I’m not really a believer in resolutions. The word resolution to me is like the phrase, “I’ll try.” When someone says, “I’ll try,” what they really mean is “don’t hold your breath.” It’s like a built in excuse for failure. With “I’ll try”, if I succeed, then I’m the hero, if I fail, well, I never promised anything. A resolution tends to work the same way. If I make a resolution, the first failure “breaks” the resolution, so I’m off the hook. While this is the time of year to reflect on what has happened during the course of the year and make resolutions for the new year, I tend to set goals. I like goals because you can set interim goals that help you achieve the long term goal. And goals don’t break. If I fail at an attempt, the goal doesn’t go away. I pick myself up, dust off, and take another run at it.
At the start of 2008, I had definite plans in place. I created a list of goals to accomplish and was ready to tackle them. Well, as is the way in life, things did not go exactly according to plan. Looking back, I have still accomplished the majority of the goals that I set and I feel content with my accomplishments for the year.
2008 saw the distribution of Misfit McCabe, which was a very proud accomplishment for me. To actually hold a bound copy of my work for the first time was fantastic and seeing it on Amazon.com and other online stores was even better. One of my major goals for 2008 was to develop marketing materials for Misfit McCabe and to start the marketing effort. So, I have bookmarks, handout cards, wrap sheets, book review blurbs, give-away copies, in other words, the standard marketing fare. I wasn’t satisfied with my efforts on that score because I wanted something that would really help promote the book itself by giving it more visibility. With the limited budget of all POD authors, I was trying to think of someway to get my book seen by a larger audience of my target readership. The light bulb finally went on in October and I was hard at work ironing out all of the details for Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
I love those Eureka! moments as an author. As soon as I had the idea, I knew it was the one for me. The Lulu Book Review kindly offered to help me bring visibility of this marketing concept to a wider group of people, you can check out what it entails by checking out the WITW is MMC? tab. This also opened a few more avenues as far as marketing materials. I have posters which have become a part of my marketing scheme for sending to schools and will be soon going to local bookstores and libraries with them.
One of the unexpected and exciting things to happen during 2008 was to start reviewing books for the Lulu Book Review. I enjoy reading other authors work and reviewing it gives me the opportunity to help encourage other POD authors with their writing quest as well as helping to bring visibility to those works. I also get to read things that I may not otherwise have run across. And it keeps me writing.
Another unexpected happening in 2008 was an invitation to participate in the Pearson Prize Book Award contest for 2009 put on by the Learning for a Cause organization. To me it is an honor to have Misfit McCabe invited to participate in the contest, especially since invitiations are issued based on students requests. The winners for this contest are selected by a focus group of 100 high school students, which means that my work will be read by all of the members of the selection group. For me, as an author, it doesn’t get better than that.
One of my goals for 2008 is currently in progress and while I will not meet the original target I set for myself for completion, I will extend this one into the early months of 2009, which is to write the sequel to Misfit McCabe. What is really nice is that I do have a readership which is clamoring for the sequel (ok, so it’s a small clamor, but clamor none the less), so that is spurring me on to completion.
As far as 2009 is concerned, right now, I am not making any new goals until I finish the ones I have, except I do know that I will be starting another writing project once the sequel has been completed. Since I have several waiting in the wings, I just don’t know which one that will be as yet. It’ll depend on which one grabs my attention when I am ready to move on it.
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LK Gardner-Griffie
Visit me at Griffie World
To buy Misfit McCabe, visit my store at Lulu.com or purchase at Amazon.com
To track Misfit McCabe across the country, visit:
Where in the World is Misfit McCabe?
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To read book reviews by LK Gardner-Griffie, visit: The Lulu Book Review
