Wednesday 14 March 2012

I no longer have a bottom lip – I’ve chewed it off

That's right, I no longer have a bottom lip - I've chewed it off, shared it with the dog, grappled to get it back, re-affixed it, chomped down on it again...and so it goes on.
You may well be suffering the same disfigurement if you’ve been following the heated debate around Traditional Publishing v  Self-publishing or Legacy contracts v Agency contracts (personally, I’d settle for a contract whatever its name).
Hell, from what I recently read, those established ‘mid-listers’ (I’d give my upper lip to be one of them) could be under threat too. Some blame Amazon, a lot blame the ‘Big 6’ (a scary bunch who you really do not want to piss off).
Frankly I blame GMC and those MRUs played their part too. (Premise, Concept and Theme stayed on the side lines, Scenes arrived late and High-Concept was kept back in English class and so missed the Conflict).
Lost yet? That’s my point. Writing introduces you not just to a whole new vocabulary but a whole new world of war and you’ve got to flog the blogs to make sure you stay on top of things.
Or is it a ruse to keep upstart Newbies out? Who knows? Who cares?
Best advice I can give – don’t take sides, smile at absolutely everyone and never confess to not knowing what the hell is going on (because you are in fine company).
Want to know how to recognise a newbie writer? No bottom lip, that’s the dead giveaway…oh, and the overuse of brackets as demonstrated in this post.
And to think I just wanted to write…

3 comments:

  1. Ah, for me its nails. After the last fortnight, I have none.

    Long story short, I'm going against the grain of what it means to be a writer and taking a huge gamble (which means I'm considering turning down a contract). Seriously. No BS.

    I'm not even insane, or at least not clinically diagnosed! More news soon, but for now I have a lot of soul serching to do. Being a writer is hard!

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  2. Aimee - go with your instincts. Very tricksy route, the road to being published. Skip those damn potholes and just enjoy. Who needs nails, they only get in the way of typing.

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  3. I need nails, else I hit all the wrong keys lol.
    Here's the link to the blog post I was telling you about:
    http://www.entangledinromance.com/2012/03/13/a-modern-day-fairy-tale-by-jennifer-probst/
    P.S. To follow them, or any blog, just copy the link, go to your dashboard and scroll right to the bottom. There's a button called "add". Just click it, paste the link in and hit "follow". Gives you an option to follow publicly or not then hit "ok". Simples :o)

    When you follow blogs, their recent posts come up on your reading list at your dashboard. Its a good way to catch things like pitches and other info.

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