Sarra Cannon: Part 2

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xoxo321
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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by xoxo321 »

I'm like you, Mandy. I found her via authortube, read the first 6 SDS + a few others, and found her very inspiring. Even though I'd been self-publishing almost as long as she had, I took P&T because she did have so much success. But really, a lot of marketing advice is outdated. I'd love to see her start from scratch with a pen name - that her fans DON'T know - and see if she could truly recreate the *magic* she had with this career. She loves to talk about how authors can be successful with a bookbub and uses it as an example alllllll the time in P&T but she admits that they only accept about 3% of submissions. It's not the best advice to give.

She breaks every "rule" she preaches in her courses. Her own systems don't work for her as well as she'd like to pretend. (Given, it may be a vast difference from where she was when she created her system, so maybe in that sense, it does work.)

I used to find her very inspiring, but now I'm constantly disappointed.

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by mandymax »

xoxo321 wrote:
Tue Jun 04, 2024 8:50 pm
I'm like you, Mandy. I found her via authortube, read the first 6 SDS + a few others, and found her very inspiring. Even though I'd been self-publishing almost as long as she had, I took P&T because she did have so much success. But really, a lot of marketing advice is outdated. I'd love to see her start from scratch with a pen name - that her fans DON'T know - and see if she could truly recreate the *magic* she had with this career. She loves to talk about how authors can be successful with a bookbub and uses it as an example alllllll the time in P&T but she admits that they only accept about 3% of submissions. It's not the best advice to give.

She breaks every "rule" she preaches in her courses. Her own systems don't work for her as well as she'd like to pretend. (Given, it may be a vast difference from where she was when she created her system, so maybe in that sense, it does work.)

I used to find her very inspiring, but now I'm constantly disappointed.
I like the idea of her writing under a different pen name. In so many ways, it does feel like she's back at square one, given how stagnant she's been for years. It would be learning all over again, and I think that would be good for her. She was lucky to get into indie publishing when she did - and into the fantasy market when she did - and I think she's been clinging to the success that came from that luck with the belief that that proves she doesn't need to keep trying. But everything changes and evolves, and she hasn't. She's still trying to do everything the same old way. No wonder she's consistently failing. I think she doesn't want to admit to herself that her heyday is long past.

Nothing says she can't have a new one, but that would involve work and a new mindset, and I don't see her accepting that reality.

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by eustaciavye »

What are the odds that she’s already publishing under a secret pen name in a high-paying genre like romance or erotica? I’ve wondered about that ever since last year, when she said she’d written a romance for some extra cash but never dropped any details.

She’s been fairly open about her dislike of the romance genre but continues to speak at romance-focused conferences. So I’m sure she has plenty of contacts who would be willing to promote her books through their own newsletters or other methods. It would explain her lack of output under the Sarra Cannon/fantasy brand. It would also explain (partially) how she & George are able to cover their monthly expenses, which I assume are astronomical at this point.

Then again, she does seem genuinely burned out on writing so I’m sure this is just me being tinfoil-hatty. I feel like it’s a possibility, maybe not a high probability.

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by WriteByTheMoon »

I can't imagine her writing erotica, not after that kerfuffle with the anthology that she didn't seem to understand beforehand what the genre was, and she rushed to cobble a story together to submit.

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by xoxo321 »

She only released one novel under her romance pen name. I did some sleuthing and found it. It was meant to be a series but only one book ever seemed to happen, and it was like 2015-2016 time frame.

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by WriteByTheMoon »

I think it would be incredibly interesting if she did use a pen name and start publishing new stuff, just as an experiment to prove that her P&T course actually works, but kept it quiet so if it failed, no one would know.
Every now and then I just marvel at how she does not advertise her books AT ALL on her social media. Every ad she creates on her Instagram is all HB90 or P&T related, and tbh they're becoming slightly obnoxious. I know she doesn't do Kindle Unlimited, but I get so many ads for books now and I actually check them out if they're in KU. It's not a bad time to be advertising books on Instagram/TikTok, but she has no experience to speak on that, which is a huge gap in P&T.

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by mandymax »

eustaciavye wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2024 1:30 pm
What are the odds that she’s already publishing under a secret pen name in a high-paying genre like romance or erotica? I’ve wondered about that ever since last year, when she said she’d written a romance for some extra cash but never dropped any details.

She’s been fairly open about her dislike of the romance genre but continues to speak at romance-focused conferences. So I’m sure she has plenty of contacts who would be willing to promote her books through their own newsletters or other methods. It would explain her lack of output under the Sarra Cannon/fantasy brand. It would also explain (partially) how she & George are able to cover their monthly expenses, which I assume are astronomical at this point.

Then again, she does seem genuinely burned out on writing so I’m sure this is just me being tinfoil-hatty. I feel like it’s a possibility, maybe not a high probability.
You know, I kind of had this thought after I submitted my last post. It would certainly explain why she hasn't been visibly productive anywhere else for years, and would also certainly explain how they can pay their bills. And I HAVE always wondered why she's always speaking at romance writers' conferences, when she only writes fantasy and witch stuff!

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by eustaciavye »

xoxo321 wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2024 5:20 pm
She only released one novel under her romance pen name. I did some sleuthing and found it. It was meant to be a series but only one book ever seemed to happen, and it was like 2015-2016 time frame.
I swear I remember it being discussed on here (of course now I can’t find it on search) either last year, or the year before even, that she had written another one for cash. I’m going to keep looking. Interesting that she’s for sure done it once in the past…

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by eustaciavye »

eustaciavye wrote:
Thu Jun 06, 2024 10:34 am
xoxo321 wrote:
Wed Jun 05, 2024 5:20 pm
She only released one novel under her romance pen name. I did some sleuthing and found it. It was meant to be a series but only one book ever seemed to happen, and it was like 2015-2016 time frame.
I swear I remember it being discussed on here (of course now I can’t find it on search) either last year, or the year before even, that she had written another one for cash. I’m going to keep looking. Interesting that she’s for sure done it once in the past…
Quoting myself to say that I finally found the post I was thinking of, and you were right on the money @xoxo321. :D

Attaching a screenshot here since I couldn’t quote from Part 1. I misremembered and thought Sarra had said extra $ “this” year instead of “each” year, lol.
135C631D-EA33-4204-BA91-8913D31FD3F2.jpeg
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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by WriteByTheMoon »

I'm listening to her Summer Writing Plans video, and I'm still holding on to my bet that DOVS will not come out til October, if not later.
Also, I understand that breaking things down like this does work for a lot of people, but it just seems like procrasti-planning to me, tbh. This video also comes with yet another workbook...

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by xoxo321 »

I saw that video earlier and rolled my eyes at her "realistic planning" for summer. She never writes on vacation. She needs to accept that and plan accordingly. I think you're right. It'll be during her Spooktacular bc "it's so fitting." That book won't be finished this summer.

Also, her saying she was hoping to finish it, write the first episode of her serial, and work on book 12? It'll be 2026 or 2027 before book 12 is ready. That book is going to need waaaaay more time if she thinks it'll be 150k words!

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by mandymax »

WriteByTheMoon wrote:
Fri Jun 07, 2024 9:28 am
I understand that breaking things down like this does work for a lot of people, but it just seems like procrasti-planning to me, tbh. This video also comes with yet another workbook...
Of course it's procrasti-planning. That's all she does.

If you total up all the time it took her to create the whole writing plan, create the whole writing-plan workbook, plan the writing-plan video, film the video, edit it, and upload it to show the world how much writing she's planning on getting done . . . I wonder HOW MUCH ACTUAL LEGITIMATE WRITING SHE WOULD HAVE ACCOMPLISHED IN THAT SAME TIME FRAME?!?!?!?!?!?!

All she's done with this is further prove, yet again, that she's just a content creator, NOT a writer.

For the love of God, I thought TDOVS was "almost through edits"? Can't she just knock those out and put the book out, if only to give herself a leg to stand on with her defunct "I'm an author!" career?

The more I think about it, the more I really do believe that her success was simply a matter of being in the right place at the right time when indie publishing was taking off. I honestly don't think she would have made it if she hadn't happened to catch lightning in a bottle. She clearly doesn't know how to dig in and do the work when it isn't fun. She's even talked plenty of time about how, when she decided to become a writer, THAT was when she began studying and learning how to write books in the first place. Her writing career was a fluke, and it's run its course, and now she's floundering. If she can JUST COME UP WITH THE PERFECT PLAN . . .

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by TheOpenLibrary »

I watched Sarra’s Summer Writing Plans video. She seems pretty confident that she will release Venessa Shaw and start her Ream subscription this month. I hope she is able to do it so she can get start writing the final books of her ongoing series. Though, it sounds like she is also planning a lot family activities and trips which is fine but with her, it usually means that writing is her last priority.

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by WriteByTheMoon »

TheOpenLibrary wrote:
Tue Jun 11, 2024 4:19 am
I watched Sarra’s Summer Writing Plans video. She seems pretty confident that she will release Venessa Shaw and start her Ream subscription this month. I hope she is able to do it so she can get start writing the final books of her ongoing series. Though, it sounds like she is also planning a lot family activities and trips which is fine but with her, it usually means that writing is her last priority.
I try to always give her the benefit of a doubt, but chick has been pretty confident that it will release "this month" all year, and it's June already. lol

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by pensandthreads »

WriteByTheMoon wrote:
Tue Jun 11, 2024 6:04 am
I try to always give her the benefit of a doubt, but chick has been pretty confident that it will release "this month" all year, and it's June already. lol
More like 2 years now. Her goal the last two major nanos was to finish and get it out within a month. Even if Vanessa Shaw does come out no way in hell will she be ready for a subscription service. Those things take having a backlog and being dedicated. I imagine only her most die hard followers will sub but she certainly won’t be growing unless she releases often and consistently.

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by WriteByTheMoon »

pensandthreads wrote:
Tue Jun 11, 2024 8:44 am

More like 2 years now. Her goal the last two major nanos was to finish and get it out within a month. Even if Vanessa Shaw does come out no way in hell will she be ready for a subscription service. Those things take having a backlog and being dedicated. I imagine only her most die hard followers will sub but she certainly won’t be growing unless she releases often and consistently.
That's probably be when she'll launch a Heart Breathing subscription to try to monetize the content she does post on her YouTube channel. If she ever tries to put the notebook challenge behind a paywall, I think that's when I'll be done for good.

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by mandymax »

It's sad that she's failed to keep her word so many times that I honestly don't believe her when she claims she's been working on Book 12 all along and that there's already 40,000 words written. Especially when she follows that claim with "that's why I haven't published anything - I've been working on multiple projects!" it sounds way too much like a defensive CYA excuse for having been called out so much recently.

And I agree with those who predict that TDOVS won't be out till the end of this year. I'll even go so far as to say 2025 sometime.

It sucks. I don't like feeling so antagonistic toward her anymore - I was a fan. How could she have pivoted so much so fast in terms of who she even is?

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by xoxo321 »

That 40k on book 12 was written years ago, while they were in Air BNBs. So 2021? Is that the right year? She was being harassed by that screenwriter/author who was trying to accuse her of copyright infringement. She stopped working on book 12 bc of the stress (Which I get) but she's said multiple times in the past that those words are going to have to be rewritten. Then she moved on to TDOVS and here we are. So I think she just says that to give people hope and not give up on her. I think that 40k will all be scrapped.

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by Bolt-Printing »

xoxo321 wrote:
Thu Jun 13, 2024 8:47 am
She was being harassed by that screenwriter/author who was trying to accuse her of copyright infringement.
Geez, I never really think about those crazy downsides to writing. And I'm guessing in this case not once did lawyers get involved (although it's ridiculously expensive when they do).

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Re: Sarra Cannon: Part 2

Post by WriteByTheMoon »

I think the copyright claim was for some of her guru nonsense, not even related to her writing specifically. But lawyers did get involved, and I think the accusing author didn't really even have a leg to stand on, so it never went anywhere beyond just the harassment and stress.

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