This is a little off-topic, but what’s the fun in having a blog if you can’t occasionally share cool stuff?
30 odd years ago I had the dream of becoming a fiction writer. I wrote short stories and then a couple of novels between junior high and college. One of the novels sucked mightily. Everyone who read the other one loved it.
So I tried to get it published. And after about a year gave up in frustration. The feedback was that it wasn’t bad. It just didn’t fit. I didn’t want to rewrite it to make it fit, so I got a “real” job and kind of forgot about the dream.
A couple of years later I had a vivid dream that was the inspiration for another novel, which I wrote. I joined a writers group, wanting feedback. Some of the feedback was spot on. I do tend to “info dump,” and I was okay with fixing that. But the message was pretty much the same. Not a bad book, but no agent will pick it up.
I wanted to write the stories I wanted to tell. I didn’t want to write stories for agents and publishers. So I fed my need to write by writing fanfiction. Everyone who read my stories loved them. I still get comments on some of my stories more than a decade later.
I told myself that the real test of being a writer was writing stuff people liked to read, not getting paid for it.
Now, I’m a blogger, so writing is part of my job. I told myself that I am a writer now. I’m living my dream. But it’s never been quite the same. I wanted to get paid for fiction.
I’ve been following a writer/blogger for a while now. He’s J.A. Konrath, and his blog is A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing. His story and information have inspired me. He talks about how to make it as an self-published author. I’ve been paying attention to what he’s done, and I’m ready to start trying it myself.
Having a large volume of work is key, so I’m starting on a series of short stories. When I have five or six written, I’m going to self-publish them as e-books. I know how to market through social media and networking, so I’m confident I can make money at it.
Will I quite coaching to become a full-time fiction writer? Nope. I love coaching too much to quit. Besides, I get too many great ideas from my clients. I’d be a poorer writer without them.
But I will write enough and publish enough that I can finally achieve a decades-old dream I thought was dead. And if that isn’t something to get up for in the morning, I don’t know what is.
Stay tuned. You all will be among the first to know when there’s something available.
And if you have a dream you thought was dead, pull it out of the drawer and see if you can’t breathe some life into it. Dreams should live. Not gather dust.
Tags: blogging, social media
Great post! Self-publishing is the way to go. You’re in total control. Of course, that also means you’re the marketing, publicity and admin department as well!
And that’s different from being in business for yourself, how?
The truth is even if you have a traditional publisher, as a new author, you’re still the marketing and PR departments. And to keep all those activities going, you’re going to be your own admin also.
At least this way, I have total control of formats and how long the books are available.
[...] to my post on writing and selling short fiction. I considered that almost a throw-way post. I was tired and needed something to write quickly. [...]