Tag Archives: self-publishing

The Indie MFA

  By girlnone | 13 May, 2013 - 9:00 am | , , , ,
3 Comments

Well, it’s official. I won’t be going to grad school in the fall. I’m trying to be classy and mature and professional about it, but it smarts. The  schools I applied to–UC Irvine, Syracuse University, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor–are incredibly competitive, and it was always a long-shot. After reading this post at The Passive Voice about the sales figures for recent Pulitzer winners (hint: most titles saw a tenfold increase in sales…from around 50 to 500 copies), I’m more certain than ever that literary fiction isn’t what I want to do. Not when the books I truly enjoy reading and writing are full of elves and ghosts and love-sick teenagers. So really, it’s okay. I don’t want your fancy diploma, anyway.

Amy: Well, I know that I'll miss the intellectual thrill of spelling out words with my arms. Cordelia: Ooo, these grapes are sour!

Amy: Well, I know that I’ll miss the intellectual thrill of spelling out words with my arms.
Cordelia: Ooo, these grapes are sour!

Of course, you don’t need a degree to write. I studied in high school and college, at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities and Sarah Lawrence College, with some of the best teachers in the world. My studies gave me a solid foundation and box of tools to use, but after graduation, without the structure and guidance from my classes, I lacked one thing that my mentors couldn’t teach me: discipline. It wasn’t until I decided to self-publish instead of waiting for someone–a teacher, an agent, or an editor–to give me permission to write, that I took full responsibility for my success.

As I’ve said before, while talent and discipline can’t be taught, there are still technical skills you can learn to make you a better writer. Just by reading and writing as much as possible, you’ll figure a lot of it out. You’ll also need to brush up on the business side of things–learning the ins and outs of traditional publishing, should you choose to go that route, or the technical aspects of indie publishing.

So, instead of spending two or three years studying (and potentially taking on tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt), here’s my guide to earning an Indie MFA.

Course Materials

A Laptop. Unlike desktop computers, laptops give you the freedom and mobility to work anywhere. Libraries and coffee shops make excellent offices, and the overhead is cheap.

Scrivener. I’ve sung the praises of this software before, but seriously, you should buy it. It’s the best.

Library Card. I can’t afford to buy every book want. I check out twenty to thirty books a month–fiction and non, kids to YA to books for actual grownups.

Caffeinated Beverage of Choice. Self-explanatory.

Required Reading

The Chicago Manual of Style. The single most important thing you can learn–you know, other than stuff like plot and character–is grammar. Particularly for self-published authors, poor proofreading can kill a book. Chicago is the standard for fiction. Buy the print edition or spring for a subscription to the online version.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. A fascinating read about creativity, productivity, and the way that extraordinary people achieve success. According to Gladwell, it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert. So, you know, get crackin’.

Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott.  A frank, funny, wonderful book about living and working as a writer.

On Writing by Stephen King. Whether your a fan of his work, you can’t deny that the man is one of the most prolific and commercially successful writers in history. Learn from his process.

Distinguished Faculty

J.A. Konrath. He’s one of the most financially successful indie writers working today. He gives straight talk about the business aspects of self-publishing.

Dean Wesley Smith. An outspoken advocate for self-publishing, Smith has several free-to-read books on his site as well as dozens of blog posts.

David Gaughran. He’s not afraid to call out major publishers when they make questionable decisions, and his books Let’s Get Digital and Let’s Get Visible are awesome.

Holly Lisle. Her site has a wealth of articles about the craft of writing. The information about editing is particularly helpful.

Rachel Aaron. Her eBook, 2k to 10k, will help you boost your productivity. Definitely worth a dollar, but you can also find a lot of advice on her blog.

Joanna Penn. Although a lot of her advice focuses on non-fiction, Joanna Penn’s site is one of the best online resources for writers.

Joel Friedlander. His site, The Book Designer, is brimming with tips on formatting, publishing, and marketing your book. Like Joanna Penn, a lot of the information is geared toward non-fiction authors, but much of it applies to fiction writers, too.

Mignon Fogarty. Also known as Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty is the person I trust most for everything related to grammar, usage, and mechanics.

Assignments

Read. Don’t just read the kind of books you typically enjoy or the ones most similar to what you write. Browse the stacks at your local library and pick up anything that piques your interest. Read outside your comfort zone. Sample different genres. And don’t worry if you don’t like everything you read. Good books can be inspirational, but lousy books are great teachers, too. It’s important to learn what doesn’t work in a story, and there’s nothing quite as motivational as saying, “I could do better than that!”

Write. This should be a given, but I’ve spent much more time thinking and worrying about writing than actually doing it. Write like it’s your job.

Publish. Don’t wait for the magical unicorn princess to descend from the clouds and bless your work. (Sorry, I’ve been watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic in another window.) Write a story, get it to your beta readers, and hire an editor. Then let it go. You can keep tinkering with a manuscript until the heat death of the universe; books are never really “done.” But the time you lavish on lovingly polishing each word of your masterpiece would be much better spent writing your next book.

 

 

Thoughts on Being a Hybrid Author

  By girlnone | 21 March, 2013 - 1:43 pm | ,
1 Comment
Now you can have your cake and eat it, too! Unless you're playing portal, in which case I'm sorry to tell you that the cake is a lie.

Now you can have your cake and eat it, too! Unless you’re playing portal, in which case I’m sorry to tell you that the cake is a lie.

It seems as if writers today must make a choice: will you follow the traditional path, or will you self-publish? Each has its own benefits and drawbacks.

Traditional Publishing

Pros: Editorial, design, and marketing support from the publishing house, being paid an advance, distribution to brick-and-mortar stores, legitimacy of having made it past a variety of gatekeepers

Cons: Loss of control over your manuscript, severely reduced royalty rates (assuming you earn back your advance), you may still be responsible for marketing, average of 18 months from editorial phase to publication

Indie Publishing

Pros: Total freedom over editorial and design decisions, ability to set your own prices, earning significantly higher royalties for each sale, average of 24-48 hours from finished manuscript to published eBook

Cons: Prejudice against self-published titles, need to pay for editing and design out of pocket, difficulty of getting reviews and publicity, lack of external validation from an agent or publisher

Instead of choosing one or the other, why not have the best of both worlds? Here are some ideas on how that might work:

  • If you’ve been traditionally published in the past and your books are now out of print, self-publish them as eBooks to populate your digital backlist.
  • Write short stories and send them off to paying markets (but don’t sell your stories for less than $.05 a word). Once the rights revert to you, self-publish individual stories or collect them in an anthology.
  • Self-publish an eBook while simultaneously querying agents. Let the agent handle overseas/print/audio/film rights. While publishers usually want eBook rights, too, but Hugh Howey (author of Wool) managed to keep his digital rights.
  • Self-publish some titles and send others to agents or publishers to get a traditional book deal.
  • Self-publish, kick ass (i.e. sell more than 100,000 copies), and wait for the agents and publishers to come knocking on your door.

Writers who choose the hybrid approach will need to perform a balancing act, weighing increased reach vs. decreased freedom, higher sales vs. lower royalties, etc. To help you decide which path is right for you, try this informative and totally scientific quiz:

Further Reading:

Are Self-Published Books the New Query Letter?

Self-Published Author Seeks Agent

Why Traditionally Published Authors Are Going Indie

The Politics of Pen Names

  By girlnone | 17 March, 2013 - 3:28 pm |
4 Comments

Whenever I pick up a book by an unfamiliar author, I always flip to the back to check them out. I like to see the photo and read the bio; it gives me a better sense of what I’m getting into. (Knowing that certain vampire books were written by an unnamed Mormon housewife just makes the pieces fall into place, doesn’t it?) I’ll also check the copyright page to see if they’re really who they say they are. It’s always a little disappointing to see a different name than the one on the cover, but authors often have excellent reasons for publishing as someone else.

Why Do Writers Use Pen Names?

Gender Bias

faerie pathMany of the great novelists of the 19th century were women, but in order to be taken seriously, they wrote as men. George Eliot (real name: Mary Ann Evans), George Sand (real name: Amandine Lucie Aurore Dupin), the Bell brothers (real names: the Bronte sisters): all ladies.

This practice is hardly limited to the 19th century. Women who write in traditionally male-dominated genres like thrillers or crime novels will often adopt a gender-neutral name, such as P.D. James and J.D. Robb. Famously, Joanne Rowling was encouraged by her publisher to go by her initials so that little boys would be more inclined to buy Harry Potter. Since she had no middle name, she adopted “K” in honor of her grandmother. Gender bias also goes the other way; Frewin Jones, the author of the teen fantasy Faerie Path series, is actually called Allan.

Cultural Bias

What do Ayn Rand and Stan Lee have in common? Their real names are Alisa Rosenbaum and Stanley Lieber, respectively. Although less common in literary circles than in Hollywood, concerns over marketability and antisemitism often prompted Jews to anglicize their names. (This still happens today, of course; Jon Stewart (Jonathan Stuart Liebowitz) and Winona Ryder (Winona Horowitz) come to mind.)

Theodor Seuss Geisel is, of course, best known as Dr. Seuss. While researching this post, I read this interesting tidbit on Wikipedia: Geisel had always pronounced “Seuss” to rhyme with “voice,” but he eventually adopted an anglicized pronunciation because it “evoked a figure advantageous for an author of children’s books to be associated with—Mother Goose.” ”

Multiple Writers Working Together

While Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have always published as partners, many other teams have chosen to publish under one identity. Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee wrote detective fiction as Ellery Queen. Erin Hunter, whose Warriors series fills half a bookcase at the library, is actually three people (and quite possibly several more ghostwriters). Ilona Andrews, author of the Kate Daniels books, is open about being husband-and-wife duo Ilona and Andrew Gordon.

It’s Part of The Schtick

Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket, staring pensively at the sea.

Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket, staring pensively at the sea.

Samuel Langhorn Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, chose his pen name from the traditional riverman’s call for water two fathoms deep. Two children’s book writers, Lemony Snicket (real name: Daniel Handler) and Pseudonymous Bosch (real name: rumored to be Raphael Simon), created fake characters to go along with their fake identities. Both Snicket and Bosch were characters in their own works.

Cursed With a Clunker

Who do you think would sell more books: Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski or Joseph Conrad? The most remarkable thing about Joseph Conrad is that although he wrote primarily in English, he did not learn the language until his 20s. More recently, Tofa Borregaard published her series of steampunk romance novels as Gail Carriger.

Many writers whose names are difficult to pronounce or spell adopt read-friendly pseudonyms, but so do those who are born with less-than-marketable names. For example, Libba Bray, the young adult author of The Diviners, is named Martha. Anne Rice was born Howard Allen Frances O’Brien (she was named after her father); can you blame her for going by “Anne”?

Ghostwriting

 

Not to be confused with the (awesome) mid-90s TV show we got to watch sometimes as a treat in middle school.

Not to be confused with the (awesome) mid-90s TV show we got to watch sometimes as a treat in middle school.

In this gorgeous essay, Amy Boesky describes her experience working as a ghostwriter for the Sweet Valley High series. Many beloved childhood series, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and The Baby-Sitters Club, were written by various ghostwriters. V.C. Andrews passed away in 1986; ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman has continued to write novels in her name since then.

Sometimes, as with Niederman, ghostwriting is an open secret. After all, no one really believes that Carolyn Keene has been steadily writing Nancy Drew books since the 1930s. Since the early 90s, James Patterson has worked with “co-writers” to produce his books; although he’s cagey about the actual numbers, he admits that he pitches ideas and does rewrites while the co-writers (sometimes credited, sometimes not) write the actual books. With these authors, their brand has become more important than the books. That’s why the name “Patterson” is larger than the title on the majority of his novels; people buy Patterson-brand thrillers regardless of who writes them.

There are a significant number of ghostwriters haunting the publishing world whose names we’ll never know. Write-for-hire authors typically sign a contract that prevents them from “outing” themselves. In 2010, disgraced author James Frey (okay, to be fair, I don’t know how “disgraced he is anymore; I just don’t like him) began recruiting MFA students for his “Full Fathom Five” book production company. The contracts were brutal (read the New York Times article for the details), and writers naive or desperate enough to sign on essentially signed away the rights to their work. Frey had complete discretion over assigning projects, doling out pseudonyms, and swapping out ghostwriters. Remember I Am Number Five, the YA alien series by Pittacus Lore? Yeah, that was a Full Fathom Five production.

Secret Identity

secret-identity-6Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a conservative mathematics professor, but as Lewis Carroll, he wrote some of the most marvelous literary nonsense ever published. Eric Arthur Blair was a supporter of the British Empire, but as George Orwell, he became a radical socialist.

While working for the British intelligence service during the 50s, David John Moore Cornwell began writing espionage thrillers. When The Spy Who Came in From the Cold became a bestseller, John le Carre quit being a spy in order to write about them fulltime.

They Write Too Fast

Before the dawn of eBooks and self-publishing, it was considered something of a liability for an author to write more than one or two books a year. Writers who work faster than that sometimes published additional books under different names. One of the most well-known examples is Stephen King, who wrote several novels as Richard Bachman. King went so far as to have a fake picture and biography (Thinner was dedicated to Bachman’s fictional wife, Inez), but after he was “outed,” the books were repackaged as “Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman.”

I love the Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine, and I was surprised and a little amazed when I looked up the author online. Roxanne Longstreet Conrad writes a variety of series for adults and teens, as (deep breath) Rachel Caine, Roxanne Longstreet, Roxanne Conrad, Julie Fortune, and Ian Hammel. Even more impressive is Donald E. Westlake’s roster of fifteen different pseudonyms.

Genre Conventions

Few writers are as lucky as Lilith Saintcrow; she was born with the perfect name to write urban fantasy. (She also publishes YA fiction as Lili St. Crow.) Gwendoyln Faith Hunter dropped her first name when she began writing urban fantasy novels, and Jennifer Bellack became Jenna Black when she started publishing dark, edgy supernatural romance.

In genre fiction–romance, urban fantasy, thrillers, detective stories, etc–the name of the author is an essential piece of the packaging. Few people would buy a regency romance written by Jack Pounder, but they might be interested in a hard-boiled detective novel. Millicent Periwinkle, on the other hand, would have a hard time selling a political thriller. (Note: these aren’t real authors names.)

Brand Diversification

This is perhaps the most common reason to use a pen name. Many authors enjoy writing different sorts of books, but in order to preserve their name recognition, they use certain names for certain genres. When a reader picks up a Nora Roberts book, they can expect a tale of romance, but when they read J.D. Robb, they know they’re in for a mystery. Kelly Gay writes gritty urban fantasy under her own name and young adult fantasy as Kelly Keaton.

Dawn Cook in costume as "Kim Harrison."

Dawn Cook in costume as “Kim Harrison.”

Kim Harrison–a.k.a. Dawn Cook–said in a 2009 interview, “I was requested to keep the two personas separate so the numbers for the Kim books were not influenced by the numbers for the Dawn books.” She is notorious for having two completely separate personas at book signings; as Kim Harrison, she wears a long red wig and lots of black clothes. In the same interview, she confesses that the persona helps her differentiate her personal life from her public life.

 Do You Need a Pen Name?

If you fall into one (or more) of the categories above, then you just might. Here are some things to consider before adopting a nom de plume:

  • Decide if the pseudonym will be an open secret (i.e. everyone knows, and the pen names are just for branding) or a secret identity (Clark Kent/Superman or Bruce Wayne/Batman, et al.)
  • You can list the pseudonym on the copyright page of your book, but if you want to avoid any future confusion, you could also register both the pen name and your real name with the Copyright Office.
  • How will you handle author interviews, book signings, or your author bio and photo? Will you create an entirely different persona like Kim Harrison/Dawn Cook?
  • If you’re found out, will your work under a pseudonym damage your other writing or your day job? This is a particular consideration for writers of erotica, many of whom want to keep their work hidden.
  • If you’re an indie author, is it more important to diversify your brand (i.e. separate pseudonyms for different genres) or to make your back list as extensive as possible? The more titles an indie has under their belt, the easier it is for readers to find them. On the other hand, if you write middle grade fantasy, erotica, and Cold War-era submarine thrillers, you’ll probably want to publish under different names so that your readers don’t get whiplash.

 

Further Reading:

Urban fantasy author Alayna Williams/Laura Bickle on juggling two identities.

11 authors whose real names you thought you knew

List of Pen Names at Wikipedia

Your Favorite Authors Are Frauds: 6 Famous Ghostwriters

Kickstart My Art

  By girlnone | 15 March, 2013 - 8:13 pm |
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First, some housekeeping: You may have noticed that things look slightly different around here. I moved the site from wordpress.com to self-hosting yesterday. Although I was able to keep the posts and comments intact, I lost every single “like” from my awesome readers. My wordpress followers may or may not get updates, but I’ll be setting up email subscriptions soon.  As always, thanks for stopping by.

–Erin

Veronica Mars Sets a New Record on Kickstarter

Five years after it went on the air (and, arguably, seven years since its heyday), Veronica Mars is back, marshmallows!.

Warner Bros., who holds the rights to the show, didn’t feel a feature film was a risk worth taking, and with good reason. Veronica Mars, despite critical acclaim and a small-but-fervent fanbase, never pulled in the kind of ratings that would have made it a success. The networks–first UPN and then its successor, the WB–shuffled it from timeslot to timeslot, aired episodes out of order, meddled with the structure and tone of the series, and finally cancelled it.

Five or ten years ago, that would have been the end of the story. However, we are living in the future. In a last-ditch effort to get a film made, Rob Thomas got permission from Warner Bros. to launch a Kickstarter campaign. The script was written, the cast was in; all they needed was the money. Thomas set a goal of two  million dollars, the minimum needed to produce a feature film. They hit that goal in less than 10 hours. As of this moment, the fund is up to 3.3 million, pledged by over 50,000 backers.

If Veronica and Logan don't get back together, I want my five bucks back.

If Veronica and Logan don’t get back together, I want my five bucks back, Rob.

It’s a win-win-win scenario for everyone. Fans finally get their movie (and donors get some cool rewards, including posters, T-shirts, DVDs, and even outgoing voicemail messages from the cast member of their choice). Rob Thomas & Co. get to make the film largely on their own terms, since they won’t have to rely on Warner Bros. for their budget beyond advertising and distribution. And Warner Bros. is the real winner–they stand to reap the profits if the film is even a modest success, and if it bombs, well, at least they didn’t have to pay for it.

The Economics of Creativity

Indie creators–particularly artists, filmmakers, and musicians, whose craft requires greater financial investment–have a tough time. Either they have to pay out of their own pockets, or they have to try to get a major publisher/label/gallery/etc to back them. Sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo offer a third option. They allow indie entrepreneurs to pitch projects to potential backers. There are hundreds of projects, from large-scale efforts like the Veronica Mars movie to local bands asking for a couple grand to produce an EP.

Unlike traditional backers, these donors aren’t investing with the expectation of a return. They give money because they believe in the project and want to be a part of it. As Robert Lloyd of the LA Times writes,

What matters in the new show business economics is a sense of participation: By chipping in a little cash, or a lot if you have it, you bring to life the world you want to live in: a world, say, with a “Veronica Mars” movie in it.

This “barn-raising” mentality, as Lloyd calls it, elevates a Kickstarter campaign from simply holding out a tin cup for alms. Sure, the backers get a nice reward for their contribution, but they also get to be part of a community. They don’t just get a new book or a CD or a film; they help make it possible.

Pictured: Mumford & Sons hard at work on their new album.

Pictured: Mumford & Sons hard at work on their new album.

Amanda Palmer, lead singer of The Dresden Dolls and wife of Neil Gaiman, gave a  TED talk about how crowdfunding and crowdsourcing isn’t about giving; it’s an exchange between the artist and audience where everyone benefits.

Crowdfunding and the Indie Author

It takes very little money to produce a book these days. I just published a new short story collection this morning (caution: for grownups only!), and it cost me exactly zero dollars to produce. Well, okay, it cost $40 for the software and a couple hours of formatting/uploading time. I’m lucky enough to have an in-house graphic design team and an editorial background that lets me fix my own stuff. It’s not ideal–if I could, I’d hire a freelance editor–but compared to producing a film or a record, publishing a book can be dirt cheap.

However, as author Michael J. Sullivan writes in the pitch for his Kickstarter project:

Self-publishing doesn’t mean, or shouldn’t mean, throwing a book “out there” to see if it will stick. For me, it means donning the hat of the publisher and taking responsibility for releasing only the highest quality product, produced in the most professional manner possible.

When I originally self-published, I worked on a shoestring budget. I created the covers myself, labored over the editing, and while the books were indeed high quality, it came at a price…less time to write new books.

I agree with Sullivan; all of this editing and formatting and marketing eats into my writing time. In a perfect world, I’d make a salary from my writing instead of relying on unpredictable royalties. Unfortunately, Kickstarter can’t be used for “fund my life” projects. Just because beer (or, in my case, pizza, Dr. Wham, and chocolate ice cream) is necessary to your creative process doesn’t mean that you can ask backers to foot the bill. A lot of writers on Kickstarter treat it as a pre-order platform; they get readers to pay for the books upfront, thereby making it possible to publish. That’s fine, although I’m on the fence about asking readers to chip in for advertising costs. If you’re considering using crowdfunding for a project, keep these tips in mind:

  • Make sure that you can deliver. It’s better to have a finished manuscript in-hand than a vague promise of finishing a book. Do the math to make sure that your rewards are equal to the pledges being made; while the purpose of crowdfunding isn’t to make money alone, you need to at least break even.
  • Consider doing something besides a plain old book. Special edition hardcovers, collaborative projects with illustrators, full-cast audio recordings, interactive multimedia eBooks, etc.
  • Have a plan. Be realistic about how much money you need; get estimates from editors, designers, etc before you put the project out there. Be specific about how the money is going to be used and transparent in how you spend it.
  • Get your social network ready. Crowdfunding success requires, well, a crowd. The wider your reach, the more likely you’ll meet your goal.
  • Offer cool rewards. Everyone offers copies of the book, but the best projects have more creative rewards–posters, tote bags, exclusive stories, even “cameos” for the highest reward levels. Make as many rewards as possible personalized; remember, your backers are supporting you to do the work that you love, so show them some love in return.

Here are some examples of successfully funded publishing projects:

Steampunk Holmes by Richard Monson-Haefal

Wollstonecraft by Airship Ambassador

To Be or Not to Be: That Is the Adventure by Ryan North

So, have any of you tried crowdfunding? If you have a success (or horror) story to share, hit me up in the comments.

Should Writers Review Books?

  By girlnone | 13 March, 2013 - 9:16 am | , ,
10 Comments
Brother Andre's illuminated manuscripts suck! Mine are way better.

Brother Andre’s manuscripts suck! Seriously, like don’t even bother buying his gospels. A monkey could have illuminated that shit.

Should writers review books? The short answer: No.

I’ve been considering this question for a while now, turning it over and over in my mind until it’s smooth and shiny as glass. Two unrelated events this past weekend–posting a negative review of someone’s book and receiving one in return–have led me to this conclusion:

If you are a professional author, you don’t get to be a casual reviewer anymore.

We lead our lives in public, tweeting every moment of our days and announcing the major events of our lives via Facebook status updates. As the boundary between the public and private continues to blur, those of us who try to make a living online have to be increasingly mindful of the way we present ourselves.

When I first started girlnone.com, it was a place where I could kvetch about my job, speculate on the state of the publishing industry, and motivate myself to write. When I finished Grey Magic and linked the places where it could be bought, however, it ceased to be a personal blog and became an author platform.

The same thing happened to my Goodreads account; I’ve always been more Simon than Paula with my reviews, but when I added an official author page, rating books started to make me feel uncomfortable. We live in a culture of overwhelming positivity; we’re encouraged to make nice and avoid hurting each other’s feelings, even if it means being less than honest in our criticism. I felt that if I wanted to continue reviewing books, I’d either have to be nicer (an unlikely scenario) or only post reviews for books that I really liked. As Chris Cleve wrote in this article from The Guardian, “fear makes me honest about books I do like, and silent about books I don’t.”

So I’ve decided to stop reviewing books altogether.

It comes down to conflict of interest. Let me explain: it’s likely that you read the kind of things you like to write. I read a lot of urban fantasy and young adult fantasy, and I write it, too. When I give a negative review to another book in that genre, I’m not just expressing my opinion. My one- and two-star reviews can negatively impact an indie’s overall rating, potentially making it more difficult to earn a living in a tough market. It’s not professional, nor is it ethical.

The publishing industry has a long history of back-scratching and boosterism when it comes to reviews. Those blurbs on the front covers of books are usually written by writers with the same label or agent, or who are colleagues in real life. While it’s unrealistic to expect total transparency and honesty in reviews, there has been increasing abuse of the rating system on sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads.

Late last year, Amazon banned writers from reviewing works in their genre, deleting hundreds of previously posted comments. Several well-known writers, including best-selling crime author R.J. Ellory have been caught “sock-puppeting,” i.e. using fake identities to post ratings and reviews. The temptation to lionize your friends and lambaste your enemies anonymously is powerful, but if caught, it can damage your career permanently. Best to stay out of it, don’t you think?

Further Reading:

Huffington Post on authors buying or faking reviews

The New York Times on Amazon’s new policy to crack down on review manipulation

An editor’s perspective on writer’s reviewing other writers

Nathan Bransford’s take on writer’s as casual readers

Do Used eBooks Spell Doom for Indie Authors?

  By girlnone | 12 March, 2013 - 7:53 pm | ,
1 Comment

On Twitter today, Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill shared this piece from PBS about the potential impact of used eBooks. Writers John Scalzi and Ayalet Waldman are both concerned about how used eBooks will affect writers, who, you know, make their money from selling books. If major retailers like Amazon start selling used eBooks (and it looks like they probably will), self-published writers are the ones who will be most negatively affected. Displayed side-by-side, a “new” eBook and a “used” eBook would presumably be identical except for the price. Why would anyone pay the higher price for the same product?

The logistics of selling used digital files truly makes no sense to me. Unlike used books, CDs, etc, used eBooks or mp3s don’t degrade or devalue. I’m usually willing to pay full-price to get a nice new book that hasn’t had the dirty hands of countless strangers rifling through its pristine pages (sorry, I’ve been writing erotica all day), but with a digital file, there’s no material difference between “new” and “used.” I’m also confused because when you purchase a DRM-protected digital download, you’re actually purchasing a license to access it on a limited number of devices. The media does not actually belong to the buyer, so how can they resell it?

In a used-eBook marketplace, the vendors and consumers would win–More revenue! Cheaper books!–but the publishers and especially the independent authors would lose. Indie authors don’t have advances from publishers; if we make money, it’s from royalties. Each sale puts a dollar or two in my pocket, for which I am incredibly grateful. If we don’t sell books, we don’t make money, and, as both Scalzi and Waldman pointed out, if writers can’t earn a living, they can’t keep writing.

Unlike traditionally published writers, indies rely overwhelmingly on eBook sales. While I have a print edition of Grey Magic, it sold only a handful of copies–mostly to friends and family who wanted something for me to sign–and it isn’t available in major bookstores. While my work probably won’t ever be competitive with traditional bestsellers, if I have to compete with used copies of my own books, I don’t know how I’ll be able to make a career out of my writing.

It seems to me that the main reason there’s a demand for used eBooks in the first place is because traditionally published titles are priced way too high. If publishers lowered the price of eBooks to be more competitive (most indie eBooks range from $.99-4.99), then perhaps customers would be satisfied. As it is, I fear that the consumer demand for the lowest price will damage indie authors

The Best Creative Writing Software

  By girlnone | 11 March, 2013 - 2:40 pm | ,
10 Comments

For a very long time, my only creative writing tools were a composition notebook and Microsoft Word. The vast majority of my work, from one-act plays to short stories to entire novels, has been written on Word, and until recently, I didn’t think to look for an alternative. Then I discovered Scrivener.

If you aren’t familiar with it, Scrivener is a program that allows writers to storyboard, outline, jot down notes, collect research, and, oh yeah, write. And it’s about 1/3 of the price of Word.

scrivener screenshot

Instead of creating a single document,  you create a project with Scrivener that includes all the parts of your work in progress, from pre-writing to individual chapters. The menu on the left side of the screen lets you organize and easily access files within the project. I typically create a top-level folder for my manuscript with individual documents for each chapter. That division works really well for me, because when I have to scroll all the way through my entire manuscript in Word, I will stop and fiddle with a paragraph, fix a typo, decide that it wasn’t a typo after all and change it back, etc. I waste a tremendous amount of time that way.

Image Credit: http://writerunboxed.com/2012/06/19/more-things-to-love-about-scrivener/

Image Credit: http://writerunboxed.com/2012/06/19/more-things-to-love-about-scrivener/

The other super awesome feature in Scrivener is the project target window. You can stick this little badger in the corner of your screen, Post-It style, to track your overall progress and session progress. That’s handy if, like me, you’re trying to write a minimum number of words per day. Unfortunately, the feature to add a deadline appears to only exist in the Mac version. Literature & Latte, the company that developed Scrivener, only recently added a Windows version, and some of the features are absent. I’m hopeful that as the Windows version continues to be updated, nifty little tools like that will be added.

If you only wanted to traditionally published (i.e. submit printed pages to agents, publishers, or markets), you could probably do all of your work in Scrivener. However, the software does not handle the sophisticated formatting techniques needed to produce your own eBook or print-on-demand title. To do that, you’ll need to export the project to Word. Once you have your manuscript in Word, you can tinker with fonts, paragraph styles, fully navigable tables of contents, and all the other lovely, tricky things that come with producing an eBook.

If you’re dead-set against using Word, if you can’t spend the money on the software (MS Office doesn’t actually come standard on PCs; you have to buy it separately), you could substitute OpenOffice Writer. As the name implies, OpenOffice is a free open source program that’s essentially a clone of Word. I haven’t used it much, so I’m hesitant to recommend it, but it does most of the same things as Word. And did I mention that it’s free?

You’ll want one final piece of software to round out your indie press needs. Calibre is a free program (although the developers appreciate donations) which displays and converts eBooks. You can save your finished book in Word as a “Web Page, Filtered” .htm document and then pop it in Calibre to convert it to a number of popular formats such as .epub and .mobi. Many eBook distribution platforms, including Amazon KDP, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble PubIt!, will convert a Word document or a pdf for you, but if you want to sell books directly to customers via your website or set up shop on a site like drivethrufiction.com, you’ll need to crunch the files yourself.

Recap of What I Use:

Scrivener for planning and writing my work

MS Word or OpenOffice Writer  for polishing and formatting my manuscripts

Calibre for converting and veiwing eBook files

 

Does anyone else use a different program that they prefer?

Dealing With a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Review

  By girlnone | 9 March, 2013 - 10:10 pm | ,
9 Comments
Haters Gonna Hate Oscar Wilde

Image Credit: Nathan Bransford’s most excellent blog. Click on Oscar to visit.

You think it will never happen to you.

Sure, you understand in some abstract sense that every writer gets bad reviews. But your book isn’t like the others; it’s a brilliant, funny, moving, edge-of-your seat, page-turning masterpiece. People would have to be fools not to like it. Fools!

Well, guess what? People won’t like it. Hopefully not all the people. Not even a majority of them. But you will get bad reviews, and each one will break your heart. You’ll feel like you should quit, like you made a mistake by publishing your worthless book in the first place.

I know; it happened to me today.

Here’s how to handle your first (or fifth, or five hundredth) bad review with grace:

  1. Try to avoid reading them. Regularly checking your Amazon/B&N/Goodreads pages for reviews is a very bad habit. Don’t set up a Google Alert, either. Unless you’ve arranged for a blogger or other reviewer to read your book, it’s best not to know when someone has reviewed your work. 
  2. Don’t respond or retaliate. Under no circumstances should you respond to the review or engage with the reviewer. That way lies internet infamy. There’s really no way to respond to a bad review without seeming defensive, passive-aggressive, or unhinged.
  3. Dismiss anonymous reviews. Just as sock puppets–fake accounts set up by authors or their minions to spam glowing reviews–are worthless, so too are the anonymous haters. If they don’t have the stones to show their face, then they aren’t worth worrying about.
  4. Remind yourself that everyone is entitled to their opinion. You don’t like every book that you read; therefore, some people won’t like your book. I’m a notoriously harsh critic–difficult to please, nitpicky, and not given to pulling punches. If I don’t like a book, I have no problem giving it one star. Only books I love without reservation get five stars, and those are few and far between. 
  5. Recognize constructive criticism. If a review is just “this book sucks,” then you can dismiss the reviewer as a garden-variety troll. However, if several reviewers had a specific problem with, for example, the pacing, then consider that when you write your next book. 
  6. Find the good. In the dreadful one-star review I received on B&N today, the reviewer wondered what the publisher had seen in the book. So, you know, at least it looked professional enough that he didn’t realize it was self-published. That’s a rather thin and tarnished silver-lining, but at least it’s something positive to take away from the experience. 
  7. Mobilize your friends, family, and fans. While it’s bad business to send your flying monkeys to attack the reviewer directly (see #2 on this list), encourage them to help balance out that bad review with honest–and, hopefully, positive–reviews of their own. Note that Amazon requires that the reviewer has actually purchased the book, but neither Barnes & Noble nor Goodreads seems to care. 
  8. Don’t take it personally. The reviewer isn’t attacking you as a person (and if they are, ignore them because they are just trolls). Repeat after me: I am not my book.

 

 

Copyright and the Self-Published Author

  By girlnone | 6 March, 2013 - 11:54 am | ,
1 Comment

I’ve written about copyright and rights management before (here and here), but in light of a recent self-publishing kerfuffle, I wanted to revisit the issue.

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. The following information, while accurate to the best of my knowledge, does not constitute legal advice. 

The indie publishing community flew into a tizzy earlier this week over Jamie McGuire’s self-published novel Beautiful Disaster. The book had been picked up by a traditional publisher, and the indie version was taken down in anticipation of the new version. Amazon email purchasers of the original book, urging them to ask for a refund of the price differential (the new version is about $4 more expensive) or to return the self-published version. McGuire was baffled and not a little dismayed, since the refunds were coming out of her royalties. A day later–and after dozens of blog posts defending McGuire, blaming McGuire, ranting about the evil of Amazon, and panicking about the implications for crossover indies everywhere–McGuire announced on her official Facebook page that Amazon had recanted. The whole thing, apparently, had been a mistake.

Okay, deep breath. Amazon is not trying to punish indie authors who find crossover success. Books that have been “unpublished” are not removed from the Kindle’s of people who purchased them, and Amazon is not, as far as I know, planning to replace hard-working authors with genetically enhanced cyborg monkeys.

Pictured: Bestselling Author Nicholas Sparks

Pictured: Bestselling Author Nicholas Sparks

There was some very interesting speculation over on The Passive Voice about the real reason for Amazon’s actions.  Several people in the comments pointed out that the original self-published text of Beautiful Disaster contained unlicensed lyrics from the Rolling Stones song “Satisfaction.” Again, the whole thing was speculation (and a bit of a mess, honestly), but regardless of whether the lyrics were behind the refund/removal chaos, indie authors can learn a valuable lesson.

Fair Use

Certain types of borrowing are protected under fair use. While there is no simple “yes or no” answer to what use is covered, there are some general guidelines:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

In essence, nonprofit or educational use is more likely to be protected than commercial use, and larger amounts of “borrowed” material are less likely to be covered than smaller excerpts. Any use that directly competes with the original work–e.g. takes a bite out of their profits–is more likely to be considered copyright infringement.

Furthermore, works of fiction are usually considered to be commercial, even if they’re self-published or unpublished. Unlike academic essays, book reviews, or analysis, fiction writers can’t just attribute quotations and go merrily on their way. Parody and satire occupy a gray area; depending on the nature of the parody and the attitude of the copyright holder, you may or may not get away with it. You may also be able to freely quote from a copyrighted work if it is integral to the point of your work. For example, a scene that would not make any sense without quoted lyrics might be protected under fair use.

As this helpful article points out, “Ideas, themes and facts are not copyrighted.” However, song lyrics, passages from books (published or not), poetry, and images are copyrighted unless they fall under public domain. Everything else should either be avoided or properly licensed. Permissions can be difficult to obtain, however, and licensing fees prohibitively high. For most indie authors, the best course is to omit copyrighted content altogether.

Public Domain

Public domain works are those whose copyright has lapsed or which have been licensed under Creative Commons.

Works published in the US before 1923 are considered to be in the public domain and may be freely used.

Works published between 1923 and 1964 may be public domain if their copyright was not renewed. This is the reason why the film It’s a Wonderful Life is shown on a constant loop during Christmas; the copyright was allowed to lapse, and it can be broadcast without paying licensing fees.

Works published after 1977 will not enter into the public domain until 70 years after the death of the author.

Some creators may publish their works under a Creative Commons license, which allows people to access, share, and build upon their work, but not to sell it. You couldn’t publish a Creative Commons work and make money from it, but you could quote freely. You can also find royalty-free music and pictures through Creative Commons, which can be useful for creating audiobooks or cover images.

Scenes a Faire, Short Phrases, and Titles

Scenes a faire are commonplace tropes found in certain genres. The disaster film may show the destruction of the White House or the Statue of Liberty, a spy novel may feature encrypted documents or men in dark sunglasses and trench coats. These tropes are not copyrighted, and an author could not sue for infringement on the grounds of “substantial similarity” based solely on their use.

Short phrases such as “Show me the money!” or “Here’s looking at you, kid,” aren’t protected. However, be careful of trademarked slogans such as “Got milk?” or “Where’s the beef?” since they fall under a different kind of protection.

Titles of songs, poems, books, films, etc, can be referenced without worrying about copyright. Titles cannot be copyrighted; however, if the title is also a substantial line of the song (perhaps “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine”), you may be in trouble. Iconic titles may not be fair game, either–”Blitzkrieg Bop” is instantly recognizable as a Ramones song, but “Rockaway Beach” isn’t. Rarely, a title might be trademarked; anything having to do with Harry Potter is both copyrighted and trademarked within an inch of its incredibly lucrative life.

Real People and Historical Events

Historical figures and events are fair game. You can write a novel about the Trojan War, Napoleon, or Cleopatra with a clear conscience. Be careful about people still living; while they can’t copyright the events of their lives, they could conceivably sue you for libel. Even thinly veiled charicatures may be dangerous. That’s why most books have a disclaimer along these lines: “All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.”

Fan Fiction

Fan fiction is usually okay as long as it isn’t published for commercial gain, but if the author objects, it can still be considered copyright infringement. Some authors are more welcoming of fan fiction than others; Anne Rice, for example, is notoriously against the use of her characters in fan faction.

Sometimes fan fiction becomes incredibly popular, prompting the author to publish it for profit. In that case, substantial changes will usually need to be made. E.L. James’s Fifty Shades of Grey started life as Twilight fan-fic online; in order to publish it, she had to change the names of the characters and rewrite certain scenarios so as to distinguish it from Stephenie Meyer’s work. Similarly, Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series draws heavily on her early Harry Potter fan fiction. Since the characters and plot of the published novels are unrecognizable–no one would immediately think that Jace Wayland is Draco Malfoy in a wig and leather pants–Clare is in the clear as far as copyright infringement.

If you write Jane Austen or Arthur Conan Doyle fan fiction, however, you can publish away. Your steampunk Alice in Wonderland or Sherlock Holmes: Space Detective manuscripts aren’t considered infringment because those works are already in the public domain. Bible stories, fairytales, and myths are also in the public domain, and can be freely adapted or retold.

Protecting Your Copyright

So now that you’ve deleted all the song lyrics and sparkling vampires from your manuscript, how can you protect your original work? A lot of authors seem to think that they need to send their work to the US Copyright Office (and pay a fee) in order to be protected. That’s not actually true; once you write it down in a fixed medium (e.g. a Word document), it is automatically protected. If you’re truly concerned about future litigation, you can still register, but you don’t have to. 

Keep in mind that ideas cannot be copyrighted. Even though you had an awesome idea for a book about a steampunk Alice in Wonderland, someone else may have had the same idea. After all, Newton and Leibnitz invented calculus at roughly the same time without having any idea what the other was up to. That’s also why movie studios can get away with producing competing Snow White films in the same year. Unless you can prove substantial similarity (i.e. the same characters, names, and scenarios), you just can’t successfully sue someone for stealing your idea.

It’s a little naive to think that a long copyright notice stuffed with legalese will prevent anyone from pirating your book. Your diligence (or paranoia) won’t stop someone determined to enjoy your work without paying for it, but excessively restrictive DRM (digital rights management) may frustrate your paying customers. I use a short copyright notice at the beginning of my books that simply reads “Copyright [year], Erin Elizabeth Long. All rights reserved.” At the end of my books, I have a longer notice:

Thank you for reading Grey Magic. Although this book has been published without restrictive DRM (Digital Rights Management) for your benefit, it is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All content is copyright 2012, Erin Elizabeth Long.

ISBNs Vs. Copyright

The thirteen-digit ISBN (International Standard Book Number) identifies the unique edition of a published book. Issued by Bowker, a private company, it is not the same thing as a copyright license. If you publish a print-on-demand book, it will need a different ISBN from the eBook edition.

Most self-publishing platforms will issue you an ISBN for free as part of your agreement to publish with them. The publishers buy them in bulk (Bowker charges $125 for one ISBN…or $1000 for 1000; obviously this favors larger publishers rather than individuals). Be advised though that when you use a free ISBN from one of these platforms, they will be listed as the “publisher of record.” You (or your micropress publishing company) will be considered the “imprint on record.” That means the ISBN prefix will refer to the publishing platform, and that your book will be listed as published by that platform in resources like Books in Print.

The only real implication for you is if you want to distribute that particular edition outside of the publishing platform’s channels. For example, I create separate editions for Smashwords, Amazon’s KDP, and Barnes & Noble’s PubIt with unique ISBNs from each platform. The only difference is a line in the copyright notice that reads “Smashwords Edition” or “Amazon KDP Edition,” etc. For a book published on Smashwords, they’re listed as the publisher of record for that particular edition, while my micropress, Corvidae Books, is listed as the publisher of record. I’m still the author, and Smashwords doesn’t own the content of the book, but I could get in trouble if I tried to sell the Smashwords edition on a site like Drive-Thru Fiction or Kobo.

* * *

I hope that you’ve found this information useful. As indie authors, we’re also entrepreneurs. We need to inform ourselves about every aspect of publishing, from writing to editing, marketing to legal concerns. I’m by no means an expert, and the sites below were very helpful in my research for this post.

Resources for Further Reading:

US Copyright Office

Huffington Post Interview with IP Lawyer Bernard Starr

Stanford’s Overview of Copyright and Fair Use

Jane Friedman on Permissions

Robin Ruel on the Dos and Don’ts of Using Song Titles

Chilling Effects’ FAQ on Fan Fiction

Wikipedia on Legal Issues with Fan Fiction

“Fair Use for Speculative Fiction Writers” by John Savage

The Perils of the Self-Employed Writer

  By girlnone | 26 February, 2013 - 4:28 pm | ,
4 Comments

I read a quote today from Norman Mailer: “Being a real writer means being able to do the work on a bad day.” It resonated with me for two reasons. One, I’m a smidge insecure about my status as a Real Writer, and two, I’ve had a lot of bad days recently. I haven’t been writing much, and, as you may have noticed, I haven’t been updating Ye Olde Blogge often, either. Mostly, I’ve been watching reruns of Futurama and waiting for grad school acceptance letters (or, as is statistically more likely, rejections) to arrive. It’s really, really hard to motivate myself to work when I just don’t feel like doing it. I’m too tired, or I have a headache, or that bird outside is really loud, or I need my special pen (even though I rarely write long-hand). The amount of creativity and effort that goes into making excuses or distracting myself from work could fuel a solid afternoon of writing.

It’s kind of like going to the gym: you know you should do it, and you know that you’ll feel better afterward, yet you never seem to put on your action pants and head out the door. I haven’t put on my writer pants in ages, aside from knocking out a dirty short story last week, and I fear that pretty soon the zombiefied corpse of Norman Mailer will shamble up to my door, demanding my Real Writer Card back.

In the Inc. Magazine article “7 Qualities of Uber-Productive People,” Jeff Haden lists the characteristics that separate the successful entrepreneur from the crash-and-burn failure. Conquering fear, soldiering on in the face of ridicule, and asking for help are all qualities that are helpful–perhaps essential–to writers, but one of his points struck me as particularly relevant:

They see creativity as the result of effort, not inspiration.

Most people wait for an idea. Most people think creativity happens. They expect a divine muse will someday show them a new way, a new approach, a new concept.

And they wait and wait and wait.

Occasionally, great ideas do just come to people. Mostly, though, creativity is the result of effort: toiling, striving, refining, testing, experimenting… The work itself results in inspiration.

Remarkably productive people don’t wait for ideas. They don’t wait for inspiration. They know that big ideas most often come from people who do, not people who dream.

I wrote before in my post The Museless Blues about how difficult it is to work creatively when you feel like shit and your life is headed downwards in a handbasket. I have, no joke, about thirty projects waiting to be written. I keep having great–or at least workable, ideas for plots and characters, but I do nothing with them beyond scribbling a few notes in a composition notebook…and then losing the notebook. My failure to turn those ideas into actual pages of fiction is bound up with fear of failure, doubts about my ability to write, and just plain ol’ American laziness, but I usually blame it on a lack of inspiration.

Last October, I decided to learn how to play the guitar. I practice five days a week, anywhere from half an hour to two hours. While I won’t be joining a band anytime soon, I can play about a dozen songs and sing along. What I’ve noticed is that at the beginning of my practice sessions, my fingers are usually a little stiff and my voice kind of weak. Once I warm up, I’m able to play more fluidly and sing more powerfully. At a certain point, my fingers start to hurt too much to keep playing, but for a while I feel like a goddamn rockstar.

Now, a clever person would realize that the same process–warm-up, work, don’t stop until your fingers hurt–would describe an ideal day of writing. I want to get up in the morning, have a cup of tea, and knock out a thousand words before lunch. I certainly have the time, and I have no lack of ideas to draw on. Instead, I fall back into the same old patterns. I check my email, read webcomics, watch TV on Netflix, and maybe do some chores if I’m really serious about avoiding work. That’s right–I’ve gotten to the point where I’ll do laundry or wash dishes to avoid having to write. Even though that’s kind of the cornerstone of what a writer does for a living.

Here are some things I’m going try in order to be more productive:

  1. Stop reading blogs about productivity, organization, or creativity in lieu of actually doing work
  2. Set regular  ”office hours” and stick to them
  3. Do all my writerly work on my laptop, do my goofing around on my desktop (Damn you, Buzzfeed, and your compulsively readable lists!)
  4. If necessary, take laptop to library or coffee shop and turn off wifi connection
  5. Set and track daily and weekly productivity goals–1 blog post, three comments, 5000 words, etc.

I’ll let you know how it goes, but in the meantime, how do you stay focused and motivated?