Excellent advice to improve your writing productivity
I have found every one of Maya’s practical prescriptions to work for me.
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Your local zombie author appears on Writing Excuses, Plus the Writing Debrief explained
After a cancerous death, I appeared on Writing Excuses this week to groan and hold forth with the guys on writing second novels and second books in a series.During the podcast I talked about my practice of debriefing after every writing project. A reader just asked what that was, and so I thought I’d explain it here.
The debrief is a simple thing. I learned it back when I worked as a business consultant. It always provides great insights. Sometimes it provides massive insights. The principle is to pull back and look at the big picture every once in a while. So here’s what I do. When I finish a project, I sit down and simply list out what I struggled with, what went well, and anything I learned. I list out things I’d do again that worked particularly well and things I’d do differently. This might be about craft or process. Sometimes I might take some time to reflect on the nature of story and read a favorite book about the craft or perform a story analysis on another movie or book. Then I write up my insights in a form that I can read later and know what the heck I’m talking about. This can take a few hours or a few days. This last debrief after draft 3 of CURSE coincided with my preparation for a day-long workshop I had agreed to give on story, and so the insights came thick and fast. I recommend the practice highly.
Indie Thoughts: 10 Things I Wish I’d Been Told
From Russell Blake.
I get a lot of emails from authors who are just starting out, or who are on the road but frustrated at the level of success they’ve seen thus far. I wish I had more time to correspond with everyone, but the truth is I’m usually slammed with writing/publishing related tasks, and don’t have a lot of opportunity to do more than offer a brief sentence or two.
But the last few missives I received got me thinking about what I wish someone had explained to me before I started self-publishing in June, 2011. So here’s my top 10 list, such as it is:
1) There are lots of talented writers out there. Lots. And it seems like everyone’s now got a book, or books, on Amazon. Being good isn’t enough to guarantee you anything but satisfaction for a job well done. It should, but it doesn’t. Don’t take it personally.
2) There are lots of crap writers out there. Lots. And while many sink to the bottom of the swamp with nary a whimper, some sell well, and some even become bestsellers. This is because the world’s unfair and, depending upon the genre, oftentimes readers don’t care much whether they suck or not, as long as the story entertains or reaffirms some conviction or bias the readers have. These authors succeed in spite of their abilities, rather than because of them. Don’t take it personally.
3) The internet is filled with gurus who know nothing. It’s hard to turn around without bumping into a writing or self-publishing expert. Most of them are completely full of shit, and don’t sell many books – but that doesn’t stop them from trying to get you to part with your money to hear them tell you what you need to do to sell well. Whenever you hear advice, consider the source. If it’s a million selling author, that means more than from someone whose work ranks slightly lower on Amazon than the collected love poems of Adolf Hitler in original German. Seems like everybody but me is selling seminars, courses, or how to books that promise much and deliver nothing. Must be a good business there, but I prefer labeling my fiction as such and putting in a car chase or gunfight rather than trying to trick the dim or desperate out of a few bucks.
4) You need to be able to put out books at a decent clip. Sure, you might hit huge off one, but probably not. You’ll be building your readership the hard way, which means one reader at a time, and the more quality books you have on your virtual bookshelf the more likely one will catch someone’s eye. This doesn’t appeal to a lot of authors’ wish that they could write a book every year or two and have a nice living. Sorry. I have yet to see that happen. But it’s a seductive siren song, so lots of newbies listen to it like it’s still a viable way to go. In self-publishing, not so much.
More at “10 Things I Wish I’d Been Told”.
I know, I know. Stop making blog posts, John, and finish CURSE.
All slots in the writing course are now filled
The last slot was filled just a few minutes ago, almost exactly 2 days after the announcement. Ten hardy souls have joined me for this journey. The goal is to finish 10 novels that are crackling with zing. I’ll report progress as we go. But now it’s heads down again because I’ve got my own novel to finish.
Presentation for Brandon Sanderson’s writing course
PDF of the slides
Brandon asked me to substitute for him on March 1st and teach the students about indie publishing. For those of you who were there, here are the slides.
2018 Sanderson Class – Indie Publishing Final PDF
“If I Were Published”
To start the presentation, I regaled the students with a surprise: my epic-fantasy-BYU-newbie-author version of the classic Fiddler on the Roof song which I called “If I Were Published.” Dylan Rowe, a student in the class with some serious violin chops, practiced with me in secret, then accompanied me during the performance. He was great. And the performance went well. We all had a great time. There’s a recording. Once I get it, I’ll post it here.
Here’s how it went.
Isaac introduced me. I said how happy I was to be there. I then asked for a show of hands: who was hoping to be published. Not all did, BTW. Some were taking the course for other reasons. I then said that the sight of such a vast assemblage of unpublished writers made me think of someone else. I displayed the slide of Tevye dancing. They all laughed, and I knew this was going to be a good crowd.
And then Dylan, who was hiding off to the side, played the phrase for “If I were a rich man” and I put on my own black Tevye hat. There was more laughter and surprise, and I began.
Dear Lord, you made many, many unpublished writers.
I realize, of course, that it’s no shame to be unpublished
But it’s no great honor, either.
So what would have been so terrible if I had one small best-selling series?[Dylan began to play and I began to sing]
If I were published,
Yaba dibba dibba dibba digguh deedle daidle dum.
All day long I’d biddy-biddy-bum
If I were a published manWouldn’t have to work hard,
Yaba dibba dibba dibba digguh deedle daidle dum.
If I were a biddy biddy pub
digguh deedle daidle published manI’d write a big long epic–hundreds of characters!
Swords and dragons and a lot of gore
A snot-nosed lad who was prophesied for the fightThere’d be a quest to one far side of the map
And one to find a lovely ancient lore
And one more leading out into the blight[I paused here, to think, then sang the tune to the last line again with the first four of these]
To meet a sprite,
and a dark knight,
with an old birth right,
read by moon light,
that … cures snake bite.[Dylan produced a big scratch. I covered my eyes in shame.]
Oy! Bad story development.
I’d see my wife, my Nellie,
Looking like a rich man’s wife,
with a proper golden skin,
rolling out the yoga mats to her heart’s delight.I’d see her driving the kids
in something other than a minivan
Oy! What a happy mood she’s in!
Posting perfect selfies to day and night.Hordes of bright-eyed zoobie writers will come to fawn on me.
They will ask me to advise them,
like Sanderson the Wise.
“If you please, Mister Brown?”
“Pardon me, Mister Brown?”
Posing problems that would cross a Shakespeare’s eyes
Ya da dee da dum, ya dah da dumAnd it won’t make one bit of difference
if I answer right or wrong.
When you’re published they think you really know.If I were published, I’d have the time that I lack
to go to the temple and to pray,
seated in a corner of the celestial room.
And I would serve on projects building Enoch’s Zion
from here to Africa and beyond.
And that would be the sweetest thing of allOy!
If I were pub-lished.
Yaba dibba dibba dibba digguh deedle daidle dum.
All day long I’d biddy-biddy-bum
if I were a published man.Wouldn’t have to work hard.
Yaba dibba dibba dibba digguh deedle daidle dum.
Lord who made the lion and the lamb,
You decreed I should be what I am.
Would it spoil some vast, eternal plan,
if I were a pub-lished man?Limericks
I took a bunch of copies as my books as gifts to support the good cause of entertaining hard-working students. But there was a twist. To get a book, they had to pay me one limerick. It could be about anything and of any quality. But it needed to be a limerick. They had, like, 5 minutes to write one at the end. Thirty-three souls came up with the payment. Here they are for your enjoyment.
1.
A writer, a publisher, and a poet,
And now, wouldn’t you know it,
They’re debating a comma,
and imagine the drama,
When they’re divided on just how to cull it2.
There once was a class of fiction
Which had a stranger take up his position
He was quite amusing
He kept them from snoozing
For he had quite a talent for diction.3.
John Brown’s book could be greatness
I hope it’ll be a hit, not a miss
Your lecture was great,
It did not stagnate
I hope you will great me my wish! (to get your book)4.
I want to write a book that is fun
where an evil something kills someone
And the people will fail
‘Til the heroes prevail
But I fear I will never be done.5.
I’m trying to write my own book.
But, if you now went to look
I fear you will find
It’s all in my mind
But, oh – all the effort it took!6.
There once was a poodle named Paddle
whose fur was cut into a saddle
until in the park
he ate too much bark
And now his tight fur is a battle.7.
There was a young woman whose head
Had eyes that looked dead
As boys approached her,
Her sharp tongue they started to stir
Filling others with dread8.
A poet sat twiddling his thumbs
He felt his ideas were dumb.
He was lacking in time
But just couldn’t rhyme
So he loosened his thoughts with some rum.9.
“In honor of your song”
“You know I’d really love to be published
Oh, the glam and the glory I would relish
The hordes of fans my mind’s eye can see-
Sanderson with John Brown bowing to me –
And don’t (?) tell me my dreams are embellished”10.
Homework I do not much like, you see
But for your book a lim’rick it be
and so i must do,
with great thanks to you,
this my small bit of lame poetry11.
There once was a boy named John
Who needed to mow the lawn.
He pulled on the rope
But oh, what a dope!
Alas, the gas was all gone!12.
Guardian Angel Limerick
I’ve struggled to write since the phone call,
when the maybe’s, the what-if’s turned actual
and the grieving stretched on
till the morn she was gone
and the world lost, but I gained, an angel.The note with that one: “I was the girl who asked if the limericks had to be funny. Thank you for coming to class and giving us the books. I’ve included my limerick below. My mother passed away a couple weeks ago. This is my tribute to my loudest cheerleader and my harshest critic.” Boy, I’m definitely honored to have this one.
13.
There was a young man from Pocatello
Who thought that he was a brave fellow
But one dark, dark night
He took quite a fright,
And found that he was quite, quite yellow.14.
There once was a sorcerer bloke
Who traveled outside for a smoke
He yawned, “curse this day”
And that is to say
The incantation now was spoke15.
There once was a ship fresh-moored
With my favorite couple on board
But despite the large fanon
It was destroyed by the canon
And my ship, sunk quick, sailed no more16.
There once was a sad unicorn
Who had tragically lost his gold horn
And thus ran away
and still to this day,
He stands but a horse all forlorn17.
There once was a grandma so old
on her birthday she had a bad cold
as she blew out her candles
her kids yelled, “Mad scandal!”
as her dentures flew into the mould18.
There once was a cat named caterer
who keeps running into the mirror
we got her some glasses
form the shopping masses
and now she sees everything clearer19.
There once was a dust speck named Mike
Who lived on the edge of a spike.
He was bumped off that edge,
then snagged on some sedge,
ending up on the wheel of a bike20.
I am a cat who is hip.
Who likes to shoot from the lip.
My songs are all crude.
My stories are lewd.
I like to make reality flip.21.
There once was a bunny named Mopey
Who had friends that were silly and dopey.
They hopped on a train
That took them to Maine
Where someone threw them in a bath that was soapy22.
I want something to teach me to cook
but this sure and that kind of a book
but bore shadiz tes (yeah, couldn’t read it, dang it)
and this sure seems fair
So now I guess I should take a look23.
There once was a man named John
Who put his books out to pawn
Some students one day,
Wrote limericks to say,
“We love your free books–give us one.”24.
My mother wanted to get a book,
And she gave me that terrible look.
A limerick the price,
I wrote one down twice,
So please give me that sought after book.25.
There once was a man named Lam
Who like to eat lots of Spam.
When the aliens came
He cooked them a meal
And so his soul they did not steal26.
There once was a tiger named Ted
He went to town in a bed.
Jeep in the rustle
He spotted a tussle
And now he has bumps on his head.27.
Once I tried writing haiku;
it seemed like a fun thing to do.
But I fumbled the timing,
and couldn’t stop rhyming,
and now this haiku is just poo.28.
Once I was writing a sonnet
But my paper hand not a word on it.
I sat there confused,
My talents unused,
Because nothing else rhymes except “bonnet”.29.
I love me a good paper book
But the digital have a nice look
Shopped for a kindle all day,
Tried to buy on eBay,
But, somehow I just have a Nook.30.
There once was a man with pink hair
And all he ever got were rude stares.
He said, “I know that I’m hot.
There’s no need to gawk.
Goodbye.” And left with great flair.31.
There once was a lobster named Clyde
Who was inexplicably snide.
But he had some bad luck,
from the sea he was plucked
and now he’s been battered and fried.32.
I was once walking home on the street
When a woman, I happened to meet
I said to her, “Hey.”
She said to me, “Nay.”
So I went out and bought me a treat.33.
Tetris is the very best game
My playing will put you to shame
See… I am the best
Put it to the test
One day it may lead me to fame.JB Speculates: eBooks, Book Contracts, Agents, and Libraries
I’ve looked in the crystal ball I hide under my desk and caught a glimpse of what ebooks will change in the next few years. Specifically I saw what will happen to:
- Book Contracts
- Literary Agents
- eBook Aggregators and Libraries
After showing me the vision, the ball thanked me for shopping at Walmart. Weird.
PRINT ONLY CONTRACTS
The only reason to have a print publisher is to get distribution you cannot obtain on your own, or to get it more cheaply than it would cost you if you tried to get it on your own. That’s it. Now, it’s true publishers have excellent art departments and story editors. But you can contract out cover art, copy editing, formatting, and even story editing yourself.
Distribution is the main thing publishers offer that you can’t get anywhere else.
BTW, when I’m talking about distribution, I’m talking mostly about getting the books out to places people can see and purchase them. For example, publishers can get your book into hundreds or thousands of books stores all at the same time–Barnes & Noble, Hastings, Walmart, Costco, indie book stores, airport book stores, grocery stores, drug stores, etc. Publishers can get you display in those stores so consumers see your book. One form of that are the racks and new book displays. Another is one that Scholastic does so well, i.e. displaying and selling titles in tens of thousands of classrooms with its book catalogs. A single author just can’t do that.
It’s also true publishers can convince some platform venues, that would never look at a self-pubbed author, to spotlight your book. For example, it’s unlikely a self-published author will be able to convince Booklist, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal, which have huge platform for library book purchasers, to review a book. But publishers have no problem getting their stuff in there. Likewise, it’s often much easier for publishers to get endorsements from other authors or people with platform than it is for a single author. Of course, there are so many places that have some kind of platform, that publishers don’t have a lock on them all, e.g. Goodreads and Amazon reader reviews. But for the sake of simplicity, let’s just look at the distribution end.
Because 90% of book sales are still hardcopy, the only way to have HUGE sales numbers, right now, is through a print publisher. I’m talking about the numbers you see in the Publishers Weekly top selling books, where you have to sell at least 100k copies in hard back, 500k copies in mass market, to even make the list.
Publisher’s lock on this ability will erode. We can see signs of this in the USA Today Top 150 already. I consider this to be the most accurate picture of what truly is selling the most. Here’s why. And ebooks are starting to be the best selling format for a number of books. On that list, they add up sales of a title in all formats and then list the best-selling format. So when you see an (E) at the end of the listing, you know it’s selling more ebooks than any other format. E’s are starting to pop up all over and we’re still in the early adopter stage for ebooks and ereaders.
So what does this mean?
If I put on my author business slacks (why does it always have to be hats we change?), I’d be crazy to turn down a publisher that wanted to offer me monster distribution. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. You offer me $500k now, I’m taking the money and running all the way to the bank and then the $6.99 Indian all-you-can-eat buffet.
Of course, I’m not likely to get that kind of an offer. We new writers are more likely to get an offer for, what were Hines’ numbers? $6k – $12k? And for that the publisher will want all our ebook rights and will tie them up for years and years and years. And then they’ll try to give us a fraction of what we could get selling directly. Furthermore, they don’t provide such books the same push to garner platform spotlight. They don’t spend the money to give them the prime display in bookstores. This means the difference between what they bring to the table for us smaller authors and what we can do on our own is much less. And the ebook has narrowed that even further.
How much further? Well, how many books would you have to sell to make that advance of $6k – $12k? If you’re selling your books for $2.99 for the Kindle, you get about $2.00 a book. That means you’d have to sell 3k-6k copies of an ebook to earn as much as that average advance.
Do you think you can sell 3k – 6k copies of an ebook at $2.99?
Some authors will be able to do this. Some won’t. If you wanted to do that in three years, you’d have to sell about 150-350 books per month. For a more in depth comparison between traditional publishing and self-publshing ebooks, see Dean Smith’s blog on cash flow.
Maybe you don’t think you can make those numbers. But maybe you can. The point is that if you think you can, then you can make as much on your own as you can with a publisher. This means there is absolutely no financial reason on earth to take the publisher’s deal. None. Now, if you have non-financial reasons, that’s another thing, but when looking at dollars and cents, it’s fairly clear the publisher’s ability to put you into their distribution channels isn’t worth what it will cost you. Especially since the ebook is forever and may keep selling for years to come AND because the market for ebooks is still in the early adopter phase–it’s only going to grow massively over these next years.
But this doesn’t mean paper publishing is dead. It’s not. Nor will it be for some time. Just because SOME authors can make as much in the ebook market on their own as they can with a publisher through their distribution channels doesn’t mean all of them can. Furthermore, publishers with distribution have something to offer even those who successfully publish ebooks themselves.
Let’s say you have an ebook series that starts to sell well for you, 1,000 per month. That’s $2k per month, $24k per year. If a publisher wanted to buy the rights to that from me, they would have to pay me MORE than $70k as an advance. MORE. Because I can make that on my own in three years selling it myself. In fact, since ebooks are forever, I have to look at the present value of all of those years of sales. That income stream is going to be a LOT MORE than $70k, even if we think sales will taper off after five or six years.
How many big publishers are going to want to pay that?
Probably none. Or, at least, I suspect those deals will be few and far between. But there is money to be made in paper, even if that market is shrinking. There will be some smaller publishers who, for the right price, will offer paper distribution. And if they can get me distribution that I couldn’t get myself for paper, or do it at a lower cost, then I’d want to sell them paper rights. Why not?
And so what I see in the crystal ball are some authors, the ones who do well selling ebooks, being able to sign contracts with publishers that sell paper rights only. I know the big publishers probably won’t go for that in the near term, but smaller publishers will see the value and step up to the plate.
AGENTS
What about agents? Are they going to die?
I think if we remember that literary agents are SALES agents, then their future becomes clear. The only reason to get a sales agent is because doing so makes my property worth more (same reason for getting a publisher, btw). If, by letting them focus on sales and letting me focus on getting more product out the door, I make more money than I would if I tried to do BOTH the selling and the producing, then I want an agent.
I want to sell as many rights as I can to as many people as possible–gaming, film, audio, foreign, merchandise, etc. I’d be a fool to say, well, no, I’ve got this little ebook gig going. I’m not going to sell any of these many other rights to anybody. No, I’m just going to let them sit in my basket and earn me nothing. Let them go to waste.
!?
A good agent should be able to sell more than I could on my own because they have a better ability to reach AND close editors AND other people that are in the market for purchasing rights to my property. They’ll also allow me to sell more because all the time I would have spent selling, I can now use to create more product. So not only do I have more books, and therefore rights, to sell, I can hopefully sell them for a better price and terms than I could on my own.
I’d be a fool not to increase my revenue. I’d be a fool not to have a good agent.
So as long as there are people who want to purchase these non-ebook rights, and an agent can make a sale I couldn’t or can make it for less than what it would cost me to do it on my own, then agents will be useful. Because of this, because we’ll always have more than ebook rights to sell, I don’t see a role for good agents ever going away.
EBOOK AGGREGATORS & LIBRARIES
When more and more people begin reading ebooks what happens to the libraries?
Ebooks cost less. So a lower price per book would simply allow libraries to purchase more books and expand the collection. But wait, they don’t need rooms and rooms to hold all the paper. You can store the world’s library in one computer room. Shoot, this means that housing the collection on a server instead of on the shelves would cost less. This would allow for an even bigger collection. But why maintain a server and manage your own collection if you can network to the collection down the road?
In fact, what if there were a mega service with millions of titles you could subscribe to? That would be even cheaper. Then you wouldn’t have to pay book purchasing agents or IT folks to keep your server running.
Enter the ebook aggregators–the Netflixes of ebooks (I know somebody somewhere is working on this business plan; is it you?)
I’m betting the whole library system goes national. I’m betting you’ll have some government aggregators, but they’ll probably be dwarfed by the private companies. You’d subscribe to the aggregator’s service just as you do Netflix today and many university libraries currently subscribe to electronic periodical collections.
The aggregators will probably charge users as Netflix does for a certain number of books checked out at the same time. If a large entity like a library wanted to subscribe, I bet the aggregator would charge access to the collection based on number of users at the library. The library would pass some of that fee onto patrons. The rest of the fee would be paid by the community’s tax dollars, just as those tax dollars pay for the current collections. You might even have device manufacturers coupling subscriptions with purchase of the product as incentives to buy their devices.
When the aggregators step in, we suddenly end up with a different mix of distribution channels that will coexist:
- Author –> ebook retailer (Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook, etc.) –> reader
- Author –> subscription aggregator –> reader
- Author –> subscription aggregator –> public and school libraries –> reader
- Author –> publisher –> subscription aggregator –> then option 2 or 3 above
- Author –> publisher –> current distribution channels
Surprised by #5? Well, the current distribution channels are not going away until every book can be read on an ereader and everyone who reads has and wants to read on such a device. That’s going to take some time, if it happens at all.
Why would readers buy individual titles ala distribution channel 1 above? Some people just want to own. Other readers will be happy to purchase the books because they don’t want to wait for a checkout slot to open up, e.g. I already have my allotted number of books checked out and I really want this one on hand all the time because it’s Suzie’s favorite. Other readers will want to customize a book with highlights, margin notes, links, etc. just as many of us like to mark up paper texts. We’ll need our own copy for that. Still, I think the bulk of reading will move to the subscriptions. For example, right now I purchase DVDs I love, even though I can get them from Netflix. But the number of DVD’s I own are a fraction of those I watch. Most TV and film I watch once and it goes back to Netflix until I want to see it again. And this checking out becomes even easier where there’s nothing physical to send through the mail.
Please note: there will probably be some form of gatekeeping with the aggregators. I doubt they will carry every scrap of anything ever written. They’ll carry a lot of stuff, but not every written word. Furthermore, when you have hundreds of thousands of titles, you’ll need mechanisms for helping your subscribers find great content suited to their tastes. A lot of “people who read this read that,” review services, etc.–the next generation of Netflix recommendations, Goodreads reviews, and Pandora like tools.
Aggregators won’t be the only gatekeepers, however. The key is in getting notice. And there will be many places with platform that will be able to shine a spotlight on a book. Think about all the places you find out about movies today—radio movie programs, TV movie reviews, Rotten Tomatoes, Newspaper Reviews, Yahoo viewer and critic review summaries, Kids-in-mind, and on and on. Look at all the ways you find music. There will be just as many ways to find books.
As far as paying authors, I suspect aggregators will pay authors each time a book is checked out, or, if it’s a must-have name author, they will pay to list the title plus a per use payment.
So that’s the future I saw in my strange little ball. Feel free to comment or add your own thoughts.
Rewriting the On Writing page
I’m a teacher in the private sector. I’ve developed and taught courses on everything from accounting to how to small talk. Heck, my official title is education program manager (that sounds really official and, like, powerful, doesn’t it).
For a long time, I’ve wanted to deliver a 12 week course on writing. But I ain’t got not time for 12 weeks and all that would require. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t turn my education brain on and get my stuff on writing into a format that will actually help.
So that’s what I’m going to do.
You want to learn how to write?
I’ll share what I can. The first revision is up. In it, you should learn what the crap you’re doing. Enjoy.
When I finish more, I’ll be sure to notify you with a post.
