I need some chees and crackers to go with my wine please. I wasn't going to blog today, and now I'm doing it AGAIN the first one lost to the nether regions of cyber space! I so don't feel good and my allergies need to find a new home. Maybe in the same place as my last blog?
I have had a long row to hoe, so to speak, in becoming a writer and an author. What's the difference? Well, most people like to differentiate between published and non published. Of course, some snobbish types don't think you qualify as a writer if you're not making money. An opinion I would beg to differ, but I don't believe in begging to have an opinion -- I simply do.
In my mind, what you are doesn't change, whether the world recognizes it or not, or if you are getting paid or not. I liken it to being a parent. I am a mother. I don't get paid to do this. Even with child support and social security benefits for my disabled child, I don't get nearly enough to cover the cost of those children. In my state benefits max out at 674 and it goes down the more you make. So, yeah, not making money here. However, with or without that money, I am a mother. I'm not getting paid to be a mother. Child support is to support the child's physical needs. A small part of being a mother. So, if you are a writer, painter, or appliance repair man, be happy and proud and be what you are, regardless of the pay, status, etc.... Yeah, I'll get off that rabbit trail soap box now :D
Anyways, what induced me to write a blog even though I have to stop and blow my nose a hundred times? (Thank God for wipes for the keyboard, right?) This article ( http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-pinter/an-analog-industry-in-the_b_499817.html )that I found through the blogs I read. The blog is by Jessica Faust at Book Ends Literary Agency LLC. Side note, Jessica is an agent that gently led me to the path of what a query letter needs to be and how to find that information.
I recently sent her my query of awesomeness even though it didn't quite fit her house, and she responded as courtesly as ever. follow her blog if you have any intentions of ever getting published and READ IT ALL. She will also have links to other people, agents, etc., with more good information for the writer who wants to get published. It's called networking.
My first book, which is not done in the traditional manner, nor is it quite self-published. Go figure, when did I ever do anything the normal way? I went Joint Venture. What did that mean? I didn't put out thousands of dollars, and I got a professionally published book. It means its on Ingram and any book store can find it. What it doesn't mean, that I didn't understand, is that I don't get the press packets, review copies, networking options that usually happen withing a publishing house, nada. I have been doing it all on my own.
I didn't know how to blog, much less have one. I knew next to nothing about twitter, or how to really use the internet for social networking. Now, my best friends are cyber friends and I look to my blogs, like edittorrent and Janet Reid and others, to keep me informed and feel closer to the business I am aspiring to be a part of. Networking on the internet is a fairly new beast. Read the article to see what I mean. He's an aquisition editor and writer and really shows how the netwroking process in the business has changed, just since I began to do this with the intent of eventually making money.
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