Views of Screenwriting

A wonderful image of being a screenwriter that says it all. 

Credit to Alan Denman, http://www.script-to-screen.com/

Dos and Don'ts for Writers

NYT Bestseller CJ Lyons

My good friend CJ Lyons had a blog post that brought my attention to the following two articles for writers by Chuck Wendig on his site Terrible Minds.

 They might be just the thing to motivate you. Chuck really, really gets it.  His articles are rated R for language. Without further ado, check these out:

25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing 

25 Things Writers Should Start Doing

Chuck Wendig, freelance penmonkey

My guess is that you'll be returning to Chuck's site over and over. Don't miss out on CJ's, either. There's excellent writing advice there!

Forensics Advice for Writers

Looking for authenticity in your crime writing? A great source is Tom Adair's Forensics4Writers blog. I'll let Tom introduce himself.

"My name is Tom Adair and I am a retired senior criminalist with 15 years of forensic experience. I don’t usually like laying out my credentials because I’m not that different from hundreds of other forensic scientists out there but I want you to know that I do have the expertise to write about these topics. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and a Master’s degree in Entomology. I have served as the president of the Association for Crime Scene Reconstruction, Rocky Mountain Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts, and the Rocky Mountain Division of the International Association for Identification. While in law enforcement I was triple board certified in forensic related fields and one of only 40 board-certified bloodstain pattern analysts and 80 board-certified footwear examiners worldwide.

"In addition to writing over 60 scientific papers, I have worked as the editor of an international peer-reviewed science journal and have been interviewed by and consulted for television, text books, novels, magazines, and newspaper articles including documentaries on the Discovery Channel and National Geographic."

This wonderful man posts articles of general interest to writers, and in addition, he will answer forensics questions specific to your book! What a deal, especially for zero cost. Pass along this reference blog to your writer (and reader) friends. Tom's tag line: I have lived a life that most crime authors only write about. 

Tom has taken the leap into fiction himself, with a debut book Scent of Fear coming out in 2012.

Tom Adair's Forensics4Writers Blog

Tom on Facebook

EBooks 101

*** EBook Giveaway ***
 
If you're here just for the free copy of Gray Matter, book 1 of the PJ Gray series by Shirley Kennett, skip to the last paragraph of this post.

Authors who published books before eBooks took off in popularity may be able to go digital on their own with those books. It's a great way to breathe new life into a series that has gone out of print. The tools are available now for authors to do this, the same way many people are creating original eBooks. I decided to undertake this with a series of psychological suspense novels I wrote under the name of Shirley Kennett, and I'd like to share some of my experiences here.

With a few exceptions, writers creating original works would go through the same procedures, so if you have a book ready to spread its wings, sink in its fangs, or transform under the full moon, this is for you. This is just one means to an end; the paths are many, including using a paid eBook conversion service. I wanted to know the details, so I did just about everything myself. I'm going to provide specifics for my path so if you're frustrated or in a muddle, as I was at various times, you can at least see something that works.

Make Sure You Own Your Digital Rights

If you have a contract from years ago, there may be no mention of digital rights. Still, the best way to make sure you're on safe ground is to have the rights you signed away in the contract reverted to you by the publisher. If your books are out of print (as defined in your contract) a letter to your publisher's legal department should produce a notice of rights reversion. Read the fine print. If your situation is not clear cut, consult your agent, editor, or an intellectual rights attorney for advice. Don't cut corners here. If your eBook is original, this is something you don't have to worry about.

Consider the Widest Distribution

Different eBook readers use different input formats. They can be simplified into Kindle (Mobi) format and everyone else (EPub, the international standard). This means you'll want to supply these two formats for your eBook to reach the Kindle, Nook, iPad, and a host of other readers. I puzzled over this for some time and chose two online services, Smashwords (ePub and other formats such as PDF) and LiberWriter for Kindle. Smashwords is free to use, distributes your eBook to markets like Barnes and Noble and iPad, and provides a page within the Smashwords site for you to sell your book. For all of this, they extract what I consider a reasonable fee from each eBook you sell (nothing up front). LiberWriter charges a flat fee of $25 (or $50 if you want them to do more of the conversion work) upfront for each Kindle book you produce and claims no fees after that. Amazon does, though. LiberWriter provides the output that you upload directly into Amazon. After tangling with other Kindle "converters" with no joy, I was pleased to discover LiberWriter and don't plan to use anything else. (No, I'm not connected with the company in any way.) If you want to offer your book for the Kindle only, you can just use LiberWriter from the start, including writing an original book. You might also investigate Vook, which will be available early in 2012. I'm just tossing out the name because I've heard good things about it.

Obtain an ISBN for Your EBook

You can get a free ISBN from Smashwords, or if you want one that isn't associated with Smashwords, you can go to ePubBud and get one for $5. Yes, you need one. Don't give me any grief over this.

Prep Your Text

I found that when I looked for my Word files of the PJ Gray series, I had files that were submitted to the editor but had never been updated as the books went through copyediting and proofing. In other words, my files didn't have the exact same text as the final published versions. (Not a problem if you're writing an original eBook!) There are two ways to go here. The first is the brute strength method of comparing the Word file to the published version page by laborious page and bringing it up to date. I did this for my first book, Gray Matter. The second method is to have the book digitized, meaning scanned in and converted using Optical Character Reader (OCR) software to a readable file. EPubBud does this for $20 per book plus $.15 per page. Because OCR is not perfect, you'll still have to go through the file you are sent line by line to make sure it's correct. Given the time I spent bringing my Word version up to date, I'm going to try digitizing the next book in the series and see how that works! Be warned it takes 4-6 weeks, so start early.

Then I did some minor revisions in my text because technology had moved forward since the book was published and some references would be jarring to a current reader. That means I now have the 2nd edition of the book. Smashwords provides a free, detailed Style Guide to help you get your book into the correct format for conversion. The Smashwords Style Guide is helpful and should be followed closely. You'll save time if you do. If you're writing an original book, use the Smashwords Style Guide from page one.

Design a Cover

Remember that even after the rights to the book are reverted to you, you don't own the rights to the cover. Those rights belong to the original cover artist. I'm fairly handy with Photoshop, and I had a lot of fun designing the covers for the eBooks of the PJ Gray series. I bought stock photos from iStockPhoto and combined them with the book's title, my name, and a juicy quote. It's very important that you have a professional-looking cover. Be honest. If you can't do this step on your own, pay for cover design. LiberWriter offers cover design, but I didn't use it so I can't personally vouch for them. There are other cover designers available, but don't skimp on quality.

Putting It All Together

I worked with Smashwords first, because it offered the best way to clean up my text with its Style Guide. Once I was happy with the text, I submitted it for conversion. I learned that building the internal linked Table of Contents (yes, even for fiction) is very important and a touchy thing to do. The ToC produces the navigation that allows the reader to jump to various parts of the book and enhances the reading experience. In my experience, if I've built the ToC (the Style Guide directions are excellent), and then need to make corrections to it for any reason, the whole thing seems to mess up. I take a deep breath, count to 100, and delete what I have in order to start over from scratch. I've wasted hours trying to fix an existing ToC until I resigned myself to starting over. Maybe it's just me. ;-) Once Smashwords accepts the formatting of the book, it's made available for sale on their website. To get to Barnes & Noble and the iPad catalog takes longer, up to ten days, because there's a manual review by a Smashwords editor before your material is passed along. You can and should verify that your eBook looks the way you expect by downloading your free ePub copy from Smashwords to an ePub-capable reader or to your computer. An excellent ePub reader available as a free download for the PC or Mac is Adobe Digital Editions.

By the time your text is squeaky clean (or thoroughly edited if your book is original), using LiberWriter for the Kindle is a snap. Throw away your lovely ToC you built for Smashwords. Upload your text on the LiberWriter site, mark your chapter headings with their "Chapter" designation, and press the easy-squeezy "Build ToC" key that does all the work for you. Convert to Mobi format and check that your book looks the way you want the world to see it. Do this with a Kindle or with the free Kindle reading app for PCs, Macs, and other devices. When you're happy with your results, it's time to upload to Amazon. (Note: Amazon now accepts other files for uploading, including ePub, Word, HTML, and even PDFs. However, it's my impression that you'll get the best results when you submit Mobi format, and in my case I chose LiberWriter to produce that format. As I said, many paths.)

You'll need an account at Kindle Direct Publishing, so start with that. Then upload your Mobi file and book cover and set your price. Consider the pricing/royalty offerings carefully. You get a higher percentage royalty if you price your book at $2.99 or higher, but you may sell fewer books that way.

Keep Your Expectations Realistic

Sure there have been some great successes with eBook "reprints" or original works, but far more are published with little fanfare and even less profit for the author. Depending on how much you spent getting to this point, you may not earn back your investment. It's not all about the money, though. If you are a writer, you know what I mean. If you keep your expectations modest, you can always have a pleasant surprise if your eBook takes off!

Promote your eBook via your website, blog, Facebook, and Twitter. Offer some free copies. With Smashwords, you can create coupons that allow readers to purchase your book for a reduced price or for free. With Amazon, you can give away gift certificates. LiberWriter allows you to give free Kindle copies to individuals, such as reviewers, with their names embedded in the copy. Join the Amazon and Barnes & Noble Associates programs. These marketing programs give you a small rebate whenever a reader clicks on your book link on your website or blog, goes to Amazon or B&N, and then purchases that eBook. You referred the reader and a sale resulted, so they're willing to pay a small amount for that referral. And I do mean small. But even small amounts can add up.

I hope you find this guide useful. Poking my way through this blind wasn't fun, but the results were rewarding. I know that my next eBook conversion will be much smoother and more fun. I hope this post might help writers out there and readers who want to tell their own stories. If it isn't relevant to you, maybe you know someone who might be interested. Questions? I'm not a pro at this, but I'll answer what I can.

If you'd like to see how Gray Matter, book one of the PJ Gray series, turned out, I'll give away a free copy to anyone who leaves a comment here by Friday, December 9th. Let me know if you want the Kindle or Nook/iPad version (ePub). I'll be sending it to you as an email attachment, so I'll need your (disguised) email. If you prefer, you can email me at dakota @ dakota-banks dot com. Be sure to add my email to your whitelist for my response.

Enter to win a Kindle Fire by “liking” Dakota’s Facebook Fan Page!

Top Ten Reasons Your Mystery Gets Rejected

10.  Manuscript not tightly edited and polished for grammar, spelling, and punctuation

Incorrect grammar, spelling, and punctuation show you don’t care enough to learn the mechanics of writing. Working with you in the future will be a continual clean-up process, and editors want mss as clean as possible to reduce cost of copy editing. 

9.  Poor pacing

The book should rise through a series of plateaus of action or intrigue followed by breathers. A breather happens when the protagonist is not in danger or actively solving the case. Breathers become shorter and shorter as the plot shifts into high gear. The interval between breathers gets longer as the book goes on, so that by the last 50 pages or so, there aren’t any.

8.  Telling, not showing

Many new writers take the shortcut of explaining a situation or backstory directly to the reader, spoon-feeding character development and plot events. Instead, show the action as it happens, letting the characters participate first hand in real time. A detective visiting a crime scene can be told to the reader in a few hundred words, but if it was shown to the reader in several thousand words, the reader could enter the scene and experience it with all senses on high alert.

7.  Ending not satisfying

Readers look to mysteries for the kind of justice that sometimes eludes them in the real world. Wrap up all subplots before the resolution of the main plot, so that there is nothing to distract the reader in that last dash to the ending. If you use a wrap-up or epilogue at the ending, don’t drag it out too long. If you're using a twist ending, make sure it's plausible given the rest of the buildup in your book.  

6.  Violating MOM

Means, Opportunity, and Motive form the basis of a crime puzzle for the reader. Make sure all your suspects satisfy MOM to some degree, so they can seem plausible to the reader. Your killer has to have MOM pegged, something the protagonist will uncover gradually.

5.  Location is overused and/or uninteresting

Some locations (such as California, Florida, and Texas) are well-represented in the mystery market already. Editors are looking for new, highly original slants on old locations, or fresh locations that have some intrinsic appeal. Location should have a strong effect on the characters, the crime, and how the crime is solved. Let the setting become a character in your book. If your book is set in Chicago but it could just as easily have been San Diego, then your setting is far too generic.

4. Clues/solution of whodunit too obvious, or conversely, indecipherable

Play fair. At the end of the book, the reader should be able to backtrack and rediscover the clues laid out. Determine all the major clues needed to solve the crime, then go back and sprinkle them into your book out of logical order and concealed, using misdirection and false clues to keep the reader guessing. But make sure that all the clues are there that the reader needs to solve the puzzle. 

3.  No “hook” at the beginning of the book

The first 500 words of your book are golden. That is the amount a browser might read in a bookstore, pulling the book off the shelf and examining it. In those brief words, you have to anchor the reader in a character, a situation, and a location. Don’t rely on overused beginnings such as the dream, describing the weather, or having the character wake up and go through routine morning activities in detail.

2.  Dialogue stilted

Bad dialogue is a constant irritant. Read your dialogue aloud – better yet, have a group of friends read it while you listen. If your characters are saying things that would never come out of a real human’s mouth, you’ve got work to do. On the other hand, dialogue is usually not a word-for-word representation of the way real people talk. It is condensed, more like the way we wish we could have said the things we did.

1.  Voice not engaging

Voice is a combination of your protagonist’s personality and your own writing style. Style consists of your word choice, sentence structure and length, tone (humorous, dark, etc.), paragraph length, chapter structure, pacing, and point of view. Editors are looking for a “fresh voice," meaning something that is not a rehashing of other authors’ work, something with genuine sizzle and a new way of looking at the human condition. But not so fresh that readers won't be able to understand it or settle into it comfortably.

Dakota Banks Interview

I had a wide-ranging interview with Darrell Pitt, author and blogger, covering everything from ghost stories to why I like Star Trek. Don't miss it! Darrell also has a good section on writing tips.

Interview

Darrell's the author of a young adult novel The Steampunk Detective.

First Crime Novel Competition

Mystery Writers of America

Are you working on your first mystery novel? St. Martin's Minotaur and Mystery Writers of America hold a competition each year. MWA members judge the manuscript entries and the winner is selected by Minotaur editors for publication with a $10,000 advance! This is the real deal, people. You can enter if you have published only self-published books.

St. Martin's Minotaur

To enter for 2012, you need to request an entry form by November 15th. (More details below.) In return, you'll be assigned a judge to whom you'll send your manuscript. Don't send your manuscript anywhere until you have an assigned judge! A hard copy of your manuscript must be postmarked by November 30, 2011 and received by the judge no later than December 15, 2011. These deadlines are firm. Believe it. Enter as early as you can.

This contest is strictly for debut authors only, and that means the following.

1. Aged 18 or older.
2. Never been the author of any previously published novel (in any genre), as defined by the guidelines below, (except that authors of self-published works only may enter, as long as the manuscript submitted is not the self-published work).
3. The writer is not under contract with a publisher for publication of a novel.
4. Only one manuscript entry is permitted per writer.

A Lead That Hooks Readers (New sample lead)

I've had requests to repeat the post about hooking leaders in the golden 500 words of a novel's lead. Here it is again, with a different sample lead to illustrate the points made at the end of the post. 

Browsers in a bookstore scan the shelves, eyes moving rapidly from book to book. If your books are spine-out rather than face-out, you have only your title and your humble name to get the buyer to pick up your book. If your book is face-out, you have cover art and blurbs in your favor. Assuming you get past these hurdles, the browser then rapidly scans the jacket copy (if hardback) or the back cover (if paperback). Many factors here are out of your control. The editor may change the title you slaved over. You may have little or nothing to say about cover art and jacket copy. Blurbs may come from reviews (out of your control) or advance readers, whom you may have at least selected.Online, you have the cover art, description, and possibly some reviews to persuade the buyer--but online, readers can browse even faster.

If your book is still under consideration by the customer at this point (and sadly, many are not), the hook comes into play. That’s the main tool that you, the author, have under your control. It's roughly the first couple of pages of a book, say 500 words, which is about all a browser is willing to stand up and read in the aisle of the store. Online, you may have a reading sample of thirty or more pages, but if the reader can't get past the first two, forget about the rest of the pages impressing him. If your book is easy to set down or clicked away from before the reader has a chance to become involved with your wonderful characters and plot, then the book will be set down or clicked away from, and the reader will go on to something else. If you can capture a reader's interest right away, chances are they'll still be with you at the next critical point, which is around fifty pages into the book. The "fifty-page fizzle" can prevent readers from finishing your book, and if that's the case, it's not very likely they'll try your next.

Writing the Query Letter (includes an example)

 Many new (and established) authors have trouble with the first step in contacting an agent or editor, and that is sending a query letter. The query letter is a simple business letter that carries your hopes and dreams and is designed to make the recipient want to read your manuscript. When you've gotten a positive response to your query letter, you can send in your manuscript (or whatever portion of it that was requested) by writing "Requested Material" on the outside of your envelope. (If you've queried by email, you'll probably be given an individual's email rather than the all-purpose queries@agent.com.) The first thing visible inside your response should be a copy of the agent or editor's email or letter asking for your work. Without it, your manuscript will go into the slush pile.

A note about slush pile processing. In many cases, this is what happens on the inside.

ThrillerFest was amazing!

I attended the International Thriller Writers' (ITW) annual conference, ThrillerFest, in New York City about a week ago. I've been to every one of them since I'm closely involved with ITW. I started out volunteering as registrar, then as chair of the event, and now I'm on the ITW board as VP, Membership. If you want to make the most of any writers' organization you belong to, I highly recommend volunteering. The networking opportunities are great!

One of the many fun things I did there was attend a group signing for an ITW publication, Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads. It's a great collection of essays about each of the books ITW thinks made an important contribution to the thriller field. My essay in the book talks about the significance of Katherine Neville's The Eight. Dozens of authors who'd contributed essays were in the room, and after the rush of readers going around getting their copies signed by multiple authors, we had a good time getting our own books signed by our contributing friends. I even managed to get mine signed by Bob Gussin, the publisher of Oceanview Books and a great guy.

Read the Washington Post's review of Thrillers: 100 Must-Reads at http://www.tinyurl.100thrillers for more information.

Pitching in Person

It's your turn to meet the literary agent. You sit down, your manuscript in your white-knuckled grip. The agent eyes your manuscript skeptically, which increases the pressure of your grip. You wait for the agent to introduce herself and ask what your book is about. There it is, the dreaded question, and it hangs in the air between the two of you. You're up. You're on stage. It's your big moment. You clear your throat, set the manuscript on the table, and get started.

"Well, my book is about a man who gets involved in some nasty stuff."

The agent blinks and you realize she hasn't yet taken the 600 page pile of papers, the sacrificial offering on the table.

"Um, his name is Jason Wired, and at the beginning of the book his wife gets kidnapped."

"Okay," the agent says.

"I wrote this book because my niece's best friend knew someone who got kidnapped, so everything is authentic. When Jason tries to find out who kidnapped his wife, he gets into deep trouble."

"Why didn't he go to the police?" the agent asks.

You're stunned to have a question to answer, especially one that's a slightly weak point in your story. You avoid eye contact, trying to think of a good answer. "He doesn't trust the police."

"Why is that?" the agent says, sitting forward. She must be sensing some meat on the bones of your story.

"Uh, I don't go into that in the book, but in my notes the reason is his father was a crooked cop. I …"

"I'm not really interested in this type of book," the agent says.

You feel an opportunity slipping away and make another try. "You don't understand. This is a great book. All my friends say so. It would be a mistake to pass it up."

The agent looks beyond you at the next person waiting. "Next, please."

You get up and begin to slink away, feeling the sting of personal rejection, realizing that you didn't mention the name of your book.

"Excuse me," the agent says. "You forgot your manuscript."

This is the nightmare version of pitching to an agent in person. Let's start changing that to a dream scenario instead.

What Happens After the Contract's Signed

Advice abounds on the web for aspiring writers trying to get an agent or get published. A great deal of angst and energy is expended leading up to the signing of the book contract. What then? What's beyond the curtain? Let's take a peek.

I can tell you that it isn't all putting your feet up and waiting for the accolades to roll in. You'll be plunged into the work on your next book and the ever-growing work on the business of writing. Here's an outline of a theoretical (but grounded in reality) year after the contract is signed.

You sign a book contract December 31, 2008!
Here’s what you have to look forward to in the months to come.

Getting Down the Bones of the Book

Many new writers (and some experienced ones) approach the synopsis grudgingly and with a certain dread. Many times it is left as the last task to do after the manuscript is completed, and is only attempted because an editor or agent has requested one. If that's your attitude, try to cultivate a better one. A synopsis can be a great help in two respects: as a road map and as a sales tool.

If you were planning a driving trip across the US, your personality would dictate how you'd set out. If you were a meticulous planner, you'd have a large number of maps, both broad and detailed, and mark your route with orange marker. You'd have all the hotel stops and sights to see marked out, and you'd have that 30,000 mile service done on your car a couple of weeks in advance. All your hotel reservations would be lined up in a row, and you might even have a daily schedule. A more relaxed traveler might get a USA map, study it the day before the trip, and have a general idea how many miles to traverse each day. The free spirited traveler would wake up one morning, hop in the car, and decide whether to drive east or west.

Writing a novel is a lot like taking a long trip and the synopsis is your trip planner. You're aiming for the middle of the spectrum, the relaxed traveler. A synopsis should be your road map, but not constrain you so that you have no creative freedom along the way. There should be plenty of opportunities to get off the Interstates and mellow out on the country roads.