Jessica Russell's Blog - Posts Tagged "publish"
Yes, You DO Need Writing Courses
With KDP and all the self-publishing options out there, many writers jump the gun and publish a book before they’re ready. It never ends well. Usually, they are sad and disappointed when the reviews are bad and the book never goes anywhere. Some things in life have to be done correctly, and writing a novel is one of them. In fact, I would be hard-pressed to think of ANY occupation where you don’t first have to learn how to do the job correctly before you can make money at it or establish yourself in the field.
It’s hard medicine for some writers to take, but yes, you do need some kind of college or creative writing courses to ensure that your work is good enough to compete on the book market. I understand that in this day and age of political correctness, we’re not supposed to tell anyone that anything is not up to standard, every student is supposed to get an A no matter how well they actually did in the course, and no one should have to do anything they don’t want to do or anything that they think is too hard. That’s great if we lived in Utopia, but we don’t.
The reality is that readers have a strong tendency to toss books aside if the writing is amateurish and full of mistakes. You need writing courses if you’re going to make a living writing. You don’t necessarily have to get a Master’s degree in English or a bachelor’s degree in journalism, but simply put, you DO have to know how to write. I stopped reading a book 25% of the way through the other day because there were so many issues with punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, and spelling mistakes that I couldn’t be bothered to continue. THAT is the reality of how most readers feel about substandard writing.
Very few readers will slog through juvenile dialogue, fragmented sentences, and punctuation problems to finish a book. They’re simply going to move on to another book. In fact, one of the reviews about the book I'm speaking of said this:
“Readers (like me) spend good money to read novels and I understand all books are not for all people. And I don’t expect to agree with every plot line. But I do believe all authors should at least take the time to polish their craft before putting it out there for the public to purchase. I feel cheated because of all the grammar errors, fragmented sentences, and juvenile dialogue.”
No, that was not my review. But quite frankly, if I would’ve seen it before reading the book, I wouldn’t have READ the book. THAT’S reality.
There are many ways around college if you don’t have the money to go. Lots of distance learning establishments offer courses in creative writing, English, or whatever it is you need to get your writing clean and error-free. Just having a “love for writing” is not enough to make your book a success. Have the patience and the perseverance to learn the necessary elements before you just throw a book out there. You’ll be glad you did.
It’s hard medicine for some writers to take, but yes, you do need some kind of college or creative writing courses to ensure that your work is good enough to compete on the book market. I understand that in this day and age of political correctness, we’re not supposed to tell anyone that anything is not up to standard, every student is supposed to get an A no matter how well they actually did in the course, and no one should have to do anything they don’t want to do or anything that they think is too hard. That’s great if we lived in Utopia, but we don’t.
The reality is that readers have a strong tendency to toss books aside if the writing is amateurish and full of mistakes. You need writing courses if you’re going to make a living writing. You don’t necessarily have to get a Master’s degree in English or a bachelor’s degree in journalism, but simply put, you DO have to know how to write. I stopped reading a book 25% of the way through the other day because there were so many issues with punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, and spelling mistakes that I couldn’t be bothered to continue. THAT is the reality of how most readers feel about substandard writing.
Very few readers will slog through juvenile dialogue, fragmented sentences, and punctuation problems to finish a book. They’re simply going to move on to another book. In fact, one of the reviews about the book I'm speaking of said this:
“Readers (like me) spend good money to read novels and I understand all books are not for all people. And I don’t expect to agree with every plot line. But I do believe all authors should at least take the time to polish their craft before putting it out there for the public to purchase. I feel cheated because of all the grammar errors, fragmented sentences, and juvenile dialogue.”
No, that was not my review. But quite frankly, if I would’ve seen it before reading the book, I wouldn’t have READ the book. THAT’S reality.
There are many ways around college if you don’t have the money to go. Lots of distance learning establishments offer courses in creative writing, English, or whatever it is you need to get your writing clean and error-free. Just having a “love for writing” is not enough to make your book a success. Have the patience and the perseverance to learn the necessary elements before you just throw a book out there. You’ll be glad you did.
Beware the Green-Eyed Monster
You’ve written your book, and to your amazement you’re getting a little ranking, you’re getting book signings scheduled, you're selling copies, in short, you're achieving success! It may even surprise YOU!
All along, your circle of friends has been happy for you, routing you on, giving you a thumbs up, and then all of a sudden you have one, or worse yet more than one, who is suddenly snarky, sulky, pouty or downright rude. In some circumstances, you may find yourself with a friend who has decided to boycott you on social media or in extreme cases, ghost you entirely out of his or her life!
Yes, it happens!
It’s happened to many people I know, and it’s happened to me. One reoccurring thought I had in my own mind was “why did other authors warn me about all the other things that might happen, but no one wanted to warn me about this?” Well, the answer to that is that it’s negative, and who wants to talk negative when you’re trying to uplift other writers and keep yourself positive?
Unfortunately though I think it’s advice that every new author should be given from day one: don’t get blindsided by that jealous individual. He or she is out there, and the jealousy will surface no matter how good a friend you’ve been.
They may push it off on a number of other things, “I had a headache today, there’s ‘something going on in my life,’ I had a bad day,” Etc. etc., and you're left wondering why they never acted that way before for those reasons.
Because those aren’t the reasons.
The jealousy has been eating away for a long time and it’s finally surfaced. Sadly, I don’t have a solution. If the person never wants to put the cards on the table, there’s absolutely nothing you can do to repair the friendship.
That kind of situation is a one-way street: that person has to feel your worth a 30 minute conversation at some point to explain what happened and either defend it or apologize or anything in between, but they owe you that much.
Don’t run after that person groveling and dog paddling and begging for crumbs. If he or she is okay with treating a friend that way, then maybe your friendship wasn’t what you thought it was. Anyway, ignore the green-eyed monster and write on!
All along, your circle of friends has been happy for you, routing you on, giving you a thumbs up, and then all of a sudden you have one, or worse yet more than one, who is suddenly snarky, sulky, pouty or downright rude. In some circumstances, you may find yourself with a friend who has decided to boycott you on social media or in extreme cases, ghost you entirely out of his or her life!
Yes, it happens!
It’s happened to many people I know, and it’s happened to me. One reoccurring thought I had in my own mind was “why did other authors warn me about all the other things that might happen, but no one wanted to warn me about this?” Well, the answer to that is that it’s negative, and who wants to talk negative when you’re trying to uplift other writers and keep yourself positive?
Unfortunately though I think it’s advice that every new author should be given from day one: don’t get blindsided by that jealous individual. He or she is out there, and the jealousy will surface no matter how good a friend you’ve been.
They may push it off on a number of other things, “I had a headache today, there’s ‘something going on in my life,’ I had a bad day,” Etc. etc., and you're left wondering why they never acted that way before for those reasons.
Because those aren’t the reasons.
The jealousy has been eating away for a long time and it’s finally surfaced. Sadly, I don’t have a solution. If the person never wants to put the cards on the table, there’s absolutely nothing you can do to repair the friendship.
That kind of situation is a one-way street: that person has to feel your worth a 30 minute conversation at some point to explain what happened and either defend it or apologize or anything in between, but they owe you that much.
Don’t run after that person groveling and dog paddling and begging for crumbs. If he or she is okay with treating a friend that way, then maybe your friendship wasn’t what you thought it was. Anyway, ignore the green-eyed monster and write on!
No–It’s Actually NOT Just a Numbers Game
Beware when you first publish a book, because promotional offers will come out of the woodwork from far and wide. One of the most popular– probably because it’s the easiest for merchants to push– is the classic “I will tweet your book to 500,000 people,” or “I will advertise your book on my Instagram account to 5000 followers.”
It sounds great, right? Getting your book in front of all those eyes? Unfortunately, those ventures rarely work out. Here’s why:
It’s NOT just a numbers game. The issue is, who and what makes up the database? Many times, the followers to whom your book will be advertised are primarily other authors who want to advertise THEIR books. Well, you don’t need me to tell you that that particular demographic is NOT the one you’re looking for.
Unknown authors are the worst offenders when it comes to turning up their noses at OTHER unknown authors’ works, so you definitely don’t want to waste your time and money advertising to that demographic.
Before you get involved in any venture like that, ALWAYS ask the person soliciting WHO your book will be advertised to. The merchant should be able to show that they can target your demographic, whether you write fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, sci-fi, romance or any other type of book. It’s not just getting it in front of a lot of people, it’s getting it in front of the RIGHT people.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions and demand that they pinpoint the type of market to which the book will be advertised, and if they can’t answer that question, you should consider it a red flag. Write on!
It sounds great, right? Getting your book in front of all those eyes? Unfortunately, those ventures rarely work out. Here’s why:
It’s NOT just a numbers game. The issue is, who and what makes up the database? Many times, the followers to whom your book will be advertised are primarily other authors who want to advertise THEIR books. Well, you don’t need me to tell you that that particular demographic is NOT the one you’re looking for.
Unknown authors are the worst offenders when it comes to turning up their noses at OTHER unknown authors’ works, so you definitely don’t want to waste your time and money advertising to that demographic.
Before you get involved in any venture like that, ALWAYS ask the person soliciting WHO your book will be advertised to. The merchant should be able to show that they can target your demographic, whether you write fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, sci-fi, romance or any other type of book. It’s not just getting it in front of a lot of people, it’s getting it in front of the RIGHT people.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions and demand that they pinpoint the type of market to which the book will be advertised, and if they can’t answer that question, you should consider it a red flag. Write on!
