Monday, July 4, 2011

Writing for Bucks

Kathy: I’m posting this time with Red looking over my shoulder. Please!

Red: Well, you have me sitting in a chaise lounge on cruise ship right now (in the next novel – Red is An Attitude) so what else have I got to do?

Kathy (heavy sigh): Soak up a little sun while I tell the folks my theory on writing for sales versus writing for craft.

Red: Crap?

Kathy: No! C-R-A-F-T

Red: Geez, you don’t have to be like that! Go ahead – I’ll just lie here quietly.

Kathy: That will be the day. Anyway, I read a tweet from a writer yesterday saying she was all about craft, not sales. Basically, she was announcing she was above the new John Locke plan to sell books on Amazon. Really?

Red: You go girl! I hope you told her like it is.

Kathy (shaking off Red’s interjection): No, actually, I didn’t. I thought about it overnight and realized she’s totally bought into the whole publishing biz hype. Craft is all well and good – and who’s to say these books HAVEN’T been highly crafted anyway – but bottom-line: Craft doesn’t necessarily sell books.

That means readers never see your finely crafted words. So, sales are important, aren’t they?

Red: Right! Anyone with any brains could figure that one out.

Kathy: Thank you for your support, Red. Now, may I continue?

Red: You may.

Kathy: Secondly – if you’re a writer that has to support yourself in another way (until you manage to start selling books) you’ll relate to this one. You have to have time to write! At least, in any volume. I love to write – LOVE it. But I’m often too tired to do anything when I get home from work.

Red: I can relate.

Kathy: I would love to sit down and whip off a few pages, but really – even if I’m not too tired, I often have a hard time transitioning from the hard-core business side of my brain to the creative side.

Red: Hard core?

Kathy: You know what I mean. Anyway, so selling enough books to live modestly and write for a living – now that’s heaven on earth. THEN I’ll sit down and write the dozen or so books that are floating around in my head that the world would deem more literary.

Red: Just a dozen?

Kathy: In the meantime, I’m writing to entertain the masses. My hero – Janet Evanovich.

Red: Now, she can entertain.

Kathy: I’m just saying.

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