If a Tree Falls

I always say that if I couldn't publish, then I'd be sitting in a street corner writing my pages and taping them up on a window or something. Some people can't get a music career and whine about it and fail. Others get some paint cans and sit on a subway car and make terrific music. If I can't publish, I'll go write in a subway car.

It comes down to what do you really love to do, or are you just doing it for recognition. If you truly, really love writing, then I think there's no question that you will keep on writing even if no one is ever going to read it. Or you will find a way to get it read: free books, online, etc. etc.

All of which is easily said by people who have managed to get work decently published.

caw

Does that invalidate it? It's still a love of writing.

I'm sure most of us write because we love it and we feel a need to do it. But let's face it, we all have egos - and whether published or not, we all enjoy some recognition or validation for our writing.

I love writing. But unless you're J.D. Salinger (i.e. insane paranoid spastic), then you probably want recognition. I do. That's why, if I couldn't get published, I'd be writing on subway cars and street corners and in bookshop windows. Does nothing for me to write a wonderful story that I love and then put it in a box.

I love writing, and I have never been published. I still write. I still love to write. If I couldn't get published the traditional way, I'd find a way to showcase my works on the internet. Actually, I already do, but for different reasons. And, surprisingly, people are reading my obscure stories. Sometimes they even take the time to leave a comment and tell me how much they liked my stories.

So yeah, the little ego boosts are beautiful and everything, but in the end I'm just writing because I love to.

PeeDee said:

Does that invalidate it? It's still a love of writing.

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Not exactly "invalidate", and I'm sure the comments are well-intentioned, but they also come across like Donald Trump telling homeless people it's okay to spend your life sleeping in the park.

caw

If I were Stephen King, then perhaps.

But as I stand, I'm more like someone with a job at McDonald's saying it's okay to sleep in the park.

...This is sort of like a rock band being a real rock band until they get a CD contract and then they're just a sell out.

Popmuze, I don't know who you are in "real life". Are you published? If so, do you have a blog? Or a MySpace page? Or a Facebook page? If not, do you have a crit group? Or a MySpace page? Or... you get the idea. There are lots of ways of opening yourself up for feedback, if that's what you're looking for.

Or maybe I'm missing your point.

popmuze said:

You're definitely getting the point. It's probably one you'd have to be published many times to make.

I do have a blog, actually. But nobody reads it.
Which, on the other hand, has caused me to stop writing it.
I was once on My Space and nobody befriended me.
Occasionally I get some feedback, but I must crave massive amounts.
Or at least I do today.

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Just a thought about MySpace pages and blogs; you really do have to work (or get someone else to) in order to use either effectively to build your web presence.

I'm anonymous here, but I have a website and a MySpace page, and the hits on both have grown enormously -- because I've worked at it.

Getting yourself befriended is easy, just time-consuming. Find a topic you write about or are interested in, do a search on it, visit those people's pages, and ask to be their friend. Repeat -- a lot. When you've exhausted that list, find another topic and start over. Do a search, visit those pages, ask to be their friend. Look for other authors, but also look for people likely to be interested in what you write.

Since I'm published, my first search was simply my name. The people whose pages I visited had listed me as one of their favorite authors, or one of my books as a favorite read, something like that. So I visited those pages -- and also looked at who THEIR friends were and the kind of reading they liked to do. Then I started with topics specific to my work and interests, and went visiting again.

You don't get unless you give.

Like I said, it takes work. Hours and hours of it. But it's free exposure, it builds a network to whom you can announce an upcoming blog, or book release, and once you get to the point of having book cover art and possibly book trailers, you have a venue with an established audience in which to display them.

For the record, I don't like the current market reality that asks (sometimes demands) that even authors published with major houses take on some of the marketing responsibilities. But I'd be a fool to ignore that reality, and I haven't survived decades in this business by being a fool.

Those of you who aren't published yet do have an opportunity denied to those of us who started back in the pre-Internet days. You can begin to build your audience before you have a book to show them.

That might not help get you published, but I can guarantee it'll be a pleasant and welcome surprise to the agent and publisher who do eventually sign you up.

Just something to think about.

Popmuze, why aren't these pages in your signature? And you won't get people coming to your blog if you don't post regularly. Even the search engines move you further back if you're not renewing. I know whereof I speak, mine are suffering because of my current lack of involvement.

As for MySpace, you can also go to your friend's profiles and check out their friends. Make requests of any that seem appropriate. I'm up to about 80 friends now, most of which I went looking for myself. I'm getting more requests now (appropriate ones, I mean) because other people do the same thing. I also actually comment on people's pages and blogs. It's like going to a party; if you stand alone in a corner with a glass in your hand and wait, not much is going to happen. You've got to go toward other people and invest in them. Care about what they're doing too, don't just consider them accessories to your life. (I'm not saying you do personally; this is general advice.)

This is the old Biblical principle: you reap what you sow. Hand out some feedback. Encourage a few others.

If I were published, I would get me a website and make sure it gets onto all the back copy. I'd have a blog on the website, so that people could interact. And I'd talk back to them.

Anyway, if you leaves the crumbs in your signature, I'll follow the trail...

I see nothing wrong with wanting validation from the outside world, the marketplace, the reading public, anything you want to call it. Nor do I see that it diminishes one bit the writing you do for love.

Everyone needs validation of this kind. The salaried worker who loves his or her job still needs to know that the boss, coworkers, the customer, or whoever appreciates the effort put in or the creativity or talent that went behind it. (I admit, this is theoretical for me, because I can't remember ever loving a nine-to-five.) So why should writers be different? Or, to put it another way, if you knew a software engineer who loved her job but still wished to be well paid and recognized by her peers for her skill, would you think she had betrayed the standards of her profession?

I'm not trying to trivialize wanting to be read and recognized. I want that, too.

Yeah, if you want your work read (even if you're not published yet) get yourself out there. Websites, MySpace, YouTube, blogs, etc. Post sample pages, write reviews, etc. I write a weekly reviews which are listed on IMDB, and I write for BlogCritics -- they don't pay but they get me exposure -- a couple of my articles got picked up by places such as the Cleveland.com, Boston.com, and other newspapers websites. I don't know if people read my blogs, but they can get to it via many different ways. If you Google my name it's the #1 hit. Like I said, if writing is your passion, you will find ways to get your work out there in addition to trying to get novels or shorts published.

*ahem* If I google Ray Wong, I get

http://www.raywongmagic.com/

That.

My name is Raymond K. Wong. If you had bought my book you'd have known that...

I suck at marketing. End of story.

caw

Yeah, marketing is tough. It's "easier" if there's a publisher's marketing engine behind it. But it's not impossible. I constantly get myself out there, doing speaking engagements, etc. It's not my focus, but I do it. Making your writing available (such as my blogs, my reviews, etc.) helps keep you out there.

Oh, I'm "out there", all right. It's just real dark, and quiet, and there's nobody else around. Cold too, and dry as the Gobi Desert. I suppose if I started screaming . . . no, that would be like the tree falling, wouldn't it? And there aren't any trees, hell, no vegetation of any kind, out here. Rocks and sand, that's about it. I wandered out here thinking it might be nice, pleasant. What a marvelously stupid idea that was. Now I can't find my way back. My feet hurt. My head hurts. I have one canteen with a little water sloshing around in it, and half a bag of stale Cheetos.

If it wasn't so dark I'd sit down on this rock and write something for my own amusement.

caw