Happy Halloween!

Halloween. No day can evoke more tingles and shivers than October 31st. For a change, a few of us at FTWA thought we would share a story that scared the crap out of us. Most are movies, but movies are stories, right? So here we go…

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Robert Lewis

There always seems to be that ONE movie that scared the crap out you as a kid. Maybe it was The Legend of Boggy Creek, maybe The Omen, or maybe The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. For me, however, it will always be Herk Harvey's 1962 "Carnival of Souls" starring Candace Hilligoss. Not only is it eerie and scary as hell, it also has one of the creepiest-looking dudes ever seen on film:

See what I mean?

The story is about Mary Henry (Hilligoss) who is out one day driving with friends. They're challenged to a drag race and during the race her car careens off a bridge and into a river. She's the only survivor. A church organist, she moves to a new town, new job, so she can start over.

But then she starts to ... see things, including the man above. Strange events begin to happen to her, like one moment she's in a busy department store and then it's suddenly empty. The only people she sees in these strange, surreal moments are zombie-like, staring at her as she passes by. I can't tell you more, as I don't want to spoil the film, but needless to say, it's a VERY effective horror flick. I can still remember watching it one Sunday afternoon on Channel 5 KTLA in Los Angeles, and how I had nightmares all that night and rest of the week. There were nights where I would wake up, the San Fernando Valley winds howling, the trees outside my window scratching and clacking on the glass, seeing that man's face in the corner of my room, watching me.

Carnival of Souls. If you've never seen it, get ye to The Netflix!

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Darke Conteur

I have always been drawn to stories that frighten me. It's like an addiction; I can't get enough even though I know I'll get very little sleep afterward. Most movies I watched as a child were the old, campy B movies; Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, the Mummy, something I watched on television to kill a Saturday afternoon. It wasn't until I saw the movie CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS (1973) that I was truly scared.

Actors led by Alan Ormsby go to graveyard on remote island to act out necromantic ritual. The ritual works, and soon the dead are walking about and chowing down on human flesh.

Part of the flesh-eating zombie trope that exploded in the early '70s, by today's standards it's campy and stupid, but for a ten year old, it gave me nightmares for three months. I learned to jump from the doorway to my bed in one leap and I am proud to say that I can sleep with the covers over my head and not suffocate! It should be a part of any ghoul's zombie collection!

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Cat Woods

Movies don't scare me. Not in the Friday the Thirteenth and Nightmare on Elm Street-murderer-on-the-rampage-for-no-reason sense. These are child's play. Fiction at its finest, yet fiction none-the-less. Actors can shake their hockey sticks all they want and I remain unfazed.

The movies that strike terror into my heart are psychological thrillers.

When a movie could be reality? That's when the goosebumps pop and I literally shiver from the inside out. Only one honest-to-God-teeth-chattering movie stands out in my mind. Cape Fear.

Childhood fears: One Halloween when I was about six, my sister and I had to visit our biological father. After dinner, he watched a double header of B-rated horror flicks.

Terrifying shadow creatures lived in the basement and drug people down the stairs to brutally torture and kill them in the first movie. With no place else to go, my sis and I cowered behind the couch and listened to the screams of the dying victims. That night we had to sleep in the glass-walled library with the door closed off to the rest of the house. My sister never recovered, and to this day she cannot go down into a basement without every single light on.

The second movie was about scientists injecting liquid into people's brains, turning them into mindless killing machines. Something about the glazed expression in their eyes and the personality flips caused by the drug scared me far more than the basement creatures ever did.

I guess that night killed all hope of Freddie Krueger terrorizing me. However, it left the door wide open to the darkness residing in the depths of the human mind.

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Matt Sinclair

Like many people, when I think of scary stories, my first thoughts tend toward movies, where the images are so evident. There was a movie whose name I quickly forgot, but its opening scenes have remained with me ever since. Picture this: I’m a small boy, age 7 or 8, getting his last few minutes of television in before summer vacation. My family owned a home toward the eastern end of Long Island, where the TV reception was awful (or my parents knew that television and summer vacations were a bad mix.

It didn’t matter what I watched, as long as it was TV. I turned it on and found the beginning of a movie. A young woman receives an unexpected package. She opens it and finds a set of binoculars. For reasons lost to the young boy I was, the woman was excited and immediately went to look through the binoculars. The she let out a blood-curdling scream as her eyes were impaled.

Just then, my father rallied the troops and I turned off the TV, but that confusing moment of horror remains.

In a sense, I hope some reader here knows the name of the film so I can view it as an adult and possibly understand that it wasn’t what I thought it was. Perhaps it was acid around the rims of the eyepieces. That would be much easier for me to handle.

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How about you? Any super-scary stories to share?

That Spam I Am—If You Don’t Know the Difference Between Meaningful Interaction and Spamming You are Wasting Your Social Media Time (and Mine).

by Sophie Perinot

You know what drives me crazy (currently)? How much of what passes for author interaction at social media sites these days resembles spam.

I made the connection a few days ago while clearing out the spam comments at my blog. They almost all start out the same, with a sentence that looks like the writer (probably a bot) might actually have read my blog post—“I enjoyed this post. This topic is really very intesting...”—then they turn into self-serving sales drivel. And while I was gleefully emptying the spam filter it occurred to me that I’ve been seeing lots of this same sort of “let me say a polite thing about you so I can talk about ME, ME, ME” stuff on twitter, in on-line writing groups, and on facebook lately.

Frankly, it’s cheesing me off.

It’s gotten particularly bad in writing and reading related facebook groups. When I join a group devoted to say “Lovers of Mysteries with Dogs as Their Main Character” (okay I made that one up, but I don’t want to point fingers at actual groups or communities), I expect folks therein to share information on good books with doggy detectives, or links to websites to help me in researching or writing same. Instead what I am getting these days are nearly naked advertisements—“My book ‘It’s a Dog Eat Dog World’ just got a super-duper review at ‘Dog books R us!’ Read it here. Or better still buy my book here, or here, or here.” Come on fellow writers, if I want advertisements there are plenty running along the top or side of every darn website I visit. You’ve got a personal facebook page, probably an author FB page, and doubtless an author website to share good reviews and “buy it now” links on. You can even directly and unabashedly promote your book at those locations (though the jury is out on how effective that will be for you). But the essence of communities/groups (even in the virtual world) is dialogue.

A hybrid of “boast posters” are the folks who share EVERY blog post they’ve ever written or will ever write to a facebook group, or to twitter for that matter, irrespective of whether it’s on topic. Sure, if you (or if I) have written a post that is germane to the topic of a group or comment thread (or touches on one of the subjects that you assume people follow you on twitter to hear about) then posting your link is a worthy public service. But if you are just slapping up everything you can think of to increase your name recognition then spare us and save yourself the time (because pretty soon I for one am going to stop even looking at your posts because I already KNOW what they will say—some version of “look at me.”)

As writers today there is a great deal of pressure on us to market our own work, and very specifically to have a presence in the virtual world. But I presume that an annoying presence seldom sells a book. If you join any community of like-minded people as part of your “building an internet presence” campaign, you should try to interact with fellow members in a genuine, non-agenda-driven, manner. And just for the record the interaction is neither effective nor genuine when it amounts to commenting on topics started by others in true spam form (“I am fascinated by cocker spaniels but for a really great blog on poodles, more specifically MY poodles, click here”).

People can smell a fake a mile away—just like I can pick out the spam comment at my blog even when they are cloaked in an attempt to look like a genuine response. And if you are a spammer not a genuine community member you are wasting your time. Because the truth is I buy two kinds of books: 1) those receiving notable reviews or buzz from reviewers I trust (whether that’s a “R”eviewer in the print or digital media or the guy I sit next to on the bus every morning and discuss books with); and 2) books written by friends (folks I’ve gotten to know through writers conferences, through on-line communities and through their blogs). You are no friend of mine if you spam me.

Comes a Time

By Matt Sinclair

A little over a month ago now, I made a big decision. The novel that I'd been working on for years—tweaking here, there, and everywhere as I shifted scenes and fixed problematic points of view—was giving me fits. I still loved the basic story and the characters, and I was excited about a suggested story thread that came from my critique group, but I had a nagging feeling there were major problems that I'd not really addressed adequately. So I looked back at the notes a friend and fellow writer gave me when he served as a beta for me a few years back.

There it was, tucked behind the pleasantries and atta boys were unsubtle recommendations of moving some details up, building tension earlier, removing other scenes and details altogether, and generally doing the things I was slowly doing already. But even moreso.

What was different this time from the last time I read his comments? Me. I'm a better writer now, more informed, with a more critical eye than I already had developed back then. And I understood, the time had come: Fish or cut bait.

Yet, there I sat in my little boat, unbaited hook at the ready, line dangling in the water of the skiff, unsure what to do. So I asked my wife. She's a very sensible woman (though she's obviously vulnerable to matters of the heart, otherwise she would have wised up and sent me packing long before I popped the question.) But when I asked her thoughts about the manuscript, she said what I think an agent would say: "Trunk it and write something new that's more marketable. A trunk is not forever."

I had a box ready.

I suspect most writers of book-length work have novels that just weren't good enough. In a sense, it's a rite of passage. You need to learn how to write a book before you can get one published. In my case, it's not as though the novel that meant so much to me was irreparable, but I finally recognized that it would take a lot more work than I was willing to commit right now, especially since the market for literary fiction appears to be as welcoming as mold and probably not as warm or fuzzy.

But why should I share this little tale of seeming woe with you? Because it's not a sad story. It's also a little different from the stories you've probably heard others tell. This isn't about agents saying no or about whether I should self-publish or not. The story isn't ready. And it won't be soon. While we all write for our own reasons, I'm not ashamed to say that I want to earn some money at this, and I wasn't doing it with that novel. Not yet, anyway.


Know what your time is worth.

Writers must always be ready to work on something new, something different. We must always explore. Right now, I'm about 8,000 words into a novel that's chock-full of college kids, alien abductions, and talking cats and dogs. More importantly, I'm enjoying it. Like its erstwhile predecessor, it may end up in a trunk. But I'll make that decision when the time comes. For now, it's time to write.

Do You NaNo?

by Jemi Fraser

November means a lot of things to a lot of people—fall is over and winter's setting in, it's Thanksgiving in the US, shopping season begins if you celebrate Christmas (and you're more organized than I am) and it's report card season for teachers like me. For writers it also means NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month.

It's the month when a bunch of crazies writers, decide to write a 50k novel in 30 days. That's an average of 1667 words a day, every day for the entire 30 days of November.

So, why in the world would anyone want to do it? What's the incentive? Fun, fellowship, and that competitive push that won't let you take a night off. There are prizes too. Once you've registered your 50k at the end of the month, you can claim your prizes: splendiferous blog badges, glorious certificates you can print off, and ... pride! Not so much in the monetary value department, but important nonetheless.

There are rules for NaNo. You can't start the novel until November 1st. You can outline, plot, write character sketches, research and think as hard as you like, but you can't write a word until the 1st. Sadly, as a pantster I do none of those things. In fact last year I had no intention of doing NaNo. I was knee deep in edits for another story and wanted to focus on that. But, when I sat down to write on November 1st, it wasn't my old story I wrote, it was a SNI (shiny new idea) that burst into my head as I typed. I hadn't plotted a thing or even planned a character. But that first sentence jumped out of my fingers and I was off with the other crazies writers.

At the moment, I'm revising another story (last year's NaNo story in fact). I feel like I'm getting near the finish line with it. I want to keep focusing on it. Which means I won't be doing NaNo this year.

Probably...

So if you want to friend me over at the NaNo site, I'm jemifraser. See ya there!

Writing Superstitions and Rituals

by Cat Woods

Two days ago, our own RS Mellette issued a challenge to writers everywhere. "Come forth, my fellow scribes. Come forth from your burrows and burgs. Unite together in a common cause and claim a world-renowned good luck phrase to be heard throughout the generations."

Sad, isn't it, that writing is such a solitary experience we have no universal truths of our own?

Sadder still, when you consider everything that does. Friday the Thirteenth equals bad luck, while a bee flying through an open door guarantees a visitor will appear soon. Black cats and ladders, broken mirrors and broken legs? Even classical music has its own Curse of the Ninth.

RS—and the upcoming Halloween holiday—got me thinking about writing superstitions and rituals. Where do they come from, and why do we use them? Do they really work, or are they nothing more than placebos for our artistically thirsty souls? In a nutshell, superstition is the act of attributing an outcome to a completely unrelated event. The more frequently a coincidence "succeeds," the more likely it will become a part of everyday practices and rituals.

After careful research—and an unofficial poll of authors, agented writers, experienced scribes and newly minted ones—I realized writing does not have a universal superstition or a must-do ritual because every writer is as unique as every story ever told. Writing is highly personalized, and as such, we bring our own personalities to the process.

Consider the following: 37 of the 45 writers polled admitted to having some sort of quirk.

• Manuscripts must end on an even numbered page. Period. If not, the story is doomed to failure.
• Chapters cannot have thirteen pages in them, nor can books end with a mere thirteen chapters.
• No characters can have the same initials as anyone the writer knows in person or bad fortune will befall said real life person.
• Each manuscript has its own "writing spot." If a new manuscript is typed in a previously used spot, the ghosts of the old characters will affect the personalities of the new characters.
• One writer refuses to eat anything sweet whenever the antagonist is on the page for fear s/he will be tainted with the sweetness.
• Conversely another sucks on lemon drops while penning the villain's scenes.
• Back in her querying days, one writer used to wiggle her "jazz fingers" as the email took off through cyberspace. You know, their own personal cheering section...
• Another aspiring writer swears off coffee until a certain number of responses returns to her inbox so as not to use up her "good stuff" quota on her caffeine addiction.
• More than one writer claims that successful writing is all in the pen. Certain writers adhere to the use of certain utensils, some going as far as refilling their pens with ink.
• One scribe uses a single pencil per manuscript. If the manuscript is short, she breaks the pencil in half at the end so it can't be used for a second story. If the manuscript is long, she literally writes her pencil down to the nub.
• One writer—back in the snail mail days—signed every query letter with the same ballpoint pen. Incidentally, she used this pen to sign her agent contract. She hopes, of course, that the good karma associated with it will someday lead her to a publishing contract, which she will sign with the very old and tired Bic.
• Whimsical attire. Anything from smoking jackets to fuzzy slippers, and robes to hand-knit gloves, clothe writers world-wide while penning their words. One writer admitted to wearing a splash of green every day during the writing of her rough drafts—EVERY DAY—because green means "go" and she swears the color nudges her muse in the right direction.
• Pipes, whiskey, chocolate, Baileys and chai tea. Vices run rampant in the writing world. Some with the purpose of calming nerves, while others to simply keep idle fingers not so idle when the words cease to flow.
• One writer swears by a single coffee mug. The only time she drinks from it is when she's writing a rough draft. The only time she spikes it is when she completes her first read-through.
• Totems or mythical muses can grace the shelves and minds of writers everywhere. These little critters are said to ignite creativity and provide good juju. These are especially prolific during the frenzy of National Novel Writing Month.
• Writing every day is another common theme. However, one writer takes this to the extreme. He literally writes every single day. Even if it is only one word. One month he wrote 32 whole words. He does this so he is continuously making progress on his novels. Before starting this practice, he said his projects rarely made it to completion. Now, they always do.
• Some scribes wear their MC's personalities to achieve better characterization, and have been known to prance around in outfits better suited to a television set than an office.
• More than one writer rearranges the letters of favorite authors' names to create pen names. Obviously it worked once...

As you can see, the methods to our superstitious madness are as varied as the writers we meet.

So, dear scribes, what rituals or superstitions do you have regarding the writing or publishing process? Do they seem to work or do you simply enjoy the mystique that accompanies such whimsies?

What Do You Say...?

By R.S. Mellette

There's something missing in the literary world that is prevalent in the performing arts. That is a unique way to wish an artist good luck.

For various reasons theatre, dance, and opera all have their special way of wishing someone good luck—or, because it is bad luck to wish someone good luck, wishing them bad luck as a way of fooling the Fates.

In theatre, we say "break a leg." There are a thousand stories about the origin of the saying, so take your pick as to which one you like.

In ballet, they say "merde," which is French for "shit." Having known my fair share of dancers, I'm surprised they don't say "chienne." God knows they call each other bitches enough during rehearsals.

In opera, Wikipedia tells me that they say "Toi, Toi, Toi." They'll also knock wood and spit—or pretend to.

But we writers have nothing. What do we say to a fellow scribe who says, "My manuscript is going out to editors today," or "My agent is reading my next book"?

"Good luck." How lame is that? "I'll cross my fingers." What are we, twelve?

So, I'm issuing a challenge to our readers and writers everywhere. A call to arms! Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the literary world is on the hunt for our own, new tradition, our own new way of communicating to one another that we are in this fight together. We might be lone wolves in the creation of our art, but we are not alone in spirit.

So writers, write! Come up with a phrase that clearly means, "I am an author in the same hell as you, and I am wishing you well."

Some parameters:

• There should be implied history behind this saying.
• That history should have something to do with the literary world.
• It should sound old before its time.

Once found, we must make sure we use this phrase so that others might hear it and pass it on without knowing the origin, but thinking it has been a literary tradition throughout time.

Here are my two proposals: "Dante's Luck" or "May Virgil find you."

I like them because they both come from Dante's Inferno, a great literary work, and they both speak of one making their way through Hell to get to eternal paradise.

But I'm not the only writer here. What say you all? Offer up a suggestion of a phrase and why you think it should be the one to pass from generation to generation. We will know the winner when we hear it in a writer's group decades from now.

"Getting Over" My Genre

by Lucy Marsden

I’ve just finished Smart Bitch Sarah Wendell’s latest book, Everything I Know About Love I Learned from Romance Novels.

It’s not my intention to review the book here, but suffice it to say that it puts paid to the implicitly patronizing and slightly hysterical recent claims that romance readers are unable to distinguish between fantasy and reality in their personal relationships. With chapters like “We Know More Than a Few Good Men,” and “We Know That Happily-Ever-After Takes Work,” it’s an intelligent, hilarious, and uplifting testimony to the very real ways in which the genre helps its readers articulate and celebrate strong, loving relationships.

One of my favorite things in the book (and the point of this blog post, which I swear I am getting to any minute now), was author Robyn Carr’s quote when she was asked to comment on what people learn from reading romances:

“I think the antithesis of the question is more important—what do we learn from romance novels that we shouldn’t get over?”

And I thought to myself, “How fabulous is that?” Because for every genre out there, there is a way in which it says or celebrates something uniquely important about the human experience; a reason why it draws readers and writers that goes far beyond a need for escape and entertainment. Yet to greater or lesser degrees, most genre writers and readers have encountered criticism for their genre-love:

“You’re so smart. How can you read those trashy space-operas?”

or

“Do you think you might ever write a real book?”

And much, much worse.

So here and now, tell me what you love about writing or reading your favorite genre. Tell me what your genre says about being human that’s so important, the things that you wish people knew about how awesome it is, the ways in which it colors your world-view that you wouldn’t “get over,” even if you could.

Believe me, you’ll be in good company!

From Goodreads to Goodbuys?

by J. Lea Lopez

So, you've taken the plunge and self-published your book. Or maybe you've done it the traditional way. You have eBooks available through the usual outlets. You've done your homework and you have a blog or website, a decent Twitter following, maybe a Facebook page, and your marketing efforts seem to be paying off. Still, every author is eager to take advantage of different ways to get their book in front of new readers.

Have you looked at Goodreads lately?

You may be familiar with Goodreads as a place where readers can place books on their virtual shelves (want to read, read, hated it, loved it, and any other colorful description you can think of) post reviews, recommend books to friends, and more. Authors can create a presence on Goodreads as well. Now authors can take one more step: They can sell their eBooks directly through Goodreads.

At first glance, it may seem like this is just another venue to add to all the others for selling your book, but let's look a little deeper. Amazon is the big name that comes to mind for eBooks, but I think we can all agree the searchability kinda sucks. Especially if you're looking to discover something new, as opposed to searching for the latest from your favorite bestseller. I can't remember the last time I stumbled upon a brilliant new author by searching through the thousands of books on Amazon. And with the uproar over fake reviews earlier this year, I am a bit more skeptical when browsing there.

For indie and self-published authors, Smashwords is a major outlet, since they convert and distribute to a wide variety of online retailers. Like Amazon, searching Smashwords to discover something new and brilliant is no easy task. I've also heard from many indie authors recently that they consider Smashwords to be more of a writer's site than a reader's site - that is, it is more well-known among writers, and sales there may be made up largely of other writers.

On top of all this, Smashwords founder Mark Coker recently discussed the results of a survey he conducted on Mobileread. He asked readers to select their most common method for selecting eBooks. The most popular answer was "Recommendations from fellow readers on online message forums, blogs and message boards." This is where we come back to Goodreads.

Goodreads is huge. HUGE. They have "more than 5,700,000 members who have added more than 180,000,000 books to their shelves." I have often looked at my friends' shelves to see what we have in common as well as to peruse the books they've read and liked that I haven't read. And I find that much more enjoyable than clicking through the mess of search results on Amazon. Imagine this scenario:

A reader checks out her friend's Goodreads shelves and sees that someone recently read and reviewed two books, one of which is yours. Her friend had given four stars and positive reviews to both books. Perhaps there are some good reviews from other readers on each book's page as well. The reader thinks, "Hey, next time I'm on Amazon, I'll look up these authors and maybe buy one. But wait... I can buy this book [your book!] right here on Goodreads, right now. Well, my friend really liked it. What the heck, I'll go for it."

BOOM. Discovery. Purchase. Royalties for you. Instead of waiting for whenever the reader decides to click over to Amazon and hoping she'll remember your name or your book's title, offering your eBook for sale right on Goodreads lets you maximize the influence of many consumers' preferred method of finding eBooks. It's a convenience for readers, but it's also a potential advantage for you. Authors themselves must opt-in and upload their eBook for sale on Goodreads. Considering that there are only slightly more than 28,000 authors currently on Goodreads, if it comes down to your book vs. another author's book, there's a good chance that the other book may not be available to buy on Goodreads. Who knows, you may even win out over a NYT bestseller, or your favorite author.

All in all, it seems like offering your book on Goodreads is a good idea. You probably won't see a huge amount of sales, but they may be sales that you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. Here are a few other facts about this program:

• The eBooks for sale on Goodreads are offered in epub format, which works with most eReaders
• The author uploads the file and sets the price
• Sales are split 70/30 (which is the same split you'll get on Amazon for books priced $2.99 or more)
• Your profits are banked until you reach a specified amount, then you are paid (I've heard both $25 and $50 for this figure, but I'm not sure which is accurate. If you know, let us know in the comments!)

Inquiring minds want to know: As a reader, do recommendations from sites like Goodreads factor into your purchasing decisions, and would you then purchase a book if it was available on Goodreads? As a writer, have you or would you offer your book for sale on Goodreads?

Self-Image in The Hunger Games

by Mindy McGinnis

Yeah, you read that right.

Since publication, Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games has been the subject of more than one parental tirade against the violence depicted therein. While this post isn't focused on that topic, the one thing I do want to say is that whenever I hear an adult ranting about any book my first question is, "Have you read it?" Haven't had a "yes" answer to that one yet.

Instead, I want to focus on something The Hunger Games gives teens without being preachy, without talking down to them, and possibly without them even knowing they've learned a powerful lesson.

How tired are you of effortlessly gorgeous female teen characters? How about the rich one with the designer everything who is torn between two ultra hot guys? Or the girl from the wrong side of the tracks that's hitting an 11 on the 10 scale and the guy on the right side of the tracks who falls for her? Are you sick of perfect skin, glossy hair and full lips? 'Cause I sure as hell am.

Katniss kicks ass across the board. Sure, she can kill people in fun and imaginative ways, but the first time we see her she's using her skills to fill the fundamental need of feeding her family, alongside longtime guy friend Gayle. Her love for her little sister sends her to the stage to take Prim's place in a contest where she knows the odds are against her and her life is at stake.

And what does Katniss look like? Well ... we're really not sure. She's got dark hair, and it's usually in a braid. Due to the fact that she's from the poorest area of a poor district and has to hunt her food we can assume she's probably not terribly clean all the time and might even *gasp* smell bad occasionally.

Once a handful of professionals get a hold of her Katniss cleans up and gains attention from the world, but guess what? Ultra-hunky Gayle and super-sweet Peeta were already in love with her, before she got a dress that caught on fire and became the de facto spokeswoman for world peace.

Hmmm ... what could have possibly attracted them to her in the first place? Could it be ... her personality!?!?

One of my favorite lines from the entire series comes from a scene in Mockingjay when Katniss goes to see Peeta after he has been conditioned to despise the polished and public version of her persona, and he says, "You're not very big, are you? Or particularly pretty?" (p. 230).

Katniss even points out her physical shortcomings, in a refreshing non-self-pitying manner: "With my acid-damaged hair, sunburned skin, and ugly scars, the prep team has to make me pretty and then damage, burn, and scar me in a more attractive way." (p. 59).

Katniss has been through battles, bested her enemies, won over the world and had a guy on each arm the whole time.

And she's not "particularly pretty."

Good for her.

The Following Novel has been Rated PG-13 by ... What?

by R.C. Lewis

Every so often, a hullabaloo erupts over particular books and whether or not they're fit for public consumption ... particularly by children and teens. Both sides of the argument prepare for war, comments on web articles run into the hundreds, and Twitter hashtags go viral. None of this is surprising, but amidst the fury, there is often talk of solutions.

One idea I've seen floated here and there is a book rating system similar to the systems used for films and video games. I can see the appeal—a simple label that tells parents at a glance whether a novel may have some questionable content. But the harder I look, the less appealing it seems. The analyst in me only has one thing to say about it: LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE.

Let's think about it. First, who's going to do this rating? To be remotely consistent, fair, and meaningful, it ought to be some single, independent organization doing all the rating according to some kind of set criteria. Who's going to be responsible for pulling that together? Getting publishers and retail outlets alike on-board?

What about volume? From the MPAA Theatrical Market Statistics, I gathered that the number of movies officially rated per year ranges from about 700 to nearly 1000. (Of those, around 400-600 get released in theaters annually.) The ESRB rates 1000-2000 video games annually.

It's a little trickier to get numbers for book releases, particularly since I want to narrow in on fiction. But it seems safe to say tens of thousands of new works of fiction are put out each year. To successfully rate, someone has to read. How fast can a rater read an entire novel thoroughly enough to rate the content?

That's before you consider the massive avalanche of independent e-publishing.

Oh, yeah. What about those indies?

The MPAA ratings, as I understand, are a voluntary thing, not actually required by law. But it's kind of ingrained in us now, so we expect it. I imagine indie films don't have to be rated, but how much reach do they have when they aren't? Maybe you have a local theater that does a lot of indie and art films, but you have to seek it out.

Those indie eBooks are on sale right next to their Big-Publisher counterparts on Amazon. So do we all (traditional and indie alike) submit our novels to be evaluated by the Mysterious Novel-Rating Board? I can imagine the backlog ... and you thought traditional publishing moved slowly now.

Okay, maybe instead we're all just responsible for self-rating our own novels. But wait, isn't the "problem" in the first place the fact that people so often disagree on what is or isn't appropriate for a certain age? There would be no chance for even the illusion of consistency. Even with set criteria and guidelines, you can't expect an author to objectively evaluate their own work.

When I let the logistics go, I wonder if there's really even that much value in ratings. There are plenty of PG-13 movies I find repulsive, and R-rated movies I find worthwhile. Content is so nuanced and varied, it's really hard to stick one of a handful of labels on it and believe it will mean something.

What's the answer for concerned parents and general readers, then?

One option is to read the book yourself first. That's time-consuming, though, and if your kid's a voracious reader, you're going to have a problem.

Better option: The internet is your friend. Check online reviews, especially critical ones—they're more likely to mention potentially offensive content, and you can decide for yourself if it's a deal-breaker or not. Get involved on sites like Goodreads where people talk about books all the time.

What if you're in a store or library and forgot your smartphone at home? Ask a bookseller or librarian. It's their job to know about books. If they don't know enough about a specific title, I bet they could help you find out with one of those online resources. (I've yet to find a bookstore or library that didn't have a few computers inside.)

What are your thoughts on the idea of book ratings? What alternatives do you think are the most viable?

Entertainment Value In Tough Times

by R.S. Mellette

I have a theatre degree and have spent my entire adult life pursuing a career in entertainment.

In other words, I'm exceptionally qualified when it comes to matters of unemployment and hard economic times. For anyone out there facing this issue right now, I'm with you my brothers & sisters. Unemployment depression can kick your ass. The only thing you can do is repeat your mantra, "It's the situation, not me. This too shall pass."

In the meantime, you do keep looking for work. These days that takes about an hour, maybe two, a day. Things have changed since the local want ads and long trips in the car to pass out résumés and press the flesh. Now, you hit a few websites, send out a few e-mails, remind everyone you know that you're looking for work, and you're done before lunch.

So what do you do with the rest of your time?

"Write!" everyone will say.

Not as easily said as done. Being unemployed is not like being on vacation. The ache inside your head from the worry of how you're going to make it, the thought of "can I afford this?" for every morsel of food that goes into your mouth, wreaks havoc on creativity. Yes, you can fight through it and get some work done, but don't kick yourself if you hit a block. It's natural.

So you write if you can, then what? Yes, you can do all the stuff around the house. Done. What next? I could go on and on with a laundry list of stuff, but my point is, don't forget entertainment.

I haven't done a study, or even read one, but I have a gut feeling that human beings need entertainment as much as we need dreams. Without it, we'll eventually go mad. But entertainment costs money, so what is the best entertainment value for your slim dollar?

TV? Certainly your monthly cable bill, when weighed against the hours spent watching it has a good price per minute ratio, especially if your internet access comes with it. But daytime television is less entertaining than watching paint dry, and can even get depressing. Between 24-hour news cycles of all the yuck in the world, and commercials for trade schools that cost more than you'll ever earn plying the trade, daytime TV can be like alcohol—temporarily numbing the emotions, but in the long run making them worse.

Movies in the theatre? They have the added bonus of getting you out of the house, which is important, but the price per minute is high. Best to save these for the occasional treat until you're back on your feet.

Books? If you read them in a single sitting, a book might bring five hours of blessed relief from your troubles. If you borrowed it, got if from the library—which comes with the added bonus of a free trip out of the house—or bought a used book, you've got a great price per hour. And few of us read a whole book in a single sitting. We stretch that time out over a week or so, during which the thought of the book becomes part of the entertainment value.

Books also have an intangible quality that must not be overlooked. While a movie might distract you from your troubles for a couple of hours, and maybe even for a couple more hours after you've seen it, books have a way of digging deep inside your head. You can get lost in a book.

Of course, that can be good or bad. All things in moderation. The point for a writing blog is that, in bad economic times, entertainment is a good investment—and books one of the best of the choices.

Publishers should also take note. High unemployment means a lot of people are sitting around with time on their hands. That's an opportunity to fill those hands with a book. We should be selling more these days, not less.

Self-publishing? Use the right tools!

by Pete Morin

When I began to write Diary of a Small Fish in February of 2008, I had no idea if I’d even finish it. All I had were some searing memories, a simple idea and a new “hobby.”

When I finished it and began to query in July of 2009, I had a little more than a pipe dream that I’d even get an agent. My query went 0-for-110, and I was ready to pack it in when I met Christine Witthohn at the first writers’ conference I attended, Crime Bake. She liked my elevator pitch—mostly because she’s married to a lawyer.

In April of 2010, we became a team. I went through 6 months of rewrites, and in December of 2010, Christine submitted the manuscript to a carefully selected group of editors.

Four months later, having heard nothing from any of them, Christine and I began to discuss the prospect of self-publishing. I am very fortunate to have found an agent who understands and embraces the changes in the marketplace.

So, I have now launched Diary of a Small Fish and joined the proud ranks of the “indie” community—or as those stuffed shirts call us, “self-publishers.”

What did I do to prepare for this? A lot of things you’ve already read about. There’s nothing particularly new I can tell you, but perhaps I’ll reinforce messages you’ve heard before. Maybe you'll even disagree with something—if you do, you're not necessarily wrong. We're just blogging here, you know.

Building a Platform

This is one of those terms that sounds more impressive than it really is, but still, a see a lot of people who think of the word “platform” as a synonym for “soapbox.” I think that’s a big mistake.

When you see someone up on a soapbox (figuratively speaking), what is the first thing that comes to mind?

He’s selling something, or he’s lecturing. Unless you know who he is, odds are you’re going to tune out or take him for a nut job.

A platform is a “following,” but not in the sense of a pied piper—that would be Grimm. A platform is what I like to look at as an ever-expanding circle of friends, acquaintances and affinity groups with whom you’ve interacted such that they are likely to have an interest in what you are doing. I believe you need to begin doing this well in advance of launching a novel and asking people to buy it.

My social media tool of choice is Facebook. I’ve picked and chosen my friends—not every single person inhabiting the realm, and not all writers. Many old friends from Authonomy, other writers who are friends of friends. Old school chums from as far back as first grade. Musician friends and local music fans from the Boston area. Artists from other venues. I’ve introduced many of these people to each other—so my old high school chums are now interacting with writer friends in UK, Australia, Japan. I make sure to post things on my page that are not just writing related. A lot of articles on publishing, for sure—things that other writers will find helpful. Book recommendations when I’ve found something special. Also quirky news bits, cartoons (thanks to brother Jim for his stellar work!), jokes, gags, you name it. The idea is to establish a track record of posting things people like to see. When your posts come across their news feed, they’re highly inclined to click and read.

The measure of success isn’t necessarily in the number of comments. I’m guessing that for every comment you receive on a FB post or blog entry, there are at least three times that number who’ve read it. So if you use Facebook, pay some attention to varying your material. Be eclectic. Be unique. Be funny. One thing I notice is the number of “likes” that come from people who aren’t even friends. I’ve gained dozens of new friends that way!

I don’t think it’s possible to fully utilize every social media tool there is. Unless you don’t eat or sleep. The best you can do—and still have time to write—is to pick one or two to focus on, and hit them hard. And keep busy enough on the others that you’ve at least got some activity.

If you’re keeping a blog, bear in mind that your blogroll is as or more important than your own posts. You get more out of commenting on other peoples’ blogs than you get from your own page. I’m very bad at this, but try to stop in for visits on a regular basis, and leave a card at the door (i.e., comment) before you leave. You’d be surprised how this results in increased traffic to your own.

Don’t post for the sake of posting. Offer something interesting or don’t post at all. Your goal is to give people a reason to return. If you take care that each thing you post is worth their time, they will return. Give them a reason to doubt it, and they’ll desert you quickly.

The trick to making social media work for you is to understand to whom you’re marketing. I do not do Facebook or my blog because I believe my market is other writers. It isn’t. They are my friends, my colleagues. We’ve experienced this changing landscape together. We’ve offered each other support, critique. I’ve bought and read more than two dozen SP novels this year alone. Other writers are not my sales market. But they are an important—critical—part of my marketing effort. And I theirs. So my objective is not for them to buy my novel. It is to make them aware of it, and give it to them if I can. Big difference, both response and what they do with it.

Building a Book Cover

If you’re now reading for the first time how important the cover of your eBook is, you really haven’t begun to do your research. Suffice to say that “don’t judge a book by its cover” might be useful as a life metaphor. It doesn’t reflect the nature of the vast majority of book buyers whose very first buying instinct—looking inside the cover—is based exclusively on that very act.

Do not make the mistake of using your own instincts to become “art director” in this. I know—you’re a creative artist! You know what “good art” is! You don’t need to spend money having someone else tell you what’s pretty!

In most cases, this is a big mistake.

I have the benefit (perhaps) of enough years of circumspection to recognize what I don’t know. Graphic art is definitely one of them (as my wife, a graphic artist, well knows). But graphic art as applied to an eBook cover that will appear on a website as a thumbnail image is an entirely different matter. You simply must have foremost in your mind that a small image of your cover must stand out! It must stand out!

To appreciate this, you need to go to the eBook websites and look at hundreds of images. Just scan them with your eyes. Note which ones your eyes stop on. Do you see any pattern? Is there a particular color that attracts more than others? Notice all those fonts? Contrasts? Design elements?

Ack! If you’re putting up a free eBook collection of shorts, maybe you can afford to let it fly and pull up an old painting from the public domain. I did that with Uneasy Living, and it came out all right, maybe. But when you’re putting a debut novel out there with the intent to make a statement, you don’t want to rely on an amateur—you. You’re not an amateur novelist. Why have an amateur cover?

If one of your main objectives in self-publishing a novel length work is to maximize sales (and it may not be), then you must hire a graphic artist who understands the online sales dynamic. It’s one of the “expenses” you simply cannot avoid—that and the professional editor (see below). The competition for book cover art is like the Agora marketplace. Prices are reflected. Have an idea what you want, listen and be flexible to expertise you don’t have.

Everyone knows a graphic artist. I was ridiculously lucky to have run across an amazing artist who I’d shared a dorm with forty years ago. I stumbled upon Dean Rohrer on Facebook, and when I asked him if he wanted to help me, he was more than happy to help. He might regret that decision now, but in the end, both of us are rather proud of the final product and thrilled to have had this project to reunite us after all these years.

Arranging Your Innards

So you have a completed novel in proper manuscript format. I have two questions for you.

Did you have an editor read it?

Yes? Good for you. You can skip this next part.

No? You didn’t have the manuscript read by a trained set of eyes? Why? You can’t afford to?

You can’t afford not to, at least if you’re serious about what you’re doing.

There are a lot of ways to get your manuscript edited. One of course is to pay for it. The web is crawling with “professional editors,” and you have to do your due diligence to choose a decent one. What kind of diligence is due? Ask for a list of clients and contact them. Ask for the editor’s own writing sample and read it.

The cheapest way to get an edit is to use the barter system. I have a very reliable, solid, professional editor. How do I pay him? I get him more business. I read his stuff—whenever he asks. I pay him any way I can, whenever I can.

I’ll close this subject with one simple statement. If you think you can effectively edit your own work, you’re wrong. There are no exceptions to this rule. Prove me wrong, go ahead.

Are you sure your manuscript has been expertly converted and formatted into the various eBook formats?

This is a closer question. There are a lot of wonky-type writers out there who are in their element playing with file formats, converting to mobi or epub or prc or whatever. I did my own for a short story collection, and it worked out okay. That is, there are no glaring screw-ups, no stray returns, missing indents, extra page breaks.

But I have to say, I’ve read at least 25 self-published novels this year alone, and without a doubt, the most glaring annoyance (besides bad spelling and grammar) is formatting screw-ups. You worked your tushie off to get your prized work to this stage. Why take a chance on your own inexpertise?

There is a small army of people out there offering the service, but again, you have to pick carefully. A badly converted book is just as bad as a badly edited one. I chose to use Rob Siders, whose service, 52Novels.com, does the conversions for some of the big-selling authors like Joe Konrath. Rob did one hell of a job, used three different fonts, and inserted a very catchy fish hook in the chapter headings. He wasn’t cheap, but his work was meticulous, and I knew when I uploaded the files I wasn’t going to get any unpleasant surprises. In the end, it was money well spent, and looking at the book on my kindle, I have to say it looks lovely.

This is all very heady stuff these days in the publishing world. It’s like the days of the California Gold Rush, tens of thousands of enterprising folks rushing toward Sutter’s Mill with their picks, shovels and pans. Like that enterprise, in the world of self-publishing, the ones who strike gold are likely to be those with the best tools—and a little luck, of course!

You Asked: eBook Tagging

by J. Lea Lopez

A while back we asked you all what topics you'd like to see us cover here at FTWA. One reader asked about eBook tagging on Amazon, and unfortunately none of us really knew anything in-depth about it. At least not in terms of what it does for the author, and the logic behind tagging parties/lists. I've finally come across some information about this, so the question can be answered! I'm not sure the original asker really needs the info anymore, since it was Ruth Cardello, who is busy blazing her own trail on Amazon and seeing some good success with her marketing tactics. For the rest of us, here are some important things to know about tagging on Amazon.

• Any one person (author or customer) can add up to 15 tags (think of them as keywords or category labels) to a book on Amazon.
• If you click on a tag from a product page, you'll see other products with the same tag.
• You can browse the most popular tags.
• Amazon will suggest items to you based on your tags.

That seems fairly straightforward, and not exactly rocket science. It would seem that tagging is a way to make your book more visible to people looking for certain categories/subjects, right? Right. To an extent. However, you might be interested to know that clicking a product tag yields very different results than typing the tag into Amazon's search box.

It seems the more people who tag your book with a certain term, the higher your book will appear in the results when a customer clicks on the tag, either from another product page or the tag cloud. This is why you'll see groups of people starting "tag parties" (the erotica writer in me wants to assign a very different meaning to that phrase, ha!) where everyone agrees to tag each others books with the author's preferred tags. While this is good to know, ask yourself how often you browse for books (or anything) by clicking tags. For me, I might click on a tag occasionally, but not very often. More often than not, I'll use the search function and type in a topic, and use the drop-down box to search in "Books" or "Kindle Store." You can get drastically different product results this way.

Take a moment to do your own experiment on Amazon to see what I mean. I typed erotic romance into the search field and searched the Kindle store for that term. I looked at some of the titles, clicked on the first one, and scrolled down to the tags. From there, I clicked the erotic romance tag and was taken to another page of results that looked much different than when I had typed in the words and searched. I also tried enclosing the search term in quotes, and got yet another set of results. And just for good measure, I typed the tag into a separate search box labeled "search products tagged with" (which was at the bottom of the page, next to all the product tags).

Typing the tag into the special search box did yield the same list of results as clicking the tag itself, but not the same as typing the tag as a phrase in the main search box, which, let's face it, is the one that's most visible, and that most people will use. So I don't think rushing out to start or join numerous tag parties to make sure your book's target keywords are tagged hundreds of times is necessarily a guarantee that customers will find your book, but it won't hurt, either. (Something that might help a little more is thinking about search engine optimization (SEO) on your book's product page.)

Have you/would you participate in a tag party? If you have, do you think it's helped customers find your book?

Writer Burn-Out

by Darke Conteur

It's something writers don't talk about. That deep, depressing hole of miserable that feels worse than any writer's block. You look at the blank screen in front of you, and nothing comes to mind. No words or ideas. Not one thought. It isn't that you can't write, but more that you don't want to. You have no energy, no inspiration, and no amount of excitement creeps into your life when you open a Word file. This isn't just in your mind, but for some, it's a physical condition as well.

For whatever reason, many writers have battled a case of Burn-Out. For some, it can last a few days, others, a lot longer. I know of two writers in the last few years who developed a bad case of Burn-Out. One decided she would retire from the writing world for good, perhaps unsatisfied with her accomplishments and not wanting to continue spending energy on what she saw as a fruitless task. I was sad to see her leave. Reading her blog entries was an exciting look into her world. She blogged about the good and bad about the conferences she'd attended and been a part of, and it sounded like she was here to stay. The announcement of her departure was right out of left field.

The other writer, after announcing his writing retirement, started a new creative project, but not in writing. It was still connected to what he loved to do, he just wasn't writing. It took a few months of him putting his energy into this other project before his itch to write returned. When it did, he was more excited than ever about his work.

Writer Burn-Out is nothing to be ashamed of. It isn't a sign that you're weak or don't have what it takes. Generally, I find it's just the opposite. It can be overwhelming to learn all that is needed to become a writer. The stress from wanting to get it right can be debilitating, especially if the words aren’t coming and you keep reading about other writers having incredible writing days. The important thing to remember is, you're not alone. You're not the first to experience this, and you won't be the last. No one is going to think any less of you if you drop everything and walk away. Sometimes that's what's needed. Do what YOU need to do to get yourself through this. Don't worry, your story will always be there, and the writing community will always be here to welcome you back.

A Rose by Any Other Name

by Calista Taylor

Choosing a pen name is often a choice dictated by a variety of factors, but like most decisions that deal with building a platform and a brand, it's not only personal but business.

I first decided that I would need a pen name when I started writing steampunk. My real name has more of a chick lit feel to it, but worse, there's a porn star with the same name. As a result, the chances of googling my name and finding ME instead of the popular G-string starlet would be slim to none. Not a great way to be easily accessible to readers.

With the decision made to choose a pen name, I quickly came up with a checklist.

• Google Hits—When choosing a name, put the first and last name in quotes and google it. I like the number to be under 1000 hits (or close to it). That guarantees that by the time you're well into your platform building, you'll have taken over that name, so that when someone googles it, they'll primarily get your website, your Twitter/Facebook account, or your blog.
• An Available Domain—You'll likely want to put up a website to help promote yourself, and since it's likely you'll write more than one book, it's best if you put your website in your name, rather than your book title. Having that domain be available is a huge plus, though there are ways around it, like adding "author" to your name. Not great, but still an option, if you have your heart set on a particular name.
• How easy is the name to remember? Pronounce? Spell?—This is HUGE. If no one will be able to remember it, say it, spell it, then it's probably not a great choice.
• Does it suit the genre you'll be writing?—This deals with not only the feel of the name (sounding too modern when you write historicals, etc), but also with whether the name sounds too male/female when it's a genre that's dominated by a particular sex. For example, writing romance with a name that sounds male may turn off some readers.
• Does the name sound like a joke?—Picking a name that sounds too fake (often done to fit the genre to an extreme) can be a turn off. Remember—this is still a business venture so naming yourself Luscious Fantastique just because you write erotica or Vampira Nightshade because you write paranormals probably isn't a wise move.
• Is the name already being used by someone else?—A porn star (lol)? An actor/actress? Another author? Is it too close in the way it sounds to another author?

Whatever name you choose, I highly recommend using it for your Twitter account (both the user name and the @name), because each tweet gives that name another hit on Google. This means that before long, when someone googles your pen name, they will get you, or one of your tweets. This will of course lead to your Twitter account, which should also have a link to your website, blog or books, making it fairly simple for any readers to find you.

My favorite place to look for names is, hands down, the Baby Names section on Parents Connect (though the recent addition of video to the site is making me crazy). They offer a cool feature that allows you to find names with a similar feel to a particular name, or names that sound similar. This becomes useful if you really like a name but can't use it because it has high hits on Google, or doesn't meet one of the other criteria. Now you can easily find a different one that "feels" the same.

I hope this list will help, if you're considering pen names. Have you already chosen a pen name or plan on using one? What were your criteria?

Straddling Genres

by Jemi Fraser

So, you've written, rewritten, edited and polished your novel. You've written a synopsis and a query letter. Everything shines so brightly you need sunglasses to glimpse at it.

But let's have a closer look at that line in the query that says...

MY AWESOME BOOK is a science fiction historical western with a twist of fantasy, a romance that will make you glad you're alive, nonstop thrills and a villain who uses his victims for zombie experiments.

Yeah. No one's going to write it that badly, but a lot of people write books that cross into multiple genres. (And we're not going to discuss the age groupings today—that's a whole 'nother story!) So, what do you do?

Many stories have elements of a variety of genres. I've read many novels that cross into at least 3 genres and I like to write genre jumpers myself. But we shouldn't list all of those elements in the query letter.

Instead, as writers, we have to ask ourselves where the book is going to sit when (not if!) it hits the shelves of our favourite bookstores. There are no sections for science fiction westerns, never mind one with all of the other genres included in that summary above. So, head on back to the basics to decide.

Think about the hook in your query and the pitch you've created for when you meet those agents in the elevators (although I'm guessing a lot of agents take the stairs these days). You've probably already found the niche for your story. You've probably identified it in the pitch and the hook.

If your pitch/hook talks about the romance, that's what it'll be. If it's all about those magical elements or the paranormal abilities, it's under the speculative fiction umbrella. You can be more specific here (paranormal, urban fantasy, steampunk...) if you like.

In some cases, you might want to have a couple of different query letters. Let's pretend you've written a fantasy with a strong element of romance. If you're querying agents who represent romance, call it a romantic fantasy. If you're querying agents who focus on fantasy, call it a fantasy and show in the query that it is a romance, or call it a fantasy with a splash of romance. Remember you don't need to reveal every twist and turn in your query letter. The letter's job is to represent your book honestly and get the agent to want to read more. So focus on the aspects each agent is looking for.

Keep it simple. Limit it to a genre that shows up on a shelf in a bookstore. And personalize it for the agent. Then cross those fingers and press Send. Good luck!

I, Editor

by Robert K. Lewis

“In writing, you must kill all your darlings.”

As I finished up the latest draft of my current novel, I got to thinking about my editing process and how it’s changed and morphed over the years. I first have a confession to make: I’m fascinated by editing. Love it, really. There is this one moment that I’ll always remember as a writer. I was sitting at a table in Caffe Trieste in North Beach, pouring over a printed-out copy of my book, and as I worked, I suddenly realized that I’d turned a corner in my writing process because I now hated first drafts and had fallen in love with the editing of the draft. After all, first drafts are only there to be edited.

So, since it’s a topic near and dear to my heart, I thought I would talk about how I edit, and how I’ve heard other people do their editing.

The first time I go back to edit, I’m looking at the big picture (which is very Sol Stein, btw). What are the big changes that need to happen? Where does the story sag? Where is it strong? What plot choices work? Which do not? I will at this point make a cover sheet for each chapter, listing what characters appear, along with a brief overview of what’s going on. I then lay the ENTIRE book out on the floor of my office. Here’s what it looks like.

Yes. It’s a mess at this point, and it’s ALL on the table as far as I’m concerned. I’m married to NONE of it. I’ll rearrange chapters, take a part from one chapter and move it to where I think it would work better. I’ll toss entire chapters or storylines. By color-coding the characters (Hey, I’m a visual guy, what can I say?), I get a very good idea of when and where they pop up. This is the big work. The heavy lifting.

After I’ve done the next draft, I then add looking at the language and sentences into the mix. Here is where I will probably start at page one and work through to the end. I’m trying at this time to get a sense of the rhythm of the book. I’m still, at this point, staying loose and fluid with it all, ready to go back to the heavy lifting if necessary, or maybe follow up with a weak thread that needs reweaving, or even starting to look at word repetitions that piss me off, etc.

I may do a couple drafts this way, working from the beginning to the end, honing as I go. It’s laborious, yeah, but… this is the way I work. And really, since I love to write, it doesn’t feel nearly as laborious as it sounds. I love the journey, you know? Your mileage will vary, natch.

From here, I then become a miner of sorts, delving further and further down, really focusing in at the sentence level. Here I’m trying to make EVERY sentence sing. Seriously, if you think you can get away with a few bad ones, well… have you ever NOT noticed the turd in the swimming pool? Exactly. That’s how those sentences will stand out, trust me. Every.Sentence.MUST.Sing.

When am I done? Ah, well that’s the question that every writer asks, and none really know the answer to. Me? I just feel it, inside. I just know that it’s time for me to let the book go.

And so, here some tips that I’ve come across over the years that I want share with you. I’m sure that some of them, or maybe all of them, are known to you, but that’s okay. Maybe it’ll just reinforce your own way of doing things. I’d love to hear about how you do your editing!

1. Be flexible. When you’re just starting out at writing, you have a tendency to treat every word as sacred, every plot choice as carved in stone. This is natural. It takes some guts to admit that you were wrong. I have to tell you though, that in that first draft you just completed? It’s a 100% certainty you were wrong, probably in many, many places.

2. As I mentioned earlier, in the early stages, make a cover sheet for each chapter listing the characters and plot movement. Find a color-coding system that works for you. If it’s at all possible, lay the book out on the floor to get “the big picture”. Doing this helped me to see that one character in my latest had entirely dropped out of the book early in the second act, only to reappear late in the third. That led me to re-evaluate the need for that character, and also got me pondering other possibilities for that character.

3. Work from the macro, to the micro. This is Sol Stein’s advice, and it’s certainly good enough for me (see my rec of his book below). Be brave in the early stages. Toss what you love, fix what you hate.

4. When you’ve moved to the sentence level edits, read your book in reverse order, from the last page to the first. The problem with editing is that we KNOW the story, and get carried away with it. This leads to missing key issues and errors. However, reading it in reverse page order will help with fixing bad sentences and grammar. It takes the ego out of the equation.

5. I’ve also found that ping-ponging around the book from chapter to chapter (chapter 3, then go and do chapter 37, etc.) helps you stay out of the book and enables you to better see how a chapter is flowing, how it begins, how it ends, etc. Doing this led me to discover that most of my lead-off sentences were almost identical, and I always ended a chapter with a single line of dialog. This technique is just another way to keep you OUT of the story and focused on plot, characters, and sentences.

6. Finally, and I can’t stress this enough: read your story aloud to yourself. It all sounds great, in our head. This is natural, as these are OUR words. WE created them. However, when you read your book out loud, THEN you get the sentences that are laborious, the ones that will trip you up, cause you to go back and read them again. And hey, if they trip YOU up, and you created them? Then they’ll most definitely trip up someone who bought your book.

If you don’t listen to anything I’ve said here, please at least listen to #6. It’s really a great help. And it’s not like you have to be all Shakespeare and stuff, either. You can say it softly to yourself, at your desk. Sure, your spouse or partner or whatever might think you’re crazy, but you’re a writer, yeah? You’re already crazy!

To end, I want to give you a list of what I feel are some of the best books out there on editing your own work. This is not the end-all of lists, by no means. If you know of a book on editing that rocked your world, let us know in the comments!

Self Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King This has to be at the top of the list. Simply put, the best one out there on the topic.

Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing, by Claire Kehrwald Cook A much more academic feel than Browne and King’s book. This one is more like taking a class in editing your work, and that just ain’t a bad thing.

The Artful Edit, by Susan Bell Chock full of examples and strategic tips. Short, and too the point.

Stein On Writing, by Sol Stein I always find a way to recommend this book, whenever and wherever I can. It deals with the entire writing process, however part VI of this wonderful book deals with revision, and Stein gives you an awesome way to edit your novel, rather than just starting at page one every time you start a new draft. For myself, there’s a part of me that likes starting at page one sometimes, knowing there’s a lot of hard work ahead. But, I’m a masochist that way.

Heck, I’m a writer, right?

So, What Did You Think?

By Matt Sinclair

We writers can be a funny bunch. We all want an honest, no-holds-barred critique of our work. "Come on," we say, "I'm an adult. I can handle it." What is it about masochism that's so darned appealing?

But what about the manuscript that makes a reader want to say "This is the most God awful bit of tripe I've ever wasted my time reading! Kill it! Burn it! Do anything to destroy it and the synapses that fired these thoughts through your mind to begin with!"

I'm glad that I've never been on the receiving end of such a diatribe, and I don't know anyone who has been—or at least has admitted it. But we probably have all read works we thought were terrible—and we were right. It's also possible such pieces were written by people we know and respect.

The challenge is offering the asked-for "honest" criticism. Make no mistake, this is a delicate situation. I suspect the vast majority of FTWA readers understand that there's a difference between "honest" and "constructive" critisism, and just because a writer might make the wrong word choice in the type of criticism he asks for, we as early readers should err on the side of being constructive—even when it really is God awful tripe. It's fine to tell writers the writing misses the mark, but it's more helpful to show how far off the mark they are. Did it at least hit the target or did the dart get stuck in the wall a foot and a half away? Was the humor so sophomoric that you wouldn't share it with a high school junior? Show where, where, and where the story derailed.

Being an early reader for a writer is not for the faint of heart. As much fun as it might be to discover an unpolished jewel, it's quite possible what you hold in your hands is a clod of coprolite that needs to be in a pressure cooker for another millennium or so. Indeed, I'd argue it is more important today than it was even a year ago to quell an eager writer's willingness to share the work with everyone. The world of readers is at risk of terrible "books" in the guise of poorly-if-at-all-edited manuscripts with undeveloped characters and unexplored worlds, hackneyed themes, and language that would offend the ears of a Neanderthal. Make no mistake, the emergence of e-publishing is an important turning point in the careers of talented authors whose backlist was lost, forgotten, or unnoticed. But not all authors meet that "talented" level.

(Then again, American Idol reject William Hung released not one but three albums.)

Jokes and snarky remarks aside, being asked to read and critique a colleague's early version is truly an honor, and it's important to respect the person and the work. Writers who have not shared their work with others before are nervous and are looking not only for honesty but validation that their efforts have not been in vain. But if you accept the responsibility and find the work wanting, it is not only appropriate to say so, I'd argue it is imperative. How you do so, however, requires some tact.

So the basics: Is the manuscript riddled with spelling errors? Say so. If you find them pockmarking the manuscript for the first five pages, it's ok to put it aside and tell the person, "I'll read it after you've fixed the spelling mistakes. This isn't close to ready to being sent to an agent."

"Oh, but I'm a terrible speller," says the wannabe writer. That excuse is no more acceptable than a mechanic saying his hands sweat too much to use tools.

Is the grammatical structure more flimsy than a sand castle? Show your friend what needs to be done or where he can find out how to write properly. "But I thought that's what an editor is for," he says. This person has no idea what an editor does and is incapable of learning it yet. Perhaps he will in time. Be careful but firm. Some people will never get it. But these people typically are not readers much less writers.

What about those manuscripts that were readable but required you to sift through random point-of-view shifts and waffling tenses to find a story worth exploring? There's hope for this colleague. He might not be quite ready yet, but if he keeps putting the time in, he might get to the point where the work can be shared with an agent.

In the meantime, share what you know to help this friend understand that there are no guarantees in writing. Finishing a first draft does not mean you have a best-seller on your hands. Gaining representation does not mean your work will find a publisher, and being published does not equal fame much less fortune.

But developing a thick skin and open ears helps dedicated writers make a living doing what they love. If you ask me, that's what it's really all about.

The Blog Ate My Book

by Sophie Perinot

Once upon a time it would have been, “The dog ate my homework.” But today when something goes missing (or misses a deadline) the culprit is more likely sitting on an author’s desk (NO, not the cat) and the only growling it makes is the hum of that little fan inside that keeps it from overheating. The culprit is the computer, or more precisely the many things—facebook, twitter, blogging, games—we can do with it other than write our novels.

In this age of digital distractions it might seem sensible for a writer—especially one working on a draft that really should be further along—to “log out” completely for days or even weeks. Assuming for a moment that a writer had the self-discipline to do that (I am not certain I do), it may not be as prudent as it sounds at first blush.

Long absences from the virtual world are not in an author’s best interest. Being an active member of the on-line world is an enormous part of what generates buzz for books and recognition for their authors these days. It is hard to imagine a book or a writer being successful without being a genuine and active part of several social media and/or on-line writing communities.

So where do we draw the line? How do we stay “connected” but still manage the most important task facing us—producing polished and marketable manuscripts? If there were an easy answer I’d bottle it and sell it. The situation demands a balancing act worthy of a high-wire artist and I am currently perilously close to losing my footing and falling into the net (dear GOD I hope there is a net down there—I don’t see one).

It wasn’t always this way. I’ve long been a member of the AgentQuery community (which is how I met my marvelous co-bloggers her at FTWA). I spent a lot of time there. It began to feel like home. I’d pop over when I needed a break from drafting or editing and critique a couple of query letters, or see if I could answer the question of a fellow writer. Very manageable. Then I got involved with Twitter (perfect because 140 characters is more than enough of me for many people). I treated myself to “Twitter time” before my writing day began, on my lunch, and when I wound things down for the day. Still I was humming along. Heck I wrote, polished, and sold an entire manuscript without feeling (overly) harried (I mean, come on, don’t we always feel harried?).

But lately I am not making the progress that I’d like to on my WIP, and I always feel short of time and vaguely panicky. Part of this doubtless arises from the fact that I am also in the incipient stages of promoting my debut novel, but it’s more than that. I’ve always been great at juggling (another circus image—forgive me) but somewhere along the line I put too many balls in the air and one ball is a lot heavier than the others. When I sat down to work on this post it came to me in a flash. In my case, blogging is that heavy ball.

After I signed my book deal I started blogging here. Next came my personal blog. I like blogging because basically, I am VERY opinionated (something tells me you are NOT surprised). I also love reading dozens of writing-related blogs. They’ve taught me much of what I know about this business so I know blogs serve a valuable purpose. But blogging takes an enormous amount of time compared to most on-line community participation. A tweet is a quip; a facebook post can be a couple of sentences or a useful link. A blog requires topic selection, thoughtful analysis and a couple of hundred solid words in support of your argument.

So if blogging is such a huge time-suck, why do we do it?

I know why I started—conventional wisdom (and some publishers) says that a writer HAS to blog. It’s considered part of self-marketing and builds audience (aka sales).

I am beginning to consider this assertion more critically. Is it possible (*gasp*) that the amount of time writers lose to blogging is not counterbalanced by the number of new readers that our blogs deliver to us?

Some writers clearly think so. At a conference this past summer several well-established authors told me (as part of their very kind “advise the newbie” efforts) that if they had it to do all over again they would NOT start a blog. They insisted, quite earnestly, that a writer could get comparable marketing and publicity benefits while spending far less time by merely guest posting on the blogs of others (particularly around his/her release dates).

What do YOU think? If you are a writer who blogs do you believe it will build significant readership for your non-blog-writing? And if so, do you believe that based on evidence/experience or because that is the conventional wisdom? If you are a reader of novels, do you prefer writers who blog? Have you ever discovered a writer through his/her blog? Would you buy a book just because you read an author’s blog?

Me, I know something’s got to give in the next weeks and months if I want to finish this manuscript on deadline (and I have never missed a deadline in my life). I am not certain that “something” is blogging but I have my priorities—I am not going to let my blog eat my book. The book is my job. The blog may or may not be an effective part of developing an audience for my books. I am not certain. But there is one thing I AM certain of—no new book, no audience needed. So the minute I become convinced that blogging is interfering with my bread and butter it will become something I used to do and don’t do anymore.

And on the Seventh Day—Wait, I Mean Page!

by R.C. Lewis

Ah, the perks of being a novelist. Eyestrain. Carpal tunnel. Form rejections.

But it's the best, really! Those of us who know will suffer all that and more for the joy of bringing characters to life, torturing them because we can ... in worlds we create.

Talk about power.

Sometimes, though, we get carried away with that power. We name and define enough flora and fauna to fill the planet twice over. We develop a 700-year history of the monarchy. We formulate scientific theories to support complex technology that all runs on algae.

That's great. Fill reams of paper or gigabytes on your hard drive with every nuanced detail. Go for it.

The problem comes if we throw it at the reader ... all of it.

Don't get me wrong. I love a fully realized world. And I hate one that doesn't have enough detail, lacks internal consistency, and just doesn't feel real. But having that fleshed-out world as a foundation doesn't mean we have to spell it all out within the manuscript. If we do all the hard labor of working it out behind the scenes, it can seep naturally into the story.

Some details do deserve to make the page and add to the narrative. Personally, there are a couple of situations where I feel it's worth the word count to detail things in.

It's News to Me. This is pretty typical in speculative fiction genres. The protagonist enters a new country/society/galaxy/dimension. Everything will be new, so some detailing is only natural. In these situations, I always ask myself what my MC would notice first, and what would get glossed over until they're in deeper.

It's a Matter of Life or Death. Okay, maybe not that extreme. But I'm talking about aspects of world-building that are pertinent—even critical—in that particular moment. Make sure the diversion into explanation or description is properly motivated.

I'm Right and You're Wrong. This can be a fun one. Character #1 says, "Let's do ____ to accomplish this goal." Character #2 says, "You're a moron, that'll never work!" #1: "Yes it will. If we ____, ____, and ____, then ____ will happen." #2: "No way. Nuh-uh. The ______ of the ____ will never ____ _____ _____ ...." And so on. Hopefully done more artfully than that, but you get the idea. When there are legitimate differing views on how something in the world operates, that can be a decent time to work in some specifics.

I'm sure there are other situations and a variety of factors that can play into how much is too much and what approach is best. Some genres expect world-building to be handled a particular way. Some readers can drink in pages of geography and political history, while others will skim (if they don't just give up on the book altogether).

And who says it's just the sci-fi/fantasy spectrum that world-builds? Historical fiction may call on a setting we have some passing familiarity with, but it has to make it real just the same. Just about any novel has to establish at least a microcosm of a fictional world.

For myself, the sign of great world-building is when I don't notice it happening. Whether through description, dialogue, or more subtle means, I experience it and live in the world.

Do you have pet-peeves when it comes to world-building? Tips for pulling it off smoothly? I'd love to hear them.