Not too long ago, I had a moment of self-discovery. It wasn’t a life-changing epiphany so much as a moment of, “Oh! Well, of course!” And that, my friends, was the realization that I’m really just not that interested in writing for money. Well, maybe I should rephrase that. Of course it would be nice to have someone want to give me money in order to publish my stories. It would be especially nice if someone wanted to give me enough to pay off my student loans in order to publish one of my novels.
But I realized that I care more about sharing my writing than I do about getting paid for it. As much as I love writing, what I really love is being read. That’s why it was so difficult for me to give up fan fiction. Even after I got my virtual hinder handed to me and was pretty much forced to quit to keep my sanity, it was hard to let it go, to turn away from someone else’s characters that I loved so much and become invested in my own. It’s also why I’ve decided to go ahead and post here on LJ when it’s done. Hopefully, that decision will get me some valuable feedback that will help me improve the novel for future avenues and…oh, heck, I’ll just say it: feedback is an awesome, addictive drug, and I’m jonesing for it.
This is also why I’m considering eventually podcasting it, which leads me to the reason I’ve begun cyber-stalking authors like , JC Hutchins, and Tee Morris. These guys, like Scalzi and Corey Doctorow before them (or alongside them, in some cases), are blazing new trails, trampling down less traveled roads to publication, and finding success at the end of the trail. So it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that I’ve decided it might be a good idea to study them and do what they do. I still have a lot to learn before I can even hope to follow in their footsteps, but these guys are changing the publishing world, bit by bit, and to me that is simply astounding, and also excellent news.
None of which is to say that I’m tossing out the entire idea of getting published the conventional way. That still remains the dream, and the formats I’m choosing to share my work will protect my book rights. That’s an avenue I still plan to pursue. But in the meantime, my impatient, ADD self can go ahead and get her work out there, and hopefully build a readership, and, most importantly, have fun with my writing. Even if it never makes it out of the amateur hobby stage, I know I’ll be happy as long as somebody’s reading what I write.
Of course, all of that requires first finishing something. I’m going to go work on that part now. While I do that, you guys should go check out Playing for Keeps, 7th Son, Morevi, and another one I just discovered, Chasing the Bard. They cover various flavors of fantasy, I can personally vouch for the first two being awesome (the last two are on my “To Listen” list), and they’re FREE.