Angela Ackerman's Blog: Writers Helping Writers, page 91

The Secret to Getting Paid to Sell Books

Many writers I know either write non-fiction already or are toying with the idea. It’s a lot of research and work, but because it tailors to a specific audience, books can also do quite well. But what if there was a way to help nudge along that success factor…would you be interested? Read on as Joshua Lisec provides a possible path to guaranteed sales that writers may not have considered before.

The Wonderful World of Corporate
Sponsorship



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Think of the college stadium or professional sports arena that���s closest to you. Got it? Great. Chances are, the word arena, field or stadium is preceded by a company name. Like Bridgestone Arena, lair of the National Hockey League���s Nashville Predators. Or PNC Field, hideout of Major League Baseball���s Pittsburgh Pirates. And MetLife Stadium, home of the National Football League���s New York Giants.

Bridgestone, PNC, MetLife…welcome to the wonderful world of corporate sponsorship. According to Linda Hollander, the world���s leading expert on the matter, companies like American Airlines, Citibank, FedEx, IBM, Microsoft, Staples and WalMart spend sixty-five billion dollars per year to fund organizations and individuals who align with their brand���or who reach the people they (the company) want to reach. For the right opportunity (or author), a corporate sponsor will shell out anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000!

It���s a
win-win. The company gets unmatched publicity, putting their brand top of mind
for an audience they might not have otherwise been able to reach. And the
individual gets to tap into industry connections and income they never could
have found on their own.

How Authors Can Benefit from
Corporate Sponsorship

If sports
stadiums can take a slice out of the multi-billion-dollar annual corporate
sponsorship pie, why can���t an author like you?

A writer named Karen asked herself the same thing. A physician with decades of experience serving patients, Karen had packaged everything she wished women knew about their bodies into a single masterpiece. But how exactly was she going to get the word out so people would buy her book? As a medical professional, she wasn���t a self-promoting online influencer with a massive following. She had a humble roster of patients, but even if they all bought her book, she wouldn���t feel she���d impacted her target audience. Enter corporate sponsorship.

Whenever Karen would highlight a vitamin or supplement that helped women prevent adrenal fatigue, improve skin care, or relieve anxiety, she dropped the name of her preferred supplement brand. Once she had a first draft and a book cover mock-up, she reached out to the brand���s marketing director: scratch my back, and I���ll scratch yours.

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The
supplement company had exactly what Karen needed to get her book in front of
the masses���a global distribution network of health and wellness product
wholesalers and retail stores, millions of existing customers (the majority of
which are female), and an annual marketing budget a thousand times higher than
Karen���s salary.

Karen offered the company exactly what they wanted���the credibility of a physician, a trusted industry voice, and the expertise that gives women peace of mind. So when Karen tells readers her preferred Vitamin C brand, her words carry a thousand times more credibility than any study the brand highlights in their customer newsletter. Win, win.

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The marketing
director agreed to sponsor Karen, and she sold a whole lot of books as a
result. The supplement company spent thousands advertising Karen���s webinar at
health clubs, fitness centers, and independent grocers across the country.
Right alongside the promo flyer for Karen���s live class on the best supplements
for women was Karen���s book. And that���s on top of the sponsorship fee they paid
Karen to put together the webinar!

The company
also ordered tens of thousands of copies at wholesale price and used their retail
relationships to put them in many of the stores and outlets that already sold
health and wellness books. So not only did Karen sell thousands of copies more
than she ever could have by herself, she actually got paid to promote her book!

Who Would Sponsor You and Your Non-Fiction Book?

You can take advantage of the corporate sponsorship opportunity, too. Like Karen, start with your vision for the book. What brands, corporations, or nonprofits align with your message? Who already advertises to the same people your book is intended for? For Karen, that was health-conscious women who wanted to invest in their and their family���s well being.

Once you���ve identified a few potential sponsors, reach out to their marketing team with an offer they can���t resist. Your pitch shouldn���t be about you���make it all about them. How can you help them build their brand credibility, reach a new market, or sell additional products to existing customers? Anything that builds a buzz around their company and generates sweet, sweet return on that $10,000 to $100,000 investment they put into you and your book. Depending on your industry, your sponsor may pay you to speak at conferences, to join panels, or like Karen to host a webinar on the uses and benefits of their products (which tie in with your book). Even if you���re a first-time author with a small platform, you can make big money from your book thanks to the power of sponsorship!

I���ll let expert Linda Hollander close us out with her recommendations in Corporate Sponsorship In 3 Easy Steps for setting your sponsored book up for success:

“[Y]ou can include sponsors in your book tour and place the sponsor���s material in the physical books that are shipped to readers��� [Y]ou can give the sponsor exposure in your promotional campaigns. Don���t forget online speaking, training, and campaigns. These are very viable promotional opportunities for your corporate sponsors.”

Who could you see sponsoring your book? What organizations sell products, offer services or advocate for a cause that aligns with your book���and your personal brand? And what questions do you have about connecting with them? Let me know in the comments below, and I���ll see how I can help!

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Joshua Lisec is founder of The Entrepreneur���s Wordsmith LLC, Ohio���s first Certified Professional Ghostwriter, a #1 International Bestselling Ghostwriter, a Forbes Contributor ghostwriter, a TEDx speaker, and a two-time published novelist.

Since 2011, Joshua has ghostwritten forty books. He has been featured in TED, TEDx, Foundr Magazine, American Express, BBC Radio London, Yahoo!, Fatherly, The Huffington Post, and numerous other outlets. During a recent podcast, Dilbert comic creator and New York Times bestselling author of Win Bigly, Scott Adams, recommended Joshua Lisec to aspiring authors. Talk to Joshua about your book idea at https://entrepreneurswordsmith.com/

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Critiques 4 U

Happy almost-end-of-August, everyone! I spent the past month moving my family from New York to Florida, and I must say that it was kind of a crazy ride. I’m now convinced that the moving truck pulling up to your new house is one of the happiest sights ever���right up there with kittens and Christmas trees.

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Luckily, we’re moved in now and things are starting to get back to normal. The house is unpacked. There is chocolate in my desk drawer. The garage has been organized enough that I no longer break into hives just thinking about it. And I’m finally able to focus 100% on work. That means I’m ready to get back into critiquing!

CRITIQUES 4 U!

If you���re working on��a first page (in any genre except erotica) and would like��some objective feedback,��please��leave a comment. Any comment :).��As long as the email address associated with your WordPress account/comment profile is up-to-date, I���ll be able to contact you if your first page is chosen. Just please know that��if I���m unable to get in touch with you through that address, you���ll have to forfeit your win.

Two caveats:

      Please be sure your first page is ready to go so I can critique it before next month���s contest rolls around. If it needs some work and you won���t be able to get it to me right away, let me ask that you plan on entering the next contest, once any necessary tweaking has been taken care of.

      I���d like to be able to use portions of winning submissions as illustrations in an upcoming presentation on first pages. By entering the Critiques 4 U contest, you���ll be granting permission for me to use small writing samples only (no author names or book titles).

Three commenters��� names will be randomly drawn and posted tomorrow morning. If you win, you can email me your first page and I���ll offer my feedback. 

We run this contest on a monthly basis, so if you���d like to be notified when the next opportunity comes around, consider subscribing to our blog (see the left-hand sidebar).

Best of luck!

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Conflict Thesaurus Entry: Unwanted Scrutiny

Conflict is very often the magic sauce for generating tension and turning a ho-hum story into one that rivets readers. As such, every scene should contain a struggle of some kind. Maybe it’s an internal tug-of-war having to do with difficult decisions, morals, or temptations. Or it possibly could come from an external source���other characters, unfortunate circumstances, or the force of nature itself.

It’s our hope that this thesaurus will help you come up with meaningful and fitting conflict options for your stories. Think about what your character wants and how best to block them, then choose a source of conflict that will ramp up the tension in each scene.

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Conflict: Unwanted Scrutiny

Category: Power Struggles, Increased Pressure and Ticking Clocks, Failures and Mistakes, Relationship Friction, Duty and Responsibilities, Moral Dilemmas and Temptation, Ego, Miscellaneous Challenges

Examples:
Being assigned an overseer to watch one’s every move
Drawing unwanted attention when trying to stay under the radar
Doing something by mistake that raises the suspicions of others
A lapse in judgement that causes others to change how they view the character, creating wariness and mistrust
Having to report to someone higher up (and knowing one is being watched by others who will, too)
The stakes being raised in a way that everyone’s attention is focused on the outcome
A loss of trust that causes another to monitor one’s activities
Being followed or investigated
Having one’s performance (decisions, judgements, etc.) evaluated in a test
Having one’s loyalty be questioned, resulting in less freedom and autonomy
An increase in security measures that makes it harder to circumvent them
Being caught up in something by accident (wrong place, wrong time) that leads to being monitored for further “transgressions”
Being placed under a microscope because of racism, prejudice, or a bias
Celebrity-like status that keeps one’s activities in the public eye

Minor Complications: Having very little privacy, having to deal with more red tape, needing to report one’s activities or actions in a way that one didn’t need to before, delays caused by increased security or new processes that have been implemented, being assigned a partner or a team instead of being allowed to work independently, having to adhere to new protocol or have another sign off on one’s work, being forced to hold off certain objectives until the scrutiny passes, losing out on an opportunity

Potentially Disastrous Results: Cracking under the pressure and making a big mistake, being caught in a lie or doing something one was not supposed to do, being unable to achieve a goal that leads to painful fallout, trust issues growing to the point where a relationship becomes damaged beyond repair, an enemy using the scrutiny as a way to seed further suspicions about one’s motives, being forced into a corner that requires one to break the law or become the opposition (but for the right reasons), being limited because of an unfair bias or another’s prejudice

Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict): trying to forgive those who let their trust waver, anger at oneself for screwing something up in the first place which led to the scrutiny, a loss of faith at a critical time, questioning one’s loyalty, low self-esteem or feelings of lower self worth over things one cannot control

People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: Family, friends, co-workers, a business or institution, other people who will be impacted by one’s failure

Resulting Emotions: agitation, anger, annoyance, betrayed, bitterness, contempt, defensiveness, defiant, determination, disappointment, disbelief, disillusionment, emasculated, embarrassment, flustered, frustration, hurt, impatience, indignation, irritation, panic, paranoia, rage, resentment, resignation, shock, unappreciated, uncertainty, vulnerability, worry

Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: abrasive, childish, cocky, confrontational, controlling, cynical, defensive, devious, dishonest, disloyal, disorganized, disrespectful, evasive, evil, foolish, hostile, hypocritical, impatient, impulsive, inflexible, irresponsible, jealous, judgmental, know-it-all, macho, manipulative, melodramatic, mischievous, nosy, obsessive, possessive, prejudiced, pretentious, promiscuous, pushy, rebellious, reckless, self-destructive, uncouth, unethical, verbose, vindictive, violent, volatile

Positive Outcomes: Being forced to slow down and think things through may improve one’s success rate, the character may learn who their friends really are, and if successful, navigating this challenge teaches self-reliance and helps the character to see they are more capable than they may have previously believed themselves to be

If you’re interested in other conflict options, you can find them here.

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4 Keys to a Powerful Denouement

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Often as writers, we put a lot of our focus on the
starting, climax, and middle of a story, and the denouement or falling action
may be somewhat of an afterthought. If you grew up like me, you were kind of
taught that the denouement should just be a quick wrap up that can end the
story, and you weren’t given much direction on how to do that in a satisfying
way. But when crafted well, the denouement can sometimes feel like the most
powerful part of a story–not because it has heightened tension and conflict,
like the rest of the novel probably has, but precisely because it’s the
emotional release of all that. 

Here are some things to keep in mind when working with
denouements. 

The Proper Length

Denouements are often short, and in fact, I’ve been in some
creative writing classes where we were told that you can even cut them off
completely, and while that might work for some rare stories, I argue that
almost every story is better with a strong denouement than without. My
advice? Don’t skimp on it. (Usually.)

Because some of us were taught that the purpose of the
denouement is to get out of the story quickly, some of us actually make them too
short. You might be able to get away with that, but you miss out on ending your
story on a more powerful note. 

So what length should they be? Well, long enough to cover
the important parts but short enough to keep them interesting. So let’s talk
about what they need.

Its True Purpose: Validation

A powerful denouement doesn’t just “end the
story.” It validates it. This means validating changes that happened
during, or maybe rather, because of the story. Show evidence of what has been
lost, defeated, gained, or won. So after a romance conflict, you may show the
couple getting married. If someone died in the climax, you may show a funeral.
If the protagonist completed a character arc, we need to see him acting as a
changed person. Was the antagonist defeated? Show that he, she, or it is now
gone from the world. 

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Powerful validation, especially one after another, is what
can often bring an audience to tears–it’s the release and outcome of all the
previous hardship. It can also cement the theme into readers��� hearts. 

Validate what has changed, and sometimes, what hasn’t
changed. A lot of powerful denouements do some of both, which is why you’ll
notice it may be similar to the beginning of the novel, but different.

Tie Loose Ends (and Maybe Add New Ones)

This is usually what people think of when thinking of
denouements, but when you validate changes, you are often tying up any loose
ends in the process. Still, there may be some elements that need to be
mentioned and addressed directly. If there was a side mystery, we may need to
still get that resolved in the falling action. Any information that we are
lacking, should probably be in the text. Smaller conflicts that weren’t handled
in the climax, may be concluded here. 

And in some stories, you may actually be adding loose ends
in addition to tying off others. This is particularly true for a book in a
series. Maybe what happened in the climax opened up more questions and
potential conflicts. Some denouements close all the conflicts of the book, and
then at the very end, add a few loose ends. Installments in a series may
acknowledge any ongoing loose ends that haven’t yet been resolved.

Convey a New Normal

In the beginning of the novel, you probably conveyed a
sense of normalcy to the audience–what was normal for this character, this
setting, this society. Most satisfying denouements establish a sense of what
the new normal may be. This can be big and obvious, like a couple being
married. Or it may be more subtle, like what a changed character is planning to
do next in life. In some cases, you may be “hinting” at the future
more than “establishing” it. 

Sometimes, the “new normal” may actually be the
old normal you opened up with, but in most stories, that would probably
undermine all the changes that took place. Still, it can work for the right
kind. But even if the new normal is almost the same as the old normal,
typically it’s a good idea to at least give us a hint of how the protagonist grew,
internally.

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Sometimes September scares people with her enthusiasm for writing and reading. She works as an assistant to a New York Times bestselling author while penning her own stories, holds an English degree, and had the pleasure of writing her thesis on Harry Potter.

Find out more about September here, hang with her on social media, or visit her website to follow her writing journey and get more writing tips. Find September on
Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

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Motivation for Character Arc: A Different Approach

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When it comes to discovering and writing about your character’s motivation, there are a dozen different methods. We can get there by any number of roads���most of which originate in the planning stage. But what if the key to unlocking this part of the character’s inner landscape could be found in revision? That process might look something like this…

First, the rough draft.

We create a protagonist with intensely conflicting needs. Those needs force this protagonist to behave and speak in specific ways. And these ways create situations that, once they���re in them, they desperately want out of, situations they can���t get out of without making things immeasurably worse.

We put this protagonist into a room or garden or culvert or on a street or island or mountain or under a thundercloud or tent or blanket with some other characters, who also have their own needs. 

We thrown in a stick of dynamite and leap out of the way.

And it���s brilliant.

We keep this up for a good, long time, until this protagonist’s conflicting needs collide in a life-changing shower of fireworks. Then we force them to choose.

And eventually, footsore and weary-worn but with a gleam of well-earned satisfaction in our eyes, we fetch up here alongside everyone else in Revisionland. We’re a bit surprised to be feeling quite so footsore and weary-worn. But now we’ve taken a satisfying rest, and we’re ready to get back into our story, to begin the second phase: revision. 

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So the first thing we do is pull out a notebook and ask ourselves, “How well do I know this protagonist?”

What is our protagonist’s primary overwhelming need? I know we wrote this down back in the beginning (you didn’t?), but we’ll pretend that the Climax is a short story and none of the rest exists. 

What’s the  fire in this strange new protagonist’s belly, the death-defying drive that makes them forge straight into this Climax and fight there tooth-&-nail for everything they love and believe in? 

We’ll write the answer at the top of a fresh page. We’ll draw a box around it. Doodle in three-dimensional sides for the box. Add shadows, dents, cracks, travel stickers. Add a cat with one of those inscrutable cat expressions. That’s the witness.

Got it? Good.

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Now, what deep inside this protagonist is pitted��against��them in that Climax? What’s the equal-but-opposite fire in their belly that’s��fighting back?

We’ll write it down below the box we just drew. Decorate it with its own little box, its own light and shadows, dents and cracks, evidence of a long and painfully difficult road. If the first cat is looking too directly at the first box, we’ll give this one a cat of its own. Otherwise, one cat will suffice.

Got it? Good.

We’ll doodle some lightning bolts between the two boxes.

Now we’ll ask ourselves, “Exactly how could these two needs have gotten this protagonist into this dreadful calamity?”

We’ll take copious notes on this, fleshing it out as fully as possible. We won’t re-tell the story. We’ll forget we ever even knew the story. We’re diving beneath the wave, re-envisioning the story from a completely different perspective. This is essential in order to know that the story we’ve told is, in fact, the story we���ve meant to tell.

We’ll ask ourselves, “What do you suppose happened here?” Then we’ll ask ourselves, “And how could these needs have led somewhere else?“ We’ll write about that for awhile.

We’ll draw circles and brackets, arrows and asterisks, little comments about things we forgot to mention. We’ll fill up pages. Keep our hands moving. We’ll always be wondering, “What do those two needs imply about this protagonist? How could this character have responded to their problems differently?” We’ll write sideways, at an angle, in loops, or upside-down. Nobody’s ever going to see this stuff. 

We’ll work backward through the story from Climax through Development, uncovering the hidden aspects of our protagonist’s internal conflict and recording them in great, whacking, glorious detail.

Eventually we’ll arrive at the Hook and write long and copiously about that. And finally���sprawling all over the pages of a full notebook or more���there will be a whole multitude of deep, intricate roots to this story.

Take a long breath and admire it. You had no idea your story contained such depth, did you?

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Then we’ll go through it all slowly and thoughtfully, doodling circles or boxes or pyramids or stars around only those most special, magical roots with the freshest, most amazing potential. 

All we care about right now is that they’re different, surprising, magical. We’re not outlining something we’ve already outlined before. We’re searching for hidden potentialities that vibrate with the greatest possible tension and significance. We’ll know them. They’ll make our fingertips tingle.

Now we’ll take out another fresh sheet of paper (you didn’t know revision took so much fresh paper, did you?) and draw a sweeping curve and letter in extremely small letters each of those special, magical roots in chronological order.

There.

Our protagonist’s real character arc.

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Victoria has been a professional writer and editor for over thirty years. She is the author of the Art & Craft of Writing series and offers email subscribers a free copy of Art & Craft of Writing: Favorite Advice for Writers. Catch up with Victoria on twitter or visit her website for more information on her editing services.
Twitter | Website

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Conflict Thesaurus Entry: A Delay that Makes One Late

Conflict is very often the magic sauce for generating tension and turning a ho-hum story into one that rivets readers. As such, every scene should contain a struggle of some kind. Maybe it’s an internal tug-of-war having to do with difficult decisions, morals, or temptations. Or it possibly could come from an external source���other characters, unfortunate circumstances, or the force of nature itself.

It’s our hope that this thesaurus will help you come up with meaningful and fitting conflict options for your stories. Think about what your character wants and how best to block them, then choose a source of conflict that will ramp up the tension in each scene.

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Category: Increased Pressure and Ticking Clocks, Failures and Mistakes, Loss of Control

Examples:

Oversleeping (due to an alarm not going off, a hangover, etc.)
A diaper explosion as the character is getting ready to leave
The dog escaping and having to be chased down
Facilities issues, such as a pipe breaking or the fire alarm going off
A transportation breakdown (the car won���t start, one���s bike being stolen, etc.)
Forgetting something vital (a wallet, passport, phone, etc.) and having to go back for it
Getting stuck in traffic, behind a school bus, or at a drawbridge
Taking a wrong turn
Getting a ticket
Getting into a car accident
Having to take an important call (from the kids��� school, the boss, a doctor, etc.)
Having to wait on someone else (a carpool driver, late school bus, babysitter, etc.)
Poor planning (due to being overwhelmed by other things, personality, etc.)

Minor Complications: Friction with others who are inconvenienced, one���s credibility being damaged, forgetting something important because one is in a hurry, being short-tempered with others due to the stress, minor health implications (increased hypertension, aggravating an ulcer, etc.), missing a meal and becoming cranky

Potentially Disastrous Results: Being late to an interview and not getting the job, missing a flight to an important event, ruining a last chance at romance, getting into an accident due to rushing, giving in to road rage, being triggered into a panic attack or mental meltdown

Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict): Berating oneself unnecessarily, struggling with panic or anxiety, denying one���s responsibility and blaming others, becoming defensive, defeatist thoughts (if the impact of one���s tardiness is dire), being tempted to lie about the cause of the lateness

People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: Anyone waiting on the character: co-workers, the boss, clients, a spouse or partner, children, other relatives, a babysitter or nanny, friends

Resulting Emotions: Agitation, anger, annoyance, conflicted, defeat, defensiveness, desperation, determination, devastation, disappointment, discouraged, dread, embarrassment, flustered, guilt, impatience, irritation, nervousness, overwhelmed, panic, powerlessness, regret, unease, worry 

Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: Abrasive, controlling, defensive, disorganized, flaky, foolish, forgetful, fussy, impatient, impulsive, indecisive, inflexible, irresponsible, martyr, melodramatic, nervous, obsessive, perfectionist, scatterbrained, selfish, stubborn, verbose, worrywart

Positive Outcomes: A chance encounter that wouldn���t have happened had the character been on time, learning one���s lesson and planning better in the future, taking responsibility for one���s mistake and being forgiven, recognizing that one is overcommitted and taking steps to keep it from happening again, missing one���s final destination and realizing it was for the best

If you’re interested in other conflict options, you can find them here.

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Writers, Remember: The Wand Chooses The Wizard

When we choose a writing career, naturally we want to find our footing quickly. But this can cause us to pay too much attention to what other authors are doing in hopes of finding the magic of success. Michelle Barker is here to remind us why looking within is actually the key, so please read on!

When I first started writing, I was fresh out of
university with a degree in English literature. I was determined to be a
literary writer. To me, this was what being a writer meant. Never mind writing
about the things that suited my personality. I would write big important novels
for adults, and short stories with lots of sentence fragments. And never mind
finding my own voice; I wanted to sound like Margaret Atwood.

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Well, the short version of this story is: I am not Margaret Atwood. It turns out, big important novels for adults are not my thing at all. I write young adult novels, because the voice that most suits my personality is a teenage one. It took a long time to reach this point, however. I did not understand the wisdom of Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter���s world, nor would I have accepted it. But like it or not, Mr. Ollivander was right: the wand chooses the wizard.

Flannery O���Connor had her own version of the wand
merchant���s wisdom: ���The writer can choose what he writes about but he
cannot choose what he is able to make live������ I tried writing two important
adult novels. They were utter failures. There was no magic in them, no spark.
They weren���t me.

Seeking Your Own Inspiration

Having misconceptions about writing serious literature
is one aspect of this problem. You will also no doubt encounter well-meaning
friends and family members who advise you to write about vampires because
they���re popular right now. Or you���ll have that uncle at the Christmas party
who corners you with a story that would make a great novel and you
should write it.

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Writing what you (or other people) think you should
be writing simply doesn���t work. Unless vampires are your obsession, unless
your uncle���s story made all the hair on your arms stand up, chances are you���ll
only be writing with half a heart.

Besides that, jumping on the market bandwagon is a
recipe for disappointment. By the time your book is ready to meet the world,
there���s a good chance the fad���whatever it is���will have passed and the market
will already be glutted.

Uncovering Your Passion

What do we bring to life most effectively? The things
we are passionate about. The things that keep us awake at night.

These are not always easy to pin down. If you had told
me even ten years ago I would be writing historical fiction, I would have
laughed. I���m not a history buff. But I have a mother who lived in Germany
during World War Two and then in what became East Germany. I grew up hearing
stories about her life. When I finally realized I needed to write about East
Germany, I didn���t care if novels about East Germany were popular. I had a
protagonist with a story that was bursting out of me, and I had to write it.

We don���t usually choose our obsessions. They���re
built-in, ready-made. You don���t need to justify a love for dragons or aliens or
cowboys. You just need to own it.

People used to ask Stephen King why he was ���wasting���
his talent writing horror. Why? Because horror is what he loves. And what
exactly is being wasted? He is arguably the best horror writer in the world.
Should he have ignored his obsessions and tried to be a literary writer? Would
he have been as successful if he had?

Finding Your Wand



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But what if you stumble into Mr. Ollivander���s store like the young Harry Potter, unsure of who you are and what you might be good at? There are a few things you can try:

Pay
attention to what you like to read. That���s often a good clue about what you
might like to write. Include a list of your favourite movies and TV shows. Keep
an eye out for what they all have in common.Try Ray Bradbury���s exercise of making lists of nouns
to see what floats to the surface of your mind. What might these lists consist
of? Memories. Things that frighten you, or amuse you, or puzzle you. He
contends that this exercise was what lifted his work from imitation into
originality. Do
some journaling about the ideas you find yourself circling. If you look at many
writers��� bodies of work, you���ll see they keep coming back to the same themes
like a dog worrying a bone. Chances are you���ve got a few of those lurking in the
background of your thoughts.

Above all, don���t apologize for what you write and who you are. Anything true, anything original and authentic, comes from this deep place.

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Michelle Barker is the award-winning author of The House of One Thousand Eyes. She is also a senior editor at darlingaxe.com, a novel development and editing service, and a frequent contributor to its blog for writers, The Chopping Blog. Her newest novel, My Long List of Impossible Things, comes out in spring, 2020, with Annick Press. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, and her website.

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Set in East Berlin in 1983, The House of One Thousand Eyes is a young adult historical thriller. Seventeen-year-old Lena’s beloved uncle, a famous author, has disappeared.

Lena will stop at nothing to find him���but she must do so in a society of ruthless surveillance and control. Who can she trust to help her find out the truth?

Have you ever found yourself writing something that “wasn’t you?” Let us know in the comments!

The post Writers, Remember: The Wand Chooses The Wizard appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Conflict Thesaurus Entry: Being Offered an Easy Way Out

Conflict is very often the magic sauce for generating tension and turning a ho-hum story into one that rivets readers. As such, every scene should contain a struggle of some kind. Maybe it’s an internal tug-of-war having to do with difficult decisions, morals, or temptations. Or it possibly could come from an external source���other characters, unfortunate circumstances, or the force of nature itself.

It’s our hope that this thesaurus will help you come up with meaningful and fitting conflict options for your stories. Think about what your character wants and how best to block them, then choose a source of conflict that will ramp up the tension in each scene.

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Conflict: Being Offered an Easy Way Out

Categories: Power Struggles, Failures and Mistakes, Duty and Responsibilities, Moral Dilemmas and Temptation, Ego

Examples:
An offer to retake a test after one’s poor performance
An offer to take over a difficult situation when one is struggling
A powerful connection offering to pay someone off and make one’s sticky situation go away
A friend willing to lie so one can escape repercussions
Having an inside man offer to fast-track a process or application
Being offered a position because of a connection, not because one earned it
Someone offering to call in a favor to ensure evidence is “lost”
An inside man offering to alter records to get one out of trouble
Being offered a solution in exchange for a favor down the road
Being offered a bribe or donation to look the other way after making a discovery that could be hazardous (to one’s job, health, etc.)

Minor Complications: Being forced to lie to people one cares about, having to lie on record, deciding to resist temptation and deal with the fallout, disappointing others when the truth comes out

Potentially Disastrous Results: Owing a person in power a favor, being blackmailed, the truth getting out and one’s reputation or standing being ruined, losing the trust of someone one cares deeply about, having to live a lie, being forced to do something outside one’s comfort zone (danger, morally wrong, etc.) in return

Possible Internal Struggles (Inner Conflict): Paranoia that someone will find out, an identity crisis over crossing a moral line, guilty feelings if there is fallout to others as a result of an action one took, self-hatred for being weak if one took the easy way out, trying to make up for what one did in a way that doesn’t reveal what truly happened but finding it doesn’t erase one’s guilt or shame

People Who Could Be Negatively Affected: the character themselves, family and friends who hold the character in high esteem or vouch for their honesty and skills, co-workers or others who are being penalized due to one’s unfair advantage, people who are victimized because justice is not served

Resulting Emotions: anguish, anxiety, conflicted, denial, depressed, despair, desperation, disillusionment, dissatisfaction, doubt, dread, emasculated, embarrassment, empathy, fear, gratitude, grief, guilt, humiliation, obsessed, overwhelmed, panic, paranoia, powerlessness, regret, relief, reluctance, remorse, resignation, self-loathing, shame, smugness, tormented, unease, vulnerability, worthlessness

Personality Flaws that May Make the Situation Worse: addictive, cocky, confrontational, cowardly, cynical, defensive, disloyal, disorganized, flaky, foolish, forgetful, gossipy, greedy, gullible, impatient, impulsive, insecure, manipulative, melodramatic, paranoid, prejudiced, pushy, reckless, resentful, self-destructive, spoiled, subservient, uncooperative, unethical, weak-willed, whiny, worrywart

Positive Outcomes: resisting temptation and accepting responsibility, learning the value of being prepared, being determined to not make the same mistake again that landed one in trouble, redoubling one’s efforts to be ethical, moral, or honest moving forward, gaining respect for people who do accept responsibility even when it hurts them

If you’re interested in other conflict options, you can find them here.

The post Conflict Thesaurus Entry: Being Offered an Easy Way Out appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

Why Writers Shouldn’t Query Self-Published Books

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Have you self-published a novel you had originally intended to send to literary agents (to see how it did)? Or, did you self-publish a novel, decide that publishing path wasn���t for you, and now want to send that book to literary agents?

Let���s talk about why sending previously self-published books to literary agents (or publishers) may not be the best idea.



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As you are probably aware, there is no ���right��� or ���wrong��� way to go about publishing. Meaning, you can self-publish books, send unpublished manuscripts to agents, you can publish with an indie press��� There are so many (great) publishing options in 2019 that weren���t available in previous years.  >> Check out my previous blog, How Should I Publish My Book?, to learn more about the publishing paths available to you.

In addition, with so many high-quality books being self-published, the stigma around this publishing path has been slowly fading over time. Though, I wouldn���t say it���s gone away entirely (yet).

However, there is one persistent question I see in the comments for almost every YouTube video I publish, and that is: ���Can I query a book I���ve already self-published?���

The short answer is: No. Or, I don���t recommend it.

The long answer is one I���m going to attempt to get into today.

When I worked at the literary agency, the authors who queried me with a self-published project usually were querying that manuscript because the book didn���t sell well.

If a book didn���t sell well���meaning, readers had a chance to check out the story and decided they weren���t interested in it���why would industry professionals be interested in that book (again, if readers weren���t)?

The role of a literary agent is to find books they think they can sell to editors at publishing houses. Agents only make money when an author does. Once a book is sold, agents take a fifteen percent cut of what the author makes. (And good agents earn that fifteen percent!)

The role of an editor is to find books they think they can sell to readers. They want to find a fantastic story that they think they can edit, package, market, and hopefully make a profit on. If publishers don���t make money on the books they publish, they will have to downsize or eventually close their doors.

Therefore, if you have previously self-published a book that didn���t sell��� well, most publishers won���t be interested in it for that very reason. 

The typical response I get to this is: ���BUT BUT BUT I���m not good at marketing. If this book had been traditionally published and had marketing support, it would have sold better.���

Perhaps. But, then again, perhaps not.

While a good marketing strategy can absolutely help spread the word about a book, it���s not just about marketing.

Publishers considering whether or not they want to purchase a book will look at: 



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The quality of the writing: Because, obviously!The uniqueness of the story: Has it been done in a similar way before? If so, how is this story unique?The marketability of this book: Do readers want to read this type of story?Trends in the marketplace: Where do they think the market will be in two+ years?Whether or not the publisher can make a profit

Most publishers also want rights to first to market. Meaning, they want to be the ones to introduce a story to the world. By an author previously self-publishing a title, the book has lost its ���newness.��� People have had a chance to see it. If they didn���t purchase it before, why would they purchase it in two+ years after a publisher has published it? 

In addition, even if a book is published traditionally, authors are still expected to participate in the marketing efforts. A common misconception writers have about traditional publishing is that they only have to write stories and the publisher does the rest (including marketing). While that may have been true in the past, it���s no longer true today. Therefore, if the book didn’t sell well before (with your marketing efforts), why would publishing it now be any different?

Now, if a book performed well and sold many copies, you will likely have agents and/or editors knocking at your door (without having to query them). Don���t forget that publishing is a business. Publishers are always looking for books that will earn them a profit. If a self-published book is selling thousands of copies, all bets are off for everything I said before. Again, if a title is doing well, industry pros will likely be coming to you (rather than the other way around).

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An alternative approach to querying a previously self-published title would be to write a new manuscript and query that. You can always write another book and send it to literary agents in the hopes of getting it published traditionally (should that be the publishing path you���d like to pursue). Just because you previously self-published books doesn’t mean you can’t traditionally publish titles later on. (Hello, hybrid publishing!)

It���s always going to be sticky territory (and likely a big fat ���no thanks���) if you try to garner interest from a literary agent (and ultimately a publisher) on a title that has already been published.

*Please Note: This conversation doesn���t apply to self-published authors who work with literary agents for foreign rights and sub rights. Everything mentioned above is geared toward authors who want to remove a book from the market (for example, North American, English rights) and try to sell those rights to a publisher. 

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Meg LaTorre likes to think of herself as an avid book nerd with an exceptional taste for mac and cheese. She is a writer, YouTuber, host of the free query critique platform, Query Hack, developmental
book editor, writing coach, and former literary agent with a background
in magazine publishing, medical/technical writing, and journalism. To
learn more about Meg, visit her website or follow her on 
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

The post Why Writers Shouldn’t Query Self-Published Books appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.

When Telling, Not Showing, Emotion is the Right Choice

Hi everyone! A past resident writing coach is visiting us with an excerpt on a new course she’s teaching on mastering emotions: C.S. Lakin. This post is a touch longer than usual but it will give you a good window into some of the things you’ll learn. Please read on!

Many amateur
writers tend to tell or name what a character���s emotions are. That���s often
because they haven���t learned clever, more effective ways to get the emotion
across. It is a challenging task.

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Telling the
emotion doesn���t allow readers to feel or experience the emotion. It often
creates more problems: the writing gets burdened with lists of emotions, and in
the writer���s attempt to push harder in the hope of conveying emotion, she
overdoes it. Adding to that, she might throw in all those body sensations for
good measure, cramming the prose with so much ���emotion��� that the only thing
readers feel is irritation.

You���ll notice in great writing that it���s a rare moment when a character names her emotion: ���She was scared. She was angry. She was frustrated.��� Yet, there may be times when telling emotion is masterfully done. When it���s expedient and helps move the action along.

You can directly state what a character is feeling in a number of different ways: in dialogue, in direct thoughts, in the narrative (in POV), and in narrative scenes.

Think
about your character. Yours might be the type to name her emotions. With a
young character, for example, it���s wholly believable for her to think in simple
labels, rather than in nuance and complexity of emotion. What she is feeling
might be complex, and the reader would pick that up, but what she herself believes, how she interprets
what she is feeling, might be told plainly as it is understood plainly.

Here���s an excerpt from Whale Song by Cheryl Kaye Tardif that illustrates this technique well:

We climbed aboard the bus, sat down in our usual seats and
hardly said a word to each other during the ride home. When the bus reached the
entrance to my driveway, I mumbled a quick good-bye and hopped down the steps.
The road to my house seemed never-ending and I trudged along, dragging my feet
in the sand and gravel.

That���s when I realized something.

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I was ashamed of what Goldie had done to Annie on my behalf.
I was mortified that I was the cause of someone���s public humiliation. The guilt
ate at me.

Until I remembered the bug-infested chocolate bar.

Then the rage set in.  

���You���re awfully quiet tonight,��� my father said during
supper. ���What���s up, Sarah?���

Pushing my cold mashed potatoes to one side of my plate, I
looked at him. My eyes burned with the need to tell him how much I hated living
in Bamfield, how much I hated school and how mean everyone was���everyone except Goldie. I yearned to tell him about Annie
and the horrible things that she had done to me.

I opened my mouth to speak. But nothing came out.

���Sarah?��� my father repeated. ���Are you���?���

���Can I be excused, Dad? I don���t feel so good.���

���Of course.���

The words were scarcely out of his mouth when I jumped to my
feet and rushed upstairs to my room. Closing the bedroom door behind me, I
threw myself down on my bed.

���I hate it here,��� I sobbed. ���And I hate Annie.��� I grabbed my
pillow and flung it against the door. My face was wet and my throat felt like a
fiery furnace. It was hard to be quiet when what I really wanted to do was bawl
and scream.

I thought of Annie and my blood boiled. How would I survive
three years of being the white kid? How would I endure the malevolent
spitefulness of Annie Pierce?

My hatred of her was so intense that I longed to lash out at
her, to hurt her physically. I envisioned revenge. My own sweet revenge. I
couldn���t allow Goldie to be my savior forever, to be there for me every time
Annie decided to be cruel. I needed to be strong, to defend myself. I wanted to
overcome my fear of her. I just didn���t know how.

I curled up on my bed, depressed and angry, plotting all the
vengeful things I would do to Annie. I don���t know how much time passed before
there was a soft knock on the door.

���Sarah?���

The bed sagged as my mother sat on the edge of the mattress.

���Are you okay, honey?���

Her voice cracked a bit and I sensed her sadness.

���Do you want to talk about it?���

I shook my head.

She stretched out beside me and we lay side-by-side,
shoulders touching. We stayed like that for a long time, neither of us saying a
word.

Working up my nerve, I said, ���There���s this girl at school.
Annie. She���s the one who cut my hair. And she gave me a chocolate bar with bugs
in it.��� I took a deep breath and looked at my mother. ���Everyone teased me and
Annie called me white girl.���

My mother was appalled. ���That���s horrible. I���ll talk to your
teacher.���

I shook my head. ���No! That���ll make things worse.���

���Annie must be a terribly sad and angry girl.���

I stared at her, confused by her comment. How could my
mother feel any sympathy toward the girl that was bullying me?

���What do you mean?��� I asked in a sulky voice.

She patted my hand and entwined her elegant fingers through
mine. ���Usually when kids act like that toward someone else, it���s because they
are unhappy. Annie may be jealous of you. Or maybe a white person treated her
badly at one time and that���s why she seems to hate white people.���

I opened my mouth to argue, but she cut me off. ���That���s
called racism, Sarah. When you judge someone or dislike them for the color of
their skin or their race. When Nonno Rocco and Nonna Sophia first came to North
America, many people were mean to them because they were Italian. People can be
spiteful sometimes���especially
children. Some people just don���t know any better. No one���s taught them that
it���s wrong to judge others by the color of their skin.���

I pouted. ���Why didn���t Annie���s parents teach her it���s wrong?���

She gave a sad shrug. ���I don���t know, honey. Sometimes kids
learn from their parents how to hate other people. I really don���t know why
Annie feels the way she does.���

I clenched her hand, wondering how she could always see
something good in everyone, no matter how nasty they were. That was why my
mother was so special.

But I wasn���t like her. I hated Annie.

The bed shifted as my mother rose to her feet. ���What are you
going to do, Sarah?���

I moaned. ���I don���t know, Mom. What can I do?���

���Hating Annie will suck out your own goodness and energy.
You���re so much better than that. If you choose to hate her, then you become
just like her���no better.��� She kissed my forehead and hugged me. ���Life���s
too short to not forgive those who hurt us. I trust you to do what���s right. Right
by your own heart.��� She placed her palm against my beating heart. ���Forgiveness
sets you free.���

Outside the bay window, the sky was woven with fiery cumulus
clouds and the sun drifted below the trees. A bald eagle dipped low, soared
past the window and disappeared into the night.

As I went to sleep, the last thing I thought of was my
mother���s parting words.

���Forgiveness
sets you free.���

Here it feels perfectly appropriate and useful to have Sarah name her emotions. Her thought process fits her age and maturity.

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That���s not
to say only young characters should name emotions. If it���s in character for your character to think like that, then, by all
means, do so.

What kind of
character would name her emotion? One that has to have enough self-awareness to
be able to identify what she is feeling. Or at least try to identify.

And not
everyone is like that. A teen girl is more apt to ponder her emotions than a
middle-aged highly educated male computer programmer. Or not.

See, don���t
fall back on assumptions and stereotypes. It���s all about personality. Maybe
your computer geek is deeply in touch with what he calls his female side. Or
maybe, conversely, he���s quick to jump to conclusions, and that includes
defining his and others��� emotions by labeling without much thought.

It���s Got to Fit the
Character and the Moment

If we keep
in mind that the narrative���all the
narrative���in a scene is the POV character���s thoughts, it will be clearer to
us when to tell emotion. When would your character think to name an emotion?
When she is aware of her feelings, right? In the kind of moment when the
character would stop and consider how she���s feeling. And only if it fits the
character.

That���s why
in those manly thrillers, we don���t see the hero thinking about his emotions. We
don���t read ���General Harris was mad.��� Instead, we see his anger as he lunges at
the bad guy. Whereas in a thoughtful women���s fiction, we do.

For example,
when a writer tells the reader via author intrusion that his character is
jealous, it���s one step removed. It���s out of POV.

Jason stood at the corner and saw his girl
flirting with Bill Jones in front of the bank. He was jealous because he really
didn���t know if Rose���s affections were genuine or if she was just toying with
him and he couldn���t bear the thought that she might like that jerk more than
him.

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We sense
immediately that this is the author speaking to the reader. Jason isn���t
thinking ���I���m jealous because I really don���t know if Rose���s affections toward
me are genuine.��� Right?

First off,
ask: Is Jason the type of guy to stop and explore his feelings���while he���s
standing on a corner reacting to this unexpected scenario? Not likely, even if
he���s set up to be a touchy-feely kind of guy. Not even if he���s a therapist. Not
in that moment when he is reacting.
Maybe later when he���s processing he���ll admit to himself that he was jealous.
And he might name the emotion. It could be in dialogue, for instance:

���What���s bugging you, bro?��� Steve asked him.

���I saw Rose talking to that creep Jones,��� Jason
said.

Steve eyed him, and a smirk rose on his face.
���Don���t tell me you���re jealous.���

���Sure I���m jealous. She
just agreed to go to Vegas with me. You���d be jealous too, if Cindy was making
eyes at a loser like Jones.���

It���s believable because, in that kind of situation, Jason is going to name his emotion. And it would work as internal dialogue or narrative too:

Jason stormed off down the street and into the
nearby coffee shop. He blew out a breath, feeling like he was about to blow a
fuse. Admit it���you���re jealous. You just
can���t trust her. And that���s your problem. It���s always been your problem.

Which is basically the same as this:

Jason stormed off down the street and into the
nearby coffee shop. He blew out a breath, feeling like he was about to blow a
fuse. He was jealous. No denying it. He thought he was past that, had gotten a
handle on the jealousy after Denise dumped him. But here it was again, like
some ugly monster from the Black Lagoon slithering up his neck, whispering
poisonous words into his ear.

That���s a bit
melodramatic, but I hope you get the point. It���s all about how your character
would think. And telling emotion is a thought your character is thinking. Make
sense? Still, Jason has to be the kind of guy that would stop and realize he���s
jealous, and not every guy is like that. Isn���t it more likely that someone else is going to tell us what
we���re feeling?

Yes, telling
emotion is much easier and much more believable in fiction when it���s a
character naming someone else���s emotions.
Because, sadly, that���s what we do. We sum up, categorize, and stereotype
others, and if your characters are realistic, they���ll probably have moments in
which they do too!

Keep in mind that people rarely immediately, clearly, definitively recognize the emotions they are feeling. They rarely simplify and categorize what they���re feeling into one noun. How often have you seen something happen that upsets you and you think in that moment, ���Wow, I���m upset���? We just don���t do that. No, what occurs are thoughts.

���I can���t believe that jerk just cut me off. He
didn���t even check the lane before he merged.���

Telling Emotion Isn���t a Bad Thing When It’s the Right Fit



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Telling or
naming emotion is one of the three ways to effectively convey your character���s
emotion. You might find that it���s exactly what you need to punch home a
feeling.

Want to learn how to become a masterful wielder of emotion in your fiction? Enroll in Lakin���s new online video course, Emotional Mastery for Fiction Writers, before September 1st, and get 50% off using this link!

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C. S. Lakin
is an editor, award-winning blogger, and author of twenty
novels and the Writer���s Toolbox series of instructional books for novelists.
She edits and critiques more than 200 manuscripts a year and teaches workshops
and boot camps to help
writers craft masterful novels.

The post When Telling, Not Showing, Emotion is the Right Choice appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS��.