Changing the Focus of My Blog

I have decided to completely overhaul this blog. I don’t want to write about publishing anymore. While publishing is of great interest to me, I am becoming more in tune with the secularist humanist part of myself, and I want this blog to reflect that. The other day Ky Grabowski commended me on a certain post I had written on Tumblr, revealing very personal information about myself that only the Tumblr community thus far knows. This has always been an internal battle for me that I have never, ever talked to anyone about, mostly because people, even my friends, would look at me as if I’ve grown three heads. I just never had a name to it until now. It’s just something that is practically invisible in our society, because many people don’t understand it–yes, I am giving you a teaser. My own family doesn’t even know about this, fiance included. I’m not sure how he would react if I ever told him. That’s something I’m going to have to decide in time. (And, no, this does not mean I plan to leave him. Far from it. Discovering this about myself has made me love him so much more now that I understand, because now I know how really blessed I am to have someone like him.) This information isn’t anything bad. It was just easy to reveal this on my Tumblr, because the Tumblr community is so incredibly diverse and full of young people so much more open-minded than anyone has ever been, so I knew I would receive support from this. This isn’t to say I won’t receive the same support on this blog. I know I will, but WordPress is filled with SEO tags, and while you can find Tumblr posts through Google search, Tumblr isn’t about SEO tags.

But Ky made me think when she commended me for revealing that information. I spent roughly an entire day discussing this revelation on my Tumblr blog. Plenty of people messaged me thanking me, because what I revealed has helped them out, too. However, my Tumblr blog is about writing advice, and while plenty of people have followed me based on this information, my Tumblr blog primarily needs to concern itself with writing. Even so, I will constantly remind my followers, and anyone in the Tumblr community, that they can ask me questions in regards to the thing I revealed about myself, and even mental illness, as I do have bipolar disorder. And every so often I may do a post about it, trying to connect it to writing somehow, especially because the Tumblr community is there to connect with others, and a lot of them find Tumblr a comfort. I don’t want to deprive anyone of that comfort.

The Dali Lama is my role model, second to my own dad. My mom is my role model for her sense of humor. 😛 Like mother like daughter, as they say!

Therefore, I want to write blog posts that help people who stumble across this blog through Google or Tumblr or anything else connected to my social media. I strive to live a lifestyle like the Dali Lama. I hope that as I grow older, I will become mature enough to be able to calm down in order to make it much easier to live his lifestyle. For now, I am quite young, can be combative, and a little reckless with my opinions. I find a lot of posts on Tumblr that I have always wanted to comment on, but because of the nature of my blog, I often keep myself from doing so, not out of controversy, but out of the idea that my blog isn’t about these things I want to re-blog. I think this blog will be the perfect place to talk about what I find.

Overall, this will be the focus of my blog: providing a secularist humanist stance on an issue that I think needs to be addressed in order to help people that may be struggling with this issue but cannot get help, whether it’s because of shame, societal pressure, cultural pressure, and so on and so forth.

I have already teased you, but let me leave you with a little picture. If you understand what this picture means, then you’ll understand what my blog post is going to be. I’m going to write it today but queue it for midnight…so tomorrow or what will be today for people who live in the future, like Ryan Attard. I will also reveal the subject matter of my next book, and the house that I am dying to submit it to.

 

The Anonymous World of Tumblr: What “Makes” an Author

After the press release from YA Interrobang, I received a rather, well, insulting anon on Tumblr who basically told me I was cheating myself by going with a small press–and a new one at that. I will admit upfront that I did take a chance knowing they were new. Oftentimes experts will tell you to wait a year or two to see how the press does before submitting to it, but there were so many factors involved in my decision to submit to them that it would take too long to list them all, but one factor was that I was tired of holding my book back, not submitting it because I was afraid it wasn’t ready enough, and I just wanted to take a chance. I was at that point in my life where I realized I needed to take chances, and I was very happy that I did. 

In any case, not only did they insult AEC Stellar Publishing, Inc. and call them a vanity press because you don’t receive advances (but the royalties we receive can more than make up for the advances), but they insulted me by saying ‘you SEEM like you want to be an author, so why did you cheat yourself?’

Apparently I’m not an author, even though I have a book published with good reviews (only 23, I think, but still, that’s good enough, and they’ll keep growing, I know), with a publishing house that is a small press and not a vanity publisher, a book with a beautiful cover, a book that received great editing, and a book that received amazing exposure, a lot from me, but my publishing house is so flexible that they were/are willing to listen to advice to make them better, even though I think they’re great already because they produce great books in the first place. Plus, I do need to speak up more about what I want. And even though they don’t offer advances, that doesn’t mean they aren’t a legitimate house.

Some authors will tell you that you deserve an advance and shouldn’t settle for less, but if the house offers great royalties, I say, go for it. It doesn’t make them less legitimate than a house that does offer advances, but pitiful royalties. I even had this discussion with indie authors on Twitter. Some houses have you pay for a few things for your book, but the money DOESN’T GO TO THEM. IT GOES TO THE PEOPLE WHO PROVIDED THE SERVICES. And these indie authors agreed that that was still a legitimate house.Doesn’t mean your royalties will make up for the average advance (which, on average, can be anywhere from 500-1000), but I care more about readers reading my book, and even at a big house, the average book only sells 500 copies. Ever. 

I’m tired of this attitude that you’re not an author if you go with a vanity publisher or self-publish. You are an author, ESPECIALLY if you took the time to make your book into a product that deserves sales. I would never ever recommend a vanity publisher, as you can do it much cheaper yourself, but if you can find a good, honest vanity publisher, know what you’re getting into, know the ins-and-outs of publishing from an author’s perspective, then I will not judge you for choosing this path. You are an author, regardless. A published book means you are an author.

***Repeat after me: A published book means you are an author.***

A published anything means you are an author. Ky Grabowski has a short story published, but she is still an author, even if it’s just one thing. I have been an author since I was in high school, although, admittedly, I didn’t feel like a real author until When Stars Die was published, but, you know, that’s my own personal insecurity that I eventually got over. 

Overall, I did not cheat myself. I don’t feel like I cheated myself. Does this mean I won’t consider an agent in the future? No. I MIGHT, but I will still publish with AEC Stellar. You cannot tell me I cheated myself when you have no idea what the process was like for me, and that you have no idea what was in my contract, which I am not allowed to speak of. 

My next post is going to be an interview that Mariah Wilson did of Writers AMuse Me Publishing, as they are now accepting playwrights. 

Spot Light; Amber Skye Forbes – The Dancing Writer

Ky Grabowski did a Spot Light of me on her blog! Check it out!

Quick Update: Spot Light

So Ky Grabowski is doing a spot light of me and gave me permission to have three of my charming followers in on this. Basically, the first three to comment get a spot in the spot light, but here’s the deal: you have to do the spot light before the end of June since spots are filled for July, and she’ll be able to squeeze you in for June.

Quickly comment, and I will inform her of the first three commenters! The spot light thing is basically showcasing you and what you’re all about. So you get attention…and lots of it.