Writers’ Independence Day

Writing Career Tip, ,

Writers’ Independence Day. It happened at a conference. I was there to present a workshop called The Art of Agent Stalking. Nothing Independent Publishing about it. Traditional Pub all the way. I had been watching the Indie movement but as a curious onlooker. Nothing more.

Before I Reached the Conference Hotel my Attitude Began to Change. The airport shuttle van was packed with authors talking about Indie Publishing. Some wanted to know more. Some were thinking of making the leap. Some had leapt and shared their experiences.

Those Stories Captured my Attention. I was most impressed by the enthusiasm. I had been an editor/agent/published author/workshop presenter for many years. I had never heard published authors – beyond the first euphoric blush of their careers – so positively excited about publishing. By the time we reached the conference hotel I understood why.

These Authors had Retrieved their Writer Selfhood. They were no longer controlled and manipulated by others. They owned their work. They owned their decision-making. They owned their careers. And they not only felt empowered – they were overjoyed.

At that Conference I also Learned about the Downside of Indie Life. I learned that along with total control of your publishing life comes total responsibility for it. The buck stops with the Indie author and often the other kind of buck – the green one – doesn’t stop with her anywhere often enough. This was the truth of choosing a Writers’ Independence Day.

That Point about Money Must be Emphasized. 2011 to 2015 or so was the golden age of Indie Pub. Big careers and fortunes were made. The results of undertaking an Indie career since then have mostly been less than fabulous. An Indie Pubbed author must work very hard and be very savvy if she hopes to make a living at it. Here is some of what she/you must do.

Produce a First Class Story. Create a showstopper. Make it the very best storytelling you have in you. Then run it past fresh eyes – fresh and talented eyes. Which means you need a strong editor who will see the flaws you have inevitably missed. Which brings me to…

Put Together a First Class Team. Hire that first-class editor I mentioned. Do not try to mastermind your words alone. Then a good cover and book designer. Next an expert at publishing platform placement. These folks usually perform uploading etc. to the platform(s) as well. Do these operations yourself ONLY if you have topnotch skills. IMO it takes a Team.

Construct a First Class Post-Pub Plan. Start gathering your mailing list the day you are born. Adopt an online presence by puberty. These are only slight exaggerations. The internet is the highway via which you reach and grow your readership. School yourself in everything social media. Find an Indie marketing success story and follow her example. Mine is Kayelle Allen.

Back to Me and the Conference Hotel. By the time I took the van back to the airport I had made a decision. I longed to be fully in charge of my own work life. I had that experience as a literary agent. I wanted it as an author also. One Indie memoir (below) and five Indie novels later I occasionally question my publishing choice. Usually when the money issue arises.

I Don’t Make as Many Green Bucks as in my Traditional Pub Years. I probably never will. Still I am content with what I do and how free I am to go about doing it. I might change my mind. I am free to do so. But – for me for now – I celebrate my Writers’ Independence Day.

Alice Orr Says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

 Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

 Alice Orr has published 14 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves. Her Indie Pubbed  novel – A Year of Summer Shadows – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 2 – is available HERE.

Amazon.com/authors/aliceorr

 Praise for A Year of Summer Shadows: “Alice keeps you wanting to read faster, then when you finish the last page, you want more.” “Orr’s characters come alive on the page.” “A Year of Summer Shadows has moved up to one of my favorite books.”

 All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

 http://facebook.com/aliceorrwriter/
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

Summertime and the Writing Ain’t Easy

Writer Motivation, ,

Summertime and the Writing Ain’t Easy. Your hero may be rich and her lover good lookin’ but your drive to tell their story has driven to the beach to play. These lazy hazy crazy days of summer took hold of your heart and sent your head to another season. Still all that is writerly in you has definitely not been lost. Much that is easy remains among the blades of clover grass and goodies in your picnic basket to keep your author mojo summer hummin’ along.

It’s Easy to Remember Why You Love to Write. I love to write because of my characters. Discovering them is an into-body experience for me. At first I’m inside them falling deeper as I grow to know them better. The further I fall the more besotted I become. Then the process reverses and they begin to reside in me – through my thoughts and heart and into my body. Sounds like love and sex. Maybe that’s why I enjoy it so much. Why do you love to write?

It’s Easy to Be Inspired. The secret is to sense yourself up. Look around. Colors. Shapes. Movement. All exploding everywhere. Listen in. Past your own noisy thoughts and urges to take control. Allow the sounds of life – including dialog snatches – to tumble and flow into you. Breathe deep the scents of the season. From a new peach to storm ozone in the air. Taste the sweet and the spice. Touch it all and let it touch you. Soon you will forget that  it’s Summertime and the Writing Ain’t Easy.

It’s Easy to Immerse Yourself. Dive deep into the pool/pond/ocean of experience. Any experience. Let go of your personal gravity – whatever holds you down or back. Prepare to be mesmerized. Seek your meditative center beneath and beyond the difficulties and frustrations of the day-to-day. Be taken over and transported like a child clasped by the hand and led through a world that unfurls into a sunny glade where every step is magic.

It’s Easy to Capture It All. Always write down the important things in life. And your savored summertime is very important. Not necessarily as a story or novel just yet unless you can’t stop yourself. Otherwise notes on a card will do – as long as you always carry those cards with you except when swimming. They will save you from the following huge writer mistake. You have an idea so super you can hardly believe such great fortune has befallen  you. So super you know you will never forget it. Then you do.

Warm Weather Discipline may not be Easy but Many other Things are. Especially when you carry yourself along at a lazy lighthearted lope. All you need do is this. Remember why writing is your adoration and adore it. Sense up your sexy self to be inspired. Immerse your soul in depths of magnificent mystery and float away on a current of calm. Note the necessity and joy of capturing it all in a few adoring, mysterious, magnificent words you shall not lose. Because it may be Summertime and the Writing Ain’t Easy – but loving your writer self is.

Alice Orr Says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Alice Orr has published 14 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves. Her hot novel for this hot season – A Year of Summer Shadows – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 2 – is available HERE.

Amazon.com/authors/aliceorr

 Praise for A Year of Summer Shadows: “Alice keeps you wanting to read faster, then when you finish the last page, you want more.” “Orr’s characters come alive on the page.” “A Year of Summer Shadows has moved up to one of my favorite books.”

 All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

http://facebook.com/aliceorrwriter/
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/

 

Back on the Writing Road Again

Writer Inspiration, ,

Back on the Writing Road Again. My last post “Writer’s Life Resolution Time” urged us to assess what we carry in our kit bags that will support our writing lives into the new year. I was not suggesting we cease all motion to perform this assessment but that is what happened to me. I should also have resolved not to get Covid. But I did.

Suddenly I was No Longer Motivated to Do Anything. I dropped out of the flow of my usual life. All I felt capable of was rest. All I wanted was to heal. As human beings we each experience times when recuperation – both physical and mental – is more crucial than work. The past month has been that kind of time for me.

Meanwhile – though I Avoided Brain Fog – I Experienced a Bad Case of Purpose Fog. I was disoriented. My weakened body forced me to do nothing. Even my certainty of what I should be doing slipped away – what I should be doing during Covid or post-Covid or anytime.

The Need to Take Care of Myself and Return to Health was Clear. But my work direction fell into shadow. Day after day turned into week after week. Still the shadow refused to lift. I longed to emerge into the light of certainty again but could not manage to do so.

One of my Career Mentors – Stephen King – offers Advice for such a Situation. He says – Sit yourself down and write as much as you can as well as you can. I ask – But what about those times when you are unable to accomplish that? The way I was unable to get Back on the Writing Road Again.

I Think of Mr. King in his own Horrible Health Crisis. Mowed down on the roadside by a rampaging driver. His leg encased in a medieval-style torture device. Confined to a back hallway. Sweating out a record-breaking heatwave with only a small oscillating fan as relief. He wrote the wonderful book On Writing.

Here is a Very Important Thing this Past Month has Taught Me. I applaud Stephen King and I admire him but I do not have to be him. None of us has to be him. We only have to be ourselves within our own minds and our own bodies and our own capabilities.

I have Finally Emerged from my Purpose Fog. My purpose is to Do the Best I Can. This is a strong standard to live by in our writing lives and in our daily lives. Most important this is an appropriate standard to expect of ourselves if we seek to be healthy individuals. And this is precisely what we should seek and expect.

Here is What it Means to Do Your Writerly Best. Think like a writer. Run snatches of dialog through your mind. Put sentences together to describe the scenes you happen upon in your day-to-day life and in your imagined life. Write all of that down if you can. Do not worry about it if you cannot.

I have Spent too Much of My Life Beating Myself Up with my Own Expectations. Maybe you have too. How about we start taking better care of ourselves instead? If your body urges you to rest – Rest. Then rise up to write another day. I promise you that day will come and you will be Back on the Writing Road Again.

Alice Orr Says – You Possess Storytelling Magic. Keep on Writing Whatever May Occur. https://www.aliceorrbooks.com.

Ask Alice Your Crucial Questions. What are you most eager to know – in your writing work and in your writer’s life? Ask your question in the Comments section at the end of this post.

Alice Orr has published 14 novels, 3 novellas and a memoir so far. She wrote her nonfiction book No More Rejections: 50 Secrets to Writing a Manuscript that Sells as a gift to the writers’ community she loves. Her  novel – A Year of Summer Shadows – Riverton Road Romantic Suspense Series Book 2 – is a available HERE.

Amazon.com/authors/aliceorr

Praise for A Year of Summer Shadows: “Alice keeps you wanting to read faster, then when you finish the last page, you want more.” “Orr’s characters come alive on the page.” “A Year of Summer Shadows has moved up to one of my favorite books.”

All of Alice’s Books are HERE.

http://facebook.com/aliceorrwriter/
http://twitter.com/AliceOrrBooks/
http://goodreads.com/aliceorr/
http://pinterest.com/aliceorrwriter/