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Blogs by S G Cardin
More random thoughts on self publishing & other stuff
9/19/2007 9:46:05 AM
Lots of stuff DIY deadline is coming up...
Well, I've got a couple of thoughts to hash out here - haha - the first one is the DIY book festival is coming up in Hollywood, CA and the deadline to enter is 25 SEP. If you've got a book that meets the qualifications send it in. It's my year participating - I'm sending in "The Wolf's Torment." Wish me luck.
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Donald Maas Interview.
Donald Maas is a literary agent who isn't afraid to work with new novelists. Here's a link to a recent interview:
http://www.maassagency.com/lookfor.html
He says: Your success isn't up to the publisher it's up to you, the novelist and the fiction you create.
I think he has a point in the fact that it is about the fiction you create. You've got to draft a good story. That said, I can't emphasis enough how much I learned working with IUniverse and the editorial evaluation process. My novel wasn't ready after the 1st working draft. I felt like it was, but it wasn't. It needed a good set of objective eyes on it to point out things I could be doing better. I must have went through 4 drafts after that to get the book ready to be published so the lesson I learned was that writing is 10 percent writing and 90 percent editing. Edit, edit, edit. Trust me on this.
Maas goes to say the hardest thing is finding great authors. Writing is truly a craft in that regard. I think to get better at writing you've got keep writing and improving on what you've learned. Does anyone have any I worked hard stories they'd like to share?
*****
Self publishing
I've probably written a ton of stuff on why I like to self publish, but I just saw Jessica's blog over at BookEnds. She's a literary agent over there and had some thoughts about it, saying basically, that you have to evaluate your goal on why you want to self publish because there are some big downsides. If you just want to get your book into the hands of family & friends, self publish. If you want to make money and be taken seriously, go the more traditional route.
I would say that about 5-7 years ago, yeah, that was definately a stigma. Now, I think the lines are blurring. One thing I've noticed over the years is that readers don't pay much attention to how a book was published, if they read a book they like, tradtional or self-published, they're going to recommend it.
Marketing is so important in the self publishing field. You've got to have a budget to it, and you've got to be committedto it and you've got to have patience. If you don't have those three things than there's a good chance you're not going to sell books like you'd want to. While I do want to go on and write more, I've set aside one day a week to try and just work on the marketing aspects of my books. It's all I can really afford timewise, but it helps. Anyone have any marketing tips they can share?
Best to all
Steph
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More Blogs by S G Cardin
• Writing and Current Publishing Trends - Saturday, May 03, 2008
• Catching up - Thursday, April 10, 2008
• Agent Blogs & misc... - Friday, February 29, 2008
• Review for Destination:Berlin - Friday, February 08, 2008
• I Voted! - Wednesday, February 06, 2008
• Review sites for Indie authors - Thursday, November 29, 2007
• Life & Writing - Tuesday, November 27, 2007
• I'm so far behind...catching up - Saturday, November 17, 2007
• Internet Book Signing! - Monday, October 29, 2007
• Honorable Mention Winner 76th Writer's Digest Competition! - Friday, October 26, 2007
• Misc Stuff, Red Sox, fires & books - Monday, October 22, 2007
• Taking a Look at: The Rejector - Thursday, October 18, 2007
• Foreword/CLARION review for Destination:Berlin - Tuesday, October 16, 2007
• Taking a Look: Writer's Digest Online - Sunday, October 14, 2007
• Live interview for "The Wolf's Torment" w/Reader's Views - Saturday, October 13, 2007
• Official October 07 writing/poetry contest - Thursday, October 04, 2007
• Visit Reader's Views for my interview on The Wolf's Torment - Tuesday, October 02, 2007
• A look at: Reader's Views - Monday, October 01, 2007
• More random thoughts on self publishing & other stuff - Wednesday, September 19, 2007
• Character look at: Theresa von Kracken - Friday, September 14, 2007
• 9/11 - Tuesday, September 11, 2007
• Review for THE WOLF'S TORMENT from Reader Views - Friday, September 07, 2007
• National Be Kind to Writers & Editors month & a character profile - Tuesday, September 04, 2007
• Labor Day & work - Monday, September 03, 2007
• Princess Diana & A character look - Saturday, September 01, 2007
• Character look at: Mihai Sigmaringen - Monday, August 27, 2007
• Internet Marketing Tips & Interesting Characters - Sunday, August 26, 2007
• I just finished reading ''The Diana Chronicles'' - Saturday, August 25, 2007
• Destination: Berlin is avaliable through IUniverse! - Friday, August 24, 2007
• Romance Genre Writing Rules - Wednesday, August 08, 2007
• My recent experiences in novel writing - Monday, July 30, 2007
• Short Story Writing - Friday, July 27, 2007
• Harry Potter #7 Misc. Musings - Wednesday, July 25, 2007
• Thoughts on: Harry Potter, MWSA, and Judith McNaught's "Whitney, My Love" - Friday, July 20, 2007
• Overview of Traditional Publishing - Friday, July 13, 2007
• Noticing Things as a Reader - Thursday, July 12, 2007
• Self publishing with Lulu - Monday, July 09, 2007
• Feeding the Muse and doing the Housework - Saturday, July 07, 2007
• Pros and cons of Self-publishing - Monday, July 02, 2007
• An agent's thoughts on Self-publishing - Saturday, June 30, 2007
• It's been a long time... - Sunday, August 27, 2006
• Busy, Busy, Busy - Wednesday, September 07, 2005
• Just wanted to say "Thank you..." - Sunday, July 31, 2005
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