Monday, September 01, 2008

"The Imaginary Writing Process"

You have to watch this You Tube video. It's an absolute scream. It's called "The Imaginary Writing Process". When I first heard of You Tube, I wasn't impressed. I could care less. But I'm beginning to become a fan. I've even made a few of my own book trailers and posted them to You Tube. This clip above has me drooling to buy a video camera so I can make actual film. Soooooooooooooooooooooo, per this video's premise, before you became published, or if you're not published (yet, or because you have no desire to be a writer)what did/do you picture the writing/publishing process to be like? All sunny mornings with roses shooting up? Roses without a single thorn? Did you imagine you'd be instantly famous and people adore you (not only your books) so much and swarm you whenever you went out in public, begging for autographs, lavishing you with gifts, begging to hire you for public appearances? Did you imagine you could tell the day job boss to "take this job and shove it"? That your first novel would be such an instant success you'd be a multi-millionaire, buy a new mansion, hire a full wait/cook staff to follow your every whim, and that you could travel the world whenever you desire? Did you imagine your editor, publisher, readers, and book reviewers would love every single word you wrote, exactly the way you first wrote it? That you'd be hailed as the greatest literary novelist since Shakespeare, maybe even BETTER than Shakespeare? Did you imagine that everybody would respect your position as writer? That your family and friends would be in total awe of your new profession? That they would be 110% supportive? That they'd tell all their friends and associates how wonderful your book(s) is? I don't know about anyone else, but I can imagine A LOT. However, I never quite imagined any of it as a musical like in this musical, LOL. But this is a cute interpretation. My reality is not quite like this video. Or my own musings. Most of my family could care less that I write, even find it annoying. They certainly don't want to read my romance novels (underline "romance"). They're embarrassed to tell their friends that their mom/wife writes one of "those things". They won't be quiet for me to write. They won't even try to be quiet if I'm trying to do a phone interview. I have to escape to Borders or the library or my car for a quiet place. Of course, Borders or even the library isn't always quiet either, so I have to use ear plugs or my MP3 players. As per money and fame - let's just say I'm still working on these... I'm not quite a millionaire yet - after 40 published books. And no one recognizes me as an author, not even at Borders or Barnes & Nobles which are full of readers. Oh well... Spill. I want to hear what you thought. And what the reality has been for those of you who are published writers. What do you think I was doing on Labor Day 18 years ago? Think hard... Did you guess? If you guessed, did you guess that I was actually in labor, getting ready to give birth to my daughter #2? Honest to God. I was in labor on Labor Day. Everybody got a laugh out it, except me. Eighteen years later, I now see the humor. :) I'm worried about my friends in Gustav's path. I'm writing this post on Sunday evening, so the storm's not made landfall yet, but New Orlean's already been commanded to evacuate and most people have done so. My friend "C" supposedly hopped in her car to evacuate NO yesterday. My friend "P" who lives in Baton Rouge, is hunkering down at her friend's house. Having lived through two category 3 storms and on the verge of a category 4 storm, I respect these things. I fear them. I'm glad so many people in NO are taking Gustav seriously. It's better to be safe than sorry. During Hurricane Elena (1985, a cat 3 that hit Biloxi) we were miserable. We were in the Air Force shelter for a few days. It was hot and sticky and stinky. Nerves were frayed. I was chasing 3 toddlers around so it was not fun. Our electric was out for weeks. We had a lot of debris to clean up. Luckily, we had no real damage although some people did. Biloxi/Gulfport/Ocean Springs was a mess and hard to navigate for well over a month. Here's a spot of good news! I'm doing the happy dance. Billy Mac from Critique My Blog: http://critiquemyblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/happilyever-after.html likes it. "....My hat's off to Ashley and I wish you much continued success in your craft." Thanks Billy! You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

7 comments:

Molly Daniels said...

Hahaha...I pictured being sent off on a major-city booksigning tour:) Being awed and admired...and people flocking everywhere to meet or at least read the new author's debut novel.

Didn't happen.

Only my friends who had read bits and pieces of the original manuscript and had heard me talking about it non-stop for ten/twenty years were uber-excited about it! Now they just wish I'd shut up...

Hubby wants me to write spicy 'so it sells and makes money'; my parents want me to do Christian Inspirational; others I've met really don't care as long as I get the next one pubbed so they can read it!

Yay! Congrats on the blog critique:)

Phoenix said...

I knew the money wouldn't happen right away but I did expect more of it. I didn't know promo was so key to everything. I did expect instant recognition. Boy was I naive.

Unknown said...

I think I'm still naive.

I just got my monthly royalty statement that I was SURE would be more this month. After all, I did a ton of promo, was pretty faithful to MySpace and my loops, and one of my books, Liquid Heat, was #3 (now #4) for my publisher's books on Fictionwise. I thought that combined with my other books would bring me royalties double the size. It's like I'm fighting this hard, writing so many books, just to get the same level of royalties month after month. I have books coming out almost monthly between now and February 09. I'm afraid if I stop producing so much, the royalties will go down, but I'm not sure they'll go up, either. However, I don't plan to stop trying.

Molly Daniels said...

Good for you:) I just discovered I AM getting a (tiny) 2nd quarter royalty check, but now I'm not so sure about the 3rd...I heavily promo'ed last winter, and this summer, I've handsold the majority of my books. With only 4 more signings this year, and me providing the books, don't know if I'll have a check arriving in Dec or next April. Time to be hearing from the online subs, huh?

Unknown said...

Molly, I'm in awe of your courage and dedication to hand sell your books. I get scared to do booksignings, at least by myself, but even to a point with other authors. I also wonder if it's worth the time when I could be writing or promoting to more people online. Perhaps I'll try again when my time isn't so limited, when I don't have a day job, too.

Trixie said...

*Waves madly*

HOLA!

I'm back from Spain and madly trying to get through the 400 posts on my bloglines. Just to let you know I'm back and will catch up properly soon.

Unknown said...

Good to see you, Trixie. Can't wait to see your pictures of Spain.

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