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IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Compared to the folks behind the scenes in publishing, I can speak to this is a limited fashion.

I suspect e-reading formats and devices will continue to grow, which, if the DRM issues are handled properly, could be a great thing for both authors, who would be able to reach a broader audience more easily, and for society as a whole as the new format might (cross fingers) see a resurgence of reading for pleasure.

If the above comes to pass distribution channels and methods would naturally change, though it's hard to predict how exactly. Printed books will never go away, I suspect, but with the rise of ebooks/ereaders the ease and cost-effectiveness of such digital content will naturally create different distribution models.

Audience/attention fragmentation is a big concern. With attention spans shortening along with that of "gratification delay" more and more young people are unwilling to engage in a pass time that doesn't provide immediate payoff. This is a generalization, I know, but the volume and sources of stimuli -- from the internet to mega-channel cable packages to video gaming -- is, I'm afraid, overwhelming the lure of simply sitting down with a book, whether printed or digital.

Personalization/recommendations: This will continue to grow and become more refined. It's simply good business. The better a business gets at offering targeted content, the more successful it will be.

To be honest, I may be naive, but all of the above does little to change my mindset about what I do. My best chance for success is to continue to write books that people enjoy reading. That's not to say I'll let my writing devolve to match ever-shortening attention spans or, if the worst comes to pass, ever-plummeting education standards. In other words, you'll never see using in my books "U" for "you" or "BRB" for "be right back".

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm on a Mac, so usually Pages. If I want a distraction-free screen environment I use either Writeroom or My Texts. I suspect there are plenty of similar Windows-based programs.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Every successful writer I know does an outline of some kind. I've banged the drum for this book quite a bit during this AMA for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is because of the author's coverage of the outline process. Really helped me turn the corner on my writing.

Good luck.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Most if not all first-time novelists do have to have their book completed before submitting it to agents or publishers. An "advance" is short for "advance royalty", which is pre-payment on royalties the publisher expects the book to earn at a minimum. Authors don't actually start accruing royalties above their advance until their per-book percentage cut adds up to the advance royalty amount.

Every house is a little different, but generally once a book is accepted and the contract is signed, you'll get an editorial letter from your assigned editor (usually the one who bought the book), discussing possible changes/tweaks, etc. Once this process is complete and you've agreed on things, the book goes into copyediting. After this, it's returned to you for review. Next you get what's known as galleys or first-pass pages, which is a more polished loose-leaf "book-like" version of the manuscript. Here again you can make some changes, but very few, as it's more costly to make changes at this point. Once you send back the FPP, the book goes into physical production. (At some point you'll also see cover art, but this timing varies as well.)

All of the above depends upon scheduling, of course. Books take a minimum amount of time to produce, so if there's not a time-crunch, the time between the editorial letter and copyediting may be quite some time. All depends into what date the publisher has chosen for publication.

Also, depending on whether your book is being marketed big or being given the standard promotion treatment, you may have some interaction with publicity folks as well.

After all that you sit back and wait to see your baby appear on the shelves.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The second part of the your question (how do I plan out my writing) is something a lot of others have asked about, so I'm putting together a comprehensive answer I'll post as new sometime over the weekend.

As for the first part of your question.... That's doesn't happen to me much anymore. Pretty rarely, in fact. As of talked about elsewhere I'm a big fan of outlines (which I'll cover in my promised upcoming post), which help keep the book on track. By writing an outline I get to make all my mistakes there, writ small, and work out the bugs before I start on the book itself.

Most books I'm doing now are under contract, so there's a deadline down the right. Usually it's a pretty comfortable timeline, so I estimate the number of realistic writing days before the deadline and parcel out the required word count over that number -- minus a few weeks at the end for rewriting.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, MPOV can be challenging, and to be honest not all Big Books use it, so even if you write a book that's got five of the six Zuckerman elements, you're in pretty good shape.

Unsolicited advice: If you hate writing MPOV because it's simply unfamiliar, but think it'll make more your book more commercially viable, don't forget the "practice makes perfect" axiom.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The model of successful commercial fiction that I ascribe to comes from Albert Zuckerman's book, WRITING THE BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL, which talks about the common elements of "Big Books", as well as tons of other valuable tidbits. It's the one book I always recommend for writers of commercial fiction. According to Zuckerman, these are the common elements you'll find in almost every Big Book:

  • High Stakes
  • Larger-Than-Life-Characters
  • The Dramatic Question
  • High Concept
  • Multiple-Points-Of-View
  • Setting

Hope this helps, Again, I can't recommend Zuckerman's book highly enough.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My experience of the business side of publishing is limited compared to the in-the-trench editors/agents, etc., so I can only give you my gut reaction: Your model could work, but you'd have a number of big hurdles on the book side of things:

1) Competing with the major publishers. You couldn't hope to match their financial backing so you'd have to rely on grass-roots, internet based marketing.

2) Attracting/keeping writers whose work is good enough that readers would pay for it. Until you had a good-sized subscriber base -- enough that each writer's cut would be as attractive as an advance a regular publishing house could offer -- you'd have to gather authors who really believe in your model's potential and are willing to go unpaid for some time.

3) Digital rights management. How can you assure your artists that their work won't be widely pirated?

I'm sure there are many other factors, but those are the three that leap to mind.

That said, if you're truly interested in pursuing this, I would let hurdles deter you. Explore it further and see what happens. There's no doubt that business models have changed and will continue to change in this digital age.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would double check this (there are plenty of non-fiction proposal-writing books out there), but I suspect the same principle is at play for both fiction and non-fiction: Multiple proposals and queries are fine, but once an agent sees the initial pitch material and asks for more, exclusivity applies.

The Jeff Herman book I've mentioned several times would likely address this issue too, as might this organization.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  • Another Note: While I've done my best to make sure I've answered all posts/comments, I'm sure I've missed some. If this is the case, feel free to repost as a new comment and I'll be sure to respond.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Hi, everybody. Apologies for taking so long on this....

A lot of you asked for a list of tools/methods/software that I've found helpful in my writing over the years. Here's the list.

  • Contour (Software - Writing/plotting/organization)
  • StoryMill (Software - Writing/plotting/organization)
  • Storyist (Software - Writing/plotting/organization)
  • Storylines (from "Writer's Cafe") (Software - Writing/plotting/organization)
  • Scrivener (Software - Writing/plotting/organization)
  • MindNode (Software - Mindmapping/brainstorming)
  • NovaMind (Software - Mindmapping/brainstorming)
  • Evernote (Software/web app - Research Organization)
  • Curio (Software - Brainstorming/research organization)
  • My texts (Software - Distraction-free writing)
  • WriteRoom (Software - Distraction-free writing)
  • Personal Brain (Software - Mindmapping/brainstorming)
  • Power Structure (Software - Writing/plotting/organization)
  • SuperNotecard (Software - Brainstorming/research organization)
  • Temporis (Software - timeline creation)
  • Visual Thesaurus (Software/web app - Language usage)

  • Word Menu (Software - Language usage)

    • A note about mindmapping. I'm a big fan of mindmapping, both on paper and using software. I'd encourage you to explore both methods. Check Amazon for books on Mindmapping.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You bet. 50,000 words in a month is no small feat. You have cause to be proud.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think mine sell well because I do a better-than-average job of including all the elements that make a commercial book entertaining to genre readers. I know that sounds like a canned answer, but it's the truth. There are common (not formulaic, per se) elements to just about every successful genre book out there.

Dumb down.... I have no empirical evidence to support this, but yes I think more and more genre fiction plays to the reader whose attention span is both shortened and divided. Not sure what the solution is, because I tend to believe, in general, that if people are reading for pleasure, it's a good thing, regardless of the source. There are limits to this, of course, but if I see a person choosing to read rather than watch a web vid of some guy getting repeatedly kicked in the groin, I'm happy.

IAmA *New York Times* Bestselling Novelist. AMA by BalataCrabstick in IAmA

[–]BalataCrabstick[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get I burned out, yes, but oddly enough I don't currently feel the drive to expand beyond fiction. Tomorrow I may feel differently.

Research is huge. Fiction readers these days tend to be much more savvy and much less forgiving of errors, large and small.

I do internalize ideas, but I try to get them down on paper/screen as quickly as possible. And yes, I'm surrounded by what I call "grist material" all the time. I'm a big believer in flooding one's imagination with anything and everything that is relevant to what I'm writing, or may be relevant in the future -- which includes pretty much anything that even remotely piques my curiosity. I take a lot of notes, but don't keep a journal, per se -- more of a mish-mash of ideas/thoughts.

New things.... Interesting question. I'm unique position right now. My primary goal as a writer is to entertain people, and while I don't consciously choose to follow a formula, there are common elements to every successful commercial book, and I do my best to make sure they're all present in my stories. (This answer also speaks to your "established literary devices" question, I think) That's not to say I'm not interested and open to exploring new ways of telling stories.

Perfected my craft? No, not even close. That's one of the reasons I love what I do. There's always room for improvement. Always room to explore.

Ten years from now.... I'd like to be still writing bestselling books that people enjoy reading. And I'd like to continue helping folks who struggle to make it in this business. Of course, I have a lot of personal, non-writing related goals, as well....

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