Posted on 03/03/2006 4:50:37 PM PST by scott7278
First, you've got even more mail.
I don't really know. She HAS tried to get me to do somethig more with my degree(but right now,I am making WAY more than I would as an "entry level computer tech", so that is out. I just have to put up with 2 VERY liberal owners, and some dumb comments/questions, from one of them ) She also thinks I need to continue to pursue selling my script/novel, and that SOMEONE WILL want it, sooner or later!!
Thanks, got it.
If you've got a good job I'd say you've got it made, liberal bosses aside. I've been unemployed for longer than I like to think about.
She's actually right about the script/novel. I personally know a lot about the writing industry, even though I've never actually done anything. Call it naivety. Although I decided recently to stop talking about the writing business and actually get into it. Started work on my own book. So far, so good, though it's been hard in some places and embarrassingly easy in others.
Speaking of 'writing' one of my male friend's mom writes erotica novels (ok, that's not exactly the same as what you guys are writing). She publishes e-books, but has just started getting her work in print at Borders Books.
Is "erotica" the same thing as "cheap paperback romance?"
If you've never read erotica, it could best be described as porn on paper, but with an interesting story line, unlike porn on TV. There's no bad acting in erotica, thankfully.
As for the job, the man owner(and the one who TRIES to work on things sometimes) is worse than the woman, who is the secretary, and runs things. At least she has a decent personality. She and he went to see Shaun and Springer last weekend, and a drunk couple kept making fools of themselves. She told me that the woman cussed her out and threatened her when she asked her to quite down , and such. The couple was arrested soon after. I did hear on Monday that things got out of hand somewhat there(Shaun was talking about it on his show).
Last Friday, the man (Ray) got under my skin a bunch(I told you already), THIS week he seemed to be the opposite, nearly contrite!! I guess I'll just have to learn to "tune him out". Yesterday, they were VERY happyn that i had saved them 2k, by fixing the light engine on a Hitachi LCD set, instead of them having to order a new one!!(I was off today).
Cool I will have to see it.
Like those paperback romance novels you see in the grocery store that all have pink pages and paintings on the cover of a long-haired Fabio lookalike sensually holding a woman dressed in only a small gown and moving in for a kiss (their hair is blowing in the wind). Sometimes there's a rose on the cover, too, and the title is in cursive.
Those kind of trashy books are not good for the author to write. They are very short-lived and poor paying. Yet strangely, they make up for a whopping 1/3 of all novels published each year.
Yeah, but with extreme sexual detail. Romance novels are tame in comparison.
I think you and I are thinking of the same thing. "Romance novel" I think would indicate something by Danielle Steele.
Hmmm...that's intersting.
Tell me more about this book you are writing... :)
I say this all to often, and I know people tire of hearing it, but if someone once to get into the book writing industry, nonfiction is really the only way to go. Novel writing just doesn't happen with newcomers, because editors simply don't trust them. Publishing a book costs a lot of money, and editors want to know they'll make it back. So without name recognition, you're lost.
50,000 books are published each year. Only 3,500 are novels, and 1/3 of those are the cheap romances. Annualy, only 120 fiction novels are first time novelists, and 3/4 of those will not make over 10,000 dollars off the book.
Wow. You've really done your homework.
It's a discouraging place for first-time writers, I guess myself included.
But script-writing is a completely different game. Odds for success, even as a first-timer, are far greater. As long as you pitch your script in the right way to the right people (has to be one of the major studios or entered into a contest...really no one way to succeed). If it's a good, marketable idea, studios will take it.
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