Elizabeth Einspanier's Blog, page 6

Secondary Characters are People, Too!

In this week's post I'm going to talk about the secondary characters you might have wandering around in your work. If handled improperly, secondary and background characters will seem like part of the scenery rather than add to the flavor of your world. Why? Because it's so easy to have your secondaries just exist for the scene (or two, or whatever) they're in and then get stuffed back in the creative closet.

This is a mistake, but an understandable one. Your main characters--your protagonist(s) and your villain(s)--carry the bulk of the story, so naturally you want to focus on them. Your heroes have motivations. Hopefully your villains have motivations, too, that sound reasonable to them, rather than just having them wander around aimlessly being evil at people. But the people milling around in the background? Who cares about them?

Well, you should. You created them for a reason, and even if they're literally only there for a single scene to contribute a single piece of needed info to your hero, they need lives outside the story. This might seem like a lot of hard work that nobody's going to see, and you might be right.  BUT, that guy milling around in the background might turn out to be helpful to your hero at a crucial moment.

Remember that crowd of train passengers in Spider-Man 2 that Our Intrepid Hero nearly kills himself saving from Doctor Octopus? They came to his defense when Ock tried to finish him off because they saw that Spidey was "only a kid", like any of their own offspring. They didn't have much in the way of character development, but they helped the hero. They might have been listed in the credits as Bystander on Train #1 through #9 or whatever, but they had a reason to jump to his defense.

Now, unless you're writing a sweeping high fantasy epic or whatever, it's unlikely that you're going to break out in mass quantities of background characters. However, you do need to know who your named characters are, at least, in case you need an unexpected ally (or obstacle) for your hero at a key moment in your story.

Does this mean you need to provide a complete backstory for every single character who has even a walk-on part in your novel or short story? No, obviously not. That would be a lot of record-keeping, and a project you should only undertake if you're planning on lots and lots of ground-level world-building. Even then, just focus on a small handful of people in your fictional city of ten million, or you'll be so busy making characters that you'll never get to your story.

In conclusion, while the focus of your story should be on your main cast, don't neglect that background characters. Making sure that at least you know who they are beyond the context of the story will help you make them more rounded for the reader. Mapping out what secondary characters are doing while off-screen will also help you get them in the right place at the right time for some additional support for your main characters, and who knows? Heroic Bystander #2 might become a fan favorite as a result.

Beta Readers Wanted!

Want to get a first look at my next project? Love reading? Enjoy quirky romance? Then sign up to be a beta reader!

My next project, Heart of Steel, needs extra eyes to help me iron out all the plot wrinkles, and you can help! As this is my first romance novel, I especially need your help in making sure the romance part of it flows organically to its conclusion.

Alistair Mechanus can't remember the tragedy that turned him into a cyborg ten years ago. He does remember the pain, both physical and mental, which has haunted him since, and he's retreated to seclusion on Shark Reef Isle. Hiding away from the world that broke him, he forms a plan for World Domination, believing that he can improve on the inherent societal flaws that he associates with his breakdown. However, when he sees his latest prisoner, he feels a spark of emotion in his internal circuitry that he has not felt in over a decade.

Julia's lush vacation was supposed to block out the incident that cost her job at the hospital. Now instead of swimming in Hawaii's blue waters, she meets an infatuated cyborg who needs the very compassionate care she wants to stop giving. When her overbearing wish-we-broke-up-already boyfriend Jim is injured, Alistair’s clumsy attempt at kindness goes spinning out of control, forcing Julia to trust the mad genius with her life.

Julia soon uncovers a vulnerable side beneath Alistair’s armored plating, as well as clues to unlocking his forgotten past. However, solving the mystery of who he used to be may cost him what remains of his fractured sanity.

If this sounds like your kind of book, let me know in the comments or email me at info(at)elizabetheinspanier(dot)com, and I will send you an e-copy in PDF, mobi, or epub format (please specify). I look forward to hearing from you!

Convention Survival Tips

When you're a genre writer like me, eventually you're going to want to go to some of the many (many, many) conventions that are held all over the world. In my case, I was in luck this year, because the Wizard World Comic Con was in downtown St. Louis earlier this year, in addition to Archon in Collinsville, which I plan to attend this fall. Conventions are a great place to meet fans, both of the genre you write in and (potentially) of the stuff you write, and most people are pretty friendly. Additionally, conventions are great for introverts like me because for some reason I have an easier time approaching some guy dressed like Robocop or Batman versus some random guy on the street.

However, whether you attend a convention as a free-range guest to attend the seminars are see your favorite actors or writers or whatever, or you get yourself a table in the dealer's room to hock your wares, there are a few tips that will help you survive.

Wear Comfortable Shoes I can't emphasize this enough. Chances are, you will be doing a lot of walking at the convention, possibly for eight hours or more, and you can't count on there being a whole lot of unoccupied places to sit (no, the floor doesn't count). Even if you are in costume, and the high-heeled boots you got look awesome with your outfit, think how comfortable they'll be towards the end of the day when you can barely walk. At Comic Con, I wore a mad scientist costume on Sunday that had a pair of really awesome looking stompy boots from Hot Topic (my #1 source for all big stompy boots). I had a great time walking around, taking pictures, getting my picture taken in turn, and buying geeky stuff. When I got home, I pried my really awesome stompy boots off my aching feet and found I had a raw spot worn in my heel.

Now, this might not be as much of an issue with those who get a dealer table, but you never know. You're not going to necessarily sit on your butt the entire time.

Stay Hydrated Conventions will be hot and stuffy. There will be a lot of people. You will sweat. This goes double if you're in costume, no matter how much actual skin coverage is involved. Many conventions will have food vendors, but they will be expensive. Carry a bottle of water with you and refill it in the restrooms from time to time so you don't have to go hunting for a drinking fountain before you pass out.

Be Polite This goes equally if you are a speaker, a bookseller, or one of the roving crowds of unwashed masses. Ask permission before you take someone's picture. Act like a freaking civilized human being. A lot of conventions have "no creeper" rules because some convention-goers have decided that a cosplayer in a skimpy costume deserves to be groped or have her zippers messed with (I wish I was kidding). That's a good way to get the snot beaten out of you by Superman, Thor, or Jayne Cobb.


There is an unstated rule that being in a Deadpool costume means you can act utterly insane and get away with it, but have some freaking standards, or the dozen or so other Deadpools will call you out on it. Acting like a jerk at a convention is a good way to get you not invited back at best, banned in the middle, and arrested on assault charges at worst.

Have FunThis is why you went to the convention in the first place, right? Walk around! Meet people! Check out the costumes! Talk to fellow writers! Attend the panels! Buy the stuff! Get out there and have a good time (within reason, see above)! Chances are you'll make some new friends/networking contacts, and you might even link up on the social media platform of your choice.

Going to a convention does take some planning and some extra endurance, but the main reason you go to one of these things is to have a good time and meet people with similar interests. Bring a camera or Smartphone and a spare charger, though--you don't want to see the Best Costume Ever towards the end of the day and realize you're phone's almost dead from the 900 other pictures you took that day.

Paranormal Romance vs. Sci-Fi Romance

When I first decided I was going to write (and finish) a novel, the first idea that came to mind was a sci-fi romance called Heart of Steel. That was fine as far as it went, until the time came to do a little genre research, whereupon I found the relative handful of sci-fi romance titles were tossed into the same section as paranormal romance. That struck me as odd, since sci-fi and paranormal are only similar in that they're both spec fiction. Aside from that, they're worlds apart. Now, I know that the people in charge of cataloging the romance subgenres are going to keep using the terms interchangeably while sci-fi romance is even nichier than paranormal romance, but I thought I'd try to distinguish the two.

First, let's talk about setting. Paranormal romances tend to be set in roughly the modern day, plus or minus twenty years or so. They're usually like "our" Earth, except for the presence of the paranormal stuff, which may or may not protect itself with a conspiracy to keep normal folks from discovering (and freaking out over) it. This offers the reader a fairly comfortable frame of reference, and allows for the possibility of an everyman or everywoman lead. Sci-fi romance can be set anywhere from 100 years ago (in the case of steampunk) to several hundred years in the future (for nearly everything else). It also doesn't have to be set on Earth, let alone "our" Earth--I've seen titles set on alien planets as often as a futuristic Earth that might be a mind-boggling dystopia, a post-apocalyptic hell, or a wondrous speculation of miracles yet to come.

Now let's talk about the critters. Paranormal romances tend more towards magical or supernatural creatures, including but not limited to vampires, spellcasters, ghosts, demons, angels, and shapeshifters. Any one of these may be a love interest (vampires seem to be popular these days), and they can be either gender. Sci-fi romances can have aliens (usually humanoid), cyborgs, robots(!), and any number of metahumans with superpowers not otherwise covered under the paranormal umbrella. Again, any one of these can be the love interest in your story (yes, even the robots), but while they can be either gender, there seems to be a slight preference for males, regardless of the gender of the other lead.

Finally, let's talk about the heroes. Paranormal romances tend towards intuitive heroes who aren't afraid to resort to physical combat to get the job done. They use their street-smarts, or instincts, or gut feelings to get out of a scrape. Conversely, sci-fi romances tend to have intellectual heroes who prefer to think their way out of a scrape. They might or might not be able to build a death ray out of some aluminum foil and a car battery, but they're more likely to try to make a plan rather than punch, kick, or bite (depending on preference) their way through obstacles. This is not to say that all PNR heroes are brutish beasts (even if other members of their species are) or that SFR heroes are all emotionless robots (even if they literally are). Even a steampunk artificer might know how to throw a solid punch in a pinch, but if he has time and the death ray option is open, well, he's going to build himself a freaking death ray.

Now, I know that there's going to be some overlap between SFR and PNR stories, especially if the author takes the science fantasy route or the Magic Is Sufficiently Advanced Technology route, but these are the distinctions I've seen. Unfortunately, the fact that there aren't separate categories for each means that someone looking for one or the other might have to hunt around in Romance or Science Fiction to get your speculative romance on, regardless of which type you prefer. Fortunately, with the increase of self-published authors, I imagine that both of these categories may increase in size, meaning that the cataloging people in bookstores (online and physical) may eventually separate the two properly. In the meantime, though, happy hunting.

Obscure Genres, Explained

As you browse the fiction categories of Amazon, you probably notice that a lot of the stuff has been sorted into neat categories: Horror, science fiction, romance, mainstream, whatever. Then there are those that people might not be familiar with, genres who are an actual thing, but might be a subset of one of the big categories or (gasp) a mix of two or more. You might have heard about these and wondered what the hell they're all about, because otherwise they're intermixed with the Big Categories and otherwise really damn hard to search for. Here is my humble attempt to explain them to you.

The "Lit"s

Chick Lit: Let's start with one of the lighter ones. Chick lit is a relatively modern genre focusing on modern womanhood, generally through a filter of humor. It typically features a female protagonist whose womanhood is the central focus of the plot. In other words, a chick flick in book form. Examples: Bridget Jones' Diary, The Devil Wears Prada.Misery Lit: And of course, way over at the other end of the idealism/cynicism scale is Misery Lit. This is supposedly biographical literature focusing on the protagonist overcoming trauma or abuse of many different kinds, to offer a literary catharsis for others who has suffered abuse. This genre has been rife with hoaxes (believed and confirmed alike), but regardless, if you can read one of these books without losing your faith in humanity, you have no soul. Examples: A Child Called It.Boomer Lit: Boomer lit focuses on protagonists from the baby boomer generation. It typically explores all the elements of an aging population, but is also prepared to challenge the stereotypes that go along with it.Examples: The Hot Flash Club.The "Punk"sBio Punk: Bio Punk mixes organic technology and genetic engineering with the science of an earlier time. This was actually fairly popular in early science fiction as the smart guys were learning how the human body worked, and it's carried through to modern works as wellExamples: Frankenstein, The Island of Dr. MoreauCattle Punk: Cattle Punk is to the Western what Steampunk (below) is to the Victorian setting. Imagine a Western novel with robotic horses, rayguns, and a gunslinger with a mechanical eye, and you've got a fair idea of what Cattle Punk is all about.Examples: Wild Wild West (movie)Clock Punk: Clock Punk is old-school Steam Punk. Yes, I know Steam Punk is old-school already, but this is even older-school--like pre-Industrial Revolution. Replace steam power with clockwork, applied to the same general results. Imagine the sort of crazy shit that Leonardo da Vinci might be up to if he had the ability, and you've got Clock PunkExamples: Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse, Assassin's Creed: BrotherhoodCyber Punk: This is the big one that launched a dozen sub-genres. Cyber Punk added the grittiness of the underclasses to what had previously been the shiny, chromey futurism of contemporary science fiction. In Cyber Punk you have underground hackers railing against The Man with the aid of cybernetic implants that let them do neat things like mentally interface with a computer.Examples: Half of everything by William Gibson.Diesel Punk: With the dawning of the Twentieth Century came the Industrial Revolution (yay!), mass manufacturing (yay!), and a little thing called World War One (boo!). Diesel punk does funky things with internal combustion engines and electricity, making for an interesting sort of Zeerust (that is, things that would be futuristic if they weren't set in the past).Examples: Bio Shock, Captain America: The First AvengerSteam Punk: This is the big one: Steam-powered gizmos in a Victorian setting. Imagine if steam, not electricity, were the medium to catapult humanity into a new age of technology, producing wonders like automata and other man-made servants of that type, alongside terrors like advanced war machines running roughshod over a world that isn't ready to counter them. Steam Punk covers not only literature, but film, music, comic books, and a fashion subculture, and strangely side-steps all the unpleasant issues of Victorian morality and gender rolesExamples: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the SeaOther Stuff
Weird Western: Where Cattle Punk is a science fiction take on the Western Genre, the Weird Western is more fantasy or horror. The frontier of that era was paved with ghost stories and legends, both from the settlers and the Native Americans, and the Weird Western works on the conceit that some of them are real.Examples: Desperadoes, From Dusk Till Dawn, Sheep's ClothingBizarro Fiction: Hoo boy. Bizarro fiction is one of those genres where either you get it, or you don't. And the trouble with getting it is finding it half the time. Bizarro fiction typically takes place in a dreamlike parallel world where bizarre stuff is commonplace, and it works on its own logic that generally only makes sense if you just sit back and roll with it. Imagine if a novel dropped acid. The fun part is searching for these books, because some of the titles are downright profane.Examples: Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland, The Baby Jesus Butt Plug, The Ass Goblins of Auchwitz (... Told ya.)
Now, this is by no means a comprehensive list of the more obscure genres out there, but hopefully it will offer some help in figuring out what the hell is meant by these terms. I may make another post of this sort if my readers need help figuring out other subgenres.

Researching Your Novel for Fun and Profit

Writing is about more than creating. Yes, creation is an overwhelming part of it, but even if you write fiction (and this includes speculative fiction), eventually you're going to have to do a bit of research.

But why? I hear you cry. If I'm making up an entire world, then what I say goes, right?

Well... almost.

Even if you're starting with bare-bones worldbuilding, you need to start with some point of reference, and this goes triple for if you're writing a story set in "The Real World" or "Like Earth Except". Most fictional societies are, at their base, analogues of real-world societies, because that's what our brains understand. And, really, if you don't put some familiar structures in your setting, sooner or later the reader will hit a point where they throw the book against a wall because nothing makes any damn sense.

Don't worry, fellow writers... research doesn't have to be brain-crampingly hard. This isn't going to be like that term paper at school that you absolutely hated, mainly because you're picking the topic and approach. (It will use the same skills, though. Sorry.) In fact, since you're using your novel's outline as a framework to hang your research on, things will actually be a lot easier.

For example, my novella Sheep's Clothing is set in 1864, in what isn't yet Colorado. Already I have a whole pile of research topics to explore: How heavily-populated is it? What sorts of plants and animals can be found there? What are frontier-dwellers like? What are the social norms? What weapons are commonly available?

Next, I have my narrator, a doctor who was born and educated in New York City. What is his skillset? What is the extent of medical knowledge at that time? Would he know herbal medicine? Would he need to specifically learn how to use a gun? Can he fight at all?

Third, I have my supernatural critters: three vampires and a werewolf. I found this to be the most fascinating part of my research because I got to explore what the local myths were about these creatures, and what the average person was likely to know about them if they came from different backgrounds. I learned that vampires weren't exactly a pop culture monster yet, because Dracula hadn't been written yet, and there wouldn't be an iconic media werewolf until 1931. However, Native American lore had passable examples of both, giving me another avenue for research that I happily explored. Also, I discovered that the average frontier-dweller wouldn't have even heard of vampires, offering another angle for fun.

From there I Googled and wikiwalked and dug around for the little factoids I needed, and even hit up one of my co-workers for setting-related details to keep readers who are familiar with the Western genre from screaming "WRONG!!!" and throwing my book across the room. Even nailing down the details can be fun, as I discovered that Lakota (Wolf Cowrie's native language) was kind of light on swear words. Apparently Native Americans never learned to swear until the white men came. No, seriously. But I was able to supply dialogue for his moment of frustration by finding a Lakota phrase roughly translating to "idiot". (In case you're wondering, it was "takuni slolye sni". Literally "crazy white man", which fit the context better than anything else I could find.)

Now, my example is a fairly lightweight one, since the setting was "Like Earth Except", but you can use this as a jumping-off point for more worldbuilding-intensive stories. Writing medieval fantasy? Research tech levels and costuming. Writing military sci-fi? See what you can dig up on military protocols and physics. Writing horror? Get down to the roots of a monster and take it in a new direction, or dig up some obscure urban legends and turn them into something fresh.

It is said that baseball is a nerd's pastime, but in my opinion, writing can be the equivalent for geeks. Just imagine how much you can dig up on any topic thanks to the internet, or books, or local experts. Then imagine how much of that you can incorporate into your world, and you might just discover that your story is half-written for you.

Adventures in Self-Publishing Part Three: The Fine Art of Marketing

Writing your manuscript is, I've found, the hardest part of self-publishing. It's time-consuming, it takes up lots of blood, sweat, and tears, and the agony of having to take a chainsaw to a beloved scene, character, or entire plotline can feel like amputating your own leg with a chainsaw. With self-publishing, however, you skip over a lot of the drama that would go along with getting your story into the light of day, but unfortunately it's replaced with the second-hardest part of self-publishing.

Marketing your work. (Dun-dun-DUNNNNNNN!)

With traditional publishing, the publishing house typically takes care of all the marketing for you. It's in their best interest that your book sell, so they can recoup the royalties or whatever they've paid you for it. They'll advertise the hell out of your book, and if it's good enough for them to pick up (or marketable enough, at least), you can just sit back and let them do all the work.

Self-published authors, of course, have to do that all by themselves, and I tell you, it's hard. Many writers I know are introverts as well, with makes going up to people and howling variations of "HEY! Buy my book!" really, really sucks for an introvert.

Fortunately, I have a few resources that I'm bringing to bear with this venture, and your marketing army can be every bit as important as your Fellowship of Self-Publishing (see relevant post) with getting your book out there and in the hands of readers.

Here they are, in no particular order:

Word of Mouth
Tell people about your book. Tell your friends and family and co-workers. This might not be easy (see above point about introverts), but in many cases if you get the right balance of passionate vs. annoying (that is, way over on the passionate end), then some of these people might be interested in buying your book when it's available in whatever format. (Having it both in paperback and ebook formats helps.) If you're part of a guild or other writing group, they might let you bring copies of your book to sell at gatherings and workshops, and talk about your book.

Bookstores
Not a lot of brick-and-mortar stores left in my area, to be honest, but there are a few. If you can find a place that will accept your work on consignment (that is, they have to sell it before they will pay you), try it out. I have a local bookstore that specializes in St. Louis authors that I'm going to try with Sheep's Clothing; they're a small place, and will only take five copies at a time, but if you're not a big-name author this is a good way to get your foot in the door.

Talk to Local Media
Talk to your local paper about your book. It helps to get together a press release ahead of time so you're prepared if they want more info or an interview.

I even talked to a woman at work who was in charge of the library's internal newsletter (doesn't get much more local than that!) and she agreed to include an article on Sheep's Clothing in a future issue.

Libraries
Many libraries will want to purchase books that are actually going to circulate, so you might want to build up a bit of a demand through things like positive book reviews before heading here, especially if you aren't well-known just yet.

Swag
Swag is any free giveaway dingbat that doubles as a handy-dandy form of advertisement for your book (or even you as an author). This can be anything from business cards to bookmarks to flyers--and bookmarks would be perfect as a free item for people you know are readers to start with. Sites like VistaPrint offer all sorts of promotional swag at a variety of prices to let you get your name out there.

Go Online
Online coverage will offer you the widest net to cast to get potential readers and fans, but this will be a multipart venture in itself.

Author platform
Get yourself an author's website, the more professional-looking the better. You can set it up so people can buy copies of your book right from your site, and find out about what projects you have coming down the pipe at the same time. You can even offer samples of things you are offering for sale, or teasers of things you're working on.

Social Networking
Any sort of social networking site will offer you a good chance of finding someone who is interested in reading your book. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ are the ones I use, and I already have a few nibbles.

Goodreads
Get yourself a Goodreads account if you don't have one. Not only is this a good site for bookworms to meet similarly-inclined bookworms, but the Author program offers you ways to promote the crap out of your book, from making your own ads to offering promotional giveaways. You can also make sure your book has an entry in Goodreads so the curious can find out what the silly thing's about.

Magazines
There a whole pile of writer-centric magazines, ranging from Writer's Digest to Publisher's Weekly. Contact them with a copy of your book and a press release and see if they'll run with it.

Public Readings
This may run up against the comfort zones of the introverts, but if you find the right venue and you like entertaining potential fans, you can bring along a couple dozen copies of your book to sell on the spot, though if the venue you choose won't let you sell your stuff on site, you can offer bookmarks or business cards to attendees. (See swag, above.)

I won't pretend that this is anywhere near a comprehensive list of all the things you could possibly do to get your book sold, but these are the ones I've seen recommended by a lot of fellow writers. I'm still wading my way though all this myself, but then my book's only been out two days at time of writing. My only remaining advice is to get creative.

We're writers. Creative is what we do.

How the Hell Do I Categorize This?: The Woes of a Cross-Genre Writer

Many authors have it easy. They write in a distinct style and genre, which makes publishing houses happy. Stephen King's stuff gets stuck in with the horror (usually), James Patterson's stuff gets stuck with mystery (usually), and so forth. Even genre indie authors who are self-publishing frequently don't have to ask how to define their books and stories because, hey, it's a romance/science fiction/horror/urban fantasy/whatever book, so we put it in those sections.

When there's cross-genre writers like me.

By its very nature, cross-genre fiction straddles or blends two or more genres and makes something new out of it--a twist on a conventional genre, or an outright subversion of the tropes that come with it due to the nature of the extra-genre twist. They're often hard as hell to fit in any on particular box, and usually that's how I like it.

Until recently.

I learned about this problem when I was getting the Amazon information entered for Sheep's Clothing, my Weird Western featuring vampire hunting in the Territories in 1874. Weird Western is an actual thing (as in, an industry-recognized genre combining Western elements with speculative fiction), so I didn't think I would have any problems.

When I got to the BISAC subject heading. See, there's a list of possible book subjects compiled by the Book Industry Study Group to standardize the sharing of book subject information. The choices it offered me were Fiction/Horror or Fiction/Westerns. There was no Fiction/Weird Western category. On one level I understand, because Weird Western isn't exactly mainstream, but if the publishing industry recognizes it, why not the BISG?

I can only expect this will continue to plague my work as I get more into the self-pub stuff because, just to take a cross-section of my works-in-progress and unpublished stuff, there is no category for Fiction/Science Fiction/Romance, nor is there a category for Fiction/Fantasy/Mystery or Fiction/Mystery & Detective/Fantasy, or Fiction/Fantasy/Spy Thriller. And I don't think I'm going to see Fiction/Chick Lit/Paranormal anytime soon.

So what is a cross-genre author to do with such limitations? For the time being, I suppose we can work within the limitations of BISAC for the sake of making the entry form happy, because it wasn't going to let me NOT categorize my novel, not was there a "none of the above" option. (Fiction/General totally doesn't count.) And of course, once my novel is out there in the reading world, I can market it however I like and zero in on the Weird Western crowd that way.

(I wound up categorizing Sheep's Clothing as Fiction/Westerns, by the way.)

Adventures in Self-Publishing Part 2: The Fellowship of Self-Publishing

A wise man once said, "One does not simply walk into Mordor." He went crazy with lust for the One Ring and died full of arrows at the hands of orcs, but his general point more-or-less stands, especially when it comes to self-publishing. In this case, walking into Mordor is the process of getting your book from that really snappy manuscript you have to the even snappier hard copy or e-book, minus the hordes of orcs, the Dark Lord, and having the fate of the entire planet resting in your hobbity little hands.

With traditional publishing, the only person you have to contend with is the publisher's editor or an agent--the gatekeeper to get into the land of published authorship. You impress them with your work, and you're in, for certain values of "in". Traditional publishers have a whole horde of people whose job it is to make your book look awesome enough to be purchased, so that all you have to do is sign the contract, and then sit back and let them work this magic.

With self-publishing, however, you have to do a lot of this yourself, obviously. You need your own little fellowship of companions who take care of the various jobs involved in making your book look awesome enough to be purchased. Now, you might be able to take care of some of these jobs yourself--but that will be a hell of a lot of work. Let us look at your fellowship, shall we?
 Developmental Editor[image error]
Developmental editing sounds like one of those things you can do yourself, and if you're patient it's possible that you'd be right. This part takes detachment, though, and the discipline to chainsaw out whole swaths of your manuscript and/or rewrite them if need be. If you want to take care of this yourself, you must be willing to let your manuscript hang out (in whatever format) until you have the proper detachment to perform some truly invasive surgery on the thing. This is someone who must show no mercy towards the manuscript. They must take out everything that doesn't contribute to the story. If you can't find the detachment to do that, you'll be better off hiring someone to edit for you.
 Beta Reader 
The beta reader is the person you give your manuscript to once it's out of the crappy rough draft stage, the person whose job it is to give the thing a second eyeball check and a second brain check to make sure that everything fits together. You absolutely cannot do this one yourself. I can't emphasize this enough. The beta reader must be at least one step removed from the manuscript. They can be a friend whose opinion your trust, or a colleague who is interested in your writing career and wants to give you honest help. He should be able to tell you if something doesn't work, or if he finds a continuity error, or even if the story doesn't work at all. He will be your peek at your potential readerbase.

 Proofreader
The proofreader needs to have sharp eyes, because not even Word's spelling and grammar checker will find errors like misused words, or words misspelled so they become other words. The proofreader needs to be a fresh pair of eyes who is able to go through your manuscript with a fine-toothed comb and look for all the tiny errors that even an experience writer might miss. My proofreader has picked up things like misused commas, wonky capitalization, continuity errors (yes, again), and vocabulary derps that my mind told me afterwards that I should have seen, but I didn't. Why? Because I knew the manuscript like the back of my hand. (Or thought I did.)
 Cover Artist[image error]
 Unless you have Photoshop, a fair talent for graphic design, and hours to kill, you'll want to farm this one out. And honestly, if you had hours to kill, you be spending it writing. The cover artist's job is to make an eye-catching cover for your book that reflects what the story's about. I've seen some truly awful covers at the library where I work, and a lot of them came from professional publishing houses. Since you're doing this yourself, you have a bit more freedom to work alongside your artist to get the cover you want.
 Formatter

[image error]
The formatter's job is to take your really awesome manuscript and make it play nicely with whatever template your self-publishing company uses so it doesn't look like ass in the finished product. CreateSpace (the company I'm using for Sheep's Clothing) offers a downloadable template for Word, so that you can just copy and paste your text in there and let it do the rest, but be prepared to actually look through the result to make sure everything looks right, or else you'll have more work later on.
 Printer
Unless you have a publisher-grade printer and all the equipment you could possibly need to make a book (not likely), let someone else handle this. Seriously. Print-on-demand sites allow you to acquire as many books as you need--no more and no less--so this part shouldn't be all that hard. Let their army of professionals assemble your book.
 Marketing
This last role should on no account be neglected. Without proper marketing, your really awesome book will just fall by the wayside because nobody can freaking find it amongst all the big-name, big-publisher titles. This role also requires a lot of decisions: How will you get the word out? Who will you tell? What marketing materials do you want to offer? How will you reward readers that are willing to give you a shot. If you are self-publishing, you will also be self-marketing for the most part. If you're lucky you might be able to link up with a local marketing firm to take care of this for you, but this can be expensive. Telling people about your book is the best way to make sure it gets bought, and that often requires talking to complete strangers. (Dun-dun-DUNNNNN!) Just keep in mind that the more you get the word out, the better your chances of selling copies of your book.

So there you have it--the Fellowship of Self-Publishing. You can do a lot of these things yourself, but bear in mind that it will take time away from the real point of this whole exercise, your writing. With work and patience, however, you will be able to get your book out there where people (read: future fans) can read it without having to rely on a traditional publisher.

As a final note: I sincerely apologize to the J.R.R.Tolkien estate.

Overcoming Your Fear of the Sucky Rough Draft

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a writer in possession of a rough draft, must be in want of an editor.

This is true no matter who you are, or how long you've been writing. I've gone through the stage that it seems every writer does at some point, that the first draft must be absolutely perfect or else the story is a flaming failure. I've backtracked and edited and second-guessed myself before I even have the first draft done, and what has it gotten me? A whole lot of frustration and a lot more unfinished rough drafts.

More recently, I've reached a zen-like state of serenity in the acceptance that my rough draft might suck, but it will be done. I write that sucker as it comes and don't worry that this or that scene doesn't make sense or oh wait I need to set up this plot thread earlier on or this guy's dialogue doesn't fit his character or SHUT UP ALREADY.

Yes, I grab that yammering little Inner Critic by the collar and tell her to eff off. Why? Because the rough draft is where the Inner Writer spreads her (or his) wings. You have an idea. Awesome. You have a fully-formed idea that could be a pretty damn good story. Even more awesome. You might even have the time to write the silly thing. Beyond awesome. But if you spend all your writing time backtracking and fixing things, your Really Awesome Idea will never see the light of day.

So what if your first draft sucks? It's supposed to suck. The rough draft is where you vomit out your raw idea just to get it on the page (or screen, or whatever). When it's done, you'll be able to step back and look at how the whole story has turned out, which will give you a better idea of what things really need to be fixed.

Every professional writer (with fewer exceptions than you might think) has an editor whose job it is to get that rough draft on its way to public viewing. Even they might have sucky first drafts. There's no shame in it. Get that draft completely out of your head before you start editing and tweaking. You'll be tempted, believe me--the age of word processing programs has made this stupidly easy--but you'll feel a lot better once you get your rough draft out.

It's what you do with your sucky rough draft that will let your story really shine.