Important meetings (bloggers and editors)

On Saturday, I met a group from the Filipino Book Bloggers. I'm no stranger to the internet friend meetup, but this was I think the first time that I showed up anywhere as an author. Apparently there isn't much of a difference, as I jumped into the conversations and gave my two cents on things, just as I would have, and everyone else did the same.

Chachic and Ruby have recaps of the stuff we talked about.

On Monday, I had lunch with Ines, my Summit Books editor. This marked the first time we had actually seen each other in person, despite working together on two novellas (and a third one way back when that no one will ever see). It was great to finally meet her, and we chatted over dimsum like old friends.

At the Book Bloggers meetup the conversation briefly turned to editors and their role in the process. Apart from checking my grammar and fixing my sentences, Ines points out weak spots in the work, and we work together to make it better. This is an important role because sometimes a writer can change her mind about an event or character, and even if the major text about it has been edited, ghost references could still be present in the manuscript and bother people who aren't aware of the history. As the first pair of fresh eyes to usually see anything I write, she has that burden.

On Fairy Tale Fail, my editor friend Louie did the same thing. She said things like "this name is too modern for a guy that age" (which I thought was brilliant) and she too had to find those remnants of plot points dropped and make me clean it up.

For Love Your Frenemies, my editor was Mike, my husband. His comments required the most rewriting, but that might be true of any editor who would read LYF because of the difficult main character. In the end I compromised -- I added a few things he wanted, but not everything. Although he was fine with how it all turned out. :)

All in all a good step, I think, choosing to spend time with book bloggers and my editor. My books are out, and having a good run, because of them. Next time I should bring food as a token of my gratitude.

February Report Card

I should learn to make cuter charts!

This is the report card for my ebook sales over the past year, now taking into account sales from Smashwords, Sony, and Apple. (Yes, I now have a sale from Apple!) I also changed the way I track this so I can compare Fairy Tale Fail and Love Your Frenemies over time. As it turns out, Love Your Frenemies did great in Week 1 -- much better than Fairy Tale Fail's Month 1.

But in FTF's Month 1 I was just figuring this out, so of course LYF has an advantage.

Looking at this makes me want to write more.