I apologize in advance for the length of this post. I have a lot on my mind and it's all relevant to me. (There's a TL;DR at the bottom.)
My third manuscript is done and is waiting on the shelf for me to edit it with a fresh eye. In the meantime, I've started plotting my next novel.
(Please let me know if this is not the appropriate board for this. I had to really think about it before posting here.)
I also started doing a bit of research. I've been reading Uncle Jim and Holly Lisle both, and it's gotten me worried. Ideally, like I assume many others here feel, I would like to write full time one day. I've become more and more fed up with what I've been doing as far as school and work go and I'd like to move on to what I actually want to do. I've taken steps toward that goal (like finishing my manuscript) and now I'm a bit conflicted. I don't really have the words to describe how I'm feeling.
The idea that if your third book doesn't sell well, you're pretty much done, is scary to me. Even Uncle Jim and Holly Lisle are small time despite being great wealths of information. They do well enough to pay the bills, I suppose, but they also aren't names I would have known about if not for AW.
Moreover, reading Holly Lisle's FAQs About Self-Publishing has made me wonder if that isn't the better option. It's certainly not the way I'd prefer to go, though that might be from the shallow idea that self-publishing isn't "real" publishing.
The idea, I admit, is still somewhat attractive. I like writing many different genres (basically anything but romance) and I would like to continue writing in many different genres. Self-publishing - via ebooks or any other method - would afford me a great deal of freedom. And as long as I remained prolific, I could still turn out a profit on the whole as my collection grew.
I also have a friend who's very good at the whole networking thing. He spent a whole year building an audience for a YouTube show he hadn't even started yet. It's now more successful than anything I could have ever done. I would likely get him to help me build an audience and advertise.
In short, I could do it, and it would be the most comfortable option for me, so long as I got a decent editor to work with.
However, commercial publishing would altogether probably be the wiser option. First off, I'd get the gratification of knowing that someone wants to publish my work because they read it, liked it, and would like to represent it. Second, they would give me critique I could learn from - and I'd be willing to go along with whatever they said because they have the same goal as me: to sell my book. Plus, there's the cash advance...
But it all comes back to what I read before. The whole "It's easier to sell a first book than a third" or whatever thing seems to hold true. And that scares me.
I don't expect to be overwhelmingly successful. Hey, maybe I'll surprise myself and write the next wave of blockbuster movie-inspiring novels. More likely not.
I've also noticed something from my own reading experience: I don't read new authors. This might be because I've been catching up on the years I barely read anything, but it makes me wonder about other readers. How many people actually seek out new writers when so many great writers have already left behind so many things to read? I mean, Grisham, King, Baldacci and a slew of SFF writers I could also reference are already on the bookshelves (and will be for a long time). Where's the space for us new authors?
Maybe I'm just being defeatist. I don't want to rely on lightning striking. Yes, maybe I'll just need to be my own advertiser (and a damn good one at that) but I want to feel like I'm actually doing something I suppose. I am a writer but I won't consider myself an author until I'm published. I want to be successful but I'm afraid I'm living in the shadow of giants.
TL;DR: Self-publishing doesn't sound like such a bad option. And no, I don't mean vanity publishing.
My third manuscript is done and is waiting on the shelf for me to edit it with a fresh eye. In the meantime, I've started plotting my next novel.
(Please let me know if this is not the appropriate board for this. I had to really think about it before posting here.)
I also started doing a bit of research. I've been reading Uncle Jim and Holly Lisle both, and it's gotten me worried. Ideally, like I assume many others here feel, I would like to write full time one day. I've become more and more fed up with what I've been doing as far as school and work go and I'd like to move on to what I actually want to do. I've taken steps toward that goal (like finishing my manuscript) and now I'm a bit conflicted. I don't really have the words to describe how I'm feeling.
The idea that if your third book doesn't sell well, you're pretty much done, is scary to me. Even Uncle Jim and Holly Lisle are small time despite being great wealths of information. They do well enough to pay the bills, I suppose, but they also aren't names I would have known about if not for AW.
Moreover, reading Holly Lisle's FAQs About Self-Publishing has made me wonder if that isn't the better option. It's certainly not the way I'd prefer to go, though that might be from the shallow idea that self-publishing isn't "real" publishing.
The idea, I admit, is still somewhat attractive. I like writing many different genres (basically anything but romance) and I would like to continue writing in many different genres. Self-publishing - via ebooks or any other method - would afford me a great deal of freedom. And as long as I remained prolific, I could still turn out a profit on the whole as my collection grew.
I also have a friend who's very good at the whole networking thing. He spent a whole year building an audience for a YouTube show he hadn't even started yet. It's now more successful than anything I could have ever done. I would likely get him to help me build an audience and advertise.
In short, I could do it, and it would be the most comfortable option for me, so long as I got a decent editor to work with.
However, commercial publishing would altogether probably be the wiser option. First off, I'd get the gratification of knowing that someone wants to publish my work because they read it, liked it, and would like to represent it. Second, they would give me critique I could learn from - and I'd be willing to go along with whatever they said because they have the same goal as me: to sell my book. Plus, there's the cash advance...
But it all comes back to what I read before. The whole "It's easier to sell a first book than a third" or whatever thing seems to hold true. And that scares me.
I don't expect to be overwhelmingly successful. Hey, maybe I'll surprise myself and write the next wave of blockbuster movie-inspiring novels. More likely not.
I've also noticed something from my own reading experience: I don't read new authors. This might be because I've been catching up on the years I barely read anything, but it makes me wonder about other readers. How many people actually seek out new writers when so many great writers have already left behind so many things to read? I mean, Grisham, King, Baldacci and a slew of SFF writers I could also reference are already on the bookshelves (and will be for a long time). Where's the space for us new authors?
Maybe I'm just being defeatist. I don't want to rely on lightning striking. Yes, maybe I'll just need to be my own advertiser (and a damn good one at that) but I want to feel like I'm actually doing something I suppose. I am a writer but I won't consider myself an author until I'm published. I want to be successful but I'm afraid I'm living in the shadow of giants.
TL;DR: Self-publishing doesn't sound like such a bad option. And no, I don't mean vanity publishing.