March 2005 Memo
If you’re going to do something well, do it with all your might. Isn’t that how the old saying goes? Last month you’ll recall I set out on a journey to find an agent. Well, my journey is over, (for now.) No, I didn’t find an agent, but I did learn something that stopped me in my tracks. “Most agents don’t look at authors who have self-published.” I was told. Is that ridiculous or what?
Apparently, agents feel that if you had to self-publish, your work isn’t good enough. I guess they never stopped to think that a lot of people are following this new trend in publishing, and doing quite well at it I might add. On the other hand, I have read some self-published work that I wouldn’t give you a dime for.
So looking for an agent while working on the next book, I’ve leaned I can’t do both at once, and do them well. Because I have people asking when the follow-up story to Too Much for One Lifetime will be out, I’ve decided to concentrate on finishing, Too Many Speed Bumps: A Journey of Healing before concentrating on getting an agent. And then, I might not even bother. I’ve also learned, even if you have an agent, you’re still expected to do a lot of the legwork.
I figure if I do the bulk of the work, why shouldn’t I keep the bulk of the profits? But then again, I don’t have an inside track to the big publishers and book buyers. So, it’s a bit of a toss up. IF you get a well-known traditional publisher, your share of the profit goes way down. But, if you don’t have a well-known traditional publisher, and if you aren’t able to get the word out about your book, you won’t be making any profit.
We’ll just wait and see what happens after I get Speed Bumps finished. There’s a great deal of information on self-promotion on the web, and once I am able to give promotion the attention it needs, we’ll see how things go.
There are less than 100 pages of the first big edit to do. Then it will go through at least, two smaller edits. Other than working on the book, I haven’t had time to do much else. But I’m not complaining – I’m doing what I love.
Two days before February faded into March, I noticed our tulips were starting to poke their heads out. I love Spring, when everything becomes new again. The birds are returning from their winter get-away and we wake to their cheerful morning songs – which has the crow’s song beat.
Mom saw her first Robin on March 3rd and six days later I spotted one. All this happening while we hear of winter weather in Ontario, sorry we left there? Not a chance!
I’ve also been keeping an eye on our little Joshua’s trees. It’s amazing how much they grow each week, and without water!
Earlier this month when Mom and I were at a plant store we checked out their Joshua trees. We discovered many growing like ours. Any that were big trees had no “babies” trees spurting from them. We have come to the conclusion, you need to top it, in order to have it produce more plants.
This will be the last month I’ll post pictures of their weekly progress. Beginning in April I’ll take pictures bi-monthly. That will make it much easier to track their growth.
Here’s a run down of their growth so far. When the largest Joshua was one month old, on the 6th of March, he measured 2 ½ inches. One week later he measured 3 ¼ inches. And at six weeks, he was 4 inches long!
The Joshua which appeared the same day as the first, seems to be stunted. He’s roughly ¼ of an inch and he hasn’t grown much, if at all. Not sure why that is.
However, the third Joshua which appeared a week after the first two, is doing very well. When he was three weeks old he measured 1¼ inches. At one month he was 2 inches long, and grew a full inch during the following week. One would think they’d need water, but we haven't watered them since first spotting the babies.
Here are some pictures showing their progress. I’m not sure what we’ll do with them when they get big enough to separate, it’s not like we need any more plants. Maybe I’ll donate them to one of the fundraisers in town.
Almost forgot, I’ve added a new book review. The Maiden of Mayfair by Lawana Blackwell will not disappoint! Check out the review here.
Well, that’s it for this month. Until next time, when I hope I’m able to report the first edit is complete, read much and be well! J
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