What is your big dream? Something you thought impossible?
Every year I feel my age more and think about things I want to do. The things I have done. The things that are no longer realistic.
My husband is the same way, and this year he decided to do something about it.
So he took back up rollerblading.
Occasionally, he came home with another booboo, but for the most part, he did pretty well -- until he could go out for an hour each day, cruising the neighborhood.
The rest is his story, and you can read it if you'd like:
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It boils down to this: he chased a dream, he achieved the dream, he got confident, he made a bad decision.
And now he's recovering from reconstructive shoulder surgery. For his dominant arm.
Chase your dreams. But stay humble. Listen to that little voice that warns you when you're about to make the big stupid. Hubris goes before the fall.
Our awesome co-hosts for this month are: Rebecca Douglass, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Cathrina Constantine, and Jacqui Murray!
The question: Is there anything you'd like to see changed, added, and/or rearranged about the book publishing industry?
So, so much! Alas, if wishes were lollipops... (Don't ask me where I'm going with that. LOL!)
I think the biggest problem the industry used to have was a HUGE barrier to entry, and now it's the opposite.
Everyone should have the opportunity to reach for their dreams, but it doesn't seem there's much reaching when it's too easy to obtain. I'm not saying writing a book is easy, and there are many things to learn when it comes to publishing.
I mean that with the ease of publishing, the market has been flooded by scammers, AI agents, etc. who are looking to make a penny. And I can't blame them. Everyone needs to eat. There are even people who sincerely put out their best work...whether it's ready to see the light of day or not. And my heart aches for them -- because this is a brutal world and you learn that through reviews.
The sheer number of books released (good and bad) make for a lot of noise and sometimes a breakdown of trust between readers and the publishing world. Where is our quality control? I guess that's what I'm trying to say--because we've gone from one extreme to the other. There's a perfect middle ground somewhere. I think.
Ouch. Yeah, big stupids happen. So stupid it was stoopid. I'm glad your husband is on the mend. I mean, we're still sixteen in our heads, so it can't be that bad... The joys of getting older.
ReplyDeleteSo true! If only we really got that our bodies aren't as young as our minds.
Deleteoh poor husband I thought he fell coming from the postbox but than he had hurt his arm already. I self-published my poetry book That was easy to do and the publisher was helpful as well.
ReplyDeleteI love poetry! I don't know how well it sells in this climate -- maybe better because fewer people have the stamina for longer reads?
DeleteNot the shoulder! Very sorry. Yeah, my rollerblading days are long gone now...
ReplyDeleteYou do have a point about needing a middle ground.
Definitely a painful way to go. Middle grounds are usually the best places, right? LOL!
DeleteI hope your husband recovers quickly. Yes, sadly, there are too many scammers out there.
ReplyDeleteAnd congrats on your upcoming book release!
DeleteThank you, Natalie! It's a bizarre world we live in for sure.
DeleteOuch!!!! Sorry to hear about your husbands accident. Hope all goes well on the mending front.
ReplyDeleteI get many emails daily, all scammers! It's frustrating!!! I don't see a future solution, though.
I hear you about scam emails. I just laugh at them. If I didn't reach out to someone first, they aren't writing to me...in most instances.
DeleteMy dream was to marry Henry Cavill, but that sure aint happening even though it was just a humble little dream....
ReplyDeleteHaha! Humble. You crack me up.
DeleteI used to feel like a minnow in an ocean of huge fish, but thinking about what your wrote makes me realize my ocean is getting more polluted everyday. I can barely see the fish anymore. :-)
ReplyDeleteYeah... The world is constantly changing. Eventually, it will blow up and reinvent itself. Theoretically. LOL.
DeleteDeus caritas est!
ReplyDelete100%!
DeleteThanks for visiting my blog today. I've chased after many dreams over the years but thankfully I've never broken anything in the process. Hope your husband has a speedy recovery
ReplyDeleteThank you! It was wonderful to "meet" you today.
DeleteI read your husband's post, Crystal. It looks like he's managing making content well with his non-dominant hand. He hid a whole lot of pain behind his words. I hope he recovers fully. My heart goes out to him. Meanwhile congrats on your upcoming book and good luck with the musical.
ReplyDeleteThank you! He is doing what he can with a lot of audio tools and my assistance where needed. In small spurts. That one video took him about two or three days to produce.
DeleteOh, your poor husband! I hope he has a successful recovery. I strongly agree with you that it’s too easy to self publish slop these days. A middle ground is certainly what we need!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I had a set of students write novellas, and I was their editor. One student was super proud of hers. It was fine, but it definitely needed a lot of refining, and I told her as much, giving her resources and thoughts on how to get there. Her older sister came to me asking about publishing, because she planned to publish the story for her sister. I tried to warn her away from that, but I don't think she listened. Again, people getting out there before they're ready, I think that's a large part of what's been hitting the market.
DeleteYour husband's rollerblade adventure reminds me of an episode of How I met Your Mother where Barney tries to show he isn't too old to do things he used to do (not go to the doctor, sleep on a futon, etc.). LOL.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm actually grateful for the ten years I was just writing, rewriting, learning about being a good writer before I got published. Sometimes "not yet" is the best answer instead of just rushing head-long into something and ruining what could've been great.
LOL.
DeleteYes. Waiting is hard, but it teaches us so much.
Yes husband has challenges with that too. I call it "delusions of youth." lol I hope he heals well.
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly a different landscape for publishing now than it was when I sold my first book.
Thank you -- and I'm with you. I took a hiatus for many, many reasons and the landcape is so different now.
DeletePoor hubby! Hope he heals well. Shoulders suck. As for the ease of publishing--I agree. The old way had too many barriers, but with no vetting of what's self-published, I fear we've lost the confidence of the readers, and rightly so. I've read some excellent self-published works, many by people in the IWSG, but I've also read some stuff that should have gone through more edits. I worry that my earliest books fall into that category!
ReplyDeleteI hear that! The old confidence game, eh? Thank goodness the past is past and our only choice is to move forward.
DeleteOkay, Crystal, so I have realized that I CANNOT rollerblade. So first, good for your husband for trying. Second, ... oh dear! So sorry to hear about his injury. It hurts just thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteAs far as publishing goes, you are correct. There is entirely too much "noise" in the form of bad books and AI books out there. A decent writer cannot be found in all of it. And yes! That stupid barrier. So we need to wonder what is the crazy criteria they are using today?
Have a beautiful day!
Hey, there are so many skills out there besides rollerblading! 😂
DeleteI suppose this is the way -- the market swings until necessity overrules the insanity and inspires change. I'm betting there will be some regulation eventually, whether it's enforced by the market, or the sellers.
Oh, your poor husband! I hope he heals quickly. I think your question is a hard one. Yes, there was and still is many if not more barriers to traditional publication. And I'm so glad when I was first learning to write that it wasn't as easy to get published as it is now. It forced me to learn the craft. On the other hand, how do you vet self-publishing? You can't really except by reviews. However, I do think the quality of self-published books have really improved. People like Darcy Pattison, who says the goal should be to be able to compete with traditional publishing, is setting a good example.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there isn't really a way to vet self publishing. And that's okay. You're right, the market will sort it out, it's just how much saturation happens around that, making it tricky for any one book to get seen.
DeleteShoulders are complicated joints. I hope your husband's was able to be repaired as needed. Interesting comments about the publishing industry. As I always say, everything in moderation and that's sounds like what is needed now.
ReplyDeleteYeah. Surgery went well. Long road to recovery, but we'll get there.
DeleteModeration really is the key, but there's such a flood that it's impossible to regulate for now.
Hope your husband recovers well...and yeah, no...I trip over my own feet...I could never be on blades. There are so many books out there, and some make me wonder who edited them?
ReplyDelete😂 Okay, stay far, far away from rollerblades.
DeleteThe answer is NO ONE. No one edited them. 😁
Oh no. So sorry to hear about your husband.
ReplyDeleteYou are definitely right, we've gone from rags to riches on book publishing or vice versa:) Regardless, I'm thrilled everyone can get published, but it would be nice to have a way to screen for scammers in the industry and have quality control. Have a grand 4th, Crystal.
Thank you, Sandra! I'm wishing you an epic Independence Day too.
DeleteAmazon keeps "trying" to get on top of the scammers, but I don't really think they care. They're making their money.
Oh no! I hope he's on the mend. (But I bet rollerblading was fun while it lasted!)
ReplyDeleteHe'll get back to it eventually. Unfortunately. 😂
DeleteOh, that's painful. And yes, I've done some not-so-smart things in the pursuit of dreams. It's one thing to ski and snowboard. It's another to decide to show off how I can spin circles backwards on short skis in front of a group of people I barely know. yeah. I dug the back of my skis into some crusty-iced-over snow, and went head over heels. Thankfully, I was mainly bruised in the ego-pride area and did not break anything. But I was in my 40s then. Now... I shudder to think how much pain I would be in if I did that.
ReplyDeleteOh man! Hard life lessons, eh? I'm glad you didn't get hurt worse.
DeleteOuch. Hope he's on the mend. There comes a time, when we'll have to accept that what we did and could've done in our teens and twenties, are just not possible the older we get.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with going for the dream, but it's also best to be realistic about it too.
Agreed. But hey, he had it down well. *sigh*
DeleteI like your answer to the question, Crystal. Scammers suck! I tried rollerblading in grad school. I was cruising down the sidewalks of the Notre Dame campus, grooving to music from my Sony walkman ha ha, only to find myself suddenly flat on my back. I was lucky to avoid injury, and I haven't gone rollerblading since. Another friend suffered a severe TBI from rollerblading. I hope your husband is able to sleep okay after the surgery.
ReplyDeleteWell, we're 2.5 weeks post-op, so we're getting to that place where sleep is a reality.
DeleteWhen it comes to bleeding, I think the key is just taking it slow, like most things when we're just starting. 🥴
Ouch! I hope your husband starts feeling better. I'm at the age now when I don't need to rollerblade or do anything stupid to injure myself. I agree with you about how easy it is to self-publish, and how bad some of the stuff out there is. Makes me a little unwilling to even try self-pubbing.
ReplyDeleteAnd at the same time, some of it is so good! I do love that we get genre mashups and unconventional plotlines out of the mix, but it's hard to find the good ones.
DeleteDear Donna,
ReplyDeleteI had to smile while reading this. Your husband’s story is a perfect reminder that dreams do not come with an expiration date. Sometimes they simply require a little courage, a little persistence, and perhaps a little more protective equipment than we expected! It is wonderful that he returned to something he loved, even if the adventure eventually included a lesson in humility and a shoulder operation.
Your thoughts about publishing also resonated with me. Today it has never been easier to publish, yet it has never been harder to be discovered among the endless stream of content. Readers need trust, and writers need a fair chance to be seen. Finding the balance between openness and quality is not easy.
My husband is currently facing a similar challenge with a new reading and writing platform called Plejaden.online. Creating something new is exciting, but attracting readers and building a community takes patience and perseverance. In many ways it reminds me of writing itself: you keep going because you believe in the value of what you create.
As for dreams, I think many of them remain possible as long as we are willing to adapt them to the realities of life. The route may change, but the dream can still be worth pursuing.
Wishing your husband a smooth recovery and many future adventures, perhaps with slightly fewer bruises!
Best wishes,
Anette
Expiration date or not, he'll be out there again after he's healed. *sigh*
DeleteYes, building an audience is a long game, starting one reader at a time until it begins to grow itself.
Thank you for the visit, Anette! It's wonderful connecting with you. I wish your husband HUGE success.
I admired your husband for chasing his dream. I wish I could be that bold and that eager.
ReplyDeleteThere does seem with ebooks and such, many more releases than before when the internet wasn't so easy to access. It's kind of nice that anyone can have their book out there but yes, there is some lack of quality control since anyone could publish a book. But I think that's someone's dream and who are we to crush their dream by telling them their book is not up to other people's standard?
Have a lovely day.
Or foolhardy...
DeleteIt's true, publishing is so subjective. How do you decide when an author's work is ready? I have some of my own feelings on that, based on study and practice, but all of us are going to have a slightly different perspective.
Poor guy! But kudos to him for chasing his dream anyway. I'm in the phase of life when I have to give up on things because I'm no longer physically able, and I *hate* it.
ReplyDeleteRe: self publishing and quality control, the problem IMHO is the huge barrier to entry for traditional publishing. That forces a lot of great authors to self-publish, and then their work is lumped in with the AI slop and crappy first drafts that unserious people slap up on Amazon. The only path with quality control has become so narrow, only the very, very lucky few can take it.
Aw, I guess there are some things we become much more proficient at when we are more physically limited, eh?
DeleteI'm right there with you on publishing. It's a mess out there.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. Love, "Listen to that little voice that warns you when you're about to make the big stupid." I agree the market is flooded. It makes it even harder for real, hardworking, writers to reach readers.
ReplyDelete100%! But I guess that means we just have to be smarter about how we do it, eh?
DeleteSorry to hear about your hubby breaking a bone. That hurts.
ReplyDeleteYeah... It's definitely one of those longer recovery kind of things.
DeleteSorry for your husband's broken shoulder. Reaching for your dream shouldn't be that painful.
ReplyDeleteAs for quality control in publishing - I'm glad anyone can publish anything now. The big publishers do not actually guarantee quality. All they want is profit for themselves. They blocked so many good writers from the readers' eyes. Until Amazon. I want to cheer Amazon for that alone - allowing anyone to publish their stories.
Yeah, but who actually achieves their dreams without pain? I think it's part of the process.
DeleteIt's true, big publishers do absorb a lot of the payout. That's their motivation to actually be in business. I appreciate the difference that Amazon created, I just wish I could get more behind their company. Terrible business practices.
Quality control is a big issue, especially with the creation of AI writing programs.
ReplyDelete"Every year I feel my age more and think about things I want to do. The things I have done. The things that are no longer realistic."
You took the words right out of my brain. I turn 60 this month, and I'm feeling it.
We just need a foolproof way flag AI, right?
DeleteMelissa, I was at a book club the other day where they said 60 is the new 30, so you know, there is that. 😂
Proofreaders and editord that do their job are sorely needed. That was also one of my wishes for the publishing industry.
ReplyDeleteReaching for your dream sometimes costs big. I hope hubby enjoyde the ride until the accident.
60 is the new 30, doubt this, the new 40 maybe ... I hope, as I am well over 60 now -- how did this happen?
Editors are invaluable, eh?
DeleteCharlotte, I hear you loud and clear. Aging is what happens when we're making other plans! 😂
The shoulder. The dominant one. Fear to try skating has increased yay:) The thing about quality control is soo real!
ReplyDeleteAccidents happen, eh? This is part of life.
DeleteSo sorry to hear about your husband's shoulder. Fear of injuries like that have stopped me from continuing some things I enjoyed when I was younger. Now I worry about how I would get up the flights of stairs to my 3rd floor apartment- or drive my car etc. I hope he has a speedy recovery.
ReplyDeleteThank you! And I hear you. I've given up many things because I was a mom and couldn't risk it. In recent days, my excuse is totally age. It's incredible how LITTLE if our lives are spent in ideal health, eh?
DeleteMy husband wants to buy me a bike so we can bike together in this new place. I've never ridden before. So good luck.
ReplyDelete