by Nikki Amare | Mar 20, 2019 | Musings
There wasn’t a blog post last week because I ended up pulling it at the last minute. I had written a long post about some of the things that’s going on in the publishing and romance industry at the moment but I decided there already so many posts about #CopyPast Cris and the Book Theieves aka Pirates that my voice wasn’t really needed. Especially since I was a little heated when I wrote that post and it came through in the writing. I might write something on the topics of plagiarism and the illegal downloading of ebooks in the future but not today.
I’ve had to make a lot of changes this last year due to my health, and that means Hubby has had to make a lot of changes too. Anything with a scent makes it harder for me to breathe. I had stopped using fabric softener several years ago because I noticed it effected my breathing, but I’ve since given up, scented candles, dish soap, most household cleaners, store bought shampoos, body washes, face washes, etc. I never realized how much of the world is scented until my diagnosis.
Now, instead of fabric soften, I use a half a cup of baking soda in the washing machine and wool dryer balls in the dryer. I’ve found a shop on Etsy were I can buy homemade soap bars that are coconut oil free (since I’m also allergic to coconut oil). https://www.etsy.com/shop/Truelovesoap
Since I started using Jayne’s soaps my hair is softer than it’s ever been and the healthy shine has returned. And the acne that suddenly appeared once I hit 30 has also cleared up in just eight months. I use the Honey Calendula Shampoo and Shave bar for my hair and shaving. I use her charcoal and tea tree bar for my face and body. And I use the Himalayan Sea Salt bar and her Coffee bar for washing my hands. I ordered one of the samplers and I’ve ordered a few more bars just recently so I still have several yet to try. I would also recommend her deodorant and her lotion bars.
I love that she has scented and unscented stuff and that her packaging is eco friendly.
Because you see, once I started paying more attention to my environment, I began to realize how much waste we produced and how much plastic we used. So now I’m also trying to cut back on the waste we produce each month and to eliminate as much plastic from our lives as we can. We’ve stopped buying some things because of the packaging they come in and we’ve started remembering to use our cloth shopping bags. We don’t eat out very often but when we do I make sure to tell them no straw with my drink.
We’ve also stopped buying paper towels and paper napkins and have switched to cloth instead. I have different towels for different things. I have some lint free towels that I use for things like soaking up grease after frying bacon or drying tofu. I have others that are for dishes and others that are for cleaning. They are all different textures and fabrics so it’s easy to know which one is for what task.
The changes haven’t happened overnight. And we’re still adjusting to the new normal for us, but knowing it’s better for us and the environment makes it all worth it. At least for me.
by Nikki Amare | Mar 7, 2019 | Business, Musings
In my last post I talked about how I do my own cover design and formatting.
I’m one of those people who is super critical of my own work and I’m willing to work hard to acquire the skills I need in order to produce a finished product I’m happy with. And for the most part I prefer to do it myself because I know it will be done correctly. And if not I only have myself to blame.
Even if I plan to hire someone else to do a job I still think it’s important, as an author or business owner, to have a good understanding of what goes into building a cover, designing an interior, designing a website, etc. It ensures you’re getting what you pay for, as well as keeps you from having unrealistic expectations.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had a client come back to me after the job is finished and say, “I just need this one little change. It shouldn’t take but a few minutes.” That “little change” then ends up taking me four hours and costing them more money than they want to spend. Why? Because it might seem like a simple thing to them, but in reality it’s not.
A perfect example of this is InDesign. This is the program I use to design interior layouts for print books. This program has a steep learning curve but I honestly believe it’s worth learning if you want to produce high quality print books. This is the same program traditional publishers use to layout their books. Unlike with Word or Pages or Google Docs or whatever writing program you use, when InDesign puts text into a document that text is linked. Every letter, every space, and every punctuation mark is like a single link in a chain. So if you decide you want to delete a paragraph it will effect everything after that point. For most pages it probably won’t matter much. But there are some where it will shift the text to the next page which could mean having to go through the entire document to make sure all the chapters are on the right facing page, reapplying master pages so they are correct, and making sure you haven’t created any orphans or widows. (Orphans and Widows are where you have a few words either at the bottom of one page or the top of the other. This is something you generally try to avoid as it gives the finished product a messy, unprofessional look.) So by making that one “little change” I would have to more or less reformat everything after that point. This is why I stress to clients that it must be a fully edited manuscript and that there will be additional charges for changes after the layout is finished.
It’s those very types of things that make it important for authors to understand what it is they’re paying for. I’m a big advocate of taking control of your career. I hear so many authors who say, “I just want to write.” I understand that, believe me. I would love nothing more than to be able to not have to worry about anything else but writing. I would love to just hand over my life and career to someone else to handle all of the business stuff. But I don’t honestly trust anyone to be as informed or to care as much about my career as I do. So while I hope to be able to get to a point someday where I can hire out certain things, I will never hand over control of my life or my career blindly to someone else. I’ve heard too many horror stories. Seen too many people lose everything because of that mentality. Yes, it’s easier to let someone else do those things you don’t want to do, but how do you know if they’re doing it right or with your best interest in mind?
Educate yourself. After all, knowledge is power, right?
by Nikki Amare | Feb 26, 2019 | Musings
In November of 2018 I decided to take a break from blogging. I had so much going on at the time something had to give and that something ended up being blogging. Here we are in February—almost March—and I’m finally getting back to blogging. You might have noticed a few things have changed. Not having to worry about blogging every week allowed me to not only to have a new logo designed and redesign my website, but it also allowed me to really focus on writing and creating a publishing schedule and marketing plan for my books.
I recently sat down and wrote out a business plan to really lay out what I want and what I expect from my writing career. I laid out short term and long term goals. Doing this really helped me get things in order and gave me a new perspective on my writing career.
I had originally planned to release book one in my fantasy series this month. At least that was the plan in May of 2018. Due to several things that were out of my control, and the fact that the series I was working on at the time has been indefinitely shelved, I won’t be publishing this month. In fact, it will probably be closer to the end of the year or even next year before I release a book.
Believe me, no one is more disappointed in this than I am
In the mean time, I’m going to be writing like a mad woman and trying to get as many first drafts finished as possible. Ideally, I would like to have six full-length novels ready before I publish the first book. The reason being, I’m not a fast writer so doing it this way will allow me to rapidly release the first three books in the series and set up pre-orders for book four. Rapidly releasing books helps to boost visibility on certain platforms. Another benefit is that I will be at least three books ahead of what’s being released so I won’t have to rush a book in order to meet a deadline. As I will never put a book out that I’m not happy with, this allows me time to make sure I put out the best book possible. And, it also allows me to be able to have a coming soon page with release dates for the next books.
It means taking longer to publish the first book, but I want to give myself the best chance with my career. And I believe that doing things this way will do that. It will also allow me to layer in information as I go. As an organic writer I don’t plot, so often times there are things that happen in say book two that I want to be able to go back to book one and foreshadow. Or I will get to book four and realize that something I said in book two is screwing up the direction things are going. So it will allow me to have a more cohesive series overall.
Book one is finished and about a third of the way done with book two. I also have several scenes for book three written out and I have a general idea of what’s going to happen in that book. Not to mention copious amounts of notes for future books.
The other thing is, it will also allow us to get moved and have me be a little more settled before I jump into publishing full tilt.
This isn’t my first time so I know how much work goes into publishing behind the scenes. A lot of authors hire out cover art, editing, and formatting. I do everything myself except for editing. I started learning to do cover art around 2010 and a few years later got into formatting. I don’t recommend new authors do their own formatting or cover art unless they’ve spent at least a year practicing on a daily basis. It took me almost two years of learning photoshop before my stuff was even close to ready for viewing. I’m one of those people who is super critical of my own work and I’m willing to work hard to acquire the skills I need. Even if I plan to hire someone else to do a job I still think it’s important to have a good understanding of what goes into building a cover, designing an interior, designing a website, etc. It ensures you’re getting what you pay for, as well as keeps you from having unrealistic expectations. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had a client come back to me after the job is finished and say, “I want just this one little change. It shouldn’t take but a few minutes.” That “little change” then ends up taking me four hours and costing them more money than they want to spend. Why? Because it might seem like a simple thing to them, but in reality it’s not.
Because I do everything myself, I really need a enough time to write the book, edit the book, design the cover, design the promotional materials, put together the media kit, set up marketing, format the book, upload to the retailers, promote the book, etc, etc, etc. And since I don’t like to rush, as it usually ends up with me making avoidable mistakes, having multiple books ready allows me the time I need in order to keep from getting overwhelmed or burnt out. It also makes it easier to transition into hiring out certain aspects in the future if I chose to do so. Most cover artists and editors are booked out months—sometimes years—in advance. So that is something else I have to take into consideration. I would rather delay my initial release to set up a sustainable business model rather than have to possibly take a break somewhere down the road to wait on someone else’s editing or design schedule.
But as I said, doing things this way means I’m focusing on writing, writing, writing. The more books I can get finished this year, the better.
by Nikki Amare | Nov 28, 2018 | Musings
I’ll be taking a short break from blogging. Between trying to move, starting a new job, and the holidays I don’t have a lot of free time at the moment and I would prefer to spend it working on my book. For those of you who follow my blog, I really appreciate it and I will be back at it after the first of the year. And I’ll be launching my new blog design then as well. There’s a lot to look forward to for me in 2019.
I hope everyone has a happy holiday season.
I will see you in 2019.
by Nikki Amare | Nov 22, 2018 | Musings
I want to wish all of my readers in the States a Happy Thanksgiving. If you’re traveling, please be safe.
