Ellyn Oaksmith's Blog - Posts Tagged "publishing"
10 Thing No One Tells You About Publishing Your First Book
1) Once you've finally published a book all those people who asked you, for years, if you've ever been published and whose eyes glazed over when you mumbled something about "screenplay options," will disappear. They will be replaced by people who will tell you their Great Book Idea. It usually involves a dead relative or something they found in their garage. You will listen because it actually is better than what you are working on.
2) You read once about Peg Kehret, a local children's author, saying that you publish, thinking that it will be this seminal moment and you'll pass your own stack of books on the dining room table and life goes on. She's right. But it still feels great.
3) Your husband will accuse you, with a huge smile, of getting "too big for your britches," as you fold laundry and do the dishes. You tell him you're going to bed because being Too Big for My Britches requires a lot of rest. He laughs.
4) Your kids will ask if this means anything for them. Yes, I will say, it means you have to do more housework. They ask for more TV.
5) The dog will try to negotiate another walk into the schedule.
6) Your sister will be exactly the same person who told you, 35 years ago, "I'm not sure you know the difference between fiction and reality." True story. I still don't.
7) Your friends will be super happy and confused because, as usual, you have given them too many weird details.
8) Your relatives will be supportive, thrilled and having more babies. You will lose the ability to keep track of them.
9) That one person who lets their dogs run on your lawn, causing your dog to throw himself at the blinds and break them, making you thunder downstairs and stop writing will call her dogs away, (after one poops) and say "I heard about your book. Congratulations!" You will almost start crying.
10) You will have a lot of fun, for one day and then it's back to work.
2) You read once about Peg Kehret, a local children's author, saying that you publish, thinking that it will be this seminal moment and you'll pass your own stack of books on the dining room table and life goes on. She's right. But it still feels great.
3) Your husband will accuse you, with a huge smile, of getting "too big for your britches," as you fold laundry and do the dishes. You tell him you're going to bed because being Too Big for My Britches requires a lot of rest. He laughs.
4) Your kids will ask if this means anything for them. Yes, I will say, it means you have to do more housework. They ask for more TV.
5) The dog will try to negotiate another walk into the schedule.
6) Your sister will be exactly the same person who told you, 35 years ago, "I'm not sure you know the difference between fiction and reality." True story. I still don't.
7) Your friends will be super happy and confused because, as usual, you have given them too many weird details.
8) Your relatives will be supportive, thrilled and having more babies. You will lose the ability to keep track of them.
9) That one person who lets their dogs run on your lawn, causing your dog to throw himself at the blinds and break them, making you thunder downstairs and stop writing will call her dogs away, (after one poops) and say "I heard about your book. Congratulations!" You will almost start crying.
10) You will have a lot of fun, for one day and then it's back to work.
Dissing other Writers
I just took a recent online seminar for Harper/Morrow authors on the author/blogger relationship. These are bloggers who read and review books. Much of the conversation, which was driven by writers asking questions online, was about reviews. How to interact with reviewers, how to react to a bad review. Thank reviewers for a good review?
First of all, I don't read reviews anymore. I found that a bad review could send me into such a downward spiral, it actually affected my writing. So to hear all these writers agonizing about reviews was an eye opener for me. And a very smart writer on the panel said she made it a point not to review writers within her genre. I made a huge note and circled it.
Then I went and erased my only review, which was quite good, of a popular romance writer. My reasoning was that this was the only field I can think of where people publically critique their colleagues and maybe it's not helpful.
Maybe the conversation needs to be about supporting one another. And even though my review was positive, I had a few minor comments that the author can probably figure out for herself and has already heard from someone else. Because overall, if anyone has any idea how much effort it takes to produce a novel, I do. So shouldn't I be applauding her efforts instead of analyzing them?
So from now on, my reviews will be on books that aren't in my genre, which is still a pretty huge number of books. The world has enough critics. Writers get enough feedback. All they are going to hear from me is "good job."
First of all, I don't read reviews anymore. I found that a bad review could send me into such a downward spiral, it actually affected my writing. So to hear all these writers agonizing about reviews was an eye opener for me. And a very smart writer on the panel said she made it a point not to review writers within her genre. I made a huge note and circled it.
Then I went and erased my only review, which was quite good, of a popular romance writer. My reasoning was that this was the only field I can think of where people publically critique their colleagues and maybe it's not helpful.
Maybe the conversation needs to be about supporting one another. And even though my review was positive, I had a few minor comments that the author can probably figure out for herself and has already heard from someone else. Because overall, if anyone has any idea how much effort it takes to produce a novel, I do. So shouldn't I be applauding her efforts instead of analyzing them?
So from now on, my reviews will be on books that aren't in my genre, which is still a pretty huge number of books. The world has enough critics. Writers get enough feedback. All they are going to hear from me is "good job."
