Roy Miller's Blog, page 288
January 29, 2017
Indie Publishers Launch Advocacy Organization
While the emphasis at Winter Institute typically is on booksellers and on authors, Dan Simon of Seven Stories Press and Tom Hallock of Beacon Press took advantage of twelfth annual gathering of book industry people to call a meeting of more than 50 independent publishers interested in forming an advocacy organization similar to the Association of American Publishers and the American Association of University Presses. The Independent Publishers Caucus will be under the aegis of the American Booksellers Association for the next year, and the ABA’s attorney has already provided the fledgling group with legal guidance to prevent them from breaking anti-trust laws.
“We’re delighted to provide assistance and guidance, the ABA’s Oren Teicher said, “The ABA regards this as within our mission. After all, the ABA is in the education business.”
Disclosing that he and Hallock were inspired by the ABA's aggressive advocacy of its membership against Amazon's business practices in recent years, Simon noted that there is a real need for a national association of indie presses that can “come together to raise our I.Q. as indie publishers,” to support and educate each other, and to advance the group’s interests both within and outside of the industry.
“Under the Trump presidency,” Simon added, “It’s going to be helpful to have an organization like this to defend its members and to speak together. Indie presses can be a bulwark for free speech in a way larger institutions can’t.”
“We can’t talk about pricing and discounts, and things like that,” Hallock pointed out, ”What we can talk about is trends, technological changes, and education.”
After the opening remarks by Simon, Hallock, and Teicher, the meeting -- with attendees representing such presses as Milkweed, Coffey House, Agate, and others -- veered between brainstorming on such prosaic matters as membership dues, forming a six-person steering committee, strategizing on print runs, and prioritizing issues of concern, to a presentation of lofty ideals surrounding diversity. George Gibson explained that successful publishing all boils down to managing inventory and the cash flow, while Lisa Lucas of the National Book Foundation spoke of the importance of making the publishing industry more inclusive, both as a marketing decision and a moral imperative.
“Many of you are already publishing diverse work,” she noted, urging the indie publishing community to act more aggressively to hire more diverse job candidates and to mentor them. “You have to do the work,” she said, to create an industry that is more welcoming to people of color and others from under-represented backgrounds.
“This is embarrassing. It’s actually shameful how homogeneous this community is,” Lucas said after asking for a show of hands of attendees who identify as people of color, with only three people responding in the affirmative.
“There’s a real marketplace reason” for reaching out more aggressively to people of color,” she noted, “”Beyond the moral: people of color have money to spend and people of color read books.”
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Extended Q&A with WD’s Self-Published Book Awards Winner
Horizon, by Tabitha Lord, is the grand-prize winning book in the 24th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards. It bested more than 2,300 entries from 55 countries across nine categories to take home a prize package that includes $8,000 and a trip to the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference in New York City. For complete coverage of this year’s awards, check out the March/April 2017 issue of Writer’s Digest. Click here for a complete list of winners from this year’s awards.
Tabitha Lord, 45, lives in Rhode Island, a few towns away from where she grew up. She’s married with four kids, two spoiled cats, and a black lab. Her degree is in Classics from College of the Holy Cross, and she taught middle school Latin for years at the Meadowbrook Waldorf School, where she now serves on the Board of Trustees. She also worked in the admissions office there before writing full time.
Her first novel, Horizon, was released in December 2015, and her short story “Homecoming” is featured in the anthology Sirens, published by World Weaver Press in July 2016. She’s currently working on a nonfiction collection of essays for a pediatric cancer awareness campaign titled Project 3.8, and is also a senior editor for the website Book Club Babble.
Can you describe Horizon for us? I’ve been asked to describe my book in ten words. Here’s what I came up with: Science fiction meets romance meets survival fiction meets military thriller!
Describe your writing process for this book. I’ve always had fragments of ideas floating in my head, and characters that would show up with names, occupations, and backstories, but I lacked confidence in my ability to create a complete story arc. It felt like such a daunting task, and it’s one of the reasons it took me so long to begin writing. Then, when my children got a little older and I was considering a career change, I had the opportunity to take on a year long, writing-intensive project for work. I thought, well, I’m in the habit of writing every day for work; can I take the time to write creatively every day as well?
I’d say that a key piece of my writing process for Horizon was to write every day. That type of discipline forced me to work through plot tangles, to understand that some days were bad writing days – and that was okay, and to prove to myself that I could finish something.
Once I completed the first draft, I popped a bottle of champagne! And then I realized pretty quickly that the draft needed a ton of work, so I hired a professional editor. She and I got the book into much better shape, and I felt like I could begin to consider publishing options.
Why did you choose self-publishing? What I failed to mention in the previous question is that after I finished the first draft, I went to the WD conference in NYC and pitched the manuscript to five agents during the pitch slam. All five asked to see it. Of course when I got home, I realized there was no way I should be sending it out in the shape it was in. Total rookie mistake! But what the pitch slam also taught me was that I had a good concept, a story that caught people’s attention, and it would be worth putting more time into it. That’s when I hired my first editor.
When I was satisfied that the manuscript was ready to pitch, I sent it out to a few agents at a time, and to a few small presses that would consider un-agented submissions. Within a couple of months, I had two offers from small presses. I didn’t sign. I knew if I did, I would still have to take responsibility for most of the marketing, sales, promotional, and platform building. And I knew I’d be losing control over some things I wasn’t willing to let go of. Right after I received those offers, I pulled the plug on querying altogether and decided to self-publish.
Everyone’s path to publishing is unique, and I’ve come to believe that there is no one right way to do it, only the way that works best for that author and that particular project. Ultimately, I chose to self-publish Horizon because I wanted control over the project timeline, the cover art, and the book design, and because I wanted to work with an editor who understood my vision for the story. Let me emphasize that I did not think I could do these things by myself! But rather, I wanted to choose the people I’d be working with.
Maybe this is a good place for a shout out to those folks. Grateful thanks to Laura Zats of Wise Ink, who was my first editor and who later helped guide me through the publishing process. She also taught me when and where I should be investing my time, energy, and funds. Thanks also to Amanda Rutter, my fabulous editor, and Steven Meyer-Rassow, my amazing and uber-talented cover artist.
There are compelling reasons to self-publish. But choosing this path is an investment. I knew I was essentially starting a small business. For some writer’s – like me, this is exciting. For others, it’s terrifying.
Describe the process of publishing this book. The keys parts of the publishing process for Horizon included an extensive round of developmental edits, with an editor who specialized in science fiction, and then a final round of beta reads.
While editing, I was simultaneously collaborating with my cover artist. One of the things we discussed initially was the fact that Horizon would be a trilogy, and we’d like to “brand” the series somehow. So in addition to amazing cover artwork, he created a title treatment that will carry through and give all the future Horizon books a cohesive look. He also did the interior design work and formatting.
Just before Horizon went to print, it was copyedited and proofread. Finally it was uploaded for e-book distribution and sent to the printer!
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced self-publishing? Writing creatively is a very different experience from working in the business of publishing. For sure the biggest challenge I’ve faced as a self-published author is time. There just isn’t enough of it when you’re in charge of all aspects of your project! But I’ve learned quite a bit over the years. I have to say no to some things I’d really like to do or try. I have to be realistic about what I can accomplish in a day. I have to work with a structured calendar that includes time for creative writing, strategic planning, and taking care of business items like accounting, marketing, and social media. And I’ve learned that things always take longer than I think!
What are the most important benefits of self-publishing? For me the benefits of self–publishing are mostly the same things that made me want to take that path in the first place. I have control over what’s most important to me, and I can adjust my course if something is working or not working. The failures are mine, but then so are the successes!
What surprised you about the self-publishing process? By the time I chose the self-publishing option, I’d done a ton of research, spoken with other writers, and really thought it through. Not much has been a surprise. I thought it would be a lot of work, and it is. I thought the business side of it would be exciting, and it is. I believed I could surround myself by industry professionals to help me grow and learn, and I have.
What are the biggest misconceptions about self-publishing? One misconception about self-publishing is that authors choose this route only if and when they can’t get a traditional deal. That isn’t true anymore. The first professional writer I spoke with had been traditionally published for years, and he encouraged me to do it myself. He, in fact, was going to self-publish his next book. I recognized that his was a different scenario than mine since he already had an audience and a platform, but it was the first time I considered that there might be an interesting business side to this whole thing.
Another misconception is that self-published books aren’t good quality. While that certainly can be true, a whole industry of free-lance editors, cover artists, marketing specialists, and social media consultants has risen up to support self-publishing authors. There’s really no excuse for a book not to be good quality!
What’s your advice to other self-publishing authors? Don’t cut corners! Your book should be as well edited as a traditional author’s book, your cover art compelling, and your business dealings professional. And I firmly believe you can accomplish this within a reasonable budget.
What’s the worst mistake that self-publishing authors can make? If the author’s goal is to write for an audience wider than family and friends, then a big mistake is to not understand how much work this will be. But I think the worst mistake a self-published author can make is to put a book into the world before it’s ready. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of making the book dream happen, and it’s tempting to rush the process along. I think we all struggle to know for certain we’ve reached the final draft, and at some point, we have to just do it and stand behind our work, but that’s a really different thing than publishing an unpolished manuscript. Just because we now have the freedom to publish anything we want doesn’t mean we should!
If you were to self-publish again, what is one thing you’d do differently? The one thing you’d do the same? Well, I’m about to self-publish again! Horizon’s sequel will be released this spring. The biggest thing I did differently was to create a longer pre-release window. I made a six-month plan for marketing and promotion vs. the three-month plan I’d developed for Horizon’s release. Otherwise, I’m working with the same team that helped me with Horizon. They’re talented and fabulous. They know my story and they know me. Why mess with a good thing?
How long have you been writing? How did you start? I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I loved to write stories as a child. In fact, when I was sorting through some of my grandma’s things after she passed, I came across a whole collection of poetry and stories I’d written. It was very sweet. In my professional life I’d written some ad copy, blog posts, and done some editing for school publications, but I had very little time or energy for creative writing, and I had that crippling notion that I couldn’t write a whole book.
Then, while I was in the middle of the work project I mentioned earlier, I just sat down and started writing Horizon. I remember the exact day. I was spending the weekend with my best friend. I woke up early, sat on her couch under a blanket, and opened my laptop. Nine months later, I finished the first draft. Being a mom, the significance of that timeline isn’t lost on me!
What are the challenges of writing in the science fiction genre? With science fiction, or any kind of speculative fiction really, it’s the writer’s job to convince the reader to join them on a journey, to a believably unbelievable world – a world we’ve created. To do that well, we have to make “rules” of magic or science or witchcraft or whatever, and we have to be consistent with them. I think successful world building is one of the biggest challenges in writing science fiction. When it’s done well, it’s seamless. When it’s done poorly, it pulls the reader right out of the story.
What elements do you think make a successful science fiction novel? Well, there are different kinds of science fiction. I’m writing what I like – space opera. So for me, the characters and their journey are particularly important. I sometimes tell people that Horizon is a story about the French resistance movement of WWII, but set on another planet. I like playing with the idea of what makes a hero. Who takes a stand against the enemy, what decisions do they make when civilization is falling apart, and how are they affected by it all? My characters have to suffer, fall down, fall in love, and most of all evolve. If I’ve done a good job, readers will want to follow them into the next book!
Also, an important element for any science fiction novel, as I mentioned early, is world building. Readers have to become immersed and invested in the civilization I’ve created.
Do you write in any other categories or genres? Yes! I’ve recently had a fantasy story, titled “Homecoming,” published by World Weaver Press in the anthology Sirens. I’ve also worked on some non-fiction projects. As a senior editor for Book Club Babble, I interview other authors and review new books. I’ve also spent months working with kids with cancer and their families for an awareness campaign called Project 3.8. Non-fiction is a very different kind of writing, but no less rewarding.
What advice has had the biggest impact on your success in life and as an author? In college I had a professor who advised us that when choosing our careers we should consider doing something we loved, and also something we were good at. That advice took a while to percolate, but now I really see the wisdom in it. If we don’t love our work, it will become drudgery. Likewise, if we have limited skills in the field we’ve chosen, it will be a constant up hill battle. Another motto I really like: hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. For my writing career at least, these two ideas have provided good guidance and motivation.
What does a typical day look like for you? I’m an obsessive-compulsive planner. I have a daily to-do list, a monthly project list, and I live by my calendar. I try to hit four power yoga classes per week, and although I don’t work at the school anymore, I am a Board member now and I work on a few committees, so I have to plan those things in as well. The kids who still live at home have activities and need to be fed, so there’s that!
Generally, I work out in the morning, come home and shower, and then dive into my to-do list. Some days I have meetings or phone calls, but other days I can log uninterrupted hours of creative writing. Once the kids are home, the afternoon is hectic but I can usually get in another couple of hours of work. It’s usually not creative work though. I use that time to deal with social media, answer emails, and tackle other tasks that don’t require a quiet space!
Describe your typical writing routine. When I’m working on a draft, I try to work on it every day, at least for a little while. I start by reviewing my writing from the day before and making minor edits. Then I work for several consecutive hours. I need at least two hours, preferably four, to get my imagination flowing and to have any success writing new material. When I’m finished with my work in progress for the day, I like to leave it knowing what scene I’ll be working on the next day.
What are the keys that have made your book a success? A good idea, a good editor, and a good cover artist! Also, I started building my author platform over a year before my book was released.
Why do you write? I write because I love to. The stories just keep flowing, and I don’t think I could stop now if I tried!
What’s the one thing you can’t live without in your writing life? Are tea and chocolate acceptable answers?
What do you feel are your strengths as a writer? How have you developed these qualities? I’ve been told I write strong dialogue. I may have developed this skill by chasing my family members around the house, wielding early drafts of manuscripts and asking, “Does this sound natural?” I also really like writing action scenes. They’re exciting and flow easily for me.
I think being an avid reader is important for any writer. We learn what works and what doesn’t; we get caught up in a scene and think later – wow, that was really well done! So I read a lot. I also attend workshops and conferences, and I have a group of beta readers that challenge me to do better. But mostly, I work on my writing skills by writing more.
What are some aspects of writing you’ve struggled with? How have you worked to strengthen yourself in these areas? I have to admit that I struggle with putting my characters into really messy spots. As a reader, when I get too stressed by a suspenseful plot, I’ll actually read to the end of the book and then come back once I know how everything turns out. I know it’s cheating! But seriously, as a writer, I don’t want to tie everything up in a neat bow. That’s not life, and it doesn’t make for a very interesting read. So, with the book I’m writing now, I’ve purposely written my characters into plot tangles, and then I’ve made myself sit in the mayhem for a while before figuring a way out.
What’s your proudest moment as a writer? I think holding the first copy of my book, fresh from the printer, was my proudest moment as a writer. Winning this award is a pretty close second though!
What are your goals as a writer? The most important goal for me, as a writer, is to tell a good story. I write because I have to get these stories out of my head and onto the paper, but I also write for my readers. I hope people fall in love with my characters and lose themselves in the plot. I hope they’re transported to different worlds. I hope they open my book and time flies away. This is what I want when I read, and I hope I can provide that experience for my readers.
Any final thoughts or advice? Here’s some good advice I’ve received that I’m happy to pass along:
First, finish something. A bad draft is better than no draft.
Second, a first draft is nowhere near the finished product. This was shocking to me as a first time novelist – although it shouldn’t have been! I knew edits were going to happen, but I had no idea how much work they would be. If I had to estimate, I would say that writing the first draft was only about one-third of the work. Editing and working through the business side of publishing made up the other two-thirds. What’s fun though, or at least what’s satisfying about the post first-draft phase, is transforming the story from a rambling, exhaustive, stream of consciousness manuscript, to a work that has structure, flow, and even some artistry. I’ve learned so much about the craft of writing through editing.
And finally, keep writing. Even when you feel stuck. Even when it’s a bad writing day. Even when you want to toss the whole mess! Keep writing. It’s worth it.
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On Falling Out of Love with Punk (and in Love with Books)
“Lyrical” is the word I hear most often when I offer up my writing for critique. I’m not a songwriter or a poet but for seven years, music was the only thing that mattered to me. So it’s no surprise that my first attempt at creative writing ended up with its own soundtrack—a novel with each chapter named for a song, with its respective lyrics written in the margins. That wasn’t the plan but I couldn’t think of a better way to get those songs out of my head.
I cannot write without music, even when pressing my fingerprints onto plastic keys is the only sound in the room. I cannot quote any books or poems, but there is a library in my head. It’s slowly, sadly fading, not nearly as robust or insistent as it was when I was younger, but there are still so many songs suspended in my memory. I can conjure them or they can come out at will. Those lyrics slip and tangle on the page in sly references and stolen phrases, bubbling like inside jokes or the tender embrace of a childhood friend—long lost and irreplaceable. (Can you tell which part of that sentence I lifted from the name of a song?)
Peppering my writing with quiet shout-outs is an inversion of the uncanny feeling of stumbling across things in books that I once thought were the work of beloved bands. Seeing Bukowski’s Hot Water Music on a shelf drums up more for me than most of his readers, because I also adore the band who took their name from the short story collection. In high school, I underlined the “A boot stomping a human face forever” in my public library’s copy of 1984. I wrote Bad Religion’s name next to it, thrilled to find a familiar song title in the classic text. I hope someone read what I wrote and gave them a listen.
I once bought a Nelson Algren book after Dillinger Four dropped his name in a song. I began a ninth grade essay on Romeo and Juliet with an epigraph by The Lawrence Arms. Assigned The Tempest the next year, I chose my stalwart Bad Religion. It was the Crass album, not The Bible, that taught me the meaning of the feeding of the 5,000.
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In college, I was self-righteous after serendipitously rereading Lolita on the heels of the new album by The Menzingers, my then-favorite band. The less-obvious Nabokov references on On the Impossible Past (like its title) playfully slapped me in the face. The next time I saw them in concert, in the back room of a Middle Eastern restaurant on the edge of LA, I screamed along to their versions of his words and tried not to drown in the crowd. I smiled. I was one of the lucky ones, in on the secret.
Like punk rock, literature is a kind of subculture. Most people can’t be bothered to dive in. Hopefuls can be dissuaded when a longtime member’s protective passion reads as exclusivity. But ask anyone who’s fallen hard for one and they’ll tell you—becoming part of an art scene will change your life (that’s not to say it won’t ruin it later). The communities spawned in these spaces are self-sustaining and addictive, inviting and demanding of intertextual references, nods to peers, and acknowledgements of their own history. All so you can fall in love again and again. If you love Martin Amis, then you have to read Zadie Smith. If you love Built to Spill, then you have to hear Forth Wanderers. Knowing every journal that originally published Alice Munro’s short stories is akin to being able to rattle off every band Mikey Erg plays in. Bonus points if you can name which record labels house those bands.
I fell for punk in an instant, hard and hungry like only a 13-year-old could. But I didn’t like to write, at least not at first. Starting stings until I find my rhythm. The only way I know how to approach deadlines and make word counts is by listening to the same album for hours on end. The revolution of a record stuck on an endless loop is in the way it blurs and emphasizes the passage of time. It pushes it forward and lets it stand still, always moving, if only in a circle.
In 2016, I read 110 books, including a handful of unpublished manuscripts (my own, a friend’s, and submissions to the publishing house where I work). Completing my English degree two years ago meant liberation from required reading. I envisioned a return to my childhood, spent behind stacks of books growing taller than me; we pushed up against the public library’s per-person limit while my mother (a writer, a reader) and older brother (a writer only) took out texts in my name.
But at 21, I could not, in good faith, return to my adolescent ways of reactive, short-sighted identity-making through the cultural products I favored. I had been a deliberately antiquated teenager, hell-bent on acquiring a classically discerning taste. Great, “serious” literature was the standard I imposed on myself. I was a black girl who thought myself revolutionary for reading canonically. I worshipped the agreed-upon greats. I wanted more men, more white men. I endeavored to consume them before they could consume me. Now David Mitchell and Jonathan Franzen can wait. Kaitlyn Greenidge and Han Kang are at the top of my list.
Growing up also meant losing my sixth sense, discovering that my capacity for and interest in merely feeling were not in fact bottomless. I grew exhausted from all the loving I’d done. In 2016, I went to one show. At every turn, I have been hyper aware of the decline in my concert attendance, in my failure to listen to every new album, form an opinion of every new band, dig my heels further into the space I carved out for myself on the front lines.
I barely believe it when I tell myself I am myself, with or without my music. Imagine biting down to find that you no longer love pizza. The loss of a purely instinctual sensory pleasure, once transcendent in the grace of its reliable simplicity. Cheese, sauce, bread. Three chords and the truth. Imagine disillusionment in the crust. Even worse is admitting that it isn’t the end of the world.
It isn’t just that I aged. Something else must have happened. I won’t blame my boyfriend, but in the face of his reciprocal version, I started weaning myself off the unrequited love I was addicted to. What was I thinking? My one-sided admiration of the songs themselves, if not the men making them, had been so safe. It was unreturnable, rejection impossible, and I wallowed in the glamour of all that tragedy. I had no interest in being loved back, in music having agency beyond that which I assigned to it. All music is like that, no matter how many face-to-face interactions musicians share with fans. We take the music and lyrics we are given and make them into the soundtracks of our own lives. We appropriate music like no other art.
I fell out of love with punk, slowly and steadily, eyes closed, head shaking in denial then basking in relief, like only an adult could. The routine erred towards boring, overshadowing the comfort it afforded me. I knew everything about it, but no matter how much I loved every little thing, I feared there would never be anything new. We were together for seven years. I still know its number; sometimes I call just to hear its voice. I hope at the end of all this we can still be friends. No other genre will ever tempt me the way it did, and for that, I am grateful. There is only so much room in my heart.
I didn’t have to choose between reading and listening to music, but I did. I read during my commute and my lunch hour, 120 minutes a day. That’s enough time for three or four albums.
I write rarely, at home with headphones on. I’m self-conscious in the quiet, where I can hear rejection looming and the throbbing footsteps of writer’s block approach. Like fear, my own writing is an instinct I’m reluctant to honor. But with music on, I can manage a delicate dance of listening to myself and someone else at the same time—even if the song is instrumental. With someone else making noise I can hide what I have to say until it’s perfectly polished and I’m ready to speak up.
Being a music fan (geek) clued me into another way of thinking. In the time I spent studying literature, songs kept bumping up against the pages. The discord reminded me how many ways there are to tell a story. Sometimes it even turned to harmony. I will always be jealous of musicians, wondering why I got stuck writing—just words, not music—instead. Why I’ve been condemned to reading while they get to play. But I’m learning to make the best of it. I think I found my own way to sing.
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The Power of a Series
The first impulse to revisit the Gresham family came from a review of my romance novel The Bargain that praised its “funny family relations.” I’d really enjoyed writing about the hero’s five brothers as I told the tale of the youngest son of the Duke of Langford. I was glad to see them appreciated, but even though the plot had touched on some of the details of their wooing, it wasn’t until later that I wondered, why didn’t each brother have a full love story all his own?
They certainly deserved more, and they were all different enough to offer unique story possibilities. Nathaniel, Viscount Hightower, the responsible eldest son, carried the burden of his distinguished heritage. Sebastian, the dashing cavalry major, had met his match in the lovely Lady Georgina. Randolph, the ambitious clergyman, needed just the right sort of wife for a rising churchman. Robert, the suave town beau, had been unexpectedly beguiled by a bluestocking. James, the naval officer, back from sailing the South Seas, thought he was ready to settle down. I started to get all sorts of ideas.
I’d also noticed that readers seem more fond of series than standalones. They enjoy following a set of characters through several books, a bit like stopping by to visit friends and hearing what everyone’s up to lately. So a new series seemed like a good idea. I got the go-ahead from my publisher, and I set off to craft an interconnected set of books.
Right away, I discovered that writing a series was quite different from writing a standalone. The first and trickiest part is keeping track of all the details.
I was used to telling a story one time, over several hundred pages—managing one plot line, a single time sequence (with maybe a few flashbacks), and one set of secondary characters. When the book was done, it was over. No need to remember any particular step of that story.
But now I was planning five inter-related books, which meant five times the words, incidents, references—and many more opportunities to lose track of details. Who said what, when? Where did I say Sebastian was when Nathaniel went to Brighton? When Robert and James meet up in London, what’s the season? I didn’t want to find that I’d set a scene in July in one book and then mentioned it as happening in August in another. Also, The Bargain was already out there. I had to make sure I carried through what it promised in terms of characters and adventures.
I created a detailed grid for the six brothers and their respective love interests. It has headings for character descriptions, chronology, the main incidents in each book, and minor players who enter and exit the different plots. As I write (I’m on book four right now), I take care to add new information as things unfold and check with what’s already there. If I lose track of a Gresham, I can turn to this reference and set myself straight.
That done, I began the balancing act of series writing. Each of the five stories needed to stand on its own, even as it was interwoven with the others. Some people will read a series out of order; I didn’t want to disappoint or confuse those readers. They should feel as rewarded as those who follow the books in order. Fortunately, romance offers a natural way to accomplish this. Each Gresham brother has a particular love story and finds his own happy ending in the closing pages of one of the volumes. Some of his brothers may still be struggling—a lure, if you will, into later books—but there’s no need to look any further to enjoy the denouement.
With these technical matters in hand, I was able to relax into the fun part of writing a series: hanging out with my characters for much longer than usual. I didn’t need to imagine a whole new set of people for each novel. I was settled in with a group I knew, with all their quirks and history. Some events suggested in The Bargain have been a joy to expand and explain. (And some have been more of a slog.) Probably my favorite thing, though, is dropping hints about what’s going on with absent brothers, which will later be told at length in their books.
All in all, I’m delighted with rejoining the Gresham family and looking deeper into their lives. It could be the series route for me from now on!
Jane Ashford is an author of historical romances. She lives in Los Angeles.
A version of this article appeared in the 01/11/2016 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: When a Standalone Begs for More
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Short Training for Your Long Game: Recommended Reading
In the March/April 2017 Writer’s Digest, StoryADay founder Julie Duffy shares how and why short stories can be a fabulous creativity tool, even for writers who are primarily working on a novel. Drawing on experiences from acclaimed writers who ascribe to this practice, including Hugo Award–winning short fiction writer and novelist Mary Robinette Kowal, she emphasizes the importance of reading fiction in the short form as well as experimenting with writing it.
In this bonus online-exclusive reading list, Duffy and Kowal offer up some of their favorite stories that are a good size, a little bit odd, and pack an emotional punch—handpicked to spark your creativity.
“The Appropriation of Cultures” by Percival Everett
“If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” by Rachel Swirsky
“The Fog Horn” by Ray Bradbury
“Instructions” by Neil Gaiman
“The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal
“Laws Concerning Food and Drink; Household Principles: Lamentations of the Father” by Ian Frazier
“Orange” by Neil Gaiman
“Sticks” by George Saunders
“Strike and Fade” by Henry Dumas
“The Standard of Living” by Dorothy Parker
“Subsoil” by Nicholson Baker
“They’re Made Out of Meat” by Terry Bisson
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CATEGORIES
Writer’s Digest Magazine March/April 2017 Online Exclusives
The post Short Training for Your Long Game: Recommended Reading appeared first on Art of Conversation.
January 28, 2017
An Incomplete Dossier of Evidence That Donald Trump Doesn’t Read
Donald Trump doesn’t read. This may seem inconceivable for a president, particularly after eight years of President Obama—but more likely, considering the president in question, the information does not shock you. Honestly, it seems as though every day there’s a new piece of evidence that underscores our terrifying suspicion (one among many) that we may have a president who, despite his claims, has never read an entire book from beginning to end, and so I have collected a few of them here. Now, of course, one might ask: does Trump have to be a reader? Aren’t there intelligent, productive, good people who never read a single book of their own accord? I guess, probably. But he isn’t one of them. He proves it every day. At any rate, on to the Evidence.
The Evidence:
1. His empty bookshelves. Yesterday, Chris Hayes tweeted this photo “of a bookcase in what’s called the Old State Department Library in the EEOB.” As Hayes says, “Notice the books.”
A contact sends along a picture of a bookcase in what’s called the Old State Department Library in the EEOB. It’s the first thing you see pic.twitter.com/o4hNMkyDJr
Article continues after advertisement–Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 26, 2017
2. The only book he’s ever been spotted with is his own. From Axios: “He’s not a book guy: In fact, some advisers say they don’t recall seeing him read one or even talking about one beyond his own, The Art of the Deal. And, as he told us, he’s not one for long reports or detailed briefings. One page usually suffices. Bullet points are even better. But he does consume—often in huge doses—lots of traditional media.”
3. He is just too busy (reading magazines). Especially magazines with his own face on them. From a Washington Post profile published in July:
“He has no time to read, he said: “I never have. I’m always busy doing a lot. Now I’m more busy, I guess, than ever before.”
Trump’s desk is piled high with magazines, nearly all of them with himself on their covers, and each morning, he reviews a pile of printouts of news articles about himself that his secretary delivers to his desk. But there are no shelves of books in his office, no computer on his desk.”
4. He actually can’t name any books. As in this transcript from the aforementioned interview with Axios: “I like a lot of books. I like reading books. I don’t have the time to read very much now in terms of the books, but I like reading them. This one is just one that just came out. CNN. The CNN book just came out. I hear it’s doing well.”
5. But when he thinks real hard, he cites a certain high school classic as his favorite (dead giveaway). From a Hollywood Reporter profile on Trump published in June:
“Before Trump trundles off to bed—actually, before that, never too tired, he plans to watch himself on Kimmel—I ask that de rigueur presidential question, which does not seem yet to have been asked of him. “What books are you reading?”
He knows he’s caught (it’s a question that all politicians are prepped on, but who among his not-bookish coterie would have prepped him even with the standard GOP politician answer: the Bible?). But he goes for it.
“I’m reading the Ed Klein book on Hillary Clinton”—a particular hatchet job, which at the very least has certainly been digested for him. “And I’m reading the book on Richard Nixon that was, well, I’ll get you the exact information on it. I’m reading a book that I’ve read before, it’s one of my favorite books, All Quiet on the Western Front, which is one of the greatest books of all time.” And one I suspect he’s suddenly remembering from high school. But what the hell.”
6. He gets up at 6 am—to watch television. And The New York Times is (delightfully, snootily) on it: “But his meetings now begin at 9 am, earlier than they used to, which significantly curtails his television time. Still, Mr. Trump, who does not read books, is able to end his evenings with plenty of television.”
7. Oh wait, someone has reported him reading one book. But it’s My New Order, a book of Hitler’s collected speeches. So, I don’t know. Can we responsibly count that?
The post An Incomplete Dossier of Evidence That Donald Trump Doesn’t Read appeared first on Art of Conversation.
In Memoriam: Dave Dutton
One of Southern California’s most famous and respected booksellers, Dave Dutton, the former owner of Dutton’s Books in North Hollywood, died at home on January 13 after a long illness. He was 79.
The store’s loyal customers would never have confused Dutton’s Books with a Barnes & Noble, with its wide aisles, orderly book displays, and plush-carpeted splendor. Dutton’s was a hodgepodge of books strewn on shelves, tables, and the cluttered floor. But it was that very haphazard and old-fashioned style that longtime customers found charming and comfortable—the antithesis of chain store slick.
Dave became a masterful bookseller at the Laurel Canyon Boulevard store and always seemed to know where each and every beloved volume was hidden among the nooks and crannies of his small kingdom. He combined infinite book knowledge with an even temperament, and always exhibited patience and genuine caring toward his customers.
His parents, Bill and Thelma Dutton, who opened their store in 1961 and joined the ranks of such legendary local booksellers as Vroman, Fowler, Zeitlin, Epstein, Dawson, and Hunter, paved the way for a family business that would last for almost half a century. Three of the Dutton children played vital roles in continuing the legacy: Dave and his brother Doug were both dedicated, popular booksellers in Southern California, and sister Dory continues to be a successful publishers’ sales rep in the West.
Dave returned from study and travel abroad in the 1970s to run his parents’ store. He had promised to stay for only a year, but ultimately began a bookselling career that lasted decades.
My job as a book sales rep had me visiting the store several times a year. The atmosphere at Dutton’s always reminded me of the old sitcom Cheers. When customers walked in the front door, they were often greeted by name and were made to feel that the store was their second home. Dave was a hands-on bookseller who enjoyed the challenge of matching his customer with the right book.
In later years the store was forced to contend with the stark realities of the changing book business. Dave and his wife Judy, who helped run Dutton’s, decided to close the North Hollywood store in 2006 and opted to warehouse many of the remaining 50,000 volumes and sell their inventory online. They bought real estate in Washington State, which became their second home.
I’ll always remember one particular visit to the store many years earlier that epitomized the spirit and essential mission of Dave Dutton as a bookseller. That day there was a dozen customers quietly perusing the shelves as I entered the back door from the parking lot. Among them I noticed CBS News anchor Connie Chung sitting on the floor in the travel section surrounded by stacks of guidebooks about Greece and Turkey.
Suddenly the engine of a Harley on the street just outside the front door revved up and shattered the tranquility of the summer afternoon. All eyes turned to the front door as a burly, unkempt man entered, taking off his motorcycle helmet to reveal shoulder-length hair and a dark scraggly beard. Dave quickly approached the menacing-looking stranger and asked if he needed help. The Hell’s Angel wannabe looked curiously around the store and asked meekly, “Do you have poetry books in here?”
Dave chuckled as the tension in the room dissolved and he put his uncomfortable guest at ease. He pointed toward the back wall and said, “Follow me, and I’ll show you more poetry books than you ever imagined.” Dave led him to the poetry section and said, “By the way, I’m Dave.” The two shook hands and Dave said: “Pull up a chair. I’d like to introduce you to a man named Dylan Thomas.”
I shook my head in awe and smiled as I made my way to the back office. I could hear Dave’s strong baritone voice in the background reading aloud to his new friend: “Do not go gentle into the good night,/ Old age should burn and rave at close of day;/ Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Bob Vickrey was a sales rep for Houghton Mifflin for 36 years before retiring in 2008. He now writes for several Southwestern newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle.
A version of this article appeared in the 01/30/2017 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: In Memoriam: Dave Dutton
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Julie Murphy: How I Write
The success of Julie Murphy’s debut novel Side Effects May Vary created great anticipation for her follow up Dumplin’. The book quickly took the top spot on the New York Times best-seller list for YA. A former library youth programs coordinator, Murphy writes with a keen sense of teenage sensibilities and dialogue. She first experimented with screenwriting, but quickly realized YA is a natural fit for her. The self-taught writer has earned critical and popular acclaim for her unconventional characters, original storylines and prose that conveys authenticity. In Side Effects May Vary, she went against the grain and chose a nonlinear format and a somewhat unlikable main character. Both were wise choices that effectively drove the story. In Dumplin’, Murphy features the overweight protagonist Willowdean. Rather than taking the traditional plot route revolving around body insecurity and constant dieting, Murphy drew a self-confident character. Themes of friendship, love and family are the focus and are tackled with a skilled combination of humor and depth.
Nonlinear format
It was organic for me to piece the story together as I went. I was very much a novice when I wrote that first draft and the style worked for me and my thought patterns. I think the best thing writers can do is allow themselves to make mistakes. Play with different styles and formats. If you can let yourself be wrong, you’ll definitely know when you’re right.
Second book expectations
I did feel a lot of pressure leading up to the release, but I’ve quickly learned that I can only control the writing. All I can do is write a better book and one that I’m proud of. I can’t meet everyone’s expectations, but I can strive to meet my own.
Unexpected protagonist
Growing up, I was always thirsty for heroines like Willowdean. As a fat girl and now a fat woman, I’m always excited to see heroines I can relate to, but I’m all too familiar with the disappointment of being misrepresented. When I decided to write a book about a fat character, I knew without a doubt that I didn’t want the character arc to be tied to the protagonist “fixing” her body, but instead I wanted to create a character whose journey centered on loving the body she has.
Working from home
I do work from home, and time management is not my strongest suit, especially when I’m juggling the various marketing demands that come with publishing. Most people don’t realize that very little of writing full time is actually writing. I would love to eventually find some kind of office space away from home to help me better divide my work life from my personal life, because right now that balance is something I’m struggling with.
Writing YA characters
The key to nailing the YA voice is remembering that teens aren’t these aliens we so often make them out to be. They experience heartbreak and joy and loss and anxiety and everything else adults do. Sure, sometimes those emotions are heightened, because everything is turned up to 10 when you’re feeling it for the first time. But teens are capable of being rational and deliberate. You’ve got to take all that into account when you’re formulating voice.
Starting approach
I really try to have setting and my main cast of characters fully realized before drafting. That’s the biggest thing for me. I’m required to send synopses to my editor, but I often stray. I never know the exact ending, but I’m always aware of what kind of taste I want to leave in the reader’s mouth, if that makes sense.
Allison Futterman is a freelance writer based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Diversity is a Problem Seemingly Without Solution
If Bad Feminist author Roxane Gay, whose collection of short stories, Difficult Women is just out, was tired when she gave the early morning opening keynote of Winter Institute 12 (being held Jan. 27-30) at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis, it wasn’t evident from the tenor of her tone or message.
Gay's address came just days after she created headlines and more industry introspection when she pulled her up coming book, How to Be Heard, from Simon & Schuster in protest of the signing of a book by controversial Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos by S&S imprint Threshold Editions.
Gay did not mention her decision to pull the book in her remarks. Rather, in a speech that made ample use of the F-bomb, Gay spoke about how she knew she would be asked to talk about diversity, something black people are asked to talk about to offer good white people absolution. She thought, wrote, tossed out, and wrote again, she said as she explained why she dislikes the word “diversity,” which is imprecise and overused.
“It’s a problem seemingly without solution, and here we are talking about it yet again. I’m so tried of talking about diversity,” Gay said. She pointed to the number of people of color who write, but get rejection letters, which they’ve forwarded to her that say “there’s already a Roxane Gay.” “We are many,” she added, ‘but somehow publishing can’t seem to find us.”
Publishers can’t seem to find enough people of color to work in their offices either, nor can bookstores find people of color. “[People] don’t really want to do what it takes, to invest money,” Gay said.
From a very young age, Gay’s mother took her to bookstores: the Little Professor in Omaha, Neb., B. Dalton, Walden, Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million. “Throughout my life, books have been my best friend,” she said. As a child she found sanctuary in reading. In this “rising age of disgrace,” she added, that now she’s trying to offer sanctuary with her writing and activism.
After the election, she thought about language. The election proved that love does not Trump hate. “Language matters, and sometimes, like diversity, it becomes an empty container. We need to get uncomfortable,” said Gay, describing herself as a black bisexual woman, a Haitian-American, a Libra.
The day after the election, Gay was in an independent bookstore. While bookstores have always been community spaces, she said that it is even more important now for bookstores to be community spaces and to be inclusive.
“I’m just a writer,” said Gay. “I don’t have access to magical Negro wisdom that white people don’t have access to. Everything is now political. We have the responsibility to make the political personal.”
Gay called on booksellers to learn from Boswell Book Company in Milwaukee, where owner Daniel Goldin reached out to the black community when she made an appearance there so that every face in the audience was not white, and from black bookstores like Eso Won Books in Los Angeles and Source Booksellers in Detroit.
Circling back to diversity, said Gay, “I’m not going to provide the answers or absolution. You can get political. You can get uncomfortable. You are the stewards of sacred spaces. Rise to the occasion. Rise.”
Booksellers responded with a standing ovation. As ABA president Betsy Burton, co-owner of The King’s English in Salt Lake City remarked afterwards, "Gay gave us the kick we need.” It was a sentiment echoed by many booksellers in the audience.
Janet W. Jones, owner of Source Booksellers, was excited to have Gay kick off Winter Institute and to hear her challenge the idea of diversity as the answer. “Her word today is you have to put money behind [inclusiveness], and it takes money. It’s something people need to do,” Jones said.
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Weekly Round-Up: Follow Up, Don’t Jumble Up
Every week our editors publish somewhere between 10 and 15 blog posts—but it can be hard to keep up amidst the busyness of everyday life. To make sure you never miss another post, we’ve created a new weekly round-up series. Each Saturday, find the previous week’s posts all in one place.
Follow Up
So you’ve published your first book. Congrats! Make sure your book doesn’t fall through the cracks by following these 5 Tips for Publicizing Your Book.
If you’re still trying to publish your book, you might try attending a writer’s conference and pitching it there. To make sure you get the most out of your conference experience, read What to Do (And Not Do) After Attending a Writer’s Conference.
Rejection happens to all of us. After you get your rejection, though, don’t let it throw you. Check out How Hearing “No” From Agents and Publishers Can Lead You to “Yes” for tips on responding to rejection.
During the process of submitting and querying and pitching in an effort to publish your writing, it’s all too easy to get disorganized. Prepare for following up by keeping your records in order. Use our free tracking downloads.
Agents and Opportunities
Meet the Agent: Paul Lucas of Janklow & Nesbit Associates is seeking a wide range of fiction, including historical, thriller, fantasy, and science fiction. He is also seeking nonfiction narratives, especially transformative history or biography, but not memoirs.
Find out what fiction editors from top publications really want in this bonus material from the March/April 2017 Writer’s Digest.
What does it take to break in as a writer? Let Josh Barkan’s experience provide some clues on what you could do.
Poetic Asides
For this week’s Wednesday Poetry Prompt, write a poem titled “Let’s (blank),” replacing the “blank” with a word or phrase of your choice. Then challenge yourself by trying out a new poetic form: the hir a thoddaid, a Welsh form.
This week’s Poetry Spotlight shines on the annual AWP Conference. Check out what it’s all about.
Finally, immerse yourself even more deeply in the world of poetry and introduce yourself to the poet Donald Illich from Maryland. Read his interview for advice to poets and a poem from his chapbook, The Art of Dissolving.
Be Precise
It’s very easy to very frequently use the very same modifiers when trying to make it very clear that an adjective is very extreme. Don’t be lazy: Here are 128 Very Good Excellent Alternatives to the Word “Very.”
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