Tuesday, September 4, 2012

TMI

So, here I am sitting in front of my keyboard staring at my current "in-progress" books. Over the past month or so, I've added words to 4 of them. I know that most people suffer from writer's block, but what do you do when you have too much information in your head and you can't figure out how to productively channel it all?

I mean, I've got solid ideas that I feel compelled to get onto digital paper...I just can't prioritize them!

I don't know what's up with my muse. Maybe she's been partying too much or something. If she could simply make up her damn mind, I might be able to get something done. As is, I'm making progress on all 4 books, but it is really slllooooowwwww progress. Sure, I'd love to be able to finish 4 books within the same month, but I don't want to wait a year or more to do it.

I was actually doing pretty good on Cierra. Good focus for at least a week. Then, I listened to an audio book at work and suddenly I started thinking about a different project. I started thinking about it so much that now I can't think about Cierra anymore! On top of that, I feel my own internal pressure to get the next Striker book done. It has been a while, after all, since Shirakuh was finished.

And then, of course, there is the Faerie Tale. The cursed Faerie Tale that seems to be the bane of my very sanity. I've nearly resolved myself to the notion that it will never be completed, and I would do better to just shove the whole thing into a drawer and try to forget about it.

Did I mention that I started writing a musical?

Seriously, what's up with this muse? I think she's on drugs.

So, if anyone has any suggestions...I'm all ears.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

Self-Publishing...THPTPTH!

Hello my minions!

This is my premier blog post. I hope that I am able to continue with this endeavor and start to build an audience for my mental musings and literary scribbles. That said...I'm probably going to anger some people with this one. My friend list count will plummet!

After spending the last two years tinkering around in the self-publishing world, I have come to the following conclusions:

  • I have not written anything substantial in the past two years. 
  • Grammar is a thing of the past. Feel free to ignore it and spread the ignorance. (The rules will eventually change to accommodate you, anyway.)
  • The market will soon be flooded with horrible books. (If it hasn't already, I honestly don't have the time to go panning for gold in that river.)
  • Cover art and a good opening hook are way more important than a solid story. (After all, it just needs to be good enough that they buy it right? You don't need a fan base. Just change your pen name for the next book you write.)
  • It is better to write a book that will be popular for a year rather than a book that will last generations. So, feel free to use today's "hot topics" and catch phrases. I'm sure people twenty years from now will understand what you mean.
  • The internet is full of "experts" who will happily tell you what you are doing wrong. (It will far out-weigh what you are doing right, I'm sure.)
You're still here? Well, you probably fit into two of three possible categories then. The first being those people who agree with what I said, and the second being those people who just came here because we're related...thanks, Pix. (The third, of course, are the people who I'm talking about...and they probably didn't read past the fourth point.)

As I think about the direction in which I was being pushed to make my book more marketable, I realize that some of my favorite books would never make it in the self-publishing world. I am a huge fan of Robert Asprin's "Myth Adventures" (the torch has been handed off to Jody Lynn Nye, now, if you are curious. RIP Robert, you are missed). While they were never as successful as they could have been, I enjoyed every one of them completely and totally. So...I'm the freak, right? I mean, you could never accuse me of being "trendy" or "popular"...(of which I am eternally grateful, thank you, very much). If Mr. Asprin had been rejected and those books were never published, it would have greatly impacted my life. The reason I started writing was because of Myth Adventures. After I read all the Myth books my brother (and his friend Bill Fisher) had, I asked him for something similar (he read a lot more than I did). Guess what! There weren't any. Sure, there were other good books, but nothing like the Myth books. So, I started writing my own...and the rest, as they say, is...er, well, I hope it isn't history yet. I haven't even published anything.

Harry Potter was rejected by every publishing house JK Rowling sent it to. Why? Probably because it didn't fit their "market mould". Just imagine the world without Harry Potter for a moment. It almost happened. If Bloomsbury hadn't decided to give it a shot, the whole thing could have been lost to The Great Circular Bin In The Corner Of The Room.What a tragedy that would have been...don't you agree?

Another huge influence on my style and writing development was Douglas Adams. I think most people by now know Mr. Adams' work. I think it is safe to say that his voice and style are unique to the publishing world. Only a certain number of people will "get it". (That number will probably decrease with devolution of mankind...thank you, Devo...Duty Now!) Just to drive that home...The Harry Potter series has sold about 450 million copies. Let's assume each individual book sold an equal share, just to be fair...which means the first book sold 64 million copies and has been on the market for 15 years. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was published in 1979, has been on the market for 33 years, and has sold only 14 million copies.

To be honest, though, Adams and Asprin had more impact on me than Rowling did. Okay, maybe it was because I didn't get to read Rowling until I was an adult (well set in my ways). But still, I've been affected by other authors, too. (Dean Koontz, Stephen R. Donaldson, Roger Zelazny, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and F. Paul Wilson just to name a few.) Were any of these wild successes? Not really. Not to Potter levels, anyway. Would they have succeeded in the self-publishing world? Hard to say.

I guess what it boils down to is my fifth point above. (Go ahead and go look, I'll wait...ready? Okay.) I don't write books in an attempt to become famous or rich. I write books because...1.) I enjoy writing books and 2.) I have the hopes that some day...somewhere...someone will enjoy one of them as much as I enjoyed Mr. Asprin's books (and those other books, too, of course...)

If I had the choice of choosing between having one major breakthrough success that died out after a couple years (ie Twilight) or a small faithful audience of people who thoroughly enjoy what I write (Xanth?)...yeah, I'd pick the latter. (For those that fall into point #2 above...Lat-ter Adjective: 1. Situated or occurring nearer to the end of something than to the beginning) Self-publishing will probably never give me either one of those, though. That is why I am abandoning it as a viable option.

What options do I have left? Traditional publishing, of course! Oh yeah, I forgot...I don't write books that fit into their commercial market view. Damn.