Somewhere in the Middle

I want something that combines the flexibility and speed of self-publishing with the power of a publisher. I mean, traditional publishing was fun while it lasted, but it was so danged slow. I realize I say that as someone who hasn't published anything in awhile. I still have aspirations, y'all. I'd like to pretend I could go faster and pour out a bunch of books. Traditional publishing is just too slow for my tastes. Not to mention that a hearty dose of imposter syndrome convinces me I'll never see another traditional deal again anyway. 

My problem is that I insist on hiring an editor. A good one. I have some bad habits as a writer - I know what I want to say, so what I write makes sense in my head - but it doesn't make sense to anyone else. I need someone objective enough to call me on it every single time. Of course a manuscript is never going to be perfect. Ask me how many typos, missing words, or repeated words I find immediately after a book gets published. I also fully acknowledge that I am not good at book covers. The cover artists I hire always ask for my ideas about covers, then spend the rest of our time telling me why my ideas won't work. This is exactly what I want - someone with far more experience with reader expectations around book covers than I have. It's just -- as a self-publisher who *does* no how to format electronic manuscripts for several different formats -- I've already spent more that $1k of my own cash. I'm also lacking that marketing team to help me focus a 100k word story down to a punchy, pithy sales pitch that helps readers understand at a glance what my stories are about.

As it happens, I've found the perfect for-me compromise. An e-first press. The press used to be called a small press, but Wild Rose Press isn't small. Not anymore. The press releases books across all genres. Their bread and butter is still romance - as it is for so many of us. But they've expanded into so many other markets. I get an editor, a cover artist, someone else handles the formatting, and I get a little much-needed marketing coaching. Are they slower than I could publish myself? Yes. But not by much. If I turn in a book, I'm usually holding a print copy in my hands within 8 months. The great thing is I'm not limited to one line or genre. I can write anything that takes my fancy. I hand it to my editor and she places the story - or tells me straight up that Wild Rose Press can't use the book and I'm free to self-publish it or sub it elsewhere. 

I like the flexibility and the assurance that I have people on my side - who want my books. So far, it's working for me.

Harsh Financial Realities

Author finances are, for me, a long series of wrenching trade offs. My balance sheet bleeds. I've been operating at a loss for enough years that I can no longer file with the IRS as an author. I've been relegated to hobbyist. Also, I've picked up a day job to help get the family through some of the current nonsense because there can never be enough employed people in a household during an economic downturn. At least I'm technical writing, I guess.

This all amounts to me having to make decisions about how and where I publish material based on cost. For the moment, that means that self publishing is out of my reach for the foreseeable future. Professional editors are worth their weight in gold. I prefer not to publish without an editor looking over my stories and calling me out on my bad habits. It's just I don't currently have the gold for that or for good cover art. That can all change at a moment's notice. But the more likely scenario is that I can change that with hard work and book releases. So I'll favor small presses (thank the heavens for The Wild Rose Press) and querying agents about getting back into traditional markets, maybe. Whether I like it or not, this is the way it is for now.

So what convinces me to part with my pinched pennies? Marketing. Low investment ads that allow me to play a long game to build an audience slowly as I finish up the SFR series this year. I committed the cash to join an authors' coop so I could learn from people who are out there in the trenches really doing a good job with marketing. They're being super generous with their knowledge. Learning new skills is always worth the money. Up to the point that you can't pay the mortgage, obviously, but so far that's not at risk. Knock wood.

I don't mean for any of this to come off as a complaint or a plea for any kind of sympathy. I want to be transparent. There are reasons people stop publishing. I won't because I can't. And I have just enough ego mingled with spite to keep throwing my pages out into the aether.

At least with most of the world on lock down, it's not like I'm missing conferences this year?

Y'all stay safe out there.

Not So Big Career Goals

Enemy Games released Wednesday. *Insert Kermit flail.* You can find it in your preferred format from The Wild Rose Press site.

This book coming out is germane to our topic this week, because it turns out that having books come out is fun. And if you want some insight into the big career goals, here they are. In order of importance.

1. Have fun. Recall that my strong suit is problem solving. There's no plot hole so wide or so deep (of my making) that I can't build some kind of rickety ladder to get across it. And the place I get fun from is in the engineering and building of that ladder. File this away: It is possible I broken beyond repair because I'm like this.
2. Finish this series. Seriously. A decade of waiting is long enough.
3. Move on to the next world. The next characters. The next intriguing premise. And this time, remember that "No." is a complete sentence when someone asks if I can make that a series. Unless it IS a series. 
4. Make enough money to occasionally pay my mortgage. I realize this isn't asking for much. But even just that much would give me the springboard up to the next level.
5. Rule the world. What? Too next level?  

You've had yet another frightening tour of the inside of my head, now it's your turn. I want to know what goal setting methods you're using. Do you write them down? Make them SMART goals? Post vision boards? Keep a Bullet Journal? Practice arcane rituals with a Ouija board in the coat closet in the dead of night?

Laughing Off Writing Advice

NEWS: Finally all the official stuff is in place and I can tell you I have a five book contract with The Wild Rose Press for my SFR series. This is the series that started with Enemy Within and Enemy Games. This contract is for the complete series. So in the near future, I should have fun stuff to share.


Writing Advice to Laugh Off
The worst writing advice ever is as much a peel back of my psychology as it is terrible writing advice, but here it is. "Write to market". Don't get me wrong. There's a time and place for worrying about the market. You need to know stuff like sex scenes do not a romance make. That much market, okay. That's more an issue of knowing your market.

No, when I hear someone say 'writing to market', I hear someone suggesting that we al learn how to read minds and predict what's going to be popular two years from now cause that's how long it will take to write, sub an get a book through the publication process with a traditional house. You might only have to predict six months of future if you go with an indie press or self pub something. There are people who do it, though, I hear you say. I'd argue that those people found or created a niche, recognized what their readers loved about the niche and then those writers stay faithful to reader expectation book after book. In a way, that is writing to market - your market. That's totally learnable.

But writing to The Market as if you're in possession of some kind of literary crystal ball? That is a key that opens the door to crazy. When someone says 'write to market', it kicks me straight out of being immersed in my story and into high insecurity. I spend all my writing time slogging through the 'yer doing it wrong' voices. Have you ever read one of those stories where the heroes have to fight their way through some kind of compulsion? That's what it feels like. There. You have insight into my legion of neuroses. C'mon in. They don't bite. Much.

What would I prefer over 'write to market'? Easy. Write the story that needs to be written. Write what matters to you. Worry about the market once you're in the editing phase. That's when you're in analytical brain and that's when you can entertain all those critical internal voices. That's when it makes sense to look at what's out there in the book world and decide where your darling might fit. Until then, write what's in your head. Someone somewhere needs that.