cornerofmadness

Many years ago someone sat me down to ask me am I sure I want to be a doctor and listed out a whole lot of cons that I didn't really believe but were true. I feel the same way about being a writer. So you want to be an author?

Are you ready to race around on deadline? (Mine's wednesday OMG) Are you ready for someone to shred your manuscript 3-6 times before it's published and they're not going to be kind about it? I loved this character! This character is boring, remove him or punch him up (Same character). Don't you think XYZ would be a better love interest than who you have? Change it. This would work better as a romantic comedy (it's a mystery). Here's 300 pages of edits you have six days. Oh you have a day job and you might not be able to do this? Too bad, so sad, see you in six days.

Give us your cover specs. Here's your cover that looks nothing like the specs. Well books with XYZ on it sell best in your genre so it's going on the cover? Has nothing to do with your story and the cover is a lie that might upset reader/reviewers? Too bad, so sad. Oh I love your cover. That cover tells me nothing, I can't tell what genre it even is (same cover)

Titles suck? Wanna help? No one does. Title is finalized, a dozen better titles get pitched. I love your title. That title makes no sense (same title)

You need to get in touch with your readers. You have to have a website, facebook, twitter, instagram. Stay on brand. You aren't talking politics, you must not care, I'm not buying from you. I don't agree with your politics, I'm not buying from you.

You pay for an expensive marketing scheme. Novel still sits there like a turd in a clogged toilet. You don't know why. Did I not tweet/facebook it enough? did I over tweet/facebook it? Will my publisher drop me? (and if you're not worry about that, you should, it's a thing)

I have to do public shows? But I'm not good with people! (Not me but several author friends can't bring themselves to do it).

Reviewers will shred your baby and shit on it. Don't look at those reviews, they're not for you. Their review looks like someone didn't read your book because those things aren't in your book? Leave it, never engage the trolls. It won't come out well.

You're proud of your work and then you get looped into someone's tweet rant about your book. You didn't write diversely, you're a racist. You wrote diverse about people you don't share ethnicity with, you appropriated their culture, how could you? You wrote a queer character, how could you when you aren't (wait, how do YOU know what happens in my bedroom?)

You expect other authors to help you, for every one who will, five will kick you in the groin and step on you to get over you. It's not a competition and we should help each other (but not many agree). Ready to feel like you're back in high school in the worst possible way? Ready to pay it for it and not have anyone return it when it's your turn?

You are? Then you're ready to tackle this publishing thing (and I didn't even touch on the insanity that goes into self publishing).

All this brought to you because my novella releases tomorrow and ALL the damn promo stuff I did for the other people releasing this week, not ONE has do the same for me.

You can find Modified and Sacred here at Ninestar and here on AMazon