Are We There Yet?

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This post, by Steven Ramirez, originally appeared on his Glass Highway site.

 

I watched a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor. That’s my dream; that’s my nightmare. Crawling, slithering, along the edge of a straight razor… and surviving.

— Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, ‘Apocalypse Now’

Pretty gruesome stuff but I believe it describes beautifully the hell writers face every time we get ready to publish something. The question lingers. Are we there yet? On the one hand, more revisions. On the other, we publish, dammit, we publish.

 

 

The Writing Life

Stepping back, let’s look at the process. Writers write because (a) we have a burning desire to get certain words on paper that we hope will inspire or (b) we’re too lazy to do honest work and we figure we can support ourselves writing what we believe people will pay cash money to read.

If you’re in the latter category, good luck. Though I’d like nothing better than to earn a living at writing, I am currently more interested in publishing stories that get to people. What do I mean? I mean that instead of the polite smile your Aunt Fern gives you when reading your “witty” birthday card, I want the person’s palms to sweat and their heart rate to get dangerously close to myocardial infarction. I want drama, people, pure and simple.

Personally I do this by writing mostly horror and suspense. To be completely frank, sometimes I succeed and sometimes I don’t. Which leads me back to my question—Are we there yet?

Walk Before You Run

When is my story ready to publish? Okay, there are obvious hurdles that have to be overcome—Rubicons to be crossed. First of all the thing has to work as a story. It has to have someone we care about who has one helluva problem and we can’t for the life of us see how they’re going to solve it. It has to have well written dialogue that rings true because we’ve all read the drivel that sounds like some kind of ninth grade English assignment. And it needs a hook.

Say you’ve done all that. Now you have to polish the story and, more importantly, you’ve got to answer in advance all those niggling questions your reader is going to ask. Why did the hero make that choice when his girlfriend already gave him a way out? How can someone kill a guy using nothing more than toenail clippers? Since when do bears ride the subway?

Fine. You’ve answered all the stupid logic questions. Now you send the thing off to the editor and they clean up your less-than-perfect grammar. You end up with—wait for it—a story. But are we there yet?

I don’t know about you but I spend a lot of time agonizing over a comma. True story. My guts churn as I wonder whether I am inventing future clichés. I beat myself up over the fact that everything—I mean everything!—has already been done—and probably better. And guess what. It’s normal—I’m a writer.

But say I dismiss those sweat-stained, paranoid delusions and press ahead. Does that mean my story is ready to publish? I mean, what gives me the right to unleash a malformed, Frankenstein’s monster pile of primordial ooze on an unsuspecting public when there are far better writers out there churning out gold?

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Glass Highway. 

Paid and Free Editing Software For Manuscripts

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I’m stuck in the writer’s cave right now with yet another round of edits. It’s tedious and often boring, but, considering I’m not sure I’ll have enough money later to hire a professional editor, it’s worth it. That’s why I’m doing this round with free editing software.

Using software to help you edit your manuscript isn’t an easy cheat. You’ll still need to do the work of re-writing and you’ll still need your beta readers. However, editing software can make self-editing a little less worrisome.

There are a lot of different online options, both paid and free.

Paid versions

If you’ve got the money, you might be interested in AutoCrit Editing Wizard. I didn’t find the demo useful because the 1,000 words I chose always came back with an error. That could have been because my WIP is a fantasy with mages and magical cats who use incantations the software couldn’t read. If that’s the case, it makes me wonder just how useful this software is in its full version.

Also, in order to use AutoCrit for more than just 1,200 words per day (that’s 400 words 3x per day) and receive more than 3 reports, you have to spend a lot of money. There are 3 memberships: Gold (1,000 words for $47), Platinum (8,000 words for $77) and Professional (100,000 words for $117). You get more goodies  the more you spend, but if I’m going to spend that much money for my WIP I think I’d rather hire a human being.

Free versions

I’m happy to say I’ve found 3 online self-editing programs that are free (or inexpensive). I use all three together because each program catches something the others miss.

I use EditMinion first because it highlights adverbs, weak words, said replacements, sentences ending prepositions and passive voice in different colors. It wasn’t until I ran my first couple scenes through this free editing software that I realized I was in love with adverbs and had a real problem with passive voice.

Next I use Pro Writing Aid. This free editing software catches things like sticky sentences(sentences with too many glue words), vague and abstract words, overused words, repeated words and phrases, complex words and pacing. Like passive voice, I have a real fondness for sticky sentences, and this program finds those with ease.

Last of all, I use ClicheCleaner. It’s great for finding cliches and redundancies. You can download a free demo version that lets you scan up to 20 documents before needing to pay $12.95 to do any more. I downloaded ClicheCleaner because I always thought I had issues with using too many cliches. After using this free editing software, I was surprised to find I don’t have a big problem after all. Of course, even one can be too many.

Whether you choose to pay for your self-editing software or use a free version, remember that a program cannot replace a human being. The great news is, after running your WIP through the programs and correcting all those errors, you may find you can afford a human editor after all.

How do you self-edit your manuscript? What paid and free editing software have you used? 

 

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s blog.

Eight Resources for Ebook Cover Design

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This post originally appeared on Blurberati Blog Tips and Tricks on 4/19/12.

 

We covered the top things to consider when making an ebook cover in an earlier post. But if for some reason you don’t want to make your own ebook cover, you have a few options. Here are some resources to check out for ebook cover design.

Take a look at 99Designs for 100% custom-made covers. Here’s how it works: You post what you’re looking for and what you’re willing to pay for it, the site’s community of artists will submit options, and at the end of a selected period of time, you choose a winner. The more you offer to pay, the better quality work you will receive.

DeviantART runs on a different model, in that it’s a community for artists, rather than a marketplace of for-hire creatives. You can find an existing piece of art to purchase that you may use as a cover, and many times you can get the artist to customize the art for you.

Then there are actual book cover creators for hire. I like Carl Graves’ ebook covers a lot, and he often does fire sales where he will offer up pre-existing templates for sale at a discount price. He’ll only sell each template once – so you know your cover is unique – but it is pre-created art with minimal opportunity for customization. KillerCovers  and CoverGraphics are other cover creation services for hire.

As for free options…

 

Read the rest of the post on Blurberati Blog Tips and Tricks.

The Truth About Finding Time To Write

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This post, by Jennifer Blanchard, originally appeared on Better Writing Habits.

Writers are always complaining they don’t have enough time to write.  In fact, that’s the main complaint writers have and one of their biggest barriers to getting writing done, as well.

Finding time to write when you’re already busy as hell may seem like a huge challenge. It may even feel impossible at times. But here’s a little secret that may help put things into perspective: It’s not about finding time to write; it’s about making time to write.

Writing is a choice.  Just like cooking at home instead of eating out is. Or like watching a re-run of your favorite TV show instead of doing something more productive is.

Life is all about choices. You get to choose. You get to decide how you spend your free time.

But many writers forget that writing is a choice.

They’ve been trying to find time to write for so long they forget that they don’t have to write. Writing is an option.

Making Time Vs. Finding Time

Once you’ve made the choice to be a writer; once you’ve committed yourself to the act of writing; then there’s really only one thing you can do: Make time to write.

Finding time means you’re trying to squeeze in writing between other activities. And based onhow packed your schedule is you may or may not ever actually find that time to get writing done.

But making time to write, that has a whole other connotation. Making time means you’re being proactive. It means you’re building your schedule around your desire to write, rather than building writing into your schedule.

See the difference?

Making time is based on you choosing writing. It’s based on you saying that writing is more important to you then other activities you could be pursuing in your free time. And it’s based on writing being a priority for you.

How To Make Time To Write

Making time to write isn’t as hard as it sounds. It really only requires three steps: 

 

Read the rest of the post on Better Writing Habits. 

The Biggest Secret of Book Marketing Success

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I love the enthusiasm of authors who are new to book publishing. After months or years of work on their book, many are rightfully proud of what they have created.

It’s no easy thing to finish writing a solid, salable book. Pretty easy to start, not so easy to finish, and you should be proud of that accomplishment.

The problem comes in when, after publishing the book, authors start to wonder why they have sold so few copies. Don’t other people realize how great the book is?

Well, the fact is that most authors don’t intuitively understand why books sell. This leads them to start thinking about:

  • Buying advertising
  • Hiring publicists
  • Printing bookmarks

Or other things that usually mean you’ll end up with a lot less money in your pocket than when you started, and no guarantee of any book sales, either.

There’s nothing wrong with ads, publicists or bookmarks when they are part of a plan you have for marketing your books. But all too often we feel like we just have to do something.

There’s a Secret

Here’s the secret that savvy book marketers understand, and that most authors don’t:

No one knows in advance which books will sell and which won’t sell.

Of course I’m not talking about books by niche-market publishers who research and test their products before publication. But by and large, most trade publishing happens with absolutely no guarantee of what the sales of any particular book will be.

This is just as true for big traditional publishers with huge marketing departments as it is for huge Hollywood movie studios and big conglomerate television channels, so don’t feel too bad about it.

All the advertising, promotion and marketing in the world cannot guarantee that real actual people will buy your book.

For example, a long time ago Donald Trump, the real estate investor and television reality show host, published his first book, The Art of the Deal. It was a huge hit.

Of course Trump wanted to follow that up with another blockbuster. A book was created and rolled out in anticipation of huge sales. Books were stacked in huge pyramids of expectation in bookstore display windows.

Problem was, nobody bought the book. The return rate must have been shocking, because they all went right back to the publisher.

No Guarantees

Why is is that no one can guarantee a book will sell? I bet you can find the answer in your own book-buying habits.

It’s because most people buy books based on the recommendation of someone they know and trust. And you can’t buy those recommendations, can you?

This is the holy grail of book marketing, the “word of mouth” influence that travels directly from one individual to another.

By extension, it can also work for trusted book reviewers or others in the media who have earned readers’ trust, but it rarely extends past that.

For instance, I just read Lynne Truss’ Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a fantastic and very funny book about punctuation that I had known about for years but never read. It hasn’t been on television, I haven’t seen a book trailer about it, nor have I seen an ad for it anywhere.

But a friend mentioned it recently and told me I “just had to read it.” Doesn’t that happen to you all the time? And don’t you recommend books exactly the same way to people you know? I know I do.

What Next?

This leads to a big question for authors, and that is how do you get that word of mouth marketing working for you?

Of course, if I had scientifically worked out how to do that, I’d be selling it to some big publisher for a gazillion dollars, wouldn’t I?

But there are things we, as self-published authors, can do to get word of mouth started. You might boil it down to this:

  1. Write the best book you possibly can, and get an editor to make it better.
  2. Make sure the book speaks to the audience you wrote it for, and let readers judge whether you’ve hit your target.
  3. Get your book in front of enough people who don’t know you to get the ball rolling.

Figuring out how to do this is why people hire professional book marketers, and that’s a smart move.

It also pays to really understand how to match up what you have to say with what readers really want to buy. Whether you call it “marketing” or “thinking deeply about the people who read my books” doesn’t much matter.

What does matter is getting the best book you can create in front of the largest number of people who are likely to love it. As an author and a publisher, you can’t do any less.

Because then at least you’ve put it where word of mouth can take over.

 

 

 

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

Haiku & Tanka

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dreams swirl

in a snow globe on the desk…

for a while

I am a child again

and you are shoveling the drive

 

 

meditation…

the tea picker’s song

in my cup

 

country graveyard

a hummingbird

she would’ve loved

 

were all the cranes

to forsake the temple,

would the shadow

of something you said

still dwell in me?

 

                                Darrell Lindsey’s haiku and tanka have won awards in the United States, Japan, Croatia, Bulgaria, Canada, and Romania. He is a Pushcart-Prize nominated poet and the author of Edge Of The Pond ( Popcorn Press, 2012). The book is available at Amazon.com ( including Kindle), BN.com ( Nook Book), and from the publisher at www.popcornpress.com

 

 

 

 

Editing With The Kindle

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Editing is one of those processes that can go on forever, and I must admit to being a little addicted to it lately!

 

I have been working through a number of edits from my agent on Pentecost, my first novel in the ARKANE series.

Yes, this book is out and published (and available on all ebook stores!) but it is also being pitched to New York publishers by my literary agent in Sept/Oct. It’s a book I know well and have read several times so editing it again is difficult.

It has already had a number of edits:

 

editing on the kindle

Screenshot of editing on the Kindle

* Pre-publication – multiple drafts, self-editing, editorial review, and then a full line edit and then a proof-read, plus beta readers. More articles here about all that editing.

* Post-publication – fixing up

 

 

I have been working through a number of edits from my agent on Pentecost, my first novel in the ARKANE series.

Yes, this book is out and published (and available on all ebook stores!) but it is also being pitched to New York publishers by my literary agent in Sept/Oct. It’s a book I know well and have read several times so editing it again is difficult.

It has already had a number of edits:

* Pre-publication – multiple drafts, self-editing, editorial review, and then a full line edit and then a proof-read, plus beta readers. More articles here about all that editing.

* Post-publication – fixing up of some minor errors/typos found by the first readers

So I am absolutely happy with the book as it stands now.

BUT when I re-read it again, as I work on the 3rd novel in the series, there are things that I want to improve.

Danger zone: every time you read a book you will find things you want to change!

There were some changes I wanted to make, plus some edits from Rachel, my agent so I have spent a few weeks going back through the book and tweaking. Here’s my process:

editing ARKANE

Editing on paper

(1) I printed it out on paper and went through it with a pen, writing on the pages and then updating the master file in Scrivener.

(2) I went through it again directly on Scrivener with the changes that Rachel, my agent wanted.

(3) Then I was sick of the book but I wanted to re-read it once more to make sure I was entirely happy. So this time, I exported it to Kindle format and read it on the Kindle device itself, adding annotations with the Kindle commenting functionality (see above left picture). It was amazing to see what popped off the page when reading in this different format. For example, repeated words were more easily spotted. Check the above example, where the word ‘tried’ appears twice near the number 35. In the edit, I changed one of these words to attempted. I have also changed some of the sentence structures to vary the rhythm.

(4) Then finally I went through making those changes in the Scrivener master file and exported it for submission.

Of course, if the book/series is bought by a publisher, I will have more edits based on what they want, so it is truly an ongoing process.

What do you think about editing books that are already published?

How do you edit your books, especially when you know them inside out and need new eyes? Please do leave a comment [on the original post] as this is such an important topic for authors.

 

 

This is a cross-posting from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

12 Reasons To Ignore The Naysayers: Do NaNoWriMo

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This post, by Carolyn Kellogg, originally appeared on the Los Angeles Times’ Jacket Copy blog on 11/3/10.

 

If you want to write a novel in 30 days, don’t let anyone stop you. Not even Salon’s Laura Miller.

Miller, who I usually find thoughtful and sweet, has written an anti-NaNoWriMo column — "Better yet, DON’T write that novel" — that is at best wrongheaded, and at worst, smallhearted. Miller would lay the blame for too many writers — and not enough readers — at the foot of NaNoWriMo, the project that challenges would-be authors to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November.

 

 

The too-many-writers trope is echoed by people who publish literary journals, who see more submissions than subscriptions, and those in the publishing industry who’d simply like to sell more books. Even if it is true — which I’m not convinced it is — there are certainly other factors, including the hundreds of MFA programs in creative writing, that swell the ranks of hopeful writers.

And is a large pool of hopeful writers really a terrible thing? Are there not thousands more marathon runners than medalists, more home chefs than pros who might ever run a restaurant kitchen? What’s wrong with an enthusiastic amateur class of writers? Who says they’re not readers, anyway? I’ve yet to see anything more substantial than a dinner party anecdote.

Here’s a quick rundown of Miller’s argument, and where it goes wrong.

1. Miller writes: " ‘Make no mistake,’ the organization’s website counsels. ‘You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create.’ I am not the first person to point out that ‘writing a lot of crap’ doesn’t sound like a particularly fruitful way to spend an entire month, even if it is November."

In fact, spending a month "writing a lot of crap" is more fruitful than many things, including much of the fun, casual cultural consumption we regularly engage in. It’s more fruitful than watching TV, playing video games, spending hours on Facebook or Twitter. It might not be more fruitful than innoculating children in an underdeveloped village, but we’re not talking about people quitting the Peace Corps in order to do NaNoWriMo. The only thing "writing a lot of crap" can genuinely be said to be less fruitful than is writing well. 

Miller quotes it, but misses the essential point: for a hopeful writer to "just create." It’s the act of doing that’s important. Knitters don’t knit because their friends need more hats. But so far, there hasn’t been a "Better yet, DON’T knit that scarf" manifesto.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Jacket Copy – and start clearing your decks for NaNoWriMo!

Why Are Sleazy Protagonists Popular?

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by L.J. Sellers, author of the bestselling Detective Jackson mysteries

Alcoholics, sex addicts, porn stars, thieves, and kidnappers. In today’s crime fiction, these characters are often the protagonists, and as a reader, I’m expected to root for them. I rarely can. I’ve put down many well-written and well-plotted novels lately because the main character was not someone I could relate to.

 

 

For example, in one story, the protagonist—a reformed criminal, living a good life—participated in a kidnapping to keep himself from going to jail. If I had not been reading the book for discussion, I would have put it down immediately. For me, there was little point in reading about a protagonist I wanted to see caught and punished, especially since I knew he would not be.

In another story, the character was well developed, resourceful, and good-hearted and I really wanted to like her. But the world she inhabited was sleazy and everyone she encountered gave me the creeps. Despite the terrific writing, I finally gave up, because spending too much time in her world was a little hard to take.

Don’t get me wrong. I love crime fiction! And I’m certainly not a prude. I write a mystery/suspense series, and the first book is called The Sex Club. My main character is a homicide detective who’s a hardworking family man. Not perfect, by any means, but he’s also not a cynical, pill-popping alcoholic with dysfunctional relationships. I’m tired of that cop stereotype, and I want my character to be someone readers can relate to.

But it’s not a clear-cut issue. Two of my favorite books last year had protagonists who were criminals…or at least they had been. In Beat the Reaper, the main character is an ex-hit man who becomes a doctor. But he’s trying to redeem himself, and it’s a terrific (and often funny) story. The Lock Artist, another novel I loved, is about a psychologically mute safecracker. But the reader knows from the beginning that Michael goes to jail and hopes to change his life. So I rooted for both characters all the way.

For me, good characterization for a protagonist, especially a recurring character, means creating someone readers will care about, like, and/or respect in some way. (I make an exception for Elmore Leonard’s stories, in which everyone is shady, but often likeable, and I can always cheer for a charming thief, especially if he’s played by George Clooney.)

I realize I may be somewhat alone in this thinking. In my book discussion groups, many other readers say they don’t have to like the protagonist to find the story compelling.

How do you feel about protagonists who are unlikable, deeply flawed, or simply not someone you’d ever spend time with? Does it spoil the story for you? Can you name a novel you thoroughly enjoyed even though you didn’t like the protagonist?

 

 

This is a reprint from the Crime Fiction Collective blog, and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

What Will Smith Can Teach Us About Sales

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In the last ten years, Will Smith has made 10 movies. Of those 10, nine of them hauled in a minimum of $100 million in box office salesapiece.

(Seven Pounds missed the mark by a measly $40 million.)

If you think that his success is by accident, you’re wrong. It’s by educated, researched design.

Many years ago, when Will Smith was preparing to enter the movie industry, he and his manager decided that they didn’t necessarily want to make Oscar winning movies or spirited indie flicks, they wanted to make box office hits. Period.

So they did their research, studied the 10 top grossing movies of all time, and identified the common characteristics.

This is what Will himself said about that research in a 2007 Time Magazine article:

“We looked at (the list) and said, O.K., what are the patterns? We realized that 10 out of 10 had special effects. Nine out of 10 had special effects with creatures. Eight out of 10 had special effects with creatures and a love story.”

So what did he do?

Will Smith made movies with special effects (Bad Boys I & II; I Am Legend), special effects with creatures (Men in Black I & III; Independence Day) and special effects with creatures and a love story (iRobot, MIB II).

And you know what? They were all box office hits.

He threw in the occasional drama (Pursuit of Happyness, Seven Pounds), kids movie (Shark Tale) and sports flick (Ali) to mix things up and suddenly, Will Smith had a booming movie star career.

So what can we learn from Will Smith’s strategy?

Well, if you’ve decided you want to earn a substantial, sustainable income from commercial writing you can use the same three steps Smith used to get there.

SUPER Important Caveat 

There’s nothing wrong with approaching your career from a different perspective. If, for example, you want to produce award-winning literary pieces that’s a great career goal as well.

I’m not at all saying you MUST do it this way.

This method is just for authors who have a goal of a financially beneficial career in writing (and nothing’s wrong with that either). To successfully execute this strategyyou will have to put marketing and sales before your creativity, many authors are not okay with that. You need to know yourself and what you want out of your writing career before you decide to pursue this avenue.

Also keep in mind that once you’ve jumped the hurdle, made some great sales and established a crazy-dedicated fan base, there will be time later in your career to explore your creative side and take more risks (that aren’t necessarily based on marketing research). Check out John Grisham’s career path as an example.

How you can use the Will Smith Strategy

To use the Will Smith approach in your writing career, you need to follow these three easy steps:

1. Research the best-selling books in your genre and find the common denominators.

Pick your genre of choice (YA, science fiction, paranormal, romance, chicklit, etc.) and find out what the top ten best selling books are in that genre.

This is a little harder than it might seem on the surface.

I couldn’t find an all-time best seller list by genre, but this handy tool from USA Today at least lets you sort by genre and pick the week of your choice from anytime over the last several years. Amazon also offers the ability to sort genre lists by popularity.

Once you’ve got your list, you need to figure out what elements these best sellers have in common.

If you’re looking at the science fiction genre for example, do most of the books take place in space? Are they in alternate galaxies or other planets within the Milky Way? Is there a love story? Murder mystery? Aliens?

If more than half of the books you research contain the same element, add it to your list. You should be able to compile a half dozen or so different traits that they all have in common.

From those traits you can begin to form your plot and characters.

2. Put your own spin on it.

By my estimation there are approximately 234,985,047 vampire novels in circulation right now and another 349,062,175 dystopian books to boot (those numbers are rough estimates and probably grossly understate the issue).

The point is, if you’re going to do this right, you have to make yours stand out from the crowd.

This is where your creativity does come into play. You have to step outside the box and find some new elements to mix in with what your sales research has taught you.

Whether it’s a different perspective on an old issue, a new world that has yet to be explored, or the benefit of a completely different and unique writing style, there has to be something different that will make people want to read your book when they’ve already read different ones.

Going back to our Will Smith example, what made all the Men in Black movies ($250 million, $190 million, $178 million respectively) and Independence Day ($306 million)more popular than Battleship ($65 million)?

They all had aliens and special effects, right?

So there was something about the plot or characters that made Will Smith’s movies more popular than the Battleship bomb. (For what it’s worth, I think that comedy had something to do with it — the trailers for all four Smith movies contained snappy one liners while Battleship comes off looking like a Michael Bay rip-off that takes itself too seriously.)

3. Market, market, market your book.

Here’s where the difference between winners and losers is really made.

You can have a great book with great subject matter similar to that of all best sellers, but if nobody knows about it, it doesn’t matter. No Will Smith movie ever hit theaters without you knowing about it at least a month or two in advance, right?

Fortunately, marketing a ready made best-seller based on the popular books in your genre is pretty straightforward. There should be plenty of available arenas where books of that type are heralded, you just need to jump in the game and introduce yourself.

You know I hate to use this example, but that’s how 50 Shades came to be what it is now. It was shared in the Twi-hard fan fiction forums and it spread like an STD (see what I did there?).

So all you need to do is find the forums, blogs and other popular hangouts for fans of the popular books you researched and jump in the game.

Participate in the conversation, make friends and share the details of your book (in that order, please).

What do you think? Would you try it?

So that brings us to the $100 million question — would you try Will Smith’s approach with your writing career?

Certainly $100 million is very near impossible for book sales (unless you’ve got the next Harry Potter series up your sleeve), but with some research in your pocket and great marketing you could surely aim for a very financially successful career.

I’d love to hear some answers from you guys on these questions as well:

  • Do you think it’s a smart move or is it too contrived?
  • Have you researched your genre to find out what seems to be popular?
  • Are there any other elements you’d add to this strategy?

Give us your thoughts in the comments [on the original post at Duolit]!

 

 

This is a reprint from the Duolit blog. Click here to download Duolit’s Free Book Marketing Toolkit.

14 Tips for Building Character

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This post, by Rick Meyer, originally appeared on nieman storyboard, a project of the nieman foundation for journalism at Harvard, on 6/1/05.

 

This essay is adapted from Rick Meyer’s notes for a talk at the 2005 Nieman Narrative Editors’ Seminar. Rick’s presentation was paired with Laurie Hertzel’s talk on scenes.

We probably ought to declare something right away, so no one can accuse us of cheating. In nonfiction, when we talk about building characters, we’re not talking about creating them. That happens in fiction. In our world, God creates the characters. That’s his or her job. It’s our job to write about those characters.

 

 

But it is true, nonetheless, that writers build characters. First, when they report them, they take them apart and put pieces of them into their notebooks: Pale, amber eyes. Red hair. Freckles across the bridge of her nose. Talks softly and slowly. Perfume like lilacs. Then when they write these characters, they put the pieces back together, back into whole beings. If they have done it well, these people come alive. They inhabit our imaginations just as vividly as fictional characters do.

Maybe more so, because when we read about them we know they’re real.

What happens to the main characters in the stories we edit is called the plot or the story line or the arc of the narrative. We ought to develop plots, or story lines, through scenes as much as possible. I’ll try here to suggest some ways to develop the characters in those scenes into full, three-dimensional figures. In other words, I’ll try to suggest how to make the characters come alive, how to make them come up off the written page.

None of these suggestions is original with me. I’ve picked up these notions along the way from editors, reporters and writers, teachers and folks who write about writing. They include Jon Franklin, John Gardner, Jim Frey, Tom Wolfe, Mark Kramer, Gay Talese, Sol Stein, Walt Harrington, John McPhee, Jacqui Banaszynski, Elmore Leonard, Barry Siegel, Jack Hart, Kit Rachlis and Norman Mailer. If there’s anything unique here, it’s only because Willie Nelson might be right when he says, “If you steal from enough people, somehow you end up doing your own thing.”

My suggestions number a baker’s dozen plus one. To illustrate them, I’ll use a piece you might be familiar with. It’s an old story by now, published in 2002. But it has some pretty good examples of what I’m going to talk about. It’s Sonia Nazario’s piece about a 17-year-old kid named Enrique, whose mother leaves him behind in Central America and comes to the United States to find work. He is so torn and lonely for her that he sets out on his own, by foot, riding on the tops of freight trains, hitchhiking on trucks, all the way across Honduras and Guatemala, up the length of Mexico, then by coyote across the Rio Grande and illegally into Texas, then finally to North Carolina to hunt for her. Forty-eight thousand kids do this every year. Some are only 7 years old. It’s a new and extremely dangerous migration. Sonia’s story won a Pulitzer.

Many of the things I’m going to talk about Sonia did on her own. A few I suggested. Some are suggestions I wish I had offered but didn’t have the good sense to at the time. A number might make you yawn, because you know some of these things as well as or better than I do. But maybe there’s a notion or two here that could be helpful. It sort of goes without saying that Sonia and I talked about things such as these all along the way — as she reported, while she drew up her story architecture and during her writing. If you wait to consider them until the line editing gets under way, you’re way too late.

Here are the suggestions:

 

 

Build characters by showing their actions. Sometimes you’ll be tempted to develop characters by saying who they are. Show them instead.

Shaq was tall. That’s telling it. Shaq ducked to get through the door. That’s showing it.

My father was easygoing about religion. That’s telling.

Every spring, my father let me skip catechism class so I could play baseball. That’s showing.

From “Enrique’s Journey,” here’s an example that tells first and then shows:

Uncle Marco and his girlfriend treat him well. … Uncle Marco gives Enrique a daily allowance, buys him clothes and sends him to a private school.

I could make a pretty good case that you shouldn’t do both. It’s redundant. In retrospect, I’d suggest to Sonia that we take out the first of those two sentences.

Get character-building information by asking for examples, anecdotes and vignettes.

 

 

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20 Common Grammar Mistakes That (Almost) Everyone Makes

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This post, by John Gingerich, originally appeared on Lit Reactor on 1/31/12.

I’ve edited a monthly magazine for more than six years, and it’s a job that’s come with more frustration than reward. If there’s one thing I am grateful for — and it sure isn’t the pay — it’s that my work has allowed endless time to hone my craft to Louis Skolnick levels of grammar geekery. 

As someone who slings red ink for a living, let me tell you: grammar is an ultra-micro component in the larger picture; it lies somewhere in the final steps of the editing trail; and as such it’s an overrated quasi-irrelevancy in the creative process, perpetuated into importance primarily by bitter nerds who accumulate tweed jackets and crippling inferiority complexes. But experience has also taught me that readers, for better or worse, will approach your work with a jaundiced eye and an itch to judge. While your grammar shouldn’t be a reflection of your creative powers or writing abilities, let’s face it — it usually is.

Below are 20 common grammar mistakes I see routinely, not only in editorial queries and submissions, but in print: in HR manuals, blogs, magazines, newspapers, trade journals, and even best selling novels. If it makes you feel any better, I’ve made each of these mistakes a hundred times, and I know some of the best authors in history have lived to see these very toadstools appear in print. Let’s hope you can learn from some of their more famous mistakes.

Who and Whom

This one opens a big can of worms. “Who” is a subjective — or nominative — pronoun, along with "he," "she," "it," "we," and "they." It’s used when the pronoun acts as the subject of a clause. “Whom” is an objective pronoun, along with "him," "her," "it", "us," and "them." It’s used when the pronoun acts as the object of a clause. Using “who” or “whom” depends on whether you’re referring to the subject or object of a sentence. When in doubt, substitute “who” with the subjective pronouns “he” or “she,” e.g., Who loves you? cf., He loves me. Similarly, you can also substitute “whom” with the objective pronouns “him” or “her.” e.g., I consulted an attorney whom I met in New York. cf., I consulted him.

Which and That

This is one of the most common mistakes out there, and understandably so. “That” is a restrictive pronoun. It’s vital to the noun to which it’s referring.  e.g., I don’t trust fruits and vegetables that aren’t organic. Here, I’m referring to all non-organic fruits or vegetables. In other words, I only trust fruits and vegetables that are organic. “Which” introduces a relative clause. It allows qualifiers that may not be essential. e.g., I recommend you eat only organic fruits and vegetables, which are available in area grocery stores. In this case, you don’t have to go to a specific grocery store to obtain organic fruits and vegetables. “Which” qualifies, “that” restricts. “Which” is more ambiguous however, and by virtue of its meaning is flexible enough to be used in many restrictive clauses. e.g., The house, which is burning, is mine. e.g., The house that is burning is mine.

Lay and Lie 

This is the crown jewel of all grammatical errors. “Lay” is a transitive verb. It requires a direct subject and one or more objects. Its present tense is “lay” (e.g., I lay the pencil on the table) and its past tense is “laid” (e.g., Yesterday I laid the pencil on the table). “Lie” is an intransitive verb. It needs no object. Its present tense is “lie” (e.g., The Andes mountains lie between Chile and Argentina) and its past tense is “lay” (e.g., The man lay waiting for an ambulance). The most common mistake occurs when the writer uses the past tense of the transitive “lay” (e.g., I laid on the bed) when he/she actually means the intransitive past tense of “lie" (e.g., I lay on the bed).

Moot

Contrary to common misuse, “moot” doesn’t imply something is superfluous. It means a subject is disputable or open to discussion. e.g., The idea that commercial zoning should be allowed in the residential neighborhood was a moot point for the council.

Continual and Continuous

They’re similar, but there’s a difference. “Continual” means something that’s always occurring, with obvious lapses in time. “Continuous” means something continues without any stops or gaps in between. e.g., The continual music next door made it the worst night of studying ever. e.g., Her continuous talking prevented him from concentrating.

Envy and Jealousy

 

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How To Price Ebooks For Maximum Profitability

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Ebook customers tend to be price sensitive, but it can be difficult for authors to know how to price their ebooks for maximum profitability. It may seem counterintuitive, but a higher price doesn’t necessarily mean higher profits. The good news is that ebook publishers can experiment with different price points. 

Below are links to two excellent articles on the topic of finding the optimum price for your ebook. Some of the principles discussed in these articles apply to printed books too, although consumers are generally willing to pay more for print books.

 

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

Full-Service Publishers Are Rethinking What They Can Offer

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This post, by Mike Shatzkin, originally appeared on The Shatzkin Files on 9/4/12.

 

At lunch a few months ago, Brian Murray, the CEO of HarperCollins, expressed dissatisfaction with the term “legacy” to describe the publishers who had been successful since before the digital revolution began. For one thing, he felt that sounded too much like “the past”. “We need to come up with a different term,” was his assessment and he suggested that perhaps “full-service” was more apt.

 

I find I keep coming back to “full service” as an accurate description of the publisher’s relationship to an author. That’s what the long-established publishers have evolved to be.

It would be disingenuous to suggest that publishing organizations were deliberately created as service organizations for authors. They weren’t. In fact, as we shall see, the service component of a publisher’s DNA was developed in service to other publishers.

My Dad, Leonard Shatzkin, pointed out to me 40 years ago that all trade book publishing companies were started with an “editorial inspiration”: an idea of what they would publish. Sometimes that was a highly personal selection dictated by an individual’s taste, such as by so many of the great company and imprint names: Scribners, Knopf, Farrar and Straus and Giroux, for examples. Random House was begun on the idea of the Modern Library series; Simon & Schuster was started to do crossword puzzle books.

That is: people had the idea that they knew what books would sell and built a company around finding them, developing them, and bringing them to market.

And the development and delivery to the market required building up a repertoire of capabilities that comprised a full-service offering.

The publisher would find a manuscript or the idea for one and then provide everything that was necessary — albeit largely by engaging and coordinating the activities of other contractors or companies — to make the manuscript or idea commercially productive for the author and themselves.

The list of these services describes the publishing value chain. It includes:

 

  • select the project (and assume a financial risk, sometimes relieving the author of any);
     
  • guide its editorial development (although the work is mostly done by the contracted author or packager);
     
  • execute the delivery of the content into transactable and consumable forms (which used to mean “printed books” but now also means as ebooks, apps, or web-viewable content);
     
  • put it into the world in a way that it will be found and bought (which used to mean “put it in a catalog widely distributed to opinion-makers or buyers” but now largely means “manage metadata”);
     
  • publicize and market it;
     
  • build awareness and demand among the people at libraries and bookstores and other distribution channels who can buy it;
     
  • process the orders;
     
  • manufacture and warehouse the actual books or files or other packaged product;
     
  • deliver;
     
  • collect;
     
  • and, along the way, sell rights to exploit the intellectual property in other forms and markets, including other languages.

It has long been customary for publishers to unbundle the components of their service offering. The most common form of unbundling is through “distribution deals” by which one publisher takes on some of the most scaleable activities on behalf of other smaller ones. It has reached the point where almost every publisher is either a distributor or a distributee. Many are depending on a third party, quite often a competing publisher, for warehousing, shipping, and billing and perhaps sales or even manufacturing. All the big ones and many others, along with a few companies dedicated to distribution, are providing that batch of services. It is not unheard of for one publisher to do both: offering distribution services to a smaller competitor while they are in turn actually being distributed by somebody larger than they.

 

 

 

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