#indiepub

[inventingrealityediting]

Reclaim the pleasure of writing and pen the book you've always dreamed of

https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Affirmations-Collection-Positive-Messages/dp/0989672379/

[ollydee]

Hey y’all! I’ve started a writing vlog, trying to build my author brand lol

It would mean a lot if you could watch, like, subscribe, COMMENT!!! And share if you do those things cuz why not. 

[laurenevers]

Possession by Lauren Evers

"'Some say Aris appeared out of nothing the first time something bad happened. Others argue that he's older than that and was just inspired by chaos and death. Did he make himself from the concept of evil, or is he why evil exists? I don't know…'" This is my favorite book I've written! I understand, however, that it will not be for everyone. I do hope that those it is aimed towards will enjoy it. Before reading, PLEASE, mind the trigger warnings: Emotional abuse Toxic relationships Toxic friendships Mentions of death, gore, and body horror. (Keep in mind that the evil god is actually evil!) All said, here are some of my favorite quotes: “'Aren’t you something like a pet to him?'

I should be offended, but I can’t think of a better word that encompasses our relationship. Pet. It explains the sense of ownership. And does he not keep me on a leash, letting me roam, only to yank me back when I stray too far for his liking?" “'Mary is not weak!' Aris snaps. I’m a little surprised, and he hisses, Only I’m allowed to talk to you like that!" "Sometimes I can calm him down. Pet, stroke. This isn’t one of those times." "What’s the point of going on like this, as a puppet, as a toy? I thought—what did I think, that I could have control? That I could read a book and make sense of what happened to me—make up my own mind? My mind hasn’t mattered for years now."

"Before you start, know the first and most important lesson: everything has a cost. Be prepared to pay the price. Remember, you asked for this."¨

"I’ve felt pain before. Disappointment. Of course I have; everyone does. But I thought that I’d defeated it, that I’d felt so much of it at once that I was being given a break. I got arrogant singing my joy, and I didn’t hear what hummed quietly along."

“'After all I’ve done for you, he’s who you think of.'”

"I squint to spot a title: ARIS THE DEVOURER." Again, mind the warnings and please enjoy!

[allcirclesvanish]

last thought about this but 20k is so much lol. as far as fan community projects why not get some writers & artists on board to publish a zine or something? 20k seems to be the amount that really highly polished indepently published art books fundraise for when they're planning on releasing hardcover copies as well. just a thought because it seems like a better/more tangible benefit than an nyc billboard that has no chance whatsoever of sparing the show from cancellation.

[writersmethod]

sell me your book

i know how hard it is to indiepub your book

i know how it stings when all your friends tell you they’re excited to support but then no one buys a copy

i know how lonely it can be to try and pursue a dream!

reblog and pitch me your indie published novel and i’ll buy a copy + review it on amazon (or site of your choice, gonna guarantee you a 4 or 5 star rating no matter what i think) and publish a review to my website

i encourage anyone who wants to support indie artists to browse the reblogs and join me in my quest

because i want to read more books and write them off my taxes … and you deserve the love babie

[olderthannetfic]

Can I get a source or exact quote on what the author (Casey McQuiston) of Red, White, and Royal Blue said about eastern BL? Was it a tweet? I can’t find anything.

--

It's the author of Heartstopper who was a clown about Asian BL.

McQuiston's tweet that annoyed me was about debunking rumors about their book. I think their twitter is gone now, but people are welcome to go looking for the exact quote if they care. It was relatively subtle, but it's something I have a zero tolerance policy on.

They were talking about how it's New Adult rather than YA (which is fair, but also, fuck New Adult). In the process, they whined that they aren't a writer of "m/m romance" but a ~queer author of queer romance~ or some such thing. They were legitimately debunking some misunderstandings about how RW&RB was marketed, the fact that it wasn't fic, etc., but they basically called authors in the m/m romance sector not queer in the process, which just proves they know fucking nothing about who else is out there writing. Unclear whether they're just a jackass in general or whether they merely turn their nose up at the indiepub sector.

Either way, I have zero patience for little assholes who don't respect their fellow creators and fans of BL-ish stuff, both when they act like their own work is the first to ever exist and especially when they act like their writing is ownvoices and other people's is not.

Newsflash: literally nobody is going to take any of us seriously unless we're cis men, and that's why we should stick together instead of being cunty at each other.

The real reason a lot of other ~queer authors~ don't dabble in both f/f and m/m is that they need to make rent and m/m sells like ten times better. Anyone who sneers at their fellow authors of fandom-sounding m/m without grasping this is neither a professional nor a decent person.

[smallbeerpress]

Our distro's nice, fast Indiepubs site — where you can get books from 100+ indie publishers — has a ton of our books at 50% off for one week. The discount is automagically added in cart as per the screenshots below and shipping is free for orders over $40.

[abilusanji]

Not so much an ask, but you posting how you were banging your head against Obilesk the other day and getting your word count up brick by brick helped me feel less shitty about being stuck in my own WIP. It's easy to see all the other writers presenting completed work as a fait accompli and think everyone else can just Do This easy peasy, but it's simply not true. Thank you for the reminder-I made a little bit of progress. Only a few more words than yesterday, but slow progress is better than no progress. Brick by brick.

Aw, shucks dude. I'm all goofy about being able to help with that. Sometimes I express my worries with things not being thought out and folks go "but everything you write is so in depth and thought out" and like. Yeah. But part of why it looks like that is the hours I spend banging my head against the wall until I feel it sing.

And everyone has different struggles. I struggle with endings, which is pretty common amongst writers. It's something about the way it has to tie all the frayed ends into something final that stresses me brain out. Also at the beginning of the story I went "I'll solve these problems by the time I get there" and anon. Past me fucked me over so badly. I solved 90% of those problems as I went along but that last 10% is probs gonna delay the ending of obelisk by a chunk xD

Amusingly back when I was trying to indiepub I once took an entire year to solve a plot problem only to cut it afterwards. Writing is pain sometimes.

[tenshinokorin]

I certainly did when I first heard it, at a reading I was lucky to attend several years back on the Trigger Warning tour. I think of it often, and always when the demons named "how can I be a real writer when I give the majority of my work away for free (fanworks)" and "does releasing two indiepub novels in the past decade even count as a being a real writer" come around and start making a mess in my head. And I tell myself that if Neil. Goddamn. Gaiman. has imposter syndrome, then maybe imposter syndrome is bullshit.

And then I remember how Stephen King said (I'm paraphrasing) in his book On Writing that if you do your work, and someone pays you for that work, and then you take that money--however much or little--and pay your electric bill with it, then you're a professional writer. Maybe I can't full-time this gig but I've been lucky enough to pay some electric bills, literally and metaphorically. Not all of them! But not none, either.

These two things usually do the trick. And if I ever have any further questions I go back to the Instructions, and the phrase I heard Neil say at that same reading years ago and which I have never forgotten.

Trust your story.

Hi, I read that you've dealt with with impostor syndrome in the past, and I'm really struggling with that right now. I'm in a good place and my friends are going through a lot, and I'm struggling to justify my success to myself when such amazing people are unhappy. I was wondering if you have any tips to feel less like this and maybe be kinder to myself, but without hurting anyone around me. It's a big ask, I know, but any help would make my life a lot less stressful

The best help I can offer is to point you to Amy Cuddy’s book, Presence. She talks about Imposter Syndrome (and interviews me in it) and offers helpful insight.

The second best help might be in the form of an anecdote. Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things.

On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, “I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.”

And I said, “Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.”

And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did. Maybe there weren’t any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for.

(There’s a wonderful photograph of the Three Neils even if one of us was a Neal at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2012/08/neil-armstrong.html)

[ollydee]

Do YOU wanna read a gay ghost story about lonely people???? ofc get over here

PINK MILK is my debut, a short story I wrote when I was like fifteen that I took by the horns and remade into a strange length (novella? short? chapbook???) story at 30. I have it available for pre-order right now, and many more books to come this 2024. If you like Queer Speculative Romance, you are, as always, in the right place.

[gnfard]

Hi! Shilling for my own(ish) job here, but if any authors out there are looking to find indie publishers and not having much luck, I recommend checking out indiepub distribution sites. (For example) I work adjacent to Asterism Books, which currently distributes nearly 150 independent presses - which therefore don't have to go through amazon and run the risk of being absorbed. Most of these presses accept submissions from authors! Checking out non-amazon distributors is a great way to find indie publishers who suit the kind of books you write and value remaining independent.

Saw a fun little conversation on Threads but I don't have a Threads account, so I couldn't reply directly, but I sure can talk about it here!

I've been wanting to get into this for awhile, so here we go! First and foremost, I wanna say that "Emmaskies" here is really hitting the nail on the head despite having "no insider info". I don't want this post to be read as me shitting on trad pub editors or authors because that is fundamentally not what's happening.

Second, I want to say that this reply from Aaron Aceves is also spot on:

There are a lot of reviewers who think "I didn't enjoy this" means "no one edited this because if someone edited it, they would have made it something I like". As I talk about nonstop on this account, that is not a legitimate critique. However, as Aaron also mentions, rushed books are a thing that also happens.

As an author with 2 trad pub novels and 2 trad pub anthologies (all with HarperCollins, the 2nd largest trad publisher in the country), let me tell you that if you think books seem less edited lately, you are not making that up! It's true! Obviously, there are still a sizeable number of books that are being edited well, but something I was talking about before is that you can't really know that from picking it up. Unlike where you can generally tell an indie book will be poorly edited if the cover art is unprofessional or there are typoes all over the cover copy, trad is broken up into different departments, so even if editorial was too overworked to get a decent edit letter churned out, that doesn't mean marketing will be weak.

One person said that some publishers put more money into marketing than editorial and that's why this is happening, but I fundamentally disagree because many of these books that are getting rushed out are not getting a whole lot by way of marketing either! And I will say that I think most authors are afraid to admit if their book was rushed out or poorly edited because they don't want to sabotage their books, but guess what? I'm fucking shameless. Café Con Lychee was a rush job! That book was poorly edited! And it shows! Where Meet Cute Diary got 3 drafts from me and my beta readers, another 2 drafts with me and my agent, and then another 2 drafts with me and my editor, Café Con Lychee got a *single* concrete edit round with my editor after I turned in what was essentially a first draft. I had *three weeks* to rewrite the book before we went to copy edits. And the thing is, this wasn't my fault. I knew the book needed more work, but I wasn't allowed more time with it. My editor was so overworked, she was emailing me my edit letter at 1am. The publisher didn't care if the book was good, and then they were upset that its sales weren't as high at MCD's, but bffr. A book that doesn't live up to its potential is not going to sell at the same rate as one that does!

And this may sound like a fluke, but it's not. I'm not naming names because this is a deeply personal thing to share, but I have heard from *many* authors who were not happy with their second books. Not because they didn't love the story but because they felt so rushed either with their initial drafts or their edits that they didn't feel like it lived up to their potential. I also know of authors who demanded extra time because they knew their books weren't there yet only to face big backlash from their publisher or agent.

I literally cannot stress to you enough that publisher's *do not give a fuck* about how good their products are. If they can trick you into buying a poorly edited book with an AI cover that they undercut the author for, that is *better* than wasting time and money paying authors and editors to put together a quality product. And that's before we get into the blatant abuse that happens at these publishers and why there have been mass exoduses from Big 5 publishers lately.

There's also a problem where publishers do not value their experienced staff. They're laying off so many skilled, dedicated, long-term committed editors like their work never meant anything. And as someone who did freelance sensitivity reading for the Big 5, I can tell you that the way they treat freelancers is *also* abysmal. I was almost always given half the time I asked for and paid at less than *half* of my general going rate. Authors publishing out of their own pockets could afford my rate, but apparently multi-billion dollar corporations couldn't. Copy edits and proofreads are often handled by freelancers, meaning these are people who aren't familiar with the author's voice and often give feedback that doesn't account for that, plus they're not people who are gonna be as invested in the book, even before the bad payment and ridiculous timelines.

So, anyway, 1. go easy on authors and editors when you can. Most of us have 0 say in being in this position and authors who are in breech of their contract by refusing to turn in a book on time can face major legal and financial ramifications. 2. Know that this isn't in your head. If you disagree with the choices a book makes, that's probably just a disagreement, but if you feel like it had so much potential but just *didn't reach it*, that's likely because the author didn't have time to revise it or the editor didn't have time to give the sort of thorough edits it needed. 3. READ INDIE!!! Find the indie authors putting in the work the Big 5's won't do and support them! Stop counting on exploitative mega-corporations to do work they have no intention of doing.

Finally, to all my readers who read Café Con Lychee and loved it, thank you. I love y'all, and I appreciate y'all, and I really wish I'd been given the chance to give y'all the book you deserved. I hope I can make it up to you in 2025.

[lastchancevillagegreen]

This morning I was at the library investigating Demon Copperfield by Barbara Kingsolver which is a retelling of Dickens' David Copperfield except now it is set in Appalachia and involves all the modern day perils of politics and Oxycontin. Alix, the librarian who heads my Book Club, came over to where I was looking for a book. She was struggling to find it and I said, you wouldn't happen to be looking for this, would you? And sure enough that was the book she needed! I handed it over to her and told her to take it. I had no business even being at the library as I'm finishing up Tuesday's Book Club book today and I told Alix I had a box of books arriving in the post today.

Above are the dozen books that arrived in today's post. I bought them from IndiePub last week during their 55% off World Editions sale in celebration of that publishing house's fifth anniversary. I think World Editions may be my favorite press these days and went a little crazy. But every book was roughly $7 and how could I ignore the half dozen I've been anxious to read and toss in another half dozen that sound equally compelling? I've now bought way more books than I need over the past three weeks. As I said on Spoutible last night, having a huge stack of unread books doesn't prolong my life until I get them all read.

Out of this dozen I have read Pilar Quintana's The Bitch and it landed in my Top Ten Favorite Books of 2020 (which I oddly have never posted on Tumblr for whatever reason). You can see those missing stacks below.

The first photo is my Top Ten (even though there are only eight of them). That year, 2020, I named Fortunata and Jacinta by Benito Pérez Galdós as my Favorite Read of 2020. The two missing books are Flannery O'Conner's Wise Blood and Robert Kolker's harrowing non-fiction book Hidden Valley Road: Inside The Mind of An American Family about a family who had five children all with schizophrenia. The missing book in the bottom stack would be The Tenant by Roland Topor. (I believe my mother was reading that when I took these shots!) That Western compilation in the second photo is specific to the novel Shane by Jack Schaefer, which was surprisingly great.

[allcirclesvanish]

i joined the shiritori reading challenge on MAL on a lark & have slowly been whittling away at my list since then. i'm shooting for the top level, which is 60 titles, so i had to do a little prep ahead of time and like. not even going for it specifically but a ton of the titles i picked at random have lgbt characters & themes in them. across genres too like it's blowing my mind a little bit. sometimes it's obvious like umi to anata to taiyou to but i've been pleasantly surprised plenty of times now, even with older titles. can't really say i've had the same experience with western comics unless they were indiepub or webcomics.

[robertekreig]

Happy Cow Appreciation Day!

www.whitekeepbooks.com

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