Why is the subject a question? Because I'm not sure whether the situation I'm in really constitutes a dilemma. Here we go: I am (obviously) an aspiring writer who is, as yet, unpublished. My Dad, well-meaning guy that he is, is very enthusiastic about my 'gift' (as he insists on calling my passion for writing). He is, perhaps, overly enthusiastic, and every time the topic of writing comes up, he impresses upon me how much he'd love to see me in print - tomorrow. An impatient man, perhaps. Anyway, he came to me the other day with a proposal. He works for a national charity over here in old Blighty called Mencap, which helps people with mental disabilities. Mencap has been approaching writers for the past few months asking if they would write the last 50 years of the charity for vanity publication. All approached declined, as they wouldn't be paid (it's a charity, after all), and they need money to eat. So my Dad thought it would be cool if I wrote it. He thought it would be great if I had something in print, and that it would be a boost towards a literary career. And I can see where he's coming from. It would be nice to see a book with my name on it. But, at the same time, I would prefer if that book was something that I had written, not written up like a history essay. Something inside me says that my first publication should be a start-as-you-mean-to-go-on kind of thing. I.e. it should be a fiction, preferably a science-fiction. Am I right here? Or am I getting in my own way? Help? JK
Posted by srhowen (Member # 462) on :
Hmm--well a lot would depend on what sort of work it is. Will you have an editor? What sort of vanity press are they going to use? A print on demand one? If they get the books from a vanity publisher--who will market them?
Are you willing to spring for a pro editor to go over the book so it can be a shinning star in your cap?
I don't think you need to start out with a this is what I am ging to do book. Non-fiction and Fiction are different enough--but that's just my opinion.
Shawn
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
JK, don't they mean self-publication?
Vanity publishing is when you pay a subsidy publisher to publish your book (and you pay all the other costs relevant to it, including stuff that goes for subsidy publishing people's salaries).
If you self-publish, you go to the printer, make the arrangements, do the "publishing" work yourself, and save lots of money. (You still have to pay, but you're only paying for the printing and paper and so on, you're not paying someone else's salary.)
Anyway, that isn't your real question, but I did want to clarify that. Self-publishing is far, FAR better than subsidy ("vanity")publishing.
Now, to your real question.
It can be argued that any writing will give you writing practice. Also, the very fact that you have completed a book for a real organization can be considered a plus. And even though it's not published by a big-name publisher, it would still count as a credit.
It tells publishers that you can handle big projects, that you can put sentences together and have them make sense, that you can work with people who have their own ideas about how the task should be done and work with them professionally.
Such a credit would show that you have had some experience, even if it isn't experience in the field you really want to write in.
It seems to me that the real question here is whether or not you want to do it. If you want to do it, it certainly won't hurt your career plans (except, perhaps, in delaying them while you complete this project).
If you don't want to do it, that's another thing. But doing it won't hurt, and it just may help.
Posted by WillC (Member # 185) on :
IMHO, having a <i>non</i>-fiction credit to your name before you have a fiction credit is still a credit. To me, any credit is better than none, specially when you are starting.
Posted by WillC (Member # 185) on :
Oops. Guess I should read those little notes to the side of this box when I try html formatting, huh?
WillC
Posted by JK (Member # 654) on :
Kathleen, I did mean vanity publishing, because Mencap will pay for all the publishing to happen. I just write the thing, and after that, it's out of my hands. Srhowen, WillC, I understand that non-fiction and fiction are separate, and that it would be a credit whichever one it was. My real question, now that I think about it, is whether or not my feeling that my first publication should be something from my own creative mind is right, or just plain silly and something that is getting in my own way. Thanks. JK
Posted by TheUbiquitousMrLovegrove (Member # 390) on :
Ok, I'm not published, so I'm not sure about the whole self/vanity/ or whatever, but, the way I'm hearing you is that you write it, you don't get paid for it, you don't pay them, and they do all the rest of the work. Right?
I'd go for it, my friend. It's volunteer work, and what's more, they are asking you. You are not asking them. I think that would make a great impression on the minds of future publishing houses.
It would show, as K says, you can handle a large project, you can do the work, and you've been the the whole process at least once.
As for your question: Should it come from my creative mind or be work for someone else. Most writers get a degree in something else, a job they don't love, until they make it. Lots of writers become freelance writers for mags and reporters, and journalist, and spend years writing stuff they don't love. I really don't even think that's an issue. Hey, even Card's first book was some sort of pychological text book about parenting.
I think it will only help you, but, don't do it unless you want to.
Posted by JK (Member # 654) on :
I grudgingly admit that you're right, TUML. Having actually thought about it, and having just been scouring the UCAS website for information on a creative writing degree (of which there are scant few), I realise that wanting my first published work to be my ideal, dream publication is young, naive, and vaguely foolish. Thanks, everyone, you helped bash some sense into my fevered mind. A humble, JK
Posted by Lizzie (Member # 957) on :
JK, Young, naive, and vaguely foolish people have changed the world at times...
My advice is, write it, and put it on your resume. I think it is always good to practice different kinds of writing. Think of it as "cross training." Liz
Posted by Joyce (Member # 956) on :
The writing will be yours. Even non-fiction carries the author's signature, by that I mean the style and tone. You have to bring life to the facts. It would still be your creation, really.