WELCOME TO THE MOST ERRATIC BLOG IN CYBER SPACE. I START. I STOP. I CHANGE DIRECTION THEN STOP AGAIN. FROM NOW ON I SHALL TRY TO BE MORE CONSISTENT, BUT THAT'S NOT A PROMISE.
Almost three months ago I self-published a book. Here you go -
I'm pleased with the book and I don't want it to get lost in the million or so titles that will be published this year alone. Now I'm not sat here with the intention of writing about how to succeed in self-publishing because I know nothing about it. If anything I will be writing about being a writer, which you might find more interesting.
Self-publishing has blown away most of the limitations of getting published. A writer no longer has to be accepted by the traditional houses. A floodgate has been opened and anybody can publish anything they like regardless of quality.
Some twenty years ago I was considered to be a professional writer inasmuch as I had more than a dozen credits for TV and radio plays. I was writing for money and I was miserable. TV directors and radio producers know what they want and they get it from the writer more or less regardless of his opinion on the matter. I wrote a play for a male lead. We like your play, they said. Could you re-write it for a female lead?
Instead of sticking up for my version I agreed because I needed the money. Everybody was happy except me and the critics. I got so fed up with similar incidents that I stopped writing.
Now I'm getting old. I don't have to succeed at anything. I can sit with the codgers outside the bar in my pueblo and talk about tomatoes. Nobody expects anything from me. All this adds up to a peaceful life so why, I am wondering, have I complicated things by writing a book that I want to see do well? Mostly because I want to write another book, a better book. Art is a never-ending learning curve.
Self-publishing has blown away most of the limitations of getting published. A writer no longer has to be accepted by the traditional houses. A floodgate has been opened and anybody can publish anything they like regardless of quality.
Some twenty years ago I was considered to be a professional writer inasmuch as I had more than a dozen credits for TV and radio plays. I was writing for money and I was miserable. TV directors and radio producers know what they want and they get it from the writer more or less regardless of his opinion on the matter. I wrote a play for a male lead. We like your play, they said. Could you re-write it for a female lead?
Instead of sticking up for my version I agreed because I needed the money. Everybody was happy except me and the critics. I got so fed up with similar incidents that I stopped writing.
Now I'm getting old. I don't have to succeed at anything. I can sit with the codgers outside the bar in my pueblo and talk about tomatoes. Nobody expects anything from me. All this adds up to a peaceful life so why, I am wondering, have I complicated things by writing a book that I want to see do well? Mostly because I want to write another book, a better book. Art is a never-ending learning curve.
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