CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

It's a question I've heard several times in the last couple of weeks. Usually along the lines of: "I've finished my book, how do I get published" or "Does anyone have any advice on how to get published?" or "What's the best way to get published?" or words to that effect. I only have one piece of advice for this and it's: Do your research. The slightly expanded version reads more like this: Do your research and decide which path suits you best. The really LONG version is more like this: Investigate your options and understand your goals. You can take the traditional path and query agents and publishers. That has the upside that people will give your book respect because someone else chose to publish your book and you will have easier access to a few markets others have difficulty getting into.   You can take the independent path and hire a professional editor and cover artist, then do the processing, upload and marketing required...

Going through the various bits and pieces, today - FB, Email, blog pass - and it hit me again that the amount of pressure there is on new writers to find an agent and follow a traditional publishing path is incredible. All of the attitudes, worries, myths, fears, prejudices, and pressures that I encountered when I started out in 1991 are STILL THERE. And they're wrong. It doesn't have to be this way. I've been seeing a lot of it lately, and it really bothers me that the majority of the writing industry tries to tie new writers to a traditional path - and many 'established' writers support that...even though the industry does not necessarily support them ...even though they cannot make a living solely from their writing...even though their colleagues and friends fight them for the (very few) publishing slots available in a traditional publisher's schedule. If you look around, today, there are very few traditionally published writers who can make their rent, let a...

Over the last two weeks, we've looked at the business side of why write short stories - something I hate doing. I'm a writer, dammit! I love story. I love seeing worlds unfold beneath my fingers, to watch characters come to life, to see the story unfurl - but, let's be real, business is important if you want to make a living from that kind of magic, so it needs to be looked at. This week, we get to look at something much more fun: the creative reasons to write short stories. This is one of those intangible things that writers need to grow and develop. It's hard to measure from a business sense, but it's there, and it's vital. To put it briefly, short stories are a way of discovering new stories, new characters and new worlds - in the same way I've found flash fiction can be - but that depends on your approach. Up until recently, my main approach was to simply sit down and start typing. If I was writing for a magazine, I'd make sure I was writing in...

Last week, we looked at the business return of writing short stories and publishing or selling them - but we only looked at it in terms of pure monetary earnings for time spent, and there are other business benefits that can be calculated, depending on why you chose to write the short story in the first place, since we can create with additional purposes to telling a good tale. We can, for instance, write for a specific market. An anthology opportunity might come up, where we get to work with other authors to produce a collection, either writing to a specific theme, or in a specific world or setting. Many of these anthologies won't pay a professional rate, and definitely won't be guaranteed an equivalent monetary return for time. You need to first decide if that's an acceptable trade, but you need to make that decision based on a number of other, both positive and negative, factors: the opportunity to be part of the anthology - since these don't come up all that of...

I started this year with the decision I would make this writing and publishing thing a full-time effort to see what it looked like. I'm still not sure I've got the hang of it, but I'm closer than I was to understanding what I need to do. It's the end of the third quarter, and I'm not making a fortune... more like enough to buy a coffee a week, but early days, right? Here's a very quick look back at what I've published in the last three months: January: February: March:

Last week, I decided to change my routine so that the last week of every month is devoted to publishing the works that are ready to begin the publishing process. I also reassessed my publishing goals, and changed a few other things, including putting in an application for a full-time job in a field I was interested in. I’m still not sure how that’s going to pan out, but Progress: February 25-28 to March 3, 2018 New words produced: 6,873 Outlines and Notes: 241 Words compiled: 18,178 Works completed: 1 (1 chapter book) Works edited: 3 ( Dear Tiger: Don’t Look Back, Dear Tiger: I Like Your Lab, Dreams of the Serpent ) Covers created: 4 ( Dear Tiger: Don’t Look Back, Dear Tiger: I Like Your Lab, Dreams of the Serpent, Mack ‘n’ Me: Origins ) Works published: 3 ( Dear Tiger: Don’t Look Back, Dear Tiger: I Like Your Lab, Dreams of the Serpent ) Works released: 1 ( Memory’s Vampire ) Works submitted: 0 Competitions Entered: 0 Bloggery: 6,583 Hours at Desk—February...