Writers need to learn the business

One blog that I take time to read on a regular basis is Katheryn Kristine Rusch's blog - her Business Rusch posts in particular. These posts center on inside news and changes happening within the publishing industry. If you are a writer beginning, midlist or even well established, it is a must read and must subscribe to blog, IMO.

The latest post deals with the inability of many writers to see themselves as deserving respect and to be treated like adults with something important to add to publishing process. Writers, like many women, are afraid to speak up for themselves, she says, afraid to ask for what they need or want. This head-in-the-sand approach to a writing career worked when traditional publishing houses were able to take care of the business end of things from beginning to end. This is no longer true. A writer/author has to also be a business person if they expect to make a living from their work. We have no choice. Unless we're talking about Nora Roberts, Jean Auel or Stephen King (and I'm sure as rich and established as these authors are they probably already know quite a bit about the business side of things) it is imperative that we wear the art hat and the business hat or we may lose our way in this business.

Some authors have already done this. Take a look at guys like Michael Stackpole or Rusch or romance authors in general. They understand business. Authors who don't make this transition and refuse to try will be taken advantage of which can lead to despair. I'm very glad I stumbled on to blogs like Rusch, Wesley Dean Smith's blog and Stormwolf. The information about how to think like a business person is invaluable!

Finishing up the short

The first draft of Dust and Bones will be finished by tonight, I'm glad to say. It may even be shorter than Night Terrors. At the same time this week I've been working on the book cover for it and that's just about finished. In fact I'm farther along on that than I am on the actual story.

I still have a number of edits/re-edits to do on the story. If everything goes as planned it should be ready for publication by next weekend. Of course, I'll have one of the drafts up on Scribd by next week some time.

For some reason I was excited about writing this story and I'm still happy with how it's turning out but my excitement for it has waned, even though it's been brewing in my mind for a few years now. All my excitement is going into The Pumpkin Princess. I haven't started writing the story yet and I can't wait to get started! First things first, though!

What's next on the list. . . .

I'm sure that anyone reading this blog is tired of me talking about The Green Door but I have one more thing to post about it before I move on - The Green Door is now available on Amazon.com for $0.99!

Now, on to other things. I have already started my second short story, Dust and Bones. The title is tentative. It may end up just being called Bones. I don't know yet. What's interesting, and I think I wrote about this before, is that The Pumpkin Princess, which will be the second book in my Secret Doorway Tales series, actually started out as a short story idea. It became The Green Door as I thought more about what I wanted to happen in the story and then it became a series.

My process in creative writing has always been to come up with an idea, write a basic outline and then write from beginning to end. Sometimes I'll write an ending first but usually my brain works in a linear fashion when I'm writing. I have little bits of ideas and fragments I'll add in along the way.

But Dust and Bones is the first story that has come to me in fragments and impressions. Dust and Bones is being written now and I'm actually starting from the middle and working backwards and forwards to the end. One day I'll write from the middle (a game that is being played for money) and go towards the end and the next day I'll start near the middle and go to the beginning. I have never written my stories this way before and I am surprised by this new process.

So, I'm spinning this new story and I'm thinking that the first draft will be done near the end of the week. I'm hoping to have Dust and Bones completely finished and ready for publication by the week after next. Designing the book cover for this short story will be interesting, if not downright troublesome. I downloaded a free vector image for the cover and it took an entire day to be able to port it into my old version of Illustrator - Illustrator 9. I had to download a free trial of Illustrator CS5, open it in that version, save it for an older version then open it in my copy. It was a headache, all for this illustration and I don't even know if it will work out in the end. We'll see.

The good thing I got out of that farce was a free Illustrator like program that looks powerful - Inkscape! I downloaded it in hopes that it would open the vector image. it didn't until I opened it and re-saved it in a trial copy of Illustrator but I'm glad I have it. I plan to play around with it this week.

After that, I'll get started working on The Pumpkin Princess.