Why did I decide to start a blog? The title says it all… Much as I would have liked to call it “the bestselling novelist,” the truth is I’m a would-be novelist who has written a 160,000 words long, rambling, probably unpublishable door-stopper of a literary/historical fiction novel. I have decided to self-publish anyway and if all goes as planned it should come out either at the end of 2018 or at the beginning of 2019.
One part of me (the delusional part of me) dreams that I self-publish, now, at no cost, a novel that does not need further editing, and immediately hit the bestseller list and sell thousands of books. In my daydreams, producers fight over the film-rights, a TV series is made, I give interviews on the radio, I win the Nobel Prize for literature…
The more realistic part of me knows that it’s going to be a tad more difficult and prompted me to google: “how can a self-published novelist become a millionaire become hugely successful sell many books.” I found many interesting articles and blog-posts and most of them advised to have some sort of web presence and a blog (and that also applies to traditionally published writers).
Right, I thought, I’ll start a blog then. But what should I blog about? Big question… Since my intention is to publish a novel, I should blog about writing. But the trouble is that I intend to publish a novel. Not being a published writer, I don’t think I have any authority to write about writing, not yet. Nor can I write, though I would love to, about the world of my novel and my characters and so on: since the novel is not out yet, there wouldn’t be much point and would be as boring as when someone is talking about a film you haven’t seen and cannot see before some time. Blogging about my very exciting life and my love of coffee and chocolate would be irrelevant.
But why wouldn’t I write about being a would-be novelist? This blog could be a journal of my long, tortuous path to self-publication, until it can become a blog about my novel(s). I could also share extracts of my novel (I like this idea!). And maybe, if I have the time to write pieces of shorter fiction, I could share them on this platform too… And critics about books I’ve liked… And maybe a few posts about what inspired me to write... And so on. So after all there are a couple of thing I could blog about and I’ll get started now!
One part of me (the delusional part of me) dreams that I self-publish, now, at no cost, a novel that does not need further editing, and immediately hit the bestseller list and sell thousands of books. In my daydreams, producers fight over the film-rights, a TV series is made, I give interviews on the radio, I win the Nobel Prize for literature…
The more realistic part of me knows that it’s going to be a tad more difficult and prompted me to google: “how can a self-published novelist become a millionaire become hugely successful sell many books.” I found many interesting articles and blog-posts and most of them advised to have some sort of web presence and a blog (and that also applies to traditionally published writers).
Right, I thought, I’ll start a blog then. But what should I blog about? Big question… Since my intention is to publish a novel, I should blog about writing. But the trouble is that I intend to publish a novel. Not being a published writer, I don’t think I have any authority to write about writing, not yet. Nor can I write, though I would love to, about the world of my novel and my characters and so on: since the novel is not out yet, there wouldn’t be much point and would be as boring as when someone is talking about a film you haven’t seen and cannot see before some time. Blogging about my very exciting life and my love of coffee and chocolate would be irrelevant.
But why wouldn’t I write about being a would-be novelist? This blog could be a journal of my long, tortuous path to self-publication, until it can become a blog about my novel(s). I could also share extracts of my novel (I like this idea!). And maybe, if I have the time to write pieces of shorter fiction, I could share them on this platform too… And critics about books I’ve liked… And maybe a few posts about what inspired me to write... And so on. So after all there are a couple of thing I could blog about and I’ll get started now!
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