Tactless Tuesday Teaser

All---

I won't be starting Tactless Tuesday again officially until next week, but I thought I'd offer a little brutal honesty on a Tuesday anyway.

Here's the thing that I seem to struggle with most, and that I think a lot of others do, as well: as a writer am I an artist or a businessperson? It seems to me that a lot of us prefer to think of ourselves as artists. It's from this that arises the killer sentiment that I often find myself repeating:

"There just doesn't seem to be a place for stories like the ones I write in the publishing world."

There are a whole lot of problems with that statement, but I want to focus in one aspect of it.

When I say that, as an artist, the implication is that the problem is with the market. After all, I have my integrity to express myself; they should have the integrity to respect that. "Woah is my, no one ones to hear my voice crying from the wilderness, won't any one just give me a chance."

And there's some truth in that. If I just want to write whatever the heck I want to write, maybe show it to some friends, maybe post it on a blog, maybe even print it off at Kinkos and hand it out at the circus -- fine. That's cool. That's artsy and busting with integrity.

But as soon as I want to get published, I'm entering the business realm. I am trying to open up commercial negotiations. Asking someone to publish my story is a business proposition. "Hey, here's my time, give me your resources, you'll get money and I'll get read.

Suddenly, from a business perspective, "There's no place for stories like mine," no longer means the marketplace needs another publisher. It means I need to write different stories. Maybe one day I can earn the right, like Louis LaMour or Robert Ludlum or Piers Anthony, to publish anything I want just because I want to. But the business model has to be there.

Does this mean I need to stop writing the same kind of stories? Not necessarily. But if a certain kind of thing is pretty universally not getting picked up, it's not the wisest use of my energy and talents. And, frankly, I learned the hard way that I don't have enough energy and talents at this point in my life to be able to justify wasting them.

Until next time, keep the quills to the parchment and chisels to the clay.

.Nevets.

Writers and the Sin of Business

All---

Its pretty appropriate that as I get ready for tonight's launch of Solitude I finally get a chance to sit down and write about marketing, as I'd promised a few days back. My allergies and sinuses have been keeping me virtually braindead since late last week, and there's no immediate hope on the horizon. Springtime in Indiana. Ahhhhhhhhh. Refreshing.

So here's the deal. I'm writing this writers because I'm a writer and this is my writing blog. However, I have friends all over the creative spectra, and have dabbled in other acts of imagination myself, and I can tell you that this problem is common to all:

You are an artist.

You want to express yourself.

There's a story that just needs to be told through your particular medium.

You are guided by the muses, not by the Almighty Dollar (or the less mighty Scrip).

So far so good. The problem (if such it is) enters on the negative half of the ledger --

I don't want to take orders for mass produced stuff.

I don't want to restrict myself to one style.

I don't want to produce this, just because this sells.

I don't want to producers for others; I want to produce for myself, truth, and the greater good.

But, okay, okay. I'll even grant you that that's fine. I don't really have problem if you say all of those things, especially if you mean them. As long as you don't add (verbally or behaviorally) any of these:

I want to make a living doing this!

I want to do this full time!

I want to finally break-in!

I want to start getting some recognition for all my work.

Marketing and approaching the craft of writing like a professional business are among the tools necessary to make those last four happen. If you shun those, you're making the others a whole lot more difficult. If you want to write for yourself, or if you want to write for the story itself (whatever that means!) then you need to accept your own or the story's thanks in return, and be happy with that. If you want agents, editors, publishers, and broader audiences to also receive and appreciate your work, you need to deliver it to them effectively -- and that's exactly what you're deciding not to do when you eschew the business side of writing or of any art.

Some examples --

* Building a platform helps give you a base audience and also keeps you in touch with your future readership so that you can be attune to their responses to your work.

* Branding yourself with a genre makes your body of work a more coherent to agents and to readers alike, as well as giving yourself a direction to focus your productive energies.

* Getting your stuff out there even when you're afraid that it's not quite perfect yet, because there's this seventeenth reader that you know gives great feedback on blahblahblah gets your materials in the hands of the people who publish, which sitting in workshops does not do.

* Learning the industry not only familiarizes you with people and helps build networks and connections, but it also helps you learn the lingo and the process, so you can speak and understand the language.

Et cetera. Can you succeed without doing these or some of the other important business practices? Sure, you can. Exceptional individuals do. Not to kick you in the teeth or anything, but most of us are not (by definition) exceptional. If you don't do these things, you are making it harder on yourself.

So it's up to you -- are you doing this for self-satisfaction or because the story spiritually compels you? If so, the campfire is just fine for storytellers. Are you doing this because it's what you want to do and who you want to be? Then you need to suck it up, and act like a pro.

Michael Jordan has been able to play baseball and golf, but he branded himself as a basketball player when the time came, and that's what he built his career on, how he started to make his connections, and build his platform and his network.

And now... Solitude starts. :)

.Nevets.

All Business

All---

Haven't felt like I've been super-creative the past couple of days, but I've made some good headway on the business side of writing. There's the trailer for Solitude, of course. And I have submitted, "When You Wish Upon a God," to American Short Fiction," and have prepped "Vengeance and the Offending Page" for Ellery Queen's. I think the former has a pretty good shot, thanks in large part to a few key comments from readers (Thanks, B Nagel -- Thanks, Robert Marclar). I know the latter is a little edgier than most of what EQMM runs, but I sent to their Department of First Stories, so we shall see.

Which brings me to the other thing I've gotten accomplished. Thanks to the collaborative teaching of Casey and Heather, I have gotten a Ning group started for those who want to read and comment or critique on my stories, even if only occasionally. If you have any interest, drop me a comment or send me an e-mail at c.n.nevets(at)gmail.com. It's a private group for obvious reasons so I'll need to invite you.

I definitely appreciate quality readers. The areas I tend to appreciate help in the most are (a) consistency of tone and voice, (b) writing of action sequences, as opposed to dialoge or internals, and (c) catching those last little proof-ready things that my mind skipped over. If you're interested, just let me know! I will also be posting teasers for stories as I submit then, just to get you interested.

Well, I feel like I need to be creative for a while, that's it for tonight. Oh, wait, I did manage to write a pretty gross Flashy Fiction today.

.Nevets.