Lovelyn Bettison

Paranormal Horror and Suspense

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Looking for Reviews

Flying Lessons is finally finished. I put it up on Kindle, Barnes and Nobles, and Smashwords during the weekend. Now that it is up I’m looking for reviews. Maybe I should’ve gotten some reviews before I actually put it up, but sometimes I can be a bit backwards.

There are so many book reviewers out there, but some don’t read ebooks and some don’t read self-published books and many don’t read literary fiction. I have to look through a ton of information to find reviewers that are appropriate for the book. I’m glad that I’ve been able to find a few.

Anyway, since I’m looking for reviews I thought I’d just ask you too. If you are interested in reviewing Flying Lessons on Amazon or Goodreads or Library Thing or if you have a blog you’d be willing to review it on let me know and I’ll send you a coupon to get a free copy of it on Smashwords. You can use the contact form on this site to request a review copy. I’ll only sending out coupons for review copies until June 9, 2012.

It’s only available in digital form. I’ve decided that I’m just doing digital for now. In the future they’ll be a print book available … eventually.

Getting it Right

I finished going through my novel, Flying Lessons, and making the corrections suggested by the editor I hired last month. When I finished doing it I gave it to my husband to look over one last time before I started formatting it for ebooks. Much to my dismay, my husband found obvious typos in it. Boy, was I annoyed.

I found this editor online. She wasn’t recommended to me by a friend or anything, but I had read positive things about her work. Why then was my “edited” novel left typo written? I don’t really know, but I’m thinking that with editors there are probably some types of books that they are able to edit well and other types of books that just aren’t their thing.

I’m not going to contact her and demand my money back or anything because she did correct quite a few things in the book that I didn’t notice. She caught some inconsistencies with the timeline and she corrected a lot of grammatical errors. That in itself was worth the money I paid her, but I won’t be using her services again.

When it comes down to it you have to find someone who you can work well with. That may take awhile. I’m just starting out really and I don’t have people that I know I work well with yet. Until I find those people I’m just trying things out and seeing if they fit. This editor wasn’t a good fit. That’s okay. I’ll find someone who is eventually.

Now I have to try to make sure this book is right before I can format it. My husband as gone through it once and corrected obvious typos. Now I’m going through it yet again to make sure it’s right.

Some people imply that self-publishing is taking the easy way out. They think that because you didn’t try to get a New York publisher you must not be that serious about your writing career. You didn’t pass through the gatekeepers so you must not be a real writer. Whatever (eye roll) …

Self-publishing can be hard. The learning curve is steep when it comes to figuring out what you need to do to get your novel on the market. I want this book to be good. I want it well formatted and as good as it possibly can be before I put it up on Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, and Smashwords. That requires going over it again and again until I’m sick of it. So that’s what I’m doing.

Being successful in this takes a ton of work. There’s marketing and social networking and all that jazz, but it starts with making the best product you’re capable of making. That’s a key first step that must happen in order to be successful. That’s what I’m doing now. I’m getting it right so that I’m confident about the book. It won’t be long now, and I’m sure it will be worth it when it’s finally finished.

Be Prolific

When I dreamed of becoming a writer as a kid a major factor in my dream was the idea of becoming a bestselling author. I wanted have be on every bestseller list. I wanted to get a Pulitzer Prize. At the time I thought it was Pulit Surprise, but that’s another story. I wanted to write books that changed the world.

I still want to write books that affect people’s lives, but in a variety of ways. I don’t think being a bestseller is as important as I did before. I don’t think about being a bestseller at all. What I think about instead is how to earn a living with my writing. Read this great post about how it’s not necessary to be a bestseller. Check out this post by Joe Konrath. It busts the myth of the bestseller.

Instead of focusing on writing a bestseller now, I focus on writing the best book I possibly can. My goal is to write as many great books as I can. I want to write books that entertain. I also want to write books that make people think. The self-published authors that are most successful are also the ones that are most prolific. Having one book for sale isn’t going to make you enough money to survive. The more books you have for sale the better your situation.

If someone reads your book and they like it they’ll buy another book that you’ve written. If you only have one book they’ll read it and forget about you. That’s the problem with only having one book.

I know, I know…I only have one book. That’s part of my problem. I’ve been slow getting my books out. That is changing though. Flying lessons will be out in March. I also have another project that I’m planning on releasing in March also.

Oh yeah, there’s one more important part of becoming a successful writer–have a good time. You should enjoy writing. Your readers will be able to tell if you enjoy what you do when the read your books. People read books to be entertained, maybe they’ll gain an insight or two. If they do that’s a bonus. It’s a darn good bonus.

Now you might be thinking who am I to write all this about what makes a successful author. I’ll tell you who I am. I’m someone who just figured all this out and I’m so excited that I want to share it with you. Write a darn good book and then write another and then another. Love that books. Love your readers and keep writing. That’s the secret. That’s the secret that I’m following now at least. You can watch me to see where it leads, but I suggest you get started on your journey yourself.

Photo by striatic

Trust Yourself

I’ve been working on a project recently. It is a fun project that has been pretty easy to write, but about a week ago I started doubting whether or not it was any good. After much consideration I decided to start the book again. I spent a few days rewriting the book. Then one day my husband asked me what I’d been working on and I told him that I was rewriting my latest novel. “Why are you doing that?” he asked. I couldn’t give him an answer.

After talking to him I went back and read what I had originally written. It turns out that I didn’t change much at all in the rewrite. It was shocking to me because I thought I was making a lot of changes.

It turns out that I spent a few days basically wasting my time writing something I’d already written. How useless it that!! Unbelievable!! I’ve gone back to writing the original book now and set my rewrite aside.

Do you have problems trusting yourself when it comes to your writing? Getting feedback from other people is great. Other perspectives can give you a different angle on your book that will help improve it, but you need to trust your instincts about it too.

Do you think you have a great idea? Do you think your book is good? If you don’t go with that. Don’t be so convinced that you can’t listen to reasonable criticism about it, but don’t take every criticism as valid.
Weigh carefully what is said and who is saying it. If something really does need to be changed change it.

In the end, you always have to remember that it is your story. It is your idea. You have the last say. I’m telling you this because mostly I need to hear it, but I figure that if I need to hear it there is someone out there who needs to hear it too.

Love your story. Love your creativity.

Photo by seyed mostfa zamani

Writing Resolutions for the New Year

Normally, I’m not big into resolutions. I figure why make resolutions when normally most people break them, but this time is different. I’ve decided to go ahead and make a writing resolution. My goal is to write about 7,000 words of fiction weekly.  That could easily break down to 1,000 words a day, but if I don’t write daily I’ll write more on other days to make up for it. I figure that if I write this goal down I’ll be more likely to stick to it. I noticed that Zoe Winters has a word count bar in the sidebar of her site. I may sick on one my at the beginning of the year to keep myself accountable.

You may wonder what made me decide on this 7,000 number. I think that if I open myself up creatively I can easily achieve this goal. I have had days when I’ve written almost that amount in one day.

Normally, I agonize to write 1,000 words, but I think that’s all mental. I’ve had a few days when I’ve written 1,000 words with no problem. Like I said before I’ve had days when I’ve written nearly 7,000 words in one day. When I started writing my newest book I had a few days when I wrote about 5,000 words. I thought that was amazing at the time, but now I think that kind of word count daily is possible.

I read a lot of writing blogs and people like Dean Wesley Smith write that much and more daily. People like John Locke and Amanda Hocking finish a novel in a few weeks.

I know that your behavior is a habit. My habit has been write a few sentences then check Facebook or my emails or look up random things online. I’ve been lazy. I need to put in the work required to get the book done. It’s not that I’m not capable. It’s just that I put things off.

I’m starting to think that this whole problem that I have with word count is psychological. I’ve put a limit on myself in my mind. I’ve decided that writing is such hard work that if I write 1,000 words it is amazing, but honestly is it really?  If I get down to it I know I can manage 1,000 words daily with no problem. This issue is getting down to it. That’s why I’ve decided to make my writing my first priority when I wake up in the morning. That means I must right before I check my emails or my Facebook account. Once the writing is done I can do other things.

That’s my resolution. What’s yours? Are you going to commit to a daily word count? Do you have a novel you want to start or finish this year?

Photo by mpclemens