As I sit here, thinking about NaNoWriMo – I started freaking out. There was a reported a surge in self-published ebooks that had no business being on the market in December of last year (unsubstantiated, I did no science). I can only attribute this to NaNoWriMo participants who were naive enough to believe they had a publish-ready novel after a month long 2000+ words/day writing binge (for the sake of this article, we will refer to them as NotSoPubRedNo's).
This scared me as a self-publisher of ebooks. Would anything I put out in the few months after NaNoWriMo be automatically labeled a NotSoPubRedNo? Probably. If I were a book review blogger I might just be inclined to reject all submissions at least until February. That is probably why I am not a book blogger.
To combat the NotSoPubRedNo plague, I will take two approaches.
1 - Get out all my review requests for completed works by the end of November. So yes, I am back to stalking reviewers. I found a creepy, new method too. For those that are closed to reviews or those who haven't responded to a request – find them on Goodreads, friend them, suggest your book.
2 - Start a campaign within the NaNoWriMo community to just say no to NotSoPubRedNo's or in other words...NoNotSoPubRedNo (ok – I am probably getting a bit ridiculous here, I blame the rum).
This campaign will consist of tweeting, facebooking, google +ing, blogging, talking, Morse coding, smoke-signaling (again with the rum) all the steps writers must take after NaNoWriMo to produce a PubRedNo. See what I did there? Hashtag it. Tweet it.
Step 1:
Finish it. 50,000 words does not a novel make.
Step 2:
Edit it. Substantively, professionally.
Step 3:
Edit it again. Grammar, punctuation.
Step 4:
Critique it. Join a group; get feedback.
Step 5:
Edit it again.
Step 6:
Cover art. Hire those Mormons - see my post on why.
Step 7:
Step 8:
Publish then market that bee-atch! Bee-yatch. Beetch. None of those look right. I'll have to google it.
So there you have it. Eight steps. Boom!
Oh gee! Thanks for the idea... I'm joining Nanowrimo this year. I might apply the tricks you made. Hehehe... by the way, can you suggest how can I get or join in a group you stated above (#4)???
ReplyDeleteHi Gil - Are you in the Philippines? Not sure what kind of groups they have there for meetups (maybe you can start a critique group - advertise at the colleges, libraries, coffee shops, etc.).
ReplyDeleteGet a Goodreads account if you don't have one already, and sign up as an author. You can put writing samples there for people to critique. Also try www.bookcountry.com where you can exchange reviews for reviews. Good luck with your writing and good luck with NaNoWriMo! We should send updates to each other on our progress...