Yet Another Change of Plans

My lack of activity with this blog is reflective of my writing endeavors. That last post in October really explains a lot of the reasons why I've been in these doldrums. I know there are other writers out there who go through similar feelings; there is a passion tied to a project and when that project gets delayed, it is difficult to re-focus that passion to another well deserving project.

Condr is a deep, complex character that is a joy to write, yet I haven't approached his story with the lust that the Dalth epic had behind it. To use a phrase that sometimes irks me; I lost my muse. I love to write. I want to spend the rest of my life writing. Most important; I want to write what I want to write, not what a failing industry wants me to write.

The last two years has been an uprising of independent writers succeeding in the electronic market, thanks in a large part to places like Amazon and Smashwords. Writers now have an avenue that can, at times, be more lucrative than the old route through the big publishing houses. Those same large publishing houses are fueling the rise of independent publishing by over-pricing their electronic media. You don't have to trust me on this, just go to Amazon and check out their best selling lists and you will see that they are dominated by self-published writers.

Is there a trade-off with self-publishing as opposed to the traditional method? Heck yes there is. By following the traditional path your novel goes through several revisions and by the time it hits the printed page, it is a refined piece of work (for the most part). With self-published authors that forced editing is not present, so it is left to the writer to edit, re-edit, and find others to edit their work.

The self-published author has to market their work, but if you aren't a best-selling author at one of the big houses, those publishers often leave the marketing in your hands anyhow. In some cases, I have seen midlist authors discouraged by their publisher's when the subject of marketing came up.

I think you can see where I am going with all this rambling. I will continue with another post to discuss my decision to circumvent the big crumbling publishing houses, but for now; I am freaking excited again!