The Birth of a Blog
Back in late December, I started writing a book. Roughly a month later, the first draft was complete. I printed the first draft and set it aside to simmer for six weeks (advice I’d gotten from reading Stephen King’s book, On Writing.) The reason for putting my manuscript aside, and vowing to not read even one paragraph of it, was to separate myself from it long enough so that when I went back to do the first read and edit, I had forgotten most of what I wrote, and could look at it objectively. That advice turned out to be great advice, as did most of the advice King gives in On Writing. If you’re an aspiring writer, I highly recommend his book. I’ve read it about seven times and will probably end up reading it seven or eight more times. The man is a genius, but I digress…
Once the six weeks was up, I pulled my manuscript out, sat down with it, and began reading and editing. I had two prominent thoughts as I read and edited: 1. “Oh, this SUCKS.” and 2. “Hey, this isn’t half bad.” Kind of contradictory, huh? I’d read that the first draft is always pretty bad and I found that to be true. But I also realized that even though what I had written was in no way, shape, or form ready for any eyes other than my own, it had potential. No, it would never be Hemingway, but it could end up being halfway good.
I edited it and then gave it to a “real” editor – an amazing woman named Erika – who happens to be a few thousand times smarter than me and most other people I know (and yet, she’s also one of the most humble people you’ll ever meet). She worked her magic and then gave it back. I edited it a few more times and then gave it to my son for his two cents. That copy came back with some notes from a young person’s perspective. I took some of his suggestions and did a final edit.
Before the manuscript went to Erika, I let a couple of family members read it. The very first person to read the book was my sister. She had the first draft…the unedited (“this SUCKS”) draft. She really liked it. But, of course, since she loves me, that was no surprise. My older brother read the first edited copy. I was nervous while he had it, as I knew he would have no problem telling me (nicely) if he thought it would serve better as kindling than actually being on Kindle. So when he called me and told me how much he liked it, I started to think that maybe my book was more on the “not half bad” side than on the “this SUCKS” side.
Eventually, I started querying Literary Agents. I did this for a few months until I realized that what I’d written about isn’t what’s “hot” right now – it’s not what’s selling. (If you’re interested in what agents are currently looking for, take a look at mswishlist.com.) My favorite agent wish is for someone to write her a book about a “brothel in space”. I kid you, not. Not one agent (I think I queried about 30) even asked to look at my manuscript. Actually, one did, but I found out he asks for a full manuscript with every query he gets, so I don’t count him.
By August, I realized that getting a book published is much harder than I had anticipated. I mean, I knew it wouldn’t be easy, but I honestly had no idea how any of it worked. I also found out that the whole process can take years and that if you’re lucky enough to get traditionally published, the first-time writer ends up with about only 10%, or less, (yes, folks you heard me right) of the book’s sales. And while making money is the absolute last reason I wrote the book to begin with, a measly 10% to the person who spent months to years working on the thing just seems, well…wrong.
Armed with this enlightening (and discouraging) information, I began to look at other options. Self-publishing was a no-go for me – too complex, and because I work full-time, also too time consuming. Indie publishing, however, looked promising. With Indie publishing, the publisher does all of the technical publishing stuff, leaving the writer free to write. You pay for those services of course, but the idea is to recoup that cost with book sales (which the writer usually gets 60% of or more, as opposed to the crappy 10% with traditional publishing).
A friend I know through a club I’m a member of, referred me to a local Indie publisher. I met with the owner, I sent her my manuscript, and voila! – I am now on my way to being published. Even though I’m not doing the hard, publishing stuff, I still have other work to do. I have to market myself. I have to get people interested in my book by getting them interested in what I have to say. Hence, the birth of a blog…this blog.
Hopefully, what I write here will interest people. Sometimes I’ll write about writing and sometimes I’ll write about my book and/or the book’s subject matter. I plan to blog about my experiences (good and bad) as I make this journey, and sometimes, I’ll just write about whatever tickles my fancy or ruffles my feathers that day.
My ultimate goal is to entertain you – hopefully, I’ll succeed. In addition to being entertained, I hope that you’ll be able to learn a thing or two from my mishaps (rest assured, there’ll never be a shortage of those). And maybe, just maybe, you’ll like my writing enough that when the book is published, you’ll want to read it. Until then, I’ll be here about once a week – attempting to entertain while getting some writing in (practice, practice, practice).
Well, that’s all I’ve got for now…Catch you on the flip side, my friends. (I’ve always wanted to say that.)