Sorry, the troll has gone gallivanting around being...a troll. We'll get her back and writing after the holidays!! Thank you for your patience :)

Okay, NOT that I'm pitting my authors against each other because all my authors appreciate each other--but I've been concentrating on work count lately.

Naturally I wondered what my authors PUBLISHED word count was for 2013.

So below I've got the low down. Remember, this is for 2013 published works. It's also an estimate because I quickly ran through the word count of the whole book--legal wording & all.

ACTION ITEM: Tell me your word count for 2013!

Author Patricia A. Knight
Affectionately called: PAK
Titles: 3
Hers To Command
Hers To Choose
Hers to Cherish
Total Word Count: 215,378

Author Carol McKibben
Affectionately called: Mom
Titles: 1
Luke's Tale
Word Count: 60,827

Author John Daly
Affectionately called: My etiquette guru
Titles: 1
The Key Class
Word Count: 47,024

Author SNMcKibben
Affectionately called: SNM
Titles: 5
Lady Alene and the Widower
But For You, Yes
Cougar Bait in the Coffee Shop
The Demon Inside Me
Escape To Vampire Dam
Word Count: 46,791

Author ULRIKE
Affectionately called: Ushci
Titles: 2
Inspire Your Day
The Seeds Will Sprout Somewhere
Word Count: 13,824

This weeks interesting finds....

My friend on her vacation in Europe!

(Wednesday Whimsical)
I can handle constructive criticism. From others it's helpful. From myself? It's paralyzing.
It's unhelpful mostly because the inner critic id jumping down my throat to fix this right away. Conversations go like this:

Me: I only did 500 words yesterday so I just really need to get things on paper, can you like, take a nap?
Stephon (the inner critic): You should really edit before you start.
Me: No. I really just need to get this scene down.
Stephon: Okay.
Me: *type, type, type*
Stephon: Typo.
Me: That's okay.
Stephon: No, you should fix that.
Me: *type, type, type*
Stephon: Why are you having him do that?
Me: Just typing...
Stephon: Guys don't really think that way, your making him too girly.
Me: I just have to get it down, I'll change it later.
Stephon: Well, why do it twice when once is good enough?
Me: Because you're parlaying. 
Stephon: God knows you need to slow down with all the crap going in your head. Why not just do both at the same time.
Me: Arrrghgghhgh! Shu-up Stephon!
Stephon: No. No I don't think I will. Oh--change that.
Me: Fuck you.
Stephon: Anytime, baby.

From there there's a lot of inward shoving and juvenile language. What my imagination draws up to kill my inner critic he edits down. But I've found Stephon's weakness. He's male, so he's visual. I'm a 60 WPM typist that does not hunt and peck my keys, so all I have to do is close my eyes and type, thus not giving Stephon the chance to see what it is I'm typing. When I open my eyes, he immediately goes into critic mode and from there, we clean up the text. He hasn't seen it twice and I get my thoughts down. It's a great combination.

ACTION ITEM: If you've tried to conquer the inner critic and have failed, try closing your eyes and typing. I realize this doesn't really work for those that hunt and peck, but it could be a great excuse to learn how to type. I find closing my eyes helps me dive into the world I'm trying to bring out and helps with world building and word count. Stephon still protects me from many a "tell" and he seems to be happy with the arrangement. 

I find it a bit difficult to articulate my thoughts about the recent events where Amazon, Kobo and other retailers selling erotica got complaints and tore down all the indie publishers books down.

Even Luke's Tale: A STORY OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE got torn down. I suspect they were thinking unconditional "love" -- as in sex with animals. Hey, it has a dog on the cover, it MUST be about bestiality!! Wow, get your minds out of the gutter!

It's the music industry, the film producers and the Serial TV writers industry all over again.

But I have a different take. This is an opportunity. 

It opens the doors to storytellers and an opportunity for marketers to do as indie musicians and indie film makers are doing.

People are incredibly micro-minded in this macro world. What I mean is, people who are interested in niches are able to find them. People have this whole world of the internet to search.

Those who want to live life by drinking from the fire-hose of the internet have their wish. Yet others wanting to find their "thing", their niche, have an easier time of it.

The good think about the niche is people want their niche to be small enough to know everything yet large enough to never run out of material.

More micro-publishers are going to pop-up, like Troll River Publications. And we will find our audience.

These micro-publishers will find a niche in celebrating and marketing books.

This is their chance to rise and make a living doing what they want to do. This book tear-down mishap isn't going to force indies out, the indie spirit is hard to kill.

Indies will find a way. They always have.

Indies are waking up to believing they are Small Businesses and Small Business is agile, creative, innovative. We will find a way.

I'm proud to be a indie publisher. And I mean a publisher who publishes others books, not just my own, but stories I love and believe in. I'm at the stage where publishers began. I don't see this banning of books as such a bad thing. It clears my mind to action.

I like how Nate Hoffelder asked: "Now might be a good time for indie authors to go completely indie and start supporting the truly indie ebookstore platforms like Gumroad, Indiro, and others." 

He's got a great article on the subject. It's like anything else. What I think this all equates to are people who fear the world. When you fear the world, you make everything a fear tactic.

ACTION ITEM: It might be time to sell your books through your website. I've got a plan in the works for TRP. Go ahead, ask me what it is.

Okay you guys, it's time to put you all in the get-along T-shirt.

You all might deny that Indie authors are publishers. Especially Indie authors.

But the fact of the matter is...Indies are no different than those so-called traditional published authors.

Go ahead, say no, no,no,no,no--I'm not like other writers.

So, I'm going to take that mask of denial off your face and show you how we all are similar.

Indie authors run their writing business how they want. And trust me, all of you are running a business. Amazon uses your SS#/EIN for a reason.

"Traditional published" authors are running a business, they just don't have to worry/control some of the aspects of the publishing side. They've handed it over to a partner--who they pay. These writers might feel like they don't have control, but the reality is they tend to give it away when signing the contract. They just accept that this/that and the other thing is non-negotiable. While there are some things that are a no-go, think long before deciding you can work with a non-negotiable. 

You're getting paid. Therefore you are a publishing official.

Both Indie and trads get paid. Some get paid by different retailers, some get paid by one.

It's in the way you run your business. You can submit to different publishers and wait for a partner to pick you, or you can pick your partners to help you with this. 

 To truly be an Indie author, you need to write your stories down on college-ruled paper and make copies at kinko's, bind it with glue and sell it for how ever much. Everyone else, is an author/publisher no trad, no indie--no self-published, there's no such thing.

*Going off topic*
I like the term Micro-pub--you're now a micro-publisher, Congratulations! You'll have that title for the rest of your life.
*Back on topic-somewhat*

Maybe you have a vendetta against Penguin, Walmart and Google. Yay for you, but in my eyes the only thing that larger publishing houses ***might*** have an advantage is reader confidence and funds. That's it. Something anyone has the *possibility* to gain.

So have a hot cup of shut-the-hell-up and write. This big bad micro-publisher wishes you success.

ACTION ITEM: Stop calling my authors self-published! HHHEEEELLLLOOO! Am I even in the room here?

Okay, I'd like to take today to acknowledge that some of my authors don't really know much about social media and I'm here to tell you that...it's OKAY.

My motto is EVERY THING, ALL THE TIME. But really, it should be one thing at a time.

Social Media is frightening to some. What if I make a mistake?

Yes, you can make a fauxs pas but handle it well and you can make a friend.

Social media is a scary as meeting new people. It's a party and your always invited. But just like society their are rules, like, don't piss in the punch bowl.

Also, only do what you can. If you can't do twitter then do Facebook. That's fine. But try both. One at a time. And do the one that makes you feel comfortable. In the beginning it will be awkward. It will be like that for all of them. But just like people, sometimes it takes really getting to know the person to see if you'll like them. Social Media is the same.

ACTION ITEM:
Try it! You might like it!

determination by all my authors ~ and not just by their writing. Some have put time and effort into building their own book trailers, excerpts and the like. If you check out our BOOK TRAILER page, you'll see what I mean!

ACTION ITEM: Enjoy my favorite Book Trailer by Author Patricia A. Knight above!