I’m now using WordPress 3′s default theme. My old theme was nice, but this one is widget-ready and makes it simple to change some things I wanted to change, like the header image. (That’s one of the many trees in my backyard.)

So while I was sprucing things up, I was musing on aspiring author websites and why I think they’re silly.

I mean, I know we’re all supposed to have hundreds of blog subscribers and at least 1,547 twitter followers and/or facebook friends before we publish so much as a drabble, or agents will discard our queries unread.

But aspiring author websites still seem weird. (Even though I apparently have one. (Though I had a website before I started writing, so I’d probably have a website even if I weren’t writing. It would be about my vegetable garden and books I’ve read.))

I think it’s my inherent dislike of self-promotion, combined with feeling that unpublished writers have nothing to promote. Obviously I can only speak for myself, but I’m not a brand and I don’t have a platform. I blog for my friends and family. And anyone who cares how my vegetables are doing, like my future self.

So, other unpublished writers (and recently published writers), enlighten me. What’s the value in having a website? With book blurbs and sample chapters? What about blurbs for multiple books in multiple series – does it imply you’re serious about writing, or that you haven’t sold despite trying for a long time (because I’ve seen this one a lot, and it strikes me as the latter, but I’m not really the audience for that)?

Today’s reading was about agent pay, which has been discussed a lot, including by Victoria Strauss, Jane Friedman, and Jodi Meadows (with bonus “how to help agents”). Jodi said pretty much what I think on the matter: if agents switched to billable hours, it wouldn’t help them in the long run, and would increase the opportunities for scammers. (She says a lot more than that; go read her post.)

Side note: I already have enough (too much) to read, but I’ve been enjoying finding things from http://longform.org/ and http://www.instapaper.com/ (which lists popular items that people have saved). It’s nice to read longer articles; jumping from blog post to blog post makes me feel scattered.

Writing Excuses podcast: Basic marketing, branding, and websites (3 separate episodes)

YA author Saundra Mitchell on Marketing Timelines (thanks to Kelly Swails for the links): Part 1 and Part 2

Things to do with your galleys

Creating covers

Other stuff:

pantheon.org is a mythology site, mentioned on a CoyoteCon panel (sadly, the only panel I was able to attend). Coverage varies, but I’m finding it a useful starting point for figuring out what to look up elsewhere.

Not tired of debating ebooks yet? Here are posts by A.R. Williams and Naomi Clark.

Number of people in a conversation

Time management (I suppose someday I’ll feel like I have enough of a handle on this that I’ll stop reading about it…)

May 5′s meeting is on pitching a novel, so let’s start with…

Pitching/Queries:

New query testing site (post your query, see how many up/down votes you get, and comment on other queries – it’s kinda fun to vote on the queries): http://www.querytest.com/ (and the FAQ)

From QueryTracker.net, Building your pitch

Nathan Bransford on query length: Query stats by word count

J.C. Hutchins on pitching: How’s your pitch?

Pitching and selling your novel

Other:

J. A. Konrath has collected his blog posts into a free 1000+ page ebook, The Newbie’s Guide to Publishing. (You can also donate, or buy a Kindle version.)

Little word changes to strengthen sentences (some of these, like “could”, are on my standard search list for final drafts): Don’t tell me why

Is flash fiction too long for you? Here’s a list of Twitter fiction markets.

How to write in 700 easy lessons: The case against writing manuals (He’s not talking about all how to write books. Just the bad ones.)

Good question: Why start a website or blog if you have nothing to promote?

Not about writing:

Printable paper (such as graph paper, music paper, etc.), via Jen: http://www.printablepaper.net/

Stephen Hawking on time travel (start designing those time machines now!): How to build a time machine

Self-tracking (I track words and writing time, but found this article a bit disturbing. Is it just me?): The data-driven life

Tiny reconfigurable apartment: Tiny apartment transforms into 24 rooms

The author (Jane Friedman of Writer’s Digest) says writers (and aspiring writers) should:
* Interact with friends and other writers on a social network
* Develop relationships with writers and potential readers on Twitter
* Participate in forums that tie into your work’s genre, topic, or subject matter
* Comment on blogs
* Have a website or blog

I have some comments and questions at 9 and 60 Ways – please go there and let me know what you think.

Turning a zeroth draft into a first draft takes me a lot longer than writing the zeroth draft in the first place because my brain is a lot more involved in later drafts, so the chances that I’ll get 50k this month are pretty slim — I could just transcribe blindly, but that would be cheating myself since it’s a waste of time to not do the obvious edits (anything from fixing grammar to adding whole new scenes) as I come across them.

I’d at least like to get the entire second part typed up, and the holes in part one filled in, however many words that takes.

Listened to a zillion episodes of writing podcasts in the car, mostly several I Should Be Writing, two Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing, my entire backlog of the creative writing podcast from AmericanWriters.com, and two Writers Talking.

Connie Willis had a great analogy on one of the ISBW’s. You hear people complaining about how difficult it is to find time to write. Others point out that you don’t find it, you make it. Willis said you carve it out of rock.

• I’m a fan of saving the environment, but doing without toilet paper is further than I want to go by a long shot.

• What’s the next puzzle craze after sudoku? Article with sample puzzles. The nurikabe was really easy.

• Limyaael’s Non-Villain rant. There’s no reason that you need to assume a villain in order to have a story. Mainstream fiction and many “classic” novels get away quite handily with having no villain, or only one truly despicable character in a populated world where many other shades of morality exist.

Writing Summary:

Goals for the past week:
Two reviews – one on the OWW, one off.
Revise ATfD. Almost done.

Although there’s a large energy barrier to critting, I really enjoy it. I like taking things apart and seeing how they work, and I like the chance of discovering something really good.

I should write more short stories. (I won’t, of course, because I don’t have short ideas.) It’s so nice to be able to go over a whole story in one sitting, and keep it all in my head at once. I need more practice with endings, too, and they’re a lot faster to get to in a 2k word story than a 90k story.

Goals for the coming week:
Revise (and submit) ATfD.
Write post about beginnings of novels.

Tasks for later:
(OWW) Catch up on reviews to be returned. (Only one or two left.)
(Trapped Magic) Finish unstickynoting ch 11-15, Finish ch 1-3, Type ch 4-10, Notebook notes for ch 11-15.

Other stuff:
I’m in the early stages of creating my own WordPress theme. Since I don’t know PHP at all and my CSS is built on a weak foundation, this is slow. But fun.

Updated my exceedingly boring nonfiction site with some of the FrameMaker stuff I was playing around with recently. I have a bunch of links (to old clips) I need to add to that site someday soon; since my articles are all on other sites, that's tricky, since they could disappear at any time.

Shameless plug: If you click on this link to the html version of the FrameMaker tables article that I sold to AC, they will pay me an additional $0.0015. (So no, I won't notice if you look or not!)

Writing Summary:

Took the week off due to sickness. I did get some reviews done early in the week, at least.

Goals for the coming week:
Two reviews – one on the OWW, one off.
Revise ATfD.

Tasks for whenever:
(OWW) Catch up on reviews to be returned.
(Trapped Magic) Finish unstickynoting ch 11-15, Finish ch 1-3, Type ch 4-10, Notebook notes for ch 11-15.