Next Chapter Will Be Coming
Right Now I Am Having Fun Writing…
I will get to the next chapter of Wet Blanket Reality about traditional publishing next week. The next chapter is all the things you have to do to get an agent. That will be a fun one, I promise.
Also today I got forwarded a link to an article that might be right up there with the most stupid article I have ever read about publishing. All stuff that I am pointing out as really bad and stupid, this article manages to turn it into positive to help writers. I just read it with my mouth open and thinking about how writers trapped in the myth would just accept all the firehose of crap the article spews.
The article is for people with no logical thinking in their brain and no self-respect left.
Not suggesting you read it other than for a laugh and to make your stomach twist for other writers caught up in the stupidity of traditional publishing.
Ten Things Nobody Tells You About the Publishing Industry (publishersweekly.com)
All ten of those should send you to indie publishing in a heart beat. Two years to publish a book? Seriously? What the hell do those people do all flipping day???
Anyhow, going back to make more progress on the book I am writing. I am having so much fun, and have written myself into what seems to be an impossible corner, which makes it more fun. So night all.
13 Comments
Ed Teja
This line says a lot… that no sane person wants to hear.
“Advice: Develop fulfilling rituals that encompass private and public celebration so that victories don’t feel anticlimactic.”
In short, take what you can get!
Mary Louisa Locke
Oh my heavens, I did read it – couldn’t help myself. But then I realized it would have been a smashing article–if the author had only changed all the Advice sections to “So forget traditional publishing, become an indie author.”
Brad D. Sibbersen
The industry moves slowly. Very slowly.
There are more gatekeepers than you think.
Not every deal is a good deal.
The goal line is always moving.
[Etc.]
Advice: Self publish
[There, fixed that article for everybody]
Filip Wiltgren
I keep feeling that the article was meant to be satirical, and the only genuine part was the last advice on surviving on intangibles.
Then again, if you’re in a cult, you likely don’t realize that what you consider normal is hair-raising to people on the outside, even if the cult comes with the name of a fancy publisher…
dwsmith
Filip, I think you may have explained a lot of this, actually. And what I am writing about. I consider myself a pretty sane person and a decent business person. Yet I basically met a stranger, gave them all of my money and all the paperwork with that money, trusted them to send me money after they got it, trusted them to negotiate a contract for me even though I had been through three years of law school and they barely had an English degree, and I never once checked out their financial background or even did a basic business or criminal check on them. Why, because I was a writer and they had a card saying they were an agent.
I still think that in my entire lifetime, that was just about as stupid a thing as I have ever done. Period. Nothing close to it in levels of stupidity. Never could explain to myself why I lost my mind that much, lost all business sense, lost all ability to think clearly. Cult thinking sure explains a lot.
Jason M
“Not every deal is a good deal.”
That’s what they call a turd blossom. A single tiny flower growing out of a huge pile of cowshit.
Vincent Zandri
This one is classic dumbshit:
” conceptualize projects with multiple stakeholders in mind.” This has to be written by an MFA prof.
Could you imagine if you wrote a book with all those snot nosed NYC eds and sales persons in mind? You’d end up jumping out a window!
Here’s my take on the second out of ten items (I’m doing blog posts/vlogs on all):
https://vincentzandri.substack.com/p/write-and-publish-only-for-yourself
Zoe Cannon
Nothing gets me in the mood to write quite like the phrase, “conceptualize projects with multiple stakeholders in mind”…
(Sarcasm, of course.)
Vincent
Zoe, exactly. What a ridiculous if not irresponsible thing to write. Also, what a pompous way to write it!
Dale T. Phillips
Yeah, I responded to a posting of this elsewhere- “By being Indie, I avoid the bad stuff…” 🙂
How can someone look at that and want to be part of it?
Suzanne LaGrande
This is a question about self publishing — not sure where to put it. You recommend doing most things yourself. Do you use a distribution service — Smashwords or Draft4toDigital — they take 10% for distributing to the various online booksellers. Or do you upload your book to each one individually? Your do you pay someone to do this? Thanks, Suzanne
dwsmith
We go direct to Amazon and Kobo. All the rest we use D2D. So only three places covers the world.
Suzanne LaGrande
Thank you! This is really helpful.