A Writer's Audience

So, who do you write for?  Yourself?  Your readers?  A combination? 

We all talk about this a lot. One side firmly states that you write for yourself. Of course, this has to be true, as you’re the one up in that sequestered (hopefully clean and well-lit, as Hemingway would suggest) place, toiling away. If you don’t like your people and story, odds are no one else will either. It’s funny, I see a lot of manuscripts where the villain is all villain, and all the evil gets pinned on his shoulders, which is not only unbelievable but belies that the writer hated him to the core. And that has the paradoxical effect of flattening out the character so that his effect is minimized. But that’s another discussion! The point being that the essence of writing, especially fiction, stems from your own inspiration and connection to your words. To your people. Your story. All of that has to be interesting enough so you keep stepping into that writing room. 

The other side says, “Know your audience,” a familiar refrain, and of course, this holds water.  Especially true when writing genre fiction of all sorts, as the readers invested in the different genres and categories and sub-categories read broadly in those specific lines. Those readers know the requirements, and are right ready to call foul for sometimes even the most minor transgressions. They expect perfection from the authors they follow, and if a book delivers, those readers will be loyal for pretty much life. Even forgiving said transgressions in later books (provided they’re not too egregious). 

But I ran across this quote recently that tweaked me, from Walter Lippmann: “It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.” That got me to thinking about the dumbing down of our society, and how publishers have gone from targeting books to an eighth-grade reading level, to a sixth-grade one today. Gulp. The former statistic has always been disheartening but the latter is downright distressful. How do we write for such? 

We’re tempted to say screw it, I’ll write for myself and whatever audience is there, so be it. And that’s a noble position. One I take fairly often, before returning to reality. We don’t, in the end, want our stories and people to languish, unread. And yet, I confess that I’m more comfortable with that position in nonfiction (I had to rewrite Five Keys for Understanding Men five times, in order to make it accessible for the market, and many reviewers said it was still too highbrow). Fiction is a bit too close to the soul for that to sit well.

We all have to find our own personal balance, based on goals and dreams, on financial and family situations. I’m not sure that’s a fixed balance, but one in which the pendulum swings to and fro as occasions and our own hearts change with the ebb and flow of writing and life. Many authors use pseudonyms for different genres, which I like for its firm boundaries, and have thought at times to adopt. But I never actually do it. I like the idea of owning my work, no matter how well or not it does in the market.

In the end, no right or wrong answer exists to the question. There is no shame at all in writing to the market—that makes authors successful. And no fingers need be pointed at folks who stick to their guns and write what their hearts dictate, whether their stories sell well or not. The only answer is within each one of us, our own personal pacts with the universe. Once we make peace with that, creativity gets freed again to soar.
 

Award-winning author and editor Susan Mary Malone has five traditionally-published books to her credit (fiction and nonfiction) and many published short stories. A freelance editor, forty-plus Malone-edited books have now sold to traditional publishers. You can see more about her, and what authors say about working with her, at: MaloneEditorial.com

Tips for Productivity

Terry Odell, Mark L. Lefevbre of Kobo, David Boop

I had the great fortune of winning one of two Kobo scholarships to a local writing seminar that took place last week. I'm sharing tidbits I picked up—the conference was focused on the publishing business, and inspiring aspiring authors. (I'm sure there's an editorial term for that last phrase.) I'm also recapping more sessions at my blog, which will be ongoing.

For me, the experience was especially eye-opening because although a writer is a writer, we're not running in the same circles, and there are different approaches. These seminars were organized by a group of Science Fiction and Fantasy authors (with one romance author as a speaker), and their roads to success take different paths than mystery and romance authors. We tend to measure our success by our Amazon rankings, or royalty checks, so meeting these "successful" people whom I'd never heard of (nor had they heard of me), was fascinating.

At any rate, the organizer of the three-day series of seminars was author Kevin J. Anderson, and I thought I'd share his Eleven Tips for Productivity with you. After all, no matter what genre we write in, we have to write the book.

And, as always with tips—use the ones that work for you. We're all different.

1. Shut up and write.

2. Defy the empty page.

3. Dare to be bad. (at first)

4. Know the difference between writing and editing. One's left brain, one's right brain. Do one or the other, not both at the same time.

5. Use every minute. Give yourself permission to write three sentences if that's all the time you have.

6. Set goals and stick to them.

7. Work on different projects at the same time. (My note: Anderson writes a tremendous number of books, in many series, often with co-authors. He also edits anthologies, so he'll have projects at various stages to bounce between if he gets stuck with one. I can't do this. One book at a time is my method)

8. Create your best writing environment.

9. Think outside the keyboard. Pens still exist. Anderson uses a digital recorder to dictate while he hikes. (My note: I use post-its for tracking and my very limited "plotting.")

10. Get inspired. Do stuff. Learn stuff. Since "write what you know" is what we're told, the more you know, the more you can write about.

11. Know when to stop. Don't keep polishing when the book is finished. Submit!

Terry Odell is the author of numerous romantic suspense novels, mystery novels, as well as contemporary romance short stories. Most of her books are available in both print and digital formats. She’s the author of the Blackthorne, Inc. series, steamy romantic suspense novels featuring a team of covert ops specialists, the Pine Hills Police series, set in a small Oregon town, and the Mapleton Mystery series, featuring a reluctant police chief in a small Colorado town. To see all her books, visit her website. You can also find her at her blog, Terry's Place, as well as follow her on Twitter, or visit her Facebook page.

World-Building 102: The Word-Smith's Craft

When I began writing fantasy, one of my goals was to present an imaginary world with depth enough to satisfy my own standards as a reader.  When my first novel The Burning Stone¹ was released in 1987, a  reviewer for Locus Magazine complimented me on creating "a lived-in world, and lively one".

So what (besides geography and history) makes for a "lived-in, lively" fantasy world?

The definitive factor is what I like to call "deep structure".  Deep structure encompasses a range of background details which have created the situation your characters find themselves at the start of your story.  Contributing factors include customs, traditions, codes of behavior, technology, art, philosophy, and metaphysics (especially important with regard to how magic works in your world) Deep structure isn't meant to present itself as full-on exposition (the infamous info-dump).  Ideally, it should surface in the form of casual referencing. The technique of selective referencing is particularly well demonstrated in Philip Pullman's best selling novel Northern Lights.² 

Part One is set in "Oxford".  That this is not the Oxford we know is clear from the novel's opening sentence:

Lyra and her daemon moved through the darkening hall.

By the end of the page we know that in this world, all human beings are accompanied by daemons - external projections of their inner natures manifested in animal form.

Pullman uses invented terminology to establish a Victorian/Edwardian level of culture. Air transport is by means of dirigibles operating from aerodocks.  Lighting is supplied either by anbaric energy (a fantasy analogue to electricity) or by naptha (gaslight).  Pullman also lends substance to Lyra's world with references to landmarks (the Shot Tower), institutions (the Magisterium), and distinctive sub-cultures (most strikingly the panserbjorne, a race of sentient polar bears with a kingdom in the far North).

From a fantasy-writer's perspective, when you're "word-smithing", you're fishing for a word that conveys certain specialized shades of meaning.  Some methods of word-smithing are easier than others.  Here are three optional approaches.

1.  Go for an evocative combination of sounds: a beriaster sounds like it ought to be some kind of jewel (beri faintly suggests berry or beryl; aster is a flower).

2.  Play around in the OED with the aid of thesaurus until you find a rare or archaic synonym for the idea you're trying to convey.  (In The Burning Stone, I borrowed the term orison from the annals of medieval mysticism to denote a mage's working trance state.) Alternatively, survey a cluster of words related by concept, and see if you can replace a commonplace word with an unfamiliar close cousin.  (I ended up using the word prelate as a substitute for priest.)

3.  If your linguistic skills are up to the challenge, you can wire together a linguistically viable neologism.  (My husband can juggle Greek and Latin roots like beanbags.)

This business of word-smithing probably sounds appallingly pedantic to some of you out there. However, if you can invest the creative energy, the results are often spectacular. 

 ^~~~

¹ Just recently I learned, somewhat to my surprise, that another book entitled The Burning Stone appeared in print back in 1999, written by Kate Elliott.  If anybody out there is interested in trying to pick up a copy of my Burning Stone, make sure you check the author's name.  Hers in Volume III in a series called The Crown of Stars. 

² Published in the States under the title The Golden Compass.

Debby Harris is an independent editor living in Scotland. Please visit her website for more information about her editing services and fees.

Thank You to My Friends

In a recent blog post, Joe Konrath, a successful indie author, wrote a response to James Patterson's commentary about the death of traditional publishing being the death of literature. One of the points Patterson made in an ad he ran in the New York Times was that without traditional publishing there would be no quality control over what is published. Actually, he inferred that there might be no more books, quality or not.

Konrath wrote that just because the publishing paradigm is shifting, the future of literature is quite safe. As to the issue of quality control, Konrath pointed out that there are good freelance editors - ahem, those of us here at The Blood Red Pencil among them - as well as critique groups and beta readers to help writers maintain a high standard of writing. You can read Konrath's entire post on his blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing. 

When I read Konrath's article, I found it supportive of the post Terry Odell did here last month on the value of critique partners, and it also reminded me of the recent experience I had with beta readers. In the past, I've been in critique groups that have helped me become better at this craft of writing, but I had never used a beta reader until I decided to go indie with my latest mystery, Boxes For Beds.

I didn't set out to get a beta reader. That happened in a round-about way when our own Dani Greer put me in contact with a good editor, as she did not have time to do a full edit. However, she did offer to read the manuscript and give some feedback. Her responses were quite helpful. She pointed out areas where the motivation for some actions was a bit weak, and she also made suggestions for strengthening the historical aspect. I had been so focused on the mystery and the relationships between the characters, I had forgotten about those little historical details that can firmly cement a story in a time period.

I also had another beta reader, Cathy Richmond, who was a member of the critique group I belonged to in Omaha, Nebraska and is a successful author of Inspirational Historical Romance. She read the manuscript after I made the changes, as Dani was not able to give the book a second read. Plus I thought it would be good to have yet another cold read, and I let Cathy know that I was particularly interested in feedback on the historical details and the motivations. She let me know where the changes had worked, and mentioned a couple of places that could use a little more clarification.

This is Cathy's latest book. Don't you love the cover?

The input from these beta readers, as well as the edit by Audrey Lintner, made the finished product much better than had I relied on my own self-editing, and reminded me that it is always so good to have a fresh perspective on a story. Back in the golden era of publishing that perspective would come from the editor at the publishing house, but since that no longer happens, we do rely on friends who will read for us, and for the freelance editors we can hire.

For those who might be interested, here is a link to an interview with Patterson on Salon.

Coming soon, Dani will interview two authors for whom she is a beta reader.  Both write very different mystery series, and they might give you ideas for organizing a team of your own beta readers.

Maryann Miller is a novelist, editor and sometimes actress. Her latest release is Stalking Season, the second book in the Seasons Series. The first book, Open Season, is available as an e-book for all devices. To check out her editing rates visit her website. When not working, Maryann likes to take her dog for a walk and work outside on her little ranch in East Texas. Sometimes she plays on stage, but she does avoid computer games as much as possible. She is also very grateful for the support from her writing and editing friends.

Saying Boo

Photo credit: Google Images

Writers are often introverts. We dislike getting “out there.” Many of us are happiest (and feel safest) holed up in our snug workrooms, hunched over our laptops typing away. We are so much more impressive when we write than when we talk!

This goes double for ghostwriters. After all, the whole point of being a ghost is that you are invisible. Once in a while you may rattle a chain or two, or emit a low howl in the dead of night, but that’s about it. Despite the popular conception of what a ghost does, you must never say Boo! – it gives away your presence.

Of course, introversion is a poor marketing strategy. It doesn’t work for authors, and it won’t work for ghostwriters either. No matter how much you enjoy the background shadows, you have to get “out there” and let people look at and listen to you – and you must try to be informative, compelling, inspirational, or at the very least, nice. People simply won’t hire you otherwise. And they won’t recommend you either.

Sigh.

Kim Pearson is an author, ghostwriter, and owner of Primary Sources, a writing service that helps others become authors of professional and compelling books and articles. She has authored 6 books of her own, and ghostwritten more than 40 non-fiction books and memoirs. To learn more about her books or services, visit http://www.primary-sources.com/.

How to Pitch a Self-Published Book to a Publisher - Part Two

In the first installment on Wednesday we ended the post with the following question and comment:

What does a writer do who doesn’t want to hustle – just write?

It’s a growing worry for many authors, and it will get worse.

Now let’s fast forward to the year 2015. Let’s imagine self-publishing has matured. It’s accepted and respected in the publishing world. A lot of successful self-publishers have begun to ask themselves: what do I really want to do with the rest of my life? Become another J. A. Konrath or John Locke, and work 18/24 to boost my Kindle ratings? Or hype myself perpetually at Facebook, Google+ and Twitter? Or mount a thousand blog tours?

Again, do I write or hustle? What happened to my dream of being an author, a person who writes fiction, not advertisements?

 Maybe they thumb through that list of literary agents, long scorned. They decide that the traditional publishing route might have some merits after all. Goodbye to hard labour. Let the publisher do the hustling! And they prepare their submission to an agent…

But this submission breaks the rules.

Instead of comprising the usual cover letter, synopsis and first chapter, it’s an accountant’s prospectus.
‘Bids are invited for a going business with a $200,000 pre-tax income stream, $500,000 in back-list assets and a customer base of 10,000 loyal readers.’

It’s the sort of deal that agents routinely negotiate with publishers for novelists who have made their name with an established imprint, reached the end of their contract and are looking for a new home. Could it also be a model proposal for the self-publishing author of the future, when approaching an agent for the first time?

Maybe MFA programs in creative writing circa 2015 will offer authors a popular new module - how to write a persuasive business plan. Perhaps a new kind of literary agent will emerge, one with a background in business law not literature. Their task will be to represent an author’s sales record, not his or her books.

And self-publishing authors will be able to breathe a sigh of relief, quit the marketplace and return to what they really wanted to do - craft fiction.

Today, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for newbie authors to secure an agent. Instead, could they self-publish, build a successful business as Oswald and Hocking did - and then pitch an agent with their fan club? Will this become the career path of choice for authors in the future? What do you think?

 Dr John Yeoman, PhD Creative Writing, judges the Writers’ Village story competition and is a tutor in creative writing at a UK university. He has been a successful commercial author for 42 years. A wealth of further ideas for writing fiction that sells can be found in his free 14-part story course at: Writers-Village.org/Academy-intro

Busted!—Nick Hornby Caught Using Prismatic POVs

In his novel A Long Way Down, Nick Hornby uses four different points of view to explore the ramifications of one shared incident. On New Year’s Eve, these characters encounter one another on the roof of the most famous suicide tower in London. Ultimately they talk one another off the ledge and into a pact that will delay the decision for six weeks, until the second most popular night for suicides—Valentine’s Day. If any of them still want to die that day, they will honor those wishes.

Despite their huge differences, the characters spend a lot of time together. Check them out:

Maureen is a conservative middle-aged woman who has had intercourse once in her life—with a fiancé who then left her—and that act produced Matty, a brain-damaged son who even as an adult cannot speak or interact with her in any way. Maureen has no life; all of her time is spent caring for her son.

And once you have a child like Matty you can’t help but feel, That’s it! That’s all my bad luck, a whole lifetime’s worth, in one bundle. But I’m not sure luck works like that. Matty wouldn’t stop me from getting breast cancer, or from being mugged. You’d think he should, but he can’t. In a way, I’m glad I never had another child, a normal one. I’d have needed more guarantees from God than He could have provided. 

Martin was an aging morning TV host when he went to jail for sleeping with a fifteen-year-old, imploding both marriage and career. He now has a part-time gig on a minor cable channel.

Not once have I been the victim of misrepresentation or distortion. If you think about it, that was one of the most humiliating aspects of the last few years. The papers have been full of s**t about me, and every word of the s**t was true. 

Jess is the young, drug-addled, emotionally volatile daughter of an education minister who coddles her because his other daughter went missing years ago. Her useless boyfriend just broke up with her.

You should try to read the stuff by people who have killed themselves! We started with Virginia Woolf, and I only read like two pages of this book about a lighthouse, but I read enough to know why she killed herself: she couldn’t make herself understood. You only have to read one sentence to see that. I sort of identify with her a bit, because I suffer from that sometimes, but her mistake was to go public with it. 

JJ is the only American. He came to England to play guitar in a band with his best friend, his beloved girlfriend in tow. When his friend broke up the band he lost his friend, the girl, and the music that was his passion. He now delivers pizzas, and is embarrassed that he doesn’t have as good a reason as the others to kill himself.

“I got like this brain thing. It’s called CCR.” Which, of course, is Creedence Clearwater Revival, one of my all-time favorite bands, and a big inspiration to me. I didn’t think any of them looked like big Creedence fans. Jess was too young, I really didn’t need to worry about Maureen, and Martin was the kind of guy who’d only have smelled a rat if I’d told him I was dying of incurable ABBA. 

Hornby uses their varying voices and perspectives in an often laugh-out-loud counterpoint, all while deepening our sense of what it is that might make someone give up living, and why, and how even a stranger who has little in common with you might make a difference.

This is not a book you will read for its riveting plot. But if you’d like to study character and voice and the way varying points of view can give a prismatic view of a premise—and how each character reveals himself by the way he views the others—this is a quick, fun read that will do the trick.

Can you think of other books where multiple characters are used less to drive plot but more to comment upon a shared event, or one another? Have you ever tried this technique?

Kathryn Craft is a developmental editor at Writing-Partner.com, an independent manuscript evaluation service. What she believes: 1. Editing forever changed the way she reads. 2. Well-crafted moments of brilliance help her forgive many other problems in a manuscript. 3. All writers have strengths and weaknesses—but why settle for weaknesses? 4. We can learn as much from what other authors do right as we can from what we do wrong. This is her series, "Busted!—An author caught doing something right." Connect with Kathryn at her Facebook Author Page and Twitter.