Wednesday, October 6, 2021

The Insecure Writer and All The Little Publishing Decisions

 


Today is October's contribution to Alex Cavanaugh's Insecure Writers Support Group.

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