Opinions and Onions and Publishing and and and...

The word "opinion" always makes me think of onions, which always reminds me of Shrek, which always makes me laugh - as does this picture.

My thoughts on publishing have been in SUCH a jumble lately.

I read an article a week or two ago that talked about how self-published authors almost need to be more prolific than traditionally published authors because their fan base comes from a different place - all online, and are very often incredibly loyal to authors they like.
Though, I think we're all loyal to authors we like.

I read an article last night about how self-published authors are watering their product down or selling themselves short if they're putting out more than two books a year, and that there's a reason the two-book-a-year thing is "industry standard" or something to that effect.

An author I look up to very much had some not nice things to say about self-published authors not long ago. My agent feels that self-published authors is the direction the publishing industry is heading in. Both opinions are fine with me. It is what it is - an opinion.

Some people believe that the only way to be published is to go traditional. Find an agent. Find an editor you love. And write for that editor. Just look at John Green and Stephanie Perkins and Hannah Moskowitz...

Other people say they only way to go is to be in control of you, your writing, and how it's presented to the world and that self-publishing is the only way to go. If you do it right, and want your book picked up, look at Tammara Webber, Abbi Glines, Jessica Park, Tracy Garvis Graves, EL James, Jamie McGuire...

Part of me wants to use Jolene Perry for every single book I put out. I want to write LDS Fiction. I want to write Women's Fiction. I want to write Literary Fiction. I want to write YA and mix up my YA in Sci-fi and Paranormal, and darker contemp and rom coms... But is that even feasible? And won't I turn off one part of the people who like my writing by writing something else?

So then the other part of me wants to be one name for LDS Fiction and another name for YA Contemp and another name for... you get the idea.

Do I have to have as many "personalities" or pen names as I have genres I like to write?
With the need (yes, I say need) for some kind of online presence, is there any way to keep up with this?

I have no answers here. None. I have a ton of mixed up thoughts, and honestly no idea if I've done everything wrong, or everything right.

Regardless - in the fall of 2009, I wrote my first scene of my first book. A woman was playing the guitar in a small sound booth and tongue-tied the man she came to write songs for (this book is shelved). And that was the beginning of my journey to whatever I am now - an author who has published w/ small presses, who has contracts with larger presses, who is working with her second agent, who knows a WHOLE lot more about the writing process than I did in 2009. And I refuse to live in a world where I regret my actions as long as I intended to do something good.

The moment I begin second-guessing decisions I've already made - I begin to lose sleep. I begin to question choices I'm making in the things I write. I begin to question everything to do with my writing.

I want so desperately to have books in all of those genres. Honestly. But I have absolutely no idea how to do it, or even if it should be done.

I do know that people stand and say - "Hey, look at me, I'm in a great place, so this is how to get here." But someone else, who is also in a good place may have gotten there a completely different way. And what's a good place for one person, isn't a good place for another. I guess my point is that there is no one good way to do something.

I think it helps if you have an end goal in mind, but I'm taking a MUCH different path than a lot of other authors I've met. When I sent out The Next Door Boys I never thought it would actually get picked up.
When people ask me for advice on publishing, I have no idea what to say because anything I tell them will be my opinion, and there will be plenty of other people who completely disagree.

I'm not even sure how to end this post.

~ Jolene

P.S. And after all this I have to remind myself that I'm writing books, not curing cancer or building rockets, and I'm having fun, and probably that's all that should matter ;-)