Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 222

Ask the Agent Power Panel

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This weekend, Writer's Digest is hosting its first online "power panel" that features 4
agents ready to answer all of your questions related to getting published. The
price of $129 comes with:



A query letter critique from Writer's Digest publisher Phil Sexton

A 3-month subscription to WritersMarket.com (which
includes all listings in Guide
to Literary Agents )

Exclusive 3-day access to four agents, during which no question will be left unanswered!

Agents participating include:



Ted Weinstein


Verna Dreisbach


Kelly Sonnack (Andrew Brown Literary)



Michelle Wolfson


Click here to read
all bios.




If you're starting to look for an agent, write a query, or wonder why your work keeps
getting rejected, this is the perfect opportunity to get educated.



Go
sign up!


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The Relationship Between Authors, Agents and Publishers

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Today's guest post is by John Rember, author of MFA
in a Box, as well as a memoir and two short story collections. He is Writer
at Large at The College of Idaho.




--



It was a good novel.  It was going to need a little attention from an editor
willing to shape it for a specific readership, but it passed the Barnes & Noble
test: it was more interesting and better written than at least half of the books on
the New Releases table.  



It was a classic bildungsroman. The narrative character was an intelligent
young woman, still in high school in rust-belt America, hired part-time by a medical
research lab at the start of the AIDS epidemic. She used her new awareness of the
wider world and its tragedies to deepen her own capacity for love and empathy, and
to leverage herself into an Ivy League university. By the novel's end, she understood
and forgave the harsh forces of family and economy that had shaped her.




The author was one of my MFA students, and she had sent the novel to two agents to
see if they would represent it, and as often happens in these matters, both of them
chose the same week to notify her that they would pass on it.



It was a bad week for her, and a bad week for me. You hope to see your students succeed,
even if it's only in their search for an agent. In a gentler system, an agent would
have taken her on and spent time and effort finding an editor who would have loved
the book and fought for its publication. That didn't happen. I hope it does. I don't
think it will.  



Agents aren't at all like Broadway Danny Rose. They should be, but they aren't. I
don't currently have or want an agent, but I started with one of the more high-powered
agents in the business, now known to me only as She Who Must Not Be Called Spider
Woman. Working with her cost me a fair amount of my blood supply. The manuscript for
my memoir Traplines ,
eventually published by Pantheon, came back from her office by return mail.



My current relaxed attitude toward my own writing, which is that I'm content to be
posthumously famous, is a direct result of working—or not working—with this agent.



But my troubles with my agent were never her fault. They were inherent to the relationship
between agents and writers, which is a predator-prey kind of deal. Agents are not
hoping to find, in you the writer, a diamond in the rough, a talent to be nurtured,
a friend to be encouraged. They're looking for the next John Grisham and they're looking
for 15% of a multi-million dollar advance. They are cold and hard businesspeople—if
they aren't, they end up living under bridges, and not the bridges in the Hamptons—so
your talent or niceness is not their first consideration.



Many writers assume that with the big houses, a few bestsellers subsidize midlist
writers. That's the way it used to work. Now the CFOs of publishing houses demand
that every book be a money-maker. In practice, this means editors are told to look
for the next bestseller, and they, not being psychic, think that it looks like the
last bestseller. Hence John Grisham, James Patterson, Dan Brown, and the dead Swedish
guy.



And hence the advice I've given to my students who want to make money as writers:
Look carefully at the structures, characters, and language of bestsellers if you want
to be taken seriously by agents or editors. It's not bad advice—J.K. Rowling was following
Tom Brown's School Days when she sent Harry Potter off to Hogwarts—but it's
seldom advice that new writers with literary ambitions want to hear.



It certainly isn't what you want to hear when it means that you have to rewrite a
novel that you've poured years of life into, especially if rewriting means eliminating
subtleties and ambiguities, and simplifying characters. You don't want to hear that
you were writing for your reader's neocortex when you should have been focusing on
her limbic system. It's occurred to me that every MFA program should include a course
in neurology.



But there is hope, however perverse: the publishing industry is going through a climate
change Al Gore could only dream of. Publishers have little idea about what will happen
with e-books, although anyone not in Gaddafi-style denial knows they're going to be
the The End of the World As We Know It.  



And self-publishing is easier and cheaper than ever. The trouble is, you have to be
your own marketing department and quality control. Traditional media won't normally
review self-published books unless you've become notorious or you somehow manage to
sell a hundred thousand copies. Publisher's Weekly does not look favorably
upon books that haven't come from their mainstream clients.  



The Huffington Post has featured several articles written by authors who are taking
their work directly to Kindle. So far they're vampire-genre books, but I expect that
more and more literary works will go directly to e-distribution, especially once Amazon
hires a heavy-duty acquisitions editor. If enough e-copies sell, they'll think about
printing hard copies.



Traditionalists are dismayed by this situation, but the arithmetic can be more favorable
for a midlist writer than the author-agent-editor-publisher daisy chain we're used
to.




My latest book is MFA
in a Box: A Why to Write Book . My editor at Pantheon passed on it when I offered
it to him—when he mentioned the dead Swedish guy, I said I didn't mind dying for art,
but I drew the line at becoming Swedish.  



I went looking for a university press, but then Dream of Things Publishing appeared
on the scene, with a business model that is taking advantage of the opportunities
left by the ongoing collapse of the old system.  



Mike O'Mary, the Dream of Things publisher,
is trying to look at the current realities of the business, and to fill a need, and
to make money.  Here's his booklist so far, and all of them pass the Barnes &
Noble test:



Saying Good-bye, a collection of wise, humorous, and deeply human stories about
loss. O'Mary is shopping it to hospice and hospital organizations and college psychology
classes, with encouraging results so far. [Disclosure: It's edited by Julie Rember,
the person I'm married to, who knows a good story when she hears one.]

Everything I Never Wanted to Be, the comedienne Dina Kucera's authentic, affecting,
dark and funny memoir of addiction and family dysfunction. 

My MFA in a Box, which is a writer's memoir focused on making the lives of
writing students easier and happier. It's an existential instruction manual for anyone
in an MFA program. And it's a defense of going through life as an artist, even if
you don't get rich at it.

The Note, Mike O'Mary's short  and elegant book about how to recognize
situations that require gratitude, and how to express gratitude when you're wise enough
to feel it.



Within a year of start-up, Dream of Things has
acquired four high-quality niche books, identified organizations and individuals as
likely readers, and is making a profit. O'Mary's costs are low because payment for
writers comes out of receipts, not advances. He uses print-on-demand and generally
doesn't take returns, which means you'll never see a Dream
of Things book on the Barnes & Noble New Releases table.



But O'Mary's business model allows him to use literary quality as a major criterion.
It also can be better for writers, who can sometimes be confused by the accounting
methods of mainstream publishers.



Dream of Things is doing something that mainstream publishers haven't done in a long
time, which is to work with writers to actively craft their books.



Over the next couple of years, Dream of Things—like Barnes & Noble and a bunch
of fine old names in New York publishing—will make it or won't.  



But so far I've made more on MFA in a Box than
I've made on some of my other books, and working with Dream of Things has been a pleasure. 
It's been the sort of deal that an agentless posthumous writer with a few good stories
can feel happy about.




--




John Rember's w[image error]eekly
blog on writing can be found at mfainabox.com.

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The Future of the Novelist

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This week, I'll be at SXSWi in Austin, where
I'm presenting a brief session on your publishing options at PubCamp (free!),
and moderating a SXSWi panel,  The
Self-Publishing Novelist.



I can't envision a more exciting or opportune time to be at a national event, guiding
a discussion on self-publishing. Why?



Take these 3 high-profile cases that have received broad media attention in the last
6 months:



Self-publishing novelist Amanda Hocking. Here's a BusinessInsider report that's typical
of recent coverage: "This
26-Year-Old Is Making Millions Cutting Out Traditional Publishers With Amazon Kindle"




JA Konrath (along with other mid-list authors, e.g., Lee
Goldberg or Alisa
Valdes). Here's a TechCrunch report focused on Konrath's success, "Have
We Reached A Tipping Point Where Self-Publishing Is Better Than Getting A Book Deal?"




Seth Godin's launch of Domino, in partnership with Amazon, written about here by GigaOm
[scroll to end of article]: "Book
Publishers Need to Wake Up and Smell the Disruption"






Tension between traditional and indie communities is ever visible in my Twitter & Facebook conversation
streams. Some are adamant that 99% of self-published work is total crap. Others are
adamant that traditional publishing has become a total crap game that no longer serves
a need.




Take a look at this message thread on my Facebook wall, after I made a post about
Amanda Hocking. It goes on for three pages (even longer than what I'm showing here).



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There are perhaps thousands of opinions and predictions about where all this is headed.
(And I'll be issuing my own prediction on
April 1.)




The one thing I know for certain, at this moment, is what
Amanda Hocking recently said on her blog, in response to all the sensationalized coverage
about her story:

Some books and authors are bestsellers, but most
aren't. It may be easier to self-publish than it is to traditionally publish, but
in all honesty, it's harder to be a bestseller self-publishing than it is with a house.

This viewpoint is echoed by Lee Goldberg, over at JA Konrath's blog, when
he offered the following advice. (Keep in mind this is for an audience of storytellers,
mostly genre novelists.)

If you've never been in print before, I believe
you'd be a fool not to take a midlist paperback or a hardcover deal … even a terrible
one … over self-publishing on the Kindle. Financially, you might make less (either
in failure or modest success) … but the difference will be more than made up for in
editing, marketing, wider readership, wider name recognition, and professional prestige
(and that prestige does mean something, whether you want to admit it or not).



You can always go back to self-publishing … and when you do, you will be bring that
wider readership, name recognition, and professional prestige with you. But a book
deal doesn't come along every day, and that's still going to mean something for a
long time yet … and I suspect it still will even if half the bookstores in America
close tomorrow.



Of course, that's assuming you have an agent or publisher interested in your work.
What if you don't? What if you just want to get your work out there?



You better be damn sure your book is up to professional standards.

And to build on that, you also better realize that publishing your book
isn't the hard part. Marketing it is the hardest part. (Thanks to Jason
Pinter for reminding us of this on a recent Digital
Book World webinar.)



John Sundman, one of the SXSWi panelists,
is an author I've known for more than a decade. Or, that is to say, I've watched him
struggle for a decade. He hand sells like a demon and tries to get attention any way
he can. His efforts have caught the attention of Cory Doctorow, Slashdot, and cyberpunk
celebrity Bruce Sterling.




One thing that's fascinating about John's journey is that Bruce Sterling posted about
John's time-consuming and weakly remunerated marketing efforts under this headline:

The
Future of Printed Fiction

I read his post as either sarcastic-derogatory OR a sad prediction on
the growing reality that the novelists who make a name for themselves are often the
ones who actively self-promote and market (whether as part of a meaningful online
"community"-"conversation" or not!).



Is this the future of fiction? First, I think printed fiction is probably something
that becomes marketed mostly to one's biggest or most devoted fans. Electronic editions
become the mass-market (catch the new reader) editions.



Take for instance what Lincoln
Michel says over at The Faster Times:

… We should understand that [Amanda Hocking's] bulk
sale model is closer to the bulk cheap paperback sale model (think Harlequin Romance
novels in drug stores) than the traditional literary publishing model that people
are comparing it to. For one thing, Hocking's model is based on quickly written series
of works. Hocking, at age 26, has 9 books for sale and has written 19. Hooking readers
with ultra-cheap first books doesn't work if you spend years on your next novel that
has nothing to do with the first. Let's just say it isn't a model that is
going to work for your Thomas Pynchons and Marilynne Robinsons of the world.

So, what model will work for the Pynchons and Robinsons of the world?
If they need traditional publishers to support them in their careers, is that the
role that New York publishers primarily serve? (That seems doubtful, since that's
not where the big bucks are. Publishing would have to revert to its roots as a gentlemanly
occupation where profits amount to pennies.)




I don't know many authors who are willing to do what John does, but, on the other
hand, what John does can also be done in various forms online, and this is exactly
what Hocking did:

This is literally years of work you're seeing. And
hours and hours of work each day. The amount of time and energy I put into marketing
is exhausting. I am continuously overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do that
isn't writing a book. I hardly have time to write anymore, which sucks and terrifies
me.



I also have this tremendous sense of urgency, like if I don't get everything out now
and do everything now, while the iron is hot, everything I've worked for will just
fall away. For the first time, I truly understand why workaholics are workaholics.
You can't stop working, because if you do, it unravels all the work you've already
done. You have to keep going, or you'll die.

Is this the future of the novelist (regardless of format)? These are the issues and
dilemmas we'll be discussing on
the SXSWi panel. Hope to see you there.



Bonus: Margaret Atwood discussed this issue at TOC 2011. Go
watch the video!






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7 Don't-Miss Sites for Online Marketing

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Today's guest post is from author Meg
Waite Clayton. You may remember her from an earlier guest post, How
Book Club Readers (and Bookstores) Can Drive Success.




--



How friendly are you, really? Do you have enough followers to qualify as a cult? Are
you still blogging, or have you bought into the headlines announcing blogging is dead?
Do you tweet?




Let's pause for a minute to imagine those questions being asked of Hemingway or Austen.
Dickens … well, maybe Dickens.



My third novel, The
Four Ms. Bradwells , makes its way into a considerably different world than The
Language of Light did eight years ago. When I asked the publisher of my first
novel what I could do to help spread the word, the answer was "we're doing everything
that needs to be done"—which involved a few bookstore readings and a lot of postage
stamps and long-distance phone calls. They did allow that if I sent them a list of
addresses—snail mail ones—they would send out postcards announcing the book to my
real-life friends.



Now the question about online marketing for authors isn't "if" but "where."




The obvious answers are your author website, your blog, Facebook and Twitter,
perhaps Tumblr and Scribd.
But here are seven others you might consider participating in, and why.



1. Goodreads


2. Library Thing


These are two of the most popular online forums for readers. Many publishers will
do book giveaways on these sites to stir up early enthusiasm; ask your publisher,
or consider adding giveaway books yourself. You can also host author chats. (One drawback:
With so many authors on-site, it can be a challenge to get readers to come to your
particular party.)



3. Amazon Author Central


Set up an author profile on Amazon, and you can stream your blog to Amazon, and—this
is perhaps the main reason to do it—gain access to weekly Bookscan numbers, along
with geographical sales data. Trying to decide whether to set up a Milwaukee reading
while you're in town to visit your Aunt Margaret? You can see how many readers you
have there who might be interested in your next book.



You also get an easy way to register the mistakes Amazon makes—and like everyone,
they do occasionally make mistakes. When The
Four Ms. Bradwells page went up, the author line for the hardcover read "Karen
White, reader." It wasn't even Karen White the actor, who is reading the audio version.
And last I heard, readers still have to read hardcovers themselves.




4. Booktour.com


You enter your readings once here, and news of them goes out in e-mails to people
wherever you're reading, as well as on Amazon, GoodReads, and elsewhere. You
can add a widget to your website so they show up there, too.



5. Redroom


This online site comes with a number of perks for authors, including a separate listing
of author blogs. The folks who run it reach out beyond its own font, too, to help
authors place work on Aol News.



6. Sites Where Writers Connect


Sites like the Writer's Digest community and SheWrites are
full of writers, most of whom are also readers (one would hope!). And they tend to
be supportive forums.




I've certainly read books for authors I've met on these kinds of sites with a eye
to providing blurbs for book jackets, and received invitations to join group marketing
efforts. They're also good for sharing knowledge about writing and publishing, and
making writing friends.




On book tour this month, I'm sharing in-person after-reading time with writer-pals
I've met on these forums rather than returning to empty hotel rooms. And I've discovered
some terrific books to read, too.



And last but not least:




7. Wherever your own target market hangs out


Your own mileage may vary on this one. Where do readers who might like your book in
particular hang out online? If you've written about, say, a woman runner, you might
try the Women's Running forum at RunnersWorld.com.
It may take some thought and some sleuthing around. Or you may already participate
in these forums.



Which brings me to the most important point about online outreach. Consider this:
If you look through your front door peephole and see someone obviously wanting to
sell you something, does that make you more or less likely to open the door?



If you post jumbo-sized copies of your book jacket in places that rightfully belong
to others—their walls on chat sites, their Facebook pages, their blogs —folks will
recognize your cover in stores. But they will also think "that's the obnoxious author
who is spamming my space," even if it isn't on MySpace. If they pick up your book,
it will likely be only to stick it in the back of the frozen fruit case. If your every
post says, "Buy my book," your novel is more likely to end up in the technical books
section than in the check-out line.



Be yourself. Be nice. Be a friend to the people you friend.




Don't spam people, just interact.




If you're an interesting, interested person online, folks you cross paths with will
take a look at your page on whatever site you're on, and click over to your website
or blog—places where your book jacket belongs. They'll recognize it in bookstores
and think, that's that nice author I've met online. And in the process, you might
also find that you make some meaningful friendships, and broaden your own horizons,
reading and otherwise.





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Meg Waite Clayton's newest book, The
Four Ms. Bradwells, will be released this month. Go
take a look.


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Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 3/4/11)

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I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Sunday for the week's best Tweets.
If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the Comments. Want to know about the best stuff
I read each week? Click
here to subscribe to my shared items.




Quick plug: check out these live, online classes from Writer's Digest:



Ask
the Agent Power Panel, March 11-13. Get all of your personal questions answered
by Ted Weinstein, Verna Dreisbach, Kelly Sonnack, and Michelle Wolfson





Breaking
Into Corporate Writing, presented by I.J. Schecter, on March 10





















Best of the Best

"Traditional
publishing and indie publishing aren't all that different" - @amanda_hocking [must-read
for indie authors]

@janefriedman



Marian Lizzi of @PerigeeBooks lists top 10 reasons
she rejects a proposal


@twliterary



How to Extend the Value of In-Person Events with Social
Media


@DanBlank

Getting Published + Agents/Editors

Agent Lucienne Diver on writers who
don't listen


@victoriastrauss



Reasons agents reject queries: Opening with a question,
too many issues/plotlines/characters.


@inkyelbows



Confessions of a literary magazine editor


@ladyjournos

Craft + Technique

Sometimes it's the little things that can
get you rejected--cliches, overused actions, predictable dialogue


@elizabethscraig



What is "play-by-play narration" and how do you avoid
it?


@Kid_Lit



Great advice from @WritersDigest: 8 Ways to Write a
5-Star Chapter One


@dbschlosser

Publishing News + Trends

Here @DigiBookWorld interviews me [video]
on the new realities of digital publishing


@MichaelHyatt




From Mashable: Five Digital Media Trends to Watch


@PublishersWkly



40 years of e-books [infographic]


@BubbleCow

Marketing + Promotion

9 Ways to Give a Better Book Reading


@MrMediaTraining

Social Media

Expand Your Social Media Mix: Twitter
Alone is Not Enough


@jowyang

Self-Publishing + E-Publishing

A smart analysis of sloppy Amanda Hocking
self-pub stories by @TheLincoln


@Nosowsky



Dos and don'ts of ebook formatting by Joshua Tallent


@unrulyguides



Kindle Publishing Made Easier > useful info and links


@nickdaws

Looking for more?




Want to know about the best stuff I read each week?


Click here to subscribe
to my shared items.




Follow me on Twitter (@JaneFriedman)







List of Tweeps most
often included in weekly Best Tweets for Writers (always under development)



Follow Writer's Digest editors on Twitter: @writersdigest @brianklems @robertleebrewer @jessicastrawser @chucksambuchino @psexton1 @kellymesserly




Become a fan at the Writer's Digest Facebook
page (11K fans)

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Fact Versus Truth in Writing Fiction

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Today's post is from regular guest Susan
Cushman. Visit her
blog!





--



If you've been following the lawsuit filed by Ablene Cooper against Kathryn
Stockett, author of The New York Times bestseller The Help, I'm sure you
saw this article in the February 17 issue of the Times: "A
Maid Sees Herself in a Novel, and Objects."




Ablene Cooper is a 60-year-old black woman who works for Stockett's brother and his
wife, and the Times article says they encouraged her to sue Stockett for "an unpermitted
appropriation of her name and image, which she finds emotionally distressing."




The name Stockett used for the character in the book is "Aibileen." There are similarities
in the lives of the fictional character and the real person of Ablene Cooper. The
Times article also says, "The lawsuit, filed in Hinds County Circuit Court, contends
that Kathryn Stockett was 'asked not to use the name and likeness of Ablene' before
the book was published, though it does not specify who asked."




Two years before this Times piece, I
met Stockett at a reading/signing at Lemuria Books in Jackson (Miss.), where she
read before her hometown crowd for the first time. Her work fascinated me; I came
of age in Jackson, and grew up in the neighborhoods fictionalized in The Help.
Stockett has received lots of criticism for the light in which she portrayed blacks
during this era, even for her use of dialect, which I thought was point on.



I read the New York Times article with interest and wanted to write a post about it,
but I felt inadequate to address the legal issues. So, I asked John D. Mason, who
is a literary agent and a literary/art and entertainment attorney with The
Intellectual Property Group, PLLC, in Washington, D.C. to answer a few questions
about the situation.





Was this a dangerous move on Stockett's part to use such
a similar name and assimilations of image?

Generally, it was not wise for an author to have a character name so similar
to that of a living person and to also have facts so closely match real life in fiction
(I am using public reports on the lawsuit for my facts).




These types of cases are expensive and fact intensive, and frequently it is difficult
to establish damages. I would be surprised if this went to trial and Ms. Cooper was
ultimately successful in achieving a significant recovery, although I have been surprised
many times before.




As a general rule, fiction authors control their work and so doing something so close
to reality just does not make sense. If Ms. Stockett had thought about it and changed
the name and facts only a little bit, this wouldn't be an issue at all. Better safe
than sorry.

The Times article says, "Though the character of Aibileen is
portrayed in a sympathetic, even saintly light, she endures the racial insults of
the time, something that Ms. Cooper said she found 'embarrassing.'" I read the book,
and having grown up in "North" Jackson, Mississippi, during the 50s and 60s, I found
the descriptions of the times to be very accurate, and Stockett's voice to be non-judgmental.
How legitimate are Ms. Cooper's claims that the book harmed her? What do you think
the chances of the plaintiff winning this suit are? And, should Ms. Stockett have
done more to protect herself? 

I don't think it is likely that this case will go to trial or that Ms.
Cooper will receive a significant award of damages if it does and she is successful.




This is a name and likeness/right of publicity case and those tort claims arise generally
from an individual's right of privacy. This lawsuit is most likely what is known as
an action for appropriation of Ms. Cooper's name and likeness, which is an action
a non-celebrity brings for unauthorized use of their name and likeness, generally
where there is no commercial use involved.




A right of publicity case generally is one where a person is a celebrity or uses their
persona in a commercial sense and thus they have a property interest in controlling
exploitation of their persona or name and likeness. The goal of the state laws which
create the action for appropriation of name and likeness cause of action are to prevent
emotional/reputational injury and protect people from invasions of their privacy (it
does not appear that this is a false light case).

I believe that Ms. Stockett's attorneys will argue that she
has first amendment defenses, that any similarities are incidental and de minimis
in their impact, if any, on Ms. Cooper, and that her artistic expression is only coincidentally
and not intentionally similar to Ms. Cooper's name and/or likeness. (It should be
noted that a likeness is generally understood to literally be the face of an individual,
which does not appear to be an issue here).




If Ms. Cooper is successful in convincing a jury or judge that the use made by Ms.
Stockett is a misappropriation of her name and likeness and violation of her right
of publicity, she would be entitled to her actual damages, which may be difficult
to quantify and prove by evidence but could arguably be an apportioned amount of profits
attributable to the commercial exploitation of her name and likeness or right of publicity.




If there is a showing of bad faith on the part of Ms. Stockett—the reason the complaint
notes that Ms. Stockett was asked not to use or appropriate Ms. Cooper's persona—then
Ms. Cooper may be entitled to a trebling or other enhancement of her actual damages.




Similarly, in the event of such a bad faith finding, Ms. Cooper may also be entitled
to attorney's fees and costs under the Mississippi statute.




All of the foregoing gets very complicated and the bottom line is that it will be
an expensive effort and trial with, in my opinion, a potentially small likelihood
of success and little likelihood of recoverable damages. I think it is most likely
that there will be a settlement based on the cost of defense. Essentially, I think
it is likely that Ms. Stockett will buy peace based on how much it will cost to defend
the entire case through trial.

We've been discussing the risks involved in portraying real people in a negative light
in fiction-writing. Are authors "safe" from lawsuits if they change the names of the
real-life people they portray in nonfiction books, like memoirs?

Not necessarily. If the people they are writing about are sufficiently
identifiable, even after changing the name the author may be exposing his or herself
to claims for libel, false light, public disclosure of private facts and related cases.
Obviously, the truth is usually a good defense to some of these types of claims, but
there can even be situations where disclosing true facts can be actionable in certain
jurisdictions. If you are unsure, best to consult a literary attorney to conduct due
diligence on the manuscript. This
is a great discussion of the issue.

--



John D. Mason lectures 10–20 times a year on legal issues for artists and writers,
and will be among the faculty at the 2011
Memphis Creative Nonfiction Workshop in September, along with his client, Bob
Cowser, Jr. They'll be doing a presentation on author-agent relations and other
legal issues that writers need to know about. (Registration is open!)

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6 Common Plot Fixes

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The following post is an excerpt from "The Ultimate Revision Checklist" by James Scott
Bell, featured in the Writer's Digest special issue, Write Your Novel in 30 Days.
If you enjoy this post, check out Bell's upcoming seminar in June on how
to sell your novel.




--



Key Questions to Ask About Your Plot




Is there any point where a reader might feel like putting the book down?

Does the novel feel like it's about people doing things?

Does the plot feel forced or unnatural?

Is the story out of balance? Too much action? Too much reaction?



1. Keep Nabbing Ideas


All through the revision process, your mind will be working on your plot. When you
sleep, eat, shower, drive. The boys in the basement never stop.



So be able to nab any ideas that occur to you at odd moments. Have pens and paper
handy in your home, car, office, backpack. Don't hesitate to jot down what occurs
to you, without judgment. Later, you can sift through your notes and decide what to
incorporate.



2. Create Two Trajectories


Create two trajectories for your main character: a personal problem and a plot problem.



He's in his personal problem as the story begins, or it develops soon thereafter.

The plot problem arises when the main conflict is engaged.

The two don't necessarily intersect as the story moves along, though they can. But
the personal complicates how he deals with the plot.



3. Add Another Level of Complication


In Robert Crais's thriller Hostage, burned-out hostage negotiator Jeff Talley
is suddenly faced with a tense stand-off in an otherwise placid bedroom community.
Fine and dandy on its own, but Crais then adds another level: The hostage inside the
house has in his possession incriminating financial evidence against the mob, because
he's the mob's accountant! The mob needs to get that evidence before the cops. To
put pressure on Talley, the mob kidnaps his ex-wife and daughter and holds them hostage.
This added level of complication supercharges the entire book.



Don't hold back on making trouble. Have you been resistant to making things as bad
as possible for your lead? Did you pull your punches when creating obstacles, challenges,
points of conflict? Were you too nice to your characters?



Go through your manuscript, and for each scene define what the point of conflict is.



4. Add a Character


Too few characters can result in a thin plot. Too many can render it overweight. But
just the right character added at just the right time presents a whole universe of
plot possibilities. If your plot is plodding, consider adding a new, dynamic character
to the proceedings. Give this character a stake in the plot. Give him plenty of reasons
to be for or against the other characters. Search out possible backstory relationships
between the new character and the existing cast.



5. Beware of Unmotivated Actions


Do you have characters doing things that aren't justified in the story? A character
can't just show up. You need to give your characters a reason why they act the way
they do. Look to:



desires

yearnings

duties

psychological wounds

passion

6. Change a Setting


Usually the main setting of your plot is going to remain as is, because you have so
much invested in it. You've done research, set up locations for scenes, and so on.
But if it's possible to change, give it some consideration. Will it add levels to
your plot? More exciting possibilities? Even if you can't change the main location,
many of your scenes can be enlivened in this way. Look especially to these locations:



restaurants

kitchens

living rooms

offices

cars

These are the places most of us are in most of the time. For that reason, they're
overly familiar. Look at each instance of a location like the above and see if you
can't find a fresher venue. For example, instead of a restaurant scene, what if the
characters were outside eating hot dogs on a pier? Or at a carnival where there's
too much noise? You don't have to move every scene, of course, but this is one way
to sharpen a plot.



--



[image error]Looking
for more? Need character fixes? Dialogue fixes? Scene fixes? Buy the best book available
on revision, Write
Great Fiction: Revision & Self-Editing by James Scott Bell.

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A Wonderful Prompt to Help You Gather Material

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Writers are often asked how they find their ideas.



Author Stefanie Freele says "the world gushes prompts," and in the latest Glimmer
Train bulletin, she gives us a thought-provoking prompt to help us explore the ideas
surrounding us:

Pretend you have been gifted the day off from life
tomorrow. Someone else is going to step in and be you. Your substitute has already
been briefed on the basics: your routine, where you work, your schedule, your general
lifestyle and responsibilities. He or she will take care of it all. However, your
stand-in doesn't know your idiosyncrasies, your quirks, your foibles, your eccentricities.
You need to fill the substitute in on the peculiar details: Since you're going
to be me tomorrow, you'll need to know the following …

Go read the Freele's full article, "On
Gathering Material."




Or click here
for the newest Glimmer Train bulletin, with wonderful advice for working writers.



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Bid on a Consultation With Me (for Charity)

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As part of a Red Cross fundraiser, I've donated a 30-minute writer/author consultation. Click
here to read more and to bid.




This online fundraiser event celebrates Red Cross Month (March). It is intended to
raise funds and awareness for the Red Cross and its work in communities across the
country. Check out daily guest posts
from authors in March.




All donors who give over $25 can select one free book from a range of books donated
and shipped by publishers for the event. Click
here to find out more.


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My Latest Thoughts on Writers & Social Media

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While at AWP, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Caleb J. Ross and Nik Korpon
to talk about writers, social media, and the digital era.




You can listen to the 20-minute conversation here.




Some topics we discuss:



How is it writers are so attached to the physical book?

Is aversion to electronic media generational?

Does spreading content through multiple platforms make your platform weaker?

What's the benefit to tracking reader habits?

What are some tools authors can use to evaluate return on their investment of time
and energy?

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