Editing and the Slush Pile

I wanted to take a moment and let authors know that plot is important. I don't mean the plot that goes like this:

Jill is a good character who lands in a bad situation. She becomes involved in a conspiracy that threatens her life and forces her to steal secret documents to stop a national disaster.

I mean the type of plot that reads like this:

Jill ins introduced and well developed in the first chapter.
The villains introduced in the first chapter but we do not know that for 80 pages.
Chapter one introduces the first conflict. Her decision forces her into the next three conflict rapidly.
The hero is introduced in a 'breather' in chapter 2.
Plot 2 (her growth) is introduced at the beginning of chapter 2.

This is the type of thing an editor will do when they read your work. If the novel appears thin, or there are big gaps between the plots being 'played out' then the novel is weak.

It is easy to study this topic. Type blueprint of a novel, story arc, novel structure, etc into the browser. Unless you work with a publisher, you probably will not find an actual story arc or real blueprint, but you will find enough to get your book out of the slush pile.

If You Knew How to Make a Million - Would You?

I've spent the last two weeks writing tutorials to help people make fast money from the stock exchange. It isn't like this is any secret, or that it is a rare occurrence. You only need to mention words such as shorting, short trading, swing trades, to make many long time investor's mouth drool.

However, as I was writing these, a small voice kept niggling in the back of my head "Money on the stock exchanged is not won or lost - just moved."

Can I make $100 000 in a year. Yea, but could I live with myself? I could ride fake bull markets until I hit 10 points and bail, leaving poor schmucks who are only investing because their pension isn't covering their bills to take the loss.... ie - I could scam innocent bystanders and pick their pockets.

I wouldn't rob a little old lady 'face to face' - but he money I win has been lost by someone else.

As the recession/depression approaches in 2008/2009 - and the stock networks are already preparing to turn swing trading into millions of dollars (and probably expediting the crash) it makes me wonder -

"If you know how to get rich - at any cost - would you?"

There are Four Methods of Book Publishing.

This is an excerpt from my novel writing course at www.writersonlinecourses.com

Plots are difficult. All writers should take some time to learn what themes are, and moral lessons, before they start picking plots. Each genre has plots that are considered genre-staples. These plots fit the story lines readers want. When all is said and done, novel writing is about writing a book that people want to read.

If people do not want to read your book, then it is unlikely that publishers will want to accept it. Many writers write books that are never to be published. Some of them write healing books.' They spend years expressing their feeling and hurts. In the end, the book is finished and they realize that they never really wanted to be published.

Other writers are looking for a venue to express their artistic creativity. These writers do not want to be confined by rules or formulas. They want to write their story, their way.
Until recently these writers never had a chance of being published. Now, e-publishing is expanding the genres, and self-publishing is opening up opportunities. While these venues were considered not really published' five years ago, they are gaining respectability in the publishing world.

Traditional Publishers

The most difficult method of becoming a published author is the traditional route. These publishers receive the most manuscripts and reject the largest number of authors. It can take more than five years to see your book hit the bookshelves.

These publishers never put any money into promoting new authors. New authors are always started on the B list. If the author can sell enough copies of their book, then they are in a better position to negotiate with their next book.

The most important thing to remember is that an advance is only a loan, it is not a pre-payment for the book. Publishers often expect any un earned' portion of the advance to be repaid. This can be in the form of another book, or cash. This is why it is imperative that writers hire a lawyer to go over all contracts before signing.

Traditional publishers also short change' writers is by including a discount clause. This clause means that any book sold below a certain percentage does not earn the author royalties. However, new writers do not know that most books are printed, distributed, and returned to the publisher within six weeks. That means that 99% of all books are out of print within six weeks of release.

The author receives royalties for any books sold by bookstores, but the rest, sold at discount, earn the author no royalties even if the publisher continues to make a profit.
This is not the venue for writers who are not 100% devoted to getting published. The publisher's deadlines are not optional.' If the book is set to be printed in March, and the author is not ready, the publisher looses hundreds of dollars. They will either cancel the writer's contract, or they will remove the cost from royalties.

Traditional publishers are not the place for artistic, freedom lovers to submit. I know many writers who had their books torn to shreds, characters rewritten, and the book completely redesigned to fit the publisher's imprint.' Once the writer signs a contract, they have no right to complain or reject the editor's comments. They must comply or face breach of contract charges.

The last thing writers should be aware of is the rights they sign away. No publisher should ask for rights longer than three years. They should also stipulate whether they want print or digital rights. Also, never sign away the movie rights. The writer should receive at least 50% for any movie deals.

The writer should also know how long the book will be in print. Many publishers have a six week shelf life for the book, and B list books that sell out are not sent back to print. This means that the book writer cannot resell the book rights for another 2 5 years.
The writer should never sign away foreign book rights. They can often be more lucrative than American rights.

The fact is, many big publishers only earn $3 000 - $10 000 for writers. This is very poor compensation for the five years the publisher demands in return.

Small Publishers

Small publishers are easier to sign with. They receive fewer manuscripts and because they use POD printing, can often release more books in a year. The problem for writers is that many kitchen table' publishers are too small to distribute the book.

Never sign with a publisher whose print books are not available at Amazon.com and Barns & Noble. This is a dead give away that the publisher is too small to give their writers good distribution.
They also have creative' contracts. Writers should be wary of any publisher who asks for all rights, including undiscovered' rights. One recent example is MobiFormat ebooks. If an author had sold away all their rights, then they would not receive any royalties for ebooks that are read on cell phones. The publisher would receive all rights for cell phone, audio, digital, PDF, and print versions of the book.

They must also only ask for first rights.' Never sell anything but first rights, and never sign away serial rights.' Serial rights means that the publisher can resell the book over and over, without paying the author any royalties.

It usually takes one to two years to see a book in print.

E-Publishing

The e-publishing association asked 14 ebook publishers how much they made in the last three months of 2005. These publishers, only a small sample of the ebook publishers, made a combined 25 million dollars in those three months. While some authors feel that holding a book' in their hand is the only real publishing venue, it is obvious that many people want to read books from their computer screens and Palmpilots.

Self publishing was once for web sites with cheap ebooks, or professionals who wanted to write a book to sell at speaking engagements. Now, hundreds of self published authors are making more money than many published authors.

The main advantage of ebooks is that the book can be sold around the world, it several formats, and is in print' for the life of the contract. Many print publishers also have deals with book distributors and POD printing companies. They can help the author release their book in print for a nominal fee. Some publishers do this as a courtesy, others do it as a secondary publishing option.

When the publisher offers this option, it is important to determine whether the publisher or the writer owns the rights to the print version of the book.

Epublishers contracts must be read as carefully as other publishers. It is customary that books sold from the publisher's website earns the author 50% of the book's price.
It is possible to contract the digital version of a book to one publisher and the print version to another although this is rare.

It normally takes 18 months to see a book in print.

Self Publishing

There are two methods of becoming self published. The most common is to go to a vanity press who offers to put the book out for a fee, usually more than $1000. - $5000.00. This is usually the worst way to go.

If a writer needs help, they can go to a place like www.guru.com or www.ifreelance.com. These places can put writers in touch with editors, layout, and cover artists. A good editor, with book experience, can edit an entire book in less than 50 hours. If an editor claims they need more time, then they are not true professionals.

A book editor will cost about $200 - $500. This varies. If a writer has a good writing style, and a well structured novel, editing is not a big expense.

Book cover artists charge $200 - $1500 for a good cover. I don't see any advantage to paying more than $300.

Layout is usually $0.50 - $1.00 a page. Do not pay more for a book, especially a fiction book.

Distribution is usually easy. Submitting to Booksurge, Lulu, or going right to the source, lightiningsource POD printers, costs about $100. Ingram's book distributors will charge $50 a month to keep the book listed.

In the USA, ISBN numbers cost money, so does copyright. This can add another $100 to the cost of self publishing a book.

In total, an author can have their book ready for bookstores for $800 - $1500.00 and distributed into bookstores. This makes the Vanity Press route not only expensive, but a disservice to their clients because they rarely sell more than a couple hundred copies.
There are two free methods of getting a book into print. Lulu.com and Cafepress.com will print one copy at a time, and do not charge. Cafepress.com only charges the printing fee. Lulu.com adds 20% to the cost + profit (royalties) of the book.

However, the author retains all rights. This means that they can have the book published around the world, sold through international distributors, and promoted in niche markets, earning more money than they would ever see from a traditional publisher, and keeping their books in print forever.

It normally takes two to six months to see a book in print.

Royalties

This is really where the choice of a publisher matters. While traditional publishers offer writers the least freedom and self publishing the most, royalties are where the real difference lies.

A writer can be published with a traditional publisher and sell 20 000 copies of their book, earning $1000.00. That book then remains out of print until the end of the contract. That same writer can earn $500 - $1000 from an ebook publisher every year for the term of the contract. The same book can earn $50 1000 in five years from a small press. Or, the book can only sell 2000 copies and earn the author $10 000.00.

Royalties are calculated in two ways. They calculate a percentage of the net or retail price. Beware publishers who calculate on net. This can mean that they take the retail price of the book and subtract editing, cover, layout, distributor's listing fee, shipping, bookstore returns, and promotion. Or, it can mean they calculate the total cost of the office expense, book conventions (that have nothing to do with the sale of a particular book), travel expenses, association fees, office supplies, insurance, all the way down to the cost of hiring a cleaning company and the office coffee pot.

Some authors who sign contracts that pay on the net' find they are making less than .05% of the retail price of the book. The publisher usually says they offer 10% of the book's net price, but it is really a price gouge. If the publisher has this type of contract, make sure that it clearly lists the expenses the publisher will deduct.

Most publishers offer about .05% of retail cost of the book. This is much less, but the author knows how much they will receive. If the book is sold at a discount, the author earns less.

Almost all contracts have a clause that states a book will earn no royalties if the book is sold at an extreme discount, usually less than wholesale, or 55%. The publisher still makes money, but they can clear out' old copies without loosing money. This causes a problem when the author only sells a few hundred copies from the initial six weeks, and the rest of the books go to a clearance warehouse. The publisher never looses money, only the author does.
This also explains why publishers do not promote books. It doesn't matter to them whether a book is successful. They will earn back their investment.

Ebooks are slightly different. If they are distributed through a book distributor like Ingrams, then there is a short discount' and the author earns a small royalty. Books sold from the publisher's website earn 50% royalty. Even though the book is an ebook, the author is not permitted to freely distribute copies.

Bookstore Returns

This is the hardest part of the publishing world for most authors to understand. In the last world war the government wanted to protect the publishing industry. To protect the nations intellectual and social wealth they created a system where bookstores could return books to the publisher at the publisher's cost. This system was suppose to stop after the war, but never did.

Now, publishers expect an average of 20% bookstore returns.

To compensate they hold back 20 50% of author royalties for up to one year. Some small publishers hold this back long after the contract expires, so writers should make sure the contract outlines how and when held back' royalties should be paid.

Most bookstore returns are trashed. Many stores are indiscriminant about ordering books. They may order 100 copies of a book for a window display, knowing they will only sell ten.

Writers need to prepare for this, especially self published writers, because if they use Ingrams, they will be subject to bookstore returns. This means that their books will be available in bookstores, but they will need to cover the cost of printing and shipping books that will be returned.

However, Ingrams does allow self publishers to refuse to enter into a bookstore return arrangement. This drastically reduces the book's exposure, but protects the writer from loosing money.

How To Pick a Publisher

One of the biggest tragities in the writing world is the number of writers who play 'roulette' with their manuscript. Most new writers receive dozens of rejection letters, not because the novel is not well written, but because the author sent their manuscript to the wrong publisher.

The trick to reducing rejection letters is to understand how publishers pick novels. Not all romance publishers handle every type of romance genre written. Most publishers will advertise that they handle romance, or fantasy novels, but they are only interested in three to five different sub-genres.

Here is a short list of tips for finding the right publisher for your novel, and to reduce the number of rejection letters you will receive. I used this list for five years, before I became CEO of Enspiren Press www.enspirenpress.com

How to Pick a Publisher

1.Surf the web and use Writer's Digest to find 10 publishers in your genre
2.Visit their website to see if they handle books like yours
3.Read excerpts to see if the books sound' similar, and have plot lines, problems, and characters that are similar to your book.
4.Keep working until you find 10 publishers who sell books that are similar to yours. This could take several months, so start now.
5.Buy at least one recent release and map it.
6.Join the publisher's fan group and/or author group. Sign up for their newsletter.
7.Narrow the list to five publishers.
8.Get to know the authors. Try and become familiar with them. Learn what you can about the publishers, how they want submissions, and even see if you can get a sample synopsis.
9.Learn their guidelines and how they want manuscripts formatted - and follow their rules to the letter.
10.Learn the aquesition editor's name

This will not guarantee that you will never receive a rejection letter, but it will reduce the number of rejection letters, and the time it takes to get published.

How to Finish a Novel

I personally know dozens of writers who had their first novels published. Most of these novels had one of the following:

A strong premise that clearly challenged an aspect of society or the human condition in a way that was easy for most readers to understand.
Forced readers to ask questions about their own lives
Allowed readers to explore some part of humanity from the safety of their own home example how would I act in a divorce, can you change my mind on the death penalty are the worship of the divine and religion polar or synonyms is the cost of power and wealth really worth it etc.

These are not hard to include in a novel. There is no secret to getting published. All you need to do is finish your novel. Statistics show that 93% of everyone who starts a novel will never finish it. Only 5% of the finished novels will only be submitted once. This means that you have very little competition.

Outlines Help You Finish a Novel

Outlines are just guides. They are blueprints that will help you measure the quality of a novel idea. One of the best reasons for writing outlines, and keeping a journal, is to see if you get bored with the idea before finished.

I've heard writers say they don't outline because they loose interest in the idea before they finish. This is a dead give away that the idea is not good enough for a full length novel. A novel takes a lot of work. In most cases, it takes at least six rewrites and edits before it is ready to be published.

I know several authors who have written novels that sold well. They never lost interest in their ideas. I know for writers who sold every novel they ever wrote. All of these outline to some extent.

I like to outline because it lets me find and fix my mistakes before I start writing the novel.

An outline can be written on index cards. You writer your ideas onto the cards and then you can re-arrange them, improve them, fix problems, and make the story stronger - then I can write the whole story in about 2 weeks.

I can write a whole novel in a month, or about 200 hours, when I use an outline

Avoiding Mistakes

One of the biggest mistakes is believing that every idea is worthy of a full size novel. That is why many new writes have a filing cabinet full of unpublished manuscripts.

Avoiding Rejection Letters

One of the main reasons why writers outline and preplan is to avoid rejection letters. Professional writers often write a novel every three months. They don't have time to write a novel that won't sell.

Are You a Real Writer?

The publishing industry has a voracious appetite. More than 26 billion dollars worth of books are sold every year. And, most authors only write one book then quit. However, publishers are desperately seeking writers who want to create full time careers.

This means that you can get your novel published. All you need to do is spend a few hours and develop your story idea into a full length novel size - and finish it.

Hiring Book Editors

We are hiring book editors this week, a frustrating task. It isn't that we lack applications. It is just that there are people out there who think they are qualified, who have no idea what they are doing.

We had one applicant say that they average about 300 hours per manuscript? If each session was five hours of their work, and then the ms went back to the author, it would take about 2 years to finish the project.

We had another applicant who charged $2000 - but all they did was a line edit. So, their poor clients were paying $2000 for a proofreader, or they were paying about $6 a page for what should only cost them $1.50 - $2.50 a page.

Then there are the dozens of applicants who listed that they could edit more than 10 genres - but when asked what genres they read, the answer was 0 - 2. How in the world can you edit a genre if you do not read it?

I don't think we found a single editor who swore they were qualified to edit thrillers who actually took the time to map a thriller and create a story arc. So, if you do not have a story arc, how in the world do you know if the climax is in the right place, there are the right number of breathers, the conflicts work together. Not to mention training yourself to find plot holes, pacing problems, or loose ends.

And - don't get me started on character development.

It explains why so many writers languish in the slush pile. If the editors do not have a clue of what they are doing - who is teaching the writers how to create a good novel.

So, the quest for editors continues. We have about five people willing to train, who we will turn into great editors.

Coffee Time Romance Gave Me 3 Cup Rating

I am so pleased. Coffee Time Romance gave me 3 cups (out of five) GREAT for a 'sweet' historical with only a little romance in it. Read The First 2 Chapters Here:
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/Thepledge.html

THE PLEDGE
KATHERINE HUNTER
ISBN# 978-0-9784865-0-1
November 2007
Enspiren Press
2060 Victoria Street, Box 193, Gorrie, Ontario, N0G 1X0, Canada
Trade Paperback / E-Book
$12.99 / $4.99 E-book
245 Pages
Historical Romance
Rating: 3 Cups

Gillian Winston, secluded daughter of an English Baron, was raised by nuns away from her childhood home. When she receives notice that her family has been murdered by reivers, she immediately heads for home to assess the damage and help in any way.

Laird Calum MacKenna, known as The Wolf, was also a reiver. When he discovered that his enemy, Baron Winston, had been defeated, he heads south to Winston Holdings.

Gillian encounters nothing but death and destruction at her family’s estate. When Laird Mackenna arrives, she has no choice but to marry him to protect her serfs and she also needs his wealth to rebuild her lands. Calum is a hard-nosed fighting Scot. He did not expect to be brought to his knees by a small English lady. When she is in danger, he will stop at nothing to find and protect her, not from a Baron determined to marry her and not even from the Queen of England.

The Pledge is a fun and exciting novel. Sweeping descriptions of scenery add to the authentic historical feeling of the story. The hero and heroine are traditional. Gillian is spunky yet stubborn as she ends up making some poor decisions. Ms. Hunter’s Scottish romance is sweet and classic.

Bonnie-Lass
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance
Reviewer for Karen Find Out About New Books

Does Your Book Have a Website?

One of the newest trends at sites like myspace.com, and facebook.com, and gather.com, is to create a website for your blog. The website www.bebo.com has a 'book' feature built in that lets writers build a website for their book, feature it, and then link it to their bebo websites.

Not all free site hosts are equal. I have checked all sites mentioned above, and they all are searchable by google.

This is the URL of my book's website: http://www.bebo.com/The-Pledge

This is the URL of my profile: http://www.bebo.com/KatherineH75

You'll notice that the urls are not that good, so you might want to link them. To make the most of these sites you need to do a lot of promoting. Building links is a good way to promote, also, use the links in your signature line.

I created the site so I can write more about my characters. However, I am also creating a blog that is similar to my friend's. http://bloodstonecastle.blogspot.com/ If you want to see an amazing book website -then go to my friend's site.




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Should You Put Google Ads On Your Ecommerce Site

NOTE: I notice that most author websites have google ads. There are better alternatives, like commission junction, so I thought I would post some 'facts' about Google Ads.

One of the biggest debates in the ecommerce world is whether to post PayPerClick advertisements on a website, or not. Many sites are using video advertisements to improve the look and feel of their sites. Others are hoping that PayPerClick will offer a passive source of income, but this short-term thinking may cost the company serious profits.

The purpose of a PayPerClick ad is to take a visitor from your website and put them on another website. This person leaves before they ever see the host company’s squeeze page, buy-now page, or Social Networking tools. This means that a potential customer is gone for good. The problem is - the ads on the host company’s website represent the competition.

PayPerClick Passive Income

On one side of the debate is the idea that PayPerClick lets ecommerce businesses generate some revenue from people who were going to leave the website anyway. The problem arises when the website looks at the actual numbers.

It takes several months before Google starts registering clicks, even if thousands of people have already clicked the link. Even when Google does start registering links, they rarely register more than one half of the actual links. In many cases, Google counts less than half.

Then, there is the Page Rank Trap. Google only pays a percentage of the money promised, based on the site’s page rank. A site can build more than 10 000 inbound links and 1000 pages of content and still have only Page Rank 3, earning about .05% of Google’s promised payout. Many sites (non MFA - Made For Adsense) work for 2 - 3 years before they earn $100 a month.

A website can make hundreds of dollars a month from Adsense, as long as the primary purpose of the site is to generate PayPerClick traffic.

PayPerClick Traffic

Many ecommerce businesses sign up for a PayPerClick program through Yahoo or Google to generate traffic. While the search engine advertising companies promise that they do not favor their advertisers, it is foolish not to. They are only cutting their throats letting sites which do not use their ads to rank higher than the sites who do use their ads.

From this side of the fence, PayPerClick is a good deal, because you are the company stealing customers from the competition. However, very few PayPerClick programs give the advertiser control over sites they appear on.

Google does, to a certain extent. It is possible to visit a major competitor’s site, which generates millions more hits than your site does, and place an ad on their pages. However, this does not guarantee that these same people will not click off your website.

Rule #1 of Sales
The first rule of sales is to hook a potential customer. This means keeping them on the host ecommerce site, and encouraging them to click through the links until they reach the buy now page.

There are some crafty ways to do this. For example, make the link bar to squeeze pages and buy-now pages look like PayPerClick ads. Another trick is to lead people from one website owned by the host company to another of their sites, in effect, creating a big circle.

However, make sure that the main pages are optimized with no=follow code in the links. Search engines penalize this type of ‘black hat’ SEO trick. The no=follow code in the ads will prevent the search engines from penalizing the site.

Both of these tricks will keep potential visitors inside the company’s ecommerce sites.

Another trick is to use a ‘default’ internal search tool. Instead of Google’s search, use one that defaults inside the ecommerce network’s sites, instead of on the world wide web.

Keeping customers is the only way to increase profits, and retain customers.

Author Interview: Anita Davison "Duking Days Rebellion"

Welcome Anita, I'm so glad you agreed to this interview.

Thank you, I feel honoured you asked me, I have never done this before

Tell us about your life, where you grew up, your interests and
hobbies.
I hail from a family of Londonders and although I was brought up in the suburbs, I was fed a diet of family stories about wartime London and the Blitz. From a very young age I was taken to all the city landmarks everyone calls tourist attractions, but uncles and aunts took for granted as being in their neighbourhood. The Tower, St Pauls, Charing Cross, Trafalgar Square, the Embankment of the Thames. I loved them all on sight and even as a child, I could ‘see’ and even ‘smell’ what life was like there a long time ago. I don’t really believe in reincarnation….but something….

That sounds like a full and busy life. I'd love to hear how you balance the writing life with family, work and a busy schedule.
Badly. Apparently, I have an obsessive personality and while I am writing, hours go by without my noticing them and the breakfast dishes are still sitting there at 6.00pm. I have a husband and two grown up children and I am an enigma to all of them. The fact I turn down a visit to the local pub to stay in alone and type is incomprehensible to them. But then I don’t drink alcohol, so that’s my excuse

You have two books releasing this year. Tell us about your writing journey.
I have used writing as an outlet for most of my life, either writing letters to friends and family I found difficult to talk to, or stories to clarify something which bothered me. My passion for history, and my compulsion to put things on paper combined and I started writing a novel. I had no idea if it would even be completed, but I wanted to prove to myself I could do it.


When do you feel like it all began to come together for you as a writer—was there a particular moment?
Absolutely. On the advice of a friend, I joined the Historical Fiction Critique Group. This was against all my instincts as I was convinced that after a couple of hard critiques, I would throw the book in a corner and never touch it again. But the opposite proved true. The group had a lot of criticisms and suggestions, certainly, but every one of them told me they liked my work. Then the owner, Anne Whitfield, who is now my editor, told me I had a great story, what I had to do next was turn it into a novel.
From that moment on, I was hooked and I cannot stop writing. I still have so much to learn, but it’s an exciting process.

Who has influenced you most as a writer and why?
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles. My early historical fiction reading was the works of Jean Plaidy, who started my fascination with the Tudor and Stuarts, but CHE and her Dynasty series inspired my own books. I love the way she weaves historical events into the lives of a fictional family she can send off in any direction she wants. She has more than one storyline running through her books and although there is always one character who leads, others are equally as important. I have tried to do the same.

What is your favorite movie?

Steel Magnolias. My favourite line from it is Shirley Maclaine to Sally Field: ‘I’m not mad, Mlynn, I’ve just been in a very bad mood for the last forty years!’

Tell us about the writing process for you? Does it begin with a character, setting, or plot?
It begins with a real historical event and how that event affects the lives of my characters. They play out their own story with the backdrop of the current situation, to which I have to remain true. But I like the discipline of that as it forms the structure of the story.

In terms of genres, you've written several. How do you approach these different genres?

This doesn’t apply to me as I have only in written one, 17th century England. However my current wip is a Victorian Romance, just to prove I can step out of my comfort zone and still write an entertaining story.

Tell us about your soon to be released book "Duking Days Revolution". What inspired
you to write this particular story?
This book is a sequel to my debut novel and takes my characters through the Glorious Revolution of 1688. In the first novel, my main character, Helena Woulfe, was a spoiled, naïve girl from a privileged background who lost everything and discovered the flaws in those around her. In Duking Days Revolution, she is a wife and mother who realizes that the social acceptance and respectability she fought so hard for is not enough to make her happy.

How did you come up with the concept for "Duking Days"?

In 1685, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth landed in Devon with eighty men, all determined to uphold the Anglican Church against his uncle, James II, who was a Catholic. Duking Days was the name given at the time for the short period when Monmouth marched through the West Country gathering his supporters. Exeter is an historic city and it was easy to visualize it as it was in the 1680’s, so that’s where I set the story.

I put Loxsbeare Manor in the spot on top of the Weare Cliff where my garden was – well me and nineteen other houses! The Ship Inn, the Guildhall, St Mary Arches church, the city walls, the cathedral and the river, are all still there. The City gates were demolished years ago, but you can still see where they stood.

Is any part of "Duking Days"? factual?

Yes, and well documented, so I had to be rigorous about my research. I had to work on a tight timeline on what was happening in both the Rebellion of 1685 and the Revolution of 1688 and fit it in with the actions of my characters. I found it gave my story a structure I might not have managed without it. Knowing where they should be at a certain time was good discipline.

Do you have a favorite character and why?

Yes, my main character’s younger brother, Henry. He began as a secondary character, a boy Helena had to look out for when they found themselves alone. But Henry finds his own purpose and grew up before my eyes into a young man who pushed the tragedy of the Rebellion into his past. He didn’t just follow his sister around, he fell in love with a career and a girl and went all out to achieve them both. I didn’t let him have everything he wanted, but he handles disappointment with maturity and without bitterness and becomes a young man everyone will like. (I hope)

How much research did "Duking Days"? take?

Subconsciously, I have been researching the 17th century for years. I had the ‘feel’ of the time from a lifetime of visiting old buildings, reading about the beliefs, manners and habits of the time. Watching every film and documentary I could find about the Civil War (The English one) and the court of Charles II.

I spent a lot of time studying how attitudes were different, especially towards women. To incorporate 21st Century morals into the 17th century wouldn’t have worked. The characters had to function within the strictures of a bygone age. For instance I had to make the male characters chauvinistic, which may not sit very well now, but in the 1690’s, their attitudes would have not only been acceptable, but normal and right. My male characters are men of their time, but I tried to make them likeable too.

What is the message you hope to get across in this story?

That changes in life often come without warning. They come fast and devastating, but people discover strengths they never knew they had when their worst fears come true.

How long did "Duking Days" take you to complete?

I toyed with the idea, picked it up and put it down again over a period of years. The actual book took me about twelve months to compile into a book, and another year to knock into shape with the assistance of my wonderful critiquers. Through them I learned all about PoV, active versus passive voice, showing not telling, correct use of dialogue tags and deletion of laundry lists! (Thanks Anne)

Of your books, which is your favorite and why?

Duking Days Revolution, because as an adult married woman, Helena has more control of her life. Her emotions and actions are moulded by her experiences and I loved changing her character into a mature woman with more compassion for others than she had in the first novel. The ending too is what we all want for our heroes and heroines, the culmination of their dearest wish after conquering the demons that invade them.

What are your future writing plans?

As mentioned earlier, I would like to prove that I am not wholly immersed in the 17th Century and I have begun a shorter book based in Victorian England. It’s very sketchy though and needs filling out and I don’t have a major historical event to work with this time! I shall have to be more creative to keep it interesting.

What does your typical writing day look like?

I get up at around 7 with my sleepy husband murmuring something like ‘It’s too early, get back into bed’ but as it only takes him about twenty minutes to get ready to leave the house and me a lot longer, I ignore this. If it’s a work day, I sneakily handle my ‘Writing e-mails’ at work when no one’s looking, but cannot get away with actually writing in the office. (I have been known to do critiques during lunch though – I told you I was obsessed) In the evening I have a pact with DH not to get the laptop out until after dinner and to pack in before midnight (!) Generally I manage this, but not always.

At weekends. Well that’s a whole different story – the laptop rules and I write, edit, critique and write until someone threatens to throw the laptop off the balcony.

What are some of the challenges you face as an author?

Apart from the above? Getting the research right, and using the details I find in a productive way so the story doesn’t read like an historical documentary. As a history buff, I am fascinated will all aspects of the past, but not everyone feels the same. My husband summed it up when he said. “When I ask a question, I really do want to know who that King was. Not who his mother-in-law was, how many children he had, where he lived and what he ate for breakfast – I get the lot with you.”

What are a few writing tips you could share with aspiring writers?
Read. Since I have been writing, my reading has dropped from about three books a week to half a book a week. Books feed my vocabulary and my pool of ideas. Learning the ‘craft’ of writing is exciting, and I have to read more. Critiquing other writer’s work is good too, it helps me recognise the mistakes I make in my own work.

Any marketing tips?
I am a novice at this, but not having major resources to draw on, I use the web to get the word out about my book, myself and my writing. I have discovered that in the main, writers are very generous with their experiences, knowledge and even their time. Joining the Yahoo writing groups, setting up a social network page and chatting, may seem trivial, even juvenile, but there is a wealth of knowledge out there and by sharing, a lot can be achieved.

What is your goal or mission as a writer?

Actually, I am still enjoying the buzz from holding a book in my hands with my name on it.
My short term ambition is to complete Duking Days Restoration, the prequel to the first two books about the Woulfe family. Long term? I want to become a better writer. One of my critiquers said she cried when she read Duking Days Rebellion (in a good way) because she felt she was there. That’s why I write.

Do you have a website? (sell your book(s) on a website?)

Yes, www.anitadavison.co.uk/blog, and my Blog is at http://anitadavison.blogspot.com/
There are links on both where the book can be bought either as a print paperback or e-book. It will be appearing on Amazon soon too and I will add the link when it is available.

When will "Duking Days Revolution" be released?

Enspiren Press have scheduled it for January 2008

Closing thoughts you'd like to share?

When people asked me what I do, it was always, wife, mother, or franchise services manager, but I never mentioned my writing to avoid that light of cynicism in their eyes because I was just another wannabe. It was a vital part of me I kept to myself. Now I say, ‘I’m an author.’ It's a great feeling.
I may not be in Waterstones yet – but one day, maybe.

Thank you so much for your time Anita, and best wishes on your new release. It was a pleasure hearing about your writing experience.


Anita Davison
Duking Days Rebellion, Out now from Enspiren Press
Duking Days Revolution, Out soon from Enspiren Press
www.anitadavison.co.uk, www.anitadavison.blogspot.com
http://www.bebo.com/dukingdaysrebellion

How to Write a Good Author Interview

One of the most overlooked promotional tools at the author's disposal is the interview. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites who want to publish author interviews. However, they receive few requests for an interview. I believe the main reason is that many authors think only famous authors should do interviews. This is not true. An interview is for promotion, and any author who wants to become famous should start requesting to be interviewed.

A second misunderstanding is that, if you are interview worthy, you will have people ask you. Not true. Even movie stars have their Public Relations company's set up 'interview days' where reporters who are interested come and ask questions. Writers can do the same thing.

Another thing that many writers don't understand is that 'image is everything.' Most authors never give 1 hours thought to their image. However, image is the #1 difference between famous/bestselling authors and those who sell 40 copies of their book a year.

What is the Author Image?

The first thing an author needs to do is define what the 'author image' should be. The best way to do this is visit the web sites of your favorite authors. What do they talk about? How do they describe themselves. What are their interests?

One of the most overlooked aspects is the author photo. It should tell something about the author, and their image. Don't go to glamour shots or have your friend take a picture of you sitting at a computer. This one 'good' photo will sell enough books to make you famous.

Travel is a good way to interest visitors. The author should be someone special, and posting pictures of interesting places around where you live, vacation pictures of exotic destinations, and most importantly, images from writer's conferences etc...all these will validate your image as an author.

How to Complete an Author Interview

One of the biggest mistakes is thinking that people want your bio. This mistake is also made when authors are asked to write a short bio. This is not a resume. This is not a job interview.

No one really cares how long you have been writing, where you went to school, or whether you have a MLA. You can give this information, but do it in a way that is interesting.

Julie Garwood use to be great. "I get up at 4 am and write until my boys wake."

"I laugh when I think about my first book. I wrote it on an old laptop, and struggled over it for years."

Think about the verbs you use, and the nouns. Make them interesting. Also, write something. If the interviewer asks 'how many books have you written' then don't just answer 'one.'

"I have one finished, but my mind is always overloaded with ideas. I've recently started one that really touches my heart."

These are the type of answers that will help you build a fan base

What do Fans Want?

The most important thing to remember is what the fans want. Each genre has a different fan base who expects a different image from their writers. The image does not need to reflect the real person. This doesn't mean you should lie, but it does mean that you should highlight and expand the aspects of your life that fans want to know about.

Ray Bradbury often talked about writing in a dark room that was cluttered with interesting artifacts from around the world. He would talk about creating his worlds from the items in that room. The image this conjured up in the reader's mind gave life to Bradbury's stories.

Dickens is dead, but his PR lives on. Fans of Scrooge snuggle down at Christmas time to watch Alistar Simm's rendition of 'A Christmas Carol' with images of Dickens surrounded by his 13 children, writing away in a small cottage, while the injustice of humanity raged beyond the front door.

Don't Promote to Other Authors

One of the biggest mistakes I've seen authors make is by promoting to other authors. There are tons of author websites full of articles to other writers. The articles should be written to fans. Yes, writers buy a lot of books, but if you want to sell to other authors/fans, then don't promote your writing skill - sell your characters.

Ebook Publishers Who Will Make Authors More Money Than New York Publishers

Enspiren Press and Grace Publishing are not predominantly ebook publishers, in fact, we only stepped into the Ebook ring 2 months ago.

However, I know many authors who make more than $10 000 a year - and are 100% ebook authors. This doesn't mean that you can't get their book in print, it just means that they do not waste time trying to get their books into bookstores.

I am writing this post in response to trick fall's post about 5 big publishers who can offer an alternative to NY. The only thing I found 'twisted' in that article is that it makes it look like the publisher is the driving force behind book sales - - this has not been true for about 10 years. Authors sell books.

Grisham bought all copies of The Pelican Brief from the discount warehouse and sold them out of the trunk of his car. Anne Rice also spends most of her time promoting her books - most big authors do.

However, if you have a book and you want a publisher with major distribution and a proven track record, hen this list will help you. I have made 'bold' font any publisher that I can vouch for.

Publishers and retailers that contributed to the survey are: Abingdon Press/Cokesbury, Amazon.com, Inc., AOL Time Warner Book Group, Barnes & Noble.com, Bookselecta.com Ltd, Dell Magazines, Double Dragon Publishing, eBooks Corporation Ltd, Electric eBook Publishing, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc., E-Reads, Fictionwise (EnspirenPress is sold through this site and they do very well), Inc., Franklin Electronic Publishers, Hard Shell Word Factory, HarperCollins Publishers, Houghton Mifflin Company, Humana Press Inc, Laridian, Inc., Mind Like Water, Inc., Mobipocket, Mushroom Publishing, NUMILOG, OverDrive, Inc., Palm Digital Media, powells.com, RAND, Random House, Inc., Simon & Schuster, Spes Editorial, St. Martin's Press, The McGraw-Hill Companies, University of California Press, Walker & Company and Zondervan.

Remember that this is only ebooks - for example -

Company North American Sales (Books, Media plus cofee, etc:-)
Barnes&Noble / B. Dalton1 $4.61 billion
Borders / Waldenbooks $3.41 billion
Amazon Media (excludes electronics, services - books, includes books, music, DVDs) $3.58 billion (2006 was the first year Amazon outsold Borders in North America)
BN.com $433 million (Site also used to promoted stores)

Total Book Sales: $12.03 billion

So, if you go with a smaller publisher you want to ask them who they collaborate with. IE: Enspiren press collaborates with Amazon.com, Barns & Noble.com, Ebookmall, Moipocket, Borders, Target, and we are distributed through Ingrams and Gardners.

Don't measure a small publisher by the number of authors and books - or their contract.... ask about their distribution.

Where to Find a Publisher

This is a cross post from a writer I've known for a long time Trick Falls at www.communati.

You're almost done polishing the manuscript for your first novel. Now what?

If you've been following the advice of pros like Donald Maass (Writing the Breakout Novel), then the names of prospective publishers will have been dancing in your head for months.

If you are already widely known and have a page-turner manuscript that will sell 50,000 copies or more, then you might contact (through an agent) one of the five publishing conglomerates: Bertlesman, Time Warner, News Corporation, Disney, or Viacom/CBS. This group of five controls 80% of book sales.

If you've been around for a while, you'll see that a lot has changed in publishing, including the fact that most of the grand old U.S. publishing houses have been bought out and merged into some very big fish.

Bertlesman, for example bought Random House in 1998. This is the largest trade book publisher. You'll find the remnants of previously independent publishers listed as imprints or divisions in the Berlesman stable, including Crown, Doubleday, Knopf, Ballantine, Bantam, Dell and Pantheon.

I always enjoy reading Janice Harayda's One-Minute Book Reviews Blog, but this week's series of posts about independent presses has been especially interesting.

She lists (with comments and links) five great independent presses. If you don't think a bean-counter conglomerate house is the place for you, consider one of these:

Dalkey Archive Press - avant-garde books

CavanKerry Press - a great place for poets

Academy Chicago - excellent fiction and nonfiction

Milkweed Editions - largest nonprofit literary publisher

David R. Godine - I like Harayda's comment about Godine: "Dr. Phil and Howard Stern don’t stand a chance at his firm, and if Lindsay Lohan writes an autobiography, she’ll have to pray that Simon & Schuster will take it on. Instead of chasing celebrity tell-alls or advice manuals, Godine has made a grail of producing books that are as intelligent as they are beautiful."

Among the interesting publishing statistics on the website of book promotion guru Marilyn Ross is this comment: "In November of 2003 it was reported that the independent and small publisher base had grown at an annual rate of 21% since 1997."

It's nice to know, as Ross reports, that there are between 300 and 400 mid-sized publishers out there. One of them might just be the new home for your finished novel.

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How to Write Great Romance

49% of the books sold are romance.
Why? Romance feeds a need in people, and it lets them express emotions they could not normally express. Statistics report that women who read romance novels have sex 70% more than non-romance readers.

However, it is hard to have a romance novel published. Many writers despair of ever becoming published - that is because a romance novel needs more than a great story. It needs a romance. Now, many of you just dismissed this article, but take a moment to read on.
Do you really know what romance it?

A romance novel is not about the emotions, it is about the emotions it incites in the story’s reader. But, if you ask most writers how to stir emotions, they cannot answer. Most romance authors cannot even write out a story arc of their romance. I found this while teaching my advanced romance writing course at www.writersonlinecourses.com.

There is an assignment that asks writers to outline the romance in their stories. The answer is usually something vague like, she meets him and they need to fight to save the town. They like each other, and after a business meeting, realize that they love each other.

That is not romance. In fact, it isn’t even realistic.

Romance is something you do. It is ‘actions’ one person does to show the other how much they care for them.

It involves:

Holding hands
Long walks
Quiet talks
Cuddling
Sharing secrets
Protecting

There is a pattern that people fallow when falling in love. It doesn’t matter what culture, where in the world, the pattern does not vary. Yes, it involves eye contact - but it is far more complex than a single glance. It involves a set up, an exchange of body language to ensure the male will not be rejected.

One of the biggest mistakes that romance writers make is having the male make the first move. In all cultures, the female makes the first move - even if the male encouraged the contact. Then, the female will often go through a series of situations that are meant to see if the male will stick around.

This mating dance was born thousands of years ago when women needed to ensure that men would stay around and provide for their children.

Many writers do not pay much attention to aspects like these. They are too focused on what turns them on, and what they like. Very few writers take the time to learn what the general public wants. It is so easy. Magazines are full of list of ‘what men really want,’ or ‘how to make her fall in love.’ There are also tests ‘are you really in love.’

All of these give writers clues into what touches women’s hearts and makes them ‘feel’ the romance in a story. These are powerful tools that writers can use to write a romance - a real page turner - that will make you famous.

What Questions Should Writers Ask BEFORE Hiring a Book Editor

Here is an excerpt from a tutorial I wrote at Novel-Writer forum

Feel free to ask me questions in the forum about hiring an editor/ghostwriter/book coach. It is a tricky business, and the cost can far outstrip any royalties earned by the book.

What genres do you edit the best?
No REAL editor will say they can do ALL genres well.

How long did you work in a publishing house?
Surprisingly, most publishers do NOT hire university graduates - especially fiction publishers. A university education does not teach you how to edit.

An editor needs to work in a publishing house, and complete at least 20 manuscripts for the publisher before they start to 'get it.' That is why most publishers make new editors intern or work in the slush pile for as long as 2 years before they have their first manuscripts.

Are you published?
Do not be concerned with how many books the author is published. What you want to know is whether the editor is more concerned about your work than they are about theirs. You do not want an editor who is always bragging about how great they are. These editors will never devote all of their attention to you book.

How long will it take to edit my manuscript?
A real editor CAN and WILL give you an answer. The answer many vary, but they have done this enough times that they know how long it takes. I can tell clients exactly how long a book will take - within a 5 hour window - after reading the first chapter.

What books have you edited?
Books do not list the editors, but editors are allowed to claim their work.
How many books have you edited that are published?

This is the golden question. If the answer is none, then the editor should not be charging more than $2 a page. After all, you are not hiring an editor to give you a clean manuscript, but you are hiring them to help you get published.

Last, do you content edit or line edit?
If the editor does content edit, which means editing for character growth, structure, plot holes, loose ends, etc... then ask them if you can take a look at their basic story arc. If they cannot whip one up, then they really don't understand the premise behind a content edit.

A line edit, and proofreading are two different things. An editor may do a line edit, checking for grammar, typos, and reconstructing paragraphs. That doesn't mean they are proofreading. In fact, expect to pay more for proofreading. Most authors only pay to have the first 50 pages (the submission) of their novel proofread.

How Much will the editor charge to critique the book?
A good editor will not accept a bad book. It may hurt to be turned down, but that editor has done you a favor. There are many great courses out there, affordable ones like are found at http://www.writersonlinecourses.com .

I teach A full, six month HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL online course for only $50.00. This involves working with your novel, and learning how to edit. A course like this can save you hundreds of dollars - because, whether you fix your novel in a course, or with an editor, you will have to do all of the fixing.

If you want to participate in the forum, ask more questions, or read the rest of the article, then sign up at the forum and use this link to find the post:

http://www.novel-writer.com/forum/view_topic.php?id=89&forum_id=3

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Author's Responsibility When Editing Their Galley

I was chatting with my good friend Brenna Lyons, author of more than 20 books 'in print' and president of EPICauthors. She felt for the challenges of starting a new publishing company, with new authors. Very few publishing companies will accept the number of first time authors that we have.

In response she gave me a tutorial she wrote for EPIC and the workshops she teaches at writer's conferences. Enjoy :)

---

You're about to get one of my classes on the subject of editing, which means it's LONG...I apologize in advance, and it's got both what you want to hear and extras that you don't.

The editor is not there to fix everything for you. You should come in with a reasonably clean product. (And for this purpose, the book is product. Writing is creative. Editing is manufactury with a little creativity thrown in.)
Why should you bother self-editing? There are several reasons...

1. If you don't learn to self-edit, you submit a poorly-edited manuscript, and you get rejected. It's not that the publishers don't edit with you, but they expect a minimum quality to start with. The cleaner you submit, the more likely you are to get signed in the first place.


2. Even editors are not perfect. If the editor is tired, he/she may make a mistake. If you take that suggestion blindly, you create an error, when you should realize it's wrong and question it...nicely. I'll get back to that a little later, when we're talking about working with editors.


3. Your name will be on that book. After the editor finishes with you, you are going to have to do galleys. There will be things the editor missed...or errors created in formating. You need to be able to find them yourself. If the book goes out wrong, barring the publisher not inputting your galley corrections OR errors the publisher made after your final check, it is ultimately YOUR fault it went out that way. Or...sort of. Read on to find out where the lines lie.

Your grammar and punctuation skills aren't up to par? TURN OFF grammar check on WORD. It is worse than useless. It's a dumb program in that...it doesn't understand the logic of clauses. Try this site! http://dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml Yes, I got the site from you, Suz, and I STILL recommend it to people.

Your spelling isn't up to par? This is one thing that WORD is actually good for. If you've misspelled it, it can give you suggestions for the correct spelling, as long as you're close enough. Have a dictionary on hand to make certain you've chosen the right word, in the case of homonyms.

Also, have a thesaurus closeby. Why? Because, if you are really lost for the spelling, perhaps you can come up with a similar word or an opposite and use the thesaurus to find the word you want to use. In addition, if you find you are repeating words, you can find synonyms...or just plain change the action/description to avoid repetition.

You tend to use the completely wrong word spelled correctly, so WORD doesn't see it as misspelled? If you have a Windows machine, download ReadPlease at http://readplease.com/ You get a 30-day free trial on the full version (which can do an entire book at once) and unlimited use of the free version, which can do about 2000 words at a time. The full version, after the 30 days, costs $60, but you can continue to use the free version.

What does this do for you? It reads it back to you. Let me explain how this helps you. The human mind has the wonderful and cursed ability to complete and correct broken patterns. This works verbally as well as spatially. That means you, reading silently OR aloud, will tend to correct errors in the text without noting that you have. This is the #1 reason that authors have a hard time self-editing. You know what the page SHOULD say, so your brain tricks you into thinking it's there, just as you envision it. Even editors sometimes do the same, which is why they cannot catch every error you make, though it may be their first read on the book.

ReadPlease, or any other text to speech program you care for, reads PRECISELY what's on the page. There's no human correction of the pattern to worry about. If the wrong word is there, you will hear it. Reading along with the program, as it reads to you may help you find other errors.

You tend to use homonyms incorrectly? The find feature is your friend. Keep a list of words you typically misuse...there/their/they're, for instance. When you're editing, search for each of them and read the sentence it's in ALONE. Did you use the right one?

A few more things to keep in mind for BASIC editing. I'll get into advanced edits in a little while...

1. Check the publisher/agent guidelines. Check for a style sheet, as well. Always format specifically to it, for each submission you make. Take the time to make the changes every time. No brownie points for ignoring directions.


2. The most overused words/items that every author should look for and minimize the use of are:

that
always
never
just
as
while
then
now
still
even
finally
actually
really
ly adverbs, in general (since you can usually show this with action instead of telling it with the adverb, giving a richer read)

removed (when talking about a body part...you move your hand, not remove it)

dropping eyes (you drop your gaze not your eyes)


burying your eyes (need I say more...you might bury yourself in your reading, but if you're burying your eyes, I don't want to know about it)

but/ or/ and to START sentences (sometimes is okay...too much is not)


sentence fragments (these CAN be used and add to the tapestry of the book...just not often)

exclamation points (I'll get back to that)

ellipses and em dashes (I'll get back to that)

was XXXing (to start every scene or every chapter)...use a more active start than was doing something every time, please

People use a lot of exclamation points. The truth is, if you can eliminate it with a tag, do so. If you can't, you should really only use it in a couple of cases: someone's swearing/cursing in some way...and not a muttered one, extreme danger on the scene/warnings, extreme fury...not just anger. Suz always said to TRY to get the number of them down to no more than one every 10K or so. Usually, people end up with more than that, but at least they mean something, when they are used.

Ellipses and em dashes... Do you really need one? If so, please use the right one! Ellipses are for trailing off. Em dashes are for snap breaks. But, look at how often you're using them and why. Is there a choice? If not, keep it.

Another to look for and delete are two dialog tags in a single paragraph. Use an action or scene tag for one, if necessary, but don't use two dialog tags in a single paragraph. It's typically seen as bad
form.

An amusing addition to this list from an editor at EPICon 2007, while we were discussing dialog tags... If you're using the word 'ejaculate,' you better be talking about sex. Using that as a dialog
tag, in anything BUT parody, is considered in poor taste by many editors. Grinning...

3. Unless you KNOW the publisher you're submitting to doesn't mind head hops, don't use them. It's a make or break type of thing for many editors. If the editor doesn't mind, and you're not head hopping, you're okay from the start, because the editor doesn't care. If you're head hopping, and the editor doesn't like it, you've lost the sale, in all likelihood.


I look for specific things in edits, when I work as an editor...and when I self-edit.

Continuity edits- Are there holes in the story arc? Did you contradict yourself or break your own world rules? Is your characterization stable or not?
Logic edits- Does what you wrote make sense? Do you have sensory, science, etc. errors? How are the motivations? Even if I hate the character, can I follow a logic trail and perhaps even empathize with the villain's POV? Etc.
Character edits- Are you head hopping? Are the POV characters consistent, even through the changes they go through in the book?
Style edits- These are specific to a publisher and to genres.
Line edits- Word choice, punctuation, grammar, etc.

Pet peeves from both the editor and author side of the fence...


As an editor, if I hear one more person try to tell me that poor grammar in narrative is "my voice," I am going to smack that person upside the head with a grammar book. Just kidding. Thinking about it makes me human. Doing it would make me unprofessional. Seriously, poor grammar in dialog is to be expected. A first-person vernacular book MAY have poor grammar in narrative, much as there are books written all in IM-speak as if inside a chat room. That's fine, because the book is written entirely in the "voice" not of the author but of the character. But, your average book doesn't use poor grammar in the narrative. Nor can you pass it off as "voice."

Oh, and if I have one more author rant at me for finding her errors... Tell, me... What is the purpose of edits if not to make the book better?

As an author? Oh, I have a ton of stories I could share. Let me choose a few of the best.

1. Editors aren't perfect, but... Here are some of my favorite imperfect editors.

Editor A tried to correct me on the use of breath/breathe, only she was trying to make a change that would make the use wrong. I, nicely, told her that she had them backward. The smart editor would have said, "Oh, yeah. I was tired. Sorry about that." I've had a lot of editors say this, and we just blow it off and keep moving. It happens. They're human. I'm human. We're in this together. This one tried to convince me that they were the opposite in Canada, and she'd try to remember that I was an American author. Grinning... You get interesting comments like that, when you deal with editors from all over the world, and I do.

Editor B...now this one WAS tired, and I believe it, sent me a note that I was head hopping in the paragraph. Now, head hopping is unusual for me, but it's not impossible. This editor was usually spot on, as well, so I tore that paragraph apart, looking for the head hop. I finally went back to her and said, "He thinks. He sees. He moves. Where am I head hopping in this?" At which point, I got an "Oops. I was really tired last night." from her. And, we moved merrily along.

2. Editors can't know everything, even things you might consider general knowledge.

Editor C obviously knew nothing about pregnancy and childbirth. While editing one of my books, she commented that it was her understanding that a woman wasn't allowed to have sex in the last trimester, and I might want to change that. As a mother of three, I took it upon myself to educate her in the truth. The scene stayed.

Editor C...again... Grinning... Her vocabulary wasn't quite up to dealing with my books. She would often highlight a word and ask me if I had that right...what it meant, etc. It came to a head, when I received an e-mail that said, "I KNOW it's a word. With you, it's ALWAYS a word. Just tell me what the hell it means." I've since considered buying her a good dictionary.

3. Editors will not always agree with you...vehemently.

Editor D... I had one scene of a guy at work. He's cycling out of a clean room. It's the only time in the book this happens. All the technical terms are easy to pick up from the context. She wanted me to define each term. I said it would be an info-dump to. I went to the EIC and explained the disagreement. I did tell the EIC that I would define the terms, if she agreed it needed done, but I felt it would bog down the scene. The EIC read it and agreed with me. The scene stayed as it was, and we went merrily along. All handled calmly and professionally.

4. Switching editors can cause havoc!

Editor E came in at the middle of a series and wanted to change how created-for-the-world language was handled in the text. IOW, she wanted to italicize all created words, though they weren't being spoken in another language but were additions to the English language in use. I explained to her that there were already several books out, and in the name of continuity, that would be a very bad plan. She agreed and dropped the subject.

This next is not one of my editors, but rather one of Christine Feehan's editors. She also changed editors in the middle of the series. In Dark Gold, Christine has a shocking (for her readers) breach of world rules. Here's the scoop. Christine didn't do that. A new editor, that didn't know her world rules, came in and misunderstood what was going on in the book. She changed a single line that violated the world rules.

Neither is this editor one of mine. This editor came in after Robin Owens' final galley pass and decided she was obviously spelling a word wrong...and why the heck wasn't anyone seeing this but her! The "helpful" editor changed it without asking her. When the book released, Robin saw that she had a "waffling" cat. It wasn't waffling. It was "whuffling," a common cat noise. Again, the editor didn't know what the word meant, and she was new to the book.

For the record, I found your way of editing...finding the first few times I did each thing wrong and making me find the rest...to be particularly effective, and I use it myself now.


Continuity edits-

Look for holes in the story arc. You might miss them, because you have the complete picture in your head, so be prepared for an editor to say you have a hole "there." In the meantime, now that the book is done, do an outline. Don't throw tomatoes at me. I don't do synopses or outlines BEFORE I write, but I do them after I do. So, do one. Do you move through the plot points smoothly?

Make a timeline and make sure you left enough time for things to happen realistically. Make sure you don't have broken bones (big bones, like arms and legs) healing in two weeks or a woman pregnant for a year. Now...is anyone interested in what major NY author made THAT mistake? Grinning...

Make a list of your world rules and make sure you didn't break any, during the course of the book.

Do a read-through, or have a program read it through to you. Is there ever a time where you contradict yourself in action? This is one that you might catch years later. I was just reading though a book I wrote two years ago, while we were at the park today, and realized I had the character get dressed twice in the same scene. That made it through three edits and not one but TWO sets of galleys...e-book and print. It went out that way. And, I will correct it, before I sell it to anyone else. In another book, IN GALLEYS, I caught that the heroine was on her butt on the ground and I had her STEP back from another character. It now reads that she shied away from him. Stepping on her butt? That doesn't work.

Is your characterization stable or not? Try re-reading every scene you've written from the POV of the non-POV characters. Are they still in POV, even when you're not in their heads. If you THINK about what they are doing and saying, does it make sense, still? While you're at it, check for head hopping? Are you staying in a single head or slipping to other heads? Do your characters make sudden changes that make no sense?

Logic edits-

Does what you wrote make sense? No. Stop and thing about this. Look for the following problems...

Are your characters TSTL (too stupid to live)? Do you have impossible or implausible set ups? Examples?

In one book I've read recently, an author had a character go back in time and be able to do amazing things, because the gravity was so much less. (SCIENCE ERROR) Yes. The Earth has gained SOME mass from falling space matter, but it has not gained enough mass to make people able to
jump 50 feet in the air a few million years back. That is too large a change in the mass of the earth. The book ALSO has the hero suddenly learn to speak a language, with no understanding of how he did, when just a day or two ago, it was gibberish to him. Side note...I write fantasy, not delusion. (One of my catch phrases. What you write has to make SENSE, even if it's fantasy genre.) It also had a TSTL heroine. I commented that I wished it had been a short story of the first chapter with the happy ending of the heroine getting killed when she should have died the first time. No, I wasn't editing this book, thank goodness! This was purchased for amusement. It did that...sort of, in a painful way.

In a NY book by a popular author I've read recently, a lawyer discovers a murder scene with his girlfriend. A young boy is falsely accused of the murder. Now, this lawyer...a MATERIAL WITNESS in the case, decides to act as defense attorney for the kid AND investigates the murder, including breaking into the crime scene a couple of times. Anyone else cringing? Anyone else hearing the term "conflict of interest" echoing? Professional ethics? Disbarring? And, would his state even allow him to take on that case? Even if it makes for a great bit of tension, is it believable?

Do you have science errors? I could groan right now. Let me make this one clear. Science errors are not a good thing. CHECK your science facts, even if you're not writing science fiction.

Some of my personal pet peeves?

O+ is NOT the universal donor. O- is. There is still a 10% chance of rejection with O+ blood.

Silver does not RUST. Only unbound iron rusts. Rust is, specifically, ferrous oxide, the effect of oxygen interacting with unbound iron. Silver does tarnish, but it does not interact much, which is why it's used in electronics on seagoing vessels. It's largely non-reactive.

Something buried in snow will actually be warmer than something exposed to the wind chill, which is why people are told to bury their tents...or even themselves in snow when stranded without proper shelter. Of course, you have to account for breathing holes, or you'll expire from CO2 inhalation.

The temperature deep underground, barring a steam vent or other phenom, is surprisingly stable. Therefore, the temperature in a cave will be cool in the summer and warm in the winter, when compared with the surface temperatures.

Oh, and not only do women have sex in the last trimester, but the progladstins in the semen help soften the cervix for delivery. I could say what else I know about it, but it's an ick for some people.

Need I go on? These are ones I've encountered in manuscripts and ended up educating authors on. I'm sure there's more, but you get the idea.

How are the motivations? Even if I hate the character, can I follow a logic trail and perhaps even empathize with the villain's POV?

Do you have sensory errors? LONG portion...settle in for a lecture, about now.

Why is it important to remember to engage all senses when you're writing? There are several reasons...

1) Providing a richer reader experience. No person lives in a vacuum, unless the person is in a sensory dep chamber, in which case, they usually have sensory phantoms, but that is another subject I could get into...sensory madness. There is more to the human experience than what you can see.
2) Avoiding continuity errors.
3) Avoiding blocking errors.
4) Avoiding oversights in character condition.
5) Avoiding inappropriate focus. NOTE that this affects all sorts of things from introspection to character description.

Can the character see it?

You have to consider line of sight. Block the scene on paper, if you have to. Now, look at the following.

-body orientation- If the character is looking away from another character, and the second does something behind the first's back, the first cannot see it, UNLESS the first is facing a reflective surface. (Minimize the use of mirrors for self-description (it's cliche), but used appropriately, they can play a great role in the book itself.) The first must turn at least partway back to be able to see what's going on behind her. You have, unobstructed and barring vision problems, an almost 180 degree range of vision (I believe it's 150-160 degrees for most people), without turning your head.

-height- If you have the height advantage, you can obviously see further than if you don't, UNLESS there are more hills around you. This cuts your range considerably. That's why Stephen King got slammed for the infamous scene in Christine where he has the kid sitting on a hilltop in Liberty Hills, watching the lights from Monroeville Mall. Mr. King looked at a map for distance and forgot to take the rolling hills of Pittsburgh into account. You cannot see the lights from Monroeville that far out, because of the rolling hills.

But, when you have the height advantage, you don't see people below the same way. Depending on how high you are and how far away they are, you may not see their faces, unless they look up at you.

-obstacles- While you're blocking it out, take obstacles into account. If the character moves to the east side of the room and is standing at a window, with an cabinet to her right, looking over her right shoulder, she sees the cabinet, not the south side of the room.

-how close/far you are from an obstacle- Aha! Two of my favorite visuals. If you stand ten feet from a column, you can see around it to either side and only lose the visual directly behind it. If you stand one foot from it, you can't see anything but the column and your peripheral vision, without moving your body. That's the first one. The second? Stand face to face with someone. You cannot, without moving your head, see the other person's face, belt buckle and shoes. And if you do drop your face far enough to see the shoes, you are likely head-butting the other in the chest or chin.

-tunnel vision- Tunnel vision is one that many people don't understand. The further back you are in a tunnel, the narrower your field of vision outside the mouth of the tunnel. As you move closer to the mouth of the tunnel, to an open space or an intersecting tunnel, your field of vision moves from a straight line out from the edges of the tunnel you're standing in to your full range of vision when standing at the mouth of the tunnel. The same holds true for spy holes. You have a limited range of vision, when looking through a spy hole/peek hole. A good one may give you as much as 60 degrees of vision, over distance. Get a protractor and measure your angles on your blocking sheet, if you use one.

-light level/weather- Many people make the mistake of only taking weather and light level into account in closed spaces or extreme circumstances. If it's blizzarding, they remember that the character can't see very far. The same with a moonless night, a dark wood, a dark room... If you're in the open, low light or light rain, mist, or snow is cumulative over distance. Look at it this way. If you have a drizzle, and you're trying to look miles across the fields, you're looking through miles of the drizzle, which will progressively cut your visual acuity, AS IF you were standing in a heavy rain.

Can the character hear it?

-decibels and distance- This is a major logic error in the making that I see often. If you can hear a sound clearly from 100 yards away, when you reach it, what happens? One of three things. A) You turn OFF the source of the sound and then talk. B) You walk away from the source of sound to talk. C) You scream yourself ragged to hear each other over it...maybe. Oh, and D, I guess...you don't hear each other.

How loud is a sound? CAN you hear over it? Should the character mute it? Should your character be wearing hearing protection? Keep in mind the fact that noises will be louder at the source. Keep echoes in mind. Keep double echoes in mind, when they apply. Keep in mind how loud common sounds are. There are handy charts on the web for this. Here is one simple one...
http://productexperience.blogspot.com/2006/12/audibility-decibles-and-frequency.html

-ambient noise- You don't live in a vacuum. What sounds ARE there? This can be especially important to someone listening to a tape or phone call for clues. Also, is the ambient noise so high as to be distracting or to interfere with conversation? Is it loud enough to make hearing another conversation impossible? Remember that a cocktail party noise level is a whisper away from the range that can cause hearing damage. Also, remember that ambient noise is cumulative over distance, like light levels and weather conditions are for vision.

-answering machines and telephone calls- BIG continuity error problem! DO NOT write only one side of a phone conversation, unless the POV character is standing across the room from the person on the phone and can only hear one side of the conversation. Think about it. When you're on the phone, do you hear only your own voice? If so, how do you know what to answer? You don't. Don't make that mistake in books. Also...answering machines. They always precede or follow the message with the date and time stamp in that tinny voice. Don't leave it out. The devil is in the details.

Can the character smell/taste it?

-interconnected- When someone can't smell, because of illness or water up the nose or something similar, the character cannot taste effectively either. Don't forget this. The devil is in the details.

-most powerful memory link-ups are scent-based- Think about scent. When you wake in a hospital, what do you smell? Disinfectant? That sour smell of sickness? That sets up a powerful image in the mind. When you are selling a house, realtors will suggest you bake...or at least bake a pan with vanilla and cinnamon on it? Why? One of the most powerful scent reminders for most people from childhood are warm family holidays with baked goods. It sets off great connections for the buyers. You can actually invoke a negative or positive response in many readers with a simple scent in the text.

Can the character feel it?

-cold muting feeling- When you are very cold or have been immersed in water for some time, your sense of touch is diminished. Try touching the same material with warm hands and freezing hands. It feels different. Remember that senses are muted by cold/immersion.

-anything on skin- In addition, oils, creams or other coatings on the skin can change perceptions of feeling. Experiment.

-I'll add impossible body motions here- Can the characters reach what they are supposed to? I don't just mean, can a 6 foot man, standing 5 feet from X, reach it. Experiment. If you can't do it, the character can't, either. Examples?

Place your hand on your lower back. No, try it. I once read a book where the hero had to scratch the heroine's lower back, because she couldn't reach it. Her arms weren't broken. She had no birth defect that formed her less arms. She wasn't tied to a bed, either. There is NOWHERE on your lower back you cannot reach. Your upper back is another subject.

Polar opposite. Stand up and reach your fingertips down your body, without bending. You can reach somewhere around your knees? Okay... In a sex scene, when the hero and heroine are face-to-face in bed, unless one of them moves his/her entire body, there is no chance they are
reaching further than that, on their own body or the other. IOW, if the heroine has her knees bent, the hero MIGHT be able to work her panties off. Otherwise...

-Remember that your fingertips are NOT the most sensitive receptors on the body. Your face, the BACKS of your hands, the inside of your wrists... There are a ton of receptors that are more sensitive. For one thing, though you might not know it, the palms of your hands and soles of your feet are covered in tiny scars. Over time, they become desensitized by damage.

Will the character take the time to notice?

-pacing (action vs. introspection changes focus of the scene)- One of my favorite subjects. When the pacing is slow, there is time to notice a lot around a character. There's time for introspection. When the pacing is fast, you don't have that leisure. This manifests in several ways.

Fight scenes... When you're in a fight scene, your character's focus is going to be on a couple of things and no more. You're going to pay attention to incoming attacks, obstacles around you, and possible attacks from the sides or rear from new opponents. That's it. Everything else will be filtered out. You aren't noticing the wallpaper, unless one of two things are true: A) you are drugged and the wallpaper looks like it's moving B) the wallpaper has come alive and is really moving, which makes it a threat. You also aren't going to notice the perfect shade of red blood. That comes later, when you're bleeding to death on the floor and have time for introspection.

DIALOG... Pay attention to your tags and description in dialog scenes. If it's a leisurely conversation, you can have more tags, more movements and expressions and internal thoughts and emotions and... If it's a rapid fire exchange of dialog, you have time for little or nothing beyond the dialog and (possibly) internal thoughts. However, rapid fire dialog, like a real fight, exists in short bursts. You have passes of 2-10 or so barbs, a break (during which there is some verbal
circling and time for a little more scenery and introspection) then either it breaks off entirely, a calmer discussion starts, or rapid fire starts up again.

Why do people notice things? You should never have characters doing a comprehensive examination, unless one of a few things are true.

-new situation/person; change in person/situation- If the person or place being described is a new thing to the character, they will notice it in detail. I once had a character that was not described
until chapter six of the book. Why? Because the only character that interacted with him until then was another man, who had known him for 7 years or so. There was no reason for him to make a deep consideration of his buddy. In chapter six, that character meets a character who has never met him before. BINGO! She does that deep description. She had a reason to look at him and take it all in.

This is NOT true when there is no time in the pacing for description and introspection, at the time something new happens. In such a case, the description should come at a break, when there is time for it.

-making a comparison- There comes a time when a character has to make a comparison. Maybe someone or something has changed, and the reader gets the before and after view. Maybe there is a comparison to be made between two people or choices. It's a valid time to make a deep, thoughtful look at something.

-characterization- How perceptive/observant is the character, in general? This is important. If the character is naturally observant, the character will observe more and internalize more. This comes from natural tendencies as well as training. If the character isn't naturally observant, there is going to be less. And, make sure it stays consistent. If an oblivious character suddenly starts spouting
off detail, what happened? If a people watcher stops noticing things...again, what happened?

Also, keep the details to the experiences/education the character has. It's all well and good for me to spout off that I smell sulfur dioxide. I know what it smells like. A character that has never
encountered it in science or industry might come up with another connotation like rotten eggs or certain fertilizers.


And, finally...as for who is to blame... This is a blog post I made in May 2005. I think it says it all about responsibilities.


So, back to a discussion that is near and dear to me...and relates loosely to the subject I wrote about earlier... Who is really to blame when a book goes out from a publisher in poor condition?

There are people who will tell you that it's the author's fault. Simply, the author shouldn't let something substandard go out. Others will counter that it's the editor's fault for letting it get out there without proper editing (or the publisher's fault for having incompetent editors). Still others will blame the EIC or other, final line person at the editor who should make sure the product that comes off the line is as close to perfect as it can be.

Who do I agree with? NONE OF THEM!

None of them? Okay...more precisely, all of them...and none of them.

Don't roll your eyes yet. Hear me out.

Why is the author to blame? Because, darn it! Your name will be on the cover. Take the time to make sure the blasted book is as perfect as you can make it. Do your craft and your career mean so little to you that you aren't willing to give a SERIOUS once-over to the book before it goes out? I don't mean thirty minutes on a 75,000 word book and you claim you checked it! I mean "LOOK AT IT." Use ReadPlease or a similar program to read the book to you, so you can find typos that you can't see. LOOK at the formatting on every page. If you hand it back in less than a day, you haven't done your job.

Why is the author NOT to blame? Human beings have the most delightful ability to complete and correct patterns. It's inborn into most humans. When presented with a dotted line picture, you can see the whole. When handed that test where the first and last letter of every word in a paragraph is right and the letters between are scrambled, you can still read the paragraph, can't you? Of course you can! You're human. For authors, it's even worse than that. You know what the paragraph SHOULD say, so your eyes and brain conspire against you to make you THINK you see it on the page, when it's not there. That is why you have an editor in the first place. The editor is going in cold. The editor is supposed to see what is really there. That is why the company pays them. Ultimately, the editor is MORE responsible for spotting errors. No matter how saleable a book is when it comes in, it is going to have errors. There is no such thing as an author presenting a perfect manuscript for publishing.

In addition, there are errors an author cannot possibly catch, errors that occur after he/she has done galleys. Let me share a few.

I had two books release with the wrong file. One released (not once but THREE times) with the pre-galley file. Now, that wasn't MY fault as author. The post-galley file was corrected, checked and submitted for release three separate times. The publisher formatted the wrong file three times and put it out for sale THREE TIMES with the wrong file. Needless to say, that is not my favorite publisher. The other book (a different publisher, who is still mortified to have made this mistake, which speaks highly for them in my book) was put out with my first edit file. IOW, the book went out as I submitted it with the editor's notes for the first round of edits in the margins. I kid you not on this one. I had added two scenes to the book, including a new ending, and done all the edits between. The truly amusing thing was that the book reviewed well in that condition. Miracles never cease!

Sometimes the people formatting CREATE errors that the author doesn't see until the book comes back to him/her as a completed and published whole. I had a dated book and had put the full date on the first chapter. Since the rest of the book took place over 13 weeks in the same year, I didn't put years on the rest of the chapters. Taking this as an error, a well-meaning formatter added dates to the rest of the chapters, only on one of the chapters, when he was no-doubt tired, he typed 2991 and not 2001.

Another? A popular NY author had someone in formatting do a strange sort of find/replace where she replaced every instance of the word blonde with backseat. Ouch! Another? Another popular NY author had someone, after her final galley check, change the word whuffle (a cat noise) to waffle. Her ARCs went out with a waffling cat. Another? One more from NY... A well-meaning individual created a world rule breech in a famous NY author's book by arbitrarily stating that it took 4 blood exchanges (not the three established in her series) to create a vampire. Believe me...readers didn't miss it.

Now, NONE of these errors are types of things that an author could have prevented. So, to those who say that it is ultimately the author's fault...sorry. I cannot agree.

Editors? The first-line folks? I already stated why it WOULD be their fault. Why wouldn't it? First of all, for the same reasons it might not be the author's fault. The wrong file can go out or the final formatting can cause errors that the editor will never see.

Another reason that it wouldn't be is if the author refused reasonable edits. THAT would be the fault of the publisher and EIC for allowing it to happen, as long as the editor let them know it was happening. There are some prima donnas out there. I won't lie. Some authors feel their art is above editing. But, the buck stops here. The publisher must publish with a couple of thoughts in mind: Will it sell? Does it break any laws? Does it offend my core readership, the people we do not want to offend above all else? AND...Is it worthy to carry the company name? The company name will be on that cover as well as the author's. The quality of the offering MUST be taken into account by the publisher. I realize that the publisher may not want to give a popular author walking papers, and that is their prerogative, but in the end, I am not certain allowing substandard books to go out is in the company's BEST interest.

So, to all those who claim it's the front line editor's fault... Sorry, I cannot agree with that.

To those who state it is the EIC or other final-phase person at the publisher's fault... Sorry. You know what I am going to say. Ultimately, this person should be the most accountable for the state of a released book. It is the hand that should hold it last, the one that should safeguard company and author both. But... This person is only following orders, and if the publisher decides to let a prima donna slide, the EIC has absolutely no choice in the matter, besides quitting.

Likewise, few publishers (I mean the OWNER of the company now...) do the final check themselves. While they, like the captain of a ship damaged at sea, are the final person held accountable for any problem at the company, people are strange creatures, and you cannot always anticipate when an editor will decide to slack off, when an EIC may be preparing to jump ship and isn't doing the job correctly, when someone doesn't report a prima donna up the line and tries to handle it personally...and badly.

So, whose responsibility is it to make sure the book makes it out there correctly? No one person. It's a team effort, a (hopefully) well-oiled machine. When the machine breaks down...or if it never worked correctly, the books are going to come out with errors.


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