Tag Archive: Writing

Thinking about doing some self-publishing, part 2

February 9, 2011 0 Comments

Yesterday I posted about self-publishing a local history book. Niche works like that are ideal candidates for self-publishing. An author with the will and skill can more effectively reach his or her target audience than a publisher, even a specialty publisher, and be more financially successful with it in the process. Yet that’s not what prompted me to start yesterday’s post, so let me pick up where I left off: I’m thinking of self-publishing some fiction. A short story collection or three. Digitally. My thought is, why not? These days print outlets for short fiction are few and far between. Most are already digital, and many are fly-by-night. Short story collections are generally only viable for established authors. While I’ll have a second book out…
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Random Musings, Writing

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Thinking about doing some self-publishing, part 1

January 27, 2011 0 Comments

The world of self-publishing, especially in the digital realm, is an exciting one. Not for what it currently is, but for what it could be. There are some established authors who are doing well in self-publishing. So good, in fact, they hope to get the publishing rights back to some of their traditionally published books because they can make more money doing it on their own. Other established authors are getting together to do the same. In theory there is a very exciting future ahead for self-publishing, ebooks in particular. I say “in theory” because I also have some strong reservations about the self-publishing boom, but that’s a discussion for another time. Right now I just want to talk about my own foray into that…
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Random Musings, Writing

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It’s been a while

January 21, 2011 2 Comments

So it’s been a little while. Hell, it’s been a long while, really. No, not THAT. I mean since I last wrote. The folks who know me know that in recent years I’ve tackled project after project after project. From the time I took on editor duties at the now defunct DVDinmypants.com to this holiday season it’s been a relentless stream of projects. Four years of Books both published and pending. Anthologies. Articles. Freelance stuff. Music. And lots more. All while holding down a full-time job, trying to be a good family man, and attempting to have something resembling a social life. Shortly into the holidays, I finally hit the wall. Hard. I realized I had to take some time off. Since the completion of…
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Random Musings, Writing

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On writing: when hatchet jobs are a good thing

November 15, 2010 2 Comments

I’ve mentioned before that good editors will almost always improve your work. Writers (myself included) are often too close to their own work to be completely objective about it. It’s difficult to get outside your own head and read your work the way a reader would — and that’s a vital part of the polishing process. After all, if you’re not writing with readers in mind, you may well be writing crap. Another blogger recently made an excellent post about working with editors, specifically newspaper editors. That’s what I happen to be Monday through Friday, so I was especially delighted to see that this guy got it. He stood there, reading the draft, occasionally eying me over the top of the page, then pulled out…
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Writing

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Writing through a rough patch

November 12, 2010 2 Comments

There are times when the words don’t come, and what words that do come make you cringe. You sit down and work, you reach your writing goals each day, but you hate every last bit of work you produce. I’m in the midst of one of those rough patches. For the last week or so I’ve wanted to toss my work-in-progress in the trash. It’s not writer’s block — writer’s block is bullshit — it’s something else. It’s “this sucks, this story sucks, these words suck, why am I bothering with this?” I hate that feeling. I’ve mentioned a few times before that I’m wrapping up a readable draft of a dystopian science fiction novel. I’ve gone back and forth between hoping people find it…
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Random Musings, Writing

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