First Publishing Rights (by sarah)

As some of you know I am taking part in NaNoWriMo this year (or National Novel Writing Month) and I am writing a long complicated historical cyberpunk type novel that is part of a larger story. I am putting all the plans and notes for both the full series and the specific novel on Purple Monster.

But I am also doing something which is a bit more controversial, and I've had quiet a few people being either angry or concerned about it. Firstly thankyou to the people who have endevoured to protect me from something that I may not have known about - First Publishing Rights.

What I have been doing, and what I plan to keep doing is placing novel excerpts on the blog - I am writing the whole novel straight onto the blog unless there is no internet in which case I am writing it in Text Edit. Obviously it is not a locked blog and the story is basically going out in chronological order (though only cause I have not hit a stumbling point yet where I have to jump over something I'll go back to later on!) in chunks of roughly 2000 words.

It is unedited and raw and I invite feed back and ideas as I write but what I am doing is giving away the First Publishing Rights - in me putting it out there on the blog in this way I am 'Publishing' it meaning that traditional publishers and many small Independents will not even consider publishing it when it is all finished and made smooth and shiny by editing.

So why am I doing this? Why am I apparently hobbling myself in this way?

The factors are I suppose three fold.

Firstly after having my work sat on by traditional publishing and the disheartening affect this had on me I decided I wanted control over the process and yes I know this means everything will be slower and there is no back up for marketing, but I have discovered that even in the traditional publishing arena you are now expected to do all or a lot of this yourself.

I'm not saying I'm guarenteed to become a huge success or anything like that, but this approach will give me some sort of control on how quickly I grow as well - and hopefully people will read my books not because I've been hyped in some media circus but because people like them and have told their friends.

This is a slow way to grow a fan base and I am aware that I may be damaging it by having unedited stuff out there as some people can't see past spelling mistakes, but that is the version that will be there for free so I don't see they have any room to complain. I know there's already eight people who are waiting each day for the next bit of the novel and I hope I don't disappoint them.

And here is another issue I have - I am finding it alot easier to write this novel than The Drs Wife was as it is going out instantly as blog posts. I am thinking of it in segments - it's such a large project that if I think on it as one whole great big thing I would never write it. But though I find writing for the audience/readers important I also don't want to be driven by their expectations.

And it is the expectation and deadline part of the publishing world that has also lead me to attempt things this way - why? Because, let's face it, my health is all over the place and I can't cope with stuff that has hard deadlines and meeting specific word counts because thats what your contract says is just not going to work - if I could cope with that I would be doing my science again.

And then there's the fact that this is really just an experiment - there are lots of arguments about Self Publishing versus Traditional Publishing and I am taking things a step futhur still by offering the entire novel in one form or another for free to the reader. Now obviously through Alaric's associations the authors I have been following the most have been people like Reynolds whose blog become Sweat, Blood and Tea (ambulance driver, quite funny, does a blinding impression of Holly from Red Dwarf) and Cory Doctorow (though I have to confess the only thing that I really remember about him is that he had a jacket full of zips - though I do now follow both on twitter).

Now obviously they both give stuff away for free and still they get money for their books; but they were before the curve as I term it and now there is a flooded internet and google have mucked about with how they rank blog archives which is a right pain the bum. So I thought about it and I came up with an experiment.

I wonder if self publishing by building yourself a reputation by giving away free stuff will work. I wonder if I'm likely to actually complete a novel if it is being read in serial form like Jules Vern's stuff was written?

Let's bung the whole lot on a blog including the stages of idea building and editing - do it as part of nano as that will jump start it and give me a sense of community and stop me from stalemating myself on research.

Polish it and sell e-book and self published physical books with the free unedited version up and see what happens.

Ok as an experiment it is bad - there are no controls and there is definitely more than one variable - maybe it should be seen as more of a simulation type thing - I am creating a system and seeing how it behaves.

I am also assuming that Cory and Co are not the norm as they were the spark that caused this reaction to occur.

This may seem like a stupid dangerous gamble with my precious novel that I've already put a lot of work in and indeed the whole series but I am an ideas generator - I can at the end of the day always write another of my novel ideas to sell in the traditional way if this fails - it is not designed to bring in money instantly either.

As to what I would decide if a publisher then offered me a contract I can't tell you - it would probably depend on what was in the contract to be honest!

And this leads me to my finial issue - people are very edgy about all this self publishing and the like but with companies like LULU and print on demand machines I just can't see the traditional models or systems holding up - this doesn't mean the end of the book or good quality writing at all but it does mean that perhapse a system based on the concept of needing large warehouses to store tones of books which periodically get pulped if not sold in time is maybe out moded? (not to mention environmentally damaging and wasteful of resources.)

I believe there were similar issues when the printing press was invented and everybody could just make their own newpapers.

My work is free because I stagnate otherwise - I have just crossed the 10 k word barrier and so am a 5th of the way to completing the nanowrimo challenge - I am excited about my experiment and have expanded it to my poetry on Turquoise Monster and a picture book challenge on Orange Monster - I'll cover why I've done this in another post or two 🙂

The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry (by sarah)

I've been quiet sick this week again - as in I've had several days where I couldn't function at all - today I'm a bit better though still having dizzy spells and being very very tired but I decided to create for Jean The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry.

Spoogy is the word she tends to say instead of spooky and she really likes Halloreen stuff and kept asking for stories and rhymes - so this morning I wrote the first half of a story I hope to have finished for Saturday for her it's called Hetty Peglar's Tump after a local earthworks.

Anyway I realised I wasn't going to get a chance to illistrate the story for her before then and I really wanted to do some halloween drawings for her so I thought I'd do a poetry book instead.

No I wrote all the poems today and I junked about 1 and half times what I've put in and they are well... mostly rhyming and Jean specific so I ain't going to win no great prizes with them but Jean seems to like them.

I'll be putting the poems on Turquoise Monster and how I made the book on Salaric Carft. But until then here are a few of the pages with the pictures pre-binding.

The Way I Concentrate (by sarah)

I have worked out that part of the problem with house work, bills, contracts etc... is the way I concentrate - I focus and focus deep generally on one project and even when I'm not actively doing that project I am still mentally chugging away at it.

This means that I don't always notice 'interuptions' and end up with like a pile of post and dirty dishes - this is one of the reasons I like people visiting as means I'll notice the dishes!

Now with Jean at school I've been trying a varient on my pacing methods for the pain - the 10 mins just was not working becuase I just get into something and have to change - so I experiemented to see if I could get my tolerance level up to 20 mins - most of the time this works well - though afternoons are a complete write-off with this system.

It seems to be working though - I am starting to get on top of the house work and am writing and drawing alot - being more productive than I have been for most of this year!

Basically I get Jean off to school and then pace - 20 sitting reading, writing, drawing and 20 minutes doing household or gardening stuff - I have even managed to tackle a hedgerow harvest in this way this year!

The plus side is that the house work is not mounting up and 20 mins stints at it isn't leaving me flaked in the way trying to do a solid hour of it was and because it is manual work my brain is free to mull over the next thing I'm going to write - and I have found I due generally only want to work on one project a day - maybe even for several days in a row!

This is actually a revolution for me 🙂

Of course when Jean's about pacing goes out the window but thats fine too 🙂

The Maiden’s Dream (by sarah)

I have put my poem The Maiden's Dream up on Turquoise Monster it is a rhyming one that is supposed to portray a sense of fairy tale magic.

Again Feedback would be appreciated 🙂

Desolate was the Playground (by sarah)

I awoke and me and dad got Jean ready for school - there were books to find and lunches to make and teeth to brushed and Jean's to be shouted at when they flop and make dressing them hard and so on and so forth.

It was dark when I got up and I thought - hmmm bout time those clocks change.

And we struggled our way to school.

And it was deserted the playground desolate and forlorn - empty of childs hurtling around it was a grey expanse of tarmac with a dreary fence. Where was everyone?

No cars in the staff parking - no lights in the windows - cold and empty - I look at Dad 'When do the clocks change?'

'Not yet'

'Surelly its soon?'

'Your mother didn't say anything about it and I would have expected a sign in the playground'

'Hmm well they must have changed - there's no one here'

So we come home again and I look up daylight saving and find out the clocks change this weekend - so then I'm panicking - have I missed some school trip? Were they all supposed to be at some train station somewhere or something?

No - its half term - yesturday was the last day - Mew 🙁

So then Dad's annoyed cos he could have still been sleeping and Jean's annoyed becuase she doesn't want a holiday - she wants to go to school and play with her friends!

And I ment to talk to some of the mothers about the half baked plans for them to visit during half term :/

Sigh - I just can't manage with the amount of stuff I have to remember for school - and yet I know that other people manage this stuff perfectly well :/

Fortunatly I had got in lots of craft stuff and that to do with Jean and Co during half term anyway- she is currently happily colouring a dinosaur sticker and colouring book and has a spooky ghost one waiting for her attention 🙂

I also have wooden skulls for decorating - and skull bags to sew and ghosts to glitter! I love pound shops and the like 🙂 (Plus I cut alot of the stuff out myself from my craft paper collection!)

I've got cooking activities and everything lined up for Jean but am sad to be two days shorter on sorting house out time 🙁