SELF-PUBLISHERS AND PIRANHAS - Part 1 of 2

An excellent article by James N. Watkins appeared a few days ago in his newsletter. I asked him if I could share it with you, and he had no problem with that. I’m glad because every writer who considers self-publishing needs to be aware of the scams and poor choices they can make. Since this is a long article I will beginning and continue with a link so you can read it all. The next article will continue with Jim’s thoughts on the Realities of “Marketing.” Feel free to visit Jim’s site at http://www.jameswatkins.com/ to gain more of his wisdom,, and I thank him again for allowing me to share this with you.

Self-publishers and Piranhas
by James N. Watkins

This month, I received this letter from one of our readers:

“I had two books published with [a well-known self-publisher] and was impressed by their quality look (I designed the covers) but disappointed in their zero lack of editing for one of the books--they actually introduced errors into the text which I had to catch and change. And I had to rewrite all the copy for both books. I found out one reason the summary of the plot of one book was poorly written and inaccurate--the editor writing it hadn't read the book! And talk about hidden charges--lots of them. They did arrange lots of phone interviews for me but overall, being self-published killed most of my chances with people who would normally push a book--bookstores, libraries, etc.”

With fewer and fewer publishers publishing fewer and fewer titles by fewer and fewer authors, more and more people are turning to self-publishing. And more and more self-publishers are making more and more promises to get more and more business.

Here are some important questions to ask to separate the publishers from the piranhas and pariahs:

Is the Price Unbelievably Low?
Some publishers, such as lulu.com offer free publishing of your book and you pay a low price per copy. It's a great deal if—and only if—you have a friend who is a professional graphic designer who can create the cover and typeset the interior. Otherwise, you're stuck with tacky templates and a book interior that SCREAMS "self-published."

Other publishers offer unbelievably low prices, then say, "Oh, you want editing? That will be another $1,000." "And you want a custom-cover design? That will be another $1,000." "Oh, you want an ISBN and barcode so you can sell to book stores? That will be another . . ." Well, you get the idea. That low price quickly escalates with all the additional charges.

Are There No Posted Prices on the Publisher’s Web Site?
Many self-publishers offer complicated discount programs or refuse to post their prices. Those are red flags!

Does the Publisher Own the Rights to *Your* Work?
That's fine if you're working with a royalty publisher who is taking all the risks and wants exclusive use of the material (and will have the rights revert back to you once it goes out of print). But some self-publishers want YOUR rights when you're taking all the risks. One company wants exclusive rights for seven years, which means you can't go with another publisher during that period of time. Piranha!

Is the Publisher Offering “Co-op” Publishing?
Some self-publishing piranhas will promise that they have a market for, say, 2,500 books, but need the author to pay the cost of the first one thousand copies. The one thousand copies are printed for the author—often at inflated prices—but it's unlikely the publisher will print the other 1,500.

Does the Publisher Offer the Authors “Royalties” on the Book the *Author* Paid For?
Why shouldn't the author keep all the profit for the book they have paid for? Potential piranha!

(And, you can’t be too careful with so called “royalty” publishers. One well-advertised “royalty” publishers requires a 2,500 copy “royalty holiday.” You don’t get paid until your book sells 2,500 copies. Piranha!)

Does the Publisher Offer Marketing? Worldwide Distribution?
Some self-publishers will make big promises of marketing and distribution, but let's be very clear. Marketing sells VERY FEW books. It's word of mouth. For instance, The Shack's publisher spent $300 on marketing, but word of mouth sold nearly 4 million copies!

"Marketing" is often an empty promise. The AUTHOR is the marketer! Do you have a speaking ministry? A TV or radio show? A blog with tons of visits? If you don't have some way for you to market the book, all the publishers' marketing won't move books.

"Distribution" is another empty promise. Yes, book stores obtain books through distributors such as Ingrams, but distributors only provide AVAILABILITY. The author must provide the DESIRABILITY. Distributors, as the name implies only "distribute" to the desire created by the author. One self-publisher charges its authors $4,000 to make the book available to "thousands" of online book stores. (And that price doesn't include one single book!). Finally, distributors are going to want a 65 percent discount on your book.

It's an illusion that authors sit in their home offices and simply write. The vast majority of self-published books are going to sell from the back of the room. So spend that 65 percent on arranging speaking engagements. And set up a free online "shopping cart" such as fastcommerce.com to become your own distributor.

Don’t forget, the next blog will continue with Jim’s thoughts on the Realities of “Marketing”

Copyright © 2009 James N. Watkins from his WILL WRITE FOR FOOD resource site noted above.

Prompts That Help Inspire Ideas

I have sent out information that I hear about regarding various kinds of blogs or programs that provide stimulus for story ideas or creating characters. I have a few use on a regular basis, especially when I'm trying to find a better way to describe an emotion.

James Scott Bell, who writes excellent court suspense and other thrillers, often has great ideas on his Kill Zone Authors blog at http://www.killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/. A while ago he shared  a site that I found interesting and wanted to share with you.

Jim saw this site as providing insight into backstory for developing characterization, but I also see it as simulating plot ideas. Add your own six words and see what comes up. You can revise or delete. Or just read other people's comments under the various categories from life to love to happiness and more. See what happens. http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/

I hope it spurs on your creativity.

Moral Premise:Harnessing Virtue and Vice - Dr. Stanley D. Williams

I had the great pleasure of taking a course from Dr. Stanley D. Williams who is noted in the field of story and script consulting for film. His book The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice is a guide for writers of all fiction in any format. This book is a guide for every character arc and element of film craft, thus ensuing that the story is about one thing: pyschological vice leads to physical deteriment but psychological virtue leads to physical betterment. (Definiton is taken from his Moral Premise materials)

Stan provides a blog that is filled with material that will aid all writers in taking a fresh look at character development along with story structure.

I hope you will study the material found on these links and you will see how invaluable the information is. One thing he maintains is one that I've stressed numerous times: a book is first to entertain.
http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2010/06/first-entertain.html

Next to better understand Basis story structure in the light of the Moral Premise, you will want to read this:

http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2010/06/story-structure-basics.html#more

And finally, you might enjoy reading information that stemmed from the Q & A following the workshop that I attended on the Moral Premise.  http://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2011/09/acfw-workshop-slides-and-q-9-22-11.html#more 

I hope that you garner great material from an authory like Stan Williams. As I've said before, script writing techniques can provide amazing techniques for writing novels.  Enjoy.

Dissecting Your Novel - Part 2

Dissecting Your Novel - Part 1 covered three aspects of editing your own work with a fresh look to tighten and brighten your novels. The elements I covered were: Motivation-reaction unit, cause/effect arrangement of sentences, and the plight of using adverbs.

This post will continue with the last three elements:
• Placing the most important/emphatic in a sentence. Margie Lawson, Lawson Writer’s Academy http://www.margielawson.com/ and Strunk &White, The Elements of Style
• Use beats instead of tags. Browne and King, Self-editing For Fiction Writers
• Revise with scissors - Strunk & White, The Elements of Style

Ending With The Emphatic: Backloading
Margie Lawson presents workshops teaching a variety of courses to help author’s improve their writing. One of her presentations covers ending sentences with the most significant word called backloading. The most important or emphatic idea in each sentence should be given a place of prominence is also stressed in The Elements of Style, as noted above. As in any talk, speakers know that the last words they say are the ones remembered. Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death” is a prime example and J.F. Kennedy left us with his final remembered thought: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

In the same way, authors can read their narrative and dialogue with a discerning eye and structure sentences so that the prominent word ends the sentence. The important word receives the power.
Strunk and White’s example is:
Weak: This steel is principally used for making razors, because of its hardness.
Strong: Because of its hardness, this steel is principally used for making razors.

Weak: I get nauseous every time I look at him.
Strong: Every time I look at him I get nauseous.

Weak: With her spirit wavering, she shrugged off her attitude and enjoyed the scenery.
Strong: With her spirit wavering, she enjoyed the scenery and shrugged off her attitude.

Weak: Tears filled her eyes.
Strong: Her eyes filled with tears.

I hope these examples provide you with a better understanding of backloading sentences.

Beats Instead Of Tags
In Self-Editing For Fiction Writers, Shrunk and White present a chapter called “Easy Beats.” The chapter extols the use of beats (referring to character’s action or introspection) rather than using the typical dialogue attributes (tags), such as said and asked. The benefit of cutting the tags when you are able are many. Cutting tags allows tension to be more prominent.
For example: “Stop it,” she said, “you’re hurting me.”
Drop the she said. “Stop it. You’re hurting me.”
Notice the flow of the line helps to dramatize the tension. As long as the speaker is clear, you can present dialogue without any tags or beats. Yet a few beats add reality to the scene and illuminate a character. They also provide breathing space, giving the reader a break from the constant rifle shot of dialogue. Finally beats rather than dialogue tags create deeper POV when you remove the artificial words of said and asked. Please don’t use anything besides said and asked, except whispered if it’s needed. Anything else screams poor weak writing.

Revise With Scissors
In The Elements of Style, once again Strunk and White suggest an interesting way of revising your work. When you find serious flaws in the arrangement of your material, such as paragraphs that aren’t cohesive and information presented in an unlogical order, they recommend using scissors and cutting your dialogue or narrative into individual strips and then move them into a different arrangement patterns hoping to improve the paragraph(s). With computers, scissors are no longer needed, but they are still a possibility. Now you can copy and paste the problem paragraph or paragraphs to a new page and organize them into a list of sentences. This gives you the ability to reorganize your dialogue or narrative into a different arrangement with the hope of presenting the information in a more realistic and useful manner. Doing this you may find ways to combine sentences, cut phases or lines that are redundant, and place the information in a logical order. If after reorganizing you change your mind, you still have the original paragraphs in your original document.

These ideas will not save a bad novel, but they can improve a good one that just needs a little tuneup.