May 5, 2010

I’d like your opinion about something, and the first three people who leave a comment today will receive a free copy of either my 50 Tension Techniques or my Writing Mysteries for Young People.

Writers’ conferences can be expensive, but the right conference can literally change your life. (I know because it happened to me back in 1997 when I attended my first week-long Highlights Chautauqua Workshop.) Others have said the same thing about the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) summer conference in California. The right conference is worth its weight in gold.

Choices, Choices!

When you first receive the conference brochure (like this one from the 2010 SCBWI event), it can be overwhelming. You feel like a kid turned loose in a candy store. So many choices! And then dismay hits when you realize you can’t attend them all.

For any given time slot, there may be six or seven workshops to choose from. You may truly wish to attend several of them, but the schedule won’t allow it. Even smaller regional and state conferences often have several workshop choices for the same time slot.

So how do you choose?

What’s Your Criteria?

In the beginning, I simply chose what appealed to me. I love inspirational talks, workshops on organization and motivation and where you get ideas. That used to be my #1 choice every time. It was pure dessert.

After I’d published a bit, I realized I need less help getting inspired and more help with dialogue, voice, and other craft topics. I still attended at least one motivational talk, but then concentrated on learning and improving writing skills. This was meat and potatoes.

After I’d published a lot, I bit the bullet and started adding a few workshops on things I hated: taxes for the writer, marketing on a shoe string budget, writing proposals and queries. This was definitely brussels sprouts.

It’s Your Turn

Pretend it’s your first major conference, and you’re choosing workshops to attend. When you leave a comment (which I will read and post tonight and tomorrow) please tell me two things: (1) which e-booklet you’d like, and (2) what criteria you use when choosing among conflicting workshops.

I hope you’re one of the first three!

April 28, 2010

Last week I received this question in my email from a blog reader: “I wonder with the proliferation of print on demand companies reducing the need for inventory, providing on-line marketing capabilities, and the writer keeping a higher percentage of the book profits, what in your opinion, is the best route to go and why?”

 If you read my other comments on self-publishing in “The Four D’s” or “Publishing Confusion,” you probably guessed that I am negative about self-publishing. [Do read those articles-there are links to various websites where you can become more informed-and warned.]

Some of my opinion comes from personal experience: none of my 35 books were self-published. Some of my opinion comes from seeing writing friends and students get burned by false promises. (Yes, the writer gets to keep a higher percentage of book profits, but often those profits are miniscule. Fifty percent of a meager amount is still a pittance.) And some of my opinion comes from what I’ve heard agents and editors say (their negative perceptions of self-published books and authors.) I’m afraid that in at least nine cases out of ten, self-publishing turns out to be a very disappointing (and often expensive) experience.

Good Option for Some

Are there times that self-publishing something makes sense? Definitely so. Perhaps you’re a frequent speaker for a national organization like MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers), and you speak to large audiences many times per year. If you have a nonfiction book that this group would love, then a print-on-demand book (POD book) could be a good idea. You have a built-in audience and credibility as an expert through your speaking. (I’ve heard of many professionals-from agents to landscape gardeners-who’ve been able to sell hundreds of books when they speak at conferences.) But they had credibility first-and a built-in large audience for their books. 

My One Experience with Self-Publishing

For the above reasons, I decided to e-publish a couple of $7 e-booklets this month. [See "Don't Re-Invent the Wheel."] I had the credibility first. Most of my published books are novels, so “50 Tension Techniques” was easy to put together from a workshop on that subject that I’ve done at many SCBWI events. And since eleven of my published books are mysteries, I had the credibility for “Writing Mysteries for Young People.”

And my built-in audience? I’ve had a website for many years, a blog for four years, and already had friends on my Facebook and Twitter pages. Everything was already in place for “e-sales.”

And (this is key to me), it was almost free to set up. I just added information pages to my website and blog. (If I had used PayPal instead of ClickBank, it would have been totally free to e-publish them, but my Google research turned up a lot of disgruntled PayPal experiences, so I opted to pay the one-time $49 ClickBank fee.)

What About Self-Published Fiction?

Self-published nonfiction out-sells self-published fiction by an enormous margin. Few people starting out as novelists have a speaking platform where they can sell their books. Few have a huge following online-and you must have if you expect to market your novel online. Otherwise you are stuck marketing the book from the trunk of your car, begging a few small bookstores to stock your self-published novel (the chain stores won’t), and arranging your own autograph parties and signings where you will probably sell fewer than a dozen books.

With self-published novels you won’t have the kind of support you get when published by traditional publishers. [For example, my latest publisher has nine of my books on their website, which I'm sure gets a lot more hits than my website! They have separate pages for the mysteries and the devotionals.] In addition, the four mysteries and one devotional are all getting new covers in May and another “publicity push” from the publisher. Traditional publishers can do that-they have whole publicity and promotion teams who work on such things.

Publicity and Promotion

When you self-publish, remember that you are the publisher (or you pay for it), the art designer (unless you pay for that service too), and your book’s publicity/promotion/sales team. Most of the on-line promotion packages that self-publishing companies want to sell you are things you could do for yourself for FREE.

And unless you already have a big following, your sales will be minimal. Most self-published books are way over-priced. Why would a stranger take a chance and buy a novel from an unknown self-published author when the same money will buy him a famous name author’s novel? Once self-published authors have run through their friends and family members, the pickings are slim when it comes to sales.

Be Extra Careful

If you are considering self-publishing, please thoroughly research the pros and cons first. Do Google searches on “self-publishing scams.” For each company that wants to “publish” your book, Google them. Contact other authors they’ve “published” and ask about their sales and what the “extra services” (like editing, marketing, book jackets) cost them. (Remember: with a traditional publisher, all those services are free to you and done by whole teams of professionals: editors, publicists, sales reps, promotion, etc.)

Do not let your blind faith or impatience to publish make you naïve. Take time to get your facts. Self-publishing is very risky business for an author. Except in rare cases (like those mentioned earlier), I can’t recommend it.

April 5, 2010

To thrive in the present publishing climate, our manuscripts need to be submitted in the best condition possible. I’ve written previously about the need to continue studying the writing craft. [Strong Writers Do This, Self-Study Advanced Writing Program]

“But how do you find the TIME to study on top of writing and marketing?” I’ve been asked time and again. Actually, it’s simple.

Shorten the Learning Curve

Whenever possible, I piggyback on someone else’s research. For example, I prefer a book like Time to Write by Kelly L. Stone, who interviewed more than 100 professional writers about how they fit writing into their busy lives. All that experience condensed into one book is a gold mine.

Likewise, last week I put together two e-booklets that could also shorten your learning curve. First is 50 Tension Techniques: Hold a Reader’s Attention from Beginning to End. I teach a writing workshop called “Tension Techniques,” based on my thirty years of writing and selling 35 books. A few months ago in Austin, I met a woman who had attended that workshop years ago; she told me she’d worn out her hand-out and wished she had another one. I use the hand-out myself in my fiction writing when I come to spots that drag or when things are too calm for too long!

Editors tell us that we need tension on every page in order to keep readers hooked. But what exactly is tension? And how can you possibly increase tension on every page? The fifty simple techniques in this e-booklet show you how to infuse page-turning tension into your dialogue (15 techniques), your plot (14), your characterization (12), and setting descriptions (9). I’ve gathered these techniques from years of reading how-to and writing craft books. (I have six bookcases full of writing books in my office.)

Special Tension Needed

I love mysteries and have had eleven mysteries published (one won a children’s choice award), and mystery stories and books never seem to go out of fashion with kids. A few years ago I wrote a monthly magazine column on mystery writing. I’ve gathered those columns into a 50-page e-booklet called Writing Mysteries for Young People.

I’ve studied close to two dozen books on mystery writing, and these sixteen short chapters are the best techniques I’ve found. Writing Mysteries for Young People will show you how to construct a mystery. This includes the development of heroes, victims and villains, plotting and planting clues, creating the setting and scene of the crime–and then how to solve the mystery in a believable way.

Smarter, Not Harder

Yes, it’s important to study, and you need to always work to improve your craft. Sometimes, though, we need to study smarter, not harder. Strive to only spend your time and hard-earned money where you get the most “bang for your buck” (and your time.)