Easy as a Teeny-Tiny Sliver of Pie

(Pic stolen from their website)

2012 is a banner year. For one thing, I finally--on December 31, 2011--finished the ten-year diary begun January 1, 2002. If you've never seen these, they're journal-writing for the more constipated soul-searchers among us. Four lines per day--just room enough to record one highlight and a funny quote from the offspring. Even keeping ten years' worth of itty bitty diary entries ranks as an achievement, since I've always been something of a quitter.

Speaking of quitting, I'm getting sick of selling books. Not writing books, mind you, but selling them. Marketing them. It could just be my perceptions, but the flood of books, both self-published and otherwise, inundating our world has swelled to apocalyptic proportions, and my share of the pie has shrunk accordingly. Considering it was never a very large slice to begin with, this is alarming.

I'm still technically meeting my original writing goal of getting my stories out there and not losing money, but this year I've set new, specific objectives:

1. Finish the book I'm writing. I'm on chapter 26, so, barring death and disaster, this looks achievable. But really--I was just reading Horblower During the Crisis by C. S. Forester, having discovered I LOVE Hornblower books, only to find that Forester died before he finished this volume. That's right. DIED. Pulled an Elizabeth Gaskell Wives and Daughters number. He left some piddly notes, but after such an exciting start (the best Hornblower I'd read to date), they were deeply unsatisfying. At least Gaskell made it practically to the end. Suffice to say, if I kick the bucket unexpectedly, my book ends happily and along the lines of Austen's Mansfield Park, only much, much more satisfyingly.
   
2. Make some money editing. Having realized that everyone and his brother wants to write a novel, I am attempting to put my skills and experience to work and branch out into the bookcoaching biz. All referrals deeply appreciated!
   
3. Rid my house of canola oil. No, this goal doesn't have much to do with writing or careers, but I wrote it in the "2012 Goals" section of the new ten-year journal, so there you have it. Trying to go to just olive, peanut and sesame oils! And if I flunk out of Goals #1 and 2, at least I'll have this. Sniff!

I should probably end by saying that I'll definitely keep putting my books out there, but I want to save my audience all kinds of money, so do do do consider an e-reader. I'm thinking my untitled WIP will be available on Kindle, Nook, and I'll just make enough Amazon print-on-demand copies for the launch parties.