Monday Mailbox ~ Why Would You...

It's Monday and time to answer your questions.

Why would you stop being a traditionally published author and just do self-publishing? Isn't it cutting off your nose to spite your face? CM

My response was this and I've said it over and over again in this blog...

Dear CM,

For years my husband has been terminal with cancer. He's outlived every projected time frame for his demise. At the time I had a tentative contract with a subsidiary of a Big 6 publisher. I had a job in my own consulting firm, teaching culinary arts part-time, part time as a traveling minister, and writing. It was old hat to me, my writing life had always been a thing I wanted to do because I enjoyed it. Yeah I've always been an type-A overachiever.

I'd always dreamed of writing fact based fiction and dabbled at it in between contracts for nonfiction. In short after my husband had two heart attacks and a stroke in six months, and two months later was diagnosed with cancer, I ended up returning my partial advance and canceling my contract with the publisher. I just couldn't do a book written at this time in my life. There was just too much turmoil. I ended up telling my partners in my firm to buy me out of the business. See I'm an overachiever that recognizes my limitations.

After a seven year hiatus from publishing, I toyed with the idea of publishing again. During my hiatus I wrote four novels. I contacted my agents and was told that they didn't handle what I wrote. I'd have to search for another agent.

I searched for three years getting rejection letter after rejection letter. I'd been away from the business for seven years and things had changed in the business like author promotion except for reviews was now handled by the author and you needed a platform. I was also breaking into a new field of writing...fiction which is a harder sell. Although I had a proven record of sales in nonfiction, I was basically as the bottom of the slush piles of agents. It was a position I had no experience in. So I didn't really rejected my agents or publishers. They rejected me.

I also knew I couldn't leave my husband to traipse off hither and yon to go to this or that book signing, conference, or television show. I was stuck. At the time email and snail mail were big for promotion. MySpace was in its infancy but gaining ground. Self publishing was losing its vanity press stigma. E-books was still a new thing with a 10% of the reading market. I let the fact that I couldn't sell my fiction stew and fester. I decided to continue learning the craft of fiction writing. I'm still learning.

Enter FaceBook, twitter, and Google + to open up new avenues to promote self published fiction. They were to tools I needed to put myself out there without leaving home. I already was blogging and had a website which was the very basic tools I needed. I took college course that were up to date on web enhanced promotion and marketing. I read everything written on the subjects of web marketing and platform building.

Yes, I still plan on continuing a hybrid relationship between self publishing and traditional. Why cut off my nose to spite my face. I can have both butter and jam on my bread if I want to. The market is changing again from the big market to novellas and shorts versus saga type reads. Indie authors are making the best sellers lists by the handfuls, and the distinction between traditionally published versus indie published are crumbling. And no, I do not think traditional publishing is dying. It's just going through an identity crisis, and slowly listening to authors and readers. But the fact is, my husband is still living and I am still his caregiver. That is my priority.

Why would you pass up traditional publishing your manuscript?

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Wednesday Writerly Ways ~ Taking up the Gauntlet

This week on my blogs I've been talking about challenges, in case you hadn't notice. On Tuesday, I used the word challenge and compared it to Don Quixote tilting at windmills. Taking up the challenge to be an author and what it takes.

Imagine if you will, you are a medieval knight on a crusade to conquer the dragon, a fierce, fire breathing beast set on burning or devouring anything its path. That's you sitting astride the horse in heavy armor, lance in your hand and sword at your side.

Your crusade

• to write
• to edit
• to find an agent
• to get a publisher

Your goal is to protect hearth and home. Knowing they are secure by your actions. Seems pretty lofty and daunting doesn't it?

The challenges or obstacles:

To Write
There are several things you need to write before you even start your story.

• The kernel- the basic idea of the story whether it be an idea or question that needs to be answered. For my current WIP (work in progress)- What if you looked at the things you do during recovery as humor instead of woe for abilities you've lost?
• The talent and creativity- knowledge of how to get the words to play well with each  other to support the kernel. This can be the hardest part even with extensive knowledge of the subject. It is also one of the things that I love about writing and one of the most challenging.
• Figuring out the beginning, middle, and the end.
• The time to get it all on paper or in your computer. Stolen moments where you work towards your dreams or goals. IMHO (in my humble opinion) If you aren't working towards your dreams or goals, you are just taking up space. You will be forever discontented. 
• It takes a lot of words to carry your point across and complete your manuscript. Is your kernel strong enough? In my case, forty short stories and growing.

To Edit
Perchance to publish.

• This gets tricky because it based on your knowledge and your knowledge may NOT be correct.
• Having other eyes to catch mistakes be it a critique group or hire an editor.
• It has to perfect or nearly perfect to get an agent or publisher. They get millions of submissions a year. Yours has GOT to stand out.
• Don't be in a life long commitment to what you wrote the way you wrote it. You may love it and others hate it.
• Can your take constructive criticism? Have you got a thick enough skin? Better at this stage than when the public gives it. The readers are your livelihood. They put the margarine on your bread and ask for more.

Getting an agent and publisher are mute points if you plan on indie publishing as I did. But, to go indie the first two points need to be spot on. The readers of indie published books hold the writer to a higher standard than traditionally published authors. After all, there is no middle man to blame.

Are you ready to gird your armor, face the dragon, and take up the gauntlet?

Keep writing and loving the Lord.

Wednesday Writerly Ways ~ How do You Know...

As an indie author, how do you know when it is time to publish? This is a toughie. There isn't just one answer. For me I could spend years tweaking sentences and never publish. So how do you know?

As a rule of thumb, my books will pass through six editing passes. It will go past six set of eyes at a minimum and critique group. It will be read aloud line for line, passed on to beta readers for content, and finally published. This process can be long or short depending on all of the parties involved, but still there will be some errors.

That's twelve pairs of eyes besides mine! With traditional publishing, that's how many hands your book will go through. So what's the difference? The people who view your book through professional eyes.

What does it take to have professional eyes, a degree in English, maybe. A slew of published books, maybe. Market savvy, maybe. Fortune tellers, ding,ding we have an answer. They foretell what the reader will be interested in reading 18 months to three years in the future. I don't know about you, but what I was interested in two years ago is nothing like what I am interested in now. And with traditional agents and publisher, they do it all in the first 50 - 250 words written.

Traditional publishers are also known as the gatekeeper. They dictated what the public reads. The indie authors have proved them wrong by appearing on the NYT best sellers list by storming the gate.

So how do you know when a book is finished? For me, it's when I think I've done everything I've done has worked. Will it be error free, probably not. But there's always the hope, that it is. Even the professionals aren't error free, but the author rarely hears about it as much as the indie published author. Someone in the publishing industry hears it first, maybe.

The indie author hears all. Readers expect perfection and hold the author to higher standards than the traditionally published author.  After all, they can put the blame on one person. It's simpler for the critics. All I can say is put your best foot forward as you possibly can, and hope for the best. It helps to have a thick skin too.  When you publish is up to you.  :o)

Keep writing and loving the Lord.