Frances Pauli's Blog, page 19

Draft! Revise, rework or...rewrite?

You hear a lot about drafts when hanging out with authors. Zero Draft, Rough Draft, Final Draft...They sound a bit like superhero names. "Zero Draft vs. The Creative Seize." But while I'm a big reviser, and I believe wholeheartedly in reworking a story as many times as possible, in cutting repetition, adding detail, trimming, polishing and mixing around a story, I'm not entirely sure I have this draft thing down correctly.

In fact, I'm a bit terrified of it.

When I hear other writers talking about their "drafts" and which draft they're on and how many drafts it takes to get to their final, finished book, I sometimes have the sneaking suspicion that they are talking about completely rewriting the entire manuscript. You know, they say something like, "I do three drafts." or "The first draft is just to work out the plot." I imagine (with horrified concern) that they pen a 100thousand word story, and then set it aside and start....over. Completely over. On fresh paper, over.

Insert slasher flick damsel in distress scream here.

I can't do that. That's not me whining or even making a joke. I can't do it. Can't. All caps CAN'T. I know this because I once dreamed of being a comic book/animation artist. It was all I wanted in the world until I found out you have to draw the same thing...over and over and over. No thank you. Game over.

I suffer from terminal boredom. Repetition like that gives me major hives. I may adore my characters, love my plot and even want to read my story over and over, but to actually WRITE it again? No thank you. I'll hack at it with a chainsaw and fill in the gaps with better work, yes. I'll kill everything that shouldn't be in it and make it new, but to just set aside a whole draft. . . There are good words in there too, right? I need those good words.  Waste not, my zero draft effort, for even if there are only thirty thousand out of one hundred gems in there, I am not about to toss away one of them.

Maybe that makes me lazy, or maybe it makes me vain, or who knows what it makes me, I just don't do do overs. I do versions, many, many versions and each is definitely an improvement on the last. If the secret rule I'm missing is rewrite completely, well, I think I'm going to pretend that I never heard that.

But just out of curiosity, I'd love to know if anyone out there works on a chuck it and re-do it basis.
If you do, you scary, scary creatures, you deserve a medal.

Frances

Characters! A cast of quirks and characteristics

Well day three was a no brainer for me. I'm a character person. Sure, I plot, but first I make up people. The people come with a lot of baggage. The baggage engenders great trouble for them. The trouble escalates and, voila, plot.

I don't know if that makes me "character driven" or not. Honestly, I'm not sure I ever fully understood the difference between plot v. character driven. The two seem to be symbiotic to me, continually wound together in that search for a story that moves and grows toward something memorable--toward a moment or message that will wow and linger. But I do take great pleasure in my characters. I do consider them entities of a sort, little imaginary friends, errant children. I get a teeny bit defensive when some folks, die-hard by the book folks, insist that "characters cannot take over a story" that the "author is always in absolute control."

Well, duh.

Seriously, those of us in the "my characters tell the story for me" camp are not off our rockers. (At least, I'd guess the majority of us aren't.) We know the characters are not real, right? I mean, we made them up. It's somewhat hard to forget. In fact, if you truly believe your characters are real people talking to you and telling you what to write, I would vehemently suggest you consider therapy of some kind. (chocolate is my favorite)

But I think what we mean, what we're talking about when we give that ounce of credit to our character, is that we've become so embedded, so engrossed in the story of the individual, that what they do next is not optional. We know what must happen next, because we know exactly who they are and exactly what they would do.

That's what I mean, anyway. When the character is "telling" the story for me, I know that writing something contrary to that character, that trying to steer it in an unnatural direction will feel wrong. It won't work. Ideas that seem perfect, that pop into my head as if by magic, are the things that are correct for the character. They follow logically because they are true to character. When I'm that engrossed in the story, and the next action just opens up before me as if the character is steering, I trust that path because I know where it ultimately comes from. From me. The author, who knows my imaginary friends well enough to step into their shoes and walk around for a bit.

So when they're "driving," I know it's me. I do. But it feels like magic just the same. It feels like the best part of this thing called writing. And I can't find fault in a little harmless passing of the credit to my characters.
Now, if you catch me knitting them sweaters and setting a plate for them at the dinner table, feel free to chime in with a reprimand.

;)
Frances

Books! Books of the Future

You hear a lot of talk in writerly circles about the future of the industry, the future of publishing, the future of writing. What interests me more today, on day "B" of our little hop, is the future of books. Evolution is inevitable, but extinction doesn't have to be. When it comes to books, I'm leaning toward the optimistic side of the fence.

I used to imagine a "futuristic" bookstore where you could have a coffee while waiting for the store's p.o.d. machine to spit out your print titles, download directly to your reader from their electronic selection while you browsed the few racks of second-had print books and then leave with a combination of all of the above...it occurred to me today that I can nix the futuristic tag. That bookstore is here already, at least the download and buy print in the same spot part. I'm still waiting for the chains to install their Espresso book printers and cut back on the shelved stock, but I have no doubt that it's coming fast.

So much for my predictions.

Now if I want to get really fun, we can talk about "special edition" e-books with  author commentary, character profiles, deleted scenes, maps and soundtracks...(can you say scratch and sniff books?) but those are pretty much the next logical step, right? I mean, who isn't disappointed when they buy a dvd and find out the special features menu has nothing but the trailer in it?

Stretch a little farther and we get the interactive e-book. May or may not catch on. The visual novel, now a naughty choose-your-own-adventure game, has the potential to become a cross-over between books and video games. And the book itself could potentially evolve (or devolve) into a kind of video game of its own. Technically the two could merge sooner than we think. And don't get me started on holo-decks and future tech. I'm just talking about stuff that's already on the table here.

Will we still call them books at that point? Will there still be simple, bound-paper options left for the die-hards? Maybe. Maybe libraries and used book stores will flourish as the rest of the print world falters. I kind of like to think so. They could use a golden age.

I believe as long as there is storytelling, I'll be happy to participate in it. Maybe it will be different, but a good story is too fundamental to our human needs to completely vanish. Even if it does become an interactive thing. If it does, I think movies will go down before books. Video games will absorb film long before they eat print. (just my guess, but the two are so close already, it seems like an easier conquest)

Still, movies didn't kill books, did they? Video games haven't consumed movies yet. Maybe we have a little time. Maybe future generations will still read...even if they don't know how to write in cursive. (that one was for my mom.)

I'm even more curious about the possibilities I've missed. Can you see a future book that blends the above or brings in something completely outside of our current storytelling delivery systems? What about dream-style story incubation? Who's volunteering to beta-test that one? If we're going to the stars in hyper sleep, or some such, maybe there's a market for stories you can download straight to the sleeping brain.

I want to "read" the Martian Chronicles on the way to Mars. It gives a whole new meaning to the idea of a book launch, doesn't it?

~ Frances

Author! Guest Author, P.I. Barrington

Hello all, welcome to April 1st and the kickoff of my A-Z blog in April attempt. We'll start with A is for Author and a great guest spot by the fabulous P.I. Barrington. Please give a warm welcome and happy blog fest craziness to all!



Thank you Frances for inviting me to be a guest here on your blog!Recently I joined a discussion about the science in sci-fi; as in how much sci there should be in the fi. A complaint in the discussion was that romance was taking over the science fiction genre' to the detriment of the science factor in novels. The second was that the technology/science factor was diluted by authors who toss in a fancy named spaceship and a few tech tricks. I passed it off with a joke but it did make me think about my writing and most importantly, am I doing that with my technology and why?I think that author hit upon one big challenge for sci-fi authors today. I mean masters like Ray Bradbury rarely if ever laid a romantic plot or even a subplot. But I believe the genre' may be changing in terms of popularity expansion and personally I hope so. It would be great to see readers try out a genre' that they might otherwise pass by. And if any genre' is going to do it, its romance. Hate it or love it romance is the biggest selling genre' at this time and I think it's going expand the number of female sci-fi authors even more than it has done. Not all of my novels have a romantic line running through it. Isadora DayStar has virtually no romance but it does have intense themes that sometimes are bigger than the technology and the world where she lives, not to mention her massively conflicted personality that fuels the plot.Now, I know a little about world building. I know the complexity of creating a varied and realistic society I know the comprehensiveness of placing any invasive or key technology subject (i.e. environmental destruction or threat, alien plagues) into that society and the requisite reactions (panic, determination, despair). I also know how to create a high speed plot along with super complex heroes/heroines and anti-heroes/heroines. Therein lays my challenge: how to balance out the technology with the plot. While I'm no physicist I can understand some scientific theory and make up a few tech tricks of my own (the foam sedative sprayed on unruly or dangerous crowds—without negative side effects—in Final Deceit, Future Imperfect trilogy.) But how much of that technology should be explained when your plot includes heroes trapped under tons upon tons of rubble, an alien tracking them down there a murderous secondary character and the Chief of Police above ground fighting tooth and nail against the Mayor to find and save his detectives in time? Stopping to expound on what exactly the chemical compound is in the foam spray trips up your plot and takes the reader out of the story, in my opinion, not a good thing especially if you're on a roll! I know a tiny bit about medicines and their administration and could probably make a realistic guess on what medicines could be administered in a foam—but I'd rather explain it later when there is a lull in the pace or via dialogue, even in the epilogue if necessary. Believe me, I'd love to have the luxury of creating a hugely and wonderfully varied and complex world with various races and creatures and laws and transport (a fair amount of it is in Isadora DayStar). But I don't. I write the way I write and I write tight and concisely. That detailed world would also help me with word count in a tremendous way trust me, lol! So what to do? Capturing the essence of the world setting works for me and I'm sure other authors could and would argue that point successfully. Another issue for me is working on the theme I mentioned and a complex, damaged, guilt ridden character such as Isadora—the character has to engage with the reader.Taking all of that into account, the high wire tech versus character/plot balancing act is still something sci-fi authors have to maintain to create a viable story that keeps the reader engrossed and gives the world in which the character lives enough detail and exposition for the reader to envision it.  It's the movie in your head that you're trying to put on the screen of your readers' minds; to make them see it as it happens. And, to make them believe it's happening in their suspended disbelief.I think the balancing is the challenge that is also a joy to the sci-fi author. We love that tech science, that military (for me anyway) setting with the newest toys for destruction and advancement, that souped up environment that's so…futuristic. It's not only cool to write, it's also cool to look at as well.When I first seriously returned to writing, I referred to my genre' as "near-future." I wasn't satisfied with that so I began calling it "futuristic thriller." That didn't work either because not all my work is crime thrillers. Then I called it sci-fi adventure. That kind of worked. After that, I tried to call it spec fiction. Hated that one; sounds silly to me. Hmm. Perhaps sci-fi
Author Info:Twitter@PIBARRINGTON    Facebook.com: P.I. Barrington and/or P.i.Barrington    TheWriterLimits blog: http://thewriterlimitsauthors.blogspot.com/http://www.thewordmistresses.comhttp://pibarrington.wordpress.com/

Isadora Daystar Tour
March 31 (Announcement and kickoff with a book spotlight/giveaway/review)  http://closeencounterswiththenightkind.blogspot.com/2012/03/giveaway-book-tour-kickoff-with-pi.htmlApril 1 Guest Post on http://francespauli.blogspot.comApril 3 Guest Post/Giveaway on http://ismellsheep.blogspot.com/April 4 Book spotlight/giveaway on http://sweetsouthernhome.wordpress.com/April 5 Guest Post/Review on http://beauty-in-ruins.blogspot.comApril 6 Review/Giveaway (2 copies) www.readingreality.netApril 9 review/giveaway on http://noraweston.wordpress.comApril 11 Guest Post on http://livetoread-krystal.blogspot.com/April 14 Interview on http://amdase.blogspot.com

Best of luck! This looks like a great read. :)Frances

Age of the Hybrid

I learned a new term this morning, and I've fallen a tad bit in love with it. It's not a new term, exactly. As it turns out, I'm just slow and need to poke my head out of my hole more often and enjoy a bit of the world around me....Even if the voices in my head shout, "Get back to writing, you slacker!"

The term is "hybrid author" or "hybrid writer." You pick which version, the point is this new beast resides somewhere between traditional and self-published, in many cases juggling both worlds.

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. I recognize that concept.

At least, it sounds a bit familiar. I've long supported the idea of diversification--in particular in today's publishing universe, and it sounds like I'm in good company. No doubt droves of authors have worked this out long before I did, but still. I caught on eventually, right?

Well, I've never claimed to be overly quick. But what I like about the concept of hybridization (such a cooler concept than just saying I can't pick sides) is that it has lovely implications of strength and durability. Hybrids are a good thing these days. They help the environment. They assist us in adapting to new and better ways of doing and living. They may not go from 0 to 90...or even be able to go 90...but they get us there in the end.

See where I'm going here?

If we are, as we suspect, in a revolution of sorts, then the hybrid author will be the crossover that adjusts the world and its thinking to the new order. At least, that's the idea. Whether it takes off or not remains to be seen. I've heard the Prius jokes. I know. I know.

I'd still rather be a hybrid than an SUV these days. :)

I'll close with the Wikipedia definition of something called "hybrid vigor." If you took a lot of biology, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. In nature, hybrid strong--inbred, bad. (okay that last part works all over.)

hybrid vigorThe increased vigor or general health, resistance to disease, and other superior qualities that are often manifested in hybrid organisms, especially plants and animals. Compare inbreeding depression.

Okay, I almost cut and pasted without that last sentence, but hey, the idea of an "inbred depressed" author makes me chuckle.

Go hybrid, it's good for us all.

~Frances

Catalog of Works to Date

I've added a catalog to the webpage, as my html skills leave something to be desired. The works page has never quite lined up right, nor has it included all the information, excerpts, review snippets, etc. that I wanted to work in there. Thanks to Issuu.com the catalog presentation is much lovelier and very user friendly for an old fogey who knows nothing about coding.

Here's a peek. Thank heavens for point and click. :)
~ Frances


Open publication - Free publishing - More author

Work Study

One thing I love about writing, is that it never bores me. I know I've found what I'm supposed to be doing with my life, because I am fascinated by every aspect of my industry. Now, I may take this to extremes. I tend to "eat, sleep and drink" the job. (NOT in the Hemingway drink manner, mind you--not often)
But despite the fact that you sometimes have to pry me physically from engaging in the literary world and drag me kicking and screaming into things, non-writerly...I think there's an upside to being engrossed in one's industry.

In fact, considering the state of our industry, I think educating oneself is mandatory. Authors today, no matter which little twisty path to publishing they walk, should be learning as much as they possibly can about the waters they swim in. Because there's a typhoon out there folks. Nobody, not legacy or indie or small press or self-pub will deny that the storm exists. It's probably the only thing they'll all agree on.

I have some links here that I think are seriously important to everyone's publishing education. They are not ALL from the Indie side, and in fact, one in particular goes a long way toward representing both sides.
Before you click and follow all three of these blogs...:)
Make sure if you only pick one that it is this one: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2012/03/presumed-inane.html
I know it's long, but it is worth reading. Here's a quote:

" Those are the questions that matter, no matter who is biased in an argument, or how, or why. And anyone who really gives a damn about books and publishing should be trying to answer those questions, not trying to avoid them." 


To be fair also, I am linking to the link they refer to, ie: the other side of the argument:http://www.salon.com/2012/03/13/scott_turow_on_why_we_should_fear_amazon/singleton/ 

And to sum up, three blogs I think every author should be following and reading are:
http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/   http://www.deanwesleysmith.com/ http://www.thepassivevoice.com/  
In particular the last one, which is the aforementioned blog by a lawyer/author who is very careful to report from both sides of any lines imaginary or otherwise. 
Just in case you feel like studying the business along with the craft of writing. 
~ Frances

Guest Author, Eldon Taylor

We have Eldon Taylor here today, stopping in on his virtual book tour with information on his release: I Believe: When What You Believe Matters!
Please give him a warm welcome.

~ Frances

From NY Times Best Selling Author - Eldon Taylor

What is the foundation underpinning success in all areas of life? Is there a blueprint? What if you learned that your beliefs were the very cornerstones that supported success, and that having a few of these could give rise to success in some areas while complete failure in others? Would you choose to build a stronger overall foundation?

Very few people today doubt the power of positive thinking. We all know that if we expect to fail, then failure is inevitably what we get, and there is also the issue of the mind/body connection—science is repeatedly demonstrating the power of mind and belief to heal. What you believe can and does have a huge impact on the quality of your life—from success in business to success in relationships, from your ability to learn and master new subjects to your ability to heal your own body. But have you ever stopped to consider your own beliefs—to truly examine them and decide for yourself if they are serving you or sabotaging you?

Chapter 1: The Power of Belief: Who Am I ?
Belief influences almost everything in your life, from your DNA to the operation of your endocrine and immune systems; from your emotional well-being to the stability of your mood states and attitudes; from your relationships with others to your relationship with yourself—in short, with literally every aspect of life?I believe your beliefs can empower your life or cripple your every hope and ambition. In the chapters that follow, we will examine different beliefs and how they might influence our realities. I am a simple outcome- oriented guy and so I will attempt to keep our focus on just that—how our beliefs influence the world we live in and the people we have become.
Excerpts: #1The Mind-Body Belief System
Placebos
Research with placebos—nontherapeutic substances are commonly thought of as sugar pills—is also telling when it comes to the role of belief and the function of the mind in matters of wellness. When the faith and expectation of a subject invests in the power of the placebo, amazing things happen. What's more, the treatment is relative to the condition, so one false pill can treat pain half as well as aspirin and half as well as morphine. Not surprisingly, telling the patient that the same tablet increases discomfort will result in just that. Placebos don't have to be pills; they can be creams, injections, or even surgery. Just as interesting, the effect is larger if you increase the dosage size—say a larger capsule or two of them. Further, research shows that a branded item works better than a plain one, one in a shiny box elicits greater results than one in a plain package, a capsule trumps a tablet, with an injection working even better. If you use fancy, expensive-looking, sophisticated equipment, it yields even more dramatic outcomes. The bottom line is that the greater the expectation, the greater the effect. In other words, building a strong belief creates the foundation for the result.2 There are still more revealing facts about placebos that dovetail directly into our human psychology. For example, color is often employed to evaluate mood states, as in the Lüscher Color Test. The validity of this test has been determined to be overall 81 percent in agreement with the Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis.3 So how does color correlate with the placebo effect? Well, blue is more effective as a "downer," and red is the preferred color for an "upper." Further, as Daniel Keogh and Luke Harris point out in their very informative Internet film, studies have shown that people who take their medication on a regular basis are much less likely to die than those who don't adhere to their drug regimen, even if they're only taking placebos. If that's not enough to convince you of the power of belief, then try this one. Again, the creators of the aforementioned film point out that placebos can also be addictive. In one study, 40 percent of the women who'd taken an inactive medication for five years suffered withdrawal symptoms.4 Remember that by definition, there's no medical value to a placebo. It's not what's in the substance that matters but what we put in it via our belief. Clever researchers can weight our belief by feeding an already expectant psychology with the right color, shape, size, and so forth to further ensure the maximum effect!5 That's right, a genuine medical result from a nonmedical intervention. It's clearly our minds that have the power.
The Authority Figure
Several years ago, I conducted research that involved patients diagnosed with cancer. I used a cognitive approach by employing an audio recording (my Innertalk technology) designed to fundamentally influence what the subjects thought to be true, generating a positive outlook and confidence in the body's ability to heal itself. In other words, the design of the study sought to measure the influence of a change in beliefs on the progression of cancer. In short, this is what we found: First, every single patient who believed that the mind had a role in wellness, and whose physician believed this as well, was in complete remission (no evidence of cancer). By contrast, every single individual whose doctor reported that the mind had no role in wellness was dead. In a sense, it didn't matter what the patient thought within this latter group—it all depended upon the medical authority. Even though this was just a small test group, the results disturbed and puzzled me. That puzzlement changed recently when science learned through the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that "parts of the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices, which play key roles in vigilance and skepticism when judging the truth and importance of what people say, were deactivated" in the presence of an authority. While the first study I noticed of this nature was about the clergy, other studies show that this effect includes anyone we think of as an authority.10 Similar to the power of the placebo, it appears that the health-care professional can reverse the positive by informing us that matters are out of our hands, and as with the cancer patients in the study, we'll just surrender to their preconceptions and die.
ReflectionIt now seems obvious: What we believe predisposes our expectation and behavior. It directly influences our health, sense of well-being, and even the aging process. So what is it that you anticipate? Do you think you'll "catch" the cold, flu or other "bug" that's going around? Do you assume you'll be sick for a certain amount of time? Does it seem that some illnesses are more likely at a specific age, under certain conditions, or simply because of genetics? What would happen if you changed your own beliefs about this? Is it possible that you could become healthier, avoid many of the infections that go around, and recover more quickly when you do become sick? Many people are reporting just this result.

Eldon Taylor has spent over 25 years researching the power of the mind and developing scientifically proven methods to use this power to enhance the quality of your life. I Believe is a book that will not only inspire you, but will highlight the kinds of beliefs you hold that may be causing you to fail. In the process, it will provide you with the opportunity to choose, once again, the beliefs that drive your life.

Guest Author, Nicholas Maze

Please help me welcome author, Nicholas Maze, as he stops by on his virtual book tour! He is also offering a 25$ gift card to one tour commenter, so leave him a hello and enter to win.

Welcome to the blog, Nicholas. Best of luck with the book!
 :)


Inspiration to Your Writing

Because I write across the board (multiple genres), inspiration is the key element in my writing. I will quickly act on an idea, normally. I will not begin writing the story, but at least create an overview. A great example is a murder mystery that I plan to write in the near future. I was sitting down, at my job, and the idea came to me. Now, that idea could have stemmed from the increasing murder rate, but I do recall one key incident that led to the idea. I was leaving out of my driveway and there was setting at my neighbor's home. There wasn't any crime or suspicious activity, but it was a simple display of garbage resting on the corner. From that setting, my mind began to run! I had no main characters or names (for character or the story), but I had a unique storyline. This led to a small overview that will be later converted to a full story. The inspiration for my first story, White Collar Woman (Romance/Fiction), was women. I felt that women were the majority readers of books of all genres, so I decided to build a story around a woman and her love life. I tapped into the women that were close in my life and my experiences with women (relationships, co-workers, etc.) These influences and inspiration led to the creation of my first book. My second book took a completely different route. My second book, EXIT: How to Leave Debt Forever, is a non-fiction, financial, self-help book. The inspiration for this book developed over time. I initially received a prophecy on the writing of this book. I was confused, because I had just wrote a romance/fiction book and didn't see how the two would tie together. Although I was confused, in the beginning, I decided to pursue the prophecy and began studying heavily on the world's finance. As I began to gather information on the topic, I became amazed and motivated. My inspiration for EXIT was that so many people had no understanding of money and wealth and they needed this information to have growth in this area of their life. I felt that this information could change lives and make an impact on the world, as a whole. And, this inspiration led to the creation of EXIT. 


Born in Flint, Michigan, Nicholas L. Maze attended Baker College, where he earned his degree in Business Administration with a focus in Accounting and Marketing. With a knack for advertising and excelling in math, Nicholas seemed destined for a productive career in business. Instead, there would be another gift that would prove to be more dominant and rewarding.In the summer of 1999, while still in college, Nicholas found a job with a nation-wide security organization. His initial plans were to work his job, until he finished college. But it was his stint with the security organization that would lead to a rebirth of his passion for writing. As a child, being driven by a strong imagination, Nicholas would write stories to past time. It was during his composition courses in college that Nicholas realized that his gift was still intact. His writing craft received praise from his colleagues and instructors. With substantial amount of free time on the job, Nicholas found himself writing more and more. He started by writing poetry and composing songs, during his free time on the job. It was at this same time that Nicholas began managing a small rap group, which allowed him to hone his writing skills even more. Nicholas began composing songs for his rap group and him. In 2004, Nicholas began to write his first published work. With ample amount of time and a number of ideas, Nicholas began to write. In order to compose a successful work, Nicholas had to make himself the reader. Nicholas placed himself in the passenger seat and let his imagination go to work.As Nicholas was completing his book, he renewed his relationship with GOD and acquired a second job. Two jobs and attending college full-time, forced Nicholas to put his writing on hold. Once Nicholas completed his first degree in Marketing, he was able to focus on his unfinished work and complete his book in 2007. From there, Nicholas began to send out query letters for his book. After no success, Nicholas placed his book on the shelf and returned to school. In 2009, Nicholas received a prophecy on his writing gift and immediately began shopping his book around. "I instantly thought of my finished work and began sending out query letters. Within two months, I received a publishing deal." Now, Nicholas is fine-tuning himself for a long, successful career as an author. His first love.

Title: Exit: How to Leave Debt ForeverGenre – Financial/Self Help/Non-FictionPublisher – Pearle Pages PublishingRelease Date – February 21, 2012Format – Ebook & Print
Website – www.nicholasmaze.com Email – nmaze01@yahoo.com

Purchase Links -
www.nicholasmaze.com
http://www.amazon.com/EXIT-How-Leave-Debt-Forever/dp/1105363449/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/exit-nicholas-l-maze/1108335857
http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/exit/id496343962?mt=11
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/exit-how-to-leave-debt-forever/18829206?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/2

The Learning Curve

I've seen a lot of change in the world of authors and books in the last few years. I don't think anyone could say they haven't. I've witnessed a lot of denial, a lot of terrified scrambling, lost and confused drifting, head scratching, and a great deal of revolutionary waving of banners.

It's kind of fun, really.

In my bios, I often say that I have trouble picking sides. I don't do just one genre, I like to throw in more than a little romance to just about anything, and somehow I ended up with two publishing houses as well. (Primarily because it turned out they both rock, and I wouldn't trade either for anything--but that is a different story) It's not that I'm a fence rider exactly, but I do like a nice neutral perch to watch a good ruckus from...and OH what a ruckus it has been.

You're still not going to get me to pick a horse, but I have to weigh in a little bit on the side of revolution here, because I have a long held belief that change is good, fresher is better, and I just like to shout, "Evolve or Perish," from time to time.

Though I'm not about to give up my house...er...houses. I have dipped a toe or two into the self-publishing waters. I also have *gasp* continued to query NY on occasion. Don't judge me. The point is, I've noticed a quality among the revolutionaries that I have to admire. They are adapting, and they are doing a damn good job of it.

These new-fangled authors are willing to learn, and learn well, anything that they need to get the job done. They are studying. They are brushing up. They are evolving into fully-skilled book crafting machines that can handle every bit of producing their own product from art beginning to business end. They can do it all.

Like I said, I admire evolution. This new creature who takes charge of their story's destiny from start to finish, is learning to design covers, to do professional layout, to edit, to negotiate, to navigate the third parties, and to market their creation. They are getting better at it too. Sure, a few years ago you could spot a self-published book a mile away, but today, not so much. Not all the time. Not even most of the time.

Just wait a few more years. Just wait.

I've listened to the blogs, the blurbs and the boards where the revolution is taking place. These authors are educating themselves. They know a LOT about the business of publishing. They know a lot more than many, many traditional authors about contracts, layout, third parties and merchandising. They are not content to let someone else handle that for them, and they are not content being considered less than equal at getting the job done.

It kind of gives me goosebumps.

A long time ago...about the time I started this blog, I made a prediction about Agents. I'd met my first few, and I'd noted that they struck me as a bit like lean coyotes who see a long winter coming. I'm not going to point out the changes that have happened in that industry, but you don't have to wander far to find out. :)

I'm not a Seer. (though I write about a fair few) I wouldn't venture a prediction about the future of publishing right now, because I think it's still a chaotic mess. But, I have to say, when I see one group of people putting their nose to the ground and working their asses off to know every tiny detail that might help them succeed,  and I see another group going, No. No. It's not happening. It will never happen.

Well, If not a prediction, I might venture a teen weeny guess who ends up on top.

viva la!
~ Frances