As I suspected, I didn't update on the blog this past week. It was busy every day and I knew I wouldn't have time to update here because I was spending my time doing other things.
In business this week, I finished off edits of THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE OPENS A TEA SHOP, formatted it, sent it out to my proofreaders, worked on my MailChimp lists so that my ARC readers were all set up, and sent the Daydreamer book out to them. I decided that I'm going to do teaser images for this book, BUT I'm not going to start posting them until AFTER the book goes on sale. This way it's first month of sales will have constant attention. I'm hoping this works to help get me on the Hot New Releases list on Amazon. We shall see.
Also this week, I set up Dragon to take my digital voice recorder and transcribe from it. It was pretty accurate after training, so I hope it works well for me going forward. I'm going to work on dictating away from my computer and all my devices, which usually turn into a huge distraction. Even watching the words come up on the screen as I say them is a huge distraction.
Once that was set up, I immediately opened my sci-fi book I wrote during NaNoWriMo and got to work on it. I'm reading through, fixing some things, adding some more, and making notes. This is the first book in a Nogiku Series spin-off called the Hikoboshi Series so from here on out it will called Codename: Hikoboshi 1. Yes, I am very creative. I hope to have my read-through done before the end of the week.
This week I also entertained the idea of doing a royalty share on my audiobooks for the Daydreamer series, but I've decided to shelve the idea, and the idea that I'll ever do audiobooks. I should only do them if I can pay for the price of them upfront, and at this point, I don't ever see that being a possibility. Remember that post about author dreams the other week? This has always been a dream of mine, finding the right narrator and hearing my books come to life. After three years and failing to make a profit for that long, it's time for me to give up on this dream. I just don't see being able to afford them for 5+ years. Oh well.
This week was also filled with random family and life stuff. I had to get the Girl Scouts cookie money all collected and sent off to the cookie moms. I'm glad that's done and I handed it in on time. My husband gave me a deadline for dealing with last year's expenses, which is good. And then it snowed on Thursday and we had a snow day where everyone was home. This meant that I didn't make it to the gym this week, but that's okay. I still did a lot of walking! I'm on track to meet my goal again this month even though we're going away this next weekend.
What else happened this week?
My girls had a great month in January so we celebrated with frozen yogurt.
It was almost 60ºF on Wednesday so I went for a long 5 mile walk. It was so nice!
Then it snowed A LOT the next day. Sigh. I hate snow.
Lots of working this week, both at my computer and setting up Dragon on the PC to take transcription files.
And I worked on re-formatting both FACE TIME and SUMMER HAIKUS this week with Vellum. They're both ready to be uploaded today!
I'm not sure what this week will bring here on the blog, I have a lot to do otherwise between writing, reading, editing, and walking, plus the usual family stuff. Plus my Friday is already booked up with a haircut in the morning and my kids have a half day. I just need to keep going and working! If I'm inspired to post anything, I'll be back!
I’m just getting into Dragon, so I’d like to know if you have a voice recorder to recommend.
(I dictate from my desk, but I turn off the screen when I use it. I’m slow enough trying to formulate the sentences that it keeps up nicely.)
HI Bill! Sorry, the photo of the voice recorder was in yesterday’s post so I forgot to put it here.
https://www.spajonas.com/2017/02/11/say-anything-saturday-experimenting/
Here it is on Amazon. http://amzn.to/2kWP32d
I haven’t started REALLY using it yet but I did a few practice sessions to see how it worked and it’s pretty easy to use. I plugged my headset into it no problem and walked and talked.
Thanks. I follow your posts so I’ll be interested in your opinion of it.
I am almost finished with my current read on my Kobo and looking forward to starting the third daydreamer book. Having a good book waiting for me next also helps me finish my current read faster ;). That sounds like a good idea to mix it up and now do the teasers after release!
Maybe later you can afford to do audiobooks or maybe one day you get a publisher who wants to do audio’s for you? Who knows. I haven’t listened to audiobooks myself, but they do seem to be getting more popular lately.
We also got some snow here, but it’s all gone already again. Those frozen yogurt pictures always look so good. We don’t have as many places here were you can get it. I only ate it once I think. Have a great week!
Yay! Maybe you’ll be reading by the end of the week then. :)
We still have A LOT of snow here. Ugh. It’s supposed to be warm over the next weekend, so I’m going to hope it all melts then!
Sounds like you had a busy but productive week! And love the pics. All those geese or ducks… and the snow! You got a ton.
Hope it’s another great week.
They’re mostly Canadian geese, though we have ducks too. And I’ve even seen a cormorant swimming and diving in the lake as well!
Sorry you’ve had to give up on the audiobooks for now, but it makes sense to prioritize. Maybe things will change later, who knows?
Maybe things will change later, I have no idea! I wish I could make some now since I love listening to them so much. I just finished Heartless this morning. It was so good!
I understand what you mean about being distracted about seeing the computer type what you dictate. I want to use transcription. It’s something I should really consider looking into.
I am so ready for spring to come and stay for a while. I’m tired of the cold and snow.
I’m looking forward to trying transcription. I hope to get started by the end of the week.
Gosh, you are always so busy every week lol. That’s cool though that Dragon can type the things you record on your voice recorder even! Those types of things just don’t work me though. Like, my brain doesn’t think/work in a way that’s compatible with recording things. I can have conversations with people, but that’s different. Even something like writing this comment, I’ve paused like 17 times just to figure out what word or sentence or whatever to put next. It’s hard to explain.
Are those sour patch kids in their froyo? I used to love sour patch kids, and froyo, but I’m not sure I’d like them combined lol.
It’s not unusual at all, the tongue-tied feeling like you can’t say words that you normally type. I administer the Dragon group on FB and about once per week another person posts there saying they can’t get their brain to make the connection. We always tell them to keep trying, and they either give up or come back a week later having gotten the hang of it. It’s like learning any other input device. People who decide to learn Dvorak keyboard go through the same learning period. It’s hard but anyone can do it. Same with Dragon. You just have to really want it. I would not have a career if I had to type all my books. Dragon will save me from constant pain.
And yes, those are sour patch kids! Gross. But my kids like them in froyo. Lol. That and gummy bear, for some reason!
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