Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 211

Is How To Publish Really Hard To Decide?

Considering that current common categories of publishing include traditional, vanity, subsidy, POD, self-, and indie, I can see that some writers are feeling nearly nauseous trying to decide which path to take.

If you do a search for ways to publish, you'll find a wealth of confusing ideas and opinions.

My considered opinion, after a couple years of research is that FastPencil plus a willingness to learn how to promote your books is the best path.

Obviously, others will disagree…

My answer to the title of this post is an unequivocal, "Yes.".

Still, I hope writers nearing the adventure of being published can feel that what they've written is worth some hard work.

This blog is a year old and I've written many articles about publishing.

The best way to find them is to use the search box at the upper right in the right side-panel—put in the terms you're interested in and see what comes up…

I'm sorry if the title of this post misled you into thinking I was going to give you a cut-and-dried, simple, formulaic method for deciding which path to take in the publishing arena—things are changing, new methods are proliferating, the economy is tossing methods and people and companies every whichway…

One thing that might help a bit while you're researching and deciding how to publish is to consider that a book isn't the only format available.

A man I've referenced many times here, Joel Friedlander, wrote a post about a year ago that still has value for the enterprising writer: 17 Ways for Writers to Publish Their Content.

If you're a writer who's cringing under the onslaught of decisions determining how you'll publish, his list could open new paths that please :-)

Check out that link and read what Joel says about these ways of publishing: Printed book, Ebook, App(lication), Audiobook, Serialization, Blog, Articles, Teleseminar, Webinar, E-course, Workshops, Free reports, Infographics, Interviews, Animation, Web video, and Speaking engagements.

And, it would be really cool if my giving you even more to consider has ended up showing you the answer to a dilemma.

Let me know in the comments…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Tagged: E-book, FastPencil, Joel Friedlander, publish, publishing, self-publish, Writers Resources

Should Writers Fear Editors?

Some writers rely on editors to raise the value of their work; some seem to cast the editor as the nemesis to free expression.

I'm heading into the writing of two new books with much anticipatory joy because I'll have two editors for each book…

Alan Rinzler is a seasoned consulting editor; and, you can even view a list of some of the authors Mr. Rinzler has worked with.

Alan, in his article, Fear of Editors, delves into the Realities of the Author/Editor relationship by clearing up the following, common Perceptions:

"I'll lose control of my own creation."

"I'll be intimidated, and won't be able to resist making changes that I think are wrong.  I worry that the book will lose my voice."

"I can't tell if an editor is any good or not since there's no rating system, license, or industry standard."

"Agents won't take on my book if I've worked with a private editor."

"If I do get an agent or publisher, I won't be able to produce another book as good as the first one without help."

"An editor will produce a new manuscript and I won't be able to restore the original if that's what I decide to do."

"I'm already in a writer's critique group and don't need any other help."

"I won't be able to have a close working relationship with an editor since I haven't found one who lives nearby."

"Developmental editing is expensive. Is it really worth the investment?"

Then, after his rectifications of those misperceptions, he gives a link to another article, Choosing a freelance editor: What you need to know.

Have you worked with a developmental editor?

Do you have author friends who have?

Did you/they have a good, bad, or mixed experience?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Tagged: Alan Rinzler, Developmental Editor, Editing A Manuscript, Freelance Editor, Literary editor, writer, writing, Writing and Editing

Getting Published Is Easy ~ Getting Readers Is Hard Work

My New Year's Resolution will be Steady As She Goes…

I have a new novel published and two companion books in the works…

And, I have a somewhat unique way to find Readers…

Past posts in this blog about Traditional Publishing and Self-Publishing can, hopefully, help a few writers make a few decisions about which path they want to trudge…

I published my novel, Notes from An Alien, for a total of US$200.

If you need to pay an editor (mine did it just to be acknowledged in the book) and a cover designer (NASA provided me with an image, gratis), you could use something like Kickstarter to generate a few thousand dollars.

For some insight into using Kickstarter, check out, The Challenges of Using Kickstarter to Fund a New Novel.

So, you get published. Where are your readers?

Even traditionally published books can languish in the arena of readership and many a traditionally published author has had to do their own work to build an audience.

And, while traditionally published authors can wait years for a finished book to hit the shelves, it may only be on those shelves for a few months.

Digital shelves bring up the concept of the Long Tail—books selling "forever"—"…the cultural benefit of all of this is much more diversity, reversing the blanding effects of a century of distribution scarcity and ending the tyranny of the hit."

Still, the author with print or ebooks on a digital shelf needs readers…

That Long Tail article addresses some of this but an author will still have to build an Audience or Platform to get the "recommendation tools" of the digital shelves working for them.

Seth Godin in the article, What I Learned In My Year Of Revolutionizing Publishing, says something profound about what he calls Permission Marketing—having a "tribe" of readers who have given you permission to let them know what you've done (this is the modern way to "sell"):

"Permission is still the most important and valuable asset of the web (and of publishing). The core group of 50,000 subscribers to the Domino blog made all the difference in getting the word out and turning each of our books into a bestseller. It still amazes me how few online merchants and traditional publishers (and even authors) have done the hard work necessary to create this asset. If you're an author in search of success and you don't pursue this with single-minded passion, you're making a serious error. (See #2 on my advice for authors post from five years ago, or the last part of my other advice for authors post from six years ago.)"

Is all this talk about the hard work of finding readers going to make you give up?

If you have a book, in your head or written out, does its Life justify lots of hard work?

Does it seem unfair to you that sensitive, creative people need to roll up their sleeves and build a sustainable author platform?

What do you think is the most important attribute authors need to develop to be successful?

What is "success"?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Tagged: Advice for Authors, author platform, Kickstarter, Long Tail, Readers, self-publishing, Seth Godin, Writing Resources

Writing Fiction To Make A Difference In The World

I feel we need at least two kinds of fiction—Escape Fiction and Engage Fiction.

Escape takes us out of ourselves so we can relax; Engage fills us up so we can take action.

In my previous post, Do Creative Writers Have Social "Responsibilities"?, I said:

"'I'm not trying to advocate some sort of sterile, moralistic fiction. We still need a damn good read and we don't need a book telling us how to live our lives. Still… Showing the reader that even the worst conditions can hold some promise for improvement, even if the characters fail miserably to attain that promise, is, to me, a job that fiction writers should always be working to master.'

"Really, are people who have the knack of creativity here only to copy reality?

"What are the 'moral' or 'ethical' opportunities in a creative work?

"What is the creative person's 'responsibility' to society?"

My book, Notes from An Alien, attempts to relate actionable ideas about working toward Global Peace in the context of a story best called a Documentary Novel (my thanks to Jane Watson for telling me the book's proper genre:-).

So, a work of fiction has the power to induce action in our world; hopefully, to improve it.

Can action done in our world to improve it have the power to inspire creative writers to produce socially-responsive fiction?

Let's try an experiment…

Natalie Warne is a young woman who, "[w]hen she was 17,… learned about the Invisible Children Project—a campaign to rescue Ugandan children from Joseph Kony's child armies. As an intern for Invisible Children, she led a nation-wide campaign for the project.  She successfully got the campaign featured on the Oprah Winfrey show, a victory that dramatically raised the profile of the movement."

That description alone could inspire a few writers to create a story.

Try this video of Natalie, charged with youthful determination, glowing with the promise of dedicated service to humanity. After you watch it, if you were infused with inspiration that could power a fictional piece, please share your feelings in the comments :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Tagged: creative writing, fiction, Invisible Children, Joseph Kony, Natalie Warne, social responsibility, Socially Responsible Fiction, Writers Resources

What Do You Know? ~ How Do You Know It?

Reading and writing both need knowledge to function and both give knowledge if done right.

Publishing should contain knowledge from both readers and writers.

From the previous post, Do Writers Always Know What They're Writing About?:

"Over-used, old writing maxim: 'Write what you know.'

"Misunderstood, old human maxim: 'Know thyself.'"

And, in the post, The Knowledge A Writer Needs . . ., I postulated four broad areas of necessary knowledge: Reality, World, Social, and Self.

The question today is, When Do We Begin Learning?

Kindergarten?

One year old?

After our first breath?

"Annie Murphy Paul is a magazine journalist and book author who writes about the biological and social sciences."

One of her books has a fascinatingly long title: The Cult of Personality: How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves.

She's also wrote, Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives.

From that last title, it becomes apparent her position is that we all begin gathering knowledge in the womb…

Does this knowledge change the maxim, Know Thyself, or the "rule" that a writer, Write What They Know?

Do, please, enjoy watching this video of Annie as she explores learning before birth and do, please, leave a comment :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Tagged: Annie Murphy Paul, Cult of Personality, Know thyself, knowledge, learning, Origins, Write What You Know, Writer Resources

Set A Book Free ~ You Just Might Make a Friend :-)

Have you ever left a book sitting somewhere, gone back to look for it, and found it missing in action?

Did you wonder who took it? Whether they enjoyed it?

Were you mad that they'd taken your book?

What if you could leave books in the wild on purpose–set them free to find new friends?

Enter BookCrossing, where you Label, Share, and Follow the book…

I recently joined the free service and want to quote a bit of my welcome message:

"Grab a book of yours that you're willing to share with others. It can be one you've loved, or one you never really want to read again. Got a second copy of the same book for your birthday? BookCross it! Does a favorite aunt keep sending you books that she likes but you don't? BookCross them! Just Label, Share & Follow!"

But, there are two fascinating sides to this proposition—you can set a book free and follow its travels and you may just find a book another person has set free :-)

Plus, there's a way to safely communicate with those who've found your book and those whose books you've found.

BookCrossing's FAQ page is it's own kind of fascination, like this entry:

Q: "What happens to my books when I leave them somewhere? How can I be sure that they will be captured and journaled?"

A: "Well, the truth is that we never know what happens to a wild book — that's its karma. Sometimes, a person who loves to read will find a book that speaks to them — that's serendipity.

Sometimes, people take them and never make journal entries — that's frustrating!!

"BookCrossing is about letting go and letting your book find its own way in the world. All you can do is to make sure that you have prepared it for its adventure — visible BCID [registration number], secure labels, something to catch the public's attention, and a careful choice of location.

"The bottom line is that a lot of books are captured and never journaled. But hope springs eternal. Some of them take years to write home."

Or,

Q: "What is the difference between a release note and a journal entry? "

A: "A release note is used to indicate that you have parted with a book one way or another, and will include the location of the release. (Release notes come in two flavors, wild and controlled…

"A journal entry is a way to add information or comments to a book that you registered, or one that you found in the wild or received from another BookCrosser. You can use it to describe the book's condition, to explain where you got it, or to post your thoughts about it – that's entirely up to you."

Now, to prepare some of my books and set them free :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Tagged: Book Friends, BookCrossing, Finding Lost Books, Hiding Books, Lost Books, Making Friends, Share A Book, Sharing Books

Are Traditional Publishers Still "Relevant"?

Since I'm a Reader, Writer, and Self-Publisher, I'm always looking for the "other side" in stories circulating in the tornadic flux of the Book World.

Even situations with clear black/white positions have a bit of gray… Perhaps some silver or a touch of chartreuse, too :-)

Two weeks ago, I wrote the post, When You're Too Afraid of The Future To Embrace It . . ., which featured a post from Joe Konrath with a conversation he'd had with Barry Eisler about a document from the publishing conglomerate Hachette – one of the so-called "Big Six" publishers.

Authors Konrath and Eisler, both well-experienced in traditional and self-publishing, seemed to "demolish" the opinions expressed by the Hachette executive.

Yet, Robert McCrum, author and former editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, has written a post defending Hachette's position.

In his article, A New Map for The Books World, Robert says, among other things:

"…the [Hachette] document will drive you either into paroxysms of rage, or helpless laughter. Me, I'm somewhere in the middle. The Hachette memorandum is neither sinister nor ludicrous."

"The Hachette model used to be fully integrated with the literary marketplace. Not any more."

"Some time between 1990 and 2005….The many book tribes (writers, agents, editors, booksellers) on the lonely route from the moment of putting black on white to the point of sale found that the map they'd relied on for generations no longer described the environment they inhabited."

"The truth is, no one knows what the future holds."

"One thing is certain, however: the global audience for the printed word is now exponentially greater than ever before. Whatever the rows breaking out among the book tribes, this is probably a golden age of reading."

I'd certainly be interested in any comments on this issue of the "relevance" of traditional publishers.

Especially welcome would be comments from folks who've read both the Konrath/Eisler and McCrum articles…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Tagged: Barry Eisler, Big Six, Future of Publishing, Hachette, Joe Konrath, publishing, Robert McCrum, writer

Libraries Weathering The Storm In Publishing

Some of you haven't been to a library in years. Some still utilize them regularly.

One thing is for sure, some libraries may close from the friction of dragging their feet.

Others are stepping out into new forms of service.

In the previous post, Been To Your Local Library Lately?, I linked to a study that said, "…regular public library users don't just borrow books. They are also active books buyers who make many of their purchasing decisions based on the authors or books they first discover in the library."

In another one called, Should We All Self-Publish A Book?, I reference stories about a few libraries getting into the publishing business.

One of those, the Sacramento Public Library in California, U.S.A, is really getting their act together.

If you visit their site, you'll see that they:

Help people Write—"Whether you are a beginning writer or a seasoned professional, we have a class for you."

Help People Publish—"We can print whatever book you can write."

Help People Read—"The Espresso Book Machine: print from a database of over three million titles."

Talk about a Full-Service Library :-)

What's you local library like??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Tagged: Espresso Book Machine, Libraries, library, Public library, publishing, reading, Sacramento Public Library, writing

When A Writer Becomes "A WRITER" . . .

One of the blogs I've just begun reading posed this question: "Do you think experiencing publication could make you uncomfortable?"

But, hey… Don't all writers long for the day their book is published?

Maybe they do long for that day but some have problems handling it when it arrives.

Debbie Maxwell Allen, from Writing While The Rice Boils, published a post about Tahereh Mafi who recently had publishing success with her YA novel, Shatter Me.

Debbie's post, How Will Publication Change You?, says that Tahereh's experience of being published has made her:

"Uncomfortable with the recognition and adulation that comes from publication.

"Unsure what to say when people exclaim over her accomplishment.

"And uneasy that some writers might feel she's on another level from them just because she garnered a book contract."

Debbie urges her readers and I'm now urging mine to read Tahereh's post, On Being A Real Writer.

After much humor, that covers much suffering through the aftermath of the publication of her first book, she says:

"i tell people i write books and they look at me like i've said something remotely amusing, like i've said something in another language that, roughly translated, actually means "i couldn't get a real job." it's only when they realize that i have an actual book in an actual bookstore that they suddenly look at me like "oh, god, i totally thought for a second that you were one of those loser 'writers' who hasn't actually published anything, lolol, my bad, my bad, you're cool, carry on." and oh, it's so gross, guys. i hate it so much. i hate the implication that you can't be a real artist without having sold something. i hate that we don't appreciate struggling artists until they've "made it," i hate that writers aren't appreciated until they're "published," i hate that musicians are pitied until they "get that record deal." because there's no such thing as a stamp-of-approval. and i hope you guys know that."

If you're a writer, you should read the full post.

If you know a writer, you should tell them to read the full post.

Oh!  Don't forget to read all the Comments…

Hope you'll return here and let us know what you learned :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Tagged: author, Debbie Maxwell Allen, publish, publishing, Real Writer, Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi, writer

Education ~ Reading, Writing, and Publishing…

The three Rs, Readin', Ritin' and 'Rithmetic, have been attacked as truly basic subjects for a proper education.

While all three demand a modicum of intelligent effort to learn, there are concerns about young students' lack of critical thinking.

Reading needs an ability to evaluate what's read.

Writing needs introspective analysis.

Math needs humane problems to solve.

Since I'm merely a man who's loved to study but couldn't deal with school, I'll leave deeper considerations of proper educations to others…

Since I'm a writer who hopes more readers will write, more writers will educate, and more publishers will concern themselves with more than their bottom-line, I found an article from DMLcentral of abiding interest.

DMLcentral is devoted to, "…analyzing and interpreting the impact of the Internet and digital media on education, civic engagement, and youth."

The article is, Teaching Publishing as a 21st Century Literacy.

From the article:

"…here are three short ideas for how teachers can think about the overlapping literacies of writing and publishing.

Published writing is written for an audience.

Published writing depends on writing technologies.

Published writing helps students learn identity creation.

Before you follow the link to the article to read what they say about those three ideas, I'll challenge you to sit and ponder; see what you come up with on your own, jot down a couple notes for each idea.

Then, go read the article and compare what those educators say with your own ideas—simple little exercise; kinda like school :-)

But I want to be more like some of my favorite teachers, the ones who lead you toward knowledge…

Here's another excerpt from the article to help orient your pondering on those three ideas:

"One of the goals of education—digital or otherwise—is to prepare students for thinking and doing outside the classroom. And while it is true that the goal of teaching writing has always been to prepare students for writing beyond the walls of the schoolhouse, this is even more the case now that digital publishing has become so widely available in our society. In other words, as much as possible, the task of teaching writing is also teaching writing for public consumption, and teaching writing for public consumption in the network society means teaching writing and publishing as being inseparable."

Place your papers on my desk as you leave the classroom and enjoy your holiday vacation!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)

For Private Comments, Email: amzolt {at} gmail {dot} com

Tagged: DMLcentral, Education, Howard Rheingold, publishing, reading, University of California, Writer Resources, writing