Hello World!

Hello! By default, WP calls the first post “Hello World”. The idea is that you’re supposed to change it. At lease, I assume that’s the idea. But I’m not going to (except that I did capitalize ‘world’) because I can’t think or something better to say right now.

I was urged by some people who should know better to start a blog about writing and publishing, mostly self-publishing or (if you prefer) independent publishing. People need to learn to be careful what they wish for. Yes, I’m an independent author (sometime called an “Indie”) and have been for some years. (Before that I was other things.) For better or not, I will write about my experience, observations, assessments, judgements and conclusions about the crazy business of publishing. I will also ramble about the downright-insane (or so it often seems) avocation of writing.

What I won’t do here is talk about my books. First of all, they aren’t my books, as I write with a co-author these days. Next, they have nothing to do with my purpose in writing this blog. So I won’t even list my books. If you want to find them, you can. At least, I think you can. Given how common my name is, maybe not. Who cares? I doubt very much that’s why you’re here.

Another thing: some folks have accused me of being Johnny-one-note-on-the-kazoo when is comes to writing and publishing. Allow me to assure you this is false. My kazoo has at least two notes, maybe even three. But in the spirit of fairness, I will warn you there are some thing that could come up a lot.

The first is fortune, fate, or plain old luck, whatever you want to call it. That’s why I called this blog “Outrageous Fortune.” The second are some of the myths and delusions that saturate this business, especially the asinine notion that reviews are ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to sell books. The third is that I hate rules. (You can guess what I think of those who propound them.) In this business, rules are a counterfeit foisted by the arrogant and/or unscrupulous on the naive and/or unsuspecting.  No doubt you will hear more about this.

Finally, you’ll note that I love parentheticals, I am rarely concise, my punctuation is sometimes dubious, and I can’t proofread worth a damn. If these things bother you, I’m afraid you may not find reading this blog congenial.

That’s all for now. A hearty welcome to anyone I haven’t run off yet.