Home repairs. This is the time of the year, something short of two months, in which 70% of my home repairs and renovations for the year are completed. I chalk it up to some primal drive to prepare for the coming Winter. My monthly writing goals continue to eek to completion as the months come to an end.
I hope to change this trend of just getting by. Despite all the required repairs and projects before me, I have found that if I can just start my day off writing a paragraph, or just a few lines of dialogue, that the pump has been primed. I will take a break here and there from my manual labors and, POW!, I have soon reached my goal for the day.
As I explore and observe the world of self-publishing I have come to perceive a new aspect of the business. An add post came up on my Facebook page. A company was offering to buy your stories, listing an offering price of $500 each. Their spiel being, ‘Hey, why take in loose change every few months? We’ll give you a (supposed) significant lump sum.’
How does one make it as an author? What is an author? I read one well recognized author’s testimony (I recall his pen name but wont name him in the slight chance I may be mistaken) that he has written under several names.
If I am a driven writer, wanting to convey from my deepest perceptions something creative and profound, why would I sell myself out for $500 a pop? Why would I not write under my own name? If I desired to protect my privacy I could write under a pen name, but why would I write under more than one? Because one wants the name linked with a genre, not with how one writes beyond their technical abilities.
Is anyone interested in producing literature anymore? Are readers simply consuming formulaic tales designed to trap one in a soap opera induced coma? Is one to just rush out one story after another for a paycheck, letting others reap the rewards of some chance success?
In this digital age, I fear ingenious hackers could steal stories in mass from throughout the Internet and and then cash in, at $500 a piece, off the hard work of others. Fears along these lines are why I write my initial drafts in notebooks. If one finds his work has been stolen would legal relief even be economically viable?
In my case legal relief would be simply because my writing is pretty much all I have at this point.
What passes for literature, I have observed, comes out of literary cliques centered upon various established institutions. They promote young writers, easier to keep within the fold. They are a self-propagating guild that, like most all guilds, exists to preserve their prestige, deserved or otherwise, over all else.
My favorite self-published science fiction author appears to have made it. Ryk Brown’s latest installment in his entertaining and sometimes insightful series comes across technically flawless. He has slowed down. I suspect his support staff has been upgraded in line with his success. In other words, he has achieved level of recognition and in turn has established a foundation that guarantees I finely polished result.
A reputable agent and editors, connections with established service providers, are not only necessary to produce a viable work, they may also be necessary to protect your intellectual property. The best protection is success.
Excuse me for having failed to post a mid-month installment from one of my stories. Winter is a time of high production in my writing pursuits. I will put out more previews in the following months. It is a one small way I look to protect my own work; to get it down on record in a timely fashion.
I have put aside all expectations of profit from my work and write in simple pursuit of my personal creative drive and where it will take me. It doesn’t mean I do not plan to market my work. With a chunk of stories to be completed in the next six months it will be the time to put my work out front and center.
