2011 Goals

Happy 2011 everyone. I suppose it's safe to say that hours before the second hand ticks down the year. Besides, people are all ready sleeping it off in Sydney, so we're golden.

Goals! Do you set them? Clarie Ashgrove, a fellow TWRP author, has an amazing pace as an author and her goals for the year have been set on her blog. Click HERE to visit Clarie. So I hope she doesn't mind that I'm going to copy her post with a little cross promotion.

I'm a big goal person. I like to set up six month goals and then re-evaluate them and see where I'm at.

So here we go.

2011 - the last of my MacCoinnich Time Travel Trilogy books will be out in January. This was a huge goal for me last year. Now my goals for this series is to see it stay in the top 100 at Amazon for Time Travel Romance. So promotion is going to keep this goal going.

In 2011 I want to make it to the Romantic Times Convention and meet up with other writers like myself. (I'm getting the tickets next week for tax purposes)

*An Agent... if you please. This is a goal, and has been for a while. But I need to pursue this a little harder than I have been. I tend to send out five queries at a time and wait. I think I need to increase that number and give it a better shot.

HQN* Please - Right now HQN is looking at a few books I'm pitching. I would love to get a nod from the big category publisher in 2011.

Writing Goals: Outline! I want to really work on outlining my books before I start typing. I wrote a 58k contemporary back in November with a complete outline. The darn thing was finished in 2 1/2 weeks. That's huge. Yeah, I took a hard look at editing and shined the story until it sparkled over several weeks, but it's awesome. I'm proud because of the process I went through to finish the book. As a pantser, plotting is new to me. I'd like to repeat the plotting with my next set of manuscripts.

I'd like to outline and write another three book trilogy. Yes time travel! I love my highland hotties and my readers do too. So in 2011 I'd like to make this goal a reality.

I have two contemporaries I want to write and two more paranormals. So, I guess that's a goal of five full length books in 2011.

I'll see you in July to let you know where I'm at!

So, dear reader... what are your goals for 2011?

Pen Names...

This is a topic that comes up a lot. I'm always interested in how an author came up with their pen name, and why they decided to use one.

I'll go first:

Catherine, as many of my author friends know, is my real first name. I thought it would be easier to respond to if I recognized it during a chat or in the off chance that someone recognizes me on the street. LOL -

Bybee, is a family name... but I didn't finalize on Bybee until after I made sure there wasn't another Bybee author out there to compete with shelf space. I read somewhere, from an author blog, to make certain that the .com was available for the pen name you've chosen.

So there you have it... how Catherine Bybee came to be!

What's your story?

Fastest 1st draft ever!

Nice way to start out a blog... don't you think? Merry Santa Baby!

Okay writers... tell me, do you ever have a story that has to come out so fast your fingers just can't keep up?

With many of you doing the November NaNo thingy, I'm guessing that you'd love it if the words flowed from your fingertips like water in a stream.

In the course of two and a half weeks, I've managed to finish a 57k story. It's rough, and there are places where I need to go in and tweak and shine before it's completely ready to send out to see if it will fly... but wow. I'm shocked with how fast this one came together and hopeful that I can do it again sometime... soon.

What's your pace? Tell me about your last manuscript and how long it took you to finish it.

Pantser vs. Plotter

Oh, boy... this is a question I've been asked a lot since I started writing. To date, I've always said I'm a pantser - never an outline to be followed. Well, okay, I have an idea of where I'm going with a story, but truly, I've not written a synopsis and then sat down to write a book. I just kinda wing it... go with the flow... let my characters create the story.

But hold the phone, stop the presses... I think I'm one foot over the fence and leaning toward the other side. Why? You ask...

As some of you know, my goals are lofty. Big goals, big houses, big sales etc. etc. So in my quest to do bigger and better with every book or story I write, I set out to come up with an idea, write an outline then a synopsis... send this proposal out to the publishing world, either via agents or publishers... then "gasp" write the book.

And you know what?

Drum roll please...............

It's working. I've managed 20k in 4 measly days and I think it's because I have an outline to follow. As long as each chapter moves my characters forward, and the plot unfolds, this plotter thing has a real chance at working for me.

Me, the constant pantser. The woman who had nothing but an opening scene in my brain for Binding Vows and made three full-length novels out of said opening scene.

Does this mean that all my books will now be outlined before I start to write? I don't rightly know. Maybe, if it keeps me on track and has me cranking out the pages.

Anyway... those are my thoughts this weekend, oh and hey... I'm over at Maries today. She's highlighting Embracing the Wolf so click HERE and link on over and say hi.

Gauging your success as an author

Okay my writer friends... How do you gauge your success as an author?


Two years ago, before my first book was contracted or released, I'd have to say I gauged my success on selling my story to a publisher... Before that all I wanted to do was finish a book and have someone I know read it and like it. LOL

But now I find myself surfing the net, following other published writers, and changing my views on what I now need to use to gauge my success.


As a small press published author, I spend an awful lot of time online, yakking, and tagging, and making comments on blogs and forums. I love talking with other writers and readers and plan to always put aside time to do these things. Yet sometimes, when I'm looking at a blank screen, I realize that I really do need to put more hours behind a WIP in order to make it a submittable manuscript and hopefully the next best seller.


I'm looking forward to the day where I don't have to worry about how I'm going to make next banner, and go crazy about where I'm going to spend promotional dollars to reach new readers. I'm hoping one day to have the money to hire someone to design my website and blog and take the worry out of it for me.


When I sign on the dotted line for an agent, they will know what the publisher is looking for, and I won't have to stress about what to send... a query? a synopsis? a partial? WHAT? Ya, know what I mean?


I suppose if one were to create a Success O' Meter for the romance author, it would have someone like Nora Roberts or Christina Dodd one one end and the unpublished author on the other. I'd be inching the gage toward the middle of said fictitious meter, but still have a long way to go to reach the status of the previously mentioned authors.


For now, I'm quite happy to have the fans I do... The contracts I've signed... and the releases that are out or coming. More than that... I'm happy to have a sea of ideas still swimming in my head that I've yet to put on paper or hard drive.



How do you gauge your success as an author?

Synopsis Writing

Quick, everyone who LOVES to write a synopsis raise your hand.

*chirp

*chirp

Ahh, I see I'm not alone in my desire to toss the process out the door.

My latest WIP is nearly complete but in my effort to become more of a plotter and less of a pantser I made myself write a synopsis before I finished the book. Is it working? Eh, kind of. As the story clicks along the synopsis changes and I tweak it to resemble my finished project, but I do have to say that referring to my original synopsis does help me consider where I want this story to end up. So that isn't a bad thing.

Not to mention that the big guns in publishing often contract work based on synopsis alone. And since I do have a desire to actually make some money with my stories, I have no choice but to learn and master this art.

But I'm not going quietly. My charecter driven stories suprise me on a daily basis. What I think will happen isn't completely what does happen.

So for today, boys and girls... or mainly girls... lol Tell me two things. First, are you a plotter or a pantser? Second, who is your dream agent and why? Third, have you ever written a synopsis before a story and did it work out the way you wanted it to?