Quick Links: How to Create Legendary Villains

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Yesterday we talked heroes and character development. Today it is villains and… character development.  Every great story needs a great villain. Really memorable antagonists allow you to almost identify with them, because everyone is a hero in their own story.  Kristian Lamb shares her thoughts on what makes a bad guy legendary.  I always sympathized with Frankenstein’s monster, especially after I read the original classic story. What villain resonates for you?

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How to Create Legendary Villains

Excellent.....
Excellent….
by Kristian Lamb
May 9, 2016

This past Saturday I held my Bullies & Baddies class and a couple of the folks posited a really good question worth talking about. How do we write great villains? One of the reasons I love holding this class is that all stories require a core antagonist (who is responsible for generating the story problem in need of resolution), but there are different types of antagonists. All villains are antagonists but not all antagonists are villains.But since we went there, what goes into creating a truly terrifying villain?

I watch a ton of movies and television series. I also read around three novels a week. I’m always studying, breaking stories apart so that I can understand them better. I do it for my fiction, but also so I can share what I learn with you guys.

Though the series isn’t for everyone (it’s pretty gory), I particularly love FX’s American Horror Story for studying villains. AHS is one of those shows that you have to get a few episodes into before you connect, namely because it is often cast with truly despicable characters.

It isn’t until you get a few episodes in that the writers start peeling back the layers and exposing the delicate undersides of the villains…and that’s when you really begin to care for them.

I know. Seriously. AHS is some of the best writing out there.

Jessica Lang almost always plays the core antagonist in each season of AHS (though she was absent in Season Five and it was evident). Of all the seasons, though, Season Four Freak Show was my favorite and that’s what I am going to use today. Btw, there is a bit of spoiler alert, but it’s necessary. So what do we do to really make the villain POP?

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Quick Links: Character Development Is a Two-Edged Sword

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I don’t know if you follow the superhero world much, but there was a recent upset when fans found out that Captain America, the epitome of the American spirit, was actually a bad guy in disguise all along. Captain would never!  Jami Gold explains on her blog why readers get upset when characters that they have invested in act in a way that is, well, out of character. And yes, I realize that there will probably be a plot where Captain America will turn out to be the good guy again, but he is so iconic in his values that even pretending to be a bad guy is out of his character. 

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Character Development Is a Two-Edged Sword

by Jami Gold

I call this one Captain LOVE...
I call this one Captain LOVE…

May 26, 2016

Within the writing community, there are just as many articles (if not more) about developing great characters as there are about creating interesting plots. We see blog posts debating how likable a character needs to be to interest a reader, other posts sharing techniques for evoking reader empathy, and still other posts instructing us on methods for showing a character’s emotional arc, etc., etc.

We know as readers that even the best-plotted book will suffer if the protagonist isn’t at least compelling. So as writers, we do everything we can to make readers invested in our characters in some way.

An invested reader is a happy reader, right?

Well, maybe not. Let’s take a look at the other side of character development.

The Danger of Out-of-Character Behavior

A couple of months ago, I wrote about how our genre promises certain elements to readers. And if our genre alone creates expectations in readers, it’s a safe bet that our characters do as well.

As we develop our characters, we establish expectations in the minds of our readers for how that character will act and react in the future. Readers sense their intelligence, what they value or fear, their moral code, etc.

Those expectations are important to understand because insults like “Too Stupid To Live” are more likely when our characterization is broken. We don’t usually see that insult flung at characters who do stupid things in character.

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Quick Links: The Painful Practice of Putting Your Art Out There

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What is worse – when people dislike your work or don’t even pay attention? A fear most writers can appreciate.  Amy Crumpton, guest posting on Goins Writer, shares how she deals with this very emotional issue. What is your best tip for dealing with the emotional traps that writers face?

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The Painful Practice of Putting Your Art Out There

Workplace headacheby Amy Crumpton
After years of blogging for a small email list, I’d finally slipped through a door at The Huffington Post with a story about discovering my purpose. In it, I offered a free trial for a course I’d created to help others discover their own callings.

I was excited like a kid at Christmas until I saw the first comment:

“As I read your article, I found myself entertaining hope again. Then I got to the end and saw you were just trying to sell me something. I want to judge you but God says I am supposed to forgive you. I don’t know if I can, but I hope God will.”

Shame rose up in me like steam from a whistling teapot as I turned the comment over and over in my head.

The blistering effects of criticism

Criticism can blister us like a red burner. The wound will heal, but it’s unnerving to keep working so near the hot stove.

I thought The Huffington Post door would open the door to a lot more opportunities. But as they expanded their blogger platform, readership dwindled and became divided.

I continued to post there, but I focused primarily on my own list. I blogged steadily, asked for feedback, invited comments, ramped up social sharing, and offered free stuff. I did everything I knew to do.

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Quick Links: How To Prepare for Self-Publishing – Editing

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This is part of a series on self-publishing by over at Digital Book World, so bookmark for future reference . One of the best things a self-publishing author can do is to make sure they have a quality product for consumers. What would be your biggest tip for self-publishers?

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How to Prepare for Self-Publishing: Editing

By:

Work In Progress Sign Held By Construction WorkerThis is part one of a six-part series.

As a self-published author, it’s your responsibility to make sure your book is as high-quality as it can be, and an editor is an indispensable resource who can help make your book look professional instead of amateurish.

Getting off to a Good Start

Ask your peers—other writers—for their opinions. Join local writing groups. Meet writers online and ask them to have a look at one or two chapters for you. Don’t be shy about getting feedback from your fellow writers.

Every writer is focused on her own work, so make sure you give something back to the community by returning the favor for others.

Now is a good time to write a synopsis. This is a skill in itself, so practice is key. A synopsis is different from a blurb; it should be about one A4 page long, contain all the major plot points and describe what happens in your book. Don’t worry about spoilers! This is a great way to identify weaknesses or plot holes. Read it out loud. Does it ramble or sound boring? Do things seem to happen for no reason? Maybe you just need to tweak the synopsis, or maybe you need to go back to the book and make some changes.

When you feel happy with your book, that’s the right time to look for an editor. But wait! Do you know what you’re asking them to do, and does that match up with what you need?

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Quick Links: Self-publish and be sneered at?

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When April started this blog, it was because she was championing the self-publishing author and what she saw was the unfair treatment they received. While I believe things have gotten a little better, it seems that we still have a long way to go for indie authors to get the respect they deserve. Especially if you read Clare Christian’s piece over at The Bookseller.

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Self-publish and be sneered at?

There are many things I love about the book industry but there are also a few that I don’t. Publishing can be slow and old-fashioned at times, broadsheet review pages can be snooty and exclusive and literary awards can be unfair in their submission guidelines. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that my accusations are levelled mainly towards attitudes to self-publishing.

Self-publishing has a lot going for it – I am a self-publishing enthusiast. But its one big disadvantage is the book industry itself – readers excepted. I have yet to meet a single reader who cares a jot who published the book they are reading. They just want great books that are well published. However, the industry does care. The broadsheets seem to have a blanket ban on reviewing self-published books and many literary awards exclude books expressly on the basis of who paid for their publication.

But should a writer’s talent really be judged by who has paid for the publication of his or her book? We all know that publishers are becoming increasingly (and necessarily) risk-averse, so what happens to the authors who, not so very long ago, would have been picked up by a traditional publisher? What happens to those authors whose agents love their book but can’t place it because it doesn’t fit into this or that box, it’s cross-genre or because it’s not the next Gone Girl?

Rachel Abbott is a highly successful self-published author. She has written five best-selling psychological thrillers plus a novella, and last year was named the 14th bestselling author over the last five years on Amazon’s Kindle in the UK. By March of this year she had sold 2 million copies of her books and she has a good and supportive agent in Lizzy Kremer. Yet when her publicist began work to generate interest in Stranger Child, she was met with a blanket no from book review editors – because Rachel pays for her own work to be published.

Surely the many, many readers who buy and enjoy Rachel’s books can’t be wrong? If they have read and enjoyed them isn’t it just possible that some of the readers who browse the book reviews sections of their newspapers could possibly enjoy them too? Or perhaps they would Google Rachel, see that she has paid for the publication of the book and scratch the book from their ‘to read’ list in protest.

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Quick Links: What Are The Rules on Mixing Viewpoints?

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My current writing goals are to work on viewpoints and dialog. At Advanced Fiction Writing, Randy has a great post on the basics of viewpoints. Even seasoned writers might learn a thing or two. Head on over and check it out and let us know what you think.

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What Are The Rules on Mixing Viewpoints?

May 23, 2016
Of course you can have multiple points of view with the right character.....
Of course you can have multiple points of view with the right character…..

Can you write a novel mixing first-person and third-person viewpoints? Is that too stupid for words? How do you decide?

Dezaree posted this question on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:

I’m trying to write a book with my main character being seen through first person, and my second main character from third person. I separate them distinctly in the book and when they are together the story stays in my main characters first person. Can This Work? I tried writing it with them both in first person and without the second main character being separated that way. Both ways made me feel like it was either too confusing or missing to much information. So I want to write this book from two different points of view.

Also while I call her my second main character I really only want my readers to connect with the Main character.

If you don’t fully understand what I mean email me and I will try to better explain.

Randy sez: This is a good question that I’ve heard several times over the years. Before I can answer it, we’ll need to clarify some terms.

What is a “Main Character?”

When we talk about the “main character” of a novel, we mean that there is one single character who is most important within the story. The novel is this character’s story. The Story Question for the novel is a question about whether this particular character will succeed or fail.

Do you have to have a main character? No, of course not. Some novels don’t have a main character. You can write a novel with several characters that are all important, without any of them being the main character. But I don’t recommend that for beginning writers, because it’s hard enough to make your reader care about your story when you HAVE a main character. It’s much harder when you don’t. That’s my advice—follow it or don’t follow it, as you like.

What is a “Viewpoint Character?”

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In The News – E-books: a twist in the tale

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In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

While we celebrate the indie publisher here at Publetariat, we still like to keep an eye on the publishing world. I am just glad for every author’s success! The Bookseller‘s editor, Philip Jones, breaks down the Publishers Association annual market report for those who are interested.

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E-books: a twist in the tale

Marketing Mix Signpost With Place Price Product And PromotionIf the book market made sense it wouldn’t be so much fun. This week we are celebrating a 0.4% rise in physical book sales and an 11% drop in consumer e-book sales.

Today the Publishers Association releases its annual market report, The PA Statistics Yearbook that tracks the invoiced sales figures for all the major publishers in 2015. There are plenty of known knowns: physical book sales were up (just about), digital content sales were down (just about). Print fiction sales were up; digital fiction sales were down. Colouring books and vlogger books supercharged non-fiction.

The tone set by the report is upbeat. The UK publishing industry is in good health. It’s little wonder that everyone seems so cheery: print is back, digital did not kill us. The mood at the British Book Industry Awards on Monday evening was one of huge optimism and celebration. There is relief too (particularly as 2016 has got off to such a strong start) but also a sense of a sector thumbing its nose at all of those who have talked down publishing for the past half-decade.

There are still some that think traditional publishing is about to fall off a cliff: but if so they should pay particular attention to these statistics. The percentage changes may be small, but the significance is not. The digital transition has not been straightforward, but neither has it eroded sales. The digital market was in its infancy in 2009 when UK publishers recorded home sales of roughly £1,950m. In 2015 the equivalent number is £1,890m. A net loss but not a huge one, and more than made up by growth in export sales over the same period. In total UK publishers generated sales of £3.3bn in 2015, a nudge ahead of 2009’s pre-digital figure of £3.2bn.

Publishing may yet be hit by all sorts of body blows, but digital so far has not been one of them.

Read the full post on The Bookseller

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Quick Link: Royalty Clauses in Publishing Deals: How (& How Much) Authors Get Paid

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Admit it, you might write because you have a story that must be told but there is some part of you that dreams about becoming the next J.K. Rowling.  Bu unless you are lucky enough to have a publishing contract, the details might be a bit fuzzy. Lucky for us,  Susan Spann over on Writers In The Storm shares what happens in publishing deals. Did she miss anything? Let us know in the comments below. 

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Royalty Clauses in Publishing Deals: How (& How Much) Authors Get Paid

May 13th, 2016
by Susan Spann
Money Money Money!
Money Money Money!

“Royalties” is the publishing industry term for money paid to an author (generally, by a publisher) on sales of a published work. Most authors receive the bulk of their writing income from royalties, which makes them a critical feature of publishing contracts.

How are Royalties Calculated?

Royalties vary from contract to contract, and across different publishing formats. However, industry-standard royalties are normally based on a percentage of either: (1) the money the publisher actually receives on sales of the author’s work, or (2) the sale price of the work. (Most commonly, royalties are based on a percentage of the publisher’s receipts.)

Royalty percentages are either calculated on a “gross” or “net” basis—but those terms can be tricky, because publishers and contracts don’t always use them consistently. Good contracts calculate authors’ royalties as a percentage of the publisher’s receipts – the money actually received from buyers or resellers (less refunds and returns). That’s a “gross” method of calculation.

Dangerous contracts allow the publisher to deduct certain costs (sometimes including marketing and advertising costs as well as publishing costs) from receipts before calculating the author’s royalties. This is “net” calculation, because the author’s percentage is calculated on “net profits” – meaning receipts minus some or all of the publishing costs. Traditional publishers don’t expect or ask authors to share the publishing costs, or the publisher’s marketing costs. No exceptions.

How Big is the Author’s Royalty Percentage?

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Quick Link: How To Keep Writing: 5 Tricks To Sneak Past Perfectionism

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I have learned that I use perfectionism to deal with fear of finishing my work. One of the ways I have been dealing with that in my writing is by participating in the annual NANOWRIMO challenge.  It really helps to improve my writing and gets me moving. Michelle Russell at Write To Done gives us five tips to deal with perfectionism that might be holding you back from writing success. 

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How To Keep Writing: 5 Tricks To Sneak Past Perfectionism

We won't talk about the issue of being distracted by too many cat videos....
We won’t talk about the issue of being distracted by too many cat videos….

By Michelle Russell

Have you been sitting in front of your computer for what feels like hours?

You know the feeling.

Typing a few words, deleting them, groaning in frustration, getting a couple of sentences down only to decide they’re not quite right…

You’re about ready to tear your hair out.

You recognize what’s happening, of course. Your inner perfectionist is rearing its obnoxious head, inciting an epic battle between you and the blank page.

And the blank page is winning.

This could happen for several reasons.

Maybe you’ve got a deadline looming and you’re under time pressure.

Maybe you only have a rough idea of what you want to write about, and you’re worried it’s not going to come out coherently.

Or maybe you care so much about your subject matter that you’re afraid you’ll never do it justice.

Whatever the cause, you’re stuck. Of course you’ve heard all the well-meaning advice about not being a perfectionist; to just get something written that you can edit later.

But you honestly can’t write just anything.

Wondering how to keep writing?

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Quick Links: Starting an Email Newsletter: Why to Do It and Which Service to Use

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Email lists are marketing gold. Think about it. Someone found what you were saying interesting enough to trust you with their contact information and want to know more.  at Jane Friedman talks more about why you should start one, and how. For my paying day job as a software engineer/internet specialist I am quite familiar with the different types of mail services, but right now my favorite is Mailchimp.  They are very respectable and work really hard to help beginners and experts alike. Mailchimp stays respectable as they make sure subscribers are not spammed. Because with great power comes great responsibility and no one likes a spammer. 

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Starting an Email Newsletter: Why to Do It and Which Service to Use

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Email conceptToday’s guest post is the first in a series about growing an email list, by author Kirsten Oliphant (@kikimojo).

More and more authors now talk about the importance of growing an email list of readers. But I also hear from many people who are totally frustrated with email, from growing the list size to increasing open rates.

Often people start a list without knowing exactly why or what to do with it. (This is exactly how I started my first list four years ago, by the way.) Email can be your most powerful asset as an author, but you need to be intentional if you want results.

In this series, I’ll walk you through some of the places people get stuck to help you get the most out of your list. To start, let’s take the conversation back a few steps to discuss why email is important.

The Why of Email

With new social media platforms cropping up every month, email seems a little redundant—or even oddly ineffective, since it doesn’t have the same reach; you may have 200 email subscribers and 2,000 Twitter followers. We also know just how crowded our inboxes are. I delete plenty of emails per day without even opening them. So why spend time or money on an email list? Here are a few significant reasons.

Email Is Permanent

Social media is a fantastic tool for authors. We can connect with our readers in ways that were not possible even ten years ago using Twitter or Facebook or Pinterest. The problem is that we don’t control the connections. We are subject to each platform’s changes and algorithms. My Facebook page, for example, typically shows the posts I write to less than 10 percent of my followers.

There is no algorithm on an inbox (usually!). You have access and control that you have on no other platform. You can download a spreadsheet of your email subscribers and their emails at any time. In that sense, you own your list—something you can’t say for your Facebook likes or Twitter follows.

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In The News: An Open Letter to the American People – Writers speak out against Donald Trump

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In The News – Articles Of Interest For Authors

Even if you are not living in the USA, you have to admit our politics are pretty interesting this year. At Literary Hub, a bunch of prominent authors have penned an open letter to the American public coming out strong against Donald Trump. Which of course has started off quite the debate in the comments, because of course it did.

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An Open Letter to the American People

Writers speak out against Donald Trump

No matter who your candidate is, go vote.
No matter who your candidate is, go vote.

May 24, 2016

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Because, as writers, we are particularly aware of the many ways that language can be abused in the name of power;

Because we believe that any democracy worthy of the name rests on pluralism, welcomes principled disagreement, and achieves consensus through reasoned debate;

Because American history, despite periods of nativism and bigotry, has from the first been a grand experiment in bringing people of different backgrounds together, not pitting them against one another;

Because the history of dictatorship is the history of manipulation and division, demagoguery and lies;

Because the search for justice is predicated on a respect for the truth;

Because we believe that knowledge, experience, flexibility, and historical awareness are indispensable in a leader;

Read the full post on Literary Hub

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Quick Links: 6 Tips to Help You Finish Your Book

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Over on Helping Writers Become Authors, encourages us to actually finish writing our books. Which is apparently very useful information for a bunch of us, me included… Perhaps I should reread this article daily. Have you finished writing your novel? Congratulations and what are your tips?

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6 Tips to Help You Finish Your Book

May 1, 2016

111-1113tm-vector2-688by K.M. Weiland

Every time I hear about a writer finishing a book, I want to jump up and down and go into a gospel choir of Hallelujahs! It’s a momentous accomplishment for two reasons.

1. Finishing your book is the most important thing any writer will ever accomplish.

2. Not many writers do it.

Seriously. Depending on the source you examine, as much as 90% of the population wants to write a book. And many of those people will go so far as to actually begin writing something. But the percentage that actually finishes a book? Minuscule.

Why is that?

Easy. Writing a book is hard. Even dedicated writers like you and me find it hard to keep at it when the going gets rough on a story that just isn’t cooperating, for any number of reasons.

On Facebook, fantasy author Lee Diogeneia shared the results of a poll from her writing group:

Conquer 6 Obstacles and Finish Your Book

If the most important thing a writer can do is also one of the hardest–finish your book–then don’t you think it’s time you tackle some of the major obstacles standing between you and the finish line?

Let’s take a look at the six most common reasons writers drop their manuscripts–and how you can put habits in place to best every single one of them.

Obstacle #1: Discouragement

You know the drill. You wake up one morning, all bright-eyed and excited to be a writer–only to open your Scrivener file, look at your manuscript, and realize… this is complete rubbish.

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Quick Link: Secrets to Turning Your Facebook Page into an Epic Marketing Tool

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More marketing tips today, dealing with one of the largest social media platforms out there – Facebook. Penny Sansevieri, guest posting on Writers In The Storm, gives us some excellent tips on how to turn up the volume on your Facebook marketing.

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Secrets to Turning Your Facebook Page into an Epic Marketing Tool

Penny Sansevieri

ThumbFinal_4.9.15May 9th, 2016

According to a recent New York Times article, users spend an average of fifty minutes on Facebook. Fifty minutes! And though this number includes Instagram and the Facebook Messenger app, you can bet that the lion’s share is still spent  on their main platform.  Now more than ever it’s really important to turn your Facebook Page into something that isn’t just getting you likes, but making you sales as well.

I don’t know about you but I sort of have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, when it works it works well but when it doesn’t work, well… crickets. The challenge is that Facebook is always changing and as it does, our strategies need to change as well. Whether you have a strong Facebook page, or want to try and up your engagement on an existing page let’s have a look at some of the new and exciting features Facebook offers.

Facebook Livestreaming

In the past few months many of you have probably seen the little icon for the new Facebook Live, which gives you the opportunity to do livestreaming video right onto your Facebook page. To start a livestream, open up the status bar as though you were going to write a new post and click the little head with the circles around it. This will push you into a cue to start your livestreaming. You will then be prompted to name your video feed and choose your audience, meaning you can choose to Livestream to everyone, or just selected followers. Once you do that, you’ll click the button to go Live and voila, you are now broadcasting to your Facebook audience.  Also important to note, you can save the video if you decide you want to share it later – so perhaps add it to your YouTube channel, etc.

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Quick Links: What I Learned from Launching My First Best Seller

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Yesterday we learned what not to do, today we look at lessons learned from a successful book launch. Jeff Goins at The Write Practice tells us what he figured out from his positive experience.

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What I Learned from Launching My First Best Seller

by Jeff Goins
best practiceToday’s post is written by Jeff Goins. Jeff is the best-selling author of four books including, The Art of Work. His award-winning blog, Goinswriter.com, is visited by millions of people every year. Get his free book marketing cheatsheet here.

So you want to launch a bestseller. Great. Every writer does. But the truth is, before you can launch a best-selling book, you have to write a best-selling book. Here’s what I mean.

When my recent book, The Art of Work, became an instant bestseller, people asked me how I did it. They wanted to know the secret marketing tactic or promotional strategy I used. And those were the wrong questions to ask.

For the longest time, I wanted to be a best-selling author. I built my tribe, learned how to market, and assembled book launch teams. But it never happened. What was I doing wrong?

After four books, I finally did get a book on the bestseller lists. But it had nothing to do with timing or practice. With my fourth book, I actually learned how to write a book I believed in that would sell well. And any writer can do this, if they understand the process.

Just a couple quick notes, though, before I begin:

  1. This process works for writing nonfiction. I’m not a fiction author, so I can’t speak to that. This works for writing how-to, advice, self-help, memoir, business, and just about any other form of nonfiction.
  2. This is not about how to game your way onto a bestsellers list. I tried that. It didn’t work. This is about how to write a real bestseller, a book that continues to sell tens of thousands of copies every year.

3 Lessons I Learned from Launching my First Best-selling Book

So with that said, I want to share with you my process, what I learned from watching other authors succeed and then applied to my own writing journey. I wasted years trying to figure this out, but hopefully you won’t have to do the same. Here are three things I learned from launching my first best-selling book:

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Quick Links: How I Failed at Promoting my Novel with Amazon Advertising

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Sometimes the best lessons are not the ones where you succeed but the ones you fail at. Those are the ones that you learn the most from, which means it isn’t really a failure, just a learning curve. Eliot Peper over on Reedsy.com shares his lesson’s learned with marketing through Amazon advertising. What tips do you have for getting the most bang for your dollar?

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How I Failed at Promoting my Novel with Amazon Advertising

May 12, 2016
Eliot Peper
This was when I realized, I was no Katniss Everdeen.
This was when I realized, I was no Katniss Everdeen.

At Reedsy, we like to stay on top of new marketing opportunities for authors. We covered Product Hunt Books when they launched. Advertising on Amazon (via Amazon Marketing Services) is not “new”, however it is still, largely, an untapped resource for authors. In this guest post, indie author Eliot Peper explains how he tried it out, and what the results were.

Marketing is a fraught subject among novelists. It’s often seen as outside of our purview and some look down on those who aggressively market their own work, seeing promotion as a corruption of the creative process. Historically, many authors outsourced their marketing to publishers along with other responsibilities like printing and distribution. But technology-driven changes within the industry are forcing authors to become ever more involved with marketing their books, whether because they’re self-publishing or because their publisher demands it.

But novels are not a straight-forward product to promote. I read about 50 books a year and I don’t think I ever bought a novel because of a banner ad. Book PR firms have an abysmal track record. Most growth-hacking strategies borrowed from the tech industry simply don’t apply well to fiction. At the end of the day, there’s a single factor that determines a book’s financial success: word-of-mouth. Most often, we buy a book because a trusted friend recommended it.

Some indie authors, like Andy Weir and Hugh Howey, have achieved blockbuster success without investing much direct effort into marketing. Others, like Mark Dawson and Nick Stephenson, have engineered semi-automated systems that introduce their stories to new readers and hopefully inspire additional word-of-mouth. My own activities fall somewhere in between these two extremes. When I’m writing and editing a book, it’s a purely artistic process. But once a book is published and out in the world, I look at it through a commercial lens just like any other product.

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