Dated References Are the Best Kind of References

Internet, I'm going to let you finish, but Claudia at phatpuppyart just made me the best book cover of all time.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled interneting.

In Which I Resize

I ran into a problem a little while ago. I was reading the ever useful Self Printed when a line stopped me dead in my eye tracks. The ideal size for a book cover is 1563x2500 pixels.1 Okay, I paraphrased because I didn't feel like looking up the actual quote (that's a lot of book to go through, okay?)

Anyway, my brain spun into shock. Because the ideal size was 600x800 pixels. That's the size I make all my book covers to, because it's the size I was told was best when I first started making book covers years ago.2

But then this thing happened. Where screen resolutions got better so now picture resolutions need to be better. I'm a bit miffed about it. It means I'll need to resize the Junk Squad cover and my stock images now cost me twice as much to get them big enough to look good. Grr.

Admittedly, I'm also a bit miffed at myself for not noticing. I mean, I really should have been paying more attention. This is the problem with having learned all my designing/coding nonsense in the ice age.3

So now I'm resizing. The Junk Squad cover resized okay, I guess the images are high enough quality to handle it. I suppose this has been a good learning experience for me. This must be what people who've been doing things for longer than five minutes feel like. Confused and slightly annoyed because the things you spent time learning are no longer relevant.

When it comes down to it, though, if I hadn't put in all that now irrelevant time, I wouldn't have learned anything and my covers would be even worse than they already are. Just like how all that time I spent writing atrocious things wasn't really wasted, because I needed to write those things before I could write half way decent things. Like how I'm writing all these confused, topic-less blog posts in the hope that someday I'll be good enough to write something readable and full of wisdom punches.

Yay, wisdom! Wait, this counts as wisdom, right? Maybe it's just a case of getting a first hand slap from something I vaguely knew but never really bothered about.



Footnotes! Yeah, I'm all fancy now.

1. quick lesson: for anyone who doesn't know what a pixel is, it's like a measurement of size and it determines the resolution and everything. If you look up the resolution of the screen you're currently reading this on it's probably measured in pixels. Unless you're reading from the future where pixels have been replaced by something fancier. In which case, hi! *waves* Maybe this lesson wasn't so quick after all. 

2. not, like, real book covers but ones I put up on my nano page and mostly just made for fun (I have weird hobbies, okay?)

3. the ice age in the world of computers being three years ago

In Which I am a Fraud

I haven’t been writing much lately. I could make excuses about holidays and what not, but the truth is I just haven’t gotten around to it. Now the year is ending, and I haven’t even begun to plan for Milwordy yet. Plus I’m launching a book in February because I told myself I would and I can’t back out of so solemn a promise. I mean, the thing is mostly written, but still.

I haven’t felt much like a writer lately, even as I’ve been prepping to launch my writing career. That’s the funny thing about being a writer. I only call myself a writer when I’m writing. It doesn’t matter if I wrote something a couple weeks ago or have been working out plot points in my head. It doesn’t matter that I have writing up for everyone to see. If I’m not actively writing then I’m not a writer.

Of course, that definition is just silly. I don’t un-become a pharmacy technician on the weekends because I’m not actively working. Then again, that job pays me with this thing called ‘money’ while I put time into writing on the vague hope that I might someday eventually be paid for it.

Maybe the problem is the simple insecurity of knowing I’ll never know if I’m any good at this writing thing anyway. There isn’t a right or wrong way to go about writing, and while that’s in many ways freeing, it’s also a breeding ground for insecurity. Because I can’t compare what I’m doing to a set of rules and call it right, there’s no way to dismiss the fear that I’m doing something wrong.

I’m not sure what the solution to any of this is. If I had an easy answer, I wouldn’t be struggling with it. Do I simply accept that I will always feel like a little bit of a fraud? That sounds depressing. Do I sit under a waterfall until I discover the Zen secret to being satisfied with myself as I am? Except I’m not entirely sure I should do that, because I want to keep striving to get better. The last thing I want is to decide my writing is ‘good enough’ and stagnate in contentment. Maybe what I need is some sort of in-between point of contentment and striving, but I’ve never been any good at that whole balance and moderation thing.

Maybe I’ll just shrug it off and eat a sandwich. 

In Which I Make Important Decisions

As the title of the blog post says, I have made a decision! My first book I self publish will be Queen of Broken Hearts. Okay, so it's a novella, not a full length novel. I figured it would be a good way to dip my toe in the water before I go full out with Junk Squad.

So Queen of Broken Hearts will be coming out in early February. I've set my official launch date as February 12, but with self publishing there are lag times before things go live, so this is more a date for me than for when the book will be completely available.

Why QoBH? Well, it's already written. So there's that. It really just needs some revising and fixing up, which means I can launch it on a faster time line than anything I need to start writing from scratch. Secondly, it really is a book I love and I'd be disappointed if no one ever got to read it. Thirdly, it needs a lot less work than Tidal Wave, which is the other book I was thinking of launching. So I'm saving Tidal Wave for the summer, which is more appropriate for it, anyway.

In the time leading up to the launch I'll do a series of tutorial walk throughs on how I flounder about and figure out how to do things. Whee, lots of things to write about! Right now I've sent a message to a potential cover artist *crosses fingers* and am working on a blurb. Oh, and that one thing that's far less important. You know, working on the actual book? I guess I'm doing that too.

How to Start a Newsletter

I just started a newsletter! Go me and doing things that may or may not help my pretend writing career! Anyway, I’m going to walk you through how you can do the same for your writing career, pretend or not.

Okay, so I’m not the expertest expert ever, okay? But I can still explain this. And I’ll do it… with numbered steps!*

1. Go to mailchimp.com There’s other newsletter sites out there, but this seems to be the most     common one, and I found it pretty easy to use.

2. Create an account. Simple dimple. Just fill in the info things they ask for, confirm your email address and what not and voila! You’re ready to start.

3. Okay, now you’re going to want to create a list. Don’t worry if you have no idea what you’re doing yet, it’ll get clearer. Name your list whatever you want to use it for, like “Book News.” 

4. Fill out the thingummies they ask for, then next step!

5. Design your sign up form. They make this pretty easy to do. They let you make it super fancyfied, but I’d advise against it. Keep it simple. Make it quick and easy for people to sign up. 

6. It’ll give you a link to your sign up form. Go ahead and link to it wherever you want it linked to. Your website is a good idea. 

7. Sign up for your own list. This way you can make sure everything is working like it should be. 

8. Send out a test email. Obviously, don’t do this if there’s anyone other than you on this list. Play with the newsletter formats to see what you like, figure out how all the features work. Mail chimp tells you how many people opened your emails and clicked on things and what not.

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             Anyway, just generally sort out what you’re doing while your only subscriber is yourself and make sure you know how it all works for when there’s someone actually watching.

And that’s it! Just a few sidenotes:

sidenote the first: do not add anyone’s email to this list without their express permission. Do I need to say this again? Do. Not. Add. Emails. Of. People. Who. Do. Not. Opt. In. Got it? Good.

sidenote the second: I would suggest just using the free version of the newsletter for now. The paid ones are really for people with thousands of subscribers. Don’t pay for something you don’t need.

Now that you’ve created your newsletter, you can even send out legit emails! I would suggest not doing this more than once a month, or you could start annoying your subscribers. And don’t send it out once a month just because, make sure you actually have something to say that your subscribers will consider useful information. I decided I’ll send mine out whenever I release a book, that way it’ll do exactly what I want (tell people there’s a book to go get) without getting spammy.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Tutorial’d. 

*I will never use numbered steps ever again until tomorrow. They're really hard to make, okay? Appreciate this effort I put in for you.

In Which I Pretend to be a Productivity Guru

Sit down, my procrastinating friend. Welcome. *blows bubbles from plastic pipe* If you are here it must be because you are seeking the Answer. The Answer to the ultimate question. How do I become more productive?

Well, you don’t.

Now, now, don’t get angry. Be patient. I am here to teach you something. An important lesson you must learn right down to your bone marrow.

You are human. Forgive yourself for it.

Don’t roll your eyes, this is important.

You are human. You can only work so many hours in a day before you burn out. Know this. Accept it.

It’s okay if you spend Saturday wandering around the park instead of tackling that to do list. It’s okay to be exhausted after work.

The key to productivity is this: don’t guilt trip. Don’t get angry because you didn’t use every one of your twenty four hours today to further your life goals. Let it go. Take a deep breath. Take some time to learn who you are and what works for you. Maybe you get more done when you wake up early, or when you stay up late. Experiment. Maybe you get more done when you eat too much candy and feel a little sugar high.

This takes time. Let it. Move forward sluggishly because there are more important things then your destination.

It’s not about a plateau. There is no plateau. Love your life for what it is and fight to make it better. Not because it’s not good enough. Never because you’re not good enough.

Remember that you're human and flawed and perfectly yourself.

Accept contradictions because you’re human and by definition a contradiction. Be productive because you love yourself and you love what you do. Tell yourself you’ll quit when it hurts too much, then come back for more because being without it hurts even worse.

Don't wake up in the morning because you have to. Wake up in the morning because there’s something spectacular waiting for you. 

Move forward. Be lazy a lot. Be productive sometimes. And most importantly

Love, Love, Love