Bill Bowling's Blog, page 2
November 29, 2013
WHY I AM A SELF-PUBLISHER!
ÌýÌýÌýÌý To tune in to the chatter, you would think--still, at this middling phenomenal date--that self-publishing is some form of forbidden, taboo ritual that will damn you to literary hell, where you'll crouch forever stewing on a hot rock next to Blake, Proust, Woolf, Austen, Whitman etal.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Oh, there's lot's of talk about it everywhere, self-publishing is this, self-publishing is that, self-publishing can do this for you, self-publishing is a step above vanity publishing, self-publishing is an empty, fruitless pursuit, on and on ad nauseam with the general formulation that any writer who chooses this path to publication is either an ego driven maniac or a hapless fool.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý There really isn't much mainstream attention paid to the ones who have turned it lucrative, it, (the self-publishing venture), being viewed as a noiseless splash; and no one ever so much as tries to outright shame you for being one--self-published writer, that is; most rather cling to an unspoken bigoted notion that if you're self-published, you can't be a good writer. It's just that there's this continual, insistent implicature that you aren't worthy of the inner circle if you're self-published. You get the "Oh, I see," as the speaker makes some excuse to wander accidentally on purpose out of your proximity. Who's your publisher? Who's your agent? Who's representing you? Blah. . .Blah . . .Blah . . .
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Well, I'm coming out of the closet. I'm self-published, and will always be. I'm proudly self-published. This will serve as my declaration as to why I am a self-publisher: I chose this path because of. . .
TIME--It's my work; I want to share it; I believe it's worth sharing; and I don't have time to sit around and wait till it gets rejected, and I'm back at square one again. Been there, done that, no, thank you. I'll choose my time, and attend to my own schedule, thank you. If it earns anything, then wonderful; if it doesn't, and since it's out there in the marketplace, the potential is always there. I'll make tons of mistakes, but the experience and the learning are what it's all about.CREATIVE CONTROL--It finally dawned on me one day that I've always been in control, I simply didn't believe I was. I have been banging on closed doors for a long, long, long time with nothing to show but dogeared pages covered with dust and tear stains. I'm in the process of writing new stuff, having retired those early efforts, and now that I've awakened, I'm not going anywhere, and YOU WILL SEE ME OUT THERE; my graffiti will be on every wall that I can reach.SELF-WORTH, SELF-ESTEEM, SELF-AFFIRMATION--It's taken me a long time to come back around to myself, to feel good about myself, and to truly get grounded in the belief that I'm a valuing and valuable person with something worthwhile to say, that I have a true voice and view. I spent the longest time practically begging others to publish my work, and I had given up until I discovered self-publishing advocates like Dan Poynter. Dan taught me a lot about what is possible. When I discovered self-publishing, I discovered that it's always possible, that there is always an open path that you can follow to realize your dream of being published, and that you can come full circle.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION--It appears to this writer that there is always someone waiting to tell you what you're supposed to say, what you said, how to say it, and by the time they've finished ripping and tearing and extracting and reworking, what's there isn't what you said at all. Maybe I wanted andante' and not allegro; maybe I wanted funk and and not pop; maybe I wanted earthiness and not space-jam slick. With self-publishing, I'm much more free to say it how I intended to say it, and not have to transfer my writer's power to do it. Don't take me wrong, there are such viable things as editing and proofreading, but with a little effort, those necessary elements of language production can be learned with minimal input.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Here's what I believe, and you may be able to gather as much from the direction this entry has taken: I believe that writing is about more than the mold that some third party pours you into as a writer so that they can make money off you and your name, and that being the only criteria for allowing you into the wondrous land of bestseller Oz.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý A writer is more than a 'niche', (god, I've grown to hate that word, and the damn concept that goes along with it), a writer is a living, breathing, heart-beating fellow traveler with every other traveler in this ever-changing, ever-shifting awesome, challenging world, and to preach to me that I have to choose one, or maybe two, things to focus on or else no one will read me, or buy my work is nonsense; that's the illusion we've allowed ourselves to become victim to in the scramble to make it to the top of the heap, wherever that is. Simply judging on the basis of myself as a reader, I've read everything from How to to poetry, and if I can write something reasonably coherent in all of those areas and other genres in-between, then that doesn't make me anything other than a being connected to my world with a lot of different stuff to talk about and share.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý With self-publishing you can write anything you want across whatever spectrum that is comfortable for you, and with all the networking possibilities that exist, you can be found on all of those touch points. There's an author page, and an author website where fellow readers can see the offerings. All it requires of the reader is to check it out, be brave, dare to be the first to read it. Judge it for yourself; never let anyone tell you what you're supposed to read; dare to be surprised; dare to explore and find.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý I believe it's about the willingness to step forward and present a unique perspective on the world, or to teach something the rest don't fully know. In that way, as writers, we join the worldwide community forum, that vast open classroom where everyone gains from it being out there, and available for all.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý In any case, the pundits, the experts in the traditional publishing biz can just go on chattering away. I'm a self-publisher, and I know full well why I am one. I'm a self-publisher because I know that I'm a writer, and though I'm not a master writer--who is?--I'm a decent, passable, passionate, committed one. I'm a self-publisher because my message deserves to be heard as much as the next person. It's taken me a long time to arrive here, and I'm not going anywhere soon. I'm here, at this point in my life, to write about what moves me, and I'm here TO PUBLISH. As the old saying goes, 'it ain't done till it's done', and that means, in writer terms, from conceptualization to publication.Â
ÌýÌýÌýÌý By the way, all of those august writers mentioned early on, plus many more, were self-published, and the rest is history. As a further note, Jane Austen, (A Lady), chose the vanity publishing route with Sense and Sensibility.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Can we ever forget Fifty Shades of Grey.
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÂ Self-Publishing rising, the sunlit page, the word is out there.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Oh, there's lot's of talk about it everywhere, self-publishing is this, self-publishing is that, self-publishing can do this for you, self-publishing is a step above vanity publishing, self-publishing is an empty, fruitless pursuit, on and on ad nauseam with the general formulation that any writer who chooses this path to publication is either an ego driven maniac or a hapless fool.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý There really isn't much mainstream attention paid to the ones who have turned it lucrative, it, (the self-publishing venture), being viewed as a noiseless splash; and no one ever so much as tries to outright shame you for being one--self-published writer, that is; most rather cling to an unspoken bigoted notion that if you're self-published, you can't be a good writer. It's just that there's this continual, insistent implicature that you aren't worthy of the inner circle if you're self-published. You get the "Oh, I see," as the speaker makes some excuse to wander accidentally on purpose out of your proximity. Who's your publisher? Who's your agent? Who's representing you? Blah. . .Blah . . .Blah . . .
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Well, I'm coming out of the closet. I'm self-published, and will always be. I'm proudly self-published. This will serve as my declaration as to why I am a self-publisher: I chose this path because of. . .
TIME--It's my work; I want to share it; I believe it's worth sharing; and I don't have time to sit around and wait till it gets rejected, and I'm back at square one again. Been there, done that, no, thank you. I'll choose my time, and attend to my own schedule, thank you. If it earns anything, then wonderful; if it doesn't, and since it's out there in the marketplace, the potential is always there. I'll make tons of mistakes, but the experience and the learning are what it's all about.CREATIVE CONTROL--It finally dawned on me one day that I've always been in control, I simply didn't believe I was. I have been banging on closed doors for a long, long, long time with nothing to show but dogeared pages covered with dust and tear stains. I'm in the process of writing new stuff, having retired those early efforts, and now that I've awakened, I'm not going anywhere, and YOU WILL SEE ME OUT THERE; my graffiti will be on every wall that I can reach.SELF-WORTH, SELF-ESTEEM, SELF-AFFIRMATION--It's taken me a long time to come back around to myself, to feel good about myself, and to truly get grounded in the belief that I'm a valuing and valuable person with something worthwhile to say, that I have a true voice and view. I spent the longest time practically begging others to publish my work, and I had given up until I discovered self-publishing advocates like Dan Poynter. Dan taught me a lot about what is possible. When I discovered self-publishing, I discovered that it's always possible, that there is always an open path that you can follow to realize your dream of being published, and that you can come full circle.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION--It appears to this writer that there is always someone waiting to tell you what you're supposed to say, what you said, how to say it, and by the time they've finished ripping and tearing and extracting and reworking, what's there isn't what you said at all. Maybe I wanted andante' and not allegro; maybe I wanted funk and and not pop; maybe I wanted earthiness and not space-jam slick. With self-publishing, I'm much more free to say it how I intended to say it, and not have to transfer my writer's power to do it. Don't take me wrong, there are such viable things as editing and proofreading, but with a little effort, those necessary elements of language production can be learned with minimal input.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Here's what I believe, and you may be able to gather as much from the direction this entry has taken: I believe that writing is about more than the mold that some third party pours you into as a writer so that they can make money off you and your name, and that being the only criteria for allowing you into the wondrous land of bestseller Oz.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý A writer is more than a 'niche', (god, I've grown to hate that word, and the damn concept that goes along with it), a writer is a living, breathing, heart-beating fellow traveler with every other traveler in this ever-changing, ever-shifting awesome, challenging world, and to preach to me that I have to choose one, or maybe two, things to focus on or else no one will read me, or buy my work is nonsense; that's the illusion we've allowed ourselves to become victim to in the scramble to make it to the top of the heap, wherever that is. Simply judging on the basis of myself as a reader, I've read everything from How to to poetry, and if I can write something reasonably coherent in all of those areas and other genres in-between, then that doesn't make me anything other than a being connected to my world with a lot of different stuff to talk about and share.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý With self-publishing you can write anything you want across whatever spectrum that is comfortable for you, and with all the networking possibilities that exist, you can be found on all of those touch points. There's an author page, and an author website where fellow readers can see the offerings. All it requires of the reader is to check it out, be brave, dare to be the first to read it. Judge it for yourself; never let anyone tell you what you're supposed to read; dare to be surprised; dare to explore and find.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý I believe it's about the willingness to step forward and present a unique perspective on the world, or to teach something the rest don't fully know. In that way, as writers, we join the worldwide community forum, that vast open classroom where everyone gains from it being out there, and available for all.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý In any case, the pundits, the experts in the traditional publishing biz can just go on chattering away. I'm a self-publisher, and I know full well why I am one. I'm a self-publisher because I know that I'm a writer, and though I'm not a master writer--who is?--I'm a decent, passable, passionate, committed one. I'm a self-publisher because my message deserves to be heard as much as the next person. It's taken me a long time to arrive here, and I'm not going anywhere soon. I'm here, at this point in my life, to write about what moves me, and I'm here TO PUBLISH. As the old saying goes, 'it ain't done till it's done', and that means, in writer terms, from conceptualization to publication.Â
ÌýÌýÌýÌý By the way, all of those august writers mentioned early on, plus many more, were self-published, and the rest is history. As a further note, Jane Austen, (A Lady), chose the vanity publishing route with Sense and Sensibility.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Can we ever forget Fifty Shades of Grey.
ÌýÌýÌýÌýÂ Self-Publishing rising, the sunlit page, the word is out there.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý
November 15, 2013
MY BRAVE FIRST STEP!
ÌýÌýÌýÌý I recently did something that I consider very brave, in my own mind at least. I finally decided to put some of my work out there, perfection and OCD be damned. But I first had to do another brave thing. I had to decide, after years of wanting to be, that I am a writer. Simply that! I AM A WRITER. It's like a baptism by air.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Over the years I've written many things, copywriting I believe it's called, business related, education related, and such. But you won't find my byline, no need to look. I did all of that writing as a ghost all the while hiding myself, along with my name, away in a dark corner of my life. The amount of money I've made from writing is not anything to be proud of, but it's the thing I would do if I was making nothing, not a silver slivered dime.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý You can call it whatever you want. You can say that maybe it was depression; you can say that it was a lack of confidence; you can say that it was the fear of failure or success, blah, blah, blah. Whatever the case may be, it still equates to unfulfillment, to underachievement. No one was stopping me but me. That is probably one of the highest illusory hurdles that any writer or creative person, (indeed, any person), has to get over--you have to decide that you are the painter, you are the sculptor, you are the designer, you are the wordsmith, you are already artfully alive. If you do that, you will see that those arbitrary, random obstacles in your path were manifested by you, and only you can shatter them; only you can make them gone. Only you can open the shining door to the you you want to be.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý PERTURBANCE is my first under my own name. It's my initial brave act. I'm going to assume that it gets easier as time goes on, and I'll get used to standing in the middle of heavy traffic stark naked, with nothing on but a tentative smile and a childlike look of 'please, may I have some more(?)'. There will be more; no more hiding myself away. From here on, I'm going to celebrate my life, and I hope that you, dear reader and friend, will celebrate yours along with me.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý I don't know if PERTURBANCE is any good. Just a short time ago, that would have caused me to lose sleep, but not now. All I know at this point is that this first little showing represents a turning point, an awakening for me, and I want to share that. I published it backwards; I published it myself; I know it's frowned on in some circles, but I don't care about that anymore either. I did it that way because I was tired of waiting and wanting; primarily I got tired of waiting for myself, waiting for me to decide, and I went ahead and made the decision to ship it anyway, to fling it far out into the deep water and wade in after it. Those gurgles are happy gurgles as I drown in expectation. I may simply drown, but I will drown with the knowledge that I dared it, and did it.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý If you find the time--I know everybody's busy--to check out some new reading material, I hope you will give PERTURBANCE a look. I hope you find some points of resonance, and shared awareness. In the meantime, check out this cool guy; he represents fully the spirit I'm trying to convey with my paltry word-stringing:
ÌýÌýÌýÌý
ÌýÌýÌýÌý Over the years I've written many things, copywriting I believe it's called, business related, education related, and such. But you won't find my byline, no need to look. I did all of that writing as a ghost all the while hiding myself, along with my name, away in a dark corner of my life. The amount of money I've made from writing is not anything to be proud of, but it's the thing I would do if I was making nothing, not a silver slivered dime.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý You can call it whatever you want. You can say that maybe it was depression; you can say that it was a lack of confidence; you can say that it was the fear of failure or success, blah, blah, blah. Whatever the case may be, it still equates to unfulfillment, to underachievement. No one was stopping me but me. That is probably one of the highest illusory hurdles that any writer or creative person, (indeed, any person), has to get over--you have to decide that you are the painter, you are the sculptor, you are the designer, you are the wordsmith, you are already artfully alive. If you do that, you will see that those arbitrary, random obstacles in your path were manifested by you, and only you can shatter them; only you can make them gone. Only you can open the shining door to the you you want to be.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý PERTURBANCE is my first under my own name. It's my initial brave act. I'm going to assume that it gets easier as time goes on, and I'll get used to standing in the middle of heavy traffic stark naked, with nothing on but a tentative smile and a childlike look of 'please, may I have some more(?)'. There will be more; no more hiding myself away. From here on, I'm going to celebrate my life, and I hope that you, dear reader and friend, will celebrate yours along with me.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý I don't know if PERTURBANCE is any good. Just a short time ago, that would have caused me to lose sleep, but not now. All I know at this point is that this first little showing represents a turning point, an awakening for me, and I want to share that. I published it backwards; I published it myself; I know it's frowned on in some circles, but I don't care about that anymore either. I did it that way because I was tired of waiting and wanting; primarily I got tired of waiting for myself, waiting for me to decide, and I went ahead and made the decision to ship it anyway, to fling it far out into the deep water and wade in after it. Those gurgles are happy gurgles as I drown in expectation. I may simply drown, but I will drown with the knowledge that I dared it, and did it.
ÌýÌýÌýÌý If you find the time--I know everybody's busy--to check out some new reading material, I hope you will give PERTURBANCE a look. I hope you find some points of resonance, and shared awareness. In the meantime, check out this cool guy; he represents fully the spirit I'm trying to convey with my paltry word-stringing:
ÌýÌýÌýÌý
