Reader Question: To Self-publish or Not to Self-publish, That is the Question
Blondishnet recently asked: What are your thoughts on ‘self-publishing?’ Would you recommend it? And if so, for whom? This is a good question, the answer to which will not be remotely surprising. No, I do not recommend self-publishing except in the following instances: You are writing a family memoir that you only intend family to read. You are making a photo book of some sort and have no intention of selling it. Unless you’re creating something that will only be appealing to people close to you, such as friends and family, avoid self-publishing like the plague. The reason? Because it can damage a potential writing career, there are too many companies that intentionally and unintentionally prey on people who don’t know any better, and almost nobody fully understands what they are getting themselves into when they do self-publish. But I will elaborate here just a bit. When you decide to self-publish you need to face the stark reality that you will not only get absolutely zero respect in the publishing community, because you likely don’t deserve it, and that most likely your writing will be atrocious–and people will notice. Most people who self-publish do not pay for editing services, and those that do rarely pay for decent editing service, settling for line-by-line work, rather than having someone actually tear apart the manuscript. If you’ve been rejected by legitimate publishers, you should probably start asking yourself why. Is it possible that you suck? Or maybe your manuscript isn’t good enough or still needs a lot of work? This isn’t like the short story market where there can often be a flood of good stories that get rejected simply because there isn’t space. Legitimate publishers reject novels for very good reasons and very (and I do mean very) rarely do they reject perfectly good manuscripts–yes, it happens, but when that happens you’ll likely know about it, which should be an encouragement. If your novel was rejected, you should ask yourself why rather than throwing up your hands and self-publishing. And here’s the thing: self-published authors feel like they should get respect by default, as if being published by a firm like Lulu or Booksurge or whatever is the same as being picked up by Tor or Randomhouse or some other legitimate press. You are not the same as Stephen King, because you have opted to cheat the system, a system which works and which pays authors for their writing. In cheating, you’ve put out a manuscript that will most likely be seriously flawed, and now you expect folks to take their hard-earned dollars and give them to you because you say your book is good, even though it was not professionally edited, has a crappy cover, and was essentially paid for by you to be put into print by a company that doesn’t give a flying fig whether your novel is any good. And that’s just it: self-publishing firms DO NOT care if your book is good or utter filth. They want to make a quick buck, and I won’t begrudge them that, except where they lie and misrepresent who they are. And consumers generally know this. How they have managed to become smarter than a lot of writers is beyond me, but consumers are not likely to buy your self-published book when they can get one from a professional publisher for the same price, or cheaper, and have some guarantee of quality. And you can damage your career by self-publishing. You might get lucky and still get published by a real press, but the chances of that are slim to none. Most likely you’ll get so entrenched in the self-publishing world, and even bitter about it, that you’ll never leave it. In the process you’ll lose out on any chance to not only improve your craft, but to also develop a career. Self-publishing is also manipulative. Yes, there are decent companies out there that do a fine job of not misrepresenting what they do (such as Lulu), but there are also a lot of companies out there that will do everything they can to snatch up your book and make you pay to have it printed. They prey on the unsuspecting author and are the only ones who profit from it. Be smart about your writing. If you honestly think it is good, don’t give up after a few rejections. Keep trying. Just because you’re having it rough now doesn’t mean you won’t get a break later. You won’t get anywhere by giving up, and there are a lot of benefits to persisting in the writing world. Self-publishing should only be the answer if you have a certain kind of product, but if you do decide to self-publish your fiction, be fully aware of what you’re getting yourself into. Don’t expect respect and come to grips with the reality that you will be looked down upon as an inferior author for legitimate reasons. You’ll have to work even harder to get anywhere as a self-published author, and if you’re willing to put that kind of effort there, why wouldn’t you do it in the more legitimate market? Self-publishing certainly has some benefits (you have greater control of your intellectual property), but again, is it worth it? I say not. ————————— If you have a question you’d like answered, whether silly or serious, feel free to send an email to arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com, send a twitter message to @shaunduke, or leave a comment here or anywhere. 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Silly Reader Questions: Super Powers, Magic, Bathrooms, and Poetry
This week we have a few more silly reader questions. We’ll go in reverse order this time around and start with GothixHalo: Why in books do they never have them going to the bathroom? I don’t know if anyone is aware, but it is actually illegal to write about going to the bathroom in books. Yup. Sometimes it happens, but if you do it you’re likely to be sued. You see, back in 3100 B.C. a guy named Nunchuck Dungfoot (anglicized from the original language to make it easier to remember) invented the first toilet and he declared that the whole world must acknowledge his invention lest he curse mankind to the fiery bowels of hell. Unfortunately, that has carried on into the modern world as an unofficial ban on discussing the use of bathrooms in literature. Discussing such things will result in the Trans-Orkneyan Liberation Front showing up at your house to serve you with papers. I know, it sounds insane, but that’s what happened to that guy who supposedly “lied” in his non-fiction book on Oprah’s show. Remember that? It was a cover for his writing about a bathroom. He’s since disappeared, which tells me that he was probably murdered by the Trans-Orkneyan Mafia. Yes, I’m making all this up. I have no idea why nobody writes bathroom scenes in their fiction. They just don’t. GothixHalo also asks: Why do people not like poetry, but love songs, which are basically music set to poetry? Because people are too stupid to realize that they’re basically the same thing. There’s really no difference between poetry and song lyrics, except that one is traditionally sung, while the other is not–although, historically this isn’t true. That’s basically it. For the record: song lyrics are poetry, and if you hate poetry, then you also hate song lyrics. This is a strange conflict that everyone needs to acknowledge. Lastly, Mulluane sends this question: Super power or magical power? I don’t quite understand what differentiates these two things. Can’t a magical power also be a super power? And do I have to choose one or the other? Let’s be fair, with such a vague question you can’t honestly expect me to choose one over the other. I’m taking both. I want super powers and magical powers. Why? Because in the event that someone figures out a way to neutralize my super powers, I’ll still have a fallback with which I can whoop some major superhero ass. Oh, what, you took my super ability to shoot energy beams out of my eyes? Yeah, well, I put a curse on you, fool! May you forever listen to the Sound of Music in your head, forever and ever and ever and ever. Yeah, it’s like that. But maybe I shouldn’t be allowed to have any abilities. I think I might abuse them. I can imagine myself getting revenge on people who bother me, and that’s not how super heroes are supposed to act. ————————— If you have a question, whether silly or serious, about science fiction, fantasy, writing, or, well, whatever, feel free to leave it in the comments, email it to me at arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com, or tweet it to @shaunduke. If you liked this post, feel free to stumble it, digg it, tweet it, or whatever. Thanks!
Reader Question: When to Think About Endings
GothixHalo recently asked: When you are writing is it better to have the ending already worked out or to have it work itself out during the process? There’s no proper way to answer this question. How you write endings is entirely up to you based on what works best. Some writers have them worked out beforehand, and others like to leave things open, if not a little mysterious. I’m one of the latter and it would be foolish of me to tell you to write the way I do if it will not help you. A lot of writing tips tend to have an issue of presuming that everyone should write the same way, when in reality we all should write in a manner that works best for us as individuals. With that in mind, however, I can talk about my process for endings in hopes that will be of some use to someone. I intentionally avoid planning endings in anything I write, at least not in the beginning. Clearly I have to have some sense of where I’m going, but the more vague I can keep the final moments of the story, the more interesting the story is to me. I have an issue with losing interest in stories that I already know the end to. A part of me wonders what the point is in finishing a story that I already know the end to. Since the writing process is largely about me, and not anyone else, this makes sense, but I imagine it will lose that clarity when I get published and develop fans (and if they are at all as rabid as George R. R. Martin’s fans, then I’m in for it). Endings are, for me, both the most important and least important elements of stories. On the one hand, the ending is, well, the ending, and without it the story never concludes, never fulfills its metaphysical contract with the reader, the writer, or the characters. On the other hand, endings are less important than the other factors that make a story, such as the characters themselves, or the imagery. Endings can make or break a story, but they don’t always have to. An ambiguous ending is not necessarily a bad one, and in some cases the more ambiguous the ending, the better. This all depends on personal preference, though, and I find that I enjoy certain kinds of endings more than others (I prefer incomplete or less-than-happy endings). There’s no easy answer to this question. What one should do is try it both ways. Try planning the ending ahead of time and see if that works out for you. Then try it the other way and see what happens. It would be wrong of me to say that you have to do it one way and not another. Nobody, even a published writer (unlike myself), has the authority to tell you how you should write. Writers may give you advice and may suggest to you things that have worked for them, but what they say should always be taken with the understanding that what works for them may not work for you. People fiddle with “conventions” all the time, and there’s nothing wrong with that. What about all of you? Any thoughts? ——————————– And that concludes this week’s Reader Question. If you have a question, feel free to let me know in the comments, send it via a tweet to @shaunduke, or email it to me at arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com. If you liked this post, please consider stumbling it, bookmarking it, or whatever.
Silly Reader Questions: Klingons, Ferengi, the Amazing Randi and Dollars For Paranormals
The other day a couple folks on twitter sent me two silly questions to blog about here on WISB. I’m quite fond of silly questions, by the way, but that’s really not the point. The point is, I’m going answer these questions posing as a hamster…okay, so I’m not going to do that, but I am going to answer the questions. First up, Mulluane asks a surprisingly open question: Klingon or Ferengi? This is another of those questions that doesn’t specify what it is asking. Is it asking which I like best, which I think I might be, or something else? And, as with the last time this happened, I’m going to answer this question with responses to each possibility. If I had to pick which Star Trek species I’d want to be, it would have to be the Klingons, only because I find the Ferengi to be remarkably disgusting, vile creatures, and at least the Klingons have some sort of logical honor built into their system–the Ferengi would probably sell their own mothers for a quick buck. That, and I don’t see the Ferengi as a particularly ferocious species, which poses problems for me because I’m not really one to cower in a corner when the world is ending. But, I’m also probably strange enough to be more Ferengi than Klingon. As much as I might envision myself as the warrior type, I’m not, and perhaps my personality does fit well within the Ferengi mythos. I’ll just keep it in my head that I’m more Klingon that slimy two-timer with bad teeth–of course, the Klingons lack dental hygiene as well, but at least they don’t look like something that might crawl out of a toilet…or do they? As for which I prefer, well, I think it’s pretty obvious. As much as the Klingons may be wicked bastards in the show and films, they are also pretty badass, and I think that’s important, don’t you? They make for fairly reliable villains, which runs contrary to the Ferengi, who I can only remember as sneaky bartenders thanks to the crapfest that was DS9.—————– The second question cam from GothixHalo: Do you think anyone will ever win the $1,000,000 prize offered by the Amazing Randi for real paranormal abilities? Someone is actually willing to waste that kind of money trying to find something as ridiculous as that? Really? If you’re going to just toss away money to some quack who happens to fool you, you might as well just drop it off on my doorstep. At least I’ll put it to good use buying books and what not. No, I don’t think anyone will ever legitimately win that prize. Someone may trick the Amazing Randi by putting on one hell of a show, but I do not think that anyone will win such a thing by actually having paranormal abilities that were not crafted through some sort of genetic engineering. I do think that paranormal abilities are a possibility, but I don’t believe in any of the pseudoscience mumbo-jumbo spouted by the idiots who host all the ghost hunting and talk-to-your-dead-puppy shows. Such abilities do not exist and people who claim to have them are either putting on a show for their fifteen minutes of fame (or a quick buck), or they’re simply insane. Either way, they’re entertaining, so I won’t deny them the right to prance around pretending to talk to Abraham Lincoln and all that nonsense. Simply put, the Amazing Randi should take his money elsewhere. At least the $500,000 offered up for a monster-sized snake is realistic, considering that it’s possible a python or anaconda could reach lengths of one hundred feet…——————- And that’s it. If you have any silly questions, feel free to email them to me at arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com, leave them in the comments section of this post (or any post for that matter), or send them as a reply to my twitter account. And if you like this post, please stumble or digg it! Thanks!
Reader Question: What’s the difference between YA and Adult Fiction?
Mulluane indirectly asked me this question via Twitter by pointing me to this post on the subject (you can find Mulluane on Twitter here and me here). This is one of those oft-asked questions in the publishing world and, to be honest, I’m not sure why it’s such a difficult one to grasp. As with any genre, YA has exceptions and oddities that are not so easily defined, but the basic definition is almost always the same: YA is fiction marketed at young adults that typically features young adults as the primary characters. Beyond that, there really isn’t any clear difference between the two genres, except, perhaps, that YA has a tendency to contain more bizarre fiction series within its walls. The thing about YA is that it often gets misinterpreted as a genre that must appeal to a particularly young age. People make the assumption that a YA book shouldn’t deal with what they perceive to be adults topics such as sex, drugs, etc. But it doesn’t take a genius to realize that not only are teenagers and even middle school-aged kids talking about all these “adult” subjects today, they’ve been talking about them in previous generations too. This subject has been in the teenage sphere for decades, with traceable origins at least to the sixties, and likely even further back. It’s not like our teenagers are wholly innocent anymore; they are just as interested and concerned with “adult” subjects as adults are. So, it seems fitting that a genre that is meant to appeal to them would contain topics that they are already discussing and already trying to understand. And if they have to get their knowledge from somewhere, better a book than a parent who is unwilling to discuss these things–I believe that parents have largely got what they deserve in their kids today by not being active enough in their lives to even understand what the teen struggle is like now. That said, there is plenty of silliness in the genre, as characterized by many of the quirky fantasy series that permeate the shelves. That’s okay too. There’s no reason why a genre cannot have its silly moments. Obert Skye is to YA what Terry Pratchett is to Fantasy. But at the end of the day, YA isn’t about a particular subject so much as a particular marketing element; it is not a juncture between middle grade fiction and adult, nor is it a depository for pointless fictional drivel. It is a serious genre that deserves credibility just as science fiction or fantasy do, and the fact that it is still under appreciated for what it provides society is disturbing at best. And that’s that!—————- If you have a question you’d like to see answered, feel free to leave it as a comment or send it to arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com. The questions need not be serious ones; silly questions are welcome! If you like this post, consider stumbling it, digging it, or even just commenting. Thanks!
Reader Question: Why won’t you read George R. R. Martin?
I suspect that this question was meant partially in jest, but I see fit to answer it. For the record, I know that this question is directed at GRRM’s fantasy series, and not his other writings, which I have had the privilege to read. So I will direct my answer to the intent of the question. There are a lot of reasons why I have yet to read George R. R. Martin’s fantasy series. Some of them, or perhaps all them, the questioner will probably not like (or already knows about): I have too many books on my review list. I have too many books in my reading list for college courses. I don’t like being pressured into reading books because it ruins the reading experience for me. The work is over-hyped by the people who like it, which also ruins the reading experience for me. Perhaps the first one isn’t a great excuse. After all, I should probably attempt to work in books that aren’t sent to me for review in order to keep things fresh. And, if we’re to knock that off, then we can drop the second one as well, since it would no longer be relevant. That leaves the last two. My biggest problem with reading books recommended to me is that too often it feels like I’m being bludgeoned to death with the entire prospect. This isn’t always so, but a lot of folks with a professed love for a particular writer or series have a tendency to really drive home their desire to get you to read the same work that they’ve fallen head over heels for. This is not directed necessarily at the questioner, but more at the GRRM fanbase in general. I have been told by multiple GRRM fans that I have to read A Game of Thrones. It’s repeated over and over to me by these folks, even when I’ve asked some of them to stop and let it rest (some of them have been kind enough to stop). This creates a lot of problems for me as a reader. I want my reading experience to be enjoyable, and right now I cannot escape the reality that reading A Game of Thrones will be fraught with conflicting messages: the side of me that wants to remain unbiased, and the part of me that believes that A Game of Thrones is the best fantasy novel ever written, even though I haven’t read it. I need to clear my head of all this in order to properly read a game of thrones without bias. The same thing has happened to a lot of other books. I can’t help it, but the more pressure placed on me to read something, the less likely I’m going to read it. Think of it like going to a movie that has received an overwhelming amount of hype and realizing it doesn’t live up. I don’t want that to happen to A Game of Thrones. I want that book to be great when I read it, not because others say so, but because I can actually see it. What about you? Any of you out there have similar issues? Have any of you folded to pressure and had a bad experience (or a good one)? Anywho. If you have a question you’d like me to answer, feel free to send it to arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com, or leave it as a comment, or send it as a twitter message with @shaunduke at the front of the message. Thanks!