This Is Not That Age

Dear Loyal Type M Reader. Shelley Burbank here on this lovely Friday afternoon, writing from Guam. 

I hope your January has gone okay. I know that doesn't sound very optimistic/enthusiastic, but the way things are going lately, it feels like the best we can hope for is "I'm okay. Are you okay? Do you need any support? Hugs? A giant glass of Chardonnay?" 

I'm okay. 

I was able to successfully upload my novella files to Amazon KDP. I've been wishy-washy about the idea of self-publishing, but I figured this 100-page mystery would be a good test of my ability to assimilate to the publishing landscape circa 2026. Dear Reader, I managed, and I'm happy to report that Strawberry Moon Mystery is officially visible on Amazon, available to pre-order, and the publication date is set for January 28! 

This is a mock-up of a Facebook ad that may end up as a post because . . . Facebook.

This entire Strawberry Moon operation is an experiment in self-publishing AND seeing if offering a shorter story at a lower price will tempt new readers to give Olivia Lively a chance to delight them. I'll keep you all posted on how it plays out for me as I do some but not a ton of marketing. My Facebook ad account is a whole 'nother topic. I made the graphic above using Canva. Facebook is giving me a bit of trouble because of my living in Guam. I just can't go into it right now. I don't have the fortitude. I'm tired of talking [whining] about Big Tech.

But I Have Something Good to Share Here

Sometimes I feel as if I'm being a "Debbie Downer" about the writing life, even though my motivation is to offer clarity, honesty, and realism about the state of publishing right now. I realize that my writer friends out there are all-too aware of the literary landscape, so I'm realizing maybe no one needs to hear me yammer on about it. 

Happily, there's something good that I'd like to share. With all this craziness going on in the industry right now and with me wondering, like SO MANY writers, if there is even a point of pursuing publication, I came to a realization: Even if nothing big ever comes of my writing and publishing life, I am GLAD, at nearly 60 years old, that I spent my life writing. It has been my passion for as long as I can remember. It's given me a focus to my life and so many hours of pleasurable work/practice that I can't be sorry I spent all the hours I did. I've also enjoyed meeting other writers, being part of the community. We learn with and from each other, and I'd like to take that to the next level in my remaining years. 

The biggest takeaway from all this is that I have no intention of stopping, even if there's nothing more in it for me than putting my work up on Amazon and ordering some Print On Demand copies for my own bookshelves. 

In other words, I'm once again approaching writing as an art and a craft, not a paying career. I'm giving up that dream. Artists create, even if no one "buys" it or admires it. Artisans create and strive for perfection, even if there's no real market for the pieces offered. 

For a long, long time I thought this was a cop-out attitude. "It's okay to write for pleasure" seemed like a phrase someone who wasn't serious about the writing craft or didn't have enough talent to succeed would throw out there. Now, I'm embracing this idea again, the writing for pleasure idea, only with one  important (I believe) caveat--storytellers need listeners, and listeners deserve the respect of our best efforts. 

It's not enough to write simply for our own pleasure. We should write with the reader in mind, even if that means one reader. Or two. Or a few hundred. In other words, we should still take our work seriously, the way any serious artist approaches their work, the blank paper, the mound of unformed clay, the musical notes dotting the staff lines, the wool in its raw and unspun state. 

Understanding I am part of a story-telling tradition stretching back thousands of years gives me pride and meaning and hope. It also adds a bit of pressure. Knowing I'm not working to SELL but rather to CREATE, I want to bring beautiful, meaningful books and stories into the world. Not just another throwaway, skim it and toss it, same old-same old book. Not some AI slop. I'm not saying my two novels are throwaways. These books did challenge me in the writing, they do have some thematic elements of which I'm happy, and they are written in a style that doesn't embarrass me. They are solid, decent genre fare. 

But is that the best I can do?

I don't think so. I think the books and the novella are the best I could do at the time, but now I'm excited to stretch even further, and with my new resolve, I can move forward now without having to worry about "writing to market" and current trends and all that jazz we are forced to consider when we actually think we can make money on this gig. 

In other words, I'm free. 

I've given up the stupid capitalist dream of making money from my writing. Yes, I said it. I've always believed in capitalism, but I'm beginning to feel the love of money IS the root of all evil. Some people DO succeed in having a paying career, but it's getting so much harder that honestly? I'd rather go back to worrying about craft and art and a solid style and having something to say...instead of marketing and PR and everything that goes along with trying to exchange story for dollar bills. 

Is This Failure Talking?

Have I simply failed? Maybe. Maybe I should care what everyone else (including you) thinks, but sorry. I don't. 

What I've learned--and what so many publishing insiders and professionals are talking about lately--is that I grew up smack at the apex of the "Golden Age of Publishing," a time when publishing houses gave out decent advances, nourished their authors' careers, and readers gobbled up books like candy. 

This is not that age.

The world has moved on, as Stephen King says in his Dark Tower series. The publishing world has moved on, the wheel has turned, and that is okay. 

I hope that by sharing my new resolve and outlook, others who may be feeling the same about the writing life and their chances of "making it" in this industry will be heartened or even inspired to continue the pursuit of the craft of creative writing, not for money or fame, but for joy of the craft and respect of the reader. Let's focus on crafting the most excellent books and stories and forget about sales and popularity.

The Suspense is Kinda Killing Me

Hello, Friend!

Shelley Burbank here, author of the Olivia Lively, P.I. Mystery Series and currently couch surfer extraordinaire.

At the Atlanta Botanical Garden

I’m writing today from Atlanta, and it seems to be my lot to end up in places without internet on the days I have a Type M blog due. While in Maine, I visit certain people who do not subscribe to any internet service providers, period. To work when I’m there, I drive 15 minutes or so to the small public library where I take over the children’s area table to plug in my Chromebook and log onto their server.

The librarians are kindly older ladies. They don’t seem to mind my being there for hours at a time. I’m grateful.

Here in Atlanta, the internet went down in the whole building last night. It’s a big apartment complex in a nice part of town. So now, a veteran of lost connections and travel, I’m typing this on my phone and will find some way to post. There’s a library branch nearby. The weather is nice. A walk will do me good, plus I’m curious to visit.*

Thank goodness for public libraries!

I tend to take technology/connectivity for granted these days; I bet most of us do. We notice how intertwined we are with the ‘net only when it stops working. It feels like a lost limb. It feels untethered.

In a way, it feels free.

I’m old enough to remember the time before Netscape Navigator and the World Wide Web. When we wrote papers and stories on electric typewriters and listened to music on the radio via airwaves, not streaming. Was life better then? Is it better now? Who can say?

Publishing changed dramatically after the internet and the ebook and Amazon. There are pros and cons. Pro: It’s easier than ever to produce a book and list it for sale, bypassing gatekeepers, and keeping a greater percentage of profits. Con: It’s TOO easy. Everyone is doing it. We have a glut of books. A surfeit of stories. An excess of content. Only a few writers can make a living, ‘cuz capitalism, baby. Supply has vastly outstripped demand to the point a 100k novel is worth less than a Dunkin.

It’s disheartening.

I’ve been thinking about this state of publishing, figuring out my place in the literary ecosystem, wondering whether it’s worth doing anymore. Have I given it my best shot? I haven’t yet put my indie novella project up for sale. I’m reluctant. It’s not the book biz I wanted to be in when I started, back when trad publishing was viable for someone who worked hard and had some talent.

But now I realize that era—roughly mid-20th century to 2010–was a unique period in publishing history. Before the 1900s, authors usually paid to print their own books. Writing itself was time-consuming work, too. No word processors. No spellcheck. Can you imagine hand-writing multiple manuscripts? (On the other hand, newspapers serialized novels and magazine actually paid for stories, so…it’s all relative.)

In some ways, the writing lifestyle we see now is a RETURN of an older way, not a new-fangled situation at all. The tools have changed, that’s all.

(For much more on this, please read The Untold Story of Books by Michael Castleman. It's an excellent history of publishing over the last 600 years. I've read it three times.)

What happens, though, when authorpreneurship depends on the internet working rather than on typesetting by hand and steam-driven printers? What happens when the tools are increasingly held in the hostage-grip of big tech companies? When , at the end of the day, we are “content creators” for the machine?

I wish I had a clear vision of what MAY come beyond this era. I don’t have a crystal ball. However, something like an idea is beginning to form. It’s nebulous. It’s the opposite of rapid release and BookTok. It’s not traditional publishing with the Big Five, either.

It's about being an artisan and creating beautiful pieces that will hold their value over time. Read: don't count on the money. 

In a way, I suppose, my attitude reflects a loss of faith in the literary economy of that earlier era in which I grew up, the 70s, 80s, and 90s, when writers like Stephen King and Danielle Steel could fumble around at first, earn their break, and then go on to establish long, fruitful careers publishing one or two books a year. (Steel now pumps them out every couple of months. Her readers—myself included—don’t seem to mind. Still, she established herself as a name brand back in the 20th century and what we call traditional publishing.)

Back then, mid-list writers who did not become household names like King and Steel still managed to earn a basic living from solid advances and a long tail of backlist royalties—if they stuck it out for a couple decades.

Can't see around the next bend. Can you? 

Those days are over. Something new is ahead. What’s coming? I don’t know, but I can feel it. The hairs on the back of my neck are rising. It could be good. It could be devastating. We’ll know when we know.

The suspense is kinda killing me.
____
*The internet came back before I left the building, so I am now finishing up from the comfort of the couch. I might still walk down to the library just to take a peek.

Moving Forward Toward Indie

Hello from Portland, Maine. Shelley here, waving, but with hopefully a bit more flesh on my bones than the skeleton in the photo below. 

This was taken on a walk around the arts district in Portland on a glorious fall day. Hubby Craig and I had a marvelous time visiting an artist's studio, breakfast at the Miss Portland Diner, a few hours at the Portland Museum of Art, a drink at Novel Book Bar & Cafe, and dinner with friends. 

My Olivia Lively books are set in and around Portland, so whenever I'm there, I feel as if I'm half in the real world and half in the pages of my stories. I sort of feel like I might run into Liv at the coffee shop or strolling through an art gallery with her new friend, artist Emsley Ballard-Monihan, especially when walking in the Bayside area which has been gentrified from industrial warehouse cluster to industrial warehouse chic. 

I've made progress in my indie-publishing experiment. I made an Amazon KDP account which was a fairly simple process (until they asked me to verify my identity and upload my license info. Anytime there is an online form to fill out, the Guam quasi-status as a US territory comes into play. Is it a country? Is it a state of the USA? It's both. And neither. It doesn't play well with online forms and systems.) 

Next, I decided to invest $149 into the lifetime purchase of Atticus software for book formatting. I followed directions on pre-formatting my book in docx first (using styles), and that did, indeed, turn out well. I'm still learning the Atticus software and what it can do, but it is pretty simple. I like the various pre-formatted design templates. You can see how your book looks on various ebook devices plus print. 

The next step will be to print it out for my proofreader. Then I will need to create the full print cover with front and back and spine, make the corrections, and upload all the files to Amazon. So far, I have to say I think I'd rather learn this all myself than pay a hybrid publisher to handle it for me. I'm pretty confident I can do a good job with the design and files as long as I have these tools. The only thing I'll lack is a "publishing company logo." I'm not ready to create an LLC or an official press. Yet. 

That being said, I have so many ideas for books as well as several finished manuscripts just begging for revisions. It is quite freeing to think I can publish them if and when I want so that my loyal readers can enjoy them. 

I hope you are enjoying your October and are finding all kinds of good books to read. 

Here's what I've read lately:

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Shaw Connolly Live to Tell by Gillian French

That Summer by Jennifer Weiner

The Night Strangers by Chris Bohjalian

Currently Reading:

Granny Dan by Danielle Steel

___

Ciao, friends! 

Writing Classes

 Happy Independence Day! We’ve lived through another Arizona June, and now we have to endure July and August and part of September before we can remember why we love Arizona in the first place.

I complain, but it is a dry heat, which truly does make a difference. And I know. Remember that I grew up in eastern Oklahoma, where 98 degrees is accompanied by 98 percent humidity and 98 million mosquitos, gnats, and midges. And cockleburs. And no air conditioning, at least when I was young. (Besides, we walked twelve miles to school in our bare feet and lived in a box in the middle of the road.)

So thank you, Mr. Carrier, for inventing the air conditioner and making life infinitely easier for us Southerners, even if it has made us wimpier. (P.S. I am aware Air conditioning is bad for the environment and try to temper my use. But I do use it, since I can't afford to move to a cooler climate and I don't want to die. And don't blame Mr. Carrier. He didn't know...) 

I'm working on a new book as hard as I can. It's taking longer than usual since it's a new cast of characters and a new setting and I have to take time to get to know them and how they react to the horrible situations I put them in. I'd like to finish by next month. Partly because I made a bet with our beloved previous Type M-er Hannah Dennison that we'd both finish out new novels in August, and partly because I've agreed to act as writer in residence for the Glendale AZ Library system from September through November, and that's going to take most of my time. Because A) I haven't done a Writer in Residence program since the pandemic and I'm going to have to review and update my programs, and B) I live an hour away from Glendale AZ so I'm going to be spending a lot of time traveling.

However, if you live in the northern Phoenix metropolitan area and want to do a deep dive into writing techniques and tips, do come see me in Glendale this fall. 

Speaking of writing classes, The Society of Southwestern Authors—Valley of the Sun Chapter will present a workshop on indie publishing on Sunday, July 28, 2024 at 2 p.m. You can enjoy the FREE workshop at home on Zoom. The Zoom invitation will be sent out twice: one week before the workshop and a reminder two days before.

The workshop will include two handouts, the first being a checklist of important tasks to consider before publication from covers to blurbs. The second is a list of local and national organizations for writers. You’ll receive the handouts along with the first and second  Zoom invitations.

Three speakers who have all published traditionally as well as self-published will share their experiences: DEBORAH J LEDFORD, SUZANNE FLAIG, AND ART KERNS. 

If this sounds like something of interest to you, email Margaret Morse, President of Society of Soutwestern Authors – Valley of the Sun, and she will send you the invitation.