Being a Writer in the Internet Age

             

One of the biggest dreams any writer has is to be published and have their work read by the masses. It’s a beautiful dream, but one that often is not realized because of how difficult it is to be discovered. On top of that, publishers are so picky when it comes to what they will and will not put their faith in. Going through the process of finding an editor, putting your soul into the pages you have written, only to be turned down by every publishing company you contact? It can be devastating.

Being a writer in the modern age has advantages as well as disadvantages. It is making getting our foot in the door easier, helping new talent be discovered, and helping to broaden our horizons by showing us the other great talents that are out there. Thanks to the internet we can be the writers, publishers and agents of what we choose to create. Bloggers for example have all that they could ever want. They write what they enjoy, publish it, and their followers read it. Publishing a book is much more difficult, whether online, paperback, or both, but thanks to online writing forums, young writers are being noticed faster than they once were.

                The greatest disadvantage to living in a world where writing is now online is the fact that people really are not buying books as much as they used to. People have begun to torrent books, just like they would with a movie or a CD. People do not stop to think about the impact this has on a writer, especially one that is new to the published world. It is a harsh place, and a writer will not make money if their product does not sell. A writer can be known world-wide and still be starving if their book is only being stolen and not bought.

                If the authors are not making money, then the publishers are also not making money. If publishers are not making money, their desire to publish us will eventually disappear, and then where will we be? We could be right back where we started, or perhaps worse off than before. Perhaps nothing will be published in the future, because there is no market for it. Piracy has moved from music, to movies, and now it is attacking publishers, our starving artists.

                The only chance young writers have of making it big is if everyone continues to give their full support to the writing community by buying books and continuing to pursue their dreams of making it big. 

The Lifeblood of Fiction: Conflict and Desire

Imagine a novel without conflict. Nobody hates your protagonist, nobody drives you forward. There’s no war, no cancer, and certainly, no bad relationships. For good reason, this does not exist. The world of fiction, like our real world, must be fractured to be entertaining. Better yet, there must be frustration and hardships in order for the piece to move somebody. 

What drives a character can bring the conflict. It doesn’t have to be about bullets in a gun, conflict can be simple. If your protagonist’s dreams, or desires have them wanting to be a politician but their family is from the ghetto, your conflict is built-in. Conflict can be derived from real-world circumstance. No one will question you if your character, white and living in Detroit, fears for his life or wellbeing on the wrong side of 8 mile.

As a writer you need to think of your character as a person. What do they want? Surely, your character, even if she’s just a “typical high school girl”, wants something in life. A romance novel would be uninteresting if it is simply about the kiss and tell. It has to have zest. Who is this character? Is she obsessed with cheerleading? Is Mean Girls her reason to live? Does she talk exactly like that annoying character from Glee? There’s other considerations too. Does she want to go to college? Does she want children? Your character is a person.

Desire is what gives a character, or person, the desire to battle conflict. A person with no stamina, or initiative will surely not press on if they’re denied entrance to their favourite college. Worse, a person whose entire family was killed, may not want to continue - unless they have a desire to change the world. 

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.” 

                                                 ― Doris Lessing

Conflict and desire are not just what makes a novel, or creative piece worth reading, it is what makes them real. Fiction, in its own sense, must be true. Of course your spaceship doesn’t have to be real, but the situations must be human in a sense. It is not possible to truly identify with a character or story that does not have a driving force. This sort of “story”, if you can call it that, would be stale. 

Written by Shaylynn Hayes

Online Self-Publishing for Dummies

So, after toiling over your keyboard for months on end, banging your head on the desk, proofreading, editing, and making your final draft, you’ve finally finished writing your very own manuscript.  Congratulations, take a bow! Now what do you do with it?

If you’d like to go the traditional route and submit your manuscript to publishing houses, print that baby out and mail her off.  If, however, you’d prefer to choose the more modern route, you may submit your manuscript in e-book form online and skip some of the hassle and rejection letters.
Make sure your new e-book has a fabulous, eye-catching cover. Just because you are going to be publishing online doesn’t mean you don’t need to draw the eyes browsing the digital bookshelves to your work. If you are not the artistic type, spend a few bucks and pay someone to make you a professional book cover.

Book and cover ready…check.  Now what? You have several options available.  You can choose to go with several companies which provide online book publishing services.  Each company has their own requirements and each offer different profit margins for the writer. A few companies are Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Smashwords, BookBaby, Barnes & Noble's PubIt, Lulu, and many more.
 I looked in depth at Lulu, as this particular company seemed to be very user-friendly for first timers.  On this site, you have the option of paying to have your document transformed into an ebook, or the free option of doing it yourself.  Lulu will also get you an ISBN number for your book free of charge enabling you to actually sell it.

Lulu provides step-by-step instructions to make sure you have everything you need, and that you have done everything necessary to get your new book published.  Lulu will give you 90% of the proceeds from selling your book online.  You can choose to distribute only through their site, or through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many more.

You may be tempted to price your book on the high side... BUT WAIT! While you might think that this will earn you more money pricing high, online book buyers tend to look for books with a price range of $.99 to $2.99.  Pricing your book competitively with others in the same genre will increase the likelihood of people downloading your book. Consistently pricing your books reasonably will also make sure you get people coming back for more.



Not enough info, you say? Please check out the following links for details:

Lulu http://www.lulu.com/
Smashwords  https://www.smashwords.com/
Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing https://kdp.amazon.com/kdp/self-publishing/signin?language=en_US