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6 posts tagged ebooks
Midlister Dreams in the Age of Ebooks
Wattpad brings you a guest post from J. Alexander Greenwood, author of Pilate’s Cross on Wattpad:
My grandfather was a midlister. Sean McLachlan aptly describes this devoted breed of writer:
They’re not rich, they’re not famous, but they make their living by writing and they’re responsible for the majority of all published titles. They’re called midlisters, and they keep the publishing industry running.
[…]
They’re the serious professionals whom publishers rely on to produce good, marketable books year after year, spanning all genres from nonfiction to fantasy to romance to young adult. They’ve moved beyond the small press to win regular paying contracts, but they do not have bestsellers.
Robert E. Trevathan
My grandfather wrote historical fiction. Specifically, he penned Westerns. A Michigan boy who saw combat in the South Pacific during W.W. II, his true love was the Old West–a passion that was fed by his posting in Oklahoma as a base historian for the Air Force. He won an award here and there and was published by respected imprints including Tor, Avalon and Manor. As far as I know (and sadly he’s no longer around to ask) he never made a huge amount of money on any of his dozens of books and short stories. He wrote because he loved telling stories.
“Ballanger” book cover
Starting in the pulp cowboy field, as the years went on his work earned respect and praise for historical accuracy and reader-friendliness. He was inducted into the Oklahoma Professional Writers Hall of Fame a few years before his death.
I learned from him some things you can learn from any true professional writer: read a lot, write every day, edit, edit, edit and most importantly: don’t quit.
Another important thing I learned from him was the quality of discipline. Grandpa Rob awoke every morning at 4:30 a.m. and turned on his egg timer. He wrote for precisely an hour every morning.
I’ve read that the British author and red mailbox inventor Anthony Trollope did the same thing (and if he finished one of his massive novels with time to spare, he would start on another until his time ran out).
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Friday Find: “Secrets of Successful Writers”
Every Friday, we bring you an undiscovered gem to read on Wattpad. This week, our secret Wattpad Talent Hunters recommend Secrets of Successful Writers, a non-fiction:
Secrets of Successful Writers by Darell Pitt
Interviews with fifty writers as they speak about writing, publishing and promoting their books in the digital age. Some of the writers are traditional authors. Others have built careers as self-published ebook authors. It contains interviews with authors who write detective stories, westerns, romance, thrillers and children’s books.
Included are: John Locke, Micaela Wendell, Dolores Durando, and Robert J. Randisi.
Wattpad Author on Wikipedia
Abigail Gibbs, author of “Dinner With a Vampire” is included on a list of notable people from Devon, England on Wikipedia.
You can read about her here
Thanks so much for being a part of the Wattpad community Abigail!
Wattpad Responds to Authors’ Questions
This week has seen strongly worded responses to changes at online eBook posting sites Scribd and Quizilla. As a result, Wattpad has received a flood of questions from new members looking for an alternative place to post their writing as well as existing authors who already use Wattpad to market their title and socialize with readers. Wattpad is primarily a space to grow readership, meet other authors, gain feedback on works in progress and create a fan base, as well as a platform to provide readers with a way to enjoy new and original fiction. Because Wattpad is a social hub and not an eBook commerce site, writers maintain complete control over their work and can share as much or as little of their work as they wish. In short, Wattpad does not charge any fees for people to read any of the content that has been shared on the site and mobile apps. Writers have full control over their fiction and poetry and may make it public or private to be shared only among readers permitted by the author and we will never remove a writer’s content from the site. Writers and readers have the option to participate in the Wattpad community as much or as little as they prefer. For social members, the option to opt into add-ons such as Twitter or Facebook exists, but Wattpad does not assume that a member’s preference is to make use of any feature on the site. With the growth in self-publishing, authors have taken on more responsibility in terms of promotion and upfront cost. The upshot of this is that authors have also been able to maintain more control over their work and how it is presented to readers. On Wattpad, authors own total rights to their work and can specify their own terms and conditions and remove or add to their work at any time. We hope this clarifies Wattpad’s role in the marketing and reading of eBooks and the concerns new Wattpad writers have asked us to clarify. We encourage you to email us at contact@wattpad.com with any questions you have.
