Once upon a time it was much easier. The paths were pretty straight forward - the goal pretty much the same. Publish. Publish. Publish. Now the paths range from footsteps in the snow... in a blizzard and major six lane highways and everyone who is whizzing by or trudging along is sharing the experience in blogs, tweets, FaceBook, Shelfari, GoodReads, Linkedin, websites, lists, .... the options never end.
Even the people I have turned to for years (author pals) are giving conflicting advice - "epub and don't look back, you'll be rich." "NYT publishers are the only way to have real success." "Write X" Write Y." "It doesn't matter what you write just get it epubbed NOW". "This is a great time to be a new writer." "This is a great time to be an author with a name and backlist."
Excuse me while my head explodes!
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| And who is going to clean that mess up, young lady? |
Frustrating mostly because I really do think everyone has a good point. I really do have a lot of faith in both epubbing and traditional publishing. I love them both. In my heart, I would LOVE to see Helen Hartman in print on a bookshelf from a major house. In my head, I would HATE to lose control over someone I have been building slowly and will continue to do so, a character that I could do SO much beyond a novel or series with (cookbooks, humorous advice books, columns, tacky stuff with quotes on it).
So I am giving myself the advice I have given so many authors lately - figure out what YOU want. Decide who you are as a writer. Decide what your work is.
I can't tell you how many time at a booksigning I'd have to explain what a book WAS, it was exhausting to me so I can imagine it was not easy to listen to! So what choice is there? I gotta think this thing through!
How about you? Do you know who you are as a writer? Can you tell me what your work is in a few words that I can relate to easily? Love to hear it because this thinking is getting to me.
