Last term, I took Composition II toward my Marketing Management degree and had to write a paper. The topic was open so being the book nerd I am, I chose something… bookish. Also because I don’t like to waste effort, I thought I’d share my final paper on my blog. Please bare in mind this is academic writing which is very strict on voice and tone, but even I learned something in my efforts to research the topic. Enjoy.
As part of my Writer’s Life series, I thought I’d share links that I use either during the writing process or when I’m editing or searching for services. There are in no particular order.
NaNoWriMo starts in less than two weeks!
To prepare, I’ve created an outline using Holly Lisle’s Professional Plot Outline course, available for $.99. Since I’ve never actually outlined, I figured I would consult an expert resource. Now I have my whole novel plotted out, down to the scene, from beginning to end. The course even pushed my ideas further than originally anticipated to new and fun plot devices. I am hoping that a complete outline will prevent writers block and keep me on track the whole month.
The next step, I will be adding all my scenes from the outline and sticking them into Scrivener. I bought Scrivener last year after my NaNoWriMo win with my winner’s discount and promptly forgot about it. A writer friend, Jonathan Fesmire, mentioned he enjoys the program so I watched the start up video and updated my program. Scrivener has this neat note card feature I can put all my plot points into. So where ever I pick up writing, I’ll know where I am and where I’m going. I could probably write the novel backwards, but I’m not that masochistic.
I will also be using the ‘research’ file system where Scrivener saves your files/images/sound bites IN SCRIVENER. So it’s all at my finger tips when ever I need it. I will be using this Character Chart for Fiction Writers to really flesh out my characters. It’s seven pages long and asks for things I don’t normally think about. It will stay right next to my writing and I can pull it up with a click or I can even use the two pane option and write while looking at it. This way, my characters wont have eyes that change color through out the book. My previous method of keeping a notebook isn’t ideal for me.
That’s the game plan so far. For being a pantser in the past, I feel that’s pretty good. If you are participating in the NaNoWriMo, what are you doing to prepare?
Thanks to the very informative website put up by Holly Lisle I know more of what to expect if I chose to pursue a large publishing house. Holly said that as a new author I might get an ‘advance’ of $2k to $5k with a standard royalty on sales of 6%. Most of the time the publisher will print 38k books and send them to stores. The stores will keep them on their shelves about 30 days, then rip off the covers and return them for their money back. All the unsold books then come out of any royalties I might have earned. If I don’t sell more than 50% of the books printed, then the publisher wont print anymore of my future work since it’s not profitable for them. The book could be out of print in less than a year. From what I gleaned, the publisher doesn’t do much promotion of the book.
I spoke with Kristy Denice Bock, who is a writer friend with 4 books out, and she went with a smaller publishing company. Smaller publishing companies do not offer an advance but have a higher royalty rate such as 40% to 50%. Promotion is left solely to the author. The book will most likely no appear on bookstore shelves but Kristy says that only about 1% of books make it into a physical store.
Then there is self publishing, which Holly recommends, where I would have to buy the ISBN and pay for a copyedit and do all the promotion but I’d retain all rights and all royalties. Holly recommends a place, Booknook.boz, which can publish on Amazon, B & N, etc. She cautioned against vanity publishing where the company you publish through owns the ISBN.
So after my freak out regarding the truths of publishing, I have decided that I want to publish through a small publishing company. Then once my contract with the publishing company has come to an end, I will self publish that novel. That way my novel will never be out of print. Of course, that is of the assumption that a publisher will pick up my work. 😉
Elle Clouse 