Publishing

Okay, so I read a couple of blogs, like the Superficial and one my high school friend writes, as well as Jenny Trout's and a few that people have posted on there.

One is by Alys Cohen (hey Alys, if you followed the link on your blog) and her latest post brings up an interesting point, and one I've been debating for the year so far.

Now, you don't know it because I didn't put it on here yet, but instead of making a New Years Resolution, I made a promise to the world instead. That this was the year I get published, or start the process (okay, what I actually said was 'this is the year I get the agent') and reading her blogpost has made me think on what it is I want.

Because agents right now? They're only really taking what's already popular. If I had written a story of a girl who fell for a rich asshole, I would be published by now.

I don't know girl-falling-for-rich-asshole. I know mixed-up-girl-becoming-independent. I know cross-Atlantic. I know fierce, self-assured.

So what are the real options out there for an idea that, though it has its niche, is slightly different from all the other storylines in it's genre? Authorhouse, where I pay for the privilege of seeing my name on a book spine? This review site I found, where if I don't pay I can wait six months for some feedback? Fanstory, where you have to pay for more than two reviews (which were really beneficial 'yeah, it's okay' ... thank you, I feel much better about my writing) or to hell with it and self-publish, and self-promote? Or get rejection after rejection until I feel like I couldn't write if there was a pen in my hand and a notebook in front of me?

I sound bitter, I know. Part of me thinks that if you don't get the rejections until you get published, then you haven't earned any of the kudos your work can bring (yeah, I have issues, if you haven't got that already in this blog) but then another part of me wonders when the hell I would ever get published, or if I ever would, by going the traditional route. The traditional route is not the guaranteed way of success, Erika James has proved that.

I guess I just wish I knew for sure which route would work best for me. Which route would reach my market best. Whether what I've done is really ready for consumption (I think my main problem with this is my story's structure, and the fact that one of my narrators is an American male and I'm very much not. I would love someone who could speak like an American teenage boy to read through and tell me where I'm going wrong without ruining the storyline before it went anywhere. I don't want to make some of the mistakes that are evident in Ana Steele's language).

This has to be the debate most people go through, right? A friend of a friend recently got published, but I don't know much about it. Another friend of a friend released an ebook (which I bought, because at the end of the day, if newly published writers don't support each other, who else is going to?) so I know both possibilities are open. I'm just so indecisive.

By the way, if the people who I know read this wanted to go onto either blog:

http://alysbcohen.wordpress.com/
http://jennytrout.blogspot.co.uk/?zx=47e909f72dd2174

Both are slightly more eloquent than me. And I love Jenny's dissection of 50 shades. I have to go now though, my son's being sent home with a stomach ache. Poor Pickle.