Must. Get. Ball.

So, I spent two weeks putting together a very specific Query for an agent. Lots of formatting and fine-tuning. I definitely owe my editor a nice dinner. Finally, I had everything together and e-mailed it to her...only to have it bounce back...twice. No doubt because her e-mail is already overflowing with Queries. Groan. Now you see why I self-publish.

It's not that I don't believe in the traditional publishing process. It makes sense that the publishers --or someone-- sift through all the writing to make sure that only the best gets published. I've read a lot of self-published stuff in my quest to support indie writes, and there's a lot of mediocre stuff out there. Well, and a lot of garbage. But the system seems so back logged. Not that my writing is genius or anything, and maybe it isn't worthy of a publisher’s notice...but how can I get a publisher's notice if I can't even get it into someone's in-box? It's like I need an agent to get me to an agent. Thank God for self-publishing. Cause sometimes, that ball is just out of reach.

For love or money

The other day, my 10 year old asked me if people write for the money or for fame. That made me consider why I wrote the Star-crossed books. As I mentioned before, they originally were a challenge to my lazy children to write themselves. But once I got into writing them for serious and finishing them... did I want riches or fame? Or, more realistically, a bit of pocket change or recognition?

Well, when I chose to self-publish, I was thinking that I just wanted to get my book out to all my friends so they could read it and, hopefully, like it. Because, really, what's the point of spending years of your life writing and editing if the book is just going to sit on your hard drive? It's a nice mental exercise but it feels a bit wasted. So that's what I did. And many of my friends have read and at least pretending to like Secrets. So, hurray! Goal accomplished.

But, I guess it would be nice to make a little money. I am blessed to have all my needs met and then some. But I feel like I am pouring money into copies of the books to hand out to friends and I know my outflow will exceed my intake. So... a few healthy sales would be nice.

So... I guess the answer is, for both love and money. At least for me. What about the rest of you writers?

Pardee out.