#Successful Authors and Their Time

[jolenes-book-journey]

Successful Authors and Their Time

Successful Authors and Professionals along with tips on how they managed their time. Looking at how successful authors manage their time can provide valuable insights for new writers. From a WritersWrite article, Nora Roberts suggests that you write something every day and establish a firm writing schedule. I would suggest some tried-and-true books to help you with your time management strategies…

[vanhelsingapologist]

Publishing has always been a fucking nightmare, but now it’s a layer of hell. It’s not enough that writers be good at what they do. Writers have to maintain an active social media presence and cultivate a following. Be available.

They have to be conventionally attractive enough to look good enough to see on a screen, aesthetically pleasing, kind, funny, up-to-date on trends, socially aware but not so controversial that they turn off a brand from California from slapping their discount code on a video promoting a book.

They have to do all of this with no media training, with little help from the companies that are supposed to be doing this for them.

Of course, a lot of this isn't possible for say, the 40-something mother of two who teaches English at a school and writes on the side. She’s boxed out of an already complex industry that already has enough walls.

On some level, I think authors have always marketed themselves a little, but we’ve reached such a crazy point where we’re demanding the author become the influencer. Accessibility in publishing has narrowed from an inch to a sliver. And that inch was hard enough to get in as is.

[thepersonalquotes]

Every day there are opportunities for me, and I take them.

Stephen Richards, Six Figure Success: Time To Think Big - You Can Do It

[wonder-worker]

"Any assessment of the emotional component of the reconciliation of [Empress Matilda and Geoffrey of Anjou] remains speculation: the chroniclers are silent on the issue of whether [they] grew to love, hate, or like each other. We do know, from their movements and actions, that Matilda and Geoffrey eventually arrived at a businesslike arrangement with a united viewpoint toward the dynastic, geopolitical goals that had dictated their marriage in the first place."

"Matilda and Geoffrey effectively transitioned from a Divide and Rule model to a Collaborative Union from 1144 onwards, in which they worked together throughout their marriage to ensure rulership over their territories and gained their rightful lands, as well as ensuring the inheritance for their children. Matilda and Geoffrey’s political partnership can effectively be argued as the most successful through applying different models of rulership. Ultimately the Plantagenets regained Matilda’s inheritance through Henry, conquered Normandy, and produced several male heirs."

Charles Beem, The Lioness Roared: The Problems of Female Rule in English History / Gabrielle Storey, Co-Rulership, Co-operation and Competition: Queenship in the Angevin Domains, 1135-1230

[duckprintspress]

I feel like I need to start talking more about how one of the big things that Duck Prints Press does is open the door to people who could never even get a foot in with traditional publishing or even most medium/"small" presses (we're a small press, but we're really more of a micro-press, I see places calling themselves small presses that are fucktons bigger than we are).

I've got some anecdotal evidence that people avoid the publications of Presses like this one because they think our writing and editing standards are lower - that we're the people who failed to make it in bigger presses because we weren't good enough - and that, consciously and unconsciously, gatekeeping biases on who is and isn't qualified to write lead people to support small presses less than they might support a more established organization.

So...y'all realize that there are a lot of reasons people wouldn't pursue working with trad pub, right? and I don't even mean ethical doubts, and I don't even mean "trad pub doesn't want to publish certain kinds of stories," though those are definitely factors - we're able to give more space to play with themes and genres because we don't focus solely on "is this marketable" as a sales rubric.

But that's not what I consider the biggest difference.

Hi, I'm Claire, and I own Duck Prints Press, and I have a massive history of clinical depression, including being suicidal in the past. I'm a great writer, and I'm not just tooting my own horn, I've got almost 150,000 kudos on AO3 that suggest that just maybe, I know wtf I'm doing stringing words into sentences. I don't need a big press to tell me I'm competent, I already know that. What I do need is to not end up suicidal again. If I face the gauntlet of rejections that's supposedly "required" as part of gatekeeping trad pub, it will do severe damage to my mental health, and probably destroy my ability to write as depression-induced self-deception eats through what I know to be true.

THAT'S what's different about a micropress like ours. Yes, our founding vision was to work with fans, but the vast majority of the people who work with us have mental illnesses, physical disabilities, neurodivergence issues, and/or other "meatsuits are terrible actually" issues that strict publishing environments can't or, really, won't accommodate. We say "fuck that noise" and go out of our way to accommodate people, granting extensions and ensuring everyone can work on their own schedule. We're able to be very flexible, which means we bring in a lot of people whose incredible skills are overlooked, ignored, looked down on, kept out of, more mainstream publishing options.

If someone has trouble with deadlines? We still work with them.

If someone has an illness that flares irregularly and unpredictably? We still work with them.

If someone needs frequent reminders? We still work with them.

If someone works slowly because they can only do a little at a time? We still work with them.

If someone needs extra time, additional support, special software...we have thus far been able to accommodate literally everyone who has come to us.

As long as the creators who work with us keep communicating and keep showing at least a little progress, we will find a way to make things work, because we want to be as inclusive as possible, and because we know that most people with these challenges, no matter how good they are at writing or art or whatever it is they do with us, would face many more hardships to have these opportunities with a larger, more strict organization.

Just, every time I see indications that people think we're "less" because we're not HarperCollins or Penguin or Tor or something, I get so angry, because it shows so little understanding of how gatekeepy and especially how ableist trad pub is, and I wish more of the people who are thinking things like that would recognize that their behavior is, essentially, snobbery.

And to be clear I'm not saying "people with these challenges never get trad pubbed," that's clearly ridiculous and untrue, but I am saying, people with these challenges shouldn't have to be The Most Exceptional just to have a chance, and we deserve to have a place that will accommodate us instead of having to perform health, perform neurotypicalness, etc. just to succeed. We deserve to not have one flare-up potentially ruin our careers, and we deserve the same opportunities and respect as people who choose other directions.

Between trad pub, small press, and self-publishing, no one route is inherently "superior." Backing one over another doesn't guarantee you're only going to get good stories, or good editing. Trad pub publishes utter schlock sometimes, and self-publishing is fantastic sometimes, and some small presses do have lax standards, and some small presses are exceptional, and I feel like maybe people just really don't understand why places like Duck Prints Press try to exist - it's because we're trying to create spaces that meet us where we are, instead of focusing on rigid conformity, marketability, hard rules, etc.

The only way we'll get a diversity of voices in publishing is by supporting a diversity of publishers. The only way we'll be able to make space for everyone is by supporting the places that carve out new spaces to fit those who didn't fit elsewhere.

I wish more people would understand what we do and why we're here, and that folks would at least try our publications before assuming that we're "like big press but worse at writing/arting/editing."

Idk. I'm just tired, and sick, and still working even tho I'm sick, and frustrated with how hard it is to get anywhere, so here, have a rant I probably shouldn't post.

(this post brought to you by me seeing Chuck Tingle - entirely reasonably, to be clear, Chuck Tingle is awesome and I support him entirely! - celebrating the Camp Damascus release to thousands of notes, and Tor posting a poll about some Locked Tomb short story and getting 1300+ votes, and how I have to claw our way out of the background tumblr noise to get 100+ notes even on our biggest releases)

[just-a-little-unionoid]

eh you know what, fuck it, I doodled my version of sinner!Adam and they made me happy so here you go

the hands and arms are shit just don't... don't pay too much attention

in this AU Adam woke up in Hell in a female body and ended up just... rocking with it

I guess he decided to commit to the rock star persona, I fully believe Adam would fucking love Hell if only he got off of his high horse, and with Lilith out of the picture the "singer empowering the people of Hell" role is free soooo... you know 🤷

lyrics from Stick It To The Man

[sproutingpotato]

How it (sort of) started

And how it is going

[frontlinebicepsoftheninth]

in light of a second migration to this site i just need to speak my truth which is that harrow is a redditor gideon is a twitter user and ianthe is a tumblrina hope this helps

[quotelr]

If you solely focus only on financial survival then that is where you will always be.

Stephen Richards, Six Figure Success: Time To Think Big - You Can Do It

[mihotose]

if evrart knew harry is short for harrier he wouldnt tell him until harry starts getting uncooperative and then hed drop a Harrier for effect and say something like "Now, now, Harry, I thought we were friends! That's why I call you Harry, you see - that's what friends do. No full names around here among friends, you know. Still, you left me no choice there, you weren't seeing reason. I don't want to say it again, who knows what will come out the next time? Now, are you going to behave?" meanwhile harry is melting into the uncomfortable chair having lost three morale

[thepersonalquotes]

A self-limiting belief is no stronger than the flimsy rope that tethers an elephant by its foot.

Stephen Richards, Six Figure Success: Time To Think Big - You Can Do It

[aldieb]

ugh on amca austin said something about getting a correction from an editor about how the empire works in his sw story and i got this intense frisson of “!!! i want to also be a database of nerd information for a fake universe! when will this be me!” i just think it’s such a fun comparison to working on nonfiction rn because all of my edits are some degree of fake too (style guides as agreed-upon models rather than arbiters of What Grammar Should Truly Be, compressing complex facts into versions understandable by the general reader) but i want to see what it’s like when everyone has more formally agreed that we’re playing a game together and the game still has rules

[icewindandboringhorror]

We should bring back that thing some websites used to do where whenever you made a post you could also list a bunch of random details alongside it, like the mood you’re currently feeling while writing the post, what you’re eating, music you’re currently listening to, what device you’re writing the post on, some random emoji, your personal motto at the moment, etc. It’s like additional character lore 

[wonder-worker]

"A developed affinity certainly furthered the queen’s own political position, but the institutional ties between the king and the queen’s households enabled the queen to remain an important influence in the political arena. Furthermore, the extension of the queen’s influence and holdings did not solely benefit the queen. Rosemary Horrox has argued that Elizabeth Woodville’s networks and influence across East Anglia were so extensive that her dominance there was considered the main source of royal authority in the region. Moreover, Joanna Laynesmith has identified that when the queen was successful in administering her estates, she ultimately facilitated the king’s own administration in creating a vast spread of royal influence."

-Katia Wright, "A Dower for Life: Understanding the Dowers of England's Medieval Queens", Later Plantagenet and Wars of the Roses Consorts: Power, Influence, and Dynasty

[itissadbutitsmy-life]

you know I think probably people in ooo didn’t Suddenly start loving fionna and cake fanfics so much as they knew how much ice king wanted them to like them, and are trying to connect with simon through the thing they remember he (ice king) liked a lot. something he MADE!