Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 221

It Isn't About Money . . .

My work as a writer isn't about making money. If I make some, cool. The fact is I still give my book away even though it's for sale. It's not like I don't want to make money but I do want folks to read the book, whether it sells well or not.

My writing is about giving something to the world–Lord knows I've taken enough :-)

I live on a small military pension and I'm working to promote my recent novel amidst the arrival of over 2,000 new books per day.

All I have to invest in getting the word out is my time. So, I spend it lavishly…

My most recent time-recipient is Google Plus, the newest social networking platform.

One of the people I interact with there is Sarah Hendrix. She is, in her own words, a "Writer who specializes in letting the characters take the story in their direction, not hers." Now that  I can understand :-)

In her recent blog post, It isn't about money, she, in her own way, speaks my mind on the value of the investment of effort, care, and purpose, rather than money.

Do read Sarah's post. You'll be making a good investment of your time………

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Tagged: Google Plus, invest time, investment, Sarah Hendrix, social networking, time investment, Writers Resources

Digital Content & Creators' Rights

Do you know what DRM means? Do you know how it takes rights away from the creator of digital content?

Cory Doctorow, who's been mentioned here many times, does know the answers to those questions and brilliantly discuss them in this video:

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Tagged: author's rights, book rights, copyright, Cory Doctorow, digital rights, digital rights management, DRM, SIGGRAPH

Do Writers Always Know What They're Writing About?

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

Misunderstood, old human maxim: "Know thyself."

Can writers always know what they're writing about? What if they need to describe the death-thoughts of a character? Do they have to die to know?

Some writers will go to extraordinary lengths to get close to knowledge they have to convey in their stories–exotic research, dangerous journeys, ridiculous jobs.

Tracey Baptiste was able to approximate critical knowledge by merely permitting her children to be away for a summer visit. Her post, Writing from non-experience, is worth reading to know how resourceful writers can be when they need to know. Plus, when you know her novel, Angel's Grace, was named one of the 100 best books for reading and sharing by New York City Librarians, you'll appreciate the value of following her blog :-)

Did you notice how many times I used the word "know" in that last paragraph? Now, why would a creative writer purposefully over-use a word?

Since words are the substance of my trade, I often check an etymology dictionary while I'm crafting a piece. When I checked "know", I didn't at first know what to think. Usually, a word, let's say "write", will have other words as root meanings, like write's "cut, carve, scratch".

Know has only know as its root meaning…

Apparently, one is supposed to know what know means. Know what I mean?

Most writers have extremely volatile imaginations. Many have gotten away with writing about things they've never known, in the sense of having personally experienced, because they've known how to use a bit of research and a flock of intuitions to get oh, so close to seeming like they've been there.

Write what you know is just one of the many things writers professionally cheat at when they pursue their strange craft :-)

In case you wonder at my use of the word "cheat" in that last sentence, check its roots here…

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Tagged: Angel's Grace, etymology, Tracey Baptiste, word, words, write about what you know, writer, writing

Jargon & The Self-Publishing Writer

I chose FastPencil as the company to help me self-publish Notes from An Alien. With their services, I didn't need to know much jargon.

But, my way of self-publishing may not be your way of self-publishing and my way may have to change as the whole industry of publishing continues its transformation.

One of the most important areas in which to know the jargon of the specialists is the design and layout of your book.

If you come to this blog for posts about reading or what writers do when they write, I encourage you to use the handy search box in the upper right to find articles of interest :-)

For those who still want to know about design and layout, I recommend Joel Friedlander's blog, The Book Designer.

The specific article I'm going to point you toward today is, Don't Let me Find You Bleeding in the Gutter—Understanding Book Terminology. Pretty cool title, eh? :-)

Do you know what these terms mean? Bleed, Bulking, Colophon, Imposition, Signature

Even the ones that look like common words have very specific jargonistic meanings in the business of book design and layout. Joel defines those and 26 more in his article.

I avoided needing to know terms like this because I was publishing a simple trade paperback novel. You may be considering a very specialized or niche book. You may need to know if, as Joel says, "…you want to carry on a conversation with a book professional about the design and layout of your book.

"Use them wisely."

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Tagged: book design, FastPencil, Jargon, Joel Friedlander, Notes from An Alien, publish, self-publish, The Book Designer

The Crazies Are Everywhere !

There are crazies of all types in our world.

The nice ones, the funny ones, the dangerous ones, and the merely bothersome ones.

The London/UK riots are showing the kind of crazy that can arise when government remains distant from the populace.

Fundamentalist religions show the craziness of literal interpretation of metaphysical concepts.

The Internet and its spawn of gadgets are letting us work to find ways to deal with the, usually, more benign, sometimes lovable, and, all too often, bothersome crazies.

I read a post by C. C. Chapman that considers the special kind of crazy that connectedness brings–the kind of "connectedness" that drives some folks to disconnect from the social mores that smooth and facilitate relationship.

Are You One of The Crazies? offers a checklist that some of us could well-afford to consider.

I won't even try to replicate the panache in the original post but, if you spend lots of time on the 'Net, you might want to read his "Symptoms of having a case of The Crazies" :-)

Oh!! I nearly forgot to mention the special crazies that can be bred by Reading, Writing, and Publishing…

Perhaps I'll leave that to my dear readers to share in the comments :-)

In the meantime, check out this Hierarchy of Digital Distractions.

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Tagged: C. C. Chapman, crazies, crazy, gadgets, Internet, London riot, social media, trolls

Ebook Piracy ~ Not A Bad Thing??

I don't usually start a post with a challenge so I'll call this a plea instead :-)

I'm going to reference two other blog posts that seem to show ebook piracy isn't something to be overly concerned about. I'd love comments from folks who have data that might show the opposite…

The first post is from Tony at eBookAnoid: Ebook Piracy can actually increase sales of ebooks.

BTW, Tony seems quite the interesting person and, along with reading his article, I encourage you to check out his eBookAnoid and I Page :-)

Here's a snippet from his post: "…it is worth considering whether the rise of the pirate sites is actually all bad for the sales of ebooks…. And it seems that perhaps the picture is not as black and white as is generally thought. In a post on the CBC website, this is gone into at some depth, and it would appear that instead of decreasing legal sales of ebooks, the appearance of any particular ebook on a pirate website can  actually increase the legal sales of that particular ebook – in other words, the illegal copies seem to act as a sort of advertisement for the legal ones…"

He ends the post with a marvelous suggestion…

The second blog post is from Joe Konrath, an author who's become known for being a maverick at book promotion yet certainly tried the traditional route–12 years with nearly five hundred rejections for nine unpublished novels.

In his post, Steal This Ebook, after giving a rundown of the contents of the ebook he wants folks to steal and listing a number of ways to download it for free, he says: "…I encourage pirates to post this everywhere. Go ahead and proliferate the internet with JACK DANIELS STORIES. You can explain that I'm encouraging it, or you can just take it and not say a word. I'd appreciate it if you post in the comments section where you're uploaded it, which you can do anonymously. Or you don't have to. If anyone sees this ebook on file sharing sites, I also ask that you please post a link to it in the comments. The more places I can see this being shared, the better I can compare ebooks sold to ebooks shared."

He has a link at the bottom to show how many free downloads happen and, as of this post, there are only 2,477. The blog post was published on May 30th…

I couldn't find a follow-up post so, if you know of one, let me know.

OK, now. Comments about why we should  be worried about ebook piracy??

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Tagged: E-book, ebook, ebook piracy, Filesharing, J. A. Konrath, Joe Konrath, Piracy, publishing

Author Interview ~ Perri Rhoades

Perri Rhoades is also known as Perri Prinz in the virtual world, Second Life.

If interviewing an author in real life is fascinating, just imagine what interviewing an author in a virtual world is like :-)

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Perri, when did you start writing?

I started creating original story concepts in the mid 1970′s. I made my first attempts at writing them in 1979.

What was your motivation to start writing?

At the time I was reading a lot of allegorical animal novels by such authors as Felix Salten, Richard Adams and Richard Bach.  I was interested in seeing if I could do something in that genre.

So, what were your early writings about?

My earliest writings were about intelligent animal characters attempting to achieve spiritual transcendence and gain understanding of the life that exists beyond the physical dimensions.

Wow! Quite a premise :-)

Give us a hint about your "writing habits".

My usual mode of writing is to create a theater of the mind.  I set the scenes and select which characters will be in them.  I then turn the characters loose on stage and write down everything I see and hear. It's all very spontaneous and often takes the story in directions I had not previously imagined.  And it's also somewhat spiritual, as I'm not always sure if the characters are entirely drawn from aspects of myself, or if they may occasionally be open to the influence of one cosmic muse or another.

I like that, "one cosmic muse or another" :-)

When were you published?

I began self-publishing my serialized stories on the internet in 2003.

Why didn't you go the normal publishing route?

I felt the standard novel format was too restrictive for my unusual writing concepts.  And I've always been one to experiment with new media possibilities.  Internet serialization seemed the perfect vehicle for my works, as too many important scenes would have to be chopped to get the stories down to novel length.  I like that you can now write stories with no restrictions at all, other than the limits of your own imagination.

Tell us about your stories…

My stories have evolved into multi-genre affairs that use Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Gothic Horror, Mystery and Fairytale elements to illustrate points of social allegory.  Whatever is going on around me at the moment, be it in the news or in one internet sub-culture or another, gets woven into the over-all mixture.  And what seems on the surface to be a cartoon soap opera for animal characters ultimately becomes a laboratory for analyzing the human condition.

Amazing and quite inspiring, Perri.

Would you tell us about some of your plots?

The serial I'm currently working on concerns a world of half-human animals who evolved as a result of genetic warfare.   They look back on the elder race of pure humans with a mixture of admiration and fear, attempting to emulate them in some ways, and totally reversing their society in other ways to avoid what they regard as fatal human folly.

One concept they decided to reverse was having males be the dominant gender, as it was thought that it was the aggressive nature of males with power that ultimately doomed the elder race.  Females are given all the power in this society, while males are for the most part oppressed.

This society also has an interesting take on religion.  It looks back on the history of some of the things worshiped by the elder race as having been ridiculous.  Thus they determined that common sense was not supposed to be a factor in religion, and they ended up building religions around things like black & white era TV shows, conceptual rock bands, gangster movies and various fantasy novels, such as The Wizard Of Oz.

The characters that live amidst all this craziness help us explore the details and consequences of these strange ideologies, as well as the politics and corruption that exists in the various towns that are the centers of as many as 50 theocratic governments.

Whew!! Complex-sounding but fascinating, Perri !!

Thanks, so much, for taking the time to let us have a peek at your writing life :-)

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You can visit Perri's shop on Book Island in Second Life, check out her Gallery, and drop by her Web Site :-)

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Tagged: author interview, Felix Salten, Perri Prinz, Perri Rhoades, Richard Bach, science fiction, Second Life, virtual world

Can A Rant Be Beautiful?

The beginning of a comment I left on a blog post: "I feel your angst because I've felt that angst; and, even though I finally have answers, my angst has merely turned into bleeding grief for our Human Family." The post, Wasteful, is a beautiful rant about modern incompetence and poverty. It reminded me of my novel, Notes from An Alien, which was written out of that bleeding grief and might help a few folks find ways of coping with the rampant insanity choking our world.

Cheryl Ives wrote the post and, after what I consider a beautiful rant about how modern incompetence is dangerously expensive, she lays out these four points:

1) Poverty is too expensive. It's dragging us down and must not be permitted to grow or remain at the same rate

2) Poverty is so expensive because we grossly mismanage our resources

3) In the long run, it's cheaper to do the right thing

4) Society is currently too immature to focus on the long run with any sustained momentum

While all four points are beautiful to me, I want to focus on what Cheryl says Society is too immature to focus on.

The Long Run…

Notes from An Alien attempts to instill a sense of the Long Run by following eight generations of a family involved in helping their Worlds rise from war, greed, and poverty to enduring peace.

The Long Run on Earth has involved Humanity in the gargantuan effort of unifying itself at successive levels of complexity–family, tribe, city state, nation, and, now, the whole globe.

Notes from An Alien shows a civilization from another star system learning from their Long Run. Humanity is on the verge of a consummate transformation that will bring its Long Run into focus and, finally, bring Peace and Tranquility to our Global Family.

Cheryl also says: "At the core is my heartfelt belief that humans could … have the capacity to ensure that every life on the planet has shelter, food, water, clean air, some measure of security, and the ability to implement hygiene. It's not an adequate goal but still pie-in-the-sky enough to be going on with.

"That we haven't already achieved this provides simply another example of how badly things are done."

So, the ultimate beauty of this rant is that Cheryl is one of the people doing something to help humanity. In case you're new to this blog, I also featured her in the post, An "Open Source" Novel ??, that talks about a very unifying literary project :-)

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Tagged: alien, Cheryl Ives, global peace, humanity, Long run and short run, Notes from An Alien, peace, Poverty

This Page Intentionally Blank

This Page Intentionally Blank is the name of a blog that has a recent post called, Making Characters Real. I saw the title and immediately thought of two posts I'd written: Very Special Characters & Very Special Characters ~ Revisited. I touched on minor, significant, major, very special, and meta characters. But, all characters need a rationale for their being–some underlying psychology that helps the author create them and justifies their actions in the story.

So, up steps Bill Jones, with his blog post on making characters real…

Ever feel surprised by something that immediately reminds you of a pleasurable time in your life? Kind of like being swept up and back at the same time.

Bill did that for me by bringing up a personality test I'd studied and used extensively back in the 90s–the Myers-Briggs Type Indicators. That's the "official page" but you can find a use-it-right-now version by checking out Bill's blog post.

He sketches-out the way he uses the personality types in the Myers-Briggs system to give substance to his characters as well as find fascinating personality combinations for character interactions.

Bill gives a hint of the usefulness of the personality types by showing his own profile:

"ENTJs are natural born leaders. They live in a world of possibilities where they see all sorts of challenges to be surmounted, and they want to be the ones responsible for surmounting them. They have a drive for leadership, which is well-served by their quickness to grasp complexities, their ability to absorb a large amount of impersonal information, and their quick and decisive judgments. They are 'take charge' people."

I hadn't answered the profile questions in quite awhile (yes, your profile can change over time) so I took the test again. Here's my profile:

"To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of 'definiteness', of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise — and INTJs can have several — they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't  know."

So, I hadn't changed from the last time I took the test but then I'm 65 and rather settled in my ways :-)

Do check out Bill's post and, if you take the personality test (it's relative short), it would be great if you came back and let me know how well it captured your basic nature.

I'd also be intensely interested if you shared how you think this method of sketching out personality could be used in character creation!

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Tagged: Bill Jones, Carl Jung, character creation, character types, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Personality test, Personality type, psychology

Bad Reviews Are Good ?

"Any press is good press", is an old promotional maxim that can generate some weird stunts in the media.

Some authors have capitalized on bad press, even manufacturing it; most cringe at the thought.

I found two authors who like bad reviews. Not just tolerate but like them :-)

My book's not been around long enough to draw negative reviews though I'm sure they'll come.

I have had beta readers who couldn't "get into" the book and a number of nitpicky grammarians but many authors I respect have praised the book.

So…

How does an author learn to like bad reviews?

Mike Mullin, author of Ashfall, gives a good account of his first one-star review in, Why Bad Reviews Rock. My take-away was, "Even a bad review means someone cared about the book enough to talk about it in public."

Mike then goes on to describe some cogent reasons for sharing and linking to those reviews.

There's also a great comment stream after the post :-)

Mike also points his readers to Jay Lake's post, [publishing] Reviews.

After Jay links to a bad review and shows his basic optimistic attitude, he says: "…even when a reviewer just says, "Nope, not for me, didn't like it at all", that's ok with me. Because I believe right down to the bedrock of my writer's soul that the story belongs to the reader. It doesn't matter what I intended, or thought I executed on the page, or what any other readers thought. If a reviewer (or any reader) doesn't like the book (or story), that's their experience of it, and they cannot be wrong. It's their experience."

"It's their experience.", reminded me about a post I wrote back in January, Rewriting While You Read ~ We All Do It….

Have you or a writer friend gotten "bad" reviews?

Do you think sharing them is helpful?

Have you learned a few writing "lessons" from bad reviews??

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Tagged: author, bad review, book promotion, book review, Jay Lake, Mike Mullin, review, Reviews and Criticism