E-Pub Excellence (or Electric Feels*)

*with apologies to MGMT

Tip of the Day: Time Warner is now carrying Showtime again -- get ready for Homeland Season 3 on Sun, Sept. 29 @ 9PM! It is a great lesson in character development, plot twists, and cliffhangers.

When I bought my Nook in December 2011, part of my excitement was that I could easily purchase and read self-e-pubbed books. And since then I've read some really great ones -- including those by my critique partners (Theft of the Star Tracker by Lisa Tiffin) and my A2A Misses (Paparazzi Project by Kristina Springer and Sleepers by Megg Jensen). Today I'd like to mention some and here they are, in no particular order:


I read Shana's first traditionally pubbed book, SOMETHING TO BLOG ABOUT, when it came out in 2008 and found it hilarious. Earlier this year I read The Rules of You and Me and wow, Shana has grown as a writer with this beautiful realistic tale that fans of Sarah Dessen will enjoy.





I've read traditionally pubbed books by both Cyn and Mandy, so when I saw this book written by both of them for only 99 cents, I couldn't pass it up and I'm glad I didn't. Getting Caught is a clever school story of girls who have been best and worst friends.










I won a copy of Dolphin Girl from the author and put off reading it for a bit because I thought it was a paranormal romance. Not so! It is another lovely contemporary YA school story with a great setting and well developed main character.







I'd heard Megg mention Wool numerous times on Facebook and I finally purchased the first installment -- and flew through it. I immediately bought the whole omnibus. While it has been bought by a trad publisher for its print book form, Hugh's work was originally an amazing self-e-pubbed adult novel with an intriguing sci-fi setting and captivating chapter endings.




I know there will be many more great self-e-pubbed works in my future! Which ones have you read and loved lately?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing
www.deenalipomi.com

Warning: Your Life Will Not Drastically Change

Tip of the Day: Looking for a job in editing in the Chicagoland area? Albert Whitman just announced an opening for a children's book acquisitions editor.

A facebook friend's post made me think of this week's topic. In it he said that he was writing a book and that if you (his friends reading this post I assume) aren't there for him now during this initial writing process then you sure as heck better not ring him up when he's published and rich and famous.  

Published and rich and famous. Hmm.

Well, I guess I've got to break the news. Getting published isn't going to change your life. Much. Sure it's fun and exciting and book covers are shiny and all that. But unless someone just bought your book for a million dollars and you're going to be getting the top marketing treatment that only very very few authors ever see, then you're still going to have to cut the grass tomorrow, lug the kids to soccer, and clean the toilets.

I met a debut author at a reception not to long ago and he asked me too-- is my whole life going to change after this? And I told him the truth. Nope, not really.

At the last book club event I did with 4th and 5th graders they asked me questions like, are you a millionaire? Do you live in a mansion? Do paparazzi follow you around everywhere you go? I thought their questions were awfully cute but yeah, it's really not that different than before my first book came out.

I think people hear you're an author and assume you're making Snooki book money but that just isn't the case. The majority of the time advances on books are pretty low-- maybe $10,000 to $30,000 per book. $100,000 if they really want the book. But even if it's the $100k, break that down-- take out agent fees, taxes, and split it up over the years that it takes the book to come out (for me it took almost a year to write and revise the book and then another 2 1/2 years from the date I sold the book until it published) and you're making what your local part-time crossing guard is making. Agent Mandy Hubbard does a brilliant job breaking down how an author gets paid in this 2011 post.

After saying all this, I have to tell you that I DO love being an author. It's the best job I've ever had (and I've tried lots of jobs!). But the reason is because I love writing. I love telling stories. And I think that's the key, loving what you do. If you're looking at being an author because you want to be rich and famous, well maybe try out for a reality show instead because the chances are slim. But if writing makes you happy then stick with it. But don't quit your day job. :-)

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Creating Memorable Characters

Tip of the Day: Check out Literary Agent Kristin Nelson's vlog on the difference between YA and MG.


I've been researching how to create memorable characters and finding snippets of information that I think would be useful to share. 


Easy on the Names


Like from this site the author Lee Masterson says, "The name must not only suit the character, but must also be easy on your intended readers. If you decide the name Xzgytgml is the only name that suits your character, bear in mind that the reader is forced to stop and stumble through the unfamiliar word, which means he is no longer engrossed in your story." And, yeah, this happens to me all the time when I'm reading. I can't get past some of these crazy names and they pull me from the story each time.


Use Tags


Glen C. Strathy says we should use tags to make our characters stand out. "Tags are things which identify a character and set him or her apart from other characters."


"Tags can include physical traits, clothing preferences, hairstyles, habitual mannerisms, facial expressions, speech habits, noises the character makes, or even scents - anything, in fact, that a person interacting with the character would notice about him. The combination of a character's tags should set him or her apart from all other characters in the novel."


This is a problem I've seen in various novels (including my own) where the characters might talk too alike or use the same lingo or have the same ticks. It confuses the reader and might pull them from the story to backtrack and see who is talking.


Show, Don't Tell


Author/Agent Mandy Hubbard wrote a great blog post about creating memorable characters here. In it she talks about how we need to discover a character like pulling back the layers of an onion, a little at a time. " For instance, if your character is shy/awkward, please, please do not have her think, “I do not feel comfortable in crowds. I would like to avoid them. I am a shy person.” Instead, have her wipe her sweaty palms on her jeans. Let her stomach lurch when the teacher calls on her in class."  I ran into something like this just the other day when I was compiling a reading list. I was reading the first few pages of a particular book and the main character said on page two, I have ADD and that means I have a hard time sitting still and paying attention to the teacher and so on. I gave up on the book right there. I knew I wouldn't be able to sit through a whole book with a character just telling me things about himself.


Make Your Characters Three Dimensional


Susan Denard makes a great point that we must not forget about our bad guys in our books. They need to be memorable too. "The key to crafting a good villain is all how 3-dimensional he/she is–the villain isn’t simply bad to be bad. He’s bad for a reason, and readers need to understand what that reason is."


Avoid Cliches


Libba Bray talks about avoiding the typical stock character everyone's seen a million times. "Question assumptions, stereotypes and stock characters. Round characters aren’t black and white. Villains don’t think of themselves as villains. They aren’t all good or all bad."


Know Your Characters Inside and Out


Lucia Zimmitti says, "If your readers don't care about your characters, you're sunk. Readers don't necessarily have to like all of your characters, but they have to care about what happens to your main character, or there's no reason for them to keep reading." And it's the truth. It doesn't matter how awesome your plot is, if the reader doesn't care about your character the book won't be memorable. That's why it's important to work on the backstory of your characters and know as much as possible about them. There are character charts all over the Internet but Lucia has some interesting exercises to try once you're tired of the charts.


Kristina, Miss Author in Action