Lin Ryals's Blog, page 19
June 3, 2019
Dealing with Negative Reviews
We all get them. I, sometimes, give them. It’s heart breaking on both sides.
I hate giving them, because I know how much work I put in my own work. I know how much I love the characters and the world I created. When others don’t like my creation, it hurts. This makes it hard to do it to other people. I want to love their work, but sometimes I can’t. Part of being a reviewer is to state the truth – at least, the truth of your opinion.
So, the question is, how do you deal with a bad review?
Don’t engage. Your knee jerk reaction is to defend your book. Often, what the reader says, you disagree with. Arguing a review is not the way to do it. I’ve never had an author argue with one of my reviews, but I’ve seen it in other reviews. I’ve seen it on blogs and on Goodreads. It turns me off from reading that author’s book. Ever! Not as a reviewer, but as a reader. Good. You’ve resisted. However, this doesn’t mean you have to keep everything bottled up. Call a friend and vent. Sometimes it helps. Do something for yourself. Eat chocolate. Go on a walk. Listen to loud, angry girl music, watch your favorite comedian on YouTube, or take a long, warm bubble bath. Binge watch a show on Netflix. Do whatever you want to do that will bring you joy. Now that you’ve calmed down and life is good again, go and read the bad review again with a pencil in hand. Take notes. What are some of the points the reviewer brings up that they did not like. This works well if the reviewer is constructive. If they aren’t, reword on your paper so it is constructive. Get more reviews! Strive to find more reviewers or author interviews with book bloggers or booktubers. Talk about your book. Get the information out there. One bad review won’t ruin it all, it just feels awfully dark for authors. KEEP WRITING!!! Don’t let one review or one rejection turn you away from writing. If you love to write, then keep doing it. Remember that this is just one person, or maybe a couple. No book can please everyone. Life of Pi is such a popular book. Everyone loved it. My husband loved it! I couldn’t get through it. I didn’t like it. That doesn’t make it a horrible book. It makes it a book that I didn’t like. See the difference? If you can please everyone, then I urge you to get into politics. LOL! You need bad reviews, too. If I go to a book and all the reviews have 5 stars, then I often think this author has a lot of friends and family willing to review for them. As a reader, bad reviews are important for me so I can see different point of views. As an author, bad reviews are a dark cloud. I totally get that. But try to see it from a reader’s perspective. It may help.
The bottom line is, you need to develop some tough skin. From personal experience, this is definitely easier said than done. Move on and accept that there is a bad review. Try to find the positive in it or ignore the reviews. Also, don’t quit writing!
Good luck! Happy reading and writing!!!
June 2, 2019
Weekly Wrap-Up 6/2/19
This is a blog hop hosted by the Caffeinated Reviewer.
Life has been very busy lately. I’m trying to slow down and eliminate some of the crazy in my life. We’ll see how that goes. So far, it hasn’t worked out well. I eliminate something and end up adding something else. I haven’t done too much painting because I have kind of been binge watching Stargate Atlantis. Y’all, I can’t help it. I’m a sucker for a good sci-fi. LOL!
Book(s) I read this week:
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Books that entered my home:
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Currently Reading:
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On the blog:
Teen Tuesday: One Thousand and One Arabian NightsTop Ten Tuesday: Favorite books from the last ten yearsAuthor Interview: Rebecca L. MarshBook Review: The Darkest Part of the ForestBlog Hop Friday: Wandering in WonderlandDown the TBR Hole #7
Art accomplishments this week:
I started a new art journal. For those of you who don’t know, an art journal is just a place to play and be messy with the art supplies. They aren’t supposed to be works of art. Sometimes I use it as a place to deal with emotions. So, here’s what I’ve been doing.
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Writing accomplishments this week:
Um… ask me again next week. 
June 1, 2019
Down the TBR Hole #7
Do you ever look at the TBR list on Goodreads and feel completely overwhelmed? I do!! That’s exactly why I LOVE this idea!!!
Down the TBR Hole was created by Lia @ Lost in a Story to help decrease the size of our TBRs.
HOW IT WORKS:
Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.Order on ascending date added.Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) booksRead the synopses of the booksDecide: keep it or should it go?
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Animal Farm by George Orwell
George Orwell’s timeless and timely allegorical novel—a scathing satire on a downtrodden society’s blind march towards totalitarianism.
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
A farm is taken over by its overworked, mistreated animals. With flaming idealism and stirring slogans, they set out to create a paradise of progress, justice, and equality. Thus the stage is set for one of the most telling satiric fables ever penned—a razor-edged fairy tale for grown-ups that records the evolution from revolution against tyranny to a totalitarianism just as terrible.
When Animal Farm was first published, Stalinist Russia was seen as its target. Today it is devastatingly clear that wherever and whenever freedom is attacked, under whatever banner, the cutting clarity and savage comedy of George Orwell’s masterpiece have a meaning and message still ferociously fresh.
I’m not sure why I still haven’t read this one. Shouldn’t I have read it in high school? Maybe I did and don’t remember?
Final Verdict: KEEP
The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck
If You Could Change Your Life by Reversing Your Biggest Regrets, Sorrows and Mistakes…Would You?
#1 New York Times bestselling author and renowned radio and television host Glenn Beck delivers an instant holiday classic about boyhood memories, wrenching life lessons, and the true meaning of the gifts we give to one another in love.
We weren’t wealthy, we weren’t poor — we just were. We never wanted for anything, except maybe more time together….
When Eddie was twelve years old, all he wanted for Christmas was a bike. Although his life had gotten harder — and money tighter — since his father died and the family bakery closed…Eddie dreamed that somehow his mother would find a way to have his dream bike gleaming beside their modest Christmas tree that magical morning.
What he got from her instead was a sweater. “A stupid, handmade, ugly sweater” that young Eddie left in a crumpled ball in the corner of his room.
Scarred deeply by the realization that kids don’t always get what they want, and too young to understand that he already owned life’s most valuable treasures, that Christmas morning was the beginning of Eddie’s dark and painful journey on the road to manhood. It will take wrestling with himself, his faith, and his family — and the guidance of a mysterious neighbor named Russell — to help Eddie find his path through the storm clouds of life and finally see the real significance of that simple gift his mother had crafted by hand with love in her heart.
Based on a deeply personal true story, The Christmas Sweater is a warm and poignant tale of family, faith and forgiveness that offers us a glimpse of our own lives — while also making us question if we really know what’s most important in them .
Why is this even on my list? Weird!
Final Verdict: GO
The Dragon and the George by Gordon R Dickson
Jim Eckert was a dragon. He hadn’t planned it that way, but that’s what happened when he set out to rescue his betrothed. Following her through an erratic astral-projection machine, Jim suddenly found himself in a cockeyed world – locked in the body of a talking dragon named Gorbash.
That wouldn’t have been so bad if his beloved Angie were also a dragon. But in this magical land, that was not the case. Angie had somehow remained a very female human – or a george, as the dragons called any human. And Jim, no matter what anyone called him, was a dragon.
To make matters worse, Angie had been taken prisoner by an evil dragon and was held captive in the impenetrable Loathly Tower. So in this land where georges were edible and beasts were magical – where spells worked and logic didn’t – Jim Eckert had a problem.
And he needed help, by george!
I still think this book sounds interesting and I’m pretty sure we have it.
Final Verdict: Keep
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
First published in French as a serial in 1909, The Phantom of the Opera is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine’s childhood friend Raoul comes to visit his parents, who are patrons of the opera, and he sees Christine when she begins successfully singing on the stage. The voice, who is the deformed, murderous ‘ghost’ of the opera house named Erik, however, grows violent in his terrible jealousy, until Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster.
Leroux’s work, with characters ranging from the spoiled prima donna Carlotta to the mysterious Persian from Erik’s past, has been immortalized by memorable adaptations. Despite this, it remains a remarkable piece of Gothic horror literature in and of itself, deeper and darker than any version that follows.
I generally prefer the musicals and am always disappointed when I read these. Unless someone recommends this to me, I don’t think I want to read it.
Final Verdict: Go
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
The inspiring account of one man’s campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia.
In April 2011, the CBS documentary “60 Minutes” called into question Greg Mortenson’s work. The program alleged inaccuracies in Three Cups of Tea and its sequel, Stones into Schools as well as financial improprieties in the operation of Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute. Questions were also raised about Mortenson’s claim that he got lost near K2 and ended up in Korphe; that he was captured by the Taliban in 1996; the number of schools the CAI claimed to have built and whether CAI funds had been used appropriately for Mortenson’s book tours. View the broadcast. Jon Krakauer, who had supported the CAI to the tune of $75,000, also questioned Mortenson’s accounts and released his allegations in a lengthy article titled Three Cups of Deceit
This looks very interesting to me, but I really don’t know that I’m ever going to read it.
Final Verdict: Go
May 31, 2019
Friday Blog Hops: Wandering in Wonderland
Synopsis (Goodreads):
“Lewis Carroll didn’t get it right?”
“No, my dear. I don’t think anyone truly will.”
Far away and down a rabbit hole sits the magical world known as Wonderland. A safe haven for the souls who lived less than ideal lives in the waking world get to experience peace in their afterlife. Jessica is the newest member of this enchanted land, but after eating a cookie that took away her memories of who she was, she doubts herself at every turn.
Jessica participates in The Looking Glass Ceremony to find her new role in the afterlife, but fate has different plans. As the Queen of Hearts takes Jessica under her royal wing, plots of regicide bubble up from the depths of Wonderland. With the help of new and eccentric friends, Jessica might be able to stop the treasonous threats and bring true peace to Wonderland. But only if she heeds the cryptic words of the Caterpillar.
Familiar faces take on new roles in this fantasy retelling with a dark and romantic LGBT twist This isn’t the Wonderland you’ve experienced before, and you definitely don’t want to be late for it.
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I want to stop being treated as evil for what the Looking Glass told me I was, and I want to wake up.
The Friday 56 Blog Hop at Freda’s Voice.
[image error]Book Beginnings Blog Hop with Rose City Readers.
Fickle. That’s what Wonderland was… is.
Fickle with its weather. Fickle with its seasons and tides… And why shouldn’t it be? For all intents and purposes, Wonderland was – is – a living and breathing thing. It’s allowed to change its mind and do whatever it feels is right to protect itself and whomever – or whatever – it deems worthy.
Book Blogger Hop
Do you read books over 400 pages?
This runs a little into last week’s question. Yes, I read books that are over 400 pages. However, if I’m bored, I won’t finish it. I have read quite a few over 400 pages though.
May 30, 2019
Book Review: The Darkest Part of the Forest
I took a little break from new releases and indie books and grabbed this one from the library because people are always talking about Holly Black. So, no, this isn’t a new release or an indie book. Sorry. It’s a little different from my normal. Who knows! Maybe I’ll throw some of these in the mix once in a while.
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Genre: Fiction, Young Adult, Fantasy
Publish Date: Jan 13th, 2015
Synopsis (Goodreads):
Children can have a cruel, absolute sense of justice. Children can kill a monster and feel quite proud of themselves. A girl can look at her brother and believe they’re destined to be a knight and a bard who battle evil. She can believe she’s found the thing she’s been made for.
Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries’ seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.
At the center of it all, there is a glass coffin in the woods. It rests right on the ground and in it sleeps a boy with horns on his head and ears as pointed as knives. Hazel and Ben were both in love with him as children. The boy has slept there for generations, never waking.
Until one day, he does…
As the world turns upside down, Hazel tries to remember her years pretending to be a knight. But swept up in new love, shifting loyalties, and the fresh sting of betrayal, will it be enough?
Review: As I said before, this is not my normal review. I hope that’s okay. I was in a slump and just needed a change. This was a good one. In urban fantasy, there are normally fantasy being who secretly live amongst the humans. In this one, everyone knows they’re there. They try to pretend they don’t know this, but they do. I love that! I thought it was a refreshing change.
The characters were great! They were well developed. The siblings were fantastic! There was action, a bit of romance, and, of course, there was some girl power happening. It was great! I couldn’t wait to get back to the book!!
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May 29, 2019
Author Interview: Rebecca L Marsh
Publishing Date: July 8, 2019
After a family dinner turns into a bitter fight, sisters Maria, Lauren, and Avery decide to go their separate ways. Their father warns them that someday they will need one another. When he dies suddenly, they learn that he intends to make sure that they do. He’s left them a substantial inheritance, far more than any of them ever imagined.
There’s just one catch. If they want the money, they will have to spend two weeks together at a secluded lake house and follow all of their father’s instructions—no matter how strange.
Their task seems simple enough, but each one is holding onto painful secrets and old grudges the others know nothing about. But if they can learn to trust each other again, they might be able to mend the rift between them and give their father his dying wish.
Interview:
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
When I was 12.
That’s a good age to start figuring out what you want to do. How long does it take you to write a book?
The first one took me 5 years. It was a little faster with the second one. And the third (that one is just a rough draft right now) was much faster.
That gives me hope! The first one I published took me seven years – that’s the editing and everything that goes with it though. The writing takes a lot less time. Where do you get your information or ideas for your books? The ideas? Most of the time I don’t really know. But the ones that I am conscience of have come from many different places: conversations, songs, or something I heard or saw. The information? I guess you mean research here. That depends on the story and what I need. I’ve been fortunate to be able to get a lot from people I know. The the book that is just releasing, I went into a writer’s forum hoping for some help on a subject and ended up getting connected to a nurse in Australia, who worked specifically with the disorder I needed to know about. A friend of hers was a writer who saw my message to the forum and it all went from there.
It’s so awesome how things align perfectly sometimes. Does writing energize or exhaust you?
Depends on how it is going.
I hear you! Do you try more to be original or deliver to readers what they want?
I just write the stories that are in my head.
I think that’s the best way to do it sometimes. What other authors are you friends with and how do they help you become a better writer?
I’m beginning to know a few in the wide world through some groups I’ve joined, but the ones I really have to credit the most are the local ones I know. A year and a half ago, I joined the local writer’s guild and they have helped me a great deal. We critique each other’s work and I grow a lot from that. A couple of them have helped me as beta readers for this book. And I’ve even learned a lot about the tech world (still limping along in that world, but getting better).
Yes!! Local writer groups are fantastic! I get the tech dilemma, too. That one’s a struggle for a lot of us. Did you base your characters on real people?
No. I’m sure there are bits and pieces of myself and people I know in there, but I do not intentionally model characters after people I know and none of my characters are “just like” anyone that I know.
I think characters tend to take on a life of their own and develop into their own people. What does literary success look like to you? That keeps changing. When I first set off to self-publish my first book, I asked myself a question like this one. I decided then that if my book really meant something to even one person, it would be worthwhile. Since then, I have had many people tell me how much they enjoyed reading the book. So now, even though I’d love to be able to say I’m making money too (still working on that), I think each person that gets something from reading my work is a new success.
That’s probably the best attitude to have. What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?
Trying to write conversations about sports and cars.
LOL! How do you select the names of your characters?
It varies. Sometimes the name of a character just seems to come to me and I know it’s the right one. Other times, I have to think about it for a while. Recently, I used my author FB page to ask for help with names of minor characters and, so far, I’ve used 3 of those suggested names in the novel I’m currently working on.
Rebecca L. Marsh is an author of women’s fiction and a member of the Paulding County Writer’s Guild. She grew up in the mountains of Western North Carolina, and now lives in Dallas, Georgia, with her husband and daughter.
When not writing or caring for her family (cats and dog included), Rebecca occasionally makes home-made candy and works on her scrapbooks (she is woefully behind).
Her novel When the Storm Ends is available on Amazon in paperback and eBook form. Paperbacks are available for order here also if you’d like a signed copy. Just click the books tab and scroll to the bottom of the page.
Marsh is also the author of When The Storm Ends. If interested, click on the link and check it out!
May 28, 2019
Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite books from the last 10 years
Ready to read a list of the top ten books (in my opinion) from the past ten years?
2009 – Wings by Aprilynne Pike
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This was actually a really hard choice for me. Apparently, a lot of books I enjoy reading over and over again were released in 2009.
Synopsis (Goodreads):
Laurel was mesmerized, staring at the pale things with wide eyes. They were terrifyingly beautiful—too beautiful for words.
Laurel turned to the mirror again, her eyes on the hovering petals that floated beside her head. They looked almost like wings.
In this extraordinary tale of magic and intrigue, romance and danger, everything you thought you knew about faeries will be changed forever.
2010 – Room by Emma Donoghue
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This one was hard too – Matched, Switched, and others were also published this year. I finally decided on Room. I have not seen this movie. I normally don’t watch movies rated R. I think it’s probably some of the content in this book. In my mind, it was PG-13 rating. LOL! I don’t know how the movie was, but I loved the book.
Synopsis (Goodreads):
To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world….
Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience—and a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.
To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It is where he was born and grew up; it’s where he lives with his Ma as they learn and read and eat and sleep and play. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits.
Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it is the prison where Old Nick has held her captive for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for Jack. But she knows it’s not enough … not for her or for him. She devises a bold escape plan, one that relies on her young son’s bravery and a lot of luck. What she does not realize is just how unprepared she is for the plan to actually work.
Told entirely in the language of the energetic, pragmatic five-year-old Jack, Room is a celebration of resilience and the limitless bond between parent and child, a brilliantly executed novel about what it means to journey from one world to another.
2011 – Die For Me by Amy Plum
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I, actually, hadn’t even heard of this series until recently. I loved it though! It was such a great story.
Synopsis (Goodreads):
In the City of Lights, two star-crossed lovers battle a fate that is destined to tear them apart again and again for eternity.
When Kate Mercier’s parents die in a tragic car accident, she leaves her life–and memories–behind to live with her grandparents in Paris. For Kate, the only way to survive her pain is escaping into the world of books and Parisian art. Until she meets Vincent.
Mysterious, charming, and devastatingly handsome, Vincent threatens to melt the ice around Kate’s guarded heart with just his smile. As she begins to fall in love with Vincent, Kate discovers that he’s a revenant–an undead being whose fate forces him to sacrifice himself over and over again to save the lives of others. Vincent and those like him are bound in a centuries-old war against a group of evil revenants who exist only to murder and betray. Kate soon realizes that if she follows her heart, she may never be safe again.
2012 – Cinder by Marissa Meyer
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This was hands-down the best book of 2012. I loved this series!
Synopsis (Goodreads):
A forbidden romance.
A deadly plague.
Earth’s fate hinges on one girl . . .
CINDER, a gifted mechanic in New Beijing, is also a cyborg. She’s reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s sudden illness. But when her life becomes entwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she finds herself at the centre of a violent struggle between the desires of an evil queen – and a dangerous temptation.
Cinder is caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal. Now she must uncover secrets about her mysterious past in order to protect Earth’s future.
This is not the fairytale you remember. But it’s one you won’t forget.
2013 – Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
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The Infernal Devices is another of those series I can read over and over again.
Synopsis (Goodreads):
Danger and betrayal, love and loss, secrets and enchantment are woven together in the breathtaking finale to the #1 New York Times bestselling Infernal Devices Trilogy, prequel to the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series.
THE INFERNAL DEVICES WILL NEVER STOP COMING
A net of shadows begins to tighten around the Shadowhunters of the London Institute. Mortmain plans to use his Infernal Devices, an army of pitiless automatons, to destroy the Shadowhunters. He needs only one last item to complete his plan: he needs Tessa Gray.
Charlotte Branwell, head of the London Institute, is desperate to find Mortmain before he strikes. But when Mortmain abducts Tessa, the boys who lay equal claim to her heart, Jem and Will, will do anything to save her. For though Tessa and Jem are now engaged, Will is as much in love with her as ever.
As those who love Tessa rally to rescue her from Mortmain’s clutches, Tessa realizes that the only person who can save her is herself. But can a single girl, even one who can command the power of angels, face down an entire army?
Danger and betrayal, secrets and enchantment, and the tangled threads of love and loss intertwine as the Shadowhunters are pushed to the very brink of destruction in the breathtaking conclusion to the Infernal Devices trilogy.
2014 – Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
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I truly know no one who read this series who didn’t love it.
Synopsis (Goodreads):
This second novel begins in 1940, immediately after the first book ended. Having escaped Miss Peregrine’s island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London, the peculiar capital of the world. Along the way, they encounter new allies, a menagerie of peculiar animals, and other unexpected surprises.
Complete with dozens of newly discovered (and thoroughly mesmerising) vintage photographs, this new adventure will delight readers of all ages.
2015 – The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
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Oooh! I actually just read this book. I think I’m going to review it this week, actually. I know it’s not a new release, but it’s a new read for me.
Teen Tuesday – One Thousand and One Arabian Nights
Genre: Classic, Fiction, Fantasy
Synopsis (Goodreads): King Shahryar kills a new wife every night, because he is afraid she will stop loving him. But his new bride Shahrazad has a clever plan to save herself. Her nightly stories–of Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, and many other heroes and villains–are so engrossing that King Shahryar has to postpone her execution again and again… This illustrated edition brings together all the Arabian Nights tales in an original retelling by award-winning author Geraldine McCaughrean.
Review by Brandi:
I have always enjoyed fairy tales. So, when I was asked to choose a book of interest at the beginning of the year, I chose One Thousand And One Arabian Nights.
Other than a few selected stories from Greek mythology, this was one of very few tales from another culture I had ever read. I loved seeing the difference between languages, clothing, and even the holidays the Arabian culture celebrate. I feel like I’ve learned so much just by reading these short tales.
However, one thing that confused me while reading, was how the author constantly put stories inside of stories. Shahrazad would begin her nightly tale, but the characters inside the stories would also begin more tales. It was a bit hard to follow at times.
There were several scenes that made me laugh. Curiously, upset and outraged Jinnis are hilarious. I also enjoyed how bits of Arabian poetry was included into the stories of Shahrazad.
I wished the ending wasn’t as tightly wrapped up. I waited throughout the entire book for the fate of Shahryar and Shahrazad to be decided, but it ended up being squeezed into the very last chapter, which was kind of disappointing.
I rate this book three stars.
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May 21, 2019
Top Ten Hands-Off Books!
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Today I’m listing the ten books I own that I let no one touch!
My husband and I love to collect old books. We don’t allow people to read them, which seems silly since they’re books. However, it is what it is. LOL! These may not be the most valuable that we own, but they are my favorite. In fact, we normally find these books in used book sales, so we pay very little for them. We just love the history of them and enjoy thinking about what has happened in their lives. Okay, I seem crazy now.
My husband would probably disagree with my list of favorite old books, because he thinks some of the others are pretty darn cool.
Les Miserables by Hugo
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This one was probably published around 1910. It’s actually in really good condition and could be read without concern for the books falling apart. I say books because it’s volume I and volume II.
The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Longfellow
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This one was published around 1890. I love how this one feels. It’s hardback, but where the cover is worn, there’s a padded layer in there.
Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare
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This one was published in 1917. It’s not as old as some of the others, but it’s Shakespeare. The thing about this that I found really cool is that this was a school copy. It belonged to someone named Mary Trumbull in 7th grade at Concord Academy in Concord, Mass.
Jane Eyre by Bronte
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This one was published in 1889. Also, it’s Jane Eyre.
May 20, 2019
Why write?
Why write self-published novels when it’s so hard to make a profit? If I wanted to make money, then I wouldn’t be a self-published writer. Now, there are a lot of indie authors out there who make money. Some get 5+ figures a year!
I don’t have the funds to put into books to get me noticed enough to make that much money. So why do I bother?
That’s a fair question, but the real answer is that I love writing. There are constantly stories playing out in my head – CON-STANT-LY!
Seriously! It’s a problem.
They stay in my head and I have to get them out. What better way than writing them down? These stories were written for me, but I do put a lot of work in them. Most, well, all but one so far live on my hard drive. I am working on setting them free.
Why do this?
Peer pressure. Truly, that’s the only reason. Friends read my stories and want me to publish them because they have fun reading them. So I work hard editing them, create covers, and market them with a minuscule budget.
It’s a fun adventure, but isn’t very lucrative.
Bottom line – this is all done for fun! LOL! Fun and adventure. What else could a person want?
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