J L's Place

One of the fascinating things about my publishing experiences has been to watch as other authors I know get published. I was one of the first in my 'group' (critique partners and assorted friends) to be published. Many, many others have been published since my first book came out in 2007. Now, 10 books later, I have a different perspective on publishing than I did. And what's interesting to me is to watch as others undergo sea changes, too, as their publishing journeys continue.

I recently wrote an article for my local RWA chapter about how I manage to hold down a full-time job, have time for family and also write 4-5 books a year. I gave the obvious advice: "just sit down and write", "be disciplined", "learn your craft so you're not constantly rewriting"... An important point was "learn your voice." Once I figured out the type of writing I was good at (1st person mystery), writing became easy.

One other bit, though, was "define success for yourself." I promised myself to stay in publishing as long as I had fun doing it. If this became a real 'job' then I'd quit. Who needs that? I already have a full-time job that's tolerable but not particularly enjoyable. If my writing becomes annoying, then why do it? It's not lucrative (I make money at it, sure, but I'm not rolling in dough). I used to say that I want to be the Nora Roberts of ebook publishing: have 3-4 books a year, build a name for myself, and continue to write into the sunset.

I'm seeing friends now who are struggling to define what success means to them. Does it mean having your book on a certain shelf at Border's? Is it to get a New York contract? Is it to snag that particular agent and get them interested in your work? I think every author has to define this for himself/herself. You could use the "New York Times best seller list" but we know that's crap -- it's just a certain amount of data reported at a certain point in time. You could use $$ earned versus $$ spent, but I'm not sure if that's valid -- I'd spend a certain amount of money on conferences and workshops whether I was published or not.

Maybe it's a certain inner satisfaction to know that your stories are being read and appreciated. I love getting mail from people, commenting on my books. But even if I don't get mail, I'm still happy the books are out there.

In the long run, I keep coming back to my formula for success:

  Do I enjoy doing it?
+ Can I fit it into my current lifestyle?
- Do I need to do uncomfortable things to succeed (some promotion, for example)
+ Is it relatively easy for me to do?
                 =
I'm successful at what I'm doing

So far, so good

• Customer service: fix the customer and the product will work fine.
• RTFM: Read The F*ing Manual. Most customers don't. If they did, it would be fine.
• Version Numbers: What idiot would buy the XX.1 version of the product. If they waited until XX.2, it would be fine.

Customer service is now email, not phone support. Okay. I can deal with that. And RTFM is now 'click the help button' because no documentation ships any more. Okay, I can deal with that, too. As long as the help is well written, it'll work.

That third one is what has me in a quandary today. I've been buying beta versions (.1) of applications for my I-thing because there isn't anything else out there. I've been searching for a good calendar manager and thought I had one. Then they did an upgrade and BOOM, my calendar doesn't work any more.

Can you imagine it? What if I was a high-powered businessman and my calendar all of a sudden stopped working? I emailed customer service and got very nice anwers in return: "at the last upgrade some databases didn't upgrade correctly. Try uninstalling and re-installing -- after backing up everything." The advantage of the I-thing is that I can synchronize my calendar and To-Do list with online services (Google & ToodleDo, respectively), so nothing is really lost -- it's just not easily accessible with this device.

If this was a desktop system, I might uninstall, reinstall, and try again. But it's not. I have other options. I went to the I-Store, bought another calendar manaul, and migrated the data. So far, so good. I got an email from the first calendar group and they said, "we're fixing those problems in the next upgrade, stay tuned."

Oops. I've already moved on.

A year ago I would NEVER have bought beta software, which tells me how much (1) my mindset has changed and (2) the industry has changed. Software that isn't thoroughly tested is being released -- a thing which used to be anathema in my industry. People are emerging off the street who can write code, people who haven't gone to college but who have an intuitive grasp of software coding. No formal training, no metholodolgy.

Before you say, "oh, you old fogey", remember: I've been in the industry for years. I was a beta tester for Mosaic (the precursor to Netscape). I remember when there were about 10 web sites in the world. I've been around crazy, off-the-wall creative hackers all my life. This is different. This has the feeling of the old dot-com days, when companies sprang up and software flew off the keyboards. The difference now, though, is there's no entrepeneurs behind it, nobody with the money demanding some Q.A. and testing. People are able to make a go of it without that.

It worries me because right now, it's just a calendar app or a game that's goofy. But what if this permeates into medical softare, or financial software? Do you really want to wait for the .2 release?

Intersting times lie ahead.

I just finished coloring my hard-boiled eggs. I do this a lot. I get a Paz kit and dunk the eggs and put on stickers. Sometimes I get creative with the wax pencil but usually I stick with basic colors, often three and four on an egg.

A friend at work saw me peeling one of these beauties and she said, "You don't have kids. Why do you do the eggs?" My response was, hey, I eat a hard-boiled egg every day, why not have them colored? I do these year-round, at random times. I buy a few extra Paz kits and tuck them in the back of the pantry and sometime in August or November or February I'll see it, pull it out, and make colored eggs.

I have the same philosophy with Christmas lights. I often will leave up a string of lights around a window somewhere and turn them on in August. I think it adds a nice touch to a summer night, reminding us of winter and helping us appreciate the warmth.

I do the same thing with writing (you wondered how this would apply to my writing, didn't you?) If I'm going to go the trouble of doing something (color eggs, put up Christmas lights, write and publish a novel) then I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can. These things take effort and time, and as I blogged about elsewhere (see my Mavens post here) I don't have a lot of time to spend on my writing. So I like to make it all count. I don't work on books I know won't sell, and I don't work on stories with plot lines that make me sweat. I'm in this to enjoy myself as well as make a name as an author. If I can't do both ... well, then I'll need to re-evaluate.

So make those Easter eggs and flip on the Christmas lights. Life is tenuous and to be enjoyed!

Well, I called in for the last time on Thursday to check my jury status. I was relieved when I found that I wasn't needed for Friday. It was a bit of a hassle to check in twice a day to see if I was needed, but overall, not a problem. The Jury Lady made a nice little speech about how pleased they were 'we in the pool' had done our civic duty and how that made democracy work ... etc.

I am not ashamed to admit that I teared up a bit at this. Yeah, it's BS in a way, but it's also true. We take our society for granted so much of the time. But a 'jury of your peers', and 'involvement in the legal system' is one of our rights and a privilege. I'm sure I would have whined if I'd been stuck in a courtroom listening to the legal system drone on, but still -- we're damn lucky to have the chance.

As a woman, I feel especially lucky to be in America. I read the BBC news online, and there are always stories of atrocities against women: circumcision, rapes, forcible marriage, child slavery ... of course women aren't the only ones who suffer, any vulnerable creature does (animals, children, women, the mentally handicapped). Human inhumanity is amazing as is the amazing power of humanity when it's focused on good.

So take a minute today to thank heaven that you live in a free society (I realize 'free' is a relative term to a lot of people). You have options, you don't have to be ashamed of who you are, you are allowed the opportunity to learn and grow. Most of us have food, shelter, warmth, and safety. Just pause and consider that and thank Whoever.

And if you get the call for jury duty, don't whine (too much)...