Paying it forward

Tomorrow, there will be a guest post here.

Up until now (or tomorrow, really), this has been a one person blog. Almost all of the things posted here have been about me or my projects or thoughts or ideas. But as I continue to build a career in the independent author sphere, I realize more and more that we all have to kind of rely on each other. Indies have started boosting each other, spreading the word about one another's books and ideas. Backing one another up.

I think that's a good thing. Actually, I think it's great.

So I've decided to occasionally give people space to speak about their own projects here. Or to speak about other people projects on their behalf. I did it a little with the Diversity in Color post (which is, again, going all year. You can still join in!). I suppose, in a way, the Month of Letters counts. Sort of.

Tomorrow, there'll be a guest post from another author. Later in February, there'll be a weekend of urban fantasy goodness. There may be things between now and then. There may not be anything else until later in the year. We'll have to see.

I want to disclaim before any of that happens: Just because there's a guest post or a blog tour hop or something like that here, I'm not necessarily saying that you must enjoy whatever that post is about if you enjoy my writing. Or even that you should. We're all different. We all have different tastes. Read what is presented, if you like, and decide for yourself.

:)

Writing independently.

Ladies and gents, I am tired. And that's largely because I decided to engage in discussions on this here internet thing that I should have been wise enough to avoid. Sometimes even when we think we're clever, we get drawn into a Pit of Mistakes (tm).

I don't really want to rehash the arguments. I'm just going to give my point of view.

Self-publishing or indie publishing or publishing independently, however we choose to label it, may mean that we don't have to write to the standards of the Big 6 (or 5 or however many) publishing houses that control the traditional market. It does not mean that an independent/self-published author should be allowing their cat to walk on their keyboard for 400 pages, then putting that document up on Amazon for $3.99. Or $.99. Or anything except free if it absolutely must be shared with the world.

There are no people saying we can't charge for nonsense or poorly edited books. There is no gatekeeper. There is no guardian at the door refusing to let us do whatever we want.

But if you publish something (especially knowingly) that isn't ready to be sold to the public, it doesn't just reflect badly on you. It reflects badly on everyone publishing under the independent/self-published umbrella. It chases people away from not just your book, but hers and his and mine too.

I certainly care about my own career. I'd like to see everyone who wants to publish the book of their dreams do it and do it well. We may not all make six-figure incomes, but that's not a reason not to try, if you want your voice to be heard.

So it's my opinion that books -- yes, even indepent/self-published books who need adhere to no publisher's rules -- should be edited coherently. Have professional-looking covers. Show some authorial pride and respect for the reader spending both their time and their money to read them.

This is my pledge to you, my readers. I will strive to release books that are ready to be read, only when they're ready to be read. I want you to enjoy them as much as I do and I want you to keep coming back, not only to read my books, but to take a chance on the other independent/self-published authors who take the same care with their works.

And that's that.

(Well, not quite. There's another chapter of And The Skies Fell up this week too. Back on track. :) )

Read to write. Write to read. Yes.

There's a believe in the world of writing, or much of it at least, that in order to write well you must also read widely. How can you stay on top of what counts as current in the if you're not on top of what's being published today.

I get that. And I try to read stuff that's relatively current, when I can.

But I have also been notoriously slow about reading these past few years. I also know a LOT of writers and like to support them when I can by buying their stuff. (Note to the writers I know: Stop putting out so much good stuff, will you? Yeesh.) In theory, I should be reading it when I buy it. In practice, not so much.

So when people talk about their TBR piles or TBR stacks, I look at my boxes of books I have bought but not yet read, some going back about eight years if not more, and I sigh and despair of reading current things. How am I ever going to read the stuff I bought back then if I'm supposed to read the new stuff, and yet read series in order and  and and...

It gets a little overwhelming, you know?

Last year I read 16 books. Some of those were current. Several of them were old. This year, my baseline goal is 25 books. Some will, again, be current. Some will be old. It would be great if I read more than that, but 25 seems like a nice solid probably-achievable start.

Between them, I will write and edit current stories. Will reading old books influence my current writing style? Not in any harmful ways, I hope. We'll have to see.

Speaking of which, got a pretty great review on Immortal Lies today. I'm pleased! (Not about the typo comment, but you know, when there are still typos in the file, it's not the reviewer's fault. They have now been fixed. I hope. Sweet Pete, I hope.)

A whole different kind of writing.

I guess the title is slightly incorrect. It's not a whole different kind of writing. The words would probably be the same. The mode, however, is completely different.

What am I talking about? Nothing like jumping into the middle of my stream of thought.

I am talking about the Month of Letters, a project started by Mary Robinette Kowal (who does the audio versions of Seanan McGuire's October Daye series, and whose voice I might love a little bit). There's a lot of information about it on the website, but the basic gist is this: every day that the postal service is functioning, wherever you might be, you send one letter or postcard or handwritten something to someone else. You, in turn, receive letters from others. It's a step back to the "good old days" when we weren't all glued to our computer and communicating by SMS and 140-character tweets.

I think it's brilliant.

Back when I was in college, before the internet was quite such a focus of life as it is now, I spent a summer writing letters to a friend. Nevermind that for some reason I had assigned him the wrong last name, I had a blast writing to him and getting letters back.

Since then I've more or less stopped writing by hand. Until recently when I discovered that writing new scenes on the book I'm editing happens much more quickly if I scribble them out on paper. But it really is scribbling, as you may have noticed in my post earlier this month on editing.

So! I think I'm going to join in. I can write a letter or postcard or something a day for 23 days next month. Can you? :)

On persistence.

Yep. That topic.

In order to write and do it successfully, there are a few rules that must be followed. Learn your grammar, learn your punctuation, try not to write in the rock's point of view unless the story really -cannot- go on without input from said rock.

Other than that, the main thing you need to do is write. Continue to write. Write a lot, throw it away and write more to replace it. Write it better. Write it faster. Just keep writing.

As I've said elsewhere before, if you really don't like it or rejection and critique get you so down that you can't pick yourself up again, you're allowed to quit. This is not an until death do we part kind of thing for everyone. As someone else said, if someone can convince you not to write, let them. It may have been about screen writing. It may have been writing advice in general. I honestly don't remember and I'm paraphrasing.

Point is, everyone has ups and downs. Everyone has good times and bad times and everyone has to decide, from day to day and year to year, whether or not they're going to get up from one more tumble into the crap, wipe it off, and go back to the typewriter or keyboard or spiral notebook.

Everyone.

Just remember that when someone is dispensing wisdom or advice and you feel like the angels are singing. We've all been there. You'll be there too.

And the world will keep turning.

:)

(No serial chapter today. Sorry! P'raps I'll update And The Skies Fell twice next week. Or later this week. We shall see.)

What's in a name?

If you have read my author bio anywhere, you know it starts with the following lines:

What's in a pseudonym? A writer by any other name called would make words as sweet. So S. L. Gray would,were she not S. L. Gray called.

But then how would you find her books?

Aside from the obvious hat-tip to Shakespeare (yes, I'm a Shakespeare fan. I have no shame.), this is my new philosophy on pen names. I, as an author, am unlikely to stick to one pure genre. I started out writing romance. I split away from myself a little and wrote erotic romance for a while. Now I'm writing urban fantasy with varying levels of romantic content.

And going forward, I intend to write it all under the same name. There will probably not be a lot (if any) erotic romance. There will be a lot of fantasy of various flavors and some romance-centered stuff and maybe even a YA novel or three down the road.

But I'm going to publish them all as S.L. Gray. I have made the attempt at maintaining and building an audience for more than one name before and honestly, the benefits didn't outweigh the pain in the butt it would be to keep it up.  Now, mind, I am not writing in wildly divergent genres. If I were writing erotic romance and middle grade books? Yes, I might very well use yet another pen name. As I'm not? Nope. This is where I'm sitting. I like the view from S.L. Gray land.

One argument from people who suggest multiple pen names is that it helps you continue to reach readers who don't cross genres. If I have a fan of my urban fantasy who really doesn't want to read a romance-heavy story, won't I betray their trust by writing under the same name?

Nah. My readers (and readers in general) are sharp enough to figure out what they want to read or don't want to read. Why make it harder for them to find my next book by making them become fans of some other me? 

That's -my- story and I'm definitely sticking to it.

Just a note before you go: You have about an hour to enter my print giveaway. I'll be drawing winners this evening. Good luck!

Five things make a post.

Because sometimes, after talking about words a lot, you run out of clever things to say.

:)

1. If you are at all interested in self-publishing, or how it's working out for authors across the board (and not just the ones you hear about like Amanda Hocking or Hugh Howey or others having amazing success, check out the survey Beverly Kendall did. There's some pretty interesting information in there.

2. My print copy giveaway continues. There are four days left! Have you entered yet?

3. Do you know about the Kindle Worlds program? I think shared worlds are pretty amazing, or can be at any rate. And now, Amazon has licensed several worlds that are open to other authors writing in them. Like writing fan fic? Want to potentially get paid to write it? Check it out.

4. My cat, who I refer to as The Grey Cat, is sometimes goofy. This is how he sits on my bed. Ignore the stuff in the corner behind him. I'm a writer, not a housekeeper, okay?

5. The new chapter of And The Skies Fell is up. Enjoy!