Guest Post by James Scott Bell

Our guest today is James Scott Bell, author of  heart-whamming thrillers such as Final Witness, Don't Leave Me, and One More Lie. Jim is also the author of several books on the craft of writing: Plot & Structure, Conflict & Suspense, and The Art of War for Writers, among others. You can find them all on the For Writers page of his website. I recommend them all. And he is a regular contributor to The Kill Zone, a blog that offers insider perspectives from today's hottest thriller and mystery writers.

Jim has graciously allowed us to reprint a post he wrote for The Kill Zone, titled "An Editor's List of Novel Shortcomings."  I found it very informative and trust you will too.

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One of the great bon-mots of popular cultural history occurred during the 1974 Academy Awards ceremony. David Niven was at the podium when a "streaker" (an inexplicable fad at the time was someone getting completely naked and running through a public forum) jogged across the stage.

The unflappable Niven calmly waited for the laughter to die down, and then remarked in his impeccable English accent, "Isn't it fascinating to think that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings."

Thankfully, the streaking fad is kaput. But there are other places where shortcomings are wont to appear.

Some time ago veteran editor Alan Rinzler posted on Writer Unboxed about "issues" writers today are facing. While the post itself was solid, I was more intrigued by one of his comments. Rinzler was asked a question in the combox by none other than super agent Donald Maass. Don wanted to know what the #1 shortcoming Rinzler, as a developmental editor, saw in manuscripts. Rinzler's answer was:

I see disorganized stories of excessive complexity… intrusive narrative voices that come between the reader and the story by inserting ongoing commentary, explanation, and interpretation…a failure to research and do the homework necessary to come up with something truly original and not reinvent the wheel… two-dimensional stereotype characterization…dialogue that all sounds like the same person.

I like this list. Let's take a look at each item:

1. Disorganized stories of excessive complexity

I once picked up a bit of screenwriting wisdom that applies here. The best movies (and novels) consist of simple plots about complex characters. That is, while the plot may contain mystery and twists (and should), it is, at its core, a basic story with understandable motives. The real meat and originality comes from putting truly complex characters into those stories. The secret to originality can be found in the limitless interior landscape of human beings.

2. Intrusive narrative voices

Learning how to handle exposition, especially when to leave it out entirely, is one of the most important and early craft challenges. So get to it. Revision & Self-Editing for Publication has a whole section on this, but here's one tip: place exposition seamlessly into confrontational dialogue. Instead of: Frank never wanted to have a baby. Not until he was a success as a writer. But Marilyn thought his quest was foolish. After all, it had been five years since he left his job at AIG. Marilyn dearly wanted him to try to get his job back.

"You never wanted a baby, Frank."

"Shut up about that."

"All because of your stupid writing obsession!"

"I'm not obsessed!"

"Oh really? What do you call five years of typing and no money to show for it?"

"Practice!"

"Well, practice time is over. Tomorrow you're going to beg AIG to take you back."

3. A failure to research  . . . to come up with something truly original

Rinzler is talking about the concept stage here, which is foundational. Hard work on fresh concepts will pay off. And remember, freshness isn't just a matter of something "unfamiliar." All plot situations have been done. It's how you dress them up and freshen them that makes the difference. Remember Die Hard? After it became a hit, we had Die Hard on a ship (Under Siege) and on a mountain (Cliffhanger) and so on. Take a standard rom-com about a writer struggling with writer's block and set it in Elizabethan England and you get Shakespeare in Love. Heck, take an old dystopian cult plot like Deathrace 2000 and put it among kids and bingo, you've got The Hunger Games. 

4. Two-dimensional characters Con

We all know that flat characters are a drag on an otherwise nice plot idea. Such a waste! As Lajos Egri put it in his classic, Creative Writing: “Living, vibrating human beings are still the secret and magic formula of great and enduring writing.”

My favorite book on characterization is Dynamic Characters by my former colleague at Writer's Digest, Nancy Kress.

5. Dialogue that all sounds like the same person

Ah! One of my sweet spots. In my workshops I always say the fastest way to improve a manuscript is via dialogue. It's also the fastest way to get an agent or editor to reject you, or readers to give you a yawn. When they see good, crisp dialogue, differentiated via character, it pops. It gives them confidence they're dealing with someone who knows the craft.

The place to start, then, is by making sure every character in your cast is unique. I use a "voice journal" for each, a free-form document of the character just yakking at me, until I truly "hear" them in a singular fashion.

So there you have it. Five vital areas where shortcomings might be a problem. The streaking guy at the Oscars couldn't do anything about his own vital area, but you as a writer can.

 

Our thanks to Jim for allowing us to reprint this article. I know it will help sharpen my writing. I hope it will yours as well. Which point do you find the most helpful?

TMI

Have you ever met someone who immediately felt the need to tell you their life story? Yeah, me too. I don’t know about you, but my first reaction, once my eyes quit glazing over, is to run far and fast. Well, too much backstory in the beginning of your novel can and probably will have the same effect on your reader.

Backstory, amply defined by The Editor’s Blog, is simply “the story before the story.”

Wikipedia goes into a bit more detail: “Backstory is a set of events invented for a plot, presented as preceding — and leading up to that plot ... Generally, it is the history of characters or other elements that underlie the situation existing at the main narrative’s start ... As a literary device, backstory is often employed to lend depth or believability to the main story.”

Jessica Page Morrell, in Between the Lines, warns that "backstory, if used incorrectly, can stall a story," because a novel should always be moving forward. Backstory "must be cleverly inserted so that it's unobtrusive and allows the front story to press ahead." She adds, "Perhaps the biggest problem with weaving in backstory revolves around this simple fact: The reader doesn't need to know as much as the writer does." As writers, we often go to great lengths to create detailed biographies of our characters and a story world that is three-dimensional. We can often see our characters in our heads, as well as the places they inhabit. But not everything that goes into the creation of our creation needs to be shared with the reader. We need to give them just enough to fill in the blanks, and then let their own imaginations take over.

But backstory has another task besides filling in gaps, and it's an important one. When used to its full advantage, backstory provides character motivation for what takes place in the novel. To again quote Ms. Morrell, "A protagonist is a person with a burning desire, and backstory reveals where this desire stems from." She lists some backstory factors to consider when creating your character:

• Who or what were his or her childhood influences and major events?
• Who was the most significant person in his or her young life?
• What past relationships have shaped your character?
• What event from the past will affect the plot?
• What regrets does your character have?
• What is his or her worst fear? Darkest secret?

The answers to these questions will be important for you to know as the writer, and they'll be important to your novel but, if handled correctly, the forward-moving story can reveal many of those answers to your reader without you having to spell them out through too much backstory.

So, when and how is it appropriate to bring in backstory?  There are varying opinions about when—and when NOT—to bring in backstory. Some say none at all in the first fifty pages, which, if true, is a rule I’ve sadly violated all too often. So I put the question to a group of authors I highly respect, and here’s what a few of them advise:

James Scott Bell, author of a number of terrific suspense novels, as well as the very popular Writer’s Digest Books including: Plot & Structure, Dialogue, Conflict & Suspense (all of which I recommend.) says, regarding backstory: “Act first, explain later.” He believes you should begin your novel with action, “which doesn’t mean, necessarily, car chases or gun fights.” Instead, your opening should “show a character in motion” and “manifest disturbance to their ordinary world.” He goes on to say, “Readers will wait a long time for the explanations when there’s a character in motion, facing a disturbance.”

As a reader, I completely  agree. Yes, I want to know about the character whose story I’m delving into. I want to care about him or her. If I don’t care, I won’t continue to read. But plop me down in the midst of the action or situation, and then, when I’m catching my breath, tell me something about the character and the story world. Jim calls this: “bonding your character with the reader.”

One of my personal favorite examples of bonding character with reader comes from The Hunger Games, the first book in the wildly popular triolgy. (BTW, I can’t wait for Catching Fire to be released November 22!) Chapter 1 gripped me from the beginning, but when, in Chapter 2, Katniss says, “I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!” in place of her young sister, Prim, I knew I wasn’t leaving Katniss’ side till the story was over. And, oh, what a story.

So give just enough backstory to make your reader sympathetic to your protagonist, and then, weave it in throughout the rest of the story. Veronica Heley, author of more than 70 novels (!) says: “Drip feeding the backstory is best for all concerned.” Drip feeding. What a visual. I love it.

 Christy-award winning author Kristen Heitzmann  says: “Backstory can and should be done in any way that serves the story.” There are various ways to bring it in:

• Through small bits of exposition.
• Through character reflection — (but be careful to keep it truly introspective, rather than it sounding like the character is sending information telepathically to the reader).
• Through dialogue (But, again, be careful. Noah Lukeman, in The First Five Pages, says,  “Dialogue should not be used to state things both characters already know” for the sake of the reader (pg. 94). Example: “Hi, Janet. This is Sharon, your older sister, who lives an hour south of you. Your niece Mindy, who is my older daughter, has moved to Washington, and man am I bummed about it.” Janet, being my sister, already knows all that, so it's a ridiculous use of dialogue.
• Through flashback  (This is a device I used throughout Lying on Sunday to show the character---or lack thereof---of the protagonist’s deceased husband.)
• Occasionally, through use of a prologue. (Prologues should be used rarely and should draw the reader right into the story world. This is not the place for a backstory information dump.)

This is not a comprehensive list of how to work in backstory, but gives you an idea of how it can be integrated into the novel.

DiAnn Mills, author of numerous romantic suspense novels, as well as the writing-craft book The Dance of Character and Plot, teaches that, before each scene, a writer ask the following questions:

• What is the POV character’s goal or problem?
• What does the POV character learn that he/she didn’t know before? 
• What backstory is revealed? (I encourage no horrible protagonist’s traits. This doesn’t mean a teasing phrase here and there but no significant backstory.) 
• How are the stakes raised?

Author Stephanie Whitson asks some good questions regarding backstory:

• If I don’t put this in the story, will the reader miss something essential? 
• Will they misunderstand my character? 
• Will they be confused by a plot point?

If not, leave it out.

If backstory is something to be treated with kid gloves, incorporated in bits and dribbles, is it really important for you to create backstory for your characters and story world? Well, let me ask you this: Do you find it easy relating events of someone’s life if you don’t know them well? I don’t. Likewise, the better I know my characters, the better I’ll be able to tell their story. That doesn’t mean the reader will learn everything I know about my protagonist. They may, in fact, learn only a fraction of what I know. But that fraction better be really pertinent to the story. It better help bond the reader to the character, and answer just enough at any one time to keep the reader wanting to know more.

What is your position regarding backstory? Do you have/stick by a hard and fast rule? How/when do you choose to incorporate it? Have you ever found backstory to distract you from a novel you were reading?

It's (gasp!) 47 days to Christmas. Leave a comment and I'll enter your name in a drawing for my whimsical A Heavenly Christmas in Hometown.

Where do I begin??

Patti began our Roundtable discussion on Monday talking about what to cut from your novel, particularly at the beginning of a piece. In the Comments section it was asked, how do you know where a story truly begins? And is there a rule about when backstory comes in?

Well, let's see what the pros have to say in reply.

Sol Stein in Stein on Writing (pg. 15), says:

Elia Kazan, brilliant director of stage and screen as well as a late-blooming novelist, told me that audiences give a film seven minutes. If the viewer is not intrigued by character or incident within that time, the film and its viewer are at odds. The viewer came for an experience. The film is disappointing him.

Today's impatient readers give a novelist fewer than seven minutes. Some years ago I was involved in an informal study of the behavior of lunch-hour browsers in mid-Manhattan bookstores. In the fiction section, the most common pattern was for the browser to read the front flap of the book's jacket and then go to page one. No browser went beyond page three before either taking the book to the cashier or putting the book down and picking up another to sample ... first sentences and first paragraphs ... are increasingly important for arousing the restless reader.

I can attest to the truth of the study. If page one of a novel doesn't engage me, I move on. My reading time is precious to me. I don't have time to waste or wade through a slow beginning.

Elizabeth George in Write Away (pg. 65), which is one of my personal favorites, wrote in her journal:

...I'm beginning to have more clarity on the novel. What I haven't seen yet is precisely how or where in the story to begin.

Then, regarding the decision of where to open, she goes on to say:

The way I see it, you have three alternatives. You can begin the story just before the beginning; you can begin it right at the beginning; or you can begin it after the beginning.


Huh?

Well, she actually makes sense as she continues:

Starting just before the beginning, you ... have to come up with a scene that illustrates the status quo of the main characters before the primary event occurs.

If you choose to start your novel right at the beginning, you are making the choice to introduce simultaneously both the characters and the primary event that gets the ball rolling ...

Beginning your novel after the beginning of the story means that you are choosing to start after the primary event has occurred. The ball, in other words, is already in motion and the reader is plunked down in the middle of the action.

James Scott Bell in Plot & Structure (pg. 56), cuts right to the chase and gives us a nice check list:

• Get the reader hooked.
• Establish a bond between the reader and the Lead character.
• Present the story world---tell us something about the setting, the time, and the immediate context.
• Establish the general tone of the novel.
• Compel the reader to move on to the middle. Just why should the reader care to continue?
• Introduce the opposition.

This is all great advice, and by examining our beginnings we can see if we're hitting any of these targets, but it can still be difficult to know if we've hit on the right place to start. Elmore Leonard, who wrote among other things Get Shorty and 3:10 to Yuma, once said, "I try to leave out the parts that people skip." Yeah, me too. That's especially important when it comes to those opening paragraphs and pages, because, like Sol Stein discovered, if a reader isn't engaged by then, he's not going to be.

As an exercise, turn to the beginnings of half a dozen of your favorite novels and study the openings. What was it about those first few paragraphs that kept you reading? Conversely, was there something that nearly derailed you---even if you're glad you kept reading? Judging by the advice of our pros, did those beginnings line up with the advice they gave?

I'll give an example from one of my favorite novels, Blue Hole Back Home, by Joy Jordan Lake. First of all, it was the cover that got me to pick up the book, which was a title I'd never heard of, by an author I'd never heard of. But the cover intrigued me, so I opened to the first page and read:

Likely it was only two dreams crisscrossing paths, one snagging on the other in passing, but somehow the face that walked by me this morning, not four feet away, got tangled up with one from my past ... And I swear time backstitched on itself ...

I loved that last line, loved how it sounded, loved the picture it drew in my mind. But this is what took me straight to the cashier:

In that moment, the smell of espresso got overpowered by the scents of my past: pine needles and boy-sweat, salted peanuts and Coke. I heard bluegrass guitar and banjo all mixed up with rhythm and blues and a rope swing ticking forward and back, keeping time. I was barefoot in the back of a pickup, believing that it was love that makes people brave and gorgeous and clever and kind. Believing, and being wrong.

Man, oh man, that was the line that hooked me. I've read the book several times and recommend it to anyone who will listen, and I grow fonder of it each time.

Besides Blue Hole Back Home, I highly recommend the three books I cited today. I've read each of them more than once, and I learn something new every single time. Write Away has so many notes and sticky tabs it's getting difficult to wade through. It may be time for another copy.

I'd like to hear your observations on the passages I cited. We'll talk about backstory when I post in a couple of weeks.

Going Indie

It was with much thought, prayer and a good dose of nerves that I decided to go independent in publishing my latest novel, Unraveled, which I released in August. My former agent had tried to find a home for it in CBA, with no success, so when I told her I wanted to publish it myself, she gave me her blessing. I made the decision because I believe in the story, and because I believe the quality of the writing is equal to my other published novels. But it was apparent that if it was to be published, it would be done independently. The reader comments I’ve received so far make me glad I was brave enough to give it a try.

There were a number of ways I could go once I made the decision, but I chose to go with Amazon CreateSpace because our own gifted Latayne had used CreateSpace for The Hinge of Your History: The Phases of Faith. She gave me pointers on how to get started, and once I began the process, Amazon made it very easy to navigate through. I’ve been very satisfied with CreateSpace, and would go that route again without hesitation.

Now I’m in the marketing phase, which is a daunting task. But I was pretty much on my own in promoting Every Good & Perfect Gift and Lying on Sunday, so this isn’t new territory. Fortunately, I’m a lot more knowledgeable than I was in ‘08 when those novels were published, and I have many more contacts. That said, I’m still only making a ripple with my efforts, when my goal is to make a splash. I’d really like to connect with book clubs, but I’m not sure how to find them. If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. I'm marketing extensively to libraries, as I did with my earlier novels, which is already proving effective.

As you know if you follow this blog on a regular basis, Patti is also in the midst of going independent, and I’m happily benefitting from her research. She recommended Make a Killing on Kindle Without Blogging, Facebook and Twitter: The Guerilla Marketer’s Guide to Selling Your Ebooks on Amazon by Michael Alvear. I like his writing style, like his dry wit and humor, but after reading the first four chapters my assessment was: Just shoot me now. There was no way that I, a relatively unknown author, who is not remotely guerilla-ish, was going to succeed at selling books, whether traditionally or independently published. No. Way. I might as well hang it up. But then I got to Chapter 5, and began feeling less suicidal. Rather than telling me all the reasons why I should fail, Michael began to show me how I could succeed. I’m creating my strategy and will soon put his recommendations to the test.

James Scott Bell’s Self-Publishing Attack! The 5 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws for Creating Steady Income Publishing Your Own Books has also been helpful. The suggestions that overlap in both books are the ones I’m concentrating on first.

Is going independent the optimum course for me? That remains to be seen. What is certain is that there’s never been a better time to try. No longer does self-publishing require an outlay of thousands of dollars, or mean boxes of books in your garage. With a minimum investment you can have a quality product to put on the market, but that’s the key word here: “quality” is vital. From cover to content, don’t cut corners. Period. The old maxim holds true: If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.  With the enormous changes taking place in the publishing world, self-publishing is losing its stigma. Many A-list authors are going that route, particularly with ebooks, because for many, it makes the most sense.

What about you? Have you considered going independent? If so, why? If not, why? And again, if you have suggestions about reaching book clubs, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

Exploring the Ecosystem of Kindle for Marketing

Before I start with my topic for the day, I want to announce a new Novel Matters book club. I'm reading Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling by Donald Maas. I'm loving what he has to say so far about the death of genre, and I would love to chat with you, my most respected writing friends, about his ideas. The next couple of months aren't the best time to start a new project like this, so I'm thinking January. You can ask for the book for Christmas and read chapter one while munching on Christmas-tree shaped cookies. We'll talk in January.

Last time I posted here, I highlighted James Scott Bell's marketing book for ebooks. This is the journey I'm on with my next novel, so I'm happy to share what I'm learning along the way. After all, authors do most of the marketing for their books whether they're working with a legacy publisher or going indie like me.

Bell echoed the approach many of us have heard at writers conferences--building a platform and social media networking, plus pricing strategies and more--but with the knowledge to do a great job for our books. The book is full of wisdom I intend to use in marketing Goodness & Mercy.

But to become a market genius before March--that's my goal--I can't stop at one book or opinion.

Trust me, there are tons of ebooks out there to help you sell your ebooks on Amazon. And you have to be careful which ones you bet the success of your book on. Some of these how-to books are written by authors who have experienced major success with their Kindle ebooks. One book. One big success? Is their success a fluke? Do they come from a large family that owns many Swiss bank accounts?

I chose a book by Michael Alvear because he takes a totally different approach to marketing ebooks. Also, his book has the longest, most specific title ever. I knew what I was getting! Check this out: Make a Killing on Kindle without Blogging, Facebook and Twitter: The Guerilla Marketer's Guide to Selling Ebooks on Amazon.

Phew! Of course, we have to ask, "Just how do you sell books on Amazon without social media or full-page magazine ads?"

Alvear believes it's all about understanding the ecosystem of Kindle with the objective of optimizing the position of your book. That way the readers who are most likely to buy the book will see it as they browse.

This kind of thinking is so rare in book marketing that Alvear gives an example with his own book. At first, he tried to market conventionally through social media. After five years of work, he got 25,000 unique visits to his blog per month. Of those, 5,000 went to his book page. To determine the "conversion rate," meaning how many views it took to make a sale, he divided the number of sales by the number of visitors. Alvear came in right in the middle of the industry average at 1%.

That's only 50 books per month for all those years of work.

Ugh.

And so, Alvear systematically goes through every aspect of developing your book for market to make it rise to the top of pile. He promises everything can be done in 18 hours. This also appealed to me. But you have to start with a stellar book that you believe in. Otherwise, all the marketing in the world won't produce satisfactory results.

So far, I'm listening carefully to this guy.

Here are some of the topics he examines in his confident, been-there-more-than-once voice. I should tell you that he has 20 years of marketing experience. Ya gotta love credentials.

Okay, let's get on to the topics:

1. Create an attention-getting title. If the title doesn't work, you can always change it. That's one nice thing about digital publishing.

2. Hire a professional to design you book cover. Really? In an ideal world, yes because your cover in all of its 7/8" x 1" glory in Kindle-land needs to make a punch, a promise, and a come-hither message.I hired a photographer and a graphic designer, but I'm the art director. Probably a bad idea. I'm hoping not.

Alvear does give guidelines for hiring these professionals, depending on your budget from low to high.

"If you have already passed that hurdle of having a customer be attracted to the cover, and then they pick up the books," said Patricia Bostelman, vice president for marketing at Barnes & Noble, "an enormous battle has been won."

3. Once you have a visual hook for your potential reader, you want to set up your book to gain top search engine results every time someone looks for a book in your category. I sure hope I understand this better by the time I'm launching my book. Alvear isn't stingy on pointing authors to places where keyword phrases can be embedded, so the chances of your book popping up in the first page of results increase. Keyword phrases, who knew?

"You are destined to fail if you don't use keyword phrases that lead to your book."

So, I guess I better learn.

4. Beyond keyword phrases, Amazon lets you choose two categories for your book. "Think of [categories] as the section of the bookstore you'd like your book placed (literature, fiction, history, etc.)." From working in both a bookstore and a library, I know how important these categories are. Most reader beeline to their favorite genre and do very little browsing. There are browsers--God bless 'em!--who wander the whole store. That makes your cover and title even more important.

Alvear's book gives me hope. There are things I can do to get my book before the reader. For instance, he explains how to put a billboard for your book on a competitors pages. And he talks about the power of great reviews, even how many you need to make your book page a powerful selling tool.

One chapter deals with how to write ocean-front book descriptions, another highlights the importance of formatting and using the "Look Inside" feature.

And then he tells about a feature in Kindle I'd never seen before that will definitely effect the way I format my book. It's the "Before You Go" feature. If your reader's Kindle or other reading device is set up to Facebook and Twitter, you can ask your reader to kindly rate the book and share with their friends right there and then.

Aha, there is a place for social media!

Alvear does recognize the value of social media once the book is successfully launched and selling. Your readers will be curious about you and will want to find you online. Then a blog makes tons of sense.

I plan on using Alvear's ideas to optimize the chances that Goodness & Mercy will have its best chance of finding an audience.

Michael Alvear doesn't write the kind of books (other than this one) most of us read, but he seems to have a good handle on what it takes to sell on Amazon. I appreciate that about him very much.

Next time, I'll be talking about yet another marketing philosophy. And then I'm formulating a plan for full speed ahead marketing. My brain is getting full.

Have you worked with a graphic professional? What's your take on Alvear's approach, knowing that I was only able to present the briefest details? I'm looking at this information as power, not an insurance police, success isn't following a formula, but it is knowing how the game is played. Can you recommend what I should read about marketing next? 

Marketing 101 or How to Kill an Author Without Trying

With my dear Novel Matters friends as witnesses, I would like to formally apologize to the marketers of books, one and all. Bless their little pea-pickin' hearts.

I'm not proud to admit this, but I was pretty sure they spent too much time at the water cooler, if you know what I mean.

I was wrong.

I wanted them to do more, to try harder, to find my unique set of elusive readers. Instead, they asked me to write books (historical romance would be nice) to make their jobs easier and certainly more profitable.

Now that I'm officially my very own marketer and publisher (Authors are and always have been their own marketers, but Indie publishing forces me to give up my delusional dream that someone is sweating over my sales numbers and calling important people to garner endorsements, interviews, and movie deals. This is my job and my job only.)

Marketing a newly released book is a tough job. I recognize that now. If I can make my book stand out among the 1.5 million books released each year, I'll be successful. Piece of cake.

But I live in the middle of nowhere. How am I suppose to reach the world with my masterpiece?

Simple, become a marketing genius by reading books written by marketing geniuses. Easy.

Not so easy. The marketing geniuses (MG) don't agree on much. Some want you to build a tribe. Others encourage building loyalty by giving things away. (Nothing like a little guilt inducing to sell a few books. I should be brilliant at this. After all, I'm a mother.) Another promises making a killing on Amazon without blogging, tweeting, or updating my status on Facebook. Frankly, that's appealing.

Since marketing is the job of the author, whether we publish with legacy publishers or go independent, won't you join me? I'm consulting the MGs and cherry-picking what makes sense for my sanity and my book's audience. I'll be doing this the next few times I post.

Let's start with James Scott Bell's ebook on marketing, Self Publishing Attack! The 5 Absolutely Unbreakable Laws for Creating Steady Income Publishing Your Own Books. I was attracted to Bell's book because I've met him, he's making a living at writing, and because he says there are only 5 unbreakable laws.

I have the attention span of a gnat. This sounded doable.

I love Bell's writing style. I felt like I was sitting across from him in a coffee shop. He's on my side. He wants me to succeed. And he's a great cheerleader. I was dipping my quill in ink before the end of Part One.

Here's a rundown of his laws and my reaction:

Law #1: You Must Think Like a Publisher

This, in large part, means writing a book that people will want to buy, preferably in a genre that's popular. My genre--women's fiction--doesn't make Bell's list of popular genres. So far, I'm not off to a promising start.

But Bell presents a side to ebooks that I'd not thought of before. Say I decide to write a mystery. And since this is my fantasy, it sells pretty well, and my readers look forward to my next caper. But true to form, I get a literary bee in my bonnet and write a molasses-paced Mid-Atlantic plaster restoration romance. My readers are disappointed and barely glance at my next blood-and-guts murder mystery. Silent scream. End of fantasy.

This kind of genre jumping doesn't have to mean publishing suicide with ebooks. All that's required is a nom de plume for each genre I try. This could be a fun way to try on different genres to see which one--and this could be surprising--makes my heart beat faster and actually sells. In fact, Bell is big on self-determination in his book, which really appeals to my artist self, but he's also practical: "Spend your time developing the books you want to write most, but which also have the potential to sell to a large audience." It's all about balance.

Law #2: You Must Write the Best Books You Can

No argument here. Bell quotes another ebook author, Mark Coker, The Secrets of Ebook Publishing Success: "Eighty percent of your books' success will be determined by the quality of your book. The other 20 percent is distribution, marketing and luck." Bell gives pointers to beginners, intermediate, and advanced writers about how they can sharpen their storytelling skills to increase their chances of success.

My goal is to write a better story each time out. Publishing as an independent doesn't change that goal. If anything, I'm working harder than ever to make my story stand out by investing cold hard cash on a highly qualified editor. The very good news is that I control 80 percent of my book's success. I like having that much control. Note: This doesn't bleed into other parts of my life.

Also in this section, Bell gives the clearest instructions on how to develop a heart-grabbing pitch I've ever heard or read. It's worth buying the book just for his pitch pointers.

Law #3: You Must Prepare Your Book With Quality Controls

Bell caught me off guard in this section, in a good way. I'd completely forgotten about the back of the book, and that the copy--after the cover--is what really sells the book. In fact, he gets into the nitty-gritty of the front and back copy, all the boring stuff like copyrights, formatting, and an author bio. He also touches on the all-important art of categorizing your book on Amazon to get paying customers to your book page. (Next time I post I'll be talking about another book that does a more scientific and thorough job of assigning categories to your book.)

As for covers, Bell highly recommends working with a professional to avoid a cheesy cover. I have to say that I worried most about my covers. When the reader first sees the cover, it's about the size of a postage stamp. The cover shoulders the job of attracting a reader by setting the tone of the story and clarifying the genre in a tiny space. The cover is my foot in the door, so I hired a photographer and graphic artist to help. 

Law #4: You Must Develop and Work a Marketing Plan

Bell contends that every marketing plan, at the very least, consists of a pricing strategy, social media presence, newsletter/email program, and reviews, interviews and guest blogging. This section  made me tired. For instance, besides writing your own blog, Bell encourages authors to make thoughtful comments on other author's blogs, all for the purpose of building a relationship that becomes mutually beneficial. When my release date looms, that author will be more inclined to have me as a guest blogger, and I can invite him/her to do the same. I like this sort of partnership.

But have you noticed how many author blogs there are? The trick is to find author blogs that appeal to your audience, read them faithfully, and yes, make thoughtful comments. This will be my dead-of-winter January project.

In short, Bell takes a mainstream approach to marketing (social media, newsletters, email lists). There's nothing in this section I hadn't heard before, but he does refine and give first-rate advice for success. I'm thinking I need a mini me to get all of this done.

Law #5: You Must Repeat Over and Over For the Rest of Your Life.

Holy cow, Bell! Over and over? Now, I'm really tired.

Not only over and over but more and more. "...the more books you have available, the better you'll do."

Bell suggests short fiction and writing, writing, writing. Actually, I like the idea of writing short stories. They're an especially fun way to experiment with other genres, but would that mean 23 different nom de plumes?

I appreciate all that Bell includes in his book, so much more than five laws, and I highly recommend this ebook for all authors. Thanks to Bell, the important stuff will get done (he has a great section on priority setting) and I may dabble in other genres. Let's see, a nom de plume? How about Brenda Paris? Zaleena Hopstetter? Buck Tumbleweed? Jetta Stargazer?

Silliness aside, what's your marketing plan? Who are you listening to? What works? What doesn't? Help!

Is Kvetching Absolutely Necessary?

Yay! We have a winner!!! Marian, choose one of the books listed below. I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks to all for your comments.

Thanks so much for taking time during your Independence Weekend celebration to drop by Novel Matters. You deserve a special treat. If you comment today, I'll enter you in a drawing for one of the four books I mentioned on Wednesday in our roundtable discussion, your choice--Home, Mudbound, Half Broke Horses, or The Book Thief. Yes, it will have been gently read, by me, but books shared among friends are the best.

So, here we are for our book chat of Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird. We're focusing on the chapter, "Plot Treatment" today. Remember, reading the chapter isn't a prerequisite for participation. Yammer away with me!

Everyone I know flails around, kvetching and growing despondent, on the way to finding a plot and structure that work. You are welcome to join the club.

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

Just to summarize:

Lamott spent two-plus years writing a beautiful story where nothing happens. Her editor refuses the manuscript, and, after a period of depondency, she gathers herself to try again. She rearranges pages, paragraphs, and scenes on the floor of her apartment. Satisfied that she has a string of story pearls, she travels from San Francisco to New York to discover she'd only managed to make the story prettier. The story brimmed with witty writing, stunning imagery, and well-developed characters doing absolutely nothing.

You've read novels like that. You wait and wait for the story to start, all the while marveling at the clever use of language and the fresh description. Within pages of the end, if you get that far, you're still wondering when the story will begin, which means there are wants and conflict to care about. Evidently, Lamott is lucky to have an editor who pushes her to "build" a story with sound internal logic before actually publishing it.

Here's a bit of wisdom from Lamott's story: Lamott went back to her editor, head in hands, and asked for help. He tells her to write a plot treatment for her story, which turns out to be a chapter-by-chapter super-charged synopsis. (Side note: A synopsis is a great way to discover holes, gaping or otherwise, in your plot.)

After the plot treatment, she says, "The book moved along like the alphabet, like a vivid and continuous dream."

I'm such a Girl Scout--be prepared and all that. Lamott's process of writing a complete manuscript, three times, sounds like pure torture to me. Perhaps you see her experience as a glorious, organic process you hope to emulate. Go for it. Absolutely, go for it.

Not me. I do tons of thinking about structure and plot before I start a novel--and I'm doing more now than ever. That doesn't mean I don't tweak, delete, and augment along the way, that the muse doesn't whisper in my ear, that I don't hit a wall at 30,000 words. I do, I do. I've been asked by editors to shore up a sagging middle and strengthen an ending, but, egads, rewrite a manuscript three times? Lamott has persistence. Perhaps that is the true wisdom of this chapter--listen to your mentor and keep trying until you get it right.

But let's go back to plot and structure. (I'm reading two books on the topic right now: Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell and The Anatomy of Story by John Truby.) Notice Lamott didn't discuss the how-to of plot and structure in this chapter, only that the struggle for plot and structure is worth the prize. I expected her to recommend a plot treatment or other such tool, but she didn't. I find that curious, especially since she experienced success once she'd had a plan.

I'm learning that plot and structure is so much more than deciding to write by the seat of your pants or to outline every scene and sneeze. Plot and structure is the logic, the motivations, the reader's satisfaction, the author's world view...sadly, it's too big of a topic to develop here. Sorry.

I hope what you'll take from this chapter of Lamott's book is that plot and structure make beautiful writing entertaining. It's worth all the agony and kvetching. Whether you work a plan or rewrite to strengthen plot and structure, it's hard work. No way around it.

Do you consider plot and structure before you start writing? Where have you learned the most about plot and structure? Do you have a story like Lamott? Have you done complete rewrites to bolster plot and structure? What kept you sane? Motivated? Do you outline? Write a synopsis? A plot treatment? Do you believe plot and structure can happen organically as you write? I'm so curious about this topic. Tell me everything!

Distance and Lists in the Editing Process

Teeth and Bones Editing Contest:

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How to enter: Comment on the Novel Matters blog anytime between Monday, September 6th, and Friday September 17th. At the bottom of your comment type TABEC (short for Teeth and Bones Editing Contest). Only comments with these letters at the bottom will be eligible to win (we understand that not all our readers are interested in this level of editing, but would still want to be free to comment and discuss editing - that's the reason we require interested people to please use the TABEC letters at the bottom of their comments). You many enter as many times as you like over the two weeks. Each comment counts as an entry (but don't forget to type TABEC at the bottom of each comment).

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Winner: One winner will be announced on Friday, September 17th at 5:00 PM pacific time.

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The prize: A teeth and bones edit of your first chapter and synopsis by Bonnie Grove. The edit will be on the substantive level (the overall concepts, characters, and themes, etc. of the novel). It will be Bonnie's teeth on the bones of your manuscript.
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The winner will work one on one with Bonnie Grove via e-mail. The winner will consent to having the first paragraph of the work posted on Novel Matters in a before and after comparison. This means the winner will agree to have the first paragraph of your WIP appear on the blog, first as it was originally written, then in its edited form.

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Hemingway once said in an interview that he rewrote the ending to A Farewell to Arms 39 times before he was satisfied. Asked what the problem was, he said, "Getting the words right."

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Editing is all about getting the words right, but it's one of the more difficult aspects of being a writer. Our words mean a lot to us. After all, we put a good deal of thought into our word choices, as well as the meaning that lies behind them. As we write we can carry on our love affair with all those words. But after the writing comes the reality, where we give the most objective look we can to the work itself, free of the emotion that goes into the creation. That's where distance can be our strongest ally. By the time I finished writing Every Good & Perfect Gift I was saturated with the story, and wondered who in their right mind would want to read it. Because, as I wrote the book, instead of starting my writing session close to where I left off, I would read much of what I'd written the day, or week, before, as though I needed a running jump to get back in the story. It was one step forward, five steps back.

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It's unlikely you'll write a novel without looking back to some degree, but the way I was doing it was overkill. Before I could begin the editing process I needed some distance between myself and the manuscript. I had the luxury of time (code for "not under contract"), so I put it aside and went to work on my next project. Later, when I was ready to revise, I started with a fresh eye.

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Sol Stein (Stein on Writing) says, "The biggest difference between a writer and a would-be writer is their attitude toward rewriting. The writer ... looks forward to the opportunity of excising words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters that do not work and to improving those that do." Well, I'd say looks forward to is a stretch, but I do know that editing is a vital part of the process. Jim Scott Bell, in his own inimitable style, says, "Rewriting is what separates the real pros from the wannabes. I don't wannabe a wannabe. I wannabe a pro" (Plot & Structure). And so I pick up my red pen and go to work.

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Let's assume we've completed our substantive edits--so we're not polishing poop, as Bonnie so eloquently said--and now we're onto more specific edits. This is where we cut and/or replace. Following is a partial list of editing points I follow as I revise:

• Cut superfluous words, phrases, sentences--things that get in the way of the story. Use a machete.
• Replace words, phrases, sentences with the right words, phrases, sentences (ala Hemingway).
• No cliches! And there are way more than you think.
• Get rid of italics, even for internal dialogue in many cases. Get. Rid. Of. Them.
• Look for repetitious words and make one of them leave. For good.
• Passive voice should be gotten rid of.
• Any word or phrase I trip over is likely a word or phrase my reader will trip over. And that's a lawsuit waiting to happen.
• Know the rules before you break the rules. Okay, that one's just dumb. But you can look very bad if you break rules by accident. Break rules on purpose and you'll come across like Jodi Picoult. Not that she breaks rules, but wouldn't you like to be compared to her? Well now you can.
• Eliminate adjectives and adverbs that modify nouns and verbs that aren't doing their jobs--the adj's and adv's are merely crutches. Mark Twain said, "If you find an adjective, kill it!" And if they're on crutches it should be a piece of cake. Really, though, I don't want to get in trouble with the law or anything; just wanna write really good books.
• Look for "ing" phrases that I all too often begin sentences with (i.e., following my list, I eliminate "ing" phrases because I don't wannabe a wannabe).
• "Eliminate dialogue tags where possible," she said.
• She tapped her red pen on her chin. "Replace with action tags."
• Get out my list of qualifiers and intensifiers, then Search and Destroy the following (think Hunt for Red October): a bit, a little, absolutely, actually, basically, completely, extremely, just, kind of, mostly, naturally, often, ordinarily, particularly, perfectly, pretty (as an adverb), probably, quite, rather, really, so, some, somehow, somewhat, too, totally, truly, usually, very (not an exhaustive list--it just feels like it).
• When you come across an exclamation point, whack off the top. Make the writing strong enough to stand on the remaining dot.
• Find and replace "have got" in any form. No exceptions!
• Redline the redundant. The list in the Appendix of Write Tight is absolutely essential to this.

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These are some of the things I look for when I revise. (And I've had some fun sharing them with you.) They're not hard and fast rules, but guidelines. For example, I don't automatically, in every situation, delete an exclamation point as I'm editing, but I do stop to see if it's there because of weak writing. Same with some of the words in my qualifiers and intensifiers list. They may have a purpose, may help define a character for example. But again, when I come across one of those words in a search, I evaluate its purpose for being there. What editing points can you add to the list? Which points of mine would you eliminate?

Delayed Gratification ... Gotta Love It

We have a WINNER!

Day four of our 12 Days of Christmas contest is: Nancy January! E-mail me, Nancy, at novelmatters@gmailcom with your snail mail address and I'll get Raising Rain to you.

Five Golden Rings

I'll send Every Good & Perfect Gift and A Heavenly Christmas in Hometown to the person who can find an author's last name in today's clue: Five Golden Rings and name a title by that author -- OR -- submit a book title with one of the words from the clue along with the author's name. Submit your entry using the "Contact" button above. See complete details for our 12 Days of Christmas Book Giveaway Contest on our November 23 post. The winner will be announced Thursday afternoon, December 3.

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I can't tell you how many times I've said, "Just one more chapter," while reading a really good book, only to get to the end of that chapter, often in the wee hours of the morning, and finding I have to keep reading. Jessica Page Morrell describes such a novel as "unputdownable" (Between the Lines, pg. 37). For an author to write unputdownable fiction she must know how to create tension, and in fiction tension is vital. Like the proper drag on a fishing line, it keeps the reader hooked.

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Continuing with the theme of tension that we've been discussing the past few days, Sol Stein defines tension as "delicious moments of anxious uncertainty" (Stein on Writing, pg. 307). "Delicious moments of anxious uncertainty." What a fabulous definition of literary tension! To create such anxious uncertainty, there must be sharp opposition to your protagonist achieving his or her desires. Determine what would most thwart her objective, then give your antagonist the ability to do exactly that. And make sure there's an equal sense of urgency on both sides (Stein on Writing, pg. 83).

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James Scott Bell says, "[keep] in mind that worrying the reader is the primary goal of the middle of the book" (Plot & Structure, pg. 84). That's not an easy task when most of us are wired to solve everyone's problems, not prolong them, and the sooner the better. But as novelists that's exactly what we must do. Prolong, delay, frustrate. What a perfect -- and safe -- opportunity for our dark side to have its way. So how do you worry the reader sufficiently through that middle portion of the novel? By "(1) stretching the tension and (2) raising the stakes" (P&S, pg. 85). In order to stretch the tension there must first be a valid source of tension. Unless you're writing suspense, mystery, etc., it doesn't have to be physical danger. Opposing goals work just as well. Once you settle on a source of tension, Bell says you must "slow down. ... As you write the scene, alternate between action, thoughts, dialogue, and description" (P&S, pg. 86) so that tension is created, not only chapter by chapter, but line by line. Plot & Structure is one of my favorite books on writing. I highly recommend you read and reread it as you construct your novels.

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In another of my favorite writing manuals, Elizabeth George says you create tension by "creating scenes in which you lay down -- but do not answer! -- dramatic questions. You do this by making sure that if you do answer a dramatic question in a scene as the novel progresses, you've already laid down another" (Write Away, pg. 43) Overlap sources of tension as you weave your story and spread it around indiscriminately among your characters. This not only achieves the goal of stretching the tension, but it creates depth to your story as well, and really gives the reader something to dive into.

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For sure, it takes more than unanswered questions to keep a reader turning the page. There must be characters we care about, a plot line that engages, and dynamic dialogue. But one of the key factors is knowing how and for how long to delay gratification. Resist the urge to "fix" everything for a character who's in trouble. Continually frustrate your characters' objectives. Don't tie up each chapter ending in a perfect little bow. As much as possible, keep the line taut. Don't give the reader a place to say, "Ah, at last, a place where I can close the book for a while." No, no, no. Don't give them space even to catch their breath, not till the final scene. In so doing you provide a good read for your audience, but even more, you create for them a memorable reading experience.

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What have you read lately that kept you on the line? How did the author achieve that and keep you turning the pages?

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Between the Lines, Plot & Structure and Write Away can be found on our Resources page.

Wish You Were Here

We're sitting here in Sharon's office, Bonnie, Debbie, Katy, and Sharon, in anticipation of a great weekend in the California redwoods where we'll meet up with Patti and Latayne. This will be the first time all six of us have met out of cyberspace, and the first time Bonnie and Latayne have been to the Mount Hermon Writers conference. If the six of us have as much fun as the four of us already are, we're in for a fun-filled five days!


Some of the things we are looking forward to: meeting new friends, connecting with old ones, face time with our agents, the gorgeous scenery, the workshops, good advice, catching up on other writers' journeys, seeing writers get new contracts, discovering new things about the industry, hearing what editors are looking for, sharpening our marketing skills, going to the book signing on Monday night, getting ice cream at the soda fountain, enjoying lattes in the Fireside Room, staying up late, late and laughing together, seeing our heroes, and James Scott Bell doing the "Hairy Man Song," and most of all, being in the same room with like-minded people who love to let their artistic light shine.

We hope to get acquainted with some of our readers from Novel Matters who are attending this weekend. Please come up and introduce yourselves.

Every Novel Matters reader who gives us a card will be entered into the April giveaway drawing, which is Latayne's brand new release, Latter Day Cipher. Please write on the back that you follow Novel Matters.

Be sure to stop by the blog on April 15th for a Speak-With-the-Author chat with Latayne celebrating the release of her new novel.