R. Richard
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2003
- Posts
- 10,382
As most of you know, I publish in Amazon. I got this item out of my Amazon newsletter. If you read Patti Davis' narrative (Pattie is the daughter of President Reagan), you can get some idea of the difficulty of getting published in today's world. Comments?
Patti Davis, author of Till Human Voices Wake Us, shares her experiences with KDP.
"We all have personal milestones. One of mine will always be March 18, 2013 – the day (actually evening) when I uploaded my novel, Till Human Voices Wake Us, to Kindle Direct Publishing. I was taking the step to send it out into the world. I had finally taken control of my writing career.
Yes, I do have a writing career – it's spanned decades. Eight published books, more than a few having something to do with my very famous family, the Reagans. Hey, we're an interesting family. What writer could resist? But I've always had other stories to tell – stories that had nothing to do with me or my family. Every writer has stories that have nothing to do with them. They're the ones that bloom from a single moment, from a dream that doesn't vanish at dawn. From something you read or see. They're the stories that find you, that ask you to simply grab on, aim for the stars, and explore the filmy side of the moon.
Till Human Voices Wake Us was one of those stories. About twelve years ago I heard strangers talking about two sisters-in-law who fell in love and divorced their husbands. I began this novel then, foolishly believing a publisher would let me break out of the box they had put me in: Reagan daughter writing about her family, either fictionally or truthfully. Well, I was a fool. I got rave reviews from publishers for the book, but none bought it. We don't know what to do with it, they said to my then-agent, who said to me, "If you were unknown they'd snap it up in a second." Great. What do I do with that?
I wrote two other novels, a YAF ghost story called The Blue Hour and another novel about a friendship between two young girls – one black, one white. No one bought those either. I finally realized no publisher was going to buy my fiction. I started reading up on KDP; I became a student of self-published authors and finally thought, Why not? I was so afraid I'd die with these unread novels on my computer; my dying wish being, please publish them posthumously. Ugh!
So I did it. I put one of my children out into the world, and the birthing process was made so easy by KDP. Believe me, I'm not the most tech savvy person. I have my two other novels ready to go, and – more than anything – I have an excitement about my career that I don't think I ever had before.
As writers, we do write for ourselves, because we need to – because it's a burning desire inside us and we can't not write – but we also want to be recognized for our work, for our passion, for the journey of our imaginations. We all deserve the chance to step out into the world, where we will either succeed or fail. But at least people will have a chance to read what we've worked so hard to create.
-Patti Davis
Patti Davis, author of Till Human Voices Wake Us, shares her experiences with KDP.
"We all have personal milestones. One of mine will always be March 18, 2013 – the day (actually evening) when I uploaded my novel, Till Human Voices Wake Us, to Kindle Direct Publishing. I was taking the step to send it out into the world. I had finally taken control of my writing career.
Yes, I do have a writing career – it's spanned decades. Eight published books, more than a few having something to do with my very famous family, the Reagans. Hey, we're an interesting family. What writer could resist? But I've always had other stories to tell – stories that had nothing to do with me or my family. Every writer has stories that have nothing to do with them. They're the ones that bloom from a single moment, from a dream that doesn't vanish at dawn. From something you read or see. They're the stories that find you, that ask you to simply grab on, aim for the stars, and explore the filmy side of the moon.
Till Human Voices Wake Us was one of those stories. About twelve years ago I heard strangers talking about two sisters-in-law who fell in love and divorced their husbands. I began this novel then, foolishly believing a publisher would let me break out of the box they had put me in: Reagan daughter writing about her family, either fictionally or truthfully. Well, I was a fool. I got rave reviews from publishers for the book, but none bought it. We don't know what to do with it, they said to my then-agent, who said to me, "If you were unknown they'd snap it up in a second." Great. What do I do with that?
I wrote two other novels, a YAF ghost story called The Blue Hour and another novel about a friendship between two young girls – one black, one white. No one bought those either. I finally realized no publisher was going to buy my fiction. I started reading up on KDP; I became a student of self-published authors and finally thought, Why not? I was so afraid I'd die with these unread novels on my computer; my dying wish being, please publish them posthumously. Ugh!
So I did it. I put one of my children out into the world, and the birthing process was made so easy by KDP. Believe me, I'm not the most tech savvy person. I have my two other novels ready to go, and – more than anything – I have an excitement about my career that I don't think I ever had before.
As writers, we do write for ourselves, because we need to – because it's a burning desire inside us and we can't not write – but we also want to be recognized for our work, for our passion, for the journey of our imaginations. We all deserve the chance to step out into the world, where we will either succeed or fail. But at least people will have a chance to read what we've worked so hard to create.
-Patti Davis
