E-publishing and Leaving the Traditional Publishing Track

I'd like to get this off my chest. I've heard a lot of people talking about the easy way to get published: E-publishing on Amazon, self publishing with Kickstarter, e-publishing on Smashwords, self publising through __________, e-publishing through _________. You get the picture.

I am not opposed to any of these methods. They might work. They might be great. I've heard anecdotal evidence supporting each one of these routes to a writing career.

But what I am a bit agitated about is the attitude I'm seeing about this kind of publishing. We're vilifying the traditional publishing industry and trying to pretend like we have found out how to turn lead into gold. Some things may need to change in the publishing industry. Your route to being published may be different than those of a writer 30, 20, or even 10 years ago.

But don't eat the crap with the cupcake.

There is no EASY way to publishing.

The traditional publishing market rose up by a bunch of people working hard to make money in publishing. Can you trust them? I don't know. Are they just up there trying to steal all of your money and make an easy profit from your work? Maybe.

But they've been around a while and some of the things they're doing is because they gets results. Lets take a look at what does work.**

• Starting with a good book - No amount of hype will cover up for a terrible book. If people don't like it now, they won't like it just because it's in a pretty dust jacket. Trad-publishers don't always get it right, but the best thing you can do to get lots of people to read and buy your book is to write something they will enjoy.
• Editing - Get your book edited professionally. 
• Lots of books - Look at all your favorite authors. If they make a living from their works they have a lot of them. In Sci-fi/Fantasy you won't likely make a living off of one book, and you won't have a big following until you've got a few books out. You can make money off the first book, but if you want to make a living you've got to keep writing. J.K. Rowling was popular, but did you hear about her after book 1? Book 2? Book 3? How many books until you break out?
• Advertising - No matter who you are you've got to let people know about your book. Even if you want to be successful on Kickstarter or Amazon you'll need to tell people about your book. Marketing is important.
• It takes time - You might get picked up by 10 billion people the day after you upload your text to Amazon. But be realistic. How many books do you buy a day? How many books do you read a day? If you give a copy of your manuscript to your best friend and it takes him three months to get through it, it might take that long for other people to read it too. It will take time to get your book around. Advertising will help, but it will still take time. Don't be afraid of it, just be ready for it.
• It takes money - No matter what you think about Traditional Publishing, they've been the ones to front the cash for many years. It takes money to advertise, edit, design a cover, get the layout done, market, and more. There are many ways to get this done with less money now, but don't dream. It will take some money to publish a book. If you can use someone else's money that's better, but then you'll need to find someone to give you that money (here's where kickstarter and the sort come in).

I'm not talking bad about any route to successful publishing. I have my preferences, but if you found a different route that you prefer then take it. But don't imagine it will be easy. Learn from the old ways, and take what the did learn. Put in the work, get lucky where you can, have fun, live the dream, and don't give up. Be in it for the long haul. Get rich quick schemes are bad news. Keep your eye on the prize, and put in the work. I'll see you on the other side.

**I'm talking about Sci-fi/Fantasy. If you are a motivational speaker, if you are writing poetry, children's books, or if you're writing non-fiction it still takes work, but you may have other routes open to you. Research what has worked in the past and then decide how to put that to work for you.

In Defense of Plot

Writing is made up of many parts. Of course you have the basics: letters, words, etc. There's theme, there's voice, there's style. We've got descriptive text, thoughts, grand ideas. Then come characters, dialogue, setting, conflict. You get the idea.

But there is one aspect that is often ignored when searching for how to refine the literary art. Plot.

Perhaps it's the idea that cramming some written work into a pre-described model is somehow un-artistic. Perhaps the types of people who gravitate toward English degrees tend to read differently. Perhaps it's that plot is one of the more basic aspects of story. Perhaps we're just reacting to the importance that Aristotle put on plot. I don't know.

But when I read someone's work who has studied writing in college, I am inevitably impressed by their ability to craft words into something beautiful. And almost as inevitably I don't see a plot.

Now don't get me wrong. Not all writing needs a plot. And sometimes we get more from a story if there are certain plot elements that are purposely twisted or ignored. But there seems to be something against good solid plot.

Here's my ideas on plot. If you're a writer, and you are interested in selling a book there is one element that saves poor writing, poor character development, and even poor dialogue. It's plot. 

Plot, more than setting or character, is the element we have a primal reaction to. If part of the plot is missing, we fill it in subconsciously. If the plot is in the wrong order, we fix it in our minds. It's the basic story of the thing, the scaffolding that holds a narrative up.

When writing it is pretty easy to go back in and add a line to fix a character, or even add in a whole new character. It's not even that hard to completely overhaul the setting.

But to change the plot in any major way you might as well write a new book. The story is the plot.

If you want to write beautiful words that don't need a plot, write a poem (although some poetry uses plot as well). Poetry is great.

But if you want to sell a novel, learn how to plot. Study how plots work, there are plenty of models. If you have a solid plot, then your story will make sense. Plot may not be the deepest aspect of story, but if you don't have it right then people will notice.

How Writing is Like Slaying a Dragon

I would like to clear something up. Make it clear. Very clear. Extra super clear.

Just in case you were under the impression that I am a nerd I would like to abuse you of that idea. I use that phrase of course as the opposite of disabuse. Because I am a nerd. To narrow the definition I like video games,  computers, languages, science fiction, fantasy, board games, role playing, acting like I'm someone that I'm not, Ninja Turtles, and I took martial arts as a kid even though I'm a skinny weakling. I am a nerd.

Oh, I am a modern nerd to be sure. I love playing soccer, hiking, rock climbing, climbing trees, swimming, and the like. But I have to be honest, I think that nerds down the ages have enjoyed things outside of "nerd-dom" as well. Given the chance to play a cool new vidja game or go outside I would probably choose the game...it really depends on the day. I'm a nerd. I guess I'm not exactly a stereotypical nerd (I do fit nicely into some of the stereotypes and others slide by without even noticing me), but I don't think that most nerds are. And what's more,

"I think that everyone should nerd out about something."

I got that quote from one of my college professors when he caught me talking video games. I was finishing up undergrad with a fury at the time and I was married so I didn't do much socializing. I guess he was worried that I didn't have a passion. Good on him. Anyway, I'm a nerd.

So, now that the cat's out of the bag.

Now that that's out of the way I want to start up a series of posts that will draw some knowledge from my role playing, video gaming. These posts will come erratically, but will most likely share a similar title. I'll of course draw connections to writing, and you'll probably see quite a few other posts in between. Here are some of the wonderful topics you can expect me to nerd out about:

• Questing to be a better writer
• Adventures and Plotting
• The possibility space
• Leveling up
• Characters in a Book are not like Characters in W.O.W.
• Map drawing is fun
• Writing: A hero's journey

There is plenty of meat there for the nerd in all of us. But it's Friday, so go home and enjoy your weekend. Write every day, and be sure to nerd out about something.