Tag: amwriting

Traditional Publishing vs Self-Publishing

I’ve been asked numerous times about the self-publishing vs. traditional publishing debate. Here’s what I’ve learned from my own work, as well as from my mentors.

Traditional Publishing:

So, you’ve finished your novel. Now, you have two options: 1) find an agent, or 2) try to go directly to a publisher. You’ll find a lot of lingo you might not be familiar with. The first to consider yourself with is unsolicited vs solicited manuscripts.

Many publishers won’t take unsolicited manuscripts, which really means a manuscript that isn’t attached to an agent. Smaller presses accept unsolicited manuscripts, but larger publishers will only accept solicited, meaning you’ll need an agent to get your foot in the door.

The way you’ll find an agent or publisher will be through the Literary Marketplace. Yes, Google is a viable source, but the Literary Marketplace houses everything you’ll need. It’ll tell you whether you need an agent, what genres these agents or publishers are looking for, and it’ll give you a correct way to contact them. The Marketplace is a rather large book. I got mine back in 2013 for about $13. I’m not sure what they go for nowadays, but I found it an irreplaceable source.

Once you comb through the Marketplace and make your list of agents and/or publishers, you’ll need to craft a query letter or cover letter. These are basic letters that will haunt you—I mean, be a part of your life as an author. (You can find great templates to follow on Google. Pick the one that feels right for you!)

The other thing to consider is that when you reach out to an agent or publisher, there’s something called simultaneous submissions. Most, if not all, agents and publishers say they don’t accept simultaneous submissions, which really means you can only send your query to one agent or publisher at a time. Then, you’ll have to wait three months before you can send your info to the next person on your list. This can seem tedious, but it’s because the agent/editor/publisher wants the exclusive right to offer you a contract if they like your work.

A thing to remember is that your manuscript MUST be complete before you query anyone. Otherwise, you’ll get shut down. You’ll need a complete wordcount, which shouldn’t be 10,000 words above or below the average wordcount for your specific genre. Even if you’ve got the next Harry Potter, agents and publishers won’t want to take that kind of risk with a baby writer.

The best thing about traditional publishing—outside of not spending your own money to bring it to life—is their marketing team. However, my old English professor explained to me that just because you’ve got a crackpot marketing team doesn’t equate success.

For example, if your novel comes out the same time as a Stephen King novel, you could have the best marketing team in the world, and you book would still be put on the back shelves and forgotten.

Another thing to consider is the content itself. You may have heard horror stories about the editing department deciding at the last minute that they want to change the name of your main character. And they have every right to do so. A basic publishing contract gives the company the right to make changes that will make the book better for marketing. You could end up with a story similar to, but not exactly the same as, when you entered.

Self-Publishing:

You have to worry about none of the above with self-publishing. That being said, this is not the easier option. Yes, you have complete creative control. But, you have complete creative control.

You’re the cover designer, the editor, the formatter, the marketer, the distributer, etc. Sure, you can hire most of these people, but that means you’re paying out-of-pocket for services that are readily available for free with a traditional publisher.

That being said, there is nothing that compares to seeing the cover you’ve envisioned come to life. To putting your blood, sweat, and tears into your manuscript and seeing it become a physical book you hold in your hands. The only changes you make are the ones you want, and, in the end, you get the book you wanted.

However, you’re responsible for marketing. You have to be extroverted enough to sell yourself to friends and strangers. You need to believe in your product enough to put yourself out there. You have to be ready to work hard at earning sales. Just because you put it up on Amazon doesn’t mean you’ll immediately make money. You have to beg people for reviews, climb your way to success. But that doesn’t mean self-publishing is the harder path to choose.

I spoke with an author at Florida SuperCon who had been self-published and traditionally published. She said that she preferred self-publishing because of the creative control, the control over marketing, and the higher royalty percentage. Turns out, she made more money through self-publishing.

There are also a number of self-publishing options out there. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (formerly CreateSpace) is the most popular, given its user-friendly formatting and Amazon platform. There’s sure to be one to fit your budget and computer skills. However, it isn’t always cheap. If you want to self-publish right, things will add up.

On average, it costs $350 (for a cover) + $125 (for an ISBN—unless you use one KDP provides, which is free) + $875 (for editing, depending on your editor’s rates and work needed) + your time and sanity = $1,350. Which isn’t counting formatting (if you need to pay for help), marketing, and little things that could pop up along the way.

Self-publishing is a lot of work. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But I feel that it’s worth it in the long run, when you get to look the people you love in the eye and share your dream with them. Because, as Capital One used to say, that’s priceless.

What can happen in a second?

Their eyes locked. Her heart gave a funny flutter; her lips parted as her breath caught. Dimly, she registered that his eyes were the color of the sea.

A strange, strangled sound escaped my lips. I am weightless. The world stills, the room holding its breath. The only thing anchoring me is my foot caught on the leg of the table.

It's that moment between when you jump and when you land. That moment that's too quick for your mind to capture and make sense of all of your thoughts. So, you just feel pure, unadulterated emotion. It's the moment after you think, "What have I done?" The moment where you're completely free, filled with equal parts joy and fear. It's intoxicating.

Emotions flit past like falling rain, each too fast to catch and understand.

He looked down at the bundle in his arms. She squirmed, yawning, and finally opened her eyes. They were the deepest shade of brown, like nothing he'd ever seen before. In that moment, in that instant, he became the father of the most precious girl in the universe. She looked up at him with those big brown eyes and the world stopped.


Julieus: God of Creation

Upon the creation of the world, stones collided and exploded. The God of Creation, Julieus, sprang forth from the explosion, fully formed. He is said to have shaken the dust from his robes, looked about the barren land, and covered everything in sight with gold.

Where the Goddess Kristana built the natural world, Julieus created material items, decorating the land with marble and gemstones. He was the one to inspire the First People to build grand buildings in honor of him and the material items he so greatly valued. As such, he takes great pride in the beauty of things, and surrounds himself with splendor.

The God of Creation is best known for the shimmering, glass-like stones that surround the Wishing Tree in the Forest of Luas. They reflect the Wishing Flowers on the branches, thus reflecting the beauty of Kristana’s creations—so they may be forever remembered together.

His direct descendants are the tradesmen, those that create material things to better the world around them. He is celebrated during Mramur, a holiday dedicated to the material, and people often craft elaborate items in his honor during this time.

Like his precious gemstones, however, Julieus can be cold. He values justice above all else, and is quite rigid with his decisions.

Buy the first book in the Anastasia Series

Princess Anastasia Piliar's life takes a sudden turn when she is unceremoniously reunited with her home world after ten years. There, she must reacquaint herself with her people, her world, and the magic that surrounds them.

But war is brewing. The magical protections around the royal city are being pushed to their limits. The monstrous beasts that murdered Anastasia's grandparents, and caused her family to flee, have returned and are wreaking havoc on the realms.

There is a tremendous power inside Anastasia, which could be the key to saving the realms.

If only she understood what it was.

Buy it on Amazon here.

Get the eBook!

The Vine Yard: Chapter 1

After deciding to turn The Vine Yard from a nonfiction book into a TV show, I sat down to write. Usually, when I’m inspired, I can crank out a decent story in about an hour. This time, I got caught up. Formatting for novels is distinctly different than it is for a TV script. You have to condense character descriptions into two lines max and avoid mentioning eye and hair color—unless it’s imperative to your story. Normally, I could take up three pages setting the stage, and giving insight into my character’s thoughts. But for scripts, there are no inner thoughts. Everything is spoken through dialogue or actions, and given deeper meaning via your actors. That alone posed a problem, outside of the bigger issue:

I had no idea what to write about.

Sitting down with my dad—my notorious brainstorming partner—I posed the question: what is a fictional story about Vine really about? I thought of telling the story of the female protagonist kicking butt and creating hilarious comedy. But that’s the thing about Vine, there were only a handful of female comedy Viners, so it wouldn’t be true to the app and its culture. Plus, my dad pointed out, I would get more people to watch the show, and identify with the character, if my protagonist was a male.

Thus my Male Protagonist was born. But I still had nothing for Male Protagonist to do. So, I harkened back to the reason I started this project in the first place: 20-year-old me wanted to know the details about a Viner she was obsessed with, so I decided to fashion Male Protagonist after him. He was 19 when I was, so I could understand his motivations as he grew, as we would be the same age.

When it came to naming Male Protagonist, I was stuck. After taking a Holocaust Studies class at university, I felt really connected to my Jewish culture. Looking around, I realized that there were a handful of shows with Jewish protagonists, but not many. I was tired of the Jewish characters being the token character in a story set in New York. So I wanted Male Protagonist to be Jewish. But, again, my dad interjected—Male Protagonist should be Jewish, but not so much so that he would ostracize the general public watching the show. Again, I conceded. We named him Josh Glass; Jewish enough, but not on the nose—pun intended.

After figuring out the details of Josh Glass’ life, the story started to take shape. The Viner I loved years ago wanted to be a filmmaker, not an actor. So, Josh wanted to be a filmmaker. But I wanted Josh to have struggles. It’s easy to create when you have the means to at your fingertips. A filmmaker unable to write a film, however, worked. He could see the vision he wanted to create, but couldn’t put words on the page. This, too, connected to the Viner I loved, because though he wrote and directed his own short films, his dialogue often fell flat, reading as unrealistic conversation between two people. (He's a much better writer now, though!)

With my basic characters and love interests planned, I sat down to write. It wasn’t until I returned for my last semester of college that I finished the script. It tells the story of Josh’s introduction to Vine, inspired by my favorite Viner’s first interaction with Vine, fueled not by curiosity and boredom, but rather by Josh’s secret love for his best friend, Alexis. I was thrilled when my best friend, roommate, and parents all loved it. They found comedy in it that I hadn’t planned, and assured me it was one of the best things I’d written. As I don’t particularly think I’m all that funny in my writing, I was excited. To date, my favorite line in the script is from Josh’s jerk of a roommate, Derek: “What the f**k’s a Vine.” It was inspired by Ozzie Osbourne’s commercial in which he confusedly says, “What the f**k’s a Bieber?” I laughed at that much harder than I should’ve.

My only concern was the explicit nature of the script. I don’t curse in any of my other work, since I write mainly young adult fiction, and don’t really find the need to curse to my younger audience. However, Vine was explicit. The Viners, themselves, are explicit people. Listening to their podcasts and YouTube videos is like listening to a sailor that stubbed his toe. I wanted to be as realistic as possible, but also:

When Vine shut down, a majority of the Viners moved to YouTube and became creators. Creators make money on YouTube via ads placed on their videos. However, YouTube instituted a new algorithm that refuses to place ads on explicit content, trying to keep YouTube more family friendly and discourage lewd content. So, if someone drops an f-bomb, chances are they won’t make any money from that video, regardless of the number of views.

As such, many creators feel that they’re being censored, and therefore aren’t given the freedom of creation that YouTube promises. I, therefore, wanted to tackle that issue many ex-Viners/YouTube creators are facing, because it is a facet of the Vine chronicles.

Once I explained my thought process to my creative team (i.e. my parents, roommate, and best friend) they assured me that the language within the script was just fine. Reassured, I printed my script, edited it, and prepared to begin the journey of turning it into a TV show! It was time to find a producer and set the wheels into motion. The Vine Yard was going to be the next hit dramedy!