Why Are You Doing This?

by Anna Rose

I’ve been getting this question a lot over the several weeks since Converted Words was announced, and I’ve been thinking about it and my answer. This is what I’ve decided:

I created Converted Words as a resource for writers, both aspiring and established, to get information on writing, publishing, resources, and more.

Yes, I know there are many out there already, but my honest opinion is that one more can’t be a bad thing. The more resources a writer has available to them can only help them in their craft and offer them as many options as possible in their ongoing work.

I’ll give you some of my reasons why I want to do this.

1. I’ve been writing my entire life, but only published my first novel, SIOFRA, in 2012. It was published independently and made available in both softcover and ebook formats via CreateSpace (now a division of Amazon that has been absorbed into its Kindle offerings). I used my own ISBNs to publish it, as I didn’t want to “give” Amazon any iota of “ownership” of my work by using any of their free ISBNs. A lot of writers use Amazon and their services to independently publish their work, but at the same time, there are a lot of people out there who categorically refuse to do business with Amazon. They have their reasons and I won’t argue with them.
2. I see so-called publishers out there who seem only to be in this for the money and take advantage of fledgling writers who don’t understand how things should work. It infuriates me to see writers paying out stupidly large amounts of money to be published when that shouldn’t be happening.
3. I have seen innumerable books out there that appear to have been poorly edited, if even edited at all. It does not reflect well on the writer or the publisher who puts their name on the thing. On-board spelling and grammar checks aren’t going to catch everything that is done incorrectly or missed entirely. If you’re on a certain social media platform, you know that a computer is not designed to understand nuance and will often misunderstand what’s right there in front of it.

Those are just some of my reasons.

I’m not going to do this alone. I’ve decided to work together with several people already in the publishing world to put this together. These are people I’ve known for at least the past few years and I have respect for them and their abilities.

The plan is to put out a new edition every two months, with this issue being the first and the second scheduled for release on July 15, 2022.

If you’d like to participate, please let me know. I’d love to hear from you.