Back to work, I hope

Russ has been back in New York for several days. I'm having trouble getting back into any routine, and I'm still not quite working well, but I'll get there. I'm running out of time! NaNo is coming! And I have two unfinished outlines! ACK!

I've taken a little time from Water/Stone/Light to work on The Wrath of Bunny Hopper. This is a faster story to outline (relatively speaking -- even it is fighting me!) and this way I'll be sure to have at least one of them done. Water/Stone/Light takes far more work because of building the entire world and it requires that I focus completely on it. Bunny is a light-hearted urban fantasy and with the help of some people in the Forward Motion Chat the other night (Personally, I think we were all up way too late!) I figured out the structure of the bad guys she's facing. Today, as I was waking up, I got the last link of how the trouble started. So all is good there, except for the actual outline.

I'm not certain why I'm not clicking on the work yet, but I'm sure I'll get there. Just have to make certain I get there before November 1!

And in other news, I screwed up and didn't get either Ada Nish Pura or Summer Storm up on Amazon yet. Just way too much going on, and it skipped right past me. I'll be doing that this weekend. I don't know how I managed to miss them both.

Someone had posted a link to one of Konrath's posts earlier on Twitter. I didn't notice it is an older post and made a quick answer. The post was 'Same Tired Arguments'


This was my answer:

The biggest problem I have with both sides is often an 'either/or' sort of attitude. You are trying different things to see what works. You have that opportunity because you are in control. This has nothing to do with being a hypocrite. It's being wise and taking advantage of your ability to see what works because it is in your hands. Adaptation to change is one of humanities greatest abilities and we can see it even in this. None of us are 'hidebound' (so to speak) and must continue in one way when something new comes along.

And for all we know, everything could change again next month.

A few years ago, I was still in the 'no, don't self-publish' realm as well. Several of my published friends (Holly Lisle, C.J. Cherryh, Jane Fancher among others) finally brought me out of the dark ages. In the few months I've actually been part of the Indie revolution, I've sold more than I ever did in my few print publications -- and that without a huge amount of marketing because I'm still stumbling around on that part.

I own Forward Motion for Writers; this year we have an Indie section. I publish Vision: A Resource for Writers and this year it has an Indi area as well. I have a small company of associated Indi authors which will soon have more than just my work out. (Mine to start with because I am prolific and we could experiment with some of my material.) We have our own editor.

But that doesn't mean I won't send something to a traditional publisher if I think it's a good idea. Granted, I know to watch those contracts.

No one is required to become an independent author. I have other friends who are very happy where they are in the traditionally published world and others whose dream is to see their book on a shelf in a store. (Let's hope the stores survive.) I love print and ebook. I read some of both almost every day. I will not give up my print books. But I won't give up my ebooks, either.

Right now, at least, it's not an either/or world in any sense. Embrace it all. This is the most exciting time to be an author since the invention of the printing press.

So I am basically in the 'do whatever you want camp -- but do it well.' And stop complaining about what others are doing. If you don't like ebook readers, don't get one. You're needlessly limiting yourself, but that's your choice.