Month: March 2010

So Much Traffic, No More Parking Spots

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You’ve seen the stats: upwards of 280,000 "self-published" books in 2009, according to Bowker or some big brother agency; with 2010 expected to dwarf those numbers and crush the number of mainstream published books.

We’re all like, "woo hoo." Kind of.

[Publetariat Editor’s Note: strong language after the jump]

Because you’ve also seen a lot of shit out there, too: Your twitter buddy who asked you to beta-read her manuscript which is a piece of shit; or that authonomy friend who implored you to read his wanna-be-commercial-genre-fiction-lookalike-but-awully-written piece of shit. The barrier to entry to successful readership is not gatekeeper agents any longer, but writers ourselves. Lack of credible editors (or our investment in them) is problematic. First drafts will kill us all if we’re not careful. The culture of swapsies and kindness is dangerous–really dangerous.

There is and is going to continue to be an enormous population of work by authors who have attempted to be published commercially and have not had success in getting the attention of agents and publishing companies. There are a couple of reasons why we haven’t seen their work published by the mainstream companies: (a) it’s good, but it’s *not good enough,* (b) it’s really fucking good, but outside the formula for the pubbies (e.g., experimental, mixed-media, gritty); (c) it’s just awful.

And then there are those of us who never intended on being published by another entity and blazed our own trail. We should stop applauding ourselves so much and focus more on making our work the best that it can be: ruthless cutting, investment in a credible editor and copy/proofreader. [I proofread 29 Jobs and a Million Lies and there isn’t one fucking typo in the entire thing, so it CAN be done. I printed it out in another font and combed through every line.]

So we’re dealing with a few issues here which I just don’t have a proposed solution for and it bothers me tremendously:
 

  • Intensively increasing competition for attention (we’ve talked about this before and it’s all over other pub blogs)
  • An increasingly compartmentalized and siloed readership
  • Literary fiction — that which doesn’t fit into a genre — is ever-increasingly homeless. We can’t develop a marketing niche, or a community of readers who will want to identify with this non-genre. After all, we can’t define something by that which it is not, right? Where will we belong? How will we stand out? Answer-in-theory: We just have to be awesomer.

I’m not heading in the direction of publishing industry apologist, don’t worry about that. But maybe the cropping up of writer’s affiliations and communities is a solution to leveraging the strength of other writers’ marketing visibility. Strength in numbers, right? That’s what we’re doing at Year Zero Writers and it’s new and exciting and cool. But there is a dicey line between editorial control, right? With these affiliations, or independent mini-publishing companies, seems like someone or some body needs to help vet, right? Well, then it becomes a publishing company. Think about it–objectives to earn solid profits, yadda yadda, and before you know it, your totally cool independent community now is run by committee, decisions take eons to make, you have to make political compromises, and it’s worse than divvying up the fridge in your college apartment with a half dozen broke-ass roommates.

Not all are like that (Year Zero won’t head in that direction). But look how authonomy turned out — like Marion Stein described it recently to me:, Lord of the Flies. And that’s an independent writers community? That’s how we propose toppling the publishing industry? Ain’t gonna happen. It’s like they pitted writers against each other in a global cage-fight and sat back and watched us destroy ourselves.

So, it won’t be writers or an independent movement that will topple the publishing industry, so let’s stop taking credit for that. Readers–the marketplace–have control and let’s not forget that.

There are still hordes of readers who browse the stacks, literally. There are still hordes of readers who only read one genre and will never even consider picking a book up outside that purview. There are still hordes of readers who rely solely on book club recommendations. No independent movement of outside-the-box fiction will change that force, and neither will any technology gadget.

So to writers embarking on their next project: If you have to ask yourself why you are writing, remember it is for readers–THOSE readers who you know appreciate your work (even if it’s just your mom and cubicle-buddy)–who hold all the control. No matter how defiantly independent, DIY, and whatever other title we love to label ourselves with, if we’re pissing off readers because they just don’t "get" what we’re doing, it serves no purpose other than our own exercise in writing.

We’re in a tremendously exciting time right now and the entire landscape is changing every day–this is fucking history and it’s great. Let’s revel in it. Let’s not fool ourselves that a pivotal shift in the marketplace will occur, though. There are ever more platforms, writers, genres, and TV shows competing for the SAME number of eyes. So while accessibility to the marketplace is eased, consider it like a crowded highway onto which we are merging, headed to a city with a finite number of parking spots. 

Fuck, did I just liken our writing to a game of musical chairs?

This is a cross-posting from Jenn Topper’s Don’t Publish Me! blog.

The Real Source of Self-Publishing Stigma

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So here is the thing…

There is a lot of talk about the “stigma” of self-publishing. But for the most part this stigma is rather contained. For example:

Mainstream Publishers/Agents: They don’t really care whether you self-publish or not. I mean think about this for a moment. If you’re self-publishing, you’re one less manuscript in their slush pile. If you fail, they don’t have to deal with you. If you succeed, then you are a proven quantity to them… a sure thing, which is something publishers like. So exactly why would they care? Publishers and agents reject bad writing all the time. They don’t remember the bad writing because they see so much of it, it all bleeds together (from one of the horses’ mouths.)

Agents DO discourage self-publishing very often on their blogs and such, but the stigma doesn’t really flow from them. More about that in a minute…

And while there is much talk about how if you self-publish you’ll ruin your future chances at a career because bookstores won’t order your books from a publisher because your self-pubbed books sold so poorly, that’s not a very strong argument and I’d like someone to bring in an actual bookstore book purchaser to confirm this. BOOKS are all returnable inside the brick and mortar bookstore system. They don’t HAVE to assess risk with a major publisher.

Chances are really good they NEVER stocked your book. So… if you’ve got bad sales, and since everyone claims brick and mortar distribution is Distribution Mecca, then… oh gee, maybe they’ll “get” that it may be a distribution issue and not that the book isn’t good. The double standards out there are astounding. Either way though, with a major publisher backing a book and taking their sales people around, do you really think bookstores are doing intensive background checks? Who cares if you self-pubbed a book?

Bookstores: With bookstores the stigma isn’t so much stigma as shelf-space. While it’s a common belief that self-published books can’t get shelved on brick and mortar bookstore shelves, this is BS. There is a vetting process whereby small press and self-published authors can get their books vetted and into the store, even the MAJOR chains. I know of many self-pubbed authors whose books are sitting on major bookstore shelves.

But if you WANT that, you have to do the legwork necessary. You have to produce a quality book and you have to get into Ingram and Baker and Taylor (the primary distributors of the book trade), but it can be done. At the end of the day it isn’t “stigma” that keeps a self-pubbed book off a bookstore shelf… it is the self-publishing author’s lack of education about the process to do it or willingness to do it, or the quality of their book. Plain as that.

Also, even if you can’t get on bookstore shelves, you should ask yourself whether or not this is something that’s necessary for you. The bookstore returns system can cannibalize your sales and for a small operator, that might not be the place you want to be at. Especially not in the beginning as an indie. Though your mileage may vary.

So far we’ve established that agents, publishers, and bookstores don’t really “care” whether or not you self-publish. If you’ll note bookstores don’t start big blogs ranting and whining about self-publishing. Neither do publishers. In fact, many are open to the idea of finding authors to sign among those who are successfully self-publishing. They understand due to distribution issues that it’s still hard for an indie to sell a lot of books and they adjust their expectations accordingly. While agents may discourage writers from self-publishing… it would kind of be contradictory to their business model to do anything else. It’s called self-interest, folks, not empirical reality.

If an author self-publishes and THEN gets picked up by a publisher, the agent wasn’t needed to scout out and find the talent. The author is then the one in the power chair. And that author is unlikely to call up that agent for representation. They may call AN agent, or they may call an intellectual property lawyer to handle their contract. But the important part in this scenario is that the author has the power, not the agent… more about that in a minute.

Now granted, the odds of succeeding as an indie are slim (but the odds of succeeding ANYWAY are slim.) If you’ve got the goods, you’ve got them, no matter how you publish. Agents have to wade through a lot of crap to find gems but right now their job is still necessary. If all hopefuls were to start self-publishing, or even if ENOUGH of them did, that publishers got all the work they needed from successfully self-published books, then the agents’ job description all but disappears.

Most of the “self-publishing stigma” hinges on the idea that all self-published books are bad and written by deluded morons who can’t really write. The moment enough truly GOOD writers buck the system and self-publish, this stops being true. In order for the stigma to continue, it must remain a self-fulfilling prophecy. And in order for THAT to happen, everyone WITHIN the system must heavily discourage anyone working outside it by appealing to their vanity and their fear of being ostracized from the community.

And if the agent’s job doesn’t completely disappear (i.e. they could go back to just doing what they were supposed to be doing: contract negotiation), their perceived power among writers does, because then their position in the system as the writer’s employee, is reinforced. I believe many of the agents out there on the Internet who verbally abuse the writer community every change they get, enjoy this false power they’ve been temporarily granted. But, if there is an easier and more drama-free way for publishers to find talent, besides the slush pile and agents, then agents go back to being employees and not a second round of gatekeeper.

I find it insane that while many in traditional publishing will pontificate about how indie authors aren’t “vetted,” GUESS WHAT? Agents aren’t vetted. Anyone can call themselves an agent and a bad agent is worse than no agent at all. Most top agents aren’t taking on new clients because they don’t have to. They’ve got enough good authors making them plenty of money.


Reviewers: What about all the review sources who won’t review your book? Another myth. There ARE self-pubbed books that are reviewed in major sources. If you do things the right way the issue of whether or not your book is self-published shouldn’t even come up. i.e. You have an imprint that isn’t YOUR name (like not Sally’s Books), you have a professional-quality book, and you’re presenting yourself as a professional.

You may still not get reviewed, but… it’s not because of the stigma of self-publishing. It’s because of ALL the books out there and how competitive it is. Most trad published books don’t get reviewed in major sources either. Also, most major sources for reviews are drying up and being replaced by the voice of readers on book reviewer blogs that gain a following. It is a WHOLE different landscape out there, and yet many are still functioning as if it’s 1999.

Readers: I don’t care what anyone says, readers are why writers write. There is no other reason. If you want to make money you can find something that will pay you far better than writing. Writing is what you do because you have something to express and share with the world. So reader opinions? The buck stops with them I’m afraid.

You just can’t delete readers from the equation no matter how much the industry seems to want to. They are the end consumer of the book. And the more the traditional publishing system abuses and disregards the wants and needs of the readers, the more readers will shrug and go find other entertainment options, whether it be small press and indie books, or reality TV. Either way, they’ll get tired of the shit eventually.

So what do readers think? Well, for the most part, since most of them aren’t exposed to bad self pubbed work, since crap doesn’t rise to the top, they don’t care. They don’t know who your publisher is and they don’t care who your publisher is. While there are SOME readers who have either somehow been exposed to a lot of bad self-pubbed work and got a bad taste in their mouth over it, or who are plugged in enough to the pulse of the publishing industry that they have become influenced by the “stigma”, most readers don’t know about all this bullshit politics. Nor do they really care one way or the other.

You don’t have to overcome reader objections to your method of publication if you produce a quality book. The reason you don’t is that publishers never branded THEMSELVES. No one knows who Dan Brown or Stephen King’s publisher is… or not average readers anyway. They don’t know the different imprint names or publisher names for most mainstream-produced book. They can’t tell a small press imprint, from a division of a larger well-known publisher. SOME of them, can’t even tell AuthorHouse from Random House (This one is Henry Baum’s brilliance, not my own.)

So you don’t have to overcome reader issues. In fact, if I didn’t interact at all with the writing community on the Internet, and just went about my business self-publishing, I’d never run into any drama whatsoever about my method of publication. I choose, for better or worse, to get into the debates that I do, because while I know I won’t change the pig-headed views of the person I’m talking with most likely, I *may* influence the view of someone reading who hasn’t made up their mind yet. And that, to me, is worth it.

Okay… so if the source of the stigma isn’t “really” agents, publishers, bookstores, reviewers, or readers, what is it?

OTHER WRITERS.

Traditionally published authors who get bent out of shape about self-publishing, may, in fact, have a partly altruistic motive of protecting authors from making bad business decisions, though I think the better alternative is to teach a writer how to assess business risk, rather than making up asinine rules like “money always flows to the author.”

However, don’t ever be led to believe it is merely altruism that causes a traditionally published author to rail against self-publishing. Self-publishing is a threat. It doesn’t matter that a lot of self-published work is bad… many trad pubbed authors suffered through years of rejection to get “accepted.” They have been validated by a certain system.

If it becomes socially acceptable to work outside that system, then where does their validation go? It becomes less valuable because readers already don’t care. Bookstores already don’t care. The only people who REALLY care are other writers. And so it’s important to set up this “cult of truth” for writers and make everyone goose step and ostracize those who don’t.

If someone won’t march in line like the rest, you attack the quality of their writing, their character, and their mental state or capacity. They aren’t good enough, they haven’t been validated, they are lazy or taking a shortcut. They are delusional. They are naive. And if none of that works, you define them as “the exception” and say they shouldn’t encourage anyone else to do what you’re doing. Writers are so desperate for validation that often they will ignore their own will in favor of being accepted by their peers.

But guess what? Indies have their OWN peers.

Unpublished writers generally want to be accepted by those they look up to. And so because the self-published author is the only one “beneath them” on the food chain, they join in the mob to attack as well.

So let’s sum up… in a really competitive industry the stigma against going outside the system is your competition.

Have a different view about that stigma now? The moment you stop associating with these people and focus on the readers, they just fall off your radar. I’ve chosen under this name, to be loud and out there about being indie and to confront stupid arguments head on because I know for many it’s too hard to stand up to the people who have either been elevated or elevated themselves to grand high potentates of publishing.

Though now I need to probably take a bit of a break from arguing, so I can get something worthwhile accomplished… like I don’t know… publishing.

 

This is a cross-posting from Zoe Winters’ blog.

Comparing Ebook Covers for Second Mystery

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This is what Cliff Fryman, know as @Selorian to his Twitter followers, came up with for an initial design:

Firebug Cover #1

I had some suggestions, so he came up with three more versions. We then conducted a marketing survey with our bookstore customers and certain professional artists and designers. Here are covers #2, #3, and #4:

Cover #2 (above)
 

Cover #3 (above)
 

Cover #4 (above)

The results of the poll were many liked the first, but were confused by the background in the upper area, which looked like a burning ship to many. Most of the pros said there was too much detail for an on-screen thumbnail image, especially if a square audio book cover was based on the same image. Number four got very few votes as its letters were too dark. Number three got a lot of votes; however, number two won because it was simple, easy to read on screen, and manageable to cut down to a square format.

The flames in the letters in both #2 and #3 were really cool (great work Cliff) and the only difference was some smoke in #3 at the base of the burning stake. The second image cut down to the audio format very handily, as shown below:

 

Audio Book Cover (above)
 

The story is based on a true event in Leavenworth’s 1901 history when a young black man accosted a white lady and was arrested as a suspect in similar incidents, including a murder of a girl during the previous year. A lynch mob (white & black) of 5,000+ tore the iron doors off the jail that night, took him to the edge of town and burned him alive at the stake. In modern times, a young man researches his roots and discovers he is a descendant of the burned man. He decides to take vengeance against the descendants of the mob’s ringleaders. The protagonist has to figure all this out and put a stop to it.

Survey’s Hidden Agenda

In addition to helping us make a decision about the ebook cover (ebook is available at http://bit.ly/bUymON), the survey became a wonderful marketing tool to prepare the public for something exciting is coming to our town. We got strong positive reactions to the fact that we would be publishing a mystery series based in our own town which appears very professionally done. Wow, what a powerful side benefit that was!!!

Cliff ’s work as a web designer and illustrator can be seen at http://cliffordfryman.com/  As you can see, I’m very pleased with his work!

 

This is a cross-posting from Bob Spear‘s Book Trends blog.

Getting Book Review Blurbs Online

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As a publisher at a small press, I decided to go around the old boys media club (newspapers and magazines), and go directly to online reviewers. When I asked Amazon to add these blurbs to the book’s page, I was told that only the distributor (not the publisher!) could authorize review blurbs. And you guessed it, the distributor will only take print quotes.

The result is that an online retailer won’t take the word of an online reviewer. Or to put it more colorfully, The Podunk Gazette (population 10) has more pull than a book blogger with 1500 hits a day.

Any thoughts about getting book review blurbs into online listings?

 

Promote Your Book in Your Own Backyard – 10 Strategies for Success

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Online book marketing is a terrific way to promote your book to a worldwide audience, but sometimes authors overlook book marketing opportunities in their own backyard.

In your local area and region, you have the opportunity to stand out as a bigger fish in a smaller pond. Here are ten tips to promote your book in your own area:

1.   Always carry books and literature with you. Keep a case of books and some flyers in the trunk of your car, and business cards in your wallet. You never know when you will run across a potential customer or marketing contact.

2.   Look for opportunities across your region. Headed for a weekend getaway or off to visit grandma? Do a little research ahead of time to identify bookstores, retailers and libraries in the area that you can call on. Or plan your own book tour, staying with friends and relatives along the way.

3.   Promote yourself as a local author to bookstores and libraries. Many bookstores and libraries have a special section where they showcase the books of local or regional authors.

4.   Look for other retailers that are a good fit. Think about what type of retailers relate to the topic of your book, and promote your book as written by a local author.

5.   Put "local author" stickers on the books that you sell in your area.

6.   Speak at libraries. Contact libraries about doing a presentation on your book’s topic. This can be especially effective for children’s books and for nonfiction titles that have a broad appeal (such as travel, business, or fitness).  Many libraries will let you sell your books at your presentation, and some have a budget for paying speakers.

7.   Find other speaking opportunities. Speaking is a great way to promote your book, and you may even get paid to speak once you get some experience. There are lots of organizations looking for interesting speakers for their meetings, including business and civic organizations, church groups, schools and universities, trade associations, and more.

8.   Seek publicity through local and regional media. Send a book announcement press release to media in the town where you grew up and where you live now.  The "local girl makes good" angle works especially well in smaller towns. Create press releases based on local tie-ins, such as a novel set in the region, and on current news events. Don’t forget your college alumni newsletter and any civic or professional associations you belong to. Nonfiction authors should consider radio and television talk shows.

9.   Exhibit at book fairs and festivals. These usually work best if your book is related to the theme of the event, or if the book has appeal to a broad audience.

10.   Market children’s book through schools and youth organizations. School visits are a great way to reach kids. For tips, see Melissa Williams’ article at http://snipr.com/s4qga.

Dana Lynn Smith is a book marketing coach and author of The Savvy Book Marketer Guides. For more book promotion tips, follow @BookMarketer on Twitter, visit Dana’s book marketing blog, and get a copy of the Top Book Marketing Tips ebook when you sign up for her free book marketing newsletter.

Top 10 Book Promotion Tactics

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This post, from Graham Storrs, originally appeared on his site on 2/6/2010. 

A survey of book promotion tactics was conducted by The Savvy Book Marketer in December, 2009, and is reported today. It asked a number of authors what their book promotion strategy would involve in 2010. You can check the method and the outcome there. I just want to look at the list of tactics they came up with and try to get a feel for how appropriate they might be for marketing an ebook. The list, most popular at the top, is this:

  1. Social networking and social media
  2. Blogging
  3. Seeking book reviews
  4. Seeking testimonials and endorsements
  5. Press releases
  6. E-zines or email marketing
  7. Radio and television talk shows
  8. Speaking or teleseminars
  9. Article marketing
  10. Book signings

There are some obvious things to say about this, so let’s say them first. The people surveyed clearly included a lot of non-fiction authors. So I can eliminate items 8 and 9 as not really relevant for a novel. I can also eliminate 10. With an ebook, there is nothing to sign, and, for that matter, no reason why a bookshop (the traditional venue for such things) would let you in the door. So that leaves:

  1. Social networking and social media
  2. Blogging
  3. Seeking book reviews
  4. Seeking testimonials and endorsements
  5. Press releases
  6. E-zines or email marketing
  7. Radio and television talk shows

1 and 2 are no-brainers. Anybody with a book to promote in any format and little or no money to spend, will be all over the social networks and blogsphere.

Seeking book reviews (3) might also seem obvious but it isn’t an avenue that is open to ebook writers in most genres. Where ebooks have been popular for years – in erotica and romance – there are dozens of popular and authoritative review sites on the Web. In all other genres, book reviewers will almost never review an ebook. Only rare exceptions exist among the popular review websites and online magazines. I am unaware of any exceptions among the major offline reviewers. So we can scratch that one. Over the next decade, as it becomes normal to release ebook-only novels (and as more reviewers buy ebook readers!) this will change. But in 2010, ebooks just don’t get reviewed.

Read the rest of the post, which includes commentary on the rest of the list of promotional tactics and how they apply (or don’t) to ebooks, on Graham Storrs’ site.

10 Greatest Writers Who Became Famous After Death

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This post, from Anna Miller, originally appeared on the Online Degree site and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

The old cliché states that artists and writers never achieve true fame or appreciation for their creative output until after their death. While the advent of bestselling authors who peddle their wares on television, radio, and other media outlets, the seductive cult of celebrity has begun trickling its way into the literary world at a much faster pace than yesteryear. But the following writers never had a chance to see the greater influence and love that their painstaking, passionate work earned due to dying before receiving recognition. Some, of course, never actively sought critical or academic renown for their novels, short stories, essays, or poems – though their intentions do not exclude them from proving the old adage true.

1. John Kennedy Toole

Following his disheartening 1969 suicide, John Kennedy Toole would go on to leave a permanent mark on the American literary landscape with his hilarious and heartbreaking A Confederacy of Dunces. His route towards history is indelibly marked by tragedy and well-known to anyone familiar with the brilliant novel and its lesser-known companion The Neon Bible. Toole’s mother Thelma brought the found manuscripts to Loyola University New Orleans professor Walker Percy in 1976. Initially skeptical of her claims that her son was a phenomenal writer, Percy found himself surprisingly bowled over by the grotesquely entertaining Ignatius Reilly and Toole’s pitch-perfect depiction of life in New Orleans and rallied to find a publisher for A Confederacy of Dunces. Louisiana State University agreed, and in 1980 Toole went on to win a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for the novel. Today, it remains a much-beloved work of American literature with a healthy and continuous following – studied frequently in high school and college-level English classes across the United States and subjected to many painstaking dissections by scholars and academics.

2. Franz Kafka

Today considered one of the quintessential existential (and, to a lesser extent, modernist) writers, many unfamiliar with Austrian writer Franz Kafka’s life will be shocked to discover that his intensive influence never coagulated until after his 1924 death from tuberculosis. Kafka actually spent much of his short life working in insurance and factories with the occasional dabbling in theatre. Most of his dark, deeply psychological short stories, novels, novellas, letters, and essays never saw publication in his lifetime – in fact, he ordered his contemporary Max Brod, the executor of his estate, to burn every manuscript without reading them. Obviously, Brod disobeyed these last requests. As a result, Kafka’s descriptive exploration of the more twisted, unknown corners of the human psyche entered into the literary canon. Loved and appreciated throughout the world, critics laud works such as The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Metamorphosis, and many, many others as some of the greatest literary contributions from the 20th century. They have gone on to heavily inspire not only other writers, but artists, musicians, and other creative types as well.

3. Henry Darger

A curious figure, Henry Darger enjoyed acclaim as an outsider artist and writer after Nathan and Kiyoko Lerner, his landlords, discovered the massive cache of pen and pencil drawings, watercolors, collages, and manuscripts he left behind. After moving into a Lincoln Park, Chicago apartment in 1930, he remained there until his death in 1973. Darger worked menial labor jobs in a hospital before retiring in 1963, and lived an exceptionally solitary existence revolving around attending mass and collecting discarded magazines, newspapers, and books that served as references for his art and inspirations for his stories. Growing up in a traumatic Catholic mission house after his mother’s death forced his being given up for adoption, Darger channeled many of the anxieties and frustrations he experienced into 3 gigantic literary works and a couple of smaller ones. The preservation of innocence and protection of abused children stood as the main themes of his entire creative output, with the seminal 15,145-page The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion as the most visible and popular example. He kept several diaries, some of them about the daily weather, and also penned The History of My Life (a 5,084-page autobiography) and the 10,000-page Crazy House.

4. Emily Dickinson

Like many beloved writers before her and many after, Emily Dickinson spent much of her adult life living like a hermit and was dismissed as a mere eccentric until shortly after her nephritis-related death in 1886. She attended Amherst Academy and studied literature, math, Latin, the sciences, and other disciplines and counted William Wordsworth and Ralph Waldo Emerson amongst her many influences. Keeping to herself, most of her family and peers knew her as a passionate gardener while in private she penned some most unorthodox poetry at the time. Only a small handful of her almost 1800 poems were published during her lifetime, and her sister Lavinia burned a few of her posthumous leavings upon request – mostly letters. However, Dickinson failed to leave behind instructions for some of her notebooks, and as a result her first volume of poetry hit the shelves in 1890 with the help of supporters Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd. Critics received it with a largely mixed response, though later scholars would come to heap praise upon her experimentations in slant rhyming and unconventional punctuation and capitalization.

5. Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath did, in fact, find a modicum of literary recognition in her lifetime before committing grisly suicide in 1963. In 1955, she even won the Glascock Prize for “Two Lovers and a Beachcomber by the Sea.” Following her graduation from Smith College, she guest edited at Mademoiselle magazine to much disappointment – an experience that inspired her celebrated semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar – and published the occasional poem in the Cambridge University newspaper Varsity. Plath struggled with mental illness all her life, finding solace in her confessional works that discussed her overwhelming emotions with raw, open honesty. However, this intimate peek into her tumultuous inner life gained far more momentum after her death, with 4 children’s books, 6 works of fictitious and nonfictitious prose (including diaries), and at least 7 volumes of poetry attributed to her name after 1963. Prior to that, she had released The Colossus and Other Poems to a small but largely positive critical base that would later come to prefer her posthumous works. She even won the first posthumous Pulitzer Prize for poetry for 1981’s The Collected Poems. It was the publication of The Bell Jar that fully solidified her place in the American literary pantheon, though. Written under the pen name “Victoria Lucas,” it had been accepted for publication and hit the shelves one month before Plath’s suicide – meaning she never had a chance to actually enjoy the subsequent adulation.

6. Jane Austen

Considering contemporary media’s nigh-obsession with all things Jane Austen – a disconcerting many of them jettisoning the truly biting Regency satire in favor of focusing on the more profitable romances – it comes a shock to many that she never garnered hefty amounts of popularity in her lifetime. Austen did, in fact, publish several of her most beloved novels (Sense and Sensibility in 1811, Pride and Prejudice in 1813, Mansfield Park in 1814, and Emma in 1815) prior to her 1817 death from a disputed disease. Many literary critics and intellectuals spoke well of her spunky parodies of English society, though others criticized the novels for their failure to adhere to Romantic and Victorian philosophies and literary protocol. While never huge, they enjoyed a steady stream of moderate success, and her comprehensive Juvenilia series sent her family rollicking with its cheeky, anarchic humor. In spite of all this, however, Austen remained almost an entire unknown entity until after her death…when her brother Henry revealed in the biographical notes of the posthumously published Northanger Abbey and Persuasion (both in 1817) that she spent her entire literary career writing anonymously.

7. James Agee

Known during his lifetime as a moderately successful literary critic and co-screenwriter for the classic films The African Queen in 1951 and The Night of the Hunter in 1955, James Agee’s alcoholism frequently prevented him from ever achieving fame equal to his talents. A lifelong writer, he wrote for Fortune, Life, The Nation, and Time (he also served as a movie critic for the latter 2), published a volume of poetry (Permit Me Voyage), and released a largely ignored novel (Let Us Now Praise Famous Men) prior to his death by heart attack in 1995. Agee’s most celebrated and studied work, the autobiographical novel A Death in the Family, saw publication 2 years later and earned him a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in fiction in 1958. Afterwards, interest in his oeuvre skyrocketed and eventually earned him a place as one of the most respected American writers of the 20th century.

8. Nathanael West

As with many who worked as screenwriters in the 1930’s, Nathanael West never enjoyed great success for his literary prowess. Prior to his fatal car accident in 1940, West released 12 screenplays (and 1 remaining unproduced), 2 short stories, and 4 novels all while participating in a few writers’ seminars with the likes of Dashiell Hammett and William Carlos Williams. Most of his works – including the celebrated Miss Lonelyhearts (1933) and The Day of the Locust (1939) – drew from his experiences in the tarnished, writhing underbelly of the supposedly glamorous and idealistic Hollywood. It took his sudden and unexpected death to launch any real interest in West’s output, and the 1957 re-release of his collected novels only solidified his popularity. To this day, many regard The Day of the Locust as the quintessential Hollywood satire, offering a portrait into the shady wheelings and dealings of producers, actors, and other movie professionals vying for stardom and glory.

9. Anne Frank

The tragic story of Annelies Frank needs very little introduction. Fans of history and literature alike need to read the young girl’s diary, which she kept from June 12, 1942 until three days her capture by the Nazis on August 4, 1944. Frank died in Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in 1945 at the age of 15 as one of the 6 million completely unnecessary Jewish murders during the Holocaust. Miep Gies, one of the women responsible for hiding Frank’s family from the Third Reich, handed her father Otto the famous account. He sought a publisher for it as a means of educating the populace on Hitler’s atrocities, and came to find a valuable ally in historian Annie Romein-Verschoor and her husband Jan Romein. The Diary of a Young Girl was first published in 1947 in The Netherlands, with much of Europe and the United States following shortly thereafter. Critics enjoyed the book as both a harrowing glimpse into life as a hated minority in Hitler’s Germany and as a well-written piece of literature in its own right. Though a teenager, Frank’s experiences granted her work a maturity beyond her years that paradoxically never tarnishes her childlike perceptions of the chaotic world. The result is an entirely necessary entry into the literary canon – a work that absolutely needs reading if humanity ever hopes to quell the possibility of another fascist genocide.

10. Theodore Winthrop

Better known as a Civil War soldier and one of the first Union fatalities, Theodore Winthrop made a name for himself as a Yale-educated lawyer and seasoned world traveler before enlisting in 1861. He published a few articles, short stories, sketches, and essays but garnered little attention beyond the popular, patriotic “Our March to Washington.” Only after his death at the Battle of Big Bethel shortly after entering the army did anyone pay much attention to Winthrop’s writings. His sister, Laura Winthrop Johnson, was responsible for compiling all of his poetry and prose for submission and an eventual collection. At least 5 of his novels hit the shelves posthumously, many of them drawing from his generous academic and travel experiences. However, it was his Cecil Dreeme that garnered the most attention. Challenging and progressive, he turned traditional perceptions of social, gender, and racial roles upside-down using New York University as his backdrop.

No matter their ideology, style, or motivations for writing in the first place, these talented men and women left their undisputed legacy on the literary scene only after passing on. They obtained the level of fame that inadequate, trend-chasing copycats or celebrity-worshipping predecessors and successors only dream about, molding and shaping the written word with oeuvres that far outlived the limitations of human flesh.

 

Anniversary Contest Finalist #7 – Preparing For A Book Sale

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This post, from Fay Risner, originally appeared on her Booksbyfay blog in September of 2009 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission. This is Fay’s entry in our anniversary contest, in which the winners are selected based on total unique page views. So if you like it, and would like to see Fay become a regular Publetariat Contributor, spread the word and the link!

Friday, Civil War Days begins in Belle Plaine, Iowa. I’m going to sell my books in the park on the fringes of North versus south battles. So am I ready?

I’ve watched the weather forecasts. Looks like perfect days for having a table full of books outside. To help the customers visually see what kind of books I write, I made place cards that states the genre to place by each pile of books. It would be a good thing if the wind wasn’t too strong, or I will spend time chasing those place cards down. Also, the bookmarkers I printed that list my inventory and address for future reference.

I’ve been doing a mental list in my head this morning. It has taken a lot of preparation for this three day event. I’ve got an aluminum folding table left over from my craft sale days. (Those craft sales are where I learned some salesmanship.) An Indian blanket for a table cover, doesn’t go along with the Civil War but in that century. Dressing in a pioneer dress and wearing a bonnet should give me some attention. (How did I come by a pioneer dress and bonnet?

I revamped a dress and sewed the bonnet years ago when I volunteered at Usher Ferry in Cedar Rapids. I was spinning in a one room log cabin as the woman who lived there. When visitors came in, I had to tell them about my life. It was fun to act the part.) I still have my money box from craft show days (a small fishing tackle box). It’s perfect with a top divided shelf for change and the bottom for bills. I bought a mesh folding chair with a canopy top so I wouldn’t have to sit in direct sunlight. Haven’t had it out of the bag to see if I can set it up. Every time I buy something in a bag or box that needs put together, I’ve found it a struggle to put the object back in the bag. So guess I’ll wing putting the chair together in the park after I have the table set up.

After some fall house cleaning, I found a four by four poster board upstairs to use for a sign to lean against the table. This advertisement shows that I am a local person. That might help get me some interest if not sales. So I printed large banners and tacked them to the poster board. The sign reads Keystone Author Fay Risner – Book Sale – Featuring – Ella Mayfield’s Pawpaw Militia . On each side of the Book Sale line was a blank space so I put a picture of my book cover on one side and a Confederate Flag on the other. That definitely states which side of the war I’m on. Figured I might as well join. You can’t hear it in my writing, but I have a southern accent. That would be a dead give away if I tried to join the Union forces. They might shoot me for a spy.

I have no idea where I am to set up. The man I talked to said I could be by a building where reenactors sell their wares. Guess someone will point me in the right direction.

Friday is the day the schools bring students to learn about the Civil War. I wanted to be a part of that education. Besides, a presentation will go along with my book. So I made up another poster board. While the reenactors will be talking military feats, I will be discussing Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers. A time line of the border war between Kansas territory and Missouri is on the poster. A large Missouri map dominates the board with stars for important places and Vernon County drawn in so the children can see where my history comes from.

I won’t have anyone to watch my table and I don’t know how far it will be to the concession stand. I baked an apple cake. That will be meals and snacks plus I’m taking a large container of ice tea.

My husband isn’t so sure all this stuff will fit in my small car. Best be prepared. Today I pack the car just to see how is the best way to fit everything in. It will be good to have that much done. I’ll have to get an early start to be set up before 9 a.m.

No matter what, this will be a fun experience going back in time amid the smell and explosions of gunpowder, war cries and crowd appreciation of the battles. Lincoln will give his Gettysburg Address, a church service will be held under the open sky and much more. I can’t wait to get there.

——————————————————————————–

Here’s the follow-up post, recapping the results of the sale.

 

Anniversary Contest Finalist #6 – How To Be Your Own Best Editor, Pt. 1

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This post, from M. Louisa Locke, originally appeared on her The Front Parlor blog on 2/16/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission. This is Locke’s entry in our anniversary contest, in which the winners are selected based on total unique page views. So if you like it, and would like to see Locke become a regular Publetariat Contributor, spread the word and the link!

I made the decision that I was going to self-publish my historical mystery, Maids of Misfortune, in the spring of 2009. Having discovered and become a faithful reader of the website, Publetariat, I was well aware that I had several tasks in front of me if I wanted to be a successful indie author. I had to decide where to publish, design a cover, set up a website, learn how to format the manuscript for  different publishing mediums, and set up a marketing plan. But most importantly, I needed to make sure that my manuscript was completely ready for publication.

 
Over the years, through at least 3 rewritings of my manuscript, I had gotten excellent advice from  my writers group. However, with each rewrite, I had always assumed that any lingering problems with the manuscript would somehow be taken care of when it was finally accepted for publication and went through the traditional editing process. I had no such safety net as an indie author.
 
Read any blog post on self-publishing, and the question of editing comes up. In fact, this seems to be at the crux of most arguments against the validity of self-publishing–that self-published work just can’t be good because it hasn’t been through the vetting of an agent and editor. See Tom Barlow’s “Six reasons that self-publishing is the scourge of the book world”  for a typical example of this point of view.
 
Even strong defenders of self-publishing often suggest that indie authors should hire a professional editor before publishing their books. For example, see  “Why do you need an editor?” by Heidi Thomas.
 
Yet, even if I had decided to hire a professional editor (which I didn’t) this wouldn’t preclude my responsibility for the finished product. Editors can point out errors, they can suggest changes, but ultimately, as an indie author, I needed to be my own best editor.
 
These are the steps I took:
 
I read.
American Idol has demonstrated the amazing capacity of humans for self-delusion, but I knew that no matter how tickled I was with the story I had written, it was not up to the quality of the best of the published fiction I enjoy reading. That knowledge came from a life-time of reading, cringing at badly written material and being transported by the good stuff. I knew that it would be from reading that I would hone the skills to edit my own work.
 
First I concentrated on reading (or rereading) books by all of my favorite mystery authors.
I have never understood the would-be novelists-and I have met a number-who tell me they are writing in a particular genre because they think it will sell, even though they don’t really like that genre. As “research” they read one or two books-usually recent best sellers (which are probably not even the best written book by those authors-since the best sellers often aren’t as good as the first lovingly crafted books that got those authors their first contracts.) They then try to model their work on those best sellers-and what they come up with is often derivative and lacking the joy that comes from a writer writing what they love to read.
 
I love mysteries. That’s why, when I wanted to tell a story about working women in the far west, I wrote my story as a mystery. Because of the number of mysteries I have read, I have a much finer tuned sense of what it takes to make a good mystery. So, as I reread my favorite authors, I looked specifically at what I liked about their writing. I noticed what voice they used and if they provided multiple perspectives. I noted how long the chapters were and examined the transitions from chapter to chapter. I paid attention to their secondary characters and how much physical detail was used to describe each one. I looked for the story arc, searching for the red herrings, the sub-climax, the climax, and at how the book ended. When there was something I didn’t like, the ending disappointed, or I couldn’t keep all the characters straight, or I got bored and found myself skipping ahead, I tried to figure out what had gone wrong.
 
I didn’t confine myself to my sub-genre (historical mysteries set in Victorian era). In fact I rather steered away from these books, because I didn’t want to find myself copying from them. Instead, by learning how to maintain a fast pace from a Dick Francis, or how to create a sense place or time from a Navada Barr or Laurie King, or how to provide sexual tension without sex from a Dorothy Sayers, I was able to apply their methods to my own original work without becoming derivative.
 
Next, I read or reread all the advice books I had accumulated over the years, including practical guides on grammar.
For example, Publetariat’s section on writing featured a long list of tips that I found very useful. I knew how to write, but I needed to be reminded what to look for when I was reading my own work. I also discovered some new rules. For example, sometime since I wrote the first draft of my manuscript, the standard had shifted from two to one spaces between sentences! Who knew!
 
Then, I read all the comments from agents, rejection letters from editors, and critiques from my writers group.
I looked for common threads (several mentioned that I had too many arguments between the protagonists). I looked for differences of opinion (one said it didn’t have enough romance, another too much). I read these comments in the light of what I had learned from all the reading I had been doing in the genre and about writing.
 
Finally I was ready. And, in my next post I will detail what I did to prepare my manuscript for publication as my own best editor.
 
(If you want to see how successful I was, check out the free excerpt of Maids of Misfortune, or better yet-buy the book!)

 

Anniversary Contest Finalist #5 – If You Build It, Will They Come?

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This post, from J. Daniel Sawyer, originally appeared on his Literary Abominations site on 3/1/2010 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. This is JD’s entry in our anniversary contest, in which the winners are selected based on total unique page views. So if you like it, and would like to see JD become a regular Publetariat Contributor, spread the word and the link!

Free content – particularly in the audio fiction space – suddenly seems a lot less of a perpetual free lunch than it did six months ago, and it’s got a lot of folks freaking out in my corner of the Internet.

 
Providers are dropping like flies this year! Matthew Wayne Selznick and J.C. Hutchins have both very publicly withdrawn from the podcast fiction space, and for the best reason there is: Money.
[Correction: MWS chimed in in the comments to correct my misapprehension of his current attitude toward podcasting, which is considerably more complex than the paragraph above makes it seem. My apologies for inadvertently misrepresenting him.]
 
The two of them are generation one podiobookers who appeared in the space hot on the heels of the three founders, and seeing them throw in the towel has a lot of other creators wondering: “Are we all just being idiots giving stuff away for free?” And it’s got a lot of fans wondering “What’s going to happen now? Are all my favorite writers going to give up?”
 
The Gospel of Free has been pinging around the internet for a while now, it’s even got its own official book. There are folks in the fiction space – like Doctorow and Sigler – that have made it the cornerstone of their publicity strategy and turn a consistent profit at it. The use of free content in career building is a well-established promotional strategy, but it’s a difficult tool to use, and suffers from the reductio ad absurdum that most people hear when they first encounter the message, no matter how subtly it’s preached: “If you build it, they will come.”
 
So if I just put my stuff on the web I’ll find an audience? Well, no. You might find an audience, if you get yourself seen by the right people (and by “right people” I mean people who are prone to telling everybody they know about their latest new and great thing). You might even find a good audience – but you have to bear in mind, “Free” doesn’t mean what you think it does.
 
Let’s take what I do for free (well, free to my audience): I use a segment of my professional time as a writer and as a sound engineer to produce full-cast audiodbooks. I pay for this – billing my professional time out at normal rates, and factoring in what I pay my actors in trade (whether they’ve collected on it or not), my cost (not including what I should be paying the author) is in the neighborhood of $10-15k. Now, am I out of pocket that much? No. I do go out of pocket a little bit, but not a lot – however, that’s all time stripped out of my life that I could be billing at that kind of rate. If you’ve wondered why I do less in the way of publicity than some other podiobooks authors, now you know – the time is my main expense, and I have a life and a business. I intend, eventually, to have my writing income make up a greater-than-fifty-percent share of my household budget, but I’m not there yet. I’m nowhere near. This is what is called a loss-leader.
 
In business terms, a loss-leader is the bait on the hook – the hook is what gets the audience to spend money. Matching the right bait to the right hook and fishing in the right water is a learned skill set, and it relies somewhat on how fast one learns from experience, how lucky one is, and (in the writing game) how good a lawyer one is and/or has. There’s a reason more than 75% of authors wash out of the game after their first book contract runs out, and why only a minuscule percentage of people with authorial ambitions ever get even that far – being a good writer is not the same as being a successful author. It’s even possible to be a successful author without being a good writer (for example, Dan Brown), but I wouldn’t bank on it and I know damn few successful authors who would, particularly over the term of a career. Craft does matter – it’s just not all that matters.
 
If podcasting is your loss leader, what’s your endgame? If all you’re trying to do is get your voice heard, podcasting or blogging your novel is a perfectly fine idea. If you’re looking to get published, it might help, or it might be a distraction or a detriment, depending on your approach and a host of other variables. If you’re looking to build a sustainable long term career as a professional author, it’s time for you to stop and think about a few things before you go into podcasting:
1) What will podcasting give me?

2) What is my professional time worth – and if I were to bill myself for this, how much of a loss will I be taking?

3) What kind of author do I want to be?

4) Why do I think “getting published” is a worthwhile goal?

 
Why should you stop to think about these things? Because I guarantee you that your answers to at least one of those questions is wrong enough to set you up for some serious disappointment.
 
What will podcasting give me?
Podcasting will, if you stick with it and actually produce a decent product with broad enough appeal, give you an audience ranging anywhere from a few hundred to maybe twenty thousand regular listeners. If you’re very innovative in evangelizing your product beyond the established fiction podosphere, your chances for good numbers go up. If you host in a high visibility place like Podiobooks and leave your content there for a few years, your numbers will climb over time due to the long tail effect.
 
Podcasting may also help you learn the market in terms of audience. This is the primary reason I started fiction podcasting: Market research. I was looking to find out what kind of people would enjoy the stories that I’m interested in writing, so that I could figure out how to find and deliver to that market that, in the long term (and I’m talking about a time scale of decades) I will be able to consistently turn a profit on. Notice I said “stories”, not “books” – that will become important later.
 
Podcasting may give you a creative community – this isn’t something I was looking for, but I have made some friends through the process as well as more than a few good business contacts that have been helpful along the way.
 
Podcasting (if you’re good at it) will win you respect and accolades as well as the adoration of at least a few fans along the way, and this feels really good. Just remember that, as encouraging as it can be, it’s a limited kind of street cred. Audience tastes change, and what they love about you today they may hate about you tomorrow. Glory feels wonderful, even in small doses, and can put an extra bit of shine on a life well lived, but it will never make up for insecurity or the need for the kind of relationships you can only have with people who really know you.
 
Podcasting may give you pleasure – if you enjoy the process and enjoy interacting with people, it’s something that you might like even as a hobby.
 
But unless you are supremely lucky and very canny, there is something podcasting will not deliver: a paycheck of any substance. If you’re expecting to be have your audio audience put you on the bestseller list once you get that book deal, good luck to you. A few people have pulled it off. Those people are, without exception, people that – by chance or by cleverness – wrote exactly to market. They were selling stories that resonated perfectly (or at least well enough) with the public that a larger-than-average segment of their fan base wanted to own a physical copy, and the same larger-than-average segment went out of their way to pimp the shit out of the books to their friends, family, and strangers who might not even own iPods. A few others have pulled it off by their books being noticed on a site like Podiobooks, and subsequently selling film options.
 
If you want your book to perform well enough to get to your next contract, you need a publishing house that will throw its weight behind you, a print run that is realistically scaled to your book’s performance, and a property that is going to sell in the current market. If you don’t have at least the latter two of these three things, then (again) good luck to you. You’re going to need it.
 
How Much Is My Time Worth?
I hate to sound like a schoolmarm (or worse), but time that you’re podcasting is time that you’re not doing four other things, all of which are arguably more important. It’s time you’re not making money at whatever your profession is, it’s time you’re not spending with friends and family building the memories that make life with living, it’s time that you’re not learning, and it’s time that you’re not writing.
 
If you intend to write fiction for any significant fraction of your life, you need to be doing all of those things. You have to write to grow as a writer, and you have to make money to be able to live while you’re writing. But if you have a life that isn’t worth living – say, a life without significant relationships or learning and enrichment – then it’s highly unlikely that you’re going to have anything interesting to write about (and you may be too depressed to write about anything at all, except stories about depression).
 
Every hour you spend podcasting is billable time – somebody’s paying for it, and it isn’t always just you. Don’t cheat on your mental accounting sheet – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Even in a down economy, your time has a dollar value attached to it – figure out what that value is, and then keep track of what you’re spending. If nothing else, being aware of the cost will help you keep from feeling cheated at the far end if you wind up not getting a good return on your investment, because you’ll be spending on purpose.
 
What Kind of Author Do I Want To Be?
If you’ve been in and around the writing business for any length of time, you’ve heard the old saw “you can’t make a living as a writer unless you’re in the top 1%.” This bit of conventional wisdom is what lies behind the blockbuster mentality on the part of authors: you want to have a brand name, you want to be the biggest thing ever, and you must relentlessly self-promote (the blockbuster mentality of some publishing houses is another animal entirely, and Charles Stross and Dean Wesley Smith have both covered it very well on their blogs recently).
 
If you’ve heard that and are still intent on trying, then you are either mind-numbingly stupid, a heroically-minded risk junkie, a hobbyist, or someone who actually has a clue about business and doesn’t listen to the conventional wisdom of creative people (in which case, good for you).
 
So you want to be the next Dan Brown or Stephanie Meyer? You’d be better off going to Vegas – that kind of trend really is a game of chance, and depends largely (though not entirely) on unforeseeable market forces. That said, there is a whole swath of writers who make a living on their names, which they worked very hard to establish, and who aren’t blockbusters (and yes, Scott Sigler is one of them. He might be a blockbuster by our standards, and his ambition is to be the next Stephen King, but by broader market standards he’s a respectable front-lister, and there’s nothing at all wrong with that).
But blockbusting is not the only way to win this game, and here’s why:
 
Most authors who make a living at it don’t make a living on their book advances. Oh, the advances help, but they’re not even close to the whole pie. Subsidiary rights sales, foreign rights, royalties from the long tail, article sales, and commissioned work for other commercial ventures (such as being tapped to do a Star Trek or a Dragonlance novel) make up a large part of the income flow, with investments helping keep the rent paid during lean years. These authors generally (though not always) sit solidly on the mid-list, and some of them write under a variety of names for different markets. I know and have known (personally) at least a score of authors who make their living with their words, and the two qualities that distinguish them from the authors I know who haven’t been able to pull it off are: 1) insufferable, bloody-minded perseverance, and 2) continual growth in craft and breadth. In other words, these authors actually treat it like a career, rather than a brass ring.
 
The truth is that most people who get counted as “authors” in surveys of author incomes are people who publish a single book, or who have a book they haven’t sold. They’re not career writers. They don’t count screenwriters, ad copy writers, stage play writers, or other such folks. In other words, this bit of conventional wisdom is horse shit because it counts every dilettante, aspiring amateur, and washout as an “author.”
 
Authors such people may be, but professionals they ain’t. Some of them will become professionals (I must hasten to add, I’m on this tier — I’m not prolific enough or churning enough cash enough yet to be called a professional, but I’m heading deliberately in that direction) – others are hobbyists. I daresay that if such a survey were taken of all the auto mechanics in the world, with hobbyists and people that change their own oil counted with the same weight as ASE certificate holders, the numbers for auto mechanics wouldn’t be dissimilar to what we hear about with writing.
 
If you’re looking to do this for a living, writing is a professional business (i.e. a business that relies on being an expert in a particular domain), with all the problems that implies: It relies on individual expertise, a broad skillset, at least a vague awareness of market dynamics, a certain legal acumen, the ability to adapt to contingency, a high tolerance for risk and uncertainty, and a little bit of luck. You know, just like any other non-franchise business.
 
Why Do I think Getting Published is a Worthwhile Goal?
More than any other question, the answer to this gets to the heart of the matter for an author who is thinking of podcasting their work, because in answering this you’re probably going to answer a significant portion of all the other questions.
 
My answer to this one is simple: It’s a step on the road. I got a huge thrill with my first short story sale – now, after only a couple more, it’s an exercise in contract negotiations and another tick on the scorecard. It’s fun and exciting, but it’s not the life-affirming experience that the first sale was. Why? Because my sights are on the next set of goalposts, and I need to get to those so I can see the next set, and so on.
 
But my self-worth is not wrapped up in this. This is business. If I can’t make it work one way I’ll make it work another, and if, in the end, I turn out not to have the chops, I’ll shift my focus and continue writing as a hobby to whatever extent I can justify it. Yes, I am one of those rare people who will write no matter what – it’s the reason I’m making a go of turning it into a profession. But that doesn’t mean that everything I do will be available for free. Some things will, some things won’t – just like, right now, some things are and some things aren’t. My time is billable hourly, and my free stuff is there so that I can 1) build my audience, and 2) learn how to navigate in my marketplace(s). It’s an investment I’m making because it seems sound to me – I know what it costs, and for me the price is right.
 
Is the price right for you? Think hard about it. I daresay there will always be hobbyists in the podcast fiction space, but if you’re a pro or an aspiring pro, look at it as a business investment. It’s not a magic bullet, and it’s not a shortcut. Even podcasting’s biggest success, Scott Sigler, doesn’t see it as either of those things. Scott needed a platform to prove that there was a market for cross-genre horror, so he essentially invented one. His focus now is on figuring out where the next place to grow his audience is, and what books will be best to write next. There’s a reason he’s made this work, and it goes a lot deeper than “he writes in a popular genre” (although that also is very important).
 
Wrapping It Up
The Gospel of Free is a pernicious little meme that’s burned out some talented people and seriously burned others, but it’s not a new one. Every get rich quick scheme, every investment bubble, every motivational speaker that comes along has the same basic blend of bullshit and wisdom: “Look at this new thing – it’s no-lose! Look at its merits! Imagine how much you could do with this!” Network marketing, real estate flipping, dot com stocks – there’s always something, and it nearly always takes a pretty clever idea and isolates it from all good business sense.
 
Don’t fall for it. Free has always been with us, and it’s always been good business when done right. New tools, new media, and new toys are great, but excitement about the opportunities they present can easily obscure the most basic thing about business: supply and demand must meet, and they must trade. If they don’t, then at best what you’ve got is a rewarding hobby, and at worst you’re in a financial disaster. There is no such things as a fast buck except at the craps table, and there is never any such thing as a free lunch.
Me? I’m in this for the long haul. I’m building a business, with all the risk that implies. Right now, my business model includes podcasting. Will it in three years? It depends on what happens between now and then.
 
So, in sum, my advice to other writers and podcasters, for what it’s worth: Podcast what you will. Keep track of what it’s costing you. Cut your losses if it’s not returning what you need for it to be worthwhile. Above all, don’t buy the bullshit that motivational speakers and other sharks shovel. Celebrity status might be useful, but it’s like Monopoly money: not negotiable currency outside of the small circles that generate it.
For fans of mine and other’s podcast fiction: remember that while this is free to you, it’s not free for us. Your feedback, your cash in the tip jar, and your evangelism are much appreciated. We podcast authors know that we’re being wasteful and reckless – and not all of us will stay in this space forever. For now, I at least am getting what I want out of the bargain, and I do enjoy entertaining you all.
 
For everyone reading, remember: Life is precious. Don’t forget to enjoy whatever it is you’re doing, and treasure the memories it gives you. Treat your time like an investment, and savor what you buy with it. In the end, the moments are the only thing we have to make a life out of.

 

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Matthew Wayne Selznick’s comment:

Hi Dan. Thoughtful post. I do want to clarify something — you wrote that I’ve “withdrawn very publicly from the podcasting fiction space” for “the best reason there is: money.”
That’s not accurate.
 
I have one book written and published, “Brave Men Run — A Novel of the Sovereign Era.” It came out as a free podcast in September of 2005 on the same day it was available to purchase in paperback and several e-book formats, and was one of the first twenty five podcast novels. The podcast is still available, and it’s still free. I haven’t podcast any of my other fiction… but I also don’t have any more novels ready to be released in any form.
 
Many folks assumed I would release podcast episodes of my ongoing episodic serial fiction project, “Hazy Days and Cloudy Nights” when it debuted last May. There are three reasons I haven’t done so, and none of those reasons have anything to do with money:
 
One: the serial is available to read for free already (you can support it voluntarily if you’d like to be a patron of my creative endeavors.)
 
Two: I’m not sure I want to begin podcasting a story arc that I haven’t finished writing.
 
Three: creating podcast fiction content takes time, and it doesn’t make sense for me to spend that time on that right now (see One and Two.)
The one thing I did do publicly in my “Lessons From 2009″ blog post was come down on people — fans and authors alike — who over-estimate the value of podcast fiction for an author’s career, and those authors who treat their tiny measure of fame in a very small arena as more than it really is. But, I also make it very clear in that post that podcasting my first book was a worthwhile marketing and promotional decision.
 
Philippa Ballantine, in the comments, lumped me in with J. C. Hutchins and Matt Wallace as someone who has “changed their opinions” about, I assume, the “magic bullet” of podcasting fiction as a path to success. I won’t presume to speak for Hutch or Matt W. (they’ve spoken on their own behalf, very well) but I guess I need to clear this up, too:
 
I haven’t changed my opinion about podcasting fiction, because my opinion has always been that giving away a version of your work in podcast form is a viable marketing device to promote other, for-pay versions of that work, and to build an audience for that work and for the author.
 
This remains my opinion. There is no “magic bullet,” and if I’ve ever given anyone the impression that there is, I apologize — it was not intended.
 
Podcasting fiction has always been, for me, part of the marketing “budget” of a book. I don’t think I’ve ever said that I’m not going to podcast any more fiction… have I?
 
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to clarify things. I guess I’m going to have to write a post of my own to really set the record straight!

 

Anniversary Contest Finalist #4 – Publishing in the 21st century: Are the best things in life really free?

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This post, from Edward G. Talbot, originally appeared on the Edward G. Talbot site on 2/16/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. This is Edward G. Talbot’s entry in our anniversary contest, in which the winners are selected based on total unique page views. So if you like it, and would like to see Edward G. Talbot become a regular Publetariat Contributor, spread the word and the link!

The best things in life are free. But you can give that to the birds and the bees. I want money.
-The Undertakers, "Money", 1963.

Publishing is an industry everyone loves to hate. They publish too much garbage. They waste untold millions printing and shipping books that wind up in the dumpster. They’re only in it for the money. These observations contain plenty of truth, but they also strike me as rather useless. The bigger question for me is how is the growing trend of free and low-priced fiction going to impact publishing, and by extension the price and quality of available books.

I don’t buy the oft-stated opinion that publishers don’t add value. The real question is how much value do they add? Editing, advertising, and layout/cover design are just the most obvious items. Many would argue that publishers also serve as gatekeepers, ensuring that a book which bears their imprint meets certain quality standards. From a business standpoint, publishers also take the biggest financial risks, spending a minimum of $5000 (and often a lot more) to get a book ready for production.

OK, now that I’ve defended publishers, let’s talk about how things are changing. No one really knows exactly how the dust from all these changes will settle. I personally don’t believe that ten years from now large publishers will be gone or everyone will be reading e-books. But that’s just a guess, and I’ve been wrong before.

One thing I feel certain about is that free and low-priced content is going to have a bigger impact on the market than you hear most in the industry talk about. Certainly they are afraid of it and aren’t sure how to address the issue. I think they are right to be afraid.

I’ve heard several different arguments about why people will still buy e-books for $10-$15 from traditional publishers. Those arguments may turn out to be accurate, but they rest on a couple of assumptions that I think are dangerous.

The first assumption is that giving away books for free or selling them for two or three bucks is unsustainable. It’s true that few if any individual authors without large followings will drop five grand on professional book preparation and then sell for such cheap prices. So let’s assume that most of these books will not have such work put into them. And let’s grant that even a book good enough to be published by a major will not be as good without that work.

That returns us to the question of the value of the service a publisher provides. Is all that work worth $15 to a reader instead of $2 or $3? When you ponder that question, don’t imagine yourself, imagine the typical book buyer. Obviously a lot of readers have certain authors they will pay a huge premium for (I always spring for Lee Child the day a new one comes out), but it’s hard not to conclude that many people will check out the first few pages of a $3 e-book for free and like it enough to buy it instead of paying a lot more for a better known author. Certainly enough will make this choice to have a major impact on publishing bottom lines.

That’s the "demand" side of the equation, but the supply side is where I think the publishing industry’s long-time model is coming back to bite them. Most authors make anywhere from fifty cents to three dollars per book from a traditional publisher, varying with format and a number of other factors. There are simply too many costs and too many moving parts in the system to pay them more. An author can make as much or more by listing an e-book for $2.99 on kindle and and making over $2 a book. To be fair, publishers are beginning to move to higher royalties on e-books, and this terrain is changing rapidly.

The other big supply-side problem is, as I mentioned, the nature of the publishing model. You hear all the time that 99% of writers don’t get published. Whether the real number is 96% or 99.9% doesn’t really matter. The point is that all of these rejections have been assigned a value of zero by the industry. There’s no middle ground. Most of these books stink, but if only 1% of them are decent, that is an awful lot of potential competition that the free market has said are worth nothing. As e-publishing matures, many of them will appear for little or no cost. And the argument that this is unsustainable breaks down when you consider that most writers devote hundreds of hours a year for five to ten years before breaking through. Even most published authors can’t make a living. Most writers do it because we enjoy it. There’s no practical reason we can’t do it without compensation indefinitely.

The second dangerous assumption out there is that publishers will always have a role as gatekeepers, which will reduce the impact of the free and cheap content. This assumption contains some kernels of truth. It’s true that the more books published, the more difficult it can become for a reader to find good ones in the sea of content.

On the other hand, I think this question, like the one about the value added by publishers, needs to be viewed in the context of the average reader. Even today, numerous surveys show that most readers find books by word of mouth. E-books will only accelerate that trend, as finding them featured on tables in bookstores will diminish. And most readers are not looking for the perfect book. They are looking for a good book. In the face of too many choices, they may indeed fall back on the books with a lot of advertising.

However, that means the blockbuster authors. Publishers will undoubtedly still be the gatekeepers for those books. But everyone else, from the mid-list down to the debut author, will get squeezed. If you accept that many readers will be OK without the level of professional work that publishers provide, a $9.99 mid-list book will have trouble competing.

I’m sure some of you will not accept the premise that many readers are OK without that level of production work. And you may be right. I recently heard a well-reasoned argument that a mass of books a notch below that professional level will actually help mid-list writers. I guess the point I’m making is that the actions publishers are taking at the moment are mostly predicated on the fact that the value they’ve always added can sustain prices far higher than work without it. I wouldn’t feel comfortable having the survival of my business rest on that.

This topic is a complex one. I haven’t touched on issues like what an author "should" give away for free or how the brick-and-mortar distribution model is changing, both of which impact the things I have covered here. And it’s easy to pick points I have made and show how I might be wrong. I might be. But given the unknowns, many in the industry seem more certain of that than I think the evidence warrants.

What do you think?

 

Anniversary Contest Finalist #3 – Why I Started A Publishing Company

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This post, from Shaun Kilgore, originally appeared on his site on 3/5/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with his permission. This is Shaun’s entry in our anniversary contest, in which the winners are selected based on total unique page views. So if you like it, and would like to see Shaun become a regular Publetariat Contributor, spread the word and the link!

Why did I start this publishing company? Here’s the short answer: Because my wife was interested enough in starting a business herself that she volunteered to help me create Founders House Publishing.

You see, just before this happened, I was preparing to work with a friend on a small publishing venture, the first real push in that direction that had any legitimate chances of getting off the ground. (I still hope to work with him in the future.) It was in the process of helping my father find a place to publish his book, Echoes From The Past: A Memoir Of Family Heritage, that my wife and I decided to do it ourselves. Sure, there were other options, but this made sense in a variety of ways. Why do it, you might ask. Let me see if I can answer that.

Looking Back

For the longest time, I’ve loved books and loved reading. In fact, I’ve been on the path to publishing my own books since 2006 when I published a collection of short stories using the author services provider Lulu. It was an awesome step forward for me to put the book together inside and out. When I received that first copy in the mail I was ecstatic. (I saw myself as a publisher even then.) As a writer, I certainly had some satisfaction, but this was definitely a war between my interests as a book designer/artist and the one who wrote all the content. It is satisfying in a whole different way to take the labors of other writers and help package it in nice designs and colorful covers.

I recall putting together some stapled booklets for a small magazine about Christian religious topics about eight years ago. Even then, I was intrigued with the design and look of the magazine and looking for ways to create something special. This was just something I was printing out on my home printer! The feeling has been the same every step of the way. When we received the first copy of Echoes From The Past, that same excitement was there. Even more so since I could see the logo for my own publishing company on the spine.

What I Have Now

So here I am, the co-owner of a brand new book publishing company, busy with the promotion of the first title. You might be asking what makes me think I can be a publisher? Or you may wonder how I did it in the first place. Those are fair questions. Again, the short answer is this: I’m a publisher because I believe I can be one. That’s certainly not enough of a response for most people who will be asking that question in the first place. (I’m talking to writers and agents mostly.) My wife and I have divided up the tasks of this business largely according to our relative strengths. We are going to be building upon these strengths by gathering more knowledge of the industry as well the opportunities that are emerging for self-publishers and independent publishers alike.

We started this like many small presses have began. We formed a business and did all the normal work involved in setting up this company legally. Like many start-up publishers, we are using the largest print-on-demand (P.O.D.) Lightning Source International (LSI) to print our books. That’s basically it. It’s not that complicated a process these days. The accessibility of the technology is a great thing. It’s really leveling the playing field and opening up so many opportunities for new publishers to make their mark in the industry. I know that Founders House is ready to take this step.

In Closing…

This is what I have been waiting for. It’s the chance to stretch both my creative and my entrepreneurial muscles. It’s the time to see whether we have what it takes to success and thrive as publishers. Most importantly, now is the time I get to share my hopes and my vision with other creative people. This post is for the writers, artists, and would-be publishers out there. I wish you luck and I hope I get the chance to work with you in the future. Send me your comments. I welcome your input.

 

Anniversary Contest Finalist #2 – Success Feels Like Failure

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This post, from Virginia Ripple, originally appeared on her The Road to Writing blog on 3/6/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission. This is Virginia’s entry in our anniversary contest, in which the winners are selected based on total unique page views. So if you like it, and would like to see Virginia become a regular Publetariat Contributor, spread the word and the link!

Last Sunday I had a wonderful thing happen in my absence at church. My mother (who is one of my biggest fans :D ) took my book to her Sunday school class and, for lack of a better description, “marketed” it. Before the class was over there was a volunteer to write up an article for the church newsletter. Before the worship service that follows Sunday school concluded, the minister was informed of my book. He said that, if the person who volunteered to write the article hadn’t, then he would have. From there it’s supposed to make it’s appearance at the next monthly elders’ meeting. It seems that things are beginning to roll for Fear Not! Discovering God’s Promises for Our Lives.

So why does it all feel like I’ve failed?

It’s because of the POD stigma. As soon as someone says, “Congratulations on getting your book published!” I ask myself if I deserve the congratulations. Surely I do. I worked as hard putting together a book I’m proud of as a straight A university student does to stay on the Dean’s list. (I even “pulled an all-nighter” a time or two. ;) )

Then comes the question, “Who published it?” I answer honestly that it was published by Lulu, but I don’t always add that it’s a large self-publishing company. That bothers me. Afterall, I’m a trail-blazer like all the other Indies out there.

I’ve been thinking about it all week and I have an idea why writers are stigmatized more so than any other Indie. We’re the customer who jumps into the “just opened” line at the store before anyone else realizes it’s open. The traditionalists are upset at themselves for not venturing outside the status quo. The good news is that there are traditionally published authors such as Stephen King, Douglas Rushkoff, and Douglas Clegg who are now jumping into self-publishing, according to M.J. Rose in the article Self-Publish Stigma Is Perishing.

On the flipside, Rose says there are also Indie authors being signed on to traditional publishing houses after their book breaks the 5,000 and 10,000 sales mark. That’s a very good reason to start out as a self-publisher. Of course, as Ray Robinson points out in his article Self Publishing Stigma, unless you do everything you can to market your book you’ll be lucky to end up in the 6% who break even. That’s why having a marketing strategy and doing as much research on marketing techniques is so important (and a subject for yet another post :) ).

There are a lot of reasons why achieving success as an Independent Author can sometimes feel like failure. Most of those boil down to letting the ubiquitous “other” make us feel unworthy of the title Author. I hope that someday we’ll all be able to throw off our cloaks of undeserved shame and walk in the sun of success on The Road to Writing.

 

CALLING ALL AGENTS

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When I registered at www.authonomy.com, I submitted five chapters of my two Amish books – Christmas Traditions (ISBN 0982459513) and A Promise Is A Promise (ISBN 0982459505). I didn’t do this to work my way up to the authonomy desk, like the other writers, so Harper Collins might take a look at my work. I did it to get reviews to use on Ebay and Amazon. I wanted to give prospective buyers an idea about what others thought of my two books to help them make up their minds about buying my work.

I was thrilled with most of the reviews I got from that website and used them. Three writers tried to be constructive. One didn’t realize that I’d already self published and gave me tips on which publishers to try. She thought I should be picked up if I’d get the right publisher interested in my work. One wanted me to put the whole book on authonomy so she could see how it ended. I admitted to those two people that I was already self published. I’d like them purchase the book to see how it ended. Another one (from England which is where quite a few of the submitters on that website live) picked apart the first chapter of one book to make the story read the way he’d write it. He might have been right about the list of phrases he made of my writing style "errors" not working in a book written for England’s readers so I can’t fault him for his criticism. He was trying to help me. I don’t mind constructive criticism if it’s advice that I need to take to make my writing better. However, the other English reviews I received were great so my writing went over well with those who like American Amish stories. Since then I have sold one of my books to an UK customer.

I wonder what editors would think of my books. The revisions have be to their liking and in the publishing world, they are considered the experts, but one of my book buyers said about my work, "If it ain’t broke don’t fix it." I ask my buyers to send me a review of my books. I have a whole list of reviews from buyers who like my books the way they are and their email addresses to notify them when I have a new book coming out. I have to be doing something right in my story telling when I write a story that suits me. That means I self publish a book that I’d buy for myself. Now I’m sure that’s a book that wouldn’t suit mainstream urban readers, but my target is Midwesterners, country folks, Christians and people who want an entertaining, humorous suspense or romance that isn’t filled with violence or vampires. The idea of self publishing for me is to find out who and how many of those readers like me. So far I’m pleased.

On authonomy, authors rate each other. That means for every review I got I had to read someone’s work in return and review it. That takes hours. I wasn’t always reading material that I’d buy but responded with a critique that might help the author. To get the reviews I wanted for my books, it was worth the effort and time. I even got some advice on how to get up the ladder in the website so the publisher would notice my books.

I hear all the time now that self published work, if it’s selling, might be of interest to a publisher. Several years ago after I thought I had queried all the small publishers that would accept a query without an agent and was rejected, I got a list of agent email addresses and emailed around 200 for Christmas Traditions. Of the ones that bothered to answer, some emails come back with an automated reply. A few others said they liked my idea, but they had as many clients as they wanted to handle. Months down the road, I was still receiving emailed rejections. That’s why I was surprised when an agent searching the internet writers sites for new clients emailed me about her interest in my Amish books on Authonomy. That was the good news. Bad news is she used my Yahoo email address in October. I lost my home page about then and didn’t try to reinstall it again until February. When I found the email, I emailed the agent with my excuses and said I’d like to hear more but didn’t get a reply. When I looked up the agency, that agent wasn’t listed now. I take that to mean that fate may have intervened in my favor this time.

So take heart all writers out there wanting to get published. Publishers and agents may be coming to us. Submit a portion of your work to writers sites and blogs so the work is out there for publishers and agents to see. Wait patiently while you keep writing books and submitting. Out of the blue, you might find an email from a publisher or agent just like I did. Maybe you’ll be luckier than I was. My latest Amish book is going to be out in late March – The Rainbow’s End (ISBN 0982459521). So I’m CALLING ALL AGENTS to keep hunting. I and a lot of other talented authors are waiting for your email.

Anniversary Contest Finalist #1 – Surprise Endings: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

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This post, from PJ Kaiser, originally appeared on her Inspired By Real Life blog on 3/6/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission. This is PJ’s entry in our anniversary contest, in which the winners are selected based on total unique page views. So if you like it, and would like to see PJ become a regular Publetariat Contributor, spread the word and the link!

As readers of this blog will know, I’ve been writing stories and working on my novel for several months now and I am approaching the point where I am considering submitting some stories to literary magazines.  A few weeks ago, I started perusing some of the magazines listed at Duotrope’s Digest and I came across several magazines and online sites that admonish writers to avoid O. Henry endings.

The first one or two times I saw this warning, I didn’t take much notice.  But then as I began to see the same message over and over, I tried to interpret its meaning.  I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t violating some sort of unwritten – or, in some cases, written – rule with my stories.

I confess that if I have ever read an O. Henry story it has been many, many moons ago.  O. Henry was an American story writer who lived in the late 19th century/early 20th century.  He lived a short and difficult life but published scores of short stories during his lifetime.  So, I read a smattering of O. Henry stories and did some research and discovered that O. Henry endings are so notable that I found an entry referring to them in several online resources such as this site compiled by Dr. Wheeler of Carson-Newman College:

“O. HENRY ENDING: Also called a trick ending or a surprise ending, this term refers to a totally unexpected and unprepared-for turn of events, one which alters the action in a narrative. O. Henry endings usually do not work well with foreshadowing, but particularly clever artists may craft their narratives so that the foreshadowing exists in retrospect. The term comes from the short stories of O. Henry (a pen name for William Sidney Porter), which typically involve such a conclusion. Note that an O. Henry ending is usually a positive term of praise for the author’s cleverness. This is the opposite sentiment from a deus ex machina ending, in which the unexpected or unprepared-for ending strikes the audience as artificial, arbitrary, or unartful.”

Not all would agree with the assessment above that “O. Henry ending” is a positive term, as we shall see.  In trying to understand the O. Henry endings, we have to look at the relationship between the author and the reader.  I recently took a class with Stanford Continuing Education with the author Seth Harwood.  The class focused on creating suspense and Harwood explained that there are three ways to create suspense:

1) where the reader and the main character don’t know what’s going to happen and the reader learns what’s going on at the same time as the main character (e.g., a typical mystery novel in the Perry Mason tradition);
 
2) where the reader knows what’s going on but the main character doesn’t know the full story (e.g., a mystery where the reader has been given some additional insight such as seeing a murder take place or knowing that the ‘bad guy’ is nearby); and
 
3) where the writer and the main character know some critical information that the reader doesn’t.  In this case, the reader is often left feeling deceived.

Suspense works best with the first two approaches because the reader has more identification with and empathy for the main character and is hoping that everything turns out ok in the end.  In the third approach, the writer has employed deception and has betrayed the reader’s trust.  Harwood went on to say that the ending to a story using the third approach is likely to be met with groans rather than applause.  Many stories that have surprise endings use this third approach.

So, let’s consider some examples of O. Henry’s writing.  Some of his most well-known stories use the surprise ending to great effect.  “The Gift of the Magi”, “The Retrieved Reformation” and “The Ransom of Red Chief” all employ some element of surprise in the ending, but we learn of the events along with the main characters and they are as surprised as we are at the endings.  This is why these stories work well.

I came upon two examples of his stories that have surprise endings that, for different reasons, do not work well in my view.  “The Girl” appears to be a story about a man proposing marriage to a girl, but in the end it is revealed that the man is not proposing marriage at all but is trying to hire a cook.  This ending had me rolling my eyes.  “The Pendulum” is a very believable story and, especially for a cynical reader, the ending is understandable, but the way the ending was written was very unsatisfactory to me.  It used a sort of literary trick in that rather than trying to explain the reason John, the main character, reverts back to the status quo, the story points to an abstract notion the author refers to as “the Order of Things.”

In further exploring why writers should stay away from “O. Henry endings,” I consulted with Seth Harwood (mentioned above) and Victoria Mixon, a professional writer and editor.  They both had some terrific insights and they can be boiled down to these points:

  • Harwood pointed out that because O. Henry was so prolific and virtually all of his stories involved surprise endings, this approach is “well done and finished.”  So, literary magazines may come away from reading a story with a surprise ending simply thinking “been there, done that.”  They are looking for fresh, modern voices …”in the sense of ‘making it new’ and not just ‘new to you.’”
     
  • Harwood also emphasized the point that surprise endings are “very hard to do well and all too easy to do terribly.”  The bottom line is that literary journals are looking for good writing and the writer who is relying heavily on surprise endings tends not to be focused on the quality of the writing (I’m paraphrasing).
     
  • Mixon put it very well by saying, “…there is a big difference between surprising the reader and tricking them.”  This comes back to the description above of the three ways to build suspense and the need to avoid the third approach.  The element of surprise is a mainstay in literature and when it’s done well, “You do that with an ending that throws a whole new light on the story while at the same time feeling like the inevitable conclusion this story must have been headed toward all along.”  (Mixon also promises me that she will be writing about this very topic in her upcoming book!)

I hope this post has provided you with some insight about the perils of surprise endings.  Thanks for reading!