Hi Jarrett, You're a stronger willed man than I am! I'm a little bit worried for you at the moment with what you are doing with your manuscript. I understand, from previous posts, that you are going down the self-publishing route, but...
1. If readers download your novel now, why would they want to read the final polished version that you are undoubtedly wanting to "sell" to them?? There may be a few small changes, but they will have already got the whole story in their heads and probably wouldn't notice any changes, unless you come up with a complete new ending...
2. With what happened to Angel Zapata last year and what has again happened to a few writers this year, aren't you worried about plagiarism? Who is to stop someone downloading your whole manuscript, making a few changes and passing it off as their own to an agent and eventually getting it published as part of a "deal"? I know we all risk being plagiarised by posting short stories and flash pieces, but there's a hell of a lot more hard graft goes into a novel, as YOU will know since you've finished one. I'd hate for that to happen!
At the end of the day, Jarrett, we're all striving to be great writers and the reward for hard and sometimes lonely work, is to actually try and make some money out of writing. I'd bet the vast majority of writers would say the same thing. We love writing, but there's only so much that you can give away for free.
I sincerely hope it all comes off for you but I'd rather reward you for your hard work and actually "buy" a copy of your finished book.
Hope I've not offended in any way, Jarrett, but I'd hate to see all your hard work go unrewarded.
No offense at all, David. No worries there. I do worry some that giving this away online may hurt my sales, but I figure that the number of people who will see it free is so far outweighed by the number who won't that it shouldn't be much of an issue. Plus there are people who I'd rather give a copy to than have them by one. You and the other folks who have been around for the re-start of my writing journey when I got real serious about this whole thing are in that group.
As far as plagiarism goes, I don't know that I've given it much thought. I do suppose that it could happen, and if it does then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I'd hope that I've developed enough writing friendships that we could shout down and shame any plagiarists down. I do have every single file of this book on my hard drive in all its different permutations. So I'd hope that I could prove rather easily, if I had to, that the idea was mine and has been developing for a long time. But it's a good point and one I appreciate you raising. What I may do is when the final is ready for publishing take the other versions down. It's definitely something to think about. Thanks for bringing it up.
And, yes, still going the self-publishing route. Still mostly happy with that decision. There is still that small part of me that thinks receiving the approval of the traditional publishing route would feel great. But, like you said, it's about making money with writing. I love writing and always have, but at some point I do want to see some sort of reward beyond my own personal satisfaction. If self-publishing my own stuff works out well them I can make as much as I would with an advance on a traditional publishing contract. I know that's a big if, but it's a gamble I've decided to take.
Thanks for letting me know your concerns. Like I said, I'm not offended at all. You gave me some things to think about. I appreciate that.
Hi Jarrett, You're a stronger willed man than I am! I'm a little bit worried for you at the moment with what you are doing with your manuscript. I understand, from previous posts, that you are going down the self-publishing route, but...
ReplyDelete1. If readers download your novel now, why would they want to read the final polished version that you are undoubtedly wanting to "sell" to them?? There may be a few small changes, but they will have already got the whole story in their heads and probably wouldn't notice any changes, unless you come up with a complete new ending...
2. With what happened to Angel Zapata last year and what has again happened to a few writers this year, aren't you worried about plagiarism? Who is to stop someone downloading your whole manuscript, making a few changes and passing it off as their own to an agent and eventually getting it published as part of a "deal"? I know we all risk being plagiarised by posting short stories and flash pieces, but there's a hell of a lot more hard graft goes into a novel, as YOU will know since you've finished one. I'd hate for that to happen!
At the end of the day, Jarrett, we're all striving to be great writers and the reward for hard and sometimes lonely work, is to actually try and make some money out of writing. I'd bet the vast majority of writers would say the same thing. We love writing, but there's only so much that you can give away for free.
I sincerely hope it all comes off for you but I'd rather reward you for your hard work and actually "buy" a copy of your finished book.
Hope I've not offended in any way, Jarrett, but I'd hate to see all your hard work go unrewarded.
Have a great weekend!
Regards, David.
No offense at all, David. No worries there. I do worry some that giving this away online may hurt my sales, but I figure that the number of people who will see it free is so far outweighed by the number who won't that it shouldn't be much of an issue. Plus there are people who I'd rather give a copy to than have them by one. You and the other folks who have been around for the re-start of my writing journey when I got real serious about this whole thing are in that group.
ReplyDeleteAs far as plagiarism goes, I don't know that I've given it much thought. I do suppose that it could happen, and if it does then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I'd hope that I've developed enough writing friendships that we could shout down and shame any plagiarists down. I do have every single file of this book on my hard drive in all its different permutations. So I'd hope that I could prove rather easily, if I had to, that the idea was mine and has been developing for a long time. But it's a good point and one I appreciate you raising. What I may do is when the final is ready for publishing take the other versions down. It's definitely something to think about. Thanks for bringing it up.
And, yes, still going the self-publishing route. Still mostly happy with that decision. There is still that small part of me that thinks receiving the approval of the traditional publishing route would feel great. But, like you said, it's about making money with writing. I love writing and always have, but at some point I do want to see some sort of reward beyond my own personal satisfaction. If self-publishing my own stuff works out well them I can make as much as I would with an advance on a traditional publishing contract. I know that's a big if, but it's a gamble I've decided to take.
Thanks for letting me know your concerns. Like I said, I'm not offended at all. You gave me some things to think about. I appreciate that.
Jarrett, no probs my friend. Good luck with everything. Like I said though, I'll be buying a copy when it's ready. Hard work deserves a reward.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy your weekend (and get following my blog) ;-)
Well I appreciate the promised sale. I'll hold you to that.
ReplyDeleteAnd I started following your blog yesterday. I honestly thought I was already following it. Could have sworn I joined up months ago.