Are You Passionate About Your Dialogue Tags? by Linda S. Glaz

Okay, I posted information on a great article about dialogue tags by
Gail Gaymer Martin on my blog this week. Ooh, yeah. I got some interesting
emails about the topic. And that’s when I realized folks are mighty
passionate about their tags.

In romance novels, I can’t tell you how many times he snarled,
he growled, she purred.
REALLY?
Did she curl into his arms and actually purr?
My love life must be missing something.
Whew, but I do have to admit, some folks can get downright
snarky about people interfering with their dialogue tags.

Current thinking is that said and asked are more than enough IF
you use tags at all. Gaining favor are the action or emotional tags
that make very clear who is speaking without the old worn out
he said/she said. And lest anyone get upset with me, let me say,
I do understand. I have a favorite I love to use, and that would be,
he whispered. BUT! Wouldn’t there be more impact if I wrote:
His words fell as a soft tickle against her ear?
Instead of, he whispered.

We can give the reader a lot more if we simply remove some of those
tired old tags. I know, I know. Dialogue tags are the way it’s always
been done. I agree. But change is good. Go on now. Make it your new mantra.
Don’t be afraid, just say it.
Change is good.
Change is good.
You really can teach an old dog new tricks. YES!

Here you go: swing by Gail’s site and let me know what you think. By the way, Gail is a multi-multi-pubbed fiction author who also has written numerous highly acclaimed books on how to write, including, Writing the Christian Romance.
http://writingright-martin.blogspot.com/2011/07/cutting-dialogue-tags.html

Author Branding: Will It Help Sell More Books? by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

What is author branding?
It's the reputation you build in the publishing community and to your readers of what kind of stories to expect when they see your name on the cover of a book.

Is author branding necessary?
If you want to build readership, yes. If you want to sell more books, yes. Readers who like westerns aren't typically interested in a science fiction book. For this reason, so many authors have had to create pen names for various subgenres. People work hard for their money and they can chose to spend it on a number of things. You don't want them to be disappointed if they take a chance and spend it on your book. If that happens, most likely they won't spend more money on anything else with your name on it, nor will they encourage others to do so.

Author branding is another way of target marketing. If you are promoting your book based on the book's contents, you are going to appeal to those who would like that particular book. Marketing and advertising is expensive. You don't want to waste your time and money trying to appeal to an audience who won't like what you write. You aren't likely to sell many books that way, and it doesn't make sense. So why wouldn't you create an author brand for yourself?

If you're like me, you might be hesitant to build a label around yourself because you don't want to be limited to writing one kind of book. I've already mentioned pen names as one way to get around this. Another way is to write the same subgenre for a decade or two and then rebuild your image. Lots of authors do this, and if you do it well, you won't lose readers, in fact you may gain more. 

For instance, a contemporary romance author may chose to brand him/herself as a romantic suspense author. That way you aren't losing readers who like romance and contemporaries, you're just giving them a new element to read along with what they already read. Keep the subgenres similar, but give readers more. This will ultimately lead to more readers, which will lead to more sells.

Do unpublished authors need an author brand?
Yes. Before you can sell books on a store shelf, you first have to sell to a publisher. You need to stand out among the masses of other writers. There isn't enough shelf space for all the wanna-be writers in the world, so you've got to find a way to stay out of the slush piles. There are a lot of good writers who sit in the slush piles year after year. Their works are good enough to be on the shelf of a bookstore. The difference is, their marketing proposals may not be unique enough or stand out and get noticed or they don't go to writer's conferences and network w.

At one time I believed it was true that good writing would get noticed. But with the competition the way it is today, the demand so buoyant, and the hectic schedule of the publishing industry, I no longer believe that's true. You still have to get someone to read your work in order for it to be noticed. That can only happen if you stand out in promoting yourself and your work whether through networking or the submission process, which leads write back to your proposals. 

You must make a good impression in your proposal and presentation of your work before an editor or agent actually sits down to read it. If your proposal doesn't stand out, they'll never turn to the first page of your manuscript. Alternatively, if they skip all the other and first flip to the first page of your manuscript, then the next thing they look for is your bio and your marketing and platform potential. Many look for a website or Google your name to see how active you are on the Internet.

Remember, an unpublished writer is selling to an agent or editor. These folks are looking for specific markets where they know they can sell something. While good writing has to go along with it, if an author has written something that's great, but the story isn't right for an open spot, then it still won't sell. Don't waste their time or yours. Sometimes a quick rejection is a good thing. It will give you a chance to get that manuscript where it belongs much faster than wasting time on an editor's desk where it isn't going anywhere. By building an author brand, you will be letting them know upfront what they are getting from you. This will help you appeal to the right agents and editors. Target market to the right publishers and you will sell faster.

Plus, publishers have less in their marketing budgets for new authors and mid-list authors. They reserve most of their budgets for the BIG name authors where they know their investment will pay off. Therefore, a new author will have to do so much more of their own marketing. By showing you are ahead of the game in your promotion and author branding, an editor will feel more comfortable taking a chance on you. This means if it comes down to your good writing as opposed to another author's good writing for one publication spot, you might have the edge since you have self-marketing potential. Editors are looking for authors they can build into careers for a long investment, not one-time book wonders.

Republished from Jennifer Hudson Taylor's Writing blog 
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Getting Published by Terry Burns

There's a concept we need to get a handle on,  "Publishing isn't a selection process . . . it is a survival process." 

Really?- Yes, I believe the biggest secret to publishing is the ability to get the RIGHT PRODUCT to the RIGHT PERSON at the RIGHT PLACE at exactly the RIGHT TIME.  There are bestseller quality manuscripts that will never be published because the only person who can write them never makes this elusive connection. They give up.

You see, the odds on all four of these ingredients being in place when we make a submission is not good, so even if we are pitching a wonderful project it is going to miss on one of these a lot of the time. That's when we hear the dreaded "Sorry, not a fit for us at the present time."

We all know some books that were printed that we wonder about.  The only reason for that is that it was the right subject and it hit the person, place and time.  Maybe we send a much better book on the same topic right after it has been purchased and is on its way to press.  Since ours is much better they'll stop the presses and do ours instead, right?

Wrong, hitting all four of these correctly is the whole game, miss any one of the four and it's NO SALE, no matter how good the manuscript is.  It's like a jigsaw puzzle that has several dozen pieces, and if one is missing the puzzle can't be finished - which means publishing doesn't happen.  MOST OF THE TIME these pieces are not all there.  We're hunting that elusive place where all the pieces fit.  

So, how do we improve the odds?  How do we rule out sending to the wrong places?  How do we give our manuscript a better shot when it gets there?  I believe it means being brutally honest about our work, and about how it is going to be looked at.  This is no place for rose-colored glasses or unrealistic optimism.  Sometimes we have trouble really hearing feedback we get on our project because we think we pretty well have it nailed, but do we?

Or does it need some work in order to be the "right product"? Have we really done the research necessary to insure we are sending to the "right person" at the "right place"? If we have, then telling them what we found out that makes us feel it to be true is very valuable in a pitch.

Then finally is our pitch itself helping or hurting us? Does it present us as a seasoned professional (even if we aren't we should look like one)? If you need a little help on your pitch or your proposal I do have a book on the topic entitled "A Writer's Survival Guide to Publication" that can walk you through the process a point at a time. You can find it at Amazon or in the bookstore at my website at www.terryburns.net  - or there are a number of other good books on the subject.

Details, Details, Details, The Key to 3-D Writing by Andy Scheer

John Steinbeck reveals the secret in the first paragraph of Travels With Charley, the account of his 1960 drive “in search of America,” with a pick-up camper rig and a standard poodle:

"When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage. …"

Steinbeck writes about the urge to get away literally—but it applies just as much to how you can take your readers away. How to take them from their living room to another place, another time, another set of realities.

Did you miss the secret? Look again at what he says evokes that urge:

"Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement."

That's sensory detail. In this case, specific sounds. Not just a ship's whistle, but “four hoarse blasts.” Not just a horse's hooves, but “shod hooves on pavement.”

And notice the tactile description of the results. An “ancient shudder.” “Dry mouth … hot palms … churn of stomach high up under the rib cage.”

Searching for Specifics
Whenever I open a manuscript or a published book, fiction or nonfiction, I look for that rich sensory detail, those bits of specific description appropriate to the topic and treatment that will place a reader fully in the world the author has created.

Last night I browsed the opening page of False Claims at the Little Stephen Mine, a 1992 western by pastor and writer Stephen Bly.

     "A buzzing sound past his right ear and a simultaneous distant explosion tumbled Stuart Brannon from the back of his horse. Sage strained to bolt, but the rope, looped to a yellow pine log, held hard and fast to the horn.
     "With .44 drawn, Brannon jerked a '73 Winchester from the scabbard and then fumbled to unhitch his black gelding. At the sound of a second shot, Brannon and Sage dropped to the dirt.
     "The horse was dead.
     "Rolling on the ground, Brannon dove behind the log, not chancing a look over the top. A heavy, deep blue autumn sky teased of summer. Masses of white clouds rumbled along like prairie wagons trying to make the pass before the first snows.
      "Brannon didn't watch. He listened."

For now, don't even consider Bly's other techniques, the way he plunged his readers immediately into the action and how he used vivid, evocative verbs. Look just at the specific details—and how many of them appeal to the reader's senses.

But you say you don't want to write action-packed westerns. You want to write contemporaries, with a hint of romance. Fine. What sensory details do your POV characters, male and female, tend to notice? I recently read a general market story set on the Las Vegas strip, where the lead character is in charge of customer relations for a mega-casino. Here's a paragraph from early in the first chapter, in a short bridge scene after the incident that started the story rolling:

"The casino at the Babylon is much like any other. An intimate labyrinth, subtly decorated, windowless and, tonight, jam-packed with people all paying and praying for whatever it was they hoped to get in Vegas. A thin layer of smoke hovered over the crown, as the slot machines sang their come-on songs, and occasional shouts arose from the tables. Cocktail waitresses wearing painted-on smiles and little else darted in and out delivering free libations and collecting the empties. Young women paraded around in tight-fitting clothes they wouldn't be caught dead in back home. Pierced and tattooed young men, their jeans hanging precariously across their butts, followed the young women. ..."

Later the author has reason to zoom in. Readers get the specifics (including prices) of designer-name shoes, dresses, and jewelry she and the other characters wear. But for now, like a filmmaker providing an establishing shot, she offers layers of more general descriptions and trusts the reader's imagination to fill in the rest. And while her “Bablyon” casino is fictional, she takes advantage of her research and makes frequent reference of actual details to recreate the city for readers, whether or not they've ever been there.

Whatever story you're writing, that's your goal.

How Much is Too Much? by Linda S. Glaz

When do you lose your voice?
I’m not talking about singing ten solos for the church musical; I’m talking about your wonderful, delightful, nobody has the same as you—writing voice.

So, when and how do you lose it?

Your crit partners get first crack at it, well, after mom and any other person who will tell you how absolutely wonderful you are, reads it. Then, hopefully, an agent. And then, joy of all joys, an editor!

You are asked to make changes.

Some you like, some you don’t, but this is an editor talking—about YOUR book. So you make them. A few are really great and your novel soars to what it could have been all along, but then you’re asked to change the essence of your story.
And you know that by changing the essence, the voice will no longer be yours.

What do you do?

There’s a fine line between tweaking and destroying your uniqueness. How do you walk the fine line? When do you say enough?

Prioritize Promotional Events by Jennifer Hudson Taylor

While special events are a great way to promote your books, they can also be a drain on finances, time, and energy.  Therefore, you need to prioritize which events will be best for you and stick to your budget and schedule when unexpected opportunities arise.

Each event is different with varying purposes. You may attend some events for the following reasons: 1) sell books, 2) raise awareness about you and your book, 3)  to give back to the community 4) as a means to provide a ministry


Here are some recommended tips:
1) Before your book launch, plan your promotional budget for events and determine your top goals.

2) Keep in mind that events where books are not sold will require you to bring your own books and you may be required to rent space, table and chairs. You may have to buy meals if it is an all day event. Also, if it is out of town, there will be travel and lodging costs.

3) Browse local community calendars at the libraries, bookstores, chamber of commerce, church listings, festivals, etc for events that may have a tie-in to any kind of topic in your novel. If you have a nascar book, consider a nascar event. I write historical novels in Scotland, so the highland games are always great selling avenues for me. What topic or themes in your novels can you capitalize on?

4) Google writing conferences and workshops and send an email with your credentials, bio and links to offer your services as a speaker. Often, they will cover the cost of your travel, lodging, and pay you an honorarium, as well as allow you to bring and sell your books.

5) Some book signings are still worth it even if you only sell one or two novels. It you have a local book signing, you don't have to bring your own books, you don't have the cost of travel and rental space, and all it takes is one reader who may spread the word to 4-5 more people and help you pick up more readers. Even if people don't buy your books, they may go home and Google your name, so make sure you have a large sign or banner on or by your table. This is where passing out bookmarks, postcards, magnets and business cards are key.

6) Hold online events. You can host contests, giveaways, workshops, video Q&A, video interviews, podcasts, and digital book signings. New technology is allowing people to be very creative, accessible, and economical. Take advantage of these opportunities.

Any other ideas? Please share!

Bad Submissions by Terry Burns

It happens every day.

I open my inbox and there they are, submissions that shouldn't even be there. There's really no excuse for it. Our submission guidelines are very clear on markets that we don't work in at present. Not that we have anything against them, just that we can't spread ourselves that thin and have to make some choices. It says at present we aren't working in sci-fi or fantasy, in markets for children (below middle reader), poetry, short fiction, screenplays, scripts or magazine articles. It says we are probably not the right place for your literary fiction nor for books with extraordinary violence, profanity or gratuitous  sexuality. It's all spelled out.

So why do people send them anyway? They wouldn't apply for a job without reading a want ad or something that would tell them what the job is so they would know whether it was worth their time to apply or not. The submission guidelines at our agency as well as other agencies or publishing houses are our 'want ads' as to what we are looking to see.

Maybe it is a genre we would consider but it is simply not ready to submit. Maybe the word count is way too large for any market we work in or perhaps too small. It could be the formatting is just not professional or that it has far too many typos, grammar problems, opens too slow or doesn't have good story flow.  Someone sent it before it was ready, and such a submission just can't compete with others that are coming in polished to a fine point needing little work from an overworked editor or agent.

It could also be that it is just not unique enough. It is unfortunate that we often see a large number of people choosing to write very similar books at exactly the same time. Something probably happened in the news that gave each of them a similar idea. It isn't their fault that they have spent a huge amount of time writing a book that a thousand other people were writing as well. No way to know. Not fair. But the reality is that the first books to get to the market get the contracts then the market is saturated. Any time we start opening submissions that are too much like a bunch of others we are receiving, it tells us the market is not going to be there because everybody else is also receiving the same type of submissions.

It's hard for a writer to have someone pass on taking their work, but guess what? It's hard on us too. It's depressing to have to spend the morning turning down submission after submission, knowing that it isn't just a letter but the actual hopes and dreams of the author. Even when it something that should not have been sent in the first place it takes time to work and it takes a toll on us having to do it as well.

I don't understand why people don't check submission guidelines and send what editors and agents want in the manner that they wish to receive them. Failing to do so can't help but make the recipient wonder if the person who doesn't look at, or even worse ignores the guidelines, would be a difficult author to try and work with. I wonder about that when my guidelines say I don't take hard copy submissions and people send them anyway. Why?

I hate proposals pasted into an email. They are hard to read and generally it destroys the formatting. Some people WANT to receive them that way, but that information is readily available in the submission guidelines as to who wants it which way. A proposal is a single, well-formatted document that looks professional, not a dozen files attached or a link to a place online where you can find the information. We can't pitch a project that way so those are useless to us.

I suppose it boils down to the fact that I turn very few projects down. A lot of what is coming in takes itself out of consideration. Some days we get more than others, such as today, which prompted this little epistle. But then there is the submission that is beautifully prepared and formatted, that tells me why the person submitting thinks I am the right choice for it, what it is and the word count. I'm interested. The 2-3 page synopsis tells me it might be a unique story idea. I'm intrigued. The first page pulls me in and and by page ten I am invested in the story. I'm hooked into asking for the full. The flow, the voice and the story do not let me down.

Those are the submissions we are digging through the pile looking for. And that's what the clients I represent used to make me a believer in their work.