3 Reasons to Daydream Your Way to DBDO Tomorrow

Danny does a great job drawing attention to other bloggers. Well worth participating in. 🙂

Being Indie Doesn’t Mean Being Bad

This is a “Go To Hell” article. Yes, I was bound to write one of these sooner or later, so without further ado…

There is a particular perception that I have been running into lately regarding those who choose to independently publish. It tends to take the following forms and I will address them in my own particular way:

Perception: Indie Authors aren’t good enough to get a Traditional Publisher so they can’t be very good.

Reality: Indie Authors are like any other writers in that they have to compete for swimming space in The Slush Pile. We write, edit, and format the best stories we can and send them out. However, we are competing with hundreds of thousands in a market that often requires instant bestseller with little to no investment. Unless that rejection slip specifically states that your writing sucks, you’re just a victim of numbers and not deficient creative quality. Some of us have tried the Traditional Route for years with no success and decided to put our stuff out by ourselves.

Perception: If you don’t have a professional editor and/or cover designer, you are going to fail.

Reality: I’ve had this one told to me by freelance editors and cover designers and it really pisses me off. Prices on these guys can run anywhere from hundreds to thousands of dollars and there’s no guarantee of success either way. Some of us start the Old School Way with a day job and little money to spend on much more than office supplies. I realize that they are selling their services, but using the Hard Sell on someone that you know can’t afford it is ridiculous and a sure-fire turn off. Thank you, but I’ll take my chances with my own editing experience.

Perception: You shouldn’t put out so many books in a year because you should focus on quality over quantity.

Reality: I read this in a recent Huffington Post article. The author was putting forth the notion that more quantity equals less quality and unless you are guaranteeing a literary masterpiece, you shouldn’t publish more than four books a year. I don’t hold to that idea because I personally write and publish because I enjoy to write and publish. The quality of my work is implied and I make every effort to put my best out there. After all, my name’s on the cover.

Perception: Since you have to do all the work yourself, maybe you should quit this Indie Thing and go back to submitting to Traditional Publishers.

Reality: This was told to me by a “friend” who had no experience with literature, writing, or publishing, yet felt compelled to impose their worldly wisdom upon me. I won’t repeat my exact response but it fell somewhere between “Kiss my Ass” and “No Thanks, I have writing to do.”

On another note, Parallax hasn’t gotten any recorded sales yet, but I am noticing a lot of reads popping up on the Kindle Unlimited Side. I’m still learning how to interpret these numbers, but it looks to me like a good thing. I wish I had more time to be neurotic about it, but I’m deep into working on Lights and Shadows for December.

Finally, I say do your own thing and tell the cranks to Go To Hell. In the nicest possible way, of course. 😉

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Thank You

I wanted to take a moment in between all the writerly scribblings I usually do on here to thank all those who follow and enjoy this blog.

When I started “Thoughts, Musings and Storytelling”, I didn’t have a clear direction where I wanted the blog to go other than to showcase my writing and put out information regarding my books.

August was the month where the Blog took on a life of its own and it’s been an interesting journey ever since and I have all of you to thank for the bursts of inspiration that have carried me through to today and beyond. While I may miss a day or two for one reason or another, rest assured that as long as I have a topic to write about, there will be an article.

Ever Forward. 🙂

Picking Up The Slack

I write on a schedule. Now, that might ruffle a few feathers on the more casual crowd, and justifiably so, but I find that putting myself in the Writing Habit forces me to create.

The Title of this article is Picking Up The Slack and it refers to those times when you take a day off from Writing to do other things, like yesterday when I spent most of the day playing an old computer game favorite, Red Alert 2. While I had a great time building bases and armies to crush my AI opponents, I couldn’t help but think that I had a new novel pending and should be working on it. This is the “Slack” Part.

The “Picking Up” Part came into play later as I realized that I have no overseer to crack a whip and make me write. I also have no one else to do the writing for me. I either do it and make up for the time spent elsewhere or find a way to adjust my schedule to accommodate and deal with the consequences of missing a deadline. I use self-imposed deadlines to keep me on track. If the deadlines were externally imposed, that would be a different situation and a completely different conversation.

Unfortunately, when I take time away from Writing, I’m taking it away from ALL Writing. Stories, Blog, the whole Kittin Shaboodle and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Breaks are good things and doing anything, even that which you love, can drive you nuts after a while. The point here is to realize that a commitment doesn’t go away just because you feel like not honoring it.

Take all the breaks you want, but remember that it’s waiting for you when you get back.