The Druid Grove

Hi,

I'm still nosing around for writing fellowship and support. Is there anyone else out there publishing?

TC

I am not publishing right now, though I have enough ideas to keep myself occupied for some time (if time were in better supply, that is).

What do you have in mind?

Jeffrey

For myself it's probably more accurate to say I'm writing rather than publishing. Writing is what I do - publishing is a possible goal or outcome of writing but there are others. I write for the many workshops I offer, and I write because I must.

There are several published authors on the list.

What are you looking for?

BB
Donata

I have two novels in print:
The Apple and the Thorn co-written with Emma Restall Orr and published by Thoth in the UK, and

Tales of Avalon, self-published through Amazon using their Createspace program.

So far I've made far more money, but with fewer book sales, through the self-publishing route.

Also in print through the Amazon route are two books of poetry:

The Promise of all Living: Songs of the Hills and Isles, which includes poetry written on Iona, and
Ukraina: Songs of a Beloved Land, written during my trip to Ukraine.

and finally, a Masonic devotional titled The Beauty and Glory of the Day.

All are available at http://www.amazon.com and http://www.bn.com (Barnes & Noble)

Hi Oak,

I have one book self published - see sig - and about two or three I'm working on. I'm not sure if I'm consolidating two of them into one book or not but probably.

I have a series of workshops locally which will add to my books. One is on Sacred Energy Within and the other is tentatively titled Coyote Tales, based on personal journeys with Coyote as my guide.

BB
Donata

Greetings!

Thanks for chiming in.

I love writing, I've been doing it all my life, but getting into Nanowrimo helped me put together 1 complete and 2 nearly complete novels.

Now I'd like to publish, but the industry is changing all the time and it's hard to get anyone to look at my stuff.

I know you need to collect like 900 rejections before you get an acceptance, but I'm just not that young.

I have been seriously considering Create Space, but right now there are two things challenging me. 1 is simple: the cover. I have no idea how to achieve something worthwhile there. And, btw, nice covers!

The second is not so simple. The novel I have finished is long. Really long, and even my devoted and picky friends, who love this book, think that the beginning drags a little bit. But no one has been able to offer me any direction for cutting it down. Everyone who has read it says that it's all necessary.

I'm pretty sure a more objective person.... like a publisher or an editor or an agent would have some brutally honest suggestions to make it "publishable" and that's what makes that route handy.

So, I'm balking a little. But in the meanwhile I'm reading it through more carefully again, because I think I'll do the createspace route and I need to make sure it's as ready as it can be.

Peace of the green woods to you,

TC

Donata ~ It's great fun, isn't it? Okay, I just ordered a copy of The Medicine Wheel from Amazon!
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And to Tuar_Ceatha ~ Createspace is really easy to use. And while I have not sold as many copies through them yet as through my publisher (Thoth), I have already made much more money, because the royalties are much higher. I started out using their Cover Creator when I first published Marsh Tales and Other Wonders. When I decided to republish that book as Tales of Avalon, I got the artist who did the Apple and the Thorn cover to do a cover for me, which I then uploaded to Cover Creator.
How long is your book? If you'd like me to read it and make editorial suggestions, I'd be happy to.
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Blessings,
Bill

Thanks for the order Bill! If you'd like to post a positive review I'd appreciate it.

Current book is too disorganized for you to read, but thanks for the offer.I may take you up on it later!
Same offer for you, if you wish.

Keep writing!
Donata

Wow, Bill, that's great. My book is thunderously long. Likely excessive. Nearly 140K words.

I would be happy to send you my troublesome first two chapters as a "toe in the water" for two reasons, one, you'd have an idea of where I'm going; two, as I mentioned it's the part that seems to "flow" the least.

Also I did make a post of some of my other unfinished writing and haven't gotten any comments or feedback on that.

A little feedback would go a long way.

I am currently 2/3 of the way through my re-read of the novel that is 140K words and headed for the finish line. Thinking about createspace.

I really appreciate your input.

TC

Hi TC

If you want another objective 'editor' I'd also be happy to read your chapters and offer my feedback.

Let me know and I'll send you my email address.

BB
Donata

Tuar_Ceatha wrote:Wow, Bill, that's great. My book is thunderously long. Likely excessive. Nearly 140K words.
I would be happy to send you my troublesome first two chapters as a "toe in the water" for two reasons, one, you'd have an idea of where I'm going; two, as I mentioned it's the part that seems to "flow" the least.
I really appreciate your input.
TC

Would love to read your first two chapters - send them to william.melnyk@verizon.net

Blessings,
Bill

I'm not published but I've been contemplating it longer than I should do. I've got plenty of poems and philosophical writings. Also have had a desire to write a story or two.

I should really get it done some time

I've been trying to get a children's book I've written published. Collecting the rejections notices and trying to not get discouraged.

Other than that, lots of writing and thinking of new story lines. I've started blogging as a way to try and get more writing practice so I can grow. I've spent the last 4 years doing business style writing for my work and it is so dry-I am re-learning how to add color to my words to make the stories fun and interesting.

Huge changes have been taking place in the publishing industry, and all in the author's favour. Up until around two years ago, self-publishing had been considered as the last resort for people whose work wasn't good enough for a "proper" publisher. However, as any writer trying to get a toe in the door will soon find, the reality is far more complicated than that, as traditional publishing houses only take on a small number of new names in a year. This leaves a lot of talented, commercially viable works sat on shelves.

Then along came ebooks! Anyone can now easily upload a Word file into Amazon Kindle's and Smashwords's conversion tools, and so produce an ebook for free. You still have to do most of the promotion yourself, but that's exactly the same as with a traditional publishing contract. You also need to be aware that publishing material which is of poor quality could lose you readers permanently. You can hire editors and cover designers if you choose to, or you can do it yourself. An amateur-looking product won't attract attention, though.

Late last year, I finally gave up expending time on writing submission letters to anthologies, agents, publishers etc., and instead used that time to create some ebooks. Now I've one novel, a short story collection, a stand-alone short story, and two poetry collections available as ebooks - and yes, they are selling. I've been traditionally published before, as a freelance non-fiction writer, a fiction writer and a poet. Already I've earned more by self-publishing than I have in the last five years.

So, to cut to the point, I'd advise any writer to stop procrastinating and self-publish.

I haven't been published yet. I have written a full length novel called Brander, which is the first book in a planned series called The Chronicles of Fairie, or the Fairie Realm Chronicles.... I'm not sure which one sounds better.

I received mostly rejection letters, but one publishing company in England suggested that I rewrite it using 3rd person POV. My Omniscient POV was confusing to them and they couldn't connnect with the characters as easily for my jumping around so much.

That was 4 years ago. I've been reading more novels, since then, and paying close attention to the POV of my favorite authors and seeing what works and what doesn't. One of these days, I will rewrite it and try to submit again, but genealogy is taking most of my time now. I was recently published by a British Genealogy Journal and I just submitted another one for the Ohio Genealogical Society in the US.

If after the rewrite, I still can't get published, then I will look into self-publishing like Lulu.com or Barnes & Nobles, PubIt.

Hi Twyrch,

Hang in there. It sounds like you're doing everything right. It's nice that you have taken a thoughtful approach, pulled back, looked at other, similar works and are willing to move ahead in a different way if need be. It sounds like you have the patience, curiosity and determination to stick with your writing.

Since I posted on this thread, so long ago, I did go ahead and publish through Create Space. It has been very satisfying to me. Granted I've probably only sold about two dozen books, but I'm a total unknown, so that is just fine.

I, too, think that the changes in the publishing industry will be for the better. We need a diversity of voices and I look forward to hearing more stories coming out of the forest of the bards.

Blessings and peace,

Tuar Ceatha

I'm looking into the self-publishing approach. As I said above I have several things I'd like to publish like novels, poetry and even articles.

From what I see a lot of people have used Amazon. I've been looking at Instant Publisher too. There's a list of self-publishing here, which I'm going through.

Now I've got broad band it all makes doing this through the Internet so much easier.

From what I see most publishing is done by submitting a Pdf, but I have no idea how to use a pdf, except reading it. Any one got any tips about that?

treegod wrote:From what I see most publishing is done by submitting a Pdf, but I have no idea how to use a pdf, except reading it. Any one got any tips about that?

Without knowing your system, I can't give specific advice, but OpenOffice (as well as LibreOffice) can export directly to PDF and most Linux systems will have PDF as a printing option.

If you use a Windows PC, Cute PDF - http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp - is a program I used to use. It installs itself as a printer; you choose CutePDF as your printer and then hit print, then it creates a PDF file which you can save wherever you want.

I'm a book designer, so if anyone needs help getting their book into a ready state for e-publishing or publishing for print, please, send me a PM. Maybe I can help in some way. : )

I write, too! I should have the main novel done by December, and I'll be putting it up for print, I think, via Amazon as an e-book. They seem to have the best program. More to come after that, too. It's really inspiring to be surrounded by creative folk here and people who have actually taken the steps to publish their own work. That's one of the things that drew me to OBOD; hearing all the writers, musicians, and various creative story tellers via Druidcast in their interviews and recorded performances.

I found a publisher in my local area and will be published by the end of the year. Working on final edits now before sending ARCs out.