Linkee-poo Follow Its Bliss

WIlliam Jones talks about what it means to be “published” and the differences between “self-published” and what that means for book store penetration. And here he unveils the work of the distributors (and regional sales people, when book publishers had actual regional sales people) and how critical they are to your success as an author. He also touches on the rise of the “pay for print” business model within “traditional” publishing houses and why the probably aren’t going away.

Barbarienne’s Den on why ebooks really aren’t that much cheaper to produce. I’ve tried to make this similar point in many places, but I feel it’s fallen on deaf ears. Here is a little backup on the subject. Hint: ink on paper, in quantity, isn’t all that darn expensive. Cost per unit is a measure we use to try and get our customers to order in a quantity that actually makes economic sense for them (but, hey, if you really want to go to press every quarter to print exactly the same thing and re-incur all the setup costs four times instead of once, since I’m now on the press side of things, by all means please do so). Now, just as devil’s advocate, she doesn’t cover fulfillment costs (shipping, storing, distributing, returns, remainders, and rot), but it doesn’t add all that much (when you factor in economies of scale). Really, much of the cost of the individual book (cost per unit) is not in the production. This is why I get sorely pissed when presses get cheap with paper and stock material (sure, when you’re printing 10,000 units, scrapping $.05 off each unit adds up, but the benefits of those “extras” are well worth it, I had to debate buying my latest Ray Bradbury purchase because the production values were so cheap). But anyway, yeah, what they said. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Pier Anthony talks about some common misconceptions about writing humor. Seeing as one of the things I’m getting psyched about ending the current novel is that I might go back to writing the Post-Rapture romantic comedy novel. (Grokked from Todd Wheeler)

S.C. Butler holds forth on writing what you like. While the often given axiom is “write what you know” (which, just like the sound of one hand clapping, really isn’t about what you might originally think it’s about), I’m hoping that as I progress in this here career and I get to help youngsters, “write what you like” escapes my lips far more often than “write what you know.” There’s been plenty of side conversations I’ve had lately with other writers, some open, some personal, and I’ve always come back to this point. You have to love what you’re doing, because that’s always, always, always going to be your greatest reward. If you think Dan Brown, JK Rowling, Stephanie Meyer, Stephen King or any of them are thinking, “Oh boy, this is going to make the bucks roll in” while they’re writing, you’re fooling yourself. Or, as another person I respect (Joseph Campbell) once said, “Follow you bliss.”

BILL MOYERS: Do you ever have the sense of… being helped by hidden hands?
JOSEPH CAMPBELL: All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time – namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.

I once thought I was a SF Writer. Then I tried fantasy and my voice got stronger. Then I tried horror and it got even stronger. And now I mix into dark fantasy and I’m having a lot of fun (even if I might question that my writing has gotten a little too close to my military past which makes me a little squishy) and my voice sings out. It also does the same when I write bitting humor (can you tell). I’ve told all my nieces and nephews that simple phrase, “Follow your bliss.” It’s, IMHO, one of the greatest lessons we can impart. (Get me talking about programming and career choices one day if you don’t believe me on this, also look at the pay rate for short fiction and the average advance for genre novels, if you aren’t doing this because you enjoy it, you might want to rethink your strategy).

A SFWA Journal article by Chuck Rothman on hunting for an agent. He also outlines some reasons why you want an agent and how to find one (just a hint, he goes on about “sending the full manuscript”, however I advise you to follow the submission guidelines for the agency you’re trying to land, playing by the rules is something your agent will appreciate and wants to know you can do). Also with agents, John Scalzi is pimping his. Frankly, looking at Scalzi’s career, one could do worse than having Ethan Ellenberg representation. If I had my manuscript 1) finished and 2) in a submisible condition they would be seeing a package from me. And just in general, I follow a bunch of agents’ blogs (not all are prospects for me) so I can learn what to do and what not to do. I don’t often comment on their blogs, but it’s a good place to learn the industry. Just saying.

And here I’m assuming you’ve all seen the bruhaha surround Peter Watts and the US Border Patrol. Let me just point you to Dave Kletcha’s take on it. What he said.

One writer’s break: poetry

Well, poetry doesn’t appear to be something most writers seem to choose to write unless they must but it does have it’s place in my toolbox.

Perhaps because I’m totally deaf, perhaps because I’m stubborn, or maybe just because of music’s siren song but when I write I usually try to incorporate music into my writing in some form.  For me, writing poetry is a way of writing the music I hear.  It’s a way of capturing the rhythm of an internal music, using words to evoke not only the imagery, but more importantly the flow, the rhythm, and the dynamics of my music.

Yes, I write a lot of poetry.  Is it good?  Is it bad?  I have no idea, because for the most part I haven’t shared it outside my immediate family unless I wrote it specifically for someone else.  I’ve only recently begun posting my poetry online for others to read and comment on.  And as a result of doing that, I’v been challenged to write a sestina, of all things.  I thought it would be easy, but it’s very definitely not easy to write one of those the way I want to do it.  For my first attempt I wound up with a seven stanza poem that’s most definitely not a sestina.  Free-form poetry doesn’t appeal to me as it does not seem to evoke that internal music I “hear” when reading a good poem so I can’t use it as a form for the sestina.  My definition of good means to me a free-form poem is a cacophony.  So, my sestina has to follow not only the rules of writing a sestina, but also conform to the structure that I see as necessary.  This means that writing poetry can be a very good exercise of the mind, will, skill, and discipline.  Never mind knowledge.  I mention this because it illustrates the focus and concentration necessary.

So, why do I say poetry has a place in my toolbox as opposed to being my preferred writing format?

The reason I bring it up here isn’t to discuss writing poetry, but a way of using poetry writing as a tool.  When I am actually working on my stories, if I forget to feed the muse and she wanders off to one of you for a while instead of hanging around, I can lure her back with poetry.

Often when I get stuck or just can’t seem to make any real progress on a story I’m working on or I lose interest in the story I’m writing, I find that if I leave off the story and start writing poetry I come away from that poetry writing rejuvenated.  It may take only one poem, say a haiku or even an epic poem, or it may take several.  The thing is, it seems to give my mind a break from what has become the job of writing and to get the creative juices flowing again.  The poetry I write as a result naturally still has to meet my requirements and so demands my full attention.  As this poetry does not focus on or belong to the writing I was doing, the mental exercises resulting from writing unrelated poetry effectively takes my mind completely off what I was working on, giving me a true break.  For me, this allows my brain to properly re-boot into the mode needed to resume writing that story when I return to it.  Mentally having completely dropped everything related to the work that was giving me so much trouble, I return to it with a renewed perspective.  Often I find that what was blocking me before is no longer a block, my mind readily finds a solution and words are once again flowing into that story.  Ideas that I’d not thought of come into being, storylines appear that I’d not seen before, characters seem to have new aspects to them that had been hidden before, and the story seems fresh again.

All this happens because I use poetry to completely refocus my mind, writing, and creativity onto something totally different from what I was working on.  Poetry is thus not only something I enjoy writing but it’s a way to hone my wordsmithing and to give myself a true break from the job of writing.  Not only that, but while doing it, I’m still doing what writers do — writing.  Not just writing, but writing stuff I can provide to my readers.

So, yes, writing poetry belongs not only in my credits but also in my toolbox.

More Writerly Links

Jim Hines is starting up his holiday book drive to benefit a local domestic violence shelter. I full endorse this. Our local shelter is our main charity. Over the years we’ve given clothes (new as well as used), bedding, toys, household products, an Xmas tree, paper and office products, and money. If you have new books to give (this year Jim is cutting the used book portion, as he explains that the shelter’s bookcases are bursting) I highly recommend this.

A Making Light post with a letter from the RWA (Romance Writers of America) concerning Harlequin’s new business venture into vanity/subsidy press work with ASI Solutions. As Jim Macdonald says, “They really do take their role as author advocates seriously over there.” Let me reiterate that RWA is an excellent organization. They don’t do everything right, but they do the vast majority of things right. Back when we were all discussing SFWAs problems, RWA was the organization plenty of people pointed to as to how to structure and run a Genre Authors Advocacy Organization. RWA are good people. They care about what they’re doing and, my God, do they give support and encouragement to new writers (I’m one).

SC Butler is musing about the future of brick and mortar bookstores. The more I learn about this business the more I learn just how screwed up the distribution model has become. Instead of “we sell you what you want” it’s been turned around to “buy this crap everybody else is buying.” What would be very good for bookstores is to have a new player in the distribution and big box store (who gets “local tastes” and understands cooperative cross marketing, ie. your sales don’t have to be just in your store). Unfortunately the barrier to entry is exceedingly high, so I doubt that will happen, or than Ingram, B&N, and the other one (I forget what it’s called) dump their idiotic MBA approved business plan and get back to the business of actually selling books. Because, yeah, if I need to order the damn book, I’m going to Amazon (they typically have a lower price, and their shipping policy is better).

The incomparable Justine Larbalestier and her equally incomparable married significant other Scott Westerfeld continue with the NaNoWriMo tips (which, BTW, aren’t just for NaNoWriMo). I admit I’ve fallen behind in keeping up with them, but the ones I have read are good stuff (even if the advice doesn’t work for me individually). Again, the generic “try it, if it works, keep it, if not, dump it” applies. And what works (or doesn’t) for me might not work (or be fabulous) for you.

Now back to fixing Chapter 32 and maybe getting on to 33.

Writerly Linkee-poos

“Want a child-friendly way to introduce your little one to the traditions of the Old Cult?” So begins the Adventures of Lil’ Cthulhu Had to watch this without sound, but what a friggin’ excellent cartoon. Much laughing was had. (Grokked from John Scalzi)

Scott Westerfield give some tips on writing for NaNoWriMo, Tip 1 Dialog Spine, and Tip 3 Dialog Spin Analysis. Justine Larbalestier wrote and hosts Tip 2 The Zen of First (Zero) Drafts and Tip 4 Word Count Is Not Everything. Lots of good stuff there. I’ve done the Dialog Spine thing for short stories (although I didn’t know it had a name). As for the Draft Zero thing, yeah. It certainly helps. As to word count, I put my own up here as a personal whip to do more. It’s also a way of saying, “Hey, I don’t do 1500 words a day, but I am finishing my stuff and sending it out.” If I can find time with two jobs and a freelance gig, most people can (the one thing I don’t have is kids, they would take up a lot of that time).

Joshua Palmatier discusses the dread monster, exposition. He ties it into POV and a few other things. Exposition is one of those things I end up doing around the third draft, although I’m getting better and including some of it earlier. I know for my writing it leads to my first reader(s) going, “I don’t get it.” Take for example, the “cell” in my WIP. Yes, it is based around a cell phone, but that’s not all it is. One of the commented I received in the first round of edits was, “This is supposed to be in the future, but I’m not seeing a lot of future tech” (well, that’s the paraphrase). Well, in this world Silicon Valley never happened (California, mostly destroyed and economically crippled, remember?). So tech went a different way. The “cell” as I envision it is like an iPhone, but is a real computer. Making calls on it is the least of it’s capability. When we encounter actual computer towers we call it “server porn” because most people, as they have personal computers now, use their cell. And I hope the flashback chapter worked well. People seemed to like it, although without italicizing the kata moves, it left some people a little confused.

A cartoon’s humorous take on NaNoWritMo. Ha! I like NaNo, never been able to participate, but I think at heart it’s a good idea. But, yeah, this is funny.

Halloween Hangover Links

Ever wanted to know what to call a bunch of ghosts? Wonder no longer. Wondermark with an excellent table of Supernatural Collective Nouns. Probably not gospel, but certainly good for a laugh. Although I personally like “a rage of orcs” and “a flurry of yeti.” Although “an exigency of wendigoes” is growing on me. (Grokked from Jay Lake).

Writing Excuses releases their podcast on How to Write Without Twists. One of the things I had planned on with this book was a fairly straight plot. We may swerve from side to side, but it’s a fairly straight “we start here, and end over there” concept. So, food for thought. I’m going for the “watch the interesting character grow/progress” and “watching people who are good at something doing it” (the satisfaction argument).

Mer Haskell talks about collaging here book. This is obviously a thing people do, not that I was aware of it. I don’t know, to me (and it may be my degree talking here) it feels a little too much cat waxing (me, I’d do 500 thumbnail sketches, but that’s me). But you know what, if it helps you (and it seems to have helped Mer) it’s definitely worth it. I know people who create whole notebooks filled with images for their novel. They include images of the characters, pictures of what they’d wear (includes catalog descriptions), pictures of their ideal living space, where they’ve vacationed (or liked to), all sorts of things. That might have helped me, I don’t know.

World Fantasy San Jose is over which means it’s time to get my membership for World Fantasy Columbus. That’s just down the road from us. Also, according to their website, registration goes up soon. An extra $25 will pay for some books, or at least a dinner out with friends. The year after that WF goes back to California. Hopefully I’ll have a book to flog and can justify the expense. (Oh, and to the Columbus committee, hey, San Diego has their theme, would be nice if you posted yours already)

More Links

In case I’m not on the internets this weekend (I’m trying to limit myself as part of a “stop rewarding the procrastination and get more work done” plan, seriously, I haven’t even posted pictures from VP yet), have a good Halloween everybody.

eBear (matociquala) discusses the progress of novel writing. Yeah, and all that.

Ken McConnell is having a book release party tonight. Good luck with the book, Ken.

Stewart Sternberg just sent off his novel to the editor. He also talks a little about how writers in movies end their novels and how writers in the real world do it.

Agent Kristin talks about some changes to contracts regarding e-royalties. Macmillan isn’t a publisher one can sneeze at, so if they’re trying to push something it might become “standard” across the board. Yet another argument of why you want an agent.

Eric over at Pimp My Novel talks about chasing trends. Sigh. And I really wanted to work on that Zombie Apocalypse Averted by Christian Vampires novel next. (Actually I’m wondering if the Post Rapture Industries novel may fall in there somewhere). Anyway, Eric’s post is why you should write the novel you want to write and not worry about what’s hot and what’s not. Write the best damn novel you can. Of course this is contrary to John Scalzi’s story of how he got into writing military sci-fi. I think the difference here, though, is one is theme and the other is gimick.

More Links – the Agent (mostly) Version

Rachelle Gardner discusses the process of getting and agent from the agent side. Knowing both sides of the board can certainly help your chances of success.

Agents do more than sell books, a post form the BookEnds agency. Yes, and this is why you want an agent. Sure, there are some authors who do the whole thing themselves. And there’s the occasional author who doubles as their own agent (sometimes with a fake name, sometimes not). But, just like I really don’t want to negotiate distribution contracts, an agent earns their 15% by doing a great many things, both what is spelled out in the blog post and much more.

Since this seems to be an agent linkage post, here’s Agent Kristin with some author behavior that doesn’t normally get mentioned. And then she has a follow-up here. What she said. If your agent isn’t working out, definitely find another route. I’ve seen getting an agent compared to marriage, and it’s close. You and your agent are relying on each other. If either side isn’t carrying their water then cut your loses and move on. However, just because you have an agent, this doesn’t mean you can stop paying attention to the markets and the business end of publishing. As she says, things are tough all over.

Justine Larbalestier talks about hopes and goals. What she said. Yes, most writers have two fantasies in their heads (and here I’ll speak for you all, you’re welcome). The first fantasy has to do with being so incredibly successful that media outlets contact you for interviews instead of having to beg for them. The second fantasy has to do with being so incredibly successful that you ask people who come to your signings if they want your to supersize that order, or would they like an apple pie.

And this may seem like a random interjection, but it’s about a book, so I think it’s good.

Glenn Beck’s website (yes, I know, but it’s good to keep tabs on the person who may go postal, just saying) is now promoting his new book “The Christmas Sweater: A return to redemption.” There’s now a landing page on his site that is basically a big ad for it. I guess we’re all going to get mind control sweaters this Xmas and suddenly we’ll all be conservatives again. Or a few good sweaters will end the “War on Xmas.” Or something like that. I guess “Xmas Shoes” were all ready spoken for.

Links

Elmore Leonard spills his rules of writing. The subtitle sums it up, “Easy on the adverbs, exclamation points and especially hooptedoodle.” (Grokked from Astrid)

Justine Larbalestier muses on hating female characters. That’s an interesting ponderable.

And then there were two (Cat Valente sells Fairlyand for publication as a YA book). Two do not a trend make, but it’s interesting. And no, I don’t think I’m going to put Bladesman on the blog anytime soon.

VP, the emotional side

I’m just getting back to normalcy, so I’m almost ready to start talking about it.

First rule of VP, what happens at VP stays at VP. It’s just like Vegas, but without the strippers. Or at least I didn’t see any strippers, I was working a lot. I did get to see jellyfish though. Glowing jellyfish to boot.

So first thing is the emotional issues. When I received my acceptance notice nobody was more surprised than I was. This started the roller-coaster. One moment up, the “damn I’m good” feeling, and the next down, “I’m not worthy.” Although I should say, it was more up than down. Then at the end of August I started to try and think of questions I should ask. I went over the materials online to strategize how the workshop would go, and trying to map a successful strategy. And, I’ll add here that this attempt was full of fail. Nothing came to mind. The page remained blank.

I was very glad of the flight deals I scored. It reduced my money worries by being able to fly all three of us there for the cost I expected for one of us. Then the offer of a ride from Todd not only gave me the opportunity to meet him, but also pushed down the costs to the point I wasn’t hyperventilating whenever I thought about it.

For the month before VP I tried to get enough sleep, however that didn’t work. Between issues at the day thing and the fun-fest of the night job that didn’t happen. Mix in my own apprehensiveness of making the most out of the situation and it was a brew of incomplete sleep cycles. So instead of getting to VP rested and ready, I arrived exhausted and spent.

When I’m fully rested I can go days at a time with very little sleep. While at VP I got about 5 hours of mostly blackout time a night and I downed as much caffeine as I could. There was an early morning walk I wanted to participate in, but I woke to late to go. When I arrived on the island I should have probably slept as long as I could on Sunday, but that was going to be the only day I felt I would have a chance to see the island, so I didn’t sleep in.

From then on it was work work work. I’m a slow reader (especially when I am being critical). I’m not the slowest I’ve ever encountered, but I’m not near the fastest by any measure. Neither am I the fastest writer, so the work load put me seriously behind and I would stay up until I couldn’t see straight. It was only on the last few days that I could socialize at night. That added to my stress that I was missing something important (and I probably was).

When we left I was very near the breakdown limit. That’s the point that I know that I need serious sleep time and by myself time. So I wasn’t up to my usual level of alertness on the way home.

The final emotional thing is happening now. Several of my fellow VPXIIIers (the Fightin’ 13th) have talked about what a transformative experience it was. How they’re newly remade and fired up. I’m not feeling it, at least not yet. Although the week was mostly a blur (and reviewing my notes to find a link for a fellow Fightin’ 13ther, I saw many things that I remember I was there for, but there’s a haze between me and the full memory). So maybe when I get a chance to review all my notes I’ll get the full effect. I think, though, that the experience I brought into the workshop blunted a little of the “epiphany” moment. I’ve been critiqued by professionals before (although I would have been willing to pay more for more time with Teresa), I’ve met professional writers and have studied their habits, I wasn’t the student the farthest along the writer path (if there is a path) (and we were all writers at the workshop) but I also have some success. Am I different? Yes, I think so. I have more confidence, my research is slightly more focused, and some other little things, but I don’t feel transformed. More like that extra quarter twist of the wrench on a nut you’re setting.

So for not feeling transformed I’m feeling guilty and a little confused. Did I miss something? Was I half asleep at the wrong moment? I’m still not feeling all here so is the transformative moment a comin’? WIll it happen when I process it all? Was I so blasted for lack of sleep that I missed my opportunity? Or was this a jump start for some people and what they’ve experienced I already had made it through, or see, or felt? I don’t know. The guilt comes in from spending all that money and time and maybe taking the spot of someone who could have used the workshop more. Confused from thinking I’m missing something, when I’m normally quicker on the uptake.

One thing that did happen is that I drank way too much pop. I tried to keep with tea. Most times though I only had a moment so I grabbed a pop instead. When I weighed myself I was up 9 pounds (now some of that might by the natural 2lb variance, but still). I’m now down about 4lbs from that.

Blog Storm Gathering

So my challenge this month is to write as many posts as possible across as many of my blogs as possible about the release of my latest novel. The idea is to spark a perfect storm of interest in the novel and in the author. I have decided to serialize the novel on my main blog – MyView, and to do interviews with the main characters. On the web site dedicated to the novel, I’m giving readers a rare look behind the scenes of writing a novel. Where do character names come from? How long did you write each day? And the dreaded, where did you get your idea from?

I’m accomplishing this task by writing as many posts as possible ahead of time and then scheduling them through the blogging program. This actually does work on WordPress and Ning. Another nifty trick is that every time I post an article, WordPress sends my Twitter stream an update. I have the posts coming out at midnight local time. This releases them during the day in Europe. Remember to act local and think global!

I also mention my posts on Scribd which has its own Twitter-like feature. My follower numbers on Scribd are insanely large, compared to Twitter, but they reach a different audience. Most of the people who follow me on Twitter are industry related, where those who are on Scribd are more of a general interest group.

I also do posts on my FaceBook account, although to be honest, I don’t have a big following there, yet. MySpace, you ask? What’s that? Knowing when a particular social network is all but dead, is part of the staying on top of things aspect about being a writer these days.

I will be sending the local papers, Radio Stations and TV channels a press release about the signing and the book, using the angle that the book is set in Boise and written by a local author. TV and Radio interviews would be great, but not holding my breath for that.

My next project is to create a one-sheet for the book that mentions the signing, and print up a few hundred copies to distribute throughout the city wherever I can. Coffee shops, telephone poles, whatever and wherever. I may even look into billboards on the backs of city benches. Hey, how far do you go to promote your book?

P.S. Did anyone catch I never mentioned the book by name?