tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86388537390717555722024-02-08T11:27:53.831-05:00Gregory DelaurentisWriter Screenwriter Poet JournalistGregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-26280815868369598152016-10-27T23:16:00.000-04:002016-10-27T23:16:30.210-04:00On Taking the Time to Pause<br />
I'm writing a historical piece.<br />
<br />
A rather long novel. It's almost endless. I worry that I will not be able to finish it or keep up the tension. That is a fear of mine. That I don't have enough MEAT in my sandwich. You know the feeling, you go to a deli, order a hero sandwich and get tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, cheese, and TWO slices of meat. When you bite into that sandwich you shout out that that deli was a deadbeat deli. They cheated you out of a decent sandwich. You can imagine the feeling.<br />
<br />
That's what I think about when I write a story. Am I a good deli owner and fill my sandwiches chock-a-block full of MEAT. The best meat money can buy. When my readers bite into my sandwiches, I want them to turn to the person next to them, chewing around a mouthful of food, and grin saying, "beefy!"<br />
<br />
Yeah, I want to knock my readers out!<br />
<br />
The truth is if you don't want to fill your stories with tension, suspense, passion, danger, murder, confusion, BANG, then...why are you writing? But that's a given. Every writer knows this, and this is not a blog for writers that <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>know</i> </span>how to write already. I like to write a blog for writers who write and know the basics. I'd rather that more knowledgeable writers <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>share</i> </span>their experiences with other knowledgeable writers. We all find out things that we never knew...just by writing. And sometimes it's great to share such experiences with other writers. Kind of like seeing the flying saucer in the woods. The first thing you do after the experience is turn to the person next to you and ask, "did you see that too?"<br />
<br />
That's the thing about being a writer. Or an author. It's all about sharing experiences. So I am excited today to share an experience that I'm undergoing in the writing of this massive novel. Firstly, let me give you a little overview of my writing environment.<br />
<br />
As I go along, I find that I need tools...REAL TOOLS! Databases. TONS of databases, simply because as I go along, I need to cull from history. I need a database for that. I need to draw upon historical characters and their histories. I need a database for that. Locations in history. I need a database for that. Events that occurred in history. I need a database for that. Fictional characters, their backstories. Plotlines.<br />
<br />
I think you get the idea. There is just so much information that is flying around that it has to be caught, digested, understood as necessary or not, disposed of if it does not add to your story, added if it does. This goes with events, characters, fictional arcs along the historical arcs. Everything.<br />
<br />
What does this do? This makes for a lot of research. But put that aside. I'm assuming that you've done that. You're an expert in the field that you want to write about already. You know all that you want to do and all that you need to know. Put that aside. I want to write about the <i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">mechanics</span></i> of writing. What did I experience? What did I learn?<br />
<br />
I plot my writing into 'scenes' and then when I'm ready, I line them up and blast right through them. Yes. I burn in a white hot crucible of prose. Boil the words until they are molten in my skull and then pour them out into the mold of my making. It's like extrusion. It just 'comes out'. However, I notice that when I'm typing away at the keyboard, I create characters, locations, events all sorts of things that at the end of the day, or week, I need to refer to. Invariably, that means that I have to go back over reams of paperwork (or screen-work) and search for these characters, locations, events, whatever and use that information to continue on. Such as, "did Albert get the tattoo of a ship or an anchor in WWII when he was fighting in Europe? Which one did I give him?"<br />
<br />
Or was a character from Bulgaria, or Lithuania? Or did she get married in Lyons or Frankfurt? Did he go to college for two years or three? The details can be small or large, but they need to be remembered or you'll fail in continuity. Bald individuals will have long hair. Short people will grow tall. Timid people will become bold. This happens when your number of characters start to move into the twenties or more, and the years do the same. So how do you combat this? Databases.<br />
<br />
I use as my primary weapon, Scrivener, which has a powerful suite of databases that does the bulk of the work. Amazingly, it's strong enough to do the entire job. But I need different representations of things and being human, it's hard to refer to one place for everything. We don't store our work tools in our sock drawer, do we? Important papers in the refrigerator? A place for everything, and everything in its place, my father used to say.<br />
<br />
So, I use other databases for specific information in certain areas. I use Evernote or some things. I use Microsoft Visio for plotting. I use Microsoft Word for other things. I use Aeon Timeline 2...well, just to keep all of the events in order. This way I don't have pregnant women carry babies for more than nine months...stuff like that. Believe it or not, I even have an old fashion card file and index cards to sort critical information that I need to have at my fingertips, updating it constantly. But to be effective, I've found out something else.<br />
<br />
I had to change my writing style. This is the experience that I would like to share. When I write I blaze a trail across the landscape, much like the Road Runner when he bends highways and rips up road signs in his wake. But at the end of a writing session, I find that I have to go back and pick out pieces of critical information in my work to put into databases. This bit of description in a character list. That portion of events in my timeline. This bit of backstory in Evernote or Word. Even that bit of detail in my card file.<br />
<br />
To keep from this drudgery and actually very imprecise data collection, I had to learn to <i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">pause</span></i>. Yes, I could no longer race along the story line like a bat out of Hell, but instead, I learned to stop when I wrote some critical piece of prose that I was certain I'd need to recall. Sometimes the gems were so crystal and beautiful, I would stop immediately, and like a man running down the street and passing something valuable underfoot, I would screech to a halt to pick it up, or file it in a database. This way I miss nothing, I input everything and my novel is stronger for it. I find that I no longer have to take long, time-consuming pauses stopping at the end of a chapter and before starting another chapter, search through the previous one for some description or details of an event so that I can continue on. All I have to do is go to the correct database, check it's index, get the details, and off I go again.<br />
<br />
The pauses sometimes occur in inconvenient times, like when I'm on a roll, pouring text like white lightning and have to break my 'flow' to cut and paste data into a database. Or scribble it by hand. I've learned to pause. Not because I want to, but because I've come to realize that I waste more time going backward page by page through a chapter looking for a paragraph, or worse, a sentence, than I do if I stop for five minutes to add data to somewhere it can be quickly retrieved later. It's just plain less time consuming. Overall, I move faster, cover more ground and do so with amazing accuracy. And when it comes to how close you want to follow the details in historical fiction, accuracy counts.<br />
<br />
Pausing makes perfect. Or well, as perfect as you'd like. Trust me, it works better to break your flow at times than to halt your writing for hours as you pour through what you've already written with a fine toothed comb because the details are too voluminous to pull from memory. When writing historical fiction, let's face it, it's not all about how well you know history, but how well you can follow the minutiae of scores of lives as they pass <i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">through </span></i>history.<br />
<br />
Pausing is a muscle that goes stronger as it's worked. You get better as it as you go along. Like the starship Enterprise, you learn to pop from sub-light to warp speed with the push of a button without harming your writing style because you'll learn a <i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">new </span></i>writing style. It'll become as easy as breathing and your databases will become large and powerful. All sorts of information at your fingertips. Whenever you stop and need it, you'll find it and move back to warp speed effortlessly.<br />
<br />
This is my experience when writing this story, which, it appears will turn into another experience...one of editing because of its size alone. But one thing for a fact is that I do not need to stop and wonder what bit of data is needed to move on because I know I'll have it.<br />
<br />
Have you written a large enough novel that you need databases to keep track of information? What do you use? Have you learned to pause? Did you ever have to?<br />
<br />
Share.<br />
<br />
GregoryGregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-73079291500959480892016-10-02T16:37:00.001-04:002016-10-02T16:37:35.451-04:00On CreativityI've been clean and sober for a year now.<br />
<br />
I don't feel anything different but I am different now. I can tell, first of all, from my bank account. I have scads more money and I have more room in my kitchen cabinets. My rear end doesn't hurt from sitting the hard benches at my neighborhood bar and I saw my bartender on the street the other day and she said that she missed me and is proud of me.<br />
<br />
What has this got to do with writing you may ask? Because I honestly believed that my creativity came from the bottle and not from me. Yeah, like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Dorothy Parker, Charles Bukowski and many of you out there, and you know who you are, you're under the impression that a glass of wine, a shot of scotch, a belt of bourbon will help grease the wheels of your creativity. I used to think that.<br />
<br />
I try to write to please my fans now, and you out there that are trying to do the same are probably as insecure as I am about your next book. How will your newborn child fare when you release it out into the world? Will it be accepted with open arms? Will it flop? So you want it to be the best you can make it. You grouse, you grope, you worry and you fear and so you reach for the muse that will help you make your work the epitome of creativity. There is a light in you that can flare and burn with a uniqueness unparalleled. All you have to do is ignite it.<br />
<br />
I used to think the same.<br />
<br />
Someone else thought like I did, and he had something to say about it:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
"Yet the part of me that writes the stories, the deep part that knew I was an alcoholic as early as 1975 when I wrote <i>The Shining</i>, would accept that. Silence isn't what that part is about. It began to scream for help in the only way it knew how, through my fiction and<i> through my monsters.</i>"</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
- Stephen King</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
On Writing</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Mr. King became addicted to drinking and drugs and remained a writer until he broke the habit. He found himself in the pull of <i>"an ugly downward spiral" </i>that threatened to crash him upon the rocks of adversity. And he continued to write through it. In the end, I have come to the same conclusion that he had:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
" At the worse of it I no longer wanted to drink and no longer wanted to be sober, either. I felt evicted from life. At the start of the road back I just tried to believe the people who said that things would get better if I gave them time to do so. And I never stopped writing. Some of the stuff that came out was tentative and flat, but at least it was there. I buried those unhappy, lackluster pages in the bottom drawer of my desk and got on to the next project. Little by little I found the beat again, and after that, I found the joy again. I came back to my family with gratitude, and back to my work with relief - I came back to it the way folks come back to a summer cottage after a long winter, checking first to make sure nothing has been stolen or broken during the cold season. Nothing had been. It was still all there, still all whole. Once the pipes were thawed out and the electricity was turned back on, everything worked fine."</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
- Stephen King</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
On Writing</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I used to believe that my drinking was my <i>source</i>, my wellspring from which all of my ideas and creativity sprung fully and full formed. I believed that I was only creative when I was drinking, or at best, that my creativity was unique once I was under the table. My reasons for stopping was not based on my writing, but because of my health. I had a small, insignificant crisis that frightened the shit out of me, but I held onto the bottle because of my fears that my writing would suffer greatly. I was at that pivot point where Mr. King speaks of where he no longer wanted to be drunk, but then again he no longer wanted to be sober. For me, sobriety was an illness that needed medicating. But alcoholism and that was what it was, was a burden on the body. I was in pain on both sides of the table, and my excuse was that my creativity, my books, my little reputation that I had as a writer, my chances of becoming a nationally recognized author, would be greatly affected if I stopped drinking. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
You see, I had great a dependency on alcohol and writing was my excuse.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I feared for my creativity. And so it goes, with all things, it had to come to an end. I had to stop drinking, and if it meant killing the golden goose, then so be it. My greatest love, which is writing, would have to be shorn away and I would have to deal with what was left. Whatever failures that I would have to face, after doing away with my ally would have to be dealt with.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And then a year passed, and almost immediately after I had my last drink did the germ for a novel hit me. A novel that would be an epic. A novel that would demand the greatest challenge, the greatest strength, the greatest creativity that I could devote to it. I would have to give it my all. There would be no part of me reserved from this task, and sober as a judge, I set upon it.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I ordered books, I started online subscriptions to newspapers and archives. I did the same with magazines and websites. I began the task of absorbing data from all sources to make this epic and I did so soberly. And then I began to write it. I began to piece it together, bit by bit, yard by yard, toothpick by toothpick, grain of sand by grain of sand until it began to take monstrous shape. I have more to say about this book of mine in later posts and I have an explanation for the lapse in my posting, all to be done later but for now, I have one thing to say on creativity...it does not come from alcohol. It comes from you. You are your own source. Your lives, your experiences, your outlook and training all make up the person that you are, and only you, YOU can create the stories that you make. There is no bottle of booze that can and will do that for you. I'm not condemning the social use of alcohol, I'm not. But my drinking was not on the social level.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I remember drinking and writing until I passed out at my chair, before my laptop. Then waking the next morning, cramping and aching and standing to stretch my knotted muscles and creaky bones, only to go to the liquor cabinet, pull out another bottle and begin drinking once more before putting my fingers to the keys. I've written entire chapters of my book and then have gone back to read it again months later and it felt as if it was written by someone else. This is a phenomenon that I've heard many writers have experienced, but I not only don't recognize the style but the framework, the very reason why the story went in that direction. I didn't remember the story itself. Or mainly, the reason why the story went the way it did. Not only the style but the story. Can you understand the gravity of that? That's writing in a complete blackout. That's not social drinking, and it all started with that little glass of wine that I sipped on for creativity.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
It's a slippery slope that is unnecessary, and I say that honestly. Use music to relax. Use sleep to grow alert. Use exercise to enervate yourself. Use sex for excitement. And trust yourself for your creativity.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Because, if you start using alcohol to write, as ancient maps and Stephen King will tell you, <i>"beyond this point, they be monsters."</i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Keep writing.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Gregory</div>
Gregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-45734737876763795962015-01-12T08:49:00.004-05:002015-01-12T08:49:36.297-05:00On Moving Your Setting<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I love New York City. I should. I lived
here my entire life and I have to tell you, I've seen every corner of
my beloved metropolis. Being from Brooklyn I had the opportunity to delve
into the more seedier sides of the city. Her dark ports, her dim
bars, her shadowy nightclubs and I loved every second of it. The real
thing is that when I wrote Cover of Darkness, I wanted to move though
the city, through it's denizens and to do so with an economy of
words. I'm growing to be a minimalist in my writing, describing things briefly and
allowing my reader to fill in the blanks. Now is this fair?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If I don't describe a city down to it's
basic elements, missing nothing in my observations, wouldn't I be more
of a benefit to my reader who would like to know everything there is
to know about the city? Is that what I wanted? And is this what I
wanted for my second book, Edge of Darkness?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I explained in great detail how I wrote
the book Cover of Darkness in September 2014, where I think I vented a spleen. I
wanted to try out my new style so badly that I wrote a series of
books to get the feeling of how I wanted to write. But New York, to
serve her properly, should be described down to its minutest detail,
no?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well how about this: let's take things
apart and look at it and we can then see what's more important. Let's
take a nightclub. A simple building. That's basically what it is. Do
you want to describe it's plain looking features, brick walls, arched
doorways, gruff and burly doormen dressed in black suits and white
shirts? You can, but are you putting anything interesting down on
paper? Isn't that why we write every sentence, every scene? Don't we
want to put something interesting before our reader so that they'll
turn the next page with baited breath?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Instead of describing the building with
it's awning and/or the location of the club, such as in the Flatiron
district or the village, with some deep explanation of the
neighborhood, I would much rather focus on the people. I would much
rather focus on the people crowding the front of the building. Is
there a crowd? It must be a happening place. How are the people
dressed? In trendy, hip clothing? In casual wear? In formal wear? You
can see the questions being answered without words in the mind of
your protagonist approaching the club, and most likely in the mind of
the reader. They can deduce the club, it's type and feel, it's
clientele and have an inkling of what's going on inside. To me,
that's interesting.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I would then, after setting the
atmosphere outside without an explanation of what it looks like, would
quickly go inside. Hey, it looks like a building, end of story.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But picking out what's interesting is
the job of the author. He/she is to pick out what facets of a scene
make the most sense, what are the most fascinating bits of data that
paint a picture without words. A simple fight breaking out in the
line of people waiting to enter goes to show the reader that inside
are most likely a bunch of roughnecks. Let the reader come to that
conclusion, don't tell them that the protagonist read in the papers
how rugged the club was, or a police blotter of how many arrests
occurred over the past month. This is planting information, not
showing information.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But then I go to my original questions:
isn't a minimalist description of the city a cheat to the reader?
Aren't I shortchanging my readers with the description of New York?
No. Not in the least. I am so confident in the first book that I
moved the venue of the next book to Vermont to cast my minimalistic
eyes on a small town, the exact opposite of the big city. Wait! Isn't
my aim to talk about New York, to open up the city and expose its
bones? What am I doing moving my protagonist to a rural setting? Am
I abandoning the city? My City? Oh no. I'm hungry to use my new
style, with as little exposition as possible, in another setting. Is
this good? Is this safe yanking my readers from the city that they no
doubt were enjoying to the countryside? In Edge of Darkness I do just that. I want
to be versatile. I want to move around and I desperately needed to
delve into the life of the protagonist, which, in fact, I didn't do
in the first book. I got right into the story and skipped all of the
back story. I wanted to know how that felt and more importantly,
could it be done without tearing the reader from the novel because of
having too many unanswered questions.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The fact is, you'll never tear a reader
away because of unanswered questions. The reader reads on for
answers, and if the question is a tough one, they'll hang on just to
get the answer. Well, do you have to give it to them at the end of
the book? Of course not. Especially if there is another book. It
gives the reader a vacuum to fall into. That's why I fearlessly
changed the setting from New York to Vermont for the second one.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I left many unanswered questions for my
reader which the second book answers, but instead of going through
the torturous back story, thereby telling my reader about my
protagonist, I go to the protagonist's home and interview their family
and friends. If I need any back story, I'll have the characters
relate it. I introduce friends who are shifty, sketchy, protective. I
introduce family relations that are strained and the reasons why. I
open up the life of my protagonist just as if I am walking next to
them, learning about them by being with them. If it takes flying my
character to Vermont to answer these questions without useless
exposition then that's even better.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm bringing the series back to the
gritty city in my third book, Pale of Darkness, but until then I'm not
afraid to go where the answers are. Give your book dimension. Don't
spend unless pages explaining what the protagonist's life was like in
Vermont, and their relationship with friends and family there. Why
not have the protagonist go to Vermont and deal with them? Or, if you
just HAVE to keep your story in it's original setting, such as New
York, then why not bring the relatives or friends to the city to help
relate the back story that your character desperately needs.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But don't be afraid to change settings
and move around in foreign locales. And don't feel the need to
explain everything in this new locale down to the history of the
place as well as the design and construction of the buildings in the
town or city. Stay with what is interesting in your story, and you'll
have to agree, 9 times out of 10 the most intriguing thing about your
novel are the people in it. People are indeed multifaceted beings
that you can make more intriguing than an explanation of a building,
street, neighborhood, town or city.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Don't be afraid to move about and go
about. And don't feel the need to bog the reader down with tiring
prose that only goes to show that you did your homework but does
nothing to move the story.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That's all that I have to say. Maybe
the next time I'll talk about the city more and how I handled it in
greater detail in another post.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Or maybe, even more importantly how
characters can paint incredible pictures of their surroundings better
than you can describe them. Trust me.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Show. Don't explain.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
Gregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-59872083225588970902014-09-08T01:27:00.000-04:002014-09-08T01:27:20.296-04:00On Why I Wrote This WaySeveral friends of mine commented on the writing style of my book, Cover of Darkness. Their comments were it read like you were in a hurry to finish the novel, while others pointed out that the characters seemed thin and without back-story. Valid comments I suppose, but I have to admit some things about writing this book.<br />
<br />
Firstly, this book of mine had to be different from the ones that I've written previously. It was a detective thriller, and I wanted it to rock and roll! I wanted a roller coaster ride for my reader. And I wanted to do away with the one thing that I am learning not to use. Exposition.<br />
<br />
There's an old adage that goes something like this: Don't tell...show. I want to live by that now. I want to write characters that <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>live </i></span>their feelings. That <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>own </i></span>themselves, and are not afraid to show it. I hate needless exposition, deep character introspection, and vapid flashbacks of childhood events. I think these so called 'art forms' are creating a public that doesn't want to think. And then, when they go out in the real world and they find that they can't read minds, and that people don't spill their life histories on your plate before you, unless they're roaring drunk, and that they can't go back in time to re-live events unless under hypnosis, they feel confused. Real life isn't like that, and that's what I wanted this book to feel like...<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>real life</i></span>.<br />
<br />
So without the flashbacks and the back-stories and the expositions, the book had an energy that moved it. It became muscular, skeletal, fast and furious. Yes, it felt rushed because there were no brakes on the story, just cold, hard facts and characters that lived life, not explained it. It became just the way I wanted it. Not slow and clunky, fat like a cow and moving like a sloth but instead, it had energy and a vibrancy that challenged the reader.<br />
<br />
Come on! We are writers. We should do the hard stuff, and you'll find that when you do your characters will have a real life of their own, not one conjured up in a lab. You'll find that you will not be insulting your reader's intelligence when you do this. If your character is an alcoholic, have him frequent bars and liquor stores every other scene. If he's a recovering alcoholic, have him going in and out of AA meetings. Don't just say: "Keith was an alcoholic." Or, "Keith was in recovery." It's short. It's messy, as simple as that. You lose the chance to introduce interesting side characters, and real <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>feel</i></span>. Feel, meaning the smell of an AA meeting, stale coffee and cigarettes and hard assed doughnuts. Tired looking attendees, some spry and wide eyed from too much Coca-Cola while others are wilted like dead ferns. <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>And </i></span>I don't mean to explain it like this, but to have these characters walk about, talk to your protagonist, talk amongst each other to give the AA meeting a <i><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">feel</span>.</i><br />
<br />
Have your characters DO, not think or explain. You'll get more out of your manuscript, more color, more tempo, more verve. This is what I wanted in my book. I wanted characters that came and went, like in real life. You meet them for a minute and you have only a minute to come up with an opinion of them, just like in real life. Some one walks in the room and begins insulting individuals by jesting, cutting everyone he passes off at the knees. You can see that he's an asshole. Then, why do so many writers have this character walk into the room, and the protagonist explains: "Jeff was an asshole." And then, deep exposition as to what made him so.<br />
<br />
And I don't even mean a brief statement. Too many writers go into Jeff and his antics on the job and when he was a youth, and how his father was overbearing and his mother cloyingly loving. What are you trying to do? Put the reader to sleep? I call these '<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>Resume Characterizations</i></span>.' The writer writes this ridiculous resume about a character, <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>including </i></span>the protagonist and antagonist, and goes on an on with so much...well what else can I call it but...shit. They pile it up, slowing down the book, reveal too much about the motivations of the character and the worst of it all, exposes the writer's hubris.<br />
<br />
Yes, hubris, because we know you've worked hard on this character's back-story. You've spent hours on his/her motivations, where they came from, who their parents were, where they were born. You slaved over this information, so now, you have to spoon feed it to your readers. Like pap to a babe, you have to stuff their toothless mouths with your hours of hard work through needless exposition. That's <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>not </i></span>what a back-story is for. It's for <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>you</i></span>. It's to help <span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><i>you </i></span>nail down your character's motivations and outlook. If a glimmer of their history peeks during a conversation, that's good. But to give the reader paragraphs of your "Resume Characterizations" you are only killing your book, in my opinion.<br />
<br />
Yes, Cover of Darkness was written to be a bare, lean, animal. A feral child fighting to feed itself in the harsh hinterland. It is a nasty book with ragged characters, and needless violence. Yeah, I said it myself. But it mirrors life, with it's ragged individuals, nasty outcomes and needlessly vicious people. I wanted my book to be a decent into hell, and what better way to get there than in an empty, burning, quickly plummeting hand-basket. I wanted to grab the reader and run, making them chase their interest rather than carefully walk through my story with a magnifying glass aimed just inches ahead of their shoes. I wanted a book that you can sit down and read in one sitting or over the weekend.<br />
<br />
That's what I was trying to accomplish, and I guess I did. People who've read Cover of Darkness are quick to say that it moved like lightning to it's finish, it was a straight shot to a crazy conclusion. Many of my readers enjoyed the book, and that's, to me, an exposition right there. A long one, meaning, in short, that their comments are music to my ears.<br />
<br />
I love my fans.<br />
<br />
GregoryGregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-1893727260386419352014-08-08T07:48:00.000-04:002014-08-08T07:48:05.516-04:00On the Death of a Good Idea<div class="MsoNormal">
A while ago, while searching for avenues to market Cover of
Darkness, I came across a website called Compulsion Reads. Compulsion Reads had
the idea that good books should be featured prominently by a reputable site. But to have their endorsement one
had to pass a rigorous evaluation. They evaluated everything: plot, characters,
writing technique, accuracy, grammar, etc. You get the picture. If you passed
all of these criteria, you had to then undergo a book rating and review. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of this appeared to be a good idea to me. Book
endorsements help sales, although I have not seen much in the sales department
after receiving a glowing endorsement from Compulsion Reads. Albeit they
reviewed the book on Amazon, Goodreads and other websites, including their own,
there wasn’t much movement in the sales department. But the idea that they had was
solid. Give the readers a website where they can find quality books without
sloughing through a morass of self-published work being produced today. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was very proud of my endorsement, even putting their
medallion on my book covers and graphics and touting it on my Facebook page. I
did all I could with the endorsement, like I was instructed by the owners of
the site while they promoted my book on theirs. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then there was none.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It seemed, as soon as I found the site, in less than three
months, they had called it quits. They cited that they wanted to keep up the
quality of their endorsements but after two years were being overwhelmed by the influx of
books. The workload was so tremendous that their own authoring efforts were being
neglected. They were self-published authors themselves and saw the need for
Compulsion Reads, and filled that need, but they they were also writers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, with little fanfare, a wonderful site closed its doors,
and Compulsionread.com was shuttered. How do I personally feel about this? Sad
of course. These two women who started Compulsion Reads had an excellent idea.
Their business was flourishing, and in time, I’m certain that they would have
been a marketing force to be reckoned with. But, as with some great ideas,
sometimes they simply implode. This appears to be what happened in this case.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I miss Compulsion Reads because it was a great idea. I’m
looking for other sites with the same aim, and I’m certain that I will find
them. A great idea is always copied. Most might feel that there are sites that
do somewhat the same, such as Goodreads, but not quite. Goodreads is a good
idea, but they aren’t really professional reviewers. Not saying that
un-professional reviewers can’t have a good grasp on discerning a good book
from a bad one, but we are all aware of the pitfalls of personal bias or the sheer
desire of some to be negative towards an author or book. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not to compare Goodreads to Compulsion Reads, Compulsion
Reads was outstanding, and I hope that there are others that feel the same, and
will launch a review/endorsement site similar to it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I can only hope.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Gregory</div>
Gregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-698351400405689952014-06-10T08:16:00.000-04:002014-06-10T08:18:11.131-04:00On When You've Done it All<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There is a line that should be drawn in
the sand. A limit to where you will go with whatever you are
endeavoring to do. That is the school of thought. A wise man knows
when to give up. Others say do not give up until defeat is academic.
Others say to fight until there is no more strength in you to fight.
When it comes to self publishing, which one is the right choice?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What is it that you want to succeed at when you
are self published? I can say for one, or rather in my case, and I
believe is the case of others, that I would like to sell copies of my
book. I would like to sell enough to at least afford to publish my
second and then my third book. I would like to build a fan base, from
out of thin air, and cultivate it like a beloved field of vegetation.
To fawn over it, feed it, water it, provide it with as much light as
possible. As this field produces, I would like to reap its benefits,
to live off the land to become one with my fans.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Yes, I think that many of us have my
dream, my desire and that is the yardstick that we measure our
success. So what if our yardstick falls short of the mark? What if
your first, most enthusiastic effort reaps no benefits? What if your
dream of a vibrant farm, yielding rich produce does not come to
fruition?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That's where I stand now with my first
book, Cover of Darkness. It's foundering after a year after
publication. It's not selling, it's not moving. It's a grand sailing
ship in the middle of the doldrums, a lifeless sail, a wind-less sea.
It went well in the beginning, the first month, the first two, three,
there were sales. One here, one there. There was positive motion, but
as the months wore on, there was less and less. I pushed the
envelope. I found reviewers, reached out to them to review my book
and to put it on Amazon. I did a blog tour, where I gave a great many
people notice that my book was out there. I applied to an endorsement
company, who read books and gives their endorsement. I threw up the
full sails, pulled the anchor, centered the rudder. I did everything
that I could think of.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I would like to think that I pushed the
envelope. I would like to think that I did everything I could. It was as if I
did nothing. I had some sales, and then none. And it stayed none. And
it is none.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now the question is: where do I go from
here?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well, the answer is obvious if you are
true to yourself. Be yourself. <i>To thine own self be true, and it must
follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any
man</i>, William Shakespeare. I cannot play false to any man, or rather,
my fans, wherever they may be. So I have to be true to myself. And
what am I, first and foremost? A writer.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I write. I write just because there are
stories in my head that need a voice and need to be put down on paper.
I've been writing all my life. Since I was a child, I was a writer, I
studied, I learned and so, here I am, at a crossroads in my life,
where I am just standing and wondering, what to do now, and the
answer is academic. Write.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm not a marketing genius, but I am a
fast learner. One of the self-publishers that I've read had a similar
experience. That of having the first of her books falter. The sales
were very weak if at all. So she published a second and a third book,
and the more books she published, the more they moved. It appeared to
her that people were drawn to a series of stories. They seemed to be
attracted by full stories, with rich characters and deep story-lines,
broad character arcs. They seem to like an abundant story, and not so
much drops in a bucket.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Further, it took her mind off of just one book, just one savior, and as time progressed, the first book, like a snowball rolling downhill, gained slow momentum and built over EIGHT years to over 200,000 in sales. Patience, it appears, is the winning virtue.<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To be true to myself then, I must write
and continue to publish. I must continue to go on and come out with as
many books as I can, because, honestly, there is no expiration date
on self-published books. They don't have the short shelf life of
traditionally published books. The first day that it comes out is the
same as the three hundred and sixty fifth day. The book can take off
any day. A year later, two years later. As it sits on the electronic
bookshelves the world over it doesn't give up. It waits patiently for
someone to press 'Add to Cart'. And with that thought, if it doesn't give up,
if it is going to stay in the fray until it has no strength left to
fight, then so will I.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm going to push the second book out,
and ride it on the coattails of the first. Maybe raising a second
sail on the ship will cause some motion.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Either case, either way, I'm going to
write more and publish more. I don't see myself as stopping, and so,
I don't see myself as failing. To me, this is just one, tactical,
logical move after another.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If I am a sailor, I'll sail. If I am a
farmer, I'll farm. And if I am a writer....</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
Gregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-78743412359994997282014-01-27T04:03:00.002-05:002014-01-27T04:03:19.432-05:00On Finding Your Fans
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The question is: where are the fans?
The truth of the matter is that in every collection of individuals,
there is one or two people who are your devoted fans. In every 400
people you might find one fan, one person that likes your work and
would like to read more. 200 people just are not interested in what
you write. Your genre is just not what they are looking for. 299
people like your genre but aren't involved with your characters or
the cover of your book, or the way it reads off the synopsis on the
back. Your genre could be splintered and your book too abstract, not
fitting in any of the groups.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What is lost to me is where do you find
the pools of people who read to drill down into and find your one or
two fans? Do you find them on Facebook? On Twitter? On Goodreads? On
Amazon's pages or forums? Where could they be? That's what I am
wondering. I am now searching for another means to find these vast
wells of readers and to connect with them. I'm looking over analytics
and sales reports and things are beginning to change my impression of
what is important and what is not.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In a 2013 survey via Survey Monkey
(<a href="http://e-bookformattingfairies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-readers-sound-off-how-they-read.html">http://e-bookformattingfairies.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-readers-sound-off-how-they-read.html</a>)
nearly 80 percent of book buyers purchased their books from Amazon.
Far distant from them were 23 percent purchasing their books from
Barnes and Noble and at 13 percent came iBookstore/Apple.With my
e-book sales stats, I find that Amazon Kindle downloads are also far
in the lead. Ibookstore and Barnes and Noble are in second place
followed by Kobo close behind. A lot of people are keying into my
books through Amazon, but there is still a number who are distributed
all over the online retailer sphere. I have much of my attention on
Amazon and I do what I can to push those tools available there, but I
don't do it much on the other retailer sites. I need to rethink this
and work on those. I need to beef up their pull by putting more
information on them about the book and me. I need to build up the
contact information there and personalize it more so that my fans can
feel that I care and make that move to purchase the book. This could
problematic and why the other retailers are dragging behind Amazon.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I am very susceptible to surveys, they
help me make certain decisions as to what to do. I was looking into
purchasing a large number of my books to take to my local bookstores
and sell them on consignment. I thought that I may be missing out on
a number of fans this way. Every author wants to see their book on a
bookshelf in a bookstore, but in the same survey nearly 58 percent of
readers have not visited a brick and mortar bookstore in the last
year or have done so twice in the last year. So it seems clear to me
that I'm not missing out on reaching fans in this direction. I think
I've saved myself the heartache of having boxes of my books in my
small apartment, gathering dust because the local bookstores could
not move them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The good news for indie-publishers is
that those surveyed stated that sixty-four percent pay “no
attention”, or 'it doesn't matter” to them as to who the book
publisher is. I have to admit, this is somewhat uplifting to me
because I have many author friends who have gone out of their way to
court small publishers to publish their work, and they walk around
like peacocks when they do. The amazing thing is that they give so
much of their royalties over to these publishers. They seem to have
no clue about percentages of profits and how much they could make on
their own, and they have to do the same marketing as I do. The small
publishers don't do any for them. There is no real benefit if some
sixty-four percent of the readers don't care that they went through
the hassle and the price gouging of a small publisher.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I thought that publishing an author
newsletter would be a good idea, but I have only a handful of people
in my address database, and when I say a handful, I mean four or
five, to send newsletters to. The survey brought out that only
thirty-six percent of readers use author newsletters to get
information on their favorite author, and this does not include
discoverability. But it was something that I tried. I also looked
into buying mailing lists, and lord did I get an eye-full of
information on why one should NOT buy mailing lists. I am somewhat
confused as to the reluctance that most have against this, but I
understand their arguments and have cooled to the idea. There is much
that is negative about buying mailing lists, the main reason is that
it is not tailored to your book. These are largely just addresses
that are culled from anywhere and given to you. They may not be
readers, and may not be readers of your genre. The last thing that
they want to receive is a stupid email from a writer pushing his lame
book in their direction. They'd rather watch a television show. Also
many of these email addresses are not kept current and many of them
have expired, such as changed, closed, moved, whatever. And you pay
by the number of email addresses that they give you. So you can pay
for a hundred addresses and not get anything relevant that will turn
into finding fans.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But by my current calculations, if I
only get 1 out of 400 attempts, if I buy 400 email addresses, I can
at least expect one person to turn into a fan. But the question is:
do I want to pay hundreds of dollars for 1 fan with at best a $2.99
turn around in sales. There has to be a more economical way of
reaching the masses, a low cost way of sending a simple message to
hundreds of people at a reasonable cost. I thought that Facebook
would be that path, but that can become very expensive through an
incremental bloodletting.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I did a Facebook campaign, I started an
author website and the good news is that sixty-two percent of those
surveyed stated that they use Facebook to find information about
their favorite authors, and sixty-three percent used the author's
website. But this doesn't say anything about discoverability, which
is just how a reader 'finds' an author. Once a reader is interested
in you, they'll go to Facebook or your website to learn more about
you, but the truth is, this doesn't seem to be the way to find your
fans.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To drill the numbers down further, you
have only twenty-seven percent of people finding information about
their authors through Goodreads, and nineteen percent through
Twitter. The numbers are even more discouraging when the number drops
to eighteen percent for Retail Sites.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For discoverability numbers, they're
scattershot. Readers looking for their primary sources of
information, Facebook is at eighteen percent, Retail Sites at
seventeen percent, Goodreads at thirteen percent, author websites at
ten. So Facebook still seems to be the best way to introduce people
to your book, followed by Goodreads and then your website. Since a
Facebook campaign can be expensive if not done properly, a Goodreads
campaign followed by constantly beefing up your website might be the
way to go. This is the course that I'm taking in the 2014 year.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm searching for this new way to reach
the masses. Another way. Maybe another blog tour, or a campaign
somewhere, something. I'm like a shark in the water, moving about,
never stopping, never sleeping, eyes open, senses aware, searching
for the splashing in the water, the expanding blood slick on its
surface meaning wounded prey. I'm searching for the next avenue to
fans.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'll find it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
Gregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-55044206335239530962013-10-29T09:33:00.000-04:002013-11-19T05:30:07.527-05:00On the Sound of an MRI<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One day a filmmaker made a blockbuster
movie and he claimed that he paid the utmost attention to detail so
as to make it as realistic as possible. He went over the details of
everything in his historical movie to the nth degree. He even used
submersibles to go down to the icy depths to examine every single
detail of a ship that had sank on April 15<sup>th</sup>, 1912. I'm
talking about the movie Titanic, directed by James Cameron, that went
on to gross $1,843,201,268 worldwide.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To call it a blockbuster is no
misnomer.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Years later a famed American
astrophysicist and science communicator went to see the movie and
while sitting though the film he noticed something. He noticed that
the stars in the sky during the sinking of the ship were all wrong!
Not only were they wrong, one side was a mirror image of the other.
This egregious error drove Mr. Tyson up the spout, and he went on to
try to correct Mr. Cameron on <i>several</i> occasions. For a movie
that was to have supposedly paid so much attention to detail, how
could Mr. Cameron let such an error fly
(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B6jSfRuptY">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B6jSfRuptY</a>)?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Such a horrible mistake made by Mr.
Cameron. When approached about it he had only one response. He said
to Mr. Tyson: “Well, last I checked, Titanic, worldwide has grossed
$1.3 billion dollars. Imagine how much more it would have grossed had
I'd gotten the sky correct?”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What is the biggest lesson
to be learned here?</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Can a writer, ANY writer, take
something away from this? Yes, we all can. There is a big lesson to
be gleaned if we understand what's really important.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The reader, the moviegoer, the fan,
wants to be entertained not educated.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I like writing cop fiction. I love cop
fiction and I love police procedurals. I read through books on the
subject, I also listen to online seminars, read blogs, check Google+
and Facebook posts. I love the subject, but I don't make the mistake
of thinking that my readers love the subject as much as I do. I want
to give the most realistic experience that I can for my readers and
that's important to me...somewhat.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I assume that a reader of my work does
not want to go to school to become a cop, no more than someone who
watches Gray's Anatomy watches it to become a doctor. When someone
reads a book or watches a film, such as Titanic, do you think they
care that the plates lack the exact design of the Titanic crest? Is
the detail that important?
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Let's go further. A blogger on a blog
post pointed out that the noises of an MRI scanner are completely
different from a CT scan and how the show Hannibal got it all wrong
(<a href="http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2013/06/author-beware-know-your-equipment.html">http://jordynredwood.blogspot.com/2013/06/author-beware-know-your-equipment.html</a>).
This post was under the title: “Author Beware: Know Your
Equipment.” Author beware, huh?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Again, I ask, is there a lesson to be
learned here? Yes there is. It might be a painful one for some, but
it's one that they need to know for certain. Why? Well in my opinion,
which is what my blog is, these critical individuals and many others
have their priorities all wrong.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have a blog that I follow religiously
that debunks specifically a lot of cop shows and books. They shoot
down many shows and books that <i>'get it wrong'</i>, when it comes
to cop procedures. Once again, they make the smallest things seem
egregious. Not singling out that blog, but I've also come across
another grousing over the fact that Castle shouldn't be working on
the police force as closely as he is being that he is a writer.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Let's hit the brakes here.</span><span style="font-size: x-large;">
</span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We need to take stock of several
things. It's easy for people who don't write fiction or who don't
entertain fans to be over-critical. They loose sight of the fact that
writers today are pushing the limits of everything. Now that there
are self-published books, the envelope has been broken and flights of
extreme fancy are beginning to emerge. Further, a writer can't know
EVERYTHING. Writers are not gods, although they are the gods of the
worlds that they create, and because of this, stars can be where they
wish. MRI machines can make whatever noise that they want, and Castle
can be given an assault rifle by Detective Beckett anytime she desires. This is the unvarnished truth.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Who can correct these gods? Who can
nit-pick about the smallest things as if they affect the story? The
fans. Remember, millions of people sat through Titanic and saw the
same sky as Neil Degrasse Tyson did and were more focused on if Rose
DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson (Winslet and DiCaprio) were going to
survive this horrible catastrophe. Who cared that the major
characters in the movie NEVER EVEN EXISTED? But we are to care that
the sky was incorrect? What made the fans go see this film? The
STORY.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In the episode “Buffet Froid” the
tenth episode of Hannibal, Will Graham is put through an MRI to see
if there was damage to his brain. The MRI shows that he has Anti-NMDA
Receptor Encephalitis. But Dr. Lecter persuades Dr. Sutcliffe to tell
Will that his brain scan was “completely normal”. Hannibal no
doubt had more insidious work to do with the protagonist. What, I
ask, do you think was the most riveting part of this exchange? The
fact that a homicidal doctor was lying to a patient to make him
believe that he was the killer in many murders, or that the MRI
machine was making the wrong noise?
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Realize that the FANS dictate what's
important in a book or movie. Critics who produce nil need to realize
that a writer or director can only do so much and can't cover over
ever single base, even if they wanted to. James Cameron in fact
really wants to make every aspect of Titanic realistic, because he
changes the sky in a later release of the film
(<a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/james-cameron-alters-stars-in-titanic-on-neil-degrasse-tyson-insistence/">http://www.mediaite.com/online/james-cameron-alters-stars-in-titanic-on-neil-degrasse-tyson-insistence/</a>).
But this is past tense, and behind the fact that his fans have
already bestowed him with the highest honor that they can grant him,
their patronage, even when he got the sky wrong.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Critics, no matter their degrees or
specialty, should realize that to an author or director, it's their
fans that they seek to please and fans are not interested in
miniscule details if they are reading a book about vampires, zombies,
homicidal doctors, crooked cops or whatever world the writer creates
for them.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It's the STORY that the
reader or viewer is interested in. </span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sorry extreme critics, your priorities
just do not count. Just like Cameron said, $1.3 million dollars in
revenue can't be wrong. The strong seasonal Nielson ratings for cop
shows like Castle and Hannibal are what keeps them on the air, and this is
not undermined by miniscule errors. One needs to realize that this
century isn't the first one that has books and television shows with
a raft of errors. This has been going on since time immemorial,
because above all else, we are all human.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But fans are the key, they are the
arbitrators of the gods of worlds. If a fan finds that the smell of
cordite in a gunfight is incorrect and is not more worried about the
characters in the gunfight, then the writer indeed has a poor story
and has not done his or her job. Remember, the creator of a story can
have pets come from the dead, Orcs rise from Wizards, bullets stop in
mid-air to have a discussion, bodies dissolve into phonebooths, and
people spout fangs, and if the reader or viewer has no problem with
it, if they even accept it, how ridiculous is it to find some
miniscule error and blow it all out of proportion, as if IT was the
basis of the book or movie?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There will always be critics like Neil
Degrasse Tyson in the world that will nit pick everything about
someone's work and try to hang the value of the entire book or movie
on their astute knowledge. Is this really about bettering the movie?
Or is this more about self-importance? As Mr. Tyson says himself: “I
was just completely immature about it.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To writers I say, attain your position
as god of your world, make water flow up, make people shrink to a
quarter of their size, lose ships in space, cause serial killers to
jump from three story roofs. Who cares? As long as your readers love
your story. Do your research, give your readers realism, but as they
say in the urban world: “Don't sweat the small stuff.” Your fans,
people that really like your work and are not going over it with a
fine toothed comb are the only people that you need to please and the<i>
'minutaeists' </i>(my word) can continue to critique and grouse as they
wish. Don't let them rob you of your forward momentum by causing you
to walk on eggshells because you might have something small wrong.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Worry about your story, let them spend
sleepless nights over the sound of an MRI.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
Gregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-9645229542199405442013-10-18T15:29:00.001-04:002013-10-18T15:32:32.109-04:00On the State of Publishing<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
People are clamoring over the state of
publishing today and there seems to be some dispute as to what
direction Self-publishing and Traditional publishers are going in
today. In digging through this stuff I learned a raft of new words,
one being '<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>disruption</i></span>',
which is what they are calling the changes that are being affected
upon publishing today by the advent of the self-publishing
revolution. There are more, but unless I use them I won't bother
remembering them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I will use the word Disruption though.
Because it is a very good usage and visual as to what is happening
today in publishing. Visualize a restless sea, churning and rolling
with white capped waves, going about it's business, doing its thing,
that is, being a body of water. And then see a boiling, dark cloud
bank blot out the sun, flashes of lightning, not only in its depths
but also lancing down to strike the agitated waters, bringing up
angry waves. Deep valleys and huge swells of sea, crashing and
exploding in gaudy sprays of white.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is the disruption that is tearing
through the publishing industry. The oncoming storm that is changing
the face of the waters. The same with Self-publishing changing the
face of publishing. Many people in the industry believe that
Traditional publishers will be around in another ten to twenty years,
but whatever is left of it, will not resemble what it looks like now,
just like it doesn't resemble what it looked like ten years ago.
People fail to realize that publishing was done by authors in years
past.<br />
<br />
Before publishing became an industry it was the simple tool of
authors after they finished writing their books, a logical extension
of the writing process. A writer went to a printing press, had a few
hundred copies of his book manufactured out of his/her pocket or
maybe the pocket of a patron, and then went to the neighborhood
bookstores and left copies on consignment. This was the true face of
publishing. This was a direct line between author and reader with
very little in between. The creator handing their work over to the
patron.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Over time unscrupulous individuals saw
the benefit of exploiting an author's labors to their own gain. They
took over the printing process and distribution channels and
collected the works of authors to make a profit. Authors became lazy
and publishers became greedy. As time wore on, others added
themselves to the process, interjecting themselves between the Author
and Patron. Editors were given the unlikeable task of reading from
the slush pile to pick out the worthy manuscripts from it. Agents
stepped into the process, at first working to represent authors, then
acting as intermediaries between authors and publishers, finally
turning into the same gatekeepers as the editors had become.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
These three interlopers between the
author and the reader began to see the author as something other than
the beneficial source of their financial gain. Because there were so
many authors, they began to view them, not as the wellspring from
where everything came from, but as a spigot to be turned and used and
then turned off when done. These Three ruled over the very people
that they derived their livelihood from. They had what writers
craved—authorship. They dangled the carrot and hundreds of
thousands of authors fawned before them. The power indeed went to
everyone's head. Yes indeed, there is power in being able to harness
the work of thousands.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We see this in the maltreatment of
authors in general, like when they are accepted by these gatekeepers,
the price of authorship is so high. This is evident in the contracts
that they are forced to sign in return for their services. The author
signs away a great deal of their rights to their own work, and they
are given a low percentage of the profits. One might falsely believe
that many writers get such a hefty advance prior to the publication
of their work, but this too is skewed. It's beneficial if the book is
a flop, but burdensome if it is a hit. With the state of
self-publishing today, it doesn't take hundreds of thousands of
dollars to create and market a book. Why does an author have to give
up so much of the profits and so much of his/her rights? In profit
negotiation alone, couldn't the split be at worst 50/50?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It gets worse. Agents, Editors and
Publishers began huge seminars where they built the audacity to
charge writers to come and learn how to approach them. They gave
irrational instructions on how to write queries and pitches and how
to even address them as professionals. They charged writers to hear
them speak at these conferences and writers flocked to this further
infrastructure whose only purpose was to fleece them of money
promising them that which they were not actually willing to give to
all of them—authorship.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm not saying that no one benefited
from anything that the Three had done, but sad to say, only a small
majority are ever published. It's a golden ticket handed out to
children to the chocolate factory to make the factory ever more
enticing and desirous to all the many more children that do not get
the chance to walk its delicious halls and wonders. It's a fabulous
system that benefits itself by building such lopsided rewards that
really have nothing to do with ability but more a game of chance to
the benefit of the Three.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
However, suddenly Amazon, wittingly or
unwittingly took a writer's work and put it on an electronic
bookshelf right next to a trade published work. Like being struck
with a madness, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other electronic
retailers became the printing presses of old, returning to a time
when the author had a direct connection to his/her readers. Now the
process is much easier. An author goes to an e-book distributor who
moves it to the online retailers, but clearly it's smoother and
facile. All an author has to do today is to create a quality
manuscript and they can hand their book directly to someone
interested in reading it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The question now is where does this put
the middlemen in the guise of Publisher, Editor and Agent? They are
suddenly where they were before this amazing edifice was created.
Nowhere. They produce nothing, they create nothing, and really have
nothing to offer that the writer can't do on their own in this coming
dawn. They'll offer their services, but now other individuals can
also offer the same services. Such as editing. Publishers can offer
up just their editing services, but there are already thousands of
freelance editors out there doing the same. Or marketing skills.
Publishers can offer their immense marketing machines, but as time
goes on, writers will be able to pay for the same services from
outside the publishing sphere.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Agents will lose publishers to offer
their services to when authors go directly to their readers. Editors
will have to only provide editing services and their power as
gatekeepers will be completely lost. The publishing construct will
begin to separate, fragment, then splinter and dissolve in the ocean
of competition that they never had to fight against before. The great
walls that held everything and everyone at bay will collapse and
sadly, they will vanish behind them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There just isn't any reason for writers
to split their proceeds with individuals who do nothing but offer the
services of others. The problem is that people don't remember how
publishing was in its beginning. They are under the impression that
publishing has always been the way it is now, when this is a process
that is greatly akin to a growing vine on a tree. The vine has no
connection to the tree, and at best believes that there is a
symbiotic link between the two, when in fact its a parasitic pairing,
the vine using the tree to reach higher an attain more light. The
loss of Traditional publishing will be of no loss to anyone. That is
why there is so much doomsday rhetoric coming from publishers, agents
and editors about the future of publishing in the hands of
self-publishers. But instead of crying the demise of themselves, they
cry the end of publishing in general as we know it. This is false.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This will only revert to the way it
once was.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The author will be able to give their
hard work to the reader directly. And all services will go, not to
interfere with this process, but support it. A process that was and
once again is becoming organic. The artificial will not survive.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Gregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-928311514927126912013-09-27T02:01:00.001-04:002013-09-27T02:01:41.725-04:00On Comming to Terms
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I've been running about New York,
partying after the end of the four week blog book tour. It's been a
bit grueling to someone who has his hands full of marketing and
writing. I've resumed working on my radio show about independent
publishing. I started it on <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/">www.blogtalkradio.com</a>
several weeks ago and did at least three weeks of shows, which had
over 3,000 downloads. I had built up this following as if by magic,
they just appeared. Then I had to go to see my mother in North
Carolina for a month. She needed a great deal of attention so I found
it hard to beg off and do a 45 minute radio show every Friday. So, my
listener base fell from 3,000 to nil in four weeks. I'm talking
absolutely nil.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A skyrocketing rise to a meteoric fall.
So now I'm trying to regain lost traction. I'm working hard on
building that listener base by putting more value in my radio show.
The show, I thought, could dwell on my book a little, but put the
greater emphasis on self-publishing which could make the difference.
It would attract listeners who were interested in self-publishing and
yet give them a small dose of my book. So this was on my plate while
I was doing the blog tour, plus a score of other marketing projects.
So the book blog tour was not easy to do because it wasn't the only
thing that I was juggling.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Therefore I took a week to party at my
success in making a failure. Of losing 3,000 listeners, but of
gaining scores of likes and followers from the book blog tour.
Starting this week though, I'm back to work and no play. I'm having a
problem bringing my seventh book to completion, so I want to get on
that. My plan: I'm going to lean on the manuscript until I squeeze
out the rest of my creative juices and finish the thing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Further, I would like to find a good
marketing plan that will get my book out to a larger portion of the
masses. I see my marketing efforts as a growing stain across the
nation, building and spreading, a dark growth creeping across the
states. But I also do believe that each effort causes it to expand
but it shortly cools and stops. You have to move on to another method
and start the expansion once more, the slow creeping somewhere else,
or somewhat within the stain, and hope that there is an even
saturation.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Like rainfall that soaks the earth and
causes grass and fauna to grow, your marketing efforts have to have
the same effect. It needs to be consistent and varied. So I feel.
That's why I try to do different things. While I'm working on the one
hand to continue my series of novels, and on the other hand I work to
get the first book promoted to everyone. To fan the fires, which
takes some doing. Especially when you don't know what you are doing.
I'm just feeling my way, like a man in a dark room. I haven't
stumbled yet, and all of my efforts have been nominal. Hopefully I'll
be able to grow more eyes on the book.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I would like to know my fans. I would
like to know what it is that they like and didn't like about the book
so that I can make a better one. I've gotten some reviews, and I
value them. I've found a lot of fans on Facebook and Twitter and I'm
trying to reach out to them, to interact with them. Because
ultimately, that's what writing is about. It's about making the human
connection, it's not just about making fans, but understanding them.
It's about the human interaction that we all value.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
<br />Gregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-86538612330907744972013-09-19T01:55:00.000-04:002013-09-19T01:55:04.279-04:00On When The Dust Settles<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The blog tour has been long and hard.
Almost 4 weeks in total. The first week I had to go down to Ahoskie
North Carolina to take care of my mother. It was tricky checking into
the blogs in the mornings and keeping up with those who commented while I was down there, but I got it done.
Once I got back to New York it was business as usual. I got
back into my daily routine and made managing my blog tour one of
them.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I didn't understand the value of a blog
book tour until the end, until now. Before the tour started I Googled
the title of the book and my name and what I got was maybe a handful
of returns on my search. Six if I was lucky. My blog didn't even
register. That was before the tour. Now I did the same search and I
have web pages filled with returns. I'm on virtual book shelves,
blogs the works. And every blog has a different slant or feel or
approach. I'm uniquely echoed all around the Internet.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then I learned about the Law of Three.
If your book is mentioned in more than three places on the Internet,
people are more apt to purchase it. If the Law of Three applies,<i>
Cover of Darkness </i>is well on its way. I am happy about this tour. It
has benefits that I never even thought of. Yeah, okay, the
blogosphere is noisy with chatter from my book, but then my Facebook pages and
Twitter accounts began to blow up also. I'm having likes and followers
every day. The name of my book is reaching the masses.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then I come to my blog, merely by
accident, and noticed that even here, the numbers of my members has
risen drastically, with the pageviews busting through the roof. And
it dawned on me that I didn't blog in months. I was so busy with the
publication of my book and the blog tour and marketing the book that
I stop communicating with everyone. I've gone dark.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I need to keep up more. I need to speak
out and do more. I've done a great deal, that's for certain, but I
need to do more. Right now, I'm engaged in what I really love.
Writing. I've almost finished with the 7<sup>th</sup> book in the
Darkness series. I have book two to the editor and we're going over
it with a fine toothed comb. We're doing the best work we've ever
done for the second book. I'm also very excited to be working on book two and
I'm happy to say the team, the proofreader, the cover designer, the formatter and others should have it all wrapped up by the end of
the year. That would be great.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I also want to give <i>Cover of Darkness</i>
some lead time. I want to market it to the best of my ability and
marketing is probably the left leg if writing is the right. It is
true that writing is what I love and if it was a perfect world,
writing would be all that I would do, but it's not, and marketing is
a must if you want your book to be noticed, and read. That's my
burden, or job now, and that's to publicize the book.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Another thing is to stay in touch,
which is what I've been failing at miserably. I've been so into doing
the marketing thing and the Facebook thing and the Twitter thing that
I've lost sight of the blog thing. So here I am, trying to catch everyone up
with what I've been doing this past month, which has largely been the
blog tour and several other matters to get the word out on the book.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
One thing that I did, which was my plan
just before the completion of the blog tour, was to put out another
press release for the book. I chose to use a different agency this
time, a cheaper one, whose ad stated, why pay hundreds of dollars
when you can pay just about $200.00. So, maybe against my better
judgment, I chose Lightning Release to do the job. It's been days
since I paid them, and I have yet to see anything that they have
done. I'm going to stay patient though. I know that there are a lot
of rip-off artists in the self-publishing world today. Myriads, and
myriad more are popping up daily. I've been extremely lucky so far.
This might be my first mistake.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I've been making other moves too, but
I'm not going to bore you with them all in this one post. I'll be
more in touch as the days wear on. Right now, I'm going to take a
break, wind down, and coast a few days. Then complete the 7<sup>th</sup>
novel and go back a re-edit the 3<sup>rd</sup>.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
By Friday, the blog tour will be over
and I'll have far more time to do other stuff. And I hope to keep in
touch through my blog.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Thanks for reading.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
Gregory Delaurentishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983133676746509153noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-66592317941544956092013-07-02T19:50:00.002-04:002013-07-02T19:50:53.592-04:00On the Flat Ocean
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0NAgtLn844/UdNm11G6lwI/AAAAAAAAZ0A/oIhy9Eu88dw/s1024/sunset_sailing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0NAgtLn844/UdNm11G6lwI/AAAAAAAAZ0A/oIhy9Eu88dw/s320/sunset_sailing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm past the tran- sition. I've gone
though the wilder- ness of crea- tionism. Yes, the book is out, pub- lished
and at the distributors. I've made it through and there is nothing
but flat glass ocean before my sailing ship and the curve of the
horizon with no land in sight. My compass is spinning, the wind is
brisk and the sails are full of wind. And yet, I am not done. I don't
feel at this point that I will ever be done. There will never be an
end to this journey. It's a trip across the ocean that has no
landfall. Ever.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The transition. I covered it briefly
earlier. The second third of my three fold plan. I'll go into it a
little here. Once the book is finished, it has to be polished and
cut, like a rare diamond, it needs to be clarified and changed before
it can go out to the public. That's why you need a good editor. An
editor that you can trust and that will be fair and yet clear with
your book. Someone who polishes your writing and can make unclouded
what you want to say to your readers. Where you are muddy, the editor
can make crystal. You cannot do this yourself, no matter how good a
writer you feel that you are. You can imagine yourself as a (and you
can just as well be) a professor of English and a student of the
written word, you are still too close to your manuscript. You are in
effect performing surgery on your own baby, and I know you can tell,
that's not a good idea. Much worse, it's performing surgery on
yourself which is more tantamount and even worse.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Let another professional go over your
work. Let them take out your errors that you don't feel are errors.
Let them shed new light on your prose and gain the benefit of having
a second pair of eyes go over your work. You will do fine if you
allow the clarifying of your gem to be done. But this is not the only
professional that you will need. There are more. There is a
proofreader that is needed, to make it even more perfect, to root out
all the typographical errors, and then a beta reader, if you can. A
beta reader will look at the story and find errors in its
construction, locate weak plot-lines, check continuity and do some
fact checking. Also they will outline the plot, find themes and
archetypes and point out where things work or do not. A beta reader
is invaluable if you want to give your readers something different
and are willing to take criticism from a stranger that is looking
over your story as one of your readers would.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then you have to go to a formatter and
a book cover designer. Two people that are invaluable to the process.
A formatter will take your manuscript and find the proper font,
spacing, header, footer and the so forth. They move the work to
publication. A good formatter is important. Then a cover designer is
vital, because they make or break your book. A reader only looks at
your book cover for a second or two; very briefly, and then it's
over. If your book cover does not grab them by the throat and make
them stop to check out your book, you have wasted all of your time in
putting together your manuscript. Traditional publishers have scores
of professional cover designers that sit down and work out the most
striking cover for your book. You need to do the same. Maybe not find
scores of designers, but find a good one and help them help you to
make the best cover you can afford.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You have to take the time to find the
best that work for you and your price range. Once you get through
this field, once you've gone through this task, you will have an
e-book and a file to upload to the distributors. From the
distributors you go onto the third/third of the project. The part of
the project that will last for years and years, which is marketing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Marketing will take forever, and is
multifaceted. It's on the other side of the transition and is the
only one of the three that is without end. It will go on as long as
you want it to, and you'll never want to stop once you get started.
It'll flag, it'll wane, just like wind in the sails of a ship, but it
will also pick up and billow, snapping your sails loudly and
forcibly. When you tire, it will continue, and when you continue, it
will tire. Marketing is one aspect of being a writer that will never
go away. Unless you get a large multinational traditional publisher
to fund your novel and they'll take over the marketing beast for you,
they will also take the lion's share of your income that it makes.
But here, if you are the master of your own destiny, the captain of
your own ship, you will reap untold benefits if you do it yourself.
It is what it is.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
How do I know this? How do I know this
when I've never done it before? I've listened to other writers, other
self published authors that have done this on their own. They pushed
their books and watched as the number of book sales rose. They
cultivate their sales like a farmer would a field of wheat or corn.
That is the great thing about working your own marketing plan is that
you can watch it grow from nothing to something over the span of time
and effort that you put into it.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I am doing my marketing plan now. I
have book blog tours, did Goodreads and Facebook campaigns, have done
a show on BlogTalkRadio, I have put out press releases and given my
book to book reviewers. I've caused a big enough splash for the
months of June and July and I will eagerly watch my book sales. They
will either go up or don't move at all, but I suspect that they will
rise somewhat. As the book gains more and more eyes it will find it's
fans. I don't doubt that. It will find those who want to read it and
will take the time to do just that. The book will find them and they
will find the book. You have to convince yourself of that fact. You
will find your fans and they will find you.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Much of it has to do with belief. You
must believe that you will, through your writing, touch the souls of
others. You will find your fans and they will find you. It may take
months, it may take years. But they are out there, and it will only
be a matter of time.</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-89794082871886392582013-03-14T12:27:00.001-04:002013-03-14T12:27:17.614-04:00On The Transition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aSvrEp1E9j8/UUH0uq5aofI/AAAAAAAAYoE/c4ZtTwdS65g/s1600/Cover+of+Darkness_01d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aSvrEp1E9j8/UUH0uq5aofI/AAAAAAAAYoE/c4ZtTwdS65g/s320/Cover+of+Darkness_01d.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm finally there. The end of the book
has become reality. Cover of Darkness is finished, proofread, and
ready for distribution. I call this point in the process: The
Transition. Why do I call it this? Well, there is the formation of a
book, the sitting down and sketching out of characters, plot, story
arcs and the so forth, and most writers excel at this foundry of
creation. We live for it, we sit behind our keyboards and pound away
until before we know it, we have a manuscript. We are skilled at
this, that's why we call ourselves writers. Some of us went to school
for it, some of us have been writing since we were children, but all of us can
put together a manuscript for better or for worse.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Once we put together one of these
things, we are in a state of flux. Because here there are many
decisions that can be made. It can go into percolation...which is on
the shelf, or on the hard drive...to wait until we forget much of the
heat that went into it, and then re-edit it with, hopefully, fresh
eyes. Or it can move on in the process. It can go to a professional
editor, proofreader, beta-reader or other editorial professionals, lurching its way toward distribution. I consider this process more
of a 'creationism' and is on 'this' side of the process. That's
because we are abundantly familiar with this procedure and are largely
comfortable with it. Some of us can't take criticism and this can be
painful when the manuscript moves into other hands. But it's still on
this side of the fence.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I will get into the other side later.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then there comes The Transition. This
is the mechanics of the machine, the churning muscles beneath the
skin. This is where we do what we do because we have to. We have to
find formatting and formatting companies, book creation, standard
printing or print of demand, book cover design, outlet and
distribution choices, all the meat and potatoes that bring the book
into either an ebook format or physical book. This is the bewildering
hurricane of jargon, choices, and options that come at you in
dizzying cyclone of information. A great deal of reading goes on at
this point, a great deal of digestion. You learn everything from book
binding, ISBN numbers, cover design, it goes on an on and in some
depth until you go round and round and come out <i>here</i>.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is where I'm at, The Transition,
and it's terrifying because you don't want to make a mistake that
will cost you dearly. Every decision that you make has far reaching
implications in the cycle of your book. If you survive The
Transition, if you are not bilked out of tons of money, if you get
what you paid for, if the quality of your final product makes you
proud, you survived and can move on to the other side of the fence.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The other side is also fraught with the
same trials and tribulations. But worry about that later, because
if you don't have any experience with The Transition, you'll probably
have even less with “Marketing your book” which is the other side
of what we do. I break this entire process up into three zones so
that in totality it doesn't seem so daunting.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm sitting behind my computer,
fielding emails from my cover designer, ebook and paperback formatter, ISBN website
and distributor. Survival and success is in the future, and I will
chronicle the rest of my journey on these pages as I go along.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-46336451780062831292013-02-27T07:08:00.000-05:002013-02-27T07:08:30.071-05:00On lessons learned from DUNE
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2RtTDOG-1i8/US30jcQGwjI/AAAAAAAAYlA/H6o7jl74H7A/s1600/dune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2RtTDOG-1i8/US30jcQGwjI/AAAAAAAAYlA/H6o7jl74H7A/s1600/dune.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Paul Mu'ad Dib Atreides once said in
the book, DUNE: “The spice must flow.” This is very true for that
universe. Everything turned around the spice melange. Ships
traveled through space by it, blood rushed through the veins by it,
the Reverend Mothers manipulated family lines by it, Paul could see
the future because of it. It was the lifeblood of the universe and
without it everything would grind to a halt. Everything.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And with this backdrop I started
thinking about what was going on in the publishing industry in this
day and age. Everyone is talking about new business models and how
the big publishing houses are retooling themselves. But in the book,
DUNE everything was run by huge imperial family houses that called
the shots across the universe because there was never any threat to
something so ubiquitous as the spice. It continued to flow, the
houses continued to rule with an iron, uncaring hand and the Fremen,
the people of Arrakis, the home-world of the spice, were under their
iron thumb.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sounds familiar doesn't it?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I was thinking about it one night and I
came to the conclusion that literature, writing, is the spice
melange. The product that pours out of the fertile minds of the writers
the world over flows into the minds of readers who then visualize it, they
make movies of it, Broadway plays, and television shows. Stories and
characters are potent melange that the entertainment world spins
madly around. And if writing is the spice then writers are the Fremen. And as with
the Fremen writers were abused and exploited by the huge publishing
houses that ruled the universe for decades.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But like DUNE, like Arrakis, Paul Mu'ad
Dib arrived and changed everything. He took the spice from the great
houses and gave it back to the Fremen. He emancipated the people and
gave them back the true power of the universe. The Houses did not do
anything but exploit and use their abundant riches to transport and
distribute the spice. They did little more than that.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Internet has become Paul Mu'ad Dib.
And an emancipation has occurred. Now the Fremen can pass the spice
directly to the people. And the great houses, as in the book, become
irrelevant. All power fell backwards atop Arrakis, and so too does
all power return to the Internet. The Internet, and these start up
companies that distribute e-books, and Print on Demand services will
be the new channel that people will go to for their books and reading
entertainment. If the publishing houses don't see this, they need to
read DUNE.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The spice must flow, and the literature
must do the same. But a new path is opening, emancipation, and the
true winners will be the Fremen, the writers, and the true losers
will be those that ruled them with an iron fist.</div>
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-78848881201383842162013-01-29T07:03:00.001-05:002013-01-29T07:03:12.624-05:00On Ending Your Story
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm a writer and this is a writer's
blog.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I spend a lot of time here talking
about my upcoming book but not about writing in the real sense and
I'll tell you why. I don't think you can teach anyone how to write. I
think writing is such a personal thing that it's almost impossible to
teach someone because it becomes like teaching someone how to be like
you. My writing is so personal, it's like trying to teach someone how
to become Gregory. That's an impossibility because I'm a unique
individual and to teach someone to be me is like trying to squeeze
blood out of a stone.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The funny thing is that to be a writer
it's best not to be taught to be one. To be a good writer you have to
be yourself and see the world as you do, and once you come to grips
with that you can be a writer in your own right. Maybe someone can
show you a few techniques, which you will learn on your own just by
reading the works of other writers, or you can make your own
techniques. What the hell? Who's right when it comes to writing?
There are tons of rulebooks on the subject, but do you want to know
the truth? Only the reading public can say who's right and who's
wrong. All of these books on the subject of writing can take a long
walk off a short pier because you can skip all of their rules and if
you become a bestselling author, all that literature proves to be
just what it is, swill.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm not saying to ignore everything.
There are some good suggestions out there, but for the most part you
have to write your own story, and if a hundred people say it sucks,
then you should ask them why. Maybe you do suck. But you have to be
you. You have to write for you, and then if someone wants to share
your journey with you then you can build a fan base. That's if an
editor will allow you access to your audience. Editors and agents are
the gatekeepers, and they stand in your way by deciding what is good
and what is not. In fact, they don't even do that anymore. They
decide what will sell a lot and what wont. They don't even read your
material anymore.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But that's for another post. The thing
that I'm talking about today is how to write a conclusion to your
novel or book. Well, I'll tell you how I write a conclusion to my
book and you can either take it to heart or ignore it, that's up to
you, but this is my writing lesson for today. Conclusions. They are
the stuff of your novel, because without a conclusion you have
nothing. Or is that true? Can you finish off a book and not 'tie up
all the loose ends'. I seldom try to tie up loose ends simply because
that is not life. Stuff is messy in life, people don't always climax
after sex, the bad guys are not always killed, or killed in a way
that equals their badness, liars are not found out, cheaters are not
caught, justice is not always swift, the only sure thing is from a
quote from the bible, which I will paraphrase, “the victory does
not always go to the swift, or the prize to the wise, because time
and unforeseen occurrences befall them all.”</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What am I trying to say is, it doesn't
always work out in life, and some of the messiest things occur out of
left field, good, bad or otherwise. So if you are coming to the
conclusion of your novel, you don't always have to make sense. People
will understand it because they've seen it before in their lives. The
bad guy does not always have to get caught, the good guy the
accolades, the woman the pregnancy that she wants, the child the
spelling bee. You can mess things up and not tie up ends and who's to
say that you are wrong? This is your story, end it how you like. Just
don't wind up the book too tightly because it feels false if you do
that. It's not life as we know it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
We are used to failure, to falling
short of the mark, we are used to the wedding ring falling into the
drain, or being caught by our wives or husbands when we have an
indiscretion. The cops stop you for a blown tail light on the only
night that you've been drinking in ten years, and you never win the
lottery. Keep your stories real. You can just end them anywhere.
Don't wander around looking for the 'appropriate' ending. Some
writers do that, and find that they can't finish their work. That's
probably because the work is already finished and needs the three
letters FIN put at the end of it. But no, they roam and wander like
men in the desert, looking for that miracle oasis of a finish that
will wrap up their novel succinctly. This is a lark, a canard. There
is nothing like this. Nothing in real life that is.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
End it. Put it out of it's misery. The
reader might want it to end too. Don't string them along, don't drag
them behind the car just because you don't know the address of the
end. Just stop and end it. I like to end my stories on harsh notes,
on unfinished notes. It's just me. I don't try to imitate anyone. I'm
writing because this is my journey.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Take your journey...remember to end it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-44390231332825823222013-01-23T11:32:00.000-05:002013-01-23T11:32:12.609-05:00On Setbacks
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
More setbacks.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
More delays. More time to sit on my
hands, which I really refuse to do. I'm constantly working on my
writer's platform while I'm waiting for my editor to come back to me
with my finished manuscript. That's what's so disheartening, but on
the same coin, it builds me up. How do I explain this?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well, I want the book finished, wrapped
up and sent to distributors and out to the reading public. That is my
foremost desire. Everything else, everything, from the web-page, to
the cover designer, to the head-shot photographer and the virtual
book tours are waiting for one person, my editor to finish. This is
disheartening.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Although everything is in stasis, I am
not. I refuse to sit still just because someone else is proving that
my project is not important to them. With this being said, I move on
to building up my writer's platform. A writer's platform is
everything that draws readers to your book and your name. In the old
days they called it a marketing campaign. Now they call it a
platform. While I'm waiting on my editor I'm working on this
platform. I'm choosing who to go to for my virtual book tour, I'm
picking magazines to run ads in, I'm spreading my name across
blogs-sites to get it out there, I'm going to review sites and
preparing them to receive my book whenever it is completed to write
reviews for it, I'm building an email marketing campaign and the
materials that are to go into it, I'm building a Facebook marketing
campaign that will have a tiny ad aimed at my target audience, I've
built a Facebook page for the book, and a twitter account to let my
fans know what I'm up to, and I'm working on a Google Ads campaign which
is similar to the Facebook one, as well as an Amazon one.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What I'm saying is that I am working on
my marketing and as soon as I get the final piece of the manuscript
in hand, I'm ready to explode all over the place. The marketing is
critical because they say that it is impossible to sell 10,000 copies
of your book. Well, not impossible, but it's a watermark that's
incredibly hard to reach. I'm hoping to push my book to reach that
number and more. But 10,000 is my trigger number for the second book
of the series to be launched. Once I get there, I want to
automatically launch it like a rocket and follow behind the momentum
of the first one with it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Whatever happens, I am working, and the above builds me up.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm not going to sit around on my hands
and I definitely will not stop just because I am being forced to wait
on someone that I don't think cares like I do about my work. But
who's supposed to care more for a project than the one that spawned
the project themselves? I should be understanding that this is the
way things go and recover and move. And that's my plan. To recover
and move.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Setbacks only allow one to build
infrastructure and nothing can stop a person who has more patience
than a corpse. I am confident that my moment will come and when it
does, I hope to be ready to make things happen.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I wont sit still, and I won't stop
working.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I move on.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-51337836898814735132013-01-03T01:56:00.000-05:002013-01-03T01:56:29.759-05:00On the State of Publishing's Future
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Happy New Year.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Yeah, that's just how I feel. I am
happy for the first time in my life. Everything is falling into place
and I like that. The thing about being a writer is that you spend
much of your time alone, in a chair, tapping on the keys of a
laptop, computer, typewriter, trying to make your voice heard. That's
the thing, you have to be a solitary man to do this (or woman), and
you have to give up a lot of life to this art if you want to be taken
seriously.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I know, all the successful writers out
there have the opposite to say, some never had a difficult time in
making it to the top, but they are the exceptions to the rule. That's
the funny thing about life. There's always another recourse to
follow. But I can only give you mine. Writing takes time, and it
takes a devotion to the craft. You may never get noticed, you might
be noticed right away. But whatever the case, things are moving fast,
and the fastest are benefiting from it. And the slow...well they are
just slow and don't deserve the worm.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I work every day on my craft. I work
hard and diligently. I want to be taken seriously. I don't want
people to hear that I'm a writer and say to me, oh that's just a
hobby. It's not a hobby and I work hard to prove that. That's just
the way that it is. I think that hobbies are fine, and some people
have turned their hobbies into writing riches, and some have been
plugging at this all their lives and are still not published. The
beauty of it all is Legacy Publishing is on its way out. Every day
they bleed until they are bled white. Sad to say, that's the case and
it's a passing that is, in my book, long deserved.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Many writers claim that there will
always be the Legacy Publishers. They will co exist side by side with
the new wave of indie publishers, just like the music industry is
still strong even though indie musical artists are proliferating. My
question is why do they use this business model to compare to the
publishing model? They are not the same. The music industry still
holds sway over the key ingredient to the masses. Radio. As long as
Djs don't go out there and play indie music, the average person will
never know of them. The music marketing machine has a lock on radio
and magazines. Local indie bands don't stand a chance of being heard
over all this background noise. The music industry's dwindling
profits come from the digitization and proliferation of their music
without having a hand in it. They are losing in sales, not in
marketing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Unfortunately, for Legacy Publishing,
they haven't been real marketers of books by even their own lesser
known authors. When it comes to marketing anything but their top ten
bestsellers, they could care less. What little they could do for them
is all that they do for them. They want their new authors to go it
on their own, and they do...they have to, because they have to sell
scads of books to see any kind of profit, since the publishing
company is taking the lion's share of the profit.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Social media is the new word for
authors now. Also Search Engine Optimization and Virtual Book Tours
and personal reviewers are spouting up like weeds in a forest and the
big publishing companies are still using television, radio and
poster/billboard campaigns to spread the word. The Tyrannosaurus Rex
is far to stupid to realize where all the food has gone. It didn't
follow the migration, but instead is loitering around at the same
ponds, rivers and high weeds where it's prey used to feed. It missed
the boat so to speak.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Yes, I'm saying it now, as the Legacy
Publishers numbers shrink the proper business model to compare the
current upheaval in the publishing business is that of the business
model of the dinosaur....</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Extinction.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-24562802657710425412012-12-23T07:28:00.002-05:002012-12-23T07:28:40.627-05:00On Moving Ahead This Season
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
JP is cooking with gas. Simple as that.
She is full throttle on my book which is a good thing. Vlad is
working on my webpage, and he is doing a good job too. I've never
been so pleased during this Christmas season. It's almost as if I got
a Christmas present early this year. I'm also working on my other
manuscripts, editing and re-editing them to try to make them the best
I can befrore handing them over to JP to comb through. She's
amazing how she finds even the smallest point or error.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As an author, you have to get used to
your editor. Some editors breeze over your pages and don't catch much
but grammatical mistakes. Some editors work with the story to keep the
flow going and the images crisp in the mind of the reader. Some
editors will re-write your work until your voice is forever gone.
There are different degrees of an editors skill and how much work
they're willing to do. You have to find one that suits you.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Maybe you don't like your voice and
would rather stick to story development and a full reworking of your manuscript
is what you want. Maybe you are more interested in the pace and
imagery of your story, and to have someone polish your vision is
your goal. Or maybe you think you're the man (or woman) and you don't
want anyone touching your prose unless there is a solid, legitimate
reason that suits you. There is an editor out there for everyone.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
JP was made for me. I feel it. At
first, I have to say, I had some serious apprehensions because I just
could not believe that my grammar was so appalling. It looked as if I
was writing on a grammar school level and poorly at that. There was
never a single page that was not hemorrhaging red. I was crestfallen
and defensive all at the same time. Every correction I balked
against, every refinement I questioned critically. But I decided to
just read through the changes and see what everything looked like
when a sample of the editing was allowed to pass through. So I did
just that.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What I got was light, airy prose, that
flowed smoothly from one idea to the next. They were my words, just
refined. It was still my voice, just made prettier. I was pleased
with the three or four pages that I fully reviewed her corrections. Now we are
churning out pages and I've never been so proud of something that
I've breathed life into.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now I have even more time to concentrate on
the evolving story as it covers a series of books. This is much
harder than it looks. The span of time from one idea to the other,
from one character's motivation in one book to the other, from even
descriptions of people, places, and things are delicate to say the
least. As your book turns into books, your characters multiply,
growing exponentially almost. These charaters change and develop, and
you have to keep track with their facial features, their
understanding of the world around them and how they affect it.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I keep track of facial features by
making a Word document with images that I pull off the Internet. I
pull faces off of web pages and modeling agencies and don't panic,
they are for my own use. But these varied faces keep my characters
firm in my stories, as well as provide a place for other pertinent information and motivations with each page of the Word document.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I also bought a program that I'm using
and I have to say that I'm still ambivalent about it. I haven't yet
unleashed the power of it, and it will take a little getting used to
before I can. The program is called SCRIVENER and it's supposed to be a
tremendous aid to writers in dealing with book spanning stories and I
have to say, from what little I can get out of it now, it does a
pretty good job. It allows you to be flexible with your scenes, track
information either across the project or just in a certain scene, or
search your document and save the search for easy retrieval. The
manipulation of your work is possible to an amazing degree.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But what I like the best about
SCRIVENER is that it allows you to pull photos and documents from the
web or other programs directly into your project for later reference.
When you cover a lot of ground on the Internet, picking up documents to
educate yourself on unclear matters, you end up with a lot of
incidental material all over the place. In PDF files, in web page
links, in Word documents, they vary and they multiply. With SCRIVENER you can pull all of these
documents in one place, a collection of documents under the label
RESEARCH where you can then name them individually so that you will remember what's in
the file and store it in any order you wish. Then, when you are
working on your project and you need to take an aside to review or
refresh yourself on the information that you have gleaned, it's an
easy matter of retrieval.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm not giving SCRIVENER a glowing
recommendation simply because I have not gone though all of it's
abilities yet, or its faults. But I do appreciate it greatly now and
I have to say I am pleased with it.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well, that's my overview of what's
going on with me. My publication date now looks like it's fast
approaching, and I know there will be a pause over the Christmas
season, as well as no doubt another pause during the New Years
celebrations, so I expect my book to be completed sometime in
February, but the good thing is that my author platform is shaping up
nicely and at some later date I would like to talk about that some.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Till then, have a very merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-17367217862845070332012-11-21T03:42:00.000-05:002012-11-21T03:42:16.973-05:00On Using Contractors
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Sandy hit us all where it counted the
most. The strange thing is that I am totally unscathed by the storm.
Not even a minor inconvenience. Nothing, but JP has been without
power and hot water and I don't know what happened to Vladimir and
his company. Yeah, that's right, I sent Vladimir a check to get
started on my web page. Then the storm, and then nothing. He didn't
even cash the check. Nothing. Maybe it got lost in the mail system
which has also undergone some surprising outages and difficulties.
Maybe this is the reason that I haven't heard from him.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I've spoken to JP and she also had bad
news for me. The storm had set her back and it won't be until
December before she can get back to me and start working on my
manuscript. That seriously blows my Christmas release of Cover of
Darkness. This may even get in the way of a New Years release. I have to
say that I'm not stunned or hurt over this. My thinking now is that
the book will be completed, but in its own time. Nothing that I do
can speed it up, or conversely slow it down. The book has a life of
its own, and I'm a simple custodian. My job is done. I wrote the damn
thing. I'm a writer and that's all I do. I'm not an editor, web page
designer, cover designer, proofreader.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That's what you have to understand when
you're becoming your own publisher, you are not in as much control as
you think you are. That is the thing that is most disconcerting.
Further, without good references, you are going out and finding
contractors to do your work for you and you are trusting in them to
get the work done. You are depending on them not to rip you off. That
is the rub. You are just building your manufacturing base. This is
crucial if you want to get your book in the hands of your prospective
readers. Even after everything is finished and done, you are stuck
with marketing and promoting your book. Further areas where you'll
have to depend on others to get the word out about your novel. What
are you going to do then?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You are going to reevaluate what you do
and what you are. You will be wearing many hats, but you will be
managing even more. First and foremost, you are a simple writer. Your
jobs will expand and touch on a number of things in self publishing
but you will still only be a simple writer.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Your book will get done, especially if
you persevere, but the long and the short of it is, it's like a Mars
Lander, which travels millions of miles to the planet, strikes the
orbit, separates its landing portion and down it drops. On Earth, at
JPL, they separate the orbiter from the lander and then hold onto
their hats. The Lander, the Orbiter the trip into the atmosphere, all
under the control of the luck of the draw. Their monitors go static
and they chew their nails. Minutes later their monitors come on, the
radio kicks in, and the Lander reports that it's okay.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Your book is the Lander and you are the
engineers at JPL. You build it, do the best job that you can, and
then others, plus the luck of the draw will do the rest. It's
launched by other contractors, steered into orbit by other
contractors and then landed by luck and other contractors and there
you have it. It goes into space and you watch it leave. The same with
your book after you write it. Other contractors do their part and you
aim for the stars. That's the beauty of it all...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
...you're not alone. You're never
alone.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory Delaurentis</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-74872590405804854662012-10-25T00:51:00.000-04:002012-10-25T00:51:25.377-04:00On Moving Along<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What can I say? I'm an impatient
person. I want things to come together, especially when my engines
are running and I'm excited to get the job done. That's the thing
about me, I'm a go getter and a hard charger. But I've been put into
a holding pattern by my professionals that are supposed to be
helping me wrap all this up. They are my real creative team. I'm not
so creative. I'm just a writer, a key-puncher. I do it because I have
to. I need to. These people do their thing because they love it,
they're creative and their work is an expression of their creativity.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ROZkjpINHe8/UIjDgbsLioI/AAAAAAAAX4U/uvohQLmBiwA/s1600/Cover+of+Darkness_01a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ROZkjpINHe8/UIjDgbsLioI/AAAAAAAAX4U/uvohQLmBiwA/s320/Cover+of+Darkness_01a.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>
Well, Damon came though. Yes he did.
The other day I got an email from him with two proofs for my book
cover. I was overjoyed, because I felt mobile again, I felt as if
progress was being made. I looked over the two proofs and it was a no
brainer for me. The first one was the one that I actually envisioned.
I saw it long before it was made, and it looked exactly like the
first proof. The second proof was just too busy to use. The faces
were all over the place. Next it was time to make any tweaks to the
cover that I felt necessary. I looked it over and there were just two
major things that stood out. My black character was given a black
shirt, but as I shrank the picture down to postage stamp size, which
is how my readers will be seeing it on Amazon and other retailer's
web pages, his shirt looked like a black hole, just a black void in
the center of the book cover. I needed that changed.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7lLbAmLGA-Y/UIjD0smkDiI/AAAAAAAAX4c/xaTzEj2UFsE/s1600/Cover+of+Darkness_03d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7lLbAmLGA-Y/UIjD0smkDiI/AAAAAAAAX4c/xaTzEj2UFsE/s320/Cover+of+Darkness_03d.jpg" width="204" /></a>Then a friend of mine brought out a
point. Yes, I got four people to give me their honest opinions of the
cover and the first two were so way off base that I discarded their
suggestions. But my third and fourth persons were right on the money.
The title on the first one was the best because it obscured the image
of the city the least, and that the tower in the center seemed to be
aimed at the jugular vein of my main character, the white guy, in the
front.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Also, one of my four critics was JP. I
wanted her opinion of the cover because of anyone, she knew the most
about the story. Secondly, I wanted to enervate her, to light a fire
under her, to get back into the swing of things and work on my book
and stop relegating it to the bottom of her work pile. I hoped that
this made things tangible for her. She was excited to have a chance
to put in her input and I was excited to have it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UTZM0uxjzzE/UIjEmccjK1I/AAAAAAAAX4k/NB7MRjlExTU/s1600/Cover+of+Darkness_01d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UTZM0uxjzzE/UIjEmccjK1I/AAAAAAAAX4k/NB7MRjlExTU/s320/Cover+of+Darkness_01d.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>
Damon made the changes immediately and
the second go round was better than the first. It was an awesome
cover, just like his website says <a href="http://www.awesomebookcovers.com/" target="_blank">Damonza's Awesome Book Covers</a>. I
highly recommend him if you want a good cover done fast and at a
reasonable cost.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But Karma has a way of giving you what
you ask for...if you bitch hard enough. And I guess I was doing a lot
of bitching because my soon-to-be webmaster, Vladimir, at Webmaster
Studios got in touch with me about moving forward. I sent him the
proofs of my cover and he wrote me back that he's ready to do an
incredible job as soon as I sign the contract and send him his money.
This sounds good to me. We revised the contract to suit my needs and
now I'm ready to move ahead even on that. In two weeks we'll have
that put together and the framework for the book will be complete.
Then comes putting it all together into a coherent whole so that I'll
have a marketing platform to work from.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
From that platform, I'll have the basic
thrust of my campaign to get my book to the masses. Hopefully, all
this work that I have done and am doing is on par with the book
itself. I hope the caliber of my writing is the same as the work of
all these people bringing their talents and skills to bear on my
behalf.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Like I said, they are the creative
ones. I'm just a writer.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory Delaurentis</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-36050331725968689342012-10-19T18:12:00.001-04:002012-10-19T18:39:22.917-04:00On Exercising Patience<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7ByXhQhaLzU/UIHWCDkao-I/AAAAAAAAX4E/ykSuaA-yXjs/s1600/Waiting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7ByXhQhaLzU/UIHWCDkao-I/AAAAAAAAX4E/ykSuaA-yXjs/s320/Waiting.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
It's all a waiting game. That's what
I'm thinking now. Here I am waiting... waiting for all the
profes- sionals in the mix to come up with their end of the equation.
That's the wait, that's what I'm sitting on my hands for. Let's take
this waiting game one issue at a time and we'll see what I intend to do.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have been recently waiting on JP to
finish up with the editing of the first draft of the Cover of
Darkness. That is the first wait. She is an editor with a great deal
to do, which I don't mind. I love the fact that she is prolific
actually. She also does a bang up job with my editing, which is
desirable to me. So she told me that she would be starting up on
working on my book again on the first of October. This was in
September. Okay, what can I say to that other than to be patient.
She'll start on it in two weeks. Alright, October rolls around and in
the middle of October I get an email from her that says now that she
will not be able to start work on my manuscript until the first of
November because of her present responsibilities.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now this is somewhat troubling to me.
Here it is that I was told that I was given a date to start, after
she started once. Then I'm told that I have to make due with another
start date. I'm a very literal person, and if someone says that they
will give me something on this date, and they don't. Then that's
called a breach of contract. Then if they change the terms and tell
me they'll give me something on another date, how can I not doubt the
veracity of the person? Will they give me what I want?
I don't know.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Now, it is true that I did say that we
will follow JP's timetable because she was too busy to take on my
project from the very beginning. I agreed to this, so this is the overarching contract. But
she made the terms to the sub-contract that was breached. So here I
am, waiting, now, a full month, with nothing from my editor.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So, what should a writer do? Well, when
given time, a writer should write. Period. So I went ahead and
started working on revisions. Here's the thing: JP had finished the
first 40 pages of my manuscript and sent it to me with the admonition
not to go ahead and re-edit it before she finishes with the entire
manuscript. Well, I did follow this advice until the middle of
October, then I went ahead and made my massive changes per her notations in her edit.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The reason why I did this was because I
had finished with the third book of the trilogy, Pale of Darkness. I
moved on and did what I had initially set out to do, which is
complete the third book before having to go back and re-edit the
first. Well, here I go. I finish so what actually is there left to
do? Re-edit the first. Therefore I went ahead and made my
changes...and finished it. So now what? What do I do now? Can you
believe that I've started the FOURTH installment of the series? Cries
of Darkness. I pray that I don't finish a fourth book before I get
work back from my editor.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But I'm not harping on her, maligning
her, or complaining about her. She does a good job, it's just that I
feel that my work has been relegated to the bottom of the barrel.
Further, what are my chances, as the year closes out, that on the
first of November I will get an email from JP stating that because of
her workload my manuscript will be edited on the first of December?
It happened before, it can happen again, as many businessmen will
tell you. If you have a tenant paying rent, and they stop paying for
one month, what are your chances that it will be repeated the second
month? Unknown, but possible. That's why in business, all you have
are you balls and your word. If you give up either...well you get my
drift.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
On top of this, I have a master plan in
the weeks ahead. I would like JP to finish her edit, so that I can
make the needed changes. Then I want to give it to another editor
that I've found, LV for a final edit. While LV is doing the final
edit, I want to see if JP will be amenable to undertaking the task of
editing my sequel. This is another reason why I am patient with her,
because I want to stay in her good graces. Yes, I am the one over the
barrel, I'll admit to that. So the ball is in her court. I can only hope
that she is a more conscientious businesswoman than editor. When does
it become evident that to continue relegating my work to last place
because I have a softer deadline is simply unfair?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
However, I have not been just sitting
on my laurels. I've moved ahead, as you well know and started working
with Damon on the cover of the book. This is a good thing, I'm
urgently needing this book cover to start the rest of my marketing.
With the completed book cover, I can then move forward with the web
pages.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So I'm waiting for that. I'm waiting
and waiting, and now, on top of the manuscript, I'm waiting on the
book cover. Damon also has a soft deadline, meaning, I have to be
patient. His web site swears on a fast two day or three day
turnaround, and it's been five now and no word. So I guess I'll have
to wait again for the product of another professional.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have to learn to exercise patience.
I've waited a year to finish the work, what's a few months more? I also would like to advise you that if you have soft deadlines, or no deadlines at all, you are at the mercy of the person that is working for you. Be really ready to be patient, or you'll just tear your own hair out. If you want a deadline, you had better make it clear. But here's the thing: With expediency do you lose creativity? Do you want someone to do a slapdash job just to get your work out of the way on time? That's the question.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well back to the beginning. It's a waiting
game, and it appears that you need to sit on your hands, even though
I'm chomping at the bit to move ahead with my marketing of the book
if not the book itself.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well, since I'm in a holding pattern
in every direction I turn, what's a writer to do?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Write.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Cries of Darkness...I know it was
supposed to be a trilogy, but, here goes nothing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory Delaurentis</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-23270756553397746852012-10-14T13:41:00.000-04:002012-10-14T13:41:35.052-04:00On Marketing Moves
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Moving towards the middle of October.
The nights in the city are cool. The days are surprisingly warm and
delightful. The trees are stubbornly beginning to turn, and I am
working tirelessly on my upcoming book. I have been busy since my
last post. When I left off, I had finished paying BOOKBABY.COM for
their Premium Publishing Package and I sent them an email to ask
about the website and book cover design. I expected them to double
talk their way through not doing either, and true to form, they tell
me, “I'm sorry, but our services can only be used after you upload
your manuscript. We're simply not set up to offer any of them "a
la carte". Here's the thing: that's not what their website says.
They say when you make your payment you get 60 days free on their
website hosting and $30.00 discount on your book cover design. It
does not say that you have to upload your book first before you can
avail yourself of these things. I called them up and got this really
powerful woman who, instead of answering any questions, intended on
steamrollering me with her explanation. I got my point off through
tedious repetition. If you repeat something over and over again,
people get the message that if they don't shut up and listen, you'll
bury them with your repeating the same thing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But even after getting her to
understand just how stupid her reasoning was which she continually
tried to cram down my throat: “You wouldn't have your book cover or
website available before your book is ready because people might want
it right away.” She is either a person that is really lost, or will
say anything to explain away a serious limitation in their services.
I'm not really complaining about BOOKBABY.COM, I think their services
so far are beyond parallel, but this is the only thing about them
that I think could use improvement. The marketing of your book should
come out long before the book is released. I'm not talking about a
year before, like two weeks to a month. That way you can build up a
buzz before people start panning your book. Not that I'm expecting my
book to be panned, I do realize, however, that it will not appeal to
everyone.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But never mind. I was enervated by
talking to her to DO something now before JP finishes editing the
book itself. It's time to get the ball rolling in spite of silly
BOOKBABY.COM. Since they will take any book cover designed anywhere
else, I decided to find a good book cover designer like I found a
great editor. So I put in a search term in Google and found a few
designers. I looked over a few, which appeared kind of pedestrian
until I came across DAMONZA'S AWESOME BOOK COVERS. I have to say, the
books on the site JUMP RIGHT OUT and KICK YOU square in the FACE!!!
WOW! Bruce Lee would be proud. I looked at their sample book covers
and was mesmerized by all of them. I didn't see a book cover that I
didn't like.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I read through the site and acquainted
myself with the details and then I did what I call a character
search. I put in the name of the company to look for any complaints.
I dug around here and there and could find nothing but praise for the
company. With this in mind, I took the plunge again and paid the 50%
down payment to have the people begin working on the book cover. You
have to first fill out a form where you describe what you want the
cover to look like. So I went into detail about the story and the
cover and sent it off. Almost immediately, I got a reply. Damon
wanted more information, and explained some of the difficult to
understand issues. We built an instant correspondence, going back and
forth, quite rapidly at least a dozen times as he began building the
book cover on his end, and he was very professional and cordial.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I've got a tremendously good feeling
about this move. I can continue to put together my book without
waiting for BOOKBABY.COM. I'm beginning to believe that it's not good
to put too much of your project into the hands of one company or
person. After I gave Damon enough information to go ahead and
construct the cover, I moved on to the web page design. Once again, I
did a Google search and came up with several prospectives. I stopped
at the second choice after seeing it's sample web pages. Very smart,
very sophisticated, and just what I needed to launch my book. Not as
generic, cookie cutter as with Bookbaby, where all of their web
pages look somewhat similar...this was a company that made unique,
high quality pages with a number of perks to go with it, but at a
price. Yes, the company was pricey but well worth it if you are
looking at any substantial R.O.I. (Return Of Investment). The old
biblical saying is that you reap what you sow. If that is the case,
if I skimp on the things in the beginning, I will get back meager
returns in the end. Therefore, I asked this company, Webmaster Studio
for their information, and they right away called me back, speaking
to me over the phone. We spoke of a contract and what should go into
it, and with that being done they emailed it to me.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I read over it carefully, checking this
point, correcting that point to my liking and mailed to back. They
had no problems with my changes, especially the fact that I wanted to
be free to investigate SEO in connection with my web page (Search
Engine Optimization) that uses search engines such as Google and
Yahoo to drive web surfers to your site. The more eyeballs on my
book, the better the R.O.I. There are a hundred and two other perks
that I can avail myself of as I move forward in time after the book
release. This was important to me, and this was one of the many
reasons why I chose the more expensive Webmaster Studio. I also did
my due diligence, searching the web for any negative reviews of the
company and finding nothing but good mentions in articles.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I have not signed or paid the half of
the job costs down for the contract as of yet. I need to have my
content worked out as well as my book cover art completed before
putting it all together and handing it over to a webmaster. So, that
being said, I am way ahead of the time for implementation and have to
put the contract on the shelf until these criteria are met.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
However, I am pleased with my choices
and am ready to go ahead with putting the marketing framework of the
book together. By the time Bookbaby distributes the book itself to
the online retailers I hope to have a Facebook Page, a Web page, a
blog (this one) and my merchant pages all set up and running at full
steam.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's all about timing. I'm hoping that
I can wrap all of this up and get it churning before Christmas.
There's nothing like the gift of an e-book for Christmas.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory Delaurentis</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-61987417324889420532012-10-07T10:16:00.002-04:002012-10-07T10:16:41.946-04:00On Following in the Steps of Others
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well, I'm moving on at a good pace with
my book, the first of the trilogy. Today I came across an e-book from
a website by an author who has laid out a road-map for anyone
interested in self-publishing. Her name is J.F. Penn and she has
already self-published two books that have done exceedingly well. She
has a multi-function site (website/blog) where she offers a very
informative e-booklet called the AUTHOR 2.0 BLUEPRINT. You can find
her <a href="http://www.thecreativepenn.com/" target="_blank">here</a> at THE CREATIVE PENN.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well, I spent the day reading her
e-booklet, and it's so chocked with information that it's going to
take me even longer to go through all of the beneficial links. What
was really insightful, and what I had somewhat learned from reading
the <a href="http://blog.bookbaby.com/" target="_blank">blog</a> from an e-publishing site, BOOKBABY.COM, is that a good
marketing tool for your book is Facebook Pages. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/FacebookPages" target="_blank">Facebook Pages</a> are
nothing like Facebook because its purpose is not to keep you
connected to the everyday life of everyone of your family and
friends, instead it introduces you and your work to anyone interested in
finding more about you. It's a professional connection that your
readers can use as a conduit straight to you.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I put it together in a few minutes and
tried to use another site called <a href="http://pagemodo.com/">PAGEMODO.COM</a> to design it. Pagemodo
is supposed to be a simple way to make high quality Facebook Pages
for a price, but it didn't work. I spent half the day trying to log
into it without making ANOTHER Facebook Page, but couldn't get it to
do anything but market to me. So, I gave up on it and decided to go
it alone. I have to say, I did a simple approach using one of the
apps in the Windows 7 operating system called PAINT. A very easy
program that allow you to manipulate, on a limited basis, your
photographs. I took one of my photos that I like, put my name and
sub-title on it and then cropped it to fit the headers on both my
Blog-site and my <a href="http://www.facebook.com/GregoryDelaurentis" target="_blank">Facebook Page</a>. When done, I was quite pleased with
myself. You can see the fruit of my work above on this blog-site.
Nothing really involved, but it does look better than the generic
header and wallpaper that you get with the BLOGGER application.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Then I went into the third book of my
trilogy. I've pushed myself over this weekend...well maybe not pushed
but flew through the writing to practically the last chapter. The
book was coming together like lightning, so I stayed behind the
keyboard to get it done. I seem to amaze myself by just letting the
characters do their thing and not really worry about the direction of
the story or where I want it to go. It's like it's on autopilot. Or
maybe being piloted by the characters and not being forced or pushed
about by me to fit a conclusion that might not be organic. I really
don't know how this works but it does.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Further today, I drew more from the
AUTHOR 2.0 BLUEPRINT, which was an entire self-publishing road-map.
So, what I did was take a flowchart template from VISIO and made the
road-map into an easy to follow diagram that I can chart for myself.
This will work fine for me to decide what actions to take next so
that I don't waste time working on things that don't fit in with the
plan to self-publish by Christmas. That's my deadline, Christmas.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Finally, today I did it. I went to
BOOKBABY.COM and paid for the Premium Package. Yeah, I did it, and
the tons of benefits that come with it. Overall, this is the book
distributor that I've decided to go with, so since this is the case,
why not take the plunge and get the money part of this out of the
way. Also I wanted to work on my book cover, which they do for an
extra charge, and the website for the book, which BOOKBABY.COM gives
you free for 60 days. Here's the thing: I was ready to work on these
tools and found that I can't get to them without first uploading my
book to the distributor. This messed me up because I wanted to get
these things out of the way <i>before </i>the book came into being so that
when I was done with it, it would come into the world with all these
support tools already in place.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
But it looks like you have to do the
book first, which makes no sense to me. So I still have to wait for
JP to finish editing, and for me to finish revising, and then JP to
do a proofread of it before going to the distributor. Which means
it's going to be a long time before I can get all these things out
(Book cover/web site). I sent BOOKBABY.COM an email asking about
this oversight, but we'll see what reply I'll get from them on
Monday. Probably a stupid one...”Oh, the 'program' is not designed
to do that”, “Oh, I can't do that,” or “Oh, we never thought
of that.” All of the above means that they'll not allow me to get
these things out of the way first.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So I'm seriously on my way now. If you
think I'm doing good so far, and since I haven't gotten hung up in
any scams or problems, I've left you links to follow in my footsteps.
I hope they are as beneficial to you as they were to me.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well, everything worked for me except
PAGEMODO.COM. If you get this to work leave me a comment. Help me out too.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory Delaurentis</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-65278462553847704592012-10-04T10:40:00.001-04:002012-10-04T10:40:05.240-04:00On Being Upset With Oneself
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I apologize for the tenor of my last
post. Of course I was upset over the publishing industry. I have a
bone to pick with them all. But that's my poor story. The struggling
writer who spent his life trying to get something, anything of his
published. Being passed over time and time and time again by agent
after agent after publishing house after publishing house. Yeah, I
should be upset with them or myself. Someone is falling short, so I
blame them. And I did so in the most harshest terms that I could muster in my last post. For this, I apologize. I should have been
more reserved with my passion.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It took a fellow writer that I regard
with a tremendous amount of respect to slap me back to my senses
about my writing. I was going on about how much money and how many
copies of my upcoming e-book that I hope to sell. I went on about the work that
I'm about to embark on getting off the ground and into the hands
of my would-be readers and she helped me to see, quite gently in
fact, that I am not looking at things in the right perspective.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
A writer isn't concerned with selling
copies or entertaining the masses. That should come out of their joy
of writing. It's more of a byproduct of what they live for, which is
to write and to bring something to life. Well more accurately,
characters and situations into a work that is entertaining and
engrossing to the pleasure of others. That is what a writer lives
for. Not the dream of making a million on every work they produce,
even though that would be excellent, or bitching about the state of
the publishing industry, which is indeed in a very sorry state.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are just too many writers out
there to let loose onto the world and not enough editors and critics
to review them all if they were at large. That's the funny fear of
the publishing industry: to protect the millions of readers out there
from a deluge of mediocrity. They are the first line of defense
against bad taste and poor workmanship, if you actually believe this
insanity. The same tools that the big companies use can be employed
by even the smallest, simplest of writers. The only thing that was at
one time difficult was reaching the masses, but thanks to the
Internet and tablet computing, this has changed drastically.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Everyone feared in the music business
that there would be a torrential downpour of musical artists that
would flush down the music industry into the massive toilet of
obliteration. Yet, this didn't happen. The music industry had to
retool and reshape itself from its fat, bloated profit margins and
unfair contracts to leaner, meaner animals in a new jungle of
competition. This is the model of the publishing industry. Many
people will stick with their major publishing houses and their
powerful marketing tools, and continue to purchase their books
because of their prejudices against what is seen as vanity presses.
However, millions of others will reach out for the fringe writers who
take on the world on their own, much like moviegoers search out
independent movies to escape the swill of Hollywood hacks.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Publishing houses are letting down many
of their newer, lesser known writers, by not giving them the
attention of their marketing might, leaving it up to and expecting
them to build marketing 'platforms' on their own to push their books. They also have shorter runs of books and edit down the size
of novels somewhat unnecessarily to bring down the cost of publishing
a work, sometimes at the cost of creativity. Let an unknown try to
have published a novel the size of a Mitchner or Clancy novel and
you'll find the impossible occurring.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
With this abandonment of their lesser
known authors, as well as their completely ignoring new talent and
you get the picture of a business losing its grip on its
stranglehold. Any new author will tell you how slow it is to get a
conventional book to market, and even slower to get a check from the
publishing houses. Also since they take all of the risks they feel, and
maybe rightly, that they deserve the lion's share of the profits. I
don't argue this. This is probably the rationale behind publishing
houses attempting to breathe life into 'co-publishing', where authors
are asked to invest money in their own novels with the publishing
house. Isn't this a form of vanity press from the same people that
decry it? Publishing houses are even coming out with their own
imprints of e-books, attempting to cash in on the inexpensive
business model of e-publishing, and it's speed to the market. But
here too they face the loss of their prestige by giving credibility
and bringing attention the the e-publishing world. Again a loss for
them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Some individuals will always want to
have and feel paper or hardbound books in their hands. I was once a
hardbound collector, but after running out of room in my modest library, I
started to see the logic of e-books...hundreds of books in the palm of
your hand. Remarkable when you think about it. And you can never lose
an e-book if you have it in a cloud, such as from Amazon, where you
can have it on your tablet or your PC with software like Kindle (not
the device, although it runs on it). But because of On-Demand
Printing, which is the ability to print a book one at a time at a
profit due to the computing process, this too will fade as it is
integrated with e-publishing giving people a choice
between an e-book or paperback.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What this means is that the publishing
world is due for a mighty tectonic shift. It has a reckoning coming,
and like the music business a sea change. However for them, it will
be an even greater change because they've also lost their secret bargain
to keep the price of e-books up to make them less appealing price-wise
than their hardcover, paperback competition. Now that the courts have
broke up this cabal, the price of e-books will fall and a more
fiercer competition will come to light. The hounds will be let loose
and the hunt will begin. Once again, a bell ringer for the publishing
industry.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I'm still bitching about all this as
you can see, most likely because I'm beginning to wade into the deep
waters. I'm nervous and scared of what the future will bring and if I
do have talent or not. However, this is my cross to bear and I no
longer blame agents and publishing houses for overlooking me. They
have their own horrors to deal with, especially now. I have my own
course to chart, all on my own, without the aid of the large fathers
of publishing to hold my hand.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Who can say what the future holds, for
me or publishing? Good, bad or indifferent, life will go on and
change will happen. Will I be able to navigate the waters? Will I
sink and give up totally? I have a new energy regarding my work now.
I feel that there is a new avenue for me to go down, and go down it I
intend to do.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Wish me luck. Now I'll get back to
writing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory Delaurentis
</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8638853739071755572.post-35605994231414314392012-09-27T18:00:00.001-04:002012-10-07T22:26:42.285-04:00On Selling Your Soul Dirt Cheap<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8GMOcXu1wM/UGTGIjWzVnI/AAAAAAAAX1k/rH3f11fsAYU/s1600/oldwhore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8GMOcXu1wM/UGTGIjWzVnI/AAAAAAAAX1k/rH3f11fsAYU/s320/oldwhore.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I feel like some kind of ancient old
whore. My tits are starting to sag, lines are appear- ing on my face.
My thin, rosy lips have lost all of their color, my hair has lost its deep
sheen. My figure is still good, but there were days when it is hot,
and I had the face to prove it. Men see me in my tight dress from
behind and run around to see my face and are appalled. They shriek back
in fright. My feminine mannerisms are so that I exude sex, but it's
the sex that nobody wants.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I've done it all in trying to whore
myself. I've given back alley blow jobs for seven dollars and no
repeats. Needless to say, it was a conquest but it did not last long.
I was left barren, dressed in clothing that were old and dusty, ratty
and torn. I tried to keep them up, work hard on them, but even if
they were the queen's garments nothing would rectify my face. Nothing
would give me a chance to do what I do best.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
That's right, on paper, I suck as a
whore, but if you get me in your hotel room and close your eyes I'll
tear your dick right off. I'll shred your mind with pleasure the likes
you have never known. You'd be thrown all about the room, with all
manner of objects stuck up your anus and leather straps holding down
your manliness, stroked from head to toe with my tongue, and as your
erection neared its climax, I would toy with it, tease it, frustrate
it until you screamed in agony and like a task master, I'll turn onto
it harshly, beating your testicles with a paddle, jerking off your
member with a soft leather glove until you came like five men,
shrieking like five pre-school girls. I would leave you a mess of a
man, whimpering in the corner, asking me when can I come back and do
it to you again.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I file this under: Don't judge a book
by it's cover.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And that's exactly what this business
model of publishing does. It wants answers too fast. It has the herd
mentality where you pack in the heard of cows and with a bang stick,
you blow out their brains, one by one, arbitrarily and send them to
the dog food section because you just don't have the time to examine
the sheer number of steer that is being walked through the barn.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-onz0SahseGw/UGTINu5riZI/AAAAAAAAX1s/MBMdWS9Cx-o/s1600/essays-on-prejudice.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-onz0SahseGw/UGTINu5riZI/AAAAAAAAX1s/MBMdWS9Cx-o/s320/essays-on-prejudice.png" width="275" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Publishers and Agents are like Johns.
They are looking for the pretty young writers, young writers that reminds
them of themselves. The old dinosaur brain that reads: “Like me,
good.. Not like me, bad.” They claim to be on a big search for
writers, but the big search is in the slush pile where the real work is. “Well, we do
conferences too.” Well that's just another way to allowing more of
your senses to make your judgement than the simple manuscript of the
author. An author approaches an agent who he just doesn't like. Maybe
the writer is Asian, Black, Latino, ugly, tall, male shabilly
dressed...these can all work to his disadvantage long before he hands
over a pitch. This agent just doesn't have the time to speak to
them right now. But what in the next second an Ivy-leaguer pops up,
maybe from the same agent's alma-mater. They talk about the things
that they have in common, the people and stores in their quaint
neighborhood. The school teachers of the classes, the friends during
semesters, suddenly the Agent finds that this writer has a
manuscript. Miraculously he has tons of time to read his work.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What am I saying? The old model of
publishing MUST DIE. It's not what talent dictates any longer. It's
also weakening the readers who are under the impression that agents
and publishers have placed a great deal of risk and money to get
their book on the bookshelf and that is a form of seal of approval
that its a good book. Sadly, this is far from the truth. Have you
ever picked up a book that was simply no fucking good? It meandered,
its characters were dull, the story predictable and lame, and an
editor/publishing house backed this book all the way to the book
stands.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To give a book to the traditional
publisher you have to endure months of trial. Months of waiting while
they pour over a one to two page query letter that basically tells
little of your book. It's already started a cobbled together business of
people who swear that they can write for you an award winning query letter
so as to get published. I guess they've forgotten that you have
already spent YEARS writing a manuscript that should be all that's
needed to help you get published. A query was supposed to be a notice
to publishers that your book was breathed into life and to get their
attention. It would be the book itself that will merit being
published or not. Now, the query is like the proverbial tail wagging
the dog. Something that took a week to write will now hold in the balance a
work that might have taken years. Fair to you?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Publishers are lazy fat cats, no longer
interested in putting out good or decent literature, they are more
interested in their bottom line. As the economy gets tighter they'll
take fewer and fewer risks. They'll keep squeezing their best selling
authors for swill that they no longer have. There is no more
competition for them. Where is the plethora of writers that they will
drown in if they down get up and produce sterling work to overcome
them and stand out again. They live in these bubbles and have grown
weak and tired in being creative because they will get the large
contracts from book publishers too fearful to spread the wealth and
take risks.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This model of publishing is on its way
out in the worst way possible. Platforms are being developed to usurp
the Agent/publisher model and in doing so, it just may spell the end
of a monopoly as strong as as the music business once was. When the
writer can circumnavigate the entire snail pace process and get their
book right out there before the million of people who want to read
them, their fans, without the big companies, they will therefore be cutting out
the useless middleman.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And they read the writing on the wall,
they are quick to use the time worn stigma that self-published books are simply
vanity press books who's quality is too poor to be really published. I say choke on it as the other side of the coin
falls. Your days are numbered and there isn't much you can do but
look for new jobs.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Tough break. Give e-publishing ten
years. Just ten years, and there will be new names and new ways of
bringing data to the masses and a new day will emerge far unlike the
old days when a writer wrote his work, printed up copies at the
nearest printer and then went off on his own to peddle it to the
towns about. Later, unscrupulous types arrived with their guilds and
organizations to print and distribute the books. This was a boon for those writers who
could use the expanded coverage of their works being shipped
overseas. Soon, for a writer to print and distribute his work was
looked down on.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Well, just as that dawn came and did
away with the independence of writers, it appears that the new dawn
is bringing that independence back, empowering writers to control
their own destinies.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I know it's scary now, and it is
equally costly, but the trick is that you have it to do. You can wait
until the masses cross the bridge, and then you'll have to wait your
turn, or you can be a pioneer and cross it when there are only a few
of us doing it. You are not alone. Turn your back on the old business
model because it hasn't done shit for you for years, some of us for
decades, others for scores of years, and even more a half a century.
Do you have more time to waste for them? Do you really?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I turn my back now. I'm walking on the uncertain and lonely path towards e-publication. I know when and If
I become a success, traditional publishers will arrive with their
checks offering me a book contract deal.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
And I'll take every cent that they
offer in my filthy hands, and do you know why? I was a streetwalker
writer for fifty years, doing unspeakable things to get my book even
looked at. I'm a whore, and no amount of whitewashing now will
straighten that up. But this whore is proud of itself because if that
day ever comes, and they bow at my feet, ME, a common whore....what
does that make them?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gregory Delaurentis</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0