The Perks of Being Unpublished

Today's guest blogger, Lisa Aldin, reminds us why the grass is pretty green on this side of the fence, too!

Aw, to be published. It's the dream. To be able to hold your book bound and pretty in your hands. To flip through the pages, overwhelmed with new book smell. To run your fingers along your words. To know strangers might be doing this same thing at this very moment, breathing in your characters, your story, feeling inspired. Changed.

Aw, to be published. To see your book along the shelves. Or in the e-book store.

But it ain't easy.

And for those of us on the other side of the agented/book deal/published fence, still digging our way to success, breaking every fingernail in the process, let's stay positive, shall we?

The grass in Agented/Published Land is greener. Sure. We can see that. Why else would we want over there? But we've got things over here that they don't got. A keg, for one. Just kidding...actually, we have kegs full of melted CHOCOLATE.

Check it out:

1) No Deadlines. No one's waiting for me to finish this manuscript. Okay, I should probably finish it. But life gets in the way. And I can let it without a panic attack. I can keep LIVIN. L-I-V-I-N. My financial situation will not in any way suffer because of my procrastination. I like to think of this as a GOOD thing.

2) Legal Issues. I want to use some Beatles lyrics in my story. I don't care if I'm allowed to. Maybe I would care if I had an agent. Or I had a book deal. But now? Nope. Don't care. It's going in there. And from these lyrics could sprout a new storyline. Or character. Or something magical. A Yellow Submarine, perhaps. I do what I want, screw copyright issues.

3) No Pressure. I don't have to worry about sucking too badly. I don't have to worry about letting my agent down and getting dropped. Because I don't have one yet! Suckage away! For now. But then edits come...

4) No Bad Reviews. Ugh. Not to say all authors get these, but I imagine someone, somewhere, whether it be a reader posting a review on Amazon, might hate your story. Sad to think about, I know. But it happens to the best of 'em. But not my problem! Because only a handful of people will even read it right now!

5) Freedom. This sort of goes with No Pressure. But basically I could have my main character streaking throughout the whole novel with few worries. In fact...*edits manuscript quickly.*

6) Brand-Free. One minute, I want to write YA paranormal. The next, YA contemporary. No, a thriller. Wait...something literary. Maybe some women's fiction? A graphic novel? I'm not branded yet. I can jump around all I want. I can still DECIDE WHO I WANT TO BE AS A WRITER. Exploration! Yes! No marketing marks on me, my friend. The sky is the limit.

7) What-the-Heck Moments. Eh. What the heck. Add in that pink unicorn. See #8.

8) For My Eyes Only. No one's asking to see this. Expectations are pretty low for the slush pile.

9) Catch and Release. Seen this movie? One of the very cute characters is a photographer. He said he loved taking pictures...until he started getting paid for it. Now I have no idea if this is true or not, but I see his point. We are writers because we write. No because we get paid for it. Alright, so it would be awesome to get paid for it...But writing without any sort of agent or deal is still FUN and HONEST and TRUE. And things can only get better.

Have any to add? Please do! And I'm sure agented/book deal/published authors are just grinning. Because they've got that green, green grass.

But we've got the chocolate keg! Party on!

Lisa Alden's current project is a YA Paranormal project called The Moon Dog Inn.