Questions?
Kate Elliott June 13th, 2006
Wondering when the next Deverry novel by Katharine Kerr is coming out? How David Edelman worked out his Infoquake timeline? What interesting research Carol Berg did for her new series? Why Kate Elliott wrote a seven volume trilogy? What Constance Ash knows about Cuba? How Lois Tilton feels about her recent nomination for the Sidewise Award?
If you have a specific question for one of the authors, ask it here.
We reserve the right to develop a FAQ if certain questions get asked repeatedly, but don’t let that stop you!
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Thanks, Lynn.
Not so much a question as a comment and a question….
question. Why are books cheaper in the US than the UK?
Comment…The genre question is an interesting one…here is another take….in a world with various degrees of bad news fantasy & sci fi form escapist literature where (usually) the good ends well and the bad ends badly. I like that. Deep or shallow, generally fantasy is consistent in this regard. If I don’t want to escape I’ll watch the world news.
Not exactly a question for an author, but a comment/question relating to this blog. I’ve tried three times now to send an email with my 13 lines for the 13-Line Critique, but all my emails have been returned. Hoping there’s a way to get around this…
Ah–never mind my last post.
Hello,
I actually have two questions - a general one for all the authors and a specific one for Katharine Kerr….
General:
Alright, I am a young, teenage writer. I am currently writing my…fifth?…story. Three of the others are not anything…their concept died…one I wrote when I was young, but the one I’m on now is my best. When I write it, it leaves me with a really great feeling inside…I can see it going places. But, I don’t know HOW it will get there.
I was hoping one of the authors, or anyone else could perhaps enlighten me and tell me how they got their manuscript to an editor…or a publisher? Was it through a literary agent? I have found no one who can really tell me anything so far…and I want this book published when it is finished!
That would be great if someone could let me know ^_^
Thank you,
—Emma
SPECIFIC question:
Dear Ms. Kerr,
I must start off by saying a friend of mine got me addicted to your books. In the story that I am writing, I asked a few close friends to create a character for me (Perhaps not a great idea, but they ARE credited in the acknowledgments, and they DID agree to it and knew what they were getting into) The friend of mine who reads your stories…he gave me a character.
I love this character, he’s amazing. The only problem is…he’s an elf. Grant it, that’s not much of a problem. My problem is, I need to know if my friend gave me a character that hugs too close to your elves. Other elves show up later…the last part of all the male names is -teriel. I am wondering if that is too close to, say, perhaps (the first name coming to mind!) Devaberiel. Also, in the description of the character, he said he had the long pointy ears and cat-slit eyes.
If this is too close for comfort, I can change it to the normal, pointy at the top end ears and normal (or maybe my own type) of pupils. I’ll find a different ending for the names, either scratching it all together or making the names fancier.
I would really, really, REALLY appreciate it if you could answer to this, Ms. Kerr, because if I DO get the book published, I do not want to seem like someone who is plagiarizing, because I am not trying to.
Please, please, please let me know, it would mean a lot to me (this has been gnawing at me since I was given the character.)
Thank you,
–Emma.
Writing Question:
When writing a first draft I find that I haven’t much of a problem generating the first 10K of words before needing to make sure I have an outline for the rest of the novel. The problem that I am experiencing is that the fire/excitement that spurred the first part of the novel diminishes greatly after developing the outline. This happens to me every time I write an outline for a story whether it is a short or a novel – whether the idea proves to be good or bad.
Has anyone else experienced this? If so, how do you work around the lost off “writing adrenaline� that comes with writing a detailed outline?
Then don’t stop to write the outline.
Start small: write short stories all the way to the end without pausing to outline them. Then you move to Phase Two - revision. You may discover that the story is badly flawed, possibly because you had no outline for it. This would be a good time to outline it. You have already reached the end, so the problem of lost momentum should not keep you from reaching it.
Working this way - pushing the story through to the end on adrenaline for a complete rough draft - definitely will require a lot more work on the revision process, but it’s possible for some people that having once typed The End will allow you to shift successfully from inspired-rough-draft mode to revision mode, even if revision mode entails throwing the whole thing away and starting over.
In that case, you should discover that you either don’t need the outline at all, or that it’s just part of the revision process.
Hello Lois,
Thanks so much for the advice. I’ve got a short story brewing that I haven’t yet outlined; it’s just a few quick notes. I’m going to try plowing through, and see how the process it goes!
In any case, I’m sure the experience will be good.
Cheers,
Erin
Good luck!
I am wondering why Katherine’s new book isn’t listed under “Author News”. It seems to me that this is the perfect place to promoste newly published books by the DeepGenre authors.
P.S. My copy of The Golden Falon, purchased through Amazon, just arrived today.
Cheers,
Erin
Emma,
Let me answer your question to Kit about the elf with the cat-slitted eyes and the name that ends in -terriel: Nothing is specifically original, but plenty of things are terribly reminiscent. Consider this question: In the world with this elf with the cat-slitted eyes, would you also include small people with hairy feet who love food, telepathic teleporting firebreathing dragons who mentally bond with their riders, and a young wizard with glasses and a lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead?
It’s perfectly fine to be inspired by something you read–everyone does it–but it’s both good manners and good form to file the serial numbers off so folk won’t know where you got it. Quite simply, if you don’t, it looks unoriginal. There’s not a problem with pointed ears because elves have had pointed ears since the Victorian age (though not before), but the rest? Invent your own elven name suffixes and perhaps choose a different animal bit than cat’s eyes. Look into some legends and see what looks right.
This is a general site question. I’m posting it here in case others were thinking along the same lines.
What do we do if we have an article/idea/issue etc that we would like to discuss? There was an interesting article in my weekend paper about Google’s plan for an on-line library, and the ramifications of this. I didn’t agree with much of what was said, and I would be very interested to know what other writers think about this. Is this the sort of thing that can be discussed here, or not?
Just wondering.
I am working on different suffixes that go well with the prefix of the name already created and have been thinking about possibly doing star shaped pupils. But I might get away from the suffixes and the pupils just so that it’s a lot less like Katharine Kerr’s work than it was before.
I really love the idea of looking back into legends…though I’m not sure where to start! Thank you for that advice though!
However, I am still wondering about the publishing thing? How exactly do you get it published?
Another question…how do you come up with a good title for your story? I’m lost!
Rosamunda, I think you certainly can discuss such things here. I’m not sure how you initiate a post, since you’re not one of the Blogger Staff, but maybe Kevin knows. He knows a lot more about technical stuff than I do.
First off, as an add-on to Rosamunda’s question, maybe a forum would be a nice addition to the blog?
Then my question: Names. How do you deal with names in stories? I’ve got a lot of stories in my mind, but every time I start writing them, I get blocked by not being able to come up with any good names. Somehow fantasy authors (the good ones at least) always seem to find names that sound really plausible (pronouncable, easy to use, etc.) and normal, without actually sounding anything like modern names. Ie., I really love the names from Raymond E. Feist’s work. They sound… good.
But I can’t come up with the right names. I have a problem with using modern names, because people around me will think I’ve been using them as a model. (Always loved the name Jasper, but that’s my best friend’s name. And my story is most definitely not about him.)
How do you do it?
Well, everyone is going to have a different approach. my own feeling is that you do not want familiar names (Bob, Ted, Frank, or even Pierre, Mathilde, Louis) if your world has nothing to do with Earth. Mixing them is even worse, unless you are mixing cultures. In other words, it’s going to be hard to believe in an isolated planet of 2,000 years if you’ve got Bob, Li Po, Maria, and Xinthyqqq–all in the same family.
some writers think they can get around the familair name problem by weird spellings, or fly-specking the names with a apostrophes that make no linguistic sense. (B’ob, Tyd’d, P’hryn’q) but the problem is, how is the reader supposed to pronounce those? Does the y sound like ‘eye’ or ‘eee’ or ‘ih’? Do the apostrohpes make clicks or glottal stops? Or do they serve to mark where consonants dropped out, as in Irish names (o’Malley) or French when the next letter is a vowel (d’Alembert instead of de Alembert)?
Some recommend baby books as basics, and then make up your own meanings, adding prefixes and suffixes that are meant to be common to your world. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller use two single-syllable names for their Liaden first names:, like Val Con. Easy to say, recognize, and is culturally distinct.)
Some take regular words or names and do anagrams or syllable shifts, or just swap vowels around, so a name like Teresa becomes Teeras.
It’s probably a safe bet to say: play around, but try for names that seem culturally related–like we can usually tell the sound of a Spanish name or a Chinese name. Try to pin down your culture’s “sound.” If you come up with names you like but you’re not sure the reader will easily be able to “hear” them, have someone from outside your culture try to pronounce one and get corrected, or have someone sound it out to spell it.
And some writers diligently try their names out in language searches (I don’t know how, so I wince and hope) so that the full name of their adventure hero doesn’t turn out to be “Looking up the Snake’s Nostril with a Toothbrush” in Azbekastani.
If I could create a cool name that meant “Looking up the Snake’s Nostril with a Toothbrushâ€? in Azbekastani, I’d used it right on the spot
Thanks for your reply, Sherwood. I like the one with taking normal words and hussling them around. I think I’m going to use that one. I’ll see how it works out.
(Me too, about the snake…)
Good luck!
What about publishing?
aaaaand titles?
First off, I answered Emma’s questions to me personally in email.
Erin, good point about adding newly published books to the Author News.
Getting published: I found an agent and learned about the publishing process by reading books, free, from my public library. This was so long ago now that I don’t want to recommend any titles — the publishing world has changed mightily in the last 25 years. However, my general advice is: go to your public library and look up “publishing” in its catalog or directory. If yours uses the Dewey Decimal system, the books on the subject will be in the 000’s.
Libraries are a great source of free, reliable information, unlike some websites which are less than reliable or filled with crochety personal opinions. Amusing, maybe, but nothing to start a career with. Libraries have the books you need for research, too, again in reliable sources IF you check the publication dates of the books. Sometimes very old information about, say, planetary systems is very wrong.
In short, there are no easy answers to questions about how to get published, just as there’s no easy way to write a novel. Once you’ve got the basic terms down on the process, then you can ask specific questions here.
Erin, that’s why I hate outlines. Lois’s adivice is excellent, as per usual.
In fact, here’s a good exercise for those who have trouble turning out fnished work. It’s called the Short Story Challenge. I think Nina Kiriki Hoffman is the writer who invented it, some years ago now. What you do is get together with a couple of other writers here online in order to inspire each other. You all agree to write the first draft of a different short story each day for X many days. Remember that the draft does not have to be publishable or good — in fact, it won’t be, for sure.
The idea is to summon the adrenaline to charge through a bunch of first drafts, even if the drafts turn out to be ridiculous or horrible messes. Then, at a more leisured pace, you can revise them to get them right. The challenge gives you a heap of raw material plus solid experience in finishing pieces of work. Remember: nothing finished, nothing published.
I have a few world building questions that seem much more applicable to the craft section of the site than the general discussion that is happening on the main page. However, I didn’t see a way to post a question directly to the craft page….. so I am posting them here. I hope that ok.
When you are building a world that is as complex as the one within Katharine’s Deverry novels (which spans multiple continents, cultures and times), how to you avoid getting lost in the creation process?
- How much time do you spend designing the world before you started writing?
- What are some of the dangers to look out for when your world starts to fill itself in while you are writing?
- How do you manage to keep track of everything? (Family histories, traditions, cultures, food, clothing, etc.)
Cheers!
Erin
I’m joining Emma and Aria in asking about coming up with a title for a book.
Do authors have sole say in this, or does a publisher wield some control over the name of the book?
Also, for the authors, what preferences do you have, if any, for naming your books?
And, when do you come up with the title for the book? At the beginning? After a completed first draft?
As I am not a published writer, I cannot say what the final title of any of my stories would be. My naming process for the book is as follows:
1) I establish what I call a “working title”, which is, more often than not, a location within the story. The location I use is sort of a mental trigger for me for the story. I have a list of potential books for this timeline and most are named after places. Those simple names are placeholders for all of the events that will happen within the book (partly at the location of the working title). That works for me. All I need to do is see the name of the location in my list and I know right away a whole host of information for that potential story.
2) Events in the book itself, once the initial draft is completed, will often end up inspiring a different title than the working one. While the name of a place works well for me, it most likely won’t translate the same for the reader, with a few exceptions. The trilogy I have embarked on will keep the location name for the third book as the location itself is essential to the whole story. It is, in fact, the very reason for the main conflict.
This leads me to another question:
Naming a series (trilogy or otherwise).
I guess I would ask the same questions as I did above for the title of a book.
I want a name that will make readers want to snatch it up and recommend it to all their friends!!! But, of course there are a few additional considerations. FIrst and most important, I want the title to reflect the essence of the book. I love titles that can work on several levels (like Transformation). Second, I want it to reflect the feel of the book. I write epic fantasy, so I want the name to carry both magic and weight. Third, I’ve got to consider the recognition factor. Transformation, Revelation, and Restoration have that suffix thing going, for example.
I choose the names. But as in every other case, the publisher - especially the marketing department - certainly has input, and it behooves an author to listen.
Of course, I can only speak from my experience with Roc (Penguin Putnam) and Orbit (my UK publisher). I have eight books out and I’ve chosen the names for all of them. In only one case did I change a title. The second book of the Rai-kirah series was originally titled Abomination (which is an absolutely “correct” title). But my UK editor worried that it might lead people to mistake the book for horror rather than fantasy, and they asked me to consider different names. Together my UK editor and I came up with Revelation, which turned out to be much, much better. A much better feel.
Sometimes the title hits me early. I knew that Flesh and Spirit would be the title of my next book after one chapter. The same for Transformation. Whereas the second book in the series is still under a working title. I just haven’t got the sense of as yet (and I’m almost halfway in) - but that’s mainly because I’m looking to mirror the dual word title of the first book. Yes, series can cause more of a problem…
There are lots of resources available. One decent book is “How to Get Happily Published.” The annual “Writers Market” often will have essays about getting published. You do need to learn about the business before setting out. Get to any good-sized bookstore and you’ll find shelves of books on getting published.
Local writers’ organizations will often sponsor workshops or presentations on publishing (in Colorado we have the Rocky Mountain FIction Writers in Denver, for example, or the Pikes Peak Writers in Colorado Springs). These organizations will often sponsor weekend writers’ conferences that offer LOTS of information on the craft of writing (as well as on publishing) in multiple workshops. These can be expensive, but if you are serious, it can be a great experience. Science fiction conventions are generally less expensive, but will often have panel discussions on publishing, as well as on writing sf and fantasy and lots of other topics. Some of the panels are good, some aren’t.
I actually got my break at a writers’ conference. I signed up to read the opening of my book for an editor from Roc. She liked it and wanted to see it when it was completed. Having the interest of an editor helped me get an agent. So that when the editor made an offer on the book (and two other books) I had someone to negotiate the deal. I had done reading and gone to a couple of conferences and learned the basics of the business before it happened. And I had a completed manuscript. That is very important!
Carol
Thank you, Carol. I’ll finish my manuscript and see what I can do!
A question for Katharine Kerr:
Do you, perhaps, know when the paperback version of the Gold Falcon comes out??
–Aria
How important is it to have other publications, such as short stories, on your resume when submitting your manuscript to an agent or editor? Are you more likely to get it read if you have previous publications?
Cheers,
Erin
Erin,
If you have any professional short story credits, you can get a SFWA membership, and in theory at least, “Member SFWA” will move you to a higher tier of slushpile. Of course that’s with short stories.
Most folk I know have agents for novels, and the agent is already using their credibility to sell the book.
Kevin
This is not a direct answer, because I’m not in an editor’s chair. It stands to reason that someone who has made a name selling stories to Azimovs or other “name” publications is going to get a read if they have a halfway interesting proposal. But some of us just don’t write short. I am an example of a person who did not have short story or any other publication credits when I sold my novels. I got editors interested in my work by reading in front of them at conferences. I know a number of other people who sold novels without any prior credits.
Carol
*sheepish* does anyone have an answer about the paperback Gold Falcon??
Hi Aria,
I’m not sure when the paperback of The Gold Falcon will come out since the hardback was just released this month. I’d guess that you have at least a six-month wait.
I just finished The Gold Falcon, and loved it. You can buy the hardback on Amazon for $15.74. I know that’s about $9 more expensive than the paperback, but let me tell you it’s worth it. More than that I can’t say because I’d spoil the story.
Katharine,
When I looked at Amazon just now, I realized that they don’t have any kind of blurb listed for this book. It seems like they should put something up there so that buyers (who may not have read the rest of the Deverry series) know what they’re buying. I don’t know why Amazon does things like this. I’d think that they would sell many more books by putting the blurb from the book on the sales page.
Hey Erin,
yea, I realized that the hardback was released…and I really want to read it! Argh! But my mom refuses to get it UNTIL it comes out in paperback…it keeps with all the other books of the series we have…*sigh* but a…er…friend?…of mine has his copy and is willing to lend it to me, I’m just not sure if I want to wait until I have my own copy
Thanks for replying ^_^
–Aria
A Writing question:
What are the differences between short stories, novelettes, novellas, and novels? I know it’s based mostly on length (a novella is shorter than a novel but longer than a novella, etc.), but is there a specific cutoff where one ends and the other begins? A certain word-length or page-length?
Also, can a novella have chapters, or is that a strictly novel thing?
Or are there no specific rules to any of it, and I’m gnawing my fingernails off for absolutely no reason?
Aria,
I feel your pain.
My mom would never spend the 20ish dollars on a hardback so I’d have to hit the library or borrow from a friend or - gack - wait for paperback. However, once I got my first ‘real’ job, I swore I’d never wait for any book I wanted, ever again. Since then it’s been all hardback, all the time, baby!
Now the only problem is finding the space to store them all.
Caitrin: I don’t think there is an iron-clad rule on lengths, but for the Science Fiction Writers’ Association, here are the stats, for purposes of the Nebula Award categories:
http://www.sfwa.org/awards/rules.htm
Also, I’ve seen novellas with chapters–novelettes as well.
Thank you, Sherwood. I worry (obsessively) about breaking the rules of writing, even though I know there aren’t really any rules that have to be followed… But I feel better knowing that chapters in novellas are “allowed.”
I’ve just finished a rough draft of a fantasy short story that seems better suited for the Young Adult market. I’ve still got quite a bit of revision to do on this story, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice on the YA fantasy market. Most of my subs have been to geared for older audiences and I feel a little out of place here.
Thanks!
A question about copyright:
When you go to a publisher and you finally find one that wants to publish the book, do you need to sell the full rights? Ie., if you publish a story and after 10 years you notice it’s not being sold anymore and (because everyone likes his/her stories being read) you decide to publish your full story on the Web. Is that allowed? Or will you need to “buy your rights back” or something?
I’m not currently considering having anything published, but some of the people who read my stories are telling me that I should try to get them published. I’m afraid I’ll loose the rights to do with my work what I want to do with it. How does this work in The Real Worldâ„¢?
Tim,
Rights are always specified in publication contracts. Those who publish short stories purchase specific rights and specify time limits. Always read their guidelines before submitting. And always make sure you understand the terms before signing anything. (My colleagues who sell short can answer your specific questions about what are common practices.)
With a novel, the copyright is taken out in your name, but all publication rights are a matter of negotiation. There are paper publication rights, either North American or worldwide (including translation rights), electronic publication rights, audio, gaming, movie/TV, etc. The publisher’s standard contract will specify certain ones of these that they want, and the author is wise to consider whether to sell or retain some of those. The size of your advance is a factor in this negotiation. (Agent Kristin Nelson just went through a great series of explanations of novel rights negotiations on her blog, PubRants.)
Contracts will (or certainly should!) have clauses that specify when rights will automatically revert to the author, for example, if the novel is out of print for some specified time.
An understanding of the business is certainly very important, and you should be aware of it. But there are lots of good sources to learn these things.
Carol
When you sell a story or book to a publisher, you’re not really (or not usually) selling the whole thing lock-stock-n-barrel. You’re essentially leasing the rights to publication to the publisher, as well as some subsidiary rights, in return for a chunk of money. Once the lease runs out, the property reverts to you. The fine print stuff, of course, is what rights you’re selling, and how long the lease runs.
Magazine rights tend to vary with the magazine. Fantasy and Science Fiction, for example, buys specific rights (first world rights or first English language periodical rights or something like that) for a specific time only. They copyright the story in their name, with the copyright reverting to you within a specific time (I think it’s a year, but all my contracts are currently buried under a pile of books and kid-stuff). You’re free to resell the story to an anthology or secondary market, so long as it doesn’t appear before they get their chance to publish it. And in fact, I’ve had at least one experience where a story’s original publisher took so long to publish (thirteen years) that I got permission to resell to a magazine which published it years sooner.
As far as books go, most contracts I’ve seen set out very specific rights–not only for your benefit, but for theirs (there are horror stories in publishing circles about publishers who didn’t specify rights in new technology venues like CD-Rom and wound up having to buy them later at huge expense, just as there are horror stories in writing circles about people finding their work showing up on CD-Rom without compensation or acknowledgment). If you find a publisher for your book, they’ll offer an advance based on a specific rights purchase: first world English rights, or first world rights, or first American rights. What are the differences between the three? First world rights means the right to be the first publisher of the work anywhere, in any language for the first time; first world English rights means the right to be the first publisher of the work anywhere, in English only. First American rights means the right to be the first publisher of the work in America. And so on (note that these rights are probably meant to be for book form only; periodical publication is a whole ‘nother issue).
What doesn’t this include? If you’ve sold English language rights, it means that every time translation rights to your book are sold, you (or, depending upon how the contract is worked out, you and your publisher) get the money. Same with movie options, TV sales, video game proceeds, and all the slew of secondary rights that publishing is heir to.
However, unless you’re doing work for hire, you hold the copyright. If, after a certain period specified in your contract, the publisher isn’t selling a book, you write them a letter demanding that they return it to print forthwith, or revert all rights to you. If they revert, you get a letter back stating that they have done so, and you can go find someone else to publish, or put the work up on the web, or whatever seems good to you.
The single most important thing, when you get a contract, is to read it carefully and make sure you understand what they’re asking for. If you don’t, ask questions. If you don’t understand the answers, ask more questions. I doubt that anyone is going to say “you ask too many questions, forget about it” if you’re trying to clarify a point or increase your understanding.
I’ve read a lot of books and essays on writing and publishing. Yet I haven’t run across too much discussion of pseudonyms or pen names. I’ve pretty much decided to use one rather than my real name, though I do waffle on it. There is something thrilling about the idea of seeing your name in print.
Yet even though I’ve mostly made up my mind to use one, I’m having trouble deciding on what one. Are there names that sell better? Are more memorable? Get better placement on shelves?
If anyone here writes under one, do you have a Doing Business As registration for it?
I sent a story in to a competition, and the results aren’t due out for another few months; but my question is can I put the story I sent online–as in, post it on my website? Or should I wait for the results of the contest, and decide what to do based on the results?
Rachel,
It depends on the rules of the contest. Is the prize publication, or something else? Check the rules.
Ok I have a question for Ms. Kerr. I’m severely dyslexic so it is very difficult for me to read without assistance. Many author’s books are coming out on tape or CD now and I am wondering if there is a particular reason why your books don’t. I love your books, but having my neighbor read them to me is getting taxing on and annoying her. I used to just have my sister or mother read them to me but since my husband joined the army I am no longer anywhere near them. I do get books on tape from the Library for the Blind and physically handicapped, but I don’t get to keep those. They are for loan only. I like own the books that I like so that I can reread them whenever I want. I currently own most of yours, but with my husband in Irac and this being the last thing my neighbor is willing to do for an indeterminate lenght of time, I am soon to be “jonesing” for one of your stories. Sorry for all the explanation…. I’m also sorry if this isn’t the appropriate place to post this…. I was just hoping you would have a suggestion for me.
Thank you for your time.
typed by: Aja
Could I get a little help with the definition of the “unreliable narrator” and how this type of narrator can be effectively used? Is it a first/second/third person thing or is it based on POV in the third person. I’m just not grasping the “unreliable” narrator concept very well right now and how this type of narrator can be useful.
gulp… I hate admitting that! :-/ Thanks for your help.
This question really relates to the short story, draft writing idea to get things done.
Along with my many other stumbling blocks in the way of writing I often find myself reworking constantly. I will begin writing a scene and before I’m even at the end I’m reworking the beginning. This is really slow going and often means I put something down before I’ve finished coming back to it only to rework again. (I seem to have a taste for it that I could have used while studying!)
I often have short story ideas but they are rarely if ever for the genre of fantasy. Also I tend to find the reworking process is less of an inhibition to finishing the project just because it is shorter. In this case is it worth altering what works for short stories to remedy my novel issues or are there other ways to achieve the same affect?
Alternatively maybe someone can give me handy tips on identifying what made me pause in my flow and re-read and maybe some tips to keep on same track?
I’m an obsessive re-writer, particularly in the earlier parts of a story or book, where I’m building stuff. About five or six chapters in (or about 2000 words in for a short story) I tend to freeze briefly: I’ve done the building part, now I have to start pruning away possibilities. So what makes me stop there and re-write is very often the search for hidden cues I’ve left myself, as well as the inspiration to go forward. Sometimes I revise because the weight of a couple of words can shift the balance of the story into something I can’t wait to go on with. And sometimes I reassure myself that I know what I’m doing by editing what I’ve written.
When I really get caught in revising without going forward, I find one tack that helps is to set very strict limits about how much I’m allowed to rewrite that day: “Okay, I can go back two pages from the end and look through that as a way to get into the flow of writing forward from there, and if I need to do some tuning up…”
A more serious reason to stop is that something is structurally wrong with the story and on an unconscious level you realize it. More often than I like to admit, this happens to me: if I’m going to do something I’ve planned, there may be some underpinning that won’t support the weight of that event until I’ve added an extra strut. “Wait, how does she get there on time?” “Wait, how do they pay for this?” Very often the solution is a simple one, but identifying the problem and coming up with an elegant solution can take time.
Mattine, the reason my books aren’t avaible on CD or tape is that none of the companies that put those things out have offered to buy the rights. I guess the commercial outfits don’t think mine would sell enough to make it worth their while.
Like most authors, I have agreed to let any non-profit organization that tapes books for the blind tape mine without having to pay me for the right to do.
I’m wishing the best of luck for your husband, too.
Well at least there is hope for finishing longer works even without entirely changing my habits, thanks Madeleine!
Maybe I need to concentrate on getting further before I allow myself to go back over what I’ve done, starting with one chapter, then two and so on. Hopefully I can trick myself into to do longer drafts.
The beginning is so important though, like you say because of how much is set up for the future and that might be why I keep re-jigging things. Even just the vocabulary for things in the world starts developing and I don’t want to feel too attached to terminology later that I find to have a connotation I didn’t anticipate.
I have another question, why have publishers of fantasy (UK does this I don’t know about the US) opted to include a royal octavo-ish size (234×156) paperback release prior to the genre standard size? Is this fairly new? I’m sure it used to just be hardback then mass market paperback.
Is it simply eking out more profit as they can charge a reasonable price for the larger size as it doesn’t cost that much more to print? At least it doesn’t digitally I’m not sure about litho. Also why isn’t the standard fantasy sized book different to the widely used book size of 198×129mm?
Personally I think it is criminal the kind of prices booksellers have foisted on to publishers with their heavy discounting and half-price Christmas’. In the UK it was only fairly recently that publishers lost the right to fix the lowest retail price on a book. It isn’t just large conglomerates that are forcing publishers to take fewer risks; the expectation of cheap book prices being nurtured in audiences doesn’t help and is forcing huge print runs only to make the necessary profit on each unit.
Anyone know when “The Gold Falcon” comes out in paperback? I feel like a nag for asking again, but I cant get it in hardback…too expensive (though our local store FINALLY got a copy!)
–Aria
Yes, that’s it. It’s always about the money these days. You may have noticed that the type is smaller and the paper thinner, too, to shave a few more p’s off the production costs.
I don’t know when the mass market paperback of GOLD FALCON will be out in the UK, and my editor’s on holiday, or I’d ask her. She’ll be back next week, though, so remind me again if I don’t post the answer here. I don’t know about the American pub date either — I don’t think DAW has set one yet.
Oh…okay. Hmmn, I’m just going to have to borrow it from a friend then…if he offers it up again! Thanks!! ^_^
–Aria
Aria, I’d be happy to send you my copy.
Erin,
thanks, but I have a…friend, I guess, (boys dont like girls as “friends” for some reason, they’re always acquaintences >_
Hello,
A question of distinction.
McMillan Books will accept email manuscripts with a synopsis,but…….
Here’s the question.
They do not publish children’s books.
I have both an adult and a young adult crossover ….however, the Y/A is ready to go.
What is the definition of a ‘children’s book’??
I’ve had two interviews about this manuscript (June Agents/Publishers’ Convention Texas) and both agents said that due to the ‘dark elements’ of the story that I place my eleven year protag. against —- they didn’t know if they could handle it within any marketplace.
Sigh.
Dark elements prevents the book from middle-grade fiction.
The eleven year old protag prevents it from being an adult novel (In THEIR opinion).
Hence, I’m thinking I’ve written a crossover Y/A.
Does anyone think I’d be wwwwaay off to send this email out to McMillan?
Thank you.
The adult S/F is complete, but is in revision stage. I learn so much that it’s hard to know when to stop with ‘revision’ and just send out the ‘efffing’ thing.
I did send a synopsis, query, first three chapters of the adult novel (part one of a trilogy) to Elizabeth Evans of Reece Halsey North.
She was intrigue by the query letter, but the first novel has my protag. in a proto-stage of the hard ass creature she must develop into by the third book.
Sigh.
Elizabeth wanted a hard ass female from get go.
This will be the case once protag. is off Earth, but story must begin when the protag. is ‘discovered’ on our planet then later……
Many more sighs.
Anyway, please answer only the original question.
Your definitions of what is a ‘children’s book’?????
If you say “children’s book,” most people will think “picture book.” That’s not what you’re writing.
Say “children’s novel” or “adult novel” or “Y/A novel.”
You need to be more specific on what the “dark matter” is. Are we talking racism, rape and murder, as in To Kill a Mockingbird, a notably dark novel with an eleven-year-old protagonist? Menstruation? Sex? What?
I don’t much like Y/A as a category because far too much of what’s published with that label is less “adult” than many “children’s” novels, both in terms of content and diction. Compare something like, say, Joan Aiken’s Midnight is a Place, which, despite child protagonists, has child labor, madness and murder, with your average Sweet Valley Babysitter Bimbos novel (which I’ll admit I’m damning unread, but I doubt has much murder or any child labor beyond babysitting).
The dividing line I’d say is whether or not the book has any sex in it, and if so, how graphic.
Thank goodness,
There is no sex.
Very little cursing (and not from my protag).
But, her co-protag and his younger brothers become orphans by the end of the book.
There’s no easy way to bundle up a fourteen year old and two seven old twin boys neatly into blankets and dump them on any doorstep, so the ending is messy.
While I can make that last scene less jarring, it must happen.
Plenty of threats, mutant animals, disfigured children. A child my protag visits is a girl dying in her hospital bed.
What my protag uncovers is a plot, by a secret organization, to unleash a massive worldwide malady that will mostly affect very young children.
Of course, good triumps over evil, but at a high cost.
For an eleven year old she reads like an Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson.
I checked out Candlewick publishing (Octavian), and it seems to want Y/A with a historical bent.
Thanks
Here are two things I ran across in my reading of nonfiction about writing children’s books and YA books you might want to keep in mind. I’m not sure if it’ll help you or not.
1) Children like to read about characters a bit older than them. Though I imagine you have some leeway when the character ages through the course of the book or series. According to this ‘rule’ then, your 11-year old protagonist would aim the book at 9 and 10 year olds.
2) YA publishers like books with optimistic endings. It needn’t be all sweetness and light, but there should at least be hope.
This is only what I’ve read and I have no direct experience other than as a reader. You may want to visit the library and have a look yourself at some books on writing and publishing YA novels.
Have you written it as a YA book, or did you just write the book you wanted to write and happened to have a young protagonist? If it’s the latter, then I think you’re just fine with targetting normal ‘adult’ publishers. There are a lot of adult sf/f books with characters who are young. For one example, wasn’t Ender’s Game originally published and marketed to an adult audience, then repackaged for the young adult market?
You might consider whether you want mainly young readers or adult readers. Or if it doesn’t really matter to you.
Right.
I’m thinking that with all I’ve gotten (input) here at DeepGenre and among my writer’s group that I’ll just send it to Mcmillan and let the @#%$$ hit the fan.
I’d like to put up my first thirteen lines for a critique, but it’s a novel.
Sigh.
Do you think I still could?
Thanks for your help.
wondering how to tell whether or not my 13 line critique was received. will it only be posted if it has actually been read and then critiqued? i belatedly remembered that i needed to put my name along with 13.. in subject and only placed it at the bottom of submission.. due to this error, will i need to resubmit?
Is there a way to delete an entry if you messed up somehow. I apologise here that I posted a half post in Genre don’t want no respect before posting the full one… I’m not entirely sure how I did it.
The blog entry + comments format works for some of the postings here, but I think, not for others. Some blog entries are such a springboard for discussion that the discussion goes off on several tangents and continues long past the usual sell-by date of typical blog entries.
I think this thread, the First Novel thread, and the 13 line thread in particular would benefit from the creation of a forum (bboard). A forum would allow many threads of conversation, make for easier browsing and searching, and allow individuals to edit their posts.
This blog has evolved so quickly in its short life.
Katherine Kerr- i have read your deverry series, several times- and while your most recent i’ve only consumed once- the latter portion of said construct had somewhat of a different flavor. This is not to say that i did not enjoy the falcon (golden or otherwise), it just felt different than the others. i suppose my question is- do YOU feel differently about the series?
Heather, not that I’m aware of. However, FALCON is the beginning of the end, so I was wrapping up a lot of the characters and plot threads. In case you or anyone else wonders, THE SPIRIT STONE is the middle of the end, and THE SHADOW ISLE will be The End.
(SPIRIT STONE will be out in May of 2007. I just stared ISLE the other night so I don’t know about that one.)
After reading some of the discussion here I went on a google.co.uk search for magazines that review fantasy. I’ve not had much luck so far.
Could anyone point me to a magazine they respect for fairly decent criticism of fantasy releases?
Kathryn,
Check out The Internet Review of Science Fiction. It has some great reveiws. Right now it’s free, so be sure to sign up. There is a chance we’ll have to pay to access the site in the future. Take advantage of it while you can.
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF) puts a copy of the reviews they publish online.
http://www.sfsite.com/fsf/ — Click on Departments
I meant of course that I just started SHADOW ISLE, though staring does come into the process a lot . . . I will try to get on here earlier in the day/evening and maybe my spelling will improve.
Help! I have a several short stories that have grown legs and now they are running away from me. They’re getting long and unwieldy …. and …. I think they want to be novels. My problem is that I really like the stories, but I don’t want to turn these particular little beasts into novels. Does anyone have any advice on how to reign in these rambling shorts that are trying to burst into novelhood?
Erin, I have this problem too. For me, part of the reason is that I’ve been conceptualizing a short story as a mini novel. However, I recently read a definition of “short story” that changed my image of it into a different beast. I don’t know if it would be of any help, but here it is:
Of course, the other reason why I want to extend short stories is because I get attached to the characters or place. So now I’m envisioning a book of short stories about the same characters….
Vivian, this is exactly what I find myself doing. I usually don’t realize it until I’ve done quite a lot of work fleshing out the story and then I find myself staring at it in horror, wondering how I can get the little beast back under control.
Thank you so much for the quote from M.H. Abrams. I think I need to print it out and tape it to the corner of my monitor, to my note pad, to the walls in my house, etc. until it sticks in my brain. Thanks again!
Yes, a useful definition. My current short is full of marginal notes to myself: “Is this important?” “Why is this important?” “What difference does this make?” “Is this necessary?” (And those are not the obnoxious ones.)
Hopefully, I will learn the distinction between what is important to me (personally) and what is important to the story. That seems to be the trick, huh?
As Mark Twain said, “If I had more time, I’d write short stories.” (Or something to that effect.)
I’m so glad it was of help. For now, I’m limiting the time span of my short stories to one big ‘event.’ In the future, I hope I’ll be able to “depart from the paradigm,” but for now I’m afraid that if I’m not careful the stories will get out of hand. Good luck!
I’ve got notes to myself as well. An inordinate number of them are along the lines of “Remember the focus.”
That’s a good definition of the short story. I’d recommend the stories of Katherine Mansfield if you want to see classic examples of what that author’s saying.
With genre you have a bit more leeway. The difference arises in the need to do some world-building in F and SF that, needless to say, one doesn’t have to do with “real world” stories. Two accepted forms are the novelette — longer than a short story, but no more than 20,00 words, and less is much better, and then the novella, up to about 50,000 — these are not Official Definitions, but what I can remember, being in a hurry today.
We cannot critique novellas and novels on the 13 Lines page, but novelettes would be okay.
Why I’m in a hurry: my husband’s been ill, and I’m having computer problems. I may not be able to post the 13 Liners as quickly as I have recently, but by the week end these problems should be straightened out. Patience, all, please?
BTW, someone asked here, I think about mass market editions of THE GOLD FALCON. The British one will be out in February of ‘07. Don’t know yet about the American.
Am I mistaken, or were a lot of the earlier SF & F books ‘novellas’? They were certainly shorter. Are publishers reluctant to publish SF & F novellas, now that the trend is for bigger books? I guess this is hypothetical for me, since I’m working on stories for kids (pic-book and middle-reader.) Although the Harry Potter books have opened the door for much longer middle-readers.
The short story I am working on is aimed towards the children’s magazine market. The length is supposed to be approx. 1500-2000 words. That is REALLY short. Earlier on I gave up on writing a story this length because I just couldn’t figure out how to tell it in under 2000 words. I’m giving it another go now, and hope that limiting it to one scene will make it work.
Katharine, best of wishes for your husband.
I think things are back to normal with both husband and computer. I hope so!
A lot of early SF books were short novels, though generally longer than novellas, because a great many SF publishers really thought that the audience had short attention spans and wouldn’t buy long books. A number of British books, even, were published in American abridgements.
There was a brief fad for publishing novellas back in the 80s. The thinking was that reading was falling off because people didn’t have much spare time to read. Whether this was right or wrong, the novellas published separately were seen as being too expensive for their size, and the experiment ended abruptly. The “Resurrection” segment of FREEZE FRAMES was published by Bantam as a separate novella in that series, for example, and did miserably. (So did the whole book, but that’s another story.
)
Books for children and YA publishing is an entirely different field, one I know very little about.
Does that mean paperback?
Thanks, Katharine. I wish more novellas were published today; it’s a nice length for certain stories.
Aria, yes. “Mass market” refers to the cheapest edition. I suppose it’s a euphemism.
“Mass market” also refers to a certain kind of distribution–because paperbacks are the cheapest edition they’re more readily sold in non-bookstore venues like supermarkets and drug stores. Trade paperbacks are trade paper not just because they’re a larger size, but because they’re sold via trade distribution.
I prefer mass market paperbacks. They’re so much easier to read and carry around.
So, maybe this has been asked and answered but I didn’t see it anywhere…
Is there an industry standard for how the proceeds from books get divided up among the author, the publisher, and/or others? For example, is it a percentage, cents on a dollar, or a set amount? And how does that amount scale for hardback, trade paperbacks, and mass market paperbacks? Is it just contract by contract, or is there a general set of guidelines?
When a publisher makes an offer on a book, the author’s payment is one expense among many–including distribution cost, manufacturing costs, promotional costs, etc. In most cases the author get an advance against royalties, and the royalties (at least in fiction publishing, which is all I know well enough to speak authoritatively about) are a pretty standard percentage of cover price of the edition being sold (ie., hardcover books have one percentage structure, trade paperbacks another, and mass market books another). There are also royalty figures written into a contract for non-standard distribution (so the author might get a 5% royalty of net receipts on any books sold through Costco, regardless of edition, because the distribution discount is so high) and foreign distribution of the American edition.
Bear in mind that a publisher will get half the cover price–or less–from the distributor or bookstore (that’s the distribution discount). So the amount of money they have to cover all those expenses–including the author’s royalties–has to come out of that 50%.
In standard contracts, to the best of my recent knowledge, the royalty breaks are:
Hardcover: 10% of cover price up to 5000 copies sold; 12.5% of cover price on the next 5000 copies; and 15% thereafter.
Trade Paper: 6% of cover price on the first 25,000 copies 7% on the next 25,000 copies, and 8% thereafter.
Mass Market: 6% of cover price up to (a number I don’t recall off hand); 8% of cover price up to (again, I don’t remember!) and 10% thereafter.
But yes, the standard is for the author to get a percentage of cover sales (unless the book is a work-made-for-hire, when things can be handled the same way or quite differently).
That do?
I thought that authors always got a percentage of what the publisher made i.e. after the massive discount rather than from the cover price. You learn something new every day.
The real winners here are the distribution companies/booksellers it always seems.
Hi,
I read the other day that you as the author only supply the story, the publisher determines the form/font ect that will be placed in the book.
Do you as the author have any say as to which type of font should be used, what pictures or how the cover should look, or are you just the “word-cruncher”?
Oh, nifty! Thanks, Madeleine, I was rather curious about that.
If you’re God or JK Rowling you can have pretty much any say you want, and that input is written into the contract, but otherwise, no, you don’t have much say. You can suggest cover images or provide resource material; you can make requests, but there are so many factors as to how both the interior and exterior of a book gets produced, most of which you’re unlikely to be privy to.
Exterior
Cover art is supposed to be the first line of promotion: you need a cover that not only represents the book, but pops on the shelf and (very importantly) gets the book buyers–by which I don’t mean the readers, but the people who order the book for bookstores–excited. For example, there’s a character in my book The Stone War, who is an elderly homeless African American woman who (through various mechanisms) winds up with wings–bat-like wings. One character refers to her as an angel, and she sort of is, but not in the classic Judeo Christian sense. My editor asked the artist for a scene that included that character, and what he delivered was an Angel–white, in robes, with big feathery wings. My editor (and I) were both concerned at how far this was from the real character, but the sales force loved it: “We can sell anything with an angel on the cover!” Who would have thought of that? There are also issues of price (reproduction rights for a standard cover painting can run anywhere from $2000-5000) and how the book is being positioned. If your publisher thinks the book is going to do well, they might put embossing or foil on the cover, or use spot-varnish, all of which cost additional money.
Interior
Books aren’t just run out of the computer and slapped into a printer. Books are bound in signatures (16 or 32 page increments), and optimally (as a publisher) you want to set your book readably, with the fewest pages possible, to save paper costs. Paper, which used to be cheap, is a big expense in books these days. Also, the spine size (that is, the width of the book, cover to cover) dictates how many books can be packed into a carton (you can get a lot more Jonathan Livingston Seagull into a carton than The Name of the Rose). So, the first thing a publisher does when you turn in your book is to get a “castoff,” a rough estimate of what the page count/spine size is going to be. If they’re trying to cram a whole lot of words into a small space, they might use a smaller or narrower typeface (”font” is a computer term; in typography it has a different meaning) or eliminate blank facing pages. If the book has to get bumped up a signature for legibility, you want it designed so that there aren’t pages and pages of dead white at the end (it happens, but no one likes it). Will there be front matter (quotes, introductions, prefaces, envois) or back matter (acknowledgements, notes, questions for book clubs, ads, indices). It’s really complex.
Unless you’re a designer yourself, with specific interest in book design, it’s better to leave this stuff in the hands of the pros. You might like the look of Helvetica (a sans serif face) but it’s a bad idea for a book–there have been studies done that suggest that it’s easier to read large chunks of type in a serif font. Can you guarantee that you’ll get the chapter breaks in the right place, or that the running headers will be on the correct page? (I did a little–very little–book design, and I have an increased respect for the people who do it gracefully.) It’s always possible to mention your likes or dislikes to your editor; they might even be taken into account.
And believe me, there is nothing just about being the word-cruncher. Without people to write the stories, it doesn’t matter how well designed the books are, there’s nothing in ‘em. If that’s what you do well, stick with it.
There are whole university-level courses in book design. I agree with Mad. Leave it those who know.
On cover art — at times the author can ask for small changes on the cover art, if they can be done without asking the artist to rework the picture significantly. An example:
When I got the proofs of the British cover for SNARE, I noticed that the hero, who is Black in the book, was white on the cover. I asked my editor if this could be changed. She told the art director, who told the cover artist — none of these people had read the entire book, you see — and lo! Zain’s skin had gotten a lot darker on the final effort. However, he looked like a white guy who’d been dip-dyed. Changing his facial features would have been too much work – that the artist might charge for.
The thing to remember is that the artist will most likely not even read your book before he or she sends in provisional sketches. The art director will receive a set of excerpts from the editor and will pick one with input from Marketing. The chosen excerpt will go to the artist. That’s in — unless he or she happens to like your work and asks you for more.
Even in that case, the artist will still design the cover image to order, not branch out on her or his own.
The American mass market (ie cheap paperback) of GOLD FALCON will be out in May ‘07, released just before the hardback, iow, of THE SPIRIT STONE.
Greaaat…another long wait…but there’s nothing that can be done! Oh well, it’s good enough that I can sit and grit my teeth and wait until it comes out. Thanks for the intel!
(You see, my sorce to borrow it from came through with naught but empty promises so far…)
200 some odd days left!
–Aria
I know most of the people here are authors rather than editors and publishers, but I figured I’d ask this question anyway.
Does anyone here know what a person needs to do if she would like to be a slush reader for a publishing house? Also, would a person get paid anything for doing this type of job or is it the kind of thing an unpaid intern does?
Thanks,
Erin
Usually you need to live in the same city as the publisher, since you go in and they hand you manuscripts. We used to get three or four letters a month from people who wanted to read manuscripts (and often had wildly inflated ideas of what it required or what it paid). It helps to know someone who works there, to whom you would say something like, “Gee, I’d love to read slush. How do I do it?” Nothing like connections, even at this very low level of publishing.
When I was reading slush, I got paid $25 per ms., which paid for reading the whole book (or at least the first 100 pages), writing a 1-2 page analysis and recommendation, and a 5-7 page synopsis. Writing the analysis was a useful experience, because I had to figure out what worked and what didn’t. Fortunately, the author never sees the readers’ reports, because mine were frequently scathing–if you struggle through 500 pages of “My Little Winged Pony Saves the Empire and Marries Luke Skywalker,” being scathing is almost the only reward you get. But I did find it a useful way to hone my analytical skills.
Madeleine,
Thanks for the reply. I’m interested in being a slush reader more for the experience than the money. My primary goal is to improve my analytical skills since I would like to work my way into a teaching position at some point in the future.
Right now I don’t know anyone in publishing in the Boston area, but I’ll keep my eyes open and see what kind of connections I can make.
Ohhhh, my! That sounds like a page turner… as long as I can turn the pages into the round file ! hehehe… ok. I’ll be nice now.
Thanks again for the information. It is very much appreciated. Cheers.
Realised I should’ve posted my question here, instead of “writing my first novel post”. Sorry about that.
Treading on intellectual infringment. I think that’s the right term the professionals call it.
This is a question mainly for Katherine. I’m about to self publish a book. I’m concerned I may have subconciously borrowed from her Deverry series.
This is what I’m concerned about:
In my story, the principal character is called Neven (which means no one in Armian tongue) . The character is 13 years old. She was left for dead near a riverside. Healed up by an Old Man, only to be sold into slavery.
Now, I didn’t realise until halfway writing the story that Katherine’s Deverry Series has a character called “Nevyn�, which means no one in his language.
I just want to know if I could have a character called Neven. Is this going to cause too many complications. I’m happy to change the name, but I really like to keep it.
I don’t want to do the wrong thing and end up in a heap of hot water after the book is published (even though it probably won’t generate many sales). And, I can’t seem to find a direct email for Katherine and let her know.
Really appreciate the advice.
xx
Khylan
NB: It’s cool if the answer’s a no. I’ll think up another name.
You might try Critters.org. I find it’s very useful to read a story, critique it, and then read the critiques other people have given it. You get to see where your thoughts agreed with others and, more importantly, see comments on things you completely missed.
Unless you’re talking about analysis in the ‘what did the big white whale stand for’ sort of way. I don’t know that the slush pile is going to help you with that though.
Hi Jellyn,
Critters is an excellent suggestion. I actually joined that group a few weeks ago and I currently have my own story up for review this week. It’s called “The Devil Inside” if anyone wants to check it out.
One of the things I love about Critters is that it gives me the opportunity to hone my writing skills from a completely different angle. It’s actually this process of critiquing Critter stories that inspired me to start thinking about reading slush.
Thanks for the suggestion! If you know of any other good writing groups please let me know.
I just wanted to ask a question regarding book themes. As authors, do you ever get your books’ themes misrepresented by people eg the litereary circle. And does it bother you any?
In other words people choose to ask questions about a singular specific event and twist it to fit their agenda.
Much like many song lyrics can be seen to be many things to many different people - which is why often musicians do not say what event/theme it relates to. Do authors find a similar thing?
k1
I’ll start with two possible answers.
First, the facetious one: since I write fat fantasy (or sf) novels, critics don’t think my books are serious enough to have themes so don’t bother to represent them as anything at all.
Second, and more seriously, I can’t (and wouldn’t) control how people read and respond to my books. Readers will find all kinds of things there that I may not expect or am surprised to see referenced as themes. They may even see things that I would never in a million years say were there. But once the novel leaves my hands and goes out in the world on its own, it develops its own relationship with readers. And that’s as it should be.
Thank you very much for your response. I occasionally visit forums of my favourite writers and often find people arguing over what the author was trying to imply/means about certain things.
So its nice to know an author’s take on these things and whether they mind. So thank you.
well, it’s MY take, this month and this year. Others will naturally have other takes on the issue. And I suppose you could ask me the same question a year from now and I might have a different answer.
But I absolutely think people should argue over what the author was trying to imply or means about certain things. That’s engaging with reading.
On borrowing and derivative works…
I just finished a two-book series that borrowed its characters and concepts from The Illiad and The Tempest. The concept was neat, the implementation could have been better, and the end made me snort. However, I thought the author did some beautiful work with the dialogue of Caliban, one of the main villains.
Heh, well, the work was beautiful – too bad it wasn’t the author’s. He snagged it pretty much lock, stock, and barrel from a Robert Browning poem, Caliban Upon Setebos. First question – how is that legal? Second question – how much do you use when you ‘borrow’ from a source like that? Third question – if you by chance borrow too heavily, would your editor put the foot down on it?
I’m partly peeved because I hadn’t read that particular poem and so thought the work was honestly that of the author. Surprise! But it did motivate me to wonder, who puts the kibosh on things like this? And how far can you – and should you – go with the borrowing?
That should have been called — but the editor probably didn’t know the poem, either. That’s the trouble with plagiarism; there’s so much raw material to choose from.
Technically, of course, Browing’s work is in the public domain, so there’s no legal questions involved.
But it was a real cheap shot on the part of the author. In my never humble opinion, of course.
Dear Katharine Kerr: I’ve been reading the series of deverry ,but as I am living in Argentina it is difficult to get your books , and if you could be so kind to send me a list of the sequels of Deverry and The novels of the Pinch I would be grateful. There is a chance that a relative of mine will buy the books for me in Usa. Could you send a list of the last books>? Sincerely yours Lylian Fenyves.
How can I know about the last titles of your books ?
Lylian,
You can refer to Katharine’s book list at: http://www.deverry.com/deverrybib.html
for all her Deverry books.
Cheers,
Dani
Hi Everyone,
I just found this site a couple weeks ago and have been steadily reading my way through it since. It’s really great! Thanks for doing it.
I’d like to request a post on pacing a novel. I know it when I see it, but how do you think about it when you’re reviewing your manuscript to see if it works?
Lylian, I’m glad you’re enjoying the books! As Dani said, you can find the complete bibliography at my website. Thanks!
Thought you guys might find this post on my blog interesting:
Kierkegaard’s Narrative.
Fleece knobby dogs, y’all.
Are you still posting the 13-Line Critiques?
Yep, there was just a backlog over the holidays.
I was just wondering, and this might have been asked before, if anyone has any amazing tips of overcoming writers block. I know it’s basically something you have to overcome yourself but…I’m desperate to write more but dont know what to write! (While I have the basic plot line, I’m looking for a filler for a page or two…)
Thanks,
-Aria
Aria,
that’s not what I would define as writer’s block.
If you have the basic plot line, you’re not actually looking for filler. You’re looking for the next step to continue the plot but you’re not sure how to connect the dots, as it were.
Some possibilities:
1) plot backward. Start with where you know you’re going, and fill in the steps backwards that you need to get from the end to where you are now. That might show you what needs to come next.
2) a man with a gun walks into the room.
or the equivalent.
a hiccup in the action, anything to shake things up. You can always cut it later.
3) ask your characters what they have to do next, then write it
4) accept that you need to throw some stuff down in order to get to the next bit you’re excited about writing, and that that stuff may be cut later, but that it’s okay - that’s what first drafts are for; anyway, it might turn out to be utterly just what you need
5) skip it - just jump to what you want to write next and worry about the hole later
There are other solutions as well.
Kate,
Thanks for the advice! This morning in the shower I was thinking and I wound up doing the plot backwards and I figured it out! Number 4 is a hard option for me to get trhough, normally leads to me stalling, and for number 5 I hate skipping. But I guess if I ever want to amount to a real live published author before I’m thirty or something (haha, probably wont be) then I guess Ill have to learn to bend some of the things I hate.
I just have one other question about the 13 line critiques. For short story…I’m assuming that that means like less than 10 pages or so…and not 150? (I only ask such a stupid question becasue I really want a little feedback!)
thanks,
Aria
A question about interminable waits.
All right, I have a question for the published authors out there. I have now written two novels. Instead of trying to find a publisher myself, I found an agent first (interestingly, my agent is an associate at the agency that, as far as I know, handles one of the authors on this site). My agent is very excited about my work and eagerly pushing it to publishers. She’s had a few requests for my manuscript based on queries or sample pages, and now it’s in the hurry-up-and-wait part of the game.
So my question is this: other than keep writing, what do I do now? I have the novels, I have the agent, and I’m being considered by some publishers I never dreamed would look at my work. But this process could (and probably will) take weeks or months. Isn’t there something I could be doing in the meantime toward hyping my books, getting my name out there?
I know that there are a few things I can be doing. The first thing was to try and get my name out there by starting a blog way back when I was writing the first novel. I post there on a regular basis about the status of my writing, the techniques I’m using, that sort of thing, and I’ve built a (very) small readership for my blog. Another thing I’m in the process of is setting up a website for my series of novels. I’ve found a couple of graphic artists (college students who want to increase their portfolio and are willing to work for free as long as they get credit), and they’re doing some illustrations for my website. I hope to have it up by midsummer. I’m working on some short stories to enter in some of the major writing contests in the hope that a win or an honorable mention will get more publishers interested in reading my work.
But what else do I do? Just… wait?
Keep writing. Revise. Write more. Rewrite. Read, and analyze what you’re reading, to try to figure out how to improve your writing. Listen. Research. Live. Keep writing. Repeat and rinse.
A fantastic website might help you get work designing fantastic websites, but only the novel will sell the novel.
That’s my opinion anyway.
in other words, write another book. You never know which is the first one that will sell.
Ehjones,
How did you go about finding your agent? When I finish my book, that’s the direction I’d like to go, as that’s what I’ve been told I need to do…but I don’t know who to choose or what to do. I’m not at that point yet, but…I’d like to start hoping/looking!
Thanks,
Aria
The last few days, I’ve read the first few chapters of novels by fellow SF/F writers. They both have a novel already done and ‘on the rounds’ to publishers. Both had complained about rejections and that is wasn’t fair that the deck was stacked against first time writers. Yet the first story had huge plot holes that were obvious even in the first few chapters. The boy wasn’t open to revising because ‘this is fantasy!’ The second had many grammar errors and persisted in writing scenes in detail with incorrect details that most adults would catch…but his other readers hadn’t bothered to point out to him.
Writers seem to like to complain about the impossible odds of getting first novels published, but now I’ve begun to wonder just how ’stacked’ the deck really is. In the above cases, it was lack of writing skill that was the problem.
So, published writers: Do you think that a person who has reached a certain skill level will get published if they are persistent enough to find someone who likes their style? (And that if you keep getting rejected, you might want to think about revising further?) Or can even someone who is genuinely skilled and is sending their novels to the right markets with good query letters still not get published simply because they don’t have the right connections or some other ‘luck-based’ thing?
On that note, what are the basic skills that make the difference between getting published and not?
Eek, I got wordy. Sorry.
Debbie,
I’m not published, and far from it, but I think TO get published, someone defiently has to be open to revision. As much as I dont like it, I know it has to be done, because, frankly, some parts are horrible as it is, and continuity in other parts doenst match.
Random question!
I was on Amazon.com the other day, and I saw that it says the paperback version of Katharine Kerr’s Gold Falcon comes out May 1, the same day (supposedly) the Spirit Stone comes out in hardback…but Amazon.co.uk says that the new book will come out in June for England. My question is, is one of the amazon’s (like ours) lying, because I thought it came out on a different date than that…
and amazon has lied to me before -_-
thanks, haha,
-Aria
Aria,
Finding an agent, in my case, was almost more a matter of providence, but there was a lot of research and hard work involved, too. The first thing I did was finish my first novel, polish it, run it past a group of friends, family, and total strangers who did proofreading and critiquing for me, and then I revised it. I then researched (mostly on the Internet, but the public library has some great resources too), and made a list of agents that, a) handled the kind of work I had done, b) were actively seeking manuscripts, and c) were given the OK by Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors. I then went to each agent’s website and found their submission guidelines, and prepared a query packet for each of them based on their specific guidelines. Some accepted e-mail queries, most did not.
Here’s where the providence comes in. A couple of days after I sent out the first ten queries (seven snail mail, three e-mail), I got a request from one of the e-mail agents for the full manuscript and an exclusive reading. I was shocked, so I did a little more research, and the agent checked out. I gave her a six week exclusive reading.
Four days later, she got back to me and said she wanted to represent me. The reason for the speed was that she had been talking to an editor who was actively searching for something in my genre to publish. I had, at that time, heard back from absolutely no other agents. After hemming and hawing about it for a few days, I accepted her offer and signed with her agency.
Within a week, I had been on a conference call with the editor, who loved my novel. He took it to the acquisitions committee. Unfortunately, in the end the acquisitions committee passed on it, although it wasn’t due to style or writing skill, and it was a skin-of-the-teeth decision, I’m told.
So, that’s how I found an agent. Like I said, it was more in the realm of providence than anything else.
Thanks for the tips! I’ll be sure to keep that in mind, especially with the whole checking it out to make sure they’re okay.
Congratulations on the deal!
-Aria
ehjones wrote:
Sounds like you are doing all the right things. Yes, the waits are awful. But it was while a publisher was spending seven months deciding whether she wanted one of my books, that I wrote the one that sold first. (And the other one sold alongside it.) With each project you learn more and write better. You know what to do. DO it.
Good luck!
Carol
Debbie White asked:
Will everyone who deserves to get published get published?
No. There are many reasons. Not getting the book in front of the right person. Or vagaries of “the market,” ie. an editor loves it but can’t sell it to her bosses because “that kind of book” doesn’t sell. And, of course, just because something is skillfully written does not make it sell.
Is it a matter of “having connections”?
No. Many authors come from nowhere.
Is there an element of luck?
Certainly. Having your work land on someone’s desk before another author’s gets there. Meeting an editor in person and demonstrating that you’re someone the editor can work with. Getting an agent who can tell you exactly what a particular house is looking for.
If you keep getting rejected, could it be a sign you need to revise?
Absolutely. One of the first things an author must learn is to step back from his or her own work and read critically. Sometimes you must look through someone else’s eyes to get the proper distance to see plot holes or awkward prose or flat characters. (This is why many, many well-established authors have first readers or crtique partners.)
Does persistence make a difference?
Absolutely. I know people who have been rejected over and over, but kept writing, trying, learning - and boom…bestsellers.
Keep writing. Find your voice. So often the difference between a skillfully written book and one that sells is the uniqueness of the author’s storytelling voice.
Carol
I was just wondering if anyone can confirm the dates of Katharine Kerr’s Spirit Stone release for the US?
Does nutting out the publication details give you the heebie-jeebies? Especially US/UK editions?
I noticed as I read through DeepGenre(I just discovered it) authors commenting on their tribulations as they dealt with publishers both local and overseas especially relating to titles & covers(and yes I did note Katherine’s comments on checking her manuscripts for both US & UK editions. If only all authors were that dedicated “sigh”).
As a resident of Australia, I am used to seeing the picture from the perspective of authors selling to the US market and the problems they go through, and would be interested in hearing what headaches writers from the US go through when publishing overseas.
If Katherine wants to go through the obvious nightmare the retitling of her Deverry novels must have been that would be great. A good train wreck is always entertaining for the spectators at least.
On a side note: I know that publishers are going to come up with the best cover to “capture” an audience, but after examining US/UK covers for a lot of F/SF writers I have to ask; do you really think US audiences would prefer the US cover art?
Brendan, some readers do prefer the US cover art, as it tends to be more of an illustration of the text rather than original art based on the themes of the book. There is no doubt in my mind that Geoff Taylor’s covers are far superior to the various US attempts, because he’s the far superior artist. However, I’ve never been able to convince US editors that this matters. At least one editor of the Deverry series was openly contemptuous of the Taylor covers, proclaiming that they “have too much landscape in them.”
As for the title problem, I’ve been over that any number of times on the ‘Katharine Kerr’ Yahoo listserve. In brief, the Marketing “experts” at Bantam were convinced that readers would be confused if too many titles were alike, ie, more than two, whilst their British counterparts were convinced that having different titles within a foursome would confuse readers. Marketing people tend to be contemptuous of readers, is what I take away from that. I doubt if the people who read my books are so easily confused!
Or at least, they wouldn’t be confused if it weren’t for the stupid problems created by the different titles. Fortunately, I managed to land a pair of editors who agree that the titles should be the same in each country, so from RED WYVERN on there isn’t the confusion as with earlier books.
On differences in spelling and the like: not all authors have separate contracts with British and US publishers. Normally, a book comes out in one country, and the rights are sold by that publisher to a publisher in the other. As part of their share of the purchase price (normally 25%), the original publisher simply furnishes the plates or the computer files of the