I’ve never really wanted to get into the mainstream vs indie argument that has waxed and waned over the Net for the last couple of years. To me all writers are just that – writers.
How they are published is immaterial. What matters is if either have readers and if they can entertain. But this is Read an E-Book Week and somehow it seems appropriate.
When Mark Williams, one half of the team who wrote the brilliantly selling Sugar and Spice, created the introduction to my guesting on his blog, he probably had no idea that he would be raising the dead, quite literally, when he mentioned my infamous one star review for The Stumpwork Robe. I had successfully pushed it to that darkest depth of my consciousness that I call my oubliette. According to Wiki: ‘An oubliette is a form of dungeon which was accessible only from a hatch in a high ceiling.’ Well Mark had successfully opened the hatch and hauled that review out!
As I ponder the future of my novels and my writing after such a heart-warming response yesterday, I do feel that in the interests of fairness I should point out a few things about the consultancy with whom I have been working.
A Thousand Glass Flowers.
Prue Batten
© 2009
Chapter One
Lalita
Thumping woke her and the dog growled from her bed. The bar across the door rattled and underneath her fingers she could feel the hackles on the animal’s spine. ‘Hush, Phaeton,’ she whispered. ‘He can’t hurt me.’
Today is a day of humour. Writers should never take themselves so seriously that they can’t laugh at the whole craft: from beginning to end. I only wish (absolutely no disrespect intended) that publishers and agents were similarly represented!
One of the things I agonise most about as I revise, is how much attention to pay to the editorial reports that come through from my assessment agency. I mean I obviously take them seriously because they cost me a considerable amount of money. But the things that concern me are how much of my voice should I/could I retain? How much of MY story should I/could I change? I am a descriptive writer, have always been and it is one of the points I am pulled up on constantly. How much of that style could I/should I alter?
These encouraging words came from http://thesunlitdesk.wordpress.com
Perseverance: Write daily
Trust: Don’t wait for creativity, expect it
Prudence: Have the good sense to know when not to write. Forcing writing when you just can’t get into it will foster resentment and make the next session hard to start
This notable list came via Nathan Bransford today from http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/05/17/50-iconic-writers-who-were-repeatedly-rejected
In respect of my previous blog on the possibility of being judged for progressing down the independent route, I loved that at least three of the listed writers, now unarguably illustrious mainstream headline authors, had trotted down that route themselves. They are:
