EPIC Authors

We belong to one author's association - EPICAuthors. This doesn't mean that there are not other 'good' author's associations out there. We chose this one because it works hand-in-hand with members to help them sell their ebooks.

EPIC authors is for epublished authors and publishers, but you do not need to be famous to join. http://www.epicauthors.com/ Their resource page is open to the public, and includes dozens of places to receive a review.

They also post a boilerplate contract for new authors, with tips and advice, and problems to watch out for.

If you are epublished then the $30 membership fee is more than paid back in the amount of information you'll receive from their email lists, and the number of published authors and publishers available to answer your question....not to mention, 2 - to-die-for - conferences each year.

Talk To A Publisher on Tuesdays

As a Helium writer whose articles suggest a high interest in creative writing and literature, we wanted to let you know an exciting new program we’ve developed, called Helium’s Book People Talk series. By participating in this Tuesday talk series, you will have a chance to meet publishers and get direct advice on questions like:

How do I get my book published? Do I need an agent? How do I avoid the rejection pile? What's fair for an advance? Should I self-publish? Can I get a job as a book editor? What are publishers really looking for?

Tomorrow’s discussion features:

Chapter One: THE FUTURE IS BLEAK (but your writing career doesn’t have to be).

Helium is honored to welcome Bleak House Books, a publisher of crime and dark literary fiction. Bleak House has been written about in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Crimespree Magazine, Mystery Scene Magazine, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus (The Book Standard), and others.

For future discussions, check out the listings at:

http://www.helium.com/
topic=13072.0

A Word on Proofreading

Why have I never seen a mansucript cross my desk with no errors or typos in it?

Why do books have mistakes in them?

Why are there typos in printed books?

The answer is simple -

Proofreading is not an exact science.

I have a perfect final-draft in hand. I have gone over it four times and don't believe there can be anymore errors, until I read it again.

Here is what I do...

I finish the final proofread on the computer. I feel the digital format allows more freedom than the printed proof, but only when working on the last draft.

I read novels when editing a manuscript. Especially, works written by a minimalist authors like Robin Cook. (Congo, Airframe) Reminding the muse that their greatest inspiration has fallen short of perfection, and that even great authors make mistakes, is good motivation. It creates an invisible teacher who stands over my shoulder.

Sometimes, enlarging the font to 13 or 14 helps me focus on the words and edit - as apposed to reading the story. I don't like 14, because it makes the font boldfaced.

Sometimes, changing the font between Courier New, and Times New Roman can help force your eyes to see what is there - not what you expect to be there.

My preferred method is to stand up when reading a manuscript that I have read before. I often take one-step backward. I read out loud, stopping at the end of each sentence. This forces me to read the words, not the story.

Sometimes it can take two hours to strip down a couple of pages and rebuild them. Editing is not always painless, quick, or easy.

However, you must keep in mind, that you will never create a truly perfect copy.

I've also torn a sentence down, more than fifteen times, rearranging it, playing with the punctuation, the verbs, the word placement, placing it on different parts of the page. Not stopping until satisfied. This is not unusual, I know several writers who can easily spend fifteen minutes perfecting a single sentence. But, most people only put this much effort into the first 50 pages... after that, the reader is hooked and more interested in the story than the grammar.

It works.

The difference between my first book, and the second, is unmeasurable. The second novel looks like I took years to finish writing it. I didn't.

They say that writing a novel is 10% telling the story and 90% editing. This is true. If you don't like to edit - you will have a hard time writing a great novel.

Can You Get Publishing Without Reading Multiple Genres

I had someone ask me this questions recently, and I must say that the answer is no.

There are aspects of humanity explored in each genre. Each one is a fundamental part of the human condition which plays out in our everyday lives, and transcends from reality into the written word.

Yes, all genres have similar characters and themes, but it is the subtle hints in the book that makes characters real, and strengthens plots.

It also makes books stand out. I recently wrote a post stating that 'avid readers make the best writers.' This is not something I came up with, but something that I've seen - time and again. Those writers who are published, and those published authors who earn more than $20 000 a year as writes, are all avid readers, and most (that I know) read at least three genres on a regular basis.

It is something to think about. Even reading a genre which is not something you enjoy. Ask yourself what you don't enjoy in that genre. A movie with a lot of blood in it has a message that turns many people off. They cannot sleep after watching this - but it isn't the artificial blood that makes them avoid the genre.

There is something subtle that talks about our primal needs, fears, wants, and desires. These things can be used to make a novel 'great.' It may only be a small thing. Like the main character kneeling down to talk to a child, or the nemesis spitting on the side of a building - but you won't learn these things unless you explore the genres that have mastered these 'human traits'

Guest Editor: Anne Whitefield

Editing Is Your Friend

As an editor, I find many writers have either edited their work too much or too little.
The key is to edit well enough to create a great story, but not too much that your work no longer has heart.
A lot of novel authors believe the golden word limit is 100 000. This is not always the case. Many publishers, big and small, prefer the word limit to be around 90k or even under. One of my publishers is UK hardback publisher Robert Hale Ltd. Their word count is approx 73 000 words. Always check the publisher’s guidelines, if possible.
Now some writers will be horrified that their beloved opus is a massive 300k words, and they refuse to cut a single word from it, but honestly think of the bigger picture — money. Publishers are companies out to make money, some foster careers, too, but mainly it is money and it is silly to think otherwise. For them to make money they have to create marketable books that will sell. If your book is a massive tome, do you think that the average publisher is going spend an awful lot of time and money on something that will be priced above all the competition?
When writers are confronted by the prospect of cutting words, they panic and think it can’t be done without destroying plots and characters.
In actual fact, most writers will learn that there is a skill to trimming word count. Once that skill is learnt, they can apply it to other works, and also this will change the way they write future manuscripts.
Sometimes, the act of cutting words from the manuscript is simply a case of re-writing the odd paragraph, of eliminating passive writing or over telling, deleting repeated or redundant words. Look for instances where you have explained the same thing more than once, but perhaps in different ways or by different character’s viewpoint. There are many good websites built to aid writers in writing the best work they can. I have a list on my website of several such websites.
http://www.annewhitfield.com/writingwebsites.html

In the end, write the story of your heart, but edit it with a business mind and the chances are you’ll have a better prospect of becoming published and the journey with your future editor may be also smoother.
Good Luck!
Anne Whitfield, author and editor. Acquisitions Editor at Enspiren Press and Book Coach at www.writersonlinecourses.com
http://www.annewhitfield.com

Book Reviews

We have a site that is building at www.novel-writer.com that needs book reviews. You need to subscribe and be given publisher permission, but you can post all your book reviews (that you've already earned money from) along with a link back to one of your sites.

One of the benefits of writing reviews is that, once you can prove you do this, and the sites you write for have ample exposure, you can get books/ebooks sent to you free. This is great for an avid reader.

How to Pick a Publisher

One of the most baffling, and disappointing aspects of novel writing is the rejection letter. Many new writers are frustrated after receiving 5, 10, and even 20 rejection letters.

Writers are told not to be disheartened, or quit submitting their manuscript to publishers. There is a better way to become published, but it is difficult, so few writing instructors tell writers abut the ‘art of selecting a publisher.’

Writers

Both editors of my ‘Are You Ready to Submit’ series asked the same question, ‘Why do you spend so much time explaining the publishing industry?’ The answer is simple, so writers know how to win a publishing contract before they start writing their book.

Publishers

There are more than 5000 publishers. The annual book sales in the US average about 26 million a year. Thousands of books sell each year. Thousands of books sell well.
This is because publishers find a niche they can service, and give bookstores a stable product they can market. In the publisher’s eye, a book is nothing more than a commodity to sell, like a house, a jewel, or a chair.

Each publisher looks for something different. Even if they are not formula novels, there are similarities in the books published by different publishers.
Write For Publication

When teaching the online course, ‘How to Write and Edit a Novel,’ I ask students to look into publishers before finishing their novels. Many writers have a list of five favourite publishers they want to handle their books.

I then tell writers to ask themselves why they want that publisher to handle their manuscript. There are several good reasons. The writer may like the stories, the characters, the interesting plots, how easy the story is to read, the level of escapism, etc.

There are a few bad reasons. The publisher pays advances, they appear lenient on their guidelines, or the genre is reputed as being ‘easy.’

Then, I tell the writers to write for publication. Do not write away, without aim or form, and then hope some publisher wants the novel.

The Marketable Novel

One reason why writers should pick a publisher before finishing their novel is so they can write a marketable novel.

There are two types of novels. The artistic novel is one born in the writer’s creativity with little thought of the reader’s desires or publishers needs. These receive the most rejection letters. Writers must randomly submit, hoping one publisher is looking for their particular novel.

The second is a marketable novel. It is similar, and hopefully better, than what their favourite publisher is currently selling. Face it, publishers are in business to make money. Hand them a book they can sell, and they ‘will’ accept it, even if it needs work.

Genre
Genre is vital to writing a marketable novel. There may be 1000 romance publishers, but they do not all publish every sub genre. There are dozens of subgenres for the romance genre. Each of these are divided by types of character development, intensity of conflicts, and plots.
Submitting to a publisher, on the single merit that they handle romance novels, or fantasy, or erotic, is an exercise in futility that will result in dozens of rejection letters.

Submissions

Writers who do not research publishers, looking for the one house where they belong, are forced to play ‘submission roulette.’ This is a game where the writer submits, to publishers just because they publish romance, or thrillers.

I honestly believe that there is a publishing house for every manuscript. Knowing which publishers handle the type of story, character, conflicts, and plots that you are writing, or changing your novel to fit their needs, will reduce the number of rejection letters a writer will receive.

Avid Readers Make the Best Writers

One comment I’ve heard from countless authors is, ‘I have no time to read anymore.’ This is a sad state, because the moment a writer stops reading they stop learning how to write.

Many of today’s writers believe they do not need a basic understanding of the classics to become published. It is so hard to explain why they need to understand the classics.

Who better than Dickens to teach character development? Can anyone number the number of today’s bestsellers follow the Jane Eyre story arc? What about a writer who can challenge our basic morality and ideals as well as Shakespeare did?

More than 3000 students have passed though my courses in the last five years. In that time, I’ve learned one thing, ‘Avid readers make the best writers.’

Publishers know this. They constantly beg writers to read the bestsellers in their genre, and study the publishing house’s recent releases before they submit. At Enspiren Press, we are constantly asking authors to read our recent releases.

Yes, we will accept a book with run-on sentences, and even some questionable grammar styles, as long as the story is well-told, is built on a strong structure, and which studies today’s social issues. Even our fantasies and historical novels are built on strong character development and social issues.

Unfortunately, many new writers feel that reading publisher’s recent releases is nothing more than a money grab, a weak attempt to sell books.

Not true.

There is a lot to learn from published books, especially the bestsellers. The first lesson is that book writing is not an exercise in vanity for authors. The fundamental purpose of a book lies in one thing – the reader.

The bestsellers are, in fact, bestsellers, for one reason. They gave the reader, exactly what they want.

The genres were born from the realization that readers like to read the same types of stories, share a story with the same character types, and experience the same thrills, escapism, and entertainment in each book.

Of course, they like their stories wrapped in a variety of plots and themes, settings and ears, social classes, and conflicts. Each genre has a slightly different grammar style and vocabulary. The stories are built around different premises. And, there are varying levels of narration, introspection, monologue, dialogue, and tension.

I am asked weekly what grammar style is used in today’s fiction. Writers want to know what percentage of narration is allowed, when it is permissible to use passive writing, and how to structure Point of View. Unfortunately, I cannot answer this. Not because I do not have an answer, but because the answer is different in each genre.

So, next time you want to improve your writing skills, pick up a current bestseller from the same genre as the manuscript you’re writing.