jessiemac.com

“First and foremost, I’m looking for writers who are ready for publication. This means: You have NOT simply sent me the first draft of the first book you’ve ever written, but rather you’ve studied the craft of writing, read books about it, taken classes or workshops, and honestly approached writing as the serious art, craft, and business that it is. You’ve taken the time to get objective feedback on your book or proposal, and revised and polished accordingly. You’ve read about the publishing industry to find out how it works. You’ve researched agents and tried to find the ones who might fit the type of work you’re doing.” Rachelle Gardner – Literary Agent (quote taken from Rachelle Gardner’s blog)

I was on the computer all day and didn’t get down to writing my novel Night Walker until after midnight. I’m an insomniac so I’m still awake and writing this post having just written my daily quota of 1,000 words on my novel. Sometimes I can push without much sleep. Sometimes I can’t.

So why so slow today? I’ve been reading on the internet. I get consumed and can’t stop. The more I trawl the internet gobbling up every post on writing, the more I come across more links leading me to more advice, support and relevant information. The Internet is great.

The more I read, the more I learn and the more I realize how hard it really is.

As a writer, you’re trying your best to climb the Everest of writing a novel – yeah, we know how hard that is – yet you still have to understand what is going on in the publishing industry and learn how to get your book out there. You have to learn how to write queries, summaries, pitches etc – the life line to agents.

More learning.

I love learning. I’m a writer. I just wish I had more time to fit it all in.

After reading winners: the one-sentence summary contest and struggling to write a 25 word sentence to ‘sell’ the novel I’m writing I know I still have much to learn. It was hard – which is an understatement. I’m not good at summaries, queries, pitches etc. Are you? It reminds of job application forms where they give you a little box to sell yourself. I hate those boxes.

Learning about the industry means getting to know how it all works. Even if it means knowing the publishing idiosyncrasies of each individual agent that you’re querying.

The writing-to-publishing process is like climbing a mountain. Your hands represent your novel writing. Your feet – learning and navigating within the publishing industry. You need both to climb that mountain.

Have you ever climbed a mountain?

Have you ever stood under a real one looking up at the top feeling defeated?

Do you know why you feel defeated? I felt defeated. Why?

I never climbed one before. I wasn’t trained or skilled and I knew nothing about climbing.

The best solution for that?

Learn. Train. Practice. Climb.

Before mountain climbers tackle a mountain, they practice in scaling an indoor artificial climbing wall. When they climb outside, they always plan their route by reading about it, discussing the alternatives and finding out how difficult it is before they start.

In Sri Lanka, I decided to walk to One Tree Hill (see photo – the broccoli-looking tree on the hill in the distance near the center of the photograph, at the edge of green hill and blue sky) because said tree in the distance looked close, and looking from one mountain to another, the walk seemed easily accomplished.

But being in the Knuckle mountains, the task turned out not an easy feat. I didn’t see the deep valleys, the numerous hillocks, the swampy terrain, the rough rocky areas, the impossible steep drops hidden by tall grass, the prickly thorns, the vertical slopes – all were not apparent until you were there struggling with it.

I got there. Finally.

If someone had told me or had I seen this before I started out, I would be lying if I said it wouldn’t make me think twice about trying.

So why should you be learning?

To know. To Understand.

80% of me doesn’t want to know, doesn’t want to be discouraged. The other sensible 20% is trying to persuade the fearful 80% that I need to know so I’d be prepared for all possibilities.

What about writing? Does the learning make you feel more prepared?

Yes. Definitely.

The great thing about learning about the publishing industry is that other writers have been there before and they have learned valuable lessons and they’re generous enough to share them with you so you can avoid the mudslides and the sinking swamps on your way up.

What does this mean?

It means reading, learning and implementing. It means bookmarking useful websites for the day when you’re at that point in the path. A bit like collecting useful items and putting them in your rucksack in case you might need to use later.

To excel in any job, you need to understand the industry you’re in, the marketplace, the expectations and of course, the possibilities.

What do you think?

Are you learning?

How are you finding it?

Leave a comment. It would be good to know.

[climbing pic taken from CartoonStock.com]

How Writing is Like Film-making

Why Writing is a Career

I’m a Writer. Should I Get a Book-Deal, Self-Publish or Self-Distribute?

Is Writing Like Football?

“Time is limited, so I better wake up every morning fresh and know that I have just one chance to live this particular day right, and to string my days together into a life of action, and purpose.”

Lance Armstrong – 7-Time Winner of the Tour de France

CURRENT STATUS: Reminder, Motivator and Review Meeting (Read on if you want to join me in my Corporation of One meeting)

What l have learnt:

• 5 Ways to Get Rave Reviews (via Michael Larsen’s blog).
• Why I call Writing Editing (And You Should Too) by editor Jim Warner (via Query Tracker blog). Wow, I didn’t realize how many drafts I would have to edit before it’s polished. I knew it would take some time to edit, probably longer. Must remember not to rush it.
• From hang-up to story, novel, or screenplay by Jurgen Wolff gives us ideas for stories.
• The Public Role of the Private Writer (via The Guardian) shows not all writers are comfortable with reading in public.
• Writer Wednesdays: Do You Suffer From One of These Writing Viruses? (via Huffington Post) Very good, a funny must-read.

What I have done:

• Started jogging again. Slowly but surely, hopefully.
• Reading ‘The Game’ by Neil Strauss.

WORD COUNT: Night Walker 146,000 words in total. Wednesday 11 August wrote 1,000 words.

I’m a Writer. Should I Get a Book-Deal, Self-Publish or Self-Distribute? Written by Dino Dogan ~

(If you prefer to listen to the audio version, click I’m a Writer. Should I Get a Book Deal, Self-Publish or Self Distribute? hosted on writer Wanda Shapiro‘s blog)

Would you like to be the next big thing in the book world? Here is the recipe.

• Write fiction; it sells better than nonfiction.
• Write in conversational rather than academic tone.
• Write about a topic that has a broad rather than narrow appeal.

Got that? Do you meet all the criteria?

Most writers don’t, nor do they aspire to.

But…assuming you’ve met the above-listed criteria, let’s talk about your odds of making it big.

There are 200 thousand books published (in English) each year. Book super-sellers (like Barnes and Noble) will carry 20% of that inventory.

• On average, an author (in America) can expect to sell 500 copies.

• Out of 1.2 million books tracked by Nielsen Book Scan (as of 2004); 950 000 books sold fewer than 99 copies. Another 200 000 sold fewer than 1000 copies.

• From these 1.2 million books (basically all books ever published with a UPC code), only 25 000 sold more than 5000 copies.

Note: These statistics were culled from the most excellent work done by Chris Anderson in his book The Long Tail (aff).

Let me summarize those numbers I just gave you.

ONLY 2% of the books (when published using traditional channels) will be commercially viable. The remaining 98% will be a financial swan dive for the publishing house as well as you, the author.

Given these factors, do you still want to sign with a publishing house?

I DO Want to Sign With a Large Publishing House

There is at least one great reason to sign a book deal with a large publishing house.

Prestige.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Saying “I’m a self-published author” just doesn’t have a ring to it. On the other hand, imagine having a “published author” on your resume.

Getting a book deal with a large publishing house can be a great catapult for speaking gigs, new clients, future book deals, etc. As long as you don’t think of your book-deal as an end onto itself. Instead, think of it as a platform for bigger and better things.

If “prestige” is your goal, getting a book deal is the way to go. But what if you care more about making money?

$elf-Publish

We mentioned earlier that an average book will sell 500 copies. If you decide to self-publish, and use print-on-demand service like Lulu, you can expect to keep most of the profits from each book sold.

Financially speaking, this will make you lot richer than if you were to sell the same number of books via large publisher. Downside?

You will have to do all the marketing yourself. But guess what? Most authors who sign book-deals have to do that anyways.

Self-Distribution

Ok, that’s cool Dino, I hear you saying. But I don’t really need to have my ego stroked, nor do I particularly care about making money. I have this great idea, and I just want everyone to read about it.

Fear not my dear friend. Self-Distribution to the rescue.

Once upon a time, the benefit a publishing house would provide to an author is distribution. However, the Internet has made the “distribution” part of the equation available to anyone with a high-speed modem. You don’t even have to physically print your book. You can distribute it as a file (in .pdf format, aka E-Book) from your computer (or a hosted server). Better yet, make your E-Book available via Bit Torrent services.

To learn how first time authors like Wanda Shapiro use Bit Torrent for large-scale distribution, click here.

So, are you going to sign with a large publishing house, self-publish or self-distribute?

Only YOU can answer. But I imagine the answer will depend on your motivation and goals. I hope this post has helped you examine:

• Why you chose to write? (prestige, money or proliferation of ideas)
• What you hope to get out of writing?
• Which path will you take?

Don’t think that you have to do only one.

• Seth Godin has distributed his first book, Unleashing the Ideavirus (aff) via Bit Torrent only to have it published “for real” later on.
• Dr. Brad Blanton has self-published his book, Radical Honesty (aff) only to have it picked up by a large publishing house when it proved to be a nimble seller.

I think it all comes down to this.

You have no more excuses to finish your book. So get to writing.

Start by leaving a comment and let us know what YOU think of these 3 options?

Is there a fourth option we didn’t think of?

Do you have experience using any of these 3 methods? Tell us about it.

Thanks Dino ~

Please check out Dino on Twitter @dino_dogan and at his website dogandogs.com.

Dino Dogan spent many years researching ways ‘adults learn, seek and receive information, communicate (both internally and externally) and apply learned info, specifically as it pertains to Human-Dog Relationship.’

In his quest to develop the Human-Dog Problem Tree he still finds time for his music and fitness. He is a singer/songwriter who is also a biker. But mostly he calls himself ‘a life-long student’.

“All who have accomplished great things have had a great aim; have fixed their gaze on a goal which was high, one which sometimes seemed impossible.”

Orison Swett Marden – Writer

CURRENT STATUS: Reminder, Motivator and Review Meeting (Read on if you want to join me in my Corporation of One meeting)

What l have learnt:

• When to withhold suspense in a novel and when it shouldn’t be done (via Edittorrent).
• 10 Steps to a better story (via The Blood-Red Pencil).
• Boost your book sales with the magic of niche marketing (via AlanRinzler.com).
• Digital animated e-books – being creative with e-books (via DGLM)
• 10 Common Query Mistakes (via Bent on Books).
• 10 Dos and Don’ts for the first page of your novel Act First, Explain Later (via The Blood-Red Pencil).
• Mobile marketing. Writers: Should Your Book Be An App? (via Time to Write).

What I have done:

• Wrote my very first guest post. Read it here.
• Put the two Twitter accounts on my website. It’s an experiment. Not sure how it will go.

WORD COUNT: Night Walker 144,000 words in total.

Film-making is something I have more experience of or I should say low budget film-making. But I thought about this the other day and compared how writing and film-making seemed alike in many ways for me. Starting out as a novice novelist is like starting out as a budding film-maker. Let’s say you want to be a director, if you have no experience, the way to do it is usually to make a low budget film to showcase your directing talent.

Not only wannabe directors and screenwriters but also most cast and crew at the beginning of their career would most likely be providing their services for free hoping that they’d be provided with food and reimbursement of travel expenses. Everyone is there to make a film and in turn build on their skills, getting them the experience, the film credit and a show-reel to show off their talents.

When you’re starting out, sometimes it’s not unusual for film-makers to direct, write and produce their short films. I know many who have taught themselves to design their own websites, work with sound tracks, edit on Final Cut and do post-production as well.

Because when someone starts out from scratch, they just can’t afford to pay for these services where you could be paying an editor hundreds of pounds an hour. And to attract people who want to work on a film with you, unless they’re your friend or a family member, you have to at least show that you have some experience, no matter how meagre, behind you.

This is why film-makers learn to be a bit of everything – a Jack-of-all-trades and in many ways this is what is expected of a director. He or she should know how all the other cogs in the wheel work. The writer’s first novel is like the film-maker’s first short film. Usually they have to do everything themselves.

For my first short film, I wrote the screenplay, produced and directed it. I enjoyed the writing, naturally. The producing and organization was easy – I learnt how to organise doing office work – but the directing, I wasn’t too good at. I was lucky enough to get help from David Crossman, a director, who allowed me to watch how he directed actors and mark off the shots on a script to ensure that the whole scene was covered. When people are passionate about what they do, they love talking about it and I was lucky to meet a lot of passionate people who wanted to share their expertise and knowledge.

The actual shooting of my first film was like free writing, just typing and not stopping to worry about typos and having the perfect word or sentence. Free writing is a bit like sweeping that colour to create the mood of a painting at the beginning and sketching in the outline of the objects and subjects. Because I was inexperienced, I shot every scene in close up (face and eyes), medium shot (face to chest) and long shot (body and landscape) from beginning to end so I captured all angles and all possible shots. An experienced director would know which moments to get the close up so we’d see the reaction and which moments for the middle shot and the long shot. So instead of 9 hours of footage to edit, an experienced director would only have an hour or so of footage.

This is the same for an inexperienced novelist, free writing is like shooting all angles, puffing it up. That’s why my novel is at 119,000 words and counting. I know I will cut at least one third of it. The aim is capture everything and do the major editing in post production. The difference between writing and film-making is, if you didn’t capture the footage then and there at the location with the actors, it’ll be harder to capture it again. A common thing post production people hate hearing from directors, producers and even actors is ‘we’ll deal with it in post’ because with compositors and animators, people think they’re miracle workers able to add trees and tigers where there were none before. I think for writers, it is possible to add new footage and get rid of footage that doesn’t work. The hard part is getting rid of great scenes that don’t work with the story. Directors loathe to get rid of a beautiful scene or shot that probably took all day to shoot and a lot of manpower but somehow it doesn’t work with the rest of the story. Editing is similar for both professions. It’s cut, cut and cut some more.

Aspiring film-makers or wannabe directors are there from beginning to end of the project. Low budget film-makers have to do everything and be everyone; a whole corporation of one when they’re starting out. They’re the screenwriter, casting director, producer, costume artist, caterer, cameraman, director of photography, sound person (if you’re lucky you can rope a family member in to hold the boom), editor, marketer, web designer, sales person and distributor. It is only once they’re known or being paid to make a film that they can hire the crew and cast to help them.

This is what a writer, author or novelist has to do when they start out. There is a process from beginning to end and as they progress, they have to put many different hats on. They are writer, editor, marketeer, sales person, admin assistant, accountant, researcher, internet expert, speaker, performer etc and sometimes some roles do not mix well and you must keep them separate. The roles are different for writer and film-maker but you get what I’m saying. It is only when you’re paid that you get the professional help from outside. But you have to be all the roles above before you have something to show the professionals and that’s not always easy. As a writer, I feel you have to be always aware of which hat you have on to create the right balance.

Before you get the support from agent, editor, publisher and attract people who take your work seriously you have to help yourself. You’ve got to invest time, effort and money into actually writing, writing workshops, conferences, business cards, the Internet etc. It is like that for every artist.

[pic taken from here]

Similar Posts~

What is the Writer’s Platform? – You are a Corporation of One.

Is writing like football? – Both are skills that require planning, practising and producing the goods.

Social media slowdown – Don’t get caught up in social media too much. You need time to write that book.

“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.” Oprah Winfrey – Television Host, Producer and Philanthropist

CURRENT STATUS: (Reminder, Motivator and Daily Review Meeting (Read on if you want to join me)

What l learnt today:

• Online presence means online reputation – what to reveal and not to reveal about yourself. From www.sfwa.org I was advised to install Google Webmaster tools. What people look for in a blog or writer’s website, why you need one and how to go about building one, and what to have on the website in terms of content.
• I did join another writers’ forum before joining Nathan Bransford’s but it had about 3 posts. I learnt that you can only tell once you’ve joined and it helps if the forum is attached to a blog like Nathan’s which is very popular and full of people participating via comments.
• Book trailers seem to be more common than I thought even for writers who are published many times over. I thought it was just the realm of the unpublished to get attention.
• Realized I want to have a personal Facebook account for friends and family and another just for writing.
• Realized I may have to rethink website design as I’ve read it should be themed toward the genre I’m writing. I’m working on 2 novels that are totally different. Mmh, me thinks me need to think about this.
• Write posts and leave them for 24 hours before publishing by using the rule of 24.
• To subscribe to your own RSS feed so that you can see what other readers see either on the computer or mobile.

What I have done today:

• I joined Nathan Bransford’s forum – it’s an amazing forum with people who are happy to participate and give good advice.
• Set up Google Webtools.
• Contacted an author who was requesting for blogs to review his book or set up an interview about writing in general with him saying I’d be happy to. I can only try.
• Created a writer’s Facebook account.
• Added email address on the front page of the blog.

WORD COUNT: 119,000 in total; 26 June – weekend – a rest, read and research day.

Things for me to do: (This is a list for me as a reminder  – and for any other budding writers who happen to stumble here and are just a step behind me. I have the same notes from the post before if I’ve not done it yet and cross things off once I’ve done it and next day it disappears – and the red bits are stuff I’ve added in this post but will be black tomorrow. I’ll stop before I confuse you more):

What I plan to do that can be done:

• Add to my blog. Add an ‘about me’ page; a ‘supporters’ page; a ‘guest bloggers’ page inviting guest bloggers to write on my blog or a Q&A session; a guest blogger request on the front page of the blog; a links page; a page about the two books I’m finalizing and a writing samples page. Must rethink. Add separate pages to blog or a new theme for a main website.
• Contact some authors direct for an interview? Contact another.
• Participate in writing forums and other blogs.(and Twitter)
  
• Create a marketing plan.
• Add email address to front page

Found ‘On Writing as Career‘ at Miss Snark’s First Victim and reminded me of what I’m trying to achieve. This was my response in the comments section:

“When you’re starting out, it’s sometimes hard enough to convince yourself because you are not earning any money from it yet.

And when people ask you when is it going to be finished – people with 9-5 jobs – and you’ve written over 100,000, you still tell the truth: ‘I don’t know’ – it’s hard to make it all seem significant.

For instance today – I love my family but because I’m not being paid and stuck in an office – it’s me who becomes chauffeur etc doing errands that others can’t do because they’re ‘working’ and there goes 6 hours of your day.

I did have my daily word quota and I did have a routine. And recently I realized that every time you relax on the two – people around you, who you love, thinks it’s okay to be relaxed about your schedule too.

So I’m going back to my routine and my daily word quota as of tomorrow.

Thanks for reminding me that my career is just as important – paid or not.”

Straight after, I read ‘I am just starting out and have never been published. What should I put in my bio?‘ from Ask a Literary Agent where Noah Lukeman answered writers’ questions. Below is my comment to Luke’s post:

“I didn’t realize until after reading your post how much writers have to try to promote their work and themselves before contacting an agent.

You see, though I want to write novels, I’ve never had the desire to be a journalist or to write magazine articles. I have written short stories before but they were just for fun. Even my poetry I don’t take seriously and was always for personal enjoyment.

That’s why it wouldn’t occur to me to try and get something published in a literary magazine. I do want to get my novels published if it means I can write full time.

The only thing I could put down in my bio is the fact that I did a literary degree. There was a creative writing component taught by author Blake Morrison. Even then I’m not sure if this would constitute as something worth pointing out in a query letter.

Your post made me think.

It reminded me of what I had to do to get my first acting agent. Like with the writing, when it came to the acting, I knew nothing and knew no one in the industry. But sometimes knowing nothing about an industry, gives you the foolish courage to pursue it. I didn’t go to drama school or could afford to when I looked into it. What I did was I got out there and spoke to anyone who would speak to me about their passion for film. I acted in short films back to back and got a showreel from that. I had gone as far as I could without an agent. By the time I tried looking for one – I had a website, a showreel and some acting credits.

Now, from your post, I’m beginning to think I may have to try and get something published no matter how small.

But why dabble or force myself to write short stories when it’s not what I want to write? Like with acting, theatre acting was something I wasn’t keen on so I concentrated on screen acting. I just want to write novels.

Thanks for making me think.”

How far do I have to go to get an agent? Is writing a novel the best I can not enough? I know Luke said that if you don’t have anything substantial to write in your bio that it’s better to leave it out. That may be my only option.

It is hard enough to focus on getting one novel written without worrying about getting a short story or a piece of separate prose published in a magazine. Concentrate on one bird or you could lose two. I will finish the novel and see if it gets me an agent. If it doesn’t, I’ll polish and think of another way.

I was lucky with my acting, getting my first agent after seeing just one other. And that’s because he had faith in me and signed me there and then. His enthusiasm created passion and enthusiasm in me. For anyone interested, my acting showreel can be found at my website www.mayechoo.co.uk. To view the showreel, you’ll need Quicktime. Otherwise, it’s on Youtube.

Getting into acting was an accident. I was asked to write a short screenplay which ended with me producing and directing it without knowing anything about filmmaking. What I learnt I learnt from talking to people who were passionate about filmmaking and reading anything I could get my hands on. From that, I got curious about the actors so I joined a method acting class for a few months pretending to be an actor. I enjoyed it so much I decided I wanted to act.

Writing is no accident. I’ve always wanted to write from an early age. English teachers would enter my writing into competitions. Then life took over and I never could muster up the needed self-discipline to even start. It’s only now that I’m older that I feel I can make it happen. It’s now or never. You’ve got to try, right? And that’s all I can ask of myself. To try.

“Set a goal to achieve something that is so big, so exhilarating that it excites you and scares you at the same time. It must be a goal that is so appealing, so much in line with your spiritual core that you can’t get it out of your mind. If you do not get chills when you set a goal, you’re not setting big enough goals.” Bob Proctor – Author and Speaker

STATUS: Sleep came to play. Feeling much better thanks. Listening to James Morrison’s ‘Undiscovered’.