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.

Mastery is a concept that many believe is subjective, especially when it comes to writing (novels in particular). There’s an insidious belief that what constitutes good or bad is a matter of popular opinion. Quality isn’t something we can measure.

This belief—that mastery is a matter of taste—has been around as long as the publishing business. Probably longer. If this wasn’t so, then vanity presses would never have made a single cent.

Yet, vanity presses arose to meet the needs of those who believed that the gatekeepers had gotten it all wrong.

Their book was ready for popular consumption, ripe for the public to eagerly hand over disposable income for the privilege of using up limited free time to consume said book.

Sometimes (albeit rarely) the author was right.

Yet, before the digital age, an author had to seriously count the cost of publishing too soon, even with a vanity press.

Literally.

If one was going to hand over thousands of dollars to hold one’s book in hand? Then the author knew the gamble could either pay off big (The Firm), or that they’d end up with a storage unit filled with mouldering novels.

Mastery-Minded Culture

When I started writing seriously, the author culture was vastly different. Most writers aspired to mastery. It was a time when artists outnumbered entrepreneurs.

Granted, after a few brutal critique sessions, we pretty much all figured out we’d never craft the ‘perfect novel,’ but that didn’t mean we wouldn’t keep trying to get as close as possible.

Storytelling mastery included learning the basics. We had our worn copies of Strunk & White dog-eared, underlined, and held together with tape. There was a general sense we had to earn the title of ‘author,’ and we didn’t take kindly to shortcuts.

***This was why self-publishing took years to be accepted as a legitimate form of publishing.

Many of us wanted to become authors because we were, first and foremost, avid readers.

We loved books and stories. The idea of honing the same skill levels, attaining the same sort of mastery as our author heroes propelled us forward draft after draft, rejection after rejection.

Times Change Even in Writing

In my early years, tapping out and deciding to use a vanity press or self-publishing was akin to literary blasphemy.

There was also an atavistic response to any kind of self-promotion. It smacked too much of self-publishing bottom-feeder egomania.

This overriding negative attitude was one of the major obstacles I faced early in my career. Trying to convince authors that—one day soon—they’d need an on-line platform to survive was akin to walking around L.A. wearing tin foil shouting the world was going to end (and expecting to be taken seriously).

In my early years as a social media/branding expert, authors believed the publishers would do all that unseemly marketing and promotion stuff. Their only job was to write excellent books.

Then, over time, and due to some seriously bad business decisions in traditional publishing (namely the multinational media conglomerates who called the shots), self-publishing exploded in popularity.

The Big Six betrayed their loyal mid-list authors, cast them into the dust. Amazon picked them up then weaponized them. Legacy publishing inadvertently legitimized what had once been anathema.

Within a decade, the writing tables turned.

Authors in 2009 considered landing an agent the first step to success. After the agent, then the publishing deal with a ‘real’ publisher. Social media was for hacks.

Today, in 2022, I run across more ‘authors’ who aspire for marketing mastery over storytelling mastery. They can’t figure out why they’re not selling any books even though they have a fifteen-book series.

Is it the promotion? S.E.O.? Maybe they need a bigger newsletter or a spot on BookBub?

Maybe. Yet, from what I’ve seen, the major problem—more often than not—is the product not the promotion.

Content is and King

I firmly believe that true artists are always learning. We need to maintain a degree of humility in our craft or we’ll stagnate. This is why I read about 1-3 books a week in all genres. Additionally, I read and reread my favorite writing and craft books because I don’t know everything and can never know everything…which is why it is good to have reminders.

Like many other authors, Stephen King’s On Writing still has plenty of gems even though the industry looks nothing like the publishing world of King’s emergent years.

This line, in particular, still gets me every time.

This might seem like a ‘no duh’ statement, but I cannot count how many times I’ve encountered people who say they want to be a writer but they simply, “don’t have any time to read.”

Most of the samples I see in conferences or when running my Write Stuff Special (which is going for the next couple days)? I can instantly spot the writers who read very little if at all.

They don’t have time.

Here, King and I are in total agreement. Anyone who doesn’t have the time to read doesn’t have the time—or the tools—to be a writer (especially a good writer).

Craft classes and grammar lessons aside, reading helps fill our toolbox. We are artisans who are crafting people, places, worlds, and concepts using ONLY various combinations of twenty-six letters.

Would you trust someone to build your house who only owned (and knew how to use) a hammer and saw? Or a doctor who only knew how to wield a scalpel, but skipped learning how to suture?

Yet, how many writers are publishing books and they don’t even possess the basic fundamentals of our craft? And are more concerned with a new marketing plan than they are about why people don’t WANT to read their work, let alone PAY to read it?

Is Fiction COMPLETELY Subjective?

To a degree, yes. But, really? No. Not as much as some might claim.

As I mentioned earlier, it’s impossible to write the ‘perfect’ book, to craft the novel ‘everyone’ will love. This, however, is no excuse to dismiss the true artist’s inherent obligation to pursue mastery.

Did Picasso break all the rules? Yes, but he apprenticed for years, studied the masters, learned the rules and THEN broke them. Like a master mason who’s so familiar with the composition of stone, the feel of its striations, that he knows where to put the chisel and where to steer clear.

Yes, I’ve heard how there are a lot of ‘bad’ books/authors who sell a ton of copies and have a gazillion fans. Yet, I imagine one could look at any one of their books and see the writer at least tells a coherent STORY.

Mastery Begins with Basics

Grammar, structure, vocabulary, punctuation, etc. is for the READER. When we don’t know what P.O.V. is, we’re strapping readers onto Hell’s Tilt-A-Whirl, then have the nerve to be angry when they stumble away green around the gills.

If we don’t punctuate correctly, readers become easily lost. Similarly, grammar is akin to literary road signs that help the reader know where they are and what’s happening.

No signs or confusing signs don’t make for a pleasant drive any more than a pleasant read.

When we botch the basics, readers get a headache trying to untangle what’s happening where and why and to whom. Reading should be a pleasant experience, an adventure the reader never wants to leave.

It is the height of hubris to blame readers if we’ve failed to do all that’s in our power to serve them an enjoyable experience. Stories aren’t simply for our own entertainment, unless writing is a hobby and we have no intention of selling that work.

Mastery takes time, study, practice, commitment, failure, more failure, and discipline. Sad to say we have devolved to a point where the slush pile has been dumped in the readers’ laps.

If we think it was tough to get people to read twenty years ago, what about now when there are a million plus books self-published every year (and most unedited)?

Self-Publishing & Mastery

If we take a good look at the runaway successes that have emerged out of self-publishing, we’ll see that most of the BIG ones are pretty incredible books. Read Hugh Howey’s Wool, or Andy Weir’s The Martian, and Wm. Paul Young’s The Shack.

***Yes, there are more contemporary examples I could give, but these stand apart for me because they pulled ahead into the ‘legendary’ spots back when Big Publishing was still king.

Though The Martian’s hard-science-as-story might not appeal to everyone, it’s tough to argue it wasn’t well-written. Andy Weir simply told a story differently, to a group that NY publishers at the time didn’t believe existed…hard core geeks/nerds.

Weir, and others who’ve successfully self-published, have collected a fanbase because they tell stories other people want to read and can read.

Writing, like any art, has a learning curve. Sometimes, I believe this is what flubs so many of us up. Our culture believes that, because we possess command of our native tongue that OBVIOUSLY our first attempt at a novel should make millions. RIGHT?

NO!!!

Yet, strangely the same people who believe the first draft of our first novel should be made into an HBO series would never expect a child who picks up a violin for the first time to be ready for Carnegie Hall by the end of the year.

Singers and dancers endure years of training, coaching and have tens of thousands of hours of practice before we’re likely to know they exist.

Mastery in sports, medicine, law, and yes even writing takes dedication and sacrifice. We need training, guidance, practice, mentors, failure, success, and yes…talent and a little (or a lot) of luck.

Mastery Resources

First and foremost, if you write fiction then READ fiction. It will help you understand your genre. Genre is for READERS as much as it is for writers. When we know our genre, we know who our potential readers are. We make it easy for them to FIND us. It demystifies structure.

For instance, if you’re selling me (the reader) a mystery, then a friggin’ CRIME better happen somewhere in the beginning, and I’m not talking about a crime against the written word.

Read a lot, in your genre and out. Absorb the good and the bad. Learn the literary terrain and build your skills using observation. There are super successful authors who claim they never plot.

Yet, I will counter with this.

They have probably read SO many books that structure is hardwired into their brains. These authors gained mastery ‘by ear,’ if you will.

Some people learn piano with an instructor, others pick it up by listening and playing around on a keyboard long enough.

Both ways are hard work.

All serious authors should read (much like all serious musicians should probably listen to music). Yet, there are other tools at our disposal and here’s a list of my favorite in no particular order:

Mastery Manuals

• The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler
• Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
• Story Engineering by Larry Brooks
• The Elements of Style by Willian Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
• Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance to Punctuation by Lynne Truss
• Scene & Structure by Jack Bickham
• Hooked: Write Fiction that Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go by Les Edgerton (one of MY personal FAVES)
• Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell
• On Writing Stephen King
• Danse Macabre Stephen King

Brilliant Blogs (Other than Mine )

• Jane Friedman’s Blog
• Troy Lambert’s Blog
• Writer Unboxed
• Writers Helping Writers
• Janice Hardy’s Blog & Fiction University
• DIY MFA
• Nathan Bransford’s Blog

Mastery Resources/Tools

• The Emotion Thesaurus (and ALL THE OTHER THESAURI as well–> BUY THEM NOW!) by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi
• One Stop for Writers
• Bad Lamb Academy (shameless self-promo here & classes listed below)

I’ve probably left out one or twenty other items I’d love to add to this list, but there will be more blogs, and this is enough to give any author interested in pursuing mastery a darn good start.

I read and reread these books because I’m always learning and growing. I’m far from the perfect writer, but every day I’m gaining on her (even if she IS a unicorn). I write an average of 2,000 to 4,000 words a day, depending on what I’m working on.

Additionally, I average 3-4 hours of reading a day. I do this mainly using Audible because, according to the laundry piles, I think I have people living in my house I don’t know about.

And I already can hear the howls of complaint.

I just can’t listen to books. They make me fall asleep. My mind wanders.

Mine did, too. I had to TRAIN myself to listen to books. The excellent ones, I buy in paper (or ebook) and read again the old-fashioned way. But audio books are portable. I can listen when waiting in a line, stuck in traffic, while doing dishes, and when working out.

Perfect is the enemy of the good and I’d rather y’all ‘imperfectly’ listen to audiobooks than not read any books. When we show up to the blank page with no tools, no reservoirs bursting with vocabulary and imagery, we risk looking ill-prepared or simply ignorant.

I’ve been both. It sucks to invest years into a ‘novel’ that is an unsalvageable mess. I keep my first ‘novel’ in the garage because it chews on the furniture and pees on the rugs.

Remember, we all start somewhere. Give yourselves permission to be NEW.

What Are Your Thoughts?

I love hearing from you!

And to prove it and show my love, for the month of JUNE, 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 of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

We have been doing a lot of traveling because my FIL has serious health issues so I will announce May’s winner next post.

CLASSES!

***All classes come with a FREE recording

COMING UP!

The Art of Character: Writing Characters for a SERIES

Thursday, June 16th 7:00-10:00 P.M. NYC Time

For more information, SIGN UP HERE.

Practice Your Pitch: Master the Log-Line

Thursday, June 23rd, 7:00-9:00 P.M. NYC Time. This is a TWO-HOUR INTERACTIVE WORKSHOP!

For more information, SIGN UP HERE.

The Write Stuff Special: 20 Pages of DEEP Edit ONE LOW PRICE HERE. Only 10 slots available and open until June 9th.

The post On Writing: Why Mastery Should Matter to Authors appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Writing is and always has been a dynamic profession. Times change, culture changes, and creators who want to survive have to change, too. I mean, yeah it was probably a tough shift to go from painting cool stories on cave walls to ‘telling’ a story when some know-it-all invented language. Then it probably sucked even more when an even bigger know-it-all invented this stupid thing called the written word.

Don’t even get me started on all the suddenly unemployed monks when that jerk Gutenberg invented the printing press.

Great now EVERYONE could be published *invents beer*

I’ve been blogging since most people thought a blog was an alien creature that melted/ate people.

*ponders* Not entirely inaccurate…

I literally began an early version of a blog on a site called Gather in 2004, then later, began an ‘official’ blog on Myspace. Yes, I am THAT old. I gleaned pretty early on that Web 2.0 and social media would very literally change the world forever.

I was even bold enough to dare posit the idea that novelists would finally have a way of creating a brand and a platform before the book was even finished/available to buy (much like non-fiction authors had been doing for, well, forever).

Writing and the ‘Good Old Days’

First of all, I might have to break some bubbles here. I’ve done it before, but not in a while. Writing has never really had what we might consider ‘good old days.’

As a profession? Writing has always been a meat grinder. Just instead of great-great-granny’s cast-iron hand-cranked meat-grinder, it’s now a meat-grinder Alexa can power via voice command.

I already mentioned I was an early adopter when it came to social media. Granted, I hated it, loathed email, and generally anything techie. That said, I might be a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.

Okay, most of the time.

As early as 2004, I saw a way authors might be able to beat the terrible odds and escape the 93% failure rate. Yes, you read correctly.

As of 2004 (according to statistics from Book Expo of America), 93% of authors failed to sell out even their initial print runs. That used to be around 10,000 books for a first-time author. 93% of authors failed to even sell a thousand books and half that number failed to sell even 500. Most sold fewer than 100.

Only 1 out of 10 published authors ever saw a second book in print.

***Namely because people who couldn’t even sell over a 1000 books were generally considered a bad investment.

Remember, this is back in the alleged ‘good old days’ of publishing.

For those who want a breakdown of how traditional publishing worked, go to The Ugly Truth of Publishing & How BEST to Support Writers.

Anyway…

Even back in the ‘good old days,’ I felt the reason so many authors failed was that they were an unknown commodity. If the stars didn’t happen to align just right, most writers failed because blind luck is just a bad business plan.

When it was the ONLY business plan? Then fine. Once social media popped onto the scene, then ‘blind luck’ went from ‘bad plan’ to ‘just plain stupid plan.’

When I pitched a book about how to use social media just after FB became available to the hoi polloi, an agent literally laughed in my face.

He then explained to me in small words how Facebook and the internet were a fad, just like audio books. Aaaand, the last time I saw him, he kind of ran away from me in the opposite direction.

The Evolution of Publishing

I shifted my blog in roughly 2008 to focus on teaching craft (product) as well as introducing authors to social media (brand). To me, it was obvious that the same digital tsunami that had already erased Tower Records, Kodak, and Blockbuster (to name a few), was heading straight for the Big Six

I blogged until I was blue in the face ways NY publishing could outwit Amazon, namely because monopolies give me hives. I’d grown up with the Big Six and genuinely wanted them to succeed. Yet, while I kept posting all these blogs about needing to update and even suggestions HOW to update? Big Publishing wanted to shake snow globes of ‘1950s New York’ and pretend computers had never been invented.

I love you! Why won’t you LISTEN?

Finally, in the summer of 2019 I wrote the blog posts I never wanted to write, Barnes & Noble SOLD: Goliath has Fallen & What This Means for Writers, then Amazon Publishing: The Road to Conquest & How Bezos Razed New York, and a couple months later Penguin SOLD.

Of course, then there was the March 2020 blog post I didn’t have the heart to publish, detailing how and why ViacomCBS was ditching the iconic Simon & Schuster.

We’d already been slammed by the pandemic, and I couldn’t shake the eerie mental picture of all writers simultaneously walking into the sea.

*shudders*

Anyway, according to an article in The New York Times, on March 4, 2020, ViacomCBS announced that, in light of plummeting profits, Simon & Schuster, was no longer essential to its business and that they were officially open to finding a buyer…which they scored in November of 2020.

The parent company, Viacom CBS, sold Simon & Schuster to Bertelsmann SE & CO for $2.2 billion.

Why? Because Simon & Schuster was a financial black hole. ViacomCBS used the money from the sale to pay down its debts and to invest more in streaming content as part of their revised strategic growth plan.

All this to say, I wrote countless blogs trying to get the Big Six to evolve or die.

FYI? They dead.

What Does This Have to Do With Writing?

Or rather, what does this have to do with writers? I am speaking in VERY general terms, so don’t shout me down if this doesn’t apply. Two posts ago, we talked about how binging is BIG in the modern world. This is great news for those in the writing profession, for non-fiction and fiction authors alike. People are consuming a crazy amount of information and entertainment.

Writers who wanted to survive and thrive have ALWAYS had to shift with the times. Audiences change. Writing changes.

Hast thou not noticed-eth?

So as not to repeat the history of audience preferences and publishing economics, I highly suggest my VERY tongue-and cheek post Real Writers Don’t Self-Publish. For anyone in need of some more writing encouragement, then feel free to check out Real Writers Don’t Self-Publish Part 2.

Again, I am being sarcastic in these posts, so no need for pearl-clutching.

Here’s where I get tetchy, though.

I GET that writers LOVE the feel, smell, taste of paper. Great! Okay maybe not the taste, that’s kinda weird. We love browsing bookstores and la la la la la. Fantastic, we just sold A BOOK…to ourselves.

Brave Busy New Audiences

I’ve not had the time to sit down and physically read a book since I gave birth to a child. Like most people, my days are cram-packed even though I have actually learned that ‘No’ is a complete sentence. Despite limiting my commitments, modern life is exhausting.

Between cleaning, cooking, homeschooling, grocery shopping (like almost DAILY because Spawn is 5’7″ despite only being ELEVEN and eats his weight in food), doing the accounting, blogging, writing, editing, on and on? I have almost NO time to sit and read a PAPER book…without risking falling asleep.

I have passwords for my passwords…and have to reset them so many times I finally began paying my bills as a GUEST.

Y’all know what’s super fun? Trying to pay a bill on-line but the site is down? So you call to pay, but then the company keeps you on hold for two hours while an automated voice repeatedly tells you how much easier this could be if you just paid online.

Most of us would LOVE to sit and read a big thick hardback, but we’d also like to have teleportation devices, holo-decks and pizza that makes you skinnier the more you eat it. And odds of having any of these are about the same.

So what do we do? We change HOW we are informed and entertained.

Brave New Writing

As a long-time developmental editor, I can spot within 1-5 pages the writers who don’t do a lot of reading. When I encounter this, I often suggest listening to audio books because I understand people are slammed. But, seriously, you’d think I’d suggested they take up ‘murder for hire’ as a hobby.

I get it. Audio books aren’t ideal.

And yes, you have to train your ear to listen to a book and there is a learning curve. BUT there is a huge payoff. Consuming more books vastly increases your reservoir of knowledge, improves your vocabulary, demonstrates a myriad of techniques, lets you be more innovative because you can draw from different genres, etc.

Though not a hard and fast rule, authors who read prolifically are stronger writers than those who barely read at all.

For those who have the time to sit and read a stack of books? Go for it! I am TOTALLY jealous. But, for the life of me, I have never understood people who want to be best-selling authors, but don’t have time to read and don’t like audiobooks.

*silent screaming*

I ‘read’ anywhere from 1-4 books a week. Anything particularly superlative? I buy in paper because YES it does work a different part of the brain and YES I am a monster who dog-ears and highlights. But the author gets paid TWICE so I am pretty sure they don’t care.

If I am not PHYSICALLY at my computer or on the phone with a person (or an automated voice telling me how great their nonfunctioning website is), I am probably listening to a book.

I listen to books (and podcasts) when I do laundry, wash dishes, clean house, in the car, while waiting in a doctor’s office. If I am out and about, I probably will read on my phone, because I have far higher odds of remembering my PHONE than I do of remembering to bring along a BOOK.

This is simply reality in the modern world. A ton of people commute, and in a car. NOT a great idea to whip out that paper book (though I have, frighteningly enough, seen people do this).

It’s why so many global conglomerates (like ViacomCBS )are ditching publishers and investing in streamed content.

Modern audiences CAN and DO watch videos on their phones. People are listening to audiobooks now more than ever. Another weird shift? Podcasting is now huge.

Podcasting…WHAT Does That Have to Do With WRITING?

Yes, podcasting. I actually brought up this trend about three to four years ago. It was the next shift I saw on the horizon. No, I didn’t blog about it, because I save some of the extra juicy content for people who take my classes *smooch*. The pandemic only made this shift I’d already seen coming happen faster…and go WAY bigger.

What would a writer want with a podcast? Great question.

One of the items on my stupid-long To Do List is to make a podcast from this blog. I have SEVENTEEN years of content, and almost 2,500 posts if I add this site to old sites to guest posts, and all the posts I did for Author Magazine, etc. etc.

That and I ‘get’ my blogs are long, but this is a teaching blog. I’d rather those who subscribe get ONE email instead of three or five because I’m breaking up a single lesson. Y’all get enough email, and feel free to leave my posts open in a tab and read it in bits.

Yes, my blogs are long, but they are a heck of a lot shorter than a 300 page craft book.

And I have funny memes…

But, a lot of my posts would be great content to record so that those who enjoy this blog could simply plug in their earphones and listen to a lesson while doing something else. A ten or twelve-minute read feels a lot longer than a 10 or 12-minute podcast episode.

Video might have killed the radio star, but the radio star is back from the grave and bigger than ever. I’ve seen authors do limited podcasts with short fiction to build their brand and buzz for their longer works. Or they release the first several chapters as a podcast to hook people to buy the full. I’ve seen authors take ancillary characters and tell their stories via podcast shorts. On and on.

It’s like the old timey radio shows and audiences LOVE them.

There are a crazy amount of options—ways we can think outside the book—and we’ll talk about them another time

I mean, I am SHAMELESS and do not care HOW people read my books so long as they pay to read them. Audio book, digital, paper? Don’t care. If someone wants my book acted out in interpretive dance? Email me and we’ll negotiate a price.

Writing is a Business

First of all, please understand writing CAN be a hobby. Not every creative thing we do has to be monetized. But, for those who do want to do this writing thing professionally, and even make a great living? We have GOT to think outside the box book.

This is more important than ever because that brief honeymoon authors had when self-publishing was in the odd expanse between ‘Reserved for Talentless Hacks’ and ‘Maybe a Great New Business Model’ is over. During that brief window, writers were making crazy money for a lot of reasons.

First, Kindles were new and we needed something to load on them or they were a pretty darn expensive fly swatter. Secondly, the Big Six were bad at business and mothballed perfectly awesome titles. Thirdly, not everyone and their cat was publishing a book.

With well over a MILLION new self-published novels a year now? Discoverability is a nightmare. And YES, it seems I am always the bearer of bad news or tough love or bad love…whatever.

But, I want y’all to succeed and the more ways audiences can find us and fall in love with our content, the better. So yes, this means this job requires a lot.

There are SO many reasons pro writing is not for everyone.

Can we just write a book? Sure. Do we have to write a series? Nope. Can we just write a book and hang out on Facebook? Of course. Do we have to have a blog? No. Do we HAVE to do a podcast? No.

But, unless our names rhyme with ‘Stephen King?’ we’re going to have to work super smart UNTIL such time we hit that critical mass of being a household name. My goal, as it has always been, is to give y’all ways to work smarter, not harder. And, now that self-publishing is mainstream? We’re pretty much back to that 93% failure rate, probably higher.

***Most self-published authors sell fewer than a 100 books…like ever.

Chris McMullen has a fabulous post on this. Granted, it is an older post from 2014, but he breaks the industry down really nicely, and I felt his blog gave a far more accurate perspective. For instance, unlike old school publishing, indie and self-publishing have a lot of categories that simply never would have existed before (I.e. poetry books, family genealogies, etc.) that will throw off the averages.

BUT, for the person who believes, ‘Write a Book and They Will Come?’ Those who write ONE book and market it to death, who refuse to do social media, blog, or create additional content via other mediums? Yeah, that max of a hundred books probably likely generous.

In the end…

I GET that it is a tough time to be a writer, but it’s also a FANTASTIC time to be a writer. It’s just that writing goes beyond the books, and we should be happy about that. Yes, more work but we finally can have SOME amount of control over our success.

We can actually have a better business plan than ‘Blind Luck.’

What are your thoughts about Brave New Writing?

Do you consume books in multiple ways? I listen to audio books, read on my phone, my Kindle and when the moon and stars align…paper. Seriously, writers make SO much money off me.

Are you excited or panicking about the podcasting thing?

***Don’t worry, I have an expert coming in to post and teach some classes so y’all can hit it with a stick and see if you might be game. Btw, I meant hitting the podcast idea, not the instructor.

I LOVE hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of SEPTEMBER, 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 of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

AND REMEMBER to treat yourself to a class! I don’t reveal all my best intel on my blogs .

Classes!

Practice Your Pitch: Master the Log-Line 10/14/21

Register HERE and use Pitch10 for $10 off if register by 10/1/21

Bring on the Binge: How to Plot & Write a Series 9/30/21

Register HERE and use Binge 20 for $20 off until 9/21/21

The Edge: How to Write Mystery, Suspense & Thriller 10/21/21

Register HERE and use Thrill10 for $10 off if you register by 10/14/21

The post Brave New Writing & Learning to Think Outside the Book appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

The breakout novel. All authors want to write one, and all agents want to discover one. Why? Because the breakout novel is the story that tips the scales.

This is the novel that not only ignites avid readers to read MORE, but it also propels ordinary people to do the unthinkable.

It makes them want to read, too!

These stories turn those who normally wouldn’t read a book—unless it was required or there was a test at the end—into book evangelists.

****These people may claim they ‘hate to read,’ but they told everyone who’d listen about Twilight .

It’s True, Most People Aren’t ‘Readers’

This really isn’t anything new. I know it’s super popular to whine that people just don’t read books anymore.

They’ve been singing that same sappy BS song since I was a kid…during an age when there was no Internet—let alone social media—and cable was for rich people.

Daytime T.V. sucked, all television turned OFF at midnight, movies played at a movie theater (no VCRs), and you had to beg your parents to take you to a video arcade if you wanted to play games.

Yet, even back then, when one would think this would have been the Golden Age for everyone and their mother to be reading books?

It wasn’t.

I was a weirdo because I loved to read.

But just because someone doesn’t identify as a reader doesn’t mean he/she won’t read. It simply takes the right book to hook them and then reel ’em in.

‘Readers’ Have ALWAYS Been Outliers

Before the 20th century, most people weren’t even literate. Reading was a hobby reserved for wealthy people who had the funds, education and free time to indulge in fantasy.

Sure, once humans got into the late 19th century then careened into the 20th, the number of readers increased because of higher literacy rates. That and industrialization increased household incomes and offered the average person more free time.

Pulp fiction got its start with the much-esteemed Charles Dickens and this form of storytelling really picked up traction in the early part of the 20th century.

This type of fiction gave the general public access the larger-than-life stories with exotic and sexy characters.

Ah, but it wasn’t ALL roses and unicorns.

Books still competed with work, chores, radio shows, television, bowling, newspapers, discos, roller rinks, and sports.

Ultimately, the insatiable ‘avid reader’ has pretty much always loitered on the fringes of the bell curve.

The guy with the football never got wedgies. Just sayin’.

This is why most book marketing plans are utterly ineffective (unless one counts wasting a crap ton of time and money). Writers are all looking for the readers.

Where are the readers?

They gear all their social media and marketing to 3-5% of the population (the population who eat through books).

Bad news is this folks. The self-proclaimed avid readers aren’t the consumers that turn books (and their authors) into legends.

Who does?

The 93-95% of literate people in need of being educated or entertained who would NOT list reading on their Top 10 List of Fun Things to Do.

These consumers are the hardest to convert to readers, which is why most writers (and ‘marketing experts’) all go for the low-hanging fruit.

The Breakout Novel Breaks the Rules AND the Bank

The breakout novel is the novel that breaks the rules. These are the books readers never knew they always wanted, and ‘non-readers’ never believed would interest them in the first place.

Often, breakout novels reimagine a genre, mix genres, and/or flip the script on the mouldering tried and true genres.

Bloody Good Idea

For instance, Anne Rice didn’t invent vampires. Vampires have been around a LONG time.

Yes, even before the IRS was created.

Bram Stoker allegedly patterned Dracula (published in 1897) off a real historical figure, Vlad the Impaler. Myths and legends about vampires thrived in Eastern Europe as far back as the Middle Ages.

Though there were countless tales of the vampire as monster, Anne Rice wanted to write a different sort of book. What was it like from the vampire’s perspective?

And Interview with the Vampire was born.

Initially, no one wanted to publish the manuscript. Rice faced countless rejections. No one cared about stories FROM the vampire’s POV.

Finally, ONE agent loved the idea and took a chance, and pretty much all modern vampire stories from The Lost Boys, to True Blood to Twilight can thank Ann Rice.

And this genre upheaval wasn’t only limited to vampires.

The concept of casting monsters and creatures as the hero (or even anti-hero) EXPLODED in novels, television, film, and pop culture after Interview with the Vampire skyrocketed in success.

Boys Just Wanna Have Fun

J.K. Rowling reimagined Young Adult Fantasy when she decided to cast a young boy as her protagonist. Agents told her this was a terrible idea, because ‘boys didn’t read.’ And tween and teen boys definitely didn’t read.

***Maybe because all the YA books were girl books? Whatever. *rolling eyes*

Rowling, despite pressure to change Harry into a female protagonist, simply stuck to her guns and kept pressing then—BAMMO—the legend that is The Harry Potter franchise was born.

This success opened the YA door wide, and the genre took off.

Harry Potter was a breakout novel that not only redefined the genre, but it inspired everyday people and got them excited about reading.

The ‘NON-READERS.’

They’re the folks who’d rather be stuck in the DMV with no air conditioning than be forced to read a book…BUT they own every single Harry Potter (in hardcover).

50 Shades of WHAT?

As much as this pains me, Fifty Shades of Grey is traditional publishing’s last big breakout novel. The trilogy wasn’t discovered by a literary agent, rather it was picked up then rereleased by Vintage Books in April, 2012.

As I mentioned earlier, breakout novels will often defy convention and reimagine older, existing genres for a modern audience.

E.L. James certainly did NOT invent erotic literature, but her series certainly sparked renewed interest (and a LOT of controversy) in an old genre.

But let me remind you, Fifty Shades of Grey was the last massive breakout book for legacy publishing (and they picked it up only after it was successful as fan fiction then self-pub).

This means the market has gone over SEVEN years with no new breakout author.

That isn’t good.

Things Have GOT to Change

I recently blogged about the dismal fate of Barnes & Noble. Borders is long dead and B&N is no longer a baller. The independent bookstores haven’t had long enough to return to full strength.

This is scary.

The Big Six got in bed with the big bad wolf box bookstore and gutted their author middle class. NY publishing also never changed how they did business, and thus linked their survival to these mega-stores.

With their MASSIVE overhead and grossly inefficient methods, they had to have those multi-million-dollar preorders to keep the lights on.

But Elliot Management Corps. will be closing those giant B&N stores and they will be replacing them with smaller stores more reminiscent of the old days of B. Dalton.

Those guaranteed orders to fill ginormous twenty or thirty-thousand square foot stores are going away, and the mom-and-pop and indies aren’t yet healthy enough to make up that differential.

This spells serious financial trouble for what remains of legacy publishing. If they ever needed a breakout novel (author)?

NOW is that time.

Amazon’s Got a Bad Moon Rising, Too

Sure it was all fun and games when they weaponized writers against our former masters. They allowed everyone and anyone to publish (and I’m, personally, very grateful for that). But, this created a very different problem.

We NEED gatekeepers. There were over a million novels self-published just last year.

Of that number, how many do you think paid for professional and rigorous content editing and proofing?

This ‘Dump the Slush Pile in the Reader’s Lap Plan’ isn’t going to work. It’s already failing. If the major publishers who actually vet books collapse, then Amazon will take a massive hit unless they can figure a way to sift through those millions for books that are even readable (let alone any good).

I am glad Amazon is opening brick-and mortar stores, but they are smart-stocking these stores using algorithms. Part of that is a really good idea (one NY maybe should have thought of using).

Certain books/authors are more popular in certain areas (e.g. Tom Clancy is super popular in Florida, likely because of the dense population of retired vets).

It makes sense to see what is selling best in what state, city, etc. then use that data to decide what earns a spot on shelves.

But this method of stocking is rife with pitfalls.

Algorithms can be juked, and are gamed all the time. In fact, Amazon spends a ridiculous amount of time and resources combatting those cheating the system (largely China).

It’s one thing when Amazon is contending with ebooks and no physical copies are involved. But what about when those books are printed?

Rise of Plagiarism & Counterfeit Books

A recent New York Times article ‘What Happens After Amazon’s Domination is Complete? Its Bookstores Offer Clues‘ is the stuff of author nightmares:

Amazon takes a hands-off approach to what goes on in its bookstore, never checking the authenticity, much less the quality, of what it sells. It does not oversee the sellers who have flocked to its site in any organized way.

This has resulted in a kind of lawlessness. Publishers, writers and groups such as The Authors Guild assert that counterfeiting of books on Amazon has surged. 

David Streitfeld, via ‘The New York Times’, 6/23/19

It’s also being speculated that China Lit is hiring workers who are able to speak English, then using them to convert older successful books into ‘new’ ebooks.

The workers take those mothballed titles I mentioned in the B&N post—the ones that hit the New York Times and USA Today best-seller lists a couple decades ago—and they’re copying the story but changing the titles, then names of places and characters and enough wording that the plagiarism software doesn’t detect the forgeries.

Then, the books are loaded on KU as NEW titles…and this is how they’ll bankrupt the whole shebang.

Careful What You Wish For

Amazon got what it wanted and brought The Big Six to its knees, but now? They’re going to have to get serious about policing what they publish.

Amazon, much like what remains of legacy publishing, NEEDS a breakout novel. The reading world is desperate for a new book (or series) that is evocative, innovative and exciting to come along and revive those of us who’ve all but given up.

…and maybe inspire the next generation to read something other than text messages.

That Breakout Novel Could be YOURS

The problem with the past ten years is that learning better ways to market and advertise a book has taken over learning how to even WRITE one.

As a result, the overall quality of books has suffered.

When big publishing (rather the multi-media conglomerates in charge) kicked the author middle class to the curb, many authors quit writing. Others gravitated to self-publishing and indie.

Those authors who made it out with their backlists did well (REALLY well) self-publishing…until readers ate through their entire catalogue.

Now, many are struggling to write novellas, to be included in anthologies and put out short works to keep the fan fires burning. They’re overloaded trying to do it ALL on their own.

Like the rest of us, they just want to write great books.

These older authors came of age in a paradigm that gave them TIME to create. They had TIME to research, time for revisions and time for thorough edits without the pressure of churning out stories like a Play-Doh Un-Fun Factory so they ‘wouldn’t be forgotten.’

***FYI, no one forgot James Michener between books.

Alas, there is something to be said for books that take TIME to write, and the way things are?

Quality will only go down even more…if that’s even possible.

Hot Pocket Novels & Microwave Fiction

The indie, self-pub Amazon model has made it to where authors can’t take their time. They can’t write a book a year, or every eighteen months and make a living.

Many of those who are still traditionally publishing have chosen to also become hybrid authors (publishing other works via self-pub or indie). They have to in order to make a living.

But I think the novelty is wearing off (or hope it is)

Readers are growing weary of microwaveable fast-food fiction. Authors who initially could write to demand are burning out.

NY isn’t fooling anyone with ‘James Patterson’ releasing zillions of books every year. There are only so many good ghost writers, and those folks are wearing out, too.

That and the fans (okay maybe just me) are getting tired of stories that lack consistency in voice and quality. I enjoy James Patterson’s books, but I gave up because I never really knew what to expect.

Not to mention the generation of fans is aging out. Sure NY can keep hiring ghostwriters for the mega name brands, but those readers are aging out as well.

I’ve actually started reading classics because it’s increasingly harder to find books with a pre-digital age level of quality.

Granted, breakout novels can be fast-drafted (Fahrenheit 451), but a Harry Potter or Dune or an American Gods takes TIME.

Unless a new breakout novel comes along, the industry as a whole will suffer.

***Which is code for ‘opportunity.’

I do believe the pendulum will soon swing back to a semblance of sanity (and I have ways we could accomplish that but leaving for another post).

Forget the Money

For anyone reading this who wants to be the author of that next breakout novel, here’s some advice. Money is WONDERFUL, but too many people are fixated on profit at the expense of product.

The secret to success? Look at any market and see what’s missing and fill the need. And the world NEEDS more fantastic books.

What Are Your Thoughts? I LOVE Hearing From You!

I miss the days authors had TIME to write incredible stories. Do you think the digital age’s relentless pace is harming the industry?

Do you think there is a way Amazon (and others) can reestablish some form of sifting process? Establish gatekeepers again?

I love hearing your thoughts!

Just FYI, I’m extending the CLEARANCE sale a little longer, until new classes begin. We need to test the new Event Espresso license and this site’s functionality (we’ve updated everything). If you need a good plotting or character class, NOW is the time to get it.

I have to free up space on our servers. All my classes are detailed and average 2-3 hours. These are On Demand classes you can watch at your leisure and have fun while you learn (for classes, scroll down).

****For NEW classes, look in the footer.

This not only is to help you guys get the training you need (affordable summer school), but it will open up room for the new recordings of new classes.

Please take advantage of the sale! I rarely drop prices this low.

After July 17th, these classes will no longer be for sale (and will be slated for deletion).

Some, I will offer again later in the year. Others? I won’t be offering again the same way (will be likely splitting them into two classes because they ran long).

Thanks so much for your support!

ON DEMAND CLEARANCE ON BRANDING & CRAFT CLASSES!

Available until July 17th, 2019

CLEARANCE Branding, Social Media & Sales Classes

ON DEMAND T.K.O. BUNDLE: Branding, Blogging & Sales for Authors

$99 (Regularly $165)

ON DEMAND Brand Boss: Branding for Authors

$35 (Regularly $55)

ON DEMAND Sales for Writers: Sell Books Not Your SOUL

$35 (Regularly $55)

ON DEMAND Blogging for Authors

$35 (Regularly $55)

Also Offering:

ON DEMAND Social Schizophrenia: Building a Brand WITHOUT Losing Your Mind

$35 (Regularly $55)

CLEARANCE Craft Classes

Plot Boss: Writing Books Readers Want to BUY!

$35 (Regularly $55)

Fiction Addiction: The ‘Secret’ Ingredient Readers Crave

$35 (Regularly $55)

Story Master: From Dream to DONE

$35 (Regularly $55)

The Art of Character: Creating Dimensional ‘People’ in Fiction

$35 (Regularly $55)

Beyond Bulletproof Barbie: Creating Strong Female Characters for a Modern World

$35 (Regularly $55)

The post The Breakout Novel & Why Publishing is Desperate for the Next BIG Thing appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

New publishing houses? Image via Flickr Creative Commons, courtesy of WIDEHAUS.

FREE! For the love of all that is chocolate, free us from FREE! *takes soothing breath* I’ve been blogging for over ten years, a witness to the terrifying and extraordinary changes in publishing.

Initially, I was NO fan of self-publishing because entropy is alive and well…even with books. I knew once we opened Pandora’s Publishing, there would be no turning back.

Sometimes I really hate being right.

Amazon (and others) weaponized on-line shopping and launched us into an age of FREE, EASY, CHEAP, ACCESSIBLE and LEGAL.

Or, as I like to call it—Operation F.E.C.A.L.

Amazon wanted to implode traditional publishing. Their goal was to dominate on-line retail and raze the big-box model in order to make room for new brick-and-mortar Amazon stores (smaller and smart-stocked using algorithms). What better way to obliterate publishing than by handing out author participation trophies?

Yet, there have been plenty of consequences. Namely, LOTS of F.E.C.A.L. material out there.

A lot. *swats flies away*

It began innocently enough…

Authors Longed to Be FREE

Before social media, Amazon, self-publishing, etc. authors had little to no control over the business of their business. Only two viable publishing options existed—traditional and vanity press.

So let’s make that ONE viable publishing option. Vanity press published anyone willing to pay to play author.

Vanity publishers had a singular standard writers needed to pass—a credit check. If the check cleared or the credit charge went through? Bada bing bada boom! Welcome to being ‘a published author.’

Alas, on the other end, traditional publishers were hardly a panacea. For brevity’s sake, I recommend my posts Real Writers Don’t Self Publish Part One and Part Two.

I want to make it CLEAR that I hold no allegiance to any one form of publishing. All paths have advantages and disadvantages.

The traditional publishing model pretty much tossed authors against a wall like spaghetti noodles. If you ‘stuck?’ Go you! You get another contract.

For more on how the publishing business ACTUALLY works, I’ve already explained, in detail, the ugly truth about traditional publishing and how to actually support the authors we love.

The Book Borg

Anyway, once the big-box bookstores arrived on scene like the Borg suddenly warping into sensor range, writers took the hardest hit. Publishers looooved the big-box concept because their business model relied on massive pre-orders to fund the machine (and still does).

****Take a gander at HOW many books it takes to FILL bookstores that had an average size of 26,000 feet (going as HIGH as 60,000). Can you say KA-CHING?

Publishers reveled in the boom. Meanwhile, many authors who’d previously made an excellent living during the Indie Bookstore era, had to dust off the resume.

Big-box stores bought books in volume. Yet, they ordered a TON of what books were most likely to SELL in volume. Thus, many mid-list authors who’d previously enjoyed a healthy income off twelve, twenty or even forty books now only made royalties off ONE (their most current novel).

Authors who were already household names did better than ever because of simple math and Business 101. What Borders or Barnes & Noble wasn’t going to carry every single Stephen King book ever written?

Nothing personal. Only business.

Problem was, virtually the entire author middle class stood shellshocked, ears ringing, arms loaded with a backlist of excellent books now rendered worthless.

Publishers—smitten with paper—didn’t even consider releasing these titles solely as e-books. Instead, they blithely handed seasoned authors their rights to these mothballed backlists.

Unchained

Amazon (and other self-publishing outlets like Smashwords) breathed life back into great books that HAD passed the gatekeepers. Many could legitimately claim New York Times Best Seller or USA Today Best Seller status.

Self-publishing provided authors who’d passed the gauntlets and invested years cultivating a vetted backlist a fresh way to breath new life into ‘old’ books.

In Christmas of 2009, when e-readers finally tipped into mainstream, readers were dying for titles to load on the new Kindle. Authors who’d defected made bank. These authors also improved self-publishing’s image problem.

Before 2009, most viewed self-publishing as a cheap version of vanity press. It certainly was not seen as a viable publishing path.

But, then writers got creative and soon success stories emerged. The dark horse authors like Hugh Howey and Wool, Andy Weir and The Martian, and Amanda Hocking emerged.

Yet, something ‘else’ emerged.

The Authorpreneur

Before Amazon, Smashwords, social media, algorithms, etc. most writers became writers because they loved to WRITE. Sure, I think it’s fair to say most of us wanted to be successful and make money, but cash was not our primary motivation.

Then folks like John Locke changed the literary landscape. In my POV? This is where everything changed (and NOT for the better). Granted, kudos to Locke and his success. I even (tried) to read his How I Sold a Million E-Books in 5 Months, but there were not enough antacids in the world for me to finish.

See, Locke wasn’t writing because of any love for the written word. A book, to him, was a commodity like a cheap cheeseburger (his words). To his credit, he saw and capitalized on a rare alignment of the stars and won big.

Yet, he made bank only because he hit the ground hard with ebooks right as people were starting to use e-readers and there was a dearth of e-books on the market.

Since traditional publishers refused to lower prices, readers swarmed to FREE and .99 books faster than a cloud of Alabama gnats into a fresh glass of sweet tea.

With pretty much the same results.

Readers stuck, mired and drowning and trying to escape the very thing that lured them in. Readers swarmed in for the FREE, only to realize they were trapped in bad writing, terrible formatting, and did I mention bad writing?

Plenty of other authors followed suit with FREE books! And CHEAP books! These writers sold a lot of books and earned some impressive titles.

Yet, it took time for consumers (readers) to catch on that FREE was almost ALWAYS a giant waste of time.

Over the next few years, various other gimmicks caught on. Free books, cheap books, box sets, juking algorithms, and even authors who relied on flat out deception—brand confusion—to garner sales.

I seriously had an ‘authorpreneur’ who did this and gave me this ‘business advice.’ According to this business-savvy person, I could, say, take the ‘pen name’ of Jane Evonovech then make my covers resemble a real Janet Evanovich. Similar colors, fonts, styling, etc.

Because that isn’t shady AT ALL.

SMH.

Back then, Amazon was far from perfecting algorithms, so these Bait-and-Switch Rotex Authors DID sell a lot of books, make a ton of money, and were able to claim NTYBSA status…riding the tails of a legitimate author’s success.

Of course, when this person gave me said ‘advice,’ I parted with my own council. Save for a good attorney. You’ll need one. And I was right.

Also, I prefer to earn my sales and titles on my own merit, thanks.

BOOK BUSY-NESS

Over the past few years, I’ve lost count of the fads and gimmicks. Amazon often tried launching new ways for readers to discover new authors AND for writers (Amazon) to make money.

The fundamental problem with Amazon has always been the same. They think like John Locke. To Amazon, a novel might as well be a selfie-stick, a tent, a push-up bra or a banana slicer.

There’s no inherent reverence for writing as a craft and an art. In the Amazon business model, consumers are the ‘gate-keepers’ for everything. Yet, when it comes to a book, Amazon can’t refund the readers’ TIME. Sure the book was free, but our time was not.

Consequences of FREE

Amazon doesn’t care about ONE author selling millions of books. Why? Easier to have half a million wanna-be-authors sell twenty books.

Then coax them to write more and more and more books that only sell twenty copies. All those eager creatives hitting PUBLISH like pulling a lever on a slot machine and praying for triple 7s.

***Meanwhile paying for cover art, interior design, and promotional material.

The big-box store supported one oligarchy at the expense of the mid-list and new authors. We broke FREE! Only to fuel a brand new oligarchy. A handful of people getting rich off the work of the many.

Sprinkle just enough success to keep the ‘many’ trying their luck.

The rest of us regular folks? Well, we’re left with the landfill of toxic waste hoping to find something worth our time. It’s why I only buy fiction off Audible. If a book sucks (and MANY do, even from Big Five publishers), I can return it with no problem. If I like a book, THEN I buy in paper.

For Love or Money?

I’ve been in this business long enough to notice the changes. Early on, writers were adamantly opposed to branding, social media, platform-building, etc. All that mattered was the quality of the book because they LOVED and RESPECTED the written word.

It’s why my merely mentioning on-line branding was enough to induce apoplexy.

The problem (as I saw it in 2008) was that eventually traditional publishers were going to require a brand, platform, social media presence as well as a superior book. They had to in order to keep up with (okay, stay alive in) the new F.E.C.A.L. business model.

Borders had imploded and Barnes & Noble was already bleeding. With fewer POS (Point of Sales) locations more people were shopping on-line.

I knew there was no getting out of building a brand and on-line platform, so might as well get started as soon as possible (without gimmicks and juking algorithms and spamming the crap out of everyone).

The whole reason I created the methods I did in Rise of the Machines was so writers had time to write, to learn and grow and improve. What I teach is EVERGREEN. Technology changes, people don’t.

Alas, the lure of easy money is hard to combat.

Too many ‘published authors’ know everything about promotion, yet not a damn thing about punctuation. I used to advise against a pen name, but now?

If I wrote that badly? I’d hide, too.

Where Do We Draw the Line?

Cait’s post last time, Five Things Your Editor Hates About You summed up a lot of frustration. I’ve always loved blogging, teaching craft, helping writers grow from newbies to real artists.

Self-publishing and indie has had plenty of benefits (I.e. I could publish books on social media for writers, YAY!). But we all need to stop and do a gut check.

Where do we draw the line? What are we willing to do and not do? What is acceptable and what is UNacceptable?

These days, there are so many tricks and gimmicks that the ‘real writers’—those of us in this for the craft and the art—are sinking deeper and deeper into so much F.E.C.A.L. material we cannot outpace it…ever.

If we can’t outpace it, we must OUTSHINE it.

More ‘authors’ know more about how to buy promotional g-strings in bulk than they do POV, pacing, and structure. Operation F.E.C.A.L. has been such a massive success, we’re all eyeball deep in free crap and about to go under for good.

Question is, are we going to contribute more F.E.C.A.L. material? Or will we draw a line and give our craft the respect, time and dedication it deserves? Because a real author writes, reads, learns, grows, takes some lumps from REAL critique, and improves.

Freedom is not FREE.

Real writers learn to spell and punctuate or at least pay or barter with someone who can help them spell and punctuate. AUTHORS learn structure, take classes, and seek mentors.

Real authors push their abilities more than free pens. They don’t shovel out $#!& and call it a series.

Ten years ago, my best advice to writers was to learn the business of their business so they didn’t get fleeced. Now? My best advice is for writers to learn how to actually write.

Spend less time and money gold-plating turds and do the work. Leave the participation trophies to those who’ve ‘earned’ them. The rest of us have real author stuff to do.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Other than I am a super mean jerk? I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up. I don’t want any free books. My in-box is deluged with free.

This is even impacting the Big Five.

I PREORDERED a book five months before release because I loved the author’s first book so much. The second book was….

BEYOND bad.

Of course it ended up a NYT best-seller (probably from pre-sales from people like me who expected better). It was published by Simon & Schuster…and it was a pile of unreadable detritus.

Maybe it’s me.

Do you see traditional publishers seeming to cave on quality to keep pace? Are you tired of having to slog through crap? Is it hard to stick to your guns when so many writers are churning out books like a plastic dog-poo factory?

As for me? I don’t care. I’d love to be a gazillionaire but not if I have to churn out F.E.C.A.L. material.

I love hearing from you!

What do you WIN? For the month of JUNE, for 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 of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

Upcoming Classes!

Instructor: Cait Reynolds

Price: $55.00 USD

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: Friday, June 22, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Remember Moonlighting? Dave and Maddie were the hottest thing ever…and then they kissed…and it was still kinda hot…and then they really got together and settled down to blissful domesticated bickering. And…we all stopped watching.

Because it was boring.

Remember the X-Files? The lucullan feast of smoldering restraint that was Mulder and Scully? Chris Carter refused to give the fans what they wanted with a kiss at the series end, and while fans gnashed their teeth, it was a kind of pro forma gnashing because we were still interested and could still dream about what might happen.

While the episode-based storytelling of television allows romance to be the B-plot (and only when it feels like it), novels are different. Whether we are writing squeaky clean romance or too-much-wasabi-level-hot erotica, we are always dealing with the same basic principle of THE TEASE.

And for all that romance gets a bad rap and is scorned as being ‘easy’ to write, sustaining the delicious, rippling tension and fizzing chemistry between characters is one of the hardest techniques to master. This class can help you (literally) keep the romance alive well past the 80,000-word mark and beyond!

Topics covered in this class include:

• ‘So, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want’: recognizing what the reader wants, what the reader really wants but doesn’t know, and what the reader needs;
• How to Flirt with the Reader: giving an inch but taking a mile when it comes to sweet/romantic/sexy moments;
• Clean and Mean: putting the spark in sweet romance and fanning the flame without risking the brimstone;
• Down and Dirty: putting the emotion in erotica so every encounter leaves the reader panting for more…for more than one reason;
• The Speed Dating Trap: how to balance interest, interaction, and attraction without falling for the trap of insta-love (just add fate/pheromones/booze);
• Making it Last: how to chart a course for romance and pace it so it lasts…all book long…
• So much more!…

A free recording of the class is included in the purchase. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Instructor: Cait Reynolds

Price: $45.00 USD

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: Saturday, June 23, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. EST

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

There’s something dashingly defiant and alluring about a proper young lady who throws caution (and often her petticoats) to the wind and picks up a sword to fight for what she believes in.

Whether it’s Eowyn from Lord of the Rings or Elizabeth (Badass) Bennet from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, we all love that moment when a woman rises up to prove she’s more than society ever expected her to be.

Yet the market today is flooded with fantasy and historical that carry more trope baggage than Marie Antoinette for a long weekend at the Petit Trianon (sheep not included).

In fantasy, there are girls raised in servitude who suddenly discover their magical powers and royal heritage and must (really quickly) learn to wield swords and spells in order to save the kingdom.

Historical often isn’t much better, taking naive nineteen year-olds and turning them into near-legendary brigands, highwaymen, and pirates within the space of a few months.

Lack of believability, lack of character depth and arc, and lack of world-building/historical knowledge are the three major pitfalls when creating Ye Olde Action Heroine.

Luckily, this class will give writers a map with all literary here-be-hippogriffs clearly marked. Whether your gal is besieged by dragons, in a castle under siege, or in a castle under siege by dragons, this class can help!

This class will cover:

• En Garde! Choosing her weapons wisely;
• Ye Olde Fight Club: getting real about time & training;
• Why, How, and When: how to realistically get her on the path from baking to badassery;
• Hard Knocks: how to use failure and lack of skill mastery to create compelling character arcs;
• The Joan of Arc trap: how to avoid creating miracles and martyrs (unless you really mean it);
• The Pirate Bride: defining femininity in fantasy and historical in order ‘rebel’ against it;
• Consequences: what are the short- and long-term consequences of flouting convention?
• World Building & Re-Building: getting fantasy and historical settings right for your characters;
• And so much more…

A recording of this class is also included with purchase. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Instructor: Kristen Lamb

Price: $45.00 USD

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: Saturday, June 23, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. EST

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Female characters have evolved from ‘damsel in distress’ to the ‘hardcore badass.’ Problem is, fictional females escaped one boring mold only to end up in another even MORE boring mold.

But with lipgloss AND karate!

Strong female characters fascinate audiences on the page and on the screen. From Atomic Blonde to Wonder Woman, Special Agent Scully to Dr. Laura Isles, women can exude power and danger in a variety of ways.

Sadly, the badass female has devolved into a tired trope with the depth of a puddle.

This class is to challenge the concept of the dangerous woman as protagonist and antagonist. Creating a powerful woman involves more than handing her weapons, a black belt, and a terminal case of RBF (Resting B$#@% Face).

• • Expanding ‘who’ the dangerous woman IS;
  • Still waters run DEEP;
  • Broadening backstory;
  • Motives matter;
  • The ‘Tomb Raider’ effect;
  • Combat, weapons, tactics;
  • Expanding her ‘arsenal’;
  • Generating authentic dramatic action/tension;
  • Making the dangerous dame ‘likable’;
  • AND MORE…

As an author, competitive shooter, and former combatives instructor, there are few characters I LOVE more than a kickass female action hero. Conversely, fewer things vex me more than the tired cookie-cutter female action hero trope. Women can be powerful in a myriad of ways, beyond hand-to-hand combat and shooting everyone in the FACE.

This said, while we’ll explore a wide variety of powerful women, if you long to write that female action hero, this class will (hopefully) make sure you do her justice.

A recording of this class is also included with purchase. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Can’t seem to choose between pirate princesses and bulletproof Barbies? We don’t blame you…and, you don’t have to!

With the Dangerous Dames BUNDLE, get both classes and SAVE MONEY.

Purchased separately, each class is $45. Go for BOTH and get $90 of instruction for ONLY $75. You also get to spend a HUGE part of the day with ME (Kristen Lamb) and my partner in crime Cait Reynolds.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Date: Saturday, June 23, 2018

Price: $75.00 USD 

PRINCESS PRODIGY: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. EST

BULLETPROOF BARBIE: 2:00-4:00 p.m. EST

*Recordings of both classes included with purchase.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

The post Operation F.E.C.A.L: New Publishing & The High Cost of FREE appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Actually, it’s you. Love, the Editor.

Harsh, I know. Alas, sometimes tough love is necessary for the greater good. Cait Reynolds here today, and what I’m about to reveal is the secret heart’s cry of pretty much every freelance editor (at least the ones that don’t just run manuscripts through Grammarly).

Having worked as a freelance editor for many years, I’ve seen it all from the articulate and amazing, to the works of pure WTH?

I’ve also been given ARCs of books that are ‘professionally edited,’ but are appallingly full of typos, grammatical errors, and trite characters and plots.

I’m not necessarily blaming the editors in these cases. I get it. Sometimes, a work is simply so awful that we would have to completely rewrite it just to get it into passable shape. And, for a fraction of a penny per word, it isn’t worth it.

While there are definitely things editors can do to start helping to correct and cure this epidemic of literary mediocrity, there are things that writers need to do as well. That’s what I’m going to focus on today.

An editor hates…

1. When writers think they don’t have to do at least one or two rounds of their own editing before sending us a manuscript.

I’m not just talking about proofreading for commas (though, that’s another thing coming up). Everyone is in such a rush these days to get their work up on Amazon as fast as they can. So many authors finish up a “manuscript,” hit save, and then email it to their editor without a second thought….or a second look.

Let me throw out this hypothetical situation. Say we were sending this manuscript to an editor at Harper Collins or Penguin. Would we hit save and then send it off without combing through every line?

Or, would we let the manuscript sit for a week or two, giving our brain time and distance so we can go back at it with fresh eyes? Would we read through it critically, looking for (and correcting!) everything from typos and inconsistencies to doughy dialogue and plot holes? Would we repeat this process at least once if not twice more?

We probably would because we know the editor is probably hard-to-please with extremely high expectations about the degree of polish in any work they receive.

So why is sending a manuscript to a freelance editor any different? It shouldn’t be.

Freelance editors aren’t entirely innocent in this, either. We take on work instead of asking for a sample to see what the manuscript is like and then refusing to work on it until the author has gone back and cleaned it up. But, Amazon KDP has both exacerbated and preyed on authors’ fear of rejection to create a murky industry that cycles off of accepting mediocrity as a norm.

I digress.

2. When authors shop around for the cheapest editing services instead of the best editing services.

Editing is one of those things in life where we really do get what we pay for.

Professional freelance editors with experience and training beyond “I love reading,” and “I’m a writer, too,” are pretty rare commodities these days. If we are lucky enough to be taken on by one of these editorial unicorns, we should expect to pay the going rate for unicorns.

Many authors don’t want to go that route because it would mean having to save up money and probably publish fewer books. I don’t think that’s a bad thing because not every idea will make a good book.

Also, like cheese, wine, and wisdom, good ideas and stories need time to mature. We need time to noodle and daydream, to experience those moments of sudden inspiration while doing the dishes or walking the dog.

Instead, far too many authors slap down 60,000 words for whatever idea pops into their heads and then rush on to the next idea. Because if we’re not putting out three books a month, we’re gonna get tossed off the KDP Hamster Wheel of Death.

Producing books in volume means paying for production with an eye to getting volume-discounted services.

The average going rate for editors who provide services to these authors is about $240 for two rounds of editing on a 60,000-word manuscript.

Let’s say that an average editing effort takes 20 hours. That’s $12/hr (before self-employment taxes). It’s only our aversion to fryolators that keeps us from going to work at McDonald’s.

I’m not even going to talk about how authors will pay $500-$800 for a custom cover design but want that $200 editing job to cover concept editing, line editing, and proofreading. It’s enough to turn an editor into a jumper. Or cover designer because screw this $h!t.

An editor gets stabby when…

3. All an author does is accept track changes and sends the manuscript back for round two.

Yes, I have received manuscripts back like this. It’s like the author just ignored all conceptual, content, and craft comments I painstakingly made. This is frustrating because it makes editing incredibly tedious. More than that, it’s disheartening.

When a writer ignores editorial guidance, he or she is also turning down the opportunity to become better at the craft of writing. A good editor doesn’t just catch typos and minor inconsistencies. A skilled editor can identify a writer’s strengths and weaknesses and teach the writer to enhance the first and correct the second.

I’m not sure why writers are so often dismissive of editorial suggestions. Is it because they are in such a rush to get the book out (I see you, KDP Hamster Wheel of Death) that they simply don’t have the time to do a proper editing job?

Or, could it be that they don’t want to take on the daunting task of tearing apart a completed manuscript and painstakingly reworking and rewriting it? Maybe it’s because they’re afraid that trying to improve their writing would imply they’re not that good to start with and probably would never be able to get a traditional publishing contract.

Ignoring editorial guidance is also disrespectful. Let’s go back to that Harper Collins example. How inclined would we be to ignore an editor from Harper Collins who returned our manuscript with suggestions for not only reworking a good third of the book to tighten the plot, but also for learning to be more succinct yet vivid with our descriptions (meaning we need to go page-by-page on our own and make changes)?

So, why ignore guidance and suggestions just because an editor is freelance?

4. There are stupid grammar and usage mistakes in a manuscript.

Seriously. While I get that there are some fine points with grammar that we all fumble with from time-to-time, there is absolutely NO excuse for using the wrong word or using a word incorrectly.

Words are a writer’s business, like medicine is a doctor’s business. How much would we trust a doctor who glanced at a fractured tibia and said, “Uh, seems like you broke your leg thingy.”

How about a list of cringe-inducing usage mistakes I see every single day in manuscripts and self-published books?

• Conscious/conscience
• Weary/wary
• Disdain/distain
• Wondering/wandering
• Past time/pastime
• Shuttered/shuddered
• Chocked/choked
• Peak/pique/peek
• Lossed (not even a word)/lost
• Passed/past
• Lead/led

Are some of these typos or bleary brain slip-ups? Maybe, but frankly, these should be caught and corrected long before an editor ever sees the manuscript. However, when the wrong word is used consistently, that tells me the writer doesn’t actually know the meaning.

Even worse, when I see incorrect usage that has made it into the final book, I’m ninety-nine percent sure the editor doesn’t know what he or she is doing…or committed seppuku halfway through the editing process.

In terms of grammar, I get that we all have different levels of training. However, just like we don’t want a broken-leg-thingy doctor, I don’t want to see writers who don’t know and don’t bother to learn the most basic rules of language.

Personally, I like the Oxford English Dictionaries’ online grammar reference.

And finally, an editor really, really hates…

 5. When we can tell all a writer really wants is the look-at-me-I-published-a-book participation trophy.

The National Association of Recovering Freelancers* put out a study that said four out of five freelance editors suffer a nervous breakdown due to the near-lethal combination of shoddy writing, shoddier story conceptualization and development, and repeated exposure to bad grammar.

*I totally made up the National Association of Recovering Freelancers, but now that I think of it, I really like the acronym, N.A.R.F. Very ‘Pinky and the Brain.’

What drives freelance editors to give it all up? Why do they consider it more productive to search Pinterest compulsively for DIY seashell crafting than to edit a manuscript?

Part of it is the money. It’s also the soul-dulling tedium of slogging through clunky prose, bad grammar, and tired tropes (at $0.004 to $0.006 per word). Most of all, it’s nihilistic realization that so many writers care more about seeing their name on Amazon than whether their readers are getting the best possible story they could write.

Without the Amazon KDP platform, almost none of these writers would ever stand a chance with literary agents and traditional publishers. While the pre-KDP era was far from perfect, repeated rejection had one MAJOR benefit: either the writing got better, or it was never inflicted on the unsuspecting public.

It was the publishing industry’s equivalent of telling the broken-leg-thingy doctor to either go back to school or consider a different career like professional Zamboni driving.

See? Not all gatekeeping is a bad thing. But, freelance editors now have all the work and none of the power, and the reading public is the worse for it.

Harsh but hopeful?

The fact that you are here and reading this blog gives me hope. It means you actually care about becoming a better storyteller and craftsman. It isn’t that freelance editors want to see perfection right off the bat. We merely long to see progress.

Freelance editors do this because we love the written word. We are unflaggingly idealistic, optimistic, and altruistic…until we’re not.

If you or someone you love is a freelance editor who is showing signs of stress (common signs and symptoms include wild-eyed staring at the screen, increased consumption of alcohol/caffeine, and muttering, “Alas, poor literature, we hardly knew ye!”), N.A.R.F. recommends the following treatment options:

• Vitamin D. Take your freelance editor outside and reassure them that the light will not actually burn;
• Laugh therapy. Expose your freelance editor to a minimum of three minutes of cat videos twice a day;
• Calm panic attacks. Repeating “All is right with Strunk and White,” in a low, soothing voice will help ease anxiety;
• Homeopathic literature. Provide your freelance editor with Pulitzer Prize- or Mann Booker Prize-winning books. A selection of classic literature will also work in an emergency;
• Career development. Gently suggest that your freelance editor consider a different career…

Perhaps something in cover design?

I love hearing from you!

What do you WIN? For the month of JUNE, for 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 of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

Upcoming Classes!

Instructor: Cait Reynolds

Price: $55.00 USD

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: Friday, June 22, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Remember Moonlighting? Dave and Maddie were the hottest thing ever…and then they kissed…and it was still kinda hot…and then they really got together and settled down to blissful domesticated bickering. And…we all stopped watching.

Because it was boring.

Remember the X-Files? The lucullan feast of smoldering restraint that was Mulder and Scully? Chris Carter refused to give the fans what they wanted with a kiss at the series end, and while fans gnashed their teeth, it was a kind of pro forma gnashing because we were still interested and could still dream about what might happen.

While the episode-based storytelling of television allows romance to be the B-plot (and only when it feels like it), novels are different. Whether we are writing squeaky clean romance or too-much-wasabi-level-hot erotica, we are always dealing with the same basic principle of THE TEASE.

And for all that romance gets a bad rap and is scorned as being ‘easy’ to write, sustaining the delicious, rippling tension and fizzing chemistry between characters is one of the hardest techniques to master. This class can help you (literally) keep the romance alive well past the 80,000-word mark and beyond!

Topics covered in this class include:

• ‘So, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really, really want’: recognizing what the reader wants, what the reader really wants but doesn’t know, and what the reader needs;
• How to Flirt with the Reader: giving an inch but taking a mile when it comes to sweet/romantic/sexy moments;
• Clean and Mean: putting the spark in sweet romance and fanning the flame without risking the brimstone;
• Down and Dirty: putting the emotion in erotica so every encounter leaves the reader panting for more…for more than one reason;
• The Speed Dating Trap: how to balance interest, interaction, and attraction without falling for the trap of insta-love (just add fate/pheromones/booze);
• Making it Last: how to chart a course for romance and pace it so it lasts…all book long…
• So much more!…

A free recording of the class is included in the purchase. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Instructor: Cait Reynolds

Price: $45.00 USD

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: Saturday, June 23, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. EST

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

There’s something dashingly defiant and alluring about a proper young lady who throws caution (and often her petticoats) to the wind and picks up a sword to fight for what she believes in.

Whether it’s Eowyn from Lord of the Rings or Elizabeth (Badass) Bennet from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, we all love that moment when a woman rises up to prove she’s more than society ever expected her to be.

Yet the market today is flooded with fantasy and historical that carry more trope baggage than Marie Antoinette for a long weekend at the Petit Trianon (sheep not included).

In fantasy, there are girls raised in servitude who suddenly discover their magical powers and royal heritage and must (really quickly) learn to wield swords and spells in order to save the kingdom.

Historical often isn’t much better, taking naive nineteen year-olds and turning them into near-legendary brigands, highwaymen, and pirates within the space of a few months.

Lack of believability, lack of character depth and arc, and lack of world-building/historical knowledge are the three major pitfalls when creating Ye Olde Action Heroine.

Luckily, this class will give writers a map with all literary here-be-hippogriffs clearly marked. Whether your gal is besieged by dragons, in a castle under siege, or in a castle under siege by dragons, this class can help!

This class will cover:

• En Garde! Choosing her weapons wisely;
• Ye Olde Fight Club: getting real about time & training;
• Why, How, and When: how to realistically get her on the path from baking to badassery;
• Hard Knocks: how to use failure and lack of skill mastery to create compelling character arcs;
• The Joan of Arc trap: how to avoid creating miracles and martyrs (unless you really mean it);
• The Pirate Bride: defining femininity in fantasy and historical in order ‘rebel’ against it;
• Consequences: what are the short- and long-term consequences of flouting convention?
• World Building & Re-Building: getting fantasy and historical settings right for your characters;
• And so much more…

A recording of this class is also included with purchase. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Instructor: Kristen Lamb

Price: $45.00 USD

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: Saturday, June 23, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. EST

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Female characters have evolved from ‘damsel in distress’ to the ‘hardcore badass.’ Problem is, fictional females escaped one boring mold only to end up in another even MORE boring mold.

But with lipgloss AND karate!

Strong female characters fascinate audiences on the page and on the screen. From Atomic Blonde to Wonder Woman, Special Agent Scully to Dr. Laura Isles, women can exude power and danger in a variety of ways.

Sadly, the badass female has devolved into a tired trope with the depth of a puddle.

This class is to challenge the concept of the dangerous woman as protagonist and antagonist. Creating a powerful woman involves more than handing her weapons, a black belt, and a terminal case of RBF (Resting B$#@% Face).

• • Expanding ‘who’ the dangerous woman IS;
  • Still waters run DEEP;
  • Broadening backstory;
  • Motives matter;
  • The ‘Tomb Raider’ effect;
  • Combat, weapons, tactics;
  • Expanding her ‘arsenal’;
  • Generating authentic dramatic action/tension;
  • Making the dangerous dame ‘likable’;
  • AND MORE…

As an author, competitive shooter, and former combatives instructor, there are few characters I LOVE more than a kickass female action hero. Conversely, fewer things vex me more than the tired cookie-cutter female action hero trope. Women can be powerful in a myriad of ways, beyond hand-to-hand combat and shooting everyone in the FACE.

This said, while we’ll explore a wide variety of powerful women, if you long to write that female action hero, this class will (hopefully) make sure you do her justice.

A recording of this class is also included with purchase. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Can’t seem to choose between pirate princesses and bulletproof Barbies? We don’t blame you…and, you don’t have to!

With the Dangerous Dames BUNDLE, get both classes and SAVE MONEY.

Purchased separately, each class is $45. Go for BOTH and get $90 of instruction for ONLY $75. You also get to spend a HUGE part of the day with ME (Kristen Lamb) and my partner in crime Cait Reynolds.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Date: Saturday, June 23, 2018

Price: $75.00 USD 

PRINCESS PRODIGY: 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. EST

BULLETPROOF BARBIE: 2:00-4:00 p.m. EST

*Recordings of both classes included with purchase.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

The post Five Things Your Editor Hates About You appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Last time, I brought up a subject I never believed would warrant discussing—cockygate.  I wish this was the first time a writer did something epically misguided to gain advantage. Some drama to sell their ‘story.’ But, I’ve been around too long. Seen too much.

Yes, I was there for the BIG BANG (dot.com implosion). I also witnessed Web 2.0 shoot out of the dying Web 1.0’s ribcage then skitter up into the vents.

Where did it GO? What is it up to? What does it WANT?

Good Question

As early as 2004, I projected the digital tsunami that was going to obliterate the world as we knew it.

Why is ‘Age of Aquarius’ suddenly stuck in my head?

Anyway, it began with Napster and Tower Records, then Kodak, blah blah and starting in 2006 I began blogging and predicting the next industry to fall…and the next…and even how and roughly when it would happen. All along I insisted publishing and writers needed to be prepared because we were also in its path.

Over the course my first years as a ‘social media/branding expert’ (an occupation widely regarded as a made-up job like ‘unicorn groomer’) I noted a trend.

Pretty much every year, new and evolved ‘bright idea fairies’ (BIFs) hatched with frightening regularity. This trend continues because shortcuts are tempting. Um…cockygate.

Enough said.

BIFs masquerade as a super cool idea, when in reality they’re total gimmicks that do more harm than good.

***Which is why I dedicated a year of research to write Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World.

Social platforms change all the time.

Know what never changes? People.

Just read Shakespeare, watch Dateline, or go look up your ex on FB. People don’t change. This is why I wrote Rise of the Machines to be evergreen.

Only now I may need to update because cockygate sucker-punched us all. I feel like Proctor & Gamble now having to warn teenagers not to eat Tide Pods *sighs*.

Story Matters

Yes, really.

We writers are wise to remember a few fundamentals. Stories are for the reader. Story is our product. Readers are our customers who pay money for our product. Readers want a good…story. They really want a superlative story.

Far too many authors don’t need better marketing skills, they need better storytelling skills.

This is simple, though simple is rarely easy. Superior stories are more crucial than ever if we take a quick peek at our industry.

See, when Amazon scope-locked on publishing, they knew exactly how to dismantle the establishment. According to the ancient self-help inspirational guru Sun Tzu, there are only two forms of warfare—direct and oblique.

Amazon is all about the oblique.

Who wanted to go head-to-head with The Big Six? Like, be a real publisher who discovers and cultivates awesome books? How derivative *flips hair*.

Nope. Amazon was not about to face off with NYC where legacy publishing had over a century of dominance. Besides, too much work. Instead?

Get rid of gatekeepers. Open the market to anyone who wanted to string a bunch of sentences together and call it a story. In turn, they get to call themselves ‘published authors.’ Win-win!

Not all of it was bad.

Amazon was banking that excellent books had fallen through the traditional model cracks (very true). They also gambled that some authors not only had a good book, but also possessed sound business skills (also true). Then, there were all these hungry, innovative writers eager to be cut loose and try new ideas like the blog-to-book.

The Martian never would have happened under the old regime.

There were also plenty of traditionally published New York Times best-selling authors and USA Today best-selling authors with HUGE backlists…that NY mothballed. #OUCH

Paper was heavy and expensive and the big-box-bookstore only had so much shelf-space. This meant making royalties off only the most recent title (instead of compounded royalties off 10, 20 or 50 titles).

Amazon offered a place to get these already vetted stories back into reader hands.

The only major advantage traditional publishers ever had was distribution. Yet, in a world of 0s and 1s, this advantage disappeared.

Tough truth.

Amazon doesn’t invest in authors or books. They don’t make money off one book selling a million copies. It’s far easier to make money off a hundred thousand ‘writers’ selling ten books. And, Laws of Probability dictate that, out of that hundred thousand writers, a runaway hit will emerge and with that?

A DREAM.

Between mid-list defectors and undiscovered gems, Amazon has reinvented the American Dream for writers. They also reasonably wagered it would only take a few years before legacy publishing would no longer be the first choice for many emerging authors.

The lure of these success stories would be too much to resist.

Problem was, this meant the slush-pile landed square in the readers’ laps.

Story Solutions

In this new business model we do have options. We can chase the next ad/promotion/algorithm/writing gimmick like a cat after a red dot. Or we can get back to basics, the ‘stuff’ that’s worked since the beginning of time.

Earlier I mentioned humans don’t change. If we fully grasp this, building a platform becomes far easier. So does writing.

Humans have longed for great stories since the HUGE stick and ‘ability to make fire’ was the most advanced tech available.

Sadly, in the digital age, too many writers rush, either out of newbie enthusiasm or veteran panic. Emerging authors often rush the learning curve (how to actually WRITE a good story). Veteran authors who know how to write, frequently cave to rushing the process.

Faster isn’t always better. It’s like microwaving a turkey. Takes only a fraction of the time, but who wants to eat THAT?

Tips for Better Stories

Ditch the Derivative

Readers want the same but different. Bad copies of stories that are ‘hot’ are simply bad copies. My challenge is for all of us to use that robust imagination for the powers of good. Amateurs retool stories. Artists reimagine them .

A Thousand Acres—King Lear on an Iowa farm.

Wicked—The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West—There’s always more than one point of view. Let’s hear from the ‘other’ side, shall we?

The Wife Between Us—Fantastic mind-bending story. It’s as if the famous play (movie) Gaslight and Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train had a baby. But namely, it’s Gaslight reimagined in the modern world.

There are way too many tired tropes so have fun. Can you change time, setting, perspective or characters and create something fresh and new, but rooted in pedigree? What about a new story that gives the ‘real’ scoop on an old one?

Jack the Ripper as a female, a virtuous wife betrayed. The killings are motivated by a woman scorned and shamed. Could happen .

Cinderella as a serial killer. Red Riding Hood as an Old West outlaw. The Little Mermaid as a vengeful stalker (Fatal Attraction) *wink wink*. ALL THE FUN!

Y’all get the gist and Cait has a class coming up that can teach y’all how to think in new and perverse…creative ways in her class Once Upon a Plot: Retelling Myths & Fairytales.

Leave the Low-Hanging Fruit

All stories need some amount of description. Yet, I’m challenging ALL OF US to try harder. I see all kinds of samples where the hero/heroine has emerald, jade, amethyst, sapphire, onyx, (pick any precious or semi-precious stone) eyes. Hair color is like a bad drop-down menu—raven, copper, spun gold, etc.

Her eyes were blue as the Western sky.

Never read that before *rolls eyes*.

To an extent we ALL do it. I’ve done it, too. So one judgy finger pointed at y’all and THREE back at me. Yet, here’s the thing.

We are wordsmiths, and wordsmiths should be able to write a better description than any random non-writer challenged to pen a description.

His eyes were like dazzling emeralds.

Wow. Bet that burned some brain cells to come up with.

Dig deeper. Sure, sometimes we want to keep it simple so we don’t wear out a reader being super clever all the time. On the other hand, can we do a better job than penning a description we might give to a police sketch artist?

He had a shaved head, scars, big nose and ears…

Be CREATIVE!

He had the face of a man who loved to pick fights, but wasn’t any good at fighting.

Just leaving that there .

Throw a Wrench in Everything

Stories are about problems. PERIOD. Three hundred pages of pretty sentences is not a novel. It’s three hundred pages of pretty sentences. Using a crap ton of fancy words only proves we know how to use a thesaurus…and maybe should be banned from owning one.

Description is not story.

Everyone getting along is not story…it’s a sedative.

All stories have ONE core problem that must be resolved. Until that happens? Welcome to hell. No one agrees and nothing comes easily and anything that can go wrong does…twice. The MC must solve the core story problem and the crucible is never curved.

No one respects someone who wins without working for it in life…or fiction .

***Scroll down to On Demand classes for hardcore storytelling training from MOI!

What Are Your Thoughts?

I love hearing from you!

Do you struggle being a sadist to your characters? Did you do like me and look at your descriptions and go, ‘Wow, I should totally try harder’ *face palm*?

Did I maybe get the brain percolating? Mine is.

I now want to write Hansel & Gretel in the 1920s as Bonnie & Clyde-style gangsters and candy is a metaphor for BOOZE and SEX….

*Cait slaps me hard*

OWWW! *rubs back of head*

Or not.

What do you WIN? For the month of MAY, for 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 of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

Also NOW OFFERING MORE CLASSES PLUS ON DEMAND…

Retelling Myths & Fairytales

Instructor: USA Today Best-Selling Author Cait Reynolds
Price: $65 USD Standard (Cool Upgrades Available)
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: FRIDAY May 25th, 7:00 PM E.S.T. to 9:00 P.M. EST

Myths and fairytales are as fundamental to human existence as communication itself. We grow up hearing these stories, being formed by them, and often rebelling against them.

One of the hottest trends in publishing right now is bringing these stories back and giving them new life with creative interpretations and retellings.

Done right, a retelling can capture the public imagination, give us new insights into our society and ourselves, and sweep us away to a time and place where everything, including justice and happy endings, is possible. Get your spot today! HERE.

The Yarn Behind the Book: Backstory

Instructor: Cait Reynolds

Price: $55.00 USD

Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom

When: Friday, June 1, 2018. 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

Behind every good book is an entire story that happens before the reader ever opens to page one. This is the backstory, and done right, it is what sets the stage, provides clues and cues, and rescues you from writer’s block.

A good backstory will help with logic and consistency in the plot, developing complex motivations for characters, and sorting out exactly what needs to happen going forward as you either plot or pants your way to the end.

This class will cover the following topics – and much more:

• The elements of a backstory;
• How to take your current plot idea and work backwards into a backstory;
• Integrating character profiles and the backstory;
• How the backstory relates to the logline and synopsis;
• Using the backstory to dig yourself out of corners and shake off writer’s block;
• Why a backstory is crucial to writing a series.

A recording of this class is also included with purchase.

About the Instructor:

Cait Reynolds is a USA Today Bestselling Author and lives in the Boston area with her husband and neurotic dog. She discovered her passion for writing early and has bugged her family and friends with it ever since. When she isn’t cooking, running, or enjoying the rooftop deck that brings her closer to the stars, she writes.

On Demand Training!

Ready for Book Beast Mode? I Live to Serve…Up Some TRAINING!

For anyone who longs to accelerate their plot skills, I recommend:

ON DEMAND Plot Boss: Writing Novels Readers Want to BUY. 

Two hours of intensive plot training from MOI…delivered right to your computer to watch as much as you like .

The Art of Character is also now available for ON DEMAND.

And if you’re ready for BOOK BEAST MODE and like saving some cash, you can get BOTH Plot Boss and Art of Character in the…

Story Boss Bundle (ON DEMAND).

Almost FIVE HOURS with me, in your home…lecturing you. It’ll be FUN! 

I also hope you’ll pick up a copy of my debut novel The Devil’s Dance.

The post Want to Stand Apart from Countless Other Books? Write a Better Story appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

A fallacy among many emerging writers is that authors only write the books. Then, once finished, agents will fall in LOVE and someone else will do ALL the editing.

*clutches sides laughing.*

Yeah…no. And woodland creatures don’t help with housework. Sorry to break the news. Bummed me out, too.

The hard truth is the onus is on us (writers) to make certain our manuscript is properly edited before sending a query. Remember, agents are actively searching for reasons to STOP reading. Self-editing skills can mean the difference between a sweet deal or a spot in the slush pile.

Even if the story is amazing, agents know editing is time-consuming and costly. This means they’re more likely to wait for another ‘amazing story’ that doesn’t cost as much as a Caribbean cruise to get bookstore ready. They’ll be far more likely to sign an author who possesses solid self-editing skills.

But what was that old saying?

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Applies to agents and to readers.

Self-publishing is a whole new level and new devil. If we’re doing our job, the self-published novel should be at least as good as anything legacy published. This means we bear the burden (and cost) of making sure our manuscript is the best it can be.

Superior editing makes the difference between releasing a novel versus unleashing one. Many emerging writers—once the novel is ‘finished’—make some major errors when it comes to ‘editing.’

Here are a few biggies:

• The writer actually believes the novel is finished and hits PUBLISH (Ahhhhhhh! NO!);
• Emerging authors fail to understand proofreading is NOT synonymous with editing. Proofreading is merely one type of editing;
• New authors don’t research how much good developmental editors/substantive line-editors charge for services.

The above guidelines are from the Editorial Freelancers Association.

Since all novels require editing, the more we know how to do ourselves, the lower our costs will be. Trust me. Y’all do not want to pay a developmental editor to turn a 90,000 word mess into something readable (forget publishable).

Feel free to do this, but be ready to cough up a few thousand dollars and part of a kidney.

A more cost-effective option is to understand plot and the mechanics of story so we can repair the flaws ourselves. Sure, a good developmental editor will spot the massive plot holes and guide us how to repair them, but (again) it’s gonna cost us.

A lot.

Additionally, we can pay someone to insert all our proper punctuation and correct poor grammar, OR we can learn how to do this stuff ourselves. Then we’re only paying for a proofreader to catch what we missed or goofed.

Trust me, no matter how good the writer, we ALL miss/goof stuff.

Self-Editing and ‘Cost vs. Value’

As I already mentioned, good editors are NOT cheap. There are also many editors who charge by the hour. If they’re spending their time fixing oopses we could’ve easily repaired ourselves?

We’re burning cash and time.

Self-editing can be a real life (and cash) saver.

Yet, correct the problems we’ll be discussing today, and editors can more easily get to the MEAT of our novel. This means you will spend less money and get far higher value.

Over my career I have literally edited thousands of works, most of them written by emerging writers. My particular specialty is content and developmental edit. Though I’ll correct punctuation and spelling as I go (because I am OCD and generous) MY job is to make a STORY the best it can possibly be.

Problem is, most of the time I can’t even get to the story because it’s obscured under layers of bleh the writer could have removed in revision.

#1 DIY Adverb Removal

Despite what you might have been told, not ALL adverbs are evil. Redundant adverbs are evil. If someone shouts loudly? How else are they going to shout? Whispering quietly?

***Wow, glad the author explained how ‘whispering’ works.

Ah, but if a character whispers seductively? The adverb seductively gives us a quality to the whisper that isn’t inherent in the verb. Check your work for adverbs and kill the redundant ones.

Either we need to choose a stronger verb, or we’re treating the reader like an idiot.

If a character walks quickly to the train platform, then choose a verb that means ‘to walk quickly’ (stride, jog, hurry) and use that one instead. If a character yells loudly, ditch the loudly. 

We understand how yelling ‘works.’

#2 Cut the Cray-Cray

First and foremost, readers want a STORY. Stories are more than loads of ‘pretty writing’ using thousand-dollar words. Stories are about problems. A character thinks life is fine, then PROBLEM. The character then must struggle, grow, evolve, make choices to eventually SOLVE the problem (win, lose, draw).

Pretty description is optional. Big words are also optional. Alas, if we want to be a writer who uses description then we need to wield with economy.

Few things make me as giddy as a glorious line of description or a new vocabulary word. Many readers (and writers) are like crows.

We see the shinies and tuck them away because they’re THAT cool. The last book I read was The Devil in the White City.

When describing a miserable afternoon in late 19th century Chicago, the author had many options of how to do this. Instead of, ‘The day was humid and stifling,’ Erik Larson wrote, ‘The air hung with the heavy stillness of a tapestry.’ 

There’s nothing, per se, wrong with the first description. But Larson’s line was far more visceral because he made use of multiple senses simultaneously.

But some writers take similes too far.

I’ve seen writers who’ve used so much ‘wordsmithery’ that I had no idea what the hell they were even trying to say. The goal of a novel is to hook readers into a dramatic narrative, not prove we own a thesaurus.

Exhibit A:

***Word on the street is the NSA is contemplating either revoking Sean Penn’s permission to own a thesaurus OR they want to weaponize his writing.

Metaphors and similes are fantastic literary devices, but need to be used with intention. Yes, in school, our teachers or professors didn’t ding us for using forty-two metaphors in five pages, but their job was to teach us how to properly use a metaphor or simile, NOT prepare us for commercial publication as professional novelists.

When we use too much of this verbal glitter, we can create what’s called ‘purple prose.’ Go through your pages and highlight metaphors and similes.

Pick THE BEST and CUT THE REST.

Any kind of description must serve the story and propel the dramatic action forward. If it doesn’t do this? CUT!

#3 Cut the Stage Direction

Again, the more time an editor devotes to a project the higher the bill. Also, if an editor charges by the page, we could be paying for a lot of filler we could have removed ourselves.

Alfred Hitchcock said, ‘Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.’ Readers don’t need every single step of a day. We live it, why would we read it?

Yet, I see a lot of samples like this:

Fifi opened her eyes at dawn. She pulled back her covers and placed her feet on the floor. Padding across the room, she reached for a robe hanging on her door. Her stomach growled, so she went downstairs and opened the fridge for the carton of orange juice, then grabbed a glass from the cabinet. Turning around, she searched for a granola bar….

OH, GET ON WITH IT!

An editor is going to cut all of this because NOTHING IS HAPPENING. Also, readers pretty much know how the whole ‘getting juice’ phenomenon works. They don’t need a blow-by-blow.

Fifi reached out her hand to open the door.

NO KIDDING.

Unless Fifi has telekinetic powers, do readers need the direction?

Filler pads the word count, but it also pads the editing bill. The verbs turn, look, grab, pull are possible red flags you’re doing too much stage direction. My advice is to do a Word Find and search for these verbs and their variations (I.e. look, looked, looking). See if the action is necessary or if you’re holding the reader’s brain.

If you’re holding the reader’s brain? Return it, please.

#4 Beware of Painful & Alien Movement of Body Parts

Her eyes flew to the other end of the restaurant.

His head followed her across the room.

Um…ouch.

Make sure your character keeps all body parts attached. Her gaze can follow a person and so can her stare, but if her eyes follow? The carpet gets them fuzzy with dust bunnies and then they don’t slide back in her sockets as easily.

#5 Ease Up on the Physiology

Fifi’s head pounded. She ran for the door, her heart hammering and wild pulse beating relentlessly in her head. Her breath came in choking sobs. All she could do was gasp. Panic made her throat clench and stomach heave. Mind numb, she reached for the door, fingers trembling.

GET TO IT ALREADY!

After a page of this? I need a nap. After two pages? I need a drink. We can only take so much heart pounding, thrumming, hammering before we just get worn out. That and I read a lot of samples where the character has her heart pounding so much, I’m waiting for her to slip into cardiac arrest at any moment.

Physiological reactions can become echoes. If every page the character has her stomach churning, roiling and rolling, our reader will need an antacid before finishing the chapter (provided she finishes at all).

I strongly recommend a copy of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s Emotion Thesaurus to help you vary physiology. Also, if someone’s heart is pounding, that’s okay. We just don’t need to be told this over and over and…over.

We (readers) assume the character’s heart is still pounding until she’s out of danger.

No need to remind us.

Really.

#6 Odd Sentence Construction

In an effort to break up and vary sentence structure, many emerging writers will craft sentences like this:

With the months of stress pressing down on her head, Jessie started ironing the restaurant tablecloths with a fury.

First, this is backing into the action. Though technically correct (enough), it’s easy to lose a reader if we have too many sentences like this. Active sentences are the easiest on the brain and keep the reader immersed in the fictive dream.

Then there are the picky issues with the example above. For instance, when we use the word ‘down,’ then ‘on’ is redundant.

Also, Jessie is either ironing or not ironing. ‘Started’ is overused and makes sloppy writing (this actually goes back to the whole stage direction thing).

Jessie ironed the restaurant tablecloths with a fury, months of stress pressing on her shoulders.

Another way writers will vary the beginning of sentences is they’ll default to what’s known as passive voice.

Passive:

The door was kicked in by the police.

Active:

Police kicked in the door.

If you go through your pages and see WAS clusters? That’s a HUGE hint that passive voice has infected your story.

Many writers end up with strange sentence construction because they realize every sentence is starting with the character’s name or the appropriate pronoun. They’re trying to ameliorate the repetition of Jessie, Jessie, Jessie, she, she, she. The problem, then, is not sentence construction, rather the writer needs to open the lens of the storytelling.

Remember our character doesn’t need to be the subject of every sentence. We’re telling a story. This means we can work with setting, other characters, etc.

#7 Get Rid of ‘Clever’ Tags

Ideally, if we do a good job with our characters, the reader should know who’s talking without tags because speech patterns differ. If all our characters ‘speak’ the same way, that is an issue we need to remedy.

Yet, we can’t always do this, which means we can use a tag. Tags are fine, but keep it simple. This isn’t the place to get clever.

‘You are such a jerk,’ she laughed.

A character can’t ‘laugh’ something. They can’t ‘spit,’ ‘snarl,’ or ‘grouse’ words either. They can SAY and ever so often they can ASK. Said used properly becomes white noise.

NOTE: Use said as a tag…just don’t get crazy. If you beat it up it gets distracting and annoying.

But again, used properly readers don’t generally see it. It keeps them in the story and cooking along. If we want to add things like laughing, griping, complaining, then fine. It just shouldn’t be the tag.

“You are such a jerk.” She laughed and flicked brownie batter onto Fabio’s white shirt.

Notice how sentences like the one above also keep us from beating said to death.

I swear the funniest instance of bizarre tags was a new writer who just would NOT listen to me and she insisted on using all these crazy@$$ tags. So instead of exclaimed when her character yelled something she tagged with, he ejaculated.

*Editor Kristen falls over laughing*

Okay y’all ALL sniggered at that one. So yeah be creative just not in the tags, ya dig?

There you go!

SEVEN easy tips for self-editing. We all make these mistakes and that’s why God invented revision (that and to punish the unfaithful). If you can get rid of these common offenders on your own, then good editors can focus on the deeper aspects of your fiction.

Have you had to ruthlessly slay your favorite metaphors? Are you a recovering adverb-addict? What are some other self-editing guidelines you use to keep your prose clean and effective?

I love hearing from you!

And am not above bribery!

What do you WIN? For the month of April, for 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 of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

NOW OFFERING…

The first five pages are the most essential part of the novel, your single most powerful selling tool. It’s how you will hook agents, editors and readers. This class will cover the most common blunders and also teach you how to hook hard and hook early. This class is two hours long, 90 minutes of instruction and 30 minutes for Q&A.

***A free recording is included with purchase.

General Admission is $40 and there are some SUPER COOL upgrades! Get your spot HERE.

MORE CLASSES!

Have to write a query letter or synopsis? Conference season is coming! 

Pitch Perfect: Crafting a Query & Synopsis Agents Will Love. Class is May 3rd 7-9 EST and $45 for over two hours training y’all how to do the toughest parts of this job.

Ready for Book Beast Mode? I Live to Serve…Up Some TRAINING!

For anyone who longs to accelerate their plot skills, I recommend:

ON DEMAND Plot Boss: Writing Novels Readers Want to BUY. 

Two hours of intensive plot training from MOI…delivered right to your computer to watch as much as you like .

The Art of Character is also now available for ON DEMAND.

And if you’re ready for BOOK BEAST MODE and like saving some cash, you can get BOTH Plot Boss and Art of Character in the…

Story Boss Bundle (ON DEMAND).

Almost FIVE HOURS with me, in your home…lecturing you. It’ll be FUN! 

I also hope you’ll pick up a copy of my debut novel The Devil’s Dance.

The post Self-Editing: 7 Tips to Tighten the Story & Cut Costs appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Just say NO.

Genre matters. Genre is the foundation for longevity, building a loyal fan base and also the key to unlocking all the other plot bunnies (other genres/story ideas) we’ve been dying to try out. Regardless of the publishing path we choose, genre focus is the game-changer that transitions us from published authors to powerhouse brands.

Hello, My Name is Cait and I am a Plot Bunny Addict

Yeah, we’ll get there in a minute.

By now, all of you should know that when you don’t hear from me (Cait) for a while, you should probably worry because I’m holed up in my study either doing research or coming up with new and creative ways to achieve world domination–though so far, I’ve had to rule out hallucinogenic peanut butter, karaoke, and podcasting.

Frighteningly enough, I looked very much like this as a baby. *shudders*

But, I’m back now, ready to start sharing with all of you the fruits of my research. I’ve been doing some deep digging into the state of the publishing industry, analyzing trends, and preparing to throw down some predictions.

***Punxsutawney Phil ain’t got nothin’ on me.

Today, we’re going to explore current publishing trends and the strategy of choosing a genre. At first glance, it seems pretty straightforward, right? We like to write X, so X will be our genre.

But then…along comes that plot bunny with its cute wiggly nose and cotton ball tail, begging us to take a little side trip into Y genre. It’s cool. We can do that because we can self-publish, right?

Not So Fast

No more rules. Freedom! We’ve broken the oppressive shackles of traditional publishing in all areas, including the ridiculous way publishers used to limit writers to one specific genre. We are now free to be a seven-genre-crossing author if we want! Ha!

Yeah…it starts like this…

Well…sorta. Not quite. But kinda.

Let’s take a closer look.

In the beginning, BIG PUBLISHING said, ‘Let there be genres,’ and there were genres, and lo, the publisher saw that it was good.

Before Amazon glomped onto the scene with push-button publishing, authors actually had to pick a genre and stick with it….’til death did they part.

There were solid business reasons for this.

Books took a long time to write and even longer to publish, and this isn’t even accounting for the amount of money it took to produce a book and get it to market—pun intended. The agent then publisher invested a lot of time, thought, and care into helping the author choose a genre. This was imperative for crafting a brand—which is when a name alone has the power to drive sales.

Stephen King. Enough said.

The Downside of Genre Loyalty

While brand loyalty was great for book sales, it wasn’t always so easy on the authors. How many thrillers can one writer write before the thrill is gone? For the author and their readers. But, rules were rules and why mess with what worked?

Then indie…

Back in the day, if we started writing historical romance…well, we pretty much kept writing more historical romance. Sure, there was some flexibility in the century we chose for our next book. But, it was a nigh-on-impossible quest to go from regency romance to noir crime thriller. Only a handful of already mega-successful authors really ever managed it well.

***Namely because rules don’t apply to them the same way as mere mortal authors.

The Big (Book) Bang

Enter the era of insta-hey-look-I-published-a-book. All the old rules (ostensibly) went out the window. Wanna go from cozy mystery to epic sword and sorcery? No problem! Just keep hitting that ‘Publish Your Book’ button. Who needed fans of the cozy mystery genre to discover our books in the urban fantasy genre?

Genre schmenre. Social media wizardry would magically lead fans to discover US.

Sure, we might lose some people if we went a while (okay years) without publishing something in our audiences’ preferred genre. Maybe we’d see some drop off when we took that hard left from chick lit to shifter menage erotica. Perhaps our Amazon rankings even dropped below where we’re comfortable.

No biggie. It’s a phase. It will pass.

As long as we just keep hitting that ‘Publish Your Book’ button, we can publish whatever we want in any genre we want. Vive la revolution!

Yes…and, no.

Babies & Bathwater

Interestingly, what I’ve learned from years of working in publishing and studying how it works is that we might have let excitement cloud our vision. To be blunt, in our desire to be unchained from one genre forever…we went a tad cray-cray (actual business term), and threw the book baby out with the bathwater.

Now that the dust is settling in the publishing world, evidence suggest genre focus matters more than we might have realized.

The truth is that we authors need to position ourselves flexibly but firmly between these two extremes. There is a point between Write six hundred spy thrillers until you DIE and Write ALL the genres and even MIX them!

Regardless of what new shiny the muse wants to explore, picking then sticking with a primary genre is the foundation for great brands, books, and business.

Self-Publishing

Counter to what many have touted, it turns out self-publishing is especially sensitive to genre consistency.

Over the past two years, there were a number of minor fads and trends that had authors jumping from epic fantasy to fairytale retellings, to urban fantasy all within the space of six months. On the one hand, authors developed some momentum in KENP pages read and attracted new fans.

However, in every competitive analysis I’ve done on authors who self-publish, those who started with a primary genre and stuck with it for 90% of their books over a 3-4 year period had the best book rankings, author rankings, social media followings, and Google name recognition.

And while I’m not privy to every single author’s sales numbers. Stupid restraining orders *rolls eyes*. I have been able to dig up enough data that permits me to make the following extrapolation:

Authors with a primary genre for 90% of their books over a 3-4 year period made the most money and had the consistently bestselling books.

This isn’t to say these authors don’t also publish in other genres, but they don’t spend the majority of their writing time, social media time, and marketing resources trying to establish their name and brand in multiple genres simultaneously. That is not a formula for success, more a formula for a nervous breakdown.

For these authors, evidence demonstrates that a successful presence in secondary genres develops more organically and over a longer period of time.

What’s the Takeaway?

If our career goal is to be a hybrid author or even a purely legacy publishing track, then building in a primary genre becomes even more critical.

The Legacy Published Plan

Let’s start with traditional (legacy) publishing. Getting a book out with the Big 5 generally takes anywhere from 18-24 months. Most traditionally-published authors publish one book per year.

There’s a lot of time, a LOT of money, and a lot of resources invested in getting each book to market (as mentioned earlier). Thus, it makes sense for publishers to erect strong parameters around the the author’s brand. Focus is what generates traction, backlist, and a solid fan base with money to spend.

Nowadays, there is a teeny tiny degree of flexibility that has crept into the legacy model, most likely in order to compete with Amazon’s yoga-esque genre fluidity. That’s how we get writers like Emma Donoghue who can bend from Victorian mystery to the contemporary masterpiece of psychological drama that is ‘Room.’

Yet, she is the exception, not the norm. In truth, only a fraction of a percentage of traditionally-published authors have been able to pull off this genre-inverted-triangle successfully.

All to say that, if we want to publish traditionally, we’d better really, REALLY love the genre we’re writing in, because that’s going to be home for a long, long time.

The Hybrid Author Plan

With a hybrid publishing model (some books self-published, some books through a traditional publisher), our approach will depend on whether we start out self-published or traditionally-published.

If we start out as self-published but with a goal to eventually enter into the traditional model, genre consistency becomes essential (even if our long-game is to change genres once we break into traditional publishing).

There are major advantages for a writer who can demonstrate a solid track record of longevity and focus in a single genre. First, genre concentration tangibly demonstrates our ability to achieve long-term goals.

Secondly, by maintaining genre cohesion, this increases the odds we’ll build a vested fan base eager to BUY OUR future books. This makes our books a sound investment for agents/editors based off numbers (not hopes and luck).

Thirdly, genre focus is vital for building a strong author brand. Name recognition alone is useless and not a brand. Only a name that translates into an actual sale is a brand.

James Patterson—>Ka-Ching!

Weird Guy Who Book Spams Non-Stop—>Unfollow & BLOCK

Since legacy press is a business and not a non-profit, these three benefits can translate into (our) massive advantage when we’re seeking our own place in ‘the club.’

We need the club, but why does the club need us? That’s where we need to hustle.

If we’ve successfully stuck to a genre and created a strong fan base on our own, then traditional is the next logical business step to expand distribution for a product that is already successfully selling.

It is a win-win for author and publisher.

If we seek to change genres, it shows the publisher we can commit to the time and work it takes to build both the reputation and backlist required for success.

Again, win-win.

Expanding Genre ‘Horizons’

If we start out as traditionally-published and want to expand into self-publishing, there are several things to consider. First, we need to be very, very sure (as in, I-have-had-a-conversation-with-my-lawyer-agent-editor-sure) that we won’t be violating the terms of our publishing contract by putting out work in the same genre.

Once we have the ‘all-clear’ to keep writing in the same genre, there’s a big adjustment ahead we need to take seriously. First there is the frequency of publication required to compete effectively in self-publishing. Can we write at a pulp fiction speed and maintain quality?

***Often this is the impetus for legacy authors to also write indie. They long to produce at a far faster pace than the legacy model can accommodate.

Also, there’s the question of financial resources required to achieve parity between traditional and self-published books. Cover design, proofing, editing, formatting, etc. Fans have come to expect a certain quality and we better be able to meet or even exceed anything we published via legacy.

No easy task.

On the upside, our fan base should already be somewhat established, so YAY! We can just keep growing and growing…

Stretching Our Genre Wings

In another scenario, we may choose to expand into self-publishing because we’d like to try other genres, especially ones that might not necessarily jive with an already-established fan base.

Steampunk fantasy author Gail Carriger is an excellent example of this (as well as being one of my favorite writers). She has a firmly established seventeen-book steampunk genre backlist of traditionally-published books.

Gail chose to self-publish because she wanted to release shorter and more frequent works in her same steampunk universe (with special dispensation from her publisher).

Eventually, she started publishing works in the contemporary urban fantasy genre with an LGBTQ focus.

Carriger continues to publish both her traditional steampunk and is now consistently building her presence in this new genre. Because she approached her writing career with strategy, her brand has not only maintained integrity, but it is also steadily expanding.

The Plot Bunny Nursery

Also known as the TBW (to-be-written) pile.

At the end of the day, what does all of this mean for all of us writers along the publication continuum?

This is the question I asked myself one day in January as I looked at my writing and marketing plans for 2018. It’s a fact that I don’t so much have a plot bunny nursery as I do a crack house for wayward hares.

I’m seriously all over the place in terms of my ideas. I have plot bunnies in steampunk, YA mythology, fairytales, historical romance, contemporary psychological thriller, shifter romance. While all my story ideas might be wonderful, I know it’s unwise to try to pursue them all simultaneously.

Strategy matters. This means, I know which bunnies get adopted first. The others can wait (and likely breed).

I confess. My brain bounces from genre to genre like a kangaroo in a bouncy castle. Yours might, too. That’s okay. We can write all the books!

Eventually.

If we publish with planning and intention regarding genre, we’re more likely to reap far better reward. The evidence doesn’t lie. Authors who’ve performed the best—whether traditional, hybrid, or self-published—are the ones who’ve done three things:

Written really great books.

Picked a genre and remained focused on it for at least three years.

Published consistently.

This is where the professional discipline that Kristen talks about really has to kick in. Sometimes, little bunnies have to just chill (drug them if you must). We can’t always do what’s fun and shiny and new. To make it in this highly competitive market, we have make a plan, then stick with the plan, even when it gets boring, or hard, or seems to be getting us nowhere.

Jumping genres non-stop isn’t the cure for sagging sales and rankings. Writing and publishing great books in a focused genre, then building from there is. So keep calm, stay focused, and the bunnies will be just fine.

Promise . Kristen has a professional plot-bunny-sitter….

NEW CLASSES (AND SOME OLD FAVES)!

GASKETS & GAITERS: HOW TO CREATE A COMPELLING STEAMPUNK WORLD

Instructor: Cait Reynolds
Price: $65 USD Standard
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: FRIDAY February 23, 2018. 7:00 PM E.S.T. to 9:00 P.M. EST

Who doesn’t love some steampunk cosplay? Corsets, goggles, awesome hats…

Steampunk has become one of the hottest genres today, crossing the lines of YA, NA, and adult fiction. It seems like it’s fun to write because it’s fun to read.

However, there’s a world of difference between the amateur steampunk writer and the professional steampunk author, and the difference lies in the world they create.

Is your steampunk world historically-accurate enough not to jar the reader out of the narrative with anachronisms?

Does your world include paranormal as well as steampunk?

Are the gadgets and level of sophistication in keeping with the technologies available at the time?

Steampunk is not an excuse to take short-cuts with history. Good writing in this genre requires a solid grasp of Victorian culture and history, including the history of science, medicine, and industry.

This shouldn’t scare you off from writing steampunk, but it should encourage you to take this class and learn how to create a world that is accurate, consistent and immersive.

This class will cover a broad range of topics including:

• Polite Society: Just how prim and Victorian do you want to get?
• Science, Technology, Medicine, and Industry: How to research these without dying of boredom?
• Creating the Blend: How to drop in historical details without info-dumping, and how to describe and explain your steampunk innovations without confusing.

GET READY TO ROAR: THE BUSINESS OF THE WRITING BUSINESS

Instructor: Kristen Lamb
Price: $55.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Thursday, March 1st, 2018, 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

Being a professional author entails much more than simply writing books. Many emerging authors believe all we need is a completed novel and an agent/readers will come.

There’s a lot more that goes into the writing business…but not nearly as much as some might want us to believe. There’s a fine balance between being educated about business and killing ourselves with so much we do everything but WRITE MORE BOOKS.

This class is to prepare you for the reality of Digital Age Publishing and help you build a foundation that can withstand major upheavals. Beyond the ‘final draft’ what then? What should we be doing while writing the novel?

We are in the Wilderness of Publishing and predators abound. Knowledge is power. We don’t get what we work for, we get what we negotiate. This is to prepare you for success, to help you understand a gamble from a grift a deal from a dud. We will discuss:

• The Product
• Agents/Editors
• Types of Publishing
• Platform and Brand
• Marketing and Promotion
• Making Money
• Where Writers REALLY Need to Focus

AMATEUR HOUR IS OVER: SELF-PUBLISHING FOR PROFESSIONALS

Instructor: Cait Reynolds
Price: $99.00 USD
Where: W.A.N.A. Digital Classroom
When: Friday, March 2nd, 2018, 7:00-10:00 p.m. EST

Let’s get down to brass tacks. Are you going to go KDP Select or wide distribution with Smashwords as a distributor? Are you going to use the KDP/CreateSpace ISBN’s or purchase your own package? What BISAC codes have you chosen? What keywords are you going to use to get into your target categories? Who’s your competition, and how are you positioned against them?

Okay, hold on. Breathe. Slow down. I didn’t mean to induce a panic attack. I’m actually here to help.

Beyond just uploading a book to Amazon, there are a lot of tricks of the trade that can help us build our brand, keep our books on the algorithmic radar, and find the readers who will go the distance with us. If getting our books up on Amazon and CreateSpace is ‘Self-Publishing 101,’ then this class is the ‘Self-Publishing senior seminar’ that will help you turn your books into a business and your writing into a long-term career.

Topics include:

• Competitive research (because publishing is about as friendly as the Red Wedding in Game of Thrones)
• Distribution decisions (because there’s actually a choice!)
• Copyright, ISBN’s, intellectual property, and what it actually all means for writers
• Algorithm magic: keywords, BISAC codes, and meta descriptions made easy
• Finding the reader (beyond trusting Amazon to deliver them)
• Demystifying the USA Today and NYT bestselling author titles
• How to run yourself like a business even when you hate business and can’t math (I can’t math either, so it’s cool)

Yes, this is going to be a 3-hour class because there is SO much to cover…but, like L’Oréal says, you’re worth it! Also, a recording of this class is also included with purchase.

The class includes a workbook that will guide you through everything we talk about from how to do competitive research to tracking ISBNs and distribution, and much, much more!

Time is MONEY, and your time is valuable so this will help you make every moment count…so you can go back to writing GREAT BOOKS.

EVEN MORE CLASSES…

Check them out at W.A.N.A. Int’l.

The post Publishing Success: Genre Loyalty vs. Plot Bunny Saboteurs appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Image via Flickr Creative Commons, courtesy of Lane Pearman

I know a lot of authors feel overwhelmed in the digital age of publishing and that is perfectly understandable. But today I would like to pan back and maybe offer a refreshed perspective to keep you pressing.

Today we face the challenge of creating a brand. But you might be thinking, “What exactly is a brand?” There is a lot of misinformation floating around so that is a reasonable question to ask.

A brand is the power of a name to drive sales. Our name alone compels action.

No easy task. Overcoming inertia is critical for any author who wants to make a living doing this writing thing. In an age of instant? This is going to take a while, but hopefully I can help .

But first…

The Struggle is NOT New

Publishers have always struggled to help authors create a brand. This is NOT a new thing. I have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. According to the BEA (Book Expo of America) statistics of 2004, writers had a 92% failure rate. Only one out of ten traditionally published authors ever saw another book in print. 92% of all books published sold less than a thousand copies (traditionally and nontraditionally published).

Why I like using 2004 statistics is this is two years before most of the major social media platforms gained traction. Facebook, You Tube and Twitter all emerged in roughly the same two year period.

But before social media? It was a nightmare for publishers to help authors create a brand (unless they were non-fiction authors). Nonfiction authors had far more access to platform building activities—public speaking, conferences, media, newsletters, or their own personal practices. The local news was far more likely to interview a doctor about his new weight loss program than they were to talk to a novelist about dragons or spaceships. Media was almost solely the domain of the NF expert.

Why this was so vital was that audiences suddenly had direct access to a writer who might be able to make his/her case and influence behavior. Maybe you weren’t normally a “reader” but that interview on NPR was so cool you just had to buy the book and learn how Hitler really escaped the bunker and the Russians lied about finding him.

Whatever.

But for fiction, more often than not publishers had to rely on some confluence of the stars to hope that a new book sold at least respectably. Sometimes writers could launch successful grassroots movements as was the case with The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood. But, many writers tried this and most of them failed. Grassroots movements are lightning in a bottle even today.

But sometimes it worked. And that was cool because then publishers could offer the writer another contract and the brand slowly was built with a volume of titles. Go to any used bookstore and who takes up most of the shelf space? Writers with multiple multiple titles.

All of this to say that brands were excruciatingly difficult and slow to build.

Perspective

I know a lot of writers get discouraged today, but we must learn to balance reality and expectations. If we go back to the “good old days” what we have is this.

A book written on a typewriter. Revisions involved scissors and tape. Then we had to research at libraries. That little detail you need for your story? No opening a new tab and googling real quick. Nope. Back to the library. Want to learn about police procedurals? Yep, call the department you are writing about and see if you can schedule an interview. No tweeting, Anyone here Atlanta PD? I’m an author with a question #LEO

Then we had to buy a Writer’s Market every year and pray the information hadn’t changed, but most of the time it had. I swear agents changed agencies more than my mom changes her mind about where to eat lunch. Then we had to type out a stack of queries, put in mail…then wait.

Out of fifteen queries, likely five would be returned with, No longer at this agency. Three might come with No longer looking for X type of book. Another five just would never respond and the other two? Well one would probably be a form letter misspelling your name and the other would be a handwritten note suggesting we stop writing altogether.

Oh and every agent would demand “no simultaneous submissions”, but they could feel free to take six months to get back to us…if ever.

Just getting published was about as close to an act of God as we could get. And even then? That wasn’t the end of it. Generally it took about a year to eighteen months for the book to be in print. We got paid once, maybe twice a year.

If we add up the sheer volume of TIME involved in the old way, why are we griping that we have been self-published three years and aren’t yet J.K. Rowling?

I have mentioned the problems with Millennial Authors (these are writers who have “come of age” during the digital revolution and they could be 22 or 67). I know the “old way” wasn’t better, but it does lead me to believe that writers of the “old days” have better tenacity because they didn’t enter the profession in the Age of Instant.

Yes, our first book might only sell a handful of copies. But guess what? In the “old days” odds were we would only sell a small number of copies as well (refer to statistics above). But, unlike the “old days” we can keep writing more books. We can keep at it until something sticks or until we decide to move on.

Back to the Brand

Brands take time to build. Only now, with social media, the task is far easier than it used to be. We can build our own platforms and create our own brands and we don’t have to pray for lighting in a bottle the same way we used to. Oh, don’t get me wrong, we are still working toward that magic, only now we have more control.

We don’t have to pray our local paper writes about us, or we score a radio interview so the outside world can encounter us. We can start cultivating our audience on our own. Yet, we still have the challenge of creating a brand.

Remember, a brand is when our name alone compels action whether that action is buying a book, commenting on a blog, reading a blog, sharing a post, RTing a tweet. The more we can compel action on the part of others, the stronger our brand will grow.

Traditional marketing, advertising and direct mail operate linearly. I send X to Y. Best Buy doesn’t expect that when I get a coupon in the mail I will then share it with all my friends.

Social media, conversely, operates algorithmically using the power of exponentials. Content flies out along countless vectors as opposed to ONE (which is why it is all but impossible to measure efficacy of social media in the same detailed way).

Someone reads my blog and tweets or posts to FB and that post then travels along infinite vectors I may never see.

Why is this important? Because our goal is to have a dialogue with others, generate interest and excitement that compels others to share. The problem is that a lot of writers are treating social media the same way as direct mail.

Buy my book!

Please retweet!

Sign up for my newsletter!

Instead of giving, they are taking and we are frankly worn plum out from takers. Every one of us has an inbox filled with newsletters we didn’t sign up for, ads, marketing, and on and on and they all WANT something. We feel like we’ve fallen into some swamp pond and staggered out covered in leeches.

Thus, if we default to generating self-serving content (ads, marketing, self-promotion), we shouldn’t be surprised when creating a brand feels like trying to perform brain surgery from space with an egg beater. If we engage in traditional marketing tactics, we have use of ONE vector (us to other party).

This means we are beholden to the same dismal ROI (return on investment) numbers of all direct mail which is about a 1%-5% ROI. This means we better have 100,000 twitter followers to get any traction since we have to reach those people directly instead of with the help of a network.

If we don’t want to be on every social site and spending our time building up massive numbers (instead of writing), then we need to go back to the content. We can create stuff others want to share because social media is basically Show and Tell for adults . If we do this, then reaching 100,000 people is far easier since we are not singlehandedly reaching them via one road. Additionally, content will be viewed at a far higher rate since it is “spoken for” by a third party people know, like and trust.

Do this long enough and your “following” might be smaller in overall numbers, but those followers will be engaged which will make all the difference in the world. These are the followers we have cultivated to look forward to hearing from us because we are a brand.

Ads, marketing and promotion have little momentum without the engine of the BRAND.

In the end, don’t get too frustrated. Publishing has always been a slow business. Only now? It’s just slower in different ways. It also feels slower because everything else (besides writing the actual book) is pretty close to instant. So make sure you aren’t being unreasonable in your expectations. It is a heck of a lot faster to publish that book on Create Space than it is going to be to build the audience dying to read it. Just keep improving and keep pressing and keep perspective.

What are your thoughts? Do you think we have gotten a little spoiled with instant? That maybe it makes us unreasonably hard on ourselves? Do you want to set fire to your e-mail?

If branding and blogging and all that jazz has you overwhelmed, please pick up a copy of Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World or check out the classes I have below. I even have a Social Media Master’s series where you get three classes for the price of TWO. All you need to know to ROCK your book brand.

I love hearing from you!

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 of your novel, or your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

Check out the Upcoming Classes

Remember that ALL CLASSES come with a FREE RECORDING so you can listen over and over. So even if you can’t make it in person? No excuses! 

All you need is an internet connection!

Branding Master’s Class Series with Kristen Lamb THREE social media classes, ONE low price. Only $99. It is literally getting one class for FREE!!!! 

Craft Master’s Class Series with Kristen Lamb THREE craft classes, ONE low price. Only $89. One class is FREE!!!! Includes my new class The Art of Character.

Individual Classes with MOI!

Pitch Perfect—How to Write a Query Letter & Synopsis that SELLS January 28th

When your Name Alone Can SELL—Branding for Authors February 10th, 2017

Social Media for Authors February 11th, 2017

NEW CLASS!!!! The Art of Character January 27th, 2017

Blogging for Authors February 3rd

For those who need help building a platform and keeping it SIMPLE, pick up a copy of my latest social media/branding book Rise of the Machines—Human Authors in a Digital World on

The post Selling Books—The Struggle is REAL but Not New & What to DO! appeared first on Kristen Lamb.