These are my memes for today: Crazy Writing Goals & Celebrate the Small Things. I’m wondering whether indie publishing is the way forward, if I have no investment for the many things one needs to invest in as an author/publisher. And celebrating a little further down… come and join the discussion.
Hello goalstars!
Well, my longterm goal is to have my trilogy written and published by the end of 2014!
Question: So what have I been up to this past month?
Answer: Not a fat lot!
I hired another editor
Book one still isn’t right. Yes, I’m on the verge of being obsessed with this now 🙁 Still, I seized control and blew the budget (of zero) to hire an editor. This will be this novel’s second hired editor (although there have been many beta readers and critique partners in between the two).
I’m hoping to shed stuff, curb stuff, restructure stuff, and finally feel a little happier with it. I CANNOT move forward otherwise. Book two will only run smooth if the set up is a good enough foundation.
As Author / Publisher, I made a business plan!
I need investment to make this business (like any new business) work, and to make all my writing efforts worthy of anyone’s attention. I don’t have it.
I’ve figured out how to format for electronic and print books, and learned how to make a decent book cover – money saving skills – but I still need editors. I simply cannot do without. Some author/publishers have told me that as long as the book’s been written using critique partners and had the gracious favour of beta readers, it shouldn’t need a professional editor, too. But that’s not true in my experience, or the general consensus.
I’ve even seriously considered dropping the whole going pro deal and sticking to writing for myself. I’m still wavering somewhere in between. To avoid this, I’m also considering (once completed) trying for a small publisher to take on the many jobs of a publisher. Of course, that’s not to say anyone will want to take it (or me) on. Can I tolerate many rejections? Do I have a choice? Well, I once thought so, and I would have a choice with investment.
So, what is next?
Quit whining. Improve on what I have with the editor’s suggestions. Research a few publishers and submit, I guess. I’m scared! Meanwhile, get on with the revisions of book two and attempt to gather resources.
I’ve begun offering a few services on Elance.com, so we’ll see if I can earn some of those resources. You never know. 🙂
How are the rest of you doing on your mega goals? Have you had issues with financing your dreams?
Have you tried the traditional model and found it good (or lacking?) And suggestions for a small publisher for me to submit to (dark fantasy / spec-fic)? 🙂 Any other advice you would like to offer?
This post is part of VikLit‘s blog hop, Celebrate the Small Things.
Today I’m celebrating finding a little focus with regards to writing. I’ve been stuck in the fog for a while now and the relief is huge!
Happy Celebrations to you all!
Well, I do think more and more things publishing are going indie. I’m a hybrid. But if you don’t have an initial investment it can be hard. Maybe, you could self publish shorter works because they take less of an investment and query longer works? Or something like that.
I’d like to go hybrid at some point. I hoped to learn my trade and build a base wit self-publishing first. But we’ll see. I’ve considered a Kickstarter campaign and signed up to Elance to offer services. We’ll see. I may have to start busking! 🙂
Setting goals is the easy part. The hard part is following through. It sounds like you’ve got some challenging goals and I wish you the best with them. My goals currently involve participating in NaNoWriMo this year which I hadn’t intended to do. But I’m hoping it will be a beneficial experience for me.
NaNo is fun and a great push forward. I wish I had time to do it this year, but I’ll climb back on next year. Best of luck with that. X
Your goal is ambitious. I agree you need to make your first novel right. This writing business is frustrating isn’t it?
You’re not wrong Ruth! 🙂
Actually, the big reason why I signed with a publisher was that I couldn’t afford to pay for editing. 😀
The way I see it, CPs and betas are good for getting books into query shape, but not publishing shape.
I agree with you there Misha, and my main reason to sign with a publisher for editing costs, too. I can do everything else myself. That said, I’m beginning to see the benefits people such as yourself get and envy you for not having to do everything else yourself. It’s a heavy load. X
Yay for finding a little focus with writing, I just did as well… I was beginning to freak out. lol
A business plan is smart. I have to really think about my next move as well. I have no advice, but I do agree that having your novel edited professionally is wise. This whole industry is changing so I think a small publisher is worth a try, I wish you the best of luck 😉
Cheers S.K! You too. 🙂
I plan on becoming a hybrid a some point and if I didn’t have money for editing, I would consider going with a small press.
Only you can decide whether the story feels right or not. Maybe set it aside for a month or two, come back, and read it. Maybe the answers will become a lot more obvious.
I would not publish without putting my MS through an editor, but that’s me. 🙂
Thanks for your recommendation. I think small press might be worth a look too. 🙂
I’m glad you’re no longer in a fog! I also want to tell you a little story. After writing and revising Soul Cutter for a year (w/8 CPs and 4 betas), I still wasn’t happy. Every negative comment stayed with me while I ignored the positive. I told my group I was shelving it for a few months and would then rewrite it eventually. But I put the first five pages in WriteOnCon — and I got 2 full requests from ninja agents prowling the site. I sent those off, and then queried every agent known to man. I got a lot of requests followed by a lot of rejections for very DIFFERENT reasons. When I finally got accepted by a small publisher, and got a real editor, do you know how much of my ms she changed? 5% — leaving 95% intact. Why? Because there was nothing wrong with it. Before WriteOnCon, I just got obsessed with it not being some ideal of perfection I was imagining.
My point is, unless you hear the same complaints from 3-4 people, you may be chasing some imagined perfection. Everyone will want something tweaked a little. As long as they’re not in agreement, it’s probably a much better book than you think it is. And every book you write will be better, so don’t get obsessed with one.
Aw, thanks so much for that Lexa. It’s good to hear your perspective. And you’re right, I do try to follow the guidance only it feels right to me, and/or has been mentioned a few times. I learned not to take advice blindly… not cool! X
Congrats on finding your focus!
Thanks Vik.
On the one hand, I completely agree that books need professional editors. On the other hand, they ARE expensive, and you have and one for this book already.
While going forward, have you considered joining a writing workshop like OWW and uploading your chapters as you write them? I’m not a member of OWW at the moment, but I learned so much there, both from the critiques I got and the critiques I gave, that it’s absolutely amazing. Individual chapter critiques might be more detailed than what you would get from Beta readers, and might help you identify problems before you get too far into the book.
Whatever you decide, good luck!
I have had a few critique partners, but reliable and consistent ones are hard to find it seems. I’ll try that OWW out. Thanks Ruth. 🙂