Identity crisis or just plain uncertainty?

Hello,

Okay, so I'm not sure why I'm even writing this.

For those people who are following my blog, you may know me as the industrial designer/aspiring writer who is currently working as a graphic designer and had somehow self-published an eBook. That sounds kinda cool isn't it? Well, at least that's what I think...but that's not how I feel.

I mean, I love design, I sure do. Though I can't say that I'm 100% happy with my current job. I mean, I'm an Industrial Design degree holder but I'm working as a graphic designer. But then again, I have no one to blame but myself for choosing this career path. I know I could've gotten a decent job related to industrial design if I just waited. But as I've said in a post I’ve written months ago. Industrial design careers in the Philippines are mostly (Take note that I used the word mostly not entirely,) limited to shelf design and handicrafts. And I don't find that stuff interesting.

As for being an author of a self-published book. Well, I have this not so secret dream of becoming a New York Times Bestselling author, and I realized that it won't happen unless I write and publish a book...or books. And now that I have done it, I realized that I'm happy, but I'm not yet fulfilled. (No, I’m not a New York Times Bestselling author. I have yet to sell a thousand of books to achieve that dream.)

So what's the problem?

I'm not happy. Right now, I keep on fantasizing about my dream job, which happens to be the one Colin Wright is having. (Do check him out. He's awesome. And no, I don't know him personally.) Sure, I could easily pack my stuff and travel somewhere away from home. But I don't think I have enough finances to survive a month in a foreign country.

Then, I also have this other dream of working as a full time author and publish lots and lots of books.

My friends told me, "why not do both?" and my usual reply were either a shrug or a wry smile.

I thought about how I should brand myself. Should I make another website separate from the one I currently have? Or should I just identify myself as designer/author? (If you're wondering what kind of books I write, its fiction. I don't do self-help stuff. Not when I couldn't even help myself decide what I really want to do with my career.)

In the end, I chose the latter and I'm trying to figure out what my next move is going to be.

Sorry for wasting your time. I promise to write something that makes sense next time.

Ciao!

-Den

I kissed self-publishing hello

Hello,

I've always wanted to publish my own books. As much as I love reading novels, I realized that I enjoy writing them as well. I'm not a great writer, but I'm proud to say that I'm improving. And also, I love telling stories. Actually, people tell me that the stories I come up with are awesome. Well, that or I just have some really GOOD friends.

I tried my hand in self-publishing two years ago, though it was more of an experiment and I didn't take it seriously. But as I began writing more stories, I realized that I really do want to become a designer/writer. For some of you who are new here in my blog, let it be known that I'm a designer by day. An industrial/graphic designer to be exact. And I also love furniture design. I'm actually good at it. If you have any doubts, please visit http://afawfay.tumblr.com and be amazed! (Sorry, I got carried away)

Anyway, back to the topic. The first story I ever wrote was a novella entitled 337 days. It's about this guy who was diagnosed with brain cancer, went into an I-don't-care-about-my-life-anymore sort of depression until he met the woman who would eventually make him love life again. Yes, I know it's a cliché but hey, I've written that story when I was eighteen! And I kind of enjoyed reading tear jerking books, which eventually inspired me to write my own. Now, 3 years later, I've been coming up with more stories that I'm actually having a hard time choosing which one to write first.

I have written a total of five novels. Among those five, two of them were my greatest work. Greatest in a sense that I've improved A LOT ever since writing the first three, and they were the ones I felt truly proud of. I've actually submitted them to some literary agents, and just like my fellow aspiring New York Times bestselling authors, the manuscripts got rejected. I was determined to try again until I came across successful self-published authors. Learning about their success stories greatly inspired me and I decided to take self-publishing seriously. That being said, I unpublished my crappy books (the ones from my experiment escapades) and I plan on publishing the really good ones I wrote.

My book Please Stay is now currently available for online purchase at $0.99 (and no, it's not a promotional gimmick. It shall stay at that price for as long as the book is available for download, which would be...forever?) And I'm currently working for a sequel.

If you are wondering if Please Stay is one of my so-called "greatest works," the answer would be, yes. And if you're asking about the "other" one, well, I've decided not to publish it just yet. Don't ask me why, I'm not certain of the reason either.

The truth is, I have some qualms about getting my hands on self-publishing full-time. I am aware that there are a number of people who look down on self-publishing authors, thinking they're not good enough. That no publishing house would want to take their books, thus they resolved to self-publishing, a.k.a vanity publishing for others. (While there are some who just want to self-publish for fun) As a writer myself, that hurts. I've actually read a lot of self-published works at feed books that are so great I kept on wondering why they're not published under big publishing houses. At the same time, I've also read books that are published traditionally yet they're...uhh, for the lack of euphemism...crappy. Seriously. Have you guys read the works of S.C Stephens? If you hadn't, you should! They're really awesome.

One of the good things about self-published works is the fact that since they're self-published, the books written by these unknown authors have some unique and individual style that's refreshing and entertaining at the same time. Since the manuscript had never fallen to the hands of an editor who would care more about the cash he/she would earn rather than the story itself, the manuscript would never be transformed into a so-called industry standard that might be categorized as something that would "sell." Don't get me wrong, but as I've said earlier, there are a lot of traditionally published books out there in the market that are so terrible they end up on the sale pile just to get rid of them. (And I'm talking about books with 50-70% off price mark!)

Anyway, that's for now. Sorry for the abrupt conclusion but I suddenly remembered that I should be working on something.

Ciao!

-Den

P.S. Please Stay is available at Amazon Kindle and Smashwords for $0.99. Don't forget to check it out. :D

Announcements!

I am sad to announce that I won't be posting AFAWFAY weekly updates in this blog. This is to pave way for my journey as a self-published author. Yup, you read that right! So if you want to follow AFAWFAY, you'll have to go to http://afawfay.tumblr.com

That being said, I am happy to announce that my new novel Please Stay is now available for purchase at Smashwords.com for $0.99! Again, you read that right!

That's for now.

Ciao!

-Den

PS. more book updates soon!

AFAWFAY WEEK 09

Hello!

This is my first post for this month! Anyway, this design just came up in my mind while I was working on a different project. It’s a simple stool that was supposed to be flat-packed, but then I decided not to because it didn’t look well.

Materials:

• Veneered Birch
• Leather strips for seating

Ciao!

-Den

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