I’m Gonna Need More Cookies

Writing by itself takes little to no money. If you’ve got a laptop or a notepad or a blank wall, you can write.

Being an author, however, can accrue many expenses, especially if you’re attempting to self-publish. Some of the bigger costs can involve getting covers, purchasing ISBN’s, marketing, and formatting so the book looks good. One of the biggest costs, though, is editing.

Look, you need someone else to look at your book. No matter how creative you are, no matter how good your grammar is, you need more eyes on that manuscript before you bring it out to meet the public.

There are many levels of editing, of course.

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Writing Go Vroom

It was my final summer: The last year I’d experience a summer break between school sessions. After that year, it would be just summer, not summer. For some reason lost to the mist of time, I was only able to secure thirty hours a week for work. And that summer… I decided to go for it.

I was going to write.

That summer I intentionally followed a method I’d read that Ray Bradbury used: He’d write a short story rough draft on Monday, revise the story every day until Friday, and then send it out. I thought that sounded like a fantastic idea. A tough one, but a fantastic one. After all, who could live at the speed of a short story a week?

I could. That summer, every week I wrote a short story. Every week I sent stories out, attempting to sell one. Just one.

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And Then There Were People

And lo, did the people come
From near and from far.
“Tis summer!” they proclaimed
As they knocked on the door.

“Tis not!” said I,
But they paid me no heed
As they pounded and pleaded
And demanded to be seen.

They broke down the door.
They trod on the carpet.
They ate all the food.
They dined on the sherbet.

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Kickstarter Debrief

This past Thursday morning, our Kickstarter campaign to fund Madelyn of the Sky ended. How did it go?

Really, really well. I’m honestly blown away. It was a risk to take this route. We might not have been funded at all. We were fairly certain we could get that much, of course, but whether or not we would was a completely different story.

We weren’t just funded. Every single stretch goal was unlocked. We made almost 200% of our goal.

So, what are some brief takeaways, in no particular order?

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