I had one of those moments the other day. I was reading an interview with bestselling Jane Porter in the RWR, the magazine of RWA. If you don’t know Porter, she wrote a book called Flirting With Forty that was made into a tv movie and seems to mirror what happened in her personal life – go to Hawaii, fall for guy there, get your groove back post-divorce. But Porter is really honest about her life versus the fiction:

Jane Porter’s real story is pretty damn gritty and has a lot of brutality and suffering and tragedy, and no one wants that. Not even me. So I present to the world the Jane with great hair and a nice smile because I don’t believe in making excuses, and I want to take negatives and turn them into postivies; if I let my past color my future, then “the bad guys” won. And the bad guys aren’t going to win. So when confronted by adversity, I roar now and fight and insist that I – like all women – have a right to love and happiness and being who and what I want to be.

It’s a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain. I totally understand why she wants to keep her private life private. I have never had to deal with brutality, but I do like privacy. For the most part, I want all authors to value privacy because the line between having insight and having too much information about a person can be very thin. But this is a time where that tiny bit of information makes me admire her even more.

At a conference I heard an editor use the comparison of instant coffee versus brewed coffee when discussing eBooks and print books.  She pointed out that when instant coffee first appeared everyone thought brewed coffee was dead.  Brewed coffee is still around.  Her point:  print won’t die because eBooks are here.  I agree to an extent, but print is going to be hurting, especially hardcovers and mass market.  But I also take it a step further.  Not only is brewed coffee still here, Starbucks appeared.  They made buying a cup of coffee an ‘experience’.  Really, is a cup of coffee at Starbucks that much better than McDonald’s?  But you can’t get that extra-mocha, whatever, whatever, whatever (I get decaf, black, I’m boring) at McDonalds.  And it’s like, way cool, to be able to stand there and say all those words, like I really know what it means and really like this stuff.  I’m too intimidated.  We used to chew the instant coffee from our LRRP meals when I was in Special Forces while we were deployed to stay awake.  I think I might order some grounds next time I’m at a Starbucks.

I digress.  So Starbucks blossomed across the country, like zombies with aprons.  You can’t cross a street without hitting one.  But then the economy, like, collapsed.  Bummer.  And people have had to cut back.  And, well, $5 for a cup of coffee, started to seem like, of all things, an extravagance.  So Starbucks began hurting (join the club).

Let’s talk bookstores.  First there was Amazon.  Mail order book retailer.  There were grumbles when it first appeared on the horizon back in the days.  It took a slice of the market.  B&N also opened an on-line store.  Overall, though, the brick and mortar stores and the on-line stores co-existed, much like, well, the human race and the Borg.  Then Amazon started selling used books, which kind of sucked for publishers and authors to an extent.  You can argue whether used books sales take royalties from authors or find them new readers.

But then came eBooks.  A murmur in the distance as long ago as January 2010.  Now it’s a roar.  Borders is gone.  B&N is trying different.  Indies, first besieged by the chains, then the on-line retailers, are now attacked on all fronts, although in some places they are making a come-back and I submit those that are succeeding are following what Starbucks did.

Back to Starbucks.  Some smart people over there, right?  So what do they have planned to combat their eroding sales?  They’ve come up with an approach, which has a single concept at its core:  go local.

It seems counter-intuitive for a national chain to go local.  But what is becoming apparent in retail is that niche is the future.  For Starbucks, the décor of each store, rather than being cookie-cutter same, is going to feature local artists and furniture.  They’re going to cater to, well, the local people.  They’re reinventing the ‘experience’.

I submit where goes Starbucks, there might be a path for bookstores to survive. Become a gathering place for like-minded people.  But the real thing is:  Niche is the future.  Not only will indies have to adapt to their area, but for chains like B&N to survive, they must specialize and localize.  One size does not fit all.  All books do not fit all.

The Espresso machine is a lifeline.  Books will be printed in the stores.  So anyone can walk in with a thumb drive and print out their Great American Novel and give it to mom and pop and sell three copies to friends who really like them and put up with them.  But it’s a money maker.  Rack local authors.  People who would come in and hang out in the store every so often and talk to readers and interact.  Rack books about the area.  So if someone wants to know about kayaking in Puget Sound, because they happen to be in a bookstore in a town on the edge of Puget Sound, they can find a book about it.  We have to break away from the single buyer in NY determining what goes in every bookstore around the country (plus B&N just laid off some of its National buyers, which makes you have to wonder how exactly they’re going to decide what and how many of certain books to buy).  We have to get back to local buyers, who have the pulse of the area, who know the readers, determining what goes on the shelves.  Make apps where you can sell eBooks by local authors and about the local area.  Mirror your physical store on-line.

The future of publishing with eBooks and bookstores, is the key to the future of understanding that the retail outlets for books has fundamentally changed this year.  When the outlet changes, the business has to change.  And that means us, publishers and authors.

As writers, you really need to stay on top of the retail end.  Because if you do decide to go it yourself, how are you going to actually sell your book to the most important person?  The reader?

Something to think long and hard about is where could you place your book that isn’t traditional?  Jack Canfield did this and Chicken Soup became a mega-success.  He put books in stores that hadn’t racked books.  Your protagonist is a fly fisherman?  Perhaps contact those stores and see if they will rack your book.  Your book is about the Civil War?  Every major National Park reference the Civil War has a gift store.

We have to be innovative for the future.  Where do your readers go?  That’s where your book must go.

Related posts:

1. The Future of Bookstores
2. More on the Future of Publishing
3. Resistance is Futile: The Future of Publishing

One of the things *I* look at when I’m short and know I have to add words is if there is any where I can develop a character more by turning something small into a bit more.

Example: When I first wrote TROUBLE this was how this part was written.

Bodies brushed against her as she walked, and Samair felt alive for the first time in a long while, almost as if she were wakeing from a deep sleep. Stepping up to the bar she smiled at the bartender and ordered a tequila and water. The sexy Goth chic made the drink and accepted the payment, winking at Samair when she was told to keep the change.

Glass in hand she started the stroll around the club. A tingle of awareness danced up her spine and she looked over her shoulder but saw no one following her. She continued to walk around the club, heading for the dance floor, unable to shake the feeling that someone was watching her in the packed crowd of the busy club.

That’s 127 words… Now, I tend to edit as I go, so the next day before I started writing I went over the day before’s work to edit, and changed it to this….

Bodies brushed against her as she walked, and Samair felt alive for the first time in a long while. Almost as if she were waking from a deep sleep.

She watched the couple behind the bar as they mixed drinks for the crowd. The male bartender was tall, slim and clean cut while the girl was the complete opposite with vivid purple streaks throughout her black hair, heavy eye make-up, and black lipstick.
Despite being the odd-couple, it was clear they got along as they worked well in a synchronized dance behind the bar. When she was up, Samair ordered her drink and decided to do things the easy way. “Is Joey Kent here tonight?”

“Joey’s here somewhere.” Purple and black curls bobbed as the bartender squeezed a lime in Samair’s drink. “If you can’t find her in the crowd, wait ten minutes and you’ll see her in one of the cages. She never breaks for long.”

That sounded like the Joey she knew. Full of fire and never far from a dance floor.

“Thanks.” Samair put a ten-dollar bill down and picked up her drink. “Keep the change.”
“Anytime, sweetness,” she replied with a wink and a grin that was completely at odds with her dark Goth look.

Glass in hand, Samair started the stroll around the club. A tingle of awareness danced up her spine and she looked over her shoulder, but saw nothing unusual. She continued her walk around the club, heading for the dance floor, unable to shake the feeling that someone was watching her through the packed crowd.

Now, it’s 266 words. Not a huge thing, but if you do something like this in a few places throughout the story, it makes a difference.

I did something like this again later in the story, using the bartender in a short scene with the hero (who owns the bar) to show a specific aspect of the hero. The funny thing, Kelsey, the bartender, ended up being the heroine in a later book. (MY PREROGATIVE) Which goes to show you that sometimes the little things not only improve your word count, and help round things out, but they can be a blessing later on.

I had a rough time starting on the read-through — because the opening paragraph sucked.  I mean really sucked.  I looked at it and thought, “Geez, I don’t want to read this, and it’s my own damn book!”  So I changed it.  Here’s the before and after.

Before:

I sat in my office at radio station KNOB waiting for the printer to finish spitting out the page I’d asked for.  I’d found the picture on a website, and I wanted a different perspective on it.  Hence, the printing.  The full-color image took longer than the usual couple of seconds a page usually took to spill out of the machine.

This is a terrible opening paragraph.  It’s not inherently a terrible paragraph — as part of a description in the middle of some other scene.  What’s going on here?  In the opening scene, I want to introduce a piece of folklore that’s going to be meaningful for Kitty as the book progresses.  She’s printing off information she found online.  But who wants to read about something as boring and mundane as waiting for the printer to print?  What the hell was I thinking, starting with this?  This paragraph is generic, dull, and delivers no important information for the story.  It doesn’t tell me anything about Kitty, what she’s like, or what the book is going to be about.  Let’s not even talk about whether or not it “hooks” the reader.

After the revision:

Online research was a mixed bag.  I could find the most insane conspiracy theories, essays, and propositions, which I could then use to incite heated debate on my radio show.  Not just flat earth but cubed earth, or aliens living at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, or a pseudo-scientific study claiming that vampire strippers make more in tips than mortal strippers because of their hypnotic powers.  (Vampire strippers?  Really?  Could I get one on the show for an interview?)  Or I could click through useless links for hours and feel like I’ve wasted a day.

Sometimes, I typed in my search request and found treasure.

Okay, this is interesting.  From this I learn that Kitty hosts a radio show of some kind (the first version was vague on that score), and by the topics she brings up I can guess the show is pretty wacky.  She deals with off-the-wall subjects — and the rest of the book probably will, too.  And that line about vampire strippers?  If that doesn’t make you smile, this probably isn’t your kind of book.  If it does — hey, you’ll probably be happy to keep reading.  And the last line, about treasure?  That’ll make you keep reading to learn what she found.

The first paragraph was a list of meaningless, contextless actions.  The second paragraph breaks some so-called rules of opening a novel — it doesn’t have any action, it doesn’t set a scene (I think I was trying to do it this way on the first paragraph, and failed).  But it gets the reader straight inside the head of my protagonist, which for the twelfth novel in a series is the important thing, I think.  People are reading for Kitty, not for printers.  More than anything, though, it captures Kitty’s voice, which the first version didn’t do.

A big part of writing is developing that gut feeling, that instinct that tells you, “You know, this just ain’t right.”  It can be tough — normal writer insecurity means that we often feel like it all sucks.  But there’s a difference between general insecurity, and a real problem.  When I’m revising, I try to read my work as if I’m coming to it for the first time, and noting the places I stumble or get bored.  Because that usually indicates a problem.

Related posts:

1. Next Level Of Revision Hell
2. So You Wanna Write Your First Novel, Part 4: Pre-Revision
3. So You Wanna Write Your First Novel, Part 6: Post-Revision

When I realized I had yet to write my post, I put out a call for topic ideas and I decided to run with my friend Danielle’s suggestion to talk about when to persist versus when persistence is just being plain stubborn in that not-so-good way.

I think my first thought is that it really depends on what it is your hanging on to or letting go of.  Sometimes, we start this gig out with expectations that are just wildly unrealistic — things like how many words we can comfortably write in a day, how many sales we can make in a year, etc.  Lots of writing life lives beyond your control.  So right off the bat, I say look at those expectations — balance them against what other reasonable-minded people expect of themselves, listen to what other writers who’ve been at it longer have to say on the subject — and let the ones go that lie outside of your control.

And while we’re on the topic of expectations, sometimes we expect far too much of ourselves under circumstances that most would agree merit a reduction in those expectations.  And sometimes we expect far too little of ourselves under more ideal circumstances.   Let go where appropriate.

When it comes to projects, I prefer to be a hanger-on than a letter-go.  And there’s a lot of talk out there about finishing everything you start — something I agree with…most of the time.  But sometimes it takes a lot longer to finish something — even years — because we just don’t have all the ingredients to cook the soup.  In those cases, sometimes it makes far more sense to set the project aside and tackle something you know you can finish.  That gets much trickier when you’re under contract and working with deadlines.  But even then, sometimes you’re only looking at a work interruption of a few days but by shifting gears you can wrap up something else, clear your mind, and come back to the  first project with fresh eyes.

So much of it really hangs on knowing, in the moment, on a case by case basis, what the best path will be.  And every project is different and even we, to some degree, are different at different seasons in our lives.  So hang on to the idea of seeing life as an ever-changing journey.  Let go of anything that smells like irrational fear or jangling anxieties.  Writerly insecurities are responsible for far more writing interference than most of us want to admit.

And when  it comes to projects that you’re shelving, try not to see it as quitting.  Look at it as taking a break, put your eyes on it once in awhile and jot down anything that comes to mind.  You might surprise yourself by knowing one day, seemingly out of the blue, exactly how to land it.

It also helps to have a tribe, a community of writers you trust and people who know you well, that you can bounce things off of.  ”Hey, I’m thinking about shelving project A because of ______.  I’m gonna work on project B instead.  Whatcha think?”  And then listen to what they say and ask them questions.

This can also apply to letting go or hanging on to directions within a story you’re working on.  Sometimes, stories like to bust outside of our expectations for them.  Sometimes characters rise to the surface and want to take over…and should.  And other times, they shouldn’t be allowed and must be stopped.  Sit with it.  Ponder.  It’s your story.  You get to choose.  Choose wisely.  And un-choose as needed.

But again, try not to view it all as black and white and either/or.  Few things really are.  Because like Don McLean sings:  ”There’s no need for turning back ’cause all roads lead to where I stand.”

And on that note, Trailer Boy is signing out!

A deadline is looming on May 30th, but I think this is something more than deadline-brain. Yesterday I knew it was Wednesday, so why did I not think ahead and realize today couldn’t also be Wednesday? Don’t have a good answer for that, but I am wondering if this is a casuality of working from home.

I’ve actually been working from home for about five years now. The losing time thing is not new. It happens now and then. Lately it happens all the time. We recently lost our adorable family dog after thirteen years of having her. Maybe that’s it. Before I had to keep to her walking and eating scheduling. Now, I get up, do a few things then sit down at the laptop. After a few days of that, the hours run together.

So, my apologies to everyone here and all who follow the blog. If you have any suggestions, I’m open. Otherwise, I think it’s time to watch my desk calendar more closely.

Over the years, I rewrote the Toolkit every six months, adding all I was learning about writing.  The Toolkit ended up being 80,000 words long and was published by Writer’s Digest in 2001.  It earned out in less than six months and had a great run.

Last year I updated both books extensively, partly because I’ve grown as a writer and now an independent author. But also because today’s publishing environment has changed and with that change has come the ability to update books to meet the changing needs of today’s successful writers.  The Novel Writers Toolkit now focuses 100% on the craft of writing.  I removed the business section because that belongs in the other book, formerly Warrior Writer, which I renamed Write It Forward: From Writer To Successful Author.

One key thing I added in the Toolkit was a section on Conflict, especially the Conflict Box.  I put in all I’ve learned in the past several years.  I have to say I believe I’ve learned more about writing in the past two years than in my first twenty.

In the Toolkit, I teach how to answer key questions about your book including:

Can you state what your book is about in one sentence?

Do you clearly have conflict lock between protagonist and antagonist?

Do you know where your ‘camera’ is when you write each scene?  i.e. Point of View?  Do you know when you’ve done a cut?

Do you know all your characters’ primary motivations, their motivation leveles, and their blind spot?

Write It Forward is the sum of what I’ve learned in 20 years of traditional publishing and two years as an indie author and publisher.  I made many mistakes over the years and I wrote this book to keep others from making the same mistakes.  I’ve included where I believe publishing is now and where it’s going.  I also focus on helping writers sort out their own path to Oz, given that each of us are starting from a different place and our vision of Oz is unique to each of us.

For example, can you answer these questions, which Write It Forward poses as exercises and then teaches you how to answer:

What is my strategic goal as a writer?  Where do you want to be in five years?

I’ll do anything to succeed as a writer, except don’t ask me to do . . . . ?

My greatest fear as a writer is?

How high is your ‘imposter syndrome’ as a writer?

Are you in command of your writing career or are you counting on an agent or editor?

Do you know where you stand on the three P’s: Platform, product and promotion?

Both books focus on building the complete writer:  one who masters the craft of writing into being an artist, and one who develops their work into being a career writer.

Reference the Novel Writers Toolkit

“A book to inspire, instruct and challenge the writer in everyone.”
#1 NY Times Best-Selling Author Susan Wiggs

“An invaluable resource for beginning and seasoned writers alike. Don’t miss out.”
#1 NY Times Best-Selling Author Terry Brooks

“Something for every writer, from neophyte to old hand. My hat is off to Bob.” Best-Selling Myster Writer Elizabeth George

Reference Write It Forward

“I have always loved how your programs delved deeply into the psychological models you need to develop characters. No you are using that to develop people.” Co-Creator of the Chicken Soup Books Jack Canfield

Related posts:

1. Learning the Craft of Writing Over Time
2. Rule Breaking and a Career Plan for Writers
3. Maximizing a Writers’ Conference Part I. Writing Craft Workshop or Agent Panel? Which should I go to?

The Brenda Novak Auction for Diabetes is probably the largest one I’ve seen, and it’s done every year with some fantastic prizes and packages.

I always try to help promote when someone is trying to raise money for a cause. Like Blogger Laurie who’s trying raise money with a cancer walk. (You can pledge her here…c’mon even $5? ). Now I know Laurie, so I knew about her fundraising efforts a while ago, but last night I saw a link on twitter from Independant bookstore owner Rosemary Potter that made me want to shout out all over the internet.

Rosemary’s Romance in australia has been a huge supporter of all sub-genres of romantic fiction for along time. Rosemary herself is a warm and wonderful woman who I was lucky enough to meet at a Romantic Times Conference a couple years ago, and I’m eager to help her out in any way I can.

Anyway, my point, and what I wanted to shout out is for everyone to click on THIS LINK and vote for Rosemary’s Romance This bank is giving away $40,000 in small business grants, and your vote could help this independent bookstore get some of that!

So… this post today is to both to say how proud I am to be part of a community that always tries to help each other out whenever possible, and to share the link and urge everyone to take a minute out of their day and vote to help support a bookstore that has always been a huge supporter of my favorite genre of fiction-romance.

*** In case you missed it… CLICK THIS LINK TO GO VOTE ***

I didn’t get a lick of work done that day, but you know what?  I still felt super-productive at the end of it.

Related posts:

1. I get by with a little help from my friends.
2. Crazy Writers
3. Ideas vs. Execution

The second week of every month is theme week here at Genreality.Net and this month’s theme is blogging.

I have a blog that I used to use over at www.livejournal.com called Discombobulated Pensivity in the Doublewide of Life.  I’m sure to resurrect it once I’ve gotten a blog built into the website (which I’ve had an offer to help build here in WordPress and just haven’t finished sorting out the details) but it was getting hard to keep up with.  So I started relying heavily on Facebook as my primary tool for frequently connecting with readers online — along with my friends and family.  I like the way it works, though I’m not sure I’ll keep feeling that way once I’m pulled into the vortex that is Timeline.  Still, I’m a technophobe and FB is really user friendly.  But it has limitations — like a cap on friends — and I find myself every-so-often unexcited about their approach to privacy and the constant sense of having to police after my settings.

On Facebook, I try to post three to five status updates per day — some are links, some are photos, some are updates on book progress or what I’m doing.  And then I post longer “notes” sporadically.

And of course I blog here weekly on writing or the writer’s life.  That gives me a set day — Saturdays — and I found early on that it was far more manageable to have a weekly blog in the madness and pandemonium that is my life.

But there is so much more that I could do.  And I’m hoping as life settles down a bit and I move into the land of being full time, I can have a more impactful social media presence and strategy.  For now, I’m doing pretty bare-minimum work.

That’s the blogging I’m up to.   As for the blogs that I read:  Well, I scan my agent’s and editor’s blogs periodically.  And I scan most of my friends’ blogs even less than that unless there’s something specific going on that I want to check on — I’m just too busy.  My life BARELY lets me leverage the words I need, let alone read everything I’d like to read.  But I manage to read Jay Lake’s blog every day.  And I rob his link salad nearly daily for my own updates because he and I frequently land on the same side of most issues and he always, always finds interesting, cool stuff out there.

And that’s Trailer Boy on blogging.  Have a good Saturday.  Play nicely.

Related posts:

1. Theme Week: Best and Worst Writing Advice I’ve Ever Been Given
2. March Theme Week: Reading Habits
3. Theme Week: Or, This is what happens when you praise a small child for her Black Stallion fanfic