Taken for a Ride
A New Friend

ROW80-2 -14/04 -Finally Spring

Okay. the temp has actually hit the low teens occasionally, above freezing overnight, and we're getting lots of rin. Not good in soe areas, as the ground is still frozen, but I don't mind. I've been looking at Amazon Marketing Services and Keywords, and choosing which stories I should send out to magazines. And occasionally sitting in the sun at a cafe with coffee and a book. I'm heading to Toronto Wednesday for a week, and I think I will NOT bring a heavy jacket. Look at me, the Risk Taker!

Objectives (writerly and an 'other' section):

  • Write - Because I do enjoy it. I'll set a new and very modest target of 1h/day, early in the day. 
    • Write new material - one draft Flash Fiction a week. Story done and posted here.  
    • Edit existing material - to send in for publication - see below. 
  • Write better - Read about how to write, and get constructive feedback.
    • My main source of writing info is a series of writerly blogs. Objective  -stay current.  Yup, still  current.
    • Continue with setting Flash Fiction prompts. Good for challenge, practice, and feedback. Objective - set a challenge a week.  Prompt set. 
    • MasterClass on Storytelling, by Neil Gaiman. Completed #7, Short Fiction and #8, Case Study.
  • Publish/market  - We publish partially for the glory and bags of money, but also for the feedback and increased marketability. 
    • I have many FF written already, here. I'll re-examine them, and send off one a week to some publishers. Working on a plan -review my FF to assess which are good as-is, which need work; send some off to publishers, survey existing FF books to see prices and content; gather mine into a beta version; get feedback. Newer ones are better, so I'll start with them to reduce my editing. Have a first story, Taken for a Ride, the last one I wrote. 
    • Facebook ads -Results inconclusive, I need to learn how to do these better. 
    • Amazon Marketing Services Campaigns on KDP -Continue to tweak and add keywords, with slight sales increase. 
    • Unpublish and republish of two print books -Will be a lot of work, for minimal benefit. AMS campaigns for Kindle will likely steer a few sales to printofor me. 
  • Read with purpose
    • Objective - read and review a book a week. Read Circe. I really liked it.
  • Better health
    • It's spring now. Set Fitbit target to 3500 steps a day. Objective - 7 day average 3500. 7 day average higher, 3912. May push for 4k Goal, if this is consistent.
    • Set sleep target to 7.5 hours, starting at midnight. Objective - 5 times a week.  7h, 5/7 days, but c=varies for 6 to 8. Too erratic. 
  • Stay social - That's a given, what with walking about, visits to local cafes and bars, and all my grandkids being in Ottawa. Warmer, so at least when I drop in at my local, it can be after taking a circuitous route to get there.
    • Again, limits for some of this. No more than three pub visits a week. Still 5/7 days last week.
  • Have fun - Gaming, Netflix - both indoors. Outdoors?
    • Set up a regular schedule (try again!)
    • Use Map My Walk to track my exercise, when I remember to turn it on and off. Fit Bit still better 
  • Chores - I added this to capture bigger jobs.  Taxes done. 

Comments

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Rui Chan

Good job using AMS to increase your sales!
Have a safe trip to Toronto.

Eden Mabee

Progress is progress, Mike. You have a lot of irons in the fire there--that's nice when you're trying to get traction. Keep us updated. You're trying things that we all might need to learn someday. (Thank you!)

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