Burning Bridges

This is probably going to be the most important blog. No, this will be the most important blog.

Let's put everything aside and discuss interacting.

Now Class, Shhhh, sit down, please sit down, we're about to begin soon...

Sound familiar? Yup. That's dealing with at least 25% of the author world.

This is me - "Shut the fuck up! I don't care what someone told you. I don't care what they do. That's nice. This is what it is. Here's the proof. Here's the law."

I have a lot of haters. I mean A LOT. We all write differently. We all write at our own speeds. I'll give a current example. In December of 2012. I started a trilogy. December 20th 2012, I was already working on book 3. I would have had it finished by the end of the week. Eh, life got in the way. First two books, each one took me a week or less to write. Book 3 took me a month. Each book is different for me. Temporary Home, I had that finished in 12 or 13 days. Don't despair, I do have several books that I'm still writing that's taken me more than a year and still not complete. You sit down and create your own goals. If you meet your goals, you should be very proud. You know what you are capable of and if you achieve that, awesome!!!!

A little off topic, but it will make a case in point. Me and sewing machine, we're arch enemies. I hate it and it hates me. If I have to sew, it's by hand. For me to sew an outfit, yeah, ha! It'll take me a decade to finish. But, there are people (you may be one of them) that can whip through that outfit. Sure, I'm jealous. I wish I had that talent. I don't. And I'm okay with that.

Yes, I did find what my talent is, late in life. Oh, well. The most important thing, I found it.

Okay, let's get back to burning bridges. The don'ts.

DON'T get in the mind set that your book is the next big thing and brag to everyone about it.

We're all authors here. Yes, we all want our book to be the next big thing. However, what who do you think most of our friends are? Other authors, duh? We don't want to listen you brag. There are other things to talk about.

DON'T use people.

Most important FINISH YOUR FUCKING MANUSCRIPT!!!!!!

This is the most important one. Receiving help - great. Receiving advice - great. Taking advantage of people, not so great. Actually, that's a major no-no. You've just now started to light gasoline on that bridge.

The most common question (yes, I've been guilty of it) But, I learned through people offering advice and researching it on the internet.

Do you know of any publishers? Do you know a no cost publisher I can send my manuscript to?

Yes, it's called get off your ass and do the research. Each publisher is different. A real publisher won't charge you money. Some may charge you a reading fee, and that's perfectly legal. It helps them weed the ones turning in complete trash.

But this book needs to be on the shelves!!!!

Doesn't all of ours? Get over yourself. I learned that this guy refused to pay for editing and swindled someone else to edit his book for free. He didn't even have the first 50 pages written. Ugh!

I recommended that this person use Createspace and for $25 be in the stores. Their response, "I don't want to have to pay anything."

I'm not smacking my head, I'd smack theirs.

I told them about my awesome freelancer and all she does. They didn't even know the first process. Okay, that's fine. We were all there at once. The funny thing I found, they said they have one book published (self). They don't. They also said they're working on six more. Okay, I'm in the same boat.

HOWEVER! Before you seek publishers, have a fucking manuscript finished! No one is even going to touch you if you don't have it complete.

They went on to explain they had theirs done for 8 months and just sitting on them. So, I told them through my freelancer they would be on the market in the next month. (That's how quick and great they are)

"...but curious how this conversation went from asking about a publisher' to the amount written'...my opinion on an Author' isnt how many and how fast you write it' or production of how fast you can write something' its about who has it on there shelves and the fact of becoming the story while writing it' i can write the same way' but i want mine to be memorable' and want it to somehow affect someone...im not an EBook author' i have been writing 30 years and in the early 90,s wrote a Num1 Country Hit song' doesnt matter to me' matters that my entire sould is in it when writing'

Can we see what's wrong with this picture? I'm not the world's greatest writer. That's why we have editors. However, if you're having a 'business' social, need I say any more?

First, the 'amount written' I was boasting about my freelancer being able to get the covers to him quickly and help him with formatting. Yes, every idiot is entitled to their opinion. But, my question is this, if you're in a rush to push this out, then why are you not published? (Like they stated earlier)

I'm sorry, but it's crack cases like this, that give indie authors a bad name. After our conversation, he went and blamed every author he knows for and get this, "Thank you very much. I hope you're happy. I'm not able to finish my manuscript. I'm not going to be a threat to you. I quit." I paraphrased. But, all authors came and told me he said something similar to that.

I have to say, no one was working on work that was in his genre, so how is he a threat? He got called out on lies that he was spreading, is what triggered him. He was also boasting to everyone how all he had to do was write his book and there was a movie deal in the making. (This conversation took place Saturday night) Sunday, (yes the next day) he's crying how the movie deal fell through.

I will be the first one to admit it takes a very unique person to write. However, unique isn't another word for crackhead. What makes us great in what we write is what we've been through. If you have severe mental problems, or came out of something like a coma, you need to be concentrating on other things besides writing.

Stop blaming everyone for your failure. Did my first set of books fail because of you? Sure they did. You didn't buy them. Giggles. No, they failed because I lacked something on my part. I went back and fixed it. I've also learned that those who speak the above, only wish they could do what I can do. Through the grapevine, he accused me of all sorts of things. I don't care. His credibility was shot the moment he accused everyone else for his failure.

I may sound mean and harsh when I say this. But, I don't care. I have more important things to worry about. I live no where near him to be able to help. If he's going to go around accusing everyone, do you think I want that in my life? Authors may write about drama, but we rarely cause it. For those that are snorting, thinking about this, where are we? Do you think the stories write themselves? We're in a room, alone, with our laptop, typing away.

Don't spread lies about other authors. If you're not willing to pay for your investment, that's your problem. If you're not willing to invest the time and dedication that's needed, that's your problem. Stop blaming everyone! No one is buying it and everyone has problems of their own.

If you're going to say you've done something, prove it. He never did mention what song he wrote. Which is very easy to find out if he's telling the truth. My freelancer knows people in the business and all she has to do is make one call. Well, email. If you have accomplishments that's the time you brag about them. Saying you've done something, when you haven't, maybe you woke up from your coma too soon. Or, you need to be put back on your meds. I don't know. But, it's time you seek professional help.

Yes, this blog may sound mean. It's really not. I'm just getting down to the nitty gritty. Don't accuse others for your failure. Do you honestly think a publishing house will want to deal with you? Do you honestly think someone is going to buy your work, knowing that you're doing other things with the money?