The Journal: Well, Fooey

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Well, Fooey
* Smashing Smashwords
* Daniel Fellows
* Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers

Quote of the Day

“Governments always claim noble purposes as the basis for limiting speech or other rights.” Jonathan Turley

I started a new novel yesterday morning. As usual, a fairly slow start. And then around noon I realized, well, fooey.

In talking with a friend, I came to know that I have five unpublished novels: Terra 2, the last novel in the FOH SF series (so far); Wes Crowley: The Final Chapter, the 12th and last novel in the original Wes Crowley saga; and the first three novels in the Wes Crowley Gap Series. Good grief!

I wrote those novels between late March or early April and a couple of days ago. So I decided to take some time to sort that out, design covers, put together promo docs and get those up so folks can find them. I guess being prolific has its drawbacks. (grin)

So at noon yesterday I stopped writing and started doing all that. Sigh.

By 2 p.m. I’d created that cover over there (I thought the guy tipping his hat was a nice touch for the last book in a series) and the promo doc and uploaded everything to D2D and Amazon. Each one took less than 5 minutes.

If you paid attention to yesterday’s topic, you will notice this cover doesn’t have a series tag (e.g., “Book 12 in the Wes Crowley saga). That’s because I was feeling a bit churlish, and after all, the thing IS titled “The Last Chapter.”

And I used the author tag space to talk about the gap series.

Smashing Smashwords

Then I decided since I’d uploaded all the other Crowley saga novels to Smashwords I’d upload this one too. A full HALF-HOUR later I finally had it uploaded to Smashwords. It is also the last one I’ll ever upload to them.

Smashwords has long needed to change their user interface, and they finally did. But if it was possible, they actually made it MORE labor intensive and clunk than it was before. From here on out, I’ll publicly advocate against using Smashwords as an aggregator. We owe Mark Coker a lot for getting this whole ball rolling, but loyalty only goes so far.

There are many more vialble options, including D2D and StreetLib. Those, in my mind, are the best two. And if (when) D2D adds distribution to Google Books, they will stand alone at the top of the heap.

If you’re a real go-getter, you can upload your files to Amazon, Apple, B&N Nook, Kobo and probably even some of the library services.

If you value your time more than the few extra cents you’ll get on royalty, you can upload to Amazon and D2D (Draft2Digital.com) and be done with it in a matter of minutes. Woohoo!

I read a few entries in Daniel Fellows’ blog this morning. You’ll meet Daniel in a comment on Dean’s site in “Of Interest.” He reminds me of me about 7 years ago. He’s setting challenges for himself, doggedly working through them, and blogging every day about it (at least so far). I wish him luck with his journey.

Today I will devote the day to creating four more covers and promo docs and uploading those to D2D and Amazon. I will not be uploading any of them to Smashwords.

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “New Books As Stretch Rewards” (BUT see the first two comments) at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/new-books-as-stretch-rewards/#comments.

See “Getting Published” at https://www.stephenleather.com/getting-published/. Thanks to Daniel Fellows for the tip. Very important post.

See “Colossal Failure: Alcohol Prohibition & The War On Drugs” at http://dyingwords.net/legalization-is-to-only-solution-to-regulating-alcohol-and-drugs/.

See “Water in the Basement” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/water-in-the-basement/. A great story, but not about writing.

See “How to Write a Great Summary” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/how-to-write-a-great-summary/. Any time I see anything from Grammarly, I immediately think “Grain of Salt.” If you have enjoyed a good experience with Grammarly and care enough to email me privately, I will tell you why I think they’re horrible.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 670 words

Writing of WCGN 4: William J. Pinchot (tentative title, novel)

Day 1…… 1965 words. Total words to date…… 1965

Total fiction words for July……… 48873
Total fiction words for the year………… 577552
Total nonfiction words for July… 12150
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 137940
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 715492

Calendar Year 2021 Novels to Date…………………… 12
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 3
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 65
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this blog, I provide advice on writing fiction. I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. To be crystal clear, WITD is not “the only way” to write, nor will I ever say it is. However, as I am the only writer who advocates WITD both publicly and regularly, I will continue to do so, among myriad other topics.