32 days until the next ABNA announcement
A couple of days ago, I was relieved and ecstatic to find out that I'd survived to the quarterfinal round in ABNA, the final 500. That jubilation was tempered by the knowledge that my good friend Swankivy (and, no matter if she doubts it, the only reason I was able to be in the competition at all) did not make it with her novel Stupid Questions. Now I feel like I'm standing on a Manhattan street with unfriendly faces all around; the current state of the ABNA discussion boards (angry people protesting their reviews and the ABNA process in general) makes it even worse.
The fact that I made the quarterfinals and got to have my excerpt posted on Amazon for anyone to download was a momentous occasion; it's the first time since high school (the school literary magazine, where my epic fantasy short story was posted and which I fervently hope no one actually read) that my work has been available publicly. I went on Facebook and posted an announcement with a link, and the outpouring of friends and family saying congrats and promising to check it out was really gratifying.
And then I sat back, and began to feel kind of lazy and relaxed. I haven't done any novel writing in about 3 days now, and with this peaceful easy feeling going on, it may take a lot of effort to lurch back into motion. I occupy my time looking at my Amazon excerpt page a lot and wondering if I'll receive any more reviews; Swankivy wrote me a really good one and it's left me hungry for more feedback. I also stupidly keep checking the excerpt's Amazon Kindle Free rank against some of the other entries, even knowing that a single person boredly downloading it probably shifts each ranking a thousand places. Ah well, I'm sure I'll get over the newness of being out in the public eye soon.
More important than excerpt reviews or rankings is the fact that I'm hoping for at least a couple more people to like the excerpt, ask for more chapters, and then eventually read the whole book for me. I'd really like to have more full-novel readers, because those are the only people who could eventually be my test readers for the second volume of the series (currently stalled at over 78,112 words - heehee).
So far, I haven't heard that anyone has actually started READING the excerpt, but hopefully maybe by this weekend? Until then, I'll sit here kind of languidly, checking my excerpt page. I think I'll try to post my "book trailer" on Youtube and Facebook tonight; I put it together in anticipation of the quarterfinals and will try to drum up some more readers with it, even though I strongly suspect I might get it taken down because it uses a professional studio's epic music track. Maybe no one will say anything if it doesn't promote an actual product for sale, or so few people see it that no strangers get to report it? Hmm.
UPDATE: I uploaded it to Youtube and set it so it's not visible to anyone without the link, which is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQpdnAsNiAw&feature=youtu.be
Ah well, ho hum, it's all good. Let's see how long my peaceful easy feeling lasts until the panic starts setting in.
The fact that I made the quarterfinals and got to have my excerpt posted on Amazon for anyone to download was a momentous occasion; it's the first time since high school (the school literary magazine, where my epic fantasy short story was posted and which I fervently hope no one actually read) that my work has been available publicly. I went on Facebook and posted an announcement with a link, and the outpouring of friends and family saying congrats and promising to check it out was really gratifying.
And then I sat back, and began to feel kind of lazy and relaxed. I haven't done any novel writing in about 3 days now, and with this peaceful easy feeling going on, it may take a lot of effort to lurch back into motion. I occupy my time looking at my Amazon excerpt page a lot and wondering if I'll receive any more reviews; Swankivy wrote me a really good one and it's left me hungry for more feedback. I also stupidly keep checking the excerpt's Amazon Kindle Free rank against some of the other entries, even knowing that a single person boredly downloading it probably shifts each ranking a thousand places. Ah well, I'm sure I'll get over the newness of being out in the public eye soon.
More important than excerpt reviews or rankings is the fact that I'm hoping for at least a couple more people to like the excerpt, ask for more chapters, and then eventually read the whole book for me. I'd really like to have more full-novel readers, because those are the only people who could eventually be my test readers for the second volume of the series (currently stalled at over 78,112 words - heehee).
So far, I haven't heard that anyone has actually started READING the excerpt, but hopefully maybe by this weekend? Until then, I'll sit here kind of languidly, checking my excerpt page. I think I'll try to post my "book trailer" on Youtube and Facebook tonight; I put it together in anticipation of the quarterfinals and will try to drum up some more readers with it, even though I strongly suspect I might get it taken down because it uses a professional studio's epic music track. Maybe no one will say anything if it doesn't promote an actual product for sale, or so few people see it that no strangers get to report it? Hmm.
UPDATE: I uploaded it to Youtube and set it so it's not visible to anyone without the link, which is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQpdnAsNiAw&feature=youtu.be
Ah well, ho hum, it's all good. Let's see how long my peaceful easy feeling lasts until the panic starts setting in.