sifting through the drek

Today I must bite the bullet and write my own blog. So far I've counted on others to do this and it has been sooo easy! I did start this blog specifically to tout my book but since I am still editing, it is not really ready to be touted! I'm sending it off to editors this week and in a few months I may have a website and cover which brings me to the subject of todays blog: Sifting through the enormous amounts of information in the ether.

Let's look at it this way. You are walking through the woods on a well-worn path. You come to another path and suddenly there are paths going every which way. You stand completely paralyzed. Which one pulls you? And is that the way to decide which direction to go? One leads down a green and leafy trail, another leads uphill toward what looks like a rocky outcropping, another leads to a pool of water, another goes to an open meadow filled with wildflowers. There is no guide here. And at this point every direction looks inviting. You pick one--head down the leafy trail but suddenly the path is covered in vines and thorns and you can't get through. You go back, try the uphill path toward the rocks but as you climb an earth tremor brings rocks careening your way. The pool, you think, but when you get to the water you find it polluted, covered in green slime. The meadow has to be the one and so you head toward the wildflowers but as you approach a storm comes across, sending icy rain down your back and flattening the field of flowers that looked so pretty a moment before.

Someone is getting rich off the babes in the woods. I don't begrudge them that. I wish my business was in servicing the writers out there instead of being one of the wandering souls in the darkness.

Some of the sites I've discovered in my wanderings: Goodreads, Absolute Write, Predators and Editors--they all offer help from other writers and all sorts of links. There are lists of small publishers, articles on how to write, what makes a best-seller, the do's and don't of grammar, how to write a good query letter, agents lists and on and on. How did we ever manage without the internet? Some of these sites are clear, easy to navigate, others are confusing and hard to understand.

 Lists of Indie publishers are one of the paths I plan to pursue. Small publishing houses are more likely to accept a new author into their midst, or so I've been told. Self-publishing is another path that could be promising but one of the major drawbacks is getting your work into bookstores and libraries, or so I've been told. The trouble is that things are changing every minute of every day--and what about Facebook, Twitter, blog links for promotion? What works? We all need to be expert marketers and promotion people as well as solitary writers.

Just some thoughts. Any comments?