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I filled out the survey. As a technical note, you may want to change the question about average phone use—either to take text input rather than a number only, or to be more specific (e.g. “how many hours do you spend on your phone on average per day“)—so that your data is more clear. I input the daily average hours my phone has tracked and added a note when I reached the end of the survey, but it might be simpler to compile your data if the question takes a clearer time-frame into account from the outset.
I hope your project goes well!
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
I love to discuss worldbuilding! How I approach the worldbuilding process depends on the world. I have three main worlds I revisit, so I have three main processes, which I laid out in a blog post a few years ago.
There are certain factors that overlap among all of my worlds:
- I always have some core framework in mind–whether that’s a timeline for a particular part of the world that I’m focused on, the core values of different cultures if I’m working on a broader (geographical) scale, etc.
- I do my best to keep all of my notes streamlined so I’m not trying to find them across ten different locations and formats (World Anvil is my favorite tool for this, but I also make frequent use of plain Word/Google documents and I’ve used Scrivener for one of my worlds)
- The development of any given world is driven by questions. I dive into layers upon layers of consequences and implications for certain aspects of the world, and ask “what if” a lot. I try to keep all of the answers guided by my purpose for the world (both in terms of the story I’m working on and in terms of the world’s broader tone, etc.) and the core traits I’ve already established for whatever culture or era I’m working on. I can spin off in any number of different directions, but if something doesn’t tie back to those core values and elements I’ve already designed, it’s not going to be cohesive, so I have that as a central axis to work from to keep things working smoothly and keep myself from getting too carried away.
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
I don’t know the answers to all of these questions simply because my experience doesn’t cover all of them, but I can say:
2. Yes. I actually keep my Scrivener files on an external drive so that I can easily switch between my desktop and laptop (both Windows computers), so I don’t need to move said files, but prior to that I did keep copies on both computers and just overwrite them with the newer version when I went from one computer to the other. (I will say, an external drive is a lot simpler, lol.)
4. Yep! Aside from initially connecting a license, it’s completely offline. Syncing might be an exception to that; I don’t have experience with syncing (which probably means the answer to your first question is “no”; it’s possible I’ve simply missed a syncing feature, but it’s at least equally likely that there isn’t one for PC), and it’s probable that syncing requires an internet connection, but I would also assume that you can still save locally and it just won’t sync until you’re connected again.
5. Keep your license key somewhere you can easily find it. If you move computers, have an issue that requires you to totally reset a computer, get a new computer you want to use Scrivener on, etc., you will want to have the license key handy. (You’re allowed to install it on multiple computers that you’re the primary user of, so I’m not saying to cheat the system or anything, lol.) There’s also an option to retrieve a lost license key, so it’s not the end of the world if you do lose the license email, but it’ll make things simpler if you put it somewhere you’ll know where to find it (or just make sure you don’t delete it and you know what to search for in your archives).
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
@elishavet-pidyon Thank you! I’m glad they were both helpful to you!
Aw, thanks! It’s good to be around! I can’t keep up much (it might help a little if I changed my KP email address so I get notifications to an email I check more regularly… though that wouldn’t help with the obstacle of busyness, lol), but I try to pop in when I have time and something to contribute!
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
We’ll see if KP lets me post the link or not, but I actually have a blog post all about how to approach the creation of allegorical/pseudo-allegorical religions!
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
This is a neat idea. I look forward to seeing everyone else’s contributions! The forum ate my post when I included book links, but you can find all of them through the “shop” page at rmarcher.com!
Calligraphy Guild
Cozy, standalone fantasy novel featuring strong themes of family, community, and faith in an Asian-inspired setting with dragons and time-altering ink.
Short Story Collection vol. 1
Features four short stories: Escape Room and Silence are sci-fi stories set in the same world as an upcoming duology I’m working on; Caithan is a fantasy set in the same world as Calligraphy Guild; and Carnival Hearts is a contemporary story.
The Mirror-Hunter Chronicles
A series of short stories following Solem Anders, Mirror-Hunter and bean-seller, as he pursues a magic mirror across the land and endeavors to end its trail of destruction–retelling several fairy tales along the way.
Lost Girl
Another short story/novella, in which Nya–granddaughter of Captain Hook–finds herself falling for Peter Pan. What will happen when she loses all she’s come to love, and even Neverland itself?
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
@booksandbeakers
Traditional publishing. A traditional publisher won’t charge you anything, they’ll only take a cut of the profit when your book sells. Spending money on marketing would be the only expense.
Yes, I used KDP. I tried IngramSpark for my last book and gave up because it was such a pain and way more expensive, so I went back to KDP. Formatting is quite a pain, but, yes, worth it. And if you decide to indie publish over the long run and learn to format well, that’s an excellent investment for future books. The short stories I formatted and published were great learning experiences and would almost certainly have enabled me to format my novel if I’d wanted to deal with the headache myself.
I can’t say for sure what the impact is of self-publishing and then pursuing traditional publication, but I can’t imagine gaining a readership would hurt (and indie publishing is beneficial to that end). It may still be prudent to refrain from that if the quality wouldn’t be great, but I doubt it would completely ruin your chances anyway.
I’m a freelance line editor, and I know a number of other freelancers I could refer you to for all different kinds of edits. (What the different types of edits are and why they’re important is another post series on my blog, if you want to look into that down the road.)
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
Why I Chose Traditional Publishing – Rachel Leitch
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
Traditional vs. Indie publishing
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
@booksandbeakers
M’kay, KP is liable to eat my post if I try to put links in it, so I’m going to lay everything out and then post individual links to each post I reference. I apologize in advance for how obnoxious that is, lol.
If you’d rather save money than time and you want a great-quality end result, traditional publishing is the way you want to go. It will take time, lots of revisions, lots of research, lots of querying agents, but once you get a book deal the cover, formatting, and final edits will be on a team of professionals who work in advance of royalties and don’t get paid until the book sells and they take a cut. Generally a bigger cut than a self-publishing platform takes, but then it does balance with the work they’ve done. And you get an advance to start out with, followed by royalties once that advance is made back in full (as I understand it).
In order to self-publish a high-quality book, you need to be willing to invest money in areas that are not your strength. If you have a lot of design experience, maybe you can do your cover and formatting on your own and just pay for editing. (Editing is something I always recommend investing in, even if you’re a good editor yourself; it’s never the same to edit your own work as someone else’s, and an outside eye is invaluable.) But most indie authors are not also designers, and you want a cover and formatting that looks professional and can compete with traditionally published book designs. I paid about $400 for the cover on my novel, and about $200 for the formatting. (I could have formatted it myself, but I didn’t want the personal headache of getting everything precisely perfect so it was worth the trade-off to me to hire it out.)
I have a blog post on traditional vs. indie publishing, followed by a series on the indie publishing process, and Rachel Leitch guested on my blog to talk about why she chose traditional publishing while I posted on hers about why I chose indie publishing. I think indie publishing can be highly rewarding, but which path you choose depends on your priorities, and indie publishing is often an expensive venture.
Whichever way you decide to go, I hope it works out great for you! And I’d be happy to answer more questions if you have them! I’m not as knowledgeable about traditional publishing, but I can help with the contrast of the two and I can talk about indie publishing at decent length. 🙂
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
I’ve self-published a standalone short story, two short story collections, and a novel. I prefer self-publishing, personally, for the freedom it provides and for the opportunity to work with my own choice of collaborators (editors, artists, etc.), but I would like to try traditional publishing down the road as well for the sake of having the experience with both.
I’ve written a blog post outlining the pros and cons I see in each approach, and @rachel-leitch and I exchanged blog posts earlier this year that went over why I chose self-publishing and why she chose traditional publishing.
Like @wilder-w, I used KDP to self-publish, and for a chunk of this year I sold books through both Amazon and my website (the tool I was using for my site shop broke, or else I’d still be doing both; I need to get that fixed).
Canon Press and Rabbit Room Press are both awesome, especially if you’re looking into publishing non-fiction. If you’re a fiction author, Enclave Publishing would be my top recommendation (and when I do venture into trad pub, that’s where I plan to go), but the other two are still good choices.
I’m always happy to discuss this topic further (especially indie publishing), and I have further resources on my site, so if you have any more specific questions feel free to let me know! 🙂
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
@felicity My pleasure!
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
I can’t figure out her tag. That’s frustrating. I’ll have to look into that.
But here’s a direct link to my post on her blog, as well, so you don’t have to scroll down and find it.
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
Got the tag wrong. @rachel-l? @rachel?
Anyway, here’s the post she wrote for my blog.
Speculative fiction author. Mythology nerd. Singer. Worldbuilding enthusiast.
