About a year (two?) ago, Jared Folkins came into the store with a story he had started writing about a sloppy, drunken, over-the-hill space captain named: Duncan McGeary.
It was grand space opera, and I liked it quite a bit.
"Except the name," I told him. "No one would believe a name that outlandish."
Anyway, I told him he should send those three chapters to an agent, and that I bet if he finished the book at the same quality, he'd get published.
"Oh, no," he says. "That's not the way I'd do it. I would do it myself, I have it all figured out."
He told me all the technical ways he thought it would work, and how he'd go about it, and it all sounded rather cool and got me thinking....maybe so.
You know? Maybe so....
But at the time, I was still wedded to the old fashioned publishing world.
Stuck even though, at the same time, I was completely disenchanted by it.
Well, to me, the last six months have turned me completely around. I'm a believer in the online world, the connectedness. There is a community of creativity that exploding out there, while publishers are still trying to figure it out. My blog, for instance, has kept up readership.
I think Jared's right -- the old fashioned way is not the way to go.
There are going to be a whole lot of professional writers who are going to hesitate. There are going to be even more writers who won't hesitate, but don't really have the chops to pull it off. I think the time to write in the e-book world is NOW.
So when Jared offered to do for me, what he'd planned on doing for himself, I agreed.
So, if nothing else, it will be an adventure.
(And yes, I'm fully aware of the irony of owning a bookstore, and making plenty of blog entries on the importance of physical books and physical bookstores. Let's just say, I wear two hats....)
It was grand space opera, and I liked it quite a bit.
"Except the name," I told him. "No one would believe a name that outlandish."
Anyway, I told him he should send those three chapters to an agent, and that I bet if he finished the book at the same quality, he'd get published.
"Oh, no," he says. "That's not the way I'd do it. I would do it myself, I have it all figured out."
He told me all the technical ways he thought it would work, and how he'd go about it, and it all sounded rather cool and got me thinking....maybe so.
You know? Maybe so....
But at the time, I was still wedded to the old fashioned publishing world.
Stuck even though, at the same time, I was completely disenchanted by it.
Well, to me, the last six months have turned me completely around. I'm a believer in the online world, the connectedness. There is a community of creativity that exploding out there, while publishers are still trying to figure it out. My blog, for instance, has kept up readership.
I think Jared's right -- the old fashioned way is not the way to go.
There are going to be a whole lot of professional writers who are going to hesitate. There are going to be even more writers who won't hesitate, but don't really have the chops to pull it off. I think the time to write in the e-book world is NOW.
So when Jared offered to do for me, what he'd planned on doing for himself, I agreed.
So, if nothing else, it will be an adventure.
(And yes, I'm fully aware of the irony of owning a bookstore, and making plenty of blog entries on the importance of physical books and physical bookstores. Let's just say, I wear two hats....)