Author: Aya DeAniege

Waiting for a Flight

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

This week seemed to go by so slowly, but in a good way. It was nice and I was relaxed.

Though I did sleep between ten and twelve hours every night and was still tired, I think it has more to do with not sleeping in my own bed than anything else.

Then, on Wednesday, I looked into my work schedule for the next week and the stress hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m not going to talk about the what, but only going to say that the stress wasn’t because I remembered or realized that I have to go back to work at the end.

I didn’t find a magical job, so I’m not moving for eight more months. It’s fine, gives me time to save up and such and such.

On the writing front I have three read edits ahead of me on three books. One is for the proof of Death Mask which could very well be the last book Createspace carries for me.

More on that at a later date.

Then there’s the first read edit of Framents before it goes to Betas. And then the second read edit of His Grace after I put in the changes…

Ah, balls. I forgot it’s almost through September now.

To make my deadline, I’ll have to start the read edit for His Grace on Monday. I can also start the proof at the same time.

Then read Fragments which is due out in November.

All this reading is done on commutes and breaks at work. So, what’s going on at home?

Well, tonight is wine and a hot bath to try to de-stress after seeing the schedule. Tomorrow is making the cover of His Grace again. Then after that, it’s writing His Wings.

I’ve got the plot all written out for that.

That just leaves Seed with no point on the agenda for about three weeks. I want it done and out with His Wings in December.

Four books in three months is my goal. The planets basically aligned for me, I’m going to take advantage of this.

Because after His Wings, the next book isn’t out until February, and is His Halo.

I kind of want to get to work now. On the writing, I mean. I’m excited for the end of the year, I have a goal and I want to make it happen. I know I can make it happen!

Life Interfering

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I’m full on planning a move to another province. Applied to jobs and everything. I could transfer through work, and I expect I’ll have to do that. Finding someone to take a risk on a body that isn’t there yet is difficult.

The jobs I have found are call center types. I now have two interviews set up. Both of which would have me moving in the next two months, if I’m accepted.

So, why not just transfer through work? That’s a complicated tale. I love my work, I do. It’s taught me a lot, if they had a position I wanted on the other side, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

But as it is, there are just entry level positions, and I’d be bored and treated like an entry level employee who knows nothing, even though I know a great deal and am asked questions by nearly everyone in my current location.

I learn fast, and hate being bored.

But I also don’t necessarily like change. I want this move, it’ll take me near family.

That’s something I never thought I’d say…

The cost of living is less there. I was doing the math and stuff, because I can count to a hundred and add. I’m kidding, I’m pretty good with basic and intermediate math. Don’t ask me to do calculus and I’ll do fine.

Lower cost of living means I need less per month, means I can live off writing sooner. If things work out in a medium estimate, I could actually buy a house on the income from the proposed jobs.

You know what I am here? Working poor.

In January, the minimum wage is going up, good for them. Mine remains the same. So, while everyone else will get a boost before corporations get greedy and raise the prices to make their stockholders more money, I will not. I will be further behind and no one but me seems to be questioning why seasoned workers are being ignored during such a large upgrade for the whole province.

Except me and anyone like me. The company sees it as a reset button on our wages.

I still love them, I just don’t feel like they care if I can afford food, or if I have to decide which bill has to be ignored this month because rates went up but my wage didn’t.

Anyhow, after all that, I am a ball of anxiety and stress. I can’t focus on anything. I’m supposed to be editing, but every time I try, I start having a panic attack. Writing has helped on and off but yesterday it hit me hard.

Stupid psychosomatic reactions. I have a life and a plan, brain, knock it off!

If I get one of these jobs, I have no idea how I’ll get there or where I’ll live, or how I’ll get to work. One is an at home job but they have like a month of training and me without a license. For, oh, about a month?

I’m freaking out and I haven’t been able to talk to anyone about how much I’m freaking out. I can’t ask for help, help has never come. If I want this, I’ve got to do it for myself.

It’s not like I just have the money to up and move. I have a credit card, will have to use that.

Meanwhile, I can’t seem to write or edit. All I do is play video games and get upset with myself because I have things that need doing, darn it. So I try again and the file opens and I just stare at the page, the words swimming on my screen.

Anxiety sucks. It sucks that everytime I try to make a change, to make my life better, I become the bad guy in my own story. Having to force everything on myself just to get it done.

On the other hand, I’m rather proud of myself. I’ve yet to break down in tears or get soddingly drunk and argue with myself about how mean I am to me.

There’s no where but forward. And if the jobs fall through, I will follow the original plan. Save every nickel (because in Canada we no longer have pennies) over the winter and move in the spring.

On Not Meeting a Word Count

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

75,629 / 90,000 words written.

That was not my goal, so what to do now?

Well, here’s what actually happened:

I wrote a majority of my words over three days, which was about 22,000 per day. One day I wrote 600 words, another only about 3,000.

Friday night (technically Saturday as it was 2am) I finished the rough draft at about 67,000 words. A rough draft is rough because you then make changes.

It was halfway through my second day of heavy writing that I realized I hadn’t been doing descriptions. Not of the characters or rooms, or really any emotional attachment to anything. It was mainly dialogue and barebones.

So, I went back to the beginning and started adding it all in. I’ve only reached chapter nine in this endeavour, not even halfway through the book.

Reaching that 90,000 word count for this book is possible, I just have to backfill the stuff I skipped over because I knew it would slow me down. If I had done it, I would only be about 40,000 words and not know the end or the thread of plot through the book. I would have lost it.

Now that I’ve got it, I’m almost good to go. Yay.

Long nights and regular mornings can wear you out. If you want to try this yourself, you will need to figure out what writing method works best for you, and practice meeting the word count.

This was a stretch for me, I knew that. I did it to fill a staycation where I couldn’t afford to do anything or go anywhere. It was my break from reality, one that I planned so that when I woke up this morning for my day job, I didn’t feel dejected because I did nothing but play video games and drink.

Don’t get me wrong, those things still happened…

Halfway through the week, I realized that I had no plan in place to edit it. But I think I can place it in the edit spot for Seed as I’m not certain that will be done on time.

I should be working on that now, but two hours of sleep and a long day ahead of me. I need my wits, because I need my day job and there’s not much room for error today.

During my week off, yes, I was pretty well holed up with no contact with ‘real’ people. All I had, for the most part, was a writer chat that kept me company. They knew what I was planning, and called me crazy, but then cheered me on and participated in sprints when I was struggling to meet my word goal for the day.

Once I made that goal, I was pretty well set. I’d end up staying up another four to six hours and adding between six and ten thousand more words to the book.

I don’t think I could have managed it without that chat.

Anywho. Heading back to the day job today. Not enough sleep because of a combination of my sleep schedule for the past week and being a little manic of plans for marketing and such.

The one plus side of the late night is that I might have and line on the next D.o.t.A. book. Apparently Morgan is content without telling his story, so I’m not about to push him.

New Alphas, new city, with only one of the old crew making a brief appearance. It promises to be fun.

Writing Marathon

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Writing sprint just doesn’t cut it for what I plan to do…

Okay, so I have some time off work next week and can’t afford to go anywhere, can’t afford to do much either. At least, not until I get paid.

I’ve been planning on writing Fragments for the past nine months. D.o.t.A. needs its next installment, and it needs it before I turn fifty.

I’m not near fifty, it’s a joke.

Anyhow, I had planned on writing Fragments over that six day period, so August 15th to 20th with a couple ‘free’ days afterward between it and a base edit to catch up if necessary. You know, if I don’t make it.

Yesterday on my lunch break, I tried to do marketing but my computer had some kind of a weird malfunction and wouldn’t connect to the internet, then spent the half hour restarting. Note: this is my new computer, not a work computer of any sort.

So, one, it should have worked, and two, I am not using company time or resources for my writing. Just, you know, you’d be surprised who gets in a tizzy over the mere implication of that.

Anywho.

While the computer was doing its thing, I had a paper I had started that morning with sites I had already applied to. Fifteen and counting, none of them are likely to market me but it’s that slim chance I put in the effort for.

I flipped the paper over and started doing some math, because I was in work mode and wanted to do something with my time besides stare at a wall, or at my phone.

I broke down Seed, it may be possible to finish it by Sept 7th. I will try my best. His Grace is already done. Two projects laid out for both writing and editing.

Next week is Fragments. I fully intend to try to write this entire book in a week. So, ninety thousand words all told.

Broken down, I gave myself Monday as well. I’m working Monday but that’s never stopped me from writing. Aside from ritualistic things once I get off work, I’m good to go by about 5pm. Normally that time is 8, so even better.

Each day I need to write approximately 12,837 words, I belive it was. That’s about 8hrs of work (taking into account that I can write 3k words in two hours on my commutes) a day. Still leaving theoretical time to do other things.

Which is good, because I’ve got a vet appointment one day, and a social outing planned another day.

I’ve written a book in a week before. Locked up in my little apartment, playing Sims and writing. No TV, this was before Netflix and my internet sucked. Not that I had any websites to visit back then.

I know in theory this can work. But theory doesn’t always work. With my luck, the landlord will spray for pests and somehow light the apartment on fire and then a flaming raccoon will leap from the roof onto my head.

Oh, yeah, there are raccoons living in my ceiling. They’re bringing bedbugs in with them and I’ve filed yet another complaint about the raccoons, adding in their infested ways.

So, my possible worse situation isn’t entirely impossible.

I have no idea what my plot is, it’s supposed to be a lot smuttier than Masked Intentions, but it’s too late to choose another, as I have absolutely no plans for anything but Seed.

Wish me luck.

On Running Behind

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

I’m a lazy, lazy bum. Or, at least, I feel like a lazy, lazy bum.

The advice all writers are given, especially going into indie publishing is, “Just keep writing.” That’s not just to mean that you write forever and a day, but that you write, publish a book, then write some more.

I haven’t really been doing that. I feel like during the summer, I’m not myself. At least, not my productive self. All I want to do is head out into the sun, or clean my apartment. Thanks to two cats fighting over territory, it seems there’s always hair and kibble everywhere.

I need to start another mass edit of Death Mask, which was supposed to launch August 9th. There’s still a chance that it will launch on time. It’s a very slight chance, but still a chance.

I have almost a week in August off and I plan to write Fragments. This is the much waited for second book for the Daughters of the Alphas series. I thought that Masked Intentions received mixed reviews at best, but I keep getting questions on when the next book will be coming out, so…

When people ask for something, give it to them, especially if it was already on your to-do list. Just jump that sucker up some. Unless you were having issues for another reason.

I’ve fixed everything up so that I can edit at work. I’m so flipping pleased with myself. New tablet. Old one… uh… yeah, I could use it for writing if I was super patient.  But I couldn’t use it to edit or access pretty well anything except Facebook… ish. That’s the problem with that kind of tablet. Without the ability to install new tech, the thing became obsolete. And I think its company realized its mistake because the new ones can be upgraded.

In the meantime, the old one will sit to the side and gather dust but it’s still useful if necessary. I can breathe again, I can do my things again. I can touch a button and see all the things. Darn it, when I come on the new tablet, it’s like viewing the sites from a laptop instead of getting a mobile version that makes me pick up and shake the tablet in frustration.

I feel like I’m ready to get back to work. Like, maybe, I was a little burnt out from so many words so quickly, so much work while working the full-time job. Now the only problem is all those nifty ideas that I’ve had over the past year, that I haven’t gotten around to? They’re all arguing over which gets to go first.

Have you ever seen the Simpsons episode where Mr. Burns gets told that he has pretty well every illness possible? I feel like that almost. Except instead of diseases, it’s ideas and I’m the doctor and Mr. Burns is my muses humming and skipping away instead of listening to me and just fixing the problem.

I swear, if they toss me one more idea… I’ll… I’ll…

I have no idea what I can do to them that they wouldn’t enjoy. They were the ones giggling at the back of my mind as Mr. Wrightworth beat on someone ruthlessly.

On Finding a Name

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Ugh, so I might have messed up the setup of the site and made posts instead of pages. It should be a simple fix of switching them over with some copy and pasting but it’s the time that it’ll take and how stupid I feel right now.

I’m still debating what to call the site. Smart thing is some combination of my name, but ayadeaniege.com just sounds narcissistic to me. I’m trying to come up with something that I won’t want to strangle myself over.

In the meantime, I’m hoping my brain holds out and I can do a writing sprint this weekend. After two days of struggle, I finished chapter fifteen of Death Mask, which will likely end up being chapter seventeen, after I go back and refresh the first couple of chapters and fix up the first little arc.

I’m hoping this weekend to complete His Grace and begin the editing of that. Beth needs some help with a side project that I promised I’d work on for her. It could take ten days to four months.

Urgh, why, Beth? Why must you taunt me with your books and blackmail me with your cooking?

I have a full plate, basically. Lots to do.

Today I checked up on the Storyteller Competition and discovered that they are preparing the short list. I haven’t been disqualified yet, so I can’t just stop checking on it. Or I could… I mean, I’m not going to win.

I’m always told to be more confident, but the people talking are really never happy with me when the next thing to come out of my mouth is, “I’m confident I’m not going to win.”

It’s not that I absolutely could not win a competition, but the short list is comprised of things chosen by Amazon’s algorithm. Which doesn’t quite like me but likes Contract Taken for one day, then the next likes At Death’s Door on fewer sales? I just… I don’t know how to read that thing and it’s partly responsible for creating the short list.

Oh, and I might be about to go through another one of my episodes, so if none of that made any sense to you, it’s okay. It’s the partly broken brain I have in its death throes. It’ll be back next week and my hypergraphia will be back on full blast.

Amazon Pre-orders do Nothing

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

When… when you make a pre-order for other sites, the pre-order gets a boost come sales day. It can also alert readers to new books if you publish as often as I do. There’s a build up and a release.

Not with Amazon.

Ugh.

So I’ve been making my readers wait when I’ve been done my books, for absolutely no reason, and I didn’t know that.

Amazon’s algorithm. Again. So pre-orders count the day that a reader pre-orders it, not launch day. And then said reader forgets about it because they can pre-order up to three months out. Which means the book doesn’t get read and if they do read it, they’re even less likely to leave a review if they liked it.

Then there’s me, full on stressed about the launch, then coming to realize that, then that sickening dread setting in.

I’m not getting the boost in sales I was expecting and hoping and praying for. I get nothing. If the book had been up for sale instead of pre-order, I would have gotten the same thing.

A few dollars in royalties.

If I could find even a benefit for the reader, I’d keep down the same route. I’m willing to have the stress of it if there was a benefit for the reader, but there isn’t. You dangle that carrot and for what? For nothing.

The one site that talked about it said that it was a good way to drive readership because you launch one book, then immediately start the pre-order for the next one. But I really don’t think the passive downloading of pre-ordered books is going to catch someone’s attention.

I currently use pre-orders to offer a discounted price. I was offering that price to drive pre-orders so that on launch day I’d have the boosted rank. It would get me more readership to get me more books sold to eventually quit my day job.

Turns out, the only use of a pre-order is offering that discounted price. But I’ve got a phone, I can schedule events then remind myself of them later. I can still offer the discounted price, except this time push it as a sale price. Put it on all kinds of websites as I go.

So… I have to rethink my strategies.

As kind of a test of this, The Reaping trilogy will go wide. It will be a pre-order, but on wide distribution, Smashwords, iTunes, Barnes and Noble, and Nook all offer the launch day boost.

Which means I won’t be using KDP Select for the trilogy and that I can’t offer free days. There will be no Kindle Unlimited option.

But not many Kindle Unlimited users pick up Wraith’s Rebellion. Yes, I will miss the free days, but if what you’re doing isn’t helping you, if there aren’t benefits for all, you need to change your approach. That’s what I’m going to do.

77 books sold a day, and Amazon just stole my chance to see what that might look like in real life. It’s like snuffing out the light of my dream.

That sucked, and I still have a work shift ahead of me. I already have no will to face people. There’s no light in my day because that little something extra I was looking forward to was stolen away.

And it took an hour of research to find one page that talked about how the pre-order rankings worked.

Pre-Launch Jitters

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

It happens every time, and typically I plan out so that I work the day before launch so that I’m at least distracted.

Know what I did today? Cleaned my entire apartment. My kitchen floor hasn’t been this clean since December.

… right before I lost water for three weeks.

And my bathroom? You could eat off the tub!

I rewarded myself with Chinese food, I know I shouldn’t, I should save my money, but every once in a while, you know, you just have to. Circumstances that are completely your own doing.

I get pre-launch jitters. Worried about what I’m going to wake to tomorrow morning, wandering around in circles, unable to focus on anything.

I’ve been wandering in and out of Amazon all day, like things are just going to magically appear.

So, I went through and did the math. When I get worried, I start doing math. Yup, I can add, subtract, divide and multiply, dun that make me special?

I’ve… I’ve had people get uppity with me like I think I’m special because I can run basic percentages in my head. Not special, just worked in retail too long.

Anywho. Last year I did some math for, uh, retirement sake. I needed to sell 150 books a day to be able to retire with my current lifestyle. My plan has changed a little bit. The new lifestyle would take a great deal less. I think. Maybe.

Life just likes bending me over tables in a very un-fun way though…

The new math says that I only need to sell 77 books a day. Not because my math has changed, but because I based in on averages of books and their cost. I think my initial numbers were based on Kindle Unlimited books.

Why does that number excite me? Because it means I’m closer. I trust my math, because… well, I did the math. Closer is good. Closer is something to get excited about. I’ve halved my number and increased books in less than a year.

You have to celebrate the wins, even if they’re small. I can’t celebrate the launch of another book because of nerves, so I found something else to pat myself on the back about.

I’ve gotten closer. I’m on the right track. I just have to keep writing stories that you all want to read, which seems to be what I want to read, so that at least helps me decide which ones to go about writing.

Cheating Death launches in three hours for my timezone. Amazon will start registering the pre-orders in a couple more hours. Readers could review as early as tomorrow morning, depending on how quickly they read.

Please like my book.

I think that is the prayer of every author. But us indie authors, we have a different prayer, don’t we?

Please say nice things about my book.

Did you know people are more likely to say something or comment if they’re unhappy? Yeah, that’s something I learned in all my years in retail. You could bend over backwards for someone and they won’t say a thing, they’ll come back in and see you, but they will never tell your company that you did a good job.

Or, in the rare cases they do, they’ll call you by the wrong name.

It’s an odd thing, but true. There are those who will say nice things and broadcast to the world about how they love this thing, but a majority of the population would only make comment if they have a complaint, or don’t like something.

Which is probably why indie authors have taken up the mantra of:

Please say nice things about my book.

Announcements

Posted on by Aya DeAniege

Tentative 2017 publishing schedule as of April 2017

Cheating Death: June 7th done
Death Mask: August 9th expected to be a few weeks late
His Grace: October 4th on time
His Wings: December 6th

Due to the day job (which is utterly and entirely necessary) it looks like this will be my year, instead of a book a month.

The new Contracted Trilogy will go up as one so that is dependent on when they are finished and will be published outside of the schedule.

I will be setting up a writing schedule and deciding on the next book to be written on my phone shortly, as I will need it in a month or so. I was actually thinking of giving Prototype a run on the phone because it’s much more focused than at the computer.