Perspective is one of the most commonly overlooked skills we authors can build, and the stronger the skill, the better the stories. Whether we write in first-person, third-person, third shifting, third close, it really doesn’t matter if the character is not believable. We’ve already discussed how POV (point of view) shapes a story and how each “type” creates a distinctive psychological experience.

But, POV is merely casting who will be holding the narrative camera. The next question we should ask is, “Exactly whose experiential lens will be telling the story?” Followed immediately by asking, “And is it believable?”

Once we choose a certain POV and which character we want telling the story, we need to make that character believable, relatable and someone we want to invest time getting to know (and hopefully root to win).

This is where perspective can be the game-changer.

Recently, I bought a second book from a debut author I LOVED. The first book was so excellent I’ve listened to it at least a dozen times, and even bought a hard copy and had Spawn (my teenage son) read it. So trust me, when the second book came up to preorder?

TAKE MY MONEY!

Then, no matter how hard I tried with the second book, I could NOT get into the story. Trust me, I tried. The author was still skilled, the story was excellent, so why was it losing me? And me being me, I needed to understand what (for me) had suddenly gone so wrong.

Perspective Has to Be Believable

In the author’s first book, I fell into the world and forgot to come up for air. Why? The MC, though irascible to the point I wanted to hare-lip him, was utterly believable. His mood swings, temper and often illogical decisions made sense, since he was a veteran suffering PTSD.

Hiking, hunting, fishing and being outdoors all had helped him handle (though not confront and master) his darker emotions. Not only did his stupid choices still make sense (and serve up some great dramatic tension), but his knowledge base also made sense because it was his world prior to the inciting incident.

What happened with the second book?

I’m not naming names because I want people to fall in love with the author’s books without me poisoning the well. This is merely MY opinion. That said, after many starts and stops and finally giving up, I had to backtrack what exactly went wrong.

Perspective. The author wanted me to believe a thirteen-year-old juvenile delinquent could see and experience the story events in a way I found utterly implausible.

Perspective Can Only Stretch So Far

The author chose to write through the POV of a young teenage boy who’d never set foot outside of a poor urban community in the South. Who’d never seen mountains in person, yet somehow knew all the terms that a person who’d grown up in the Rockies, Tetons, whatever, would toss out without even thinking.

He not only knew what a topographical map was, but why it would be important to have one…and how to read it. That’s a tough sell regardless of the character’s age. The simple fact his MC came from a sheltered, poverty-riddled life in a bayou already made this incredibly implausible.

Additionally, how the character experienced his world, problems, and even regular interactions rang false for someone that age, who also happened to come from a sheltered background (for that setting).

Had the story been set with an urban background requiring street smarts, maybe my opinion would have been different. But the author chose not only a young protagonist, but a fish-out-of-water that felt more like a fish that suddenly sprouted legs because the writer needed him to.

What bothers me most is that the story would have worked beautifully had the character NOT been so knowledgeable. Again, no one minds a fish-out-of-water story. We love them enough they have their own term. Yet, we need to make sure we are remaining true to that perspective.

It’s okay for a character to not know something. In fact, often it can be BETTER.

Eyes and Age

Some of my favorite books are written from a young person’s perspective. Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, Joe Lansdale’s The Bottoms, Jonathan Maberry’s Rot & Ruin and Stephen King’s IT, are all written from a young person’s perspective. THREE of these titles are told from a young teenage boy’s perspective, the same type of character that somehow–in this other story–fell flat.

Which made me start thinking. All of these books have incredible detail, sophisticated stories and the vocabulary is elite. How did Bradbury, Maberry, Lansdale, and King pull that off? How could they pull off such erudite description while also remaining believable as “children”?

My only working theory is the teens in these stories are all well-read, regardless of socioeconomic level. They think and observe with eyes they’ve earned from inhaling books.

Harry might be a twelve-year-old boy in rural East Texas during the Great Depression, but he has access to a library of sorts (an old maid who lends him books and rewards him for reading them).

Authorial Voice

Yes, Ray Bradbury has an authorial voice that’s unmistakably elite, but we never question the boys’ observations or the ways they choose to see their world because AGAIN, reading is part of their identities. Same in IT.

The words they choose, the details they notice (narration) are all a benefit of working their observational muscles using books that are hardly fluff: King Solomon’s Mines, The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo are far from comic books (though we’ll get to comic books in a moment).

Reading is one of those activities that definitely can enhance a young character. The average adult wouldn’t normally know that the overhang thingy we pull our cars under is called a porte cochère (I didn’t). If they read Dean Koontz, however, they totally would know that.

Guess how I learned?

Reading Expands Perspective

If we want a fish-out-of-water, young or old, that’s fine…so long as they remain a fish-out-of-water. I don’t want to get hung up on age, because age is only one element of perspective. That said, if we want to transplant someone out of a Florida swamp into the Smokies, there better be a story-specified reason they (in narration) suddenly know/or at least have an idea of common terms in an utterly unfamiliar world.

Maybe we want to write a romance about a woman with a crush, and the main love interest mistakes her for a nurse upon waking from a bang on the head. She doesn’t want to admit she’s a dog-walker because the job is embarrassing.

Okay. So maybe she grew up with a mom in nursing school and she happened to be the only person (despite being only thirteen) who could help her mother study. Maybe she faints at the sight of blood, but still found her mother’s textbooks fascinating. Perhaps she dated a medical student. She might even have mostly dog-walking clients in the medical district, so she absorbs an unfamiliar world via a sort of osmosis.

She can possess just enough knowledge to make the deception plausible while still being wildly unprepared for what might happen next.

Her partial expertise becomes a potential source of conflict.

That’s good storytelling.

We ARE What We DO

Perspective is an incredible literary device that can transport the reader into a world so thoroughly they never want to leave. This is why it is crucial we make sure the perspective rings true. Perspective will impact vocabulary, decisions and even what a character does or doesn’t notice.

Try a fun little exercise. Think about a neighborhood, a restaurant, or a shopping center. Describe the same place but from different perspectives.

A veteran suffering from PTSD will react to a roll of carpet lying in the road very differently from a real estate agent hoping to sell a house three doors down from the trashy neighbors using an old toilet as a planter.

An architect will “see” an old gingerbread house with a sagging porch far differently than a twelve-year-old kid who might read far too many comic books. Two different jump scares. The architect is blanching at the cost of repairing the termite-infested pier-and-beam floors, whereas the tween is certain an evil clown lives in the crawl spaces.

Perspective is Accumulated Experience with an Opinion

Suffice to say that our background, where we come from, the education we’ve had (or haven’t had), the job(s) we’ve done all inform perspective.

For instance, I haven’t worked in industrial sales in over twenty years, but I still notice the quality of a company’s corner board (or lack thereof). I also happen to be a generous tipper. Why? Because I waited tables through school and know they rely on tips to survive. Meaning I pay attention to more than my own dining experience, and can tell if a server is in the weeds or dealing with an incompetent kitchen staff. It isn’t her fault the hostess spread her tables across three time zones.

Additionally, as a middle-aged Gen Xer who’s “seen things”, trust me when I say my cumulative experiences make me notice things others might not. Anyone old enough to legally buy BEER would likely say the same.

Conversely, a young character–as we mentioned above–might possess impressive book knowledge, but their lack of practical experience should come across in the writing.

King does this brilliantly in It. No matter how book smart or even street smart a fifteen-year-old might be, there will be areas of authentic naïveté. At least there should be if we want our characters to be sympathetic/believable.

Yes, our spunky fifteen-year-old girl boss might know weapons and Kung Fu and have special vampire killing powers…yet also be oblivious as to why Mom might be having an aneurysm over the power bill.

Method Acting and Perspective

A dimensional character should feel as if they’ve lived a life before setting foot in our stories. Where did they grow up? What environment? Were they well-off or fast friends with poverty? Maybe a mix of BOTH?

Did they come from a sane family or a broken one? What roles have they inhabited (or not)?

An only child won’t have the same emotional repertoire as the eldest child made responsible for tending house and keeping a gaggle of younger siblings ALIVE as well as fed, clothed and entertained. Neither is good or bad, merely different.

I say this when I look at my only-child husband like he’s an alien…and he’s staring at me with the same expression. As for Spawn (only child, homeschooled, and a Zoomer)? There needs to be a translation app.

***INDULGENT SIDE QUEST: When Spawn was in Kindergarten we saw a “spooky” rotary phone in the Halloween decor and he genuinely had NO CLUE what it was. Not only that, but he genuinely believed I was punking him when I told him it was a phone. *me dying of old age*

Anyway….

Perspective is Cumulative

All our life experiences (or lack thereof) build in micro observations that make a character seem more than simply a paper doll there for the author’s amusement.

Ideally, we want to get inside the head of our characters to the point we practically inhabit them. If you’re writing a character who’s elderly or maybe a fighter with a recently blown knee, what would they notice? What would suddenly become important?

While an athletic teenager might not think a bathroom is scary unless the mirrors start bleeding, try tackling a shower without being able to trust your balance.

Someone with an unstable knee might notice slippery flooring, the absence of grab bars, or the distance between the shower and something sturdy enough to hold.

A healthy teenager might never register those details.

The environment hasn’t changed. The character’s relationship to it has.

In the End

Ultimately, plenty of people loved the book that started this whole post, so I wouldn’t say my advice is some sort of Holy Grail or anything. Yet, there is something to be said for reading (and more than just for any young protagonists we might want to write). I’ve read two books a week for almost a decade, and I dissect all of them.

If I loved them, what did the author do? Or, as was the case here, if a book fails to capture my attention, what was missing? What was too much? Is there a way the author could have kept my interest and if so, what?

I’ve said this time and time again over the years, but writers who don’t read aren’t fooling anyone. I can tell in one page a writer who doesn’t read because the prose is about as appetizing as food from a chef who only eats Hot Pockets. I know none of y’all are guilty of this, but pretty sure we have all met the “author” who believed anyone could write and their story was so extra special they didn’t need to bother about reading anyone else (or learning craft).

Yet, perspective, like vocabulary, narration, setting, theme, are all those advanced techniques that immediately can demonstrate mastery if we are willing to do the hard work.

What Are Your Thoughts?

Does this make you think a little differently about what exactly makes a dimensional character? Had you given as much weight to perspective before? Has this post maybe given you new ways you hadn’t considered to add additional depth and mystery to your characters?

I love hearing from you!

The post Perspective: The Secret to Authentic Character Voices appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

In the modern age when everyone can use AI to produce at least passable work, mastery is more critical than it’s ever been. AI has largely eradicated typos and poor grammar that used to signal inexperience which has some benefits. Those who struggle with spelling or grammar aren’t as far behind the Eight Ball as they used to be. You can now dig into storytelling mastery, even if spelling is your nemesis.

*waves to the dyslexic folks*

Side Note: I love how everyone seems positively giddy when a writer makes a typo on-line. Um, sir, we are writers, not Spelling Bee Champions *adjusts dictionary on desk*

Thus, if spelling makes you bonkers and grammar trips you up, AI definitely can be a game changer that redirects where you focus your mastery efforts. NO ONE is getting to the end of a book, giddy from reading delight saying, “There wasn’t a single misspelled word! Oh, the use of semi-colons was breath-taking.”

But, don’t get too excited.

AI Can’t Fake True Mastery

While AI can fake competence, it cannot manufacture/replicate writing skills only learned through study and practice. Therein lies the danger.

Without the normal roadblocks rookies of old used to tangle with, AI can be confidently WRONG and mislead new writers that their skills are far more polished than they really are.

A quick story to illustrate.

In our family, we absolutely FORBADE any of the children from using water wings or floaties. We insisted on teaching everyone to swim—at least dog-paddle—while still in diapers. Why? Because floaties could give a young child a false confidence that could get them killed.

They wouldn’t learn to respect the water and would have no idea that it was really the foam in their Little Mermaid/Spiderman swimsuit doing the hard work, not them. And that was a good way to have a child confidently dive into the deep end without the requisite skills to survive it.

Similarly, AI can land writers into a deep end they don’t have the mastery to navigate, which begs the next obvious question: How do writers achieve mastery?

Many folks claim it’s practice, but I disagree.

We hear it in kitschy writing slogans all the time. Like this one.

Yeah, no.

If there’s no correcting what we are doing wrong, then we’re simply practicing and ingraining bad form. Learning to survive being tossed in the water is a long way from being an excellent swimmer.

***Last I checked, no one is eagerly awaiting the Dog-Paddling heats in the Summer Olympics.

If you learn to swim the butterfly, that’s awesome…unless you have bad form. You could swim five miles a day and are far more likely to end up with wrecked shoulders and blown discs than you are to be a contender for the GOLD.

Practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect. Practice makes permanent.

Give Yourselves Permission to Be NEW

Before we cover the five mistakes that reveal a lack of mastery, I want to make something clear. Every great writer started out dog-paddling as a rookie. Writers, like Olympians, don’t just magically launch into greatness solely off natural talent, so PLEASE! Give yourself permission to be NEW. In fact, I promise if you stay at this long enough, you’d MISS the early days (like childhood), so enjoy the feeling.

The Writer’s Journey: From Total Newbie to the Joy of Mastery

On Writing: Why Mastery Should Matter to Authors

Now that we’ve come this far, what are common oopses that either fail to hook readers or just lose them completely? While audiences might not be writing coaches, humans possess an innate sense of what makes a good story. While they might not be able to articulate WHY they put down a book, that doesn’t mean they didn’t have good reasons to slip in that bookmark. Of course, “Um, I just didn’t like it” is not exactly helpful, which is why we are all here today.

So what exactly is it that coaches editors, such as myself see that immediately flags weak writing?

Mastery Habit One: Ditch Excessive Stage Direction

Stage direction often reveals a writer who hasn’t learned to distinguish movement from meaningful action. A character turning, nodding, reaching, or looking isn’t inherently a problem. The issue is whether those actions accomplish anything other than coaching readers on the obvious.

She turned and reached in the back seat for the gun.

I would certainly HOPE SO! The thought of her NOT turning to reach in a car’s back seat is nightmare fuel.

Similarly, trust that we readers understand how everyday actions are accomplished.

She opened the cabinet to grab another glass.

Well, unless she’s one of the missing X-Men, I’d certainly hope so. Yet notice how this stage direction differs greatly if we write this, instead:

She flung open the cabinet for another glass.

Here, the character isn’t opening a cabinet because we, the reader, have thus far been mystified as to how fresh glasses are accessed. The verb flung implies a distinctive mood: anger, frustration, resentment. Additionally, using the word another suggests subtext. Is she angry that her sister showed up unannounced in the middle of an intimate date? Has her mother showed up to dissect her failing marriage and she’s struggling to be hospitable?

Notice how the action has shifted from stage direction to dramatic action.

Additionally, while punctuation and italics can be used to coach readers in free internet blogs…I’d advise against punctuation prompting in your fiction.

Ellipses are wonderful, just don’t get crazy. Feel free to use an exclamation point now and again, just don’t add “she yelled” as a tag. Instead of an exclamation point, though, see if you can strengthen the dialogue so you don’t need to signal the reader more than a flightline worker on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Trust me. We not only understand the physics of obtaining a glass, we are also aware what the exclamation point is for.

Mastery Habit Two: Nix Needless Modifiers

If we look at the above example, the verb flung is doing some pretty excellent dramatic work. Notice, however, the other word that immediately implied a story without belaboring exactly how one reaches glassware…another.

Another is doing a lot of work for such an unremarkable word. Nobody would ordinarily single it out as a powerful storytelling tool. Yet in context, it suggests repetition, an additional person, or an escalating situation without explaining any of them. In fact, the not explaining is precisely why a reader is likely to keep reading.

We are all human and humans are notorious rubberneckers. We’re nosy, so use that to your storytelling advantage.

Modifiers come in all forms, but adverbs seem to spark the most controversy.

Some purists claim we should never use adverbs, but I disagree. We demonstrate mastery when we know precisely when to use one and when not to. My advice here is, again, to avoid explaining the obvious.

He whispered quietly.

The verb whisper already tells us the quiet part out loud because it’s inherent in the verb and is vastly different from someone whispering menacingly, seductively, or conspiratorially.

We “get” that, unless expressly told otherwise, characters yell loudly, run quickly or stab someone violently.

As opposed to the ‘non-violent’ stabbing?

But take note:

• Another creates a question.
• Quietly answers a question nobody asked.
• Menacingly introduces information that changes the meaning of the action.

A modifier should contribute something the reader couldn’t already reasonably infer.

Mastery Habit Three: Avoid Low-Hanging Description

This is another place my writing advice might differ from other experts. Description is part of authorial voice and is a matter of taste.

No one is going to mistake Flannery O’Connor for Ernest Hemingway because they have very different descriptive styles, which is great! Not all readers enjoy the same kinds of stories. In fact, audiences will often divide along this line in particular: readers who can’t get enough of rich, immersive description and those who have no taste prefer lean, austere prose.

KIDDING! Mostly.

Hemingway could accomplish remarkable things with restraint. O’Connor could use rich, often grotesque detail to reveal character, culture, and moral conflict. Neither approach is inherently superior.

Yet, if we’re discussing mastery then I’d like to point out the large elephant in the room.

See what I did there?

Seriously, if we choose to use description, remember true masters are wordsmiths. In fact it’s our wordsmithery (it’s a word) that intrigues many readers who enjoy this style. Thus, whether you choose to use a little description or a lot, do better than any average person trying to write the same scene.

Emerald eyes? Fire red hair? Ivory skin?

That kind of description is only slightly better than a bad police sketch.

Mastery Habit Four: Sometimes Less is MORE

Now let’s look at the flip side. While sparse description isn’t necessarily amateur writing, elaborate description isn’t automatically mastery. Trust me, I love rich, evocative vocabulary more than most people. Yes, I dog-ear and highlight books when I find an adjective or turn of phrase that gives me a thrill I want to revisit (and possibly probably steal).

And no wailing from the bibliophiles! I can dog-ear, write notes in or color an entire novel with a pink highlighter if I want to. I bought it. Frankly, as an author, I can think of no greater compliment than a reader marking up my book so much they need to buy a second pristine copy…for show.

Be aware that we don’t have to describe everything. In fact, when we describe everything, we can risk describing nothing. As a die-hard logophile, this is my weakness even after 20 years writing professionally.

For instance, there is likely no one who loves the word cerulean as much as I do, but it doesn’t exactly tell the reader much just on its own. Sometimes blue eyes are just blue eyes and using cerulean is just (clumsily) showing off.

Years ago, I judged a writing contest and GOD BLESS the writer who chose “amethyst bicycle”!

Yeah, Girl, it’s okay. You can just use purple.

Mastery Habit Five: Understanding Selectivity and Brevity Aren’t the Same Thing

And knowing the difference is what demonstrates mastery. True skill is understanding when and how to deploy lush or sparse description, a talent that only comes with a TON of reading and even MORE practice WRITING.

When a writer chooses to linger over a description or uses a uniquely evocative word, that attention ought to earn its place. Let’s use my favorite word here again….cerulean.

She stared into his cerulean eyes.

She stared into his cerulean eyes, but couldn’t quite reconcile how their innocent brightness—the color of baby showers and summer skies—so skillfully camouflaged just how monstrous he could be.

***Yes, it’s wordy. Hey, give me a break. I’m writing examples in a teaching blog, not hoping for a Pulitzer.

Yet, notice how, in the first sentence, cerulean is merely a fancy-schmancy way of describing eye color.

In the second, the contrast between innocent brightness and monstrous behavior gives the description a purpose. The imagery creates dramatic irony and tells us something about the character beyond his appearance.

And the baby showers and summer skies are particularly interesting because they’re not simply prettier alternatives to blue. They’re associations that establish the innocence we’re contrasting with his monstrosity.

The reader innately understands that the POV character is struggling to reconcile the man’s appearance with what she knows about him. That makes the description part of her experience rather than an author stopping the action to admire somebody’s eyeballs.

And yeah, yeah, I get it. Habits Three, Four, and Five are closely related, but notice how each way of using description is doing a different job.

One addresses originality, another restraint, and the last judgment.

Mastery is More Than a Checklist

I hope you enjoyed these tips, because I strive to take my own advice. It’s low-hanging fruit to lecture writers to ditch all adverbs and never choose a fancy word when a plain one will do. But doesn’t that strip all the fun out of writing? The JOY out of reading?

Many writers began as readers and we loved being immersed in fictional words so much, we decided to become authors…then promptly water-boarded potential readers with metaphors.

This is where practice, reading, getting excellent feedback can all help us ditch the writing water wings and strike out across the open cerulean sea.

Shut it. Don’t judge me .

What are Your Thoughts?

Still wearing writing water wings? No worries, chuck them off and just paddle along the edge. Hopefully, today’s list might help you “see” some of the simple bad habits that could be getting in your way.

When was the last time you fell in love with a word or turn of phrase? Did you find a way to make it your own?

Are you describing what matters, or simply everything you can see? Where might a little restraint make your prose more powerful?

The post Writing Water Wings: 5 Habits that Betray a Lack of Mastery appeared first on Kristen Lamb.

Image via Flikr Creative Commons, courtesy of Mike Licht.

I travel all over the country to teach writers how to create a brand and build a platform, and it never feels like work because I love preparing each of you for success. Yet, every audience has at least one (usually at least three) of a certain type of writer— the one who resents having to use social media. And they almost always sit in a spot where they can glare at me and interrupt and tell me I have the brain of a monkey who’s head was crushed in Wal Mart’s automatic doors.

Hey, can’t please everyone.

I Didn’t Make the Rules

Every industry has been modernizing since the advent of, I dunno…BUSINESS. Farmers relied on horses and plows until a seriously cool invention, THE TRACTOR. Scribes were a tad ticked with the invention of the printing press, and anyone who worked in an office in the 80s eventually had to learn to use a copy machine, then a computer.

Time marches forward and so does technology. Griping about it just wastes time and creative energy, and the “Good Old Days” weren’t all that great, at least not for most writers.

Ugly Truth About “The Good Old Days”

The old paradigm of publishing resembled a Banana Republic economy. About 5% made boatloads of money. Another small fraction made a decent living, but most scraped by and never made enough money to write full-time. As of 2004, only one out of NINE traditionally published authors ever saw a second book in print and 93% of all books published (traditional and non-traditional) sold less than a thousand copies (per Book Expo of America statistics).

Also, traditional publishing (sans social media) had a LOT of limiting factors.

Genre Hostages

First, if a writer experienced success in one genre, this writer was required to write that genre until he burned out or died. Why? The only way an author could create a brand was the books. Readers followed the genre.

Yet, when an author builds a social media platform, the author becomes the brand. Audiences follow the writer and his/her voice. Since they feel they “know” the author, they are far more likely to read out of genre. Maybe they’d never read a historical romance, but they love the writer so much, they’ll give HERS a try.

Age Discrimination

In the old paradigm, age was also a huge limitation. Agents were hesitant to sign up a seventy-year-old writer for a three-book deal. Yet, this doesn’t jive with reality.

Boomers reinvented youth in the 1960s and economic success in the 1980s; they are not about to do their senior years by someone else’s formula. According to a 2005 survey by Merrill Lynch, more than 3 in 4 boomers say they have no intention of seeking traditional retirement. ~Microtrends, Mark Penn, page 30.

Image via Flikr Creative Commons, courtesy of Ethan Prater

A large percentage of writers have waited until the kids are out of the home and out of college to begin pursuing their dreams of being authors. They’re also writing books they’d like to read. Romance novels with a sixty-year-old protagonist finding love, not a twenty-two-year-old. Is traditional publishing ready to invest in older writers writing drastically different books?

Maybe. But if not? Now there are options. Seventy is getting younger every day and the emerging e-commerce marketplace doesn’t care how old we are or how many books we write.

Good is No Longer Good Enough

I recently finished an amazing business book by Bob Pritchett, and this particular segment stood out for me:

We live in a world of abundant, affordable quality. The days of getting ahead by doing a good job, building a good product (writing a good book), or providing a good service are over. Your business needs to be exceptional in some way, or it is doomed to drift forever on the sea of homogeneity. Fire Someone Today, Pritchett, page 195.

Can a writer survive just writing books? Sure, humans can also stay alive eating grasshoppers and doodlebugs (though I have not tested this theory).  I don’t know about you guys, but I’d like to do more than just survive. And, to be blunt, as the market shifts toward globalization and e-commerce, writers who don’t make the transition will eventually go extinct.

Just ask Martha. She used to work retail and refused to let go of carbon paper machines when taking credit card transactions. Word on the street is Martha was last seen eating grasshoppers.

The Steep Price of Stagnation

For the first time in human history, authors are making six and seven figures without New York’s involvement. More writers are able to write full-time because they’ve embraced innovation. When we just want to write books we hand off a lot of work to other people. This means a lot of people get paid before WE do.

In the traditional paradigm, an author makes about $1.07 (before taxes) on a $10 book. Why? Because the marketing department, sales department, literary agents, bookstores, and truck drivers don’t work for Skittles. Barnes & Noble is a business, not a charity, and they expect payment for placing our books on their shelves.

If we want to traditionally publish, we can. We just have to sell A LOT more books to make good money. How do we do this? We need a brand and a platform that is capable of driving sales. Jenny Lawson’s book Let’s Pretend This Never Happened was traditionally published and hit the NYT best-seller list.

But Jenny Lawson is also The Bloggess and her blog has roughly 2-3 MILLION visits a MONTH. She also rules Twitter. When she tried to hold a “Meet the Author”? The sheer volume of her fans crashed Goodreads.

THAT is a noble goal. ***Note to self: Must crash Goodreads.

If we indie or self-publish? Readers don’t pop out of the ether. For the moment, traditionally published authors do have an advantage of being in bookstores. But, as I mentioned, a lot of other people need to be paid to make this happen. Indies do enjoy an advantage of making more money per book, but we need to step into a lot of those “outsourced” roles that gobble up the traditional author’s royalty check.

Yes, it’s more work, but it can be fun work. Selling more books means more money. More money means we get to do what we love for a living. 

I’ve worked many years to create a system of building an on-line brand in a way that is fun, simple, and leaves plenty of time to write. WANA methods are also resistant to any major shifts in technology (changes in algorithms, Facebook going the way of MySpace).

I’m NOT a technophile and have almost no clue what most of the buttons on my dashboard actually DO. I’m a writer and I want to write…until I am 110 and then I’ve left instructions to be cryogenically frozen and then defrosted in the future :D. I might even write Fifty Shades of Polydent just to embarrass my grandkids.

What are your thoughts? Are you an older writer who’s excited about the future? Do you like the idea of writing books you would like to read? Have you ever eaten a grasshopper and lived to tell the tale?

I LOVE hearing from you!

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

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Since it was such a HUGE success and attendees loved it, I am rerunning the Your First Five Pages class SATURDAY EDITION. Use the WANA15 code for 15% off. Yes, editors REALLY can tell everything they need to know about your book in five pages or less. Here’s a peek into what we see and how to fix it. Not only will this information repair your first pages, it can help you understand deeper flaws in the rest of your manuscript.

My new social media book, Rise of the Machines–Human Authors in a Digital World is NOW AVAILABLE. Only $6.99.

WANACon, the writing conference of the future is COMING! We start with PajamaCon the evening of October 3rd and then October 4th and 5th we have some of the biggest names in publishing coming RIGHT TO YOU. If you REGISTER NOW, you get PajamaCon and BOTH DAYS OF THE CONFERENCE (and all recordings) for $119 (regularly $149). Sign up today, because this special won’t last and seats are limited. REGISTER HERE.

The post Digital Age Authors & The Ugly Truth About "The Good Old Days" of Publishing appeared first on Kristen Lamb.