The 15th Is At The End Of The Week!?!?

Found out the 15th is at the end of the week, and it blew my mind. March will be halfway over next week. Like damn, and I'll be going to Pittsburgh on the 16th to watch PWHL Toronto take on Montreal on the 17th. Hopefully their streak will be alive and well by then. Because of that, I have this month's newsletter rearing to go, and if you haven't signed up for it, well, you will get your chance to at the end of this post.

If you haven't been lurking around on my Mastodon profile or Facebook page, the first two chapters of Outside The Game are available to read until the end of this month. So, if you want to see how E.J.'s story starts, head on over to Bookfunnel and read those first two chapters. I also encourage you to sign up for my newsletter while you're there because release date and pre-order information will be announced to newsletter subscribers first and everyone else a week later. Maybe later. I sometimes forget to do things.

I'm 5 yards and goal to finishing my second round of edits. As soon as chapter fourteen is edited, I'm going to hit the ground running in finding an editor. There are a couple of editors I had my eye on, but I have completely forgotten their information. I'll put an APB out on Mastodon and also ask around. Being in this post-Twitter life is such a mess because I have to rebuild most of my connections. Just like I'm rebuilding my reader base. I know there are some people who are still aware of me as an author, but I also haven't published anything in six years. So, like a newborn foal, finding their legs, I'm going to have to put in the work and rebuild my little publishing fiefdom.

But fear not dear blog reader, I've got some things planned to get this ship back on course, and to be quiet honest, most of it is centered around just putting out the books, short stories, and serials that I have been working on these last few years.

Next up on the docket after Outside The Game is done will be Grisly Politics, which is book two of the Detective Miller series. In between, I'm going to type up a quick short story, which will be an exclusive for my newsletter peeps. If they want more of it, then it's going to become my first Ko-Fi exclusive. So, if you want to get your hands on this newsletter subscriber exclusive, then make sure you sign-up for my newsletter.

Speaking of my Ko-Fi, last month, I set up a goal on there to get a copy editor for Outside The Game to make sure it's as good as can be for publishing. If you want to help out with that, just go to my page, and donate. Easy peasy, and you don't have to sign up for anything I don't believe.

Lastly, I'm going to go on a quick Bookfunnel rant because I love the site. I do, but using it for self-promotion has left me a bit jaded. They have a features where you can sign up to join a group promo to giveaway books or do a book swap with another author, and I get a bit annoyed with it because I don't find categories that my books fit in, and when I create my own promos they get little attention, which I will take the blame for because I don't promote them as well as I can, however, at the same time they are listed on the public Bookfunnel promo page. I'm tempted to switch over to StoryOrign, and see if I have any luck there. I need to mull it over a bit more.

Oh! Before I end this if you're interested in becoming a beta reader for me, please fill out this form on my website, and I'll get in contact with you about being one.

 That's it for today's post. Sign up for my newsletter here. Contribute to my Ko-Fi goal here, and learn about pterodactylus here. Full disclosure, not my favorite dinosaur. That would be the stegosaurus, which you can learn about here.

March's newsletter will be out on the 15th folx! Remember to review and rate the books you read, especially those written by indie and self-published authors.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

Going All In On The Newsletter

Greetings to one and all! We have made it to the end of January, and into February. Here in VA we had a wicked bad cold snap a couple weeks ago, and other than causing my electric bill to jump, I tried not to leave the house, but that thing I call a day job (insert depressed groan here) made me. Granted, there was one day where I had to work from home because the roads weren't the best. Looking forward to some warmer weather. Not Summer, but just mild weather. The kind of weather where you can open the house windows during the day, and burn a nice fire in the pit at night. That kind of weather.

January also saw the return of my monthly newsletter. If you received it, what'd you think? It wasn't anything special, but I think it was a good way to re-introduce myself to my readers. If you haven't read it yet, you can head over to the archive on my website and read it. Do note, any freebies or coupon codes in archived newsletters have expired, so there's no point in clicking on them or trying to use them.

February's newsletter will be a lot more entertaining. As the title of this blog post implies, I'm going to be going all in on my newsletter because social media is a nightmare, and I'm leaning more towards it being my primary mode of interacting with readers and supporters of my work. I think it'll create some interesting interactions. So, to roll out this interactive newsletter I'm going to be accepting questions from people, and will be publishing my favorite questions in my March newsletter. If you have a question, you can send it to me via email or you can use the contact page on my website. I plan to publish all selected questions without names, but if you really want me to shout you out for the question just let me know.

Another thing, and you'll want to click on this link the moment you read this, but I'll be distributing a teaser of my next book Outside The Game in February's newsletter. If you don't want to miss out on this opportunity, go head and click that link I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph so you don't miss out. I'm almost done with the second pass through of the manuscript, so I feel really good about releasing this teaser.

The next newsletter is going to be released on February 15th just an FYI for those interested in getting that sneak peek of Outside The Game.

So, I've been reading Reappearance of Summer because I found myself wanting to revist it. And, to be quiet frank, while the story is good, there are some issues with it. I mean love the book, the characters, and the world I created within it, but one thing that annoys the piss out of me, are all the minor errors that I'm coming across while reading it. A lot of it is my fault because I didn't have a good grasp of stylistic choices vs. grammar rules, and clearly I have learned since then. I've actually taken time to study The Chicago Manual of Style on top of re-learning grammar rules, and so during my re-read of Reappearance of Summer, I've come to realize a lot of my mistakes could have been prevented by having a copy editor. This is probably true for most of my books, and I do plan to hire one for Outside The Game, but I'm going to need help getting one. 

I've set up a goal on my Ko-Fi page. It's a lofty one of 250 USD, but I'm curious to see how it goes. It'll probably be up for a while. If I don't make goal, I'll keep it up but change it to where I get a copy editor for one of my older books. Yep, that's right, I'm finally going to go through my backlist and re-do the editing on them, update the formatting, and possibly get new covers for them. I haven't decided on the cover thing yet. I want to commission someone to make art for them, but I also just want to refresh it on a basic level. Plus, I'm super finicky about my art. We'll see which way I land on that one.

Anywho, this blog post got away from me. Remember newsletter subscribers will be getting a sneak peek into Outside The Game, I've got a goal on my Ko-Fi page, and if you want to have a question featured in next month's newsletter, you can email me or do it on my contact page.

Don't forget to leave reviews of the books you read, especially the ones by indie publishers and self-published authors.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

That title is as far as I got in my Spanish Duolingo education, who I learned just laid off contractors to implement AI technology to do the work they were doing. While it's supposedly being framed as "no big deal" in this article, it's still something that goes against my morals. If the layoffs and AI integration meant an increase in wages for full-time and part-time employees without lowering the quality of the their software then I'd approve, but if neither of those are the case (which I'm certain it is), then I'll shame. Either way, I've cut ties with Duolingo because I don't like the taste this leaves in my mouth.

That was not how I was supposed to open this post, but clearly I'm in my no-filter year--I did have a birthday in December--so I'm gonna go for it. On to business!

Welp, I've just completed the final read through for my first newsletter of the year, which is also a dive back into sending it out. This January newsletter will be a re-introduction of myself, my work, and expanding on some things I've been kicking around the last few months. I'm already coming up with ideas for February's newsletter. I've come to realize that there is no reason why I can't make it a truly engaging newsletter, so I'm going to present a new idea in February and hopefully people will respond to it. I've got some other ideas bouncing around in the wide empty space known as my brain, but I need to really dwell on them before deciding.

Anywho, January's newsletter will hit inboxes on 01/15, and will be active on the archive on 01/24. If you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, you can sign up here.

As to what I've been working on, I started plotting another story. I had an idea, it dug it's talons deep into my brain, and now I have like a 6-page, single spaced outline in OneNote that's getting longer. It's a vampire story, and I'm hoping it won't span more than two books because I don't have the bandwidth for another series. I seriously need to learn how to write standalone books or something because jeepers.

I've also started the outline for the third book in the IFL series, which is weird because the second one hasn't even gotten off the ground quite yet. I mean, yeah, I've written six chapters of it, but I just got to the first major turning point in the story and there are like 6-7 more chapters to go before I can think about calling it done. Maybe there might be a few more chapters. We'll see what happens.

This brings me to the first IFL book, which hasn't even been released yet lol! With the long weekend, either ahead or behind me depending on when you're reading this, I'm dedicating all my time to it. I'll be committing the edits I made during my first pass through on top of adding some things to put it in alignment with the second IFL book. Once those are done, I'm off to find an editor. While I love my usual editor, I'm looking for someone who is well-versed in North American football stuff to catch things that might not be believable. A lot of web searching and liberties were taken with the football aspects of this book. A...lot! 

Oh! Before I forget, if you want to know more about the first book in the IFL series, I give a full synopsis and cover reveal in my January newsletter, so you should sign up for it.

All right, I think that is going to be it for this post. Remember newsletter is out on the 15th, or is already out depending on when you're reading this. Sign-up here to get it directly in your inbox, and if this you're reading this post after the 15th, the January newsletter will be live in the archive on January 24th. Full disclosure, any coupon codes or freebies mentioned in the newsletter will not be vaild if you're accessing them through the archive. So, I'd sign up if you want to get those goodies.

As always, do review and rate the books you read, especially those put out by independent authors and self-published ones.

Until next time....

-DJ Small