Kurt Vonnegut on the shapes of stories

Master storyteller Kurt Vonnegut once gave a talk in which he discussed the different shapes stories can have; it's funny. Here is the video.

The video is only a portion of Vonnegut's talk but this transcript gives the entire thing.

Since we're talking about Kurt Vonnegut and writing, here are his rules for writing:

1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things —- reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Kurt Vonnegut goes on to say:

The greatest American short story writer of my generation was Flannery O'Connor (1925 - 1964). She broke practically every one of my rules but the first. Great writers tend to do that.

I would give you a link to where I got these rules but I printed them out years ago and keep them the sheet tacked above my writing desk.

Word of the day: Neologism

Recently I downloaded a dictionary App (Dictionary.com) and have been getting a Word-of-the-Day popup ever since.

The first time I saw the popup I was irritated (I can get grouchy when something pops up on the screen when I'm reading!), but I decided to view it as an opportunity to expand my vocabulary. I've tried to use each word of the day in my writing or conversation, to help me incorporate it. I've been finding some words insurmountably difficult, though. Tell me, how does one work a word like, "neologism," into conversation?

I can imagine it:

Jan shook in horror. "I'm so glad you weren't there, the whole thing was squicky!"

Bob looked at Jan as though she'd morphed into a Valley Girl. "Squicky? Really? What are you, 12?"

Jan glared at Bob, he was such a man, thinking that if he didn't know a word then it wasn't a word. She put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes at him. "What's the matter, Bob, you got something against neologisms? Hmmm?"

Well, the thought makes me laugh, but then I'm easily amused.

If you want to check out the app for yourself, here's the link.

48 of the best iPad Apps: Many of them free!

As a Canadian writer -- and therefore by definition poor -- I get excited about free! Here's a list of 48 iPad apps starting with BRITISH LIBRARY 19TH CENTURY BOOKS. For this app, if you choose not to subscribe, you only get access to 100 books. But, still!

Here's the article: The 48 Best iPad Apps

The Race to the Bottom: Are low ebook prices hurting writers?

Are low ebook prices hurting writers? As I understand it, the argument for this is something like the following:

Low ebook prices are creating a race-to-the-bottom, each author charging lower ebook prices than the next, trying to attract readers. Soon it will get to the point that readers will refuse to pay anything for books and writers will have to put their books up for free in order to get read. The result: no one will be able to make a living as a writer.

I read what I have just written and can't help but feel that the argument, on the face of it, doesn't seem plausible.

Here, such as it is, is my argument that low ebook prices -- even free! -- won't prevent writers from earning a living wage.

What do writers want? Writers, whether of the traditionally or independently published varieties, care about writing and being able to make enough money through writing that they don't have to do anything else.

All things being equal, how much money an author makes depends on, first, how fast they write and, second, on how big their audience is.

Now, consider these points:
1. The cheaper books are, the more books people will buy. If I have budgeted $50.00 a month for my book purchases, buying cheap ebooks means I can buy more books.

2. The cheaper books are, the more people will buy them. Folks who don't normally buy books, preferring, for example, to get them out of the library, will buy cheaply priced ebooks just for the convenience.

3. The more people who buy books, the greater the chance writers will get their books into the hands of someone who is part of their audience. That is, someone who will enjoy the book and look forward to other books by the same author.

4. People from your audience, people who love your books and want you to keep writing because they want to keep reading, will pay a decent price for your books.

That is my argument, such as it is. I think that the key to success for writers is to get their books into the hands of readers who would love them. Once that is done, those readers will pay money for the books and they will recommend the author to their friends, etc. But the key is to make that initial match between writer and reader. Giving ebooks away cheaply, or even for free, helps a writer find his or her audience.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone on either side of this issue. :)

I wrote this post after reading Joe Konrath's excellent blog post: The Race to the Bottom. I highly recommend it!

Joe Konrath: How to Succeed as a Writer

If you're a writer of any stripe -- whether traditional or indie -- Joe Konrath's latest blog post is a must-read. Here is a sample:

Q: What's the secret to selling a lot of ebooks?

Joe: There is no secret. Write good books, with good descriptions, good formatting, and good cover art, sell them cheap, and keep at it until you get lucky.

Q: I have an ebook, but it isn't selling well. What should I do to market it?

Joe: Write another ebook, and another, and keep at it until you get lucky.

Q: I've changed my cover art 56 times, but sales are still flat.

Joe: You need to keep writing until you get lucky.

Q: Joe, I've followed your blog, and you're the reason I decided to self-publish. How did you get so many sales?

Joe: I kept at it until I got lucky.

Q: Joe, you're a pioneer. A hero. A guru. You deserve all the success you've gotten. To what do you attribute your success?

Joe: I simply got lucky.

Q: You talk about luck a lot. How do I improve my chances at getting lucky?

Joe: Keep writing good books, with good descriptions, good formatting, and good cover art, and sell them cheap.

Q: Aren't talent and hard work more important than luck?

Joe: They can help you get lucky.

You get the idea. ;)

Read the rest of Joe's excellent post here: How To Succeed

19 Ways To Get More Readers For Your Author Blog

I love Joel Friedlander's blog, and posts like this are why: 19 Ways to Get More Readers for Your Blog.

1. Write more often—if you don’t have enough traffic, write more often. This is not necessarily good news, since you may feel you already have enough to do. But when you’re growing a blog, there’s no better way to increase the energy flow to your blog than increasing the amount of energy you put into your blog.

2. Write better articles—look at the last 10 articles you’ve posted to your blog. How many did people really care about? How many did you write for yourself, more than your readers? If you have to, and in contradiction to #1 above, write less frequently but better.

3. Do something different—give readers a reason to come to your blog. If you’re doing what everyone else in your niche is doing, why should they? What is it that no one has done? What angle is uncovered? What insight is lacking in the conversation?

4. Do something big—create a big list, a smashing resource directory, an exhaustive collection of tools, a survey of every viewpoint on a subject. Whatever it is, make it useful, the kind of thing you yourself would link to or bookmark for future reference.

5. Kidnap a celebrity—interview the biggest star in your niche, or the most controversial, or the person with the biggest blog in your field. Aim as high as you can, you will be surprised. Make a regular feature of profiling or interviewing movers and shakers in your industry.

6. Start an argument—disagree loudly with an established authority in your field, an “A-list” blogger, or the institutional overseers of your domain. Demand a response.

7. Rant—find an injustice in your field, something blatantly unfair or a monopolistic company taking advantage of the little guy. Rant about it, invite others to contribute.

8. Guest post—take your show on the road. Create a goal to contribute to someone else’s blog on a related topic once a week, once a month, whatever you can do. Query bloggers and read their archives. Fashion a headline for an article they’ll find irresistible.

9. Comment—leave comments that add to the discussion, that amplify what others have said, that disagree respectfully with the author, that bring something to the table. Pick 5 or 10 blogs and stay in touch with them, commenting when appropriate.

10. Upload articles—put some articles on articles sites like ezinearticles.com and make sure you link back to your blog. Use the same keywords you use in your blog posts.

For the next nine ways, read Joel's article! :)

How To Name Your Book

I've had an incredibly busy couple of days! Time to start getting caught up. A friend of mine, @kaneville, sent me this marvelous link about how to create a name for your masterpiece.

→ Find twenty books on Amazon that are in the same genre as yours and whose titles you like. Write down their titles. Try to get a feel for what works with your genre. What do you like about the titles? What don’t you like? Then put the list away for awhile.

→ Sit with a pencil and paper (and maybe your critique group and a white-board) and free-associate, making lists of words related to your book. Put them in columns: nouns, verbs, adjectives. If it’s a novel, list words that describe or suggest the setting. Then think about each of your major characters and write down words that relate to them. Think about the action in the story and write down verbs that capture it. If your book is non-fiction, list words that capture what you want your reader to think, feel or do after reading it. And words that describe what your book is about.

→ Nothing is off limits—write down anything you can think of that conveys anything about your book. Use visual words that suggest a scene. Other words that evoke an emotion. A sensation. A location. A question. You should have at least 100 words.

→ See if any of the words would work as a single-word title. Then start experimenting with different word combinations. Adjective-noun, verb-noun. Keep a thesaurus handy and look up other words. Write down as many word combinations as you can. Try not to self-censor at this stage.

→ From these lists, come up with at least 20 possible titles. Then put them away for 24 hours. Two things will happen: your subconscious may still be working on it; and when you come back to your list, you’ll have fresh eyes.

→ Go back to your title list. Add any new ideas you’ve had. Then narrow it down to three to five possibilities. Run them by a few people. (This may or may not help, depending on if there’s a consensus or the opinions are all over the map.) Take a little more time before narrowing it down to one. If you can, wait another day or two.

→ Remember your list of titles from Amazon? Go back to it. Ask yourself if the title you’ve chosen would fit the list—without being too similar or generic.

Read more here: How To Title Your Book

Erotica: To Write or Not To Write?

Back in the day, writers were told that if you wanted to make a lot of money, fast, then you had to write pornography. They used the word 'pornography' rather than 'erotica' because back in the day there was no erotica! Well, maybe there was, but I don't think it was called that.

As the end of the month nears and I contemplate my back-balance being plundered as my rent cheque barely squeaks through, I wonder if writing about something other than urban fantasy would be more financially lucrative (hell, almost anything would be more financially lucrative!). I've gone so far as to try to calculate the average Amazon ranking for books in each of the categories (fantasy, science fiction, erotica, and so on) to discover which kind of books sell best, but, as far as I can tell, books with erotic content don't seem to do markedly better or worse than any other kind of book.

I will confess to putting some thought into the question of whether an unknown author of erotic romance has a better chance of selling their work than an unknown author writing in another genre. Personally, I doubt they do. Here's why: I think that, all things being equal, the key to an unknown writer selling a story is how easily the writer can define and write to their market for that story.

Let me try to say that again, only in another way. (Here we are stipulating that the stories we are comparing are equally well written.) A writer who knows more about what her audience wants to read, and who writes accordingly, will have a better chance of selling their story, provided they can connect to that audience. I think this counts for a lot of the success Harlequin has. They know the demands of their audience and they give their audience what they demand.

Of course the size of the audience matters. I imagine that the market for erotic stories is enormous (suddenly it seems all my words have a double-meaning!), but so is the market for urban fantasy, or just plain old romance stories. Also, as John Locke mentioned in his excellent book, How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months, it isn't just the size of the audience that matters, it is whether you can connect with that audience, as well as how engaged that audience is with you as a writer, and with what you write (that is, how likely they are to buy your work; the more likely they are, the smaller the audience needed). Or something like that.

I'm blathering. If anyone would like to share your thoughts on this, please do, mine seem to be running around chasing their collective tails. Also, what genre do you think is the most profitable?

Publishing With Smashwords

Smashwords is an ebook publishing and distribution platform for people, scribblers like myself, who publish their work in ebook form. If you are an independent author -- a writer who has chosen to publish their work themselves -- Smashwords provides a fantastic opportunity to get your book into the hands of readers while retaining control over every step of the process.

I have published two books through Smashwords and it has been a great experience. While I'm learning how to be a publisher, marketer and publicist, I'm part of an ever expanding community of mutually supportive writers and readers. What's not to like?

What Can Smashwords Do For Me As A Writer?
Smashwords will not only help you publish your book but will act as a distributor getting your work into digital bookstores. Here are a few of the retailers Smashwords has access to: Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Nobel, Sony, Kobo and the Diesel eBook Store. (For a complete and up-to-date list, click here.)

How Much Do I Have To Pay To Publish Through Smashwords?
Smashwords is free! This is from the Smashwords FAQ:

We don't charge for our ebook publishing, conversion and distribution services, and we don't sell publishing packages. We earn our commission only if we sell your book, and our commission is only 15% or less of the net, which works out to slightly under 10% of the retail price when your book sells at our retailers.

If I Publish Through Smashwords Does That Mean I Can't Publish Through, For Instance, Amazon?
Not at all! Smashwords allows an author to opt out of certain distribution channels, allowing you to publish your work to that channel yourself. For instance, although I'm using Smashwords to publishing my book, Until Death, to iTunes, Barnes & Nobel, Sony, Kobo and the Diesel Book Store, I chose to publish my book through Amazon myself, without help from Smashwords.

My Experience With Smashwords
When I first heard about Smashwords it sounded too good to be true. I've published two books through Smashwords so far and -- while formatting my first book was tedious -- I found formatting my second book, Until Death, to be relatively painless. At the moment it only takes me about half an hour to format and upload a file. Speaking of which, here are some formatting tips and tricks:

- Styles. When I was formatting my book files I found it worked best if I used styles based on the normal template when I did any formatting. This saved me, oh, so much work. The last time I did this my manuscript went through the meatgrinder with zero errors. Yay!

- Table Of Contents. This is what I do, I know other folks do it differently, but this works for me. I number each chapter simply with "Chapter 1", "Chapter 2", and so on, and I don't bother typing out a listing of the chapters in the beginning of the book.
The first time I formatted a book file I spent half an hour just formatting a fancy table of contents and put links from the chapter headings in the manuscript to the TOC entries and back again, but I kept getting errors when the manuscript went through the meatgrinder and the epub file wouldn't display properly in Adobe Digital Editions. After I removed my lovingly constructed table of contents, everything worked perfectly.

Recommended Reading For Publishing on Smashwords:
When I first formatted my book file for Smashwords I knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about the process. Here are a few links to resources. I've read every one of these books and they helped me enormously.

1. Smart Self-Publishing: Becoming an Indie Author, by Zoe Winters.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. When I bought it I was hoping Zoe would give some advice about marketing, but she did very much more. I stepped through her description of how to publish on Smashwords the first time I went through the process. Her advice was great and it made me feel as though I had someone someone experienced with me each step of the way.

2. Smashwords Style Guide, by Mark Coker
When someone first recommended that I read the Smashwords Style Guide my eyes glazed over; it sounded too much like something I'd have to read for school. But I read it anyway and was glad I did. The Guide is well written, nicely organized and easy to understand.

3. Smashwords Book Marketing Guide, by Mark Coker
This is a must read. When I decided to become an independent author I knew nothing -- and I do mean absolutely nothing -- about promoting or marketing myself. A writing acquaintance of mine with a background in advertising recommended the Book Marketing Guide to me I am very glad she did. For instance, most of my sales have been generated through my Twitter contacts but I wouldn't have joined Twitter if it hadn't been for Mark Coker's urging. He's great! :)

I'd like to end this blog post with a few links to blogs that I've found enormously helpful:
- Joe Konrath: A Newbie's Guide to Publishing
Joe Konrath is the unofficial spokesman and leader of the indie publishing movement and he seems like a toughly nice guy. When I first started reading Joe's blog I knew nothing about the independent publishing movement. He was the one who showed me that there was a big difference between the vanity press movement of yesteryear and the independent publishing movement of today.

- Dean Wesley Smith
Dean Wesley Smith has written over, probably well over, a hundred books and has been part of the traditional publishing industry, both as a writer and a publisher, for many years. His series of articles contain essential information about where the industry is today and also give the beginning writer encouragement. I highly recommend this blog to anyone starting out who wonders if they will be able to make it as a writer.

- Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Kristine Kathryn Rusch has been in the writing and publishing industries at least as long as Dean and has won many awards for her truly incredible writing. Like Dean, Kristine doesn't mince words when it comes to talking about things -- gottya clauses -- to watch out for in a publishing contract as well as warning about trends in the industry that could harm a writer's career.

- The Passive Voice blog
The Passive Voice blog is written by an attorney who practices contract law and who has the uncanny ability to explain contracts in a way that a layperson can understand and even enjoy. A must-read for anyone who thinks they may sign a contract one day.

I hope that I've given you at least one piece of information about Smashwords that was helpful. Smashwords is a great publishing and distribution platform that I would highly recommend to anyone considering self-publishing their work.

Good luck!

Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance: The Difference

When people ask what kind of stories I write I don't know whether to say Urban Fantasy or Paranormal Romance because I'm not sure what the boundaries of each category are -- and also because I think I write both. That's my motto: If you can't pick between two great things, don't! (Buffets are my nemesis. ;)

Larissa Benoliel over at herosandheartbreakers.com has written an excellent post on what exactly Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance are, how they are defined, and then goes on to give examples of books she feels fall into each category. Folks, this is an amazing post! I agree with her 100%, but even if I didn't I would admire the thought behind her blog post as well as the clarity she has brought to a difficult subject.

Here are the highlights:

Urban Fantasy:
- "... Urban Fantasy is all about the paranormal embedded in a modern setting. There might be romance, but the romance is not the primary focus and a happily ever after is never guaranteed."
- Stories that fall into the Urban Fantasy category, "usually include a love interest and even a boyfriend or another, but the focus of the series is the action, character development, and the plot."
- Narrating Voice: Heroine narrates in first person. (Not always perhaps, but most of the time.)

Examples of Urban Fantasy:
- Kat Richardson’s Greywalker series
- the Hollows series by Kim Harrison
- Charlaine Harris's Southern Mystery series
- Stacia Kane, Unholy Magic

Paranormal Romance
"... the first thing that comes to mind when we talk about Paranormal Romance is the happily ever after, in a PNR series or novel, you can absolutely expect that there will be a HEA [Happily Ever After] for a couple in each of the books in the series."
- Narrating voice: "Paranormal Romances are usually written in more than one point of view and all in third person. We constantly get to get into the leading lady’s head along with the leading male and sometimes even the villain and other side characters as well."

Examples of Paranormal Romance:
- the Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward
- Gena Showalter’s Lords of the Underworld
- Lara Adrian’s Midnight Breed
- Larissa Ione’s Demonica series.

To read the rest of a truly excellent article, click here.