tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-783878695322864273.post3590526696965620443..comments2024-02-12T15:03:39.983+00:00Comments on James Everington - Scattershot Writing: The Psychology of Self PublishingJames Everingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04717149514440381738noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-783878695322864273.post-37840503784033146422011-07-27T21:02:33.257+01:002011-07-27T21:02:33.257+01:00I sound a bit like a chimp throwing its poo around...I sound a bit like a chimp throwing its poo around don't I?James Everingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04717149514440381738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-783878695322864273.post-28136505542601515532011-07-26T21:53:29.444+01:002011-07-26T21:53:29.444+01:00I like control.
I like this: "Twelve-months ...I like control.<br /><br />I like this: "Twelve-months ago I had no idea what I was doing with my writing apart from chucking it around all over the place and hoping it wasn't all chucked back."Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02264075796596433731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-783878695322864273.post-2558365469720640062011-07-22T19:22:18.887+01:002011-07-22T19:22:18.887+01:00Thanks all for the comments... to respond to a cou...Thanks all for the comments... to respond to a couple:<br /><br />Dan - 'Indie Authors are Drug Addled Lab-rats'. I think I've just found my next blog post title! <br /><br />Iain - not sure about the PDF formatting; I could give it a go. Problem is with the footnotes it's hopefully an anti-racist story; if you read the story straight through without the footnotes it might sound pro-racist... Maybe I'll try it as a PDF and give it away free or something.James Everingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04717149514440381738noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-783878695322864273.post-64474656367127458382011-07-22T00:37:04.926+01:002011-07-22T00:37:04.926+01:00Hi James (and thanks for the mention,
This post h...Hi James (and thanks for the mention,<br /><br />This post has been bouncing around my head for the last 24 hours.<br /><br />There is a certain split personality in the writer. We need a stirring amount of confidence to put are words on the page and then try and sell them to people. But we also need to hold those stories up to the light and judge them dispassionately. <br />There is an inherent contradiction in that and you can get quite down about something you have written in a very curious way.<br /><br />One of the huge advantages of self-publishing is being able to get feedback right away. Instead of finalizing changes with your editor and seeing what the public think a year-and-a-half later, you can find out tomorrow. And that's beautiful. <br /><br />The control thing is interesting as it swings both ways. You get to make every singe decision yourself, true, but then there is no-one else to blame when you screw up. Having said that, you get to fix it. You don't have to wait for someone else to do their job before you can do yours. Your destiny is in your hands.<br /><br />DaveDavid Gaughranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13236692339928690142noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-783878695322864273.post-2895169620709548382011-07-21T21:22:58.500+01:002011-07-21T21:22:58.500+01:00All sounds like a good plan to me.
One of the th...All sounds like a good plan to me. <br /><br />One of the things I like about self-publishing is it gives writers more options without cutting off the existing ones. I'm shopping my novel round trad publishers (well, agents for now), but no-one would look at a short story collection, so that's what I've published on Amazon. I like the fact that the different routes might bring different things, keeps life exciting. Then again, another writer (maybe me one day) might want to do it all epub. And now they can. Options.<br /><br /><br />Would Xenophobia work as pdf (i) ? You might have to be careful with formatting, but I've read a couple of pdfs on Kindle and they've worked fine.<br /><br />(i) on ebooks (ii)<br />(ii) see (v)<br />(iii) to preserve the footnoting<br />(iv) this footnote isn't referenced from anywhere so you shouldn't be reading it<br />(v) see (iii)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-783878695322864273.post-53748072890571409862011-07-21T21:09:51.300+01:002011-07-21T21:09:51.300+01:00I certainly recognise that violently oscillating c...I certainly recognise that violently oscillating cycle!! Interesting to see what you say about validation when so many people say that's why they won't self-publish, but what they miss is that the validation from publishers is, psychologically, very different. I'm sure there's experiments with rats about parts of the brain being stimulated by random reward but there's something almost crack-like-addictive about the kdp reports page that once you've self-published you can't quit.<br /><br />I also agree about control - we have so *much* over the process, and so *little* over the outcome of that process!Dan Hollowayhttp://danholloway.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-783878695322864273.post-21156351636633482212011-07-21T16:10:06.576+01:002011-07-21T16:10:06.576+01:00Everyone loves it when a plan comes together... es...Everyone loves it when a plan comes together... especially when it's their plan.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-783878695322864273.post-75237839556095050192011-07-20T21:26:40.428+01:002011-07-20T21:26:40.428+01:00This is a major reason why I never even bothered t...This is a major reason why I never even bothered to send my fiction in to publishers. Yes, it may have been the coward in me, but I knew that my stories were simply not long enough to be published. Since writing an 80,000 novel sounds less than appealing to me, I avoided the endless cycle of rejection.<br /><br />The instant viewing of sales is very encouraging. I think it helps you to swallow the good with the bad. I think it also places value on the fact that books can just be entertainment. Not everything published has to be the next Steinbeck.Alain Gomezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17531540414270057688noreply@blogger.com