What THE WONDER PETS Can Teach Writers

This is from 12most.com. (The following are excerpts.)

1. Formulas = built-in consistency

Doesn’t matter if I’ve seen an episode of Wonder Pets or Super Why for the first time or the millionth time: the formula is consistent. Beginning-middle-end. Simple. Straight forward. Built-in consistency.

I know that the opening sequence for Wonder Pets presents the lesson for the episode that is nailed home by the animal they save that day. I know that words make up the animals and objects in Word World and that, when they build a word, they sound it out, put the letters together and then celebrate the accomplishment. “We did it! We built a word!”

2. Simplicity

The Wonder Pets, Word World and Super Why! get simplicity. It comes across clearly in each story line. Call it breaking it down to bare bones, call it dumbing down, it is still simplicity. Even though I’m an adult, and have long since learned the lessons imparted (hopefully), I still get them  because of their simple presentation.

3. Teamwork matters

As much as I’m used to working on my own, by myself, little gets done without the help of others. While we may not all work for a company, or a department within a company, if we’re involved in the same project we’re a team. That project cannot be completed without input and support from all.

I think this point, especially, applies to independent authors. Sometimes we feel very alone but we have a great support network in the form of other indie authors. I'm amazed by the amount of encouragement and support I've received from my peers. It's awesome!

4. Excitement is infectious

I know. I know. It sounds ridiculous. Seriously though. My 3-year-old nephew will literally jump up and down, on the couch, too, and sing “Let’s build a word! We did it! We built a word!” It’s infectious. I can’t help but smile, and before I’m even aware, I’m singing along too! And it’s downright impossible to be in a bad mood with such excitement around. Which leads me to point #5.

I know it sounds cliche, but sometimes a positive attitude--I will finish this book--is everything.

5. Positive approach

The Wonder Pets, Word World and Super Why! all have this positive slant to them. I know they are kid shows, but there are kid shows that don’t have such a positive slant. Sponge Bob comes readily to mind. Doesn’t matter the obstacle presented, there’s a positive approach to the problem and a positive celebration when solved. No one is put down, backhanded or otherwise. No one is left out.

We would all do well to stop for a moment, and think of how we can approach obstacles in a more positive way. The doom-and-gloom and finger pointing, the negative approach we so forcefully demonstrate, clearly is not working.

6. Nicknames are cool… if they are meaningful

Alpha Pig! He builds the alphabet so you can find the letters to the spell the word. Rhyming Red! Sings a song of rhyming words. When you give nicknames, or code names to things, that’s cool, when the nicknames, or code names, are meaningful. There’s no wasted time and effort wondering what the name means, or why the person, or character, has that name.

This is especially true for character names. Sometimes I wonder if a large part of  J.K. Rowling's success was the clever naming of her characters.


Read the rest of the article here: 12 Most Words of Wisdom While Watching Wonder Pets, Word World, and Super Why!

I'm going to try and keep these points in mind as I sit down to write later today.

Keep writing!

Call For Authors: Write a DEAD MAN Novel

Want to write the next novel in Lee Goldberg's DEAD MAN series? This is from Lee's website:

How would you like to become a PUBLISHED AUTHOR...and win $1000 in cash and prizes?

Now's your chance to win a $500 advance, a $500 Amazon gift card, and a publishing contract to write your own tale in the hugely popular DEAD MAN saga...to be published in early 2013 by Amazon's 47North imprint. 

 HOW TO ENTER

All you have to do is write a sample chapter and a brief outline of your story, complete the entry form and sign the release...and email the whole package to us at thedeadmanbookcontest@gmail.com by August 1, 2012...or before we receive 500 entries...whichever comes first. Each entry will be judged by a group of current writers of THE DEAD MAN, led by series co-creators Lee Goldberg & William Rabkin.  

WHAT ARE THE RULES?

The contest rules are below. Please read them carefully to make sure that your entry meets all of the eligibility requirements before you submit. 

 Good luck!

For the complete contest rules, click here: You Can Write a DEAD MAN Novel

Lee Goldberg has been writing for decades. I got to know his work through his excellent Mr. Monk books, but he is a prolific writer. This isn't my genre, or I'd be the first to apply.

Good luck!

5 Book Review Blogs

When my book, Until Death, first came out I went on a hunt for book blogs. I'd read about Amanda Hocking's incredible success and knew that she attributed much of the early popularity of her books to the many book bloggers who reviewed her work.

Funny thing, when I searched for book review blogs a few months ago I couldn't find more than a dozen and, of those, only two or three would accept self published work.

Ack!

As luck would have it, I recently came across a few book review blogs and thought I'd tell you folks about them. (This also gives me a nice convenient list for when I need it next!)

You'll notice that most of the book review sites I mention below don't have a stated policy on whether they accept self-published work. Since many book review sites do explicitly (and emphatically!) state they do not accept self-published work, I'd say that those without a policy are willing to treat a self-published book as a book like any other and you're free to query them like the author/publisher you are.

I've found each site has different policies regarding whether to send a query first, what form the query should be in, and so forth, so I've provided a link to the site's review policy in the title.

1. JJ Ireads: Book reviews and more from an e-book lover

Kind of books: Young Adult, Contemporary Fiction, Mysteries, Nonfiction memoirs (humor)

Book formats: Ebooks (mobi, epub, PDF). Electronic formats preferred but will also accept paperback or hardcover.


Self-published work: This reviewer did not state whether they accept self-published work.

Notes: May also do author interviews and giveaways. Contact the site fore details.

2. Reading Teen

Kind of books: Anything teen or young adult.

Book formats: Hardback or paperback please.

Self-published work: This reviewer did not state whether they accept self-published work.

3. Mundie Moms

Kind of books: Only young adult books, please.

Book formats: "At this time we only accept paperback or hardcopies of books, ARCs and manuscripts. We only accept books that follow our blog's genres."

Self-published work: I found no explicit mention of whether Mundie Moms accepts self-published work.

Notes: Mundie Moms also does author interviews and giveaways.

4. Novel Thoughts

Kind of books: "I usually am drawn to read Young Adult novels, but I read the occasional Adult or Middle Grade books. I do not accept ebook requests. If you think I would be interested in reviewing your books, please contact me at: contact [at] novelthoughtsblog [dot] com."

Book formats: No ebooks.

Self-published work: No stated policy.

Notes: "I would love to read and review your books, host giveaways, or hold interviews here on my blog, Novel Thoughts."

5. The Book Smugglers

ARCs: "Ana Grilo and Thea James, The Book Smugglers, are currently open to receiving solicited Advance Reading Copies and Review Copies of books."

Kind of books: "Our preferred genres are Speculative Fiction (Horror, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction), Young Adult (Speculative Fiction/Paranormal and Contemporary), with the occasional Romance novel (Paranormal, Historical, Contemporary). This does not, however, mean that we will not consider books from other genres! We love graphic novels, manga, mysteries, historical fiction, and will consider any book with a great synopsis."

Book formats: "Our review copy preference is for ebooks, followed by print copies. As such, digital ARCs/review copies will be given precedence over print copies. Our preferred format is EPUB."

 Self-published work: Yes! They write:

While the bulk of the books that we review are from large publishing houses in the United States and the United Kingdom, we also love to hear from small press and independently published authors (i.e. Joel A. Sutherland’s Frozen Blood or Michael Hicks’s In Her Name).

Notes: Contact The Book Smuggers here: http://thebooksmugglers.com/contact-us

I'm going to start keeping a list of book review blogs, especially those that accept self published work. This is something of an experiment, but if you review books, please use the contact page (see the top of this blog) or email me at karen [at] karenwoodward [dot] org and send me your site address as well as your review policy and I'll be sure to include you.

Keep writing!

Stephen King on Ray Bradbury: The sound I hear today is the thunder of a giant's footsteps fading away.

The tributes to Ray Bradbury keep coming.

Stephen King:
The sound I hear today is the thunder of a giant's footsteps fading away. But the novels and stories remain, in all their resonance and strange beauty.

Neil Gaiman:
I'm writing something now. But I wanted to put this up. I wrote it a couple of years ago as an introduction to the PS edition of The Machineries of Joy and it was reprinted in the Times. If you want to quote me, you can take anything you like from this, and add that he was kind, and gentle, and always filled with enthusiasm, and that the landscape of the world we live in would have been diminished if we had not had him in our world.

And that I am so glad that I knew him.
- Ray Bradbury

Last week, at dinner, a friend told me that when he was a boy of 11 or 12 he met Ray Bradbury. When Bradbury found out that he wanted to be a writer, he invited him to his office and spent half a day telling him the important stuff: if you want to be a writer, you have to write. Every day. Whether you feel like it or not. That you can't write one book and stop. That it's work, but the best kind of work. My friend grew up to be a writer, the kind who writes and supports himself through writing.

Ray Bradbury was the kind of person who would give half a day to a kid who wanted to be a writer when he grew up.
- Ray Bradbury: In Memoriam and In Green Town Illinois

Stephen Spielberg
He was my muse for the better part of my sci-fi career. ... He lives on through his legion of fans. In the world of science fiction and fantasy and imagination he is immortal.

President Obama
His gift for storytelling reshaped our culture and expanded our world.  But Ray also understood that our imaginations could be used as a tool for better understanding, a vehicle for change, and an expression of our most cherished values.  There is no doubt that Ray will continue to inspire many more generations with his writing.

Read more homages here: Spielberg, Lindelof, Stephen King and Others Remember Ray Bradbury

Amazon Rank: How Related Is It To Author Earnings?

I've always wondered this. Let's say your book has an Amazon Sales Rank of 50,000, and lets say it stays there for a month. What does this mean in terms of how much money an author could expect their book to make?

Is there a correlation between sales and Amazon Rank?

Passive Guy brought up this topic today in one of his rare posts. He posed three questions:

Question #1: Is this [Amazon Best Sellers Rank] a fair way of evaluating how well an ebook-only or mostly-ebook publisher performs for authors?

Question #2: While we’re discussing Amazon Best Sellers Rank, has anyone seen any credible discussions concerning how sales rank translates into dollars for indie authors? If you’re at 20,000 with a $2.99 ebook, are you making $500 per month from that book? Or is Amazon’s algorithm too volatile to make it a useful gauge of the dollars coming in the door?

Question #3: Everybody knows that lots of ebooks have experienced sales spikes immediately after Christmas as new ereaders and tablets are packed with ebooks. What about other sales patterns? For example, do sales go up on the weekend when many people have more leisure time to read?

PG hasn’t seen any analyses of sales rank that address these kinds of questions.

He doesn’t want to trigger obsessive-compulsive behavior centered on your KDP dashboard, but would be interested in whatever tribal knowledge his readers might have about sales rank.

The rest of PG's article is here: Amazon Sales Rank vs. Author Earnings.

Cheers.

How To Write A Middle Grade Novel

Wondering how to write a novel for the middle grades? Here are three articles penned by full-time freelance writer, children's author, and Working Writers Coach Suzanne Lieurance.

Writing the Middle Grade Novel - From Start to Finish: Part One
Are you aching to write a middle grade novel but you don't really know how to get started much less finish such a project? Then here are a few tips to help you get going.

Writing the Middle Grade Novel - From Start to Finish: Part Two
Now, here are some tips and tricks for plotting and writing your novel.

Writing the Middle Grade Novel: From Start to Finish - Part Three
Here are a few tips to help you FINISH your manuscript.

Suzanne Lieurance's websites:
- Ezine Articles
- www.SuzanneLieurance.com
- The Working Writer's Club

Related reading:
- Middle Grade Novels - How To Write Them

7 Tips On How To Launch A Book Without Losing Your Mind

Elizabeth S. Craig writes:

Today is the launch for the first book in a new series—Quilt or Innocence in the Southern Quilting mysteries. 

How often will I track its sales numbers? Rarely.

7 Tips for Releasing a Book Without Losing Your Mind:

1. Get off the grid. That’s right. Take yourself offline. It can be done! The longer I stay offline when I’ve got a release, the more relaxed I feel.

2. Don’t watch your numbers. Sales numbers will fluctuate…and most of the time we don’t know what’s behind them. It’s sort of like the flapping butterfly wings creating the hurricane.

3. Don’t read your reviews unless you can be objective. You don’t even have to be objective…being analytical about the reviews is good enough.

4. Write your next book. Always a good idea to get a jump on a sequel or another standalone.

5. Write guest posts. Not only will a well-crafted guest post keep you distracted, it will also help circulate that book cover and headshot of yours. 

Read the rest of Elizabeth's post here: How to Launch a Book Without Losing Your Mind.

I love getting tips from a pro! I can't wait to read Quilt or Innocence, I love Elizabeth's books.

Cheers.

Steve Wasserman Compares Readers of Genre Fiction to Drug Addicts

Kris Rusch hit another home run with her Thursday column. Her article will be met with a resounding, "Heck ya!" by any who felt insulted on behalf of E.L. James because of the way she was treated at the Authors Guild Dinner.

In case you missed it, here's the offensive part:

A number of the evening’s speakers, who also included writers David Rakoff and Sarah Jones, made obligatory digs at 50 Shades of Grey, an erotic work derived from Twilight fan fiction and derided as “mommy porn” that has inexplicably topped the New York Times bestseller list.
- Authors hail Teddy Roosevelt, rip ‘mommy porn’ at annual gala

Really? E.L. James is an author whose books have sold well, hers is a success story, but if she thought the Authors Guild would welcome her she was wrong. Instead they act like common schoolyard bullies. Why? Well, I'm guessing it was because her work was self-published in the beginning, before Random House signed her, and because it sold like wildfire.

Where will this bullying end?

In a recent article, The Amazon Effect, Steve Wasserman tucks into writers and readers of genre fiction. What follows is excerpted from Kris Rusch's article.

Kris writes: 

[Wasserman] writes, “Readers of e-books are especially drawn to escapist and overtly commercial genres (romance, mysteries and thrillers, science fiction), and in these categories e-book sales have bulked up to as large as 60 percent.”

In other words, junk sells better in e-book format, something you hear a lot from the folks in traditional publishing these days.

Wasserman then quotes an unnamed traditional publishing executive who says, “But as Amazon’s six other publishing imprints (Montlake Romance, AmazonCrossing, Thomas & Mercer, 47North, Amazon Encore, The Domino Project) have discovered, in certain genres (romance, science fiction and fantasy) formerly relegated to the moribund mass-market paperback, readers care not a whit about cover design or even good writing, and have no attachment at all to the book as object. Like addicts, they just want their fix at the lowest possible price, and Amazon is happy to be their online dealer.”

Is it any wonder that traditional publishing is in trouble, with that attitude? The books that sell well don’t deserve (in their opinion) the respect of good covers or good marketing, and the readers certainly don’t deserve their respect. Apparently, the book collectors who predominate in science fiction and fantasy don’t care about books as objects (that’ll be news to them). Apparently people who read this junk just want their fix, like any other drug addict.

Insulted yet?

No wonder readers who enjoy genre fiction like to read it on their e-readers. The covers from traditional publishers are deliberately ugly, the writing is awful (supposedly—and if so, then what does traditional publishing bring to the table, if they publish any old crappy writer?), and the people who publish it are awfully judgmental. Best to enjoy it in private, without someone leering at the awful cover that the publishers have put on the book.

Go back to that Authors Guild meeting, note that they made fun of a book that first sold well as an indie title in e-book, and ask yourself who those writers identify with? I have a hunch it’s not those of us who write genre fiction.

What's the moral of the story? Is there one? I don't know. I'll admit to being disillusioned when it comes to traditional publishing and the ideals it stands for.

There is good news, though. With the demise of the big bookstore chains there has been a resurgence of independent bookstores. Book sales, both of digital and paper books, are up.

It's always nice to end on a positive note. :)

Cheers.

Esquire Interviews Bill Murray

Bill Murray is one of my favorite actors. I watch What About Bob at least once a year. Just thinking about curling up on the couch with a big bowl of sinfully buttered popcorn is enough to put a goofy smile on my face.

Mr. Murray did an interview for Esquire last month, here are my favorite it-could-apply-to-writing bits from it.

Bill Murray on his teacher/mentor Del Close:

He taught people to commit. ... You've gotta go out there and improvise and you've gotta be completely unafraid to die. You've got to be able to take a chance to die. And you have to die lots. You have to die all the time. You're goin' out there with just a whisper of an idea. The fear will make you clench up. That's the fear of dying. When you start and the first few lines don't grab and people are going like, "What's this? I'm not laughing and I'm not interested," then you just put your arms out like this and open way up and that allows your stuff to go out. Otherwise it's just stuck inside you.

 The next time I have writers block I'm going to try that!

On making a movie:

SR: It's amazing what goes into making a movie.

BM: But nobody cares. It's like talking about the difficulties of fame. Nobody gives a shit. No one could care less. But it's an amazing triumph even to make a bad movie. Even a crap film is really an extraordinary achievement. You're taking a two-dimensional object and making it three-dimensional. The number of people. The number of days. The number of cuts.

I think that applies to writing as well. Even if you think, "This is a bad book, this is the worst book ever," while you're writing, you still need to finish the book. And, really, it's probably not as bad as you think, but it's easy to be negative in-the-moment.

If you'd like to read the rest of Bill Murray's interview, click here: Bill Murray: The ESQ+A

Clive Barker Doing The Rewrite of Zombies vs. Gladiators

Although in a coma this February because of blood poisoning, Clive Barker is now fully recovered and looks forward to rewriting Zombies vs. Gladiators:

I’m excited by the opportunity to interweave two very rich narrative threads. One of them concerns itself with the reality of the decadence of Rome and its rise and fall. The other is a fantastical narrative element - the living dead. My brief to myself on this project is to give the audience not only zombies they have never seen before but also a Rome they have never seen before.

Amazon Studios offered up the dream ticket with this project. In twenty-five years of working in this town, I've rarely had people listen to what I had to say as closely and as carefully as they did and then simply give me the freedom to go do it. Amazon Studios is an innovative creative concept. I am looking forward to providing my own perspective to make Zombies vs. Gladiators a highly commercial and entertaining movie.
- Amazon Studios' 'Zombies vs. Gladiator' script to receive a Clive Barker rewrite

This is the Roman version of the zombie apocalypse so, of course, the action takes place in a Roman Colosseum. A shaman is set to become the latest casualty of the Romans casual barbarity when he casts a spell that brings the victims of previous battles back to life.

Rumor has it that the hero is going to be a male version of the Alice character in Resident Evil.

Books, household items and now movies, Amazon is focused on capturing ever bigger slices of the entertainment pie. I'm looking forward to see how this story develops.

To read more about Zombie vs. Gladiators, click here:
Amazon Studios' 'Zombies vs. Gladiator' script to receive a Clive Barker rewrite