Back in the Saddle Again

 

It's another meeting of the IWSG - 

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts for the August 6 posting of the IWSG are Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Natalie Aguirre, Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen, and Olga Godim!

Hi dear insecure writers of all types and makes,

I was gone for the last two months. Well, no, I wasn't gone, but I wasn't in my usual mind (which is, come to think of it, pretty unusual). So I didn't post in June or July. I continued to edit and revise Butter and Snow, but a lot of things I just didn't do. Sometimes I wish it was Victorian times so I could wear mourning clothes and so on - I wish there was a way that people could know that I'm grieving without me banging on about it all the time. It has been six months since my best pal of 48 years died, and three months since one of my other closest friends died. Sometimes I feel very ordinary, okay even, enjoying my garden and the hummingbirds and hanging out with other also grieving pals. Sometimes I feel truly crazy, like I have no regulator on my emotions and have to stay home for awhile. On the whole though, I think I'm coming out of the worst of it.

August 6 question - What is the most unethical practice in the publishing industry?

This month's question is well worth looking at. Let's take it apart and see what we find. 

First up the word unethical - Meriam Webster says it means 'not conforming to a high moral standard: morally wrong: not ethical - illegal and unethical business practices and immoral and unethical behaviour.

Okay . . . now let's look at the publishing industry :

Wikipedia says : Publishing is the process of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free .

Encyclopedia. com adds :The publishing business often operates under the tension of highly divergent interests. An author's creative works or specialized knowledge may not meet the market values of profit, popularity, and standardization.

It is quite interesting that if you google the publishing industry (and try if you are me to ignore the stuff generated by AI) you often see articles pointed at writers being unethical. The unethical practices about the industry highlighted are those to do with vanity presses and so forth. I feel like the small scale unethical practices can be incrementally more harmful to the average writer, just trying to get his or her work out there. In Canada some publishers who debut authors get grants, which may keep the company looking for fresh writers rather than building a stable of writers that produce more than one work. I also find it unethical for publishers to make a contract for a work and then come up short on their part of the deal. If I'm expected to do all the promoting, and set up tours and talks, as well as constantly monitoring the distribution of the book, well then I think I'd rather self-publish. I can sell the same amount of books as my first publisher did and after paying my editor, book designer, printer and possibly a  distributor of my choosing, I will still make more per book by a hefty amount than I did with that arrangement. The practices I'm talking about aren't illegal but they are certainly not conforming to a high moral standard. Of course I'm sad that young (or old) new authors may get scammed by vampire presses pretending to offer what they can't, but let's face it, most writers are so thrilled that someone will offer them a deal that they don't read the fine print. I had a heck of a battle getting my rights back on my first book - something I had to do in order to bother trying to sell a second in a series. And to what end? The publisher wasn't trying to sell my books so why care if I own the rights? I know everyone is suffering under a radically shifting industry, and believe me, my eyes are open wide, but when did it become okay to become deceitful and dishonest? Maybe I'm deluded but I do think it is important to protect the works of writers - they existed long before publishers did, and their work is the lifeblood of the publishers. Maybe AI will take over and publishers won't need us pesky whiny types. And before I get slammed, I do believe that it is just a few that tarnish the whole industry. I know lots of ethical, hard-working fair publishers. The other ones make it doubly hard for them to make a living. Let's clean up this industry!

I didn't think I had anything to say on this topic. Yikes!

May, mayhem and the IWSG

 Here it is! The first Wednesday in May! 

Callooh callay oh frabjous day!

It is the monthly meeting of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group  

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The co-hosts for the May 7 posting of the IWSG are Feather Stone, Janet Alcorn, Rebecca Douglass, Jemima Pett, and Pat Garcia!

May 7 question - Some common fears writers share are rejection, failure, success, and lack of talent or ability. What are your greatest fears as a writer? How do you manage them?

I've experienced rejection, failure, and success. I don't really believe in talent and my ability increases the more I exercise it. I've survived the first three so I know I can again. Rejection is an important hurdle. It makes me stronger and I have (mostly) overcome believing it is personal. Failure means that I tried. Success is something I do not take anyone else's measure of it. In Buddhist teachings they talk of the Eight Worldly Concerns. They are a group of things we get preoccupied by that lead to suffering. They are: gain, loss, fame, disgrace, praise, blame, pleasure and pain. So hankering after success is a preoccupation I try (not always with great facility unfortunately) to avoid.

No, my greatest fear is being irrelevant with my writing.  If I start pandering to imaginary readers or playing it safe I will feel terrible.  It's too hard to write to waste my time. And I'm not talking about genres or literary fiction or so-called important writing. If I help someone escape for a few hours or amuse them, that's fine. But to write things I don't care about. Ugh. I think it is as hard work to write material that is of no meaning to the writer as to write the most complex and well-crafted piece precisely because your passion cannot carry you through the difficult time that absolutely will happen at some point in the writing. 

What are your greatest fears fellow writers?

IWSG and the falsity of safe places

 It is the first Wednesday of the month and so that means another meeting of the IWSG or for anyone new (is there really ever anybody new?) the Insecure Writers Support Group, where those of us who use pen and keyboard gather to laugh and cry about the whole thing. If you are interested here is a link to the signup page - IWSG

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

The awesome co-hosts for the April 2 posting of the IWSG are Jennifer Lane, L Diane Wolfe, Jenni Enzor, and Natalie Aguirre!

This month's question is 

What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with?

This question is a tough one. I think most of the characters in fiction are fantasy characters but I'm willing to play the game. So . . . I'd like to hang out with Robin Hood and his merry band. I'd like to help him figure out ways to outwit the greedy men led by Prince John and the Sherriff of Nottingham, who have taken advantage of King Richard being away on a pilgrimage to plunder the land. I'd like to live in the forest with people who understand that it is better to fight for what is right than submit to tyranny. And let us not forget his band is merry! Why are they merry? Because they are not pretending that nothing is happening - they are taking action. And they balance out their righteous quest with eating and drinking and playing music in a beautiful sylvan place. Also, I've also wanted to learn how to use a bow and arrow. I'm a Sagittarius after all.

painting by Newel Convers Wyeth

WARNING! - the following is an opinion on so-called safe places and is not under the banner of the IWSG

 I was conflicted writing this piece. Why? Because the IWSG has cautioned us to make sure our writing under their banner is about writing and not about the world burning down etc. . . Why is writing about fantasy characters okay then? What has that to do with the practice of writing? Reading yes, writing no. Don't get me wrong please. I love the IWSG - been a part of it from the beginning, but I'm most recently allergic to the notion that talking about what is happening in the world, even in a non-partisan way is unsafe. As a psychotherapist who has dealt with many people who suffer from PTSD I can tell you what feels unsafe to me - people pretending nothing is happening when something clearly is. Also, I write about what is affecting me - whether it is in my poetry, my essays or my fiction. My fiction is about issues like the environment, indigenous oppression, human trafficking and so on. These are directly related to what I'm sensing and reacting to in my environment. So, I may be cautioned to stick to some lane or another, but I'm afraid that, like Robin Hood, the Doctor, Bilbo Baggins, Harry Potter and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I will not.

 

Why I missed last month's meeting of the IWSG

It is the third meeting of the IWSG today. I missed the second. I really try and not miss any meetings because they are essential to my health, but my life ripped apart in January and it is slow mending. I didn't even realize I missed it for a couple of weeks. My best pal of 48 years died. It wasn't unsuspected. She'd had Alzheimer's for years, so in effect I'd lost her a long while back, but you know grief doesn't seem to care about that. I get to mourn the old her now, properly, and the weird sweet human she'd become too. 

To answer this month's question, if I could be anything for a day I'd like to be a merlin. I would like to fly, to hunt, to see the world from above. A few years ago I had a nesting pair of merlins (Earl and Pearl) in my yard, with their three kids (Hewie, Dewie and Lewie) and I was enthralled with them. I think I could learn much with a day in their wings. Then I'd come back to my own aged body and write about it. Okay? How about you?

a new year!

 It's the first session of the IWSG in 2025!

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG.

The awesome co-hosts for the January 8 posting of the IWSG are Rebecca Douglass, Beth Camp, Liza @ Middle Passages, and Natalie @ Literary Rambles!

January 8 question - Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?

Yes, I admired Jo March from Little Women. Before you all write to tell me she wasn't a real person, I know that and I knew it then, but why be a writer if not to have your fictional characters influence others? I liked Jo because she didn't care for the trappings of being a girl and neither did I; she loved telling stories and so do I; and she kept on until she attained her goal and so did I. My opinion of her has not changed since I've grown up. Or perhaps I haven't grown up yet.

I will say there was a trap that I know Louisa May Alcott did not intend when writing the book - and that was the trap of the romance of writing and having a book published. It has been two and a half years since my first book was published and I decided this holiday that the second book in my series (which is finished) is going to be self-published. The publishing world isn't the same as it was in Alcott's time, or indeed in my twenties, thirties, forties or even fifties. I would love to meet my publisher at the round table at the Algonquin Hotel in NYC for a nice long martini and a few cigarettes while we discuss next steps but that is not to be. Instead, this week, I've secured an editor (one who worked on The Crooked Knife), a book designer, and a plan to get Butter and Snow published by the summer. I did most of the publicizing of CK and it was during the last months of the pandemic so think I did a pretty good job. Part of that was not as ambitious as I will be this time as I politely waited for the publisher to step in. They didn't. Now I will have a plan that will suit me and I won't need to run any of it by anyone else. I am worried about distribution but I have a friend who publishes a select number of books mostly on history and architecture, who has promised to help me with that and securing a good print deal. And I have so much help online - especially with all the articles my friend, Elizabeth Spann Craig of Mystery Writing is Murder has penned. I'm excited to do this and while I'm under no delusion about the work involved, I'm also less enthralled with the traditional publishing path. Why not give a try to both? After all, I'm in my seventies - the perfect age to take risks.

And to quote Jo March:  If I were a girl in a book, this would all be so easy.