bottledworder's avatarbottledworder

Some of us train ourselves to be a peddler of words. Or as people who can assess and value words.

We package words, we polish them up and then we hawk our wares on streets of the real world. No matter how great or small, we hope to make a dazzling show.

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What fun!

eleventh stack's avatarEleventh Stack

I would like to say I don’t believe in all that silly horoscope stuff and dream interpretation and signs and omens and whatnot. But my zodiac sign is Pisces and my Chinese zodiac sign is the Snake:

 OF COURSE I BELIEVE IN ALL OF THAT STUFF!

OnlyAstrologyMy all-time favorite astrology book is The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need by Joanna Martine Woolfolk. I bought my first copy sometime in the early 90s, only to have it stolen by some strumpet my boyfriend was cheating on me with. I’ve long since gotten over him, but I’m still pretty bent about the book. Seriously, you can steal just about anything you want from me, but keep your mitts off of my books!

But I digress.

The Only Astrology Book now comes with an interactive CD that will actually make your birth chart for you. And it is NEATO. Also…

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I like this view and think it can apply to many.

Jay Finn's avatarjayfinnauthor

First and foremost, I’m quite happy to be an Irishman. The main reason being the hospitality with which people of other nationalities treat you once finding out that you’re Irish (my twitter followers being a perfect example of this). However, it’s on days like March 17th each year that makes me cringe; with both embarrassment and anger.

I suppose you’ll be wanting to know why? Of course you will. Well, here’s why.

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Newbies writers…check this out.

Scott D. Southard's avatarThe Stories of Scott D. Southard

Sometimes when I work with new novelists or self-published writers, I wonder (and this is awful to say) if they even really like books.

Why is it that people are drawn to wanting to be writers?  Is the image too glamorized in books, TV, and movies? Is it for the bragging right, so they can say “Yes, I have written a book? It is right there.” Is it because it seems simple to do since we all know how to form a sentence thanks to public education? Has self-publishing companies done too good a job ruining the myth that writing is a skilled craft? What is it that draws people to take on this art, resulting in a congested market and thousands of badly written books finding their way onto amazon each year with badly made covers on photoshop?

I wish I had an answer to all of my questions…

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Asshats Galore!

ASSHATS GALORE!

You know, I sat down and engaged the Internet, looking for ideas for marketing self-published books. I found a lot of fantastic advice and ideas. CreateSpace has a great community where one can also find a great deal of information.

I also found a bunch of asshats talking about how self-published authors are lazy. Too lazy to lay the groundwork to query publishers or agents. Well, asshats, I did query. I got rejected. Then I got depressed and put my book, Someday Always Comes, on the shelf. I thought, well it’s not good enough. I was correct. It wasn’t good enough for publication. Period.

Over a period of nearly a decade, I reworked the story. Cleaned up Tense, and corrected grammar. I worked hard. And the day I decided that I would self-publish my book, I made a dedicated choice to work even harder. For eight months, I edited non-stop, losing sleep, pissing off friends and family, losing friends and pets. I went without food. Without sleep. I was grouchy. Pissy. Happy. Sad. Angry. Impatient. Everything got on my nerves, especially my day job.

Here’s the thing, I worked doubly, triply hard. I worked harder than any author with a highly-paid editor. So go piss off you bunch of lazy morons who need editors and agents to publish your first…and every book. Who’s lazy now?

So, next I have to market. I didn’t really market before I published. I spread the word through Facebook, Twitter, the place where I work. Word of mouth works better than I thought! Anyway, even though I already planned on doing book signings, etc. I decided to study one marketing outlet at a time and did research today on online marketing. I started only with CreateSpace’s community, and that research led me all over the Web to writer and author outlets and resources I never knew existed. Wow!

I began my search around 10:30am and ended it at about 4:30pm. Geeze, I wonder if the asshats with agents and editors would’ve taken the time to do all that? Probably not, since the publisher, agent and editor take care of all that marketing and publicity shit.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Hellz yeah, if an agent or editor of a publishing house was interested in me, I might jump on that bandwagon. Especially if they wanted Someday Always Comes. Why? I’m so proud of that work, and even with mistakes (more than likely) still embedded within its pages, I love it more than I love myself. And trust me, that’s a lot of love.

What is this blog about, you ask? Who the hell knows? I just wanted to say something back to the asshats who say that those who self-publish are lazy. No, when you have everyone else doing your work for you…That’s slothful.

I am an artist. I will create. I will fix. I will outwork the asshats and be proud.