The Weekly Update:

Sales:

It’s been a little bit of a slow week. I’ve only had 58 free downloads, and $2.26 and sales.

All of my sales this week were on Amazon Germany, so that $2.26 might change with the Euro to USD exchange rate. Still, It marks a pretty big milestone for me. This is the first time the second book in my Seven Keys Saga series, Fallout, has been purchased in Germany.

Writing:

13,897 Words

This week is continuing to experiment with voice dictation. I’ve been using several different recording tools and experimenting with recording in my car on my way to and from work. So far, I’ve used my expensive Bluetooth headset, the microphone recorder on my phone, and my cheap digital recorder with several different microphones. So far, the best field results come from my ultra cheap recorder and even cheaper microphone.

Strangely, the best results don’t come from uploading the mp3 file or using the line-in from the recorder directly into Dragon, but putting the recorder down next to my Blue Snowball microphone and hitting play.

Of course, my desktop microphone is still the best tool for the job, but the other tools are getting better. Using my snowball, Dragon is probably around 90% accurate and getting better every day.

One Tip: Using dictation to transcribe handwritten notes to digital is a blessing. The punctuation is already there, you just have to remember to speak it. It is much, much faster than typing–especially if you’re like me, tiny handwriting and bad eyesight.

Planning for the Future:

This week, I read the Indie Author Survival Guide by Susan Kay Quinn (http://amzn.to/1Mhd2CO). I have to admit, I was putting this one off entirely because of ego. I thought I already knew the information in this book, and for the most part I did. That didn’t mean it wasn’t a good, useful resource for me, or that I was doing any of the suggestions.

Honestly, though, there isn’t a whole lot of information here you can’t find in other places–spread all over the internet. But it is spread all over the internet, often buried in podcasts, blog post comments, and obscure indie author forums. You have to go looking for it. This book puts it all in one place, backed up with anecdotal information about SKQ’s writing career.

Now, SKQ has been on a lot of podcasts lately to promote her second indie author guidebook, For Love or Money, out this week. I’m only about 25% of the way through that one, so I’ll tell you about it in a couple of weeks.

Taking Advice:

Since this podcast is trying to be a resource for other authors, I thought I’d put my money where my mouth is and stop letting my massive ego rule me. So, I’ve taken the action steps put forth by SKQ in Indie Author Survival Guide, building a Mission Statement, a Dream Lifestyle, a 5-Year Plan, and a production calendar.

Matt’s Mission Statement:

I am going to leverage my unique voice, humor, and insights to create entertaining and engaging products that make people reconsider their preconceptions. I’m going to invest time and money on improving my voice and ability to create compelling written and audio content. I will then use those creative endeavors to provide a path to economic self-reliance.

So what is that mean?

“Leveraging my unique voice, humor, and insights to create entertaining and engaging products” means I’m going to be myself

“To make people reconsider their preconceptions” means actively seeking out stubborn belief and examining the world from the other side. Mostly because that unique voice thing goes back to me being born to be a trol...