Not Giving Up... But Conceding

A couple of weeks ago, I made a decision.  With the economy the way it is, and every dollar stretched to its limits but still barely stretching far enough to meet needs, I applied for a job.  Gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do, right?

What does this mean for my goal of writing and publishing?  What does this mean for you as the reader?  It means I will have to find time after work and on the weekends to still get stories written and out there into the world.  

I'm not quitting.  I refuse to either give up or give in.  I'm merely conceding that writing is not bringing in enough money to keep this ship afloat.  Frankly, it never has, but the amounts I made helped.  In a better economy, the help I got from book sales was enough.  It just isn't anymore.  

This has been coming for a while.  Well, pretty much since 2020, but I was mulish.  

I got lucky.  A job opened up that is about a five minute drive from here.  I applied on the 10th, interviewed on the 17th, and started on the 22nd.  I'll get my first paycheck in July and the weight of cashflow will lift from my weary shoulders.  

And I'm glad to do it.  I've only worked three days, but I already love my job.  It's good to get out there and be productive.  

They've had a devil of a time finding employees who 1) want to work and 2) are stable, drug-free, drama-free, non-criminal, and sane.  That's me in a nutshell.  Tada.  I'm set to work 40 hours a week.  I'd work 50 if they let me.  I've never been afraid of work.  Depression makes me lazy sometimes and I tend to lack gumption at home, but in a work environment, I'm the little engine that could.  

Maybe if I could've put that engine to work with the writing, I would've done better.  But that's neither here nor there.  I busted my ass that first year of publishing and got crickets.  I know writers who bust their asses day in and day out, and still aren't making enough to get by.  So, kicking myself about my writing isn't going to help.  

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying is I'm still here.  I'm still writing.  As I get things done, I'll get things published.  It'll just be a slow road.  To those readers who were hoping for new books soon, I apologize.  I just hope that by the time I get books done, there will still be people interested in them.  If not, I'll still be a writer.  And also an office assistant.  

How has this economy effected you?  

Decisions, Decisions

Night before last, I started the sequel to Song of Storm and Shroud.  Last night, I got the last of my edit notes from the beta readers.  Needless to say, the new words are on hold so I can finish the edits and get this puppy ready to launch.  I also need to do a blurb.  Both of those together shouldn't take me too awfully long, so the question now is: Do I upload it and let it launch immediately?  Or do I upload it and set it for pre-order?  

I've heard pre-order can create buzz and interest in your book.  Not sure how that works versus actually having the book available for people to read.  Personally, I don't do pre-orders because I don't like things coming out of my bank account all willy-nilly.  And I don't like waiting.  If I order the book, I want the book now.  (For ebooks.  Obviously, I am capable of waiting on a print copy to arrive.)

Speaking of print, there will be one.  If I upload and set to order immediately, the print will probably be a bit behind that because I have to wait for a proof copy to be delivered and then approve that before I can set it for sale.  

Of course, if I set the ebook to pre-order, I could have the print stuff done and ready to go live when the ebook goes live.  Decisions decisions.

But, I lack patience.  So, this sucker may just go live when I upload it.  I want all of you to be able to read it as soon as humanly possible.  I'm so excited about this book.  I hope you will be, too.

Updates and Decisions I'm Not Ready to Make

Well, I finally finished the edit notes for Untitled Fantasy.  And I counted them, finally.  30 pages of notes - college rule, single side - for roughly 97000 words.  Or 1 page of notes per approximately 3200 words worth of story.  

As always, some are as simple as noting that a comma needs to be inserted or removed.  But I really try not to hit the simple stuff on the first draft.  Most of it is bigger stuff - rewriting a line, etc.  Some of it is huge, like rewriting an entire scene.  

All in all, though, this is a solid book.  Nothing that makes me want to scrap a whole chapter or anything.  

Okay, so maybe I'm unsure about whether to leave a large chunk of the end to the next book.  I'll either figure it out myself or let my readers tell me what they think.  But that's down the road a ways.  

I'm also playing with the idea of adding to the beginning because right now, it just sort of throws the reader into the thick of things without a whole lot of set-up.  (Not the main thick, but sort of the beginning thick.)

I had hoped to have this phase finished by the end of October, but somehow it reached the friggin' 18th of the month and finishing this phase in the remaining 13 days seems problematic.  We'll see how it goes.

And I need a title.  I had a list of potential titles, but I just looked at it and they all suck.  I'm not sure what in my head thought 'Time of the Twins' would've been a good idea... There's a Dragonlance book with that title already.  Nope nope nope.  Not riffin' off that series and don't even want a hint it's anything like those books.  Derp.  It's bad enough I've already got my name lending the impression I'm nursing at the Brandon Sanderson teats.  

Speaking of which, I might publish this under my maiden name.  B.E. Meissner worked for me when I was a maiden, so why not now?  

And I'm playing with the idea of trying to get this published through Baen or something.  Gah, the idea of querying makes me want to hurl.  But they have resources I don't have, so going with them would get me a better cover than I can afford.  It would definitely get me better exposure.  The question is whether they'd want an old self-pubber like me.  :shrug:

Decisions, decisions.  On the upside, I have a lot of work to do before I have to make a decision of any kind.  Yay for turtle speed.

Deciding About Book Length, Etc.

So, yesterday on The Writing Spectacle, I talk a bit about what I'm currently doing.  I've pulled a forgotten manuscript out of the dank corners of my harddrive, shaken the dust off, and am reading it to get back into the swing of the story.  I'm still not ready to say which one, but I'd like to talk about a couple things regarding it.

I'm still not sure if this is one book or several.  It's already at 78K words and it's only 2/3rds of the way through the story.  Plus, I have ideas that need to be inserted throughout what I've already read through to make the story fuller and richer.  (I had an awesome idea last night as I was trying to sleep that I got up and wrote down.  Woohoo!)  That'll swell the story up to upgodly pages for a single title.  

I'm not super afraid of putting a big book out there.  Lord knows I have a few titles over 100K words out there already.  I just want to do what's right for this story.  

There are definite places where the story could be broken into three to make a trilogy.  Without making it too cliffhangery.  I hate stories that leave too much hanging from one book to the next.  

The genre could handle a single title of epic proportions.  It could also handle a trilogy.  

Decisions decisions.  

Any way I slice it, I'm still working toward having the whole story done before I decide.  It'll either be a behemoth or it'll release one after the other as a trilogy.  Which brings me around to another point...

Will the market bear paying for three separate books or would it be better to lay out a single book?  Personally, I like big books.  It's hard to hold them these days, but I manage, and if they're ebooks, even better.  I'd rather read one big book than three little books, especially when I have to pay for them.  But that's me, and I know I'm not the typical reader.

So what say you?

Too Many Choices

I'm close enough to the end of Cinder Ugly now that I'm wondering what I'm going to do next.  Sure, there won't be much of AuGoWriMo left, but who's to say I have to stop when September 1st hits?  September Write Your Ass Off... SeWriYoAO?  ROFL... or something.

Earlier this morning, I opened my untitled YA fantasy and posted a snippet to Silver's blog for her Wednesday words post.  And I got to thinking that I should probably finish that one of these days.

Then I've got this modern day, urban/dark thing with Arthurian mythology I was working on years ago.

And of course, there's always a third Dennis Haggarty book and a fourth SCIU book I could work on.

Or that genie Christmas short I started.

Too many choices. 

Ever throw more than one toy up in the air for the dog to catch?  The utter chaos of them trying to decide which one to go after... that's where I could easily find myself. 

Probably when it comes time, I'll pluck one out of the air.  Right this second, I'm leaning toward the YA fantasy thing.  We'll see what I come up with when the time comes.  Who knows, I could still be working on Cinder Ugly right up to the end of August.  It keeps throwing twists at me. 

What do you do when it comes time to decide what project to work on next?  Especially when you have a lot of things you could choose from? 

Flying Solo is Scary

Around this time sixteen years ago, I began writing what would become my first finished novel.  Back then, I did it all myself.  All the writing, the editing, the research - for the writing and for the submitting, the querying, the crying...  

Last week, I celebrated the 5th anniversary of the first novel I published and sent out into the world.  I still did most of it myself, but I realized I needed other people.  I needed a cover artist and an editor.  Which meant I needed money.  And Hubs willingly agreed to spend some of our savings to get my books out into the world.

I had expected for this venture to start paying for itself within the first year.  It didn't.  I had great hopes for the next year.  Not then either.  None of them have.  But I got tired of sucking off the savings tit, so I started funding this myself and stopped dipping into our nest egg.

With this in mind, I do most of the covers myself and what I couldn't do myself went to a less expensive artist.  And when it came time to edit, I still paid someone. 

As sales have dwindled and the money dried up, I was faced with a decision - stop trying to publish and watch my career swirl the drain, or stop paying an editor.  (I have two covers I've already paid for, so I'm set there for now.) 

It's a scary thing, thinking about flying solo.  For the past 13 books, I've had an editor.  One gal did the first two books.  Since then, I've had AWE (Awesome Wonderful Editor) as my co-pilot.  (She also walked in and saved my second book, which was really helpful.)  Taking off on my own without her in a seat beside me scares the crap out of me.

But she's been super-supportive of my flying alone.  She's praised me for my clean drafts before and now tells me I can do this.  With her blessing. 

Still, super scary. 

However, stopping publishing anything, which last year meant not writing either, is a scarier idea.  (It's close as to which is scarier, but not writing wins by a hair.)   Since it's scary, it's been super hard to move forward with the idea.  To think that maybe next month or the month after, I will put a book into the world without my AWE... :shudder: 

What if I get bad reviews?  What if I actually can't do this by myself? 

It's enough to make a gal crawl back into her hole and pull the dirt in over her.

But it's time.  I can do this.  I can edit on my own.  I know people who do it, so why shouldn't I be able to do it, too?  I can and I will.  And I will make every effort to insure my readers get the same quality manuscripts they've always gotten.  

I hope you'll stick with me.  There's no co-pilot on this flight, but I promise not to crash and burn.

Torn

I'm totally torn on what to do for NaNo.

You see, I've been reading that forgotten fantasy I wrote.  It's like reading a new book, but I can see where I can make it better.  A new beginning.  Some added scenes.  And of course, finishing it.  My brain is playing with the idea of expanding this one book into several books, but we'll see.

But I'm also entertaining the idea of writing another Dennis Haggarty.  Series sell better when there are at least three books.  And I already have the basic premise.

And I could also write the next SCIU novel.  That one would be book 4.  I started a book 4 in this series already, but I'm not sure if I want it to be the 4th book or if another book should come next. 

After my creativity being a veritable wasteland this year, I'm getting inundated with new ideas.  Not a bad thing, but definitely not a good thing considering NaNo approacheth.  I'm like a dog that's just had a handful of balls thrown into the yard.  Not sure which one to chase and left dashing all higgledy-piggledy.  Picking this one up and dropping it in favor of the next and the next and the...

Argh.

Most likely, I'll ignore the NaNo rules and work on Untitled Fantasy.  (Drop the MG part, because I'm not sure this meets the requirements for MG.  It's a bit too dark.  If you want to see a snippet of it, drop by Silver's blog and see my comment there.)

Or maybe I'll set the fantasy aside and work on one of the other two.  Argh.

To NaNo or Not NaNo, That is the Question

That time is fast approaching, when thousands of people all over the nation... world?... sit down and attempt to tap out 50K words in 30 days.  Yes, I'm talking about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

Yes, yes, I know, I know.  Fifty thousand words does not a novel make.  But it's a damn good start.  Or it's a first draft that will be fleshed into a novel-sized book eventually.  The point isn't to have a completed book in month.  Not to me, anyway.

For me, the point of NaNoWriMo (NaNo for short) was to see if I could do it.  Could I train myself to write 1666 words a day for 30 days straight?  Could I write to a deadline, even if it was self-imposed?  Was this writing thing more than just a lark?

My first NaNo wasn't 'official'.  I didn't sign up for the site.  I wasn't accountable to anyone but myself - which was kind of the point for me.  But I did it.  I sat down and banged out a book.  The next year, I signed up and did it for reals.  And the next year.  Somewhere along the way, I was too busy to do it in November, so I did it December and called it HoHoWriMo.  I've done it in other months, too.  Because there are times when I needed to sit my ass down and write a damn book, so I took the skills I'd taught myself during November and applied them. 

Now, with the way my writing has gone this year, I'm wondering if I don't need to relearn that old discipline.  Commit myself to writing a book in November, whether I feel like it or not.  Just do it already and quit my bitchin'. 

I have two weeks from today to decide.  Two weeks from today will be November 1st.  Gah, where did the year go??  :shudder:

Other people have already decided to take it on.  They've already got a book in mind.  They're already plotting, so that when the starter pistol is fired, they'll be banging out words.  Umm, yeah, that never worked for me.  So, sometime between now and Halloween, I'll decide whether to do this and when All Saints Day arrives, I will or I won't be sitting down and seeing what falls out of my head. 

I'll let you know.  Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, are you thinking about doing NaNo this year?  Have you done it in the past?  How'd it go for you?  Do you plan ahead or do you just let it fly when 11/1 arrives?

Decision Made - Part Two

If you've been reading along, you know I had a couple decisions to make here.  The first one was whether I would keep stumping along with a book that I just wasn't feeling.  Made that one and stopped work on Ugly and the Beast.  The other decision was whether to keep my reserved spot with my cover artist and what to do with it if I did.

So, over the weekend, my cover artist announced that she's booked through December of 2019.  Which pretty much made the decision about what to do with my October spot for me.  I'm going ahead with the cover of Ugly and the Beast, even though it isn't finished.  It's either that or wait until my spring spot and then not have a spot reserved for Cinder Ugly.  And while I'm behind in writing this series, I do not want to have to wait until 2020 to have a cover.

Yesterday morning, I went through the photo site, picked several poses for the Jeni model, and then picked a couple of other things I'd like to see on the cover.  We'll see what she does with them.

Now I have until February (or was it March?) to figure out what the hell CU is going to be about so I have ideas to send to Jessica. 

Life was so much easier when she wasn't so popular.  I didn't have these scheduling problems when she did the Once Upon a Djinn series.  Ugh.

On the other hand, my cover artist is so good, she's in high demand.  Yay.

On the bright side, looking at photos for UatB kinda makes me want to start writing it again.  Too bad I have the edits for Unequal to focus on right now.  Maybe I'll make finishing the damn book my NaNoWriMo project. 

:shrug:

Decisions, Decisions

Okay, so it's now October and this book that I should've finished writing in June is giving me fits.  And I've got a decision I need to make pretty soon.

Do I keep plugging ahead with a book that obviously does not want to be written right now or do I set it aside and work on something else?

Which leads to a secondary question: Do I 1) use the spot I have with my cover artist for UatB anyway and hope I have something to publish early next year, 2) use the spot I have with my cover artist to let her do Unequal, or 3) do I let the spot slide?

Neither decision is an easy one.  I so don't want to disappoint readers who are expecting a sequel to Sleeping Ugly sooner rather than later.  Then again, I so don't want to disappoint readers by throwing out a piece of crap (which is what UatB is shaping up to be at the moment).  And I definitely don't want to lose my spot with my cover artist who has become highly sought after and therefore super busy.  I have another scheduled spot with her in February, but that's a long way off and what if UatB breaks free...  Argh.

But I'm also not inclined to spend money on something I don't need at the moment. 

Now, I'm not asking you to answer these questions for me.  I'm just throwing them out there to maybe help me make a decision.  Because sometimes writing stuff here does that.  And, you know, it's out here in case anyone else is in a similar quandary and is looking for a sense that they're not alone.  That sort of thing.

Of course, it doesn't help that SU is not the overnight sensation I'd hoped it would be which makes it harder for me to justify all this effort and expense on a sequel.  Blerg.  But having sequels helps sell the first book... or something...

Ah the life of a writer.  It's fun!  Yeah, yeah... fun... that's the ticket.

What are you having fun with right now?  Facing any big decisions? 

Facing Rejection and Running Away

One would think that because I don't have to query anymore, I'd be past that whole rejection thing.  Umm, right.  I still have to submit my books, but not to get them published anymore.  Now I have to submit them to get them noticed. 

I'm talking about advertising.  You don't just get to send these people money and they'll put your books in their marketing whatevers (newsletters, FB posts, tweets, websites, etc.)  Nope, you submit your book and then wait for them to tell you whether your book is good enough to appear under their logo. 

So, sitting here over the weekend, thinking about the sale I'll be having on the Dennis Haggarty books, I went through the list of advertising venues I have.  This one already rejected Accidental Death twice.  So did that one.  That one would probably accept AD, but they're really expensive for free books.  This one might accept AD, but they wouldn't accept NC because NC has too few reviews.  That one might accept both, but previous ads with them have been lackluster.  And then there are the ones who make you pay up front and then reject you - returning your money afterwards, of course, but that's always a pain in the buns.

I ended up not making the jump to advertising with any of them.  I ran away.  I'm rejection averse. I'm also averse to spending money that doesn't give me an equal or better return.  Without ads, though, sales are non-existent. 

Anyway, I pretty much did the same things when I was querying.  I'd send out a bunch of queries, get rejected across the board, and then not want to query anymore.  Then, when I finally got the courage up again, I'd avoided certain agents who were particularly reject-y-ful.  Run away, run away. 

:shrug:

Damned if I do, damned if I don't.  I'm not sure what the answer is.  I'll probably blitz the FB groups, tweet a bit, and hope for the best.  At least I won't be spending money that way.

Clueless and That's Okay

They say 'know your market'. Well, let's admit it right here, folks.  I'm clueless.

I don't know what the market wants.  I never have.  I only know what I want.  And since I'm one of those weird eclectic readers, I want all sorts of stuff.  Thus, I write all sorts of stuff.

I happened to be talking with the manager of my local smoke shop the other day.  I hadn't seen her in a while and she asked how the writing was going.  I, of course, reached into my magic bag of all things and pulled out a bookmark for her.  She was blown away that I had nine books out.  (Last time we talked, it was like three.  Like I said, I hadn't seen her in a while - she's usually in the office in back when I stop to buy cigarettes.)  And as she looked at the bookmark, she's like 'you write all sorts of stuff'.  And I'm all like 'yes. yes, I do'.  She was excited about the suspense, but really excited about the supernatural stuff.  So I gave her my Once Upon a Djinn postcard, and then another bookmark and postcard for her mom. 

Sometimes I give people bookmarks and they're 'ooo, I love mysteries' or 'I'm not into paranormal stuff', though.  :shrug:  I like to be a little bit for every reader, if I can.

So far, I have two suspense novels, two mystery novels, four paranormal novels, and one political/medical thriller.  Now?  Now, I'm putting out a dystopian.  Which pretty much makes me nuts, I guess.

I'm in the process of editing said dystopian novel and I bounce back and forth like a rubber ball between 'I love this' and 'Everyone's going to think this is lame'.  Could be people will love this as much as I do.  Could be it'll languish in obscurity like Blood Flow (which I thought would fly off the shelves and hasn't).  I really have no clue.

And that's okay. 

You see, it's like I said.  I know what I like.  And it's also like I said that I'd like to be able to provide something for every type of reader.  Will every reader buy all my stuff?  Not likely, unless they're an eclectic like me. Will that build me a following?  :shrug:  I guess I have a minor following out there.  As I put more books out and more people discover me, the readership will grow.  Hopefully.

Anyway, it's probably not the smartest marketing plan in the world, but I gotta do my own thing.  I hope you'll come along for the ride, and maybe find something new. 

Speaking of new, my editor is not typically into reading dystopian, but she really enjoyed Blink.  Said it reminded her of her past love for Brave New World.  Yay!  If you were ever into BNW, or Anthem or Fahrenheit 451 or 1984, then look for Blink of an I in February. 

NaNoWri...NO

I am not writing a book this month.  Nope.  Not a gonna do it.  No way.  No how. 

Except when I was telling Hubs about how I wasn't going to do NaNoWriMo this year, I started telling him about how Dennis Haggarty #3 is pestering me in the brainpan.  And the more I talked, the more I wanted to start writing it. 

But no.  I am up to my ass right now with other stuff.  And it's Fall fishing time.  And I wanted to do ancestry stuff this month.  And I have stuff I need to be editing.  And...

We'll see.

How about you?  Are you writing a book this month?  Have you ever tried to NaNo (i.e. write a book in a month)?

Why I'm Amazon Exclusive

All my books are available at Amazon.  And only at Amazon* or through Createspace (which is owned by Amazon). 

Why?

Well, there's the ease.  I'm lazy and Amazon makes everything easy for me.  One place to sell books, one place to market books, one place to check stats... you get the picture.  But that's not the only reason.

I've tried putting my books on other sites.  Know what happened?  Next to nothing.  I sold 12 books total in 2016 through other venues.  And by marketing through those other channels, I lost the ability to have my books in the Kindle Unlimited program.  Compared to the 12 books sold in 2016 through other venues, people read (and I got paid for) the equivalent of 182 books.  That's $9.47 elsewhere vs $382 in KU.  The math doesn't lie.

Know what else happened?  I got paid a fraction of what I would've made through Amazon on each book.  Other venues paid me an average of 79c per book.  Regular sales through Amazon on my $2.99 books is $2.04.  Even with the KU per page money dropping, I'm still averaging $1.98 per book this year (down 12c from last year's average).  I can't argue with the numbers.

But not everyone uses Amazon you say?  I have considered the people who don't use Amazon.  Really I have.  Right now, those people who bought the 12 books last year may not be able to access my other books.  (Well, they could if they used Kindle for PC or for Nook or for whatever device they have.)  I'm truly sorry about that.  And it makes me a little sad.  I want everyone to be able to read my books, however they want to read them.  Unfortunately, when I weigh their needs against the money I'd be losing, the answer is clear. 

No money, no books.  It's really as simple as that.  It's why I've only published two books this year instead of the 3 or 4 in my other publishing years.  Oh, I can still write books.  I have scads of them on my hard drive.  But until there is moolah in my bank account, I can't afford to edit them or put covers on them and make them available for people to read.

So, there it is.  I'm Amazon exclusive and now you know why.  Any questions?




(If you've downloaded my books from anyplace else in the past year or so, you've stolen them.  And you're part of the reason why I can't afford to publish more books. Shame on you.)

Decisions, Decisions... Decided

Good morning. I hope you're all going to have lovely days today.  (Yeah, it's eclipse day.  Try not to burn your eyes out, okay?)

But enough of all that.  I'm going to talk about decisions. 

Wish Hits the Fan is with my editor right now.  It's not due back until the 4th (which is Labor Day, sure, but my editor is in Canada, so she doesn't care and I'm a writer, so I'll still be working).  Which gave me 3 weeks to work on something else.  Decisions, decisions...

My choices were 1) begin editing Sleeping Ugly, 2) finish writing Early Grave, 3) work on the Arthurian thing, 3) go way back to the beginning and continue my forge through Fear Itself to make it something someone might actually want to read someday, 4) something else entirely.

I took the first week off.  Mainly because I was a little burned out.  Partly because none of my potential projects were calling me.  I'd spend uncounted hours thinking about the projects available to me.  I'd use untold brain space pondering them. 

Yesterday afternoon, with no particular impetus, I sat down here and started working.  The winner was... Early Grave.  And man, those first 35K words I wrote on it already are a hot mess.  I deleted some stuff, moved some stuff, and got about 500 new words out.  I think I'm back on track.  Oh, it's still a hot mess, but it's a hot mess I can work with. 

As a writer, this book makes me nervous.  Every time I think about publishing it, I get a little anxious because the main character isn't what you might expect from me.  Then I tell myself 'screw it' and keep going.  Ned's awesome.  The writing is solid - even if it is rife with typos and junk right now.  As I was scanning through the paragraphs, deciding what to keep and what to snip, I kept finding myself reading the book instead of doing my job, so I know it's a good book.

Not sure when I'll have this finished and when it'll be scheduled for publication.  It will be as long as I don't chicken out.  When?  Sometime later this year or early next, maybe.

So, now that's been decided, I have work to do.  And only two weeks to do it in.  (Less if JC gets the final edits done for WHTF ahead of time.)  Good thing I fell and torqued my ankle, so I have no distractions from sitting here and writing, eh?

I hope you like my decision.  Early Grave will be the third book in the SCIU series.  Serial killer targeting old people and not for the reasons you might suspect.  This ain't no 'angel of death' scenario.  Bwa ha ha.

For those of you more interested in my supernatural bent, Sleeping Ugly will be published, too.  It just needs more time to percolate.  And Wish Hits the Fan will be out September 15th, good lord willin' and the creek don't rise.

Any questions?

Distance Yourself Now... I'm About to Say Some Things

This past week there was something of a kerfluffle in the writing community.  It seems that an unpublished writer had the unmitigated gall to let his frustrations overflow onto his blog.  And it got picked up by the agent he addressed by name.  And it went from one place to another, leaving a swath of nastiness everywhere it went.

I read the blog.  And I understood where the guy was coming from.  What author trying to break into traditional publishing hasn't had similar thoughts tapdance across their mind?  Oh, sure, he made reference to the agent's weight a few times.  That's not kosher, dude.  It's ad hominem and you're probably smarter than that.  Other than the references to her appearance, though, I didn't see what the problem was.

Unless the problem is voicing your opinions about the old boy network out loud and in a very public way. Shhhh, don't do it.  Don't say it.  Stay quiet.  Know your place.  Children should be seen and not...  Ahem.

I had more of a problem with everyone who felt the need to dogpile on this guy.  I saw 'how to kill your career' and 'what not to do' and 'how to get blacklisted*'. I also saw people saying things about him that made what he said about the agent tame.  And other admonitions to distance oneself from this behavior lest one piss off the industry. It was like a herd of wildebeest shunning a member of the herd they perceived as standing out, and kicking it as they stampeded by, so it couldn't follow them and so that the lion would eat it first.

Perhaps right now you're thinking 'No, B.E.!  Don't! Shhhh.'  Eh.  I don't think any of this will kill my career.  Readers don't really give a rat's ass what goes on behind the locked doors of the hallowed halls of traditional publishing.  Two years ago, I said 'Fuck this shit' and went out on my own anyway.  I'm less than lint in the corner to the traditional publishing houses. My career is as a self-published author.  The only way they can kill that is if they make it impossible for anyone to self-publish.  (And they're trying that, but I don't think they'll succeed.)

After all I've seen and all I know, I don't want to be traditionally published anymore.  Not unless something changes drastically.  Writers NEEDED agents once upon a time.  They had contacts we could never hope to aspire to having - chiefly editors at the traditional publishers.  Then again, once upon a time, writers could submit directly to those publishers and have at least a hope of someone there reading their work.  But that's not the way the world worked once computers came around and people could write more easily than ever before.  Once that happened, the publishers were flooded with submissions.  And in email submissions and the flood became a deluge.  The publishers needed agents to stem the tide and writers needed agents to get their work in front of those publishers.  And ultimately in the hands of readers.

Then came self-publishing.  Oh, writers still need agents if they want to be traditionally published.  But there's no reason why that's their only hope of finding readers.  Creator straight to market.  No one else in the way.  Clean.  Pure. 

I think what's this guy's real problem was was believing he had any chance with the agents who swim in the traditional publishing pool.  He'd already had 300+ rejections from them.  Spending money to attend a speed-dating session where he'd get more of the same is just self-immolation.  Let it go, dude.  They don't want you and they probably never will.  And that's okay.  Take the money and time you would've spent on trying to slip in through their keyhole and put your books out there yourself.  If your writing is any good, you'll sell books.  Find a good editor.  Find a capable cover artist.  Set your work free.  Maybe you won't sell 'bestseller list' numbers.  Maybe you won't be able to retire to a villa in sunny Spain (or whatever your dreams are).  But your books will be out there and people will be reading them.

And that's the point.  Isn't it?


*Years ago, I was assured there was no 'blacklist' in the publishing industry.  Ri-ight.

Snap Decisions

Okay, so last night I made the decision to take Wish in One Hand out of expanded distribution channels so I can slide it back into the Kindle Select program.  Yeah, I was going to wait until the end of the month, but since I've only sold 1 book through other distributors in the time I've had WIOH listed with those other channels (thanks for that, Stacy), I figured what the hell was I waiting for. 

I admit it.  I was tired when I made the decision.  And a little frustrated. 

First thing this morning, I remembered I have advertising going live on Friday that includes links to those other distribution channels.  I contacted the newsletter manager to see if she can change the ad to nix those links.

Later this morning, I remembered I have In Deep Wish going live in March and I was kinda planning on having both books available for wide distribution, and if I put WIOH back in the KDP Select program, I can't put it into wide distribution for 90 days. 

:eyeroll: :facepalm: :headdesk:

I'm usually pretty good at making decisions on the fly.  This week? Not so much.  I could blame edit brain, but really, that's no excuse.  I mean, I do have a lot on my mind, but I know that and I should've remembered NOT to make snap decisions right now.

So, anyway, I'll be going back and relisting WIOH, and take my lumps when it comes to the advertising.  Just don't click on any links for B&N, Kobo, or Apple until it's live at those places again.  Probably end of the week. 

How are you at making snap decisions?  Do they usually work out for you or do you have a couple horror stories to share so I don't feel so stupid?

Decisions Decisions

I'm rethinking my publishing schedule. 

Main reason?  Sales of Wish in One Hand have not been spectacular.  Sales of Dying Embers and Accidental Death, on the other hand, have been way better.  So it would make sense to give the readers what they want and publish more along those lines.  Right?

I had expected to publish the sequel to WIOH this coming February or March with the third book coming out next August or September.  Now, I don't know.  This genie thing hasn't found its niche market.  A few people here and there love it.  (Thanks!)  But it's not really catching fire anywhere. 

Mulling it all around in my head.

I just finished the second book in the SCIU series - Fertile Ground.  And I'm really excited about that, which may be skewing my choices a little.  I have the sequel to Accidental Death started and on the back burner.  But I already have two more genie books in the bag.  Less work for me to get those ready for publication.  (Well, except for the cover art part.  That's a long story that I'd rather not tell online.)

:shrug:  I dunno.

BloodFlow should still be out next month.  My editor is calling it a political thriller.  Which is good because medical-technical-political suspense is too wordy.  She says it's my best book yet.  We'll see what the public thinks toward the end of this year.  Still, it's another book in the thriller/mystery/suspense vein.  Maybe I should set the paranormal thing aside while I focus on that sort of stuff. 

Decisions decisions. 

So, if I do adjust the production schedule, it'll look like this:

November 2015 - BloodFlow
February/March 2016 - Fertile Ground (SCIU #2)
May/June 2016 - Natural Causes (Dennis Haggarty #2)
August/September 2016 - In Deep Wish (Djinn #2)
November/December 2016 - Something totally different (maybe resurrect Fear Itself or Nature of Destruction - my first and second books - OR do a dystopian)

Anyway, that's one of the awesome things about self-publishing.  I have the freedom to do whatever I want and the market will tell me if I did the right thing or bombed horribly. 

What do you think I should do?  Suggestions are welcome, but don't be bummed if, after mulling over everything, I go my own way.  K?