About Writing
BY MICHAEL LaROCCA
I'll tell you everything I know about
improving your writing, publishing it electronically and in print, and
promoting it after the sale.
Two questions you should ask:
- What will it cost me?
- What does this Michael LaRocca guy
know about it?
Answer #1 - It won't cost you a thing.
The single most important bit of advice I can give you, and I say it
often, is don't pay for publication.
My successes have come from investing
time. Some of it was well spent, but most of it was wasted. It costs me
nothing to share what I've learned. It costs you nothing to read it
except some of your time.
Answer #2 - "Michael LaRocca has been
researching the publishing field for over ten years."
This quote, from an ezine (electronic
newsletter) called Authors Wordsmith, was a kind way of saying
I've received a lot of rejections. Also, my "research" required 20
years.
But in my "breakout" year (2000), I
finished writing four books and scheduled them all for publication in
2001. Then I spent almost a year as an editor and Author Development
Specialist for one of my publishers.
After my first book was published, both
my publishers closed. Two weeks and three publishers later, I was back
on track. All four books were republished, and a fifth will be released
in 2004. Written in 2003, no rejections.
See how much faster it was the second
time around? That's because I learned a lot.
- 2004 EPPIE Award finalist
- 2002 EPPIE Award finalist
- Listed by
Writers Digest as
one of The Best 101 Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002
- Sime-Gen Readers Choice Awards for
Favorite Author (Nonfiction & Writing) and Favorite Book (Nonfiction &
Writing)
- 1982 Who's Who In American Writing.
Excuse me for bragging, but it beats
having you think I'm unqualified.
Also, I found more editing jobs. That's
what I do when I'm not writing, doing legal transcription, or teaching
English in China (my new home). But the thing is, if I'd become an
editor before learning how to write, I'd have stunk.
I'll tell you what's missing from this
course. What to write about, where I get my ideas from, stuff like that.
Maybe I don't answer this question because I think you should do it your
way, not mine. Or maybe because I don't know how I do it. Or maybe both.
Once you've done your writing bit, this
course will help you with all the other stuff involved in being a
writer. Writing involves wearing at least four different hats. Writer,
editor, publication seeker, post-sale self-promoter.
Here's what I can tell you about my
writing.
Sometimes a story idea just comes to me
out of nowhere and refuses to leave me alone until I write it. So, I do.
And, whenever I read a book that really
fires me up, I find myself thinking, "I wish I could write like that."
So, I just keep trying. I'll never write the best, but I'll always write
my best. And get better every time. That's the "secret" of the writing
"business," same as any other business. Always deliver the goods.
I read voraciously, a habit I recommend
to any author who doesn't already have it. You'll subconsciously pick up
on what does and doesn't work. Characterization, dialogue, pacing, plot,
story, setting, description, etc. But more importantly, someone who
doesn't enjoy reading will never write something that someone else will
enjoy reading.
I don't write "for the market." I know
I can't, so I just write for me and then try to find readers who like
what I like. I'm not trying to whip up the next bestseller and get rich.
Not that I'd complain. Nope, I have to write what's in my heart, then go
find a market later. It makes marketing a challenge at times, but I
wouldn't have it any other way.
When you write, be a dreamer. Go nuts.
Know that you're writing pure gold. That fire is why we write.
An author who I truly admire, Kurt
Vonnegut, sweats out each individual sentence. He writes it, rewrites
it, and doesn't leave it alone until it's perfect. Then when he's done,
he's done.
I doubt most of write like that. I
don't. I let it fly as fast as my fingers can move across the paper or
keyboard, rushing to capture my ideas before they get away. Later, I
change and shuffle and slice.
James Michener claims that he writes
the last sentence first, then has his goal before him as he writes his
way to it.
Then there's me. No outline whatsoever.
I create characters and conflict, spending days and weeks on that task,
until the first chapter really leaves me wondering "How will this end?"
Then my characters take over, and I'm as surprised as the reader when I
finish my story.
Some authors set aside a certain number
of hours every day for writing, or a certain number of words. In short,
a writing schedule.
Then there's me. No writing for three
or six months, then a flurry of activity where I forget to eat, sleep,
bathe, change the cat's litter... I'm a walking stereotype. To assuage
the guilt, I tell myself that my unconscious is hard at work. As
Hemingway would say, long periods of thinking and short periods of
writing.
I've shown you the extremes in writing
styles. I think most authors fall in the middle somewhere. But my point
is, find out what works for you. You can read about how other writers do
it, and if that works for you, great. But in the end, find your own way.
That's what writers do.
Just don't do it halfway.
If you're doing what I do, writing a
story that entertains and moves you, then you will find readers who
share your tastes. For some of us that means a niche market and for
others it means regular appearances on the bestseller list.
Writing is a calling, but publishing is
a business. Remember that AFTER you've written your manuscript. Not
during.
I've told you how I write. For me.
The next step is self-editing. Fixing
all the mistakes I made, that I can identify, in my rush to write it
before my Muse took a holiday. Several rewrites. Running through it
repeatedly with a fine-toothed comb.
Then what?
There are stories that get rejected
because the potential publisher hates them, but far more are shot down
for other reasons. Stilted dialogue. Boring descriptions. Weak
characters. Underdeveloped story. Unbelievable or inconsistent plot.
Sloppy writing.
That's what you have to fix.
After my 15-year hiatus from
writing, I started by using Free Online Creative Writing Workshops. What
I needed most was input from strangers. After all, once you're
published, your readers will be strangers. Every publisher you submit to
will be a stranger. What will they think? I was far too close to my
writing to answer that.
Whenever I got some advice, I
considered it. Some I just threw out as wrong, or because I couldn't
make the changes without abandoning part of what made the story special
to me. Some I embraced. But the point is, I decided. It was my writing.
After a time, I didn't feel the need
for the workshops anymore. I'm fortunate enough to have a wife whose
advice I will always treasure, and after a while that was all I needed.
But early on, it would've been unfair to ask her to read my drivel. (Not
that I didn't anyway.)
I don't know how far along you are in
your writing, but if you've never used a workshop, I keep
a list of them.
Your goal when you self-edit is to get
your book as close to "ready to read" as you possibly can. You want your
editor to find what you overlooked, not what you didn't know about.
To that end, I offer two resources.
Online Tools to Help You Write contains links to online quotations,
grammar and style guides, dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauruses, scam
warnings, writer groups, copyright stuff, etc.
Common Writing Mistakes contains a list of the most common mistakes
I've seen in my years as an editor. I still reread it from time to time
just so I don't forget.
Your story is your story. You write it
from your heart, and when it looks like something you'd enjoy reading,
you set out to find a publisher who shares your tastes. What you don't
want is for that first reader to lose sight of what makes your story
special because you've bogged it down with silly mistakes.
Authors don't pay to be published. They
are paid for publication. Always. It's just that simple. And later, I'll
tell you where to get some free editing.
But there's a limit to how much editing
you can get without paying for it. Do you need more than that? I don't
know because I've never seen your writing. But if you evaluate it
honestly, I Think you'll know the answer.
As an editor, I've worked with some
authors who simply couldn't self-edit. A non-native English speaker, a
guy who slept through English class, whatever. To them, maybe paying for
editing was an option. This isn't paying for publication. This is paying
for a service, training. Just like paying to take a Creative Writing
class at the local community college.
By the way, I don't believe creativity
can be taught. Writing, certainly. I took my Creative Writing class in
high school, free, and treasure it. But I already had the creativity, or
else it would've been a waste of the teacher's time and mine.
If you hire an editor worthy of the
name, you should learn from that editor how to self-edit in the future.
In my case it took two tries, because the first editor was a rip-off
artist charging over ten times market value for incomplete advice.
That editor, incidentally, is named
Edit Ink, and they're listed on many of the "scam warning" sites
mentioned at Useful Links For Authors. They took kickbacks from every
fake agent who sent them a client. (I'll talk about fake agents later.)
If you choose to hire an editor, check
price and reputation. And consider that you might never make enough
selling your books to get back what you pay that editor. Do you care?
That's your decision.
The first, most important step on the
road to publication is to make your writing the best it can be.
Publication
My goal is to be published in both
mediums, ebook and print. There are some readers who prefer ebooks, and
some who prefer print books. The latter group is much larger, but those
publishers are harder to sell your writing to. I want both, because I
want all the readers I can get.
Thus, I advocate something of a
stepping-stone approach. Publish electronically with a quality place,
enjoy the benefits of free editing and almost instant gratification
regarding publishing time.
Later, if you think you can sell your
book to a traditional print publisher, you have a professionally edited
manuscript to submit.
Before you epublish, check the contract
to be sure you can publish the edited work in print later.
If you know your book just plain won't
ever make it into traditional print, print-on-demand (POD) is an option.
Some of my books fall into this category. The best epublishers will
simultaneously publish your work electronically and in POD format, at no
cost to you.
A lot of authors swear by
self-publication, but the prospect just plain scares me. All that promo,
all that self-editing, maybe driving around the countryside with a back
seat full of books. I'm a writer, not a salesman. But, maybe you're
different.
I self-published once, in the pre-POD
days. Mom handled the sales. I had fun and broke even. With POD, at
least it's cheaper to self-publish than it was in 1989.
If you're flying solo, POD can range
anywhere from US$99 to over $1000. Don't pay the higher price! Price
shop. Also, remember that POD places publish any author who pays, and do
no marketing.
Print Publishing vs Electronic Publishing - This site provides a
comparison of the two mediums. Each has plusses and minuses. Even if you
already know what epublishing is, take a look.
Electronic Publishers - A list of the ones I believe are reputable
and my criteria for selecting them. Plus, a link to award-winning author
Piers Anthony's totally excellent in-depth analysis of many more
epublishers than I'll ever list.
How To Break Into Print Publishing - If you're at the beginning of
my stepping-stone approach, seeking an epublisher, you'll probably just
want to bookmark this one for a year or two. That's fine, because it's
not going anywhere. I plan to use it myself in a year or two. If, on the
other hand, you're ready for traditional print, use it now and I wish
you success!
Print-On-Demand Publishing - What is it? Should you use it? If so,
how? What to beware of if you do.
Promoting Your Published Writing
It doesn't matter how you publish your
book. Self-published, epublished, POD, or traditional print publishing
from an absolute powerhouse. Marketing falls largely on you, and the
same things always work. Book signings, interviews in the local
newspapers and on radio.
Start with
Kidon Media-Link. It will allow you to look up all the local media
outlets in your area that have websites.
If you write to them all, you're a
spammer. Plus, it'll take ages. Look for the ones with a legitimate
interest and fire away.
If you find a stale URL, and I think
you will, look for the name of that media outlet at some place like
Google. Spend some time looking for the right press contacts, spend some
time writing your press release, and do what you can.
Most of these sites list email, snail
mail, and phone calls. Since I live in China, I've only used email.
Book reviews, author interviews, book
listing sites, and book contests are something we can all do, regardless
of where we live. Again, I'm going to give you some web pages to visit.
Pages where I keep my resources, so I don't lose them. Some of the sites
I mention do ebooks, and some do not. The POD option can help e-authors
here, but balance cost vs. likelihood of gaining enough readers to
offset that.
Some are ezines and some are websites.
Some are printed newsletters, some are printed magazines, and some are
newspapers. This is just a starting point. If you visit them all, and
you have time for more promotion, you can find many more.
Okay, let's get back to my overseas
angle. Aside from two radio interviews and a seminar in Hong Kong, and
some emailed press releases to the LOCAL media back in the US which may
or may not have succeeded in anything, my marketing has come from the
Internet.
I have a website. I have a newsletter.
I'm giving away a free ebook, the essence of which you're reading now.
You found me somehow, right?
Here's the type of message I receive
often in email. To be more precise, in spam.
If a million people see your ad, and
you get 1% of them, that's 10,000 readers and therefore $15,000 profit
and you only paid $1000 for those million addresses.
NO!! It doesn't work that way. Need I
use the words dot-com bust?
My website is free. My newsletter is
free. I don't buy mailing lists, I don't harvest email addresses, and I
don't spam. I want interested traffic, not just sheer numbers.
Do you think the Phoenicians tried to
sell sails to people a thousand miles from the water?
Internet marketing isn't a replacement
for the methods mentioned above, but a complement to them. And by using
it, I got you here.
Your goal in marketing is this. There
are certainly people in the world who like what you like. And since you
like your book, they probably will too.
But you have to find those readers and
make them interested, without spamming them and without just "playing
the numbers game."
If you're an e-author, let me state the
obvious. Nobody buys ebooks who doesn't have Internet access. Do they?
So you definitely need a website.
Traditional print authors need websites
too. Even blockbuster authors like J.R. Rowling and Stephen King, who I
doubt could garner any more name recognition, have websites. So does
every long-established inescapable monstro-business like McDonalds and
Coke.
Okay, those folks pay web designers.
I'm not doing that. I can't generate those kinds of sales figures. And
yes, I've formerly been employed as an HTML programmer. But you can
write your own website without even learning HTML if you want. It's no
harder than writing a manuscript with a word processor.
It won't be super-flashy like the big
boys, but it'll communicate the information. Remember, you can
communicate. You're an author! And that's what keeps people coming back
to a website after the thrill of the flash wears off. Information.
Content. Your specialty.
I consider my website and my newsletter
to be successful, and I've created a free email course to analyze how
they got that way. Yes, there are legitimate ways to bring traffic to
your website and your newsletter. Not massive numbers overnight, but
slow steady growth over the long term.
Closing Thoughts
We've been talking about soft sell.
Now, at the end of my free workshop,
I'll tell you about 2 URLs that I think will help you and one that
won't. You can decide if any are worth a visit.
After that, I'll get back to the
lesson.
Books OnLine Directory - You've been to parts of it already and seen
that it delivers something you're looking for. (I hope.) Don't forget to
go back from time to time.
Mad About Books - My free weekly email newsletter will keep you
up-to-date on the latest info as I find it. Plus, it has a certain goofy
charm that the website lacks.
Both URLs mention my books, but in the
background. I hope you'll look one day out of curiosity or because you
really like my generous nature, but it's not mandatory. Soft sell.
From Watha, NC, USA to Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China - This site doesn't
mention writing at all. I wrote it for my students. I teach English in
China, and this is where I tell all about it. Along with a hefty helping
of personal history and photos. How I got here, how I quit a job via
email to marry a lovely Australian, dog and cat photos, stuff like that.
Just for fun. It won't help you a bit.
Now let's get back to your writing.
That's why you're here.
Here's something you've heard before.
When your manuscript is rejected — and it will be — remember that you
aren't being rejected. Your manuscript is.
One reader took me to task for that
statement, claiming he'd never been rejected in his life. I'm very happy
for him. But why, if I may be so bold as to ask, would he need advice on
How To Get Published? I'd rather he write some advice so I can hang up
my "helper guy" hat and learn from a master.
But I digress. You aren't being
rejected, I was saying. Your manuscript is.
Did you ever hang up the phone on a
telemarketer, delete spam, or close the door in the face of a salesman?
Of course, and yet that salesman just moves on to the next potential
customer. He knows you're rejecting his product, not him.
Okay, in my case I'm rejecting both,
but I'd never do that to an author. Neither will a publisher or an
agent. All authors tell other authors not to take rejection personally,
and yet we all do. Consider it a target to shoot for, then. Just keep
submitting, and just keep writing.
The best way to cope with waiting times
is to "submit and forget," writing or editing other stuff while the time
passes.
I would wish you luck in your
publishing endeavors, but I know there's no luck involved. It's all
skill and diligence.
Michael LaRocca was born in North
Carolina, USA. He teaches English at a university in Shaoxing, Zhejiang
Province, China. Five of his books were published in 2002, and another
is scheduled for publication in 2004. He has been involved with the
publication of almost 200 novels. Visit
his website, which was listed in
Writers Digest’s "The
101 Best Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002."
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