So, this blog post has almost zero to do with that ^ title. Haha. April fools!
No, I’m going to show you what it would look like if I had a live Patreon page. Ready?
My name is Beth, and today I was told I was brave for being a writer. The funny thing? I believe it.
I write novels, short stories, flash fictions, stage plays, and screenplays. I’m trying to take a traditional route–or, rather, a somewhat traditional route–with my writing. Someday I might self-publish, but not anytime soon, save for a page-a-day calendar I have in the works.
Here is a list of my top five novel projects, in order of priority:
1. The Warring Goblet (working title): Heroic fantasy, 50,000 words, minimum
2. Doomsday (working title): High fantasy, 50,000 – 90,000 words
3. Merlyn (working title): Urban fantasy, 50,000 – 90,000 words
4. The SAPIEN Complex: YA fantasy, 90,000 words
5. Murder in the Afternoon: Paranormal mystery, 75,000 words
The number of projects I have on back burners is over seventy-five, most of them a sub-genre of fantasy or mystery. My goal for 2016 is to finish The Warring Goblet, and to find an illustrator for my page-a-day calendar.
My writing stats from the year thus far:
Submissions: Eight
Rejections: Five
No responses: One
Acceptances: Zero
Words written: 20,000+
Pending responses: Fifteen or sixteen
Publication credits as of March, 2016:
– In a Pickle, a middle grade book (2012, MuseItUp Publishing)
– The Price of Secrets, a short story based on a scene from The Woman in White (2016, Zoetic Press)
– Mirror Image, a short story (2010, The Literary Lab Presents Notes from Underground)
– Cooking With Faust, a flash fiction (2010, Pill Hill Press’ Wretched Moments anthology)
– Murder at the Orient Buffet, a flash fiction (Big Pulp)
– A Fairy Tale Intervention, a flash fiction (AlienSkin)
– The Laughing Nothing, a flash fiction (Poe Little Thing)
– Dear P. Rinter, a flash fiction (Cool Stuff 4 Writers)
– Hell on Ice, a flash fiction (Golden Visions)
– Free Country, a flash fiction (The Cat’s Meow)
– You Did This for Me, a flash fiction (A Things Girl)
– Miss Overmyer, in the Computer Room, With the Keyboard, personal essay (Coffee Press Journal)
What is a patron? An angel. No, seriously, in theatre, that’s what you call the person/s who help/s fund a production. A patron for a writer could be called a God-send, in my book.
Actors are paid, even if in just comp tickets. Writers, however, do almost everything on spec, with a slim chance of breaking even.
Here are a few expense areas for writers:
– All the basics needed for a person to live on
– Internet for researching novels, agents, publishers, etc. (around $60, monthly–for my household, at least)
– Books on one’s craft
– Electricity to run a computer
– Paper and pens
– Writers conferences (have not the money to attend one, at the moment)
– Book Fairs
– Promotions (whether you hire a service or print out bookmarks advertising your work, for example)
and then there’s self-publishing expenses (if you go that route):
– Content editor
– Line editor
– Cover art
– Promotional services (optional)
– Jacket blurb (if you don’t do it yourself)
In pledging your support to me, you’ll be putting food in my muse’s mouth. Honestly, you’ll be helping meet my basic needs so I can focus on making new content.
________________________
From fantastical kidlit to everyday popular fiction, Beth knits together her prose in a small Ohio town. Her hobbies do not include cat-hating or traveling. She adores her cat “Bug,” and traveling will happen someday, but for now, the farthest Beth travels is the western parts of her brain during the cold, dark months of editing. In 2008, her screenplay The Method won best comedy in Gotham Screen’s contest, and her MG book In a Pickle (2012) is out from MuseItUp Publishing. Whatever the genre or age group, Beth is more than ecstatic to let her imagination take the wheel.
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That’s just a rough draft, but I don’t think I’m going the Patreon route. I just thought I’d show you what I’m up to in a more…creative(?) way 🙂
Keep your pen on the page,
Beth
Beth Overmyer 