Month: November 2012

Slightly Delayed NaNoWriMo Post-Mortem

by

This post, by Lea, originally appeared on the Hundreds of Characters blog on 12/5/11.

I have a really bad habit of forgetting about my blog, of writing few and far between. So I’m going to play catch-up: a couple different posts that I’ve been meaning to write but just never got around to. So I apologize for the slightly out-of-date nature of these couple blog posts, but hopefully the messages will still be relevant.

When I first decided to write this particular post, it was to be titled “Why I Didn’t Win NaNoWriMo, and Why That’s Okay.” Instead, it’s “Even Though I Won NaNoWriMo, It Would Have Been Okay If I Didn’t.” Let’s look at why.

At its heart, NaNoWriMo isn’t about writing a novel in thirty days. Be realistic. You’re not going to write a masterpiece in that long. Not to mention, NaNoWriMo has you write 50,000 words. While that’s an admirable feat, the only books that are 50k words long are MG, middle grade. Most teen fiction is at least 70k, and adult novels even longer. My manuscript, currently on its second draft, is just around 70k and, in my opinion, not long enough. But that’s another topic all together.

So if any of you think about participating in NaNo in another ten months, don’t go into it expecting to come out with a sell-able novel on the other side. What you can expect to come out with, though, is a renewed vigour in daily writing limits.

I know that this sort of thing has been talked about ad nauseam on other writing blogs: the topic of daily word goals, of setting word counts, of things to work towards. But bear with me as I briefly discuss my own experiences, and how my first time participating in NaNoWriMo actually made me feel more like a real writer than ever before.

I had heard, long before I took my first NaNo steps, that telling an agent that your book was written during NaNoWriMo was cause for an immediate dismissal. But I don’t think that has to be the case. What I found, with NaNo, was that I was given a deadline – and for me, that’s always a good motivator. I had thirty days to reach 50,000 words; I had thirty days to reach somewhere between a third and a half of my latest WIP. I started my WIP a couple weeks before November since I was so excited to start. I kept the 15k words I wrote in October on a separate Word document so that that count didn’t interfere with my NaNo count. And then I got writing.

It was fantastic to have a writing goal. I found time in the most unlikely of places to pull out my notebook and get writing. I had a forty-minute train ride from suburbia to work in downtown Toronto every day, and I came to relish those forty minutes as a pretty easy way to hit at least 1300 words. And I’d pull out my notebook again while doing an intern duty of covering reception or on lunch. I’d easily hit 1700, 2000 on those days. And at the end of the day, I’d come home and type out what I had handwritten over the course of the day. It gave me a chance to review what I had written, to make sure that everything flowed, and to do some very small edits.

 

Read the rest of the post on Hundreds of Characters.

8 Unstoppable Rules For Writing Killer Short Stories

by

This post, by Charlie Jane Anders, originally appeared on io9.

Short fiction is the "garage band" of science fiction, claims Tor Books editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden, so it’s time to step on that fuzzbox and thrash as hard as you can without knocking over your mom’s weed-trimmer. Actually, I think Nielsen Hayden was referring to the fact that you can try more crazy experiments in short SF than in novels, because of the shorter time commitment of both writer and reader. But how can you become a super-master of the challenging form of short fiction? Here are a few suggestions.

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

I wouldn’t claim to be an expert on short fiction writing, but I have written over a hundred of the little fuckers, a large proportion of which have been science fiction-y. Here are a bunch of do’s and don’ts, that I discovered the hardest way possible.

World-building should be quick and merciless. In a novel, you can spend ten pages explaining how the 29th Galactic Congress established a Peacekeeping Force to regulate the use of interstitial jumpgates, and this Peacekeeping Force evolved over the course of a century to include A.I.s in its command structure, etc. etc. In a short story, you really need to hang your scenery as fast as possible. My friend and mentor d.g.k. goldberg always cited the Heinlein line: "The door dilated," which tells you a lot about the surroundings in three words. Little oblique references to stuff your characters take for granted can go a long way.

Make us believe there’s a world beyond your characters’ surroundings. Even though you can’t spend tons of time on world-building, you have to include enough little touches to make us believe there’s stuff we’re not seeing. It’s like the difference between the fake house-fronts in a cowboy movie and actual houses. We should glimpse little bits of your universe, that don’t necessarily relate to your characters’ obsessions.

Fuck your characters up. A little. Just like with worldbuilding, you can’t necessarily devote pages to your characters’ childhoods and what kind of underwear they wear under their boiler suits. Unless your story is really a character study with a bit of a science fiction plot. I used to have a worksheet that included spaces to fill in in info about each character’s favorite music, hatiest color, etc. etc. Never filled those out. If I’d tried to force myself to come up with a favorite color for every character, I would have given up writing. But do try to spend a bit of time giving all of your characters some baggage, just enough to make them interesting. Most science fiction readers are interested in characters who solve problems and think positively, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have some damage. 

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes 5 more tips for writing short fiction, on io9.

We're All Thriller Writers Now

by

This post, by L.J. Sellers, originally appeared on the Crime Fiction Collective blog and is reprinted here in its entirety with that site’s permission.

Thrilling: adj., producing sudden, strong, and deep emotion or excitement 

Doesn’t that pretty much describe all great novels? Yet according to librarians and bookstore owners, traditional labeling defines thrillers as fast-paced, realistic books that focus on plot more than character and have a high-stakes conflict as the heart of the story. And by high stakes they mean a lot more than a single life—or a series of selected lives—must be at risk. Whole cities or ways of life must be in peril.  

But now, with many writers labeling their own work, just about any story with a crime or an element of suspense is called a thriller. Just as one example, Amazon’s #1 book on the thriller list is Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, a story of a marriage gone bad and a missing wife. It’s all about the characters. Readers love the story and many have labeled it thrilling, and being a fan, I plan to read it. But it’s not technically a thriller.

(Above: My new book sure looks like a thriller)

As a member of International Thriller Writers, I’ve written many features about new releases for the Big Thrill newsletter. With some, I’ve scratched my head and thought: Why is this called a thriller? The stories usually sound terrific, but still, I would call them paranormal suspense or historical mystery. 

But I’m guilty of thriller labeling too. My Detective Jackson series falls under crime fiction, police procedurals, mysteries, and suspense. But a year ago, I added the word thriller to the subtitles (Detective Jackson Mystery/Thrillers) to let readers know that they aren’t traditional mysteries that can be solved at a leisurely pace and that there is plenty of action and a major element of suspense. 

Also, labeling the novels thrillers expands their metadata and allows more readers to find them. But are they really thrillers? Traditionalists would probably say no. Murders, assaults, and robberies in a midsized Oregon city don’t represent high-stakes conflict. My new publisher, Thomas & Mercer, doesn’t plan to use the thriller label. So in January, the series goes back to being the “Detective Jackson Mysteries.” But I hope Amazon lists the books in the thriller category, anyway. 

Because I want to reach as broad an audience as possible. Still, I wonder how much readers care about labels. Some readers love thrillers of every kind, and they judge a book by its cover, description, and word of mouth reputation, rather than by its category. Other readers actively dislike thrillers, and won’t bother with any book labeled that way. Further discussion reveals that what they mean is they don’t like spy stories or novels with big explosions or long chase scenes. So for some readers, thriller can have a negative connotation. 

My website says “Author of provocative mysteries & thrillers” and I’m happy with that. In addition to my Jackson series, I have three standalones—all highly suspenseful, but with no spies, explosions, or car chases. 

What does the term thriller mean to you? Does the label make a book more enticing?

Why Ignoring Offline Promotion is a Baaaad Idea (and 9 Ideas to Get You Started)

by

Have you ever been totally sidelined by (what should be) a simple sickness?

You know the ones I’m talking about: that cold or flu that just won’t quit! I don’t get sick often, but, over the past week, I’ve been kept offline by the nastiest cold I can remember.

Wanna hear a secret?

Aside from the general ickiness I felt (exacerbated by taking care of my also-sick family)…I kind of liked it.

Even though I’m still having problems tasting food (coffee, I miss you!), I found spending time in the “real world” to be quite refreshing — and it brought to mind an important book marketing lesson.

Does this sound familiar?

After awhile, staring at a computer screen feels…well, exhausting. Especially when you also work on computer during your day job, running home and staring at more pixels quickly causes promotional burnout.

You need a change of pace. But, you still need to get your book in front of new readers. The solution?

Turn off the computer.

I hear you scoffing, but I’m serious! Sure, half of folks buy books online, but that means there’s still a huge offline audience for your work.

And you know those crazy-dedicated fans? Not all of them are hanging out online.

9 Offline Book Promotion Ideas (That Don’t Suck)

The problem with offline book marketing is that many of the ideas feel dated and ineffective. You don’t have time to mess around with boring ideas that don’t pay off, so a little creativity is in order.

1. Create Bookmarks

Want an offline promotional tool that keeps working long after you’ve left the scene? Enter the humble bookmark.

Bookmarks are like business cards for authors, only far more useful (and totally cost effective). A set of 250 2″ x 6″ bookmarks costs less than $20 to be printed, allowing you to leave a piece of yourself in:

Books you sell (so your new fans can give them away to friends who might also like your work)

Books you donate (more ideas on that later!)

Other books similar to yours that you borrow, donate or give away

Include your book cover, logline-style pitch and (most importantly) a link to your website!

2. Pitch Your Story to a Local Paper

Press releases aren’t the only way to grab your local newspaper’s attention. Being featured in your paper earns you exposure to thousands of new readers — but your story will only be picked up if your pitch is enticing and relevant to local readers.

While pitching locally gives you an instant angle (you’re a local author!), this isn’t attractive enough on its own to earn you a story.

To increase your chances, give your pitch a little something extra. Reporters need to know why your publishing story is special, how your book breaks new ground or what insider information you can offer readers.

3. Host a Book Exchange

Avid readers are eager to seek out new authors and new books. Help them out by hosting a book exchange!

Invite your friends (and their friends) over to your place for an evening of book-sharing awesomeness. This is a perfect opportunity to get your book into new hands!

4. Join (or Form) a Local Authors Group

When you’re stuck, an outside perspective works wonders! Chatting with other authors is an awesome opportunity for brainstorming (and commiserating) with others who know exactly how you feel.

Check Meetup to see if there’s a local writing or author group in your area. If there’s not one, make one! Once a month, get together for coffee, chats and brainstorming. You can even consider hosting a group book signing!

5. Get Friendly with Bookstore Owners

While the manager at a chain bookstore (like Barnes and Noble) might not be super-eager to hear from you, small or independent bookstores are staffed with book lovers who usually enjoy meeting local authors.

Find a store with a vibe that matches your personality and become friends with the owner and staff. They might just invite you in for a book signing or feature your book in the store!

6. Donate Your Book

Aside from your local library, anywhere folks spend time sitting and waiting is a great candidate for a book donation.

Libraries, doctors office, and salons are prime locations to share your book (with a few bookmarks tucked inside, of course). Those long waits are sure to snare new readers!

7. Make a Flyer

Awaken memories of that teenage babysitting business and post flyers for your book at your favorite local businesses.

The trick to using this old-school technique effectively is to make your flyers attention-grabbing and attention-keeping. Create a large, enticing headline, reel in readers with a cliffhanger summary and short, memorable URL for purchase.

Tip: Use bit.ly to create a custom URL that points to your website.

8. Have an Answer to “What Are You Up To?”

How many times do you run into folks at the grocery store you haven’t seen in awhile? Dreading that awkward “so…what are you up to?” conversation? (Seriously, that’s one of the reasons I shop at 7am when everyone with sense is still asleep!)

Turn this dicey situation around by sharing your excitement about your book. Just a simple “Oh! I recently published a book” opens the doors to an enticing conversation — and a potential new reader!

9. Read Your Book in Public

Do you notice what people around you are reading in public? Whenever I’m in a waiting room, I can’t help but sneak a peek at the books in the hands of others.

Take advantage of these opportunities to read your own book. If you have an eye-catching cover or intriguing title, someone might strike up a conversation — or make a mental note to research it on their smartphone!

Tip:  If anyone asks why in the world you’re reading your own book, you can always say you’re working on your next book and need some inspiration.

What do you think?

Which offline promotions have worked well for you? Do you have tips for other authors looking to close the laptop? Let’s chat in the comments [on the original post]!  

 

This is a reprint from Duolit.

Chris Baty: The Terribleminds Interview

by

This post, by Chuck Wendig, originally appeared on his terribleminds site on 11/21/12.

 

Chris Baty, ladies and gentlemen: the founder of NaNoWriMo is here just in time to save you and your novel. I met Chris as the Crossroads Conference down in Macon, GA, this year, where the both of us were guest speakers of the con (and what a kick-ass con it is), and damn if he isn’t the nicest and most inspiring dude. Which tells me he’s probably a serial killer, but that’s okay. Who isn’t? Chris harnessed the power of his niceness and inspiration and focused them on an interview here at terribleminds. Find his site at chrisbaty.com, and you will find him on the Twitters @chrisbaty.

This is a blog about writing and storytelling. So, tell us a story. As short or as long as you care to make it. As true or false as you see it.

 

 

Almost a decade ago, one of the most active members of the NaNoWriMo message boards died in a car accident. I’ll call her Mary. Mary lived in a small town in Michigan, and on New Year’s Eve, she was driving alone on an icy road when a deer jumped in front of her car. She swerved and skidded, slamming into a tree. We learned about the accident when the executor of her will posted a note about her death on the NaNoWriMo forums.

Everyone was stunned. Mary had been a vital, hilarious presence in the NaNoWriMo message boards. She’d always gone out of her way to be encouraging to everyone, and had been particularly generous with younger participants. Mary had a lot of virtual admirers spread out all over the country, and none of us really knew how to deal with her sudden absence.

A week later, the first bit of weirdness appeared. A fan of Mary’s had posted in the message boards, saying she’d contacted the mortuaries in Mary’s town because she’d wanted to send flowers to the funeral. And none of them were hosting a funeral for Mary.

Thinking “Mary” might have been a pen name (or that Mary was being buried elsewhere), this person called Mary’s local newspaper to get the details of the woman killed in the New Year’s Eve crash. Which is how she learned there had been no New Year’s Eve crash.

This weirded everyone out. I sent Mary an awkward email asking, in essence, if she really was dead. She didn’t respond. Shortly after that, a longtime member of the NaNoWriMo community decided to take matters into her own hands. She found Mary’s phone number online and called it. To her surprise, a woman answered.

“Mary?” the caller asked.

“Yes?” the woman said.

The caller hung up and immediately posted details of the interaction on the NaNoWriMo site. Mary’s sister, who had never posted on the site before, responded quickly, saying that she had been packing up Mary’s house and had answered the  phone. The name thing had been a misunderstanding.

This was fishy enough that, by the time someone found Mary alive and well and posting on another other message board one week later, most of us had already accepted the fact that she’d faked her death, creating the executor and sister to sell the lie.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on terribleminds.

Simon & Schuster Introduces Self-Publishing Service

by

This article, by Bob Minzesheimer, originally appeared on USA Today.

11:16AM EST November 27. 2012 – In the latest sign of consolidation as well as the growing role for self-published authors in the book business, Simon & Schuster, one of the largest traditional publishers, is partnering with Author Solutions, a leading provider of services to writers who do not have traditional publishers.

Technology has made it easier and cheaper to publish and distribute books. Led by Amazon and Author Solutions’ imprints, which include iUniverse and Xlibris, self-publishing has become one of the fastest growing sectors in publishing.The two firms today announced the launch of Archway Publishing, which unlike traditional publishers, will not pay advances to authors, but instead charge fees to release, distribute and publicize their books in print or digital formats. In turn, those self-published authors get a larger share of the proceeds of any sales.

According to Bowker, a research firm, 211,269 self-published titles were released last year, up more than 60% from 2010. A vast majority sold fewer than 100 copies, but enough were successful — even hitting USA TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list — to draw attention to self-publishing. For example:

– After Amanda Hocking had seven self-published paranormal romance e-books hit USA TODAY’s list, she signed a multimillion-dollar deal with the traditional print publisher St. Martin’s Press last year. 

 

Read the rest of the post on USA Today.

Overcome Roadblocks to Successful Book Sales

by

Many authors consider book marketing a necessary evil – they would rather be writing! But of course it’s essential to promote your book if you want to actually sell it.

Here are five common roadblocks to successful book sales: 

  • Starting too late – Ideally, your marketing journey should begin the minute you decide to write a book. You want to consider whether there’s a viable market for the book and also tailor the book to meet the needs of a specific audience. But wherever you are in your publishing journey, NOW is the time to get serious about marketing your book.
  • Inertia – You can overcome inertia by setting goals and taking positive action each day to meet those goals.
  • Lack of direction – Many authors just aren’t sure how to promote a book or how to prioritize the numerous tasks involved in book promotion. Lots of authors feel overwhelmed or jump from one activity to another without any clear plan. A good book marketing plan gives you a blueprint for promoting your book.
  • Lack of knowledge – Marketing requires a different still set from writing a book. Many authors have no background in marketing and they need to learn new skills. There are numerous books, blogs, podcasts, teleseminars and other resources available to authors. Many resources are free, but it’s a good idea to invest in training in the areas you most need to learn about. 
  • Lack of time – Many authors are surprised at the amount of time and effort required to promote their books. This can be especially challenging for those who have full time jobs and family responsibilities on top of their writing and publishing venture. Having a good book marketing plan helps you to budget your time most effectively.

Book Marketing Plan = Success

As you can see, a book marketing plan will help you overcome the most common roadblocks to book promotion. But your plan must be: 

  • Well thought-out and in writing
     
  • Customized for your book and your audience
     
  • Reflect your own skills, budget and time constraints

Book marketing can seem daunting, but I guarantee that having a plan will make it less daunting! 

Your book marketing plan will help to keep you from feeling overwhelmed or paralyzed. Just put one foot in front of the other – take at least one action every day, no matter how small, and you will make progress.
 

To learn what goes into a good book marketing plan, download my free report, Create a Book Marketing Plan That Sells Books. For step-by-step guidance in how to develop your own customized plan, check out the Ultimate Book Marketing Plan Workshop.  

 

This is a reprint from Dana Lynn Smith‘s The Savvy Book Marketer.

Tools to use to Recreate the Past: Annie Fuller’s Boarding House

by

I am working on Bloody Lessons, the third book of my historical mystery series, which means I am wrestling once again with how adequately and accurately to portray the past, in this case 1880 San Francisco. This led me to the idea of describing some of the tools I used in creating the historical background for my protagonist’s home, which appeared first in Maids of Misfortune and will continue to play a role in all of my books, a boarding house in the 400 block of O’Farrell Street of San Francisco, between Jones and Taylor.

First of all, as Susanne Alleyn points out in her clever and very readable book, Medieval Underpants and Other Blunders: A Writer’s (and Editor’s) Guide to Keeping Historical Fiction Free of Common Anachronisms, Errors, and Myth, an author of historical fiction needs to recognize that the city of today can be vastly different from the city of whatever time period you are writing about, and this is true even when you are talking about a relatively young city like San Francisco and a time period that is only 132 years in the past.

Sometimes cities change for man-made reasons. Street names are changed, new streets laid out, hills graded, wetlands filled in, residential areas become commercial and commercial areas become residential, and railroads, subways, and freeways are built, destroying existing property. Neighborhoods change, expand and contract, and sometimes disappear.

And then there are natural disasters. Hurricane’s Katrina and now Sandy have demonstrated the ability of natural forces literally to obliterate areas, wiping the structures, even the ground the structures are on, off the face of maps. Sometimes these streets and blocks are rebuilt, sometimes they are not, but a good historical fiction writer of the future, setting their stories in New Orleans or New Jersey shore towns anytime after these disasters, will have to take the impact of these disasters into consideration. In short, I needed to take both man-made and natural disasters into account when I set Annie Fuller’s boarding house in the 400 block of O’Farrell Street to make sure that the street existed in 1880, that it was an area of the city that would have had a boarding house, and that the physical environment would be the same (grade of the hill, etc).

So, how did I determine this was an appropriate place to put the house, particularly since I wanted the house to have been built in the 1850s when Annie Fuller’s aunt and uncle first settled in San Francisco? As Alleyn recommends, I started with historical maps. Sally Woodbridge’s San Francisco in Maps and Views, was most useful. O’Farrell Street did not exist in 1847, but it existed by 1852, as determined by a series of surveyor maps of the city streets, and it was named for the first surveyor and map-maker for the city, Jasper O’Farrell. In 1852, however, there were no buildings past the 100 block of O’Farrell.

Yet, by 1859, another map shows at least three structures existed on the south side of the 400 block, making it historically accurate for me to write that my protagonist’s house was built in the mid 1850s. In addition, since the block was so sparsely built up at the time the house would have been built, I was able to a create a house that was a little wider and in a different style than the narrow Italianate houses that would come to predominate in the 1870s and 1880. I used this fact to help me determine that the house would be constructed in the Greek revival style, which was briefly popular in the 1850s, and in my second book in the series, Uneasy Spirits, I used that fact to support the rather large back yard to the boarding house where a Halloween Party was held.

According to historical maps and histories of San Francisco, by 1879, when my first book opens, the streets north of Market and between Van Ness and the financial district to the east were built up with a variety of residential and commercial buildings representing a variety of architectural styles. For example, see Burchell’s The San Francisco Irish, 1848-1880. O’Farrell Street was no exception. Obviously one of the ways I could try to get a feel for what the block was like in 1880 would be to go look at it today,  hoping that some of the buildings are still standing.

However, this isn’t possible because in 1906, between the earthquake and the fires that came after, the 400 block of O’Farrell, along with most of the buildings east of Van Ness, were destroyed. After reading a detailed account of these fires, it looks like the 400 block may have been spared the first day after the earthquake, but the afternoon of the second day, April 19th, it was engulfed by blazes coming from all directions.  If I wanted to get a feel for what Annie’s boarding house would have looked like in 1879-1880, I was going to have to do more research.

Census records (which I had analyzed for my dissertation) gave me information about the size of homes and boarding houses in this part of the city in 1880, and newspaper classified ads not only confirmed that there were boarding houses in this residential area (including on O’Farrell Street), but also gave me a range of prices people were paying for room and board. This all helped me plan the size and number of servants and boarders that would be found in her house. Architectural histories of the city told me what styles predominated in the 1850s, when the boarding house on O’Farrell was supposedly built.  See for example, Kenneth Naverson’s West coast Victorians: A Nineteenth-Century Legacy. In addition, photographs of the city in the 1870s and early 1880s were another enormously helpful source, confirming what I had been reading about. For example, this picture shows how residential and commercial buildings of every shape and style could be found in houses in the same neighborhood in the 1870s. One of the most useful historical sites on the internet links historical photographs by time and place on a map of the city, so you can begin to see what the neighborhood looked like over time.

Since Annie Fuller’s Uncle Timothy, the man who built the house she inherited, was a successful businessman, he would have made improvements in the original 1850s house, including the installation of a bathroom on the second floor, upgrading the woodwork, and putting in new wallpaper and furnishings. I consulted books such as Victorian Interior Decoration: American Interiors 1830-1900,  In the Victorian Style, and a wonderfully illuminating book, Death in the Dining Room: And other Tales of Victorian Culture, to help me determine what Annie Fuller’s boarding house would have looked like by the time she inherited it in 1878.

While Susanne Alleyn cautions historical fiction authors about depending on historical movies as sources, a well-researched movie can provide a useful visual impression. For example, the 1993 movie based on Edith Warton’s Age of Innocence, and the companion book that compares stills from the movie to paintings of the period, were wonderful sources, although the movie portrayed much wealthier interiors than would have characterized Annie Fuller’s boarding house.

While houses from O’Farrell neighborhood don’t still exist, there are examples of Victorian architecture that did survive west of Van Ness that also helped. The Hass-Lilienthal House in San Francisco, built in 1886 and open for tours, has been a wonderful place to visit to for this purpose.

Finally there is simply the tool of my imagination. As I have written elsewhere, forty years ago I lived in a house built in the 1870s or 80s in Ohio, and I used my memories from that house and my own imagination to picture and then describe the interior layout of Annie Fuller’s boarding house.

Are my descriptions of the O’Farrell Street boarding house a hundred percent accurate Who knows. But if I have done my historical research sufficiently and used my imagination and writing skills effectively, I will make my readers believe in this house, picture it in their own imaginations, and want to revisit it, book after book. 

 

 

This is a reprint from M. Louisa Locke‘s blog.

The Greengrocer's Apostrophe, and Why You Shouldn't Buy It!

by

For those who don’t know, greengrocer’s apostrophe is a term used in Britain (and maybe elsewhere) to describe the incorrect use of apostrophes in plurals.

Not all countries have greengrocers (and thanks to the supermarkets we don’t have as many in Britain as we used to), but they are typically small shops that specialize in selling fruit and vegetables.

Over the years greengrocers acquired a particular reputation for inserting apostrophes where they weren’t required. For some reason this happens especially with nouns ending in a vowel (as do many popular fruit and veg). So we see banana’s, apple’s, orange’s, cabbage’s, and many more.

Of course, none of these nouns requires an apostrophe in the plural. Apostrophes are generally used to show possession – e.g. John’s car – and in contractions such as shan’t to indicate that one or more letters have been missed out.

There are a very few circumstances where apostrophes can be used in plurals, and these are to avoid causing confusion. Most commonly, this occurs when pluralizing single letters. An example would be, "How many i’s are there in this sentence?" Without the apostophe this would read, "How many is are there in this sentence?" which would be pretty much guaranteed to bamboozle most readers!

Another common mistake is to insert an apostrophe when pluralizing abbreviations. This is almost invariably wrong, however. An example would be, "Members of the UK parliament are known as MPs". It is quite common to see an apostrophe inserted here (MP’s), but again this is unnecessary and incorrect in a simple plural.

Unnecessary apostrophes are also frequently seen in expressions such as the 1960s (referring to that decade). Again, as this is just a plain old plural, no apostrophe is required.

An uglier mistake is where an apostrophe followed by an ‘s’ is used after the singular form where the spelling is different in the plural. Thus you might see canopy’s (should be canopies), party’s (should be parties) and – going back to our friendly greengrocer – potato’s instead of potatoes.

In conclusion, do think very carefully before inserting an apostrophe in a simple plural – and doubly so if you happen to be a greengrocer!

* If you’re wondering why it’s greengrocer’s apostrophe and not greengrocers’ apostrophe, you may like to check out this post about the exemplar possessive I wrote some time ago.

If you have any comments about the greengrocer’s apostrophe – or classic examples you want to share – please do post them [in the comments section of the original post]!

 

This is a reprint from Nick Daws’ My Writing Blog.

Publetariat Omnibus Now Available: The Best of the First Four Years

by

Believe it or not, Publetariat turns five years old this coming February. In light of this milestone, and the massive quantity of content here on the site, Publetariat has released a compilation ebook in Kindle format (which you don’t need a Kindle device to read, there’s a free Kindle reader app available for PC, Mac and mobile devices).

Publetariat Omnibus 2008 – 2012: The Most Popular and Practical Posts From The First Four Years of Publetariat is now available. This book includes 67 how-to, advice and commentary articles, written by Alan Baxter, Julian Block, Mark Coker, Melissa Conway, Nick Daws, Joel Friedlander, April L. Hamilton, Joseph C. Kunz Jr., Cheri Lasota, M. Louisa Locke, Shannon O’Neil, Joanna Penn, Virginia Ripple, Fay Risner, Mick Rooney, L.J. Sellers, Dana Lynn Smith, Bob Spear, Richard Sutton and Toni Tesori. Click through to view the full Table of Contents.

 

All the best stuff is here: excellent self-editing advice, a cover design and ad design walk-through, tax tips, business advice, advice for dealing with internet defamation, tips and how-to’s for author platform, social media and book promotion, copy-and-paste boilerplate copyright page examples, craft advice, publishing advice, a podcasting how-to, a little bit of fun, and lots more! 

 Think

1: Learning to Wait

2: Indie Author vs. Indie Entrepreneur

3: 7 Links To Encourage The Writer In You

4: How a Traditional Publisher Could Harm a Writer’s Career

5: Goal Setting For Writers

6: Musings On POD Publishers And The Music Business

7: Managing Expectations: Patience and Perspective in Indie Publishing

8: The Formula For Success And Life In The Way

 

Write

1: Outlining: Straightjacket Or Lifeline?

2. The Fear Factor

3: 11 Resources To Make Editing Your Novel Easier

4: Writing Detail: Finding The Right Balance

5: 6 Dialogue Traps To Avoid

6. Five Mistakes of New Fiction Writers

7. What Readers Hate

8: Seven Links To Understanding (And Finding) Beta Readers

9: How To Be Your Own Best Editor, Pt. 1

10: How To Be Your Own Best Editor, Pt. 2

11: How To Be Your Own Best Editor, Pt. 3

12: The Greengrocer’s Apostrophe, and Why You Shouldn’t Buy It!

13: Working With An Editor: Got My Edits Back. Now What?

14: The Power Of Strong Characterisation – Dexter Morgan

15: Why Writers Should Always “Give It A Week”

 

Design

1: Crafting a Cover: A Do-It-Yourself Sermon in Two or Three Parts…

2: Crafting a Cover, Part II…Making Relationships Work….

3: Crafting Your Back Cover — The Selling Continues….

4: Small Ads Can Be Beautiful And Work, Too!

5: When Redesigning Your Site Or Blog, Don’t Forget To Grandfather

6: Copyright Page Samples You Can Copy and Paste Into Your Book

 

Publish

1: Ebook Madness: Don’t Confuse Ebook Conversion With Ebook Formatting!

2: Peeling Away The Layers of Confusion

3: The Truth About CreateSpace’s Free ISBNs

4: Traditional Publishing And Self-Publishing Are Not Mutually Exclusive

5: Harlequin Horizons & Thomas Nelson West Bow Press: Good For These Publishers and Author Solutions, Inc., Bad For Indie Authors

6: How To Create A Podcast

 

Sell

1: Does Social Networking Really Sell Books?

2: Secrets of Ebook Marketing, Excerpt Trades & the Future of Enhanced Ebooks

3: Regional Bookseller Organizations

4: 7 Reasons You Need A Facebook Fan Page

5: Create Hard-Hitting Ads for Your Book…

6: How To Lose Fans And Alienate People

7: Are You Making These 7 Book Marketing Mistakes?

8: Preparing For A Book Sale

9: Update on Categories and Keywords: Why Authors Should Still Care

10: Build Your Author Platform Through Guest Posts

11: Do We Know The Author?

12: Help! My Book Isn’t Selling. 10 Questions You Need To Answer Honestly If You Want To Sell More Books.

13: Email Service Roundup

 

Business End

1: Significant Reader Trends

2: The 70 Per Cent Solution

3: Write For All You’re Worth

4: 10 Signs That You Are Not Ready To Self-Publish

5: Jump-Start Your Self-Publishing Adventure in 10 Steps

6: Avast Ye Lubbers, And Hear Ye Me Pirate Tale of Two Clicks!

7: The Future of Book Publishing: Risk Shifts To Author

8: Internet Defamation, Author Platform And You

9: Splurge & Save: How To Be A Thrifty Indie!

10: Writers’ and Other Freelancers’ Tax Questions Answered

11: Dress For Success: Just Don’t Expect The IRS To Help You Foot The Bill

12: KDP Select Free Promotion — Discoverability Experiment: One Month Later and Feeling Fine!

13: Simple Steps to a Successful KDP Select Free Promotion

14: Lessons Learned From 1 Year As A Fulltime Author Entrepreneur

 

Lighter Side Of The Writing Life

1: Indie Author: THE GAME

2: How To Write The Best Critique Ever

3: Top 10 Reasons Not To Be A Writer

4: An Author’s Field Guide To Internet Trolls

5: The Writer’s Night Before Christmas

 

 

So whether for yourself or a writing friend, Publetariat Omnibus 2008 – 2012: The Most Popular and Practical Posts From The First Four Years of Publetariat  is an invaluable resource you’ll find yourself (or your friend will find himself!) referring to again and again. 

 

Publetariat Observes Thanksgiving

by

Publetariat staff will be off in observance of the American Thanksgiving holiday from now through the weekend. We will resume our normal editorial schedule of posting on Sunday, November 25 at 6pm PST. In the meantime the site will remain online and members can still use the Forum and post to their member blogs. We wish all who will be celebrating a safe and happy holiday.

[no need to click through, this is the end of the post]

 

Be Afraid

by

This post, by JA Konrath, originally appeared on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog on 10/11/12.

A few years ago I wrote a horror novel called AFRAID.

I tried to write the scariest book of all time, and lots of people seem to think it is. But it wasn’t an easy sell. In fact, it took my agent six months to find a buyer. After many, many rejections, we landed a two book paperback deal with Grand Central.

I got a $20k advance. Not enough to support my family, but enough to keep me in the business. I hoped that AFRAID would be given a wide distribution, quickly earn out its advance, and I’d be able to grow the Jack Kilborn brand (that’s the pen name I used). To promote AFRAID, I did a blog tour, appearing on 100 blogs in 31 days. I also did a  real book tour, signing at 206 bookstores in 12 states.

Happily, AFRAID managed to find an audience, and quickly earned out its advance. Between March 2009 and June 2012, AFRAID has earned me $75,882. Not too bad.

But all was not rosy.

Grand Central didn’t like my follow-up horror novel, LEVEL 6. They didn’t like the title, or the story, even though they published the first few chapters of it in the back of AFRAID, under a title I hated, TRAPPED.

So I rewrote TRAPPED, because even though I thought the book worked well, I needed the money.

They didn’t like the rewrite, either. I had fans expecting TRAPPED, but apparently they weren’t going to get what they wanted.

So I wrote another novel for Grand Central, ENDURANCE. This one they liked, but wanted changes. I told them no, and paid them back the advance I got for the second book.

Telling a major publisher off was pretty much unheard of at the time, and I believe I became the first author to reject a Big 6 deal in favor of self-pubbing. I published TRAPPED and ENDURANCE myself. Had Grand Central been smarter, they could have published TRAPPED and ENDURANCE and perhaps even more Kilborn novels.

So how’d I do on my own?

 

 

Read the rest of the post on A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing.

Open Book Audio May Be The Best Choice

by

Back in June of last year I finished recording the audio version of Simply Prayer and wentlooking for a place to sell it. At the time Kunaki seemed the best choice. Since then my audio book journey has drawn a bit of attention between two companies: ACX.com and Open Book Audio.

Being a social creature I did some asking around and found that most of the indie authors I knew were going with ACX, so that’s where I decided to go, despite Andrew Parker of Open Book Audio’s various helpful comments.

 

To make a long story short, I’ve been disappointed in ACX. Some would say I’m just being impatient, but so far the results with this company has been null in trying to get Apprentice Cat narrated. Thankfully I have an author friend who put me in touch with someone outside that company who may be able to narrate the book for me. (We’re still working on details at the moment.)

I’ve been looking into how to upload narration from an outside source onto the ACX site, but I keep getting lost in the directions available. Admittedly, I have yet to contact the company about this. I had plans to contact them this week, but then an interesting comment appeared from Andrew Parker on a post on my old blog about how Open Book Audio may be a better choice.

Here it is in full:

Hi Jaime (and all who are following the conversation),

Thanks for the kind words on the podcast. To your questions, the reality is with Audible that if you decide to go the ACX route (which definitely has it’s benefits) and go non-exclusive, you can sell your audiobook elsewhere, like through Open Book Audio. The problem with that, as I see it, is that you are locked into the 7 year agreement and, here’s where it gets interesting, you lose out on the marketing push we offer. Not to mention being able to track your sales through our website. As for Audible, they distribute their library, as I think most everyone knows now, to iTunes on an exclusive. So, if you want into iTunes, you have to get into Audible first. If you don’t go the ACX route, you have to have 5 books to get in. As for iTunes/Apple, they accept no audiobook unless it comes through Audible. So, even if you were to pay the development fee of $99, it still gets your book listed as a Spoken Word album or just an app. Either way, it makes it hard for folks to find you.

Back to the marketing push. At OBA, we have a very specific formula about what books we’ll take and what books we market. The truth is that, as long as the audio quality is good and the subject matter isn’t offensive, we’ll take the book and publish it to all of our retailers. What we then do is see how the book performs over the next few months. If it performs well enough, we put a big marketing push behind the book (reviews, websites, social media, press releases, interviews, podcasts, library journals, etc.) to goose the sales of the book and drive more money. Best of all, it’s free. How can we do that? Well, it’s simple really. If the book has proven that it can sell, it’s kind of a “why wouldn’t we?” mentality. Better yet, we have a specific formula that allows us to determine the precise amount of copies sold over a given period to guarantee a successful book. It’s remarkable how accurate we can be in determining what will be a hit and what won’t, rather than doing like most publishers do and go from their gut.

All that said, any publisher, like ourselves, won’t take your book if you decide to go direct through Audible and then come to us for the rest. Financially, we can’t make it work without the Audible slice of the pie and that’s the truth. Now, our fees are the lowest in the industry (again, math allows us to do that!) but Audible is still an essential piece of the puzzle.

So, what I would tell you is that if you’re content with your book just being available and not looking to make a great deal of money on it, ACX might be the way to go. But, if you’re looking to make more money, regardless of whether or not you hit the threshold for the marketing push, OBA is a much better option. After all, with a wider net, you’ll always get more fish.

Hope that helps. If you want to talk further (if anyone wants to talk further) just email me at andrew at openbookaudio dot com.

After reading this comment, I have to say I’m seriously considering using Open Book Audioinstead of ACX. I’ll be contacting Andrew soon to find out the details and I’ll let you all know how it goes.

Has anyone else been through working with audio book companies? What did you like? What would have liked to see improved?

*** Update***

I’ve just learned that once you sign up with ACX you cannot delete your account with them without deleting your Amazon account as well. That makes me very unhappy because now it seems they’re trying to force me to use their services. While it does simplify things, just as using Createspace does, it also limits your options once you claim your book, even with non-exclusivity.

I urge everyone to make weigh all your options before signing up with any audio book producing company. 

 

 

This is a reprint from Virginia Ripple‘s blog.

Copyright Reform – NOT!

by

This article, by Matthew Yglesias, originally appeared on Slate on 11/19/12. Copyright is a topic that should be of interest to any author, and self-publishing authors in particular, since they don’t have the backing of a mainstream publisher’s legal department.

The Case of the Vanishing Policy Memo: An influential conservative group released a copyright reform memo that was so smart it had to immediately disavow it.

A Friday afternoon policy memo is not normally the sort of thing that gets one’s heart racing, but “Three Myths About Copyright Law and Where To Start To Fix It” was an exception. It offered a bracing attack on the conventional wisdom about intellectual property that’s dominated Congress for decades mounted a vibrant defense of competition, and advocated regulation aimed at consumers rather than incumbent copyright owners.

 

Even more amazing was the source. The memo went out on the letterhead of the Republican Study Committee—an organization of House Republicans who think the House Republican caucus isn’t insanely conservative enough—under the names of Rep. Jim Jordan and executive director Paul Teller.

It was an exciting moment for copyright reformers, who were surprised and delighted to find these new conservative allies. But a moment was all it was. By Saturday, Teller had already retracted the memo, claiming it “was published without adequate review” and needed to be “approached with all facts and viewpoints in hand.”

Common sense suggests there were other reasons for the retraction. Derek Khanna, a tech-savvy young Republican staffer who came to Washington with Sen. Scott Brown before shifting to the RSC to work primarily on cybersecurity and government oversight issues, is clearly well-versed on the subject. He simply lacked the authority to enact a change in position on a topic dominated by powerful interest groups with a ton of money. Khanna’s supervisors seem to have paid too much attention to the merits of the memo and not enough to the larger politics when vetting it. According to Mike Masnick at TechDirt, when news of the memo filtered out to the Motion Picture Association of America and Recording Industry Association of America, those organizations “went ballistic and hit the phones hard, demanding that the RSC take down the report.” They won. 

 

Read the rest of the post, which details Khanna’s "three myths" and the arguments against continuing to support them, on Slate.

How Does A Writer Know They're Successful?

by

This post, by Tiffany Cole, originally appeared as a guest post on The Innocent Flower.

I’m excited to have Tiffany Cole here on my blog today! I’ve known Tiffany for a few years now. She has constantly impressed me with her passion for learning and improving, which shows in the post she is sharing here today. 

Thank you, Tiffany, for coming here today! The message you’re sharing is truly important and well-said.

How Does a Writer Know They’re Successful?

I admire many things about Michelle Davidson Argyle, but what I admire most is her honesty. Her blog posts, especially the ones where she talks about her struggle with success, really helped me out. You see, I spent many years of my life so obsessed with seeking success that it blinded me. When I looked at myself, I only saw my failures. When I looked at others, I only saw their achievements. I associated success with happiness. It didn’t matter how much I did or what I did. Nothing was ever enough; I felt like I could never reach all the ‘indicators’ of writerly success. 

I first became a fan of Michelle when I discovered/assumed she had all the general indicators of success – publication, popularity, and money – I wanted with all my heart. I stuck around because, in spite of her reaching those indicators, she made her struggle with feeling successful clear. 

Through Michelle and other life events, I finally learned how a writer knows they’re successful, but first I want to discuss why general answers should not be the answer to that question.

THE METHOD OF PUBLICATION

For a long time, I saw getting published, preferably by a traditional publisher, as the solution to all my problems, as the be-all end-all of my journey as a writer. I know for certain that there are many other aspiring authors who see traditional publishing as the diamond-encrusted gates. 

Then there are authors who have pretty much decided that all publishers are big company conspirators and self-publishing is the only intelligent way to go.

First, being at the extremes like that isn’t necessarily good. It’s perfectly fine to prefer one method of publication over the other, but many authors I admire – Michelle Davidson Argyle included – have dabbled in and found both self-publishing and traditional publishing beneficial. You can find more info about both options of publishing at Michelle Argyle’s ‘Writer Love’ page.

Regardless of whether you’re a big supporter of traditional publishing or self-publishing, I’m here to tell you now that neither methods of publication are the end of your journey, nor will they define your success as a writer. They can’t be end of your journey. 

Traditional publishing today is not what it once was. Even if you get published by a bigger house, you’re not likely to receive a very big royalty check, meaning you’ll most likely have to publish many other books or do other work on the side. Even more, promotion will mostly be in your hands. It’s up to you to keep your audience/fans engaged before, during, and after the publication process. 

 

Read the rest of the post on The Innocent Flower.