Don't Know, Maybe Coming Soon: Writing

[grayestofghosts]

I am definitely feeling some kind of way and am not sure why, but alas, I think that is part of the human experience.

The more I learn about traditional publishing the more I feel like it's not for me. It was a dream I had since I was a kid but the world has changed to the point that I am unsure what publishers are for. They do not publicize, which should have been their main function, as that's increasingly being outsourced to authors on social media, and they don't protect the writers from their own mistakes and the public, which seems to be an increasingly necessary part of publication that they're also outsourcing to the writers. Reaching a wide audience as a trans person... no longer feels like my goal. Moreover it does not feel safe. I have thought about locking down my twitter now that it's reached a certain number of followers that's too high for my liking. I studiously block a lot of users on sight but I know it's impossible to do so fast enough. I wish DW was a bit more active because I do appreciate its slower pace. While my Tumblr is far more curated there's still the possibility that my posts will leave their intended orbit and that's... not great.

Anyway that's depressing and I've been having more depressing thoughts but then, there's the matter of what that means, which may be good. I'd like to... actually post some of my writing online, if I don't have to jealously guard first publication rights for a traditional publisher. Maybe even... here? That would be something. Though, honestly, I have not written anything besides essays for a while. I could post about ideas I have been working on, though that's a little sparse in my head right now too. But I feel like maybe I could be more open, in this little corner, where I don't have much of an audience, even if it's technically public. Because I would like to share these things, and I've been told to just sit on them for the past fifteen years for what I've learned is no good reason... and I am tired.

I understand that probably no one will read this here, but, Hell. Maybe.

Comments

[brin_bellway]

I would read fiction you published on Dreamwidth.

[grayestofghosts]

Thanks for the support. I don’t know what I’d post or if I’ll post everything. I was almost hoping to post some or all of something here, get a professional (?) editor to refine and then like, compile and publish to Smashwords and the like. But I would actually need something to post and I do not have anything I really want to post right this second!

[contrarianarchon]

The "Jealously guard all of your creative output for publication rights reasons" attitude I think is a tremendously ... maybe archaic, maybe just foolish always, plan. (I remember very clearly being small and creative and being told by my mother to never tell anyone my ideas because they might steal them and use them and that was I think awful advice even if it's not the same thing as like, actual rights management stuff) Right now I think the "reasonable ambition" as an author is selling books small-scale and patreon and so forth, rather than trying to get published properly (and probably not even making that much money?). I'm not even sure that this plan *actually* passes up the risk of getting ultra-famous; aren't there plenty of famous books which were small-scale web fiction first already? If you're compelling enough to get ultra-famous, I'm not sure publication medium matters (though, like, realistically approximately nobody ever is compelling enough to be ultra-famous)

The terrible cost all this has, which I think is central and direst to all of why it's a bad plan is just that like ... feedback and discussion is such a crucial tool. At the very very small scale that's just like ... talking with other writers and reading stuff one on one (I assume you do this already, having close friends and family read things if nothing else?), but I think writing stuff nobody reads is like ... making tools nobody ever uses? Maybe you can use non-use analysis to deal with early flaws but ultimately it's both pointless to make something that's never read and also I think it's just legitimately a hamper to the accumulation of technical skill at writing.

I can't guarantee I'll read anything you publish here from cover to cover (because I know pretty much nothing about what you write) but I can guarantee I'll see it and check it out!

[grayestofghosts]

Oh there’s a big difference between IDEAS and actual text. Worrying about people stealing your ideas was always silly because it was always the actual text that was the issue.

It’s definitely archaic in that it was absolutely the case about 15 years ago when I started, before patreon and the like were a thing. While a professional publisher picking up something that has already been published a la 50 Shades of Grey is the exception to the rule, a lot of trad pub writers are “hybrid” in that they do some self-pub, some trad-pub (which further seems to underline the uselessness of them tbh).

I was in a critique group before the pandemic and had some people to share stuff with but again once the pandemic hit essentially all my writing except fanfic got shoved to the wayside, and fanfic was sparse anyway.

[contrarianarchon]

Yeah fair, wrt difference between ideas and text. Good luck wrt pandemic-consequences. Wonder if any writers would be willing to spell out exactly what the income breakdown is, just from like ... IDK, access to bookshops?

[fred_mouse]

I do read fiction when people I follow post it to DW. And that includes fragments, snippets, things I have no context for