I have a terrible confession to make

'50 Shades of Grey' began as a self-published e-book.

EL James has earned many, many, many millions of dollars from it.

The 'Twilight' series started as a piece of fan fiction.

Publishing models have been upended.

 

That's singing for me.

 

I mentioned "The Martian" earlier, which I believe began as a vanity published book.

 

Exactly! There's no telling which thing gets launched on which platform into some spectacular orbit.

All the rules have changed.

 

'The Martian' seems a bit different, but I'd consider '50 Shades' and 'Twilight' to be genre fiction.
Seems to be a lot of that out there in e-publishing that started as self-published stuff.

I'm not putting genre fiction down, at all, nor am I passing judgment on Ragu.
He just doesn't strike me, based on his SJ.com persona solely, as the genre fiction type.

 

And they're both absolute tripe.

"The Martian" is another thing entirely. Well written, well researched, human and intelligent.

 

I'd love to write, but I don't have the self discipline to be successful at it. I also don't know that the ideas I have rattling around in my head would be viable to drive an entire book.

I'm acquainted with John Ringo, who writes Military Science Fiction at a bestseller level. He's written 43 books since 2000, none at less than 300 pages and some substantially more. He currently has at least five series of novels active. I follow him on FB and hit his blog once in a while. Sure, absolutely it's genre fiction, but his plots are innovative and his characterization is pretty good.

His writing process is amazing to me. He's always got several ideas developing in his head, and in some cases he starts writing chapters and snippets so that he does not lose what he has come up with, but as a general rule what happens is that his muse kicks in and he sits down and bangs out most of a book. His classic pattern is to go out on his back porch in midwinter with some cigars and his laptop and bang out 80-100k words in maybe a weekend, then edit and tighten it. When the book is baked in his head, he downloads it into his laptop. He might then go for months doing the odd snippet and false start while his brain digests and plots until the next one is ready to decant. I find it amazing. I could never do that. I'd have to outline a bit, do some research and think and plot, and then write to the outline although not necessarily from chapter one to twenty-five chronologically.

He's an absolute brute when he's rolling.

 

Of course they are.

But that's part of the point, I think. That you never know what will work commercially and what won't.

There's a market for everything, and now, thanks to the internet, a mechanism to reach it.

 

Another encouragement for some folks here.

Charles Chadwick published his first novel, to great literary acclaim, at the age of 72.

It's never too late.

Keep writing.

 

This is very true. Writing is one of those rare human endeavours that allows you to be the best you ever were on the day you die.

 

Sitting in my coffee shop and at 26,172 words, a hair over target. Just submitted the first three chapters, about 18,000 well-polished words, to the publisher for her approval. A little nervous about it. She hasn't read a word yet. That's a big blow if she wants a rewrite.

The waiting is the hardest part.

 

Do you see one more card, like, every day?