Jami Gold, Paranormal Author

What Are You Looking for in an Agent?

Jami Gold — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:30:35 +0000

*Shh* Be very, very quiet. We’re hunting agents. (Sorry, with that picture, I couldn’t resist the Bugs Bunny reference. *smile*)

Many—if not most—writers want to find an agent at some point in their writing career. Even in this age of self-publishing, writers still want agents to help them with foreign rights, career advice, access to tricky markets (libraries), etc.

So the question of “what to look for in an agent” hasn’t gone away. However, what we’re looking for might have shifted a bit from a few years ago.

Because we all have different goals and needs, there’s no single end-all-be-all list of “what to look for” in an agent. Sure, we all want an agent who’s a good match for us, but what a “good match” looks like will be different for each of us.

Some of us want an editorial agent, who will help us with our manuscript before submitting to publishers. Some of us want a business-minded agent with strong knowledge of contracts and royalty statements. Some of us want an agent with oodles of contacts among editors and publishers.

There are no right or wrong answers, but we do need to know what we’re looking for before starting our agent search. Authors with years of experience tell us that having a bad agent (or the wrong agent for us) can be worse than no agent at all. So while an agent might be great for our friend and we might be able to get a recommendation (the Holy Grail!), the agent might not be right for us.

The factors we might be looking for in an agent include:

We’re comfortable with him/her; we can chat and be friends.
He/she is with a big, powerful agency.
He/she is with a small, boutique agency (smaller ponds can be nice).
He/she is a former editor or has a strong editorial background.
He/she handles foreign and subrights and/or has a rights specialist in house.
He/she specializes in our genre, with contacts at every publisher.
He/she has a wide variety of publisher contacts and handles many genres, including all those we’re writing or considering writing.
He/she has a strong knowledge of contracts and/or has a contract specialist in house.
He/she has a coach or career mentor attitude.
His/her communication policies match our expectations (email vs. phone, frequency, timeliness, etc.)
He/she provides the amount of hand-holding we want.
He/she has the amount of experience we want (new and enthusiastic vs. experienced and business-minded).
He/she has experience analyzing royalty statements for errors.
He/she knows (or has in-house specialists for) other industry-related contacts: publicists, cover artists, authors willing to blurb us, etc.
He/she is located in New York City.
He/she is a member of AAR.
His/her agency has (or doesn’t have) an epublishing or assisted publishing option (some people like this, and some think it’s a conflict of interest).
His/her plans for our book (editorial changes, which publishers to submit to, etc.) match our goals.
He/she has an online presence and helps promote his/her authors through social media.
We trust him/her.

We can analyze that list, prioritize it, decide which things are important, which things are nice to have, and which things are deal-breakers. Knowing what we’re looking for will help us narrow down our choices and will help us recognize when an agent is a bad match.

On the other end, there are things we all should avoid when we choose an agent. Certain behaviors are signs that an agent is a scammer or a disreputable/dishonest person, such as requiring a reading fee, taking an above average percentage, etc. In addition, we need to check that the author-agent agreement doesn’t include nasty clauses like interminable agency, in perpetuity, etc.

Our list of which things are important won’t look like anyone else’s list. Only we can determine the publishing path we want to take and which type of partner will best be able to help us along that path. Whether we’re planning on traditional publishing, self-publishing, or a combination of the two, the right agent can help us no matter what our goals are.

Random Act of Kindness Blitz and a Giveaway!

Jami Gold — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:30:38 +0000

Did you see all the posts and tweets yesterday about the Random Acts of Kindness Blitz? (#RAOKBlitz on Twitter) Two very generous authors, Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, of The Bookshelf Muse blog wanted to kick off the release of their book, The Emotion Thesaurus, in a unique way.

Just like how The Emotion Thesaurus helps writers brainstorm fresh ways of showing emotion, they wanted to launch their book in a non-cliché way. Boy, did they ever succeed.

Instead of making their release date about them (and I’m totally breaking the rules by even talking about them and their book like this, but *pshaw* I’ve never been a rule follower), they made the day about writers supporting each other and showing appreciation through random acts of kindness (RAOK). As Angela said in her email to the original participants:

“Imagine if Twitter flowed with Random Acts of Kindness #Hashtags, and everyone in the industry forgot about Self Published vs Traditional, forgot about Amazon vs the Publishing Industry, and instead…just remembered what brings us together and makes our community GREAT.”

If you take a look at their release day post, you can see how fabulous the turnout for this idea has been. As of the time I’m writing this post, they have 147 participants.

I was blessed enough to receive not one, but two RAOKs yesterday. Melinda Collins and her family were recently hit by the death of her mother-in-law, and yet she still wanted to reach out to others with multiple offers of critiques and beta readings. And then Janice Hardy, one of my favorite bloggers (I’ve linked to various posts of hers approximately a bazillion times) and a true writing hero of mine, singled me out, wrote kind things about me (that I can’t even think about without tearing up again), and offered me a critique as well. Please visit both of their blogs and tell them how awesome they are.

Is Kindness Contagious?

I’d originally received the okay from Angela to post my RAOK a day late just because of my blog’s Tuesday/Thursday schedule, but then I started thinking about Angela and Becca’s real goal with RAOK.

This isn’t a book launch with a nice gesture thrown on top. As Angela wrote in the email to us almost a month ago:

“Imagine if this RAOK Blitz event were only a spark, leading to something bigger, something greater. What if our collective Random Acts Of Kindness led to MORE Acts of Kindness? Is Kindness contagious? Let’s find out!”

Let’s find out, indeed. Thanks to Melinda and Janice and so many others in the writing community, I’m overflowing with kindness and generosity today. No joke. *hugs everyone* So here’s what we’re going to do…

Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice, and inspiration when asked. Each day, people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the Writing Community.
Send them an email, give them a shout out, or show your appreciation in another way. Angela and Becca’s suggestions for RAOK Blitz include:

A book or ebook;
An offer to beta read their next story;
A pledge to donate some used books to a school or library in their name;
An offer to give them feedback on a query or first page, first chapter, etc.;
Mail them a small gift card to buy a book;
Send a (free) Thank You ecard;
Email a thoughtful note, telling them how much you appreciate them;
Or anything else you can dream up!

Go to The Bookshelf Muse’s RAOK post and add your name to the list of RAOK Blitz participants. While you’re there, pick up Angela and Becca’s RAOK Gift to Writers waiting for you.
Leave a comment on this post and share your RAOK Blitz story here. Let’s keep the kindness chain going. Inspire others to reach out and do something for those in our community.
Read on for my part in all this. *smile*

Kindness Rocks!

My first act of kindness goes out to Michele Shaw. Michele’s one of those genuinely nice people who we all wish we could have as a next-door neighbor. She’s always there with support and understanding. Poor Michele has been trying to move to a WordPress.org website for over a year—unsuccessfully. So for my RAOK, I’m going to help her get her new website/blog set up. If you have a minute, tell her how awesome she is (in fact, she’s so awesome, she’s doing her own Kindness Project at her blog!).

My second act of kindness goes out to all of you. I’m like Angela and Becca. I want to see RAOK continue to spread and grow. The publishing industry is filled with bad news, lawsuits, arguments about the “best” path for publishing, etc., and I want us to put all that behind us, if only for a minute.

As I mentioned in #4 above, if you’ve participated in this RAOK Blitz, I want to hear about it. To thank you for sharing your story here and encouraging others to pass a RAOK on, I’m doing a giveaway.

Leave your RAOK Blitz story in the comments by Midnight (Eastern Daylight Time) on Monday, May 21st, 2012. I’ll select some random number of winners by some random method I haven’t figured out yet (this is RANDOM acts of kindness, right?), but more important are the prizes. *smile*

I’ll be giving away at least one copy of The Emotion Thesaurus, an absolutely incredible resource for writers. We’re always told to show instead of tell. But how do we show emotion? This book has the answers. It’s a thesaurus of all those body language and visceral cues for emotional responses. This book can be just what we need to improve our writing.
My Tech Guy will be giving away… (Seriously, everyone, I can’t believe how awesome this is!) …at least one prize of a year’s worth of hosting for a website/blog, worth over $100! You buy your domain name, and my Tech Guy will get you set up with a WordPress.org site (i.e. these aren’t the free WordPress.com sites that limit what you can do). And he’ll also include your own email for your domain and the premium Thesis theme, so you can do your own website design and customizing. Amazing, right?
If you already own The Emotion Thesaurus and you already have your own non-Blogger/non-WordPress.com website, leave your RAOK Blitz story in the comments anyway. The prizes are all about encouraging each other to keep this going. I’ll figure out some way to show my thanks for your participation if you’re a winner.

Have you been the recipient of a RAOK? How did it affect you? Have you participated in a RAOK before? Do you think they help spread kindness? Have you done something for this RAOK Blitz? Tell me all about it! If you’re a winner, which prize would you like (if you want The Emotion Thesaurus, would you want print or ebook)?

Are Ebooks Ever Done?

Jami Gold — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:30:02 +0000

In the world of traditional publishing, if errors make it through the editing process for a book, authors (and their readers) are stuck. A lucky few authors are able to get egregious mistakes like wrong character names or missing paragraphs fixed in later print runs, but most of time, errors remain in the text forever.

Enter ebooks and self-publishers. Ebook (and Print-on-Demand (POD)) files are easier to fix and upload than the hard-formatted versions used in traditional printing. And authors who self-publish can ensure fixes are made.

Is this ability to change an ebook file a good thing?

My first thought was “no.” Too many times, if we think something is temporary, we won’t be as conscientious. I don’t know about anyone else, but my handwriting is neater when I know I can’t get a “re-do.” *smile*

Similarly, I want authors to treat their ebook files as a permanent, final version. I don’t mean authors shouldn’t fix a typo if they find it, but I want to trust they did their utmost to ensure a book is free from errors, especially for anything above and beyond minor issues.

But I’ve been shocked to see some self-publishers take an “eh, I can fix it later” attitude. I saw one self-publisher comment that he didn’t use beta readers because his real readers—the ones who have paid money for his book—would point out all his mistakes, and then he’d upload a new file.

Then what did he think would happen? Most ebook retailers and self-publishers don’t have a nice, automatic way to update distributed ebook files, so readers are left out of later “fixes” for the most part. That can make early buyers feel cheated if there are significant changes.

Granted, that self-publisher’s comments are probably an extreme case. Just as likely among writers I know would be a perfectionist author, constantly wanting to tweak their books because they’re unable to let them go. Neither approach is healthy in my mind. Either way, I’ve always wanted to think of ebooks as being as permanent and unchanging as paper books.

Then I read an article yesterday that made me question my attitude. The article was about an opera of all things, but it pointed out that most art forms are malleable.

Orchestras today have standards for what an A note is (440 cycles per second, apparently), but back when many classical songs were composed, there was no standard. In fact, musicians often tuned their instruments “up” to sound more “brilliant.” As a result, what we think of as an A note has changed over the centuries, and the classical songs we know don’t necessarily sound as they were intended.

The article then points out that da Vinci’s Mona Lisa has been trimmed down over the years and that there are three very different versions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. How did we decide which one was the real masterpiece?

In other words, the article raised the question for me of whether art is ever “done” or “unchangeable.” I know I prefer feeling like I have the final version of a book, but is that just my perfectionist nature speaking? I don’t know. But as more readers transition to e-reading, our always fluctuating culture might change its perspective on books in ways we never anticipated.

Do you think the ability to change ebook (or POD) files will affect how we view the permanency of books? Should authors ever change ebook files? Does your answer depend on if the change is for minor typos vs. more involved changes? Do you think the ability to change files leads to a less conscientious attitude? If an author changes an ebook file you’ve purchased, do you want to be notified of the update?

Does Every Scene Need a Goal?

Jami Gold — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:30:41 +0000

I love when I make my readers think. Even better is when they turn around and make me think even deeper about an issue. *smile*

Yesterday, K.J. Pugh blogged about my last post (where I talked about cliffhangers and hooks) and brought up the issue of sequels I briefly mentioned. No, we’re not talking about book sequels, but about scenes and sequels.

In that post, I linked to two articles by author Janice Hardy that explained more about scenes and sequels. As Janice explains:

“Basic scene structure goes something like this:

Protag has a goal. They’ll act in way to achieve that goal throughout the scene. They’ll either get the goal, don’t get the goal, get the goal but there’s a catch, not get the goal and make things worse. Scene ends, because the goal has been resolved in some way.

Then the protag reacts. They’ll have an emotional reaction, think about what they just went through, and then try to figure out what to do next. This is the sequel.”

Janice goes on to point out that sequels can be anywhere from a single line to several pages long. But one other thing Janice mentioned in that article struck K.J. as interesting:

“Sequels have no goals to move the story forward.”

This idea of the protagonist not having a goal can throw us for a loop. Doesn’t that go against so much other advice we’ve heard about ensuring our protagonist is proactive and not passive, making sure our story is moving forward, maintaining the tension, etc.?

The Differences between Scenes and Sequels

The idea of scenes and sequels came from Dwight Swain in his book, Techniques of the Selling Writer. The differentiation he makes between them is not the same as how we usually think of scenes. In his book, he says:

Scenes are made up of:

Goal: What the protagonist wants at the beginning of the scene. This is where all that good proactive stuff for our characters come in.
Conflict: The obstacles standing in the way.
Disaster: What happens that prevents the protagonist from reaching their goal.

Sequels are made up of:

Reaction: How the character reacts to the Disaster.
Dilemma: The choice the character faces because of the Disaster.
Decision: What the character decides to do next.

That last point is key: What the character decides to do next. That is, the Decision becomes their new Goal for the next scene.

If we understand the point of sequels, it suddenly makes a lot more sense why many sequels are only going to be a sentence or two. Sequels are where the character adapts to the previous action, revelation, problem, etc. and decides on a new goal. In that regard, every scene has a sequel, even if it’s just the character deciding to try the same thing again.

“Traditional” Scenes vs. “Scene and Sequel” Scenes

We usually think of a scene as events that occur in a specific place and/or time. When the story jumps ahead a day or switches to a different location, boom, we have a new scene. That’s how screenplays think of them too.

But Dwight’s viewpoint defines a scene more narrowly. This isn’t good or bad. I’m just pointing it out so we’re all speaking the same language. Dwight’s view of a scene centers around a character’s goal.

What I find interesting about this perspective is that a traditional scene can thus contain several of Dwight’s scenes. Character tries A (Goal), but it makes things worse (Conflict/Disaster). Crap (Sequel). Character tries B (new Goal), etc.

Anyone who has studied Dwight Swain’s Motivation-Reaction Units (MRUs) might be able to see where I’m going next with this. MRUs are this same idea on a smaller scale. Something happens (Motivation for…) which causes something else (Reaction).

Everything Comes Down to Cause and Effect

At their essence, stories are one big cause and effect chain. A leads to B, which leads to C, etc.

We can see this on the micro sentence level with MRUs:

A shot rang out. (A leads to…) Susie jumped (B leads to…) and knocked the platter of filet mignon off the table. (C leads to…) Rover scarfed up their dinner before it hit the floor.

We can also see this on the macro scene level with Dwight’s definitions of scenes and sequels:

Susie wants to impress the handsome stranger by cooking a big dinner for him. (Goal A leads to…) But her good-for-nothing brother had downed the nice wine she’d picked up and gotten himself rip-roaring drunk. So drunk that he decided to start target practice outside the dining room window after she kicked him out of the house. (Conflict B leads to…) After dealing with his antics all day, she was jumpier than usual, and Rover had an excellent dinner. (Disaster C leads to…) Crap. (Reaction D leads to…) Well, she couldn’t let the handsome stranger starve. (Dilemma E leads to…) Hopefully, she could convince him to forgive her for serving a delivery pizza instead. (Decision F/new Goal)

Does it really matter with any of the above whether we call it goals, reactions, decisions, etc.? Not really. Just like with the small scale view of MRUs, everything is a motivation (cause) for what comes after it, and everything is a reaction (effect) to what came before it.

One giant cause-effect chain links events from the beginning to the end of a story. What matters most from a reader-who’s-unable-to-stop-turning-pages-even-at-2-a.m. perspective is that it all flows.

Why Sequels Cause Problems for Writers

The problems with sequels—those sections where the protagonist is adapting from a failed goal to a new goal—often come down to an issue of flow, and how they don’t link well to what comes before or after:

Sometimes we have a too-long sequel during an inappropriate time.

Does the character have time to ponder and weigh pros and cons right then? If not, then a long sequel is ignoring the effects of the Disaster that came before it and how the character needs to decide now.

Sometimes a sequel wanders or doesn’t seem to have a point.

Does the character reach a Decision, a new Goal? If not, then the sequel is breaking the chain of cause and effect.

Sometimes a sequel loses the tension in a story.

Does the character worry about the consequences of the Disaster? If not, then the sequel isn’t linking to past and future story events by making sure readers are up to speed on the stakes, the consequences of failure, and potential future issues (foreshadowing).

Tips for Making Sequels Work

So let me share a few tips on making the most of sequels:

When you’re writing, don’t worry about if a section is a scene or sequel. Think cause and effect, sentence-by-sentence, action to reaction, scene to scene, and you’ll never go wrong.
Don’t worry about sequels being passive unless the flow isn’t working. The protagonist does have a goal in a sequel: Come up with a new plan. *grin*
Just as with every other aspect of our writing, write tight. The sequel should be only as long as needed for the character to explore the consequences of the Disaster and reach a new Goal. That exploration can include all those foreshadowing, mood-enhancing, character development nuggets, however.
Make the sequel feel “immediate” by weaving in external actions. Remember the two-paragraph guideline? (I blogged about the how and the what of the guideline as well.) Avoid sequels with several paragraphs all in the character’s head. If the story has time for a long sequel, then it has time for the character to do something while they’re thinking and debating.
For those few instances of standalone sequels (these still follow a scene, but are separated in time and/or space, and thus have a blank line before them), use cliffhangers/hooks the same way we would at the end of any other scene. The nature of a sequel (internal thoughts and decisions) often leads to an Emotional Journey hook, but other types might fit as well.

To answer the question in this post’s title, yes, I think every scene (and sequel) needs a goal—in that the characters always need to be progressing toward something. Stories are about change. And if a scene (or sequel) is static, that’s when the pacing feels slow and the story seems dead.

However, as a pointed out in number 2 above, sometimes that forward progress might be as simple as a character knowing they need to come up with a new plan. They’re still striving toward something even as they’re reacting to what came before. And that struggle is what creates tension, keeps the story moving, and makes readers interested.

Have you studied Dwight’s scene and sequel or MRU concepts before? Do you agree they’re the same cause-and-effect idea on different scales? Do you think in terms of scene and sequel or in terms of cause and effect or something else? Do you struggle with sequels? Do you have any other tips to share on how to make sequels work?

Cliffhangers: Not Just for the End of a Book

Jami Gold — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:30:31 +0000

Pitches, queries, back cover copy, and full-length stories all have writing techniques in common. For one thing, they all need a strong opening. We talk about that being a “hook,” something that grabs the reader and pulls them forward to the next line, paragraph, and page.

A similar approach works within our stories too. We might employ hook lines to create a “dun dun dun” feeling during a scene. At the end of scenes and chapters, we often want to use a line similar to a hook to ensure the reader doesn’t use that scene or chapter break as an excuse to put down the book.

Anyone who’s beta read for me can attest that I use these cliffhanger-type lines at the end of many scenes and chapters. I enjoy being mean to my characters and that often translates into making the reader want to continue reading to see what happens next. *smile*

One of the workshops I attended at the Desert Dreams conference this past weekend was called Hooks and How to Use Them: From First to Last Word! by Terri Brisbin. She pointed out that hook lines at the end of scenes or chapters fulfill the same purpose as those at the beginning of a story:

“[It] leaves the reader wanting more—more information, more emotion, more of the story.”

However, just like in real life, being in constant crisis mode can be draining. Readers need a bit of breathing room too. The incomparable author/blogger Janice Hardy is full of good advice about how to use sequels to provide a quiet moment between big scenes.

On the other hand, we have to be careful not to release the tension too much. Terri’s workshop gave me some insight into how the lower-crisis moments of sequels, whether they’re a single line or a scene long, can still pack the punch of a hook to pull a reader forward.

Terri shared four main types of hooks:

Physical Journey: An action that propels the reader along the external plot.
Just then, a body tumbled down the stairs and stopped at her feet.

Emotional Journey: An emotional statement that propels the reader along the internal plot.
At his declaration, the wall around her heart crumbled a little more. Not again.

Reveal a Secret: A revelation that gets the reader’s mind turning with the consequences and new story possibilities.
“Luke … I am your father.” (*ahem* Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Introduce a Mystery: A revelation that creates more questions than it answers.
Caller ID displayed Rick’s number. But if Rick was on the other end of the phone, who was singing in the shower in the next room?

These hooks all maintain the tension in a story, but some cause a more immediate sense of crisis than others. By mixing up these types of hook lines at the end of our scenes and chapters, we can prevent the pacing and tension from being too “one note.”

The “Emotional Journey” approach works well with lower-crisis sequels while still maintaining tension by hinting at future issues or foreshadowing problems yet to come. Some “Introduce a Mystery” and “Reveal a Secret” lines need to be dealt with right away, and some play into overall story questions that add tension without requiring an immediate response.

If we use enough of these hook lines, we don’t need to plan chapter breaks in advance. Every 8-20 pages, I simply pick one of the good cliffhanger lines and insert a chapter break. By rotating through the types of hooks, we ensure our chapter breaks don’t give readers an excuse to put our book down.

These same types of hook lines work for the end of our query letter, pitch, or back cover copy. Again, the purpose of “leaving the reader wanting more” is the same. A reader who wants more after reading our paragraph or two will want to read the first page, where we’ll hook them into reading the scene, the chapter, and then the whole book.

Hooks kidnap readers and force them to experience our story, from beginning to end. And if we do our job, they’ll be hooked by our writing and will be eagerly awaiting our next book.

Do you end your scenes and chapters on hooks or cliffhangers? Do you mix and match the types of hooks you use? What hooks entice you the most? Do you plan chapter breaks in advance or use the “pick a hook” method?

What’s the Hardest “First Step” You’ve Taken?

Jami Gold — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:30:23 +0000

As I write this post (late) Monday night, I just returned home after the regional writing conference, Desert Dreams. I had a great time, met wonderful people, attended thought-provoking workshops, and pitched for the first time (and the second time and the third time).

I think the pitches went well. I got requests and I didn’t throw up on anyone. *smile* In fact, I wasn’t nervous in the slightest.

Let me put this into perspective. Last Thursday before the conference, I was a nervous wreck. Hyperventilating, shivering, feeling sick to my stomach, etc. I didn’t get any sleep Thursday night. None. Zero. Nada. Not even dozing off for 5 minutes in the middle of the night. (Great way to start a conference, right?)

Luckily, my family was there for me. Their support kept me from thinking about backing out. They even drove me to the conference to make sure I arrived.

And from the time I stepped out of the car at the entrance to the hotel/conference center, I was fine. No nerves or anything.

I was rather shocked at that extreme change. How could I go from “ready to throw up” nerves to being calm and confident that quickly?

As the conference was winding down, I shared this story with two new friends. One of them, Rose Meyer (and Rose, I apologize if I spelled your name wrong. I can’t find your card, did I get one? I’m so brain dead right now I barely know my name. Anyway…) said:

“You’d left the plane.”

She was referring to the stories the other woman, Melissa Borg, and I had shared about skydiving. We’d talked about how once you leave the plane, there’s no going back. After that step, there’s no point in being nervous. Gravity ensures that you’re just along for the ride.

The conference was a similar situation. Once I’d left my ride behind, I was stuck there, so I may as well go with the flow.

This was definitely a time when the anticipation was worse than the reality. I think that reaction happens to many of us. We build up stress and worry, and then we wonder why we suffered through all that when everything goes well.

Some of us might freak out at the thought of sharing our work with beta readers for the first time. Or sending a query letter to an agent. Or submitting a final draft to an editor. Etc., etc.

I think this is something that gets better with time and experience. I hope so anyway. I have my workshop with Rachel Graves to look forward to at RWA Nationals this July, and I hate to think of how worked up I’ll be before that. RWA Nationals is ten times as big as this regional conference was, and presenting to a roomful of people is different than pitching to a single person.

I’m pointing out to myself that I no longer stress about sending query letters (I still don’t like writing the darn things, but that’s a separate matter) or sharing my work with beta readers. I hope other new experiences will soon become “old hat” as well.

All I know is that when we’re first doing something new, that “first step” takes a lot of courage. We’re risking something different from what we’ve ever risked before. We might have to psych ourselves up with not only “I’ll be fine” thoughts, but also “this step will be worth it” cheers.

For me, this step of pitching for the first time was worth it. We can’t move forward and progress without risk. Yes, that first step can be a doozy, but we’ll often find that the rest of the problem isn’t as hard as we’d anticipated.

Do you struggle with “first steps”? Which ones have you fought to get past? How did you do it? Have you found it to get easier with time? If you’ve done an in-person pitch, what was your experience?

Photo credit: Janky

Tips for Writing Back Cover Copy — Guest: Roz Morris

Jami Gold — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:30:27 +0000

I’m excited to share today’s guest post by author Roz Morris. After ghostwriting many bestselling books, Roz recently self-published My Memories of a Future Life, her first novel under her own name.

Roz’s decision to self-publish came about partly because this novel doesn’t fit into normal genre boxes. However, even as a self-published author, she still had to write the back cover copy.

That’s right. Whether we query agents for traditional publishing or self-publish, we have to know how to summarize our book. I’ve mentioned many times that I suck at queries and pitching and all things related to this “boiling down the essence” process, so I asked Roz to walk us through her tips for how to write back cover copy for even the trickiest books.

*****

How to Write Back Cover Copy—No Matter How Difficult Our Book Is to Describe

Back cover copy. A brace of paragraphs—sometimes called the blurb—to woo potential readers. If you’re being published traditionally, you can kick back and be grateful you don’t have to write it. But if you’re self-publishing, welcome to a world of woe.

Some writers have the knack of summarizing their own work. Most of us don’t, though, and are further paralyzed because they’ve spent months eye to eye with every syllable. The ethersphere regularly resounds to the cries of blurbing tweeps and bloggers, chirping, where do I start? What do I leave out?

Tips for Writing Back Cover Copy for Genre Books

I had a right old nightmare writing mine, so here are my tips for getting it done.

1. Immerse yourself in other blurbs

Blurbs have their own language. Go on Amazon, Goodreads or your preferred emporium. Collect blurbs for novels that are like yours and soak up the way they sum up a novel in a brief sweep. Usually they mention the main character, what they want and what’s stopping them. Scroll down to reader reviews too, because sometimes these summarize as well, giving you another run at the same story.

2. Hit your genre’s marks

Genres are about reader expectations. Your blurb must reassure the reader the book has the tropes they like—so notice how these are deployed in the blurbs you read. For steampunk, historical, fantasy, the setting is part of the sizzle. For action thrillers it might be the gritty ex-forces hero. For crime procedural it’s the puzzle.

3. Use feedback from your editor and beta readers

You’ve probably been working with an editor. They won’t usually write your blurb, but their reports and emails are a useful outsider’s view of your book. Same with beta readers. Check back over correspondence to see if something they’ve said should go into your blurb. In particular, look at what makes your book fit in with the genre—and how it stands out.

Once you’re thinking in blurb language, have a stab at your own. You’ll probably need several goes, so after each draft read another batch of back covers like yours and refine. Bounce them off your beta readers if they’re willing.

Just because the blurb is short doesn’t mean it’s easy to write. It may well take a bit of to and fro—and anguished tweeting—to keep yourself sane. That paragraph has got a lot of heavy lifting to do.

The Difficulties of Summarizing Non-Genre Books

BUT… what if you’ve got a non-genre or difficult novel?

If genre is about expectations, in non-genre, anything goes. This causes you problems all over the place, from writing the book to selling it. And of course when writing cover copy.

I got myself in exquisite knots trying to blurb My Memories of a Future Life. It’s a hybrid of literary fiction with a splash of magic realism. Maybe. The other day someone argued for why it was contemporary women’s fiction. Whatever— writing it was tricky enough; blurbing it was murder.

Attempt to Write Back Cover Copy: Part One

Guided by sample blurbs, my first approach was to start with the opening events.

“Carol is a musician who may lose her career because of an injury. Her flatmate is miraculously cured of panic attacks when he is regressed to Victorian England and finds he was killed by Jack the Ripper. Carol gets drawn into a hypnotic journey to another life of her own.” etc etc When I read it to friends, they looked like they’d sat on live electrodes. Result!

Unfortunately, they made the wrong connection. These events are important, but Jack the Ripper is a minor appearance and there’s hardly any other Victoriana. Although it pushed their buttons, it pushed the wrong ones.

Lesson: Every word in a blurb sets up expectations. Use them with care.

My next approach was to describe the first scene, into which I had condensed the themes and the character’s problem in oblique style. “It opens with a scene of yoga rage,” I said to another group of (tolerant) friends. Again, they zapped to attention. Again, for the wrong reasons. The yoga scene was what I used to introduce the character—a situation of enforced stillness she is hating—but it was a detail and misleading when given such prominence. When they heard it in isolation, they were expecting chick-lit. It shortchanged the book as a whole.

Lesson: When blurbing, it’s easy to think of a great soundbite and then become attached to it. Yoga rage is right for the scene, but gives the wrong idea about the book. Just as we have to kill our darlings in the main text, we have to kill our darlings in the blurb too.

Blurbs also need to give a flavor of the book’s mood, and ‘yoga rage’ is totally at odds with that. The story is actually yearning and melancholy.

Attempt to Write Back Cover Copy: Part Two

By this time I thought I’d never have the blurb finished in time for the launch. But all these false starts were leading me to what I needed—as false starts do.

The mood had to be right. I needed to bring out another level underneath the events. I asked myself this: What was Carol’s real crisis? If she couldn’t play the piano, she didn’t belong in her life. Everywhere else she went, she felt like an outsider.

Now we were getting somewhere, and I used this the first time I wrote anything to try to describe the book. How do you find where you belong?

It’s just a logline and it’s not bad, but I was sure I could do better.

Because there was one big, remaining problem. Good blurbs have to hint how the book will live up to its title.

So far, nothing I’d got lived up to the title’s witchy, metaphysical razzmatazz. If you take nothing else away from this post, take this. You snare the reader with the title, so the blurb must go with it.

So I scribbled something about my narrator, what her crisis was and how the title fit in with it all. Meanwhile I had the book out with early reviewers, who helped me fine-tune the blurb here.

Tips for Writing Back Cover Copy for Non-Genre Books

So here are my top tips for blurbing:

Push the right buttons—don’t lead the reader astray by a minor detail or a darling soundbite
Make sure your blurb communicates the mood of the book—is it gritty, wisecracking, gentle, melancholy?
Don’t forget your title does some of the work—make sure blurb and title fit together

Most of all, though, enjoy it. We’re all story lovers at heart. Blurb writing is still storytelling, gift-wrapping your book for new readers. Once you get the style in your head, it’s a lot of fun.

*****

Roz Morris is a bestselling ghostwriter and book doctor. She blogs and has a double life on Twitter; for writing advice follow her as @dirtywhitecandy, for more normal chit-chat try her on @ByRozMorris.

Her books are Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books And How You Can Draft, Fix and Finish With Confidence, available in print and on Kindle.

Her novel My Memories of a Future Life is available on Kindle (US and UK) and also in print. You can also listen to or download a free audio of the first 4 chapters.

*****

Thanks for the great post, Roz! Read what she says here again: “[L]ook at what makes your book fit in with the genre—and how it stands out.” I think that’s the key for genre books.

With non-genre or difficult books, we can’t use genre tropes as shorthand to set up reader expectations. Instead, the words in our pitches, queries, and back cover copy must work harder to convey the mood and type of story it is and establish those expectations from scratch. And we have to make sure we’re establishing the right expectations, as Roz pointed out here, “When blurbing, it’s easy to think of a great soundbite and then become attached to it.” In addition, our words must also give enough insight into the plot and emotional journey of the story to entice readers.

It’s a tricky balance to be sure, and I haven’t found it with my stories yet. *sigh* But wish me luck because I’m trying to get a pitch ready this week. Here’s hoping this post gives us all some new ideas about how to approach the challenge.

Do you have any questions for Roz? Do you have any books that fall outside the typical expectations for a genre? Do you struggle with boiling down the essence of your books? Which piece is hardest for you—genre or story type, tone, or plot or journey details (or all of the above!)? If you’ve tested your copy to see if it sets up the right expectations, how well did it match up? Do you have any other tips to share?

Why Does Feedback Hurt So Much?

Jami Gold — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:30:51 +0000

Several people I know are going through revisions right now based on feedback they received from beta readers, agents, or editors. Every one of them is dealing with the “I suck” issue along with that.

Yes, sometimes feedback can be a bit too mean or blunt, but that’s not the problem here. No matter how kind or helpful the comments are, we still feel like crap when faced with the fact that our writing needs work.

How Do We Know When Our Work Is Ready to Share?

Whether we’re perfectionists or not, we’re usually not going to send our writing into the world until we think it’s near perfect. ”Near perfect”? How do we know where that line is?

We rely on our instincts to judge whether something is working or not, and we rely on our skills to fix what we find. So we send something out when our instincts tell us it’s near perfect, and when our skills make it the best we can.

What Feedback Really Tells Us

And then what happens? We get feedback pointing out how this part doesn’t flow and that character is unlikable. We get comments about how we need to deepen the emotions in this scene and raise the stakes in that scene.

In short, feedback tells us our instincts were wrong.

Whoa… Think about that for a minute. (And let’s ignore grammatical flubs that come from a lack of knowledge.) For deep analysis of the quality of our writing—the characters, plotting, and emotions—our instincts are the one and only tool we have for judging our own work.

When we get feedback that our one and only tool—that tool that told us we were ready to share our work because it was “near perfect”—was wrong, we’re going to react in an understandable way. *cue panic, self-doubt, and “I suck”itude*

The Self-Doubt Monster

We wail, how can I ever know if my writing is any good if I can’t trust my instincts? How can I trust myself to know how to fix these issues? Sure, I think it’s better now, but I was wrong before. What if I’m making it worse? I might not even be able to tell because my instincts are Just. So. Worthless.

This is the source of our self-doubt. What can we trust if we can’t trust ourselves? We might struggle to write, edit, or revise anything because we can’t trust that our changes are actually fixing things. And how can we ever submit anything if our internal “near perfect” grade is delusional?

Every time we get feedback going beyond cut-and-dry skills like grammar usage, we will struggle with self-doubt. We will feel like failures on some level.

Feedback comments like that hit us with “I was wrong” messages on two fronts at once, the writing itself and our judgment of the quality of that writing. Again, think about that. Deep feedback makes us doubt both our muse (the subconscious source of our writing) and our self-editor (the conscious judge of our work). A double dose of doubt—just what we need. Not.

How to Beat the Monster

For some of us, a major draw of traditional publishing is getting external validation, because we don’t trust our internal judgment at all. I understand that reason, but I also find it sad. Traditional publishing can be a great thing for some authors, but putting our sense of self-worth into the hands of others isn’t healthy.

Self-doubt can be debilitating and paralyzing. Sometimes, we don’t want to move forward because we’re afraid we’ll make it worse and be too blind to realize it. Or we’re afraid of wasting time with edits that don’t help. Or we’re afraid to try again with a submission when our judgment is crap. In short, we’re afraid of ourselves.

Writing is a risk. We’re constantly taking the risk of wasting time, being rejected, and being told that we’re not as good as we think we are.

There’s only one healthy way through that self-doubt, and it doesn’t come from external validation. We must accept the risk and ignore the fear.

Maybe that means we say, “So what?” So what if we waste time? So what if we need to have another round of edits because this one didn’t fix it? So what if we get a rejection? None of those things are the end of the world unless we let them drive us to quit.

We have control over the self-doubt monster. We choose whether we allow negativity to take over, our fears to hold us back, or the risks to paralyze us.

Yes, learning that we’re a terrible judge of our own work sucks, but it does get better. We learn more about characterization, plotting and pacing techniques, and emotional triggers so we’ll have less of those issues in the future. We learn about our weaknesses and work on them.

The gap between our judgment and the reality does narrow with experience. But we’ll get there only if we beat back the monster and keep moving forward.

Do you feel self-doubt after receiving feedback? If the comments are “kind,” do you still feel it? How do you deal with self-doubt? Do you have techniques for making your internal judgment more objective? When is “pushing through the fear” harder? Easier?

What Does “Writing Is Subjective” Mean?

Jami Gold — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:30:22 +0000

If you’ve sent out queries, you’ve probably received rejections. They usually say things along the line of:

“This is just my opinion and others may feel differently.”

“Just because I wasn’t drawn in doesn’t mean others won’t love it.”

“Publishing is a subjective business and another agent would be better suited to your work.”

We can’t fault those who send those rejections like that. Writing is subjective.

Heck, most things in life are subjective. Some people like the outfits from the New York fashion shows, but others think they look like something an alien would wear. Some people will think the guy in the picture of this post is hot, and others will think he looks like a douchebag.

We’re individuals. We have different tastes, likes, dislikes, trigger points, etc.

Characters? Real People? We’re All Unique

As I pointed out before, one character wouldn’t react to plot events the same way as another character. (And we know real people aren’t less nuanced than characters!) So it’s normal for people to react differently to the same input.

That truth was brought home to me (again) by the fantastic comments in my last post about what stories we won’t write. The answers focused on many different aspects of writing: character traits, plot events, genres, profanity, sexual situations, and moral issues.

In other words, stories that some of us would love, others of us would hate. Things that set some of us off are no big deal to others.

We each have to decide for ourselves what we want to write—what we want to have our name attached to. We might make decisions based on our brand or our moral code, but only we can decide what’s best for us.

As I mentioned in the comments of the last post, I don’t swear in real life, so I don’t use profanity in my stories unless necessary. That means some of my stories have no swear words and some have quite a bit. The same goes with sexual situations. Some of my stories have just a kiss and some have very spicy scenes. I listen to my muse and my characters to figure out what’s called for by each character and story.

Others will have different boundaries and make different decisions. None of us is “wrong.” Taste in all things is subjective.

Having Different Opinions Isn’t “Wrong”

Differences of opinions come up all the time in book reviews. The same book can receive multiple five star and one star reviews. Even classics suffer from this fate, so it’s not just an issue of an author’s friends or enemies playing the system.

We’ve probably experienced this ourselves. People will tell us we have to read or watch a certain popular book/movie/TV show, and then we do…and we hate it.

That doesn’t mean we’re wrong or our friends are wrong. We just like different things.

Similarly, the agents who reject us aren’t “right” or “wrong” either. Would we really want an agent who doesn’t love our work to represent us anyway?

“Past Performance Is Not Indicative of Future Potential”

Sarah Callender wrote about this issue on Writer Unboxed last week. She revealed that when her original agent left the business right before she was supposed to go on submission to editors, she elected to start the query process over rather than end up with a random colleague from the same agency.

The agents she queried couldn’t even agree on whether her story was YA or adult, much less whether or not they liked it. One loved the first half but not the second, while another one didn’t like the first half but thought the second half was great. (And this was about a manuscript her former agent deemed ready to go on submission!)

This concept is something we have to remind ourselves of constantly. Low scores on contests? Rejections from agents? Bad reviews? Repeat after me: “Not everyone will love our work.”

Low scores, rejections, and bad reviews aren’t indicative that everyone will feel the same way about our work. We can get low scores and high scores from judges in the same contest. We can get rejections in the same week we get offers. We can get one-star reviews and five-star reviews on the same book.

This is why we have to listen to our muse before blindly implementing changes from critique partners or beta readers. Only we can decide the kind of story we want to tell. If a suggestion will help us tell that story better, we should make the change. If a suggestion would take us further from that story, we shouldn’t implement it. That difference of opinion doesn’t make either of us wrong.

Just like how what we won’t write is subjective, the same goes for reading and enjoying books. And if we take a step back, we discover that life, how we view it and how we experience it, is all subjective as well. *smile*

Can you think of other examples for how writing is subjective? What about examples from outside of writing: fashion, movies, etc. (Do we dare mention how religious and political beliefs are subjective?) Have you received wide ranges of opinions about your work?

What Stories Won’t You Write?

Jami Gold — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:30:40 +0000

In my last post, we talked about voice and how we tend to write the same types of characters, premises, and themes over and over. That’s not a bad thing. Those stories resonate with us as writers.

Similarly, there are stories we would never write. Stories might be so against our internal grain that if an idea along those lines occurred to us, we’d immediately try to turn the concept around. Or the idea would be like a road to nowhere, and we’d dismiss the idea out of hand.

For example, if we’re drawn to strong heroines, we probably wouldn’t write a doormat type. If we enjoy rooting for the underdogs in stories, it’s doubtful an idea to make a bully into a hero would appeal to us. Or if we write about the power of love, our muse is unlikely to nag us to start a story where everyone dies miserable and alone.

Just as we can learn about ourselves as writers by studying what stories we tend to write, we can learn about ourselves by figuring out what we won’t write. Those limits might echo the stories we don’t enjoy reading, or plot points that squick us out, or situations against our moral code, and sometimes, a premise simply doesn’t appeal to us as a writer.

I’ve read countless stories with love triangles, but I’m unlikely to ever write a story with a straightforward triangle of two heroes and one heroine. In YA, where the young heroine often shouldn’t make long-term commitments, triangles can work. However, in adult stories, the heroine comes off in too many love triangles as flighty or unable to make up her mind.

Even worse for me are the triangles where a heroine faces off with another woman for the hero’s affection. I can’t stand reading stories where there’s a feeling of competition between the heroine and any other woman. Can. Not. Stand. Them. So writing them? No, the chances of me writing a story along those lines are nil and none.

By analyzing my “won’t write” boundaries, I learned I have no interest in writing jealousy. Part of the reason for that has to do with my genre. I write paranormal romances and paranormal stories with romantic elements. The hero and heroine are supposed to be perfect for each other, and that doesn’t leave much room for a third party. Jealousy is angsty, not sexy or romantic.

The other part of the reason has to do with my personal reaction to jealousy. I hate experiencing such an ugly emotion. (Yes, I realize the irony of describing my reaction to one negative emotion by embracing “hatred,” another negative emotion.) So I avoid jealousy at all costs in my life. The last thing I want to do is explore that emotion for a story.

Sometimes, the things we won’t write can become as much a part of our brand as the things we do write (think about inspirational romance authors). Readers grow to trust us for our boundaries. That means if they see an “iffy” element in a back cover description, they might trust that we’ll handle it with intelligence and sensitivity, because they know we wouldn’t write about it any other way.

This goes back to my post about not exploiting our brand in a bad way. We should recognize what makes up our brand, both in what we do and in what we don’t do. If we don’t want to lose readers, we have to honor our brand. We can change the limits of our writing (look at Anne Rice’s many reinventions), but there are risks.

One thing I try to point out with all my posts about branding is to be aware of the impression we create. If we’re aware of the messages we’re sending, we can ensure they match what we want others to think about those intangible confines of our work. And if others want to limit us too much, that doesn’t mean we can’t branch out, but maybe it means we have to tweak our message to broaden others’ impression of us.

Are there stories you won’t write? Why won’t you write them? Do you avoid reading stories along those lines as well? Can you think of any authors where you know their boundaries? Have you ever lost trust in an author because they broke the limits you thought they had?

Do Your Stories Match Your Voice?

Jami Gold — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:30:18 +0000

I’ve been having a great conversation with Serena Yung in the comments of one of my posts about voice from a few weeks ago, so voice has been on my mind again this week. When I found a fantastic article by author Julie Leto about voice and how it relates to our writing, I knew I had to blog about it.

Julie shares a quote by Laura Backes of the Children’s Book Insider that I love:

“The voice is what beckons the reader to curl up with a book and whispers, ‘Pay attention. I’m going to tell you a story.’”

“I’m going to tell you a story.” That concept goes along with my other favorite voice concept by Janice Hardy:

“[V]oice is that sense there’s a person behind the words.”

I’m going to tell you a story. There’s a person behind the words. Voice is intimacy. Voice is what invites readers to join the characters in their journey.

What Goes into Our Voice?

How do we invite readers to come closer? Many people have tried to identify what goes into creating our voice, but it’s a hard thing to define. We often just know it when we see it.

In her article, Julie shares what she sees as the five most important elements of voice:

Description:

How much do we use? How many senses do we evoke? What tone do we take when we write? The importance of description to us as authors and how we use it comes down to the types of stories we innately want to tell.

Character:

What types of characters do we gravitate toward while we’re writing? Some of us write stronger alpha males than others, some write snarkier women. The common threads between our characters—from one heroine to another or one hero to another—give insight into our voice. This doesn’t mean we can’t create characters who aren’t a good match for our voice, but they might be harder to write.

Style:

What are our writing habits? Do we end scenes or chapters on cliffhangers? Do we write with a lyrical quality or are our sentence more choppy? The words we use and how we break up sentences, paragraphs, and chapters all act as one ingredient of our voice.

Plot:

Do we write beat-driven plots where readers sense when big events occur? Or do we write plots where one event blends into the next? What kind of villains or secondary characters do we write, and what kind of conflict do they create?

Premise and Theme:

What’s the big picture and/or theme of our stories? Writers typically revisit similar themes over and over. At the high level, we might also write stories with similar premises. Heroines who discover how special they are. Heroes who must fight to get what they want.

Did you notice what all those things have in common? We find the commonalities we tend to gravitate toward after the fact—after we have multiple stories to compare.

Gaining a Voice Takes Lots of Practice

In other words, we have to practice writing a lot before we become good at recognizing what makes our writing ours alone and what makes our voice unique. I didn’t recognize my voice until I started my third story. Julie said it took her the same number of manuscripts.

She also points out that we can’t explore any of those elements with our voice until we have the craft down. If we’re still struggling with plot structure, our unique approach to plotting won’t be as clear. If we’re still head-hopping, the point-of-view of our characters won’t be deep enough to show who they really are. Same with the other elements.

We Have a Voice, Now What?

Let’s say we’ve written enough that we have a clear idea of what makes our voice unique, what do we do with that knowledge?

When we know the idiosyncrasies of our voice, we know what types of stories are a good match for us. Maybe we’re writing YA stories but our voice would work well in adult fiction. Maybe comedy would be a better match than suspense. Or maybe our plotting approach would fit novellas more than novels.

In other words, once we know our strengths, we can play to them. Julie calls this writing “a book of our voice” rather than chasing “the book of our heart.” We can discover the types of stories we truly love to write. And in many cases, those stories will be easier to write than if we fight our natural tendencies.

This knowledge might help us decide between multiple shiny projects. Does one story idea fit our voice better than the other? If so, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t write the other one, but we’ll be aware upfront that we might find it more difficult.

Also, the more we know our voice, the more we’ll be able to resist misguided suggestions from others. One of my beta readers struggled with her editor because she tends to write dark stories and her editor wanted her to make a story fluffier and happier. She’d have been miserable if she tried to fit that box. Knowing the stories that fit her helps her know when to say “no.”

Know Thyself and Others Will Too

We’ve all heard how we should write multiple stories rather than editing the same one over and over. That advice isn’t just about making sure we’re moving forward.

Writing new stories with new characters and new plots and new premises all works together to help us find the commonalities in our writing. Those commonalities inform our voice, the stories we like to write, and the stories that might be easier to write.

Interestingly enough, being aware of those commonalities can also help us create our brand. Readers would know that we’ll give them a story with X kind of characters, Y kind of style, or Z kind of plot. (“Ooo, she writes the best tortured heroes.”) And readers who know what to expect from our writing—even if we switch genres—might become fans of us rather than just readers of our books.

How well do you know your voice? Can you describe it in regards to those five elements? If you’ve written multiple stories, how many did it take for you to have a clear idea of your voice? What do you think of the “book of our voice” idea? Did you gain any other insights from Julie’s article?

Are You Missing Blog Readers?

Jami Gold — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:30:38 +0000

Now that the dust has settled from the disappearance of Google Friend Connect (GFC) from all non-Blogger blogs, I thought I’d post a followup examining how much the discontinuation affected people.

Those of us who never had the GFC widget on our blogs weren’t affected at all. Same goes for those who have Blogger blogs and still have GFC (for the moment).

But many bloggers had used the GFC widget. At the very least, we might have fewer readers now. Or our newsletter subscribers might be gone.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I fell at the low end of GFC integration. I had the GFC widget on my blog, but I never promoted it for more followers. Regardless of that fact, the loss of GFC affected me. Did it affect you the same way? Let’s take a look.

No Google Friend Connect = Fewer Feed Readers?

I use Feedburner for my RSS feed, and I’d assumed Feedburner reflected only those readers who had subscribed to my blog via RSS. Wrong. Both GFC and Feedburner are Google products, so of course they’d been integrated beyond what I knew.

What this means is that people who had signed in to my GFC widget also counted toward my Feedburner subscriber total. Most of those users didn’t see the blogs they signed into via GFC in their Google Reader, but the GFC/Blogger Dashboard has a mini-feedreader built in.

I didn’t know my Feedburner numbers also included GFC followers and wasn’t just RSS subscribers. Silly me. While two-thirds of my GFC followers had also subscribed to my RSS feed, about one-third had not. How do I know?

Here’s the graphic for my all-time Feedburner stats:

The green line shows my subscriber number increasing—until the blue arrow points out March 1st, the date GFC disappeared for all non-Blogger blogs. That dip represents the number of people who had followed me via GFC but not RSS subscription.

Luckily, I don’t care about numbers, or else the sudden disappearance of a bunch of “readers” would have depressed me. *smile* I know the reality is many people joined sites via GFC and then never visited again.

My only concern about the missing one-third of GFC followers is that some of them were reading my blog in their Blogger Dashboard. All of a sudden, my blog disappeared from their “Blogs I’m Following” list (from what I can tell), and I don’t expect any of them were devoted enough to my blog to notice it isn’t there anymore. (Heck, I wouldn’t notice if Twitter accidentally unfollowed one of my BFFs.) We don’t notice things that are missing. We just don’t.

Those who wanted to follow my blog might eventually find their way back through a Twitter link or something. And maybe they’ll realize they haven’t seen my recent posts in their Dashboard. And maybe they’ll figure it out and subscribe to my RSS feed. Or maybe they won’t.

Life is too short to worry about such things, but from a curiosity perspective, I wondered if I was the only one who saw this dip in feed readers. So let’s compare notes.

If you had followed me via GFC, do you still see my blog in your Blogger Dashboard list, or has it disappeared?
If you had GFC on your blog (and no longer do), have you noticed an ongoing traffic decrease as of March 1st?
If you had GFC and Feedburner, do your all-time stats show a dip like in my graphic above?
Have you noticed any other effects from the GFC disappearance?

We can’t do anything to fix the situation, but maybe by comparing notes, we can help each other feel better about those “missing” readers. *smile*

Ask Jami: How Do We Find Beta Readers?

Jami Gold — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 12:30:49 +0000

My post about combining comments from multiple beta readers in MS Word brought up a great question. How do we get beta readers?

In the comments, Amanda Byrne asked, “[A]ny hints on how you can scare up more beta readers? … [O]nly one of them gets back to me in a timely manner.”

Then Aldrea Alien pointed out, “I don’t wanna give someone my work and find I’ve not the time, or the skill, to properly reciprocate.”

These comments bring up multiple issues, and I’ll do my best to address each one.

What Does a Beta Reader Do?

The first thing to recognize is that just about anyone can be a beta reader. Our mom. Our neighbor. A random Twitter follower. Unlike a critique partner, who might comment on grammar and whatnot, a beta reader gives high-level feedback.

Can our mom be honest and point out confusing sentences or plot events? Where her attention wavers? Whether she finds the characters likable or sympathetic? If so, she’d make a fine beta reader.

Next question is to ask ourselves if we can answer yes to those same questions. If so, we’re qualified to be a beta reader as well.

For example, the last time I sent out a manuscript for beta reading, this is what I asked people to mark:

Anything that takes you out of the story (confusing wording, voice/characterization seems off, too repetitive, no conflict/tension, etc.).
Pacing issues (too slow, feels too “one note,” not enough of an arc, scene goes on too long, etc.).
Emotional feedback (I’d love to see stream-of-consciousness emotional reactions when you notice them/think of adding them).

That’s it. Beta reading is not about the reader’s knowledge of the craft of writing, but about what works and doesn’t work for them as a reader.

We shouldn’t discount our ability to provide useful feedback because we’re not perfect writers ourselves yet. I can’t write a query letter to save my life, but I can still point out if someone’s query letter mentions too many characters by name, has a confusing-sounding plot, or reads flat.

Here, Beta Reader, Come Out Wherever You Are

Now that we’ve addressed why we shouldn’t think we’re “not skilled enough” to beta read for someone else, my advice to Amanda in the comments of the last post might make more sense.

“I think the key is to be a good beta reader yourself and then offer to help others with their work. If they find your comments helpful, you can usually work out a beta buddy exchange arrangement.”

It’s that simple and that hard. We offer our services to others. I’m always looking for readers with fresh eyes to check a reworked project. Probably many other writers are the same way. We welcome offers of beta reading.

This advice assumes we’re targeting other writers as beta readers, but I didn’t start off that way. My first readers were family members. I then “graduated” to one critique partner I met through the comments of an editing blog we both visited, and we gave each other line-by-line feedback. After I was experienced enough to take high-level comments and figure out what I needed to do to fix the issue, I switched over to using beta readers.

I met one at a conference, I offered to read for another because I love her blog and her writing, I answered a call for readers on Twitter for another, etc. If we’re being social on blogs or other social media, we’ll meet people we “click” with. Offer to read for them.

Are We Ready to Give as Well as We Get?

Why do I use mostly writers even though I pointed out above that non-writers can provide helpful feedback too? Professionalism.

Most non-writers don’t understand our deadlines, whether those are self-driven, contest deadlines, or an agent request. Non-writers are more likely to blow off the seriousness of our statement, “I’d like to have all feedback returned to me by such-and-such date.”

Even other writers might not take our deadlines seriously. Some of us are more professionally oriented than others. That’s not a bad thing.

The trick is finding people who match our level. The second trick is making sure we hold up our end of the bargain. We can’t expect professionalism from a beta buddy if we’re not willing to do the same.

Yes, that means sometimes we have to make their writing a priority over ours. If we promised them feedback by a certain date—and we want them to keep their promises to us—we have to be willing to put our work on the back burner and read theirs instead. If we want to get deep, helpful comments from them, we have to spend the time to give them the same.

Are They a Good Match?

Some writers might not know what it means to be a good beta reader, but will learn if they have it modeled for them. We should give others the style of feedback we’d like to receive.

To avoid burning a bunch of time on someone who might not be a good match, we can offer to give feedback on a query letter, synopsis, a short story, or the first chapter of their novel. See how they react to our feedback. Are they defensive, or do they blow it off? If so, we’ll keep looking for a better match.

If they seem appreciative and seem to “get” our feedback, we can ask them to check something small for us. Are their comments helpful and insightful? Are we able to take their style of comments (the harsh and honest factor)?

Yes, there is a give and take aspect to being beta buddies with others. We can’t ask others to spend time giving us feedback if we’re not willing to do the same. But I usually learn something new when I’m helping others, so I find that I win both when reading for someone else and when getting comments from readers.

Have you offered to beta read for others? Do you think you’re a good beta reader, or could you use more pointers? What drives you crazy when others read for you (they never get back to you, etc.)? Have you used writers or non-writers so far?

MS Word Trick: Combining Changes and Comments

Jami Gold — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 12:30:08 +0000

We all have weaknesses. Some people want to deny their imperfections, but most of us do what we can to overcome them.

Like many writers, one of my weaknesses is my inability to interpret my words the way a reader does. That’s not unusual. We know what we meant to say, so it’s easy to overlook how our word choice or sentence structure might lead to misperceptions or confusion in others.

I try to overcome that issue by using multiple beta readers. Each of my beta readers finds different things in my work, so their group effort gives me more information than I get from looking at their feedback separately. Just as a group of bees can turn nectar into honey, my beta readers’ notes together provide deep insights into the story and characters beyond their surface comments. (Yes, I love my beta readers, can you tell? *smile*)

Overwhelmed by Comments from Beta Readers?

On my latest work-in-progress (WIP), they gave me a total of about 1000 comments. Believe it or not, that didn’t send me off crying in the corner, because I genuinely love getting feedback that will make my work better. However, having multiple beta readers means I have to juggle several MS Word documents to see all their comments at once.

My solution? The MS Word “Combine” function. Cheryl Reif’s recent post about MS Word tips and tricks reminded me that I hadn’t shared this technique on my blog yet.

Where to Find the Combine Function in MS Word

All my beta readers use “Track Changes” and “Comments” within MS Word. These settings can be found under the “Review” menu.

Some of you might be familiar with the “Compare” function within MS Word, which is also under the Review menu. This function is an easy way to compare one version of a document with another. See tip number seven on Cheryl’s post for more about Compare.

The Combine function is related to the Compare function. In fact, Combine is found under Compare in the Review menu.

How the Combine Function Helps Us Dig Deeper

So what can we do with the Combine function? We can collate all the comments and changes from our beta readers into one document.

Now, instead of clicking between multiple feedback documents, I have just one document where I can see every tracked change, every highlight, and every comment from all my beta readers. In addition, I can easily see if one section gets comments from multiple readers.

If two or more readers come back with a note about how they’re confused by a sentence or paragraph, we know we have a problem. If two or more readers make comments about the pacing of a section, we know we have work to do. This organization makes it easier to judge what changes should be made.

How to Use the Combine Function

The trickiest part is that combining all these documents requires several steps. The Combine function lets us combine two documents at once, so we have to go through the process multiple times, once for each beta reader to integrate their changes into a master copy.

1. From the Review menu, go into Compare, and then select Combine. This will bring up the Combine dialog box.

2. Under Original Document, select Browse, and find the original document you sent to your beta readers. (The emails you sent to your beta readers would have this version if you didn’t keep it.)

3. Under Revised Document, select Browse, and find the first beta feedback document.

4. If you want MS Word to pick up highlighting in addition to tracked changes and comments, make sure Formatting is checked (under the More>> button).

5. Under Show Changes, select New Document to specify how to combine them.

6. Then click “OK.”

7. MS Word will create a new document showing all the changes. Use “Save As” to save this new document as something like “Combined Beta Notes.”

8. Select Combine again, this time use “Combined Beta Notes” as your Original Document (i.e., the document you just made that has the changes from the first beta reader).

9. Pick the next beta reader’s document for the Revised Document selection.

10. Make sure Formatting is still checked, and this time, under Show Changes, select Original Document.

11. Click “OK.”

12. Save it under the same name. Now this document is the original plus the changes from the first two beta readers.

Repeat steps 8 through 12 as needed to combine the notes from all beta readers, saving it under the same name each time. Once all beta reader changes and comments have been saved to the “Combined Beta Notes” document, we can easily get through all the necessary editing in one pass. I usually “Reject” each comment or change after I make the edits in my master WIP document so I can see what issues I have left to address.

Multiple Beta Readers Allow Us to See Deeper

Because of this technique, I can see where my beta readers agree, pointing out where I definitely need to address an issue. In the example I inserted above, two of my readers thought the heroine’s emotions swung too quickly in a scene. Since I knew what my heroine was thinking, I might have ignored the comment if just one of my beta readers had said something. However, the presence of two comments tells me not to ignore it.

After digging deeper, I found a few words a couple of paragraphs earlier that probably led my readers to think she was more pissed than she really was. Oops. *blush* I never would have realized the perception I’d accidentally created without this method for combining my readers’ comments.

Other times, we might get comments with opposite feedback. In that case, we have to figure out whether it’s a confusion issue (and we have to make our meaning clearer), a perception issue (and we have to tweak our word choice), or something else. Sometimes our beta readers want a story to go one way and we’ve made it go a different way. When that happens, maybe we need to “sell” our version of the story better to get readers to buy into it more fully.

No matter how we use beta readers, if we have multiple readers with multiple feedback documents, we’ll have a clearer picture of their perceptions if we can see all their comments at once. The Combine function makes this easy.

Do you use multiple beta readers? What benefits do you see in having multiple beta readers? What negatives do you see? Have you ever used the Combine function before? Will this help you organize your editing? Do you have any other tips to share?

P.S. In case you missed it, I posted an April Fool’s Day surprise on Sunday. My Tech Guy made a special appearance as Sméagol from Lord of the Rings reading The Hunger Games. Enjoy!

Photo credit: Luriete

Smeagol Presents: The Hunger Games

Jami Gold — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:30:20 +0000

In honor of April 1st—otherwise known as April Fool’s Day—I have a silly treat for you. Many of you know my Tech Guy, as he’s not only an awesome Jedi Master of everything computer, but he’s also a beta reader extraordinaire and all-around goofball.

Recently, I uncovered yet another one of his talents: voices. In particular, he does a good imitation of Sméagol/Gollum from Lord of the Rings. He made the mistake of sharing a story with me about how he started reading his daughter’s copy of Harry Potter in the Sméagol voice and an idea was born.

With the recent release of The Hunger Games movie, we decided to use that book for his debut reading here at my blog. I’m pleased to present my Tech Guy, appearing as Sméagol, reading an excerpt from The Hunger Games:

(Direct link to Smeagol Presents: The Hunger Games)

“The mayor reads the list of past District 12 victors. In seventy-four years, we have had exactly two. Only one is still alive. Haymitch Abernathy, a paunchy, middle-aged man staggers onto the stage. He’s drunk. Very. He tries to give Effie Trinket a big hug, which she barely manages to fend off.

The mayor looks distressed. He quickly tries to pull the attention back to the reaping by introducing Effie Trinket.

Bright and bubbly as ever, Effie Trinket trots to the podium and gives her signature, ”Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!” Her pink hair must be a wig because her curls have shifted slightly off-center.

Through the crowd, I spot Gale looking back at me with a ghost of a smile. As reapings go, this one at least has a slight entertainment factor. But suddenly I am thinking of Gale and his forty-two names in that big glass ball and how the odds are not in his favor. And maybe he’s thinking the same thing about me because his face darkens and he turns away.

It’s time for the drawing. Effie Trinket says as she always does, “Ladies first!” She reaches in and pulls out a slip of paper. The crowd draws in a collective breath and then you can hear a pin drop, and I’m feeling nauseous and so desperately hoping that it’s not me, that it’s not me, that it’s not me.

Effie Trinket smoothes the slip of paper, and reads out the name in a clear voice. And it’s not me. It’s Primrose Everdeen.”
[Note: Text has been abridged for length.]

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

How do you think he did? Pretty good, right? I wonder how many more of these I can wrangle him into making for us. *smile*

Exploiting Our Brand: Is There a “Right” Way?

Jami Gold — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:30:42 +0000

Our brand is the impression others have of us. So we all have a brand, whether we know it or not. Hopefully, we’re building a brand that reflects who we really are, in a way that shows us at our best (however we each define “best”).

Once we have a brand, we might wonder what we can do with it. Can we use it to gain readers or make sales? Or will using our brand for marketing “tarnish” our brand? I think the answers there are “yes” and “maybe.”

After all our time spent on blogging, social media, and networking, we understandably want to get something back, a return on our investment. But we also don’t want to throw away all that work by ruining our brand with a marketing misstep. We have to balance a tightrope to exploit in a positive way.

Everywhere I look lately, I’ve seen the bad kind of brand exploitation. First, we have the Fifty Shades of Grey books, which exploited the Twilight fandom. Then we have the new 21 Jump Street movie, which is nothing like the old TV show. And just this week, I was struck speechless by the trailer for the new Dark Shadows movie.

My first thought: I love Tim Burton’s work. Nightmare Before Christmas is one of my all-time favorite movies. And Tim Burton and Johnny Depp together make magic.

My second thought: The trailer was amusing and the story looks interesting.

My third and overriding thought: But this isn’t Dark Shadows!

The 1966 TV show Dark Shadows was a classic gothic genre story. As described in the Beginning Writer’s Answer Book by Jane Friedman:

“[G]othic novels are characterized by atmospheric, historical settings and feature young, beautiful women who win the favor of handsome, brooding heroes—simultaneously dealing successfully with some life-threatening menace, either natural or supernatural. Gothics rely on mystery, peril, romantic relationships, and a sense of foreboding for their strong, emotional effect on the reader.”

Think Wuthering Heights. Many of the old episodes of Dark Shadows are on YouTube. Watch the first minute or two of the Dark Shadows recap, and you’ll see the hallmarks of the gothic genre.

YouTube: Dark Shadows Recap

Atmospheric? Check. Mystery? Check. Foreboding? Check. And although it’s not obvious from the first few minutes, we have vampire Barnabas Collins to provide the brooding hero. Supernatural menace? Check and check. Listen to the opening theme music at the :50 minute mark. Perfect for the genre.

The reruns of this show captured my attention as a child and probably helped start me down the path of writing paranormal stories. Sure, it looks a bit campy to us now, but that’s a function of the show being made before many of us were born, not because of any inherent intention to be campy.

Now compare that to the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp Dark Shadows movie trailer. Watch at least up to the 1:10 minute mark to see the tone difference.

YouTube: Dark Shadows Trailer (Tim Burton)

The premise of the new movie looks to use the idea of vampirism to play with a comedic fish-out-of-water, time-travel story, with a witch thrown in for bonus conflict. That’s a great story idea. But other than the character name of Barnabas Collins, this movie has nothing to do with the 1966 TV show Dark Shadows.

That’s when it hit me. Some of these recent reboots are “professional” grade, alternate universe, alternate history fan fiction. They use the character names or the core idea and nothing else, and yet keep the original brand name.

Why call it Dark Shadows when it’s not? Why call it 21 Jump Street when it’s not? Heck, why is Michael Bay calling his reboot movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles if his version of the characters is rumored to be aliens and not mutants at all?

Because Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles doesn’t have a brand following.

And that’s what this comes down to, people exploiting the brand following of one thing, whether that be Twilight or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to gain attention for something completely different.

Normally, authors don’t have a problem with fan fiction because no money changes hands. At best, fan fiction honors the original source material. At worst, non-profit fan fiction exploits the original brand for attention. But now, everywhere we turn, we’re seeing exploitation of brands for money.

Not all reboots (or fan fiction) are bad. The latest Star Trek reboot made an old brand feel fresh and relevant while honoring the original idea that made it popular to begin with.

Honoring the original idea—that’s the kicker. That’s what makes these other attempts to cash in on a brand name feel icky to some. People grow very attached to their impressions of some brands, and dishonoring their perception of the original brand risks alienating those same people.

Brands—people’s impressions—are tricky things. We mess with them at our own risk.

Didn’t The Powers That Be learn anything from New Coke or George Lucas’s debacle with “Han shot first“? Rule number one in marketing should be: Don’t alienate people, especially not your target market.

Now I’ll probably go see the Dark Shadows movie, but I’ll have to keep the two impressions separate. If done well, people will go through the effort to maintain two different “brand boxes” in their mind. The original Batman TV show and the various movie reboots fall into this category for me. But asking people to wait before passing judgment isn’t something that most of us can get away with for our own brands.

So as we experiment with how to use our networks for marketing and sales purposes, we must always keep an eye on honoring the brand we have. We shouldn’t suddenly become someone different just because we’re trying to make sales. On social media, we have to maintain our normal socializing habits while adding a few marketing mentions. We should remain us, our brand, who we are inside, with just a touch of sales.

Don’t become an example of brand exploitation gone bad. Be the Star Trek reboot, honoring why people like us. Then they’ll be more likely to stick around to hear our message.

Can you think of other examples where brands were exploited simply to cash in? What about examples of brand exploitation done right? Do you think our acceptance of reboots depends on how big of fans we are of the original? Do you see parallels between these reboots and fan fiction? Do you have tips for how to maintain the brand vs. marketing balance?

How Do You Handle Disappointments?

Jami Gold — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:30:15 +0000

Over a thousand writers stared at their phones yesterday, willing them to ring. Only around 150 of them received the call they were waiting for. Yesterday the Romance Writers of America (RWA) announced the Golden Heart and RITA finalists.

One of the largest writing organizations in the world released the names of the finalists for their biggest contests in the most successful genre of book publishing. That’s a lot of superlatives.

The atmosphere on Twitter for those following the hashtags was a combination of stress and party. Noelle Pierce summed up the situation:

“The romance world is aflurry, as #RWA announces the #RITA and #GoldenHeart finalists. This is like Oscar nomination day. Only with books.”

All the writers knew it was a long shot, especially for those entering the hyper-competitive categories. But still… They hoped.

They hoped for the same reason we might buy a lottery ticket. Sure, the chances of winning the lottery are minuscule, but we still hope it’ll happen to us. If we didn’t have that hope, we wouldn’t buy that ticket. Similarly, writers wouldn’t enter these two contests, which don’t give feedback, if they didn’t hope to win.

The writers probably tried not to think about it. They tried to distract themselves. They thought they were doing a good job of not thinking about it until their other phone—the number that RWA doesn’t even have—rang, and their heart rate shot through the roof. *ahem* Not that I’d know anything about that reaction.

In the end, most of the writers waiting for that phone to ring never got the call. I know I didn’t. And even though I certainly wasn’t expecting to final, it was still a bummer to lose that hope.

So I am genuinely happy for all the finalists. I’ll cheer for them at the big awards show during the RWA conference, and I’m looking forward to giving them congratulatory hugs in person. But I also had to find a way to deal with my internal disappointment.

Chocolate, Silver Linings, New Goals, and a New Outlook

Sometimes a situation is simply a bummer. It happens to everyone. The only thing we can control is how we handle it.

I tweeted congratulations to all the winners, and my family (being the wonderful, supportive family they are) took me out for dinner and chocolate frosted doughnuts. (Sometimes life cries out for chocolate, yes?)

Then I looked at the silver lining in not finaling. Now I don’t have a killer deadline for the edited full manuscript. My internal deadline for the revision edit can be more reasonable.

Finally, I came up with a new set of goals. Many of us feel better if we’re working toward something, so I planned my revision schedule. That was all good until I thought about the step that would come after that. Querying.

I suck at queries. Really and truly suck. And I would have loved to be able to write the magic words “Golden Heart Finalist” in the subject line of my sucky query, but no… *sigh*

That’s when I realized why I was so bummed about not finaling. What I really wanted wasn’t the accolades (although, sure, they would have been nice too) but for the publishing path to be easier.

Yeah, right. We can all stop laughing now. Drafting, editing, querying, publishing, marketing… Whether we traditionally publish or self-publish, it’s all hard. Until it isn’t. Once we finish one of those stages, we know we can do it again the next time.

The hard part is not knowing if we’ll ever succeed, if we’ll ever finish that draft, make those revisions work, find an agent, etc. The “not knowing” can drive our issues with self-doubt insane.

The interesting thing is now that I’ve recognized the source of my disappointment, I don’t feel as bad. Life is funny that way. *smile*

Congratulations to all the Golden Heart and RITA Finalists!

How do you deal with disappointment (chocolate, alcohol, or something else)? Do you look for silver linings? Do you buckle down and move forward? Does understanding your disappointment help you face it?

What If Our Story Idea Has Already Been Done?

Jami Gold — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:30:10 +0000

In my last post about Google search terms, I mentioned that we sometimes have lots of content around a search’s keywords and yet have never answered the question directly. In that case, Google just gave us an idea for a blog post. *smile*

One search term that led people to my blog this past month was “What do we do if our story idea has already been done?” That’s a great question. So rather than giving it a paragraph in the last post, I decided to dedicate a whole article to the answer.

Are There Only “X” Number of Stories?

We’ve heard the idea that there are only so many stories in the world. Some say the number of stories is one (“overcoming obstacles”), some say three (happy/sad/fateful ending), some say seven (the “man vs. X” idea), while others say twenty or thirty-six.

The truth is that all those numbers are right. The only difference between them is how high-level we’re categorizing a story. All stories deal with conflict (the one plot), but we can categorize by the nature of the conflict (man vs. self), the goal or theme behind the conflict (“Quest,” from the list of twenty plots), or the situation behind the conflict (“Pursuit,” from the list of thirty-six plots).

Great, does any of that tell us anything? Not really. Understanding what kind of story we’re writing might help us focus on what’s important or identify the theme, but high-level categories don’t help us when we’re trying to figure out how unique our story idea is.

What Does a Story Idea Consist of?

Any story idea that consists of only the vague categories from those plot lists won’t do us much good. ”I’m going to write about a man vs. man story involving escape and a revolt.” Uh-huh. What’s that going to look like?

Sometimes in our quest for a high-concept story, we aim for such a high-level that we miss the hook. Just as our story pitches have to be specific, our story ideas need specifics too. Who are the protagonist and the antagonist? What’s the situation behind the premise? A story about a convict’s escape from jail would be very different from that of a slave escaping his master.

In other words, good story ideas—those with enough details for us to work with—have a premise, character sketch, and specific situation. We mix those elements to create a unique story.

Details Make the Difference

A good story idea might look something like:

A convict escapes from jail and gets his revenge on the gang leader who put him there, leading a revolt in the process.

That seems detailed enough. We have a premise, basic character sketch, and specific situation. If we were writing a story along those lines and saw this description for a book already on the shelves, we’d probably worry and think our story idea had been done.

But the deeper we go into the details, the more we see endless possibilities. Our characters won’t react like the characters in the other book, even if they face the same situations. One convict might be an anti-hero, and the other might have been framed and innocent.

The way they pursue revenge will be different, the nature of the revolt will be different, and the goals, motivations, and forward movement of the plot will be different. Along the way, the emotional heart and themes explored in each story will be different.

Two stories. Same story idea. Two unique implementations. That’s why ideas aren’t copyrightable. That’s why ideas alone aren’t special. Everything comes down to the implementation.

So before we worry about how our story idea has been done before, we should dig into the details. Find what makes our story unique and what makes our telling of that story unique. If authors didn’t do that, we’d all have only one book on our shelves. *smile*

Have you worried about a story already being “done”? Did you give up on it or press on anyway? In your opinion, what makes a story too similar? What makes a story unique? What do you think about the “x” number of stories idea?

Using Google Search Terms for Fun and Education

Jami Gold — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:30:21 +0000

After the last few weeks of “serious issues,” I needed a silly break, so I looked up the search terms that recently brought people to my blog. Google didn’t disappoint, as several phrases caught my eye.

Every blogger should check the search terms associated with their blog occasionally, and not just for amusement. If someone comes to our blog looking for information and we don’t have a post for that topic yet, we have an opportunity to capture new readers by giving them what they’re looking for. We can use the search terms to get ideas for blog posts.

I’ll write a post answering one of my search terms soon, but today I give you one serious interview and one silly interview. On the serious side, I participated in a roundtable event at the Dear Author blog, where I and three other authors of both fan fiction and original fiction discussed some of the pros and cons of fan fiction. On the silly side, I decided it was time for another interview with myself through the use of Google search terms.

Google: what do you call a writter?
Me: A writer who pads their daily word count by adding fluff words (or letters).

G: whatever happened to the bodice ripping romance novels of the 1980s?
Me: They disappeared because there were only so many ways to pose Fabio for the covers. Either that or women decided they wanted to read about strong heroines. Take your pick.

G: how to not be nervous about letting people read your work?
Me: Imagine your readers naked. No, wait, that’s for when you’re on stage. Um, how about eat lots of chocolate? *sigh* Okay, a serious answer. The best way to take your mind off your nervousness is to dive into your next project. Starting another book will not only distract you, but it will also let you know that you can try again with “plan B,” your next book.

G: someone insulted me on an internet blog
Me: Woo hoo! That means you’ve arrived. *smile*

G: i have good ideas for stories but i suck at writing
Me: The bad news is that an idea by itself is worthless. I could come up with ten new story ideas a day without trying. Having a good idea is not “special.” An idea must be well implemented to be special. The good news is that I believe writing skills can be learned. Those willing to work hard can learn the grammar rules, increase their vocabulary, figure out plotting, character development, and point-of-view, and they can develop a writing voice. The question is, are you passionate enough about your idea to do the work?

G: not crazy, just like talking to imaginary friends
Me: Me too! *fist bump* One of the reasons I love being a writer is because it gives me an excuse for having so many imaginary friends.

G: i ve found my male muse now what do i do?
Me: Be afraid. *my muse arches a brow* Er, be grateful. Yeah, that’s it. Actually, that’s true. My muse is less fickle and emotional than many other muses I hear about. On the other hand, he’s very arrogant and full of himself, but since he’s usually right, he’s earned that attitude. *his brow lifts higher* Yes, yes, he’s always been right. *sigh* Happy now, muse?

G: insanity makes me look better naked
Me: *cringes* No, it doesn’t. Trust me. Now go put some clothes on.

G: why do you choose love as a topic ?
Me: All my stories have romantic elements and themes of love because as Miracle Max pointed out in The Princess Bride, “True love is the greatest thing in the world.” Love—the desire for it, the lack of it, the pursuit of it, the pain of it, the withholding of it, the attainment of it—drives more conflict than anything else. Love is at the root of most emotional needs. Love is powerful enough to motivate villains and heroes alike. Love is the human condition.

And now a reminder: If you’re not sure what fan fiction is, why even published authors take the time to write it, or why all authors should develop a policy regarding fan fiction, don’t forget to check out the fan fiction author roundtable at the Dear Author blog.

How do you control your nervousness when others read your work? Do you enjoy talking to those voices in your head? How would you describe your muse? Do you agree that love makes the world go ’round? Now that you’ve seen what people can do with fan fiction, will you have a fan fiction policy?

Is Taking the Hard Road a “Waste”?

Jami Gold — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:30:48 +0000

My post about the ethics of fan fiction went viral this week, spreading beyond even the Twilight fandom. From a post on mediabistro/GalleyCat to mentions at Dear Author, Jezebel, The Paris Review, and AbsoluteWrite, people have been discussing ethics in regards to writing and the publishing industry.

I don’t bring that up to brag but to make a point. One reason the situation struck a note with so many is because the success of That Book contrasts with our hard work. We’ve struggled to improve our craft and come up with unique characters and stories. When we see someone take shortcuts or cheat, it’s human nature to question why we’re doing it the hard way.

The Benefits of “The Hard Way”

Instead of grumbling about That Book, I’m trying to take the broader view. We all face setbacks in our life, and taking the hard road prepares us for the inevitable rejections and bad reviews. Taking the hard road means we know how to adapt to changes in the industry and the market. Taking the hard road means we learn more about our strengths and weaknesses.

Almost every published author ends up with “trunk novels,” those stories metaphorically stuffed into a trunk under the bed. Authors rarely debut with the first book they ever wrote. Did those authors waste their time writing the previous books? Or is that all part of the writing process, learning, improving, growing?

Writing Is Full of Risks

My first original novel took me about 3 months to draft. Then it took me months more to learn all those pesky grammar rules so I could write well. And then it took many, many more months to edit. And for now, it’s a trunk novel, waiting for the right time in my writing career to do something more with it. Was all that time “wasted”?

Those of us on the hard path know the answer. Not every story we write will be gold and deserve to be published. We risk failure with every new book we start. We accept that risk as part of our career. On some level, we’re even okay with that risk. Mostly. Probably. Maybe.

We might feel better about that risk if we think of what it says about us in the big picture. Maybe it means we’re willing to take risks with genre crossovers, higher stakes that torture our characters to the breaking point, or signing on as the featured author of a new publisher. Those are good things.

We can do things the risk-averse can’t. And that’s something to be proud of.

Shortcuts Come with Their Own Risk

These writers publishing their fan fiction stories or taking other shortcuts often don’t want to take the hard road. They don’t want to be told, “Great! You wrote a story. Now write another one, an original this time, please.” They don’t want all the time they spent writing their stories to go to “waste” by sentencing them to the trunk. And they don’t want to put in the work to rewrite their story with original characters either.

Call me a Pollyanna, but I think that unwillingness to work hard will come back to bite them in the you-know-where eventually. Writing is hard. Some might get a lucky break, but unless they quit at that point, they’re going to have to work for the next break and the next one and the one after that.

We hear about some actress being plucked from obscurity for a role and suddenly becoming the “it” girl. Then in the next year, when the world has moved on, they have to hustle like everyone else in Hollywood. Writing is the same way.

Yes, we could be upset by those who take shortcuts, but it’s like someone winning the lottery. We’re not going to quit our day job as a protest for not having the winning ticket. With so many publishing options available to us now, we have to power to reach our goals. First, we just have to…you guessed it…work hard. *smile*

What’s your opinion of those who take shortcuts? Is taking the hard road a waste? Do you think those who take shortcuts will have trouble when the need to work hard catches up with them? Does taking the hard road make you feel more proud of your work?

P.S. I apologize to all those who I haven’t replied to or thanked. The past week has been insane. Sorry! I do appreciate your support and friendship through this craziness.

Jami Gold, Paranormal Author

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