The age/publishing issue

Check this article out:

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/column/456134

It has made my day.

I love the last sentence, "It was fun," Batemen concluded. "You sit down with a couple of friends, three fools at the Village Bar, and you have a beer. The next thing you know, you're writing 50,000 words."

This was on page two of the Wisconsin State Journal this morning about a book originally written for nano which is now published by lulu. Another quote: "The first effort was just a mess."

This man is 73 and has been married 51 years, a man after my own heart.

Carol

Success stories are fun to read, especially when they involve people who are older than I am.

Thanks for the URL.

Malcolm

Good story Carol. Based on another post, I'm wondering if it was a story the publishers wanted?

Probably not, Abe.

You have to realize this is Wisconsin mentality. Years ago there was the saying that Madison was the seat of liberalism surrounded by reality.

I grew up and then lived ten years as an adult in the Chicago area. Believe me, there were a lot of endeavors that were not all right in that area but are all right in Wisconsin. That is why I like it here, but I also have those Chicago more conservative traditional roots.

I thought it was interesting the article was published, and now for the next two weeks at least, wannabee authors will be meeting and having beers in bars throughout the city.

Carol

Abe F. March wrote:

Good story Carol. Based on another post, I'm wondering if it was a story the publishers wanted?

I looked his book up. It isn't published, he printed it up at Lulu.

What I got out of the story was that if you have a goal, you do what it takes to finish it, and it's possible to have fun along the way. Nothing to argue about there.

Yes, he published it with lulu. I think it is all part of a journey. We write because we love it and almost have to to live happily. And we make money where we can, and in many cases we keep our day jobs or writing is related to part of our day jobs, and we write those words burning holes in our minds, and after seventy try to have as much fun as possible but also be productive with the personal and societal resources we have.

As I wrote on another thread, us grammas are different than in the past. We are on facebook making friends with our grandchildren and other authors. We write on messageboards. We write stuff to keep our minds active and less crowded.

And it is not too late to improve, to take detours, to continue that journey, to even hope for the improbable.

Carol

Great story, thanks Carol.

Elmore Leonard is 83 and still getting published. Both Rex Stout and Georges Simemon were selling well into their 80s. There have been others, quite a few of them.

Dick,

Right now I cannot remember the name of the woman mystery writer who started writing in her late eighties and wrote into her nineties.

Is it P.D. James?

Carol

That makes my day, too, Carol.

LC, You wouldn't have needed to look it up if you had read the whole article:

Quote :

Besteman spent six months reworking the novel he was calling “The Elm Ridge Scramble.” He published it with lulu.com, an on-demand publisher. Books can be purchased there and at amazon.com.

Not that it really matters.

Ann

I skimmed and missed that. And? I guess the writer doesn't know a publisher from a printer. So to use what was said on another thread, who would believe anything else in that article?

Apparently LC doesn't have a clue about how the publishing world is progressing today. I guess we should be content to know that someone as famous and widely read is willing to come on the little message board and enlighten us with her wisdom.

If this guy published his book with Lulu, it is every bit as published as anything you, LC, or the rest of us have out there.

E. Don Harpe wrote:

If this guy published his book with Lulu, it is every bit as published as anything you, LC, or the rest of us have out there.

You bet, Don. Well, you send your submissions off to be published with Lulu, and I'll send mine elsewhere. Whatever works for you!

LC,

Have you ever heard of James Redfield?

Ann

Ann -no. Without googling, why? Am I about to be regaled with a self-publishing success story?

Well, at least LC, you can find mine on line. Where can we find yours? Oh that's right, you won't post your name or any info. Imagine that. Oh, yeah, you don't write fiction, you write, or at least wrote, some kind of textbook, so you're not in the same loop as most of us here.

I guess I have a problem understanding why folks like you can't just be glad that someone like this guy has his book out there for others to see and maybe read.

Why is it so important to make the distinction that people like you seem compelled to have to make concerning publishers?

Why exactly does it matter who published it, or how?

Are you guys that always bring up the publisher that hard up for something to do?

Check this site, then:

http://www.celestinevision.com/

Ann

E. Don Harpe wrote:

Well, at least LC, you can find mine on line. Where can we find yours? Oh that's right, you won't post your name or any info. Imagine that.

It's partly because of nutters like you that I don't put my stuff online. As for "being glad," who said I'm not glad that he can't hang around bars, drink, and write stuff with his friends?

Oh yeah, The Celestine Prophecy. I KNEW I was being pointed to a self-publishing success story.

Did you read where it was the #1 bestseller of 1996? Or that is was picked up by Warner, and has had several highly successful sequels?

The point is, there are successes.

Ann

Ann, you're wasting your time. LC has had a textbook published and made a few dollars, so obviously that makes her (him?) an expert on all phases of the publishing industry.

People like that can't be bothered with actually looking up someone who was a success, especially when that success didn't come via the route that they say it must. To actually admit that some people are become successful by self publishing means that everything they think they know might be wrong. They can't face that, Ann, so I think you're wasting your time.

E. Don, the truth is, it is LC who is wasting her (or his) time.

Ann

alj wrote:

Did you read where it was the #1 bestseller of 1996? Or that is was picked up by Warner, and has had several highly successful sequels?

The point is, there are successes.

Ann

Ann, I never said there weren't successes. I am curious why this STRAW MAN is always, always is brought up when someone says that self-publishing is akin to printing.

Don, isn't there a bingo game going on somewhere you need to be at?

alj wrote:

E. Don, the truth is, it is LC who is wasting her (or his) time.

Ann

What am I wasting my time on that you're not?

Yeah, but don't tell her (him). She thinks she'd providing a service. Protecting us from those evil POD's and all that.