I’m pleased to say that things are moving along quite nicely with my novel! We’ve essentially finalized the cover art (looks amazing! I hope to share soon) and my manuscript should be moving into layout any day now. Meaning it will look like a real book, not just a ream of paper. It’s so exciting!

The challenge I’m facing at the moment is with my PR responsibilities. My PR firm, BookSparks, has been just wonderful. They have some fantastic ideas to promote my novel (and me) as a debut author. However, one of those ideas includes something they call “content strategy.” These are original pieces of content that will be used to promote my book to national media. They’re what you might call human interest stories.

Now, I wrote my novel because I had this story stuck in my head and I soon discovered I was the only one that could write it. It took four long years, but write it I did. I have other novels that seem to be taking me just as much time to write, but I know I’ll finish them. I have to or they won’t leave me alone. Actually, the fact that my first novel took me four years to write is one reason I chose to publish with She Writes Press. They’re not going to pester me with “What are you writing now? When’s your next novel? What about the one after that?” Kinda like when you get engaged and then everyone wants to know when you’re getting married. Then when are you having a kid. Then another kid. Augh!

Anyway, a writing career with SWP means I can move at my own pace. Within reason, of course. Once you submit your manuscript, they do expect you to work with them to edit it and get it to press within their deadlines. But as an author, being published is what you really want too, right?

Writing these content pieces is another type of challenge altogether.

While I like the ideas they gave me, I did not choose these topics. I’m not saying that I could come up with better topics. It’s just that it’s homework. I feel like I’m back in school again being told to write an essay or book report. This was just the kind of thing that made me think I hated writing.

These pieces are due Monday, April 4th. I may have to ask for more time. I hate doing that, but I also don’t want to give them drivel.

Oh, the dilemmas of a soon-to-be-published author!

I know, I know. So who ordered the whine….? Suck it up, Cupcake!

So I’m back at it this morning and the ideas are starting to dribble in. And I’ll gather the dribble until it starts to make sense. Then I’ll edit. Then I’ll edit them again until they shine.

Because that’s what real authors do.