L.J. Diva

Sexy, Sassy, Kick-Ass Romances!

An Awesome Anniversary, Book Releases, and The To-Do List for March 2021

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WOOHOO!

What anniversary could I possibly be talking about?

The 10th anniversary of me self-publishing…

WOOHOO!

That’s right. It’s ten years this month since I first signed up to Smashwords, a book website where you can sell your e-books to voracious readers.

The exact date is the 13th, so twelve days from now.

It was ten years last month since I first found out about self-publishing, and now it’s ten years since my first step into something that would take ten years of my life.

A little back story: I wrote my first novel, The Road To Vegas in 2006, the second (at that time called How I Won Lotto, Moved to L.A. & Married A Really Huge TV Star!) and now called Hollywood Dreams, in 2008. In November 2010 I wrote my third novel (then called Life And Death Adventures in London) now called Falling for London, and that’s when I received the call. Yes, THE CALL, the call from a publishing house wanting Lotto. But after much thinking, and crying, and decision making, I decided to say no. So, in 2011, I found a blog post by an American agent I was following about Amanda Hocking who was massive in self-publishing. Via her I found Joe Konrath and the rest is history. I’ve been self-publishing ever since. And in 2017 I set up my own publishing house, Royal Star Publishing, to deal with all of the novels, novellas, non-fictions and stories I write and release.

So, back to now. It’s now ten years this month since I took my publishing career into my own hands, and my ten year anniversary.

They say people find success after 10,000 hours or the equivalent of ten years, don’t they?

Now, onto other things…

 

Let’s get into what I achieved in February from the list of things to get done…

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Let’s Get This Done, 2021!

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Last year was an absolutely fucked up year, and shit has already been happening this year, personally, BUT, to bring this back around to blogging/writing/publishing, I found that posting monthly was a good fit for me, so I’ll continue doing that this year.

I’ll still be talking about what I’ve done in the last month, and what the plans are for the coming month. Post about the release of the Porn Star Brothers books in hardcover (finally), potential new books, and the odd post about other things, such as the anniversary of Jackie Collins’ death, and anything to do with legalities where writing and publishing is concerned. Or I’ll post something just for the hell of it. There are also some anniversaries coming up this year so I’ll be talking about those things as well.

A lot has already happened, as you’ll soon see. Something I decided in late November 2020 was to close down the Porn Star Brothers book series website to make life easier for myself. And as much as I loved it, and thought it was so freakin’ awesome, again, I needed to make life easier for myself and not have an extra website to upload a whole pile of details to. And also, the series has come to an end with And Always, so it’s not like the website would be added to in the coming years.

To get this party started, let’s launch into February 1st’s post containing what I’ve already done so far this year, and what I hope to get done this month and what I have planned for the year.

Green is for done, orange for in the process of, and black is what is yet to be done.

So let’s get into it.

 

Here’s what I have already achieved in the first month of the 2021…

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L.J. Diva’s End of 2020 Catch Up

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Back on the first of Feb I posted this list of shit to get done (you can see that here), and now I’m rounding things up since it’s the last post of the year. So here we go…

 

Here’s what I had ALREADY achieved in January (all in green)

– 1 – I reorganised how I’m going to do things on LJDiva.com.

– 2 – I changed LJDiva.com’s tagline to make it more about my author status and what I write as I move away from blogging.

No longer is it, Author, Blogger, Social Media Commentator, it’s now the awesome line of Kick-Ass Author of Sexy, Sassy, Kick-Ass Romances!

Which, quite frankly, I am!

– 3 – I added a privacy policy page to ljdiva.com.

– 4 – I updated my bio and logo, plus a few pictures and pages on my website, and updated all of my social media as well.

– 5 – I reorganised my social media and updated my Pinterest boards.

 

What was ALREADY in the making this year…

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Shit to Get Done for March 2020!

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Let’s first get into what I achieved in February from the list of shit to get done…

 

– 1 – Get the proofs of the large print and hardcover versions of all my books.

– 2 – Finish off the character lists I started, thanks to doing them for the Porn Star Brothers series I’ve now spread it across all books, and upload them to the ljdiva.com website.

– 3 – Post weekly to social media.

– 4 – Get March’s blog post done.

– 5 – look into getting a mailing list for my books and setting up a newsletter on the website as looking may be all I can do at this point.

 

As you can see, I did three things on the list and didn’t do two. But then, it was only a list of five things.

I also had many other things that I did, such as doctor’s appointments and bloodwork done, read a lot of books that were not my own. Went through my book boxes and found some old books and I’ve posted them below. Wrote some emails and got the proof of Spiros & Jenny in paperback. Sent my books off to the NLA for legal deposit. I shopped online for caboodles and sassabys, op shopped, tried out my new social media schedule so I certainly achieved that.

And if you want to see the others things I’ve been up to, head over to my style blog, Jewel Divas Style.

 

Okay, so let’s launch into what I want to do in the month of March…

[Read more…]

Let’s Get This Shit Done, 2020!

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Last year I decided to go from posting weekly to posting monthly. It’s a matter of clearing brain clutter and making things better and smoother for my work lifestyle. I don’t have an assistant, so have to do everything myself, and felt that cutting back to once a month was better for my health, both mental and physical.

On the first of every month, there will be a post talking about what I’ve done in the last month, and what the plans are for the coming month. There will be posts talking about the new Porn Star Brothers book that will be coming in September this year, so the usual posts to go with that.

I’ll also post about the new formats for my books. I have large print and dust jacket hardcovers coming this year, so I’ll definitely be posting about those. There will also be the odd post about other things, such as the anniversary of Jackie Collins’ death, and anything to do with legalities where writing and publishing is concerned.

To get this party started, let’s launch into February 1st’s post containing what I have planned for the year, what I’ve already done so far this year, and what I hope to get done this month. The usual mid-year catch-up and end of year catch-up will also happen, but that will be the basic structure of each month’s blog posts from now on. What I’ve done and what I’m going to do. And once again, green is for done, orange for in the process of, and red for not fucking getting done (although that won’t happen until the end of the year).

So let’s get into it.

 

Here’s what I want to achieve, and have already achieved, just in the first month of the 2020.

[Read more…]

L.J. Diva’s End of 2019 Catch Up

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At the beginning of the year, as I’ve done for the last couple of years, I’ve detailed my “to do” list for the year. All the books to be written, edited, released etc. You can read the original post for 2019 here.

Green is for ‘done’, orange is for ‘in the process of happening’, and red is for ‘not bloody happening’.

End of year catch up!

A lot has happened this year.

I had this blog migrated over from Blogger.

I finished writing one book, wrote another, and released both in the Porn Star Brother’s series.

Wrote and released stories under T.K. Wrathbone, and realised, that I just cannot continue to write and release at the levels I am as it’s worn me out.

So, here’s my end of year catch up on my 2019 plans…

(1) Under Tiara King I have these planned…

– 1.1 – see whether it will be worthwhile updating my two paperbacks, How To Be A Jewel Diva and Closet Confidential.

– 1.2 – I added style sheets to the interiors in 2018, which will also be given away for free as a download on my style website when people sign up to an email list once I get it done. I will re-release under my own imprint, but it’s a matter of whether I have time, and if I can get the damn newsletter/sign up happening.

– 2.1 – I still want to get my jewellery back into its own website. Selling has been on hold for the last few years due to money, time and energy. I’m still looking for wordpress templates that would suit the type of website look I want, but with everything else going on, this won’t happen for some time.

—– Both of these are on hold still. I did re-upload Closet Confidential and Jewel Divas with updated back matter in e-book format at Amazon, and Closet did get a new cover for the e-book and the paperback cover was done this month, but that was it for the year.

 

(2) Under T.K. Wrathbone I have these planned…

– 1.1 – The paperback version of last year’s stories is done and will be released in March 2019

– 2.1 – Get three stories written up, typed up, edited, and out along with an anthology, and do the e-covers.

– 2.2 – Release all four in October for Halloween.

– 2.3 – Get the paperback version done ready for release next year.

ALL OF THE ABOVE DONE!

– 3 – Overhaul the website and give it a front page.

 

(3) Under L.J. Diva I have these planned…

– 1.1 – Put the next book, DeLuca through several rounds of editing

– 1.2 – Get it to my editor this month, and then edit some more.

– 1.3 – Get the cover finished, and release it as an e-book in March.

– 1.4 – Then comes the paperback interior and cover for release in September.

– 2.1 – Get the next book in the series, Spiros & Jenny, written in March

– 2.2 – Type it up through the year and put it through 3-4 rounds of editing.

– 2.3 – Send it off to my editor at some point in July or August.

– 2.4 – Release it in September as an e-book along with the paperback of DeLuca.

– 2.5 – Then comes the paperback interior and cover for a 2020 release.

DONE, DONE, DONE!

– 3 – Start on the Porn Star Brothers Short Story Collection. At least get them written, and then they can be typed up through the months and edited. I’m hoping to release them as boxed sets through 2020, that way I can write 10-40 pages per story, and not 40 pages per story, so they will get done quicker.

– 4 – I still want to re-release my four standalone novels. The covers are nearly done, and I’ve nearly finished the interiors. All they will need is for the paperbacks to be proofed before release. Hopefully that will be by June, as that is my deadline for getting all four novels out to the public.

DONE!!!!!

 

—– Spiros & Jenny was written in May and June but done and dusted and released. So was the paperback for DeLuca.

—– So far the short story collection hasn’t even been started. As I stated mid-year, I realised while trying to get Spenny written that I’m kinda over this series, and more to the point, having a six month deadline for releases. With the Wrathbone stories, and Porn Star stories vying for attention, something had to give. I’m looking toward ending the series next year with a short story collection based on the Stefan kids and how the rest of them met their partners. More than likely out in September to complete the five years this series will have taken by then. Never say never, maybe one day I’ll finally write the rest of the stories that were intended, but I’m going to require the freedom to get into them without deadlines looming over my head. So maybe in a couple of years.

Come next year though, lots of exciting ideas are to be had, and a very long list of ideas to bring to fruition. Stay tuned.

 

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Requests to publish work from these books should be sent to: authors (at) royalstarpublishing.com.au