Writing per se is a wonderful thing, as is life for that matter. In both cases, it is the paraphernalia surrounding the same that troubles the intellect. A writer can happily type away words, but when the manuscript is complete, then the tedious job of hunting for an agent or a publisher is what is most bothersome. I’ve been scouting agents and publishers for the last few months to no avail. It is not even the fact that they have rejected my manuscript. They haven’t even had the TIME to go through the same !!! Had my writing been rejected, then at least I would have found comfort in the thought that someone somewhere has read it. But here the situation is much worse. At present I have been giving self publishing quite a serious thought. This has also got me thinking about life and the paraphernalia surrounding the same.
Life, like writing or rather the art of writing is supposed to be simple. But isn’t the paraphernalia surrounding the same that makes it quite tedious for us? Also, for a person living in a populous country like India, who is by nature an introvert, balancing the career of a full time Professor and a struggling writer can be quite cumbersome. My country is beautiful, with a rich cultural legacy and a lovely yet diverse nature, but what irritates me to the core is the immense growth of population and the problems that come with the same like difficulty in commuting, crowded roads and markets, blaring music, and a society that is teeming with extroverts. There is rarely a place in the Indian society for the introvert. Everyone loves company except for a few rare souls who are into writing and other creative arts.
Coming back to writing, I have been avidly searching for self publishing companies these days, as well as keeping an eye open for conventional publishers who may care to as Dickens said once “throw an eye over” my manuscript. Keeping my fingers crossed as well as busy on the keyboard.
Au revoir !
Hi. I’ve had similar issues with my stuff. In fact I would go as far to say the chances of publishing traditionally – i.e using an agent or publisher – are now next to zero. Simply put, unless you a) know someone in the trade who can open doors for you, or b) have a track yourself (and as a first time writer you won’t have one), then self-publishing is the only route.
And that too is not as easy as it sounds. I made contact a few years back with a publishing consultancy in London and met with their CEO. We talked, I sent him the MS of my football novel and he was keen to help. He sent me a proposal – essentially, I would self-publish, and he would help me find people to assist with the marketing, sales, publicity etc that is vital but goes under the radar, and frankly I have no clue about. The cost? Getting on for £10,000. I passed, primarily because I didn’t (not do I still) have that amount of capital sitting in my bank account doing nothing.
So I set up an Amazon Kindle account. It’s easy enough to do, and allows you to publish as an e-book with a print on demand option for those people who want a physical paper volume to hold rather than a device, at a cost of….nothing. Zero. Dinada. You advertise on the Amazon shopping site and if someone buys they order either e-book or hard copy and Amazon do the rest. You get a bigger royalty per copy this way because Amazon’s costs are lower.
I still haven’t published. Why? Two reasons: there is still the issue of publicity and marketing – where to start? Advertise on my Facebook account, LinkedIn or other social media. OK, but I have about 80 Facebook Friends, and do not use any other social media. I could advertise it on my blog, here and on my Blogger outlet, but I have absolutely no idea what kind of audience I have on either – after 13 years writing it, I’m still none the wiser and despite monetising the Blogger content I have never earned a cent. Amazon don’t advertise. So what to do? No clue. Second: I decided I needed a follow up: assuming someone buys the novel and wants to read more…..at that time, there was nothing, so I started working on some ideas. Some short stories. A memoir. A travel book based on re-cycling and expanding a lot of the Blogger content. As a retiree, I had plenty of time to work. Then along came the Pandemic. I caught Covid. Twice in six months. I still (possibly) have a mild case of Long Covid because certain things, especially mentally, have still not fully recovered. I had a twelve month battle with depression as a result. Injured an arm and needed surgery.
Thank God, I’ve come through it all in reasonable shape but none of the writing projects are anywhere close to completion, possibly years away. I sometimes doubt they ever will be completed, but I still write, when the mood/Muse takes me, but that is increasingly rare.
But that’s life. If it happens, great, but I will not stress over it. Life is just too short for that!
It was wonderful to read about your experiences. As fellow writers we can definitely learn a lot from each others’ life as well as writing experiences 🙂
I wish you the very best of luck 🙂
Thank you very much 🙂