Posts tagged ‘authors’
The World Needs Writers
Writers have a direct impact on our daily lives — every day, all day. As a society, we’re increasingly consuming more and more headlines, verbs and adjectives. It’s amazing how many times a writer touches our lives each day, and you may not even realize it.
Take this example: You’re watching TV and your favorite show airs its season premiere. No writing here, right? This is TV after all … the anti-book. But, as you watch the closing scene fade to black, it happens: you think, “Man, they must have different writers now; this show has changed a lot since last season.”
That’s right, writers.
But writers don’t only influence our entertainment. Every morning or evening (or both) we rely on news sources to inform us of the day’s local and global events. Whether you watch a news program on TV, read the paper, or visit a Web site, writers are behind this transfer of knowledge. And, even though journalists try to stick to the facts, they play a big role in how the story is told, thus, interpreted by you.
It’s not just large scale media where writers intersect our lives. For example, when you read the description of the cob salad or chicken sandwich from your lunch menu, someone wrote that. Another writer composed the instructions to your new camera. And another wrote the marketing copy on boxes in the cereal aisle; and another typed the words written on the parking ticket you received because you spent too much time in your grocery store’s cereal aisle. From the tag inside your shirt that you ignored when you did not “lay flat to dry” to the millions of pages of text on every single Web site that you visit today, they are behind each sentence, each letter, each apostrophe.
Writers play a necessary role in our society beyond the obvious “author” role. Of course, there are novels, magazines and poems, but even if your book never hits the bestseller list, the world needs writers.
-Angie Kelly Pheifer
Your BFF: A Blog Is an Author’s Best Friend
Blogs are to writers as dogs are to man. What could be a more perfect best friend for a writer than a dynamic public notebook? No matter the status of your career as an author, starting and keeping a blog could be just the thing that will help you advance your career and excel in your unique writing craft. Here are a few reasons why:
Find and develop your voice. A blog can range from extremely formal, to completely personal. But one rule for all blogging applies: let your personality shine. Now, you shouldn’t let just anything fall of out your mouth – eh, mind – online. Just because you can say whatever you want doesn’t mean that you should. Just remember that anyone can read your blog, so think about your grandmother, neighbor and boss reading your work before posting it.
Keep a writing history. A blog captures your work over time and provides a handy catalog of your work for you to flip through whenever you want. Perhaps you touched on a subject that you want to dig into more deeply. You can review your writing and critique it, picking out the parts that you liked and making gagging noises in disgust at the parts you don’t. But don’t be too hard on yourself – by reviewing past work, you can often see how far you’ve come.
Write on a schedule. Blogging requires that you keep a schedule, whether it is daily or weekly. A schedule also means that some of the time you will not be able to wait to post your incredible blog, and other times when you will not want to write, you will not have time and you have nothing to write about. It’s a love/hate relationship, but it will make you a better writer.
Overcome fear of public scrutiny. Putting your work out there in front of others is scary. They will think things … about your work … about you! The more practice that you have putting your work out there, the more natural it will become. Truth is, if you aspire to be an author, you will be judged by others. That’s just part of it.
Receive feedback. One good thing about putting your work on display, is that you can improve your work from feedback that you receive. You should encourage your reader’s direct input. And you should look for indirect cues. For instance, if you get no comments, or minimal views on a particular post, and a lot of activity on another, you can use this indirect feedback to form a pattern of which kinds of posts and writing styles readers prefer. But, no matter what, always remain true to your voice, your heart and your writing goals. Don’t let negative feedback stop you from developing your writing craft and pursuing your dreams.
Develop a reader base. By starting a blog now, and being actively engaged in reading and participating in other blogs, forums and social networks, you are starting to build that all important author platform that will help you market your book in the future.
Escape from ongoing projects. When you are working on a piece that consumes most of your time and concentration, it is helpful to step away for a moment to write something unrelated for a while, in order to come back to your work with a fresh perspective. You’ll avoid burnout and maintain your flexible writing skills (and sanity).
Starting a blog is easy and many are free. The hard part is to stick with it for the long haul and continually churn out smart, engaging content. Are you up for the challenge? Have you already started a blog of your own? Share your successes, challenges, tips and a link to your blog in the comments.
Keep writing.
-Angie Kelly Pheifer
Yann Martel: Stylistic Identity
The New York Times had an exchange with Yann Martel, the author of Life of Pi regarding his upcoming novel, which is an allegorical take on the Holocaust featuring animals as characters. This will likely become a successful yet controversial piece.
The author admitted that this coming work, which is not yet titled, would likely fail to replicate the colossal success of his breakout novel. He hopes that it might become a perennial success in the Holocaust category.
Controversy aside, it is certainly an inventive way of retelling a story that has been on the minds of people around the world for so long.
As authors go about creating new works for public consumption, they should remember the examples of those who have been successful telling a story in their own unique style. Successful writers are those who can embrace controversy and convey the familiar in a brand new way, developing a strong author identity in the process.
-1,000 Chimps
Barnes & Noble Launches e-Book Store: Rumors Circulate of Plastic Logic Partnership
This week, Barnes & Noble opened their e-Book Store online. They have hit the ground running with plans to grow aggressively. The word on the Web is that they are going to be partnering with Plastic Logic to distribute content via a device scheduled for release early next year. The device is said to be a big step in the right direction, hopefully minimizing the annoying parts of the Kindle2, Kindle DX and Sony Reader.
It would be logical to assume that Barnes & Noble will be able to establish themselves in a market that they have dominated for so long. They understand books and consumers, which is quite clear when you visit their site. The eBook Store interface is extremely user-friendly. People can download the apps they need in order to interact with the new eBook Store, including options for your computer, iPhone and Blackberry.
Overall, I think that this is a healthy development. While I don’t see any indication yet that there will be an interface such as the Digital Text Platform available to upload content to the Kindle Store, I would be surprised if this is not in the works. The strength that Amazon has brought to the e-book market is a good starting ground and I believe that strong players getting into the game will drive Amazon and any other serious participants to adapt and improve.
Barnes & Noble’s new eBook Store has a clear impact on your ability to sell your book. Familiarize yourself with this new development, so that you can be one step ahead of where your target audience is going.
-1,000 Chimps
What Makes Great Authors and Artists Tick: 20 Questions by PopMatters.com
Thing is, great authors are people, too! Oftentimes, while immersed in their intoxicating prose and seductive poetry, we forget these people visit the grocery store, wash clothes at the laundry mat, listen to the same music we do, among numerous other things that make a person a living, breathing human being.
Luckily, Popmatters is wise to this fact about writers and artists. To help reveal the person behind the literary (or musical) magic, the editors have devised their “20 Questions” column, where bestselling authors are interviewed and asked only 20 questions about their favorite books, their favorite albums, whether they prefer Star Trek or Star Wars, whether they prefer wearing Armani or Levis, whether their essentials are strict diets of coffee, cigarettes and chocolate, or perhaps vodka and frequent visits to the spa.
Read just a few of the authors profiled, and gain some insight into the similarities between your life and theirs as great writers.
Aleksandar Hemon
[23.Jun.09] : “Hell,” Hemon tells PopMatters 20 Questions, “is being stuck at an airport without a book, starving for thought, forced to watch CNN.” Heaven might be a bathtub full of Turkish coffee … Read more>>
Lynn Freed
[6.Apr.09] : Award-winning writer Lynn Freed’s delicious replies to PopMatters 20 Questions may have you wishing, like us, that she could be your dinner guest. Her new novel, The Servants’ Quarters, was published in April 2009. Read more>>
Laura Miller
[1.Dec.08] : Cofounder of Salon.com, ravenous reader Laura Miller talks with PopMatters 20 Questions about C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and other influences that led to The Magician’s Book. Read more>>
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Visit PopMatter.com, and learn about the muscians, writers and activists who have made a significant impact on our culture. So too, learn how their habits and preference resemble yours. Remember, they put their pants on one leg at a time after all, even if their pants might sell for a small fortune on eBay.
Staying Connected to Writers: Blerp, Twitter, Facebook & Other Social Networks
Because of their creative and overly romanticized pursuits, many now think that writers and authors lead solitary lives, disconnected from other writers, pecking away at their keyboards in some kind of tacit, no-holds-bar competition with each other, the phone off the hook, never once needing (or appealing) to others for a little inspiration.
Today, however, that’s hardly the case. Social networks like Facebook, Myspace, WritingRoom, not to mention applications like Blerp.com, Twitter, even text messaging, now allow writers to interact and maintain contact with each other from around the world. What does this mean for writers? Well, for starters, you can count on more support from fellow creative individuals to help motivate you when finishing your manuscript. Plus, you can always jump online for a break and comment on an interesting discussion thread that may just awaken the creative beast slumbering inside you.
Even now, as you’re reading this blog, you’re participating in the great connection between writers around the world, clicking through the communities that may turn out to be your saving grace in moments of writer’s block or research in forums where you can ask about any number of current events and topics for your book.
Be sure to check out the reading communities as well, such as Shelfari, goodreads and LibraryThing, where you can manage your personal book catalog and engage readers in your target audience. Finding out what readers look for in books within your genre can be incredibly useful and help guide you as you finish writing your own, incorporating their suggestions and their expectations into your own poetry or prose.
The Point: Writers and authors aren’t the hermit crabs we might think they are. Stay connected to your network for inspiration or support, and stay energized about writing your collections and manuscripts every day!
Authors Who Market: Offering Author Solutions to Promoting and Publishing Books
Recently, Tribune-Review ran a piece in their publication called “Market Savvy Authors Can Take a Nontraditional Way to Audience,” in which Rege Behe explores the emerging benefits of self-publishing (and self-promoting) a book as opposed to blindly submitting your manuscript to publishers who may not even read your potential bestseller.
Essentially, your potential to spread the word about your book (and earn higher royalties per copy sold) with self-publishing is only limited by your enthusiasm to personally market your book and tap into any valuable connections you may already have.
For example, Ray Goss could use his experience in radio to market his self-published book, while others such as Lisa Genova (author of Still Alice, originally through iUniverse) or Barbara Burstin (author of Steel City Jews: A History of Pittsburgh and its Jewish Community, 1840-1915) have self-published only to receive rave review from some of the best magazines in the world, leading to traditional publishers scrammbling to sign them for another book.
Reporter Behe does mention the stigma of self-publishing, too, as its method is shunned by the hyper-literary-minded and even some bookstores; but given the lack of editorial and design control imposed by traditional publishers, not to mention the significant cut in royalites you earn with traditional publishing houses, may overwhelmingly overturn this negative sentiment toward companies like Author Solutions, Inc. (and Wordclay) in the very near future.
Because bookstores are perhaps slower to adapt to the changing publishing industry, self-published books may have a harder time reaching their shelves. That said, Behe also offers some tricks of the trade when marketing your book online. For example, creating an author Web site with your book details and order information will not only act as a base of operations for the writer, but also allow Internet surfers to stumble upon their book naturally when searching on different keywords. Combine your Web site with social networking and perhaps some book giveaway promotions, and BOOM! your chances for success just skyrocketed in the publishing industry!
The Point: Self-publishing with companies like Wordclay, iUniverse or AuthorHouse (all Author Solutions brands) can indeed be more beneficial to authors, especially emerging authors, than endlessly (and sometimes fruitlessly) seeking a traditional publisher to back you, even if your book has great potential!
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Market savvy authors can take a nontraditional way to audience
Google’s Book Search: The Ongoing Debate
In an article published by the New York Times, reports on the recent inquiry by the Justice Department into the antitrust implications against Google’s Book Search program have surfaced. Analyzing the claims and settlement, they’re digging deep into a debate about how much power and control Google should be allowed over copyrighted material.
The article provides a little background on the ongoing debate:
“The settlement, announced in October, gives Google the right to display the books online and to profit from them by selling access to individual texts and selling subscriptions to its entire collection to libraries and other institutions. Revenue would be shared among Google, authors and publishers.
But critics say that Google alone would have a license that covers millions of so-called orphan books, whose authors cannot be found or whose rights holders are unknown. Some librarians fear that with no competition, Google will be free to raise prices for access to the collection.” … “Google will be a monopoly.”
But, there’s another side to the story, and it’s not just Google who’s in favor of the Book Search settlement. Many authors, publishers and readers feel the good outweighs the bad:
Here’s an excerpt from the NY Times article:
“Google, which has scanned more than seven million books from the collections of major libraries at its own expense, vigorously defends the settlement, saying it will bring great benefits to the broader public.
Most of the critics, which include copyright specialists, antitrust scholars and some librarians, agree that the public will benefit. But they say others should also have rights to orphan works. And they oppose what they say amounts to the rewriting, through a private deal rather than through legislation, of the copyright rules for millions of texts.”
For those who have recently published and have their book on Google’s Book Search program, it’s definitely a positive. The world is digitizing more and more content every day, so now more than ever, we can marvel at the different ways we can reach such a wide audience across the globe.
But what are your thoughts on this debate regarding the copyright issues for so-called “orphaned” books and their future implications?
-Angie
Art Imitates Life: Five Common Criteria for What Makes an Interesting Character
Curious about why certain characters steal our hearts? Got a character in mind for your next story or novel, but is something missing from their personality and need a fresh perspective? Luckily, our experienced bloggers and writers have drafted the five most common criteria for interesting characters, which may be helpful to authors and writers when thinking about the direction of their new stories.
1) Details: As readers, we want to know everything, and we hope the content isn’t something we’ve already read. We want the odd, real and fresh details about a character that really help define who he or she truly is, as an individual. Everything and anything relevant about people in life, we want to know about characters as well. What does this character do for money? How do they feel about their job and coworkers? What does their family think? What’s the character’s sexual orientation? Are they married? Divorced? What nuggets of psychology lay forever embedded in their past, and what dreams do they secretly or overtly pursue despite that past, despite their current situation? Even if you don’t use all of these details in the story you begin writing, they’ll undoubted help you conceive of a well-rounded character with real emotions and visceral reactions that will definitely affect your readers.
2) Foils: Other characters, other locations, other inanimate objects even, whether symbolic or not, can also help reveal the identity of a character. For example, a slovenly brother may act as a great foil as a responsible, cleanly sister, the two butting heads, revealing closeness despite their differences. Similarly, an ongoing storm can easily mirror a character’s inner turmoil and conflict, thereby acting as a foil as well. In a very practical sense, no character can achieve a level of interest without reacting and adapting to the things and people around them, so you’ll need appropriate foils to capture the essence of any character as a result.
3) Conflict: You’ll never hear about the story that takes place in heaven housing characters without problems or worries to cloud their current situation, mainly because no reader will be interested enough to finish that story. As readers, we thrive on conflict. A rich character is presented with a unique problem that probably involves his or her backstory in some important way, and this is what makes the story come to life, this is what makes the story interesting. There needs to be risk involved when your character proceeds forward, whether that risk is emotional or physical (or both), or else your readers, like all people, will lose interest and turn to something else entirely. Think about it. Why create rich, potentially powerful characters if nothing is at stake for them? As the old maxim goes, nothing ventured, nothing gain, and the same holds true for characters. That said, the conflict that confronts your characters as a result of their personal choices will undoubtedly reveal even more of their identity, testing their individuality and ability to change (or at least accept defeat) in the end.
4) Natural: You can’t force a character to act or grow, just like you can’t force a person to change who they are. For that reason, characters need to act like themselves. The story needs to flow organically and naturally from one scene to the next, without unbelievable twists that somehow magically affect the character. The character always needs motivation; the character always needs desire; the character always needs to remain believable and real, just as though the reader could bump into this person on the subway or in the elevator. For example, a homophobic character wouldn’t just waltz into a drag show, but on the other hand, that same homophobic character may try to slip into the drag show if his estranged brother is performing that night. Whatever the actions and decisions of your character, make sure they’re properly encouraged to step into the next scene, instead of just forcibly moving them into the next section, thereby locating them in a place and situation in which they would never willingly appear.
5) Contradictions: Nobody’s perfect, and many times, people (just like characters) react unexpectedly, revealing deep emotions and thoughts about which they themselves may not have been aware. Thing is, we’re all walking contradictions. Obviously, the agoraphobic person really wants to venture out of the house, and the small town guy with big city dreams wants to relocate, but in most cases, these characters are not willing to confront their desires, leaving them in a miserable state of contradiction, which consequently makes for a quite interesting story and character development. Like our characters, human beings are a soup of mixed emotion, one that can be incredibly difficult (if not impossible at times) to reconcile. Of course your characters need to act naturally, but giving a character contradictory desires doesn’t necessarily mean unnatural. In fact, these contradictions can become vital to the believability and grace that many captivating characters possess. Just take any of the characters for James Joyce’s The Dead, each trying desperately to achieve some measure of immortality, establishing celebrity, considering children, immortality that none of them can ever practically possess. Think about your characters and how their most intrinsic desires conflict with each other, and you’ll definitely have the measure of an interesting personality.
Have questions about one of the previous criteria? Or have your own criteria for characters? Feel free to post your insights and writing rituals as comments, and the bloggers will definitely respond as soon as possible. Obviously, there’s no definitive rule to divining the perfect character (especially because there’s no such thing as the perfect person), but through our discussion here, we may be able to reveal even more methods of keeping our readers interested well into the future.
Self Publishing Blog 2.0: We’re Back & Better than Ever…
Loyal subscribers and readers, as you may have noticed, our self-publishing blog dropped off the radar for a week or so during our redesign, but we’re here to announce the launch of our newly designed writing blog: freeselfpublishingblog.com.
Of course, our bloggers will continue to post the latest publishing news as well as information that may be of interest to authors and emerging writers within the publishing industry, but we also wanted to update you on our newest development.
In addition to the weekly writing tips and prompts (located on the sidebar), we’re now implementing a creative (and hopefully quite fun) weekly assignment, at which time writers and authors will be challenged to head out into the world and perform a mission.
For example, one mission for authors may be to submit a photograph of their book in a tree. One picture would then be selected and posted on the blog along with your book information and a link to order it (or to your Web site or blog). Don’t worry, it’s all good, clean fun, and you may just get a snazzy book plug out of the brief adventure.
Should you yourself have an idea for the blog or a suggestion for a future post you would like to read, feel free to leave a friendly comment below that details your proposal, and I’m sure our bloggers will be happy to implement or write on your topic of interest.
Thanks for bearing with us during this development, and we hope you’ll submit your challenges (as well as ideas for future challenges) to our bloggers in the near future!
This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing out.
