Are You a Twitter Pied Piper?

Recently, I taught an “Introduction to Twitter” class and was amazed at how quickly students, who initially thought of Twitter as a marketing burden, were urging me to show them how to build a huge group of followers. They were caught up in a frenzy of building numbers before they even understood what to do with them.

As an avid Twitter user, my philosophy is quality over quantity. There are plenty of programs and gurus offering schemes to build your following into the tens of thousands overnight. Some of them even work. But does having a huge following mean success for your book sales? Not necessarily.

This frantic numbers game overlooks the purpose of using Twitter in the first place -- building your readership. You don’t just want a following. You want a following of readers who are interested in your genre or style of writing. What you really want is people who love your work enough to plunk down some cash.

For that, you can't just buy a list, you will need to earn those reader's respect and trust.

So let’s go over some ways you can populate your Twitter followers with qualified readers who could potentially become book buyers.

Create Your Plan

If you've read my previous posts, you know that I’m always harping on creating a plan. Interestingly, a recent study showed that 60% of companies don’t know if their social media campaign is working. Any guesses on the percentage of companies who began their social media campaigns without a plan? Yep, the same 60% Coincidence? I think not.

The truth is that most people don’t have a plan when they tweet. They post random thoughts about their day or interesting posts they find online. That is a drain on productivity. In my humble opinion, the best way to build a quality following is to have a plan for your tweeting. That plan should consist of three components:

1. Your message
2. Tweeting to reinforce or enhance your message
3. Building relationships around your message.

I know what you are thinking -- yawn.

This may sound like dry marketing drivel, but bear with me for a moment. The reason it won’t be boring is because your message will come from the themes in your writing. When you build your message, you choose topics from your books and stories that you are passionate about. Revolve your entire twitter campaign around those topics and you will build a Twitter following who loves them too. It is just like writing a novel. Great novels have a strong position and voice. So too do great Twitter campaigns.

Of course, some of your tweets will be general conversation. That’s fine. However, if you stick to your plan, the majority of the tweets you send out will offer interesting information drawn from the themes in your novels or other writing. You will educate, entertain and thrill your audience with your wicked wit or emotional appeal. It is that passion that will attract people who are interested in you and your message.

As you build a base of followers who are interested in the same topics, you use your common interests to build relationships. You may have a follower that lives on the opposite sides of the world but you both love forensic science or space exploration or haiku. Whatever the topic, you chat about the things you love and have in common. Then that follower tells their friends how inspirational you are on this topic. You get more followers that are dedicated to that message.

You are the Pied Piper, creating a beautiful music that attracts the right kind of follower. That’s what will make your Twitter time more productive and more attractive. It may build slower but it will be a more dedicated and adoring group. One that will be waiting anxiously for your upcoming book.

Still need more? For those of you still itching for the "how to's" of getting followers, next week we’ll go into greater specifics on where to find your followers and how to woo them.

From the Desk of Tamela Buhrke

Literary Agent Rachelle Gardner Interviewed at Chiseled in Rock

This is a modified version of the interview conducted via e-mail by Pat Stoltey, originally published on May 3, 2011


CIR: One of the agent's who took pitch appointments at Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold 2011 in Denver is Rachelle Gardner, an agent with WordServe Literary Group, representing both fiction and non-fiction.

She’s looking for mainstream commercial projects for both the Christian and general markets. In non-fiction and memoirs, she looks for authors with established platforms, strong marketing hooks and an understanding of how to use social media. Non-fiction authors must have a book proposal and three sample chapters to be considered. She’s also seeking all kinds of fiction, and authors must have a completed manuscript to be considered.

CIR: Rachelle, thank you for agreeing to this interview on Chiseled in Rock blog. Since CIR is closely related to Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, and since you’ll be a guest agent at this year’s Colorado Gold Conference in Denver in September, we’re interested in learning more about you. I’ll begin with an off-track question: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

RG: At times I wanted to be a psychologist; other times I wanted to be a screenwriter or movie director.

CIR: How and when did you decide to become a literary agent?

RG: I decided in October of 2007 after several years of being an editor. I felt like being an agent would give me more opportunity to engage with writers on a more long-term basis, helping them not only with their books but with their entire careers.

CIR: Tell us a little about WordServe Literary Group.

RG: We have two agents (Greg Johnson, the founder, and me) along with an administrative assistant (Cathy) and our fiction specialist, Sarah, who reviews incoming submissions and helps me with other fiction-related projects. (Note: since this interview, a new agent, Barbara J. Scott, has joined WordServe.)

CIR: Does your group’s Denver base cause you any problems with access to the New York publishing houses?

RG: Well, we don’t have lunch with editors every day. But we get a great response from editors, whether they’re in New York or not. I think the main thing that matters is if we’re bringing them quality projects or not, and of course that’s what we always try to do.

CIR: How and where do you find most of your clients?

RG: Mainly through referrals from current clients and others in the business; conferences; queries.

CIR: What are your personal and professional expectations when you attend a writers’ conference?

RG: I always hope to be able to help as many writers as possible through both advice and encouragement. I hope to have a good time networking with writers, editors and agents. And if I find a writer I really want to represent, I consider it a bonus.

CIR: What do you find most aggravating at a conference?

RG: I am generally pretty easygoing at conferences and don’t get bugged easily. I know it’s hard for writers sometimes—they may feel nervous and uncomfortable around agents and editors. So I try to go easy on them!

CIR: Do you have any advice for authors who have 8 to 10 minutes during a pitch session to sell you on reading their manuscripts?

RG: Treat it as a conversation, not as a “pitch.” Remember, the agent sitting across from you is a person. Begin as you would any conversation—with an introduction and by putting your project in context. You’ll want to say hi, give your name, etc., and say something like, “I’m writing a paranormal romance targeted at the teen market. It’s about…”

CIR: When you invite an author to send a partial or full manuscript after a query or pitch session, what do you want to see on that first page? What turns you off?

RG: I want to see your best work. What turns me off is obviously bad grammar or typos, or entry level writing craft mistakes.

CIR: As a rule, do you inform an author when you reject a query or submission?

RG: On queries, I try to always respond, but it’s not always possible. Our agency policy states that if you don’t hear from us in 60 days, you can consider it a pass.

CIR: If you’re interested in an author’s manuscript but feel the work needs additional editing, do you provide that service?

RG: I can’t answer that question in a global way; it’s entirely dependent on the situation. There are cases where I believe someone is a really great writer and just needs some help polishing a book before submission, and in many cases, I’ll offer to rep them and then do the necessary editing.

CIR: It was pretty hard to find questions to ask that you haven’t already answered on your excellent blog at Rants & Ramblings: On Life as a Literary Agent. You also have a presence on Twitter and Facebook, and perhaps other social media venues as well. What is the minimum amount of social media exposure you recommend for authors who are ready to submit their work to agents and editors?

RG: For a fiction author, I hope that they at least are familiar with Twitter and Facebook, and maybe have started a blog, even if they haven’t gotten it going yet. Fiction authors need to realize that their platform won’t sell their book, but once they’re repped and especially once they get a contract, they’re going to have to work to help sell their work, so they need to know what this means.

For non-fiction authors, a pretty good sized platform is required. Either they’re well-known in their field, or they are a speaker who speaks in front of large audiences once a month or more, or they’ve got a blog with 50,000 hits a month (this is an arbitrary number).

CIR: Thanks again to Rachelle Gardner for answering our questions. In addition to accepting pitches at the conference on Saturday morning and participating in an agent panel on Sunday morning, Rachelle also conducted a three-hour workshop on Saturday afternoon (September 10th): From Proposal to Publication (and Everything in Between) "An overview of the publishing process, including how agents work, what publishing contracts look like, and what to expect when working with a publisher."

How do I love three? Let me count the ways...

By Janet Fogg

I love three to the depth and breadth and… well, maybe not that much.

But there is a lot of love for three. The Three Stooges. The Three Little Pigs. Musketeers. Kings. Bears. Billy Goats. Wicked Stepsisters. Mice. Three, three, three. I could go on and on.

Let’s start with the Rule of Three. It goes way back. Think about storytelling from Aristotle’s Poetics. A beginning, middle, and end. A progression that creates tension, escalates tension, and then offers a satisfying release. Whew!

Syd Field suggests a three-act structure for screenwriting that’s a simple outline for any storytelling. Setup, confrontation, and resolution punctuated by two plot points or reversals. The first reversal is an event that sends the protagonist on a new pathway. The second is a major event that makes everything look impossible. Works for me.

Giving a speech? Max Atkinson offers examples on the use of three-part phrases, or “claptraps,” to evoke a response in the audience, in his book Our Masters’ Voices. Ah, claptraps, when your speech or story makes an audience applaud.

Tell me a name three times and I’ll likely remember it. Tell me once, maybe not. So if you need to emphasize an idea, tell me three times or use three adjectives.

Then there are all sorts of slogans. “Location, location, location.” “Go, fight, win!” “Veni, vidi, vici.”

Aren’t descriptions more effective in threes? Think of a “three dog night.” On cold nights indigenous Australians would sleep in a hole in the ground embracing a dingo. On colder nights they’d sleep with two dingos, and if the night was raw and freezing it was a “three dog night.” (Or a 1965 band.) But pause for a moment and picture your hero shivering in that deep, cold hole you’ve dug. You want your readers to shiver with him, exhale frosty breath. What's going to best describe that bone-aching cold? One dingo or three?

Now let me think, how many times does Jack climb the beanstalk? On the count of three, let’s all say it together. One. Two. THREE!

Thanks a Lot, Mac!

In spite of how self absorbed or goofy my friends think I am, there are many things that I truly appreciate. Most of them will surprise you…

Heat when I’m cold, good sleep, peanuts, my left ear (the right one is argumentative), laughter, teachers, honesty, funny noises, running water, children’s smiles, tears, high fiber cereal and laxatives, denim shirts, women, summer breezes, deodorant, windshield wipers in the rain, simplicity, music, naval lint, dogs, the sound of a motor, my imagination, nude jogging, fellow scribes, snow, my wit and gift for gab inherited from my father and mother respectively, dinkdoys, coffee, innuendo, math, cotton, silly ideas dressed in plaid suits and white shoes, beer, Lucasfilms, new socks, my robust whiskers, baby gouda cheese

Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers

And our friends who read the Rock!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gusto Dave

Living the NaNoWriMo Experience: Week Three

By Pat Stoltey

Once I passed the 30,000 word mark on Saturday, I knew I could make 50,000 by the end of the month (provided the Yellowstone volcano doesn't erupt or something equally disastrous happens). When I laid out the writing schedule for the month, I scheduled a write-in at the library for Sunday the 20th, and marked seven full days the rest of the month as "stay at home and write" days.

It helped a lot that we're not having company for Thanksgiving, and that hubby was surprisingly agreeable about my plan to eat out on Thursday. He's been very supportive (and even reduces the volume on his ham radio during my writing sessions).

Here's what I've learned from my NaNoWriMo experience so far:

1. Writing two to four hours a day is exhausting. I think I better establish my daily goal at 1,000 words after November (for certain male overachievers--and you know who you are--, let's not forget a woman's work is never done).

2. In spite of the fatigue and early bedtime, my sleep patterns are disrupted by a busy mind. I often spend an hour or two in the middle of the night, thinking about possible new scenes for the story.

3. The least little thing that happens can inspire a new direction or scene for the novel. I read about a friend's "bad mommy moment" in her blog. A bad mommy moment is now part of my story. A member of my critique group has been sending me ninja writing warrior e-mails where the evil ninja writing cat tries to foil my NaNoWriMo progress. Now there are three tiny abandoned kittens in my story and my characters (including a little old lady shopkeeper with a double-barreled shotgun) are on the alert for trouble.

4. There is an amazing cheerleading network for NaNo participants, and much of it takes place on Facebook. That's fun.

5. The best part. By the end of the month, I'll have at least 50,000 words of a first draft for a story I've been thinking about for years.

Would I do NaNoWriMo again? Absolutely.

By the way, it's not to late to try NaNoWriMo 2011. You have nine days left (including today and Thanksgiving), so you'd only have to churn out 5,556 words per day.

I Cut My Finger On The Mashed Potatoes!

by Janet Fogg

(In honor of all the potatoes that shall be consumed on Thanksgiving.)

To be truthful, I didn’t cut my finger on the mashed potatoes, but my cousin Susan Guenther Garcia did cut hers, and she has graciously allowed me to quote her.

I’ll often read an excerpt that immediately triggers a memory, one where I might laugh out loud, be thrust through time, or travel to a different world as I envision the lives of characters in books.

My cousin’s phrase is distinctive, and if I used it in a novel I might then explain that she really did cut her finger. She’d allowed the potatoes to dry in the pan and when cleaning up, the crusted edge of potato sliced her finger, made it bleed. Would I go into that much detail in a book? Probably. Would I need to? It depends.

Larry Schafer wrote, “She’s learning to breathe thru her feet.” Reading that, I paused for a long moment to consider what he meant. How in the heck do you breathe through your feet? I still don’t know, yet that phrase has stayed with me, as has his name.

Then there’s one that I can’t attach a name to, though I wish I could. “She looked like a hen in a fit.” Can’t you hear the fuss; envision the flapping as a cloud of dust filters through the air?

“Regular old cough drop she is, too,” from Georgette Rougier. No further description is needed. I can see the old woman quite well, hear her querulous voice.

A gentleman named Sam made me laugh out loud when he said, “His brain is as large as a pimple on a flea.” I don’t know if those are his words, an old saying, or a phrase he borrowed, but I remember it to this day.

“And the trumpets sounded for her on the other side.” Harriet is cradling Peter’s head after he hesitantly steps into her room so that together, they can face down his demons at the end of Dorothy Sayers’ Busman’s Honeymoon. Such a simple phrase, yet it carried all the power and glory of their love.

The words penned by our own Carol Berg often capture me, but one phrase made my tears flow as I read the last few pages of Breath and Bone. “She touched me that day – dipped her hand in the pool, and I burned with such fire at the remembrance of her hands...” Ah, Valen.

Simple words, quilted together in a multitude of patterns. Joy, agony, desire. Hope. Culmination of a story that tickles your funny bone or pierces your heart.

What phrases echo and rebound within your soul?

Editor with Kensington Peter Senftleben

If you attend a conference and meet an editor, hopefully you’ll get to chat with someone as cool as Peter Senftleben. We of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers and Chiseled in Rock have a special place in our hearts for him because he discovered our friend J.A. Kazimer. Her novel Curses, a hilarious and irreverent take on classic fairytales—think Shrek for grownups, goes on sale March 1st 2012.

Maybe his cheerful disposition has something to do with the fact that his background is in engineering and math and he dodged them to do something he loved for the next fifty years. He’s a bit of a Renaissance man.

Peter frequents writers conferences in the Colorado area and we look forward to having him back soon to our Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Gold.

CIR: Is there lots of pressure from publishing companies to their editors to choose titles that will sell?

PS: Of course, that’s how anyone makes money! Ideally, all the projects we acquire will sell well, but the truth of it is that many don’t. And they ultimately become labors of love for us. We acquire books that we feel passionate about and hope that translates to the general book-buying public, but with so many options out there, it’s not always that easy. The challenge for us is to find books we love that also stand out enough to make people pick them up and get them to read them above all the other choices. For whatever reason, people still may not connect with a book on a grand scale the way we do personally, but those are inevitable and risks pretty much any publisher will take for the right books.

CIR: I’ve heard countless times that writers have to be working publicity angles even if they don’t have a book sold yet to be considered for publication. Is this really a deal breaker if they aren’t?

PS: It depends on the book. That’s much truer for nonfiction than fiction. If a book is good, fits our list, and we think there’s a market for it, pre-sale publicity efforts don’t matter to me (also, what would you be publicizing if you don’t even have a publisher yet?). It’s great to have a website and maybe a blog, Facebook page, Twitter account—for yourself as an author rather than a specific book—as a jumping off point, but there’s enough time between the sale of a manuscript and the publication date that you can get things up and running in the meantime. We’re getting more pressure to include early endorsements, especially for debuts, so personal connections with bestselling authors in your genre are the best thing to develop.

CIR: How important is it for a writer to be flexible about changing their manuscript?

PS: Authors always need to be open to revisions of any size. It’s very rare that a manuscript comes in perfect, and almost never by a new writer. One of the first books I worked on, I basically had the author rewrite nearly three-quarters of the book to change the points of view. There was much resistance, but in the end, he and I both agreed that it was much stronger because of those changes. I’ve also asked authors to change character names because too many started with the same letter. Often, writers get too close to their work and can’t see the weaknesses in it, so they need to be receptive to constructive advice. No editor is out to make the book worse, trust me. If an author is so attached to every single word as they’ve written them, then they should probably look into self publishing instead. Also, inflexible authors are nightmares and nobody wants to work with them, so chances of a renewed contract are slim; sorry, but it’s true.

CIR: What is your dream as an editor? Finding the next J.K. Rowling?

PS: That would be nice, but I think it’s a little bit more personal for me than finding a blockbuster out of the gate (though I suppose Harry Potter took a bit to get going). I have so many books and authors that I truly love and can’t extol their brilliance enough—T. Greenwood, Ken Wheaton, and Lee Houck, to name a few among many—and it would be a dream if more people discovered them and became as fanatical as I am. Also, if they were mega-successful and made tons of money, because then it would just be validation of my tastes and I would be satisfied knowing that I helped make it happen. And maybe I’d get a bigger raise…

CIR: Kensington has open submissions, no agent necessary. Has Kensington found lots of good writers through this submission path?

PS: I know that we have acquired some projects that way—I personally have a couple—so it’s possible, but I can’t speak to the company as a whole or how successful they are. I just don’t know the path every author has taken to get here or their sales figures. But since we’re so commercial and publish a lot of genre books (romance, mystery, thrillers, etc.), we are able to get some quality projects directly from writers, be it because agents haven’t taken them on for whatever reason or authors simply haven’t even tried to find agents. On the flip side, it opens us up for a lot of terrible submissions, too. Like, can barely write a sentence bad.

CIR: Now, staying in accordance with my M.O., I must ask something off track. You had interest in doing stand up comedy. Did you ever try it?

PS: No way! I’m much too shy. That was just a pipe dream for another life.

The genres that Peter accepts are posted on the Kensington webpage.

Gusto Dave

What's New from Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers?

Here are a few of the recent and upcoming releases from members of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers:


The Past Came Hunting
by Donnell Ann Bell
Bell Bridge Books, September 2011
ISBN-13: 978-1611940480
Paperback, $14.95

Fifteen years ago a young Colorado Springs police officer arrested a teen runaway accused of aiding a convenience store robbery and attempted murder. She was innocent, but still served prison time briefly. Her testimony sent the real thief to jail for much longer.

Now she's a young widow raising a son, and the man she put in prison is free and seeking revenge. She moves to a home in a new neighborhood-then learns that her next-door neighbor is the by-the-book officer who arrested her. Now he's a Colorado Springs P.D. Lieutenant. Like it or not, he may be the only one who can protect her and her son from the past he helped create.

Learn more about Donnell and her writing at her website. She is also on Facebook and Twitter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The Second Book of Joy: Blood of Angels
by Alexis Brooks de Vita
Double Dragon Publishing/ Blood Moon Publishing
Trade Paperback, $13.99
ISBN-13: 978-1-55404-891-5
eBook: ISBN-13: 978-1-55404-862-5

The Second Book of Joy: Blood of Angels is the first notebook of family lore that Professor Bo Wolfson researched in The Books of Joy: Burning Streams. These are the magical tales about their enslaved ancestors that his lover Eva Dennison fought with him to destroy.

From the tale of a beautiful woman imprisoned in a tower to save her village from slave raiders to the murdered girl whose spirit is trapped in her bedroom mirror, these stories build to a bloody battle between the shape-shifting freed people hiding in plain sight and the bounty-hunting patrollers who pursue them. The blue-eyed African American girl who masquerades as the freed people’s owner must learn, in the end, to choose the love and freedom in hiding that she can have or succumb to the death that is its only alternative.

Author Web Site: www.alexisbrooksdevita.com
Books of Joy Series Site: www.alexisbrooksdevita.com/thebooksofjoy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


A Real Basket Case
by Beth Groundwater
Re-release by Midnight Ink, November 8, 2011
ISBN-13: 978-0738727011
Trade paperback, $14.95

This is the first book in the Claire Hanover gift basket designer mystery series, which was a finalist for the Best First Novel Agatha Award when it was released in hardcover in 2007.

Feeling neglected by her workaholic husband, forty-something Claire joins an aerobics class at the urging of her best friend Ellen. Divorced and bitterly unhappy, Ellen and most of the other women in the class add a little vicarious excitement to their lives by flirting with the handsome instructor, Enrique. In a moment of weakness, Claire agrees to let the charming Enrique come to her house to give her a massage. She realizes she has made a deadly mistake when Enrique is shot and killed in her bedroom and her husband Roger is arrested for the murder.

Visit Beth at her website and her blog. She can also be found on Facebook.


List compiled by Pat Stoltey

Elements of successful novels: the first two pages

This post from Julie Kaewert was written for the Sisters of the Quill blog, and my sisters, including Julie of course, have kindly given me permission to share it here. Janet Fogg

I've just returned from two glorious weeks at the University of Iowa Writing Festival in Iowa City. It's always a little like drinking through a fire hose; as usual a great deal of useful information on writing was exchanged. I have a fun and useful tip to share.

We all know the first few pages are crucial to keep the agent or editor reading, so I signed up for the week-long course, "Beginning the Novel." The tone of the workshops tends to be literary rather than commercial, so our wonderful workshop professor, Gordon Mennenga of Coe College, apologized for coming dangerously close to being formulaic before sharing this. He'd gone into a bookstore, the classic Prairie Lights (Iowa City's Tattered Cover), and picked up all of the bestselling and otherwise successful novels of the past year or two. Each of them had all of the following on the first two pages (brace yourself!):

a sentence containing three commas
a one-word sentence
alliteration
food (the universal ritual)
body fluid--sweat, blood, tears, urine
reference to sex or death
something sinful or painful
a color
a physical feature
a personality trait
question mark
mention of nature
anything with a brand name
furniture
body part or parts
smell/odor
metaphor, each of which saves five pages of description
city, state or street
walk/gesture/overbite/musculature

He had us go through our first two pages and check off how many of these we had included. Most of us had two or three; one of us had ten or so (way to go Alan!). As far as evoking sensations in the reader, we realized we were writing at about 1/10 power. You might enjoy going through your first two pages and seeing how many you instinctively included...and then add the rest! You can always take them out again if it feels too much, or too contrived, but it's a useful exercise in writing vividly with all the senses.

Happy writing.
SP

Is There Some Romance in Your Nanowrimo Draft?

Cindi Myers knows romance. Multi-award winning author of over 36 titles, spanning across publishers such as Berkley, Kensington, and Harlequin, she is an authority on the subject.

Hungry to be an author, I tried my hand at penning the dramatic love genre and was fortunate enough to get pointers from Cindi. Several things dawned on me soon after as a result of her guidance. These epiphanies were noticing that: most movies and books--be they suspense, horror, sci-fi, or any of the countless sub genres--usually have some kind of love interest in them; Shakespeare always employed the romantic element in his plays; and ultimately, most tales really are love stories at the core.

Here’s the axiom that I gained from reading Cindi’s publications and paying attention to her expertise: writing romance forces an author to capture emotion on the page. Every writer should have this in their toolbox.

The characteristic that I absolutely must tout about Ms. Myers and will keep praising is that she constantly produces quality manuscripts. If you make it as a writer, then you should embrace the job and keep putting out titles. With the Harlequin special release of Things I Want to Say in August of 2010 and The Woman Who Loved Jesse James releasing in January 2012, one can see that Cindi is a prolific committed professional.

At the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s Colorado Gold Conference, I caught up with Ms. Myers and we talked a bit about the genre in which she prospers.

CIR: Do you agree that at least a thread of romance is in most stories?

CM: Absolutely! While romance may not be the focus of every story, it's often in the background. Hard-boiled detectives brood over the woman who got away and the complications of romance form a powerful subplot as aliens take over the world in a science fiction epic.

CIR: What is your take on why love pops up in so many genres?

CM: Romance – wanting it, having it, remembering it, pursuing it – is an important part of human life, so it's important to fiction, too.

CIR: Obviously, I’m most impressed with how productive you are. How do you kick out so many books?

CM: Sheer terror at the idea of having to go out and make a living at a "real" job. I am constitutionally unsuited for corporate life, as I learned after ten years working for a large medical corporation.

CIR: Erotic romance has bumped up as one of the bestselling genres. Harlequin has its Blaze line (Ms. Myers has a few titles in this category) which is pretty steamy and then the Spice titles which are outright erotic. What do you envision in the future as far as erotic romance vs. traditional. Will they be the same thing before long?

CM: Interestingly enough, two of the areas of romance which currently show the strongest sales are erotica and inspirational romance. Which I think shows there are readers hungry for both extremes. I think erotica is a way for the romance market to capture another segment of readers, but not to the exclusion of other types of romance, including sweet romance. That said, editors and readers seem to prefer sex with romance, even if it's not out and out erotica.

CIR: Because I have to be different, one question way off the beaten path. I hear that you dabble in belly dancing; how did you get into that?

CM: Sitting on your butt in front of a computer all day is hazardous to your health, not to mention your figure, so I was looking for some form of exercise that wouldn't bore me out of my skull. A friend invited me to a belly dancing class and I was hooked. I've been doing it about four years. I'm part of the Mountain Kahai Dancers and we perform at festivals and shows around the area. We recently did two shows at the Taste of Colorado.
(And the heroine of my October book, DANCE WITH THE DOCTOR is a belly dancer.)

CIR: Is there any thing that you wished someone would have told you when you started writing romance?

CM: That this is a wildly unpredictable business and the only thing you can really control is the story you choose to tell and the writing itself. Try to enjoy yourself as much as possible and have fun with your writing. Don't be so deadly serious all the time – millions of people envy the fact that you get to create, so don't waste today by worrying over what you don't have or what might happen tomorrow.

Gusto Dave

Famous Rocks

The hit NBC show 30 Rock has so much in common with Chiseled in Rock. Our staff is just like the cast on the show…

Janet Fogg – Liz Lemon

Karen Duvall – Kenneth Parcel

Tamela Buhrke – Jenna Maroney

Pat Stoltey – Tracy Jordan

Gusto Dave – Jack Donaghy

Here’s to both Rocks having a long following!

Tor Books Editor Moshe Feder Talks With Us About Books, S/F & Food Authenticity

We all know that behind every great book is an editor that beat it into a pulpy perfection. So in my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined a better assignment than to peek into the mind of one of the great editors of the science fiction and fantasy genres (thank you, CIR!).

Moshe Feder has been a consulting editor with Tor Books since 2004 and was recently nominated for a Hugo award in the Best Editor (long form) category. I am also excited to announce that Moshe will be a guest editor at this year's Gold Conference in September.

Tamela: Since I have an unusual name that people stumble over, I am sensitive to the issue of pronunciation.

Moshe: A sensitivity I share, so thanks!

Tamela: For people who may want to introduce themselves to you at the RMFW Gold Conference this September, please tell us how to pronounce your name.

Moshe: Well, some folks may remember the Israeli general with the eye patch, Moshe Dayan, so I'm tempted to just say that it's pronounced the same way as his first name, but that may be of limited utility to younger folks or those not familiar with middle east history.

So how about this: it's two syllables, pronounced like "Moe" + "sheh" [i.e., the name of the leader of the Three Stooges, plus the word "shed" without the final "d"].

My friends familiarly shorten it to a single syllable, as if the "e" were silent and just there to make the "o" long, so it becomes something like "Mowsh" (with the vowel sound of "mow," as in "mowing the lawn") and that's fine too.

Moshe is actually a very common Jewish name, since it's the original Hebrew form of "Moses."

Tamela: Thank you for helping us with the pronunciation as well as a bit of the history!

Well, according to your bio, you have been a science fiction professional since 1972. I love that term—science fiction professional.

Moshe: I used it because we also have long had a very active community of "science fiction fans," some of whom eventually develop into pros (and was true in my case). Prominent examples include such masters of the field as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, Larry Niven, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Diane Duane, Jo Walton, Greg Benford, Michael Moorcock, Christopher Priest, Robert Charles Wilson, etc. etc. All these folks started out attending clubs, writing for fanzines, going to conventions, and so on before they sold their first stories.

Tamela: Being such a professional gives you a wonderful perspective on how science fiction has changed and grown over the years. What trends are you seeing in the genre today? What would you like to see in the future?

Moshe: The most important trend in my professional lifetime has been the remarkable growth in the acceptance of SF and fantasy by the mass public, for which we can thank the A-bomb, NASA, "Star Trek," and "Star Wars" primarily, along with the continuing long-term influence of fantasy classics like the Lord of the Rings. It's not unusual now for SF and fantasy to appear on hardcover best seller lists, but I can remember when that was practically unheard of.

On an everyday basis, the striking thing to someone like me who can remember the way it used to be, is the extent to which the imagery and basic concepts of the fantastic genres have become familiar parts of the cultural landscape and common currency in conversation.

For example, I doubt there's anyone in the developed world who doesn't know that the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty." refers to teleportation and that the destination of that transfer is a starship capable of interstellar travel at faster than light speed via a technology called "warp drive." There was a time when only the readers of pulp magazines knew of such things, and anyone else hearing of them dismissed them as junk and nonsense. As a result, we have a much broader potential readership now and, for good or ill, the SF/Fantasy world isn't nearly as insular or as cozy as it used to be.

Within the field, the most important commercial trend has been the reversal of the former hierarchy of popularity. When I started out, there was much more SF published every year than fantasy. These days, fantasy far outsells SF, as the Harry Potter books demonstrated so remarkably, or as you can see by looking at the Times bestseller list as I write this, where all the volumes of George R.R. Martin's great fantasy epic simultaneously appear in multiple formats.

Another important trend, and a very good one in my opinion, is that SF/Fantasy writers aren't all white males any more, with an every-increasing number of talented women and people of color joining the field. It's the women who have been primarily responsible for another important trend, the revival and growth in popularity of what has now come to be called "urban fantasy."

Taking the broader view, SF and modern fantasy are really still relatively young fields, going back in their present form only about 150 years. So what I'd like to see in the future is their continuing growth and maturation.

Tamela: Is there a type or style of science fiction and fantasy that you would recommend aspiring writers pursue or avoid? For example, are there topics that are overdone or ones that you think need greater exploration?

Moshe: Both SF and fantasy are replete with tropes that are used and reused over and over. That's as true for us as it is in the mystery or romance genres, or in general fiction for that matter.

As in those fields, the mere use of familiar ingredients per se isn't fatal, what's important is how you use them. Of the two fantastic genres, it's a paradox that while fantasy is theoretically limitless in scope, almost all of it relies on a very few kinds of settings and characters. As an editor, I certainly appreciate writers who can ring new changes on those or even invent completely new ones. My author Brandon Sanderson is a great example of that.

I'd certainly advise most new writers to avoid trying to patently imitate Tolkien or Robert Jordan, but in the end, almost anything can work if the world-building is vivid enough and the story-telling gripping. Those George R.R. Martin books I mentioned earlier are a good example. They're essentially a recasting of the War of the Roses in an imaginary world. There's actually only a little magic in them (although yes, there are dragons), but what makes the books work is not just the detail with which George has imagined his landscapes and his politics, but the genius with which he's built his huge cast of characters, so many of them so very memorable and real. It makes perfect sense to me that HBO chose those books for their first venture in epic fantasy.

SF, of course, is a field that particularly values novel ideas, but it's only gotten harder to come up with those, as all the low-hanging fruit has been plucked in the decades since Verne and Wells began the harvest, and as science has progressed to ever more esoteric realms.

Increasing sophistication in using what we have has compensated to some extent, as has growth in SF's ability to compete with what we genre folks call "mainstream" fiction in such basic literary values as the quality of prose and the depth of characterization. It will be interesting to see if climate change and population growth lead to a revival of the cautionary ecological SF that was so prominent in the 60s.

My personal interests remain in the farther future, real physics, the science of consciousness, and in the challenge of imagining the alien and conveying it in a way that is both convincing and comprehendible.

Tamela: What catches your attention when reading a manuscript? What makes a one stand out over another?

Moshe: The first thing I respond to is the quality of the prose itself. If it's sub par, I'm not likely to read very far. If it's at least adequate and the work has other virtues, then the door stays open. What will finally make a manuscript stand out will be either the author's storytelling ability or his or her ideas, or both.

Tamela: What do you wish writers would pay more attention to when they are writing? ex. character development, world building, plot etc.

Moshe: Characters we believe in and can care about are essential in ALL fiction. You can't do too much or work too hard where they're concerned. Aspiring writers should try to be astute observers of both the human behavior right around them and in the wider world and also consciously study how the great writers of the past made text portraits on paper come to life.

World building is peculiarly important to SF and fantasy. In a way, the imaginary landscape is the fantastic's defining characteristic. In the best SF and fantasy, the world itself is practically another member of the cast of characters. This is not just a matter of inventiveness, but of hard work in making a world self-consistent and plausible in its own terms.

Clever plotting is great if that's your forté, and I really do appreciate it and love being surprised, but I tend to think it's really the least important story element. Consider, for example, how many of Shakespeare's plots were borrowed.

Tamela: What are some of your favorite books? I'm talking about the books you loved so much that they are dog-eared and tattered.

Moshe: That's a hard question to answer, since there are so many. As it happens, NPR is collecting nominations for a list of 100 great works of SF and fantasy (see http://www.npr.org/2011/06/20/137249678/best-science-fiction-fantasy-books-you-tell-us), so I guess the 15 books I've posted there so far will be as representative a list as any.

In no particular order:

The Man in the High Castle - Philip K. Dick
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. LeGuin
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
Nova - Samuel R. Delany
Snowcrash - Neal Stephenson
Gloriana - Michael Moorcock
Psychohistorical Crisis - Donald Kingsbury
Incandescence - Greg Egan
Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson
Little Big - John Crowley
The Dying Earth - Jack Vance
Brittle Innings - Michael Bishop
The Wreck of 'The The River of Stars' - Michael Flynn
Lady of Mazes - Karl Schroeder

And to add just a few more really well-worn ones (I don't approve of dog ears in books!):

Have Spacesuit Will Travel - Robert A. Heinlein
The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
Winter's Tale - Mark Helprin
Flatland - E. A. Abbot
Last and First Men - Olaf Stapledon
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
The Prestige - Christopher Priest
The Great Time Machine Hoax - Keith Laumer
The High Crusade - Poul Anderson

Well, obviously I could go on all day, but that should give you some idea!

Tamela: Are there themes from those books that you'd like to see explored from today's (or tomorrow's) perspective?

Moshe: They're such a diverse group that it's hard to single out any. What they have in common that new writers should strive to replicate is the genius of making the reader suddenly see the universe in a new way and/or a quality of total immersiveness. The best SF and fantasy really can be a time machine, a spaceship, or a magic carpet for the mind.

Tamela: You once wrote a blog post about using a wooden fan to keep yourself cool while on the subway. You commented that many people would fear to resemble a southern belle or a Chinese mandarin, but it didn't bother you because you'd rather be cool. You went on to say that the traditional science fiction reader had a personality that was willing to be considered eccentric if it meant having a practical advantage, but you were not sure the same could be said of science fiction readers today. Do you think the modern science fiction reader is a different animal? If so, how?

Moshe: There was a time when enjoying SF/fantasy automatically made you odd. If you kept it up, you had to be willing to tolerate ridicule and maybe even be a social outsider with an interest no one around you cared to talk about. Today's mass popularity and acceptance of the fantastic genres has made liking them completely "normal." So while I'm sure there are still oddballs and eccentrics and rebels who read SF and fantasy, the mere fact that someone does read them is no longer a shibboleth for those qualities.

Tamela: Has this change effected the genre itself?

Moshe: Maybe a little bit, around the edges, particularly with the SF and fantasy that is packaged and marketed by general publishers as mainstream fiction. (Think of Michael Crichton and his lesser imitators, for example.) But overall, not too much so far, probably because the people who write the stuff are naturally part of the hard core who always would have been SF/Fantasy people.

Tamela: You are a "foodie" with a fondness (some might say obsession) for pizza, lox, bagels, chocolate and ice cream. You seem to prefer traditional recipes over more modern ones.

Moshe: True enough. But those are all foods where I think authenticity is an essential aspect of quality. They are also all foods where interlopers have tried to fob off not just inferior, but fake versions on the public.

Tamela: You collect Coca-Cola memorabilia. Your musical taste runs to classical, jazz or folk. You are an avid New York history buff. I find it fascinating that a man who loves science fiction, a genre that promotes change, innovation and visions for the future, has this preference for the traditional or old-fashioned in his own life. Is this your way of honoring the past?

Moshe: Not consciously, no. Perhaps it's because in a deep sense, SF is a genre about history. The past deserves our respect since it's where we came from, but it shouldn't be worshipped. It should be a guide, not a template. History is the story of the changes that have already occurred. SF is the story of the changes that may yet come.

Tamela: Thank you, Moshe! I am sure that SF and fantasy writers and fans appreciated your insights into the genre.

You can see and ask questions of Moshe Feder during the editor panel at the RMFW Gold Conference this September 9, 10 & 11.

Living the NaNoWriMo Experience: Week One

I'm doing National Novel Writing Month, known as NaNoWriMo, for the first time this year. I'm happy to announce my word count is on target as of this morning. I knew I would skip writing last Saturday to indulge in a day of play, so I knocked off enough extra words in advance to cover the day off.

The plan is to do that again this week because I have a local author's book signing to attend on Saturday and I've signed up for a three-hour class on writing the robust scene Sunday afternoon. Those two events could sabotage me if I haven't planned ahead.

All that sounds good, doesn't it--slightly ahead of schedule, a detailed outline nearby, plenty of coffee and chocolate? It's awesome, until I see what the overachievers are doing.

One Colorado published author I know is aiming for a six-day win and plans to write another 150,000 words before December 1st. That's the equivalent of four NaNoWriMos or the first draft of two complete novels. He's been doing this November exercise for several years, which makes me wonder why I'm just now trying it for the first time. It obviously works for those who take it seriously.

I'm in awe of this writer's word count after week one, but my biggest goal for the month is to establish an almost daily writing habit while getting that magic 50,000 words finished. So far, I've surprised myself. Before the month began, I created an outline for the story and blocked out my writing schedule on a calendar, allowing time for special events, grocery shopping, and even a little exercise.

I'll report again in a couple of weeks and let you know if I hit a wall or am still in the running.

Meanwhile, those of you are doing NaNoWriMo 2011, are you on schedule? Are you a veteran or a first timer? What did you do ahead of time to prepare?

And if anyone wants to buddy up, my NaNoWriMo name is PattyPetunia (and my word count as of yesterday evening was 12,195).

Snow Write and the Seven Thwarts!

by Janet Fogg

Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to write we go!

Some days of writing are true bliss, filled with beautiful forest creatures and a trill of heavenly lyrics as words cascade from my fingers. Then (harrumph!) there are days when I wonder which of the Seven Thwarts I’m channeling. Or is it the Jealous Queen?

When Doc’s in charge he always lets my characters take 90 degree turns. Who gave those minor characters permission to become so interesting? Doc! Doesn’t he know they shouldn’t overshadow my hero and heroine? You’re a pain, Doc, and it’s about time someone told you that to your face. Why don’t you fall in love with the wrong person or jump off that cliff? And where did that puppy come from? He’s not in this story!

Ah, Grumpy, I hate it when you visit, you old sourpuss. On those days not one sentence turns out well. I stare out the window, look in the refrigerator, start laundry, go for a walk, clean the bathroom, check my email, and look at Facebook. Again and again. Any excuse will do. Sigh. But… even though it’s painful, if I wrestle you down the mineshaft and return to my computer, when I re-read those forced sentences my prose isn’t too bad. So why are you so cranky, anyway? Just go away.

Happy, you’re hysterical! It’s good to stop and have a party! But the real joy of your visits finds me “in the groove.” Words flow like the wind. New ideas, details, exciting resolutions for my characters, it’s so much fun! I should forewarn you though, in a month or so when I’m working on my science fiction manuscript again, you should probably take that tickle trip to Disney. Okay? No joke.

Sleepy? I don’t need no stinkin’ sleep! That’s why I get up at three or four in the morning to write, work on marketing materials, blog, and answer emails. You know I’ve never been a good sleeper and I relish the silent dark in the wee hours of the morn. Sleepy, I’m sorry, but you and I will never get along. Go take a nap.

The trees will be pollinating soon, Sneezy. Lucky you. Unlucky me. But I was also thinking about the days when I feel positively allergic to my writing, when anything that flows from my brain makes my skin crawl and my eyes itch. Let me get a new box of tissues so I can start again, after I clean off my computer screen. Gesundheit!

Dopey? Have you been partying with Happy again? Silly boy. You two should corner Grumpy and see what you can do. Oh, and you can always drop by when I’m writing these blogs. It’s a hoot! Let’s plan another play-date soon.

Me? Bashful? In my heart I think so. Modest, at least, even though in public I’m pretty darn good at wearing that professional face I designed so long ago. Yes, it’s absolutely true that I don’t like talking about myself. Don’t get me wrong, I like people, I like to hang out, but I like to listen. Could my written words just speak for me? Please? I spend most of my days with my characters, listening to them, creating their worlds. Creating worlds? That's powerful stuff. Takes nerve to do that. Guess I’m not that bashful. So what does that make me? Hey, don’t answer that!

Shhh… Here comes the Jealous Queen! She’s scary. I whip out my wand, demand that she ignore reviews and rankings and awards, but sometimes she just snarls at me and heads to the grocery store for more hairspray. It’s not easy to confront her. I know though, if I stop worrying about whether I’m revealing some horrid side of myself, my writing will improve, be more honest. When I’m fearless I see Snow Write reflected in my mirror and in my writing. Once upon a time my words (dare I say it?) will be the fairest of them all. It’ll be okay to pat myself on the back and whisper, “Well done. You did your best.” Or does that only happen in a fairy tales?

Nanowrimodians, News You Can Use: Agent Panel at Colorado Gold

Agents at the RMFW conference this year gave us much to think about. Moderator Marc Graham asked some really good questions, and here’s what conference-goers learned.

Agents on the panel:

Rachelle Gardner, Wordserve Literary Group

Sara Megibow of the Nelson Literary Agency

Rebecca Strauss of the McIntosh & Otis, Inc. Literary Agency

Sandra Bond of the Sandra Bond Literary Agency

Here’s a peek into the Q&A session.

Don’t get caught doing this!

When asked what not to do when sending a query, Rachelle Gardner advised that you don’t start with a rhetorical question, or try to be cute. Follow the submission guidelines for that particular agent.

Sara Megibow suggested that you don’t sub in a genre she doesn’t represent. Write a blurb that will make her want to read the book. “I want your query letter to sound like the back cover of the novel,” Sara said.

When trying to suggest an audience for your work, Rebecca Strauss suggested you avoid saying, “I’m the next Faulker.” Instead, try some content comparison with a known author. Example: “My work is along the lines of X Author.” She said it helps to research what the agents represent. Her example: “I enjoyed Tempest Rising, and my book is similar to that.” That, Rebecca said, will make her love you. “Our books are like our children. If you compliment them you compliment us.”

Does location matter?

Located in New York, Rebecca is in contact by email and phone, but enjoys the convenience of meeting with editors. “It’s fun to get drinks with them.” With personal meetings, she feels they open up more about their editorial needs. She meets with editors once or twice a week.
Sara’s son loves the New York taxicabs. She travels there for business but “I don’t wine and dine editors in New York. You can live in the North Pole, but what you want to ask, if you are offered representation, is, ‘Will you represent my book and get it sold?’ Not, ‘Do you buy editors beer?’”

Rachelle loves being able to live here and do her job. She sells mainstream fiction to general markets and to Christian publishers. There are four major Christian publishers in Denver and in Nashville. She attends conferences and meets editors there. “When I pitch a book, the main thing is will it get read?” she said. “I don’t have any editors ignoring me. It won’t be based on where I live. If I were having trouble getting an editor to pay attention to me that would be a problem, but it’s not.”

Sandra noted that agents live all over the place, and editors know that. “Your job is to target the appropriate agent who is right for your book and our job is to target the right editor for your book,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where we live. We do also attend many conferences and meet editors, and go to New York and meet with the editors when we need to. I have specific editors with whom I want to meet. But I’m also very good at phone relationships. Authors, too, are all over the place. I have authors I haven’t met before.”

E-publishing – panacea, or the death of publishing?

E-publishing is, they agreed, another format of a book, like an audio book.
We may have fewer printed books, but they’ll never ever go away. Yes, there’ll be lots of e-books, but it’s still a book.

Rachelle noted that everyone in the industry is trying to discover how all who are involved in publishing are going to continue to make money from the written word. We can try to re-invent the wheel every day but we still don’t know the answer to that question. How much readers will pay for the written word is the new question.

Sara agreed. “The question is: an author may have 25 rejections and ask, ‘Shall I self-publish?’” Avoid making an emotionally based decision (To heck with you, I can publish and make my millions without you). Don’t e-publish because you don’t like New York, or don’t like not having control of your career. “Be careful.”

Rebecca observed that we’re all trying to figure it out every day, trying to guess how we’re going to stay in business, all working hard to get negotiating language in contracts which limits time, where standing royalty rates are in effect and re-evaluate in two years.

Janet Lane is the author of Historical Adventure novels set in 15th century England Published by Five Star/Thomson Gale, Contemporary Women's Fiction novels, columnist, and long time member of Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers

http://janetlane.wordpress.com/

Collaborating, Another Angle for Nanowrimodians

A while back, I shared thoughts about co-authoring screenplays and collaborating on non-fiction.
What about co-authoring a novel? I’m currently doing that and it’s fun! But warm up carefully! This is where I see the most potential for sprains!

Many questions came to mind when I was invited to collaborate on A Serenade to Die For, an action/romance. Questions such as: What about voice? How do we handle differences of opinion? Who decides whether Dick and Jane go up the hill or if Jane tumbles down? What if I think Spot (the Beagle) should be named Whiskey (the Australian Shepherd)? And so on.

Before you start, make certain you have the same goals. Discuss your process. For example, are you a plotter or pantser and how does that impact each of you. Then talk about how you’re going to approach agents, editors, marketing, revisions, who does the final draft (thereby establishing the final “voice,” which is critical), how to agree when you disagree, and so on. Talk about why it makes sense to collaborate. Does one author have an established track record and the other doesn’t? What then, is the benefit to both? Make sure you’re equally passionate about the story. This is very important.

Don’t forget to discuss deadlines and schedules. One partner pressuring the other isn’t conducive to an enduring relationship. Discuss your own strong points. If you’re both good at writing a synopsis, wonderful! If only one of you excels at that, who do you suppose should do the first draft? But decide how you’re going to share all of your tasks. Then write a contract and sign it.

Back to process. How should this novel get written?

• First draft by one author, revisions/second draft by the other author? Then back again? That’s what we’re doing and it works well. I'm fortunate since my co-author said, “Change anything!” But then it's his turn to edit again, then mine. This has helped establish a consistent voice for the book, which is my most significant concern, and our discussions about plot points and character development have been fun.

• Each of you draft every other chapter? This is done regularly and can be very effective in a book with POV shifts, as that viewpoint and character's development can be tied to one author for the entire manuscript.

• Or should you try to write every sentence together? Sounds impossible to me, though I suspect it’s been done.

Later in the process, before revisions are requested by an agent or editor, discuss what you’re willing and unwilling to change in the manuscript. You can’t play bad cop/good cop with an editor.

Here’s a very simple collaborative contract sample, though you should consider consulting an attorney to assist you in drawing up your actual contract.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Collaboration Agreement between (Author Blue) and (Author Green) for
(Working Title)
Prepared (Date)

(Author Blue) and (Author Green) agree to:

1. Together, and equally, develop, write, and complete revisions to the manuscript (Working Title), and to share equally in subsequent efforts to receive a publication contract.
2. Subsequent to discussion and approval by both, share all expenses for pursuing publication 50%-50%.
3. Enter into third party agreements, such as with an agent or publisher, only if both authors agree to the terms of the agreement and sign the agreement.
4. Share all royalties and earnings for publication or sale of (Working Title), to any media, 50%-50%.


____________________________
Author Blue Signature and Date

____________________________
Author Green Signature and Date

------------------------------------------------------------------

Points that should be discussed and could be addressed in the contract include:
• How royalties are divided (might not be 50%-50% as noted above).
• How costs are approved, accounted for, and reimbursed.
• How credit is to be given when published. Whether: Each author’s name or a “shared” pen name.
• If this is a ghost writing project, a confidentiality agreement may be needed. In that event, you also need clarity and written agreement regarding who will sign the publication contract and how payment will be received or allocated, as well as specifically when and how the “author” collaborator (versus the “expert”) may each claim credit for the book.
• What each author has authorization to negotiate, without consulting their co-author.
• What if one author is unavailable (out-of-the-country or ill) – what authority does the other author have.
• How to settle disagreements.
• What if one author decides they want to pull out of the project, what then?
• What if one author is agented and the other isn’t?
• Should each author have veto power for one or two issues?
• What if you have three collaborators? Or more?
• How you keep efforts for marketing equitable, especially if one person is uncomfortable pitching or has other commitments, thereby placing a burden on their collaborator.

In summary, collaborating can be fun, though it’s not for everyone. Have similar goals. Communicate. Remember, it’s all negotiable, so negotiate your collaboration contract before you start. If you're both passionate about the story and can commit the necessary time and effort, you might just win the three-legged race and together, sign that big book contract.

See ya at the finish line!

Janet Fogg is the author of Soliloquy with Wild Rose Press and Fogg in the Cockpit with Casemate Publishing.

Do You Check Out Buts?

If it had been me seeing this posting title for the first time, I might have wondered if the spelling was right. I assure you that it's correct and this article is about watching out for the frequent usage of a particular conjunction. I write enough about butt watching in my romances.

Anyway, back when I defended using the word ‘was’ in my Stupid Writing Rules series, I almost attacked a ubiquitous word that shows up way more than it needs to; but. To this day, I haven’t seen any accomplished writers offer advice on how to find alternatives or avoid using it altogether...not that it hasn't been done.

For sure, I’m not advising you not to use 'but'. After I worked so hard to liberate new writers from the negative chains, I’m certainly not going to create a new one. It’s just that, in fairness, the B word makes a lot of cameos--the very same reason we got the infamous yet erroneous 'Don’t' rules (I.E. don’t use was, don’t use clichés) and its frequent usage warrants some guidance.

Pick up a book and look at the jacket synopsis and I bet you’ll run into the subject of this posting about half way through the blurb. Why? Because ‘but’ is an opposition word. It automatically means trouble…which is what you’re supposed to put in your fiction. So, by all means, when it’s the perfect word, use it. There are just plenty of other ways to get the same effect. And if you keep using the same words to introduce trouble, your prose will start looking very flat to the reader. In other words, tension will die off in your story thanks to all the buts.

Ways to resist but: (as serious as I'm trying to be, I keep laughing as I write this)

• Synonyms. Although they can be too formal, just reviewing a few will at least remind you that the world can be a bigger place. Even the word ‘or’ slipped delicately in the right spot can have a stunning impact. I’ve used a couple of tricks already in this posting. You’ll notice I’ve not used ‘but’ once for opposition.

• Remove them. So many are unnecessary. The less you have, the stronger the ones you use will be.

• My favorite is to create an alternative. You want to be a writer, so start making stuff up. Below is the blurb for my latest title. Yeah, yeah, shameless plug. Give me a little room though, because it really does illustrate my point. Where a ‘but’ should be, I introduced another opponent in italics.

Another Cougar in Town

Renee Gafford’s libido and marriage is shredded when she finds out that her husband had a gay affair. Jessica, sexy cougar, sharp business woman, and Renee’s confidant since college, offers up a sure fire cure—one of her ex-boy toys, Adrian. The hook up does indeed turn steamy and voilà, the sparks reignite. Only one problem. Renee becomes very attached to the young charmer. Sensing that Jessica and Adrian still have feelings for each other, Renee can’t allow herself to be totally swept away by her BFF’s former lover. That is unless another young hunk sweetens the game.

By the ever opinionated E.C. Stacy

They’ve Seen The Light! 3 Successful Fiction Bloggers

From the wandering mind of Tamela Buhrke

For the past several weeks I’ve been pretty brutal about the dark side of of author blogging -- where blogs go wrong and how bloggers go wrong. Maybe it’s the spirit of Christmas making me a bit jolly this week, but I’ve decided that today we will look at three fiction bloggers that have gotten it right and found success.

Hometown Pie in the Kitchen Goodness

I have lived in large cities like Chicago, Houston, Phoenix and now Denver. I love city living, but I will admit that a part of me longs for a small town. I dream of a place where Aunt Bea has pie cooling in the kitchen and Floyd the Barber is sitting outside his store swapping stories. It’s a place where life is slower and we can feel safe and sheltered. Americana at it’s finest.

If any author has captured that place, both in her fiction novels and on her blog, it is Gail Fraser. Her novels are set in a fictional small town called Lumby, nestled in the foothills of the Rockies. Visiting her blog is like entering that world. The blog has maps and drawings of the town and surrounding hills. You can find regular updates about Lumby’s weather, local gossip and local animal antics. There is even a cartoon moose that lumbers its way across the page.

Her blog has become so popular, that not only has it helped her to reach her niche market of Americana lovers, but it is creating something of a tourist attraction at her real farm in upstate New York. There she sells t-shirts, mugs and other swag to support her writing.

Thinking Outside the Binding

What do Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Alexandre Dumas have in common? They all wrote their most famous novels as serials. This art form is finding a revival in the age of blogs and smart phones. It provides people who don’t have the time to sit down with a novel the experience of enjoying a story each day on their smart phone while riding the bus or at their office computer while nibbling on their lunch.

Today you can find one of the most successful serial bloggers right here in Denver -- our own Claudia Hall Christian. She is the author of the Denver Cereal and the Alex the Fey serials. They have become a world-wide success, with readers as far as Bangladesh. The serials are offered for free on her blogs. At the end of each story line, the serial is put together into a book. Some are given away and some sold. Her blog is supported by some advertising and the sale of the books or ebooks. Christian has formed her own publishing company, giving her complete control over the process. Her stories have become so successful that she has recently had requests for a serial with a national news outlet.

Serial blogging is a great way to build your writing skills and gain exposure. However, it is not for the faint of heart. Christian is proud that she has never missed her weekly deadline in three years of blogging. She warns that, unlike writing a novel, there is no going back to correct earlier mistakes or change facts. You must be able to write consistently and keep the story progressing forward, while keeping the reader engaged each week.

Special Populations

As you probably read in my post last week, I believe that blogging should benefit your reader. With that in mind, this last author came to me as a recommendation from the queen of author platforming (yes, I turned it into a verb) Christina Katz. She featured Laurel Snyder (and other fiction authors) in her article The Successful Fiction Platform, written for the December Writer’s Digest.

It’s easy to see why Katz featured her. Snyder writes children’s books and her blog is a treasure trove of information for parents. It offers reviews of children’s books, provides lists of recommended reading and offers her personal experiences of being a working parent.

It is important to note that though her books are for children, her blog is mostly for the parents. She also has a section on her site for teachers and kids. It offers ideas for book clubs, classroom interaction programs such as “Inside the Creepy Classroom” and even poetry workshops. Her blog helps her to reach out to her complete audience, not just the readers, but the teachers and parents. She shows them how her books and her blog adds value to their lives and their children’s lives.

As you can see, there are a number of ways fiction blogging can be successful. The key is getting the right match up of what you offer, what the reader wants and how you present it to them. These authors have found a successful mix for their market. Next week we’ll talk about how to determine what is right for yours.

Stay tuned for next week's post: The Number One Rule of Blogging!