Have I bitten off more than I can chew?

The first of January I signed up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. It sounded easy enough. Post to your blog every day for the month of January. When I first started blogging in 2010, I wrote almost every single day for something like six months. I know, I really didn’t have a life then. But anyway, how hard can it be to keep up this pace for 31 days? In addition, a new round of ROW80 started last week. Again, how hard can that be? I set my own goals; it’s not like I am forced to write one thousand words a day. I write what I can. I think what is slowing me down is keeping track of all of this. But that seems to be where I am addicted – I need to see the numbers. Thus, I continue to plug away.

Here are those numbers for this week:

ROW80

Daily goals –

I wrote for an hour a day on four days this week, I commented on other blogs five times this week, and I worked on marketing five times this week, for a total of 14 points.

Weekly goals –

I posted to one of my blogs seven times this week and I added to my social networks three times this week, for a total of ten points.

Monthly goals-

I didn’t do any research on my novel this week, but I did submit, not one, but two pieces for a total of 10 points.

Thus, out of 41 total points, I award myself with 34 points. Not bad for my first full week of this new and tweaked schedule

Ultimate Blog Challenge

            Yes, I did write a blog post every day this week. I also posted each of them on Twitter and the UBC facebook page. Umm, am I supposed to be doing anything else with that? I don’t remember.

My Book

            Ok, so I had a few setbacks this week regarding sales of my book, but the big one has been straightened out and we are moving forward.

            My publisher had reported a few weeks ago that the book was then available on Amazon.com. On their website however, the book kept coming up saying that it was temporarily out of stock. Being the eternal optimist (ok, I’m not always optimistic, but I do try), I thought that the book was doing so well that Amazon kept selling out. But what if that really wasn’t the case?

I emailed my publisher to find out. He got right back to me to say, that no, this wasn’t a good thing, there had been some software glitch and nobody, including Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Ingram (the main book distributor for book stores), had gotten my book. They were working on it, but my publisher (who truly is an eternal optimist) sounded pretty bummed out about this.

By Friday, he said that the glitch was fixed and that within a week or two my book would be at all of these places and available for delivery to the masses. I convinced myself that I had apparently been promoting only my e-book all this time and it was doing quite well. In another week or two, the actual paper version of the book will be available and I will promote that. I tell myself that nothing has been lost here. We just need to continue moving forward.

And moving forward I am. I am still working on getting that interview with our local paper and just this morning I received an e-mail from a friend who has connections at the paper. I also have my first official speaking gig. It will be on February 28 at Prince of Peace Church in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. And let us not forget that my first book signing is coming up this Saturday at Tomahawk Treasures downtown Tomahawk. Perhaps my immediate goal should be advertising that date. Ok, I am all over that.

Have a great week and may you achieve all of your goals!