Novel Afraid Of Loosing My Creative Hunger, Dont Know What To Do

If people want to nitpick me so be it. Not going to needless clutter up posts that fit 99+% of people and cases.

 

Having an interest and what actually happens are very different things. I assumed nothing except the facts of what happens in the vast majority of cases.

 

Well, I don't pay for editing or anything else, not if I'm working with a publisher. So I guess that means I'm not serious about writing. It seems strange that someone who isn't serious would have as many books published as I do, but...?

 

There are some trad pub houses that still work that way. But more and more of them are omitting any serious editing and pushing that work out to the agent who often expects the author to do the serious editing first.

Not sure when you worked with publishers. Or if you are famous and getting better treatment. But I know what I see happening in the industry. Some trad pub houses even are doing vanity press work now.

As to me, I wrote non fiction which tends to be a lot different than novel publishing.

 

I cannot speak to you or how your experience is. All I can do is state what is the vase majority of what I see happening these days.

You can be serious if you are going to seriously self publish. If you are just writing without the goal of being published then I would never call you serious. A few people, especially those with previous books and a relationship with a publisher are much more likely to get editing and other help from the pubishing house.

If you have as many books as you claim then either you send a lot of stuff to some aamazing ebook publisher or you have a trad pub that is printing you which makes you the very rare exception.

 

Definitely not famous.

This may be one of the times when the vagueness of the "trad publishing" nonsense catches up to us. There are any number of fly-by-night small publishers out there, and quite possibly some of these shadier companies aren't editing. Any clown can hang out a shingle and call themselves a publisher, after all.

But I work with reputable publishers, and they edit.

So, if we're lumping, say, Random Penguin into the same category as Uncle-Joe's-Shrimp-Shack-and-Book-Publishing and calling them both "trad" publishers, then, sure, we can say all kinds of weird stuff about "trad publishers". But if we look at reputable publishers, I think we'll find different results.

Again, all of this can be avoided by not using absolutes. Precision is useful.

 

Never said I even wanted fame. I want success. They are two totally different things. I just want to make a living of of this. Even if I have to struggle, I will do it. Because it means the world to me. I owe it to myself to try and try and try no matter what happens and everyone should, if that is their passion. I am also not going to dismiss you as just being an old fart, because A: Didn't even know your age until you decided to bring it up, and B: That would be immature.

Your bad experience doesn't define how everyone else should go about obtaining their dreams. Everyone who tries is not going to be you.

By the way, why are you talking about it like it's already too late for you to write anything? Just because it didn't work out once doesn't mean that it won't this time. You could still pick up that story and finish it can't you? Or even write something new if you have ideas. Even if you don't, have a lot of time, maybe write a little a day. A sentence or two a day if you're that strapped for time. I've done that before. Just because it's hard doesn't mean give up on something I can tell you at some point cared about a lot.

You're in your 60's roughly, correct? If anything you have more of a kick off point then I and some of us here probably do because you already work in the industry in some capacity and have experience. Wouldn't trying to rekindle that love you had for your craft be far more productive instead of coming here and basically telling me and the thread at large, "It's near impossible so you may as well just jump ship to a different career and abandon it." ?

Then if you don't want to write anymore and have given that up, that begs the question...why are you even here? To tell us how wrong and naive we are? That's it? Seems like a waste to me and very sad if you ask me.

 

Well, the "vast majority" of the population doesn't write at all. I could dismiss those who do as an anomaly, just as you dismiss those who seek to be traditionally published as an anomaly.

But it wouldn't make any more sense.

 

Well, I'm not going to say that writing isn't hard, because in my experience it totally is, but also in my experience, it's also totally doable. And you don't have to put any more money into it than you feel comfortable with. Even if all you've got is a pen and paper or a cracked out typewriter, you got this. You don't need to pay for shit if you've good skills, strong allies, and access to a public library.

 

more nitpicking

The majority of writers not people.

Sorry but I am not going to spell out every detail that is essentially irrelevant for you.

 

To me trad publishing is the big 5 (or are they down to 4 now?) that does the bulk of publishing and who all did things the same way which is what most people describe publishing as doing.

There are a large number of much smaller publishers who do things in many different ways plus the large number of wannabee vanity presses and a few very large enterprises doing VP work. Nowadays several trad pubs also have vanity divisions and use their name to suck in people who get shuffled off to the vanity press to fleece.

I was a mathematician. There is a time for accuracy and a time to speak normally in English so as to be understood easily without the clutter.

Precision is not nearly as useful as accuracy. If only politicians were as accurate as you wish my comments on publishers were. Precision would not help their lies at all.

 

The distinction between self publishing and traditional publishing is far from irrelevant. You apparently want to believe that traditional publishing is dead. But it's not dead, so your wish that it be dead is, well, irrelevant.

 

If I distinguished between, say, milk and iced tea, would you consider that to be an excess of precision? They're both beverages, after all. Cars and tractors? Both use gas. Cookies and ribeyes? Both are food.

Precision would, indeed, not help people to believe the false belief (I won't call it a lie, because lying depends on intent, and at some level you seem to believe it) that self publishing is the primary option.

 

Everybody gets to define success for themselves. Lots of people go to tinseltown to make a living with movies. Some get jobs. Many wait on tables instead. A few make it but many end up moving on when they realise they are not going to make a living at it.

My nephew tried his hand. He failed to be successful enough to make a living. He went back to school and will end up in a more normal job.

I am 78. I did work in the industry. I made a living writing. But I worked for a company as a writer. Trying to make a living as a novelist is harder than hitting the lottery these days. Now that I am retired I may or may not try to write some things but I won't care as much about the money so I have more freedom to write what I want not what somebody will buy. And I won't have to promote the work to get it sold.

My experience was not that bad except for the economy and what the internet and digital did to things. Photographers have the same problems with too many of them and too few buyers and too much competition from cheap sources because of digital. Once there was a time a pro could make a good living with stock pix. That is long gone.

Musicians have the same problem. Internet and digital made it too easy for everybody to release their music. Streaming companies make money with the salami technique. But most people never pay their expenses. A few break even. And only a handful make it big.

Same thing with writing now. F+W who prints writers digest just went bankrupt.
The writer has a circulation of about 5000. The other magazine folded some time back. There is still one going in UK which is not much use to USA writers.

The only problem that I have now is motivation. My wife died in December. I really don't have any motivation to do anything right now.
















More likely I will take up writing music aka composing. But I may start my own magazine and see what happens.

 

The number of paying magazines keeps dwindling. Rates have gone done over the past 20 years, way down counting inflation.

Making a living writing short stories is never going to happen now. The days of Hemingway and Maughm are long since gone.

ROTFLMAO those embracing micro stock are losing their shirts. A very very few may make a modest amount. Most never recover their expenses.

Mass competition is very much an issue. I have seen major corps pay 25c to use a stock photo. I have seen major newspapers use stock photos. And the editors tell writers to take their own pix with their smart phone. The in house photographers are all gone from most newspapers.

Feel free to try to be the exception. If you want to make money writing then work for a company that needs writers. The government has openings and has great benefits plus retirement you can't shake a stick at.

 

So Big Five publishers aren't doing much editing anymore?

That has not been my experience at all. But I suspect you are not interested in experiences that contradict the narrative you've accepted, so this will be my last post on the matter.

To other members reading this thread: you don't have to spend any money at all if you work with publishers, and you don't have to spend a LOT of money if you self-publish. There is no connection between spending money and being serious about your writing. Big Five publishers edit, as do other publishers. There are scam publishers out there, for sure, but the solution to that involves learning to spot scams, not believing untrue things about publishing in general. If anyone wants clarification on any of this, I'm happy to discuss further.

 

That's mostly what my income has been for the past couple of years.

Also, off topic, but what's up with your fonts? I feel like I'm reading a ransom note going through this thread.

 

Sorry I'm so late in chiming in and all I've got to say is don't worry about it. Writers write for the same reason painters paint or musicians play or half-assed arm chair physicists theorize, because that's what we do. If you've got it, don't worry about losing it. After 40-some years, my publishing credits are laughable. I once got a royalty check for twenty five cents, yet I persist. Now, I'm hoping for fame and glory posthumously. Put something up in the short story contest, it will make you feel better. I'm getting drubbed this month but it won't stop me.

 

Good luck getting a big 5 publisher. Especially one that will edit a new writers work.
Good luck find a smaller one that really edits much or well.

 

I knew photogs making big bucks from stock -- in the 1960s. Flash forward to 2000 and I do not know any. I am sure there may be a couple but the stock business does not pay enough to be bothered with it.

You are one of the very few breaking even or making a little bit with their writing efforts.
Only a handful make a real living with writing.

 

My artistic leanings tell me that times roman sucks big time and is only used because microslop made it the default in the early versions of word.

Plus it is harder to read. TR was designed to pack the most words on a page back when the times of London was printing in the 1800s and ink and paper were very expensive.

These days especially on line, there is no reason to use an obsolete subpar font.