It’s day 2 of my KDP Select promotional giveaway, and why not use Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day a giveaway? Go get yours, Kindle owners.
Leave a CommentAuthor. Nerd. Literary Deviant.
Category: Announcements
Happy weekend, all!
I just finished this new poem, that I got the idea for after reading a sappy, sentimental poem about a mother’s hands, and as I was about to take a nap. I never got the nap, because I kept writing and rewriting this in my head.
It’s called My Mother’s Hands. Go check it out, and tell me what you think.
Leave a CommentWhen I started my Wednesday Wrants, I said that part of the reason I wanted to do them was to have some avenue for my ranting frustrations, but also a record of something I could write about later. My newest flash fiction piece, Johnson County Mr. Coffee, is just that.
I ranted a few weeks ago about our fancypants coffeemaker a few weeks ago in this post, and it inspired the following story.
https://kellyhitchcock.com/flash-fiction/#joco
Go check it out, and tell me what you think 🙂
Leave a CommentToday, I’ve got a guest post over on fellow writer Deborah Court’s author blog. Go check it out, #1 fans of mine…
http://deborahcourt.blogspot.com/2012/01/guest-of-day-author-kelly-hitchcock.html
Leave a CommentI just got done reading my 2010 review, and now I’m ready to do the same for 2011. It’s been quite a year, and was way different from 2010.
- I had two manuscripts published in 2011. It was less than 2010, but I’ll still call it a win because I spent more energy on getting The Redheaded Stepchild published and writing my next novel. I also spent more time writing new manuscripts in general than I did in 2010.
- 2011 came and went, and the two poems that were accepted for publication in February 2010 are still waiting to go to print. And people wonder why print is dead…
- I forwent the book deal and decided to publish The Redheaded Stepchild myself. I’m still experimenting to figure out what works as far as sales and marketing go, but I’m not in this for the money. I’m in it because I love it and I want to try new things.
- I tripled my Twitter followers.
- I once again pimped my writing at South by Southwest. I also submitted a panel proposal for SXSW 2012 which is still under review. Fingers crossed!
- I used my Kindle to check out works by other Kindle authors. I’m hoping that it’ll be great for you-scratch-my-back-I’ll-scratch-yours kind of sales.
- I joined a writer’s group, and I’m now leading that group. I look forward to Weird Austin Writers meetings every single time.
- I began volunteering at my local library. I’m hoping this will help me reach out to readers once I get more established.
Goals for 2012
- Sell 1,000 copies of The Redheaded Stepchild. I’ll have to figure out what works marketing-wise to make that happen, but it’d be nice to know that my book is in 1,000 new hands!
- Publish my next novel. I’ve got a lot of rewriting and editing to do, but I’m really excited about the project and I think it’ll be my best work yet. Now if I can just think of a title…
- Build relationships with readers and other authors. This means I need to keep up with my other author blogs all year round. (Compound goal.)
- Publish The Other Dentenia Zickafoose. I’ve been shopping this guy around for almost 2 years now. It’s time.
- Become a contributor on other author blogs. Guest posting, book reviews, whatever I can do. I need to put myself out there.
- Write 15 new manuscripts. I’ll have the new novel, but I also want to write 10 poems and 5 short stories to add to my repertiore. Can’t be myopic with my manuscripts.
On the whole, I’ll call 2011 a win. I think 2012 is gonna rock.
1 Comment.jpg "WoMen's Literary Cafe")
I do believe I am setting a personal record for earliest morning blog post. I’m usually not even up for another few minutes. Part of that, I think, is the excitement of being part of the December New Release book event by the Women’s Literary Cafe. I’m not exactly expecting people to line up at the bookstore for it, especially since there is no physical form to be had in bookstores, but I am hoping that I can see some traffic and get my name out there for my first novel.
This event is for independent authors, such as myself, who have recently released new books, so feel free to support any other independent authors with new releases that sound interesting to you.
Here’s a link to the event: WoMen’s Literary Cafe December New Release. Happy Holiday ebook shopping 🙂
Leave a CommentI’ve been working on the tattoo story collection I discussed a few posts ago. It’s been going very well, but it appears I am short of the 25,000 word count mark by about 11k. That tends to happen when you get new freelance clients every night for the first couple weeks, then have to go to a 3-day conference for your real job.
The main reason I wanted to do National Novel Writing Month was because I had a project I was crazy excited about, and I wanted to start getting it down before I lost that initial excitement. Perhaps more importantly, though, it took me seven years to write my last book, and I don’t want it to take another seven years to write my second. NaNoWriMo is great for me, because it forces me to find the time – often time I don’t have – to write something, anything, any day. As a result, I’ve written on the city bus, in coffee shops during meetups, on my lunch breaks, while watching college football recaps, you name it.
Part of the problem I’ve had with NaNoWriMo is that the process needs to be fast, and my process is typically much slower. I’m a big edit-as-I-go kind of person; it’s how I’ve always been and why I think my editing phase is a little easier. It’s difficult for me to write something I know I don’t really like, am going to have to change later, and just leave it and move on. It may prove useful though, because when I do come back to this in December to start editing (yes, I am an optimist), I’ll have a little more dramatic distance than I typically have when I edit as I write. No process is ever going to be perfect, though, so I guess I’ll take the productivity in exchange for the rework I’ll inevitably have to do later.
It’s likely that I won’t get to 50,000 on time, but I’m not overly concerned. I’m happy with the progress I am making and I think the prose is really well done so far. I’ve also been getting some great feedback from my meetup group members, which I will feature again soon.
Leave a CommentIt’s only tangentially related to my personal writing, but it’s still pretty damned cool. I was interviewed by Emma Jacobs of the Financial Times about my freelance writing job (you know, the one I’m doing when I’m not working my full-time real job or working on my next novel). The article’s pretty sweet, so it’s definitely worth passing on.
You can read it HERE, and possibly have to pass their registration wall by registering for a free account. Or you can Google “The Love Letter Ghostwriter” to read the thing without registering.
P.S. That’s not what I really look like. It’s a God-awful picture of me.
Leave a CommentRemember, remember the 5th of November, because it’s the day I uploaded my first novel to Amazon’s Kindle direct publishing and Smashwords! It’s now available for readers everywhere for just $2.99.
Links to buy the book are here. You can also lend it or download a free sample that includes the first chapter.
The process was really easy. I had already formatted a short story for epub format before, so I knew what and what not to do, and of course the longest part of the process was writing and editing. All I really had to do was add a product description, create some tags, upload a cover image, and upload the formatted book file. The Kindle Help is very well written and walked me through the process almost perfectly.
The real question I keep asking myself is why I waited so long to do it in the first place.
Leave a CommentSo, I’m a little drunk as I write this, so bear with me. I’m celebrating, because I just finished editing The Redheaded Stepchild. I began writing the book about 7 years ago, and tomorrow (and by tomorrow, I mean today, after a night’s sleep), I will be publishing it on Kindle Direct and Smashwords. It’s been a long journey, but I’m ready to publish my first novel and get it under my belt.
More to come tomorrow…
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