Writers in the Storm

by Tiffany Lawson Inman

I know, I know. I usually get on here the last Friday of the month and stretch all of your neurons in 6 directions at once. (you are very welcome!)  Today’s post is a little different.

I’ve got my brain buzzing with wrapping up Madness to Method , revving up for 77 Secrets to Writing YA Fiction that Sells, editing a paranormal, and going to this weekends’ ACFW retreat.

What does that mean?

Tiff’s busy brain is getting a little punchy.  It also means I’m unlocking a few creative doors that only open when I’ve reached this point of sleep deprivation.

Yeah!

Today, I’ll be using America’s Next Top Model as a tool to teach you about writing great fiction.  Let’s make it impossible for the Pulitzer committee to pass us by next year. Sound good to you?

Without further ado...

1.  Modeling is More Than Mastering the Beauty Shot.

Make sure your writing has more depth than just good bone structure and make-up.  You want readers to think about these characters and your story long after they read the first page.

2. Flexibility in Your Posing.

Expand your body language repertoire – fresh writing is so much more than shaking heads and raising eyebrows and crossing arms and hands on hips.  Give us something we’ve never read before.  It can be done.  Tyra Banks coined the word Smize as being the smile with your eyes.  What kind of body language or facial emotion will you write that is totally unique to your characters?

3. “Ugly-pretty” Shot.

There is something to these stories we are drawn to. Are you showing and using your character’s flaws to your advantage?  How are you presenting them to the reader? Does it make us want to look closer or turn away?

4.  Play the Awkwardness and You Will Book More Jobs.

Unless the genre begs for over sexed or over quippy, pun, and cliché filled language, work to write natural dialogue and prose.  You don’t want your readers giggling about how cutesy your characters speak to each other.  How the flowery quality of your writing takes away from the story. It might sound awkward and raw at first.

That’s ok.

We don’t want our novels sounding like Gossip Girl or a Bruce Willis movie.  It’s NOT reality and it definitely won’t land your writing in the Pulitzer pile.

5.  MAKEOVERS!

At some point you are going to look at your character and want to give them a makeover. It happens, and it’s ok.  Do it!

Just make sure you have a reason, more than just wanting a different hair color for the-fun-of-it.  Don’t under think these details. 

A girl who wears pigtails has a much different personality than one that has a Mohawk.  And a man that gets hi-lights might not go to the same bar as the one that only trims his mustache when it hits his bottom lip.  This goes for clothing choices as well.

6.  Know Your Fashion Designers:

Nothing makes Tyra Banks more angry than a model that doesn’t know the fashion industry.

When we are writing characters and stories with extensive backgrounds in fields unfamiliar to us in our daily lives, make sure you know your research! Get to know that world inside and out. Names of people in the field, technology being used and how to use it, terminology used between coworkers and with outsiders, etc.  Nothing pulls a reader out more than an incorrect detail.

7.  Relax but keep the tension.

Tyra gives this note a lot. Usually when she says it, the models eyes glaze over.

What does she mean?

Don’t try so hard to be perfect.  Don’t fall under the spell of contest-itus or deadline-itus and write a stiff, fast novel.   This is art. Have confidence that you know what you are doing and let go.

8.  Look at Your Angles and Find Your Light.

Don’t just go with what is easy. Don’t just go with what you wrote in your first draft.

Would your story benefit from a different POV in a few chapters or the whole novel?  When you are in a particular POV, are you showing too much all at once?  Do you need to back off until page 108 for that part of the plot? Do you need to attack the plot from a closer or further focus to best guide the reader?

9.  Not all photographers are the same.

What does their lens see?  Characters will focus on different parts of an issue or event.  Make sure you are giving everyone a specific lens to go along with their vision and voice. Relish in the variety of character reactions.  This will give us depth and connection to all of your characters.

10.  Elimination Day.

What are your characters grateful for when they are faced with death?  Do their personalities change towards the end of life or toward the end of a relationship? Did their lives show any warning signs for such behavior?  Or are you trying to make them something that they are not?

11.  Too Much Drama in the Top Model House!

Don’t let melodrama take over your character’s reactions or the pacing of your story!  Remember there are specific moments to draw out the dramatic and other moments to move forward with the story.

Not every paper-cut deserves a full Motivation Reaction Unit unless your character suffers the paper-cut on the fiancés living will that names his ex-wife the main beneficiary if he dies and it’s just been drawn up 3 days prior to your character’s finding it.

That deserves drama!

12.  Who Said Winning a Top Model Challenge Was Easy?

What kind of challenges have you set up for your characters? Are they designed for them to succeed or struggle?

I’ve read mediocre books where characters are set up for loss after loss after loss.  The reader watches them struggle for a second and then the story does a quick flip and the character succeeds without so much as a skinned knee.  Then we see another obstacle.  Same thing happens.  If it continues the level of dramatic danger is zero and the reader stops rooting for the character.  Don’t let this happen!

However, don’t make the challenges or obstacles SO SO SO over the top that it’s obvious you are setting them up do nothing but fail.

**for a giggle  -  check out this clip of the Top Model walking-in-a-human-sized-plastic-hamster-bubble across-water-challenge.   The picture to the right shows a model standing up…she doesn’t stay that way!

 13.  You Are Only As Good As Your Last Photo.

A novel lives a little longer than a magazine cover.  But not by much.  So keep learning.  Keep writing. Keep connected to your readers. And keep improving.

I’m not just talking about those of you with small contracts or almost contracts.  I’m talking to you big bestsellers too.  In fact, you, maybe even more so.  I’ve had some disappointments in my recent NYT bestseller reads lately.  Not going to name names, just shaking a finger at you in general. You are making buttloads of money on your big fancy hardcovers and kindle downlowds – write BETTER! *puppy-dog-eyes*

Bonus.  Her Runway Walk Is Fierce!

According to the Urban Dictionary , Fierce is a term that gay men used in the late 1990s and early 2000s to describe absolutely everything that was of "exceptional quality.”  Tyra uses the word a lot.  Like, a lot a lot.

Ask yourself: Is every sentence, paragraph, character, shown emotion, conflict, action scene, and climax worthy of the word, fierce?

Thank you all for tuning in for another Last Friday post here on WITS.  I always enjoy my time with this group of talented writers.  I promise that next month's installment will be much more academic and will require you to bring a 2 cups of coffee, pen, and paper!

Comment below and tell me what other lessons we can learn from America’s Next Top Model. I didn’t hit them all - I still have a full file! This was just the Starter Guide. *wink wink*

If you comment, your name will be in the hat to win a free spot in one of Tiffany’s online courses offered through Lawson Writer’s Academy.

Courses taught by Tiffany Lawson Inman:

• April: From MADNESS to Method: Out-of-your-chair acting techniques to invigorate your writing and make your characters Oscar worthy!   
• May:  77 Secrets To Writing YA Fiction That Sells!
• TBA:  Triple Threat Behind Staging A Sceneto be offered again in late-summer.  
• Fall/Winter: Fighting in Fiction and Directing Dialogue. These courses will be taught at least twice a year. You won’t miss out!

Want to learn from me in person?  I will be presenting a workshop at Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold Conference this year. Registration is open!

Tiffany Lawson Inman (NakedEditor) claimed a higher education at Columbia College Chicago. Here, she learned to use body and mind together for action scenes, character emotion, and dramatic story development. She teaches for Lawson Writer’s Academy and presents hands-on-action workshops. As a freelance editor, she provides story analysis and editing services.

You can find Tiffany at her website or on Twitter @NakedEditor. Tiffany blogs here at Writers In The Storm the last Friday of each month!

Last month’s The Lady or the Tiger kicked off my guest-series on Publishing Choices by talking about authors’ need to take responsibility for their choices and careers. Today we’ll take a closer look at some of those options.

Twenty years ago, being an author (or novelist) always meant your work was produced in printed form by a traditional publishing house. Today, that’s no longer true. Authors’ careers take many forms and venues.

This doesn’t mean that every path is right for every author and every work. On the contrary, more options means both more ways to succeed and also more opportunities for the incautious to crash and burn.

As options multiply, smart authors take the time to learn about the available paths before choosing which one to take.

1. Traditional Publishing.

Traditional publishing houses (sometimes called “royalty-paying publishers”) are what most people think of when they hear the phrase “published book.” A traditional publisher can be large, like Penguin or Macmillan, or a smaller royalty-paying press like Midnight Ink.

Under a traditional publishing contract the publisher produces the author’s work in print, e-book and/or other formats and pays the author royalties on sales of the work. It’s the payment structure – not the format the finished work will take - that distinguishes a traditional publishing deal.

Traditional contracts sometimes offer the author an “advance” – technically an advance payment against future royalties – which the author receives before the work is published. The amount of the advance is then deducted from royalties due until the author’s share of sales equals the advanced amount. (In traditional publishing, this is called “earning out” the advance, and it’s a large part of what makes a publisher consider your work a success.)

Whether or not the author receives an advance, a traditional publishing contract has three basic hallmarks:

- The publisher is responsible for final editing, cover art, and the costs of producing the finished work for sale.

- The publisher pays the author royalties, meaning a stated percentage of each sale of the author’s work.

- The author does not pay money to the publisher to cover the costs of producing the work.

2. Self-Publishing and Author-Owned (“Indie”) Publishing Houses.

The self-published author is writer and publisher rolled into one. An author who chooses self-publishing assumes full responsibility for everything from writing the story to editing and cover art. Because there is no “publisher” involved, the self-published author must edit, typeset, format, print, market and distribute the work.

For a great description of the self-publishing process, check out Author Tammy Salyer’s blog. In Publishing Pains, Part Two Tammy chronicles the production of her short story collection, On Hearts On Scorpions, with an in-depth look at the self-publishing process.

Successful self-published authors don’t walk this road alone. Most hire cover artists and other professionals to help with specified tasks. Almost all arrange for a third-party service to publish and distribute the finished work. Some authors hire publicity managers to help with marketing and sales.

Clearly, the self-published author wears more hats than traditionally-published writers, who can rely on their publishing houses to handle the nuts and bolts of producing a finished work. That said, self-published authors have more control over appearance, format, and scheduling releases. Traditional authors work on the publisher’s schedule and surrender control of the titles, art, and certain kinds of editing.

The terms “self-published” and “independent” (or “indie”) author are often used interchangeably in the publishing world.  To most people, and for any purpose that matters, their meanings are the same.

That said, I make a personal distinction between the terms in my legal practice.

• When I refer to a self-published author, I mean a writer who publishes works himself (or herself), either using a service like Amazon or via a POD publisher like Lulu or Xulon Press.
• I use the term self-represented author for writers who pursue traditional publication without the services of a literary agent.
• Finally, I use the words Independent (and “Indie”) for authors who self-publish but create their own imprint or entity to do so – an option we will discuss in more detail in a future post.

3. Print-On-Demand (“POD”) and Hybrid Presses.

“POD” or “print on demand” refers to a publishing house which produces an author’s work on a print-to-order basis. Sometimes these publishers require the author to pay fees up front, but the fees are generally limited and very clearly defined. Some POD presses offer editing services, some do not. Where such services are available, they come with an extra fee.

Hybrid presses are an emerging form that will probably increase in popularity as more authors learn of their existence. Like POD and subsidy houses, the hybrid press charges fees for publishing services,  but unlike subsidy houses legitimate hybrid presses do not require exclusive publishing rights and make no claim to copyright on the author’s work. The author controls the size of the print run, whether or not to pay for services like editing and cover art, and manages the process in much the same way an e-book author controls the way Amazon and Smashwords handle digital works.

Some hybrid presses also review authors’ works and refuse to offer services to those which aren’t actually ready for publication – something subsidy presses do not do. However, hybrid presses are not generally sales outlets – like other forms of self-publishing, the hybrid author usually has to arrange for distribution and marketing of the finished work.

Reputable POD and hybrid publishers represent legitimate options for authors whose goals focus less on mass-market sales numbers and more on targeted distribution. We’ll talk more about those goals in next month’s installment.

4. Subsidy Publishers. Subsidy (sometimes called “vanity”) publishers require the author to bear the costs of production and distribution, and seldom turn down any author’s request for publication. The author pays the publisher up-front fees to cover publishing costs and receives a percentage or share of sales.

Be careful – even though the author receives a percentage of profits, a subsidy contract is not a traditional publishing deal. Unscrupulous subsidy publishers often pretend to be offering “royalty contracts” – but a traditional contract never requires the author to pay the publisher a fee.

Subsidy publishers’ contracts often include an exclusivity and/or copyright clause – meaning the author grants the publisher the exclusive right to produce the work for the term of copyright (or, sometimes, the term of the contract) and sometimes an interest in the copyright as well.

In many respects, subsidy contracts mimic traditional contracts – except for the fact that the author bears the publishing cost and the subsidy publisher doesn’t provide any editing or marketing assistance (or if such assistance is available, it comes at an extra fee).

Before the rise of reputable POD and self-publishing services, authors who didn’t want to pursue traditional publishing (or were unable to land a deal with a royalty-paying traditional house) often opted for subsidy contracts in order to see their books in print. Today, legitimate POD and self-publishing houses often offer the same result at lower cost and without the author having to agree to exclusivity or other dangerous losses of rights.

Not all subsidy publishing is a scam, just as not all POD and traditional publishers offer an honest deal. Authors must be extremely careful about signing contracts with any publishing house or service.

Never sign a contract or agree to a publishing deal without having the terms reviewed by an experienced attorney (or agent).

Lots to think about, indeed.

Some of you are doubtless asking “BUT HOW DO I CHOOSE??”

Don’t worry, help is on the way. Tune in May 30, when we’ll start clearing the minefield and getting down to the nuts and bolts of how to decide which option – or options – will work for you.

Disclaimer: Mention of a specific publisher, press, publishing company or other business in this post does not constitute a referral or recommendation, and is not intended to express an opinion – positive or negative – about the company’s reliability. Authors should investigate publishing options thoroughly and carefully and should make decisions based upon a thorough personal and professional evaluation of available options.

 Susan Spann is a publishing attorney and author who practices in Sacramento, California. The debut novel in her SHINOBI mystery series, in which a Japanese ninja and a Portuguese priest must save a teahouse entertainer accused of murder, will be published by Thomas Dunne in Spring 2013. Susan blogs about writing and publishing law at http://www.susanspann.com and tweets @SusanSpann.

By Laura Drake

All of us at WITS have shied away from the Traditional/Indie battle. After all, many have waded into the fray, yelling their opinions at the top of their lungs. When we conceived Writers in the Storm, we pictured it a shelter for writers from the storms that brew in publishing. I believe we’ve succeeded, at least, so far.

But our silence has begun, for me, to sound like avoidance, so I thought I'd put my toe in the waters.

Susan Squires,  New York Times Bestselling friend of mine just decided to publish her next series completely independently. I have to admit, I was a bit surprised at first -- after all, she's made a living for years with New York Big 6 publishers. For me, she's a poster child of Traditional publishing.

She made the decision after much contemplation and challenging of her beliefs:

• She has retired from the nine to five, and frankly doesn't need the advances any longer.
• She's seen her books on a shelf in the bookstores.
• She's had the validation -- won the awards, had the accolades.
• The thought of jumping into another publishing contract, her success or failure at the whim of someone else, just didn't seem right anymore.
• She has a readership, and a large mailing list.

She admitted that the technology was scary. But she felt she had a reputation to maintain, and wasn't willing to trust that to anyone else. So she jumped in. Her first indie published novel is out now. I'm reading Do You Believe in Magic  now, and it is riveting.

While reading the latest from Dean Wesley Smith (you can read it here) I realized something new about why I made the choice I did.

But before you can make the right choice, you need to be clear about your motives. What do you perceive as success? What do you want for your career? How you answer these questions and those below should help make things clearer.

• Are you looking for validation? Someone who is responsible for committing corporate resources, singling you out of the crowd, saying, "You. You, right there. I want your book."
• Are you willing to be edited? Not just line edits, but the structure, order and presentation of characters in your books?
• Are you willing to give up control of the cover, and possibly even the author's name on the cover?
• Do you want a chunk of money up front, or are you taking the long view?

Whichever method you choose, for the love of yourself and your writing, please consider your choices honestly and carefully. We've got a post coming on Wednesday from Susan Spann, literary attorney, to help you define the terms that go into these choices.

But here's the part I don't understand:

Why would a choice you make about your career upset me? I really don't get it.

It's not that I'm not passionate about causes. If there is injustice, hand me a sign and I'll join the picket line. If someone needs help, I've got two willing hands.

But how you publish is an individual choice. My choice affects only me, and my career. So why would that be seen by anyone as a threat or a judgement by me of their choices?

Not to pick on J.A. Konrath -- I've giggled behind my hand at his blog's clever condemnation of NY Publishing. At times I've even nodded my head in agreement. But I don't understand why the  debate has to get vitriolic.

This is our call for détente in the author wars.

Writing is hard. We should be supporting each other.

In the nervous words of Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"

What are your thoughts on the debate? What questions did you ask yourself before you made your decision? For those of you who have walked both the indie and traditional publishing paths, what do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of each?