Lana Voynich

Finishing the draft by the end of July – I have about 5000 words done towards this

Sell more books than last month – I’m doing really well on this. One week into the month and I’m only two books shy of how many I sold last month. If everyone who’s told me they’re sending a check for a book really does send it, I’ll have surpassed this goal and will have to set a new one for the rest of the month!

The thirty contacts – I have most of my material ready to send out to the various locations. I haven’t had any responses to the emails I sent out, so by the end of this week I’m going to send out the snail mail packets.

I think at some point, I’m going to have to set a goal to increase my blog readership, and to update my blog regularly.

I’ve added the option of ordering by mail for those people who prefer not to use PayPal.

I’ve also created some postcards and business cards to include in the orders I send out. I intend to finish designing some stuff to send to the bookstores, in hopes that they’ll be intrigued enough to check out my site (and order my book to stock in their stores). I have to get busy on that so I can include it in the mailings I hope to get out next week. I have 29 locations on my “To Contact” list.

I have another novel completely outlined and hope to finish the rough draft of it by the end of July. Well, I’d really like to finish it by the end of June, but let’s be realistic. I have a full-time job, a husband, a baby, two dogs and two cats. My goal is the end of July.

I also want to sell more books this month than last month. Probably not going to be much of a challenge since I really didn’t sell all that many last month, but hey a goal is a goal.

I want to contact thirty possible markets for Alaskan Healing this month. I currently have a list of 26 places to contact. I have my letter composed and ready to go. I emailed three seven independent bookstores and three gift shops this afternoon and will follow up with a letter in about a week to those who haven’t responded. Ten days after I mail the letter, I’ll follow up with a phone call to those who still haven’t responded.

It’s miserably hard for me to call someone and strike up a conversation on the phone, but I hope it’s even harder for them to say “No” when they’re talking to me.

Here’s to getting Alaskan Healing into some local stores!

I’ve been working on two different novels (as many of you know) and I keep bouncing between them, unsure of which one to focus my attention on. One is in the rough draft stage and the other is in the revision stage. But, I just submitted a proposal for each of them to my publisher. If she likes either and wants to publish it, I’ll focus on that one and you guys will have another novel from me to read soon.

Sales have been a bit slower this month than last month, but I just received an order for multiple books, so it’s getting close. I’d hoped to sell MORE books this month than last, but I really haven’t been applying myself. In June, my goal is to sell 20 books. (I’m not counting Amazon, Smashwords, Createspace, or Girlebooks sales in that goal, simply because I won’t be receiving my statement from them for June for a couple months.)

I intend to contact several independent bookstores in multiple areas (where I grew up, where I lived for the past 13 years, and where I live now) and convince them to carry my books. Hopefully, now that I’ve posted those goals on here I’ll be more inclined to follow through with them.

Eesh! I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to update this recently. Here’s a quick update of what’s happened in my life since my last post. Another one of our dogs was diagnosed with cancer (osteosarcoma) and died. One of our cats died due to kidney and liver failure. We got a new puppy, November 1st. Then there was the holiday season and we had our first human baby in January. I went back to working full-time at the beginning of April.

In regards to my writing, my publisher, Laura of girlebooks decided to publish Alaskan Healing as a paperback. I agreed to it in the beginning of December and have proofed the novel three times. We’re finally live and the book is now available as a paperback from multiple sources online.

I’m currently in the process of researching small local bookstores and gift shops which may be interested in carrying a small number of my books. If anyone has any suggestions on locations that may be interested in carrying and selling Alaskan Healing, please let me know.

Along with proofing Alaskan Healing and researching markets for it, I’ve been revising a novel that I wrote about five years ago and expanding a new idea into a workable outline. In case anyone is curious, the novel I’m revising is about a young widow who struggles with addiction after reuniting with an old flame. I’ve struggled with this story for years but now feel that I have it moving in the direction it should move.

As for the new idea, all I have so far is a woman inherits an old farm from an unknown benefactor. As she searches for the benefactor’s identity, secrets of her family are revealed. I’m intrigued and curious where this story will take me. It’s a bit different from my normal writing but, most likely, will still fall under the romance category.

I’d love to hear what your initial reactions are to the two projects I’m working on.