International bestselling author Carolyn Arnold shares her writing journey from inspiration to publication. This site offers encouragement to aspiring authors and practical advice for today's ever-changing publishing market.
If you can empathize with the title of this post, then you're not alone. So many writers, myself included, can honestly say they have family members who don't support their writing. Some may go so far as to tell you they don't even want to hear about what you're working on, what you've done, what your goals are. That hurts. But think about it this way, in some ways is writing any different that an other life decisions your family may not agree with? I'm sure, if you're like me, you get very defensive when it comes to your writing. In fact, I'm not going to deny that it places an iron wedge in the relationships. After all, if your focus in life is your writing, and they ask so what have you been up to ...what are you supposed to do lie, remain quiet, answer another way even though you're so excited about your current WIP you'd tell a stranger? Ticking clocks are heard in the background while you decide.
For those of you who know me, and follow me on Twitter, you may be aware that I’ve been debating whether to pursue publishing traditionally, or take the plunge and self-publish. With all the “buzz” on the internet, and after great consideration, I have decided to go ahead and self-publish. I had asked myself, does this mean I’m giving up ? And, the answer is irrevocably no. Self-publishing used to carry a type of stigma that somehow labelled the work as adhering to a lower standard, but things have changed. Authors are taking pride in their work like never before, and just because of the increasing ease to self-publishing, they’re not allowing this to affect the quality. In making my decision, I also considered the fact that just because a book is published traditionally it doesn’t mean that it will meet with success. Many self-published books have received awards, honourable mentions, and have met with even more-than-modest sales. In fact, there’s no real limitations on the su
" In fact, if you wanted to make a cheery person with no predisposition to depression depressed, you could stick him in front of a typewriter or computer for hours a day--feed him a typical writer's diet--forbid him to exercise, isolate him from friends, and convince him that his personal worth depended on his "numbers." Make him live the writer's life, in other words, and watch him sag." - Elizabeth Moon Elizabeth said it well in her post on writers and depression. No matter how good our books may be doing, or at what point we're in with our journey, there are highs and lows that we experience. Writing is a private journey shared on a busy road with strangers. All of them clamoring to stand out - some do more than others. Sometimes other people's successes can make ours feel somewhat insignificant. Even while it's true that some of these faces start to look familiar, and we make terrific friends along this road, we can still feel the blues
Nice! But it doesn't have the badge....
ReplyDeleteHey, the nice part is it does, but it's not as dominant...check the bottom right hand corner ;)
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