Posts filed under 'Writing'
My back is repairing itself, slowly, but steadily. It required a little help from me too. And a trip to a neurosurgeon. There’s nothing like resorting to a surgeon to copperfasten your resolve to heal thyself. I opted not to have the operation - there are always risks - so I focussed instead on core strengthening and stretching. I’ll say no more about in my blog because I don’t want to bore anyone with it and because it’s not of much relevance now anyway - I’m back in action - and it will continue to improve slowly and surely over the next months as I make it stronger. The last words I’ll say about it are these: if ever you rupture a disc, just know that with time and the appropraite physical treaments the pain does subside, and it will heal, but it could take a long time - over a year in my case. In the end, the choice is always yours - the patient’s. Get advice from many people and medical professionals. Just be as well informed as you can. You have to do the right things for it and you have to be patient - not unlike a writing career. Which brings me to my main point.
I’ve started to heal my ailing novel also. The revisions and rejections meant I’d lost passion for it, and it’s impossible, in good conscience, to undertake another revision without passion. Otherwise, I would ruin it. After reflecting during this time of reparation, and thinking about how the novel would change, I find I’m no longer afraid to make the changes that a couple of months ago would have seemed harsh. Sometimes surgery is the most appropriate course of action for a patient, as drastic as the incisions may seem. Time to relieve its painful patches too, and roll it out to the world, fitter, leaner … and stronger than ever.
February 20th, 2010
I’ve discovered again the power of the written word. I finished a book that was on my reading list called “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. One powerful gem of insight therein was the notion that creative people are most likely to procrastinate because it is their imagination that inclines them to see all kinds of off-putting negative outcomes. So it seems the deck is well and truly stacked against writers!
It’s over a year ago now since I wrote a post about procrastination. That post might have seemed a bit macabre, flippant, or even comic, but like most things macabre or flippant or comic it disguises something more serious, namely fear.
I know from personal analysis of my own procrastination that fear is the root cause of it. It’s not fear of work. No. For after all, why would anyone fear to do work that would bring them success? There’s the rub, and the essence of what I meant in my previous post on procrastination. We do not fear to do the work that would be successful, but we fear to do the work that will make us a failure, that will get us ridiculed, or in my case, my greatest fear is work that is simply … wasted. No one in their right mind would want to do that kind of work, would they? So we delay. We avoid. And then the fear becomes self-fulfilling, because by avoiding the work we fail for certain.
I can content myself that I pushed through that, wrote a competent thriller, attracted the interests of two different agents, and learned of the strengths and possible weaknesses of my work. But I didn’t push through, against my fear of waste, just to have it sit in a drawer forever. I honestly believe (as do others) that it is worth publishing.
A period of reflection, based upon the last rejection feedback, has left me considering some other edits that I’m now incorporating into a final draft. I’m making it as best I can, but I’m starting to get concerned that the edits might lose some of the spirit of the story. So I’m going to have to stop revising after this. This brings matters to a head. If no agent wants to take it on. If I can’t revise to make it more attractive to an agent then I’ve to live up to my threatened promise of taking it on myself. So at least all this effort won’t be wasted. But before taking that road, I’ve one last chance. While finishing this edit, I’ve one last agent to pitch to…
January 20th, 2010
Dealing with corporate clients, handling their last minute rush requirements that absolutely have to be done by Christmas (happens every year!) got me thinking about the megacorps of publishing. The megacorp of publishing - Amazon. Ok, so bear with me. I’m have a suspicious mind. It comes from reading and writing all those thrillers.
When I first considered self-publication a year ago, BookSurge was the candidate. In the meantime, it has been subsumed into the great belly of the Amazon beast. Not long after, Amazon stated that the only vanity press they would list on their site was … BookSurge (CreateSpace as it has recently been renamed).
There’s the rub. And a portent of the future. That was a clear case of Amazon leveraging it’s online market dominance to push out other vanity presses, and so maximize its profits from that sector of the market. It is a common strategy of all megacorps, like Tesco and Walmart. Suppliers are so glad to get into chainstores like those, that they will take a financial hit for the sake of wide exposure. And the megacorp will squeeze them financially, because they know they will take it.
In the Internet age, if we are not vigilant, we will live in an age of monopolization of the distribution channels. The companies who control the distribution channels set the rules of the game, and can squeeze suppliers.
So who are Amazon’s book suppliers? The publishers? Yes and no. Mostly no. Because it is the authors who actually make the product. Amazon knows this. This is why CreateSpace makes such sense for them, especially in the long term, as I will explain shortly. If they capture the huge volume of vanity published authors, it doesn’t matter if they sell only a few books on each. Amazon aren’t fussy, because one person’s buck is as good as any other. Multiply a few book sales out by the volume of vanity authors they can capture (remember, they control the main distribution channel). And they can charge the author for the privilege of using their vanity services too (the willing supplier will be squeezed gladly for access to the distribution channel).
Publishers aren’t really the suppliers. They are the middle men in Amazon’s paradigm. Amazon need publishers for now, of course, because Dan Brown’s latest will drive browsers to Amazon in droves. But in the future … who knows. Apart from squeezing supplier’s profit margins, the other strategy megacorps use to maximise profits is shortening the supply chain. On the Internet, this is known as disintermediation. The middle men are kicked out, because the distribution costs are kept low, and the Internet company can connect supplier directly to customer. Authors linked directly to customer, by Amazon alone. Internet companies will use and tolerate any intermediary only so long as it makes financial sense for them. With Borders bookstores closing daily, will Amazon grab some high street pick-up points for their consignments on the cheap in a recession? If Amazon become the distribution channel for books, what’s to stop them signing contracts with Dan Brown once his contract with his publisher expires? What’s to stop them from setting up an X-Factor book site to crowd-source the next Dan Brown from the ranks of all the CreateSpace authors?
Publishers beware. And watch what Amazon is up to. Gradually, Amazon’s interests may be to push the publishers out of the chain and deal with authors directly. Small shifts, inexhorably, over time. Too suspicious for you? It’s not just me: Publishers need Amazon - but do Amazon need publishers?
The big worry, in such a doomsday scenario for publishing, is who would be left to fight back against the megacorp in the author’s interest?
But, for now, we’ll all happily use them. They’ve got the biggest, best distribution on the Internet. Right?
December 14th, 2009
I’m going to self-publish my novel.
I don’t really have much more to say than that (some writer, eh?!)
But, there will be plenty of posts about my misadventures in self publishing land in the coming months, I’m sure.
All for now.
December 10th, 2009
Here at Optimistic Future Publishing Enterprises we are always on the look-out for excellent candidates to fill our job opportunities as fiction novelists.
The successful candidate must have the following:
- An original manuscript, already completed, to our satisfaction.
The successful candidate should also display some (but not necessarily all) of the following:
- Work well alone
- Work well in a publishing team
- Self-starter
- Self-finisher
- Imaginative
- Observant
- Attentive to detail
- Patient
- Persistent
- Ambitious
- Withstand criticism
- Self-motivated
- Can work to a deadline
- Deliver long-running projects with no management intervention
- Avid reader (hundreds of novels in your genre ideal)
- Mastery of at least one major international language
- Word processing skills
- Proof-reading skills
- Editorial skills
- Research ability
- Psychologist
- Philosopher
- Good people interaction skills
- A large social network of friends
- Tireless self-promoter
- Knowledge of the latest marketing strategies
- An active blogger (a back catalogue of many years worth of blog posts is ideal)
- Frequent twitterer
- A keen observer of publishing trends
- A keen observer of social trends
- Media savvy (some training preferred)
- Knowledge of libel & slander laws
- A high public profile (celebrities preferred)
- Public-speaking experience
- Loves to travel
- Young
- Attractive
- Interesting
- G.S.O.H.
- A strong arm (whichever one you sign with)
If this sounds like you, we want to hear from you! For the right candidate, renumeration is negotiable(*).
* Renumeration is on sales commission basis only. No salary provided. Overtime will be required. Second income recommended.
November 16th, 2009
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