Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 202

Writing on the Ether

 

Inspiration Nation

If they'd asked me, I'd have nixed both the spelling "Syfy" and 95 percent of that TV channel's programming.

But all I need is their slogan for a few minutes.

"Imagine greater."

I'm over this inspiration jag in the writing community. Inspiration, or the pursuit of it, becomes our little drug so easily. Our Google Readers are RSSonant with the sound of Lena Horne: You have to belieeeeeeve in yourself. You know the posts. "Six Ways to Drag Yourself Across the Carpet to Your Computer One More Time." And "Don't Let Fear Keep You From Writing that Book Nobody Wants To Read."

Motivational specialists want you in a fellowship circle to stare down self-doubt and weak will together. In Protestant church groups, you cross your arms and link hands with your colleagues to pray. But the thing about a fellowship circle is that you can't write in that position. And the thing about inspiration is that if you have to look for it, then you're not the writer you want to belieeeeeeve you are.

If you're right for writing, you'll know without bloggers. You'll simply get busy.

So put me down as expirational on these aspirational inspirationals. Good work is its own inspiration. Imagine greater, all by yourself.

 

#bbpBox_129255291668803584 a { text-decoration:none; color:#0084B4; }#bbpBox_129255291668803584 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }"A nation of sheep soon begets a government of wolves." — Edward Murrow[image error]about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Reply Retweet Favorite Gordon Warnock

 

In the eye of the book-holder

Our quest to extract meaning from information has taken us more and more towards the realm of visual storytelling—we've used data visualization to reveal hidden patterns about the world, employed animation in engaging kids with important issues, and let infographics distill human emotion.

Maria Popova gets at Visual Storytelling: New Language for the Information Age just as we rev up toward the inaugural StoryWorld Conference Expo with some smart ruminations nearby:

A printed page is a 2D rectangle of fixed dimensions. On the infinite canvas the possibilities vary widely, deeply, and as Will Ferrell's character in Old School might say: in ways we've never even heard of. Some possible shapes here: a 3D twhirlable cube with content on each side, or pyramid-shaped ebooks.

That's Peter Meyers musing on the theoretical meanings of The Infinite Canvas: Really Big eBooks & What We Might Put in 'Em –"an elastic space that does things no print surface could do, no matter how big it is."

And as for that thing formerly known as journalism–Pew Research Center' has put some together survey results on The Tablet Revolution and What it Means for the Future of News – complete, of course, with infographic so Ms. Popova doesn't come beat them up about not being visual enough.

Eleven percent of adults now own a tablet computer. About half get news on it every day, and three in ten spend more time consuming news than they did before. But contrary to what some in the news industry hoped, a majority say they are not willing to pay for news content on the devices.

 

#bbpBox_127446384717737984 a { text-decoration:none; color:#0084B4; }#bbpBox_127446384717737984 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Cool! One of our users did a thorough product demonstration on YouTube. http://t.co/UaUeX0b2[image error]October 21, 2011 2:09 pm via web Reply Retweet Favorite Booktrack

 

Everybody really is a critic

The interests of books-as-artifacts and books-as-arguments are, in general, misaligned. Books are great, definitely, at capturing ideas. Books are great at claiming cultural ownership of ideas. Books are great at generating speaking gigs based on ideas. Books are great at getting authors paid for ideas. But books are much, much less great at actually propagating ideas.

Megan Garber sees the "ridiculous and refreshing" in the clash between Evgeny Morozov and Jeff Jarvis over Jarvis' book Public Parts and Morozov's New Republic critique of it. She writes In a networked world, can a book go viral?, "Here is a work of book-bound nonfiction—chock full of claims to be assessed and arguments to be discussed—that is actually being assessed and discussed. In a public forum! Discourse, and everything!"

Garber does such a good job that Jarvis (whom Morozov calls "the Internet's loudest guru")  becomes almost contrite:

As Garber notes, I say in Public Parts that I should try to make my next project — if I choose to undertake one — different…Start with Kevin Kelly's 2006 essay in The New York Times Magazine arguing that authors would come to support themselves with performance — and John Updike's appalled reaction to this "pretty grisly scenario." I'm not suggesting that authors become merely actors after their books are done. I'm suggesting, as Garber does, that talks, events, symposia, blogs, hangouts…should come before the book.

 

#bbpBox_128897838183747584 a { text-decoration:none; color:#009999; }#bbpBox_128897838183747584 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }@October 25, 2011 2:16 pm via web Reply Retweet Favorite Kosie Eloff

 

Speaking of Kevin Kelly (and nine of his friends at a time)

Last year to promote the launch of my book What Technology Wants, I offered to appear at your place of work in the month of January and give a one hour talk if your group would purchase 25 copies of the book…Now, to promote and discuss the new paperback publication..I will be hosting a series of small, 1.5-hour Google Hangouts with any group that purchases 9 paperback copies of my book.

Gang up with eight other people and author Kevin Kelly will have you in a Hangout With the Technium. Details are here. Not that Kelly has anything to worry about. I like the limb he puts himself on when he offers something like this. May all writers find such confidence in their (shh) platforms.

 

#bbpBox_129271197153239041 a { text-decoration:none; color:#0084B4; }#bbpBox_129271197153239041 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Don't look now, but AWS might be a billion-dollar biz for Amazon http://t.co/RTLVhg46 via @about 18 hours ago via Zite Personalized Magazine Reply Retweet Favorite Joe Wikert

 

Reverse ferret! Our Amazon-whipped publishers need help

Three major publishers have announced in the US that they would allow their authors to access book sales data directly online…Some have suggested that the motive behind the initiative is to combat Amazon, which gives authors access to data on their titles from Nielsen BookScan and also allows them to check their sales ranking compared to other books on Amazon…The big question is whether this new wave of Author Care is to be consistently applied across all publishers.

Martyn Daniels nails the latest head-hanger for major publishers in A New Era of Author Care? Coming to it all as a journo, I'm baffled to confirm with industry people that one  reason media appear to embarrass publishers so easily is that the publishers have no press-agent presence to speak of. No creative forces of their own generating The Book-Mongers' View. All that dignified silence. Was it simply indefensible to withhold sales data from authors in the past? Or is there a role here for some good flacks to explain why the suits are doing so much blinking in the blazing sunlight of Amazon?

#bbpBox_127087242731720705 a { text-decoration:none; color:#FF3300; }#bbpBox_127087242731720705 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }"Traditional publishers are badly losing the PR battle over how they are viewed in the digital age." Simon Lipskar http://t.co/FdHn0C9p #dbw[image error]October 20, 2011 2:22 pm via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite Guy L. Gonzalez


But then, there's the $AMZN earnings report

Though representing only a small percentage of Amazon revenue, much of the hoopla surrounding the report centered on the Fire, which ships to consumers on November 15th and retails at $199. The new touch-screen, color tablet may generate little-to-no operating income for Amazon, but is likely to help it reinforce its stranglehold on the company's e-book sales market share, according to analysts and industry observers.

Jeremy Greenfield, newly arrived editorial director at Digital Book World, looks at Amazon's 3Q report of  "a net income of $63 million on revenues of $10.88 billion." In Kindle Fire Burns Amazon Earnings, to Fuel E-Book Sales, he gets it into context for bookly folks who view Amazonia primarily as a disruptor of publishing. A comment on this post is worth noting, too. Thad McIlroy has done a lot of thinking about how much Amazon may lose initially on each Kindle Fire. In his comment on the Greenfield piece, McIlroy neatly posits:

Amazon is a content company that sells hardware and Apple is a hardware company that sells content.

#bbpBox_127028709344559104 a { text-decoration:none; color:#0084B4; }#bbpBox_127028709344559104 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }I agree that Amzn isn't David, but that doesn't let pubs off the hook RT @October 20, 2011 10:29 am via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite Ania Wieckowski

 

What we don't see

Agency model ebooks are masking even greater declines in Amazon's profitability than are readily apparent. Agency ebook commissions go straight to the company's gross margin; they are recorded as all income.

Michael Cader at Publishers Marketplace (you need a subscription for this one) has a canny bit of analysis, Accounting House of Horrors? What Agency Does to Amazon's Reports. If you're willing to dally for a few minutes in the details, you'll get a look at how Cader figures that "agency pricing" of ebooks—prices set by publishers, not by Amazon—"suppresses the reportable growth in Amazon's ebook sales, though the company is valued by investors as a growth engine."

#bbpBox_129240444822495232 a { text-decoration:none; color:#706238; }#bbpBox_129240444822495232 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }I'm going with "no" , Bob. RT @about 20 hours ago via TweetDeck Reply Retweet Favorite Don Linn
Guy comes by with the truth

The dust of disruption continues to choke us, of course. You might look in on The Times' Room for Debate commentary on the topic Will Amazon Kill Off Publishers? to find Michael Wolf cinching it:

What Amazon is doing is applying a technology industry mind-set to a very old business with lots of legacy infrastructure. Given how slowly publishers are changing their economic arrangements with writers, it is quite frankly like watching a hot knife cut through butter.

And how well Wolf sets up our Loudpoet, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez–whose interview with my host here, Jane Friedman, is just ahead, watch for it. "What matters," writes Wolf, "is who owns the relationship with the reader." And Gonzalez is all over it like a suit from Barney's:

Truth: Consumers control the future of media, and right now, Amazon, Google and Apple have their fingers on our collective pulse…But they are neither infallible, nor immune to being "disrupted," themselves.…there's arguably a lot more opportunity than DOOM! on the horizon for most publishers, whether they be fledgling upstarts or savvy established players..My optimistic hope is that, unlike the music industry, we're going to see the publishing industry actually grow..If you work in the publishing industry and are expecting any less, it begs the question: Why not go work somewhere else?

Did I mention imagining greater?

#bbpBox_129253559412850690 a { text-decoration:none; color:#2727D0; }#bbpBox_129253559412850690 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Ours is to question why.[image error]about 19 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone Reply Retweet Favorite Jan Chipchase
How we talk to each other. And how we listen.

I tweet a lot of Rachelle Gardner's advice for writers because she's an agent who works hard to straighten out misconceptions. And she's just highlighted a point on which our Givers of Guidance may want to take some care.

Here's she is on the 18th of this month in a post called Author Marketing and Platform: It's All About the Numbers. Then here she is on the 25th  in Novelists: Stop Trying to Brand Yourself. On the 18th, neither "fiction" nor "nonfiction" is invoked. "What publishers want to see is your platform expressed in numbers." By the 25th,  comments apparently have made Gardner realize that the National Kitchen Table of authors-in-waiting needs a bright line.

Carol (a commenter) and other novelists: I advise you to STOP thinking about branding. If you're blogging and using social networking to try and build a platform — no matter where you are in your writing career, you should instead: Focus on identifying your target audience.

Here's Chuck Sambuchino, getting into Writer Unboxed on The Difference Between Your "Current Platform" and "Future Platform" to say, "Let's be clear." So, twist my arm already:

Let's be clear: If you're a fiction writer, you want a platform. If you're a nonfiction writer, you need a platform.

And within days of these posts, here's Christina Katz, author and platform-trainer to the entire population of Oregon, in Writing, Not Branding, Is a Platform Builder's First Move.

Pressure to "create your brand" before you begin writing and publishing your work is going to get in the way. It's going to make your writing self-conscious. It's going to make you think that you are "somebody" when nobody has read any of your stuff…because as crazy as this may sound most "writers" get discovered via their writing.

I like Katz's post. I'd like it even better if it had touched on how nonfiction and fiction people need to handle her good advice about craft. Obviously, everybody needs to write well, and getting that down is Job One, Mr. Perot. But there's also a competing understanding out there that it takes years, not months, to raise a viable platform. And I suspect that more than one fiction writer has gotten into the carpentry class for nonfiction and reached for the hammer and nails prematurely.

Leave it to an author to see this. Kristen Lamb pot-boils The Dark Side of Metrics. She ties it all back to Gardner's original lesson on numbers as an expression of platforming when she parses it for both sides of the Formica tabletop:

If you are a non-fiction author, work to get that number up there, but again, just check in periodically. You just need a ballpark range, and, if you want to publish NF and your Klout score is the same as your mother who can't work the Internet…then get to work. Fiction authors? Just look to make sure you are engaging and influencing…If an agent expects you to have the same Klout as Justin Bieber, then maybe look for another agent.

 

#bbpBox_128527896301146112 a { text-decoration:none; color:#990000; }#bbpBox_128527896301146112 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }I love my landline[image error]October 24, 2011 1:46 pm via Twitter for Mac Reply Retweet Favorite Nico Muhly
How many agents does it take to spell "light bulb?"

Agent Rachelle Gardner: How many agents does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Agent Steve Laube: Without a platform, you can't reach the lightbulb.

Before you get all up in a snit, Merriam-Webster shows both "light bulb" and "lightbulb" as valid. And  here are more answers to Gardner's question.

 

#bbpBox_128090788021284864 a { text-decoration:none; color:#1F98C7; }#bbpBox_128090788021284864 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Client @October 23, 2011 8:49 am via web Reply Retweet Favorite Ginger Clark

 

Moving markets in mysterious ways 

The biggest thing all genre fiction has in common is its popular appeal. Genre writers know that when their book is published they will have a group of readers waiting for their release. It's like having a built-in, established readership. Genre fiction writers bring books to the people—books that are usually accessible, interesting, and entertaining. Genre fiction's goal is to pull readers into the world of the story instead of distracting them with the intrusion of heavy use of literary devices or the author's opinions/viewpoints.

Elizabeth Spann Craig with her husband Mike Fleming runs the Writers Knowledge Base (and Mike is introducing his new Hiveword for writers, free trial available). In Dying of envy—the Elizabeth Craig mystery interview , with Victoria Mixon, she gets off the kind of frank, journeyman's explanation of genre fiction, how it works and where it stands, that you have to wish we saw more often. Notice she neither disparages other forms, nor does she torch for genre. She just says it. Mysteriously refreshing.

#bbpBox_128092109860380672 a { text-decoration:none; color:#0084B4; }#bbpBox_128092109860380672 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Bedford Avenue squalor[image error]October 23, 2011 8:55 am via TweetDeck Reply Retweet Favorite Heather McCormack
Mysterious marketing in nodal ways

Sales nodes are groupings of books that are likely to be purchased by the same reader, often similar in style and genre, sometimes even by the same author. Nodes of five or six books are most effective. Any more, and the marketing becomes unwieldy; any fewer, and promotion and sales opportunities could be lost.

Author Carolyn McCray gets down with vampires, werewolves, and romantically inclined demons at Digital Book World to redefine covens—"An author with only one book may partner with other authors or publishers and form a node with similar titles—in How to Boost Your Online Book Sales With "Sales Nodes"  While Matt Mullin, DBW's community relations manager, has a worthwhile thinker at his own site, based on how McCray's recent incantations "have me thinking about how far we have to go in optimizing our marketing efforts for new titles" in 3 Book Marketing Lessons That Surprised Me (or, Unknown Unknowns in Publishing) For example:

Carolyn found that she had a far better clicks-to-sales ratio in her SEM (mainly through Google AdWords) when she removed the About the Author section from her Amazon page. Her explanation is that an Amazon product page functions similarly to a glossy magazine ad — a product description should be enticing and light, not overburdened with copy.

 

#bbpBox_128174796986007552 a { text-decoration:none; color:#0084B4; }#bbpBox_128174796986007552 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Everyone, and I mean everyone, who just got on the train in Philly is wearing sweat pants. The clothiers of the city must be proud.[image error]October 23, 2011 2:23 pm via Twitter for iPhone Reply Retweet Favorite Matt Mullin

 

Epizeuxis, epizeuxis, epizeuxis

There are over sixty different rhetorical devices. Some you'll be surprised to learn you already know (i.e. analogy). Here are eight, along with an example of each.  These (among others) are ideal for fiction, but can also be used in non-fiction.

That's the ever-rhetorical Stina Lindenblatt in Spice It Up! with some terms that could get you arrested in Liechtenstein. Don't touch that anadiplosis, you don't know where it's been.

 

#bbpBox_127017071161786368 a { text-decoration:none; color:#0084B4; }#bbpBox_127017071161786368 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Too old to pole dance #whyiwrite[image error]October 20, 2011 9:43 am via TweetDeck Reply Retweet Favorite Ann Leary

 

We'd barely started

If you are writing a story that aims to go deeper than the events, perhaps you don't want to tie everything up or explain everything… Stories don't always have to give us answers. Sometimes the questions they give us are as important.

Roz Morris probably hadn't saved her file yet on Should you tie up all the ends when you type 'The End'? when Katie Weiland put out her own guidance on the matter in 5 Elements of a Resonant Closing Line.

Finally—and a bit contradictorily—the closing line should indicate that the story isn't over, that, in fact, the lives of the surviving main characters will continue long after the reader closes the back cover.

 

#bbpBox_129291339409010690 a { text-decoration:none; color:#2FC2EF; }#bbpBox_129291339409010690 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Not long now to #Halloween and #swc11. And my first human experiments with transmedia into the spirit realm.[image error]about 16 hours ago via TweetDeck Reply Retweet Favorite Oliver Drew

 

"Fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day"

In Henry V, Shakespeare offers us an opportunity to see the horror that results from pursuing winning only for its own sake. This is why St. Crispin's Day ought to belong to Shakespeare's play, and not the historical Henry's battle…In a sense, the best counterpoint to Henry is Shakespeare himself, who has managed to take a shallow, dishonest man and turn him into the subject of a profound, candid work of art. That's the kind of accomplishment I want to celebrate.

As you may know, Edward de Vere is about to have his own day in Roland Emmerich's film Anonymous, opening Friday. Here's Stephen Marche on it in the Times. And the Shakespeare Oxford Society pillories him mercilessly—apparently writing by committee, judging from the lack of a byline.

The advent of this new pass at the 17th Earl of Oxford makes me appreciate Guy Patrick Cunningham's cunning observation, Celebrating St. Crispin's Day, all the more. The honor, as he says, lands on the side of writerly power—even when "we few, we happy few, we band of brothers…" are just having a dramatist's smoke blown up the asterisks in our history books.

Imagine greater.

 

#bbpBox_127245172470845440 a { text-decoration:none; color:#0084B4; }#bbpBox_127245172470845440 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Cat calls and whistles and thunderous applause. All well served. Brilliance not to be missed. Get yer ass down here. Pure perfection.[image error]October 21, 2011 12:49 am via web Reply Retweet Favorite Vancouver Opera

 

Porter Anderson is a Fellow with the National Critics Institute, and a senior producer and consultant formerly with the United Nations World Food Programme in Rome and INDEX: Design to Improve Life in Copenhagen. As a journalist, he has worked with media including CNN, the Village Voice, and the Dallas Times Herald. He's based in Tampa.

 

WordPress Plug-Ins: The Bare Essentials

 

 

This past weekend, I was a presenter at PodCamp Cincinnati. Many talented people in social media attended from the region, so I learned quite a few things myself. My favorite session was by Daniel J. Lewis, the event organizer, who gave a snappy session on essential WordPress plug-ins. I'm going to share a few recommendations from his session (click here to see them all), as well as add a few of my own.

 

Must-have

Akismet. It should be installed for you, so don't remove it. It blocks spam. If you don't have it, add it.

Comment system


The WordPress default comment system isn't bad, but you can do better. I currently use Disqus; after hearing Lewis's presentation, I'm considering a switch to Intense Debate.

Social sharing


Social sharing plug-ins make it easy for people to tweet, "like," or otherwise share your post on their preferred social network. I currently use AddThis, but after Lewis's presentation, I may switch to ShareBar, which has more dynamic functionality.



Site speed

Lewis recommends several options; I use WP Super Cache.

Mobile-friendly


According to Google Analytics, about 50% of my traffic comes from iPhone users. That means the site needs to be mobile friendly. WP Touch automates this. Once installed, it just works. Love.


Broken link checker


When links break on your site, it's nice to know right away. I use Broken Link Checker to automatically scan my site every week. Through its interface, I can change URLs as needed, or remove the link entirely.


Social media widget


This plug-in allows me to easily build those appealing & visual sidebars that tell you where else I'm found online.


What WordPress plug-ins do you find indispensable? Share in the comments!

 

Back to Basics: Writing a Novel Synopsis

I received the following question from working writer Sharon Hale:

I read a lot of information in your Writing Advice Archive regarding queries; however, I could not find any information on writing the synopsis that will accompany the query letter. I am a newbie, who is beginning the process of writing the synopsis and query letter. Do you have any information on the synopsis?

Why yes I do! Let's start off with the basics.

 

What is a synopsis?

The synopsis conveys the narrative arc of your  novel; it shows what happens and who changes, from beginning to end.

There is no single "right" way to write a synopsis. You'll also find conflicting advice about the appropriate length, which makes it rather confusing territory for new writers especially. However, I recommend keeping it short, or at least starting short. Write a 1-page synopsis and use that as your default, unless the submission guidelines ask for something longer. Most agents/editors will not be interested in a synopsis longer than a few pages.

 

Why the synopsis is important to agents and editors

The synopsis ensures character actions and motivations are realistic and make sense. A synopsis will reveal any big problems in your story—e.g., the whole thing was a dream, ridiculous acts of god, a genre romance ending in divorce. A synopsis will reveal plot flaws, serious gaps in character motivation, or a lack of structure. A synopsis also can reveal how fresh your story is; if there's nothing surprising or unique, your manuscript may not get read.

 

The good news

Some agents hate synopses and never read them; this is more typical for agents who represent literary work. Either way, agents usually aren't expecting a work of art. You can impress with lean, clean, powerful language (Miss Snark recommends "energy and vitality").

 

General principles

Tell what happens in an energetic, compelling way
Use active voice, not passive
Use third person, present tense
Clarity, clarity, clarity
Less is more—a good thing for you!

 

4 things you must accomplish, no exceptions

Give a clear idea of your book's core conflict
Show what characters we'll care about, including the ones we'll hate
Demonstrate what's at stake for the main character(s)
Show how the conflict is resolved

 

Common pitfalls


Mentioning too many characters or events; you have to leave stuff out!
Including too much detail about plot twists and turns; you have to leave stuff out!
Unnecessary detail, description, or explanation; every word must earn its due
Confusing series of events and character interactions
Writing flap copy rather than a synopsis (do not editorialize, e.g., "in a thrilling turn of events!")

 

Wordiness is typically the No. 1 problem

Here's an example of what I mean.

Very Wordy

At work, Elizabeth searches for Peter all over the office and finally finds him in the supply room, where she tells him she resents the remarks he made about her in the staff meeting.

Tight

At work, Elizabeth confronts Peter about his remarks at the staff meeting.

 

Jane's Very Special Synopsis Secret

A synopsis includes the characters' FEELINGS and EMOTIONS. That means it should not read like a mechanic's manual to your novel's plot. You must include both story advancement and color.

Incident (Story Advancement) + Reaction (Color) = Decision (Story Advancement)

 

How to draft a short synopsis

Start off strong; it will probably be similar to the hook that's in your query letter. Identify (1) your protagonist, (2) the protagonist's problem/conflict, and (3) the setting by end of first paragraph. Decide which major plot turns/conflicts must be conveyed for everything to make sense, and which characters must be mentioned. (You should not mention all of them.) Think about your genre's "formula," if there is one, and be sure to include all major turning points associated with that formula. The ending paragraph must show how major conflicts are resolved—yes, you have to reveal the ending! No exceptions.

 

Additional resources

How to Write a Synopsis of Your Novel (one of the best advice articles I've seen)
How to Write a 1-Page Synopsis
The Anatomy of a Short Synopsis
How to Write a Synopsis Without Losing Your Mind
The Synopsis: What It Is, What It Isn't, and How to Write It
More than 100 synopses are critiqued at the Miss Snark archive on synopses writing (great critiques by a very experienced literary agent).
And … someone else's synopsis resource list!

If any experienced synopsis writers are reading, please share your tips in the comments!

3 Indispensable Software Tools for Writers

This past Sunday, I sent out the latest issue of my e-newsletter, Electric Speed. It featured 3 indispensable software tools for writers. You can view it here.

Click here to subscribe & never miss an issue.

 

Why Writers Should Get Over Pop Music

iStockphoto / dblight

Pop music is the worst thing that could happen to your writing. It's for dates and bad wedding receptions. Turn it off at once.

Pop is designed to structure your ideas. Stereo hearts in the dark with pumped up kicks. And it works far too well for a writer's good. As Noel Coward told us, it's extraordinary how potent cheap music is.

Contemporary classical music, the genius of today's living composers, will set you free.

Shake out some of the sand that's in your hair when you come in off the dunes of life. Mess with your best nitties. Line up your finest gritties. You know what we're doing, don't you? Well, of course you do. Get them in the right order and others can read what you were thinking. Even feel what you were feeling. These are words. And this is writing. It's what we do.

But why not engage an even higher alchemy?

Living composers, gorgeous and serious creatures with racing-quick wits—not old dead white guys in breeches—arrive dusted in the same nuggets of concept and emotion we writers wear. Same world as ours, after all. But they super-heat what sticks to them into a new substance.

High-silica content: composers' material moves through time. And this is your hours' glass.

Contemporary classical music wraps your efforts to fuse thought and emotion in a see-through composite. Clear aesthetic possibility. As your words rush through that glassy focused space-space they create with their music, you may or may not share a single concept with your composer. Doesn't matter. The transparency of her or his medium opens windows in your work, shifting your sands with new breezes of sonic intelligence.

 

Three samples for writerly tasks

Brainstorming: "TransAmerica" is about rapid mind movement with pushy percussion, full of knockabout switchbacks. Todd Reynolds is one of our most accomplished digital violinists. He tours internationally in performance of his own work and that of composer-colleagues. Here's more about the guy many of us know on Twitter as "DigiFiddler," who also founded one of New York's most acclaimed amped string quartets, Ethel. Click here to listen if you don't see the slider below; go to the 2nd slider on the page.

Crafting: "Oceanic Verses" starts very quietly and searches the horizon, tentative and patient. Composer Paola Prestini is a wonder. The calls of her strings remind me of the great Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou's lonely siren echoes. And Prestini loves writers: "Literature has played a huge role in my writing and it has always been my first collaborator; I love painting music on literary canvases; ideas on the page invite me to play and to think." Click here to listen if you don't see the slider below.

Revising: "Everything is an Onion" is careful, purposeful, measured, dutiful. Yeah, like peeling it. You undo one edit and look what happens to three other phrases in the same chapter, right? Timo Andres works his keyboard, as you do yours, with personable intensity. It's what caused critic Alex Ross to call "Shy and Mighty," Andres' debut recording, "more mighty than shy." And as your revisions stretch out into something past a natural lifespan (don't they always?), it's comforting to know that this piece is from a lengthier work titled "It Takes a Long Time To Be a Good Composer." Click here to listen if you don't see the slider below; go to the 2nd slider on the page.

Stump the Porter

Make a deal with you. Turn off that Beyoncé before your ears glaze over, and tell me in a comment below what sort of scene or situation or mess you've written yourself into. I'll get back to you with a suggestion of a living composer whose work may just help you hear your way around the next corner in your manuscript.

And tell me what you think: is there a time and place for pop in serious writing? What's your favorite music for various writing tasks? How do you use music in conjunction with your writing? Or do you use it at all? If not, what's the matter with you?

 

Porter Anderson—whose Writing on the Ether appears here at JaneFriedman.com on Thursdays—has issued a matching grant to Q2 Music listeners who donate during the autumn pledge drive through October 26. You do NOT have to pledge a penny. This is not a pitch. Porter's much more interested in bringing together new music with new writings. If you do feel interested in contributing to the work of this unique NPR affiliate (an online streaming service of WNYC/WQXR in New York), each $1 you donate will be matched with $1 from Porter, up to a total of $5,000, at Q2Music.org. And Porter would love to thank you. Drop him a line on Twitter.

My Secret for Battling Procrastination

by Emilie Ogez / Flickr

To some, I may appear productive. But like many, I'm a horrible procrastinator.

I try to think about my weakness in positive terms, e.g., "I work better under pressure." That is true—I believe there's nothing like a deadline to force you to be creative (one reason why I love blogging!). However, for some projects, I know that if I had budgeted my time better, I could've produced superior work, rather than passable or "good" work.

Recently, I've devised a system that has all but ended my horrible procrastination. I'd like to share it because I know I'm not unique, and most procrastinators enjoy discovering new "cures" to experiment with.

Warning: This solution does require the use of lists, which I know some people hate. (I'm looking at you, Christina!)

 

Step 1: Start with a master list.

You probably have a master to-do list. If you don't, create one. Here's a form I created that limits your to-dos to one week. If you have to-dos that stretch out further than a week, it can become overwhelming and meaningless. In the case of to-do lists, it's best to stay in the moment as much as possible, to guide your most immediate work.

That said, if you need a reminder about a future project or deadline, put that on a different list or create a reminder/alarm. On my own worksheet, I have something called the "parking lot" that is exactly for those things too far out for me to attend to. Writing them down helps free my mental energy, so I can focus on other things.

 

Don't put anything on your list that sounds like this:

Finish my novel
Work on XYZ project
Build a website

You've just listed massive projects that need smaller action steps. For big projects, create a separate project list that breaks everything down into small action steps. This is really important! If you don't have a specific next task you can easily tackle, you will procrastinate because you feel overwhelmed. It will induce paralysis. Repeat after me: Break down each project into its smallest possible components.

 

Step 2: Using Post-It notes, break up the week's tasks by day.

Two critical points here:

Post-It notes are small enough to prevent you from adding too many tasks to your day, but big enough to give you an overview of 2-3 days at a time. I list the days across the top, then draw a vertical line between them. (See below.)
Breaking up the tasks by day prevents you from saying, "Oh, I'll get to that tomorrow." This is important! I used to work off a master to-do list that was never-ending. Often I felt paralyzed by the amount of work I could select from; I didn't know what to tackle first, so I delayed and did nothing. I waited for the nearest deadline to compel me to action. But when you have the whole week outlined, and you've strategically master-minded everything on Sunday or Monday, with all the tasks segmented by day, you feel you have things under control. You budget your time better. You get into a rhythm.
Hint: I used to create one-day lists, not one-week lists. Once I switched to the one-week view, I became FAR more productive. Why? With one-day views, it was VERY easy for me to say, "Oh, that'll get done tomorrow." When I have a set of NEW tasks already outlined for the next day, I'm far less likely to make excuses. I need the week's big-picture to keep me motivated and focused.
For tasks that are more time-consuming, break them up into Parts 1, 2, 3 (etc), and schedule them over the course of the week. This gives you permission to jump around your to-do list, keep things interesting, and make the difficult tasks more manageable and approachable.

It's best to have your Post-Its in the center of wherever your work. I put mine right on my laptop.

When and how could this system fall apart?


If you have tons of stuff happening on a particular day, you may never get to your to-do list. Give yourself light task days whenever you have tons of meetings, errands, etc.
When I worked in publishing, my to-do list was often dictated, to the minute, by incoming e-mails and social media blips. It didn't allow me to focus on higher level tasks. This can be a tough problem to solve. Eventually I had to make a tough decision that I sometimes still enforce: No checking of e-mail until after 4 p.m. (or some other specified hour), or until certain tasks are complete. Your life will not be your own if you're constantly getting whipped around by your inbox.
If you're not strategic about which day you schedule tasks, you could still end up procrastinating. For more time-consuming tasks, I break them up into parts (as suggested above), and start the process early in the week. That way, if things take longer than anticipated, I can adjust the schedule before it's too late.
Your to-do list is only as good as your ability to keep track of important deadlines and to prioritize. For me, the issue has never been one of awareness or prioritization. It's been focus, direction, and motivation (especially to tackle more daunting projects, or those I'm avoiding).

What secrets do you have for overcoming procrastination? Share in the comments!

 

Writing on the Ether

iStockphoto / steinphoto

 

Capt. Linn warned us: "Too many books!"

So no, yeah, whoa, the heaving ship of publishing lists to starboard, everybody to the rails, it's Frankfurt! And then achtung, now we're Dramamine-ing to portside as they all skitter back, 'twixt poop deck and TweetDeck, tote bags stuffed with digital drama. And my God, shall not the ebook's stormy perfection sweep us overboard before next we raise the Liebfraumilch? (Fraulein Merkel will have the retsina, efharisto.)

The Big Six are not too big to wail when #publauncher Mike Shatzkin reaffirms his 80-percent e-vision on the German mountaintop. Once only the flare-up of new literature could rend the air like these devices Fired over our bow by Lord Bezos, pull!

Wasn't it just last week I mentioned content?  C-o-n-t-e-n-t. Well, tweet faster, then, matey! And what, with this BlackBerry? I'll bet our gal Siri will be able to read the Captain's too-many books to him in her comely alto. Just keep your iPhone 4S away from babies thought to mistake magazines for iPads. Did no one ask if the baby enjoyed a single article in that 'zine?

O Captain! My Captain! Sweet content so struggles to find herself a spot in the lifeboats, and all I know to ask you is this: Will Siri dream?

#bbpBox_125752260889284608 a { text-decoration:none; color:#1F98C7; }#bbpBox_125752260889284608 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }For 1-Year-Old Girl, Magazines Are iPads That Do Not Work http://t.co/vT2zikVm [vid] cc @October 16, 2011 9:57 pm via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite Andrew D. Nystrom

Captain's Log: Baby lit and the bookfairies

Confirmed once again that there are way too many books. Childrens books seem particularly grossly over-represented.
I *thought* I saw lots of agents and it turns out that the number of agents was up 11% over 2010. I'm not entirely sure what to make of that.
There were an inordinate number of nuns in attendance. Were they agents in disguise?
Agent Andrew Wylie continues to say outrageous things like "distribution fees should be zero". This doesn't advance the conversation.
The bratwurst from the street vendors is better than restaurant brats any day.

Need I say more? No, of course not, because our Capt. Don Linn says it all, so well, in his Bait 'n' Beer, Random Impressions From Frankfurt

 

#bbpBox_126049221609652224 a { text-decoration:none; color:#6fbf00; }#bbpBox_126049221609652224 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }He's right abt the brats ;-) MT @October 17, 2011 5:37 pm via Tweetbot for iPhone Reply Retweet Favorite Small Demons

 

 A "tsunami wave of amateur writing"

We need a new screening process in the industry: there are far too many aspiring writers, far too many aspiring agents, far too few publishers. The numbers are skewed to the point that they're unmanageable.

That's editor and author Victoria Mixon in 3 Things You Need to Know About the New Publishing Industry. Might these be early longings for the professional-spine-gone-missing? Now, as Mixon puts it, "So much of what's being published is published for reasons other than quality—topic, marketing, authors' names." Pair that with this post from agent Rachelle Gardner who also places the burden of craft where it belongs, on the writer, in her Master the Craft of Writing:

More books (are) getting into readers' hands without benefit of the level of tender loving care that used to be considered normal. Why does it matter? Because readers can tell the difference… They know when a book is good enough to not only finish, but recommend to their friends. They know when a book was amazing or "meh" or awful. They may not always know why, but they know. They also know when there are typos or elementary mistakes in grammar or punctuation. And in those online reviews, they're vocal about these kinds of mistakes.

 

#bbpBox_126691596866551809 a { text-decoration:none; color:#e31010; }#bbpBox_126691596866551809 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }I think I need to sit down and write a pleasant, happy, non-controversial blog post now. That will be a nice change.[image error]about 19 hours ago via TweetDeck Reply Retweet Favorite Rachelle Gardner

 

Glad to say, she hasn't sat down yet

It is not the publishing industry who put a computer in more than half of all American households, allowing millions of folks just like yourself to write books which they then want to sell … Part of the value publishers bring is a sense of history, a sense of tradition and permanence. Many authors still want to be a part of that.

Apparently taking heat for pushing would-be authors to face Publishing in the Brave New World, Rachelle Gardner rightly holds her ground and writes, "Those of you who find yourself bemoaning that 'writers are expected to do everything" … perhaps the self-publishing route will work out better for you."

 

#bbpBox_126700950592299009 a { text-decoration:none; color:#e88d17; }#bbpBox_126700950592299009 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }After no Internet all morning, now I am REALLY behind. Need a break and some food...THEN I go all ninja #MyWANA[image error]about 18 hours ago via TweetDeck Reply Retweet Favorite Kristen Lamb

 

The *kavalry comes over the hill

I'm here to help you guys understand that Rachelle is actually on our side, and the idea of numbers should not scare you. Numbers can be a writer's best friend. … When we focus on authentic relationships instead of super high "numbers" we actually will raise the number that counts—the *Klout score. This is one of the reasons that writers are better off narrowing their focus and not "participating" on ten different sites. It spreads us too thinly, and, in the end it will negatively impact our Klout.

Following up on her post here in Janesville, author Kristen Lamb gets at why the Klout score, scoffed at by some of the technorati, may smell like a yellow rose for Writers (in) the Wild World of Metrics

 

#bbpBox_124488609070977024 a { text-decoration:none; color:#009999; }#bbpBox_124488609070977024 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }I love when @October 13, 2011 10:16 am via web Reply Retweet Favorite Christian Carey

 

Then again, digital didn't create agent-publishers

It seems that Curtis Brown decided to rethink their move into publishing. Instead, they have announced a deal to sell 520 books en masse to a new imprint owned by Pan Macmillan created especially to house these books. … It is interesting to note that Macmillan set up a separate imprint, Macmillan Bello, for this special deal negotiated by Curtis Brown. Could it be possible that Macmillan Bello is a disguised version of agent-as-publisher?

That's David Gaughran writing Literary Agency Sells 520 Books In One Deal, Raising Questions, adding that nothing has been heard "about advances, royalty rates, or anything like that."

 

#bbpBox_126690478698668032 a { text-decoration:none; color:#009999; }#bbpBox_126690478698668032 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Curtis Brown UK sold 520 titles IN ONE DEAL. So much for agents getting right deal for right book: http://t.co/XOP3FwQz[image error]about 19 hours ago via Brizzly Reply Retweet Favorite Will Entrekin

 

And digital didn't morph the genres, either

Only eleven years into a new century, American literary culture has undergone a sea change. A group of high-profile literary writers have fled the place we call "real life"—and their numbers are growing. … Today's serious writers are hybrid creatures—yoking the fantasist scenarios and whiz-bang readability of popular novels with the stylistic and tonal complexity we expect to find in literature. Meet the New Mutants of American fiction.

That's Joe Fassler writing of How Zombies and Superheroes Conquered Highbrow Fiction, allowing himself maybe just one rub-up against digital warmth: "Our day-to-day lives are becoming more science-fictional. "

 

#bbpBox_126550513356513280 a { text-decoration:none; color:#990000; }#bbpBox_126550513356513280 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }How Do I Find an Agent? — Genre! http://t.co/Fvkc5yqk via @October 19, 2011 2:49 am via Su.pr Reply Retweet Favorite Joanna Penn

 

Another ship, another captain, another agent 

Photo: Jason Ashlock, The Naked Book

It reminded me why I didn't shut this book ten years ago in an undergraduate American literature class and toss it in the corner, in favor of the Sparknotes or the Reader's Digest abridged version. Because of lines like this: I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas and land on barbarous coasts. And this, of the Pequod:  Her ancient decks were worn and wrinkled, like the pilgrim-worshipped flag-stone in Canterbury Cathedral where Becket bled. She was a thing of trophies. A noble craft, but somehow touched with melancholy. All noble things are touched with that.

That's agent Jason Ashlock in his Naked Book column, on the new Why Read Moby-Dick?, just releasing today (smell that timely Ether) from Nathaniel Philbrick, an author I've been gratified to review for CNN in the past. Be sure to read Ashlock's footer in which he tells you he has pictured his grandmother's 35-cents 1955 copy of Melville. Remember when Gardner spoke of "history, a sense of tradition and permanence?" As advanced as Ashlock's Movable Type Management is, "I confess," he writes, "feeling a sadness about what might be lost when most readers' copies of Moby-Dick are merely .mobi files."

 

#bbpBox_126644242390056961 a { text-decoration:none; color:#2FC2EF; }#bbpBox_126644242390056961 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }New @about 22 hours ago via web Reply Retweet Favorite Jason Allen Ashlock

 

Photo: Jan Chipchase, www.janchipchase.com

The more things change, the more we talk about it 

Rinzler: The women are now many of the top executives. It's preponderant. If you go to a convention or a conference, most of the people are women. … I think in many ways that's a good thing, but the pendulum has shifted. I think Oprah Winfrey has a lot to do with that, also. Not to be snarky exactly, but there's a whole school of memoirs and novels about women as victims and men as insensitive brutes.

Ross: Well, I don't feel so bad about that. When it comes right down to it, I think when it comes right down to it, men are brutes. But one of the things that I think is interesting is that if you think about literary fiction today, it is essentially women's fiction.

Editor Alan Rinzler and agent Andy Ross Talk About Publishing and especially its changes, with writer Meghan Ward.

 

#bbpBox_109148346106650624 a { text-decoration:none; color:#1F98C7; }#bbpBox_109148346106650624 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }"If I could become Joan Didion, I'd be the happiest former man alive." @September 1, 2011 2:19 am via Timely by Demandforce Reply Retweet Favorite Joe Bunting

 

Bookshops: Door Number 1, 2, or 3?

It is becoming increasingly clear that bookshops, both chains and independents, are the first segment of the trade book publishing industry to face wrenching decisions that amount to bets on survival in this digital transition. Publishers, agents, authors, wholesalers and many others all need to respond and some have already made significant efforts to do so, but it is clear that bookshops are the facing the full thrust of this change right now.

Eoin Purcell in Dublin lays out, with admirably forthright attack, what both chains and independents face in Bookshops, You Have Three Choices

 

#bbpBox_126760065809121282 a { text-decoration:none; color:#706238; }#bbpBox_126760065809121282 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }The new Joan Didion book, BLUE NIGHTS, is just breathtaking. Brilliant followup to THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING.[image error]about 14 hours ago via TweetDeck Reply Retweet Favorite Don Linn

So speak softly and carry a Loudpoet along

It's always the end of the world," said Russell Grandinetti, one of Amazon's top executives. "You could set your watch on it arriving." He pointed out, though, that the landscape was in some ways changing for the first time since Gutenberg invented the modern book nearly 600 years ago. "The only really necessary people in the publishing process now are the writer and reader," he said. "Everyone who stands between those two has both risk and opportunity."

That's David Streitfeld, in his perceptive and lively Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal for the Times. Quick to appreciate Streitfeld's grasp of the industry in extremis, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez explicates the Times write with #cmonson alacrity. For a guy known as Loudpoet, you barely notice how quietly Gonzalez is picking up those tiny fragments of faux sky and handing them back to the Big Sixers in Amazon: Friend, Foe, or Scarecrow? The italics are mine.

There's an insightful comment buried in the beginning of the (Streitfeld) article, attributed broadly to unnamed Amazon executives, that perfectly sums up the true state of the publishing industry and Amazon's position in it: "…they played down Amazon's power and said publishers were in love with their own demise." Ain't that the truth? … Amazon moving into "traditional" publishing is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but it's also not the end of the world for the publishing industry as we know it.

 

#bbpBox_126084312750759936 a { text-decoration:none; color:#FF3300; }#bbpBox_126084312750759936 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Had fun with @October 17, 2011 7:56 pm via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite Guy L. Gonzalez

 

Maybe the magazine baby had a point

What I'm most fascinated about at this point in my career is: What is a magazine in the context of now? That's what I'm really trying to understand. … Of course at a deeper level, what really appeals to me is saving what you and I both love. I've been a journalist all my life. I love it passionately. I think if I had not found journalism when I was 23 or 24 years old I'd probably be homeless or something. A lot of us have weird, some may say, eccentric skill sets. I love journalism. I love everything about it. And, this is a way I'm preserving it and creating a sustainable model.

Laura Locke writes Flipboard editorial chief on how magazines are flipping out at CNET has this provocative Q&A with Josh Quittner , former Time.com editiorial manager, whose high view I love: "What's not needed is another unsustainable advertising model in new media. What is needed is a really smart way of turning advertising from a nuisance into a service."

 

#bbpBox_126329009461145600 a { text-decoration:none; color:#1F98C7; }#bbpBox_126329009461145600 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Guess what: the lunch date I thought I hallucinated making in Frankfurt actually is real! Phew! So glad I'm not going batshit.[image error]October 18, 2011 12:09 pm via web Reply Retweet Favorite Ginger Clark

 

Who has the digital right-of-way?

Publishers are faced with long and complex agreements from Amazon, Apple, Google, Barnes & Noble and numerous ebook startups, and they all have the same questions: Do I actually own the rights these companies want from me?…There needs to be a "chain of title"—a chain of successive and corresponding rights assignments from the author via the publisher and the digital distributor to the retailer and, ultimately, the end consumer of an ebook.

Sebastian Posth of A2 Electronic Publishing gives O'Reilly Radar's Jenn Webb one of the clearest statements I've come across of a thorny issue facing the foundering publishers in The digital rights quagmire

 

#bbpBox_126636114273517568 a { text-decoration:none; color:#93A644; }#bbpBox_126636114273517568 a:hover { text-decoration:underline; }Designing an infinite digital bookcase: very cool experiment from Google. Great interface. Fun to play with. http://t.co/5vtXmUmK[image error]about 22 hours ago via HootSuite Reply Retweet Favorite Dominique Raccah

 

The ingenity of painful honesty

In my own work I have very rarely set out to present a character who is knowingly based on someone familiar to me, someone whose name I might find in my address book. The great majority of my characters–and I would guess this is true for most writers of fiction–are "inventions". They emerge, quickly or slowly, shyly or boisterously, in the writing. They are members of that shifting population of men, women and children (not to mention cats, horses, etc.) who inhabit our inner worlds. Where they come from, whether they are curious versions of ourselves, figures out of the collective unconscious, reconfigurings of those we did indeed once know but have now forgotten, or a mix of all such, no one, to my knowledge, has ever convincingly answered.

If you've never read the English novelist Andrew Miller's Ingenious Pain, you owe yourself the experience. While his newer Oxygen and Pure are better known, this West Country native from Bristol, won me over for good with the awful beauty of his debut, set in the mists of 18th-century Bath and Somerset. "He knows he will sleep, inhaling her skin as if it were one of his narcotic sponges." Here now, in the Guardian's faithfully robust Books section, we find How to write fiction: Andrew Miller on creating characters  "An odd use of time!" he writes about novelizing personalities from thinning air. "An odd use of a life. But there's a courage to it. Even, perhaps, a type of beauty."

Don't be alarmed: Miller's just talking about content.

 

Porter Anderson is a Fellow with the National Critics Institute, and a senior producer and consultant formerly with the United Nations World Food Programme in Rome and INDEX: Design to Improve Life in Copenhagen. As a journalist, he has worked with media including CNN, the Village Voice, and the Dallas Times Herald. He's based in Tampa.

Are You Worried Your Ideas or Work Will Be Stolen?

I recently received the following question from working writer Shannon Traphagen:

I have been fervently working on my novel (I am 5 chapters into writing it) and feel I have a platform like no other. My protagonist and antagonist are strong, and I feel it's a fictional story that's never really been done before. I'm very excited about it. I recently read a column on blogging successfully where you made reference to Kristen Lamb and her articles on it. The advice is great, but my question is this:

Because my book isn't finished and I'm a new writer, I'm worried that the ideas I write about in my blog pertaining to my book could be ripped off. How do I safely write about some of my interests from the book, based on the extensive research I do, without having someone catch on to what my book is about?

Only two people have actually seen my book to date (with great feedback) and I never talk about the content of it to anyone. I'm really protective about it. Because it's not finished I'm not sure how to go about this. Can you offer any advice on this?

 

First, a disclaimer

I am not an attorney nor do I have any special experience in intellectual property law. Legal professionals are likely to offer a different view than I do. However, I think we all know that asking a lawyer for advice can overcomplicate a situation. I've heard lawyers speak at writing conferences on copyright, and everyone ends up paranoid and frightened in the space of an hour.

Many warnings are unnecessary and counterproductive. My goal is to make things simple and give you information based on the actual likelihood something "bad" will happen to you.

The following advice is directed toward writers of prose and poetry. If you are a screenwriter or playwright, look elsewhere for advice; it's a different world for you.

I'll break this down in 3 ways:

Protecting your ideas
Protecting your unpublished writing
Protecting your published writing

The next time you hear a writer say, "I'm worried about my work being stolen," please send them a link to this post!

1. Protecting your ideas

It is not possible under current U.S. law to copyright or protect an idea. (You also cannot copyright a title.) So, how much precaution should you take to keep your ideas secret?

Very little. I guarantee that others have similar ideas; you see it happen all the time in the business. Chalk it up to cultural zeitgeist. While I don't advocate advertising your idea far and yon, or putting flashing lights around it on your blog, the chances that an agent, editor, critique partner, or stranger will:

(a) steal your idea
(b) execute your idea better than you
(c) AND be able to sell it

… are next to zero. It is not worth worrying about. Share your work with trusted advisers, send it to agents/editors for consideration, and talk about aspects of it on your blog. No problem. Unless you are known in the industry for coming up with million-dollar high concepts, it's not likely you'll experience idea theft.

Also, I love Jeanne Bowerman's take on this fear: Sure, someone can steal your idea, but they can't possibly execute it or interpret it in the same way you can. No one can be you. That is your best protection of all.

2. Protecting your unpublished writing
Your work is protected under U.S. copyright law as soon as you put it in tangible form, whether it is kept on your computer, posted on your blog, or distributed wide and far (electronically or otherwise).

Your work doesn't need to be formally published to be protected, and you do not have to display the copyright symbol on your manuscript to have it protected. (One of the reasons there is so much confusion surrounding this issue is that the law changed in the 1970s.)

Since your work is copyrighted from the moment you create it, the existence or validity of your copyright will not be affected if you don't register the work with the U.S. Copyright Office. In fact, you can register the work after you find infringement and still be afforded all the protections as if you had registered it earlier.

That said, let's go down the series of events that must happen for a lawsuit against an infringer to make sense:

(a) Someone must steal your work
(b) Someone must develop and package the work (or make it desirable for someone to pay for it)
(c) Readers have to find it and pay for it
(d) Meanwhile the person who did the stealing needs to keep a low-enough profile that the infringement is not detected while still making enough money to make it worth his time

Most people don't view unpublished writings (or writers) as an untapped gold mine. It's a lot of hard work to profit from a piece of writing (especially writing from an unknown, unproven writer)—isn't it?

 

3. Protecting your published writing

This is where we enter into philosophical debate. Many believe that obscurity is a greater threat than piracy. I tend to agree. Piracy is more likely to hurt authors who are famous, rather than the unknown authors.

However, even bestselling authors have experimented with giving their work away for free—even enabling piracy!—and have claimed to profit even more due to the marketing and publicity effect. See Paulo Coelho as a shining example.

However, there is one area of theft and wrongdoing that is frustrating: People who create and sell e-books on Amazon by duplicating or repurposing other people's content, or using public domain work. You can read about this phenomenon here. But Amazon is starting to crack down, and I'm confident sheer computing power will be used to shut down infringers.

Other notes

Your work cannot "accidentally fall" into the public domain. Published work does not enter into public domain until 70 years AFTER the author's death, unless you have licensed it under another framework, e.g., Creative Commons (see below).
Selling various rights to your work doesn't affect your ownership of the copyright. Various rights are all part of your copyright, but selling them in no way diminishes your ownership of the actual work. The only way you can give up copyright entirely is if you sign a contract or agreement that stipulates it is a "work for hire," or otherwise purposefully license your work under a different framework.

 

A final word

I'm a fan of Creative Commons. As you'll notice, this blog/site has a Creative Commons license. What is it? Here's a brief description:

The idea of universal access to research, education, and culture is made possible by the Internet, but our legal and social systems don't always allow that idea to be realized. Copyright was created long before the emergence of the Internet, and can make it hard to legally perform actions we take for granted on the network: copy, paste, edit source, and post to the Web. The default setting of copyright law requires all of these actions to have explicit permission, granted in advance, whether you're an artist, teacher, scientist, librarian, policymaker, or just a regular user. To achieve the vision of universal access, someone needed to provide a free, public, and standardized infrastructure that creates a balance between the reality of the Internet and the reality of copyright laws. That someone is Creative Commons.

Do you have a question for me? E-mail me anytime, and I'll post a response under the category of Jane Knows.

3 Blunders That Can Kill Your Author Platform

[image error]

by Garda / Flickr

Today's guest post is from author Kristen Lamb.

The digital age author has more opportunities than any writer in the history of the written word. But with more opportunities comes more competition, and with more competition comes more work.

Mega-agent Donald Maass will tell you there are only two ways to sell books—a good book and word of mouth, and he is right. Books are not tubes of toothpaste, though many of them sell for less.

Each writer is unique, each product is unique, and thus our marketing approach must appreciate that or we are doomed to fail. Too many social media approaches are a formula to land a writer on a roof with a shotgun and a bottle of scotch. I am a writer first, so my social media approach appreciates that books are not car insurance, and writers are not tacos.

Yes, social media is a wonderful tool for building an author platform. But, unlike Starbucks, we cannot hire college students to create our product. We need to be on social media and still have time left over for the most important "marketing" task of all—writing awesome books.

I am going to point out three major social media time-wasters. If we can avoid these social media tar babies, we will have more time to write brilliant books.

 

1. Joining every social media site for "exposure"

Many writers, when introduced to the wonderful world of social media, promptly develop what I like to call RDD—Reality Deficit Disorder. RDD prompts writers to run out and sign up for Facebook, a fan page, Twitter, G+, Tumblr, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, and on and on.

When pursued to an extreme, writers suffering from advanced RDD curl up in the fetal position under their desks muttering, "Soooo many circles. Tweet … tweet. Be my friend. I like friends."

Social media is NOT traditional marketing. Social media gains the most power from relationships, and it is impossible for us to be on ten or even five different sites and still maintain the level of interaction required to make other people feel vested in us.

Blitzing out our message on six different sites is the equivalent of spam. People are gravitating to social media by the millions, in part, to escape spam. Bring spam into their sacred space, and you'll either lose trust or be ignored.

 

2. Getting too focused on the numbers

We don't need to "friend" 20,000 people to reach 20,000 people. Social media, unlike traditional marketing, works exponentially not linearly. Having 30,000 friends on Twitter means about as much as the White Pages I just threw in the recycle bin.

Theoretically, I could hold up my White Pages and say, "I have 30,00 friends." But how many of those people know me? How many of those people do I know? How many of those people can I count on to help me spread the news of my next book? Only a very small percentage—people I personally know and a random handful of weird, lonely people.

In the end, do I really have 30,000 friends, or just a list of meaningless names and equally meaningless relationships?

Instead of "following" or "friending" hundreds of people, spend time networking instead. Get to know people and serve them. Authenticity and kindness are two of the most powerful assets we possess in this new paradigm. We are the product as much as our books. People buy from who they know and who they like. They also promote who they know and who they like, and, trust me, they DO NOT like the writer who junks up their Facebook with form letters and phony compliments.

If we focus on relationships and we write great books, others will promote us to their networks. That's called word of mouth.

 

3. Using cutesy monikers

Writers love to be creative. Great! Awesome! But we need to be creative at the right time and place.

There is only one acceptable handle for writers who are serious about publishing and selling books, and that is the NAME printed on the front of our books.

We (readers) cannot purchase books by @FairyGirl, @BookMaven or @VampireChik. When writers hide behind monikers, they undermine their most powerful platform-building tool: the "top of mind." Each time we tweet or blog, we are adding "beams" (content) to our author platform. The platform needs to support our name to the point that our name alone becomes a bankable asset—in some cases, a brand.

Writer's Name + Great Content + Positive Feelings = Author Brand

Cutesy blog titles are equal offenders. I have run across many excellent blogs, but the author's NAME was nowhere to be found. Thus, the author of the blog was working hard to contribute thousands of words a week to build a meaningless platform.

 

Bottom Line

If we focus on quality, authentic relationships, we will have more time left to write great books. Combine great books with a quality online network and success is only a matter of time. It is a wonderful time to be a writer.

 

[image error]Kristen Lamb is the author of We Are Not Alone: The Writer's Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It's Me, Writer . Kristen has coached all levels of writers from unpublished newbies to New York Times bestselling authors James Rollins and Sandra Brown. She is currently represented by Russell Galen of SGG Literary NYC. Check out her blog, follow her on Twitter, or visit her homepage.

 

The Story Bible: What It Is and Why You Need One

The following is an excerpt from Write-a-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (And Live to Tell About It)  by Rochelle Melander, now available from Writer's Digest Books.

 

In writing a series of stories about the same characters, plan the whole series in advance in some detail, to avoid contradictions and inconsistencies.

—L. Sprague de Camp

Writers who want to pitch a TV series create a show bible. The bible contains the concept, location, bios of the characters, full episodes, synopses of potential episodes, and possibly even a pilot episode. Once the TV series is launched, the show bible is used to keep track of details about the setting and characters to preserve continuity. The show bible reminds writers about pertinent but minute facts. No doubt the writers for the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer needed to know the characteristics of each demon that Buffy fought as well as the names of her high school classmates who turned out to be vampires. It would be confusing if a student who was supposedly a vampire one season were suddenly able to see her reflection during the next season.

As novelists, we can borrow the show bible tool and create a story bible for our project.

A story bible is a place to hold all of our planning for the novel. Everything we create for the book can go into the story bible: concept, setting, character descriptions, potential plot conflicts, and developing scenes. The story bible can hold all of the tiny pieces of information we want to include in our novel such as dialogue fragments, phrases, and cultural references. Man Booker Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro "compiles folders of notes and flow charts that lay out not just the plot but also more subtle aspects of the narrative, such as a characters emotions or memories. He collects his notes in binders and writes a first draft by hand."

Especially during National Novel Writing Month, the story bible can be a helpful tool for recording and remembering information. What color and model of car did our protagonist drive in chapter one? How did she take her coffee? And what was the name of that dead pet hamster she buried in chapter three? When we want the protagonist to get into her car, we don't have to skim through one hundred pages of text to find out what kind of a car it was. We can turn to our story bible.

During the editing process, the story bible helps us add depth and texture to the book. If we have collected pieces of dialogue, we can weave them into the narrative. If we have been gathering descriptive bits, we can drop those in to create mood. We can also use the story bible to check our book for continuity. What may seem like meaningless details to us—who cares if the protagonist takes her coffee black in the beginning of the book and with sugar at the end?—can annoy readers.

 

Choosing a Format

A story bible can take many forms. Some writers prefer their story bible to be an electronic file on their computer. New services allow writers to store and share their work online, so they can access their story bible from any computer or wireless device. Writers can leave the story bible open while they work on their novel and fill it in as they write.

Other writers like the feel and security of a physical story bible. A three-ring binder with pocket page dividers for each section works well for this. Writers can develop and add visual collages for their setting and character, mind maps of scene development, and ideas on sticky notes and index cards. The bible can be kept at the writer's desk for easy reference and transported just about anywhere for brainstorming sessions.

A third option takes the information for the story bible and lays it out on white boards, walls, and bulletin boards. Novelist Hilary Mantel takes her notes and tacks them to a "seven-foot-tall bulletin board in her kitchen; they remain there until Ms. Mantel finds a place for them in her narrative."

Another writer works with a long piece of butcher-block paper taped up along one wall of her office. On it she includes the time line for her books and index cards filled with specific characters and their traits. These visual tools allow the writer to have everything visible while writing. The writer doesn't need to wonder if the protagonist has blue eyes or brown eyes. She can look up at the wall and see her character sketch.

If none of these options seems quite right, feel free to combine them. While my story bible is in a three-ring binder, I also use an open document on my computer to jot down ideas and information while I am writing. That way, I stay focused on the story and continue writing while also honoring the ideas that are flying rapidly into my brain. You will find your own magic combination of electronic, print, and posted story bible.

 

The Good-Enough Story Bible

In software and systems, designers talk about the principle of good enough (POGE). According to the POGE, the quick-and-simple design is better than the more complicated or elaborate system. A quick-and-simple design can be released, used, and then upgraded based on the experience and needs of consumers. Apply the principle of good enough to your story bible. Creating the story bible should never become more important than writing your book. Create your story bible and plan your novel as quickly and simply as you can. As you work on your novel, you will adapt and expand the story bible according to your needs and not someone else's idea of what your preparation should look like. Do what works for you.

 

Rochelle Melander, the Write Now! Coach, is the author of 10 books, a certified professional coach, and a popular speaker. Melander teaches professionals how to write fast, get published, establish credibility, and navigate the new world of social media. Click here to get access to free tips, classes, a write-a-thon word count tool and more. Contact the author to speak by phone with your critique group, NaNoWriMo region, or book group.