THE JAMES MASON COMMUNITY BOOK CLUB discussion

Here are the cold hard facts about Indie publishing from a respected media outlet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01...

Hi Larry, thanks for the link. This is an excellent article and addresses the failings of many Indie writers. I'm an Indie writer, now, but it takes me almost a year to write a book and I edit the **** out of it. Between writing the draft, revisions, editing and more revisions, I don't see how anyone can trun out something good in a month...

Great link, Larry. I have to agree, as well. Takes me several months just to get through the copy editing process alone. Heck, even after I draft a novel, I don't touch it again for a few weeks. When I hear about a book-a-month writer, I run the other way, regardless of the reviews or price.

Thanks for the link, Larry - interesting article. It can take me two years to write and ready a novel for publication, and sometimes I'll put it away for another year simply so I can surprise it and read with fresh eyes and mind.

I found the comment regarding structure worrying, placed as it was as something to be dealt with when correcting typos and errors in grammar. Authors, especially Indies, need good creative input in this department - unless hopes of fame and money are everything to them - otherwise we might as well allow computers to write our books.

The gatekeeper thing seems important to me. I have looked at one or two excerpts from books on Kindle, along with some blurb on the covers and it surprised me how bad some of the grammar and punctuation is. I don't know how you can filter out the rubbish though. It certainly is giving indie books a bad name. Perhaps we could ask for ideas to fix this problem?

Robert wrote: "Great link, Larry. I have to agree, as well. Takes me several months just to get through the copy editing process alone. Heck, even after I draft a novel, I don't touch it again for a few weeks...."

Robert wrote: "Great link, Larry. I have to agree, as well. Takes me several months just to get through the copy editing process alone. Heck, even after I draft a novel, I don't touch it again for a few weeks...."

Robert, I totally agree. When I'm in my high speed mode, I can crank yout 1,500 words a day. THEN I also let it sit for a while and go back, copy edit, THEN I turn it over to my editor for final revisions. Six months is the minimum it takes me to turn out a novel. My Time Travel Book took more than a decade AFTER the first draft was written. At the time there was little market and agents weren't even interested in looking at it. The market changed, I had to do extensive book revision and it's finally seeing the light of day in EBook form. Printed out in about two months.

Anthony wrote: The gatekeeper thing seems important to me.

A computer programme wouldn't work, as it would pick up deliberate things like dialect and experimental devices such as Stream of Consciousness. As far as buyers are concerned, the 'Look Inside the Book' preview is usually a good enough indication of the quality of the writing, although I think many have already been put off by the problems mentioned. Hopefully things will settle down to a reasonable level in time and they'll return, although I daresay publishing will have changed by then, as everything must.

I honestly can't see any way that a 'gatekeeper' could work, and it's debatable whether or not any positive results would outweigh the negative ones.

Anthony wrote: "The gatekeeper thing seems important to me. I have looked at one or two excerpts from books on Kindle, along with some blurb on the covers and it surprised me how bad some of the grammar and punctu..."

Anthony, I've been in various aspects of the publishing industry for 45 years and I have no easy solution. Every business required quality control yet Indie publishing is currently without any and many amateur writers either refuse or don't understand the need for quality control. As with any trial, some customers will try a product once then go on to an alternative. Some will try it twice. When stung a third time, they will revert to products with established quality standards--in this case the traditional publishing routes.

If the current ill-written material continues to be published, it will drive away many of those who would otherwise seek reasonable priced alternatives to expensive books from larger publishing houses.

Hi Larry. Looks like there's not a lot we can do to help this problem. The draw back with social networking is that I'm spending less and less time writing. Ah well. It's all been said before.

This is how one indie writer works. I'm talking eighteen months research, three years writing, four to five rewrites, tight editing.


How I write.

Publishers’ biggest gripe is that nothing new is ever submitted to them. Before we put pen to paper, our concept, protagonist, voice and presentation must be unique.

We write for the reader, not ourselves. In appealing to readers' senses, they should not be aware they are reading, but have the feeling they are experiencing the story. Our work should be cinematic. This is achieved through character-driven story-telling and not narrative.

Our protagonist has to be special and linger in the minds of our readers for years.

Publishers also demand better work from new writers than published work, emphasizing they don’t want good stuff, they want ‘fantastic’ books. (What a lazy word. It is not one I would use.)

Rejection is made on our synopses alone. If we can’t light their fire with our synopsis, we’ve had it.

If they deign to glance at our opening page we had better grab their attention with our opening sentence and paragraph, be it narrative or dialogue. They allow us mere seconds.

There are no certainties in creativity. Think of Richard Bach’s Jonathon Livingstone Seagull. So way out, it was rejected a hundred times. Then became a best seller.

From the first sentence, our writing must entertain. There is no other reason for story-telling whether around a camp fire or in print. And our writing should be as simple as if we were sitting around a camp fire telling it orally.

People talk of great literature. I suggest we think in terms of great story-telling.

Plunge into the story. Do not set the scene. When we go to a play and the curtain rises, stage hands are not putting props in place. Our actors must come alive in our opening paragraph.

Our first chapter isn’t always the first we write. It might occur to us after the novel is completed.

Let our characters drive the story-telling via dialogue, interplay and direct action. Beware of narrative distance. It would be dull to watch a TV screen with characters frozen, while an off-scene narrator bores the audience with what should be happening on the screen.

Write minimal words. Readers race ahead of our writing, visualizing the scene themselves, anticipating how our sentences end … four times faster than they read. Overwriting frustrates the reader.

Write tight sentences. Use few adjectives and adverbs, preferably none. Seek the appropriate noun and verb. A sentence needs one noun and one verb. If they are the correct ones, adjectives and adverbs are superfluous.

Roget’s Thesaurus is a treasure. A real work-horse and a delight to use. It’s a companion that provides thousands of alternative words. Appropriate nouns and verbs are there for the picking. (Ha, ha. My daughter grabbed my hard-cover Roget's for herself and I have to use a rubbish old paper-back.)

Experience scenes and dialogue, don't write them. Meditate, daydream, live them, transcend. Communication is achieved through our five senses, sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, and it is vital to stir emotions. Readers experiencing our book should catch a feeling.

In the real world, we don’t speak complete sentences. Dialogue can be truncated to make it natural. I go further and use dialect: c'mon, gonna, ain't, hafta, wotcha, et al.

A novel must generate its own momentum. The author should be invisible. Our readers want to experience the story, not ‘read’ it. This can be achieved by dreaming, meditating, transcending, experiencing, rather than ‘writing’.

The past participle ‘had’ becomes clumsy if repeated. Changing ‘he had done it’ to ‘he did it’ makes the action immediate.

Delete words ending ‘-ly’ … seemingly, clearly, obviously, actually, strangely, finally, really, eventually … et al. They weaken our writing.

Beware overuse of ‘was’. It was morning, the sun was shining, he was sleeping. Yuck. In the morning he slept while the sun rose.

Dialogue reads better if ‘he said/she said’ is deleted as much as possible.

Taking words out of sentences and sentences from paragraphs is the secret to editing. Our stuff starts to shine when we pare it by 20%.

The secret to writing is rewriting. The more we rewrite, the easier it gets. Our first drafts are bad, second drafts better and third drafts may be good. Fourth and fifth drafts sparkle.

Junior literary agents are more likely give us time as they are building their client list.

To get the show on the road, we don’t have to be accepted by a major publisher who focuses on 10% of authors who generate 90% of their profits. We could serialise in a newspaper or magazine as Dickens and Collins did. This was the way to go during the 1930’s depression.

Small presses and indie publishers too. Nothing wrong with e-books. Amazon sells more e-books than paper-backs and hard-covers combined. At $2,99 they are value for money to the down-loader; and because costs are minimal, authors make as much as they would on a paperback.

With e-books, one can give away free samples as I am doing.
This is a good way to build readership.

My guidelines may not be right for everyone. But I have signed two publisher' contracts. The Survivors (now out of print) and Saturdays Are Gold (hard-cover, paper back and e-book currently on Amazon).

I declined to sign a contract for The Girl Who Tweaked Two Lions' Tails. I decided to self-publish.

To all writers, go well with your work.


Pierre

Nell wrote: "Anthony wrote: The gatekeeper thing seems important to me.

A computer programme wouldn't work, as it would pick up deliberate things like dialect and experimental devices such as Stream of Consci..."

Hi Nell. I guess if you have a tidal wave of books available it must come at a price.

Putting my money where my mouth is.



The Girl Who Tweaked Two Lions' Tails is an indie novel.

On Saturday and Sunday 4th and 5th February, you may download it free of charge on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005...

What's the bet you'll read the story cover to cover?

This is a fun challenge.

Have fun.


Pierre

Larry wrote: "Here are the cold hard facts about Indie publishing from a respected media outlet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01..."

Be sure to read all the comments... they really extended the article in a number of very interesting directions. Thanks for positng.

Another matter occurs to me. In response to quality concerns, one way that indies can get their work read is to lower the price, which of course is happening. The problem is that this drives the acceptable price of an ebook down little by little over time.

Think about it, over time the public will want books at lower and lower prices and there will be less and less money earned by even the best authors... this means less money for editing, marketing, good covers... and of course most importantly, less money for good scotch and red wine.

It's a tail-spin in the making. Amazon may be attempting to control this by offering the higher commission of 70% on ebooks at or over $2.99...or perhaps they do this for some other reason... the mind of the behemoth is a difficult thing to traverse.

Neverheless, indies have to find a way to break thru the clutter. Price is one option. Another is by banding together. Many boutique houses appear to be doing exactly that.

I am sure eveyone has noticed that when a small but established house publishes a title that there are a quick round of very favorable reviews.. some well deserved others perhaps much less so. The point is that Authors have wisely created "packs" perhaps under the direction of their micro-publishers in an effort to survive in the jungle out there that seems to define the industry.

And I have to say, good for them... it's a great idea. It's never safe to be alone in dangerous territory... of couse I would say that, being the self annointed gay author with wolves. haha.

My point is that social networking can be more formalized to create a support and markting network for authors to better compete in the business world. We all have different talents and putting these talents together is what makes a wolf-pack strong... to abuse the analogy yet further.

For example, while I have been called gifted in the world of marketing in my past professional incarnations, I wouldn't be able to schmooze a party, a newspaper reviewer or even a small group of potential fans at a coffeeshop to save my life... i even had to look up schmooze to see how it was spelled.

The big six hire people to "pack-up" and sccout for market share, to wine and dine gatekeepers of all sorts, to guard territory and to hunt for profits. Independent authors need to do the same one way or another as the industry goes through its growing pains.

Lowering prices and adding more titles is not a stable way of encouraging readers to stay with the indies... even if quality issues are properly addressed.

Pierre wrote: "Putting my money where my mouth is.



The Girl Who Tweaked Two Lions' Tails is an indie novel.

On Saturday and Sunday 4th and 5th Februar..."

Pierre, this was a serious, focussed discussion. Your posting about a free book is TOTALLY inappropriate in my thread. Please remove.

Pierre wrote: "This is how one indie writer works. I'm talking eighteen months research, three years writing, four to five rewrites, tight editing.


How I write.

Publishers’ biggest gripe is that nothing new is..."

Pierre, giving us a primer on how you write is totally irrelevant to the thread I posted and is self-serving. Please remove.

Pierre wrote: "This is how one indie writer works. I'm talking eighteen months research, three years writing, four to five rewrites, tight editing.."

Good info