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.

New Gizmo

This blog post comes to you courtesy of the Verizon store and their new wifi cell internet access. Actually I am paying thru the nose for this so they just were the outlet I bought it from. 5 gig for $50. Wow! Ten bucks a gigabyte. Now the question is how much of this kind of stuff can I do with $10 bucks?

What's this mean to you, my readers? I just might get a post off more often and be able to even prepare and write some good stuff for this space. No promises and don't hold your breath.

I currently have two books ready for Smashwords. Now I can get my account all set up and up load. All I need are covers.

Anybody do cover art. I need with a rip roaring cowboy shooting at something in the distance from behind a bush/tree/rock. Then I need one that has a jig saw puzzle showing a cross and an empty tomb (faint) with many pieces of the puzzle not in place, could be missing or lying on the puzzle board.

Interested?  $50 for the each of the two I use. Must be in color.

Working on a story now which will need a teen boy, teen girl, a cougar, in a boulder field. A shotgun and rifle could be included. Double barreled shotgun definitely a must.

Til next time, keep writing.

Invasion

What would happen to the Governor below if Mexico invaded Arizona after the President refused help of any kind stating flatly, "You don't want our money, we don't give assistance without strings."

What happens next?

Go write.

Arizona

Imagine a Governor tuff enuff to stand up the the Federal Government and say, "We don't want any more Fed $$$$$." Well, that's what she did, the Governor of Arizona with the full backing of her legislature, told the Fed to keep it.

What will happen?

What do you think?

Now write.

BORING

When I was a 6th grade teacher I would hear, "I'm bored," all the time. It usually meant I don't have anything to do THAT I WANT TO DO. It never had anything to do with having nothing to do. Although, at times the to do part of the brain shut down and was able to read the list of to do's on the green board.

Well, I am bored. I have nothing to do that I want to do and what I want to do is impossible to do where I am. Where I am has a bit to do with what I want to do, but doesn't help in the category of getting it done, or should I say, "Doed," at this juncture. So, instead I will get something else done which I had no intention of doing this day.

Okay, so it  makes no sense. I agree. I really want to write, but editing is what needs to happen. I need to finish my website and get the store on line. Then there is the NaNoWriMo books to edit and finish. I want to get my first three books on SmashWords, but I have trouble making sense of the directions for formatting and do not understand the reason why. Besides all that, I left the directions at home and don't have a printer in this motel room. Someone needs to invent, its probably out there, a small printer that will fit in my backpack office closet for a guy like me to use on the road. I remember back about 25 years someone made an Apple compatible printer that attached to the back of the Apple 2e console and was hand fed one sheet at a time to print out anywhere you wanted haul that big clunky thing (by today's standards).

You have read my rambling long enough, get writing.

Editing

Editing appears to be the toughest part of writing. It is righting our writing for publisher Wright. Sorry, I just had to say that and get it out once and for all. It is amazing that as you edit a piece you wrote days, weeks, or months ago, you find all manner of puzzles to decipher.
For example, in a paragraph concerning a female and a cat I found the following; He view the far aittin in the dosill. 
I know the He had to be She but the rest eluded me until I started looking at the keyboard and thinking of the context this was written to be in. Bottom line, this passage should have read, She saw the cat sitting on the windowsill. Not an exciting passage, but one that fit the paragraph and situation. 
Enjoy your editing.

Excitement

Have you gone to the NaNoWriMo site or gotten their latest e-mail?  They are planning things for the whole year. What have you done with the work you did during November? Have you edited yet? Maybe February ought to be NaNoEdMo for all of us.

As for me, I will be digging out the thumb drive with VENGEANCE on it and editing. The one piece of advise I took to heart for November was to turn off the editor inside me. I pulled out the printout of chapter One a week or so ago and was sickened by the typos and misspellings in the first two pages.  Oh, well, nobody asks for perfect on the first draft, do they?

Is there anyone who would like to work together on editing each other's work?

Keep writing.