Let's Talk About Writing, Publishing, and Everything In Between
Here’s our lateset video chat. Audrey, Berthold, and Mark cover a range of topics. How do we decide on the point of view for a story, come up character names, and is an indie author a “published author.”
If you have any questions for us or suggestions for future chats, drop a note in the comments section or drop an email to us at writinghelp2021@gmail.com.
— Mark Paxson
A couple of weeks ago, in our last posted video chat, Audrey, Berthold and I talked about our favorite indie authors. After the chat, I decided to read books from several of the authors we discussed. Mostly from authors I had never read before. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve read three books on that list. Here are my thoughts…
Shame (F.L. Rose)
This is the newest book from an author I recommended. F.L. Rose has also published under the name Fallacious Rose. She has written and published stories that can be placed in many different genres. Shame is her newest novel. Here’s the description of the tale from Amazon:
When Julian Fitzwarren asks them to investigate the death of his ex-wife Diana on a remote coastal property, their history comes back to bite them. Alix’s house of cards will soon come tumbling down around her, while Kate too must confront her demons.
Who was Diana? Is Fitzwarren truly driven by grief over the death of his ex-wife, or does he have a hidden agenda? And who was really responsible for Diana’s lonely death?
In general, this is a murder mystery. Although whether it is even a murder is part of the mystery. But, it is about a lot more than just the murder. This story packs so much more into it than a simple mystery. It is about sisters and family. Abuse and violence. Male domination and manipulation. Dishonesty and secrets. The abuse of the aboriginal people of Australia. And more. So much more. It is a well-paced story written by somebody who knows how to pull the reader in and keep him or her wanting to turn the page to find out what’s next. I highly recommend it and just posted a five-star review of the book on Amazon. Go check it out. F.L. Rose deserves a larger audience. (Actually, all of the authors mentioned here do.)
Eagle Ascendant (Lorinda J. Taylor)
Eagle Ascendant is a science fiction tale about the human race several centuries in the future. A time when interspace travel is common, but scientists and government officials are working out the details to jump beyond our galaxy and to travel much deeper into space.
I don’t read much science fiction anymore, so I wasn’t sure what I’d think of this story. I shouldn’t have worried. It’s a really good story. Taylor does a good job of providing some technical details about space flight and the concept behind jumping through space to get out of our galaxy, but she doesn’t overdo it. This is much more a story about the people behind the effort and the main character’s dreams of flying to the stars, than it is about the science aspect of the fiction.
There is one drawback to the story. This is the first book in a multiple-book series telling the story of Robbin Nikalishin. As such, the reader can’t expect a fully complete story at the end. The problem, however, is that the book ends in the middle of the climactic scene. To find out the ending of the scene, therefore, requires the reader to buy the next book. I’m all for writers finding ways to motivate readers to keep reading and buying their books, but I think the quality of the story was good enough to do that. I definitely would have bought and read the next book, but now I’m not sure I’m going to because of this issue.
Why does this bother me so much? I don’t know. It didn’t bother me when I read The Lord of the Rings multiple times over the years. It didn’t bother me when I read other science fiction and fantasy books that covered multiple books in my teens and 20s. But the thing is, more recent trilogies I’ve read, and even some of those older ones, haven’t done this — drop the ending of one book right in the middle of the story’s climactic scene and force you to buy the next book to know what happened. I’m thinking Hunger Games, Twilight, Harry Potter, Divergent. I may be wrong about some of those, but my recollection is that most, if not all of them, gave you a clean break at the end of each book. Harry Potter and Hunger Games definitely did that.
I still gave the book four stars because the storytelling is that good, but be forewarned about how this book ends.
The Bone Wall (D. Wallace Peach)
Essentially, a dystopian tale that includes some elements of fantasy and science fiction, The Bone Wall is a hard, dark story to read. If you don’t want to read about rape (not in detail, but referenced frequently) and war and conflict, don’t read this book. If you read it, you’ll read a great story about a world in the future when the human race has been divided into different camps. Some are in “gardens” protected by walls and domes that are failing. Most are outside those gardens. Called Biters or the People, those who are outside live a horrible existence and constantly seek to attack those in the gardens.
There is more. A Colony and a Fortress, each with different rules and ideas about humanity than those who live in the gardens. But I’ll skip any more details because you just need to read the book. Peach subtitles this book A Post-Apocalypic Search For The Truth. There is a lot to be said for that subtitle. The Biters are violent and vicious and sadistic. Doing whatever it takes to survive. Those who live in the gardens are believers in God’s law and that compliance with that law will keep them safe. The occupants of the Colony are trying to find a way to move the human race beyond its divisions and conflicts and to forge a path towards a more peaceful coexistence. The occupants of the Fortress are doing the same, but with a different set of rules and conduct that compels them to reject many of the occupants of the Colony.
This all sets up a story that is more than just a story, but a search for, as Peach says, the truth. What is the best way to move forward as a human race — war and violence, following God’s laws, seeking unity but only for those who are worthy and whole, or seeking unity among all, regarding of their worth or completeness. Beyond those big questions, the characters are well-developed and, by the end, you can feel their pain and loss, joy and happiness. As dark and desperate as this story is at times, it is actually a beautiful story that ends on a note of hope.
Now, I need to go leave my five-star review on Amazon.
* * * * * *
I purchased another book from our discussion, but I only made it a few pages in before I realized that it just wasn’t going to work for me. I won’t name that book here. We’re here to support writers.
The books described above are incredible examples of the value and quality of indie writers. I encourage you to check them out, as well as the other books by these authors.
One final word … whether you are a writer or a reader, when you read an indie book that you like, please post a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. Your reviews help indie authors pursue promotional opportunities to get their books before more readers — opportunities that typically can only be taken advantage of with a minimum number of reviews. And, if you have social media accounts, whether Twitter, Facebook, a blog, or something else, again, if you like a book by an indie author, let your followers know.
— Mark Paxson
Here’s my response to Berthold’s post about the difficulties of a writer.
Most days, it’s a real struggle for me to get started on writing even a paragraph in one of my stories.
This is me. I have plenty of free time these days, and each day begins with my solemn vow that I will write today. Even if it just a paragraph. I will make progress, no matter how small. And yet, most days pass without a single sign of progress. Why? Well, that’s the mystery of many things, isn’t it?
Once in a great while, I’ll be struck by some inspiration and then it’s just a matter of getting the words down as fast as I can, but that’s rare.
These days that doesn’t happen much for me. It’s one of the things that concerns me. When I first started writing, I frequently spent my non-writing hours still living in the story in my head. Thinking about it, writing it mentally, and then when I got to my laptop, having no problem writing more. Now, however, I rarely live in whatever story I’m working on. And when inspiration does strike, it’s frequently as I’m drifting off to sleep. I say to myself, “Okay, remember this when you wake up.” I rarely do.
Instead, with all of this free time I have these days, I surf the internet, check Twitter out one or five times, my email, some blogs, CNN, ESPN, and then I do it all over again. Or I choose to read or bicycle or cook. Why?
I’ve written about this before a number of times. Writing takes energy and when there are distractions that allow you to “engage” but do so in a less taxing way, in a way that doesn’t tap into those energy stores, well, the distractions win all too frequently. I’ve become convinced that one of the single biggest reasons writer’s block hit me and has yet to release its grip is the energy issue.
For a number of years, I worked in a stressful job and continued the job of raising my two boys. There were many stressors along the way. Although I was able to write a lot in the evenings and on weekends for a few years, those stressors eventually overwhelmed me. When I got home from work, I wanted to do as little as possible. So I just surfed the internet, read and went to sleep. For weeks and months.
And now, those habits have become ingrained in me, replacing the writing habit I had for those few years. I’m still struggling to break these habits and return to writing. Why?
I have to consciously force myself to stay on task and write something down. If I manage to do that, most of the time I hate what I’m writing up until I finish, at which point it starts to seem possibly decent. But the whole time I’m doing it, I feel like I’m doing lousy work, and moreover, it takes all my willpower to even do that.
Why is this? Writing is supposed to be what I like doing. No one is forcing me to do it—it’s what I want to do. But then why am I strongly tempted to avoid doing it, like it’s a job or something?
Exactly. That inner critic, the one who remained silent for the first few years of my writing journey, began to speak up. To literally yell at me — I mean, seriously, the echoes of the inner critic’s voice are still echoing in the corners of my mind.
And I struggle with the idea Berthold expresses here. Writing is supposed to be fun. If it isn’t anymore, than why am I doing it? Why indeed? The only answer I have for that is that I enjoyed writing stories for a period of time and I haven’t given up on recapturing that magic. Of being able to write a chunk every day or almost every day and to see the story spinning out ahead of me and knowing that I can do this and it’s going to be incredible when I do. I’ve lost that feeling. Can somebody find it for me? 😉
The simple and obvious explanation is that writing is active. You have to consciously do something to make it happen. Whereas reading the news or watching cat videos is passive—you just find your way to the site and put your mind on cruise control.
Yes … all of these distractions we have are mostly passive. When I first started writing, social media was somewhat in its infancy. Twitter did not exist. Blogs were few and far between. The internet in all its forms had not yet become such a pervasive presence in my life. But then it did and all of this technology provides wonderful opportunities for us to “engage” but to do so passively.
My next-door neighbor has had all kinds of hobbies over the years I’ve known him, from shooting guns to building model airplanes to mixing drinks to, yes, playing video games. And he doesn’t seem to need a huge amount of willpower to make himself work at any of his hobbies. Why is my hobby different?
I think there is a fundamental difference between those types of hobbies and the “hobby” of writing. Which, to be honest, I don’t consider writing to even be a hobby. It is something else entirely.
There is no creativity needed in shooting a gun. Nor is there much needed in building a model airplane (which basically is just following instructions and putting the pieces together. And while these are “active” pursuits, like playing video games, they are not necessarily mentally and emotionally active like writing and many other creative forms.
I compare it to one of my newer hobbies. I’ve taken up acrylic pour painting. It’s a fascinating creative outlet for me. There are countless different techinques that can be utilized to create different designs and looks. Countless color combos. Countless of a whole lot things.
And while I struggle sometimes with “wanting” to do it, the struggle is nothing like with writing because there is an element of acrylic pour that is about letting go. There is only so much I can do with the techniques and colors before the paint does its thing with very little input from me. As a result, it is not as mentally or emotionally taxing as writing. Because writing a story is entirely dependent on me and what comes out of my imagination. I can’t just mix a few words up in a cup and pour them on the paper and let the words and paper take over to complete the story. It’s that pressure that comes with writing that creates, in part, the difficulties I have with wanting, once again, to sit down and try to write a piece of fiction.
Ta-da! This explains the mystery of why writers procrastinate. Procrastination is something you do when you are assigned a task by other people, and writing feels like that because that’s how we’re trained to regard it. It’s the same reason we all procrastinated when our teachers assigned us to write a paper on such-and-such-thing-no-one-cares-about.
Maybe. Probably. The question of audience is one of the things that has held me back the last few years. Dissatisfied with the small number of readers I have had with my last few books, I have questioned why I continue putting this much effort into the thing when the thing isn’t very widely read.
But, on the other hand, I don’t necessarily know that I write for my audience. I’m still picking at ideas for stories with the idea “can I do this?” I don’t typically think about the audience and what they’ll think while I’m writing. My internal thought process, my internal motivation for the stories I write revolves around whether I can pull something off the way I want to when I come up with the idea.
Now, it’s possible, if not likely, that part of “the way I want to” comes down to whether or not readers will like it. In fact, I can’t deny that, since virtually everything I write I publish, either on my blog or in book form. So, yes, there is some dependency on the audience for what I do, but … well, I just don’t know if “writing is for somebody else” is necessarily the driving force behind my procrastination.
So my advice is: don’t worry about making sense. In fact, I’ll go even further: actively try to avoid making sense on the first draft. Just put down the most basic, sub-literate version of what you want to convey. You’d be surprised how hard it is to not make sense—your unconscious mind will keep you at least within saluting distance of it most of the time. After that, you can just iterate until your visceral idea has been refined into something your readers can understand.
Sigh … if only it were that easy. 😉
As a pantser with a healthy inner critic, I’ve never mastered the art of just writing. The couple of times I’ve tried NaNoWriMo, or similar exercises, I haven’t made it very far in any of them because I simply don’t write that way. I wish I could be one of those writers who writes a couple thousand words a day without a care in the world, knowing that they are going back to it and editing the hell out of the thing to get it in tip-top shape. But I don’t. I write slowly, editing as I go, pondering what has already come and what will come (which, as a pantser, frequently isn’t known until it hits me in the head). I put the pieces together as I write. Tinkering here and dithering there, and eventually I manage to squeeze a story out of the ether. And once I figuratively type the words The End, I rarely go back and do much editing myself. My first complete draft is frequently pretty much my final draft — except for those things my beta readers and others point out to me in the reading before publishing.
Oh, to be able to write just to write…
— Mark Paxson
Months ago, I decided to try traditional publishing with my just-completed novel. That didn’t turn out so well, so I moved on to publishing it myself. I also decided to put some money into the publishing effort for the first time. I’ve paid for a Kirkus review, which I should get in the next week or so. I paid for somebody more talented than me to do the cover. I also joined the Independent Publishers Association, which has all sorts of “benefits” for its members — reduced prices for various editing, marketing, cover design, review, and all sorts of other services the indie publisher desperately needs.
Meanwhile, over on Twitter, I’ve started following a few Twitter accounts that promote books to their followers. Most of them boast follower counts of tens of thousands. One of them has over 114,000 followers. Each of these accounts will tweet out your short blurb about your book with a link to purchase it.
Now, I’m feeling overwhelmed by the choices and the options. I’m the type of guy who would prefer returning to the days when there were only plain and peanut M&Ms, only one kind of Snickers, only three channels on the television. I have Spotify and I absolutely love that pretty much every piece of music ever recorded is available there, but sometimes, I just don’t want all of that choice and I find myself wanting to curl into a ball instead of being confronted with the world of endless options we now have.
Which is where I’m at with my current publishing journey. As the title states, I feel like I’ve opened Pandora’s Box. I have unleashed the kraken. Everywhere I look, there are more sites that will promote your book, more services that will review your book. All of these things, of course, come with a fee attached. Everything from $25 to have your book pushed through one of those Twitter accounts to $500 for a discounted review through my IBPA membership. $500!! For a review!! And that’s a discount!!!!!! (Side note: yes, I paid almost that much for a Kirkus review, but I’m not doing it again.)
Meanwhile, those Twitter accounts that promote your book with tweets to their thousands of followers? There is almost no engagement on those tweets, and I know I pay almost no attention to them. Twitter isn’t where I go for book recommendations, you know what I mean.
There are a few places that will provide a review for free, and when the time is right, I’ll pursue those.
Beyond that … see above about wanting to curl into a ball. There are just so many options out there and I can’t help but feel like it’s an adjunct to the whole vanity publishing concept we discussed a week or so ago. Sure, we’ll be happy to promote your book, pay us, and … bwahahahahaha, good luck!
We’ve talked about this here before, but if you’re an indie author who has used any of these services — particularly the review and promo services — I would love to hear from you, and I’m willing to bet other writers would too. What worked? What didn’t? How did you decide which ones to use and which ones to stay away from? How did you decide how much pocket change to throw at these things? In other words … what’s the secret recipe to success?
In which Berthold, Audrey and Mark talk about some of their favorite indie authors. We will likely doing another chat on this subject at some point in the future as we just began to scratch the surface. If you click on the youtube link and go to the youtube page for the video, you’ll see a list of the authors and their blogs/websites, or check out their author pages on Amazon.
The first entries into our Indie Hall of Fame: Lorinda Taylor, Tammy Robinson, Noah Goats, AC Flory, Vince Dickinson, Lindy Moone, Bill Fitts, Fallacious Rose (Now publishing under F.L. Rose, with a new book coming out soon.), Phillip McCollum, D. Wallace Peach, Kevin Brennan, Jeremy L. Jones, Chuck Litka, Michael Graeme, and Carrie Rubin (traditionally published with a recent indie book or two to her credit)
— Mark Paxson
Yesterday, I posted this guest post from Chuck Litka. Chuck speculates as to whether indie publishing is, or has become, the new version of vanity publishing.
This is a thought I’ve had over the years as I’ve written and published the indie way. Are we all just a bunch of vain people who need to feed our ego by putting our books out there, regardless of what agents and traditional publishers might think?
To be honest, I think there might be a kernel of truth to that notion. But … I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. We create and wanting the world to see our creation is a part of the process for many of us.
Yes, there are those who create only for themselves. They journal and never share it. They paint and cover their walls with their artwork. Musicians who play at home, never sharing the beauty of their music with the outside world.
And then there are those who want more than that. Who want to share their art with a larger group. Maybe just their friends and family. Maybe their community. Or maybe, they want to see just how far they can reach, how many they can touch with a piece they have created and that has meaning to them.
When it comes to writing, for decades (centuries?) there were only two options. Traditional publishing and vanity publishing. Vanity publishing typically involved paying thousands of dollars for somebody to “publish” your book, which really meant printing it and then sending you the boxes of books. It was entirely up to you to figure out how to sell those books.
Traditional publishing had its limits as well. You had to get past the gatekeepers to get in the game with the traditional approach. Good luck with that. And unfortunately, as the years go by and publishers have to prove themselves on the bottom line, they are less and less willing to take chances, to publish things that are outside of the norm.
One of the wonders of the technological revolution of the last few decades is that it has opened all sorts of new avenues for creative people to reach an audience. Whether it is blogging or other types of websites where we can show our words and our art, or places like Patreon where we can seek patrons to support our efforts, or, well sometimes it seems the possibilities are endless these days.
But there are problems with this strange new world too. Far too many people expect whatever they get on the internet to be free. Actually paying for content on the internet is, apparently, a huge no-no. I’m guessing it’s somewhere in the Bible as a venal sin. As a result, the idea of actually making money off of our art in this world where the venues seem endless … pfffftttt.
Another problem is saturation of the market place. When everybody can publish a book with the push of a button, guess what? Everybody is publishing a book. And those of us who do it the indie way have to constantly battle the backlash of readers who claim that indie published books are crap and not worth their time or their pennies.
The end result is that indie authors are faced with a world that is much like the world of vanity publishing. Sure, we can do it for much less money than the vanity publishers charged. But there’s no guarantee that we will ever actually find an audience beyond friends and family. And in some instances, maybe not even friends and family will care. So … like the writers of old who used the vanity presses, we use technology to throw our art out there and for far too many of us nobody reads it.
Meanwhile, in place of the vanity publishers of old, whole new industries are cropping up. Editors and cover artists and proofreaders and companies that will do everything for you — edit, cover art, stroke your ego, and put the books out there on the various retail platforms. For a small fee, of course. While never actually doing the hard work of marketing your book. No, that remains entirely up to the author, just like with the old-style vanity publishing.
I’ve had several co-workers who have paid several thousand dollars to these companies that are nothing better than vanity publishers for the digital age. They do virtually nothing to edit the book, nothing to market it. It’s a complete scam, but … here’s the other thing about all of this.
It’s about what each of us as writers want to do. What we want our experience to be. What we can afford. What is our objective. Those co-workers who I warned off the “publishers” they had found who were so eager to publish their books for that fee, went with them anyway. Which is fine. That fit what they were looking for and they were willing to shell out the money to make it happen.
Meanwhile, for the first nine years of my publishing journey, I didn’t have the financial resources to even think about something like that. I am one of those indie authors who has done the thing at the most minimal cost possible. Now, though, with my next book about to be published next month, I’ve cracked open the vault. I’ve paid for cover art and a Kirkus Review and I’m going to pay for some of the book marketing sites. All to see what happens. I want a bigger audience than I’ve been getting and the only way to do that is to pay for it. And hope.
Here on this blog, we’ve talked about a lot of things. Various rules of writing and suggestions for how to do things, or not to do things. Each time, I try to make sure to mention that this is not a one size fits all kind of industry.
Each writer has to decide what their objective is. Write for the fun of it. Write and publish and hope for a few readers and a review here or there. Write and publish and grow an audience. Write a bestseller and option the movie rights. Write and do what you want with the result. Each of these options has multiple paths forward and there is no right answer. Nor is there any sense in applying any negativity to the path a writer chooses.
Sure, we can call indie publishing the new vanity publishing, but so what. What’s your goal — pursue it. Pursue your art and make your dreams come true, whatever they are, whatever others may say about it, and whatever the labels may be.
Write. Create. Be you.
And buy my book!!
I’m kidding. No, not really.
— Guest Post by Chuck Litka
(Mark here — Chuck just sent this to me and I think it’s a really good topic to discuss. I’m going to post it now and then come back with a response in my own post in a couple of days. Hopefully.)
They changed their name. They didn’t want to be associated with all those schmucks who believed in their stories enough to pay someone to print them – when no real publisher would. This new breed of authors were an entirely different breed than the old vanity press authors. They called themselves “indie publishers” because ebook self-publishing was different.
And maybe it was. You didn’t have to pay anyone to publish your ebook. You didn’t end up with a thousand copies of it in your garage. And your book was for sale world wide, all without spending a dime. At least you could, a decade ago.
But the times have changed. Fast forward to 2021, and indie publishing – especially if you’ve only gotten into indie publishing in the last couple of years – has become a slightly improved version of vanity publishing. Call it vanity publishing 2.0.
Oh, it’s still possible to publish your book without spending a dime. But it’s not considered “best practice” these days. The experts will tell you that a self-publishing author needs to hire a professional proofreader, and cover artist. They may also suggest that you consider hiring an editor, in addition to the proofreader. And maybe someone to format your ebook, and design the paperback edition as well. Oh, and we can’t forget audio books. You need someone to do that too. You have more choices these days, but indie publishing – the right way – isn’t much cheaper than in the old days of vanity publishing. You need to pay hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, to self-publish your book, the “right” way.
In the old days, you’d end up with boxes of books that you were expected to sell yourself. Today you have Amazon, et al, to sell your book. Except that they won’t. Oh, they’ll put your book in their online store – along with 10 million other books. But adding your book to their virtual shelves is about all they’ll do. It’s unlikely that anyone will ever find your book. Not unless you get out and sell it yourself. Just like in the old days.
They say that you have to “pay to play” in indie publishing these days. You need to spend money to make your book visible to readers. You need to advertise – on Amazon, Facebook, Bookbub, or whatever. The most popular indie publishers are spending thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars every month to keep their books in front of readers. You’ll need to compete with them. Somehow.
And you’ll need a platform. Certainly a website or blog, plus a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and maybe Youtube. And pay for an email service to handle your mailing list as well.
Confused, overwhelmed, lost? Don’t despair. There are classes and seminars on every aspect of indie publishing, taught by successful indie publishers. Most cost hundreds of dollars. Or you could simply turn to the vanity press – they’re still around – who will take all the hassle out of self-publishing, in excange for thousands of your dollars. But if you want to be successful…You know what they say; pay to play.
Most of all, you need luck. Lots of luck. Luckily, luck’s free.
So, yes, indie publishing today is different from the old days of the vanity press in many ways. But the fundamentals of self-publishing haven’t changed. If you can’t sell your book to a traditional publisher, you’ll need to spend your money to publish it. And the chances of making any real money, or reaching a wide audience, are little better than in the old vanity press days. And, truth be told, the name change fooled no one. Indie publishers are still considered publishers of the last resort – even if they’re raking in a million dollars a year doing it.
It’s never been easy to make money writing. Writing has always been about chasing a dream. A dream that, even if caught, would all too often, end up in a desk drawer. Computers, ebooks, and indie publishing promised not only to make catching that dream easier, but making money in doing so easier as well. They got it half right. It’s far easier to catch that dream and write a book these days. But, if it was ever actually easier to make money in doing so, that time has faded away.
So what? Creative writing is an art. Art doesn’t need to make money to be valued. Books need to be published to be a book And if an author believes in their book enough to open their wallet and publish it themselves, I think that’s money spent in a noble cause. Heck, a lot of people spend money on their passions and hobbies. A lot of people spend a lot of money. Viewed in that light, spending money printing your book is quite normal. So snobbishly dismissing this faith as mere vanity is missing the point. Self publishing today may be vanity press 2.0, but, if you believe in your dream, there’s no vanity in spending your money to bring it to life.
Our latest video chat, in which Mark almost disappears from the screen at times, and we talk about story structure, themes, titles, and a few other random things.
(Mark here — a little behind the scenes look at what we do — We generally come up with a topic for discussion and then just wing it. This conversation went down several paths as we went along. Hope you enjoy it. I was planning on writing a post to accompany this chat, but didn’t get to it yet. That will be coming separately at some point in the future.)
— Mark Paxson
When we first started this blog, I published a couple of posts about my renewed effort to pursue a traditional publishing route for my new novel. I hoped that I would be able to use my experiences on this new path to help inform other writers.
The novel is a literary young adult piece. There are no vampires or werewoles, no dystopian future, and no football player-cheerleader-nerd love triangle. But because it’s YA, I thought I might have a shot at an agent. After sending some queries out and only hearing back from 1/3 of those I queried, I’ve given up.
I get it. Agents get a lot of submissions and they have a difficult job. They, like publishers, only get paid if a book sells. As a result, they are focused on finding books they believe they can sell. What’s frustrating though is the silence that comes from most queried agents, and the complete lack of any clue from those who do respond.
Admittedly, I ended up sending out fewer queries than I originally planned on doing, but at this point, I have no idea why the idea behind this story isn’t one that could sell.
I’ve given up on the traditional route. Again. I am now pursuing my own path for this book. For the first time since I started self-publishing, I’m putting money into it to see if that changes. I’ve hired somebody to design a cover. I’ve just joined the Independent Book Publisher’s Association, which offers members all sorts of discounts on various review, PR, marketing, and other sites. I also just paid for a review from Kirkus.
I believe in this story and want to see if I can make a splash with it. Hopefully, in the months ahead, I can share some successful lessons learned with you.
— Mark Paxson
One of my proudest achievements was doing so well on the college English placement test that I got to bypass English in college. Yes, my last English class was in 12th grade. I never took a class in the English Department in college. And I have a brother and father who both majored in English.
Why was I so thrilled about this? Because I hated English classes. The writing part was bad enough — I thought I was a horrible writer and hated it back then. But what was even worse was the need to analyze poems and short stories and try to identify the author’s point. Why did they write the story or poem? What did they mean when they used this phrase? Why do you think they picked the color red for the door? Blah, blah, blah. All I know is that whenever a teacher would ask that question, I wanted to stand up and scream, “Why? Because they just wanted to write a story!!! Why isn’t the answer that they just wanted to write a story?!?”
I’ve never really understand the need to identify the “why” of fiction. I read for enjoyment, entertainment, and escape. I don’t read fiction for any deep understanding of the writer’s objectives or of the human condition. I just want a story that pulls me along and keeps me turning the page.
I just finished a book. It’s a thriller. I completed it because I wanted to see how catastrophe would be averted, but it was a struggle. Why? Because the author clearly uses his fiction to spread his view that Jesus Christ is his savior and that Christianity is the light and the way of the world. There were points in the story where the need to proselytize came up in ways that were just completely ridiculous. Like when the CIA agent was racing to prevent the imminent launch of a nuclear weapon that would have killed millions, but he had to stop and spread the word to a colleague who had been injured. I seriously don’t need that when I’m reading fiction.
When I started writing, I remember having a brief conversation with another writer. She insisted that every story has a point. I’ve heard this from others as well, and I just don’t get it. 99% of the stories I’ve written have been about me coming up with an idea for a story and seeing if I could get it done. That’s the only point to my fiction.
There is one exception to this. My second novel had a point, but it proved to hit a little too close to home and I de-published the novel. Other than that, I just want to see if I can write a story. Each and every time I begin a piece, that’s my only objective. That’s the only point. There are no messages, hidden or apparent.
This is not meant to be a criticism of those who seek to use fictioni to make a point, to serve a purpose. Fiction certainly can be a wonderful way to deliver a message to the reading audience. But … does it need to? Does there need to be an inner meaning in everything we write?
Do you have objectives when you write? Are there messages you want to deliver with your fiction or poetry? Do you look for things like that in fiction you read? Fic
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