#but that is all

[bryndeavour]

apologies to the person actively looking for The Actor Who Formerly Played James Hathaway content in my blog. hes a fucking awful human being so i have gone and removed anything non-Lewis related from my past posts and reblogs.

[shadow-turtle-234]

I honestly hope that Shadow doesn't shit on Sonic in season three. Like, Shadz, your BF is emotionally distraught. You can kick his ass after you fix the world--

[nicosraf]

sorry if this has been asked before—it probably has—but what was the publishing process for abm?

It hasn’t been asked before! It’s actually kind of strange to me how the majority of my followers now weren’t here for when ABM was being queried and then me discussing how I was gonna publish it. (I’m not sure why it freaks me out; I think I was less of an author then, I was just a guy who wrote a book, and now I’m an “author” and I’m not comfy adjusting).

But basically, Angels Before Man was published through Amazon KDP (and briefly B&N Press but that’s an unresolved long story); it went through a line editor and proofreader that I hired first, and then I paid a cover artist, bought formatting software (Vellum), and posted it. That was it. I did it all pretty quickly too. Not in a sloppy way; indie publishing just goes a million times faster because there’s less people to wait on, and there’s pressure to get things done quickly.

Before self-publishing though, I was querying (sending an email or application with a pitch letter and the first couple chapters of the manuscript) to literary agents with the hopes of getting it traditionally published. During that, I got mostly rejections, but some interested agents and requests for the full book. I joined writing twitter and started posting about ABM and it got quite a bit of attention on there (this will be relevant). I started to get really disillusioned with traditional publishing though; if you want to know why, you can pick up Yellowface by RF Kuang or just spend more than 3 minutes on writing twitter. I realized that ABM, even if it got picked up, would probably get censored, and that I had heavily self-censored myself to try and appeal to agent and editor sensitivities. I was worried it would take several years for ABM to ever get on a bookshelf. There was a lot of talk about debuts not finding their book stocked anywhere, and I realized that ABM might never end up on a bookshelf at all. Authors are being asked to do their own promotion these days; big publishers just say “go viral on Booktok” and throw them to the wolves. I worried about my anonymity.

And maybe this is a stereotypical reason but ABM is very personal, and I knew that it would become an impersonal product the moment I handed it away. I started imagining the marketing they’d do, the things they’d make me say, the cuts they’d make me write. And it’s not that I think I’m a perfect writer who refuses to edit, (I like working with editors), but that I feared they’d turn the book into something else altogether - a husk of itself. So I decided I didn’t want to have a “professional, real, traditional book” and I emailed the agents who had ABM that I would no longer be considering traditional publishing. At this point, I had three options: forget about publishing ABM at all, post ABM on archiveofourown/Wattpad/etc for free, or put in the work and make it an indie book.

I couldn’t forget ABM, because the story wasn’t really over to me (the sequels) but more importantly because people on Twitter and friends wanted it. I considered posting it online for free somewhere, but I had written ABM to be a book. I wanted to see it properly formatted and bound with a pretty cover. I had acquaintances who self-published successfully (Freydis Moon, Kellen Graves), and so I decided to give it a (terrified) shot.

I made a lot of mistakes though. (Distribution for ABM has been a nightmare). I remember in a previous post, I gave the advice that, if you’re interested in self-publishing, you should look into D2D and I stand by that. I’m available for any very specific questions you have! I still love indie publishing and heavily dislike traditional and I love supporting indie authors. Reach out if you need any help with anything!

The publishing process isn’t really over for ABM, of course, given… developments but right now nothing is for sure. (Will ABM get picked up by traditional publishers? Maybe. But maybe not). But this is how things have worked out. Again, let me know if you have any specific questions!! I’m always happy to help.

[majorbaby]

questions i have about fx’s the bear:

- what’s up with fak’s big, gay (requited?) crush on richie? or else, what are they? weird exes? had a one night stand consisting of mutual masturbation only?

- are marcus and his designer roommate a couple or fwb or just two gay guys living together?

[gender-luster]

who is this jerma and why are the transsexuals in my phone so entranced by him

[bodiesinourcellar]

Now WHERE is the arsenic and old lace performance where boris karloff is one of the aunties >:((( there should have been one that should have been a thing that exists

[owlfacenightkit]

I AM HAVING OC THOUGHTS AGAIN

[sadclowncentral]

the city where we live doesn't allow public barbecues so my brother fucking welded a grill to a handcart and now hosts "chill and grill sessions" where he sends all his friends his live location so they can hunt him down on their bikes with sausages in their backpacks while he carts it around evading the police like some sort of barbecue vigilante, grilling on the run. i have never been prouder of him

[mossmittens]

[willinghands]

i think r/BenignExistence is my favorite subreddit 🥲 i love these pleasant little glimpses into strangers' lives

[thenameisgul]

[marisatomay]

This Pride I hope that all of you never ever forget that no amount of sanitizing your sex life or sanding down of your LGBT edges will make bigots accept you. So, don’t debase yourself by capitulating an inch to them, especially in ways that throw your fellow community members under the bus.

[icedhotcocoa]

okay guys but in all seriousness the trump attempted assassination is going to rally the right like crazy. voter turnout will be going up. it is more crucial than ever that you SHOW UP AND VOTE IN THIS YEARS PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

[arson-jellyfish69]

AI disturbance overlays for those who don't have Ibis paint premium. found them on tiktok

[forystr]

ALL EYES ON RAFAH. WE WILL NOT FORGIVE. WE WILL NOT FORGET.

This design is free to redistribute and repost. Download here.

[riacte]

not romantic not platonic but a secret third thing [what would happen between earth and the moon if the earth stopped spinning as illustrated by xkcd randall munroe]