In March 2011, I was asked to speak to the Mendocino Writers Club. And I was so struck by the similarity of the questions I was asked to those I’m asked every day by clients and blog-readers and commenters that I compiled the top four most-frequently questions into a series of posts:
Wordcount, Genre, Dumbing-Down: Do You Have to Do It?, in which I discuss a number of rather eye-popping fads going on these days among new agents and whether you need to listen to them or give them the raspberry.
Identifying the Best Independent Editors, in which I tell you how to tell a shyster from a real editor. This one has actually turned into a huge problem even in the year since I wrote it, as the lemmings have begun flocking to the shores of independent editing in hopes of making big bucks off you innocent aspiring writers. Every week I hear from a new aspiring writer who’s been burned by a fake who took their money and gave them either nothing useful at all or—worse—gave them exactly the wrong advice and destroyed all their hope in their novel. Know the difference, you guys!
Line Editing in the Twenty-First Century, in which I explain exactly what Line Editing is and why people who tell you not to worry about it are, um, idiots.
Publishing, POD, eBooks, Self-Publishing, in which I give you a detailed illumination of what the heck is going on and show you your options in the field. This one never stops being a hot topic, as it’s based on both technological advances and the collapse of the traditional publishing industry, both of which are escalating at a whirlwind rate. Yes, it’s changing even as I write this—everything is getting even more so.
Since you took the time to post links to four different previous posts, explained each one and why they are important to read, I probably should have read all four. I only read one, though. The one about line editing.
The best piece of advice I got from you about publishing fiction (other people have said it, too) is to first write the best story you possibly can. After that is when to worry-wonder-learn about-cry about things like genre, word counts, agents, POD, and on and on. As you well know I certainly have fallen off the ‘writer wagon’ a few times, like anyone else, and landed smack in the middle of the occasionally intoxicating but always foolish “I want to be PUBLISHED!” boulevard of dreams. But however wonderful the intoxication feels, it ain’t nothin’ compared to the thrill of getting something tricky and important nailed on the page just right.
When (or if!) I ever get this book done I’ll read everything single thing you’ve ever written about publishing, and pester you to death with questions. And I’m looking forward to it.
But in the meantime…
Aw, you don’t have to read all of them, Jeffrey. They were actually supposed to be a reference page, but I accidentally put them into a new post instead. Yay me.
We all fall off the wagon once in awhile. Then we get run over. But the Boulevard of Publishing Dreams lives on.
You know and I know the real thrill is on the page.