Adam Croft's Blog, page 37

It seems like barely a week goes by these days without some new news story about the continuing rise of e-books – and this week is no different. It has been announced that during the first half of 2012, companies that took part in the Publishers Association’s Sales Monitor reported a value rise in the sales of e-books of 188 per cent.

In terms of sales volume, there was an 89.1 per cent growth in overall e-book sales for January-June 2012. This includes significant growth in areas such as children’s digital fiction and digital non-fiction. However, sales of physical books were down 3.8 per cent in terms of volume and down 0.4 per cent in value. Digital books have also taken 12.9 per cent of the value of all book sales, up more than 5 per cent on the same period in 2011.

Despite the decline in print books, the overall books market – combining digital and physical books – has grown by more than 6 per cent when compared with the same six month period from last year. A little spot of good news for authors and readers alike, perhaps, that people are still so keen to buy books in a variety of formats.

You can read more about the rise in e-book sales here.

Ah, deadlines. They are a feature in many a writer’s life, and while we may not always love them, they’re certainly not going away. Still, deadlines can be a good thing, whether they’re self-imposed or given to you by someone else. They can also be a pain in the backside. With this in mind, here are the pros and cons of writing deadlines.

The pros

They give you a goal

Goals are good. We like goals. If you can say to yourself “I want to achieve X by date Y” and convince yourself to stick to it, it’ll be a great feeling.

They put the end in sight

Another reason writing deadlines can be a good thing is that they help you to see the finish line. If you know that you’ve got to finish your novel by date Z, it can help you to picture a time when you won’t be plagued by half-formed plot lines, shoddy dialogue and editing dilemmas. And as wonderful as writing is, finishing a project is also a brilliant thing.

They offer structure

The structure forced on us by a deadline can also be a positive thing, particularly for those of us with a tendency to put things off more than we probably should. A deadline – particularly one that you really, really can’t miss – forces us to get down to business and just get things done.

The cons

They can lead to unnecessary pressure

Some people thrive under the pressure of a deadline. Others hate it, and some crumble. Writing deadlines can be stressful, whether they’re given to you by someone else or they’re a product of your own creation.

It’s disheartening to miss them

Missing a deadline, however accidentally or unavoidably, is not a good feeling. It’s not great when you let someone down, even if the only person being let down is yourself. Sometimes imposing your own deadlines can be more trouble than it’s worth.

It can lead to you rushing

A looming deadline can also lead to panic, and rushed work. As writers, we want everything we do to be just right, but when you’ve got three gazillion words to do by next Thursday and you’re only five words in, perfection can be something of a lost cause. And that’s a shame. If you’re able to take your time and get things exactly as you want them, it’s worth losing that deadline and giving yourself all the time and space you need.

Here’s one for all the crime writers out there. This article is a few years old now, but it’s still worth a read as it includes some tips and advice from some of the most successful crime authors out there today.

It takes a look at some of the things you can do to help your chances of writing a great crime novel and hopefully getting it into print.  I think one of the most important points raised in the article is the first one – have something you want to say. We could otherwise translate this as ‘what’s the point?’ In other words, what are you trying to do in your novel that means people will want to read it and will be engaged by it?

All the other points on the list are also well worth a read and offer a little bit of food for thought the next time you sit down to write your soon-to-be-bestselling (with any luck) crime novel.

What do you think are the most important points of writing crime fiction?

Following on from yesterday’s post about why authors should embrace the entrepreneurial spirit, here’s one about why they probably shouldn’t be too entrepreneurial.

The reason is very simple: the writing always has to come first.

When you’re involved in independent publishing, or indeed traditional publishing, it can be all too easy to see your time eaten away by those activities that surround writing. Marketing, for instance. Social media is a great way to use up lots of time promoting your book, but it also stops you writing new ones. There are plenty of other marketing avenues that take up even more time. The business side of things (like the whole issue of money) takes up more time. Sourcing support for your work takes time. Engaging with readers takes time.

Don’t get me wrong, all of these things are massively valuable. However, at the end of it all, we shouldn’t be left asking ‘but what happened to the writing?’

The writing will always be the most important thing, because without it, there’d be no point in all of those other things around it. We’d have nothing to market, no sales, no income, no professional services to source and buy in. The writing is the main thing.

Besides, a well-written, exciting book is the best marketing tool any author could ever ask for. Let’s make sure that no matter what else happens and no matter what other demands are made on our time, we always make sure we let the writing itself take centre stage.

Increasingly – and not just in the world of independent publishing – we are seeing people talk about the need for authors to become more business-savvy and be more entrepreneurial. At first it sounds a little bit daunting, but embracing the entrepreneurial spirit has the potential to be very good for authors. Let’s take a look at some of the best reasons why.

No one knows your own interests better than you

This says it all really. Only you really know what your interests are, and only you can really be trusted to always keep them in mind in your work. Embracing entrepreneurship, such as by running your own marketing for your work or setting up a self-publishing business, can be a good way to do this – you can tailor what you do to what you really want to do in a way that other people might not consider.

Shape your writing career your own way

Related to the above point is the idea of shaping your own writing career. As an entrepreneur, you get to call the shots. Want to focus heavily on promotions? Go for it. Want to keep most of your time just for writing? Great.

Keep control of what you do

This also means that you get to keep control of what you do. Take independent publishing for instance. In the driving seat, you get to decide what you write and when you write it. You get to make all the creative decisions related to things like editing, cover design and marketing. You get to keep a bigger share of the profits.

Provide yourself with a solid creative structure

Being more entrepreneurial, such as through running your own writing business, also means that you need to be more organised. Businesses demand a structure of some sort, and that could actually help your writing. It provides you with a base to work from, and clearly-defined goals that you can work towards. Simply by having to be more organised to keep on top of the business side of things, you could well find that your writing becomes more organised (in terms of scheduling) too.

The world is changing

Finally, the world is changing. Authors are having to do more, whether they go for traditional or independent publishing. There’s a lot of work involved, and so you might as well make sure you’re ready for it. Embracing your inner entrepreneur could be one of the best things you ever do for your writing career.

We can probably all identify a handful or more of common basic structures that feature time and time again in novels, short stories and other creative art forms. Guy meets girl (or vice versa). Hero is presented with a challenge to overcome. A stranger comes to town and unusual things happen. Hero goes on a journey (literal or metaphorical). A question is posed at the beginning that, by the end, is answered. Relationships face adversity.

You might think that all of this would start to get a bit boring after a while. But it doesn’t (well, sometimes it does. It depends on how good the specific story in question is). I think the reason for this is that all of those ‘common’ basic structures and ideas are things that we can all identify with. They mean something to us.

They also offer decent amounts of tension, potential for drama and conflict, and offer interesting things for our characters to do. The characters involved in the stories also add interest. Even though we can also identify common character traits – the typical romantic leads, the wandering lonely hero, the anti-hero – as long as the author does their job properly, each character is unique and exciting and someone we want to read more about.

We all have our own ways of seeing things. We all have our own interpretations. We could be reading one of the most tried and tested story formulas of all time, with a main character who on first glace is a total cliché, and still find plenty to love about it. At the same time, we could be reading something that’s trying to be quirky and original and entirely different, and it could be awful.

In many ways, the quality of the writing and how the story is told are the really important things. Done well, we don’t even notice that we’ve essentially read many similar things before, and our own viewpoints add another layer of individuality to proceedings. All those popular basic story structures are popular for a reason, and I’m willing to bet they’ll be popular for as long as we continue to write and tell stories.

What do you think?

In theory, there’s nothing really that hard about it. You sit down at your desk/on the sofa/on the bed, open up a notebook/laptop and write. That’s all you’re doing. You’re just sitting down somewhere and writing.

If only it was that simple in practice. As we all know, writers are experts at finding distractions and putting off actually getting down to business. Even the most dedicated and prolific among us are likely to spend many an hour window-gazing, daydreaming and making cups of tea they don’t really want but are making anyway because it’s easier to put the kettle on than put words on a page.

It’s hard. We all have our own ways of getting around/over the challenges of sitting down to write, but here are some of the best and most common things you should be doing to maximise your chances of a good, productive writing session.

Make sure everyone else in the building knows that you are planning to write, and that if you are interrupted for anything less than a genuine emergency, it will not be appreciated.
Disconnect from that there internet. Sure, it might be tempting to keep it on ‘just in case’ you need to check some vital fact, but a quick Googling session can all too quickly turn into a full-blown case of procrastinationitis. You can check that vital fact later. For now, switch of the net.
For that matter, put your phone on silent too. If possible, put it in a different room so you’re not tempted to check it.
Keep biscuits close by. Writing = snacking.
Get a kindly person to bring you beverages at regular intervals. It saves you getting up but means you’ll still be topped up with tea, which as we all know is very important.
Know vaguely what you’re doing. Even if you’re not someone who loves a detailed plan for your writing, having a vague sense of what you’re planning to do when you sit down to write can help to keep you on the straight and narrow.

What do you like to do to get yourself ready to write? Do you have to have everything just so, or do you just sit down and get on with it?

We all know that publishing has changed a lot in recent years. Challenges such as a more competitive market and financial pressures mean that things have been tough in the industry – but there has been plenty of opportunity as well. Independent publishing is just one of the beneficiaries of the changing publishing landscape, and while it is not the only solution to the challenges facing the wider publishing industry today, it is undeniably an important one.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the ways in which publishing has changed in the past decade. It’s not an exhaustive list, so do feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments section…

The rise of technology

Technology has affected publishing in a whole range of ways:

E-books are becoming increasingly popular and are likely to become even more so.
There’s a move away from traditional bookstore chains and independent bookshops to buying online.
It’s opened up the ways we can market our work, such as through social media.
It’s made it easier to self-publish through methods such as Amazon’s KDP.
Where once authors might have lived in fear of a bad review in the papers, we now have myriad online reviews, blogs and comments in there as well – not great if you’re hit with a stream of negative reviews, but the chance to hear from readers more than ever before is great.

The increase in self-publishing

Independent publishing is a change in itself; it really wasn’t so long ago that self-publishing had an air of ‘vanity’ and reduced quality about it. While that reputation still lingers a little, the growing popularity of independent publishing among authors – including those who have previously had traditional deals – and the growing willingness of readers to buy these books mean that indie publishing is a major contender in the industry.

The resurgence of the small press

When we think of traditional publishing, we often think of the ‘big six’. However, we can also identify plenty of smaller, independent presses that are producing fantastic work and getting noticed more and more. Take, for instance, Salt Publishing, which publishes The Lighthouse, one of this year’s Man Booker shortlisted books. It’s nice to see more diversity in the market, as well as smaller presses being recognised for their work.

The need for authors to be entrepreneurs

All of those other related changes – thousands of authors self-publishing their own books, the big publishers facing pressures and so on – mean that authors now need to be more entrepreneurial than ever before. Whether that means setting up a proper business as an independent publisher or taking more control and having more say in how our books are marketed varies from case to case, but we can’t deny that authors these days have to do much more than just write. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does pose challenges – not least how to fit everything in.

What do you think are the biggest changes the publishing industry has gone through in the past 10 years – and what changes do you think it will go through in the

There are lots and lots of things you need to do when self-publishing a book, from writing it in the first place to sorting out the financial side of things. The list below is by no means an exhaustive representation of what you need to do when self-publishing a book, but hopefully it offers a small insight into getting started as an independent publisher…

Learn the basics

Think you understand publishing? Even so, it never hurts to go right back to the beginning and make sure you have all the knowledge you need to publish your work. Pretend you’re a complete newbie when it comes to publishing. Learn the fundamentals, from how e-book pricing works to how to format your book. No independent publisher can get very far without them.

Set targets

Giving yourself targets to work towards can help you to develop some sort of structure or plan for what you want to achieve. Your first target, for instance, might be to get your book ready for publication. You might want to understand more about royalties. Later on in the process, you might have marketing and sales targets. Breaking it down like this can make the process more manageable and give you tangible things to work towards – as well as clear achievements.

Question, question, question

Don’t be satisfied with the first draft of your book. Question it and edit it until you’re happy. Don’t be satisfied with any old editing/proofreading/cover design/formatting service. Question the skills and qualifications of the people offering their services and make sure you get a good deal and a professional service. Believe in yourself, by all means, but don’t forget that along the way you need to question your knowledge and take steps to fill in the gaps where necessary.

Try not to think too hard about the odds

Whether you go for independent publishing or traditional publishing, the odds are stacked against new authors. Try not to think too much about it; just focus on what you’re doing. There are plenty of people who’ll say that self-publishing will never get you anywhere, but you never know. If you write a good book and market it well, it could get you somewhere. You could beat the odds.

Seek out the best sites and services

The internet is a great place to learn about self-publishing and find services that can help you in the process of publishing your book. Do your research and make sure you find out about the best resources. Their help could be invaluable.

Network

If you want your book to sell, people need to know about it. Network with as many people as you can, from readers to industry professionals, all of whom could help you along the way.

Keep up with developments

Finally, never forget that independent publishing is a fast-moving industry that changes and develops all the time. Brush up on the latest news so you can keep up to date with what’s going on and ensure that you’re able to respond where necessary when it comes to your own work.

What do you think are the most important things you need to do when self-publishing a book?

Procrastination. That topic we return to again and again. We can’t get away from it. All writers are afflicted by it to one degree or another. But should we even be trying to get away from it in the first place? Could a little bit of procrastination actually help us be more productive? Maybe it can… Here are three ways you can make your ‘putting off until tomorrow what you could do today’ time more productive.

Two projects at once

One of the best ways for a writer to make their procrastination more productive is to work on two major writing projects at once. When you’re trying to avoid one of them, work on the other one instead. When the other one needs to be avoided for some reason or another, do something on the first project. You get all of the benefits of procrastination (the sense of doing something a bit illicit, slacking off…) with none of the drawbacks. And you still get to make progress. Hurrah.

Tailor it to your writing

Of course, the other big thing that writers can do to be more productive during hours of procrastination is to tailor the time wasting to your writing. For instance, if you’re procrastinating on your novel, write your blog instead. Don’t want to write your blog? Do some social media promotions. There are always ways we can carry on achieving even as we’re avoiding the elephant in the room for a while.

Give yourself ‘ideas development’ space

Finally, sometimes being productive in other ways just won’t cut it when you’re in need of a good session of procrastination. So don’t be productive. Just be lazy for a bit. Do something entirely different, or do nothing at all. It’s often in our down time that our brains have the space to mull over – consciously or not – ideas that could well inform future projects or help us out of a tight spot on our current project. A bit of idling today could make tomorrow more productive.

So procrastinate away… just not for too long.