Saturday, July 1, 2023

Starting NaNoWriMo today

Today, July 1, I started NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), which holds a July "camp" for interested participants.

The registration feature appears to be malfunctioning, so my participation is informal. But since I got approval on my latest Amish romance synopsis, the push is on to get it written, tally ho!

Meanwhile, last week I completed another project: Taking care of the hundreds of author copies Harlequin so generously sends to its authors. I had boxes and boxes and boxes of books stacked in the barn. So I pulled them all onto the porch and started sorting.

I counted out twenty copies of each title...

...and put them in a tote to protect them from mice and moisture. This will go back out to the barn.

During this process, I learned I was (mostly) out of author copies for my first two books, but I had an overabundance of the rest.

There's been a lot of chatter on the Love Inspired author's forum about other writers facing a similar issue: What to do with so many books? Someone suggested donating them to a Christian charity called Prison Book Project. I called and spoke to a representative and explained my interest in sending them the spare books, and she was thrilled. Apparently women's fiction, especially Christian fiction, is in raging demand.

So I boxed up the remaining books and shipped them out.

I see this as a win-win. We get more floor space in the barn, and some women prisoners get books to read.

3 comments:

  1. That was a super thing to do Patrice. I have just finished your latest release on Kindle and really liked how you managed to wrap some of your last few books into this one. Very good job.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This was not just a great idea and wonderful gift, but I'm glad you shared it. It occurred to me the other day a prison might not turn their noses up at Christian materials like my church did, favoring digital instead. ( Why must things like this be either/or when that cavernous, well maintained, OLD church has lots of room and used to actually have a good library? Can't both work?)
    Anyway, I think your post here is great confirmation. I'm getting older and need to go ahead and start paring down. Thanks for sharing with a prison and with us.

    ReplyDelete