Endurance, the prominence, comes like a splashing dose of faith. Like scars praising the scarlet letters on my skin. As if strength poured forth from the sky and left its prophecies etched on the calcium of my bones. It’s courage far braver than purple hearts or bleeding pens on the white paper of a soldier’s goodbye. Like a car accident that knocks me off my feet but does not kill me, I get it. Nineteen years later the irony of life and death finds itself a home in this house of poetry.
I’m glad I didn’t know much about publishing when I published my first book or my second for that matter. Though I surely paid in quality, I’m still glad I was green. Before you judge, hear me out.
There’s a lot of information out there. Everyone has an opinion on how a book should be published. And while it is wise to listen to advice, it is not wise to listen to every single piece of advice (take heed how you hear). That said, with the wealth of information at our fingertips, it can be a blessing and a curse, a double-edged sword (been using this term a lot lately, hmm). It’s a double-edged sword because it’s easy to look at the Industry and decide you’ll never be ready. And who can blame you? At every turn there’s information on how not to do something that you probably already did.
This revelation came while flipping through my first novel The Aftermath, a Sci-Fi Thriller that I rarely talk about. It’s probably because I made every mistake that probably exists! Every piece of advice you’ve read and everything you’ve researched on what not to do I am willing to bet you can pretty much find in this book. But I love it still and I smile every time I run my fingers across it on the book shelf. Reminding myself that I did invest in a new cover last year and after its edited (No, I didn’t get it edited the first time. Told ya’ll I made every mistake you can think of!), I will be adding it back to my electronic shelves.
The funny thing is that despite my mistakes the book received more support than I thought it would even though it was only my second book. (It was my third book technically, my first novel but my third book. My first published work was a 3-part essay and my first official book was a collection of poetry but I’ll talk about my Self- Pub. history another time. You know me by The Stella Trilogy, but I’ve been grinding since 2007.)
After looking at the first edition today I am reminded that I learn more about book publishing with each book that I publish (I mean that literally. I literally learn something new every time I publish a book. Amazing right?). For this, it’s easy to look down on the other books. To give up on them. But the truth is that had it not been for those books I would not be where I am and that’s my message to you.
If you’re trying not to make a mistake you’re wasting your time. It’s inevitable in this field. You’re going to find something wrong (you or someone else). That’s not a bad thing necessarily. If you never make a mistake, how can you learn?
Okay, yes. I will be real with you. There’s a lot to learn but if you don’t get out there you’ll be learning the rest of your life instead of doing. Yes, the student must study but the idea is not for him to be forever learning at the foot of the teacher. The idea is for him to apply the lessons learned and step out on his own. If I had not published my first book, I would not be in the position to publish my ninth (or tenth depending on how you look at it). I would also not have anything to share so far as what I did wrong that I can pass onto others so they won’t make the same mistakes I did.
If you’re looking for someone to push you then you got it. Get on out there! I’m rooting for you.
Yecheilyah Ysrayl is the YA, Historical Fiction author of The Stella Trilogy. She is currently working on her next book series “The Nora White Story” about a young black woman who dreams of taking part in The Harlem Renaissance movement and her parents struggle to accept their traumatic past in the Jim Crow south. “Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One)” is due for release summer, 2017. For updates on this project, sneak peek of chapters and the pending book cover release (coming soon) for this project, be sure to follow this blog and to subscribe to Yecheilyah’s email list HERE.
OK, last reblog of the day lol. Most informative post. Quote: “But these days reviews are more important than ever. I am not going to put in a one or two star and tank the author’s overall ranking because fiction is subjective. That author just cannot please everyone.”
As we careen toward the New Year, many emerging writers have a goal to finally publish that novel and I hope you do! But the arts are kind of strange. We often get fixated on the creative side, without really understanding the business side of our business.
The publishing world is still in massive upheaval and it is a Digital Wild West. Old rules are falling away and new ones are emerging, but still? Knowledge is power.
In my book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World, I go into a LOT more detail and I highly recommend you get a copy if you don’t have one. I spend the first chapters of the book explaining how the various forms of publishing work so you can make an educated decision as you are building your brand.
All types of publishing have corresponding strengths and weaknesses and this is…
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Formatting print versions of your book.
Post Quote: “If you are a blogger or a freelance writer churning material for an income, you will likely face a basket load of productivity problems.”
This is a guest post by Benjamin Chiang, an enthusiast of good advertising, deep thinking, labor issues, and chocolate. As a writer, his work has appeared on www.fivestarsandamoon.com, Yahoo, Vulcanpost.com among others. You can find him at www.rangosteen.com or follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/brchiang
If you are a blogger or a freelance writer churning material for an income, you will likely face a basket load of productivity problems. These include:
Here are some tools, both free and paid, that will help you meet your deadline!
In the old days, Hemmingway wrote on Moleskins and lugged them all around in heavy trunks (albeit heavy Louis Vuitton trunks). Though romantic to write in, you may find difficulty running a keyword search on notebooks. That’s why most of us…
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It is more challenging to work for yourself in my opinion than someone else. My husband and I both run our own businesses. Here’s why it’s more of a challenge:
I know, you work for yourself, why can’t you? The truth is that though it’s more freedom, this freedom is a doubled edged sword. Having and running your own business is different than working a 9-5. When you work a 9-5 you’re expected to be there every day and on time and you can have paid times off or vacations or just decide not to come into work today. Pull that when you’re your own boss and it’s the difference between buying groceries and going hungry. The truth is that when you work for yourself you can’t be lazy. Instead of getting paid per hour, you’re getting paid per client and it is how you pay your bills and provide for your family. Not putting in work means to literally not get paid that day.
This goes hand in hand with not being lazy. Working for yourself requires more discipline. The reason is because when you work a 9-5 you have days off. When you work for yourself, however, you have to create those days and it’s tempting to procrastinate or put things off. Even though I work from home I still must discipline myself to get up early. There are only so many hours in a day and the earlier you get up the more you can get done. First of all, I need to get a good workout in to get the juices pumping and then I have to get to work which works well if I get up early enough. For my personal business, it’s more so building. Since I don’t have any “clients” yet what I don’t spend in money I spend in time. Researching, writing, blogging, sending off packages, marketing, promotion, and organizing.
However, since I am also the Vice President for my husband’s contracting business, I only have a certain amount of time to do certain things so I do not neglect any key responsibilities. My husband calls it “clocking in”. I call it walking into the office with a cup of coffee in my PJs. Though liberating, I have to constantly remind myself to take breaks and because I make my own schedule I have to incorporate my own vacations. This isn’t as easy as it sounds because when you work for yourself you’re never off. Your phone is constantly ringing from clients, your email and text messages are overflowing with new messages, and you’re just overall always locked in. My husband had to literally talk me into writing last weeks Black History Fun Fact Friday article. If it was not for him you all would not have had a BHFFF article for real. After grocery shopping, putting up food, and cleaning the kitchen I certainly didn’t feel like researching on the computer. But my husband’s work ethic is amazing and he does not let me slack off. Truth is, people think that not having a “job” means you have all the time in the world and that you spend your days staring at the wall. In reality, I rarely have time to watch TV. (My version of TV is CNN as background noise). So, breaks such as movie night is something that we create.
Since I mentioned breaks, I figured I should go ahead and list this one for the last bullet point. When you work for yourself you must schedule your own breaks. This sounds simple, but it’s not. Entrepreneurs are largely made up of what people call workaholics. The truth is not everyone is a workaholic, it’s just that when you make your own money you’re constantly working (as I’ve just mentioned) because nothing is guaranteed and every cent is earned. Therefore, business owners must create schedules to ensure they don’t lose their minds. We must create our own days off and vacations (mine is coming up, whoo hoo!) When we return, we’re reminded of why working for yourself is so much more mentally challenging. Everything we put off has piled up and so the grind continues but….
I would do it all again in another lifetime.
When you own your own business, you don’t just have more control but you gain so many more valuable skills, such as being more accountable for your actions and being more attentive to your surroundings and the behavior of people. You learn to do things like take the initiative (doing what needs to be done without being told) which is a great leadership skill. There’s something about doing the work yourself that gives you a different way of looking at the world, a new perspective, and a higher level of discipline and responsibility. In addition, the reward for all of this work is well worth it. The benefits of entrepreneurship certainly outweigh the challenges.
Yecheilyah Ysrayl is the YA, Historical Fiction author of The Stella Trilogy. She is currently working on her next book series “The Nora White Story” about a young black woman writer who dreams of taking part in The Harlem Renaissance movement and her parents struggle to accept their traumatic past in the Jim Crow south. “Renaissance: The Nora White Story (Book One)” is due for release summer, 2017. For updates on this project, sneak peek of chapters and the pending book cover release (coming soon) for this project, be sure to follow this blog and to subscribe to Yecheilyah’s email list HERE.
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