You are to be published? Congratulations, indeed! I am looking forward to the same early next year I look forward to reading your tales, and I hope you will return the favour. And I love your small menagerie of animals; as a vet student, I've gone through a small zoo of animals myself

Maureen 'Wolffen' Wolff replies: "The animals are my family! LOL When I talk about them some people who eavesdrop think I am talking about a child, and are confused when I mention fur and Animal attributes. LOL. Thank you for the comment, and I certainly will look for your novel(s) when they are out.Thanks, Maureen Wolff"

Congratulations on getting published!!!!

Maureen 'Wolffen' Wolff replies: "Thanks! I appreciate your comment!"

I find this seriously disappointing; no more comments? And I have dropped your name here and there as well...
Perhaps I should start a tour...

Maureen 'Wolffen' Wolff replies: "That would be nice, I could use all the support I can get, I would make a tour for others but my computer won't allow me to do it . I want other Unicorn book readers to come see my novel an support it too, but I need to find other methods to see it off. It is in its final stages of production and I am growing evermore excited!!! but I will have to remove my excerpts from here when that happens, because the Moderators said I had to, I don't know fully why, because this site in Wyvern's will be authorized by ME??? It still puzzles me, but I will have to abide by the rules anyway. I will definately leave a link to my other site for my book though when that happens. Thank you for your support!!!"

Maureen, I don't at all think this novel is salable material--something you would already know if you'd had the guts to send it in to a real publisher. I hang around Elftown (as the user NachoMan), so I know that you think this work is somehow going to be incredibly popular. After looking up your old forum posts, I also see that you aren't really being published on the merit of your work at all. You are SELF-PUBLISHING!!!! You know, there is very little difference between your arrangement with first books and running off copies at Kinko's.

Every subject and every story has its niche, including this one (no matter how disgustingly saccharine I personally find it) but there is no market for poor writing. That is what this is: poor writing that I can't imagine on the shelves of any bookstore.

This book is NOT going to be a success if you self-publish! People these days know that no reputable work comes from self-publishing organizations--if it were any good, it would have passed muster with a REAL editor. What surprises me is that you haven't even TRIED sending this thing to agents and publishers. And somehow, you think that's a good thing. You said this way you "don't have to get [your] work rejected by publishers." I have to tell you, this kind of cowardice and unwillingness to even try is sickening. The writing business is no place for people who take easy outs.

Maureen 'Wolffen' Wolff replies: "Well this sounds like a poor attempt at making someone with SERIOUS potential feel very poorly, and while you are certainly entitled to your profoundly obscure and bitter comment, and opinions, I will say, rather in a simple manner that I STRONGLY DISAGREE. I am not a "coward". I will remember this comment and allow it to remain posted so I have a driver, and a push to be EVEN BETTER. Some day my stories will be everywhere, and you will have to rethink your thoughts, even if you still hate it!!! Until I read something of yours that is better, published or otherwise a number one best seller I will regard your comment as a bitter, soured comment toward someone who has efficiently made the first steps toward GREATNESS.--think about Tolkein, while my style is no where near his intellectual, philosophical callibur, or level of wordiness, he was also a self published author, and he wrote FOR HIMSELF, NOT FOR WHAT OTHERS WANTED. I have yet to see a book like mine, therefore I wrote it for ME, not the poor distaste or wants or likes/dislikes of others. Thanks for giving me the final push to be GREAT!!!!!!!</b>"

How close to publication are you? I can start a tour, but if within a couple of weeks you are going to be pulling your work (due to copyright issues of your publisher: that would be the reason Elfwood would ask you to pull your work) then a tour may not draw the numbers you need to get others to view your work.
You know the best way to get people to your page? Visit theirs! It's time consuming, I know, but worth it. Visit random pages in the library until you get about, oh, I don't know, 25 to 50 pages that you see are recently updated by the authors, and that the authors actually make an effort to respond to comments people leave. If only a few then recommend your work to a friend or someone else, then at least you will have a slow, constant stream of comments. You got to give a little to get a little
Keep Writing!

Maureen 'Wolffen' Wolff replies: "I have gone to other pages and given comments to others and added a little "plug" mixed in. The book won't be completed in publishing until around the end of January, beginning of February, as we are still ironing out a few of the "wordy" non-flowing parts and deciding on paper, the cover and the back cover descriptions. So you could make a tuor for it and have it for at least a month, possibly even two. Thank you so much for your help."

...You're getting self-published?

Suddenly, I find it believable.

You do have talent. But you also have ego. Above, you claimed that Tolkien was self-published. Maybe his scholarly/academic works, but The Lord of the Rings went through a respectable publishing house. Claiming that you are "On the road to GREATNESS" is simply blinding yourself to the fact that you do have definite area for improvement and your stories, like my own and every other writer's, could benefit well to be put through a paper shredder and glued back together. (If this sounds catty, this is actually what I do to my stories.)

Feel free to paint me as a bitter and cynical person who certainly will never achieve the same level of GREATNESS you will (though it's difficult to see how, since being self-published means your books aren't distributed to bookstores). After all the public will enjoy your works "emensely" and those of us who want to call you out because you haven't paid writer's dues of tedious, soul-wrenching editing and rejection are all just jealous.

I want to inspire you to write better. I want to inspire you to take your work from something slightly saccharine and absolutely adjective-laden to something fresh and new and readable. I don't want to be mean and catty and say how bad you are for claiming to be a Real Live Published Author.

All I can really say is, you have a very long way to go.

Maureen 'Wolffen' Wolff replies: "I wouldn't have pursued the self publishing route had I not discovered a company that not only offers to publish the work "print on demand" and E-book form, but also distributes my book to over 5000 librarys, bookstores and retail book networks. I retain all rights to my book and still have the option to leave at ANY time to pursue editors and publishers. Among the companies "garanteed" to sell my books are Amazon.com, Barnes& Noble.com and Wal-Mart.com--among a few others, I will have a site for just my book, the descriptions and a 2 or 3 page excerpt. They also post my site on a large "Hollywood" site where directors and screen writers can see it and make offers to me to have my book produced as a movie, with me retaining all the rights to my book and the screenplay--this is how the books that inspired the movies "Legally Blond" and "Proof of Life" made it to the screen, by way of this same company. All this can be achieved in 2-3 months as opposed to the 2 months for queries that most will be returned, the 6-12 month editing, producing, changing rewriting process(if someone even likes it enough to take it on) and the 3-6 month final sale process. The benifits of self publishing through this company FARR out-weighed the process of editing traditionally, therefore, after extensive research into this company, I have pursued it for my own book. I have rewritten my book 70-80 times and taken in account the outloud reading fluency, so what is posted here is outdated by at least 3 weeks since my last 2 or 3 revisions. I have taken numerous creative writing courses and was the top of my class in all of my advanced English classes, so I am not merely a novice that picked up a pen and has leaped into production, you underestimate my self Editing techniques, and the fact that I have had some of my old teachers "Edit" my work too."

MERRY CHRISTMAS

May all your Christmas dreams come true!

Maureen 'Wolffen' Wolff replies: "Thank you for your Christmas blessing, I hope you have a wonderful Holiday too!"

Hi there. It is nice that you believe in what you are doing. In these days you have the opportunity to self-publish, so you are not totally dependent of finding a publisher who believes in you. Fine. But greatness is not a goal. You cannot tell the world what to think about your work. If you want to be great, then consider yourself great but don't tell anyone else.
I am a published writer (not self-published) and I got some very good reviews when my first novel was released. Readers contact me and tell me the novel was terrific. But some people also love to tell the world that the book sucked, and no matter the praise I've got, bad criticism HURTS. Success does not mean that you stop giving a d*mn about what people say. There are comments here above that are harsh, and you tell them that in a few years they will eat their words because you will become great and famous. Well, they will keep on turning you down, because EVERYBODY will be turned down by someone, no matter how "great" they are. And you will react the same way tomorrow, as you do today. The only thing that will ever protect you, is your own aging and personal growth and that has nothing to do with your success as a writer.

Maureen 'Wolffen' Wolff replies: "The Greatness I talk about is the thing I strive for(ie: being recognized, having my name known, having everyone everywhere talking about my Novel-whether bad or good). It makes me work harder to be the best writer (I) can be, not who he/she/they/them can be. If I didn't have that personal goal, I would still be sitting here, with nothing but an idea in my head, with nothing but my own name, never knowing if I could/should pursue my dreams. Because someone disagrees with my perceptions of "greatness" does not make it no less my goal.I totally understand and respect that others will have their own opinions, and some will most likely NOT like my method, style, manner or ideas expressed in my book. I am prepared for that. If I didn't want people to have their opinions I could have very well got upset and totally deleted their comments...so the fact I left them there has something to show for my integrity on the subject of opinions. I myself am a very opinionated person, but I do try to word anything I say to others in a constructive manner other than a "destructive" manner. I welcomed comments/criticism, and that is what I got, no more no less. When I recieved these comments I was still revising and hadn't been able to publish my new renderings in Wyvern's. Because of the comments/criticism I recieved, I was able to have the not so good portions of my book annylized. Therefor, I was better able to grasp an understnding of what parts in my book were not so "great". The finished product is still my renderings of how my story should be, but I was able to take in account other people's opinions as well. I did not alter anything that I wrote specifically a certain manner, but I was able to have the quarks worked out with the help of those others. A few of the comments I recieved were actually what I took as personal jabs at me for pursuing a self published route, and I didn't think that was appropriate. Just because I have self-published doesn't make my Novel any more or any less as good as it would be if a publisher had gotten their hands on it. Someday, maybe a publisher will want to take my Novel(s) on, and that would be great(and is STILL an option), but the benifits of self publishing FAR outweighed not doing it at this point in my life. I couldn't turn down the time-frame/low fees/promptness/and benifits of self publishing--with 1stBooks. Yeah, I could have had a publisher pay me a sum of money upfront, but it would not have lasted the same as the offer of promotions. Self-publishing is not like "making copies at Kinkos," as was stated in a comment above, this is going to be a real, professionally bound, book store quality edition, with my art on the cover, that will be sold through Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnes&Noble.com and Wal-Mart.com. It is printed on demand, therefor I will not have my warehouse, attic, garage, shed etc cluttered with books that "may" never sale--that I paid a publisher to help me put together. I have not, and never have said I know it all about writing, because I do NOT. I feel I have a new/different/interesting/idea/twist/storyline about Unicorns, that does not follow "ALL" the "rules" other authors have written about them. I have read NUMEROUS Unicorn novels, and they are all good/great/adventurous, but lets face it, the old image, though popular and sentimental to even my person, is just that--old. We live in the 21st Century, where I am offering a "new" idea to an old subject. If I don't make it, at least I can say I "tried" and I didn't just sit on my idea "wondering" if it could have gone somewhere. Regardless of how you view/envision "Greatness", that is still what I strive for...it is through MY perceptions of the word, and no one else's. Thank you for your comment/criticism. "

Did you ever read Elizabeth Scarbrough's _Song of Sorcery_ or _Unicorn Creed_? They're my favorite unicorn stories, ever.

Maureen 'Wolffen' Wolff replies: "I will have to look them up! I am always open to reading new or different things especially about Unicorns..Thanks for telling me about them..."

I have read Maureen's book all the way through before it was complete. Though I found it wordy and somewhat challenging to read, the idea behind it was great. It only once occurred to me that being self published would be its downfall. That was, until, upon reading these comments and your arguments regarding the issue brought into light a new aspect I never thought of before. Now I fully understand your reasoning. There has been no harm done and though I still wish you wouldn't use and alias name and be proud of your own. Growing up the way we did, it's fully understandable as well. Your greatest dream would be for it to become a movie. I think that it is fully possible and may become as great and known as "The Chronicles of Narnia." Good luck and give me a call some time. You know who I am.

To all the other people reading this...check out this home page

http://groups.msn.com/ballpointpenartorg/maureenwolff.msnw

There is also great work done by Maureen Wolff on it and I find it amazing that it's done with ball-point pen. Only someone with a great deal of patients could put that much dedication into detail. I would only think that they would put as much care and dedication into all the things they do, artistically...yes...and even in their written works. Check it out! I did and prepare to be awe struck!