Writers and your manuscripts

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   donnaisabellaposted 13 years ago

   How many of you fellow writers on here have unpublished long story manuscripts stashed in old boxes, on old computers or hidden away on discs? What do you feel about your manuscripts, their future and why are you hiding them? Would you share briefly what you were writing about?

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      Cardisaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I am guilty, but actually, I am lazy to edit or rewrite. Even the new ones I am lazy to work on...lol

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         calpol25posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I am too Cardisa I only think of this when I hear  editing and rewriting
         
         

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            couturepopcafeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            

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            donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Too funny! Lol

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         donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         ha Cardisa, i thought I was the only one...even if I do not call it laziness, I call it busyness!

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2. 91

   AdeleCosgroveBrayposted 13 years ago

   Instead of watching your manuscripts gather dust, why not consider self-publishing?  Two years ago I would have said that such a course of action was a mistake, but the publishing world - and the options open to writers - have changed hugely since then.
   
   I had a heap of short stories, poems and two finished novels which were festering on a shelf.  Then I self-published some of these, and now they're selling. 
   
   Try it!  What you you got to lose? 

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   1. 82

      donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      What are you selling Adele? I would love to see your work. And thanks for the advice. I have been looking at the option of self-publishing too and I believe I will get to there sooner than later.

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         AdeleCosgroveBrayposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for asking.  We're not suposed to post overly promotional things in this forum, so I suggest you view my HP profile then visit my website, if you wish to.

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            donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Actually I already did. I will be visiting your blog and I will definitely get a hold of your publications. Thank you!

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   2. 84

      dungeonraiderposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I check in on the publishing scene every now and then.  It's gotten more involved, and confusing, as time goes by.  Add in the many scam-publishers and now it's become dangerous territory to wade into, without an agent.

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         donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I hear you dungeonraider so what shall we do?

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            dungeonraiderposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Stacey Cochran did a series about the importance of finding an agent as a new author.  I don't know if the link will get snipped, but the link is to How to Publish a Book, Literary Agent -2.  Real authors discussing how they broke into the book writing business.
            
            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcVL77-s_yE

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               EyesStraightAheadposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you for sharing this!

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                  dungeonraiderposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  You're welcome.  Note, and this is something I've heard many, many published authors profess, that publishers want EVERYTHING ever written by someone who had one of their novels successfully published with solid sales. 
                  
                  So, yeah, it's super hard to get an agent, but, wow, the payoff for doing so could be what every author dreams of.

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                     donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Getting an agent sometimes is as hard as getting a publisher, at least that was my experience sometime back when I tried to. Agents and Publishers do not seem to want unsolicited work/manuscripts unless something is really unique. This year it is one of my objectives to have at least one of my books published, but it was last year too! The only difference is that I have manuscripts that are complete and only need review, whew!

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               donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               thanks Dungeonraider, I will check out the link you gave. Did it help you in any way?

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                  dungeonraiderposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  I found it very informative, yes.  I follow publishers and agents on Twitter, people in the book business, in general, who might be interested in the type of stuff I write. 
                  
                  I think we should do whatever we need to do to satisfy the writer inside each of us.  If that's self-publishing, e-books, whatever, it makes no difference.  A writer writes to be read.  We all know this.  But, like I said in my earlier post, there's no reason we shouldn't keep an eye on the big publishing houses, an eye on the bigger prize, so to speak.

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                     donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     YES!

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   EyesStraightAheadposted 13 years ago

   I have a collection of poems I have written since grade school. A part of me doesn't do anything with them because they are who I was many years ago and not who I am now. Another part of me wants to turn them into a story, so it wouldn't matter that they aren't who I am now. If I wrote a book that combined the poems and a fictional story, it would be as if the character was writing them. Maybe like an autobiographical fiction? I just have never had faith in my writing being any good so I have always sat on it...plus working full time and being a single mother has not lent itself to much writing. Now I am focusing on this though and am proud of myself for at least writing a little bit each day to try to make this happen.

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      Hollie Thomasposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Eyesstraightahead, do it.

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         EyesStraightAheadposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you Hollie. I am working up to it! You will all know when I do...I think I will actually be so excited I may just have to ask the President to make a special announcement! Ha ha

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      donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      You sound so much like me! This is amazing. May be you and me can get to encouraging one another by sharing those old works (poems) etc. Remember some of the most celebrated writers never had any confidence in their writings. I believe we all have a lot to give, we just need encouragement and motivation. I have never thought my writing was that good but once in a while I really get a huge compliment and it makes me want to run another mile!

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         EyesStraightAheadposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         This is what encouraged me...my favorite poets are Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, and Maya Angelou. I love their work. I love spoken word poetry. I got my start as a poet! But I only had the courage to share my thoughts with some of the world, until December of last year. I always published under a pen name. Now I am ready to share the ability God has blessed me with. I have always been told I have a way with words....well, I want to share that. I have a lot of training before I will be Poet Laureate or a best selling author, but why not go for it and start learning and sharing now! If you check out my profile, I share my poetry site postings there (I just started it tonight).
         
         I would love to connect with you and encourage one another. My FB account is on my profile as well and we know where to find each other here!

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   hildredposted 13 years ago

   I have quite a few old manuscripts that will never see the light of day again. That's okay. It's good to know when to move on from a project that's not really salvageable, and is quite common when you write for a living.
   
   Otherwise, I agree with somebody else that looking towards self-publishing can be a good motivator, especially if ~fame and fortune~ aren't that important to you. You're probably not going to make a lot of money with self-publishing, although if you do it right, you shouldn't have to pay much at all to get it published especially if you ignore physical publication and instead focus on e-publishing. Yes, there are a lot of "scams" out there, particularly in vanity presses. There are a lot of websites out there though that make it their job to keep a list of he who's who, though. You can find a couple at the Absolute Write forums and the Writer Beware site.
   
   If you do go traditional, then agents are pretty necessary. I myself am focusing on self-publishing, for a want of control over everything and because a lot of my subject matter would be refused by most traditional publishers.

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      donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hey Hildred, you have a lot of helpful information. Thank you very much. So you write for a living. Tell me, how is it? It must be very challenging but a lot of fun too. About moving away from projects that prove futile, that is hard to do, it is similar to reviewing one's work and dumping whole chapters and chunks of a story so you can come up with something worth reading. It is for the mature and I am certain you are very mature. It is a pleasure to meet you and I hope we get to talking about our works on here. Thank you for contributing. I will check up the websites you shared.

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   Johnjfernandoposted 13 years ago

   I too have a lot of works that I haven't published yet and hope to. Its hard when you have all these hopes and dreams of wanting to make a living as a writer and for me, that is where I truly hope to find myself one.

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      donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Johnjfernando: I know how you feel and it is my prayer that your dreams do come true. It has been my life's passion to read autobiographies and biographies of the great and not so great. I find that I learn a lot from the lives of others and I to dream daily!  May be one day one of us will be that author that will touch people's hearts and change lives for many years to come. As long as we are alive, we should keep dreaming and the chances. Keep dreaming and writing!

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         Johnjfernandoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Pray. Sometimes its the one thing that makes me tell myself to 'Believe.' Thanks for your lovely comment and too have a biography about my life that I feel will draw massive inspirations to people who to read it one day when I make it available.

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            donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I cannot wait to read it then. Stay inspired.

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   DonnaCosmatoposted 13 years ago

   If you are looking to self publish your old manuscripts, you might want to check out CreateSpace. I used their pre-formatted template and copied and pasted a 10 chapter book in under an hour. The whole system is very user friendly, and as others here have said, why not turn the manuscripts into cash:)

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      donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks DonnaCosmato. I just came to know about Createspace as a publishing possibility. I have done that before with Lulu and it is really easy to download an entire manuscript on their 'servers' and edit and publish from there. I will look up Createspace. Have you published there? I guess I should dash to your profile and check out before I ask questions that have already got answers! Thanks for the information.

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   DonnaCosmatoposted 13 years ago

   Hi donnaisabella, your question about the book was a fair one! I'm waiting for my graphic designer to finish the cover so we can publish, so I haven't added the book as a completed task to my profile yet:) Thanks for sharing about Lulu; we had considered using their services but when we priced the two options, CreateSpace was about 60% less expensive. If you decide to publish on CreateSpace and run into problems, I'll be glad to help you with whatever limited experience I have:)

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      donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Donna.

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      donnaisabellaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      How far have you gone with your book publishing?

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