Angry GeraldLeave a comment

Angry Gerald

Gerald

How long is it since I posted to this blog? Oops. I’ll never be considered an authorpreneur. Aaaaaggghhhh! Perhaps I should explain. I don’t like the term “authorpreneur”. Yuck. Especially when it’s pronounced author prenewer. Double yuck. To me, it starts to push our noble profession towards, and maybe even over the border of, internet marketing. How to sell more books. How to build your tribe. Use social media to drive your sales. Why you need an email list. And other marketing nonsense. Yes, all this stuff is of some importance, but to me, writing is the number one thing here. … Continue reading Angry Gerald

100kwords100days, My writing, ThinkingLeave a comment

Look at me, blogging an’ that

Gerald

I seem to be doing better on my interaction with people lately. Which is not very secret code for hanging around on social media a lot. Anyway, last night I brought my wordcount spreadsheet up to date. I keep my own Excel spreadsheet, recording my daily wordcounts on various projects. It’s a good idea, so I can try to keep myself on track, and give myself motivation. It also allows me to track my endeavours on various writing challenges (I love a good challenge, me). So, after adding up the blog posts I’ve written (few of which have seen the … Continue reading Look at me, blogging an’ that

Publishing, Self-publishing, ThinkingLeave a comment

Final, final update

Gerald

And with this, I really do promise to move on. Ros Barber was written a blog post. You can (and should) read it here: http://rosbarber.com/you-one-me/ In it, she tells the story of how she came to write *that* article, and of some of the ‘feedback’ she’s received from it. I have written a reply, but I don’t know if it will get approved. I hope so. I shall put it here as well, just in case (for some reason, I can’t copy and paste it from there, so here’s a screencap) (and it’s not particularly well-written, and unedited) I didn’t agree … Continue reading Final, final update

Publishing, Self-publishingLeave a comment

Update on the Guardian self-publishing article

Gerald

Not that I’m obsessed about this nonsense in any way whatsoever. But … I was wandering around Facebook spending 90% of my time telling people to BUY MY BOOK because, well, that’s what all us self-publishers do, isn’t it? Anyway, someone appeared who I thought was Ros Barber, but wasn’t, so I decided to have a shufty at her page. Of course, a few people (who almost certainly haven’t a clue what they’re talking about) agree on what an absolutely awful idea self-publishing is, and up pops the following comment: So there we have it. Controversial article = lots of “engagement”. … Continue reading Update on the Guardian self-publishing article

Publishing, Thinking2 Comments

It’s not often I get annoyed …

Gerald

For me, writing is a delight, and allows me to create characters and worlds out of thin air. And then I read the following article: http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2016/mar/21/for-me-traditional-publishing-means-poverty-but-self-publish-no-way And it made me angry. Because, yet again, here is a traditionally-published author pouring scorn and derision on the world of self-publishing, and making the same old clichéd statements that trad authors, publishers, and the whole traditional publishing industry spew forth. Go read it, and come back here. Because, in the great tradition of Joe Konrath http://jakonrath.blogspot.co.uk/, we’re going to do some fisking http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fisking * I exploded the myth of the wealthy writer. Only … Continue reading It’s not often I get annoyed …

AccountabilityLeave a comment

19 days in – how are those targets?

Gerald

I suppose one of my ‘start of year’ targets (see http://gerald-hornsby.com/blog/2015/12/31/welcome-2016/) should have been to make myself more accountable. Well, here goes. How am I doing? ✔︎ 1. to write one short story a week for the whole year (a.k.a. the Bradbury Challenge) Yes! I’ve written 4 shorts in my linked series, and 7 (yes, seven!) pieces of flash fiction, one of which will be uploaded one day soon. ✔︎ 2. to write 100,000 words @ 1,000 words a day (a.k.a. #100kwords100days Yes! I’m doing well, and certainly up to date, and in fact, slightly ahead. I also doing a 365k … Continue reading 19 days in – how are those targets?

Thinking, Writing on WritingLeave a comment

Moan, moan, complain, complain …

Gerald

Once again, I’m inclined to write about the ability (or otherwise) of writers to achieve commercial success and / or recognition for their writing. This follows complaints from some would-be authors: a) An indie author complains that their books aren’t selling enough to enable them to give up work and write full time. b) An unpublished author complains about continuing rejections from agents and publishers. Both complainants stated that they’d been working hard for some time to produce the best books they could, and they’d paid out for editing services – one of them, a considerable amount, well into four … Continue reading Moan, moan, complain, complain …

My writing, Thinking1 Comment

Welcome, 2016

Gerald

So, here we are again. Another New Year – countries to the East of us here in the UK have dropped into 2016 already. So in this increasingly globalised society, we are all in the New Year. Sort of. None of us knows what lies in store for us, as individuals, as a country, as a society. And yet, each year, we make resolutions – promises to ourselves, made public, to lose weight, exercise more, join a gym, drink or smoke less. All things designed to make us healthier, and maybe to live longer. Inevitably, a lot of these so-called … Continue reading Welcome, 2016

Thinking3 Comments

2015 – what was that all about then?

Gerald

As is common, I’m using this blog post to look back on the year that is past, and then writing another blog post looking forward to the year which is to come. Firstly, let’s see what I achieved in 2015: 1. NaNoWriMo. I ‘won’ NaNo again – my 11th win in 12 attempts, writing over 56,000 words of a political conspiracy thriller. This year, I used a slightly different method of planning the book. I had the whole novel planned out in broad terms in advance, then detailed plans were drawn up a few days in advance of me writing … Continue reading 2015 – what was that all about then?

NaNoWriMo, Writing on WritingLeave a comment

Hitting the wall

Gerald

Hello. I’m Gerald, and I write. I write lots. In my Works In Progress spreadsheet, I have 36 titles. Yes, 36. Over 1.1 million words. But out of all those words and titles, I have only 4 finished first drafts containing just over 200,000 words. Really? Are you kidding me? What’s going on? You may well ask. A lot of those unfinished titles were written as part of NaNoWriMo. So, the big question is: why do I have so much trouble actually finishing off my novels? And the truth is: I don’t know. However … I’m not alone. I watched … Continue reading Hitting the wall