Who’s in Your Writing Community? Time to Show the Love (and WIN PRIZES!)

I’m always ragging on you about writing better and producing better books, marketing your work and finding your audience and acquiring business sense. Ever wonder why I do it? (The obvious answer is that I’m a natural born nag–ask my family.) The real reason is that, YOU, all the subscribers and passersby and regular visitors, are part of my community. The strength of any community is determined by the willingness of its members to work, share and support each other in big ways AND small. The blog posts I write are one way for me to give back to the community which supports me so well.

How very nice, Jaye, but you said there are prizes.
I’m getting there.

One of the members of my community had become a very good friend. Jerrold Mundis. Aside from being a nice guy, he’s a hell of a writer. (If you happen to like antebellum and Civil War fiction, or stories about dogs, or need financial advice, read his books and you’ll think he’s a hell of a writer, too.) He’s also a writing coach and editor and money guru and former dog trainer and a long list of other interesting things. I recently formatted his book BREAK WRITER’S BLOCK NOW! for a Storybundle called the Write Stuff Bundle. Lo and behold, other members of my writing community are in the bundle, too. (Don’t know what Storybundle is? Click here and check it out.)

Along with Jerry, the writers I consider part of my writing community are:

• Chuck Wendig (profane and NSFW {mostly because of the laughing}), giving you a good kick in the backside to get you on the road to writing a novel.
• Bob Mayer with a toolkit no writer should be without.
• Laura Resnick with the inside scoop on the writing life.
• Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, partners in life and business, sharing their hard-won wisdom.

The other writers–Vonda N. McIntyre (fantasy and science fiction); J. Daniel Sawyer (audiobooks); Douglas Smith (short fiction); Judith Tarr (writing about horses); Leah Cutter (on business)–are new to me, but I suspect after I read their books, they’ll be part of my community, too.

You’re sounding like a fangirl, Jaye, or a stalker. How about them prizes?
Getting there. Back to Jerry first.

I told him I’d bought the Write Stuff Bundle and was reading it on my new iPhone. (Mostly to see if the display was good enough for my old eyes–it is–and to see what the iPhone does to formatting–not bad at all.) Jerry chastised me for buying the bundle because he wanted to give me a promo code as a gift. To which I said, oh well, too late. He asked me if I wanted to gift the bundle to anyone else.

That’s when I thought about YOU.

It would be easy enough for you to bop over to the Storybundle site and buy the Write Stuff Bundle. It’s pay what you want ($5 minimum), plus it has the additional benefit of allowing you to donate to a charity at the same time. But isn’t WINNING more fun?

Isn’t WINNING BIG even more fun?

Along with winning the story bundle with ELEVEN books by eleven writers sharing their wisdom and experience, I’m putting up an ebook format. That’s right, win the books, and win my time and experience to bring YOUR book out in digital.

It won’t be easy, though. (Always a catch, eh? ) In order to win eleven books and a digital format job from the person (me!) Lawrence Block calls his “Production Goddess”, you need to give back to the community. By that I mean for you to give the eleven writers in the Write Stuff Bundle the one thing that every writer (whether brand new or with decades of writing under their belts) needs: NOISE. Make them part of your writing community and share with others.

This is exactly what you need to do:

1. Tweet this post with the hashtag #MyWritingCommunity. Or share it on Facebook.
2. Visit the website of one (or two or all–I’ve linked to their websites) of the writers in the Write Stuff Bundle. Tweet or share on Facebook one of their posts. Remember, hashtag #MyWritingCommunity. While you’re there, if you find what they have to say interesting and valuable, sign up for their newsletter or subscribe to their blog. Check out their books, too. This is a diverse group, and you might discover a new fave or two.
3. Send an email to jayewmanus@gmail.com with “My Writing Community” in the header. If you want to tell me what you’ve done to support the community that supports you, I’d love to hear about it.

In a week, using Double-blind, Super-secret, Assuredly Scientific methods, I will select a winner and post it here.

Sound like fun? Good! Now go show the love.

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UPDATE: Through my Super Secret, Scientifically Accurate process (it involved a 22-month-old and a doll’s hat) I’ve drawn a winner! Congratulations, Shalisha! You should have your email by now and I truly hope the Write Stuff Bundle inspires you as much as it inspires me. For the rest of you, the Write Stuff Bundle is still available until June 4th.

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On the Fence About Self-Publishing? Take the Plunge!

I’ve been behind on my blogging here lately. (I have a lot of big projects in the works.) I did read a most interesting article by Bob Mayers of Cool Gus publishing . One thing he said really jumped out at me:

Ultimately, we’re a partner that works with each author as a unique entity.  As part of the very interesting survey about authors put out by DBW, one statistic was that 1/3 of traditionally published authors want to branch out to self-publishing. That struck me.  Because, if you want to do it right, you really can’t “self” publish.  The learning curve is much too steep to risk it.  That’s why most traditional writers I talk to who are considering it say they are scared.  They should be, and I say that nicely.  It’s a scary world in publishing right now, but it’s also a very lucrative one and very wide open for authors who are willing take smart, calculated risks.

I can relate. I get a lot of emails from writers who are intimidated by the process. They want to do best by their work and they want to reach the most readers. Money isn’t the only reason they are considering self-publishing. They want creative control. They have a vision and hope to reach it. But. From the outside looking in, taking a work from manuscript to finished book looks like more than just a big job, it looks unmanageable. I won’t lie. It’s a lot of hard work. It’s not unmanageable. It’s not even difficult (though a lot of hard work) I happen to think that the most important factor in self-publishing is self-CONFIDENCE.

YOU ARE THE BOSS.

Being the boss is a lot of responsibility. That’s why you need confidence. I’ll let you in on self-publishing’s Big Secret.

If you screw up, you can do it over.

Mistakes in the text? Fix them and update your listings. The cover’s not working? Redo it and update your listings. Don’t like a distributor? Pull your books. Find a new and exciting distributor? Sign up and list your books.

How’s that for a confidence booster? Mistakes aren’t fatal or expensive.

If you are on the fence about self-publishing, if you’re uncertain, or even intimidated, I suggest you look around and take a look at your team. Yes, your team. I bet you have a critique group or beta readers who’d be thrilled to help you shape your writing. I bet you know at least one other writer who has self-published so has some experience to share. Do you follow the important self-publishing blogs and indie writers? You may not know them personally, but they can still be part of your team. They have information and the willingness to share. Valuable stuff.

You can hire a production team. Fee for service, no entanglement of rights, no schemes, and you, as the boss, have full control. (Please, by all that is holy, stay away from the vanity presses disguised as “self-publishing services”) You can hire:

• Copy editors
• Book formatters
• Artists
• Cover designers
• Audio production
• Scanning & OCR conversion (for your backlist)
• Proofreaders
• Advertising
• A marketing consultant

Here’s another of self-publishing’s Big Secrets:

If you’re willing to apply yourself, you can do most of it yourself.

Sweat equity counts. Willingness to learn counts a lot.

Is self-publishing a risk? Why yes, yes it is. Traditional publishing is a risk, too. But so what? The big difference is, as The Boss, you take the big risks, you reap the big rewards. There’s nobody standing between you and your readers. That’s why you need confidence. But you know what? You can fake the self-confidence until you actually feel it. You just have to take that first step and decide to take the plunge.