Sydney Strand

For my latest book, I used the Amazon Preorder function. But first, the purpose as to why I did this: -To push myself to get this book done by my personal deadline. -To have the book up when I was having a "Sale-apalooza" on two other titles at Thanksgiving. For those who also want to use preorder to push yourself to get it done: only do this if you know you'll cut no corners. Only do this if you have put out a few books already and have a system in place for writing a quality book and a pretty stalwart work ethic. Now, back to the preorder. The preorder did not work out as expected, namely because when you used Google or Amazon to search for the book--by title or even by my name--it did not come up. The only way you could find it was the link from my author dashboard on KDP. I used that link to insert it into the back of books and onto my website and in my email's signature line. But otherwise, there was no way a reader could find this preorder. I e...

The confession behind this blog: Read here.     This is what my November looked like, as I think most writers' lives (those with a deadline or who were competing in NaNoWriMo) looked like. Writing in the kitchen, drinking hot chocolate Writing in the Starbucks, drinking a skinny hazelnut latte Writing in the bedroom, drinking up the words Writing in the dining room, drinking water Writing in the family room, drinking them in Writing in the office, at the desk, most likely drinking Diet Dr. Pepper Writing in the office, on the sofa, definitely drinking Diet Dr. Pepper All that writing and now you're done. DONE! Now, though, what should you do? -Put it in a drawer? -Put it on Amazon? -Put it in the mail to whoever that was who published JK Rowling? This one's easy. I'll give you a minute. Got the answer? Okay, here it is… … … … Put it in a drawer. Everyone . Enjoy the month that is Dec...

I really don't know how Nora Roberts did it. She started her crazy successful writing career when her children were very young, just as mine are. And she also canned, she also gardened, she also MADE HER TWO SONS CLOTHES FROM SCRATCH.  And yet she managed to write each day, every day, for eight hours a day. (I'm not making this up. Nora says so .) I feel so very inadequate as I write this. More so than when I started this post. Sigh. [Crickets.] Anyway.  Here I sit right now, and I need to tell you this, Dearest Reader: I write and I feel guilty about doing so. I carve out time in the morning to work on promotional stuff. And Le Boy Bebe watches Curious George.  I carve out time during his nap. And sometimes, he goes to bed just a teeny tiny bit earlier than usual so I can get in a few more words.  I carve out time each day in the afternoon, and if Le Boy Bebe is down for nap but it's the weekend, I make sure La Petite Adult has her own quiet time...

The confession behind this blog: Read here.  This week, I had a major break-through: I DON'T NEED TO WRITE AN OUTLINE BEFORE I WRITE THE BOOK. Yes. That's right. The pre-writing tool we've been told must be done before we write anything? It has now become a post-writing tool. And I thank my years of teaching college English courses. What I Used to Do This was a majorly mind-blowingly development. I had always done (or rather, NOT done and felt guilty about not doing it) proper outlines and character interviews pre-Draft 1. I thought pre-writing was for anal idiots, and I was not an idiot.  I wanted to jump into the story. Feet first, of course. (Because I was not an idiot.) This is not to say I write by the seat of my pants. I always need a plan, a Pinterest Board, a Polyvore collage.  I just don't want a 100-pages of outlines and character notes. Or, as I call it. The Book Before the Book. And yes, I would write an outline of s...

A Review of What I Did: Writing, Revising & Publishing  Bad Mom Rents a Man: Glampfest! Easy enough. o_O On September 15, I published my fourth story since I started my self-publishing journey in July 2013. This was my sixth published book (the first two were written for Dutton) and it was my seventh completed manuscript (that first one, an amateur sleuth, may see the light of day if I can ever figure out the hook!). This post is about what I learned this time around in terms of writing, revising, and publishing. Writing This was one of three books I fast-wrote in July. I wrote approximately 40,000 words in about three weeks, even while on a 10-day vacation. I've never done this method before, but so far, so good.  Why I liked the new way I was writing: -I would sit down and know I was just writing down words that were going to get better one day. Not then, just one day. And so I wrote. Sometimes, I would hit my daily goal of 2,500 words in one hour...