Category Archives: Writing

Articles and commentary about the craft of writing

Understanding the Key Book Publishing Paths [INFOGRAPHIC] (via @JaneFriedman)

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Jane Friedman did a great job putting together her experiences and exposure to moderns Paths to Publishing:

I spend a lot of time at writers conferences trying to clarify the pros and cons among the different publishing paths and the growing number of services available to authors. There is no one path or service that’s right for everyone; you must understand and study the changing landscape and make a choice based on long-term career goals, as well as the unique qualities of your work—not to mention your own strengths and weaknesses.

With that in mind, I’ve developed an infographic (click to download as PDF) to describe what I see as the key 5 publishing paths, their value to authors, the potential pitfalls, and examples of each.

The five paths on Jane’s chart are:

  1. Traditional publishing
  2. Partnership publishing
  3. Fully-assisted publishing
  4. Do-it-yourself (DIY) publishing with a distributor
  5. Do-it-yourself (DIY) direct publishing

For the record, my co-author Mike McRae and I followed path 2, partnership publishing, when we joined up with e-Mergent to publish The Machine Who Was Also A Boy (shameless plug!)

Have a look at Jane’s cool chart here: http://janefriedman.com/2013/05/20/infographic-5-key-book-publishing-paths/

What Writers Can Learn From Dan Brown’s Inferno (via @thecreativepenn)

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I made fun of Dan Brown a bit last week, but by all accounts he’s a lovely fellow, so today is a more constructive piece about Dan’s latest work, by the ever-helpful Joanna Penn. She covers the book (sans spoilers) in three sections:

  1. Write what you love and don’t get trapped into expectations
  2. Book title, marketing and theme need to resonate
  3. Don’t confuse the reader

I think Joanna really nails it in that first section when she says:

Inferno might satisfy the expectations of the publisher, and some fans for another Langdon book. But in reading it, I felt like Dan Brown did not have a fun time writing it, and in fact, he would rather be writing techno-thrillers.

This reflects the experience that Kim Wilkins shared at the recent launch of her book Year of Ancient Ghosts (Ticonderoga Press). She said that she’d become stuck in the role of writing profitable romances as Kimberley Freeman, but she yearned to be able to write something that she wanted to write just for herself.

Anyway, read Joanna’s full article here for some tips on what she thinks went awry: http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2013/05/18/dan-brown-inferno/

Slick Write text analysis web tool (HT: @lif_au)

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This is a great little service:

Slick Write is a free tool that checks your writing for potential stylistic mistakes and other features of interest. Whether you’re a blogger, novelist, or student writing an essay for school, Slick Write can help take your writing to the next level. Curious? Try a quick demo, or enter your own text in the editor tab. After submitting, four more tabs will appear at the top of the screen:

I had a play around, and it broke my text into stats, critique, sentence flow and a whole bunch of funky little bits of information. It seemed to detect the style of the submitted text (ie. whether it was prose or an essay), and I assume it applies different rules to the text accordingly.

Certainly worth having a look at!

There’s a limit of around 200,000 characters, or around 28,000 words. So the service reminds you to submit individual chapters if you are planning on smashing through your novel manuscript.

Try it out here: http://www.slickwrite.com/

A Reminder that Publishing Is Luck (via me)

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Just a quick personal anecdote that might encourage some of you out there, particularly those who struggle with rejection (which as we have discussed, is just a fact of life for writers). It’s not just the quality of your writing that is a factor in publishing.

So, I wrote a story, which I quite liked. Normally whether or not you like a story doesn’t have much to do with its quality, but I’ve been around for a while, and I thought it was pretty good.

It was rejected a few times mostly for thematic fit, and then sat with an editor at a pretty prestigious magazine for about two months, who gushed about how great it was and moved it through the publishing process until it was ultimately rejected because they had several similar stories, or something like that. The detail isn’t important: what’s important is that it was one of the good rejections, one of those personal, ‘we love this, it’s great but unfortunately [phase of the moon/colour of the ink/ennui] etc.’

Them’s the breaks in writing, and personally a rejection like that feels like a win to me (aka validation).

Anyway, I sent the story elsewhere, to a less prestigious magazine, and it was rejected with a score this time (as this particular publication scored submissions, which I personally think is cool – any feedback is good feedback as far as I am concerned). The fun fact though, is that it scored significantly below the already low average for submissions.

Writers TearsNever to be upset by rejections (it’s a trained skill) I just thought I’d share how one story could both appeal to a Big Deal magazine and do several rounds of editorial reading with excellent feedback, yet score woefully at a different magazine.

Same manuscript! True story.

I hope this will make you sleep a little better. Also, I have this now, and I drink a shot every time I get a rejection. It’s great!

The Worst Feedback is Indifference (via @thisissethsblog)

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This is very short from Seth Godin, so I’ve reproduced the entirety of the article below:

The worst feedback is indifference

We armor ourselves against the cutting remark, the ad hominem attack, the person who just doesn’t like our stuff.

But all of this is the feedback we get when we touch a nerve and are doing work that matters enough to care about.

No, the worst sort of feedback is no feedback at all. That means we’ve created nothing but banality.

Original here: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2013/03/the-worst-feedback-is-indifference.html

How WOOL got a Unique Publishing Deal (via @lkblackburne)

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Interesting story by Hugh Howey, author of WOOL:

When Kristin Nelson first contacted me about representing WOOL, I warned her that I didn’t think I’d ever sell the rights to a publisher. My series of stories were doing well enough for me to quit my day job, and I didn’t think it would be advantageous to alter course. Other agents had been in touch already, and I’d passed up their offerings of representation by explaining that a deal was unlikely, but Kristin got my attention by saying, “I’m not sure you should sell the rights.” She went on to explain that it might not be in my best interest to change what I was doing, but wouldn’t it be fun to feel publishers out? To see what they were willing to do?

So began our journey together. In all the ways Kristin warned, it was unfruitful. The first round of submissions included bizarre plans to change the title of a work that had already established itself as a brand and the plan to take the book down from Amazon and wait another six months or so to put it up for sale again. Granted, it is a silly title for a book. I will give them that. But we declined six-figure advances that I would have leapt at just a few months prior.

It’s a long but fascinating adventure through his publishing journey, and an interesting look at how the industry is trying to adapt to successful authors who’ve never felt the need for the traditional publishing route.

Original here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hugh-howey/how-wool-got-a-unique-pub_b_2852547.html

You Can’t Talk About Your Own Culture in Science Fiction (via @silviamg)

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia lets loose at some complaints about non-Western cultures in Science Fiction:

I was having a great morning, munching on a cookie, when someone sent me a link to a livejournal rant where the writer complains about the current award-nominated “science fiction” stories (their quote marks) saying that they resemble a “family from a non-white cultural background sitting around and talking about their traditions”.

[snip quote from the referred rant]

This pisses me off. This is exactly why I spent several years waffling about writing speculative fiction. I was afraid that if I didn’t use white, anglo-characters or, hey, maybe imaginary elves from the land of Myrhdjdi, it wouldn’t count as fantasy or sci-fi.

It’s not very long, but it does deconstruct the strange notion that it’s not ok to focus on cultural stuff unless that culture is of course invisible (ie. western culture). It’s something to think about if you’ve ever felt like Silvia.

Incidentally, I love the artwork in her post.

Read it here: http://silviamoreno-garcia.com/blog/2013/03/you-cant-talk-about-your-own-culture-in-science-fiction/

How Not to Submit to an Agent (via @caroleagent, HT: @joelnaoum)

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Carole Blake lists 29 different ways to screw up the process of submitting something to an agent.

The list is both informative and entertaining in the exasperation that sneaks through at times. Some of the activities she lists are mindboggling, but my favourite is the most tragic:

I once received a large parcel that weighed almost nothing. Inside was a rubbish bin and a letter saying the writer assumed the submission would end up there so was sending me one to speed up the process. The partial for a crime novel that was attached looked rather good. I left the bin, letter & ms on my desk. Next morning our office cleaner had removed the contents and put the rubbish bin neatly next to my desk. There was no way to contact the author despite a story on our website and some tweets … That was the end of that.

There are 28 other things to avoid at the original article here, as well as a letter sent to Carole raging against the damnable cabal of editors who refuse to accept the author’s submissions: http://www.bang2write.com/2013/03/29-ways-not-to-submit-to-an-agent-by-carole-blake.html

A Day in the Life of a Freelancer (and follow up) (via @nate_thayer)

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From a conversation Nate Thayer had with The Atlantic newspaper, requesting a reprinted (non-fiction) story from a journalist:

Thanks for responding. Maybe by the end of the week? 1,200 words? We unfortunately can’t pay you for it, but we do reach 13 million readers a month. I understand if that’s not a workable arrangement for you, I just wanted to see if you were interested.

Thanks so much again for your time. A great piece!

I don’t want to get cranky at the Atlantic – obviously this is part of their business model – but it really isn’t appropriate to expect professionals to work for free. It’s certainly okay for a professional to offer their services for free: it’s just not okay for a publisher to expect it for free. Even a token offer of payment is a good way to start.

Enfin: my thoughts on this are not unknown.

Get your name out there!

Get your name out there!
(via @stuarthoughton, original possibly from NYT)

The day after his post started getting a lot of attention on the ol’ Internet, Nate followed up with The Atlantic’s response, and commented:

I will be writing more on this topic in the near future once I wrap my head around why a story of an email exchange between a major news organization seeking to commission my professional services with the condition that they don’t contribute to paying my rent, putting food in my stomach, or keeping me clothed to protect me from the elements, that took fifteen minutes to write and never crossed my mind would hit a nerve with tens of thousands globally garnering more attention than any story since I found Pol Pot in the jungles of Cambodia. There is a message in there somewhere.

Read it here: http://natethayer.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/the-atlantic-feels-the-heat-from-journalism-for-no-pay-business-model-our-freelance-rates-vary-says-editor-james-bennet/

Should You Hire an Editor or Join a Critique Group? (via @Kevin_Hanrahan2)

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This is part 2 of a discussion Kevin Hanrahan had with Barbara Longley discussing the pros and cons of Editors and Critique Groups. Part 1 is here.

The format of the discussion is straightforward and it’s an entertaining read as well as a useful way to look at your options and decide how best your time/money is spent. Barbara puts forward a strong position, and Kevin argues against it. For example:

Editors are writer’s lap dogs. Editors do whatever the writer wants to please him/ her.

Critique groups provide valuable feedback and insight to one’s book.

Wow! Lap dogs huh, Barb. Editors will tell me whatever I want to hear because I am paying them? It is clear to me that you have never met my editor. The dude didn’t say a kind word to me for over five months.

I tend to be in the camp of ‘pay professionals’, but the key word there is ‘pay’. This stuff isn’t cheap, for good reason, and it’s easy to throw a significant amount of money into your writing (try paying for a decent cover, for example). If you are going to start sourcing your own professionals (covers, structural editors, copy editors, typesetters, etc), you really have to consider the return on your investment.

Read it all here: http://khanrahan.com/2012/10/01/should-you-hire-an-editor-or-join-a-critique-group-part-ii/