Not for Lazy Bastards

So, if bad language makes you itch, you probably don't want to follow this link. But if you want some hard-hitting, honest advice about traditional publishing and what it takes to sell to one of the big six and see your books in book stores, maybe you should follow this link anyway.

25 Steps to Being a Traditionally Published Author: Lazy Bastard Edition (Guest Post By Delilah S. Dawson)

1. IF YOU’RE ACTUALLY LAZY, GTFO

Seriously. Writing is a ton of work. No one, not even Stephen King, spits out a first draft that’s worth reading. If you think being a writer is all about dicking around with a Moleskine at Starbucks for two months, just GTFO. Writing a crappy book is hard as hell, and that’s the easiest part of the process.

More where that came from. Follow the link above.

 

Nonfiction and Fiction, and Alice Sebold

This is interesting background information about Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones.

She first wrote about her own rape, and having gotten that out of her system, was then able to explore the idea, what if she hadn't survived it? What might the aftermath have been for those she left behind?

Have you read this book? I admit I haven't, although many of you have told me I really should. 

The Writer Never Pays

Available at Book View Cafe and Amazon.

Do NOT pay anybody calling themselves 'publishers' to publish your work.

Do NOT pay anybody calling themselves agents to represent you.

Got that?

Yet another cautionary tale here.

This was a woman who seemed to be legitimate, who seemed to be the Real Thing.

You know when she stopped being real? The moment she asked writers to pay expenses. Read the article. Understand it.

You may decide to pay an editor to help you get your book ready to submit or publish. If so, do due diligence and research them.  You may pay someone to create a cover if you self-publish.

Those are different issues.

Do NOT deal with any 'publisher' or 'agent' who asks you for up-front money. Not if it's $25 or $10,000.

Period.

Wait, you say. Only $25... that isn't a big deal. If somebody is going to represent me and sell my book, I wouldn't mind paying that every month or every quarter.

Here is the problem with that. An agent who has to ask his or her authors to cover his expenses while he operates a business is not a successful agent. That agent is supposed to be able to cover expenses out of profits. That's operating a business. And REAL agents don't ask their authors to front money to them to cover expenses.

You know who does that? People who prey on other people's dreams.

Scum-suckers who realize that by asking for a little bit of money, they can make a lot. Because if you're paying $25 a quarter to an agency to cover the expenses of getting your career launched until you actually, you know, sell something and have a career? You can bet a lot of people are. And that somebody is sitting there collecting those fees and making a nice little [or big] bundle off of it.

And they are not legitimate agents because legitimate agents don't operate that way.

Legitimate publishers don't ask you to pay for your own publishing expenses, either.

Never.

True Confessions

I have a guest post up at Book Babe where I talk about visions and revisions and how they seem to never end, even after publication.

Click here.