Did you know that your expectations can negatively impact your relationship with others in the publishing industry as well? Rachelle Gardner, a literary agent who is very active online, shares some of the writer expectations she’s encountered and gives very direct reasons why they are not based in reality.

…there are many writers who hold on to unrealistic expectations long after reality should be setting in. This is an ongoing concern for agents, editors, and publicists who constantly find themselves not living up to writers’ expectations. In many cases (and yes, there are plenty of exceptions), the writer’s hopes and beliefs were simply too idealistic to begin with. –SOURCE: Managing Expectations by Rachelle Gardner

If you aren’t clear as to whether or not your personal expectations will damage your professional reputation or sour your experiences as a writer, be sure to read Managing Expectations by Rachelle Gardner. It’s definitely worth your time.

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Are You Providing a Service?

The idea that you, as a creative professional, are providing a service goes much deeper than making those quick decisions. Let me walk you through an example of what I’m talking about.

Let’s say I get hired to write a story set within the Hellboy universe. (Hah, I wish!) Because that setting is owned by Mike Mignola, I would not own the rights to what I’ve written. Since I already know the setting, I don’t need to spend a lot of time learning about Hellboy, so I wouldn’t lose a lot of time there. I would, however, need to research new stories within the setting because there’s already been a lot of myths covered. Then, there’s the time it would take to write the story and go through the editing process. Once the story was done, I can’t do anything else with it because now it belongs to someone else. Even though I wrote for a setting I love, I still produced an asset for someone other than myself. In short, I provided a service to develop something that someone already had a need for.

This example highlights how writing for a tie-in property typically works. The reality of being a creative professional is that we produce content for other people in order to make a living. I look at the process of developing an asset for someone else as our ability to provide a service rather than produce a deliverable. Other examples range from writing website copy for someone else’s business to graphic design to developing a game and pitching it to a publisher. The concept, though, is pretty simple to follow once you start tracking how the money is flowing to you. If you get paid up front for the work you’re doing, I feel that it’s helpful to look at your time as a service related to product development. You are, in effect, developing and providing an asset that someone else needs and will, in turn, sell.

Or Are You Creating an Asset?

When you design something for other people to purchase that you have more control over, then you’re creating an asset. An example of that is an illustrator creating a clip-art CD or offering prints for sale of artwork they own the rights to.

Now, there are advantages to both business models because, in many ways, an asset’s value increases depending upon how many people want that asset. I could design an interactive fairy tale for you, but if you didn’t want it, then it’s not worth anything and I’d lose money because I had just spent all that time creating something you don’t care about. The reality of developing your own assets, is that it isn’t enough “just” to create the asset. You need to figure out how you can get people to pay for it. For a writer, that means you have to develop a strong base of readers that will invest in your work.

A really good example of what I’m talking about here, are some of the arguments that self-published authors make. To those that don’t understand how publishing works, the publisher is greedy because they have too much control over the author’s asset (e.g. the book). What they don’t understand, is that the publisher is providing the author with a better chance of reaching readers which makes their asset more valuable. Even though there are many services out there that offer some of the same services as a publisher does, the majority of self-published authors don’t sell thousands of copies of their work for a variety of reasons. For starters, those services are not discriminate; they do not turn down an author based on the quality of the work. Publishers do, because they understand that books are assets that represent the author, but also their brand name, too. This is why authors who go through traditional models typically sell more books simply because of the way publishing works.

Then What?

Now, the examples I mentioned above may not apply to you specifically, but the idea is still the same. If you think about your time as your primary asset, then consider the following questions: Do I own what I create? If so, how am I getting paid for it? If I’m not getting paid what I’m worth, then how can I get paid more?

For myself, I don’t attach a “good” or “bad” value to providing a service versus offering an asset because I look at them in terms of different business models. Which is, realistically, what they are. I’d absolutely write a tie-in story for a property I’d love; on the flip side, I’d still want to write a fun story of my own, too.

Not sure about what you think about my post today, but I feel this idea is pretty important. That’s part of the reason why there’s so many changes going on here behind-the-scenes that I haven’t announced yet.

Deep thoughts today! Do these questions resonate with you? Why or why not?

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The hobby games industry has been great to be involved with and has been a boon to my creativity and my professional career. The best part about gaming, though, is the people. Leanne, Shari and James, who composed the music for THE QUEEN OF CROWS trailer, are all people I met through gaming.

I’m pleased to announce that our project will be included in the Christmas in July sale at DriveThruRPG.com!

From now through Monday, July 26th at 6:00 p.m. EST, my e-book entitled THE QUEEN OF CROWS will be priced at $3.75!

Click Here to buy THE QUEEN OF CROWS on sale now at twenty-five percent off.

There are literally thousands of digital titles on sale, so if you like to game or read, now is the perfect time to check out DriveThru. The sale also applies to comics at DriveThruComics.com, so you can read comics from publishers like Top Cow, Archaia and 2000 A.D. for super cheap.

Hope you get the chance to check out some other games and comics, too. Many of these people pour their sweat, blood and tears into their work because, like me, they love what they do. There’s a lot of great products on sale, so if you’re thinking about going digital, now’s the time.

Catch ya later!

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1. Announcing the Release of THE QUEEN OF CROWS
2. E-Books Are Not Liquid Gold
3. [Video] Trailer for THE QUEEN OF CROWS e-Book

Base Ingredients

1 pound ground turkey
1 pound whole wheat spaghetti
1 jar generic spaghetti sauce
3 strips uncooked bacon

Secret Spices

red wine
maple syrup
garlic
dried shallots
oregano
olive oil
red pepper flakes

Slice the uncooked bacon into square pieces. Then, brown ground turkey with bacon in skillet. Add about a tablespoon of olive oil and as much garlic as you normally would. Once it’s cooked, you’ll want to drain the fat before you add anything else to your concoction.

After I put the meat back in the pan, I add about a quarter cup to a half cup of red wine and stir that into the meat. I find that the wine takes that “turkey taste” edge off. Then, add your tomato sauce, some dried shallots and oregano. Let that simmer for about five minutes on low heat. If your sauce thickens too much, add a little bit of water to it to thin it out.

While your sauce is simmering, fill your pasta pan with water and add a tablespoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt and some herbs. Don’t be afraid to be generous with your sprinklings here. This step is totally worth it because the taste of the herbs will infuse into the noodles while they cook, which makes a cheap pasta taste like it was created at a gourmet restaurant. Once the water is boiling, you’ll want to follow the directions on the box to ensure your pasta is cooked correctly. I usually break the spaghetti in half before I add it to the pot.

Immediately after you’ve added your pasta to the water, stir your spaghetti sauce and add a sprinkle of red pepper flakes and about a tablespoon of the best maple syrup you can find to it. Then, turn your heat down on your sauce even lower. Once your pasta is done, you’re ready to eat my recipe for spaghetti with bacon.

The best part about this concoction, is that there’s a number of different ways you can spice this up. I should point out, however, that if you’re going to use red meat you might want to consider adding some milk to your tomato sauce instead of maple syrup. Beef tends to have a fuller flavor and you don’t want your spaghetti sauce to taste like a bacon burger. Or maybe you do? Either way, there’s a lot of variations that you can try here.

Sadly, this is not a vegetarian recipe but that doesn’t mean I won’t try a version that’s vegan-friendly. If you’re meat-free and are inspired, be sure to let me know what you’ve come up with.

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. Day One: My Pescatarian Adventures
2. Day Three: Good Karma and Laziness
3. Day 5 and Beyond: Being a Pescatarian Takes Planning

If you’ve ever been in the “I need to pay rent and I don’t like junk food” place that I’ve been in before, you’ve probably had these same discussions with yourself. Then, when any and all forms of writing assignments start piling in, you get excited because dammit, you’re a writer. Did it matter you just worked for three weeks on an article and didn’t get paid for it? Did it matter you don’t own the rights to what you just wrote? No. What mattered is that you wrote and got published, so you start to let a lot of things slide.

Then, at some point, you wake up and you smell burnt coffee. You get burned. Badly. Someone republishes your work and scrapes your name off the credits and expects you to shove your angst under the rug. A partner manages to “forget” you signed a contract and drops off the face of the planet, so you never get paid for weeks of effort. The story you handed in is different from the story that got published and you were never notified. An editor lost your manuscript. The pitch you handed in years ago is now a multimillion dollar book and no one believes it was your idea. The list of crimes against writers goes on and on and on.

Here’s a tough question for you: Would you quit a job if your boss was being an asshole? Then why on earth would you allow yourself or your work to be treated like crap?

Quite frankly, the cost of making bad decisions is a lot higher than you might think because writers are not paid according to the time and knowledge required for a polished manuscript. Not only is your name and your reputation attached to whatever it is that you’re doing, the time that you spend dealing with crappy projects means that you’re losing money because you’re spending less time on the projects that have a better chance of succeeding. When you’re new to writing, it’s great to experiment so you can find out where your strengths and weaknesses are. But what happens when you’re no longer new? Have you thought about turning down projects you don’t want?

Now, some of you might think that there should be some sort of database out there to pinpoint who the assholes are. However, that is not a professional thing to do because while you may have had a crappy experience with one publisher, a different writer may have had a great one. Yes, patterns can develop, but every situation is usually different because there are two sides to every story. You may be pissed off that you didn’t get paid, but the company could have been filing for bankruptcy, experienced personnel changes or has a policy against paying for delivered work past the deadline you were supposed to meet. Remember, too, there are cases where bad things happen not because a publisher is an evil bastard, but because you’ve experienced a breakdown in your communication with them. That last bit is part of the reason why I believe good, two-way communication is so essential to any writer’s overall success.

So what happens when you get burned? Well, first you have to rant about it in private. (Yes, you really do!) While you’re at it, order a very large margarita, go for a run or play a game. Then, at some point you have to learn when to cut your losses and move on.

In my mind, I don’t believe enough writers ask themselves why they are working on projects that they’ve committed themselves to. To those of you who haven’t gotten paid for your work yet, I understand what you’re going through. You’re hungry to get their name out there. I get that. I really, really do. If you are happy blogging or writing fan fiction and now you’ve got a ton of readers then that’s great! Are you happy writing for free or do you want your readers to pay you? Have you ever asked yourself how much you want to get paid? Are you being realistic with those expectations? Do you know what writing you can get paid for versus what writing you can’t?

The quick response to these types of questions is to say something like, “Well, so-and-so author ended up making millions by bucking the traditional system this way…” While that is true, those experiences are not typical for most writers. What I’m trying to convey in this post, are the questions the rest of us need to ask ourselves. Lightning can strike, but I wouldn’t bank my career on it. Would you?

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I will be on four panels, which I’ve listed below, and I will be milling about for the various events and whatnot. Come say hello!

Saturday, September 4th

12:00 pm to 1:00 pm — Game Publishing
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm — Writing Panel
4:30 pm to 5:30pm — World Building

Sunday, September 5th

1:00 pm to 2:00 pm — Being an Effective Reviewer/Critic

Be sure to drop by the Geek.Kon website to learn more about this Madison-based convention.

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1. My Schedule at the GenCon 2010 Writer’s Symposium
2. Speaking Engagement: OddCon 2008 Panels
3. About Me: Appearance at GenCon-Indy

The list of 2010 nominees for the ENnie awards includes some really fun games like ECLIPSE PHASE and DOCTOR WHO.

This year, we have some tough competition in our category of “Best Regalia,” because every product that’s listed there is outstanding. Now that the preliminary round of voting has passed, voting has now opened up to the public.

Cast your vote to decide this year’s winners for the 2010 ENnie awards

If you’re remotely familiar with these games and books, I hope that you take the opportunity to vote. These awards mean a lot to the people who work in this industry, because they’re not just decided by a panel of judges. They’re decided by our peers, our readers and our fellow gamers, too.

Good luck to everyone! If you’re interested in picking up any of these books or games, you can visit the 2010 nominees on DriveThruRPG.com. Many of them are on sale, too!

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One of the concepts I mentioned last time was the idea that you need to have some sort of language key to use as your foundation. Before we get any further, I’d like to remind you that your aliens need to be able to create the symbols in the first place.

My basic requirements for a symbolic alien language are:

• The biological ability to create a symbol
• The proper instrument(s) to represent a symbol
• The ability to understand what it means

Mind you, some writers have employed the use of an invisible symbolic language that can be seen either on the astral place or by manipulating subatomic matter. Whether or not your symbolic language appears to humans or other aliens is not something that you need to decide right now, because that could develop as a plot element for your story. However, you still need to know how your aliens will use your language. –SOURCE: Creating an Alien Language: Rudimentary Symbolic Language

Be sure to drop by and check out the full article at Apex Book Company. Word on the street is that they have a book sale going on right now, too.

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1. My New Guest Series at Apex: Creating an Alien Language
2. Guest Post: 3 Science Fiction Writing Exercises at Apex
3. My Guest Post at Apex: Are You a Believer or a Skeptic?

The first thing we did was listen to various sounds and whatnot to decide what the feel of the music should be. Did I want the composition to be dramatic and tense or smooth and understated? Did I want an authentic, Native American feel or an inspired take on the music?

We decided that an inspired, more dramatic and textured take on the music was the way to go. We were both able to find some sound effects (Yes, that’s right! I said sound effects!) that will work well with the images and clips in the trailer. While I wanted the music to give you a Native American feel, I felt that it wouldn’t be a good idea to go the historical route for several reasons. — SOURCE: 2010.07.11 Setting Music to the Trailer

The music was composed by James Semple, a professional in the entertainment industry. In addition to his work in film, he also has composed soundtracks perfect for gaming including Four Shadows: Music for Trail of Cthulhu and Dissonance: Music for Esoterrorists.

Without further adieu, I hope you enjoy this trailer. We both had a lot of fun creating it and I’m pretty pleased with the results.

If you’re interested in learning more, visit THE QUEEN OF CROWS e-book on DriveThruHorror.com.

Hope you enjoy the video!

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1. Promote Your Work with a Book Trailer
2. Announcing the Release of THE QUEEN OF CROWS
3. 25% Off My e-Book Plus Huge Sale on 1,000s of Others at DriveThru

1. Anyone can be a writer – Everyone has the ability to learn how to write, but that isn’t the same thing as learning how to be someone who specializes in writing. Often, this misconception pops up because writing is probably “the” lowest cost and most accessible art form that’s out there. Yes, there is such a thing as natural talent and whatnot, but when you learn how to be a writer, you’ll quickly learn that putting words down on paper is simply one component of what you need to do.

2. Writers get paid too much – Sadly, in some areas writers are getting paid less than they did over 100 years ago. Often, writers are not only asked to write for free, but they’re often asked to do this as a favor or as an expectation. The truth is, most professional writers typically work an ungodly amount of hours because writing is a time-intensive activity. When you add up everything that we’re required to do on top of writing, in most cases we lose money. On the flipside, there’s also some writers who think that offering free work will somehow benefit them in the long run. While there’s a time and place for publishing a free article or story, writers who don’t expect payment for their work can’t make a career out of what they’re doing. There’s a big difference between writing as a hobby and writing professionally.

3. Writers are machines – I can’t think of one professional writer that I’ve talked to that hasn’t encountered this misconception. Simply put, a writer can’t just sit down at a computer and type every single minute of every single day and produce a publishable work. Sometimes, we need to research and visit cute, kitten sites to allow our minds to mull over what we’re working on. The more flexibility and creativity we have when we’re working on a project, the better the “output” will be. Why? Well, this comes back to the fact that writing isn’t just about putting the words down on a page. It’s about writing that first draft, sure, but then it’s about taking a break and revisiting those drafts after we’ve had a chance to move on to something else. Writers rarely get something right on the first try.

4. Writers never improve – Learning how to write is a lot like learning how to draw. Regardless of how much natural talent you have, the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it. Writers always have room for improvement, but often the areas that they can improve in vary depending on what they’re focusing on. A good example is my recent experiences with short fiction. I wrote a couple of stories that sucked. They got rejected, which was the right call. So, because I have other opportunities on that front, I realized I needed to practice writing and editing more short stories so they didn’t suck. Does a few rejected stories mean that I’m a crappy writer? No. It just means that I wrote crappy stories. Big difference between the two.

5. Writers can’t write “X” if they write “Y” – In order to be a writer who puts food on the table, we are required to have a high amount of flexibility. That means that we often seek out publishing opportunities in areas that we aren’t familiar with. Then, we read and research a particular subject so we can write about it. That old adage “write what you know” doesn’t necessary apply to a modern writer. Yes, it’s a lot easier to write what you know, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that a writer “can’t” write something if they’re not familiar with it. It just takes them more time to do it.

6. Writers write for themselves – Most professional writers do not write because they want to see their name in print; they write because that is the career they chose. Truly, the major difference between a professional and an amateur writer is who they’re writing “for.” Pros understand that, in order to continue to get paid for our efforts, we need to reach readers who may be interested in following their work. The larger the publishing house (or the more reputable the publication), the better the chance we have of reaching more eyeballs.

7. Writers should edit while they write – There is nothing more damaging to a writer than introducing an element of insecurity during their writing process. Editing while we write adds in a layer of second-guessing that hurts whatever we’re working on. The best thing a writer can do is to either a) ask the right questions and research everything they need to before they write the first draft or b) write the first draft and then go through a longer revision process. Again, just because a writer needs to change terms or the message of what they’re writing doesn’t mean that we’re terrible writers. It means that we’re working on delivering a “product” (e.g. article, novel, short story, essay, etc.) that meets an editor’s or reader’s expectations.

8. Writers “only” write – Writers also: market, research, budget, invoice, query, negotiate, revise, read, promote, sell, learn, sign, wait, follow-up, think, schedule, print, mail, design, network, meet, critique, etc. Every skill that I just listed is part and parcel to having a professional writing career. While some skills take more time than others to complete, writing is not just about sitting down at a computer and tap, tapping away. Additionally, these activities are part of the reason why it’s important for writers to get paid for what we do. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to afford to write in the first place.

9. Writers should offer free help to anyone who asks for it – Hey, if that were true, then a doctor I know should give me a free check up anytime I ask for it. Maybe I should ask one of my artist friends for a free image anytime I want one. No? Well, then why would a professional writer offer free help to anyone who asks for it? Writing, for us, is a career. It’s not something that we do when we get around to it. This is our job. While I do believe in helping new writers, I also think there is a difference between providing a free service and offering some advice. If you spend a few minutes to search for them, you can find a ton of other places online that offer great insight for a budding writer.

10. Writers have issues and are very needy – To the first part of that statement, everyone has issues. To the second part, writers do need something. We need feedback. In many cases, our writing process doesn’t occur in a bubble. Typically, we collaborate with an editor, reader or publisher. A good editor will open a dialog with a writer and have a conversation about their writing from a conceptual standpoint. What do they like? What don’t they like? Good editors also understand that there’s a big difference between voice, style, grammar, punctuation, etc. An editor who gets hung up on the placement of a comma or a typo probably isn’t going to help you with your work. On the flipside, an editor who only focuses on what they love about your work probably won’t help you either. While a balance of positive and negative works best, it’s better to have constructive feedback that will help you remain enthusiastic about your writing than to get overly critical comments.

What’s really interesting to me about this list, is that it always seems to be really complicated when we have to either explain, retort or debunk these misconceptions. It’s nigh impossible not to sound whiny or defensive. After all, our work is our reputation and even though we don’t always want to admit it — a professional writer will guard their work with their life.

What about you? Do you have any experiences or links to share?

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