Well, I sold a story to Daily Science Fiction. I will link when the story goes up.
The writing goes well. Even the stuff that gets rejected is good enough to e-publish myself. The best part is that I'm having fun writing adventure fiction. It exercises imagination and plotting ability. I surprise myself daily by achieving a level of writing I did not know I could reach.
I'll be getting into e-publishing. I've been reading some interesting blogs on self-publishing, such as Dean Wesley Smith's, David Gaughran's and Bob Mayer's.
The great things about putting fiction up on Kindle, Nook, etc. and making POD books are: 1) You get a lot of the money and have total control, because you are the publisher and there is no bloodsucking tic of an agent to take 15%; and 2) Your work stays available forever instead of sitting on the shelf for a month and then being remaindered.
The bad things are: 1) You have to do all the work publishers used to do; and 2) You will never make George R.R. Martin-J.K. Rowling-Stephen King kind of money -- your books will never make it to the tables in Costco.
But smart writers don't miss any option. Try to get a traditional publisher, and if that fails, publish it yourself. Or publish it, then send a letter to a traditional publisher offering them a free copy and saying you will take it down if they want to publish your book. All of this can be done without agents taking 15%.
As I publish, this blog will become part of my marketing plan. I'll have to change the name of the blog to my real name, William Greeley, and blog more actively. Using this blog might not be a good idea, as my views are not mainstream. I offend everyone, left and right. Is that a good marketing strategy?
I would announce the name of my self-publishing house, but I need to get the url first. Do I need to copyright the name? What is that process?
Should I get a checking account in the business's name? Smith says so. What if a store writes a check to the publishing name instead of my name?
This is an exciting time for writers. The internet has opened more possibilities than any time since the golden age of pulp fiction.
Speaking of which, I just read that H. Bedford-Jones, known as "King of the Pulps," regularly wrote 5,000-10,000 words a day -- on a typewriter -- and was capable of writing an entire 25,000-word novella in one day. That's 100 pages! At a penny a word, he would make $250 for that one day's work. At a time when lunch cost 15 cents, $250 would buy you last year's car.
If he can write 20-40 pages a day on a typewriter, surely I can write 10 on a computer. The key is motivation, and knowing I have the internet self-publishing option is quite motivating.
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3 comments:
Wow. Sounds VERY cool. I hope it goes well.
"As I publish, this blog will become part of my marketing plan. I'll have to change the name of the blog to my real name, William Greeley, and blog more actively. Using this blog might not be a good idea, as my views are not mainstream. I offend everyone, left and right. Is that a good marketing strategy?"
Why use your existing Myrhaf blog for that instead of just starting a second, brand new one from scratch? There's no rule or anything on blogger that forbids people having more than one blog if the content meets their terms and conditions (i.e., no spam blogs)
Also, if you are going to get a URL, you might consider having your blog at that URL. WordPress is free and very easy to install, maintain and update.
Anyhow, today's world IS a great opportunity for new writers, musicians, artists, etc to acquire an audience that the "gatekeepers" of the past would have prevented them from reaching. The downside is for those who DO make it big in a big way. Making it "big" in the future will likely involve smaller audiences than it did in the past - as is the case today with music sales. I read somewhere a comment made about the music industry - in the new world there will be far fewer artists who become super rich, but many, many more who will be able to make a living off their music. And for the rest of us it means more options than could have even been imagined in the past.
Caveat: This is my completely non-expert and off-the-cuff opinion.
I wonder if you need to worry about your non-mainstream views. I think of the authors I've enjoyed over the years, and all of them had publicly held non-mainsteam views. Some of them even influenced the philosophic direction of my life, heh. Especially if you're going to write science fiction or adventure - the audiences for those actively *want* non-mainstream views.
But, like I said, non-expert here.
I see what you're saying, Dismuke -- that it would be better to start a new blog that would serve as most writers' blogs do, as PR. Up to now this blog has served primarily as a soap box. It would be awkward to completely change its purpose. Old readers would be a little confused, and new readers would look through the archives and be even more confused.
Of course, since we started New Clarion, this blog has been growing weeds.
I think I wanted to change use Myrhaf because if I start a new blog, Myrhaf will be done. Finito, over, moth balls. I was hoping to keep the archives from 2006 on at the new blog.
I went ahead and bought the url for 99 cents and 1+1. I looked into a trademark, and they want $159 that I don't have.
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