Transferable Skills

You may have heard this terminology while working on your resume. Skills that you have learned in one job or position are transferable into the next stage of your career. So learning in any capacity is helpful in the climb upward.

In the last few weeks, I have been assisting fellow author, Kaye Lynn Booth with the Book Cover Art Event being held on Facebook. Sunday we will find out if we have made it to the 3rd Round. So be sure to vote for Delilah in the coming days! 

As I was looking around the internet and on Facebook writer's groups for some advice and help, I was confronted by the question: why is it YOUR responsibility to do this Book Cover Event? 

I was struck by the negative tone. My responsibility? I hadn't thought of it exactly in those terms. I had been having fun with the project. 

That seemed to be the crux of what I have been discussing here on my site about the corporatization of the writing craft. For decades writers have clamored to get their books published through the big publishing houses. The stepping on each other for a chance at publication has damaged the community as well as our camaraderie.   

 

How can the phrase: "transferable skills" bring sanity back into the writing community? The Independent Writers of the world can remember that self-publishing loosens the chains once tugged on by corporate entities. Corporations are only in our community for profits, not to move culture forward. 

I see this corporate philosophy in writers' groups. I have had to recently excuse myself from one because the political climate became offensive to me. I said my peace and moved on. There was backlash of people unfriending and unliking my pages because writers have been embolden by the politics of ego.  For people who write about the human condition, some writers are oblivious to it.

No, it is not all right to make fun of other people, push your political ideology, or sexual/gender issues onto other writers because the administrator deemed it a "Safe Space." Safe for whom? If I had run an experiment to see how the same group would have responded to political statements and bullying from the opposite side of the spectrum. . . yeah, the reaction would have be epic. 

The corporate philosophy of fight amongst yourselves for this one spot on our list is over. Writers need to reevaluate what the writing craft means to them. Is it push come to shove, or learning what being in a community actually means? 

Back to the question: why is it my responsibility? Isn't it everyone's? We have allowed ourselves to believe we have no responsibility to the bigger, wider world because corporations want to keep our thoughts, dreams, and aspirations small: a publishing contract. When in reality, the writing craft is about transferable skills. 

My book cover art for: Delilah, written by Kaye Lynne Booth is a stepping stone into that wider world. I have gained as much as I have put into the project. I may not get anything of monetary value through this exploit, but I have received other rewards of learning new skills, obtaining a nomination, and understanding the fundamentals of online book events. 

I could not have gotten any new and viable experiences hiding behind my keyboard and screen.

Now I have transferable skills to assist me in my own solitary endeavors on Undawnted, and the expansion on Sonoran Dawn Studios. 

When will the writing community at large step out of the shadows and back into the light? 

I don't know about you. . . but I sure do like to win. 

Have a great and wonderful day.

Author Versus Writer

Let the games begin!

An author is someone who originates or creates. A writer is someone who is an author or writes stock options. The dictionary is a great place to reflect and gain knowledge. 

There is a school of thought online that states: if you are not optioned by a press or publisher you are therefore not an author. As seen by the two definitions above, that is a fallacy. Writer and author are interchangeable. 

For a long time, I used the term "writer" to identify myself because I had not published a book. When I had published my own writings, an article arose stating that self published writers should not classify themselves as authors. That in doing so self published authors were just giving themselves trophies for showing up. 

I assure you: I did not just show up. I have been writing since junior high school. I have many third party writing credits to my name as well as awards for poetry. I have several degrees that took the effort of writing to attain as well as I have taken college creative writing courses.

Then I pondered on the dilemma a bit further. Was this a case of publisher snobbery? You can only win the title of author if you lick the boots of some garish halfwit with a license?  

Publishing houses have been in control of the written word for a very long time. Writers have had to subject themselves to agents and supply chain demands and criticism for centuries. Now with print on demand technology and the internet, agents and publishing houses have some stiff competition called the free market. 

The monopoly is finished. No more social engineering people to write certain stories or outcomes. People can write for the simple joy of writing. 

But there are so many bad writers out there, how do we weed them out? 

The market will weed out bad writers. For the rest, writers could take a leadership role in making sure good writers are lifted into the public eye more readily by buying and reviewing their books online, creating and publishing anthologies at their own standards, and assisting fellow writers in the writing process. 

I have opened up Sonoran Dawn Studios to publish my own works as well as create and release short story and poetry anthologies in the near future. 

Writers have an enormous opportunity to shape the future of writing, if they stop depicting writing as an authoritative caste system deployed to bully and control the act of writing to the point where writers and authors mean two distinct ideas, then writers can become their own gatekeepers as well as mentor younger or less seasoned writers. But writers will need to take a stand to guide the market.

There is room in the world for literary and pop culture writing. 

Writers, authors must make sure that their field is free of hacks that seek to reign in writing back to the cloistered control system that has yielded profit before people. 

Writing is a craft. It must be developed, exercised, and studied. Writing must not be limited by small minds. 

So next time you think of an author... think potential. 

Have a great and wonderful day!

Also published as Writer Versus Author on Authorsden.