Coming Soon

How long does it take to write a book? Great question.  It takes as long as it takes. From first word in 1981 until the middle of February 2014 my first book was in the mill.  With the crash of the western market it was rejected and otherwise abused 45 times, with over 75% of those being the old familiar,  "Does not meet our needs at this time. Try us again."  20 of them said, "Liked it. No market, sorry." or something similar. 

It is now in the proofing stage with createspace.com.

Never give up.

SELF PUBLISHING

It has been a pleasure to search and communicate with various agents and publishing houses who, after reading a three page synopsis, have decided that my writing isn't worth their time. Having read many of these letters in the course of my research into writer-agent/publisher communications, there is no way a great book can be found. They all sound like the last story of that genre. SO, I have looked into self-publishing and now understand why it is taking off like crazy with authors and readers alike.

1. Books are much cheaper to produce.
2. Books are much cheaper to purchase.
3. Authors make more money.
4. Readers save more money.
5. With companies like Smashwords, I can do all the work and set up the book on line thru their service, have it go to a bazzilion outlets thru their distribution list, all for $0. If I purchase an ISBN from them for a nominal fee, my book also goes to two or three more monster sales points.
6. What have I got to lose? A few hours reformatting (Which they give me complete instructions to do) and a few Kilobytes of upload.
7. I can even do my own cover. (see previous post)

PS: a friend of mine is doing the same thing thru another outfit and spending $7,000.  The only difference is she will be able to get paper copies when she is willing to pay for them. Pub on demand added in other words.

Being extremely cheap, $0 is much better than $7000 spent to find out if my books have a market. If they do   pub on demand is still an option. How about researching truly self publishing and binding, as in do-it-at-home.

Time to go write.

Rejections

Looking over the Writer's Market it seems like the Publishers (of whatever) really don't want any new writers in their stables.  Either that or they are just trying to keep the agents busy and out of their hair. One book publisher whose website I checked out, as requested in the Writer's Market (WM), stated flatly that any unrequested manuscripts would be trashed and not opened. Another had the comment in the WM they would accept email submissions to a certain editor on their website. The email address doesn't work. There was another one that didn't even want query letters.

I guess it's just like a fella having a stable full of really good horses. He doesn't need to buy any more. Why waste the time and money looking? What happens when the rustlers come and steal them or they die of a rare tropical disease or they just disappear when the UFO comes and beams them up? NO HORSES. Panic time when he needs a horse.

Now, I don't whinny, but I do write. I have been fortunate enough to get published a few times. If I can write a story or article well enough to get them published and get paid, why can't I interest an agent or a publisher with a query letter or a manuscript?

Did you ever go to a used car dealer? Listen to the salesperson's description of the car. Is the car as good as the salesperson says it is? Is it even the same car?

Okay, I'll quit whining and get to work.

Join me for NaNoWriMo. This will be my first try.  50,000 words in 30 days, piece of cake (if I have nothing else to do in November), but I am going for it using my new best seller, VENGEANCE, as the project.

So, keep writing.