Traditional Publishing Is My Bitch! **FREE**

[Mike Cooley]

This is just a short rant about why I self-publish, with some helpful hints at the end.

Traditional Publishing Is My Bitch! on Amazon

Traditional Publishing Is My Bitch! on Smashwords


Thanks for the time.
--Mike

[SmokeAndMirrors]

Great essay! As a young writer who hasn't yet had to deal with the publishing industry and would prefer to never do it at all, it's inspiring to see your middle finger raised high to the powers that be.

I'm also very curious of your Twilight spoof and I think I'll be checking that out. I need a good laugh at Pretty Boy Edward's expense.

I'm wondering if I can pick your brain a bit. If not, feel free to ignore the rest of this post.

I saw in your Tips that you recommend Scrivener. How much is this going to help for a no-outline, "WE'LL DO IT LIVE!" sort of writer like myself?

When I'm doing creative writing, I like writing in Text Editor (WordPad for Linux) or, for the ultimate spartan experience, FocusWriter. FocusWriter is even more feature-barren than WordPad, but in addition to that basically makes the rest of your desktop inaccessible - it's full-screen by default and you can't minimize it. The only way to get rid of it is to actually close the program.

I like these approaches because it limits my temptation to find a distraction, either by deciding I need to check my email for the 8 millionth time, or deciding I need to screw around with the doc settings because "something's not quite right." If I can't get to my desktop, and there are no settings, problem solved!

I don't seem to have any problem task-switching when I'm writing articles - I could have 2 browsers, my notepad, Libre Office, and the main website all open at once and still bang out a thousand decidedly good words in under an hour. But for some reason, not when I'm writing creatively.

But at the same time, for longer projects, which I am trying to cut my teeth on, the straight-through, no outline, start-to-finish approach is really not ideal. So I'm trying to find some organization method that is useful enough for me to do as much as I can in one place, but also not distracting. My fear is needing to open multiple docs or browsers. As soon as I start doing that, I might as well call it a day. But I need some sort of system.

I'd like to know your thoughts.

[Mike Cooley]

Originally Posted by SmokeAndMirrors

Great essay! As a young writer who hasn't yet had to deal with the publishing industry and would prefer to never do it at all, it's inspiring to see your middle finger raised high to the powers that be.

I'm also very curious of your Twilight spoof and I think I'll be checking that out. I need a good laugh at Pretty Boy Edward's expense.

I'm wondering if I can pick your brain a bit. If not, feel free to ignore the rest of this post.

I saw in your Tips that you recommend Scrivener. How much is this going to help for a no-outline, "WE'LL DO IT LIVE!" sort of writer like myself?

When I'm doing creative writing, I like writing in Text Editor (WordPad for Linux) or, for the ultimate spartan experience, FocusWriter. FocusWriter is even more feature-barren than WordPad, but in addition to that basically makes the rest of your desktop inaccessible - it's full-screen by default and you can't minimize it. The only way to get rid of it is to actually close the program.

I like these approaches because it limits my temptation to find a distraction, either by deciding I need to check my email for the 8 millionth time, or deciding I need to screw around with the doc settings because "something's not quite right." If I can't get to my desktop, and there are no settings, problem solved!

I don't seem to have any problem task-switching when I'm writing articles - I could have 2 browsers, my notepad, Libre Office, and the main website all open at once and still bang out a thousand decidedly good words in under an hour. But for some reason, not when I'm writing creatively.

But at the same time, for longer projects, which I am trying to cut my teeth on, the straight-through, no outline, start-to-finish approach is really not ideal. So I'm trying to find some organization method that is useful enough for me to do as much as I can in one place, but also not distracting. My fear is needing to open multiple docs or browsers. As soon as I start doing that, I might as well call it a day. But I need some sort of system.

I'd like to know your thoughts.

Glad you liked it!

I'm pretty much a "just write" sort of a writer too. I find that Scrivener helps me a lot because it lets me keep all my notes and maps in one place. And it has a 3x5 corkboard view for doing real simple chapter outlines.

I'm primarily a short-story writer, so without Scrivener I had a real hard time
keeping my novel organized. The thing about Scrivener is you don't really worry about formatting the document while you are writing (except for scene breaks and chapter breaks). Then when you are ready to generate a manuscript you "compile" it to a variety of formats.

I "compile" out to ePub format and then use Calibre to convert that to MOBI so I can proofread it on my Kindle.

Then I can take the same Scrivener file and "compile" it to DOC format and
then adjust that so it fits Smashwords format guidelines.

It's not for everyone, but it really works great for me. And it's pretty cheap.

I've been using it for 3 years now (the Mac version). I think the Windows
version is out too.


Promotional material deleted - MODERATOR]

--Mike

[Mike Cooley]

It's been awhile so I think it's legal for me to say:

It's currently #11 in its category on Amazon!




Thanks to everyone that checked it out. Y'all are wonderful.

Mike