What makes me an insecure writer this month?
To be honest, not all that much. My editor is currently busy editing my story, and I’m keeping myself occupied working on the sequel. It’s progressing nicely, BTW, so it probably won’t take five years to finish this one. I hope. 😊
What does keep me up late at night are all the decisions I’ll eventually have to make before I publish. What software should I power my author website with. (I know I’ll be using Wordpress, but what template should I use? Which engine gives me the most flexibility?) Who should I hire to create my cover? Should I format my books myself, or should I hire someone else to do it? Should I go Amazon only, or should I go wide? There are dozens of decisions to make and I’m simply not ready for that.
I monitor blogs and Facebook groups where questions like these are discussed, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that for every answer I find, I discover ten more questions I haven’t even thought of yet. I could dedicate a year combing through all the old posts and I still wouldn’t be ready. I understand this is a learning process, but I don’t want to publish a dozen books before I have a clue either.
October's question: In your writing, where do you draw the line, with either topics or language?
I’m not into foul language (although that doesn’t stop me from using them occasionally in real life), so I’m not into characters that use them frequently. You’ll rarely see words in my story that I wouldn’t use in front of my mom.
As far as topics are concerned, I want my stories to be fun romps into escapism, so you won’t see me tackle controversial or uncomfortable topics. I have a hard enough time trying to transform the thoughts in my head down onto words on a page, so the last thing I need is to incorporate any topic that’s particularly deep. I’ll leave that to the writers who know what they’re doing.
Take care everyone, and stay safe!
ChemistKen
Those are challenging questions and they are just the beginning. Luckily, once you've answered them all for the first book, you have a sort of template for future books. Good luck with this!
ReplyDeleteThose are all tough choices, but remember, you can explore the options, you can change your mind, and that's okay. I formatted most of my books, then hired someone for the last two, because it always stressed me out. I think it depends on what you like to do, what you do well, and what you can afford. Or at least that seems to be my criteria for what I do for each book.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the number of things to look at is daunting and makes me want to run away screaming. But if anyone is going to be prepared when that time comes, I'm sure it will be you.
ReplyDeleteThere certainly are a lot of decisions to make when it comes to publishing a book. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out. Enjoy working on the sequel in the meantime!
ReplyDeleteThat's great that you're making progress on book 2 while you wait for book 1 edits. I think all you can do is become informed about possible answers to your question and then pick the one that makes the most sense to you.
ReplyDeleteYou wrote: I want my stories to be fun romps into escapism. Me, too. I want to escape the real world and enjoy several hours of fun and adventure. Yes, you have a lot of decisions to make. Do the best you can. My choices might not be the same as yours, but that's okay. Take deep breaths and exhale. There aren't very many decisions that can't be changed. Enjoy the process.
ReplyDeleteI agree about wanting my books to be escapism, although there's often a deeper theme. But maybe not everyone will see that. My current book is a bit darker than other stuff I've written, but I'm having fun lightening it up a bit with humor.
ReplyDeleteAnd congrats on being at the place to make all those decisions! I'm sure everything will come together.
Hi! IWSG Newbie here. :) Self-publishing is daunting to me - so many details to figure out and keep track of. That's a big reason I'm trying for traditional before I try self-pub. It's so much work to do self pub well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you where you draw the line.
ReplyDeleteI'd say go wide. I only buy books from the iTunes store and there are others with Nooks, Kobos, and other readers who don't shop Amazon.
I can point you to a cover artist and of course I have formatted hundreds of books. If you do format yourself, promise me you will NOT use Word to format your print book! It will look very amateur if you do. You need InDesign to do it properly.
ReplyDeleteSounds like your stories are going to be fun reads. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnna from elements of emaginette
Ahh, thank you. After the last two years we've had...I think we all deserve a bit of a mental break. I'm truly grateful to the authors who deliver it.
ReplyDeleteDoing research with blogs and online groups is wise, but there are a lot of self-proclaimed experts on publishing out there. That also makes it harder to sort these kinds of questions out. First hand experience is a better teacher.
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