Okay so back to this novel-I-wrote thing...
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@titania I’ve used Smashwords before for something much shorter, but everything’s in Scrivener so the formatting shouldn’t be too onerous. The only work I can’t just do myself is cover art, but I can scratch together some commission money.
@trixter you can absolutely do it yourself! I literally just ran across a thread on how to do it... https://www.patreon.com/posts/create-your-own-118846775
Obvs if you are like, "nope, it is worth it to me to pay someone else", that's _valid_, but I was very ! about seeing this guide, because it's at my skill level
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@trixter you can absolutely do it yourself! I literally just ran across a thread on how to do it... https://www.patreon.com/posts/create-your-own-118846775
Obvs if you are like, "nope, it is worth it to me to pay someone else", that's _valid_, but I was very ! about seeing this guide, because it's at my skill level
@titania Art is the one computer thing I’ve never managed to get a handle on — I got Procreate for my iPad and all I’ve managed was a super abstract web site background. But I’ll take a look at that article!
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@titania Art is the one computer thing I’ve never managed to get a handle on — I got Procreate for my iPad and all I’ve managed was a super abstract web site background. But I’ll take a look at that article!
@trixter Big mood, but I was like, "Okay I vaguely understand LAYERS, I think...?" -- it's all about, well, using very basic tools to make book covers that don't look like a hot mess, so.
Worth at least reading, and if you still settle on, "nah, fuck this, I don't wanna bother", VALID.
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RE: https://retro.pizza/@trixter/116084514290429066
Okay so back to this novel-I-wrote thing...
So if I've become disillusioned enough to give up on traditional publishing, do I want to just make whatever little changes I'd like to make coming at it several years later and then self-publish? Just to let it be out in the world and maybe get a tiny trickle of validation? (I will be honest, I desperately need some validation at this point.) Traditional publishing money would have been nice, but that's not a real thing so much anymore, and the truest reason anyone has for writing is to share all the nonsense in their head with other people. I still love these characters and I want other people to love them with me.
What I've written so far is, *of course*, only the first part of a trilogy, because that is how things go, but maybe I could find it in myself to keep going if it felt like a single fuck was given by the world.
@trixter is it better to have done it, and missed, or regretting forever not having even tried?
If writing is painful, don't do it. If if gives you pleasure, do it. It's that simple in the end. -
RE: https://retro.pizza/@trixter/116084514290429066
Okay so back to this novel-I-wrote thing...
So if I've become disillusioned enough to give up on traditional publishing, do I want to just make whatever little changes I'd like to make coming at it several years later and then self-publish? Just to let it be out in the world and maybe get a tiny trickle of validation? (I will be honest, I desperately need some validation at this point.) Traditional publishing money would have been nice, but that's not a real thing so much anymore, and the truest reason anyone has for writing is to share all the nonsense in their head with other people. I still love these characters and I want other people to love them with me.
What I've written so far is, *of course*, only the first part of a trilogy, because that is how things go, but maybe I could find it in myself to keep going if it felt like a single fuck was given by the world.
My favorite thing about bringing up self-publishing is the people/bots watching the keyword searches waiting to tell you that what you really need is their $2,000 Professional Self-Publishing Services Package.
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@trixter Big mood, but I was like, "Okay I vaguely understand LAYERS, I think...?" -- it's all about, well, using very basic tools to make book covers that don't look like a hot mess, so.
Worth at least reading, and if you still settle on, "nah, fuck this, I don't wanna bother", VALID.
@titania Having had a minute to think about it, my big hangup is that I, personally, am not drawn to abstract-looking covers. If I’m in a book shop, I am going to be drawn to the covers that depict characters or at the very least spaceships or creatures from the book. They can be stylized or abstracted, but they still need to be specific to the story. I’ve self-published a short and had a novella digitally published through a small press and in both cases I insisted on putting a character on the cover, which meant commissioning someone to do the cover for the short.
tl;dr: Self-publishing already feels like giving up, I’m not ready to give up so hard that I don’t even have the cover I want.
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My favorite thing about bringing up self-publishing is the people/bots watching the keyword searches waiting to tell you that what you really need is their $2,000 Professional Self-Publishing Services Package.
Thinking about the whole novel thing some more and wondering if I want to rewrite the romance subplot as sapphic or just be satisfied that the male love interest is absolutely the kind of male love interest a lesbian would write, just big Hozier energy here.
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Thinking about the whole novel thing some more and wondering if I want to rewrite the romance subplot as sapphic or just be satisfied that the male love interest is absolutely the kind of male love interest a lesbian would write, just big Hozier energy here.
@trixter i vote rewrite sapphic, i need more wlw books...
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@Weebism There are supporting lesbians! Just not the main relationship. Though the guy is genderqueer enough that if I wrote him as female I’d feel like I needed to rein in the femme a little. It’s a very bi4bi pairing. But I also want to see more wlw in the adventure fantasy world. Maybe if working on this can get the rust out of my writing gears…
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@Weebism There are supporting lesbians! Just not the main relationship. Though the guy is genderqueer enough that if I wrote him as female I’d feel like I needed to rein in the femme a little. It’s a very bi4bi pairing. But I also want to see more wlw in the adventure fantasy world. Maybe if working on this can get the rust out of my writing gears…
@Weebism Actually, that’s right! I was poking at a story that’d be a prequel to this, in that it’s unrelated characters during a historical event in the same setting, that’s a princess-and-her-knight story but the knight is a lady knight. :3
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@Weebism Actually, that’s right! I was poking at a story that’d be a prequel to this, in that it’s unrelated characters during a historical event in the same setting, that’s a princess-and-her-knight story but the knight is a lady knight. :3
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@Weebism (The Princess has to be saved from her own father, who is going to sacrifice her for necromantic power, because I’m all like “Tee hee a novel!” but honestly this is pretty metal.)
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Thinking about the whole novel thing some more and wondering if I want to rewrite the romance subplot as sapphic or just be satisfied that the male love interest is absolutely the kind of male love interest a lesbian would write, just big Hozier energy here.
*opening up my old novel project folders and immediately going to the text files of smutty non-canon drabbles*
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*opening up my old novel project folders and immediately going to the text files of smutty non-canon drabbles*
Look, this isn’t monsterfucker romance, it’s adventure fantasy with a monsterfucker subplot
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Look, this isn’t monsterfucker romance, it’s adventure fantasy with a monsterfucker subplot
@trixter My partner wants you to write this, and will read it as soon as you publish it.
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@trixter My partner wants you to write this, and will read it as soon as you publish it.
@drwho It’s finished! I’ve just been sitting on it for a decade as I got more and more disillusioned with traditional publishing and now I’m thinking I might as well just self-publish.
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@drwho It’s finished! I’ve just been sitting on it for a decade as I got more and more disillusioned with traditional publishing and now I’m thinking I might as well just self-publish.
@drwho @trixter I self published a book last year, the main thing with smutty books is to watch out for what is and is not allowed. Like Amazon is pretty strict on some things. Smashwords, not so much.
PS, I do not plan to share my smutty self published books at this time, that's why pseudonyms exist.
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@drwho @trixter I self published a book last year, the main thing with smutty books is to watch out for what is and is not allowed. Like Amazon is pretty strict on some things. Smashwords, not so much.
PS, I do not plan to share my smutty self published books at this time, that's why pseudonyms exist.
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@drwho @trixter I self published a book last year, the main thing with smutty books is to watch out for what is and is not allowed. Like Amazon is pretty strict on some things. Smashwords, not so much.
PS, I do not plan to share my smutty self published books at this time, that's why pseudonyms exist.
@RamenJunkie @drwho I mean, it’s not a smutty book, it’s a book with some smut in it. There’s a difference!
I’ve both self-pubbed and small-press-pubbed actual smut so I can manage. Though I’m wondering if I’d rather go back to my smut pseudonym for this or, like, doxx myself if I promote it on main.
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@drwho It’s finished! I’ve just been sitting on it for a decade as I got more and more disillusioned with traditional publishing and now I’m thinking I might as well just self-publish.
@trixter Please publish it!
