Author Names, Catch-22, and a Change of Plans

Hello, dear readers! I know I just shared an update with you last week, but I’m dropping in again to let you know there’s been a slight change of plans regarding my publishing and blogging goals. Allow me to explain…

To Book or to Blog? A Catch-22 Problem

While I do want to self-publish my book of dragon stories and relaunch my blog under my new author name, the question I’ve been facing for the past few weeks is which to do first. The original plan was to publish my book under my pen name, then relaunch my blog and start publishing new books under my real name.

However, when my designer finally sent me the book cover samples with my pen name last month, she included another copy of each with my real name, and frankly, I fell so in love with them that I knew I couldn’t publish the book under any other name but my own. In short, soon JC Wolfe will be no more!

This left me with the question of how to proceed with my plans to publish, relaunch, and rebrand. It wouldn’t make sense to publish under my real name only to redirect readers to a blog written under my pen name, but at the same time, the only way I can afford to properly relaunch my blog and rebrand myself is by successfully publishing and selling my book. A real catch-22, right?

Rebranding One Step at a Time

The solution I came up with was to start rebranding myself through social media first. I can set up a landing page for my book through my email marketing service provider and promote it through my social media profiles under my new author name. Once my book is finally published and (God willing) selling, I can focus my efforts on updating my blog!

This is somewhat of a spur-of-the-moment plan, but for now, it feels like the best course of action. I’m still not sure when I’ll start rebranding, but hopefully I can finish getting organized soon! Keep an eye out for more updates soon, including the reveal of my book cover and my true author name!

Guest Posts and Blog Relaunch Street Team Volunteers Still Wanted!

And as always, the door is still open for guest post submissions for my blog relaunch (be sure to read the guidelines before you sign up)! Those who join my blog relaunch street team will also get early updates about my rebranding campaign, so if you’re interested, feel free to sign up for my list below!

Join My Blog Relaunch Street Team!

Thanks for reading! Talk to you again soon! Until then, happy reading/writing!

September Updates on My Books and Blog Relaunch + Guest Posts Still Wanted!

Hello, dear readers! Yep, another month has gone by since my last update on my blog, so here’s a quick update about what’s been going on in the month of September with my writing and my blog relaunch. Progress has still been slow, but this time I have a little more news that I’m excited to share with you!

So to keep you up to date, here are some updates on my writing endeavors in September!

Updates on My Books

My three dragon stories have been self-edited, though I still have yet to properly format them into an ebook, so there’s no news on that front. There is, however, a spot of good news that came up at the end of this month.

I finally got some book cover samples from my designer!

I’m not quite ready to share them yet, but I’m very excited to be one step closer to publishing my book! Readers on my mailing lists, especially those of you who beta read my stories, will definitely get a sneak peek before I share the final cover on my blog, so be sure to sign up at the bottom of this post if you’re interested!

On the side, I’m continuing to edit my 100k-word fantasy novel every day and writing my short story trilogy in my spare time. I also just started outlining a new idea for a fantasy novel that I may try to write for NaNoWriMo! If I do, there’s a chance this will actually be the book that follows my dragon stories, as I’d like to turn it into a series! More news on all these books later! Wish me luck!

Updates on My Blog Relaunch and Rebranding Campaign

I mentioned last month that I’ve mostly been focusing on my books lately, so I haven’t had much time to spare for my blog relaunch plans. Because of that, I still don’t have a lot of news to share. One thing I can say, though, is that I’m now fairly certain my new blog will be hosted on SiteGround!

On top of that, I’ve been brainstorming plenty of blog post ideas for my new website! I have definitely found my niche now, so you can expect a common theme across my content (hint: it will match the theme of my upcoming short story book). I’m more excited than ever for my blog relaunch! Again, fingers crossed that it won’t be too far away!

Reminder: Guest Posts Still Wanted!

And finally, this is another friendly reminder that I’m still accepting guest post submissions to help me promote my blog relaunch! There’s still plenty of space for more posts, so don’t be shy!

If you’re interested in submitting a guest post, be sure to read the guidelines first, then sign up for my list below!

Join My Blog Relaunch Street Team!

You should receive a welcome email plus another email in a few days with instructions on how to pitch me your guest post.

Thanks again to everyone who’s signed up to help me make my book launch and blog relaunch a success! You’re all awesome!

Talk to you again soon! Until then, happy reading/writing!

August Updates on My Books and Blog Relaunch + Guest Posts Still Wanted!

Hello, dear readers! Another month has passed since I last shared an update on my blog, so here comes another quick update about what’s been going on in the month of August with my writing and my blog relaunch. Progress has been slower than expected, but I’m still excited to share what I’ve been working on!

So to keep you up to date, here are some updates on my writing endeavors in August!

Updates on my Books

As I mentioned before, I’ve already finished self-editing my three dragon stories, but I’m still figuring out how to format my book. As much as I love Scrivener for writing and editing manuscripts, compiling those manuscripts into properly formatted ebook files can be a real challenge! Hopefully I’ll figure it out soon!

I’m also still waiting on updates from my book cover designer, so I have nothing new to report there. Don’t worry, though; I will definitely share a sneak peek of the cover when it’s ready!

On the side, I’ve still been editing my 100k-word fantasy novel every day and working on my new short story trilogy in some of my spare time, though most of my writing time this month has been dedicated to finishing the current book of dragon stories. I can’t wait to finally publish it!

Updates on my Blog Relaunch and Rebranding Campaign

Again, because I’ve been focusing on my books this month, I haven’t had much time to spare for my blog relaunch plans. I have been researching hosting and site migration, though, but in all honesty, it seems I grossly underestimated the time it would take me to migrate my site to a new host and prepare my new blog for a relaunch. In short, don’t be surprised if it really does end up being another year away (but fingers crossed that it doesn’t)!

Because it’s been incredibly difficult to manage both my self-publishing experiment and my blog relaunch campaign on top of my full-time freelance editing work, I think it will be best for me to focus on only the former until it’s done. Therefore, I probably won’t have much to share next month regarding blog updates. On the plus side, I have been learning more about how to run an author blog, so expect plenty of awesome new content when my new site is finally ready!

Reminder: Guest Posts Still Wanted!

And finally, this is another friendly reminder that I’m still accepting guest post submissions to help me promote my blog relaunch! There’s still plenty of space for more posts, so don’t be shy!

If you’re interested in submitting a guest post, be sure to read the guidelines first, then sign up for my list below!

Join My Blog Relaunch Street Team!

You should receive a welcome email plus another email in a few days with instructions on how to pitch me your guest post.

Thanks again to everyone who’s signed up to help me make my book launch and blog relaunch a success! You’re all awesome!

Talk to you again soon! Until then, happy reading/writing!

July Updates on My Books and Blog Relaunch + Guest Posts Still Wanted!

Hello, dear readers! Yes, it’s been yet another month since I last shared an update on my blog, so you know the drill by now. Here’s a quick post about what’s been going on in the month of July regarding my writing and my blog relaunch. Again, I’ve been pretty busy this month, so I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on!

So to keep you up to date, here are some updates on my writing endeavors in July!

Updates on my Books

In my last update, I mentioned that I finally finished self-editing my three dragon stories! Since then, I’ve been in touch with a designer to help me design a book cover for my new ebook (who also happens to be the same designer working on my new site theme). In the meantime, I’ve been researching how to properly format and export a Scrivener manuscript for Kindle. There’s a lot of information out there; I really should have started researching this sooner! Hopefully it all turns out well!

I’ve also still been working on my 100k-word fantasy novel every day, but most of my free writing time this month has been dedicated to the new short story trilogy I’d like to publish next. More details on that soon! Very exciting!

Updates on my Blog Relaunch and Rebranding Campaign

Since I’ve been focusing on my books this month, there’s really nothing new to report in this area. I’ve still been researching hosting, but my opinions haven’t changed much since June. At this point, I’m really just trying to avoid finding more choices, otherwise I’ll never settle on a hosting provider and get my new blog up and running!

I’m afraid I still don’t have a relaunch date, but because I’ve been focusing on my stories over the past month, September is looking like a more viable option, as I’ll have more time to organize myself in August. I’ll be sure to send out an email and share an update on my blog when I know more!

Reminder: Guest Posts Still Wanted!

And finally, this is another friendly reminder that I’m still accepting guest post submissions to help me promote my blog relaunch! There’s still plenty of space for more posts, so don’t be shy!

If you’re interested in submitting a guest post, be sure to read the guidelines first, then sign up for my list below!

Join My Blog Relaunch Street Team!

You should receive a welcome email plus another email in a few days with instructions on how to pitch me your guest post.

Thanks again to everyone who’s signed up to help me make my book launch and blog relaunch a success! You’re all awesome!

Talk to you again soon! Until then, happy reading/writing!

June Updates on My Books and Blog Relaunch + Guest Posts Still Wanted!

Hello, dear readers! It’s been another month since I last shared an update on my blog, so here’s a quick post about what’s been going on in the month of June regarding my writing and my blog relaunch. I’ve been quite busy this month, so I’m excited to share what I’ve been working on!

So to keep you all in the loop, here are some updates on my writing endeavors in June!

Updates on my Books

The first good news is that I’ve finally finished self-editing my three dragon stories! They may still need one more round of thorough revisions, but “Defender”, “Beastly Pains”, and “The Silver Queen” are just about ready for publication! The last of the three did indeed take quite a bit of work to finish, but I’m confident I’ve addressed most of the points that beta readers have brought up in their notes. Thanks to everyone who read my stories and sent me their feedback!

I’ve also been working on my 100k-word fantasy novel every day, as well as a fantasy saga told in three short stories that I’d like to publish after this ebook. I haven’t yet decided if it will be a series of separate stories on Kindle or a single ebook, but if I opt for the latter, I may offer the first story as a freebie for my mailing list! Very exciting!

Updates on my Blog Relaunch and Rebranding Campaign

The other good news is that I finally bought the domain name for my new blog! Actually, I bought two domain names: one that’s just [my full name].com and one that’s [my full name + author].com. Although I do worry that the latter might be too long since my last name is already long as it is, I’m still leaning toward that one because the “author” keyword would be great for my links. I’ll be sure to share the new domain once my new blog is up and running!

As for hosting, I haven’t yet settled on a provider in the last month, but SiteGround is still the frontrunner so far. A2 Hosting and InMotion are still on the table as well, but HostGator and Bluehost are almost definitely out due to EIG’s terrible reputation. They may be cheaper options, but I’d rather prioritize quality in the long run! Hopefully I can decide by the time my new site theme is ready!

By the way, if you have any recommendations for hosting, please feel free to share them in the comments! Any and all input is helpful! Thanks!

Again, because I haven’t settled on a new hosting provider or site design yet, I still don’t have a set date for my relaunch. At this point, a relaunch in August or September is more likely since I’ll be focusing on finishing and publishing my dragon stories in July. I’ll be sure to send out an email and share an update on my blog when I have a relaunch date!

Reminder: Guest Posts Still Wanted!

And finally, this is another friendly reminder that I’m still accepting guest post submissions to help me promote my blog relaunch! There’s still plenty of space for more posts, so don’t be shy!

If you’re interested in submitting a guest post, be sure to read the guidelines first, then sign up for my list below!

Join My Blog Relaunch Street Team!

You should receive a welcome email plus another email in a few days with instructions on how to pitch me your guest post.

Thanks again to everyone who’s signed up to help me make my book launch and blog relaunch a success! You’re all awesome!

Talk to you again soon! Until then, happy reading/writing!

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