Donna Burgess is an author of dark fiction and poetry who enjoys surfing, painting and has a deep affection for all things Monty Python and low-budget horror flicks. Over the past fifteen years, her fiction and poetry has appeared in genre publications such as Weird Tales, Dark Wisdom, Sybil’s Garage and others. She has been married for twenty years and has two children. Her newest releases include Darklands: A Vampire’s Tale (the first book in the Darklands Vampires series) and The Blue Children, a mini-collection of vampire fiction. When she is not conjuring, she can be found surfing.
Advice:
I love Kathleen’s blog and even more than that, I love “indie” publishing. When she posted a request for fellow indie authors to submit three pieces of advice to aspiring indie authors, I thought “only three?” But three is a great place to start. Once at the point of deciding to write a book, even the most novice author knows to first write an interesting story and then proof it as best they can (or have someone do it for you). Outside of that, here are what I consider three invaluable pieces of newbie advice:
- Do not let your family or friends read your first (or second) book and offer feedback. This is not the feedback you want, ever, ever, ever! You will get one of two responses and both suck mightily. The first one is “I think it’s…good.” That hesitation tells you all you need to know. The other is “I think it would be better if you changed (insert choice here).” Also, if your book has sex scenes, it’s not a great idea to allow your parents read it. It doesn’t matter if you are 65 years of age, have been married for 47 years and have 13 kids. Your parents do not want to recognize you know anything about sex. Those 13 kids just appeared there, suddenly. Of course, this kind of denial may be confined to the prudish southern U.S., where I’m from.
- Family and close friends notwithstanding, don’t be shy. Tell people about your book. Blog about your book. Give copies away. Once you have finished that novel, you are a writer. Call yourself one. I was probably the shyest person around, but once I got a few sales posted and a few decent reviews, that shyness went away. Now, I’m a promo-machine and it seems to be working pretty well. It’s a thin line between good self-promo and being over-bearing. Try not to cross that line, as I have, at times.
- Some people will love your book, some will hate it. Heck, some people just don’t like anything, anyway. That’s part of the game. Never apologize for your work. If you’re happy with what you’ve accomplished, that’s should be enough. Remember, there are a lot of finished novels out there, but a hell of a lot more unfinished ones. You’ve done something special. Pat yourself on the back for it.
Donna Burgess Web Site
Naked Snake Press
Donna Burgess Amazon Page
1 comments:
It's true that the accomplishment of a finished novel should not be belittled.
Writers tend to mix with writers on the internet. We have all successfully completed at least one novel, so we are in the same boat from that point of view. It is easy to forget all the many who might have begun but never completed an entire work.
I say to people it's easy to write the first five chapters - not so easy when you reach chapters 15 to 17 to keep the momentum going.
Thank you for the encouraging pointers. Kate Hamilton.
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