Wicked Writers

Making Time for Yourself in This Time of the Year

2011-11-20T15:35:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are again. The holidays. Oh, I know we’ve had holidays before -- MLK’s birthday, Easter, Independence Day, Labor Day.

But, those were just holidays. Each one meant something different, of course. Celebrating the life of Martin Luther King or the resurrection of Christ or our nation’s birthday or the common working man and woman.

And, yes, these next three holidays -- Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day -- each have a specific subject of honor.

We know different, though. Those three events are the megalopolis of holidays. All across this great nation, families are making important travel plans for Thanksgiving. I, myself, will be on the road as well.

I don’t make such grandiose schemes for any other holiday. I don’t have to go to anyone’s barbecue for Memorial Day or Labor Day. The most important thing on Easter is my church.

But, woe to the person who has nowhere to go for Thanksgiving.

After Thanksgiving comes Black Friday (or Black Thursday night if you’re Wal-Mart or Target), kicking off the official Christmas shopping season. So, now, you’re in the Christmas mood (and, no, Hallmark Channel’s 200 days of Christmas movies doesn’t put anyone in the mood).

Should you and your wallet survive the yuletide, you come to one of the most important choices. As Al & Vicky once intoned: “What are you doing New Year’s Eve?”

The point I’m trying to make here is that from this point on, until Jan. 2, we are one a different plane of reality. Family, friends, food, travel, shopping, gifts, celebrations will be on our minds for the next 40 or so days. Some of us may even find time for some good will on Earth, peace towards men.

What we may not have is time for ourselves. And I don’t just mean not hearing screaming kids or chatty in-laws or the belching airline passenger behind you. I mean actual free time for yourself.

If you’re reading this blog, you know I’m talking about writing. Isn’t it ironic that November is NaNoWriMo? The true test of writing a novel in a month is November when you’re bound to be heavily distracted just when you need the most concentration.

Still, you must continue your craft. You must get in that minimum one hour of scribbling per day.

Trust me. After all the hoopla of the holiday season, you’ll welcome an hour of silence in which to write.

The question is: Will you give yourself that hour?

A New Appreciation for Editing

2011-11-01T03:00:00.000-04:00

I’ve been doing movies off and on for the last 20 years. From being asked to fill in at the last minute for movies in Hong Kong, Australia and Japan to being a vicious killer in a low-budget Japanese trilogy to being a mystery man in several episodes of Homeland with Claire Danes, there was always one part of the experience I never considered.

Editing.

Yeah, yeah, I know I’m a journalist and I’ve been doing it for 30 years. Editing is the most important part of the news writing process.

I’ve also published numerous short stories, novellas and, now, novels. The editing portion of those works still gives me headaches.

No, what I’m talking about is the editing associated with radio.

A different monster than movie editing. Robert Zemeckis is primarily concerned with Denzel Washington looking good in Flight, not with the fact that the same black guy in a tan jacket keeping driving by Denzel in a Toyota Prius. I just did what was asked, so I wasn’t bothered. Jennifer Aniston wearing pasties instead of really being topless in Wanderlust bothered me, but the Zemeckis thing didn’t.

Anyway, this past Friday, I got hit with a whole new level of editing when I hosted my new Internet radio show called What's Out There. Thank God I wasn’t on a time limit. I needed three hours to do 60 minutes of interviews. I also learned that I can’t say the word “okay” on the air (George Carlin failed to mention that one). I also found out my voice has modulations I didn’t know existed.

I got to the studio early, got a quick lesson on the layout, including testing the microphone to find out how close I needed to be to it. The special guests arrived and my producer Rob got soul jazz artist Cheri Maree and her manager set up as well. In case you’re wondering, I was so nervous during the interview that I said “soul jazz artist” at least half a dozen times.

Rob had to stop me about 25 times during the interview to correct my mistakes or modulate my, uh, modulations. I still have no idea what he meant.

We did the real interviews in 10-minute segments and needed 45 minutes to answer 10 questions. At least, Cheri Maree and her manager were great and talkative guests. I really only had my sense of humor. (I would like to take this time to apologize to Ms. Maree for pretending to be back on the air that one time she was in the facilities).

All through this time, Rob is monitoring things or attempting to blind me with a laser pointer when the clock was about to hit “0” for a break.

At last, I got to the finish. Then, we had a second interview to do by phone. That was a whole other kettle of fish. Laptop computer. Skype. Headsets. 3-M (the headset volume control got stuck).

The interview went well. Yet, I still felt weird talking into the headset microphone and the radio microphone at the same time.

Now, it’s all done, save for the...get ready for it...editing.

I’m depending on Rob to make me sound like a genius, which is no easy task. I have tried to imagine what he’ll have to do to cut out all the “okays” and keep the flow of the interview going. Most of all, I need a good editing process to make me look good.

Zemeckis, Soderbergh and company are concerned with the real actors, not the extras. Newspapers and publishers have the writers make the changes.

However, this Internet radio editing process is completely in the hands of someone else and it’s the most important editing of all.

Wish me luck.

Update: The show was just posted on Youtube and I sound okay. There’s room for improvement (a lot of room), but the editing obviously went well and kept Rob up all weekend.

Plotter or Pantster? Okay, What the Hell Is a Pantster?

2011-10-19T01:00:00.000-04:00

During my recently-finished ebook tour with Roxanne Rhoad’s Bewitching Book Tours, I got an interview question about a word I’d never come across before.

The question asked if I was a plotter or a pantster.

Honestly, I thought this was a variance of the “boxers or briefs” question every politician seems to get (it’s boxer briefs, by the way).

Turns out, after a Google search, I was being asked if I plotted or planned my books ahead of time or just winged it, on the fly.

Of course, I’m a pantster. I rarely make up plots ahead of time. I try, don’t get me wrong. But, I usually run out of steam. I get so anxious to get my thoughts down on paper or to a Word file, that I stop plotting and type as I make it up in my head. Typing 70 words a minute helps but I still can’t keep up with my thoughts.

Do I recommend being a pantster? Not really.

It’s not for everybody. In fact, I’d say it’s not for most people. It’s for me because I’ve honed the skill working as a journalist for three decades. Especially as a sports writer, I often have to type quickly to meet tight deadlines. That means I’m creating the article in my mind as I type.

The habit carries over to my fiction. Unfortunately, I think it’s also why tend to edit my work 20 or 30 times. Because, somewhere under a bus are a slew of plot points I missed or left in the dust. That can create plot holes big enough to qualify for one of those awful Canadian-made Lifetime movies.

If you want my advice, stick to plotting. It gives you a chance to fully develop your characters before hand. It also lets you create the time and place and be accurate with your geography. If there’s one thing I wish I could change about my writing, it’s having to stop in the middle of a scene to research something to make sure I get it right. That’s like stopping in the middle of sex to read the directions for putting on a condom correctly. Yes, it’s very important and must be done the right way, but good luck getting back to the good place you were at before you stopped.

But, this is a free country. So, it’s your choice.

Plotter or pantster? Which one are you?

Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

2011-10-17T09:53:00.000-04:00

Sounds like solid advice, doesn't it? It's certainly the advice I follow when we're doing a construction project. But we haven't done a big job in a while so perhaps I've gotten a bit lazy with the concept.

What else could my excuse be?

Writer's Block? I'm not so sure I believe in writer's block. I believe more in a writer's lack of confidence and inability to focus more than an actual block. Sure, I've been stumbling with my word production lately, but is it a true block? *shurgs* Dunno.

Lack of ideas? My notebook and scribbled sheets of paper strewn about the house with one-liners and story concepts says different. Clearly, I could keep writing for a decade and still have ideas that are worthy to explore.

No direction? The book is almost completely plotted out, so I know where I'm going. And I physically know how to write…. although, I do admit the scenery is not as "clear" in my mind for book three. In compensation, I spent an hour this morning researching the Falkland Islands so I could get a good grasp on what my unchartered island off the coast of Argentina is supposed to look like.

Poor discipline? Ahh… I think we may have the winner for me. My writer friends are always so sweet telling me how much they admire all I get done, my tenacity, my work ethic…. and yet… they don't see the hours I spend not actually writing. Which, as it turns out, is most of my day.

Sure, marketing is important. Anyone who writes and expects to make a living off of it can tell you that. Social networking is a key component in reaching readers, and doing it properly takes a huge amount of time.

When do you take a step back and reevaluate your marketing efforts? When is enough enough? Is it when you reach 3k followers or 5k? Is it after you've done a month long virtual book tour and can't think of one more witty thing to write? Is it when the self-imposed looming deadline over your head makes you lose sleep?

I can't tell you how many times I've read the same piece of advice over and over, just said in slightly different ways. It goes something like this: You want to be successful as a writer, then you must first and foremost WRITE.

We all know that's how you get better. We all know it's how you build a following -- after all, the reader needs more than just one or two books to become a lifelong fan. And yet, a lot of us, including me, flounder at times and feel lost in our work.

When you don't write do you examine why? Do you turn that keen eye of observation inward and try to analyze why you aren't writing? Could there be something to this whole fear of success and self-sabotage I've read about?

I'm not consciously afraid of success, that's for damn sure. I'd say more accurately I'm acutely aware of failure. You see, for all the successes I've achieved a part of me still thinks I haven't quite "made it" yet.

My goal is to earn a steady reliable income, and until I get more titles out I don't think that will become a reality. I'm aware of what it takes to reach the success I dream of, so what pray tell, is holding me back?

How long can I blame my health and the daily care it requires? In all fairness, there are a lot of folks way worse off than me who handle far more, so I never feel right bitching about it. As my buddy Tre tells me time and time again, "be grateful you can afford the care and have access to it", and she is correct.

This past spring I visited my first writing partner, whom I dearly miss working with. She was very proud and excited about all I had achieved and our meeting was months before The Hunt was released. It was nice to hear her praise, and yet I didn't agree with her sentiment. She asked me flat out what would I agree was "success" and I equated it to earnings.

Our conversation ended with her journalism background coming to the forefront and she fired a question at me like a challenge. "What will you have to earn to make this all worth while and where do you think you'll be in a year?"

I told her by May 2012 I'd be earning 40k a year on my writing or it was time to make another career choice. She advised me against setting a goal like that because I was clearly building a readership, and reminded me a lot of authors don't make diddly even on a second book (at the time I was earning about a thousand a month). When you weigh the forty to sixty hour work weeks I put in, I think my goal was pretty conservative. Shockingly, here I am five months later and on track to earning that by May.

I have reached the dream of writing full time and earning a respectable income so that no one will treat me like this is a damn hobby anymore. I've surprised my doctors and my fellow patients with embarking on a new career when I became sick and not shriveling up and 'waiting' to get better before I work again.

And now, I need to do what all the successful writers are doing: I need to set my ass down and write. No excuses. This is a job, don't ever forget it. And if you don't treat it like an actual job with hours you invest, no Internet surfing during work hours, and no social networking when no one is looking, then you're on the track to failing.

I don't expect comments on this blog, you should be writing. But if you read it and want to share your goals with me, I'd love to hear them. And yes, if you write your plan out in a comment I will expect you to work it.

Be accountable to yourself and get past what is holding you back -- YOU.

Why Andy Rooney’s Departure Matters

2011-10-05T01:33:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday was a very notable one. That curmudgeon of the art of telling people about trivial things in his life -- one Andrew Aitken “Andy” Rooney -- bid farewell to viewers of 60 Minutes as he did his last segment of “A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney” after 33 years.

That probably means nothing to most of the readers of blogs today. Rooney is 92 and one of the final cogs of the old 60 Minutes regime (Morley Safer being the other) to bow out. After all, Rooney began his segments in 1978, before many Internet followers were born. If you said Rooney used to write for Arthur Godfrey, the return looks would almost be comical.

Yet, Rooney is part of a quickly dying breed -- the old-fashioned news gatherer and deliverer, that trusted face that generations of Americans came to trust night after night or week after week. A glance at the hosts and correspondents on 60 Minutes reads like a Who’s Who of American journalism: Morley Safer, Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley, Diane Sawyer, Harry Reasoner, Eric Sevareid, Dan Rather, Bob Schieffer, Morton Dean, Charles Osgood, Charlie Rose, Lesley Stahl, Meredith Vieira and Christiane Amanpour.

With all the cable news channels, it’s hard to find such a cadre of news reporters today.

And that’s the point I make with Rooney’s departure. It’s a signal that what once was so great about the world of news and of writing continues to erode, without any replacement. I doubt we’ll be as sad when Anderson Cooper or Bill Maher or Rush Limbaugh leave the air.

It’s the same with the world of fiction. It does us no good to lose an Arthur C. Clarke without a Stephen Baxter to take up for him. The same can be said of Ian Fleming, whose mantle was taken over by John Gardner or Marion Zimmer Bradley whose literacy legacy passed on to Diana L. Paxson.

Readers may hate me for saying this, but, even with the explosion of online publishers and blogs, I don’t believe enough writers are really stepping up to the plate to take the place of writers who are leaving us or may soon be.

For example, if you mention horror, it’s hard not to think of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Charlaine Harris and Clive Barker.

Max Brooks

Ask about the next generation and, well, it gets fuzzy. Max Brooks wrote World War Z and The Zombie Survival Guide, but those are just two books.

The tragic death of Leslie Banks (aka L.A. Banks) on August 2 from adrenal cancer left a hole that still has not been filled.

L.A. Banks (1959-2011)

Not to despair, as there are some names out there. Tananarive Due, for example, and L.J. Smith, author of The Vampire Diaries.

Of course, the irony of Ms. Due is that she is black. She writes primarily horror but has dabbled in science fiction, the genre of her husband, Steven Barnes. In the horror genre, she can at least count on the likes of Maurice Broaddus, Brandon Massey, Evie Rhodes, Chesya Burke, Sheree R. Thomas, Zane, Robert Fleming and Terence Taylor.

For science fiction, it must be said that no African-Americans, save maybe Steven Barnes, have stepped up to follow Samuel R. Delany (Babel-17, Dahlgren, Triton). The closest contemporary was the late Octavia Butler. Delany is 69 and still waiting.

What must we do to rectify these aforementioned situations?

We must write and write well. No more incorrectly using “lead” instead of “led.” No more silly arguments about whether or not to get rid of adverbs.

Just because it seems a brand new online publisher pops up every day, it doesn’t mean you give a half-vast effort. The biggest problem with the online world has been this belief that since it isn’t necessary to meet the stringent standards of the traditional book publishers like Penguin and HarperCollins; that writers don’t need to put forth as much effort.

Yes, we do. We need to put out the best product we can. We need to write the novel of the year every time.

Why?

Because, instead of being one manuscript among a few hundred at the big publishers, we are now one story among tens of thousands. We have to rise above the throngs and make our work stand out.

Then, one day, we, too, can take our hard-earned places where once the admired giants of our profession once stood, becoming beacons of hope and inspiration for those coming behind us.

Enjoy your new life, Mr. Rooney. And may you live long enough to actually be replaced.

Domestic Abuse Awareness Month

2011-10-03T09:24:00.001-04:00

There are so many causes designated for different days, weeks, and months, that most of us will easily miss the next one and not know about it. Should we feel guilty? No. Life is too short to hold onto such a useless emotion.

We do wheat we can and we move on. But some causes hit closer to home for certain people. Like Breast Cancer, Autism, Diabetes… I could go on and on. While a lot of the conditions honored and spotlighted for public awareness can be inherited or your lifestyle can bring them on, many can be brought on by your environment (think nature versus nurture).

Like Lyme disease, asbestos exposure, Gulf War Syndrom… you get the gist. Knowledge is the key to overcoming or avoiding the issues thrust upon us in our daily lives that we don't genetically have a disposition to. Being aware of these dangers can often educate you enough to save another person as well.

I did not know there was a whole month dedicated to domestic abuse. Fellow Indie author, Darcia Helle, of Quiet Fury Books, did a shout out on Facebook last month for writers who either wrote a domestic abuse aspect into their story or suffered some form of domestic abuse to come forward and share their stories to honor the cause this month.

I felt such admiration for her effort I reached out to her. Interestingly enough, even though I did not know about the awareness month, I have suffered domestic abuse in my past. For people who know me well it seems rather shocking. I'm strong, outspoken, and know--without a doubt--my place in the world.

I spent four days crafting a piece worthy of inclusion on Darcia's blog. Her 1500 word limit was my biggest challenge. Hell, I write novels. Trying to pair it down to something cohesive, not overly depressing, meaningful, and yet ending on a good note was a huge task.

Darcia posts an excellent introduction in her Oct 1st post and I'm honored that she liked my piece enough to have it lead her kick off for the month of guest posts planned. She's gathered some great statistics in her post and I recommend checking it out.

I'm nervous on how it will be received. The personal experiences I wrote about happened twenty years ago and putting it all on paper brought a lot of the horror back. Things I pushed deep down and pleasantly forgot about. I know I'm not alone in this type of behavior. It's how we cope. You deal with it, you face the demons, you make choices, you move on.

Many, many women and families have suffered far worse than I have, and many more still do. Take a gander as I bare my soul and reveal things better left to the past:

http://quietfurybooks.com/blog/2011/10/c-j-ellisson/

And please, if you've suffered abuse yourself you can leave an anonymous comment on her blog or pass the link on to others. Survivors need to stick together. Hold your head up proud you got out of a bad situation and let go of the hidden shame that you were in one to begin with.

We all make mistakes and bad choices in life, it's how we deal with the consequences that defines us.

~~C.J. Ellisson ~~

Guest Speaker at Vamps at Sea– A vampire themed cruise to Alaska 6.23.2012

Facebook * Website * Everything Erotic * Digital Digest

In Awe of Multi-Taskers

2011-09-23T00:06:00.000-04:00

This week is an open topic, so I thought I’d offer a few thoughts from my book tour to promote the release of Hunters.

Probably the one thing that stands out is the blogging. Many of the tour stops have been guests blogs, such as Mad Moose Mama, Lissette Manning. I’ll be the first to admit that, even though I’ve been writing for more than three decades, these blogs are kicking my ass.

This is why I’m in awe of bloggers who multi-task by writing more than one blog. I wonder how they keep their subjects and topic straight. More importantly, I wonder how they avoid bleeding, by which I mean having one blog topic spill over into another so it looks like one of those chain letters you get at election time.

I’m serious. During football season, I cover multiple college games and write separate articles about each game, usually doing write-ups of 5-6 games. Each one has to be tailored to a specific game.

This experience has nothing on blogging.

With the sports, I know specifically what to look for. For example, I can look at tonight’s game between Hampton and Bethune-Cookman and see how fumbles, interceptions and penalties decided the game.

Not so with blogging. I find myself scouring my brain for a topic for the blog. Since there’s typically nothing substantive in my head, this is a harder process than it seems. Thank goodness Roxanne Rhoads, the coordinator for this tour, has given me some topics. Other times, however, I go to the blogs themselves, see what kind of articles are being done and try to tailor my guest blog to that format.

I certainly thank these blog sites for giving me the time to hawk my wares and speak to their subscribers and fans.

And I certainly thank them for giving me the (badly needed) experience of writing for multiple blogs.

So, how about you, the reader? Do you write for multiple blogs? If so, how do keep everything straight?

Chatting About YOUR Book

2011-09-19T09:05:00.000-04:00

This week we were given a choice on topics because some of us already posted about the query letter process and didn't want to do it again, I even went so far last spring as to post my very first rejection letter.

Instead, I plan to talk about selling yourself and your novel in basic converstaion. I'm not talking about an elevator pitch to an agent, I'm talking about to a potential reader, which in my mind is much more important.

First and foremost, we are all readers -- get that important fact through your head. Some of us may be more well-versed about speaking on the concepts of the craft (the writerly folks) and others only have time to read emails, but we all are essentially readers at one base level. If someone isn't reading a book right now it could be for many reasons: their work or home schedule, health issues, or sheer lack of interest in reading (the latter being much harder to overcome).

I had the pleasure of reading an interview from a former co-blogger of mine, Sharon Hamilton, where she interviewed the succulent eye-candy man himself, Jimmy Thomas. When he revealed he doesn't read anything but his emails I lost a lot of respect for him. I admire his work ethic, his attitude, his martial arts skills (a love since my first Tae Kwon Do class when I was five)… but to tout over and over about being on so many book covers and you don't even like to read books? Even if it was another genre… something!!

That's like being the cover model for the number one selling clothing line in the world and you refuse to wear it.

Okay, I digress, back to the topic… how do you discuss your books? First off, develop a rapport with the person. It's also called "make casual conversation". Could be about the weather, about the game last night -- whatever. The first thing you need to do is get someone talking.

I do this everywhere I go, with every person I'm standing next to for more than five seconds. Much to my husband's amusement (he no longer is shocked), I'll even talk to the people at the table next to us at a restaurant. Sometimes, it's just a pleasant passing comment in an elevator, other times it is an actual back and forth exchange. If you are unpracticed in this art form, you will need to read cues from the other person. Do they refuse eye contact? Do they nod and not verbally answer? Is their tone clipped and they seem distracted?

You never know what someone is going through in their lives at any given moment, so be respectful. If they send out the signs they don't want to chat, leave them be. Read body language. We all have the innate ability to do this, it's just that most of us have become so damn lazy with acknowledging our fellow human we need to brush up our skills and remember our manners.

Before you attempt to start talking to strangers in the grocery store check out line or the waiting room at your doctor's office, you must know one very important thing: your target audience for your book. I'm not saying you don't chat up the bulky delivery guy with the clip board because you write a romance, but I am saying analyze the person and accept that they might not be your target, but I bet they have a family member who is.

Understanding if they are your target audience or not will make the difference in how you approach them on the topic of your book. If you did your research, you know you market well and you know the people who watched ____ movie, live in ____, or like ____ sport or activity will also like your book.

Granted, this concept of talking to people will not always garner an opening where you can steer the conversation around to your book, but even if it doesn't, by speaking to lots of people you get past your introverted shell and start to feel more comfortable talking to others in a public place.

I honed this skill for years in sales. This is not an ability you will pick up over night. Be patient and swallow your fear. Do you want me to tell you how I know these things? I was almost abducted when I was seven. I ran when the man tried to pull me into the car. It gave me a unique perspective at a very young age about the wisdom in not traveling alone and to make connections with your fellow human being for safety.

I started talking to people around me simply because there is safety in numbers. If you said hello to the large solitary gentleman in the overcoat, or the tired mother of three, they may be more likely to step in if you were harassed in the hallway by a group of hoods. We're stronger when we stand together.

It's human nature. You can't easily avert an eye to someone's situation after you have made a personal connection. I honed this Chatty-Cathy side of myself in an effort to be safe, and it worked. Of course, I learned the hard way in a pre-Giuliani NYC that making eye contact and meeting the world head on was a no-no, but hey, we all have to learn life's hard lessons ;-)

Now, let's move on to the point where you've practiced your small talk and you no longer seize in panic when you have to speak to a stranger. Notice them, see if they carry a newspaper, a magazine, a book, or an ereader. No visible clue they might be a reader? Ask if they saw something on TV "did you catch that local story on….?"

What I've found works best is if you talk about something obvious about them -- "Those are great shoes, where did you get them?"; simply "that's a nice coat"; "That color looks great on you" (okay, that last one works best if it's between two women, but you get the idea).

Use your observation skills to keep the conversation going. Learn to steer a conversation graciously. Don't just bumble out with "What do you like to read?" unless you have the spectacular opening of seeing them with an actual book, newspaper, or magazine.

Good God, now that I really sit down and write this post, I see I would do better teaching a damn class on it -- which is essentially what I did when I used to teach sales to a bunch of corporate types. Essentially, it's all about making a connection. How about I list some bullet point ideas and you try your best.

Make an observation to start a conversation (game, weather, clothing, book they are holding)
Ask questions to get them engaged and answering you
Pay attention to body language and responses, shut up if they are not open to talking and leave them be
Share an anecdotal story that is short and will help you relate to them (example: if they are a mom with a crying kid, talk about your own issues with the rugged nap-time/refusing to nap)
Carry a Kindle, have one in your hand or purse -- if it draws their eye they will ask. If not you can ask "have you tried one of these yet?" then formulate responses based on how the conversation is going "Oh, your cousin has one? What do they say about it?"
Within a few exchanges about reading you can mention your book

Is it really that simple? Yes, it is. Carry lots of business cards and have the book's description printed on the back. Don't be shy in saying "Here, can I give you this for your cousin?" be self depreciating and honest "The publishing industry is changing so much right now, the best way to spread the word and reach readers is to shamelessly hand out my card." And smile when you say it, be genuine. I know I sure as hell am.

That fact that a total stranger took the time to talk to me about anything for two minutes makes me feel like a winner. After all, who the hell am I? Just some damn pushy redhead.

When talking about yourself or your work be sure to remember -- make a connection first. Stop if they seem uninterested. Hold your head up proudly, there is no reason you need to feel awkward about what you have done in creating a book. Sure, if it has explicit sex in it like mine do there is that weird moment that may clutch your heart when you have to admit what you write, but hey -- if I survived it, then so can you.

Wishing you all the best and may you go forth and converse!

Have any funny stories you'd like to share about trying to talk about your book? Please share! I always enjoy knowing I'm not the only one who has crashed and burned so spectacularly.

~~C.J. Ellisson ~~

Guest Speaker at Vamps at Sea – a Vampire Themed Cruise to Alaska

6.23.2012

Facebook * Website * Everything Erotic * Digital Digest

Coming Attractions

2011-09-15T00:33:00.008-04:00

So, I made a decision earlier this summer to embark on the epublishing / self publishing path. I hold open the option to publish my novels the traditional way, but for the next twelve months, I'm going to concentrate on getting my work out there for public consumption.

This is something I've been thinking about for at least six months, and many factors went into this decision. First and foremost, I can't build an audience unless I give an audience something to read. Second, science fiction is a very small piece of the book/fiction market. Third, cyberspace is well-suited and better suited, for target marketing and genre fiction. Fourth, no matter the path we choose, marketing and building brand is still pushing a boulder uphill.

My first releases were at the end of June 2011, my free reads: Plantgirl, Translations and Small Graces. I did OK for not marketing them much besides some tweets here and there, my blog and my website. Most of the response was very positive and I made a few fans, more than I had before. Links for download can be found on my website: www.mpaxauthor.com, or on my blog: http://mpaxauthor.blogspot.com

So, I decided my next release would be Semper Audacia. As an ebook, I was no longer constrained by word count and blossomed this space opera story into a novelette. It'll be my first release on Amazon, and will also be released on Smashwords and B&N, same as the free reads. Semper just came back from the editor. Yea! I have very little to do to it, but I have to get the first three chapters of Stopover polished and get Semper formatted. I'm now setting a release date ... October 4th.

Alone. Leda is the last living member of the brigade, the sole defender of her world. War took everyone she knew, leaving her in the company of memories and ghosts. Or is it madness?

The siren blares. The enemy is coming. Or is it? The approaching vessel isn't a friendly design, but it answers with the correct code. Leda must figure out whether the arrival is reinforcements or the final assault. In an aging flyer, she ventures out to meet her world's fate, the last stand.

The release after Semper Audacia will be the first in a series of space opera novellas, Stopover at the Backworlds' Edge. I've completed the first draft and am polishing the first three chapters to add to the end of Semper Audacia. I also started on the first draft of the second novella in this series. I anticipate releasing Stopover by the end of this year. Yea!

Humanity, bioengineered humanity created to deal with different environments, has spread out to other stars and planets in the galaxy, called the Backworlds. In the far future Craze's Tavern sits on a backworld's backworld at the fringes of expansion. Last stop for one hundred fifteen light years, Pardeep Station is a heap of dust and little more.

The lepper opens, bringing in a ship that should no longer exist. Stamped with the Foreworlds' mark as if spoiling for battle yet the war ended two generations ago. The vessel drops off a Water-breather, a type of backworlder thought to be extinct. She brings rumors and subterfuge, danger and troubles. Craze knows he has stepped into her trap the moment she walks into his bar. His only hope is that it isn't too late to find a way out.

Still tweaking the blurb copy for Stopover and will be redoing the story trailer.

My most popular download has been Plantgirl. It won me my first fan when I read it at the library over a year ago. So based on that story, I'm creating a second series of novellas and am about halfway through the first draft of the first story. As of yet, it's untitled.

My goal is to get out two to three novellas in each series in the next twelve months. For special deals, sneak peeks and more, you can sign up for my newsletter.

If you'd like to help me promote my release, leave me a comment. :D

What about you? What career plans have you made?

~M. Pax

The stars are the beginning ...

website / blog

Writing and Pulling Teeth

2011-09-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

It's personal topic week at the Wicked Writer's blog and it couldn't have come at a better time for me. Boy. Yeah. Okay. So I somehow convinced myself that Book 2 would be easier to write than Book 1. You know, I'm wiser now. Book 1 was hard because I was new to writing novels. I was still learning. But I know exactly what I'm doing now.

So why does writing the dang sequel feel like pulling teeth? And why am I still using cliches like "pulling teeth"?!?!

*Facepalm followed by headdesk*

When you're a writer looking up at all the published authors sitting on their pedestals, all shiny and important, you might think "man, life must be so easy for them, with their fancy royalty checks." Truth is, we're all just writers. We all make peanuts for a living. And when all is said and done, each new manuscript still begins with two words: Chapter One.

....Followed by a good ripping of the hair, lots of caffeine, and a hefty dose of insanity....

What's a writer to do?

Remember the reasons why you started writing the first place. Yeah, remember those? The good ol' days when it was fun and magical and every word felt like a roller-coaster ride on a gold-tinted rainbow? When you were an artist and every scene came from the heart. You didn't care about grammar or point-of-view or if all your characters' names started with the same letter because to you it was perfect. Every flaw was somehow right. You did that, you made that, and it was awesome.

Remember that feeling. Hold it close. Bathe in it. Eat it for breakfast. Sit down at your computer and say to yourself "Today I am writing for me, and I don't care if no one likes what I write because I love it and that is all that matters!".

J.D. Brown
Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

Is Print Dead? Part 2

2011-09-10T14:12:00.000-04:00

Just in time to back up my blog this past week comes this article from the Atlantic Wire. It deals with the booming ebook industry.

You can link to the article here.

Is Print Dead? I'm Afraid to Look Anymore

2011-09-06T03:00:00.000-04:00

I’m scared.

I’m not afraid to admit it.

Why am I scared?

Because of the coming death of my industry, namely print publishing.

You all know me as a science fiction and horror writer, with a dose of fantasy and western thrown in. But, before I became known for fiction, I was first a print journalist.

I’ve seen a lot of things in the industry in my 30 years covering the news, including the looming death knell of newspapers. They've only begun to listen but it seems like it's too late for them to catch up with the 21st century. Too bad for so many of my former colleagues who stayed the course, while those who jumped ship and changed professions now look like Mensa whizzes.

The owners -- namely the big publishers and the syndicates like L.A. Times, Knight-Ridder, Tribune, McClatchey -- all felt that the Internet was a passing fad and they failed to embrace it. Sort of like when IBM dismissed the personal computer as a fad and then struggled (and failed) to play catch up when the PC took over the typewriter/processor industry.

When I was with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, we belatedly took a flyer with the Internet, in the form of me posting high school football scores online, while the newsroom posted a few top stories online. Of course, those were only meant to tease readers into buying a newspaper.

In the past decade, newspapers have been bleeding red ink. Periodicals that were founded more than a century ago have faded away like the Clipper ship and Pan-Am. Others, like the Boston Globe and Philadelphia Enquirer, struggle to hang on. Most newspapers have drastically cut staff much like my old employer, the Star-Telegram, did back in 2008.

Cut to the present. The publishing industry is treading the same pathway that newspapers did, right toward the same cliff.

The North American Big Six -- Hachette, McMillan, Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster -- still cling to an old business model, missing the obvious signs. One big sign is that three of those Big Six aren’t really North American, though they used to be. Hachette is French, HarperCollins is under News Corp’s umbrella and German conglomerate Bertelsmann bought Random House in 1998.

You see, it’s common among big business to cling tighter to models that proved successful in the past, but are not quite so successful in the present. This leaves the companies open to takeovers. However, international ownership hasn’t made much improvement.

Despite all the ebooks being sold on Kindle and Nook, the Big Six seem to shun online publishing. If they sign an author, they go for ebook rights as well. Then, they’ll undercut the ebook price or shelve the ebook edition. Many times, they won't even consider signing an author whose work has mainly been online.

You can’t blame them too much, though. They are profit-driven corporations and a 35 percent cut from each sale of a $20-25 book is more appealing than a similar percentage from a $2.99 ebook like Hunters.

It’s a shame because we know both mediums can co-exist. There will always be people who want to have a paperback in their hands at the beach or on the plane. There will be people who have libraries in their homes that need books to fill the shelves. But, there will also be many more, especially in the up-and-coming generations, who will fully embrace the online world (they're the ones who go straight to the computers in the library while we older adults browse the aisles).

You would think that profit-driven companies (and their stockholders) would see the money to be made. Sometimes, though, it’s hard to change. Admittedly, I didn’t get into Internet journalism seriously until October 2009. Even my fiction didn’t make it to the digital world until 2007 when I signed up for Writing.com. Hell, my PC is from 2005 and my cell phone begins with the letters T-R-A-C.

But, even I have long recognized the future. So have others. Until then, though, the little guys will scarf up all the profits and get first dibs on the hottest new writers.

I don’t know if the Big Six will ever change. As C.J. mentioned yesterday, Simon & Schuster signed that print-only deal with John Locke, so maybe someone finally installed a skylight in that thick glass ceiling. On the other hand, big corporations keep forward thinkers on notoriously short leashes, waiting for them to fail so they can say "I told you so."

Will they finally see the future and embrace like Amazon and Barnes & Noble or will they ignore it like Hollywood Video and Blockbuster did with NetFlix and Redbox?

I’m tired of being scared about my industry, so I’ll hope for the best and hope they don't continue to fail me.

Times Change - The Big Six Do, Too!

2011-09-05T12:19:00.000-04:00

This week here on Wicked, we're talking about changes in the publishing industry. The biggest story I've heard in the last few days has been John Locke's print only deal with Simon & Schuster.

He got to keep his ebook rights and can price them however he sees fit. Good for him!!

Why is this such a big deal? Well, it proves the big six is finally willing to think outside the box. Previously, they have always grabbed all the rights they can on a book. It's lead to them pricing ebooks out of the market and even occasionally having their print books listed at under the price of the ebooks -- just a few short months after the titles release.

The old model of "three months to sell" and then your title is rotated by bookstores off of shelf space, still exists. But for small authors with a strong Internet presence, a low price on an ebook, and the dogged determination to sell their little hearts out, it has been proven they can reach more readers over the long term than the big guys can short term.

Take my own July sales figures posted a few weeks back as an example. Sales slowed down quite a bit in August, but they by no means suck. If I had been signed by a big name I'd have more book store presence, sure (compared to right now, which is nil). When considering the Industry's unwillingness to pour money into an untried author, I'd still be doing what I'm doing. My agent informed me I'd be selling just as hard with the big six as I have been without them.

No book tours for the little guy means we need to sell from our computer terminal. We blog, we tweet, we post on FB, some even do book trailers on youtube and live readings in podcasts -- the numerous ways to reach readers is more diverse now than it was just five years ago.

Would I accept a large print deal that allowed me to keep my ebook rights? You betcha. I'd sign that puppy in a heart beat. I don't think the publishing giants will ever fall, like so many others have predicted. Their reach in print distribution far outweighs the number of people who own ereaders -- especially in foreign markets.

Print won't ever die, but I do think the coming years will weed out the small and large publishers who don't think outside the box, like Simon and Schuster has. If I bust my hump building my readership and hand selling almost every ecopy of my book, why should I give that hard work up?

I may not be anywhere near selling what Mr. Locke is. But give me a few more titles under my belt and then we'll talk ;-)

~~C.J. Ellisson ~~

Amazon* Facebook * Website * Blog

Valor is My Choice

2011-09-01T11:18:00.000-04:00

Genre: Science Fiction / Subgenre: Space Opera

My favorite space opera series features Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr. Her goal is to keep both her superior officers and her troops alive as they face deadly missions throughout the galaxy. She more than proves her mettle when a diplomatic assignment and a scientific expedition both turn dangerous.

The Confederation Series is penned by Tanya Huff, better known for her Blood Books, featuring detective Victoria Nelson.

What I loved about the Confederation books is Torin Kerr is an unsung hero in some respects. She's put into these horrible situations and has to figure out how to get her troops and herself out of them. The plots are creative, original and kept me on my toes. I could not stop reading these books. It's the first series that pops into my mind whenever anyone asks about my favorite. Torin Kerr is a great, strong character and the action is fabulous.

My favorite stories are those where the main character overcomes terrible odds. They're the kind of stories I enjoy reading and writing most.

So check these out:

Valor's Choice
The Better Part of Valor
The Heart of Valor
Valor's Trial

There's a compendium of the first four novels in one book. And, I see there's a new one out, Truth of Valor. I'm off to get it.

What's your favorite series in your genre? What makes you love it?

Study Your Peers - The Southern Vampire Mysteries

2011-08-29T00:00:00.002-04:00

Today I'm taking a critical look into the Southern Vampire Mystery series by Charlaine Harris, aka The Sookie Stackhouse novels, aka the books that started HBO's TV series, True Blood.

Why am I attempting to analysis the work of a highly successful vampire author who's craft is one-hundred times better than my own? Well... that IS why. She writes vampire urban fantasy... I write vampire urban fantasy... She's famous... I'm just getting started. I'm trying to learn something here by studying one of the masters.

What? Surprised I didn't chose The Vampire Lestat for this post? There is no argument from me that Anne Rice is certainly a vampire master, but the industry has come a long way since the days of Interview with a Vampire and Harris' books are bit more current. Plus I am currently obsessed with True Blood, so of course I jumped to talk about it. *wink*

So here we go:

Blurb for DEAD UNTIL DARK - Book 1

Sookie Stackhouse is a small-time cocktail waitress in small-town Louisiana. She's quiet, keeps to herself, and doesn't get out much. Not because she's not pretty. She is. It's just that, well, Sookie has this sort of "disability". She can read minds. And that doesn't make her too dateable. And then along comes Bill. He's tall, dark, handsome - and Sookie can't hear a word he's thinking. He's exactly the type of guy she's been waiting for all her life....

But Bill has a disability of his own: He's a vampire with a bad reputation. He hangs with a seriously creepy crowd, all suspected of - big surprise - murder. And when one of Sookie's coworkers is killed, she fears she's next.

What I love most about this series: Right off the bat in chapter one, Harris makes it known that humans are well aware of the existence of vampires. But they didn't always know. The vampires had recently "come out of the coffin" before book one starts. Unlike hundreds of other vampire books, the focus is not to keep the vampire lover a secret. Instead of focusing on the secret world of vampires, Harris plays on what would happen if we found out vampires were real? How would politics handle it? Would they have the same civil rights as us? Should human-vampire marriages be legalized? How would the church react to this? Do vampires have souls? Etc. Even though this is all going on in the back ground, Harris does such an excellent job of making it real - as real as the battle for gay rights, for example.

Why it works: Plan and simple - it's different. I can't think of anyone else who's taken this approach before. In fact, it's so different that no one cares about the fact that she uses the stereotypical type of vampires (the exploding in the sun, needing permission to enter your house type).

The Characters: The characters are always the reason why I love or hate any book. So of course that means I love Harris' characters - vampire and human. She does an excellent job of making each character 100 percent unique and quirky. My favorite character is - without a doubt - Eric Northman, the viking vampire and true alpha male and hero of the series. *Spoiler Alert!* I have to admit I was disappointed when Bill and Sookie broke up. I kept waiting for them to get back together - the flirting with Alcide was okay, but I really didn't care for that bald tiger guy. But Eric and Sookie, on the other hand, Oh - My - God! It's not even the fact that Sookie and Eric are together, it's the way Harris put them together!!! She was extra sneaky about it and it worked.

However, there were a few things that didn't work for me. Harris has a ton of secondary characters that just didn't seem necessary at all. Have you seen the show? Only about a third of the secondary characters from the book made it into the show. I'm glad the books are written in first person without any head-hopping (with the exception of Sookie's mind reading ability) or it would have been worse.

Also, a lot of her characters have some funky names and/or names that are spelled weird. I'm not sure if that's because her characters are from Louisiana or what, but I had a hard time trying to guess the proper pronunciation. This always annoys me to no end. If I can't pronounce a character's name, I'm not going to use it and not going to remember it either.

The Setting: I've only been to New Orleans once when I was a kid, but you can tell Harris is from the area. I have to assume that's the major reason why she used Louisiana. She writes it well and she writes about Southern values and traditions from Sookie's point of view like she's been doing it herself her whole life - which she has. I always think using a setting you know well gives the author a huge advantage. It's easy to make it real because you've been there. Plus the twist - southern vampire racism - is oh so fun in this story. Does 'till death do you part have any power with a vampire lover?

The Writing: Ah, here is we run into some issues. Before we all start to judge, I'm just going to say my own personal opinions here. You are all free to disagree. Ever since I became a writer, reading for pleasure as oppose to critiquing has gotten difficult. I have to tell my inner editor to shut up and just enjoy the story - no matter what I'm reading - so it's really nothing personal to the author.

However, I had a hard time with the flow of this series. The beginning of each book is always long and drawn out with little to no action. There are a ton of little passive scenes about Sookie doing her grocery shopping or some other errand that has absolutely nothing to do with the plot. It's slow and boring and I sometimes skip over a lot of it. The only slight advantage I can see to this is that there is NO question as to what kind of person Sookie Stackhouse is because we're forced to follower her everywhere. It's a good thing Sookie is the type of heroine I like; strong, stubborn, and witty.

The middle is usually where we get the conflict - and the hot lovin' which is pretty much all I care about. LOL. Now as a new author who had the "rules" drilled into my head time and time again, presenting the conflict in the middle of the story is a huge no-no. It should be in the beginning! Harris likes to break this rule, especially in the later books.

It does lead to a fast and intense conclusion, though. And Harris likes to do the cliff-hanger ending which I both love and loath. Love because I just HAVE to get the next book! Loath because have to WAIT for the next book! :-(

Overall: Guys, I really have no idea why The Southern Vampire Mysteries are a hit or why HBO decided to make it into a TV series. IMHO, the plot is week. The show is better - plot wise at least. But what it does have going for it is 1) The characters are awesome and dynamic. 2) Sookie is a strong leading lady that doesn't take vampire crap. 3) It's different. There is no other vampire book like it that I know of. And I think that's the most important element. And 4) Eric Northman would eat the Cullens for breakfast and make it look hot.

~ J.D. Brown ~
author of the Dark Heirloom series * March 2011

Website ~ Blog ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

As Real As You Can Fake It

2011-08-23T12:12:00.000-04:00

As C.J. mentioned Monday, this week we are talking about how we create the fictional worlds of our books and short stories.

Most of us are, no doubt, jaded by the fantastic world we see in the movie versions of books like Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter.

One must also remember that the creation of the worlds in those classics took years. In some cases, authors like J.R.R. Tolkien died while still fleshing out their new worlds.

My worlds are not quite that extensive. Why? Because they don’t need to be. There was only one J.R.R. Tolkien, only one C.S. Lewis. I’m not going to reinvent the wheel.

Fortunately, I don’t have to and neither do you.

I form my fictional lands from what I have or see around me. A childhood visit to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket can be the inspiration for an island of a fantasy age for Damsels of Distress.

For Land of the Blind, the lead character, Devereaux Marshall Fox, operates in a futuristic world, but one not more than a century or two beyond this current age. Therefore, I need only to bone up with an issue or two of Popular Science to get the juices flowing and come up with potential new technology for the future.

And I also use what I view. I see Tom Cruise uses special gloves to physically move items around a three-dimensional computer screen. Then, I see a prototype of that computer where users use interactive technology to move things around a flat screen. The computer can be displayed on any surface with a holographic fully functioning keyboard beamed onto any hard surface. Amazing stuff that I need only advance a few years for my world – say, in the form of a cell phone that can do all that.

I see a spy magazine advertising glasses with miniature cameras attached so the wearer can have both hands free. With a little imagination, those glasses can become view screens for computer information like map directions.

And why stay on Earth. Pay attention to the news. They found ancient waterways on Mars. So, imagine what Mars might have looked like with canals and oceans. Transfer those thoughts to a completely new world.

We all took science in school. We all know or have heard about novas, supernovas, black holes, quasars, red giants, pulsars. We might not have paid attention but we heard of them. Use that stuff. Make that journey through space much more realistic, so that when you do introduce something totally made up, it will seem natural.

Think of the Wormhole from Star Trek. That theory is so out there, it literally only exists in the minds of sc ience fiction writers. Scientists can barely get past the theory of dark energy and cold fusion. But, by using the foundations of basic science, writers can create wormholes to travel across entire galaxies in mere hours instead of years and, voila, readers and viewers think wormholes really do exist.

And, most importantly, remember the two most important aspects of your fictional world.

One, it must be survivable.

Create something so inhospitable that your characters have no chance of survival and watch the readers chuck the book or erase it from the Kindle. Your characters must be able to adapt and survive

And two – the most important feature –YOU have to like it. Seems like a no-brainer, but if you create a world that repulses you, you’re not going to revisit it to create your stories. It will be like one of those houses you see on Hoarders. After one visit, the likelihood of you stepping across the threshold again is somewhere between slim and none.

But, if you create it and feel comfortable with it, you’ll visit it again and again.

And, so will your readers.

C.J. Land

2011-08-22T06:00:00.003-04:00

This week's topic is how do you put together the world your characters live in? I laughed when I read it. Why? Well, my whole life I've often questioned why things are the way they are in our world -- usually after hearing about recent government corruption or some grave injustice done to the little guy.

I'd often start off by saying "In C.J. Land…" or "If I ran the world…." much to my family's amusement.

Yes, yes, I'm admitting it here and now. I may not be the person to judge someone's worthiness to ascend heaven, but I have a very clear moral and ethical compass and most things are either "black or white" for me. Split second decisions, I go on gut and instinct. Doesn't mean I'm always right, but eh, I live with the fallout.

Drives my husband crazy, who is very much a "shades of gray" type of person. Which could very well be why we're such a good match. Never a dull moment as we debate the rights and wrongs of an important situation.

"That eight year old child spoke rudely to his neighbor, with arrogance and disdain dripping from his tone. His parents should be smacked for not raising him right."

Yes, that is the kind of pig-headed stubbornness you'll hear from me. And if I were to expound more on what is wrong with today's youth I'd probably get locked up, or you'd look at me like I was some angry ninety-year-old man yelling from his front porch. So, let me climb off my crazy soapbox and get back to the topic -- which is world-building.

For me, world-building is not hard. I throughly enjoy playing out scenes in my head where I'd walk up to the mother (whom I probably know) and politely lay out why her child is a raging brat or has the table manners of a three year old. But, since it wouldn't gain me any friends, I wisely keep my mouth shut. And trust me, some days that's very, very hard (especially since my house has been over run with kids this summer who have crappy table manners).

I grew up reading high fantasy novels. After reading The Hobbit in seventh or eighth grade, I was hooked. I especially enjoyed the glossaries found in most fantasy books. It would often help me understand all the aspects of the author's complex world. And if the Lord of the Rings was written today, I'd bet you a thousand bucks the publisher never would have let the names Sauron and Saruman both be used. We're watching the movies with the kids right now and the closeness of the two names drives me crazy.

For me, building my own world is the same thing -- creating a mental glossary of terms and characters. It may be in my head for most of the writing of the first book, but now, with book three being written, the terms are clearly laid out in the earlier books for easy reference for me as well as the reader.

Want to create a contradiction in your world? Easy-peasy. You're the creator. If a rule doesn't match what you've previously set up, think of an exception to the rule and how it might work. Sometimes, details are implied in your finished product, other times you may have to flat out explain it within the text through teaching or an interview scene between two characters.

How do you keep it all straight? Keep notes or start your glossary early. You may not use the long version in your published book, but it will ensure you make no glaring mistakes along the way.

What are some techniques you use in world-building? Please share, I'd love to hear!

~~*~~

~~ C.J. Ellisson ~~

Amazon * Facebook * Website * Blog

Get Visible Off the Internet

2011-08-18T00:56:00.012-04:00

The internet is a fantastic and powerful tool for promoting our work and books, but it's not the only tool available. Get out there and get involved in the real world. Join the local writers group, organize a critique group, go to local book signings and author events. Get out and be seen.

I joined my local writers group and got involved, becoming their blog director. Being new to this community, it was a great way to meet people and let them get to know me. They root for me because they know me. People can't root for you or support you if they don't know you exist.

Another thing I do is attend monthly gatherings at my local library to hear a featured writer / poet read their work. Afterward, there's an open mic. I often get up and read something I wrote. One, it's good practice, to get up in front of an audience and read my work. Two, it's gotten me notice. Three, it led to publishing some of those stories as free reads on the internet because of the great response I received for them. Fourth, applause now and again is a nice change of pace. I got my very first fan (not related to me or a friend, but just liked my work that much) this way.

I'll be reading later this month at an event sponsored by my local writers guild to promote my free reads. I used to dread reading in public, but practice has made me much more comfortable with it and much better at it.

I also volunteer. Every summer (I'm in the middle of my 4th summer), I docent at Pine Mountain Observatory as a star guide. I had a set of business cards printed with my website address, blog address and email, and I hand them out. Not to everyone, but to people I get into conversations with who then get curious about me and what I do.

So, yes, definitely leave the computer once in awhile and get out there and let people around you get to know you. It can be another very powerful tool in your arsenal.

~M. Pax

The stars are the beginning ...

website / blog

Promotion: Laying the Foundation

2011-08-15T00:01:00.001-04:00

This week, the Wicked Writers are blogging about self-promotion!

….ugh…

I mean… yay…

Well, I can’t tell you what works to sell books because my debut releases on the 19^th of this month. So, until then, I don’t have any numbers or sales success – or sales failures – to share with you.

But, I do have a pretty good web presence. Google my pen name, Danielle Ravencraft. You’ll see. I’m on Facebook… I’m ALL OVER Facebook… even my blog has a Facebook page…

Which brings us to blogging. I blog. A lot. I used to belong to about four group blogs, a blog hop group, and had two personal blogs. I was able to do it only because I had nothing published and, thus, nothing else to promote at the time. A few of those blogs went under and I converted one of my personal blogs into a group blog. So now I blog for two groups and my personal blog, plus I manage a website that promotes urban fantasy authors. That one is new. And not doing so well because I haven’t had time to promote it as vigorously as the others.

I also have a Twitter account. I love Twitter because it’s simple. Enough said. I’m also a member of BookBlogs.com, Linked In, Writing.com, SavvyAuthors.com, Slefari.com, Good Reads, my publisher’s reading group and author loops, my publisher’s blog… eventually I’ll have an Amazon author page…

Point is my name is out there. People know who I am or have at least heard of me. I have a pretty solid group of author friends from all different genres and levels of writing. I’m slowly – and I mean SLOWLY – building a readership of non-writing people, lovingly called “pen muggles”.

So, when my book releases, I won’t be starting from scratch. I have a solid foundation and that’s the first step. I have ways to go, though. Tons more to do. I think it helps to have a plan or rough outline of how you will market each book. For “Dark Heirloom”, for example, I have a list of eight review sites – all urban fantasy or vampire themed – that I want to submit ARC’s too. I plan to have a virtual book tour for it in April or May, just like theone I’m doing at the end of the month for “A Trace of Love”. Then there are bookmarks, business cards, giveaways, etc.

And of course, there are C.J.’s proven tactics which she has generously shared with me and which you can read HERE. She has also recommended a book to me, “HowI Sold 1 Million eBooks In 5 Months” by John Locke, which I now own and have read. I plan to mimic what both C.J. and John have taught me as best I can with my publisher’s permission.

Well, this has been a ramble post. I apologize. In a few months, I’ll have a book or two out and then I’ll have actual figures to share with all of you. Before I go, I want to mention it’s a good idea to keep a record of how much promotion you do each month, what kind, where, and when, and compare it to your monthly sales. Unless you have a PR team, you can’t be everywhere all the time. You have to make your efforts count in the places that pay off the most. So it’s important to keep a record.

That’s all I have for now. I’ll politely bow out, but please come back tomorrow and see what S.M. Blooding has to add.

J.D. Brown
website ~ blog ~ facebook ~ twitter
Ema Marx wasn't bitten and she's not undead, so how did she become a vampire?

-"Dark Heirloom" look for it March 2012 from Muse It Up Publishing Inc.

An Ideal World Or My One Big, Fat Wish

2011-08-11T04:30:00.000-04:00

Okay, say my fairy godmother offered me a wish--anything I wanted, what would I say?

Well, I’d motion her closer and say I wanted the world to be different. Everything: no illness, no wars, no hatred, no bigotry of any kind.

And while I'm at it, fairy godmother, I’d also like to see the world of writing and publishing different too, and not just for me but for every hard working writer hammering away at a keyboard.

See I'm talking about a chance--a chance to be up there with the Gods of writing, with the bestselling authors. Those iconic authors whose work we savour. I read them, you read them, we all read their works, but hey Mister, give me a chance too, huh?

Remember that scene in Funny Girl when Barbra Streisand playing Fanny Brice wants to audition for a show and she sings the song about being the greatest star ‘only no one knows it?’

Well that's what this blog post is about. There are so many of us wanting to be noticed, wanting our writing seen by all.

I feel I have something to say, something new and different. I'm another voice crying in bookdom's wilderness, I'm building a fan base but I also want to sing: MR. KEANEY, HERE I AM (Funny Girl again).

I studied acting many years ago and auditioned for a couple of off Broadway shows, it was fun and terrifying at the same time. It's a tough business show business, but you can audition for big shows for big producers too sometimes. I don't think writing is like that. That's what I'd like to see different.

Showing up for an open audition is straight forward. The producers, stage managers are either there or they're not. They're going to give you a shot or not. You'll know it or you won't, no guessing.

We had a free blog post topic this week, where we could discuss what we liked. I did this; I did it because it's something I feel strongly about.

Having said that, I don't want you to think I focus on this all the time because I don't. I'm too much of a realist and a pragmatist. I work hard and will continue to do so.

I am writing the sequel to my novel now and am enjoying every minute of it even though it's tough. Nothing comes easy in this life and that's a good thing because it keeps us on our toes and focused.

So if everything remains the same and I have to continue to promote myself and my writing I'll do it because there's no way I would stop, not now, not ever, after all the show must go on!

~*~Carole Gill~*~

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Personal Blog

The First 30 Years Was the Easy Part

2011-08-10T02:20:00.004-04:00

I came to a particularly disturbing conclusion last Friday. It turns out that all the writing I’ve done professionally and recreationally for the past 33-plus years was a piece of cake. White chocolate raspberry truffle cheesecake, to be exact.

It seems that, somehow, I escaped the hard part – a.k.a Auntie Em's wonderful Christmas fruitcake -- until now.

That hard part is getting published. And, by that, I mean the technical stuff to actually get it into the hands or Nooks or Kindles of readers.

And how do I know it’s the hard part?

Because the process shoved itself into my face. Well, okay, maybe “shove” is too harsh a word. It introduced me to the ugliest blind date in history and, while I was gagging, sneaked out the back door and drove off.

No longer would I be able to just write the story and palm it off on the editors who would handle the actual printing aspects like I did at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram or JDTV, Inc., my old magazine publisher.

No longer would I upload my stuff to Lulu and Smashwords, wishing on big sales while the actual sales figures could best be described by the phrase “pennies on the dollar.” I was content to say that I was a published author. Not a writer, but an honest-to-goodness published author.

Oh, no. This time around I was going to have to do some real work. Disconcertingly, I have learned that dealing with coaches, athletes and parents for quotes, trying to meet a crushing deadline and reworking the same piece of fiction umpteen times was, in fact, the easy part.

For example, last Friday, C.J. Ellisson (online publishing tour de force) told me I needed to bookmark and hyperlink my table of contents, chapter headings and glossary for Hunters.

Bookmark? Hyperlink?

WTF?

I've always been a quick learner (except for Calculus III and Differential Equations and Advanced Chemistry). So, I went online to look up those terms. I knew them already but had never actually bookmarked an item within a story. Slowly and painfully, I went back through my novel Hunters to make the changes necessary for publication.

I looked to C.J. for advice. Up front, she was real supportive and patient. In reality, I was worried she might have hurt herself from either laughing her ass off or finally experiencing what a migraine felt like as she dealt with my shenanigans. At the very least, I’m pretty certain she can see up into her brain from rolling her eyes so much.

Anyway, just when I had gotten this bookmark & link thing down, next I had to offer up half of Hunters onto my novellas Dark Tidings Volumes I & II and They Call the Wind Muryah. It was a business move to attract readers to my novel, so I did it.

Keep in mind, my mood during all this wasn't that great. It came after I did up one of my patented honest book reviews for a fellow writer. It seems the review had a lot of punch as I was promptly knocked into next week.

This marks my tenth trip into the future, if anyone’s curious (and it doesn't even count all the problems I caused with my editorial skills in high school and college). I might have to be less honest in the future.

As I was saying before I became nostalgic, my mood wasn't the greatest. But, I've persevered for three decades, so I could handle it or so I thought. C.J., the head of Red Hot Publishing (I'm not being paid for this free advertising) told me to insert the title page with table of contents (check), glossary (uncheck) and chapter headings replete with bookmarks and links (check).

She provided an example from her own high-selling novel The Hunt. It all looked good until I got down to the ISBN.

For the uninitiated, ISBNs are not those new North Korean ballistic missiles. They’re International Standard Book Numbers, thirteen-digit numeric codes. They make it real helpful in getting books into libraries, bookstores and other places that generally weed out 99 percent of aspiring writers who have no clue what they’re doing. But, occasionally, they let their guard down and guys like me slip through.

Getting an ISBN is not as difficult as you might think, especially if you have someone on the inside, which I do. This someone is pretty smart and has a high level of tolerance to put up with my crap and still be talking to me.

Part of getting an ISBN is to figure out the length of the work. To do that, I had to do up a glossary, a necessary item if you have a lot of characters and/or technical terms in the piece. Even worse, I had to do my own acknowledgements. You know, where you thanks people who have helped you. That was very hard. Aside from the usual people (family, publisher, etc.), you never want to leave out people who might have helped you out in indirect ways, like maybe inspiring you to keep going when you were ready to chuck it all. They may say it's okay if you leave them out, but I know it must hurt nonetheless.

But, I got everything done, putting one novella, one anthology and one full-length novel through the technical stuff. They've all gotten ISBNs and have been sent off to Red Hot Publishing.

Remember I had to add half of Hunters to the anthology and novella, so that took a bit of time to figure out the number of pages.

Then, C.J. says "Oh, you could have just taken the word count and divided by 250 to get the page count."

WTF?!

Before I could handle that shot to the gut, though, I get an e-mail mentioning setting up a book blogging tour.

I can’t even set up a date without making a G20 Summit out of it.

No fear, though. With Red Hot Publishing’s help, I put my bid package in. The woman handling the tour comes with excellent references, so I'm not worried. Not too much anyway. There's a slight trepidation because she normally deals with paranormal and supernatural romance. Yeah, the teen girl angst-driven Twilight kind of prose.

As most of you know, I write old-school horror and Golden Age science fiction. There's no making out with vampires and demons and monsters. This is a "how do you like your stake?" kind of horror or giant monster ripping a path of destruction through anything connected to the New York Yankees kind of science fiction.

As I said, though, I am in very capable hands. After all, I am the novice idiot here and C.J. and the others have fought these "wars" before. They're making money.

And you know what the most ironic part of all this is?

Despite the steep learning curve, I think it's all worth it. The thrill of being published, I think, will make all of this both memorable and completely worthwhile. Soon, I'll be able to mention certain people's names without doubling over in excruciating pain.

Okay, they know I'm just joking.

Hold on a second. Got another e-mail from C.J. Let's see:

Have I fixed the numbers thing yet? Do I have another book in the series ready to go so I can tease to it at the end of Hunters?

The hard part continues...

SoOoOoo What Are YOU Selling?

2011-08-08T06:00:00.093-04:00

I read some interesting posts and opinions when I went searching on the Internet to find out exactly what those Amazon sales rankings equate to in actual sales. If you come from a sales background, like I do, you quickly realize talking numbers is just that, talking numbers.

Sales people do it to judge their own career and to see how well others in the same industry are doing. For them, it's like talking about the weather. A sales person who calculates their paycheck on a basis point percentage can do math in their head quick and know what people are earning.

What? Talk about income? Isn't that taboo? Didn't our folks say we should never ask someone what they are making?

How are you supposed to know if your boss is paying you well? How else would you learn the man in the next cube gets paid 20% more for the same job just because he has a weenie and you don't?

What's a body to do? Quit? Get mad? Complain? Sure, 'cause that always works, right?

Get a sales position! It's a great equalizer in gender comparison for income earnings across almost any field. You're paid solely on what you produce and not based on what equipment you have (or don't have *snort*). I've heard the discrepancies between earnings for gender is much less than when I entered the work force twenty-five years ago, but I have no modern comparison. I saw the writing on the wall back then and quickly got into sales.

Now, decades later, here I am – a writer who still focuses on sales. No matter how we may like to kid ourselves, money is a big motivator for any job.

How does one measure success? Is it by the happy, warm glow you get from helping others? Umm… since when does that "warm glow" pay the bills?

Is it the satisfaction of delivering a well-told story and reaching readers…. Yes, as long as you don't like to eat and have someone else who can support your creative ass.

I have medical bills that get paid because my husband works. I'm incredibly grateful he's supporting me through my illnesses and the new career I've tackled while sick: writing. The medical bills have far exceeded what I've earned for the past two years, mainly because my insurance company refuses to pay for most of the "radical" treatment and would prefer to pay for a wheelchair or an institution, neither of which I'll succumb to at the age of forty.

Last month was a turning point for me.

Not because I've miraculously gotten better and no longer require $1500-$2000 a month in additional medical care, but because my earnings from writing, for the first time ever, have exceeded my medical care.

Whoot! I feel like a real writer now. I've recently completed a bunch of interviews lined up to air in September, where people asked when I felt like a "real writer". A part of me felt it was when I landed an agent. In a moment of complete honesty, I can more accurately say it's when I started to earn money. What I consider "real" money, and not a few hundred a month.

Will it last? I have no idea. I plan on writing my little heart out over the next few months to help keep the proverbial ball rolling.

Here's what you all came here to see; a break down of my titles and what they've sold by month:

	Gross Units	Revenue
*Another Sip* (free read - half of book two in my fantasy series)
Released 7/16/11
Jul-11	8,848	0.00

Total AS:	8,848	0.00

*Johnny Living Dangerously* (erotica novella)
Release date 2/4/11
Feb-11	396	$220.73
Mar-11*	587	$593.26
Apr-11	87	$151.30
May-11	119	$166.79
Jun-11	348	est. 135.00
Jul-11	340	est. 120.00

Total JLD:	1,877


*Just One Taste* (short story w/half of book one)
Release date 2/20/11
Feb-11	6	$2.15
Mar-11	28	$9.85
Apr-11**	0	$0.00
May-11	7,427	$7.35
Jun-11	8,387	est 0.00
Jul-11	5,844	est. 0.00

Total JOT:	21,692

*More Than Tolerable* (erotica novella)
Release date 2/24/11
Feb-11	34	$11.40
Mar-11	290	$132.43
Apr-11	149	$86.16
May-11	185	$90.75
Jun-11	397	est. 150.00
Jul-11	470	est. 160.00

Total MTT:	1,525

*Vampire Vacation* (fantasy series, book one)
Release date 9/24/11
Sep-10	28	$29.56
Oct-10	163	$195.35
Nov-10	58	$132.44
Dec-10	69	$186.04
Jan-11	103	$239.35
Feb-11	148	$199.57
Mar-11	95	$271.22
Apr-11***	118	$377.78
May-11	1,452	$683.03
Jun-11	2,843	est 1,080.00
Jul-11	3,202	est 1,280.00

Total V V:	8,279

*The Hunt* (fantasy series, book two)
Release date 6/28/11
Jun-11	215	est 75.00
Jul-11****	2,463	est 3,100.00

Total TH:	2,678

Total all ebooks, paid and free: 45,042 (est.)

Total paid ebooks: 14,359 (est.)

*Side note-- what made the sales in March drop for JLD? Changing the teaser price from 99 cents to 2.99

**This is where I took JOT off sale at Amazon for six weeks because I was trying to get them to acknowledge the listing was up for free at Smashwords (so I did "sell" some during that time but SW reports the free reads as one big number, no monthly breakdown). Turns out Amazon didn't care when it was free at SW, but they did when it was free at B&N. So when it went free in May at B&N I put it back up for sale at Amazon and then they "found" the lower price eventually.

*** V V was priced normally between 3.99 and 4.99. Previously, I had experimented with lowering it to 99 cents. Sales spiked for a few days and then went back to where they were. March is when I changed the cover and raised the price. I saw a 700% increase in sales at Apple with the new cover and about 30-40% at Amazon and B&N. But when May rolled around with the free read, I decided to follow what other hit authors were doing and priced the first book in the series at 99 cents.

**** This book was priced at a friendship rate of 99 cents for the first two weeks. Sales did drop a little when it went to its normal price of 2.99, but they didn't tank. So far so good. Not sure how long sales will last.

Let me explain a few things. First, I don't have my print sales listed up there, those are only ebook sales. Print sales of Vampire Vacation have been limited to under 200 copies. The ebook & monetary figures for June and July are estimates, our bookkeeper has not tallied all the numbers yet. Calculating profits can be tricky (not something that should be estimated like I did above). Revenue varies from 35% to 70% depending on a few things (like selling at Apple or selling at a $2.99 price tag or above).

Also, most of the sales numbers up there are from Amazon. A few months ago, B&N gave them a run for their money with more sales each month earned for the company (not just my sales). Then, in April, they started listing free reads on the same bestselling lists as paid reads and our numbers as a whole tanked.

Dumb move, B&N! Smarten up. If we don't sell books you don't make money, so move the freebies to another list and all your sales figures will bounce back. Of course I've written to them, but who the hell am I and why should they care to listen? Idiots. They'll be the next to crumble if they don't wise up.

I'm moving forward with all the company's new releases to only be distributed through Lightning Source (wholesale pricing model versus the agency pricing most retailers offer to direct uploads). These individual retailer accounts with Apple, B&N, Amazon, AllRomanceeBooks, Smashwords, and now Kobo are killing me with uploads.

You only see six titles up there, by our small company has thirty and when you multiply that by all the various requirements across multiple retailers you can see how managing our small catalogue of titles quickly becomes a daunting task. You make one correction and you have hours of work on your hands to re-upload everywhere.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out once my free reads went up at Amazon the sales really started happening. I've known other writers doing the same thing and it works, but the buy rate is different for each of us. I'm thrilled mine sits at currently 35% for the first book (meaning 21,692 free reads downloaded on V V and sales in that time frame were 7,497; indicative of 35% of the readers have opted to purchase the rest of the book). On the second book, the buy rate is currently 30% from the free read.

**Note to anyone reading this who is unaware of my sales strategy. I gave away a very short story titled Just One Taste (2500 words), and tacked on half of Vampire Vacation (book one in my fantasy series) for free. Since it worked so well, I did the same thing with Another Sip, but didn't have time to write a short story. I simply labeled it as "Part One" of The Hunt (book two), and gave away half for free. My logic is simple: if the reader likes it they will buy the rest of the book. If they don't then at least they gave it a shot.

Before I end this post, I'd like to thank the very important people who have helped me make it as a full time writer – the readers. Without you taking a chance on an unknown and trying my work, I'd still be dreaming, and wondering if this pipe dream could really happen. Thank you! I cherish every note, email, comment, and status update.

So, now that I've bared my soul with sales figures for all the world to see, care to share? What are you selling? And more importantly, what has worked for you?

CONTEST TIME!

Wicked Writers is running a summer long contest to win a free Kindle!! All you have to do is comment with your email on any post from now until Labor Day weekend.

We'll be keeping a tally of commenters who include their emails and then the names will be randomly picked - more comments per person means more entries! Ping backs to Twitter, Facebook, and links to other sites including a mention with a link to us will also count.

Self-Publishing as an Audience Building Tool

2011-08-04T00:29:00.022-04:00

This week's topic is supposed to be about agents shuffling authors through the self-publishing process, but honestly I don't see any reason why a writer would need an agent to self-publish and I've heard nothing about this being a trend. The whole reason to go e and self is to get around the barricades imposed by agents and traditional publishing.

A writer gets higher royalties when delving into epublication alone, sans agent, which is part of its beauty. An agent would cut into that and for doing what? Until you're going after movie rights, gaming or some other right outside of publishing, I don't see them as having a role, at least not one that would be worth a cut of the revenue.

The author is shelling out all the expense to epublish -- editing, layout, book cover, promotion and marketing. The agent can't get us a better deal. Everyone gets the same royalty deal in the eworld. So, I don't see why a writer would want to pay this other person in this endeavor.

I once held a stigma against epublishing myself, but now I see it as a vital marketing tool. Blogs and social networking are all well and good, but we're not reaching our audience or potential readers, only other writers. Magazines and publications don't have the reach they used to, floundering. So why not go about it ourselves? Releasing stories, novelettes and novellas in the epublishing world can get us to our potential readers and build us an audience unlike anything else.

It takes time to build an audience, just like it takes time to grow a blog. I've found it very rewarding so far, reaching people who don't know me and who have enjoyed my stories. It's exhilarating and another step down the road. Maybe when I release my novelette for sale in the near future, I can earn enough cash to finance the next project, maybe actually build myself more than an audience and grow my career and a business. I see others doing it, watched some writers go from the starting line with chirping crickets to now considering quitting their day job as they're earning enough in sales. Nice. I want that. So, I'm going after it.

Before delving into the eworld and audience-building, do your homework. Be certain you're writing at a professional level, have a marketing plan, hire a profession editor [read other ebooks and if you really like one, contact the writer about which editor they used -- many now credit editors and it will become a stamp of quality like a publishing house is now], produce a professional ebook cover, and don't give up because you're not a landslide success with the first release. All things take time. Very few people are overnight successes, but if you have a good product and keep at it, you will see your career and business grow.

What thoughts have you about need of an agent or no? If you see some use for them in self-publishing, please share. Have any audience growing tips to share? Thoughts on epublishing?

Will note as per Angelina's comment, to be clear -- I'm talking about self-publishing in the eworld. As Angelina said, not all epublishing is self-publishing. Should also say not all self-publishing is epublishing.

Miss Literary and I Discuss Genre!

2011-07-28T03:08:00.000-04:00

GENRE IS NOT THE POOR RELATION OF LITERARY fiction despite what Miss Literary thinks!

HERE'S SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:
Horror can be literary! My publisher says my novel, The House on Blackstone Moor is LITERARY horror/paranormal romance!

OMG! Miss Literary just fainted. Let me see if she's alright!

ME: Are you alright Miss Literary?

MISS LITERARY: May I please have some water?

ME: Sure! Here you go!

MISS LITERARY: Thank you. Oh it's you, that literary horror person!

ME: No, just plain horror will do. I'm proud to write horror.

MISS LITERARY: My word! You mean you actually write genre horror?

ME: Of course! And I'm widely published too. Just sold a couple of extreme zombie stories!

MISS LITERARY: I think I'm going to be sick!

ME: Look Miss L, there's nothing wrong with writing within a certain genre or reading within one. A well-written novel is a well-written novel. A strong plot with engaging characters is nothing to be sneezed at.

MISS LITERARY: That was a cliche!

ME: Okay, sorry. But come on! Get real. Don't be such a snob. Don't narrow the field! That's silly. By the way if you want something really classy to read, something very selective and posh, I'll get you a copy of Burke's Peerage, which is the definitive guide to the genealogical history of the royal families of Europe, the aristocratic and historical families of the British Isles, and the presidential families of the United States!

MISS LITERARY: Oh jolly good! But tell me, if I get bored might I read some zombie stories or something?

ME: Of course, anything you like! Just loosen up Miss L and remember: A GOOD BOOK IS A GOOD BOOK, WHATEVER IT'S GENRE!

One more thing: Never judge a book by it's cover or whether or not it falls into a particular GENRE!

The Blackness (or "Lackness") of Space

2011-07-26T03:00:00.003-04:00

Many people have questioned why I, a black man, picked science fiction as a genre to ply my writing talents.

After all, in the long history of science fiction from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells up to the likes of David Weber, you can count the major black science fiction writers on one hand.

In fact, let’s try it:

1) GeorgeSchuyler

2) Samuel R.Delany

3) Octavia Butler

4) Steven Barnes

5) John Faucette

Note: Nos. 1, 3 and 5 are dead.

You can throw in a few more names that have dabbled in science fiction once or twice or are trying to get into the game such as Tananarive Due (Barnes’ wife); Walter Mosley, who took time off from Easy Rawlins to pen Futureland and The Wave; comic book writer Kevin Grevioux; Nnedi Okorafor; Billy Dee Williams, and, of course, yours truly.

When you see such a short list, it makes you wonder why any self-respecting African-American would take up anything in this genre. Maybe because being tossed a bone called Lando Calrissian wasn’t enough. Or maybe because I’m still pissed that all the black guys who survived Lucifer’s Hammer became marauding cannibals (except the one token black guy among the heroic white people). Ironically, Barnes got his start by co-writing with that novel’s authors.

Anyway, I write in the genre because I like it. Yeah, it’s racist at times and sometimes just plain vanilla (like NASA until Guion Bluford came along). But, it has its merits and appeal.

That was all that was needed for an eager 10-year old kid who took to writing because of the schlock movies on Creature Double Feature. Writing turned out to be tougher than I thought, as evidenced by this exciting dialogue: “Left right rudder! Left right rudder, aye, sir!” (that might have been the day I mixed Pop Rocks and pixie sticks with Coca-Cola and Tang).

Thank goodness for the grand masters of the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

When I first went to the West Medford (Mass.) Public Library in my elementary school years, I started reading hot rod books and mysteries. You see, we had yearly fundraisers to battle muscular dystrophy by getting people to sponsor us for each book we read. I usually averaged 30-35 books during the read-a-thon. (By the way, every kid participated and their parents helped out).

After tiring of the juvenile delinquent hot rod books, I wanted something new and Robert Heinlein’s Have Space Suit, Will Travel fit the bill. The cover art caught my eye (future writers, please pay attention to your cover art).

Once I read the book, it blew me away. I had to get more and, when West Medford public library couldn’t help me, I hoofed it five miles to the main Medford public library. I got what I needed -- Isaac Asimov, L. Ron Hubbard, Lester Del Rey, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, A.E. Van Vogt, Theodore Sturgeon, Richard Matheson.

Science fiction stimulates my creative nature. I’ve got all these fantastic ideas in my head. Some of them are probably crazy but it’s my job as a science fiction writer to put these ideas out to the public.

Many of society’s most useful inventions came from the minds of science fiction writers. Here’s a brief list of inventions from science fiction stories that became reality: Water beds, mobile phones, iPads/tablets, teleconferencing, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, robots, TV newscasts, satellites, automatic doors, escalators, lasers, tasers, voicemail, the Internet, radar, and nuclear weapons.

A flying pinto? Really?

Much better.

Heck, we even have flying cars now.

And science fiction has been a great predictor of the future. George Orwell might have been off by about two decades but is there anyone who doesn’t think we’ve entered the age of Big Brother, with the Patriot Act, legal invasions of privacy, hacking, wiretaps and security cameras everywhere?

Considering the hate dominating the comments section of Yahoo! news, someone has to predict a brighter future.

I’d like to contribute to this illustrious list of inventions and predictions. And someone needs to remind readers that black people do exist in the science fiction world. We have made a significant contribution to American society. Without us, there might be no traffic lights, gas masks, plasma, subways or farm equipment. I have no doubt that African-Americans can contribute to the future as well.

That means someone has to insert that voice into the future.

God willing and the river don’t rise (any higher), I’ll do just that.

Meet Alien McGee

2011-07-21T00:19:00.002-04:00

Most of my characters aren't aliens.

Many of my stories begin by imagining the character first. The world and everything else is then built around this person ... or alien. I usually see the opening scene, much like a movie, in my head. Then I have to figure out how to invent a whole novel or story around that character and scene.

I usually do some rough drafting before nailing down details. It's through that initial frenzy I learn more about my character. I can't tell him or her, she or he will tell me as the story and world unfold.

At that point, I'm ready to delve more deeply into a character. There are many ways to do this, and it's as individual as a fingerprint. I like to write sketches in a journal -- a brief bio of my character's life before the story begins, my character's foibles and habits, and I sketch out their arc -- how they change over the course of the story. I usually find a photo or piece of art to depict that character. Usually there's something in the piece of art that screams some trait I want to develop.

To get deeper into character, I decorate their personal spaces, fill their closets and jot down a lexicon so that I can paint the world through the character's senses. Every one of us has a unique lexicon. Writers have one. Every profession and region has one.

I also usually create a part for myself in the story, so I experience it beside my character. I tell myself the story over and over, seeing it like a movie. I tell myself the story every night before I go to sleep. It actually helps me fall asleep. At any rate, I go to sleep thinking of the character and story. When I wake up, I get to writing.

How do you get to know your characters?

Character Building Solutions

2011-07-18T00:00:00.005-04:00

Today we're talking about how to get to know your characters. My characters are my best friends, I know everything about them. I firmly believe the more you know about your character, the easier it is to write from their point of view. That way you can drop your character into any situation and know exactly how they'd react. But the question is, how does one get to that level with their characters? Sure, you can character sketch, but that really only helps you shift through the physical stuff. You want to go deeper than that.

If you're like me, your characters talk to you. If this is the case, you should LISTEN and talk back. Yes, have a conversation with your character. Seriously. Try it. It's great. But sometimes characters don't talk. Maybe they're shy or just stubborn. Whatever the case, there are ways to get into their heads.

Bellow are six lessons/exercises to do with your character. You don't have to use any of this in your actual story, but boy does it help with those stubborn or underdeveloped characters!

(I copied and modified this from a workshop I took on Writing.com which was modified from the book "Characters and Viewpoint" by Orson Scott Card.)

Lesson 1: Character bio

Character Name:
1) Age:
2) Birthplace:
3) Marital Status:
4) Children and ages:
5) Living arrangements (i.e. lives with wife and three young children, rents a ramshackle apartment alone, has a tent in nomadic tribe with three concubines):
6) Occupation, including name of employer if applicable:
7) Degree of skill at occupation (beginner, really competent, experienced but a bumbler, etc)
8) Characters feeling about his occupation (loves it, hates it, regards it as “just a job”, has mixed feelings, is actively seeking other employment, etc)
9) Family background (whatever you think is important: ethnicity, siblings, parents, social status, clan affiliation, total repugnance toward everybody he knew before the age of twelve, etc)
10) What three or four things does this person value most in life? (i.e. Success, money, family, God, love, integrity, power, peace and quiet)
11) What three things does he fear most?
12) What is this person's basic underlying attitude about life? (i.e. "things will usually turn out all right," or "they're all out for themselves," or "it's best to expect nothing because then you won't be disappointed," etc.)
13) What does she need to know about another person in order to accept that other as "all right" and trustworthy?
14)What would cause this person more pain than anything else possible?
15) What would this person consider the most wonderful thing that could ever happen to him?
16)What three words would she use to describe herself, accurate or not?
17) How accurate is his self-description?
18) What organization most embodies this person's values? (i.e. Mensa, Daughters of the American Revolution her church, Aryan Pride, PTA, etc)
19) Does he belong to this group? Yes / No. If not, why not?

Lesson 2: The “Why”
Go back to questions 10-15 and answer WHY your character feels this way.

Lesson 3: Character Introduction
Pretend your character is introducing himself in front of a large group of strangers. What does he say?

Lesson 4: Stereotypes and assumptions
List 2-3 examples for each of the following:

1. A Character is what he does. You see a guy at the party who spills a drink, talks too loud, and makes rude remarks. You form a judgment. You tell a friend a secret, and in a few hours everyone seems to know it. You’ve learned something about your friend. Show your character stealing, the reader will think “thief”. This is the easiest form of characterization: have you character DO something that demonstrates his nature.

2. Motive. This is more powerful than action – it trumps it. What if you knew that the drink spilling rude guy was trying to attract attention on purpose, in order to keep people from noticing someone else in the room. You impression of him changes. How about a character who tried to commit murder, but failed? You still think him a murderer even though he never actually succeeded in his task. Knowing why characters do what they do, reveals them to the reader. We will cover this A LOT later on, as well.

3. The Past. Knowing a person’s past, revises our view. You’re sitting at a dinner table, getting to know Pete. What if before hand, someone whispered to you that Pete was a POW for 7 years and escaped through enemy territory? Or that he just caused a corporate merger that resulted in thousand of workers losing their jobs? Does this effect your impression?

4. Reputation. This isn’t just for legends and heroes, this is for everyone. “Don’t bother asking Jeff to contribute, he’s such a tightwad I heard he would not even help buy flowers when Dona’s father died.” Same in fiction: you readers will likewise form opinions about characters they have not “met” yet based on what other characters say about them. Use it to your advantage.

5. Stereotypes. Paint half a picture, and you can count on your reader to fill in the other half. “The old man was wearing a suit that might have been classy ten years ago when it was new, when it was worn by someone with a body large enough to fill it. On this man it hung so long and loose that the pants bagged at the ankle and scuffed along the sidewalk, and the sleeves came down so low that his hands and the neck of his wine bottle were invisible.” Got the picture? This narrative relies on your stereotype to work. As a writer, you can use this one of two ways: either let the stereotype stand – sometimes very useful in creating minor characters who must not upstage the action … or, use it to surprise the reader.

What if the passage above was followed by:
“Hey, old man,” Pete said. “You’ve lost some weight.”
“It wasn’t the cancer, Peter, it was the cure,” he answered. “I’m glad you are here. Come upstairs and help me finish this Chablis.”

6. Network. We act different around our mother than we do around our coworkers than we do around our friends. So should our characters. Take your character out of one setting and put him in another, and see different aspects of their personality rise to the fore.

7. Habits and Patterns. She carries a Mace with her everywhere she goes. He always parks across the divide to take up two parking spaces, so his car does not get dented by the other car doors. Or just general habits, that clue us in to the character’s mind. He always taps his finger when he’s worried. After a while, the finger movement alone will clue us in to his mood.

8. Body. This one is tricky, because it is so easy to overuse it. Your reader will picture your character more through knowing her motives than through her looks (although knowing whether one is generally attractive or grotesque will influence this to a degree). So, does it matter what length fingers, color eyes, or size of breasts your character has? Maybe. It matters if it means something beyond mere fact. For example, in Lord of the Flies, Piggy’s poor eye sight (he wears glasses), his asthma, and his weight play a role in the story. His hair color does not.

Lesson 5: The Way I See It
Find a random image and write a short paragraph describing it as you would in your character’s POV.

Lesson 6: Emotional Stakes

1) Suffering. A character’s pain, whether emotional or physical, increases the reader’s emotional involvement. Note, however, that a character’s grief does not make the reader grieve any more than a character’s cut makes the reader bleed – it is the character’s reaction and feeling about their suffering that engage the reader. Intensity counts. Too little (a paper cut) won’t get you much bang for your buck. Too much (ghastly torture) and it becomes unbearable to the reader, so he distances himself. Frequency is also an issue. The first time a character gets hit on the head, we wince for her. The fourth time, we think of the Three Stooges.

2) Sacrifice. Pain and suffering also increase emotional stakes if the character has a choice in the matter. Nora setting Pete’s broken arm has less impact on the reader than Pete deciding to set it himself, making painful choices will each movement. This also works on the villainous side of things: Pete accidentally hits a child with his car vs. Pete does it on purpose. The reader may hate Pete for the latter, but the reader will care.

3) Jeopardy. This is the anticipation of pain… think of waiting to see the dentist. Put a character in a situation where great pain is upcoming, and you’ve got the reader’s attention.

4) Symbols. You can increase a character’s importance by connecting the character to the world around her, so that what happens to her seems to have a greater reach. As King Lear reaches madness, a storm breaks out. Oedipus’s sins cause a famine, which does not end until he pays the price.

Readers, what types of fictional characters draw you into a book? What's the one thing every hero/heroine needs in your opinion?

Career Be Thy Destiny!

2011-07-14T04:09:00.011-04:00

Those of us who write consider writing our career I think whether or not it supports us full-time.
I have to think of it in this way simply because I'm not interested in thinkng of myself in any other way.

I think, therefore I write. Boy! Is that true!

Writing has always been there. It was there when I was making up plays for my friends and yes, I can recall at age 7 or 8 acting out the 'plays' I wrote.

I don't recall any other 'performers' I only remember my little friends, sincere loyal little guys applauding and enjoying whatever nonsense I had written. Ah those were the days.

If any writer was asked to name their career I think theyd get 'writing' in there somewhere.
You might say I'm a legal secretary but I write or I'm a medical records librarian but I write.

Years ago when I was in acting school one never said they were a waitress or usher 'and they were studying acting.' No! They said they were actors and if pressed they'd mention they were working 'as such and such.'

I happent to fully agree with that way of thinking, whether we earn enough from writing to be self- supporthing or not, WE ARE WRITERS, OUR CHOSEN CAREER IS WRITING.
It's just the way it is, we were born that way, we can't do anything about it, we wouldn't want to do anything about it either!

The Oxford Dictionary defines 'career' as:
(the) "course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work,,,"

See that?! It is USUALLY considered to pertain to remunerative work. USUALLY not ALWAYS! So hey! If you consider your writing your career and the moolah isn't rolling in yet, IT'S OKAY!

It's okay to say you're a writer! And that's good because if you are writing, YOU'RE A WRITER!
And if you are a writer, THAT IS YOUR CAREER!

End of story?!

Well there are zillions of stories in the Naked City and in your head! And you're going to develop them and get them published and thrill the world because you're a writer!

THE END (for now)!

The 5 P's & an S of Marketing

2011-07-12T03:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, we all know the 5 P's -- Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance (this is sometimes known as the 6 P's if you add "piss" in there somewhere).

Since we're talking about marketing strategies, I decided to repost a great article from Jennifer Hollowell that was originally published on Writers Write. It deals primarily with self-publishing, specifically with pre-publication marketing.

I've decided to modify her title slightly and call it "Pre-Publication Planning Prevents Poor Sales" (aka 5 P's and an S).

So, without further ado, her is Ms. Hollowell's very informative article:

The Importance of a Pre-Publication Marketing Plan

by Jennifer Hollowell

A Basic Guide for Self-Published and Print on Demand Authors

You’ve written your book, gone through the editing gauntlet and decided to publish the finished product yourself. You’ve researched all the self publishing options, decided on a company, approved the book’s cover and polished the book’s final lay-out. All you’re “i’s” are dotted and “t’s” are crossed. Now, you’re ready to go to press. Right?

Wrong!

Day after day, week after week, my inbox is filled with marketing questions all centered on the same commonality:

“My book was doing really well in the beginning, but sales have fallen off. Do you have any idea why this happens?”
“My book has received some great reviews, but they aren’t resulting in any sales. Do you know why this is happening?”
“I sent out one hundred press kits, but no sales have turned over. Why could this be happening?”

These are just a small sampling of the distressed messages landing in my inbox. How are these situations the same? No pre-publication marketing plans or efforts. Each author felt the impact of “missing the boat” on sales opportunities in one way or another.

What’s the solution?

A book won’t sell itself. (This is very obvious to some, but not to others.) That’s a reality many self-published authors don’t anticipate until it’s too late. They’ve spent their entire budget without looking at the “entire picture.” The “entire picture” includes setting up a “selling plan” before your book hits the press. These efforts will make or break you. It’s my hope that you’re reading this piece before you’ve gone too far.

How do you formulate a selling plan?

Step one: target your audience

Where do they shop? How much do they spend? What’s your competition? How can they be reached?

Step two: outline your goals and objectives

Events:
- Do you plan to do book signings, tours, seminars interviews, radio shows and television appearances? If so, you’ll need press materials and enough books printed to substantiate all these efforts.
- Setting up a workable event schedule for all parties involved is essential.
Pre-pub reviews:
- Line up pre-publication reviews. These are professional reviews published in newspapers (New York Times) and magazines (Publisher’s Weekly).
- Read all submission guidelines thoroughly and adhere to all schedules, deadlines and policies. If the guidelines states self published books aren’t accepted, don’t send an ARC anyway. You’re wasting your budget and the publisher’s time needlessly.
- Be sure to add the cost of ARC’s (Advanced Reader’s Copies), postage and supplies to your budget.
Distribution:
- Research distribution. Remember, brick and mortar booksellers (and some electronic booksellers) won’t stock your title unless it’s carried by one or more major distribution center.
- Add the costs to your budget.
Marketing and Publicity:
- Do you plan to hire someone for marketing and publicity? If so, this needs to be done before the book goes to press. Figure a three to six month campaign into your budget. Explore your options before making your choice. There are a lot of firms following the same “cookie cutter syndrome” as some traditional publication houses tend to follow.
- Do you plan to do the marketing and publicity yourself? If so, READ! There are mountains of books, reports, periodicals and articles’ focusing on the how-to’s of good marketing strategies.
Post-publication reviews:
- Don’t forget to obtain reviews even after the book has already been published. Consumers are driven by both professional and unprofessional opinions.

Step three: determine and realistic budget you can stick to.

This is where the most mistakes occur. Without looking at the “big picture,” authors don’t know how much money should be devoted to what aspect of the game. Organization and prioritizing are very important during this stage. Get quotes and estimates for everything (and be prepared for unexpected costs):

Printing: galleys and finished copies.
Press kits: supplies and postage.
Flyers: design, printing and distribution.
Publicity: what’s included and for how long?
Distribution centers.
Print advertising: how long will the ad run? Will it be in color or black and white?
ISBN numbers: is it included in your printing fee?
Web site: registration, designing, maintaining and hosting.
Postal and email address purchasing for booksellers.
Posters, post cards and bookmarks for events.

Rule of thumb: blind submissions are bad. Never ever send out materials unsolicited. There are individuals out there selling lists suggesting authors practice in this way and, in reality, it isn’t the way to go. Query first, otherwise your ARC’s are destined for used booksellers and your press materials the recycling bin. This is where I see a lot of authors dwindling down their budgets. Avoid this reality by sending to *interested parties. *There will always be exceptions to any rule, however. If guidelines posted to reviewer databases or publications states querying isn’t necessary, than adhere to that claim.

There are numerous other points to ponder in regards to formulating your pre-publication marketing plans. (Remember: pre-publication marketing plans aren’t defined solely as what you do before your book is released, it’s defined as your complete marketing plan outlined in preparation for all eventualities both before and after publication.) Examples of these points include:

Don’t overlook the Internet: get yourself interviewed and or profiled for sites both about writing and about the subjects covered in your book. Build a web site to provide another avenue for ordering, a virtual press kit and link exchanges. Position your book with virtual booksellers and establish link partners.
Remember to be sure your book is listed in Books-in-Print. Don’t assume it’s already there.
Print/Electronic publications provide longevity to your marketing campaign in terms of having something tangible to reference. Radio shows and television appearances are good during the new release phases, but are often forgotten within hours of the broadcast. Focusing time and attention to an enduring effort is key.

Final thoughts:

As the old saying goes, your book is as successful as the efforts put forth by the author, particularly in the cases of self-publishing and print on demand.

Jennifer Hollowell has been in the writing and publishing business for a decade bringing forth 100’s of nonfiction articles covering a wide variety of subjects. In addition, Jennifer has made it her goal to provide authors, both traditional press and self-published, the services and resources necessary to achieve their goals in a realistic manner. For more information, please visit http://www.myspace.com/writerjennh.

Marketing Strategies - What Works?

2011-07-11T00:00:00.002-04:00

We're covering an interesting topic this week. One most sales people the world over will roll their eyes at. Sure, I could give you lots of useless data and statistics revolving around what works in different industries, but most of of us here today want to know what works in the publishing industry, right?

I've learned a lot by trial and error. What I reveal that has worked for me may not work for you and your book.

First, and I know this is going to sound basic to most of you - Cover Art. This is huge. If you work with a publisher who sticks you with a crappy cover or has final say over what gets used, then you're toast. Sorry. You have a huge hurdle to overcome and some books can get past it, others can't. Until you have an actual name people know, it will be the cover that catches the reader's eye.

"Don't judge a book by it's cover." Yes, yes, we all know the famous quote. Most members of our family even go so far as to imply we should apply the logic when searching for a mate as well. I won't got into that one.

Sorry to say, the reading audience does judge. Even if they don't know it or won't admit to it. As the majority of purchasing is no longer done is a brick and mortar establishment, you're battling against catching the eye of a reader in a small thumbnail on a computer, tablet, or phone, then you're already going uphill.

Research what is working within your genre and apply it to your own cover. Do not re-invent the wheel, but do try and think outside the box to make yours stand out. Unless you're really good with Photoshop, do not attempt to do it yourself. Hire a pro, should cost you around $50-75 bucks or you're paying too much.

Also, the cover is only the "gotcha". After that, you have less than 200 words to snag a reader. Yup, not the first five pages they flip through in the book store, or the sample they download. I'm talking about the product description or jacket copy (most writers mistakenly call it a "blurb", which is in actuality the one liners OTHER writers have said about your work appearing on the cover or in the opening few pages). Do not, repeat, do not, outline your entire plot, or even half of it, in this description. Make it intriguing and short.

As a reader, I can't tell you how many times I've been annoyed the product description gives away half of the damn book or more. Just ruin it for me, why don't you? I spent a week on the one for Vampire Vacation (V V), and several days on the one for The Hunt (TH).

Next strategy, also obvious: Pricing. The market is flooded right now with new authors. Everyone is jumping on the band wagon to self-publish. The stigma has gone away now that people see there is real money to be made by bypassing the NY giants. I'm following what other well-selling authors are doing -- pricing my first book at 99 cents and the others higher.

This strategy assumes some big things 1) You've written a compelling story 2) It's well edited 3) The readers can find it.

If you don't have those three things well in hand, then don't chose the DIY route. Pricing is really only something you can manipulate to your advantage if you have control. A publisher is not going to allow you to give your work away for free or allow you to price it really low to attract a readership.

My suggested way around that? Write something else and give it away for free -- on your website, Facebook, Wattpad.com, Scribd.com, Apple, or on Smashwords -- anywhere and everywhere you can. And put samples of your other paid work at the end. Don't be stingy, give a lot of the other book(s) away for free.

If they like the bonus content, they'll buy the rest to see how the story turns out. Try and talk your publisher around to "getting" this concept. The only way to reach readers is to let them read your work. So far, over ten thousands copies downloaded of a free read (containing half of V V) have turned into over 1700 sales in one month through ONE retailer.

You're all really here reading this post hoping I can tell you what "magic ingredient" made my books sell. There is no magic ingredient, there is no easy way; it's a lot of hard work involving some experimentation and navigating it all can be extremely time consuming.

So - what has worked and what hasn't? I did not get a jump in sales when I used Google Ads. Perhaps I didn't experiment enough with my "slogan" on the link, but after a few hundred dollars I was tapped on that avenue.

Facebook ads -- sure, they worked to get me followers on my business page, but I did it before my book came out. Now the prices are so high I can't afford to do it for long. Did the money spent turn into sales? Yes, but not how you might think. The ads drew interested readers in the genre to me and they got to read my work on Facebook for free. I made some new friends and spent a lot of time cultivating the relationships. This turned out to be fun because I was sick and stuck at home a lot.

Blog tours and blogging? I'm really torn on this one. I think they work for some people, but I can't honestly tell if they work for me. If the blog is reaching real readers like the ones on the Kindle, then yes, I think it could work great. To be perfectly honest, before I became a writer I never visited blogs. I thought they were "out".

Now, I know some popular news, sports, and satire blogs are actually making great money. They reach lots of people and the better ones are giving newspapers a run for their money. Blogs aren't dead, but the same concern I originally had applies -- how do real readers find them?

And of course, that's where social networking comes in. I don't know enough about Twitter yet to tell you how to do it on there, I'm trying, but it still eludes me. I've met great people on Facebook and have had a chance to connect with real readers... but have I figured out the "viral" key to getting known through either of these avenues? Nope, not yet.

Reviews: is it more important to have actual reviewers review your book or real readers? I never went the route where I had big-time reviewers cover my book. Last summer, when I was trying to build a buzz for book one, most reviewers wouldn't accept self-published books, and before I started taking on other authors, that's how they looked at me and my small company.

After a little bit of experience, I realize the big long reviews are nice, but most buyers read the short ones on the website where they are browsing books. They will click on your lowest starred reviews to read them and then weigh what those say with the high four and five star ones. You'll get bad reviews, no way around it so you might as well just grin and bear it.

Last bit of advice, and probably far better than what I've shared, read John Locke's book titled "How I Sold One Million eBooks in Five Months". I'm just starting to follow his marketing strategy now. I don't have a list of buyers 2,500 long I can email like he does. Heck, I'm still struggling to organize my 900 contacts to figure out how I know these people and if they may like my work. But, he offers some terrific advice and he's shown it works. I'm game to add his ideas to what I'm doing now and see if it makes a difference.

It'll take me that long just to get on top of all his suggestions and try and build like he did!

If you're a writer and you read this blog, do the Wicked Team a favor -- spread the word by sharing the link. I plan to do a how-to series starting this weekend if there is a genuine interest from other authors to learn more about the self-publishing industry, reaching readers, and selling books. But if we don't get interest, then I just plan to write it and sell it (like Mr. Locke did ;-), instead of posting it here for free.

CONTEST TIME!

Wicked Writers is running a summer long contest to win a free Kindle!! All you have to do is comment with your email on any post from now until Labor Day weekend.

We'll be keeping a tally of commenters with their emails included and then the names will be randomly picked - more comments per person means more entries! Ping backs to Twitter, Facebook, and links to other sites including a mention with a link to us will also count.

Cheers!
C.J.

Got Publication On Your Mind?

2011-07-08T05:00:00.001-04:00

How odd it is to post on a Friday! I’m used to posting on Mondays for all my blogs, not just Wicked Writers. But while barbequing with my family last Sunday, a mysterious insect decided my earlobe might make a tasty treat. I ended up having an allergic reaction. Oh yeah, fun 4^th of July. :) But I’m better now.

Greg kindly filled in and the team allowed me to post on Friday this week. However, my post has changed considerably since then. As a Monday blogger, I like to think it’s my job to set the theme for the rest of the week. I say my piece and leave the topic open for discussion. But after reading everyone’s awesome posts, I now feel like it’s my job to give some closure.

What I take away from the discussion, and what I think all aspiring writers should get, is that there is no such thing as “One-Size-Fits-All” in the writing industry. It’s a rapidly growing, changing market and one of many trying to survive in the digital age and during a recession/depression nonetheless!

Every form of publication has its pros and cons. Do some serious thinking about yourself, your life, and your writing. Where is your life now and where do you want it to be in next ten years? In the next twenty years? Do you know how you’ll get from here to there? Take some time mapping out your career goals. Then, do your homework and choose the road that is right for you, that will take you where you want to go.

The truth is most traditionally published authors will swear that traditional publication is the best method. And many self-published authors will tell you that traditional publishing is the devil and will try to bring you over to their side. So be alert in your quest for knowledge and keep your career goals in mind.

Here are some common pros and cons to get started:

Traditional publishing:

Pro: Quality – The select few manuscripts that manage to pass the query process are picked by literary agents or editors who’ve worked in the field for quite some time and know a good book when they see one. From there, author and manuscript go through the vigorous process of contract negotiations, content edits, line edits, production, and marketing to make sure the manuscript emerges as a worthwhile, readable book.

Con: Long Lead Time – The query process alone can take years before you get accepted. The average query response time is three months and most authors accrue many rejections before they see an acceptance. The editing, production, and marketing process can take another 1-2 years as well.

Pro: Advances – In most cases, trade publishers will pay their authors an advance that is theirs to keep even if their book does not sell well. This advance can be used to take some time off from your day-job to spend on writing.

Con: Lack of support for new authors - Traditional publishers expect the manuscript to be as perfect as possible before they get their hands on it. They won’t help you hone your craft or build your career. They’ll only market what’s in your book. They will also pool their money and resources into the “front-list” books that have already proven themselves in number of copies sold. Debut novels that haven’t proven themselves yet often get left behind and are seen as “risks”.

Pro: Mainstream Exposure – Copies of your book will be widely distributed not just in book stores, but also in Walmart, Target, airports, novelty shops, grocery stores, online, etc.

Small publishers, Print-on-demand, and E-publishers:

Though smaller, these guys are considered traditional publishing but they have a few extra pros and cons, like they DO NOT have a very wide distribution. They focus more on online marketing and often are not able to sell to Walmart, Target, grocery stores, etc. (though usually they will sell to all major book chains like Barns&Nobel, Amazon, and Borders). Most of them DO NOT pay advances so the author must continue to work part-time at least to pay the bills until their books sell. However, these guys tend to be much nicer to their authors, including the newbies. They take un-represented authors as well as new authors and usually treat all books equally. They often DO NOT have a large budget for marketing, but they are usually willing to assist with marketing, give advice, and answer any questions about marketing.

Self-publishing:

Pro: Control – The author makes every single decision through-out the publishing and marketing process. They keep all rights to their work, they decided how to divide their time and their budget, and they keep all the profit.

Con: You’re completely alone – Unless you have some cool author friends to help you out, you’re totally on your own. Every risk, every mistake, every loss comes out of your pocket. Some self-published authors spend years “experimenting” with different marketing techniques before they find any that work.

Pro: Focus – Self-publishing is a wonderful alternative for books meant for a specific market, such as diabetic cookbooks. Authors are free to focus on their niche, write, and market exclusively for that area.

Con: Time and Funding – Again, you are on your own here. You’ll have to cover all cost for cover art, editing, ISBN registration, distribution, etc.

Pro: Less Production Time – You can self-publish your book in a few weeks (versus a year or two with traditional publishing).

Con: Prejudice – There is still some prejudice against self-published authors/books. Some people tend to think there must something wrong with a book if it is not backed by a traditional publisher. It was produced by an amateur so it must be terrible and not worth the money. Agents and Traditional publishers tend to hold the most prejudice against self-published authors, so if you were planning to self-publish to test the waters or to build up credence before taking on the professionals – stop! I’ve read an interview with an agent who shall remain names who said self-published authors are viewed the same as authors who have never been published before and that authors with even a single short story published by a small publishing house had more credence than an author with several self-published books. This agent did go on to explain her logic behind this statement, but I think I’ll refrain from repeating it as I predict it will only make some of you more angry.

These are the basics. Every publishing company has its differences, so again, do your homework! Investigate the specific publishing house you might be interested in and read the fine print. And while you’re at it, read up on marketing books. Because no matter which method you choose, you WILL be expected to self-promote on some level. It’s embarrassing when they tell you to join their Yahoo group to keep up with the news and you don’t know how a Yahoo group works (true story *ahem* luckily I’m not completely computer illiterate and learned fast).

P.S. I'm under contract with Muse It Up Publishing Inc. and yes, I would recommend them for anyone looking for a large e-publisher or small print-on-demand publisher. I'm willing to answer questions about my experiences with them if you are curious just ask.

I Chose Both

2011-07-07T00:23:00.017-04:00

Traditional vs. Self-Publishing.

Many authors write about an either or decision for publishing. I'm going for the 'have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too' scenario.

I'll be querying my novels the old-fashioned way, but meanwhile I'm going to break into publishing online with my short stories and novellas.

To go the self-publishing route, I think it's important to hire a professional editor and produce a professional work. Especially if charging for it. The results from those that do are much better than from those who don't. Our work is our brand. Don't short change it or yourself.

It's a good idea to build your platform before going 'Indie' as it's called by some. Even before you land an agent. Blogs and social networking are the main ways to do this. Another, which is a great idea no matter the route you plan, is to upload some free reads to Smashwords in order to start building an audience. I'd suggest Amazon, too, but Amazon won't let you sell 'for free'.

I used to put my free reads directly on my website, but this idea of using Smashwords is better. It allows me to reach people who read and they can try my stories risk free. Exposure for the cost of some work and courage.

Meanwhile, I submit some of my short works the old-fashioned way and envision publishing some myself. I will also query my novels through agents for traditional publishing. So, I chose both.

The truth is, ebooks will soon out sell traditional books. The writing is on the cyber wall, so to speak. This changed my thinking on publishing. Has it affected yours at all?

Self-Publishing vs Small Traditional vs. Large Traditional

2011-07-06T11:18:00.000-04:00

Hey, guys. I'm being published with a small press publisher. I know people who are published with large traditional publishing houses, and people who are currently working to self-publish, or who have self-published. The big differences really lie in two areas.

Marketing.

We all know that as a self-published author, it's on you and only you to promote your book.

Who's going to help you with that?
How do you know where to go?
Is Twitter and a blog the end all beat all of promotion?
How do you get on a blog book tour?
How many years do you have to invest to get enough information to be savvy?

With a small press publisher, they'll take it on for a few months, teach you how to do it yourself and then gradually let you go on your own, but they're always there for assistance or questions.

They partner with your to ensure their investment in you is worth it.
They show you all the hot spots, the best times to promote, the best ideas to get attention to your book.
And then if you have any questions down the road, they're there to point you in the right direction.

With a large traditional publisher, you might get a promotion assistant who has time to dedicate to your book, but then again, if its not one of the top 10% of best sellers, the likelihood is slim. Pray that you find the youngster just out of college who feels she has something to prove. If you don't, you're largely on your own.

There are always the horror stories of any publisher. Always. People who were left out on their own, had no idea what their cover was going to look like, had no idea when they were even going to get published, had no clue what marketing was going to be done for them, etc.
However, there are good stories out there too. Large publishing houses have the BIG reach. That's why they publish the Best Sellers. They have the power to do so, whereas the small publishers and the self-publishers don't. A lot of that is marketing. They have a LOT of marketing power.

The other large difference is distribution.

Not all mortar stores will carry self-published books. Sometimes, they'll even say they won't take self-published books from certain publishers. The reason for this is that the mortar stores have to invest in the books they buy.

If the books don't sell due to poor quality, no marketing, a bad cover, or it's on the wrong genre shelf, there's nothing for the store to do but tear off the cover and throw it away.
Additionally, in order to get your book into the mortar stores, you have to pound pavement. Usually, you have to sell your book to the bookstore so that you can have 1-2 books on the shelf. How many stores are you really going to hit? How much work are you going to invest to get 1-2 books on the shelf of 1-2 stores?
Most self-publishers say they can get you into the major sellers, and they can, through their Internet sales. As long as you have an ISBN, you're in. However, ensure that your house issues those. If they don't, you're not published.
You're buying your books. You're the investor. It's on you to make it work.
Your distribution limit is you. You're the investor. How much can you afford to invest?

Small press houses don't have a lot of reach, but they do have a larger reach than the self-publishing houses. Their first "run" will get you into stores across the country, and will get you books for signings.

If you happen to schedule book signings on your own, you'll be buying your books. They can buy the books for signings they schedule at normal events because they understand that the investment has an instant return. It's all about business. However, if you decide to sign books at a privately thrown party or other venue, it's up to you to decide if the return will be good enough.
A lot of small press houses use POD. Internet sales, especially from their house website, is where their revenue comes from. Mortar store investments are risky (because f buy-back if the books don't sell), but they want to get you out there. Then you have the appearance of "being real". Perception is reality.

Traditional publishing houses have the largest distribution resources and that's the reason we traditionally push to be published by them. But this is where all the risk is.

They're investing a lot of money into your book to get it out to all the distribution outlets and all the mortar stores. Their investment in marketing is going to be fairly similar.
Their buy-back risk is bigger because their distribution is bigger. If your book doesn't sell, they have to buy the books back.
If they're investing heavily in marketing, it's because they're planning on investing heavily in distribution.
If they're barely investing in marketing, they've already decided your book won't sell, and they're keeping the distribution and their investment low-key.
It's a business. They have to curb their exposure, or they risk disappearing in a rapidly changing environment.

The age of E-books, though, is really bringing new shape to the publishing industry as a whole. As more people buy books off the Internet or purchase e-books, the need for the investment goes down. However, we still have the mortar stores. We all love the mortar stores. And we'd all love to see them thrive. We love to just go to the store, pick up a great book, grab a picnic lunch and go sit in the sun and grass and read a book.

I hope that the mortar stores don't disappear, but with their investment becoming less of a "need" for survival and more of a "want" for appearance, the small press and the self-published books are pressing forward as a better, more personable option for publishing your book.

I Vote for Versus

2011-07-05T06:00:00.001-04:00

This week we are talking about traditional publishing versus self publishing. As a yet-to-published-in-anyway author, I don't know what I can say on this topic. And so, I vote for Versus. Seems like a good way to go! After all Versus handles many things all at once! Can't go wrong with that. Mutlitasking! Balance! Oh yes, important things all thanks to Versus.

*ahem* What was I talking about? Oh yes...

Traditional publishing has it's good points. You have the backing of professional agents, editors, and a publishing company to help you as you market your book. They handle the formatting of your book to get it in e-book form or in print, they get your books up on the web where people can buy them and on the shelves.

Self publishing has good points also. You keep all the royalties from your sales. You have the added benefit that no one else owns any rights at all to your book or characters. You don't have to wait for an agent or publisher or editor to tell you yes or no to a query, then wait some more for them to get back to you.

Beyond that knowledge, I don't know what else to say. I don't have experience in either type of publishing and so I can't lend much insite into them. I do know that personally in the end, I want to have my book in print. Period. Right now, it's up in the air for me as I wait to hear back from a few publishers and agents but I'm seriously considering self-publishing also, only because I'm tired on waiting! It seriously drives me crazy.

The only thing that really stops me on the self-publishing thing is that I know even less about it than I do traditional publishing. Mainly, formatting my manuscript to get it into ebook and print form. I'm sure the information is out there if I just look for it, but I look at the time it would take to learn all of that. I just don't have it.

So I'm stuck -- I drive my self crazy waiting for an agent or publisher or try to weasle in the time to self publish. Either way, I feel like I'm losing something in the process! (My sanity in both cases...)

I wish I could have my last post be a bit more informative, but alas, that is just not the case. I'm sorry for that.

And yes, this is my last post on Wicked Writers. I'm sad to go, but my family comes first. I cherish the time I've spent here and I've learned so much from all the other authors that write for this wonderful blog. I've made lasting friendships with all of them!

I hope to see you all around the internet! Look me up at my website (http://avpergakis.com) or my blog (http://labotomyofawriter.com) if you want to stay in touch.

Thank you to Greg for giving me the initial invite and to CJ for letting me join in the fun here. I wish every much success in their careers. I love you all and I'll see you around.

Who to Publish With? Ah, Decisions, Decisions

2011-07-04T20:57:00.000-04:00

Traditional vs. Self-Publishing? Ah, Decisions, Decisions

This week’s topic deals with a topic running its course through the publishing world like a tortilla from a street vendor in Matamoros.

The answer simply is that there is no real answer, in my opinion.

Traditional publishing still has its place in the publishing world. Traditional publishing houses like DAW and other New York houses employ top-notch editors and have great marketing departments. They’ll also shred anyone who dares to submit less than their absolute best.

Therein lies the rub. Most of the aspiring writers really aren’t going to meet the standards of the big boys. Getting to New York will remain the penultimate dream.

So, what’s a writer to do?

Another option is self-publishing. That’s where you publish your work yourself. You incur all the costs from editing to marketing, but reap all the benefits. Let’s face it, if you can’t pass your own muster, you’ve got no business writing a book.

Starlene Stringer

My good friend Starlene Stringer went the self-publishing route. The well-known actress/writer/TV reporter/radio host penned a book of poems called Diary of a Military Brat. It was so successful that she published a second book. However, because of the intense work involved, she opted not to go for a third book.

Another option is small market. The vast majority of publishers are small market publishers. They include university publishers, genre-specific companies, art house publishers and general publishers, to name but a few.

The upside is that these small-market printers will accept new writers and can take on more projects than the big boys. The downside is that too many of them disappear almost as fast as they appear. More than a few are just outright scams, such as the defunct Mystic Moon Press.

If you go with a small-market publisher, check them out. Make sure they have a good track record, such as Red Hot Publishing. Also, check Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America which publishes lists of scam publishers.

By far, the easiest method but the one with the least chance of success is online publishing, namely with eBooks. The Internet offers a vast array of chances for the novice writer to see their work in print. And, for most writers, that may just be enough. Since only a small percentage of writers get to make a living at their hobby, it appears that most writers go for the personal satisfaction of being published, perhaps to impress family or to show off something at the next high school reunion.

I have published online with such sites as Smashwords, Lulu and SFH Dominion (a British outfit). Crawl is now out with Spectacular Speculations. Through the online site Writing.com, I was able to get physically published with Writer’s Bump Vol. I and Farspace 2, both anthologies.

Of course, one must not forget the opportunity to hit more than one printing avenue. A small market publisher will often release a work in eBook format, as well as bound version.

Right now, of course, you are wondering why I haven’t talked about the 400-pound gorilla in the room. Okay. I will.

Vanity publishers. I haven’t attempted any of these. Unlike regular publishers, who incur all the costs of publishing the book, vanity printers charge fees to have a writer’s work published. Examples include Xlibris and iuniverse. Each will have different packages for different costs. The fees cover printing costs and garner physically versions of the final product. Too often, though, vanity publishers require high costs and, even worse, a lot of book dealers will refuse to sell vanity published books.

Probably the biggest vanity publisher right now is PublishAmerica, C.J. Ellisson's favorite. The less said about them, the better.

What about the original question?

Okay, in the interest of reality, I recommend online publishing. Realistically, the odds are against the tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of aspiring authors. Considering what I'm seeing in the plethora of blogs, most writers would have a better chance being drafted by the Boston Celtics than they would getting a contract with a New York publishing house. Better to go online and hone one's skills before trying one of the bigger publishers.

Enjoy the rest of your July 4^th and I’ll see you next week in my regular slot.

Head-Hopping To Do Or Not To Do!

2011-06-30T03:39:00.001-04:00

I'll just say it straight out: I have a huge problem with head hopping. I don't like to read it and I don't like to write it.

I find it confusing and off-putting.
My novel was written in the first person and I have won over converts who really don't like first person because I go deeply into other characters despite the one person narrating it. Many times that character ('I') is actually just the narrator so it can be done.

By the way, I like the sound of a narrative that is pulling me into a particular story. I just do. I find I enjoy those sorts of books and stories the most.

The sequel is also in first person, however there is a journal involved which enables me to have an entirely different character discussing, as it happens, his immortal existence.

And just because I like to experiment (and so far, fingers crossed, it's working) I have my main character not only read the journal, but I have her (intermittently) discuss what she's reading with the journal writer as well as interacting with minor characters.

Strange? Well perhaps but it seems to be working so far!

For short fiction, I write in third person and I do not ever head hop. That's just me. If a writer can make it work, that's fantastic, I'm all for experimenting and being daring! I just don't feel it right for me.

Now, a funny thing happened while I was writing The House on Blackstone Moor, I decided to have a portion of the book in the voice of another character, but guess what? My publisher didn't care for it. She did leave it entirely up to me and I took her advice and changed it. I feel that she was entirely right and I was oh so very wrong to have done it the other way in the first place.

Head hopping, no head hopping it's up to the writer's own point of view to decide!

Where Is My Head (Hopping) At?

2011-06-28T03:00:00.023-04:00

Where Is My Head (Hopping) At?

This week’s topic is interesting, to say the least and, like the adverb, generates a lot of negativity.

I’m talking about Head Hopping.

Sounds like the plot to The Hidden.

Or a weird version of Whack-a-Mole.

Or to something perverted – namely the sight of teenage girls sucking the innards out of crawfish craniums.

By definition, head hopping is where you constantly switch the points of view in a scene by literally hopping from head to head. Some authors can get away with it. Agatha Christie managed to put one over on us with The ABC Murders, but she was, after all, Agatha Christie.

I am not.

Also, many writers, editors and bloggers are not big fans of multiple POV’s per chapter. If so, I’m screwed because my books often have multiple POV’s because my characters stay busy. My plots are more like television shows. A chapter might start out with the boss at a factory discussing layoffs, then move to the shop foreman chatting with his buddies about the situation and finally end at the foreman’s house where his wife and her friends talk about what they’ll do if their husbands are laid off.

I can’t make each POV its own chapter. I’d have 60 chapters. Ditto for scene changes or scene breaks to change POV’s. If the wife is chatting with six others, all of whom are married to important characters, I can’t see creating seven scenes of them all talking about the same thing but from a different viewpoint. Anybody who knows me knows I have enough trouble keeping my books under 100,000 words.

But, these are just my opinions. I googled some things and came across some differing viewpoints, including Canadian author Crawford Kilian described head hopping this way for the blog Writer Unboxed:

Whoever is the point of view for a particular scene determines the persona. An archbishop sees and describes events from his particular point of view, while a pickpocket does so quite differently.

So the narrator, in a scene from the archbishop’s point of view, has a persona quite different from that of the pickpocket: a different vocabulary, a different set of values, a different set of priorities.

As a general rule, point of view should not change during a scene. (RR: italics mine) So if an archbishop is the point of view in a scene involving him and a pickpocket, we shouldn’t suddenly switch to the pickpocket’s point of view until we’ve resolved the scene and moved on to another scene.

Michelle Styles, in an article for eHarlequin, took a different point of view (no pun intended):

Right, why then do people go about staying in a specific point of view?

Why is there all this fuss?

The reason is reader identification with the character, in other words -- connecting with the reader.

If the reader is going to be inside a character's head, the reader wants to know which head she is in. It is disconcerting for the reader to be pulled out of the story because she thought she was in the heroine's head and it turns out that the writer has dipped into the housekeeper's head for a moment.

Or another way to look at it is that the reader is always seeing a scene through a filter, whether it is the filter of a character or even the filter of the ominscient (sic) narrator. Without that filter, the reader has no idea how to interpret the scene. If filters are changed awkwardly, or the reader thinks she is seeing through a specific filter and finds out differently, the reader may get pulled out of the scene.

Thus it is the awkwardness of the shifts without sufficent (sic) tension/page turning quality that causes headhopping. If there is sufficient page turning quality, the vast majority of readers will forgive an awkward point of view shift. It is really ALL IN THE EXECUTION rather than in some hard and fast rule that says each chapter must be only shown from one character's point of view.

Alas, those who jump all over head hopping outnumber those who see nothing wrong with it, if it is done well. Sort of like the people who want to get rid of adverbs.

Within a very short time, you all will have read (or, hopefully, will read) some of my work – Crawl, They Call the Wind Muryah, Hunters, Slow Boat to China, Land of the Blind and The Light At the End of Time. I am sure you will come across head hopping. Some of you might be annoyed; others might catch on and like it. I have a feeling that most of you will not care either way, as long as the book is well-done.

Multiple POVs, All Male, What's a Gal To Do?

2011-06-27T09:00:00.003-04:00

This week we're talking about head hopping. Interestingly enough, this means two things in writing.

One, which is the most common for writers -- you are deliberately switching point of views (POV) to give the reader new insight into a character.

Two - you accidentally do it mid-scene when you reveal something or state an opinion that is outside of your POV, and is therefor a no-no.

I've done very little of the second because most all of my work has been in first person, which makes the accidents rather infrequent. I have been known to make a mistake with an assumptive phrase that was omniscient and the head I'm in could not know it, but for the most part my peers pick these slips up before it ever gets to the reading public.

I never set out to head-hop and write multiple POVs when I started writing urban fantasy. One of the things I love about the genre is the kick-ass female or male first-person POV. Primarily these stories are told from the same narrator's view the entire tale.

I thought mixing up the POVs would be fun and a great way for the readers to get to know the other characters in my series, and trust me, I did the big "no-no" and have a ton of characters! So many that there is a glossary of terms and characters in the book. But, I have to admit, I used to refer to those all the time when I was reading complex fantasy worlds, so adding one to my own work was always part of the plan.

The hardest part for me was doing male point of views -- and being consistent. I have five male and two female POVs in The Hunt, which is releasing this week. The female ones were a breeze, for obvious reasons... the male ones... well, I quizzed my husband a lot, my medical massage therapist who helps with my rheumatoid arthritis and various muscular issues, my friends (dads on my kids sports teams or in my neighborhood), read the status updates on all the twenty-something guys I'm connected to on Facebook through my nephews, and I eaves-dropped quite a bit.

Did I pull it off? The reader will ultimately be the one to decide, but I can tell you it was hard. The hardest thing I've ever done in writing, actually. Most people might think the hardest thing in my writing is present tense, but you get into the groove and once you master the flow you just get better over time.

What did I learn with all my fact finding?

Some guys swear a lot, some don't. A few reserve such vocabulary for times of stress.
Not all men think with the dicks, but quite a few make comments and observations that appear as if they do.
The young ones still care what their friends think (even though they like to think they don't), the older ones could give a rat's ass and seem more comfortable in their own skin.
Some men have a tendency to "size up" other men when they meet them (can I take him in a fight), but the majority probably don't.
They love to laugh at each other (not with them, there is a difference) and will bust a rib laughing if one of their friends hurts themselves.
They speak in short sentences, for the most part
They are not overly flowery in descriptors or in compliments.

Men are a lot like women - each one an individual, but with a lot of the same underlying traits. How they speak and act is directly related to their recent environment exposure -- like a college student will act different than a military man of the same age. Yes, one person can be both at the same time, but you're missing my point.

Just like with all of us, our character's pasts reflect how they act in the here and now. In order to write multiple POVs in one story at the same time you must know how that person will react in the situation. I had one beta reader out of a dozen who told me only one of my male POVs sounded unique, and that the rest all sounded alike. But eleven said they loved reading the different POVs and getting to know the characters-- so I went with the majority.

Perfecting the initial chapters with the individual voices took me weeks. I keep going back over them again and again to make them each distinct. In the end, I know I won't please everyone with my work. Perhaps, this reader felt my style of writing lent to each person sounding similar, I'm not sure.

All I can say for sure is I really enjoyed the multiple POVs. Sure, it was hard as hell to plot out the book hopping from one head to the next, but in the end it flowed well -- like a baton being passed in a relay race -- the story moved from one person to the next, never replaying action over the same scene again.

Will I do it again? You betcha.

How about you - do you like to read multiple POVs in books or do you like to write them? Tell me how you master writing the opposite gender!

Muligans!

2011-06-21T08:00:00.000-04:00

Okay, this weeks topic has us talking about muligans - do overs. Was there every anything that we did (or didn't do) that we regretted?

Of course! Many things! But, I won't embarass myself here and stick to just the writing side. *wink*

I have to think really hard on this because I don't really remember anything I have done or didn't do when it came to writing that I regretted later. Even if the project I started bombed or ended or closed or whatever the case was, I didn't regret starting it in the first place. Sure, I was sad it didn't work out, but I didn't actually feel regret over the situation.

I guess I do regret dragging The Faery's Tale series around for so long, not admitting what the real problem with the series was. But then again, I really don't. I learned SO much during that time and applied to my other works - that have turned out great!

No, The Faery's Tale series still is not anywhere near ready for publication. I feel terrible I made my crit partners read the first book as it is OMG terrible. Sideplots run amuck all over the place and just took over the series entirely! But like I said, I don't regret the years I spent struggling with it. I learned a lot and honed my craft and was able to craft many other books written with better quality for sure.

So, do I want to call "Muligan!" on anything in my writing career? No. Maybe because I have so many regrets in the other areas of my life because of my past with alcohol and drug addiction, I just don't have the energy to feel regret in my writing life. I learn from my mistakes and move on. How can I regret a situation that helped me be a better writer? I can't and so I don't.

When You Fall Off The Horse...

2011-06-20T00:00:00.007-04:00

I love horses.

Hello readers,

This week's topic is "Do-Overs"; regrets, wasted time or money, anything we wish we could do over again. We've all wished we could have a "do-over" at some point in our lives, but since we can't I don't dwell on it. I'm one of those people who believes things happen for a reason. We may not know what the reason is. But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. A smart person learns their lesson and moves on. Sometimes this means getting back on the horse and doing it right. Sometimes it means finding a new horse. And other times it means accepting the fact that horse-back ridding isn't for you.

Writing has been one huge continuous learning experience for me. Though I've dragged books around with me since I could crawl and grew up in a library and think Barns&Nobel is the coolest store in the mall, I never gave writing a thought until a few years ago.

I don't have any sort of writing degree. My venture started because I was broke and writing was a free activity. I learned the basics on a little site called Writing.com (okay, so it's really a HUGE site). I did everything backwards. Every newbie writing mistake in the book, that was my first MS in a nutshell... But I took workshops and joined crit groups and I learned and I moved on. Eventually I graduated to a site called SavvyAuthors.com where I took even more workshops.

I started my first blog in 2009 I think. That was a feat all in it's own. I had never blogged before. At the time, I was also afraid to look Twitter in the eye, but now we're best buds. Oh, and I write for five blogs now, one of which is a group blog that I am in charge of, and it's now safe to say I've mastered Blogger.

Editing my manuscript was a B#!$@ and I ended up doing it like twenty times over. Of course now I know about outlines and plotting and making notes in the margin and in a notebook and the difference between Content, Line, and Copy Editing and how you shouldn't do them all at once if you want to keep your hair on your head.

Learning to write a query letter took me about a year and made me cry LOL. I still hate them, but they're a necessary evil. The synopsis was shockingly easy. Don't ask me how I pulled that one off! But I wrote my first synopsis in a synopsis workshop and the instructor ... Ahem... Frankie... loved it.

Now, what am I getting at? Oh yes...Do I wish I could do any of that stuff over, knowing what I know now? Heck yes! Would have saved me a year of frustration and some tears. But I can't do it over, so why waste energy wishing that I could? I can only look foreword into the next step - which for me is balancing writing a sequel while mastering the painful art of self-promotion. Mmm, talk about a learning experience. At least my computer skills are improving. I can almost type with my eyes closed, which is good because the screen is taking a toll on my eyesight.

What about you? What do you do when you fall off the horse, get back on? Walk away? Find a Cheetah? Now if this was a blog about men and relationships, this would a completely different post. *Nods*

Have a good week,
J.D.

Reassing New Year's Resoluations

2011-06-16T01:46:00.000-04:00

You know what? I think we need to re-think 'New Year's Resolutions.' Why wait to change things yearly? Why not daily?

I'm not being 'cute', seriously--if there are things in your life that need changing why not just evaluate them and see what you can do about them now? Maybe there are two more things you'd like to add onto your resolution list.

I don't make a lot of resolutions. I make a few at most. Last year I just wanted to finish my book and stop smoking and I accomplished both of those things.

This year I'd like to lose some weight and get my sequel done. I also would love to 'encourage' my husband to stop smoking. Yes, the campaign has begun and he knows it! I go nicely, nicely first!

I think the single most important thing I have found about making any sort of resolution or promise to myself is to have realistic expectations. That said, I think we should all reach for whatever goal we have in mind. I think people can push themselves to achieve things they might not feel were within their reach.

But as for a set of resolutions, sometimes the very idea of change can be paralyzing. Very often if that is the case we don't achieve what we intended.

Resolve and determination should work hand in hand. 'Should' being the key word.