Truth In Less Freak-Outs

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I’m finally getting back in the swing of “work,” and I’m falling in love with it again. Mind you, there’s a reason for this, and I feel that that was eloquently put here:

When I shifted from my day job at Weekly World News to fulltime freelance, I was advised that 80% of my time would be spent seeking work and the remainder actually doing the work. We’re out there selling ourselves constantly – partly it’s why we blog and chat and do conventions and book signings and so on. You need to throw something like five times as many projects out there as there is time to actually write one. Salesmen chase five times the number of leads to bring in the one real sale so it’s all the same. — SOURCE: No Need For a Writer To Be Discouraged by Bob Greenberger



I find that 80/20 rule to be true, even if you have residual income coming in. The trick is finding that residual income stream (e.g. royalties or what have you) and balancing that with your non-“work” time online. That’ll give you a little more flexibility when you’re seeking out new publishing opportunities.

Of course, work/life balance is always something to be managed. Freak-outs not required. But in spite of everything? The words, like spice, must still flow.

    Mood: Soooooper-genious.
    Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Um…
    Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: The Gym.
    In My Ears: The screams of my victims cats.
    Game Last Played: Dragon Age: Awakenings
    Movie Last Viewed: Despicable Me
    Latest Artistic Project: In progress!
    Latest Release: “The Dig” The Lovecraft eZine Issue No. 19

Guest Blog on SFWA: Do You Know How to Sell Your Sword?

In my latest guest post on the SFWA blog, I discuss the sales cycle from an online and an offline perspective. Do You Know How to Sell Your Sword? offers you my perspective from working in online and offline retail, by providing you with a metaphor about a blacksmith who is trying to sell a magic sword.

The online sales cycle is a very passive one for retailers, because no matter how much any store owner may try — the seller is not in control. The buyer is. At a convention, for example, organizers will help facilitate traffic and flow based on the physical layout of the hall. For any website, a reader can access that store from any page because of something called natural or organic search; not “just” the home page.– SOURCE: Do You Know How to Sell Your Sword? on the SFWA blog

Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed for SFWA for more articles and updates. My next guest post will be a “hit list” for authors about things to include on a website, so stay tuned.

Write First, Sell Later

Before I ever started working in online marketing, I was a writer. I’ve always been surrounded by words and music, so the creative side to me has always been there. The thing of it is, I didn’t realize that writing professionally meant thinking of it as a “job” until much later — even though I did go to school “to be a writer.” So, there’s a voice in my head that is always trying to figure out what market a short story I’m writing may fit into or whether or not I’ll reach the “right” agent for “Argentum.” While this is a necessary process for an professional to go through, no amount of researching, marketing or selling your work can replace your polished words on the page. In other words, unless you’re writing a pitch, don’t worry about selling a story until it’s finished.

If you follow my blog, you know that Argentum will be my first, full-length novel but not my first published work by any means. Many of my fellow authors have reminded me that I should focus on polishing a finished novel instead of worrying whether or not it will sell in the past, few months. Admittedly, it’s taken a while to sink in this time. Why? Even though I absolutely love to write fiction, it doesn’t pay my bills or keep a roof over my head. I am not a full-time novelist, so my perspectives may be different than someone who writes books for a living. At the heart of my issue, is a question: Am I wasting my professional time by writing a novel that may (or may not) be sold?

That question is part of the reason why I am so concerned about selling my work, because I have to make do with the time I have available to me. Writing a full-length novel that may (or may not) get sold does take a considerable amount of time and energy. In other words, that’s time I could be spending writing for projects that I know have a better chance of getting published. Do I feel the experience is worth it? Absolutely. Would I change my decision? No way! Still, I’ve realized that by worrying about the novel’s “possibilities” I’ve actually wasted more time because I wasn’t spending my time working on the novel.

My story may not be your story, but I believe that the moral of it is still the same. Just like I can’t sell a novel I haven’t finished revising yet, don’t try to sell a story you haven’t written or worse — in your excitement try to oversell your work by declaring how “good” of a writer you are. (Believe me, that will only earn you an eye roll rather than a contract.)

My advice for today is this: please remember to finish and polish whatever you’re working on before you try to sell it. You’ll end up looking less like an amateur and more like a professional.




Looking for Monica’s books and games that are still in print? Visit Monica Valentinelli on Amazon’s Author Central or a bookstore near you.

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