Made Moon Blog

HOW NOT TO GET PUBLISHED
Copyright 2001, Michael LaRocca
http://free_reads.tripod.com

(This article may be freely published with author’s information intact.)

One morning, I decided to sleep late for a change. I stumbled out of bed at 10:00, not my usual 7:00, and fired up the computer. Little did I know what I’d find in my mailbox on this particular morning.

The first thing I saw was about a dozen people congratulating me for something. I opened an email at random, and it didn’t say why I was being congratulated.

Meanwhile, my other mailbox opened in a different window. It informed me that 39 people had joined my newsletter mailing list since the previous night. A dozen more congratulations waited for me there. I opened one up, and again there was no reason.

Instead of continuing, I played a hunch. I logged onto my publisher’s website, and there it was. VIGILANTE JUSTICE. While I was sleeping, my first novel was published. (There’s a 16-hour time difference between my home in Hong Kong and my publisher’s office.)

I checked out the VIGILANTE JUSTICE web page — my web page — and was astounded once more by the book cover. The music, which I’d never heard before, captured the mood of the book perfectly. For a long moment, I simply basked in the feeling. Published at last.

If someone had told me one year ago that I’d be publishing four books this year, I’d have called him an eejit.

The last time I was published, not counting VIGILANTE JUSTICE, was twelve years ago, and that doesn’t count because I paid someone to do it. I’d long since given up on getting published again. In fact, I doubted I’d ever write again.

By now you may wonder how I made it from Point A to Point B. Or for that matter, why I stopped writing.

The second part is simple. I was chasing money, becoming a high-powered businessman and losing myself. The first part is a little more difficult to explain.

In December 1999, I flew to Hong Kong for a vacation. The first vacation in my life, really. I intended to stay for a month, but I never left. Instead, I married an Australian who teaches English over here. I quit my job in North Carolina by email, though I still maintain my former employer’s website. I love the Internet.

I found myself unable to work in this country. So what was I to do with my time? I dusted off a childhood dream and resumed writing.

I had a slush pile full of old short stories, and I ran them through the on-line writing workshops. There are two parts to writing — story and structure. I wasn’t changing my stories — they came from me and were what I wanted to write — but my style was pathetic. Style is also the part that can be learned. So I did.

Then came something that amazed me. New stories. Just mixing with the “writing culture” got my creative juices flowing again. After all those years. Better than ever, in fact.

Next, I published them. Between March and December 2000, I published twenty stories in twenty different e-zines. I only made $6, but I was padding my resume. I believed that I had a short story anthology in me, and I’d decided to try e-publishing it. I felt I needed a “track record,” so I got one.

I also had a novel in my slush pile, the one new thing I wrote in the nineties. A gripping imaginative story, badly told. But I’d finally learned about the craft, the structure, and the hard work that comes after that original flash of inspiration.

You see where I’m leading by now. I wrote two new novels, and signed contracts to publish all three novels plus the new short story collection in 2001.

It’s a common sight among new writers, and really it’s a bit sad. People who have the story — the part that can’t be learned — but tell it badly. They rush in on the adrenaline high that all authors know so well, then get rejected and give up.

What defines a great story? That depends on which reader you ask. If you’re writing a story that moves you, someone somewhere with similar tastes will like it. Some stories will be more popular than others, but every story will be considered great by someone. But if it’s badly written, the reader will simply put the book down and read something else.

As a teenaged author, gathering up enough rejection slips to wallpaper the room, I didn’t give up. I just got arrogant and decided “You don’t understand me, ya eejit.” That’s no solution either. Nor is paying to be published.

Nope, if you want to get published, learn how to tell your story. Spelling, grammar, punctuation, pacing, dialogue… all that stuff that you may have slept through in high school will become second nature with enough practice.

I did quite well in high school English, by the way, but it’s not like they taught pacing and dialogue and real story-telling there. To learn that, you’ve gotta read. But that’s no problem for an author. If you don’t enjoy reading, I don’t think you can write something that others will enjoy reading.

Also, you must listen to the criticisms. Accept some and reject others, but always listen. I believe the Internet makes it much easier to get those criticisms.

I work as an editor now, and one of my authors told me that he sees movies inside his head. It shows in his writing! I don’t write that way, unfortunately, but I still know how he feels. When “the Muse” pays me a visit, I’ve gotta write it down as fast as it comes to me. That’s the one part that can’t be packaged, taught or mass-produced. That part comes from you, the author, and no one else can do it the way that you do.

Kurt Vonnegut, whose works I greatly admire, writes one sentence at a time, and makes each one perfect before he begins the next. But I don’t write like that, nor do most of the authors I know. We just let it fly, then go back and fix it later.

But if you don’t want to get published, don’t go back and fix it. Pass that raw copy around to your friends and family and let them tell you how wonderful it is for fear of hurting your feelings. Then send it to the publishers and collect the rejection letters. That’s what I did “in my younger days,” and I wasn’t published.

It took me twenty years to learn my lesson. It would genuinely make me feel good to hear that most writers aren’t taking quite so long.

Oh, and when the day comes that you finally are published, it’s best not to sleep until 11:00 PM Eastern Standard Time and hear about it in the wonderful but chaotic way that I did. (Not that you can know what day that’ll be.) I barely had time to bask in the moment before I had to fire up the publicity machine and see how many copies I could sell.

I’m very proud of VIGILANTE JUSTICE, by the way, and not just because it’s an EPPIE 2002 finalist in the Thriller category. I wrote what I like to read; something that says what I want to say, and my readers are genuinely enjoying it. That’s why I write.

About the Author

Michael is an American living in Hong Kong. He has been working as a full-time author for over two years and as an editor for over a year. He has 4 novels scheduled for publication. He’s proud of the fact that he rarely writes in the same genre twice. One of his novels is an EPPIE 2002 in the Thriller category. His website is at http://free_reads.tripod.com.

As we have seen the changes that happened during the semester are very visible. As the nature awakes from winter season the changes occur not just with climate but also with flora and fauna.

Because of the obvious differences of season times, the changes that occur in the transitional period (from winter hibernation to summer) can be easily watched and registered.

As we have started our observations in February, we already have been able to see the weather and nature changes. As the temperature increased, the snow melted and the flora awaked from hibernation. Even so that the soil was yellowish and there was no grass the trees began to change. The buds on the trees were getting bigger, and their dark color was a confirmation of metabolism that started when temperature became stable above freezing. As it was noticed this process of preparation lasted for a month and only in early March obvious changes began to occur. The explanation is not just the increased temperature but sunny and longer days. As it’s known the sun light is essential for growth because it stimulates the process of photosynthesis in plants that is essential for growth. These changes also promoted changes in the wild life. With the warmer days not only green grass and leaves began to appear but also animals and insects as well.

As we see the connection of all the species in the wild nature stimulates and makes to awake one another. With getting warm as the flora began to awake and the increase of sun light the insects began to appear because they depend upon flora in their nutrition habits, that stimulated the activity of bigger animals from frogs and other amphibians to different mammals as squirrels, mice and raccoons.

Moreover as the weather became warmer and stable the local nature surrounding enriched by some migrating species as turkey vultures, European starlings and others.

As we observe biological diversity in the forest we do also admire and amaze by the ways that this entire species adopted for the environment. It’s not just enough to mention that they go into hibernation in winter time, when the vegetation is impossible because of unfavorable climate conditions, but also it’s interesting to observe the ways that wild species adopted for the environment. Vine plants as ivy use other trees to climb and get the lack of sunlight and use trees as the sources of their nutrition, other plants have different types of leaves and structure that helps then to adapt to the lack of sun and to be protected from animals by some kinds of thorns. Living creatures use mimicry to survive in the environment. Basically it’s the color of the body and ability to pour in the surrounding to be invisible for predators. Most of mammals as mice, squirrels and other animals change their body color to be invisible in the environment for their animals.

Most of species have anatomical particularities that help them in hunting. For example frog has sticky tongue, which it uses in hunting the mosquitoes and other insects. Squirrels that eat mostly vegetative food have strong and big teeth for breaking nuts.

Another way of adaptation is socialization. To the difference to many other species, wasps and hornet live in colonies, with every member having his own duties. They settle in nests which are done from different materials basically pieces of grass, leaves and tree’s bark which they glue with saliva. Wasps, hornets and bumble-bees have a good protection against their enemies it’s their sting. To the difference to bees they don’t die after they sting but are able to use their sting while alive.

A good example of adaptation to the environment of the wood is a raccoon (procyon iotor), which is spread in the most part s of the USA and in the northern parts of Mexico. Raccoons are mostly settled in the woods and rarely live far way from water resources. They are mostly active at night time and that’s why are seldom noticed at daytime. In the cold period of the year they make holes, mostly for sleeping, rest and hiding from danger, but they don’t go into hibernation during winter time. Most of their food is grapes, berries, insects or crayfish, they seldom hunt bigger species. Raccoons can be also thought to be one of the most successfully adopted animals in the urban life, using drain systems to move unnoticed. Raccoons have five toes on their feet which are very helpful for climbing trees and hunting, moreover the most highly developed sense that raccoon has is the sense of touch.

Aaron is a senior writer at Custom Essay Writing Network. He is an experienced writer of custom essay and will be glad to share his experience of custom essay writing with you.

You had an idea for a book. It was a good idea and you sat in front of your typewriter or computer and hammered out a draft. You went through a flurry of emotion as the weeks and months went by, but you kept at it and finally, it was complete. You sat on it for a couple of weeks and then picked it up and read it to see if it made sense. You revised it, did a down and dirty edit, then sat on it for another couple of weeks. Now it was time to get serious and you started the self-critique process. Once satisfied you had made it the best it could be, it was time to find a publisher. You’re excited, have visions of fame and fortune and then reality sets in. It comes in the form a solid brick wall as you find that there are a multitude of obstacles which must be overcome before anyone will even look at your work.

So what’s the process? First, get an agent. And yes, to anyone who has tried, that is easier said than done. Like most people in the publishing business, agents are very busy, overwhelmed even by the sheer number of requests for their services. But considering the large, well-known publishing houses deal almost exclusively with agents, it’s in your best interest to keep looking until you find one. Many of the larger publishing houses will not look at anything that is not submitted by an agent. A good agent will help you prepare your work and put together a proposal targeted to editors that deal specifically with your genre of work. Like agents, editors are equally, if not more so, bombarded with submissions everyday. The sad truth is that as a first-time writer, even if you find a good agent, and that agent is successful in getting your work in front of an editor, the chance of it getting attention is still pretty slim. Traditional publishers deal with what they feel will sell. Unless you have something that screams success, or are already well known publicly, it will be tough even for an agent to convince major editors to take a look at your work.

What’s the point then? Is there hope? Of course there is, and that’s the beauty of the system. While the larger publishing houses rely, even demand that your work be submitted through an agent, many of the smaller publishers and more specialized houses do not. In fact, they pay close attention to unsolicited manuscripts as well as those submitted directly from authors. Even better news for the first-timer is that many of the small, independent and medium sized publishers are among the best in the business. Do your homework. Look at publishing alternatives with small, local publishers. Learn what their requirements are and compare your work to titles they have already published. If it’s a match, then you have a good shot.

Then why would anyone go through the trouble of finding an agent first? The simple answer is experience. Quite simply, agents know the business. You, as a first time author, probably do not. An agent will, most likely, have more bargaining power, knowledge of how the system works, and the ability to command a better deal at closing than you. So while we know that it is not always necessary to have an agent, it is always wise.

Okay, how do I find an agent or editor? Good question, and like most things in life, there are rules. Follow them and your chances of success are better than average. Break the rules and your chances are zero. Before you start your search, put together two documents: a query letter and a proposal.

The Query Letter:

The query letter is a one page letter, exactly one page which is used to identify you and your book. Anything beyond that is a waste of time and gives an agent or editor an excuse to toss it, and your chance of getting published. The query letter generally has three sections: the intro, a short synopsis, and an author bio.

The Proposal:

The proposal describes your book and tells agents/editors why it should be published. It should include the following:

- A description of your book

- Who the intended audience is

- Who the competition is

- Author information

- Estimated time to manuscript completion

- Sample chapters

If you’ve started your search for a publisher and gotten bombarded with “Your work is great, but we’re not interested at this time,” don’t despair. There is hope and by looking closer at some of the things I suggest here, you will eventually reach your goal. Be patient, though, it takes time to go the traditional route.

Kenneth R. Eaton is a published author who writes suspense/thriller fiction. Learn more about him and his work by visiting his website.
http://www.eatonbooks.com

I recently read a book where everything was akimbo. Arms were akimbo, legs were akimbo. Akimbo appeared on every page.

Okay every page is a slight exaggeration, but akimbo was in every chapter more than once. I started thinking of the hero in the book as Adam West’s posturing Batman persona.

Every writer is guilty of the akimbo type of repetitiveness once in awhile. Most of the time we’re not even aware that we’re echoing ourselves.

How do these unconscious akimbo dittos creep into our work? The English language is so rich with descriptors, why would we rob our manuscripts of the warmth and color that this richness brings to our work? Simply put — we’re lazy.

When the afore mentioned writer was feverishly scribbling away on her book, she arrived at a moment when her character took a stance, and the first word that popped into her head was akimbo. Writing akimbo was easier than it would be to stop the flow of her writing and come up with a different way of saying akimbo. The only problem is instead of going back to edit out ninety percent of the akimbos, she left them in and it became a distraction to the reader (and humorous to me, which I’m sure wasn’t her intention).

Don’t let yourself get lazy. Go through your work and get rid of repetitive words. Especially if they’re words like akimbo that are not used in everyday conversation.

If you need help, go to the Georgetown Linguistics website and use their frequency index tool (see the web address below). Copy your text into the box provided and click on the “Do it!” button. This website will give you a list of every word and how many times it was used in your manuscript.

I would suggest (and this is just my opinion) that if you discover that you’ve used akimbo more than twenty-nine times, get rid of all but one of them.

By the way akimbo appears 13 times in this passage. Annoying wasn’t it!

Georgetown Linguistics Website:
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/webtools/web_freqs.html

© 2004 Stacy Verdick Case.

Stacy Verdick Casewrote her first “book” when she was in second grade and hasn’t quit writing yet. She’s had numerous article and short stories published and has a couple manuscripts making the rounds. Her current manuscript, A Grand Murder, is receiving rave reviews, and took third in the Daphne du Maurier contest in the Unpublished Mainstream Mystery category. Visit Stacy on the web at www.StacyVerdickCase.com.

New freelance writers often wonder how to charge for their writing. Writers want to make sure that they get paid fairly for the effort they have put in. In the short term, writers may work for very little while they are getting established. But in the long term, writers who don’t earn a fair wage will not be able to freelance for long. There are three questions that freelance writers should ask themselves when deciding what hourly rate they should set.

What Do I Want To Earn For Writing?

Some writers write in their spare time and have full time jobs elsewhere. These writers may not need to earn as much as those who rely on writing for their income. Whatever their situation, writers should consider how much money they need to earn to eat, pay the bills and maybe have a little fun from time to time. It’s nice to think that you can catch a movie or go to a gig once in a while.

Writers also need to think about the taxman. Depending on where writers live, any where from 22% to 35% or more (if you’re really successful) will be gobbled up by the government. For example, in the UK, tax and National Insurance takes over 30% of your income (after allowances). So writers need to add this figure to the amount they want to earn.

How Much Writing Will I Do?

Full-time freelance writers will spend the equivalent of a working week on writing. That’s more than 2,000 hours a year. However, take out all the time you spend making cups of coffee, filing, blogging as well as sick days and holidays and there will probably be about 1800 hours left.

Writers also need to think about the cost of consumables. Pens, paper and print cartridges all cost money and this should be added to what writers want to earn.

What’s My Hourly Rate?

Once writers have calculated the number of hours they will work and the full amount they need to earn, working out an hourly rate is simple. Just divide the amount you need to earn by the number of hours you plan to work, and you’ve got a your hourly rate. Once writers have worked out what they need to earn, they have a figure to aim for.

One last thing. Even after setting an hourly rate, freelance writers need to be prepared to work for less occasionally. The freelance writing market is competitive and sometimes it is better to eat than to stand on principle. Writers always have to decide whether it is worth some short term swallowing of pride for the long term gain of having a better portfolio. Once writers have a good portfolio, they’ll stand a better chance of getting the hourly rate they deserve.

Sharon Hurley Hall gives writers advice on how to get paid to write. Sharon is a freelance writer, ghostwriter and editor who writes on freelance writing skills and writer promotion for InspiredAuthor.com. For more information or to contact Sharon, visit doublehdesign.com.

All my life I’ve relished stories about people who just kept chugging along or plugging away, until the world finally said: “I give up; you’re right!”

For example, as a kid I recall visiting a former champion figure skater by the name of Red McCarthy.

He was a friend of the family and his proudest possession was his own invention: a home gym that he housed in a special place of honor in his garage.

I don’t have to tell you what a home gym is. You’ve seen countless commercials for Soloflex and Bowflex, and you’ve used similar devices at health clubs and exercise studios.

But back in Red’s tinkering days, home gyms were unheard of, and his device was cutting edge.

Sadly, the world didn’t embrace his machine, and it took another two decades for the exercise revolution to reach us. But Red was on the right track, and given just a little more time, the quality of his work, and the thinking that went into it, would have been embraced and even celebrated.

Simply put: The world cannot ignore quality, forever.

If you doubt this, read a book by Dr. Srully Blotnick: GETTING RICH YOUR OWN WAY.

Blotnick studied hundreds of people over the course of decades, and then he compared the successful to the unsuccessful, and he found one significant characteristic that was more important than formal education or nearly anything else.

The winners found some work that they loved, and they stuck with it for the long haul. Finally, and often quite quietly, they grew better at what they did than most others, and the world acknowledged their achievements.

The best butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers grew rich, slowly but surely. It didn’t matter what field people chose for themselves according to the author, higher pay was their due when they were simply the best in their occupations.

So, Red didn’t make it, because he was a little too far ahead of his time.

But I, and some others, remember him fondly and with admiration, which I suppose is some small part of the world paying attention to his quality, at last!