Vitality Stories
F*ck It!
Dear Friend,
I know, crazy right?
But first, WTF is up with my newsletter title?
Well, a few things.
I’ve decided to publish my novel and not pursue a traditional publisher for a variety of reasons, the most significant being,
- The resources that were once exclusive to traditional publishers are now available to anyone who is willing to invest in their work (in particular: editors, cover artists, lawyers, marketers, layout designers, and more),
- Using an agent and a traditional publisher could mean Tiger Drive might not be published for another year or more,
- I would most likely forfeit my rights to Tiger Drive for the rest of my life plus seventy years which means I’d have to get permission on how I market Tiger Drive, would have little insight on what is working and what isn’t working, and if the publisher decides they only want to print 1,000 copies and nothing more, I would have to get a lawyer to try to buy back my rights to do another print-run.
So I decided (with the support of my peers in three creative groups) in a very unusual Teri fashion, F*ck it. I’ll publish on my own.
What this means is things need to start happening, um, yesterday.Tiger Drive is currently in the hands of a copy editor. This week I’m finalizing the back of book description with the help of other authors and the Tiger Drive Squad, and next week, professional designers will start drafting the cover. I’m going to be honest, choosing the right cover and back of book description are more intimidating than writing the novel. Did you know (and I will try not to hyperventilate while I type this) that a book cover only gets 0.2 seconds to convey the genre and attract a reader’s attention? Point two seconds! It took me three seconds to type “point two seconds.”
Exactly!
But F*ck it! I have a team–a professional team–helping me get the cover and description right.Also, Tiger Drive is in the hand of an editor as I type. If I used a traditional publisher, I was going to face a problem that is now no longer a problem: use of the F-word.
Drug dealing, biker gang WJ in Tiger Drive can now be a realistic character and say f*ck as much as he wants. I rarely swear or use the F-word, but as I was writing Tiger Drive, WJ kept dropping F-bombs all over the place like F-ing cigarette butts. No kidding, during the first draft I was so embarrassed by WJ’s potty mouth, I said out loud, “You can’t write that. He can’t keep saying that!”
But F*ck it! A drug dealer, biker gang member like WJ would swear. So I let him.
However, now is a good time to share that many readers frown upon foul language in a book, and it’s possible you might be one of them, and for that, I’m sorry. In fact, using the F-word guarantees at least one negative review on Amazon and Goodreads. So I searched how many times WJ says it in Tiger Drive:
108 times?! WJ gets an “F” for language! But WJ won’t give a fig about an F grade. He’s got other problems to deal with.
Anyway, enough about me. What’s going on in your world?
As always thanks for being you,
Teri
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