In the interests of fairness… with thanks to ‘My Fair Lady’
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.
We met a looong time ago. I was so raw that I didn’t know what POV meant, or narrative arc, or narrative tension or backstory… to name just a handful of technical terms. The consultancy had not only to report on my works, but also explain exactly what the reports meant. Essentially a glossary was needed those many years ago. They saw me through a young adult’s trilogy, then through The Stumpwork Robe and its counterpart. And most immediately through A Thousand Glass Flowers. They introduced me to the brilliant YouWriteOn.com almost at its inception, which led me to new and highly valued friends and the most astonishing turnaround in my writing life .
In short, they dragged me from being a flower-seller and ‘prisoner of the gutter, condemned by every syllable she uttered’ to something vaguely approaching a lady able to attend the races.
Quite simply, where I am at this point I owe to them and I need that to be understand by anyone who may think that I was treated badly. The consultancy worked with me last year at no cost and I can only assume that was a vote of confidence in Glass Flowers. The editors who worked with me were succinct, plain-speaking and were able to encourage me to continue on, until ‘The Rine in Spine’ became ‘The Rain in Spain’! It’s not the editors’ fault that the industry is in such a state of flux or that the bottom line is a question of who can engender the most profit. Editors do have farsightedness, the marketing departments perhaps less so.
My position at this very moment is more a question of timing, timing, timing or more particularly money, money, money. One day the ‘Legacy’ houses might just take back the power within this newly established e-market and things will change again. It’ll be exciting for the new and hungry writer as he or she will be given the chance to stand among the giants of the writing world.
But for me that time’s most certainly not now. After a couple of days to mull over all the suggestions that came my way, my decision is almost made. I think you all pretty well have a handle on what that might just be. Another week or so and I will have decided for sure.
In the meantime, I can only thank those editors who worked with me and say ‘I’ll spread my wings and do a thousand things and maybe do some more.’
Having been out of pocket for the last couple of weeks, I’m just now figuring out what’s been going on your world, Mes. No wise words here as the only published work fame I can claim is a genealogy book about my husband’s family. Every time I pick up that durned book, I find another mistake, typo, format booboo…I would’ve loved to have had an REAL editor. In light of your writing, my experience is pretty much invalid. All I can say is, there are many who are cheering you on no matter what you do with any future books, including Gisborne. Did I really say that?! OK, I lied. Keep your hands off Gis and Ysella if they can’t be happy…just sayin’. 😉
Once a word artist, always a word artist. And that’s what you are. My husband has often said thru the years that he has sometimes felt that had I pursued one of my “gifts” seriously, I could’ve become famous. But the thing is, I just wanted to use that gift to touch those around me. Make a difference in their world. Fame aka $$ and reknown just didn’t figure into my world. If G-d choses to use whatever talents we may have, then so be it. I can’t force the issue and won’t. Maybe that says more about my lack of initiative than the Grand Scheme of Things. All I know is that I am happy and that’s the bottom line.
If I could volunteer to help you in some way, I would in a heartbeat! In the meantime, consider me one of your legion of cheerleaders!
One more thing…I so admire your integrity in posting this last message. It would be so easy to place the “blame” for your dissapointment on nasty publishing houses who “have treated you badly”. You have chosen the path of truth and have the ethics to credit those who have helped along the way. I admire that immensely.
Thank you, NB for the kind words at the end, and you’ll be one of the first to know re my decision.
Having enjoyed your duology and the excerpts of the upcoming book, me think you should keep going via Kindle AND Smashwords (with a printed version either on Create Space or Lulu). And for great advice on publishing, follow Dean Wesley Smith. Maybe it’s not the right time of any of us to go mainstream, yet – let’s be Amanda Hocking’s mothers and follow her footsteps! 🙂
I’ll be waiting for the next work set in Eirie, so you know you already have a reader waiting…
Happy writing!
Barb, thank you… it may be the way I head. Giving myself a little time to think about it. In the meantime, can I wish you all the best with Air, on Smashwords?
Thank you!
fwiw I didn’t read your previous post as trashing the consultancy. 🙂