Time to Write

Why your best novels or screenplays may face an uphill battle

You've written or are writing a novel or screenplay, and it's original. It's not a rehash of the hunt for a serial killer, it's not a rich boy woos poor girl (or vice versa) romantic comedy. It's not another sci-fi it came from the sky tale. It's fresh, it's different...and you may have a hard time selling it, as some recent experiments confirm.

I'm talking about two experiments done last year at the University of Pennsylvania. The report of the study is called "The Bias Against Creativity: Why People Desire But Reject Creative Ideas." I found a write-up of it at www.TheNextBigFuture, and it summarized the key findings:

* Creative ideas are by definition novel, and novelty can trigger feelings of uncertainty that make most people uncomfortable.

* People dismiss creative ideas in favor of ideas that are purely practical -- tried and true.

* Objective evidence shoring up the validity of a creative proposal does not motivate people to accept it.

* Anti-creativity bias is so subtle that people are unaware of it, which can interfere with their ability to recognize a creative idea.

Actually, I didn't need a study to tell me this, my years in Hollywood made it plain. Then the mantra was "Bring us something different...but not TOO different." Judging by the number of sequels being made, that's changed to, "Bring us something that's the same." 

I have encountered something similar with a novel I wrote--as yet unpublished. One publisher wrote to my agent, "This is exactly the kind of edgy material we are looking for, but it's a bit TOO edgy."

This is not to suggest you should stop writing things that are different, just to help prepare you for the reactions you'll have to wade through until you find someone who desires and doesn't reject creative ideas.

One of the suggestions from the study applies here, too: "The field of creativity may need to shift its current focus from identifying how to generate more creative ideas to identify how to help innovative institutions recognize and accept creativity."

(For a creativity boost that includes how to make ideas real and how 25 creative people found acceptance for their new ideas and projects, see my book, "Creativity Now!", published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other booksellers.)

Creative Kryptonite - 1: Comparisons

I’m stealing, er, borrowing the term “creative Kryptonite” from blogger Jonathan Fields and identifying my own set of things that weaken us as creative people. To get back our superpowers…OK, just our powers…we have to stay away from these. Today’s Kryptonite:

 Comparing yourself to others.

You know the kind of thing: “I’ll never write anything as good as…” or “I can’t compete with somebody who has connections like…”

There will always be somebody better than you. There will always be somebody worse than you. Others will judge whether or not they like what you have done. Sometimes nobody likes something when it first comes out and later it becomes a cult thing or even hugely popular (Van Gogh, anybody?). Other times something is a big hit when it first comes out but is forgotten a few years later.

You have no control over these things. You just have to get on with your work. If you want to make comparisons, here are three that are useful:

1) Compared to what else I could be doing, is this the project for which I have the most passion?

2) Compared to what I've done in the past, am I applying to this project what I've learned?

3) Compared to my dreams, does this project reach high enough?

(You can also compare "Your Writing Coach" to other writing books...I think you'll like it better :-) You can find it at Amazon and other online and offline book stores.)

[Superman image copyright DC comics]

More 'do something different' ideas for writers

Recently I posted about illustrator Joanna Basford, who is a fountain of creativity where self-promotion is concerned. In order to attract potential clients to her work at the New Designers show, she wrote letters to about 100 studios. She included a printout with images of some of her work and some sample fabric cuttings.

She said, “I got less than five replies from those letters. At first that was really disheartening, but when I got to New Designers it paid off hugely. A handful of the studios I’d written to came along, saw my work and offered me placements, or invited me to freelance for them.”

One of the morals of the story is not to get disheartened if you don’t get immediate results. Often the pay off comes later—sometimes even after you’ve given up.

In the interview she reveals that for other graduate shows she made silkscreen-printed envelopes for press releases, hand-printed black and white invitations and mini sample books of her work to distribute in place of business cards.

Notice another feature of her efforts? They took a lot of work. More than most competing applicants were willing to invest, I'd guess.

How can you come up with similar strategies for your writing or other projects? Just make a list of what everybody else is doing, then do the opposite!

(Two books that can help you stand out in your field are "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Books with a foreword from Sir Richard Branson and "Marketing for Entrepreneurs," published by Pearson.)

Is this advertising, a scam, or something inbetween? (Writers be aware)

Larry Brooks tells the story of how he was invited onto the Lifetime Channel on their "author's corner" segment to talk about his novel, which was published by a small company a year ago. 

Exciting stuff! 

Until they mentioned that there was a licensing fee...of $5900. 

Huh? Licensing? Why not call it a vanity fee? Or just a plain old fee? 

And I wonder whether viewers are told that the authors interviewed have paid to be there? Probably there''s a bit of fine print that goes past at 120 mph.

Is illegal? No, you could consider it another form of advertising. But how many copies would you have to sell to cover that $5900 plus your travel and accommodation expenses? If you're on a contract with a publisher, it's likely you might clear a couple of dollars per copy. Let's say your outlay is a total of $7500. You'd have to sell an extra 3750 copies. Would that happen? Who knows? But Brooks cites a publisher who placed a client on a regional TV program (for free) and the result was that the author sold....seven copies.

Lately I've been coming across more and more ways that people are trying to squeeze money out of aspiring authors, and I find it pretty sickening. Yes, you do always have a choice but when people have spent years working on something that means a lot to them, it's not surprising that they'll leave their better judgment behind at times. (Brooks is a pro and didn't fall for it.)

Just to be clear, when you go on television or radio to talk about your book, it's a win-win deal and no money should change hands. They win because you will be entertaining or informative or both, you win because it's good exposure for your book.

(for friendly guidance in writing and marketing your book, get a copy of "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers.)

 

A sneaky way to find a publisher for your book

I was just listening to an interview with a man named David Siteman Garland who told how his book "Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: non-boring, fluff-free strategies for marketing and promoting your business" came about. 

 He had a podcast on which he interviewed a lot of authors. Those authors told their publishers about the exposure they were getting. One of the publishers approached Garland and suggested that he write a book for them (see www.smarterfastercheaper.com).

 He didn't use this as a deliberate strategy but seems to me there's the seed of one in there.

 If you had one specific publisher in mind, you could even target it by interviewing their authors, or you might cut across a number of publishers but focus on the genre that is closest to your own book's.

(for more tips on writing and marketing your book, see "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing, and "Marketing for Entrepreneurs," published by Pearson. Both are available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers.)

 

Some hard truths from a successful self-published writer

Amanda Hocking has been successful self-publishing her novels, which has brought her a lot of attention, including from would-be self-publishers of fiction who want to know her secrets. In a recent post on her blog, she reveals one that probably isn't what people want to hear:

"This is literally years of work you're seeing. And hours and hours of work each day. The amount of time and energy I put into marketing is exhausting. I am continuously overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do that isn't writing a book. I hardly have time to write anymore, which sucks and terrifies me."

I'm working on a course on how to build your author platform; at the moment it's available only to members of my Writing Breakthrough Strategy Program as a bonus for membership (see http://www.jurgenwolff.com for details of that program) and what I say in that is consistent with what Amanda Hocking says above. The ratio will be about 80/20: 80% of your time will be spent on marketing, 20% on actually writing. And the percentages won't be much different if you are published traditionally. These days the publisher gets the books out there but most of the responsibility for getting people to notice them is yours.

A lot of writers don't like that split. I don't like it, either. I struggle with it, because my favorite thing is creating new stuff, both fiction and no-fiction. In fact, I haven't hit that 80/20 ratio even though I know I should. But that doesn't make it any less true, and it's a hard fact that we writers need to know.

Here's something else Hocking says on her blog: "I assumed that once I wrote a book, I would become rich and famous. This is apparently not how things work in the writing world. So I spent the next few years researching everything I could find about the publishing business and agents and models and plans." How many writers do you know who have taken the time to do that?

For her account of how it all came together, see this post: http://amandahocking.blogspot.com/2010/08/epic-tale-of-how-it-all-happened.html. If you don't have time to read it, here's her summary:

"From what I can guess, it happened because:

-the books are in a popular genre [paranormal romance, vampires]

-the covers are enjoyable

-the price is good [$.99 and $2.99--she made $10,000 in one month recently]

-the writing isn't terrible (although, believe me, some people would argue that point)

-book bloggers recommended it

-accessibility - I'm on Twitter, facebook, goodreads, Amazon, KB. I'm anywhere I can be. I always try to respond to readers, even though most of my responses are lame. I'll spend about an hour replying to fan mail and it only amounts to about 2 sentences that pretty much say thanks. I'm sorry I'm a lame writer-backer."

 A writer well worth emulating, although, as she says, luck and timing are always factors as much as hard work.

(For guidance on both writing and marketing your book,see "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing and available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers--including that independent book store near you that's probably struggling to stay afloat.)

When you shouldn't agree to a radio or TV interview

A reader emailed me to say she had received a phone call asking her to be a guest on a radio talk show. Pretty exciting, right? Well, it was until they got to the catch.

The "producer" said they charge an appearance fee.

Wait a minute--when you appear on TV or the radio you're supposed to GET an appearance fee (sometimes), you're not supposed to pay one. Actually most talk shows don't pay their guests--but they certainly don't charge them, either.

 It turns out this was a radio station where the program hosts pay to be on the air and, in turn, this host was trying to cover his expenses by getting his guests to pay to talk about their book or other project. 

 Is it worth it? Almost certainly not. First, most shows like that have a tiny audience. Sometimes it may just be the host's mother and close friends. Generally these shows are on at weird hours that stations can't fill profitably any other way because nobody's listening. And even if the show is on during prime time, how many people are likely to be listening to it rather than watching "Glee"?

I had an experience with this a few years back when I hired an dodgy publicist (of course I didn't know he was dodgy when I hired him). He got me onto a radio station for an interview, to show that he was earning his fees. Only later did it come out that he'd paid the host--and that it was a show with miniscule listenership. 

If someone wants to interview you, the deal is that you provide information or entertainment and they provide the airwaves or the magazine space--no money should be changing hands. If you are offered a deal that requires you to pay, just say no.

(For tips on how to legitimately promote your book, see my book "Your Writing Coach," available from your local book shop or Amazon and other online and offline retailers.)

 

Don't lead with a negative in pitches, query letters--or anything else!

In one of the current writing magazines, a columnist suggests calling independent bookstores and asking them to stock your book. She gives an example of the script she uses when making such calls:

"Good morning, my name is (whatever), and I am an author. Unfortunately, I live nowhere near you. I am in (town). I have a couple of books that are out, and I was hoping you might be interested in putting a couple of copies on your shelf."

The part that strikes me as a strange choice is saying as almost the first thing that she doesn't live anywhere near the bookshop. Maybe she's anticipating that the bookstore owner will ask whether she's a local author, but why start with a negative? The manager may never ask. If he or she does, you can be honest, but ideally you'd have a better answer than just 'no.' For example, "No, but I have a blog that's pretty widely read and I'm sure that includes people in your area." In fact, I'd tell the manager that I plan to put the details about their bookshop on my website so that people in that area know where they can find my book.

My main point is that it's almost never a good idea to lead with a negative, because it focuses attention on something you don't want the other person to think about, at least not at first. Secondly, try to have an antidote to any negative that you can't avoid.

(There are many practical tips for writing and selling your book in my "Your Writing Coach" book--available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers; there's more information at www.YourWritingCoach.com.)