CM Simpson: Writer & Gamer

So, I did a thing. I would say it was a thing I just woke up and decided to do one day, but I've been thinking about doing this thing for YEARS (at least three)...and, today, I screwed up my courage, looked my fear of failure in the eye, and did. the. thing. This might not seem to astounding to some of you, but for those of you who know me, you know I have all the hallmarks of a neurodivergency that runs for the hills if you break its routine or show it something new. Some of you might even know that I'm more comfortable with failure than I am with success, given I'm used to the first and still getting used to the second. (There's a reason I've circled this thing for several years - beyond budget - and that is I wanted to be sure I had a good chance of completing the challenge.) If I'm honest, I'm not absolutely sure I really can do it, but it fits into what I want to do this year, and gives me some extra incentive to actually 'get with the doing', i...

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...

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the first little steps of transitioning from full-time-student-looking-for-a-day-job to full-time writer, and I’m going to talk about it some more, this week. The process for turning into a professional writer is going to look different for everyone, but I’ll share bits and pieces of my journey, in case anyone else can find something useful for their own. The last week of November, was the first full week of putting those first steps into practice—and they worked really well. I liked the results, and the way it looks to be a sustainable workload… and then Friday arrived, a disrupted day, where my work schedule fell apart in the morning and never really put itself back together, which left me in a bit of a quandary come Saturday. I had words from Friday to do, and a book that had decided it wanted to go over the planned length, as well as a competition I’d been reminded about, and the tasks I had decided needed doing at the start of each...

This last week has been busy. On Monday, I finally finished the Print-on-Demand edit and format for Ellie Moonwater’s July release, The Contract. On Tuesday, I had The Contract up for pre-order on all my usual distribution channels. On Wednesday, I took some time out to spend time with my little one, and we went dinosaur-spotting in the Australian National Botanic Gardens, which was a lot of fun, but left me with only 10,000 words of editing to show for the day—it was worth it!   On Thursday, I caught up on social media, including a little blogging, and followed that with taking the podling for a short walk to a playground. On the way, I did a very quick check on my ability to join Pokemongo raids, and found I still couldn’t, so I blogged that on the way home. I wound the day up by starting the edits on Freeman’s Choice . On Friday, I did more editing, and on Saturday, I completed the cover in preparation for final formatting, which I started. Now , I h...

If you are going to go independent, then you need to make a few decisions. It’s not just about where you want to release your work, but also when, and in what formats. My advice is simple: Publish as widely as possible. Distribute as widely as possible. Follow the instructions on each platform carefully. Be aware of where each platform distributes your work—you don’t want duplication in your distribution. It leads to confusion. I keep a spreadsheet for this, and I upload directly wherever possible. OmniLit, for instance, is self-contained, apart from its sister-site AllRomance, but Smashwords distributes widely. Smashwords has an opt-out button for each distributor, for each title, and you’re best to opt-out when you set up a title for publication. Do not agree to exclusivity for any platform, as it limits the readers your work can reach. Publish in as many formats as you are comfortable with. These include: e-book forms (PDF, .mobi, .prc to name a few); print forms (Create...

To be a writer, you have to write. You have to write regularly. And you have to finish what you write. To be earning a living from your work, you have to publish your work and have it available for sale—and even that might not be enough. The only advice I have on this, is find time to write every day, but don’t kick yourself when life happens. After that, I would say decide what you want to publish and when, and look at what you are working on. If you don’t write short fiction, then a fortnightly schedule might be a bit unrealistic. If you can’t write more than a thousand words a day, then expecting to release a 100,000-word novel each quarter is probably too much. Look at what you want to achieve, and then break it down into the time-frame you want to achieve it in, but keep your capabilities and real-life demands in mind. Build in a little bit of flexibility, days for being sick, family holiday, time for fitness. I call this ‘fudge time’, and I don’t mean the chocola...