So spam on a blog is a given, I suppose, so really, why get all angsty about it? The world wide web is just that web of people all across the world, and we all have our own reasons and motivations for what we do here.
Some of us write blog posts we hope will attract interested readers for information or amusement, others have quite different reasons for delving around the blogging world. The Spammers, for instance, want to get more people visiting their own blog, so drop links to it almost at randome, with comments that don’t necessarily make any sense at all, to my mind.
But then I am an Australian, and English is the language I use, while I suspect many spammers I meet on my blogs have a language other than English as their first language. Well done to them for trying, I suppose.
I don’t get angry about such unwanted comments, I just check my blogs, when I think of it, and delete such comments. And sometimes I have to admit, I have a giggle at the ‘mis-writings’ I read there!
And to be honest, the way my blogs are not attracting many comments at all sometimes, even a bit of spam is welcome, it gives me something to read … How sad is that little confession? Never mind, I have new platform to write on, and it’s far more interactive than blogging on WordPress is.
The new platform is Medium, and this is a link to my most recent post there: link Why not take a look at the site, maybe you could make tiny little bits of money there too! That comment will make more sense after you’ve read my post on Medium …
As a writer, I don’t say, traditional publishing is dead, and Self-Publishing has taken over. I am a user of both, to get my written words into books, published and presented to the world.
I have books published in both ways, and while I have made the most money from a traditionally published book, my self-published book sales have done far better that just paying for themselves.
Some of my published books … author’s photo
So books … with traditionally published books, somebody else, the publisher, is the one who does most of the work to bring the books into the world, putting it all together, and getting in printed, then doing some book promotion, one hopes so anyway. The author may or may not be involved in the promotion of the book, but in the interests of book sales, it’s best if they do …
With self-publishing, it is the author who takes on all of the roles of the traditional publisher, as well as the writing of the words that make the book. And they then take over all of the marketing and promotion of that book too.
Book marketing, getting books into libraries and book stores is not an easy thing, but bit by bit, I’m slowly learning a little bit about it, and I know I am capable of speaking to an audience about my books and writing, so that aspect of promotion doesn’t scare me, I enjoy it, in fact.
At the moment, I have two books on the verge of being published. One is a self-published anthology, on the subject of Covid-19, titled “Plague Invasion”. It is a fine book, and will be launched at the Gawler and Adelaide Plains Festival of Words (Recovery), an annual event my writing group, Adelaide Plains Poets Chapter and Verse, is running for the sixth year, in late July.
The other book is one I submitted to a traditional publisher, Ginninderra Press, who have published two of my poetry collections so far. I am happy with the results of their work, with those two books, and look forward to working with them again, when my new collection “Leonard Cohen is dead” comes out in the first half of next year.
In my self-publishing role, I worked hard at getting the new book put together, asking for submissions last year, and considering all received, to make a worthy collection showing many aspects of this horror pandemic the world is suffering … It will be an important book, historically, and I hope I can do it justice … I’ve had good people working with me, and will have more assistance into the future in promoting the book, I am sure.
I have a printer, a local business, who I’ve worked with getting my self-published books printed, and I am completely happy with their work, so am using them again for the anthology. Next week, or the week after, I expect I will visit them, and hand over the final draft of the book, and then they will do their work, and not too long after, I will have books, as many as I can afford, and expect to sell …
That is the difficult part of being a self-publisher for me, being able to afford paying for the books to come into be printed. My time taken in producing the books, though the hours are many, doesn’t cost me any actual money, I do the work because I enjoy doing it, and I hope to reap benefits from book sales.
The best part about having books to sell though, whether traditionally published ones or self-published, is actually talking to the people who are purchasing a book from me. Obviously, I do a lot more of that, with the self-published books, because I am the one selling the book to them, not a more anonymous book shop.
That first traditionally published book of mine, which first came out many years ago, still brings me money, in the form of Educational Lending Rights, every year, based on the number of that book (titled “My Dog”), are held in school libraries. And easy way to make passive income, if the book gets purchased by the schools …
The books in the photograph, are from my Writer in Residence gig, which I do every Monday morning (not public holidays), and I get occasional book sales doing that. The books there are some of my books, not quite all of them, and I’ve been wondering whether or not I should be having more copies of one of my books published …
I might wait a bit longer on that decision, and see if I make money to do that, from the anthology coming out in July … Ah decisions, decisions! Money in, money out!
So overall, I can’t say which is the better publishing method, both are different, and the type of book may do better with one over the other. Self-publishing is frustrating when there problems, but it’s fun, when it goes well!
I’d love to hear from other writers about their experiences with both of these two forms of publishing, please leave comments!
So my adventures with a new writing platform Medium, are earning me tiny bits of money, so far, anyway, but who knows what may happen further on, if I keep up with it. But having that place to share my words easily is great, and I’m enjoying the challenge of writing and posting things often.
Today, I’ve just posted an article about my life, and I’m quite happy with what I wrote. This is the link to it – the article is about my life, as I said, in particular my fitness, and health, but about Covid-19 too, and the connection with it, to my writing life.
Writing regularly helps the words to come, and I’ve certainly been pumping out the articles on Medium, and slowly but sure, the numbers are looking better and better. I like getting paid for my writing, even tiny little bits of money!
Yes I’m a writer, but I’m a wife, daughter, mother, dog lover, community person, and many other things too. I am also a person living with Multiple Sclerosis.
As that last one, I’ve just begun fundraising for the MS Society SA & NT, and held an event at the most recent Gawler Poets at the Pub event on the last Sunday of April. A reasonable amount of money was raised, and I say thank you to everyone there who helped with giving my fundraising a good boost!
I’ve set myself the target of raising $1000 by the end of May, and currently have more than $220, so I’m on the way, but I have to keep moving with it, or my efforts will peter out, and not be as exciting (and useful) as I’m hoping for.
I’ve never really done a big fundraising thing before, and I’m grateful for the help from my writing colleagues, the MS society, and the two venues I attend regularly, the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler, and Gallery 14 in Hamley Bridge, who have assisted me with this.
I will have my official collection tin, and brochures and stickers, and I will be chatting with people about how MS is for me, and how it can be for other people, some of whom have far worse symptoms than I currently am having.
My MS life is not that much of a trouble at the moment, my medication is easy to take (one tablet a day) and it seems to be working well for me. I live a relatively stress-free life, and try to eat a nutritionally sound diet (most of the time, oops with that lovely waffle the other day at the Prince Albert Hotel! It was worth it!)
So yes, I am now a fundraiser, and will be for all of May, if you see me, ask me about MS, and if you can, put some money in my tin. Raising awareness is important as well as raising money. Did you know that of the people in Australia with MS, 3 out of 4 of them are women? And even though men are less likely to have MS than women are, men tend to be more badly affected than women …
Why is this so? Who knows, not me, but I’d love to chat with people about some of my ideas on the subject, and others, relating to MS!
OK, so if you know me and my writing, you may well know what the Anthology mentioned in the heading of this post is. For those who don’t know, this particular is possibly the biggest and most important writing thing I’ve done yet.
The Anthology is “Plague Invasion” subtitled “Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”. I put out a call for submissions to this project last year, and the submissions rolled in, and kept on rolling in right up to the end date for it. I was overrun by an amazing variety of fantastic works all about Covid-19, the thing that has turned so many things upside down, and sideways.
So I had poetry, and prose, fiction and non fiction, and had to organise it all in a way that makes sense, and is easy enough to navigate for the interested reader. I could have gone with ‘theme’, but that would have been beyond me in terms of the work that might require, and I feel that may be limiting to some extent anyway.
Instead, I took the easiest way, and split the anthology in two sections, Poetry first, then Prose. And the pieces are in alphabetical order, based on the surname of the relevant writer. Simple, easy to work with and now almost all done!
I’ve spoken with the printer I wanted to use, and they have agreed to do the work, and have seen a first draft of the anthology, as has the person I approached for a foreword for the book, who has done that, and sent it to me, so is in the anthology, and the same for the person I approached for the back blurb.
So, I have the back cover done, a front cover on the way and almost done, and almost all of the inside matter of the book in place and ready. The next thing I needed to get done was getting the official agreement to publish, from each contributor, which is almost all done.
Most of the pieces in the book are from Australian poets and writers, but it was a thrill to get great works from writers overseas as well. Having such responses adds to the anthology, in terms of greater ‘oomph’ and cachet. it adds to the cost of sending the free copy out to each contributor too, of course, but I’m fine with that, and feel further book sales will cover that.
Contributors will be able to purchase further copies at a reduce rate, and the book will be available for purchase by the public, and libraries. So obviously i am going to have to be the book marketer, as well as the editor, and contributor also. And for such an important work, I am more than happy to put money into the project.
So, there is a date set in place for the launch of the book, and as soon as I have this anthology with the printer, (which will happen by mid next week, I hope), I will announce the details of when and where “Plague Invasion” will be launched. I’m so close to announcing this, it is exciting, and feels incredible that little old me, could achieve such a big and important thing!
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 