A Slice of Orange

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

It’s time for an update on my exciting challenge, 12 TITLES IN 12 MONTHS. When I started this challenge I know it seemed like the rantings of a crazed New Indie Self-Pub Writer. Wow, that’s a mouthful.

I’m having a lot of fun on this journey experimenting with new genres and formats. When I started this, I was going to primarily do a mix of full-length and novellas. But I have to admit, in a brief moment, I sort of thought I was taking on too much. Then I read the article in the RWA magazine about story lengths. Honestly, it never occurred to me to do a short story. Funny thing, my first two published pieces were short stories. In my mind, I thought I would be doing my challenge an injustice if I didn’t commit to either a full-length or novella. So, I did a little digging in my files and found several starter pieces. I printed them and did a lot of reading.

I woke up one morning and remembered I had rewritten my next full-length book. Thank God, I kept the old manuscript. I had this really cool scene, that I thought would make a great novelette. I read the chapters and discovered, they weren’t right as a novelette, but will be great for the third installment of THE GOOD GIRL…which is on the schedule for next year. I was a little bummed and then went into a blank mode. This freaked me out. It seemed like the words were gone. I won’t say it was Writer’s Block, but more like Brain Jumble. Words were there but when I started to write, it seemed force. I had almost two thousand words on a piece, but it just didn’t click. But while I was writing, I got an idea, which I turned into THE FLING. As for the other starter pieces, I like them, but I’m not quite sure the time is right to bring those stories to life. The good thing about this challenge is that I can basically write whatever I want. YEAH!

I finished out the first quarter with some pretty good sales. Here’s a funny sales story. My mother and I were at the doctor’s office waiting to get our annual blood workup. I was teasing her about something while she was proofing one of my books. I kept bothering her and she replied, “How am I supposed to finish your book, if you keep bothering me?” A woman sitting across from us heard my mother’s comment and started laughing. Then my mother went into sales mode and told her that I was a writer. The woman asked where she could find my books. I opened my iPad and showed her my Amazon page. She called it up on her phone, read the summary and bought the book.

Last week, I released my April Title, THE FIX UP. This cute short is my first RomCom. Thank you to everyone that posted the link on their social media.

For this title, I didn’t do any advertising or paid promoting. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m trying different promotion options. For THE FIX UP, I sent an email to my mailing list, posted it on my blog, Facebook, Tumblr and Pinterest. I wanted to give my followers first dibs. This little tactic paid off on the release day. This was the first time I landed in the top 100 in one of my Amazon categories on release day. Double YEAH!! I was shocked. THE FIX UP, also aided my other books. My perma free book, THE ALEX CHRONICLES: GIRLFRIENDS & SECRETS, hit the top 100 in two categories. All this activity without me doing any paid promotions.

So what’s on tap for the next quarter? I have a full-length and what I think will be a couple of novelettes. The reason I say could be, is because I haven’t finished writing them. I already created the covers which I’ll share later in the post. but I’m not quite sure if I’ll keep the titles. Title duplication is something that really can’t be helped. But I was a little shaken when I saw a book on several sites this week with the same title as my proposed August release. Now I’m wondering if I should keep it, or rename it. If you have any thoughts on this, please post them below or send them to me…readtracyreed [at] me [dot] com.

On with the 3rd Quarter update…

Title: WHAT MY FRIENDS NEED TO KNOW
Length: Full-length
Status: Completed
Release Date: July
This is the second installment in The Alex Chronicles Series. It’s also the second book I wrote. But like it’s predecessor, I held it back and I am so glad I did. The characters are more mature and the issues they deal with seem a little more realistic. This story focuses on what happened after Alex said yes to Moses’ proposal. It’s no secret they got engaged. What is a secret is if they get married. Following the rest of the girls in this series is fun as well. There’s the return of someone’s first love, a surprise break up and a so much more.
Sales Outlets: eBook – KDP Select
Print – Amazon, Createspace, B&N and my website
Marketing Campaign: Posting on my blog and social media outlets [Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest], blast to my mailing list, GoodReads Giveaway and possibly a mini blog tour or Cover Release Blast tour. And miscellaneous blogs.

Title: MISS MATCH
Length: Novella or Novelette
Status: Still writing
Release Date: August
The reason you don’t see a cover image, is because there’s a slight possibility I might change the cover. I don’t purchase images until I’m convinced I want the image. With this story having a common title, I’m a little on the fence. Even though I like it a lot. As you may have guessed, this story is about a matchmaker. She’s polished, beautiful, and very good at what she does. But her evenings are spent alone. I see this possibly becoming a cute series.
Sales Outlets: eBook – KDP Select
Print – Amazon, Createspace, B&N and my website
Marketing Campaign: Posting on my blog and social media outlets [Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest], blast to my mailing list, GoodReads Giveaway and possibly a Cover Release Blast tour. And miscellaneous blogs.

Title: MY FIRST HUSBAND
Length: Novella or Novelette
Status: Still Writing
Release Date: September
This will probably finish out as a novelette length. It started out as the beginning of a series, but I have since changed my mind. I don’t think the characters are ready for a series or more than a few thousand words. Only time will tell. Hey, I didn’t think THE GOOD GIRL would go beyond book one. This is a complicated love hate story.
Sales Outlets: eBook – KDP Select
Print – Amazon, Createspace, B&N and my website
Marketing Campaign: Posting on my blog and social media outlets [Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest], blast to my mailing list, GoodReads Giveaway and possibly a Cover Release Blast tour. And miscellaneous blogs.

Writing update. Technically, I have every month completed or partially finished. I have something special for my December release. I was going to do a novelette, but I saw something that really intrigued me. A Sampler. I saw Beth Yarnell’s romance sampler and asked her if she minded me copying her idea. She was cool with it, because she’d gotten it from someone else. I thought about releasing the sampler this summer, but decided against it. Part of this challenge has been to experiment with writing and marketing/promotion styles. Seeing I have nothing lined up for the holiday, I thought that would be the best to release my sampler in the fourth quarter. I’m going to make it a free download, just in time for all those new to the world of eReaders. I’ll share more on this title later in the year.

God has answered my prayer and those three titles I was concerned about, are coming to life. In addition to my 12 Titles challenge, I’m almost done with my first non-fiction book. Let me just say this, I commend anyone writing non-fiction. I had no idea how difficult it would be. I thought since I write fiction, it would be easy. No. Non-fiction requires a lot of person reflection and sharing. At least for the book I’m working on. Because this book is part of a larger project, I’ve elected not to release it until January.

Why the rush to finish everything a head of schedule? I would like to take a little time off and relax. But we’re writers. Do we ever really stop writing?

Have a good month and I’ll check in with you next month.

Tracy
Tracy Reed
www.readtracyreed.com

Fiction for Women Who Love God, Couture and Cute Guys=