If you aren’t already signed up for my emails, you might not know that a few weeks ago I launched M.G. Herron’s SFF Book Club, introducing weekly book recommendations and adding a Facebook group for discussion.
I had been searching for a way to give back to my readers and fans. Since I am only able to publish 3-4 major books per year right now, this is also a way for me to offer you even more entertainment and value between my book launches, while I’m working on new stuff.
So if you sign up for my book club now, you’ll not only know when I have new books out, but you’ll also get:
My starter library of science fiction/fantasy stories
A personally curated book recommendation every Friday
An invite to the Facebook group
First dibs on exclusive content I create for my readers
I’m even planning to do host Facebook Live book club discussions, so follow me on Facebook to be notified when those happen.
Took a little longer to put these together than I had hoped, but here we are finally.
It’s a simple plan. Of course, simple doesn’t doesn’t mean easy.
My 2018 writing goals:
1. Write fast, publish slow (or at least, slower)
Goal: Write 250,000 publishable words
In 2017, I published new fiction every month. A lot of that was short fiction, but I did also manage two new novels. Although I learned plenty from that experience, this year I’m moving away from the monthly publication schedule to put the focus back on writing. Specifically, writing novels. Monthly production goals are useful, but I found myself up against a deadline too many times, often moving away from a potentially more impactful project because it was too far from complete to finish in time for the cadence I had committed to.
So this year, my goal is to write a quarter million publishable words. No specific publishing goals—yet. I’ll definitely be publishing new books this year—several, I hope—but I’m not going to put arbitrary deadlines on them right now. Success this year is whether or not I have written. The books will be published when they’re ready. That’s it.
A quarter million words may seem like a lot to bite off, but you don’t run a marathon all at once. You do it one step at a time. So let’s break it down.
250,000 words is roughly four novels of ~60k words each.
That’s about a novel every three months.
On average it takes me an hour to write 600 words (which is slow by pro writer standards).
At 600 words an hour, it will take me about 417 hours to reach my goal.
Divide 417 hours by 50 weeks (with 2 leftover for vacation), and I need to spend just over 8.3 hours a week writing.
That doesn’t seem like so much, does it? I’ve spent that much time watching Netflix in a single weekend.
I’ll be throwing in some extra padding since I usually manage to spend closer to 10-15 hours a week writing fiction. As long as I’m actually writing, and not doing other busy work, this will be no problem.
More on focus in the third goal. For now, it’s good enough to know the goal is highly achievable.
To keep myself accountable, I’ll be tracking my wordcount goal on my website this year. Check out the sidebar to the right, where you should see two progress bars—one for total words, and another for Translocator 3, my current work-in-progress.
2. Start an SFF book club
Goal: Connect with my readers
This is something that’s been stewing in the back of my brain for a while. I finally decided to go for it.
I’ve been trying to find a way to combine my passion for reading into something that gives you, dear reader, more of what you want. Putting together yearly writing goals is super helpful to me, the writer, but I recognize that most of you probably don’t care (except maybe to find out when my next book will be done!)
However, if my instinct is correct, you DO still want to know about other good books to read. And since every reader reads more than one book, this benefits everyone. I myself read about 40-50 books a year. I know other readers who read twice as much.
For years, I’ve read widely across traditional and indie science fiction and fantasy, exploring new worlds, finding new authors, and digging up the classics that stood the test of time. For the most part, this has been a private passion. But why not turn this time I’m spending into something useful for everyone? I’m already doing the reading. I’m also already networking and finding new authors every day.
Creating an SFF book club will let me provide ongoing value at ZERO cost to my readers, and help some of my fellow authors in return.
The best part? I get to read even more awesome books! It works on so many levels.
So I’ll be curating and delivering weekly reading recommendations through my newsletter, doing more fun book giveaways, and building a community with thought-provoking discussions.
There’s always a lot I want to get done. The main problem I have is staying focused when distractions present themselves, as they inevitably do. The phone rings, Facebook pings, new emergencies are always around the corner…
To reach the goals I’ve laid out above, I can’t afford to waste time. I need to cut distractions. A weekly book club requires planning and focus. 250,000 words a year, while not setting any world records, still takes the 417 hours it will take.
“Focus better” is also a reminder to focus on the work, and not allow myself to be swayed from my purpose by busy work, the opinions of others, or (perhaps most of all) my own negative opinions of myself.
Finally, this is a reminder to focus on health and mindfulness as a foundation for the work. Cliché or not, I’ve come to realize that if you don’t have your health you’ve got nothing. This means eat well, drink in moderation, spend time with family, exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep.
•••
The basics matter. I’m going back to basics this year. I’ll be focusing on writing 250,000 good words, and I’ll be focusing on connecting with my readers.
At the end of the year, I like to check my ego with a hard dose of reality by comparing the year’s writing goals to my actual output. This exercise helps keep me honest, and frankly I like having a record to look back on in future years. Memory fades over time—this blog is my stasis pod.
On January 1st, 2017, I had two main writing goals:
Publish something new each month — a novel, a short story, or a collection with a story of mine in it
Write a lot of new material
Let’s see how I did on each aspect of this mission.
1. Publish something new each month
This one is simple: Mission accomplished.
I had sixteen publications in twelve months.
The first novel that I published in 2017. Click these covers to learn more!
A few things to note…
What do I mean by a thing? I counted each novel, short story, or anthology I was in as a thing. That means that some of the 16 titles are, in fact, repeats. For example, the short story collection I published in December, Boys & Their Monsters, repackages 5 previously published post-apocalyptic adventure stories into a single volume. And my novel The Republic was originally serialized in 7 episodes that each counted as a thing.
One more caveat to keep in mind is that I learned nearly as much about marketing this year as I did about writing. As a result, a few months after the Tales of the Republic serial was collected into a single novel, I quietly rebranded it by changing the title and cover. Then I removed the old episodes from Amazon.
It was the right move from a marketing perspective, as the novel started selling better almost immediately. Anyway, since I was counting each episode as a thing, you now know why those individual episodes are crossed out on the list below.
The second novel I published in 2017, The Alien Element. Also the second book in the Translocator Trilogy.
Here’s the whole schedule with release month and word count for each.
In total, that’s 227,000 new words published in 2017.
2. Write a lot of new material
The third major book I published this year was this collection of post-apocalyptic adventures.
This goal was more vague than the first. However, I still feel like I can count it as a win. If I had to score it, I’d give myself 6 out of 10; I did pretty good, but I know I have a long way to go.
That might seem harsh, but the thing about how I design my writing goals is that it’s all upside. No matter what happens, I still have more words than I started with. I call it failing forward.
Could I have done more? We’ll never know. When you look at this upside, does it really matter?
The upside of 2017
I wrote the better part of three and a half novels.
I wrote six new short stories.
The majority of what I published this year was new material.
I have two new novels in various stages of production that will be published next year.
And I have ideas for a great many more…
Also, I want to point out that I probably could have written even more if I didn’t also take a few online fiction writing classes, and read several books on writing. By doing that reading, and watching those videos, and turning in those assignments, I learned an incredible amount about the craft of writing, and stumbled on many new insights into my own writing process.
Totally worth writing a little bit less to be a better writer and storyteller than I was at the start of the year.
What’s on deck for 2018?
I’ll have another blog on my 2018 goals in a few days. For now, I just want to say that I have many more stories to tell, and a lot of positive change is already in the work.
Here’s to a productive and fun 2018. Happy new year!
It’s always an exciting day when I get to share artwork for a new book!
Here’s the cover for Boys & Their Monsters, a collection of post-apocalyptic adventures written over the last year and a half.
The book is publishing now and will be available sometime next week. I’m putting together some giveaways and other treats to accompany the launch, so enjoy your weekend and don’t forget to check back soon!
Knocking out one thing after another this weekend. It began with a bunch of personal errands yesterday. I reported to jury duty for the first time, picked out a (crappy) new healthcare plan for 2018 (they’re getting so expensive), and took my car to the shop for an oil change and checkup. The Wrangler needs more work, unfortunately, but I’m hoping it’ll be covered by Jeep as a known issue.
Then today was writing and other not-very-exciting business and marketing stuff. The fun part came when I started putting together the ebook edition of Boys & Their Monsters, for which I need to write a proper introduction this week.
This book is just a collection of short stories but it also feels like a milestone. My first collection of shorts in very specific genre, all with a similar authorial voice and tone, even while having unique characters and situations in each story.
Three years ago, a book like that was nothing but an outline in the fog. Now, it’s a technicolor vision.
I should have the cover to share with you soon. The book won’t take long to publish, if I get my act together and write that intro this week.
Glad to have caught up on a lot of stuff this weekend that, while not necessarily urgent, was weighing on my mind. Feels good to have a lot of it out of the way.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got less than a month to publish a collection and finish writing a novel. Stay tuned.
“…one begins to see Herbert’s essential themes. One of his central ideas is that human consciousness exists on—and by virtue of—a dangerous edge of crisis, and that the most essential human strength is the ability to dance on that edge. The more man confronts the dangers of the unknown, the more conscious he becomes. All of Herbert’s books portray and test the human ability to consciously adapt. He sets his characters in the most stressful situations imaginable: a cramped submarine in Under Pressure, his first novel; the desert wastes of Dune; and in Destination: Void the artificial tension of a spaceship designed to fail so that the crew will be forced to develop new abilities. There is no test so powerfully able to bring out latent adaptability as one in which the stakes are survival.”
– Timothy O’Reilly in Frank Herbert (Recognitions)
Originally published by Frederick Ungar, October 17, 1983. The whole critical biography of Frank Herbert (216 paperback pages) is also available online at oreilly.com.
The last few days have given me pause and reason to reflect on the systems I’ve built around my writing business.
There’s a constant tug of war between what wants to be done and what needs to be done, and frankly I’ve been dropping the ball on some of it lately.
(I’m trying to keep a little perspective, too. How much has changed in 4 years!)
Fortunately, that has led to some other realizations on ways I can change and grow, and it’s my conviction now that the business—not to mention my level of anxiety and ability to perform at my peak—will be better for it.
I’m grateful for all the people who have been there to talk it through with me. Who have listened to me patiently as I figure it all out. You know who you are.
Still so much to learn. Still so much to do. I’ll spend the evening reflective but grateful that I get to spend my days making up stories for fun and for fun companies.
Even knowing that I’ve got a long way to go to get where I really want to be.
Spent this afternoon getting caught up on publishing tasks.
I started by updating my books page. Several stories needed to be added. It filled out pretty nicely.
Here’s what it looks like now—everything I’ve published so far in one place! Pretty amazing to see how I’ve accomplished in a few years by focusing on one project at at time.
I also updated the book pages for each of my novels. They’re using a better layout now. Check them out here and let me know what you think…
Next, I recently pulled a few of my stories out of Kindle Unlimited (Amazon only), so I got to publish The End of the World, Magick Mirror, and The Door Below on the rest of the ebook retailers—Nook, Kobo, iBooks, and a few other smaller retailers that I can reach using Draft2Digital (an ebook distributor). I put those tasks off for too long, so it’s nice to have them done.
Last, I worked on revising and improving the blurbs for my novels. I still find writing short, punchy descriptions of my books very challenging, but they’re not going to revise themselves, so I gritted my teeth and worked it for a while. I’ve got more to do there, but I did manage to make some progress today.
All of this on top of writing 1400 words on Translocator 3 this morning, and I still feel like I only made a minor dent in my “to do” list!
Still so much to do! I’m going to take it easy tonight, so I attack the list again with fresh eyes tomorrow morning.
These are 5 tactics I rely on when I get bored, lost, or stuck in the middle of a book. They’re each useful at at different times and in different situations, but these tactics made the list because I return to them time after time.
Perhaps you have already felt bored, stuck, lost, or at a complete dead-end when you’re working on your book.
This is a signal that you’ve reached the soggy middle.
