Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Monday, April 30, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
When Have You "Made It?"
I believe that, even if I make a million dollars off my writing, I still won't think that I'll have "made it".
At first, I thought, "When I'm published, then I will have made it."
Well, self publishing was a little easier than taking the traditional route of finding a publisher, so when I did self-publish, I told myself, "Nah, I can't count that. That was too easy. Maybe when I make some money, then I can say I've made it."
But how much money does one have to make before they make "it"? I made $120 so far, others have made far more. But I made money, didn't I?
Nobody knows my name - at least, the general population doesn't know my name. Do I have to become semi-famous before I "make it"?
Does somebody have to recognize me in the store?
(Good luck with that one - nobody knows what I look like!)
Does somebody from Hollywood have to offer me some kind of movie deal?
Where does it all end?
At first, I thought, "When I'm published, then I will have made it."
Well, self publishing was a little easier than taking the traditional route of finding a publisher, so when I did self-publish, I told myself, "Nah, I can't count that. That was too easy. Maybe when I make some money, then I can say I've made it."
But how much money does one have to make before they make "it"? I made $120 so far, others have made far more. But I made money, didn't I?
Nobody knows my name - at least, the general population doesn't know my name. Do I have to become semi-famous before I "make it"?
Does somebody have to recognize me in the store?
(Good luck with that one - nobody knows what I look like!)
Does somebody from Hollywood have to offer me some kind of movie deal?
Where does it all end?
Friday, March 30, 2012
Guest Posts and More Updates?
I feel like one thing keeps piling on top of another lately, which of course is why I've been so slow with the blog updates. The good news is that I did get a chance to do a little bit of writing yesterday - though not much - so I guess I am starting to get "back into it".
I have a bunch of pictures I've been wanting to post here - mostly of food - but I have yet to figure out how to actually get them from my phone to here. I was going to just post them on my flickr and link them, but I seem to have forgotten the email address I actually used for said flickr.
Anyways, I guest-posted the other day on Luke Wortley's blog. He's a pretty awesome guy, and I recommend everybody check out his webiste. The link to the guest post is here.
So...unless anybody has anything else to say, that's about all I have to say.
I have a bunch of pictures I've been wanting to post here - mostly of food - but I have yet to figure out how to actually get them from my phone to here. I was going to just post them on my flickr and link them, but I seem to have forgotten the email address I actually used for said flickr.
Anyways, I guest-posted the other day on Luke Wortley's blog. He's a pretty awesome guy, and I recommend everybody check out his webiste. The link to the guest post is here.
So...unless anybody has anything else to say, that's about all I have to say.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
On Dreams Coming True.
I've mentioned in a few places that I've wanted to become an author since I was about six years old. Considering most childhood dreams seem to die at some point, either because they're too unrealistic ("I want to be just like Batman!") or not glamours like they are on TV ("I want to be a police officer!"), I find this to be somewhat of an amazing feat.
Even though I didn't go through the whole process of querying agents and publishers on my lovely masterpiece, this is, in some sense, a "dream come true". Why? Because people have purchased - yes, they've paid money! - for something that I wrote.
Yesterday, I jumped for joy as I saw that I had sold seven ebooks - 3 copies of The Dowry and four copies of Family History: Part 1. Considering both are currently up now for $2.99, that means that I made about ~$14 yesterday. It won't pay the rent or anything, but that's $14 more than I made then when those same novels were sitting idly in my hard drive.
Around this time last year, some friends of mine happened to run across some photography I've done. Truthfully, I scoffed at the idea, because I honestly could not think of a reason somebody would actually pay for photographs I've done, especially when I'm so willing to put them up here for free. Hell, I have an entire DeviantArt profile full of stuff I took just for fun that's free to view. To this day, it still seems silly to go out and attempt to sell these photos for anything more than free.
Truthfully, though, if they had told me the same thing about my writing, I probably still would have scoffed. One year ago, even though so many people were doing it, I still would have laughed at the idea, because who would want to pay for my work? My words? Impossible!
Yet sometime in mid-November, I was browsing Reddit's r/writing and came across this post by a man under the throwaway username "Throwaway_Writer". Basically, the entire post briefly mentions that he made $1000 in a single day - all from writing.
And suddenly, profiting off the novels that had been sitting in my hard drive for nearly two years didn't seem so impossible.
I started asking questions; first on that thread, then on others. I began scouring r/writing. I remember that I had previously dedicated this day to my studies, though all of that was quickly thrown out the window as I found myself focusing more on these "dreams" I had so badly wanted to achieve for so long. I had long ago decided that I was not going to traditionally publish either Family History or The Dowry, so it's not like I had that tying me down in any way. Honestly, neither of them were ever going to get picked up by publishers, except for maybe The Dowry - though even that would have required a lot of work.
I actually divided Family History into two at the suggestion of throwaway_writer himself, who actually had suggested dividing it into three and selling them for either $2.99 each or $0.99 for the first and $3.99 for the rest. Two, of course, was a more natural division for the story.
That day, I settled on a "publish-by" date of January 1st, though I actually didn't meet that since boyfriend and I had decided to take a road trip that began on the 28th of December. Though I did do a few things; I started this blog on December 1st, began tinkering with covers, and did some editing on Family History, which included the separation of the two stories. Despite everything, I did end up putting Family History up for sale up on Amazon by January 4th, which coincidentally, was also the 3rd anniversary of boyfriend and I being together.
So far, though, nothing's glamorous. I'm not running around the country talking to Oprah and signing the breasts of fan girls (because all girls want their favorite female authors to sign their breasts). Believe it or not, I've got a couple of guest posts coming up this weekend, which might do something for sales, though I'm not hopeful. I've also got a twitter account - again, that's got to count for something, no?
Yet despite the lack of glamour, the pitiful sales numbers, and everything else, I do have this: I'm able to cross "Get Published" off that ol' bucket list. Cheers to all the ambitious authors who've been able to do the same.
Even though I didn't go through the whole process of querying agents and publishers on my lovely masterpiece, this is, in some sense, a "dream come true". Why? Because people have purchased - yes, they've paid money! - for something that I wrote.
Yesterday, I jumped for joy as I saw that I had sold seven ebooks - 3 copies of The Dowry and four copies of Family History: Part 1. Considering both are currently up now for $2.99, that means that I made about ~$14 yesterday. It won't pay the rent or anything, but that's $14 more than I made then when those same novels were sitting idly in my hard drive.
Around this time last year, some friends of mine happened to run across some photography I've done. Truthfully, I scoffed at the idea, because I honestly could not think of a reason somebody would actually pay for photographs I've done, especially when I'm so willing to put them up here for free. Hell, I have an entire DeviantArt profile full of stuff I took just for fun that's free to view. To this day, it still seems silly to go out and attempt to sell these photos for anything more than free.
Truthfully, though, if they had told me the same thing about my writing, I probably still would have scoffed. One year ago, even though so many people were doing it, I still would have laughed at the idea, because who would want to pay for my work? My words? Impossible!
Yet sometime in mid-November, I was browsing Reddit's r/writing and came across this post by a man under the throwaway username "Throwaway_Writer". Basically, the entire post briefly mentions that he made $1000 in a single day - all from writing.
And suddenly, profiting off the novels that had been sitting in my hard drive for nearly two years didn't seem so impossible.
I started asking questions; first on that thread, then on others. I began scouring r/writing. I remember that I had previously dedicated this day to my studies, though all of that was quickly thrown out the window as I found myself focusing more on these "dreams" I had so badly wanted to achieve for so long. I had long ago decided that I was not going to traditionally publish either Family History or The Dowry, so it's not like I had that tying me down in any way. Honestly, neither of them were ever going to get picked up by publishers, except for maybe The Dowry - though even that would have required a lot of work.
I actually divided Family History into two at the suggestion of throwaway_writer himself, who actually had suggested dividing it into three and selling them for either $2.99 each or $0.99 for the first and $3.99 for the rest. Two, of course, was a more natural division for the story.
That day, I settled on a "publish-by" date of January 1st, though I actually didn't meet that since boyfriend and I had decided to take a road trip that began on the 28th of December. Though I did do a few things; I started this blog on December 1st, began tinkering with covers, and did some editing on Family History, which included the separation of the two stories. Despite everything, I did end up putting Family History up for sale up on Amazon by January 4th, which coincidentally, was also the 3rd anniversary of boyfriend and I being together.
So far, though, nothing's glamorous. I'm not running around the country talking to Oprah and signing the breasts of fan girls (because all girls want their favorite female authors to sign their breasts). Believe it or not, I've got a couple of guest posts coming up this weekend, which might do something for sales, though I'm not hopeful. I've also got a twitter account - again, that's got to count for something, no?
Yet despite the lack of glamour, the pitiful sales numbers, and everything else, I do have this: I'm able to cross "Get Published" off that ol' bucket list. Cheers to all the ambitious authors who've been able to do the same.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Playing "Hard to Get".
In my insecure teenage years, I somehow developed the mentality that the only, I repeat, only way a guy would ever show interest is if I played some form of the game "hard to get". Though really, this mentality applied not only to teenage dating, but also to, wel, everything really. It's actually rather poisonous, because unfortunately, that mentality sort of continues over into everything. No, really, everything. I don't even like soliciting people for reviews, for reading my book, for anything, because I'm still slightly terrified of seeming too eager.
Now, I feel like everything I've done during the past few weeks has conflicted with that. Posting everywhere - "Read my book!" "I have a book, it's awesome!" "Look, links to my blog, Facebook, Amazon books...look! Look! Look!!" It feels so...degrading. Yet everyday, I find myself even dropping hints in Reddit. "Oh yeah, I have a book. No big deal. Cough cough." Posting things in the "Post a Random Fact About Yourself" threads in my teeny little forums. "Look! I'm selling things! Yeesssss!" Even Digg. I hate Digg, but I made an account solely to post my blog posts and books there. *Barf*
I have failed my fifteen year old self by subjecting myself to this. Yet, at the same time, I have made my fifteen year old self proud by writing and publishing books on Amazon. Actually, I am also making my fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven, ten, nine, eight, seven, and sic-year-old selves proud by doing this. Not to make this a counting game, but I'm making so many of my other selves proud too.
But, I can't make myself too proud if I don't go out and solicit people, because then nobody would read my work, and all of my efforts would be for naught. So, to make my fifteen year old self proud, I also have to disgust my fifteen year old self a little bit. It's slightly paradoxical. Oh well. It's not like anyone's fifteen year old self is the best muse for anything, anyways.
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