Time to Write

Can You Learn to Write Funny?

An old friend who teaches at a performing arts school recently asked me to look at a script for a short film, written by one of his students, that they are planning to film. It's the story of a young man who decides that using his gift for comedy is more important than going to college.

The problem with the script is that the writer doesn't have a gift for comedy and therefore neither does the character. If you're going to write a convincing funny character, you have to be able to be funny yourself. That brings me to a question I've been asked quite a few times:

CAN YOU LEARN TO WRITE FUNNY?

Sorry, but I think the answer is no. If you are naturally funny, certainly you can learn how best to channel that into screenplays or novels or essays, and the difference between writing for stand-up, sketches, sitcoms, movies, and plays. You can also learn how how to compose works that integrate comedy and drama.

However, if you don't start with a knack for comedy--which usually means you have an ability to see things from a different perspective--reading a book about the theory of threes, or why words starting with consonants are funnier than words that start with vowels, or that exaggeration is important, probably will not work for you. 

HOW TO FIND OUT WHETHER YOU'RE FUNNY

If you don't know whether or not you're funny (plenty of people who aren't, think they are), ask an honest friend whether they think humor is one of your greatest strengths.

That gives them the chance to say, "Hey, sure you're funny, but actually I think your greatest strengths are (x, y, z)."

Translation: "You're not funny." 

WHAT IF YOU'RE NOT FUNNY?

Write to your strengths. If you're not naturally funny, write drama, thrillers, horror, romance, or any of the other genres. Your gift, like that of my friend's student, may lie in other areas. 

 

Thinking about self-publishing? This expert has advice about your cover.

Whether or not we should, we do tend ot judge a book by its cover, which is why any author who is considering self-publishing should make time to watch the video below. The speaker is legendary designer Chip Kidd, who creates covers for books published by Random House.

I think you'll find this interesting even if you're not going to self-publish, because he makes some fascinating points about design in general. Along the way he talks about how he came up with the covers for Jurrasic Park, among others. It lasts about 17  minutes and if you're in a rush you can start at 1:20. If you can't see it fully below, you can also watch it by clicking on this link: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang///id/1410

Could you use the Agile Publishing Model to self-publish your ebook?

At Digital Book World Dominique Raccah, chief executive and publisher of Sourcebooks announced that they will be using that they call the Agile Publishing Model. It involves building audience participation before the writing and publication of a new book, a system O'Reilly Media has employed already.

What does this look like in practice? This is my interpretation of how you could use it when self-publishing an ebook:

1. Start a website that relates to the book. If it's a non-fiction book it's easy to decide on the topic. If it's a novel, what aspect do you think people would find most interesting and likely to make them buy the book?

This is not always obvious. For instance, a mystery set in a ski resort will not necessarily appeal more to skiers than others. In fact, sometimes people who know a lot about a topic don't read fiction about it because they know so many authors get things wrong. And people who will eagerly read non-fiction may not read fiction at all. 

Here's a tip: find a successful book similar to yours in a significant way. Look at the author's website, the comments and reviews people have left on Amazon and YouTube, and use Google to track down articles about them, fan sites, etc. You'll get lots of clues about where this author's fans hang out. Go there. Be unobtrusive at first, and then start posting but not about your book. Without spamming or forcing it, let people know you have a blog or site they might find of interest (and make sure it is interesting, of course).

The sooner you do this, the better. This model works only if you start early. 

2. Involve your followers in the writing of the book. For instance, invite their questions. If a lot of people have the same question, that's a great indicator that you should be answering it in your book or featuring the topic in some way. 

3. Let your followers read chapters as you go along. Be clear that these are early drafts and you welcome input. Pay attention to what makes sense, ignore what doesn't. But start with an open mind. If you find that the book you want to write isn't the same one people want to read, adjust accordingly.

In works of fiction, pay attention to feedback like "I got mixed up between Brian and Bruce," or "It' wasn't clear to me whether Samantha knew about John's previous marriage or not." If the reader is supposed to know that, maybe you need to state it more clearly.

4. Let followers vote. Ask them to help you pick the best title, the best cover image, the best copy for the back cover. You can get a lot of useful information. Again, it helps if you are able to put aside your ego. If 80 of a hundred people voting clearly prefer one cover over the other you'd be silly not to listen, even if you like the other one better.

5.Tell about the steps of the publishing process, including a bit of gossip here and there (naturally, nothing that will upset your publisher). Your followers will feel like insiders and at the same time will know when the expect the book.

6. In the book, acknowledge by name any followers whose comments have been helpful. It's a nice thing to do, plus people buy more copies of a book when their name is in it.

7. Have an online launch party. Invite your followers and ask them to invite their friends as well. Do something special, maybe a live video feed from an actual party, or set up a webinar in which people can ask you questions. Give away prizes including copies of your book. 

8. Keep your followers involved after the book is published. Blog about your experiences--did you have a signing and 100 people turned up? Great, tell us about it. Did you have a signing and nobody turned up? Not so great for you, but possibliy a more entertaining story. Put reviews on the site and invite your followers to do their own reviews on YouTube and post links to those (or embed them) on your site. Give a prize for the best review every month (not the most fawning but the most entetaining). 

9. Get their input on what you should write next--hook them early so they'll stay with you.

10. If your book has timely content, update it as often as necessary. With e-books this is simple and costs nothing or very little. Let your followers know that you're keeping up to date and ask them for input on what changes you should make. 

Have I done all these? Nope. But writing this has given me some good ideas...

(You can also get loads of good ideas for inexpensive and innovative ways to market yourself or your work, in my book, "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Books.)

Book marketing the Seth Godin way--a new twist

Marketing guru Seth Godin zigs when other people zag. When "free" books were still unusual, he gave away digital copies of his books for nothing and built up a huge following--many of whom bought a traditional copy of his books as well.

For his most recent book, "We Are All Weird," he's changed tactics. He's releasing a limited hardcover edition of 10,000 only, which, given his fan base, should go pretty fast. The ebook version is also available at the Kindle store for about $8. 

I like to keep an eye on Godin's strategies because he's usually ahead of the curve. As I said in a recent post, I remain unconvinced that selling your ebooks for 99 cents is the way to go for most writers in the longer run, although if you have success doing that, great.

I get a newsletter called Early to Rise, and they made the following point:

There’s a reason why the book, “Differentiate or Die”, has remained so popular over the years. It’s simply because the message is one you can’t ignore, no matter what business you’re in. As the author, Jack Trout, says, “Consumers today have an endless number of choices among products that are virtually identical. Short of slashing your prices and wrecking your margins, differentiating is the only way to gain market share and win.”  Unfortunately, many businesses default to slashing prices as the only way to stand out in their marketplace. But when asked, “What’s the secret of selling against fierce competition?”, Jeffrey Gitomer, the author of “The Little Black Book of Networking”, said, “Differentiate with value, or die with price.”  Differentiating ourselves is a big challenge for authors. It's a  little easier for nonfiction authors because with non-fiction you can more easily identify a target market, figure out where they hang out online, and tailor your promotion to what they want and need.  However, I think it's possible for novelists and poets, too, and as I run across effective examples I'll share them with you here. (You'll find some great differentiation strategies in my book, "Do Something Different," published by Virgin  Books and available from Amazon and other online and offline book sellers.)

 

How not to write a business (calling card) book

There are lots of people out there telling you that if you want to have credibility as a coach, entrepreneur, or business consultant, you must have a book. Of course nowadays it’s pretty easy to self-publish a book—most easily an ebook, but also print on demand or short-run printing versions. They say you can hand those out instead of a business card. Here’s what they’re not saying:

 A bad book will work against you.

 That may sound like common sense, but these folks are saying it’s easy to write a book like this. Just have somebody interview you, get the interview transcribed, clean up the punctuation and grammar a little, and viola! You now have a book. Probably not a good one, though, unless you happen to give brilliant interviews full of original thoughts and great turns of phrase.

Most people, when interviewed this way, will stay on the surface of their topic and will not express themselves as elegantly or succinctly as possible. Accordingly, the transcript will be a dull read.

Typically they then get some boring clip art (photo of a handshake, or a guy climbing a mountain, or dollar bills or a chest full of gold coins, etc.) for the cover, a head and shoulders photo of themselves on the back cover, along with some favourable quotes from friends. Does this sound like it's going to impress people?

 It’s not my intention to discourage anybody from writing a book. However, if you want to have one that serves as your calling card, I recommend three things:

 1: Have something new to say. It may just be a new slant on things, but it has to stand out from all of the similar business books out there that tell people to work hard, be unique, have goals, focus on giving instead of getting, etc. etc.

 2: Take the time to write it well. An interview can be a good starting point but for 99 out of 100 people it shouldn’t be the end point.

 3: Make it an attractive package. Get someone who knows what he or she is doing to make you an excellent cover. You can find these people via elance.com. It should be the same quality that you will find on the covers of books produced by the major publishers.

 If you follow those three guidelines it’s likely you’ll create a book you can be proud of and that will work for you instead of against you.

(You'll find friendly guidance on writing just about any kind of book in "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your local independent bookshop or from Amazon and other online and offline book sellers.)

 

 

What would you like to see in an enhanced ebook?

My next book with Nicholas Brealey publishing is going to be "Your Creative Writing Masterclass," which features quotes from classic and modern writers' advice to writers and exercises that help you apply that advice to your own writing. It has grown from 55,000 to about 85,000 words and I have another 1.5 drafts to go. That one should be out in November of this year.

Beyond that we're discussing producing an enhanced ebook on screenwriting. By enhanced, I mean that there would be audio and video embedded within the book. For starters, these would be clips of interviews with writers, agents, producers and maybe some others about some of the key points in the book. I'd love to include film clips but I fear the permissions process (and the prices) will be prohibitive.

It's very early days yet--we're looking at the second half of 2012 for publication--but I wanted to invite you to give me some feedback. What extras would you like to see in an ebook on writing (especially screenwriting, but I can also imagine future enhanced versions of "Your Writing Coach")?

You can either add your thoughts as a comment here or email me at [email protected].

I'll also keep you posted as the process goes on, in case you may have a book in mind that might benefit from this format. 

(In the meantime, of course you can get a good old-fashioned informative and lovely to hold paperback of "Your Writing Coach" from the usual booksellers.)

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.)

 

Inside a writing factory

The (London) Times featured an article a while back by Matthew Gooodman about a woman, Virginia Blackburn,who cranks out instant books about celebrities. It's a peek inside a writing factory.

She says her word count is up to 5000 a day--"You can't fall behind," she says. She's done books on Michael Jackson as well as the marriage of model Jordan (Katie Price) to cage fighter Alex Reid.

The time from concept to shop can be as little as six weeks.

The leader in this factory farming side of publishing is John Blake, who started this trend in the UK with a rapid-response bio of Heath Ledger when he died. The biggest outlet for these books is the supermarket chains. Sometimes they even come up with an idea and pitch it to the publisher. 

The author's fees typically are £3000 to £10,000 and maybe a share of the royalties if a book is a hit--not so bad if you're cranking out 5000 words a day. These are not long books, so that would mean turning out a manuscript in 10 to 12 days. There's a certain amount of research involved, but I suspect it's not deep or extended. Also, the books tend to feature lots of photos, which cuts down on the word count as well. 

It's not a side of writing that interests me personally, as a writer or a reader, but it's interesting to find out how it works.

(For help writing your book, see mine: "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon and other online and offline booksellers.)

If you need help from an expert on what you're writing

 Recently I had this query from a reader:

"I have been an avid reader of your blog and books for a long time and wonder if you have a short burst of blog advice for people like me who need an expert in a technical field to cast an eye over a fiction manuscript to ensure that I am not committing any factual sin.

 Finding the expert is not my problem. My problem is that I would feel guilty asking someone to spend many hours reading, annotating and advising, only for me to be the one to reap any rewards. What does he get out of it apart from my profuse thanks? Is there an unwritten protocol about tangible returns for experts who advise on their specialist subject? I can’t think why they would wish to do it otherwise, yet we all see paragraphs of thanks from published novelists to detectives, bankers, scientists and scores of other professionals. A bottle of wine seems more of an insult than a reward, yet a cut of the royalties seems too lavish. Where is the middle ground?"

 Here's what I told him:

 It kind of depends on how much work it is for the expert and their attitude. For some, being thanked in the acknowledgements section of the book is enough. 

If you can isolate the sections that require verification and there aren't too many of them, you might find that it wont' take too much of their time. If they have to read the entire manuscript and there are lots of things to check, then probably they'd find that too demanding.

 I would suggest that you consider how much you would be willing to pay and then approach the person and say you would value their input and of course will acknowledge their help in print, but also that you're aware that their time is valuable and ask how much they would charge for reading the mss and giving input.

 You may find someone who says they'll do it just out of interest, or you may find someone who demands an outrageous fee (in which case you move on to another expert), or someone who suggests a reasonable fee. 

I'd just add to this for other readers, don't be afraid to approach an expert for help. In my experience, most of them are flattered to be asked and as long as you are respectful of their time they will be delighted to help you.

The Panic of the Almost-Finished Writer

I’m in the final stages of writing my book, FOCUS, which Pearson will publish in May 2008. I guess it’s appropriate that I’ve had to focus a lot this month to be able to get it done! One tip: leave the first chapter (the introduction) until last. Inevitably, the book has changed somewhat, including finding that two of the proposed chapters work better when combined into one, and that it made sense to switch the order of some of the chapters. Since the introduction includes a guided tour of the rest of the book, it’s best to do that last.

The second tip is don’t panic if you start to doubt whether your book actually works. This is my sixth one and on every one I’ve had a point at which I was sure it was all falling apart, didn’t make any sense, wouldn’t interest any readers, etc. I think it’s part of the natural process once you get so deeply into it that you lose perspective (it happens with screenplays, too). Yesterday I wrote what will be the final chapter, “Putting It All Together,” in which I set out a program for applying all the material in the book in a structured way, and was happy to find it does all make sense. Whew!

Diary of a Non-Fiction Book

My book has been out for a couple of months in the UK and one month in the US and of course we're trying to make sure it's in all the book stores, especially the chains. On the website, initially we had a link only to Amazon, and that annoyed Barnes and Noble to the point of saying they wouldn't stock the book unless we also linked to them. Of course I was happy to do that anyway, it was an oversight originally, but it does show how important it is to keep all the players happy. If you've got a website on which you're selling your book, be sure to link accordingly.

Barnes and Noble now has placed an order for the book. Next, we're hoping Borders will follow suit.