I’ve Abandoned Social Media

Lately, I’ve been really out of the social media arena. I hardly ever log onto Twitter these days. Ever since Twitter ruined TweetDeck, I haven’t wanted to play. I don’t see that changing. Twitter is just too much effort to keep up with when it lacks an application to handle it well.

Sorry if you feel abandoned out there, Twitterverse. You survived before me; you’ll continue to go on without me.

The Striped Ones in Jeopardy

The other issue I want to talk about is the Striped Ones series. My original plan was to release the sequel March 2012. There’s a good chance that may not happen. In fact, I’m not sure when the next books of the Striped Ones series will be release.

I’ve entered a winter slump (at least I hope it’s just the season), and I need to take care of me first. I need to step away from some of the situations which stress me out and focus on finding motivation in my life again.

I’ve never liked polishing or editing. Putting in the weeks, months needed to prepare Chasing Shadows for publication isn’t what I need right now on a mental level. I wish I could say I’m self-motivated to edit just to release the next work, but I’m not.

Business Decisions

If I look at the Striped Ones series from the business perspective, the months I’ve put into writing the final two books and the months I need to put into polishing and publishing the final two books really isn’t worth the effort. The prior months I’ve already invested are gone. However, the future months I can use toward more viable business ventures.

Think of it like this. If a traditional publisher buys the rights to a book and after release finds the work bombs, the publisher isn’t going to waste effort on publishing the next in the series. It doesn’t matter if the other books are written. It’s bad business to throw good money after bad. That’s where I am with the Striped Ones series. The next two books are written, but I’m not going to finish polishing them… at least not for now. If sales pick up on that line, I can see myself changing my mind in the future. For now… no. I’ll work on other projects.

Other Projects

I’ve really been into short stories lately. I’m going to focus my efforts on them for now. They take little time to write (a few hours to a week) and little time to edit (a week or two). I want to build up my publication portfolio and see this as a way to do it with a lot less time investment.

Is the Striped Ones Dead?

It doesn’t have to be, but it could end up that way. If you enjoyed Shadow Cat, spread the word to your friends. Encourage folks to try the book. If you haven’t written a review, do so. If sales pick up, then I’ll reconsider it as a a part of my business future. If not, I’ll get to the Striped Ones when I’m good and ready (if I become good and ready).

Keep an eye out for my future works, and I wish you all a wonderful year in reads!

First up, bragging rights!

Krystal at Live to Read wrote a wonderful review for I Loved You First. Head over to her blog, check out her review, and need I say, pick up a copy? haha

A quick reminder. Krystal will also be giving away a print copy of I Loved You First during the Toast of 2012 Blog Hop, which will begin at 12:01 AM EST on January 10th and end at 11:59 PM on January 17th.

Injustice Is Served: Free to a good home

Tell your friends. Tell your family. Tell strangers near and far!

Injustice Is Served is Free for 24 hours!

Like on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend No lawyers. No judges. No trials. At last, Injustice Is Served Seven psychological thrillers to keep you awake at night. Not meant for bedtime reading, children, or the guilty. Rated M for intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, strong language, and enough offensive content to make a man clench his knees tightly together. Published December 2011 Injustice Is Served My Latest Release is having a heck of a time getting noticed. But that’s okay. I’ve been wanting to try out Amazon’s Kindle Select program, and now I have the perfect guinea pig. For 24 hours only, Injustice is Served will be available for free at Amazon. Keep an eye out. The promotion is scheduled to start Monday at 12:01 am Pacific. HOWEVER, one never knows if Amazon will be on time. So check throughout the day, if it’s not available at 12:01 on the dot. Remember, the promotion only lasts for 24 hours, so don’t get caught snoozing. My non-Kinder users, you are not forgotten. Though Amazon requires me to do an exclusive deal with them for the next 90 days, Injustice Is Served is DRM-Free. This means if you download the Kindle edition, you’re free to convert it to whatever format you’d like. Please refer to You’ve won a digital book! Now what? if Kindle files aren’t your thing. Grab your copy at: Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon FR Amazon DE Amazon ES Amazon IT Add Injustice Is Served to your Goodreads list. If you grab a copy and enjoy the read, I’d love for you to leave reviews like… EVERYWHERE. Thanks for your support, Reena

It’s time for another progress report.

Yesterday I published Injustice Is Served. My original goal was too see it out the door this past Wednesday. A few items happened to prevent that. 1) I got lazy and found myself one day behind schedule. Then I was too lazy to catch up. haha. Then Wednesday my laptop power supply died. <sigh> I didn’t gain access to my work again until Friday.

I tell you what, that put a fire under me. I did two days of work and managed to put Injustice Is Served on Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords. They finally finished processing this morning. I swear today has felt like 2 days, cause it seems like the short story collection has been live for at least 48 hours.

Well that’s out of the way. It’s time for something new.

Originally, I’d plan to get A Tiger Leaves His Stripes onto the shelves by January 7, 2012. I have to tell you, I’ve been stressing over doing the edits in 2-3 weeks. It’s not that it needs editing so much (it was really supposed to be an sex-free version of Shadow Cat). I was more worried about cutting it enough and keeping the flow, not creating plot holes.

I cut the first three chapters, which I’ve known needed to go since before I published Shadow Cat. I just had a hard time chopping up my baby. Well, that attitude burned me a bit, because the readers pointed out the slow start. : ) Then I got to chapter four, when Eric and Berani meet and LOVED the sexual tension. OMG, I DO NOT want to cut out the sexual tension. It’s such an intricate part of the story. And this isn’t holding onto my precious like the first four chapters. Cutting out the sexual tension would changing the entire dynamics of the story. Shadow Cat will never be a sweet romance.

What I’m thinking instead is after I get the other two Striped Ones books out, I might revisit A Tiger Leaves His Stripes and publish it as a special version — “This is the way Shadow Cat should have been written if I had an agent/editor to tell me.”

For now, I’m moving on to Chasing Shadows.  I know I keep coming back to this work then moving on, but I’m really feeling the pressure here. I look at other authors and wonder why they’re doing so well, and I’m only doing so-so. I have enough works out, and the reviews are decent. The biggest difference I can see is others who are doing well tend to stick with one genre. I can see evidence of this in my Control Freak series.

The sales for the Control Freak series are okay, nothing to brag home about, but decent enough I don’t get depressed about low sales. I imagine readers will take a greater interest in Control Freak once I release the next short story. I need to do for the Striped Ones series what I’m doing for the Control Freak series — publish more in the line.

So my goal for Chasing Shadows is to get it out by March 2012.

I’m pretty happy with the cover art but am thinking about giving the guy a bit more hair. I’m thinking he’ll look better if I don’t fade his head out at all… same with the girl. Just let the edge of the cover determine where they start and stop.

At last, Injustice Is Served

Like on Facebook Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Injustice Is Served No lawyers. No judges. No trials. At last, Injustice Is Served Seven psychological thrillers to keep you awake at night. Not meant for bedtime reading, children, or the guilty. Rated M for intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, strong language, and enough offensive content to make a man clench his knees tightly together. Injustice Is Served Released Today! It almost didn’t happen: Despite major computer failure this week, I managed to send Injustice Is Served into the world. Woot! Not the Wednesday release date that I’d hoped to achieve, but today works for me too. As promised, I’ve sent Smashwords coupons to all who’ve submitted their proofs of purchases for Unprotected. I hope I didn’t miss anyone. If you submitted a proof of purchase by December 18 and didn’t receive your Smashwords coupon, please send me an email at reenajacobs@reenajacobs.com so I can remedy the situation. Thank you greatly for your support. Grab this short story collection of psychological thrillers at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and Smashwords. Don’t forget to add Injustice Is Served to your Goodreads list! I’m so excited! Best of 2011 Giveaway Hop Ramblings of an Amateur Writer‘s last giveaway of the year: The year is quickly coming to an end. It’s time to spotlight my favorite reads of 2011. The giveaway should be for one of the blogger’s favorite reads of 2011. It can be a book that was released in 2011 or a book read in 2011. Alternately bloggers may include a list of favorite 2011 reads for the winner to choose from. Prizes may be provided as a gift card. No erotica (a reminder for me). This blog hop is sponsored by I’m a Reader Not a Writer. I checked through my goodreads lists and found seven 5-star reads this year. I know… I was picky this year. Good news though. I’m in the middle of Tempest by Julie Cross (not yet released). It’s pretty good, so if I finish by December 31 and it’s a 5-star read, I’ll be adding that to the list also. I’m giving a lucky winner a chance to win one of the title. Giveaway starts December 27, 2011. I hope to see you all there. Stop by to read my reviews of the books up for grab. Subscriber-Only Giveaway! As a small token of my appreciation, I’m starting a monthly giveaway for subscribers-only. Winners will have a choice between a $10 eGift card from Barnes & Nobles, a book valued at $10 or less from *The Book Depository, or up to $10 worth of eBooks from Smashwords. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your support. XXXX Husband doesn’t like me giving out his kisses, but I’ve got plenty of hugs. If you’re not a subscriber, you and sign up below. The giveaways are international. Look for the winning email the first week of each month. Winners will have 72 hours to respond. *International winners for the Book Depository must be listed here: over 100 countries

Well, not really. I just finished reading The New World of Publishing: E-Book Pricing by Dean Wesley Smith, and I liked what he had to say. It made sense.

Something he didn’t mention in the article, but has been going through my mind is overhead costs for indie publishers. For me, I’ve been thinking like an author. “Buy my books! I’ll give them away cheap, CHEAP, I say.” The overhead costs have been in my head, but I’ve quietly suppressed the thoughts in lieu of attracting readers.

The truth of the matter, I do have overhead costs.

• Website hosting
• Domain registrations
• Software purchases (for writing)
• Subscriptions (for writing)
• Advertising
• Giveaways (print copies, mailings, S.W.A.G.)
• Review copies
• Extended Distribution Channels (CreateSpace)
• Stockphotos (for cover art)
• Whatever else I’ve forgotten

Then there are items I’d like to have but can’t justify the expenses

• ISBNs
• The option to work with LSI (even if I eventually opt out)
• Paying an editor
• Paying a cover artist
• Ordering a bulk number of copies to place on consignment and sell through my websites

These are expenses before I even manage to pay myself a check. To be completely honest, I don’t break even at this stage in the game.

Math according to Mr. Smith

Mr. Smith does some fancy calculations… okay, not fancy. His calculations are simple enough for most folks to understand. He mentions publishing one book every six months. Though Control Freak: Brandon’s Story was my first publication (September 2010), it was only a short story. My first lengthy work was Shadow Cat (published January 2011). This year, I also published I Loved You First (July 2011).

I’m totally on track with the 2 books a year. One problem — they’re in separate genres. So really, I’m at one fantasy, one contemporary, and a small collection of short stories in various genres (5 original works in all, soon to be 6). Okay, I’m rambling… time to get on track.

Mr. Smith mentions there’s a reason traditional publishers charge a certain amount for their works; they have to make a profit to remain viable. That’s business. So I’m looking at my expenses compared to my profits and know it’s not happening for me. Like I said, I’ve been thinking like an author. “Please, just read my book.” When I need to think like a publisher. “I have X expenses and need to make X per book to cover those expenses.”

Like traditional publishers, I can only speculate what sales will be for the future months.

My works follow a trend

Let me share with you a trend I’ve noticed. I’ve priced Shadow Cat anywhere from $0.99 to $7.99. Sales slowed to a standstill above $4.99. However, my sales numbers didn’t change if I priced between $0.99-3.99. Odd, don’t you think? I can say the same for I Loved You First. I receive the same amount of sales regardless of pricing the book at $0.99 or $2.99. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this and pricing for those two books.

The only time price seemed to make a difference was Control Freak sales. If I price any of the Control Freak works at $2.99, the sales seem to slow. The sales don’t stop completely, but they do slow noticeably.

Anyway, Dean Wesley Smith has a pricing recommendation, and I rather like it. $0.99 for short stories, $2.99 for novellas and short story collections, and $4.99 for novels. I’m not at the $4.99 level for novels yet. As I mentioned, my sales slow to a standstill at that rate.

However, I’m thinking a modified pricing model would work well for me.

• $0.99 for short stories
• $2.99 for novellas
• $3.99 for novels

I do see myself playing around with short story collections. For example, this week I repackaged Brandon’s and Regina’s Stories in a single eBook for $1.49. You didn’t know that? Yeah… I published that in secret this week. It’s available at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and Smashwords. One note, it’s priced at $2.99 on Amazon for now. So if you’re a Kindle user like me, I encourage you to pick up a copy at Smashwords instead of Amazon.

Commercial break over.

Pricing models and overhead costs

So what does the pricing models above have to do with overhead costs. According to Mr. Smith’s calculations, an author might see $105 in six months after publishing one (the first) novel. As disappointing as those sales numbers are, they’re pretty much what I experienced my first 6 months with Shadow Cat. From there, my experience is a little different from Mr. Smith’s examples since I didn’t stick with the same genre. I went on to publisher Regina’s Story, I Loved You First, Unprotected, and next up Injustice Is Served. I don’t see the sequel to Shadow Cat happening until February of 2012.

Even so, my sales of Shadow Cat have increased during the latter half of the year. Still not a lot, but still easily hitting the $210 target Mr. Smith mentioned for the 2nd six months. I’m thinking promoting Shadow Cat in my other works has kept the sales from stagnating. If I include my other works, I even hit the $420 target for combined sales with one royalty payment to go.

As you can see, I’m not making a lot of money publishing. And if you do some mental calculations with my overhead costs above, you can see how easy it is not to not break even. That’s okay. Mr. Smith’s article focuses on long-term writing… not a single book then giving up. He offers a three year plan (2 novels per year). I plan on doing exactly just that, along with a few short stories in between.

But that’s then, this is now. Overhead costs. I’d have to sell 300 books to make $105 in 6 months at a rate of $0.99 each. That’s 50 books a month for ONE book, bringing in $0.35/book. $0.99 for a novel, people. A work which takes a couple months to write, even longer to polish and edit. That’s in comparison to 38 books at $3.99 ($2.75/book in royalties) or about 6 books per month. 50 books a month for Shadow Cat isn’t happening, and it’s not happening with I Loved You First, even when priced at $0.99. 6-10 books a month is. In fact, I hit those numbers with Shadow Cat now.

Self-publishing is a business

This isn’t about greediness. How can I be greedy when looking at $105 for 6 months? Or $210? or $525 for a 6 month period? $525 isn’t even a reasonable profit for a month, much less a six month time period.

This is about business. I have overhead costs. I need to make a profit to meet those overhead costs. I need to make a larger profit to grow my business. I’m not just an author; I’m a publisher and have to think like a publisher.

I want more than anything for readers to go crazy for my works at $0.99. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Like I said, for my larger works $0.99 versus $2.99/3.99 doesn’t seem to matter. If I’m going to stay on track for the next six months (according to Mr. Dean’s calculations) and try to meet some of those overhead costs, I need to look at consistent prices which make sense. $0.99 – short, $2.99 – novellas, $3.99+ novels.

I’ll wait until the holiday season, but come January 1st, you should see the prices repopulating at the rates listed above. Hopefully by the end of January, my book prices will be consistent everywhere.

So that’s what to expect for the new year. If you’re looking to get my works for a discount, now’s the time. Otherwise, you’re free to wait. I certainly could use the extra royalties to cover my overhead costs.

By the way, keep an eye out for my next release (hopefully coming out in the next couple of days).

No lawyers.
No judges.
No trials.
At last,
Injustice
Is Served

Seven psychological thrillers to keep you awake at night.
Not meant for bedtime reading, children, or the guilty.

Rated M for intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content, strong language, and enough offensive content to make a man clench his knees tightly together.

You can read the first story of Injustice Is Served here.

A special  note to my readers

Though my fan base is small, I thank every one of you for supporting me. I know there are a lot of other books out there, many of them are free. Come January 1, even more will be less expensive than some of my works.

At the same time, I know my readers aren’t oblivious to costs associated with publishing books. My readers work hard for their paychecks, and so do I. They have bills to pay, and so do I. We all have our cutoff points… we each have a line when we tell our employer, “I just can’t work for that wage and make ends meet.”

Readers are my employers. You’ve hired me to produce stories for you to enjoy. I’m doing my best, but I’ve got to make enough to meet my expenses, or my business will go under. I’m counting on you to agree that my works are worth a fair wage. I trust that you will understand.

I’ve been quite distracted lately. The internet. Most of you know what I mean. This is what I want to do: Unplug for a week.

As you might recall, I released Unprotected on Monday with a promise to release Injustice Is Served shortly. I cannot tell you how much I want to get Injustice Is Served out by Christmas, next Wednesday if I can push it. If you haven’t already picked up Unprotected, you want to do that and send your proof of purchase to me so you can receive a free copy of Injustice Is Served upon release (see details here – offer ends December 18, 2011). Also, if you’ve already purchased your copy, don’t forget to send your proof of purchase.

Now Editing

Injustice Is Served ~ It includes 7 flash fiction/short stories. Well, I guess they just miss the cut off for flash fiction, but I’m still going to call them that because the stories are so short. They’re all between 1-2k words. The first story is available as a free download at Smashwords and pretty much all other major digital retailers except Amazon. The giant makes it nearly impossible to put a work up for free, so they miss out completely with the sample. Pick it up; it’s yours. I’ve already got my copy.

So where am I with Injustice Is Served. So I mentioned 7 stories and the 1st one is already available. That leaves six to prepare for publication. I’ve gone through the first edits on all but the last story. I’m working on that tonight and tomorrow. From there, I’ll be running each story through AutoCrit and feeding each story individually to my beta readers after I do the AutoCrit touch ups.

One more editing pass, and it’ll be ready for publication.

For now, you can add Injustice Is Served to your Goodreads list.

Also during my internet vacation!

I’ve been thinking about making a sexually tame version of Shadow Cat. My 14-year-old would like to read it, and I think there’s a bit too much graphic sex in it for her. It’d be nice to provide her a blush-free version.

Plus! I plan to apply a few suggestions I’ve picked up through reviews over the past year to the new version. It’ll make the work a bit shorter. I see myself eliminating four chapters… the first 3 and superfluous sex scene. Ways to incorporate the pertinent information is already formulating in my mind.

Hopefully I’ll be able to release it as an anniversary type thing. Shadow Cat will have it’s one year anniversary January 7, 2012. Check out the cover I have planned for it.

As soon as I knock out Injustice Is Served, revamping A Tiger Leaves His Stripes will be next on my list.

On the Writing Front

I’m supposed to be working on Unforgettable Summer. That’s fallen to the wayside these last few days (week). Every night I lay in bed thinking about it, so hopefully next time I open that project (tomorrow?), I’ll have some words to put down.

So that’s that. Twitter buddies! Don’t expect me to be very active this week. Besides, I’m thinking you’d prefer a new release over my idle chatter anyway. See ya soon.

Seems we’ve reached another milestone. Unprotected is just about ready for publication. I need to listen to it once or twice, and that’s it. For those who aren’t aware of my style, my routine look something like this:

• Prepare outline/character profiles (if necessary)
• Write 1st draft (StoryBox)
• Edit 1st draft for style
• Spell check
• Edit for overused words (AutoCrit)
• Send to beta readers
• Edit using Text-to-Speech (proofreading)
• Publish (StoryBox)

Unprotected is a short story, so it won’t take long to get through the text-to-speech portion.

I’ll submit it Sunday night to Kindle so it’ll be available Monday, December 12, 2011 to the public. I haven’t decided if I’ll publish it on other distribution channels yet. I’ve been considering trying the Kindle Select program, and they require an exclusive. With the hassle of taking a work down from other distribution channels, I figure if I’m going to try Kindle Select, it’d be better using a fresh story, but we’ll see. Until the official date arrives, consider adding it to your Goodreads

Quick blurb:

Their duty is to protect us.
We’ve trusted them to do so.
But when they cross the line
who protects us from them?

In 2011, TSA installed a Backscatter X-rays in my local airport. The media suggested the imaging scanner was to provide added security for the airport patrons. For me, it was far from the case. This is my true story of when the system failed to protect me as a citizen.

Up next for editing? Injustice Is Served.

Injustice Is Served is a flash fiction collection of seven stories about 1k words each. I decided to write this after receiving decent feedback on Circulatory System. For those who haven’t read Circulatory System, you can find it free on most distribution channels (minus Amazon). For now, the link to Smashwords, where you’ll find it in just about every format available to eReaders. Add Circulatory System to your Goodreads List.

My expected release date is December 2011/January 2012. It all depends on how quickly I get through editing it. I took a look at it a little while ago and decided I had enough energy to just write this blog post before hitting the sack. So here, I am. Tomorrow I’ll work on Injustice Is Served. By the way, what do you think of the cover art? I think I’m getting the hang of this cover art thing. Then again, I may just be blind to my follies.

I’m still working on Unforgettable Summer. I’m ashamed to admit, but I’ve had a slow start with it. I think I’ve only added a few hundred words since I started it… was it yesterday? haha Time has been really sssssllllllow around here. I swear yesterday lasted twice as long as the day before. And today was equally as long.

So that’s it for now. I’ll have another update for you when something significant happens. Either I finish editing Injustice Is Served or writing Unforgettable Summer.

You might notice my WIP progress widget has changed. That’s right! I’ve put Control Freak: She’s Mine on the shelf for now. I’ve written all I’m gonna write with the first draft.

What’s not done with it? Well, I still have the erotic scenes to knock out. I tend to skip them until just before I’m ready to edit. I’m not sure why, but I hardly ever feel motivated to write erotic scenes during the first draft. Perhaps it’s just a bad habit (procrastination) of mine. Regardless, it’ll be there waiting for me when it’s time for editing.

So what’s next? Well, I have this May-November piece I’ve been dying to write. For now, it’s tentatively titled Unforgettable Summer. I often draw from experiences in my life. This idea formed while watching an attractive young man in a restaurant. Today I’m sharing the first couple of unedited paragraphs.

“I chose Van Buren University because it has an excellent co-op program. One of the best in the country,” the young man at the table kitty-corner to me said. Dark hair, lopsided smile. He had to be straight out of high school, eighteen maybe… or so I hoped.

I listened as he rattled on about fellowships, internships, scholarships, and any other -ships he could think of. The words didn’t matter, only the youthful timber of his voice–incredibly deep for one so young.

I’m still working on Unprotected. I’m seriously going slow with this. Like I said, I hate editing. It’s less than 5k long, but I’ve split it into 8 sections. I skipped editing the last two days, but I’m going to work it hard today. Maybe I’ll make up those two days (or maybe one of them) before the night ends. We’ll see. So far I’ve finished 4 of the sections, so I’m half-way there. I definitely plan to see this to publication this month. Then I’ll move on to Injustice Is Served. I’m really looking forward to that piece.

NaNo is over, and I’ve got new plans from this day forth. Though the New Year isn’t here, I’m quite excited about my goals.

In the past, I’ve done Working Wednesdays on my blog (Ramblings of an Amateur Writer). Well, I’m doing away with that and trying something a little different. Why?

First off, I want my blog to be more about giving and less about what I’m doing on the writer front. It just seems like this is the better place to share me. Also, I’m looking for a bit more flexibility. There have been days I’ve wanted to do updates, but felt I had to wait until Wednesday. Then Wednesday would roll around, and I’d miss it or be too busy to bother. Here the updates will be less consistent, but more to meet my needs.

So… my first set of goals.

I’ll be keeping a widget on what I’m writing and what I’m editing at the time. If you look to the write, you’ll see I have two covers up now.

Editing

Unprotected ~ This is a short story which is currently about 4k words in length. I already know what I want to do with the cover. It’s just a matter of getting the image. So keep an eye out for that. I anticipate having this work finished by next Friday/Saturday. It’s short enough, I feel comfortable having my husband look over it for glitches and some proofreading. From there, it’s off to publication.

I haven’t decided if this will be a free work or not. I do plan on releasing it to Smashwords for free, at least for a short period. It’s more of an experience I want to share with the world rather than a money making venture. But we’ll see. I might find myself wanting $$$. After all, I am running a business.

This is basically a fictional memoir about an event which happened to me about this time last year. I wrote it the night of the incident but debated if I wanted to share it or not. Well, I’m ready.

Writing

Control Freak: She’s Mine ~ This is the third short story in the Control Freak series. I’m rather liking these pieces and anticipate putting together a few more. We’ll see when the ideas run out. Like the other two, this will be between 3-5k words.

Since I’ve been using Write or Die with a goal of 1k words a day, I see myself finishing the first draft by early next week.

If I write enough of these, I might turn it into a short story collection.Wouldn’t that be fun!

Next update will likely be next week when I start work on the next story. My goal is to continually work on a writing and editing project simultaneously. That way I can get more works to my readers in a reasonable time frame.