The Worries of a New(er) Author... Or Maybe it's Just Me.
Awhile back I lost a huge chunk (2000+ words) of the next novel I am working on (The 72nd November) and it seems have sent me into a tail spin of worries. I knew what I had written- and had my notes/ outline- but in some ways I feel that I didn't get the same thing/ feeling in the writing. Every time I looked over it I felt that something was missing- but what? I am only left to wonder if I will need to do it again, and I am sure I will, because the feelings of being upset over the loss came through in the writing and not the original feelings I had.
Writing Tempting Fate was so easy for me. The words were easy to find the first time and when I wanted to make changes or add things during the many edits I just "knew" what to change. With the exception of the ending, that just before I started the publishing process went though an overhaul with the help of a friend or two.
With the help of those in my writing group and a nice bulletin point manual I found getting it ready to be published was also fairly easy. (Though I have found mistakes and know there are a few things I will do different next time!)
Then the waiting and real work began. Waiting for it to show up on each eBook site respectively and working to get it out there to people.
Networking and researching who to contact about book reviews (and how to ask properly and not look like a fool!). I spent hours compiling a data base for myself of book review bloggers and Fb pages, email address and names, what genera they like to read and if they were even excepting books for review.
So my worries...
1) I have several more book reviews coming up for TF and I am very much looking forward to them! But how can I get out there even more. How do I reach the audience that would want to read my work. I find that it is so hard to do. The popular thing right now is YA paranormal and /or vampires, and of course the every present "sagas/ series" where you get the reader with the first book and they are drooling for the next two or three books to come out. Not to even mention the heavy erotica of The Fifty Shades series, and no I have not read them... yet. As much as I love a good romance novel I also find my self reading vampire series books or YA books about the paranormal... but my mind can't develop those kind of stories. So I am not "mainstream" right now, and maybe this vampire stuff is a passing fade- but who knows, it could be around for years and years to come.
But the question still remains how do I get my adult romance novel- with a twist, from a new and unknown author- out there, to the right readers- now?
I know that having more than one book would help very much and I am working on that... but it leads to another worry.
2) What if it is not as good? I was beyond connected to the charters in Tempting Fate from the very beginning. I knew them inside and out. I could see them, and feel their thoughts and feelings, and hear their voices right from the start... what if I can't do that with my next novel? Will it not be as good as the first book? Worry, worry, worry!
The big- ever present in my mind - WHAT IF'S?
I know my next story very well, I can see the movie of it in my mind as clear as I could with the last... and I think it is great. But I fear that TF as set a president for what the readers I do have will expect from me... can I meet or exceed those expectations with my next novel? Have I put myself in a genera and now I am stuck there? Can I write a- life story/ romance, or a mystery/romance and still have the same readers? Will my second book lose them when they would have loved the third one as much as they did TF, but never give it a chance because of the second that they maybe only "liked"?
UGH!! Worry, worry, worry!
I don't want to just write the same things in a different way, but I don't want to go way to far off the map either. Or write something that is just the "same old thing"- The like each other, they fight off the feelings, they give in to them, big sex scene, they realize that it is more than lust, say I love you and live happily ever after, and all the while a story has gone on around them.
So where is that little nitch in between everything that doesn't pigeon hole me? And how do I get to those readers more?
I know that all I can do is write what is in my heart and my head and hope that if I love the story and the charters like I did with TF that this will shine through in my writing and others will love the book as well.
BUT- these things are still in my mind... and I worry. Maybe they will go away as I get farther and farther into writing The 72nd November. Lets hope!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, May 21, 2012
This past weekend I received my first book review from Jen at The Mystical World of Book Reviews (http://www.facebook.com/mysticalworldbookreviews?ref=ts) If you are on FB please go over and give her page a like so that you can read her future reviews.
For my first review I could not have been more pleased!
Book Review:
Tempting Fate
By A.N. Busch
About the Book: Abigail Dalton had it all. Then one night her dreams took her back to her college days, only something was different about them. Every night the dreams continued to torture her, images of a man s he didn't remember. Questions to an old college friend went unanswered, leaving her asking more. In one day, her life would change. She would be tempted to alter what Fate had planned for her life.
Jen's Review: 5 Stars
I don't even know where to start about how much I enjoyed this book. This book tore at my emotions, from warm fuzzies to complete melt down of tears! The only thing I found wrong with the book, the story ended before I wanted it to.
Abigail never knew that dreams could be so surreal, until the ones she recently started having. They were so real, she started to feel guilty for having them, considering that the man in her dreams were not her husband. As the dreams continue, she begins to wonder if they really are just dreams. Has she actually experienced these events, is her dream man real? Abby finds herself facing fate head on, but what plans does fate have planned for her?
I highly recommend this book to anyone that has found love, lost love, and to those that believe love conquers all. I can only hope to see more work by this author soon!
A big Thank you again to Jen and The Mystical World of Book Reviews.
For my first review I could not have been more pleased!
Book Review:
Tempting Fate
By A.N. Busch
About the Book: Abigail Dalton had it all. Then one night her dreams took her back to her college days, only something was different about them. Every night the dreams continued to torture her, images of a man s he didn't remember. Questions to an old college friend went unanswered, leaving her asking more. In one day, her life would change. She would be tempted to alter what Fate had planned for her life.
Jen's Review: 5 Stars
I don't even know where to start about how much I enjoyed this book. This book tore at my emotions, from warm fuzzies to complete melt down of tears! The only thing I found wrong with the book, the story ended before I wanted it to.
Abigail never knew that dreams could be so surreal, until the ones she recently started having. They were so real, she started to feel guilty for having them, considering that the man in her dreams were not her husband. As the dreams continue, she begins to wonder if they really are just dreams. Has she actually experienced these events, is her dream man real? Abby finds herself facing fate head on, but what plans does fate have planned for her?
I highly recommend this book to anyone that has found love, lost love, and to those that believe love conquers all. I can only hope to see more work by this author soon!
A big Thank you again to Jen and The Mystical World of Book Reviews.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
I am extremely well overdue for a post but sometimes the days just fly by. Some-days are just a whirl-wind of activity and when I do get a chance to just sit and breath... I fall asleep.
In mid April I finally got the opportunity to hold my book in my hands and I can not even begin to explain how it felt. I was excited when my book became available on more and more places on-line. (Though I am still waiting for it to be available for Nook.) Every new little milestone was exciting.
Then the Wednesday came that I knew my book would show up at my door. I looked at the window every five minutes for the "Brown" truck that was going to drop them off. When the man in Brown shorts finally showed up I was on the porch and waiting before he could even put his truck in park. My sons were excitedly jumping up and down yelling at the man to "hurry." Once I got the box in the house I just stared at it for a few minutes.
My hands were shaking when I opened the box and pulled one out. My dream had come true; my novel was finally in my hands. It was truly the most exciting thing ever, well, with the exception on the birth of my children of course.
From a young age there was a lot of different things I wanted to be, none of them was to be a writer. After the birth of my second son I was sure that I wanted to be a nail tech. After a quick jaunt in the industry I realized that loved the work, but not much else about it. One day after a random thought from my husband that I should just, "write a book," I thought about it and said why not. I am a stay-at-home Mommy, I have time. -Insert big laugh here- You don't realize how time consuming being a full time Mommy is until you try to throw in a work from home job into it.
I sat on the book for years, picking it up from time to time changing this or that about it, but still I had no interest in being a published author. I gave the advise to a friend who writes that she should "just do it," and still never thought about "just doing it myself." Until another friend said it to me. In a matter of days being a writer became my dream, it was what I wanted to do with my life.
The months leading up to the release of Tempting Fate were a whirl wind. Researching self-publishing, making 500 different versions of the cover, constantly learning new things (and I am still learning now). Not to mention all the little things that needed to be done, as well as managing the day to day life of being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend.
My dream came true, it was one that I didn't have until later in life but I reached for the stars and did every things I could to make it come true. So I guess what I am saying is that if you have one of your own, no matter how old it is or new, do it! I promise that when you do you will be filled with more joy that randomly winning that lottery.
In mid April I finally got the opportunity to hold my book in my hands and I can not even begin to explain how it felt. I was excited when my book became available on more and more places on-line. (Though I am still waiting for it to be available for Nook.) Every new little milestone was exciting.
Then the Wednesday came that I knew my book would show up at my door. I looked at the window every five minutes for the "Brown" truck that was going to drop them off. When the man in Brown shorts finally showed up I was on the porch and waiting before he could even put his truck in park. My sons were excitedly jumping up and down yelling at the man to "hurry." Once I got the box in the house I just stared at it for a few minutes.
My hands were shaking when I opened the box and pulled one out. My dream had come true; my novel was finally in my hands. It was truly the most exciting thing ever, well, with the exception on the birth of my children of course.
From a young age there was a lot of different things I wanted to be, none of them was to be a writer. After the birth of my second son I was sure that I wanted to be a nail tech. After a quick jaunt in the industry I realized that loved the work, but not much else about it. One day after a random thought from my husband that I should just, "write a book," I thought about it and said why not. I am a stay-at-home Mommy, I have time. -Insert big laugh here- You don't realize how time consuming being a full time Mommy is until you try to throw in a work from home job into it.
I sat on the book for years, picking it up from time to time changing this or that about it, but still I had no interest in being a published author. I gave the advise to a friend who writes that she should "just do it," and still never thought about "just doing it myself." Until another friend said it to me. In a matter of days being a writer became my dream, it was what I wanted to do with my life.
The months leading up to the release of Tempting Fate were a whirl wind. Researching self-publishing, making 500 different versions of the cover, constantly learning new things (and I am still learning now). Not to mention all the little things that needed to be done, as well as managing the day to day life of being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend.
My dream came true, it was one that I didn't have until later in life but I reached for the stars and did every things I could to make it come true. So I guess what I am saying is that if you have one of your own, no matter how old it is or new, do it! I promise that when you do you will be filled with more joy that randomly winning that lottery.
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