Erasing the Stigma of Self-Publishing

If you read this blog, you know all about the stigma of self-publishing. I won't waste your time rehashing the debate. We know that there are gems in the indie publishing world and we like to dig them up. Every so often, one of the traditional publishing companies realizes that they're out there too and snatches them up.

Really. It happens.

For instance, Kristen Tsetsi had two books picked up by an undisclosed publisher. Kristen's novel, Homefront was one of those two books and it was reviewed here by Podler three years ago.

Good things come to those who persevere. Congratulations, Kristen!

News: Inside the Writer’s Studio

Kristen Tsetsi and R.J. Keller have joined forces and created Inside the Writer’s Studio. They have a Facebook page.

Authors Kristen Tsetsi and R.J. Keller like to make videos when they should be writing. Their show is called "Inside The Writers' Studio."

They are Paper Rats: http://www.twitter.com/paperrats

Self-publishing symposium: Kristen Tsetsi

How does self-publishing differ from traditional publishing?

I haven't had a book traditionally published, so there's a lot of information I don't have that would allow me to make a sound comparison, but I can tell you why, after having self-published, I'd like to be traditionally published.

As I understand it, having a book traditionally published means 1. People take the book more seriously immediately 2. (this includes reviewers normally not accessible to those who self-publish) 3. the book shows up in bookstores - the real ones that have people walking in, perusing

On the other hand, self-publishing is faster, gives the author complete control over everything from fonts to cover art, and cuts out the middleman.

Of course, the only time you don't want a middleman is when you're making real money from book sales. Most self-published authors don't.

Do self-published book review blogs help to raise the reader awareness of self-published books?

I believe yes. Internet blogs, articles, and websites are the biggest marketing tool self-published writers have when it comes to spreading word about the work.

How do you respond to the following statement?--Self-publishing is not a serious way to get one's work into print now and never will be.

I'd have to ask how "serious" is defined. And if I came to agree that it's currently not a serious way to get one's work into print (and it's not likely I would agree), I'd then have to question the use of the word "never."

Has the golden age of self-publishing already passed or is it yet to come?

It seems to have just begun.

What about the challenges posed to the self-published writer by having to promote and edit his or her own book?

As I understand it from authors who have published traditionally, the challenges are similar for all who want people to read their work. Every author should spend as much time editing her/his own writing as possible, whether self-publishing or handing it off to an editor connected with a publisher. Promotion, too, is something traditionally published writers have said is largely left up to them, as well. "They" say publishers aren't doing as much author promotion as they used to.

The challenge is real: it's difficult to simultaneously market and write. Both require creativity, but they require it in different ways, and each begs for full attention. I'm learning it comes down to time management. It's not easy, but it's do-able.

Why is it that a self-published author has yet to emerge into national recognition as a self-published author? (As opposed to being given a mainstream publishing contract after a self-published book attracts attention.)

My guess is that self-published authors simply have yet to be taken seriously. Until a traditional publisher accepts the work, it's not "real." Nor is it "good." Many still view self-published writers as those who can't write; if they could, they would be traditionally published. (Look here for a conversation/debate with with author J.A. Konrath about this popular belief.)

Has the experience of self-publishing changed the way you write? (If you have self-published. )

I wish I had a more interesting answer, but no. Anyone who writes writes the best way they can.

However - if anything, it's possible self-publishing allows some writers to be truer to themselves and their writing because they're focused on just that: the writing. They're not worrying about how to please an editor and/or a publisher, whether the manuscript will be accepted, about what will sell, and then allowing that to influence the story or how it's told.

 

Kristen Tsetsi is the author of Homefront

Find her at,

www.kristentsetsi.com
www.backwordbooks.com

Where Are they Now: Kristen Tsetsi

Another writer whose work Homefront was reviewed by the original Podler blog was the talented Kristen Tsetsi. Here's what she wrote in response to the burning question--

Since having Homefront reviewed by PODler, I've begun a new novel, The Year of Dan Palace. It's been slow-going. Work and life got in the way for a while...I started Palace shortly after Homefront's review, and shortly after that moved to Connecticut and became a newspaper staff writer. And it's difficult—for me, at least—to write fiction after a day filled with other writing. I've since left the job, however, and am happily once again able to immerse myself in a fiction zone. In the time since Homefront's review I've also founded and currently co-edit Tuesday Shorts, an online journal of very short fiction that includes original pieces by Jacquelyn Mitchard, Kris Saknussemm, and Richard Grayson—who, incidentally, was also reviewed in The PODler. I also began work as a freelance correspondent for online magazine Women's eNews, and will co-edit American Fiction, an anthology of fiction by emerging writers (deadline March 15 - visit www.newriverspress.com or Tuesday Shorts for prize amounts and guidelines). [/plug] When in need of a break from the characters I'm working on in Palace, I write short pieces for Six Sentences.

As always, be sure to support this and other talented independent writers whose work was reviewed by the blog by purchasing their work.

Shop Talk

What’s better than writing advice from a working writer? Therefore, as an extra special summer feature, we at the PODler present Kristen Tsetsi’s article on writing.



Advice for People Who Take Writing Advice
by Kristen Tsetsi

Books offering writing tips and advice stuff four shelves at my local Barnes and Noble. Magazine articles galore offer very specific, very important rules to follow for people who want to be writers. If you're reading those articles, you might be new to writing—maybe you suddenly developed an interest after years of believing you were meant to be a tax attorney, or maybe you’re young and just discovering your passion. For whatever reason, you’re advice-starved, and “seasoned” writers (myself included) are all too happy to offer nuggets of wisdom.

Here’s the thing about writing advice, though: the tips are as varied and arbitrary as hiccup cures. Remember Jennifer Mee, the poor girl who had the hiccups for five weeks? She tried everything from downing pickle juice to drinking water from the wrong side of the glass to pressing a post-it sized piece of paper to her forehead.

A piece of paper. On her forehead. To stop weeks of hiccups.

Be serious.

(DISCLAIMER: I'M NO DOCTOR-->)My personal theory on hiccup cures and their diverse nature is that, often, hiccup cures are largely psychological and unique to the individual. Your pickle juice might be my paper-on-forehead. Why? Because it’s all dependent upon what each believes will work. While Meggie is being scared out of her wits by a helpful friend sick of listening to her “buggup! buggup!,” what’s the one thing she’s not thinking about?

Hiccups!

When Marc drinks water while holding a pencil in his mouth, he’s so busy trying not to spill that the feeling we all probably get, that nagging little lurch that comes just before the next hiccup, is forgotten. (When you have hiccups, do you ever anticipate that next one so intently that you almost encourage it?)

When I have a case of the hiccups, I avoid thinking about them. I do something else. This gets rid of them, for me. And, like anyone else with sure-fire remedies, my own hiccup “cure” has been given freely and often. “Just stop thinking about them,” I say oh-so-wisely. “They’ll go away.”

And do they?

No. My cure only works on me.

The same can be said for writing advice. Before I get into that, I should make clear that I’m not talking about writing instruction. If you’re reading an instructional book on writing, don’t stop. There is valuable information inside those covers, tools to help you develop your characters, create a setting, weave your setting into your story, weave your characters into your setting and story, and adjust your narrative to match the weaving of your characters and setting and story. All that.

Instruction ranges from basic (Creative Writing: Forms and Techniques, Lavonne Meueller and Jerry D. Reynolds) to more involved (Josip Navakovich’s Fiction Writers Workshop), and much of it is sound information to take with you through the various stages you’ll experience as a writer. Not enough can be said about exercises, either (What If? by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painteris a wonderful book of exercises). They not only encourage you to get writing, but they’re often invaluable to the growth of your skill as they force concentration on very specific elements.

For example (if I may sidestep for a moment): One of my favorite exercises in What If? is to write a scene using only one-syllable words. This exercise does a few things:

1. it introduces the notion that a good story relies not on your fabulous knowledge of multi-syllabic words, but on how convincing you can be with a limited vocabulary.

2. it asks you to be very, very disciplined—it ain’t easy sticking to monosyllabic words for a single sentence, never mind a whole scene!

3. it’s fun!

No matter how naturally talented you are, there is always something to be learned. For this reason, instructional books on how to improve your skill are often worth taking into consideration.

But advice? That’s another story.

Hang around writers or dabble in the writing world long enough and you’ll hear it all.

1. When to write. (First thing in the morning. An hour after you wake up. At the same time every day. At a different time every day. When you’re all alone in the house/apartment. When you can hear welcome noises through the door. After dinner. Just before going to sleep. At midnight when your mind is clear of the day’s stresses. At three in the morning when no one in the world except third-shift workers are crazy enough to be awake on purpose.)

2. How often to write. (Once a day. Once every two days. Once a week. Every other Thursday.)

3. How much to write. (One thousand words. Two hundred words. Three single-spaced pages. A sentence.)

4. How often and how much to write. (A thousand words a day. One sentence every day. Two pages every two days, even if one of those days you write nothing…so long as you end up with two pages every other day.)

5. How often, how much, and when to write. (Two pages every second Thursday at seven-thirty in the morning!)

And not to be forgotten are the personal essentials:

1. Where your writing space should be. (In the middle of things. Off somewhere private. Half and half.)

2. What your writing space should be. (Small and cozy to keep your ideas close. Large, open, and airy to let your mind roam free. Neat and organized, as should you be! Cluttered and comfortable—creativity knows no rules!)

3. Final touch-ups. (Books around you. A nice pen. Soft music. No music. Open window. Closed window, shades down. Pickle-juice on your forehead and a post-it in your mouth.)

Here’s my advice:

1. When to write: when you want to.
2. How often to write: as often as you want to.
3. How much to write: until you feel like stopping.
4. How often and how much to write: see #2 and #3.
5. How much, how often, and when to write: see #1 - #4.
6. Where and what your writing space should be: wherever and whatever appeals to you. (I’ll write in one spot at no certain time of day for months, and then I’ll simply have to be in a new room if I’m to feel inspired at all.)

No one knows you the way you do, and you—as a cognizant being—are probably very aware of what makes you comfortable, when you do or don’t feel inspired, and what you like to have around you. What works for one writer will not work for others. Take Hemingway and Fitzgerald, for instance - drinking "worked" for them. J. D. Salinger is a noted recluse, and look what his “method” did for Catcher in the Rye!


The point I’m making, here, is that most successful writers don’t follow the advice of other writers. They do what they do because it comes naturally to them. If they enjoy writing in the morning, they write in the morning. If they need to write a page a day to keep the juices flowing, they write a page a day. It’s not a conscious following of any set rule, more often than not, but is as simple as, “I really like to have a glass of water handy when I’m writing. I think I’ll do that!”

And, in many cases, they come to believe so much in what works for them that they want to share. They genuinely want to help others.

Understandable – we all want to try to help, and the several thousand hiccup cures that came by way of phone calls and emails to help poor Jennifer Mee prove it.

She tried each and every “cure,” she said, but in the end, not one piece of outside advice got rid of her hiccups.

They just stopped naturally.


Kristen Tsetsi has an MFA from Minnesota State University Moorheadand. Her fiction has been published in The Midtown Literary Review, Expository Magazine, Storyglossia, Denver Syntax, Opium Magazine, Red Weather Magazine and They Do Exist: An Anthology of Award Winning Short Stories. She runs a short short fiction venue Tuesday Shorts at http://www.myspace.com/tuesdayshorts. You can learn more about her work at http://kristenjtsetsi.com/

Homefront by Kristen Tsetsi (A)

Homefront deals with the emptiness in Mia’s life after her boyfriend, Jake, is deployed to Iraq. A literary novel, it shies away from lurid plot in favor of the use of language to evoke the protagonist’s inner struggle. Kristen Tsetsi is certainly in great command of language and craft, which should not be surprising—her fiction has been published in Storyglossia and other respectable venues.

Mia’s struggle with herself, manifested in loneliness and confusion, is a common one, affecting many women whose men are deployed abroad. But Mia’s struggle is made harder not by the potential temptations to her fidelity to Jake but by the breadcrumbs left here and there that lead Mia to question just how well she really knows Jake. Consequently, a sense of foreboding weaves through the story, revealing that the relationship between Mia and Jake is troubled, uncertain, and perhaps ultimately fatally flawed. Certainly it seems to be missing in action in the end of the story.

There is a kind of apathy, too, in Mia’s character. She seems to wax and wane, developing a relationship with Donny “Doc” Donaldson, a Vietnam era alcoholic vet, yet this relationship does not go anywhere. Mia seems stuck, unsure of where she stands with Jake, and unwilling to outright betray him.

Like the war front, Homefront is a place of struggle, this one taking place in the hearts and minds of those left behind, and like in real combat, feelings and relationships can become missing in action. This is a thoughtful and elegant book; the writing immersive, evocative, and polished; the structure reflecting the sense of dislocation and of something missing in Mia’s life.

She is one of them, one of the others. The man she cares about is here, safe with her. She can’t understand about dusk, the sun’s evil teasing. The time of evening too far from sleep and an ‘x’ across another day, but too close to darkness and the hollow air of no conversation that amplifies the TV sounds of over-acted dialogue and rehearsed applause. Denise doesn’t know the taunting, subtle fade that cues the lighting of yellow windows, the drawing of curtains to hide people living normal lives, eating dinner, yelling top floor to bottom about who wants milk and where are the scissors. She would have little to say about time spent staring out the window at shapeless clouds and cracked sidewalks and meticulously trimmed shrubs, all of it so cheerful and commonplace while over the rooftops and trees and a plane-ride away, “everyday” is mission-planning and mortar fire and grass is something they might find tucked in the fold of a letter.