Tag: Writing

The Most Dangerous Profession

Recently the good folks who run the Indies Unlimited website asked me to start contributing a monthly column on the writing profession. They suggested I talk about my experiences and feelings on being a writer. I mentioned that might cause severe depression leading to mass suicide among the site’s followers. But the webmasters don’t care whether you live or die, so here we are.

Like many people who make their living as writers, I have a love/hate relationship with the craft. While you sometimes love the feeling of turning out a piece of finely phrased prose, unless you are one of the tiny handful of writers who are vastly successful, you pretty much hate everything else about the business. You don’t make much money, frequently have to write on topics that don’t interest you to make any money at all, often have to deal with editors who either don’t have the time or the interest to give your story the attention you feel it deserves, suffer bouts of writer’s block, feelings of insecurity, inadequacy, jealousy, and have to deal with massive amounts of rejection. And that’s all on a good day. Continue reading “The Most Dangerous Profession”

Muse Wrangling 201 – AWOL

We have a great deal to cover today so I’m going to jump straight in. First and foremost, an AWOL Muse cannot be wrangled. Neither whips nor carrots will work. An AWOL Muse must be wooed.

But how do you woo a Muse?

There is no simple answer to that question because each Muse is different. Nonetheless, there is a way to prevent your Muse from leaving in the first place, but it involves knowing and listening to your Muse.

Does your Muse have a strong work ethic? Or is it flighty and easily distracted?

If your Muse is easily distracted then it may have gone AWOL because it was bored. Yes, I know, that is an awful thing to say to an author, but sometimes we have to face facts – Muses get bored just like readers. If your Muse is bored with what it is doing then perhaps that is an indication that readers might find the prose boring too. If this is the case then a rethink is the only thing that will lure your Muse back into the fold. Continue reading “Muse Wrangling 201 – AWOL”

The Measure of Success

What does success look like for an author? Is it literary acclaim, millions of books sold, awards won, name recognition? If you have some or all of that going for you, how much does it matter that people like your writing?

I wonder if it still would feel like success if people bought but did not read your book. Do you care if readers give up on it partway through? According to Goodreads, the most frequently abandoned classics of literature are:

1. Catch 22, by Joseph Heller

2. Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien

3. Ulysses, by James Joyce

4. Moby Dick, by Hermann Melville

5. Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand

I am not too proud to admit I have personally given up on each and every one of these classics. I am not a fan of literary fiction on the whole. I find it pretentious, angst-ridden, and unnecessarily prosy. I don’t really consider Catch 22 to be literary fiction. I did think it was boring though. I felt the same way about Cujo. There is a long list of books I wanted to like and tried to read, but ultimately quit, never returning to them. Continue reading “The Measure of Success”

Rapid Fire Releases

As a reader, I really don’t like having to wait for a continuing book in a series, especially if it’s a year or so. I get frustrated for two reasons: one – I’m usually desperate to know what’s going to happen and I can’t find out. And two – by the time the second book does come out, I’ve totally forgotten what’s happened in the first. I either have to re-read the first book or I just give up on the series altogether. More often than not, I chose the latter.

One of the beautiful things about being an indie author is that I get to choose when and how I will produce my work. For the two reasons above, I decided that I would go for rapid-fire releases for The Elements Trilogy. I didn’t want readers to have to wait and I thought it would be an intelligent marketing strategy. I made the commitment to release the books June, July and August of 2013, saving up my big marketing campaign for September. I decided it was a wise move to save up the marketing budget of three books and throw it all into one big trilogy campaign. Hopefully my plan will work. Continue reading “Rapid Fire Releases”