Spring Cleaning, Writer’s Style
In a type of spring cleaning, writer’s style, I’ve freshened up a couple of pages on the website. My Home page is more direct and shorter (you’re welcome.) Same goes for the About Me page, which is also more personal. Previously the page was all about my writing career, leading me to ask, What, you have no you other than writing? That’s not true, and now you can read it for yourself.
I’ve also been peeking into the dusty corners of my motivation. Scary, that. I came to writing from the very hierarchical world of being a lawyer. Getting into law school, joining a good firm, working your way up what we literally called “the ladder.” I brought that mindset to my writing career. It’s been with me in one form or another for decades. It involves fitting yourself into whatever the definition of success is within that industry.
My spring cleaning, writer’s style, has me re-thinking this approach. Mostly, I’m trying to honestly separate how the industry defines success and what makes me happy. Being on a panel at the Oxford Conference for the Book was on my “success” list for years. It’s also where I came to dislike the “writer pontificating on stage” model of selling books. (So yeah, I set as a goal something I actually disliked).
But how would I do it differently? I got lucky with my Making Crosses book in that the “marketing” was cross-making workshops. How, with a novel, do you create the same feeling of being in a group that has simply gathered around the book? And without sacrificing book sales. It worked with Making Crosses—the book sold over 8000 copies.
I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, please enjoy these “ground-cover” roses—they’ve burst out of their definitional name.
ellen morris prewitt, ellenmorrisprewitt.com, marketing your novel, writer's spring cleaning
Joe Hawes
A refreshing take on a familiar subject. I would love to hear more
Ellen Morris Prewitt
I feel like so much of my life I set a path and undertook to walk it, my gaze fixed on a finish line. But—surprise!—what happened on the path was the very thing I remember when I look back at that time in fondness. Do you experience that?
Marie A Bailey
I love your new About Me page. I feel like I know you so well now, and much that you like, I like 🙂
I should do some spring cleaning writer’s style myself. I am still writing, following along with A Year of Writing Dangerously group, but not at the moment engaging in chats or anything. I’m sorting through what I want to get out of sharing my writing. I will always write privately at least. It’s the public writing, the publishing of short stories or novels, that makes me pause. Things to think about 😉
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Thank you for taking the time to read the new page, Marie. I really appreciate it. “Sorting through what I want to get out of sharing my writing”—-that is so well put. It’s exactly what I’m doing. Or trying to do!
Joanne Corey
The thought of cleaning – spring or otherwise – is daunting for me. I am, though, doing something new this spring in that I’ve sent my full-length poetry collection off to a professional editor. I do believe that this is the book I was meant to write, given my inside/outside relationship to the place involved but there needs to be a certain amount of cognizance to what poetry publishers expect to see in order to get it accepted. We’ll see if having professional editorial help gets me closer to publishing it or if I re-trench and publish it through a hybrid press that is interested in it. Whatever comes of it, it will take a lot longer than spring.
Best wishes, Ellen, with your spring explorations. I hope you can come to a better sense of what is most important to you as a writer.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Oh, how exciting! I love to hear you say, “the book I was meant to write.” I hope your experience with the editor is gratifying and demystifying, and the collection lands exactly with the publisher you want. Will look for updates on your blog…