Humans have always been fascinated with rainbows, yet these days it seems AI rainbows are uniquely alluring. Rainbows lead to that magical pot of gold, right? Even as an adult, I can’t help but see a rainbow and muse over treasure at the end. It is one of those stories that can get so ingrained in a culture, that it almost runs as a subroutine in our brains.

Like when your palm itches and you think about money. Or you hesitate and walk around a ladder instead of under it. The way you might flinch when cracking a mirror. Seven years of bad luck.

While these might be silly superstitions, we’d be naive to believe we’re immune from their influence…or the childlike hope of easy treasure.

We have been down this path before many times with different rainbows: the internet, websites, social media, Facebook fan pages, self-publishing, etc. We’re not immune to the lure of easy treasure…and right now, the shiniest rainbow is labeled “AI”.

The “AI Rainbows” Distraction

Might as well begin with pointing out the ugly truth. To be really excellent at any skill, one has to suffer. We humans, deep down, don’t respect what took nothing to learn, create, or do.

It reminds me of a debate I was having with Spawn (teenage son) about the movie The Matrix. All of us were wowed at the superhuman feats one could “learn” in that movie with just a flash drive plugged into your HEAD. Need to know Kung Fu? Don’t have a couple decades to haul water up the stairs to some monastery while the master hits you with sticks?

No problem. Let’s just give this a download….

I extended the logic with Spawn, though. While this idea of “instant skill” might be novel and exciting initially, what it steals is far more insidious. What if tomorrow, I could download how to play masterful piano? Who really would want to listen to me play? Or come to a concert? Buy my music? Seems to me they’d all be busy pushing their own new and shiny skills in similar fashion.

For a while.

Then it would all feel hollow, empty, cheap, and a lot like…cheating.

How long would I stick to playing piano? What takes nothing to “master” also takes nothing to “dismiss.” How quickly would I grow bored with my new and “perfect” piano skills?

***The same skills everyone else with that “piano mastery brain download” have, too.

It took me years of reading, writing, learning, practicing, sacrificing and showing up day after day even when I didn’t feel like it to hone my skills. Yes, AI can outline faster, organize faster, can even WRITE FOR ME! But why would I do that? Unused muscles either never develop or, if developed, will atrophy from disuse.

The AI rainbow is alluring but so were the sirens’ songs, and where, exactly was that song leading those sailors?

AI Rainbows & Fool’s Gold Fallacy

I have personally witnessed a MASSIVE shift in the quality of writing in the past ten years. With all the digital tools rainbows we have, the easy access to research, spell check, and grammar check, one should expect overall quality to improve. Yet, we are seeing the opposite. Unwatchable movies, unreadable books, soulless art, music without that human spark.

Do we need to mention the McDonald’s Christmas commercial that used ONLY AI? Yes, yes we do.

I’ll admit the Digital Age has been to blame for feeding this monster, especially once social media became such a cornerstone for relevance and market advantage. The relentless demand for more content, fresh content, relevant content to “captivate” audiences has chained many creatives to Hell’s Treadmill.

Companies are falling for this as well, which is why they’re leaning far too heavily on AI. AI can be controlled, monitored and writers become interchangeable pieces on a Monopoly board. Easy to plug in, duplicate and keep on a leash. Same for all creatives. Writers are picky, actors are divas, and artists are moody. Most inconveniently?

They expect to actually be PAID for what they do.

*clutching pearls*

Thus, in another staggering move to “increase profits” and “save money” companies are increasingly outsourcing to AI generated content. Content that is supposed to be bold, edgy, creative, compelling…and just happens to look, sound and feel just as “unique” as all the other “unique” content.

When everyone is special, then no one is, which was the point we explored in the last post, Counterfeit Creativity: The High Cost of Cheap Art.

Writers Who Know How to MINE

Mining is a mixture of skill, courage, tenacity, wisdom, and flat out insanity. It is a lot of tedium, toil, work, and thankless pain. Writing, like mining for anything, requires patience, endurance, innovation, and passion. But, last I checked, those weren’t for SALE.

Yet, what do we know about all “gold rushes”? Who gets rich? The ones wielding shovels or those selling shovels? Prospectors rarely struck it rich. Winners sold to the miners. BIG WINNERS (snakes) sold to those who liked the idea of being rich more than the work involved.

Whether it was reselling spent plots, phony maps, or sure-fire tricks to STRIKE IT RICH, it didn’t matter. There was always a naive/gullible market ready to throw their own gold down to skip the hard parts…and a snake to take their money.

It’s human nature.

Fast-forward to today, and AI companies, prompt gurus, “millionaire author” courses, content mills, “authentic human author” certifications. They’re the shovel-sellers. They profit off the rush without digging themselves.

But here’s where the metaphor flips in our favor. In every gold rush, a few stubborn diggers hit pay dirt. Over time, tests and failures, they eventually became experts at terrain and geology. Skilled prospectors learned invaluable tells that could lead to larger, richer strikes.

They learned to spot “tells” (signs in the geology/terrain like quartz veins, color changes in soil, or river bends that trap gold). Writers—masterful writers—do something similar. We notice the patterns, the trauma, the unevenness and how that all guides the way to the REAL story.

In my opinion, AI’s fixation on “perfect” is one of the biggest flaws in the system. Humans are messy, ugly, irrational, emotional, unpredictable and illogical, which—ironically—are all the ingredients of AMAZING WRITING!

AI is the CZ of our time. Flawless! Perfect! But still just a fancy piece of glass.

All Writers Should Be Wary of AI Rainbows

We have seen this play out time and time again. Whenever we invent a tool to make something better, faster, cheaper, easier, there is always, always a cost. We have film students in COLLEGE who cannot sit through a full-length movie, writers who never read, and Amazon and the internet is drowning us in AI slop.

Why?

Again, humans will always choose novelty and the path of least resistance (at least for a while).

Did spellcheck make a generation of better spellers? Nope. It masked errors so well that many never internalized rules—kids lean on it, brains skip the muscle-building, and we end up with adults who can’t spell.

Did grammar check transform us all into a society that understood the complexities of sentence structure and subject-verb agreement? Hardly. It fixes surface stuff on the fly, but deep grammar knowledge? The knowledge that allows a writer to wield grammar as another tool is something only a LOT of reading, studying and practice can train.

POV is an incredible tool. Why choose first-person, or third or even second? What emotional effect are we going for? In Caroline Kepnes’ You, she selected second-person POV which is almost never used…ever. Yet, when placed in a story told from the stalker’s perspective? Chilling.

T. Jefferson Parker broke with tradition and told the antagonist’s POV through first-person and Charlie Hood’s (the investigator) in third. Why? Because Jeff wanted the reader to bond emotionally with the antagonist to demonstrate the emotional complexity of the topic. There is no clean black and white and good and bad. Just messy, flawed humans doing the best the can when the deck is stacked against them.

That’s the magic AI can’t replicate. It can spit out “correct” prose, but it can’t feel the weight of those choices. It can’t draw from lived chaos to make a story resonate. The cost of chasing “perfect” shortcuts? We lose the very mess that makes writing human—and worth reading.

Keep Those Mining Skills Sharp

Tools in and of themselves can only do so much. Slight tangent but makes my point. I used to LOVE watching home improvement shows that demonstrated ways to decorate for super cheap. Initially, I was mesmerized. They did ALL THAT for under $1000! Then I realized it was a thousand dollars in supplies.

That money didn’t cover the saws, drills, guns, welds OR the SKILL to use any of those. When one hires a contractor, we aren’t hiring the table saw, rather the artisan who can use that saw masterfully. I mean I can use a table saw. Can watch a video. Most have guards that will mostly keep my fingers in tact…but I have zero skills.

I am far more likely to make a mess massacre than a masterpiece.

Same in writing.

While AI rainbows are pretty, what they lead to? Not all that glitters is gold.

Right now? I feel we are living this meme from Fight Club. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy. Remember, earlier I stated that humans initially love novelty and convenience? That love wears thin super quick and the shine is already dimming.

There are no shortcuts and we’d all be wise to just leave the AI rainbows where they belong…on Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers.

What are YOUR Thoughts on AI Rainbows?

I know today is St. Patrick’s and we all want a bit of luck, but luck alone has never been enough without the skills to take advantage of opportunity.

How do you feel about what AI is doing to us skill-wise? Are new writers failing to mature and dig deeper because of the quick thrill of “perfectly packaged prose”? If they are “training” on recycled content, how valuable is the training? Are the younger generations of content creators driven by a desire to create meaningful art and expression or the need for a quick dopamine fix?

Is AI unwittingly eroding the very character traits necessary for great artists (Eg. tenacity)?

For writers who have been here more than a minute, are you concerned that your skills will erode? Do you find yourself constantly second-guessing skills you’ve used for years? Or does that compel you to train even harder to stand apart from the crowd?

For a profession that seems to UNIQUELY SUFFER from Imposter Syndrome, do you think AI only makes this feeling worse? It was bad when everyone assumed every published author was self-published, but at least they didn’t think a ROBOT wrote it. How does this make you feel? The shift of bad writing must be human and good writing must be AI.

I’d like your thoughts!

The post Chasing AI Rainbows & Fool’s Gold: Real Writers Know How to DIG appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Fortitude—enduring the tired, tedious and unremarkable chores—is what makes the difference between those who dream and those who do.

Why am I talking about this? Because recently I saw some quote scroll past on social media. It was something (of course) posted by one of those super happy “life coach” people.

Though I’m certain the quote was meant to inspire, it hit a sour note with me. It seemed dismissive of the pain, sacrifice and—yes, suffering—of those willing to dream, and then stick to that dream. It bypassed the fortitude necessary for success.

I don’t recall the quote’s exact wording (they’re all so similar), but the saccharin essence was the same. Apparently, if you don’t LOVE every single moment of what you’re doing, then maybe you don’t have the right career.

Keep searching! Dream! You have a right to be HAPPY! If it isn’t making you HAPPY, then MOVE ON!

See, writing—much like any worthy undertaking—comes part and parcel with a lot of drudgery and loads of stuff we’d rather not do.

Fortitude & Learning Curve Drudgery 

A lot of folks believe that just because they’re proficient in their native language, they are then automatically qualified to write amazing fiction. Yeah…no.

Not judging at all. I used to be one of those people. I had zero concept how ridiculously hard it was to craft a readable story, let alone a good one.

Writing a novel that could span anywhere from 50K to 150K words (depending on genre) that manages to grab then hold a reader’s interest? AHHHH! Balancing plot points, plot arc, character, dialogue, scene and sequel, A-lines, B-lines, on and on?

It doesn’t take too long to understand why many great authors turned to booze and drugs.

*gives Poe a pass on the whole “heroin addiction'” thing*

Far too many writers start out believing the first novel they write is perfect, and if anyone counters this? They fall apart. Some give up. A few hire “editors” who are happy to tell them “the other meanie editor was totes unprofessional and it’s fiiiine to have fourteen POVs…all from cats.”

Others double-down on the denial and write a sequel or—God help us all—a series of equally crappy books that don’t sell.

Why?

Because learning to write novels is hard.

I’ve been through this, myself. My two formative mentors both made me cry…a LOT. And I am NOT a person who cries.

These mentors were nothing like my writing group. My writing group was so encouraging!

Bob and Les didn’t tell me my writing was unicorn tears, they told me it was more like what might come out of the other end of a unicorn.

No, not a unicorn. A hyena with tapeworm and a bad case of mange.

*weeps*

I didn’t love writing the same stuff over and over. Guess what? Didn’t always love reading and rereading the books they recommended I study.

Come to think of it, I didn’t love putting out my best only for it to come back with so much red I wondered if it had been hit by a bus then SHOT before they returned it.

Sure I could have quit. Thought about it a lot. A lot. Because shouldn’t I LOOOVE every moment of what I do? But, I didn’t quit because I wanted to become an excellent writer. I required more than glittery sparkly talent. I had to hone and develop fortitude.

I’m still a work in progress.

My critique group were fantastic cheerleaders, which we need…but not necessarily to make us better.

Cheerleaders look super pretty, but cheerleaders don’t train touchdowns.

Coaches who call out bad form, terrible plays, and awful habits create winners. These experts are hired to criticize, make a player watch footage over and over and, if warranted, do cherry-pickers until the player wants to DIE. Might seem “mean” but THIS is what will help that player make touchdowns.

Drudgery. Not pom-pom waving.

Fortitude: Welcome to the GRIND

There’s drudgery in the actual writing. Oh no! Yes, you heard it here first. Writing, while one of the BEST jobs in the world, contains more than its fair share of suckage.

The first draft can be loads of fun, until the mire of Act Two where you find yourself contemplating sudden and unexpected alien abduction—either for yourself to spring you from writing, or for your characters because you’ve messed up somewhere in the plot and written yourself into a corner.

Becoming successful in writing (or anything really) is never in the BIG things we do. It’s the compilation of a lot of small acts that build up over time.

It is showing up day after day even when we’d rather get a root canal than figure out what went sideways somewhere between page 1 and page 400.

We have to research, proofread, edit, revise, and all of this takes focus and time and pain. By the time a book is “ready” to be published, odds are pretty decent we’ll hate our own book and hope we never have to read it again.

***FYI: The feeling passes…eventually. Most of the time. Maybe.

Publishing Drudgery

For those who still want to traditionally publish, there is the drudgery of writing synopses and query letters and researching agents. Add the drudgery of the actual querying and subsequent waiting.

Meanwhile, most of us have day jobs and laundry and family members who expect to be fed every day #HighMaintenance.

Oh, and make sure to start writing the next book (refer to the love-fest above).

For those who choose a non-traditional path, we have to locate and hire the best people. Or maybe learn to format or design a cover ourselves. There may be multiple iterations of a cover. Then, if we believe we’ve found all our typos in our seventeen (hundred) passes? *clutches sides laughing*

And if we believe the proofreaders and editors caught all them too? Maybe, but..

On top of this, add in bookkeeping, record keeping, accounting, building a platform, understanding keywords and SEO and blah, blah, blah.

Suffice to say that YES, writing is a WONDERFUL job! I wouldn’t be here twenty years later if it was all bad. Yet, I do have to confess that choosing to become a writer showed me the worst parts of my character…in Technicolor.

I didn’t start blogging because I EVER believed my blog would be what it is today with millions of unique visitors. Want to know why I began blogging? I had ZERO self-discipline.

I’d become a person who didn’t want to do anything that I didn’t LOVE. If I wasn’t having FUN, then clearly I’d chosen the wrong career, right?

Wrong.

The Fortitude Factor

People who reach their goals and dreams are different for sure. Are they more gifted? Talented? Unusually good-looking? Perhaps. But, more often than not, these folks excel at handling the boring parts of the dream.

To which I shall refer to one of my favorite books on achievement. James Clear’s Atomic Habits (which I HIGHLY recommend), is fabulous. Yet, this quote in particular piqued my attention:

The greatest threat to success is not failure but boredom. We get bored with habits because they stop delighting us. The outcome becomes expected. And as our habits become ordinary, we start derailing our progress to seek novelty. Perhaps this is why we get caught up in a never-ending cycle, jumping from one workout to the next, one diet to the next, one business idea to the next. As soon as we experience the slightest dip in motivation, we begin seeking a new strategy—even if the old one was still working.

~ James Clear, Atomic Habits

You have NO idea how often I hear, “If I only had the TIME, I’d write more.” As if time is laying around in the couch cushions with the petrified Cheerios and the TV remote no one’s seen Twilight was popular.

Hey, I have been guilty here, too. Still can fall into old (bad) habits if I fail to remain vigilant. Yes, even after a pandemic when we all had more time than we knew what to do with.

The reason people (mistakenly) believe they must FIND TIME? It’s likely because they’ve hit the part of the writing process that’s actual WORK. It’s ceased to be a glorious high.

And, if they don’t start a new book (chasing the high), then they put off writing altogether using excuses more creative than their plot ideas.

Hey! Told y’all I have been guilty too…so no hating .

Yet, when we look at anything worth achieving, from writing an amazing book to being a great parent to running a profitable business, we see that it is how these individuals handle the millions of unremarkable unexciting and downright soul-crushing (but necessary) tasks that makes all the difference.

We see the same common denominator in every success story, from the legendary athletes willing to do the same drills over and over until perfected to the entrepreneurs who mined drudgery for the edge they needed to outpace all competition.

Fortitude: Can You Handle Being BORED?

Everyone loves new beginnings. The new relationship with no baggage and all hugs and kisses, the smell of the fresh notebook, the empty page waiting for all of our brilliant ideas. We love the new blog because it holds so much promise.

Then there is the new workout from YouTube, the new diet we found on Instagram, the new craft project we saw on Pinterest….

A lot of us fixate on whether we can handle the BIG moments, the MAJOR crises but I’d actually offer different advice. We need to ask the hard question.

Can we fall in love with pain and process as much as the end result? Everyone loves the summit selfie but few want the climb. It comes with hypoxia and pretty good odds you’ll die and no one will be able to claim your frozen corpse…ever.

Many of us LOVE the idea of six-pack abs…but we LOVE tacos more. We struggle after a few weeks. Why? Because we are tired, sore, and even though we’ve been working out for a WHOLE MONTH, we still don’t have a ripped physique.

Heck, we can’t even see a muscle. We’re tired of the pile of smelly clothes, the aches and pains and having to measure all our food. It isn’t FUN. In fact, it’s downright tedious.

We don’t LOVE the gym, the job, the book, the YouTube channel anymore because it’s day after day of nothing all that special…and pain.

Lots of that.

Catching Fire

Yet, all these small actions add up over time. When we embrace the dull actions and commit, we will eventually ignite. Ray Bradbury poetically asserted paper had an ignition point of 451 degrees Fahrenheit. The actual number is about thirty degrees higher.

Paper will burst into flames at about 480 degrees Fahrenheit (without being directly exposed to flame).

Using this analogy, let’s take our metaphorical paper and heat it to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, then 250, then 300, then 440, then 451. Boy, this is boring and taking a LONG time and taking energy. Nothing is happening.

Heat it to 460, then 470, then 477 and then throw up your hands because paper NEVER sets on fire without a high-budget marketing plan…I mean match.

Or, maybe there is a marked transformation somewhere between 477 degrees and 482 degrees. At 477 degrees Fahrenheit all looks the same. Oh but add in a little more energy and IGNITION. And this ignition all occurs within a range of a couple degrees.

Then…BOOM!

The same goes for becoming a successful author (as in a professional who’s PAID to play with our imaginary friends). A major key to success largely rests on how we handle the boring parts. Can we keep going, keep putting on the heat when it looks as if nothing is happening?

Success doesn’t have a canonized ignition point. If it did, being successful would be easy. Fortitude is a massive game changer.

If I knew I had to write five books, three series, add in a hundred blogs and forty three good reviews to reach literary stardom? Dang skippy I’d stick with it. There wouldn’t be ANY drudgery, because I’d have certainty.

But that’s the problem.

The ignition point for succeeding in anything is anything but certain (and might not even exist in some cases). It differs between people, generations, goals, industries, abilities, etc. We DON’T KNOW and THAT is precisely why drudgery can so easily undo us if we lack the fortitude to outlast it.

In the End

I want all your dreams to catch fire—your dreams to write, create, to be an excellent parent or partner, to achieve the remarkable.

If you can appreciate that every masterpiece began as a blank canvas, a hunk of marble, an ugly cement foundation, a sketch, or an idea and that IN BETWEEN there was a lot of wash, rinse, repeat and fortitude (which we can control)? You’re on your way to reaching those goals.

We’re rarely limited by our talent, yet we’re all too often hobbled by impatience. Drudgery makes us cave in too soon. It takes time to hone skills, learn a craft, build an audience, etc. Just keep pressing and hopefully you’ll see your ignition point and it will be the most beautiful light you’ve ever seen.

Then you get to do it again for the next goal . *smoochies*

But, you’ll be better and stronger because you know to expect the span of suck before the breakthrough! You will have strengthened and honed the fortitude required to finish. And the cool thing is, the more we work it, the stronger it gets.

What Are Your Thoughts?

I love hearing from you! Do you struggle with the doldrums in your dreams? Is it hard not to just start something new? Are your fortitude muscles weak? Have you been starting over so much that maybe that’s why you aren’t further along? Are you so sick of your book you want to cry? #GotTheTShirt

Don’t you wish we had the magic “temperature” where our dreams LIT UP? Some way to know if we were close? Or even heading in the correct direction? Have you struggled with learning to finish what you start? Been too easily distracted?

The post Fortitude: Dream, Do, Then Keep on DOING Day After Day appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Stakes, bizarrely enough, are a key ingredient missing in many stories. If the characters don’t have skin in the game, why would the audience? The bigger the stakes the better the page turner. Whether on the page or on the screen, what keeps audiences enraptured the most? What makes us spend an entire weekend inhaling a book, a series, or binging that Netflix series?

We want to have to know…what happens.

How does the MC react to a certain problem? Can they recover? Do they win? At what cost? Ultimately, we have to know how it all turns out.

That is the beauty of stories and why we humans love them so much. Real life has stakes but little to no assurances that everything will work out for the better.

Life has plenty of stakes but little to no closure. It is no coincidence that one of the first “matchmaking” sites on the internet was Classmates.com. So many of us, new to the shiny internet, finally had a way of looking up people we once went to school with to see what happened.

Did the Homecoming Court really go on and lead the same charmed life they seemed to enjoy in high school? What about the bully? The smart kid? How about that crush we never quite had the courage to talk to? Did we miss out on a gem or dodge a bullet?

Stakes are the fuel that fires our need for closure. This is critical for any story. Read a book to a five-year-old and try to stop halfway through. Even kids won’t let us off easy. Because of the rising stakes, they’ll want to know, “How does it end?”

Stakes and Structure

Last post, we discussed agency and we took an aerial tour of plot structure. We toured all the major sections of plot, what they do, and how one section should feed into the next.

Now before you guys get the vapors and think I’m boxing you into some rigid format that will ruin your creativity, nothing could be further from the truth.

Plot (storytelling) is about elements, those things that go into the mix of making a good story even better.

Structure is about timing—where in the mix those elements go.

When you read a novel that isn’t quite grabbing you, the reason is probably structure. Even though it may have good characters, snappy dialogue, and intriguing settings, the story isn’t unfolding in the optimum fashion. ~James Scott Bell from Plot and Structure.

Structure holds stories together and helps them make sense and flow in such a way so as to maximize the emotional impact by the end of the tale. How we keep ratcheting emotions is we layer on higher and higher stakes.

If structure is the recipe for a fine meal, the stakes are how, and when we apply the heat. We can buy all the fanciest ingredients for a French meal. Have all the expensive doo-dads. We can measure out every ingredient to the milligram but what happens if we never turn on the heat? Or, conversely, we cook everything on the highest heat possible?

While we DO need to look at how to add the ingredients, timing how we heat the story makes the difference between a masterpiece and a mess.

The Micro-Scale of Story Structure

We’re going to first ZOOM IN and place the novel under a literary electron microscope.

The most fundamental basics of a novel are cause and effect. Super basic. An entire novel can be broken down into cause-effect-cause-effect-cause-effect (yes, even literary works). All effects must have a cause and all causes eventually must have an effect (or a good explanation).

I know that in life random things happen and people die for no reason. While life often IS stranger than fiction, fiction ain’t life.

So if a character drops dead from a massive heart attack, that seed needs to be planted ahead of time.

Villains don’t just have their heart explode because we need them to die so we can end our book. Our MC can’t suddenly discover a journal that EXPLAINS EVERYTHING in the middle of Act Two because we failed to properly plot an actual story and painted ourselves in a literary corner.

Now, all these little causes and effects clump together to form the next two building blocks we’ll discuss—the scene & the sequel (per Jack Bickham’s Scene & Structure). Many times these will clump together to form your ‘chapters.’

Whenever I edit or teach writing, I have a mantra: “Never leave a logical place to put a bookmark.”

Scene & Sequel & Stakes

Word order matters, or we end up with confusion.

Structure’s two main components, as I said earlier, are the scene and the sequel.

The scene is a fundamental building block of fiction. It is physical. Something tangible is happening. The scene has three parts (again per Jack Bickham’s Scene & Structure, which I recommend every writer buy and read and study).

• Statement of the goal
• Introduction and development of conflict
• Failure of the character to reach his goal, a tactical disaster (raise the stakes)

Goal –> Conflict –> Disaster

The sequel is the other fundamental building block and is the emotional thread. The sequel often begins at the end of a scene when the viewpoint character has to process the unanticipated but logical disaster that happened at the end of your scene.

Emotion–> Thought–> Decision–> Action

Link scenes and sequels together and flesh over a narrative structure and you will have a novel readers will enjoy.

Oh but Kristen you are hedging me in to this formulaic writing and I want to be creative.

Understanding structure is not formulaic writing. It is a story delivery system that makes sense on a fundamental level.

Formulaic writing refers to the execution of story structure. It’s a reflection of skill, or rather, lack thereof. So relax, structure is your friend. It will make writing and finishing books easier, and it comes with the added bonus of not confusing the bejeezus out of the readers.

This little recipe also helps us slowly (and later quickly) turn up the heat on our characters.

Skin in the Game

One of the biggest mistakes I see, particularly with new writers, is we can be too nice. There is a good reason normal people (code for “readers”) eye us writers with a deserved degree of suspicion. It takes a certain level of sadism to write great stories. When any mere boring mortal would want to back away from pressure or explain away a problem, we writers must plunge ahead and let the characters and (by proxy) the readers suffer.

The more they suffer, the better.

Why do you think A Game of Thrones was such a worldwide phenomenon? Huge, huge stakes! Global and personal. We, the audience, learned pretty quickly not to get too attached to any one character because they were likely to not only die, but die horribly.

So long as the HBO writers stuck with that recipe, global audiences couldn’t get enough. The minute they rushed the story, broke the rules and took away the stakes? The series imploded into a disaster.

Refer to post: A Game of Thrones: A Song of ‘I Literally Can’t Even’

A major reason the HBO series devolved into disaster is they’d done an incredible job of raising global and personal stakes. Stakes drove audiences to forgive major delays in later seasons. We were all biting our nails to the quick, our nerves shredded…then the characters all got a magical pass.

Spoiler Alert: Ice Zombies no big deal and winter never came.

How Vested are Your Characters?

When we craft any story, we must ask ourselves, “What do they have to lose?”

I love pretty prose probably far more than the next person, but using cerulean instead of blue is not what makes audiences care. We aren’t there for the wordsmithery, yet it is very easy for us writers to fixate on a new way of saying green instead of focusing on the bits that matter.

If you go look at most of the authors who are guaranteed to sell a lot of books, usually the prose is fairly plain. These authors understand it is the story that matters most. Stakes are what will stake our reader in place and refuse to let them go until THE END.

Thus, ask yourself:

What happens if my MC fails?

Who suffers if my MC fails?

How does their world change for the worse if the MC fails?

If nothing changes, we are missing a key ingredient to our story. As the story progresses, the challenges will get harder physically and emotionally. Our characters need a compelling reason to keep going.

Upping the Stakes

Going back to my recipe metaphor, there is a time and place to up the stakes and to back off a bit.

Have you ever been to an action movie that was just fight scene after chase scene after fight scene? You never got a chance to take a breath and walked away needing a nap…or a drink?

Here is an instance of the writers either making the sequels too short in duration or not having enough overall. The sequel is the breather where the characters process and act/react to what’s happening. If our sequels are missing or underdeveloped, this can make our characters come across as one-dimensional.

Audiences don’t care deeply about those kinds of characters.

Then we have the opposite. Sometimes filmmakers try to take stories that are excellent on the page—because audiences have the window into what the characters are thinking via the narrative—and put it on film.

Problem is, you have to cast really, and I mean really superlative actors to pull it off…and even then *yawns*

These are frequently the artsy films that seem to never take off. All the stakes are internal, existential and…meta. While critics might love them, usually these films are a flop with regular audiences.

In fact, any time I see the phrase “a visual masterpiece” I know the movie is likely to suck.

Do both these “genres” have a fan base? Sure.

There will always be people who will go to the next Mission Impossible move just like there will always be folks, pinkies outstretched, who loooove anything at Cannes. Yet, those are the fringes and, if we want to reach the biggest audience, the fat middle part of the bell curve is a better bet.

The Goldilocks Zone

When it comes to most genre fiction, we should look to the scenes and sequels for cues as to where, how and how much to raise or lower the stakes.

If we go back to our example last week with LOTR (Lord of the Rings). When Frodo and Samwise set off from the Shire WE the audience know they are eventually going to have to destroy the ring in Mount Doom…but they don’t. Had Tolkien started off with that, Gandalf would never have pried the Hobbits from under the bed.

On each leg of the adventure, there is a resting period and then Tolkien ups the heat. He makes the invading armies closer than they realized, bigger than they imagined, and he progressively shortens the ticking clock.

What if we aren’t writing epic high fantasy?

Genre and Stakes

I have a post where y’all can go check out the different genres. We need to know what genre we are writing so we know what the rules are. And yes, we need to follow the rules. We need to know the rules to break the rules. That is art. Breaking rules we don’t know is just called being a hack.

If I am writing a mystery, then I know my story needs to open with a crime and that the entire point of the story is figuring out whodunit (And Then There Were None). Writing a thriller? A big bad thing happens at the beginning…and it is a race against time to stop way bigger bad thing from happening (Jurassic Park).

On and on. Look at your story’s genre and see what the reader expectations are…then feel free to break rules to deliver what they wanted but never expected in that way (Gone Girl).

Stake Sizzlers

What are some ways we can organically up the stakes in our story? Remember to Be a Secret Keeper. Resist the urge to explain. Audiences, in large part, are hanging on because they want to find OUT some piece of information. This is why flashbacks, by and large, are a no-no.

If we know WHY Eric Northman (in True Blood) is dark and brooding the first time we see him, it kills the thrill. Yes he is a vampire and they are a notoriously emo bunch, but why is he uniquely emo? Unlike (IMO the tedious Bill Compton) Eric Northman was far more interesting because we didn’t get all this backstory right out of the gate.

He remained a mystery longer, which was why I felt he was a far more powerful driver for the series.

Hold off on self-actualization. Characters who are too sane, too evolved and too emotionally healthy are a fiction snooze fest. The trick is that they are likely to believe they have their sh!t together…when that is far from the case. OR, if they know they’re a mess, they will vastly underrate their faults, over magnify their virtues or completely miss what their issues are altogether.

The story then, should be designed to peel away their self-delusion and make them face their darkness so they can change for the better.

The MC must be sympathetic and redeemable. Before anyone shouts me down, I get this has a lot of latitude. Antiheroes and anti villains are becoming increasingly popular. That said, there are certain lines we cannot cross with most audiences. Feel free to join in the thirteen-year-long argument on my post What Went Wrong with the Star Wars Prequels?

Anakin Skywalker is a little kid killer. Never redeemable. Ever. The end.

What are your thoughts?

Do you struggle with being too nice to your characters? I know I still do. Often I have to go back and write in some mess ups to keep the tension going. Are you bad about over sharing? Over explaining? Can you see some tricks in here to keep audiences wanting more?

I love hearing from you! Anything you’d like to add? Maybe books, series or movies that handled stakes really well? Do you have any questions? Topics you’d like for me to explore in future blogs?

And remember, my perennial author branding book, Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World and my mystery thriller The Devil’s Dance are both on sale on Kindle right now for only .99.

Whether it is comments, shares, sales, or reviews, these are the things that keep us content producers (and authors) going and able to keep delivering. I always appreciate your support and love being able to keep doing this for you!

The post Stakes: How to Hook an Audience All the Way to THE END appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Audience. How can we connect to an audience (readers) who will love our stories enough to buy, support and spread the word? This is the ever-present challenge on every author’s mind.

If it isn’t, then it should be.

The post before last, we had a big group hug and sang a little digital kumbayah in my post Help! I’m Having a Mid-Write Crisis! We need a pep talk/reality check every now and then to keep going because we are creative professionals. Many of us didn’t choose this life, it chose us. We aren’t going to be happy unless we are creating because it is part of who we are.

That said, if we are here for the long-haul, it is critical we identify, then connect with and curate our audience. You are not alone. Neither am I. Guess what?

We are also NOT special.

Whether is it art, music, theater, articles, fashion, jewelry, Netflix series, or novels, the hunt for the elusive audience has been a universal endeavor. No one has cracked the secret code for finding a guaranteed audience.

Okay no one except the people who write books called, “The Secret Code for Finding a Guaranteed Audience.”

Locating Our Audience

While locating our audience might seem rather daunting (it is), take comfort that it is also nothing NEW. Great news is what has been done before can be done…again.

Today, I am going to share a tactic I invented years ago and highlighted in my book Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World. We are going to learn to do a Word Cloud.

Yes, I know this is a branding book that is eleven years old. I wrote the content to be what is called evergreen, meaning the principals I teach in it work no matter the age, time, or technology. Branding has never changed because humans don’t change.

Don’t believe me? Look at a pyramid then check out Instagram, Facebook, TikTok….

Lotsa CATS.

This is why RoM was all about understanding people. How to identify what they like, hate, love, loathe, are likely to share? It is NOT “The Secret Code for Finding a Guaranteed Audience” but it is possibly the “I Did All the Dumb Stuff So You Don’t Have To.”

While I can never guarantee anything, I can remarkably improve your odds.

Today, I am not going to talk about our product (the books). What I want to do is, hopefully, help y’all think about branding, platform and audience in a fresh way. This means we are ONLY going to do the initial step. If we want to locate our audience, seems only logical we figure out a way to recognize our people when we see them and vice versa.

Identifying Our Audience

This might be a silly example, but before I married and became a mom, I was the auntie to a bunch of nephews, godchildren and all their friends. Though I loathe crowds with the power of a thousand suns, I loved being “Cool Auntie” even more. So, quite often, I’d take a whole gaggle of little kids to theme parks like Six Flags, Disney, the Fort Worth Zoo, whatever.

To keep me sane, we would all dress in some super bright identical color so that I could easily find them, and they could easily find me.

Believe it or not, this is similar to how all humans bond (all animals, actually). We like to find our people. Someone posts a funny meme, or wears an obscure band tee, or quotes some cult classic movie and, Did we just become best friends?

When it comes to marketing for books, you cannot approach it like you are selling toilet paper. Why? Who is NOT using toilet paper? All the ads, coupons and sales are meant to appeal to a vast group of people who’d already planned on buying toilet paper. Books, weirdly enough, are a totally different beast that demand a unique approach.

For brevity’s sake, I explain this more in:

Branding & Attention: Busy Brains in a Busy World

Before we expand on this, I just need to lay a leeetle more groundwork. I promise. It’s critical.

Getting Tribal

Remember the time that all those people who brushed their teeth with Crest mocked the Colgate users on Facebook? Or the folks who preferred Bounty paper towels memed the HELL out of those who bought off-brand on X? What about that time the YouTube video about Listerine users went viral?

Listed among the things that never happened and never will.

WHY?

In sales there are 2 kinds of purchases, low consideration and high-consideration. Low-consideration is like TP, paper towels, toothpaste, mouthwash, etc. Those marketing these products aren’t fundamentally trying to ingrain a new behavior in their customers. This is why price points, marketing and coupons work for low-consideration products.

High-consideration are a totally different beast. When it comes to a high-consideration purchase, we humans get positively TRIBAL.

Mac users versus Microsoft? Mustang versus Corvette? Louis Vuitton versus Chanel? Android versus iPhone?

Notice the Differences?

First of all, these products usually are VERY expensive. A cheap Walmart purse will carry my crap just as well as a Louis Vuitton. Notice, though that LV never holds a BOGO sale? Tiffany’s never has a guy dressed as a gorilla twirling a sign to get people in the store.

Why?

They don’t need to.

Want to start a fight? Tell an Android user your iPhone is so much better (or vice versa). Challenge your souped up Honda against a Mustang. Get a diehard Nike junkie to wear Adidas drip. Tell Dallas Cowboys fans they aren’t going to the Super Bo…never mind.

That’s just being mean.

***But Dallas Cowboys fans will wear the jerseys anyway, right?

Y’all get the gist.

How do books fit into this?

Sadly, roughly 93% of the literate population, if asked to rank “things they’d love to do in their spare time,” would rank reading a book down below doing their taxes and getting their teeth cleaned…at the same time.

As writers, we have to acknowledge that while our book might be cheaper than a tube of toothpaste, it costs what people have less and less of.

TIME.

We are asking people to part with money they don’t have to do an activity they believe they will hate for an average of 12-15 hours they don’t have…and pay money to do this AND tell others how awesome it is.

Easy peasy, right?

Yes, and no. If we are aware that traditional marketing never has and never will sell books, then we don’t wast precious time and money. When it comes to books, we have to tap into the power of the TRIBE.

Show me a runaway success series (in print, on screen or both) and I will show you a rabid tribe ready to devour all things related: Harry Potter, Twilight, 50 Shades, Squid Games. Game of Thrones, The Last Airbender, Hunger Games, etc.

Audience: Who Are We Writing FOR?

Now that I set all this up, hopefully this exercise will make more sense to you. Because I am pretty sure you’d love your future audience to argue over who’s your best character, maybe dress like them, buy merch, argue over who should have ended up a couple, etc. Right? Which people DO.

Hang around Dr. Who fans for 30…okay 15 seconds.

Now that you know what a tribe is and why you need one, how do you locate them? This is the technique I mentioned that is in my book.

I have never before blogged on this.

Get out a piece of paper and hand write this exercise. I want to think about yourself. Pretend you are a jar of pasta sauce and we are listing the ingredients that make you, YOU. Add in favorite books, movies, seasons, colors, hobbies, songs, sensory phrases. Just word barf onto the page (not in neat columns).

The more words the better.

I am limiting here because I just need to do enough to make my point. Also, once you “finish” the cloud, keep adding to it. Heck, have friends and family help out, since they see aspects of you that you might not.

I am going to do three different examples to show you my point.

Author A

Science-fiction junkie, twisted sense of humor, Dune, Anime, Manga, graphic art, first-person shooter games, XBox, zombies, cheesy horror flicks, Army of Darkness, Fight Club, all things Mel Brooks, British comedy, Monty Python, Balls of Fury, Dodgeball, martial arts, Kung Fu movies, favorite holiday is Halloween, haunted houses, live in smartass t-shirts, Sabaton, heavy metal, high fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft, paintball with my friends, live music, off roading, microbreweries, building models, Ancient Aliens, no such thing as bad pizza, cat person, take in too many strays, Dr. Who, hate sports unless it’s jousting, Renaissance Festivals, ComiCon, DC, Marvel, Suicide Squad, HALO, Borderlands, live on energy drinks, all-night gaming, Squid Games, George R.R. Martin, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Shogun, Jurassic Park, creating badass costumes, serial killer podcasts, love the smell of autumn bonfires, way too many hobbies, never organized, adulting sucks, only cookbook I use is my Beetlejuice Cookbook

Author B

Believe in love at first sight, Hallmark channel, bubble baths, wine-tasting, retail therapy, gluten free, chocolate everything, baking, Instagram, TikTok, live in the gym, all things fitness, shoes and more shoes, makeovers, Christmas, decorating for the holidays, cooking big fancy meals for my family, crochet, knitting, adult coloring books to de-stress, hosting parties so can dress up, jazz, Michael Buble, Christmas carols, singing in the shower, smell of fresh flowers, taste of hot chocolate chip cookies, gardening, planting flowers in spring, watching the Westminster dog show, Pomeranians, practicing French because no sexier language, new body lotion, expensive perfumes, essential oils, love stories, movies that make me cry, Joy Luck Club movie and book, hate horror or anything gross, love a happy ending, wrapping Christmas packages, Bridget Jones Diary movie and book, Liane Moriarty, home improvement shows, Lifestyle podcasts, organizing junkie, color-code everything, hate a mess but kids so it is a happy mess

Author C

Voracious reader, love history, prefer in depth memoirs, British History, History of the Roman Empire, read all the Greek philosophers, Epictitus, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, speak several languages, taught myself Mandarin for fun, member of the Japanese Club in my city, volunteer as a docent at the art museum, recently took up sculpting, love making pottery, watercolor, Japanese Gardens, Japanese Festival in the Spring, Shakespeare in the Park, hot yoga, making my own sushi, vegan, love the big city, museums, subways, Central Park in Fall, Tai Chi, prefer classical music, NPR, history podcasts, cycling, don’t own a car, built a totally green house out of all reused materials, minimalist, love Swedish furniture, run marathons, read the NYT, collect all the Pulitzer winning novels, foreign films, hate profanity, love etymology, not a fan of holidays but enjoy food festivals, watch shows about exotic cooking, inhale history documentaries when I watch television but usually I don’t, smell of pavement in summer after a rain

Profiling the Audience

Okay so I just gave you profiles for three very different “authors.” What else did I give you? The most accurate picture of their audience humanly possible. Look at that cloud and you will see their potential audience (readers) in sharp relief.

Using a little bit of logic, I am pretty sure that Author A isn’t trying to win a Pulitzer with his literary novel featuring rogue samurai. Author C probably isn’t writing science fiction with loads of chainsaws and smart ass kitschy lines. Author B isn’t going to have profanity or violence.

Not to mention that—with Author B—everyone is going to get a happily ever after, whereas I don’t trust Author A not to turn everyone into zombies or Author C not to end the book with a tragic, but noble suicide/sacrifice for the greater good.

Notice that while they all share certain things in common (all writers, all love to read, all enjoy food, all listen to podcasts, all have creative hobbies, all enjoy animals) these authors are NOT IN COMPETITION…at all.

Even if there is some crossover, books are not so cost-prohibitive people cannot buy more than one (unlike a sports car). For the record, many of the items from all three clouds are ME.

Yes, I know. My humor get any darker and NASA gonna be studying it. But I also love cooking, crocheting, and primarily watch documentaries (and horror).

But I am not for everyone.

It is okay to be an oddball. A pattern will still emerge. That pattern is your people.

Trust me.

That is for another post, though.

Find Your Tribe So You Can Connect to YOUR Audience

It is really easy to get overwhelmed in the digital age of publishing. Part of WHY we get overwhelmed is because are trying to reach everyone. We don’t want to reach everyone because we cannot possibly please everyone. Everyone is not our audience.

Not everyone loves my blog, or my writing style or my tacky memes or even me. *clutches pearls* I KNOW! CRAZY TALK! #Philistines

In all seriousness, I “get” that I am in-your-face-salty and my blogs are LONG. Why? Because I am in-your-face-salty and suck at being brief in life and on the page.

Duh.

Thing is, though, people who like my blogs (audience) also generally like my fiction, even if the genre isn’t their usual forte. If you read The Devil’s Dance, it is no shock I wrote it. Pick up a copy of WTH Did I Just Read? 13 short stories of the Hitchcock-ian variety, and I bet you can pick out which stories I wrote.

Why? Because I cannot create anything without leaving my unique fingerprints on my work. Neither can you.

Writers write from who we are (or even who we long to be). It is why we kinda freak the Normies out.

Tribes Make Markets Manageable

Today, we aren’t going to go into any deeper detail because today is all about figuring out who exactly you are writing FOR. Even if you are writing non-fiction self-help books, I hope you can see how each of these profiles offer a sense of style, tone and voice.

The Navy S.E.A.L self improvement book “Extreme Ownership” has a vastly different tone than Rachel Hollis’s “Girl Wash Your Face” and THANK GOD because a world where Jocko Willink is talking like Rachel Hollis is a parallel dimension that should not exist outside of a Rom-Com.

Jocko Willink isn’t getting up at 0330, checking in on X, and then crushing the weights with super sets with overwhelmed moms trying to fit back into pre-baby clothing. He also isn’t giving his audience tips on how to make the perfect holiday basalmic vinegar or get rust stains out of baby clothes.

Though I seriously just cracked myself up.

Jocko, please don’t kill me.

Jocko Willink and Rachel Hollis, while both self-improvement experts, are not even in the same galaxy when it comes to finding their respective audience. If they aren’t competing for the same audience, why would we?

They appreciate the type of person most likely to benefit from/enjoy their content and then the post and socialize accordingly.

Word Cloud and Audience

Once you have your word cloud, you’ll have a far better idea which social media platforms might be a better fit, what kind of content to post, and ways to connect with people who share those connection points in your cloud.

This will make social media a lot more fun for all involved. Each of my imaginary authors can post about the things they love and enjoy and that will attract others who love and enjoy similar things.

Additionally, the content in that cloud has a MUCH higher chance of being shared. The more people share our content, the more algorithms give us favor, meaning our posts will show up in more feeds (and they don’t even have to be directly following us).

I can post an ad about my book being on sale and maybe a couple people (out of pity or fondness) will share. But the nature of the content is that it dies on the vine.

Memes? Funny videos? Inspirational videos? Open-ended discussions where people can have fun and engage? People loooove sharing that stuff and that helps you grow your platform logarithmically instead of linearly.

Eventually you bond, you talk, you klatsche and create your tribe.

What Are Your Thoughts?

For anyone who cannot wait to know what you’ll DO with your word cloud, feel free to pick up a copy of Rise of the Machines. The book goes into a lot of the neuroscience behind WHY people like a brand or don’t. What is going on in the synapses that either makes a love connection or fizzles?

Technology changes, humans don’t.

If you DO write a word cloud, again, strive to make it as long as possible. Feel free to add to it. It should be a living document.

Y’all have any questions about the CLOUD? Anything I can clarify with a post?

I think the word cloud is a really fun exercise and ONLY FOR THE BOLD AND BRAVE, feel free to post your cloud in the comments and what genre(s) you write if you’d like to volunteer for medical experimentation to be an example of what we’ll be DOING with those clouds.

My other personalities only cooperate so far.

Think of it as a cool way for me to get attention comments and you guys to score some free consulting! Win-Win!

***Remember NOT a column. Do like my examples if you want to volunteer *smooch*

Oh, and iPhone is way better. Only serial killers prefer Android *runs away giggling*

The post How to Create YOUR Audience: Identify, Connect, Convert appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Book reviews. Every author simultaneously loves them and loathes them. Today’s post, I hope, not only serves as a guide for my fellow authors, but for the book lovers out there as well. Even if you are the kind of person who only reads a book now and again, my goal here is to show how small actions make a critical difference.

Believe it or not, book reviews are not just for our author egos. Book reviews are not a matter of vanity, rather of survival in an absurdly overcrowded marketplace.

Before the digital age, there was what one called an “editorial calendar.” Traditional publishing houses only released so many books per year. It was not at all unusual to sign a book deal and have a release date a year or even two years out.

This served a critical purpose.

It prevented flooding the market with too many options, particularly variations on the same theme. For instance, when authors pitched a Vampire Romance, agents or publishers might have rejected them immediately. NOT because the book was poorly written, rather the publisher already had slated the maximum amount of similar books.

Thus, the rejection served to assist the writer (and by proxy the publisher). Too many versions of the same idea and it watered down attention for all. The odds of a truly stand alone story diminished greatly.

***Remember when Hollywood released like three different Houdini/magician movies the same year?

Book Reviews and Readers

If you are a reader, no matter HOW you read a book, try to leave a review of some sort. It doesn’t matter if you checked it out from a library, borrowed from a friend, or “stole” it from the Urgent Care waiting room while they held you hostage.

Go to Amazon, ideally. Whether anyone likes it or not that is where most REGULAR PEOPLE look for books/book reviews and try to leave a review.

Yes, feel free to leave a book review at Goodreads. But I will say that, as I have mentioned far too many times before, regular people (*code for readers) have no idea what Goodreads even is. AVID readers do. Readers who are also writers or who aspire to be authors do.

Normal folk? Not so much.

***And a lot of authors steer clear of Goodreads. WHY? Unless things have drastically changed—which maybe they have—Goodreads once allowed trolls far too much freedom to abuse writers.

REMEMBER, 94% of the literate population—if they had to list their top ten or even twenty favorite things to do in their free time—would NOT list reading anywhere in there. In modern society, books are competing against Instagram, TikTok, podcasts, games, Pinterest, yoga, vlogs, YouTube, kitten pictures, and LIFE.

I “get” Amazon might be a pain because you didn’t buy the book there. This was a move to reduce “sock puppets” (fake accounts leaving fake reviews—good and bad).

Yet, since this section is geared toward talking you, the reader, odds are pretty good you accessed/bought the book on Kindle, Audible or Amazon.

WHY the Book Review Matters

The reason a book review is more critical than ever in publishing history is because writers—real writers—are facing extinction. I don’t mean to overdramatize this, but I’ve always been truthful here.

The digital marketplace adds well over a million titles a year, and this number is only increasing…logarithmically.

Whether these are new titles or finally someone digitized that favorite pulp fantasy series from the 1960s, it is a LOT of books.

This compounds on top of titles that are already digitally shelved (essentially) indefinitely.

Unlike the bookstores of old, titles are not swapped out for the “new releases.”

In the 1980s, Michael Crichton was only competing against similar works released in a certain time frame.

He was NOT competing against every book ever written, on top of a gazillion new authors writing scientific thrillers.

Additionally, rogue entities are always searching for new and improved ways to plagiarize and steal. Several years ago, Amazon caught foreign actors taking old romance novels from the 70s and 80s, changing the titles and covers, and changing just enough of the text to pass programs designed to spot plagiarism.

Now, we have AI.

*curls in corner crying*

Maybe this helps you understand the terrific odds the everyday author—whose name does NOT rhyme with “Stephen King”—is up against.

What that Book Review DOES

When anyone leaves a review, it demonstrates that title has a pulse. The more reviews, the stronger the pulse. Amazon’s algorithms (or any on-line site’s algorithms) NOTICE that pulse and will then FAVOR that author’s book.

Once our book is favored, this is when potential readers, when looking for their next read, will see, “Those who liked X also liked Y.” This does more than any amount of advertising, which doesn’t work for books anyway (not like other kinds of products).

Why are there ads for toilet paper? Who’s NOT BUYING this?

Here is WHY Traditional Marketing Does Not Sell Books.

Traditional marketing might not sell books to the everyday person (that post explains why), but it CAN sell to the avid reader.

Places like BookBub are a real boon for an author to score, but therein lies the problem. Though not a specific requirement, BookBub is unlikely to select a book with NO REVIEWS and no demonstrable platform to promote.

Thus, it can become like, “We can’t give you a credit card because you have no credit, but you have no credit because no one will give you a credit card.”

When we leave reviews for authors, this eventually allows them access to better tools to sell their books.

The review—and I am saying this carefully—is also priceless feedback. Ideally, a review lets us authors know what we did well, and maybe areas we can improve.

***Though put a pin in this, because we’ll address this in greater detail in a moment.

HOW to Review

Too many people, including authors, get their heads wrapped around the axle on this. We are masters of over complication.

Breathe.

First of all, reviews do not need to be overly long.

No one is asking for an essay and a point by point dissertation on the story. A sentence or two is FINE.

Secondly, remember there is a living, breathing human being on the other side of that review. Their ONLY “crime” was attempting to entertain us. If they failed? They put in hundreds of hours of work at least trying. Please remember that.

I’ve been a major resource for authors since roughly 2008. No lie here, I’ve had to talk writers out of suicide because of trolls. Several left writing altogether because of vicious reviews (and gaggles of trolls that Goodreads, at the time, refused to rein in).

Brave New Bullying: Goodreads Gangs, Amazon Attacks—What Are Writers to Do?

Which might seem like a writer is being sensitive, but even I have felt compelled to step in on reviews and tell a “reviewer” to knock it the hell off.

It is totally okay to not like a book. It is, however, NOT okay, to be needlessly cruel. While I WILL counsel fellow authors to suck it up and get a thicker skin, I also know it’s impossible to turn off being human.

The sensitive soul who chooses a profession that everyone enjoys and very few appreciate is a person to be cherished.

So they screwed up. Fine.

What did they “screw up”?

It is perfectly all right to say:

“I couldn’t get into the story.”

“The pacing was too slow.”

“The characters confused me.”

“The story was good but the poor editing a major distraction.”

“I struggled to root for any particular character.”

“The pacing was too fast and I didn’t have time to care.”

“Too many subplots. Felt I was in the weeds.”

“Took too long to get to the point.”

“Lack of setting confused me.”

“Fight scenes went far too long. Wore me out.”

“The world-building confused me.”

“Author didn’t follow her own rules for magic.”

“I’m sure it was a good story, but needs a different narrator (for audio).”

These are practical points of why any person might struggle with a story. Comments like these help the writer improve.

What KIND of Book IS IT?

Also, remember to rate a book accordingly. For instance, when I wrote The Devil’s Dance, I did not set out to win a Pulitzer. Readers who LOVED Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer, were NOT and ARE NOT my audience.

I was looking for the reader who liked the humor of a Janet Evanovich mixed with the grittiness of a Dennis LeHane (because humor offset me exposing the reality of life in Texas and the brutality of the cartels). My GOAL was to write a book people inhaled on a flight or a weekend by the pool.

Thus, when reviewing the book, what KIND of book is it?

Then rate accordingly.

If I read a novel that is pretty much designed to be brain candy? I judge it as brain candy.

“How well did the author succeed at helping me forget the world is going to hell in a hand basket?”

Maybe they had anachronisms. That punch bowl didn’t come out until 1863, and wasn’t around in 1859, you MORON. Any idiot with GOOGLE would know THAT.

OKAY. That’s really the hill to DIE kill an author on?

Send the author a polite note in an email if you must. A lot of us appreciate when someone kindly points out we have our digital fly down. We live in a time where we can usually FIX those issues.

Why I Rarely Write Detailed Book Reviews

Before you think I am a hypocrite, let me explain. I always leave some kind of book review if I managed to FINISH. Even if it is just stars and a sentence or two. I generally prefer to write reviews for NF (non-fiction) since it is far less subjective.

As an editor for over 20 years, I think it’s unfair for me to do a thorough book review because I see things mere readers do not. It would be unkind to ruin the “magic” for those looking to reviews to BUY.

I am David Copperfield watching Chris Angel. As a fellow illusionist, I know the tricks of the trade, the trap doors, smoke machines, and misdirection. It’s therefore, uncool for me to spoil it for readers and to hold the author to an impossible standard.

Me pointing out all the word echoes, the lack of continuity, every plot hole, etc. would be ME showing off, and of no help to the author or potential readers.

Yes, I have read books I wanted to throw across the room. But, if most people liked it? I—as a professional showing professional courtesy—leave it be. Just say nothing and leave it alone.

Clearly, others enjoyed it.

I get that some authors out there might be railing at the heavens that readers won’t know if a book is good or bad. Yes, that is a risk. But I also appreciate the ridiculous odds most of us face even getting a book finished and in print.

Cutting the legs off of colleagues is not my thing.

Readers who are NOT writers? Feel free to leave a couple stars then something actionable about why the story vexed you. Or, conversely, why you LIKED IT! Even if it’s just a simple, “Great story. Had a good time. Helped me chill out for an afternoon.”

Boom! Done!

A Note to Authors

I genuinely hope you can share this post with family, friends and those you “know” on social media. Too many people just genuinely do NOT understand WHY reviews—yes, even “bad” ones *weeps*—are important.

Avid readers can be the worst. We inhale books faster than metal bands rip through lines of cocaine.

We’re the anomaly.

We don’t understand why one wouldn’t sell plasma to buy the rest of that fantasy sci-fi series before the next payday. Yet, as much as we LOVE books, we can be the world’s worst at leaving a review.

Stop that.

If we want reviews, we need to give them (as in a “book karma” way). Figure out how, when possible, to be honest, helpful and kind.

We must also respect that there is no automatic quid pro quo. I gave your book five stars, so can you do that for mine? Uncool. I’ve lost people I believed were friends over this.

Sometimes, it’s simply I don’t read that genre.

I “get” that not everyone likes Tales from the Crypt Twilight Zone-style horror/ghost stories. Though I recently posted my new anthology, What the Hell Did I Just Read? I completely appreciate not everyone LIKES that genre.

I’m not going to emotionally blackmail friends, followers and family into saying they like something they don’t.

WORD OF CAUTION on Book Reviews

Getting family or fellow authors to review can be highly RISKY because of abuse in the past. Amazon specifically, frowns on this and can overreact. We chance hitting a hornet’s nest so weight that carefully. Sometimes, Amazon doesn’t blink. Other times? They’re on a book review like SkyNet on a body heat signature.

Most of y’all here? We should be enough degrees of separation to be fine. So yes, your platform is valuable.

The main reason I am saying anything is because if we are reading, it doesn’t automatically mean we are buddies. I read plenty of indie authors I have yet to meet.

I’m rereading The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. I read it when it exploded back in the 90s. It is an absolutely breathtaking book, but I did NOT like the movie (but that was because I should have seen the movie FIRST and then read the book).

Not the author’s fault.

It would be AMAZING if Sebastian and I were BFFs, but we sadly are not….

yet.

Yo, Sebastian! A restraining order is a bit much, right? Love the new blinds, though.

Additionally—and I am saying this with LOVE—some writers publish too soon. I like the new publishing paradigm for a number of reasons.

***Like being able to publish short stories (refer to above).

All this said, expecting a quid pro quo is patently unfair. There are a lot of writers who rush to publish before they’re ready.

I know it is trendy to say NYC and gatekeepers suck *hair flip*, but sometimes they actually save writers from themselves. Every day, I THANK GOD agents turned down my 187,000 word mystery-thriller-suspense-romance-comedy-action-horror-self-help when I was too stupid new to know I was stupid new.

Yes, I am being hyperbolic…but not really.

Book Reviews: Every Little Bit Matters

Whether you are an author who wants a career or you’re a reader who wants more good books, every little bit makes a difference. If we fail to take time to review books we enjoyed (even if it was we enjoyed them enough to finish), then we leave that book to die a lonely death.

What eventually will happen is the writer will become discouraged and give up writing. Then, when all we have are a bunch of poorly written AI-enhanced garbage books, we will have only ourselves to blame.

WE have to inform the market. If we fail to inform the market, then the market can only guess what we “want.” This is where we can tip into things I don’t really want to discuss at this time (like buying reviews).

Do we really want a world where the alleged “cream of the crop” bought their way there? Or do we want them to authentically earn their spot?

The WSJ just suspended their best-seller list and USA Today has also struggled for the past couple of years to keep their list alive. In my opinion—and that is all this is—it is largely due to a dearth of authentic reviews while also struggling to police honesty in the system.

I am not shouting down any authors. I’ve worked in CyberSecurity and there’s so much nonsense coming out of countries most people couldn’t find on a MAP. New world with new challenges.

BUT, together, we can help each other out.

What Are Your Thoughts on Book Reviews?

Are you an enthusiastic reviewer? Any tips to keep from getting in the weeds? OR have you been remiss on leaving a book review? Were you “Today-Years-Old” when you realized just how much your book review matters?

It’s all good.

Look at your Kindle, your Audible list, or that stack on your shelf and take a couple titles at a time and give them a shout-out! Even if it is three stars and you tell them you “loved the world-building but the pace was too slow.” You aren’t being mean and that will actually help the bots sense LIFE. Enough reviews and a book could take off.

That is at least ONE awesome thing about the digital age of publishing. A book listed eight years ago very well could take off as a best-seller with the right push.

Are there some tips, tricks, advice you’d like to add? Because “normal people” code for NOT WRITERS do not understand all this. WE need to explain the best ways they can support us.

The post Book Reviews: Why They Matter SO Much appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Pitch your ENTIRE novel, series, whatever in ONE sentence. Yes, it CAN be done. It can be done and it MUST be done, especially for those who want to be PAID to write. If you want to make income from your ideas/writing, you must master the pitch.

Why? First, a great log-line (pitch) can help you immediately spot the flaws in a story. WAY easier to fix a small prototype. Secondly, when you get writing, it is easy to get lost in something so vast as a novel. The log-line serves as a sort of “true north” so that epic high fantasy doesn’t suddenly involve space aliens, time travel, and GF waffle recipes.

Lastly? Better to need and not have than have and not need.

Fortune favors the prepared. Who knows what opportunity might present itself and are you prepared to take max advantage? You might only have a minute or two to impress an agent, producer, director, etc. WHY is your idea is better than the competition?

Additionally, even beyond these fine reasons, simply knowing how to pitch opens up opportunities. I’ve landed book deals, feature articles, been included in some major anthologies, and more simply because I could give an editor a one-sentence pitch and sell my IDEA…then deliver a great story or article.

What do I use for the pitch? A concept we’ve talked about called the “log-line.”

Pitch in a Pinch with a Log-Line

I introduced this concept ages ago in the post, Writer’s Block: Is It Laziness or a Critical Part of Being a Longtime Author? Today we’re going to deep-dive exactly HOW to boil our novel down to a single sentence. Some of you might be wondering if I was trying to give you a heart attack with my title. Maybe you believe this feat is impossible. AN ENTIRE NOVEL IN ONLY ONE SENTENCE?

Maybe something simple, plebeian and commercially formulaic *flips hair* but ART cannot be forced into a box.

Yes. Yes it can.

I know, I know. Your novel is almost five-hundred pages with made up technology and wizards and folding space using enchanted Thigh Masters….

I hear you. Calm down.

A log-line is a lifeline that will allow you to pitch a novel (or series) in ONE—YES ONE—sentence. The log-line is going to save you time, energy, and sanity (save the crazy for the fiction).

We’ll get to how a log-line is going to do ALL this AND give you six-pack abs in only five minutes a day in a moment…

***Legal Disclaimer: Consult your psychiatrist before believing any writing tool will give you six-pack abs. The giant pink bunny in the corner lies, too FYI.

Anyway, pitch, pitch, b–pitch…

I used to try to teach story structure from the perspective of an editor, but I found that my approach was flawed. Why? Because editors are like building inspectors. We have skills best used on a finished product. We’re trained to look for structure problems.

Is that a good skill? Sure. But do building inspectors design buildings?

No.

Architects do. Architects employ creativity and vision to create a final structure. Hopefully, they will have the necessary skills to create and design a structure that will meet code standards.

Creativity and vision are not enough. Architects need to learn mathematics and physics. They need to understand that a picture window might be super pretty, but if they put that sucker in a load-bearing wall, they won’t pass inspection and that they even risk a fatal collapse.

Aestheticism must align with pragmatism.

This insight made me step back and learn to become an architect. When it comes to plotting, I hope to teach you guys how to have the creative vision of the designer, but with the practical understanding of an inspector.

We’ve discussed how plot works on a micro-scale (scene and sequel). After that, we panned back for an aerial shot, and discussed how great stories–like amazeballs rollercoasters—are addictive by design.

I’ve also covered how the single most important component to plot is the opposition, and l even have a tested method to make sure your core idea  is actually solid enough to be the foundation for an entire novel.

So what’s this log-line pitch thingy?

Basically, we should be able to tell someone (an agent, editor, producer, director, potential reader) what our story is about in one sentence. That is called the “log-line.” Log-lines are used in Hollywood to pitch movies.

In this post we’ll cover two different types of log-lines. One is the big picture of your story idea. We’ll cover that first.

But, if you read this earlier post, I presented a formula for you to use before you even start writing your book. This is the more functional log-line. Think of this second type of log-line as your story prototype. It is a scaled down version to make sure you have all the critical story pieces and YES, it will reveal the whole story.

More on that in a bit….

One resource that should be in every writer’s library is Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. It’s a book on screenwriting, but every writer can benefit enormously from Snyder’s teaching.

In the world of screenwriting there is a tenet, “Give me the same, but different.” This axiom still holds true when it comes to novels.

Our story cannot go so far off the deep end that readers cannot relate, yet our story needs to be different enough that people don’t just think it’s a retread.

We as writers have to negotiate this fine balance of same but different, and that is no easy task.

So let’s look at components of a great pitch (log-line):

A great pitch is short and clear.

I cannot tell you how many writers I ask, “So what’s your book about?” and they take off rambling for the next ten minutes. Often why writers are so terrified of the pitch session is that they cannot clearly state what their book is about in one to three sentences.

Here is a little insider information. When we cannot whittle our entire story into a maximum of three sentences, that is a clear sign to agents and editors that our story is structurally flawed. Not always, but more often than not. Your goal should be ONE sentence. What is your story about?

A good pitch is ironic. 

Irony gets attention and hooks interest. Here’s an example:

The Green Mile is about the lives of guards on death row in the rural Depression Era South leading up to the execution of a black man accused of rape and child murder who has the power of faith healing.

What can be more ironic than a murderer having the power of healing? Or guards having to stand up against a dysfunctional society to do the right thing? Think of the complex emotions that one sentence evokes, the moral complications that we just know are going to blossom out of the “seed idea.”

A good pitch is emotionally intriguing.

A good log-line tells the entire story. Like a movie, you can almost see the entire story play out in your head.

During a preview tour, a theme park suffers a major power breakdown that allows its cloned dinosaur exhibits to run amok.

Didn’t you just see the entire movie play out in your head with that ONE sentence? Apparently Steven Spielberg did, too and that’s why he took Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park and made it into a blockbuster movie.

A good pitch will interest the potential audience

Good log-lines exude inherent conflict. Conflict is interesting. In Save the Cat, Blake Snyder relays stories of how he would take his log-line to local coffee shops and ask total strangers what they thought about his idea.

This is a great exercise for your novel.

Pitch to friends, family, and even total strangers and watch their reaction. Did their eyes glaze over? Did the smile seem polite or forced? If you can boil your book down into one sentence that generates excitement for the regular person, then you know you are on a solid path for your novel.

Yet, if your potential audience looks confused or bored or lost, then you know it is time to go back to the drawing board. But the good news is this; you just have to fix ONE sentence.

You don’t have to go rewrite, revise a novel that is confusing, convoluted, boring, arcane, ridiculous, etc.

Think of your one sentence as your scale-model or your prototype. If the prototype doesn’t generate excitement and interest, it is unlikely the real thing will succeed. So revise the prototype until you find something that gets the future audience genuinely excited.

You have your log-line. Now what?

Your log-line is the core idea of your story. This will be the beacon of light in the darkness so you always know where the shore is versus the open sea. This sentence will keep you grounded in the original story you wanted to tell and keep you from prancing down bunny trails.

The Fear Factor

Fear is probably the most common emotion shared by writers. The newer we are the more fear we will feel. A side-effect of fear is to emotionally distance from the source of our discomfort.

This is why so many first-time novels fall apart.

I can tell everything that is wrong in a novel with a single glance at the log-line. Conversely, I can tell a writer what precisely needs to be fixed by looking at the log-line.

Does the story have a core problem? Is it a large enough/interesting enough problem to merit a whole novel? What are the stakes? Is there a ticking clock or have we given the MC forever to get around to accomplishing the goal?

If you’re like me and botched your first (hundred) attempts to write a novel, RELAX. It takes time to develop the level of sadism required to write spectacular stories. Not everyone is a born psychopath like George R.R. Martin.

New writers (in particular) tend to shy from any source of conflict, but conflict is the life blood of fiction. Log-lines can show us our story is flat-lining and WHY.

One of the best ways to learn how to write log-lines is to go peruse the IMDB (Internet Movie Database). Look up your favorite movies and see how they are described.

You can even look up movies that bombed and very often see the log-line was weak and the movie was doomed from the start. Look up movies similar to the story you are writing. Check out movies similar to the story you want to tell.

Your Log-Line As Prototype

Some of the above examples are fantastic to pitch a book to, say, an agent. We still get an idea of the story. If cloned dinosaurs start running amok in a theme park, then one gets the idea that there are probably people stranded/in danger and that the point of the story is to a) escape and b) do something about the dinosaurs.

This is good enough but isn’t as specific as I would recommend if, say, you’re planning a new novel for this year’s upcoming NaNoWriMo, which is why I recommend using a certain formula.

Why is this so important?

Think about an architect responsible for a sky scraper. Such a large building will require a ton of money, materials, and time, so what does the architecture firm do first? They create a scaled down replica before ever breaking ground. This makes it far simpler to see critical flaws or areas that could be enhanced.

Same with a car manufacturer. Engineers have a fabulous idea for a new super car? They don’t simply start building a full-size, fully operational super car. They begin with the prototype. This saves time, effort, energy…and heavy drinking.

It’s the same for a novel. It is SO much easier to spot any problems with the log-line and tweak THAT, then it is to kill yourself writing 70,000-110,000 words only to THEN try and go BACK and try to figure out why the story isn’t working.

Here is the formula I use to create a solid log-line (story).

Intriguing protagonist + active verb + core story problem (antagonist/Big Boss Troublemaker) + stakes + ticking clock.

Log-lines are like Legos. Pop one piece off or change another and TOTALLY different (better) story.

Notice I Said “Intriguing Protagonist“

If I write a log-line that says:

Susan must locate her birth mother and convince her to donate a kidney before her daughter dies from an incredibly rare genetic disease.

At first glance it seems I have all the pieces, right? I have an active goal (locating birth mother for kidney). There are HIGH stakes (daughter could die and we are dealing with a rare genetic disease so unknown grandparent is likely only option) and a ticking clock (daughter will not last long without a kidney).

But who the heck is Susan? What did I say that gave y’all ANY idea about who she is? This is where that “ironic/intriguing” will help you out. Ideally, we want to cast the protagonist who will have the toughest time talking someone out of a kidney (as if that isn’t already difficult).

Example A:

A recently divorced, overworked stay-at-home mom must locate her birth mother and convince her to donate a kidney before her daughter dies from a rare genetic disease.

Here we now have a clearer picture of our protagonist, and this is a perfectly great log-line depending on genre and how gritty you want to write. But a stay-at-home mom isn’t a super hard sell. She’s feasibly been abandoned (first by mom then later by her husband). She’s rather sympathetic.

We get she was adopted and there are plenty of challenges ahead, but once she reunites with her birth mother, the tough part, by and large, is seeing if a stranger is willing to part with a kidney.

Example B:

After serving ten years of hard time for drug trafficking, an estranged mother recently reunited with her child must locate her own birth mother and convince her to donate a kidney before her daughter dies from a rare genetic disease.

See how this alteration changes the entire feel of the story as well as the stakes for all involved? Now we are dealing with a woman crushed by guilt, struggling to reenter society and remain clean.

The one dream that probably kept her sane in prison was that she would one day hold her daughter again. Though she IS reunited with her daughter, she regains custody from the courts just in time to watch her child die…unless she can perform this HERCULEAN feat.

We know from the log-line she will find the woman who put her up for adoption, but instead of Susan the sympathetic homemaker, she is Susan with the track marks, bad tattoos, and a history steeped in shame. Serious guilt/shame because, had she not done so many hard drugs, she would have been a perfect match for her daughter, but her kidneys are tainted with Hepatitis (just raising those stakes there).

Both log-lines would make excellent stories, just one is far grittier from the get-go. See how, by simply changing blocks around, we can completely change the entire story? I hope this example helped clarify the whole “log-line” concept.

So here is an exercise to create a pitch.

See if you can state your novel in one sentence. It will not only help add clarity to your writing and keep you on track, but when it comes time to pitch an agent or hook readers to BUY, you will be well-prepared and ready to knock it out of the park.

Practice on your favorite movies and books. Work those log-line muscles!

What are your thoughts?

Does this make plotting seem more doable? Outlines make my left eye twitch, but I find this trick very handy. Can you now see the component parts of a good story more clearly? Feel free to test out your log-line in the comments. There are no NEW ideas. I share ideas all the time, because everyone has a unique voice. Just know I reward bravery.

I LOVE COMMENTS!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of AUGUST, everyone who leaves a comment, I will put your name in a hat.

I actually have landed agents for people who’ve won this contest. Agents like me because I make their lives easier.

If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. For those who listen to the PODCAST (mentioned LAST POST), y’all get THREE times in the hat.

What do you win?

The unvarnished truth from yours truly (and maybe even time with an agent).

I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less). People with superlative writing, I (with your permission) have been known to pass you onto an agent.

Anyway, I look forward to reading your comments and your writing!

The post Pitch Your Story in a Pinch (ONE Sentence) appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Pain is simply part of life. I think THAT much is clear as we are almost two weeks into 2023 *thinks of carbs and cries* Truth is, we have little control over most of what happens to us. This is true in life and in publishing. Control, in many respects, is an illusion. We can only do our little part on most things then hope and pray for the best.

This might sound a lot like me being a Debbie Downer here, but the truth can actually be quite liberating. When we recognize there is only SO much we can control, it narrows down our focus and all the things we “care” about.

We can set expectations accordingly and realize what is within our purview (finished books sell WAY better than unfinished ones) and frankly, what’s totally out of our hands (novels featuring left-handed snake handlers are all the rage!).

Dealing with Change

Publishing, like every other industry on the planet, has experienced a drastic transition over the past 12 years or so. An industry that had remained relatively untouched for over a century crumbled. Whether we like it or not, Amazon and on-line shopping dismantled an institution.

And yes, I hear all the writers collectively groan and wail. I don’t like it either. Shopping on-line just isn’t the same as browsing a bookstore all day, feeling paper in your hands and having a physical thing, right away you can touch and read and (if you are me) scribble in.

If you do want to set out to write professionally, then it is wise to understand exactly what you’re getting into. The actual path to publishing, not the “Made for TV” version we can be way too fond of (especially when new).

Writers are entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs are wise to do what is called a S.W.O.T. Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats).

So the “bad” news first.

Pain and Publishing

The consignment model that bookstores have relied upon for well over a century is, for all intents and purposes, gone. For anyone curious how this model worked (and is now likely limping along) the The Hard Truth About Publishing—What Writers & Readers NEED to Know provides a detailed breakdown.

Regardless, publishing will continue to go more and more on-line for a number of reasons. The consignment model, as I’ve pointed out, is and always has been grossly inefficient. This was all well and good so long as bookstores and physical books had no competition, no cheaper alternative. But that is no longer the case.

Additionally, want to know something about paper? It is freaking HEAVY, which means, with the cost of diesel right now, the profit from any paper book is tied to the cost of crude.

If it costs a small fortune to ship books, that eats away at any profit. Eventually, there is a ceiling that even bibliophiles will reach. We’ll only pay SO MUCH for the paper books we love, especially when digital is a fraction of the cost.

All this to say that Ye Olden Days of Publishing are gone, and have been for a while. Which is fine, but also scary. In the August 2, 2022 article in The New York Times, The Books Merger That’s About Amazon:

Whether for good or for ill, a judge blocked NY publishing’s plans to merge two publishing titans—Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster—in hopes of faring better against their ongoing nemesis, Amazon.

Initially, the duo claimed they’d fight this decision, but have since withdrawn any future plans to merge.

It’s Just Business

In the face of a recession that’s steadily nibbling away at profits as well as supply chain issues, the future of publishing is, as always, uncertain. This has always been the case in traditional publishing (especially when an excruciatingly small minority of authors are responsible for most of the profit).

This said, publishing is a business. Writing, if we want to go pro, is a business. We are wise to understand that business and how it works (or doesn’t). I totally get you and wish I had different news. What I would GIVE if all I had to do was WRITE. But, when we go pro, there’s a lot more that goes into being an author than simply getting words on the page.

And enough about that.

My goal here isn’t to utterly deflate anyone’s dreams of becoming a successful author, but this is a voyage. Like any voyage, it’s simply prudent to be honest about the trip ahead and plan accordingly the best one can.

It’s Looking Up…Maybe

One good “trend” I am seeing is the resurgence of older titles. In a November 1, 2022 article in The New York Times, A Big Publishing Merger Was Blocked, but Brought the Industry Little Clarity:

What do I see in this? Readers are tired of the slush pile being dumped in their laps. I’ve always held issue with how the big publishers and major retailers like B&N conducted business, namely because they kept trying to out-Amazon Amazon instead of playing to THEIR strengths.

Big publishing’s largest strength has ALWAYS been the relative quality of their books (overall). Even the worst traditionally published book generally has a cohesive plot and isn’t riddled with typos. When readers are thrust into a market saturated with unreadable, unedited or poorly edited stories, traditional publishers have always had the advantage.

Ironically, the entity they fought tooth and nail (social media) is the main component that now seems to be saving them.

What Does This Mean?

It means, firstly, that there are two fundamental aspects to being successful as an author—> Good books and solid platform.

I think we are, blessedly, moving beyond the early fascination with the shiny widgets and we (readers) want quality reads. We also don’t have a lot of time, and resent wading through bad books, regardless how they’re published.

People will always want good stories (Fiction) and information (NF).

The fact that older, pre-digital age books are coming back big, is a sign to me that we have more readers than ever, and they’re enthusiastic about excellent stories. Not only enthusiastic, but also addicted to social media, so they will InstaTwitFace all day about what they love!

We’re also seeing an explosion of different KINDS of stories, thus creating opportunities for different kinds of WRITERS. Short works are making a BIG comeback. The digital age has resurrected many forms of writing that were almost lost to us (E.g. poetry, essays, novellas, short stories, serials, etc.)

I’ve published traditionally, indie, and self-pub. Since I’m a control freak who enjoys breaking rules, I prefer self-pub and agree with Stephen Haunts that we indies really are The Punk Rock of Publishing.

So more good news. We are no longer in a One-Size-Fits-All profession. Yes, we’ll have to choose our pain, but at least now we have more options for our publishing suffering.

To the Pain

For those of us who want go pro, it is time to get to WORK. I love NaNoWriMo as much as anyone. I’ve been doing it for years and most of the projects I’ve completed are now published works.

Yet, when we make the shift from hobbyist to professional, every month is NaNoWriMo.

We have to understand that, while there is nothing wrong with writing for fun, hobbyists play for fun. Pros play for keeps. Make a habit of writing every day. I don’t care if it is 500 words (2 pages). Two pages every day of every week soon becomes a book.

As Mark Manson reiterates in his best-selling book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k, it is easy to fall in love with the end result. To imagine our books on every end cap, in People Magazine, trending on TikTok, or being made into a Netflix Original. And those are the dreams that will keep us going through the giant span of SUCK before the breakthrough.

Yet, in the meantime…

What KIND of Pain Will You Enjoy?

What kind of PAIN will we enjoy most? Because we cannot truly control anything in the industry beyond a certain point. To go pro, we must be honest about the pain writing entails then ask if it is worth it.

Would you STILL write even if I told you you’d never make a dime and likely die in obscurity? If the answer is yes, then we’re off to the races. If we write because we love it and wish to master it, then that is all that truly matters.

That passion will make us show up day after day and turn out word count. We’ll become experts at FINISHING. No half-perfect novel ever became a runaway success, but a lot of completed “crappy” books have.

We will have to keep an eye on the industry, understand how it works. If one publishes traditionally, then there is the pain of whatever limitations/expectations a publisher might place on us.

If we publish non-traditionally, then we not only need a good book, but we have to oversee the blurbs, back copy, formatting for paper and e-book, cover design, ISBNs, marketing, platform, brand, etc.

Which, for the record, ALL authors are responsible for marketing, platform and brand so there’s no Publishing Sugar Daddy that is going to shield us from that.

Peace with Pain

When we are okay with the pain of working alone, dealing with setbacks, learning to stick and move with an industry that changes at the speed of algorithms, and we’re willing to do the hard stuff because we love to write THAT MUCH?

Going pro is probably a good decision.

The better news is we’ll have lasting power our peers don’t possess. Believe it or not, most of being successful in anything is the discipline to consistently show up.

Every legendary book was written one word at a time.

Writing as a hobby is ALWAYS a good decision for those who have a passion for story. We don’t HAVE to monetize everything that brings us joy! It is OKAY to simply have fun.

Remember this when looking back at those New Year’s Resolutions still freshly inked on the page. If we fall in love with process, we can accomplish almost anything.

What are Your Thoughts About Pain?

Other than you don’t like it? Same. What I would GIVE for a pain-free option, but sadly life doesn’t work that way. Do you love the process or just love to fantasize about the end victories?

Hey, I was TOTALLY guilty when I was new. I spent more time imagining my books a movies than actually writing. Now? I am guilty of the opposite and need to do more dreaming.

It is 2023, so what have you decided? Go pro? REALLY? Or just learn to enjoy dabbling? Maybe a mixture of both? Do you need to be stricter with yourself, or maybe learn to lighten up a little?

I LOVE hearing from you!

The post To the Pain: Is Writing a Career or a Hobby? appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Self-sabotage is something most writers are likely familiar with. We just about get in the habit of working on the WIP (work in progress), and then suddenly we put everyone and everything ahead of finishing that book. Usually they’re noble causes, too. Cleaning the house, organizing the closets, alphabetizing the pets….

I work hard to make “success” books part of my morning routine when I’m doing my chores: making the coffee, making the bed, putting on any laundry, etc. One of my favorite audio books is “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. Namely because the advice is practical, doable, and aligns with my personal value system.

No shade on the “believe it enough and it will happen folks,” but there is also a degree of WORK involved in reaching any goal.

This is why we must learn to ignore the outside voices and take the helm of our own destinies.

Results Reinforce Habits

Why did I bring up “Atomic Habits?” Other than it’s a good book? There was something I read this morning that I feel needs expounding. Clear notes, correctly, that when we see evidence of our habits, that reinforces our identity.

When I declutter daily, I see my surroundings are neat and tidy. Therefore, eventually I identify as an organized person.

But what about being a writer?

Becoming a writer will likely be one of the hardest things any of us does, and for a number of reasons. Unlike eating healthy, working out, saving money, or systematically decluttering our living spaces, much of what we writers do is in the dark. There are many times we will have to press on using sheer force of will and blind faith.

We’ll have to write simply for the love of writing.

We can write millions of words, dozens of books, even publish books and I GUARANTEE you at least ONE @$$hat out there will intimate what we do is not “real.”

Whether they do this out of jealousy, misguided good intentions, or simply not thinking before they speak? Who knows? Yet, I can tell you that, after 16 years of working with all levels of writers, many of them household names? The insecurity never goes away. If anything, it gets worse.

Anything Here Familiar?

I just published a book!

Them: Yes, but you self-published.

My debut novel received almost a hundred rave reviews.

Them: Yes, Amazon really is trying to crack down on fake reviews. Are you sure they’re all real?

My book hit #1 as a best-seller.

Them: Amazon best-sellers aren’t REAL best-sellers.

My book made the NYT Best-Seller list.

Them: Everyone knows the NYT list doesn’t account for actual sales and the numbers are manipulated.

I just published my tenth novel!

Them: How nice. Amazing that Philip K. Dick wrote 44 novels and over 120 short stories. And Stephen King has written 9000 novels and 43,000 short stories.

Okay, I was being a bit silly there because I was starting to depress myself.

The point is we cannot rely on external validation. That is a formula to end up curled in the fetal position washing down raw cookie dough with tequila.

I also mention this because, we’ll self-sabotage wasting time pondering if we are “real writers” instead of WRITING!

What can happen is we’ll keep moving the goal post of what makes us a “real writer.” Eventually, we’ll give up because we set that standard SO high we crumble under the pressure.

Here are a few fun blogs to remind y’all that writers write. Plain and simple.

Diagnosing a REAL Writer: Do You Have Terminological Inexactitude Syndrome?

This is Gonna Leave a Mark: What Makes a “Real” Writer

Real Writers Don’t Self-Publish (Part One and SATIRE)

Real Writers Don’t Self-Publish (Part Two and ALSO SATIRE)

The Personal Apocalypse—When are We REAL Writers?

Self-Sabotage & Fear of Failure

I’ve been on social media since before it went mainstream in 2006, which means I’ve experienced and witnessed enough Imposter Syndrome to last many lifetimes. One of the main reasons we are SO hesitant to call ourselves a writer is precisely because of the head games mentioned above.

Critics will always find some reason to diminish what you’ve accomplished.

Most people fear failure, which is dumb because failing is the only way humans learn. How many of us would berate a toddler every time they fell learning how to walk? We learn by DOING, and we improve by FAILING.

Yet, our culture has ingrained fear of failure into our DNA. My parents never cared about the 90 questions I answered correctly, only the 10 I missed. Schools punish failure, jobs punish failure, culture punishes failure.

Want to know the one phrase that vexes me to no end? “One-hit wonder.”

Despite the FACT that many “one-hit wonder” songs have defined pop culture and even entire generations, our culture still saddles them with that term.

They were KUNG-FU fighting!

867-5309

Oh Mickey you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind.

Pass the Dutchie on the left-hand side.

Taaake ooooon meeee! Taaaaake meeeee ONNNNNNN!

Stop! Collaborate and listen!

Woot, there it is! Woot, there it is!

The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had. It’s a mad world.

What does the fox say?

Now that y’all have at least ONE of those stuck in your head, I hope I made my point. Go check out the list of one-hit wonders who, by definition, are “failures.” This is to point out the lunacy of our culture. So don’t look to it to feed your ego.

Self-Sabotage & Fear of Success

Many writers who do successfully hit a “real” best-seller list (whatever “real” might be defined as) then struggle with if they can do it again. Or will they be the dreaded…one-hit wonder?

Because if one book sold hundreds of millions of copies and redefined culture as we know it…but the author doesn’t KEEP doing that…then they failed.

Makes TOTAL sense.

Yet, we can fall into habits of self-sabotage not only because we fear we’ll fail (never finish the book, never land an agent/book deal, be published, make a list, etc.) but precisely because we are afraid we WILL accomplish these things.

What if I only have one good book in me?

I made Whatever Prestigious List, but was it a fluke? Can I do it again? What if I can’t?

This might all sound rather silly, but emotions aren’t always logical. Remember, perfect is the enemy of the great. It is also the enemy of the FINISHED. No half-finished “perfect” book ever became a runaway success, but some very much less-than-perfect ones have.

We’ve covered fear of failure and fear of success, but the one I really want to explore today is the notion of whether or not we deserve success.

I Don’t Deserve It

When we’re stuck in a culture that doesn’t value what we do, it’s easy to believe (at least subconsciously) that writing is some extra indulgence. A hobby, a guilty pleasure, something to be done after doing REAL work.

Many of us are partners or parents or are taking care of loved ones. We believe that when the laundry is done, the dishes washed, the beds made, the bills paid, the pets brushed, the curtains are washed, the ceiling is repainted…THEN we can write. As if writing is not a profession, but a treat to be doled out for good behavior.

THIS is a mindset we must change if we want to go pro. For the record, I STILL struggle with this. I have to MAKE myself get up and write first thing. All the while the siren’s song of dishes, litter boxes, email, and bills are calling me.

I’d love to say I’m always successful, but I try to keep my lying to fiction. There are many reasons this profession is TOUGH and not for everyone.

Fight for Your Right to Write

Yes, it can be a battle with others, but mostly with ourselves. Many of us have a lot of bad programming we need to overcome.

I grew up in a dysfunctional family (a.k.a. typical 80s family). Whenever I wanted something, my parents had a list of common responses:

Do you have a job?

Are you the one paying the bills?

Money doesn’t grown on trees.

Me DESIRING something was intrinsically tethered to my monetary contribution to the home (or said equivalent). Since I didn’t bring home a salary, ergo I had no right to want and did not deserve anything. I only deserved when I a) made good grades b) cleaned my room c) did my chores.

Seeing a pattern here? How many writers don’t write because their writing doesn’t make money, but their writing isn’t making money because they aren’t writing? We unwittingly self-sabotage and that self-sabotage just exacerbates the feedback loop from hell.

Been there, have the box of t-shirts.

No More Self-Sabotage: You Deserve It

We all deserve our dreams. If your dream is to be a writer, then YES, that will demand a lot of work. As in writing, rewriting, reading, studying, learning, researching, building a brand/platform, cultivating an audience, showing up day after day and putting down words no matter what.

What being a writer does NOT entail is you being a good little you and doing all your chores and “real” work before you’re allowed to go write.

If no one has yet given you permission to go write, I will.

WRITERS WRITE. Enough said.

Ultimately, we are in charge. There will always be people who will criticize, tell us why we are poseurs, fakes, fools, hacks, etc. Until we realize that all of that just goes with the territory and get to work ANYWAY, we’ll find every reason not to sit butt in chair and write.

We will revise the opening of that novel 9,763 times. Start new books while abandoning half-finished ones. We’ll believe we can’t succeed because (INSERT REASON HERE) and we’ll talk ourselves out of even trying. Ultimately, we won’t even need the outside world to work against us, because we’ll figure out a way to self-sabotage before they get the chance.

BUT, that is what happens when we are operating in auto-pilot. Now that, hopefully, we are more aware of counterproductive behaviors/ideas/attitudes, we can take action.

Think about all those one-hit wonders.

They did the work, learned to sing, play an instrument, or at least be brave enough to put themselves OUT THERE. And maybe they never made it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but you know what?

Don’t worry. Be happy .

What are your thoughts on self-sabotage?

Are you guilty of shooting yourself in the metaphorical foot? Do you put everyone’s needs ahead of your own? Does writing feel like some guilty indulgence instead of the meaningful profession it is? Have you struggled with the notion of what makes a “real” writer?

What have you done to overcome these issues? Do you have any suggestions or tips? Hey, I am a work in progress ALWAYS and love the feedback!

The post Self-Sabotage: I Don’t Deserve Success appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Tough choices are the beating heart of anything remarkable. From being an excellent parent, to getting (then remaining fit) to being a professional writer, every day is a forked path. One road is usually easier, and a lot more fun. The other? Hard work, sacrifice, tough choices, and more hard work.

You guys have NO IDEA how hard it has been for me not to be blogging and teaching regularly.

So HUGS, HUGS, HUGS! I HAVE MISSED Y’ALL!

Anyway, blogging and teaching, for me, isn’t even like work. It’s been the joy of my day for many years. Yet, while I’ve enjoyed teaching, speaking and blogging immensely, my primary goal has always been to become the best author I could be.

So long as I could balance writing with blogging and teaching, it was fine. But, this past year, I hit a major crossroad. I was blessed enough to be hired as a ghostwriter. As an actual ghostwriter with the excellent pay and perks…but also the grueling hours, crippling self-doubt, and steep learning curve.

Did I mention crippling self-doubt?

Though I tried maintaining doing ALL THE THINGS for a time, eventually I had to tap out. I had to do the paid work first.

*sobs*

Going Pro Even When You’re New

I didn’t begin where I am today, and THANK GOD for that. In the beginning, I didn’t know how to make the tough choices. There are many author resources I recommend, but for anyone out there who doesn’t already own a copy, I strongly recommend picking up The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

When I began my writing journey, The Big Six was still in charge, no one had ever heard of Amazon, and the internet was for tech nerds living in their mothers’ basements. Publishing hadn’t changed in almost a century, and self-publishing (mostly vanity publishing) was regarded as the realm of the talentless hack.

How could I call myself a ‘professional author’ if I’d never finished a novel let alone published one? What was worse, how could anyone else take me seriously if I’d never published a book? There was no explaining to others (and often to myself) that every mega-author with a large display of shiny hardbacks had once been unpublished. Even they had to start somewhere, right?

Where was that shadowy land of…Somewhere?

In the mind.

I had to learn to deal with crossroads and choose what I wanted most LATER for what I wanted most in the moment. When my mom wanted me to go shopping, or my brother needed me to babysit at the last minute, or a friend wanted to go hang out at a coffee shop and simply talk about being a published writer, I had to say, “NO.”

When faced with tough choices, I had to train myself to choose the path of greatest resistance trusting that, over time, I’d become stronger, and that with strength I’d eventually gain confidence.

Tough Choices: Pro Versus Amateur

One concept that I do believe has been lost in the digital age of publishing is that it is perfectly okay to write for fun. Not everyone who enjoys blogging or penning a short story or novella is automatically required to make a living writing. There is a totally different standard for those who write simply for pleasure and those creating a commodity for sale to the public.

In fact, I have a fun post on this very subject, Choose Your Pain: Hobbyist vs. Professional Author.

Sadly, though, with the new age of publishing, it seems there’s this idea that anyone who simply loves dashing off a fun flash fiction is somehow…’less than.’

That’s bull sprinkles, btw.

If you want to write because it’s FUN, have some FUN! No, you don’t need to understand the craft at the same level unless you really want to. Feel free to have all the purple prose you like and 42 POVs (points of view). You can even use so many exclamation points we might think William Shatner was your ghostwriter.

No…big…dealio.

This said, I’ve run into plenty of authors who claim they want to be the best, make the big lists, win the prestigious awards, earn a nice living, and yet they approach their writing the same way as the dabbler.

I’ve been that person, so no judgement.

But for anyone struggling, wondering what exactly makes a professional writer? Pressfield equates ‘the professional’ as an ideal, and I’m inclined to agree.

The amateur plays for fun. The professional plays for keeps. To the amateur, the game is his avocation. To the pro, it’s his vocation. The amateur plays part-time, the professional full-time. The amateur is a weekend warrior. The professional is there seven days a week.

The War of Art, Steven Pressfield, Page 62

Which Way Do You WANT To GO?

Sometimes the way forward is often the way baaack… All The Labyrinth fans get the reference there, but it’s true.

There are a number of reasons I started blogging fifteen years ago (on MySpace, and YES I am THAT old). First, it was to train myself to make tough choices. I had to be able to set boundaries, learn to guard my writing time, and to write NO MATTER WHAT.

Someone once asked Somerset Maugham if he wrote on a schedule or only when struck by inspiration. ‘I write only when inspiration strikes,’ he replied. ‘Fortunately, it strikes every morning at nine o’clock sharp.’

The War of Art, Pressfield, page 64

I started out ‘writing’ screenplays and that was a disaster, mostly because I was still more in love with the idea of writing than actually doing any study or work. But then I landed a job as a technical writer. I wrote software instructions, specs for night vision, gun scopes, and every variety of optical gear. Then, I moved onto computer training manuals and HR forms.

SUPER fun stuff.

*stabs self repeatedly*

At the time I landed my first ‘real’ job as a tech writer, I’d already written my 183,000 word ‘novel.’ The one that’s in the garage because, even twenty years later, it still bites visitors and pees on the carpets.

Of course I’d believed my ‘novel’ was perfect, my only worry was how to choose between all the agents that surely would be fighting over me. I wish I were joking. THEN, I joined a local writing group and learned how much I did NOT know about how much I could bleed writing.

Which was a lot.

Not All Who Wander are Lost

Over the years, I’ve written a couple thousand blogs. I’ve published three best-selling non-fiction books, an acclaimed novel, a novella, and have now finished another full length book as a ghost writer. I’ve written educational material, instruction manuals, and published poems, short stories, flash fiction, and on and on.

Suffice to say that I’ve done a little bit of everything because I like a challenge. I like to stretch my muscles. Most importantly, though? I’ve yet to figure out where I want to call ‘home,’ (though my client might be taking me hostage for more books in the future).

Some of y’all out there might have a major advantage over me. You’ve made the tough decisions and know you want to be a romance author, write long urban fantasy series, or be the next Stephen King.

Me? I was the kid who wanted to be a ballerina-archeologist-attorney-surgeon-astronaut-makeup artist-pathologist. Doesn’t seem much has changed.

Make Tough Choices & Know Thyself

Sure, I probably would be further ahead professionally had I known precisely what sort of writer I wanted to be in the beginning (other than MEGA FAMOUS). But, I don’t regret the long and winding road either.

It took everything for me to set aside my 183,000 word monstrosity and admit that maybe…just maybe an over-caffeinated chimp at a typewriter could have written a better book I didn’t have the first clue about writing a novel.

I believed that if I stopped trying to make that monstrosity into a real novel, I was a failure. What I learned is one of the fundamentals of going pro, one of the first BIG writing choices—aside from actually writing no matter what—is to learn when to let go. Excelling in our craft is a process.

We learn by doing…and, more often than not? REdoing.

We’re all different. Some of you reading might be fortunate enough to know what kind of writer you want to be. Tough choices then boil down to learning to make writing a priority, set boundaries, and always keep searching for ways to improve.

Me? I’m glad I took time to experiment and explore. All the wildly different areas of writing strengthened my skills and broadened what I have to offer. Training myself to be a ruthless editor helped a lot as well. Tough choices sometimes involves killing our darlings and cutting complete sections we’ve spent days or weeks crafting to perfection.

***I literally have a google doc with over 50 pages I cut from the ghostwriting project. As a n00b, I’d gotten off topic. Great writing, but? It needed to GO.

So for those who aren’t yet sure? Have some fun! Even those who want to go pro can enjoy the journey. Stuck on the novel? Warm up with some flash fiction. Finished with a project? Maybe try a short story in a different genre you wouldn’t normally write.

Speaking of TOUGH CHOICES, Did I Mention?

This latest crossroad was one I never saw myself ever reaching. I’ve spent the better part of fifteen years being able to do all the things (housework not included). I prided myself on blogging no matter what. Felt it was my duty to show up no matter what.

Oh, and I tried…and nearly had a nervous breakdown.

It was one thing when I was solely responsible for generating all my own income, but totally different once someone else was paying the bill. I had to tap out. I’d even written a post about having to take a break, only to end up neck-deep in research material so long until the post seemed…dumb.

It’s been really lonely without you guys, I CAN say that. Also been a LONG time since I was utterly new at anything. Lots of crying, self-loathing and gnashing of teeth. I was terrified turning the book into the client (and attorney), certain they’d tell me it was complete crap and I’d have to start over. Or they’d tell me I was fired, blackballed and they were sending a hitman.

Not that I have an active imagination or anything.

Ah, but that’s the writer’s daily grind. Crossroads, tough choices, and a perpetual mixture of godlike ego and crippling self doubt.

But I made it! The client, thus far, is ecstatic and wants me for more books. Since I won’t be totally new, I’m hoping I can balance better if I take on anymore projects…because I MISSED YOU GUYS! Sorry for ghosting y’all for the ghostwriting.

It haunts me…

…aaaannnd I’ll stop.

What Are Your Thoughts? I Love Hearing From You!

What are some tough choices you struggle with? Mine was feeling I even deserved to call myself a writer let alone be selfish enough to sit down and write. That and realizing it was possible to work even if my house wouldn’t be featured in Better Homes & Gardens. Hard to make yourself a priority in this business, especially for the pre-published folks.

What are some tough choices you’ve made that you are proud of? Are you writing so many words a day? Reading so many books per month? Studying craft books?

Are you a wanderer like me? Dabbling in a lot of areas trying to find what you love? Or are there tons of areas which you love, but you simply get bored and long for new challenges?

Do you like switching things up simply to see if you could write something you never planned on writing? I did that with the novella (which was a romance and I am NOT a romance writer). Thinking on trying my hand at screenplays again now that I actually know WTH three-act structure IS.

Or do you just want to ask some questions? I’m here. Just have to work on citations and a bibliography now. Hard part is OVER *throws confetti*

The post Tough Choices: The Professional Writer’s Daily Grind appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

No sales or lackluster sales. It isn’t the reader’s fault. It’s the book. Really. This is tough to hear. I know.

It’s a writer’s worst nightmare. You researched, you wrote, you finished, and then published your book. You wait for the sales and….

*crickets*

This is something that can happen to any kind of author, traditionally or nontraditionally published.

We think we have a hit on our hands only to later be checking our work for a pulse. What happened? Why did everything go sideways? Where are the SALES?

Sales & The Market

In the not so distant past, there was only one way to get published and that was traditional publishing. Though many authors cheered when they were finally able to cast off the chains of New York, let’s at least respect that agents and editors might have known a thing or three about the book business and how to generate book sales.

Writers would often get vexed at the stack of rejection letters, believing they couldn’t actually write well.

This was not always the case. Sometimes the writing was perfectly fine, or even really good. Great even.

Alas, agents made their living off books they knew would sell, which meant they just didn’t have the bandwidth left over to take on pro bono work. Yes, the book might have been lovely, but they were agents, not charities. They couldn’t gamble on a well-written book in an untested genre or for an unvetted audience.

Agents had to find the book they knew publishers would BUY based on metrics of what had already sold well in the past.

Not a perfect way of doing business, but better than guessing and paying a blind oracle to throw chicken bones.

***This is largely still how things work, though publishing is in so much flux that agents are doing things differently these days because the paradigm has changed so drastically.

Sales kept the lights on.

Agents predicted market changes and trends. They looked at what was already out, what was slated to be released, what was already selling, what wasn’t, what was saturated, etc. Then, they used that data to maneuver their authors around the sales minefield.

Still do to the best of their abilities.

This is where it can get tricky for writers. Yes, write what you love. We shouldn’t write for the market…but we have to write for the market.

*bangs head on wall*

Sometimes a book might not be selling simply because there are too many titles that are too similar. Readers maybe don’t want yet another tired vampire retread.

If you are traditionally published, this could still happen. Agents are making an educated guess and sometimes they miss the mark.

***As a caveat though. A hedge fund bought Barnes & Noble in June, Dean Koontz defected to the Amazon-powered Thomas Mercer in July, and Penguin just sold last month. So, legacy publishing is in a righteous hurt locker at the present. They don’t have the luxury of missing many sales marks any more.

For the self-published folks? If your book is good, just leave it alone and keep writing. The great part about the digital paradigm is the book can remain there indefinitely and when the trends change? So could the sales numbers.

Sales & The Product

I hate saying this, but sometimes it’s the book. Obviously this is more the case with indie and self-published books. The problem is that the market has just been inundated with amateur writing. I go into this in more detail in Five Mistakes Killing Self-Published Writers, but here are the Spark Notes.

Bad Writing

No one wants to hear they are not ready. Worse still? No one wants to hear the words, ‘You’re just not a good writer.’ Too many newbies want to skip the un-fun training and go right to the title, ‘Author.‘

Sadly, the slush pile has been handed off to readers. I rarely do edits because I’ve grown weary of arguing with ‘writers’ who can’t even punctuate. Their books aren’t selling and they hire me to tell them why.

I explain WHY, then they send me long emails how I am mean and horrible because I won’t tell them it’s the reader’s fault for not seeing their hidden genius or that it’s a failure in the marketing plan.

I’m a bad person because I expect them to tell a STORY, not camp on self-indulgent tripe that only entertains THEM at the expense of the audience. So if expecting writers to know how to do the very BASIC of their job is mean?

I’ll own that.

If I want writers to actually reach for something other than reheated, microwaved tropes served so many times they’re no longer fit for human consumption?

Then yes, I am a vile and horrid person.

This is the ADULT TABLE. Those who want to play Literary Barbies and Literary G.I. Joe aren’t allowed a seat here until they grow up. And that doesn’t—in my book—make me ‘mean.’

It makes me a professional.

Moving on…

Bad (No) Editing

Our story might be the best thing since pumpkin spice lattes, but if it is so rife with errors it won’t sell? Shame, shame. Additionally, editing is not simply looking for typos. That is line-editing or proofreading.

A good developmental editor (or content editor) will be able to help you shape the overall flow of the novel. But they cost a lot (good ones do, anyway).

This is why it’s a good idea to read a lot and take classes and LEARN the craft. It will save a lot of time and cash in the long run.

When I edit, I can tell writers if they are starting the book in the correct place. Are there scenes that need to be cut because they are bogging down the momentum? Are there redundant characters? Am I spotting any plot holes? Is the ending a knockout? A fizzle? Or a WTH?

Great editing can take a book from meh to magnificent.

Bad Cover

There really is no excuse for a bad cover these days. Technology has come a long way, and many experts offer fabulous covers at affordable prices. I would love to say people don’t judge a book by its cover, but that is untrue.

Of course we do.

One thing many new writers don’t appreciate is that when you hire an expert, you’re gaining a lot more than that one skill. Yes, a graphic artist knows how to use Photshop (or whatever) but they also have a knowledge of what sells. 

For instance, I’ve seen authors post images of their new book cover and cringed. The cover itself was lovely, but we have to remember how we are selling.

That book isn’t going to be on a shelf where a potential reader is seeing a full-sized version. Likely it will be on Amazon and that beautiful full-sized image, when shrunk to thumbnail size looks like a Rorschach ink blob.

Do you see a butterfly?

No, I see Satan eating kale chips.

If a writer tells me they can’t afford to hire an expert, my response is they cannot afford not to.

Boring Title

This goes along with a bad cover. New writers are notorious for titles that we have to read the book to ‘get’ the title. NO. The title is the hook and we will move on to other writers who don’t make us think so hard.

The Sales Platform

Discoverability is a nightmare. There is a lot of noise and part of our job description now entails branding. This is all writers.

I recently had a distraught writer contact me. The author was recently dropped by a well-known agent because the book simply wasn’t selling. Yet, I could tell with a quick google search what a big part of the problem was.

The author didn’t have platform/brand capable of driving sales. Simply puttering around on Facebook isn’t enough. That isn’t a brand.

My first royalty check would have covered dinner if no one super-sized anything. Why? My book came out before my platform could drive sales. Once my platform improved? My sales skyrocketed.

What does it say in front of every big author’s name? Best Selling Author. Not Best Writing Author.

The writing alone is not enough. Frankly, it never was. Before 2006, writers had a 93% failure rate. Most first books sold less than a thousand copies (even traditionally published books). Only one out of ten published authors ever saw a second book in print. Most were dropped.

In the old days, we just had no control over the brand and the platform. Now, we do. And authors want to complain that it is too hard. Yes, it is hard and there are many reasons this profession is not for everyone.

Less Marketing/More Writing

Traditional marketing does not sell books. Never has. For more on why, check out Why Traditional Marketing Doesn’t Sell Books. I have had to unfollow writers on Facebook who do nothing but promote one book over and over and over.

They tweet non-stop about their book, and dedicate their blogs to selling books (and that is NEVER the direct objective of a blog). ‘Authors’ deluge us with newsletters we never signed up for and can’t figure out how to escape.

Thing is, we don’t care about you or your book.

***To be fair, you don’t care about me or mine, either .

We didn’t want to see that crap in our feed, we sure aren’t going to subscribe to a blog/newsletter that is nothing but self-promotion. NO ONE wants that junk in their feed, their inbox, their mailbox, on their cell phone or ANYWHERE unless they specifically ASKED for it.

Writers often become the equivalent of that sales clerk in the department store who ambushes us with perfume in the face.

Truth Bomb

The odds of breaking out with our first book are about the same as being hijacked by a terrorist after we’ve been hit by lightning while holding a winning lottery ticket.

Truth is, Fifty Shade of Grey, in my POV, did a lot of damage to our industry because it gave a very false illusion that one could get rich quick. Now we have been inundated with tourists and insta-preneurs hunting to make a quick buck because ‘writing is easy.’

Sure.

Whether one likes E.L. James’ writing or not, I have to admit that the gal did a crap ton of hard work.

E.L. James leveraged her fan fiction following that she’d built up with a lot of time, work and sweat equity.

Because when NY finally made a deal? Fifty Shades went BOOM. But what far too many bystanders DID NOT see was the YEARS of work BEFORE the boom. E.L. James brought that fan fiction platform to the table and THEY were the X Factor that made Fifty Shades into a cultural phenom.

That preexisting fanbase had the sheer population numbers to push those books from fringe to mainstream, something NO ad campaign can do…ever. It cannot be BOUGHT, only BUILT.

Most writers are not going to break out with one book. Or even two. An author might never break out, but the odds certainly improve the more titles we have (well-written as in there is an actual STORY).

This was always true. It’s why you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a James Patterson title.

Marketing and building a platform/brand are two completely different activities. But writers believe they are the same. They aren’t.

If you want to promote and market without a platform, I suggest piling money on the floor and setting it on fire. Same end result and you can get to the self-loathing and binge drinking far faster that way.

There are no shortcuts.

Obviously there are many many other factors to why a book might not be selling, but these are the top offenders. Good news is most of this, we can do something about. In fact, I have classes addressing most of these issues (listed below).

What are your thoughts?

I LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!

What are your thoughts on the modern day book world? It’s all a bit weird now. B&N sold. Penguin gone. NYC in limbo. Amazon taking over. Small bookstores coming back (cool). RWA imploding (scary).

In the meantime, it all goes back to what I have preached since the get-go. Learn how to write AMAZING stories and cultivate an audience. I teach all how to do that and those classes are all on sale right now.

Training

If you really want to deep-dive how to write these incredible genres that are HOT, HOT, HOT, please check out the ON DEMAND CLASSES by #1 best-selling author Maria Grace that you can enjoy from the comfort of HOME.

More Than Crop Circles: Intro to Science (and Speculative) Fiction $45

Use Thrill10 for $10 off

Speculative Fiction World-Building $45

Use Thrill10 for $10 off

Populating Planet X: Character-Building for Science (and Speculative) Fiction $45

Use Thrill10 for $10 off

Or Get them ALL for ONE LOW PRICE

Twilight Zone Special: All THREE Classes $99 (that’s over TEN hours of training). Makes it $33 a class for those who can’t math .

I’ve also extended the holiday sales on all classes listed below to January 15th. Get them before they’re deleted.

And to prove it and show my love, for the month of JANUARY, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages (5K words) of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or fewer). 

***I will announce December’s winner once I feel better. I’m recovering from bronchial pneumonia.

In the meantime, PLEASE treat yourself to a class! We have a TON of classes that we will be deleting or putting into cold storage come mid-January (I’m extending the sales to January 15th since I haven’t been around to tell you about them during the holidays).

These will no longer be available after January 15th, so STOCK UP while you can.

NEW Year, New YOU! ROAR into the TWENTIES!

ON DEMAND Sales!

HIGHLY RECOMMEND–> On Demand: How to Write Deep POV

By #1 Best Selling Author Maria Grace! Normally $55 now $30

ON DEMAND Dark Arts: New Year’s SPECIAL Building Your Villain

Usually $55 and until January 15th is only $30.

Three hours of psychopaths, sociopaths, narcissists, pathology and how that applies to writing.

It is like the Behavioral Analysis Unit for Authors. Tres FUN! Villains are some of the most enduring characters in literature. Why not add your own legends to the list?

I’m also offering:

The Art of Character NEW YEAR’S SPECIAL: Writing Characters for a SERIES ON DEMAND

Normally $65 and NOW only $40.

FOUR hours of training on characters on how to develop characters that that can go the distance.

Bring on the Binge: How to Plot and Write a Series (ON DEMAND). 

Normally $65 and NOW only $40. Pairs PERFECTLY with The Art of Character for Series.

ON DEMAND! New Year’s Sale! Story Master: From Dream to DONE

Usually $55, now ONLY $30.

This class is to train you how to plot whether you’re a plotter, a pantser or a mix of both. It’s also a crash course in creating dimensional characters.

On Demand: Beyond Bulletproof Barbie

Usually $55 and now only $25.

This is a THREE-HOUR class on guns, knives, weapons, fighting, law enforcement (from local cops to international espionage) and more. Everything you need to build a bad@$$—male OR female—and get the details CORRECT.

Spilling the New Year’s Tea: On Demand Blogging for Authors

Usually $75 and now only $40.

Get prepped and ready for the new year, new you, new blog.

Bite-Sized Fiction: How to Plot the Novella

Use New20 for $20 off

Popular On Demand Classes

Need some help with platform and branding?

Branding: WHEN YOUR NAME ALONE Can Sell (ON DEMAND)

Use brand10 for $10 off.

For the complete list, go to the OnDemand Section.

***I will add more classes, especially from Maria Grace, in the coming days, as I recover.

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The post No Sales or Lackluster Sales: It Isn’t the Reader, It’s the Book…Really appeared first on Kristen Lamb.