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Author, Blog, Book, Characters, children's book, Creative Writing, Electronic submission, Life, Publishers, Publishing House

Traditional Publishing

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The decision had been made for me to try get a publishing house to publish my books. I realized it is a crap shoot with today’s market and houses being more selective in what they decide to pick up.  The official Writer’s Market was purchased and I started tto work on finding those who seem to fit the books.

I have told a few people this but not many. One particular friend of mine does not seem to get it and I wonder how many are like her. When I told her it takes about 30 minutes to get one electronic submission complete she called my bluff. I did not even bother to mention how much time it takes to complete one submission that is submitted by smail.

Did you know that all the editing and revising is a waste of my time? That I should leave that for the publishers? No that is not how it is done- at least to me. If I don’t present the best possible product I can on my first try well that is a sure-fire way to get to the trash can.  Every time she ask me where am I at, the constant reply is editing, revising, submitting and writing. When she ask have I heard from a publisher yet I tell her these things take time.

It finally came to a head when she said have I tried to find publishers in the state, Ah yes I have. When she said well have you goggled it on-line for why she found over 100 publishers. Again ah yes I have.  Finally I had to just lay it out for I was getting just pissed.

In an email I wrote this:

For each publisher that I look at, the following has to be considered:

1-Are they still in business? Just because they are on-line does not mean their doors are open

2-Are they reputable?

3-Do they publish my genre and if so are they accepting submissions?

4-What are the guidelines?

5 This last one is very important. If you see the name Chris, one has to make sure you find out if

Chris is male or female. To put the wrong Mr or Ms is a sure way to get rejected.

All of this takes time and all of it has to be done per company.  I am trying to push two books right now, have two that I am revising and editing while working on three WIP.

This is all time-consuming, frustrating and down right makes one exhausted mentally, emotionally and physically. But realizing I have chosen to try traditional publishing first it has to be accepted this is what has to be done.  I just get really tired of people saying so what are you doing now? Why are you making a mountain out of a mole hole, it is not rocket science. No it is not- its torture that I have willingly inflicted on myself for I believe in my books. After all the work that was consumed in creating them, why not give them a chance?

Anti-hero, Character Development, Villain, Writing class

The Villain- Part 1

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Villain

 

These are my notes from week 5 of my Character Development class. Again the notes ran long so this will be a two parter.

The villain can be a situation such as stress, sweat, nerves etc. You have to make it a problem for the hero else it will fall flat.

What would you consider the villain to be like is something you need to ask yourself when creating this character.

-The dark side can be the high light of the story

-What seeds did you plant to lay the brickwork that lead to your villain?

-Evil can be situational or can be a person

-When you start creating a villain it is best you don’t show them early in the storyline but instead plant

the seeds. Give the reader suspense.

-Villain vs hero should be written in the first few pages of your storyline. But for the villain make it an image.

 

Some classic ways to show this is

-the villain enjoys the hero being in pain or sorrow

-focus on the personality and qualities vs the dramatic function of the villain

-get to the root of the characters for both hero and villain

 

Villain- This character has a very specific function in the story. Make him/her part of the story and by doing so show the personality. Break this character down to the core like you would the hero.

There are 4 elements to a villain

-Antagonist- your anti-hero

-Influence Characters- how they influence the good guy

-Second Most Central Characters

-Bad guy- This you show by the qualities they have and how they are depicted in the story

 

 

Antagonist- The goal is to prevent the hero from achieving their goal

-One way is to beat the hero to the prize

-Just disagreeing with the hero can be one way.

 

People will see the guy who is right as the hero and the one who isn’t as the antagonist

Bad guy-Does not mean he wallows in trouble but ask why they did it. How did they feel about the

situation?

Sometimes the dark side come across as

-defeat

-gang related

-trickster

-temptation

-when bad things happen

This all shapes the villain. It does not have to be specific. They could be the star of the story line if you over shadow your hero. Or your characters could flip-flop from being hero at the beginning and then the villain at the end.

How you want your villain to be in the story has to match up through to the end, any questions you have out there needs to be answered.  In a nutshell, a villain is nailed by their personality type, to do that get to the root of their character. Where are they from, why are they the way they are.

 

Publishing, Writers, Writers Conference, Writing

Writing Conference

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This past Saturday I attended my first writers conference. It was free and not to far away.

“Getting Published: What Do Publishers Want?” was the first seminar I attended. While the information obtain was not earth shattering new I still enjoyed being in the presence of actual publishers. Copious notes were taken for me to share with fellow writers who had not attended the conference.

I got two things out of this . The first was that small independent presses are willing to work with the author up front without a literary agent. In fact most prefer you don’t have one. Second, I was introduced to five more firms I can send my query letter to. For me these two things were worth my attendance.

The next seminar that caught my eye was “How To Write for Children”. One of the presenters was a 12-year-old boy who has three books in print. Most of the information was not new to be but I did learn again two thing. What I gained from this was two more publishing house names that I had not come across through the Writer’s Market book.

The last seminar I attended was “Traditional Publishing vs Self Publishing”. This section reaffirms what I have been doing since last March which is creating an online presence through social media outlets.

One of the panelist stated that people who go the traditional route are taken more serious. Also, more doors are open to them through the contacts they meet apart from the publishing house they are with.

If you are an aggressive individual and can promote yourself well self- publishing would work for you. If that is not your style and you need the help of a publisher it was recommended to try to get your book in print.

At the moment I am trying to go the traditional route. My books deserve the chance to shine in this avenue. For the past three weeks I have steadily been submitting query letters, chapters, synopsis and cover letters to various publishing houses. The list I am working from is only half way crossed off. A deadline in my head has been given and when that time frame comes then will be looking at self publishing.

Whether I am aggressive enough to promote myself remains to be seen. At least in this day and age I’m fortunate to have the option of ebooks where years ago that was not the case.