The battle wages on in the dialogue between aspiring self-publishers and dyed-in-the-wool traditionally-published authors. Well, perhaps I’m overstating the situation to call it a “battle,” since all sides seem to coexist magnanimously at the moment. Though who can say what the future will bring? One need look no further than the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent decision to bring an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and the industry’s leading publishers to see that the pressure is steadily building.

Here on the Fictorians blog, we’ve periodically discussed the pros and cons of either approach, and indeed, in the following weeks and months we’ll be devoting even more column inches to the subject of self-publishing. And that’s only to be expected, since most aspiring authors are in that awkward in-between stage of deciding whether to go it alone and start uploading our manuscripts to the Kindle Store or hold back in the hopes of securing a lucrative (or limiting) deal with a New York giant.

Noted this past Sunday in our blog’s weekly Sunday Reads feature is a thoughtful article by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, in which she draws several compelling analogies to explain the current state of affairs in the publishing world. Her position is sound (at least, to my own sensibilities) and her composition lengthy (hard to be helped), and I recommend you set aside a few minutes to peruse it.

After painting an elaborate and persuasive picture of the virus threatening traditional publishers (which is scarcity thinking, and if you don’t know what I mean by that, clearly you didn’t follow my link in the previous paragraph), she comes to a familiar premise. Instead of working tirelessly and placing high expectations on one manuscript, one should produce and release as large a backlist as possible. Instead of one book selling millions, you may end up with dozens of books selling hundreds or thousands. Ultimately, it’s a numbers game and the more titles you have to your name, the better.

I’ve heard this counsel before, and theoretically it’s great advice. Especially if you’re already an established or midlist author. If you’re just starting out in your career and have no (or few) readers outside your immediate friends and family, it goes down about as palatably as a wheatgrass smoothie. “Well,” one might say, “sometimes the truth hurts.”

Why does it hurt? Isn’t this good news for new writers? Well, this is a case where Rusch isn’t really talking to me, the new writer. She’s in the desirable position of having an existing readership… and I think she’s more or less speaking to her peers this time around. That’s her perogative! After all, it’s unavoidable: sometimes advice from established writers doesn’t speak directly to newbies. The truth is the truth, and it caters to no one. If an established author like Rusch never manages to write another bestseller in the remainder of her writing career, a long backlist of titles will indeed keep her afloat, selling hundreds or thousands of copies in place of a million-dollar golden egg. Rusch argues that it’s not altogether important to hard-sell a manuscript upon initial release, or reach a big audience, because if the book is worthy the audience will, eventually, come to you. The speed of a book’s success isn’t paramount, even if that success is inevitable. It could take fifteen years. Or much longer. She calls it “understanding the long tail.”

I agree with her. I respect her opinion and can find no basis to quarrel with it. She’s almost certainly right on all counts.

Which is, unfortunately, a little disheartening, because for fresh-out-of-the-gaters like me, speedily finding an audience remains a priority. It must, or else becoming a successful full-time writer is even further away and out-of-reach than ever. Can I wait fifteen years or longer for my dream to realize? I just released a book this year that I’m certain is good enough to secure an audience-but I really need that audience to find it now. I’ll be thrilled whenever they find it, either this year or in the summer of 2030, but if it takes until 2030 I’ll still be mired in my day job. Alas.

Mind you, I’ll never give up on this dream, and I’m not threatening to. I’m just saying that my day job really gets me down sometimes…

It was disgusting ….

April 16, 2012

Ace Jordyn

It was disgusting. I don’t usually mind going to hear a once popular band, a relic from the rock “n roll era. I mean you’ve got to give these guys credit. Some have fallen from grace, face first, some withered away when music changed, while others simply went on to do different things. Some of the come backs have been less than stellar while others, despite their aging voices do a fabulous job.

This last come back dream should have been classed as a nightmare. The bass player, the only one who could hold a beat, competed with the drummer whose tinny cymbals accented the pitchy lead singer who was drowned out by the cacophony of screams forming the background vocals. And to think I paid to see them! I never want to imagine that I could ever disappoint anyone, let alone a total stranger, so badly …

So, how do you know if your writing is good enough to put out there? Where is the honest feedback? When do you abandon the dream? How hard do you need to work to make it good?

Traditionally, poets, novelists and short story writers have relied on the feedback from publishers (aka the dreaded rejection) to know if their writing is acceptable. Workshops, classes, writing and critique groups are all good sources for feedback – honest feedback which lessens the chances for rejection. Yet, I read that popular novel The Help was rejected 60 times (and had sold the movie rights) before it found a publisher. Go figure ….

Then there’s indie publishing. Scares the bejeepers out of me. Why? Because so many neophytes remind me of the comeback bands. They don’t know what’s good or bad. At least the come-back bands have an established following to prey upon. Aspiring writers don’t. Some writers have ventured forth on their own and have done well. Others have failed miserably.

Failing because marketing, promotion and distribution are tough things to handle for creative spirits is understandable and eventually can be overcome. Learn to do it yourself, join a writers marketing cooperative, find a small publisher to increase your chances, we can do whatever it takes to get our books out there. But, what if it’s because the writing wasn’t quite there? It’s critical to find people who know what they’re looking for, who can help with plot holes, logic gaps, grammar, etc. Find those people. Even traditional publishers, due to staffing, time and money constraints, want only the best written work.

And it’s the failures which concern me.

So whether you’ll be self publishing or approaching a traditional publisher, take the time to get it right. Time is on your side. A reputation for poor work is never on your side.

Oh and the comeback group, who shall remain nameless, announced they were laying the last track on a new CD. Seriously? After the bomb dropped, they expect me to trust their artistic sensibilities? Never.

So all I can say is, when I decide whether I self publish or woo a traditional publisher, my work will have survived feedback that I can trust. If I ever put a product out there that isn’t well crafted I don’t expect readers to give me a second chance. Publishers either, for that matter. I will only send out my best revised work because when you’re starting out, you have nothing to fall back on. No one to say I’ve seen her do it better.

Your record stands for itself – and if it’s your first shot, make it the best otherwise, that’s all there’ll be!

Sunday Reads: 15 April 2012

April 15, 2012

KylieQ

Craft & Skills Kylie Quillinan Sunday Reads Writing Tools No Comments

Welcome back to another instalment of our favourite reads.

Over on Live Simply, Simply Love, Tracy Ruckman explains what StumbleUpon is and how writers can use it.

At Slush Pile Tales, Lauren Ruth discusses author business cards.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch sums up the changing publishing industry.

CS Lakin talks about three things you must have in your first paragraph.

Over at Dreaming Awake, Rayne Hall discusses creating suspense.

At Omnivoracious, AJ Jacobs discusses why reading books can save your life.

Neil Gaiman provides an interesting insight into Stephen King.

At Writer Unboxed, Bob Proehl discusses the way a community got behind an independent bookstore to stop it from closing down.

Visit The Idea Bird for prompts to get your creative juices flowing.

And, finally, for a bit of cool: what it’s really like to fight with giant suits of computerised armor.

To Pants or to Plan?

April 11, 2012

Frank Morin

Craft & Skills Frank Morin Rewriting The Writing Life Writing Tools 2 Comments

There are two opposing camps when it comes to how an author approaches writing their novel. On one side are the story ‘pantsers’, those who sit down with only a vague idea of their story and start typing. They discover the story through the act of writing it, usually through a multiple re-drafting process. On the opposite side are the ‘planners’, those authors who sit down and design a story to the nth degree before they actually begin the first draft. They might write almost as many words in the outline as they do in the first draft, but end up with fewer re-writes most of the time. Both camps have their avid followers who trumpet the benefits of doing it their way while pointing out the drawbacks of the other philosophy.

I’ve found that most authors fall somewhere in the middle between these two philosophies. We plan some, and we free-write some. Authors will shift along the spectrum between the two philosophies from one project to another, or as their level of experience changes.

I started as a total discovery writer, complete with many drafts of my first novel as the story evolved and I figured out what I was really writing about. Over time, and as I’ve gained a better mastery of the craft, I’ve crept across the spectrum toward the opposite camp. The more of an outliner I become, the more up-front work I invest in a story before beginning to write. Once the outline is ready, I can schedule a ‘burst-writing’ session – a focused period, several days to a week, where I can pound out tons of work based on that outline. I did that last year and wrote 52,000 words in one week. I’m planning to do so again soon with my next novel.

I’ve developed the following outline process:
1. First I do all the high-level brainstorming for the new story. This can take a while as I chew on a new idea and work it from the initial proposal into a viable story worthy of serious consideration. Lots of ideas don’t make it past this first step.

2. Once I feel the story has promise and I’m starting to get a good sense for it, I write down the foundational information I’ve developed so far. This includes character sketches, world-building, and initial plot ideas. The process of writing it all down and trying to work it into a logical, comprehensive whole identifies gaps and leads to new inspiration in fleshing out the world, characters and plot.

3. I develop the high-level plot outline. In my current story, this ended up being about 8000 words. I choose scenes, decide which characters to populate them, high-level conflicts, and how each scene will drive the plot forward. At this point, I’m looking to get my first full view of the complete story arc from beginning to end. I develop arcs for each major character to ensure I’m addressing things from each of their perspectives, and considering the plot through each of their eyes. This process yields tons of fresh insights, new twists to consider, and helps the story really come alive.

4. If this is a brand new story (as opposed to a sequel), I find it useful to write the first few chapters based on the high-level outline. This helps solidify the character voices and the feel for the world and how the story is going to work. I get ‘locked in’ to the story this way. I can usually tell if I’m on the right track now, or if there’s something still fundamentally wrong with the plot, characters, or world.

5. I develop what I call a mid-level outline. I run through the outline again, fleshing out the scenes, clarifying and adding detail. For some of the important scenes, I add sections of dialogue or work out how I’m going to approach the action sequences. This is particularly helpful in planning complex endings.

This is the step I’m on right now. I’ve taken the 8000 word high-level outline and expanded it to about 15,000 words so far. I’ll probably complete the outline at about 20,000 words or so. At that point, I could do another pass and produce even more detail, but the story is really coming alive for me, so I don’t think that will be necessary.

When I begin writing scenes for the first real draft, I keep the outline in mind, but this is where I free-write. The outline is the framework and helps me identify when my free-writing takes me off on new tangents. Sometimes those tangents are awesome – a flash of inspiration that I could not have figured out unless I was in ‘the zone’ writing full scenes. Sometimes they’re a bad idea that takes the story off a cliff. Any time I break the framework, I need to go back and analyze how this change will impact the story. Either it’s brilliant and the rest of the story needs to change as a result, or it’s a false-start that needs to be chopped.

If I decide to keep it, I have to make sure I can still maintain the story integrity. I have to ask: do my plot points and story arcs and character arcs still make sense? Will pacing be right? Will the ending still work? Adjustments often need to be made.

This sometimes seems like a lot of work, but it’s actually a lot less than the alternative. This way I can identify the impacts to the story early on and choose how to address it. Before, I would keep writing, maybe all the way to the end of the story before I realized other components needed to be changed. That would require an entire new draft, which was a lot more re-work and took a lot more time.

Through this blended outline/free-write approach, I’ve dramatically cut down how long it takes to write even a big-fat-epic-fantasy novel like mine.

How do you approach a new novel?