What happens when 14 of the best authors on the planet get together just before the holidays?
We start giving stuff away.
From November 28, 2017 through December 12, 2017, we'll be featuring a Rafflecopter for your chance to win a signed book of your choice, an e-book of your choice, or a $50 Amazon Gift Card!
All you have to do is follow each of the 14 authors on Bookbub. And we made it easy to do.
a Rafflecopter giveaway ALSO, each of the authors above will be featuring the giveaway on their Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, newsletters, blogs, and wherever else they can think of and you could win there, too! So follow all of them on Facebook for even more chances to win books, swag, and other great prizes during this pre-holiday giveaway.
I am thrilled to have Jason Korolenko, author of THE DAY I LEFT on my blog today. I finished the book a week ago, and it is still on my mind. That is exactly what I want from a novel. Jason is not only an extremely talented writer, he is also one of the nicest people on the planet. So if you don't know him, here's your chance to get acquainted.---and you really should check out THE DAY I LEFT. I promise you won't be disappointed.
Awesome book cover
For a long time I resisted writing about why I chose to go indie.
These days, I think, most people don't really care which company publishes a
novel. They care about cover art. They care about clean editing. Mostly, they
care whether or not an author can pull them into another world and give them a
story full of conflict and emotion and interesting characters that demand
sympathy. I can't remember the last time I picked up a book published by
(insert Big 6 name here) and thought, "Wow, if they published it, it must be good."
I can't remember because it has never happened.
Let me be clear: this is not a post intended to glorify the indie process
and demonize the traditional publishing industry, nor is it a quaint,
bullet-point list of pros and cons of either approach. It's not a sermon as to
why you should choose one path or the other. It is simply a post about my reasons, about why I chose to go indie.
I hear you asking, "Who the hell are you, anyway?"
I’m a fiction writer—mostly the dark stuff that keeps you awake at
night—who has been gaming the traditional publishing system for over ten years,
with a handful of published stories, three unpublished novels, and a co-writing
credit on an indie film. I also have an MFA in Creative Writing, and now, a self-published
novel titled THE DAY I LEFT, which I wrote while in the aforementioned program.
Now that that's out of the way, you may be wondering, "What
kind of person pursues an MFA only to self-publish?"
Jason Korolenko
Let’s break this down into two questions.
Q1: What kind of person pursues an MFA?
A1: The kind who wants to learn directly from professional writers
and editors. In other words, I wanted to learn from people who knew their shit.
Q2: What kind of person self-publishes?
A2: The kind who doesn't want to wait two to four years before
seeing his book—a book he already worked two years on—go to print. Think about
that for a second. Two to four years before it goes to print.
I graduated with my completed manuscript (yes, that includes edits
and spit-shines) in June of 2012. I contacted my cover artist, and learned all
about formatting for ebooks and print (thanks to the godly wonders of
Scrivener) in July. At the end of August, I released THE DAY I LEFT for Kindle,
Nook, and all other digital formats, and in September, I'll release the
paperback edition. Two months to digital, three months to print. Not bad.
For me, it all comes down to the marriage of quality and quantity.
If I wanted to be a chef, I'd go to culinary school. If I wanted to be a
doctor, I'd go to medical school. I wanted to be a writer, so I went to writer
school. I also write a lot, and I write fast. I don't want people to have to
wait two years—or even a year—for my next book.
The more stories I can give you during the course of my life,
without sacrificing quality, the better off we'll both be.
The Craft of Writing
Synopses is the final piece of a three-part series of posts by Robert
Begiebing.I had the privilege of
working with Robert Begiebing on my first novel, including query and synopsis. A recipient of the Langum Prize for historical
fiction, Robert J. Begiebing is the
author of seven books, a play, and over thirty articles and stories. He is the founding director of the
Low-Residency MFA in Fiction and Nonfiction, and Professor of English Emeritus,
at Southern NH University. He's also just a wonderful guy.
We’ve discussed approaching agents and editors through
sample chapters (the real key to gathering interest in your novel) and queries,
but what about those synopses I’ve referred to?These one-page, single-spaced synopsis documents typically accompany
your query letter, both of which are intended to get the addressee to ask you
to send along the sample pages/ chapters.
Your synopsis is just that—a one-page, single spaced,
high-energy, no gimmicks/no B.S.presentation of what your novel is about (main characters, setting, plot
line, theme) that should make any reader, but especially an agent and editor,
want to read it. The biggest mistake
writers make is turning the novel synopsis into a mere plot synopsis. If there is some contemporary event or issue
the novel addresses, emphasize it.If
you show your synopsis to colleagues, friends, and lovers and they are in any
way unclear on what the book is about, you are not there yet.If they would not be immediately interested
in reading it, you are not there yet.Some agents and editors will read a 1-5 page synopsis, but I recommend
unless otherwise specified that you send along a one-pager for efficiency and to
show you respect the reader’s time, to demonstrate you are a powerful, concise
writer. This document is essentially an
extension of your supporting paragraph in the query.In most instances the letter and the
synopsis, along with SASE for hard copies, make up your fiction query package.
The synopsis is a single spaced business document with
double spacing between paragraphs. The
title of the novel along with the word “synopsis” should appear in the upper
left margin, in bold font if you like; and note that either under the title of
the novel or in the right upper margin you place the novel’s word count (as in
a simple “70,000 words”).
Expect to hear “no” more often than you hear “yes”—that’s
part of the publishing game and the ancient and honorable authorial
struggle.If your query package
succeeds, you will be asked to send the first three chapters or 30-50 pages,
sometimes the complete ms.
Editor and agent websites are usually very specific about
what they want in a query.Always check
first.Smaller presses might ask for
more than the two basic documents at the start.If so, you’ve got a nice package ready to go
with your opening chapters already polished and intact.If a small press asks on its website for your
entire novel, send it along with SASE and a letter of transmittal—merely
telling what you are sending (“as indicated on your website”), why you think
this novel is a good fit for their list, and a brief author’s bio highlighting
any professional credentials you might have for writing and researching this
book.As a writer as well as marketer of
your own work, keep in mind that persistence (or good ol’
grit) is more than half of talent and success.
The
20th anniversary edition of The Strange Deathof Mistress Coffin, a novel set in 17th-century New England, is now
available in paperback and e-book. Originally published the early 1990s, Mistress Coffin was a Main Selection in
The Literary Guild, The Mystery Guild, and Doubleday Book Clubs, and is
currently optioned for a film.
Wait! This is not about exercise! At least not the Olivia Newton John in fuchsia tights and a headband exercise. It is, however, about exercising your writing muscles, and no-one is in better shape (yeah, corny, I know) than my favorite fantasy writer, lawyer and Aussie (not Olivia) Ciara Ballintyne. Thank you, Ciara, for taking the time to share this:
When we begin to write, we know nothing.
Our writing muscles are weak and flabby, having never been exercised. Or, it
may be you have toned them in a specific way, to write a certain way, such as
technical papers, and now they need to be trained to write fiction – like a
sprinter training for a marathon.
We can learn a certain amount from
watching, and writers do this by learning from what they read. The problem with
this is:
·Not everything you read will be
quality and you may not (in the early days) be able to distinguish; and
·Eventually you will get to the
point where you know what you’re reading is better than what you’re writing,
but you don’t know why.
Like an athlete trying to learn from
watching, we can observe the effect, but we can’t always observe all the
technical detail, or understand it if we can observe it. Why does a runner
warm-up? Why does he run in a certain way? What is the strategy that goes into
a marathon? None of these are things you can observe.
As your writing skill improves, you will
know the sentence you are reading is better than yours but not why. And
the why can’t be observed. Through trial and error you may eventually
figure out the why, but this is the long, hard way.
There is an easier (and much faster) way.
In my own learning curve, there have been
three key events that accelerated my writing skills:
Joining a critique group;
Taking advantage of the advice
of a freelance editor; and
Workshops.
Workshops – aerobics for your writing
muscles!
These days, they are easily accessible
online and often inexpensive as well. I mostly do mine through Savvy Authors,
but there are plenty of others to choose from. In fact, if you want to see how
serious I am about workshops, you can find the complete list of workshops I
have completed on my website.
Workshops will teach you the technical
details, the why you can’t learn from observation. Why does sentence
length matter? Why are adverbs bad? Why are saidisms bad? How do I improve my
sentence? Why does POV matter? How do I write better descriptions? How can I
create better plots How do I create more conflict?
Even if you have been doing some of these
things right before, a workshop may help you to better understand what you have
been doing intuitively or unconsciously, and then you can make an effort to do more
of it consciously.
As an example, I am plotting an outline for
my next book at the moment. I’ve started from an outline I did previously,
because when I plotted my last book, I plotted its sequel at the same time. Now
I remember the last time I did this, when I went to write the book, I realised
I had half a book badly in need of subplots.
This time, as I am writing it, I’m
thinking:
Has it got enough subplots?
Why are the characters doing
these things? Do they make sense?
Is there enough
conflict/tension?
What do each of the characters
want?
I couldn’t easily answer any of those
questions just looking at the outline, but I simply thought ‘I will do a Goal
Motivation Conflict’ chart. And that helps me to see what characters should be
doing, what’s stopping them achieving their goals, and any other areas of
potential conflict. Such a simple tool, but one of which I was unaware last
time I outlined. In fact, I wasn’t even consciously asking the questions last
time.
Now you may be aware of GMC charts already
(or not), or you may not like to use structured tools (I do, because hey, let’s
face it, I’m a lawyer and that’s how I think) but I assure you there is more to
learn that just GMC charts, and you can apply the knowledge without using the
structured tools if that’s your preference.
After all, the important thing I really
took away from that workshop was not the GMC chart, but the knowledge to ask
the questions I asked. Answering the questions can be done in a multitude of
ways, in whatever manner best suits your writing process, but you can’t
answer a question you don’t know to ask.
So if you haven’t already done so, go!
Study! And learn. If you have used workshops, what did
you study, and did you find it valuable?
For a list of the workshops I have attended, please visit my website!
CIARA
BALLINTYNE
The cracks in our souls bleed darkness. High fantasy. Poignant. Immersive.
Gripping.
If you’re ever unsure of the
intelligence of the average human, go check out the comments section of any
article on Yahoo or video posted to YouTube. It’s like the internet has given
people the necessary anonymity to say whatever dumb thing pops into their
little minds. Sadly, the same thing is true for book reviews.
Everyone who’s ever read a book is
now an expert on writing, thanks to the ability to post reviews on the online
sales pages of books. Whether you actually read the book cover-to-cover or if
you just walked by the display in your local bookstore, you’re now able to
write your comments for all the internet to see.
In the interest of full disclosure,
here is the most aggravating review of my own book on autism:
“This book was okay if your child is
younger. My son was diagnosed at age six and I had already put into place most
of the practices discussed and was past other stages. If your child is older
than 2, I recommend books by Ellen Notbohm and Paula Kluth instead.”
Let’s dissect this: first of all,
her child is older than my child. HOW WAS THAT MY FAULT? You gave this book a
3-star review, thus dropping its status, because you squeezed your kid out
before I did? Then you proceeded to completely shanghai my Amazon page with a
COMMERCIAL FOR A DIFFERENT BOOK. That’s like me going to the Amazon page for
THE HOLY BIBLE and writing, “Y’all should totally read The Torah, it’s way
better.”
Now, I realize this sounds like me
just venting some anger at a pointless review. Let me be the first to assure
you that it’s not the case. I have two UGLY one-star reviews from people who
absolutely hated my book and I respect them for having strong feelings about a
topic and trying to share those feelings with others. I don’t like what they
had to say, obviously, but I respect their opinions. This crappy review above,
however, was just unnecessary.
As readers, we should make our
points clearly and succinctly. I agree that having forked over some of my
hard-earned cash to purchase a book does give me some right to voice an opinion
on it. But as writers, we should stick to an honest evaluation of the writing
in a book we review. I can read a book on a topic I don’t really care about but
still be able to intelligently appraise the book’s value. I am literate enough
to understand whether or not other readers will be able to appreciate the book
or if they will have to put on their hip waders to muck their ways through its
poor editing and outright rape of the English language.
Reviewing a book is an awesome
responsibility. As a reviewer, I may unwittingly encourage one to spend their money
or worse, stop someone from reading a life-changing book. It’s not a job I take
lightly, and I would hope that other writers feel the same way.
Lorca Damon is a teacher in a juvenile correctional facility
and staff writer for GoodEReader.com. Her first non-fiction title, Autism By Hand, is an Amazon bestseller
and her first fiction title, The Earth is for Dancing, was recently published as well. She is also one of the funniest people I know. You should stalk her at
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