Solid day today. Thanks everyone who showed up for the power hour! We had a great turnout and lots of folks got some good word counts to show for it. You all had lots of questions too, which kept me busy, and I love that.
For reading, I made progress in the TMNT comic I’m reading. I feel like I’m getting through them slowly, but I am getting through them.
For data analysis, I tested the new macros that my programmer sent me for Excel. I now have a working ACX sales report macro again that slices and dices the data into a format I can use. He also did a great job with the changes that Google made to their earnings report. I’m back at the races for those.
We are still working on the Ingram, Amazon KDP, and Findaway Voices reports. Ingram and Findaway won’t be that hard. KDP will require some thought.
The KDP sales report is one complicated endeavor because it applies exchange rates to the royalties. Amazon is the only retailer who doesn’t tell you how much money you actually made on their sales reports. You have to take another step and look at their payment report to determine it, but the payment report only gives you the total amount you made, not a breakdown by book. The macro bridges this gap by applying a historical average exchange rate against the book royalty per country, giving me a very accurate estimate.
I know this is super super boring…change of topic.
For marketing, I corresponded with an organizer for an event I’m traveling to.
By the way, I’ll be appearing at the following events:
Jeddah International Book Fair, Saudi Arabia, sometime around Dec. 8-10, 2022
Superstars Writing Seminar in Colorado Springs, CO February 8-11, 2023: https://www.authorlevelup.com/superstars
Oklahoma Writers Federation Inc. Conference (OWFI) in Oklahoma City, OK: May 4-6, 2023: https://www.owfi.org
If you’re going to be at any of these conferences, please let me know!
Also, I did a quick marketing video for a Kickstarter I’m participating in. I shared it before, but here’s another link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cabbitcrossing/tales-of-monstrosity-monsters-myths-and-miscreants
It’s a short story anthology called Tales of Monstrosity: Monsters, Myths, and Miscreants, and each story features a different monster from folklore/mythology. My story features “The Brazen Skull”, which is a fabled skull that can give you the answer to any question you ask it. The story takes place in my Good Necromancer universe.
The Kickstarter is funded and well over the goal with over 104 backers and nearly $4000 raised (goal of $500). The authors are putting together some pretty cool stretch goals. One of those is a bonus story, and another is audio commentary. So definitely check it out.
For production, I’m not at my quota yet but I’m sitting at about 800 words so far today. I should hit my quota today, no problem. The story I’m writing is going really well and it’s coming pretty easy off the tongue. If anything, I’ll finish the story tonight with some words left to hit my 2750-word quota, so I’ll either start a new story or write a chapter in my Indie Author Confidential series.
DICTATION STUFF
In the Power Hour today, someone mentioned wanting to hear a dictated file vs. the final text.
As many of you know, I almost exclusively write with dictation these days, and I have developed a quirky system that works for me and lets me write insanely accurately with very little cleanup.
Someone mentioned how they don’t like how they “sound” with dictation. They take long pauses, speak choppily, have lots of ums/ahs, etc.
The truth is that dictation IS a choppy art. Few people speak with the gift of gab. I thought it would be helpful for some to hear one of my dictated audio files and compare it to the finished, edited (copyedit + proofread) text.
Sadly, this is an old dictation file so this was before I started using my harmonica neck holder so the voice quality isn’t amazing. I’ve made a lot of improvements since April 2022 when I dictated this.
But the point of tonight is just so you can hear HOW I dictate. That hasn’t changed much.
I dictated this while doing dishes, so you’ll hear that in the background. I compressed the audio slightly to avoid peaking, but you may want to listen at low volume at first. Fair warning. Otherwise, there is no editing to the file.
Listen to the raw audio here (5 minutes): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nKtbLN4R31ciujV9VQRW9MtAzX-4KJDC/view?usp=sharing
Another warning: I occasionally say “Pikachu period.” I do this when I goof a sentence or want to try it again. When I transcribe it, I have a macro in word that removes these sentences. This all happens automatically. So take those sentences out and what’s left is what I actually have to edit.
It’s about 200 words. It sounds slow, but if I kept at this pace, it would have netted me 2,400 words in an hour.
FINISHED TEXT FROM DEATH MOON (THE GOOD NECROMANCER, BOOK 5) – CHAPTER 2 EXCERPT
I don’t like riding in cars that aren’t my own.
If you’re wondering why Bo and I were in this little red coupe to begin with, it was because my Lincoln Town Car had several bullet holes in it, a busted trunk, and a dented quarter panel from getting chased by two cronies working for the archdemon Elziel.
Bo and I were lucky to walk away unscathed, but my car wasn’t so fortunate. When we rolled up to the auto body shop, a mechanic was standing in the parking lot with a clipboard, estimating another car. He took one look at us and shook his head.
“Mr. Broussard, this car is the very definition of a total loss,” the guy said. “It really would be cheaper to let me total it.”
Then, I had to educate the guy about sentimental value, about how it was my dad’s car, how he handed it down to me, and how I wasn’t going to let it go. He asked me if I had insurance, and I told him I did, but I wasn’t filing a claim. When he asked if the other guy had insurance, I changed the conversation. There was no point telling him that the at-fault party was a cadaver infested with demon magic. I wanted the guy to fix my car, not call the insane asylum on me.
END EXCERPT
As you can hear, I definitely changed a few things here and there, but the dictated audio was pretty close to where I ended up. Have a good night.
YTD Word Count: 215,250
Plan: 1,252,000
Words Left to Write 1,036,750
Words Over/-Under Plan: 6,250
Days Ahead/-Behind: 2.27
Projected Annual Word Count: 1,033,766
Projected Decade Word Count: 10,337,664
Deadline: 12/31/2023
Days to Go Until 12/31/23: 414
Word Count Average: 2,832
