Support the Artists to Support the Arts - The Consortium

The last week has been all about education and self-improvement — for me, anyway. I’ve been focusing on ways I can become more, and ways I can help other people do the same.

Oh! And on a more concrete level, I’ve also been working aggressively on the upcoming publication of Gods Tomorrow. I’m totally faking the surprised recollection there, too. This is pretty much all I’ve been thinking about for the last month.

Getting Published

Gods Tomorrow has been finished and “of a publishable quality” for more than a year now. It’s seen several rewrites, and at least a dozen thorough reviews from some amazing beta readers. (It’s also already got two complete sequels finished, and a third in the works.)

Getting it published, though, is more than having solid body text. That’s where the Consortium comes in. As a collective of artists, the Consortium represents an amazing opportunity for writers to self-publish with many of the critical resources a publishing house has to offer.

In the digital age we don’t need warehousing and truckers, but we do need professional quality artwork and elegantly designed covers to catch readers’ eyes and make the self-published book look like a finished product. Most writers wouldn’t know where to turn.

As a Master Writer in the Consortium, though, I just turned to our Photography and Painting  Schools. This week I spent a lot of time working with Julie, our Master Photographer, and our newest member Elyssa to design the look and feel of the Gods Tomorrow cover.

I also got an ARC (advance reading copy) in the mail to my good friend Julie Roads, who’s going to get me another review, but also some effective sales copy for the front and back cover.

There’s a lot that goes into publishing a book, but I know a lot of amazing people. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble making this happen.

Getting Accredited

I also spent a significant chunk of my time this week completing my enrollment for the Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Oklahoma. They accepted me into the program over a year ago, but it’s taken this long to coordinate my schedule so I could actually start taking classes.

It’s a hassle, finding the time in my busy schedule, but one that should be well worth it. This program focuses on a diverse array of writing styles, and it’s going to put me in contact with a bunch of new writers (and arts professors), and every interaction with another artist makes me better at my craft.

This fall I’m taking Writing the Screenplay and Category Fiction. I’m sure I’ll have lots to report on both classes as the semester proceeds, but for now I’m just glad to finally be getting started.