Conkersbadfurday
Member
This is way more fun than I thought it would be.
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Writing-GAF: Writing, Publishing, Selling |OT|
- Thread starter AngmarsKing701
- Start date
Casually browsing Brandon Sanderson's site today, and I read his most recent blog post. He estimates it'll take him 8-10 months to write the next Stormlight Archive book. For those who don't know, the Stormlight books are huge. I'm in awe. I struggle to write a single short story in an 8-10 month period...
fredrancour
Member
You presumably also are not a full-time writer? I mean, it's a lot of material, still, but dedicated work days of churning out content aren't a luxury hobbyists have too often.
Whilst this is very true, I can't imagine myself ever hitting Sanderson's pace, even as a full-time writer.
But then, he's well known for being a prolific writer, and I'm lazy as heck.
Some authors like Pratchett used to put out a (relatively short) book every year. Others like Douglas Adams had to be browbeaten by publishers into writing anything. GRRM's stuff takes years to write and a few more to edit into something manageable. It's questionable if Gaiman even writes anymore or just manages his various properties, endorses other authors, and collaborates on projects that catch his fancy.
Branderson is definitely an outlier in terms of output.
Branderson is definitely an outlier in terms of output.
Depending on what we mean by "write," that's not super outrageous. Are we counting prewriting and revision?
AngmarsKing701
Member
I'm getting there too. I need to finish #3 and then wrap up the whole arc, which will either be 2 or 3 more. If the whole thing just sits there then I'll skip the other five-parter that's been tickling my brain.
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
This was my treat for the day. Also, wow... So at first I was like "Eh, this doesn't seem so terrible. From the descriptions, Richard sounds like a crazy murder, and in charge, cool. Also Goodkind's an objectivist. I don't mind that. The Fountainhead is my favorite novel of all time." but fuck that book. So little happens its amazing there were 86 chapters. And all those Goodkind quotes. Out of context, they aren't too damning but it all adds up to such fucking arrogance. And those pictures... and all that red leather...
I guess silverlining is reading a summary of pissgarble helped solidify some idea of my own dumb fantasy novel series.
toddhunter
Member
Hit publish on the third short and the "complete" edition. I know I'm not supposed to publish on a Sunday night, but I'm trying a reverse psychology kind of thing here.
Still sitting at two lends for the whole thing. Its been a lot of fun though.
Still sitting at two lends for the whole thing. Its been a lot of fun though.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Hubba Hubba Update
Short 1: 0 borrows, 0 sales, 73 frees
Short 2: 1 borrow, 0 sales
Short 3: 75% complete. Gotta knock it out today/tomorrow and hit publish
Shorts 4 & 5: Ugh... seeing almost no sales and borrows will make wrapping this thing up a chore
Short 1: 0 borrows, 0 sales, 73 frees
Short 2: 1 borrow, 0 sales
Short 3: 75% complete. Gotta knock it out today/tomorrow and hit publish
Shorts 4 & 5: Ugh... seeing almost no sales and borrows will make wrapping this thing up a chore
Nappuccino
Member
I'll probably have short 1 done tonight and start on short 2. Now i just need to think of a cover . . .
AngmarsKing701
Member
Short 3 is done, just under 5100 words.
It'll be up tomorrow.
Then I think I'll bundle the three of them next week, which gives me two weeks before I need short 4 ready.
I have the layout for 4, 5 and 6.
Hopefully this works out to be somewhat profitable, though at the moment it's only been an interesting diversion.
It'll be up tomorrow.
Then I think I'll bundle the three of them next week, which gives me two weeks before I need short 4 ready.
I have the layout for 4, 5 and 6.
Hopefully this works out to be somewhat profitable, though at the moment it's only been an interesting diversion.
Crash Station
Member
Alright, hit the publish button for the 4th short. Hopefully this one will make a dent.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Hit the button for short 3.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Ugh, more rejection letters. At least they were timely? The "Not interested" two-word response kinda stings. Can't even say, "sorry but we aren't interested?" or just send me a normal form letter? It's cold, but I at least get it.
I'ts a good thing I loathe myself, or this would be a big problem :V
I'ts a good thing I loathe myself, or this would be a big problem :V
Why the self loathing?
Conkersbadfurday
Member
A big question with an answer I'm honestly too lazy to go find. Or too tired. or don't have the time. bit of all three, probably.
Mostly just grumpy about more rejection letters. I imagined I'd get all of them, and I thought I'd get over them, but a few of these just sting in ways that probably weren't intended.
I used to have a draw where I kept my rejection letters. Yes. Good old fashioned snail mail rejection letter. Some of the more literary ones in London [the posh ones] used to say sorry on such good quality paper.
I overfilled that drawer and then some.
I've long since thrown all that crap out. Felt *so* much better after I did that. So much lighter.
btw: Where are you hubba bubba guys and gals sending your stuff out to review? are any of you doing that?
Aw man that sucks, well just keep trying eventually someone will say yes.
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
Oh wow, I'm in a second published book! It was tough to find out though, because they only advertised it on their twitter. Ah man I love shoddy magazines, it's always an adventure even after you get accepted.
Tough to do something like that with email. I mean, I have all my rejection letters in one folder, so I could just delete that, but I mostly do that for organizational purposes. When i get depressed about rejections, I do something lamer. I just stare at some personal rejections I got, with some nice words in them.
Currently I am hoping I get in The Missouri Review. They sent me some nice words with their last rejection letter, so i'm hoping this piece gets in. I also submitted to Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers. Both pay pretty well if I get accepted, so always hopeful.
I used to have a draw where I kept my rejection letters. Yes. Good old fashioned snail mail rejection letter. Some of the more literary ones in London [the posh ones] used to say sorry on such good quality paper.
I overfilled that drawer and then some.
I've long since thrown all that crap out. Felt *so* much better after I did that. So much lighter.
btw: Where are you hubba bubba guys and gals sending your stuff out to review? are any of you doing that?
Tough to do something like that with email. I mean, I have all my rejection letters in one folder, so I could just delete that, but I mostly do that for organizational purposes. When i get depressed about rejections, I do something lamer. I just stare at some personal rejections I got, with some nice words in them.
Currently I am hoping I get in The Missouri Review. They sent me some nice words with their last rejection letter, so i'm hoping this piece gets in. I also submitted to Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers. Both pay pretty well if I get accepted, so always hopeful.
I've talked about it a bit before, but I've found that writing short fiction really allows me to focus on certain areas of my writing and work towards improving in incremental, definable ways. For instance, one of the issues with my first novel was character motivation, so I decided to write some short stories that were directly tied to the motives of their characters. Action scenes being another place I felt weak, so I wrote some sword & sorcery-style shorts.
Focusing this way really allowed me to look at why I was weak in those areas, and taught me, through trial and error, how to become stronger.
Gosh... that's so simple and yet so clever.
VS Naipaul (I think!) said he took his writing back to its absolute basics. Looked at how to craft sentences, and paragraphs. And whatnot.
As a queer experiment I once desconstructed a short story I wrote. And for literary majors, no, I don't mean Deconstruction. I mean more literally, I.. er.. basically took the story apart like you would do a car - only to put it back together again.
I thought I was going to learn a lot about form and function (deep sea literary stuff), but all I learnt was the solution to my editing woes. I used to be unable to delete what I thought was 'good shit'. I don't.. sort of... have that egotistic layer anymore... I don't think. I learnt, I think, to serve the story, the reader, rather than write to impress.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Eh, i'm not so sure on that front. I did the Brian Jacques thing and filled my story with talking animal people, but I also didn't write a kids book.
I'm staying positive by saying, "I wrote something no one can really sell to anyone but furries, and that's why I'm getting rejected." Much better than, "I suck at what I love to do!"
It kinda sucks though, becuase the next novel I want to write is basically GTA meets Toy Story, and I don't think that would be a big seller either. I really need to find more main stream ideas.
Crash Station
Member
Rank has been raising on a few shorts for days now, but I haven't gotten any sales for like 4 days.
Does anyone know if the rank raises when a borrower reads the require 10% instead of when they actually borrow it, or is this just Amazon being late on the updates again?
Does anyone know if the rank raises when a borrower reads the require 10% instead of when they actually borrow it, or is this just Amazon being late on the updates again?
I'm running a giveaway for my book on r/fantasy. It's been fun. I'm asking people to write 20 word short stories, and the quality of the submissions has been surprisingly strong.
AngmarsKing701
Member
Well this Hubba Hubba challenge has been rather demoralizing. All three shorts are out and I've got exactly one borrow, no sales. I've tweeted from my pen name, mixing things up along with links to the books. I've fiddled with keywords.
At this point I'm going to put the bundle together of the three of them but if things continue as they have then I'm not finishing the shorts that would wrap up the story.
At this point I'm going to put the bundle together of the three of them but if things continue as they have then I'm not finishing the shorts that would wrap up the story.
Crash Station
Member
Doesn't seem like anyone's posting super positive results. Don't know how sirap does it, but damn is it disheartening. Definitely not as easy as the book he recommended makes it sound.
Unless of course you only start seeing even minimal results once you get to 10 shorts, but I feel like even at 3-4, we should be making more than a few dollars a week.
I've actually gotten quite a few borrows and sales. Enough sales now that I made back the money i spent on the covers at least for two shorts. Thats more than what I expected.
toddhunter
Member
To make money I would imagine it would take a lot of dedication. I didn't expect to sell any and that has been spot on so far.
Still, I'm giving it a go. I've set up some promos and a twitter and I'm running a facebook ad. I'll post some results in a few days (if only to confirm how tough it is).
Still, I'm giving it a go. I've set up some promos and a twitter and I'm running a facebook ad. I'll post some results in a few days (if only to confirm how tough it is).
Crash Station
Member
That's pretty cool. Congrats!
I do mostly mean more than low supplemental income, even if it doesn't approach sirap's $1500 in the first 18 days (even if that was 10 shorts).
But hey, any money is nice. Just saps the motivation when your expectations are too high, even if only slightly.
Yeah my expectations were super low. I'd go wideeyed if anything I was writing here even touched sirap's sales lol.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
More rejection letters! At least this last one was sorry, even if "I was hoping I'd have liked it more" wasn't the nicest thing I've ever read ever.
On a positive note, though, the current project I'm working on is making me pretty fucking happy. Story is 41 pages in, and what was supposed to be a novella is probably going to turn into a full-blown novel.
it's slow going, fighting me every fucking step of the way if I'm being honest, but I think it's good writing. yeah it's taking me like an hour per page instead of half an hour, but so far I don't hate what I've produced. Far from it, in fact. The new fear is that i'll finish, go to edit, and find myself with a giant pile of shit that's way longer than it needs to be, but...I don't think that'll happen. I feel like I have some level of self awareness
On a positive note, though, the current project I'm working on is making me pretty fucking happy. Story is 41 pages in, and what was supposed to be a novella is probably going to turn into a full-blown novel.
it's slow going, fighting me every fucking step of the way if I'm being honest, but I think it's good writing. yeah it's taking me like an hour per page instead of half an hour, but so far I don't hate what I've produced. Far from it, in fact. The new fear is that i'll finish, go to edit, and find myself with a giant pile of shit that's way longer than it needs to be, but...I don't think that'll happen. I feel like I have some level of self awareness
timetokill
Banned
Yeah, a wedding last weekend kind of messed up my plans for a short, so I had to skip a week.
I seem to be doing... well, paltry on borrows but they're mostly not translating into sales :\
I seem to be doing... well, paltry on borrows but they're mostly not translating into sales :\
The new fear is that i'll finish, go to edit, and find myself with a giant pile of shit that's way longer than it needs to be, but...I don't think that'll happen. I feel like I have some level of self awareness
Write drunk. Edit Sober.
Or so Hemingway is said to have said.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Sometimes do that. Usually I have a drink while I write, but not enough to be drunk.
I've found that editing drunk me takes way more time than editing sober me
Oh I don't mean literally. And I don't think that Hemmingway misqoute is meant that way either.
It means you spill your guts on to the page unfiltered. And then be tough on the drunk writer in the morning.
I've found that editing drunk me takes way more time than editing sober me
Lol.
Conkersbadfurday
Member
Given Hemmingway, I always figured he meant that as literal.
Because I've certainly tried writing fiction while off my rocker. And sometimes a little liquid courage helps a lot, but damn, the typos I make
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
As a fan of Hemingway, I can confidently say he never said that that because Hemingway has never been sober a day in his life. "Absynthe in the womb and bad teeth in the grave. Good writers die drunk."- real Hemingway quote
Crash Station
Member
For anyone that cares, I put my second novel, The World Beyond the Rain on sale for .99 for a few days.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SP2LKP4/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Mind if I post that in the what are you reading thread, Cyan?
As far as the erotica goes, been pretty quiet. Haven't sold anything of the fourth short, but got a sale on the third one yesterday.
I also learned the reason why the ranks raise even if nothing appears in your reports. You only get a blue borrow line once someone reads the required 10%, but the rank will raise once they download it. So hey, at least you'll know someone has it on their Kindle device even if they forget about it until much later.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SP2LKP4/?tag=neogaf0e-20
Mind if I post that in the what are you reading thread, Cyan?
As far as the erotica goes, been pretty quiet. Haven't sold anything of the fourth short, but got a sale on the third one yesterday.
I also learned the reason why the ranks raise even if nothing appears in your reports. You only get a blue borrow line once someone reads the required 10%, but the rank will raise once they download it. So hey, at least you'll know someone has it on their Kindle device even if they forget about it until much later.
So I had a short story accepted for publication in Page & Spine like a year ago (I think I wrote about it in the last thread)
Anyway, I just got the email that it's finally going to post on the website on Friday. Took a while, but they have a long queue and only post one story a week. Totally excited. I'll put it here once it's up.
Sorry for the announcement of an announcement
Anyway, I just got the email that it's finally going to post on the website on Friday. Took a while, but they have a long queue and only post one story a week. Totally excited. I'll put it here once it's up.
Sorry for the announcement of an announcement
Anyway, I just got the email that it's finally going to post on the website on Friday.
Woot√!
So, my r/fantasy giveaway ended up working out pretty well. 20+ entrants, gave away three copies of the book. If even one of them reads it and posts nice things on the sub-reddit (with 70k members), that could be a nice boost in exposure.
On that note, I'm happy to give anyone here in this thread a copy of Tide of Shadows and Other Stories if they're interested in reading it. Brownie points if you post about it in the What Am I Reading thread or publish a review on Goodreads/Amazon!
Just PM me if you're interested.
On that note, I'm happy to give anyone here in this thread a copy of Tide of Shadows and Other Stories if they're interested in reading it. Brownie points if you post about it in the What Am I Reading thread or publish a review on Goodreads/Amazon!
Just PM me if you're interested.