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Why I’ve Made the Decision to Independently Publish ‘What We Saw’ – Part 2
This entry is a follow-up to last week’s post, which you can find here. Hopefully this entry is more Empire Strikes Back than Matrix Reloaded.
As promised, the second part of this feature will focus on what I believe are the three core benefits for writers taking the ‘indie’ route right now. There are already hundreds, probably thousands, of blog entries and articles weighing up the positive and negative factors of each, but this will instead be an attempt to show to you a more personal reasoning behind my decision. Before we start, if you aren’t familiar with the recent rise of indie publishing, @aliventures has recorded a brilliant series of debates on the matter, outlining the perspectives of both camps:
‘Should I Self-Publish or Get a Book Deal?’ with Scott Stratten and Jim Kukral via aliventures.com
The pain of the waiting game…
It’s officially ten days since I slammed down those two words that all aspiring authors dream about: THE END. Celebrations followed, and after advice from a fellow author and several resources, I made a vow not to tinker with my first draft for a few weeks. It gives it chance to settle, and helps the author emotionally distance themselves from it. For example: a two-headed cat might sound awesome at the time, but a few weeks later, it might just have lost its magic appeal.*
How to come up with ideas for a novel – Wednesday Workshop – Week 1
‘I could never write a book, I just don’t have the patience’
‘How can you possibly think up an idea that can stretch out for so long?’
‘I’m just not creative enough…’
‘How many words?!’
These four questions and statements have probably been experienced by all writers at some stage in their careers, whether first-time aspiring authors testing the water, or hardened veterans.
A Changing Landscape – Why I’ve made the decision to independently publish What We Saw – Part 1
It was around the 50,000 word mark of my first draft that I decided that I wanted to self-publish the then untitled, ‘What We Saw’. The draft, as all writers will be aware, had become a real slog at times, my motivation and energy levels struggling to climb to anywhere near the dizzying heights of the earlier stages. I found myself at a creative crossroads, without giving away any spoilers, forking off in two directions: what I wanted to write and what I thought would be the most applicable, and likely to be accepted by a traditional publishing house.
The future of this blog, a thank-you or two, and an announcement…
Well, I didn’t see that coming.
When I prepared to announce the completion of my first draft on Wednesday, things did not look good. Facebook decided that, of all days, it would choose Wednesday as the day for my annual profile maintenance, leaving me in a terrified state of suspense as to whether I’d accidentally spammed a status around 493054 times, thus scaring off the majority of my target audience before I even got the chance to lure them in.