Writerly Advice From the Blogosphere

One of the great things about being part of the writing community is how willing its members are to share their experiences. Here are a couple of instances that came up in the last few days.

The first is from my Clarion South mate, Peter M. Ball. Besides being a talented writer, Peter is a source of great writing advice - and especially on his blog, Man Versus Bear. In the last week he's excelled himself in two posts. In You Don't Want to be Published he made me first shake my head and then think, both useful responses when you're being asked to work out exactly why you are writing and what you expect to get out of it. Then he capped it by writing Networking Tips for Reclusive, Introverted Writer-Types where he sets out what networking can be for a writer. It turns out that it's much simpler - and much less painful - than I had supposed.

The second comes from Must Use Bigger Elephants, Patty Jansen's blog. Patty has embraced self publishing and many of her posts are on her experiences in the area. Her latest post, Why I Self-published in 2011 and Why in 2014 I'm Still Glad That I Did, outlines the reasons for her original decision and what she has gained from it. She gives any writer lots to think about with what she has to say.

Self E-publishing

Not so long ago the attitude was, not all that unreasonably, that self-published meant unprofessional and substandard work but now many self-published books are well written and professionally presented with some even making it on to shortlists of major awards.

Given the current state of flux the publishing industry is in and with new opportunities for authors to take publication into their own hands opening up seemingly by the minute it might be a good time to provide links to some professionals who have tried to self- publishing. Here are a few links I found informative:

Aliette de Bodard is a multiple award winner and traditionally published author. Her thoughts on self e-publishing are here.

Patty Jansen is another award winning writer whose blog is a great source of information with many articles based on her own experience and those of her guest bloggers. Well worth a look.

Catherine, Caffeinated is the blog of Catherine Ryan Howard. She has wide experience in self publishing. Her blog posts on the subject are here.

This article outlines author Mark Edwards' choices and his reasons for the course he has taken.

Then there's this article about a different form of self publishing where a co-operative of experienced writers have banded together to publish their books and use their skills to make a professional product. The comments are worth looking at too, because there are others who are doing this as well.

There are many others, of course, some more reliable than others, but it's certainly worth searching.