Chicken by Chicken: One Writer Navigates New Publishing

This is one my favorite series every year: Chicken by Chicken. This is a take on Anne Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD, a helpful writing book. The idea is you take the writing journey one day at a time. You take it one word at time, and that the important thing is always the writing and not the publishing. Writing for me is chicken by chicken. That's how I roll.

Writing is a weird business. I spend a massive amount of time creating a viable story. I have a thousand tricks to place that story on the page. After a long while the writing has become more fluid, more entertaining, simply more. Meanwhile the entire publishing world evolved in a game-changing way while I was learning to write. Befuddled chicken.

The way books reach readers has changed - apps, readers, tablets, etc. Self publishing went from the poor step-sister to to the vogue new thing. Bad for me, I'm a joiner and poor church mouse -- not the self-publishing guru type. Major publishers changed their focus too -- almost exclusively to urban stories for sophisticated teens. Hype, slick, and charismatic stories written by hip young authors rule. I flipped  through my heartwarming, funny and wry  pages written by an ordinary down-home gal and thought: Oh, no!  Poor chicken.

New publishing models have proliferated. Many publishing experts view any new publishing model with a bit of sneering disdain, unless that model become uber-profitable. Then it is viewed as the enemy or the bandwagon. Me, I huddle in corners scratching out my words chicken by chicken and experience unease about the state of affairs.  I want someone to read my words and see if they resonate -- that's about it. A confession:  I don't really care how I reach readers.

I send to agents and receive massive stacks of  no-thank-yous. I realized if I wanted to be published in the brave new world, I'd have to try new things. I looked at self-publishing, crowd-sourced publishing, and indie digital-first publishing. And digital-first clicked -- my fangirl rom-com PLUMB CRAZY is being released in May of 2014 by Swoon Publishing. I think I'm changing my name to Indie Down-home Gal. I'm considering buying cowgirl boots to celebrate.

I am excited!  Can't wait to reveal my upcoming cover!  Meanwhile, I'm still doing what I always do, scratching out words, chicken by chicken. See you next week with more chicken scratch.

Here is this week's doodle:  "Princess Chicken".

A quote for your pocket.

 

I couldn't think of anything I wanted to do or any place I wanted to be more than home. Where I can walk around the yard, sweeping leaves off the slate paths to my heart's content. Sissy Spacek.