Writing and Publishing Mutual Support Group?

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Hi

I was wondering whether anyone was interested in helping each other market our work. FREX, commit to reading and reviewing from a list we create of the published works of authors participating in this forum.

Personally, I've read spec fic since grade school, when we were still drilled to hide under our desks in case of nuclear attack. Since early retirement from practicing antitrust law, I've been writing spec fic in several universes. My goal is to elucidate long-standing and current ethical issues (my website is http://www.ethicalantics.com ), especially in bioethics. However, I discovered that few people want to read about that without candy-coating.

Weirdly, it turns out I'm good at semi-comic candy coating. Last year, I was a winner in the story competition held by the journal "Issues in Science and Technology," with my near-future short story, "Heirs of the Body." http://issues.org/31-4/heirs-of-the-b...

I have many stories in progress, but they are all being delayed by the *&! !##! marketing efforts I'm making on behalf of my just-self-published novel, "No Child Left Behind." It's the semi-comic story of a boy coming of age while mired in ADHD, aliens, and obstinate principles.

Readers' Favorite said:

"No Child Left Behind by Claudia Casser is one of the most unique approaches in Young Adult science fiction I have ever read. Teens will love it. Adults will love it. I loved it. The writing is great. The characters are very believable and easy to care about. You just keep reading naturally because everything flows. I was hooked from the first chapter. I have read a lot of science fiction, but I had never read a story from the particular angle of aliens from another universe who look enough like humans to blend into our society, consulting with a lawyer in order to avoid pitfalls and remain low key. It is a brilliant idea if you have the right characters for it, and Claudia Casser pulls it off with flair.

Geoff has ADD. He avoids taking his medication because he hates the zoned out state it puts him in. He is a very smart and very likable young man with a very nice and understanding mother. I wanted to know where this story would take them from the moment they met the aliens and I wanted them to come out on top. The plot is great. The characters are great, from the main ones to the minor ones out on the periphery. Everyone contributes to the story and moves the plot along. If you are into Young Adult sci-fi at all, do yourself a favor and buy No Child Left Behind. It is simply one of the best stories I have ever read."

But I s**k at promoting stuff. My recent diagnosis as Aspie helps explain that. Anybody else in the same boat with a good product but lousy marketing?

The main thing preventing me from publishing my fantasy novel is money and the fact that my mum still has to edit it. The way it's been going, it's like she's trying to translate Beowulf or unearthing some weird ancient text.

Have you tried joining a group like the Online Writing Workshop for Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror? People edit each other's chapters, or at least critique them, which is the first step.

Nowadays, it is quite inexpensive to publish an e-book on Amazon or Kindle, but you need all that editing and rewriting done first.

I don't know that I will be able to contribute, but I'd like to follow this thread. I have quite a few academic things that I'd like to get written someday, but am not well situated at the moment to make a lot of progress.

I held back publishing my novel, "Commoner the Vagabond" for years because I was always in a depression, I had no money, lacked the strength and energy to look for a publisher, and somewhere along the way I just didn't care about the book anyway.

When I found out recently that you can publish on Amazon Kindle for free, I published the book. Amazon has different royalty deals; I chose the 70/30. They get 30% of sales, I get 70%.

The fact that Amazon does that gave me an incentive to just keep on writing as long as I'm alive. I just started writing a nonfiction humorous/self-help book about homelessness and hope to publish it in a few months, or at least by the end of the year.

I held back publishing my novel, "Commoner the Vagabond" for years because I was always in a depression, I had no money, lacked the strength and energy to look for a publisher

Ditto. But for me publishing even on Kindle was not entirely "free," because I did not have the e-skills to format the thing myself. Still, I wholeheartedly agree epub makes it feasible for most of us to share our work and get paid for it!