Adam Croft's Blog, page 34

It is practically a universal truth of writing that no matter how good you are, or how much experience you have of writing, there will be times when all you manage to write is tosh. All writers have to go through something of a rite of passage with regards to quality of work: that moment when you realise that something you’ve spent months working on is, actually, not that good. In fact, it stinks.

But from there, we move on. We get better. Hardly anyone is an amazing writer from the very beginning. It’s a craft, a skill that takes time to learn. Not that that makes it any easier to deal with when we look back over a day’s work only to discover that it’s all nonsense, but writing that nonsense is important. It might not sound very encouraging when all you want to do is get on and write something good, but I do think that, sometimes, writing bad things can be good for you.

One big, obvious reason for this is that it means you have the ability to tell the difference between good and bad writing. This might sound like an obvious thing, but any writer worth their salt knows how easy it can be to lose perspective over their own work. Being able to step back and admit ‘actually, that’s not worked as well as I’d hoped’ is an important quality of a writer.

Plus, writing bad things now means there are fewer bad things left for you to write in the future. That terrible story about an alien invasion that you wrote when you were fifteen and, at the time, thought was completely brilliant? It might seem like time wasted, but at least you’re not going to write that story now. You’ve already done it, learned from it, and hopefully won’t make the same mistakes again.

Linked to this is the fact that writing bad prose or poetry lets us learn more about what works and what doesn’t. What seems like a great idea in theory doesn’t always work out so well in practice. This is something that can hit even the best of writers; we all learn by trial and error, and sometimes things just take a nosedive. Writing is about constantly learning, improving and revising, and those things can’t happen unless we write some proper stinkers along the way.

Also, terrible writing from early in our writing careers can also remind us of how far we’ve come. When you’re sitting there, staring at your most recent project and wondering why you ever thought putting pen to paper was a good idea, a quick glance back over an older manuscript can make you realise that actually, your current efforts aren’t that bad at all. Look how bad you used to be! You’re not like that anymore. You’re better. Your writing is better.

So, no matter how disheartening or frustrating it is to get to the end of a writing day and decide that what you’ve written is no good, it’s an important exercise and one that could, in fact, help us all out in the long run.

This year marked the fourth year of the Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards, which aim to celebrate the best of the country’s crime drama and fiction. As ever with these sorts of awards, it’s always interesting to see which authors win prizes – and to see whether we agree with the choices of the judges.

Winners this year included Kathy Reichs, who won the Bestseller Dagger. The CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel of the Year was won by Gene Kerrigan’s The Rage, while the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for Best Thriller was won by Charles Cumming’s A Foreign Country. Wiley Cash won the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger for A Land More Kind than Home.

Awards were also given out for the best TV crime dramas of the year. You can read more about the awards and see the full list of winners here.

But what do you think about the results of the awards? Do you think that the right authors won and, if not, who do you think should have won the awards instead? Any predictions for next year’s awards? Do feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments box below.

It has long been something of a formula in the traditional publishing industry: author signs book deal – author gets advance – author delivers book to publisher. Most of the time, it seems to have worked pretty well, but apparently this is not always the case.

I was interested to read that the publisher Penguin is suing a dozen authors in court for failing to deliver manuscripts for which they received advances. The cases include Elizabeth Wurtzel (who wrote Prozac Nation), who received a $33,000 advance for a book in 2003. The book was meant to be delivered in 2004, but wasn’t. The publisher is now looking to get back its advance, along with interest.

Other authors being chased by Penguin for failing to deliver books include Ana Marie Cox, Conrad Tillard and Herman Rosenblat.  The case has yet to be settled, but it has received opposition from literary agents who are against the legal action.

Whatever your views on the court case, in some ways it does make the self-publishing model seem more appealing to writers. Sure, we might not get advances for what we write, but it does mean that we can write what we want, when we want, without having to worry about repercussions if we don’t get things done on time, or don’t manage to fulfil a contract for some other reason.

Still, it will be interesting to see what comes of Penguin’s legal action against this group of authors. In the meantime, you can read more about the case in question here.

While we cannot underestimate the importance of luck in being successful in independent publishing, we also cannot deny that if you are going to be successful, there are certain qualities that can help your likelihood of achieving what you want to. Let’s take a look at eight of the most important qualities for self-publishing success.

Determination

It almost doesn’t need to be said, but if you want to achieve then you need a certain amount of determination. Success doesn’t usually happen overnight, and you may well experience knockbacks. The determination to continue no matter what happens is definitely crucial.

Passion for writing

A passion for writing is even more crucial than having determination. If you don’t love writing, there’s not really any point in self-publishing anything. It has to be something that you adore, and want to do more than anything.

Willingness to learn

Independent publishing is also a learning curve at the best of times. To succeed, you need to be adaptable, and wiling to learn new skills. It also helps if you’re able to admit when you need help, and when someone else might be able to supplement your existing skills.

Self-belief

Believe in yourself. Writers can be a critical bunch, not least of themselves. Of course, being able to criticise yourself and notice where you could improve is important, but you also need to believe that you can write well and be successful in independent publishing. Otherwise you may well scupper your own chances before you even begin.

Stubbornness

If you want to self-publish, you need to be stubborn about it. Don’t worry if people tell you not to do it, or that you won’t do well at it. Stick with it.

Willingness to sacrifice

We can’t get away from the fact that writing and self-publishing a book is something that takes time – and a lot of it. It’s likely that you’ll have to sacrifice some other things along the way in order to make your work as good and successful as possible. A willingness to commit to your writing and, if necessary, put other things to one side, is certainly important.

Ability to plan

Organisation and planning might seem like skills rather than qualities, but they are both crucial for self-publishing success. You need to plan what you are doing or else it will be all too easy to get lost in and confused by the process.

Patience

Finally, patience has got to be one of the most important qualities of any independent publisher. As mentioned above, these things take time. Success isn’t normally a quick thing. It can take years and multiple books to achieve. They say that good things come to those who wait, so hopefully your patience will pay off in the end.

What do you think are the most important qualities for achieving success in independent publishing?

Dialogue is one of the most important aspects of writing a novel. It is one of those things that often seems quite straightforward on the surface, yet can be quite difficult to get right. Unrealistic or jarring dialogue can bring down the success of a whole book, making it hard to believe or awkward to read.

With this in mind, here are four ways to improve your dialogue. Feel free to add your own ideas and suggestions in the comments box.

Read it out loud

We start with an oldie but a goodie. One of the best ways to work out whether your dialogue is working is to read it out loud. If it sounds awkward, that’s because it probably is. Look for things such as phrasing: have you got the punctuation right? Does it sound natural when you read it?

Let it speak for itself

Writers can also have a tendency to over explain things rather than letting the dialogue speak for itself. For example, if your work is full of lines of dialogue followed by lengthy explanations to make sure the reader doesn’t miss what you mean, it’s probably worth reconsidering your dialogue. After all, if you feel you need to explain everything afterwards, is the dialogue really doing what you hoped it would?

This doesn’t mean you can’t ever explain things, or add qualifiers in the prose following the dialogue, but it does mean you need to think carefully about the dialogue you use and how readers are likely to interpret it.

Adapt it for different characters

Another way to improve your dialogue is to make sure you alter it for different characters. In real life, people have different mannerisms and styles of speech; make sure you translate that to the characters in your story or else the dialogue – and the characters – will end up seeming bland.

Get the right balance

Finally, there is a need to get a balance in the dialogue you use. It shouldn’t be too formal, because hardly anyone always speaks in perfectly grammatically correct sentences all the time. At the same time, it shouldn’t be too colloquial or informal, as this can be hard to read – especially if you are spelling out regional pronunciations or accents in the text. Dialogue should be realistic, but it still needs to fit into the context of a novel or other form of story.

It is something that afflicts probably every single author at some stage or another: the frustration of disappointing sales. If you have self-published a book but have discovered it isn’t selling well, there are plenty of reasons why this might be the case – and plenty of things you can try to try and solve the problem.

Here are some of the most common reasons your self-published book might not be selling well.

No one knows it’s there

You might have written a truly sensational book, but if no one knows you’ve written it, it’s highly unlikely it’s going to sell. A lack of promotion can render all of your other book-related efforts void, so get yourself a good marketing plan in place. Publish your book through as many platforms as possible. Promote it through social media and any other media and methods you can think of.

It doesn’t look professional enough

If, however, you do have a good marketing plan in place but your book still isn’t selling, one reason might be that it simply doesn’t look professional enough. One of the criticisms often levelled at self-publishing is that the books appear amateur, so as independent publishers, we have to do everything we can to make our books as professional as possible.

Get yourself a high quality, professional editing and proofreading job. Get the cover professionally designed. Make sure everything you write about your book is of the highest possible standard.

You only have one book out

Whether you go for independent publishing or traditional publishing, the lack of a backlist can be one of the things preventing your sales from going places. Readers often like to invest in authors who have a track record, and multiple books that they can sink their teeth into. If you’ve only got the one book out, get started on the next one as soon as possible. More books equal more chances for making sales.

It doesn’t have many reviews

If people don’t know much about a book, they often turn to the Amazon reviews to see what other people have said about it. A lack of comments on your book might put people off, especially if you haven’t got much other material on your book’s Amazon page. Make sure you include a good summary on there, and do everything you can to get reviews. For instance, you could give a free copy of your book to the first twenty people who agree to write you an honest review.

That fickle thing called luck isn’t on your side

Finally, sometimes, the sales just don’t come. There isn’t always a reason. You could be doing everything right, and still not make the sales that you want. No matter how good you and your book are, luck still plays a big role in self-publishing success. However, as long as you have the commitment, there is still time for the luck to come. Keep looking for it, and be patient. Don’t give up.

Ah, inspiration, that fickle thing. It comes and it goes. Sometimes we are overwhelmed by a glut of ideas, and at other times overwhelmed by the fact that we ever managed to have an idea at all. It drives us mad, and we can write without it, but it’s always lovely when it shows up again.

If you’re currently going through a bit of a lean patch, inspiration-wise, here are a few writing suggestions, challenges and ideas that you might like to try…

1)      Look out of the window. See what the weather’s doing. Set your story in the precise weather conditions you see out there.

2)      Do the same as above, but instead of writing the weather as it is, write the opposite of what it is. Christmas in summer, anyone?

3)      Pick the nearest upcoming holiday (or if you have an aversion to Halloween or other festive occasion, the nearest upcoming holiday you actually enjoy) and use it as a setting for your story.

4)      If you don’t want to set a story around a particular holiday, instead take inspiration from the stuff that goes with the holiday. For instance, the pumpkins and leaves falling from the trees around Halloween, the smell of bonfire smoke and the sound of exploding fireworks around Bonfire Night, or the sense of merriment (and gluhwein at the market) that crops up around Christmas.

5)      Do the above, but add a twist to it – something to contradict with the holiday spirit, for example, or an exploding firework that’s not really a firework at all…

6)      Switch on a radio station you don’t normally listen to. See what thoughts it conjures up and write about them.

7)      Play the ‘what if’ game. For instance, what if your character unexpectedly killed their best friend? What if they discovered a hidden talent for baking? What if they decided to run for election? What if a meteor was heading straight for earth?

8)      Play the ‘what would X do’ game. You can use your characters for this or, if you’re having trouble with that, any person you can think of. Put them in a situation – the madder the better – and then try and get them out of it.

9)      Stand in the centre of the room. Close your eyes. Spin around a bit. Stop. Open your eyes. Take the first thing your eyes land on and write a piece about it. You never know, An Ode to a Teapot could turn out to be a winner.

10)  If you’re really stuck with your writing, take all the annoyance and frustration that brings, channel it, and write about it. Unleash your inner demons. Write about how much you hate not having anything to write about, or not knowing what to write next. Instantly, it gives you something to write about.

If you have been thinking about buying an e-reader but have been put off the options that are currently on the market because of their price, you might be interested in this story. The German company Txtr has announced that they are planning to sell their own e-reader for under €10.

It stands to reason that as this e-reader is set to be so cheap, it isn’t laden with as many capabilities as the likes of the Kindle and the Nook. It can only store around 5 e-books at a time, for instance, and you can only get e-books onto it by using a smartphone and Bluetooth. There is less choice available on the Txtr store than on Amazon, and the battery life allows you to read between 12 and 15 books.

So the device is clearly not without its limitations. However, if you’re paying less than €10 for an e-reader (or whatever its equivalent price in the UK turns out to be), those are limitations that are probably worth overlooking. The device is smaller than the Kindle and the Nook, and it’s also lighter, making it portable.

Also, if you like the idea of an e-reader but only really want to use one occasionally, preferring to stick mainly to print books, a slightly more cumbersome download process is a small price to pay for an e-reader option that’s affordable and convenient.

The device hasn’t been released yet, but it will be interesting to see the reviews of the Txtr e-reader once it’s released. Assuming it comes with a good quality screen, it could prove to be a very exciting device.

In the meantime, you can read more about the upcoming e-reader here and here.

Today marks one of the biggest events in the annual literary calendar – the announcement of the winner of the Man Booker Prize.

The shortlist this year is an interesting one, including big names and first time novelists, large publishing houses and smaller, independent presses. It’s always interesting to see who wins the prize – and probably even more interesting to debate who we think should win the prize or, after the fact, who should have won.

It would be nice to see a book such as Alison Moore’s The Lighthouse win; it’s a highly talked about debut from the small press, Salt Publishing – it’s great that a smaller publisher has made the shortlist and has a real chance of winning.

But what do you think? Who do you think should win this year’s prize (or if you’re reading this after it’s already been announced, who do you think should have won)?

The shortlist

Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil

Bring up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

Umbrella by Will Self

The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Over the past few months, the on-going issue of the dispute between some of the biggest publishers in the world, Apple and Amazon has produced quite a few interesting stories. Here’s another one.

Amazon has said that if a legal settlement is reached with the three publishers left in the case who have been accused of price-fixing e-books, owners of the Kindle e-reader will be entitled to refunds on past purchases. This could be worth between 30c and $1.32 for the e-books in question. It’s important to note that this wouldn’t amount to a refund on all past purchases – it would only apply to e-books published by the three publishers involved in the case and bought between April 2010 and May 2012.

Still, it’s an important announcement in the case, especially as we get closer to the date when a settlement could be approved; there is a hearing on the case due in February. If the settlement goes through, it would mean that publishers would have less ability to set their own e-book prices in future. Amazon says that this would bring down the cost of e-books for Kindle owners.

You can read more about the latest developments on the e-book price-fixing case here.