The “Beauty & the Beast” of creating Great Art

When I was a child, I spent a lot of my super-hot summer days reading { being from Australia, it’s often 40-45+ Deg C (105-115+ F) for several days in a row}. I would read a novel and then I’d rush off to the library and borrow a book on the author or the setting. For instance, if I was reading an Agatha Christie novel, I’d go to the library a few days later and borrow a book on Agatha Christie. This was equally true for other art genre’s most specifically visual art, artists. Painters & Sculptors throughout the ages kept me fascinated, entertained and had me wishing to one day live in Paris, Province, Tuscany, New York or The Cotswolds or Kent in the UK.

Except there was a lot more to being an artist than sipping a coffee by the Seine, or sleepy, dreaming views of rolling hills and cute red and blue sail boats. For a start it was hard work and more often than not, unfulfilled aspirations led to a kind of manic for many artists. Still, I chose not to think on the loneliness of Van Gogh, the drunkenness of Hemingway or the financial ruin of Twain. I chose to think of the romance, the beauty, the meetings with other artists, the talks on politics and philosophy; and then I grew up.

The Pursuit of Happiness through the Creation of Art is a very difficult path. Today I’m going to specifically talk about writing/authors but the below could be just as easily replaced on other fields.

Writing Isn’t Always a Ball of Fun

Yes, it starts off fun, like a new relationship, you love your characters and are excited to see where the setting takes you and are even surprised at what develops. You tell your friends about Such-and-Such and can’t wait until you are back at that keyboard. But then, as in every relationship, things stall, conversation becomes strained or unnatural and you roll your eyes where once you battered your lashes and you sometimes even curse your character, the very same one you loved just hours ago.

I know you all know this but, I don’t think some of you get just how NOT FUN it really can be. I recently got an MS to edit. As is my policy, I read the first 5-pages and, although I saw several grammar repeat errors, I decided to ask for the first 20-pages and ballpark the cost for the entire manuscript.

I read those additional 15 pages and sent the lot back, with some notes, and no fee. Why? This author had promise (hence why I asked for more pages) but they had spent all their EDIT TIME on the first 5-6 pages. How did I know this? Pages 10-20 were like they had been written by someone else. I think their idea was that I (the reader) would fall in love with the first chapter and be unconcerned about issues, big gapping hole issues, further on. Clue – NEVER HAPPENS!

Writing IS NOT a ball of fun. WRITING does not stop with the first edit, or even the 10^th edit, or the first 25 pages – it’s hard and its time consuming and its frustrating – If you want this to be your future, accept Writing Is Not a Ball of Fun. Still dreaming of your days being filled with magical words & perfectly formed sentences floating into your head and then onto your page… read on.

Don’t Give Up Your Day Job.

Now, I say this in the nicest possible way. I know you want to give it up and honestly, if you can afford to, sure, go for it. But if you are on a single income and there’s no family trust fund to fall back on, as much as it would be great to devote all your precious time to your craft, don’t give up your day job.

Reality check. Most authors don’t sell their first novel, some don’t sell the second or even fifth novel, and even when they do, so very, very, few get any real money form it. Yes you CAN make a living from writing, I PROMISE! But you need to maybe have 3,4,5… novels out there before those royalty cheques pay anything more than a one-off cheap meal.

Don’t believe me? Let’s assume you are one of the lucky/talented ones and your first novel sells. Let’s even assume that, unlike the rest of us that need 12-24 months to write, edit, polish our work, you can do it in 6 months. In other words, this is the best, best, best case scenario. So, six months in, you’ve got a publishing deal. Then the work starts. Edits, re-writes, discussions with your publishers. Let’s even say your MS was so perfectly shiny that six months later it’s publisher-standard ready. Hell, we’ll even give you a decent advance of $10,000 (which really is super rare too). Now, the book has a lead-time of, you know what, we are already in fairyland, let’s go all the way and say it’s only 12 months!

So, 24-months from when you began your first MS, your novel is hitting the market. Hippie! Yes hippie indeed, but wait, remember that advance of 10K? Yep, that one, you need to sell enough to cover that first before you see a royalty cheque. Even if we say you average $2 to the author per book (averaging out e-book and paperback and then being super generous again), that’s 5,000 copies that need to sell before you see another red-cent.

Sure, you’re writing your next novel or two… but there is no guarantee the publisher will take your next work, especially if you don’t cover your advance (which is why big advances are not always a big advantage – but that’s a topic for another day).

So your best case scenario is, after working 35 hours every week, for say 45  weeks of the year, for two years, (or over 3,000 hours), you have $10,000 in the bank, or just over $3/hour – return for novel one. It’s actually not all that bad for your first novel, but its not enough to live off, even eating only 2-minute-noodles, and you’ll need some sort of prop-up income.

Get Used to being Pigeon-Holed

If you write romance, people, even your biggest supporters, will make jokes at your expense. “But I don’t write Romance” I hear so many of your thinking. It’s the same for all writers. You’re a PB or MG writer; people will joke about how immature you are. YA? Never really left college. NA? What the hell is NA anyway… and are you just being a pretentious git? Adult Literary fiction, refer to *pretentious git* – same goes for writers of poetry. Short story writer, Can’t you make a story stretch to something beyond 5K? Self Published; couldn’t cut it in the “real” world… the list goes on and on and on. Some of it is intended to be light humour, much of it is simply not thinking, and occasionally it comes from envy; that you have the courage to put yourself and your work out there when the *wankers* who make stupid comments rather than create something worthy, don’t have your courage.

Shaking your head at me are you? NEVER has this happened to you? Awesome, seriously. But let me ask you, have any of your non author/artist friends ever commented on how *easy* your day is or asked what you do all day? Have you ever been half tempted to smack them on the back of the head? Of course you cannot AND WILL NOT do that, but hey, get your character to do it in your book, you’ll be surprised how cathartic it can be!

Don’t be discouraged. Go back to point (i) – Writing is not easy and sometimes the hardest part is the perception of the community and/or the stigma attached to your writing category, genre or style.

It DOES Get Easier

No, not the work part, not even the labelling part, but your focus, your skill-set, your interaction with the rest of the writing community, it gets easier with time.  As you grow and develop as a writer, and as you become part of a community, whether In-Real-Life or via social-media, the feeling of loneliness, isolation and frustration is shared and that’s what makes it easier. The more friends that you gain who share your struggles and understanding, the more likely you are to improve exponentially. Yes, choose your friends wisely, but choose them none-the-less. Each one of them will help you to make it to the next day and the next page and the next edit… and the next manuscript.

As your network grows, so do your personal resources and so does the likelihood of novel 2,3,4… being completed and published. And that’s when it also get financially easier too – Again I PROMISE!

& the Point is?

The point is, very few things in life fall to us from the skies. Sometimes they do, rare as it is, sometimes people will the lottery and sometimes first manuscripts become best sellers and movies, but the truth is, for the most part, the pursuit of happiness through art is rarely easy. The question should not be when will I make it and how? but, who am I doing it for any why? If it’s for you and its because you simply MUST, then being difficult, although frustrating and often heartbreaking, is not going to stop you. If this is you, don’t let anxiety beat hard work, don’t send work that is not edited or complete — don’t make it harder on yourself than it needs to be.

So who or what is the BEAUTY & who or what is the BEAST of great art? It’s the one and the same – its work. Sorry to make it so simple. Hard work is like a yolk, weighing down our dreams and desires and yet, it’s that hard work that’ll make those dreams and desires become real. What’s more, they will be all the better for you’ll have *war wounds* to share with others- after all being the new generation Gertrude Stein or Ernest Hemingway cannot come with some pain 😉

As for timelines, most people sell their first novel (to a traditional publisher) somewhere between 5-10 years from when they took their writing seriously. In other words, Don’t Give Up Your Day Job (just yet)

Let’s talk Book Covers – what makes a great Book Cover?

Hi again.

Confession; I RARELY find a book cover I am so enamoured with that it sways me to buy a book without reading the first page or two, or at the very least, 2-3 reviews (hence why reviews are so important). Having said that, it would be a lie to say book covers do not sway the buyer, me included.

Sadly, they often sway me the WRONG way. Here are a few things that make me roll my eyes or simply skip completely.

• I can’t read the title – Now I’m not talking about the small print on Amazon, I’m talking about when I open the damn thing on my Kindle and someone has convinced the Author to go with some crazy font that
  1. Either my Kindle can’t read
  2. My eyes can’t take
  3. both
• Overly busy covers – Again, there is a time, place, genre, for busy, but honestly if I’m doing a book cover version of ‘Where’s Wally’ then I’m unlikely to want to read the book because
  1. I’m already over the cover
  2. Subliminally I am already thinking the novel will reflect the cover and I’ll be pulled in 100 directions looking for the point.
• Too bold and bright – Again, there is nothing wrong with bold and bright, but it must be done with some reference to the novel inside and the cover needs to allow my eyes to ‘rest’ a little too. Personally (and this is entirely personal) I am not fond of covers with too much orange or sunbeam yellow, I find those colours, when they dominate, to make me feel hot and sticky. Again personal preference, other people will love this but
  1. If your novel is not set in a hot & sticky setting, Summer time island setting, India during the monsoon period, as examples, that’s the impression it gives, even if people don’t know it
  2. And/or if your theme is not hot and sticky, think steamy erotic scenes, then the cover will not match either
  3. If you are going for a complete contrast to the theme and setting with your cover, more power to you, but you need to keep in mind that some people (like me) will skim right past this cover (unless it has been recommended)
• Really stupid marketing ploys – Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, especially if you have assess to some illustration software and a desire to show ‘how creative’ you are. Not that long ago I read about a novel that had come out. I’d love to give you the title but, in the wisdom of the author and their publisher or agent or some intern in the marketing department, the novel HAS NO WRITTEN TITLE! I kid you not. Instead, there is an image of a group of people, their backs turned away, in a field in the evening looking at the stars. I think one is pointing but I could be making that bit up. The idea is that the ‘picture tells the story’ as in it’s called “Look Up” or something like that. Yes, it was a clever idea while on the promo cycle – I will grant you that, but what then? Someone is surfing the pages of Amazon or Smashwords (or wherever it is found – I have never checked) and there’s no title – Silly much? I can’t recall if the Author’s name is on the cover either.

And then there are all the truly jaw-droopingly obvious bits of advice I have read for improving/picking your cover-design. Comments like:

• Obtain Good Images (no! REALLY? Who knew?)
• Consider your format
• Use your imagination 

I could go on but honestly, why do people bother spending time writing this stuff, obtain good images… good grief! As far as images are concerned, yes OBVIOUSLY obtain good images, but more importantly, obtain images you are legally entitled to use. FYI, just because it’s on the net does not mean it’s free to use.

So, you may have noticed I’m a little bit ‘NARKY’ on this topic and that’s because everyone’s an expert. Truth is, it’s YOUR book, if you are with an agent or publisher, or if you’re doing this on your own, if you REALLY dislike your cover, stand up and say so. This is your career and this novel is a representation of you.

Here are my tips

1. Take your Writers Cap off and put your Readers Cap on. Look at the piles of novels you have around the house and those on your Kindle, and divide them by which covers most drew you in. Don’t think about age category or genre, think only COVER DESIGN. The reason for this is whatever you are drawn to is also a reflection of who you are and will likely help you discover how you want your cover represented. What you want is colour, imagery, design rather than girl-kissing-boy-love-story. Do you like the colours muted or bold and bright? Do you prefer the image to exactly reflect your novel or be a little mysterious – that sort of thing.
2. Now make a list of your favourite book covers and
   1. Either find out who the illustrator/artist is or
   2. Give it to potential illustrators/your agent/your publisher as a guide of what you like.
3. Write ½ a dozen 6-12 word pitches (that’s it no more) for your novel. This will help you clarify what your message/theme is as well as your audience. It’s a lot easier to create a cover when you know the theme in a few words and the audience it’s aimed at.
4. Avoid the obvious – in other words, picture clichés. There is nothing wrong with turning a cliché on its head, that’s called clever marketing, but if it isn’t done well, the cover becomes a dud.
5. Avoid too many images. Again, this is not a set-in-stone rule, in fact none of these are, it’s art and can be whatever you want it to be, but, busy images can confuse the potential reader.
6. Look into colours & mood – seriously. This is not some ‘new-age’ mumbo jumbo, there are scientific studies to show that specific colours and tones within that colour palate, evoke different feelings and emotions.
7. Go to a book store, the library, Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads and do a search on your category and genre and see what covers are out there, and see which ones do it for you – add them to your list.
8. If on doubt, throw it out. This is the hardest one. You may have an artist friend doing you a favour, perhaps for free or next to nothing, but you really don’t like the cover. It’s not going to be easy to say it’s not working for you but it’ll be a lot easier to do before the thing gets printed and you hate it and resent your friend a little too. Or you may have an agent, or publisher, or both, who have got their team of artists and illustrators… and they DO KNOW what they are doing. You should listen. You should try to learn. You should be prepared to compromise, however if you feel so strongly about the cover that is bothers you a day or two later, speak up before any more time or money is spent. Once it’s out, fixing the cover is not so simple.
9. Don’t skimp on design. Yes it’s not cheap, especially if you are going the SP route, but, just as a good editor and proof reader is vital to your novel inside, a good, professional cover is to the front. It doesn’t have to have an image of the cosmos that was taken on a space-station, but it does have to have a clear image with decent pixels that conforms to industry standards.

Lastly, I’ll refer you to Writer Digest (which for those of you who follow me know I think are a very useful author resource):

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/general/10-tips-for-effective-book-covers

They have 10-tips.

Many of them are the same as mine. I in fact read theirs after I had read mine and it’s interesting that we cover pretty much the same points. If you don’t believe me, believe them 🙂