traditional publishing Archives - Author K. Williams

Page 1 of Your Book

March 26, 2018 By Captain Maiel Leave a Comment

Writing the first page of your book will be the hardest part of the whole project, surmounting even line edits. It may even be worse than writing the blurb for the back of the cover! So what do you do when you have an idea but can’t get started?

First, you’ll need to get started anyway. If you plot, spend time creating your outline. It will help the creativity to flow and hold your mind in the game. Take notes along the way. Don’t just write up a skeletal-chalk-drawing that will be indecipherable later. Sometimes, when we’ve stepped out of the moment, context is lost, meaning fades, and we’re left confused and lost in a wilderness. Those notes are going to be mighty useful! This could also be the point you realize you didn’t have anything after all. But, that’s a good thing! You can file your notes and come back when you do have it! This way, you’re free to pursue another project on your check list.

If you’re still keen on writing, just start. It doesn’t matter if you feel that the scenes in your head come much later. Write them. This is where your brain needs to start. It may feel chaotic, but it won’t matter in the end, because you’ll have to go back many times. In those times, you’ll come up with new ideas. Linear storytelling isn’t necessary. What will inspire the rest of the story is sure to come during this writing period as well as future phases.

Bottom line: just write. No matter how terrible.

When you have a substantial draft prepared, or perhaps the whole thing has shaped up, go back to that first page and review it. Now is when you have most of the story down, and are likely so immersed that writing the introduction will be far easier. It’s a bonus if you gave it a try already. A few things to keep in mind: don’t be married to what you put down. It may need major overhauling. You will edit the first paragraphs relentlessly. Don’t give up if it doesn’t shape up in a couple tries. Ask others for help. Survey readers, colleagues, friends, and family.

What you’re looking for is to hook readers in about 5 lines, without being verbose or falling into cliche. You will establish: point of view, setting, character, and so on. the next four or five lines should cement the contract between you and your reader. It’s a pitch and reward. Don’t keep pitching, unless unavoidable. No one likes a commercial. Everyone wants you to get on with the program.

To better understand, view the first couple of paragraphs as your love letter to the would be reader you’re courting. If you’re not willing to give it your all, then don’t expect the reader to invest time in you. It’s like any other relationship: give and take must be fair. If you’re not writing it for them, then I am not sure why you’re bothering to pursue publication, as that’s the point of getting into print and making all this fuss. If you’re not publishing, then none of this matters. You can do whatever you want and squirrel it away.

That brings me to one of the most important lessons a writer needs to learn to have success in today’s world. Drop the ego. Certainly this is your work and you should have direction over it. However, allowing your ego to become an obstacle to your goal is a serious problem. Not only can the ego alienate the connections you make, it can make getting the business of writing done improbable. The work will only be that much harder and it will not be as fulfilling. A tough ego can alienate those you need to work with to get your project finished, such as agents, editors, and publishers, not to mention readers. The ego can also do substantial damage to your psyche (yes, even though it’s part of it). That can leave you depressed and hating the job.

Setting your ego aside allows you to spot flaws in the work. It also assists you in writing the first page that you need in order to attract readers, and it will retain a community around you. They are your readers and your resource. Be charitable. You can still remain separate, if you are shy. You can still be firm if you must. Kindness and humility are fantastic attributes, and highly prized.

Learn to recognize when your ego is crowding out the things you need, and learn how to keep it well under control.

Now, about writing that love letter…

The first page may not take shape for several drafts. If you drew out the first draft of Blue Honor and compared it to the published edition, you’d see vastly different pages. Hammering out just the right words takes patience and perseverance. Massage the paragraphs and shape them with each edit. Stop watching the clock because you set a deadline for publication. Don’t do that to yourself or the work. Allow the work to rise in the time that it takes. (Now, I’m not saying that procrastinating is a good idea either.) Set realistic goals to meet. Take care of yourself, because you are the tool you’re using to manage and implement your skill.

Some tips to help:

1. Write. Just start.
2. Come back to it later when you have more to work with and are better immersed.
3. Edit several drafts.
4. This is a love letter to win the hearts of your intended audience.
5. Ego check.
6. Edit again!
7. Have peers and readers review the introduction and provide feedback. (You could send it out on your newsletter, in Facebook groups, and use a survey to frame focus the answers.)
8. Let an editor have at it. Then look again.
9. Let it rest for a month or more, and have a final look.

These steps can also apply to your book blurb. If you thought page 1 was hard, just wait until you tackle the dreaded back of the book blurb!

Have You Seen My Resources Tab?

March 19, 2018 By Captain Maiel Leave a Comment

Click it under ‘Contact.’

I get asked a lot about the writing process. What I think people are actually asking is about how I did it—published or wrote the books. I say this because, back when I was trying to find a way as an author, I was searching for a mentor, connections inside the writing world. I had those same questions. Thus, I don’t mind answering, as I can now be the person I once sought.

Links and Resources is an information page pertaining to my process on the writing journey. These are the sites that I frequent while working on or promoting a new work. An author must make use of all possible resources available to promote a work and enhance their skills. The tools and resources can be as simple as your favorite ‘Baby Names‘ site from which to give your character’s name more meaning, or pages on common cultural symbols where you can find just the right object to add depth to a story line. However, it’s not always convenient to dig up these items. Who has the time?

The items included on the resources tab were collected over years of my career. I believe in helping new writers as they make this same journey. The wisdom of working with agents and editors, and coming to the decision to be an independent artist is something that needs to be passed down. Indie publishing is the future in our high tech and connected society. Traditional routes still exist, but have become impossible to accomplish, let alone navigate without arbitrary tenures.

It is my hope this information will set the would be author on the right path to fulfilling their career goals, regardless of the path they choose.

I get emails all the time from institutions begging to be included in my list. If I haven’t used the site, it doesn’t make the cut without affirmations from close colleagues. It’s just too important not to waste your time. False leads are one of the biggest trajectory killers an individual faces in pursuing their goals.

Now that you’ve browsed the page, save it in your bookmarks. Don’t forget to subscribe, because I’ll include tips on what you should be doing in regards to your writing. Missing out on those insights could hold you back.

Peer to peer resources are your best bet to a successful writing career.

The Importance of a Good Book Cover

April 3, 2017 By Captain Maiel Leave a Comment

Don’t judge a book by its cover is a nice thought that works best when applying it to people. However, it just simply falls short in the case of physical objects. As much as we’d like to pretend that we’re sophisticated and egalitarian, human beings use their visual sense to assess an object under consideration for purchase. Books are not exempt.

Beside poorly chosen quotes slapped on hyper-sexual images, boring covers or plain bad art won’t help sell your book to your audience. Spending time marketing my own work, I’ve come across a lot of examples that just make me cringe. You know what I mean (or, I hope that you do), because there are sites that collect similar quotes and images to mock them. That won’t happen here. I’m not going to single anyone out. After all, we’re all trying to do the best that we can with what we have. Writing skills improve with time and perseverance, and the means to produce a book hopefully become more available.

My advice to writers who struggle with the means to produce their work independently is to do the best that you can. Regard the cost as an investment in your business, because once you start publishing, even before publication, you are a business. If you can handle a small personal loan, it might be an option, but only do so from a reputable local bank. Keep it small, so you can afford to pay the investment back.

What you’ll do with the money is pay a good editor, proofreader, cover designer, and formatting specialist. If you can’t do the formatting yourself, it’s usually a small expense to be paid to someone who can (a few hundred at the high end). Formatting can be learned, but it’s touchy on Kindle. Trust me, my experience has pushed me to get someone else to help here. If you want a recommendation for a tool, check out Sigil. Do not, however, try to do your editing or proofreading on your own. You simply cannot do it yourself and should not, no matter how good of a writer you are. The same goes for designing your cover.

Cover design should be done by an artist who gets marketing and is not just a great artist. Color schemes, fonts, and layout matter beyond words. It shapes the impression that the book wants to give to the would-be reader, so that they take the book home. Despite what you want to believe, the cover is your pitch to the reader, not so much the blurb, but the image. Yes, the image is why your book will get picked up off the shelf. If it looks like a grade-school student doodled it, you will be passed over—granted someone might pick it up to mock it, but it won’t get bought. The principle of this extends to shopping online for books. Now, once they have it in hand, that blurb will be the part of the pitch that seals the deal. A tight cover design will make that blurb’s pimples less visible.

Blurb writing is an art in itself. You could consider reaching out to pre-readers, your editor, and colleagues to help you write it, even going so far as to hiring someone to write it on your behalf. Promoters and marketers who you’ll be using to beef up the sales of your release are a good resource for finding someone capable of this work. Likely it will run you a few hundred dollars, even though it’s only a couple paragraphs. But, if you’re serious about getting your book off the ground, keep in mind that a book blurb is the second, back up pitch that you need to guarantee sales. Don’t rely on good-enough.

This cover works for this book because it’s content reflective: YA, first person, biographical. It’s supposed to look like a girl’s diary. This design would flop on another book.

If you want to see examples of why this all matters, you need look no further than mainstream publishing. The big houses are having to cut back on the costs of production in order to afford to continue dominating the market. Still, they have many decades of experience in publishing along with well-educated marketers to put them on top. Their prestige alone keeps the best coming to work for them and top authors publishing through them. Because of the decline of sales in recent decades, as mentioned above, the big houses are cutting corners on design as well as focusing more on guaranteed acquisitions (analyzing the market to see what will sell, such as the hot level on vampires that gave us Twilight).
Mainstream publishing houses also hire artists to work in house, and they’re paid salaries. They’re good at what they do, but they’re not independent artists, which is a much more difficult feat to pull off. The need to be better than the average artist is a prerequisite in independent artistry. Otherwise, you’ll be starving to death and not able to produce work for sale. Is it the salary that makes artists complacent? Not at all, because successful and sustained artists who are independent make enough money to live on, but they continue to innovate and push the boundaries. Rather, it is probably the structure of the publishing company, where art has to go through vetting stages and non-artists have a say in what is produced. It’s the loss of independence.

In the indie publishing world, authors support a wide-variety of independent workers with each publication. They will work alone with the artists to design their cover, and the process is much more open to creativity and results in a better product. Indie books also have to outshine their mainstream competition. The level of work done on them is to a higher standard.

“A cover beguiled you
into buying the book.” – @Woelf20

The reason that I feel indie publishing is rising while traditional avenues are stagnating, is the fact that innovation thrives in the struggle maintained by independent production. More creative answers to the same questions are necessary to outbid the competition. The writing was once thought to have dramatically less quality, but that is no longer the case as the authors have realized and grown into the expectations of their art.

Are there still problems? Yes, of course, but there are also issues among traditionally published works: poorly proofread, lazy editing, and bad designs. So, skipping the indie pile in the belief it’s a poor quality product has become nonsense. Most readers cannot tell an appropriately produced independent novel from one put out by a traditional publisher.

In addition to this, independent authors support other independent artists. You can be sure that your money is going to hardworking artists and not corporations who use them for profit. Think about this: traditional publishers require your work to be edited and proofread before you submit it for consideration (which you will need to pay out of pocket for), so what are their editors on staff earning that salary for? Did you know that you’ll earn considerably less per book sold through a traditional publisher than you will publishing independently? And, that your sales depend on you marketing your work, because they will not be investing in that? It’s up to you to prove to them that you can sell books. Part of the consideration for signing is your reach with a ready audience. Don’t expect them to throw up billboards or place ads in papers. You’ll have to pay for that yourself, too. If you don’t have a product with the right look, you’ll struggle. Don’t look to the publisher to make the best decision for your cover, either. Unless your contract specifies, you might not have a say.

Why are authors still publishing with the big guys?

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K’s Concise Guide to Getting Published.

November 4, 2014 By Captain Maiel Leave a Comment

Becoming a writer has been a difficult journey and I cannot guarantee results or success by this short and to the point guide. However, I can impart how I did it and what might be a good outline to follow for other authors willing to hike the thousand miles through hilly, dense forest only to face a desert of a mountain range and still more climbing to be had. Do it for you because its what you want. Do it because you have stories to be told, because a story told to yourself is not a story told. Do it because you feel the calling. Without further adieu, here is K’s Concise Guide to Getting Published.

1. First and foremost you must decide and understand the commitment to bringing a book to fruition. Do you really want to do this? Is being a writer, novelist, author or whatever you title yourself the end result of the work you wish to undertake? If yes, proceed. If not, then carry on with what you were doing, the rest of this is going to be useless to you.

2. Finish school. I don’t mean just graduate high school or secondary or whatever it’s called these days. I mean, go to college for a four year degree. The craft of writing is never more perfected than by writing under the required non-fiction papers you will be forced to hatch by the 100’s. Not to mention the very informative reading you will be required to undertake. Here you will develop your voice. So, select coursework applicable to the field – English as a major and the topic on which you wish to write (such as history or biology) as your minor. You can always double major if you see fit. Why? Because, reading on your topic makes you an expert and gets you hearing the various voices in current and past writing. It’s a spring board to the writer you’re seeking inside you. In addition, I suggest continuing into graduate work, because this kind of work, especially at a writing intensive college is going to hone your skills.

3. While you finish school, be sure to live and learn — Experience. Anything and everything within limits, of course. The more you experience, the more you can write about with authority. You’ve been there. Watch a lot of films too, ultimately they start as writing. Someone, somewhere penned the ungainly things and then cried tears of sorrow at being forgotten behind the director and actor who just showed up after the big idea work was done. 🙁

4. Write the thing. Sit and write. No excuses. You wanted to do this, so you will find the time. Saying you have no time, you might need to return to step one and review your course. If that offends you, then you’re not going to like what else I have to say on this and other matter. Writing takes time. Words don’t end up on paper by psychic will. How long will it take? Depends on you and how fleshed out in your head the story is.

5. Prepare your skin. No one is going to praise you. They’re going to shred your work like cheese for their pizza. If they do praise you, all well and good, but you’ll never grow beyond the abilities you display in your first attempt and you must want to do better. Criticism of your writing is good for you. It shows where you are weak, and this is no time to imagine that you’re a Pulitzer Prize writer. Ego must be set aside. You want to be a writer, then criticism is part of writing and what makes the good writers good. Anyone of them will tell you how invaluable this is. So, with your head on right, forge ahead. Good feedback on your work will show weak spots and that is where you concentrate.

6. Get and editor, before you seek criticism from professional sources. So you finally finished that monster book project that’s been wrestling out of you since high school. Awesome job! Now you need to find an editor. Not your Aunt Sally or Uncle Steve who is into art criticism. You must go out and find someone who makes a living doing this work. It’s going to cost you, so be prepared. When engaging an editor, be sure you review their credentials (Predators and Editors is a good source to show the scam artists). Someone who charges you per word, might be scamming. Someone who charges according to page is more like it and the charge should be reasonable to the skill that is being employed. Don’t expect to pay around a $100, unless this is a very short piece. I see reasonable charges as between $1k and 3.

So why do you need an editor? You need an editor because no one will look at your typo laden, grammar monster after the first three pages of faux pas send them packing. An editor is a professional of the field. They understand the format and grammar acceptable and can help you perfect your work so that when you go out into the world seeking an agent, you will land one. It’s quite refreshing to open a book with all its ‘to’s’ in order (to, too, and two). However, you will never catch all typos, so take heart, this is what 2nd and 3rd editions are for. 😀

Oh, and there are a couple different kinds of editors: Content editor and line editor. Know the difference. Content editors critique your work and build the story with you. It can be pretty costly. Line editors are those who work on a finished product making sure the grammar is in order. If your budget is tight, save your pennies for the latter because that is what is going to matter a lot when you’re shopping that manuscript around. Some publishers will want to alter your stories a bit even though they are signing you on, and that is because they want to make sure it’s the best book it can be for their bottom line. These are content edits and they could make or break your contract (see step #10).

7. Traditional publishing or Indie? Yep. It’s time for another deep introspection. For those who decide to go Indie, such as myself, you just simply need find a press that meets your requirements. For those who want to be traditionally published, you have a much longer road paved with the tears of writers long dead and unpublished ahead of you. Best of luck to you, but keep in mind that the gatekeepers at the publishing houses are hard-hearted. They talk money, not art. So get your business cap on. As for Indie publishing…you may have issues with it being called vanity publishing and the screwballs all over the internet calling people self-indulgent and egotistical for doing this, but what are traditionally published authors doing? Is it not still the same drives that push them to publish, and what is vain about wanting to tell a story? Those voices are the voices of “don’t do it, cause I couldn’t and I will be crushed if I have to watch another person succeed where I failed cause I gave up on me.” Don’t give up on you for their sake. It is not vain. You’re a writer. This is what you do. Self-indulgence is the point of producing art. You indulge your self to produce with your hands and mind as in any other labor.

From here on this post pertains to the traditional publishing path writer…

8. Agent. There is no way in the order of things that your book will get off the slush pile into the hands of a real editor at a big name (or even small name) publishing house without this artisan of the schmooze. They’re magicians and just as money oriented as the people they’re going to take your work to. They however, are not so hard lined. They like art. They like reading. They love books and writers and artists. They like to get authors situated to one side of them and a publishing house on the other to live their labor of love and win a 15% commission (don’t pay out for copies and mailings, that is supposed to come from their commission – which if you sign a good deal will be plenty, because they do this for several authors all year long).

9. Patience. So you’ve landed an agent who loves your work and is willing to try and place it with a house. Being here is very exciting. You’re on the precipice. However, you must be prepared to wait and, in some cases, even fail. Some books, though well written and fantastic, cannot make it to the market because publishers are niche oriented. You’ll hear, “We’re not sure how to place it–romance or historical or literature…” “Wish this got to me sooner, I already signed a book which will require a lot of work.” And so you wait. You might wait weeks, you might wait months, you might wait years and you might wait until hell freezes over. (Remember that you don’t have to wait until your golden years, you still have the Indie option which, point of fact, is overtaking the publishing industry with great results).

10. You’re offered a contract. Lawyer up. You know why, my smart cookie. Lawyer up. Congratulations.

Now you get to move onto the next lesson. Oh, yeah, by the way you’re not done with the hard work yet. Does marketing mean anything to you? To be continued…