Stella Atrium's Blog, page 5
January 27, 2012
Wild West for Self-Publishers
Before iTunes, Smashwords and 99¢ eBooks on Kindle, the rule of thumb for a performer who wanted to attract the attention of industry big wigs was to show that he had 1000 loyal fans. We are in the Wild West stage of selling books just now where anything goes and the lowest bidder wins the most traffic. But traffic and fans aren't the same creature.
[image error]A fan tells friends about his favorite performer (like a review), plays the tunes at parties (like a book chat group), and wears a t-shirt with the band logo (like buying a paperback). A fan RETURNS for more products from the same performer and put down his money at retail prices.
I don't understand free ebooks on Kindle or Smashwords. The writer spends all her life writing this book at the sacrifice of so many other activities and time with loved ones. Why devalue the product?
Besides, most self-published books on Smashwords are not-ready-for-prime-time first writings. Do you really want to be part of that group?
I'm not convinced Twitter traffic translates to sales, either. I see writers promoting each other, or cross-promoting with reviewers and handlers. The writer is like a candidate surrounded by members of the press and cannot reach past the loud-talking reporters to find a voter willing to shake hands. [image error]
Maybe the audience we are seeking aren't even among our followers on Twitter.
Years ago I fooled around in non-profit theater in Chicago where attendance was one-quarter house on a good night and theater groups lived for reviews in The Reader and grants from Thorten Foundation. The truth was that no matter how well produced the performance for acting, directing, or set direction — the audience for live theater was sparse, even at low ticket prices. A producer in this arena could not expect to see returns on her investment.
[image error]The plethora of giveaways on sites trying to build loyalty (for the site, not for the writer) is similar to non-profit theater in Chicago. Except for a couple break-out sites that facilitate the reading community like GoodReads and LibraryThing, the audience just isn't there.
How does the self-publisher gain those 1000 "loyal fans" for convincing evidence that her writing rises above the pack and is worthy to become a book-of-the-month choice for reading clubs?
Reputation is everything. There are several levels of reputation, though. Listed are 10 types to avoid.
The Situation — Anyone can show his navel and get others to look. Be sure there's integrity and a reason the fan should return.
Always free — If it's free, that means you couldn't get anybody to buy it. Have a little dignity.
Trading favors — My back doesn't needs scratching. Because you asked, I know you haven't found true fans yet.
Inflated claims — "If you liked Jurassic Park, you're gonna love my self-published book." I always turn away when the writer claims to be like some other writer.
Five-star fan reviews on Amazon — Really? Were they posted by your mother?
Twitter Blanket — The same note every two minutes announcing the launch of your book. Your followers already read the announcement. Nobody else sees it. Who are you talking to?
Begs for reviews or retweets — Be patient, a quality reviewer will find a quality book soon enough. Building brand loyalty only happens over time.
Writer blog tour — Sponsored by another writer in a chat room where only writers sign in.
Salacious claims to increase traffic — Fool me once and "unfollow" is my next gesture.
Purchasing followers — Get real!
January 18, 2012
Didn't Make It Past Page Four: Poor Writerly Choices in 99¢
I try to read books recommended by friends on GoodReads, although I’m continuously disappointed with eBooks for 99¢. Since I didn’t spend my lunch money on the book, it’s easier to set down the Kindle Fire and never return to that cover image on the bookshelf.
My genre is fantasy, and I’m forgiving for grammar when the magic or otherworld elements provide surprise; like Robin Hobb and dragon warming stations – too funny! But sometimes I don’t make it to the surprise, or even past page four.
The reading has to go easy. This is for fun, right?
1) Who is they, or he? When I find myself tracking back through a dense description to identify who is speaking or acting, my patience evaporates. There’s nothing wrong with repeating the character names. If three characters are in dialogue, use their names!
2) Pronoun agreement counts. “The soldiers reached for their swords” is correct. “The hero wondered if their home was still intact” is incorrect. This error signals that your text did not benefit from a round of proofreading.
3) Leads in opening scene named Mark, Luke and John. Name one Tres and another one Jessup. Additionally, a smoldering look is NOT adequate character description.
4) Too many foreign names. Conversely, don’t hit the reader with the clan loyalties in the first chapter, like a pie in the face. Dole out the structure of the society in layers like expensive truffles for nibbling.
5) Missing single point of view. The first chapter should be an action scene; readers expect that. Relate this scene from a single point of view, with a single emotive response – like fear or jealousy or expectation. The other characters can display emotion in chapter two.
6) Physically impossible action. If the jetpack ignites underwater, I accept that. If the jetpack propels the hero to the surface ahead of his bubble stream, I worry about getting the bends.
7) Clichés, and more clichés. If you borrow from other writers twice before page four, you just lost me. Think up your own magic tricks.
8) Sentence Variety. “The hero entered the bright and warm room, carrying his heavy and dirty sword, looking for the funny and pretty heroine.” I have a left and right brain headache now.
9) Preteen with skills beyond her age. Can a 14-year-old wield an 18-inch sword? Can she ride a horse into battle in full armor and win?
10) Talking dragons, teenage vampires. Embrace the next trend, not the previous trend that’s about to burn out (one hopes).
These are red flags that make the reader wonder about investing time in the next chapters of your story. Respect the reader and don’t expect her to plow through these poor choices, even for 99¢.
January 15, 2012
Acts Like a Man: Female Leads in Fantasy
I just finished the Tamir series by Lynn Flewelling, including The Bone Doll's Twin, Hidden Warrior, and The Queen's Oracle. The fantasy series addresses young girls as leaders and warriors, nurtured by hiding her true gender from mentors. The prince/princess has a mother who was murdered, along with female role models who appear to her as long dead relatives. Living women in the series are a witch, cook, nanny, and two warriors also held back from advancement by gender.
The improbability of a 16-year-old girl leading an army into a decisive battle of civil war is glossed over by statements of medieval blood rights to the crown, a thin veneer at best. But, this is fantasy and caters to the age of the audience.
[image error]The idea that a woman succeeds when she acts as a lone wolf feeds into characterization of a female protagonist who thinks like a man and acts like a man, exemplified by the Laura Croft character. She is trained for weapons and hand-to-hand combat. She has analytical skills and adequate financial resources to put her ideas into action. She is equal to the men in a chase scene or a mono-a-mono contest.
Where are her sisters? Where are her students or a mentor (besides Daddy) or women of equal strength and ambition? The men in The Tomb Raider stories all travel in groups. Why does she have no support system besides a computer geek who lives (apparently) in the lobby of her mansion?
Amazingly, the movie industry still debates whether the public will attend an action movie with a female lead, and this topic came up again with the Angelina Jolie movie Salt or Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart.
Another classic lone-woman-acts-like-a-man story is the Alien series with Sigourney Weaver[image error]. She has no kids or support group of women, but she has knowledge of weapons and electronics, and she solves problems the men also try to solve by using similar reasoning. The only true female in that series was the monster that was busy laying eggs where they might mature and expanding its species.
When I ask these questions about how female characters act, I'm often accused of looking at details that are peripheral to the story. The plot is about the actions of the hero to solve the problem presented in the inciting event and gain revenge on the bad guy. Nobody cares how his sister gets the laundry done. One reviewer told me that nobody cares what the characters wear and I should stop describing wardrobe in detail. I suppose that's why the men in these stories all dress alike and never get clean.
Indiana Jones' fedora in not an essential element of his character? Jones Junior's leather jacket (homage to The Wild One with a young Marlon Brando) was not a conscience choice?
The sidelines action is all the good stuff, forgotten or edited by the men and now available for us to exploit for unique point of view.
[image error]
For example, in the movie Beckett, Peter O'Toole plays Henry Plantagenet and Richard Burton plays his chancellor (and archbishop) Beckett. There's a scene where Henry speaks to his wife Eleanor in harsh tones saying her bed was cold. She is depicted as bound by restrictive fashion and relegated to a sewing circle.
However, this wife of Henry is Eleanor of Aquitaine who was Henry's equal in matter of state, finance, property, and war. She was older than him, had more property than him, bore him 8 children, opened schools and hospitals, wrote law where women could own land, saw her kids married to the royal families throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, even in Russia, and was the mother of Richard the Lionhearted who she rescued from prison in Germany when she was 80 years old. Why are there no movies about this peripheral material?
Eleanor is shown again in The Lion in Winter (played by Katherine Hepburn with Peter O'Toole still doing Henry) where she has spent 10 years in the Tower of London and is still his best sparring partner in matters of state, family, and finance.
[image error]The Lion in Winter is a great example of how a strong woman character makes the male hero look better. When we place the female protagonist stage front-and-center, we may displace the male lead, but we strengthen him as well by providing dimension. If a female character is solving problems about how to manage the kids and live on a budget, the male character has contributed to those questions and must bring his (partial) answer to the theme.
January 6, 2012
In Defense of (Reference) Books
I require a handbook for students who are learning to write research papers. The handbook is in new edition (and the publishers what to make the investment back) so the price is ~$75. Students say to me, "Can't I just find that information online?"
Well, yes and no. [image error]
I remember my frustration as a kid when my mother tried to introduce me to the dictionary. I was instructed to look in the area of how I thought the word was spelled. By running my finger down the page where several words were spelled similarly, I could find the one I needed. The hard lesson opened a whole new world for me. Look at all these words!
An online dictionary doesn't show all the words, only the one you know how to request. Peripheral exploration is excluded.
There are quality websites for guiding academic writing (OWL from Purdue University, for example), and sites for building grammar (visit Grammar Girl). Navigating to each of these sites requires that the student has formed a question and knows how to ask the question to get an appropriate answer.
The operator words in today's world are find, submit, link, retweet, ask, learn-more, post. Without a focused question, the student doesn't reach the answer and, in the case of building grammar skills, easily gives up the search.
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But our whole lives are online, right? In my neighborhood a four-story building that occupies a half-block stands empty where a Borders once operated. Across the street a tiny California-style Apple store sells iPads and Kindles at long tables where nobody gets to sit down, not even the workers. I guess old people are not their primary customers. Students live in the Apple world and don't miss the community where discourse is more than information.
[image error]Here's another example. I took the new Kindle into the university Geek Squad to load wireless access and the email account. The resident geek looked about twelve (truly wet behind the ears). Because the kindle is new to this service, he didn't know the protocols for completing the operation and started searching the wiki account that serves as a user's manual.
Except he didn't know the problem, so he couldn't ask the right question to find the answer.
Therein lies the rub. A reference book compiles all the answers on a topic so searching leads to more than the "bit" that allows the user to go to the next screen.
I encourage students to invest in the handbook, keep it next to the computer, open it occasionally, and learn a whole new world of sentence structure, grammar, word usage, research formats, and online presentations. These issue are compiled into a single source and students can move easily from one section to the next to devour the discipline and check back for a needed refresher not tied to solving an immediate problem.
My pitch is that the handbook can be used throughout the college experience and becomes a helpmate for improving how the student presents herself using words. This is a new concept to them. "Do you mean... look in a book more than once?"
It's not about operator words. It's about worldview.
January 2, 2012
Interview with Author Stella Atrium
Marc Roster: So, you have an interesting premise here; space travel and women living under the veil.
Stella Atrium: Over the decades, sci-fi fans have seen many cultures depicted in stories about offworld adventures. But I have not seen an alien culture where women struggle against the burka.
Marc: Are the female characters also Muslim?
Stella: Desert garb with flowing robes and headgear pre-dates the birth of Mohammad. In the story, the sisters of Arim live on a savannah with a long dry season.
Marc: But the story is meant to reflect issues of global women's rights?
Stella: The cultures for the four tribes are unique to the story with their own languages, along with standards of dress, local animals, gestures of power for the men.
Marc: Of the four sisters, Kyle Le is the youngest, but she's the leader?
Stella: Kyle Le is troubled with the gift of second sight, like flashes of insight for events in the near future. She's an orphan, and her sisters clings to the land her father owned. They have no status in community, only the service of her gift to a tribal leader.
Marc: So Kyle Le takes work at the mill where she meets the story's hero Brian Miller. They fall in love and live happily ever after?
Stella: Not likely. Brian Miller can only run the mill because he doesn't abuse native women. The differences between their cultures are too great.
Marc: In the story's plot, what is the purpose of the Brittany Mill?
Stella: The savannah on Dolvia has what we call a Third World economy. Corporations from Earth have come adventuring through the wormhole to take advantage of the mineral wealth and the cheap labor market. But the tribes are protective, and their women are mostly illiterate. Brittany Mill is where these disparate groups begin to mingle.
Marc: That premise sounds like what happens in many countries here on Earth.
Stella: The dichotomy is delicious. Inside the fantasy genre, I try to present women who need to solve real problems like having no voice in community, or no right to work; no access to capital to start a business. No reinforcement for talent.
My intent was to pry open the archetypes of alien women in sci-fi who are, shall we say, sexually available to the story's hero. You know the types — warrior, witch, street urchin, unavailable princess who sneaks around, armless mermaid. Let's present a few female characters who drive the story and solve problems using the tools at hand.
Marc: You mentioned unique animals. Any dragons?
Stella: (chuckle) No dragons; no fairies. One sister named Terry befriends a wild ketiwhelp, which is similar to an oversized fox. She's later martyred in prison and a tribal myth about her is told in chants.
Marc: So what are the elements of fantasy in the story?
Stella: The savannah is being settled, unevenly, by offworlders who seek fortunes by mining the mineral wealth. They have a network for supply lines through the worm hole to Earth, and introduce futuristic gadgets to indigenous cultures, changing the balance.
Marc: What kind of gadgets?
Stella: Brian Miller communicates offworld using an EAM, or extra atmosphere modem. He shows Kyle Le how to access the transport's library where they call up an image of Dolvia, a blue and green planet with atmosphere and clouds. Kyle Le is very impressed with seeing the whole face of Dolvia.
Marc: So, the story is about culture shock?
Stella: For several cultures, yes. The reader also meets indentured colonists and military personnel stationed on the orbiting transport. Some characters are from a nearby planet and compete for work with the corporations to get ahead. They even adopt English over their own languages and shorten their names for advancement.
Marc: You mean, like people changed their names when they came to America through Ellis Island?
Stella: Examples from our history are illustrative. The pressure to fit in is universal, such as Jews in Spain in the fourteenth century who pretended to practice Catholicism. Or tribal people in South Africa who lived under Western names. Power structures exist everywhere, and the people from the subservient culture use similar strategies to get by and put food on the table.
Marc: So, what's the story's outcome.? Do Kyle Le and Brian Miller hook up?
Stella: Kyle Le is promised for the warrior Cyrus, even though she doesn't like the idea. She's motivated to resist the future planned for her by others. That's why she's open to new ideas like working for wages, and traveling offworld with soldiers.
Marc: Well, we certainly look forward to reading reviews for this unique story. Our time is up now, but I enjoyed the talk.
Stella: Thank you.
December 31, 2011
Writers are Readers
Joni Mitchell claimed once that she didn't listen to music of her peers (or competitors) because she didn't want the melodies or rhymes to impact her style. Music is in the air, and composers can imitate without realizing the source.[image error]
I knew a singer-songwriter who performed twice a month at a small club. One week he sounded like Steve Goodman, and the next time he sounded like Kris Kristofferson, and later his voice had the quality of Fred Holstein. I saw him perform again about a year later, and the young songwriter had found a method of phrasing that suited him, really and amalgam of all his heroes.
By emulating those who came before, he met audience expectations and began to step out on his own. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, they say.
Writers are always experimenting, and a turn of phrase borrowed from another writer shows that he reads, at least. Except fantasy writers borrow magic from other stories, and borrow powers for vampires from other stories; even slang in urban fantasy is often borrowed from other writers.
I had a writer friend who refused to read the Harry Potter series because she didn't want her own work to appear derivative. This concern is real — I can tell after devouring a fantasy series from a single author if she read Shakespeare or not.
[image error]The word skulking is from Hamlet, for example. The young prince and his buddies skulked around the rampart until the king's ghost appeared.
We learn to address the world by using models of success and following lessons learned by elders shared as cautionary tales. We feel engaged with the group when we identify with players or singers or actors. Rick Perry wants to be the Tim Tebow of the debates.
We know we have succeeded when the boss enters a meeting wearing your same tie.
Ray Bradbury claimed he wrote well when he fed his soul with good reading. His imagination was alive and ready for making new characters and new dialogue. Perhaps the operative word here is GOOD reading. It's not enough to read; what we read counts for quality writing, just like museum art or music that isn't rap.
We write what we know. The first science fiction stories grew from the experiences of engineers who were veterans of WWII and had seen the horrors people can do. Remember GI Joe comic books? Remember Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut? [image error]
So it's fine to capture words and situations from reading and re-purpose and remediate (my word of the day, he, he). It's also fine to research and dig deeper to find your truth spoken in your voice that you delineated by comparison to all those other voices, like a soloist in a choir.
Just don't write any more vampire stories, 'kay?
December 29, 2011
It's Like a Caucus: Struggles with Self-Publish Marketing
When the Iowa caucuses roll around every four years, voters are subjected to complaints about retail politics, how candidates must visit every county and shake hands in living rooms, backyards, and coffee shops while they endure litmus tests about narrative, purity and electability. And this is BEFORE voters review the candidates platform on his website or position statement on various issues.
I know how the candidates feel.
I found some easy comparisons with marketing for the self-publisher. Retail marketing, we'll call it. The various author websites where authors gather to promote indie books, for example, are similar to the early debates where candidates are allowed to hold up a hand indicating positions on topic as defined by the liberal press. The only visitors to these sites are other authors checking their own progress, just like the only viewers of the early debates are other commentators who have the next debate on a different network.[image error]
Some candidates have been working at reaching presidential candidate level for 10 years, (after serving in house or senate or governorships or charity groundwork), and invested a fortune of family money and donor money. And that's before the opening bell. Writers also have invested "blood and treasure" in the book or series (along with university work, screenplays, ghostwriting, jingle writing) long before joining Twitter.
What's another comparisons? Soliciting reviews are like making promises for future connections so the candidate can gain a public endorsement, and sometimes takes as many visits to the endorser's home for dinner.
[image error]The writer's giveaway is like campaign headquarters where hats and pins and banners are stacked in a corner waiting for the volunteers to embrace the novel and spread word-of-mouth good will.
The first blog tour where the writer engages a real time chat or printed interview with the site's manager are similar to the grip-and-grin first meeting with potential supporters and fundraisers.
Expanding beyond bloggers in one's genre to begin selling to your own university or book club or alma mater is like moving from Iowa to New Hampshire for the second round of primaries. Can the candidate build a ground game to perform in a different arena?
Developing a YouTube video to start a second buzz once the book is released is like those TV commercials that tout the candidate's family and long record of service, and just as expensive.
And the results are sometimes just as screwy.
The weighted bestseller list that floats the list-maker's favorite book type to the top is like Ron Paul who is winning in early states, but cannot gain the respect of the liberal media who claim he cannot win, so why interview him?[image error]
A book with a few enthusiastic readers on GoodReads gains a bump in ratings and to-read lists until other readers discover the grammar and diction are so poor as to work against the book's good ideas.
It's possible to push this analogy too far... But in my genre Neil Gaiman is the Mitt Romney (we like him, kinda) and Steven King is the Newt Gingrich (full of big ideas the unravel in the plotline).
Okay, I'll stop now. What comparisons did I neglect that you can see?
December 26, 2011
There's Always Horses
Did you ever notice in fantasy stories, no matter how extreme the otherworld appears, there's always horses?
In many fantasy stories there's usually castles and magic and mean women, and a cook who used to be a woman warrior. But, no matter what the wild animals or domesticated animals look like, horses are everywhere. [image error]
In Dune there were no horses, but the hero learned to grab joyrides on the sand worms. That was unique.
In Avatar the horses had six legs, but they were obviously horses, and were not nearly so interesting as the banshees. Maybe the needed augmentation helped with carrying the oversized blue people.
[image error]In Planet of the Apes, the apes that were soldiers rode horses. The apes had evolved, but not the horses. That was explained in the 2001 rendition with Mark Walberg that spoke to apes as test subjects in the lab where horses were spared.
In Narnia, the horses could talk, but so could all the other animals. The horse the oldest brother rode was a unicorn but did not fencing with this blade. Some of the fighters were centaurs — or men with horse parts below the waist. None of the centaurs were women, though. I noticed that. [image error]
In Alice (the most recent movie with Johnny Depp), the bad guy's horse could talk. The white queen's horse was just a prop, though, and I think she rode side-saddle. How antiquated is that?
[image error]What other exceptions can you name of fantasy stories where the writer thought about changing the looks or abilities of the ever-present horse?
December 20, 2011
Seven Christmas Things I Dislike: My Grinch List
In the spirit of writing a blog as a list (the newest route to securing blog traffic), I thought I would write out my Grinch list. There’s a plethora of these lists circulating, so please view mine with a grain of salt.
1) Articles Written as Lists: Too obvious to explain.
2) Andy Williams Christmas Specials: When I was a kid (I’m giving away my age here), we waited all day for the hour of the Andy Williams Show with the in-jokes and set decorations and his colored voice that everybody recognized. The Osmond Brothers were introduced on that show. Now a mock-up of William’s voice is used for Target ads. The old hour-long episodes are faded and jaded, looking sadder than “Lawrence Welks” or “Sing Along with Mitch” from a decade before.
3) Christmas Blow-out Giveaway on Twitter: Think about lead time, folks! Twitter is for last minute planners, I know, but a Christmas list is not. Any woman who plans for a large family knows the gift packages were wrapped ten days ago. She’s now in the stage of polishing silver and making fruitcake before the real cooking begins. She may not return to Twitter until time to return gifts starting on Monday.
4) Politically Correct Stance against Saying Merry Christmas: Deal with it, and may God bless…
5) Warnings about a Hard Chicago Winter: Supposedly, the hardest winter in twenty years is coming, touted with images from last year’s blizzard just for good measure, when it’s 44 degrees outside. This is why everybody’s so dissatisfied; the doom and gloom of the news broadcasts. We had one hard freeze and no snow. The grass is still green and making buds. Let’s enjoy the moment.
6) Over-cheerful Helpers at the UPS Store Wearing Santa Hats: Don’t you just want to slap them? They’re celebrating the slow death of the US Postal Office so they can charge three times as much for the same services.
7) Dry, Smelly Christmas Trees; The Most Grinch Dislike of all: At least the men no longer chain smoke in the same room, because I make them go outside. Next year they can decorate a tree outside, and maybe light the gas grill to cook their own holiday meal. Just my luck, though, it will snow in Chicago in December 2012.
Merry Christmas, all!
