Pros and Cons of Traditional vs. Independent vs. Self-Publishing (Part 7): Interview with Children’s Author, Nancy Oswald
Posted: November 28, 2016 Filed under: Books, Children's Books, Fiction, Publishing, Self-Publishing | Tags: independent publishing, Nancy Oswald, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Traditional Publishing 7 Comments
In this series, we’ve taken a look at the publishing industry, which today, isn’t played by the same rules as it was 30 years ago, when traditional or independent publishing houses were about the only options an aspiring writer had. The rise in digital and self-publishing has opened up new options for aspiring authors and changed some of the rules by which the game is now played. We’ve heard from self-published authors, Jeff Bowles, Tim Baker and Arthur Rosch, and traditionally published authors, Stacia Deutsch and Mark Shaw, as well as independently published author, Jordan Elizabeth.
In this week’s interview, we’ll hear from an author who has published work via all three publishing models, award winning children’s author, Nancy Oswald. She’s published traditionally with Holt, a big New York publisher, and a small independent publisher, Filter Press, LLC. In addition, her first book was published by Scholastic Canada, but she later rewrote it and self-published a Create Space version in 2013. Nancy’s Ruby and Maude Adventure series includes Rescue in Poverty Gulch, Trouble on the Tracks and her latest book, to be released this month, Trouble Returns. (Be sure and catch my review of Trouble Returns this Friday on Writing to be Read.) Her other publishing credits include Hard Face Moon, Edward Wynkoop: Soldier and Indian Agent, Nothing Here But Stones, and Insects in the Infield. And she has a very unusual story about how she broke into the publishing industry.
Kaye: When did you know you wanted to be an author?
Nancy: In my early teens, I thought writing children’s books would be really cool and I enjoyed writing—some poetry—but most of it school related. I didn’t get serious about publication until I was in my late twenties.
Kaye: Would you share your own publishing story with us?
Nancy: I wrote several books that I call my “cardboard cover” books for my stepson who was five when I married my husband. They were hand written and crudely illustrated and as you’ve probably guessed, had cardboard covers that were put together with rings that clipped through the pages and the cardboard and held the whole thing together. I did a couple of cardboard cover books for friends, too. But my stepson outgrew his “picture” books, so I started in on a chapter book. We lived in British Columbia at that time, so I mailed him the first chapter for Christmas and sent one chapter a month to him, finishing the book the next Christmas. This book was typed, yes on a typewriter, but still was a FAT cardboard cover book. After many many rewrites, this book became my first published novel for young readers. It had 35 rejections and was finally picked up by Scholastic Canada and five years later was reprinted by them. To this day, thanks to Scholastic’s book club program, it has outsold any of my other books.
Kaye: What do you see as pros and cons of self-publishing?
Nancy: In 2013, I self-published the above mentioned book. I’ve had the rights back since about 1996, so I rewrote the book, adding about 10,000 words and it ended up as a winner in the CIPA Evvy award competition. My likes: I really enjoyed having full control. I used Create Space and used their interior design service, but did the other parts myself. The Create Space team was accessible and helpful, and I had a really positive experience from beginning to end. A word of caution: you really need to have a clear idea of the design, font size, layout ahead of time. You have to be clear in communicating what you want. Negatives: Reviews were hard to get, ALL of the marketing is up to you, and if you don’t have a well-edited, professional looking copy, it will sink you
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Weekly Writing Memo: Learning to Write
Posted: November 24, 2016 Filed under: Fiction, Screenwriting, Screenwriting, Uncategorized, Weekly Writing Memo, Writing, Writing Tips | Tags: Writing 5 Comments
Everyone always wants to know the big secret for how to write. They want the shortcuts, and the formulas, and the rules, but while those things may give you the illusion of a solution, they’re not the real answer. Shortcuts, rules, and formulas for writing can be great and useful, but in the long run, they limit your abilities as a writer. Knowing the rules can be a good foundation, but personally, I believe that it can’t be all you know. While everyone has a different theory about the best way to learn to write, there are a few “tricks” that almost everyone agrees on.
Reading
It amazes me the number of writers, screenwriters or fiction writers, who loudly proclaim how little they read or how much they hate reading in general. Whatever your chosen medium, you should be reading it and absorbing it as much as possible. As a screenwriter, reading scripts can help you learn techniques for telling a story in script format, succinct characterization, how to establish setting and many other things. As a fiction writer, reading novels and short stories can help you learn much the same. The more you immerse yourself in what you want to create, the more natural it will be when you begin writing the material yourself. Everything you read, whether you realize it or not, is integrated into your pre-existing knowledge and expands the “tools” you have at your disposal for writing.
A great example of this that works for most people is something like grammar – if you read a lot, you will gradually pick up grammar rules and standards that you don’t even know you know. Think of every sentence you write. Do you specifically analyze the sentence structure and whether it is grammatically correct, or can you read it and know it “sounds” or “feels” right? Many people who have learned grammar through reading have this ability, where they can correct a grammatically incorrect sentence because the proper format has been ingrained in them through reading, but they can’t explain how the sentence was incorrect.
Learning story and writing works similarly in some ways. If you read enough of the medium you want to write, you will start to build up your ability to recognize what is standard, what is abnormal, and you may even start to recognize typical story structures and character archetypes. You’ll also be able to recognize when a writer does something unusual, and then you can begin to break it down and figure out what they did and why.
Analyzing
This next step is one that I think is critical in learning to write. While reading as much of your preferred medium is the first step, analyzing what you’re reading is the next. Forcing yourself to think critically about what you’re reading is how you can make it easier for yourself to recognize issues in your own work. Whenever you’re reading, ask yourself what is working for you and what isn’t. Then take things one step further and ask yourself why it isn’t working. If you can break down why something isn’t working, then when you encounter it in your own writing you’ll be able to fix it. Every piece of writing has good and bad to it, and learning to identify both in the works you read will help you figure out things you may want to emulate in your writing, as well as things you probably want to avoid.
Writing
The most obvious way to learn to write is by doing. So many writers constantly research how to write, or talk about writing, or dream about writing, but never actually get to the writing part. Writing takes practice, and the more you do it the more you’ll improve. Personally, I think the best way to improve is to constantly push yourself to try new styles and techniques of writing. When I was first starting out I embarked on a 365-day project to write a short story a day for a year. I did this because I wanted to really buckle down and explore my writing so I could improve. I know everyone doesn’t have the time to do something like that, but I do think the most valuable thing I learned from doing it was to try new styles of writing. By trying different styles, genres, techniques, and story structures, you become familiar with them and add them to your “toolbox” of abilities. If you understand how they work, then when you need them in a story you’ll easily be able to work them in. I also think it’s useful because just knowing about the various techniques broadens your abilities when you’re writing. It’s easier to figure out how to tell a story in the best way if you know 100 different methods than it is if you only know 2.
Mentors and Other Writers
Having a mentor can mean joining an MFA program, finding someone in the industry willing to advise you, or finding a workshop group or another writer to get advice from. The important aspect is to find other writers who you can share your work with and get feedback. Ultimately, I think writing stops progressing at a certain point without feedback, so you have to decide what you are looking for and where you can find it. Some people luck into a mentor and find the feedback and guidance that way, but others have to seek out that feedback in their own ways.
I’ve done workshops, worked with other writers, and been in an MFA program, and I think they all have their own benefits depending on what suits you personally. Workshop groups can be great because you get a huge variety of voices on a piece of writing and you can learn a lot about it. They can also be negative, however, because some workshops devolve into a hive mind and are no longer helpful. The problem is, you usually don’t know how helpful the group is until you get there, but the beauty is they usually don’t last long so you can always find another one if needed.
For some, an MFA program is a ridiculous waste of money and gets you nowhere, but I personally found it incredibly helpful because it fit what I was looking for. I did a low-residency MFA program at Western State Colorado University where I studied both genre fiction and screenwriting. I choose my MFA because the focus was on genre fiction rather than literary fiction (I already had a degree in literary fiction), and because the professors in the program were all people actively working in the industries they were teaching about. I also chose to continue studying writing in an MFA program because I wanted to learn as much about writing as I could, as quickly as possible, and an intensive 2-year program would give me that boost to help me write better and make connections.
Ultimately, whether you choose an MFA program, a workshop, or a mentor, it’s all about research and knowing yourself. What method do you learn best? Who are the teachers or writers you’ll be working with? What may the teach you? All that being said, the key to this is finding someone, somewhere, who you can connect with on your writing and learn from. If you have a mentor, or a writing group, or an MFA program that does this, that’s awesome, but the key is getting your work seen and getting a reaction. Writing is meant to be shared, and having a “safe” group to share it with before you go public can be pivotal in your writings’ success.
Final Notes
There are a lot of other tips and tricks you’ll see about how to perfect your writing and become a master, but ultimately they all boil down to these four things: Read what you want to write; Study it, analyze it, and tear it apart until you understand how the writing succeeds and how it doesn’t; Write as much as you can and practice, experiment, and repeat; and find someone to share your work with that you can trust, that you can learn from, and that you can get feedback from. It takes time, and a lot of work, but your writing will show that it’s worth it in the end.
Robin Conley offers great writing advice most Wednesdays and shares an occasional guest review on Writing to be Read. If you just can’t wait until next week to find out more, you can pop into her blog, Author the World, for more tips, or a weekly writing prompt.
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Pros and Cons of Traditional vs. Independent vs. Self-Publishing (Part 6): Interview with Independently Published YA Author, Jordan Elizabeth
Posted: November 21, 2016 Filed under: Books, Fiction, Opinion, Promotion, Publishing, Steampunk, Writing, Young Adult | Tags: independent publishing, Jordan Elizabeth, Publishing 3 Comments
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Pros and Cons of Traditional vs. Independent vs. Self-Publishing (Part 4): Interview with Traditionally Published Children’s Author, Stacia Deutsch
Posted: November 7, 2016 Filed under: Books, Children's Books, Fiction, Opinion, Promotion, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | Tags: independent publishing, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Stacia Deutsch, Traditional Publishing 3 Comments
So far, in this publishing series, we’ve heard from three self-published authors who say self-publishing is the way to go for today’s authors. In Part 1, we heard from my talented friend and cohort, Jeff Bowles. In Part 2, we heard from tale spinner, Tim Baker. And last week, in Part 3, we heard from storyteller and author, Arthur Rosch. This week, we’ll hear from the other side of the writing field, as I interview a traditionally published author.
Join me for today’s interview with Stacia Deutsch, who is the author of more than two hundred children’s books, both original and write for hire. I had the pleasure of first, being a cohort to and then, studying under this amazing children’s author, so vibrant and full of energy, and always smiling. She is the author of the eight book, award winning, chapter book series Blast to the Past. Her resume includes Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew,The Boxcar Children, and Mean Ghouls from Scholastic. Stacia has also written junior movie tie in novels for summer blockbuster films, including BATMAN, THE DARK KNIGHT and the New York Times Best Sellers: CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS JR. and THE SMURFS.
Kaye: When did you know you wanted to be an author?
Kaye: What do you see as the pros and cons of traditional publishing?
Stacia: I love being with traditional houses and finding my books in the big box stores, or at the airport, or at Scholastic book fairs. There is no other way into those places. The issue is that you aren’t making every cent from your own book, but you have little outlay as well. My agent gets 15% of everything I sell.
Kaye: How much non-writing work, (marketing & promotion, illustrations & book covers, etc…), do you do yourself for your books?
Stacia: It’s a big deal for the author to do their own promotion and really necessary. You have to be devoted to your audience, and build a following to be successful. You need a budget. Do you want to travel, do a book tour? website? blog tour? Everything costs. So, regardless of how you get published, play how much money and time you are willing to put into it.
Kaye: Would you recommend your chosen path to publication, to emerging writers? Why or why not?
Stacia: I am an advocate for traditional publishing. I think agents and editors are gate keepers for quality. But if you have a good idea, that doesn’t fit what houses are looking for, go for it. Just be aware of what you’ll need to do to make it work.
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Weekly Writing Memo: Horror Inspiration
Posted: November 3, 2016 Filed under: Fiction, Screenwriting, Screenwriting, Stories, Thriller, Uncategorized, Weekly Writing Memo, Writing, Writing Tips, Young Adult | Tags: Books, characters, Fiction, horror, How To, Movies, Novel, Stories, Writing Leave a comment
One question I hear asked a lot to writers is, “where do you find your stories?” This question is sort of silly to me because stories are everywhere around you if you look. Every item you come across in your day has a story for how it became what it is, and got where it is. If you ask enough questions, eventually you’ll find some interesting element that you can turn into a compelling story if you try. I could go on for a long time about ways to find a story, so instead I decide, in honor of Halloween, to narrow the focus this week and discuss where to find inspiration for horror stories in particular.
For me, I really think horror stories have to either start with the protagonist or the “monster.” By monster, I mean whatever villain is in your story, be it a literal monster, a ghost, a serial killer, a psychological monster, a location, etc. I say this because the core of most horror stories is the conflict between these two entities — the protagonist and the monster — and I think starting with one of them can be the easiest way to start a horror story. If you start with the monster, you can ask yourself who would it go after and find your protagonist. If you start with the protagonist, you can ask yourself what type of monster would they encounter and go from there. Immediately either one can give you your story, but where do you find the protagonist or the monster?
Protagonists
If you want to start your horror story by coming up with your protagonist and you have no ideas in mind, you can go several directions:
- Pick someone you know and turn them into a character by changing some of their traits to make them slightly different.
- Pick a stranger on the street and create a character from them based on what you can infer from their appearance and behavior.
- Pick a stereotype character and then do a free write or character sheet to turn them into something more and give them depth.
- Pick an occupation and then create a character that fills that job role.
There are a ton of other ways to come up with a character, but these are a few of my favorite simple ones. Once you have a character in mind you can find your monster by asking yourself where would this character go to find trouble? Does it find them, or do they seek it out by going somewhere they shouldn’t? Do they have a friend that takes them to a haunted forest? Do they live near a mental asylum where a killer can escape? Do they work in a hospital where people die every day and ghosts may linger? Do they go swimming or camping in a secluded area where monsters could lurk in the shadows?
Think about all the places your character may go on a daily or weekly basis and think about what kinds of monsters they could encounter there. If none of these places is suitable, then think about what kind of friends your character has, and what kind of trouble those characters could get the protagonist into. Do they have a reckless friend who likes going into abandoned buildings? A crazy friend who sees things? A friend who picks up shady drifters and brings them home? Once you have the monster your character would most likely meet, you can start creating the plot between the monster and the protagonist and find your story.
Monsters
As I said earlier, when I use the term “monster” I don’t necessarily mean a literal monster, but rather I mean any type of antagonist your character will come up against in the story. Monsters can be anywhere, and if you’re prone to writing horror it’s a good idea to keep a list somewhere of various monster ideas whenever you come up with one. A few places that I generally find monster ideas include:
- Reading about urban legends and mythical creatures. Those cheap tabloid papers have some great ones of these, as do those random lists of legends, myths, and creatures that are all over the internet. Pick one and make it your own, give it a setting, and see where it takes you.
- Phobias. These are a great source for monster inspiration because once you pick a phobia you can use it to build your monster. Think of phobia that you like, or look up a list and pick one, and then ask yourself if your character has that fear what kind of monster would trigger it? Do they have a fear of being alone? Then how about you forget them in the middle of the ocean after a deep sea diving expedition (Open Water). Do they have a fear of the dark, well how about a monster that only appears in the darkness and can make the lights go out (Lights Out, Darkness Falls)? Whatever phobia you choose, ask yourself where or how your character can be forced to face it, and what kind of monster could cause them to. Sometimes it’s even the monster that has the fear (Lights Out) and it can be used as part of how the protagonist defeats them, so you can also try to create a monster from that angle as well.
- True unsolved mysteries or famous oddities. These are a great source for horror because they’re true, unexplained, and usually, have just the right amount of creepiness to them that they can be twisted even further for the perfect horror story.
Any of the options above can work for finding a monster to create your horror story around, but they aren’t the only way. At the heart, the monster comes from the twisting of something that is somewhat normal to something threatening. Think about it. Cujo was a dog, a ghost is just a (dead) person, water is just water, etc, but all can be turned and twisted to become a monster. So if you can’t find some kind of monster from the ideas above, then try taking something random and asking how could it be dangerous? How could it be scary?
Once you have the “monster,” then ask yourself what kind of character would they either go after or accidentally encounter? Is the monster in a lake at a teen summer camp? Are they in a house that a nice young family has just moved into? Are they in a school where kids just want to go to prom? Once you know who your monster’s victims are, and where the monster hunts, then you have your story.
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Pros and Cons of Traditional vs. Independent vs. Self-Publishing (Part 3): Interview with Self-Published Author Arthur Rosch
Posted: October 31, 2016 Filed under: Books, Fiction, Memoir, Opinion, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Writing | Tags: Art Rosch, Book, Books, Fiction, Novel, Novels, Publishing, sci-fi, Self-Publishing, Writing 3 Comments
Your at a dinner party, chatting with other guests when someone asks what you do. You say that you’re an author and everyone is adequately impressed. It’s not every day you meet a bonefide author. Then you mention that you are self-published, and suddenly they all have somewhere better to be.
Self-publishing carries with it a certain stigma. In part, it may be due to a certain number of poor quality self-published books that flooded the market with the rise in popularity of the self-publishing market. With the rise of digital media, almost over night, it was no longer necessary to seek out and captivate a traditional publisher, and anyone, whether they write well or not, could become an author. In the beginning, as it is with most rising trends, self-publishing was a rather expensive proposition, and many authors didn’t have a whole lot to invest, so they skimped by on costs by skipping things like professional editing. Some maybe had their mother or their aunt or their brother give it a once over, but none of them had a trained eye. Others didn’t even do that, believing that their writing was so good, it didn’t need to be edited, or perhaps they were just out to make a buck, and didn’t really care if they put out a quality book. But, for whatever reasons, a lot of less than good quality self-published books made their way out into the market, marring the reputation of the self-publishing industry.
Companies like Amazon and Smashwords put another bump in the industry when they offered authors yet another avenue for publication with the e-book. Digital publishing was cheaper and easier than publishing print copies. In fact, it is virtually free to publish digitally, freeing up funds to be used for things like editing in order to create a quality piece of literature. Of course, there will always be those who are just in it for the money and don’t really care if the book they put out there is good quality, as long as it makes them money. They’re the types that will take advantage of the savings of digital publication to line their own pockets and still won;t bother to pay an editor. They are the authors that wouldn’t survive in the digital publishing world, but hopefullly, there are less of them now.
Despite the stigma attached to self-publishing, there are many talented self-published authors out there, who care about creating and publishing a quality literary product. Today’s interview is with self-published author, Arthur Rosch, who puts whatever time and effort is required into his books, sometimes taking years to complete them. Art is a talented writer. His publishing credits include his travel memoir, The Road has Eyes: A Relationship, An RV, and a Wild Ride through Indian Country, his literary novel, Confessions of an Honest Man, and his epic science fiction novel, The Gods of the Gift. Art shares a positive outlook on self-publishing with previously interviewed self-published authors, Tim Baker and Jeff Bowles. Here, Art shares his thoughts on the publishing industry with his very generous answers, as he candidly relates his own publishing journey.
Kaye: Would you share your own publishing story with us?
Art: I’ve been reading for pleasure since I was five.years old I remember the day I learned to read. It came like a lightning bolt. Aha! So that’s how it works! I made the connection between letters and the sounds they represented. It was my third week in kindergarten. I hated school but I loved to read books. I started by reading historical novels. The other kids were reading “Dick And Jane Go To The Farm”.
When I was fifteen I fell madly in love with a girl. She wanted certain attributes in a boyfriend. One of those requirements was that said boyfriend should be a poet. So, I began to write poetry to please my girlfriend. She turned out to be far less faithful than the process of writing. I gave up on the girl and stuck with the writing. When I was twenty five I was seized by the ambition to write a novel. The project became a science fiction novel called THE GONGS OF SPACE. It was awful. It did, however, attract the interest of literary agent Scott Meredith. I signed a two year contract, and proceeded to write more novels. None of them sold. I had plenty of imagination but lacked some fundamental skills in the craft of writing.. I also needed more life experience.
I’m old enough to remember the “old” model of publishing. I had an entree into that world of agents, editors and publishers. A short story of mine won Playboy Magazine’s Best Story Of The Year Award. I had my fifteen minutes of fame. All the doors were open.
Playboy invited me (with an expense account) to their twenty fifth anniversary party.. I came away with a pocket full of business cards from important people in the publishing industry. Unfortunately, at that time I was dabbling in drugs. That dabble turned into a roaring addiction that derailed me for twenty years. I wrote during those decades. I wrote a lot. But I was like the Hubble Telescope before it was repaired. I couldn’t focus. I had a wonderful opportunity that I wasted by making a very bad choice. This kind of blunder is the stuff of life. I admit, I screwed up. I prefer to regard that interval in my life as “experience”. It was my Dark Night Of The Soul I had lost my family, my home, my possessions and my dignity. But I learned from my suffering.
What can a writer do without insight into the human condition? What decent writer is not also an observer and a psychologist?. My addiction years were loaded with with lessons. I sank to the bottom of the social order. I was on the streets, completely mired in the human experience. I learned from the streets. I learned hard. Then I had to put myself back together.
Addiction is one of the central pillars of my life narrative. I wanted to heal myself, so I went into a long therapy and read everything I could find about family dynamics, addiction and obsession.. Some writers need to spend an apprenticeship in the realm of compulsion, irrationality, bad choices and failure. By the time I was in my mid forties I had a thorough apprenticeship under my belt.
When I surfaced from that underworld, I started looking for an agent. A whole generation of agents had come and gone. The publishing world had changed. I was now (by my own evaluation) a fine writer with a distinctive voice. Agents weren’t interested in me. I wrote hundreds of query letters. I had three novels and a memoir that were ready for editing and representation. I got rejections again and again. How many times did I read the same phrases? “Not quite right for us”, “good luck with your writing career”, “though you write well, I couldn’t quite fall in love with this project.”
It’s likely that you’ve also read these phrases.. In 2001 I wrote to the Scott Meredith Agency in an attempt to re-kindle some kind of relationship. My letter was answered by the head editor. Meredith had passed away and the agency continued under a new owner. My novel, CONFESSIONS OF AN HONEST MAN was well under way. The editor loved the manuscript and offered to work with me. I was not a client of the agency. I was a side-project. The editor, B.N. Malzberg., charged no fee, and worked with me on his own time. The guidance he provided helped to make CONFESSIONS OF AN HONEST MAN into a mature and viable novel.
Still, no agents wanted to represent me. It was an odd situation. Malzberg didn’t have the authority to bring me on board. I don’t know why. I never will. I’m grateful to Mr. Malzberg for the help he gave me in bringing that wonderful novel to fruition.
Kaye: What are your thoughts on the self-publishing industry?
Art: I spend a lot of time writing my novels. Some of my books have been in process for thirty years. THE GODS OF THE GIFT, a sci fi epic, was begun in 1978 and wasn’t completed until 2012. Nowadays the book scene is so competitive that a writer needs to have an extensive body of work. Writers are forced to view their works as Product. The more product you have, the more you can sell. I have to learn to write more quickly. My travel memoir, THE ROAD HAS EYES, was finished in a year. Now I’m writing a crime novel. In a month I’ve racked up 20,000 words. I do all my own cover designs. I hire out the formatting. I mostly self-edit but that’s not really a good idea. It’s better to join a writing group and share your work with your peers. Better still, hire a good editor.
It’s useful to identify one’s “brand” with a genre. It’s also good to write series. The reading audience loves series. My crime novel will be a series based on the characters I’ve invented. I have a fantasy trilogy in the works. Book One is complete. Book Two, the sequel, is under way. I’m not known as a genre writer. With good reason. My portfolio consists of one memoir, one literary novel, three sci fi novels and a crime novel-in-progress. I also have nearly three hundred blog posts in the form of reviews, poems and essays. My “brand recognition” doesn’t stick. Fortunately I have relationships with magazines like Across The Margin and Exquisite Corpse. ATM has published a lot of my work. I’ve also published as a photographer with magazines like
Shutterbug and Popular Photography. I had a centerfold in CAT FANCY. Our beautiful cat, Agate, was shown without her clothes. Agate didn’t care. She never wears clothes. We don’t believe in dressing up animals to look like people.
Kaye: Why did you choose to self-publish your books?
Art: Four years ago I began to explore the self-publishing world. Getting a book published is easy. Marketing the book is another matter. I’m not a good marketer. I plunged into the crazy world of podcasts, webinars and the pitches of various book marketing gurus. I was trying to get a basic grip on marketing strategies. The problem is that the parameters for marketing change so fast that it’s impossible to know how to approach the world of self-promotion.. Also, I was broke. Marketing costs money. I spent $1500 on paid-for reviews and marketing “helpers”. These investments weren’t completely useless, but they didn’t do much to boost my sales.
I would estimate that at least $5000 is required for a marketing budget. That’s just for starters. If you’re lucky, and if you have some talent, your investment will begin to show returns fairly quickly. You’re going to need a knack for business promotion. Marketing a self published book requires patience. Patience. Patience. Just don’t give up. You’re going to encounter a lot of rejection and a lot of discouragement. It goes with the profession of writing.
Kaye: How much non-writing work, (marketing & promotion, illustrations & book covers, etc…), do you do yourself for your books?
Art: The first thing I do every day is drop a Tweet about one of my books. Twitter is free. Facebook is…well, not quite free. As the world’s population increases, so do the number of writers competing for a piece of the audience pie. I’ve learned, to my dismay, that you don’t have to be a good writer to be successful. You just have to be a good story teller. Many popular writers tell the same story over and over again. They hit on a formula that works, and they milk it. I don’t have it in me, to be a lazy writer. I pour my heart and soul into everything I do. My books enjoy modest sales. My platform is almost non–existent. It will take time to develop my platform until it’s something more than a few Popsicle sticks taped together.
Most of my “writing time” is actually study time. When I write, I write. But I spend three or four hours a day studying marketing. And I’ll admit I’m confused. The major advertising venues change their parameters suddenly and arbitrarily. Facebook had an advertising algorithm that was favorable to the writer. Then they changed the algorithm. The amount of pay changed downward. Same with Amazon, same with Google. It’s like writing in an earthquake. The ground shifts under our feet. But that’s life, isn’t it? The ground always shifts under our feet. The one thing you can count on is CHANGE.
Kaye: Would you recommend self-publishing to aspiring authors?
Art: Traditional publishing now resembles self-publishing so much that it’s difficult to pry them apart. If you sign a contract with a big house you’re still going to have to do your own marketing. If you’re a major name, that’s different. Steven King doesn’t do his own marketing. But Arthur Rosch will indeed have to market, whether he’s self published or under contract to Random House. So…why not self publish? Statistics reveal that self publishing is garnering an ever-increasing market share. There’s no longer a stigma attached to self publishing.
Don’t give up. Persist. Stay with what you love, and if you love writing, then, you must write. Right?
You can visit my book website at roschbooks.com. My e-books are $2.99. I signed up for the Amazon KDP promotion but I haven’t seen any benefit. Next step will be to publish real paperback books. I recommend self-publishing for the simple reason that many of us have no choice. It’s so difficult to hook an agent these days that you might as well fish for salmon in the local park’s swimming pool.
I want to thank Art for sharing his story with us. Be sure and check in next week on Writing to be Read, when I’ll talk with traditionally published children’s author, Stacia Deutsch and get her views on the publishing industry.
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“Dark Places” Makes Your Skin Crawl
Posted: October 28, 2016 Filed under: Book Review, Books, Fiction, Thriller | Tags: Book Review, Books, Dark Places, Fiction, Linda Ladd, Thriller 1 Comment
Dark Places, by Linda Ladd may be an older release, (copyright 2007), but it’s definitely worth the read for those who love a good thriller. This well written tale combines the elements of a who-done-it, with those of a police procedural thriller to produce a tale that will make your skin crawl. Ladd masterfully builds suspense as the plot unfolds, alternating between glimpses into the villain’s mind, which are truly disturbing, and the point of view of the lead investigator, Detective Claire Morgan.
There’s a serial killer on the loose who does away with his victims in the most disturbing ways. The things that are found in his favorite dark places will literally give you the creeps. The tension rises as Morgan seems to be closing in on the killer, but the closer she gets to revealing his identity, the more she risks becoming the next victim.
This is not a story for the faint of heart. It may have you checking under the covers before you shut out the lights, and you may even want to call an exterminator before you’re through turning the pages in this creepy, crawly tale that keeps you guessing until the very end.
I give Dark Places four quills. 
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read, and she never charges for them. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
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Weekly Writing Memo: Three Ways to use Parentheticals in Screenwriting
Posted: October 27, 2016 Filed under: Fiction, Screenwriting, Screenwriting, Uncategorized, Weekly Writing Memo, Writing, Writing Tips | Tags: Writing 2 Comments
A question I hear a lot from beginning screenwriters is “How do I use a parenthetical?” To begin, let’s go over what it is. A parenthetical in screenwriting is the writing that comes in parenthesis after a character’s dialogue tag. It looks like this:
CHARACTER NAME
(whisper)
Help me!
The parenthetical is always in lower case unless it’s a proper noun. It can be located between a character’s name and the dialogue, or between two sections of dialogue for the same character spoken without interruption, like this:
CHARACTER NAME
Hey!
(whisper)
Come here.
Now that you can identify what a parenthetical looks like, let’s discuss when to use them. There are three main ways to use parentheticals.
How to speak it?
The first and most common use for parentheticals is to tell the actor how a piece of dialogue is spoken. Is it whispered or yelled? Is it sarcastic or serious? Is the character joking or being mean? It can be really easy to think you need to put these parentheticals on everything to mark how it is said, but don’t. Most of the time it’ll be really obvious how the line is supposed to be said so you won’t need to put anything in parentheticals, but whenever you have a line that could be confused you should use one to clarify. For example, if a character is saying a like “Thanks for that.” It could be sarcastic, genuine, or emotionless. Whichever way it is said could change the story, so clarifying how it is said would be useful.
Who to speak it to?
Another way that parentheticals can be used is to clarify who the character is speaking the line of dialogue to if there is a group. Say four people are arguing and the speaker wants to say something to person one without using person one’s name, then you could put person one’s name in a parenthetical to clarify this.
You can also use a parenthetical here to show that a person is speaking the line to themselves. If the speaker is home alone and there is an entire scene where they’re speaking to themselves, then I would use the parenthetical on the first bit of dialogue to show that is the case and not use it after unless another character enters the scene.
What to do while speaking?
The third main use for a parenthetical is to show what action the character is doing simultaneously as they speak. For example, if the character is pointing at someone, or walking away while talking, then using a parenthetical to indicate this can be useful. A lot of this can be shown in action before or after the dialogue, but when it is important that the speech and action happen simultaneously, then show it in a parenthetical.
Final note.
In general, the rule for parentheticals is to use them as sparingly as possible. Parentheticals are basically like stage directions to the actors. Use too many and it can seem like you’re micromanaging. Your writing should be clear enough that anyone reading your script knows how things should be said, but whenever there is a doubt that it will be clear, use a parenthetical.
Robin Conley offers great writing advice most Wednesdays on Writing to be Read. If you just can’t wait until next week to find out more, you can pop into her blog, Author the World, for more tips, or a weekly writing prompt.
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Pros and Cons of Traditional vs. Independent vs. Self-Publishing (Part 2): Interview with Self-Published author, Tim Baker
Posted: October 24, 2016 Filed under: Action/Adventure, Books, Fiction, Opinion, Promotion, Publishing, Writing | Tags: Action, Blindogg Books, Books, independent publishing, marketing, Novels, Opinion, promotion, Publishing, Self-Publishing, Tim Baker, Traditional Publishing, Writing 3 Comments
Today I want to talk a little about definitions, because people often independent publishing as an umbrella term to cover authors who are self-published, as well as those authors who are published through an independent publishing house. I’m guilty of this, too, as the title for this article series does not differentiate, although the series will be looking at all three options. From here on out, I will differentiate between self-published and independently published authors, and refer to smaller presses as independent presses vs, the larger publishing houses, which shall be referred to as traditional publishers.
In Part 1 of this series, I interviewed self-published author Jeff Bowles to get his thoughts on the publishing industry as an emerging author today. Today’s interview is with Tim Baker, the author of nine novels, two novellas, and a collection of short stories, all self-published under his own brand, Blindogg Books. I’ve had the privilege of reviewing many of those books and can tell you he writes a well crafted story. His publishing credits include Living the Dream, Water Hazard, Backseat to Justice, No Good Deed, Unfinished Business, Eyewitness Blues, Pump It Up, Full Circle, Dying Days, with Armand Rosamillia, and Path of a Bullet. You can contact Tim Baker or find out more about his work by visiting his website at blindoggbooks.com.
Kaye: Would you share your own publishing story with us?
Tim: My love for reading came early in life when I discovered Treasure Island and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at the age of ten.
A high school journalism class and a creative writing course in college turned my love of reading into a love of writing. In 1988, I began writing a book called Full Circle, which combined my love of writing with my interest in Karma. A chain of events caused the unfinished, handwritten manuscript to be tucked into a box. During the ‘90s, my time was divided between raising my son, owning a home and building a career in engineering, leaving no time for writing. It remained untouched until February of 2015 when I dusted it off and completed it for release in November 2015.
By the time I moved to Florida in 2006, my dream of penning a novel was all but forgotten…until one night when a dream rekindled my passion for writing.
Then, in April 2007, I had a dream about two old friends and a submerged box of gold bars. The next day I found himself trying to figure out the story behind the dream. By the end of that day, the impetus of a story had formed and I had scribbled out two chapters in a spiral notebook.
One year later, my first novel, Living the Dream, was complete and the dam had burst — I soon followed up with my second novel Water Hazard.
Kaye: When did you know you wanted to be an author?
Tim: The funny thing is that I never really wanted to be an author – at least not consciously.
Even though I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing…it wasn’t until after my first book was published that I realized I was an author. All of a sudden I was an author – which was fine, because by then I had come to the realization that I loved writing.
Kaye: What made you decide to self-publish?
Tim: It wasn’t until after I completed the manuscript for my first novel (Living the Dream) that I started thinking about having it published. After a year of research I had learned a great deal about the differences between traditional publishing and indie publishing, and I decided that indie suited me better – primarily because I had read dozens of accounts about the overwhelming odds of landing a traditional publishing contract. I was not thrilled with the prospect of putting the fate of my novel in the hands of somebody who could shoot it down for any reason at all. This just didn’t seem fair.
Kaye: How did Blindogg Books come about?
Tim: Blindogg Books came about because my research taught me that indie authors need a brand for marketing purposes. I also learned that there are at least 3 other published authors named Tim Baker…so I decided to go with something other than my name.
During the 90s I raised and socialized puppies to be guide dogs for the blind…eventually I picked up the nickname “blind dog” which was changed to blindogg for internet identity reasons. When I needed a name for my brand I thought Blindogg Books had a nice ring to it. (for more info on this go to my blog)
Kaye: What do you see as the pros and cons of independent publishing?
Tim: I’ve had this conversation with many people and I like to sum it up this way;
Independent publishing is a “good news/bad news” situation. The good news is that anybody can publish a book – the bad news…anybody can publish a book. The vast majority of indie authors produce quality work, however the fate of their work depends on the book buying public, so when potential readers read one of the few indie works that just wasn’t ready for publication (for whatever reason) they tend to paint all indie authors with the broad brush of low quality. So even though it’s very easy to have your work published, it’s very difficult to convince readers who have had a bad experience that your work is worthy of their money.
Kaye: What do you see as the pros and cons of traditional publishing?
Tim: Not having any experience in the traditional world I can only speculate. I have to think that having the power of a large publishing house behind you for promotion and advertising is a nice relief from self-promotion. I also think it would be nice to get a big advance for a book. On the down side, I wouldn’t want to work under a contract which dictates when I have to finish a book. I’ve also heard that those big advances are only good if you sell enough books to cover the amount advanced. Obviously we all think our work will sell – but if it doesn’t (for whatever reason) I’d hate to have to give money back!
Kaye: What do you see as the pros and cons of independent publishing?
Tim: I’ve had this conversation with many people and I like to sum it up this way;
Independent publishing is a “good news/bad news” situation.
The good news is that anybody can publish a book – the bad news…anybody can publish a book.
The vast majority of indie authors produce quality work, however the fate of their work depends on the book buying public, so when potential readers read one of the few indie works that just wasn’t ready for publication (for whatever reason) they tend to paint all indie authors with the broad brush of low quality. So even though it’s very easy to have your work published, it’s very difficult to convince readers who have had a bad experience that your work is worthy of their money.
Kaye: How much work do you contract out? Book Covers? Editing? Etc…?
Tim: Everything!! I write it – then let others do the things I’m not qualified to do. This includes editing, formatting (for kindle and paperback) and cover design/layout. Many indie authors try to do these things themselves, but I would rather pay somebody to do it because I know they’ll do a much better job than I will and I won’t be wasting my time doing something that somebody else could do in half the time, leaving me more time for writing and marketing.
The most important one of the lot (in my opinion) is editing. Any money spent on a qualified editor is money well spent. Hiring your high school English teacher or a friend/relative who is “really good at English and reads a lot” will not give you a professional quality job.
Nobody knows more than me how difficult it is to fork out hundreds of dollars foran editor, but I want my books to be the best they can be.
Kaye: So, you’re saying self-published books that aren’t of good quality stigmatize the reputation of independently published books in general?
Tim: Yes. Readers, like all consumers, don’t want to waste money on sub-par products, so if they buy an indie book that is poorly written, edited or formatted they are likely to assume that this is the level of quality for all indie books.
Kaye: Do you think one of the major contributing factors to this stigma is authors who don’t want to spend money to have their books professionally edited? Or do you see other causes?
Tim: Absolutely. This is one of my biggest pet peeves. As I said above, many indie authors think editors are like dentists – a necessary evil. I think a qualified editor is more like a good tailor. You can buy a suit off the rack and it might look decent, but a suit that is professionally tailored will make you look outstanding – and people will notice the difference!
This is not to say there aren’t other causes.
People who write a book without trying to learn even the most basic “rules” lower the bar for all of us. I hate using the word rules, let’s say guidelines…whatever you want to call them – they are critical to producing a book that will make people want to read your next one. These days there is no excuse for not learning how to write a good book. There are a gazillion websites and blogs out there devoted to teaching people how to write – use them. Most of them are free.
But – the best way to learn how to write is to read. Learn from the good books as well as the bad…
Kaye: How much non-writing work, (marketing & promotion, illustrations & book covers, etc…), do you do yourself for your books?
Tim: I don’t have an exact number, but my conservative estimate is that for every hour I spend writing – I spend three hours marketing. I tell people all the time – writing the book is the easy part…selling it is where the work starts.
Kaye: Would you recommend your chosen path to publication, to emerging writers? Why or why not?
Tim: I’m not sure how to answer that – mostly because my path wasn’t chosen as much as it was found. I had no idea what I was doing – so I did lots of research – the most valuable of which was learning from other writers. So for any emerging writers who may be reading this I can only say this…there is a ton of information at your fingertips. The internet and especially social media can help you find the path best suited for you. Get out there and tap into it. Ask questions, do your research and learn from those who went before you.
I want to thank Tim for sharing his thoughts on the publishing industry and his advice with us. Be sure to check out next weeks interview with self-published author, Arthur Rosch, on Writing to be Read.
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“Under a Brass Moon”: A Cool Collection of Steampunk and Science Fiction Stories
Posted: October 7, 2016 Filed under: Book Review, Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Steampunk, Stories | Tags: Benjamin Spurduto, Book Review, Fiction, G.Miki Hayden, James Wymore, Jessica Gunn, Jordan Elizabeth, Short Fiction, Under a Brass Moon 1 Comment
Under A Brass Moon: A Sci-Fi Steampunk Anthology is not quite as big the last anthology by Curiosity Quills Press which I reviewed, Chronology, but it is still pretty big. Unlike Chronology, which was full of pleasant surprises for me, Under a Brass Moon was just what it promised to be in the title: a collection of sci-fi and steampunk stories, and every story had elements of one or both genres.
The biggest contributor is YA author Jordan Elizabeth, who had six stories featured. Included is a Cogling short story, Upon Which Victor Viper Sat, which is a steampunk ghost story. (See my review of Cogling here.) A cursed hotel, where spirits are trapped. When Lady Rachel Waxman’s chest of paper cranes is stolen from Edna, she is determined to get them back, even if it means she must face a cursed hotel with trapped spirits and a desperate boy, willing to do anything, even murder, to regain his family’s fortune. Maiden in the Clock Tower is a stand-alone love story, along the lines of a fairy tale, with a rather sweet Happily Ever After. The other four short stories are companion stories to her Treasure Chronicles series, of which I also had the pleasure of reviewing Treasure Darkly. They Call Her Treasure is a humorous piece, sure to rouse a chuckle or two, but the other three, Treasure in the Field, Run of the Treasure and The Other Face of Treasure fell short for me, as if they weren’t finished and the promise of the premise wasn’t quite fulfilled. It’s a problem I find a lot in writing short fiction.
The second biggest contributor is James Wymore, with four stories: Sherriff Anderson’s Steam Deputies, a steampunk western shootout with steam powered deputies; Gearhead, a story of victory from apparent defeat when a captured gearhead knight tricks the Baron and steals his captured war machine; Vault, a magical steampunk story of witches and wizards and trapped spirits; and The Dark Glass, a tale of Jinda, an orphan girl, and her brother, who dream of escape from the care of the mean old butler who has been assigned with their care, but when Jinda discovers the key that leads to the treasure their father left them and escape is close at hand, the story ends. Like the Treasure Chronicle short stories of Jordan Elizabeth, mentioned above, this short story fails to deliver on the promise of the premise.
One of the problems with short stories is that it is hard to get in a full story arc with so few words. Other stories from this collection which left me feeling there should be more include Talking Metal, by W. K. Pomeroy, Fritz Finkel and the Marvelous Mechanical Thing, by award winning author Lorna Macdonald Czarnota, (We get to see why the two can’t be together, the obstacles their love faces. We get to see the grand measures taken in leiu of courtship, because it is a short story. There is a realization that she feels the same way he does, but steps to achieve the goal are only alluded to. The reader is left feeling cheated and wanting more.), Lucky Escape for Goldilocks Girl, by Irish writer Perry Mcdaid, (This protagonist had the feel of a female steampunk Robin Hood, promising to be an exciting story, but alas, it falls short of delivering on the premise.), and Queen of Cobwebs, by Jeremy Mortis, (A mechanical spider vampire tale. The protagonist is not very proactive and is rescued by outside intervention. This tale had the potential to be really good, but didn’t follow through.) Another story that didn’t quite do the trick for me were Harvester, by poet and author Amberle L. Husbands, a story about sentient plants, which lost me totally.
Under the Brass Moon also features two steampunk time travel stories: A Connecticut Yankee in Queen Victoria’s Court, by G. Miki Hayden, and Hour of Darkness, by Ashley Pasco; and two steampunk spy stories: Kung Pow Chicken for Pygmalion, by fantasy and science fiction author D.J. Butler, and The Poison We Breathe, by Christine Baker. For a steampunk ghost story, check out Calliope, by award winning author Terri Karsten, and for a great not-love story, try Henry the Tailor, by Grant Eagar. Upcoming writer Nick Lofthouse also does a passable science fiction story where the future isn’t so promising in Vacant.
My favorite stories from Under the Brass Moon include The Iron Face of God, by freelance writer and author Benjamin Spurduto, which is a pretty good steampunk mystery. It kept my interest. The story didn’t really let on to the motive for the murders, but maybe that’s okay with this one.
Also on my favorites list is Ethereal Coil, by MG/YA novelist S.A. Larsen, where nothing is as it appears, and The Women of Lastonia, by Lorna Marie Larson, which is a science fiction story that takes readers to outer space and planets far away. A Gulliver’s Travels of outer space, but this starship crew break the first rule of space travel when they rebel against the planet’s distasteful laws, which dictate they give up one of their shipmates or interfere with the evolution of the alien species.
Last but not least, my favorite story from this collection is The Balloon Thief, by New Adult author Jessica Gunn, a steampunk heist story where everyone is after the treasure and no one is who they seem. This story is well written and quite enjoyable.
Overall, the stories in this collection were entertaining, but many of them left me disappointed just due to the fact that I didn’t feel they had a full story arc and there should have ben more. Even the ones which left me wanting more, were entertaining stories, though not all were enchanting. I give Under the Brass Moon three quills.
Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read, and she never charges for them. Have a book you’d like reviewed? Contact Kaye at kayebooth(at)yahoo(dot)com.
