Giveaway from Extreme Reader Book Reviews

I would love to win this (http://extremereaderbookreviews.blogspot.com/2011/01/big-book-giveaway.html) and I am sure you would too. So enter. Now. Immmmediately.

Giveaway

I'd loveeeee (LOVE) to win this giveaway at http://bklc.us/2y
And since I haven't used this blog as originally intended (for the time being), I am using this blog as a way to promote an awesome contest while also giving me a better opportunity to win. I suggest you all enter as well. The contest is Ah-mazing. That is all. 

Self-Publishing, Say WHAT?

A two-fer on my first day, I could wait until tomorrow, but I won’t. Might as well post as long as I feel I have some kind of material.

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been thinking about the notion of self-publishing. Don’t get me wrong; I haven’t decided fully one way or the other, but due to some recent reading, I’ve been more willing to entertain the notion of self-publishing. (Even though seeing my book in Borders is right up there with my top 3 writing dreams…I live for the idea of book signings…)

I stumbled across J. A. Konrath’s blog where he has recently decided to change his mind about how to go about publishing one’s work. I had read his blog before when he used to say try traditional publishing first, then think about self-publishing, a notion I had already came to in my head. Now, however, he has changed positions, as he now is more hard pressed to find a reason to have publishers take the author’s money when he or she can go out and sell on Kindle, Createspace, Amazon, Lulu, or Barnes and Noble for his or herself.

Now he does a much better job of explaining his reasons behind this decision than I ever could so I’d encourage you to read the last few blog posts that he has written…Hell, if you actually read about him and his numbers, I think you’d be fascinated enough to stay for a while. So I much, much encourage you to check it out, even if you are mentally opposed to the idea of self-publishing. It’s worth a gander (and no I wouldn’t say gander in normal life…)

What shook my thought process more than Konrath alone was Amanda Hocking’s story (which can be found on her blog). She’s a YA author, which already garners my interest, and she’s a paranormal author in my same age group-ish at that (um, hello…living my life here much? Except for not really, but I digress…). Her selling numbers are impressive, and I even felt compelled to buy her “My Blood Approves” book one. She’s making it, very well, I might add, in the genre of my choice, on her own (even though she now has an agent, Steven Axelrod). Gives a girl a lot to mentally chew on.

For those of you who have heard about either of these people or have a strong opinion either way about self-publishing, I’d love to hear your thoughts so comment below! Some questions:

• Could you (potentially) give up book signings and some prestigious award considerations to self-publish?
• Is the reader being put first by self-publishing (as in they get the book faster so they benefit) or are they being given a possibly worse product without the Big Publisher edit jobs? (And yes, I do know you can hire an editor for a self-publish…)
• Would you ever self-publish? What would be the circumstances to sway you that way?

Blogging Courtship and Subject Sluttiness

 

This is the first blog I’ve ever made that I intended to keep. I already wrote a little bit about myself in the “About Me” section located at the bottom, but seeing as this is the first ever Writtled blog post, I guess I should talk about myself a little bit to start the blog off “right.”

I was worried that I wouldn’t have too much to say on this thing, but as I brainstorm ideas for what I want this blog to be, it seems like the problem is that I have too many ideas and not enough focus. I read people’s writings about “how to do a blog” and whatnot, but basically they boil down to:

• write about what you like to read;
• research blogs that you read
• and write about that subject…just differently.

Well, all I read is writing/creativity blogs: blogs about reviews of people’s writing, literary agent blogs, blogs about wannabe writers trying to make it, blogs about writers who already have made it…writing, writing, and then a little bit of writing when I’m done. Is that all I want to write about—writing? I’m not sure.

My guess is that this blog will be slightly eclectic, which is a pretty way for saying I’m not able to commit to one writing style and one succinct subject matter. I rather:

• date a few subjects without fully settling down
• put up what I feel like
• doodle a little
• dream out loud (this time with internet lurky witnesses and not just crazily in the streets)
• talk about some music
• review a few things (like books and possible ebooks which I’d love for people to send me—look at the contact page for more info or email me)
• ,and write about writing.

After I’ve let a few things woo me (and maybe you, the now fictional but soon *crosses fingers* completely real reader), I’ll commit to something, go steady with a subject officially, and have a blog baby. Hopefully I’ll gain a few friends and meet a couple goals in the mean time---and become more of a rock-star writer in the process (that’s the dreaming out loud coming through already…somehow…).

Write me, give me feedback, give me material (to review, to rant about, to praise, to puzzle over), and I will appreciate you forever…or, you know, for a while (a long one).

Many thanks in advance, and my first goal is to post often, which I hope isn’t the version of saying Macbeth out loud concerning blogging…