Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 232

You Don't Get to Choose Whether You're a Writer

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In this month's Glimmer Train bulletin, there's a lovely piece by Kathryne Young called "On
Writing, Not Writing, and the Writing Life."




Here's a brief snippet:

Joan Didion writes, "The impulse to write things
down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful
only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify
itself."




My mother told me something similar when I was young: you don't get to choose whether
you're a writer; your only choice is whether to be a writer who writes or a writer
who doesn't. What she didn't tell me then, though I'm certain she knew, is that if
you're a writer and you're not writing, you will never quite be happy.

Go read the full
essay here.




Or go straight to the entire Glimmer Train bulletin!

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Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 10/29/10)

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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 for my webinar this week:



Get
a query letter critique (from me!) on Thursday, November 4, at 6p Eastern. Everyone
who registers is guaranteed a critique of either a novel or nonfiction query letter.





Best of Best

A Comprehensive
and Totally Universal Listing of Every Problem a Story Has Ever Had


@AdviceToWriters



6 golden rules of NaNoWriMo 


@VictoriaMixon



Even in queries, you should SHOW us how great your
book is, don't TELL us. No hype!


@RachelleGardner

Getting Published, Agents/Editors

Don't fall for publishing industry scams


@elizabethscraig



Good piece by @edhoganderby on editing process for
his upcoming novel


@thefictiondesk



Is Demand Studios a scam or a legitimate freelance writing
opportunity?


@Writeitsideways



Will Publishers Steal Your Book Idea?


@BubbleCow

Craft & Technique

Did you see Rollin's 7 Sympathy Builders? Check
them out

@ThrillersRockT



The McKee-Fields Sessions Part 1: Story Takes Flight


@jonathanfields



Become A Better (And Future-Friendly) Storyteller:
Embrace Other Media


@40kBooks

Publishing News & Trends

Book publishing would thrive by working
more like the technology industry


@SueCollier



Wired cofounder Kevin Kelly talks about what technology
wants from the book business


@PublishersWkly



Shatzkin, Digital Book World, Nash: Where is the
Writer's Brain Trust?


@penswithcojones



Blurring
the Line Between Apps and Books


@selfpubreview

Self-Publishing and E-Publishing

Passing the Hat: Soliciting Donations
in Web Fiction


@BubbleCow



What Do Self-Publishing Success Stories Have in Common?


@BubbleCow



Sci-Fi's Cory Doctorow Separates Self-Publishing Fact
From Fiction


@nprnews



Ebook Madness: Don't Confuse Ebook Conversion With Ebook
Formatting!


@indieauthor

Online Resources + Tools

Helpful
character creation links


@elizabethscraig

The Writing Life + Fun Stuff

17
Reasons your film script was rejected ... in 1925


@elizabethscraig



Post from @MichaelHyatt has me re-thinking some things. Should
we keep our goals to ourselves?


@RachelleGardner

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 @chadseibert @vanessa_lw @psexton1 @kellymesserly




Become a fan at the Writer's Digest Facebook
page (nearly 10K fans)

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Hands-On Advice + Interaction With Harlequin Editors (Free!)

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I don't often report on events like this, but this one is so benefit- and content-driven
for writers that every kind of romance novelist could learn something valuable or
boost their career because of it.



Harlequin is hosting a 5-day online event next week (November 1-5) with more than
50 professional editors and authors called So
You Think You Can Write?




Here's just a brief list of benefits and opportunities:



Live chats and webinars with Harlequin editors

Community discussions with USA Today bestselling authors



Daily challenges to test writing skills

A special inbox for writers to submit their manuscripts directly to Harlequin editors

Each weekday offers new, educational opportunities from 9 to 5, on topics such as:



Succeeding as a Romance Writer

First Chapters

What Editors Look For

Paranormal Plots

The End of Predictability in Romance Writing

If you're interested in writing and publishing romance, this is a must-see and must-participate
event.




Go check out the site. (Small version of event calendar below to get you interested.)





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The Best Query Writing Advice

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Next week, I'll be critiquing 1-page query letters as part of a live, online class. You
can sign up here.




I only do this a couple times a year, so if you have a query NOW, here's your chance
for a professional review and edit.



There's a ton of conflicting advice out there about what should go in a query, what
should NOT go in a query, etc.




Here are previous posts on queries (from my blog and Writer's Digest) that I highly
recommend:



How
to Ensure 75% of Agents Will Request Your Material (by Marcus Sakey)




Breaking
Down the Query Letter by Chuck Sambuchino (Guide to Literary Agents blog)



5 Query
Letter Tips from Chuck Sambuchino (this is a quick one, but important one)



And here are my favorite posts from OTHERS that I agree with:



How
to Write a Query Letter by agent Nathan Bransford



How
to Write a Query Letter by agent Rachelle Gardner





The GOLDEN Resource


Don't forget to follow Chuck's series on Successful
Queries — you can read queries that actually worked in landing an agent or deal.



Also: You can submit your query to the QueryShark if
you're brave enough to see an agent dissect your query in public view.



If you would like MY professional, hands-on help, sign
up for my class next week.

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Make Sure You Don't Have a Horrible Personality

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I'm a huge fan of the Ira Glass talks on storytelling.




You can find
the first one here; you could also follow
me on YouTube and find them all stockpiled in my "favorite videos" list.



In the video I've embedded above, Ira Glass talks about one of the biggest problems
with submissions he receives for his show:



The person has a horrible personality.




Who are people with horrible personalities?



The ones who only seem able to talk about themselves.



Herein lies, I believe, one of the great secrets to being a writer: You are curious
about others; you are curious about the world.




To be interesting, we have to be interested in other people. That's how it works.



(If this doesn't describe you? Fake
it for a while until it does.)

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What Can Set You Apart: Your Ability to Focus

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In
an excellent interview by Dan Blank, Christina Katz talks about practices and
skills of successful writers. Here's a brief (edited) transcription of the opening
message of the conversation.

There's a lot of confusion out there for writers.
Writers are being overwhelmed with messages telling them you gotta do this–no wait,
you gotta do this.




That sounding the alarm would be difficult for any kind of creative person. I'm not
saying put yourself in a bubble, but … There's all of this yimmer-yammer going on
constantly—calls for action.



So my job as a writing instructor is to say: Look, yes, there's change in the publishing
industry, but this is good news for writers, so there's nothing to panic about.



The most important thing is: What's on your plate? How are you going to get your work
done? How are you going to organize your life so you can proceed in an orderly manner,
and how you are going to buffer yourself from all the insanity going on?

(I
highly recommend listening to the first half-hour of the interview for more great
insights.)



I agree with Christina that there's a cacophony of voices in the writing and publishing
world, and trying to make sense of it all (much less stay current on it) can be counterproductive
to getting real work done.



And I must admit to being one of those distracting voices, though I hope, to some
extent, my link
roundups, and other posts, help point to the most important information or advice
to be aware of.



But, as Christina says, you have to focus on what's most important to getting the
work done, and not allow yourself to get distracted from building the skills to move
your career forward.



I'm curious how you decide which sources of information are worth the time or energy
to follow (whether online or off), and if there's a point at which you eventually
stop following a particular source? How do you put up filters?



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Glimmer Train Monthly News

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Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning
stories for their Short Story Award for New Writers. This competition is held quarterly
and is open to all writers whose fiction has not appeared in a print publication with
a circulation greater than 5000. The next Short Story Award competition will take
place in November.




Glimmer Train's monthly submission
calendar may be viewed here.

First place: Kathryne Young (pictured above), of Woodside, CA,
wins $1200 for "Roadrunner." Her story will be published in the Winter 2012 issue
of Glimmer Train Stories, out in November 2011.



Second place: Jennifer Tomscha, of Ann Arbor, MI, wins $500 for "Sure Gravity."
Her story will also be published in an upcoming issue of Glimmer Train Stories, increasing
her prize to $700.



Third place: Kate Rutledge Jaffe of Missoula, MT, wins $300 for "Talk About
the Weather." 

A
PDF of the Top 25 winners can be found here.




Deadline soon approaching!


Family Matters: October 31



This competition is held twice a year and is open to all writers for stories about
family. Word count should not exceed 12,000. (All shorter lengths welcome.) Click
here for complete guidelines.




--



If you didn't know, Writer's Digest partnered with Glimmer Train to publish two compilation
volumes of the best stuff from their Writers
Ask newsletter.




Check them out: Volume
1 and Volume
2.



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Best Tweets for Writers (week ending 10/22/10)

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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 for upcoming Writer's
Digest online classes:




Get
a query letter critique from yours truly! Only on Thursday, November 4,
at 6p Eastern. Everyone who registers is guaranteed a critique of either a novel or
nonfiction query letter.



Copyright
& Contracts presented by lawyer Amy Cook. Live session with opportunity to
ask questions, Thursday, October 28.







Best of Best

5 situations where it's better to tell
than show in your fiction


@AdviceToWriters



The Top 5 Free eBooks for Fiction Writers


@Writeitsideways



How to Write a Novel in Three Days. Thought-provoking
advice from a master fantasy author.

@nickdaws

Getting Published, Agents/Editors

Can you write a publishable first novel?
8 dos and don'ts to increase your chances


@Writeitsideways



The definition and challenges of the early reader and
chapter book market


@Kid_Lit



Do you have a BUSINESS mindset for your writing career?
Should you?


@RachelleGardner

Craft & Technique

9 (Arbitrary) Ways to Get Your Writing
Rejected


@AdviceToWriters



Alexander McCall Smith on writing concisely. Overwritten
prose takes away readers' opportunity to imagine


@dbschlosser



"Little Fictions" within creative nonfiction


@KimsCraftBlog



6 Ways to Hook Your Readers from the Very First Line


@AdviceToWriters



An agent on some opening page tactics that fail


@elizabethscraig

Publishing News & Trends

Is Beg, Borrow and Barter a Good Business
Model? It Works for Cory Doctorow

@ereads



The real cost of free


@doctorow



Why book publishing needs Silicon Valley way by
@mike_elgan

@jafurtado



The pyramid of literary
respect


@RonHogan

Marketing, Platform Building, Self-Promotion

The seven deadly book marketing mistakes
authors make


@BookBuzzr




Research: what kinds of promotion sell books


@dbschlosser



8 Tips on Starting Your Own Grass-Roots Campaign For
Your Book


@JFbookman



Promote Your Book on the Goodreads Network


@indieauthor

Self-Publishing and E-Publishing

9 tips for authors on writing and selling
e-books


@dsawyer



Did Borders' New Self-Publishing Tool Make Blogs Smarter
or Books Dumber?


@fastcompany

Blogs & Websites

How to Turn Your WordPress Blog Into
a Social Network


@BubbleCow

Social Media & Twitter

The Secret to Social Media Success–Slow &
Steady Wins the Race


@elizabethscraig



"What we are ultimately trying to do is really connect
with another person." Great video by @ZeFrank

@DebbieStier

The Writing Life

Feeling
Sad Makes Us More Creative


@AdviceToWriters

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 @chadseibert @vanessa_lw @psexton1 @kellymesserly




Become a fan at the Writer's Digest Facebook
page (nearly 10K fans)

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Online Marketing Works If You Have the Long View

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These days, it seems like everyone has become a big skeptic of social networking's
effectiveness—or even believes that cultivating a site or blog can harm or stall a
writer's career.




In the following post, I explain why I think authors aren't getting the results they
want (or why they fail in their efforts):

The
No. 1 Component of an Effective Online Marketing and Promotion Strategy

You'll find that not only patience is key, but also you need to have
an online "hub" in place. Go
read the full article.


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5 Things Every Writer Should Know About Rights

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Most writers I know fall into 1 of 2 camps: people who are (overly) concerned that
someone will steal their work, and innocents who don't take time to learn what rights
they ought to be protecting.



So I'd like to outline the 5 things every writer should know about their rights (and,
by extension, other people's rights).



1. Your work is protected under copyright as soon as you
put it in tangible form.


Your work doesn't need to be 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. (And, 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.)




2. For shorter works (non-books), publications automatically
acquire one-time rights unless specified otherwise in the contract.


The current law puts the burden on the publication to notify the author in writing
if it wants to acquire any rights other than one-time rights (that is, the right to
publish the work one time). The law also contains termination provisions that allow
an author to regain rights she assigned to others, after a specific period.




3. Your work cannot accidentally fall into the public domain.


Any published or distributed material on which a copyright has expired is considered
to be in the public domain—that is, available for use by any member of the general
public without payment to, or permission from, the original author.




It used to be that your work might accidentally fall into the public domain if not
protected under copyright or published with the copyright symbol. This is not the
case any longer.



4. 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."



5. You can quote other people's work in your own work, without
permission, as long as you abide by fair use guidelines.


The downside here is that there are no hard-and-fast rules as to what constitutes
fair use of a copyrighted work.




The law says that four factors should be considered in determining if a use is fair:




the purpose and character of the use (commercial vs. not-for-profit/educational)

the nature of the copyrighted work

the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the entire quoted
work

the effect of the use on the potential market for or value of the quoted work


Most publishers have their own fair-use guidelines that they ask their own authors
to abide by. But, if you're picking up only a few hundred words from a full-length
book, it's probably fair use. Always be extremely careful when quoting poetry or song
lyrics—ANY use at all usually requires permission (and a fee).



For more authoritative info on this topic, I highly recommend signing up for an
online educational session next week, with lawyer Amy Cook, who specializes in
publishing law. You'll be able to ask questions live: Copyright
and Contracts




Alternatively, you can read more from these authoritative sources:



2001 Writer's Digest
article on fair use




Stanford University Library has an extensive
online FAQ on copyright and fair use (from NOLO)




Also check the Citizen
Media Law project for a primer

If you know of any good resources on copyright and fair use, please share them in
the comments!





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