If you expect any comments on the “Bernie is Everywhere” memes, you will be disappointed. This is about myself, crossing my mittens, (if I were wearing mittens), and hoping for difficult situations to come out OK.
One thing that I’m worried about is whether you will like my book, buy it, enjoy it, and share it with your friends (who will hopefully repeat the process ad Infinitum) . Being a writer, conquering self-doubt is a professional imperative. We all do it. This may be why so many young people who begin to write fanfiction online never take the next step into the profession. I know, because I was there for a long time. Some of the best work I have is work I cannot be paid for. Whether that work was any good is, in all likelihood, not under my control anymore.
And sometimes it’s a great shame. One woman with a pen name S**** no ****, wrote a lovely little fan novel about a favorite anime series of mine. It was funny, wise, and all-around was something I would have considered sending to a publisher was it not about someone else’s Intellectual Property. I did have brief contact with the author, who told me she loved writing but was not at all interested in the “writer’s lifestyle”. The more I think about it, the more I see people with real gifts taking that option rather than mucking around with deadlines and selling to presses that have more money than you do and considerable power over you. And because of this, a lot of people will never be paid for their effort.
That is the mindset I am trying to conquer with the Pardigan novels. I suppose I could be writing Doctor Who fanfic for a while, and be happy with it. However, I quite like Andreas Pardigan, I want to see my audience grow, and I want the freedom of being my own publisher met with the benefits of having people in groups I know who can copyedit for me. After I pay them of course because professionals should be compensated for their work. In fact, that is what I am hoping to experience for myself once the novel comes out, and made possible to promote extensively while writing the next book (depending on what it’s about — it might be a new Pardigan novel and it might not).
It’s an adventure as grand as those of Andreas Pardigan himself.
I think you nailed it. Authors pour themselves into their novels for months, possibly years. If people don’t buy and like the book, it’s as though they are saying they don’t like you. It’s a fine line we walk between insecurity and stability. But we are compelled to walk it.
Being an independently published author equates to freedom, in my mind. You set the deadlines, you choose what you want to write and how. No one is dictating plotlines and telling you what to write. Point to consider: even if you are picked up by a traditional publishing house, you are still expected to do the same work marketing your book. Sure they may have connections to media and some bookstores, but YOU have to make the contact. Is it worth having a “boss”? That’s up to the individual.
Very good blog. Lots of food for thought. Thanks.