What happens before breakfast?

I’ve heard it said many times that our best time to write is when we’re sleepy. Some writers feel better getting to work before dawn, and some write better late at night. When you’re working full time, what works best for keeping your writing goals in check?

I don’t have any word count goals right now because I’ve slacked so much on the actual butt-in-chair aspect. When I have time, I sit at the computer and churn out some outlines of book ideas that have come to me. I explore details of each to see what would fit or work better for each story. Of course, it won’t be until I get the writing underway that I’ll know what will actually work.

I have such a hard time getting my head out of the real world and into my own, that when I’m running around, I can’t focus on getting words down. I don’t know what could change that problem other than trying different things until I find something that works.

So, what do you do to keep your writing afloat? Do you work late at night, early morning, during lunch? Here are some ideas of what worked for other writers:

• The Daily Routines of Famous Writers
• The Daily Routines of Famous Creative People
• Famous Writers’ Daily Routines

Writing and publishing goals for the New Year

Now that I’ve been working in libraries for a few months, I’ve come to a strange conclusion about books – there are a lot of them, but only some really popular ones.

In our library, the authors who move the quickest are Stephen King, Nora Roberts/J.D. Robb, Martina Cole, Marian Keyes, and Richard Patterson. Aside from King, I’ve not read any of these authors, just because they aren’t really my taste in books. With the kids, they still check out Jacqueline Wilson as well as the Tom Gates or Wimpy Kid books. That’s about it. Everything else is hit or miss, and their popularity seems to go as quickly as it came.

But that doesn’t mean they aren’t good books. I’m just now reading Gone Girl, but we have copies sitting on the shelf – the peek of “gotta have this” has passed.

So what does this mean for authors? We all want to be loved and adored by readers, of course, but the lasting power, the importance of one book – is it really something we should be striving for?

I’ve decided that, no, that’s not how I should be looking at my books. I like to get the stories in my head out and into words. I like the idea of sharing my stories with others and readers like my stories. And I don’t want to waste my time not doing something I enjoy.

This is why I’ve pretty much hooked into the self-publishing for this year. My YA sci-fi got some great feedback from potential editors, so I’m pleased with that, but it just means I want to keep working on them, edit and publish them myself.

My NA Thriller that’s the Shakespeare retelling wasn’t a hit with anyone I queried. But I like it and I told it the way I saw it in my head for years. I can self-publish that as well and move along without getting upset or have hurt feelings that my story wasn’t what someone else was looking for.

I’ve also found great solace in not fighting the publisher race as well. I’m fine with Wattpad and Smashwords. I’m fine with just doing what I want to do and getting on with it. It’s not to say that I won’t query editors later on, but for now I’m fine with being on the solo mission.

I hope everyone has been having a great New Year. Keep writing and keep on keeping yourself happy in your work!

Being busy and being productive

Busy. We're all busy. We feel guilty if we're not busy, but we have to pace ourselves.

Now that I'm working full time, I've decided that I do want it all - work and writing. But I work late hours and only get one day at a time off (usually). So I have to give myself time to do all the other things I want to do when I can and in whatever increments I can handle at the time.

I read on the bus during my commute. I've tried writing on the bumpy bus, and it's more bother than it's worth with the typos.

Steve and I have given up on going to the grocery store on Sundays. We want to sleep in, eat breakfast, drink tea and coffee, and chill out. Since stores close at 4PM here on Sunday (even "24 Hour" stores aren't legally allowed to be open late) we simply don't have time to get the shopping done.

I've figured out that if I do the laundry right when I get home on Saturday night, I have a better chance of dry socks and work clothes by Monday morning. Before, I was trying to do that and shop and have family time all on Sunday. It just isn't feasible.

So, I've adjusted my schedule. I tackle what I can each day.

We're so worried about word count, but I really need to take the time to edit too . Now I know that the editing is the hardest, most time consuming process and I just can't think about submitting to a publisher or Smashwords before I do some editing and rewriting bit by bit, when I can.

I have a list of things to do every night when I get home: eat dinner, take a shower, talk to my parents, visit with Steve, pack Steve’s lunch, and get into bed by 11PM at the latest. It doesn’t look like much as a short list, but everything needs time and with only 4-5 hours each night to get everything done, there’s a lot of other things I’d like to do, but I just can’t.

I started to believe that busy was productive, and the opposite of lazy. The "no excuses" opinion of the masses is that we should have time to do everything , every day. If I have errands, I can't go to the gym. If I go to the gym, I can't get errands or shopping done, plus get writing and editing done. There just aren't that many hours in a day. Plus, if you run yourself ragged, you never have time to recuperate from the rushing around you do the rest of the week.

So, take your time, do what you can, do your best, and don't let the world pressure you into being on half empty all the time.

Moving on from writing rejection

I was another writer who did not get chosen for a mentor during PitchWars. I had some great feedback that can really help me in my revisions and future books. It’s a subjective process and one contest shouldn’t make me feel down in the dumps about the work I’d done so far. After all, I entered the contest when my brain told me to not bother because no one would be interested anyway. Now that I know that I’ve not been chosen, I can just pick up where I left off and keep going.

You believing any of this? Nah, didn’t think so.

I was upset. I cried on the phone to my folks in Florida about how no one wanted my work. I didn’t want to do anything. I stayed in bed, I felt sorry for myself, I contemplated why I was writing what I was writing, who it was for, what it was for, and if I should just try something totally different. Seriously, the sadness wasn’t just from not being chosen so much as that it stopped my mojo from flowing. Since Wednesday, I have been so weepy and wallowing in my self pity because I didn’t know if I should keep working on this big series book project I wanted to do, or just set it aside and do something completely different.

I sort of still don’t know.

I know quitting is not an option because, seriously, how would I spend my time if it weren’t working on a book, or writing notes for another book project? (I have too many notes and plans for books to ignore them at this point anyway.)

But, I do think it’s perfectly okay to take a step back and reflect on what you’re doing. I know all the motivational quotes in the world about never giving up and how failure isn’t an option and how rejection is all part of the game. However, it’s hard to be positive all the time, especially when you’re just having a crummy week and the rejection letter sort of solidifies your belief that, yes, things just suck right now.

So, as a help to you and myself, I’ve comprised a little list of articles regarding rejection to help us all get through the painful process.

• Rejection SUCKS: How To Move On
• What it Feels Like When Your Writing is Rejected – and How to Bounce Back
• Turn rejection on its head – accept it
• Best-Sellers Initially Rejected
• On Writing: Everybody Gets Rejected

I hope that everyone who was rejected for PitchWars still participates in PitMad on Monday, Sept 9th. Personally, I’m just going to put some queries out to prove to myself that I’m moving on, getting back on the horse, not letting it get me down, and all that junk.

Here are a couple of resources for helping you write a good Twitter pitch:

• A Brief Guide to Contest Pitches
• Ten Tips for Twitter Pitching

And finally, here’s a motivational speech from Sly Stallone:

When you’re the only one who likes your story idea

“I don’t think it’s good for your head – if you spend a lot of time writing about a book, you probably shouldn’t be talking about it, you should be doing it.” Cormac McCarthy

Last night on the phone my mother asked me what my current WIP was. When I told her, she said, “Why would you want to write about that?”

This has been one of the most frustrating things in my writer-hood. The ideas I love, people don’t get when I tell them, and the ones I think are kind of dumb, people think are great.

Has anyone else noticed that the stories that they find the least compelling, are the ones you’re most encouraged to write about?

When I attended the online writing workshop a year or so ago, I proposed two story ideas: on YA and one MG. The one I felt the strongest about wasn’t as well received as the one idea I had that seemed rather thin and flimsy.

I proposed my stronger idea, the Middle Grade novel, to another group at the library workshop later. I didn’t give them another option, and they seemed to understand where I was coming from and how I could make it interesting.

I’ve written a little of both, but I’ve written way more on the MG novel than the YA book idea that the first writing workshop teacher and students seemed more interested in. Sure, it may be a good idea, but I really just didn’t know how to get about doing it. I tried at least three times to just start the story right, and even had a CP look at the first chapter – she was just as confused as I was about what I was trying to do as I was. In fact, I tried to make the YA book my NaNo project for the fall last year and I choked. I didn’t like that I was trying to write something I wasn’t sure about, and I wasn’t happy about trying to fit it all in with the hero’s quest as the workshop had told me.

So, what do you do?

Agents and publishers don’t want the same old thing (supposedly), but readers are still reading vampire books even though we’re told that we shouldn’t bother with them anymore. We shouldn’t have The Chosen One, or pirates, or treasure hunters, or werewolves, or set anything in a dystopian setting either. But, look at the top 100 Kindle sales. People are still reading books like this, and writers still enjoy writing them.

Frankly, I can’t, like just physically can’t get the words out if I don’t have a clear idea of what I want to have happen. That has to be my own decision and something I really see clearly. The writing is the main thing, so I’m just going to stick with what I like doing.

Besides, didn’t King say something about if you write for the market and get published from it, you’re not going to be able to keep it up?

Time and time again we’ve heard that the writer has to be involved with their work so the reader can sense it. I guess it’s better to keep it to ourselves and get the job done.

Confessions of an impatient writer

I hate waiting. I really do. When I want something, I want it to happen, and now, so I can go on to the next thing I want to happen.

Maybe it’s because I’m American. We’re use to having everything we want straight away, and if we don’t get it, we complain. We don’t like waiting in line and, in fact, we’ll put our purchases down and leave the store if the line at the register is too long.

Maybe it’s because I’m an only child. If I complained and pouted enough, I eventually got the toy I wanted.

With writing, though, this just doesn’t work the same way.

I have a handful of projects that I want to work on. A couple of them are books half finished. I’ve had my CP look at one of them, and the last finished project. This whole process takes too long. I have to edit and refine before I think about self publishing.

Also, I started looking into hiring an editor. That will take time to have that looked over, plus I have to get a cover sorted.

When I come up with a new project idea, I start thinking about covers immediately – see, no patience.

I know I have to concentrate on the writing first, the editing, and the perfecting before I can have a book birthday. I just read that most writers aim to get all this done in a year. I finished the first draft of my last novella last September. Of course, I got tired of the book, hated it, and neglected it for months before deciding to have the CP look at it.

I don’t know how to combat this, other than to tell myself to stop worrying about Point D, when I’m only at Point A, half way to Point B.

I just really, really, like things done, fast.

It’s the way we do with kids at school too. We tell them to get on with their work, and stop dilly-dallying, then we complain when they rush through to get their work done. Mixed messages that I’m sure we all learned as kids.

Anyway, so I’m going to have to stop wanting the book to be done, I guess. I have to keep thinking I want the book to be good. Big difference.

Are you really writing for yourself?

You know how I said yesterday that Twitter was quiet? Well, I take that back. Twitter decided to engage me in a conversation today about writing (no one answers questions unless it has to do with writing because writers like Twitter because it distracts them from writing. Seriously, I hear that all the time.)

So, without posting a link to the article because A. I don’t want to start any kind of bullying discussions toward the writer and B. I honestly don’t know the link because I randomly saw it this morning on old Twitter feed from yesterday, I’ll explain the post I read.

A self published author was saying that all the writing, editing, promoting, marketing, etc. was really not worth it. (She was also asking if other writers felt that same kind of concerns.) She was saying that it won’t give us recognition or money, and we should just do it for ourselves. She had written, say ten books, and she was wondering if it was really worth it.

It was meant to be motivational, but it really didn’t come across that way at all.

Granted, I don’t think the writer wasn’t saying that writing wasn’t worth it, she was saying if the effort put into the publishing was worth it. I mentioned this on Twitter, and found myself in conversation. Tons of writers started replying with, “You have to just write for yourself.”

But is that always true?

If you didn’t think anyone would ever read and/or care about your stories and it was all a bunch of wasted effort, would you still do it? I’m not talking about how we discovered writing as kids and wanted to make up our own stories, I mean now. Now as we’re adults with life decisions and time management to consider. I would just keep a journal like I did as a kid if I didn’t think I would have even a small readership.

We have these millions of writers on Twitter for a reason. We want to let people know who we are (as the writing tips tell us) so we can get the word out about our work.

Of course it is. Personally, having a completed book, self-published or traditional is worth the time because it’s a connection to the outside world. We want to share a part of ourselves because that’s just part of human nature.

Granted, writing is the thing we do, not because it’s “fun” but because it is what it is. It’s our thing. It’s what we know we’re supposed to be doing. But doing something just for yourself, without any hope of anyone else knowing or caring. I just don’t think that’s 100% true for writers.

With self publishing, we know we can have something out there. The “fun” in that is the satisfaction of a finished product. Yes, the marketing and the business aspect is irritating, but we’re willing to do it so we’re read and recognized. We want to do it for ourselves in a self-gratifying way. We want someone to acknowledge our existence. I don’t think any of the millions of indie writers on Twitter talks about writing unless they want some kind of recognition and kudos. And that’s 100% perfectly okay.

Favorite quotes on the subject:

“When God hands you a gift, he also hands you a whip; and the whip is intended for self-flagellation solely...Writing stopped being fun when I discovered the difference between good writing and bad and, even more terrifying, the difference between it and true art. And after that, the whip came down.” ~ Truman Capote

“There is only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that second-best is anything but the second-best.” ~ Doris Lessing

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your dreams. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you too, can become great." ~ Mark Twain

"We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world." ~  Marianne Williamson

“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.” ~ Gloria Steinem

Anyway, at least Twitter entertained me today. I had some good writers with nice books get into the conversation, which is a rarity. 98% of the time, I get responses from the same people who are pretty like minded, so it’s interesting to see Twitter isn’t completely dead.

An abundance of writers

Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. ~ Tyler Durden

Today I saw a reTweet of something to the effect of, “Plenty of people want to write a book, but there are only a few who actually do.”

Um…no.

Actually, the biggest problem we have as writers is the overabundance of books in the market; self published or traditional. Writing is not some unique, starving artist mysterious lifestyle that people dream about anymore. Books sell and now more than ever people are trying to get in on the cash.

Here are some articles about the amount of writers and books that are out there currently:

• How Many Novelists are at Work in America? – “Can we agree on a low-end pool of 250,000 active novelists? If I had to account for all the people writing novels that will never see the light of day, in either self-published or published form, I’d put that number at one million. That’s less than a third of one percent of the population. Established novelists and jaded critics, take heart.”
• Books published per country per year - "United States (2011) 292,037 (new titles and editions). United Kingdom (2011) 149,800 (new). TOTAL: approximately 2,200,000"
• THE LAST WORD; How Many Books Are Too Many? - "Brace yourselves, novelists and would-be novelists. Figures released this spring show that a new book of fiction is published in the United States every 30 minutes. Even if you don't count the titles published through print-on-demand and other fee-charging, vanity-press-type outfits, the total still comes to 10,000 books a year -- or one book published every hour or so. And that's just the fiction." (Publish date July 18, 2004)

So, how does that, “few people actually do it” theory hold up now?

I know the tweet was meant to encourage writers out there to keep going, and that’s all well and good, but it’s not that end all be all of writing. Finish, yes, but then keep going.

We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. ~ Tyler Durden

Look, I don’t mean to poo-poo anyone’s dreams of being a successful author, but it’s just not something that’s for an elite few. I’m guessing that this user that posted the tweet is young and still thinks of themself with the same kind of preciousness that we all did. We all thought we’d be the next Poe, or Hemingway, or Woolf. At a time when the market wasn’t as flooded, maybe. But even twenty years ago when I graduated high school, the market was bombarded by sub-par books. Now with Harry Potter and Twilight, and even 50 Shades, there is an even bigger green light for people to write books. Lots of them.

I won’t get into the pros and cons of self-publishing, or the difference between a good or bad book. We just have a publishing world that wants same ol’ same ol’ novels, some outstanding novels that get thrown by the wayside in attempts at traditional publication, some great books published by small print presses, and a lot of self published novels. All together that makes up for a lot of writers. A whole lot.

Even when I finished my first book, I wasn’t that fussed. It’s a stepping stone, that’s all. You make better and better books. The fact that you wrote a book is fine, good, whatever, but you’re one of many, and if you don’t know that, you’re putting yourself into a lot of denial. There’s a huge amount of competition, and working on your craft is the best thing to focus on.

Again, this is not to say people should quit writing or quit trying. Plenty of people end up published and well received despite their publishing track. It’s good that writing is such an en vogue thing in a way because you have a broader audience now. You have the opportunity to get work seen by beta readers, editors, and agents that you wouldn’t have had before the internet.

But it’s not a special, extraordinary thing anymore. For example, Teen Mom Farrah Abraham has already become a best-selling author for her biography. Now, after her scandal, she is going to be an author of 50 Shades-type novels and Christian parenting books. Yes, she’s a writer. She’s written books.

Other people who have written books: Snooki, Nicole Richie, Paris Hilton, Lauren Conrad, Kerry Katona, Kylie and Kendall Jenner, Hillary Duff, Tyra Banks, Pam Anderson, Bethanny Frankel, Macaulay Culkin...the list goes on.

Are they special? Well, they’re famous and rich and someone paid them to write a book. Does this mean that about anyone can do it? Absolutely. (Write a book, not write a good book – that’s something different.)

So write your books, congratulate yourself, then get to the editing, rewriting, marketing, querying side of things. Then write another book.

Does book type decide our publishing path?

I guess I've discussed reasons for self publishing, and while I only completed one Middle Grade book that is available in ebook, I plan on doing more. The traditional publish route is everyone's ultimate goal, yes, but there's one major reason why I think I shouldn't bother querying an agent – at least not for some of my work.

I already have illustrations for my MG books. In fact, the illustrations inspire some of the stories.

I asked on #mglitchat last night (an extremely nice group of people who didn’t mind that I crashed their discussion) if publishers ever take MG manuscripts with illustrations. I've heard over and over, mainly from Writer's Market, to not even consider submitting illustrations along a manuscript. They like to pick the illustrator.

Well, I have an illustrator already: my husband.

The advice I was given was that Steve should have an online portfolio to show his credentials. If a publisher asks for that, I think it's kind of silly. If we can potentially sell a breakout novel, why can't we have awesome illustrations of our choosing?

I understand the artist may not be up to par, but Steve is a professional graphic artist. He made the Pottermore logo. He's worked on video games and graphic art for years now. If I submit my book with his illustrations, they're obviously good. They would be able to see that before considering his credentials.

Anyway, this is why I just don't think I'll bother querying some of my MG work. I know how I want it to look. I write it with the illustrations in my head, so it seems a bit lame that I have to not only try to please a publisher with my writing, but also let them make the decisions about any cover art or illustrations used.

I like working as a team on some of my writing projects. I have YA work that wouldn't need illustrations, so I could query that. As far as the MG work I'm doing, I'll keep that for my own publishing house.

Also, I read a statistic that said 1% of any genre book has a chance of being sold in a brick and mortar bookshop. [How Many Novelists are at Work in America?]

Here are some links discussing not submitting illustrations with a manuscript:

“Editors always choose illustrators; writers seldom have any input in that decision.” – writing-world.com

“It’s great to see an author who has really thought about the marketing of their work, or potential illustrations, but that is the work a publisher will do after taking it on – so it’s not necessary at this stage.” – writersandartists.co.uk

“The publisher chooses the illustrator. In fact, you cut your chances of selling in half, if you try to team up with an illustrator and submit a package.” – darcypattison.com

So, no. Submitting with illustrations is not what publishers and agents are looking for, so I won’t submit them.

In other news: expect an update later this year for the release of my new Middle Grade novel!

#AugustBreak2013 Day 27

BBC’s The One Show is filming their Summer Festival at The Sage today and tomorrow. I really want to be nosey and check it out tomorrow, since I was over there too late this evening.

Today I finished my current project. I say finished as it was at the end, I saw the end, I sprinted to the end. It’s 40,000 words. So, it’s a Young Adult horror novella, I guess. My idea now is that I can take it and use it as a theme for a series since my main goal for starting the book in the first place was to make my own Fear Street.

Of course, once I was done, I felt yucky. Not good, not pleased with myself, just bad. Like depressed because I don’t know what to do with the stupid thing. I can edit and query, I guess, and just keep on as if I’m going to self publish. I know being a published author, traditionally, is the dream goal, but I want a readership. I want people to like what I write. One day I want some awesome hardcover novels with my name on them gracing the proud shelves of book bloggers.

But that doesn’t happen all at once, so I’ll just keep on keeping on. I wanted to get set on my next project anyway, so I think I’ll get out of the house tomorrow, do some research and some coffee drinking, and let my mind go free for a bit.

I don’t want to hate the horror book, but I know what problems I have to address. I’m still thinking it’s just not worth querying about. I’ve read too many “sorry, submissions are closed” on small press sites anyway, and the ones I can submit too don’t seem to do young adult fiction. *shrug* Looks like it’s just up to me anyway.

Anyway, I picked up Steve, came home, ate a bunch of cookies, and stopped worrying about said book. If it’s not a masterpiece, so what? It’s all part of the biggest process. The whole writer thing is a minefield anyway because everyone wants to be the next big thing.

I wonder if this is how athletes, actors, lawyers, and singers feel.

#AugustBreak2013 Day 26

Per the current discussion about small press vs self published: I am fairly sick of the smugness that comes from authors who are “traditionally” published. If their book was put online and on shelves of some indie bookstores by a small press that didn’t bother paying a decent artist to work on their cover, they have no real right to be condescending to anyone else. It’s even worse when their book is tips on writing or self publishing. And why tell us how to market when your blog looks crappy and out-dated? Get a decent, basic theme and run with it. It doesn’t take much, but if it isn’t living up to these grandiose claims you have for yourself, get lost.

If you’ve made money, fine. Have fun. But unless you have a bang on cover and a decent readership, and have really done an extraordinary job with your novel you can put the condescension away, kids.

And no, we won’t hire you to edit our book with that attitude. I don’t know why people complain about clients’ work, then expect people to go, “Wow, he/she is really honest, I’ll pay them hundreds of dollars to talk bad about me after I submit my work too!”

But the rest of you who are just happy to be keeping on and doing your thing; you’re cool.

This, of course, has come from days of researching the matter online, it’s to no on in particular and certainly not to anyone I communicate with regularly. You’re all cool too. Honestly, I have found the people in my “Peeps” list to be very willing to help and encourage. I appreciate that so much (especially since I can be a right pain with the questions some days.)

I am totally all for traditional publication. I will query when my work is ready. Maybe. I understand the “Who cares? I have a publisher!” attitude. I just don’t think that a lot of these books merit much “Anything you can do, I can do better” taunt.

Plus, I promise I’ll talk less about writing once I go back to school.

Per the picture above: We took a nice ride on our bikes around the park today. It’s only been my third bike ride in the UK, so I’m not doing as well on the hills. I’m also not too keen on going on the street just yet either (I’ve seen how people drive on them already. People wander over in the bike line without a care in the world.)

But the day was so nice and everyone was out due to the Bank Holiday. I’m so glad Steve encouraged me to get out to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. He bought me an ice cream again today but I kept a hold of it and none of it got on my clothes. A+ Day!

Next week I will be free to do my thing at home again. I have 25k words left to go and I’m not sure if it will end short of that. It very well may be a novella, which is fine by me. I just want it done and out of the way.

#AugustBreak2013 Day 25

My theme was “Sunday Morning” but since I don’t get up on Sunday mornings, I just chose to use the photo I took yesterday with St. Nicholas Cathedral in the background. I took this from on top of the Tyne Bridge on our walk yesterday. Such a cool street there.

To go along with the top of self vs traditional publishing, I went on #writechat tonight. Someone was saying that authors have gotten picked up by traditional publishers after their self published novel had done well for a couple of years. (Not any of the big names we hear about all the time, btw.) I’m not sure if it all has to do with the genre fiction that does better self published as well, but someone else was saying that they’d never self pub fiction, only non-fiction. I asked if their non-fiction had a smaller readership than their traditionally published fiction, but I didn’t get an answer on that one.

So, the idea of small press came up. The first person who was selling self-publishing to me, said that small press can get you publicity and promotion. Fair enough, but I will go ahead and put this out there: I’ve seen some crappy looking books on small press websites. I even spoke with an author in a bookstore in Newcastle once who said their book was picked up by a major publisher. The book looked terrible and I felt embarrassed for the guy. If I were accepted by a small print press, I would run the risk of having a horrible looking book with my name on it.

No. Thank. You.

I think it brings me back to the bottom line. While I’m working towards perfecting a novel, the ones that I’m sure would not be picked up by a decent publisher will be done by myself. I can hire an editor, fine, and thankfully I have my illustrator and cover artist at home. I would rather have control over what I was doing, rather than have something janky sitting around at sad, local book events, making me wish I’d never bothered.

And, yes, I’ve looked into publishers allowing you to use your own illustrators and cover designs. The answer is always, “No. We like to chose the artist for you.”

Again. No. Thank. You.

Of course, the whole self promotion is something I don’t get. Everyone on Twitter hates tweets with “Buy My Book!” Someone told me to go to Tumblr, but amidst the Doctor Who and Harry Potter animated GIFs, I don’t know how well that will work either.

But for the rest of Sunday we hung out at home. I got my word count quota in for today, and before dinner I played more Saints Row IV. I’m not digging the supernatural aspect of it. I like car games, so when I get through the initial quests, I’ll probably just mess around the world like I usually do. That’s always more fun.

We also just watched Wreck-It Ralph. What a cute movie! I’m so glad Steve got me into watching cartoon again and learning how they create the stories. They’re always such good examples of strong characters, worlds, and storylines.

Anyway, tomorrow is our Bank Holiday, so we may go out for a bike ride or a stroll. Who knows?

#AugustBreak2013 Day 23

I had to post my “sacred” picture straight from Instagram today because Flickr doesn’t seem to be working.

I got my reasonable word count done today, but I messed around on the computer as well and my back wasn’t happy about being in this chair for too long. I’ll need to walk around more this weekend.

I was talking to people on Twitter today about traditional versus self publishing. While I know everyone would like a book deal and the validation that they’re work is good, is it really necessary? I have only ever looked into submitting work as short stories before, so querying for a novel was something I’d only skimmed before. Today I was reading submission guidelines that wanted the query and first two chapters but not to send attachments unless invited to do so. I was told on Twitter that publishing companies are afraid of viruses, so they don’t accept them.

Um…NASA allows attachments in emails. You know how freaking high that security is?

I guess it’s easier for them to skim and not have emails just going straight to the junk folder but, really, if that’s one of the requirements, aren’t we already treading on out dated ground? As Vivian Tuffnell was saying, publishers aren’t necessary anymore. They’re old news because anyone can work hard, get their work ready for an audience, and make money from the sales without begging a publisher to so it for them. She also told me that not all agents are worth the time to even bother with.

What’s nice is the option. Yes, we all would love a publishing deal, a six figure income, a movie deal, etc. Or we can just write and produce the best quality work we can. That’s a huge relief.

Granted their is stigma, and I understand that. I come from a long tradition of literary snobbery and, frankly, some indies I’ve seen look awful. But some aren’t that bad. Plus, if you know for sure that publishers aren’t going to be into your “I’m not Twilight” novel, then is it really worth waiting around for months to get a rejection letter instead of just throwing your book up on Amazon and getting on with the next project? (Yes, I know you can work while waiting on a publisher, but, again, is it really worth it?)

If I really had something that I thought would dazzle an agent, I’d bother, but this project I’m trying to finish is just an odd story, so I’m guessing the first two chapters I cut and paste in my email will be quickly disregarded.

Anyway, it was a good conversation and I like Twitter when issues like this pop up. I like hearing other people’s experiences and viewpoints on the topic.

Lastly, movies:

City of Bones got 13% on Rotten Tomatoes. (Why can’t anyone make a decent movie from a young adult book?)

I tried to watch District Nine but it was way too gory for me. (Steve finally turned it off because it was freaking me out in parts.)

Ben Affleck is Batman and I don’t care. (People complained about Man of Steel already, so what’s the big deal?)

Technology makes writers of us all

Steve and I were talking about how depressing the world has gotten with technology. He speculated that if legendary great minds like Einstein were living today, they’d be ReTweeting pictures of Sheldon Cooper with “LOLZ”. My take is that it’s created us to all be the same. We’re on the same sites, having the same accounts, looking at the same things, and discussing the same issues. I hear this word “Connect” a lot and I want to know why people need to connect so much.

Let me first say that I have a private list of people on my Twitter account who I really like and chat with on a regular-ish basis. Don’t get me wrong, I use Twitter. I don’t have big, long discussions with them, or feel like I’ve found a Twitter family in cyberspace. Some people do, and I understand that being in the same career field, or just finding someone with similar interests is good. Librarians like to see what other librarians are up to. I’m assuming from the Tweets I read, that most of them are using a computer all day during the day as well. I’m still not sure how much of the usage can be personal since every place I’ve worked at (which was a public library, a public school, or a government contractor, mind you) didn’t allow us to use computers for personal use.

Anyway, for writers it makes sense as well because we’re sitting at home doing our work at a computer. Free reign! We can find new books to read and have chats about our word count. I like that, especially now that school is out, I’ll probably be on more than I have been recently. I’ve purposely not used Twitter as much this week since Steve’s been home and we had our holiday in the Lake District. We purposely wanted a holiday away from a lot of technology. So, I checked my feed, saw a couple of things I wanted to address when I got home, and that was it. I don’t think I’m missing much by not being online all the time. (I can say that my word count for Camp NaNoWriMo has suffered greatly though.)

There are millions of “writers” now, and that makes me depressed and ill beyond belief. Everyone has a computer now. Everyone has a Twitter account. Everyone thinks they should write a book. Doesn’t anyone else get angry about that? I wish the economy would go back to giving people some jobs so I don’t have to see the garbage flooding sites like Smashwords. Horrible book covers, horrible ideas, and just a wasteland of trash that is masking around as a novel. Yuck. I’ve had enough. There are even auto generated books being thrown into the mix. Makes me want to cry.

I thought about just making a new Twitter account and starting fresh because it’s nothing like it use to be. At first I was happy to find fellow writers, but I’ve just made my short, separate list of Peeps, and left it at that. My however-many followers, who knows what they’re doing? Do I care? Not really. Doing a mass clean-up is virtually impossible because of Twitter’s stupid ratio rules. I can’t even find articles about statistics of how many books are self-published a day, or how many indie writers there are in the world because the internet is flooded with Writer’s Tips! Good grief!

I’m probably one of the only people who longs for a time when people didn’t have to be connected. The people I talked to in email or chat where people I actual knew in real life. This is why I keep my Facebook page. I don’t post my Foursquare check ins to Twitter, because I only want my family and friends back in Florida to know what I’m up to. I love my Instagram because photography is just plain fun for me, but all in all, the addiction to technology is bringing me down in a major way.

Even my new phone isn’t the top selling gadget (a Samsung Galaxy SIII), because I don’t use it as much as I use to. Back a handful of years ago, the idea of sharing and having someone care what I said and did was so exciting. I would love to have that feeling back again, but I think it’s become so diluted with sameness that everyone is just mulling around like zombies, going about their regular business. I even use to get excited about my blog posts. *sigh*

The best Tweet I heard about writing last week was,

Write the next book and stop focusing on social media so much.

Amen to that. And lastly, for motivation to get the heck away from the computer for a while is from our friend Anais Nin,

My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.

Now, I’ll go share my quotes online and get back to doing stuff.

Beta readers and writing thieves

I think a lot about Henry Miller’s writing commandments about how you should finish what you’re working on and not think about the other things you can write later. I know it’s common to just get bored, or stuck, or burned out on what you’re doing. I have great ideas, then stop and second guess myself (this goes for a lot of other things I do as well as for writing.) But I’m trying to read more and get myself through the project even though I admit to dabbling in something else yesterday.

Of course, I wrote a bit, felt guilty, and will go back to the current work in progress.

So, I was reading an article on beta readers at The Creative Penn. I don’t really talk about what I’m writing, except here and there to my husband or immediate family. I’m a fairly private person to begin with, so spouting off ideas to the wide world of Twitter makes the magic seem to disintegrate. (Stephen King had a quote about that in On Writing, but I can’t find it anywhere.) But I asked Twitter about it, and people said they’ve found their beta readers in old friends in real life as well as on Twitter.

I distinctly remember a girl on Twitter a while back saying that she had a “good friend” steal her book idea. It was something about how she would talk to this friend about writing, told the girl her ideas for her next book. Later on the friend has a new book with the same exact plot line as the first author. Of course the first author was appalled and hurt by the whole betrayal, but what could she do? Especially in the realm of self-publishing if you had someone read a draft of a novel, couldn’t they feasibly life the whole thing and make it their own? Would there even be any kind of way to copyright that (not like you’d get any money from it, but the whole idea is pretty wrong so you’d want to get the thing off virtual shelves.)

My questions today are:

• If you have beta readers, how did you find them?
• Have any beta readers or even supposed friends taken your ideas and used them as their own?

ePublishing on a snowy Tuesday

Today I finally found a couple more places to publish my book:

The first chapter of The Cupcake Witches is on Wattpad and the full book is now available on Scribd. Apparently through BookTango it will also go to Google Books and Apple iBooks because I’ve yet to find it there even though I thought it was published to those sites via Smashwords.

It snowed a lot today. I stayed home because it was cold and my sinuses are still a wreck. Well, they were better but that only lasted a week. Ridiculous. Since it’s only 23F degrees outside now, I doubt I’ll be doing more than venturing out to the driver’s ed car tomorrow. Only two more lessons until I take the test again.

Links where I uploaded the book today:

The Cupcake Witches (The Cupcake Witches series Book #1): Chapter 1

The Cupcake Witches (The Cupcake Witches series, Book 1)

Right, time to do the washing before bed. Night!

Everyone want to rule the world

books by aigle_dore

200 million Americans want to publish a book.

256,618 people signed up for NaNoWriMo in 2011.

From 8,000 to 11,000 new publishers enter the field every year; they are mostly self-publishers.

These are the things writers have to take into account these days. No longer is the term “writer” used as a unique form of art that one crafts because of a driven passion that can only be satisfied by working and creating. Well, a lot are but not 8,000 per year.

It’s easier these days to create what you want and put it in a form where someone could see it. We’re no longer locked in our own little worlds, thinking we’re unique and special. There’s what we want to do, then there’s the whole world that’s doing what they want to do. Unfortunately, now everyone wants to do the same thing but not all of them want to do it for the same reasons.

It pains me to think that writing books has become like an Ebay seller store. Maybe someone out there will pay me some money for this junk. I know plenty of people are doing it because they want to write, and that’s absolutely fine. I’m happy that we have the means to get our work in print (and eprint) differently now. But I’m wondering what this is going to do to the book market in another year or so.

Anyway, it’s going to snow tomorrow.

Links to share for today:

Les Miserables Taught Me How to Hate Again

Fifty SHAPES of Grey - the exercise program!

Starting the new year

Today I walked in with Steve, who went back to work at the office again. It was such a dreary morning, and we woke up at 7AM so that whenever I do go back to work, my 6AM wake up call won’t be as hard to get adjusted to. The morning was just rainy, grey and dreary. I commented that everyone is always excited for the new year but when it comes down to it, it’s depressingly the same. Steve agreed and was bored by the idea of sitting in a quiet office as the rain came down all day.

I decided to start my Couch to 5K podcasts from the NHS. I liked them because the podcast host didn’t count down my 60 second jog and 90 second walk. She just prompted me for each stage and the time went by really quickly. Before, I was trying to do the walk to jog method on my own and staring at that clock on the treadmill makes you want to hurl yourself (and the treadmill) through the gym window.

It also helped that I now have my Nook Simple Touch so I was able to download Along for the Ride from the library and read that during my walking sessions. (I finally got this achieved after spending all yesterday afternoon fighting to get my PC to recognize the Nook until I finally de-registered it and registered it again fresh before it would work.) I also took the new netbook to the library cafe and took some notes on what projects to work on. After knowing how many millions of indie authors there are out there (and how many talented writers who aren’t published yet), I feel so blah going into the effort again. But, hey, I have to keep doing it.

When I got home I played some Skyrim, took my nap to ward off the stupid cough and sinus headache/earache crap that I’m still plagued with. Steve came home with a Christmas box that my parents had sent that was to be delivered on the 24th of Dec but since no one was at reception in his office, it was apparently put into a very wet depot until today. Every article of clothing we received in the presents had to be washed to get the mildew out of them. The magazines and mail was ruined and even the wrapping paper was damp. I’ll be phoning Parcel Force tomorrow to tell them uncalled their treatment of our mail has been.

Steve was ready to move to the US after today. Once we get my driver’s license and Leave to Remain we can do that whenever we want. Of course there are those pesky US Government loops to hop through. Yay.

Tomorrow it’s off to get my hair done (no highlights this time, just all over dark.) And I got my author update that Ali’s Pretty Little Lies is available now. Wee!

I (self) published my first book!

Introducing The Cupcake Witches!

Delia Bright has just started seventh grade. Now that her best friend, Travis is on the track team and her parents are busy at their restaurant, Delia is lonely. When she meets Fern, Irene, and Agnes, they realize that Delia's baking abilities are just what they need to create perfect spells. Delia's gift has hurt her family in the past, but she's too curious to not bake her magical cupcakes.

So, here it is! My book! This is the first in a series of young adult novels for middle grade readers. We wanted to get it published in time for Halloween, so Wednesday afternoon Steve finished up the very last image and I uploaded it to Smashwords and Amazon.

We’ve been working on this together for a while now. I started writing it last Spring so once I had the first draft, we could get the illustration ideas down, then there was a lot of editing, polishing, and formatting to go through.

I’ve been very excited to get the project out the door but once I did it felt weird. I was in two minds whether to even tell my Facebook friends about it because that’s criticism from people I’ve actually known my whole life. But when I posted the link, saying that Steve and I put the book up online, they were proud of me. I think they even thought I was published, and then I felt guilty, as if I’d tricked them somehow.

But then I realized I shouldn’t. We did an awesome job and we specifically wrote this for self-publication. Everywhere I looked, Writer’s and Artists included, said not to submit a book with illustrations in to an agent. Publishers like to choose an illustrator themselves, according to them. The whole purpose of our project was for us to work together and when we found out we could publish ourselves online, we went that route.

Still, once that book was online, I felt nervous, sick, anxious, you name it. I’m now in the club of self-published writers. I have to market and promote (without being a pain in the rump, of course). This is a whole new territory. Before the book is online, I was able to sit back comfortably and be on the side-lines. I’m the kind of writer who likes keeping things to herself until absolutely necessary. Now I’m here, looking at swapping book reviews and creating giveaways. I like it though. I’m promoting something I really enjoy doing, so it’s all worth it.

Now I am working on the second book in the series for NaNoWriMo and our next step is to get this first book available in print on CreateSpace this month. I’m really happy to be in the ranks of the rest of my indie publishing authors whom I’ve talked to so much over the years. It’s amazing how much we can do these days with a computer and a big imagination.