Seriously. Where did it go? I swear it was just March and now it's going to be May on Wednesday. This month flew by.
I finished writing Happy Holidays #2, did an editing round on Happy Holidays #1, sent HH1 off to my established beta readers, and will be sending it to new betas tonight. I also ordered my cover art for Waiting for You today! My cover artist lives in the UK, so when I request something after two pm here, I usually wake up to cover art! It's a great feeling. Now, I am in the midst of doing a final edit of Waiting for You. After I finish, I leave it alone for a few days, then do my final read through and prepare it for pre-orders! I'm really excited about this story in particular. When I came up with the idea of this series, Austin and Lexi's story (And Then It Was You) popped into my head first, but Lincoln's was fully formed in my head very quickly afterwards. And much before Colt and Isla's. I also hate to play favorites, but if I were going to marry a Seabrooke, it would totally be Lincoln. Don't tell Austin and Colt! Once Waiting for You is finally off on its own and out of my hands, I will be going back to the final Falling for You book, Only You. I haven't touched it since February, and I am really looking forward to getting back to it. I'm taking the month of May off from writing, mainly because between all the editing and publishing, I just don't have time! I also promised myself a little breather. I tend to be able to do three straight months of writing (a novella per month) and then I need a break. In June, I'll be writing the first book in my next family-saga-series, as well as outlining and laying the framework for the entire thing. I've been having A LOT of fun in my brain with this already. They will be filled with tropes-galore and be much more emotionally-driven, rather than filled with suspense. I also have some publishing news! Come June, some of my books will be available on other platforms! The entire Happy Holidays series will immediately go to all platforms and my other series (Falling for You and the forthcoming series) will be in Kindle Unlimited for three months and then leave for other platforms. While I like the ability to reach so many readers in Kindle Unlimited, I would like to branch out to other platforms as well. I've hemmed and hawed with this decision for months, and I am FINALLY feeling at peace with it. And with that, I better go! I would love to go upstairs and work on a few more chapters of Waiting for You, but I have four hungry kiddos that need dinner! Happy Spring! Love always, Lucy
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It's finally here! Dance for You is out in the world! Yesterday, I was CRAZY anxious about releasing it. I have no idea why. There were a lot of other things happening (my oldest kid has pneumonia, I hadn't slept in 3 days, and a combo of everything has made my stomach hurt for the past two days) but the good thing is, at least with Amazon, once you schedule your pre-order and get past the point of no-return, it's happening.
And it happened! This morning before I woke up, it released. I'm not sure exactly when Amazon books go live, or what time-zone they go live in first, or how any of it works. If you know how it works, drop a comment; I would love to know. And now, a quick recap as to what I've been doing the past two weeks. Writing. Writing a lot. I'm almost done with Happy Holidays #2! I have about 5 more days of writing left (I hope), and then I leave it alone. I really like my schedule of writing something like crazy, and then doing other work for either a few weeks or even a month or two before coming back to it. It allows me to "forget" the story a little, so that when I do my first round of editing, I have completely fresh eyes. Next week, once I have completed writing it, I have a lot to do. I'll do a round of rewrites for Happy Holidays #1 and then it will go to beta readers, I'll order a cover for Waiting for You (Falling for You, #3), and I'll do a round of beta-reading edits on Waiting for You. Then, very quickly after that, I'll do a read through/ edit of Only You (Falling for You, #4) and send that off to my editor. I do love putting a cover order in the midst of a ton of work because I do really love getting cover art. It's like a little present to myself after all the hard work! I gave myself a little bit of a crazy release schedule this spring/ early summer. Once we hit July, I'm taking a few months off of the write-edit-release madness. I won't have another release until late September, and then another break until December. My original goal was to release 8 books this year, but starting in March, I realized that wasn't quite feasible. I moved a book I was going to release in November to December, and another one to January. I've found I have a hard time writing in December and January after the burnout of Nanowrimo/ 3 of my kids' birthdays/ Christmas/ New Years. It's a good time of year to be releasing rather than doing some heavy writing. I hope you are enjoying April! We're coming up on my birthday month (May!) and I've requested a toaster and microwave as gifts, since I am turning 36. Maybe next year I'll request something fun, like a trip to Quebec (swoon). Love always, Lucy Happy April! We've had a few warm days this week, lots of rain, and our tulips are poking out of the ground, so spring must be on its way!
Even though it's only day three of Camp Nano, I'm deep in the throes. I've gotten about 4k done so far, and am aiming for 2k per day this first week. I'm sure it will taper down in the coming weeks, so I like to get a big jump at the beginning of the month. I also have a very busy second half of the month, so I need to get the majority of my writing done in the next two weeks. Writing: I'm working on Happy Holidays #2, which is a Halloween romance. Halloween is by far my most favorite holiday, though it is a little weird to be getting in the "autumn spirit" in April. In particular, I'm loving the setting of New Hampshire. I was there in October two years ago, and I adored it. Editing: This week, I'll be doing my final read of Dance for You (Out April 17!) I thought I had already completed my final read through, but when I did it, I ended up adding about two paragraphs. I'll do one last read through to be completely certain I didn't make any grammatical mistakes or repeat myself elsewhere. Happy Holidays #1 is back from the editor with some notes, which I will be tackling in a week or two. Then it will be off to the betas! Waiting for You is back from my last beta with some notes, and I'll also be doing those at the end of the month. And somewhere in here I need to do an edit of Only You before I send it to the editor. YIKES. I might have to get a babysitter one day! Marketing: Ah, marketing. The actual worst part of indie publishing (in my opinion). I got some good advice from a very successful indie author (who just happens to be one of my younger sister's best friends). She told me to hold off on any paid promotion until you have an entire series released. That way, if you manage to snag some interested readers, they can read the first... and the second... and the third... and so on. Let me tell you, this is hard advice to follow! But, I told myself once I released Dance for You, I would do one small ad campaign on Facebook. Just to wet my whistle. I'll be doing a heavy marketing push in July, once the Falling for You series is complete and the first Happy Holidays is out. I'm not releasing anything between mid-July and the end of September so those months will be all about writing and marketing. Reading: Finally! What am I reading... well, I finished Devil's Daughter by Lisa Kleypas and, as always, it did not disappoint. I just started The Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo for my bookclub. I would have read more last night but for some reason as soon as I turned off my light (even with hubs snoring next to me), I felt very afraid of ghosts. So, I will be reading more of that tonight, but earlier. (I actually have no idea if this book will be spooky in the least. I don't read too much about the books I read in the bookclub beforehand. I like to go into it with no expectations.) I have some ARC and beta-reading to do this week/ month as well. Sometimes I think I bite off more than I can chew when it comes to reading and writing, but it always works out. And that's it! (I think...) Happy Wednesday to you all! Now, I'm going to pile the girls into the car so we can go to Trader Joe's. I need some easy to prepare meals so I can write while things are in the oven! Love always, Lucy |
Lucy HudsonMy thoughts on the writing and indie publishing process, as well as life occasionally Archives
April 2020
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