I’ve said that the POSSIBILITY of selling stuff to the public that doesn’t sell to the gatekeepers has made a huge difference.
Because today I’m trying to catch up on fifty different tasks, I can’t think of a coherent post, so I’ll just list the difference it made, in the order that occurs to me as most important – and please remember, this is JUST on the possibility. I’ve made no significant (though nice “insignificant”) money as yet, for a month in which I only had about an average of ten stories out. Heck, five for two weeks or so.
1 – I wrote A Few Good Men, the first book of the Earth revolution. Look, I KNOW that it’s in the DST series, or a step-sister to it. But I know also that there is one element of it (And I don’t want to give it away till the betas read it. I want fresh reactions to it, not “expected” ones. Speaking of which any beta reader from DSR who want to try it, please email me. It SHOULD be done with revisions, by Thanksgiving) that might make it iffy for sale particularly in its subgrenre, in terms of “publisher” (I’m fairly sure it will sell to public.) Note the MIGHT – but that’s been enough to stop me cold halfway through a book, or to bend a book completely out of shape and plot until it died, in the past. This time, though with great trepidation, I could think “Screw that. I can always put it up myself. It’ll cost a little more because I want non-stock art, but…”
2 – I don’t find myself compulsively checking the news every two minutes. Who knew the obsession with the news was a stress-reaction for me? Okay, I should have known, given my past, the fact that when things are tense I can only write in front of tv news AND the fact the only time I cut back on news was on vacation. BUT the idea I was so tense that news were a relaxation thing still makes me shudder.
3 – While I’m still paranoid (A perfectly normal reaction to working in hell) there is a feeling that maybe not EVERYONE is out to stab me in the back. Again, this is a great improvement.
4 – I mentioned “the writer is coming back”. Let me explain. While I’ve written an awful lot the last seven years, I lost contact with “the dream”. What is “the dream”? That extra dimension that comes with the book. “Dreaming the book” and letting it envelop you. Most of my books were written with gritted teeth and a determination not to fail, rather than in the enjoyable dream-like state that made writing worthwhile even in the long years before I sold. Some books broke through this state – Darkship Thieves, for instance, but also Draw One In The Dark. Gentleman takes a Chance… well, if it’s ever reissued, I hope Toni lets me do a once-over fix, because there’s stuff wrong in that book. It comes from my having been so out of it, I couldn’t hold the entire book in my head at all times. Mostly concordance stuff, mind (things were different colors in first book. Two Dragons, somehow, because Red Dragon, etc.) but a couple of stylistic points, as well. Now, I’m not only writing at a pace I haven’t done in years, but it’s FUN. Again.
5 – Related to 4 – my mind is working better. I can AGAIN see a full novel in my head, and KNOW if I’ve done an oopsies somewhere. This is very difficult when I can’t hold more than a chapter at a time in my head, which I’ve LIVED like for years. I thought I was going senile before fifty, I swear. Apparently it was JUST stress.
6 – I’m losing weight again. Not just has stress-eating diminished (No, not stopped. Do I have kids in the house? Yeah, I do.) but I’m sleeping better, and I think this is helping.
7 – I really can’t express the level of stress I was under. I wasn’t even aware of it. It looks massive in retrospect, just on the possibility of my being able to do stuff on my own, I suspect if this experiment works, I’ll be discovering even stranger heights to how stressed I was.
According To Hoyt 
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Stress is so very evil. Sleep is so very necessary. And, y’know, even if you weren’t a cool author? I’d be happy to hear that a fellow sapient being is happier now. (The notion of having more books available is GRAVY.)
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Stress seems to be a major factor. You aren’t the only person who has mentioned this.
Now the traditional publishers can’t be all that stupid. They should understand that they are putting their suppliers, the writers, under intense stress.
I could see that long before I started writing professionally. I’m an old line SF fan, and I know a lot of writers. Talk to them, and you could see how most of them are under intense stress.
This may be why some of them are so incredibly hard to deal with in person. They come to a con, and the stress they are under makes them into absolute jerks (from my comment on your earlier article Wet Petards And Swinging On the Gate).
If you stress out the people who are supplying you, the product they supply is likely to suffer from quality issues. I saw this happen when I was working in the forklift industry. Management would push a supplier to get better pricing. If they pushed the supplier too hard, quality would go to hell, and it would end up costing us more than we gained. Even if the product itself was fine, they stress would show up in other ways, like delivery issues, short shipments, bad packaging…
The scary part was that management knew this was happening. They would even admit it. But they wouldn’t stop doing it. They had this intense drive to maximize profits, and it didn’t matter to them who they ruined to do it. They figured that they’d just switch suppliers if there was a problem. And to a certain extent this could work, if there were enough suppliers making something like spark plugs. If there weren’t, well, they would blame purchasing for not doing a good enough job, even though it was a management decision that ruined the supplier relationship.
Dean keeps saying that the traditional publishers will survive. I’m really not so sure about that.
Wayne
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Wayne,
G-d what you describe sounds familiar! And yes, I’m not sure about what Dean is saying, either. “In some form” should come after it. I think a lot of midlist publishers will become big. I also think there will ALWAYS be a market for celeb stories and the like. Genre? I don’t now.
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Sarah,
I’m in an odd place. I own a small independent Recording Studio/Publisher. I also own a small independent Book Publisher.
The same basic things that hit the major music industry publishers (The Big Four) ten years ago, are hitting the major book industry publishers (The Big Six) right now.
Specifically the ability of the artist to bypass traditional distribution mechanisms.
But while the businesses have some similarities they have huge differences. In books writers have had a lot stronger ability to claw back rights. In music the law states that musicians can’t start doing that until 2013, and only in the United States.
When writers claw back their rights it is on books are no longer available to readers. When musicians start their claw back many of the most popular artists, like the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, etc. who are STILL SELLING are going to pull the rights. The music publishers will fight this of course, because it will hurt their bottom line immediately (New York Times – Record Industry Braces for Artists’ Battles Over Song Rights). The book publishers haven’t been fighting to the same level, because books that aren’t in print aren’t hurting their sales immediately, although writers are reporting that the publishers are trying to claim that EBook rights were included in contracts written thirty or forty years ago.
It it going to be a blood bath, and a lot of lawyers are going to make a lot of money, in both industries.
It is amazing how much the stories are the same in both Music and Literature. The publishers from both industries are so hated, even by the artists who are so badly beaten down that they won’t self publish, that it is incredible.
If looks could kill, we’d be up to our ankles in publisher blood worldwide.
Wayne
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Sarah,
Blah. I blanked out again. Bad weekend, one of my cousins died (not unexpected, he was a diabetic, with the associated health problems, but still a shock).
A while back you mentioned needing some cover art. I know two artists who are in my opinion quite talented. One is an old acquaintance who I really like, they other is a family of a sort (long story).
I’m looking at using both of them for cover art. I haven’t done so yet (I have covers for the next two books I’m publishing, it’s the editing that it killing me) so I haven’t talked to them about the specific problems with book covers, like the tiny size that the reader sees on Amazon.
But I’m sure they can adapt, and I’m quite sure that they would like extra business. If you want their email addresses, drop me a line.
Wayne
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I know some artists, too, Wayne. The bit issue IS making the cover attractive while thumbnail. Right now, for shorts, I’m using stock art because… well… For novellas and novels, when I start doing those for indie publishing, I’ll have to buy art.
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and condolences on your cousin. It’s never easy.
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If it ever does get easy, you aren’t human.
The hard part was sitting there trying not to take notes that I could use for story ideas.
Wayne
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Sigh. I adored my paternal grandmother who was as instrumental in bringing me up as my parents, if not more so. HOWEVER after I got over the bone-deep shock of her death, I found myself taking notes on what I felt and how I acted as I grieved. That’s when I realized there was no hope.
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The problem is how the relatives react when they realize what you are doing. Which is why I did my note taking later.
Wayne
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