Month: March 2015

Multi-tasking Nightmares

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

Popular wisdom says women are better at multi-tasking than men. I don’t know if that is true, but if it is, I feel sorry for men who are independent authors. Juggling the tasks of writing, proofing, editing, production and promotion, along with holding down a full-time job, can strain the capabilities of even my superior feminine brain, so they might threaten to short-circuit male synapses.

When I published my first few books branding was no where on my radar. I didn’t even bother to make the covers in my first series have a similar style, so now that I’ve learned a bit more about this whole Independent Author process, I’m eager to have my covers redesigned to get a cohesive look.

I’ve just tiptoed into the world of professional cover design and found the waters (and prices) a bit too deep for my current budget. I need to earn more from my books in order to afford to get new covers, but I need new cover designs to increase my sales.

Spending time on promotion and marketing to increase sales takes time away from writing new books, but I need more books to increase my sales.

It makes me dizzy, just thinking about it.

Independent authors are beginning to get a bit more respect as creative professionals, and that’s a good thing. However, when you consider all the different balls we keep whizzing through the air, especially compared to traditionally published authors, we should be getting a whole lot more.

Today is the Rave Reviews Book Club Blog Recruiting day. To vote for your favorite blog entry go to:

Blog Recruitment Day Voting Link

 

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First Blog Book Proof Copy on its Way.

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

I completed the book of weekly readings for leaders of Women’s Ministries. The proof copy should arrive next week.

I’m working on the book of daily inspirational blogs and am up to April. Slower-going than the weekly entries, of course, but very satisfying work. It’s like reading an old diary and seeing how I’ve changed and how I’ve remained the same.

I just hope the books will be interesting and inspirational to the readers.

As you can see, I’m trying out a different blog style. I would welcome your comments on this new format.

Creating a Blog Book

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

I decided to create a book from the past six years of  posts on my weekly inspirational blog  “Power Walking with Jonna.” (Thanks, Nonnie Jules for the idea!)

Going back to categorize and evaluate this many posts is daunting.

I’m creating one book of daily devotions for women and one of weekly readings for leaders in women’s ministry. I managed to get the posts separated and then began evaluating, rewriting and winnowing the book of weekly readings first (taking the smallest bite from the elephant before tacking the main carcass).

The process has been enlightening, revealing and humiliating, in about equal parts. There’s nothing like reading through years of posts to uncover a writer’s bad habits.

I’m re-writing to remove the most egregious lapses, so hopefully the finished book won’t lay my writing faults quite so bare to the readers.

I think this exercise will probably improve my fiction writing, too, so my current chagrin will be a small price to pay for becoming an improved novelist.

 

 

Write, Promote, Hone

~ Jonna Hawker Turek ~ Leave a comment

Being an independent author is a juggling act trying to balance creative writing, publishing, networking and marketing.

After completing and launching my last book it was time to switch to promotion-mode and I’ve spent the past month trying new marketing methods.

With my first four books I set a schedule of publishing a new book in the series every six months, leaving very little time for promotion. I felt harried much of the time and decided not to push myself with the current series. My goal was to relieve my stress levels, but in doing so I had a chance to catch my breath and see something else I had been overlooking in my urgency to publish: I had not taken the time to hone my craft.  Rather than a regimen of write, publish, promote, I should be spending time honing my craft as a very vital step. The schedule should be hone, write, hone, publish, hone, promote, hone, etc.

Taking time to study and research writing craft is essential if I hope to grow as a writer, not just amass a high number of books.

To that end, I have been reviewing some of my favorite writing texts and have found they mean more to me now that I have written a few books than they ever did before. The guidance is more real to me. I can compare the principals to my existing works, seeing where I could have improved, and I am excited to apply what I’m learning to my current work in progress.

With the accessibility of independent publishing it is tempting to shortcut the process and shortchange ourselves as maturing authors.

In this burgeoning and competitive field, I believe it will be the excellent craftsmen and women who succeed in the long run; not simply the ones with the most books or the most hits on Twitter.