Rafael's Blog, page 4
November 4, 2016
Intertext, Paralanguage, and Icebergs
In a not too distant future, historians and cultural anthropologists may well look back on this age and decide the hyperlink should take its place alongside fire, the wheel, and agriculture. As a species, we can communicate across space and time and this innocuous little software device is shifting that paradigm in ways we cannot yet appreciate.
Last week's post mentioned subtext and theme and asked if a distinction existed between the two. To my mind they are not the same. Theme is to strategic as subtext is to tactical. But that little innocuous piece of software connected me to individuals who beg to differ. Indeed, believe the two are synonymous. Even the New Oxford American Dictionary agrees. "Subtext: an underlying and often distinct theme in a piece of writing or conversation." And our British friends share the same definition via the Oxford Dictionary. Merriam played it a little cute: "the implicit or metaphorical meaning of a literary or musical passage." Implicit equals subtext, metaphorical, theme?
Now, having already declared my bias, I'm going to make an editorial decision and not include the various arguments I uncovered. They simply are all over the place. Most of them by literary elitists who exposed their earnestness by redefining subtext with terms like 'intertext', 'paralanguage', 'metamessage', or conflating it with connotation.
Social scientist (did sociologist lose its panache?) and anthropologist Gregory Bateson defined metamessage as "any message need[ing] to be interpreted in the frame of reference established by a superordinate message cueing how the textual message is intended." Obviously, Gregory never met Oxford or Merriam.
So to keep the discussion at a level we mere mortals are accustomed to, I'll offer some thoughts on the subject and hopefully spur others to share theirs.
A book can be written, and acceptably so, to provide nothing more than an entertaining story. No overarching theme necessary. And though I indicated last week it is never explicitly stated, the following passage would raise no eyebrows for me.
Alicia never experienced hope. Life hadn't given her any.
Nonetheless, the author has at most one mulligan left to again hit us over the head with a reference to Alicia's lack of hope. Subtext, on the other hand, has no limits but cannot exist alone. Consider a gushing boutique owner.
That scarf looks just wonderful on you. Cashmere is such an exquisite fabric.
Beyond the visuals, we can discern nothing from this exchange unless the plot has already established the customer as the Cashmere Strangler. The takeaway for us as authors is that plot points signal opportunities to shape character dialog and interactions with richness, depth, and texture. But might Hemingway's Iceberg Theory relate to subtext? I repeat a portion of my 7/16 post.
"Hemingway believed a story's deeper context and meaning should not occupy the foreground but exist within implied shadow. That like an iceberg whose surface masks the massive bulk beneath, what one leaves out of a story is as important as what one puts in."
On review the answer is clearly, no. Hemingway discussed deliberate and considered omission of words and sentences. Humorous or satirical works aside, subtext is not something 'left out'. In fact, once a plot point emerges, subtext in consequent passages and actions becomes inescapable.
Finally, before I begin dancing on the head of a pin, though a story might not have a central theme, its presence and development introduces something more powerful than a hyperlink. Something ethereal, sublime. An element that transforms a book into a novel.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Last week's post mentioned subtext and theme and asked if a distinction existed between the two. To my mind they are not the same. Theme is to strategic as subtext is to tactical. But that little innocuous piece of software connected me to individuals who beg to differ. Indeed, believe the two are synonymous. Even the New Oxford American Dictionary agrees. "Subtext: an underlying and often distinct theme in a piece of writing or conversation." And our British friends share the same definition via the Oxford Dictionary. Merriam played it a little cute: "the implicit or metaphorical meaning of a literary or musical passage." Implicit equals subtext, metaphorical, theme?
Now, having already declared my bias, I'm going to make an editorial decision and not include the various arguments I uncovered. They simply are all over the place. Most of them by literary elitists who exposed their earnestness by redefining subtext with terms like 'intertext', 'paralanguage', 'metamessage', or conflating it with connotation.
Social scientist (did sociologist lose its panache?) and anthropologist Gregory Bateson defined metamessage as "any message need[ing] to be interpreted in the frame of reference established by a superordinate message cueing how the textual message is intended." Obviously, Gregory never met Oxford or Merriam.
So to keep the discussion at a level we mere mortals are accustomed to, I'll offer some thoughts on the subject and hopefully spur others to share theirs.
A book can be written, and acceptably so, to provide nothing more than an entertaining story. No overarching theme necessary. And though I indicated last week it is never explicitly stated, the following passage would raise no eyebrows for me.
Alicia never experienced hope. Life hadn't given her any.
Nonetheless, the author has at most one mulligan left to again hit us over the head with a reference to Alicia's lack of hope. Subtext, on the other hand, has no limits but cannot exist alone. Consider a gushing boutique owner.
That scarf looks just wonderful on you. Cashmere is such an exquisite fabric.
Beyond the visuals, we can discern nothing from this exchange unless the plot has already established the customer as the Cashmere Strangler. The takeaway for us as authors is that plot points signal opportunities to shape character dialog and interactions with richness, depth, and texture. But might Hemingway's Iceberg Theory relate to subtext? I repeat a portion of my 7/16 post.
"Hemingway believed a story's deeper context and meaning should not occupy the foreground but exist within implied shadow. That like an iceberg whose surface masks the massive bulk beneath, what one leaves out of a story is as important as what one puts in."
On review the answer is clearly, no. Hemingway discussed deliberate and considered omission of words and sentences. Humorous or satirical works aside, subtext is not something 'left out'. In fact, once a plot point emerges, subtext in consequent passages and actions becomes inescapable.
Finally, before I begin dancing on the head of a pin, though a story might not have a central theme, its presence and development introduces something more powerful than a hyperlink. Something ethereal, sublime. An element that transforms a book into a novel.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
October 29, 2016
No Laughing Matter
Anyone who has written more than three chapters has probably discovered that plots and characters often have minds of their own. They wreak havoc with the best laid plans of novelists and storytellers.
I'm a city boy, born and raised. Admittedly, I have had temporary flings with country living but the last time cured me forever of any such urgings. Back where I belong, I take great comfort in knowing I will never again rake leaves, pull weeds, mow a lawn, clear a wasp's nest, empty gutters, clean a garage, mix spackle, fix a leak, or be fully clothed, in my home, with double sweaters just because it's cold and heat costs a fortune.
But life in the city presents its own challenges. Particularly for protagonists needing to enter apartment buildings surreptitiously. Forget the stories you might have read about burglarized flats. Invariably they belong to fresh-faced suburbanites unprepared for the ne'er do wells they now live among. Truth is, you can't just stroll into one and the disguised repairman trope works only in movies.
So for a couple days I went about my chores and routines with most of the brain cells examining and discarding all manner of possibilities that did not include locating a convenient suburbanite. Finally, I decided on an elaborate plan that involved climbing optical cables (they're very strong), stretching toward a fifth-floor ledge, and dropping down to a fourth floor window he'd already scouted as always open via a couple sentences of inserted back story. Then creep through the apartment without waking anyone and exit to the hallway.
None of this should stretch credulity, I thought, since the first half of the book spans almost two decades during which the reader will follow the main character from infancy to young adulthood. Along the way he acquires some rather formidable skills and abilities as the world's second deadliest assassin, the first being his mentor. Having succeeded getting him into the building and with everything in place, I sat down to put it in thriller format. The protagonist is in Rome. It is early morning hours.
An even-paced, deliberate jog brought Trajan behind the half-block size parking garage. Darkened windows along the side street confirmed everyone slept or had joined the throngs jamming city centers across the world. A third way in, the garage gave way to a seven-foot outer wall surrounding the adjoining residence. Trajan crossed the road, breaking into high gear before planting a foot halfway up. Even as the qīhēi* turned midnight blue, his hands gripped the top ledge, vaulting him over
Without warning, and in full regalia, LOP, Lord of the Plume, mischievous god of twists and turns (I refer those interested to my 7/16 post), appeared to laser an image through Trajan's eyes and into mine .
The archetypical square box of a residential building I had envisioned became bisected in two with a short hallway joining the two halves at their centers. It formed a narrow alley between the building's north and south sides down which Trajan dashed. It then became child's play for him to shinny up a drainage pipe to the second floor, through the hallway's window, and drop to the floor.
No fuss, no muss, LOP had reduced the obstacle to one paragraph, three sentences. A forgettable plot point no longer raised eyebrows. But LOP giveth and LOP taketh away. As I plowed ahead, the chapter rapidly filling with pages, the plot again twisted on me, plunging Trajan into an ethical dilemma.
I stopped and once again took up mindless chores and routines to let the memory banks solve the conundrum. An act of some complexity. Trajan is the son of Christian missionaries raised by Buddhist monks. Living in the seam between two religions exposes the contradictions of both.
As a novel, those contradictions form the story's themes and subtexts. Is there a distinction between the two? Where is the line between them? I've read blogs fiercely debating these questions. And since, properly done, themes and subtexts are never explicitly stated, is Hemingway's Theory of Omission (posts of 7/16 & 7/23) a factor here? If so, how?
I step out to buy the evening meal. The walk there and back allows for reflection. In the background, I can hear LOP laughing.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
* In this near-future world, body suits have replaced today's ubiquitous jeans, gym wear, and yoga pants as the casual wear of choice among the young. Among other features, technological advances allow them to expel or retain heat depending on the temperature. Qīhēi is the Chinese short version given these suits by the warrior monks of Trajan's hometown. It means 'dark night suit'. It too has some interesting technological features. :-)
I'm a city boy, born and raised. Admittedly, I have had temporary flings with country living but the last time cured me forever of any such urgings. Back where I belong, I take great comfort in knowing I will never again rake leaves, pull weeds, mow a lawn, clear a wasp's nest, empty gutters, clean a garage, mix spackle, fix a leak, or be fully clothed, in my home, with double sweaters just because it's cold and heat costs a fortune.
But life in the city presents its own challenges. Particularly for protagonists needing to enter apartment buildings surreptitiously. Forget the stories you might have read about burglarized flats. Invariably they belong to fresh-faced suburbanites unprepared for the ne'er do wells they now live among. Truth is, you can't just stroll into one and the disguised repairman trope works only in movies.
So for a couple days I went about my chores and routines with most of the brain cells examining and discarding all manner of possibilities that did not include locating a convenient suburbanite. Finally, I decided on an elaborate plan that involved climbing optical cables (they're very strong), stretching toward a fifth-floor ledge, and dropping down to a fourth floor window he'd already scouted as always open via a couple sentences of inserted back story. Then creep through the apartment without waking anyone and exit to the hallway.
None of this should stretch credulity, I thought, since the first half of the book spans almost two decades during which the reader will follow the main character from infancy to young adulthood. Along the way he acquires some rather formidable skills and abilities as the world's second deadliest assassin, the first being his mentor. Having succeeded getting him into the building and with everything in place, I sat down to put it in thriller format. The protagonist is in Rome. It is early morning hours.
An even-paced, deliberate jog brought Trajan behind the half-block size parking garage. Darkened windows along the side street confirmed everyone slept or had joined the throngs jamming city centers across the world. A third way in, the garage gave way to a seven-foot outer wall surrounding the adjoining residence. Trajan crossed the road, breaking into high gear before planting a foot halfway up. Even as the qīhēi* turned midnight blue, his hands gripped the top ledge, vaulting him over
Without warning, and in full regalia, LOP, Lord of the Plume, mischievous god of twists and turns (I refer those interested to my 7/16 post), appeared to laser an image through Trajan's eyes and into mine .
The archetypical square box of a residential building I had envisioned became bisected in two with a short hallway joining the two halves at their centers. It formed a narrow alley between the building's north and south sides down which Trajan dashed. It then became child's play for him to shinny up a drainage pipe to the second floor, through the hallway's window, and drop to the floor.
No fuss, no muss, LOP had reduced the obstacle to one paragraph, three sentences. A forgettable plot point no longer raised eyebrows. But LOP giveth and LOP taketh away. As I plowed ahead, the chapter rapidly filling with pages, the plot again twisted on me, plunging Trajan into an ethical dilemma.
I stopped and once again took up mindless chores and routines to let the memory banks solve the conundrum. An act of some complexity. Trajan is the son of Christian missionaries raised by Buddhist monks. Living in the seam between two religions exposes the contradictions of both.
As a novel, those contradictions form the story's themes and subtexts. Is there a distinction between the two? Where is the line between them? I've read blogs fiercely debating these questions. And since, properly done, themes and subtexts are never explicitly stated, is Hemingway's Theory of Omission (posts of 7/16 & 7/23) a factor here? If so, how?
I step out to buy the evening meal. The walk there and back allows for reflection. In the background, I can hear LOP laughing.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
* In this near-future world, body suits have replaced today's ubiquitous jeans, gym wear, and yoga pants as the casual wear of choice among the young. Among other features, technological advances allow them to expel or retain heat depending on the temperature. Qīhēi is the Chinese short version given these suits by the warrior monks of Trajan's hometown. It means 'dark night suit'. It too has some interesting technological features. :-)
October 21, 2016
The Other Side of Reviews
My dear and cherished GR friends are wreaking havoc with my self-confidence. They fill my daily update with books they are reading, books they want to read, books placed on shelves, reading progress, recommendations, ratings, and reviews. Two serve as Group Moderators and all are independent authors engaged not only in writing but also website management and product marketing. I am equally sure that offline they have further time demands placed by work, family, and friends. I am left stunned and shaken, thinking not that I have bad time management skills but that I have no time management skills. I shake my head in abject admiration.
But limiting myself to five minute showers and New York take out, is my concerted effort to find time for GR' Review Group. It provides many insightful moments which I will elaborate in a moment.
Special mention has to first go out for the reviews posted by E.M. Swift-Hook (The Transgressor Series) and Leo McBride (A Quartet of Tales). And in case anyone believes I do so simply because they're my GR friends (I most unashamedly do since independent of me they are just brilliant) I also include, the admired from afar, Jonah Gibson in this august group.
A school of thought exists that reviews are for readers (one that I respectfully disagree with but that's what makes the world go 'round) and these three must be its champions. Too often I read reviews that are nothing more than glorified plot summaries.
They, however, write masterfully crafted reviews with an astonishing depth of detail and great insight into their reasoning for what worked and what didn't. They leave the reader with a deep sense for what the book is about and provide the author a solid feel for the story's strengths and weaknesses. And all the while with a style, flair, and verve that makes me want to 5-star their reviews !! Plus Leo and E.M. have deliciously wicked senses of humor!
But what provided a showcase for the talents these three represent is GR' Review Group. Active threads are ongoing right now discussing its purpose, future, and shape. Its raison d'etre. For this member, the forum is a uniquely powerful resource. It is novelists critiquing novelists. Authors analyzing authors. Dual windows into the minds of two writers. What one attempted to do and what another thought of it. And its benefits do not end there.
Where else can one read what four different writers had to say about the same book? The insights comparative analysis provides are simply tremendous. Where else can debut, inexperienced, first-time authors receive solid advice on what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong? How many of us at the beginning understood the inferiority of 'telling' until we were, ahem, shown?
Besides being an excellent way to 'pay it forward', I've found the differing approaches to structure, characterization, pace, suspense, mystery, adventure, horror, and unpredictably for this writer at least, romance, have all synthesized into a style that is uniquely me and in my opinion, strengthened it. They eased my present and ongoing battles with rewrites and proof reads by providing a treasure trove of approaches other writers have used or cautioned against.
With the jaw-dropping time management skills (forgive me Louisiana) y'all seem to have, I can make no better suggestion than to avail yourselves of your colleagues' collective wisdom.
As always, I. . . whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a minute. Are those 3 and 4-star blurb restatements and/or character listings disguised as reviews a lazy way of mailing it in for a disliked book? Nah.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S. This blog is a writer's playground. It allows me to indiscriminately fling adverbs about willy nilly. So subversive. lol
But limiting myself to five minute showers and New York take out, is my concerted effort to find time for GR' Review Group. It provides many insightful moments which I will elaborate in a moment.
Special mention has to first go out for the reviews posted by E.M. Swift-Hook (The Transgressor Series) and Leo McBride (A Quartet of Tales). And in case anyone believes I do so simply because they're my GR friends (I most unashamedly do since independent of me they are just brilliant) I also include, the admired from afar, Jonah Gibson in this august group.
A school of thought exists that reviews are for readers (one that I respectfully disagree with but that's what makes the world go 'round) and these three must be its champions. Too often I read reviews that are nothing more than glorified plot summaries.
They, however, write masterfully crafted reviews with an astonishing depth of detail and great insight into their reasoning for what worked and what didn't. They leave the reader with a deep sense for what the book is about and provide the author a solid feel for the story's strengths and weaknesses. And all the while with a style, flair, and verve that makes me want to 5-star their reviews !! Plus Leo and E.M. have deliciously wicked senses of humor!
But what provided a showcase for the talents these three represent is GR' Review Group. Active threads are ongoing right now discussing its purpose, future, and shape. Its raison d'etre. For this member, the forum is a uniquely powerful resource. It is novelists critiquing novelists. Authors analyzing authors. Dual windows into the minds of two writers. What one attempted to do and what another thought of it. And its benefits do not end there.
Where else can one read what four different writers had to say about the same book? The insights comparative analysis provides are simply tremendous. Where else can debut, inexperienced, first-time authors receive solid advice on what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong? How many of us at the beginning understood the inferiority of 'telling' until we were, ahem, shown?
Besides being an excellent way to 'pay it forward', I've found the differing approaches to structure, characterization, pace, suspense, mystery, adventure, horror, and unpredictably for this writer at least, romance, have all synthesized into a style that is uniquely me and in my opinion, strengthened it. They eased my present and ongoing battles with rewrites and proof reads by providing a treasure trove of approaches other writers have used or cautioned against.
With the jaw-dropping time management skills (forgive me Louisiana) y'all seem to have, I can make no better suggestion than to avail yourselves of your colleagues' collective wisdom.
As always, I. . . whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on a minute. Are those 3 and 4-star blurb restatements and/or character listings disguised as reviews a lazy way of mailing it in for a disliked book? Nah.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
P.S. This blog is a writer's playground. It allows me to indiscriminately fling adverbs about willy nilly. So subversive. lol
October 14, 2016
Taking the Scenic Route
This week's blog post centers around a rarely discussed fiction construct. First though, I'd like to establish a middle ground between elusive facts and lazy opinions both of which can rephrase Newton's 3rd Law of Motion: for every expert there is an equal and opposite expert. I'll label this midpoint a 'considered position' and begin discussing what I refer to as 'prop writing'.
Scenes are essential to any novel but since I don't write literary fiction (I've read many discussions of it and still am not sure what it is) I spend minimal time describing the props they contain.
Novels evolved at a time when only royalty and armies ever ventured more than 10 miles from their place of birth. Books permitted the only opportunity to 'travel' and so writers engaged in lengthy descriptions of the visited milieu. We've inherited this writing form almost intact and it still fills many a page within the modern novel. The hero/heroine crests a hill, descending into a jungle. Let the detailed narration begin.
But everyone reading this post has a vast, visual library accumulated over a lifetime of television, movie, and of late, web viewing that a novelist should take advantage of. Add a few adjectives (steamy, dark, vine-filled) to jungle and a reader can draw from any number of mentally stored images to immediately fill in the rest.
Often, however, a richer view of what the reader should see is essential but loading a few paragraphs filled with descriptive narration slows the action, dulls the suspense, dims the drama. Instead, intersperse environmental details with the character's actions. Interrupt dialogue with the need to clamber over a fallen, moss-slick tree from which startled insects leap. Halt a machete from slicing the hanging vine that slithers into a snake. Stop the heroine's reflections with a shrieking howl from the leafy overhang. By the time the scene's purpose begins, the reader will be filled with vivid imagery, an immediacy of presence, and a sense the story 'moves'.
Now, boring page-filler or padded word count is one thing. Deliberate detail quite another. Consider the following.
Mary never tired gazing out her kitchen window. The riot of color approached something she sensed as divine. Swollen, eager rosebuds needed just days to burst into crimson bloom. Pale, pink peonies swayed to a gentle breeze. Orange, yellow, purple pansies laughed and danced, bumping against snapdragons that scowled before joining the festive mood. She closed her eyes, breathing the pungent, musky, mulch spread across the flower beds. It masked the death stench of corpses rotting beneath.
As an ex-soldier, I've adapted a well-appreciated military dictum to guide my scene and prop writing. He who defends everything, defends nothing can be rewritten as he who details everything, details nothing. Indeed, my sparse, spare descriptions of a street, a bedroom, a hallway (note that each unadorned noun, of its own, evoked an image) serve a greater purpose. When I do begin to include detail essential to the scene that extends even to props, the reader's alert level rises. With heightened anticipation, the suspense pulses.
Beware of movie tricks, however. Don't provide rare detail and then make the noise only a banging door, or the scratching a scurrying mouse. Delivering on the raised suspense serves to heighten it when the detail begins anew seven chapters later. Making the echoing plunk a leaky faucet diminishes a novelist's credibility. Indeed, the only thing raised will be a reader's scorn and annoyance.
As I said, this is nothing more than a considered position. Not dogma, but not offhand opinion either. I joined GR with the hope interaction with other novelists would improve my writing and provide deeper insights into how to do so. Are there other perspectives describing scenes and their included props?
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Scenes are essential to any novel but since I don't write literary fiction (I've read many discussions of it and still am not sure what it is) I spend minimal time describing the props they contain.
Novels evolved at a time when only royalty and armies ever ventured more than 10 miles from their place of birth. Books permitted the only opportunity to 'travel' and so writers engaged in lengthy descriptions of the visited milieu. We've inherited this writing form almost intact and it still fills many a page within the modern novel. The hero/heroine crests a hill, descending into a jungle. Let the detailed narration begin.
But everyone reading this post has a vast, visual library accumulated over a lifetime of television, movie, and of late, web viewing that a novelist should take advantage of. Add a few adjectives (steamy, dark, vine-filled) to jungle and a reader can draw from any number of mentally stored images to immediately fill in the rest.
Often, however, a richer view of what the reader should see is essential but loading a few paragraphs filled with descriptive narration slows the action, dulls the suspense, dims the drama. Instead, intersperse environmental details with the character's actions. Interrupt dialogue with the need to clamber over a fallen, moss-slick tree from which startled insects leap. Halt a machete from slicing the hanging vine that slithers into a snake. Stop the heroine's reflections with a shrieking howl from the leafy overhang. By the time the scene's purpose begins, the reader will be filled with vivid imagery, an immediacy of presence, and a sense the story 'moves'.
Now, boring page-filler or padded word count is one thing. Deliberate detail quite another. Consider the following.
Mary never tired gazing out her kitchen window. The riot of color approached something she sensed as divine. Swollen, eager rosebuds needed just days to burst into crimson bloom. Pale, pink peonies swayed to a gentle breeze. Orange, yellow, purple pansies laughed and danced, bumping against snapdragons that scowled before joining the festive mood. She closed her eyes, breathing the pungent, musky, mulch spread across the flower beds. It masked the death stench of corpses rotting beneath.
As an ex-soldier, I've adapted a well-appreciated military dictum to guide my scene and prop writing. He who defends everything, defends nothing can be rewritten as he who details everything, details nothing. Indeed, my sparse, spare descriptions of a street, a bedroom, a hallway (note that each unadorned noun, of its own, evoked an image) serve a greater purpose. When I do begin to include detail essential to the scene that extends even to props, the reader's alert level rises. With heightened anticipation, the suspense pulses.
Beware of movie tricks, however. Don't provide rare detail and then make the noise only a banging door, or the scratching a scurrying mouse. Delivering on the raised suspense serves to heighten it when the detail begins anew seven chapters later. Making the echoing plunk a leaky faucet diminishes a novelist's credibility. Indeed, the only thing raised will be a reader's scorn and annoyance.
As I said, this is nothing more than a considered position. Not dogma, but not offhand opinion either. I joined GR with the hope interaction with other novelists would improve my writing and provide deeper insights into how to do so. Are there other perspectives describing scenes and their included props?
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
October 7, 2016
PC Police Arrest Amazon
Amazon appears to have entered the pay-per-click advertising arena bound and determined not to accept ads from indecorous and uncivilized romance, thriller, horror, sci-fi, suspense, and crime authors.
This business section may be my shortest post yet as I won't have to do more than show Amazon's own ad imagery to convey the point.
What's wrong with this image? Oh, c'mon. Her midriff is showing! For ad purposes, Amazon deems this picture quote "unacceptable". From the covers I've seen, many romance novelists need not apply. How about if they're fully clothed and just gazing lovingly into one another's eyes? Like this one.
Nope. That would imply a sex act. "Unacceptable". How about this one?
Horror book for sale? That's fine but you can't advertise it. You might scare Amazon's customers. That's "unacceptable". Or this one.
Have you written a vampire, thriller, or crime novel? The cover better not show any blood. An Amazon customer might faint. That would be "unacceptable". Here's another.
What could be wrong with this image? It's a well-dressed man. The title, you silly. No text can express or imply abuse or cruelty. To man or beast. That too is "unacceptable".
Firearms, swords, knives, and spears are okay as long as they are just held. But portraying them in an act of violence is "unacceptable".
Nonetheless, should authors consider Amazon as a serious marketing opportunity? Yes, with a caveat. If your cover consists of innocuous and unprovocative landscapes, characters, titles, and certainly children's books, then you will have wide open advertising lanes stripped of author traffic by perhaps two thirds. Moreover, the reduced numbers will tend to lower bid prices and thus decrease your cost per click.
The caveat is that, as my 7/16 posting detailed, Amazon is a destination of purchase. Browsing readers form only 3% of its book sales. What benefit a lower cost per click if no one is clicking? This may be why, though late to the game, Amazon is emulating the Facebook/Google marketing model. For me, that makes the caveat decisive. Why spend precious marketing money to subsidize Amazon's growth efforts?
Enough business. Let's turn to the creative side.
The Oxford Dictionary of English, the New Oxford American Dictionary of English, nor Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary define what every fiction writer, to varying degrees or other, understands as worldbuilding.
I had expected to have my current project, Seraphim, finished this summer but as detailed in my 9/16 posting, 'GR Marketing - Caution Warranted', it is an experiment in reversing the roles of plot and twist and unbeknownst to the reader, the story's first 55% or so is twist presented as plot until I spring the plot, presented as twist.
But when I sprang the plot, it uncovered a huge logical hole which I am only now recovering from as it required having to deconstruct/reconstruct lengthy plot segments.
But working through this painful process, caused me to realize worldbuilding is crucial to transforming a novel into a story.
Characters, plot points, paragraphs, chapters, writing, create a house. Worldbuilding creates a home. It normally is the purview of science fiction and fantasy but it is critical to giving heart and soul to any genre. It provides a richness, depth, and texture, in which readers can submerge themselves and resurface with a real sense of having been on a journey.
For example, any protagonist can discover the critical clue needed to fulfill the quest or overcome obstacles to it. But the protagonist exists surrounded by a world. How about instead, we meet the grandmother/sister/aunt, who loves to shop for shoes, headed to find a pair. What does she see/experience/enjoy along the way? What does she think/reflect/consider? In the store/boutique/mall she encounters a friend/colleague/stranger and during the conversation learns, oblivious to its importance, the critical clue.
Shoes in hand, she heads to a lunch date with her favorite grandson. The plot's world has expanded and the scene set for the grand reveal.
The art, of course, lies in striking the proper balance between a world that has depth and one that sinks into character soup.
And to assist your budding engineering skills, the link below will prove a valuable asset.
Dictionary of Literary Devices
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
This business section may be my shortest post yet as I won't have to do more than show Amazon's own ad imagery to convey the point.
What's wrong with this image? Oh, c'mon. Her midriff is showing! For ad purposes, Amazon deems this picture quote "unacceptable". From the covers I've seen, many romance novelists need not apply. How about if they're fully clothed and just gazing lovingly into one another's eyes? Like this one.
Nope. That would imply a sex act. "Unacceptable". How about this one?
Horror book for sale? That's fine but you can't advertise it. You might scare Amazon's customers. That's "unacceptable". Or this one.
Have you written a vampire, thriller, or crime novel? The cover better not show any blood. An Amazon customer might faint. That would be "unacceptable". Here's another.
What could be wrong with this image? It's a well-dressed man. The title, you silly. No text can express or imply abuse or cruelty. To man or beast. That too is "unacceptable".
Firearms, swords, knives, and spears are okay as long as they are just held. But portraying them in an act of violence is "unacceptable".
Nonetheless, should authors consider Amazon as a serious marketing opportunity? Yes, with a caveat. If your cover consists of innocuous and unprovocative landscapes, characters, titles, and certainly children's books, then you will have wide open advertising lanes stripped of author traffic by perhaps two thirds. Moreover, the reduced numbers will tend to lower bid prices and thus decrease your cost per click.
The caveat is that, as my 7/16 posting detailed, Amazon is a destination of purchase. Browsing readers form only 3% of its book sales. What benefit a lower cost per click if no one is clicking? This may be why, though late to the game, Amazon is emulating the Facebook/Google marketing model. For me, that makes the caveat decisive. Why spend precious marketing money to subsidize Amazon's growth efforts?
Enough business. Let's turn to the creative side.
The Oxford Dictionary of English, the New Oxford American Dictionary of English, nor Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionary define what every fiction writer, to varying degrees or other, understands as worldbuilding.
I had expected to have my current project, Seraphim, finished this summer but as detailed in my 9/16 posting, 'GR Marketing - Caution Warranted', it is an experiment in reversing the roles of plot and twist and unbeknownst to the reader, the story's first 55% or so is twist presented as plot until I spring the plot, presented as twist.
But when I sprang the plot, it uncovered a huge logical hole which I am only now recovering from as it required having to deconstruct/reconstruct lengthy plot segments.
But working through this painful process, caused me to realize worldbuilding is crucial to transforming a novel into a story.
Characters, plot points, paragraphs, chapters, writing, create a house. Worldbuilding creates a home. It normally is the purview of science fiction and fantasy but it is critical to giving heart and soul to any genre. It provides a richness, depth, and texture, in which readers can submerge themselves and resurface with a real sense of having been on a journey.
For example, any protagonist can discover the critical clue needed to fulfill the quest or overcome obstacles to it. But the protagonist exists surrounded by a world. How about instead, we meet the grandmother/sister/aunt, who loves to shop for shoes, headed to find a pair. What does she see/experience/enjoy along the way? What does she think/reflect/consider? In the store/boutique/mall she encounters a friend/colleague/stranger and during the conversation learns, oblivious to its importance, the critical clue.
Shoes in hand, she heads to a lunch date with her favorite grandson. The plot's world has expanded and the scene set for the grand reveal.
The art, of course, lies in striking the proper balance between a world that has depth and one that sinks into character soup.
And to assist your budding engineering skills, the link below will prove a valuable asset.
Dictionary of Literary Devices
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
September 30, 2016
Suspense and the Protagonist
As I prepare to begin construction of the climactic battle in my current project, Seraphim, I wrestle with a problem that first arose when I was an innocent, wide-eyed reader with no thought of becoming a novelist. All too often I would find myself skipping right past said climactic battle scene. Why bother? Especially if the first few paragraphs had the hero/heroine taking a pounding. Who was the author kidding?
Of course the protagonist would gather her last strength/breath/wits. Of course one last trick/ruse/tactic remained. Of course she would at the last second/moment/instant, bend/dodge/twist from the blow that would remove her head/leg/arm, leap for the fallen knife/sword/gun and deliver the coup de stab/slice/shot. The author had worked all novel long to reach the momentous climax only to abdicate suspense and with the opening sentences, dive headfirst into the quicksand of trope.
But avoiding this, forgive me romance lovers, climax swoon, bumped me up against another literary school of thought enamored of the everyman/woman typecast as hero protagonist. That once wide-eyed, innocent reader never wanted an author to create a world that did not exist and then plunk me, or a reasonable facsimile, into it. I knew who DNA had made and always gave a fiction writer great deference to create an alternative.
And so now that I've crossed to the other side, I pause to gather my strength/breath/wits as these two stereotypes stare me down. My protagonists are not like you and I. Well, not like me in any event. They are dynamic, interesting, self-confident, skilled, imaginative, resourceful, and always very, very powerful. Deliberately so. I will create no suspense at how the heroine will overcome, only to dissolve it when it matters most. If a reader reaches a climactic battle scene I have written with a feeling of suspense as to its outcome, I have failed as a novelist. What I seek to engender in those arriving at the fateful moment is a sense of, 'At last! Finally the antagonist will get his comeuppance.' With conflict, preferably violent in my opinion, the soul of drama, the reader can now relax and comfortably enjoy its delicious deliverance.
Early on, I lay out the forces that will shape and foretell the inevitable clash. For me, suspense arises in challenging the reader to foresee how the events leading to that collision will unfold. If I can succeed in foiling their predictions, the anticipation of not knowing what the next chapter will bring provides all the suspense needed. Mission accomplished if the reader stands at the climactic battle scene with a sense of relief at the certainty devoid of pretense it provides.
So I will now gird my loins (an act the modern world confoundingly limits) and ignore the howls of those who prefer their protagonists sally forth to do battle despite beer bellies, hair curlers, mortgages, and crying infants.
Enough with the creative side, let's do a little business.
I subscribe to an email newsletter published by the Poets and Writers Magazine. I don't recommend it (the newsletter) as its content is mostly staid and predictable making its step-child relationship to the parent organization quite obvious. But for those interested in what magazines charge for ad placement and perhaps budget for them, the image below will be a useful guide. Because it is an influential publication viewed by a 100,00 or so industry leaders and publishers, you can estimate its rates are about 10 to 15% higher than market average.
Next week I'll return to eBook marketing (oh stop your groans) one last time (oh stop cheering) because the industry behemoth, Amazon, has entered the cost per click advertising game. My 7/16 blog posting 'Book Reviews: A Discussion', identified Amazon as a purchase destination not a browsing milieu. Jeff Bezos must have read it.
And just for laughs and giggles, this week I'm including a link that caused me to shake my head, marvel and smile at what human imagination is capable of.
Toss It Here
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Of course the protagonist would gather her last strength/breath/wits. Of course one last trick/ruse/tactic remained. Of course she would at the last second/moment/instant, bend/dodge/twist from the blow that would remove her head/leg/arm, leap for the fallen knife/sword/gun and deliver the coup de stab/slice/shot. The author had worked all novel long to reach the momentous climax only to abdicate suspense and with the opening sentences, dive headfirst into the quicksand of trope.
But avoiding this, forgive me romance lovers, climax swoon, bumped me up against another literary school of thought enamored of the everyman/woman typecast as hero protagonist. That once wide-eyed, innocent reader never wanted an author to create a world that did not exist and then plunk me, or a reasonable facsimile, into it. I knew who DNA had made and always gave a fiction writer great deference to create an alternative.
And so now that I've crossed to the other side, I pause to gather my strength/breath/wits as these two stereotypes stare me down. My protagonists are not like you and I. Well, not like me in any event. They are dynamic, interesting, self-confident, skilled, imaginative, resourceful, and always very, very powerful. Deliberately so. I will create no suspense at how the heroine will overcome, only to dissolve it when it matters most. If a reader reaches a climactic battle scene I have written with a feeling of suspense as to its outcome, I have failed as a novelist. What I seek to engender in those arriving at the fateful moment is a sense of, 'At last! Finally the antagonist will get his comeuppance.' With conflict, preferably violent in my opinion, the soul of drama, the reader can now relax and comfortably enjoy its delicious deliverance.
Early on, I lay out the forces that will shape and foretell the inevitable clash. For me, suspense arises in challenging the reader to foresee how the events leading to that collision will unfold. If I can succeed in foiling their predictions, the anticipation of not knowing what the next chapter will bring provides all the suspense needed. Mission accomplished if the reader stands at the climactic battle scene with a sense of relief at the certainty devoid of pretense it provides.
So I will now gird my loins (an act the modern world confoundingly limits) and ignore the howls of those who prefer their protagonists sally forth to do battle despite beer bellies, hair curlers, mortgages, and crying infants.
Enough with the creative side, let's do a little business.
I subscribe to an email newsletter published by the Poets and Writers Magazine. I don't recommend it (the newsletter) as its content is mostly staid and predictable making its step-child relationship to the parent organization quite obvious. But for those interested in what magazines charge for ad placement and perhaps budget for them, the image below will be a useful guide. Because it is an influential publication viewed by a 100,00 or so industry leaders and publishers, you can estimate its rates are about 10 to 15% higher than market average.
Next week I'll return to eBook marketing (oh stop your groans) one last time (oh stop cheering) because the industry behemoth, Amazon, has entered the cost per click advertising game. My 7/16 blog posting 'Book Reviews: A Discussion', identified Amazon as a purchase destination not a browsing milieu. Jeff Bezos must have read it.
And just for laughs and giggles, this week I'm including a link that caused me to shake my head, marvel and smile at what human imagination is capable of.
Toss It Here
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
September 23, 2016
Lies and Statistics
E.G. Manetti's comments in Kindle by the Sell's September 16th blog post, 'GR Marketing - Caution Warranted', prompted me to dig a little deeper into the statistical morass surrounding independent publishing.
Those of you who have been reading along know of my continuing bewilderment at the disparity between self-publishing gurus (SPGs) extolling the virtues of online advertising and the pedestrian results I and others have experienced when we do.
Well, it all comes down to how SPGs define success. For them, 'success' is a measurement of customer engagement, NOT bottom line sales. Engagement includes site visits, likes, friend invites, follows, clicked links, subscription enrollments, and views. In fact, according to Business 2 Community, an online marketing research company, 85% of organizations engaged in internet marketing cannot connect their activities to sales. And of that number fully 46% say they’re not sure whether any social channels have generated revenue for their businesses. Astounding statistics when one considers these are professionals supported by corporate level budgets.
Here are a few other statistics confirming online marketing is a confused mess. The company Simply Measured, cited 80%, repeat 80%, of companies view 'engagement' as their top metric with 'audience size' and 'website traffic' forming the top three. I guess they've just given up on sales. And yet, with no ability to connect marketing to sales, Link Humans, another market research firm, states 2016 ad revenue will reach 9.8 billion. They don't know if it's selling, but they're going to keep advertising it.
However, the disconnect matches my personal experiences and my subtle bias towards Google. Whenever I've wanted to purchase x, the thought never crossed my mind to jump into Facebook or Twitter, though marketers view them as the social platforms of choice. Why? Marketers just have to hear 2.1 billion (the number of people who have social media accounts) and they start ringing up cost per click bids. It's just too fat a market to ignore and if they keep throwing darts at it, eventually one will hit a bullseye. Apparently, marketing MBAs are not immune to the Amanda Hocking syndrome.
So, should we independent authors have an online presence? Should we market online? If done with dry, sober expectations, I come down strongly on the 'yes' side. Two reasons. One, my book sales increased markedly once I knew what I was doing online. Are they Amanda Hocking levels, can I quit my day job? Not quite and not yet. But my dinner dates do appreciate the restaurants I take them to. I think.
As independent authors, we are at the infancy of a nascent industry. Unlike Orville Wright who could not have imagined ocean-crossing jets, the pace of technological change will brings us swiftly into adolescence. We will have a substantial advantage over the late comers climbing aboard after we've debugged the system during this trial and error, shake out phase.
Two, we owe it to each and every reader we are privileged to obtain every opportunity to interact with us at a time and manner most convenient to them. And today, for better or worse, the internet is that venue.
I hope I've provided everyone a framework to realistically assess their online marketing opportunities and options. It is a slow, plodding slog against strong headwinds. But as Hyman Roth said, "This is the business we've chosen."
Enough, ahem, business. With a firm tip of the cap to writing teacher and author Darcy Pattison, I turn to the creative side and present her 19 plot points. Singly or in combination, they provide excellent starting points to focus and orient your next story's narrative arc.
1. Quest. Character oriented story, the protagonist searches for something and winds up changing him/herself.
2. Adventure. Plot oriented, this features a goal-oriented series of events.
3. Pursuit. This is the typical Chase Plot. Definitely action-oriented.
4. Rescue. Another easy to recognize action-oriented plot.
5. Escape. A variation on the Rescue is when the protagonist escapes on his/her own.
6. Revenge. Ah, character comes back in with this one. Someone is wronged and vows to take revenge.
7. The Riddle. Love a good mystery? This is the plot for you.
8. Rivalry. Character oriented, this story follows two main characters, one on a downward track and one on an upward track and their interactions.
9. Underdog. Everyone in the US roots for the Underdog. This is the plot where the under-privileged (handicapped, poor, etc) triumphs despite overwhelming odds.
10. Temptation. Pandora’s Box extended to novel form.
11. Metamorphosis. This is a physical transformation of some kind. If you recently watched the movie, “District 9”, you’ll recognize this plot form. It’s Dracula, Beauty and the Beast, or the one I remember best,The Fly.
12. Transformation. Similar to the previous, this plot features an inner change, instead of changing the outer form.
13. Maturation. Bildungsroman, rite of passage, coming-of-age–these terms all refer to someone growing up morally, spiritually or emotionally. Often, it’s just a hint of growth, or a tiny change that hints at larger changes.
14. Love. The classic Boy-meets-Girl plot.
15. Forbidden Love. Oh, hasn’t Stephenie Meyer milked this one in her Twilight series? Brilliant use of the forces that keep her characters apart, while still attracting.
16. Sacrifice. From the Biblical tale of Jesus to the story of parents sacrificing for their children, this is a staple of literature.
17. Discovery. You know those secrets you’ve buried deep in your past? This story digs around, exposes secrets and watches them affect the characters.
18. Wretched Excess. When a character is in a downward spiral from alcohol, drugs, greed, etc. this is the plot form.
19. Ascension or Descension. A rise or fall from power puts a character into this plot form.
I highly recommend everyone Google their way to her website and blog. Together, they represent a treasure trove of information and resources every writer should have bookmarked.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
Those of you who have been reading along know of my continuing bewilderment at the disparity between self-publishing gurus (SPGs) extolling the virtues of online advertising and the pedestrian results I and others have experienced when we do.
Well, it all comes down to how SPGs define success. For them, 'success' is a measurement of customer engagement, NOT bottom line sales. Engagement includes site visits, likes, friend invites, follows, clicked links, subscription enrollments, and views. In fact, according to Business 2 Community, an online marketing research company, 85% of organizations engaged in internet marketing cannot connect their activities to sales. And of that number fully 46% say they’re not sure whether any social channels have generated revenue for their businesses. Astounding statistics when one considers these are professionals supported by corporate level budgets.
Here are a few other statistics confirming online marketing is a confused mess. The company Simply Measured, cited 80%, repeat 80%, of companies view 'engagement' as their top metric with 'audience size' and 'website traffic' forming the top three. I guess they've just given up on sales. And yet, with no ability to connect marketing to sales, Link Humans, another market research firm, states 2016 ad revenue will reach 9.8 billion. They don't know if it's selling, but they're going to keep advertising it.
However, the disconnect matches my personal experiences and my subtle bias towards Google. Whenever I've wanted to purchase x, the thought never crossed my mind to jump into Facebook or Twitter, though marketers view them as the social platforms of choice. Why? Marketers just have to hear 2.1 billion (the number of people who have social media accounts) and they start ringing up cost per click bids. It's just too fat a market to ignore and if they keep throwing darts at it, eventually one will hit a bullseye. Apparently, marketing MBAs are not immune to the Amanda Hocking syndrome.
So, should we independent authors have an online presence? Should we market online? If done with dry, sober expectations, I come down strongly on the 'yes' side. Two reasons. One, my book sales increased markedly once I knew what I was doing online. Are they Amanda Hocking levels, can I quit my day job? Not quite and not yet. But my dinner dates do appreciate the restaurants I take them to. I think.
As independent authors, we are at the infancy of a nascent industry. Unlike Orville Wright who could not have imagined ocean-crossing jets, the pace of technological change will brings us swiftly into adolescence. We will have a substantial advantage over the late comers climbing aboard after we've debugged the system during this trial and error, shake out phase.
Two, we owe it to each and every reader we are privileged to obtain every opportunity to interact with us at a time and manner most convenient to them. And today, for better or worse, the internet is that venue.
I hope I've provided everyone a framework to realistically assess their online marketing opportunities and options. It is a slow, plodding slog against strong headwinds. But as Hyman Roth said, "This is the business we've chosen."
Enough, ahem, business. With a firm tip of the cap to writing teacher and author Darcy Pattison, I turn to the creative side and present her 19 plot points. Singly or in combination, they provide excellent starting points to focus and orient your next story's narrative arc.
1. Quest. Character oriented story, the protagonist searches for something and winds up changing him/herself.
2. Adventure. Plot oriented, this features a goal-oriented series of events.
3. Pursuit. This is the typical Chase Plot. Definitely action-oriented.
4. Rescue. Another easy to recognize action-oriented plot.
5. Escape. A variation on the Rescue is when the protagonist escapes on his/her own.
6. Revenge. Ah, character comes back in with this one. Someone is wronged and vows to take revenge.
7. The Riddle. Love a good mystery? This is the plot for you.
8. Rivalry. Character oriented, this story follows two main characters, one on a downward track and one on an upward track and their interactions.
9. Underdog. Everyone in the US roots for the Underdog. This is the plot where the under-privileged (handicapped, poor, etc) triumphs despite overwhelming odds.
10. Temptation. Pandora’s Box extended to novel form.
11. Metamorphosis. This is a physical transformation of some kind. If you recently watched the movie, “District 9”, you’ll recognize this plot form. It’s Dracula, Beauty and the Beast, or the one I remember best,The Fly.
12. Transformation. Similar to the previous, this plot features an inner change, instead of changing the outer form.
13. Maturation. Bildungsroman, rite of passage, coming-of-age–these terms all refer to someone growing up morally, spiritually or emotionally. Often, it’s just a hint of growth, or a tiny change that hints at larger changes.
14. Love. The classic Boy-meets-Girl plot.
15. Forbidden Love. Oh, hasn’t Stephenie Meyer milked this one in her Twilight series? Brilliant use of the forces that keep her characters apart, while still attracting.
16. Sacrifice. From the Biblical tale of Jesus to the story of parents sacrificing for their children, this is a staple of literature.
17. Discovery. You know those secrets you’ve buried deep in your past? This story digs around, exposes secrets and watches them affect the characters.
18. Wretched Excess. When a character is in a downward spiral from alcohol, drugs, greed, etc. this is the plot form.
19. Ascension or Descension. A rise or fall from power puts a character into this plot form.
I highly recommend everyone Google their way to her website and blog. Together, they represent a treasure trove of information and resources every writer should have bookmarked.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
September 16, 2016
GR Marketing - Caution Warranted
Recently I, as I'm sure many of you, received Goodreads' Author Letter headlined by the article 'Successful Marketing of a Debut Novel'. Presented as a case study, it details the steps necessary for a successful book launch.
What raised an eyebrow for me, and thus forced a more critical reading, is that an earlier edition of the Author Letter had presented the same exact case study. Now why would Goodreads, which presumably is not hurting for ad revenue given its 50 million members, repeat a successful book launch story? As far as I've been able to research, there are at least 17 thousand registered Goodreads authors. Is it too much of a stretch to expect they would generate one successful book launch a month? If so, wouldn't that be a powerful marketing ad itself?
Googling 'goodreads author marketing' returned page after page of self-publishing gurus (SPGs) all promoting the same cookie cutter methodologies Goodreads itself cited in its case study. I have no doubt whatsoever this particular promotion worked. But why wouldn't Goodreads have hundreds of these? Why wouldn't each Author Letter have case after case of successful launches?
Might it be because this particular debut novel had Ballantine Books' marketing muscle behind it? They and all the other SPGs strongly recommend advance book giveaways. The one in this case sold for $17. Times the 25 they gave away, that's $425 plus postage and shipping. Nice.
What's next? Why making sure you're setup on your GR Author Page to take on the deluge of questions the growing 'buzz' will generate. Then you strike while the iron's hot with, wait for it, another 25 book giveaway!
Let me quote from the case study's description of the next phase. "The weeks around publication day are the most critical window for success. That’s when media will run their interviews, bookstores will host their events, and readers are finally able to purchase a book they’ve been hearing so many great things about."
Wow! Sounds just like my publication dates. Especially the part about media interviews. On the publication date itself, notices went out to almost six hundred GR members who had placed the book on their shelf. Since the case study's graphs only charted 'awareness', I wonder how many of those six hundred actually sprang for the $17?
Soon after, the publisher unleashed an Author Recommended mailer to almost 1,800 GR members. How much did that cost? Unknown, but here's a telling reality. Contact the GR Marketing Department and the first thing they want to know is whether you're spending more or less than $500. I guess hard-pressed independent authors are relegated to the 'B' team.
Next, as the case study stated, the publisher "added fuel to the fire" and ran a third (!!) giveaway. Sure enough, and entirely coincidental, the GR editorial team followed up by declaring the case study's novel among the "Hottest Books of the Summer".
Do I sound a tad cynical? Well, let me again quote the case study. "Keep in mind you can apply the exact same tactics we outlined here and achieve different results as there are many variables in play." Really? Might having a publishing house do the marketing for you be one of them?
And what about independent authors? Does GR have a marketing program for us, the content providers? Unless the 'B' team is acceptable or you have a few thousand burning a hole in your pocket, no.
Finding the right answer requires asking the right question. I came to GR thinking garnering reviews was the answer. It didn't take me long to decide garnering readers was a better one. The question now is, how best to garner paying readers?
Enough business. Let's turn to the creative side.
Plot twists and turns are essential in taking a novel from bland and inane to exciting and dynamic. I like to play with the concepts of plot and twist.
What is a twist? However one wishes to define it, it cannot be identified, understood, or appreciated without the plot. The plot's ability to mask and disguise is what gives a twist its power.
What is a plot? However one wishes to define it, on a subconscious level, a reader identifies the plot by what he or she encounters at the story's beginning. In other words, position is crucial to plots and twists. Plot comes first, then twist.
But in fact a twist, is, the plot. What if the story begins with a twist, or a series of them? The reader would not know that and simply assume what he or she is reading, is the plot. At this point, you as storyteller have the reader at your mercy and set up for a massive twist: the plot.
For example, in my novel Donnadio, 743 scientists, engineers, and technicians become marooned on humanity's 's first Mars colony when Earth falls victim to an extinction event. Both of these facts, the colony and the extinction, are twists encountered at the story's start. Because they are twists, the reader has no basis to predict what happens next, the foundation of all suspense. The tension mounts when the doomed colonists learn the ship that brought the last replacements can return to Earth but there is room for only twelve. Chaos erupts and again, both these facts are twists. It is only when the intrepid twelve crash land on Earth that the plot begins. A species marked for extinction, encounters its successor.
Experience is a harsh teacher however and though this method has served me well in five novels, placing the twist before the plot has proved near disastrous in my current project. The story's core concept stems from a question. Why did humanity's greatest prophets appear in the ancient world? Why couldn't one appear today?
The novel begins with a series of twists presented as plot, in which an American infant orphaned in the mountains of western China learns the Buddhist monks who raised him are assassins, centuries-old allies of the Vatican, used by the Church to defend itself against an ancient enemy: the Seraphim.
Amid the latest violence between these two foes, the plot begins and the world and its religions are thrown into turmoil when this modern prophet appears.
Her appearance also threw my story into turmoil by creating a huge plot hole that has caused me to unravel weeks of intertwined story lines and tedious identification of details that need to be found then changed or deleted without compromising continuity. Aargh! Or to paraphrase Mr. Spock, double damn aargh! lol
Anyway, as I noted in my last post, we independents do soldier on.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
What raised an eyebrow for me, and thus forced a more critical reading, is that an earlier edition of the Author Letter had presented the same exact case study. Now why would Goodreads, which presumably is not hurting for ad revenue given its 50 million members, repeat a successful book launch story? As far as I've been able to research, there are at least 17 thousand registered Goodreads authors. Is it too much of a stretch to expect they would generate one successful book launch a month? If so, wouldn't that be a powerful marketing ad itself?
Googling 'goodreads author marketing' returned page after page of self-publishing gurus (SPGs) all promoting the same cookie cutter methodologies Goodreads itself cited in its case study. I have no doubt whatsoever this particular promotion worked. But why wouldn't Goodreads have hundreds of these? Why wouldn't each Author Letter have case after case of successful launches?
Might it be because this particular debut novel had Ballantine Books' marketing muscle behind it? They and all the other SPGs strongly recommend advance book giveaways. The one in this case sold for $17. Times the 25 they gave away, that's $425 plus postage and shipping. Nice.
What's next? Why making sure you're setup on your GR Author Page to take on the deluge of questions the growing 'buzz' will generate. Then you strike while the iron's hot with, wait for it, another 25 book giveaway!
Let me quote from the case study's description of the next phase. "The weeks around publication day are the most critical window for success. That’s when media will run their interviews, bookstores will host their events, and readers are finally able to purchase a book they’ve been hearing so many great things about."
Wow! Sounds just like my publication dates. Especially the part about media interviews. On the publication date itself, notices went out to almost six hundred GR members who had placed the book on their shelf. Since the case study's graphs only charted 'awareness', I wonder how many of those six hundred actually sprang for the $17?
Soon after, the publisher unleashed an Author Recommended mailer to almost 1,800 GR members. How much did that cost? Unknown, but here's a telling reality. Contact the GR Marketing Department and the first thing they want to know is whether you're spending more or less than $500. I guess hard-pressed independent authors are relegated to the 'B' team.
Next, as the case study stated, the publisher "added fuel to the fire" and ran a third (!!) giveaway. Sure enough, and entirely coincidental, the GR editorial team followed up by declaring the case study's novel among the "Hottest Books of the Summer".
Do I sound a tad cynical? Well, let me again quote the case study. "Keep in mind you can apply the exact same tactics we outlined here and achieve different results as there are many variables in play." Really? Might having a publishing house do the marketing for you be one of them?
And what about independent authors? Does GR have a marketing program for us, the content providers? Unless the 'B' team is acceptable or you have a few thousand burning a hole in your pocket, no.
Finding the right answer requires asking the right question. I came to GR thinking garnering reviews was the answer. It didn't take me long to decide garnering readers was a better one. The question now is, how best to garner paying readers?
Enough business. Let's turn to the creative side.
Plot twists and turns are essential in taking a novel from bland and inane to exciting and dynamic. I like to play with the concepts of plot and twist.
What is a twist? However one wishes to define it, it cannot be identified, understood, or appreciated without the plot. The plot's ability to mask and disguise is what gives a twist its power.
What is a plot? However one wishes to define it, on a subconscious level, a reader identifies the plot by what he or she encounters at the story's beginning. In other words, position is crucial to plots and twists. Plot comes first, then twist.
But in fact a twist, is, the plot. What if the story begins with a twist, or a series of them? The reader would not know that and simply assume what he or she is reading, is the plot. At this point, you as storyteller have the reader at your mercy and set up for a massive twist: the plot.
For example, in my novel Donnadio, 743 scientists, engineers, and technicians become marooned on humanity's 's first Mars colony when Earth falls victim to an extinction event. Both of these facts, the colony and the extinction, are twists encountered at the story's start. Because they are twists, the reader has no basis to predict what happens next, the foundation of all suspense. The tension mounts when the doomed colonists learn the ship that brought the last replacements can return to Earth but there is room for only twelve. Chaos erupts and again, both these facts are twists. It is only when the intrepid twelve crash land on Earth that the plot begins. A species marked for extinction, encounters its successor.
Experience is a harsh teacher however and though this method has served me well in five novels, placing the twist before the plot has proved near disastrous in my current project. The story's core concept stems from a question. Why did humanity's greatest prophets appear in the ancient world? Why couldn't one appear today?
The novel begins with a series of twists presented as plot, in which an American infant orphaned in the mountains of western China learns the Buddhist monks who raised him are assassins, centuries-old allies of the Vatican, used by the Church to defend itself against an ancient enemy: the Seraphim.
Amid the latest violence between these two foes, the plot begins and the world and its religions are thrown into turmoil when this modern prophet appears.
Her appearance also threw my story into turmoil by creating a huge plot hole that has caused me to unravel weeks of intertwined story lines and tedious identification of details that need to be found then changed or deleted without compromising continuity. Aargh! Or to paraphrase Mr. Spock, double damn aargh! lol
Anyway, as I noted in my last post, we independents do soldier on.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
September 10, 2016
Mobsters and Writers
In what many consider a classic American movie, Godfather II, the mob financier Hyman Roth tells Michael Corleone, "This is the business we've chosen."
I pause to take stock and reflect on Kindle by the Sell's first ten posts. I hope they have proved helpful to my fellow authors or at least helped frame thoughts and options. One in particular impressed me because the GR community responded with a collective yawn to the July 30th posting on the subject of Query Letters. I can only conclude, despite the enormous difficulties the non-writing aspects present as well as the formidable marketing obstacles, self-published authors embrace their independence and accept the challenges as part and parcel to "the business we've chosen".
In confirmation, Amanda Hocking's meteoric and improbable rise to self-publishing success proved for many an endless source of fascination. As if her very unlikeliness made it possible to finish the next chapter, acquire the next review, gain the next GR friend, and thus perhaps curry sufficient favor with the very fickle literary gods.
Many who put up websites in order to say 'yes' when asked if they had one, PM'd to express dismay at the effort needed to make it a viable marketing ally. None imagined having to wear another hat labelled 'website guru' and yet, when confronted with the cost of hiring one, that same implacable, dogged determination to soldier on rose to the fore. I will admit to a sense of pride and awe in my colleagues.
I will further admit an earlier corporate life, before I reincarnated as a writer, made the technical requirements of a modern independent author an easy transition. Still, writing a novel is far more difficult than the HTML needed to make your website an unflagging marketing assistant.
Many also felt no need for a success that extended beyond the quiet satisfaction of finishing the novel that had been a lifelong dream. That every few weeks brought an encouraging review from an appreciative stranger was all the reward they needed from 'this thing of ours'. There is a lot to be said about 'quiet satisfaction' and my admiration for them has only grown.
So all in all, I can't say if this blog after ten postings met my expectations. I had none. In fact, not knowing where it would lead mirrored the same eager anticipation in writing a plot where an unpredicted twist or turn can emerge without warning. What it has done, however, is deepen my appreciation for a group who refuse to let anything diminish their desire to write.
In a poignant scene from the first Godfather, Don Corleone says to his son, "I never wanted this for you. I wanted you to be the bigshot." Michael gently responds, "We'll get there, Pop. We'll get there."
Such as it is, that's enough business, let's turn to the creative side.
It seems that 1st person novels are all the rage today so of course, I'm going to speak about the 3rd person. It never occurred to me I would write in anything else so I never even bothered to research it. For me, omniscient existed only as a divine attribute. I did, briefly, consider the 1st person but as a fiction writer thought it too confining. I salivated at the prospect of making a reader the proverbial fly on the wall, privy to all the delicious details, listening to a group of characters, aware of the lies, deceit, and mischief behind the innocent conversation.
It is my style to keep nothing from a reader. I hold in contempt that most wretched of literary tricks, the red herring. Arming the reader with all the facts entices them to anticipate future events. Shattering expectations with unpredictable twists and turns is the foundation of suspense.
Thus it surprised me to come across an article in which the author posited that most novelists avoid the 3rd person as too difficult. I read on to discover my understanding of it a simplistic one.
I had, of course, already learned the 3rd person had the imposing title of omniscient but here came two more: multiple and limited. Some of the eggier egghead periodicals go so far as to create two additional subcategories, objective and subjective. I'll leave it to the more ambitious to investigate them but I cannot escape the sense they simply exist to give MFA professors something to talk about.
Limited third person also has a narrator but only provides the thoughts and emotions of the protagonist. I'd be very interested in anyone who can recommend a book employing this viewpoint. Multiple third person again has a narrator but increases the number of characters whose thoughts and emotions are available to the reader but not to the all-encompassing extent omniscient does. Learning their existence did not tempt me to abandon omniscient. Again, as a fiction writer, why shackle my imagination?
Nonetheless, I welcome my 1st person colleagues to comment on their decision. Not to justify it. None is needed or expected. But simply to provide us the basis for all wisdom: perspective.
Lastly, as I wrote this blog I uncovered a hidden gender bias. I've always assumed, that is, 'heard' my narrators as male. I'm curious if any of my male colleagues hear theirs as female. How do female readers hear theirs? Is it possible for a writer to deliberately give a narrator gender? What purpose would it serve? When I read my next 3rd person story will I hear...her?
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
I pause to take stock and reflect on Kindle by the Sell's first ten posts. I hope they have proved helpful to my fellow authors or at least helped frame thoughts and options. One in particular impressed me because the GR community responded with a collective yawn to the July 30th posting on the subject of Query Letters. I can only conclude, despite the enormous difficulties the non-writing aspects present as well as the formidable marketing obstacles, self-published authors embrace their independence and accept the challenges as part and parcel to "the business we've chosen".
In confirmation, Amanda Hocking's meteoric and improbable rise to self-publishing success proved for many an endless source of fascination. As if her very unlikeliness made it possible to finish the next chapter, acquire the next review, gain the next GR friend, and thus perhaps curry sufficient favor with the very fickle literary gods.
Many who put up websites in order to say 'yes' when asked if they had one, PM'd to express dismay at the effort needed to make it a viable marketing ally. None imagined having to wear another hat labelled 'website guru' and yet, when confronted with the cost of hiring one, that same implacable, dogged determination to soldier on rose to the fore. I will admit to a sense of pride and awe in my colleagues.
I will further admit an earlier corporate life, before I reincarnated as a writer, made the technical requirements of a modern independent author an easy transition. Still, writing a novel is far more difficult than the HTML needed to make your website an unflagging marketing assistant.
Many also felt no need for a success that extended beyond the quiet satisfaction of finishing the novel that had been a lifelong dream. That every few weeks brought an encouraging review from an appreciative stranger was all the reward they needed from 'this thing of ours'. There is a lot to be said about 'quiet satisfaction' and my admiration for them has only grown.
So all in all, I can't say if this blog after ten postings met my expectations. I had none. In fact, not knowing where it would lead mirrored the same eager anticipation in writing a plot where an unpredicted twist or turn can emerge without warning. What it has done, however, is deepen my appreciation for a group who refuse to let anything diminish their desire to write.
In a poignant scene from the first Godfather, Don Corleone says to his son, "I never wanted this for you. I wanted you to be the bigshot." Michael gently responds, "We'll get there, Pop. We'll get there."
Such as it is, that's enough business, let's turn to the creative side.
It seems that 1st person novels are all the rage today so of course, I'm going to speak about the 3rd person. It never occurred to me I would write in anything else so I never even bothered to research it. For me, omniscient existed only as a divine attribute. I did, briefly, consider the 1st person but as a fiction writer thought it too confining. I salivated at the prospect of making a reader the proverbial fly on the wall, privy to all the delicious details, listening to a group of characters, aware of the lies, deceit, and mischief behind the innocent conversation.
It is my style to keep nothing from a reader. I hold in contempt that most wretched of literary tricks, the red herring. Arming the reader with all the facts entices them to anticipate future events. Shattering expectations with unpredictable twists and turns is the foundation of suspense.
Thus it surprised me to come across an article in which the author posited that most novelists avoid the 3rd person as too difficult. I read on to discover my understanding of it a simplistic one.
I had, of course, already learned the 3rd person had the imposing title of omniscient but here came two more: multiple and limited. Some of the eggier egghead periodicals go so far as to create two additional subcategories, objective and subjective. I'll leave it to the more ambitious to investigate them but I cannot escape the sense they simply exist to give MFA professors something to talk about.
Limited third person also has a narrator but only provides the thoughts and emotions of the protagonist. I'd be very interested in anyone who can recommend a book employing this viewpoint. Multiple third person again has a narrator but increases the number of characters whose thoughts and emotions are available to the reader but not to the all-encompassing extent omniscient does. Learning their existence did not tempt me to abandon omniscient. Again, as a fiction writer, why shackle my imagination?
Nonetheless, I welcome my 1st person colleagues to comment on their decision. Not to justify it. None is needed or expected. But simply to provide us the basis for all wisdom: perspective.
Lastly, as I wrote this blog I uncovered a hidden gender bias. I've always assumed, that is, 'heard' my narrators as male. I'm curious if any of my male colleagues hear theirs as female. How do female readers hear theirs? Is it possible for a writer to deliberately give a narrator gender? What purpose would it serve? When I read my next 3rd person story will I hear...her?
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
September 2, 2016
eBook Marketing on Google
Over the last two weeks, I've looked at marketing techniques and ad design on Facebook and turn now to that other online marketing giant, Google.
The mechanics of advertising with Google's AdWords only require a free Google Account, is a straightforward process, and very similar to Facebook's. So I don't want to spend any time here describing it. But in order to get the best use of AdWords, it is important to have a solid understanding of 'keywords'. And keywords are the heart and soul of a well-designed website (August 6th, 'eBook Marketing and your Website').
Regardless of the venue, an eBook's marketing/ad campaign has the intent of attracting readers to your landing page. The purpose of keywords is to bring them there. AdWords is the link between keywords and a landing page. For this link to be most effective, the 'Ad Scent' to your landing page (August 27th, 'eBook Marketing with FB Ads') must be strong.
Therefore, a landing page is not a website's home page or a blog posting. It is the page on your website that highlights the reason for a potential reader clicking on the ad: your book. Right off, a viewer should see the cover, blurb, purchase link(s) and optionally but strongly recommended, the opening pages. And as I said, the beginning of this marketing chain, is keywords.
The book's author name, title, and genre should certainly be among its keywords, but since the campaign's purpose is to attract new readers who will probably be unaware of the first two items, some thought is required.
Begin with the blurb. What words/phrases do they contain that a reader might be searching for? Did you compare it to another better known author or title? Add them. Does the blurb refer to a specific, identifiable time, place, event, or person? A social, psychological, emotional phenomenon? Does the blurb need to be re-thought?
Don't waste a keyword with generic categories like 'thriller' or 'romance'. You'll be buried. Get granular with daggers, silencers, assassins, BDSM, HEA. Use 'long-tail' keyword phrases like 'KGB strike force' or '5-flame heat'. Pull out the Thesaurus. Synonyms may be obvious to you but search engines are not all that discerning. Put yourself in the reader's shoes. This is the perfect time to brainstorm with friends.
Once you have a solid list, utilize Google's Keyword Planner, included inside AdWords, or turn to WordStream’s free Keyword Suggestion Tool. They have different interfaces but in both instances look for the statistic 'search volume'. The higher the volume the stronger the keyword. Supplement your keyword arsenal with free online resources like Ubersuggest and Soovle. Type in your keyword and they'll display a list of variations. Then go back and check their 'search volume'.
Lastly, don't ignore the importance of a negative keywords list. If you write Science Fiction, you don't want fans of cozy mysteries clicking through only to bounce back out after wasting your ad budget.
So, which marketing venue is better? Neither. Both are powerful, effective marketing platforms that produce positive results. But picking at least one is essential if you're serious about expanding your reader base. And it does not have to be an exorbitant amount. Google's internal algorithms level the playing field, making an ad and landing page's relevance to a search query (Quality Score) more important than bid amount.
But they do have different perspectives. Facebook is a means for readers to find you. Google is means for you to find readers. If like me, you don't have the time to manage two campaigns, which one you select is a matter of fit to your own persona. I chose Google and will explain. Not to in any way suggest my reasons are definitive or the 'right' choice. But to perhaps provide a framework to guide your decision.
Another way to describe Facebook is as a 'past tense' environment. Its members have already done or bought something and are sharing it. If they've bought/read your book, sharing the experience with their friend circle is exactly what you want. But the approach is less proactive since you are once removed from a potential reader.
Google is a 'future tense' environment. Searchers have not yet spent money but are looking to do so. Google allows more direct interaction with potential readers. Plus, I find the sound of jingling coins irresistible. :-)
This week, in solidarity with my hard-working countrymen, I will forego the creative section and join them on an end of summer, three-day Labor Day weekend, and of course, not labor.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
The mechanics of advertising with Google's AdWords only require a free Google Account, is a straightforward process, and very similar to Facebook's. So I don't want to spend any time here describing it. But in order to get the best use of AdWords, it is important to have a solid understanding of 'keywords'. And keywords are the heart and soul of a well-designed website (August 6th, 'eBook Marketing and your Website').
Regardless of the venue, an eBook's marketing/ad campaign has the intent of attracting readers to your landing page. The purpose of keywords is to bring them there. AdWords is the link between keywords and a landing page. For this link to be most effective, the 'Ad Scent' to your landing page (August 27th, 'eBook Marketing with FB Ads') must be strong.
Therefore, a landing page is not a website's home page or a blog posting. It is the page on your website that highlights the reason for a potential reader clicking on the ad: your book. Right off, a viewer should see the cover, blurb, purchase link(s) and optionally but strongly recommended, the opening pages. And as I said, the beginning of this marketing chain, is keywords.
The book's author name, title, and genre should certainly be among its keywords, but since the campaign's purpose is to attract new readers who will probably be unaware of the first two items, some thought is required.
Begin with the blurb. What words/phrases do they contain that a reader might be searching for? Did you compare it to another better known author or title? Add them. Does the blurb refer to a specific, identifiable time, place, event, or person? A social, psychological, emotional phenomenon? Does the blurb need to be re-thought?
Don't waste a keyword with generic categories like 'thriller' or 'romance'. You'll be buried. Get granular with daggers, silencers, assassins, BDSM, HEA. Use 'long-tail' keyword phrases like 'KGB strike force' or '5-flame heat'. Pull out the Thesaurus. Synonyms may be obvious to you but search engines are not all that discerning. Put yourself in the reader's shoes. This is the perfect time to brainstorm with friends.
Once you have a solid list, utilize Google's Keyword Planner, included inside AdWords, or turn to WordStream’s free Keyword Suggestion Tool. They have different interfaces but in both instances look for the statistic 'search volume'. The higher the volume the stronger the keyword. Supplement your keyword arsenal with free online resources like Ubersuggest and Soovle. Type in your keyword and they'll display a list of variations. Then go back and check their 'search volume'.
Lastly, don't ignore the importance of a negative keywords list. If you write Science Fiction, you don't want fans of cozy mysteries clicking through only to bounce back out after wasting your ad budget.
So, which marketing venue is better? Neither. Both are powerful, effective marketing platforms that produce positive results. But picking at least one is essential if you're serious about expanding your reader base. And it does not have to be an exorbitant amount. Google's internal algorithms level the playing field, making an ad and landing page's relevance to a search query (Quality Score) more important than bid amount.
But they do have different perspectives. Facebook is a means for readers to find you. Google is means for you to find readers. If like me, you don't have the time to manage two campaigns, which one you select is a matter of fit to your own persona. I chose Google and will explain. Not to in any way suggest my reasons are definitive or the 'right' choice. But to perhaps provide a framework to guide your decision.
Another way to describe Facebook is as a 'past tense' environment. Its members have already done or bought something and are sharing it. If they've bought/read your book, sharing the experience with their friend circle is exactly what you want. But the approach is less proactive since you are once removed from a potential reader.
Google is a 'future tense' environment. Searchers have not yet spent money but are looking to do so. Google allows more direct interaction with potential readers. Plus, I find the sound of jingling coins irresistible. :-)
This week, in solidarity with my hard-working countrymen, I will forego the creative section and join them on an end of summer, three-day Labor Day weekend, and of course, not labor.
As always, I welcome your thoughts and comments.
