Well, I’m not as impressed with my progress this month as I’d like to be, but progress is progress, right?
I had the intention of getting the shopping book launched and was well on the way to doing just that when I got what may have been sun poisoning during the mid-month heat wave. I spent entirely too much time sleeping and recuperating, which I suppose did me good because I’m up and about again anyway.
So I managed to get the draft of the shopping book edited but still need to do the formatting (which is my least favorite aspect of publishing and one I tend to procrastinate the most at).
My goal remains to get this shopping book done. I’m not going to set myself another task this month. If I finish early, then I can reward myself with some herb research.
So I have to admit, I got caught up in the herbs this month and would have kept going and adding to Herb book #4, except I ran out of days in the month. As it stands, I have 50+ herbs researched and added to the first draft, and I need to stop there, although my list of herbs to research is still a mile long.
In April, I’m going back to the shopping book. If you remember, I got hung up on taking new pictures to replace the poor-quality ones and didn’t get the draft edited. Since the rainy season is nigh, the added time crunch hopefully will be the incentive I need to get ‘er done this month.
If all goes according to plan, which it seldom does, I’ll have two books ready for publishing by June.
Meanwhile, I’ve been doing some marketing and have increased my royalties a bit. Of course, just like anything else, I tend to use marketing as a form of procrastination, and the writing part gets left by the wayside.
Sigh–the challenges of getting these pesky little books birthed!!!
After a stellar start to the year, February was a flop. I did not get any of the writing projects I had in the lineup completed.
I started working on the Shopping in Rural Mexico editing and found that I will need to retake a good portion of the pictures again. What was good enough for a blog post is certainly not clear enough for a print book. So I’m moving this project to the simmer setting on the stove. I didn’t even look at the other books in the series.
Instead, I’ve been revamping my website. My goal is to get everything under one roof, so to speak. Teachable raised its prices to use the platform to the point where it’s not profitable for me to continue using it. Teachers Pay Teachers blacklisted some of my Women of the Bible printables because someone found them offensive. So I’ve taken my toys and gone home, literally. And now I need a new place to display my wares.
It has been a frustrating experience with the WooCommerce and PayPal plug-ins so far. I hope to finish up in March. You can see the new storefront on the homepage. Pardon the dust while I get it all set up.
I also spent part of the month trying my hand at networking. As an introvert, this is waaaayyy out of my comfort zone, but if I want to find the right readers for my books, well, I’m going to have to come out of my shell a bit more. Of course, networking is a long game, so I don’t know if my efforts will bear fruit for a bit. I guess it’s a start, though, right?
I am also going to switch back to the herb books as a focus for March. I have four herbs to research to finish the first draft of Herb book #4. And hey, it’s my writing challenge, so I can do what I want to (It’s also my birthday month, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my 50th than by researching a new plant.)
Goal #1 Herb book #4. I did not finish this. However, I need just four more herb studies for an even 30 and publication, so I’m getting there.
Goal #2 Mexican Wellness Garden book. I started making infographics of the plants I want to include.
Goal #3 Spanish cold & flu book is FINISHED! Look for an announcement later this month about that.
Goal #4 Women’s health apothecary is slow going. For every herb I research, there are three more that I’ve never heard of.
Goal #5 Herb coloring book–didn’t even get to this one this month.
With February comes a new focus, the Woman’s Survival Guide series. I haven’t put out a new one in this series in a few years.
The series to date
First I’d like to start with the shopping guide. Believe it or not, there are precious few shopping centers in rural Mexico! The draft is done for this, but it needs some serious editing.
I have been trying to come up with a move-to-Mexico guide for quite some time. I have a few chapters written and some ideas outlined, but this one will need some major work.
I’m not sure if the topic of raising a family should be in a new book or part of the move-to-Mexico guide, but I at least need to work on it to figure that out.
I decided to start the year off with a little writing challenge. I actually am going to work on several books I have in the works, so I may not have a completed book at the end of the 28-day challenge, but I will be further along (hopefully). I wasn’t able to do the Na-no-wri-mo challenge in November, and fell behind a bit in getting these books published. Maybe I’ll set up my own writing challenge later in the year, depending on how this one goes.
If you’d like to join in the “Your Inspired Story” Writing Challenge sponsored by Bridget Cook-Burch which begins on January 6 you can join the Facebook group here and sign up for the email prompts here.
C.E. Flores 