Keeping Track of Books Published
Keeping Track of Books Published…
Now most writers don’t have an issue with this. Seems I am not one of the most writers.
I have a horrid issue keeping track of what I have published and always have. Why? Because once I have finished writing a story or novel, it’s done and I am moving on to the next one.
I never look back. And thus this minor problem.
Just yesterday I was dinging along looking for a short story file on my old writing computer and ran across a novel I had written and that was published and that I had forgotten about and hadn’t counted.
So in traditional, I am now at 107 novels published in that old system. Darned if I know if that’s all of them.
Why am I still having trouble now since I am writing most stuff under my own name and trying to get it organized through Smith’s Monthly? Well, behind my writing desk, on the back wall of my writing office, I have two large white boards.
On January 1st, 2015 I realized I was having trouble keeping track of what I had published once again. So I laid out the white board so it had a number, the title, and what month and year a book was published in. Color told me if it was a Smith’s Monthly volume, a stand-alone novel, or a nonfiction book.
49 books published since January 1st, 2015, way over two per month. I am solidly on the second white board and should have it filled by the end of 2016 or so.
None of these are short stories either. Just major book titles. All in paper and electronic, some in audio.
So as I go through this web site, working to update and link books and series, I can’t even remember some of the books, let alone when they came out. Constantly checking back, looking at my board, looking at WMG Publishing web site.
Wow, was I stunned when I realized that my Thunder Mountain series had ten novels in it. Three need to have information on the reading order page.
I’m almost afraid to go back to August 1st 2013 when I actually started writing really hard and working to fill Smith’s Monthly and count, but my gut sense is that it would be another fifty or so. (I did publish about ten short story collections back before August 2013 that have now mostly been pulled down.)
Again, not counting short stories that are out there stand-alone in electronic and paper.
So just counting major books I am around 200 plus in my career. And I got a hunch that I might hit 300 sooner than I expect.
Amazing what just writing regularly can do for a book-published total.
And having fun as well.
So Wednesday I get back at it. Got to fill that next Smith’s Monthly.
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6 Comments
Peggy
Hi, Dean.
Two a month! That’s incredible.
You mentioned in a recent post that you’re working on the website … I would love to see a blog archives link with a date index where we could easily skip back to read earlier posts. I’d also love to see a return of daily word totals, when you ramp up the writing again. (Apologies if you’ve addressed this in recent posts … I’ve been away from the internet for a while.)
dwsmith
Peggy, just added the blog archives widget on the right. Thanks for that suggestion. I’m going to be going back through and deleting older posts that have nothing in them to make the archive easier, but that will take me a week or so.
Peggy
Okay! But as a reader, I want to note that the daily texture of the blog posts has a lot of value, even if the individual posts don’t seem extremely significant. For example, I keep vowing to match your daily word count in fiction … and then I don’t do it. In your blog I read about days where you don’t get fiction written and days where you write a bit or a lot. Over time, your word count stacks up and mine doesn’t. It’s a useful continuing lesson.
J.M. Ney-Grimm
Dean, are you saying these collections are no longer available for purchase on the various retailer sites? Would you be willing to share your reasoning behind taking them down? I’m not currently at a stage where I should be considering taking down any of my work, but your statement makes me wonder when or if a writer should consider that option.
Melissa Bitter
@ J.M. Ney-Grim, I seem to remember quite a while back, that Dean mentioned that he was going to re-bundle them. I think maybe in larger collections. But also in some new consistent manner that he’d decided upon.
dwsmith
Realized I had missed this question. Sorry, J.M.
I think they might be out there in a few places still with the old covers and such, but mostly they are pulled down. Mostly just wanted to do them over again. Nothing major. Just haven’t gotten to it yet. Nothing wrong with the older ones, just going a different direction. The fun of this new world, the ability to change things at times.