My mobile life
I recently got a smart phone. I’m quite excited about that. Normally when I go somewhere I will just sit and wait or read. Not that reading is a bad thing. But having a smart phone means I can now do more things while I wait. For example: this blog post. I’m not at home yet I can post to my blog.
Yes yes I realize that people have had this ability for some time, but the experience is a new one for me.
With releasing my first book via e-book and print I thought it would be best to please my inner geek and enter the future. Even though my fingers keep hitting the wrong keys over and over I know that this will get easier with practice. Just like everything else.
I just wanted to post this quick note to say I no longer have any excuses for not getting up a weekly blog post. No matter where I am I will be able to find the time to post to my blog. So until next week WOOWOO!
I will no longer contribute to the noise!
About a year and a half ago I started playing a game called Mafia Wars. It was a simple concept of a game that grew and became more complex. You could either play it alone or it you wanted to you could play with your friends. Playing with your friends ‘enhanced’ game play and allowed you to do certain things faster. But it wasn’t a requirement that you play with friends.
Shortly after I discovered Mafia Wars, I discovered Farmville. At the time it was a new game to facebook. I played with vigor. I loved the game. It was far different than Mafia Wars with its interface, but it was similar in concept in that you could play the game alone, but you got a better experience playing with friends.
Slowly over time both games morphed into something I grew to dislike, but that didn’t stop me from playing. Both games nearly required you to post absolutely everything you did to your facebook profile in order to accomplish anything. No longer was it a game you could play in your own time. It seemed that for ever other mouse click you were reward with a pop-up to “share with your friends”. Most of my friends who played the game would have a flood of posts that were nothing more than “Help Me!” or “Please Send Me…” and to be honest, I’ve finally reached the point that I’m annoyed with the games.
It is good that I’ve become annoyed with these games though. I’ve always wanted to be a published author. In order to be published, a writer must write. Unfortunately these games were taking up two, three, sometimes even four hours of my day and I would lament that I had no time to write. It took an almost literal slap in the face to realize the weight of that comment. I did have the time, I was just filling if with games instead of writing, or self-promotion.
So I will be visiting my facebook page in the near future and removing all posts that relate to any of the games I am no longer going to play. They were fun for the duration that I played them, but Zynga (creator of both games) does not need my help or support. This billion dollar behemoth will not miss me I’m sure. I am confident that my facebook friends that have played the games with me will miss me, but alas, choices must be made. I apologize to all my facebook friends who have counted on me over the past year and a half.
So to Zynga and all its games I say, “I will no longer contribute to the noise!” It’s freeing to say this and a blessing to realize that I will once again be spending more time producing and less time consuming.
If you are a writer, a reader, a podcaster, I encourage you to do the same. Look at your busy schedule, see what you’ve been putting off in lieu of facebook games (or any game for that matter) and decide how your time can be better spent. I won’t lie, it wasn’t an easy choice for me. I still find myself saying “I’ll just play for a little bit.” I know that’s not true. If I log on to one of those games, I’ll be there for a long time and not doing something I would rather be doing.
Look for a lot more from me in the coming months. If not for games, I could have been a lot farther along than I am.
I’ve been thinking about…
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. Usually that just gets me into trouble, but lately there’s a lot of thinking that needs to be done. What have I been thinking about? Funny you should ask.
Self Publishing.
I’ve written a lot and I feel I tell a pretty good tale. I know what it takes to make a story interesting and write characters that are enjoyable. I’ve written and edited the stories and sent them to many agents and publishers. I’ve gotten request for full manuscripts and partials and I’ve had a lot of rejections. In fact everything has been rejected. It’s not rejection that bothers me. It’s that I’ve always gotten notes on the rejections like “good writing”, “great premise”, “I like the way this sounds” and then I get the ‘but’. “We just don’t have room in our schedule”,”We just can’t take on another client at this time”,”Please try us again another time”.
Frustration has been had aplenty. Obviously my query letter and synopsis were good enough garner attention and warrant a request for more. I just haven’t been able to make it past that point. This is where my thinking cap has been put on firmly and I sit in front of the computer and wonder if I’m doing this all for myself or is there something I could do better? Or could I really do this myself?
What’s prompted all this thinking about self publishing? I cannot take all the credit myself. I have wanted to see my name on a book for a long time and almost succumbed to the temptation of such scams of sites like Publish America (back in the day) though I always felt I was going to make it one day.
That day has still not arrived and I continue to hear people like Mike Stackpole and Mike Mennenga on The Dragon Page talk endlessly about doing it yourself and that the day of big publishers is nearing its end. I hear podcasts like Get Published doing interviews talking about the great success people are having with doing it yourself.
The fact is that I can find an editor to edit my books fairly inexpensively. Back when I wanted to do this myself it was anywhere from $2500 – $5000 to have a manuscript edited. Now you can find people willing to edit your manuscript for as little as $150. That’s a huge difference. You can also find people willing to do book covers for around the same price. Suddenly it’s not so daunting to get an edit on your book and a cover and be ready to publish a book.
So where has all this thinking gotten me? Well. I did podcast two of my novels and it would seem that many people do enjoy my stories. So I’ve decided to head out on my own and start publishing my own books. You may have heard me on a podcast or two lately talking about my YA Fantasy story Astel. In my next post I will tell you a little more about the story and what I’ve done to prepare it for print. I know it could have been as easy as saving the word document as an HTML file and loading it up to Smashwords but I want to do a little more than that. Stay tuned. I’ve decided to start blogging and self publish my books and I’m not looking back.
Look out 2011! Here I come!
J.R. Murdock 