{Lygia's Journey} Building A Successful Author Brand

[Lygia]

Hi there! I’m officially starting my journey’s thread so I can update it monthly with what I’m doing at the moment.

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ve written this post detailing my goals and this one talking a bit about my personal and professional background.

Today’s post is rather short; I’m just sharing what I’ve been up to these past weeks.

The good news is that I’m still ahead of my schedule: I finished an 80k+ word story in February, and I’m currently finishing another one. The first few months of 2023 will be dedicated to basically writing a lot of stuff, so I can have some sort of backlist ready to be edited and revised by the end of the year.

Also, the other story I’m posting online has managed to gather more readers and consequently more views. I intend to later monetize it, and I’m still translating this one to English.

With regard to my small store, there’s going to be a big event related to its market in the middle of the year, so we’re in the process of building new products to be sold exclusively there.

Oh, and I’m still happily following the routine I talked about here. Reminding myself daily of my goals is helping me keep on track.

See you next month and thank you for reading!

 

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[BizyDad]

I read everything you linked to. I'll simply comment here.

I'm glad you're on the forum. I'm happy there is a new author that will be contributing here. We've had other authors, but they all seem to have gone silent lately. They're probably all having adventures and preparing their next works of art.

To repeat what you already know, you have a gift with words. I enjoyed reading your stories. You gave me an idea to photojournal my process. Thank you for that.

I don't know that I can offer you any help at this moment, but I'm commenting on this thread so that I could at least continue to cheer you on.

 

[Lygia]

I read everything you linked to. I'll simply comment here.

I'm glad you're on the forum. I'm happy there is a new author that will be contributing here. We've had other authors, but they all seem to have gone silent lately. They're probably all having adventures and preparing their next works of art.

To repeat what you already know, you have a gift with words. I enjoyed reading your stories. You gave me an idea to photojournal my process. Thank you for that.

I don't know that I can offer you any help at this moment, but I'm commenting on this thread so that I could at least continue to cheer you on.

Thank you so much for taking your time to read my posts! I truly appreciate your kind words and encouragement to keep going. They are helpful on their own! Thank you again!

 

[Lygia]

Hi there!

The great news is that I’ve already achieved one of my main goals for this year—I finished writing four stories!

This means I can begin the next part of my plan: deal with the nonfiction, technical stuff. These next months will be dedicated to producing a year’s worth of content for my newsletter and social media accounts and learning more about developmental editing and other revising techniques. It feels refreshing to give the creative side of my brain some rest after tapping into it for four months straight. Ironically, though, the more I allow myself not to think about my stories or characters, the more details and ideas for new scenes seep into my mind. Oh well. Guess I can’t shut it down completely after all.

I’ve had great moments and not-so-good ones these past weeks. Sometimes I think my biggest obstacle in all of this is my own mind.

I’ve had glimpses of joy. A night when I kept writing for almost five hours straight and went to bed past midnight because the words came so, so easily to me and the scenes were so vivid in my mind and everything was pure bliss for a moment. A day when a new reader discovered one of my stories, read all 40+ chapters in a day, and later sent me a message saying how much she loved it.

I’ve had glimpses of fear. A night filled with self-doubt and anxiety. Questions looming over my head. Questions I don’t have the answer for. What if all of this is a colossal waste of time, what if this is a bout of insanity, what if I’m being foolish and delusional, what if I’ll never get to where I want to be, what if what if what if.

Thought I could share this to show that, naturally, there will be good and bad days. And maybe… some bad days only exist because your mind created them in the first place.

I always remember what my mother used to say before I had to give a presentation for my entire class in high school: It’s okay to be nervous. It’s okay to be afraid. You just can’t let it paralyze you. So I let the fear wash over me, come at me like waves. Let it come. Let it go. Then I go back to work.



Until next month. As always, thank you for reading!

 

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[Lygia]

Hi there!

This month I managed to write the posts for my newsletter as I planned to last month. I also ended up writing one more story! 2023 has been a great year so far.

I’m still focusing my attention on learning more about how to edit novels and writing that story I’m posting online, which keeps gathering new readers.

Thank you for reading. Until next month!

Lygia

 

[Lygia]

Hi there!

Quick bullet points for this month:

- Still learning more about developmental editing and copyediting. My plan is to build my own personal guide to fiction editing that I can refer to whenever I need it.

- Started writing a new story (oopsie?), but I’m not setting a deadline for this one, as I’ve already surpassed my writing goals for this year.

- Wrote more posts for my newsletter, which now has enough content for a little more than a year.

- Got a beta reader for all the stories I’ve written this year. Her questions have been helping me notice plot holes and character inconsistencies, all of which I’m taking note to fix in later months.

- Planned my whole publishing schedule for 2024, which hopefully will allow me to release a book a month while still having enough time for marketing, editing, and writing new stories.


There’s always much, much more that I want to talk about publishing, but that will be something I’ll refrain from doing until I have some actual experience with the whole process, otherwise, I would feel like the blind one attempting to teach others how to see.

Thank you for reading. Until next month!

 

[BizyDad]

Got a beta reader for all the stories I’ve written this year. Her questions have been helping me notice plot holes and character inconsistencies, all of which I’m taking note to fix in later months.

Is this someone you already knew, someone you met, or did you seek this person out? I've always wondered how this works...

 

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[Lygia]

Is this someone you already knew, someone you met, or did you seek this person out? I've always wondered how this works...

In my case, it’s someone I already knew! She had asked me to read the stories, so I didn’t really have to do anything to get a beta reader. But usually people find beta readers on Facebook groups or writing forums, it’s not difficult to get one–I would say the actual difficulty relies on getting consistent beta readers that will read the whole thing, especially since it’s, most of the time, a free service. I’m lucky enough that my beta is invested in my story and is discussing each chapter and scene with me!

 

[Lygia]

Hi there!

So, again with the quick bullet points:

– The editing personal guide is growing some bones, so I think soon enough I might be able to start the editing process on the stories I’ve written with more knowledge on what and how to fix them

– Testing some stuff on Pinterest for my content strategy, seems like an interesting tool for exposure so far

– On my way to finish discussing my story with my beta reader

– Outlining some plots for the next stories I want to write

(Also randomly got a subscriber to my empty newsletter and they’re an actual person?? Anyway…)

I wonder if I should only start updating this thread when I have bigger news or something—if someone happens to be reading this (Hi!! Wishing you a great day!), be aware that the next months will be rather repetitive: editing the stories, translating, releasing, outlining, writing new stories… I don’t know. ‍

As always, thank you for reading.

 

[BizyDad]

I wonder if I should only start updating this thread when I have bigger news or something—if someone happens to be reading this (Hi!! Wishing you a great day!), be aware that the next months will be rather repetitive: editing the stories, translating, releasing, outlining, writing new stories… I don’t know. ‍

Your choice, of course. Consistent updates are appreciated.

Even if it is repetitive, it gives an insight into what this kind of strategy actually looks like.

Even if it doesn't seem like many people are reading it now, you never know how many people might read your progress thread in the future.

 

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[Awakened2022]

Hi there!

So, again with the quick bullet points:

– The editing personal guide is growing some bones, so I think soon enough I might be able to start the editing process on the stories I’ve written with more knowledge on what and how to fix them

– Testing some stuff on Pinterest for my content strategy, seems like an interesting tool for exposure so far

– On my way to finish discussing my story with my beta reader

– Outlining some plots for the next stories I want to write

(Also randomly got a subscriber to my empty newsletter and they’re an actual person?? Anyway…)

I wonder if I should only start updating this thread when I have bigger news or something—if someone happens to be reading this (Hi!! Wishing you a great day!), be aware that the next months will be rather repetitive: editing the stories, translating, releasing, outlining, writing new stories… I don’t know. ‍

As always, thank you for reading.

Good to know you are making progress. I am one of the people who are keenly following your progress.

Seventeen years of correcting students' essays have given me a nose for typos and grammatical errors. If you don't mind, I could beta-read for you for free.

You needn't be afraid of me stealing your work because I know naught about publishing. You can check out my dilemma in the self-promotion thread.

I hope you keep hitting your goals.

We are soon breaking off for the second term holidays and I will be having lots of free time on my hands.

 

[Lygia]

Your choice, of course. Consistent updates are appreciated.

Even if it is repetitive, it gives an insight into what this kind of strategy actually looks like.

Even if it doesn't seem like many people are reading it now, you never know how many people might read your progress thread in the future.

Thank you! Yes, I do agree consistency is the most important aspect here. I'll keep that in mind.

 

[Lygia]

Good to know you are making progress. I am one of the people who are keenly following your progress.

Seventeen years of correcting students' essays have given me a nose for typos and grammatical errors. If you don't mind, I could beta-read for you for free.

You needn't be afraid of me stealing your work because I know naught about publishing. You can check out my dilemma in the self-promotion thread.

I hope you keep hitting your goals.

We are soon breaking off for the second term holidays and I will be having lots of free time on my hands.

Thank you for reading my posts! Oh my God, thank you so so much for your offer! I'll definitely need a beta-reader for the inevitable grammar issues and awkward sentences I'm sure my novel will have. Though it will take some months before I'm able to show the story to anyone-it was originally written in my native language (with some snippets in English because some sentences make more sense that way, go figure), and so I'll need to translate it first. But, if you still have somewhat of a free time on your hands, I do have some short stories that could use another pair of eyes. If not, that's okay either way and I thank you again for your offer and your time.

 

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[Lygia]

Aha! Look who’s back (if you thought I would be that type that promises she will do something here and then disappear forever, you really have no idea how persistent I can be when I want something).

I've been away from here for a while since I had to focus a bit more on my store—there was an event related to our market we would attend in another state, so we got busier taking care of the production of products, marketing, travel costs, etc. But I have great news: that event, although smaller in terms of fewer potential customers and more competition, ended up being the best we've had in all these years! We sold all our products in less than two hours, caught up with some old, loyal customers and met new ones… In short, I had a great time there.

Another small piece of news that isn't thaaat important, but I'd like to share it here anyway: a short story I wrote got selected for a national short story award in my country! Well, another small literary prize for my list

What else… Oh, yes:
- I've been editing one of my stories (chose the one with the most complex plot first. God knows how much work it will take to edit and revise everything to improve the structure of the story, the character arcs, and the literary quality of the sentences, but anyway, let’s not think too much about this!) (I say, very much thinking about this.).
- I've also been posting other texts and stories related to my novels on social media for a few months now, which has earned me a few followers.

Well, with this year coming to an end, I can say that I'm proud of myself for actually following through with my goals for this year. I worked very hard, despite the occasional self-doubts and midnight tears. The days and months blurred with each other, weekends lost any meaning since it didn't matter what day it was—national holiday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday—,there I was, always working. I've focused so much on work that the closest I got to a breathing being this year was my puppy. As expected, my friends got annoyed at my absence, and I had to force myself to take somewhat of a little break last month when my stress had reached rather worrying levels (feeling chest pain at night and wondering if you’re actually having a heart attack in your twenties isn’t fun). I'm feeling waaay better now, don’t worry. All I know is that 2024 will be even better! I’m going to make it happen.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May we achieve all our goals for the coming year!

Once again, and as always, thank you for reading. <3

Happy 2024!

 

[Awakened2022]

Thank you for reading my posts! Oh my God, thank you so so much for your offer! I'll need a beta reader for the inevitable grammar issues and awkward sentences I'm sure my novel will have. Though it will take some months before I'm able to show the story to anyone-it was originally written in my native language (with some snippets in English because some sentences make more sense that way, go figure), and so I'll need to translate it first. But, if you still have somewhat of a free time on your hands, I do have some short stories that could use another pair of eyes. If not, that's okay either way and I thank you again for your offer and your time.

I have more than a month's holiday before schools open in February. Just DM me when you need another pair of eyes and I will do my best.

I am also working on my memoir, and will soon be seeking another pair of informed eyes.

Keep us updated.

 

[Lygia]

I have more than a month's holiday before schools open in February. Just DM me when you need another pair of eyes and I will do my best.

I am also working on my memoir, and will soon be seeking another pair of informed eyes.

Keep us updated.

Thank you again! I'll DM you. Also happy to help in any way I can with your memoir

 

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