I've wasted at least 20 minutes trying to come up with some kind of topic for today's blog, and nothing really struck me, so I'm going with a few random thoughts.
Bookscan. RWA allows its members to subscribe to Bookscan (which lists the top 100 selling romances each week) for a fee. This is the best money I've ever spent. I can't believe how much I learned about sales.
I've learned that there's Nora Roberts, and then there's everyone else. Her sales are at least double the number two selling author every single week. Last week, four of the top five spots were hers.
I've learned that some authors exaggerate how successful they are. What they say and what the numbers show are two very different things. When Ingram is added to the mix, there's almost no place left for them to hide. Makes me glad that I've never felt the need to fib.
My Writing. I finished the chapter I was working on and started the next. Very good production, and now I'm into the area where I know mostly what I want to do so the writing should continue to go fairly quickly. Hurrah!
Horses. Yesterday, NBC showed hours and hours of horse racing. It made me remember that I've loved horses since I watched Mr. Ed in reruns as a child. I don't want to ride a horse, I did it once and once was more than enough, but I would like a horse for a pet, kind of like a BIG dog. hee hee. It isn't going to happen. Too much money, too much work, but it was fun to watch these beautiful animals run while I was writing yesterday.
The Next Book. The hero and heroine from the book I'll be writing after Temple of Dreams made an appearance this morning while I was laying in bed. In a way, this is reassuring since they've been gone for so long, on the other hand, I don't need them interfering with my current progress. When I tried to think about TOD, I used two different names before I hit my current heroine's name. This is not good.
The 2 B Read Blog. The discussion about book titles is interesting. I've always known that I wouldn't be able to keep my titles, so I try not to become attached to them. But it's turned out that I have kept my titles.
Ravyn's Flight was always Ravyn's Flight. My usual method of naming is to take a character's name and stick another word with it, and ta-da, working title. :-) The Power of Two never had a title; I called it Banzai #4, and same thing with Through a Crimson Veil, I called it Crimson City #3. I was calling the WIP (work in progress) RFS for Ravyn's Flight, the Sequel, or as an alternate, joke title, Kendall Thomas and the Temple of Dreams. When it came time to submit the proposal, I went with Temple of Dreams on the suggestion of a friend when I couldn't come up with a better idea. Imagine my surprise when the decision was made to keep it! Of course, until the cover is done, it's not set in stone, so we'll see what happens.
