A Slice of Orange

Tracy Reed

Last year when I announced I was going to do, not attempt, because I was determined to do this come hell or high water. Trust me, the water got high a few times.

To any sane person my challenge seemed insane, crazy, foolish, pick any number of adjectives in that family and I’d agree with you. However, there were some things I wanted to do, become more disciplined in my writing, try new sub-genres, story lengths and more inventory.

To any sane person my challenge seemed insane, crazy, foolish, pick any number of adjectives in that family and I’d agree with you. However, there were some things I wanted to do, become more disciplined in my writing, try new sub-genres, story lengths and more inventory.

As a new Indie writer, when I finished my first full year as a writer, I only had three tile, a full-length, a novella and a novelette. I’m not belittling my progress, but in order for me to experiment with advertising and increasing my mailing list, I needed more inventory. And the only way I knew to do that was to write more. So that’s what I did.

Warning, I’m not suggesting anyone try this the way I did, because although I may be a pants writer, I found that wasn’t a good way to market. It is, however, a good way to get stressed out. Was this challenge difficult? Not really. Was it fun? Yes and a little no. Will I do it again? With better planning, possibly.

Warning, I’m not suggesting anyone try this the way I did, because although I may be a pants writer, I found that wasn’t a good way to market. It is, however, a good way to get stressed out. Was this challenge difficult? Not really. Was it fun? Yes and a little no. Will I do it again? With better planning, possibly.

I don’t want to bore you, here we go.

JANUARY – THE ALEX CHRONICLES: WHAT MY FRIENDS DON’T KNOW
This was my first child. The first book I’d ever written in completion. However, it wasn’t the first book I published. That honor went to GENERATIONAL CURSE, which was release in December 2014.

Like most first born children, you feel inclined to yield more attention and care to it. I did something very foolish, I planned the release of this book while I was preparing to go on a much needed vacation. I really considered abandoning my challenge based on the stress this book caused me. However, I did manage to get this book out by the deadline. However, I didn’t get the print book out until a little later.

After releasing the ebook, I discovered a few typos and story glitches. Since it’s release, I managed to clean up the issues.
I’m still kicking myself for not launching the book better.

What I learned from this book? Never schedule a release prior to my vacation.

FEBRUARY – LOVE NOTES: Words for Lovers
I foolishly took a breather on this one. Thank God for Leap Year. If it hadn’t been for that, I would have missed my release day. So far, this is the only book that isn’t in ebook format, yet. I plan on rectifying that for Valentine’s Day.

I thought this would be a cake walk. This is a book of love notes. In The Alex Chronicles series Alex’s love interest is writer and he has a challenge expressing himself to her, but he writes her incredible love notes. Thus the idea – LOVE NOTES. This is basically an experiment in content marketing. I took a theme from one book and turned it into a book.

This has done well in print format from my website. I’m excited to see how it will do when the ebook releases.

What I learned from this book? Just because the book was finished, still don’t slack off on getting it out.

MARCH – THE GOOD GIRL Part Deux
This is the followup to THE GOOD GIRL novella I did in 2015. I really like these characters and was excited to continue their story. This book was completed in late 2015, however, I waited to edit it until I returned from my vacation. [I went to Paris and London and that’s where part of this book took place.]

Since my male lead is part French, I thought it would be nice to include more French in this book. I used a translation app and then I asked Brenna Aubrey for help. Thanks Brenna.

When I launched this series, it was in KDP Select, so I opted to put this book there as well and saw good sales. However, I later opted to go wide and saw a slight shift in sales.

What I learned from this book launch? Readers are quick to tell you how they feel about cliffhangers. And when a reader leaves a negative review, not to respond.

APRIL – THE FIX UP
Now we get into books that weren’t planned. I have always wanted to try writing a romantic comedy. My apprehension has been timing. I wasn’t sure if I had the comedic timing to write a funny story. I wrote this novelette as a stand alone. However, I have received a few requests to continue the story. I’m thinking about. It’s not a true romantic comedy, but it’s more like snarky humor. Readers seem to like Nana, she’s not your average Nana that bakes. Instead, Nana is a cougar with a hot younger boyfriend. They both drive matching Mini Coopers.

This book has very little advertising and managed to debut in one of my categories at #46. I’m really impressed with the traction this book has gotten.

What I learned from launching this book? Don’t be afraid to try something different.

MAY – INTENTIONAL CURSE
This book is part of the Generational Curse series. I planned another book in the series as a follow up, but as I got deeper in this challenge, I began to feel pressure. The big book I had planned to slot in here, wasn’t ready. However, I couldn’t miss my deadline and was searching for a book. I knew I wanted to tell the story of Kyla’s married lover. I had a few readers wanted to know what happened to Eric. Instead of telling what happened to him, I thought it would be nice to tell how he met his wife and later Kyla.

This was a fun story because it gave insight into two characters that played an integral part in Generational Curse.

What I learned from writing this book? Never judge a character by first impression.

JUNE – THE FLING
I had been reading books about BBW and Billionaires and thought it would be fun to write something similar. In the end, I was surprised how well this novelette was received. Interesting fact, when I put men on the covers, they launched very well.

I like how these characters developed and I’m thinking about doing a Fling two.

What I learned from writing this book? Reading books in the genre you want to write, are very inspiring to your work.

JULY -TEASE
This was a last minute book. I had another book scheduled, for this month. After attending RWA, I was too exhausted to review the edits. I got a copy of Beth Yarnall’s sample and I liked her idea. I emailed her and asked if she minded if I copied her idea. She didn’t mind. So a few days after the conference, I put this sampler together. Bingo!

This little treat helped me to stay on track as well as be a great giveaway in building my mailing list.

What I learned from publishing this book? Everyone likes being teased and free books are a great way to drive traffic to your other books.

AUGUST – MISS MATCH
This is one of my favorite stories in the challenge. It’s also one of the most challenging. When I started writing this book, it was in first person. However, as I got deeper into the story, I really felt the need to hear the make leads voice. I was about thirty pages in and I went back and changed to third person POV. When I did that the story flowed and gave way to a cliff-hanger that has upset some readers and left others asking for more. This I know for sure, there is a book two and possibly a book three.

When I started writing this book, I only intended it to be a stand-alone novelette. Instead, to turned out to be a novella and the first book in a new series.

What I learned from writing this book? Your characters can be very bossy and pushy.

SEPTEMBER – THE NIGHT I FELL IN LOVE
I really should refer to this as the miracle story. I had another book scheduled for September. But by the time, I finished it, I hadn’t given my editor enough time to edit it before my release date. So I pushed that story back. I was able to breathe on that story, but it meant I didn’t have one for September. I literally prayed to God for the words. I woke up the following morning with this title in my head and an idea.

I spent three days glued to my computer writing this novelette. I did three read throughs and sent it to my editor. Praise God, she edited it and got it back to me in a day. It took me an afternoon to create the cover and a couple of days later, I released it.

In total, it took a week from idea conception to release.

What I learned from writing this book? God’s word is true, ‘Ask and you shall receive.’ Also, under pressure the writer’s brain can do wonders.

OCTOBER – WHAT MY FRIENDS NEED TO KNOW
This is my second baby and ebook two in The Alex Chronicles series. This book was supposed to be a walk in the park. Nope. Thanks to reading a lot, I saw things in this book that I wanted to change. When it was all said and done, this book turned out to be my steamiest book to date, I think. I really like how this story is unfolding and can’t wait to see what happens next.

I barely made my released date. Once I got this book out, I was exhausted and desperate for a much needed brake.

What I learned from writing this book? Don’t be afraid to do a major re-write or even start over.

OCTOBER – THE PINK DUCHESS GUIDE TO BUILDING A LINGERIE WARDROBE
I have a lingerie website and have been working on marketing and promotional giveaways. I wanted to produce a great lead generator and came up with this book. Currently, it’ only a tool I use at events. But it’s been published and sold. YEAH!

So technically, I put out two books in October.

NOVEMBER – FIRST ENCOUNTERS OF LOVE
I was getting very tired towards the end of the year and feeling stressed. I received an email from iBooks, KOBO and Draft 2 Digital about the holiday release schedule and came very close to giving up.

I was torn between the book I was working on or taking some deleted chapters and turning them into a novelette. The problem with that, was those chapters needed more work than I thought. There was no way I was going to get those pages cleaned up and edited in time for me to make the other book ready for the December deadline.

Elena Dillon and I were talking she suggested I do a box set. I was thinking about doing a series box set in 2017. We looked at my inventory and discovered, THE FIX UP, THE FLING and THE NIGHT I FELL IN LOVE, all had something in common. THE FIX UP-a first date, THE FLING-a first romantic adventure and hickey and THE NIGHT I FELL IN LOVE- first love.

I packaged those titles together and released my first box set, FIRST ENCOUNTERS OF LOVE. I’ve had it on special price and it’s doing well.

What I learned from this title? Box sets are a good thing and not just with a series.

DECEMBER – A SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN
The last book in the challenge. I got the idea for this book while at RWA. I was in a session and the speaker suggested pulling out guest stars and telling their story. That statement stuck with me and I started surveying my story library in my head and Avery and Jeremiah started screaming. The timing couldn’t have been better.

This couple was briefly mentioned in WHAT MY FRIENDS NEED TO KNOW.  Avery is the bridal salon owner and shared how she met her husband with Alex. When I read her scene, I knew she and Jeremiah had a fun story.

I returned from conference and started writing. This was originally supposed to be a novella. However, as I dove deeper into this story, I knew there was more. I even included some of the characters from The Alex Chronicles.

When I finished this story, I found there was still more to tell and some great characters. I really like these characters and can’t wait to get started on the next book in this series.

What I learned from writing this book? Guest stars have a story to tell as well.

I finished the year with 347,000 plus published words
13 Titles
3 – Full length
1 – Book of Poetry
1- Sampler
1 – Boxset
3 – Novelettes
1 – Non-fiction
3 – Novellas

This has been fun and now it’s a new year with a new set of writing goals. I have a production schedule, but I’m not ready to share it, because it looks a lot like last years and that’s a little scary. I’ve decided to concentrate more on marketing this year. Now that I have more inventory, I can experiment with some marketing and promotion options. I’m very excited to see how my writing career with develop in 2017.

Happy New Year and I hope you accomplish all of your writing goals. See you next month.

Here are all of the covers-the fruits of my labor.