When the dog days of summer come along, it takes a lot of effort for me to get creative or actually want to accomplish much even if I am feeling great. This year, I will, for maybe the first time, be welcoming fall with hopefully some cleansing rains and a reduction of dust, smoke and pollen in the air.
As I look back on it, my August was overall good except for an ongoing bout of sinusitis which between the meds and the discomfort has me without much energy. Still I much enjoyed the new garden area and observing the foxes (who we haven't seen for a couple of week; so they definitely left for better hunting grounds). We had some great family times (fortunately before my sinuses became an issue), lots of sunny days with a few light rains, a wonderful vegetable garden which was especially appreciated since last year we didn't plant one.
This spring we expanded the garden into a second fenced area for corn and sunflowers-- not to mention more string beans. We may have gone a tad overboard on string beans. We bought heritage seeds; so we can save seed for next year. Hopefully that will work since we haven't tried it before, but we got the instructions for doing it and a place the seeds will store (we hope). Next year we are thinking of building a root cellar for storing food further into the winter.
To finish off the month, Farm Boss and I set August 31st as the day to release my historical romance, Arizona Sunset, in paperback and Kindle. I suppose I could have checked to see if that was a good date astrologically, but I don't follow astrology for anything else; so why do it for this. On the other hand, a writer (self-publishing or not) can use all the luck and positive energy they can amass. I have decided I wanted this book to come out in this month that was good for us. This is the time of harvest and publishing a book is much like a harvest-- as you never really know how it will go...
10 comments:
That's one lush garden. And good luck with the book.
Thanks, Mark. It'll take luck. There are so many indie writers out there that it's hard to even get your book to where the most likely readers will see it. Not to mention the readers who only want free books for their kindles. It's a tough market. The one positive for me is I don't put money into it that I don't make from it. I have heard of writers who put thousands into getting their books out and see only to sell maybe 20 books. That has to hurt.
I read recently that J.D. Salinger wrote all his life but after his first publications, he didn't put more out even knowing he had a big name from 'Catcher in the Rye.' After his death, the family will be bringing out those books, but what he wanted was to write not to market. Boy do I get that. I have written all my life and only recently began to put the books out as an independent. I am still unsure after these two Arizona historicals if I want to bring out the four Oregon historicals. I guess it will depend on how this goes.
Writing is wonderful-- marketing in any creative art takes a mix of luck and networking. Knowing the right people can make all the difference even if someone is turning out a masterpiece as Salinger did. And in his case he may not have wanted to go around selling the books as well as having critics compare them all to Catcher...
Your garden looks incredibly lush and beautiful. Those sunflowers are so tall. Really grand.
I can't imagine what it must be like for a writer these days. The internet changed everything, in some ways making it easier to find an audience but also making it harder to have a voice heard among the din. I wish you good luck.
thank you, robin. It definitely changed the publishing game where it leaves the publishing houses less control although Amazon tends to favor them anyway and Amazon is the big dog in the game. The big advantage for any writer who wants to get their books out there is you don't have to put out thousands of dollars or make your book fit the cookie cutter world of the corporations. I think it's a good thing overall for readers as there is more potential variety but it does take them more work to find what they want-- unless they rely on the corporate sources to tell them what they should want.
what bounty! Your garden looks fabulous. I imagine releasing a book is much like birthing a baby -- a long process of gestation with a product at the end. I hope it sells well for you.
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Wow, that's quite a garden, amazing display of vegetable riches. Hope your book catches on soon, I wish you the best of luck with it.
Everything looks so wonderful, Rain---Including you and Farm Boss....
And as to Astrology---Mercury is NOT retrograde at this time, so in my view, you couldn't have picked a more perfect time to release your book. The "shadow time" for the next MR starts October 1st....!!! And the last 'shadow time' for the last MR, ended, August 3rd...Much Good Luck with this Book, My dear.
Thanks everyone for all the good wishes on the book. It's a hard call to bring out a baby and although I had brought out all the contemporaries, the last of those went out over a year ago as I contemplated whether to ever bring out the historicals. Even pricing a book is a tough call but finally I decided that the permanent price on Arizona Sunset would be $4.99 but it'll start at $3.99 as a kind of special for September. I will write more about the logic of pricing come my blog in Rain Trueax. The pricing is not so much about making money as it is about setting a price to indicate the worth of the book. I learned the hard way with the contemporaries that giving away thousands of books doesn't actually bring in more sales. It just educates people that free is what they want and they want for it. Every element of bringing out a book takes a lot of thought and you never know if you are calling it right or not. And glad that to hear about the book coming out at a good time, Naomi :)
And on the garden, it's just been unbelievable. I think the weather that has been so humid (unusual for Oregon) and warm, which has caused my sinus problems or at least contributed to them, was great for the veggies.
You are so lucky with those squash.
The book market is strange these days. I'm sure I don't understand what it's about and look forward to your explanation.
I don't know either, Hattie. Writing is one thing but understanding the marketing end, definitely not on my radar either. I think mostly those that are good at business are not necessarily the artists or writers-- even though they kind of need to be
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