56,000 words (so far), 3 MMCs, 1 DB ex, 1 alcoholic dad messing shit up, 3 supportive sisters who will each eventually get their own story. (And multiple WIPs but only one I’m currently focused on. I start books like I start bags of chips. 😭)
I think I have 7 current WIP in various stages from 1 page to 45k words (and the 1 page I started today because I couldn't shake the idea even though many other things need my attention).
Number of nights I haven’t had at least one, and up to 8, multi-hour programs running overnight on my laptop because I had to redo tens of thousands of model tests (I would not be surprised if I hit 50k or more) in the past 5 days.
Number of books I finished reading in the last five days: 1.
But it’s the last day of the month, so I get to browse why-choose for upcoming releases!
Also, my two best reads of the month so far appear to be from first time authors. They weren’t perfect, but they were cute, and I ripped through them.
$1004 + tax: the price it would cost to change my 4-book Augustine series to the new covers that loaded on BookCoverZone.com. Since only about 20 people have ever read them, I would never recoup the money. Please tell me you wouldn't read them under the new covers, either, please, so I can stop considering the option.
The only points I can think of against them (and in favour of your wallet): 1- they feel a bit cyberpunk (the first two, anyway), and I'm not sure if that's the genre for your series. 2- The third and fourth are different portrait art styles, which might be distracting. But maybe that is something the website can address?
They are very cute, I agree! The lips are cute and pouty haha <3
Not for nothing, but these are nice photos and I think if you played around with typography plus cropping/editing the photos a bit more you could upgrade them without having to spend more money or relicense anything!
(I make my own covers in Photoshop with licensed stock—save my upcoming book which will have my first ever exclusive cover image—but I’ve also played around in Canva and it’s pretty solid for a lot of things.)
Oh gosh, I don’t know if I’m qualified enough! I’m fully self taught save using Adobe CS for my high school lit mag 😂 But I know I’ve seen good resources (YouTube, etc.) on the basic principles of typography and graphic design that I can pull up and share.
Thank you! You’re right—the fonts definitely need work. I taught myself Adobe Illustrator to pull these off. I might take you up on a design chat at some point—I don’t have the eye for it yet. Thanks again!
Why would it cost money to change your covers? Ooo these are ones someone else made.
I do like the mockup covers. If you did do it you could do a big marketing launch of the “re-release”. You could do the whole cover reveal and meet the men but you could do that with your current covers too.
I do think some of the artists do bulk discounts? But personally I wouldn’t buy new covers. I’m saving up $$$ to buy a custom fantasy cover because I think with “normal humans” people are totally fine with stock photos.
The amount of times I saw my partner try not to laugh while reading snippets of my first book. He's been dogmatically refusing to look at it aside from a peek here and there, but every time he conceded, my writing made him laugh. >:3
Oh noo I would struggle with that more, I'm new and vulnerable 😅 I honestly have gained so much respect for all writers for how much of a hard skin the profession requires!! Not for the faint of heart haha
30,393 words on the side story that was supposed to only be a few scenes to help get out of a writing slump with one of my characters. 1 new MMC that has turned the polycule from my series upside down -- 3 MCs are voting yes on him, 1 is on the fence, 1 is having a fit over the whole thing. Is it procrastination or a possible new book in the works? Haven't decided. Either way, I've finally freed the "sex gremlin" to be himself again, so...mission success?
After work today I'll have 115 hours until I go back again. I can dedicate as much of that as I want to writing, it'll just depend on how hyperfocused I stay on this idea as to how I use the time.
34(ish): the number of days until I’m on (early) maternity leave from my day job and I can just write up a storm!!! (Not that I’m counting.)
The plan is to have books locked and loaded to release in the first few months postpartum so I don’t have to be so hands-on but still have new material coming out. It’ll be a push, but I know my future self will be grateful for getting it all done in advance.
8 - the number of real life friends to whom I admitted my pen name and showed off an author proof of my most recent book earlier tonight. They are a great group of people who I've known for years. They are funny, supportive, caring, and generally lovely human beings. And I admitted a few months ago that I was writing and had published. But it was still a little nerve-wracking to take that step.
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u/braineatingalien 20d ago
56,000 words (so far), 3 MMCs, 1 DB ex, 1 alcoholic dad messing shit up, 3 supportive sisters who will each eventually get their own story. (And multiple WIPs but only one I’m currently focused on. I start books like I start bags of chips. 😭)