We have a few odds and ends to pick up before we move to our next topic (which I’m still mulling in my mind). I’m looking at the comments that my loyal readers left today, and some of them need answering:
Parker wrote:
Thanks again for your tireless work with your blog and your newsletter!
And a special hug (yeah, guys can hug guys and still be straight) for recommending Margie Lawson’s lecture packets. I ordered “Empowering Characters’ Emotions” immediately and although I’ve only read the Welcome so far, I’m hooked, psyched, excited. I’ve known that showing/conveying emotions has been difficult for me and I expect Margie’s insights to be tremendously helpful. As soon as I’ve worked my way through this I’ll order her “EDITS” packet.
As an added bonus, Margie, like yourself, seems to really reach out in her efforts to help. And, in her email says that although she didn’t really meet you, you are her new best friend.
Randy sez: I worked through Margie’s “Empowering Character Emotions” carefully the first time. Now I’m working through it again to pick all the meat off the bones. As I mentioned in my e-zine the other day, I’ve not learned so much from one teacher since I read Dwight Swain’s book, TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER, many years ago. Like Parker, I’ll be working through Margie’s EDITS packet next. For those of you who didn’t see my mention of Margie in my e-zine, her web site is at www.MargieLawson.com and she is a psychologist with incredible insights into fictional characters. She teaches how to edit your fiction to make your characters stronger.
Gerhi wrote:
Ok, now I had a chance to read the newsletter and I’m back with a gripe. Ok, maybe not a gripe, let’s say an appeal.
I have to face the fact that until I make megabucks or have saved for a number of years attending one of the type of conferences you mention is just a pipe dream. I love conferences and I would love to go. An if I could drive there I’d sleep in the foyer to make it happen.
But I would need a Visa, a passport, a return plain ticket, a guaranteed amount in my account or my wallet (which is a lotta money taking the exchange rate into account) and that is before I even arrive at the conference and start paying fees there.
So, if a conference is the best thing you can do to market your writing career, while also hobnobbing with other literati and taking workshops on craft, what is the SECOND best thing you can suggest for us poor smucks that can’t get to a conference?
Randy sez: You are absolutely right. The deck is stacked against you, so you’re going to need to find ways to level the playing field. (What a terrible mixed metaphor that was!)
First, remember that nothing sells like excellent writing. If you have excellent writing, then you will probably break in to publishing somehow, some way, eventually. It’ll be harder for you in South Africa and it will take longer, but you CAN do it. So your #1 priority should always be to improve your craft. By the way, I know there are a number of novelists in South Africa. I’ve met a number online over the years, and several hang out on this very blog. As Carrie said, there are publishers in every country. They might not pay the size of advances that a US publisher would pay, but let’s face it, US publishers don’t pay that big of advances either, unless your name is Clancy or King or Brown.
Second, the internet is a great leveler. Look at this blog and some of those who comment frequently. We have ML Eqatin in California; Daan in South Africa; Nessie in New Zealand; Christophe in Belgium; Mary in Texas; and a great many others scattered all over. The web makes it possible for me to reach these people far more easily than most of the neighbors who live within half a mile of my house! You can do an amazing amount to make yourself known by using the internet, and you can do it long before your book is published. We can all think of bloggers who’ve become famous, especially in politics, but also in other realms.
The internet is a powerful way to create a platform for yourself, if you have something unique to say and have the skill to say it well. My favorite resources for learning about internet promotion are (in the order that I first came across their sites): Tom Antion, Alexandria Brown, James Brausch, Perry Marshall, and Mark Joyner, but there are many others. One of my goals in life is to teach novelists how to use the methods that these marketers have created for selling NONFICTION so that we can all do better at selling our FICTION. Novelists have a great advantage in marketing, because a big part of marketing is creating a compelling story. I want to see a better distribution of income for novelists in coming years.
Robert wrote:
You mentioned in your e-zine that you’ve been working on a proposal. One question I have is if your proposal is for a series of books or just a single book? And if it is for a series, how does that kind of proposal differ from one for a single book?
What kind of things would a publisher want to know about the “future” books in order to commit to a series?
Randy sez: The proposal I’m writing is for a series. 99% of the proposal talks about Book 1 in the series. There are a couple of paragraphs describing more books in the series. (By its nature, this series could go on for many books. Note that a series will continue only as long as it is selling well; if it is, publishers will want it to go forever.) Most publishers want to know that an author is more than a one-trick pony. If you can show that you can write a series of books, that’s good. It tells the publisher that they can invest more resources in you because you’ll be around for awhile and your name recognition will have a chance to grow. In general, you really don’t need to give a huge amount of details about succeeding books in the series. The exception would be a tightly bound series like Harry Potter, where it’s really one big story. An example of a loosely bound series would a typical mystery series, where every story stand totally alone, and the detective’s story arc may change very little over a long series of books.
That’s all for today! Tune in again tomorrow when I hope to have decided on the direction we’ll take for the next week or so.
Thank you very much Randy. And you too Pam.
I don’t know where in South Africa Gerhi lives, but so far, I was able to track down 3 writers’ groups: In Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria. I will join the Pretoria Writers’ Circle on the first Saturday in February, where I will also enquire about writing conferences in South Africa. To the best of my knowledge, and after driving the old Google search engin crazy, I couldn’t find any such conferences.
I agree with Carrie. We should organize our own conference. As I will be the rookie at the Circle, I will behave myself like a choir boy during the first couple of meetings, and maybe at the third meeting, gently raise the point of convening our own conference.
Hi Daan,
I’m in Pietermaritzburg but am intending to move to Stellenbosch in the first half of this year.
What I know about conferences or workshops in South Africa:
UKZN’s Centre for Creativity presents a “Time of the Writer” conference every year in Durban. My sense is that it is more of a rubbing shoulders (Let’s see how many African literature gods can we invite) festival than a nuts and bolts on writing.
I know that University Pretoria does a Creative Writing Workshop and I think Potch still does theirs (I did the one at Potch yonks ago). Both of these are in Afrikaans.
Potch, Pretoria, UNISA, UKZN – these Varsities all offer courses in Creative Writing. Most I think are post-graduate Masters courses. I don’t know about the other Varsities.
I’m not interested in formal studies. I’ve done enough of that thank you. Except for creating on my own the thing I love most is participating in workshops. Sometimes workshops come around but I am loathe to attend. There is a difference between a presenter such as a “successful prize winning author of six novels (such as Randy)” and a “was sort of involved in the editing of one novel” presenter we normally get locally.
What I wrote at the Potch workshop many years ago wasn’t well received (I was into fantasy, they into romance). A couple of years later I read the new debut novel of the then Director of the Writing School. My thoughts were: “And you teach writing, eh…?” Anyway, I’m a bit of a sceptic since.
On the positive, I’m trying to get the internet to work for me. I think I’m beginning to get that right.
I’m a bit late with this, but I’d still like to wish Randy and every one of his blog readers a very happy new year and the best of the best in 2008!
I took a look at Margie Lawson’s site and though the design of the site didn’t immediately appeal to me, I browsed around a bit anyway. (Yeah, I do give in to first impressions occasionally, but not always)
I found the Empowering Characters’ Emotions Lecture, but I didn’t see any option to have a peak at it before buying it, or at least reading a sample lesson/chapter/something.
Did I miss it somehow?
A question came to mind when you mentioned about series synopses. I have a massive scifi work that has distilled itself down to a rambling collection of short novels, novellas and short stories. It’s huge, it’s a mess, it does have a particular order and few of them can stand alone. I know in the science fiction realm there is precedence for this; Heinlein published a “future history” of interconnected short stories, which is my guess as to what my collection would be called. How would I go about proposing something like that?
Also, can a novella be published as a standalone, and how would that be proposed?
hi Gerhi ~ a conference is so much more than formal education. It’s a place to spend time with other writers, meet editors/agents, get encouraged, learn what’s going on in the publishing world and have fun.
My best friends are people I have met at writer’s conferences. The critique group I’m in was formed because of a writer’s group. I am published because of contacts I made at a writer’s conference.
I look forward to every conference I’m able to attend, knowing I’ll come home tired and inspired.
I hope you will be able to create a conference or attend one. It’s one the best things you can do for your writing career.
Gerhi needs to know about this conference: http://watkins.gospelcom.net/sandycove.htm.
The Sandy Cove Christian Writer’s Conference sponsors one person every year to come from another country. This may be a way for Gerhi to “go the distance!”
As Pam said, a conference is more than education. I’ve attended several–most of the time I’m able to attend because I present topics that might be of interest (the hot one right now is “Don’t LIE to Me: the language of deception–on how you can tell when someone is lying by their language–nouns, pronouns, verbs, etc.)
I get motivated, find critique partners, make friends, get inspired, learn something new (even if it’s what NOT to do), and build my reputation as a speaker in the fiction world before my novel is complete.
Hey Randy, speaking of conferences and possible ideas, I was able to take a workshop from Donald Maass (Writing the Breakout Novel), and he talked about layers in novels. As I’m struggling with that, do you want to talk about character layers?
Blessings,
Carrie
To whom to you submit your proposals? I was under the impression that “The Bigs” in New York would simply trash your submission if you don’t have an agent and it doesn’t seem like your agent would need a formal proposal. Are you submitting these proposals to editors with whom you already have a relationship?
If may reply to Christophe Desmecht, I too was dubious about dropping twenty bucks without a peek, but I went with Randy’s recommendation. Best D*** twnety I’ve spent in a long time!
If you’re familiar with Brandilyn Collins’ “Getting into Character,” Margie’s lecture series “Empowering Character’s Emotions” takes you another ten steps, at least. Highly recommended.
Yes, her website leaves a lot to be desired, but not her lecture, or her personal contact. No auto-responer “Thank You for your order,” but a personal reply.
Hi Gerhi,
I feel your frustration over the writers conference dilemma. I’m in the same boat, being the NZer Randy mentioned. Every year around April (Mt. Hermon conference) and September (ACFW conference) I feel a bout of depression. I keep reading posts on the internet about how all my fabulous online friends are going and here I am missing out.
But, on the other hand, the internet is a GREAT tool. I have learned virtually all I know about the craft through the internet and a few online courses. Oh, and books. 🙂
There is very little in the way of courses on the craft of writing here in NZ, and those that are available are at the opposite end of the country and impossible for me to get too. However, that said, I do aim to do a correspondence course next year to help in my goal. This year has become out of the question.
Keep tapping into the internet. There is a wealth of information out there.