.  

Now that I’m recovering from the cold, I feel like there’s all this lost time to make up for.  I’ve got all these posts on writing and goals I have for 2020, and I haven’t hit most of them.  I have to face it: I won’t meet a lot of my goals (writing and otherwise).  And it’s leaving me feeling desperate to make up for lost time.  

I’m anxious to write, and it’s been so long, the creative writing part of my brain feels rusty and misused.  

So now you want me.  When I was romping and playing in the background, shouting for you to stop and write, you didn’t have time or you felt too sick, but now you want me just to appear on demand.  Well, good luck.  

People talk about “recovering from the book launch” and I’m sitting here and laughing because I am literally recovering from being sick as much as the nerves of the launch and the pressure to be “on”.  But some things I’m trying to keep in mind as I move forward:

1. Be kind to me.  There’s stuff that’s fucked up this book and it’s too late to take it back.  I need to forgive myself for any missteps or things I didn’t do or know to do for this launch.  

2. Don’t linger.  I need to get up and move the fuck on.  I’ve got two major drafts I’m working on.  I have a novella I’d love to find a sensitivity beta reader for and I would love love love love love to self publish it.   I work a full-time job, I have a dog and a husband and I have all this work I want to do.  I can’t wallow in lost time.  And I can’t wait for my creative side to be ready, I might need to force it a little until I find my routine.

3.  The book is out and published.  Same way I didn’t wake up and have a complete novel ready to publish, I can’t expect people just come in to buy it.  It will be a war of attrition to make back the money spent or to get people to read and enjoy the book.  

4. It’s not 100% over.  I have a few more promotional blogs to write/publish.  AND starting March 15th I launch “Roxi’s Podcast” where I do a read along for “Follow Me: Tattered Veils.”  My intentions are to reward early adopters of this story with some further insight into the creation and meaning of the story AND to entice some readers who are on the fence.  My team and I pre-recorded most of the podcasts, but we have at least two or three more to record.

Looking for more posts about the writing and publishing process?  Check out more posts on my novel publication process: Going Through Copy Edits, 1st Daft vs 2nd Draft, Goal Planning: Getting Through the First Draft, My Character Looks Nothing Like My MC, Cover Art: Truth in Advertising, and Post Book Launch: Reflections.  

Want to know more about my novel?  Check out my childhood stories recapping themes in my life I hope prepared me to write this book: Remember the Magic of Santa?, Closet Monsters: Gone too Far?, and Garden Gnomes and other Evils.

OR check out my series where I find similarities between my novel and other popular media.  Hopefully it gives you a better idea whether there are elements in my book you may enjoy. Lost Girl Comparison, American Gods Comparison, and The O.A. Comparison.

MY BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT AMAZON!!!  Please go look at "Follow Me: Tattered Veils" and see if it might be a story that interests you.

2020 Writer's Goal Tracking System

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I have one planner that has the personal, work, home, and writing goal all incorporated and vying for my attention.  It is impossible for me to separate one part of me like the “writer” and talk only about that because it’s connected to my mental, relationship, and spiritual self.  While I’m attempting to talk about my writing habit, there will be bleed over. 

I’m not a organized person.  Those who know me best will tell you I’m on my personal time bubble.  I am the LAST person they would take scheduling tips from.  Even my husband is befuddled when he comes into my writing room and sees all the calendars, color blocks, and spreadsheets.  “I’m very productive, just not when it comes to the dishes,” I tease him. 

How does it work?  I have 2 planners.  One shows the current week and the other looks at next week.  First, I fill out my retail job hours (always changing from week to week), then I create the weekly meal plan, write a grocery list, and schedule when I will go grocery shopping.  Next I make plans for the blogs, social media, and writing.  After that, I try to get to work completing these plans and “leaving space” for social time, chores, and “spiritual wellbeing.”

Then I use my daily planner to record how I spend my time. I take notes as needed to remind myself not only how I used the time but what I got accomplished.  For example, I brag “I can write and post a blog in 30 minutes”.  In actuality I can write the draft of 3 blogs in an hour and a half then edit, schedule, tag, and find a picture in another hour and a half.  Real talk: I either need more time for blogging or I need to blog less.  But I would never know that without my daily planner recording how long things take.

My daily planner also includes when the sun rises and sets, what day it is in my made up time flow (a system I’ve used for five years), the moon phase, and an inspirational quote—I write all of this in by hand about a month in advance.  It makes for a pretty page that offers some inspiration on those grouchy days. 

I also have a journal where I put all the extemporaneous stuff.  So things I should do, what I accomplished from week to week, what I need to work on, notes on my sigil research. Etc.  MY planners have the processes and actions but my journal has all that secret stuff I’m testing and not ready to share.  My journal is full of thoughts I might want to keep and reflect on where most of the planner stuff will end up being recycled at the end of the year. 

Each week I review "wins" and "opportunities."  I adjust the next week's plans based on last week.  Then I review each month and decide the three things that went the best and three things that went the worst.  I trouble shoot the areas that didn't go well, and tweak my plan for the best outcome.

I’m not good with time, never that, but I am getting better. This year, I look forward to sharing some of my pages and successes and shortcomings.  If you are interested in seeing my pages in action, keep an eye out on my Facebook or Instagram page, as I plan to post pictures there.

Talk to me!  Do you follow a calendar that’s different from a western one?  Have you ever created your own organizational system?  Why, what did it look like?  What was important for you in making it? 

Looking for more planning goodness?  See my personal 2020 writer's goals.  I also have advice on how to plan your first draft and a post on a online goal planner, Habitica and how it might help writers.

6 Steps To a Twitter Success: Altered Plans

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After 15 weeks on Twitter, I thought I’d update my Twitter routine.  There are little tweaks here and there.  It turns out I only continue to use six of the eight original points in my plan and the steps I keep, I‘ve altered.  Want to compare? Check out the old 8 step plan

1. Create and Share Interesting and Unique Content

This is the foundation of my Twitter process.  In the past week, I‘ve done more straight Retweets because I haven‘t had time to share my own thoughts, but even then I share what I like.

2. Schedule Posts. 

Post scheduling makes everything else in my writing plan work.  Without Hootsuite, I wouldn’t be able to maintain a presence on Twitter.  My style of interacting is less constant than some of my more outgoing peers.  Post planning allows me to use that time and spread it out across the day so I can look outgoing while I’m sitting cozy with my dog or at work going through the motions.  Plus, when I have the “bright” idea to share blog content, I can spread it out across days instead of dropping too much self promotion all at once.  

3. Create More Personal Connections on the Medium

This happened/ is happening in unexpected ways, but yes.  I have a sense of “regulars” whom I Retweet or are most likely to respond to my posts/comments.  I’m getting more comfortable and can maintain a conversation for longer.  Sometimes I worry I talk about the same thing too much or my Tweets might bore, but then I remember that almost no one consumes my Twitter content all at once.  Their feed shows it intermittently and people go days without even seeing anything from me (when they have larger followings).

Building this Twitter empire has been eye opening.  No matter what a person does with the algorithms, nothing seems as important as connecting with other people. Granted, I got into this to find an audience so people would always be the focus, but somehow I thought I’d learn more about maneuvering around them and using software tools to get in front of the right eyes.  It’s far more organic than that, and I think with no other tools than these three, a person could find their audience on Twitter.


4. Use of Hashtags

While I’ve used hashtags to my benefit, I am a lot more relaxed about it than I expected.  Some Tweets blow up and others don’t.  Same hashtags, same time of day, but different results.  What’s more important is getting noticed and shared by someone with a large following that‘s different from yours.  

Hashtags help me find other people with like minds that I haven‘t seen yet.  They also help my posts get noticed by different but similar groups.  To that end, they are important, but again, it comes back to people taking the next step and sharing you with the audience they’ve built.  

I don’t hunt in the Hashtags as much as I should, but so many new people come to my attention in an organic method, it‘s hard to follow them and anything happening in the Hashtag game.  When I have to choose, I choose the people.

5. Check in 

So I try to “Check in” every three-ish days.  What this means is that I pick a few new followers profiles and a few profiles of people who liked or retweeted something and I look through their feed.  If I like their content or their bio, I friend them.  Doing this once a week was way too overwhelming.  Committing to look at everyone who had eyes on me was also overwhelming.  I’m sorry if I overlooked you through this process.  I can promise that if you continue to interact with me, I check out your profile and feed, eventually.  And I follow—it takes over one interaction to get my attention these days.

6.  Use Twitter Analytics:

Still do this weekly.  My updates lack my desired consistency.  I will rectify that by drafting on Sunday.  The metrics won‘t be as accurate but at least the blog will come out.  Knowing where you stand is the only way to know if what you are doing is helping or hurting your goals, but also, I love numbers.  It fascinates me.  I learn more about what is important on the platform every day.  What interests me most (that I don‘t share with you guys) is the “Audiences” tab.  The most common interest for my followers is dogs and science news.  The male to female split is 50/50.  Most of my audience is American and they prefer to use laptops/desktops.  What does this stuff tell me: I don’t know, but I like having this information.  It makes me feel closer to the random voices I stumble across on Twitter.

Talk to me.  Do you use Twitter and if so for what?  Are you building a following and if so how?  Do you have tips or tricks to help find others with shared interests?  Do you like Twitter or do you prefer a different social media?  

Looking for the numbers? Check out my Monday Metrics Posts on:  11/19, 11/12,  11/5, 10/22, 10/15 10/9, 10/1, 9/24,  9/17, and  9/10

Batching Projects for Efficiency

image from open clipart.org provided by J4p4n

I read "How Can I build My Platform and Still Have Time to Freelance Write?" bt Elna Cain.  If her article had been "and Still Have Time to Creatively Write?" she'd have written a post just for me.  As it is, I found one insight interesting.

Cain  batches her tasks to maximize efficiency.  Batching, according to Cane is about putting similar tasks together to save time.  Like she writers all her articles for her clients and her own blogs, then after that's done she goes ahead and finds the graphics for those posts.

On reflection, when I retroactively added pictures to older posts, instead of adding photos as I went, it was faster.  So right away, I'm stoked to try batching to improve efficiency!   The next obvious question: what can I batch?

Like Cain, I can write blog posts for my personal blog and The North Alabama Writers' Group together and then go look for pictures.  I could also throw in my book reviews for Goodreads (long backlog).  I've already written a list of all the posts I need to write and a tentative schedule for them.

Also like Cain I could find the pictures AFTER I write all the posts.

In my creative writing, I can batch edit complete stories.  Likewise, the research for my creative writing, my social media links, and my blogs could all happen together.

I'm always trying to batch my social media presence.  First, I check the North Alabama Writers' Blog and tackle the comments waiting approval, then I swing here and see if there are comments, then I go to twitter and check on my notifications, see if I need to do anything with those.  Afterward I jump to Hootsuite and post schedule.  Then I go to Commun.it and see if there's anything popular I need to respond to and then I jump to ManageFlitter and unfollow about 50 people. After that, I try not to look at social media again at all until the evening because while it's a powerful tool to reach an audience it's also a notorious time waster--mixed results there.  I',m going to have a ton of difficulty batching Social Media when I expand out to something beyond Twitter, and Goodreads.  For my sanity I will wait at least a month and hope some "check now" compulsion goes away.


Does anyone else batch tasks?  If so, what do you throw together?  Is there anything else I could combine to help my efficiency?

Putting On My War Paint: Time To Twitter

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Two years ago, I began an ill-advised campaign to write/freelance blog/publish a book.  I bit off way more than I could chew.  My goals were too broad, and I added in more things I "had" to do too often. I decided the whole circus wasn't for me.  Instead, I focused on my writing, I reached out to agents, and got grass roots and joined a local writers' group.  

Well, I'm back at it again, trying to make something work.  What different this time?

First, my goals are more limited.  I'm looking to create a genuine community and audience for my creative writing endeavors.  

Second, I'll work with a team of fellow local writers trying to stir interest in our different projects instead of trying to shoulder all the work on my own.

Third, I've got a very strict schedule I plan to adhere to.

I will pursue audience by:

1. Posting in The North Alabama Writers' Group Blog, writers group blog I hope my fellow writers will join me in maintaining.  I've been curating it for the last year.  If the blog was a plant, it wouldn't survive my tender care, even if it was a cactus.  20 posts in 33 weeks sounds ok, but the spacing is fubar-ed.  Nothing between April until July and now I'm blitzing posts every four days.  Pacing in my social engineering needs some fine tuning.

2. Reviving my Twitter account and trying to mobilize old contacts while also making new contacts.  Of social media, Twitter seems to be the most manageable for me.   Short bursts into the void seems more tolerable.

 My previous attempts saw scattered successes.  This time, I have a specific plan for each day that should help me interact in ways that will be more meaningful but also be fun.  I also think Twitter will be less frustrating this time vs my last attempt.  The goal this time is to interact with people and show a little of who I am where the goal last time was to funnel traffic to the blog.  It's cool if you guys come to the blog, but I'm not in Twitter for that.

3. Bringing this blog back as a recording tool to track success/failure.  I love analytics and I know there have to be dozens of others who would show up for the statistic updates.  Beyond what interests others, there's something about complete statistical transparency that feels good.  It's a weird moral high ground, but if it makes me happy and accomplished, why not?

4. I will also use the pages option in this blog to create an organized collection of resources I use for writing, measuring analytics, doing the social media, and so on.  It would be soooo cool if this kind of researching helped others, but the pages would be a success if I didn't have to hunt and peck all the time for stuff I half remember once having a link and description to.

5. I will reinvest in my creative writing by taking a work shopping class.  I miss the creative writing classes I took in college and the structure might give me the kick in the butt I need to produce again.  Tired of standing in one place.

6. Write!  The workshop should help but key to the "revive my social media to gain audience" campaign is the assumption I have stories ready to share.