Rafael's Blog, page 3
January 13, 2017
The Case For And Against Adverbs
For months now I've been squeezing reads into the tight seams of a too busy life. In the process, I have often found myself going back to the beginning of chapters to count the number of adverbs in case I'm just sensitive to their presence.
Despite all the admonitions against their use in creative fiction, rare is the page they have not invaded. Perhaps they engender the same reaction I had when an editor warned me to be mindful of the prepositions 'in', 'on', and 'of'. Huh? More later. And if you're a Middle Grade or Young Adult author, reading further will waste your time. More later.
So rather than the 'tell' to not use adverbs, the 'show' may be more useful. I place adverbs in four categories: redundant, contextual, hyperbolic, and adverbs of degree.
Adverbs of Degree
He had never entirely conquered his fear of heights.
She remained dimly aware of the danger he posed.
This is wussy writing. As if the author is unsure of the character's state of being. Be assertive. Be confident. Make a decision. Conquered and aware do not have degrees. Something is conquered or it is not. Someone is aware or she is not. In both instances, removing the adverb releases the impact and punch it had smothered. Try it.
Redundant
The floor boards had deteriorated badly.
The professor quickly corrected himself.
These two are easy. Nothing deteriorates well. The second sentence, without needing any context, allows us to infer the correction could not have taken place over weeks, days, or hours.
Hyperbolic
Everyone understood going inside might prove extremely dangerous.
Pounding violently against the door, it soon gave way.
Both adverbs are pure hype. Neither conveys to the reader any additional information regarding the danger or the pounding. Indeed, the verbs contain the adverbs. Anything dangerous is already extreme and violence is inherent to pounding.
Contextual
Tires squealing around the corner, the police car closed rapidly on the getaway car.
Vivian's glow left no doubt she had fully recovered.
Long before reaching the adverb, context obviates any need for it. In fact, context often paints an adverb as at once redundant, hyperbolic, and expressing false degree. Like the previous examples, these sentences can drop the adverbs and leave their meaning intact.
Wait! I can hear the clips slamming home and rounds chambering. Don't shoot! Hold your fire!
Know your audience! As independent authors, none of this matters. Throw it all out. Unless you are writing for authors or trying to slip past agents, readers don't care!
J.K. Rowling made a fortune writing for a Young Adult and Middle Grade audience that wouldn't know an adverb from a proverb. Give a reader solid characters along with a coherent plot and they'll forgive even the odd typo.
So go ahead. Write that million download seller. Leave the rest of us chained to literary style guides, wallowing in critical angst to which I'm about to add. Consider the following three sentences.
He powered up the machine, twiddling the knobs and dials on it.
The two stepped from the porch, staring down the road ahead of them.
She lifted the box then sifted through the contents in it.
'on it', 'of them', and 'in it', are redundant. Think that's nitpicking? How about this gem from a zealous grammarian.
Wrong: He only had this to say, “I have no use for it.”
Correct : He only had this to say: “I have no use for it.”
"When an attribution preceding a quotation consists of a complete statement, a colon should follow the attribution."
It was fortunate for both me and the grammarian I could not reach through my In Box to slap him.
As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.
P.S. Except for the examples, I used no adverbs in this post. :-)
Despite all the admonitions against their use in creative fiction, rare is the page they have not invaded. Perhaps they engender the same reaction I had when an editor warned me to be mindful of the prepositions 'in', 'on', and 'of'. Huh? More later. And if you're a Middle Grade or Young Adult author, reading further will waste your time. More later.
So rather than the 'tell' to not use adverbs, the 'show' may be more useful. I place adverbs in four categories: redundant, contextual, hyperbolic, and adverbs of degree.
Adverbs of Degree
He had never entirely conquered his fear of heights.
She remained dimly aware of the danger he posed.
This is wussy writing. As if the author is unsure of the character's state of being. Be assertive. Be confident. Make a decision. Conquered and aware do not have degrees. Something is conquered or it is not. Someone is aware or she is not. In both instances, removing the adverb releases the impact and punch it had smothered. Try it.
Redundant
The floor boards had deteriorated badly.
The professor quickly corrected himself.
These two are easy. Nothing deteriorates well. The second sentence, without needing any context, allows us to infer the correction could not have taken place over weeks, days, or hours.
Hyperbolic
Everyone understood going inside might prove extremely dangerous.
Pounding violently against the door, it soon gave way.
Both adverbs are pure hype. Neither conveys to the reader any additional information regarding the danger or the pounding. Indeed, the verbs contain the adverbs. Anything dangerous is already extreme and violence is inherent to pounding.
Contextual
Tires squealing around the corner, the police car closed rapidly on the getaway car.
Vivian's glow left no doubt she had fully recovered.
Long before reaching the adverb, context obviates any need for it. In fact, context often paints an adverb as at once redundant, hyperbolic, and expressing false degree. Like the previous examples, these sentences can drop the adverbs and leave their meaning intact.
Wait! I can hear the clips slamming home and rounds chambering. Don't shoot! Hold your fire!
Know your audience! As independent authors, none of this matters. Throw it all out. Unless you are writing for authors or trying to slip past agents, readers don't care!
J.K. Rowling made a fortune writing for a Young Adult and Middle Grade audience that wouldn't know an adverb from a proverb. Give a reader solid characters along with a coherent plot and they'll forgive even the odd typo.
So go ahead. Write that million download seller. Leave the rest of us chained to literary style guides, wallowing in critical angst to which I'm about to add. Consider the following three sentences.
He powered up the machine, twiddling the knobs and dials on it.
The two stepped from the porch, staring down the road ahead of them.
She lifted the box then sifted through the contents in it.
'on it', 'of them', and 'in it', are redundant. Think that's nitpicking? How about this gem from a zealous grammarian.
Wrong: He only had this to say, “I have no use for it.”
Correct : He only had this to say: “I have no use for it.”
"When an attribution preceding a quotation consists of a complete statement, a colon should follow the attribution."
It was fortunate for both me and the grammarian I could not reach through my In Box to slap him.
As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome.
P.S. Except for the examples, I used no adverbs in this post. :-)
January 7, 2017
Modernism vs Post-Modernism
Ever have an identity crisis? Neither have I. Until a few days before the New Year. Then I experienced what Kafka's Gregor Samsa must have when he awakened in the body of a cockroach. I am not who I thought, indeed convinced, I was.
From the moment I decided to become a novelist, I envisioned myself a modernist. The impetus to strip a sentence of anything unneeded to convey its meaning appealed to my inner Spartan and outer New Yorker. Neither of us had time to waste and I imagined neither did readers. I wanted to give the reader an unvarnished view of the world stripped of pretense or sugar coating. And having selected 3rd person suspense as my milieu, I would never break the trust between reader and narrator.
Then I learned literary cognoscenti, like scholar David Thorburn, pooh pooh such realistic interpretations of the world, emphasizing, like Claude Monet's paintings, "a drive towards the abstract". In fact, much of modernism's characteristics contradict everything I patterned myself after. Writing.com explains.
"The 'truth' is questionable, as a common theme, and thus, you cannot always trust the narrator to tell the truth, whereas in traditional literature it is the narrator’s job to make the reader understand what’s going on. Also, there may be more than one narrator, showing the diversity of truth.
Ambiguous ending; such works often leave a lot of questions with the reader; they don’t tie everything up for you.
Often setting is more than just the setting (i.e. more meaning to it than just where the story takes place), or, maybe there is no setting at all."
Oh no, I thought. My heart sank at the realization my hip, modernist shell hid a fuddy-duddy traditionalist. And even though Modernism's earliest beginnings emphasized precision of imagery and brevity of prose, World War I's savagery disillusioned a shattered generation. It infused the movement with a belief there are no absolutes. The illogic of that conclusion must have escaped them. One cannot deny a truth by claiming it. Stating there are no absolutes, is an absolute.
What to do, what to do? Wait! Maybe there's hope! Maybe I'm a post-modernist?
Nope. The elites didn't even get around to studying it until the 1980s. They've begun to coalesce around the notion of taking a "more playful or celebratory [view] regarding the world's 'insanity'. The idea being, okay, the world is chaotic, there are no universal truths, lets see what we can do with that."
Aha! We should be applauding ISIS beheadings and Syrian slaughter. No. That doesn't seem right. Who am I? An American Don Quixote?
Well, I think I'll turn the tables on my serial-loving, but very dear friends. You'll just have to stay tuned as my angst-ridden saga to find my true self continues. Neo-modernist might be a good place to start. I can't reconcile myself to the notion I might be a literary dork.
Meanwhile...
Continuing the theme of shocked revelation, I needed a quick synonym for 'baggage', and despite a lifetime of speaking, reading, and writing English, learned Merriam-Webster thought it appropriate to suggest the following:
"wanton, hussy, jade, slattern, slut, strumpet, tramp, trollop, trull, wench"
I must admit it has a certain appeal to the subversive sense of mischief I am cursed with. Though it is a rarity, the next time I encounter a strumpet, I will assume a right proper air of regal haughtiness and disdain by exclaiming, "You, baggage."
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S. I changed my character's burdens to 'cartons'. Luggage was too formal. Thus I make this postscript not at all modernist.
P.P.S. Is there a male equivalent lurking behind some innocuous noun?
From the moment I decided to become a novelist, I envisioned myself a modernist. The impetus to strip a sentence of anything unneeded to convey its meaning appealed to my inner Spartan and outer New Yorker. Neither of us had time to waste and I imagined neither did readers. I wanted to give the reader an unvarnished view of the world stripped of pretense or sugar coating. And having selected 3rd person suspense as my milieu, I would never break the trust between reader and narrator.
Then I learned literary cognoscenti, like scholar David Thorburn, pooh pooh such realistic interpretations of the world, emphasizing, like Claude Monet's paintings, "a drive towards the abstract". In fact, much of modernism's characteristics contradict everything I patterned myself after. Writing.com explains.
"The 'truth' is questionable, as a common theme, and thus, you cannot always trust the narrator to tell the truth, whereas in traditional literature it is the narrator’s job to make the reader understand what’s going on. Also, there may be more than one narrator, showing the diversity of truth.
Ambiguous ending; such works often leave a lot of questions with the reader; they don’t tie everything up for you.
Often setting is more than just the setting (i.e. more meaning to it than just where the story takes place), or, maybe there is no setting at all."
Oh no, I thought. My heart sank at the realization my hip, modernist shell hid a fuddy-duddy traditionalist. And even though Modernism's earliest beginnings emphasized precision of imagery and brevity of prose, World War I's savagery disillusioned a shattered generation. It infused the movement with a belief there are no absolutes. The illogic of that conclusion must have escaped them. One cannot deny a truth by claiming it. Stating there are no absolutes, is an absolute.
What to do, what to do? Wait! Maybe there's hope! Maybe I'm a post-modernist?
Nope. The elites didn't even get around to studying it until the 1980s. They've begun to coalesce around the notion of taking a "more playful or celebratory [view] regarding the world's 'insanity'. The idea being, okay, the world is chaotic, there are no universal truths, lets see what we can do with that."
Aha! We should be applauding ISIS beheadings and Syrian slaughter. No. That doesn't seem right. Who am I? An American Don Quixote?
Well, I think I'll turn the tables on my serial-loving, but very dear friends. You'll just have to stay tuned as my angst-ridden saga to find my true self continues. Neo-modernist might be a good place to start. I can't reconcile myself to the notion I might be a literary dork.
Meanwhile...
Continuing the theme of shocked revelation, I needed a quick synonym for 'baggage', and despite a lifetime of speaking, reading, and writing English, learned Merriam-Webster thought it appropriate to suggest the following:
"wanton, hussy, jade, slattern, slut, strumpet, tramp, trollop, trull, wench"
I must admit it has a certain appeal to the subversive sense of mischief I am cursed with. Though it is a rarity, the next time I encounter a strumpet, I will assume a right proper air of regal haughtiness and disdain by exclaiming, "You, baggage."
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S. I changed my character's burdens to 'cartons'. Luggage was too formal. Thus I make this postscript not at all modernist.
P.P.S. Is there a male equivalent lurking behind some innocuous noun?
December 30, 2016
Freues Neues Jahr !!
This week's post is to say thank you to all who took the time, a most precious gift, to amass 964 total views during the past six months and to wish each and every one of you a healthy and safe New Year that provides all you deserve.
Happy New Year, everyone !! :-)
Happy New Year, everyone !! :-)
December 23, 2016
Ol Hip St. Nick
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all thro' the book
I could think of nothing, that gave me a hook;
The participles were hanging, all without care,
Scoffing at me, just sitting there;
The cursor was nestled all snug on the page,
Blinking and laughing at the suspect sage;
With a groan I reached to remove my cap
It might wake my brain from a long winter's nap—
When up from my mind there arose such a clatter,
I sat up and straightened, what was the matter?
Right through my body there surged such a flash,
Thoughts raced to the window and threw up the sash
Ideas formed and dropped, like new fallen snow
I smirked at the cursor, blinking below;
When wonder of wonders what should appear,
A premise, a concept that would save my career
Brilliant and grand, if it was to stick,
I had to record it, right now and quick.
Fingers on fire clacked the keyboard,
Words formed on the screen, the laptop could store.
Now gerund, now object, now adverb and noun,
No telling, just showing, get it all down;
To the top of the page! Keep going strong!
Word count! Word count! Don't go too long!
Like plastic bags that before the wind fly,
Paragraphs, paragraphs grew to the sky;
And then from behind me, I heard a commotion,
I twisted around, my neck a contortion.
My eyes opened wide when up from the ground,
In through the window, St. Nick leaped with a bound.
Heat-keeping thermals, looked like from Macy's,
Red buckles and snaps, boy he looked racy;
A cell held his gaze, he did not look up,
The thought crossed my mind, this might be a stunt.
He scrolled through an app, it needed no fingers,
Then gave me a look, the kind that just lingers.
He stretched out a hand to lay on my head;
In an instant I knew, how the novel would end.
He sprang through the window, leaving me smitten;
I returned to the screen, the story now written.
And I heard him exclaim, ere he vanished from sight—
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Merry Christmas, everyone !!
P.S. To this instant, I remain convinced Nat King Cole's chestnuts are roasting on an open file, not an open fire.
P.P.S. "Like plastic bags that before the wind fly". I know, I know. I can only pray the poets of GR can find their way to forgive me.
I could think of nothing, that gave me a hook;
The participles were hanging, all without care,
Scoffing at me, just sitting there;
The cursor was nestled all snug on the page,
Blinking and laughing at the suspect sage;
With a groan I reached to remove my cap
It might wake my brain from a long winter's nap—
When up from my mind there arose such a clatter,
I sat up and straightened, what was the matter?
Right through my body there surged such a flash,
Thoughts raced to the window and threw up the sash
Ideas formed and dropped, like new fallen snow
I smirked at the cursor, blinking below;
When wonder of wonders what should appear,
A premise, a concept that would save my career
Brilliant and grand, if it was to stick,
I had to record it, right now and quick.
Fingers on fire clacked the keyboard,
Words formed on the screen, the laptop could store.
Now gerund, now object, now adverb and noun,
No telling, just showing, get it all down;
To the top of the page! Keep going strong!
Word count! Word count! Don't go too long!
Like plastic bags that before the wind fly,
Paragraphs, paragraphs grew to the sky;
And then from behind me, I heard a commotion,
I twisted around, my neck a contortion.
My eyes opened wide when up from the ground,
In through the window, St. Nick leaped with a bound.
Heat-keeping thermals, looked like from Macy's,
Red buckles and snaps, boy he looked racy;
A cell held his gaze, he did not look up,
The thought crossed my mind, this might be a stunt.
He scrolled through an app, it needed no fingers,
Then gave me a look, the kind that just lingers.
He stretched out a hand to lay on my head;
In an instant I knew, how the novel would end.
He sprang through the window, leaving me smitten;
I returned to the screen, the story now written.
And I heard him exclaim, ere he vanished from sight—
Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
Merry Christmas, everyone !!
P.S. To this instant, I remain convinced Nat King Cole's chestnuts are roasting on an open file, not an open fire.
P.P.S. "Like plastic bags that before the wind fly". I know, I know. I can only pray the poets of GR can find their way to forgive me.
December 16, 2016
Statute of Limitations
This week I had an opportunity to comment on a friend's review in which I expressed being loathe to place rules on a novelist. An ironic position since at the time I decided to become one, I placed three on myself. So as I close on completing my sixth novel in eight years, I thought it would make a good post to, in hindsight, examine these self-imposed limitations.
First, I made a promise to remain true to the story. At the time, I had no idea that pledge placed me at the center of two literary debates, raging to this day. Before defining what I mean by 'story', let's begin by seeing what one literary critic has to say on the subject of story vs plot.
"Apart from the distinction between the two levels story and discourse , which is part of structuralist terminology, there is an older tradition which differentiates between story and plot. The basic difference between story and plot was pointed out by Aristotle, who distinguishes between actions in the real world and units that are selected from these and arranged in what he calls mythos..."
Okaaay, we are not going to dance on the head of that intellectual pin. Let's leave this University of Freiburg English professor to continue toiling in anonymity. We need look no further than the response all of us desire. "Wow. That was a great story." No one ever says, "Wow. That was a great plot."
'Story' belongs to the reader. It is the sum total from beginning to end of his or her reading experience. The emotional rollercoaster and moments of learning. The sense of awe and wonder, the quiet reflection at reaching 'The End' and having glimpsed another world.
'Plot' belongs to the author and when done well is always invisible to the reader. It is the methods, techniques and, of course, the well-crafted prose that draws the reader into a fictional reality. Story is strategic. Plot is tactical.
'Story' for me, therefore, took priority over everything and thus whatever it demanded, I remained true to regardless of personal preference or bias. Unbeknownst to me, however, the position thrust me into another literary imbroglio: plot vs character. If story held sway, and plot served story, where in the pecking order did character belong?
Before anyone gasps in horror at the prospect of my hurling character under the bus, fear not. Character does not compromise my first rule to remain true to the story. Indeed, it serves my purpose. To the extent characters are well-defined, well-individualized, and credible to the reader, the story is well-served.
But
Assuming every novel we write will not be brilliant, a good plot can carry average characters. Good characters cannot carry an average plot.
Now before I continue with the next two limitations, a little context is in order. Dread accompanies my trolling through the Internet's literary nooks and crannies because agents are fond of posting lists comprised of the worst Query Letters they've ever received. I refuse to read them. Seven years ago, I sent the following three-sentence email to over a hundred agents without knowing Query Letters even existed.
"Hi. My name is Rafael and I've just finished my first novel, The Sixth Ape. Would you like to read it?"
Despite the abject naivete at the time, my instincts were on solid ground. As part of the commitment to become a novelist, I vowed to never violate the Laws of Physics. It forced me to do my homework and learn how to create fictional worlds that did not rely on magic and miracles to advance the plot. In fact, it made my second novel, Donnadio (that's an Italian word, EG), possible. Needing a civilization-ending apocalyptic event to establish the story's premise, the discipline gained prevented me from giving in to the shop-worn tropes of nuclear holocaust, world war, meteor strike, or global pandemic. One free kindle cover to the first one who can guess what it is. And, of course, though my stories are always mixed genre, fantasy is sadly not one of them.
Finally, I resolved to not be the author of anything that re-wrote history. My life-long fascination with the subject has been a tremendous help in getting me past stubborn plot points. There is nothing I can imagine that hasn't already occurred somewhere or sometime in history. Indeed, across the millennia humans have had every opportunity to create truths stranger than fiction. But though I won't rewrite it, I don't hesitate to, umm, embellish it.
In my fourth novel, They Cried Wolf, the protagonist, an assassin in the employ of the President of the United States, happens to be a very long-lived lycanthrope (no, werewolves do not violate the Laws of Physics).
This made for great back-story as he then became one of the pirates General Andrew Jackson identified as my "hellish banditti" during the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. At a crucial point in the fight, the young swashbuckler deprived the British of much-needed leadership by shooting one of their generals dead. The facts are historically accurate but the battle's chroniclers never identified the shooter and therefore had no idea he was my protagonist, Diego Constance.
And with that, the plot has come to an end. Did you enjoy the story?
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
First, I made a promise to remain true to the story. At the time, I had no idea that pledge placed me at the center of two literary debates, raging to this day. Before defining what I mean by 'story', let's begin by seeing what one literary critic has to say on the subject of story vs plot.
"Apart from the distinction between the two levels story and discourse , which is part of structuralist terminology, there is an older tradition which differentiates between story and plot. The basic difference between story and plot was pointed out by Aristotle, who distinguishes between actions in the real world and units that are selected from these and arranged in what he calls mythos..."
Okaaay, we are not going to dance on the head of that intellectual pin. Let's leave this University of Freiburg English professor to continue toiling in anonymity. We need look no further than the response all of us desire. "Wow. That was a great story." No one ever says, "Wow. That was a great plot."
'Story' belongs to the reader. It is the sum total from beginning to end of his or her reading experience. The emotional rollercoaster and moments of learning. The sense of awe and wonder, the quiet reflection at reaching 'The End' and having glimpsed another world.
'Plot' belongs to the author and when done well is always invisible to the reader. It is the methods, techniques and, of course, the well-crafted prose that draws the reader into a fictional reality. Story is strategic. Plot is tactical.
'Story' for me, therefore, took priority over everything and thus whatever it demanded, I remained true to regardless of personal preference or bias. Unbeknownst to me, however, the position thrust me into another literary imbroglio: plot vs character. If story held sway, and plot served story, where in the pecking order did character belong?
Before anyone gasps in horror at the prospect of my hurling character under the bus, fear not. Character does not compromise my first rule to remain true to the story. Indeed, it serves my purpose. To the extent characters are well-defined, well-individualized, and credible to the reader, the story is well-served.
But
Assuming every novel we write will not be brilliant, a good plot can carry average characters. Good characters cannot carry an average plot.
Now before I continue with the next two limitations, a little context is in order. Dread accompanies my trolling through the Internet's literary nooks and crannies because agents are fond of posting lists comprised of the worst Query Letters they've ever received. I refuse to read them. Seven years ago, I sent the following three-sentence email to over a hundred agents without knowing Query Letters even existed.
"Hi. My name is Rafael and I've just finished my first novel, The Sixth Ape. Would you like to read it?"
Despite the abject naivete at the time, my instincts were on solid ground. As part of the commitment to become a novelist, I vowed to never violate the Laws of Physics. It forced me to do my homework and learn how to create fictional worlds that did not rely on magic and miracles to advance the plot. In fact, it made my second novel, Donnadio (that's an Italian word, EG), possible. Needing a civilization-ending apocalyptic event to establish the story's premise, the discipline gained prevented me from giving in to the shop-worn tropes of nuclear holocaust, world war, meteor strike, or global pandemic. One free kindle cover to the first one who can guess what it is. And, of course, though my stories are always mixed genre, fantasy is sadly not one of them.
Finally, I resolved to not be the author of anything that re-wrote history. My life-long fascination with the subject has been a tremendous help in getting me past stubborn plot points. There is nothing I can imagine that hasn't already occurred somewhere or sometime in history. Indeed, across the millennia humans have had every opportunity to create truths stranger than fiction. But though I won't rewrite it, I don't hesitate to, umm, embellish it.
In my fourth novel, They Cried Wolf, the protagonist, an assassin in the employ of the President of the United States, happens to be a very long-lived lycanthrope (no, werewolves do not violate the Laws of Physics).
This made for great back-story as he then became one of the pirates General Andrew Jackson identified as my "hellish banditti" during the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. At a crucial point in the fight, the young swashbuckler deprived the British of much-needed leadership by shooting one of their generals dead. The facts are historically accurate but the battle's chroniclers never identified the shooter and therefore had no idea he was my protagonist, Diego Constance.
And with that, the plot has come to an end. Did you enjoy the story?
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
December 9, 2016
Multilingual Ebooks
This week an email from a self-publishing guru broke through my spam filter with the following edited-for-time pitch. The brackets are in lieu of the article's embedded URLs.
"The world speaks English - or you would think so based on the marketing strategies of the overwhelming majority of independent authors where nearly all limit themselves to the English- speaking American market. [Amazon] and only [Amazon] is the focal point of their efforts. From a marketing standpoint, this is foolish. English ranks fourth globally behind Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish which altogether represent over 1.75 billion speakers, compared to just 510 million English speakers worldwide. Of those 510 million English speakers across 63 countries, just 340 million speak a dialect of English natively (source: Vistawide).
"Limiting yourself to English also makes little sense for the American book market. A 2015 study published in The Guardian shows that the United States is second in the world behind Mexico in the number of Spanish speakers with 52.6 million native and bilingual Spanish speaker (sic) in the USA."
(Interjection mine: as if the piece's sanctimonious smugness isn't already off-putting, get ready for a scolding.)
"In other words, independent authors who limit themselves to the English-speaking USA market are greatly limiting their customer base. Doing so is akin to offering just one book title sold exclusively in Kindle format on Amazon. Yes, some authors are successful with that approach-but not many."
Leaving aside the piece's tone, when I finished reading it only one conclusion came to mind. The author had never spent one minute sitting in a marketing class. Before I dismantle this SPGs marketing gibberish, let me arm you with a concept that will identify the amorous advances of other self-styled gurus. Economic markets are not numerical quantities. When a marketing plan is justified on the basis of a target market's size, get ready to see an ad budget disappear into a black hole.
I can't blame this writer for marketing ignorance. As my 9/23 post 'Lies and Statistics' detailed, even professional marketers supported by corporate level budgets have a Pavlovian response to seeing a market size of 1.75 billion.
For the record, I am not a marketer, though because I majored in Business Admin, I did have to study it through 302 (that's six courses for my British friends). However in my previous life as an Accountant, many a marketer's knees buckled when presenting their marketing plans to the CFO and she asked, "Did you run the numbers by Rafael?"
So the numbers have to make sense and because the author's pitch for multilingual eBooks is based on a flawed premise, they collapse. For those of you rolling your eyes at the threat of a statistical onslaught, hold on. I'm on your side. This is going to be simple and succinct.
Let's say you want to translate your novel for the world's biggest book market, China. Well, it's going to have to be a print book. America alone dwarfs China's near non-existent eBook market. Why? While Chinese readers will deal with memos, texts, emails, technical papers, etc in Latinized Chinese, they will only read a novel in traditional hànzì. As far as I was able to research, the number of eBook devices sold that display classic Chinese lettering is miniscule.
Okay, what if you do have a print version of your tome? For 2013, the last year the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had statistics for, China released 440,000 titles. For the same year, America released 305,000.
With a population of 1.4 billion, straightforward arithmetic shows us that to sell one book in China, one must market to 3,200 Chinese. To sell one book in the US population of 320 million, one must market to 1,050 Americans. To market the same book in China requires three times the marketing expense.
Even a cursory examination of the non-English reading public reveals broad differences in taste. Yes, there are 52.6 million Spanish readers in the US. How many read books? Or like the same thing? How many read non-fiction? How many read your genre? The same questions apply to Taiwan, Indonesia, and Brazil, to name a few. Before marketing for sales, market identification is essential. Texts abound filled with disastrous case studies of geographically distant and culturally naive marketing campaigns.
And what about translation? Our intrepid SPG identifies Babelcube. They simply are the intermediaries between authors and translators. The author announces availability of his/her book and chooses from responding translators. Both will share in the royalties earned once Babelcube distributes the translated work. Total upfront costs? Zero. Prior to distribution, however, the author has eight administrative tasks to complete. The ninth is a call to "start marketing".
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
"The world speaks English - or you would think so based on the marketing strategies of the overwhelming majority of independent authors where nearly all limit themselves to the English- speaking American market. [Amazon] and only [Amazon] is the focal point of their efforts. From a marketing standpoint, this is foolish. English ranks fourth globally behind Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish which altogether represent over 1.75 billion speakers, compared to just 510 million English speakers worldwide. Of those 510 million English speakers across 63 countries, just 340 million speak a dialect of English natively (source: Vistawide).
"Limiting yourself to English also makes little sense for the American book market. A 2015 study published in The Guardian shows that the United States is second in the world behind Mexico in the number of Spanish speakers with 52.6 million native and bilingual Spanish speaker (sic) in the USA."
(Interjection mine: as if the piece's sanctimonious smugness isn't already off-putting, get ready for a scolding.)
"In other words, independent authors who limit themselves to the English-speaking USA market are greatly limiting their customer base. Doing so is akin to offering just one book title sold exclusively in Kindle format on Amazon. Yes, some authors are successful with that approach-but not many."
Leaving aside the piece's tone, when I finished reading it only one conclusion came to mind. The author had never spent one minute sitting in a marketing class. Before I dismantle this SPGs marketing gibberish, let me arm you with a concept that will identify the amorous advances of other self-styled gurus. Economic markets are not numerical quantities. When a marketing plan is justified on the basis of a target market's size, get ready to see an ad budget disappear into a black hole.
I can't blame this writer for marketing ignorance. As my 9/23 post 'Lies and Statistics' detailed, even professional marketers supported by corporate level budgets have a Pavlovian response to seeing a market size of 1.75 billion.
For the record, I am not a marketer, though because I majored in Business Admin, I did have to study it through 302 (that's six courses for my British friends). However in my previous life as an Accountant, many a marketer's knees buckled when presenting their marketing plans to the CFO and she asked, "Did you run the numbers by Rafael?"
So the numbers have to make sense and because the author's pitch for multilingual eBooks is based on a flawed premise, they collapse. For those of you rolling your eyes at the threat of a statistical onslaught, hold on. I'm on your side. This is going to be simple and succinct.
Let's say you want to translate your novel for the world's biggest book market, China. Well, it's going to have to be a print book. America alone dwarfs China's near non-existent eBook market. Why? While Chinese readers will deal with memos, texts, emails, technical papers, etc in Latinized Chinese, they will only read a novel in traditional hànzì. As far as I was able to research, the number of eBook devices sold that display classic Chinese lettering is miniscule.
Okay, what if you do have a print version of your tome? For 2013, the last year the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had statistics for, China released 440,000 titles. For the same year, America released 305,000.
With a population of 1.4 billion, straightforward arithmetic shows us that to sell one book in China, one must market to 3,200 Chinese. To sell one book in the US population of 320 million, one must market to 1,050 Americans. To market the same book in China requires three times the marketing expense.
Even a cursory examination of the non-English reading public reveals broad differences in taste. Yes, there are 52.6 million Spanish readers in the US. How many read books? Or like the same thing? How many read non-fiction? How many read your genre? The same questions apply to Taiwan, Indonesia, and Brazil, to name a few. Before marketing for sales, market identification is essential. Texts abound filled with disastrous case studies of geographically distant and culturally naive marketing campaigns.
And what about translation? Our intrepid SPG identifies Babelcube. They simply are the intermediaries between authors and translators. The author announces availability of his/her book and chooses from responding translators. Both will share in the royalties earned once Babelcube distributes the translated work. Total upfront costs? Zero. Prior to distribution, however, the author has eight administrative tasks to complete. The ninth is a call to "start marketing".
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
December 2, 2016
Literary Mood and Tone
This week's post gave me pause to question its merits. I blog for writers, novelists, and rather sophisticated readers. On its face, mood and tone's meaning is sufficiently obvious for our purposes. Is a trip into the weeds where literary experts delineate fine distinctions between the two worth it?
Clearly, I decided yes but not for that reason. The admonition to know the rules and know them well so one can break them (with which I agree), applies here. As professionals, we should know what the experts have to say. It then opens a delicious opportunity to hear them gasp when we ignore or alter it. Incidentally, I have a deep respect for time-honored tradition but flavor-of-the-month experts are too often passing fads.
Literature does treat mood and tone as distinct entities. Mood is the emotional/psychological response an author wishes to elicit from a reader. Tone is the technique(s) used to accomplish that. But substituting nouns with synonyms does not free the concept from its abstract moorings. Let's make it more concrete.
Conveniently for us, words are the primary technique. Here are some word-pairs where the first is the mood an author desires, the second, one possible word to describe the scene needed, i.e., the tone.
Awe-opulent, mellow-serene, pleased-comforting, optimistic-confident, flirty-tender. That's enough. As I said, I blog for writers, novelists, and rather sophisticated readers.
But here's a suggestion. I made passing mention above to a thesaurus. We use it when in need of an alternative or better word. It is also the perfect tool for tone and mood. Look up the mood desired. The suggestions will describe the scene/setting needed. And for this purpose, there is no substitute for the depth and breadth Roget's Thesaurus provides.
Scene and setting also contribute to tone and mood. However, I consider them distant seconds to the importance and power of words. For example, want to create a light, airy, mood? Describe a couple strolling hand in hand along a breezy, sunlit shoreline or through a bright, flowery meadow. Did you visualize both? Change the words, and the same scenes can become perfect contrasts for the two becoming mangled corpses.
Another technique for setting mood is diction. But again, this just reinforces my contention. Diction is how one phrases words. The website, literarydevices.net, provides an article defining mood which highlights a passage from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". I include it for its description of Mr. Swift's technique.
"And being no stranger to the art of war, I gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powders, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea-fights..."
Mr. Swift creates a mood for war's repugnance by choosing "...words that are unmelodious, harsh, and jarring."
I found it at once interesting and curious that in all the blogs and articles I read, not one expert even mentioned an author's 'voice'. I see it as inseparable from mood and tone. It is the common strand that coordinates words, setting, and diction. But that's another subject. Hmmm.
I'd like to thank my GR friend and fellow veteran George Mazzeo, author of "Chasing Dragons", who suggested this week's blog subject a few posts back. It opened my eyes to a deeper use for my thesaurus. Thank you, George. :-)
Apropos of nothing, it never occurred to me why the abbreviation for pound is lb. Libra is the Latin word for weight or balance (as in a scale)
and over time became abbreviated to lb.
I would admonish the Professor who talked me into a three-year study of Caesar and Cicero in the original Latin, thus preventing me from learning something more practical than analytical logic. He, however, is now actually talking with Caesar and Cicero.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Clearly, I decided yes but not for that reason. The admonition to know the rules and know them well so one can break them (with which I agree), applies here. As professionals, we should know what the experts have to say. It then opens a delicious opportunity to hear them gasp when we ignore or alter it. Incidentally, I have a deep respect for time-honored tradition but flavor-of-the-month experts are too often passing fads.
Literature does treat mood and tone as distinct entities. Mood is the emotional/psychological response an author wishes to elicit from a reader. Tone is the technique(s) used to accomplish that. But substituting nouns with synonyms does not free the concept from its abstract moorings. Let's make it more concrete.
Conveniently for us, words are the primary technique. Here are some word-pairs where the first is the mood an author desires, the second, one possible word to describe the scene needed, i.e., the tone.
Awe-opulent, mellow-serene, pleased-comforting, optimistic-confident, flirty-tender. That's enough. As I said, I blog for writers, novelists, and rather sophisticated readers.
But here's a suggestion. I made passing mention above to a thesaurus. We use it when in need of an alternative or better word. It is also the perfect tool for tone and mood. Look up the mood desired. The suggestions will describe the scene/setting needed. And for this purpose, there is no substitute for the depth and breadth Roget's Thesaurus provides.
Scene and setting also contribute to tone and mood. However, I consider them distant seconds to the importance and power of words. For example, want to create a light, airy, mood? Describe a couple strolling hand in hand along a breezy, sunlit shoreline or through a bright, flowery meadow. Did you visualize both? Change the words, and the same scenes can become perfect contrasts for the two becoming mangled corpses.
Another technique for setting mood is diction. But again, this just reinforces my contention. Diction is how one phrases words. The website, literarydevices.net, provides an article defining mood which highlights a passage from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". I include it for its description of Mr. Swift's technique.
"And being no stranger to the art of war, I gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powders, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea-fights..."
Mr. Swift creates a mood for war's repugnance by choosing "...words that are unmelodious, harsh, and jarring."
I found it at once interesting and curious that in all the blogs and articles I read, not one expert even mentioned an author's 'voice'. I see it as inseparable from mood and tone. It is the common strand that coordinates words, setting, and diction. But that's another subject. Hmmm.
I'd like to thank my GR friend and fellow veteran George Mazzeo, author of "Chasing Dragons", who suggested this week's blog subject a few posts back. It opened my eyes to a deeper use for my thesaurus. Thank you, George. :-)
Apropos of nothing, it never occurred to me why the abbreviation for pound is lb. Libra is the Latin word for weight or balance (as in a scale)
and over time became abbreviated to lb.
I would admonish the Professor who talked me into a three-year study of Caesar and Cicero in the original Latin, thus preventing me from learning something more practical than analytical logic. He, however, is now actually talking with Caesar and Cicero.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
November 25, 2016
Lend Me Your Ears
This week is a dual-subject post. The first involves Amazon's Kindle Scout program, personalized by my dear GR friend, P. Zoro, who submitted a fantasy story to it titled "The Sleeping Pool II (Destination Series Vol. 2)".
Although this is something of a departure from my normal subjects, it is a courtesy I heartily extend to all GR' member authors with priority given, of course, to friends and followers. If you wish to promote a book or have something interesting or relevant we writers should know about, you are warmly welcomed.
Kindle Scout accepts English-language, never-before-published in any format anywhere (including on Amazon) novels of 50,000 words or more. Once accepted to the program, submissions are posted publicly with the first 5,000 words available to read and individuals can vote on their favorites. For those interested, below are two links with more detail.
How it works
Eligibility and Content Guidelines
Author benefits include an Amazon publishing contract, a $1,500 advance, featured Amazon marketing, and easy rights reversion.
Here is my Q&A with author P. Zoro.
R: Before speaking about your submission to the Kindle Scout program, can you provide a bit of overview and context on African traditional publishing? Is it as challenging in Zimbabwe where English predominates as across the continent where over 2,000 languages are spoken?
P: Publishing in Africa is focused on the traditional publishing of literary and mainstream fiction, short stories, short story collections, and novels. Success has been limited to a few authors like Chinua Achebe, Tsitsi Dangarembwa, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Wole Soyinka, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o to name but a few, although over the last decade, writers like Nnedi Okorafor have expanded into genre fiction.
Success has been severely limited due to the perception that African fiction sells only if it is mainstream or literary. Getting an agent is next to impossible, and traditional publishing deals remain a near unattainable dream.
Thus Kindle Scout is a breakthrough for African writers. Though initially limited to the USA, Kindle Scout opened up to other countries. We can submit work written in English in any genre and let Amazon and the readers decide for themselves if the book is interesting without the traditional publishing industry acting as a gatekeeper.
R: Wow. Sounds just like traditional publishing here in the States. Did you achieve any measurable success in prior book marketing efforts and what factored into your decision to go with Kindle Scout?
P: Inspired by South African, Catriona Ross' campaign for her Sci-Fi novel, I currently have an ongoing campaign for "The Sleeping Pool II (Destination Series Vol. 2)", a fantasy set in Zimbabwe where I come from.
Whether they publish the book or not, the fact that Kindle Scout accepts work from an African writer for genre fiction is exciting and should be an inspiration for those creative minds in my country to get to work.
There are key factors that may assist in Kindle Scout campaigning. Social media is critical. Readers are not confined to one country and hence there is a need to develop networks with them and other authors. Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook are the ideal platforms for the aspiring African author. Though internet access, affordability, and speeds are limited in most countries in Africa, the writer must work on the social networks because they form a solid foundation for a Kindle Scout campaign and book marketing. Kboards, especially the Writer's Cafe, is also a major source of information and support from other authors.
R: As a writer, what would you say is your greatest strength? Characterization, dialogue, world building, prose, storytelling?
P: I enjoy building crazy worlds that don't exist in places that do exist and characters that no one has ever seen. That does sum up fiction nicely. But I love expressing depths of emotions, all emotions. If I write a sad story and it doesn't make me cry, I rewrite.
R: How does that strength manifest itself in "The Sleeping Pool II (Destination Series Book 2)"?
P: Mabo in "The Sleeping Pool II" is my favorite character because she has deep emotions: fear, sadness, joy, expectation, hope, love, and great courage.
R: Can you enhance your 1-minute elevator pitch with a blurb summary?
P: Destination Series tells the adventures of American twins, Shaun and Stan, across different mysterious places in Africa. In "The Sleeping Pool II", Stan has to return to Zimbabwe's Chinhoyi caves because he swallowed diamonds from a mysterious pool. He has to return them to live. Shaun has to
follow and rescue him. But they face myriad obstacles. A tribe demanding death to avenge loss of its secrets. Mabo, determined that Stan should never leave the caves, and a hit man plotting to kill Stan and get the diamonds for his boss.
R: And your hope?
P: I hope Kindle Scout accepts more African writers and publishes some of the books, if not all!
R: Thank you, P. Especially for reminding us not to take our opportunities for granted. It was a pleasure. And I've got my fingers crossed for you.
P: You're welcome, Rafael, I enjoyed it. But it didn't do a thing for my nervousness!
Below are P's relevant links so that you can support a fellow author and perhaps ease her nervousness! :-)
P. Zoro's Links:
The Kindle Scout Campaign (Ending 15 December 2016):
https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2QJT...
Join the Campaign Team: Headtalker Campaign (Ending on 30 November 2016):
https://headtalker.com/campaigns/afri...
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/P-Zoro-34689...
Twitter:
@ZorodzaiP
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Finally, in my November 12 post, 'Pardon me, Jerry', I introduced and touched briefly on the subject of audiobooks. Another dear and always helpful GR friend, EG Manetti, mentioned the company ACX, a subsidiary of Amazon, which acts as an intermediary between authors and producers, and audiobook distributors. It has a program designed to mitigate the biggest barrier to audiobook production: cost. The catch is that an author must grant ACX exclusive audio distribution rights for 7 years. In return, ACX will contract with a producer to convert an author's manuscript into an audiobook. During the contract's life, author and producer will evenly split 40% royalties, i.e., 20% each. ACX and the distributors will keep 60%.
This is just a broad overview. Are audibooks the next thing? Who knows. But my goal has always been to provide my perspective to perhaps assist in shaping yours. Ever sit in car, commute to work, clean the house, or mow the lawn? Audiobooks are the literary equivalent of radio.
No business with large cash reserves ever thinks, lets use this money to pay the upfront costs for our customers and build up good will. That is economic suicide. Good will means nothing if you're out of business.
So why would Amazon risk their money to pay for very expensive studio and narrator time? Because they are confident of selling the converted manuscript. Is your spare novel's audio rights generating a 20% revenue stream?
The link below (or the one posted by EG in the comments of my blog post, 'Pardon me, Jerry') will provide further details.
ACX Audio
And if you already have an Amazon account, you can log right in.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Although this is something of a departure from my normal subjects, it is a courtesy I heartily extend to all GR' member authors with priority given, of course, to friends and followers. If you wish to promote a book or have something interesting or relevant we writers should know about, you are warmly welcomed.
Kindle Scout accepts English-language, never-before-published in any format anywhere (including on Amazon) novels of 50,000 words or more. Once accepted to the program, submissions are posted publicly with the first 5,000 words available to read and individuals can vote on their favorites. For those interested, below are two links with more detail.
How it works
Eligibility and Content Guidelines
Author benefits include an Amazon publishing contract, a $1,500 advance, featured Amazon marketing, and easy rights reversion.
Here is my Q&A with author P. Zoro.
R: Before speaking about your submission to the Kindle Scout program, can you provide a bit of overview and context on African traditional publishing? Is it as challenging in Zimbabwe where English predominates as across the continent where over 2,000 languages are spoken?
P: Publishing in Africa is focused on the traditional publishing of literary and mainstream fiction, short stories, short story collections, and novels. Success has been limited to a few authors like Chinua Achebe, Tsitsi Dangarembwa, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Wole Soyinka, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o to name but a few, although over the last decade, writers like Nnedi Okorafor have expanded into genre fiction.
Success has been severely limited due to the perception that African fiction sells only if it is mainstream or literary. Getting an agent is next to impossible, and traditional publishing deals remain a near unattainable dream.
Thus Kindle Scout is a breakthrough for African writers. Though initially limited to the USA, Kindle Scout opened up to other countries. We can submit work written in English in any genre and let Amazon and the readers decide for themselves if the book is interesting without the traditional publishing industry acting as a gatekeeper.
R: Wow. Sounds just like traditional publishing here in the States. Did you achieve any measurable success in prior book marketing efforts and what factored into your decision to go with Kindle Scout?
P: Inspired by South African, Catriona Ross' campaign for her Sci-Fi novel, I currently have an ongoing campaign for "The Sleeping Pool II (Destination Series Vol. 2)", a fantasy set in Zimbabwe where I come from.
Whether they publish the book or not, the fact that Kindle Scout accepts work from an African writer for genre fiction is exciting and should be an inspiration for those creative minds in my country to get to work.
There are key factors that may assist in Kindle Scout campaigning. Social media is critical. Readers are not confined to one country and hence there is a need to develop networks with them and other authors. Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook are the ideal platforms for the aspiring African author. Though internet access, affordability, and speeds are limited in most countries in Africa, the writer must work on the social networks because they form a solid foundation for a Kindle Scout campaign and book marketing. Kboards, especially the Writer's Cafe, is also a major source of information and support from other authors.
R: As a writer, what would you say is your greatest strength? Characterization, dialogue, world building, prose, storytelling?
P: I enjoy building crazy worlds that don't exist in places that do exist and characters that no one has ever seen. That does sum up fiction nicely. But I love expressing depths of emotions, all emotions. If I write a sad story and it doesn't make me cry, I rewrite.
R: How does that strength manifest itself in "The Sleeping Pool II (Destination Series Book 2)"?
P: Mabo in "The Sleeping Pool II" is my favorite character because she has deep emotions: fear, sadness, joy, expectation, hope, love, and great courage.
R: Can you enhance your 1-minute elevator pitch with a blurb summary?
P: Destination Series tells the adventures of American twins, Shaun and Stan, across different mysterious places in Africa. In "The Sleeping Pool II", Stan has to return to Zimbabwe's Chinhoyi caves because he swallowed diamonds from a mysterious pool. He has to return them to live. Shaun has to
follow and rescue him. But they face myriad obstacles. A tribe demanding death to avenge loss of its secrets. Mabo, determined that Stan should never leave the caves, and a hit man plotting to kill Stan and get the diamonds for his boss.
R: And your hope?
P: I hope Kindle Scout accepts more African writers and publishes some of the books, if not all!
R: Thank you, P. Especially for reminding us not to take our opportunities for granted. It was a pleasure. And I've got my fingers crossed for you.
P: You're welcome, Rafael, I enjoyed it. But it didn't do a thing for my nervousness!
Below are P's relevant links so that you can support a fellow author and perhaps ease her nervousness! :-)
P. Zoro's Links:
The Kindle Scout Campaign (Ending 15 December 2016):
https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2QJT...
Join the Campaign Team: Headtalker Campaign (Ending on 30 November 2016):
https://headtalker.com/campaigns/afri...
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/P-Zoro-34689...
Twitter:
@ZorodzaiP
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Finally, in my November 12 post, 'Pardon me, Jerry', I introduced and touched briefly on the subject of audiobooks. Another dear and always helpful GR friend, EG Manetti, mentioned the company ACX, a subsidiary of Amazon, which acts as an intermediary between authors and producers, and audiobook distributors. It has a program designed to mitigate the biggest barrier to audiobook production: cost. The catch is that an author must grant ACX exclusive audio distribution rights for 7 years. In return, ACX will contract with a producer to convert an author's manuscript into an audiobook. During the contract's life, author and producer will evenly split 40% royalties, i.e., 20% each. ACX and the distributors will keep 60%.
This is just a broad overview. Are audibooks the next thing? Who knows. But my goal has always been to provide my perspective to perhaps assist in shaping yours. Ever sit in car, commute to work, clean the house, or mow the lawn? Audiobooks are the literary equivalent of radio.
No business with large cash reserves ever thinks, lets use this money to pay the upfront costs for our customers and build up good will. That is economic suicide. Good will means nothing if you're out of business.
So why would Amazon risk their money to pay for very expensive studio and narrator time? Because they are confident of selling the converted manuscript. Is your spare novel's audio rights generating a 20% revenue stream?
The link below (or the one posted by EG in the comments of my blog post, 'Pardon me, Jerry') will provide further details.
ACX Audio
And if you already have an Amazon account, you can log right in.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
November 18, 2016
The Novel That Won't Die
I have written five novels and released independently three of them. The two held represent my undiminished hope a literary agent will agree that though my stories may never be better than half those published, they are equal to the other half.
The reason I hold on to both is, if a publisher signs me, it will be to a two-book contract, one the agent sold them plus another. They will have an absolute whipping hand and offer a rock bottom price, take it or leave it. The publisher is chancing the first book will be a success and the second become pure profit. I don't begrudge their hard line. As a capitalist, I understand it's business, nothing personal.
I'll take a few weeks to give each book one last read and edit, then make a decision which one I'll release in fulfillment of the contract. With a little bit of Amanda Hocking luck, if the two books achieve some level of success, the publisher will want to extend the contract. They'll be greeted by the widest Cheshire grin ever seen and an already completed novel in hand.
I consider both books I'm holding in reserve strong novels and powerful stories in their own right. Which brings me to my second reason. Each day, I struggle not to release them. But knowing fate for the fickle charlatan she is, the next day an agent would call catching me with no fallback plan. Vulnerable prey to a capitalist predator. Catch-22 indeed.
And so I arrive at the subject of this post. By adhering to a regimen of one written page per day, the five novels I've written each took about ten months to write. My current project, however, has humbled and brought me to my knees. At this past summer's start, and already 18 months in the making, the finish line became the proverbial light in the tunnel. I remained confident of an August finish until the light morphed into a freight train without brakes.
What happened? Beyond its somewhat unorthodox structure, which I've alluded to in earlier posts, two things. Ironically enough, both also subjects of earlier posts: theme and world building.
The story's underlying theme is faith but not the preach to convert type. True, the Vatican, along with its Pope and Cardinals, does have a central role in the plot, but in defiance of its religious implications, the centuries-old institution hides an equally ancient secret of its alliance with a society of assassins.
No, the faith of this story is the one we all live with every day. The faith we awaken with. That keeps us protected from the reality it may be our last. The faith that permits us to plan into a future, fate has no obligation to oblige. The faith used by everyone under sixty to ignore the inescapable: age. And when it does confront us, it reveals time for the fraud it is, the blur it is.
This theme has forced me to not just build a world but another reality. The plot unveils a character who appears out of thin air and everyone believes a divine prophet come to herald the apocalypse. Faith no longer shields a world she has given forty days to.
Who is she? Where does she come from? As a novelist, I feel an obligation to answer both questions. It has stretched my imagination to its limits. I fear the reader whose reaction is, 'yeah, right'.
And so I spend my days contemplating what is on the other side of faith's end. No day passes we don't read or hear of someone's untimely end. I always wonder what were their thoughts thirty minutes before. How ironic mine might be of that very moment. At night, faith intact, I close my eyes. Humiliated at having completed only one sentence.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
The reason I hold on to both is, if a publisher signs me, it will be to a two-book contract, one the agent sold them plus another. They will have an absolute whipping hand and offer a rock bottom price, take it or leave it. The publisher is chancing the first book will be a success and the second become pure profit. I don't begrudge their hard line. As a capitalist, I understand it's business, nothing personal.
I'll take a few weeks to give each book one last read and edit, then make a decision which one I'll release in fulfillment of the contract. With a little bit of Amanda Hocking luck, if the two books achieve some level of success, the publisher will want to extend the contract. They'll be greeted by the widest Cheshire grin ever seen and an already completed novel in hand.
I consider both books I'm holding in reserve strong novels and powerful stories in their own right. Which brings me to my second reason. Each day, I struggle not to release them. But knowing fate for the fickle charlatan she is, the next day an agent would call catching me with no fallback plan. Vulnerable prey to a capitalist predator. Catch-22 indeed.
And so I arrive at the subject of this post. By adhering to a regimen of one written page per day, the five novels I've written each took about ten months to write. My current project, however, has humbled and brought me to my knees. At this past summer's start, and already 18 months in the making, the finish line became the proverbial light in the tunnel. I remained confident of an August finish until the light morphed into a freight train without brakes.
What happened? Beyond its somewhat unorthodox structure, which I've alluded to in earlier posts, two things. Ironically enough, both also subjects of earlier posts: theme and world building.
The story's underlying theme is faith but not the preach to convert type. True, the Vatican, along with its Pope and Cardinals, does have a central role in the plot, but in defiance of its religious implications, the centuries-old institution hides an equally ancient secret of its alliance with a society of assassins.
No, the faith of this story is the one we all live with every day. The faith we awaken with. That keeps us protected from the reality it may be our last. The faith that permits us to plan into a future, fate has no obligation to oblige. The faith used by everyone under sixty to ignore the inescapable: age. And when it does confront us, it reveals time for the fraud it is, the blur it is.
This theme has forced me to not just build a world but another reality. The plot unveils a character who appears out of thin air and everyone believes a divine prophet come to herald the apocalypse. Faith no longer shields a world she has given forty days to.
Who is she? Where does she come from? As a novelist, I feel an obligation to answer both questions. It has stretched my imagination to its limits. I fear the reader whose reaction is, 'yeah, right'.
And so I spend my days contemplating what is on the other side of faith's end. No day passes we don't read or hear of someone's untimely end. I always wonder what were their thoughts thirty minutes before. How ironic mine might be of that very moment. At night, faith intact, I close my eyes. Humiliated at having completed only one sentence.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
November 11, 2016
Pardon me, Jerry
This is a post about nothing. In fact, it's a twofer. But I've got to make it quick. One of my more sadistic friends forwarded an innocuous software device (hyperlink) which informed me 43% of people skim blog posts. And those are the ones who admit to it. Moreover, on average, it only takes them 37 seconds to do so. I'd better get on with it.
A random hyperlink brought me to a listing of writer organizations. Clicking on the Association for Independent Authors revealed a somewhat scattered, disorganized page with two items sharing the same characteristic. A posting titled "Why Self-Publishers Authors Must Meet" and a mission statement in the About section, "Our mission is to create a culture of excellence, teamwork and professionalism in a collegiate environment..."
It seems to me a website hoping to attract writers as members should have an editing service akin to Caesar's wife. And if indeed they meant 'collegiate', I'm so glad my college days are behind me. Many schools here actually suspended classes and brought in grief counselors to comfort students stricken into a catatonic state by our election. Many were in tears! Good grief !! This does not bode well for a republic in need of rugged individuals.
Others, like the Alliance of Independent Authors and the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (try to say that five times fast), have more polished presentations as well as some interesting benefits like individual home pages you can use as backlinks to your own website but they all charge annual fees beginning at $99/year. My question for the members is, "Who are you guys?" I don't mean that as an insult. I mean it literally. Twenty seconds left.
If some future, hopefully distant, Medical Examiner ever has cause to autopsy my remains, she might puzzle over my somewhat dented forehead. It's the near-daily palm slaps my poor head endures. For example, whenever I came across the word 'audiobook', I always thought it a needed product for the blind or otherwise seeing-impaired. But the market for these things is HUGE.
As a writer, I am very aware how precious a reader's time is and the need to be respectful of it. One rule that remains inviolate for my novels is, 'not one sentence that does not advance the plot'. Still, in a time-limited world, reading takes time.
One exception, as a quick aside, is my dear GR friend, P. Zoro (Shadows, Darkness, and Light) who read my full-length novel, The United States of Africa, in one afternoon. And yes, her detailed comments back to me made it clear she had read all of it. Oh the damage I could do to my reading shelf with such an ability. Eleven seconds left.
Audiobooks obviate all this. Qualifying activities: commuting, jogging, any kind of shopping, long-distance trucking, short-distance trucking, queue/line waiting, meal prep, house cleaning, meetings (bluetooth earbuds needed), and a hundred others but I'm time constrained.
The problem, however, is cost. Factor in professional studio time and use fees, a narrator that can do multiple character voices and perhaps accents, plus editing services (one hour of mistake-free listening time requires ten hours of takes) can easily put the cost at $10,000. The least expensive I've seen is a package offered by TCK Publishing for $2,400. I have no connection to them and make no recommendation.
This is a market in dire need of a technology paradigm shift. The person who discovers it will reap billions.
3, 2, asalwaysIwelcomeyourthoughtsandcomments, 1, whew.
P.S. for you non-skimmers. Did my clock seem a little slow ??
A random hyperlink brought me to a listing of writer organizations. Clicking on the Association for Independent Authors revealed a somewhat scattered, disorganized page with two items sharing the same characteristic. A posting titled "Why Self-Publishers Authors Must Meet" and a mission statement in the About section, "Our mission is to create a culture of excellence, teamwork and professionalism in a collegiate environment..."
It seems to me a website hoping to attract writers as members should have an editing service akin to Caesar's wife. And if indeed they meant 'collegiate', I'm so glad my college days are behind me. Many schools here actually suspended classes and brought in grief counselors to comfort students stricken into a catatonic state by our election. Many were in tears! Good grief !! This does not bode well for a republic in need of rugged individuals.
Others, like the Alliance of Independent Authors and the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors (try to say that five times fast), have more polished presentations as well as some interesting benefits like individual home pages you can use as backlinks to your own website but they all charge annual fees beginning at $99/year. My question for the members is, "Who are you guys?" I don't mean that as an insult. I mean it literally. Twenty seconds left.
If some future, hopefully distant, Medical Examiner ever has cause to autopsy my remains, she might puzzle over my somewhat dented forehead. It's the near-daily palm slaps my poor head endures. For example, whenever I came across the word 'audiobook', I always thought it a needed product for the blind or otherwise seeing-impaired. But the market for these things is HUGE.
As a writer, I am very aware how precious a reader's time is and the need to be respectful of it. One rule that remains inviolate for my novels is, 'not one sentence that does not advance the plot'. Still, in a time-limited world, reading takes time.
One exception, as a quick aside, is my dear GR friend, P. Zoro (Shadows, Darkness, and Light) who read my full-length novel, The United States of Africa, in one afternoon. And yes, her detailed comments back to me made it clear she had read all of it. Oh the damage I could do to my reading shelf with such an ability. Eleven seconds left.
Audiobooks obviate all this. Qualifying activities: commuting, jogging, any kind of shopping, long-distance trucking, short-distance trucking, queue/line waiting, meal prep, house cleaning, meetings (bluetooth earbuds needed), and a hundred others but I'm time constrained.
The problem, however, is cost. Factor in professional studio time and use fees, a narrator that can do multiple character voices and perhaps accents, plus editing services (one hour of mistake-free listening time requires ten hours of takes) can easily put the cost at $10,000. The least expensive I've seen is a package offered by TCK Publishing for $2,400. I have no connection to them and make no recommendation.
This is a market in dire need of a technology paradigm shift. The person who discovers it will reap billions.
3, 2, asalwaysIwelcomeyourthoughtsandcomments, 1, whew.
P.S. for you non-skimmers. Did my clock seem a little slow ??
