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A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO MY FIRST BOOK

August 5, 2015 by in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as , , , ,

I already hear you saying, that’s a long title for a blog post. I agree, but it’s the truth. A while back I shared how I came to be an Indie Writer and promised to talk about the book that sort of kick-started my writing career. Because the story is a little long and filled with more twists than a rollercoaster, I thought I’d share it over the course of my next few posts or until the book is launched…whichever comes first. God, I hope the book is published before this series of posts becomes as long as a novella.

So strap on your seatbelt and let’s begin the ride.

I’m almost afraid to tell you when I wrote my first book, or as it will from hence on be referred to as Alex One. I started writing Alex One in 2005. Yes…yes…yes…I hear all you judging me, and I don’t care. I’ve already beat myself up several times.

Anyway, I remember I was watching a chick flick…which I love…don’t hate. As I was saying. I thought to myself, I should do that, write a book about people that reflect me…women who love, God, Fashion and Cute Guys [thus the tagline for my writing career]. Let me back up; when I was in college, I did a semester of screenwriting and even wrote a couple of “bad” scripts. I even tried my hand at a few “bad” short stories. Looking back, I wonder if I should have taken some creative writing courses. Probably, but at the time, that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a sports reporter. I had my own sports segment that aired once a week on campus television and local cable, and I was an intern in at the local Tulsa NBC Affiliate in the Sports Department. I was on my way…nowhere. I couldn’t get hired anywhere after graduation. But I digress.

Back to writing. So no, it never occurred to me to take creative writing courses. Fast forward and I move back home and go to work for a public relations company and then a record company. I figured I’d work my way up the ranks to a high-level executive position. I came close. While at the record company, I went from working in the temp pool to assistant for the General Manager. When he was promoted, so was I. Now I was Executive Assistant to the President and CEO. I was on the fast track. I had the whole package, travel, a great office, an assistant, a very good salary and long hours. All this and with the company less than three years. Then I was promoted to Director of New York Operations. I relocated to New York and remained there for almost two years, then I was downsized and out of work.

Bear with me, this all does tie into my writing career. Remember I told you this is a post in parts.

When I was “Laid Off,” I took a little time off before starting my own business. I’ll skip over that history. I hear you saying, “Thank You” and you’re welcome.

The thought of writing was always deep in the back of my mind. I had even attempted to write long before 2005, picking it up every now and again. I think what nudged me, was my computer. In down times at my store, I would tinker with writing. However, when my old computer died, and my parents gifted me with a new one, I got the urge to try writing again. I had visions of writing an amazing book, signing a huge contract and going on book tours. I’d hire reliable staff to work in my store, and the book money would just be gravy. The fantasy got bigger when I got a laptop; now I could write anywhere.

As I got closer to the end of writing Alex One, I had an epiphany. I needed income for my business and thought, I’d sell the book and use the money for my business. That’s where the story turns. I didn’t have a clue as to how the publishing industry worked and all I knew about Indie Writers is that’s what you did when no one thought your book was good enough to buy.

Up until this point, I hadn’t told anyone I was writing or had written a book.

To test my skills, I conveyed what I now know is called a “Beta group” of friends and one stranger, to read Alex One. This group ripped through my book with a fine tooth red comb. They found things wrong, I didn’t even realize. A crucial error was a pregnancy. I had the character get pregnant and deliver in three months…MAJOR ERROR! Then they said one of the men sounded too feminine. Oh man, this was so not the reaction I was expecting, but needed.

Back to square one. I took all of their comments, processed them and made changes. I finally got the book to where I liked it, and then I started shopping it. See, I thought you wrote a book, got an agent, gave them the book, they gave you a check and waited for the money to pour in. No one told me it could take years before an agent would even request your book for consideration. Here’s the part I never really got, the agent would be working for me, yet he/she has the right to tell me if my book is good enough or not. To this day that still doesn’t compute for me.

I have a friend who is a popular Christian Fiction writer; we met via the internet [we’ll keep that story for a later post] and she suggested I write an ebook. I didn’t want to do that. I had visions of going into book stores and seeing my books on the shelves, not on the internet. I fought that until I finally decided to submit to her epublisher. Once I finally acquiesced, it was too late. They were no longer taking submissions.

I had heard about ACFW American Christian Fiction Writers [in case you forgot, I write Christian or Faith-based fiction with heat] the perfect place for me . . .I thought. I mentioned it to my friend, and she said she was a member and that she was going to the conference. She said if I went, we could finally meet and hang out. I vacillated and finally decided to go. I was pumped. I had my manuscript in a box …literally. I didn’t know you were supposed to wait for someone to request it, and then you send it. That research thing came back to bite me in the butt again. Anyway, I got there, booked an agent appointment and a Harlequin editor appointment.

The night before meeting with the Harlequin editor, I attended a late night workshop she hosted, where she gave a list of what Harlequin was looking for. She also gave a list of what they didn’t want. By the end of the session, I knew me meeting with her was going to be a waste of my time, but I still went. I needed to keep my word. I handed her my summary and like I thought, no. My book was a little too out there. See at the time (maybe they’ve changed their policy for their Christian line) it wasn’t customary for the hero and heroine to be divorced. Strike One. My heroine is divorced. The characters can’t mention how attracted they are towards each other (i.e. no comments about how hot she thinks he is and vise versa). Strike Two. And definitely no hot kisses. Strike Three.

On to my meeting with the agent. I made my pitch, and she said I can write about God or Sex, but not both. With that said, she said she liked my concept and to send it to her. I was over the moon. I went back to my room and called my mom. We were excited someone that didn’t know me wanted my book. A month later, a gut punch. The agent said it wasn’t a romance. I knew that. In fact, I never said it was a romance, but women’s fiction with romantic elements. At the time, that’s how I referred to Alex One, women’s fiction with romantic elements. I sulked for a little while before hitting the internet in search of an agent that understood my style.

I went to ACFW the following year with a tweaked book, still hoping to secure an agent. There were two agents I wanted to talk to. One was completely booked, however, at lunch you had an opportunity to eat with an agent. I rushed inside the crowded banquet room and grabbed a sit at my dream agent’s table. She went around the table and asked us all for our one line pitch. I gave mine and no reaction. Crap! All this time, I’d been following her blog, even occasionally emailing her and nothing. No problem. I ran into the other agent of choice in the restroom and thanked her for being honest in her rejection. She turned me down because her roster was too full. I told her I appreciated her honesty and went on to my other meeting which was a bust. I left the conference without a request. However, I shared a ride to the airport with the editor of a magazine I’d written a short story for a few months earlier and after some small talk, she asked me to submit another story, which I did. I was an official writer with two published short stories.

What does all of this have to do with Alex One? I was a little discouraged, but I kept writing. I say Alex One is the sweetest book I’ve written, that was before I started reading a lot more and the birth of my first published book, GENERATIONAL CURSE.

I’ve told the story about the agent I had and how we came to part ways. By the way, the agent I ran into in the restroom, is the agent that later became my agent. While I was waiting for her to shop Alex One, I wrote the sequel, let’s call it Alex Two. Alex Two would make the editor at Harlequin’s eyes pop out of their sockets. For that matter, the way Alex One was changed would probably make her pull her hair out. I broke every rule they have for their Christian line.

Finally to the title of this post series.

When I wrote Alex One, I wrote it based on what I had been reading at the time …sweet but edgy Christian Fiction …what I thought the Christian Fiction market would like. However, when I went back and reread the series [currently there are three books in this series], the characters sounded a little young, naive and not real. To me, they lacked life. I got my red pen and post-its and went crazy. Then I joined OCC and learned how important it is to read any and everything. I was told by someone not associated with RWA that wasn’t a good thing to do because it could influence what you’re writing, or you might subconsciously commit plagiary. However, I learned at OCC what you read inspires what you write, at least it does for me.

So here’s the first thing that happened.

As I said, there are three books in this series. Let me back up. When the agent and I parted ways, I didn’t know what to do. I felt I had written what God inspired me to write. However, agents didn’t seem to agree with me. I can’t remember how it happened, but Laura Drake suggested I take Debra Holland’s Self-Publishing class. She said, “Debra writes non-traditional and is self-published. You should talk to her. In fact, she’s going to be teaching a class, you should take it.” So I did.

After the first class, my eyes were opened. When Debra gave a list of questions and situations for us to ask ourselves to determine if indie publishing was for us, I had my answer. I needed to self-publish.

The other reason I liked the idea of self-publishing is, I liked my title and knew traditional publishing wouldn’t like my title or the concept of the story. The Alex books are told in multiple POV. I hear you now . . .too confusing. Not to me, but to be sure, I RESEARCHED and found books written this way and it worked. Okay, so I wasn’t weird, and my story is good. The reason I was getting rejected by traditional publishing was the God and Sex themes.

I was on my way. I was joining the ranks of the Self-Published or Indie Writers. I was no longer beholden to the system. I could tell the kinds of stories I wanted. All good things. Now for the overwhelming things. Everything was my responsibility. I had to decide if I wanted to do ebooks or print or both. I wanted to do both. I was pulling my hair out. My mother/cheerleader suggested I not release Alex One first, but go with Generational Curse. I wrestled with this for a while. If you’ve read that book, it starts out very steamy, unlike the Alex books. I thought I should launch my writing career a little tamer. It’s sort of like that go big or go home saying. I went big.

I knew how I wanted the cover to look. In fact I found an amazing image; however, it was going to cost me $2,000 . . .not in the budget. I searched for a very long time for the right image. [see images A and B], until I found something I could work with. Looking for a cover, I decided to broaden my horizon and not just look at African American images, but at anything that fit the tone of my story. I finally decided to go with something more sophisticated and not overtly sexy.

What I also discovered in searching for an image, there are very few black/African American images that weren’t duplicated. I wanted something that had a little sass but didn’t look like every other black/African American cover. I knew my character was honey colored, so I got an image from Masterfile and with help from Photoshop I got what I wanted.

So what does this have to do with Alex One you ask? Everything. When I originally wrote the Alex series, I had a certain vision; however, it changed. Remember I wrote book one in 2005. Then about a year later I wrote book two. By the time I got to book two, I knew the agent and I were probably not going to see eye to eye . . .book two was very hot. That’s why I was fine with us parting ways.

I have revised Alex One so much, it barely resembles the draft I sent out to agents. Here’s what happened. While I was looking for GENERATIONAL CURSE images, I sent revised Alex One to my editor. She made her notes, and I cleaned it up. I can’t remember what happened, but I put Alex One to the side and concentrated on GENERATIONAL CURSE or Kyla as I call her. I dedicated my time to my fourth born. After I released her, I went back to Alex One and reread her and felt she needed a little more tweaking. Keep in mind, I had already sent this to my editor. I even had a cover [see image C].

I liked this cover. However, when I went back and started preparing Alex One for release, I discovered, I didn’t like the cover. I felt it gave people the impression the story was about a man and his friends. The Alex series is about Alexandra Miller and her four best friends. And my cover no longer worked with the story. What’s ever worse, I had this image on my website and on GoodReads as a future release.

Now on top of doing a rewrite, I was looking for a new cover. Again I wanted something a little more sophisticated but didn’t show a face. I didn’t want the readers trying to figure out which of the characters was on the cover.

About this time Bonnie Bliss and I were talking about covers for our Fling Box Set books, and she suggested I try shutterstock.com. Oh my God, after a few visits to the site I found something I thought might work. I did a test and ta da, I had a new cover to match the new story. So here’s a little peak at Alex One all grown up [Images D and E]. I freakin’ love my new cover. I also love Alex Two’s cover, but I can’t show you that one yet. Alex One’s new look is sophisticated, and it matches the revised story.

Thanks for being patient with me on this post, but there’s one last thing.

When I started the revisions or, let’s be real, the rewrite on Alex One, the first six chapters weren’t working for me. I did one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do to my baby; I deleted them. It was hard, but it was the right thing to do. When I did that, it gave the story new life and really allowed more of the character’s personalities to shine.

I liked those chapters, but they just didn’t work with the book. I told my friend Kitty Bucholtz about my book amputation, and she suggested I turn them into a novella. Ding …Ding…Ding …what a brilliant idea. Then we started talking about marketing tools and free books. Ding …Ding…Ding …another idea was born. I’d do what Kitty suggested and turn those deleted chapters into a free novella. Only problem, they weren’t quite novella length. Fret not, with a little tweaking, they’ve become a novelette.

This “Prequel,” makes use of deleted chapters, plus it gives me time to get Alex One ready, and it’s great way to get to drum up interest in Alex One. So here’s a sneak peak at my next title …The Alex Chronicles: Girlfriends & Secrets.

If I didn’t bore you, stop by next month for Part Two.

Tracy Reed
www.readtracyreed.com
Fiction for Women Who Love God, Couture and Cute Guys
Available at
Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble
iTunes
All Romance eBooks

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FLING:NEW ADULT BOX SET

July 5, 2015 by in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

I am so excited to be a part of my first box set. I have heard a lot of people talk about box sets. I’ve heard the good and the bad. However, the amount of good far outweighed the bad for me. I am having a ball working with the six other authors in the FLING: NEW ADULT BOX SET.

It’s great watching everyone push, encourage, inform, help and teach each other. The box set is on KDP Select. As a new Indie Author, I was a little apprehensive about trying KDP Select, but the box set gave me the perfect opportunity to try it. So far, I love it as a vehicle for my novellas.

 

False celebration. Being new to KDP Select and the borrow or loan program, I reviewed my sales and thought I had over 200 hundred borrows. Reality stepped in and slapped me when I realized the pay structure changed on July 1st. What I thought were units borrowed, were actually pages read. Still not too bad for the first day.

THE GOOD GIRL, is my contribution to the box set and I have to admit, I thought writing a novella

would be a piece of flourless chocolate cake. And it was sort of. Originally, I was only going to write ten thousand words, which I did in a week. However, I wanted to also have a print version, so I set out to double my word count. Talking about stretching, but once I did, it was a little difficult to stop. So now my little novella, is book one in a series.

I’m very grateful to be a part of this box set, because it forced me to do some things I should have done. First, it made me implement a production schedule. Second, it forced me to write a novella. I have been wanting to write a novella for a while. I loved it. I am definitely adding more novellas to my production schedule. Third, it gave me a filler book. My next full length book needed quite a few revisions [I’ll share about that book later] which meant the gap between books was not good. So instead of almost nine months, it’s more like six.

This venture gave me six new writing friends. Thank you, Bonnie, Elena, Geralyn, Kathleen, Michele and Tina.

FLING New Adult Box Set is available at Amazon.com

So meet my Fling Box Set Mates:



Entangled Summer by Michele Barrow-Belisle
Nora Dultry has dreamed of a mysterious guy for years, but when he walks into her waking life, she must untangle the past from the present to know if he’s her dream come true, or her waking nightmare.

Love Me Like You Do by L.Kirk
Daisy Philips jumps to the defense of mysterious loner. Jason Lancaster is a lost soul. Their budding romance hits a snag when a tragedy pulls them apart. Can they find a way to mend their broken hearts?

 
 

Chase by Elena Dillon
Rylan Maguire has run from danger, right into Chase Sullivan. But his past tangles with hers, making Rylan wonder if she’s strong enough to love him.

 
 
 

My Best Friend’s Ex by Tina Gayle
She loved him first, but her best friend married him. With their divorce, Brooke must choose between her best friend and the man she loves.

 
 
 

Betrayal at Crater’s Edge by Kathleen Rowland
Marchand wants to show Yardley he loves her, but he has bigger problems. Venus is heading for a catastrophe, and only he can save their world.

 
 

Random Acts of Violet by Geralyn Corcillo
Cautious loner Violet Parker needs a new playbook when her quiet summer on campus collides with an unexpected eight year-old, a monster in the attic, and Noah!

 
 
 

The Good Girl by Tracy Reed
When Gabriella accepted her new assignment, she didn’t know it also included a chance for love with her boss, the hot and elusive, Phillippe Marchant.

 
 
Tracy Reed

 

readtracyreed@me.com
www.readtracyreed.com

Fiction for Women Who Love God, Couture and Cute Guys
 
 
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MEET MY CHARACTERS

June 7, 2015 by in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as , , ,

Tracy Reed

I have been on a blog tour for the past few weeks, which has been great. It’s given me a chance to chat with readers from all over. I can say that because, I know one of the blog stops was based in the United Kingdom and another was based in Australia. I’ve officially gone international. YEAH!

There are a lot of things I like about blog tours…I’ll expound more once it’s over. One of the things I like is it forced me to really get to know my book. I know that sounds strange seeing I wrote the story, but there were a lot of things I had forgotten about their back story and personality. We talk a lot about building or developing characters at RWA and this was very helpful.

I am the first to admit, I am a novice when it come to writer lingo or jargon…protagonist, story arch, subplot, syntax, deep point of view, conflict. antagonist, alliteration. And don’t get me started on length…short story, novelette , novella, full length, jumbo or super length. I may not explain it in correct author terms, but I get by. However, there’s one thing I know for sure, I read what I like and write what I like.

So when I decided to do the blog tour, I was asked to do a character interview. What the crap. I had no clue what that was. I’m not a stupid woman. I graduated college with honors. I had my own sports segment on my college television station for a year, which also aired on local cable. I interned in the Sports Department at the local NBC Station in Tulsa for a year. I worked in Public Relations and the music industry. Plus I run my own business, but this stumped me. When the blog tour promoter answered my simple question, another, “What the crap!” popped into my head. How was I going to interview these two people without giving the story away. Oh yeah, and I had to provide the questions.

I thought long and hard about this and once I started writing, it just flowed. This was my favorite type of interview to do during the tour. I’m already kicking around possible questions for characters from my next books. A good thing about this type of interview/post, is it makes the characters seem real, which helps tell the story.

Here’s my post from a couple of days ago that first appeared on Writer In Progress Blog [www.writerip.blogspot.com].
Meet GENERATIONAL CURSE’s Kyla James and Sean Prescott
GENERATIONAL CURSE is set in New York. However, there are a few things about Sean and Kyla you might find interesting. So let’s ask them.

Where do you live?
KYLA: Upper East Side
SEAN: Tribeca

Tell us about your family? Any sisters and/or brothers?
KYLA: I grew up in a traditional home. My father’s a doctor and my mother is his support. I have a younger sister, who’s also married to a doctor. All of them live in the suburbs.
SEAN: I grew up in a traditional situation. My dad is in construction and my mother worked in his office until a few years ago. They live in the suburbs. My older brother is married and is heart surgeon. He and his family live in California.

What do you do for a living?KYLA: I’m an Interior Designer
SEAN: I’m a Furniture Designer

Where do you work?
KYLA: All over Manhattan, the Hamptons and a few projects in Florida and Chicago
SEAN: My showroom is in Tribeca. However, I do custom work for clients all over the world.

How did you meet?
KYLA: I was leaving an appointment and walked passed his showroom and a chair in the window caught my eye.
SEAN: That’s not how we met. I was doing a showing in Charlotte and she came in.
KYLA: I don’t remember that.
SEAN: She walked in and started stroking all of the sofas and taking pictures. Then she asked if I shipped to New York. I said yes and gave her my card.
KYLA: Oh yeah. Now I remember. Because when he turned around and I saw his behind, I forgot about everything that happened beforehand.
SEAN: Really?
KYLA: Shut up. Next question.

Is that how you started working together?
KYLA: No. I think it was at least what, a year later?
SEAN: About six months. That’s when she walked into my showroom.
KYLA: That’s right, now I remember. It was the chair. I knew it looked familiar. I went inside and I was surprised to see him. We started talking and…

What about the chair?
KYLA: I ordered it for my client.
SEAN: Then she came back the following month for another client and we’ve been working on projects ever since.

So when did you start going out?
KYLA: Who said we were going out?
SEAN: We’re just friends.

Really, you seem very comfortable with each other.? [They’re both smiling]
KYLA: Uhm…I’m in a relationship right now. Besides, I don’t like to mix pleasure with business.
SEAN: So am I pleasure or business?
KYLA: Next question

Have you ever been in love? Engaged? Married?
KYLA: No. No. No.
SEAN: Yes. Yes. No.

What happened Sean?
SEAN: Next question

Tell us something the other doesn’t know about you:
KYLA: Sean’s my best friend.
SEAN: I’m in love with her.

Have you ever considered being more than friends?
KYLA: Uhm…I thought we covered this?
SEAN: Yes.
KYLA: Really?
SEAN: Yes.

Okay, here’s the lightening round.
Print or ebook?

KYLA: Both
SEAN: Both
CD, vinyl or iPod??
KYLA: Yes, no, yes
SEAN: All three

Movies: Chick flick, action, suspense, documentaries?
KYLA: All four
SEAN: All four
KYLA: Really, you like chick flicks
SEAN: Next questions

Jazz, Hip Hop or old school R&B?
KYLA: Jazz and old school
SEAN: All three

Favorite comfort food?
KYLA: Fried chicken
SEAN: Mac and Cheese

Favorite pizza topping?
KYLA: Mushrooms, sausage and extra cheese
SEAN: Pepperoni, sausage and extra cheese is a must

How do you take your coffee?
KYLA: Black
SEAN: Black

Favorite desset?
KYLA: Sugar cookies
SEAN: Gelato

Dog person or cat person?
KYLA: Dog
SEAN: Dog

City or Suburbs:
KYLA: City
SEAN: City

Taxi or Subway:
KYLA: Taxi and foot
SEAN: Taxi or foot, sometimes the subway or I drive

Will you ever get married?
KYLA: Next question
SEAN: Yes

Fiction for Women Who Love God, Couture and Cute Guys
 

Available at 
Amazon.com

Barnes and Noble

iTunes

All Romance eBooks

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My First Blog Tour

May 5, 2015 by in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as , , ,

I’ve been preparing for my first Blog Tour…yes, I’m very excited. I have to admit, I had no idea how much work was involved. I have a lot going on and at one time, I thought I could set up my own blog tour. Stop laughing those of you who know how difficult it is to undertake such a daunting task. Hey, hear me out. I come from the school of, Do what you can to save money and farm out the rest to save time. So maybe, that really didn’t apply to this situation. Okay, I’ll be honest with myself, it didn’t apply.

I am swamped. I have two books coming out this Summer, another in the revision stage and another about thirty-five percent from finishing. I know that because I’m doing the RWA The End challenge and tracking my progress. Plus, I have to complete the second installment to my first book GENERATIONAL CURSE.

As an indie writer, I do a lot of the work myself, except, editing and eformatting. Thank God. If I didn’t have those deadlines I don’t know where I’d be.

Anyway back to the blog tour. I thought, if I can design a cover, then I should be able to set up a blog tour. I’m laughing at myself. I made a list of possible blogs and reviewers and that was the extent of that. I got so bogged down…did I mention I own an online lingerie store and our house is under construction. I think I got tired reading that statement. When I looked at what I wanted to accomplish, I just didn’t have the time.

I remember hearing about Goddess Fish Blog Tours at an OCC meeting as well as from some other sites. So I contacted them.

I write a genre that’s not too common so I was little apprehensive about a blog tour because of that. So before I agreed to book their service, I submitted a couple of chapters of my book to make sure there wouldn’t be a problem. Let’s be real, I wasn’t about to pay for something that might night work or only yield a couple of blog stops. [Remember, I write Christian Fiction with Faith and Sex]. Thank God, that didn’t happen. After they reviewed my excerpts, it was determined, they would market my book as a Contemporary Romance with Faith Elements and a little heat. I can work with that.

So how does this all work? About a month ago I received a slew of emails from the tour promoter. I remember it was a Friday night, and I was standing in line at Panda Express trying to decide between the ribs and the teriyaki chicken when my phone started dinging. I looked at my phone and my email was full of requests from the tour promoter. Wow. I was on a roll. The messages kept coming. About a week later the last one came in and I got to work.

Here’s the ironic part. I wrote the book, now I had to talk about the book, which seemed relatively easy. Man, reviewing the questions made me start to question myself. How is it I can push put eighty thousand plus words without a problem, but ask me to sum up my book in one sentence and I draw a blank? Or tell you why you should read my book without sounding arrogant? And don’t get me started on the character interviews, [don’t tell my promoter, but these turned out to be my favorite posts] or the “tell me about yourself” question. On paper, I think I read a little boring…I should work on that.

Back to the tour. The promoter gives you access to a site so you can chart your progress. I was a little nervous about this. What if there were no takers for my book? When I checked the site, I was excited and overwhelmed. My tour was completely booked. Praise God! Now I had to get to work.

I printed all the requests, reviewed them and that overwhelming feeling came back. It may seem like I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. What I thought happened was you answered a few questions, submitted an excerpt, the cover and that was it. Not so. In my list of procedures, I was reminded, no duplicate posts. Oh man, that meant all twenty blog posts had to be different. After the initial shock, I realized this was a good thing. It allowed me the opportunity to reacquaint myself with my book and my characters.

As writers, once we complete a book [i.e., send it to press] we’re removed from it, at least I am and on to the next project. This process helped me to enjoy my book again. It also reinforced my theory, do what you can and farm out the rest.

When does the tour begin? May 11th – June 5th, I’ll be on a blog tour. Am I expecting big things, of course I am.

Tracy Reed

readtracyreed@me.com
www.readtracyreed.com

Fiction for Women Who Love God, Couture and Cute Guys

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PARTY IN MY HEAD

April 5, 2015 by in category Pink Pad by Tracy Reed tagged as , ,

How many people are at the party in your head? Ask any writer this question and you may be surprised by the answer.

I’ve been asking myself this question for awhile now. I currently have standing room only at the party in my head. I’m writing one book, editing two, promoting another, writing mental notes on three others and reading one for pleasure.

When I decided to become a writer, it was a different time in publishing. If you put out three books a year, that was considered a lot. As the indie writing market grew, so did the desire for fresh content.

I had it all planned. I’d release my first book and take about three months and then release the next one. I figured I’d release the follow up to GENERATIONAL CURSE early next year. The problem with my original plan was the ebook.

When the ebook was born it opened the door to easier accessibility. Readers no longer had to wait months or years for follow up books. They were now able to get the next book within a couple of months, if not sooner. At first I thought this was a trap by the publishing industry to sell more books.

I hearing a writer say she really didn’t read other people’s books, because she felt she might be tempted to use their ideas. That stuck with me and I read sparingly. Then I joined RWA and heard something completely different. I love print books…I like how they feel in my hand…but I digress. I downloaded the Kindle for iPhone and then I got an iPad for Christmas and my life changed.

I began reading for research on both devices. I’m not sure how many books I’ve read in the past six months, but it’s increased tremendously.

Trust me, I’m going somewhere with this. I became like most readers, downloading every free book I could download. Once I finished the free book in the series, I wanted to know what happened next. I was hooked. I quickly downloaded the next book. I think I read six books in a month. [For some people that’s not a lot, but for me it is.]

Now I understand the formula.

When I increased my reading and understood why my old plan wasn’t going to work, I started writing and editing and reading…more. Needless to say, I wasn’t prepared for this new plan.

I wrote GENERATIONAL CURSE, while waiting to hear from a potential publisher about a different book. I figured once that series was sold, I’d have a little time before GENERATIONAL CURSE was ready to go. So I focused all of my energy on the other series. However, things changed and GENERATIONAL CURSE was released first. I was caught off guard.

I did a little research and discovered there are writers out there putting a title out a month. How am I supposed to keep up. It took a while to get my first book just right. My good sense side asked my not so good sense side if I’d lost my mind.

Here’s what I found out. A title could be a short story, a novella or a full-length book. Okay, so I don’t have to be chained to a chair and only released for potty breaks. Then I signed up for the RWA “The End” Challenge. I figured this would help me finish a book I had to rewrite. [I’m half way done with that one.] In one month I wrote 20,000 words. I CAN DO IT!

I felt empowered. If I could write 20,000 words in a month, then I could write a novella. Wait a minute. If I write a novella, I can sell it for $.99.

New plan. Set up a realistic production schedule that includes novellas, short stories and full length novels. It seems like a lot, but if I could write 20,000 words in a month [not including the 9,100 on a different project] then I should be able to stick to my plan.

So how many characters are in my head? Too many to list. Smile.

Tracy Reed

readtracyreed@me.com
www.readtracyreed.com

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