Publishing A Book While Judging Other Books - Feb. 11th 2025 Newsletter
Happy near-mid-February, everyone!
This February has been incredibly eventful so far, from my debut poetry chapbook being released to judging a lot of other books for the Indie Ink Awards - so let’s get into it!
“Refilling The Well” Is Officially Released!
My debut poetry chapbook, “Refilling The Well,” was officially released YESTERDAY!
Thank you to EVERYONE who preordered a copy before yesterday - and if you just recently ordered your own copy on the release day, thank you to you as well!
If you’d like to get your own copy of my poetry chapbook, click the button below!
What Am I Writing Lately?
I started outlining and drafting another book inspired by Time Stranger Kyoko by Arina Tanemura (more on that manga in a later section of this newsletter)!
But Claris, you just released a book recently! Don’t you want to take a break and celebrate?
I promise I’ve been taking small breaks inbetween writing and editing books. Typically, after finishing a round of drafting and/or editing a book, I take at least the rest of the day off and/or a day or two off the day after finishing. And if I haven’t, either I will burn out or one of my closest friends or family members will tell me to take a break.
I’m not sure how much writing I’ll get done on the above project, given that I also want to go back to some older projects and, well, finish their writing. So it’s likely that I might put this one on a brief hiatus and come back to it later.
I also edited and wrote Draft #2 of my 2nd-person narrative, fairytale-inspired short story collection! I am surprised at how fast edits went, but to be honest: There weren’t a lot of edits that needed to be done. That’s usually a good sign that this project might be done sooner than later. I’m looking forward to seeing how this goes with a later round of edits!
What Have I Done Other Than Writing Lately?
I updated the Author Interview masterlist! It’s been a little while since I did this, so I figured I might as well do so. Said updates were very minimal this time around - I added 1-2 new websites I came across that offered to do author interviews and just added them to the masterlist.
I also am considering expanding the amount of book vendors for my books, at least for their ebook versions. I currently distribute my books through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (ebook & paperback) and Draft2Digital (ebooks - Draft2Digital distributes my books through numerous other vendors). This way, I can sell my books “wide” (through a variety of vendors) rather than selling my books exclusively through one online retailer (Amazon).
However, I’ve also heard of Itch.Io, a popular site to download indie games, becoming an increasingly popular choice for an e-retailer for not just games, but also books.
Also: Yes, I’m aware that Bookshop.org will be selling books published through Draft2Digital and Ingramspark. I would like to have my ebooks available through Bookshop in the future - hopefully sooner than later!
So that leads me to ask you, fellow readers: Would you be interested in obtaining my books from Itch.io? I would still have my books available through all current retailers (including those other than Amazon for those who don’t want to get books via Amazon for various reasons), but Itch.io would be available as an extra vendor.
Please feel free to email me your answers - I’ll look through them when I can. Thanks!
In the past few weeks, I also have:
Promoted “Refilling The Well”’s release! (this was most of what I did to be honest)
Updated my website and socials based on the above.
Reached over 950 followers on Bluesky! Thank you for your support!
What Have I Heard Lately?
I’m back with another audiobook/podcast rec, and this time I’m recommending “The Conversation with Nadine Matheson,” hosted by Nadine Matheson.
Nadine interviews other authors about their writing journeys, the challenges they faced, and the experiences that shaped their work. If you liked “No Write Way” with V.E. Schwab and other similar podcasts, you’ll enjoy reading this one.
Episodes I recommend include:
“Jo Jakeman: Author Realities and Balancing Ambitions”
“Anna Mazzola: The Writer’s Quest - Success, Resilience, and Legal Tales”
What Have I Been Reading Lately?
Last month, I shared that I was selected as one of the judges for the 2024 Indie Ink Awards! The judging officially started in late January. As judge, I have to read books and then judge them for their nominated categories…so that’s exactly what I’ve been doing lately!
It is really hard to judge them when they are all fantastic to read. Due to competition rules I can’t share any ratings here. However, all the finalists should be very proud of making it to this stage. You’re not making it easy for me to judge your books when all of them are great.
I also recently read Time Stranger Kyoko, a manga series by Arina Tanemura.
It's about a princess who goes on a quest to awaken her sister who's been sleeping for many years. This manga series was meant to be longer than three volumes. However, (based on what I’ve heard) the series was cut short due to a combination of the mangaka’s mental health issues and it being "cancelled" by the magazine that initially serialized the manga due to low reader rankings at the time. This consequently rushed a lot of what happens in the final volume.
I used to have copies of all 3 volumes when I was younger but gave them away years ago...and then I recently bought and reread new copies! The story is wacky, and cast of characters you do get to know are fun to read overall. It’s a shame that a lot of the rest of the cast introduced in the third volume doesn’t get much time to shine. This is due to behind-the-scenes circumstances as I mentioned earlier with the manga’s creation. Despite this, they’re still fun to read too.
Recent reads include:
“What Manner Of Man” by St. John Starling
“Cursed Cocktails” by S.L. Rowland
“Reverence” by Milena Mckay
“Under The Dragon Moon” by Mawce Hanlin
“Bookstories” by Sarah Tollok
“Multitudes” by Margaret Christakos
Thank you for following my writing journey!
I hope you look forward to seeing more of my writing process and work. I also look forward to giving all of you more frequent updates as well, so stay tuned for more!
If you have any questions, feel free to email me at clarislamauthor@gmail.com! I’ll respond within 48 hours (except on weekends and holidays).