Here are three hopes I have for the blogworld:
ONE: For more authors who blog to be sassier, and try a little harder to present topics that appeal both to writers and readers.
TWO: For Karin Gillespie's books to soar to the top of the best-seller lists. Because Karin works hard to keep her blog topical, and takes the time to encourage writers and readers by providing links and insight to the joys and frustration of being a new author. Go, Karin.
THREE: For myself to start blogging more often and more generally.
Those are my hopes for the blogworld in the new year. Now the hopes for my personal life...well, that's another entry.
Friday, December 31, 2004
Monday, December 27, 2004
Should I Be Flattered...or Not?
Yesterday, I checked my email and there was an email from a "representative" of Xilbris; this person had read my Becoming Shadows blog, and "found [my] writing to have tremendous potential and impact."
Unh. Hunh.
Well, Xilbris is a vanity press. Yes, a "publisher" that I pay instead of the other way around (and the more respectable way.)
The email was a shock, because my Bel Esprit blog is not "out there" yet, and probably has only one consistent reader (thanks, MJ), and my Becoming Shadows blog has been abandoned to continue my work under less scrutiny. So, how this "representative" found my blog is most likely from the NaNoBlogMo blog, where every NaNo participant who shared the URL to their blog probably received the same email and found that their writing, too, has "tremendous potential and impact."
I was discussing with my brother about how being a self-published author is way less respectable than a musician who decides to hawk copies of a labored CD from the trunk of his or her car. Hey, Ani DiFranco, Jay-Z and countless other musicians have done it, and it's considered a terrific grassroots effort to stardom. But...in publishing, ha! Self-publishing is a LAST RESORT. Either the author's book is not marketable or before its time or just plain leaky.
I know there are authors who have self-published successfully. And if their work is up to par, then most of these authors are scooped up by a "real" publisher. Making self-publishing sound even more small-time and desperate.
My motto: If I can't land a publisher the traditional way, and get paid for my work, then I just wont be published. Plain as that. So, no thank you, Xilbris.
Okay, that's all. I'm off to listen to Fantasia Barinno's "Summertime" for the tenth time this morning, and work on Chapter Nine of Becoming Shadows.
Unh. Hunh.
Well, Xilbris is a vanity press. Yes, a "publisher" that I pay instead of the other way around (and the more respectable way.)
The email was a shock, because my Bel Esprit blog is not "out there" yet, and probably has only one consistent reader (thanks, MJ), and my Becoming Shadows blog has been abandoned to continue my work under less scrutiny. So, how this "representative" found my blog is most likely from the NaNoBlogMo blog, where every NaNo participant who shared the URL to their blog probably received the same email and found that their writing, too, has "tremendous potential and impact."
I was discussing with my brother about how being a self-published author is way less respectable than a musician who decides to hawk copies of a labored CD from the trunk of his or her car. Hey, Ani DiFranco, Jay-Z and countless other musicians have done it, and it's considered a terrific grassroots effort to stardom. But...in publishing, ha! Self-publishing is a LAST RESORT. Either the author's book is not marketable or before its time or just plain leaky.
I know there are authors who have self-published successfully. And if their work is up to par, then most of these authors are scooped up by a "real" publisher. Making self-publishing sound even more small-time and desperate.
My motto: If I can't land a publisher the traditional way, and get paid for my work, then I just wont be published. Plain as that. So, no thank you, Xilbris.
Okay, that's all. I'm off to listen to Fantasia Barinno's "Summertime" for the tenth time this morning, and work on Chapter Nine of Becoming Shadows.
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