Tag: Literature

Because the voices say so

Published on by JayeLeave a comment

It’s funny, but a lot of people tend to ask writers: where did you get your inspiration? Where do your ideas come from? And various other questions in that vein.

The thing is … for most writers, this is as strange a question as: so what made you write this?

By and large in all of those cases, the answer boils down to “The voices said so.”

Sometimes, yes, we do have some stimulus that gets us to thinking in a particular direction. Now & Forever was born because I read a sweet, happy romance at around the same time I noticed that there was an acute lack of such stories featuring a same sex romantic pair as the main protagonists. Oh, they exist, and in more abundance since that point, but it’s irrelevant. That made me think of writing such a romance. The rest came down to, Lauren and Sally asked me to write their story.

Writers’ inspiration, by and large, is the same as any artist, I should think. Life. We look around at life and ask What If, or Why Not – thus we write various fictions, especially speculative. We look around and we see things we wish to point out – thus is born things like satire. We have a feeling, and we wish to share it – thus is born Romantic fiction (not to be confused with romance fiction, which is a sub-category of this). But in all it’s life, and voices.

The voices are the characters. They’re visions of people, and of places. Sometimes we try to guide the voices, but mostly they guide us. We just have to be quick at taking dictation.

Yes, some authors do construct stories. They build dialogue. They think long and hard about the nature of plot and such. Those people seem, most of the time (in my experience at any rate) to favour literary fiction, a genre whose purpose I’ve yet to fathom. Some do write romances, mysteries, SF, westerns, or horror. Seemingly, though, of a literary nature, or of a completely ephemeral and throw away nature.

All the authors people really seem to dig, the stories that seem to resonate with the most readers, though, those are the ones where things are described as a period of discovery. We learn about our characters, we become friends or enemies with them. We witness the births of cultures, the deaths of races. We see the whole tapestry of events unfold with each stroke of the pen or press of a key. The inspiration particles sleet through our brains, and when we’re feeling particularly receptive to them the words flow like water that has just burst its dam and threatens to flood us to forgetting all but the story – sometimes it happens. These are the authors who might say things like “I want to know what happens next” (Louis L’Amour).

Good or bad. I’m not saying that believing your characters are living, breathing beings somewhere, or anything of that sort, will make you the next Jo Rowling or Neil Gaiman. Talent, the ability to take that inspiration and shape it and forge it into a solid tale, engrossing and engaging, that matters at the end of the day as much or more.

My other point is, for every one person for whom their character is nought but a cog in some literary device – no more real and alive than a transistor (and all too often, in my reading, with as much personality and ability to garner the sympathies of the reader) – there are a dozen or so who talk of their story or their characters as a thing alive that has an either parasitic or symbiotic relationship with the author’s psyche and mind.

I, personally, think this always shows in writing. Even a talented, skilled, brilliant author whose story isn’t a living thing won’t shine as well as the person with only mediocre skill and so-so talent whose story is like unto a living thing. It’s in the language of critics and fans alike. The tales of Oz or the adventures of the young Miss Alice, sailing the high seas with Long John Silver or Captain Nemo, slaying vampires with Van Helsing or slaying orcs with Arylin and Danilo all can be said to come alive. Maybe it’s because the story, in some way IS alive and was so for the author and now is so for the reader. Just as the purely mechanical – all technique and no heart – writing of the literary purist might be no more alive than a machine, no more soul than a desk fan, and thus as it had no life for the writer it has no life for the reader.

I could be wrong. I know how I write, and I know what it looks like when my favourite writers talk about writing. I know what I see on the rare occasions where I venture into internet discussion forums (which, on those rare occasions I do so, do tend to be writer’s forums). I wonder … can corollaries be true? Can a story that was alive and vibrant in the author’s mind find death and mechanical lifelessness once written? Can something born of technique and lifeless prose tell a story alive and vivid to the reader? I wonder if you could tell; would the formerly alive have the feeling of a corpse? Would the lifeless machine that has come to life still show signs of having once been the prose equivocal of a little wooden boy? Ah well, I suppose in the fullness of time anything is possible.

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How rude!

Published on by Jaye1 Comment

I can’t believe it! Someone just accused me of being literary, as in writing literary fiction! I’m mortally offended. I mean, what kind of person would accuse someone of such a thing?!

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And it’s done

Published on by Jaye2 Comments

Love or Lust is edited.  I’m giving it another read through to make sure everything reads the way I meant it to, but it’s otherwise done.

I’ve submitted a query to the last agent I’d found and was interested in submitting the story to (would have done it days ago, but didn’t see that she wanted only 3 chapters, not the entire manuscript when I’d found her before).  So this is the way it’ll work:  if I’m accepted by an agent I will discuss details with them, I still might self-publish it’ll depend on various things. I’ll keep you posted on when the book is due based on the publisher, and will (of course) post links for pre-ordering if that becomes an option.

If I am not picked up by an agent, or decide not to go with one the book will go on sale 1 June 2012, and I may elect to set up a pre-order with Apple’s iBookstore before then.

It’s always a rush to not only finish a story, but to finish putting the polish on so that it really shines.  All the little typos (theoretically, never fails you’ll find more — I swear little gremlins or imps sneak into the books at night and rearrange the print or edit the files!) are gone, the sentences clear and orderly.  Beautiful.

Part of me does wish that I were just self-publishing this and had never thought about agents and publishers, but teen romance is not sci-fi/fantasy.  I feel that, given a sensible and competent agent and publisher that there is genuinely more benefit in the long run to a contract.  I hope I won’t be proven wrong, and I wish there were some way to know for certain … but I can’t exactly put the book out now and then go hunting for a publisher — it’s possible, but tends to go rather badly.

In the mean time, Ready or Not is on a quiet little hold for another week.  I have only a chapter or two left but I want time to consider how the school year wraps up.

So … this is it, wish me luck.  I may go mad with the waiting.  I just hope it’ll be worth it.

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Agents

Published on by Jaye2 Comments

Suddenly Google is being more helpful.  I’ve gone from two solid sounding agents and a few flaky looking ones none of whom looked like they were remotely relevant to my search except to be literary agents to several agencies.

I’m not querying them all, I’m still being selective by criterion I’m sure I couldn’t explain since I’m not fully aware — call it Vibes and move on — but I am querying several.  I shan’t bother naming them all, but I would like to list some of the more interesting and promising ones whether I’ve queried them or not just to (hopefully) help others.

By all means, if you’d like to suggest an agent or agency for me to query leave a comment or shoot me a message.

A small list, but there you are.  There actually was another agency I was trying to find, I stumbled on them once upon a time looking for a SF agent for something and now I can’t find them.  Pity.

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Publishing, agents, and my thoughts

Published on by Jaye1 Comment

To be frank, I think self and indie publishing have a bad rep.  I know that, part of it, is deserved; far too many people out there who went to a vanity press like Lulu without any actual work except pressing buttons on a keyboard until there were thousands of vaguely English (or French, Italian, Japanese, or whatever) words spread across a few hundred pages.  Sad thing is, there’re books out by major publishers that are hardly better, really.

The sad reality is that, while self-published and indie press are gaining momentum and a foothold, while they are being given respectful nods from the likes SFWA president John Scalzi (well, he’s given up the post to someone else, but he hasn’t taken charge yet, that I know of — I’m not a member and doubt I ever will be, so I don’t watch closely), but by the same token no matter how many copies you sell a self-published title and some indie press titles don’t qualify for membership.

The reality ought to be that putting it out yourself with today’s POD and digital options what they are, that a self or indie published title gets the same respect as any other.  If it’s good, it’s good, if it’s bad it’s bad.  This isn’t the case.  A book that sells less than 2000 copies, but through Tor, might get a movie deal.  An indie or self press that sells that many can forget it, unless you know someone.  A book on the NY Times bestsellers list, might get a deal (self or indie, I mean), but they still might not.  Another sad fact.  Apple is the only electronic distribution channel that allows everyone to arrange for pre-orders.  Can’t do that through Amazon’s KDP or CreateSpace, nor Kobo or Nook or … anyone, let’s not be silly here, I mean you’re not a serious author or publisher or whatever!  You’re just a cute child making a four page picture book with crayons and running to Mother.

Until this perception completely changes, for some authors, self publishing really shouldn’t be the way to go.  An agent, a big publisher, years of waiting to see your book … that’s the only way.  Oh, sure, you can say “It’s more important people see it, than anything else, so I’m selfing it.”  Bully for you.  The point is, you’ll have to be a mix of lucky and prolific to make and maintain a living.  If writing is a hobby you’re quite good at, this is fine, but if you wish it to be what you write on census forms as your job, then probably not so much.

Now this isn’t to vilify the traditional publishing methods.  Some agents are very nice people, some publishers apparently try quite hard to do their job well.

The fact remains, some genres and types of books you pretty much can’t self-publish … the market doesn’t really exist yet.  The would-be professionals should stick with agents and traditional methods, while the quality hobbyists pave the way, and of course you could elect to write something to help in this, by all means.  Want to do middle grade reader books?  Want to be in the Scholastic Book Fair?  Yeah, and look around, there’s a reason that Goosebumps and Fear Street, Baby Sitters Club and Sweet Valley are still fairly common at certain age ranges.

In other cases it’s nothing so dire.  Erotica or Romance?  DIY or take an agent, the question is just how fast do you want to make those sales, and do you want an advance?  SF?  Don’t bother, in my opinion, with traditional model.  If it isn’t Military SF and NEW Space Opera (which in my opinion isn’t Space Opera) you won’t sell it to the big boys, and even if you write the stuff they want the typical rates are just insulting, you may as well go DIY for all the difference it’ll make, unless you really need a bit of lump sum cash to make a downpayment on a car, or some such.  Westerns?  If your name isn’t Louis L’Amour you’re probably better off self publishing … or possibly not depending how you look at it — Westerns are pretty close to dead, so possibly that Advance, if you can get one, will be the only pennies you see for the book.  Mysteries?  I couldn’t say, if it isn’t the Bernie Rhodenbarr books by Lawrence Block I haven’t really read it, well … the first half dozen Sneakie Pie and Rita Mae Brown books, too.

Research.  All I can say is research, and when in doubt try to get your questions straight, straight forward, and clear and then find a good, helpful person in the industry to ask them of.  An agent, perhaps, or an editor.  Don’t ask them about your work, ask them about the details in general.  Ask them for the numbers, for the fact, for the stats.  Ask them for what one might expect.  Then think, soul search.  Are you writing for money?  Possibly you want to go major publisher, unless you know you’ll be prolific — self-published work doesn’t necessarily sell many copies, but a few copies over several books adds up well, but a few books with an advance might be a nice lump sum you can invest.  Writing an obscure thing?  Is there actually a major publisher out there who’ll touch it?  Might just as well do it yourself.  In the end it’s up to you, what do you want out of your writing, how do you want people to find it, and so on.

I still feel that I’d rather self-publish most thing, but Now & Forever, for example, I have decided (given a positive response from an agent) to traditionally publish.  It seems a better choice given its genre, but I’ll merrily drop it onto the world myself if they say no, because I think it’s a fun, cute story and had fun writing it so I’ll have fun sharing it as well, how and via whom doesn’t matter.

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An interesting counterpoint

Published on by JayeLeave a comment

I’ve shared the meat and potatoes of John Scalzi‘s blog posts regarding certain questionable e-book imprints by Random House which included very strong opinions on royalty only publishing models.  This is a counterpoint, not to the ghastly details of Random House’s contracts (truly horrific), but to the royalty only bit.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

In Defense of the Royalty-Only Model for Digital Publication

John Scalzi, author, blogger, lame-duck (but by no means lame) President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, defender of working writers everywhere, and client of the agency I happen to work for, has been commenting this past week about a shift toward advanceless book deals and the gradual erosion of authors compensation in the digital marketplace (summary can be found here).

While John is mostly right (especially about Random House’s new Hydra/Alibi/Loveswept/Flirt “profit share” endeavor being exploitative) I thought he was perhaps a bit unfair to the royalty-only model, and I thought I might supply a counterpoint to his criticism, and also a bit of context about how the royalty-only model rose to prominence in the digital book sphere.

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Further Opinions of eBook services

Published on by Jaye1 Comment

So far, both as reader and as writer I must say I prefer iBooks.

I finally got Google to work.  First off, there’s a sign up you must do, but the instructions are arranged so that it looks like what you do is go to http://books.google.com/partner, and the sign up using a link found there.  No.

Okay, there’s a sign up link below that link in the FAQ that is where you need to start — yes, you read that right.  Where one starts is with the second link in the instructions (sounds stupid yet?).  This takes you to a signup sheet where you fill in your info.  Now, important note:  If you’ve more than one gmail account (as many people do) be sure you’re currently signed into the right one!  It’ll take you to a Google accounts login, but it’s already too late, if it’s got a username filled in for you and is only prompting you for the password?  Yeah, that’s the one it used.

The interface is obtuse.  Most things are pretty straightforward, admittedly, but a few things aren’t.  For example:  say you write and self publish some work under pseudonym (something more than a few self-published folk do, especially ones who write multiple genres), you have to set up imprints.  And it has very poor help on what some of the odder of the fields in that screen mean.

I’m still toying with it, to be fair, but I must say it’s no real surprise to me why so many of the friends I know who have AndroidOS devices use the Kobo, Nook, or Amazon apps for ebooks instead of Google Play.  I wasn’t terribly impressed with the reader app, and have long since deleted it from my iPad, and never bothered with it on my desktop.

I’m also hitting a sticking point with Nook.  I contacted B&N’s PubIt help regarding problems I’m having with their service recognising an ISBN on a book I was trying to manage, and for another where the ISBN was recognised to display that or at least have it linked in some fashion for searches … the response was a rather unhelpful thing saying that all books get a 12-digit BNID and are identified by that.  Which is a total lie.  Example: Discount Armageddon.

True, I doubt that was put up via PubIt.  So, it’s possibly true of PubIt titles.  Which points to yet another place where an eBook seller is treating independent authors, publishers, etc. like they’re second class or worse.  That ISBN is important for people who might be looking for the ebook for their favourite device and lots of services for linking to things (e.g. Goodreads.com) use ISBN based APIs for this.

I’ll keep experimenting.  And if my own work goes up via PubIt I’ve some theories on what’s going on that I can play around with.  Still, so far, Nook’s a pretty sharp platform from a reader’s point of view, less impressed now with PubIt from a writer/publisher point of view (and less impressed with their customer support, even Amazon was never that unhelpful).

So to put it another way I have just decided that my first rank goes to Apple, second to Kobo & DriveThru Fiction, third goes to Nook & Smashwords, and dead last goes to Google and Amazon.

At this point I’m starting to wonder, rather much, if I shan’t take up the agent I submitted to if she should respond positively to my books (so far still waiting with bated breath and fingers crossed) in order to save myself money on aspirin.  Self -epublishing isn’t as hard as most people make it out to be, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t work and isn’t annoying.  Still, it’ll all come down to how insulting the terms would be if I went traditional publishing house to decide if I’ll be putting Now & Forever out myself or letting someone else do it.

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Exploring possibilities

Published on by JayeLeave a comment

So I’ve made a couple of agent inquiries this weekend.

Really not many. As I know how to do this on my own I was quite particular in who I elected to send inquiries to rather than sending to every agent I could find. I thought, Why not? There’s nothing to lose, and an advance to gain.

There goes money again. Well, frankly, I may write because I have stories I wish to tell, but we live in a crass capitalism and I like to eat and have a home, and wages don’t go far these days.

In the end I submitted to two agents only:

Ms Lakosil of Bradford Literary Agency and Ms Diver of The Knight Agency.

I was promptly rejected by Ms Diver. I wasn’t very surprised. I’d actually changed my mind about submitting an inquiry to that agency, initially I hadn’t felt very interested.

This does not mean Now & Forever is not going to be self published, only that it might not. I should expect a reply from Ms Lakosil before editing will be done so no delays there, and I she expresses interest I’ll discuss detail regarding time frame expectations and so forth to decide if I wish to go a traditional route.

In truth my opinions of publishing came largely from my love of SF. The SF houses are, in my opinion, trying to commit suicide. As such I want nothing to do with them professionally. While it can be truly said that publishing houses are all suffering some malady of the mind and a terrible case of short sightedness it is to varying degrees dependent on the publisher and, most importantly, genre. Romance, it seems, is a touch less demented and as such I’m willing to test the waters a little and see how I feel.

Let there be samples!

Published on by Jaye2 Comments

Cover Official

Well, there’s a sample up for Love or Lust now.

It’s only the first two chapters, and that’s all I intend to have up, for the moment, but I might elect to add the third chapter too.

There is no downloadable ePUB or PDF sample.  That’s too much bother and will be left up to the various eBook retailers to supply.  The launch availability is currently iBooks, Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords, Amazon (print), and Createspace.  I’m considering putting up on a little place called DriveThru Fiction as well.  It looks easy enough to use, and I won’t say no to a venue that costs nothing to publish through since all it can mean is more sales.  If you’ve a favourite eBookstore you don’t see listed feel free to contact me or leave a comment naming it.

Ready or Not (concept only)I’ve also decided the cover for Ready or Not.  Mostly because that gave me something to do that felt constructive while I tried to decide what happens next in the story.  I do believe it’s about done as the girls are having an Easter break kickoff party in the part I’m currently working on.  Then it’s off to editing, working out a less placeholdery blurb, and then to the editor (yes, I edit things BEFORE I give them to my editor.  I happen to like the woman and would feel rather bad if she wound up in an asylum by any action of my own).

I’m starting to feel a little better about Book 2, lately.  I’m starting to think that the less cohesive, more anecdotal form it has taken so far might make it a good transitional tale.  Something to give a better feel for the characters and their normal lives.  In short, rather than one big slice of their life looked at from edge to edge as Book 1 is, Book 2 is more like several little slices and glimpses of time.  I don’t know.  I’ll get it typed, give it a few read throughs, then decide if it’s a mess or not.

Suffice to say I’m off my writer’s block and things are moving along well.

P.S.  Those paying attention will notice that Love or Lust‘s cover says “Jaye Edgecliff” while Ready or Not‘s says “Jaye Em Edgecliff”, that’s because the latter is what I’d prefer, but the former is what I have to do because of a quirk to the cover layout and Book 1 has a finalised cover versus Book 2 which has a cover I’m still playing with.

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Decisions, decisions …

Published on by JayeLeave a comment

So the final editing of Love or Lust is well under way.  It probably won’t be done by Valentine’s Day, but it still might.  It is moving at a fair clip, but that doesn’t change that there’s about 140k words and 400-ish pages to get  through.  Too, I have to make a final read through just to make sure that the final buff and polish is done, so that date will likely be missed and was never a very resounding likelihood anyway.

That’s got me to thinking about a few things.

First off, section separators:  Also known as fleurons (and an hundred other things), they do give a certain flair to the page.  They’re also a bloody wretch to figure out how to do.  With Dingbats type fonts they’re a breeze in the PDF, but they start to become an unholy nightmare in the universe of the ePUB and Kindle editions.  Not impossible, mind, but nightmare.  An alternative is to just use a little graphic.  Dear God save me from things that ought to be black on transparent alpha layer but instead are scans complete with random not exactly white artefacts in the white bits!!  Photoshop and I had a lovely row about that.  I did make one.  It was kind of pretty.  Well, that is, until I tried to put it on the page.  That didn’t go too well. Still … I’d appreciate feedback on that.

If you click on the word fleurons above it’ll take you to an example image.  The alternative is good old fashioned asterisks.

The second bit of thinking was just a bit of fun inspired by how another author did a little pre-release promotion.  Seanan McGuire did a Discount Armageddon A–B–Cs thing that seemed kind of cute.  The more I think about it the less I want to do it.  So I probably won’t.  But just in case I do lose my mind and decide to go with this little touch of lunacy … well … you’ve been warned.

Solidly decided things:

  • Publishing, I don’t care if you use a publisher or do it yourself, is a good way to go completely mad with indecision, anxiety, self-doubt, and several other things that suddenly have escaped my vocabulary and are lost in the woods some place.
  • I love my cover art.  I’m, torn between ideas regarding it though.  I’m very much thinking to keep that layout and just change the colour scheme for each book, and then (naturally) the image.  The question is, do I keep finding girl/girl cover art (something I can absolutely do for Ready or Not but is giving me a touch of trouble for later books), or just keep finding pretty images (e.g. the 4th book maybe having a ballet slipper on it or some such).  Ah well, I’m not even done with the second book yet and feel like it needs heavy editing so I’ve plenty of time to consider and reconsider this.
  • The print edition will be somewhere in the neighbourhood of us$10.  Sadly, this is due entirely to length.  It costs more than the retail price of a novel half this size just to print the bloody things.  Which gives me a new found respect for some of the newest Terry Pratchett novels I’ve picked up being about us$10, but doesn’t explain some places charging that much for things like Light Fantastic or Wyrd Sisters!  The eBook, though, will likely be closer to us$4 or us$5.  Compelling enough arguments could see it as low as us$3 (just use the comments or the contact link), but current ‘wisdom’ says the higher price will attract more sales.  We’ll see.

Page numbers.   I’ve just realised I’ve no idea how I should like to do the page numbers.  Centered and unadorned at the bottom of the page?  Unadorned at the bottom corner of the page (obviously this thought is for the print edition only)?  Unadorned at the top?  If decorated, with tildes or a fleuron/dingbat?  Well, don’t ever let anyone tell you self-publishing is easy, or that it’s the lazy way out or any other such nonsense.  That said, going through a publisher is just as bad or worse — you may not have to decide a lot of this stuff, but then you have to worry that your first edition might have covers in “50 shades of mud” and “kept them out of the shops“, among too many other less amusing anecdotes by far too many other authors to mention.

I’ll always argue with someone who says writing is ‘hard work’ — I take issue with the work part.  The hard … that depends on perspective, writing is challenging in terms of telling a good story well and not losing your mind in the process.  Work it is not.  Publishing, on the other hand, I will doubt the sanity of anyone who claims is anything but work and be suspicious of anyone who claims it to be easy.

In other news Puppy Bowl is tomorrow!!  I’ll, alas, be missing it because a) I’ll be at work and b) I don’t actually have any TV service that doesn’t come via my DVD player.

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