Time to Write

Book marketing, Richard Russo, and the little bits in orange juice

How do you get some attention for your book? Here's an excerpt from an article in bookbusinessmag.com:

"Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Russo has refused to allow his new novel to be sold as an e-book. The 62-year-old said Interventions, a collection of four volumes, is a tribute to the printed book and wouldn not be available online."

What does that have to do with orange juice? Well, cartons of orange juice used to contain those litte bits of pulp. Then some bright spark had the idea of filtering out those bits and selling the "new, improved orange juice--without bits!" Of course it was a litte more expensive.

After a while everybody got used to having orange juice without the bits. So somebody else came up with the idea of selling the "new, improved orange juice--now with bits!" Of course it was a little more expensive...

When an author first published an ebook, it was news. 

Now when an author refuses to publish an ebook, THAT'S news.

From a marketing standpoint, the lesson is: watch what most people are doing. Then loudly refuse to do it. Result: news!

(For friendly guidance from idea through to publication, see my book, Your Writing Coach...I refuse not to let it be published as an ebook so you can read it on your Kindle, iPad, or other portable device as well.)

What happens when you don't read this book within two months...

Eterna Cadencia, an Argentinian publisher, has published a book with a special ink that gradually disappears over a period of about two months. If you pick it up after that, you'll find nothing but blank pages!

Design Taxi reports that it's called "The Book That Can't Wait." The idea is to motivate us to read books rather than putting them in piles to get to someday. The publisher says it's a boon to new authors, because until you read one book by them you won't be motivated to buy another of theirs.

Oh boy, if all my books were like this I'd have a lot of blank notebooks. I'm not sure this will be good for the book trade, which depends on people like me who buy faster than they can read.

Of course it's also a marketing gimmick and a good one, I think. It garners press coverage for a publisher people probably wouldn't have heard of otherwise and may lead them to see what non-disappearing books they offer as well. 

Which raises the question for smart marketer authors: what ways can you think of to attract people to your book? It may require more high-profile "bait" to capture their attention. 

(Whether or not you will read it right away, I think you should go ahead and order my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." The print is guaranteed not to disappear and you'll find it full of writing advice from the greatest writers of all time--Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Jane Austen--and my tips on how to apply that advice to your own work. You can get it now from Amazon, or why not order it via your favorite local book store? They need our support to stay in business!)

What a dying writer did next

Perhps saying that life has given writer Susan Spencer-Wendel lemons sounds too trite considering she has a terminal illness (ALS) but she sure has managed to make lemonade, to the tune of a book deal worth a reported $2 million, plus a deal with Universal for the film rights.

The book she is writing has the working title Breathe Deeply. She wrote columns in the online Speakeasy section of the Wall Street Journal web site about her travels over the past year. Agent Peter McGuigan spotted those and got in touch and made the publishing and film deals. Spencer-Wendel is working with co-author Bret Witter.

Their goal: finish by October. Unfortunately Spencer-Wendel is losing her ability to speak and type, but she posted on her Facebook page that she will write until the day she dies. 

It's not a trade off any of us would envy, but I hope it gives her some comfort to know that her story will be read and seen around the world and perhaps will inspire others to go for their dreams--regardless of how much or how little time they have left. 

(What did Charles Dickens advise about writing? Or Anton Chekhov? Or Jane Austen? You can find their writing advice in my latest book, Your Creative Writing Masterclass, available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

Should you build a shrine for your book?

These days you have to do something different in order to stand out in the marketplace. In his email newsletter Jonathan Fields featured an interview with an author who did something innovative, Cynthia Morris.

A novelist who is also an artist, Morris created a limited edition of her novel, Chasing Sylvia Beach, that would be accompanied by a piece of art. She calls it a Novel Shrine. It's a pleated four-panel card illustrated, with a question that unfolds along the panels. The drawings relate to the setting of the novel (Paris) and the characters. She put them into a library card pocket attached to the back cover. 

No, we shouldn't make shrines--that's her thing--but it behooves us to pay attention to her strategy:

When planning the launch, I looked at what other people were doing to help distinguish their books in the marketplace. There are the standard free chapters, giveaways and webinars. I had to do something that was both creative and an expression of my unique talents.I think that's the real challenge for authors - to know the current best practices and to go beyond that in ways only you can.

You may not be an artist, but I'm sure you have some skill you can combine with your writing--or that you can come up with a way to have someone else produce whatever you need. 

It's too late to buy the limited edition of Chasing Sylvia Beach but you can find out more about it at ChasingSylviaBeach.com. You can see pictures of her Shrines and find our more about Jonathan Fields here.  

 

52 Tips for Writing Success - 14: The first page is only one page

Some writers find the first page especially daunting. It seems to carry the weight of all the pages to come. In fact, it's just one page.

Three hundred words, on average.

Yes, it's true that eventually, when you are doing your subsequent drafts, you will want to be sure that the first page grabs the reader (you'll find a tip for here later) but for now just do the best you can and move on. 

One writer I know skips the first page in order to avoid this pressure. He just jots down something like, "Jack sits on cliff, contemplating whether to jump. Decides to call his ex-wife." Then he writes the phone call with the wife and the rest of the first chapter. When he has finished his first draft he goes back and writes the first page.

Quite often what you believe will be the first page ends up not being the first page at all. You may decide when doing the second draft that you should have started the story later or earlier. Or you may come up with a better setting, or decide to add or subtract a character, or make some other change that requires a new first page. 

Don't let the idea of the first page put you off--cut it down to size, mentally, and get writing!

(Want writing advice from the very best? Writers like Mark Twain, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens as well as modern masters like Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury and Martin Amis? You'll find it in "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

Childhoods of famous authors: James Patterson

Do you want your readers to identify with your characters? Do this.

A recent study showed that if the character is different in some major way from the reader, not surprisingly the reader identified less with the character if that difference was revealed early on, vs. being revealed after the story covered several aspects where the reader and the character were similar.  

For the fiction author there is a practical implication--if you want your reader to identify with your protagonist, first emphasize the elements with which the reader probably can identify.nLater reveal the ones that are less likely to be shared .

Of course this doesn't apply across the board--otherwise Kafka would have been wise to let us identify with Gregor before he turns into a bug. 

I suspect this applies just as much to revealing the negative side of a character. First impressions are hard to overcome, so  lead with that only if you want the reader to think of that person as a villain. Otherwise reveal a good side first, then later villainies will seem less negative.

The Godfather film did this very well. Faced with getting the audience to be willing to spend time in the company of a man who does many bad things, they led with him doing some good things: hosting his beloved daughter's wedding and agreeing to help a man whose daughter was raped but was not able to get justice due to police and judicial corruption. 

(Get guidance for writing your novel--you'll find it in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," available from Amazon and other book sellers.)

Ray Bradbury's short poem about man and space

Just before Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars, Ray Bradbury appeared on a panel with Arthur C. Clarke and other authors and scientists. His contribution was this short poem that links the dream of conquering space with the dream of immortality. I know many writers will miss his inspiring and good-hearted encouragement.

“If Only We Had Taller Been”

The fence we walked between the years
Did bounce us serene.
It was a place half in the sky where
In the green of leaf and promising of peach
We'd reach our hands to touch and almost touch the sky,
If we could reach and touch, we said,
'Twould teach us, not to ,never to, be dead.

We ached and almost touched that stuff;
Our reach was never quite enough.
If only we had taller been,
And touched God's cuff, His hem,
We would not have to  go with them
Who've gone before,
Who, short as us, stood tall as they could stand
And hoped by stretching, tall, that they might keep their land,
Their home, their hearth, their flesh and soul.
But they, like us, were standing in a hole.

O, Thomas, will a Race one day stand really tall
Across the Void, across the Universe and all?
And, measured out with rocket fire,
At last put Adam's finger forth
As on the Sistene Ceiling,
And God's hand come down the other way
To measure man and find him Good,
And Gift him with Forever's Day?
I work for that.

Short man, Large dream, I send my rockets forth
between my ears,
Hoping an inch of Good is worth a pound of years.
Aching to hear a voice cry back along the universal Mall:
We've reached Alpha Centauri!
We're tall, O God, we're tall!

 

Are you TOO focused on your writing goal?

I believe in having goals for your writing or other creative activity, but sometimes it blinds you to opportunities that are not obviously in synch with your goals.

On the Big Think site, former Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman said she did have a career plan but her success came from taking advantage of opportunities.

These days things are changing so fast that the ability to improvise may be more important than the ability to plan. Just a few examples of the developments that have derailed many goals relating to writing (sometimes for the better, sometimes not):

• self-publishing as a viable option for almost all writers via ebooks
• the decline of newspapers and some magazines
• the success of cross-over Young Adult novels
• the ability to shoot high-quality movies with low-cost equipment

The challenge is to find a good balance—to have a goal you care about but also to be alert to opportunities that were not foreseeable when you set your goal.

(For lots of great tips on how to use your time effectively and move toward your goals get my book, “Focus: how to use the power of targeted thinking to get more done,” published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other book sellers.)

 

An underused method for writers to show what characters are thinking, feeling

In  a post on the Writer’s Digest site, Elizabeth Sims recommends using description of a character’s body language to help the reader understand what’s happening with them. This is an excellent idea, and underused.

Most people understand body language intuitively, so you don’t need to explain what a certain posture means, just describe it. If you’re not sure what the different body language signals are, this site will help: (www.changingminds.org/techniques/body/body_language.htm)

It explains that body language comes in clusters of signals and postures. That helps you be more accurate what how people convey their feelings.

For instance, let’s look at closed body language. We’re used to crossed arms. Other signs of this can be crossed legs and looking down or away.

If you want to suggest that Don is not really open to Margaret’s suggestion that they get together again you might write. “Yes, sure, that could be a good idea,” Don said, looking out the window.

If you want to suggest he genuinely is open to the idea, you might write, “Don turned his gaze from the window to Margaret. “Yes, that could be a good idea,” he said.

Obviously body language is only one of many clues you can give about what your character is thinking or feeling but it’s one many writers neglect.  Why not add it to your toolbox?

(For friendly advice on how to take your book all the way from idea through to publication, get a copy of my book, “Your Writing Coach,” published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)

 

52 Tips for Writing Success - 13: Plot with cards

In the previous tip in this series I suggested that you plan at least the major action of your plot. There's a simple tool that makes this much easier: a pack of index cards (or a bunch of sticky notes).

Write each major development in your plot on a card. You can use colored cards to keep track of the various strands of the story (for instance, white for your main plot, light blue for one of your subplots, light green for another subplot). Another option is to assign a color to each of your major characters so you can track them easily through the plot.

You can pin these cards to a cork board or spread them out on the floor (the latter is not advised if you have pets or young kids). Alternatively you can use sticky notes, like Post-It notes) and put them on a wall or door or whiteboard.

The advantage of this method is the ease with which you can move things around. Should your protagonist tell his best friend about the robbery he's planning early on or just before he does it? You can put the card with that development in the first position and see how it affects the flow of the story, then move it to later and assess it again. You can also easily add or remove scenes. 

Naturally this works just as well for organizing the content of a non-fiction book.

Some computer programs allow you to do the same thing but you're limited to the size of your screen. Maybe I'm old-fashioned but I like being able to spread out the cards and see them all at once. Either way, for maximum flexibility in building your story this method is hard to beat.

(For more guidance on how to plot and write your novel, see "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Childhoods of famous authors cartoon: Dan Brown

(Wouldn't it be cool if great authors like MarkTwain, Anton Chekhov and Jane Austen could be your writing coaches. Or Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Elmore Leonard? Well, all of them except Elmore are no longer with us, but their advice--and Elmore's--is in my newest book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," published by Nicholas Brealey and available now from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

How to dare to go big with your writing or other creative project

In the previous post I mentioned that most writers and other creative people think too small and that often it doesn't take any greater effort to realize a big (meaning innovative, different, potentially more profitable) project than it does to achieve a small one. So why don't we do it more often?

One of the main reasons is fear. Fear that it won't succeed, fear that people will laugh at us or think less of us, and fear that it's not actually a good idea at all--that we are deluding ourselves.

There is one easy way to overcome the latter: find one genuine ally who also believes in what you are doing.

THE ROOM FULL OF LIARS

Maybe you're familiar with the experiment in which a room full of people were asked which line on a chalkboard was longer, A or B. Actually they weren't even close--A was clearly longer. However, there was only one real test subject in the room. The others were all in on the experiment and had been instructed to say B was longer. They all went first and by the the time the unknowing subjects had a turn, they would say B as well. They believed the group assessment more than they believed their eyes. I'm guessing they also felt that if they said A the entire room would laugh at them.

However, as soon as just one other person in the group said that A was longer, so did most of the test subjects. 

What this suggests to me is that with just one ally who sees things the same way we do, we are more confident in what we are doing. 

Let me stress, though, the word "genuine". It has to be somebody whose judgement you rate (not just your mother) and who is being honest with you. 

THE CASE OF THE AWFUL MASKS

Once a group I was in was asked by one of the members of the group whether we thought the masks that she was making would appeal to the public and be something that would sell. I didn't think so but everybody else was so fulsome in their praise and enthusiastic about the commercial prospects of her masks that I expressed only the mildest of reservations. As soon as she left, most of the others revealed their true thoughts--which were that it would be a tough sell. I guess they thought they were doing her a favor by not hurting her feelings, but in fact they were doing her a disservice (as did I, by muting my concerns that much). 

You and your ally may or may not be right about the value of your enterprise but you have to be able to trust that they're telling you what they really think. If you found out at some point that they were faking it that would undermine your confidence. 

THE KEY POINT

Ultimately, of course, the larger marketplace will decide the commercial value of what you produce, but to get to the point where you can offer it to that marketplace having at least one ally is invaluable. 

(Making the best use of your time also is essential--get loads of tips on exactly how to do that, from my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done.)

Do you go big with your writing or art (or other project)?

Most of us are guilty of thinking too small. There's an African saying that it takes just as much effort to catch a mouse as to catch an antelope. Translating that to the creative fields, often it takes just as much time and effort to create something that represents a little (conventional, typical) idea as it does to create a big one. 

This thought was prompted by seeing how the French railway system is reminding customers not to litter with gum and cigarette butts:

Talk about going big! 

I wish I could tell you that I'm never guilty of this (that is, thinking big; I don't litter). 

The truth is that it's all too easy to do the things we're comfortable doing already and the ones we are most confident will be accepted.

How can we overcome our reluctance to embrace the big ideas we have? More on that in the next post...

Creativity killers and how to overcome them

Is something killing your creativity? Maybe it's one of the seven suspects identified by Gaia and Andrew Grant on the Fast Co. site. Here they are, in summary form, minus the silly names in the article:

1. Control: systems set up to allow minimum leeway for you to be creative. This may reside in your own brain, based on past experience or it may be part of the systems where you work. 

2. Fear: generally fear of looking ridiculous or failng.

3: Pressure: the need for speed often makes us fall back on the safest approach.

4: Insulation: not exposing yourself to new influences

5: Apathy: lack of motivation based on the notion that there are no ideas anyway, or new ideas are too difficult to implement. 

6: Narrow-mindedness: the belief that the status quo is good enough or being an expert and threatened by new ideas

7: Pessimism: the belief that there's nothing really new, or that new ideas are too hard to implement and will probably not work. 

The solutions are simple but not always easy:

* expose yourself to fields other than your own

* do things you've never done before

* challenge the assumptions in your field

* focus on the idea rather than on yourself

* resist (as much as possible) the demand to deliver within an unreasonable time frame

* go for small wins to build up your confidence

(There are lots more ideas like this, with more detailed descriptions of how to use your time effectively and achieve your creative goals, in my book, FOCUS: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done. It's published by Pearson and available from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)