Summary:

Still pretty obsessed with my new podcast project, but I did also manage to focus on other things too along the way! Lots of great paid editing work on the docket too, so that’s nice!

 

Monday:

I edited another good chunk of both the thriller and the romance novel, both of which took exciting turns!

After lunch, I started looking at the mini marketing courses I paid for access to last week – the first being a challenge to identify where best to find your readers.

These courses had taken on a more significant place on my list – since the publisher of my debut novel, The Defiant Spark, contacted me at the end of last week to say they would be dropping me from their list at the end of June, due to lack of sales. I went back to them, saying I’d be prepared to put in some hard work on that front, if they could guide and support me – and they agreed to extend my contract by six months, to the end of the year.

So, we’ll see what comes of their offer to assist with marketing – and, in the mean time, I’m planning to bring these courses to bear on that book in particular, in an attempt to do my bit!

During the afternoon focus session, I worked on revisions to my fifth novel, A Darkness Divided. I also started the next CIEP course I’m taking, towards applying for Professional level, and wrote a blog post about the whole process of upgrading my membership.

 

Tuesday:

I focused on the romance novel today and finished editing it so I could send it back to the author for review and approval. They seemed very happy with my feedback, which is always nice, and promised me their next book to edit before too long.

After lunch, I had a good chinwag with the ladies from Revision Club, then tackled revising the first major Darkness scene to be rewritten. It went pretty well, and I added nearly 1000 words.

I also did Day Two of the Find Your Readers course, which is leading me in gently with relatively easy but quite interesting exercises. I’m intrigued to see where it ends up in terms of finding more readers for my books.

Later, I wrote a review of a film we watched earlier in the week.

In exciting news, The Secret History finally arrived in the post, so I started my deep-dive reread, making lots of notes for the new solo series for the podcast. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to write enough to make a decent length podcast episode, but it turns out that won’t be a concern… It might even end up going the other way…

 

Wednesday:

This is usually my day off, but more work from the romance mobile game client came through late the night before, and I’d decided I wanted to try and have Friday off, so I decided to do some work.

The romance game dialogue is a fun and very easy project, so it didn’t feel too onerous and I got a fair amount done before lunch.

I also watched a video about social media giveaways and made some notes on some fun ideas for my various books.

I used a focus session with a friend to get the rest of the dialogue project done after lunch, also managing to do a bit more of the marketing course. Then I went back to my close read of The Secret History for the new podcast series.

I was a bit worried about reading three books at once – one for the podcast, one in text version for pleasure, and one audiobook – but then I realised I’m usually reading four or five books at once, since I have my paid editing projects to keep track of as well.

 

Thursday:

I blitzed editing the rest of the psychological thriller today – and it was a bit mind-blowing, but really excellent. One of my favourite projects to date! The author seemed very happy with my work so, while the hourly rate didn’t end up quite as high as I’d prefer (and not counting all the time I spent answering his complicated questions and brainstorming ideas), I’m hoping to get book two in the series before too long.

I also carried on with the first book marketing course, which continued to be interesting and garnered some interesting ideas to try, so I was reassured that I hadn’t wasted my money.

I started work on the 500+ hours work record I need to put together to upgrade my CIEP membership to Professional level, which was very tedious and even the first year of my experience took way longer than I expected (even already having most of the relevant information in a spreadsheet). Hey ho – I’ll get there eventually!

I did manage to do some more close reading of The Secret History, which I’m really enjoying, but is a bit of a time sink.

 

Friday:

I was going to have today off – but what does that really mean? Surely, it’s about taking time to do things you want to do, rather than things you feel obligated to do…

Anyway, I went through all my options for the Resurrected Reviews Revisited solo podcast series and highlighted the books I already own, either in physical or audio format – and it was enough to provide more than two years of episodes!

I also did a lengthy sample edit of developmental feedback on a self-help book for a prospective client, who said about my application:

“You seem like an interesting person. You’re not exactly what I had in mind but then again what I had in mind may not have been exactly right.”

So, we’ll see what comes of that… [We got into a lengthy discussion of the project parameters later in the day, and the project is on!]

After lunch, I chomped my way through another chunk of The Secret History, trying not to write so many notes, because I was starting to worry my podcast episode would end up being three hours long… I did not achieve my aim of writing fewer notes…

I did another sample edit for a different prospective client quite late in the day.

 

Saturday:

I finished an audiobook and wrote my review.

I read more of The Secret History and made yet more notes…

After a long trip out to do some caching for the first time in a while, I helped Bear with his first post in a long while – all about our caching trip!

Later, I finished another book and wrote my review.

 

Find out more about my editing services or sign up for my newsletter!