sex warehouse

This 35-year-old Canadian seems to have started like most of us, in relative obscurity, being born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and growing up in Penticton, British Columbia. These are not necessarily hubs of artistic development in the country but then again, we all start somewhere. However the year 2000 was a watershed in Mr. Koyczan's career when he won first place in the National Poetry Slam in Providence, Rhode Island.

For those not quite in the know, let's cover some terminology. (Remember that the word "slam" means to criticise.) A "poetry slam" is a competition where poets read or recite usually original work and are then judged on a numeric scale. The judges may be previously selected members of the audience or possibly somebody of literary importance depending on the formality of the contest. While the performance centers on the poetry, costumes, props and acting may enter into the presentation which makes it more performance art than just a simple recitation. The National Poetry Slam is the mother of all slams occurring every year in early August in a different U.S. city. Note that a "book slam" is the same idea but where the content is part of a book or a short story.

In 2003, Koyczan formed a musical, spoken word trio called Tons of Fun University with fellow Canadian poet C. R. Avery and American poet Mike McGee which resulted in the 2005 album "The Them They're Talking About".

Koyczan published a collection of poems in 2005 called Visiting Hours (Amazon) which ended up on the lists Best Books of 2005 in the newspapers The Guardian of Britain and Canada's The Globe and Mail.

Canadian television documentary series Heart of a Poet featured Koyczan in a 2007 episode broadcast on Bravo! They write: Award-winning, spoken word sensation Shane Koyczan delivers his dynamic performance to a jam-packed house in Vancouver and proves his ranking as one of the top slam poets in the world. Koyczan is the winner of the U.S. National Poetry Slam, The Canadian Spoken Word Olympics, the CBC Poetry Face-Off, and author of ‘Visiting Hours’, published by Mother Press.

On February 12, 2010, Shane Koyczan performed at the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, British Columbia. He recited a variation of his poem We Are More which had been originally commissioned by the Canadian Tourism Commission for the Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill, Ottawa held on July 1st 2007. (A video of the poem is below in References section.)

I recently "ran across" a link to the following video. I had never heard of Shane Koyczan. I knew nothing of his work. However I discovered some things: slam poetry, recitation as performance art and Shane Koyczan. This man writes good words. He delivers them in a captivating manner. His presence on stage has a certain commanding quality as when he's there, you can't look away. I usually think of words as something I read. I had forgotten that words are also something I hear. I can read someone but I can also listen to someone and with the process of somebody actively presenting their words comes a different experience with a difference message or at least a different delivery of their message.


Uploaded by Bookslam on Jan 7, 2008
'Visiting Hours' by Shane Koyczan @ Book Slam
Canadian poet Shane Koyczan performing at Book Slam, London's best night of words and music.



Final Word
Poetry slam. Book slam. The spoken word. Who knew? Or had I forgotten?


References

Wikipedia: Shane Koyczan
Shane L. Koyczan (born 22 May 1976) is a Canadian poet and writer. Born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Koyczan grew up in Penticton, British Columbia. In 2000, he became the first Canadian to win the Individual Championship title at the US National Poetry Slam. Together with Mighty Mike McGee and C. R. Avery, he is the co-founder of spoken word, "talk rock" trio, Tons of Fun University (T.O.F.U.). In August 2007 Shane Koyczan and his work were the subject of an episode of the television documentary series Heart of a Poet, produced by Canadian filmmaker Maureen Judge for broadcaster Bravo!.

Wikipedia: National Poetry Slam
The National Poetry Slam (NPS) is a performance poetry competition where teams from across the United States, Canada, and France participate in a large-scale poetry slam. The event occurs in early August every year and takes place in a different US city.

Wikipedia: Poetry slam
A poetry slam is a competition at which poets read or recite original work (or, more rarely, that of others). These performances are then judged on a numeric scale by previously selected members of the audience.

Urban Dictionary: Slam book
[This is "slam book" as opposed to "book slam".]
A spiral notebook with the name of a jr. or sr. high girl (usually) written on the top line. The books is passed around among classmates who write nasty things (slam) on the page under the girl's name.

Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long
[This is a collection of "musical pieces", that is Shane speaking with musical accompaniment.]
Shane Koyczan and the Short Story Long are based in the interior of British Columbia. They have been creating a buzz since their start in 2006. The quartet is made up of Shane Koyczan (poet), Maiya Robbie (guitarist/vocalist), Stefan Bienz (bassist/vocalist) and Olivia Mennell (pianist/vocalist). While Shane is responsible for the moving poetry, the band moves right along with him, setting the tone and backdrop of energy that resonates. (Apt 613)

House of Parlance Media Inc.
House of Parlance is a new media company and trade book publisher inspired by literary and visual storytelling. We work with authors, writers, artists, illustrators and spoken word poets. From high-quality titles to electronic media, our works promote new connections between artists, authors, and their worldwide audiences.

Visiting Hours by Shane Koyczan
Visiting Hours is Shane’s incredibly well-received first collection, which was a Guardian and a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year.

Wikipedia: Tons of Fun University
Tons of Fun University is a musical, spoken word trio based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which formed in 2003. It consists of Canadian poets Shane Koyczan and C. R. Avery, and American poet Mighty Mike McGee.

Amazon: Visiting Hours by Shyane Koyczan
Paperback: 112 pages
Publisher: House of Parlance Media, Inc.; 3rd edition (September 1, 2005)
The first book of poetry published by internationally renowned spoken word performer, Shane Koyczan. Voted to *Best Books of 2005* lists in the Guardian (UK) and Globe and Mail newspapers.

The Vancouver Sun - Feb 7/2011
On stage: Feel the fear, do it anyway by Francois Marchand
Almost one year ago to the day, Shane Koyczan confronted an audience of millions. Taking centre stage at the Opening Ceremonies for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the slam poet stood by his lonesome to deliver his ode to being Canadian, We Are More, during an event televised worldwide.

Wikipedia: 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony
The Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics was held on February 12, 2010 beginning at 6:00 pm PST at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Shane Koyczan performed slam poetry, a variation on his "We Are More". Performers formed a giant maple leaf around Koyczan with red flares to end off his section.

Uploaded by canadiantourism on Feb 12, 2010
We Are More by Shane Koyczan
[There are videos of Koyczan's performance at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winters Games but the sound quality is such that it is sometimes hard to hear him. This video is a little more intimate and much easier to understand. By the way, I was going to include a transcript of the poem but discovered Koyczan keeps improvising a slightly different version each time he recites this. I will leave it to you the reader to listen carefully.]



Google video search: "Shane Koyczan"

2011-08-30

Site Map - William Quincy Belle

Follow me on Twitter

Is it the death knell for the book? - And here the word book infers the physical book printed on paper. Amazon began selling Kindle e-books in November 2007. In July 2010, the number of Kindle e-books sold surpassed the number of hardcover books. In December, 2010 Kindle e-books outsold paperback books. In May 2011, Amazon announces that its customers are purchasing more Kindle e-books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined. This is less than four years after the introduction of the Kindle.

On the other hand, is this news all that surprising? I certainly have noticed that my own reading habits have changed dramatically in the past five years. I would say that it has become rarer and rarer that I buy a book or a magazine. I am always reading on my computer. Granted, there are times like when I'm on vacation that I like to buy a few magazines because they're easier to read on the plane. Sitting pool side or on a beach just feels right with a paperback book. Other than that though, it's strictly computer.

I don't think I buy newspapers anymore. Everything I read is via the Internet and Google news has turned into my mainstay of up to date information from around the world. Considering the writing I've been doing, it is far easier to research on the Net then copy and paste stuff to complete an article. Not so easy with a newspaper, I mean a physical newspaper. Besides, on the Net I can read about an item from different papers and get a different perspective.

I have been studying some French off and on over the years. About 4 years ago, I purchased electronic copies of the dictionaries I use. Since then, I have not cracked any of my dictionaries; all my studying is done at the computer. Electronic means doing fast look-ups, copy and paste of information, and the cross-referencing of words with merely a mouse click. I had no idea how much time I had been wasting by the physical process of thumbing through the pages of a dictionary. Now, I type in the word I want and hit Enter. Bingo, I've got my answer.

Selection and Price
I visit the Kindle E-book store and I find 731,875 for the total number of titles found. As I scan down the sidebar, I see 24 categories such as Fiction with 235,253 titles, Nonfiction with 498,085, Romance with 44,345 and Science with 57,212. Heck, that's a lot of books!

Like a lot of people, I'm sure that anybody is going to hesitate, unsure of this newfangled thing. However, I mulled it over and decided hesitating was a little stupid. I buy a magazine, read it once, then either throw it away - Okay, I put it in recycling. I'm trying to be green. - or pass it on. That magazine could cost anywhere from five dollars to ten dollars. I slap down my money and don't think about. It's the same for a paperback novel. Why not do the same thing for an e-book?

I just checked. I can buy an electronic monthly subscription to Time Magazine for $2.99. That's four issues. I know the mag costs - what? - seven or eight bucks for a single copy? The New York Times, a monthly subscription, can be had for $27.99. That's one month of daily papers. E-books range from $0.99 to $2.99 to four, five, or six bucks. There are more expensive e-books, but likewise, Amazon has titles for free.

Just imagine. I would fork over seven or eight bucks to buy a copy of Time Magazine to read just once. I could have the same magazine in an electronic format for less than one dollar. Hey, who can argue with that? - Caveat! I read on Amazon: The Kindle Edition of Time contains most articles found in the print edition, but will not include all images. Okay, this is a reminder that the e-book, e-magazine, or e-edition of anything may not be 100% like the original.

Kindle E-book Reader
The Kindle device was created and is marketed by Amazon. Other publishers or book companies have come out with their own devices. Barnes & Noble offers the Nook. Chapters/Indigo in Canada uses the Kobo. Which one is better? Hard to say; my own experience is limited. However the one commonality which is an attractive feature is electronic paper.

Electronic paper
What the heck is this? Surprising enough, it's just that, it's sort of paper but - and here's the confusing part - it's electronic. We normally think of a computer screen. This device presents us stuff by emitting light. Paper on the other hand offers no light. We shine light on paper and it's the light or lack of light which we see. Electronic paper is similar. Instead of pixels turned off and on, physical bits are modified like individual pixels however these physical "bits" are just that, physical. In other words, the bit doesn't emit light, it reflects light and consequently is dependent on light being shone on it to show us something.

What this means is that e-paper uses electricity to physically re-arrange the bits - like pixels - but once that is done, no more electricity is required. Now think about this. If you take 10 minutes to read a page on your computer screen, you use 10 minutes of electricity as the screen has to glow during that time. With e-paper, you use electricity to set the page but during the 10 minutes you need to read the page, no more electricity is necessary.

Unlike a computer screen which becomes difficult to read in the sunlight, e-paper is reflecting light just like a piece of paper so you can read e-paper in the sunlight.

Kindle for PC
I do not own a Kindle. What I did was to download and install the Kindle software for the PC. I purchase an e-book on the Amazon site and it is automatically downloaded to my local hard drive and installed into the software. I discovered the installation folder is buried in the Users directory of Windows 7 and I must take the time to back up my e-books. I paid for them; I don't want to lose them!

Will I buy a Kindle? So far, my circumstances are such that I always have my laptop. I suppose that if this was not doable, investing in a Kindle would be a good idea. I've seen them and other e-readers and the concept seems good. Of course, not quite the traditional experience of holding onto paper and turning the pages, but who knows? Someday, there may be a generation which does even know books per se.

Self-Publishing
E-books or e-publishing could be a boon for budding authors. Rather than go the traditional route which may be fraught with rejection notices, an author can do most of the setup work themselves and merely use companies like Amazon to sell the electronic product on their web sites. Fame and fortune may not be so far away. Okay, I'm joking. You still have to market it and get people to buy it.

But there's hope. See my blog Writing: Amanda Hocking: indie author goes viral for a rather unbelievable story. This 26 year old woman wrote nine books in her spare time. In April 2010, she decided to try e-publishing them. From that point, she has said she never sold less than one thousand books a month and by the end of the year 2010, had sold a total of 185,000 e-books. According to reports, in January 2011 alone, she sold 450,000 copies of her titles through various electronic means including Amazon's Kindle. I do a rough calculation with the low number of 99 cents per copy with her keeping 30% and arrive at $133,650 in one month!!!

As a word of warning to those trying to get published, read over my blog Writing: authonomy.com for some notes about an electronic but more traditional method of publication. I would also recommend you read Dean Wesley Smith: Dean of Star Trek.

Final Word
Somebody pointed out to me that the New York Times list of Best Sellers now has the sections hardcover, paperback, and e-books. Is this a sign of the times?

My own habits are telling me that electronic publications are here to stay. There is no need to be wasting paper for a lot of material which is time sensitive like newspapers and magazines - you read it once - and reading it electronically over the Net makes a great deal of sense. Amazon's own sales numbers seem to indicate that the way of the future is here now.


References

Amazon: News Release - May 19/2011
Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Print Books
Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, Amazon introduced the revolutionary Kindle and began selling Kindle books. By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined.

Wikipedia: E-book
An electronic book (also e-book, ebook, digital book) is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines the e-book as "an electronic version of a printed book," but e-books can and do exist without any printed equivalent. E-books are usually read on dedicated hardware devices known as e-Readers or e-book devices. Personal computers and some cell phones can also be used to read e-books.

Wikipedia: Amazon Kindle
The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader developed by Amazon.com subsidiary Lab126 which uses wireless connectivity to enable users to shop for, download, browse, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and other digital media. The Kindle hardware devices use an E Ink electronic paper display that shows up to 16 shades of gray, minimizes power use and simulates reading on paper.

Wikipedia: Electronic paper
Electronic paper, e-paper and electronic ink are a range of display technologies which are designed to mimic the appearance of ordinary ink on paper. Unlike conventional backlit flat panel displays, electronic paper displays reflect light like ordinary paper. Many of the technologies can hold text and images indefinitely without using electricity, while allowing images to be changed later. Flexible electronic paper uses plastic substrates and plastic electronics for the display backplane.

Wikipedia: Comparison of e-book readers
An e-book reader, also called an e-book device or e-reader, is a portable electronic device that is designed primarily for the purpose of reading digital books and periodicals.

New York Times: Best Sellers
[Note that as well as hardcover and paperback, they now include "e-books" as a separate category.]

2011-05-20

Site Map - William Quincy Belle

Follow me on Twitter

I, probably like a lot of people, thought of writing as, well, writing a book. Of course, when I take a moment to mull it over, I realise that writing may entail poetry or short stories. However, I'm sticking in the realm of "art". Beyond that, I can find examples of all sorts of writing which fall within certain restrictions. Newspaper articles come to mind; journalists are writing and writing a lot. Now with the Internet, blogs have sprung up all over the place so even us average Joes can be penning god only knows what for the benefit of the masses. I've been a big fan of limericks and I know about but do not necessarily understand the Japanese poem known as Haiku. Recently, I ran into the drabble (see my blog Writing: Less is more: the drabble) which turns out to be a story exactly 100 words long. A drabble is a type of "flash fiction" and there are other forms of it like the "55 Fiction" or nanofiction clocking in at 55 words.

In other words, the creative spirit exists in all sorts of situations and I remark from the above that sometimes the addition of artificial or let's say self-imposed restrictions on form or length can add new challenges to the process of crafting an original literary opus.

Picture how much IM chat or Instant Messaging has affected all of us with the major restriction being typing in real time. You don't converse, you type. That physical limitation has lead to a plethora of imaginative short forms and symbols for the expression of all sorts of ideas. LOL, :-), i<3u; the list goes on and on. To the uninitiated, it all looks both foreign and sometimes silly but to anybody trying to expound on their innermost thoughts while two thumbing their message during a real time text conversation, every shortcut counts. *laughs*

By the way, one thing I found to be an interesting addition to IM chatting is that you can include actions or thoughts by enclosing them usually with asterisks. *laughs* means "he laughs" referring to me laughing. It's intriguing *raises eyebrow*, isn't it, to express yourself, your physical self *smiles* while typing. When I discovered this I couldn't help thinking that it is almost like writing a narrative in a book with speech and description but you're doing it as part of your IM chat.

Twitter, obviously, is another intriguing form of IM chat. Restricted to just 140 characters, we all have the creative task of fitting it all in, our message that is, into this self-imposed, no, Twitter imposed length. Once again, we all are learning the various ins and outs of modern acronyms. LOL.

Last November, I discovered that the film maker Tim Burton was doing an interesting experiment on Twitter. (see my blog Tim Burton's Online Twitter Story) He started a story by tweeting the first line. Subsequent tweets were submitted by users and the best one was chosen then the next line of the story was submitted and so on. The final story consisted of 88 tweets, each tweet being written by a different person. I noted that there is a parlour game called Consequences which has the similar idea of a group of individuals each contributing to a narrative. (see Tim Burton's Cadavre Exquis, all 88 tweets together as a story.

Surprise, surprise, it seems that Mr. Burton's experiment may have been new to me but the idea was certainly not new. Others have been using Twitter and all its 140 character glory to imaginatively work within this creative challenge to act out stories.

Star Voyage Online seems to be some sort of "play" where the individual players tweet their lines building the dialogue tweet by tweet and telling the story.

The Pesach Twitter Play recreates the Passover story on Twitter.

A year ago, a playwright by the name of Jeremy Gable tweeted his play The 15th Line.

Sean Hill tweets stories called very short stories. Yes, each "story" is 140 characters long. Or less I guess. His web site seems to offer an archive of his work.

The clown leaned in and kissed me, soft and slow. I learned things aren't as they appear & discovered beauty beneath my own flawed exterior. (May 12/2011)

Each new wrinkle was a mark of a lesson learned. The years had filled me with knowledge, but I sat alone, the young ones not seeing my value (May 11/2011)

Curious, eh? Just one line, 140 characters max, but somehow it does evoke an idea, an emotion, a feel for something.

Final Word
Set yourself some limitations. Now try to create something which respects the rules. It's interesting and sometimes amazing what people come up with when working within certain confines. This reminds me of visiting as Ripley's Believe or Not museum and seeing some sculpture of a building built entirely out of grains of rice. It was quite remarkable and certainly raised the question of why would anybody start out with such a restriction or rule in creating something artistic. Then again, maybe that rule or restriction is part of the art. Whatever the case, it does make me step back, take an admiring look, then say, "Wow."


References

Star Voyage Online
http://www.starvoyageonline.com/
[N.B. This web site was active a couple of months ago, but as of this writing has disappeared. Is the adventure over?]
Welcome to our Star Voyage Online concept page. We are a group of 11 actors and actresses that perform a daily science fiction galactic adventure on Twitter. Each actor or actress has their own page. All the pages together make up our story.

The pages are:

www.twitter.com/CaptainArgus

www.twitter.com/LunaCalypsus

www.twitter.com/KalKalesis

www.twitter.com/Drlysandra

www.twitter.com/Arzana

www.twitter.com/DemetriArgyros

www.twitter.com/Aargyros

www.twitter.com/Almcfadden

www.twitter.com/AndroidZeus

www.twitter.com/Glow1Kitty

www.twitter.com/AjPegasus

Our story has been running for a year now and we have overcome many perils and are in our 14th episode. Join us as we rebuild and populate Planet Arenta. A world that belonged to our ancestors but was lost in time for 12,000 years because of a malfunctioning time machine.If you missed our first episodes, you can read them in our magazine at http://www.openzine.com/starvoyage.

Pesacht Twitter Play

latest updates: Pesacht Twitter Passover Play

my blog: Tim Burton's Online Twitter Story

2011-05-15

Site Map - William Quincy Belle

Follow me on Twitter

Name not familiar? No bells ringing? Just who the heck is Dean Wesley Smith? This is a reminder that the world is a big place; there's a lot going on and the view from my window doesn't go much further than the end of my backyard.

Mr. Smith has written over 90 novels and in excess of 100 short stories. Known mainly as a science fiction writer, he has penned works for well known licensed properties such as Star Trek, Smallville, Spider-Man, X-Men, Aliens, Roswell, Men In Black, and Quantum Leap plus created original novels, such as The Tenth Planet series. Best known for his Star Trek novels, he has covered all five of the television series: the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. On his web site, he states that he has been making a living writing fiction for 20 years.

Is there any doubt this guy knows what he doing? This is a professional writer.


Explaining his craft: Killing The Sacred Cows of Publishing
On Smith's own web site, he gives us all a sneak peek at a new nonfiction book he is currently working on, called "Killing The Sacred Cows of Publishing". This is an interesting approach to putting a book together as he is creating the individual chapters as essays about his experiences in writing including the process of writing, working with agents, publishing, marketing, etc., that is, all aspects of becoming a published author from dream to reality. He states that his goal is to dispel the myths about writing and I can see that for anybody wanting further information about writing, this guy knows what he's doing.

As an aside, I couldn't help thinking of Stephen King's book On Writing. That was his opus dedicated to the craft and it was the master telling all of us what he's done over the years to make it work. And I think we can all agree that it does indeed work.

Chapter: Speed
For anybody plunking away at a snail's pace, for anybody overwhelmed by the seemingly gigantesque task of writing "a book", Mr. Smith clears the air of several myths while hauling out some basic math to make his case. Myth: writing slow equals writing well, or writing fast equals writing poorly. In setting aside this falsehood, he states his position that "no writer is the same and no project is the same" and goes on to say that "the quality of the final product has no relationship to the speed, method, or feeling of the writer while writing." Is this a telling statement or what? I'm sure anybody would be looking for some clear set of instructions, a demonstrable series of procedures with rules and guidelines when in reality, when it comes to creativity - or we could argue that it is a "craft"- there is no wrong or right way. At the end of the day, what counts are the results.

Smith brings out a little math to point out how slow and steady wins the race. His simple example is writing 250 words or one page a day. At the end of a year, you would have slightly over 90,000 words, about a normal paperback book. Of course, this doesn't take into account rewrites, but I think the point is made. Setting the goal of writing a book seems daunting, but setting the goal of writing 250 words seems quite doable. Slow and steady indeed. Especially steady.

In a blog elsewhere, Smith gave a further example of breaking the process down using math. Starting with the idea that a professional writer can do a thousand words in an hour or 4 pages, a 90,000 word novel represents 90 hours worth of work. Divide by 3 weeks to give 30 hours per week then divide by 7 days to give four and a half hours per day or 4,500 words per day. Is it at this point I slap my forehead saying, "Gee, it's that simple?" I have to point out not just the discipline but the ability to continuously "create". Repetitive work can sometimes be just shutting the brain off and letting the body repeat what it's doing. Sitting there trying to punch out something new? Thinking for the purposes of creating something can be tough.

I distinctly remember Stephen King's admission about this in his book On Writing. He apparently sets himself the goal of doing 2,000 words per day. This is less than Smith's last example but I remember King saying it takes him months to do a book, never mind the rewrites. But whatever the pace, both authors seem to underline the importance of steady. Slow and steady or fast and steady; the common word is steady. National Novel Writing Month (see NaNoWritMo: Write a novel in 1 month?) sets out the personal challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in November, a period of 30 days. That works out to be 1,667 words per day for 30 days in a row. Maybe that isn't quite so intimidating.

Chapter: Only 300 Writers Make a Living
In a nutshell, Smith's essay proves that the myth of only a small number of writers make a living by writing is completely unfounded. Once again, Smith goes beyond his opinion to offer up some numbers which more than prove his stance. He cites a report on book publishing from 2009 stating that over 76,000 new titles were released by normal publishers. This equates to over 210 books a day, every day for the entire year. The easy conclusion he arrives at is that there is no way that only 300 writers could write all those books. There are a lot more than 300 people doing all that writing. Does this give a glimmer of hope to any other budding artist out there? A little surfing around the Internet and you realise there is a lot going on in the world, and I do mean a lot. And that includes running across I don't know how many official web sites of various writers who have made themselves an on-line presence to market their product.

Chapter: Writing is Hard
Smith is dispelling a myth in this essay and with tongue in cheek tells us how a fiction writer is paid to sit in a chair and make stuff up. That, in a way, sounds like an amusing take on the process and it is obvious that Smith enjoys his work and is having a good time "working". As I've said elsewhere, all of us should be so lucky to have a job that we like doing. When you "like" or "enjoy" your work, it stops being work per se, and you start having, for lack of a better word, fun. Digging a ditch, that sounds like work, but writing? Smith is having a grand old time!

Fortunately, he does point out the serious nature of getting started

Discipline is hard. Just carving out time to write is hard. Really hard, actually. Especially in the early years when the feedback loop is so negative. Simply finding time to get to the computer is hard when day job, kids, and bills get in the way. That’s hard and very hard work. The fun starts when you get to the chair with some time ahead, but getting there is hard work early on.

I've heard it said that writing is a lonely occupation. Smith is certainly right in that how can any of us continue to do anything if we have no feedback?

There are more chapters
Smith doesn't leave any rocks unturned. I scan down the list of chapters and see various topics like Self-Promotion, No Money in Writing Fiction, Writers Don't Need to Practice, Agents and Contracts, etc. I count 34 chapters or topics and since each one represents two, three or four thousand words, Smith has already a substantial amount of material. A quick calculation tells me he already has over 70,000 words, more than enough for a good sized book.

New World of Publishing
Like his Sacred Cows work, Smith has written a number of essays which he plans on putting together as a book at some point. The series, The New World of Publishing represents his take on how traditional publishing is undergoing a radical change with the arrival of "electronic publishing". It would seem that the tried and true of thumbing through the physical pages of a book is giving way to touching a screen for "Next Page".

I enjoyed Smith's joke in the introduction when he refers to being on an electronic bestseller list in 2000 and having an editor saying this was like being the best hockey player in Ecuador. The idea was that electronic publishing was insignificant.

Smith has certainly changed his mind and realises that the world is changing and changing quickly but categorically states that nobody knows where this is headed. While traditional publishing will not go away, thanks to the Internet and devices like Amazon's Kindle, authors will have alternatives to paper copy sold through the normal channels.

I don't know if Mr. Smith is aware of Amanda Hocking but I would direct anybody reading this to my blog Amanda Hocking: Indie author goes viral. This 26 year old woman has about 9 titles under her belt that she started e-publishing in April 2010 and according to reports, in January 2011 alone, she sold 450,000 copies of her titles through various electronic means including Amazon's Kindle. Obviously this is the exception to the rule but it underlines the potential of an individual author getting to market directly and by-passing a publishing house.

Dare to Be Bad
Smith's message is quite simple: It takes a lot more courage to write and mail something than it does to not write, or write and not mail. He goes on to expound on writing and pushing ahead rather than getting stuck on wanting to be perfect and possibly never getting anything finished. For seven years my fixing and polishing had gotten few stories written and finished and no sales. Mailing first drafts got me a career. “Daring to be Bad” got me a career, such as it is. “Daring to be Bad” has paid the bills for over two decades.

I have to smile at Smith talking about editors and bad writing. He says editors rarely remember the name of a bad writer so the risk one takes in mailing a manuscript is minimal. - Keep in mind Smith has also been an editor. He knows! - But mailing the manuscript is the important first step. Is this akin to the idea that you have to buy a lottery ticket in order to win the lottery? You have to mail the manuscript if you want an editor to (possibly) read it? This reminds me of my wife's favourite saying: If you throw enough Jell-O, eventually some of it will stick to the wall. An amusing metaphor but it seems that it all comes down to wanting to succeed.

In my blog Writing: James Patterson, I quote a Time article of July 2010, 10 Questions for James Patterson:

Q: What do you say to critics like author Stephen King who say you are not a great prose stylist?

A: I am not a great prose stylist. I'm a storyteller. There are thousands of people who don't like what I do. Fortunately, there are millions who do.

Not everyone can be Shakespeare, meaning a lauded writer who is held in high esteem by his peers, never mind the public. Smith says that a lot can make a living and a good one at that. Yes, writing can be art but there is nothing wrong with craft.

Final Word
Somebody pointed me to the Sacred Cows work but admittedly, I had no idea who Dean Wesley Smith was. I am now walking away quite impressed. This name may not be as well known in the eyes of the general public as a Stephen King, but let's face it, being well known does not in any way diminish the achievement of the person in question. It's a big world out there and there are a lot of things we know nothing about.

Dean Wesley Smith has been writing for a living for the past 20 years. His web site and his online collected essays offer anybody an interesting take on the process of writing and publishing with some excellent advice from somebody who has been there and done that. The voice of experience is worth its weight in gold to anybody in need of some solid advice.

Mr. Smith is a professional. He's done it; he's doing it. I am sure that unlike anybody else starting out in the game of writing, he knows exactly what he has to do to get the job done: self-knowledge, confidence, personal discipline. Technically, anybody should be able to do it, but not everybody does. I'm repeating myself but I see here in Mr. Smith what I saw with Stephen King in his book On Writing. I saw it in the writer Holly Lisle and in the indie Amanda Hocking. It may seem like a trite thing to say when one may be facing the daunting task of writing (Or doing anything for that matter!), but I somehow think that the sports company Nike managed to successfully distill the essence of the challenge in their three word slogan: Just do it!


References

Wikipedia: Dean Wesley Smith

official web site: Dean Wesley Smith

Facebook: Dean Wesley Smith

Twitter: DeanWesleySmith

Dean Wesley Smith has written the following Star Trek books

The Creative Penn - Oct 10/2010
New World of Publishing and Making Money as a Fiction Author with Dean Wesley Smith
In this interview excerpt, bestselling author of over 90 novels, Dean Wesley Smith explains the new world of publishing, a different way for authors to submit to publishing houses, and how fiction authors can make a lot of money with "the magic bakery". The full interview is available as a podcast from http://www.thecreativepenn.com/podcasts/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDLf1PEm5E4

Writing Fast Equals Writing Better by Dean Wesley Smith

2011-03-09

Site Map - William Quincy Belle

Follow me on Twitter

Saturday's Globe and Mail (Feb 12/2011) ran an article by Elio Iannacci with the intriguing title, "What women want: Gay male romance novels". What? They do? Is this the explanation behind the phenomenal success of Brokeback Mountain?

Mr. Iannacci explains surprisingly enough that not only is the "m/m" genre growing in popularity as evidenced by Amazon's Kindle increasing the number of titles offered and Harlequin starting to publish same-sex stories, the genre's top fans are straight, married women. But now for even more surprises, some of the top authors of this kind of romance are heterosexual females. Heidi Cullinan from Iowa is a heterosexual 37 year old suburban mother of 2 who has several popular gay romance and homoerotic titles to her name. Erastes is the penname of a heterosexual 47 year old woman from Norfolk, U.K. (married 15 years) who specializes in "gay historical fiction". Alex Beecroft, a heterosexual 45-year-old Irish mother of two from Cambridge, England writes gay romance.

Okay, back up here. I need a recap. [I stare at the ceiling perplexed] These are straight women writing stories about the romances of gay men for an audience of straight women. [said slowly] O... kay... So, just what is the attraction for a woman? Dr. Sarah S. G. Franz (Ph.D. in English) explains:

...romances are actually about watching the hero figure out and confess his feelings, if they're about watching him move from the "masculine economy of use" to the "feminine economy of exchange," then watching TWO men have to figure it out for and with each other is more than twice as wonderful as watching one man figure it out for and with a woman.

Dr. Franz goes on:

If women are attracted to romances to watch the men realize that they can't survive without love... Because it's much more impressive to make the rake, the asshole, the user, fall in love than to make the nice guy fall in love. If the one man who refuses to admit that love exists ... can be seen to be emotionally vulnerable, then causing or watching that vulnerability gives a female reader/viewer power over everything that user, that alpha male, represents. A friend of mine recently wrote on her blog: "I want to take a man who doesn't express love and inspire him to express it to *me*."

Slash Fiction
Where did all this come from? According to Lambda Literary, Josh Layon, author of the popular Adrien English M/M mystery series, says the antecedents of M/M romance lie in fan or slash fiction which is dominated by women.

"Fan fiction" refers to stories written by fans of an original work. This could be Star Trek or Star Wars or even Harry Potter. "Slash fiction" is type of fan fiction but involves romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex. (Female characters are sometimes called femslash) It seems the very first of this type of story involved Captain Kirk and Spock of the original Star Trek; the slash referring to Kirk/Spock.

Layon explains that men have never been a huge part of slash fandom. He also explains that in part, in the same way men may fantasize about lesbians, there is a part of women fantasizing about men. However, he stresses that the romantic aspect of the story is important. Yes, some of this writing is erotica, some of it is even more graphic, but there is the romance and it is this part of the story which is a great deal of importance to the female reader.

Romance / Erotica / Graphic
It would seem the M/M genre spans the spectrum of sexual explicitness. Romance is a big factor in the stories which, as Dr. Franz pointed out, jibs with the female view but that doesn't mean the more earthly expressions of said love do not come into play. Writer P. A. Brown, author of LA Heat and others in the popular M/M crime series is a mother. Nevertheless, she writes realistically and says for research, "I do watch gay porn. I guess I watch it to get the sex right, but I also have to confess I enjoy it."

Is this just a niche?
I suppose. But then again, if you're unfamiliar with something, it always looks like a niche, like it is not part of my mainstream. I just went to Chapters/Indigo and typed in the three authors from the Globe and Mail article. I searched on Heidi Cullinan and found 5 titles offered as ebooks. Erastes returned four titles, one ebook and three books while Alex Beecroft shows 5 titles, one ebook and four books. You may say "niche" but there they are, offered by a mainstream book seller. Is that not an acknowledgement of just how much more mainstream this phenomenon may be?

Just imagine this. "eHow" (from Wikipedia) is an online how-to guide with more than 1 million articles and 170,000 videos offering step-by-step instructions. The web site offers the article "How to Write Gay Romance When You're a Woman" by Regina Paul which describes how to break into this genre of romantic writing. - Hey! How much more mainstream can you get? - I note point number four and its important guidance for all would-be writers:

When you begin writing, it is important not to focus so much on the sex, meaning that your story should have an actual plot and be an actual romance rather than straight erotica. There is a big difference between erotica and erotic romance, and this can be where women excel in the arena of writing gay romance. The more you share with readers the emotions of your characters, the more potential to be successful there is.

Final Word
Wow. [I'm shaking my head] I live a sheltered life; I had no idea this was going on: M/M romance written by women for women. I am amused to see that while old fashioned romances slash erotica novels are called "bodice rippers", somebody has jokingly referred to M/M romances as "zipper rippers".

An odd thought comes to mind. I have ofttimes heard it said that men are the users of porn; the unsaid inference being that women are not users of porn. Somehow that may give one the impression that women are not sexual creatures or not as sexual as men. Is this true? Or could it be that the sexuality of women is different, comes out in other ways, ways which might not be as obvious as it is for men? It is curious how men are considered to be visual while women are thought to be cerebral. Could it be that for a woman, reading about it is more satisfying than just seeing it?

I had no idea that women were enjoying M/M romance. And if I can refer to that famous episode of Seinfeld about homosexuality, "Not that there is anything wrong with that."


References

The Globe and Mail - Feb 11/2011
What women want: Gay male romance novels by Elio Iannacci

Wikipedia: Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film that depicts the complex romantic and sexual relationship between two men in the American West from 1963 to 1983. The film was directed by Taiwanese American director Ang Lee from a screenplay by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry, which they adapted from the short story "Brokeback Mountain" by Annie Proulx. The film stars Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, and Michelle Williams.

Budget: $14 million; Gross: $178 million

official web site Heidi Cullinan

Wikipedia: Alex Beecroft
Alex Beecroft is an English author best known for historical fiction, notably Age of Sail, featuring gay characters and romantic storylines. Her novels and shorter works include paranormal, fantasy, and contemporary fiction.

Beecroft won Linden Bay Romance's (now Samhain Publishing) Starlight Writing Competition in 2007 with her first novel, Captain’s Surrender, making it her first published book. On the subject of writing gay romance, Beecroft has appeared in the Charleston City Paper, LA Weekly, the New Haven Advocate, the Baltimore City Paper, and The Other Paper. She is a regular reviewer for the blog Speak Its Name, which highlights historical gay fiction.

official web site: Alex Beecroft

Wikipedia: Erastes
Erastes is the penname of a female author who lives in Norfolk, UK. She drew her inspiration to write historical fiction from works such as Gaywyck by Vincent Virga and the novels of Mary Renault. Erastes is the Director of the Erotic Authors Association and a member of the Historical Novel Society. She is the moderator of Speak Its Name, an influential blog dedicated to gay historical fiction.

official web site: Erastes

Teach Me Tonight - July 10, 2006
Alpha male syndrome by Dr. Sarah S. G. Franz (Ph.D. in English)

Baltimore City Paper - June 17/2009
Zipper Rippers By Heather Harris
Women write gay male romance novels for women
The romance novel, a static and predictable genre, is undergoing an evolution of sorts: storylines written by straight women for straight women . . . about gay men. Gay men are allowed to read them, of course--there's no gender ID check. But the authors want the books shelved with romance novels, not gay literature, and they are straight women writing the stories that they would want to read. Alex Beecroft, the author of False Colors, an "m/m romance" set in the mid-18th century British navy, doesn't see what the big deal is. "Whether your romance is m/f or m/m, love is the same," she writes in an e-mail from her home in England, "two people, heart and soul, fighting for something beautiful, something worth fighting for." Yes, but is it really a romance novel if there's not a heaving bosom?

eHow
How to Write Gay Romance When You're a Woman By Regina Paul

Lambda Literary - June 8, 2010
Straight Women/Gay Romance by Dick Smart

Wikipedia: Josh Lanyon
Josh Lanyon is an American writer of LGBT [LGBT = Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender: or GLBT] mystery and adventure fiction, usually with a strong romantic subplot.

Over the past decade Lanyon has written numerous novels, novellas and short stories as well as the non-fiction writing guide Man, Oh Man! Writing M/M Fiction for Kinks and Ca$h. He is the author of the Holmes & Moriarity comic mysteries as well as the Adrien English mystery novels, including The Hell You Say, winner of the 2006 USABookNews awards for GLBT [LGBT or GLBT] fiction.

official web site: Josh Lanyon

Wikipedia: Slash fiction
Slash fiction is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on the depiction of romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex. While the term was originally restricted to stories in which male media characters were involved in an explicit adult relationship as a primary plot element, it is now often used to refer to any fan story containing a pairing between same-sex characters, although many fans distinguish the female-focused variety as a separate genre commonly referred to as femslash. The characters are usually not engaged in such relationships in their respective fictional universes.

2011-03-07

Site Map - William Quincy Belle

Follow me on Twitter

You start reading about somebody and your eyes just start getting bigger as your lips form the words, "Good Lord!" The Huffington Post used the word "wunderkind" and at the age of 26, this literary dynamo seems to be very much deserving of such an appellation.

Amanda was born in 1984, just your normal girl from Austin, Minnesota. However, over the years, she has apparently written over a dozen novels, all unpublished. She got the idea of self-publishing her work and started in April 2010. Huffington quotes Amanda as saying, "As of Tuesday, January 04, 2011 at 9 PM, I've sold over 185,000 books since April 15, 2010." She states that she started with Kindle in April 2010 and has not sold less than 1,000 copies per month since May 2010. The newspaper USA Today, Feb 9/2011, states that in January 2011 alone, Amanda's 9 published titles sold 450,000 copies, 99% of which were eBooks.

What!?!

While Amanda has apparently gotten some deals about print, all of these sales are eBooks done mostly through Amazon and their Kindle program. USA Today details the math:

For every $2.99 book she sells, she keeps 70%, with the rest going to the online bookseller. For every 99-cent book she sells, she keeps 30%.

She apparently worked until August 2010, the first time she earned enough from writing so that she didn't need to work anymore. In Huffington, Amanda explained how she worked full-time in group homes for people with disabilities for the past five and a half years; the majority of her writing being done then. I look at the USA Today number of 450,000 for January 2011 and calculate with the low number of 99 cents per copy with her keeping 30%. That works out to be $133,650 in one month!!! Has your jaw dropped? Mine sure has!

What is she writing about?
Just what could be so popular? USA Today used the expression "young-adult paranormal" novels. The Austin Daily Herald added that Amanda writes about anything from vampires to trolls to witches and zombies. Ah, so that's what "paranormal" means. Her Amazon profile classifies her as writing "young adult urban fantasy and paranormal romance" and mentioning "her vampire series" and a book Hollowland, "an urban fantasy with zombies and a hint of romance". Obviously I'm completely out of touch with the marketplace. I know that Twilight is hot stuff and all things vampire-ish so it seems that Ms. Hocking has tapped into - excuse my little joke - whatever thirst there is for this sort of subject matter.

Editing
Being an indie, an independent writer and publisher means that you have to do everything yourself. Unfortunately, that also means you don't get the benefit of another set of eyes. How many times have I read my own stuff and not seen a typo, a grammatical error or a sentence structure which is so convoluted I can't imagine how anybody would get what I was trying to say? Yes, another set of eyes can reveal things any author would miss.

Huffington asks Amanda how she handles editing her own work.

I'll be honest - when I first started publishing in April, I thought my editing was fine. The first book I published - My Blood Approves - had been read by me about fifty times and also read and edited by about twenty other people. So I thought that all the grammar errors would be taken care of. But I was wrong.
Since then, I've tried to utilize beta readers and hire people. But so far, people are still finding errors. It's not from lack of effort on my part, though.

I am now looking for a professional editor - as in the kind I would get if my book were to go through a publishing house. What I find most frustrating about editing and being indie is that everything else I can do myself. Writing, covers, marketing, etc. But I cannot edit properly myself. It's just not possible.

Do it yourself means you can by-pass all the normal channels. While I'm sure this is good for those creative wunderkinds out there, what about for the rest of us mere mortals? In cruising around the Net and checking out various web sites dedicated to some sort of self-publication (see my blog Writing: authonomy.com), the majority of writers do not get published. Amanda Hocking seems to be an exception to the rule. Amanda Leduc, a published author herself, talks about Hocking and wonders about the absence of an editor in the publishing process as being a good thing in the long run. Her talk of a lack of editor echoes John Barber of the Globe and Mail who looks over the Canadian publishing scene and makes notes of the changes in how editing is or is not done.

Ms. Leduc writes:
Years ago, in one of my university classes, we had a discussion about a prominent Indian novelist and how the quality of his writing had decreased with his fame.  “He doesn’t listen to his editors as much now,” my instructor said, “because his name is enough to sell the books.”  This has also, apparently, been the case with Anne Rice in recent years.  Or so sayeth Amazon.  “I fought a great battle to achieve a status where I did not have to put up with editors making demands on me, and I will never relinquish that status.”  End quote, merci beaucoup Ms. Rice.

The point:  editors are an important part of the writing process.  I don’t care what anybody says.  Writing starts as a solitary activity, but if you’re writing for publication sooner or later that activity becomes collaborative.  Sooner or later, you have to take into account what your editors are saying.  Because if you don’t, the chances are very good that your book will end up being not quite as fantastic as it could be, the authors showcased above being a pressing case in point.

Indie Authors: the alternate way of publishing
USA Today gives other examples of successful indie authors:

H.P. Mallory, another self-published paranormal e-novelist, has sold 70,000 copies of her e-books since July. Her success caught the attention of traditional publisher Random House, with whom she just signed a three-book contract. "Selling e-books on Kindle and Barnesandnoble.com basically changed my life," Mallory says. "I never would have gotten where I am today if I hadn't."

Novelist J.A. Konrath, who has sold more than 100,000 self-published e-books, gets more than 1 million hits a year on his blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing (jakonrath.blogspot.com). His novel, Shaken, hit No. 9 on the Kindle list last year.

Final Word
Is Amanda Hocking a good writer or a bad one? Are her books a quality product or not? With sales numbers like she's having, who cares? In my blog Writing: James Patterson, I quote a Time article of July 2010, 10 Questions for James Patterson:

Q: What do you say to critics like author Stephen King who say you are not a great prose stylist?

A: I am not a great prose stylist. I'm a storyteller. There are thousands of people who don't like what I do. Fortunately, there are millions who do.

I have to chuckle. No matter what anybody says about Amanda Hocking, you can't argue with her success. Yes, I suppose it's a fluke - after all, not everybody succeeds at writing - but she has managed to tap into some vein of popular culture and good for her.

But the final point here is that Amanda writes. She wrote her books and when the time came to publish, she had a book; she had several books to publish. Admittedly, her books just happened to tap into this popular taste for all things vampire, zombie and things which go bump in the night, however the point is that she was prepared when the opportunity came a knockin'.

Lucky? Yes, Ms. Hocking is lucky. But also, I would direct you to Luck: Preparation meets opportunity. You have to write. You have to write a lot. Then you should probably write some more. Then when the moment arrives; when you get your chance to publish, you'll be ready: you'll have a book.


References

Amanda Hocking on KTTC- eBook eVolution - Feb 4/2011
Amanda Hocking discusses her success.


Wikipedia: Amanda Hocking

official web site: Amanda Hocking
If you're a publisher or interested in talking about foreign, film, audio rights and what not, you can contact my agent Steven Axelrod at the Axelrod Agency.

Twitter: Amanda Hocking
Amanda Hocking
@amanda_hocking Austin, Minnesota
Obsessive tweeter. John Hughes mourner. Unicorn enthusiast. Fraggin Aarvarks guitarist. Muppet activist. Author of the Trylle Trilogy & My Blood Approves series

The Huffington Post - Jan 5/2011
Meet Mega Bestselling Indie Heroine Amanda Hocking by Tonya Plank

NovelR - Feb 27/2011
The Very Rich Indie Writer
Amanda Hocking is 26 years old. She has 9 self-published books to her name, and sells 100,000+ copies of those ebooks per month. She has never been traditionally published. This is her blog. And it’s no stretch to say – at $3 per book1/70% per sale for the Kindle store – that she makes a lot of money from her monthly book sales. (Perhaps more importantly: a publisher on the private Reading2.0 mailing list has said, to effect: there is no traditional publisher in the world right now that can offer Amanda Hocking terms that are better than what she’s currently getting, right now on the Kindle store, all on her own.)

Amanda Leduc - March 1/2011
The Anchovy Who Made Millions

The New York Times - Jun 17/2011
Storyseller by Strawberyy Saroyan
Hocking’s deal with St. Martin’s was announced: $2 million for her next four books, a series she’s calling “Watersong.”

2011-03-02

Site Map - William Quincy Belle

Follow me on Twitter

I was cruising around the Internet and ran across a comment on a blog. The author gave the URL to a book he had apparently written asking the blogger, or anybody else I guess, to have a look. He then added, "Also, it would help me to go up in the rating system if any of my friends would register and click on the link to "back" my book." Rating system? Back his book?

I clicked into his link and ended up at "authonomy from HarperCollins". I recognised the name HarperCollins as a famous publishing company but didn't understand what the site was.

authonomy.com
According to Wikipedia, this HarperCollins web site has the commercial aim to unearth new talent. Users sign up (no cost) and post all or part their manuscripts but must make at least ten thousand words available. From there, readers can "back" a book or recommend it and those recommendations determine its ranking. According to the FAQ, once a month, the top five books are passed on to the desks of an editorial board (the E.D. or Editor's Desk) who will read "at least 10,000 words" then give feedback on the author's authonomy profile.

It all sounds promising but just what talented writers have the site and this digital approval system unearthed? The most recent information I can find is the same as Wikipedia's which dates from September 2009. Writer's Digest has an interview with an editor at HarperCollins who talks of three specific titles I have never heard of, speaks vaguely of another 20 then states they don't know precisely because so many agents are using the site. Hmmm, that doesn't sound so promising.

The Wikipedia article on the site has this caveat: Critics of authonomy have labelled it as a “do-it-yourself slush pile” and argue that the recommendation mechanisms for a book making it to the top of this pile for editorial appraisal are problematic. Slush pile?

Slush pile
This term refers to the unsolicited manuscripts a publisher receives either from authors or agents. I have to smile thinking of the negative connotation evoked by the word and its probable origin. I am trying to imagine how many bad if not god-awful books have crossed the desks of editors over the years which gave birth to this word.

Apparently the job of sifting through the slush pile goes to young assistants-to-the-editors (or publisher's reader or first reader). If they find something interesting, they pass it on to their boss. It is noted that while publishers do not accept officially unsolicited works, they supposedly try to have a brief look out of fear of missing the next bestseller.

Criticism #1
Mary W. Walters is a free-lance writer and editor who currently has two novels under her belt plus numerous other efforts which have merited some awards. In 2009, she chronicled her experiences with the web site authonomy and the process of seeking that elusive entrance to the HarperCollins editorial office.

Ms. Walters concludes that the site is not about excellence in writing, it is about becoming as popular as possible as quickly as possible. Detailing the review process, she explains how getting her book recommended involved spending inordinate amounts of time and effort reviewing other books, talking with people and in general, attempting to make contacts and friends who could possibly "back" her own work. After six months, she realised she had little or no chance of ever getting her work ranked well enough to be in the top five which would merit a look by an editor.

Her recounting of these experiences should be a must read for anybody thinking of autonomy.com as a means to being published. Her assessments of the "backing" process are insightful and clearly show the pitfalls of the road ahead for anybody uploading their literary effort. In other words, the entire process of authonomy seems to be more of a crap shoot than a legitimate way of going about being published.

Criticism #2
Catherine Chisnell seems to have come at authonomy from a different angle. She recognised that making it to the editor's desk was next to impossible but felt the feedback and the constructive criticism made using the site worthwhile. She did point out, as Ms. Walters did above, that the process of getting one's book ranked involves so much time and effort that it ends up distracting from what a writer is supposed to be doing: writing.

In summary: how to write
Catherine Chisnell offers some tips:

1. Practise writing for an audience. Anywhere will do, it doesn't have to be a fan fiction site, but you get the most support on those.
   Earlier in her article, Ms. Chisnell talks about writing "fan fiction" as a means to practise writing and getting feedback.
2. Write a book you want to write, not what you think will sell. Any subject and any length.
3. Get some valuable constructive criticism from objective authors (e.g. Authonomy, YouWriteOn).
4. Find a publisher who wants original writing (e.g. Night Reading, Slush Pile Reader).
5. Publish your book on an e-book site as well (e.g. Smashwords, Lebrary)

Final Word
At first glance, authonomy seems like another site dedicated to helping one get published and for any budding writer who is looking for an outlet for those creative juices; this may seem like the way to go. However, Ms. Walters' dissection of the process and enumeration of the steps emphasize how the goal of making it to the "editor's desk" can turn into a full-time gig never mind trying to write. Yes, any author would like to see their name on the New York Times bestseller list, but is authonomy nothing more than a "self-serve slush pile" which doesn't necessarily hold the brass ring?

I am reminded of Stephen King's book On Writing (see my review) in which the author talks about his craft. I suspected before reading the book that writing is about writing. That may seem flippant but what I mean is that writers don't necessarily talk about writing; they write. They don't necessarily take classes about writing; they write. I quote from his book:

By the time I was fourteen … the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and kept on writing.

He further emphasizes what it's all about:

Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well.

In the section of his book where he gives out his tips on the craft, he advises that anybody writing should not care what others think. You have to write what you know; you have to write what you feel is important and you can't spend a lot of time listening to your critics. Writers write and nobody should distract you from that goal.

Now, anybody would at this point mention feedback as being an important part of the creative process. Here's another interesting tip from Mr. King:

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.

Hmmm, this does seem self-explanatory. Musicians listen to the music of others, sports athletes watch their competition; what better way to learn about any subject than by studying what others are doing in that field of endeavour. Look at your peers (read) and practise (write).

I can't help thinking of the slogan from Nike: Just do it!


References

Wikipedia: authonomy
authonomy is a website owned and operated by HarperCollins, designed with a commercial aim in mind: to unearth new talent. authonomy solicits submissions from unpublished and self published authors...
The site does represent a significant break with the way in which manuscripts are traditionally sourced by publishers.

authonomy from HarperCollins

Wikipedia: HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The company publishes under many different imprints, and publishes the Collins English Dictionary.


Wikipedia: Slush pile
In publishing, the slush pile is the set of unsolicited manuscripts either sent directly to the publisher by authors, or sent through an agent not known to the publisher.


authonomy: One writer’s experience by Mary W. Walters - Aug 1/2009
authonomy is not about excellence in writing. It is about becoming as popular as possible as quickly as possible. As a result, and ironically, rather than a supportive writing community authonomy can often seem to be a dog-eat-dog arena where you can’t trust a soul. Those who aren’t showering you with false praise are slamming you for your reviewing tactics.


How to get your book published by Catherine Chisnell - July 16/2010
Next, you need to get some good constructive criticism. The best place for this, I found, was Authonomy (www.authonomy.com)
...
However, I valued the constructive criticism more and didn't try to get to the E.D.
...
However, the drawback with Authonomy is that there are hundreds if not thousands of books. It takes authors months to reach the E.D. and I just didn't have time to spend on it.


Publetariat
Publetariat is an online community and news hub built specifically for indie authors and small, independent imprints.


Wikipedia: YouWriteOn
YouWriteOn was launched in January 2006 as a scheme to help new writers get published. It is sponsored by the Arts Council of England.

Members of the site upload the opening chapters of their novels to be peer reviewed and rated based on a variety of criteria: character, plot, pace & structure, use of language, narrative voice, dialogue, setting, theme and ideas.

On the first day of each month the five highest rated chapters receive a free professional critique. The best are then forwarded to the London agencies Curtis Brown (literary agents) and Christopher Little (JK Rowling’s agent). Due to the success of the YouWriteOn, various other organizations have set up similar sites along the same lines, most notably the publisher HarperCollins which is launching their own version – authonomy.com – in 2008.

YouWriteOn.Com: official web site

Mary W. Walters: bio
Mary W. Walters has been a freelance writer and editor for more than 25 years. She has also worked as awards facilitator at the University of Saskatchewan, executive director of the Writers Guild of Alberta, and editor in chief at Lone Pine Publishing. In addition to Write an Effective Funding Application: A Guide for Researchers and Scholars (The Johns Hopkins University Press), she has published two novels — The Woman Upstairs (NeWest Press) and Bitters (NeWest) — and a collection of short stories (Cool, River Books).

2011-03-01

Site Map - William Quincy Belle

Follow me on Twitter

In discovering National Novel Writing Month (see NaNoWriMo: Write a novel in 1 month?), I found out about many people who have given themselves an amazing goal and successfully carried through with what seems to be a daunting challenge. Yes, there are many like myself who write a few hundred words, possibly a thousand, for the occasional blog posting however this is an endeavour of a limited scale in comparison with the task of fashioning an entire book. Imagine the greats who are on the bestseller lists, who seem to be constantly churning out not just books, but publicly acclaimed books. Where could any one of us who has never undertaken such a project possibly start? I think of that classical scenario of somebody or another who is known in the context of a job or a career but has this unfinished novel sitting in a bureau drawer that they have just never gotten around to finishing.

These past holidays, I amused myself by reading some blogs about resolutions for New Year's when I ran across one Holly Lisle. In her entry entitled "What My New Year’s Resolution Means For You", she wrote

The path that brought me to this moment started exactly 25 years ago today, when in my diary I wrote, “Before I turn 25, I want to write a book.”

25 years later, I’ve written 33 novels (plus one I did anonymously as work for hire), am working on a couple more, and intend to keep writing novels as long as I live.

Wow. That's pretty impressive. Before I turn 25. Heck, I don't remember ever saying such a thing to myself. Are there other people who make such declarations but then actually follow through on them? I always joke at New Year's by saying my resolution is to quit smoking. The joke is that I don't smoke but add that I like to start with something simple and work my way up.

So, just who is Holly Lisle? According to Wikipedia:
Holly Lisle (born 1960) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, paranormal romance and romantic suspense novels. She is also known for her work in educating writers, including her e-book Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love And Money, the Forward Motion Writers' Community web site, and her novel writing course How to Think Sideways.

Helping Writers
Her web site is not just about advertising her work that is selling her books, but offers help to other writers. As she says, "I make a full-time living from writing. I know a lot of writers who would like to do the same. So I've written over 100,000 words -- all of it available for free in the linked articles to your left-- on how I do what I do."

I glance down a column called FAQ and see topics on publishing, literary agents, How To Write, editors, money and more. She has put together courses on topics related to writing a novel like character creation, plots, language, culture and "page-turning scenes". A list of "How To's" shows Quit your day job, format a manuscript, start a novel, create a character, finish a novel and steal ideas. Hmmm, steal ideas; now, that needs a little perusing.

How To (Legally and Ethically) Steal Ideas
I thought to take a look at this article since it seemed both humorous and nefarious. However there is nothing really underhanded about this at all. Painters, musicians and yes, even writers look at what others do. It can be a source of inspiration and a source of ideas but Holly points out quite rightly the difference, the big difference between borrowing an idea and plagiarizing. As she puts it, "Only steal the gem -- don't steal the whole crown."

In mulling this over, this advice seems to be reminiscent of Stephen King. In his book On Writing (see my review), Mr. King advises very strongly that a writer needs to read and read a lot. Obviously the development of the craft of writing requires study as well as practice. And what better way (heck, what other way?) to study the craft than by reading? Pick up your gems from here and there and put together your own crown. Not original? As the old saying goes, "There is nothing new under the sun." But there is always a new twist to an old tale.

Elsewhere on her site
If having written 33 novels isn't impressive enough, you can find a ton and a half of various blog postings, articles and diary entries about all sorts of things relating to Holly's craft of writing. She does state that she's put down a hundred thousand words on the site about writing with the idea of passing along to the rest of us her knowledge and experience in successfully producing 33 novels over the past 25 years. Gee, that works out to be on average a book every nine months. I think back on NaNoWriMo and the task of putting down fifty thousand words in one month. However that is only the start. One does have to revise one's work and probably more than once.

Mr. King points out that he completes a work then sets it aside for a month or two. He explains that you need to distance yourself from your own work so when you do revise it, you are doing so in a more objectively. Holly, giving similar advice, talks in "Your Book Is Not Your Baby" about having to work hard to create what you want. You don't just "give birth to a baby"; you actually have to put in the effort to write your book.

Dealing With Your Family
This article I found to provide some interesting insights into how one goes about the odd task of writing for a living and dealing with others who may not see this as a legitimate job.

* Do not expect them to understand.

They won't. They will not get what you are doing until and unless you are as successful as Stephen King or John Grisham, and I'll bet even those two writers occasionally get calls from their mothers asking when they're going to get real jobs.

* Do not expect emotional support.

When things get rough, the response you can count on getting is not 'hang in, you'll make it, I believe in you,' but 'I told you so before you quit your job.  Maybe if you're lucky they'll take you back.' Hang in anyway. You believe in you. You cannot expect everyone else to see your dream.

* Do not expect consideration.

You have a job, right? You're going to be sitting at a keyboard stretching your brain for God knows how many hours. Your family (and friends) will keep this in mind, right? Wrong. Your family and friends will figure as long as you're home all day, you might as well be doing something useful, like laundry, or running the kids everywhere, or going out to breakfast or lunch or shopping or .... The list of things other people will find for you to do is endless and destructive beyond belief. Given the opportunity, they will kill your writing, then shake their heads when you fail and say they always knew it wouldn't work. Guard your time fanatically.

[chuckles] I come back to the scenario of the person who has the pipe dream of being a writer but never gets around to the unfinished opus in the bureau drawer. It does seem a little fantastic to think of writing for a living. While it sounds interesting, even romantic, I'm sure that like any job a lot of hard work is involved. Yes, we may dream of the glitz and glamour of having our name on the New York Times bestseller list or being interviewed on TV but a lot of hard work went into getting there. Plus a little talent, eh? Ha! Put all that together and I would say that it's no wonder many would look with a bit of scepticism upon any of us declaring our intention to write.

Final Word
I've never written a book. I've never done NaNoWriMo. I started this blog on June 1, 2010 and one month later, a small online newspaper found my blog and asked me to contribute some articles. Now 8 months later, I've managed to pump out almost a half a million words. Well, I guess I can shoot my mouth off; at least in chunks of a thousand words or so. I don't know about a book.

In thinking back on Stephen King's book On Writing and mulling over Ms. Lisle's web site and her help for writers, I am drawn back to the slogan of Nike: Just do it. Writing is a lonely occupation. As Stephen put it:

Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well.

I feel certain Ms. Lisle would concur. But like anything, if you enjoy what you're doing, it's not so much work as having fun. In my blog Passion: Can you live without it? I talk about the idea of being "passionately" interested in what you do and how I have at times amusingly said, "What? I have the privilege slash fun of doing this and get paid for it? Heaven!" It may sound funny but believe me, it's true. Some poor Joe has to slog it out doing some horrible job where he spends his shift looking at the clock for when he can go home. In contrast, to have something so interesting, so rewarding, you find yourself doing the work on your own time out of the pure, unadulterated thrill of successfully solving the puzzle is passion!

I am convinced that Ms. Lisle is passionate about her chosen career. I'd say that 33 novels would be very indicative of somebody who likes, no loves their work. Yes, writing involves discipline and I'm sure it involves a lot of it. But if you can be passionate about it, I'm certain (I hope?) the first fifty thousand (NaNoWriMo) will be doable if not fun and from there, cranking out a novel may not be such an onerous task. Okay, maybe not the New Times bestseller list, but you have to start somewhere. As Stephen said:

By the time I was fourteen … the nail in my wall would no longer support the weight of the rejection slips impaled upon it. I replaced the nail with a spike and kept on writing.


References

official site

Holly Lisle's Writing Boot Camps
Holly Lisle is a full-time novelist who also teachs writing.  She has 32 novels in print—written over the past 17 years—and is working on her 33rd novel now.

Her offbeat perspective drawn from a decidedly eventful life, and her tendency to analyze everything, have given her a unique—and remarkably successful—approach to writing fiction.

And after thousands of requests for her to show writers exactly how she does what she does, from coming up with ideas through developing them to writing, editing, and selling both partials on contract and finished novels on spec, she spent eight months working 70-hour weeks to create the How To Think Sideways fiction-writing course.

Her approach has proven successful for her students, too.

Forward Motion for Writers
This is a site filled with people who are following the treacherous path toward traditional publication. It isn't an easy hike, but there are many members willing to help. This is also a place where you can share both the joys and the insanity of writing with those who understand what you are talking about.

Forward Motion's core purpose is to help writers become professionally published, which includes big publishers, small press and electronic publications with a traditional set up (submissions, chance of rejection, and editing as part of the regular makeup of the company). We welcome serious writing hobbyists as well, but our purpose and goals are geared toward professional careers.

2011-02-18

Site Map - William Quincy Belle

Follow me on Twitter