Belated birthday wishes for Keats...

[slashweaver]

Oh dear! It was such a Merlin weekend that I completely failed to do a Keats post on his birthday, 31 October. He was a decent person and had a gift for friendship, though, so I am counting on the notion that he'd forgive me. And I did think about him on The Day, and talk about him, look at one of his portraits...

And I have Jane Campion's film Bright Star to look forward to. It finally opens here on Friday. Hurrah!

So last you all heard, I had sent my novel out to agents. It's been either rejections or silence since then - though one of the rejections was handwritten, so kudos to that woman! I have yet to stir my confidence up enough to send it out for round two. And it does occur to me that if I don't have the self-belief necessary to keep circulating it, then am I really just asking for trouble, even wanting to be a published author... Mmm... {ponders}

An alternative is that I convert it to a screenplay for a one-off drama, and send it to the BBC writersroom. This is the central place for the massive BBC organisation that handles input from wannabe writers. And if they think a script is worth anything at all, apparently they give good feedback. Well, I can just see a BBC production of my Keats novel - especially with Colin Morgan (who could play anyone he wanted to as far as I'm concerned) in the role of Byron (six foot tall and profile of an angel). OK, seriously though, and leaving Colin aside for now - I can just see it. And I could add a P.S. - 'Please let me write for Merlin, too. Please, I'm begging you, I'll do anything.'

Or maybe I stick to fan fic! After all, it gives far more scope for sex scenes. :-D

Much to ponder at the moment. In the meantime - Happy belated birthday, Junkets! We love you still.

Comments

[ender24]

I was wondering, have you ever thought about self-publishing??
or is it something entirely impossible ?

I have no idea how the whole industry works, but I thought, int his age and era, with all the print on demand, and whatsover, and even printed fanzines being sold as PDF, or for Kindle, and with original fic websites, that works on paid subscription and all that, going through publishers must be surely not the only way??

[slashweaver.livejournal.com]

Hello, Ender! So very nice to hear from you. :-)

I have indeed thought about it, and I even had my own little book publishing business back in Australia, so I have some experience in this regard. But that experience reinforced something I already kind of knew - I have very little talent for the marketing and selling side of things, and it is pretty much way outside my comfort zone. And no matter how good a book is, it needs to be marketed and 'sold' if it's to get beyond a small circle of friends and family. 'Word of mouth' is the best possible method of marketing, but you need to generate it in the first place, and follow up on it afterwards.

If someone else publishes me, they take on the bulk of the responsibility for sales and marketing. I'd still have to do my bit, but they would shoulder a burden that I could never usefully take on.

Of course, I could just 'publish' it here via my lj, and I'm sure a handful of my friends would enjoy it. But then what would happen? It would just die a death. And while it would be nice to share it with my friends, it would also be kind of a waste of a novel. Because this one is it - this one is my best chance of actually getting professionally published. This is about as mainstream as I can get!

I really appreciate your support and your input, hon, but I think I need to gird my loins and continue down this path... ♥