March 18, 2010

Jim C. Hines’ Terrific Survey on How Novelists Broke In

Writer Jim C. Hines has done a very helpful survey of 246 novelists to explore the following questions:

1) Do you have to sell short stories first to sell a novel?

2) Is self-publishing the way to go to sell a first novel to a publisher?

3) Are most first sales of a novel an overnight success story?

4) Do you have to have personal connections to the publishing industry to sell a first novel?

I’m not going to tell what the answers are, because I think it’s important to visit Jim’s website to read his detailed answers and analysis there.

Here’s what Jim says on his website about his survey:

For this study, I was looking for authors who had published at least one professional novel, where “professional” was defined as earning an advance of $2000 or more.  This is an arbitrary amount based on SFWA’s criteria for professional publishers.  No judgment is implied toward authors who self-publish or work with smaller presses, but for this study, I wanted data on breaking in with the larger publishers.

247 authors from a range of genres responded.  One was eliminated because the book didn’t fit the criteria (it was for a nonfiction title).  A random audit found no other problems.

The first part of the survey is Novel Survey Results, Part 1 (answers questions 1 & 2).   Second part has just been posted today as Novel Survey Results, Part 2 (answering questions 3 & 4).  There will be a third part next week.

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March 16, 2010

Backup the writing files or documents, or suffer the consequences

The hard drive in my ancient Apple 17″ Powerbook G4 laptop finally began to die about a week ago.   I should have replaced the hard drive years ago (the laptop will be 7 years old this June, bought it in June 2003), but I never got around to it.  So it’s been slowly dying, making noises when it gets too hot lately.

Thankfully I paid attention to those noises, and 1) did almost daily backups of my writing-in-progress, 2) did backups of all my writing files every two weeks, and 3) bit the money bullet and ordered a refurbished Apple 17″ MacBook Pro laptop to replace the old laptop.   So when my old laptop hard drive crashed in a spectacular way last Wednesday (*almost* got the new laptop in time–it arrived on Friday), I was in a position to recover with over the weekend.  So take it from me, backup all your writing files every 2-4 weeks, and backup your work-in-progress nightly.

And make sure you keep some of those backups in a place safe from fire and theft.  Buy a firebox specifically designed to protect software backups, and store the disks in there.  Also, get a safe deposit box at a bank, and every 1-2 months put a backup in that box.

If you don’t use a computer for your first draft writing (i.e. you write everything by hand), get a firebox big enough to put your work-in-progress in there at night.

Whenever I started to feel like “these backups are too much hassle,” I asked myself “how would you feel if  your laptop breaks down, is destroyed, or stolen?”  That question always drove me to backup my writing.  And as a result, my laptop’s hard drive failure was a (relatively) painless process to recover from.

I’ve known writers who’ve lost years of writing work in a fire because they didn’t have copies of their writing files in a fire-safe location.   Anyone who makes their living from their writing, or hopes to do so, needs to have a plan for backing up their work on a regular basis.  Make sure the backup plan covers hard drive failure, fire or flood, and theft.

I’m very fond of that old laptop, and plan to keep it.  The current plan is to get a replacement hard drive, then give it to my spouse to use as a a test machine for running the Linux operating system.

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February 20, 2010

On Choosing a Writing Workshop or Conference

Like any other profession, it’s good to get out there at least once a year and learn from other writers.  There is an endless array of workshops and conferences coming up in 2010.  A few key ones have already happened, like the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators annual winter conference in New York City.

There are a few factors to consider before you go in search of a conference or workshop:

1) How much money can you afford to spend?

2) How long can you be gone for?

3) What craft skills or business knowledge do you want to learn?  For example, if your goal is to work on your writing craft, you’d be better off going to a workshop instead of a conference.  On the other hand, if you want a broad introduction to all kinds of writing, a huge conference like the Hawaii Writers Conference (formerly Maui Writers Conference) or the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference would be a better choice.

4) If it’s a writing workshop you’re looking at, do the instructors make a living as writers and/or write novels, short stories, or poetry that you enjoy?   Writing is like painting or music or any other art form–if you want to be the best, try at some point (even if only for a day) to study under someone whose work you admire.

I considered listing specific workshops and conferences, but the list kept growing and growing and growing until it became a hassle.  There’s just so many of them. If you feel overwhelmed by the choices, I recommend starting out by figuring out what type of writing you love most to do, and then track down the website for the national writer’s organization for that genre.

For example, if you love writing romance, you’d go to the Romance Writers of America website to find out what national, regional, and state conferences it holds.   I can say from personal experience that, even though I’m not a romance writer, RWA’s national conference was a fantastic learning experience for me as a writer (especially the talks about the business side of writing).

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February 8, 2010

Ray Bradbury’s ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING

The strength of Ray Bradbury’s ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING: ESSAYS ON CREATIVITY is the insight he provides into the art and psychology of being a writer.  This is not a how-to-write or how-to-get-published book, and if you go into it with those expectations you will be disappointed.

Bradbury talks about his own journey as an artist, and provides advice on how to keep the writing muse alive and happy.  Whenever I feel blah as a writer, I find picking up this book and reading an essay or two shakes me out of it quickly.  Here’s what he has to say about the joy of writing:

…if you are writing without zest, without gusto, without love, without fun, you are only half a writer.  It means you are so busy keeping one eye on the commercial market, or one ear peeled for the avant-garde coterie, that you are not being yourself.  You don’t even know yourself.  For the first thing a writer should be is–excited.

He also makes the best argument I’ve read (and I’ve read way too many writing craft books) for why it’s important to write a thousand words per day:

Quantity gives experience.  From experience alone can quality come.

All arts, big and small, are the elimination of waste motion in favor of  the concise declaration.

The artist learns what to leave out.

The surgeon knows how to go directly to the source of trouble, how to avoid wasted time and complications.

The athlete learns how to conserve power and apply it now here, now there, how to utilize this muscle, rather than that.

Is the writer different?  I think not.

Bradbury also provides wonderful advice for brainstorming story ideas, but you’ll have to read the book to find out about that (look for the essay “Run Fast, Stand Still…”).

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January 17, 2010

Epic discussion about “Agents Know Markets” on Dean Wesley Smith’s website

If you haven’t been reading Dean Wesley Smith’s “Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing” posts, you’ve been missing out.  There’s an epic discussion going on right now about the topic of “Agents Know Markets.” Make sure to read the entire comments section, for Laura Resnick and Dean Wesley Smith go over 20 years of experience in the fiction writing business there in long comments.  Almost as good as sitting next to them in a bar while they chat.

Here’s a small sample of his article.  But go read the entire thing!   In this section he’s explaining that “Agents are human.”

See, the real truth about publishing is that it only takes one. Put that phrase over your marketing desk. IT ONLY TAKES ONE.

One editor to fall in love with your work, to push your work through all the roadblocks in a publishing house, to turn an unlikely book into the next bestseller. But if you have to run everything through the “taste meter” of your employee, you are adding a second level of acceptance to a book that often makes selling just flat impossible. It is hard enough in this business to have one person fall in love with your book, it’s damn near impossible to have two in a row. So by following an agent’s “taste meter” you are dooming a lot of work.

As a special bonus in this post, Smith and Resnick discuss how to survive as a fiction writer until you can find a good agent.

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January 14, 2010

Pushcart’s COMPLETE ROTTEN REVIEWS AND REJECTIONS

I think what I love most about Pushcart’s COMPLETE ROTTEN REVIEWS AND REJECTIONS, edited by Bill Henderson & Andre Bernard, is that it lifts the veil of mystery between writers and the publishing world, and shows us just how human we are all are despite our attempts to become omniscient.   Mistakes get made.  Critics and editors get cranky and misunderstand an important book.  Writers insult other writers.

Any writer who is feeling timorous about submitting his or her work should consider reading this book.  Reading the nasty reviews and rejections other writers have received was an excellent antidote for self-pity.  The book also provides a peek into history, since Bill Henderson made an effort to include rotten reviews going as far back as 411 BC.

I don’t want to spoil the fun of what is inside, so instead I’ll quote from the back cover:

…Alice in Wonderland was greeted with “a stiff overwrought story.”  Reviews of Moby Dick cited Melville for “tragic-comic bubble and squeak.”  Classic rejection slips were delivered to John Le Carre’s The Spy Who Came In from the Cold: “You’re welcome to Le Carre–he hasn’t got any future,” and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita: “I recommend that it be buried under a stone for a thousand years,”…

My one gripe is that the book has no index, and since the excerpts are not arranged chronologically or alphabetically, I have to randomly flip around to find the author or quote I’m looking for.

This book combines the three separate Pushcart editions of ROTTEN REVIEWS, ROTTEN REVIEWS II, and ROTTEN REJECTIONS.  So you’re getting three books for the price of one.  A great bargain.

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December 30, 2009

Filmmaking Contest Judged By Peter Jackson

If you like doing filmmaking, here’s a contest you’ll want to consider.  I’m going to cut and paste some of the info from the website here:

If you dream of being a great filmmaker, this could be your big break. Capture the spirit of 100% Pure New Zealand in a 3 minute short film and win the attention of Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson.

To enter simply download the brief, write your screenplay, submit your form by the 15th of January 2010…

Five finalists will be flown to New Zealand in January 2010 to shoot their short films with the help of Academy Award ® winning producer Barrie Osborne. The winning film will be selected by Peter Jackson.

Go to Your Big Break website to enter.  Good luck if you enter!

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December 18, 2009

Dean Wesley Smith’s essay “Can’t Make Money in Fiction”

I don’t want to steal Dean Wesley Smith’s thunder, so all I’m going to say is that if you want to get a better understanding of money and fiction writing, go read his essay on “Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing:  Can’t Make Money in Fiction.” He does a great job explaining why it is possible to make a living as a fiction writer.

And if you disagree with him, go add a comment to his post.  He loves a good argument.

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December 8, 2009

The Unpredictability of Book Sales

While browsing at a bookstore on Sunday, I found a copy of Audrey Niffenegger’s HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY shoved carelessly between two picture books in the children’s section.   The sight of it got me thinking about how unpredictable book sales can be.

Just this past March, Niffenegger got an advance of $5 million for HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY (here’s the New York Times article on the sale).   Then I saw an article in late October by Kate Ward in Entertainment Weekly about “Bookselling Blues.” Here’s the quote:

Some books are outright flops, not to put too fine a point on it. Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger’s follow-up to The Time Traveler’s Wife, has sold only 38,823 copies; the new Mitch Albom book, Have a Little Faith, is at 148,974 copies. But despite numbers like these, the industry remains hopeful.

We won’t know until late January and February how book sales did this holiday season.  Sometimes a book starts off slow, then builds momentum, so perhaps HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY will follow that path.   I’ll be checking out the sales numbers for 2009 to find out how various big-name authors did.  How much effect will the recession have?

But it’s always disconcerting to realize that one can get a huge advance, such as the $8 million Charles Frazier got for his second novel, and then have the book do poorly in sales despite having a large marketing budget from a NYC publisher.  Sure, the money is nice (needs to be carefully invested though), but having a book undersell is no fun, especially when it’s time to try and sell the next manuscript.  These days bad Bookscan numbers follow an author around like a bad credit rating.

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December 6, 2009

Make Goals and Take Action in 2010

Before we know it, 2010 is going to be upon us.   So I want to devote this post to encouraging people to take time over the next three weeks of December to dream about what they want, and then come up with a detailed action plan of how to get there.

I’ve noticed it’s the action part that often trips us up in pursuit of our goals.  Action plans tend to get left out when New Year’s resolutions get made.  Which is a shame, since we’re capable of more than we realize once we know what we should be doing.

I’m going to provide an example of the 5-year goal & action exercise.  Both BOOKLIFE by Jeff VanderMeer and HOW TO GET OUT OF DEBT by Jerrold Mundis have this particular exercise in their books.  Mundis’ book also has many other planning exercises readers can try 0ut as well.

Step 1: Spend quiet time thinking about what you’d like to be doing and how you’d like to be 5 years from now.  Write everything down on a piece of paper.  Then go back to your list, and try to be specific if you can (for example, “be an author” is a bit vague, while “publish 2 novels and 10 short stories” is more specific).  Goals are like a seesaw in trying to keep away from vagueness (i.e. “be happy”) versus unrealistic specifics (i.e. “marry Alan Rickman by 2012″).

A real Step 1 goal I had a few years ago:  Completely pay off all the credit cards in five years.

Step 2: Choose the three to five goals dearest to your heart.   Now come up for each of them a subgoal that is doable in one year.

Step 2 example:  1) Learn how to deal with debt, 2) track my finances, and 3) stop the credit card balances from increasing.

Step 3: Now ask for each 1-year goal, “What actions can I take this year that will bring me closer to my goal?

Step 3 example:  1) Find and read best books on debt and how to get out of it, 2) lock credit cards away, 3) learn how to do budgets, 4) do budgets each month, 5) brainstorm ways to save money and earn more money.

Step 4: Now ask, “What can I do this month towards my 1-year goals?”

Step 4 example:  1) Find and read best books on debt, 2) lock credit cards away.

Step 5: Now ask, “What can I do this week towards my 1-year goals?”

Step 5 example:  1) Research books on debt at the library, and 2) lock credit cards away.

Actions are cumulative, like pebbles rolling down a stone-strewn mountain to trigger a landslide.  Each small action I took to get the credit cards paid off had cumulative effects over time.  I learned how to control my credit card usage.  Created spending plans and spreadsheets that tracked how I spent money in about 25 different categories.  And had to make many other small changes in my behavior.

It never ceases to amaze me how tiny actions taken on a daily basis can lead to big changes in a few years.  I encourage readers to give this method a try and let me know in December 2010 how it went.  Good luck!

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