Patricia Stoltey

Author

Chipping Away at the To Do List

By:

In case anyone was wondering, I did not win either Lotto or Powerball with those tickets I bought on Saturday. Sorry, Galen, but I only matched one number on each ticket. I was pretty sure my good feelings weren’t related to unexpected windfalls. My record with lottery tickets has not been good since the early 90s when my department (at a company in Florida) won $20,000 which gave us about $700 apiece. That was nice, but I’ve never won more than $3.00 per ticket since then.

However, there were other snippets (and chunks) of good news to validate my feeling that good things would be happening.

First of all, I received the signed contract from Harlequin Worldwide Mystery for my second mystery to be published by their Mystery Book Club in mass market paperback.

Secondly, I was accepted as a vendor author for the well-attended Holiday Market held at our Senior Center the two days after Thanksgiving.

In addition, my volunteer assignments were confirmed for the Colorado Gold conference in Denver, and I get to do all the stuff I wanted to do (which, by the way, includes introducing and watching over the agent panel and the editor panel).

Now, with any luck, the 500 bookmarks and 500 postcards I ordered from printingforless.com will arrive in time for the conference (yes, I did procrastinate a bit too long) I must say, the online .pdf proofs of both look stunning. When I get the real thing, I’ll scan the rascals and post a copy on this blog so you can see what I did and how well my vendor handled my order. Two of the things I really like about printingforless.com are: (1) They are service-oriented and they call me on the phone from Montana, and (2) I can design my projects in Microsoft Publisher and upload it in that format.

I also designed a large mug at zazzle.com and ordered six for starters. Honestly, these folks couldn’t make the process much easier.

That knocks my To Do List down to something a little more manageable, at least until the postcards arrive and I prepare my mailings. Here’s an excellent article on marketing by Linda Faulkner at examiner.com (that just happens to feature my book cover) — Shameless self-promotion: 9 ways to do it with postcards.

So what’s on the lineup for today? Adding some more pages to my current project, ordering a box of books to use as inventory, catching up on a few more chores, and, best of all, getting my monthly massage. I hope you have a great day, too.

More from my site

Comments

  3. Thanks on all the congrats. It will be fun seeing the books in paperback form.

    Still have a lot to do to set up the rest of my Sept-Nov promo activities, but I’m learning to pace myself better so I still have time to write. See…old broads can learn new tricks.

  7. Congrats on the contract and well done with the to-do list. Everything seems to be going your way so perhaps you won’t need the lottery!

    Elspeth

    P.S. I’m the same way with lottery tickets. I tell people that I lack the ‘gambling gene’.

  9. Postcards and bookmarks are the next thing on my to do list. Unfortunately, I don’t have Publisher software, so I’m off to Kinko’s with my photograph and hope they can create something.
    Congratulations, Patricia. You go girl!
    Karen

  10. Elizabeth — with the first book I didn’t even do postcards — I made a flyer, added a copy of one of my reviews and did a mailing to selected bookstores and libraries. I decided the postcards would be more versatile and cheaper overall when you add the cost of paper, envelopes, and postage.

    Rayna — that’s exactly why I stopped playing more than once in a blue moon. I guess I just don’t have the right vibes…

  11. Aren’t you on a roll!!!
    I would much rather have a day like this than win a lottery (specially since I am not likely to win too much more than $3 on a lottery in any case).