Daily Archives: May 18, 2012

IT’S A WONDERFUL WORLD

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            I was sitting at the computer, wondering what on earth I was going to write about, when I recalled an email I’d read earlier. It was about publishing, and the new options available to writers, and that’s what this is about.

            For what it’s worth, I’ve always dreamed of getting a contract with one of the big N.Y. publishers and making it big. Unfortunately, to many, that’s always been a pipe dream. Publishing is a difficult business at best and even though it’s us writers who provide the material from which companies earn money, and some of them even getting rich, writers don’t have the biggest part of the earnings.

            But that doesn’t mean we have nothing. I, for one, don’t write only for the money. I write because I must, because my life would be much emptier without it. I love my characters, my books, the ones published, finished, not finished, and even those not even thought of yet.

            But getting those finished books into the hands of publishers and ultimately out to bookstores, libraries and the like has always been difficult and now, is close to impossible. The big publishers want something that they feel will be an instant big money earner, like those of the well-established and very popular writers. That would be like expecting a kindergartner to be able to take theSATon his or her very first day of school – impossible. Well, I suppose there might be a few manuscripts from unknowns that publishers identify as “the right one.” But, there aren’t many, which leaves the rest of us waiting in the wings for something that might never happen.

            But my title refers to A Wonderful World. What do I mean by this? Have I lost it big time? Possibly, but I don’t think so.

            We have other options, and still might be able to get our loved manuscript turned into a book available to the public. First, we have the many ebook publishers that sprang up during recent years. Not only do they seem to be flourishing, they also take a chance on the type of stories that are innovative, different, or whatever. And what is great about them is the phenomenal rise of the ebook, which of course prompted readers such as the Nook, Kindle, and everything else. At first, I didn’t exactly love the idea of reading via a reader, but gave in and bought one, and absolutely love it. No matter the word count of the book, but it 50,000 or 150,000 words, the reader remains the same size and doesn’t result in a trip to the doctor after straining muscles carrying books. (I once took more than a dozen books with me when I was going to be in the hospital for a couple weeks. I refused to be without something to read.)

            But the newest venue available for writers is such as Smashwords, Pubit, and Amazon, the self-publishing method. While there may be some books out there that are not well-written, the fact remains that this method is available to all writers. We can get our books published, and some of those who have gone that route have even gotten good publishing contracts because of it. However, from what I understand, some writers have even chosen to stay with the self publishing method.

            I suppose I would be lying if I said I d rather go self-publishing than one of the big houses. At this point, I have done neither, but, I do know that I can get my beloved characters out there that they won’t lie in a drawer somewhere or under the bed gathering dust.

            In short, I believe in making the best of things, in looking for the good. Almost every cloud has a silver lining and I refuse to lose sight of that. If I’m delusional or a fool, I’ll be a happy one. I might add that, as of this writing, I have three books published through an ebook publisher, and am quite happy with that. As far as going the self-publishing route, I do have plans, maybe not for all my books, but at least some. We’ll see what happens.

 

Joan K. Maze

Writing as J. K. Maze

www.joanmaze.com

http://sleuthingwithmollie.wordpress.com

http://homicideandmayhem.wordpress.com

Murder By Mistake, book 1 in the Mollie Fenwick Mystery Series, available as an ebook from Red Rose Publishing, B&N, Fictionwise and Amazon

Murder By Mistake, book 1 in the Mollie Fenwick Mystery Series, available in paperback from Amazon

Murder For Kicks, book 2 in the Mollie Fenwick Mystery Series, available as an ebook from Red Rose Publishing, Fictionwise and Amazon

Framed In Fear, romantic suspense, available from Red Rose Publishing, Fictionwise and Amazon

Murder By Spook, book 3 in the Mollie Fenwick Mystery Series, in progress

Flight of the Hawk, a shapeshifter paranormal novella written under the name Jaye Leyel.

 

The Easy Way Out

Posted in Books, Writing by

As I study the craft of writing I find that I am overly sensitive to errors and mistakes.  I hear them or see them in other authors and I feel frustrated something sneaked through the cracks.  The biggest offenders are those that take the easy way out. By that I mean that something miraculously happens to get the characters out of a bad situation.

For example, I have been reading the Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher, an absolute phenomenal writer and master storyteller.  I highly recommend his books for writers because he has a true gift for description and action.  He knows how to vividly show what is happening instead of telling. I soak up his books and try to achieve what he does in my own work.  I’m part way through the series and one of the books I read marred my regard because the entire ending was filled with nothing but convenient easy ways out. I admit I had to take a break from the books because of my disappointment.  However, he’s so damn good that I picked them back up this week and have literately swallowed three more this week, and he has redeemed himself.  I forgive him for the lackluster ending of one book and have just eagerly downloaded another book.

I think as writers we eventually get stuck.  Some people have sagging middles or unresolved endings and it’s just easy to use a tried and true method to fix what is wrong.  It’s easy to have a knight standing by at the ready to save the Hero’s neck from a deathly blow.  Or to have a mysterious old man give out a clue that solves the case.  Or the divine intervention that brings someone back from the dead.  If written correctly these might work, but I find that in most circumstances they fail and ultimately destroy the story.

When I listen to agents talk they want what’s being written outside the box.  As a reader I too want the same thing.  I want to close the cover of a novel and feel as if I’ve just lived through the adventure of a lifetime.  I want to feel so deeply connected to the story that when I flip the last page I feel a traumatic sense of loss that my time with the characters is over.  As a writer, I want my readers to feel the same way.  I want them so deeply ingrained in the story that they can’t put it down for a second.  I want them literately hanging on to each page wondering how I’m going to get these two stubborn characters together, how they are going to survive when circumstances are dire with no chance of survival.  I want to give them the unexpected and untried solution.  I want them to work for the ending just as I had to when I was writing it.

When I’m crafting a story I can’t plot, so often times I don’t know how a story is going to end, or how a problem will be resolved.  When the time comes I write the solution and then I go back and ask myself if I took the easy way out.  If my answer is yes I revise and rework until I can honestly say I didn’t expect that to happen, or holy crap they survived and they did it without a miracle.

How do you feel about books that have an all too convenient ending? What cliché or tired endings have your found in books or even your own writing?  Anyone else a Dresden/Butcher fan?

Toodles,

Michelle