The image above is an example of how plans can go horribly wrong even when they go right. All 74 tomato seeds I planted sprouted. That. Never. Happens. You plant more seeds than you want because some seeds don’t sprout, it’s just life. So, even after giving away plants to my friends and family, keeping 18 for my own raised garden bed, and the inevitable 3 that didn’t make my rough handling as I pulled them out to pot them… I still had 27 left. Thank goodness for a neighborhood email network.

My point is, I made plans for this blog and I messed up, it’s not a new experience for me and it will probably happen again. My first mess up came by not having an extra post ready to go. So, I apologize for not getting my blog post out on time this past week. It was a combination of real life getting in the way and migraines (what else is new, right?). In a way it’s good because it gave me time to rethink my plan for posting and I’m making a few changes to the schedule.

First, I’ve come to realize I don’t have enough experience to talk about bank accounts and ISBNs like I had planned, so I’m taking them completely off my schedule for now. Once I get further along in my publishing journey I will probably post about them, I’m just not ready to yet.

Second, I will still post about trade names, but it will be in the form of relaying my one experience of getting my own trade name and what I learned in that process, instead of a comprehensive review of your options, like I originally planned. It will also happen further down the schedule.

Last, this coming week’s post will be about hiring professionals, since that’s really the next thing you should look at after beta readers.

Since I’m in the middle of a major rewrite of Dust on the Altar, it will be a while before I get more experience on the publishing side of being an author. Because of this you’ll see a general change of my posts leaning more toward writing tips for a while.

Now for the big news.

In a previous post I talked about an author’s social media platform and the important role it serves. Currently, I use Twitter the most (daily), followed by this blog on a weekly basis, and my poor neglected Facebook account which gets random attention from me. Rather than boost my Facebook account, like I should, I’ve decided to add a new site to my list. It’s one I’ve been wanting to do for a while (since I spend so much time on it) but haven’t because I’m very shy (and sure I’ll make a complete fool of myself). Yesterday, while talking to my hubby about possible ways of getting word out about my book, he mentioned it, and that kind of decided it for me.

*big nervous breath

I’m starting a YouTube channel! O.O

Since I don’t have much spending money for high tech equipment, it’s not going to be fancy. I’m panicked nervous excited and looking forward to finding out what my unique voice will be like. I’m guessing it will take a few weeks to get set up and ready. That’s mainly because I want to have at least one or two good videos on standby, so if my migraines come when I’m supposed to be filming I’ll have a video ready to go and won’t lapse like I’ve done with my blog. *fingers crossed.

I know it will be rough in the beginning, but I also know with experience I’ll improve. To keep me going through those rough first videos I need you to give me ideas. Help make the channel yours. What do you want to see? What should I talk about? What issues do you struggle with that a new author may have some insight on? How do you feel about occasional personal vlogs? like how I ended up with 74 tomato seedlings, or how my 30yr class reunion turns out (I’m still debating going).  Let me know in the comments below.

Happy reading/writing.