Hello again, y’all! The hiatus was fine — not as hiatus-y as I meant, and I didn’t finish as much as I’d hoped, but I did get a solid work schedule carved out again and made progress on the novel. Which is our topic for today!

I have a long history of putting the cart before the horse, because I feel like if I have an end goal, I’ll work better. Your mileage may vary as to whether or not that’s true, but it generally doesn’t for me.

I’ve been pretty good at keeping perspective with DREAMING OF EDEN. Write before I edit. Edit before I find beta’s. Edit some more. Don’t jump the gun.

I’m nearing the end of the first edit and getting ready to send off to beta readers (a month later than I planned), and I’m starting to look at the rest of my plan. I’m extremely interested in the whole indie self-pub thing — I love the market, the world, and everyone involved. I love control and I love freedom.

And then I remember that this isn’t like my millions of years in fandom: this isn’t uploading to that one website that everyone checks for their favorite genre — except where it kind of is — and this venture requires more marketing than any other project.

I dither. I think, “Maybe I should leave this to the professionals. There are some delightful indie publishers for good middle ground…” I find myself unable to sleep, as I lay in bed and think, “How am I going to get people to read this book? Should I provide a print version? What about covers? What if all this work is for nothing?“

I’m melodramatic, of course. I mean, response to the first chapter has been good, and I’m a cocky individual for the most part. But I’m so gun-shy when it comes to promotion and marketing, because I’m so afraid of being a “Me me me me!” person, after facing criticism for making myself the center of attention in the past.

How hilarious, right? I mean, here I am at the perfect opportunity to create something and spend all my time trying to get people to look at it, and I’m terrified of seeming needy.

So now I’m making some bookmarks, setting up some more in-depth stuff to read for when the editing is done and the betas are reading, and hopefully come fall the whole thing will be a little less intimidating.

Anyway, upcoming this week: why fandoms matter, I rearranged our living room, and how staying at home isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Glad to be back!