Today my sister wrote about how she spent all day paying full attention to her kids. I read it and realized that I haven’t really paid my kids much attention for about a week. My head has been full of projects. I thought this situation would be somewhat remedied once I got through my week hosting preschool and LTUE. Unfortunately my mind has just moved on to other enticing projects.
Also I have this wierd sore throat and stiff neck thing. It isn’t a classic head cold, neither is it classic strep. Maybe it is classic laryngitis because it hurts to talk. This makes managing the kids less than fun. Advil has become my new friend.
And it is cold. I am tired of cold. In past years the weather has been cold, but mostly 40 degree cold with a few dips down into sub freezing. This year we’ve had a month’s worth of sub freezing days and pretty much all the nights are below freezing. No danger of my apricot tree blooming too early this year. cold cold cold cold. grr.
I’m also contemplating entering some of my completed stories into writing contests. I already have a long term plan involving on demand publication. I’m pretty sure that my stories are worth it. But then the voice of doubt tells me that I’ve never shown the stories to anyone who doesn’t have a vested interest in being nice to me. This means that the stories may not be as good as I’ve been thinking they are. So I’m going to put a few to the test. Now if only the Conduit people would get thier act together and post the writing contest rules that would really help.
Next monday I get to register Gleek for kindergarten next fall. Of all my kids, she is the one I’ve been most anticipatory about sending off to kindergarten. This is because unless she has a friend she hovers near me. Gleek is also the child I am going to miss the most when she is gone every day, for exactly the same reason. She’s growing up fast. She’s already doing beginning reading.
More thoughts keep bumping into each other in my head, but I can’t seem to catch any of them long enough to stick them into this entry. Must be time for bed.
I would like to read some of your works. And though it is true I probably would be nicer than I have to be, I have access to peoples who lack that problem utterly, and if you’re willing, I’d show it to them to critique as well.
And if you’ve the patience to read through several dozen pages of a story once started and never finished (neither ended nor completely polished) read the story of Zilong the Zombie located http://vampic.deviantart.com/
vanity/on demand publishing
There are two major disadvantages to non-traditional (also sometimes known as vanity or on demand) publishing. 1)they tend to expect you to pay them rather than the other way around and 2)you never get honest editing. They have no incentive to tell you if it’s bad. Hey! They get $xxxx to accept the manuscript and $xx to $xxx per book should you get a relative to buy a copy.
The minor disadvantages to this type of publishing include the way other writers view the process and the question in the back of your head “would it have been good enough to get published by one of the big publishers?”.
I strongly suggest shopping your work around in the traditional market….then, if it doesn’t sell, see if you can figure out why or decide that the traditional editors are wrong and publish it as “on demand” anyway.
There are several pro writers who have livejournals….check out http://www.reflectionsedge.com/archives/jun2005/5rnsp_jls.html rather than taking my word for the whole self publish/vanity/on demand issue. I’m not much of a writer, Janni is. I found her take on the matter enlightening.
For what it’s worth, I think you ARE probably good enough to get it up on a real publisher’s desk.
Re: vanity/on demand publishing
lulu.com nicely resolves problem #1 by taking a straight commission from each sale, no money up front. However, I agree with Bryan that your work is good enough to sell professionally, and if you plan to build a career or long-term hobby off it, that’s the better way to go.
On the other hand, on-demand publishing lets you make money NOW, which I know is very enticing 😉
I made the realization a couple of days ago that I’ve been so busy doing things for my son (painting his new room, blah blah blah) that i’ve not really been with him these last few days. Granted, he’s not shy; if he wants attention, he just asks for it, but still.
Perhaps we’ll play a board game tonight. He would like that. hmmnmm