Episode 16

Newbie Writers podcast January 16  (Catharine is riding elephants in Thailand today)

Guest Anne Naylor, Dionne Lister

What do readers want?

How can we as writers’ give it to them or even know what the hell it is?

What readers want.

As an emerging writer, I want (and need) to know what readers want.
These are my thoughts.

As a reader, this is what I know:

My time is precious. I am very busy and I beg, borrow and steal time away from other things to read. There is too much to do, too little time to do it in and too much information to deal with on a daily basis. An author needs to give me a very compelling reason to start, and then continue reading his/her work.

I have a short attention span. I don’t necessarily read a book from start to finish. My eyes continually scan the pages, skip over pictures and headings, go back and look at what I have already read, read ahead or go straight to the end. I am constantly assessing whether a book is worth continuing with. If I come to the conclusion that it is not for me, I put it aside. This is also what I do when deciding whether to buy a book or not.
I read inferentially (as well as literally), which means I seek out messages that are not specifically stated in the text. I look at the words on the page and read them on ‘face value’, while at the same time looking for inherent meanings and underlying agendas. As I said, I continually make judgments about what I am reading.

If there are inconsistencies with the characters or contradictions in the plot, I think, ’I don’t get that’, ‘I wonder why she wrote that’ or ‘that doesn’t make any sense’.

I wonder if it is worth reading on. I like books that make me feel as though the author could have written them just for me, not for a mass audience. Some authors churn out novel after novel, all virtually the same. For me these books have no soul. Some authors seem to forget what it is like to be a reader.

I know that everyone is different and we all have our own tastes and preferences. Just because I am not really keen on a book doesn’t mean that it is not a good book. My sister once told me that the best book she had ever read in her life was The Shipping News. I couldn’t get past page three.

As a reader, this is what I want:

Questions to ask:
Anne says she want’s to get a good return on the investment of her time. And read books are that useful, relevant, interesting and entertaining.

Discuss each of these points:
a) useful -  Ask for examples  of each of these, or brainstorm on what a useful book is.
b) relevant – what relevant books have either one of your read?
c) interesting – what interesting books have you both read?
d) enjoyable and/or  -  And of course, what is pure entertainment?  Is it mutually exclusive from books that are useful, relevant and interesting?
e) entertaining.

I want to feel that authors have given me something of themselves.  How do you know when an author has delivered something of themselves?  What are the clues or key?  Or what do you think they are?  Or is it like porn?  We know it when we see it?
But that’s just me.

After thinking about all of this, I have changed my mind. I think I do know what readers want.  What I don’t know is how to give it to them.
Perhaps the topic should be:
How to give readers what they want?
Now, there is a dark side to working too hard to anticipate exactly what readers want, because often they don’t know what they want until some genius has delivered it.

What newbie writers sometimes do is  miss the difference between what readers want and what is trendy.  Two different things.
Readers want their genres to deliver and that includes a novel format which can deliver the brand promise in that it has some qualities:  Redemption, sword fights to the end, knighting, crowning, death, marriage.

So ask the question:  Am I delivering this paragraph because it will help make the story more clear and more interesting to the reader?  Or have I thrown in a scene that is random or gratuitous just because I think ti will be popular?
This is how summer films are made, this is how spin off sitcoms are made and this is why we think something is boring or awful, when it’s just derivative.

That’s the disadvantage , just to play devil’s advocate – Damien’s favorite game.

Prompt:

“We stand in our own shadow then wonder why it’s dark.” – Zen
This is often a refrain in our lives: we can’t, we should, we shouldn’t, it should be this way, we never do that, you should always do this. Life should turn out this way.
What about your character?  What past situation has shadowed them?  What shadows you?
Write about how stepping out of a shadow moves your character’s story forward.
Happy Writing!

Bring out your dead:

From the forums. Our very own Merkin Mysteries.

http://www.newbiewriters.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=3369

“Would you like some tea sir?” asked the plump waitress. The well dressed, middle aged man sighed with a reply, “No thank you. If you will Miss, can you leave us be for a while? We have important matters to discuss.” The waitress curtsied and waddled away. The gentleman turned back to the table and addressed the man sitting opposite him.

“Walter, why do you persist in coming here? This does nothing for my reputation as Chief Inspector, I cannot be seen wasting the afternoon having high tea. Not to mention, you are urgently needed out on the field.” The Chief sighed again and polished his monocle.

“MMM! You really must try this cake Kenneth, it’s banana and poppy seed. Such a great combination.” The Chief rolled his eyes and smoothed his moustache, clearly disgusted by Walters lack of etiquette. “The reason I come to this tea house, is I dislike the taste of ale and I’d rather steer clear of the clientele, after-all, one shouldn’t mix business with pleasure.”

Kenneth threw a paper across the table. “It’s happened again, this time a man floating down the Thames. Throat slit from ear to ear.”

Walter picked up the paper and smirked at the headline: “A Werewolf in London.” “You know, that’d make a great song title I say. What has a werewolf got to do with a chap with a permanent blow hole in the Thames?”

“Well, let’s just say the two bodies we’ve found so far have been clean shaved.” Kenneth glared at Walter for a response.

Walter finished another cake and leaned back patting his stomach. “Probably just a copycat of the murders I solved last month. The Stanton Skinner I think they dubbed him. Was a doctor who was scalping the bodies after he’d operated on them. Strange man. I’m sure this one will be easy to catch.”

“I’m not entirely sure how I can put this Walter. By shaved, I mean, down there. You know what I mean? It’s truly odd. Why would you murder someone, take their strides off and shave them?”

Walter pushed the plate of cakes away with a disgusted look on his face. ‘Take me to the body. I need to see this.”

Word of the week
www.worldwidewords.org

MUMPING

In December 2010, my local community centre in South Gloucestershire revived Mumping Night, a procession and entertainment under the notional supervision of a Lord of Misrule. Mumping is an uncommon word for this seasonal activity, mostly known in the West Country. More commonly it’s mumming, for a performance that was originally in mime or in which participants were in disguise. The name for my local performance seems to be from a confusion between mumming and another old custom of the pre-Christmas period, also called mumping.

Mumping is attached to the feast day of St Thomas the Apostle on 21 December. This used to be known in some parts of England as Mumping Day, when poor people went around their parish begging for alms. It’s from the seventeenth-century Dutch verb mompen, to cheat or deceive, but it became an English dialect word meaning to scrounge or beg.

Mumping is also British police jargon for accepting small favours such as free meals from friendly tradespeople.

Shout Outs:

Sally Sullivan on Google+ for having some bizarre posts about cats.

Add your shout outs here.

Where to find us:

Anne Naylor: http://www.becauseofbipolar.com.au
Dionne Lister: http://www.dionnelisterwriter.wordpress.com @DionneLister
Damien: http://www.newbiewriters.com @newbiewriters Newbie Writers on Google+

“…writing so good, I didn’t notice it.” When I first read this line in a book review, some years back, my initial thoughts were – the poor author.

As writers, we agonise over words to convey just the right message, layer our descriptions to build a certain atmosphere, craft phrases to achieve the correct imagery in readers’ minds.

There are those inspired sentences: ones that come to you into the night, those that spring into your mind in the supermarket queue. Lines that need to be scribbled down on the back of old receipts, scraps of paper, backs of hands; caught quickly before they slip away into the deep, dark abyss within our heads.

When my writing tutor cast her red pen across these precious lines, I wanted to wrap my arms around them, my babies to protect. As she whipped them out, I wanted to run to the waste paper basket, uncurl the crumpled pieces, and insert them back into my work.

Instead, I thought about books I have read. It’s no secret that I have a penchant for crime thrillers. I’m a sucker for a good page turner. It got me thinking – how many times do you see ‘spare’ words and phrases in a thriller? The simple answer is never. Why? Because they distract the reader and detract from the story. In point, they can be the difference between a reader loving or hating your book.

As those inspired lines were prised from me, I realised that in the early days I was being self indulgent. I used some prose because I really liked it, not because it either added to, or drove, the story forward. And that is what it is all about – the story. We are here to spin a good yarn.

So, I aspire towards “writing so good, I didn’t notice it.” If I achieve this, I’ll know I’ve done my job.

Add Note: You can read an excerpt from An Unfamiliar Murder on my new website at www.janeisaac.co.uk  It would be great to see some of you there!

Jane Isaac’s first novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, will be released by Rainstorm Press in February 2012. Jane is still very much a Newbie and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication!

I experienced a dose of déjà vu this week. Standing beneath the shower, lathering conditioner into my hair, I felt the warmth slowly disappear out of the water. It folded back the years to my childhood, when my brother would sneak into the bathroom and run the taps, forcing the same effect for kicks.

I squealed, jumped away, and furiously searched around the curtain for the culprit. But there was no one there. (Not surprising since my husband and daughter were out and I haven’t lived with my brother in years.) I fiddled with the buttons, turned the shower off, and back on. The water still ran cold. The element appeared to have broken. So, with no time to run a bath, I resorted to using a jug of water to rinse my hair in the sink.

It was with relief that I answered the door, the following morning, to a short man with a wide smile, my new shower tucked underneath his arm. I smiled back and, as he introduced himself, I couldn’t help but notice the twitch: his upper body jolted, causing his shoulders and head to flick sideways. Not wishing to stare, I averted my eyes, led him into the house. As we chatted briefly in the kitchen, he appeared calm and was very interesting, relaying anecdotes from a recent trip to New Zealand, before retreating to the bathroom to start work.

Later, I walked into the bathroom to deliver a coffee. Clumsily, I stumbled as I reached the door. It swung open and hit the bath noisily. As he shot round to face me, his forehead creased into a surprised frown, and his body jerked again. The combination of the strange expression and twitch made me physically start. His expression softened into a smile. Embarrassed, I apologised, planted his coffee on the window ledge and retreated. But as I walked into the kitchen a thought struck me – what an interesting layer those actions would add to a character.

I once read that fictional characters are partly made up of elements of people that we meet in everyday life. I guess there is some truth in this. As writers we are constantly observing the world around us – the man in the cafe with the six o’clock shadow, the perfectly manicured mum at the school gates, the child with the tuft of hair that sticks up around his crown. Whilst I hope my plumber isn’t reading this piece, I wanted to share this experience with you. We spend ages researching and building our characters, adding layers to their architecture. But sometimes they creep up on you when you least expect them.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year. And, Auntie Olive, when you come over for Christmas tea, just remember – I’ll be watching you!

Jane Isaac’s first novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, will be released by Rainstorm Press in February 2012. Jane is still very much a Newbie and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication!

As work on my second novel progresses, I realise that word counts intimidate me. When I hear other writers aiming for 2 or 3,000 words a day on their book, every day, I want to climb back into bed and eat copious bars of chocolate. I admire their tenacity, their discipline, their focus.

Like of many of you, my lifestyle allows precious little spare time. As you all know, I have a day job, a family and a very naughty Labrador – all barriers (albeit welcome barriers – most of the time!) that keep me from my keyboard.

These days, I approach my novel in scenes, writing one at a time. I like to get into the heads of my characters. They don’t share my personality, so I need to feel theirs. I guess you might call me a ponderer. I walk across the fields with Bollo, my dog, and let the fresh air swim around me whilst mulling it over in my head.  I try to imagine the scene, picture it in my mind – how does it look, smell; what noises can I hear in the background? Then survey my characters, what is happening to them, how will they react?

Often I come back and write something. Sometimes, there isn’t time. If I’ve got work or family stuff to attend to, I just jot down a few notes. But I genuinely think that if I can’t feel my story, then my readers won’t either. And for me, this all takes time: sometimes hours, days, weeks even for a complex scene.

If you’re writing for something special, or doing a competition like Nano, then great – it’s a challenge. If it’s your job and you have a deadline, you have no choice. But, for me, it’s a hobby and a regular writing routine isn’t measured by a daily word limit. I count all the research, thinking and ruminating time too.

We all know that what works for one, doesn’t for another. As Newbies, we have to find the right habit to suit our own lifestyles. Writing should be an exciting, thrilling and fun experience. Like a great movie, or a good book. So, go find what suits you – write and enjoy.

Jane Isaac’s first novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, will be released by Rainstorm Press in February 2012. Jane is still very much a Newbie and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication!

I’ve always been fascinated by rainbows. As a child I was obsessed with chasing them, inconsolable when they disappeared into an empty sky. In adulthood they still make me smile, presenting a colourful element of mystery, magic and opportunity.

This week my time has been consumed with my website: meeting my web designer, discussing layout, writing content. A very exciting and engaging time (occasionally I pinch myself to make sure it’s real), but then he asked me that question – what about you?

Hmm. I love every aspect of writing. I’m in my element, filling my brain with new characters for a novel or researching, plotting and planning a new story. But ask about me, my own life, my inspirations, and I want to crawl into a little hole and hibernate.

After my recent interview with Peter Hobbs, many of you may be surprised to hear this. But it is so much easier to answer direct questions, especially if they’re asked in a humorous and quirky way. Being asked to sit down and write something about myself, makes my stomach fold.

It led me to think about my stories. When writing fiction we share our lives with imaginary characters, characters that are formed on the basis of what we have learnt, experienced, read, observed. Pieces of those characters inhabit our world, in some small way. We may not share their traits, but we researched them, formed them, know them inside out. (Depending on your genre, this can be quite a scary prospect.)

I considered this. If I can share my fictitious characters, a part of the world that only occupied my head previously, then why not myself? I am much more grounded (and a lot less interesting) than my major characters, that’s for sure.  So, I grasped my pen and wrote a few lines.

 As my website is finished, my book comes out and I bare a part my soul to the world, I think back to my little fascination and it gives me great comfort. I’m still chasing rainbows. Part of me hopes that I’ll never reach the end.

Jane Isaac’s first novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, will be released by Rainstorm Press in February 2012. Jane is still very much a Newbie and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication!

These past couple of months I have found myself in unchartered territory.  Honestly, I never expected to get a book deal and, perhaps naively, didn’t research what comes next.

I’ve talked about marketing and developing a platform already. I’m still navigating the learning curve there. I’ve done some more edits and I now understand how that all works.

My latest challenge was the book cover. How important is cover art? I’ve been a voracious reader of crime fiction for many years and it got me thinking – how much does the cover of a book really matter? Does anyone buy a book based on the cover?

My publisher house, Rainstorm Press, have been very supportive. They asked me for my ideas, wanted it to be something I was comfortable with and proud of. Hmmm. An Unfamiliar Murder is a crime thriller. I trawled my bookcases for ideas. But they are all so different, the only overriding theme was that they were all photographic covers and this seemed like a good idea, in keeping with the whole ‘keep it real’ theme.

Rainstorm put me in touch with their photographer. After much pondering, I chose a scene from the book, gave my ideas on colour schemes and sent the artist excerpts so that they could try to emulate the scene. I waited with bated breath.

Luckily, the photographer found an incredibly similar location and a very good likeness for one of my leading characters. We had to wait a few weeks before the leaves dropped off the trees for authenticity (the novel is sent in November in England), but the photos were taken.

The photographer sent me some stills and asked me to pick four photos that I liked best. Then she worked her magic and turned those stills into mock ups with different layouts of header and by-line. And I was able to choose my favourite.

It has been a great experience to be so involved with the cover art of my book and I’m delighted with the results. I can’t wait to share it with you all.

Jane Isaac’s first novel, An Unfamiliar Murder, will be released by Rainstorm Press in February 2012. Jane is still very much a Newbie, she doesn’t even have a website yet (one day…) and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication!

“What are your plans for your book?”

Early July 2011 – I was enjoying an evening of ‘glamping’ with the girls, sitting around a camp fire, watching the sun set on the horizon when I received the text message. A small, US based, indie publishing house named Rainstorm Press showed a keen interest in ‘An Unfamiliar Murder’. Over the weeks that followed we exchanged many emails and they were at the point of offering me a contract – when they posed the above question. Ummm…

It was a fair question. Recruiting a debut novelist is a big investment for any publishing house. They are providing editorial services, cover art costs, print runs, marketing, publicity… All of which they hope to regain in returns when the book sells.

This is the first piece of fiction I had submitted (the rest is gathering dust on a cyber shelf somewhere). Previously, I had written non-fiction articles, essays and updates for newspapers, magazines and websites under my regular name of Jane Lobb. I was starting from scratch.

When you submit a novel to an Agent/Publisher, it is not enough to say that you want to become a successful author in your query letter. These days, writers are expected to take an active role in promoting their books and publishing houses need reassurance that, for the investment they place in you, you are also prepared to give something back; to develop an audience that may transfer into potential sales.

With the assistance of social media, there are many simple, often free, methods of getting your name out there:

1. Facebook – set up a business page – every person that ‘likes’ that page will receive a copy of all messages that you place there, on their home page.
2. Join the Twitter community – you can follow other writers, readers, interesting people and read their blogs, learn about their experiences and make some really good friends. Twitter not only offers a great platform to promote your work. If you actively engage with others you’ll pick up some great tips and some fabulous book reviews along the way.
3. Write a regular blog – talk about something that you are interested in, it doesn’t have to be directly related to your book, but something that will engage potential readers.
4. Set up a website – this is your main area to promote your book, display the cover and include an excerpt to whet a potential reader’s appetite.
5. Link all of the above together and hey presto you have a marketing strategy – better known these days as an Author Platform.

So, my website is in the hands of a techie. But you can now follow me on Twitter under @JaneIsaacAuthor and find me on Facebook under ‘Jane Isaac Author’. I’m still very much a newbie, still discovering other avenues like book trailers on YouTube, blog tours, LinkedIn, to utilise. But this is my beginning, my initial concession to building an interest in my book.

What’s yours?

Jane Isaac is very much a Newbie, she doesn’t even have a website yet (one day…) and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication – hopefully!

How do you deal with rejection?

Rejections are a real part of every writer’s life, a legacy of the subjective world of creativity that we choose.

There are numerous reasons why publishers reject novel submissions: their lists are full; the genre is wrong; they don’t gel with your characters; you haven’t adhered to their submission requirements; story isn’t fresh or original or they simply don’t like it; writing style, etc. etc. The list is endless…. And for the most part, we receive no explanation, just a standard response.

Honestly, if my rejection pile was compared to my acceptance pile it would crush it outright. So, how do we turn them around? Here’s my way:

1. Don’t take rejections to heart – we are in a subjective business, what one editor hates another loves.
2. Revisit your manuscript – is it the very best you can produce? Sometimes we can get too close to our work. Is it worth getting an outside opinion, a professional edit or perhaps having your writers group critique it?
3. Keep trying – if you believe in your book, then try again elsewhere. Remember, Jeffrey Archer was rejected from 13 publishing houses with his first novel ‘Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less’ which went on to become an international bestseller.
4. Don’t be wounded by your rejections – we may lose minor battles but eventually, with courage and persistence, we’ll win the war.

I recently shared with you my stats. – out of a dozen submissions to independent publishing houses I received three standard rejections, five didn’t respond, four expressed an interest, two contract offers. Why am I telling you this again? Because, if you keep that self belief, persistence really does pay!

Also, a plethora of rejections make the successes, when they arrive, feel much more special!

Jane Isaac is very much a Newbie, she doesn’t even have a website yet (one day…) and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication – hopefully!

When it comes to traditional publishers, which way should we jump as Newbie’s? Major, minor, new or old?

To submit to a major publishing house these days, generally you need to secure an Agent. In my limited experience, it’s difficult to find an Agent these days, especially one who’ll read unsolicited manuscripts from new writers. However, if this is your choice, here are a couple to try:-

http://dhhliteraryagency.com/submissions.html

http://www.janklowandnesbit.co.uk/submissions

So, if we can’t attract the attention of an Agent, what next? We try the independent publishing houses. Again, experience has taught me that many of these, certainly the larger ones, only accept submissions through Agents. However, there are still some that will entertain direct submissions and from new writers.

Before I submitted my script I researched the independents heavily and picked out a dozen. (You can find a comprehensive list of my findings in the Forum under ‘Writing Goals’ – ‘Goals to Being Published’.) Out of those twelve, I received three standard rejections, five didn’t respond, four expressed an interest, two offered me a contract. I’m not being self indulgent here, it’s important to look at those who did respond because it shows they took the time to read a newbie’s script. And this is the interesting part: all bar one were relatively new, small, Indie publishing houses.

Maybe there is something in this? The majors and big independents are receiving hundreds of submissions per week. But the new Indies are just starting off, looking for fresh talent to fill their books. I wanted to share this with you all because, when submitting, this is definitely worth considering. If you can root out those new, small publishing houses – they are more likely to read your script and, if they sign you, if my experience is anything to go by, work with you through to the publishing stage.

Try these for starters:-

http://www.rainstormpress.com/p/submissions.html

http://nemesispublishing.com/Submissions.aspx

They may just be the path to your success…

Jane Isaac is very much a Newbie, she doesn’t even have a website yet (one day…) and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication – hopefully!

Late June 2011

At a talk last year, Stephen Booth shared with his audience – it took eighteen months to find a publisher with his first novel. He is now a successful author in the crime genre with over seven novels published. So, I was in it for the long haul.

My novel submissions took a couple of early passes from the independents. The normal standard replies: we are no longer accepting submissions; our lists are full; not right for us at the moment. Then within two weeks of my submission I got an early hit.

The Editor read the first two chapters of An Unfamiliar Murder ‘like lightning’ and eagerly requested the rest. She emailed me several times over that week to discuss my plans for my book, my thoughts on publication. Things were looking very positive.

Within seven days of having my complete manuscript, she was back in touch. She really liked the novel, complimented my writing, would like to offer me a contract… (Another dance around the lounge to celebrate.) But…. she wanted some major changes to my lead character.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve tried to do something different with ‘An Unfamiliar Murder’, avoiding the tired divorced, alcohol obsessed Detective lead. It’s a subjective business, I realise this won’t sit well with everyone. She wanted another Kay Scarpetta – a job already done wonderfully by Patricia Cornwell in my opinion.

Was I prepared to comprise my main character just to be published? The answer is no. Eventually, we parted.

Then I struck gold…

Jane Isaac is very much a Newbie, she doesn’t even have a website yet (one day…) and with a day job, a family and a very demanding black Labrador, she squeezes her writing into every spare moment she gets. Join her on the rocky road from pen to publication – hopefully!