Publetariat

Planning Your Book

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You’re ready to take the information and education you’ve gained from your research and apply it to your own book.

You’ve learned that the biggest complaint about self-published books is their lack of professional editing. Although you’re anxious to see your book in print, you realize you’ll have to go through a process to make sure you’ve created the best product you can for your particular market and the goals you’ve set for your book.

But first we address the manuscript itself, and how it becomes a book. Whether you use a professional editor, or plan to edit your book yourself, you can pick up a lot of useful information that will help guide you in the process. Understanding how books are constructed will give you a reliable blueprint to putting your book together.

Creating Books from Manuscripts

What Every Self-Publisher Ought to Know about Editing
An Unabridged List of the Parts of a Book
Self-Publishing Basics: Book Chapters and Subheads
Self-Publishing Basics: The Copyright Page
6 Copyright Page Disclaimers to Copy and Paste, and Giving Credit

Part of being a self-publisher is understanding rights and contracts, and particularly taking responsibility for your own copyright in your work. Copyright is an intellectual property, not real property like a house, but it’s no less valuable. Intellectual property has rights that will outlast its creator, and getting copyright clear is a basic publishing task.

This is one of the reasons I’ve written so many articles about copyright for the self-publisher. There’s a number linked below, and the information here will help you understand what copyright is, and what it isn’t.

You’ll get guidance on putting together your copyright page, adding disclaimers, how to copyright your book with the Libarary of Congress and a lot more. It’s a quick education in copyright, especially for self-publishers.

Copyright

Self-Publishing Basics: A 5-Minute Guide to Copyright
How to Copyright Your Book
CIP: What It Means, How to Read It, Who Should Get It
What Every Writer Ought to Know about Fair Use and Copyright
Creative Commons: What Every Self-Publisher Ought to Know

Getting Organized

When your manuscript is ready and you understand how your rights will be affected by publication, and how to protect them, you can move along to how you will organize your book. Does your book need an index? Will you need to hire an artist or illustrator to show processes or graph data?

You’ll want to check for consistency in your manuscript, before you get to typesetting and layout. Using a style sheet can help keep track of formatting elements, overall themes, or specific forms of spelling and address that should be consistent throughout your manuscript.

If your book is instructional, have you thought about enhancing its value by including a glossary or resource list for people starting out? There are almost endless ways to add value to a nonfiction book.

Who are the professionals, if you choose to hire them, who will guide you and help you navigate the book publishing process? Or do you plan to do-it-yourself?

Making decisions about your book shows how important it is to get clear about your aims. How you approach putting your book together should be dictated by how, and to whom, your book will be marketed.

More Articles on Planning Your Book

How Long Should Your Book Be?
Book Chapters and Subheads

It’s time to get into the nitty gritty of creating your book. And the first thing you’ll need is an Understanding of Fonts and Typography, so read on.

 

 

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander‘s The Book Designer.

America’s Indie Revolt: Why It Matters & Will It Spread

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This post, from Mary Anne Graham, originally appeared on her Quacking Alone blog on 7/11/10.

There’s no doubt about who’s winning the  American Indie Revolution.  The castle walls of the old publishing royals stand in ruins.  Even former staunch allies like Barnes & Noble have defected to the insurgent writers.   

“Digital publishing and digital book selling will soon become the most explosive development in the history of our industry and will sweep aside those who aren’t participating,” Leonard Riggio, B&N’s founder and chairman, said during a recent presentation highlighting the company’s expanding foray into the digital market. 

The e-reader market is in the midst of a price war that is putting more and more of the devices into the hands of the book-buying American public.  Fewer readers visit the brick and mortar bookstores as more readers demand that the bookstores come to them, via their PCs, Macs, e-readers, iPods and cell phones.  Via America’s strong and ever expanding wireless networks ebooks get delivered to readers instantly. 

When American publishers lost control of the distribution system, they lost control of the readers and the writers.  Today authors like Joe Konrath have chosen to forego offered publishing contracts for some books, electing to get them out in print and ebook format on their own, thank you very much.  Books of writers doing it their way are, more and more,  transitioning readers to expect stories undiluted by editorial changes demanded by publishers.  An American indie book or ebook is becoming an intimate experience shared only by the writer and the reader.    

But even in the present economic downturn, America’s companies invested the time and resources to build the pipelines that allowed the Indie Revolt to succeed.   Those pipelines are being strengthened as demand encourages more investment.  Our writers can now write their books, publish them, sell them to readers and get paid via those same magic pipelines that funnel money directly into their bank accounts. 

In the heady atmosphere of power and possibility now held by the creators themselves, it becomes rather easy to forget that America’s Indie Revolt is not yet the world’s.  Imagine an American publisher today saying the following:  “Everyone knows that almost all publishers cheat their authors on their royalty payments, and there’s ­nothing the authors can do about it.”

Read the rest of the post on Mary Anne Graham‘s Quacking Alone.

Apprehending Feedback

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At any level of authorial skill, but particularly when you’re just learning how to write and respond to other writers, there are three critical things you can do to help yourself and your readers. (I’ll come back to this in a moment, but if there’s anything you want to do during the feedback process, it’s take care of your readers.)

  • Focus on Learning
    Just between us, you and I both know you’re an undiscovered literary genius. But even literary geniuses need to know if they hit or missed their visionary target. If you give yourself over to listening and learning during the feedback process, rather than enduring and defending, you’ll not only learn whether you hit your target, you’ll speed your ability to understand the craft of storytelling. On the other hand, the more defensive or competitive you are, the longer it will take you to grow as a writer.
     
  • Acknowledge Your Own Control
    Consider this, from an earlier post about workshops:

     

    It can be hard for an author to listen without objecting or interjecting comments, but a workshop is not a debate. The members giving feedback know their suggestions and observation can always be dismissed by the author, so no debate is necessary.

    Even if everyone in a workshop thinks you should strengthen Sally’s motivation for murder, you still have total control and everyone knows it. It’s your story and you do not have to do anything you do not want to do. More to the point, most of the people who read your work couldn’t care less whether you listen to them or not. (And anyone who does probably has more invested in a personal relationship with you than they do in the quality of your work.)

    Again: you do not have to change something if you do not want to change it. Acknowledging that you have complete control over your own work will make you less defensive. (As an aside, there are nefarious situations where workshop leaders may try to impose control over your work. I’ll deal with this more in a subsequent post, but for now remember that you have the absolute right to control your work, up to and including making a blithering idiot out of yourself. No one who knows anything about how the craft of storytelling is taught or learned would tell you otherwise.)

  • Listen for Specifics
    If you don’t know much (or any) craft it’s admittedly hard to focus on craft while having a story workshopped. A more helpful approach for beginning writers is to practice listening to comments on a case-by-case basis, rather than waiting for a consensus to emerge about the entire work.

     

    Why is this important? Because the things that will help make your story better are almost always specific. Generalities such as, “I liked it,” or, “Your main character could be more sympathetic,” are not very useful. What you want are specific examples of things that did and did not work, because those things are evidence of faulty craft. If you ignore specifics in the hope that you’ll get a thumbs-up from 51% of the group you’re only hurting your authorial education.

    Too, listening on a case-by-case basis is important because not all feedback is good feedback. Some comments are going to be misplaced, and some are going to be loony. Your job is to sort through everything that’s said in order to find a few useful nuggets, and you can’t do that if you’re not paying attention to what’s said by everyone.

    Finally, focusing on specifics calms personality issues. If you’re getting feedback from a workshop, chances are there’s a least one person you don’t like. They may be objectively offensive, or they may grate only on your nerves, but they may also be right in what they’re saying to you. If their every word drips with insincerity or condescension it can be hell to listen, but you need to learn how to listen anyway.

Any feedback on your work, whether given privately or in a workshop, is potentially risky. Trying to understand what people are saying about your work when you yourself may not fully understand what you wrote or how you wrote it, is a trial by fire. The only way to get through it is to get through it. Following the above advice will make the process easier.

 

This is a reprint from Mark Barrett‘s Ditchwalk.

Stats and Sales and Success and Crap

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This post, by RJ Keller, originally appeared on her Ingenious Title To Appear Here Later blog.

I don’t post a whole lot here about the business end of writing, nor about the ins and outs of self-publishing. This is partly because I think the business end of writing is boring as hell. I mean, I have to worry about it because the IRS might wonder where the extra income is coming from, but it’s not something I particularly enjoy dwelling on here. Also, I said pretty much all I’ll ever have to say about the pros and cons of self-publishing when I wrote for Publishing Renaissance, and I hate repeating myself. Repeating myself.

But the biggest reason I avoid those subjects is that there are a slew and a half of other, much more knowledgeable, writers talking about it already; for example Zoe Zoemeister Winters and Mr. J.A. Konrath (whom I don’t know well enough to -meister). I’m usually hanging out, doing my writing thing, and by the time I’ve thought about the possible ramifications of literary agent Andrew Wylie publishing his clients’ ebooks on his own or heard about Who said What about self-published books over at So-and-So’s blog, it’s pretty much been talked to death.

Recently, though, a fellow indie author told me that it was my responsibility, as a successful self-publishing author, to add my voice to the indie chorus once more. To help to dispel the notion that self-published books suck, that self-published authors do well to sell a total of 25 copies to their friends and family members, or that they might – if they’re very lucky – reach 150 sold if they truly bust their ass. My first thought was, “Dude! You think I’m successful? Rad!” Because I truly don’t know what, exactly, being successful entails. That is to say, I know that it means different things to different people, but it wasn’t an adjective I’d ever applied to myself. My second thought was, “Oy! People are still spouting that crap, aren’t they?” Then it was, “Do I have enough coffee to write about stats and sales and crap?” The answer was, I guess so (I love my Keurig) because here it goes.

Read the rest of the post on RJ Keller‘s Ingenious Title To Appear Here Later.

Publish With Lightning Source

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This story, by Muriel Lede, originally appeared on her site on 8/15/10 and is reprinted here in its entirety with her permission.

Chances are you’ve at least heard of Lightning Source Inc., also known as LSI. If so, you must have been told that they’re the best deal around (indeed), but also that acceptance is selective (not quite), while the submission process is complicated and unforgiving (very true!). If you’ve searched the Web for them, you’ve most certainly noticed that the information about them is scarce and contradictory (often outdated and inaccurate as well). You’ve seen many of their self-publishing customers, some of them quite experienced, curse at them out of frustration—while paradoxically lauding their service!

You indeed consider doing business with the best Print On Demand service around? Then read this comprehensive guide to get a clear idea of the process ahead and avoid making costly mistakes.

Why should you sign up with Lightning Source? Because they have the most options for your books. Because they have the best quality offering. Because their sales representatives are very supportive at every stage of the submission process. Because you want to submit straight to the printer instead of suffering the delays and hazards of intermediates. Because you want the best profit margins (who doesn’t?) and the widest distribution channel. Because you consider yourself a publisher running a business, not merely an author with a manuscript. And you want to gloat about it.

Why should you avoid Lightning Source? Because you’re not tech-savvy. Because you balk at making an initial investment of time and money, or at learning the intricacies of the publishing process. Because you turn green at the prospect of filing paperwork or reading hundred of pages of documentation. Because you don’t care about the minutiae of the end product anyway. Because a free author service suits better your needs, or on the contrary you’d rather pay four times the actual costs to offload it all to someone else. Because you consider yourself an author first and foremost, and would rather avoid every task downstream if at all possible.

This is what they mean with their registration disclaimer. Really, if you recognize yourself in the latter description, they don’t want your business. They want serious publishers that know what they’re getting into, preferably ready to submit.

Services

LSI offers two POD services. Print to Order is for wholesale distribution. That means their online retail partners (most prominently Amazon and Barnes & Noble) order copies straight from them, usually sold to customers beforehand. Print to Publisher, on the other hand, is for short runs (which can be as small as one copy but are meant typically for fifty copies and above), and ships to the publisher instead (or whichever address you specify). Note that the latter option is slightly more expensive per copy.

You can also submit electronic titles for distribution with Ingram Digital, through which you can sell ebooks in DRMed formats such as PDF and ePub. For these two formats, the provided platform is Adobe Digital Editions. In that respect they’re definitely not the best deal around (Digital Editions sucks bad, especially for ePub, while the list of retail partners is more modest than for POD), but the service is free, while you already need a PDF file for the print book interior, so why not…

Requirements

Before you even register for an account, you will need a few things:

You can also provide a GST number if you’ve registered your business with the Canada Revenue Agency.

Last, but not least, you need money; Lightning Source isn’t free. Here’s how it costs for a typical blunder-free submission:

Book cover submission: $37.50
Book interior submission: $37.50
Proof: $30.00
Ingram catalog listing: $12.00
Total: $117.00

Ordering a proof is mandatory for an initial submission. The Ingram catalog fee, charged yearly, is to make the title available to retailers, otherwise your title would only be available for Print to Publisher short runs. Keep in mind that the costs could rise; revisions cost $40 per resubmitted file. May I recommend you don’t make mistakes? They also charge for whatever technical assistance you will require, so don’t ask them for help if you can avoid it.

Administrative concerns aside, I strongly suggest you prepare your submission in advance. You will need Adobe Photoshop, and probably Adobe Acrobat Distiller (which LSI strongly recommends, although sometimes you can do without it). The rest of this guide shall describe the challenges ahead; take a look at their File Creation Guide for an overview.

Cover price and wholesale discount

At this stage, you need to settle your pricing and discounting strategy. By discounting I refer to the wholesale discount, that is, the discount you grant retailers like Amazon. Typically, online retailers in turn grant half of that discount to their customers. You must also consider the price of printing the actual copy in the equation, which is:

Profit per copy = (100% – wholesale discount) × cover price – printing cost per copy

The printing cost depends on the format of your book, its cover type, and its number of pages.

You should decide which format your title shall be, if you haven’t already; whichever you choose, they probably offer it. Only then can you compute the final printing costs per copy, which you need to settle your cover price. It consists of a base cost per copy plus a cost per page, both depending on the format. See the POD publisher operating manual (only available once you’ve signed up) for details.

In regard to the above, there are only two sensible strategies to pursue. If you wish to see your book on the shelves of brick and mortar bookstores, you must offer a trade discount of 55%, flag your book as returnable, and also sign up to be listed in the Ingram Advance monthly catalog ($60 fee per listing). Be careful before choosing that option! First, such a high discount means either you settle for razor-thin margins or you try your luck with prices significantly above the competition. Second, if your book is returnable, that means bookstores will return their surplus after a few months, and you will have to assume the cost of the unsold copies! I recommend against that avenue for most self-publishers, and even small electronic/POD publishers; read about Ellora’s Cave’s woes with Borders for an example of things going awry.

That leaves us with the better and only viable strategy for self-publishers, which is to opt the for the minimum short discount of 20%, not returnable, and to hell with the Ingram Advance catalog! That means an online-only strategy, as brick and mortar bookstores will not carry your titles unless they take the lion’s share of the profits while having you assume all of the risks (if you ask me, it’s a racket). But that also means much more money per copy in your pocket and a safe business plan. Don’t be afraid to offer the minimum discount; some will tell you it’s risky because retailers might snub your title, but that’s just an urban legend.

Then the price you should expect to be listed is calculated as follows:

Expected listed price = (100% – wholesale discount / 2) × cover price

More simply, online retailers further discount the title to their customers by half the discount you granted them; if the wholesale discount is 20%, their discount shall be 10%. Take note that, with Amazon at least, this customer discount might not be offered immediately (I’ve noticed a delay of one month), while the decision to discount any given title is entirely up to them, subject to change without notice, and is not officially documented but has been deduced empirically.

Warning: Make sure your price and discount are final; price revisions take up to 45 days to propagate across resellers. What’s more, if you’ve put the price on the cover, you’ll need to issue a cover revision!

Book interior submission

Before you proceed any further, do yourself a favor and read this official FAQ. Much of what follows is already illustrated in that document.

The book interior must be submitted as a PDF file (Postscript, InDesign or QuarkXPress also accepted), preferably as PDF/X-1a:2001 but this requirement isn’t that stringent. In practice, what matters most is that fonts be embedded to your document. If you open your PDF file with Adobe Reader and inspect its properties, you’ll see a list of fonts (with cryptic names) that the document uses. Every entry must read as either fully embedded (meaning the whole font has been embedded into the file) or embedded subset (meaning that only necessary glyphs have been imported). If it says anything else then it isn’t embedded. This is important because printers do not provide any fonts, however common, which is the only way to ensure the document will print exactly as it displays on your computer.

So how do you embed fonts? You don’t, but merely configure whatever software you’re using to produce your PDF file to do so, the safest way being to look for a PDF/X or High Quality setting. It is also recommended to stay clear of Type 3 fonts (bitmap fonts).

There are other important requirements, one being that illustrations be sampled at either 300 dpi (pictures) or 600 dpi (line art). Another is that those illustrations be encoded as either grayscale or CMYK—no RGB. See next section for a discussion of CMYK.

Last, but not least, make sure your file is titled properly: the syntax is either isbn_text.pdf or isbntext.pdf. I’ve heard of rejected submissions for misnamed files.

Once you’ve frozen your interior file, use the Weight and Spine Width Calculator to complete your book cover; indeed you cannot complete your cover spine without the spine width, hence without the final page count.

Book cover submission

This is the difficult part, where you get to experience the joys of CMYK conversion. There is no avoiding getting technical at this point; just do your best to follow.

Your color book cover file on your computer is most likely encoded as RGB (Red-Green-Blue), which is the additive spectrum that computer monitors use to display images. A printer, on the other hand, requires a subtractive spectrum to print on white paper, and this is CMYK (Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-blacK). Simply put, you have to convert your file so that instead of defining color components for light, it does so for inks instead. This is no caprice, but physics.

In theory this should be trivial. Every RGB color has an equivalent in CMY; black wouldn’t even be required, as it can be obtained with 100% of each of the three primary colors. In practice it doesn’t work that way. For example, the black just described doesn’t produce black on paper, but some dark gray instead. Besides, given how prevalent black is (to say nothing of dark colors in general), it would be a waste of ink and quite a mess to mix three colors just to obtain it, which is part of why black ink was added. But conversely, black ink alone (called pure black) isn’t quite black either, at least not enough for many purposes; we need to mix it with some amounts of the other colors to obtain what is called rich black (LSI recommends 60% cyan, 40% magenta, 40% yellow, 100% black).

Then there are gamut issues, as some colors fall outside of gamut depending on context. This phenomenon isn’t exclusive to CMYK; televisions and computer monitors, for example, cannot render pure black but a dark shade of grey, due to their very nature of being light-emitting devices. Only this is far worse for printing, many more colors being unavailable; deep blue, for instance, is notorious for rendering purplish. This can be worsened by the type of press used, the type of paper, the coating, and so on.

As if it weren’t enough, printers set a total ink limit for every individual dot (obtained by adding together the percentages of each component), which can be as high as 300% (comfortably high) but which LSI sets as 240% (quite low). That means many more colors fall outside of gamut, as there is no way to obtain them with so low a ceiling.

And then, the glossy coating LSI applies onto the cover darkens the image somewhat! With so many variables to consider, it’s nearly impossible to predict what the end result is going to be, which means you can only guestimate what the necessary adjustments should be, order a proof, and cross your fingers.

Confusing? A demonstration is indeed in order:


Original RGB cover

Cover converted to SWOP, 300% ink limit

Cover converted to SWOP, 240% ink limit

Cover converted to SWOP, 240% ink limit, after adjustments

Cover scan by LSI

And none of the above looks exactly like the actual cover! The closest in terms of hue is the fourth, only even darker than the original. It does not look desaturated like the cover scan. I’d show you a picture, but it falls outside the color space of cheap digital cameras as well! Talk about irony…

Brace yourself for the fact that your cover won’t look exactly as expected. Here’s a few tips to minimize the difference:

  • Avoid dark colors
  • Avoid saturated colors
  • Avoid colors notoriously out of gamut, like deep blue

To make the conversion, you absolutely need Photoshop; I’m not aware of any other application capable of altering the ink limit of an ICC profile, at least not nearly as conveniently. Photoshop is quite expensive a software suite just to make a few CMYK conversions, but then you might not need to actually buy it; it’s often available at the office, for example, or at some multimedia lab at college or university. (No, don’t even think of BitTorrent. Illicit copying is immoral and hurts the industry. Bad children!)

Think that’s the end of your woes? There’s another requirement to factor in before proceeding: trapping (usually 0.25pt). Here we have a chicken and egg dilemma: we can only trap a CMYK image, hence after the conversion, but at the same time we can’t trap after the conversion proper because the overlapping regions’ total ink might then exceed the limit. Don’t worry, there’s a way out of this; how do you think chickens came to be, anyway?

Ready for a crash course in Photoshop CS4 CMYK conversion?

  • Set your working CMYK profile to US Web Coated v2 (SWOP) from Edit > Color Settings.

  • Convert your RGB cover to the US Web Coated v2 (SWOP) profile using Edit > Convert to Profile; leave the ink limit at 300%.

  • Apply trapping, 0.25pt, with Image > Trap.

  • Convert to US Web Coated v2 (SWOP) profile using Edit > Convert to Profile once again, this time setting the ink limit to 240% (select Custom CMYK in the list; a settings dialog will appear). Brace yourself for the shock!

  • In View, make sure your Proof Setup is set to Working CMYK, and that both Proof Colors and Gamut Warning are set. Locations whose color falls outside of gamut shall later display as gray pixels scattered all over the image.

  • Select the Eyedropper tool, and have one of the info dialog’s panels display the Total Ink (the small eyedropper icon is clickable; a dropdown menu will appear). Then you’ll obtain the total ink level for any given pixel on the image.

  • Use Image > Adjustments > Curves (or any other such functionality of your liking) to tweak your image while keeping the ink levels below the 240% limit and avoiding the gamut warnings. Yes, it is as hard as it sounds.

  • Once you’re finished, save as TIFF; uncheck the ICC Profile option. LSI does not like ICC profiles.

Keep in mind that what you see on the screen is only an approximation of the actual cover, so don’t freak out if initial results are disastrous. They will be.

Once you’ve completed the CMYK conversion, all that remains is to apply the barcode onto your cover, and the cover onto the template. Use the cover template generator for that purpose, then follow the instructions. LSI offers to apply the barcode for you, but I strongly advise you do it yourself; that’s the only way to be sure of the result. You don’t need to generate your own barcode, one is provided with the template they sent you. The document says to save as PDF, but you may also submit a TIFF file. Save your final file as either isbn_cov.pdf or isbncov.pdf. Once again make sure your files are named properly; the word around is that they may be rejected for so trivial an issue.

Putting it all together

You’ve got everything ready? Let’s cover then what to expect from the moment you register:

  • A Lightning Source representative contacts you, asking that you fill a short questionnaire. Don’t worry, it’s just to filter out those that don’t know how to read the disclaimer.

  • If you’re accepted, they create your account. You can now log in to their customer section. But when you initially do, it’s only to fill more forms; schedule some time, it’s rather long. Basically, they want to know more about your company, which of their services you mean to opt in for, how they’re to bill you (account or credit card), where to ship the copies that you order or those that get returned by retailers, etc. Then, to proceed any further, you need to print and sign some contracts, which you must send them either by fax or mail. Once they’ve processed these, your account is activated.

  • You may now access the customer section proper and create your first title; go to Setup a New Title for that purpose. There’s a few pages to fill out about the said title, then it is created and moved to the premedia stage.

  • Go to Titles Not Yet Submitted, then upload the cover and interior files using their uploader. Preview your PDF files prior to uploading! Once again, mistakes are costly.

  • Wait until your files have been processed and approved by the technicians. Since this is your first title, they then send you a mandatory proof by mail (overnight delivery). You can opt out of it for revisions, although it is not recommended. LSI then awaits your approval to make the title available.

  • Review the proof, then go to Proof Acceptance. If you approve it, it shall be made available to retailers shortly. If you reject it, the submission remains on hiatus until you send revisions.

  • Don’t forget to pay your invoices when they bill you! While some charges are immediate, others are delayed by a few days or weeks. Upon receiving an invoice by email, log in to your account and go to Pay Open Invoices. Beware, for I’ve noticed they don’t always email an invoice! If you expect one, you should drop by from time to time and check.

 

Tips From An Idiot

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A year ago I was readying to “submit” to agents for mainstream publishing. I read some agents’ blogs and watched their tweets fly by. I decided they are dicks and so I maneuvered around that process, learning that there was no opportunity to get a widespread, quit-your-dayjob publishing opportunity without agents.

So I ditched it all and published my book myself.
[Editor’s Note: strong language after the jump]

I sold about 100 print copies of *that book* (you know what I’m talking about, that I can’t mention it here) and only had a couple of months to promote it before the world ended. I’ve had about 1000 downloads on various free-e joints, so that’s not bad, but you can’t count if people actually read the downloads.

I’m not into analytics on this stuff anyway. I just want to know people enjoy my work as much as I do. That’s actually a lot to ask, but my mantra has been to publish as much as you can wherever you can.

I’m on to my first novel now, which I’m issuing RIGHT NOW. Moxie Mezcal put a great cover together and I formatted this motherfucker last night in a few hours. It didn’t take the month + help I got on my first book, because I took the steps to ensure I didn’t have to retrofit more than 200 pages as much as I would have.

I am an idiot with formatting and graphics. That’s a disclosure it is important to understand. I’m not at the bottom of the barrel–in fact, I consider myself close to being an MS Word whiz. But in order to format a book properly, you really do need to be that whiz, not just be close to it.

Start writing your book the way you want it to look and the process isn’t as painful. I had to retrofit my entire first book, and that process sucked.

Using styles, this book was much easier to format since there were no bizarre blocks of text in a different font. And once I realized that my indents were too big (and gee, that’s why the thing looked so lame), I just went in and moved the top tab to .1 rather than .5 and the whole thing magically fixed itself. *Awesome*

Global seek and replace was a winner for my sections–those imperative but annoying breaks within a chapter but not quite a chapter break. I had two asterisks, then I had 5 asterisks, some separated by tabs, some not, but a global search and replace worked wonders.

I write a lot of dialogue that is cut off, like, “Hey, asshole, what are you–” In Word, it tends to not like the emdash followed by a closed quotation, so you have to manually go in and replace the open quote with a closed quote. Again, global search and replace works fine for symbols and punctuation so don’t hesitate to use it. (However, search & replace function doesn’t work for finding curly quotes and replacing with straight quotes. Or at least it doesn’t work on my system. You should try it though, to make sure you have all your quotes in the same style.)

I should have (but didn’t) customize each header to match the chapter, since I wrote Back(stabbed) In Brooklyn with multiple perspectives. It would have required going in and inserting a section break for each of my 36 chapters. Then the pagination gets all fucked up. Meh….

Table of Contents is easy, it’s an *insert reference* function on your menu and you just make sure your chapter headings are identified in your TOC settings. Once you finish formatting, right-click on your TOC field and click update. Because I messed with a few of the headings, I didn’t want to update the entire TOC but just the page numbers.

Mirrored margins was an easy choice to find and it wasn’t a custom or manual function. (This makes it so when your book prints each facing page is centered correctly.)

I laughed when I opened the book on my nightstand to get double-check the pages before the text actually started (copyright, acknowledgements, kudos, bullshit, whatever) in Murakami’s last book there were 10 pages of bullshit before the text started! But I did learn I had to put in a blank page so that the text started on the right side, not the left. I could have put the TOC on two pages then to avoid a blank page, but then it wouldn’t have been facing each other and that’s lame.

I DID NOT align the text along the bottom of each page. I don’t know how to do that and I didn’t fuss over it. I probably should have. I know I’ll get my ass kicked for not doing it. But I didn’t. Meh, again. (If my story is so boring that you are focusing on the bottom page alignment, then I need to worry more about my story rather than the formatting.)

And there it is. I formatted my book. Now go ahead and do yours.

Thanks for reading.

 

This is a reprint from Lenox Parker’s Eat My Book.

It's The End Of The Book As We Know It, And I Feel Fine

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This post, from Kent Anderson, originally appeared on the Socieity for Scholarly Publishing’s  Scholarly Kitchen on 8/11/10.

About a dozen years ago, when journals were entering the gauntlet wrought by the peril and potential of the Internet, I remember thinking (and saying to any poor soul who would listen), “Wait until this hits books.” Back then, books were off-limits somehow, their hard covers repelling new media’s assaults. E-readers were being introduced, but none made the mainstream. Handheld computer-based attempts were ill-fated. The rumble of thunder seemed too far off to cause a worry.

Little did we know that we’d witness a fast-moving tornado when the storm finally hit.

While you can debate the commercial success, aesthetics, and longevity of it, Amazon’s Kindle has proven to be the wind shift that signaled the storm’s arrival. Other forces — the rise of viable print-on-demand (POD) technology especially, but also shoddy author contracts, publishers focusing too much on a few authors, more authors self-publishing and a rise in social acceptance of the mode, and other background trends — are tearing through the land of the printed book, leaving the industry exposed on many sides, apparently with little shelter.

Now that the twister’s finally arrived, the constant rumors of Borders folding or being consumed have been joined by the news that Barnes & Noble is considering putting itself on the block. While part of this may be a business gambit, the gambit is only necessary because the business is less viable than ever.

Publishers are changing, too. Mass-market romance publisher Dorchester Publishing is dropping its paperbacks entirely and moving to e-books and POD fulfillment for print titles. This means Dorchester is seeing that online retailing is going to drive their business, not remaindered print in bookstores.

Read the rest of the post on Scholarly Kitchen.

My Digital Kingdom

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This is as much for my own benefit as anything else, but I thought you lot might be interested. I’ve started fine-tuning my online presence to get a bit more control over it all. I’m the first to admit that I’m an absolute net-whore. I wander around the digital domain waving my business at anyone that happens to look in my direction. Such is the nature of the modern world.

I have all kinds of online communities that I like to be a part of, as well as keeping an online presence to promote my work in the hope that people will be interested enough to read my stuff and help keep my career alive. Or, at least, not entirely moribund. Plus, I just love being a part of the online landscape. I get to meet so many interesting people, learn cool stuff and enjoying absolute lunacy from the around the world, all in the comfort of my office chair. It’s a crazy place out there and I don’t like to miss anything.

So, because of that, I have numerous things to keep an eye on and numerous places to share my own little slices of madcappery. This website, The Word (assuming you’re reading this there), is my main place. It’s the hub of my online activities. But I also have a LiveJournal blog (where you may well be reading this right now) and I’m very active on Twitter and Facebook. (I actually have two Facebook places. The one linked to here is my author page, but the one shared with Posterous and The Word is my personal page, which I keep for people I actually know.)

I’ve also recently become very busy on Posterous, but that’s partly to help streamline all this stuff and partly to collate all the crazies I enjoy. In an attempt to get my head around how I’ve set everything up, and in an effort to show anyone else that may be interested, I came up with this little diagram. It illustrates all the places that I’m active and how those places cross-pollinate each other to save me posting things in multiple places.

my digital kingdom My digital kingdom

I hope that helps to clarify things, if you were even vaguely interested in knowing. Everywhere you see an arrow is an automatic share, so posting in the one place automatically shares that thing with every place pointed at. And this doesn’t include all the various forums that I tend to chat away on to a greater or lesser extent, depending on mood and time. In fact, looking at this makes me wonder where the fuck I get time to do anything else, but I do. I’m actually pretty good at it. And, with that, I’m off to work on the new novel, before the Grudge Monkey comes looking to kick my arse again.

 

This is a reprint from Alan Baxter‘s The Word.

Getting Ready to Publish

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The very first thing to do when you start thinking “Should I self-publish?” is to find out what kind of publisher you might become. This decision is critical because it will influence the decisions you make down the road about organizing your publishing business, if you start one, budgeting for your book, and the way the book will be manufactured.

In order to help decide on your publishing path, take a look at these articles on the different ways to be a self-publisher:

What Kind of Self-Publisher Am I?

Two Kinds of Self-Publisher—Which One Are You?
Self-Publishing Basics: Four Ways to Publish Your Book
5 Good Reasons to Self-Publish Your Book
7 Reasons Not to Self-Publish—Is This You?
The Self-Publisher’s Self Questionnaire

Now that you know the direction you want to go, it’s time to do some homework. You’ll have to establish your company with local authorities, pick a name for your press, and establish yourself in the world. You’ll be putting in place the infrastructure your new company will need to launch your book. You’ll deal with companies like Bowker and get your ISBNs in preparation for publishing your book.

Preparing for Publication

How to Create, Register and List Your New Publishing Company
Slow is the Best Speed for Self-Publishing

You’re just about ready to start your publishing life. It’s natural to feel a little nervous about the world you’re entering, but pretty soon you’ll feel right at home. Each time you make progress toward publication, or to increase your readership, you add valuable experience. For most self-publishers, this book is the first one they have written and published. It’s daunting to have to learn everything at once.

Becoming Part of the Community

Becoming part of the community of self-publishers, indie writers, editors, book designers, marketers and everyone else associated with indie publishing gives you the opportunity to learn from dozens of experienced people.

5 Things That Shouldn’t Surprise You About Self-Publishing
Top 5 Discussion Forums for Self-Publishers
3 Indie Publishing Discussion Groups: Getting Your Questions Answered

There’s no other way to say it: Self-publishing can be an exhausting and demanding job, but it’s also satisfying in very unique ways. Sometimes when you’re getting started it helps to remember both sides.

Getting Up and Running as a Self-Publisher

6 Ways to Jump-Start Your Self-Publishing Career
8 Answers That Help Self-Publishers Get Up and Running

And even though we won’t talk about marketing until later in this journey, it’s time for your publishing company and you as an author to have a presence online. The sooner the better. Authority and influence build over time.

Author Platform: What Are You Waiting For?

And the next step in your journey is Planning Your Book. Onward.

This is a reprint from Joel Friedlander’s The Book Designer.

How To Write The Ending Of Your Novel

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There is plenty of writing advice about the first 10 pages, the importance of hooking the reader at the start and making an impact in the first paragraph. But what about making sure that the reader wants to buy your next book?

If your ending sucks, it can leave a bad taste in the reader’s mouth and will ensure they don’t want to read your next book. So here are some tips on writing endings for your …novels:

  • Don’t cheat and suddenly have everything work out fine. This is lazy and the reader isn’t fooled. For example “And Jesus lived happily ever after”. From ‘How Not To Write A Novel.
  • You can surprise the reader but you must also satisfy them. There should be more than one possible ending to a book, so the reader doesn’t just give up as they know what will happen. It’s worth foreshadowing this ending with hints in the rest of the book though so that they are surprised but it is not entirely out of the blue. Paraphrased from Holly Lisle. This is also covered by the disappointment of twist endings at Kim’s Craft Blog.
  • Don’t use sappy extraneous contemplation. This is the big problem with the ending of Dan Brown’s ‘The Lost Symbol‘. The last chapter or two is just watching the sun rise and thinking about the experience. Boring and pointless.
  • Some genres have an expected ending that you can’t mess with. If your genre is romance, they have to get together at the end. There’s no getting around this unless you want to change genres! You also need to keep some characters alive if you have a series of books planned.
  • Don’t forget to end the book (or explain it is a trilogy!). I recently read ‘The Passage’ by Justin Cronin, a very chunky post-apocalyptic, majorly hyped novel. I enjoyed it but was hugely disappointing in the ending which basically didn’t end. There were so many loose ends so I went onto Twitter to see if anyone else felt the same way. A wonderful fellow tweeter pointed out that the book is first in a trilogy! However, this doesn’t excuse the feeling of disappointment as the brilliant ‘Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins is also the first in a trilogy and wraps the story up and yet still leads onto the next book. It’s definitely a balance.
  • The resolution comes after the climax. The ending does not have to be in that last action/adventure scene. It needs to be after the climax so the story is rounded out. In film, “the audience can catch its breath, gather its thoughts and leave the cinema with dignity” From ‘Story’ by Robert McKee.

    The graph on the right shows the climax and then resolution – from my seminar notes!

Here are some of comments from Twitter – thanks to all who contributed!
  • Make it satisfying. Doesn’t have to be good or happy, but readers want to be satisfied. @Kessbird
     
  • Surprise the reader and definitely tie up the lose ends (I hate sub-plots that are just abandoned!) @graywave, author of ‘TimeSplash’
     
  • Emotionally move the reader in some way to make her feel that her money was well-spent. @jchutchins , author of 7th Son thriller trilogy
  • Think of the biggest, most mind-blowing final conflict you can. Then make it bigger. :) @AlanBaxter, author of ‘Realmshift’
     
  • I always start with the idea of where I am going, makes it so much easier to get there! @PhilippaJane , author of ‘Chasing the Bard’
     
  • End on a note of anticipation. Leave with the reader wanting more. @teemonster , author of Billibub Baddings books
  • “…and then the world exploded” @ShearersBooks
     
  • Endings in a book must come natural, but “out of the box” at the same time. @myotherhand
     
  • Write the ending out fully that comes to mind. Then try cutting the last line or paragraph. It’s often an improvement. @vickigundrum
  • Ending depends on the beginning. in my two novels i have chosen unhappy ending and the third one a happy ending. @sudampanigrahi
     
  • End with a question to encourage comments. :) @code_and_prose
     
  • Always go back to your opening point. @smuttysteff
     
  • Figure it out before you write the beginning! @ChrisMorphew

 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

The Beginning of the End?

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This post, by JA Konrath, originally appeared on his A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog on 8/6/10.

Dorchester just announced it is cutting its mass market paperback line and focusing on ebooks.

A few months ago, Medallion announced the same thing.

I’ve heard, through sources who asked not to be named, that sell-through for paperbacks is as bad as 20%. In other words, out of ten printed, only two sell.

Now what’s going to happen if more publishers follow this business model?

Here’s a possible scenario.

1. Fewer paperbacks are published. Publishers either eliminate their paperback lines, or begin publishing more selectively, in smaller numbers, to cut costs and losses.

2. Bookstores have fewer books on their shelves, and sell fewer books as a result. Which means less money to the publishers.

3. Publishers downsize, since the ebook market, though growing, doesn’t bring in the same money as print does. In order to maintain positive cash flow, they bill their accounts to pay up.

4. Their accounts–bookstores and distributors–can’t pay up. They don’t have the money to pay for the books they’ve sold–which they bought on credit. So they begin returning other books on the shelves to get credit for those.

5. Now there are far fewer books on the shelves, which means far fewer sales.

So when publishers stop printing as many books as they are now, the delicate balance will shift.

What does this mean to you, the author?

The main reason we need publishers is for distribution. We can’t get into Wal-Mart or Borders on own own. They can. So we accept 8% royalties in order to sell a lot of books. But if publishers are no longer printing books, there is ZERO reason to sign with them, because they no longer have that advantage. Especially when we can earn 70% royalties on our own.

If you do sign with a publisher, make sure it contains a clause that states they MUST release it in print, or revert the rights back to you. Make sure there is specific wording for "out of print" that doesn’t include ebook sales.

But, if you do sign with a publisher, do you think you’ll ever get your rights back?

Let’s say I’m running a publishing company. I see ebooks are the future, and I’ve got three new authors coming out in print. I gave these authors healthy advances, and there’s no way they’ll earn out these advances with print sales.
 

Read the rest of the post on JA Konrath‘s A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing blog.

Top 10 Novel Writing Mistakes

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I don’t know about you, but I learned to write, and am still learning to write, the hard way. I made the novel writing mistakes and then figured out what I should have done. I’m certain it’s the same for many, if not most, novel writers.

Regardless of how you learn, if you keep your eyes open for these top ten novel writing mistakes, your novel will have a stronger chance of acceptance.

 
[ Listen to a PODCAST of this article. ]
 
Beyond the common errors in spelling, word use and punctuation, I feel the top ten novel writing mistakes are:
 
1. Weak Characterization
2. Ineffective Dialogue
3. Poor Plotting
4. Point of View Errors
5. Flat Writing
6. Too Much Backstory
7. Summarizing
8. Failing to Target Your Writing to Your Audience
9. Lists
10. Too Much Description
 
Let’s look at each of these in a bit more detail, shall we?
 
Weak Characterization: It is imperative you serve your readers a healthy diet of characters with believable motivations, realistic actions and fully formed relationships. You reader needs to know why your major characters do what they do and why they feel the way they do. Read more about CHARACTERIZATION
 
Ineffective Dialogue: Dialogue is one of the trickiest aspects to a novel. It must sound like people speaking to each other when, in fact, character conversations are nothing like conversations between people. Your novel’s dialogue must be much more compact and plot focused, yet, you must retain the personal aspect of it. Read more about DIALOGUE
 
Poor Plotting: Plot is the bread and butter of your novel, and a well structured plot is a blend of art, psychology and the craft of writing. An effective plot requires, pace, motivations, a believable storyline, character arcs and so much more. Read more about PLOT
 
Point of View Errors: POV relates to which character sees the action that transpires within your plot. Irregular shifts in POV proves difficult to the reader, and maybe even worse, POV errors can creep into your novel with little trouble. The secret is to reserve each character’s POV to a single chapter. Here’s more on POV
 
Flat Writing: Flat writing occurs when you input narrative or dialogue that has no meaning to the plot. It shows you’ve lost control over your story due to lack of a plan, lost interest or maybe something as simple as you’re tired. When you find narrative or dialogue that doesn’t move your story forward, it’s time to edit it out.
 
Too Much Backstory: Backstory is anything that came before chapter one. It’s history. The problem is backstory tends to stop the novel’s momentum. More often than not, it’s not necessary to the story and should be eliminated. If backstory is necessary, work it into your story in small nibbles rather than large bites of information and only after the major plot is developed. There’s more on BACKSTORY
 
Summarization: This harkens back to the classic saw of "Show. Don’t tell." In lieu of simply stating a fact in your narrative, develop this information by way of character actions and dialogue. For example, don’t simply say your character is good at math. Have a scene where his math skills are put to the test and he excels. There’s more on "SHOW, DON’T TELL
 
Failing to Target Your Novel to Your Audience: Most writers, especially those new among us, often fail to come to grips with the fact your writing is a business venture. As a consequence, novels are often written without a focus on those who will eventually purchase your product. For example, if your story lends itself to the male market, you don’t want too much emotional action. In contrast, if your market is the adult female, you’ll not want too much in the way of blood and guts. Save that for your teenage male audience.
 
Lists: A common sign of a novice writer is his use of lists within their novel. A classic example of this is with the description of a meadow. The new writer will name all the flowers in the field. It’s usually better to paint a verbal picture with only a few details and allow the reader’s mind to fill in the blanks. In the example of a meadow, you might mention the wavering patches of red and violet as the wind sweeps over the ground in lieu of the list of flowers.
 
Too Much Description: In the same light as lists, the readers imagination is what makes your novel come to life. Too much description imposes your imagination upon the reader. With this in mind, don’t tell him the cloud formation looks like an elephant, unless the elephant is necessary to the story. Instead, tell them the clouds created formations in the sky and allow them to "see" whatever they formations they wish. This will make the story much more personal, and thus enjoyable, to your reader.
 
Are there more common errors in novel writing? You bet. However, if you focus on these ten early in your writing career, you’ll be well on your way to that elusive well-received novel.
 
Now, which of these errors do you commit and what have you done to fix them?
 
Until we meet again, know I wish for you only best-sellers.
 

This is a reprint from C. Patrick Shulze‘s Author of Born to Be Brothers blog.

Top 10 Ways Authors Can Use Twitter

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It’s Twitter week here at the Savvy Book Marketer! In today’s post, I discuss the many benefits of Twitter for authors. Tomorrow, novelist Graham Storrs shares his secrets for planning a successful round-the-world virtual book tour on Twitter. On Thursday, Tony Eldridge and I will be presenting the Boost Your Book Sales With Twitter Teleseminar.

Top 10 Ways Authors Can Use Twitter

Twitter is a great tool for building an author platform and promoting books. Here are some of the top ways authors can benefit from Twittering:

1. Help others by sharing information, while you gain a reputation as an expert. Nonfiction authors can post links to helpful articles, recommend resources, and teach mini-lessons. Novelists can talk about their genre. Children’s authors can promote literacy, share information about the benefits of reading for children and young adults, and offer tips on how to select age-appropriate reading material.

2. Meet potential customers and stay in touch with existing customers. Promote your Twitter URL everywhere you’re listed online, and include keywords in your tweets to attract followers who are interested in your topic or genre.

3. Stay on top of news and trends in your field or genre and get ideas for your articles and blog by reading the tweets of the people you follow.

4. Promote live and virtual events such as book signings, podcasts, virtual book tours, book fairs, teleseminars, and book launches.

5. Gain visibility and new followers by hosting a Twitter contest where you give away a prize to a randomly chosen winner, or give a free gift to everyone who follows you and re-tweets your contest message.

6. Ask for help and get instant responses. When you request product recommendations, referrals to experts, or help with a technical issue, it’s amazing how helpful folks are.

7. Spread good will by helping your peers. Introduce other people in your field or genre, or recommend other related books or products.  Re-tweet interesting posts from people that you follow.

8. Promote your book and other products and services. The key is to be subtle and make promotional tweets a small percentage of your overall communications, so people feel like they gain value from following you, not just a stream of sales pitches.

9. Meet other authors, experts, publishers, marketers, and vendors. Twitter is ideal for networking and it’s a great place to meet potential joint venture partners.

10. Keep in touch when you’re on the road. There are a number of applications that facilitate twittering from mobile devices.

Have fun! It’s fascinating to meet people from all over the world, gain a glimpse into their lives, and develop a cyber-relationship.

To learn more about using Twitter to promote yourself and your book, join Tony Eldridge and I on August 12 for the Boost Your Book Sales With Twitter Teleseminar.

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

A Copyright Battle for the 2010s

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This article, by Michael Baumann, originally appeared on AllBusiness.com on 7/1/10.

The struggle to control and monetize intellectual property is hardly a new one for publishers and other content creators, but it is one that is constantly evolving. With an ever-changing set of technologies for creating and distributing content, users tend to create new norms and come up with new ways to circumvent intellectual property law faster than publishers can find ways to stop them.

Content creators are doing their best to stay ahead of the curve, protecting and monetizing their material while still being able to market and sell their wares. On the other hand, users are trying to keep from running afoul of the law. 

Mobile Devices and Rising Costs

In the past decade, perhaps the biggest change in how people consume digital content is where they consume digital content. In 2000 (or even as late as 2004 or 2005), that place was at a desktop or laptop computer, usually through a wired Ethernet connection. Today, that place is almost literally anywhere in the civilized world.

"Digital once meant the web to most people," says Chris Kenneally, director of author relations for the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). "Most people got to the web one way – they sat at a desk and worked at a desk. That was only 5 years ago." Today, that has changed. "What we have seen, of course, is devices like the iPhone and other smartphones change that completely," he says.

Where publishers previously only had to create one form of an article or photo, the burden is now on content creators to produce material that can be viewed on screens and interfaces as large and complicated as desktops and projectors or as small and simple as the iPhone. For example, NYTimes.com produces five versions of each article, according to Kenneally. With digital publishing getting more complicated, it becomes more and more important that content providers can maximize their return on investment.

"Each of the platforms requires its own special development," says Kenneally. "It used to be you put the ink on the printing press, run the ink through, and youVe got a newspaper. Then you’ve got the pixels for the website, and that was its own separate branch of the business. I can’t take the same text and float it out on all these different platforms – it’s just a cost issue."

 Marketing and Monetization

 

Read the rest of the article on AllBusiness.com.

Author Fay Risner To Speak At Athena Club Nov. 8, 2010

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Nov. 8, 2010, the Belle Plaine, Iowa Athena Club has invited me to speak about my Civil War book – Ella Mayfield’s Pawpaw Militia – A Civil War Saga In Vernon County Missouri. ISBN 1438235461. Sold on Amazon, ebay and http://www.booksbyfaybookstore.weebly.com It seems only fitting that today’s members in a club that was founded in the 1800’s would be interested in history from that era.

Awhile back, I signed up on a website for Iowa authors. Iowa Center for the Book – http://www.iowacenterforthebook.org This is the site the Athena Club looked on to find an author. They found my name and list of books.

　

I’m getting prepared for the Athena Club meeting. I kept my bulletin board from the book sale at a Civil War reenactment last year. A hand drawn map of Missouri points out Vernon County’s location. The map is covered with statistics like how many battles and scrimmages were fought in Missouri. Across the top of the map is the definition for bushwhacker and jayhawker, plus pictures of a bushwhacker and two Union soldiers stones which are my great grandfathers buried in the Montevallo Cemetery and a picture of a woman’s grave who was a slave before the war and lived to be almost 100. Montevallo’s only black citizen after the war, Isabel Taylor was my parents neighbor in the 1930’s. In plastic covers, I have a copy of my great grandfather’s discharge paper, a picture and a story about Isabel Taylor from the Nevada Daily News. I’ll set out a stack of business cards so the club members know how to contact me later for future sales and a box of my other books to go through for those that like my different genres (Amish, mystery, western or Alzheimer’s themes) while I talk.

Bushwhacker Ella Mayfield’s story was an easy one to write. History provided me with details and dates of battles and towns burned by Union soldiers. The 1887 Vernon County History book supplied information about the Mayfield family. The authors point of view about the Civil War others wouldn’t know that didn’t live in that area until I wrote this book and talked about the era. My book is considered fact based fiction. The conversations and some of the details I added were my imagination because I wasn’t there.

An added plus for me, my parents grew up near Montevallo. We went there to visit family and friends often when I was a child so I know the landscape well. For many years, I’ve revisited that area, traveling in the same places that my parents and Ella lived.

Women, who homesteaded with their husbands, were sturdy, hardworking individuals. They could shoot a squirrel rifle, ride a horse, wield an ax and hold on to the reins of work horses or mules struggling to pull a small plow across unbroken sod. All the while, they had just delivered a baby or were expecting another one. It’s no wonder, these same women were able to hold their own among men in Ozark bushwhacker bands. The Mayfield family were considered heroes in Vernon County during the war. They suffered as much as any other family. Ella lost two husbands, two brothers and two brother-in-laws to Union soldiers and in the end was burned out of the timbers that hid her and her band so well.

Homesteaders weren’t interested in slavery. They had large families to help farm the 160 acres they signed up for. To keep that land, they had to build a cabin and plant crops for five years then the farm belonged to them. When the war started, family members, women, children and elderly were left behind to protect their homes and land. They fought to stay on the land they had put so much sweat into making their home. Years later, bushwhackers that come to mind are the James brothers and Younger brothers. Living in a land completely destroyed by fire and battles, these men chose to be outlaws rather than make an honest living. That was not how the bushwhackers of Vernon County began. Early on, the men came home from battles, disillusioned by battle losses, death of friends and relatives. The battles they were sent to fight were too far from home to protect their families. These men chose to become bushwhackers and fight at home to try to keep the Kansas Jayhawkers and the Union soldiers from burning their homes and killing their families. Angered by raids made on what belonged to them, the bushwhackers raided in Kansas, burning and killing. Ft. Scott Union soldiers tracked them back into Vernon County. Hit and run fighting was easy for the bushwhackers with vast timbers to disappear into, caves to hold up in and creeks to ford to hide their tracks. By the end of the war, the few women, children and old men left in their homes ran out of food to give the bushwhackers. The Union soldiers saw to that by destroying extra food, gardens and taking away milk cows to keep starving settlers from giving aide to the militias. The sympathizers had to move away from the areas to survive. That didn’t stop the bushwhackers. They were afraid to shoot what little game was left for fear the soldier patrols would hear a shot. Instead, they lived on berries, nuts, persimmons and pawpaws. Finally, the Union General, Thomas Ewing, in Kansas City issued Order No. 11. Burn Cass, Jackson, Bates and most of Vernon county south of Kansas City to run off all the southern sympathizers and what was left of the bushwhackers. That did it. In the smoky haze of spreading fire, Vernon County citizens and the last of Confederate solders fled to Arkansas.

That’s when Ella and her second husband gave up the fight. A few months after they arrived in Arkansas, Ella’s husband was killed. I tried to find out what happened but so far don’t know the answer. Ella came back to Vernon County, married a man farming not far from where her family’s farm had been. She used her first name, Amanda, which as time passed helped others forget her involvement in the war. After so many hardships, Ella had a normal life. She farmed with her husband, moved to Oklahoma later in life and is buried there beside her husband.

Now thoughts about summers -Yesterday and Today

Last Thursday was my husband’s birthday. I brought his 89 year old mother out for the day. In he afternoon, one of his sisters brought her two grandchildren that think coming to our place is like visiting a zoo. Our son joined us after he got off work. It was a super day with low humidity and warm sunshine that made our ash trees shade feel good. This was a day reminiscent of days in the Ozarks when I was small. In those days, my family spent many hot afternoons under a large maple tree, sipping real lemonade and Kool Aid. Our fan, compliments of a feed store, was a small piece of cardboard with a tongue depressor like handle. Many weekends when relatives came to visit, the grownups sat in the shade while the kids played. Dad bought a 50 pound block of ice which he busted up in a gunny sack, and everyone including the kids took turns cranking on the ice cream maker. We didn’t seem to mind the heat in those days. Maybe because we didn’t have air conditioning, we were acclimated to Missouri’s humid heat.

Many a summer evening, my family sat outside until bedtime. We had a porch swing. When my younger brother and I were small, my parents sat in it with us while Dad told us stories about what it was like when he was a kid or the Civil War stories his father told him about his grandfather. When we outgrew the swing, we sat on an old quilt in the grass. Dad bought a telescope. He pointed out stars and constellations, told us the names and let us look at them. The moving star that traveled from North to South was Russia’s Sputnik.

The house stayed hot through the night. We slept on the floor in front of the front porch screen door with a small, old fan stirring the air some. I was agile enough in those days not to mind the hard floor. The only reason I’ve thought twice about those days was Mom’s story about the large black snake that crawled under the screen door and slithered across the floor. The creature was looking for a cool place, too. At night for a summer or two, we slept sideways on an old iron bed out in the yard. Summers tended to be hot and dry so my parents didn’t worry about the old mattress getting wet. If a shower came up and passed through, the sun came out. The mattress was baked dry by bedtime. We lived on a blacktop road, but no one came by after ten o’clock to see us sleeping outside. That was the whole neighborhood’s bedtime so traffic was nonexistent until morning. My parents woke up at daybreak to milk cows. When passerbys drove by during the day, they probably thought the bed was a trampoline for the kids.

Now it’s summer in Iowa. The heat index of 104 one Wednesday was enough to drive my husband and I out of our un-air conditioned house that evening until the sun set. Not much of a view from our yard these days with ten feet tall corn plants all around us. One night, we watched four hot air balloons float near our house, turn and go back the way they came, but that Wednesday night and since then it has been too hot or stormy for balloons.

Another evening, my husband made the mistake of digging out a dandelion near my clematis vine which housed a minature nest of baby red headed finches. The frightened birds flew out into the lawn and bushes. After the surprise wore off, they decided they weren’t ready to leave home just yet. From several directions, the young birds made a clicking sound, trying to talk their mother into coming for them. Finally, my sympathetic husband hunted each baby up and put them back in the nest so their mother could find them. That quieted them down.

Most summer afternoon and evenings, we’re content to watch panting sparrows and warbling jenny wrens. How do those tiny birds muster up such a loud song? As you can see if my husband and I have any kind of breeze, plenty of shade, a refillable glass of tea and song birds entertaining us, we’re easy to please. Maybe it’s because we know what winter will bring.