Soul Searching

I wrote Fated Souls because I needed to get the story out. I published it because it was a dream of mine to be published. Knowing other people have read it, even enjoyed it, that the characters that only lived in my mind came alive for someone else, is an amazing feeling. I never expected to become rich or famous. It’s not unlike the endless supply of high school/college athletes and the meager availability of professional contracts. And I’m okay with that because I went in eyes wide open. I’m doing this for my soul; not my bank account.

I guess this is why recent events in the publishing industry have struck at me as heartbreakingly sad: an author who possibly launched an ugly publicity stunt to elevate her book sales; another who insulted her fan base; a third pulled a bait and switch; and then a vicious act of plagiarism. I, like a great many struggling authors I have had the privilege of getting to know the past six months, are scrapping just to get our books noticed.

Reviewers are inundated with new titles daily [I recently got an email from a reviewer saying they’d like to read Fated Souls but it’ll have to wait until October as that’s their waitlist right now]. How are you to make your book stand out from the crowd when the big news on any given day is what next sleazy thing has hit the fan?

Add to this the continuing pro/con debates over traditional/digital publishing; agented vs. non; self-pub or house pub? Big houses are merging and the Nook is dying. Everyone has an opinion and wading through them requires bigger boots than I own.

Somewhere in the middle of all that detritus are BOOKS. I adore these beloved little nuggets of fiction that can pull me into a fantasy with nothing more than a well-crafted sentence. Not just writing but reading.

I want to be a part of THAT club. Not the money hungry, amoral, unethical, break the rules, bend the truth, steal from others, do anything and everything to make it club. If that’s what it takes – screw it.

I like my soul just the way it is.

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

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