I’ve been pondering self-publishing my fiction books under my real name, but at the last minute I wasn’t so sure after all: wouldn’t people looking for autism non-fiction books be confused by my horror slash romance slash paranormal books? Would they approve? Wouldn’t it make things more difficult for them to find the right books, the autism ones?

I know people in need of autism information are not dumb, but I just want to make it easy on them to get to the books they need. Most of them are parents of autistic children, they deserve to be cut some slack and be taken care of.

Also, I am not making a secret of my fiction pen name: Irma Geddon, so if any of them wants to try reading my fiction books in english, that’s more than fine by me.

I probably won’t use another pen name if I cross fiction genres. I know people who read are well-educated and can make their own decision about the genres they want to read. As I doubt I’ll write middle grade, children or young adult books, that should be fine.

That’s not what I’m talking about here – I’m not comparing durability as medium, but durability on the shelves when you’re publishing your book with one of the legacy publishers…

When published by a legacy publisher, your books can have a very small timeframe on the shelves before they’re turned into mush and forgotten. If they’re not an instant bestseller, if they’re not finding their fans instantly, they won’t last long on the limited shelve space in the bookstore. Publishers will take them down, because they’re not publishing your books because they’re your friend; they’re publishing it to make money, and if your book doesn’t make money, it will be automatically pulled out of the bookstores to make room for new titles, that may make more money than the story that you’ve spent years to polish and love.

That’s why books are not forever, unless you are a bestseller. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Anne Rice probably won’t have that kind of problem, and their books will go on being reprinted for many years, maybe forever. Yours? Probably not.

New releases in series don’t interest fans, since most of the time you can’t find the first books in the series anymore. Why? Because the legacy publishers stopped printing them years ago, and now only people who were fans since the beginning can enjoy that story – unless you’re into used books and are lucky enough to find the one you need…

Now, e-books are forever. If you self-publish, you’re the only one to decide if your books stop being published (and why would you do that?). Virtual bookshelves have unlimited space. Your book could be there forever if you pass it on to your children.

It gives your books time to find their fans, to win over time enough money to cover the time and money spent on them, and probably more. If you’re talented, and price right, you could even make enough money to retire from your day job and write for a living, if that’s something you dream about.

With print-on-demand, you can even have your book in dead trees form for those who like them. Since the Internet has become so popular and mainstream, you can showcase your books on many platforms: your blog, but also big online bookstores like Amazon. It has never been so easy for your book to be found. My guess is that it will be een easier in the years to come.

I’m very stubborn. I don’t like being told what to do in general, unless I ask for help. I like to do my own thing, make my own mistakes, and follow my own path.

When choosing the legacy road, you have to forgo a lot of options, and listen to the potential buyers re: your story. If Big Boss doesn’t like the ending, you have to rewrite it. Same if he hates one of the main characters, you have to change him, or get rid of him. You have got, in order to get the honour of being published, to allow someone to stomp on your story, with both feet.

Business is business, right? Well, no. Not for me. I am very protective of my writing, of my art. I could never stand being ordered around for rewrites – most of all if they don’t make sense to me! Also: free rewrites? They live in Disneyland, for sure.

I want the stories to be mine. That’s one of the reasons I’m choosing self-publishing. Indies have it all: the last word on the story, on the cover art, on the book format, on the price… It’s empowering, and I’m glad I’ve taken to writing now, in this digital age, at the new turn for publishing and writers altogether.

This is a problem I’ve been having ever since I’ve begun to be “famous” – not that I’m a celebrity, but lots of people come and go on my Autisme Infantile website, and mail me on a regular basis.

Once we’ve interracted, some people generally think it’s okay to put me, without my permission, on their newsletter list. When I had one or two e-mails a day, I managed, trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings by requesting they take me off the list.

These days, if I spend one day without Internet, it’s more between one and three hundred e-mails that await me when I log back and check my inbox. As much as I want to be of help, I can’t take this anymore. It’s very tedious to find something worth my attention in the middle of all those unwanted e-mails, ranging from this that could interest me (but I have no time to check further) to things that are really out of my interest area.

Most of those e-mails have no unsuscribe link, either. You have to personally drop a note to whomever sends you those, and try not to hurt their feelings when you ask nicely to be unsuscribed. Some will try to guilt you into staying on the list too (look, my cause is important too, what about the children?).

Because this is getting out of control (don’t even talk to me about people that feel I have to be in copy of any discussion ever e-mailed and those who send me jokes – not funny), I have decided that there is no more Mrs NiceGirl. I will drop two lines to ask to be unsuscribed. I will ask not to be included in mass e-mails. I will be curt, to the point, and also, I will spam you if you send me any newsletter I haven’t suscribed to.

Then there’s the random block, and the shock that comes with it. You don’t understand why, but you’ve been banned from someone’s updates. It happened to me on Twitter today.

Now let’s be clear: I don’t follow many people on Twitter. The ones I read are the ones I care about, even if they sometimes have nothing to say for months, or on the contrary, too much to say about things that do not concern me. I like these people, I want to know how they are, what they’re doing. They are people I’m looking up to, for the most part.

And I don’t understand. I don’t go out of my way to be mean. At most, I can be a bit overwhelmed and not as chatty as everyone else. I don’t fight much with people, most of all if I’ve not been insulted first. So now what?

It’s something I’ve seen numerous times on Facebook: a person blocking another person, no apparent reason, or maybe even an unjustified reason, problems of understanding each other over the intarwebz. I never thought it would happen to me, too.

There’s a first time for everything, right?

In 2011, I self-published nine archives books with the talentful authors of Autisme Infantile, and wrote by myself two books about autism and self-sufficiency.

For 2012, I have a new goal. I will still self-publish our autism website’s archives, and write more books about autism, but I also want to fulfill one of my dreams: self-publishing fiction.

In 2010 and 2011, I won NaNoWriMo and wrote two novels: NightmarZ and UndeadZ. I plan to edit them, hire a cover artist and self-publish them under a pen name through KDP Select.

This is something I have hoped since I was a child: I always wanted to have an artistic career, but I never stuck with dancing or singing or painting. Writing is the one thing that followed me all my life.

I once dreamt I would be traditionally published, with the great names of horror fiction: Stephen King, Graham Masterton, Dean Koontz – I didn’t thought I’d be amongst the very successful ones, but I imagined it would be great to make a living with my writing.

Yet, I feel I belong in the self-publishing world. I love the freedom, the decision-making, and the simplicity. Now is the time for self-publishers, our golden age. Since e-books took off, with e-readers and my personal favourite, Amazon and its Kindle, it is now easier still to find readers.

This year is going to be awesome. May your 2012 be rad as well!

NaNoWriMo helps hundred thousands people to have a shot at realizing their dreams. NaNoWriMo gives inspiration and encouragement to aspiring young writers and already established authors. It brings literacy and novel writing into schools. It brings fun even if you don’t finish the challenge. It brings a sense of accomplishment if you do. This year only, almost 37000 persons won the challenge and brought their story to life.

Now, NaNoWriMo needs help.

Here is the e-mail I received this morning:

Dear Office of Letters and Light Superhero,

I have many things to tell you.

First off, THANK YOU. The fact that you’re getting this email means you’ve earned the superhero moniker by making a donation to one (or many) of our programs. Because of your support, NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program grew again this year; we had 250,000 adults and 80,000 kids and teens in more than 2,000 classrooms writing with us. Your contributions also helped 500 public libraries transform their spaces into community noveling zones.

You inspired so many stories, and unleashed a life-changing creative confidence in writers around the world.

This has been a big year for all of our programs. We launched the brand-new Camp NaNoWriMo, and rebuilt the entire NaNoWriMo site in order to keep it speedy during November’s monster traffic spike. For the first year ever, we had a year-round, full-time Young Writers Program Director to expand our free curriculum and resources for schools, and a year-round, full-time staff member dedicated to supporting our libraries and 500 volunteer-run chapters around the world.

All in all, November capped an ambitious, heartwarming, and expensive year for OLL.

And this is why I’ve turned on the bat signal. As of today, we still have $200,000 left to raise before we hit our organizational break-even point for the year. If we miss our fundraising goal, we won’t shut down, but we will have to cut back on all the programs you so generously supported this year.

I hesitated to bother you again with a fundraising appeal; you’ve already done so much for us. This moment, though, is such a crucial one for the future of our programs that I’m asking you to please consider making a donation to the Office of Letters and Light today.

If you’ve already given all you can this year, we understand, and we’re so grateful to you. But if you can make an additional donation, even a very small one, it will have a huge impact on the lives of the 400,000 writers we hope to inspire together in 2012.

Warm regards,

Chris
Executive Director
The Office of Letters and Light
Donate via credit card or PayPal through the OLL Donation Station
Skip the thank-you gifts and donate directly through PayPal
Donate by check or money order

I had already donated $10 at the beginning of the challenge, because I wanted to support what they’re doing, and it also was another way to have motivation to finish the challenge (any motivation helps when struggling towards the 50k goal). This morning, I have made another donation to NaNoWrimo – not much, $25, but I guess every dollar helps.

You can check all NanoWriMo great programs and what they do with the money we give them: Where Your Donations Go.

NaNoWriMo is a worthy cause, mostly to us writers I think. If NaNoWriMo has brought something into your life, or if you support its efforts to bring more words into the world, please consider donating too.

But it was all worth it.

I now have two worthy stories to edit, instead of one, half-forgotten on one of my hard drives. I have experienced something really incredible: when your current plot and everything you ever wrote about that story come together in one piece, flow naturally to create the perfect situations, character developments and a heartbreaking ending.

I am quite proud of my two novels, and that’s something I couldn’t have done without NaNoWriMo. Now the next part of my challenge is my 2012 new year resolutions.

In 2010, I had vowed to write for my blogs every day. It did wonders for Autisme Infantile, my website about autism, that grew in readership and got a lot of great opportunities for all involved.

In 2011, I had vowed to publish Autisme Infantile’s archives, and start writing helping books for parents of autistic children. I published nine archives books, and two books about teaching self-sufficiency when you are an autistic child’s parent.

In 2012, my next goal will be to finally achieve one of my dreams, the one that stuck in my heart since I was a child: be a fiction author. I have always wanted to be a writer, and next year, I’m going to edit the hell out of my two NaNoWriMo books, and self-publish them on Amazon and Smashwords.

I’ll be giving it my all. I’ll do my best to translate the first novel in english (the second one is already in english), I’ll submit them to an editor who will look at them for me, I’ll order two kick-ass covers from a wonderful artist I’ve had my eye on, and I’ll word hard to give them momentum and make readers beg for a third book.

But meanwhile, in december, I’m resting my brains, trying to get back into blogging routines, watch movies and read books, relax with my family, and get in the mood for Christmas holidays.