Squatters Re-Open Friern Barnet Library

Today I read a heartwarming account of how eight squatters became community librarians and reopened a north London library that had been closed by the local council.

Eight squatters entered the north London library last week through an open window. Since a law change on 1 September made it a criminal offence to squat residential properties, they have turned to commercial properties to find a bed for the night. The occupation has the blessing of many residents who are delighted to see the locked doors of the library flung open once again. It's the first time that squatters have morphed into "community librarians" by occupying and reopening a public lending resource in this way. Book loans will be manually recorded and stamped.

Council officials have been trying for months to persuade locals enraged by the library closure to become volunteer librarians in a room in a nearby council building instead. The proposal has not been well received: residents want to see their much-loved local library reopened and stalemate has prevailed.

All that changed when the squatters moved in and embarked on unprecedented negotiations with senior council officials about the future of the library.

Read the entire story here: Squatters reopen Friern Barnet library after council closes service.

When I was a kid, my local library was my hangout. I'd go there and breathe in the smell of the stacks and stand in awe of all the books. (I just about had conniptions the first time I went into the UBC library. Being surrounded by thousands of books was amazing!)

It feels as though this small group has breathed life back into their local library, a hub of the community. How wonderful.

Other stories you might like:
- How Do Writers Get Their Ideas? Neil Gaiman, Seth Godin & Stephen King
- Neil Gaiman's Hell: A Blank Sheet Of Paper
- Writing Resources

Photo credit: "Old books" by Moyan Brenn under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0.

Neil Gaiman's Hell: A Blank Sheet Of Paper

When I researched my blog post, How Do Writers Get Their Ideas?, I came across this quotation. I didn't use it for my Idea post but it was too delightful to keep to myself.

Neil Gaiman:

My idea of hell is a blank sheet of paper. Or a blank screen. And me, staring at it, unable to think of a single thing worth saying, a single character that people could believe in, a single story that hasn't been told before.

Staring at a blank sheet of paper.

Forever.

From: Where do you get your ideas?.

Other articles you might like:
- Stephen King: How His Novel "Carrie" Changed His Life
- Harper Voyager Open To Unagented Submissions For 2 Weeks
- Writing Resources

Photo credit: Kyle Cassidy

Indie Books: What Price Is Right?

Dean Wesley Smith addressed a question that has been on my mind: what effect will the recent settlements regarding agency pricing have on the cost of books? DWS says they're going to go up, perhaps way up.

Pricing for customers of electronic books will go up as this settles out over the next few years. Even with stores discounting some titles, ebook prices really can’t do anything else but go up.

Why are book prices going to increase?

... I am being scary simple and general here for the sake of keeping this short and understandable to those who don’t much care.

So now the government has come in and said to the big publishers, “No, no, no. You can’t all agree to do this at the same time.” So now the publishers are being forced to back up and allow retailers to discount what they want, as it always should have been.

In response to that, publishers are raising their “suggested retail prices” expecting retail stores to discount. Some retailers will, some will not.

Some books will be discounted, some won’t. And the amount of discounts by the retailers will vary from moment to moment and book to book and agreement to agreement.

All this is going to cause all kinds of very strange price benchmarks for books. Prices like $10.14 or $12.64 for electronic books. It’s going to have readers who are used to set and standard prices shaking their heads, that’s for sure.

And it’s going to make for some interesting shopping for book buyers, who now can shop around for the best deals. Again, as it always should have been in this capitalistic country.

So what should indie writers price their books at? Here's what DWS recommends:

Novels
- Front list, meaning brand new. Over 50,000 words. $7.99
- Shorter front list novels, meaning 30,000 to 50,000 words. $6.99
- Backlist novels, meaning already published by a traditional publisher. $6.99

Short Books
- Short books, meaning stories from 8,000 words to 30,000 words. $3.99

Short Stories
- Short stories … 4,000 to 8,000 words. $2.99
- Short stories under 4,000 double with another bonus story… $2.99

Collections
- 5 stories $4.99
- 10 stories $7.99

Dean also suggests, and I agree that this makes good sense, publishing a trade paper edition along with your ebook, even if you don't expect to sell many paper books. Why? Because it shows readers how much less expensive the ebook price is and makes them feel like they're getting a deal--which they are!

You can read the rest of Dean Wesley Smith's article here: The New World of Publishing: Pricing 2013

Other articles you might like:
- Stephen King: How His Novel "Carrie" Changed His Life
- How Do Writers Get Their Ideas? Neil Gaiman, Seth Godin & Stephen King
- Writing Resources
- Jim Butcher, Harry Dresden and the Dresden Files

Photo credit: See-ming Lee

Stephen King: How His Novel "Carrie" Changed His Life

How Tabitha King rescued her husband's manuscript of Carrie from the trash is one of my all-time favorite stories. I've heard it many times over the years, sometimes from Stephen King in one of his forwards, sometimes from other authors. The best version I've read comes from Stephen King's book "On Writing":

I had four problems with what I'd written. First and least important was the fact that the story didn't move me emotionally. Second and slightly more important was the fact that I didn't much like the lead character. ... Third and more important still was not feeling at home with either the surroundings or my all-girl cast of supporting characters. ... Fourth and most important of all was the realization taht the story woudln't pay off unless it was pretty long ... You had to save plenty of room for those pictures of cheerleaders who had somehow forgotten to put on their underpants--they were what guys really bought the magazines for. I couldn't see wasting two weeks, maybe even a month, creating a novella I didn't like and wouldn't be able to sell. So I threw it away.

The next night, when I came home from school, Tabby had the pages. She'd spied them while emptying my waste-basket, had shaken the cigarette ashes off the crumpled balls of paper, smoothed them out, and sat down to read them. She wanted me to go on with it, she said. She wanted to know the rest of the story. I told her I didn't know jack-shit about high school girls. She said she'd help me with that part. She had her chin tilted down and was smiling in that severely cute way of hers. "You've got something here," she said. "I really think you do." (pp. 76 to 77)

Boy, did he! A few pages later King writes about receiving a call from Bill Thompson telling him that the paperback rights to Carrie "went to signet Books for four hundred thousand dollars. (p. 86)"

Stephen King writes of his reaction:

I hadn't heard him right. Couldn't have. The idea allowed me to find my voice again, at least. "Did you say it went for forty thousand dollars?"

"Four hundred thousand dollars," he said. "Under the rules of the road"--meaning the contract I'd signed--"two hundred K of it's yours. Congratulations, Steve."

I was still standing in the doorway, looking across the living room toward our bedroom and the crib where Joe slept. Our place on Sanford Street rented for ninety dollars a month and this man I'd only met once face-to-face was telling me I'd just won the lottery. The strength ran out of my legs. I didn't fall, exactly, but I kind of whooshed down to a sitting position there in the doorway.

"Are you sure?" I asked Bill. (p. 86)

On Writing is a marvelous book on the craft of writing, as well as a wonderful autobiography. No other book has had the impact on my writing this book has and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

What is your favorite writing story?

Other articles you might like:
- How Do Writers Get Their Ideas? Neil Gaiman, Seth Godin & Stephen King
- Stephen King's Latest Book: A Face In The Crowd
- Quotes From The Master of Horror, Stephen King

How Do Writers Get Their Ideas? Neil Gaiman, Seth Godin & Stephen King

Have you ever woken up with a question on your mind? This morning I woke up wondering: How do writers get their ideas?

So I Googled it. (This amuses me endlessly. Did I mediate on the quesiton or ask friends? No. I Googled. Nothing wrong with that, but it is incredible the extent to which a technology--the internet & Google--has changed my life over the course of a decade.)

Here's what Seth Godin has to say:

- Ideas occur when dissimilar universes collide
- Ideas often strive to meet expectations. If people expect them to appear, they do
- Ideas come out of the corner of the eye, or in the shower, when we're not trying

To read the rest of Seth's ruminations, click here: Where do ideas come from?

My ideas seem to hide in the shower, ready to pounce the moment I've gotten my hands wet and there's no paper in sight. But that's okay. I love their mischievousness.

Here's how Neil Gaiman answered the question for a group of 7-year-olds:

You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it.

You get ideas when you ask yourself simple questions. The most important of the questions is just, What if...?

(What if you woke up with wings? What if your sister turned into a mouse? What if you all found out that your teacher was planning to eat one of you at the end of term - but you didn't know who?)

Another important question is, If only...

(If only real life was like it is in Hollywood musicals. If only I could shrink myself small as a button. If only a ghost would do my homework.)

And then there are the others: I wonder... ('I wonder what she does when she's alone...') and If This Goes On... ('If this goes on telephones are going to start talking to each other, and cut out the middleman...') and Wouldn't it be interesting if... ('Wouldn't it be interesting if the world used to be ruled by cats?')...

Those questions, and others like them, and the questions they, in their turn, pose ('Well, if cats used to rule the world, why don't they any more? And how do they feel about that?') are one of the places ideas come from.

An idea doesn't have to be a plot notion, just a place to begin creating. Plots often generate themselves when one begins to ask oneself questions about whatever the starting point is.

Sometimes an idea is a person ('There's a boy who wants to know about magic'). Sometimes it's a place ('There's a castle at the end of time, which is the only place there is...'). Sometimes it's an image ('A woman, sifting in a dark room filled with empty faces.')

Often ideas come from two things coming together that haven't come together before. ('If a person bitten by a werewolf turns into a wolf what would happen if a goldfish was bitten by a werewolf? What would happen if a chair was bitten by a werewolf?')

All fiction is a process of imagining: whatever you write, in whatever genre or medium, your task is to make things up convincingly and interestingly and new.

And when you've an idea - which is, after all, merely something to hold on to as you begin - what then?

Well, then you write. You put one word after another until it's finished - whatever it is.

Sometimes it won't work, or not in the way you first imagined. Sometimes it doesn't work at all. Sometimes you throw it out and start again.

Neil Gaiman: Where do you get your ideas?

I'll close with a quotation from Stephen King:

I get my ideas from everywhere. But what all of my ideas boil down to is seeing maybe one thing, but in a lot of cases it's seeing two things and having them come together in some new and interesting way, and then adding the question 'What if?' 'What if' is always the key question. (StephenKing.com FAQ)

That nicely brings together what Seth Godin and Neil Gaiman had to say! I love it when things work out. :-)

Other articles you might like:
- The Role Of The Unconscious In Writing
- Writing Resources
- Harper Voyager Open To Unagented Submissions For 2 Weeks

Photo credit: technicolor76

PressReader: A Great App! 5 Out Of 5 Stars

Occasionally I'm approached to review an iPad app and if it's related to blogging, reading, writing, or the publishing world I'm happy to oblige. In the case of PressReader it was a no-brainer.

Every day I read many online newspapers and blogs looking for interesting information to share with you good folks, but I have never read a digitized version of a newspaper.

Everything about PressReader is easy, smooth and bug free. Ordering a paper takes one click followed by a 5 second download. Rather than paging through sections to get to the article you want to read, you simply click on an embedded link and your chosen article unfolds in front of you.

Or, if you simply want to page through the paper quickly to get to a particular section, use the SmartFlow bar at the bottom of the screen. Although the images of each page are about the size of a playing card they are crisp, even on the iPad 2. Of course you can always just flick through the paper page by page. Once you've reached the article just do a reverse pinch motion to zoom in on the text and glide through the article.

What has made me fall in love with this app is the fast, smooth, movement. I've paged through two newspapers now and it hasn't stuttered once, let alone crashed.

Sometimes when I write an unreservedly glowing review of an app one of my readers will write to me and chastise me for being uncritical, so I asked a friend of mine who subscribes to two newspapers to take a look at it. He loved it! His one comment was that he couldn't find a way to view the entire page at one glance. (It could be that there is a command for this that I don't know.)

The next question is: how much? A monthly subscription will run you $29.95 a month but for casual readers--that would be me!--you can download a newspaper for only 99 cents. That's not bad, it's certainly cheaper than buying one.

Has anyone else tried PressReader? If so, what did you think?

Other articles you might like:
- Pixar: 22 Ways To Tell A Great Story
- Penelope Trunk Discusses Time Management
- Kristen Lamb: Don't Let Trolls Make You Crazy

Harper Voyager Open To Unagented Submissions For 2 Weeks

Who is accepting submissions:
Harper Voyager

When to submit:
October 1 through October 14th

Where to submit:
 www.harpervoyagersubmissions.com

What sort of submissions:

We’re seeking all kinds of adult and young adult speculative fiction for digital publication, but particularly epic fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, dystopia and supernatural. For more idea of the type of books we love to read and publish, check out our authors and their titles at www.harpervoyagerbooks.com.

How to submit your manuscript:

To submit, go to www.harpervoyagersubmissions.com and follow the instructions to fill out the form and upload your manuscript.

Due to time constraints, we will not be able to respond to every query. If you do not receive a response after three months, unfortunately that means your story is not right for us this time.

Why is Harper Voyager allowing unagented submissions for two weeks and then only publishing ebooks?

The growth of eReaders and e-books have created an exciting new opportunity that allows us to begin increasing the number and diversity of our speculative fiction list. And speculative fiction readers are the most savvy early adopters so we’re keen to provide our readers with the best ebooks possible.

Read more here: Harper Voyager Guidelines for Digital Submission – Accepting Manuscripts from October 1st – October 14th, 2012!. Thanks to The Passive Voice Blog for mentioning this opportunity.

Harper Voyager plans to release one book a month. Initially the books will be published as ebooks but if one does well a print copy will be issued.

Good luck!

Other articles you might be interested in:
- Writing Resources
- Jim Butcher, Harry Dresden and the Dresden Files
- Amazon's KDP Select Program: The Power Of Free

Photo credit: Unknown

The Role Of The Unconscious In Writing

Puerto Princesa Subterranean River, Philippines

Have you ever had a song looping through your head that just wouldn't go away? Have you ever broken down and played the darn thing and listened to the lyrics?

That's what happened to me today. A catchy fragment of a tune I hadn't heard, or even thought of, in years began looping through my mind. I'd think it was gone and then I'd find myself singing the blasted thing! Finally I broke down and listened to the song on YouTube.

I was stunned. Something has been going on in my life and it was as though the lyrics--which I no longer consciously remembered--were lecturing me. This got me to thinking about the role of the unconscious in writing.

In Write Away, Elizabeth George shares the following:

When I'm on to the right story, the right location, the right situation, the right theme, my body tells me. I feel a surge of excitement in my solar plexus that literally sends the message Yes yes yes! to my brain. Until I feel that surge of inner excitement, I remain in the pre-plotting stage simply because I have nothing to plot about." (p 47-8) (The Role of the Subconscious in Writing Fiction)

In his essay It All Began With a Picture ... (published in Of Other Worlds) C.S. Lewis tells how his The Chronicles of Narnia series began with a picture:

[The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe] all began with a picture of a Faun carrying an umbrella and parcels in a snowy wood. This picture had been in my mind since I was about sixteen. Then one day, when I was about forty, I said to myself: 'Let's try to make a story about it.'

. . . .

At first I had very little idea how the story would go. But then suddenly Aslan came bounding into it. I think I had been having a good many dreams of lions about that time. Apart from that, I don't know where the Lion came from or why he came. But once he was there, he pulled the whole story together, and soon he pulled the six other Narnian stories in after him. (Wikipedia, The Chronicles of Narnia)

I want to begin a dream journal and write down what I remember of my dreams each morning. I'm interested in how the simple act of trying to remember my dreams would affect my writing.

Other articles you might be interested in:
- Writing Resources
- Book Promotion: Where's The Line?
- Becoming An Organizational Genius: The Tickler File

Photo credit: Paul Chin

Writing Resources

Writing Resources

I thought I'd try something different and share a few links. Originally I was going to share 5 or 6 but I kept finding more!

 1. The Hero's Journey: giving your story structure
- Blake Snyder's beat sheet. A fabulous explaination of Blake Snyder's beat sheet is here: Save The Snyder – The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet of Structure.
- Michael Hauge's hero's journey. I had the pleasure of hearing Michael Hauge talk about the Hero's Journey. Excellent! He also explains it here: The Five Key Turning Points Of All Successful Scripts.
- The inner journey. Janice Hardy has a terrific article going into more depth about what Michael Hauge has to say about the inner journey: The Inner Struggle: Guides for Using Inner Conflict That Make Sense.
- Your story: where to begin
- The hero's journey: an interactive illustration
- The hero's journey: summary of the steps
- Story structure: What is it and why should I care?
- Jim Butcher: how to write a story

2. Outlining
- Dan Wells On Writing A Short Story
- Outline your novel in 30 minutes
- Novel Outlining 101
- Chekhov's Gun
- How to write a romance novel

3. Character Building
- Here are 10 ways of building your characters. 
- Web Resources for Developing Characters. Dozens of personality tests you can use for character building.
- A character sheet. Another character sheet. Do you know your character's eye color? Their favorite desert?
- Build your character! Here you'll find there quizzes. See how well you know your character.
- Interview your character: Interviewing Characters: Follow the Energy
- Different kinds of antagonists: Villains are people, too, but ...
- Character writing exercises

4. Dialog
- Robert J. Sawyer, Speaking of Dialog
- All Your Characters Talk The Same — And They’re Not A Hivemind!

5. Names
- Medieval Names Archive
- Behind the Name: the etymology and history of first names

6. Idea generators
- 36 dramatic situations
- 200 plot ideas

7. Conflict
- Does your story have enough conflict? Give it a conflict test.
- Plot without conflict

Miscellaneous Links:
- 102 Resources for Fiction Writing
- The Uncomfortable Pantser: When Your Method Doesn't Fit Your Personality.

Are there any links you'd like to add?

Other articles you might like:
- Five steps to better proofreading
- Writing: The Starburst Method, Part 1
- Thinking of becoming an indie author? Some tips

Photo credit: Macskafaraok

The Espresso Book Machine: Print A Book In 6 Minutes

The Espresso Book machine allows bookstores and libraries to print books on demand in about 6 minutes. This allows independent authors to buy print copies of their books; something that has been a boon even to traditional authors wishing to emancipate their backlist and sell it themselves.

The following is from the Bookshop Santa Cruz:

The EBM [Espresso Book Machine] offers Bookshop customers instant access to over eight million titles that are written in a variety of languages. With the push of a button, any book from EspressNet(R), On Demand Books’ digital catalog of content, can be printed, bound and trimmed, creating a paperback book that is virtually indistinguishable from the publisher’s version. Patrons can also use the EBM to self-publish their own work on-site and will have the option to make their book available for sale through EBMs worldwide. Bookshop Santa Cruz is the first location in the Bay Area to have an EBM and one of only twelve bookstores nationwide to have one.

Here's a video of the book machine in action:


Espresso Book Machine at Bookshop Santa Cruz from Vernon Alexander on Vimeo.

How much do POD books cost?
The Santa Cruz bookstore charges the following:

The base printing price for the EBM is $5.00 + 4.5 cents a page, although we do offer some bulk discounts and price breaks depending on the nature of the project.  We also have publishing packages which include various levels of service including graphic design, proof copies, obtaining an ISBN, etc. (Self Publishing at Book Santa Cruz ...)

Let's say we want to print one copy of a 300 page book:

$5 + (300 * 4.5 cents) = $5 + 1350 cents = $5 + $13.50 = $18.50

$18.50 for one copy of a book isn't too bad, but the writer would want to earn something on each sale, let's say 10%. 10% of $18.50 is $1.85, so the sale price would be $20.35. Before tax.

Another source, though, claims that an indie writer could use an Espresso Book Machine to print 100 copies of their book for an average cost of 8 dollars each:

[T]he prospect of a vast inventory of millions of titles to choose from and the excitement for authors of holding a book while still warm "with a laminated cover and bright white paper" at a price of $8 per book for 100 copies is a major attraction. (With This Machine, You Can ...)

This makes CreateSpace look attractive. If you go to this page and click the "Buying Copies" tab you'll be able to see how much you'd have to pay per book, as well as how much it would cost to ship your books. I've just taken out a Create Space account and, so far, the site seems very helpful.

I've never seen an Espresso Book Machine, but I'd love to! It would be an amazing experiencing having a book printed right before my eyes. Thanks to Kim for sending me a link to the article, Self Publishing at Book Santa Cruz Using the Espresso Book Machine.

Here is a link to a listing of all the Espresso Book Machines in the world! Thanks to Peter Smalley for the link.

Other articles you might be interested in:
- Amazon's KDP Select Program: The Power Of Free
- The Secret Of Learning To Write Well: Write
- Jim Butcher, Harry Dresden and the Dresden Files

Photo credit: Politics and Prose Bookstore

Jim Butcher, Harry Dresden and the Dresden Files

If you haven't read anything by Jim Butcher you should!

- Here's JB's first story featuring intrepid sleuth and kick-ass wizard Harry Dresden: Restoration of Faith.
- Vignette (A short short)
- Dresden Files reading order.
- The series was also made into a TV show: The Dresden Files Complete First Season and graphic novels.

Here's what else is happening in the universe of The Dresden Files:

Harry takes Bigfoot on as a client
I didn't know JB had a Bigfoot trillogy!
- B is for Bigfoot in Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron. Occurs between Fool Moon and Grave Peril.
- I Was A Teenage Bigfoot in Bood Lite 3: Aftertaste. Occurs around the time of Dead Beat.
- Bigfoot on Campus in Hex Appeal. Occurs a little after Turn Coat.

Cold Days
I know I've mentioned this before, bu the next installment of JB's Dresden Files series is due out November 27, 2012 and is available for pre-order from Jim Butcher's website.

The Most Important Thing an Aspiring Author Needs to Know
That's the title of one of JB's recent blog posts. A great article for a writer at the beginning of his or her career.

Quotations from the Dresden Files

Jim Butcher's Twitter Account: @longshotauthor

Jim Butcher on Goodreads

Jim Buther's Facebook account

If you know of a Jim Butcher/Dresden File related link that's not here, let me know. :-)

Other articles you might like:
- 5 Ways To Make Your Writing Better
- Peter V. Brett Wrote Bestseller, The Warded Man, On The Subway
- Diane Lefer's Writing Conference From Hell

5 Ways To Make Your Writing Better

I admire Johanna Penn. She was one of the first indie authors on YouTube and her blog, The Creative Penn, is a wealth of information for writers at any stage of their career.

Recently guest blogger Scott Bartlet dropped by The Creative Penn to share what he has learnt about writing. Here are his tips:

1) Write
"Only writing will make you a better writer"
Scott remarks that reading the sort of thing you like to write helps make one a better writer--as does reading about the business of writing, thinking about writing and taking writing classes--but that only actually putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be) will get one's book story to being published.

2) Be Yourself
"Every novels origin is different"
Some folks, like Stephen King, write without an outline (pantsers) and some do (plotters). It doesn't matter so long as it works for you.

3) Write every day
"Vibrancy comes from writing every day"
Scott writes:

To keep your characters alive on the page, you need to spend time with them daily. Cory Doctorow writes his novels at a rate of one page a day. His rationale? No matter how busy his day gets, he can always find 20 minutes to write one page. As a result, he stays in close contact with the people populating his stories.

4) Write down your ideas when you have them
"Become a perpetual note-taker"
Scott writes:

Your mind is a colander with large holes—if it functions anything like mine does, that is. Life’s experiences flow through, and, you being a writer, they probably generate some great fiction material in the process—snappy lines of dialogue, incisive observations, beautiful snippets of description, et cetera.

So write them down! An old-fashioned pad would do the job or you might want to use your cell phone if you already carry that with you wherever you go. Whatever works.

5) Edit
"Every novel's first draft needs editing. A lot of editing."
I think it was Stephen King who wrote that the first draft is for you and the second, etc., drafts are for the world.
Scott writes:

Hemingway had some choice words for first drafts. I won’t repeat them here, but the upshot was that they universally stink.

Amen! I've just completed the first draft of a novel and I know it needs a LOT of work.

I hope you found something useful. Click here to read Scott Bartlett article in its entirety: 5 Lessons Learned From Writing 3 Novels.

If you have a tip you'd like to share please do leave a comment.

Other articles you might enjoy:
- Peter V. Brett Wrote Bestseller, The Warded Man, On The Subway
- Amazon's KDP Select Program: The Power Of Free
- Book Promotion: Where's The Line?

Photo credit: *_filippo_*