“The Writing Life: Reflections, Recollections and a Lot of Cursing”

“Reasons Why Jeff Strand is My Personal Hero: a goodreads review that “save it for your blog” people will really dislike.

1. He’s a self-published (frequently) author who’s making it as one.
So you publishers can cram it with walnuts. Yeah, indies, too. I submitted a pretty short manuscript 7 months ago. That’s 7 months I could’ve been promoting it myself, know what I mean? So if it’s good, you get a lower return on each sale, and you get it later than you might’ve otherwise, or it sucks, you wait 7 months to find out it sucks, and then you’re right back where you started.

How is publishing still this slow? Do the emails you send go to a center where they’re printed, stuck in envelopes, and mailed to people? I’m trying to think of ways to MAKE this as slow as it is artificially, and it’s not super easy.

Disclaimer: These views may not represent Jeff Strand or what he says in his book, by the way. He may tell you to cram it with chestnuts, Brazil nuts, or a Nutrageous! one of the many discontinued candy bars (thanks, cancel culture).

That disclaimer should’ve come at the beginning, and I moved it there, but then the cramming with nuts joke made no sense. It’s a book review, calm down.

2. His writing advice book includes an anecdote about a llama kicking a kid in the nuts.
And it makes complete sense, somehow, that it’s included in the book.

I made a mistake numbering these. Those two are all I really wanted to say. I think the numbers made it seem like I’d have a lot more.”