Tag: novels

Are you Read or just Published?

Today I have the pleasure of presenting a guest post by the talented Melody Kaufman (MAJK) who asks an interesting question. You can find more of Melody’s thoughts on her wonderful website: SAFIREBLADE.

Are you Read or just Published?
By MAJK

Welcome to the E-book Revolution. It’s an exciting time where everyone can be published. Just dash out about 50,000 words on your laptop and all your dreams will come true.

You didn’t believe that did you? Did you rush over and start writing the next Fifty Shades of Grey, or On the Island? I hope not. It takes more than dashing off words and tossing them online to become a successful writer. It takes discipline, talent, and more than a bit of luck.
We’ve all heard people say how badly written certain works that are now major motion pictures (*cough Twilight cough*) are and wonder idly how these things came to be multi-million dollar franchises while really good indie authors are still juggling day jobs and writing.
Whenever I think of this I take out an autographed CD case signed by Garth Brooks before his super star days. He was a singer just trying to make it performing in bars all over the place. Years later in the midst of a star studded multi-album career he would tell Barbara Walters there were guys in Nashville who could sing better, write better, and looked better. So why did he get signed and not them. Timing is everything. He met the right people at the right time that were into the type of material that he had to offer. That is how the world works but does that mean you should throw up your hands.
No.
The author of the Island worked diligently mornings before her day job writing the book On the Island. Discipline. There has to be a burning desire to write. Many people (myself included) deride Fifty Shades of Grey for being written terribly. It began as a fan fic. For those of you unfamiliar with what a Fan Fic is – it is short for fan fiction, which generally describes a story written by a fan using the world and or characters of a popular movie, game, anime, or book. Now here is the part where I defend a novel I truly dislike. Regardless of E.L. James writing (because let’s face it most debut novels aren’t that well written) the fact is that she was writing for her readers. The work was removed from the fan site due to content and she didn’t give up but placed it on her own site and kept writing. Discipline.
Another thing you will notice that one thing all of the recent “Black Swan” indies have in common, is audience. They had an audience. Before the big names would even look at them they were selling to readers. Lots and lots of Readers. Average, everyday people were willing to spend their money and their time to read these works.
Their marketing tactic was the one that has been around the longest ~ Word of Mouth. From what research I did there were no blog tours, books trailers, or Twitter campaigns. I could be wrong but it looked fairly organic. No big advertising budget made lightening strike for these writers. Just plain and simple – one reader to another – word of mouth and good reviews.
Ultimately, these authors were not successful because they were published. You could say they were, in fact, published only because they were successful. The big dogs smelled money and came running. These authors had readers waiting eagerly to read what they wrote. Tracy Hickman Author of Eventide and Wayne of Gotham says “when strangers value your writing enough to pay money to read your words and breath life in to them you may be a professional author” and I am inclined to agree with him.
When it comes right down to it you aren’t really an author unless you are read. No matter how many books you publish.

Thanks Melody. I will say at this point that I never really liked Garth Brooks, and as for Twighlight, don’t get me started (am I the only person who thinks it is a little weird/dodgy for someone who is about 100 years old to go to high school and date a teen?). Anyway, as ever all comments on this post are welcome! What do you think?

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© 2012 Simon Poore

by simontall

Spoilers: how annoying are they?

I have nearly finished editing the fifth and possibly final draft of my novel “The Last Englishman” (see a previous post for an excerpt). So rightly I feel quite proud of myself, especially as this is my first novel. I have had some good comments and feedback from the small select band of people who have read drafts of it so far. All of which is good. But now I have come up against an unexpected problem.
I was in the pub last week and one of my friends who has read my novel was explaining how much she had enjoyed it. This is all well and good but then I come to the problem. Whenever people find out that I have written a novel they inevitably ask me “What’s it about?”. A natural question you might think.
But here’s my problem. I don’t actually want to tell them. And the reason for that is I hate spoilers. With a passion. I want them to read it and find out for themselves. But if I don’t tell them what it is about then they won’t want to read it.
Now I know you are all wondering what my book is actually about. I know, I can tell. Well, whenever anyone asks me I mutter vaguely about how it’s the story of a man alone, who is possibly the last man on Earth. Telling people this is a mistake, because then they want to know how come he is that lonely figure. What happened to everyone else? What catastrophe befell the planet? Obviously I can’t tell them that because that really would be a spoiler. You HAVE TO READ THE BOOK to find that one out.
For me one of the biggest joys in reading or watching a film is the anticipation of discovery. The twists and turns, cliffhangers and unexpected moments that make good books and films such a thrill.
This week I intend to go and see the film ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ and saw a review of it that was spot on. It explained how the film was really good (in the reviewers opinion) but made all the better if you know very little about it before you see it. It even recommended that you don’t watch the trailer. There were other reviews I avoided because they were helpfully tagged with ‘spoiler alert’. Why you would want to write a review with deliberate spoilers I have no idea?
It irks me when people discuss films I haven’t seen in front of me and unwittingly spoil it for me. Am I being sad?
I remember seeing the first ‘Alien’ film in the cinema when it first came out and not knowing anything about it. The tension was electric. The experience has stuck with me like glue ever since. Nowadays if I see a movie when I have already seen the trailer I often feel disappointed, partly because I sometimes feel I have already seen all the best bits.
Now I realise that readers and film goers need to know something about these things before they part with their hard earned cash. And I know that I will need to write some teasing blurb about my novel to entice the reader. I just feel that there ought to be some kind of balance between mystery and enticement.
Maybe I am being too precious about it. I had another experience last week that made me realise that different people enjoy things in different ways. Obvious really. I was with a friend who downloaded one of my short stories onto her iPad, while I was there. Once the story appeared on the shiny screen she did a thing I would never dream of doing. She automatically flicked to read the last page of the story. Some people, it seems, like to know the ending before they start. It doesn’t distract from their enjoyment like it might mine. Are you someone that does that?
So maybe I should be a bit more open about my book, even if it doesn’t come naturally…
What do you think?

© 2012 Simon Poore

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by simontall