Just about the time you think you’re insulated, isolated, and totally alone in the world as a writer, a blast of light comes shinning through.
This is one of those weeks.
I can write hundreds of pages and get lost for months in a new story, all the characters, the emotions, but if it isn’t shared, it becomes an exercise in futility. There’s something sad about a flushed out story that took hours and hours to write, just sitting on a shelf.
I’ve been self-publishing for a few years now and there’s a repetitive momentum to it. First comes the writing and that’s a happy time, full of energy and a flush of excitement. The manuscript then cools, oh, for a few weeks, calling to me to re-read it just one more time, waiting to be sure that what I’m feeling about it isn’t just a narcissistic love of my own words.
Once I’ve convinced myself that it’s good enough to “be seen” I contact my editor, Rebecca Heyman. I’ve been through a lot of editors over the years and I can honestly say some did more damage than good. It took me awhile to understand that I needed to like the editor as much as she needed to like the way I write. It’s like any relationship. We have to be compatible.
For me, the editing must have some “atta-girl’s” sprinkled amongst the critiques. Rebecca gives me that. In fact, she expresses herself with enthusiasm, as if it just bursts out of her. She swoons when she’s touched, she praises when a character does something amazing, and yes, she critiques with as much honesty. What good is an editor who only praises? We need the scalpel as well as the butter cream.
Once Rebecca is done and we part ways with a certain sadness, the manuscript sits awhile longer, while I still question if it’s good enough to publish or if it’s just a nice story that I enjoy. Hard to tell until feedback comes from objective others. This is when readers come in handy, or perhaps before I give it to Rebecca. This delays the process, but may be worth it.
I’ve been fortunate over the years to be guided to the right people at the right time. Jean Denning, a wonderful proof reader, was the one to get me started on the self-publishing path. Through her I located RJ Self-Publishing in New York and I can say that these are the best people, who really “get” writers. Ron Pramschufer wants us all to be published authors and he makes it easy. He offers a guide-book that makes anyone believe they can find their way through the maze. I’ve worked with him and his staff with all my novels. By now, we’re like family. RJ’s offers a book coach, a wonderful formatter, marketing and printing. There is nothing quite as thrilling as the day a hundred of your books arrive, on time, as scheduled and you see what you’ve accomplished. Hobbiest or serious writer, I recommend it.
But for all of this, there are plateaus and this last year I’ve felt I reached mine. I began to look for new experiences with publishing, new ways to market, new avenues to excite me. I began to explore the internet to see what other writers were doing, and to ask if they were having the same experiences I was. Was marketing a nightmare for them? Were they hitting a wall on book sales? Had they created a following, an audience for their books?
I came upon a great gal, Annette Thomson, who lives in Scotland. I liked her picture on her site, I liked her humor and candidness, and I liked that I could relate to her experience, so I wrote her. The more we talked the more I realized about her. Her day job is setting up websites and helping people hook up to Face Book and blogs. I went with my gut and hired her two days later, and bamb, I was up and running, getting responses so fast I couldn’t respond to all of them, was hearing ”Yay, you,” from people who were seeing my site and I knew I’d made the right decision. The fact that she’s in Scotland makes it even more amazing.
I believe that people love to help each other. This has been my experience, that people in general, are generous of heart. Your success is my success. If I have a resource that’s helped me, I want you to have it, too. It’s just important to recognize those helpful people along the way, and share the knowledge with others.
If a resource is needed and I have it, it’s yours. Writing, becoming commercially successful, getting kudos, is all good, but if we get too myopic, too ego-driven, and stop connecting on the human, soul level, it’s all for nothing. At least that is my philosophy. And I suspect that we attract what we are. I’ve been lucky to attract these wonderful people I’ve mentioned, so for me, my philosophy works. Pass it on.
