Prologues, Back-Story, Exposition & other things I don’t want to see…

Firstly, sorry for the lack of updates. September /October have been (and always are in Melbourne) crazy times. There was the AFL grand final, the NFL Grand Final, School Holiday’s, The Royal Melbourne Show (side note when the heck did this become so expensive I swear I’ll be paying off the c/card bill until next year!), a sick dog, a kid’s birthday party, a broken arm (& I thought I’d be the parent WITHOUT the broken arm child) & a short trip to Eden, and to my non-Aussie readers, ther is a place on the NSW coast called EDEN, (mummy & daddy time)

Phew! OK, now back to the topic at hand.

As I have mentioned previously, I offer editing services as well as running this blog and every so often I see a “trend” come through. Sometimes it’s a good trend, as is the case with mixed genre/themes and loads of great (and well written/thought out) diversity. Other times its not to great.

Today I want to start with the NOT SO GREAT.

Prologues

OK, I’ve been open about my dislike of prologues and not everyone agrees with me. Even so, I happily admit that some stories and some genres do benefit from a short prologue. The ACTIVE word here is SHORT. If your prologue is longer than five hundred words then it’s any of the below:

(i)                           It’s actually Chapter one.

(ii)                        It’s an excuse to info-dump your entire back-story

(iii)                      It’s a lady-writers way of “getting on with it” and no one is fooled.

(iv)                      Your manuscript is not ready and needs more editing/BETA reading and reviewing

(v)                         It’s many or all of the above

Back Story in Chapter one (& two)

Let’s make a few things clear, no one, let me repeat this NO ONE expects to know all your characters the instant they start reading. Starting a new novel is like a starting a new relationship or friendship. When you first meet someone you neither want their entire life story nor do you want to be dragging information out of them. If you are forced into either extreme, it is very likely you will not want to engage with this person and likely hope to never see/speak to them again. Long-winded people, dull people, utterly self-absorbed people interest no one but themselves. This is the ideal analogy for a novel. If you’re writing your novel just for yourself, go ahead, indulge as much as you like. However if your intent is to engage other readers (beyond your immediate circle) then remember too much is as bad as too little.

The reader doesn’t want to be swamped with information over load but neither do they want to be scratching their heads wonder, “Hang on, who is that guy again?”

If you want to find that happy place look first to your favourite authors and re-read their first five chapters. Look also to NOT writing a war & peace epic of a chapter one. There’s a good reason for this. LET THE READER CATCH UP. Giving the reader a chance to take in your first chapter and the characters within is a winning formula and while there are exceptions to this, on the whole, short, sharp equals engaging.

Chapter one is not the place to dump everything into the readers lap. It’s a place to set the theme, the scene, the tempo, the language, the main character, the location, a secondary character and that’s MORE THAN ENOUGH.

Again, of course there are exceptions, and the truly skilled/talented can get away with almost anything but for most of us, we need to work within parameters. Look at it this way, if chapter one goes on and on and on and your reader ONLY has time to read chapter one because it is so long (during a lunch break for example), by the time they return to the novel, they may well have forgotten a lot of the information you invested within it. Now the reader has a choice to make.

(i)                           Re-read Chapter one and waste another lunch break covering what you already read

(ii)                        Keep going with Chapter two & hope you can work out what you missed as you move along

(iii)                      Just give up

Which one seems most likely? Yep, that’s what I thought also.

Exposition

Let me say from the get-go I don’t mind a bit of exposition, but then again I also like literary fiction; and not all readers do. Some agents and publishers as well as readers literally roll their eyes at paragraph after paragraph of exposition.

So what is EXPOSITION? It is a kind of info dump but it’s not limited to back story or world building , basically it’s everything

Exposition is a bit of all of the below:

·        Back Story Info Dump

·        World Building Info Dump

·        Setting Info Dump

·        Descriptive Info Dump

·        Etc.

Let me state ALL of the above, back story, world building, setting, description (etc.) are VITAL and various genre’s allow for differing levels of exposition. However, there is such a thing as TOO MUCH. Let’s put it this way. Say you like your coffee with two sugars. Now, it you’re given a coffee with one sugar or three sugars, it might be a little bitter or a little too sweet, but remains palatable. However, if you are served a coffee with NO sugar or FOUR sugars you’ll struggle to drink it. Hell you’ll ask for another, your money back, or smile politely but not drink the coffee. That’s exposition for you. Too little and you don’t really know “Who’s on first” too much and you find yourself smiling politely, closing the book (or kindle) and not going back for more.

Too much Exposition kills drama.

Too much back story kills the story’s movement.

Too long a prologue kills interest to even begin.

So where to go from here?

Yes I make my living from offering editing services but editors, even the best editor in the world cannot fix everything. Before you hire an editor, get yourself a TEAM of CP partners & BETA readers, but they need to be honest.

Then accept that they MIGHT have a point. You don’t have to agree but you have to acknowledge that they have taken the time to make comments and give feedback. They have read your manuscript and offered honest critique. Acknowledge it for the gift it is.

Then be brave enough to slash pages and kill darlings.

Then do it all over again.

Then get yourself someone like me, after several BETA readers and re-writes, not before. Aside from having a product I’m keen to read because I’m not faced with page after page of the author droning on about nonsensical overindulgence, you’ll also save money – Hell! You may not even need me if you get yourself a crack Team of BETAS!

I don’t like ending on any form of negative. I don’t like writing a negatively swayed blog post. Therefore I’ll finish with this. You have taken the time, invested your soul, a little of your heart, fallen in lust and/or love with your characters. The cost has been time spent with family, friends and restless nights trying to figure out exactly how to best describe and present your characters. You’ve DONE the HARD WORK, now let the BETAS do there bit and indulge in a little self-gratification for having achieved so much already. Red-Pen Markings on your loving & loved up manuscript are not fun, but trust me, the pain is lessened when you don’t also have to invest buckets of cash as well — or worse when an editor says “This is not ready for the final edit stage” & be honest; you kind of knew that already; you were just having a day-dream-moment, and that’s OK too, but don’t forget to wake up 🙂 

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 🙂

How to Get a Book Review – or the Art of Launching without becoming a Nuisance!

Reviews – Getting what you want!

I have a confession to make. I’m a bit of an internet snoop. I troll, stalk, errh check-out dozens of author blog sites, and when I say AUTHOR I mean that in every context, traditionally published fiction & non-fiction author’s, self-published, aspiring, New York Times and Major Prize Winning author’s and the little guys.. In other words, I’m interested in everyone from traditional to hybrid, to self-published to as-yet-unpublished.

All of these sub-groups of authors have numerous things in common, especially “getting-word-out” marketing needs. And lately I’ve been seeing a lot of“How do I get my book reviewed” tweets, questions on LinkedIn and on Blogs. And it’s a fair enough question. If you don’t have an agent, and/or a medium to larger publisher, you’ll need to do a lot of marketing yourself.

Let me repeat that. Even with a publisher behind you. Even with a decent sized publisher, you will have to do a lot of marketing yourself…

“OK” I hear you saying, “But how?”

Here’s the truth, ideally your marketing started LONG before you signed a publishing deal. Yes, it’s true you DO NOT need to have a public/social profile presence to become a NYT Best Seller. But here’s a reality check, not many authors will be NYT Best Sellers, at least not with your first novel. It DOES happen, but not often. So your job is not only to write a killer novel and drop-dead-gorgeous submission, you also have to be prepared for the day you’ll need reviewers.

Now, I’m going to assume that you’ve got a Twitter and/or Facebook, LinkedIn (etc.) profile and that you’ve been interacting with agents, editors, other authors, friends and the general public and have a ½ decent following and a few loyal friends that you’ll be able to call on first as BETA’S and then as Reviewers. (If you don’t … get on to it and if you’re really stuck, leave a message and if I get enough messages I’ll post a blog update on developing a platform and social profile at another time).

For the purposes of this blog, I’m going to assume you have signed with either a small-ish publisher or are self-publishing… and therefore will be expected to do a lot of marketing yourself. First thing to accept is: With few exceptions, major news publications do not review Self-Published books, even though 100s of 1000s of self-published titles have been published and some of them have become Best Sellers. Even so, the lack of coverage in traditional media outlets has not stopped SP authors from their rise.

According to the New York Times, “Self-published titles made up roughly one-quarter of the top-selling books on Amazon last year.”

And according to Digital book World in May 2013, at least ten self-published books were best sellers. Books like Rachel Van Dyken’s The Bet, Katy Evans’Wool Omnibus Edition and Abbi Glines’ Twisted Perfection.

Further down, I will add some KNOWN REVIEWERS but for now, let us assume you are one of those who may struggle to find accredited reviewers. So what do you do?

Let’s look at time-lines first. Most professional reviewers need to receive a copy of your novel AT LEAST 3 months before Launch-Date, therefore you should be contacting EVERYONE 5-6 months before hand.

Types of reviews: There are three basic review types for a book.

(i)                 Cover Reveal/Book Launch. This is the simplest and often is the most popular for other authors with blogs as you’ll provide a cover, a blurb, a brief bio, a list of links (with the link) where the books are available and often a discount voucher that people reading the review can use.

(ii)               Q&A & Cover Reveal. This is more detailed and usually involves reading some or ideally all of the novel, or knowing the blogger/reviewer  quite well, and they you, (hence all that work you’ve been doing on social media) where they’ll pose a list of questions about you, your writing process and your novel. It’s much more in-depth, time consuming for both parties and much more intimate for the reader of the review. You’ll still provide a cover, a blurb, a brief bio, a list of links (with the link) where the books are available and so on.

(iii)             Full review of the Novel. This can also mix *(ii) but is always completely honest. The reviewer will be given a copy of your novel to read and in return they will write an honest and frank REVIEW of the novel. You will also supply links & a jepg cover of your novel as well as a brief Bio and often a photo of yourself. The reviewer will decide what to write ,what to omit and have a free hand – and they will also post a review on (for example) Amazon, Goodreads, Smashwords, etc.

How to decide who to send what? That’s up to you, but remember this, the bigger the name/following of your reviewer, the more people will read the review… good or bad. I tend toward an initial email to all (non-professional) reviewers, that is to say, Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn friends that feature books & authors on their blogs. The initial email should be something like:

Hi there,

As you know my novel (TITLE) is due to be launched mid November 2015 and I am looking for people who might be interested in (List all three options). If you’re interested in being part of the launch please reply email me.

If your launch date is November 2015, you should be sending your first email out in June 2015, with a follow-up at the end of July to those who have not replied. NOTE one follow-up is more than enough, don’t become annoying! For those that have replied they want to do *(ii) or *(iii) send them a copy of the blurb, cover and/or book, thank them for their time and ask them to let you know “If we missed something” – I’ll let you in on a secret, everyone misses something and 5-10 extra sets of eyes are awesome!

NUMBERS:

Ideally you should be looking for (min):

5-10 in the (i) section

10 in the (ii) section

And at least another 10 in the (iii) section

Though that’s not always possible, it should be your min. aim. You also want to stagger the Launch.

In August, after you’ve heard back from those people who’ve read the novel and fixed the last of those annoying little errors, you (or your publisher), will now be ready to confirm a launch time-table. And if you don’t think reviews work, read this:

One best selling book that was boosted by an online book review was Colleen Hoover’s Hopeless. Maryse Black, whose blog reviews mostly S/P chick lit and contemporary romance, was one of Hoover’s early fans. Hoover self-published her third book, Hopeless, in December 2012 and it became a New York Times best seller. Black wrote a rave review of Hopeless around the time it was released, and within a few hours over 20 people commented, many saying they had purchased the book and were excited to read it. 

For Self-Published, Hybrid and authors with Small Press, word-of-mouth marketing is key, that’s a big-deal. Having those early, positive reviews was the first step into making Hopeless successful as it helped direct readers to the book, who then bought copies, and in turn posted their own reviews, creating a snowball effect that advanced it best seller status. FYI, after self-publishing several books on her own, Colleen Hoover is now with a traditional publisher thank-you-very-much. Hoover has also sold the movie rights to some of her work. Johanna Castillo, VP and senior editor of Atria Press, first learned about Hoover from book blogs.

And that’s how momentum starts. Funnily enough IT IS and IS NOT about numbers. You only need ONE GREAT REVIEW that is read by many to start a momentum but you might need to have 50 people review your novel in order to get that one great review.

So, it’s the end of August, you have your super-dooper-polished book ready to go. You have your reviewers ready to rock & dates booked in. Some *(i) & (ii)* will happen in Late September through to book-launch date and *(iii)* will start in October with IDEALLY one reviewer per week, every week from Mid October through to mid December.

Now you are ready to approach PROFESSIONAL REVIEWERS.

First, there is nothing wrong with sending copies to the New York Times. Yes it’s unlikely they will review your book but what the hell right? And should you make it the NYT Best Seller list, it would be kind of cool to be able to give interviews where you say “Well NY Times didn’t want to review my book when it first came out, that goodness for…” (and name those that DID help!)

Other people worth approaching:

Firstly, you MUST approach these people in August or at the latest September if you want their review to coincide with your launch. No, that is not a RULE however; many reviewer’s like to be “the first” to have found the next big thing, rather than hashing over what others have said.

Second, approaching does not equal a YES answer. I have prepared a list of some of the best international ones that are happy to cater for self-published and/or small-press authors. As you can imagine, they are all getting 100’s if not 1000’s of requests. Still, it CANNOT hurt to send a quick email.

Maryse Black http://www.maryse.net/

Black said she posts on average three reviews each week and that about 80 percent of the books she reviews are Self-published/ Indie authors.

We Fancy Books http://wefancybooks.blogspot.com.au/

“We Fancy Books” has five reviewers and focuses on YA fiction, contemporary, sci-fi, and paranormal romance. Approximately 20 percent of the books reviewed on We Fancy Books are Self-published/ Indie authors.

Dear Author http://dearauthor.com/

Jane Litte, the founder of romance review blog “Dear Author”, said her site posts 12 books each week, two per weekday and two on the weekend. “Dear Author” has eight reviewers, over 170,000 visitors each month, and it receives around 300 review requests each month from authors and publishers.

Chick Lit Central http://www.chicklitcentral.com/

Melissa Amster from “Chick Lit Central” said the website usually reviews two to three books per week, and they have a balanced mix of traditionally and self-published books.

indieBRAG http://www.bragmedallion.com/

“IndieBRAG” has a program called B.R.A.G. Medallion that reviews all genres of self-published print and digital books. Readers tell “indieBRAG” their preferred genres and then choose from a short list of titles which books to review.

Building Relationships with Book Reviewers

Some book reviewers try to stay in touch with authors after reading their books. Though in a few cases this helps an author get reviews for subsequent books, most reviewers said they decide whether or not to read new books by previously reviewed authors based on the content and quality of the book, and not by their relationship with the author.

Online Book Review Sites

Here’s a couple of  additional sites worth considering:

–         Blog Nation, http://www.blognation.com/blogs/book-reviews

–         The Indie View, http://www.theindieview.com/indie-reviewers/

–         iDreamBooks, https://idreambooks.com/

And don’t forget to post something on sites like LinkedIn, on Facebook, on your Blog. Also join sites like Scribophile (http://www.scribophile.com/ ) where you can not only get feedback & honest critique on your WIP, Query Letters & Synopsis, but you can also let people know you need reviewers and announce a publication.

And because we are an Australian organisation, I could not have a post without at least a few links to Aussie reviewers/options!

 –         The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books

–         Australian Book Review https://www.australianbookreview.com.au/

–         Aussie Reviews http://aussiereviews.com/

–         Aussie Authors http://www.aussieauthors.com/reviewers.htm

–         Aussie Bookworm Express http://aussiebookworm.wordpress.com/

–         The Age Entertainment http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/type/book-review

So there you have it. More work – Sorry!

Don’t forget to talk to all your author, musician, artist and entertainment friends as well as anyone who has worked with you on your novel, from BETA’S to editors to illustrators, to CP partners… ask how they did it/are doing it. Share information, and knowledge and contacts.

And IRL you work as an accountant when you’re not bashing the keyboard? GREAT! Ask your friends at work to review your novel and give it a rating on Amazon & Goodreads. You volunteer at the local primary school tuck-shop every other Friday AWESOME! While you’re cutting sandwiches let the other parents know you have a book coming out… and when. Your local community centre as a small hall that can be hired out for events? WONDERFUL – arrange a book signing and drinks/BBQ/Meet-and-greet afternoon. Free food and/or free drinks will bring many along!

You need to be as active and as creative in your marketing approach as you were in writing your novel, even if that means stepping out of your comfort-zone and asking for help. Also, if anyone has anything to add to any of the above, any hints or suggestions, things that worked or did not work, I’d love to hear from you, as I know many, many others would 🙂

 

*Lost Lynx* Wish-List & Submission Guidelines

Hello all, 

As promised, the Lost Lynx Publishing & Media website has now updated their wish-list and submission guidelines… both of which you’ll find under the website SUBMISSION button. There’s a fair bit of information, how-to’s and what Lost Lynx is most interested in… and so on. I’ll post updates here too, but for now, I’d suggest going to the website and taking a look.  http://www.lostlynxpublishing.com/

And you’d be wise to follow Lost Lynx on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LostLynxPub 

Where’s a little of what you’ll find on the two new pages:

Example of how your submission should look:

Attention Submissions Editor,

Please find my submission for (TITLE OF YOUR MANUSCRIPT), a (WORD COUNT) (CATEGORY & GENRE) which fits your current fiction wish-list.

(BODY OF QUERY)

(BIO)

Per submission guidelines I have attached my first (3 chapters/ 5000 words), 1.5 spacing (And this is where you tell us if it’s all prologue), and included my 1.5 spaced synopsis below my signature.

Regards,

YOUR NAME
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
(& if you want) Links to TWITTER/FACEBOOK/BLOG

All of the above will total 500-words + synopsis below here:

Lost Lynx Publishing & Media is currently closed for submissions, however, with the end of August only days away, we thought it time to let everyone know what we want and what we are looking for in the new year. Additionally, the website has also had a complete face-lift. You’ll also find out why the Lost Lynx name & the new MOTTO in Latin:  “Bene est enim numerus magnitudine; quid est defectus” (& the translation) on the website. Let us know what you think 🙂

& as always, feel free to post a comment on here too 😉

The Art of Clever Writing & how to Finish what you Start

Carry a notebook/pad everywhere – the Art of Clever Writing

First off, writing is an art-form because it transports the reader to another place, another world. And new characters who, if done well, become as important to you as your real (or real virtual) friends. When done exceptionally, you, and others, will quote characters and dress as them at theme parties and create games and almost worship the characters. Such is the power of great books. It has always been this way and I think it will always be so, no matter the format or forum.

So that’s the finished product – the work of art. It’s not the work-part. Just as a dancer spends years in practise and months in painful rehearsal, so it is for a painter, or a sculptor, or a musician … and so it is for an author.

Lets get something clear. If you’ve always dreamed of buying yourself a little cabin in the woods or a cottage by the sea, where you’ll have a cute little loft office with a view of the valley, ocean and sky, and you’ll happily pound away at your keys with a sedated cat purring on a lumpy sofa, just close enough for the odd pat but not too close so as to disturb you, great! You’ve got a vivid imagination. You can probably smell the honeysuckle creeping up the cabin or the salty-tang of the sea. You can imagine chooks clucking in grassy green paddocks or seagulls squeaking. You can even smell the hot chocolate that’ll be there for you, when you sit back, pressed up against your chair, musing over your newest sage words and dreaming of book-launch-day. Are you there?

Now wake up and smell the coffee, no seriously, you forget about it, it’s the damn percolator that’s gargling not chooks and seagulls your hearing. Here’s the thing, the only real part of that *might be* that you can afford to buy a place in the country or by the sea. If you can, great, but honestly, most authors can’t afford to buy much more than two-minute-noodles for much of their writing careers.

Now, like I said, if you imagined all of the above (and more) then you are half-way to writing a scene everyone can imagine – and love. That’s the good news. The bad news is, being a good, or even a great writer isn’t enough.

So let’s talk about how to go from good, to great  to Oh-my-lordy-lordy-wow! 

Before anything else, your character, their actions, their mannerisms (etc.) must sound authentic. There are a lot of things to consider.

1. what age is your MC
2. what age does your MC act (this is important especially in MG)
3. what era is it set in
4. what language is it set in – now, now, none of that. Yes I’m talking English but which English? UK, Canadian, New Zealand, USA, Australian, Fiji English? And then within each of those, what’s the inner culture. Is it USA Southern or NYC Brooklyn? Is Melbourne Eastern Suburbs or is it Western? Is it city or rural? Is it French Canadian or English? Is it pigeon English? Are you seeing where I’m going here? A contemporary mystery set in Melbourne Australia will use not only a different version of English spelling, but also local terms, the meaning of certain words, accent, dialect etc, to one set in central London or Queens NYC.

Here are my tips on Writing Process 

Author’s Survival Fit 101

Whether it’s electronic or pen & paper, never be without a pad – EVER. Sometimes the silliest things pop into your head that could be that Eureka moment.

The little secret I’m about to share, I’ve done so before & most have loved it.  Why? Because you’ll never struggle to try and remember that line that popped into your head half-way home from work on a busy train. You know the one. The brilliant one that was your ideal hook. The one you lost because the train was too crowded and the girl sitting next to you was babbling on the phone – and by the time you got off the train you couldn’t quite remember the EXACT wording?

Yeah – that one! So here it is – In every jacket, in every purse, every trouser pocket, every wallet, put an A4 piece of paper folded up into eighths, but before you fold it up, take 2-3 pencils and have them cut into three. Sharpen all of them and put one small pencil in the first corner of your folded paper. The paper will protect the pencil and will still be small enough to stuff in most places. If the page is still too big, once at 1/8 of the size, roll it up, cigar-style, and stick it into your wallet/purse… everywhere. Now, no matter where you are, if an idea strikes, or if a conversation taking place inspires you, unfold, grab your pencil, and make notes. You have a lot of paper for notes, on both sides, and you have a pencil – this should be considered an Author’s Survival Fit 101.

Draw on real life.

If you write Picture books, Middle grade, or Young adult especially, but even for NA and adult, listen to the language of your main characters peers. Look for key words repeated. Look for interesting inflections in pitch and tone. Note mannerisms, they change just a little with each generation. Look at fashion-style, even hair styles.

No, you don’t want to info dump all that information in one big blob, but getting these things right will help the reader trust the author and will also help the story to progress naturally & organically.

Even if you write fantasy, or SciFi, or historical romance, draw on real life. Your world MUST make sense to us, the reader. No we don’t need to know why your planet has 7 moons or even the names of the moons, but if your planet DOES have 7 moons, do your research on how a planet with so many moons might differ from ours. Will there still be a tide? And if so, will it change 7 times a day? Or will other factors influence your world’s seas? Draw on real life to make your world actively real to us.

Keep a Diary/Calendar

Now this does not need to be a big deal. I recommend an electronic one, perhaps linked to your email account. Each day you write, note this in your calendar and/or diary. Note what you wrote, new pages, editing Ch 1-7, blog post, author novel review (etc.) and note how much time you spent on writing that day. Don’t get bogged down with “I wrote 3,000-words today” because, OK, I’m going to say it; the number of words you wrote is not the significant part – SERIOUSLY. Especially for first draft because much of what you wrote will be edited, cut, re-edited, added to, cut some more, manipulated and then edited again…

So writing 3,000 words on any given day, while awesome, is not a measure of how much work you did.

List what you did that day, and how much time you devoted to your writing, include research too, everything to do with writing. Some day’s you’ll spend all day on Twitter. That’s OK, Other days you’ll spend checking your facts on a 7-moon planet. That’s OK too. What you want to do is establish how much time you are devoting to:

• Writing
• Revision
• WIP Research
• Preparing and entering competitions
• CP/BETA reading other peoples work
• Reading for purpose (that is to say out of your preferred gene)
• Reading for pleasure (just as important to read, read, read)
• On Facebook/Twitter and other social media forums
• Agent research
• Preparing and sending our submissions.
• Blogging
• Observing – YES observing, taking time out to people/season watch
• Anything else you’d like to add.

The point of this is, if you are not doing all of the above, you are not working at your art-form. This is your preparation and your rehearsal and your show.

Writing about What you Know   

 – Do Your Research

OK, I’m going to caveat this one. As far as I’m aware, not too many of us have ridden a live dragon, or lived under the sea, or met an alien, or whatever, so this is one of those bits of advice that needs a caveat.

DON’T write about an Indigenous Australian living on a remote cattle-station in the Northern Territory if you’ve never been on a cattle station, or the Northern Territory, or ever met an Indigenous Australian.  If this is your Dragon ride out of your comfort zone – GREAT! all for diversity and spreading your author wings while also spreading the love – but do your research!

DO connect with people from the Northern Territory and Indigenous Australian’s

DO read fiction and non-fiction on Dreamtime Culture

DO have Indigenous Australian friends/authors/facebook mates read your pages to see if it rings true to them.

And I’m about to be very boring – READ, READ, READ. Everything and anything. reading about the migration of crane’s may give you ideas on how your dragon will fly over mountains. Or reading about someone discovering a new cure for some exotic disease could lead you who-knows-where. Read Fiction & Non Fiction. I highly recommend reading as much flash fiction and poetry as possible too. There is a special skill in telling an entire story in 100-200 words and there’s a magic in really great musical poetry. No not necessarily the rhyming stuff, but the rhythmic stuff – there is a difference 🙂

You don’t have to ride a dragon to be able to write about dragons, but in order to pull it off,

you need to understand the beast, physically and metaphorically. 

So what is it You Want To be?

Firstly another pet peeve, note I have a lot of them, get used to it. I know we all use ASPIRING WRITER. I hate this term. Let me repeat that HATE it. I hate it because I’m not 100% certain what the hell it means? Does it mean you want to learn to write, as in read and write? If so, then this page must look like a lot of small blobs of ink to you.

What you are is an AUTHOR

Now, you could be a PUBLISHED author, or a SELF-PUBLISHED author, or you could aspire to certain objectives, such as being traditionally published by a non-vanity-press publishing house and this is when you will feel you have gone from ASPIRING to just plain AUTHOR. For each artist the lines are a little different, and that’s OK too, but the one thing you are not is someone who aspired to write.

Aspire to write a NY Times best seller – YES

Aspire to make a ½ decent living from your writing – YES

Aspiring writer ? – like I said it doesn’t even make sense.

So, let’s look at this. What/Who is you really want to be?

• A published fiction author ? Great, what sort of published author. Self-published? Small Press? One of the big 4-5? A best seller?
• A non-fiction writer? What field? Do you have a platform or do you need to create a platform? Working together or alone?
• A freelance writer? Great! What sort? Travel. Fashion. Sport. Technology. Industry? Music? Arts?
• A Blogger/Reviewer? Awesome – Again blogging/reviewing what/who/where?

Now I know many of you are thinking, “Hang on, isn’t this blog-site all about fiction novel writers?” – Actually, well… no! It’s about the business of writing. And yes it’s linked to Lost Lynx Publishing & Media, but first and foremost it’s about working with what you have to develop what you could be and it’s about opportunity. Sometimes we start at one point and end up at an entirely different location. And occasionally when we accept where the road might be taking us, some of us, the lucky and hard-working few, will ACTUALLY get to the cabin in the country or that cottage by the sea.

Don’t dismiss opportunity because of your steadfastness to one idea. That is why keeping a journal, or calendar or whatever you want to call it, is VITAL. After a very short space of time you’ll see where you are spending most of your time, and that will help you make those life decisions. I mean, if you are spending 100-hours per week on Facebook and Twitter and only 3 hours on everything else, surely that’ll tell you something. It may not be GIVE UP, it might be OH my farrky-lordy-lordy, no wonder I’m not getting anywhere with my manuscript, or my short stories, or my submissions.

But on the other hand, it might also be that you start to see you spend a lot of time chatting/tweeting to people who travel. Perhaps your writing career will be as a travel blogger, or reviewer. It doesn’t mean that you MUST stop writing your novel, but it might mean your sea view out the window will constantly change as you hop, skip and jump around the country and world – all the while collecting ideas and notes and journal entries and studying people – and writing and writing and writing.

FIGURE OUT WHO YOU ARE, WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPIEST TO WRITE ABOUT

AND HOW YOU CHEER YOURSELF UP – THIS IS YOUR PATH.

And this is how YOU write. Don’t diminish your path or your style or your commitment, this is you. Harper Lee only published one book (and if you don’t know who Harper Lee is, errh, run for cover, and google. And if you still don’t know, stop reading this and get the damned book and read it instead- no seriously –NOW) Anyway, where was I. Oh yes, Harper Lee.

One published novel folks but what a novel! Now I don’t know if there were other things completed and never offered to the public, but I do know that Harper Lee was an author who understood how they wrote.

Don’t be afraid.

Most of us are not Mozart or Harper Lee. Most of us will need to repeat and rinse many, many times before we get it right and even then, after we’ve finally “got it” we’ll stumble and regress and throw a little hissy-fit and question why the hell we are bothering.

Here’s the thing – you are now acting like a writer. It’s called insecurity and indecision and moments of weakness –and it’s beatable. How, actual writing — it doesn’t matter what, replying to blog posts, revising your synopsis, editing a friends manuscript – just do some actual writing, and all the while have your notebook or pad, or pen and paper or your handy little mini-pencil rolled up in your coat pocket – waiting for that moment when something tickles your writers fancy

OH & FINISH what you begin!

– Make it so!

 

1st Line; 1st Page; 1st Chapter – the dos & the don’ts

Morning everyone, 

Today I wanted to talk about first pages, first chapters and prologues.

As I’m sure all of you have heard time and again getting, first line, pages and chapters is vital, but having said that, based on a few first pages I’ve recently received, and follow-up emails, I don’t think people are getting exactly why.

So I’m going to break it down for you.

But before I do that, I wanted to go over some ‘rules’ – and when I say rules, I mean what is standard for most agents/editors. Please ALWAYS read submission guidelines and don’t drift from them. We are individuals and therefore we each do like things a little differently.

1. Unless otherwise stated, if you have a prologue, then THAT is your first chapter. Simply NOT calling it a chapter when it makes up your manuscript word-count and story-line does not negate the need to send this as a first chapter.

2. If your first chapter is all back-story, re-write it or filter the information through the novel. Don’t info-dump the reader with details that mean nothing to the reader.

3. If your BETA readers / CP partners /Agent / Editor writes back with notes like “Too much info-dump” “Too much exposition” “How is the first chapter relevant to the following chapters?” or similar, don’t write a massive email back explaining that as soon as the reader gets to chapters 3/4/5 it’ll all make sense. The reason? The reader is already deciding NOT to get to chapters 3/4/5.

4. Don’t argue with your reading partners. Yes ask questions if something isn’t clear, but asking questions does not include becoming defensive or rude/abusive.

5. If you don’t agree, that’s OK – it’s your baby and you need to be happy with the end product.

6. Remember to thank those assisting you, even if you’ve paid them for their time, be respectful.

Now on to the Big Three

Prologues:

OK, I’m going to admit it. On the whole, I’m not a fan of prologues. Having said that, there is a case to be made for a prologue, for example, if you are creating your own world, or doing a massive re-tell that needs some explaining, I’ll grant that a prologue could be handy. If that is the case, KEEP IT SHORT – seriously – more than 500 words and it’s too much.

I would also recommend two things:

• Rename it – perhaps call it Chapter #0 or get creative, something like a memoir, or diary entry. For example, if you’re writing a romance, or a thriller, or a mystery, or a fantasy, you could start off with lines like: –

“I’m writing this because I don’t know if I will ever have the opportunity to tell anyone my story, and my story must be told, for this world I have found myself in is…”

• Stick to the MAIN topic and character(s). Don’t info-dump. Remember the reader doesn’t know your world/characters and therefore is not invested in it.

• After you’ve finished, and edited, and re-read it, and had feedback from your BETA’s, see if indeed it is simply Chapter one an not a prologue.

First Pages:

The first line of the first paragraph of the first page of the first chapter should IDEALLY be a stopper. It isn’t always, and sometimes not matter how hard you try, that damned first line eludes you. It’s OK if it’s not but it would be great if it was. If your first line is really bothering you then it will likely do the same to another reader. I would recommend studying those who know how to do this. A great starting point is reading the first line(s) of your favourite authors. I would also recommend these two pages from Writers Digest:

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/famous-first-lines-learn-how-to-start-a-novel

http://www.writersdigest.com/online-editor/7-ways-to-create-a-killer-opening-line-for-your-novel

First Paragraphs

While the first line is important, a lot can be forgiven if the first paragraph (or maybe two), actively catches the readers imagination. Contrary to popular belief, it does not have to have someone talking, though this works very well also. Nor does it have to have the name of the main character; though by the end of page-1 you need to have the main character’s name introduced.

Things to aim for in first paragraphs:

• Some description/detail without going overboard. Examples of this might be: – “Mother always told us to never go out on the moors after ten at night, because that’s when he hunted. Sadly, my brother Jim didn’t listen, and Mother was right” – or perhaps, “I always felt sick on the first day of school, but this year, it was a new school, in a new town, and I was about ready to throw up last nights pea-soup all over my new bottle-green school uniform.”
• Bring in your main character. Use their name and a personal character trait, a physical feature or quirkiness unique to the character. Something like: – “Mum and dad must have thought it clever to call me Ophelia. I hated the name. And I hated it even more when most of my school friends had read Macbeth. Last year, super-perfect-sun-bleached-blond Sally started calling me ‘crazy-fee,’ and it didn’t help that my twin brother’s name was Malcolm and our uncle Mike was the town drunk.”
• Give us a location, country, period to grasp on to. “This can be as simple as: – “Back in the 1980s when my parents were teenagers, they didn’t have mobile phones or google. I really don’t know how teenagers talked to each other back then. I mean, I’d die without my Facebook and Twitter friends, I mean, we live in the middle of frigging nowhere, what did people do thirty years ago anyway?” Note how I’ve used “I mean” twice? I’m not only setting the period and the age of my MC but also the way they talk.

Things to avoid in first paragraphs:

There are many things to avoid. But let’s deal with just two or three for now.

• Droning on and on. By this I mean, yes we want to know who the MC is and where they live and in which period/world they are but don’t give us 3-5 paragraphs of detail. Remember this is fiction and you must engage the reader.
• Forcing the main characters name. Yes we want to know who the MC is but it must be natural. I’ve seen/read pages with lines like:

“How’s the fishing Charlie?” asked Charlie’s best friend Pete. A best friend will rarely add a name in their comment/question to their mate. They will simply ask “How’s the fishing?” You can use their name in a different way, for example. Someone was shouting “Over here,” but the band was playing too loudly and I couldn’t make out where the voice was coming from. I looked around when I heard the second, “Hey, here, here,” and saw an arm waving above the bobbing heads. I stood on a chair looking for the voice, hoping it was my mate Pete when I heard him shout, “Charlie!” Pete was now waving with both hands. I smiled and waved back, jumped off the chair and made my way through the crowd.

• Creating disbelief. This one is harder to explain but think of it this way. You are creating a world for the reader to get lost in, what you don’t want is to have that world crumble before the reader is fully invested.  Examples of this would be inconsistency such as forgetting the spelling of a characters name, or their description varying. Other examples would be changing the characters ‘voice’ without a valid reason, not remaining in the setting (think period/historical) and jumping too fast from one character to another without enough time for the reader to fully immerse themselves in this new world.

There are of course many other issues. Things like poor spelling or using the wrong word, pour, poor; pore is a good example as is weather, whether and wether. Other issues include changing tense or really bad grammatical errors and something difficult to explain yet almost instantly recognisable, failing on the tone and rhythm of the pages.

First pages:

I am not going to list all the dos and don’ts of first pages as a lot has to do with the category and genre you are writing in. Having said that, the purpose of the first chapter, regardless of category and genre is to do the following:

1. introduce the main character
2. creating the world/setting
3. set the theme
4. show your voice as a writer and the MC’s voice
5. seduce and entice the reader to keep reading

What not to do.

1. waste precious page real estate on back story
2. introduce a shopping list of characters (*caveat, this can be done by the skilled, those who know that fine line between exposition, detail and introduction)
3. blabber on and on about nothing
4. start with your MC in the shower,
5. getting out of the shower,
6. looking at themselves in the mirror,
7. asleep,
8. waking up,
9. having a dream/nightmare,
10. watching/describing the weather,
11. starting with dialogue for the sake of not knowing where to start your story and thinking, “this’ll do as a starting point,”
12. talking to themselves or in third person (*caveat, unless its done really well and forms part of the MC character/story-line, personality)
13. expecting people have read your prologue (many will not, especially if its longer than one page) and assuming the reader knows your MC.

Again, there are a lot of other things to consider, and even within the “what not to do” list, I can think of several extraordinary novels that begin with one or more of the above. However, they are exceptions because they either break the rules (in a good way) or they play on an idea in a way that is unique and thrilling. For most of us mere morals, we have to work harder to find our originality.

And one other thing, which is why I decided to write this post, don’t say things like “WAIT FOR IT” when an editor or CP partner says “it took too long to get to the real story, the main character” (etc.), because frankly, we readers are fickle and impatient and we hate to even wait for a home delivery pizza… therefore we will not wait for the story to develop, or worse, start on page 50. If that’s where it starts, you need to pretty much cut 48-49 pages.

And because I happen to think Writers Digest has some exceptional advice for writers, I would recommend reading: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/write-fiction-that-grabs-readers-from-page-one

Overcoming the Dreaded Synopsis – or How to beat the Synopsis Devil

If Query Letters are the Spawn of the Devil, then the dreaded synopsis surely is the devil for most authors. Sadly, they are a fact of life, so let’s try to make them as painless as possible, which I grant you, is not easy – after all how do you condense your 90,000-word manuscript to 500-1000 words? – with a lot of research and even more patience.

Defining a Synopsis

The purpose of a synopsis is to plot out novel (plot, theme, characters, setting), while also banding together the ‘big picture.’ Quickly telling what your novel is about, start to finish, so that the editor/agent doesn’t have to read the entire novel – in other words, keep no plot twists or the ending a secret.

You have likely seen agents/editors all ask for differing lengths. Most ask for 1 or 2 pages, some ask for more and a few I’ve heard of ask for 300-words or even less. In other words, there are no ‘real’ rules to the length of the ideal synopsis – so you need to follow the submission guidelines.

Most agents/editors read 100’s of submissions every week so many will ask for your synopsis to be double spaced, especially those wanting more than one page. You have to think about how straining it is on the eyes to be reading 100’s of submissions. If an agent doesn’t specify if they want the synopsis single, 1.5 or double spacing, I recommend a spacing of 1.5 – you can write something like: Per submission guidelines I have included the (number of) pages and synopsis below. As you don’t mention the spacing preferred, I have used 1.5 spacing for your convenience.

You will not lose any good-will points for 1.5 spacing but you may gain some for being considerate. This is just a suggestion and, as long as there are no specific guidelines on the spacing, you can use your discretion. Also, unless specifically stated, your synopsis should be embedded in the email.

When writing your synopsis, focus on the essential parts of your story, and try not to include sections of dialogue unless you think they’re absolutely necessary, and then only very (very, very) short sections of dialogue. Personally I don’t like seeing dialogue in a synopsis as I feel that’s what the manuscript sample pages are for. However I wouldn’t reject based on one short 10 word section of dialogue – especially if it suits the synopsis and is a brilliant line.

What to avoid when writing your Synopsis

While there is no universal standard for the length of a novel synopsis, agents/editors usually favour one to two pages. Sometimes an agent might ask for a chapter outline instead, which is a synopsis of each chapter. Here are some tips on what to avoid:

• Too much detail.What you’re aiming for is a summary, just enough detail about the plot to give them a real feel of the theme and story-line direction.
• Editorialising. Don’t use “…this is a tender and emotional point in the story…” Here’s what the agent/editor might read from your editorial notes;

1. author doesn’t have confidence in their story
2. the story is full of unnecessary exposition
3. there could be a lot of work cutting to the meat of the manuscript
4. the author doesn’t understand the purpose of a synopsis and therefore perhaps hasn’t researched the writing profession
5. all of the above

• Unnecessary description/explanation. Make each word count.
• Don’t mention too many events – it’s not a shopping list.
• Don’t mention too many characters – It’s confusing for the reader to follow and unnecessary. We don’t need to know about the neighbours second cousin who visits every summer and makes the best chocolate chip cookies on the planet. Detail like this is left for the manuscript, not the synopsis.
• Writing back cover & not a synopsis. I’ve actually read some sites suggest writing a ‘hook’ for your synopsis – your query did that already. Your focus should be on giving the agent/editor a concise summary.

Synopsis Format

Paragraph 1-2:  Begin with identifying your protagonist, problem or conflict, and setting.

Paragraph 3: Should convey any major plot turns or conflicts necessary and any important secondary characters (note the word important – you are not mentioning the neighbour down the street that your MC sometimes passes the time of day with – you should be introducing secondary characters vital to the plot/twist/ outcome). Characters should be mentioned in the order they are presented in the manuscript.

Paragraph 4-5 This is where you mention the conflict, and ideally, a secondary issue/conflict/point of difference. Agents/editors want to know the story is not one dimensional for example, if you’re writing a romance, the main theme is the romance, but there could be a secondary conflict – something to do with the MC’s life such as a personal struggle, a family illness (perhaps a member of the family is suffering from an illness or the MC is a single parent raising a child, or there is a legal/mortal/financial issue that needs addressing etc). Other conflicts could be the world the MC is set in (historical /fantasy) which causes issues or a past the MC needs to protect/address/resolve.

For example: “Just as the relationship between Mary and John starts to develop, Mary’s estranged father, Mike, turns up at her doorstep wanting to reconcile…” and then you go on to explain what the issue is (briefly) with Mary’s father, why they are estranged and what threat her father poses to Mary.

Paragraph 6 – Summary conclusion. This is the ending of the story not your interpretation of the ‘inner meaning and symbolism within the story’ – let the reader of your manuscript decide what the story means and symbolises. Don’t anger an agent/editor or have them roll their eyes at what might come off as cliché, predictable or simply boring. You’ve got this far with the agent/editor, don’t ruin it right at the end.

Note I have suggested the length to be between 4-6 paragraphs. This is how you break up your synopsis size. For those agents wanting 1-page, you are looking at 3-4 paragraphs. For those wanting 2-pages, you are looking at 6, possibly 7 (depending on length of each paragraph).

Lastly and if you follow nothing else I have suggested above, take this one piece of advice as a RULE. Follow the submission guidelines – to the letter. If the agent/editor wants up to 500 words, make it 500 words not 510, but 500. It’s true that most agents/editors will not dismiss your submission because it’s over by 10-words, but it will surely be in the back of their minds. If the agent/editor wants double spacing in Arial with a smiley face at the end of each paragraph – then that’s what you do. Don’t ask why, you know why – that’s their REQUIREMENT – FULL STOP – simple! Don’t cut your writers throat by being ‘clever and original’ – that’s what your manuscript is for, not your synopsis.

Further Synopsis Research

I would also recommend sites with excellent ‘how-too’s  – many with examples of successful synopsis’

Sites such as:

• Writers Digest – http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/synopsis-writing
• Nathan Bransford – http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2007/08/how-to-write-synopsis.html
• Preditors & Editors – http://pred-ed.com/pubsubs.ht

There are many other’s available, the above is intended as a starting point.

How to Write a Killer Query Letter

Let’s face it, query letters are the spawn of the devil, but sadly they are the bread & butter covering that meaty manuscript filling and if you can’t wrap up your manuscript within an awesome query letter, often you’re not going to have a hope in high heaven to get your manuscript read.

I’m not going to tell you anything anyone else hasn’t said:

Hook

All consuming middle paragraph (or two)

Last paragraph that has voice, what’s at stake and who’s going to win and lose… blah, blah, blah… yep we all know the ‘rules’ trouble is writing is an art and art has no rules!

So I’m going to suggest a different approach… lets forget about the hook (for the time being) and let’s work on the second bit first.

Actually, let’s take an entire step back and do something no one has likely suggested, stay with me because some people are about to roll their eyes at me. You know that moment when you get a new idea, that brilliant moment when you have your main character, your setting and your bad-guy all sorted and you can’t wait to start punching your laptop keys? Guess what, that’s where and when you start your query letter process.

OK, stop rolling your eyes, seriously, stay with me, it’ll all make sense in about two minutes. When your manuscript is little more than an idea that you want to jot down so you don’t forget it, that is your moment of clarity –seriously.

Think back to every time you’ve started a new WIP and your partner or friends ask “what are you working on?” and you are able to tell them in a few lines, “My main character is a time-travelling witch who has no control of when and to which period she jumps…etc”

Its when there is perfect clarity of who the MC is, what is happening, what is at stake and who will gain and who will lose if the MC does or does not achieve their objective. Now, if you’re already working on your MS, it’s still not too late. You can still work out the crux of your story – by forgetting about the query and instead working on your pitch. Give yourself 30-60 words, no more, to nut out what’s really at stake, who will win and who will lose.

You see the issue with most queries is that they get lost in the muddy world of sub-plots and over-wordy mish-mash of stuff that is surely vital in the manuscript but not at all needed in a query. Once you’ve got your pitch ready, from it, you can create your query. Fill with a little meat, not too much, remember you want the editor/agent to ask THE RIGHT questions, that is, “I wonder what happens”, rather than, “Why is this and that important/happening?”

Still stuck?

OK, try this. Don’t try any more (for the moment), give it a rest and then, the next time someone asks you, “what’s your MS about?” after you’ve finished giving them your pitch (because spoiler alert- that’s what you’re doing), jot down what you just said. It doesn’t have to be word-for-word but I bet you it’s not a war&peace epic – right?

And now you’re ready for the hook.

And again I’m going to suggest something that is likely not often said – read other successful hooks. Learn from the best.  After all, isn’t the path to being a great writer filled with reading as many books as possible? So why would you think it different for hooks? Read hooks that worked in your genre and in others. See how they have used very few words to convey voice and create tension/interest.

Perfecting queries is just like everything in like, try and try again.

Look, it’s true, some people are naturals. Sometimes someone who has written their first manuscript just ‘gets everything right’ but that’s not the case with most of us.

Get your paragraph 2, 3 & 4 right first – then worry about your hook.

I’ll let you in on a trade secret; killer hooks are awesome and everyone wants to see one, but most agents and editors will forgive an average hook if the query is killer-hot, however if the hook is oh-myyy-gorrd amazing and the rest of the query isn’t, it’s almost always a reject.

Killer hooks is what you really, really, really want – but killer queries is what you really, really, really, need to get a request for more pages.

Hello & Welcome!

Lost Lynx Publishing & Media has been several years in the making; primarily because we wanted to get it right.

As we are very small we never intended to ‘compete’ with the big guys, to put it frankly, we can’t – however that doesn’t mean we don’t have something to offer and something to share.

So, after many years of research, here we are!

Before we talk about what Lost Lynx is, I’d like to tell you what it is not:

(i)                 we are not a vanity press – and never will be

(ii)               we are not another form or option for self-publishing.  While there is a place in today’s market for well written, professionally edited and marketed self-published books, our business does not include that

(iii)             we are not, nor will we ever be, a large traditional publisher — we’re talking ’boutique’ — we’re looking at somewhere between 2-4 published works a year — we’re hoping to offer a little more for the those with a unique idea, or voice, or theme or (hopefully) all three. We are not looking for the next ‘Twilight’ but rather the next new wave of author (although if we had a massive success we’d be popping champagne; promise).

Having said the above, you might be asking yourself, “OK so what do you do then?”

I’m glad you asked.

The Lost Lynx Blog will have two main functions.

(i) an additional avenue for aspiring writers to prefect their draft query letters

(ii) a forum for the promotion of topical events, launches and links to other useful Blogs & Websites

(iii) an avenue for talent that doesn’t fit into neat box. Cross-genres (think space-cowgirl who solves mysteries and crochet’s doilies), tough subject matter (think bi-polar lawyer who is defending a convicted drug-dealer), that sort of stuff.

We would love to hear your feedback and to also become connected with you on Twitter.