Malissa Kent

One of the best pieces of writing advice I've received didn't come from a writer. It was probably from a teacher, considering that she was talking to a group of students about taking our first trip to Europe. She told us to always look up.

It made sense as she explained it: most Americans are so focused on seeing specific things (the Mona Lisa, Notre Dame, etc.) that they forget to look up. They keep their noses in their guidebooks and their feet focused on the fastest route to their next destination. And by doing so, they don't noticed the amazing ceilings in the Louvre, or the precision with which Gothic arches fit together to become a cathedral's bones. And yet these things defined the places I was going to see even more than did the objects that drew the crowds.

Whenever I talk to people about e-publishing, the first thing I say is, "It's easy!" And it is, in a way. I can't think of many ways to make the actual act of e-publishing easier: all you have to do is fill out a webform or two. The hardest part is troubleshooting file upload issues.

But that's not actually what we talk about when we talk about e-publishing, as I was reminded recently by two excellent blogs; Iain Broome's Write for Your Life and Chuck Wendig's post, "The Precarious Portentious Perils of Self-Publishing." They're both absolutely right: e-publishing isn't "easy," and just like traditional publishing, it must be done right in order to succeed. I even say it myself, over and over in my tweets and my e-publishing e-book: being a successful e-publisher necessitating making a lifestyle change for me. Easy? Yeah, right.

It always fascinates me to hear about other writers' processes, with all their variations. I love hearing how they come up with characters, and how they interact with them--or don’t--both on the page and in their imaginations.

I've always been one of those writers whose characters talk to her. This is mostly true for the characters in my epic Fantasy series, who I've known since 1998 and who continue to surprise me. Like Jiminey Crickets for writers, they seem to talk to me most when I haven't written in a long time. Once, in college, I dreamed that they were plotting how to kill me. I don't remember what scene or change I'd been considering at the time, but I do remember that it had been a while since I'd written my novel--I'd let papers and other college assignments take over my time. I went back to writing very quickly.

I follow e-reader developments more or less everyday; it's always in the news I have delivered to my inbox, like Publishers Lunch and Shelf Awareness. I have a Kindle (third generation) and I’m quite pleased with it, even though I still do the bulk of my reading on paper.

About a week and a half ago, I thrust myself into the big, wide world of e-publishing by putting a Science-Fiction short story, "Mind Melding," up for purchase on the Kindle and Nook stores and Smashwords. I gleefully told my friends and coworkers, then sat back and waited, a grin on my face. I sold 11 copies on the Kindle, and for a few hours I even got in the top 100 in the Sci-Fi/anthologies category (not one I signed up for, by the way--I classified it in short stories); this only a week after publishing it!