200th POST! Best time to be a writer.

Before I launch into today’s weekly babbling, I wanted to mention this is my 200^th post! WOOOOO! I’ve had a great time here and have gained many new insights and ideas from all of your comments. I look forward to many, many more! Thank you!

Now, on to the important part- PRIZES!! To say thank you for coming by here today I am offering up one $25 gift certificate for one lucky commenter to Mysterious Galaxy, Books Inc., or Bookshop Santa Cruz (or, if you have a favorite independent bookstore- and they do online gift certs- winner’s choice!).

Why these three? Well, first and foremost—they are independents. I think supporting real brick and mortar stores is vital and especially the ones flying indie. Mysterious Galaxy is local for me, I used to work for Books Inc, and when I lived in Santa Cruz I loved visiting Bookshop Santa Cruz.

Three great indies!

Here are the rules: You must comment about something in today’s blog posting—or list a favorite past blog of mine. You get two entries if you do both!

If I get more than 20 individual comments (no, commenting twice won’t count ;)) I will toss in another $25 gift certificate to an independent bookstore and draw two winners.

The contest ends at MIDNIGHT Sunday, March 24^st. I will randomly draw the winner (or winners) at that point and will post the name(s) on my blog on Wednesday, March 27th.

Now on to this week’s post J

Best time to be a writer

There are some folks out there saying this is the worst of times to be a novelist. Book sales are all over the place, EVERYONE thinks they can write now, put your favorite doom and gloom saying here.

I say they are wrong.

Never have we had so many ways to get our words in the hands of readers-- and isn’t that what we all want?

The publishing world is changing radically and will continue to do so. Gone are the days when self-publishing was an ill spoken option, discussed only in back alleys, if at all. Authors are diving into the self-publishing world and coming up great. As long as care is given to the book, professional editing, covers, layout, etc- there is no reason an author can’t produce a very well respected self-published book. Now there is A LOT of work involved- but more and more unpublished and published authors are looking at this option.

E-pubs- the romance world has lead the charge on the epubs, but more genres are climbing on board. Again- very viable way for authors to get their books out there! A good e publisher is worth their weight in gold. They often have far more flexibility than a traditional pub-and many of them do end up printing physical copies of their books as well.

Traditional- the standard, but one that will have to begin to change as writers and readers explore their options. The prestige is there, but so are the gatekeepers (agents and editors).  You might have a great book, but if they want only books they can sell a certain number of copies of, and they feel you’re a few hundred short, you won’t be let in.

 

I think writers of today have many options to control their own careers and get their works out in reader’s hands.  There’s no reason why a author shouldn’t explore all three options, and many traditionally published authors do so as the rights to older works return to them.

Now I’m not saying what we do is easy, it will never be easy, but I say it’s a great time to be an author!

 

Don’t forget to make a comment/site one of your favorite posts from this blog to win a $25 gift card from an indie bookstore!