Self Publishing--Thoughts?

[Elliott]

*nods* The worst part for me was the day after I got them on or tightened and they were so sore I wanted to rip my gums out.

[tesni]

Hmm. I've had my top row tightened twice before, and they hurt something awful afterwards. >.<

[Elliott]

Braces are evil. But they get results so they aren't all bad, I guess.

[tesni]

Trufax. I'm sure they'll be worth it, eventually. *nods*

[Elliott]

They will! :D

But wear your retainer because my teeth have shifted back a tooon.

[tesni]

8D
I shall do so, yeah.

Anyway, I had better go now. It's almost eleven here, so O.o

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

I wish I could get braces. *sobs*

[Elliott]

You can't? :/

[Colby]

(If I'm not wrong, Maltesers are malted milk balls. So, um, Whoppers. We have them, we just retardized the name.)

[Elliott]

*laughs* That makes sense. Good old USA.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Lav [sing it for the ones that'll hate your guts] wrote: "You can't? :/"

Nope. Well, I mean, I would ... except my family's dental plan sucks right now or something. Not to mention that it's wicked expensive, and I'm broke due to college expenses and whatnot.

So of course I was cursed with the worst teeth in the universe. Blarghs. But I'll just stop now. I could whine all day. :P

[Colby]

I just got mine off a while back.

How did we get from self-pubbing to braces?

[Colby]

Us teenagers and our short attention spans...

[Elliott]

Augh, that really sucks. We had this super cool dental that took a ton of money off of my braces. You can always get braces when you're older and have a career and all that.

Ah, I've missed all the lovely off topicness of this group.

[Colby]

Yeah, plus we all know that out of all of us, Brigid's one of the most likely to publish like 60 amazing books. So therefore we will all be buying those amazing books and she'll be using our money to get her teeth all fixed up and purty.

[Elliott]

Exactly!

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Hahaha. Why, thank you. :P
Yeah, I know I can get them when I'm an adult. The problem is, when you're an adult it's more painful and you have to have braces for even longer. And seeing as I'm 19 already... well, it'll be particularly hellish for me. If it ever happens.

*coughs* But anyway. SELF-PUBLISHING.

[tesni]

Colby wrote: "(If I'm not wrong, Maltesers are malted milk balls. So, um, Whoppers. We have them, we just retardized the name.)"

I can confirm that Whoppers are in fact the Hershey's version of Maltesers. Or are Maltesers the Mars version of Whoppers? O.o

But I digress. SELF-PUBLISHING, PEOPLE.

[Elliott]

I DON'T LIKE IT.
That is all.

Although my aunt self-published a book and it wasn't half bad.

[Amy]

The thing is, with self publishing vs traditional... you don't get published and then suddenly have money. Or become famous. I mean, go into book stores. Look around. How many of those books have you read, much less are able to name? You still have to do most of your own marketing and crap when you're published traditionally.

Five copies a week honestly doesn't sound that awful, at least for a first book. But again, most of hte marketing is done by the author.

[Baxter, butts butts butts]

E-books and the cheapening and ease of printing your own books makes me extremely excited about the idea of self-publishing, and I'm guessing that it is going to explode in a BIG way fairly soon. Which is great.

[Brigid ✩, No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.]

Amy wrote: "The thing is, with self publishing vs traditional... you don't get published and then suddenly have money. Or become famous. I mean, go into book stores. Look around. How many of those books have y..."

No, you don't make money right away, but odds are you'll make more money in the long run––considering your book is good enough and you're picked up by a decent publisher. I mean, self-publishing is probably better for people who just aren't good enough to get their books traditionally published, and/or for authors who don't want too much publicity. With self publishing, you do make money more directly, but usually not very much since you have to depend on nothing but your own marketing skills.

[Ashlyn]

I don't particularly like self-publishing, but I also don't particularly dislike it either. My mom self-published herself after trying to get herself traditionally published for two years, I think. I have read her book and although I refuse to post a review on Goodreads, I thought it was as good as or better than some of the stupid stuff I have read that was traditionally published. Of course I am a biased reader, so that counts a little less. I would prefer to get published traditionally but I can understand why someone would self publish. However I also see the other side since I realize that most of the books self-published stink. Also, traditionally published authors also have to do a lot of self marketing for their books.

[Mandy]

T e s n i wrote: "Holden wrote: "T e s n i wrote: "*sits down on beanbag next to Holden with cinema-sized bag of Minstrels*"

...Minstrels?"

They are the most delicious thing, with a sort of thin chocolate she..."

Ooooh. That looks delicious.

[Mandy]

Lav [lately I've been feeling] wrote: "Good for you. Protecting all the citizens of WWAC from publicity hungry spammers. xD

Someone did that in my library's book club group. I was just like... really? We have 5 active members. That's ..."

*cough* Lav *cough*

[tesni]

Mandy wrote: "T e s n i wrote: "Holden wrote: "T e s n i wrote: "*sits down on beanbag next to Holden with cinema-sized bag of Minstrels*"

...Minstrels?"

They are the most delicious thing, with a sort of thi..."

They are *nod*

[Elliott]

Mandy wrote: "Lav [lately I've been feeling] wrote: "Good for you. Protecting all the citizens of WWAC from publicity hungry spammers. xD

Someone did that in my library's book club group. I was just like... re..."

There's a difference between tralalala I'm going to say lots of things everywhere and GO READ MY BOOK THAT I HAVE CREATED THAT NO ONE LIKES SO I WILL HAVE READERS.

[Mandy]

Lav [lately I've been feeling] wrote: "Mandy wrote: "Lav [lately I've been feeling] wrote: "Good for you. Protecting all the citizens of WWAC from publicity hungry spammers. xD

Someone did that in my library's book club group. I was ..."

...THAT'S TRUE. =P

[Elliott]

Although I do occasionally shamelessly advertise my stories, but that's beside the point.

[Jo]

Sound familiar?

[Mandy]

Hehehehe. What if they're both?

[Jo]

They cannot. A good author understands self-insertions are just an attention wish.

[Annemarie, hi]

I disagree.

[Mandy]

Annie (Juliet) wrote: "I disagree."

^^This. Unless, of course you're being sarcastic, Jo...

[tesni]

Jo wrote: "They cannot. A good author understands self-insertions are just an attention wish."

No. To a certain extent, I think putting yourself in the shoes of the protagonist makes the emotions and thoughts a lot stronger.

[Jessica]

Minstrels are lovely rdiufhpjeriowdspoewa Most delicious sweets ever. They don't have them in America?! That puts a damper on my plans to go there :(

But I would prefer to get published by a company like Chickenhouse because I wouldn't some of my work which isn't good enough to be published and thrown to the world. If that makes any sense, I'd want to be able to improve it.

[Jo]

T e s n i wrote: "Jo wrote: "They cannot. A good author understands self-insertions are just an attention wish."

No. To a certain extent, I think putting yourself in the shoes of the protagonist makes the emotion..."

Self-insertion is very different to putting yourself into a character's shoes. Self-insertion is making a character identical to you, that is you, just for the pleasure of being the heroine. Putting yourself in your characters' shoes is more like understanding a person you've never met.

[Baxter, butts butts butts]

I dunno, putting yourself into a story could be ridiculously cool. Most things could be ridiculously cool though, so I mean...

[Jo]

Self-insertion is not intended for actual publishing, because you tend to idolize your insertion into being a surrealistically (if such word exists) perfect character. That is best kept for out-of-the-way fanfictions.

[Jo]

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/2...

[Annemarie, hi]

I don't even understand what you're trying to say.

[Annemarie, hi]

I mean, it's a little bit weird. But, I don't see the issue with it. It's just a type of fanfiction... and that's fine. I mean fanfiction is just fun.

[Jo]

When you drop yourself into any literary universe and start to put yourself into a pedestal with a romanticized view and extreme superpowers and NO flaws, is self-insertion. THAT is sick for readers.

Example:

Writer:

I was alone in the room. The Cullens were smiling at me.
"You're gorgeous, Frannie," said Alice, "and you play the violin like an angel. Everyone just stares at you when you play because it enchants people. That's your amazing vampire power and no one can beat you!"

Reader: *throws up*

[Annemarie, hi]

Yeah, but like, what's the harm if it's not published?

[Jo]

It's no harm if it's published, by in fact, is it published through the Internet. That is why ignorant people (meaning whoever made the pie chart) think fanfiction sucks. 95% of the time, they're right.

[Mandy]

I think you have a few points about the non-fiction, about that it sucks often. But the self-insertion thing...that's just writing in first person.
And I think that fan-fiction can indeed be composed of EXCELLENT WRITING (even if that is rare), even if the plot sucks because it's been done before, ya know?

But I could be swayed on this.

And I used the words "sucked" and "even" too much. That bugs me me. But I'm not going to change it.

[Jo]

Mandy wrote: "I think you have a few points about the non-fiction, about that it sucks often. But the self-insertion thing...that's just writing in first person.
And I think that fan-fiction can indeed be comp..."

No. Self-insertion is YOU in a story. I write first person with a character totally unlike me with a different personality, with flaws, with trouble.

Who ever said fanfiction absolutely sucked? I'm just saying it's rare because most self-insert.

[Elliott]

I worked on a novel/series of scenes where I self-inserted MAJORLY and honestly, I feel as if that's some of my best, most emotional writing.

[Jo]

Lemme get this straight. When you put yourself in a story AND idolize that you character because it's you, THEN it's self-insertion. Capisce?

[Elliott]

Wrong.

"Self-insertion is a literary device in which an author character who is the real author of a work of fiction appears as a character within that fiction, either overtly or in disguise."