When should one chuck away dreams?

[livingarmchair]

Two things I always wanted in life: children & writing. The children are here and despite the hard work they entail, it is most rewarding and funny at times. Although it wasn't very funny today when Christopher threw a strop in the middle of Coventry because we wouldn't buy him and a Fireman toy and he prompted to scream and shout and had to be

Comments

[fat_banshee]

well I can tell you about the state of publishing, seeing how that's my bread and butter. I have actually been keeping an eye on the epublishing as that is the thing that might do me out of job, and it doesn't hurt to know the direction that the industry is taking. Granted Academic publishing isnt going to be eaten by self publishing. Open Access maybe, but that's another discussion. its so easy to self publish today so you either need to get a copy editor in or just accept that its not to you high standards but published none the less. If you look on linkedin there are a number of forums and groups that you can get few advice from, as there are a lot of people asking the same questions about self publishing.

even my friends that have wrote novels and had them published, their first book was only in hard copy, the rest are all ebooks.

[zornhau]

I think you need a literary plan. Suggest you ditch short stories, work through your many possible novel ideas, and pick the one that has the best chance of selling within your chosen niche. Then research the niche, plan the novel, and write it.

[livingarmchair]

I might try that, although I'm the world's worse planner!

[zornhau]

Well perhaps "thrust" is a better term - our literary plans take so long to reach fruition and are so vulnerable to external events that they have to keep changing.