Unintentional Humor

     I love to read funny stuff, whether it is in the humor genre or just funny stuff added to work of another genre. I think most people feel this way. Everyone enjoys -or should enjoy- being entertained and amused. One of the things mentioned in the Storyteller's Creed that I posted about recently is  "laughter is the only cure for grief". I believe that and it is generally accepted that laughter is healthy. It makes people feel good.
     I read somewhere that the number one thing both genders find attractive in a person of the opposite sex is the ability to make them laugh. I find this easy to believe. My friend and fellow writer, Ramon Presson, once wrote that adding humor to any writing makes the serious/unfunny parts more poignant. (I am impressed that I was able to spell that correctly on the first try, although I did look it up to make sure it was correct.) I also find Ramon's statement to be true.
     It follows that I wish that my writing were funny, but that is one of those things that seems less successful the harder you try. Being funny has to be natural to a person or at least happen naturally in writing or speaking. Yet another thing that I envy in other writers.
     It has occurred to me that people are often funny without meaning to be.  I make my husband laugh frequently and he makes me laugh just as often, but I would not describe either of us as funny. And humor is a very subjective thing. What some of us find funny, others do not.
     People often laugh at my writing and I always wonder what they find amusing, because I almost never feel my stories or books include anything particularly funny even though I would like them to. It is possible that I don't see my work as funny because I'm used to the weirdness in my head; others are not, and so it makes them laugh.
     Or maybe I am more able than I think to write humorously and I should just be happy about it.
 
Note: This post was inspired by a book I am reading by Bill Bryson. He is a travel writer who is also (in my opinion anyway) a humor writer. This is the first book I've read of his and while my reading interests have always been varied and eclectic, I've rarely been drawn to travel writing. However, he's probably going to be another addition to my stable of favorite writers and I will want to read all his books.

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Self-publishing And E-publishing

I, and several members of Living Writer's Collective (the world's greatest writing group), recently attended a seminar on self-publishing and electronic publishing hosted by author Ramon Presson. He highlighted the pros and cons of various forms of publishing: POD (print on demand) self, vanity, traditional.
     The fact is that traditional publishing is becoming less and less of an option for new writers as publishers just don't have the resources to take risks on new books and new writers. Of the other options, POD and self or e-publishing are much less expensive and have better rewards than vanity press.
     A key thing that many writers are not aware of is that even successful writers who have traditional publishers are turning down advances from publishers and giving up their contracts in favor of publishing their work themselves. They do this because it allows the author to keep all profits and because having a publisher no longer benefits writers the way it used to. Today, even if you have a publisher, YOU have to do all the PR and marketing yourself, the same as if you were self-published.
     Ramon spoke about a friend's experience with publishing on Kindle and how easy and quick his friend said it was. It amazes me that more people haven't looked into this.
     I am the most tech and computer challenged person you could meet. I can now send an email with attachments, but until several months ago I had to call my husband and ask how to do it (again) each time I needed to. Even so, I have successfully e-published several stories and one novel for both Kindle and Nook. NOTE: Kindle and Nook pay you a percentage of royalties on sales of your work, but there is NO COST to you at all to publish with them. It's a win-win.
     I thought I would share the details of how easy this is. The first thing I did was "attend" a FREE webinar by Daniel Hall, about how to publish a book to Kindle through Amazon's DTP (Direct To Publish) site. The webinar lasted about an hour and not only walked you through the process and explained every step in detail, but offered lots of information and advice on marketing and format and other things I don't know the actual terms for. Hall has another webinar about publishing to Nook using Barnes and Noble's Pubit! program.
     Following this instruction, I was able to publish my work for both Kindle and Nook and the whole process is very quick and simple. I started out, as an experiment, publishing a short story and now have several short stories and my first novel available for my many (all four of them) fans to purchase and download to their e-readers. I highly recommend all writers try this form of publishing.
     As far as I know, you can still Google Daniel Hall's webinars for self e-publishing and view them FREE. Hall has lots of webinars on many subjects regarding writing, marketing and promoting your work (not all of them free, but his clients that pay for other services is what allows him to offer some things to the rest of us at no charge).
     I advise everyone to do this with some of their writing just because it's a great experience. Ramon suggested it also looks good on your writing resume. And once your work is out there, it may become wildly successful. What have you got to lose?

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