Writers Sue Harlequin For Underpayment

Three writers--Barbara Keiler, Mona Gay Thomas and Linda Barrett--have filed a suit against Harlequin, the world's largest publisher of romance books. They claim that Harlequin has unfairly deprived authors of monies owed.

The complaint is fairly involved and has to do with alleged legal trickery on Harlequin's part. I'll let Joe Konrath explain it:

Now I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure ... Harlequin contracts state they'll pay authors 50% for foreign and ebook royalties. This 50% is based on the amount they receive. But then they took those rights and sub-licensed them to another company for 6%, which means the author got 3% of the wholesale price, not 50%.

Confused? Here's an example.

Harlequin has an ebook it lists for $3.99. It sells that to Amazon at a wholesale price of $2.00. The author should make $1.00 for each $3.99 ebook that Amazon sells.

But instead of selling direct to Amazon, Harlequin sells the ebook to Company X for 12 cents. So the author only gets 6 cents. Company X than sells the same ebook to Amazon for $2.00, but because they are a sub-licensing company, they don't have to pay the author anything.

Sub-licensing is common. My publisher, Headline in the UK, sold book club rights to my novel AFRAID. The book club paid Headline a flat fee, and HEADLINE gave me 50% of that fee, according to my contract. The book club wasn't required to pay me royalties on each book club edition is sold. Just like Company X isn't required to pay authors anything.

This is all fine and legal. So why are authors suing Harlequin?

Because Harlequin and Company X are the same company.

In other words, it is sub-licensing the rights it holds to itself. Then it only has to pay the author 3% instead of 50%.

That's seems pretty shitty. It also doesn't seem like something a judge or jury will casually dismiss, even if Harlequin made sure it kept the two companies separate through an umbrella company.

No publishing company would ever sub-license rights for a paltry 6%, unless it was selling the rights to itself. Does Harlequin really expect a judge to believe that it sells a $3.99 ebook and only makes 6 cents? And according to the complaint, the 6% was not equivalent to the amount reasonably obtainable from an unrelated party, as required by the publishing agreements.

Ya think?

I love Joe's explanation, lots of flare but with a smidgeon of restraint. I'd encourage you to read Joe's entire post here: Harlequin Fail Part 2

Here is Harlequin's response to the lawsuit:

Harlequin announced today that they have been made aware of a class action lawsuit brought against them by three former authors.

The publisher wishes to make clear that this is the first it has heard of the proceedings and that a complaint has not yet been served.

“Our authors have been recompensed fairly and properly for their work, and we will be defending ourselves vigorously,” said Donna Hayes, Publisher and Chief Executive Officer of Harlequin. (Harlequin Blog)

Passive Guy, a practicing IP attorney, dissects Harlequin's responce:

Let’s see, this lawsuit has been in the works for months and generally discussed among romance writers during that time. PG has no inside information, but it’s not unusual for settlement discussions to precede the filing of a suit. HQ looks either clueless or dishonest when it claims to be surprised.

As far as the core issue of using one HQ company to license publishing rights to another HQ company in order to substantially reduce royalties paid to authors, PG figured that out the first time he reviewed an HQ publishing contract and authors have been complaining about it for years.

HQ’s statement that the complaint has not been served on it will draw a giant “duh” from any lawyer familiar with litigation. You file the complaint, then serve the defendant. Yet another clueless statement.

Since PG is always a helpful guy, he’ll provide Harlequin with a copy of the complaint below so they can read it. [PG put a copy of the author's complaint up on his blog, you can read it here.]

On a more serious note, most companies that are defendants in a major class-action suit incorporate a sophisticated public communications program to show themselves in the best possible light and minimize damage to their reputation.

Evidently, HQ doesn’t plan to do that.

You can read PG's entire article here: Harlequin Responds to Lawsuit by Authors Seeking Royalties.

That's all the information I have at the moment. I use to be involved with the Romance Writers Of America and many, if not most, of the published writers in that group either published through Harlequin, had at one time published through them or were actively submitting work there. I can't imagine this lawsuit will bolster the RWA's shrinking numbers.

If true, Harlequin's underhanded dealings not only hurt authors but they hurt readers as well. Of course I would be surprised if Harlequin was the only publishing company doing something like this. I hope this suit sets a president that encourages all publishers to deal fairly and honestly with their authors.

Further reading:
- Harlequin author Patricia McLinn, one of those involved with the lawsuit, has written about the suit on her Facebook page.

Forget NaNoWriMo: How To Write A Novel In A Weekend

Writing 85,000 words in a weekend gives a new meaning to the phrase "weekend novelist". Honestly, I hadn't thought it possible to write that many words in three days. I'm reminded of the scene in The Shining where Jack Nickleson writes oodles of pages a day but they all say the same thing: All work and no play makes Jack an dull boy.

I could do that. Of course I'd probably develop an unnatural affection for kitchen knives by the end.

Brian Keene did just this, he holed up in his house and wrote 85,000 words over the span of three consecutive days. No, it wasn't a publicity stunt, he had deadlines looming and he needed to write 85,000 words in three days. And, miraculously, he did.

Here's how he did it:

1) No distractions
Pretty much the only thing Brian did for the entire weekend was sleep, eat and write. He didn't do housework, he didn't visit friends, he just wrote. He writes:

All I did was write. And when I got tired, I slept. And when I woke up, I wrote some more. Did my wrists hurt? Sure. Did I give myself carpal tunnel? It certainly seems like it. Do I feel bad that I missed out on things? Of course. But did I accomplish what I set out to do? Absolutely.

2) Know exactly where the story is going
Brian didn't have an outline, but he knew exactly where the story was going. He writes:

Had these been novels I was starting from scratch, or had the subject matter been something I didn’t feel as intimate or close to (Sundancing), or simply frivolous and fun to write (The Lost Level) there’s no way I would have written that many words in a day. Indeed, there have been times (Dark Hollow, Ghoul, and Take the Long Way Home come to mind) when the subject matter was heavy enough that I was lucky if I wrote 1,000 words a day. And you’ll have novels and stories like that. But you’ll also have ones that you absolutely can’t wait to get down on paper (or onto a laptop screen), and it is my personal experience that those types of tales seem to write themselves a lot faster.

3) Quantity over quality
The 85,000 words were for two first drafts. 40,000 words went to the first draft of a novel and 20,000 were of a novella. They are just "the basic foundations of the books to come."

Consider the words I wrote this weekend to be a just-built house. Now, I’ll go back and start the second draft, which is when I’ll run the electrical wires and the plumbing, and hang the drywall and the vinyl siding. Then I’ll do a third draft, which is when we pick out carpet and furniture, and make it ready to show to buyers. But what I did this weekend is just unpainted lumber. It’s raw materials. It looks like a house, but you wouldn’t want to live there… yet.

Brian concludes with some excellent adivce we can all follow:

The important thing to remember is this — writers get too hung up on word counts. It doesn’t matter if you produce 1,000 words per day or 10,000 words per day. What matters is that you produce words. Novels and stories don’t write themselves. Ass in chair, fingers on keyboard, repeat as necessary is the best method I know. If you’ve written 1,000 words today and someone else has written twice that amount, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’ve written. Be proud of what you’ve produced.

And now I’m off to dip my hands and wrists in a big vat of Ben Gay…

Basically Brian did NaNoWriMo in a weekend, plus 35,000 words. I stand in awe.

Read Brian's account of his harrowing experience here: How To Write 80,000 Words In A Weekend. Thanks to David Gaughran for the link.

Related reading:
- NaNoWriMo: Why write a 50,000 word manuscript in a month?
- NaNoWriMo: Write A Novel In 30 Days
- SiWC 2011: Character and POV: The Voice of Your Story, by Bob Mayer

International Writers And The U.S. 30% Withholding Tax: Getting It Back

US 30% Withholding Tax

The Problem: 30% US Withholding Tax
If you are an international publisher/self-published author who sells through US companies then you will have 30% of all the money you make withheld for tax reasons. That's the bad news.

Solution One: An Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN)
The good news is that if you live in the UK, Canada or Ireland then you can avoid this tax entirely by applying for an Individual Tax Identification Number. There are also a few countries that, while they get some of the tax withheld, can receive most of it back. For a full listing of all countries that have tax exemptions read the document U.S. Tax Treaties--and if you can't get to sleep at night, it's better than warm milk and cookies.

Unfortunately an ITIN is difficult to get, and takes a long time, but it is your only option if you haven't started your own publishing company. Catherine, Caffeinated, has written a detailed article on how to get an ITIN so I'll send you her way: Applying for a US Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN): A Saga in 3 Parts

Solution Two: An Employee Identification Number (EIN)
If you have your own publishing company then you don't have to go through the rigamorole of getting your ITIN, you can just get an EIN. This is good news.

Again, Catherine, Caffeinated has a great post about this, courtesy of guest David Gaughran. His article is informative and funny. You can find it here: Non-US Self-Publisher? Tax Issues Don’t Need to be Taxing.

Another Problem: Getting Back The Tax That Was Previously Withheld
Now that you have your ITIN, or your EIN, and you've filled out the appropirate forms and sent them to Smashwords and Amazon and whatnot, now you're receving 100% of your earnings (big yea!). But you still have a problem.

You sold a few books while the withholding tax was in place and you'd like to get that money back. As always, there's good news and there's bad news.

The good news: You can get your money back.
The bad news: You can't just ask the retailer (for instance, Amazon or Smashwords) for your back tax, you have to ask the IRS.

While you can do everything you need to get your tax back, many folks would rather pay others to get the job done. If you're amoung that lot (Catherine is), there are companies who will get your tax back for you and charge you either a flat fee or a percentage.

One such company is Taxback.com. Catherine writes about her experience with them and recommends them. Her article is here: The Easy Way to Get Your US Tax Back.

That's it!

When you get your ITIN, or your EIN, and your back taxes have been sorted out, fix yourself a nice tall cool glass of lemonade and relax. You've earned it!

Good luck.

Related reading:
- How To Build A Platform: Why Every Writer Needs A Website
- The Business of Writing: Using Google+
- How To Sell 100 Books Per Day: 6 Things You Need To Do

4 Reasons Why Writers Will Always Have Work

Working Writers

Joe Konrath's done it again, this time on the subject of what has been dubbed "the race to the bottom".

The argument du jour seems to be that if publishers do collapse, then all the current bestsellers will have their ebooks available for $4.99 or less, and that will be the end of self-publishing.

Joe gives 4 reasons why, even if the current bestselling authors were to price their books at $4.99 or less, self-publishing would not only be here to stay but would still be a good way for writers to make a living.

1. Ebooks aren't a zero sum game
In other words, if publishing were like a zero sum game then because of Stephen King's deal with the devil--wait, no, I think James Patterson took that over--there would be fewer readers for the rest of us. That is the key point Joe disputes and I think he does an excellent job.

That said, Joe argues that even if publishing were a zero sum game self-published writers could still earn a living because there are so many readers. He writes:

Let's say there are currently 100 million ebook readers, and 1 million ebook titles on Amazon. In ten years, there will be billions of ebook readers (following the path of mp3s). But there won't be a corresponding 100 million ebook titles available--there aren't that many people writing ebooks, and never will be.

If I can currently sell a few hundred ebooks a day in the US alone, what will happen when ebooks become popular in India, China, Japan, Europe, Russian, and South America? There will be a bigger demand than unique supply, and I believe my position will improve.

2. People who are bestselling authors now may not be bestselling authors in the future
Readers have an insatiable appetite for reading. When we've finished reading our favorite best-selling authors we read other things, other books or blog posts. If deprived of reading material we'll resort to instruction manuals or the ingredients list on canned goods. Just as writers write, readers read.

Also, if bestselling books came down in price then readers would have more money to spend and it's a good bet most of it would be spent on buying books. Joe puts in this way:

Ever go into a store to buy a big ticket item, expecting to may more than you did? Let's say you research an over and find it for $699. When you go to the store, it is on sale for $499. And they also have a great toaster oven for $99. You probably wouldn't have bought the toaster oven originally, but now that you're saving money on the oven, the toaster oven becomes attractive.

If all ebook prices came down, more ebooks would be sold across the board.

3. The reason bestselling authors are bestselling authors is because of distribution.

A big part of the reason a bestselling author is a bestselling author is because her books are on sale everywhere books are sold. If, one day, publishers do collapse then bestselling authors will have exactly the same sort of distribution as other authors. Far from pushing other authors out it is just as likely--perhaps more likely--that as their distribution dries up so will their sales. Joe writes:

The market is getting bigger. People with ereaders tend to buy and read more. And authors can make a very nice living selling 100 ebooks a day for $2.99 each. Across multiple platforms, on a global scale, I see this as not only possible, but likely for decent, prolific authors. 

And as far as bestsellers go, they tend to fade when distribution changes or dries up.

4. The more ebooks there are the more ebooks will be bought

If bestselling ebooks come down in price that would make the purchace of an electronic reader an even better deal and the more electronic readers are sold the more electronic books will be bought. Joe writes:

If bestselling authors all dropped their prices, I believe I'd sell more ebooks, not less, because more people would buy ereaders and have more money to spend on content. There's enough room for 300 cable TV channels, and four billion videos on Youtube.

I would encourage you all to read Joe's entire post, Zero Sum.

I like what Joe says about a writer being able to support herself though her writing if she can sell 100 books a day at $2.99 or more. Sounds like a great goal to me!

Further reading:
- How To Sell 100 Books Per Day: 6 Things You Need To Do
- Joe Konrath: Are You Ready To Quit Your Job And Write Full Time?
- Amazon's KDP Select, Kobo & PubIt: Joe Konrath & Blake Crouch Share Their Experiences
- Joe Konrath's Letter To The Department Of Justice

Writers: In Order To Win We Must Embrace Failure

Writers create

I was tempted to title this article, "Writers: Masters of the Universe," but that wouldn't have been very descriptive. Much cooler though.

I was chatting with a friend this morning over email and she mentioned the necessity of embracing failure, the need to allow oneself to fail in order to have the freedom to create that magical first draft.

I'm not saying the first draft is magical because it's so good (although my friend's probably will be, she's an awesome writer) but because it contains in some form--even if it's a twisted, mangled promissory form--the seeds of a story.

It's the morning and I've only had one cup of coffee which means I need at least two more before I become remotely lucid, but it seems to me that the first draft is an act of creation. A writer starts with nothing, not even an idea. Then the idea appears and grows and transforms and becomes a story, something with a theme and a plot and characters and perhaps narrative drive.

To me, all such acts of creation are magical. Something is being created from nothing, ex nihilo.

Years ago another friend of mine introduced me to the term, "dark art". For instance, wine tasting is a dark art, so is picking a stock that performs well.

A successful day trader is a past master of the dark arts.

The idea behind the term is that sometimes there's no straightforwardly algorithmic way to achieve success in a certain field, or at a certain venture. And yet, somehow, people do and they do it on a regular basis. I think calling such people past masters of a dark art sounds cooler than remarking, "They have what it takes," or "They have je ne sais quoi, but it comes to the same thing.

Although there's no way someone can tell another person how to accomplish something for which there is no algorithmic path to success--that's the whole point after all--there are preconditions; requirements that must be met for success to be possible. In the case of a writer one of these requirements seems to be giving oneself the permission to fail.

I came across this quotation yesterday:

'It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly,' C . J. Cherryh

I needed to look that quote up to make sure I remembered it correctly (thanks Ali Hale) and came across this one:

'God sells us all things at the price of the labor,' Leonardo da Vinci

It might seem as though I'm contradicting myself. On the one hand, I'm saying writing a first draft is a dark art and, on the other, that going on a Dadaistic writing frenzy is the path to success.

Both are true.

As long as the idea--even the minutest, sickliest, germ of an idea--comes out in your first draft, even if it only tangentially gestures at the potential possibility of an idea, that's your lightning in a bottle.

On successive drafts you can hone the idea, get to know it, craft it, explore it, develop it. Perhaps, ultimately, the idea that eventually becomes the soul of your story will be another one altogether and your first idea will have served to merely show you the way.

I think that's part of the mystery of writing, why we fall in love with it. At heart, writers are drunk with the power of creation.

Or something like that.

Before I have my second cup of coffee I have two operating brain cells and they're locked in a death match, so take all this with a grain of salt.

Thanks for reading and remember Heinlein's first rule: Writers write.

(See what I mean? The title, "Writers: Masters of the Universe," would have been much cooler.)

Related reading:
- Jim Butcher: How To Write A Story
- How to build a Villain, by Jim Butcher
- Jody Hedlund: Talent Is Overrated
- Henry Miller's 11 Writing Commandments

"Writers: In Order To Win We Must Embrace Failure," copyright© 2012 by Karen Woodward.

Apple's MacBook Air: A Bundle Of Awesomeness!

Apple's MacBook Air

I just bought my first laptop! AND my first Mac. Since I first put my fingers on a keyboard I've been a PC gal but I took a bite out of the Apple, as it were, when I bought my iPad and I think I'm hooked.

My 13" Air arrived yesterday. I had it deilvered to a friend's house because my intercom is broken and the UPS guy left it with a my friend's neighbor! I had kittens. And then my kittens had kittens. My baby was with a complete stranger!

Fortunately for all concerned my friend's neighbor turned out to be a very sweet elderly Italian lady who invited me in for tea and cookies. But still! She could have been someone visiting from half-way around the word who needed money to support their growing iPhone addiction. For all I know they could have just taken my laptop and disappeared. Anyway, moving on.

Here's a picture of my new 13" MacBook Air in the box. I haven't discovered her name yet, but I'm confident she will tell me what it is.

SJ stands guard over my new MacBook Air

Pretty, isn't she? (That's my friend's cat, SJ. The first thing he did was climb inside the box and then try to lie across the computer.)

I need to do a few things with her before I can use her and I'm a bit nervous. As I said, I'm a PC gal and I've never really used a Mac before. I hope the learning cure isn't too steep. I'll blog about whatever adventures I had setting her up. (I'm excited!)

This post has been a bit different, more personal; I promise things will be back to normal tomorrow.

Cheers! (And wish me luck! I'm going to need it.)

Thanks for reading. :-)

How To Sell 100 Books Per Day: 6 Things You Need To Do

Joe Konrath has just written an excellent blog post called Zero Sum. I'm going to blog tomorrow about what he says about the race to the bottom but what I'd like to talk about now is this statement of his:

They [writers] need 100 sales a day at $2.99 to live very well.

My reaction: Yes! 100 sales a day seems doable. Sortof. So, here it is, six things you need to do in order to sell 100 books a day:

1) Write a lot of good stories
This point, though obvious, bears restating. Part of putting out a good book is making sure it has been edited, proofed and professionally formatted. (Joe mentions that he uses www.52novels.com for formatting his books.)

Even if unedited, unproofed and poorly formatted books will sell--we've all read ebooks like this--at the very least making sure your books look professional will give you a competitive advantage.

2) Have a great product description and a professional cover
This is self-explanatory. Joe recommends Carl Graves.

One thing I've found helpful in writing a product description is Nathan Bransford's advice for writing queries. Nathan gives a helpful paint/write-by-number formula for doing this that got me started and, often, getting something half-decent on the page, something you can work with, is half the battle.

3) Price your book right
It's devilishly hard to determine what is a good price for a book. Joe writes, "Currently I'm $3.99 for novels, $2.99 for novellas (over 10k words) and story collections, and 99 cents for short stories. But this isn't set in stone."

How ebooks should be priced is a hotly debated issue. One thing I will say is, given the changes in Amazon's ranking algorithm, it's not worth pricing any novel-length work below $2.99. How high you want to go is up to you.

4) Promote your books 
Have free giveaways to encourage reviews, write guest posts to announce sales, sell your books on different platforms, and so on. Those are a few of the things things you can do to promote your books. Here are some things Joe recommends not bothering with:

1. Advertising. It doesn't work on me, so I don't use it on other people. That's a cardinal rule of mine. I only use something or believe it works if I do it as a consumer.

2. Social media. Occasional tweets of Facebook announcements are fine. At most, once a week. Maybe once a day if you have a new release, but end it after a few days. Otherwise people get sick of you.

3. Publicity. I've already blogged that getting my name in the press doesn't lead to sales. You probably don't need a publicist.

4. Spamming. I have a newsletter, and use it a few times a year. I don't use it everytime I upload something new to Kindle. And I don't pimp my work on other peoples' blog or forums unless invited to do so, or there's a section for it.

Joe ends by writing:

I want to end this blog entry by telling writers: Don't Be Afraid. Yes, the future will be different. Yes, things will change. But there will always be a need for storytellers, and if you hold onto your rights, you'll be in a good position to exploit those rights no matter what the future holds.

I think this is an exciting time to be a writer. New possibilities for sales and distribution are opening up, writers are getting the lion's share of the royalties on most of their book sales and as a group we're starting to think more like business people and are taking charge of our careers. Go us!

Remember, in order to write a lot of good books we have to follow Heinlein's first rule: Writer's write. I hope you all have a productive day. Cheers!

Related reading:
- Kobo's Self-Publishing Portal: Report From A Beta Tester
- Query Tracker: Keep Track Of Your Stories
- 10 Reasons Why Stories Get Rejected

19 Ways To Grow Your Twitter Following

Get More Tweeters In Your Nest

Yesterday a friend asked me how he could increase his Twitter following. As we chatted I realized some of you might wonder the same thing so I'm posting my answer.

When I began Tweeting I had no idea how to attract followers. I had about 20 and I wanted more because I thought that would be a great way to reach out to other readers and writers.

Today I have over 6,000 followers but I've learnt that it's not about the number of people following me, it's about the connections I've made along the way. The tips I'm about to give aren't meant to get you--as certain advertisements announce--5,000 followers in two days. You could do that, well you could probably easily get 5,000 followers after a couple of months, but I don't think it would mean anything because you would have no connection to any of those people.

What I'm going to discuss are ways you can use your Twitter account to build, as Seth Godin says, a tribe. A community.

1. Form a tribe
When you first start tweeting you aren't following anyone and you have no followers. Who are you going to follow?

I'm a writer so I followed the people I think of as mentors: Elizabeth Spann Craig, Joe Konrath, Dean Wesley Smith and Kris Rusch.

Chances are that the people your mentors follow, as well as the people who follow them, are going to be people you'll want in your tribe. Take a look at their tweets, look at their blogs, their websites. If you decide you want to make a connection with them then follow them.

An Example
Clear as mud? Let me give you an example of what I mean. This is an image of the top part of Elizabeth Craig's Twitter page.

Notice that, on the far right hand side (you can click on the image to enlarge it), three lists are mentioned:

1) The list of her tweets, labeled TWEETS (22,531),
2) The list of the people who she is following, labeled FOLLOWING (12,065),
3) The list of the people who follow her, labeled FOLLOWERS (14,710).

If you right-click Elizabeth's FOLLOWING list you'll be presented with a list of everyone she is following. Tale a look at a few of these folks. Read their biography, look at their tweets. If they list a website or blog in their bio then go take a look. If he or she seems like a person you'd like to reach out to, then follow them.

Don't expect your new acquaintance to follow you back, especially not right away. Read their tweets and reply when it feels natural and build up a content rich twitter feed. I've found that, most of the time, people follow back.

Note: I mentioned, above, looking at the list of people a person follows (FOLLOWING), but you can also look at the list of people who follow them (FOLLOWERS). Although this is more hit-and-miss since anyone can follow anybody, I've met some wonderful people this way.

Now that we are following a few people, and a few people are following us, what next?

2. Don't use the default portrait
This is a big no-no since many of the people who create bots send them out into the world with the default portrait. Besides, I think it's best to have the same profile picture for all social media and no one wants that to be the Twitter egg!

Ideally your portrait would be a picture of you but if you're shy, or on the FBI's most wanted list, you could take a picture of your hand or of your pet.

3. Have a biography
It doesn't have to be witty, just tell folks what you do and what you're interested in using 140 characters are less. If you don't have a biography a lot of folks will think you're a bot and you don't want that.

4. Include a link to your website
You're allowed to list a link just below your Twitter bio. This is a fabulous opportunity to let folks know who you are, what you stand for, what you're interested in, and in MORE than 140 characters! If you don't have a website, no problem. Include a link to your blog, Tumblr or Facebook account.

5. Include your location
This tip isn't going to apply to everyone, but if you're like miss604.com, a blogger who talks about what is happening in the 604 area code, it can be a terrific asset.

6. Don't follow back everyone who follows you
I know this advice may seem counter-intuitive but if your goal is to build a community then why would you follow the guy who, in his bio, promises to tell you how to get 5,000 followers in 1 day, or how to make 10,000 dollars a month working from home? These are scams, the electronic equivalent of junk mail. We don't save junk mail, we recycle it.

Also, if you fill up the list of people you follow with scammers then Twitter will start to suggest your account to scammers as someone they might like to follow. On the other hand, if you only follow people you genuinely want to make a connection with then Twitter will pick up on that and start to mention your Twitter account to these kind of people. Nice!

Don't feel obligated to follow someone just because they've followed you. You know that not everyone you follow will follow you back. Folks understand this.

7. Interact with your followers
I've said this before, but it deserves its own point. Don't be shy about replying to tweets or joining conversations that are already in progress. If you're worried how your input will be received you can say something like, "I don't mean to intrude in, but ...".

Do reply to tweets if you have something to say. I love it when folks, whether or not they follow me, reply to something I've tweeted. Feedback is great and it's one of the best ways to build a community.

8. Don't just tweet, retweet
If you find a tweet you think your tribe would like, retweet it. It's also a great way of thanking someone for retweeting one of your tweets.

Twitter trivia: If you include a tweeters name (@theirname) in your tweet then Twitter will let them know you mentioned them in your tweet. BUT if you include a tweeters name as the very first thing in your tweet it will only be visible to anyone who follows both you and @theirname.

9. If you like a tweet and want to remember it, mark it as a favorite
This is convenient--you'll be able to find it again--and Twitter will tell the person who tweeted that you liked it. Win-win!

10. Participate in events like #FF (Follow Friday) 
This is your opportunity to acknowledge those tweeters who have influenced you and say thank you. These can be people who follow you, but they don't have to be. Also, since you're using a hash-tag (more on this later), your tweet will expose you to new people.

11. Use hashtags (#)
One of the most powerful ways to grow your audience is by using hashtags (for instance, #writing #publishing #amwriting). Since people can do a search on hashtags, or build up a list on the basis of a hashtag, using hashtags allows you to get your tweets in front of people who do not follow you.

For more information about hastags head on over to hashtags.org or do a search.

12. Don't spam
Don't try and sell something, even if you have something to sell. Just be yourself. Twitter isn't for hocking a product it is for connecting with people. Asking them to buy a new and improved widget won't do that.

You have a link in your Twitter bio to your website/blog/webpage that has information about your books--or whatever it is you'd like folks to know about--don't try and sell anything in your tweets.

That's not to say you shouldn't send out the occasional link to a good review of your book or announce that your book has gone on sale, etc. After all, a good review is omething you feel great about and you'll naturally want to tweet about it. On the other hand, if someone lets their followers know for the 14th time in 20 tweets that their book is on sale for $4.99 at Amazon, people are going to tune that person out and unfollow.

I read somewhere that a ratio of 1 self-promotional tweet for every 10 tweets is a comfortable ratio. Sounds good to me.

13. Link to your social media to your Twitter account
Don't forget to link to your twitter account from your other accounts. For instance, Facebook, your blog/website, Tumblr, and so on.

Also, if you're chatting with people in the real world, and they seem interested, don't be shy about mentioning you're on Twitter. If you're a writer this is especially true. I've found that at writing conferences nearly everyone brings business cards or bookmarks to hand out--it sure beats struggling to find a pen and a piece of paper!

14. Tweet pictures
People love pictures. If you doubt this, look at the popularity of Pinterest. One of my most popular tweets was of a gorgeous picture named, "Church of Trees, Belgium". (Here's a link to the blog post.)

Church of Trees, Belgium

You can tweet any media you like, even video. Mix it up, variety really is the spice of life.


15. Run a contest
Many writers have used contests to grow their email lists but this can also be used to grow ones Twitter following.

For instance, you could offer to send everyone who follows you on Twitter in the next week a free ebook. Or, in conjunction with your contest to help grow your email list, you could say that to enter folks would need to subscribe to your website and your Twitter feed.

In order to do something like this, though, you'd probably need to offer an attractive prize, perhaps something along the lines of an ereader. Also, folks generally don't like to be manipulated so proceed with caution.

16. Learn from your mentors
At the beginning of this article I talked about your mentors, people who are successfully doing what you want to do. Study their tweets.

What kind of tweets do these people use? Text, pictures, video? If they use video do they use Vimeo or YouTube? Do they have their own website or just a blog? Do they use Blogger? Wordpress.com? Tumblr? If your mentors are craftspeople, do they tweet much about their shows, and, if so, pay close attention to what they say and how they say it, especially when it doesn't work (in other words, when it seems like spam).

This is like the advice given to writers to read everything, the good, the bad and the positively horrible because it trains one to recognize what works for you and what doesn't. Chances are that if something seems spammy to you it'll seem spamming to a lot of other folks as well.

17. Use programs like ManageFilter, Tweepi and Hootsuite to help you manage your account
There are two main kinds of programs: managing programs and scheduling programs. Often one program can do everything, but not always.

Managing programs (Example: ManageFlitter, Tweepi)
Sometimes you may want to unfollow those who have left Twitter. If you have 10 or 20 followers it wouldn't take long to look at each account and see when he or she had last tweeted. If the user has been inactive for over, say, six months, then you might decide to unfollow them.

But what happens if you have over 100 followers? Over 1000? You could still do it manually but it would be a mind-numbingly boring task, and those things are best left to programs. I'm not saying you should unfollow these folks--life happens--but if this is something you want to do then these programs will help you do it easily, quickly and (depending on the plan you choose) cheaply.

Scheduling programs (Example: Hootsuite)
There have been times when I've come across six links that I've desperately wanted to tweet about, all in the span of 15 minutes. If I did that, though, my followers wouldn't be happy with me because--no matter how good the links were--they would consider it spam.

I usually tweet between five and six times a day and it works best if the tweets are more or less evenly spread out, so I use Hootsuite to help schedule tweets.

Note about pricing: All the programs I've mentioned, at the time of writing, are free to start, but usually you only get a limited set of features if you don't pay any money. This does, however, give you the chance to see firsthand what features each program provides, what the interface looks like, whether you find it easy and intuitive, etc.

18. Use lists
If you're at all like me you'll eventually end up following a lot of people. Some people are going to be your real life friends, some are going to be work contacts, some are going to be interested in your hobbies, some are going to share current news articles. How does a person keep up with all this information?

I use lists.

One list I use often is my News list. Here I've included writers who tweet about how to become a better writer and the publishing industry. When I want to read about those topics, I go to that list. (By the way, list management is something I find Hootsuite great at. And, just in case you're wondering, I'm not affiliated with Hootsuite in any way.)

Hopefully that will give you an idea of the power of lists. Also, lists can be public or private. Other Twitter followers can subscribe to your lists and this is a great way of finding people who share your passions.

19. Have fun!
At its most elemental level, Twitter exists as a way to relax, have fun and socialize. It can also be a powerful way to grow a network, even a tribe/community. But it's not going to work if you don't relax, be yourself and just have fun.

Happy tweeting! If you'd like to visit me on Twitter, click here: Karen Woodward's Twitter Page. Cheers!

Related reading:
- Tweepi: Helps You Manage Your Twitter Account
- Twylah: Turn Your Tweets Into A Blog
- Hootsuite for Twitter: 5 out of 5 stars
- Seth Godin: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

I Dream Books: Rotten Tomatoes For Books

Emily Temple over at Flavorwire writes:

Pretty much everyone we know relies on Rotten Tomatoes when deciding which movie to see, but what to do when you’re on the hunt for your next novel? Sure, you could just read whatever your best friend is reading, or pick up whatever’s on the front page of the New York Times Book Review, but for those who want a broader perspective, we suggest I Dream Books, a Rotten Tomatoes-like review aggregator that just launched this morning. Just like Rotten Tomatoes, I Dream Books collects reviews from both “professional publications and individual critics” and assigns a numerical value to those reviews, eventually coming up with a score somewhere between “Must Read” and “Don’t Read” (indicated by happy or sad little clouds), in hopes of offering readers an easy way to see what a wide range of critics are saying.

Great idea! I'm going to check out idreambooks.com for book recommendations, but so far I've had a lot of success with Amazon.

For instance, I just finished reading A Perfect Blood by Kim Harrison (good book!) and the "Frequently Bought Together" list on that page contains other books I like: Kiss The Dead by Laurell K. Hamilton and Deadlocked by Charlaine Harris. Kiss The Dead is on my 'to read' list and I've already read--and enjoyed!--Deadlocked.

Also, and I've found this invaluable, Amazon tells me what other customers who bought a particular book also bought. Granted, I've read and enjoyed about 80% of the books in the list for A Perfect Blood, but it's showing a few by Patricia Briggs I'm sure I'd like.

That said, I'm looking forward to using idreambooks.com for recommendations in addition to Amazon because there's no such thing as too much of a good thing. Right? ;)

Other reading:
- 10 Female Science Fiction Writers Who Changed Our Lives
- His Wish Granted: WIlliam Faulkner's, "The Sound And The Fury", Color Coded
- Google Drive: Who Owns Your Stories?

Why Writers Need Editors

Before we talk about why writers need editors, let's talk about what kind of editors there are.

Every time I read an article that touches on the different specializations in the field of editing I'm amazed by the variety. Contrast this with writers. Are there different sorts of writers? For instance, slow writers, fast writers, reluctant writers, pantsers, plotters, and so on? I suppose the question is silly, but don't you think it's curious that there are at least four different kinds of editors (line, developmental/content, assignment, copy, managing, etc.) but we don't have different kinds of writers? In any case, back to editors and editing.

Alan Rinzler, a developmental editor, writes about the difference between developmental editors and copy editors. These are the two kinds of editors I'll be talking about:

Developmental editors offer specific suggestions about the core intentions and goals of the book, the underlying premise, the story, character development, use of dialogue and sensory description, the polish, narrative voice, pacing, style, language – the craft and literary art of the book.

What developmental editors don’t do is correct spelling and grammar. That’s the job of a copy-editor, who works much later in the publishing process.

An author can recruit a developmental editor even before starting a book, to brainstorm ideas and make a clear plan. After that, they may call upon the editor at any stage from early drafts to final. (What should you expect from a developmental editor?)

Alan has a great post that goes more in-depth into the different phases of writing and why, and exactly when, you get the most out of hiring an editor: When do you need an editor? He sums up his point this way:

A good editor brings to the relationship both literary skills and human sensitivity. An editor watches your back and anticipates when there’s trouble ahead. But the author is the boss, in the driver’s seat. It’s not the editor’s book, so my job is always to enter the creative world of the author and help fulfill this vision.

Let's get back to our question: Why does a writer need an editor? Here we're talking about a developmental editor. It goes without saying that every writer needs a copy editor, someone who will go over your manuscript and check it for grammatical errors, typos, and so on.

A developmental editor can help a writer by giving them an edge. They do this in two ways:

1. An editor can be a constructive collaborator
Objectivity. This is something every writer lacks about her own work. Yes, we know our characters better than anyone, we know the plot, we know the possibilities behind the plot, and so on. We're gods when it comes to our fictional worlds, but what we don't know is how another person is going to respond to our words.

I remember once I wrote a violent scene in which my protagonist got the prize and beat the villain. I thought I had used what I think of as 'fun' violence--the sort of violence you see at the beginning of a James Bond movie, bad-guy-gets-put-in-his-place violence not life-is-harsh violence that makes you want to go home and hug your kids. Fortunately I did send this story out to readers before I published it because, although to me it was fun violence, it didn't come across that way to my readers. I lacked objectivity because I was too close to the material.

Being a constructive collaborator is about far more than being objective, it's also about having someone on hand who can take an impartial look at your work and give you professional non-destructive feedback.  Here's what Alan has to say:

Developmental editors offer specific suggestions about the core intentions and goals of the book, the underlying premise, the story, character development, use of dialogue and sensory description, the polish, narrative voice, pacing, style, language – the craft and literary art of the book.

What developmental editors don’t do is correct spelling and grammar. That’s the job of a copy-editor, who works much later in the publishing process.

An author can recruit a developmental editor even before starting a book, to brainstorm ideas and make a clear plan. After that, they may call upon the editor at any stage from early drafts to final. (What should you expect from a developmental editor?)

2. A good editor has her finger on the pulse of the industry
An editor who is well thought of and in high demand is going to edit a large number of manuscripts. I can't speak about all editors, but I've noticed that many editors will specialize. For instance, some will edit anything except romance, some prefer editing speculative fiction, and so on.

A busy editor who specializes in, say, speculative fiction will be able to give speculative fiction authors a leg up not only by being a constructive collaborator but by giving them the benefit of their vast knowledge of the genre. Additionally, they have current knowledge. The books that are being published today, at least those from traditional publishing houses, have been in the works for a couple of years. A good editor can keep you on top of trends and help make your book more competitive in a very competitive marketplace.

Finding an editor
That said, a good editor can be hard to find. I wrote a post about this a while ago (How To Find The Right Freelance Editor For You) but it's always good advice to ask your friends for references and then Google the name of anyone you're seriously thinking of hiring, check them out at Editors And Predators and get them to edit a sample of your work. At minimum.

If you choose to work with a developmental editor I hope you find someone who is a great fit for you. Remember, the important thing is to keep writing. I hope you're having a wonderful Sunday! Cheers.

Related reading:
- 5 Points To Ponder Before You Self Publish
- How To Find The Right Freelance Editor For You
- How Many Books A Year Should I Write?

I was tempted to put this picture up as the profile image. I decided against it, but couldn't resist sharing it with you.

Which one do you think has an editor?

Photo credit for profile picture: Fanpop
Photo credit for cute puppies: jpixphoto.com, see link here or click on the picture.