Publetariat

How Can I Help You With NaNoWriMo?

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This post, from David Niall Wilson, originally appeared on his Glimpses Into An Overactive Mind site on 9/23/09 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission.

Sometimes I have so much to say I can’t shut up.  Seriously.  Just ask people within earshot.  Other times, though, I sit and tap the keys nervously and think – I should be working on that story instead of doing this.  Currently that story is Glenn and the Tart of Mortar Psycho Maine Tenants which I hope to complete tonight, or tomorrow night.  Still, I like to be productive in many arenas, and one thing that has become an annual goal is to help as many people as I can to prepare for the annual National Novel Writing Month challenge.

I’ve done Nanowrimo successfully every year since 2004, which was the first time I managed to say I was going to do it and actually start.  I’ve sold most of what I’ve written durning those challenges, and I’ve got a couple of decades of writing experience, a few awards, for what they’re worth – I like to think that when I post here I am somehow giving back and helping with the next “round” of creativity.

So here’s the deal.  If you have a particular subject you are interested in regarding Nanowrimo or writing, post it in the comments section and I’ll do my best to get to it.  You might want to type it into the search box here on the site though, because odds are I’ve covered it at least once.  Here are search links to a few common writing topics, and a couple of less common topics.  Sorry, the Nanowrimo lolcats keep showing up in all the searches … 🙂

Outlines

Characters

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

Wordcount

Scheduling

Lolcats (these are important)

You might also find these links helpful / interesting:

Vintage Soul – dedicated to my Nanowrimo-written novel due out in hardcover this December – you can pre-order and get a signed copy cheap – particularly if you are a Nanowrimo winner, or Follow Me On Twitter!

Heart of a Dragon: You can register here to read along as I write this year’s Nanowrimo Novel – which is book II in the series begun in Vintage Soul – the DeChance Chronicles.  There are also more Nanowrimo tips posted here.

The Necronom-Icon – not really Nanowrimo related.  Short stories inspired by the smiley faces and tiny Emoticons proliferating on the web. All free.

Hope I’ve been of some help…

–DNW

Written by David Wilson – Visit Website
Follow me on Twitter

David Niall Wilson has sold 17 novels and nearly 200 short stories and has won the Bram Stoker Award for poetry and short fiction.  His novel Vintage Soul is due in December from Thompson/Gale Five Star and his collaborative novel with his wife, Patricia Lee Macomber – Stargate Atlantis: Brimstone is also due in November.

A Conundrum…A Long Conundrum (Be Prepared)

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This is a long one, so grab a cup of coffee and get ready to mull with me…

I’ve been mulling over one of many, odd conundrums that seem to exist in the murky world of mainstream publishing. It’s an obscure, opaque condition writers can run into with a first novel.

It is an undisputed fact that most books sell poorly. No matter whether they are mainstream published with the requisite fanfare, or Indie Published with the fanfare authors can muster on their own. Very, very few books become best sellers, let alone covering their own publishing run costs, with the one exception of POD books.  It can be depressing for any writer who really has the drive and desire to publish.

Now, if we take a look at publishing from the Literary Agent’s perspective, facing the fact expressed above, they must concentrate upon books they are pretty sure they can sell, and remember, they are selling to in most cases, long-established publishing relationships. Personal relationships.  An agent "vetting" a book reduces the risk for the publisher substantially.  It also cements relationships within in the industry. 

There are clearly observed, followed trends in book buying. What readers buy in numbers is what publishers need to publish.  It is a matter of economics, especially in the downturn we are all experiencing. 

Most publishers show great pride in their discovery of a new author with a great, new voice, especially if their work has marketplace traction.  Let’s assume the writer writes fiction, which is harder to sell well than a self-help, non-fiction title.  So the writer starts out with reduced expectations.  The publisher will promote and distribute the book, but probably not as well as they would if it were determined to be a current "best seller" genre book.  The author is still heavily responsible for promoting the book as much as possible in order that a great number of readers is exposed to it, just like an Indie Author must do.  No difference, yet.

When the book sales begin, for most new authors, they will be initially slow.  If you browse discount sales table at book sellers and library fund raisers, you’ll find books from recognized writers, but titles you probably never heard of.  Some of them are early work that didn’t gain market traction. I have several of these in my personal library — some from hugely selling writers, whose initial work wasn’t grabbed up.  Some of it is good, some of it is really terrible by comparion with later work. 

Taken as a whole, despite a huge outpouring of argument I’ve heard regarding the traditional role as gatekeepers, protecting the public from an influx of bad books, mainstream publishers produce bad books too. They also produce good book that don’t sell well. Right now, they can’t afford to tie money up with many mistakes, so they will rely more and more on LIt. Agents to only send them really saleable new work. This puts tremendous pressure on agents to dismiss the overwhelming majority of work submitted, in favor of book genres and styles that are currently enjoying success.

That, by and large, leaves most new literary fiction authors out.  Once a new author’s book is as good as it can be honed, assuming the writer wants to publish these days, the only option seems to be Indie Publishing, for one big reason.  An author who writes well, but whose genre isn’t currently popular, may get an agent to represent them, but if, after the launch and a year on the market, with book poor sales, the publisher will blame the agent.  Depending upon their financial committment to the book, they may cut back on their reliance on this agent.

Publishers today, can rarely afford to put their money towards tenuous future sucess. They need success now. An agent must help create success in order to keep their own bills paid and cover more than their expenses. If a represented book languishes, the agent will think less of the writer’s work, in fact being less than anxioust to pitch the next one.  The writer gets a bad rap, right at the start. A smart writer with an eye to the future would want to avoid this kind of situation. 

Poor booksales, are a killer of potential for everyone involved, yet without promotion, review and backing, good sales are very hard to achieve, even if your book is a jewel.  Most of the — hell, all of big media press goes to best sellers, not to competent novelists working in a literary genre.  The web is full of blogs and writers articles confirming the "death" of literary fiction.  I believe that it is a premature announcement, personally. On the other hand, if you write literary fiction, you must either adapt and begin writing in genres that sell (read: vampires, serial mysteries and religious conspiracies) or be realistic and expect that you won’t be the first best selling author on your block.

Confronting that fact tends to deflate the writer’s ego pretty quickly.  But you can always blow it up again.  By choosing to publish independently, you eliminate most of the poor industry associations that plague most debut novelists.  You are still required to produce work as good or better than anything mainstream published. To do less work in honing your novel is just foolishness.  You will need to involve outside editors, whether paid or unpaid. You will need to keep submitting your work to agents and to online reviewers, but all of the results will reflect upon your involvement. If you were accepted as a mainstream published new author, and your first book did poorly, you would probably not have the automatic deal for your second book anyway. Be realistic.  If you are an Indie Published author, when it’s time to move on, you can move on with little of the baggage that would accompany you to new pitches after a lackluster track record. 

Another important force in mainstream or Indie Publishing are book reviewers.  Reviewers also like the cache and potential financial gain of being in on a great ride, so they are also becoming more selective. Indie authors, unless self-published with traditional distribution will find most mainstream doors are closed to them.  I’ve read repeatedly on the web that the one bright spot in reviews for Indie Authors seem to be the Amazon Top Reviewer List. Not all are actively accepting new book submissions, but the ones that are — and you have to be very selective yourself, pairing your work with the individual reviewer — will read your book, and give you a review that will sit on the page where your book appears.  It doesn’t seem to matter if your book is self-published or not, and online promotion is one area where Indie Authors usually shine, or at least glow brightly! Besides the obvious, these reviewers have followers, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands! It will just cost you the postage and a copy of the book.

So, the daunting task of getting a first novel published can be a conundrum — a puzzle within a puzzle.  Translation: you’re damned if you do, and almost damned if you don’t.  Fortunately for Indie Authors, some of the most opaque, inscrutable parts are missing, along with an out-of-pocket percentage here and there. This leaves you free to find your readers and provide them with entertaining novels, at less risk to your long-term reputation, and less risk to your financial health.

Whew!  Thanks for having the patience to listen to the whole sermon.  Let me know if your experiences differ, how and why, or if you can add anything else to this dicussion.

Pam Satran's Web-Book Synergy

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This article, from Laurie Lico Albanese, originally appeared on Shelf Awareness on 9/22/09.

Humor author Pamela Redmond Satran offers many lessons. For one, she advises those of us who are not-so-hip that the young and vibrant read vampire romances and graphic novels while assiduously avoiding eternal dieting, perpetual negativity, excessive housework or anything in leopard print spandex.

How Not to Act Old (Harper, $14.99, 9780061771309/780061771309), Satran’s self-help humor book inspired by the eponymous blog site known by its acronym HNTAO, was released August 7 and immediately hit the New York. Times Paperback Advice Bestseller List at the No. 7 slot, thanks to pre-pub orders fueled by the author’s tireless electronic networking outreach.

This included early cross-posting on the Huffington Post, marketing through More.com magazine in conjunction with Barnes & Noble.com and scoring a Best New Humor Website plug in the Los Angeles Times last year.

The lesson in this: as she has before for various literary projects, Satran was able to harness the evanescent attention and lightning-fast Internet connections needed to cross from blog to book to YouTube to Facebook, Twitter, print media, TV and beyond. And she did so on the cheap. Her start-up costs were "zero," plus "my own sweat-equity," she said.

After posting 70 entries on her new HNTAO blog site in July 2008, Satran went from web launch to book contract in six weeks, and from contract to book in a year. The book’s been favorably reviewed in the Wall Street Journal and has taken her to the Early Show, Good Day New York and dozens of radio spots. In July, Slate’s doublex.com Hanna Rosin praised "the great genius of How Not to Act Old," and the New York Times Book Review featured Satran at the top of "Inside the List."

Ironically Satran started the HNTAO blog after trying unsuccessfully to place a piece on the same topic in a national magazine.

"This is a hard market for people to understand," Satran said of her largely over-40, predominantly female market. "Ageism is deep-seated and pervasive and really at its heart is very vicious. I sometimes think that young people secretly wish we’d all go off somewhere and just die."
 

Read the rest of the article on Shelf Awareness.

Self-Publishing: Future Prerequisite

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Until recently, if you were self-published virtually any agent or book editor worth her salt didn’t want to hear about it. Many of them would want nothing to do with you at all, as if your self-published status might rub their own cachet off or something. But given the tenor and content of the sessions at this year’s Writers Digest Business of Getting Published Conference, I predict it won’t be long before agents and editors will routinely respond to queries by asking what you’ve self-published, and how it’s doing. That’s right, and you heard it here first:
 

I predict that within 5 years, self-publishing will no longer be an option, but a prerequisite for unknown, aspiring authors hoping to land a mainstream publishing deal. It’s the logical, inevitable next step in author platform.

At the conference, the prevailing message was that authors, both aspiring and already published, need to be getting themselves and their work out there in front of the reading public at every opportunity. And guess what? If you’re blogging or making your writing available for download in ebook or podcast formats you’re already self-publishing. As for those who aren’t doing these things for fear of intellectual property theft, in numerous sessions attendees were reminded of Tim O’Reilly’s now legendary quote: that for anyone trying to build an audience, “Obscurity is a greater threat than piracy.”

Seth Harwood and Scott Sigler, both of whom broke through to mainstream success after building an audience for their podcasts, advised conference attendees that the best way to get publishers to sit up and take notice is to demonstrate your ability to build an audience and move your material on your own. Social media guru Chris Brogan said the easiest way to get a book deal is not to need one—because you’ve already established your own platform and have your own audience—, and proposed that rather than follow established roads, aspiring authors should go where there are no roads and create their own. Writers Digest Publisher and Editorial Director Jane Friedman reminded us that here in the 21st century there are no longer any rules in publishing, and reiterated the notion that for aspiring authors, platform comes before the book deal. Be The Media author David Mathison hammered away at the importance of connecting with your readership directly. Booksquare’s Kassia Krozser urged authors to push out into every available channel to enable readers to find them, and as for The Writer Mama Christina Katz, the title of her most recent book is Get Known Before The Book Deal (’nuff said!).

So, how do you intend to enable readers to find you, or build an audience, or connect with readers directly, or get known before the book deal if you’re not publishing or podcasting any of your work? You can’t just tell your site or blog visitors your writing is great, they should trust you on that, and then expect to hold their interest with what amounts to a lengthy series of hang-in-there-I-swear-when-the-book-comes-out-you’ll-love-it messages.

As we all already know, a manuscript’s content is only one piece—an increasingly small piece, unfortunately—of the decision-making puzzle when it comes to convincing a publisher to make an offer. When the editors, marketing wonks and other decision makers get together to consider which manuscripts to acquire, Risk is the name of the elephant in the room and mitigating risk is the key to a sale. When you approach an agent or editor with a quality manuscript, you may convince them you can write but you’re doing nothing to reduce their fears about the eventual book’s performance in the marketplace. If you can approach those same people with a book that’s already in the marketplace and already has a fan base, you’ve already answered the question of how the book will perform post-publication. You’ve reduced their antacid intake by half and given them some very good reasons to invest in you and your book.

Don’t let anyone tell you self-publishing is a desperation move. It’s a power move.

April L. Hamilton is an author, and the founder and Editor in Chief of Publetariat. This is a cross-posting from her Indie Author Blog.

5 Lessons I've Learned About Writing Dialog In Fiction

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This post, from Brad Vertrees, originally appeared on his Brad’s Reader site on 9/21/09.

One of my biggest weaknesses is writing dialogue. A lot of times, my characters ramble on about nothing and I end up cutting a lot of dialogue out while editing. So I decided to read up on how to write better dialogue so I can improve this very important element of fiction. Here’s a little of what I learned.

I decided to read the book Write Great Fiction – Dialogue (aff link) and although I’m still reading it, I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons on the art of dialogue. First and foremost, dialogue is not easy to write. Beginning writers, and even seasoned writers, tend to struggle with it. So if you’re like me and have trouble making your characters talk, you’re not alone.

Here are 5 things you should consider the next time you sit down to write a scene with dialogue:

1. Dialogue needs to propel the story forward. If your characters are just standing around chatting, talking about the weather or their weekend plans, chances are the dialogue is not being effective and you need to cut the scene or rewrite it. Dialogue needs to move the plot forward and keep readers interested.

2. Dialogue is used for pacing in a story. Long and drawn out narratives in a story will slow the pace down. At the same time, dialogue generally speeds things up. Good fiction should be a balanced combination of the two. If your story has too much narrative you are likely to put your readers to sleep. On the other hand, if your story is all dialogue with little narrative, you will probably lose your readers and they’ll have a hard time following the story.

The bad news is that pacing isn’t something that can easily be taught. It’s more intuition than anything. The good new is that you can get better at it by reading a lot of varied genres and practice, practice, practice.

Read the rest of the post, including lessons 3-5, on Brad’s Reader.

The Fiction Writing Workshop: Point of View

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This post, from Kristin Bair O’Keefe, originally appeared on Writers On The Rise site on 9/15/09.

Confusion
When I ask a student, “In which point of view is this story written?” I often get a blank stare, a long “uuummmmm,” or a wrong answer with a question mark tacked onto the end (for example, “First person?”).

Clarity
When making decisions about point of view, you must consider two important questions:

From whose perspective is this story going to be told? (In other words, whose story is it?)

Who is going to tell the story?

The Breakdown

First Person: an “I” (or sometimes a “we”) tells the story; everything in the story is filtered through that narrator

          Example: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
           1.   This is Holden Caulfield’s story. No doubt about it.
           2.   Holden is the first-person narrator. He is the “I” in the story.
 
Advantages: strong sense of intimacy; constant opportunity for characterization; a strong voice that draws readers into the story
 
Challenges: a first-person narrator walks a fine-line between interesting and self-indulgent; readers might doubt the narrator’s interpretation of events (thus creating an unreliable narrator); readers can only climb into the head of the narrator

Read the rest of the post, which includes a breakdown on second and third person POV, on Writers On The Rise.

Break Through By Taking Breaks

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This post, from Matthew E. May (In Pursuit of Elegance), originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum. While it was originally aimed at small business owners, the advice here is equally applicable to writers struggling with writers’ block, or who are feeling creatively "stuck".

Ever wonder why our best ideas come when we’re in the shower, driving, daydreaming, or sleeping? Most people know the story of Archimedes’ shouting “Eureka!” upon suddenly discovering volume displacement while taking a bath and of Einstein’s theory of special relativity coming to him in a daydream. But there are many others:

  • Friedrich von Stradonitz’s discovered the round shape of the benzene ring after dreaming about a snake biting its tail.
     
  • Philo Farnsworth was plowing a field gazing at the even rows when the idea for projecting moving images line by line came to him, leading him to invent the first electronic television.
     
  • Richard Feynman was watching someone throw a plate in the air in Cornell University’s cafeteria when the wobbling plate with its red school medallion spinning sparked the Nobel Prize-winning idea for quantum electrodynamics.
     
  • Kary Mullis, another Nobel winner, was driving along a California highway when the chemistry behind the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) came to him, stopping him in the middle of the road.
     
  • Car designer Irwin Liu sketched the innovative new lines of what became the shape of the first Toyota Prius after helping his child with an elementary school science project involving the manipulation of hard-boiled eggs.
     
  • Author J. K. Rowling was traveling on a train between Manchester and London, thinking about the plot of an adult novel, when the character of child wizard Harry Potter flashed in her mind.
     
  • Shell Oil engineer Jaap Van Ballegooijen’s idea for a snake oil drill came as he watched his son turn his bendy straw upside down to better sip around the sides and bottom of his malt glass.
     

When you look deeper into these ingeniously elegant solutions and brilliant flashes of insight you can see that they came at strange times and in random locations. They didn’t occur while actually working on the problem but after an intense, prolonged struggle with it followed by a break. A change of scene and time away seems to have played a part.

Read the rest of the post on the American Express OPEN Forum.

One Electronic Thingie an Indie Author Can’t Do Without….

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It’s been another strange week, in a strange year.  The wholesale adoption of the previously (all through the “dark ages”) shunned Print On Demand production model by the mainstream publishing industry continues unchecked.  The last reported Big Publisher to succumb is Hatchette as reported in Publisher’s Weekly.  Soon, I’m sure at least publishers and agents will have to admit that POD alone is not sufficient grounds to disregard a writer’s work!  But then, I’m not here to rant on…

As technology, especially communications technology continues to spin out new and improved ways to spread the word, Indie Authors may face a dilemma.  What gear do I really need to promote and sell my work? 

Now I’ve been called a gear-head by my wife – repeatedly – and something of a luddite by younger friends.  If a Blackberry or I-Phone is on your horizon, don’t let me stop you.  There are plenty of blogs and articles out there explaining how to use these devices along with web-based social networking sites and Twitter.  I don’t tweet.  At least not yet, and not in mixed company.

Today, I want to discuss adding traditional, consumer-targeted promotion tools to your arsenal.  We’ll assume relative computer literacy – you’re reading this online, after all.  You have a computer, can operate some photo editing/design software and probably a laser printer to handle the manuscript printing and submission letters, but do you have a photo printer?

Now I don’t mean one of those tiny, snapshot machines, although they do have some promotional applications.  I’m speaking of an inkjet or dye sublimation printer sufficiently large to handle at least letter sized stock.  The current crop of offerings by most manufacturers produce beautiful results – good looking photo prints, but they can also be used to produce excellent point-of-sale tools and mailers.  Important, for most of us, they are not terribly expensive. Be sure to choose one for which you can get supplies (ink, paper) locally. My favorite online gear seller is Tiger Direct, but there are many out there who discount quality hardware.

I use a Canon PIXMA ip6600D a few years old, which prints up to letter size, full bleed (no white borders) images on up to 10 point (fairly stiff) coated card stock.  It has helped me secure bookstore accounts for my first novel.  Along with a sample copy of the book and a nice, to the point cover letter offering direct sales with a good margin based upon the cover price, I enclose a counter postcard. This is made from the book cover graphic, and includes a very truncated pitch. At the bottom is a space that says simply, “Bookseller’s Imprint Here”.  I offer these, customized with the seller’s logo and contact info, free to the bookseller, the same as a book distributer would offer.  The last part of the package is a letter-sized full color poster of the book cover & blurb for the bookseller to use wherever it fits.  Letter size is actually better than larger for most booksellers as space for display is often at a serious premium. 

By using my photo printer to produce collateral promotional materials, customized for the bookseller, I improve my chances in two ways.  First, it makes my sales pitch more professional and businesslike. It shows that I’m serious about helping the bookseller make money with my work – not a small idea. Most independent booksellers are “Mom & Pop” operations that need any help they can get in stretching their profits.  If your promotional items are used, it will give your book better recognition with readers, and not just while they’re in the book store. 

As readers enter the visual clutter of a bookstore, they’ll be bombarded by images – hundreds of them, from posters to book jackets.  Despite the apparent confusion, marketing tests have shown that our human brains may not recall exact words, but a good image will be retained.  A color image, is retained much better than a black and white or grey-scale image.  An image displaying excellent composition and a clear subject focus are the very best. Like an excellent jacket cover design.  Retained images (of your excellent jacket cover) will come in handy when the shopper passes the table or shelf where your book is displayed, and ..something…calls out to them to pick it up.  That’s where recognition comes in very handy.  Of course, once they’ve picked up the book, your writing skills are put to their biggest test: presenting the pitch a reader can’t say no to.

If they drop your gorgeous, full color postcard into a pocketbook or briefcase, it will surely surface again, often where others can be exposed to its wonderfully insidious pitch and presentation.  Think: Ralphie with the ad for the Red Ryder BB Gun stuck in Mommy’s magazine, heh! heh!. Hopefully, as long as it gets passed around (intentionally or not) it can pitch your book and establish recognition.  This continues until it finally enters the trash bin.  We can discuss the green implications at a later time, if you think it’s important.  For my money, it sure beats a bumper sticker on a Hummer. 

We operate a small – tiny, really – online and mail-order company.  That’s where I got the idea, initially for the cards.  Using 4×6 photo glossy sheets, I began printing postcards years ago, with our store images and information to pack inside of each sale shipment.  Now when one of our customers opens their shipping box, they not only get a nice full-color store promotional card, but another card which offers “A Fine Addition to Your Fall Reading List”. As the seasons change, it will be easily revised to read: Winter, etc. 

My first book sales, outside of immediate friends and family came directly from these cards.  You may have your own business, or not, but you may be able to approach your employer about including a book postcard in shipments or correspondence.  It may not be possible, but it may, and it’s worth the risk to inquire.

There is another use for the photo printer that I’ve found very important.  Business cards.  You can purchase letter-sized sheets of glossy or matte card-stock that are pre-perforated, actually scored.  Each sheet can produce 20 beautiful business cards that you break apart with no ragged edges at all.  They look just like the ones I used to have printed by a color gang press in Texas. The really neat thing is, if I need a card with my personal contact information on it, as opposed to our business info, I can print whatever I need. They even make up fold-over cards that can make nice gift attachment notes, etc.  Small, full-color cards also make excellent postings for community bulletin boards, often found in bookstores and libraries.  I’m not too proud to hang my shingle and promote my book wherever I can. 

Now, you might be thinking that this doesn’t sound like what a successful author should have to do, but Indie Authors must wear at least two hats: writer as well as book promoter and publicist.  Also, try to get used to the idea of being a manufacturer of a product.  Once the writing is over, your job is to sell product.  It will put you in a very exclusive club with members such as Samuel Clements who, writing a short novelette under the name Mark Twain – his first commercial fiction work – resorted to distributing handbills himself to sell copies of The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

He lost his shirt in the effort, but he didn’t have a color photo printer, did he?

Next Time: My Tips for Designing & Proofing a Cover with Impact! Nuts & Bolts 101

The Indie Curmudgeon is Richard Sutton, Indie Novelist, graphic designer, marketing consultant, guitar picker, Indian Trader and online retail merchant since 1995.

Make A Good Impression With A Custom Twitter Background

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This post, from Hugh Briss, originally appeared as a guest post on the Twitip site on 11/12/08.

A Custom Twitter Background can make a real impression and enhance your brand – but how do you make one? In this guest post post Hugh Briss from Twitter Image (a service that offers custom Twitter backgrounds) shares some tips on how to make your own.

I know what they say about making assumptions but I’m going to make one now and assume that most of you already understand the potential of Twitter, especially for those of us with something to promote. If you aren’t yet convinced that Twitter is going to do for the Internet what sliced bread did for the sandwich, I encourage you to spend more time reading Twitip. My job today is not to evangelize Twitter — which I love to do — but to talk about how to create cool Twitter backgrounds and show you how valuable the proper use of that space can be.

Generic is Only Good for Prescriptions

In addition to the generic Twitter background, Twitter currently offers 12 stock backgrounds along with pleasing preset colors for the elements on the page. You can also modify the colors of the overall background, text, links, sidebar background and the sidebar border. The first thing any Twit (easier to say that Twitterer) should do is change the generic background, unless you don’t like standing out from the crowd, in which case you can stop reading now.

Switching backgrounds and changing the color palette of your Twitter page is easy to do. Simply select "Settings" in the top row of links on your Twitter page, click on the "Design" tab and then either select a "theme" or click on "Change background image" or "Change design colors" and get creative. Don’t worry about goofing anything up. Any changes you make will not be visible to anyone but you until you click "save".

screen1.jpg screen2.jpg screen3.jpg

 

Themes are Good but Why Stop There?

Now I know that some of you will be perfectly happy with one of the themes Twitter has provided for you but there are still going to be thousands of Twits with the same background as you. It’s like going out in public wearing the same exact clothes as a bunch of other people — which is only cool if you’re going to a football game or a funeral.

With the holiday season fast approaching, this would be a good time to start looking for a nice Christmas-themed background, or Hannukah, Kwanzaa or whatever holiday you celebrate.

The best way to make sure that your Twitter page doesn’t look like anyone else’s is to upload your own background image. Those of you with the necessary skills might want to use Photoshop or a similar program to create your own from scratch. If that’s not a possibility, then there are other options. You can simply upload a photograph you’ve taken, for example. Another option is to find an image that will tile (repeat) in an appealing way. Search Google for "tile background" and you’ll find thousands of places to get them.

Colour Lovers is an excellent place to start if you want to make your own tiling background patterns. They also offer palettes that will help you pick colors that go well together so your Twitter page doesn’t look like you picked the colors with your eyes closed or let your 3-year old do it for you.

Twitter Patterns is another great place to find patterns for your tiled background.

Here are some pattern generators that are a lot of fun to play around with:

Read the rest of the post, which includes much more information and links to some excellent free Twitter resources, on Twitip.

Get it Right!

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Unlike Dan Brown, most of us Indies won’t be printing a 5 million book first run.  I know I won’t be.  For one thing, I haven’t made up a cross-marketing pact with the Tourism Dept.  of Washington DC.  Now I don’t really think the author of The Lost Symbol really made a point to discuss his upcoming book with DC’s tourism folks, but …what an idea?  Every single new tourist to visit the Washington monument would be bringing a copy of the book along.  It wasn’t lost on CBS news who covered the expected tourism increase this past Sunday. 

Indie authors need to keep wacky ideas like this in mind as they hone and finesse their work before publishing.  Connections matter.  So does recognition.  Readers make reading decisions based upon flap and cover content as well as recognition and connection with things they already retain in memory.  It’s a big part of creating hard-hitting advertising. As producers with a product to sell, it should be part of our marketing arsenals in any way we can implement this concept.

On a completely different note, I’ve been active on several writers and publishers sites.  One, in particular has attracted my attention and has provided some really interesting discussion.  While I will leave it un-named, for now, during a rather prolonged discussion of POD publishing, a comment was made that 99.995% (give or take a thousandth…) of all POD Published work is rubbish. 

While, of course the actual figure was created by the writer of the post to underscore a point, it does resonate with me… in the way of a challenge.  Those of us who are going to go the Indie publishing route, had better be aware of how our work is considered by many in the publishing business, BEFORE they’ve even read it.  We need to be absolutely sure that every time we publish, we’re proving them wrong!  Wrong! Wrong!

POD/Indie Publishing requires us to make sure our work is first rate — better than much of what is mainstream published. Otherwise, it will take even longer before POD/Indie work is recognized as simply another variety of published work, not the poor, sad joke that self-publishing has been for many, many years.  We know better. Let’s make sure we teach them with the power of fine quality writing, plotting and production.

 

Should You Blog? And If So, What Are Best Practices?

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This post, from Jane Friedman, originally appeared on her Writers Digest There Are No Rules blog on 9/14/09.

More writers are blogging than ever. And if you’re not blogging already, you’ve probably considered it. Recently, a writer asked me via Facebook about blogging.

 She said:
 

[It is] my impression that blogs related to writing are primarily written by people with expertise in their field and who have valuable advice and connections within the industry. Now, however, I am checking around and I see that many writers, even writers who are unpublished — and some who appear very far from being published — have blogs, also where they discuss writing and their completed works and/or works in progress. These people generally have direct links to their blogs that become available when they sign their name (or their blog name) when commenting on another blog. So, I suppose they are doing some marketing for themselves.

So, my question is: Should I have a blog?

This writer had some serious reservations about starting a blog, and here’s how I answered her questions.

1. I don’t feel like I have much in the way of valuable advice. What kind of advice do I have to dispense?

For aspiring writers (especially novelists), it often comes down to a matter of voice—an engaging voice, humorous insights, or a unique perspective to bring to the table.

Sometimes you may have specific advice, sometimes not. For many aspiring writers who blog, it’s about a community—writers who are learning from one another. It helps if you can identify what about your experience sets you apart, but this insight may not occur for 6 months or more of blogging.

Don’t assume your blog should be specifically about writing. It could be about whatever sets you apart, makes you unique. The writing life can simply be an accent.

2. One person mentioned on his blog that a literary agent looked at his blog, saw his complaints about the issues remaining with his book, and decided not to look at his book. I suppose it seems obvious that you shouldn’t write negative things about your work on your blog, but to me this seems like one example of potentially many examples of why a BAD blog could be worse than no blog at all.

There’s always that risk that an editor/agent will be turned off by your site or blog. Frankly, though, if you’re sending out material knowing there are still issues to resolve, you should be getting rejected. (Never send material out that isn’t as final as you can make it!)

If an agent/editor is turned off by your site/blog, they may not like your style or voice, regardless of content or professionalism. If your blog is a good representation of who you are as a writer (and most blogs are), then it would be like worrying about a potential mate who decides not to start a relationship with you because he/she doesn’t like your personality. Saves you both some trouble, right?

3. I know nothing about blogging, so I feel my chances of writing a bad blog are sufficiently high that I should be concerned.

Maybe you worry too much. This could a unique angle to your blog.
 

Read the rest of the post, including questions and answers #4-6, on There Are No Rules. Also see the follow-up piece, The Benefits of Blogging, in which Jane responds to reader feedback on this article.

How To Write A Bestseller

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This post, from Robert Gregory Browne, originally appeared on his Casting the Bones site on 6/16/09.

Okay, I’ll tell you this right up front.  That title is misleading.

Why?

Because the truth is, NOBODY can tell you how to write a bestselling novel.  Nobody.  I don’t care if they’ve sold a gazillion books themselves, there is no person on this planet who can tell you how to write something that will rocket to the bestseller lists.  Not even the publishers know how to get their books on the bestseller lists.  If they did, every book they published would be there.

I decided to write this post because I was searching the Internet for subjects to write about when I stumbled across a writer’s website that had an article with a title very similar to the title of this post.  So I took a look at the post and surprise, surprise, the author had included some good advice, but none of it really had anything to do with writing a bestseller.

So I used the same trick he did by using a misleading title.  And I’ll bet your adrenalin rose just a little when you saw it, right?

But here’s the thing.

If you sit down to write a “bestseller,” or a blockbuster movie, you are taking a wrong-headed approach to writing.  Writing great fiction has nothing to do with writing bestsellers.  Bestsellers are, by and large, flukes.  Right place, right time.  And not all bestsellers are created equal.

I can name a dozen of my friends who SHOULD be on the bestseller lists and a dozen authors who are and don’t — to my mind at least — belong there.  But that’s neither her nor there.

You should not and cannot even worry about writing a bestseller.  You can and SHOULD simply write the best book you can possibly write, with a story you just have to tell.  You need to be so excited about the work that you’d write it even if you knew, for certain, that you’d never make a dime off of it.

Read the rest of the post on Casting the Bones.

Smashwords Supports Operation Ebook Drop

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This post, from Mark Coker, originally appeared on the Smashwords Blog on 9/11/09 (how appropriate!). In it, he describes Operation Ebook Drop, a new program founded by indie author Ed Patterson and expanded with the help and support of Smashwords, that allows authors and publishers to donate their ebooks to soldiers in need of a good read.

The other day on the Amazon Kindle message boards, Smashwords author Ed Patterson met a U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq who wanted to download ebooks for his Kindle, yet Whispernet (Amazon’s wireless download service) didn’t work in Iraq.

[Publetariat Editor’s note: Ed was among the first members here at Publetariat. He’s an established indie author, as well as a friend to authors and readers alike.]

Operation Ebook DropEd offered to email the soldier all 13 of his ebooks, for free. The soldier gratefully accepted.

Following the chance encounter with the soldier, Ed, himself an Army veteran, queried other indie authors on the Kindleboards message boards, asking if they too would be willing to offer their ebooks for free to troops deployed overseas.

In a matter of days, about twenty authors volunteered their books. Almost immediately, Ed began receiving additional requests for ebooks from soldiers and their families.

Ed and some of the authors started using Smashwords as the platform for distributing the ebooks to soldiers. Using the Smashwords Coupon Generator feature, authors are emailing 100%-off coupons to the soldiers.

I stumbled across the thread at Kindleboards yesterday, and was pleased to learn about Ed’s project and see so many Smashwords authors participating. I immediately decided I wanted to get Smashwords more involved.

I got on the phone with Bill Kendrick, Smashwords’ CTO (and chief magician), and together we brainstormed how we could help take Ed’s campaign to the next level. Then late last night, Ed and I spoke on the phone for more brainstorming.

What began as "Operation Kindle Ebook Drop" has now morphed into something much bigger – "Operation Ebook Drop," in recognition of the multiple ebook-reading devices – cell phones, Kindles, Sony Readers, laptops, etc. – people use to read ebooks.

With Ed’s encouragement, over the next week or so, we’ll begin notifying our 1,300+ Smashwords authors and publishers about the opportunity to participate in Operation Ebook Drop.

The campaign, as we kick it off today, will roll out in stages.

For stage one, we’ll encourage Smashwords authors to email Ed to opt-in to participate. On a regular basis, as Ed receives requests from deployed soldiers, he’ll pass these requests on to the authors, who will directly email the soldiers hyperlinks to their book pages at Smashwords, along with Smashwords coupons which the troops can redeem to download the book in multiple formats, readable on any e-reading device.

For stage two, we’ll look to create a more automated system of matching soldiers with ebooks, so that rather than the manual process described above, we’ll create a catalog, either hosted at Smashwords or by the military, where service members can access the books.

The biggest challenge we’ll face is authentication, but we think this can be achieved with some simple hyperlinks originating from within secure websites and intranets operated by the military. Ed has already started reaching out to different military branches to explore opportunities for collaboration on this important project.

How to Participate

Authors and Publishers – If you’re a Smashwords author or publisher, email Ed and tell him if you’d like to offer free ebooks to participating troops. His email is ed#w#pat# @ #att#. #net (remove the #s and spaces). To create a 100%-off coupon, log in to your Smashwords account and click on the Coupon Manager link. Ed will email you book requests, and then you simply email the soldier a hyperlink to your book page, and the corresponding coupon code. From your Dashboard, coupon redemptions will show up in your Sales & Payment History Report, and you’ll also receive instant email notification. If you’re not yet a publisher with Smashwords (why not?), you can learn how publish with us by visiting our How to Publish with Smashwords page.

Deployed troops – All coalition military personnel deployed overseas who need multi-format ebooks are eligible. According to Ed, "If you’re overseas and away from your home and loved ones, your dependence on reading might increase – and so we a gifting you ebooks for Kindle, Sony, iPhone, Blackberry etc." For free ebooks, please email Ed at the address above. Please note that the ebooks you receive may be shared with fellow deployed service members, but may not be distributed or shared elsewhere. Please also consider the coupon codes you receive as privileged information, not to be shared elsewhere. The participating authors are pleased to offer you their books.

Where to Learn More
The unofficial staging area for Operation Ebook Drop campaign is over at the Kindleboards message boards. Check it out, help out, and support the young men and women in uniform with some great reads!

Indie authors and imprint owners: follow the directions provided above for "Authors and Publishers" to get involved. And if you know any deployed soldiers who like to read ebooks, let them know about the program and pass along Ed’s email address. Thanks are owed to Ed Patterson for coming up with the idea, and to Mark Coker for helping to take it to the next level—as well as for allowing this reprint from the Smashwords blog.

Build Your Personal Brand With A Good Photo

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This article, from Matthew Stibbe, originally appeared on his Bad Language site on 9/9/09.

A good picture of yourself is essential if you want to build your brand online. It really is worth a thousand words.

A few years ago, I hired a professional photographer to take my picture. It didn’t cost much (£200, I think) but I think it was the best marketing investment I have made. It puts a human face on all my interactions online.

Matthew Stibbe(I’m no model so this is making the best of a bad job!. I have more books and less hair now.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some tips for getting and using a good photo:

  • Find a photographer you like. The most important thing is to be relaxed and happy while you’re doing it. Most people dislike posing for photos so you’ll need moral and practical support while you do it. I talked to three or four different photographers. I found a couple online and the others were recommended to me. Back then, I was writing for business magazines and the chap I used (Graham Fudger) took a lot of portraits for them. This is a good thing. Anyone who can make a man in a suit look semi-interesting is a good photographer.
  • DIY if you have to. A professional photographer is best but even a DIY picture or the services of a patient and artistic friend with a tripod and nice camera will do if you can’t afford to pay. Just don’t use grainy snaps from a phone camera.
  • Choose a natural location. I tried a studio photograph and it was just too formal. I took my picture at my club but any well-lit location that you like will work. The focus should be on you, of course, but a matching setting helps. Guy Kawasaki uses an outdoor location very well in his picture: Guy Kawasaki
  • Be yourself. Avoid joke pictures. Don’t dress up too much or be too casual. Choose the clothes you would normally wear if you were trying to make a good impression. Take a selection of different items and take advice from the photographer.
  • Colour balance for onscreen use. A photographer can tweak a picture in Photoshop so it works better onscreen. Get a print version as well, just in case.
  • Crop out the boring bits. Focus in on the expressive bits of your face – eyes, mouth, forehead, cheeks. The rest of it is irrelevant, especially if you only have a 32×32 pixel icon to play with. If you look at the image I use on this blog, it’s just my face cropped out of the picture in this post. Seth Godin is, of course, an exception but his picture uses his eyes very expressively: Seth Godin
     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Read the rest of the article on Bad Language.

Imagine G.W. Bush, broke and on the road, looking for work in his America

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 When Eddie loses the family fortune and needs to find a job, all he’s got are his attitude, a high falutin’ chili, and a junkyard Cadillac Eldorado. He hits the road in search of work, living out of his car.

As a bonafide member of the ruling class, he thinks he’s got a plan. He’ll find work in the service economy he had a hand in creating. He’ll cook his chili in road houses, make himself a reputation, open up his own place, and take the company public. But, averse to hard work for the minimum wage, he finds it’s not so easy.

Using his CB radio, he spins the legend of a wandering chef whose recipe for pot roast chili is a surefire aphrodisiac. His tales of chili and sexual conquest don’t deceive the truckers, so he ups and lays the gauntlet down to the national chili champion. 

When Eddie’s promotional strategy upsets the wrong people at the height of a general election campaign, the outcome of his chili contest determines the fate of the nation.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Moonbeam-Highway-Satire-Culture-Wars/dp/144865016X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1251356843&sr=8-2    Hard Copy $14.99

http://www.amazon.com/Moonbeam-Highway/dp/B002H9XJ7S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252884917&sr=1-1     Kindle $9.99

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/3729   E book $4.99