Lucky 13

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This post, by Vincent Zandri, originally appeared on the New Wave Authors blog on 9/21/12.

I’ve finally gone and done it.

Come December I will have thirteen books in print with the publication of Murder By Moonlight. So why is this number so significant? What’s the big deal? 

Thirteen years ago, almost to the day, I published my first "big" novel with a Random House imprint. They gave me tons of money, wined and dined me. I even played drums in my editor’s band and ummm, dated my publicist. If you want to call it that. I was fresh out of writing school. Young. Pretty good looking (Not Barry Eisler good looking, but passable). Newly divorced and living the life of the rock star. 

I remember tossing twenties around to the hotel clerks asking them to bring bottles of booze up to the room so that there would be plenty on hand when the guests came. The guests usually consisted of literary agents, writers, artists, musicians. The room was so full of cigarette and pot smoke you could hardly see. The booze flowed like a river and it just happened to snow during the warm weather, if you catch my drift. I found myself living the dream, and living it hard. It was everything I always wanted. Bright lights, big city, big ego, big books, big future…

All I had to do to maintain the life of the rock star was write one book per year. My hot shot agent would take care of the rest. My lifestyle wouldn’t be supported by sales…Sales?…What the fuck are sales? It would be supported by big advances. Sales weren’t sexy in the eyes of my then agent. It was measured in the amount of advance money he could demand. Six and seven figure advances were what made him hard. Not sales figures typed out on spread sheets. Advances caused headlines in Publishers Weekly. Sales trickled in and never made up for the big advance. Well, almost never, anyway.

Somehow I wrote the second book. But something happened along the way. My imprint got sucked into another. The new imprint editor looked at the advance money owed me and compared it to real sales and nearly puked. The firm honored their contractual committment and paid me, but as soon  as the second book was published, I was shown the door. Goodbye publisher. Goodbye parties. Goodbye rock-star status. Goodbye New York City. Goodbye ego. Goodbye hot shot agent.

 

Read the rest of the post on the New Wave Authors blog.

Are You Still Submitting? Determination Is The Key.

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[Publetariat Editor’s Note: strong language]

You’ve heard it before, I’m sure – you have to keep swimming. That’s true for the actual act of writing in the first place. No matter how hard it is, you just keep going. To quote the erstwhile Chuck Wendig, “I will finish the shit I start.” And then, to explain why, we’ll quote the incomparable Angela Slatter: “You can edit shit, but you can’t edit nothing.”

Notice how shit features in both those quotes? Subconscious, I’m sure, but it helps to make the point. Nothing is shiny first time around. In writing, you really can polish a turd, if you keep at it, make the necessary changes, listen to critique and so on. But you have to have a turd to start with, and that means working hard, writing, writing, writing, essentially, keep pushing until you’ve squeezed one out. And then start polishing.

But I think it’s time we moved away from the crappy analogies. Sorry, it seems I can’t help myself.

Let’s assume you did get the thing finished, be it novel or short story or whatever. Then you started polishing. You edited, tweaked and buffed till it was perfect. Then you sent it out to your critiquing friends and beta readers, and those bastards pointed out all the imperfections. So you listened, because you’re smart like that. And you polished again and again. Eventually, it really was about as good as you could make it. So you submitted it to your favourite market.

And it got rejected.

“Fuck ‘em!” you cry, and send it somewhere else. Their loss if they can’t recognise your genius, right?

Yes, to a degree. Because no matter how good a story is, it might not be right for that publisher’s catalogue, that editor’s taste, that publication’s readership and so on. You have to have a good story – that, above and beyond everything else, is a pre-requisite – but you also have to find the right home. And that’s as much luck and determination as it is smart planning and skill. Of course, if you send your werewolf story to a soft porn magazine it’s not going to sell. Are you laughing? Cos that happened to me.

To be fair, it wasn’t really my fault. When I was moving to Australia permanently, I asked an Australian friend what magazines out here might be good for fiction. I thought I’d start submitting, see if I could get a bit of Aussie publication going before I got here permanently. He said to me, “Picture Magazine publishes fiction, give them a go.” And he sent me the submission address. Old-school post back in those days. Of course, he was winding me up, but I didn’t know that Picture Magazine was a soft-core porn publication. I sent them a story about a werewolf detective. I got a letter back. It said, “This is a beaut yarn, mate, but really not the sort of thing we publish. Thanks anyway.” That’s because the fiction they usually publish is a reader’s-wives/confessions-of-a-randy-plumber type of thing. I didn’t know this before I submitted or when I got the rejection.

When I got to Australia I looked into it. I laughed. Then I went and kicked my mate in the nards for being such a douchebag. Then we both laughed about it. True story. Anyway, write good shit and know your market, is the core of what I’m saying here.

After that, it becomes all about determination. I write this post now because I was recently reminded of the importance of determination by a friend of mine. Ian McHugh is a bloody brilliant short fiction writer. He’s sold stories to such pro markets as Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Asimov’s and many more. He’s a Writers Of The Future winner and his first collection is coming from Ticonderoga Publications in 2014. Yes, he is one accomplished bastard.

Why am I citing Ian as an example of determination? Well, even with a record like his, he still gets a lot of rejection. He recently made a pro sale with a story that has taken a long time to find a home. How long? I’ll let Ian explain:

This was actually the 19th time I’d submitted this particular story, so it’s my new record holder for number-of-rejections-before-selling. Previous best was 14. My general rule has been to trunk a story after 15 rejections. I broke it for this one because I got some lightning-to-the-brain feedback with the 14th rejection and rewrote the ending.

That means that not only was it rejection 14 times before he had a sudden realisation about how to improve the story, but it was subsequently rejected another four times withthe new ending before it found its home.

As Ian said, “Take whatever lessons you will from my Obsessive Compulsive Bloody-Mindedness Disorder (OCBMD).”

The lesson I take from it? Trust in yourself and keep looking for a home. My personal record of rejections before a sale is the same as Ian’s previous best: 14. What really surprised me was the people on our email list expressing amazement at Ian’s tenacity, saying things like, “I couldn’t handle that much rejection” or “I give up after two or three rejections.”

What!?

Let me share some of my own numbers. My recent short fiction sales are all stories that didn’t find a home right away. In fact, my stories hardly ever do. Only a handful of things I’ve written have sold to the first place I sent them, and those are usually things written for a specific themed anthology, or stories written by request/commission. Of the 3 recent stories that I wrote simply because they were in my brain-juice, and then tried to sell, I got 11 rejections, 2 rejections and 6 rejections before they sold to the 12th, 3rd and 7th market respectively. That’s actually a fair cross-section of submission numbers. (And I was bloody happy with the one that sold on the third attempt!)

So, don’t give up on writing something – finish that motherfucker. Then, when it’s finished and polished to its highest possible sheen, start submitting and do not give up. Stay open to the possibility of change, like Ian’s sudden inspiration. I recently did that and changed a story’s structure entirely after something like 10 or 11 rejections, but it’s still essentially the same story and it’s still out there looking for a home.

Finish it, polish it, submit it, repeat.

Off you go.

Caveat: It gets to a point when you have to admit that your story might not be a polished gem at all, but actually just a stinking turd. Sometimes you do have to trunk a story. Ian’s method is give up after 15 rejections. Mine is probably about the same. But when I give up, I never really give up. I rewrite the story, use the ideas in a different way, make it into something else and then send it out there again. Never. Give. Up. 

 

 

This is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s The Word.

How to Use (not abuse) Jargon, Slang and Idioms

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This post, by Susan Bearman, originally appeared on Write It Sideways on 4/20/12.

I started my writing life as a business writer, compelled to try to improve the tortured, often incomprehensible language I found in operating manuals, annual reports, memoranda, and other formats that some bad writers tried to pass off as business “communication”. There seems to be a great misconception that passive voice, undefined acronyms and abbreviations, and loads of jargon make for good business writing.

Not true. All writers—whether writing for business, science, or academia, or those writing fiction and creative nonfiction—should strive for clarity.

But does that mean jargon, slang, and idioms are always taboo? Not if you do your job to make them serve your writing, rather confuse or bore your readers.

Jargon

jargon (noun) — specialized technical terminology characteristic of a particular subject; a characteristic language of a particular group.

To use jargon effectively, you must know your audience. Almost all industries use jargon to some extent, and that’s OK, because most practitioners of a particular profession have a basic understanding of the material and its associated jargon. Business and sports writers are notorious jargon users, as those in medicine and education.

For most writers, the goal is clarity. Unless you have a specific reason to use jargon, it’s best to avoid it. If you must include jargon, be sure to define it or make it understandable within the context of your story.

Bad writing is often the result of too much jargon. While jargon can be helpful when communicating within a specific group, too much jargon, or jargon that is not clearly defined can lead to muddy, confusing writing. If you find yourself having to reread a sentence over and over again, it is often because it contains confusing jargon.

Well-placed jargon in a piece of fiction can lend the voice of authority or the face of authenticity to a particular character. If one of your characters is a pompous Wall Street trader, using some insider jargon will help readers hear his voice on your page. Genre fiction, such as crime fiction, often relies heavily on the use of jargon. Here again, know your audience.

One way to help define jargon in your writing is to spell out acronyms or abbreviations the first time you use them:

Fuzzy: SCBWI announced on June 19 both the winner and runner up of the Don Freeman Memorial Grant-in-Aid.

Better: On June 19, the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) announced this year’s recipients of the Don Freeman Memorial Grants for picture book illustrators.

See if you can translate the following jargon into language that could be understood by a general audience (note, I did not make these up). You may need your search engine to help you. How many clicks around the Internet did it take you to understand the original jargon?

 

Read the rest of the post on Write It Sideways.

Avoiding Common Grammar Mistakes

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This post originally appeared on the George Mason University English Writing Guide site. While it’s intended for use by students of that University who are following a specific essay-writing curriculum, the common errors it lists will be helpful for anyone who’s doing a self-editing pass.

Introduction

By this point you’re done composing your essay. You’ve written an introduction and conclusion, incorporated transitions, and you’ve made use of textual evidence to support your argument. But you’re not done with your first draft yet—you still need to comb through what you’ve written to make sure that you don’t have any grammar mistakes.

 

Common grammar mistakes not only get in the way of your reader’s ability to understand your argument, but they can also undermine your credibility in the reader’s eyes. We’ve compiled here a list of common grammar mistakes that came up most often for professors in the English Department.

Common Pet Peeves for Teachers

Grammar Errors

  • Comma splices—A comma splice is where a comma is used to join two independent clauses which should be separated by a period. An independent clause can stand on its own as a sentence. Do not simply use a comma everywhere a reader would pause.
     
  • Subject/pronoun disagreement—There are two types of subject/pronoun disagreement, shifts in number and shifts in person.

    • Shifts in number—This phrase means the shifting between singular and plural in the same sentence. Be consistent.
       
    • Shifts in person—This error occurs when the person shifts within the sentence from first to second person, from second to third person, etc.
       
  • Its/it’s—"Its" is the possessive form of "it." "It’s" is the contraction of "it is." They are not interchangeable.
     
  • Mis-use and abuse of semicolons—Semicolons are used to separate two related independent clauses or to separate items in a list that contains commas. Do not abuse semicolons by using them often. They are best used sparingly.
     
  • Dropped commas around clauses—Place commas around words, phrases, or clauses that interrupt a sentence. Do not use commas around restrictive clauses, which provide essential information about the subject of the sentence.

    • Interrupting clause—This clause or phrase interrupts a sentence, such as "however." Place a comma on either side of the interrupting clause.
       
    • Restrictive clause—This clause or phrase provides essential information about the subject of the sentence. Without this clause or phrase, the meaning of the sentence changes.
       
    • Non-restrictive clause—This clause or phrase modifies the subject of the sentence but does not change the meaning of the sentence if left out.
       
  • "Naked this"—Always include a referent with "this," such as "this sentence" or "this rule." With no referent, "this" can confuse the reader.

 

Read the rest of the post on the George Mason University English Writing Guide.

Writing The First Draft Of A Novel Using Questions And Modelling

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Whether you have made the 50,000 or not, it doesn’t matter, as long as there has been some focused writing this month! And, there’s still time.

For anybody else wanting to write fiction, this might help you with the dreaded first draft (which for me, is definitely the hardest part).

Trying something new …

I have made life difficult for myself, because I decided as my NaNo project to write a story that has been on my mind for a while, or at least some of the settings, characters and themes have.

 

But I only had one day, Oct 31st to do some rough plotting and to be honest, I didn’t get too far. I had an opening scene and that was about it. No character sketches, no plot layout. [Note: This is NOT the best way to do NaNoWriMo!]

I also decided to write a crime novel with thriller elements, rather than a straight thriller, so it’s a new genre with new rules. (Whatever you think about rules, readers in a genre expect certain things and we have to deliver on that promise).

What’s the difference between thrillers and crime, I hear you ask!

The main difference for me is that in thrillers you know who the bad guy is and the good guys have to stop him/her destroying the world in a race against time, or something along those lines. But basically, you know who the antagonist is and you write scenes with them in and even from their POV throughout the book. Lots of mini-crimes go on during the book but the big explosive threat is what must be stopped.

In a crime novel, you open with the body and then you have to work out who the killer is, so the crime has been committed and it’s a hunt for the killer. The skill is to keep the audience from guessing ‘whodunit’, but not to make it so obscure you annoy them at the end. So they are quite different, although the genres are put together on Amazon as a macro-category.

crime sceneI’m trying to blend the two with the classic crime structure but I also want a bigger thriller plot behind it, and definitely thriller pacing. I also need to keep the promise to my reader with my brand “Ancient mystery, modern thrill” and include detailed history and setting which my readers enjoy.

So on about Day 5 of NaNoWriMo I wrote this to guide me …

Draft back blurb

When the body of a young heiress is found dissected at the Hunterian Museum within the Royal College of Surgeons, London, Detective Inspector Jamie Brooke is in a race against time to find the killer. An ancient ivory figurine found inside the body is the only lead and she enlists Blake Daniel, a reluctant clairvoyant, to help her discover the meaning behind the figurine and the message it holds.

As Jamie and Blake delve into an increasingly macabre world of body snatching, dissection and the genetic engineering of monsters, they must fight to keep their sanity, and their lives.

What are the questions this raises in your mind?

From the back blurb, a whole load of questions are raised, and since I hadn’t written much of the book at the time of writing, answering the questions is a good place to start.

  • Who is the victim and what is she an heiress to?
  • What is the significance of the Hunterian museum?
  • What is the ancient figurine? What is the meaning behind it and how is it linked to the killer?
  • Who is the killer?
  • Why did they do it and what does the killer want?
  • Why is this a race against time?
  • Who is Jamie Brooke?
  • Who is Blake Daniel?
  • Why is he a ‘reluctant’ clairvoyant?
  • Who are the other characters in the book? What are their motives for murder?
  • What are the stakes of the book?
  • What are the themes of the book?

From those questions, a whole lot more emerge and you can start writing the answers in scenes. For example, in deciding on the other characters/suspects, I can then write scenes with the Detective interviewing them and as I free-write on those, more questions will come to light.

This great episode on plotting from the SelfPublishingPodcast guys also talks about the questions you can use as the basis to plotting.

So this is something you can try if you’re struggling with your NaNo book.

Deconstructing and modeling

I find the above is enough to get to about 20,000 words (if you’re mostly a pantser at least), but especially with a new genre, you need to work out how the plot is supposed to work. I love intricate and clever plotting, so this is important to me. Those of you who prefer character driven plots might not be so interested in this!

When I learned to write a thriller, I deconstructed bestselling books, working out the structure by which they worked in terms of scene length, pacing, setting, character development POV etc.

I read a lot of modern crime, but to go back to basics I started re-reading some Agatha Christie novels, but quickly realized that although the books are great, today’s audiences expect fast moving crime, like the TV shows.

So I watched a couple of episodes of popular crime shows Castle and Bones, both open with a body, then spend the episode trying to solve the crime. I particularly like Castle as it is less police procedural and forensics based. Invariably, you can’t guess the murderer until near the end, regardless of whether you know the ‘formula’ because they drip feed the clues. Both shows have a male and female relationship at the center as primary characters.

Deconstructing those shows was brilliant, as I learned how each clue set up a different suspect and then new information led onto someone else. Once I knew how it worked, it was much easier to do with my own book.

At that point, I was able to really plot out the novel and get the hang of how the scenes should be structured, and whose POV I should use. These tips enabled me to at least get a good chunk of the novel sorted in my head, and a lot of it onto the page.

What other recommendations do you have in terms of techniques for writing the first draft? 

 

Image: Crime scene from BigStockPhoto.com

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

Self Publishing in 2012 (Links From My Ignite Talk)

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This post, by Kevin Dangoor, originally appeared on his site on 10/26/12.

Last night, I spoke at Ignite Ann Arbor 7. As always, the Ignite talks covered quite a range of topics and the speakers gave us a great time!

My own talk was one about self-publishing, which is something I’ve had some experience with this year. Back in 2006, I co-wrote a technical book (Rapid Web Applications with TurboGears) for Prentice Hall. That year, I also self-published a DVD (the TurboGears Ultimate DVD). But, my focus in this talk was my experience this year self-publishing the first three books in my 11 Quests children’s fantasy series.

Publishing companies have their place, and I’m not actually against using their services. My view is that we, as authors, should recognize how much more powerful self-publishing is today than it was even a few years ago. The Internet and modern technology and services are making life increasingly difficult for middlemen of all sorts.

After that bit of background, I dove into things that I found useful in my publishing adventure. First, I started with the writing. I wrote the first 11 Quests stories during National Novel Writing Month 2011 (NaNoWriMo, as it’s more succinctly called). I did all of my writing in Scrivener, which is a fantastic program that is available for Mac and Windows. Scrivener helps organize your writing. And, as an added bonus, Scrivener did a good job of producing my ebooks and the interiors of my print books!

MacHeist, which has been extended for 3 days (through Monday, October 29, I’m assuming), currently offers Scrivener along with a bunch of other apps for just $29. It’s a really, really good deal. And, with NaNoWriMo starting up again on Thursday, the timing is wonderful.

Next, I got into cover design. 99Designs, CrowdSpring, and DesignCrowd all allow you to post a price you’re willing to pay for a design and have a bunch of different designers produce artwork from which you pick the winner. These sites are controversial because only one designer gets chosen, but a bunch of designers are doing the work to try to get selected. Only you can decide how you feel about that issue.

Less controversial would be to find a local artist or someone at a site like DeviantArt or Elance. It’s a much more traditional relationship where you agree upon a price and the work gets done.

The approach I took to cover design was “do-it-yourselfish”. I started with DAZ3D which is free 3D software (Mac and Windows). I’ve also used Poser a bit, but I settled into DAZ Studio for my work. What makes these programs great is that you can buy, for not a lot of money, 3D models and then pose them and otherwise customize them to get the image you’re looking for. These programs have a learning curve, and there’s a lot of work required just finding the right models to match what you’ve written. But, I was happy with the results that I got.

 

Read the rest of the post on Kevin Dangoor’s site.

The Proverbial Sex Reassignment Surgery: What This [Publishing] Transition Is Really About

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This post originally appeared on Publishr on 4/27/2010. It’s fascinating to see how visionary the post is now, two years later, and to consider how little the industry has heeded its advice. 

Forget the words “print” and “digital” even exist. Now, what is the transition in publishing really about?

Publishing is, and has been for many years, a B-to-B business. In fact, the walls of the publishing house have traditionally been closed off to anyone without an in. On one end, we have agents who work as buffers to the outside world, so we are not required to interact with anyone who does not have any official business. On the other end, book buyers shield us from having to interact with readers. 

Almost everything about our industry is set up in a way that lessens contact with the outside world. The whole mystique of this industry is based on its inaccessibility to the outsider.

Some examples, to name a few:

Agents: Most publishers do not accepts direct submissions. This, in itself, limits front-end interactions with both published and aspiring authors. In fact, agents serve an important purpose, they act as buffers to the world-at-large, to all the people who think they can write a book. They are the first line of defense, as it were, to prevent contact from the (unsavory) outside world. For scouting works, for performing triage, for acting as a buffer, agents are compensated in percentages based on performance of those things they bring in from the outside.

Review pubs: Industry review publications seem to go beyond just buffering publishers from the outside world, by performing the task of marketing our products to ourselves. This is something that works perfectly in a B-to-B system; different houses vying for space in industry publications to look better than others, our books over your books, our authors have more name recognition than yours, angling for buyers’ attention always with the thought that they will order more copies. Are these publications relevant to the average person on the street who is going to visit a retail location or eCommerce site to purchase a book? No. Not at all.

Industry Conferences: Like review publications, many if not all of our industry conferences consist of self-referential presentations with little to no interest given to the outside world. While this is the case throughout many industries, we seem make a heightened effort to market and promote our latest titles at these conferences. Think about the amount of money spent on galleys, booths, travel, and accommodations for BEA. Take note of the amount, and remember it. It’s going to come back to haunt you.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Publishr.

Peering Into The Future And Seeing More Value In The Random Penguin Merger

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This post, by Mike Shatzkin, originally appeared on The Shatzkin Files blog on 11/26/12.

So now in addition to the Random House and Penguin merger that is being reviewed by governments far and wide, we have the news that HarperCollins is exploring a tie-up with Simon & Schuster in a deal that hasn’t been made yet. That leaves Hachette and Macmillan, among the so-called Big Six, still on the outside as the general trade publishing behemoths rearrange themselves for whatever is the next stage of book publishing’s existence. 

I am not sure we really need an “explanation” for what is the resumption of a perfectly natural phenomenon. Big publishers have been merging with each other for several decades in a process that suddenly stopped after Bertelsmann acquired Random House (to add to its holding of Bantam Doubleday Dell) in 1998. We didn’t know it at the time, but that concluded a long string of mergers that had recently included Penguin’s acquisition of Putnam-Berkley, but which stretched back to the 1970s when pursuit of the paperback-hardover synergy had driven Viking and Penguin; Doubleday and Dell; and Random House-Ballantine and Fawcett into each other’s arms.

(Perhaps HarperCollins should get credit for the resumption of the era of consolidation. Their acquisition of Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, combined with their holding of Zondervan, created a powerful position in one of publishing’s biggest vertical markets shortly before Penguin and Random House announced their plans.)

But consequential events always get an explanation, whether they deserve one or not, and this merger appears to many to be driven by consolidation among the retail intermediaries and the rational concern — amply documented by recent experience — that the retailers would use their leverage to press for more and more margin. This is complicated by the fact that both of the dominant retailers — Amazon in the online world and Barnes & Noble in the brick-and-mortar space — have small publishing operations of their own that are always available to put additional pressure on publishers at the originating end of the value chain.

There is an important asymmetry to take note of here. The retailers publish and are always a threat to acquire manuscripts directly and cut the publishers out but the publishers, particularly the biggest ones, don’t do retail and there is no obvious path for them to enter retailing in any significant way. (That last sentence was written with full cognizance that we await the debut of Bookish, which is an attempt by three of the Big Six to enter retailing in a significant way. Maybe when concrete plans for it are announced there will be some reasons provided to amend that thought.)

In my opinion, the dominant position that Amazon holds in online retailing and that B&N owns in shops are impregnable on their own terms in ways that the positions of each of the big publishers are not.

The threat to Barnes & Noble is that bookstores will become unsustainable: that a retailer trying to exist at scale with books as its primary product offering will, because of ebooks and online purchasing of print, simply become unviable. The threat to Amazon is more nuanced and more distant. One can imagine a world developing where content retailing evolves into niches by subject or tastemaker. But that world is not around the corner (an environment toxic to bookstore chains appears to be much closer) and it would be far easier to imagine how Amazon could adapt to niche online retailing than to see B&N adapting to deliver retail book selections that are only viable at a fraction of their current size.

(I consulted to them a decade ago and suggested that to no interest. They were shutting down their mall stores at the time and the idea seemed totally counterintuitive.  I’ve also written about it.)

 

 

Read the rest of the post on The Shatzkin Files.

Slightly Delayed NaNoWriMo Post-Mortem

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This post, by Lea, originally appeared on the Hundreds of Characters blog on 12/5/11.

I have a really bad habit of forgetting about my blog, of writing few and far between. So I’m going to play catch-up: a couple different posts that I’ve been meaning to write but just never got around to. So I apologize for the slightly out-of-date nature of these couple blog posts, but hopefully the messages will still be relevant.

When I first decided to write this particular post, it was to be titled “Why I Didn’t Win NaNoWriMo, and Why That’s Okay.” Instead, it’s “Even Though I Won NaNoWriMo, It Would Have Been Okay If I Didn’t.” Let’s look at why.

At its heart, NaNoWriMo isn’t about writing a novel in thirty days. Be realistic. You’re not going to write a masterpiece in that long. Not to mention, NaNoWriMo has you write 50,000 words. While that’s an admirable feat, the only books that are 50k words long are MG, middle grade. Most teen fiction is at least 70k, and adult novels even longer. My manuscript, currently on its second draft, is just around 70k and, in my opinion, not long enough. But that’s another topic all together.

So if any of you think about participating in NaNo in another ten months, don’t go into it expecting to come out with a sell-able novel on the other side. What you can expect to come out with, though, is a renewed vigour in daily writing limits.

I know that this sort of thing has been talked about ad nauseam on other writing blogs: the topic of daily word goals, of setting word counts, of things to work towards. But bear with me as I briefly discuss my own experiences, and how my first time participating in NaNoWriMo actually made me feel more like a real writer than ever before.

I had heard, long before I took my first NaNo steps, that telling an agent that your book was written during NaNoWriMo was cause for an immediate dismissal. But I don’t think that has to be the case. What I found, with NaNo, was that I was given a deadline – and for me, that’s always a good motivator. I had thirty days to reach 50,000 words; I had thirty days to reach somewhere between a third and a half of my latest WIP. I started my WIP a couple weeks before November since I was so excited to start. I kept the 15k words I wrote in October on a separate Word document so that that count didn’t interfere with my NaNo count. And then I got writing.

It was fantastic to have a writing goal. I found time in the most unlikely of places to pull out my notebook and get writing. I had a forty-minute train ride from suburbia to work in downtown Toronto every day, and I came to relish those forty minutes as a pretty easy way to hit at least 1300 words. And I’d pull out my notebook again while doing an intern duty of covering reception or on lunch. I’d easily hit 1700, 2000 on those days. And at the end of the day, I’d come home and type out what I had handwritten over the course of the day. It gave me a chance to review what I had written, to make sure that everything flowed, and to do some very small edits.

 

Read the rest of the post on Hundreds of Characters.

8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories

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This post, by Charlie Jane Anders, originally appeared on io9.

Short fiction is the "garage band" of science fiction, claims Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden, so it’s time to step on that fuzzbox and thrash as hard as you can without knocking over your mom’s weed-trimmer. Actually, I think Nielsen Hayden was referring to the fact that you can try more crazy experiments in short SF than in novels, because of the shorter time commitment of both writer and reader. But how can you become a super-master of the challenging form of short fiction? Here are a few suggestions.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: strong language after the jump] 

I wouldn’t claim to be an expert on short fiction writing, but I have written over a hundred of the little fuckers, a large proportion of which have been science fiction-y. Here are a bunch of do’s and don’ts, that I discovered the hardest way possible.

World-building should be quick and merciless. In a novel, you can spend ten pages explaining how the 29th Galactic Congress established a Peacekeeping Force to regulate the use of interstitial jumpgates, and this Peacekeeping Force evolved over the course of a century to include A.I.s in its command structure, etc. etc. In a short story, you really need to hang your scenery as fast as possible. My friend and mentor d.g.k. goldberg always cited the Heinlein line: "The door dilated," which tells you a lot about the surroundings in three words. Little oblique references to stuff your characters take for granted can go a long way.

Make us believe there’s a world beyond your characters’ surroundings. Even though you can’t spend tons of time on world-building, you have to include enough little touches to make us believe there’s stuff we’re not seeing. It’s like the difference between the fake house-fronts in a cowboy movie and actual houses. We should glimpse little bits of your universe, that don’t necessarily relate to your characters’ obsessions.

Fuck your characters up. A little. Just like with worldbuilding, you can’t necessarily devote pages to your characters’ childhoods and what kind of underwear they wear under their boiler suits. Unless your story is really a character study with a bit of a science fiction plot. I used to have a worksheet that included spaces to fill in in info about each character’s favorite music, hatiest color, etc. etc. Never filled those out. If I’d tried to force myself to come up with a favorite color for every character, I would have given up writing. But do try to spend a bit of time giving all of your characters some baggage, just enough to make them interesting. Most science fiction readers are interested in characters who solve problems and think positively, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have some damage. 

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes 5 more tips for writing short fiction, on io9.

We're All Thriller Writers Now

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This post, by L.J. Sellers, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

Thrilling: adj., producing sudden, strong, and deep emotion or excitement 

Doesn’t that pretty much describe all great novels? Yet according to librarians and bookstore owners, traditional labeling defines thrillers as fast-paced, realistic books that focus on plot more than character and have a high-stakes conflict as the heart of the story. And by high stakes they mean a lot more than a single life—or a series of selected lives—must be at risk. Whole cities or ways of life must be in peril.  

But now, with many writers labeling their own work, just about any story with a crime or an element of suspense is called a thriller. Just as one example, Amazon’s #1 book on the thriller list is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, a story of a marriage gone bad and a missing wife. It’s all about the characters. Readers love the story and many have labeled it thrilling, and being a fan, I plan to read it. But it’s not technically a thriller.

(Above: My new book sure looks like a thriller)

As a member of International Thriller Writers, I’ve written many features about new releases for the Big Thrill newsletter. With some, I’ve scratched my head and thought: Why is this called a thriller? The stories usually sound terrific, but still, I would call them paranormal suspense or historical mystery. 

But I’m guilty of thriller labeling too. My Detective Jackson series falls under crime fiction, police procedurals, mysteries, and suspense. But a year ago, I added the word thriller to the subtitles (Detective Jackson Mystery/Thrillers) to let readers know that they aren’t traditional mysteries that can be solved at a leisurely pace and that there is plenty of action and a major element of suspense. 

Also, labeling the novels thrillers expands their metadata and allows more readers to find them. But are they really thrillers? Traditionalists would probably say no. Murders, assaults, and robberies in a midsized Oregon city don’t represent high-stakes conflict. My new publisher, Thomas & Mercer, doesn’t plan to use the thriller label. So in January, the series goes back to being the “Detective Jackson Mysteries.” But I hope Amazon lists the books in the thriller category, anyway. 

Because I want to reach as broad an audience as possible. Still, I wonder how much readers care about labels. Some readers love thrillers of every kind, and they judge a book by its cover, description, and word of mouth reputation, rather than by its category. Other readers actively dislike thrillers, and won’t bother with any book labeled that way. Further discussion reveals that what they mean is they don’t like spy stories or novels with big explosions or long chase scenes. So for some readers, thriller can have a negative connotation. 

My website says “Author of provocative mysteries & thrillers” and I’m happy with that. In addition to my Jackson series, I have three standalones—all highly suspenseful, but with no spies, explosions, or car chases. 

What does the term thriller mean to you? Does the label make a book more enticing?

Why Ignoring Offline Promotion is a Baaaad Idea (and 9 Ideas to Get You Started)

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Have you ever been totally sidelined by (what should be) a simple sickness?

You know the ones I’m talking about: that cold or flu that just won’t quit! I don’t get sick often, but, over the past week, I’ve been kept offline by the nastiest cold I can remember.

Wanna hear a secret?

Aside from the general ickiness I felt (exacerbated by taking care of my also-sick family)…I kind of liked it.

Even though I’m still having problems tasting food (coffee, I miss you!), I found spending time in the “real world” to be quite refreshing — and it brought to mind an important book marketing lesson.

Does this sound familiar?

After awhile, staring at a computer screen feels…well, exhausting. Especially when you also work on computer during your day job, running home and staring at more pixels quickly causes promotional burnout.

You need a change of pace. But, you still need to get your book in front of new readers. The solution?

Turn off the computer.

I hear you scoffing, but I’m serious! Sure, half of folks buy books online, but that means there’s still a huge offline audience for your work.

And you know those crazy-dedicated fans? Not all of them are hanging out online.

9 Offline Book Promotion Ideas (That Don’t Suck)

The problem with offline book marketing is that many of the ideas feel dated and ineffective. You don’t have time to mess around with boring ideas that don’t pay off, so a little creativity is in order.

1. Create Bookmarks

Want an offline promotional tool that keeps working long after you’ve left the scene? Enter the humble bookmark.

Bookmarks are like business cards for authors, only far more useful (and totally cost effective). A set of 250 2″ x 6″ bookmarks costs less than $20 to be printed, allowing you to leave a piece of yourself in:

Books you sell (so your new fans can give them away to friends who might also like your work)

Books you donate (more ideas on that later!)

Other books similar to yours that you borrow, donate or give away

Include your book cover, logline-style pitch and (most importantly) a link to your website!

2. Pitch Your Story to a Local Paper

Press releases aren’t the only way to grab your local newspaper’s attention. Being featured in your paper earns you exposure to thousands of new readers — but your story will only be picked up if your pitch is enticing and relevant to local readers.

While pitching locally gives you an instant angle (you’re a local author!), this isn’t attractive enough on its own to earn you a story.

To increase your chances, give your pitch a little something extra. Reporters need to know why your publishing story is special, how your book breaks new ground or what insider information you can offer readers.

3. Host a Book Exchange

Avid readers are eager to seek out new authors and new books. Help them out by hosting a book exchange!

Invite your friends (and their friends) over to your place for an evening of book-sharing awesomeness. This is a perfect opportunity to get your book into new hands!

4. Join (or Form) a Local Authors Group

When you’re stuck, an outside perspective works wonders! Chatting with other authors is an awesome opportunity for brainstorming (and commiserating) with others who know exactly how you feel.

Check Meetup to see if there’s a local writing or author group in your area. If there’s not one, make one! Once a month, get together for coffee, chats and brainstorming. You can even consider hosting a group book signing!

5. Get Friendly with Bookstore Owners

While the manager at a chain bookstore (like Barnes and Noble) might not be super-eager to hear from you, small or independent bookstores are staffed with book lovers who usually enjoy meeting local authors.

Find a store with a vibe that matches your personality and become friends with the owner and staff. They might just invite you in for a book signing or feature your book in the store!

6. Donate Your Book

Aside from your local library, anywhere folks spend time sitting and waiting is a great candidate for a book donation.

Libraries, doctors office, and salons are prime locations to share your book (with a few bookmarks tucked inside, of course). Those long waits are sure to snare new readers!

7. Make a Flyer

Awaken memories of that teenage babysitting business and post flyers for your book at your favorite local businesses.

The trick to using this old-school technique effectively is to make your flyers attention-grabbing and attention-keeping. Create a large, enticing headline, reel in readers with a cliffhanger summary and short, memorable URL for purchase.

Tip: Use bit.ly to create a custom URL that points to your website.

8. Have an Answer to “What Are You Up To?”

How many times do you run into folks at the grocery store you haven’t seen in awhile? Dreading that awkward “so…what are you up to?” conversation? (Seriously, that’s one of the reasons I shop at 7am when everyone with sense is still asleep!)

Turn this dicey situation around by sharing your excitement about your book. Just a simple “Oh! I recently published a book” opens the doors to an enticing conversation — and a potential new reader!

9. Read Your Book in Public

Do you notice what people around you are reading in public? Whenever I’m in a waiting room, I can’t help but sneak a peek at the books in the hands of others.

Take advantage of these opportunities to read your own book. If you have an eye-catching cover or intriguing title, someone might strike up a conversation — or make a mental note to research it on their smartphone!

Tip:  If anyone asks why in the world you’re reading your own book, you can always say you’re working on your next book and need some inspiration.

What do you think?

Which offline promotions have worked well for you? Do you have tips for other authors looking to close the laptop? Let’s chat in the comments [on the original post]!  

 

This is a reprint from Duolit.

Chris Baty: The Terribleminds Interview

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This post, by Chuck Wendig, originally appeared on his terribleminds site on 11/21/12.

 

Chris Baty, ladies and gentlemen: the founder of NaNoWriMo is here just in time to save you and your novel. I met Chris as the Crossroads Conference down in Macon, GA, this year, where the both of us were guest speakers of the con (and what a kick-ass con it is), and damn if he isn’t the nicest and most inspiring dude. Which tells me he’s probably a serial killer, but that’s okay. Who isn’t? Chris harnessed the power of his niceness and inspiration and focused them on an interview here at terribleminds. Find his site at chrisbaty.com, and you will find him on the Twitters @chrisbaty.

This is a blog about writing and storytelling. So, tell us a story. As short or as long as you care to make it. As true or false as you see it.

 

 

Almost a decade ago, one of the most active members of the NaNoWriMo message boards died in a car accident. I’ll call her Mary. Mary lived in a small town in Michigan, and on New Year’s Eve, she was driving alone on an icy road when a deer jumped in front of her car. She swerved and skidded, slamming into a tree. We learned about the accident when the executor of her will posted a note about her death on the NaNoWriMo forums.

Everyone was stunned. Mary had been a vital, hilarious presence in the NaNoWriMo message boards. She’d always gone out of her way to be encouraging to everyone, and had been particularly generous with younger participants. Mary had a lot of virtual admirers spread out all over the country, and none of us really knew how to deal with her sudden absence.

A week later, the first bit of weirdness appeared. A fan of Mary’s had posted in the message boards, saying she’d contacted the mortuaries in Mary’s town because she’d wanted to send flowers to the funeral. And none of them were hosting a funeral for Mary.

Thinking “Mary” might have been a pen name (or that Mary was being buried elsewhere), this person called Mary’s local newspaper to get the details of the woman killed in the New Year’s Eve crash. Which is how she learned there had been no New Year’s Eve crash.

This weirded everyone out. I sent Mary an awkward email asking, in essence, if she really was dead. She didn’t respond. Shortly after that, a longtime member of the NaNoWriMo community decided to take matters into her own hands. She found Mary’s phone number online and called it. To her surprise, a woman answered.

“Mary?” the caller asked.

“Yes?” the woman said.

The caller hung up and immediately posted details of the interaction on the NaNoWriMo site. Mary’s sister, who had never posted on the site before, responded quickly, saying that she had been packing up Mary’s house and had answered the  phone. The name thing had been a misunderstanding.

This was fishy enough that, by the time someone found Mary alive and well and posting on another other message board one week later, most of us had already accepted the fact that she’d faked her death, creating the executor and sister to sell the lie.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on terribleminds.

Simon & Schuster Introduces Self-Publishing Service

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This article, by Bob Minzesheimer, originally appeared on USA Today.

11:16AM EST November 27. 2012 – In the latest sign of consolidation as well as the growing role for self-published authors in the book business, Simon & Schuster, one of the largest traditional publishers, is partnering with Author Solutions, a leading provider of services to writers who do not have traditional publishers.

Technology has made it easier and cheaper to publish and distribute books. Led by Amazon and Author Solutions’ imprints, which include iUniverse and Xlibris, self-publishing has become one of the fastest growing sectors in publishing.The two firms today announced the launch of Archway Publishing, which unlike traditional publishers, will not pay advances to authors, but instead charge fees to release, distribute and publicize their books in print or digital formats. In turn, those self-published authors get a larger share of the proceeds of any sales.

According to Bowker, a research firm, 211,269 self-published titles were released last year, up more than 60% from 2010. A vast majority sold fewer than 100 copies, but enough were successful — even hitting USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list — to draw attention to self-publishing. For example:

– After Amanda Hocking had seven self-published paranormal romance e-books hit USA TODAY’s list, she signed a multimillion-dollar deal with the traditional print publisher St. Martin’s Press last year. 

 

Read the rest of the post on USA Today.

Overcome Roadblocks to Successful Book Sales

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Many authors consider book marketing a necessary evil – they would rather be writing! But of course it’s essential to promote your book if you want to actually sell it.

Here are five common roadblocks to successful book sales: 

  • Starting too late – Ideally, your marketing journey should begin the minute you decide to write a book. You want to consider whether there’s a viable market for the book and also tailor the book to meet the needs of a specific audience. But wherever you are in your publishing journey, NOW is the time to get serious about marketing your book.
  • Inertia – You can overcome inertia by setting goals and taking positive action each day to meet those goals.
  • Lack of direction – Many authors just aren’t sure how to promote a book or how to prioritize the numerous tasks involved in book promotion. Lots of authors feel overwhelmed or jump from one activity to another without any clear plan. A good book marketing plan gives you a blueprint for promoting your book.
  • Lack of knowledge – Marketing requires a different still set from writing a book. Many authors have no background in marketing and they need to learn new skills. There are numerous books, blogs, podcasts, teleseminars and other resources available to authors. Many resources are free, but it’s a good idea to invest in training in the areas you most need to learn about. 
  • Lack of time – Many authors are surprised at the amount of time and effort required to promote their books. This can be especially challenging for those who have full time jobs and family responsibilities on top of their writing and publishing venture. Having a good book marketing plan helps you to budget your time most effectively.

Book Marketing Plan = Success

As you can see, a book marketing plan will help you overcome the most common roadblocks to book promotion. But your plan must be: 

  • Well thought-out and in writing
     
  • Customized for your book and your audience
     
  • Reflect your own skills, budget and time constraints

Book marketing can seem daunting, but I guarantee that having a plan will make it less daunting! 

Your book marketing plan will help to keep you from feeling overwhelmed or paralyzed. Just put one foot in front of the other – take at least one action every day, no matter how small, and you will make progress.
 

To learn what goes into a good book marketing plan, download my free report, Create a Book Marketing Plan That Sells Books. For step-by-step guidance in how to develop your own customized plan, check out the Ultimate Book Marketing Plan Workshop.  

 

This is a reprint from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.