Collectives Collecting Collectible Creatives

Imagine what life was like for sixteenth-century monks. Toiling away, day after day, illuminating manuscripts and hand-copying texts as directed by their superiors. Hunching over a rickety wooden table, the hapless monk would carefully do his best to either produce miraculous work or, more likely, not screw up so bad that he would be sent, head bowed down in shame, to stand in front of the head monk.

Now, think about a modern-day author. Not much has changed, except perhaps for the persistent presence of Facebook trying to seduce you away from working.

Artists, authors, editors, and designers don’t have to live a solitary life unless it suits them (or they happen to be chained to a wall in a dank dungeon. SEND HELP!) They can band together into a collective and help each other progress. Of course, most creative types hear the same mantra over and over — “Don’t give away your time or work!”
The cool thing about a collective is that everyone has something they can trade. Everyone gets something they need in exchange for something they can provide. You’re not giving away your creative time, effort, and energy for nothing.

Artists

Artists have a tough time. Everyone wants their best work, but most don’t want to pay for it. Their work gets plagiarized or stolen from their website or Deviant Art page on an almost daily basis. Non-artists don’t understand that creating art, let alone crafting a high resolution book cover, takes a huge investment in mental and physical work. I’ve even heard authors low-balling artists at conventions, trying to snag some amazing artwork.

Probably the one statement that makes every artist on the planet cringe is:

“I can’t pay you for your work, but you’ll get a lot of exposure if you give me the copyright so I use it on my E-Book cover.”

Reminder: People often die of exposure, especially when it’s cold out.
Reminder, redux: Never ever EVER give away a copyright on your work UNLESS you’re well-paid up front. Think Disney animators. For everyone else, artists can consider licensing their work.

Everyone needs the artist’s work, from author to publisher to web designer to advertising executive, so there’s a good-sized audience waiting to buy their best work. The question then becomes, “What can you do for me?” Here are some possibilities:

  • Provide cold hard cash.
    Remember that quip about exposure? Artists can still become popsicles if they can’t pay their heating bills.
  • Website Coding.
    Trade some artwork to a website developer or coder. You can get a nice showcase for your art, or if you already have a basic site, you can have additional functionality added (such as a store to sell prints).
  • App Coding.
    Same idea as web coding, except applied to a mobile device.
  • Writing.
    Need some text on your website to go along with those pretty pictures? Are you trying to break into the world of comic books or graphic novels? Pair up and have an author produce a script while you provide the panels.
  • Design an artbook.

If you have a large collection of high-quality artwork, and you have enough of a following to sell enough books to get filthy rich, trade your services with a professional or experienced book designer.

Authors

Yeah, I know. Everyone and their grandmother can write. The difference is you know how to write well. Some authors can produce amazing prose, while others are virtual wizards when it comes to cranking out advertising copy.

As far as working in a collective, the author is the universal receiver. They need something from everyone else in the group. The good news is you can provide positive, effective text in exchange for the services of others. Need someone to properly edit your new novel? Trade some ad copy or blog posts towards your bill. Want to produce a graphic novel? Collaborate with an artist and knock out something to send to Dark Horse, Vertigo, Zenescope, or BOOM! Studios.

Editors

Professional-quality editors can be the odd woman out. Authors and web designers need their skills, but editors don’t necessarily require artwork, writing, or even code work. Of course, should she require those services, she has a trusted team to choose from. Cash for editing can be the standard, but seriously consider offering a discount to the collective members.

Semi-pro and advanced authors can arrange better deals within the collective. They can read each other’s work and point out ways to improve the text. It is important that everyone does as thourough a job as they can. Giving a manuscript a quick scan and announcing it’s just fine and dandy is reserved for the parents of authors. Edit and give constant feedback. Point out errors, don’t comment that you think the author is a bumbling idiot that should be kept away from sharp objects and things that can produce text. The object is to improve, for you as an editor and for them as an author. It’s also important to note that nothing really replaces getting properly edited, especially when self-publishing. A few runs through the collective gauntlet should produce a manuscript that requires less revision when it comes back from the pro editor.

Book Designers, E-Book Coders, Website Wizards, and App Developers

These are specialized skills, and are more technical in nature. I’ve found that many of the folks who can perform these services are also authors, artists, or rich Gatsby-like socialites. Website developers can always use new graphics or blog posts. E-Book coders can always use the services of editors to look for problems with the work they’re producing, especially if someone has a Nook Color or Kobo Aura and the coder only has a Kindle Paperwhite. App developers just scare me with their skills…it’s the equivalent of a magic user in fantasy.

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Working together in a collective can help to further every member’s career. Make sure to value each other’s work, and be willing to discuss trading services such that everyone is satisfied with the deal. If you don’t understand why an artist doesn’t want to trade a magnificent digitally painted book cover for two or three blog posts, ask them to walk you through their process so you understand the time and creativity investment. You might learn something in the process.

About the Author:DeMarco_Web-5963

Guy Anthony De Marco is a speculative fiction author; a Graphic Novel Bram Stoker Award®; winner of the HWA Silver Hammer Award; a prolific short story and flash fiction crafter; a novelist; an invisible man with superhero powers; a game writer (Sojourner Tales modules, Interface Zero 2.0 core team, D&D modules); and a coffee addict. One of these is false.
A writer since 1977, Guy is a member of the following organizations: SFWA, WWA, SFPA, IAMTW, ASCAP, RMFW, NCW, HWA. He hopes to collect the rest of the letters of the alphabet one day. Additional information can be found at WikipediaGuyAndTonya.com, and GuyAnthonyDeMarco.com.

August Giveaways: Rules

By Colette Black and Evan Braun.

As I (Evan) mentioned in my post yesterday, we’ve got giveaways coming up. Lots and lots of giveaways. This is a writing blog, so it should surprise no one that we’re mostly giving away free books. But there’s more to it than that, of course! So how do you win all this great stuff? Well, that’s easy, and Colette is here to explain it to you.

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Starting today, we will have a new set of giveaways each week. They will last one week, until midnight EST of the following Sunday. Every week we’ll have new prizes, including but not limited to: eBooks, gift cards, signed paperback books, cash prizes, etc. We will have seven prizes to win each week. More details are available on our website’s right sidebar, under “Giveaway Celebration.” Just go to the sidebar and click on one of the entry forms, then follow the actions available (for example, leaving comments on our posts, sharing and talking about our posts on Facebook and Twitter, etc.). Some actions are worth more than one entry, and some actions can be done more than once during the week.

Winners will be notified within 48 hours of the end of each week and requested to rank prizes in their order of preference. The first-place winner will receive first choice, second-place will receive second choice of prizes still available, and so on. Because we’ll have seven winners, we hope that everyone will respond quickly so we can distribute the prizes as soon as possible. If someone doesn’t respond within forty-eight hours, we will be forced to withdraw them from the contest and award their prize to another entrant.

We have so many amazing gifts, and people can win more than once, so we look forward to a fun month of prizes and great posts as we celebrate the special occasion of our 1000th post next week on Wednesday, August 12. Good luck to all, and to all a good August!

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Thanks, Colette. Before I go, I wanted to give a rundown on the great prizes available during Week One. Check out the box in the right sidebar for more information on these books and authors:

  1. Mary Pletsch: Tesseracts 18: Wrestling with the Gods (anthology)
  2. Colette Black: Noble Ark
  3. Evan Braun: The Book of Creation: Book One of The Watchers Chronicle
  4. Nathan Barra: One Horn to Rule Them All (anthology). This very special prize comes with a crocheted purple unicorn!
  5. Travis Heerman: Heart of the Ronin
  6. Sam Knight: A Whiskey Jack in a Murder of Crows
  7. Teyla Branton: The Change

Let the games begin!

 

 

We All Live in Community

After a while, I think I start to sound like a broken record, returning to certain themes over and over again. These themes really motivate me and speak to me as a writer and as a person. One of them is the reality that we all exist in communities. Writing communities, yes, but also families large and small, towns and cities, countries, work environments, and professional groups. And these communities are important ingredients in shaping who we are—and we become. Though it may seem at times like we’re alone, cast adrift on the lonely frontiers of human experience, that’s usually not indicative of our reality.

Writing can feel especially lonely—and that’s one of the reasons we first started this blog four and a half years ago. Has it really been four and a half years? Sometimes it’s hard to believe. In fact, our blog is approaching a big milestone—next week!—which is why I’ve found myself ruminating on the theme of community once again (as I mentioned, I’ve done it before). The milestone in question? Our 1000th post. That’s right, folks. We’ve gone four digits, and there’s no looking back.

There’s going to be a lot going on this month. As you’ve noticed, we’ve got ourselves a new and improved website to make your Fictorians experience more enjoyable—and yes, hopefully more practical. And as usual, we’re going to bring you a wide range of bloggers, all with different perspectives and stories relating to the community theme.

But we’ve got something a little extra to bring you this month, and that’s free stuff. Lots and lots and lots of free stuff. In fact, we have seven prizes to give away every week. You read that correctly. More on that tomorrow, so hurry back for all those juicy details.

Check back all month to hear from the usual suspects as well as guests bloggers like Rachel Anne Nunes (believe me; she’s got a story to tell!), Sherry Peters, and Petra Klarbrunn. Together, our message will be clear: we’re not alone—and neither are you. Stick around, be inspired, and win some prizes. Does it get any better than this?

Evan BraunEvan Braun is an author and editor who has been writing books for more than ten years. He is the author of The Watchers Chronicle, whose third volume, The Law of Radiance, has just been released. He specializes in both hard and soft science fiction and lives in the vicinity of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Facelift!

Whoa, what’s this? It’s the Fictorian blog, of course, though as you can see we’ve upgraded our look dramatically. Our goal through this redesign process has been to deliver all the same great content as before, but find some ways to improve the browsing experience.

The emphasis is a cleaner, simplified design that doesn’t sacrifice any of the functionality we had before—in fact, we think you’ll find the functionality is greatly improved. Take a few minutes to explore the new site! And then come back tomorrow for a fresh post introducing all the great things we have in store for the month of August. This is going to be a big month for us, including a big milestone (more on that tomorrow), and lots of free stuff. You read that right: we’re going to be giving away dozens of prizes throughout August.

Come back tomorrow (yup, that’s a Sunday, folks) for an introduction to August and our monthly theme: writing in community. On Monday, we’re going to have all the details about our giveaways this month, so you won’t want to miss that either.

Stay tuned!