alg | (no subject)

Good morning! I have been awake since six am, and wow! It is a beautiful day. I have the windows open, and there is a wonderful cold breeze blowing in. My bedroom window faces Manhattan, which means it faces the water, even though I can't see the water, and I get wonderful breezes -- although when it's freezing outside and the wind chill is, like, negative seventy-million, it's not so much fun.

(All I want this morning is a cup of coffee and a Danish. Wow, how bad do I want a Danish? Pretty badly. Instead I had a crescent roll. Not quite as good, but what's a girl to do?)

I want to thank again everyone who provided me with links and stories on Monday -- that was awfully nice of you guys and I really appreciate it! I am well on my way to recovering (especially now that my dentist has called in a new prescription for me, and I have much stronger painkillers, phew).

Now that I can focus for longer than 500 words, I am ready to write more about demystifying publishing.

I am really glad that these entries are helping y'all. And I am flattered that so many people are reading them -- I know I tend to be pedantic and long-winded, so it's amazing to me that you guys can get through these entries. *g*

I do want to remind you that these answers are by no means universal. Remember the first rule: Don't be an idiot.

Publishing is Hard!

Writing is an art, but publishing is a business -- and here are a few basic suggestions on how to navigate that business. Complete with explanations of various departments within a publishing company, and how they all work together to make your book. And, of course, my witty and charming commentary!

Thanks for reading; I hope this has helped at least some of you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This is fantastic. Thank you so much.

And thanks for talking about how hard production works. I work in the analogue of production for a printer (we do banking products, it's really nothing like publishing in most respects) and I can so relate.

Re literary writers' organizations, some states have state-wide organizations. Sometimes they are helpful and sometimes not. I've heard really good things about the New Hampshire Writers' Project for example (have no direct experience with them). So that's another option for the lit types. Because I could, I retained my membership in the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia when I moved to the U.S. So people who live in states that have no organization might be able to glom onto the one in the state they were born or something; it's worth asking.

I knew that there were things like the Willamette Writers and stuff like that; I didn't realize most states had them. Thank you so much for pointing that out -- I've linked to it in my post.