Motivation, Where Are You?

I’ve been back from my vacation for two weeks and have yet to post a blog. I’ve thought about it but just couldn’t get to it until now. I figured the best way to post the blog was doing it on why I wasn’t posting the blog. Motivation is the big thing.

When I am working on a writing project, it is hard for me to take a break and write a blog. My current project is a short story that has the characters from my second Mitch Malone Mystery series. It will be coming out in June with a working title of A Case of the Accidental Intersection. One of the characters, Elsie Dobson, I fell in love with. I had to do something else with her character and that started the short story. Mitch Malone is also prominent. I hope to have more information on the short story in a later blog. As you can see from my little detour here, I get very into the work in progress. So back to motivation…

I am the best procrastinator. I work best with hard and fast deadlines. That comes from my days as a newspaper reporter where the deadlines were mandatory and inflexible. With the blog, I haven’t forced myself to set any deadlines. That needs to change but to what, I haven’t decided. I’m thinking at least twice a week. On the Murder Must Advertise loop they have been discussing blogging and I’m learning loads. Blogs must remain fresh and there are many good ones. I’m working in that direction but it is so hard to stay motivated. I’m beginning to hate that word.

For me, the best motivation is to just get started. Quit waiting around and just get to work. Once I start a project, I can usually keep it going. Even if it is horrible at the beginning, and many times it is, within a short time it does get better or there is something of value that starts to take shape or I get a great idea that takes it in a totally different direction. That is what works for me and guess what? I’m posting this blog today. How’s that for motivating me into a posting on motivation? What works for motivating you?

I finally made a USA Today list

Okay now that I have your attention, I didn’t make “THE” USA Today bestseller list but I am like the growing trend of first time authors who have their first book in a trade paperback, according to the newspaper. The article, Trade Paperbacks thrive in tough times by Carol Memmott (follow the link: http://www.usatoday.com/life /books/news/2009-04-20-trade-paperbacks_N.htm) follows one author’s first book. It is from last April but has resulted on some interesting discussion recently on the Murder Must Advertise loop.

Much of the discussion is about what consists of a trade paperback. They are in fact larger than a paperback which I think of as pocket book or could be slid into a back pocket for whenever you had a few minutes. The first in the Mitch Malone Mystery series measures about six by nine inches. A mass market paperback is roughly four by seven inches.

The item that caught my attention was a discussion on whether hard cover books area a dying breed? In big publishing houses, the hard cover edition comes out first and then is followed by a paperback version for the mass market a period of time later. In these tough economic times, the hard cover market has been hit particularly hard because they are the priciest editions costing well over $20. Add to that the increasing number of sales for electronic versions with Kindle, the Sony Reader and the soon to be introduced Apple version. Will the hard cover book melt away like the typewriter?

I wish I had a crystal ball for that one but at this point there are still too many readers who like to hold a book and not a reader. It gives you something to think about. What is your preferred method to get your reading material and do you think the hard cover book is dead? Weigh in.