I love traveling the blogosphere and connecting with other writers. I love coming to a new writer’s blog and finding out that they have written a book, a book which is published.
What I don’t like is then trying to figure out how that book was published.
I’m not wondering this in order to judge anyone. I legitimately want to know about their journey, how they got where they are, why they took a certain route, and how it’s going.
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I even have a blog series devoted to journeys.
(The arrow should be further down my blog, but you get the point)
And, I love to support fellow writers, and there are certain forms of publication which leave the writers largely to their own devices as far as selling and marketing the book.
Is it brazen that I want to know as soon as I arrive on someone’s blog if that someone self-pubbed, has an agent, e-pubbed, has a large publisher, has an indie publisher, or wrote the book on papyrus paper?
Is that rude?
I kinda think it is. So, I don’t generally ask, as a stranger, about that journey. But I really want to know.
And a part of it is that I don’t just do blogs anymore as social media--I twitter, and google+, and (very) occasionally facebook.
So, if I can see the salient info up front, I can take that into all the social realms that I use. And, it’s not that I don’t want to go the extra mile to form a writing friendship. Ask the people whom I knock into around here. I love the extra mile. I just want to know what that mile might be.
What about you? Do you have your stats on the “cover” of your blog? Do you put it all into the “about me” paragraph? How transparent are you? How much transparency do you expect?
Haven't seen me for a while on twitter? It's because I'm on the roller coasters with Super Grover here.
What a thoughtful post. I can usually tell. In their about if it's coming out by a Big 6, they'll let you know, usually under their picture. If it's not obvious, I click on the link to amazon and know right away. Like you, it doesn't bother if someone isn't forthright about it, but it's nice to know.
ReplyDeleteLOL I was thinking the same thing the other day. When someone follows me on Twitter, I check out their bio. The first thing I question when I see the individual is published is who published the book. The next thing I wonder is if the individual is going to send me a DM to tell me to check out their book. But that's a whole different post. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm still leary about self published books. Although one of my friends uses a freelance editor for her novellas, I know most don't. I've seen the samples of many writers thinking of querying or self publishing, and it's not pretty.
It's not rude to have voyeuristic tendencies, but we both know the quality of the writer is not found on their bio.
ReplyDeleteAs far as transparency...I am too see through, I think.
Hmm...I don't think I have anywhere on my blog that I'm self-publishing, but it seems obvious since the book is $.99. Is it obvious?
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post, for sure, Heather. Oh, I like your pun about the arrow - you get the point! Hehe!
ReplyDeleteIf my books were published by one of the big pubs, I'm sure I would have put it in my bio, but mine are by small indies, and the first one closed its doors a few years ago. I honestly didn't want to focus on my published books when I started my blog because it seemed like it would be too in-your-face rude to do that when I didn't even know anyone yet. I tried to keep it low key. I'm glad you interviewed me, and the timing was great with the official release of Secret of Haunted Bog. Thanks to YOU, we actually had a little book launch.
I think it's obvious that my Trio of Haunting Tales is self-pubbed since it's 99 cents on Amazon. I just put it on Smashwords, so now it will be sold in other places besides Amazon. I forgot to even mention it in the interview because it's just three short stories I wrote mainly to read at classroom visits and to put on our MonsterMoonmysteries.com website, which is at a standstill right now. I'm really glad I took the plunge into epubbing with these short stories to test the water before going that route with one of my novels. It was a nerve-racking experience trying to get the formatting right for the Kindle. I must have reworked it 20 times until I got it pretty decent. There are still a few spots where it indents and shouldn't, and I can't figure out how to fix that in Word, so I have to live with it. For Smashwords, the formatting looked horrific. I couldn't live with that. They sent me a list of people I could pay to format it. One lady only charged $10. She did a great job and formatted the cover for free. Saved me a few meltdowns. So now I know what to expect with the epubbing. Sounds like you're having fun at the amusement park. I hadn't heard of that place before. Too cute with all the Sesame Street characters!
Woo hoo! Heather, I did a writing party on Twitter. Three other writers joined me. Two reported back and one didn't. It got 1,546 words drafted! Hot dog! And a burger, too! I can't believe that really works! Then one of the women wanted to do it again, but not for 45 min., so I said sure. So I got another 1,473 words drafted on the same story. A new story. My daughter misheard me say something on the phone the other day. She thought I said, "My Pet Zombie." We laughed, and I said it sounds like a story. So that's what I wrote about. It's a rough, rough draft, but what a great feeling. Thanks for doing the TourdeWriting. Just what I needed!
ReplyDeleteDear,
ReplyDeleteWhat you is right and I agree that.
karen millen black
Laura--good point about clicking through. I normally spend time at their website or blog looking for clues :)
ReplyDeleteStina--I've seen all degrees of self-pubbed works--great ones...and not so great ones. I just now figured out how to delete spammed DMs on twitter. :) I think people need to think a bit more about twitter etiquette before hitting 'send'.
J--I don't think there is any such thing. :)
Anita--I don't know if it is obvious. :) I followed your journey. And I don't know if others feel the same way. And I don't know if self pubbed authors want to put that kind of info out there, since some people are still leary--like Stina said above. (Maybe you can answer that question--how do you feel about putting it out there?)
Lynn--I loved doing your interview! I have to post it on my blogroll there--when I get back from vaca, I am fixing the rest of my blog. :) I think I did see somewhere on your blog that those short stories are self-pubbed, and I think that is cool that you did that--especially to see what it was like. You and Anita are chartering new territory. And, WOO-HOO about all the words you wrote from your twitter party--THAT's what it is all about!!
Interesting! Most people assume I'm self-published. I pretty much prefer that, actually. I was in RWA for a little while, and they were so obsessed with leveling and segregation that I just don't want to enter into it. I'm pretty sure my other books have the publisher on the front cover.
ReplyDeleteI know you mean it to be supportive and curious. Times are different nowadays. :-) I wish I were self-published when I get my royalty statements!
Lately I've been trying to figure the editors who acquired/edited certain books. It's surprisingly difficult sometimes to determine!
ReplyDeleteNatasha--Hi! :) Yes, I hope this post came across as supportive, not judgmental. Laughing (kind of) about the royalty checks. There are definite benefits to self pubbing! I wonder if established authors (like yourself) will start self pubbing to compliment their more traditionally published list. That's too bad about the RWA community. I'm glad that the YA/MG folks are so supportive.
ReplyDeleteKris--Interesting. That would be good information to have. :)