You can’t celebrate what hasn’t been done.

We all have dreams – to write well, to be published, to have an awesome web presence, to reach and engage readers – that’s what our lives are about. How do we achieve those dreams? One step at a time by making a plan, setting goals and executing them. And sometimes, you do it with a little help from your friends.

When the Fictorian bloggers first discovered each other at the Superstars Writing Seminar, we learned that we had the same dreams, one of which was to establish a web presence where we could blog, grow as writers, share information with other writers and reach our audience. Alone, the task was daunting; together we’ve created a dynamic presence with wide ranging topics and experiences.

HAPPY 1^st BIRTHDAY FICTORIANS
collectively we’ve achieved what we couldn’t do alone

Our greatest MILESTONES:
*  we’ve become great friends who support each other through our ups and downs;
*  in our first year, we’ve posted  over 165 blogs on topics from craft, to the writing life, to understanding  the publishing industry; and
* superstar authors and industry professionals are blogging with us.

In his guest post, Brian Hades talked about the need for a virtual presence, how social media is like cocktail party and hiding in the corner means no one notices you. If you’re unsure about etiquette rules at the social media party, check out Mignon Fogarty’s post. At The Fictorian Era, we are hosting the party, inviting interesting guests, serving a buffet of tools for writers and most importantly, we’re having fun doing it!

Why did we choose to host a party together rather than go it alone?

Because we knew that in the act of learning and supporting each other we would grow as writers, establish connections we couldn’t do on our own and we’d have a supportive social media presence. One Fictorian summed up a common sentiment, Fictorians for me are amazing friendships formed from a common goal.  And it is an amazing alliance with bloggers and guest bloggers from the USA, Canada and Australia. Our broad backgrounds and experiences give our readers many perspectives on issues and varied content.

Most importantly, we’ve all had some special mentor or have read an awesome blog which has helped us in our writing journey. That’s also why we’re together – to give back what we’ve received. Helping others as we’ve been helped.

But really, it’s fun to work with a group of dedicated writers who have a joint sense of purpose. That’s the bottom line. We’re together because we want to be.

Writing your novel or short story maybe a solitary endeavor but the writing life doesn’t have to be. Form a writing support group or join one. Form a blogging group. Form a virtual support group which sets goals and challenges you to meet them. Do whatever you need to keep your writing career on track. We did. And now we’re celebrating!

Happy writing everyone!                                                                                                    Hey, who ate my piece of cake?

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My fandom years writing fanfiction helped me a great deal.  By providing me with an audience of fellow fans, and the inspiration to write regularly on a subject about which I was passionate, I grew from a juvenile writer into a teller of stories.  However, when I changed my focus from fan fiction to original novels—something I could publish—I realized there were certain aspects where my fan fiction experience had not helped me.

Worldbuilding from scratch.  In fan fiction, you’ve got a setting already laid out for you.  This is more than just physical locations; it’s the “rules” of what is possible in that world.  How does magic work?  What technology is, and isn’t, available?  What is the major conflict?  What are the central themes?  Building an internally consistent set of rules isn’t easy, and it’s vitally important:  a poorly designed set will leave readers wondering why something previously impossible is suddenly possible, or why the hero struggles under restraints that don’t bother the villain, or why the hero is at odds with the villain to begin with.

Character introduction.  In fan fiction, a writer can assume his readers are going to know who Naruto is, or who Spock is, or who Bella is, and all the important details about the character’s appearance and personality.  In an original work, writers need to remember that if they don’t convey it, their readers won’t learn it—and better yet if they can convey it without the old “my character looks in the mirror and describes what she sees” trick.

Cast dynamics.  In fan fiction, even if you make up your own characters, you’ve also got a main cast of canon characters to work with.  There’s a difference between adding a new character into an established cast, and building, from scratch, a group of characters with believable group dynamics.  In short, every group has a “character” of its own.  A group comprised of five dynamic leaders—or five timid wallflowers—isn’t going to last, or convince your readers of its believability, unless at least some members of the group begin evolving and changing to fill different roles.

Professional discipline.  If you get bored with a fan fiction story, you can go do something else.  Or turn your originally-intended romance into splatterpunk horror.  You’re not getting paid; you can do as you please.  It’s entertainment.  This isn’t the case when you’re under contract to produce something on a certain subject in a certain time frame.

When to walk away (Internet fame vs long term career); or, If you don’t want to be an amateur forever.   About three years ago I was getting a lot of positive feedback from my fan fiction.  Writing quick short stories, posting them on the internet, and enjoying the response was a thrill; putting another 5000 words on a novel was a long slog in comparison.  In the end, though, a complete novel—something publishable—will be a bigger accomplishment, and with this goal in mind, fan fiction is now an occasional treat for me, not the focus of my writing.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with amateur writing—writing for pleasure.  It’s a state of mind where people can explore and experience, hone their craft, and learn to love the act of creation.  Nor do I think there’s anything wrong with the choice made by several fan fiction writers of my acquaintance who, although they have story telling skills equivalent to professional authors, choose that they would rather pursue something else to earn a living, and reserve writing for a hobby—something they do for entertainment.

Creating original work for publication is a different experience from the fan experience.  It requires privacy—putting samples of your original work up on the Internet may disqualify your work as being “previously published,” or open you up to having your work plagiarized.  It requires you to create something that will excite and interest you, through the long hours of crafting something that’s not already a pop culture phenomenon.  It requires a dedication to persevere and a consideration for the desires of your readers and potential publishers.  It requires the groundwork to build a coherent world for your characters to inhabit.  These factors have nothing to do with the quality of the work itself, and everything to do with the creation of a professional writing lifestyle, as opposed to an amateur’s hobby.

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I’m BULLISH on today’s marketing and publishing environments.

It is certainly NOT the time to own a newspaper, be an advertising executive, or deal with the vagaries of the worlds’ economic climate.

It is the best time to be an author/publisher/media personality/entrepreneur…

Why?

You do NOT have to rely on traditional media to grab some attention. By being creative you can get a LOT of exposure and sell yourself to the world virally — and for free.

How?

Simply by using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. With your limited time and resources (it’s a problem for all of us) the return on your investment in paid print ads (newspaper or even magazines) would pale by comparison.

If you spend, on average, an hour every day updating your Facebook, Twitter, and social media profiles it won’t take long for the world to know about you, what you’ve written, and what you’re currently working on.

It won’t happen overnight.  You need steady and strategic postings to make it happen. Prior to Facebook and Twitter, networking and referrals were your best methods for making connections. Social media is networking on steroids.

But you must remember that networking — in person or on social media — is like going to a cocktail party.

If you walk in the door and all of a sudden you’re in everyone’s face selling, and yelling “buy me me me,” people back away and avoid you. In social media, you get deleted and reported for spam.

If you post a profile on Facebook and never visit it again or close off your wall for postings, it’s like standing in the back corner of the live networking event with your back to the room, as if to say: don’t talk to me.

Today it’s all about building RELATIONSHIPS.

You only need to post what you want people to see, but if you post nothing personal, then people may not engage you. Today, people want to know who they are talking to. If you are interesting and engaging there’s a good chance your social media profile will be checked out. If you post nothing about what you do or how to reach you, people will move on to the next person.

There are two must-have books if you want to know how to navigate marketing in 2012 and do so successfully to the growing number of people who get their content exclusively online:

1. Socialnomics by Erik Qualman; and
2.  The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott.

Be sure you only look at books that were published after 2009. A lot has changed since then. The Kindle and iPad did not exist. Those two platforms alone have impacted how people see you. But that’s another post.

Brian Hades, publisher
EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing
www.edgewebsite.com
403-254-0160

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Welcome to our new feature, Sunday Reads.  This is a collection of the cool/interesting/thought-provoking articles we’ve read during the week.

I thought I was the only person in the world who hates chapter titles.  Apparently not, according to Navigating the Slush Pile.

Jami Gold made me laugh with her post Multiple Personality Disorder? No, I’m a Writer.

Over at YA Muses, they’re talking about how to create a satisfying end.

(And thank you to The Golden Haystack for drawing my attention to this post.)

Struggling with the difference between a pitch and a synopsis?  Check out Agent Kristen’s video.

Roni Loren has a great collection of books to cure a variety of writerly woes.

Over at Civil War Horror, Robert Walker talks about e-book pricing.

Magical Words has worldbuilding for writers who hate it (and it’s written by a fantasy writer!).

For a laugh: check out SlushPile Hell.

For fun: the sharpest teeth in the world.

For inspiration: real world locations for fantasy worldbuilding.

And just because it’s cool: an animated short of a post-apocalyptic world.

Happy reading!

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So you want to write a scene with a medical element to it. The bad guys have knocked the love interest unconscious, or someone needs to die of an awful disease, or you need to establish that your physician character knows (or doesn’t know) what she’s talking about. But you want to make sure you do it right – not too much detail but enough so that you don’t look foolish. How do you walk that line?

It’s probably easier than you think it is. First of all, big breath – unless you’re actually writing an article in The New England Journal of Medicine you’re probably not going to have to be exact. Readers don’t want verbatim quotes from a medical textbook, but rather details that enhance or propel the story, or help to define who the characters are. That said; you do get points for accuracy, or at least some form of plausibility.

In no particular order, here are some suggestions to avoid common pitfalls when it comes to writing medicine in science-fiction and fantasy

1. Nothing is absolute, within reason.  There’s no hard and fast rule to state that your medicine has to be accurate, and for many, engaged in world building of alien species or seeing the needs of the plot, being shackled to the rules can limit the creative work. That said, there are always certain things that people will pick up, especially if they have some medical knowledge of their own. The bottom line is that you don’t have to show yourself off to be an expert, but you should  be able to use common sense as to when you can fudge it and when you need to do research, or better yet, ask for help.
2. Avoid the common errors. That is, there are certain mistakes that are so common that you should just be able to avoid them as a matter of course. Just because people on TV or in movies can get up and keep going after being given CPR, that doesn’t mean you should write it that way. In real life, getting a pulse back after CPR is a rare thing, and if you do, it’s still more likely to lead to a screaming ambulance ride, a breathing tube and an advanced cooling protocol, and a stay in intensive care. Likewise, being hit on the head such that a character loses consciousness is a serious neurological emergency; at best it’s a concussion when they wake up, and at worst there could be serious bleeding inside the head.
3. The more crucial the point, the more specific you’ll have to be.  This stands to reason; if the medical plot point is minor then it won’t require as much detail in the story as something major. As an establishing fact of your alien’s biology, to say that there are three biological sexes can be a great way to establish difference. If your story depends on that fact for a plot point, you’re going to have to put some thought into how to describe that. It seems simple enough, but it means that if you’re going to trip up anywhere, this will likely be it. Do the research, think about what will or won’t work, and then go for it.
4. Alien/fantasy medicine can work best as a variation of what we know. If part of your story hinges on a fact of alien biology, one way to make it plausible is to use the human known version as a template and diverge from that. In “Star Trek”, Vulcans have green blood that is based on copper instead of iron. The writers didn’t just make that up, however; in our own bodies, iron is a key component of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in our red blood cells by binding its ionic form to oxygen. Copper ions are also used in our body – not for the same purpose, but it’s not a complete leap to suggest that evolution couldn’t use it for an analogy to hemogloblin. Likewise for organ structure or diseases or other biological facts; one way to get started is to vary from a known theme.
5. Alternatively, vastly different biology/medicine is better left to the imagination. If you are planning to detail the biology of a species or a race that is vastly different from ours, and you want to make it something completely unrelated to what we know – well, there’s no reason you can’t, but this might be a situation where it’s best to go for less detail instead of more. Getting bogged down into what makes everything so different and alien may end up overwhelming the reader. Better to stick with a few tantalizing details and leave the rest to the imagination without worrying too much about explaining.
6. The medicine serves the story, not vice versa. Finally, keep in mind that none of these suggestions trump the basic need for good storytelling, believable characters, and compelling plot. It won’t do you any good to explain your thesis about your alien species sixty-four chromosomes or your brilliant doctor’s ability to transplant anything into anybody if it swamps the fundamentals of good writing. Using medicine or medical characters in a story needs to move the story forward, not get it mired in exposition and detail.

Next – writing a good doctor.

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I’ve recently become a slush pile reader for Flash Fiction Online. In my opinion, good Flash Fiction (a complete story of 500 to 1,000 words) is harder to write than a complete novel. In one of the slush rounds – reiewing stories their writers hope to have FFO publish – I moved two of the stories to the next phase of consideration. Why?

One was science fiction, and one was fantasy/slipstream. Even though the two stories were nothing alike, they had some common traits that helped them move to the next round. So what did they do right?

(1) The prose was clean – no typos, no major grammar problems.

(2) The main characters were well-defined and interesting.

(3) Each character had an interesting problem to solve. One wanted to go home, and the other had a major decision to make. The second story violated my withholding “rule”. It didn’t tell me something the main character would know – what the decision was. I didn’t mind the withholding this time because the point of the story wasn’t the decision, but how the character makes it.

(4) The writers had strong “voices”. A writer’s voice is different than technical proficiencies. It’s a little hard to define. Voice is the personality of the writer coming through his or her words. It makes the story unique. Five people can write a story about a werewolf’s first transformation. While the plotline will be the same for each, the stories will be told very differently because of “voice”. For these submissions to FFO, the fantasy’s voice was a bit irreverent and humorous. The science fiction voice was curious and intelligent.

(5) They were complete stories with beginning, middles and ends. Rust Hills said “a short story tells of something happening to someone” in his Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular. Submissions that aren’t complete are character sketches or scenes. While they may be fabulous, they aren’t what FFO is looking for.

(6) Setting. It’s difficult to convey a full setting in 1000 words or less, but both of these stories gave me enough of one that I could see where the characters were. One in deep space, and one in a somewhat run down kitchen.

Note the order I put the above-list in?

I did for a reason.

Your story might have all the other elements, but if it is riddled with grammatical errors, I won’t read on and find that out. If the story is readable, I look for a character to care about. And so on. My list isn’t absolute. I might pass on a story with grammatical errors if the voice or characters are stunningly fabulous. Don’t put the bar to publication any higher by making technical errors.

What am I looking for as a slush pile reader?

The same thing I’m looking for when I buy a novel. A great story told well.

Keep writing, and keep submitting. I hope to see you all over at Flash Fiction Online.

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My words exist in the twisted aether of the world we know. Where orcs sell potions to chem addicted elves focused only on getting the next fix. It’s a world where good guys sometimes have to do bad things and bad guys do things good for them.

It’s gray and rainy, but not the Seattle kind of rain. This is the kind of rain that melts flesh from bones.

This is the type of place where the guy waiting next to you in the subway wouldn’t think twice about slitting your throat because your coat is warmer than his.

How do you balance the macabre and the horrific with the action and frenetic pace of a spy thriller?

With careful balance.

It’s a technique I learned from Jim Butcher. For those of you unaware, you need to hunt down his writing process. It’s required reading. There will be a test.

I follow a steady, near constant rise and fall. For every action beat, we need to slow the pace down just long enough to consider the actions of what came before. Unless you’re a violent sociopath, you can’t go around slaughtering orcs or murlocs all day without a care in the world. At some point, you’re going to kill somebody’s baby.

And they’re going to be pissed. Or you’re going to go nuts.

At that point, you really need to exercise your writing muscles. For every action, there’s an equal and excruciating reaction. Since we write in fiction, emotions are sensationalized, maybe even sometimes heightened just to the point of dramatic effect.

I like to up the ante with each passing moment, increase the tension, increase the stakes. Make it look like things are spiraling out of control for our protagonist and then rein it in at the last possible minute.

It’s a roller coaster full of ups and downs and the highs and lows. My good guys who do bad things don’t always feel that the end justified the means. Sometimes what happens is a result of direct force applied upon him, almost to the breaking point. He might lash out and do something stupid. And then regret it for the rest of the book.

Or sometimes, that action is the defining moment of my character. Whether it appears on screen or off, if it happened, chances are it’s going to affect him in some way, shape, or form.

In Golden Hills, Jake Dollop wanders into a town when he’s so far down and out that there’s no where else to turn. In Chapter 2, he’s so damn miserable with his life that he briefly considers and tries to commit suicide.

Fortunately the gun doesn’t go off. And Jake is a changed man from that moment forward

In Beyond the Black, Sergeant Chase Montgomery is shot down while performing a rescue mission for a friend in the heart of World War III. He recovers and finds himself in a strange world. He misses his family back home, but they think he’s dead.

In Psychic, Detective Michael Wilfrey is still an emotional train wreck after a horrific mass casualty incident, it costs the man his wife, his career, and his life as he struggles with the slow poison of a scar too big to heal.

I write from inside the heads of my protagonists, sometimes the camera is so far in their head, it’s as if there’s no camera at all.

I prefer the tighter point of view because it allows me to delve much farther into the one or two characters that I follow throughout the book. You can experience their emotional highs and lows and live through their experiences.

And while all my books are almost thriller-esque with frenetic pacing, I still give the reader and the character time to think and recover.

Because without your lows, you can’t have your highs.

How do you juggle?

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I’ve blogged before about my New Year’s Resolution to write a page a day and, so far, I’ve done it. Every. Single. Day. That’s 75 days in a row, for anyone who’s counting.

Some days the words come out easily and I kid myself that it’s always going to be this easy now I’m in the habit of writing every day. But then there are the other days… The days when I’ve had less than two hours sleep the night before and I’m so tired, I’m almost falling asleep on top of the laptop. The days when I’m sick and can barely think straight. The days when I’ve already put in 12 hours in the day job and it’s 8pm before I haul myself to my laptop and try to convince myself that I really do care about writing tonight.

So what am I doing? Why am I forcing myself to sit here and write – something, anything – when some days I really couldn’t care less? On the good days, I tell myself it’s about forming a habit, about being professional, about making progress. On a bad day, it all comes down to stubbornness and that damned New Year’s Resolution. Maybe once we get a little further into the year I won’t care quite so much about achieving my page a day. Maybe I’ll even give myself an occasional night off. But right now, on this night, I will write my page. If stubbornness is the only reason I have today to keep going, I’ll take it.

We all have days like this. As much as I love writing and the thrill of creating a new world or of bringing a character to life, there are days when I wish I’d chosen an easier craft. Something that perhaps doesn’t take everything I have and then a bit more. And it’s on those days that it’s so important to have a reason to push on. Even if tonight that reason is only stubbornness. After all, if I’m stubborn long enough, I might just make it.

Where does your spoonful of stubbornness come from when you need it?

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A guest post by Mignon Fogarty

Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ can be great tools for marketing your book, but you can also look like a tool if you make these common mistakes:

Don’t Jump in Without Exploring

Don’t join a network and immediately start posting. Take a couple of weeks to poke around, watch the experts, and see how things work. Every network has its own quirks.

In general, your goal should be to make friends genuinely. Answer people’s questions. Respond to their posts. Build relationships so people begin to recognize your name. If the first post I see from you is promoting your book, all I will remember when I see your name again is that you only care about promoting yourself.

Don’t Send Direct Messages to People You Don’t Know

Unless you have an exceptionally good reason, don’t send a direct message to someone you don’t know. You don’t need to thank people for following you, you shouldn’t send them an “introduction” link to your site, and for God’s sake, don’t ask them to check out your book or like your fan page.

What does it mean to know someone on social media? If I see your message and feel happy to hear from you, we know each other. If I see your message and wonder who you are, we don’t know each other.

Don’t Promote Your Book Without Giving People a Reason to Care

If you’re asking people on social media to take action (e.g., review your book, like your fan page), give them a reason. There are at least two reasons people will care:

1) Make it worth their while. Have a contest or give away a prize. A prize can have cash value (e.g., an e-reader), be something only you can provide (e.g., a personal thank-you video, a 30-minute critique, naming rights to a character in your book), or simply the glory of winning a contest of skill (e.g., a limerick contest).

2) Let them share your journey. Kickstarter works because contributors feel like they are helping you—joining you—on your journey. You can apply the same techniques to social media promotion.

To bolster people’s participatory feelings, you need to explain your purpose. In the book, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, the authors explain that if you follow a request with a “because clause”—a reason you are making the request—people are more likely to comply. If you want people to review your book because good reviews increase online purchases, tell them that’s why you want the reviews. If you want people to buy your book this week because it will help you make the bestseller list, tell them that’s why it’s important this week.

It’s also helpful to give updates. Once you’ve made people aware of your goal, tell them how it’s going. Don’t go crazy and update Twitter every ten minutes, but when you’ve reached a significant milestone, announce it.

In the end, it’s simple: nobody likes the new guy who shows up at a party and immediately starts hustling everyone to buy his product; but if an old friend has an exciting new project he’s eager to tell you about, you’re happy to listen and help. Social media is the same. Become the old friend.

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I confess. I don’t like first drafts. Working out the story, initially, is always the hardest part, for me. When it works out, it’s great, but most the time, it’s a slog that requires hard work and persistence that’s sometimes really hard to stomach.

To me, the best part is the rewriting–taking what was meandering and barely readable and turning it into something entertaining that other people might actually want to read.

Of course, when that’s done, the story is down, all the plot and character issues are worked out, and the book is revised, and re-revised, it’s time for some polish. As Kylie mentioned in her post on Editing, just re-reading the manuscript isn’t enough. To really polish our works of art, we often need help. Everyone’s got their little tricks for everything from pacing problems and varying sentence structure to catching typos. Clancy told us about using “The Writing Code,” and that got me to thinking. What other tricks are helpful for catching those little things that keep our stories from really shining?

I’ve collected some over the years. Here are a few of my favorites.

• Reading the story aloud
• Probably the best way to catch problems with rhythm and flow. If you stumble over anything, it probably needs to be revised.
• Using Word’s Find/Replace feature
• This is helpful to locate those words I use too often, fixing spacing problems, finding to-be verbs so I can change them to active voice, or any other problem I know normally crops into my stories without my noticing.
• Reading the manuscript in different mediums
• It’s amazing the things you find when you turn a Word document into a PDF or print it out.
• Reading the manuscript backwards
• This is a handy trick to find typos because you can’t get lost in the story.
• Creating a scene cheat sheet
• You can use a simple note card, an Excel list, the keyword feature in Scrivener, or whatever works for you. This is basically just a list of what plots are being serviced in each scene, so you can tell which scenes are pulling their weight are which aren’t.

So, it’s Show and Tell time. What tricks work best for you?

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Welcome to Day 2 of Q&A with David Farland and Kevin J. Anderson. You can access the authors’ websites at http://www.wordfire.com/ and http://www.davidfarland.net/ respectively. Kevin J. Anderson has a post on his  blogsite devoted to the seminar and those presenting in 2012, http://kjablog.com/On to the interviews:

 *              *              *

Q: What do you have to go through to prepare for the seminar?

David Farland: I simply meditate on the topic that I’m going to teach, normally. Much of this is information that I’ve gleaned over the past thirty years, and so I might need to write down notes, codify what I know. Normally, we’re talking about topics that you can’t get much information about in books.

Kevin J. Anderson: The talks and panels themselves are not so difficult, because we have all lived this material and we know it very well. For me and Rebecca, it’s all the complicated logistics of setting everything up with the venue, and then doing the publicity, waiting for signups, hoping that we get enough attendees to pay our expenses, and then managing all the little details.

Q: What is your favorite panel and why?

Kevin: I enjoy giving the “Popcorn Theory” talk, because it’s fun to show people how all these projects don’t happen in a vacuum—if you do good work, one thing leads to another and another.

Dave: I think that I’m most interested in the panels on self-marketing, particularly ones that involve social media, quite simply because we have people like Brandon and Kevin who are the best writers I know on the topic. I actually learn things in these panels that I can take home and implement myself!

Q: What part of the Authors Dinner do you like best?

Kevin: Hmm, the potatoes, maybe. Or the dessert. But probably having a chance to sit down and talk with some of the students, face to face in a relaxed setting for a few hours. We end up asking them as many questions as they know us. Many of the attendees of past Superstars will realize that we really do consider you to be friends and colleagues, and we hope to watch your careers skyrocket.

Dave: For me, it’s just getting to know the authors, try to find out where they are in their careers, what they need, and in a short time see if I can offer some advice that might be of help.

Q: The publishing industry is changing fast. Now going on your third year, has the content of the Superstars seminar had to change to reflect the ever-evolving industry? If so, in what ways?

Dave: Yes, we are going through some dramatic changes, with the rise of the whole self-publishing movement. It really has become a viable way for an author to get into business, but it has its own pratfalls and its own huge potential. To me, it suggests that we need to expand our curriculum a bit, to cover the new media. It’s a very exciting time that we live in!

Kevin: A lot of the lectures are still relevant–the professionalism, productivity, networking, etc. We are going to have a lot more focus on eBooks, indy publishing, hardcopy as well as electronic — maybe even half a day to the topic. Dean Wesley Smith is giving a full hour on copyright law and Kris is doing a talk (which I can’t wait to hear myself) on tough negotiating, getting better deals and how to change contract terms that aren’t in your favor. I think we might also do a lecture on income streams (instant money, long-term trickles, etc.) We have always had more material than we could possibly cover. We do want to change it up so it’s not just a rerun every year. We’re still developing the curriculum, but it should have all the good stuff from before and some new and relevant stuff too.

*              *              *

Kevin and Dave are enthusiastic about sharing knowledge, always glad to help serious writers improve their abilities and prepare for the difficult process of getting published. All of us fictorians want to thank them for their encouragement, eager participation in our blog, and for bringing us together through the Superstars Seminar.

I’m confident I’ll enjoy another information-packed seminar in April, and I’m looking forward to making more writing friends. If you’ll be going for the first time in 2012, or if you have questions for us attendees, please drop us a note in the comment box below.

Starting Monday, we’ll be back to our regular MWF blog schedule with a guest post by Mignon Fogarty: the Grammar Girl (one of our more famous Superstars alumni).

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Now for our last two days of Superstars Week: Q&A with Kevin J. Anderson and David Farland, two of the panelists participating in Superstars Seminar. The other regular participants are: Eric Flint, Rebecca Moesta, and Brandon Sanderson. For more info on the seminar, go to www.superstarswritingseminar.com.

Though they need no introduction, it felt like a requirement, so:

Kevin J. Anderson is the author of more than one hundred novels, 47 of which have appeared on national or international bestseller lists. He has won or been nominated for numerous prestigious awards, including the Nebula Award, Bram Stoker Award, and New York Times Notable Book. By any measure, he is one of the most popular writers currently working in the science fiction genre.

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Hello, intrepid readers, this is Leigh, and I’d like to welcome you back to the Fictorian Era’s Superstars Week! For the last two days you’ve gotten an idea of what you can gain by attending the Superstars Writing Seminars, but today, Nancy, Clancy, and I will be telling you why we felt the need to go back for more. Yes, all three of us are Repeat Offenders, having attended both previous seminars.

So, why return to a seminar you’ve already attended?

For me, there were a number of reasons, but today, I’m going to talk about how, by returning to the Superstars Writing Seminar, you’re not just revisiting something you’ve seen before. The seminar is dedicated wholly to learning the writer’s place in the publishing industry. And let’s face it, people, that place is changing fast. This seminar is a true insiders look at what any writer looking to make a career publishing can expect, and the options available to get there.

As an example, in the first Superstars seminar, we had the core five authors, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Eric Flint, Brandon Sanderson, and David Farland. Across the board, they said that traditional publishing was the way to go. Then, Amazon unveiled their e-publishing program. Self-publishing wasn’t the pariah it previously was. The next seminar dedicated an hour to self-publishing and e-books. As part of that panel, Moses Siregar, a previous Superstar attendee, had a heated discussion with Eric Flint over e-publishing, and David was heavily leaning toward self- publishing. Since then, David’s written a post on this very site stating that he believes self-publishing to be the future of the industry, and this year, Superstars has brought in Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith, two vocal authors on indie publishing issues. Clearly things have changed, and Superstars is keeping pace.

Yet, as with any seminar, there are portions that are repeated every year, but as Clancy will tell you, even that can be a good thing.

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Clancy here. And here’s why I’m a repeat offender: I signed up for my second Superstars seminar unsure if I would hear much that I hadn’t learned the year before. But I wanted to meet Sherrilyn Kenyon (a guest speaker) and see my alumni buddies, so I decided to go. Color me surprised me when I learned as much, if not more, as I did the first time. During the year between the two events, I had changed. Where I was with my writing and my career had also changed, and I was hearing different things even though much of the content was similar. My mindset tuned into completely different points made.

I wanted to give you an example, but I can’t think of one.  I know… challenged.  Anyway – I remember sitting there during a presentation that I’d heard before and thinking to myself, I know they discussed this last year, but I was hearing the content through a different filter and what caught my attention were not the same things that did the year prior.  I wish I had an excellent example to share.  Just know that it was a profound ‘a-ha’ like realization.  So, I wish I could go again this year because I know I would, yet again, learn more and different things than I have already.

Read on to see why Nancy is right and the contacts and friends I have made during both seminars are still with me, still in contact, and are still impacting my life in ways I will forever be grateful for.

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Nancy Greene, on the issue of “Contacts and Kismet”: We attend conferences to make contacts including the conference speakers, vendors, and participants. I confess to being a Repeat Offender at Superstars Writing Seminars for all the reasons you’ve heard about over the last few days and for the people I meet.

Approximately 20-30 attendees at the 2011 Superstars were Repeat Offenders. I’d guess the number is about the same for April’s session. The Superstars crowd isn’t cliquey. We go out enmasse. The “we” is the Repeat Offenders, one or more of the speakers, and anyone we can convince to join us. Dinner and late night drinks at the hotel bar are similar affairs. Because we’re a social group, there’s a lot of extra time with the speakers, which is something that often doesn’t happen at other conferences. The social aspect’s a great way to forge long-term friendships. After all, we’re all writers, and can help each other after the conference ends.

I’ve written about the benefits of writers helping writers before in the Benefits of Holding Hands on this blog. Because of Superstars and the friends made there, the Fictorians have:

(1) Participated in this blog (all members are Superstars attendees),
(2) Received weekly encouragement and accountability checks,
(3) Received advice and critiques from some of the presenters,
(4) Edited or beta read novels written by the presenters,
(5) Assisted other Fictorians in getting short-stories published,
(6) Been introduced to other fabulous connections, including agents and publishers, and
(7) Advertised or promoted the other writers on the site.
The list contains the things I can think of off the top of my head. There’s more.

The writing industry is small. The way to “break-in” is to have a great product, and an even better network. We might have made the contacts and achieved the same results without Superstars, but the process would’ve probably been years longer.

Kismit happens.

But you have to ensure you’ve done your work and made the contacts you need to be “in the right place at the right time.” Superstars is an excellent place to make those contacts, and it’s why I’m a Repeat Offender.

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Today, Day Two of Superstars Week, three more Fictorians share some of the top benefits the Superstars Writing Seminar provided to us.

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Frank Morin: Superstars was a landmark event in my writing career. I came to Superstars thinking I knew what it meant to be a writer. I left knowing what it takes to succeed.

The presenters shared so much knowledge in such a short time, it’s hard to understand until you’re there. Of all the brilliant advice, here’s what I found most useful:

1. Volume matters, particularly in today’s market. One book per year is minimum. No longer can a writer slave over a manuscript for years before it’s ready for release. Just like everything else in our world, the pace is faster than ever. Competition is fierce and readers’ attention spans are short. They have too many other options available. They won’t wait for years. Kevin J Anderson said early in his career, he was querying with over 30 separate pieces simultaneously.

2. Contracts. This is business. Publishers, and even some agents, are not your friends. The only person who is really looking out for your interests is you. Learn about contracts, ask questions, and don’t sign anything you don’t fully understand.

3. The economics of publishing. We got a glimpse at the economics involved from both the authors and publishers points of view. It was eye opening.  I had never realized publishers generally lose money on an author’s first book. A publisher is making an investment, hoping to reap a return on that investment through future books by that author as their fan base grows. That helped explain why most new authors get very little for a first novel. Understanding how the industry works allows us to approach it as professionals, with correct expectations.

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Ann Cooney: Superstars was wonderful because now I’m able to manage my career with confidence and approach it with professionalism rather than naive timidity.

Superstars showed me where the bar sits to be a professional writer. For example, if you’re serious about writing, WRITE! A novel a year is the minimum output. So, that first year after Superstars I wrote two novels to complete the trilogy I had started. Last year I researched and wrote another novel. This year, my new research complete, I expect to complete one, possibly two novels for a series. So now when I talk to publishers and editors, I have a product line which show I’m serious because I have more than a one-time dream I’m selling.

Before Superstars I found the idea of talking with anyone in the industry intimidating because I felt so naive. And I was. Now, with some understanding how things operate, it’s easier talk to publishers, editors and successful authors in a time when the industry is changing so much.

When I saw how much the superstar authors give back to the writing community I was inspired to do more than I had been. I’m a short story contest judge. I’m editing an anthology. I help other aspiring writers and support writing groups. The neat thing is that the more I give, the more I learn and grow and my network of resources and contacts are always expanding.

In short, the greatest thing about Superstars is that I have great role models who have not only inspired me but have shared what it takes to make it in this industry. And for that, I’ll always be grateful. Thanks!

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Jason Michelsen: I can’t recommend the Superstars Writing Seminar enough. Even after going through two different writing programs at the undergrad and graduate levels in college, there were so many things left untaught during my education about the business side of the industry. I suppose it is a school’s job merely to teach its students how to write better, but, as I learned at the
seminar, there is so much more to being a writer than just writing.

For one thing, we never discussed contracts in school, and if you ever want to get paid as a writer, knowing about contracts is important. The lecture by Eric Flint on contracts was invaluable. Granted, there are a lot of writers out there who may not read their contracts carefully and leave all negotiating up to their agents, but I for one want to know exactly what’s in my contract should I ever be lucky enough to get published through traditional means.

Getting published through traditional means typically requires an agent, something else that was never discussed when I was in school but is covered at length during this seminar. It’s true that just about every author has their own unique story about how they acquired their agent, but the Superstars Writing Seminar prepares you for what you need to do when you’re ready to go to market with your finished manuscript.

Knowing a little about the market doesn’t hurt either. Okay, knowing a lot about the market is ideal: what kinds of books are selling, what publishing houses publish the types of books you write, what you might expect to make as a mid-list author or national bestseller, etc.

Sure, discussing salary might be jumping the gun a bit for most seminar attendees, but that’s the beauty of the Superstars Writing Seminar. Not only do you get access to a wealth of knowledge about the publishing industry, you also get access to some of the most prolific writers producing speculative fiction today. So if you go, hang out with the authors during breaks, ask them questions, network and make connections with your fellow attendees. You’ll be glad you did!

See you in April at Superstars!

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Evan Braun: Back in the winter of 2010, I was absolutely nowhere. I thought of myself as a “writer,” but I was stalled with several unfinished projects and low ambition. The publishing world seemed impenetrable. I didn’t belong to any writing groups. I didn’t have a critique partner. Really, I had almost no writer friends at all, and I had never thought to venture to a convention or seminar.

And then I saw a post on Brandon Sanderson’s blog about an upcoming seminar he was teaching at: Superstars Writing Seminar. I had been following Brandon’s progress for some time, mostly due to his Wheel of Time connection, and I respected him as a writer. The other writers represented were no less respectable: Kevin J. Anderson, David Farland, Eric Flint, and Rebecca Moesta. The promise was that this seminar was different than all the others, that it would emphasize the business of writing over the craft of writing. Craft is important beyond measure, no question about it, but the business end of things is where so many up-and-comers trip and fall.

I’m from central Canada and the conference was in Pasadena, so attending was no small investment, and yet I made a split-second decision to take a gamble, hoping this would enliven my flagging writing career.

It did, and without hesitation I can chalk up most, if not all, of my growth since, both as a writer and as a professional, to that split-second decision. Not only have I finished writing several novels since then, but I’ve mapped out a half-dozen others and even published one with a small press.

The third annual Superstars Writing Seminar is coming up this April 30-May 2 in Las Vegas, and to help promote that event, several contributors here at the Fictorian Era decided to band together and do a week of posts about our Superstars experiences. You see, the Fictorian Era only exists because of Superstars. All of us came together at that fateful 2010 seminar. So, to pay homage to the event that brought us together and changed our collective course as writers, we ask you to consider Superstars.

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Colette Vernon: I attended the 2010 Superstars Seminar in Pasadena. It exceeded all my expectations. Throughout the entire seminar, Kevin, Brandon, Dave, Rebecca, and Eric made themselves available for questions and sincerely did all they could to help us publishing wannabes. They didn’t run to their hotel rooms as I’ve noticed many other well-known writers do during conventions, but spent their time with us.

They brought in unexpected guest speakers, from Joni Labaqui with Writers of the Future to famous Hollywood script writers. Their presentations helped us understand the possibilities available through writing contests and film. They were as open, easy to talk to, and available for discussion as the writers hosting the seminar.

In the two blocks to the Authors Dinner and back I learned more than from any convention I’ve ever attended. One of the authors took time to discuss a recent partial request I’d received from an agent. He asked me questions about my manuscript and the agent, helping me analyze the situation for myself in order to make important decisions. On the way back, he answered specific craft questions, basically giving a twenty-minute, mini-writing class to our group. I believe the tips given in those few minutes jumped my writing ability to the next level.

Of course, I have to mention the connections I’ve made with my fellow Fictorians. Our friendships continued beyond the seminar into the eventual creation of this blog. Many of us have started getting our feet wet in the publishing world. I doubt I would have been remotely prepared for that experience without my attendance at Superstars. With the recent changes in publishing, I’m looking forward to learning more, and asking questions I wouldn’t have thought of two years ago, at the 2012 Las Vegas Superstars.

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Matt Jones: I’ve been going to conventions for years. I’ve been to countless panels talking about every topic under the sun. Some have been interesting, others not so much. Sometimes they would touch on the chosen topic just to drastically change course and start discussing something off the wall, never to return to the original topic. These panels helped give me confidence to write, knowing that if these people could do it, why couldn’t I?

And then I attended the Superstars Writing Seminar, and I was treated to something completely different. At Superstars, you’re treated not as a wannabe writer, but as a professional who is ready to be an author. Instead of questioning your ability to come up with a story or an original thought on your own, they prepare you to take your manuscripts and get them published. It was an entirely new direction for me. It taught me how to deal with agents and publishers, the pros and cons of each. It even touched on self-publishing.

You’re taught the secrets of pitching your work, choosing the best agent, and getting the best deals on the contract. Best of all, they make you feel like you’re not just another author who is begging for scraps, hoping someone who walks by takes pity on you. You’re an author, and the world is waiting for your novel. Superstars is there to show you how to give it to them.

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From now until Wednesday, come back to read more about the seminar and the specific ways it has helped each of us Fictorians—and, more importantly, how it can help you—take your fledgling career to the next level. Starting on Thursday, we’ll be hearing from a couple of the Superstars themselves in a pair of Q&A guest posts. You won’t want to miss what they have to say.

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