I am very excited, and inspired, and encouraged, and I have to share why here on the blog. About two months ago, on May 2nd, I self-published my very first novel, Dragons of Arethia Book One: Tesa’s Journey. I posted on my personal Facebook page about it, tweeted about it, and made a handful of sales following that minimal promotion. It was pretty fun, and then I set about writing more stories.
But you know what has happened? Sales haven’t stopped. Every few days, I sell one or two copies of the book. On June 27th, I sold four copies in one day. Now, I know this is not a great amount, but it’s not anything to laugh at, either. I’ve sold a handful of books in other countries, too. Somehow, people are finding my book and purchasing it. And although it’s a small amount, it’s more people than I ever would have thought would read one of my books.
So I’m super stoked that there are regular, albeit small, sales of my novel, and this has motivated me even more to finish the second novel in the series. I still don’t have a title for Dragons of Arethia Book Two (besides that part), but I do have 30,000 words written of it! I’ve set myself a goal to write 1,000 words a day in July or until our baby is born. She’s due July 29th but I’m convinced she’ll come at least a bit after the due date. So far, as of the 4th day of July, I’ve met my 1,000 word per day goal this month.
I’d started Dragons of Arethia Book Two back in November, right after I finished writing Book One. I planned to finish it as part of NaNoWriMo, but then life got in the way. Specifically, incredibly time-consuming preschool conferences got in the way! We were switching to a new evaluation system for conferences and there was a lot to learn. By the time NaNoWriMo was over, I’d found out I was pregnant and also was finding out how incredibly fatigued I would be for the first half of the pregnancy. I fell asleep very early almost every single day, and well, it was hard to get back on track with that second book.
Fast forward to June, and I printed out what I had of Book Two, read it over, and was delighted to find that it wasn’t quite as horrible or uninteresting as I had convinced myself it was. In fact, in picking up the threads of the story again, I’m starting to see where it’s going, and it’s turning out to be much more epic than I had originally anticipated. Also, I suspect it may be a bit longer than the first book. Which is good, because I think the first book was kind of short.
So yes, I am very excited to continue on with this journey and see where it leads me. I have unexpectedly grown very tired today, so I have to finish this and post it before I miss another Sunday! The featured photo is one of me, reading over the printout of Dragons of Arethia Book Two, with Gru as a cuddly writing buddy. Also, the big green blob at the bottom of the picture is my pregnant belly in a hoodie. Fun fun.
