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autumn2may · 11 months

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GUYS DO NOT GIVE YOUR MANUSCRIPT TO AN AI THIS IS A BAD IDEA ON EVERY LEVEL DON'T DO IT

original tweet from @jamesjyu reads: "We launch Shrink Ray today on Sudowrite! Upload your manuscript and get loglines, blurbs, synopsis, and full outlines automatically. Takes a ton of legwork out of book marketing. Below the tweet are two images of the program."

original quote tweet from @sudowrite reads: "New in Sudowrite: Upload your whole novel/script, get instant longlines (sic), blurbs, synopsis, and outline!"

tweet from @FantasyFaction reads: "Oh jeez! Bad bad, very bad! Writers DO NOT willingly give your manuscript to an AI so it can "learn" by stealing your work! I know blurbs and synopses are hard, but PLEASE do not do this! - JI 🐉

(stolen from ML Brennan & Sravani Hotha so I can include alt text)"

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writingquestionsanswered · 1 month

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Just a quick reminder that I will not tolerate bad-mouthing of traditional, indie, hybrid, online, fan-fiction, or any other type of writing and publishing on my blog, in asks, in the replies, or in the reblogs.

Furthermore, anyone who feels the need to disparage any type of writing or publication should take some time to educate themselves and do some self-reflection. What insecurities are these feelings masking? Why are they not confident enough in their own writing or path to publishing to be supportive of all types of writing and publishing? Why do they feel the experiences of some are enough to invalidate the experiences of many?

There is room for everyone in the world of writing and publishing. There's no reason not to be inclusive of everyone, all types of writing, all paths of publishing, and advice from every background and level of experience.

~ with love, WQA

#writing #writing advice #publishing #self publishing #indie publishing #indie authors #indie books #writing tips #writing community #writers of tumblr #writeblr #writing help #snobs need not apply

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doug-lewars · 3 months

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A Bit of Caution

When publishing, money should go to you. If someone claiming to be an agent or publisher wants money from you, think 'scam' and run like mad. You may not be able to find an agent. You can self-publish in e-format for free on Smashwords.com (now Direct to Digital) and Amazon. In addition, the latter provides print-on-demand. There are also other platforms out there on which you can publish at no cost to yourself. You would be well advised to avoid anyone who comes looking for money from you.

#doug lewars #writing #writer #writing advice #publishing

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writingwithfolklore · 2 months

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3 Important things about Traditional Publishing

This post is for people who want to be traditionally published. If you’re down to Indie publish, or are only interested in posting your own fiction online—don’t worry about it!

First things first, traditional (or trad) publishing is when you go through an editor at a publishing house and they publish your book. They also take a hefty percentage of the profits, but handle the editing, cover design, titling, promotion, etc. for you. Sometimes you may also go through a literary agent who will represent you (send your work and advocate for you) to publishing houses.

Indie publishing (independent) is when you do it on your own, also known as self publishing. You have more control, but have to build a team behind you to help you edit, design, format, promote, etc. (or do it all yourself). and it can be difficult to get your book in places like book stores and libraries since they usually only do dealings with publishing houses.

With that out of the way, let’s talk 3 important things I know about trad publishing.

1. Don’t share your work online

If you want to be traditionally published, don’t post any of your work online anywhere. Including little bits and pieces, including excerpts, including characters, including titles. Nothing. Keep it locked down.

This is because many trad publishing contracts will consider you posting your work online as it being “previously published”, and may reject your work for that reason. To be on the safe side, don’t put any of your work online or submit it to other journals/magazines.

2. Be prepared to let go of some of the decision making.

When you go through lit agents and publishing houses, you give up an amount of creative control to get your work published. They just want to make it as good (and marketable) as possible, so trust that they know what they’re talking about.

This means they may choose your title, you may not have any control over the cover image, they might even ask you to get rid of a character or change the ending or any other amount of larger edits. You are allowed to reject some ideas, but choose your battles. Taking this feedback and making these edits is what will get your work published, so if that is your goal, be accommodating, trust that they have so much experience and will make your work better.

3. You should NEVER have to pay them

If you’re paying a traditional publisher to publish your work, you are being scammed. The money works this way:

The reader buys the book for say $20.

To make this simple, let’s say $20 then goes to the publishing house.

They take 50%, so $10 goes to your literary agent (if you have one).

They take another 50% so $5 goes to you.

Never, ever should the money be flowing the opposite direction where you are giving money to these businesses to publish your work. I will say it again, if you are paying these people, you are being scammed.

This is really important, because I knew a girl who was working three jobs to get her work published. They were asking for almost 20K. My heart absolutely breaks for her—she just didn’t know that that’s not how it’s supposed to work.

Whether it’s 20k, $100, or 3 cents. You don’t pay them.

(Of course, if you’re in indie publishing this is a whole different story. In indie, you pay people to do any of the work you don’t want to do. If you need an indie editor, you pay them, if you want an artist to design your cover, you pay them. This rule only applies to trad publishing!)

Anything else important that I missed?

#writing #creative writing #writers #screenwriting #writing community #writing inspiration #filmmaking #books #film #writing advice #traditional publishing #getting trad published #traditional publishing advice #3 important things about traditional publishing

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fahye · 2 months

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@lieutenantkim replied to your post “hi freya! your work with the TLB series is...”:

I'm a little confused, what do you mean by "start as late as possible in the story" and then "have the main inciting incident take place within the first scene"? Did you mean the other way around or?

nope, I mean exactly that!

the TLB books are slightly unusual in that the real inciting incidents for all three involve the murder (even if obliquely, in book 3) of a third party, so they all begin with a kind of BBC-crime-drama pre-credits-scene chapter in which the murder occurs.

but the first chapter from a protagonist's perspective begins as close to the thing that Starts Their Story as possible. even after it. I could have showed you robin's daily home life, his parents' death, and then his receiving the notification of his new job at the home office. instead I started it RIGHT where he is introduced to the existence of magic, and then only introduced his home life & maud once he was already embroiled with worrying about magic and the curse.

I could have started ART with maud and mrs navenby getting on the ship, or even with maud on her initial voyage out to america. I started the moment AFTER her discovering the dead body: the plot is off! immediately! at once!

there is a tendency for first drafts to start with a character on their way to the plot: waking up on the day in question, or on a train to somewhere new, so the author can get comfy and wriggle around with some narration telling you who they are at the start of the story.

nope. start when they get off the train. or later. by the end of the very first scene, something new should have happened to them which gives the reader the story's first (or even central) unanswered question or point of conflict. you can fill in their backstory and personality and pre-story-status-quo in the narration as you go.

finding the right starting point is often a second-draft thing. and that's fine! but it gets easier with practice.

#writing advice #the last binding #is this a hard and fast rule for every story ever?#no #no piece of writing advice ever is #but if you're aiming for traditional publishing #having a fast-moving opening scene #that sets up the story and character/s well #can make a huge difference

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novlr · 6 months

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How to create a Copyright for my fiction novel?

For example:

(I forgot all of it)

In August we wrote a beginners guide to copyright, in which we talk about whether you need it, how to get it if you do, and what information you should include in a copyright page. We've even given you a downloadable template that you can customise to your needs for both fiction, and non-fiction books! Click the link below.

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nicollekidman · 3 months

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god the thing with books is that there is room for literally everyone in every age group with every taste from every walk of life and every preference!!!!! it's literature!!!! a foundational part of humanity!! but publishing trends are squeezing kids/teens out of genres and markets created specifically for them to chase the childadult contingent, while at the same time, romance/erotica (which is healthy, fun, has always existed) is being marketed aesthetically similarly and to the same audience of what used to be YA. so now there's a very weird collapse that is simultaneously putting adult romance in front of children, squashing teen stories, and sanitizing actual erotica. it is VERY weird but it is not an issue with authors suddenly being bad or women suddenly being stupid perverts, it's a direct result of the publishing industry and how books are being sold/published/marketed

#middle teens being pushed out of YA #YA being marketed to immature adults #and /erotica/ either being completely sanitized or on the other hand ridiculed #for being exactly what it's supposed to be #is all resulting in a very counterproductive mash #my advice to people in my age group is to read some goddamn lit fic once in a while but #its a publishing issue by and large

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e-louise-bates · 5 months

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Instead of "20 books to $50k" or "how to increase readership by writing and publishing a book every month that is exactly like every other popular book out there," I need the kind of marketing advice that goes along the lines of, "hey, here's how to get a modest fanbase and sell enough books to justify this as a side gig without having to go crazy and spend more than you earn on marketing." Because honestly, all the advice I find these days either a) requires me to put way more time and money into marketing than I am able to do, or b) requires me to write fast and sloppy in very specific sub-genres, and that's really not why I write stories.

And like Emily Starr, I would--and will--continue to write stories regardless of how many people read them, but it would be nice to be able to reach more than a dozen readers, and to be able to reasonably look on my writing as a part-time job rather than an expensive hobby.

(It doesn't help that there are so many articles out there claiming that self-publishing is dead! It's gotten too bloated and now only a handful can make a living off it! But wait--traditional publishing is also dead! It's gotten too greedy and now only a handful can make a living off it! Mid-level authors? Whether traditionally published or self-published, they apparently no longer exist)

#I try not to grumble too much about this sort of thing #because it always feels like it comes perilously close to whining #but as my school is wrapping up and I can start thinking more about writing again #and publishing and marketing #it's all feeling like A Lot #oh well #perhaps the new edition of mmd will slowly start to draw more readers into the series #and I know if I were able to release books a tad more quickly the series would gain more fans #without going so over-the-top as a lot of the advice recommends #all we can do is try

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broodparasitism · 7 months

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Everything I've Learned About Querying from Talking to Agents (And Traditionally Published Authors)

Disclaimer: I'm UK based, as was everyone I spoke to. I didn't include any country specific advice, just what I think is applicable regardless of where you live, put it might be useful to know this is from a UK lens.

As part of my course I was able to go to a lot of talks with literary agents (a mixture of literary, genre and nonfiction) and I picked up a lot of useful information - a lot of it not quite so bleak as I feared! - and thought it might be helpful to compile it for anyone looking to query agents in the future, so, here goes, under the readmore:

Querying

Remember that agents want to find and publish new authors. They're not at odds with/out to get aspiring authors. They want to work with us. This is someone you're working with, so don't pick an agent you won't get along with.

Manuscripts should be queried when they are as close to finished you are able to manage. There are a few agents that are open to incomplete manuscripts, yes, but many more that flat-out refuse unfinished work. Manuscripts generally go through about ~15 rounds of edits before landing an agent.

Send query letters in batches - around five or six at a time. There is no limit to how many agents you can contact, but you can't contact more than one agent from the same agency, so make sure you've selected the most suitable one from each.

In most cases you can't submit the same manuscript to the same agent twice - so having it be as finished as possible is all the more vital.

Some of them will take a long time to respond. Some never respond at all. If it's been three months of nothing, it's safe to assume that's a rejection.

One agent said she took on about two new authors a year, which likely isn't true for them all but is probably a reasonable average. For all of them, the amount of queries they get can be in the three digits a week. I can't emphasis enough just how many they get. I take a lot of authors to mean that means it's a 0.001% chance and despair, but that assumes each manuscript has an equal chance, and they don't. Correct spelling and grammar, writing in a genre that appeals to the agent, quality sample chapters and respecting the submission guidelines (more on this later) improve the odds by a significiant amount.

One agent said he rejected about half of his submissions from the first page due to spelling and grammar mistakes and cliches, for perspective.

You'll need to pitch your book. If your book cannot be pitched in three sentences, that's a sign it has too much going on and you'll need to do some pruning.

Please don't panic if you cannot come up with an accurate pitch for your book on the fly - you're not supposed to be able to do that. A pitch takes many edits and drafts just like a manuscript.

Send your first three chapters and a synopsis (this should be a page, or two pages double spaced. It should not include every single plot point though, again, if major things end up not there at all, question if they're necessary for the manuscript).

Three chapters is the standard - as in, if the agent web page doesn't specify how many, that's what to opt for. If they say anything else, for the love of God listen. If there was a single piece of advice that the agents emphasised above all else, it was to just follow each submission requirement to a T.

There needs to be a strong hook in these chapters. If your manuscript is a bit of a slow burn, that's fine, but you can cheat a bit with a 'prologue' that's actually a very hook-y scene from later on.

Read the agent's bio page throughly and make a note of what they like, who they represent, and what they're looking for, and highlight this in the query letter.

Your query letter has to say a little about you. It doesn't have to be really personal information (but say if you're under 40, because that's rare for authors and they like that), and keep it professional but not stiff, they say. If you have any writing credentials, such as awards won or creative writing degrees, include them, as with any real life experiences that pertains to the content of your book. But no one will be rejected on the basis of not having had an interesting enough life.

Apparently one of the biggest mistakes for debut authors tend to be too many filler scenes.

In terms of looking for comparative titles, think about where you want your book to 'sit'. Often literally - go into bookstores and visualise where on the displays you could see it. It's really helpful if you can identify a specific marketing niche. Though you want to choose comparisons that sell well, but going for really obvious choices looks lazy. A TV or film comparison is fine - as long as it genuinely can be compared.

Do not call yourself the next Donna Tartt. Or JK Rowling. They are sick of this.

Don't trust agents who request exclusive submission.

Or any with a fee. Agents take a percentage of your advance/royalties - you never pay them directly.

In terms of trends (crowd booing), there's been a boom in uplifting, optimistic fiction, but more recently dark fiction has been rising in popularity and looks to have its moment. Fantasy and Gothic are both huge right now. Publishers also love what's called upmarket/book club fiction - books that toe the line between genre and literary.

But publishers aren't clairvoyant and writing to trends is a futile effort, so don't let them shape what you want to write. Some writing advice I got that I loved was to not even THINK about marketability until draft three or four.

If any agent requests your full manuscript - this is crucial - email every other agent you're waiting to hear back from and let them know. This will take your manuscript from the slush pile to the top, and you are more likely to get more offers of representation.

The agent that flatters you the most isn't necessarily the best. Be sure to ask them what their plan for the book is, and what publishers they're planning to send it to - you want them to have a precise vision. It might be that their vision misses the mark on what kind of book you wanted to write, and if so, they aren't the right agent for you.

Research like hell! A good place to start is finding out who represents authors you love (the acknowledgements pages are really helpful here). if you can, getting access to The Writer's and Artist's Yearbook is very helpful, as is The Bookseller, the lattr for checking up on specific agents. (I was warned the website search engine is awful, so google "[name] the Bookseller" to see what they've sold. That said, only the huge deals get reported, so it's not indicative of everyone they take on.

I also want to add Juliet Mushen's article on what makes a good query. I owe a lot to it, and I feel like it's a useful template!

Once Agented

Agents send a manuscript to about 18-25 publishers, typically. Most books will end up having more than one publisher interested.

It can be hard to move genres after publishing a debut novel, especially for book two, not only because it means it takes longer for you to establish yourself, but the agent that may be perfect for dealing with manuscripts for book one might not have the skills for book two.

Ask the agency/publisher about their translation rights, their rights to the US market, and film and TV rights. Ask also what time of year the book is going to come out, if being published.

It's less the book agents are interested in than it is you as an author. You will be asked what you're going to write next, so have an answer. Just an answer - you don't need another manuscript ready to go. One author said she flat-out made up a book idea on the spot, and she got away with it - just have an answer. (This is also useful to put on the query letter.)

Caveat that this is, of course, not a foolproof guide to getting a book deal, nor is it in any way unconditional endorsement of how the industry works - I just thought it would be useful to know.

#writeblr #wtwcommunity #traditional publishing #literary agents #wrting advice #kinda #eta a readmore link

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projecttreehouse · 2 years

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write EVERY DAY. here's how.

where inspiration fails, habit will always have your back. this is why it's important to build writing into your life as a habit, if you ever want to finish a project or improve your skills.

back in 2018, i (nat) was a college student without much going for me. i was feeling creatively stifled and insecure and like i didn't have TIME to write good. and i was right. i didn't have time to write GOOD. but i did have time to write SOMETHING. so that january, i built the habit. i wrote every single day in 2018, and almost every single day since.

because once you establish the habit, it becomes safer to skip a day (or three days) here and there. you will at least THINK about writing every day, even if you go straight from work to social plans to bed, or you're on vacation, or you're too sick to write. and that thinking is part of the habit!

here are the tips i followed to make this happen.

-pick a reasonable goal. starting off, mine was 300 words. now, i don't follow a goal, because the habit is so solid i don't need to. but 300 words is easy and quick. and if you give a pig a pancake, they'll probably have days where they write 500, 1000, even 3k words.

-log your word count. this is interesting to look back on every new year's eve, and it provides accountability. do this however you like; a spreadsheet, a physical notebook, a note in your phone, each day's section in your planner, whatever works for you. i have a channel in my personal discord server where i log mine.

-do NOT edit as you go. just write write write. if you feel like something you wrote needs work, yeah, it probably does-- everything needs to be edited, but that's a problem for later. highlight sentences you can't get right or make note of them to edit LATER. but do not edit as you go!

-write self-indulgent crap. fanfiction, shitty poetry, manifestos, rants, self insert fantasy romance, whatever floats your boat. having a shitty self-indulgent backup story to work on when i didn't feel like writing for the projects i cared about really helped get me in the habit. write for an audience of one!

-journal if you can't write. this may not necessarily build your skill as much as writing regular prose would, but it does help you maintain the habit and it can be useful in lots of other ways.

-think outside the box. write trivia questions. write a list of your favorite childhood toys. write a review of the book you're reading. i'm writing this post, that's going toward my word count for the day. again, this is still writing, and it helps maintain the habit.

-get comfortable writing on your phone. this took me a long time, but making it over this hurdle has saved my habit so many times.

you'll be surprised at the cool shit you end up writing on those days when you swore you weren't inspired enough. and you'll be delighted with how much progress you will make honing your craft!

happy writing! if you have any questions about how to implement any of these tips, our ask box is always open.

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purplecowbell · 1 year

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If only one of my posts gets read by amateur authors let it be this:

SUBMIT YOUR WORK TO THE TOP PUBLICATIONS FIRST AND WORK YOUR WAY DOWN!

What do I mean by top? Standards of quality, audience, pay rate, legal contract; it can be anything. What matters is that you set the metric you prefer and aim for the top.

I say this because most new authors think that when submitting short stories, or flash fiction, or poetry, you need past credentials to publish with the highly-ranked publications. That's probably true but the logic is backwards. By the time you're good enough to publish in the highest ranking magazines, you've probably already published in a lot of others. Don't settle, you have nothing to lose.

Let's look at two scenarios. One in which you believe in your writing and one in which you don't.

The confident writer starts submitting to all the top publications. They submit, wait for a rejection, and submit again to a different one. They slowly work down the line until finally they hit the very top of the range of publications that are willing to accept their work. They now know what market they have a chance in and what markets to read from to improve.

The insecure writer starts submitting to all the unknown/unpaid/unvetted publications. They need to build credentials before they can submit to the preferred publications, right? If they don't get scammed out of rights they slowly move up the line of publications. They stop when they get accepted by the very bottom range of publications that will pay them the least amount, or give the least exposure, and think themselves lucky. And now they find themselves gaining much less confidence, and much less understanding of the markets, than if they started from the top. They'll have markets they believe they have to learn from when really they've surpassed them.

Even in the worst case publishing scenario: only one market accepts your publication at the very bottom, the only thing that is lost by being confident is your time. With any other publications willing to accept your work, you're guaranteed to get the better deal by being confident. Starting from the bottom is only self sabotage.

You may get more rejections (or even fewer than you think), but if you keep your head up and keep pushing, it'll be better for your writing and your confidence in the long run.

Besides, you'll probably be scammed less if you start with the ones that everyone trusts.

#writing #publishing #short stories #flash fiction #publication advice #writing advice #poetry #writeblr #writers of tumblr #writers community #literary magazines #literary journal

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thewritersalchemist · 10 months

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Brandon Sanderson did make smart career choices, but they might not be what you think.

(originally posted on a different writing blog in March 2022)

This is NOT another post breaking down “what you can learn!” from Sanderson’s massive Kickstarter earlier this month. Well, it kind of is, but it’s the opposite of some of the others.

Buckle up, it’s unpopular opinion time.

On March 1, 2022, fantasy author Brandon Sanderson announced a Kickstarter: pledge to help him publish four standalone novels he’d secretly written during the pandemic. He and his team set a goal of one million dollars, and he estimated they would get two to four million total.

In three days, the Kickstarter had reached twenty million dollars, and it currently (as of March 27, 2022) sits at thirty-three million dollars.

The publishing world was—and still is—staggered.

In the last three weeks, I’ve seen a dozen indie authors and marketers try to break down that massive success and what lessons others can take from it for their own careers. Most of them write to various Amazon markets. Some of them made good points. One thing everyone keeps repeating is that Sanderson has made “smart career choices.” But every time, I’ve walked away from those articles shaking my head. Most of the articles seem to be missing the biggest and most important point. It's hard to talk about taking lessons from Sanderson’s marketing before you talk about lessons from his WRITING career.

A few facts:

The four novels Sanderson will be publishing with the Kickstarter money are already written. He wrote them for his wife (and because he wanted to explore new stories) during the pandemic.

He will be publishing them through his own company: Dragonsteel Books. He created the company to publish special editions of his books, carry his book swag*, and have an alternative option for people to buy his books if Amazon ever stops selling his books again.**

Sanderson has a reputation for being reliable with his book publishing. If he says he’s going to publish something, he does it, and he tries to keep fans updated as he goes.

*Book swag / book merch = special items created for fans of books. **Years ago, Amazon briefly stopped selling his books because of contract disputes. You can read more about it here.

And some facts about Sanderson himself, if you’re not familiar with his work:

His first book to be published—Elantris—came out in 2005. It was the sixth novel he wrote, and it was published by Tor. It took eighteen months for someone to read the book and then call him about it.

Before Elantris was published, he’d written thirteen novels.

He now has so many novels out that Wikipedia has a separate article for his bibliography.

He was handpicked by Robert Jordan’s wife to finish the Wheel of Time book series, and he was on the writing team for the Wheel of Time TV series.

So what were Sanderson’s “smart career choices” as a writer?

He didn’t write to market. This is going to be the most unpopular opinion of all, but hear me out, please. Sanderson tried it. Back before Elantris was published, after a lot of people told him his books weren’t being accepted because they were too long and didn’t have the popular format and tropes of the time, he tried writing to market. He’s said those were the worst novels of his writing career. So he stopped. He went back to writing what he loved. That love and passion kept him writing books that have resonated with fans for almost twenty years now. If we’re going to talk about why his fanbase loves his BOOKS so much, let's start with how much HE loves what he wrote and how much that love spills over in how he talks about his books.

He constantly pushes himself to improve. He knew from the beginning that he needed critique, and he got it. Since college, he’s been in critique groups and had alpha readers, and they keep pushing him to be better too. He himself says that some of his earlier books (yes, the published ones!) aren’t his best. He’s honest that he keeps wanting to do better and looking to improve.

When he made plans about publishing, he didn’t just think about it like a writer. He thought about it like an author. He figured out his writing pace and he tried to be consistent with that. You can talk for hours about how he finishes books and how that “makes him better than Patrick Rothfuss and George R. R. Martin,”*** but I don’t see many people talk about how Sanderson learned from them and others and FIGURED OUT what he had to do AHEAD OF TIME so he wasn’t doing that to his fans, intentionally or accidentally.

He also approached his published author career like a reader. He treated his fans like he would have wanted to be treated as a reader. He used social media to connect with them and to keep them posted. He was and still is actively involved in his fandom.

He’s given back to the community. He’s taught at university for years; he’s talked at conferences; he’s free with his advice on his writing podcast; he’s given fans advice for years at cons and book signings and through his website, and he always has a smile for his fans.

***I’m not going to discuss Rothfuss’s or Martin’s choices; I don’t know what’s going on in their lives, and I think there’s a difference between authors having a responsibility to finish a series and authors ‘owing’ fans the way their particular fans claim. This is only about Sanderson and his decisions.

THESE were his smart career choices. THESE are the reasons his books are so popular and why his Kickstarter got to twenty million in three days. Sure, finishing Wheel of Time helped get his name out there to some readers, but the majority of Sanderson’s fans don’t talk about Wheel of Time like they talk about his own books. Wheel of Time fans (some of them) talk about being grateful he finished the series, yes. But Sanderson fans talk more about Elantris, Mistborn, and the Stormlight Archive.

If we’re going to break down Sanderson’s success, we have to go back further than his marketing. We have to look at his foundation and be honest about why and how he is where he is.

If you write to market, three things sell your books:

your ads

your other marketing (but mostly your ads)

and how well you followed the recipe for that market

Whether your plot and characters are objectively well written doesn’t matter as much. (I'm not saying it doesn't matter at all.) Why? Because the recipe is what the ads sell. So if you’re good at following the recipe, readers will keep coming back after their first few from you. Not so much if you like to change recipes a lot or can’t follow one well. You might get other readers, but you won't get that particular market's readers.

I’m not dissing writing to market. If you DO mostly write to market, you won’t be able to take many lessons from Sanderson’s Kickstarter success (or his career in general) because Sanderson’s marketing isn’t what keeps his fiction selling. His writing is. His fan interaction is another huge part.

A note on consistency.

Sanderson is a prolific writer. He can sustain a publishing pace that many people can’t. I can’t, for sure. I would LOVE to be that prolific, but I’m not there, at least not right now. Being consistent doesn’t mean you have to publish every year or write every single day. It means finding what pace works for you and then being consistent with that. If that means publishing once a year, good for you. If it means once every three years, go for it.

Building a fanbase takes time. Sanderson has been publishing for almost twenty years, if you count how long the process took for Elantris. He’s been writing for twenty-five years. No one likes to hear that something they want right now takes time, but it’s the truth. Building a consistent fanbase takes time, and it does tend to take more time for indie authors than traditionally published ones.

I've worked with a lot of competitive write-to-market indie authors. I know exactly how unpopular this opinion is. But for all the authors wanting to really understand the writing craft and find the path that helps them build their own consistent career of putting out good stories, this post is for you. If you're asking “Why is Sanderson so popular that his Kickstarter reached twenty million in three days?” and wanting to know what you can learn from it . . .

This is why. And this is what you can learn.

#brandon sanderson #writing advice #publishing advice #fiction marketing #fandom culture #the writers' alchemist

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bonefall · 5 months

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post/734733274896809984/do-you-ever-worry-your-own-writing-might-come-off that makes sense. i was asking because i'm afraid of accidentally writing misogyny myself and i kind of admire what you do

Hmm... I wish I had better advice to give you on this front, but honestly, the only thing I can tell you is to consider the perspective of your female characters.

Women are people. They have thoughts and feelings of their own, so like... just let them have their own arcs. A lot of the worst misogyny in WC comes from the way that the writers just don't care about their girls (or, in the case of tall shadow, actually get undermined and forced to rewrite entire chapters), so they're not curious about their lives, or WHY they feel the way they do or what they want, or any direction for their character arcs.

Turtle Tail as an example. She'll often just end up feeling whatever Gray Wing's plot demands. She's gotta leave when Storm dumps him to make him feel lonely. She shows up again to love him in the next book. Lets her best friend Bumble get dragged back to Tom the Wifebeater, but is sad enough about her death to be "unreasonably angry" with Clear Sky, and then calms down and accept Gray Wing is right all along.

And then she dies, so he can have his very own fridge wife.

In this way, Turtle Tail's just being used to tell Gray Wing's story. They're not interested in why she would turn on Bumble, or god forbid any lingering negative feelings for how she didn't help her, or even resentment towards Clear Sky for killing her or Gray Wing for jumping to his defense. She isn't really going through her own character arc.

She does have personality traits of her own, don't misunderstand my criticism, but as a character she revolves around Gray Wing.

So, zoom out every now and then, and just ask yourself; "Whose story is being told by what I wrote? Do my female characters have goals, wants, and agency, or are they just supporting men? How do their choices impact the narrative?"

But that's already kinda assuming that you already have characters like Turtle Tail who DO have personalities and potential of their own. Here's some super simple and practical advice that helped me;

Tally the genders in your cast. How many are boys, how many are girls, how many are others?

And take stock of how many of those characters are just in the supporting cast, and compare that to the amount you have in the main cast.

If you have a significant imbalance, ESPECIALLY in the main cast, fire the Woman Beam.

It's a really simple trick to just write a male character, and then change its gender while keeping it the same. I promise women are really not fundamentally different from men lmao. You can consider how your in-universe gender roles affect them later, if you'd like, but when you're just starting to wean yourself off a "boy bias" this trick works like a charm.

Also you're not allowed to change the body type of any girl you Woman Beam because I said so. PLEASE allow your girls to have muscles, or be fat, or be old, or have lots of scars. Do NOT do what a cowardly Triple A studio does, where the women all have the same cute or sexy face and curvy body while they're standing next to dwarves, robots, and a gorilla.

Or this shit,

If you do this I will GET you. If you're ever possessed by the dark urge, you will see my face appear in the clouds like Mufasa himself to guide you away from the path of evil.

Anyway, you get better at just making characters girls to begin with as time goes on and you practice it. It's really not as big of a deal as your brain might think it is.

Take a legitimate interest in female characters and try not to disproportionately hit them with parental/romance plots as opposed to the male cast, and you'll be fine. Don't think of them as "SPECIAL WOMEN CHARACTERS" just make a character and then let her be a girl, occasionally checking your tally and doing some critical thinking about their use in the story.

(Also remember I'm not a professional or anything, I'm just trying to give advice)

#I wish I had more succinct and practical advice to give you besides the woman beam trick #Honestly I just kinda feel it out because I like telling stories about girls #I made it fun for myself by clapping and cheering and whooping and hollering whenever a girl does something #because it's not fun to write like a monk in a monastery #With the spectre of Brother Smockbimble looming over your shoulder telling you to Write Perfectly Every Time #Characters aren't real people. You can just fix it if you happen to fuck up or do better next time with what you learned.#Making mistakes is just part of acquiring skill #and writing is an art just like painting or drawing.#So don't make a fun OC project into homework! You should be enjoying making your own art! Express yourself!#Please understand that when I'm ripping into the series I'm being so harsh because it's bestselling corporate media #Read by HUNDREDS of thousands of kids worldwide #Raking in millions of dollars a year. Written by a TEAM of professionals.#So I have higher expectations of it than of a fandom rando on the internet. Or even a self-published author who's just One Guy.#Hence why I'm infinitely more charitable to Ratha than I am to Battle Cats #bones gives advice

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dduane · 8 months

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Hi dduane!

I have a question about publishing. I'm a writer who'd like to be published at some point, but in the meantime wants to publish projects online so I have something to do with experiments and shorter projects etc.

When I was in school, my professors said that most publishers will reject writers who have self-published in the past, is this true in your experience?

Loved So You Want to Be a Wizard btw!

Glad you liked SYW! :)

As for your professors: at the very least, their opinions are outdated. At worst, they're just plain wrong.

Once upon a time—when self-publishing almost always meant the "vanity publishing" model in which the author paid a publisher to bring their books out—the routine assumption was that those books were bad: too bad to make it "over the bar" of the normal rigors of submission to a reputable publisher.

But the whole self-publication model has shifted radically in the last couple of decades. Now there are lots of books self-published that are plainly considered good enough (by readers) for their authors to make significant amounts of money. As a result, the onus of self-publication has long since fallen away... especially if a book's successful.

And if a self-published book's good enough, and sells well enough in its self-published form, nothing will stop traditional publishers from offering to buy it. The Martian is one of the highest-profile examples of this.

So my advice to you would be to do your self-publishing exactly as suits you. If you can build up an online readership who'll follow you closely enough to buy new works when you publish them, that'll be a good start. If one of your books is good enough, and makes it big enough, odds are you won't have to worry about finding a publisher. They'll find you. (And you may even come up against an issue some successful self-publishers have had to wrestle with: "What do I need a publisher for?")

Anyway: good luck to you! (Because luck's a part of this process too... whether we like to admit it or not.) :)

#writing #writing advice #self-publishing

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taffybuns · 4 months

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anyone you know who gives great advice?

🤷

#publishing hoping somebody has an answer #is it bad advice to tell u to try reddit subs. there's losers on there but mostly just people. i dont even have an account i like to surf #ask #anon

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stygianpen · 1 year

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World Building 101

World building! How many other hobbies or careers involve creating an entire world all your own? Not many.

There’s nothing quite like setting out to create your fictional world. Drawing maps, deciding which civilizations live where, throwing in crazy kinds of solar systems and vegetation if you’re really going all out… it can be a ton of fun.

However, one of the writer’s most exciting tasks is also one of their most intimidating.

On one hand: you get to build your own world. On the other hand… you have to build your own whole entire WORLD?! Where do you even start??

Well, you can start right here. Today I’m going to walk you through some basic pointers to get your world up and running.

World Building and World Building

Right off the bat, you should be aware that there are two kinds of world building. There’s the large-scale fantasy world building which I will be talking about today, and there is also world building that goes into other story genres.

Every writer is going to do some level of world-building, whether you’re painting a verbal picture of the lake your character goes to to get some peace of mind, pulling a reader into an important event and making them feel like they’re actually attending, or creating a whole new planet for your space pirate to fly to.

The Top 6

When you have a massive task ahead of you it’s always best to start by breaking it down. So, let’s take a look at the top 6 features you’re going to be focusing on when building your world.

WHO

Ask yourself: who lives in your world?Most likely there is a variety of species and races. Or, you could decide on a world where every creature is exactly alike — it is of course, your world.

Do the creatures of your planet have different cultures or are these homogeneous?

It will be easiest to start off with your main characters and work out from there. What is their species and race, and what does their culture look like?

For each species in your world, jot down the following:

Species name

Race names

Physical description

Language

Cultural notes

Special abilities

WHAT

Ask yourself: what social structures exist in your society? Again, start with your main characters and work out from there. For each species within your world, you’re going to need to determine how they manage their society.

What beliefs do they have? Are they religious, or more philosophical? Is there a divide between the two? What do their political structures look like? How strict are their laws?

You’ll want to consider trade and economy as well. Do they have a money system? A barter system?

You may not need to go too in depth with every single species in your world, but you’ll want a basic note or two about each in case it comes up in your writing.

For each species in your world, decide at least one point about each of the following:

Religion

Philosophies

Politics and laws

Economy

WHERE

Ask yourself: where does your species exist?Finally, we get to the physical world of your world building. What is the geography like? The biomes? Is your world bountiful with resources or is it a dying planet with species’ in desperate search of new sustenance?

For some writers, they will take years fleshing out the ‘where’ of their world, including the cosmos surrounding it. For others, a map with the basic locations of the story will suffice. It is up to you how in-depth you would like to go.

At the very least, you should outline one or two notes about each of the following:

Solar system (does your world exist near ours or is it completely fabricated?)

Geography (this one can be split per species — forest elves live in the woods, nymphs live near the sea, etc.)

Biomes (split by species region)

Resources (split by species region)

WHEN

Ask yourself: when do the events of your story occur?The story you are telling may be the main focus of your book, but what happened to lead up to it? What has your main character’s species and world been through that is causing the story to occur? Even if the events of the world do not impact your story much, they will have had at least some level of ripple effect that reflects on your characters’ day-to-day. Was this civilization a warring one and the story takes place in a broken society? Or, has their society reached its peak of enterprise?

For each region in your world, establish the following:

Founding events

Defining events

Recent events

(if relevant) Future events

WHY

Ask yourself: why do the species in your world behave as they do?The why of your story will tie in with many of the previous points you’ve outlined, but it gets more to the point in a way that can directly apply to your story and characters. Why are things happening as they are today? What evolution did this society go through? Do they share common goals now or are your characters going against the grain of their people? What conflicts exist in this world, and is your main character involved in those conflicts or attempting to avoid involvement?

A few pertinent notes to take per species would be:

Social evolution

Societal goals

Societal conflicts

HOW

Ask yourself: how do the species in your world solve problems? In the category of ‘who’, you will have outlined your main characters’ abilities. These could be magical or technological or maybe they are super strong, or super smart. Now, you can get deeper into the magical or technological systems of your world. Start with your main characters and work outwards. Is everyone magical here? Do different species and races have different abilities? Is there a human or human-related race, and at what point are they at with their technology?

Figure out the following (for each species and race if applicable):

Magic abilities

Technological advancements

Scientific knowledge

Militaristic power

The World is yours: Command it

An author with a strong command of the world they are writing within will have at their fingertips an endless landscape of possibility. Look to authors such as J.R.R. Tokien or George R.R. Martin — it’s no wonder their works are so successful. They perfectly encapsulate what fantasy readers are looking for in a novel: escapism. The worlds don’t need to be pretty, they need to be fully formed; realistic in their mysticism.

World-building can seem like a lot of work, and it is. But do it bit by bit, and try to keep it fun. Don’t sit down in one day expecting to create your whole world. It’ll take time. But that time spent will be well worth it in the end!

#writing #writing community #creative writing #new author #writing help #writing tips #writing advice #writing resources #writing tips and tricks #editing #self publishing #world building #fantasy worldbuilding #worldbuilding #world creation

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