25Q1: Book Updates, Author Business, AI, and Kindle Unlimited
Hey Y’all!
Boy, have I been busy. Excluding Christmas (which keeps everyone on their toes), January was a flurry of activity for me. The normal year-end accounting stuff, recovering from the holidays, and just trying to get back in the groove of everyday living kept me hopping.
I don't know about you, but when Christmas falls in the middle of the week, it's really disruptive. Business slows down and you're in this weird wait-and-see mode until everything returns to normal. And then, you get a repeat the following week with New Year's. It felt like we were in limbo on so many things for two weeks straight. Then it was over and the rush to get everything back to normal came in like an unlikely snowstorm in Houston.
Anyway, one fun thing that happened this January was my 6yo grandson's first big birthday bash. His actual birthday falls during the holiday season when the kids are out of school, so with his first year of school, his parents scheduled his party when the kids were back in town. And it was a blast! Trampolines, bouncy houses, and donut cakes. The kids were so much fun. I wish I had a fifth of their energy.
Oh, and did I mention we had SNOW in Houston! I mean, it does happen, but it's rare that we get enough to actually play in. According to the local news, the last time we had this much snow (4-6 inches) was in the 1960s. Woo hoo!
Things I’m Working On
Women in Caprock Series
Left Turn (Book 1)
I successfully moved Left Turn into Amazon's Kindle Unlimited. I made the switch on December 30th, not knowing how long it would take for Amazon to process and I wanted clean numbers for 2025. To my surprise, Amazon switched it over immediately. If your book is already on Amazon, it's just a flip of the switch. And I got page reads on the very first day! (For those new to publishing, Kindle Unlimited pays authors per each page read by KU subscribers.) I'll continue to monitor, but so far, my sales didn't slow down and I'm making extra money from the KU reads.
Code Block (Book 2)
Lots of new stuff here. When we last spoke, I was almost finished with my first draft of Code Block. If you've been following along, this one has taken me a while to get the story right. But I finished that first draft and am happy with the ending. Since mid-December, I've been searching for cover designers and editors. I now have both my cover designer and my developmental editor booked, but am still looking for my copy/line editor.
The cover design is tricky because the covers for books in the series need to be cohesive and the person who designed the cover for Left Turn is no longer doing covers. (Really a shame because I've gotten so many compliments on the beautiful cover they did for me.) However, I found another designer—recommended by my author friend, Tracy Myhre—who was excited to take up the challenge. Hopefully, I'll have something to show you by mid-March.
I'm working furiously on my self-edits before I send off the manuscript to my dev editor on February 17th. The self-revision process is unique for each writer. My first pass is just to reread the entire book and make sure it makes sense. I check for things out of whack, like an event out of order or a reference to something that hasn't happened yet. Things get rearranged during the writing process and sometimes you forget to fix everything that's linked. I make notes on anything that pops out at me.
Following that first overview pass are my search-and-destroy passes. I've talked about these in the past. I think many writers wait to do these until after the developmental edit. Because why work on things that may get cut, anyway? It makes sense. But I like to do them because with every pass I go through, I find things to add, change, or tweak in each scene that make the story better. And hopefully, by the time I'm finished, I'll have addressed any glaring missteps, so my dev editor can focus on deeper areas. I'd much rather her spend her time helping me polish my story than finding plot holes I should have already identified.
And that's where I am now. I've got a week and a half before my manuscript is due, so I'm barreling through with my revisions. (I can't believe I'm so close! WHEEE!!)
I'll be looking for ARC readers soon, so let me know if you're interested in getting an Advanced Reader Copy.)
Bookkeeping Inquiry
One thing I've noticed since joining the publishing world is that my fellow creatives aren't always that great at the business side of things. Coming from a business background, I often cringe when I hear someone say things like, "I've got to gather all my receipts from this year so I can do my taxes." Yikes! The accountant in me trembles at the thought of not tracking things as you go along. (Nerd alert!)
An idea I'm playing with is to provide bookkeeping services to authors and other creatives. It would target an underserved market and help me pay for editing costs (see below). I took an introduction class to see what it would take to get started, and it's a relatively easy start up effort, especially since I have an accounting degree and experience with QuickBooks.
Anyway, if you or someone you know needs a service like this, reach out to me and let's talk. Even if you don't want to use QuickBooks, there may be some things we can set up in a spreadsheet to help you track income and expenses throughout the year and avoid that mad dash at year-end.
Publishing News
Editing Costs
Man, editing has gotten more expensive since I published my first book in 2022. I'm not sure if it's the market or if I'm just finding more established editors this go-round. For this developmental edit, my cost is almost what I paid for both my dev edit and my copy edit on Left Turn. Don't get me wrong, I think it's worth it to have a professional edit, but I'm cringing a bit knowing I still have to pay for the copy/line edit as well.
For comparison, I looked up what I paid in 2022 versus 2024 editing rates for fiction. Here's what I found from Reedsy and the Editorial Freelancers Association:
Such is life as an author, I suppose. I'm counting on these edits to make my work shine brighter and, as always, I plan to learn from the experience and continue to improve my writing.
Human Authored Certification Program
The Authors Guild now has a "Human Authored" certification system that writers and publishers can use to indicate that a human wrote a book's content, and not artificial intelligence. This is another way authors are trying to protect their work in an environment where the lines are increasingly blurred by the increase of AI-generated work and the lack of laws protecting copyrighted work from AI training.
Currently, this certification is only available for Authors Guild members, but plans are in the works to expand access to non-Guild members.
Latest Articles on Writing
Since I've been head down and elbows up with revisions, there are no new articles on the website. But I thought I'd list some of my favorites that I reference when I'm editing.
How to Find Empty Metadata Fields in Scrivener Using RegEx - Using the Invert Results feature on Scrivener search to find documents with empty metadata fields. (I honestly refer to this article more than you would guess because I forget the formula you search for. Doh!)
Using Regular Expressions in Your Scrivener Editing - Set up your editing process in Scrivener using regular expressions.
Analyze Your Novel's Scenes with Scrivener Metadata - How to use custom metadata fields to capture key points about your scenes, then export those fields to Excel for further analysis.
Author Community Spotlight
This week I picked up Claire Kingsley's Book Boyfriend, which was a fun read. I love the idea of a man secretly writing romance books under a feminine pen name. And the trouble escalates when he accidentally starts dating someone he's friends with under the pen name.
I liked the story and the characters. (Liking the characters is always a big win for me.) But I was taken aback when the opening chapter was at the breakup scene! Wait, what? Yeah, I didn't like that very much. I didn't even know I had an opinion about it until I read a book that did it this way. But the book has some interesting "breaking the fourth wall" moments throughout the book. And it's a fun ride.
Here's the kicker: I liked it enough to download the second book in the series, Cocky Roommate, and I LOVED this book! Weston is now one of my favorite book boyfriends. I'm already on book 3 (Hot Single Dad) and am happy I've found a new-to-me author to explore.
What’s On Your Mind?
Claire Kingsley has a section in the back of her book called "Dear Reader" where she discusses her characters: how she came up with them, the things she had to think about when writing them, and any struggles she encountered while bringing them out. I enjoyed reading this insight.
Do you like it when authors give behind the scenes looks into their processes?
I'd love to know how you feel about it because I'm considering adding a section like that to the back of my stories. Drop me a line and let me know.
Until next time, happy reading, happy writing, and hope you're doing well.
Lancy