Hey everyone,

The Wordclay Blog Team will be breaking for the July 4th holiday, but don’t worry, we’ll be back next week with fresh ideas; and if you have an interesting weekend (whether writing or seeing an author reading), we encourage you to submit your stories to us at blog@wordclay.com. Thanks again for visiting, and we’ll be in touch!

-The Wordclay Blog Team fiurnt8zqg

Thing is, great authors are people, too! Oftentimes, while immersed in their intoxicating prose and seductive poetry, we forget these people visit the grocery store, wash clothes at the laundry mat, listen to the same music we do, among numerous other things that make a person a living, breathing human being.

Luckily, Popmatters is wise to this fact about writers and artists. To help reveal the person behind the literary (or musical) magic, the editors have devised their “20 Questions” column, where bestselling authors are interviewed and asked only 20 questions about their favorite books, their favorite albums, whether they prefer Star Trek or Star Wars, whether they prefer wearing Armani or Levis, whether their essentials are strict diets of coffee, cigarettes and chocolate, or perhaps vodka and frequent visits to the spa.

Read just a few of the authors profiled, and gain some insight into the similarities between your life and theirs as great writers.

Aleksandar Hemon
[23.Jun.09] : “Hell,” Hemon tells PopMatters 20 Questions, “is being stuck at an airport without a book, starving for thought, forced to watch CNN.” Heaven might be a bathtub full of Turkish coffee … Read more>>

Lynn Freed
[6.Apr.09] : Award-winning writer Lynn Freed’s delicious replies to PopMatters 20 Questions may have you wishing, like us, that she could be your dinner guest. Her new novel, The Servants’ Quarters, was published  in April 2009. Read more>>

Laura Miller
[1.Dec.08] : Cofounder of Salon.com, ravenous reader Laura Miller talks with PopMatters 20 Questions about C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia) and other influences that led to The Magician’s Book. Read more>>

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Visit PopMatter.com, and learn about the muscians, writers and activists who have made a significant impact on our culture. So too, learn how their habits and preference resemble yours. Remember, they put their pants on one leg at a time after all, even if their pants might sell for a small fortune on eBay.

In today’s changing publishing industry, writers and authors must understand the importance of building an author platform in order to reach commercial success, whether planning to publish traditionally or self-publishing through a company such as Wordclay.

Your “platform” as an author (or any other kind of business-minded person, really) is a combination of your connections, your reputation, influence and visibility in the marketplace. This is an important aspect for the success of any self-published author, and has become a necessity for traditionally published authors as well.

Literary agent Rachelle Gardner posted an article on her blog called “The Dreaded Author Platform. ” Here are a few excerpts that provide her intimate, traditional-publishing-world perspective on the importance of platforms:

“… Publishing just ain’t what it used to be. Gone are the days when publishers were solely responsible for the marketing of a book.

Today’s audience is more segmented than it has ever been before. People have more options for their leisure time than ever before … It’s harder than ever to attract people to books. The way to do it is increasingly through personal connection, and that means YOU, the author, making connections with your readers.”

As an author,  it’s up to you to market your book. Of course, many self-publishing companies offer useful book marketing services, but it is up to you to take the initiative to develop a marketing plan and invest the time and money to follow through.

Gardner continues in the article to explain how authors can and should utilize the Internet:

“The Internet has leveled the playing field … It doesn’t cost money. It doesn’t require special skills, besides the ones you already have: those of being a writer. What it DOES take is time. Marketing yourself as an author will cost you a serious investment of time.”

The bottom line is that becoming a successful author isn’t easy; it doesn’t just happen. Gardner’s post and others like it shed light on a common misconception that publishing traditionally will automatically provide a free ride to the top of the bestsellers list. Traditional and self-published authors alike must market themselves and their books to succeed.

Only you can decide how much time, research and effort that you are willing to put forth to sell your book, and it is a decision will surely be driven by how badly you want to reach your goals.

-Angie

P.S. Here are a few more helpful articles on the subject of building author platforms:

• Build Your Author Platform: 10 Tips from a Pro
• How to Start Building Your Platform

So if you haven’t visited Nerve.com, you definitely should. More than just their superb and interesting content about social erotica, the latest fiction, current movies, dating and flirting advice posted by the experienced editors, their team has launched new writing avenues for the aspiring author.

Now, writers can explore to publish some of their most revealing work for millions to read every day, the newest of these writing avenues being “My First Time” and “Dating Confessions”. Essentially, if you’ve written (or are thinking about writing) a piece that reveals your first intimate encounter (however sweet, however strange) or maybe a date gone bad (perhaps horribly bad, where he drones on about his job and her laugh sounds like a hyena), then you can submit your short confession to the Nerve editors, who will review your piece for publication on the Web site.

Of course not everyone wants to be so cavalier with their love stories, and not everyone wants millions of people to read (and comment on) stories that may be close to their heart. But for those of you looking to expand your authorship and see some of your articles published, it can’t hurt to submit your personal essays to Nerve.com. The worst that could happen is a short rejection, maybe a comment from the editors on how to improve your submission for next time, and that’s it. Only one thing’s for certain: not submitting means you have absolutely zero chance of getting published.

Truth is, plenty of well-established authors and columnists have published (and gotten starts in the literary community) from Nerve.com. Case in point, Steve Almond, whose title story (first published by Nerve) from his infamous collection My Life in Heavy Metal skyrocketed his writing career. Your writing biography could unfold the same way, but you need to have the courage to submit your writing first and foremost.

Submitting personal stories and revealing confessions are never easy for anyone, especially writers, but transcribing the truth in words is the business we’re in. So if you want to pursue a career in writing, you should consider taking the leap, not just submitting your work to Nerve, but other magazines (e.g. Canteen, Missouri Review, Denver Quarterly, Open City, among countless others) as well.

This is Justin, blogcasting from Wordclay, signing off.

Note: I often refer people to this piece written by Elmore Leonard on the topic of writing. I thought it would be a good idea to share it with you.

These are rules I’ve picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story. If you have a facility for language and imagery and the sound of your voice pleases you, invisibility is not what you are after, and you can skip the rules. Still, you might look them over.

1. Never open a book with weather.
If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a character’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead looking for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways to describe ice and snow than an Eskimo, you can do all the weather reporting you want.

2. Avoid prologues.
They can be annoying, especially a prologue following an introduction that comes after a foreword. But these are ordinarily found in nonfiction. A prologue in a novel is backstory, and you can drop it in anywhere you want.

There is a prologue in John Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday, but it’s okay because a character in the book makes the point of what my rules are all about. He says: “I like a lot of talk in a book and I don’t like to have nobody tell me what the guy that’s talking looks like. I want to figure out what he looks like from the way he talks … figure out what the guy’s thinking from what he says. I like some description but not too much of that… Sometimes I want a book to break loose with a bunch of hooptedoodle… Spin up some pretty words maybe or sing a little song with language. That’s nice. But I wish it was set aside so I don’t have to read it. I don’t want hooptedoodle to get mixed up with the story.”

3. Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
The line of dialogue belongs to the character; the verb is the writer sticking his nose in. But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied. I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with “she asseverated,” and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.

4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said”…
…he admonished gravely. To use an adverb this way (or almost any way) is a mortal sin. The writer is now exposing himself in earnest, using a word that distracts and can interrupt the rhythm of the exchange. I have a character in one of my books tell how she used to write historical romances “full of rape and adverbs.”

5. Keep your exclamation points under control.
You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose. If you have the knack of playing with exclaimers the way Tom Wolfe does, you can throw them in by the handful.

6. Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
This rule doesn’t require an explanation. I have noticed that writers who use “suddenly” tend to exercise less control in the application of exclamation points.

7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Once you start spelling words in dialogue phonetically and loading the page with apostrophes, you won’t be able to stop. Notice the way Annie Proulx captures the flavor of Wyoming voices in her book of short stories Close Range.

8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway’s story “Hills Like White Elephants” what do the “American and the girl with him” look like? “She had taken off her hat and put it on the table.” That’s the only reference to a physical description in the story, and yet we see the couple and know them by their tones of voice, with not one adverb in sight.

9. Don’t go into great detail describing places and things.
Unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language or write landscapes in the style of Jim Harrison. But even if you’re good at it, you don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.

10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.
A rule that came to mind in 1983. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them. What the writer is doing, he’s writing, perpetrating hooptedoodle, perhaps taking another shot at the weather, or has gone into the character’s head, and the reader either knows what the guy’s thinking or doesn’t care. I’ll bet you don’t skip dialogue.

My most important rule is one that sums up all the above rules.
If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can’t allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It’s my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing. (Joseph Conrad said something about words getting in the way of what you want to say.)

If I write in scenes and always from the point of view of a particular character — the one whose view best brings the scene to life — I’m able to concentrate on the voices of the characters telling you who they are and how they feel about what they see and what’s going on, and I’m nowhere in sight.

What Steinbeck did in Sweet Thursday was title his chapters as an indication, though obscure, of what they cover. “Whom the Gods Love They Drive Nuts” is one, “Lousy Wednesday” another. The third chapter is titled “Hooptedoodle 1” and the 38th chapter “Hooptedoodle 2” as warnings to the reader, as if Steinbeck is saying: “Here’s where you’ll see me taking flights of fancy with my writing, and it won’t get in the way of the story. Skip them if you want.”

“Sweet Thursday” came out in 1954, when I was just beginning to be published, and I’ve never forgotten that prologue. Did I read the hooptedoodle chapters? Every word.

The Point: If you’ve ever read his work, you know that Elmore Leonard knows what he’s talking about. Even though a majority of his books have been on the border of genre fiction, his ability to write dialogue and move ahead with a story have been recognized by traditional literature people as a gold standard. I recommend you go to your local library and check out Cuba Libre if you are not familiar with Leonard’s writing.

Because of their creative and overly romanticized pursuits, many now think that writers and authors lead solitary lives, disconnected from other writers, pecking away at their keyboards in some kind of tacit, no-holds-bar competition with each other, the phone off the hook, never once needing (or appealing) to others for a little inspiration.

Today, however, that’s hardly the case. Social networks like Facebook, Myspace, WritingRoom, not to mention applications like Blerp.com, Twitter, even text messaging, now allow writers to interact and maintain contact with each other from around the world. What does this mean for writers? Well, for starters, you can count on more support from fellow creative individuals to help motivate you when finishing your manuscript. Plus, you can always jump online for a break and comment on an interesting discussion thread that may just awaken the creative beast slumbering inside you.

Even now, as you’re reading this blog, you’re participating in the great connection between writers around the world, clicking through the communities that may turn out to be your saving grace in moments of writer’s block or research in forums where you can ask about any number of current events and topics for your book.

Be sure to check out the reading communities as well, such as Shelfari, goodreads and LibraryThing, where you can manage your personal book catalog and engage readers in your target audience. Finding out what readers look for in books within your genre can be incredibly useful and help guide you as you finish writing your own, incorporating their suggestions and their expectations into your own poetry or prose.

The Point: Writers and authors aren’t the hermit crabs we might think they are. Stay connected to your network for inspiration or support, and stay energized about writing your collections and manuscripts every day!

Facebook recently announced that starting at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday, June 13, 2009, you’ll be able to claim a customized Web addresses for personal profile pages or Facebook Pages on a first-come first-served basis. So instead of having a random number for your URL, you can have a URL with meaning. Very cool opportunity, especially for authors.

As an author, your name is an important piece of your brand essence. Readers associate your name with your genre and style of writing, and the more that you can publicize your name online the better. By claiming your own Facebook URL using your name, it will be used as a search term not just within Facebook, but in other search engines such as Google, Yahoo or Bing.

Of course, choosing a personalized URL doesn’t automatically publicize your Facebook account. You change the security setting if you’d rather not have your name out there on Google, but for authors this is a wonderful opportunity as long as you meet Facebook’s requirements.

Facebook has put some strict requirements in place that you must meet in order to be eligible to claim your personalized username URL:

First, only profile pages and Pages are eligible – not groups or events.

Second, you must have created your Page before May 31, 2009, or your personal profile before 3:00 p.m. on June 9, 2009. (The limitation is only temporary, so if you are a new user or haven’t joined yet, you can still claim your username on June 28, 2009.)

Third – and this is the real kicker – if you want to create a username URL for your Facebook Page (of which you are the administrator), you have to have at least 1,000 fans prior to the May 31 cutoff date. Ouch.

It’s still not clear whether Facebook will lift this requirement of 1,000 fans or not, and this restriction has become a topic of much debate. As an emerging author, or any other business or organization, getting 1,000 or more fans of your author fan page is no small task. While I understand that Facebook is trying to avoid the feeding frenzy of URL consumption that would ultimately occur if there was no regulation, it seems that they may be setting the bar a little too high. What do you think?

Regardless of your Pages’ fan count, you should not be discouraged from registering your personal profile this Saturday at 12:01 a.m. (well, let’s face it – it’s LATE Friday night).

And if you have not already, set up a Facebook Page for your “author-self” and start promoting your brand and your books. You may not be able to claim your custom URL for your Page just yet, but you can still spread the word online, which will ultimately help you forge more connections with readers and sell more books.

-Angie

P.S. Become a Fan of Wordclay’s Page and join our Wordclay Writers Group to connect with fellow authors.

Recently, Tribune-Review ran a piece in their publication called “Market Savvy Authors Can Take a Nontraditional Way to Audience,” in which Rege Behe explores the emerging benefits of self-publishing (and self-promoting) a book as opposed to blindly submitting your manuscript to publishers who may not even read your potential bestseller.

Essentially, your potential to spread the word about your book (and earn higher royalties per copy sold) with self-publishing is only limited by your enthusiasm to personally market your book and tap into any valuable connections you may already have.

For example, Ray Goss could use his experience in radio to market his self-published book, while others such as Lisa Genova (author of Still Alice, originally through iUniverse)  or Barbara Burstin (author of Steel City Jews: A History of Pittsburgh and its Jewish Community, 1840-1915) have self-published only to receive rave review from some of the best magazines in the world, leading to traditional publishers scrammbling to sign them for another book.

Reporter Behe does mention the stigma of self-publishing, too, as its method is shunned by the hyper-literary-minded and even some bookstores; but given the lack of editorial and design control imposed by traditional publishers, not to mention the significant cut in royalites you earn with traditional publishing houses, may overwhelmingly overturn this negative sentiment toward companies like Author Solutions, Inc. (and Wordclay) in the very near future.

Because bookstores are perhaps slower to adapt to the changing publishing industry, self-published books may have a harder time reaching their shelves. That said, Behe also offers some tricks of the trade when marketing your book online. For example, creating an author Web site with your book details and order information will not only act as a base of operations for the writer, but also allow Internet surfers to stumble upon their book naturally when searching on different keywords. Combine your Web site with social networking and perhaps some book giveaway promotions, and BOOM! your chances for success just skyrocketed in the publishing industry!

The Point: Self-publishing with companies like Wordclay, iUniverse or AuthorHouse (all Author Solutions brands) can indeed be more beneficial to authors, especially emerging authors, than endlessly (and sometimes fruitlessly) seeking a traditional publisher to back you, even if your book has great potential!

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Market savvy authors can take a nontraditional way to audience

Microsoft has come out with a new search engine. In a world where “Google” and “Facebook” are used as verbs, then it’s entirely possible that Microsoft’s new search engine at www.bing.com could also amend our future vernacular as well. I assume that this is a goal of theirs, among others of course.

Obviously, the search function is not unfamiliar, but Bing is more visually appealing than Live Search; and the default images on the homepage are more colorful and inviting, too.

Those of us who spend our days working and playing on computers try to learn about everything that comes to our attention that we don’t necessarily understand yet, like Bing for instance. Already, the bloggers out there are testing the new tool to see how it competes with Google. I have seen several side-by-side assessments of similar searches and evaluations of the quality of the results. Thus far, it appears that the Bing engine and Google are rather comparable to each other.

• Simple Thoughts: Bing vs Google>>
• BetaNews: Bing vs Google Faceoff: Round One>>
• BetaNews: Bing vs Google Faceoff: Round Two>>

One advantage to Bing that I’ve discovered is that the image search results are displayed in one continuous page that you can scroll through, rather than page after page of 25 images.

I hope that those of you out there who are marketing your books will take the time to familiarize yourself with this new tool. It will definitely become increasingly important if it is adopted by users, and authors must be certain that the efforts they have taken to maximize your relevance in Google search results will also be fruitful in Bing.

Microsoft has already faced some criticism, as there was a “bug” that briefly was forcing users of Internet Explorer to reset Bing as their preferred search engine. Even if the users manually attempted to switch back to whichever other platform that they preferred, IE would kick the default back to Bing instantly. Microsoft addressed the issue and resolved it rather quickly, but the impression that I get is that Microsoft will be going out of their way to make Bing a hit.

We would of course love to hear more from the writers out there who are starting to explore the advantages and disadvantages of Bing so that we can all mutually benefit and maximize our presence in this highly competitive environment.

Everyone knows Michael J. Fox, and you’ve probably heard about the recent release of his newest memoir Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist. Actor turned activist turned author, Fox has stolen the hearts of television, movie and literature fans around the world, in no small part because of his passion and optimism to share his experiences as well as his positive spin on his illness.

That said, writers must always have passion! Without the ambition and drive to capture your stories and interpretation of life, you’ll never be able to instill your message or stir emotions in your readers.

Consider Fox’s devotion to revealing his message. While balancing his family life and his activism at The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, he managed to dictate and help edit a book that had inspired (and continues to inspire) optimism in millions of people, whether they agree with his political views concerning stem cell research or not.

Writers are constantly faced with challenges; some deal with writer’s block; others map out crucial scenes over and over again until perfect; and still others pace the length of their office just like Fox, physically fighting to communicate his idealism and hope for the future. Watch the below Borders video in which Fox talks about his writing method and the challenges he faced writing Always Looking Up.

Whether the obstacles in the path of your writing career are large or small, remember that your passion for writing and your interesting experiences will fuel the completion of your manuscript. Though you may waver on occasion and neglect your writing schedule, never forget that you started writing for a reason, maybe personal, political or creative. Seeing your sentences move from chapters to a full manuscript to a publication that’s read by your target audience will definitely be a rewarding testament to your artistic achievement.

The Point: Like Fox, writers have unique insights and inspiring stories, and though you may struggle distilling your thoughts and experiences into a manuscript, ultimately the reward of sharing your story will be measured in the hope and revelation it instills in readers.