CONFLICT available, and new covers

Yes, Conflict in the Cove is available for sale! Click here for that bad boy. And the fourth installment of Elliot and Sky's story (Combat in the Cold) is coming... slated for January 2018! 

Along with the last book will be the final cover changes... this series was what I cut my teeth on in writing novels.

You should have seen the earliest versions, of both the novels and the covers. I've learned a LOT since 2010, and while I've watched so many others soar into millionairehood around me, I'm still puttering around over here with my little books, but something's changed since this summer. Perhaps some weird combination of things -- the kids are older and more able to function without me 24-7, life is operating at a somewhat even keel right now, we're in our house and no longer renting (renting does weird things to my psyche because I never feel settled), all of which leaves me more thinking time, more working time, or maybe because all of the nitty gritty details about publishing in general don't scare me anymore. 

What really helped with that was getting out there, meeting other authors, finding the best pages on FB to follow, learning from them -- and that means learning what to do and what NOT to do -- and then whittling all of this down into a handful of lists:

• To sell books, you need THREE THINGS: a great book, a great blurb, and a great cover. 
• As far as marketing goes, do THREE THINGS WELL: have a newsletter, have a great comic con presence, Facebook ads, Amazon ads, do book clubs in your area for word of mouth, create great tie-ins for your series... choose THREE and excel with those three things. 
• And write every day. EVERY FREAKING DAY. 

And that's it. That's basically my business plan at this point. So I need to get to work. 

AIRTABLE
I have started using Airtable -- I'm working my way up to the pro plan, but I've found I'm able to do quite a bit with the free templates available to slobs like me. So far, I used their "Project Tracker" and renamed it "Novel Tracker," and now I have this great database where I've plugged in the books already published, plus all of the books I have planned. So far there are 22 books on that list (6 are already out) and I have more books swirling around in my head. 

But at a glance, I can see their titles, their series, if they're plotted, date for final draft, date to betas, date to publish, ISBNs, notes, etc. Plus, everything can be color-coded and that makes everything more fun. So I'm excited to work in more of their templates into my business plan. Excel has always freaked me out a bit, and AIRTABLE is sort of a mix of scrapbooking and Excel. If that makes sense. It probably doesn't, but that's okay. LOL 

Off to work on the daily word count!