Sunday, December 27, 2020

Countdown of readers’ favs of 2020 – day 2

 The countdown of readers’ favorite posts of 2020 continues, with numbers seven and eight:

Last look at WORDfest – the on to virtual future!

Writers—need a break from that “locked in” feeling? From old familiar faces? From long term commitments? I don’t have a cure for the pandemic, only for a change of writing pace, from long form to short form, with hints from master short story writer William Ledbetter

A Nebula Award-winning author of dozens of speculative fiction short stories and articles, Ledbetter discussed his guidelines for “Writing and Marketing Short Fiction” at this year’s virtual version of North Texas And if it sounds as if she’s talking only to authors planning to self-publish, she’s not. It’s even possible to relaunch a previously published book. And if by “platform” you think she means being on every possible social media outlet, she’s not. “Find two you love, including your blog. . . The way you (build platform) is by being authentic, (posting) about things that make me fall in love with you. You don’t have to sell your book.”

Writers do, however, “need to have goals so you can achieve them,” Raquel insisted, because you’ll be launching on that “complex beast” Amazon. “Your book launch depends on making this animal work for you, not against you.”

Make it work by researching categories, prices, and endorsers.     

Think of Amazon categories as genres, Raquel told her audience. Pick the most relevant ones, but rather than choosing “science fiction and fantasy,” which is too broad, get more specific with categories such as “technothriller.” Then research the competition. “It will be hard to outsell authors in categories they dominate,” and launching writers will strive to find categories in which their books have a chance to become bestsellers.

And about pricing—“it’s an art, not a science.” Check the most common prices for ebooks in the chosen category, remembering that prices can always be changed. Raquel’s suggestions are to launch at 99 cents the first week. “You want it to be a no-brainer for someone to buy that book.” Later pricing can go up to $2.99 to $3.99 for ebooks and as much as $12.99-$19.99 for paperbacks, depending on genre. (Note: for KDP, authors must change their royalty setting to be able to sell at 99 cents.)

To find endorsers, Raquel recommends cultivating book bloggers, as well as checking out book promotion sites, whose prices can vary from free to “very expensive.” Both tasks should be done prior to launch. Although she suggested several, writers may want to check out book bloggers and promotional sites as well as contests with possible prizes at the all-purpose Reedsy site. 

***

Ready for more reader favs? Here’s #7:

Recycling floods of words into multiple venues

Is anyone else feeling jealous at the sight of all the creative stuff our friends are making from unlikely sources during the pandemic? You know who I’m talking about. The ones who craft amazing whatzits from leftover yarn or cook from-scratch restaurant-worthy entrees out of stuff found in the back of their pantries, even post pictures of themselves impersonating famous paintings. 

Well, writers, here’s our turn at creative recycling. With crafts like mining our yet-to-be-published novels for short stories – 1,000 words are easier and quicker to sell than 100,000. Or writing fanfic from our own fiction by giving a minor character an expanded role, reimagining a scene from a different point of view, or taking that sea of back story we can’t quite find room for in the big book and giving it a story of its own. 

This isn’t a new idea for me, but it got new life recently while I was, as I posted last month, refurbishing some of my previously published short stories for Wattpad. When I dropped some of them in my critique group’s Dropbox, one sharp-eyed critique partner noticed that one employed an episode from a novel the group had recently critiqued. 

Why, she asked, would I turn a novel into a short story? 

The short answer was so that I could make a separate sale of the short story, which didn’t exactly replicate the novel chapter it was based on. And has, in fact, been sold twice, while the novel still languishes. I didn’t mention that a second short story (which has also sold twice) was the backstory of another character who ended up in that same novel

Or that still another unsold novel has generated other multi-published short stories.

Still, I had said enough to whet her interest. Where, she, a veteran of long form writing, asked, do you sell short stories?

The answer to that proved too lengthy for a Facebook post, so I’m expanding it here. I’ll also delve into the inspirational benefits to be gleaned from writing short stories that make us want to try our hands at longer works with those characters or settings.

First, let me whet the appetites of you, dear readers, with suggestions for where to sell those story whatzits I see churning in your brains.

When I was writing a lot more short stories than I currently am, my bible for publication venues was Duotrope’s Digest, with its listing of thousands of active markets for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. (It’s since added visual arts venues and literary agents to its mix.) In addition to listing markets and their contact information, Duotrope adds interviews with editors, word counts, numbers of acceptances, approximate response time, and your own personal spreadsheet of submissions.

Is there a downside to all this bounty? Yes, of sorts. Since my initial writing days, Duotrope has added a subscription fee. Still, at $5 per month or $50 for 12 months (each with a beginning free trial) it’s still a good deal. In fact, although I dropped my subscription when I began writing more long form, I’m tempted to return.

However, for those who want to dabble in the publication waters, there are free options. One is The Submission Grinder. I’ve tried it and found it does almost everything Duotrope does, although as yet only for fiction and poetry, without charge.

I’ve also used another not-for-pay source of primarily genre publishing markets, Ralan.com.

Other free sources for short stories as well as longer works include the blog Publishing . . . And Other Forms of Insanity, which also has agent listings; New Pages; and Reedsy.

Still, the possibility of getting money from some of those words we’ve devoted so much time to isn’t the only reason for the mix-and-match use of short stories and novels. There’s also the possibility of faster gratification – publication in weeks instead of years. Plus, short story publications don’t require literary agents as gatekeepers. And most of them don’t require any more in the way of a query letter than the bare facts of the stories title, genre, and word count, and the writer’s own contact information.

And short stories on their own are ways to generate ideas for longer fiction. I’ve hatched the germ of at least a couple of novels, as well as valuable backstory for characters, from short stories written for the market or for writing conferences. Shorter forms are great for trying out ideas. An alt-history short (again, multi-published) turned into a more conventional historical. A fantasy story that flopped at a workshop got new life in a different genre.

And for anyone unsure of which point of view to use, short stories are exercises in possibility. After all, it’s only a few thousand words. . . 

Before proceeding, please note that crafting short stories from already-written or in-progress novels isn’t a simple matter of putting a chapter on a chopping block and cutting a few thousand words. Long form and short form writing are separate works of art. We will find ourselves writing new beginnings or endings, eliding middles, even reimagining our characters.

Think of this as you contemplate your friends’ other crafts on Instagram or Facebook. Maybe they ran out of their favorite yarn and had to improvise. Maybe they had only canned spinach for that quiche instead of fresh or frozen and dared not post the first results to Instagram. Practice, revise, rewrite. Don’t be afraid of any un-Instagram worthy writing results but prepare to turn floods of words into marvelous stories!

He only had to tell his audience to skip the synopsis— “it’s a short story!”—to catch the attention of this writer struggling with that most dreaded to-do for book length works. 

Then there was ability to engage with a completely new set of characters for each short story. And of course, the time element. Not that Ledbetter dashes out stories offhand—he sometimes spends as much as two weeks on one—but I mentally compared this to the months, sometimes years, lavished on novel writing. It didn’t hurt either to hear we can skip dealing with agents and submit our short stories directly to publishers.  

(Most agents, in fact, will not represent short story writers, although Ledbetter didn’t rebuff the agent who offered representation after reading his Nebula-winning short story, “The Long Fall Up.” It was an offer that later resulted in Ledbetter’s first novel publication, Level Five.)

Still, some of Ledbetter’s “musts” for short story publication carry over into long form fiction. “First, read the guidelines,” he warned.

“If the story doesn’t follow the guidelines or the writer hasn’t checked the spelling the slush reader and editor will say, ‘this isn’t for us.’ You want your story to be so good that they’ll read all the way to the end. . . Good enough isn’t good enough. Make sure it’s the best story you can possibly write.”

For writing that best story, first pages are critically important. With a short story, within the first two or three pages, you have to supply context. (By context, he means, why should the story begin where it does and why should the reader care.) And, have a great ending! “It’s a good idea to have something at the beginning that ties into the ending. It’s satisfying when a story comes full circle.”

On the other hand, “one of the things (editors) always say is, ‘read our magazine.’ The problem is writers may simply write clones of previously published stories with the serial numbers filed off.”

Write the story you want to write, Ledbetter said, then look for a publication that’s a match for it.

To find those publications, he suggests two major resources,  Duotrope’s Digest and  The Submission Grinder.

“These allow you to track your submissions and also provide information about other markets.” (Duotrope requires a subscription fee of $5/month or $50/year and also has a larger data base than The Submission Grinder, which is free.) 

“You can also search by genre, like if you’re writing a Western or a romance story, as well as providing information on contests and anthologies.” 

And as always, be persistent and patient. Not to mention thick-skinned. There will be rejections. 

***

Also, at WORDfest, it was a relief to hear from book guru Shayla Raquel that virtual book releases can be as satisfying as those in person.

Raquel’s must-haves for that perfect launch:

·       The best book you can possibly write

·       Professionally edited

·       With a professional cover

·       And professional formatting

·       A user-friendly, mobile-friendly website

·       Author platform (social media presence, community of influencers, email list, etc.)

·       At least three months to execute the launch

And if it sounds as if she’s talking only to authors planning to self-publish, she’s not. It’s even possible to relaunch a previously published book. And if by “platform” you think she means being on every possible social media outlet, she’s not. “Find two you love, including your blog. . . The way you (build platform) is by being authentic, (posting) about things that make me fall in love with you. You don’t have to sell your book.”

Writers do, however, “need to have goals so you can achieve them,” Raquel insisted, because you’ll be launching on that “complex beast” Amazon. “Your book launch depends on making this animal work for you, not against you.”

Make it work by researching categories, prices, and endorsers.     

Think of Amazon categories as genres, Raquel told her audience. Pick the most relevant ones, but rather than choosing “science fiction and fantasy,” which is too broad, get more specific with categories such as “technothriller.” Then research the competition. “It will be hard to outsell authors in categories they dominate,” and launching writers will strive to find categories in which their books have a chance to become bestsellers.

Image: Pixabay
And about pricing—“it’s an art, not a science.” Check the most common prices for ebooks in the chosen category, remembering that prices can always be changed. Raquel’s suggestions are to launch at 99 cents the first week. “You want it to be a no-brainer for someone to buy that book.” Later pricing can go up to $2.99 to $3.99 for ebooks and as much as $12.99-$19.99 for paperbacks, depending on genre. (Note: for KDP, authors must change their royalty setting to be able to sell at 99 cents.)

To find endorsers, Raquel recommends cultivating book bloggers, as well as checking out book promotion sites, whose prices can vary from free to “very expensive.” Both tasks should be done prior to launch. Although she suggested several, writers may want to check out book bloggers and promotional sites as well as contests with possible prizes at the all-purpose Reedsy site.

 ***

And here’s readers' fav #7:

Recycling floods of words into multiple venues

Is anyone else feeling jealous at the sight of all the creative stuff our friends are making from unlikely sources during the pandemic? You know who I’m talking about. The ones who craft amazing whatzits from leftover yarn or cook from-scratch restaurant-worthy entrees out of stuff found in the back of their pantries, even post pictures of themselves impersonating famous paintings. 

Well, writers, here’s our turn at creative recycling. With crafts like mining our yet-to-be-published novels for short stories – 1,000 words are easier and quicker to sell than 100,000. Or writing fanfic from our own fiction by giving a minor character an expanded role, reimagining a scene from a different point of view, or taking that sea of back story we can’t quite find room for in the big book and giving it a story of its own. 

This isn’t a new idea for me, but it got new life recently while I was, as I posted last month, refurbishing some of my previously published short stories for Wattpad. When I dropped some of them in my critique group’s Dropbox, one sharp-eyed critique partner noticed that one employed an episode from a novel the group had recently critiqued. 

Why, she asked, would I turn a novel into a short story? 

The short answer was so that I could make a separate sale of the short story, which didn’t exactly replicate the novel chapter it was based on. And has, in fact, been sold twice, while the novel still languishes. I didn’t mention that a second short story (which has also sold twice) was the backstory of another character who ended up in that same novel

Or that still another unsold novel has generated other multi-published short stories.

Still, I had said enough to whet her interest. Where, she, a veteran of long form writing, asked, do you sell short stories?

The answer to that proved too lengthy for a Facebook post, so I’m expanding it here. I’ll also delve into the inspirational benefits to be gleaned from writing short stories that make us want to try our hands at longer works with those characters or settings.

First, let me whet the appetites of you, dear readers, with suggestions for where to sell those story whatzits I see churning in your brains.

When I was writing a lot more short stories than I currently am, my bible for publication venues was Duotrope’s Digest, with its listing of thousands of active markets for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. (It’s since added visual arts venues and literary agents to its mix.) In addition to listing markets and their contact information, Duotrope adds interviews with editors, word counts, numbers of acceptances, approximate response time, and your own personal spreadsheet of submissions.

Is there a downside to all this bounty? Yes, of sorts. Since my initial writing days, Duotrope has added a subscription fee. Still, at $5 per month or $50 for 12 months (each with a beginning free trial) it’s still a good deal. In fact, although I dropped my subscription when I began writing more long form, I’m tempted to return.

However, for those who want to dabble in the publication waters, there are free options. One is The Submission Grinder. I’ve tried it and found it does almost everything Duotrope does, although as yet only for fiction and poetry, without charge.

I’ve also used another not-for-pay source of primarily genre publishing markets, Ralan.com.

Other free sources for short stories as well as longer works include the blog Publishing . . . And Other Forms of Insanity, which also has agent listings; New Pages; and Reedsy.

Still, the possibility of getting money from some of those words we’ve devoted so much time to isn’t the only reason for the mix-and-match use of short stories and novels. There’s also the possibility of faster gratification – publication in weeks instead of years. Plus, short story publications don’t require literary agents as gatekeepers. And most of them don’t require any more in the way of a query letter than the bare facts of the stories title, genre, and word count, and the writer’s own contact information.

And short stories on their own are ways to generate ideas for longer fiction. I’ve hatched the germ of at least a couple of novels, as well as valuable backstory for characters, from short stories written for the market or for writing conferences. Shorter forms are great for trying out ideas. An alt-history short (again, multi-published) turned into a more conventional historical. A fantasy story that flopped at a workshop got new life in a different genre.

And for anyone unsure of which point of view to use, short stories are exercises in possibility. After all, it’s only a few thousand words. . . 

Before proceeding, please note that crafting short stories from already-written or in-progress novels isn’t a simple matter of putting a chapter on a chopping block and cutting a few thousand words. Long form and short form writing are separate works of art. We will find ourselves writing new beginnings or endings, eliding middles, even reimagining our characters.

Think of this as you contemplate your friends’ other crafts on Instagram or Facebook. Maybe they ran out of their favorite yarn and had to improvise. Maybe they had only canned spinach for that quiche instead of fresh or frozen and dared not post the first results to Instagram. Practice, revise, rewrite. Don’t be afraid of any un-Instagram worthy writing results but prepare to turn floods of words into marvelous stories!

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