Good-bye, 2011

So, this year… It’s been a strange one for me. Some once-in-lifetime awesome stuff has happened, and some (one would hope) once-in-a-lifetime awful stuff has happened.

The awful stuff included leaving my first anesthesia job unexpectedly amid a sea of nasty politics, teaching myself a new practice style (travel work) under great financial pressure, working a lot of 16-hour days in Portland, and somehow hurting my back such that I haven’t been able to sit comfortably for 4 months and may have to have surgery this year. I haven’t been home in 6 months and spent the holidays alone in a hotel. I haven’t seen 2 of my cats since I left, and I feel like I don’t have a home anymore.

The awesome stuff included being on hand for the birth of my nephew, Morgan (first child of my only sibling), still loving the actual practice of anesthesia (even if politics and hours sometimes suck), getting to live in Portland again—hiking its woods, seeing my friends there, eating the wonderful food—even if I was living out of a suitcase, attending a fantastic first Balticon where I spent time with some of my favorite creative people and felt like a rock star for a few days, winning a Parsec with Bryan Lincoln for Fullcast, and having a successful first year in eBooks.

There was other stuff, but those were the highlights. I’m hoping for a less bumpy 2012, but right now, it looks uncertain.

In creative accomplishments, I produced Book 3 of Cowry Catchers in audio (and dealt with the backlash). I also put together the audio for the various Crossroads stories and released that collection on Podiobooks.com near the end of the year. Starting in Dec of 2010 and over the course of 2011, I put out 10 eBooks. I made 2 of them free (the first books in 2 series) and the rest are for sale. If you look to the right on this blog, you will see them. Four of those books are illustrated, and this involved special challenges. I’ve gotten about a third of the illustrations for Book 4 of Cowry Catchers and they are *awesome.* :D

In actual writing, starting in November, I got through about 35,500 words of the rewrite for Hunters Unlucky. I finished Part 2 (of the 6 Part story), and I’m pleased with how that’s going. It’s shaping up to be a book that I think a lot of people will enjoy.

I also wrote the most icky short story I’ve ever produced (where do these things come from??)—“Kittens: Free to Good Home”—which has yet to find a buyer.

In the interests of helping other self-publishers, I provide numbers. These are my sales so far. This includes only books sold, no freebies. It includes sales on Amazon, BN, SW, and (a very few) on CreateSpace.

• Dec: 36
• Jan: 31
• Feb: 88
• March: 271
• April: 180
• May: 352
• June: 359
• July: 363
• August: 296
• Sept: 208
• Oct: 184
• Nov: 205
• Dec: 359

Total = 2932

For the money, I track only what has actually dropped into my bank account. All distributors pay 2 months behind. Consequently, the payments I’ve received represent only books sold through Oct. Nov and Dec are not included. With that in mind, my overall expenses for publishing (in text and audio) since 2007 when I started commissioning illustrations have been $13,021.68. My gross income has been $5,051.16. About $1,000 of that came from sales of audio short stories, donations on my site and on Podiobooks.com, and other little stuff. The other $4,000 came from eBooks.

Included in that 13K is almost $500 in royalties paid to artists this year. That was above and beyond their upfront asking price for their art, which I also paid. No artist asks for or expects royalties, but it was something I wanted to do for the illustrators of the Cowry Catchers books. I volunteered to pay them 25% of what the distributor gave me for the first 3 years the book is available, split between them according to the number of illustrations they did (calculated for each book). Stupid of me? Maybe a little. I doubt I will break even on those books before the 3 years are up, but I don’t think artists get paid enough, and I wanted people working on the books to have a vested interest in them after the work was over.

Through Oct, my average income per book sold was $1.70 (and really somewhat less, because that doesn’t take into account the royalties I pay my artists). I was making $300-$600 per month. However, towards the end of Oct, the Cowry Catchers Complete 5-Book Series hit the virtual shelves, and that had a pretty big impact on the money. It’s a $10 book. I get about $6.60 per book sold, and it’s not illustrated, so I’m not paying royalties to artists.

In addition, sales picked up towards Christmas. Although they didn’t top the summer numbers, I was making a lot more per book. I estimate I made something over $1500 in Nov and Dec, so total income through 2011 will look something more like $6500—right at half of my total expenditures since 2007. Most of that money was made in a single year of eBooks, while the expenditures were gradual over 5 years.

Is this success? Well, I think so! I’m not sure that I’ll be in the black by the end of 2012. I still have to pay for the illustrations for Book 5 and half of those for Book 4. However, I would be very surprised if I’m not in the black by 2013. I will then have the dubious distinction of paying taxes on this little venture.

Will I achieve my ultimate goal of working 20-30 hours a week in the OR and spending the rest of my time writing for a solid part-time income? For the first time in my life, I see how to do it. Might take 5 years. Might take 10. I’d be 44 by then. Still young enough to be an anomaly. :)

Like all creative people, I’ve got a shopping list of goals for 2012. Whether I accomplish them depends on what kind of curve balls life throws me. Here’s what I’d like to do:

Finish 3 novels – Hunters Unlucky, The Scarlet Albatross, and the Holovarus book (not it’s real name, also probably a novella). I’d like to get 2 of these polished and released as ebooks. The third could be written, but I don’t think it’ll get edited until next year.

I’d like to write 4 short stories in the Panamindorah universe, produce them in audio, and put them up quarterly as paid content. I wanted to do this last year, but then life happened.

I’d like to write at least 2 short stories that are either not Panamindorah-related or are very different from what I’ve done previously, for a total of 6 shorts.

I’d also like to produce Book 4 of Cowry Catchers in audio. Possibly start on Book 5, but I’d be happy if I got Book 4 out the door.

A big thank you to all of you folks who bought my work, listened to the podcasts, left reviews, posted on the forums, volunteered your voices, sent encouraging emails, tweeted and retweeted, favorited and friended and shared. You are the reason these projects are successful, the reason I keep throwing myself at those goals even when life gets in the way. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your enthusiasm and support. Have a wonderful 2012!

Hunters, Crossroads, and Sketches for Cowry Catchers Book 4

Well, November is over, and I didn’t get through 50,000 words of Hunters. I got through 25,900, and I shortened the manuscript by about 3,000.

I can see why people usually do first drafts for NaNo. In that case, just laying down words is a useful activity. When you’re working on a near-final draft, they have to be the right words or it’s counter-productive. Still, I got back into the habit of writing everyday, which I haven’t done since anesthesia school. 1,000 words a day is a good speed for me and not stressful. I had a lot of stuff going on this month as I deal with an unexpected health problem, have early holidays with my family, try to help my brother and sister-in-law with a new baby, prepare to transition to a new travel assignment in Maryland, and try to spend time with my friends in Portland before I leave. I didn’t put too much priority on NaNo, and I’m happy with what I still managed to get done. You will continue to see updates to Hunters on this site until it’s finished.

Over the last few days, I stopped working on Hunters to focus on something that I’ve been trying to get off my plate all year—the audio version of Crossroads, the Panamindorah short story collection. I *finally* got it done. This will be a Podiobooks.com exclusive. It includes 2 stories that have only ever been paid content until now (Night in the Crystal City and Professionals). The version of Professionals in the free audiobook will be my solo read. The fullcast version is still in my online store, but I’ve lowered the price to $2. The audio for Crystal City has not been available anywhere since Feb. All the files have been uploaded to Libsyn, and all related info is with Evo. He’ll schedule the book whenever he gets time, probably in the next couple of weeks.

You’d think that Crossroads would not be a big project, since all the stories were already recorded. And it wasn’t a *big* project, but it did require about 10 hours of focused attention. It needed overall book-ends of audio from me, and the individual stories needed intros and outros with an author’s note, giving some context and background. I want people unfamiliar with my books to be able to enjoy them. Most of the stories were also tangled up with other audio, which had to be clipped and spliced. The overall sound quality varies a lot, but I think they’re still enjoyable. I’ll make another announcement when the book is actually up at Podiobooks.com.

In addition, I spent several days this week with Rah Cloutier (who lives in Portland), working on sketches for Cowry Catchers Book 4. They go a lot faster when I’m there in person to throw out ideas and say “this and not that.” CC4 is going to have some beautiful artwork! Here’s a teaser:

How to get an exact word count for highlights in Word

Here's a tidbit that may be useful to some of my fellow podcasters. I was talking to Bryan Lincoln about it recently on Fullcast Podcast. Occasionally, you may need to get a word-count for a voice actor's lines. This happens most often when you are paying them, either per word or as a percent of the total lines. Or maybe you're just curious about who has more lines. ;)

My method only works if you've got a separte file for each voice actor. If you highlight all the lines in a single file using different colors, then I don't know how to help you. If someone else knows how to get a word-count in such a document, I'm all ears. Word can search for hilights, but as far as I know, it can't search for specific colors.

Assuming you've only hilighted the lines of a single voice actor within the document, do the following:

1. Save a new copy (or just make sure you don’t overwrite your file).

2. Go to “Find and Replace” (Control+H in Word 2010. I think it might be Control+F in older versions).

3. Open the "More" Dropdown menu.

4. Put your curser in the “Find What” box (but don't write anything), and click “Format.”

5. Select “Highlight" once, then select it AGAIN. Under “Find what,” it will then say “Format: “Not Highlight.”

6. Do not write anything in the “Replace with” box.

7. Hit “Replace All.” You are replacing all non-highlighted text with nothing.

8. Do a word count, and you’re done. Remember not to overwrite your original file!

Update 12/17/11 - Bryan Lincoln sent me this, which might also be helpful to anyone using Open Office:

I was playing around with this a little in Open Office (no Word on this computer) and I found I could do specific colors. I didn't find a "Not Highlight" anywhere, but I could do the following:

Edit: Select all (might not be needed but I did it anyway)

Edit: Find and replace

Under More Options, select Format

Under the background tab, choose the highlight color

Don't put anything into the "Search For" field, and select "Find all"

Hit close (the find/replace menu is now gone...all the highlighted text of the chosen color is now selected. Very Useful!)

Edit:Copy

File:New Document

Paste into the new document and do a word count.

Alternatively, with all the highlighted text selected, you can remove the highlights of a single color all at once. So if you highlight each character with a different color, you could turn off the colors one at a time. Would be nice if I could remove all highlights EXCEPT for one color, but I don't see a way to do that.

Not sure if this help you with Word at all, but I thought I'd share what I found.

Robert Quill - deadbeat artist

This is a public service warning. Since 2007, I've worked with 8 artists on dozens of commissions that amounted to thousands of dollars. I've had a falling out with an artist, and I've had slow turn-around, but I've never had an artist fail to complete a paid commission or stop responding to emails...until now. Many of you are authors seeking book covers or even illustrations. You've heard me recommend artists before. Now I'm un-recommending one.

His name is Robert Quill. Here's what happened: I was at Balticon for the first time in 2011 and loved it! As a memento, I purchased a $119 commission of myself as a pirate from a man who turned out to be...in retrospect...a pirate. :( Rober was an official artist at the convention as far as I could tell. He had a booth outside the dealer’s area. I was planning to use the image as a playful portrait in the "About Me/ Contact" section of the Cowry Catcher's website.

Mr. Quill took all the money up front at the convention via credit card, engaged in a few halfhearted emails back and forth, never finished the commission, and then stopped responding to my requests for update.

Here’s a timeline:

5/31/11 – I paid $119 via credit card at Balticon for an ink illustration of myself as pirate.

6/13/11 – I emailed for status update (and to make sure he had not lost my email address).

6/15/11 – He sent me an email with a link to this sketch http://www.robertquill.com/transfer/AbigailHilton.jpg, asking whether I wanted to make any corrections before he finished the piece.

6/26/11 – I responded verifying that the sketch was a go.

10/9/11 – I wrote to ask for an update; he said he had misplaced the commission and would look into it.

10/18/11 – I wrote asking whether he’d found the missing commission and expressing concerns about his intention to finish it. He never responded.

I would be surprised if I’m the only person he’s done this to. People commissioning artwork at a convention have no way of checking the credentials of artists or comparing reviews from other clients. We take it on faith that an artist with a booth has been at least marginally vetted by the convention organizers. I’m sure they didn’t know he was a thief.

However, as an author who commissions a lot of artwork, I'm trying to make sure that people know. Don't commission this guy. I’m sure I’ll never see my $119 again or the artwork, but I would at least like to make sure he doesn’t get to keep taking advantage of my peers.

If further developments occur (like a refund or the artwork), I'll add an update. Maybe Mr. Quill was struck by lightning and cannot answer his emails. Maybe, but I doubt it.

Update 11/20/11: Right after making the previous post, I emailed the Balticon organizers. There's no reporting system for artists, and I don't want this artist to do the same thing to some other sucker at the convention next year. I have lots of friends who attend that convention. The Balticon organizers were very nice and actually got in touch with the artist's agent. This resulted in the artist offering me a refund. To date, the refund has not arrived (he said that he could not refund my credit card and didn't want to use Paypal). However, we seem to be making progress. I am impressed with the Balticon organizers for their handling of this situation. They care about their attendees.

Update 12/8/11 - Robert refunded my money today via Paypal after I got the Balticon organizers involved. The con organizers truly seemed to care about my predicament, and I am greatful for their help.

If you ever feel the need to comission this guy (or anyone, really), I advise paying half the money up front and half on completion. This is a common practice, and if an artist will not agree to it...find someone else. I don't think Robert intended to rob me when he took my credit card at the convention. However, I do think he needs money on the table as motivation to complete a comission.

It's November...and people are writing novels

Storm is born into a world of secrets – an island no one visits, names no one will say, and deaths that no one will talk about. The answers are locked in his species’ troubled past, guarded by the fierce creasia cats. But when Storm’s friends are threatened, he decides that he must act, pitting himself against the creasia to show that they can be resisted and outwitted. To prove his point, he must stay one step ahead of clever hunters, who have more to lose than Storm imagines.

Hunters Unlucky is an animal story for people who loved Richard Adam's Watership Down, Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, and Jack London's Call of the Wild. The animals in this story do not carry swords, walk on two legs, or drink tea. They fight. They starve. Sometimes, they eat each other.

__________________________________________________________________

When I was 14, I started the first novel that I actually finished. It was called...well, it was called something silly. For short, it was called “Lidian” – the name of the world. I finished it almost exactly a year later. It was a bloated, lumbering beast, something over 250,000 words.

That book played a special roll in my friendships as a teenager and young adult. It became my letter of introduction to the world. I met people over that book who became lifelong friends and beta readers, people whose opinions still matter to me.

I went on to write other books, better books, different books. But every few years, I would return to Lidian, armed with more experience, and try to improve it. The story has been edited more than any other book I’ve ever written. It was submitted to, and rejected by, dozens of publishers--the old-fashioned way via snailmail and cardboard boxes. College teachers shook their heads over it. One of them told me it gave her nightmares.

Now that we’ve finally entered the age of self-actualization for authors, I have returned to this book again, determined to put it to rest. It’s not something I would write today, but I know it has an audience. People exist who will like this book.

But co-authoring a book with your teenage self is hard. I mean, it’s really tough. It’s tough to know what to keep and what to throw out, what to rewrite and what to leave alone. I am no longer the girl who wrote this story. She was charming in ways that I am not, and I am clever in ways that she was not. She did not know me, and I have half-forgotten her.

So the re-write process has been sluggish. I’ve been stopping and starting it for over a year. In addition, I’m worried about what my existing audience will think if I release this book without explanation. Anyone who thinks I wrote it after Cowry Catchers will wonder whether I have sustained a head injury.

I have been toying with the idea of serializing it on my site for a while, and I’ve also wanted to try NaNoWriMo. So here’s what I have decided to do – I will attempt to get through 100,000 words of this novel in Nov. I suspect that my rewrite will cut it down to 150K or less. I was pretty verbose as a teenager. I’ll polish off the rest in Dec. Most of it will be rewritten from scratch. I plan to reboot it, not just rewrite it. That means nothing is off the table. I’ll make drastic changes if I think I need to. But I will get through it.

You (any of you who are interested) will be my beta readers. I always have a few (usually half a dozen) reading a novel as I write. I actually have trouble completing things without these people. The version I release here will not be final. It will be near-final, but I reserve the right to make changes. Your comments/corrections are welcome. When I’m finished with all the editing, I’ll release the eBook for sale. I will probably take this version down at that point (or maybe not; I haven’t decided). You get to read it for free if you read it here.

Hunters will be released (along with possibly snarky commontary from me) in a separate journal. Follow the link or click the page in the far right corner above. You can add it to your feedreader if you do that sort of thing.