I Need To…

Newsletter 031 – January 27th, 2023

 Hi,

In the last newsletter I mentioned that I had plans for several things I intend to accomplish this year. In this one I’m just going to list them chronologically (without much explanation), but over the next few newsletters I’ll detail how I plan to complete those things.

So, here goes: The first item should already be finished by the time you read this. I’m replacing my almost nine-year-old desktop computer with a similar model that will be much more responsive (I hope). Fingers crossed. Reloading all the software, etc., will cause a delay in everything else.

Once that’s done I need to send out my final emails promoting If a Butterfly, and then let its promotion rest.

Then I need to finish Flood and Fire (a novella which is a prequel to Jagged Man), because I will need it during the time period before Jagged Man is re-released.

As soon as I’m finished editing Flood and Fire, I need to create cover art for it and prepare it for conversion to an ebook, a PDF file, and a print book. That needs to be complete several months before the release of Jagged Man because I intend to use Flood and Fire’s ebook and PDF versions as free giveaways to encourage readers to sign up for my mailing list. Since you’re already on the list, I’ll be sending each of you a free copy of Flood and Fire, either as an ebook or a PDF (your choice), but that’s probably a few months away. After the release of Jagged Man, Flood and Fire will go on sale on Amazon.

Obviously, before I can publish Jagged Man, I need to finish editing it, complete the artwork for the front and back covers, and the art and text layout for the interior of the book.

After that (all of which will hopefully be done before the end of 2023), I’ll move on to my next project — which might be The Hawthorn’s Sting — but it’s a little too early now to make that decision. I’m waiting on some news that could determine whether I will be involved in something (a month-long “project”) that could make Hawthorn’s Sting a dead certainty as my next novel. I should find out about that a week after this newsletter is mailed. If the news is positive, Hawthorn’s Sting will move to the front burner late this year, but the “project” will also interrupt my work on Jagged Man, putting it off an extra month or so. A self-publisher has to be flexible.

I’ll let you know what I’m being so secretive about in the next newsletter, and about my progress on Flood and Fire.

See you then.

Michael

[“The best laid schemes o’ Mice and Men Gang aft agley,” Robert Burns, To a Mouse, 1785. i.e., “Even our best plans don’t always work out the way we hoped.”]

[If you’re reading this newsletter for the first time, I archive back issues of it on my website a week after they are emailed to subscribers. If you’re interested in reading any earlier ones, you can find them here: https://www.michaelsiroisauthor.com/blog-index/. If someone forwarded this to you and you would like to receive them yourself, go here. Just download a free copy of Butterfly’s companion book, and you’ll be subscribed.]

 

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