Kori Rockwell. Author. A title known to me over the last year. It wasn't until the Fall of 2008 that I finished my first novel, officially labeling me as a "novelist" and "author."
My first novel, Beautiful Disruption, took me two full years to complete. Those characters still mean a lot to me and writing the second book in that trilogy of novels helps curve my devotion.
National Novel Writing Month holds responsibility for my second completed novel, Porfearia. I wrote it in nineteen days, my current personal record.
Novels three, four, five, and six remain in progress, seeing as how I tend to have many story ideas all at the same time.
My foremost passion consists of writing fantasy novels. Reading and writing nonfiction often turns out difficult for me because of the ever current press reality is. But reading takes the place as one of my passions as well. Every writer is a reader, they say. And it’s true. One must write about what they know and they only know what they read.
Participation remains key to writing. Without participation in the writing community, there is little chance of your work being presented to the world. And what author doesn’t want that? Yes, most authors still write for themselves. But they still desire to put their work out into the world and share their ideas, theories, heartaches, love, worlds, and everything else imaginable, or, better yet, unimaginable.
But most authors never publish. Whether that is by choice or not, it’s sometimes difficult to tell. The publishing world presents itself with both desire and difficulty. Now days, without an agent, good luck on getting a book deal. It’s as simple as that.
But most writers rely on the Internet now. And it’s about time they did. Do you really believe in your book? Want to present it to the world but can’t land an agent? Well, ePublishing is your friend. Several Internet sites now offer online publishing deals if they like your manuscript, or even if they don’t. There are ones like Sapphire Blue Publishing that read through your manuscript before offering a deal. But there are also ones like Create Space where you can request prints of your book(s) for a price and they’ll put it up to sell on Amazon. But that’s not for everyone. A lot of people, if not most, still require the satisfaction of the original publishing procedure. Many would rather go through years of query letters and rejection letters instead of self-publishing their books.
And I admit that I am one of those people. Rather than self-publishing my books, even though I believe them to have great stories and messages, I still query agents on a semi-regular basis. The process presents itself with difficulty, but in the end it will be worth it. The satisfaction and pride from a job well done is all that most writers ask for. Of course, a check is always nice because then writing for a living may be possible, but having enough passion for something so tedious is the best part of it all.
