Now That You're Published... What Next?


You've written the book. You've gotten an agent. A publisher has accepted it, and you've worked your derriere off making revisions to your editor's specifications. Time to sit back and relax, right?

Well, no.

There may have been a time when that was true, but it no longer is. Today, authors (people whose preference is to simply sit in a room and write) also need to be promoters (people who are good at making and working contacts, at speaking in public, and, most of all, are good at sales). Not fun. But a necessary part of your work.

Here is a checklist of what you will need to do, along with some (hopefully!) helpful hints about how to do them:

1) Public Speaking: You're going to do a lot of it. If you were ever a teacher in a former life, you're ahead of the game – and you know how easy it is to lose your audience's attention. If you have no public speaking experience, or if you're afraid of speaking in public, now is the time to make your life a little easier:
a. Join the local chapter of Toastmasters. Seriously. These people know how to teach you the fundamentals and get you accustomed to being in front of an audience. This is time extremely well-spent.
b. Buy some clothes. You are a businessperson now, and no one is going to be impressed with the ratty jeans and pilled sweater you like to work in. Look the part of a successful author -- but be sure to buy shoes for comfort, not looks. One author bought a pair of Kate Spade's for a television appearance that were gorgeous -- and ended up on eBay.
c. Along with the above suggestion, remember that content and humor are far more important than looks.
d. Practice, practice, practice! In the shower, if necessary. People have to hear you, and understand you. Most Americans give the impression that they're trying out to become ventriloquists: move your mouth when you talk, slow down your usual speech rate, and think of talking to the person who is in the last row. Don’t stick your nose into a paper or book.
e. In fact, don't read from a book at all. Even your own book. Type what you have to say onto pages, 14- or 16-point, with two spaces between each line. Buy a slender loose-leaf notebook and put the papers in plastic sleeves in it. This way, you can look up from your reading, make eye contact with the audience, and resume reading without losing your place. Try and have as much memorized as possible so you’re not glued to the paper with your eyes (and mouth!) down.

2) Start a Web log. They're free if you go to http://www.blogspot.com, and it's a great way to promote your book. Set up a conversation around the book, its message, its characters, and then visit other literary blogs. Include the address of your blog in your signature line, and after a while, people will visit yours, too.

3) If you do not already have a Web site, get one. Put links in it to places where visitors can buy your book. Some authors run their Web logs off their sites, some run contests, others simply record books, reviews, appearances, etc. (Remember that Customline Wordware can put together an author's Web site for you!)

4) Put together a media kit, and make it accessible from your Web site. A good media kit should include:
- press releases about your book
- info on publisher, pub. date, etc.
- your biography
- pictures of you
- pictures of your book's cover
- any advanced reviews
- a synopsis of the book
- HOW TO REACH YOU (essential and often overlooked)

5) Put together a P.R. plan. You may think that it's up to your publisher to do this, and they may be doing so, but a plan of your own will supplement their efforts and make sure that the word gets out. Promoting a book takes people, money, and effort. The less you have of any one ofthese components, the more time and energy you will need to devote to the others. The reading public needs to hear or see a product name (and your book is most certainly a product) at least seven times before it really sinks in.
What you will need, therefore, is a road map and a budget with which you can live. Not every person you reach will buy your next book, but what you want to do is establish a steady fan base that will eventually do some of your marketing for you by word-of-mouth recommendations.

6) Have postcards or bookmarks made that include title, your name, ISBN, and some content that will make people want to buy the book. Give these away, leave them everywhere, tuck them into your bills along with you check. You cannot send enough of these out.

7) Use your writing skills! Most magazines and newspapers will not allow blatant self-promotion, but if you can write an article that fits in with the theme (or even a subplot) of your book, and get the book mentioned - even if only in your bio line - then you're reaching even more people who will want to buy your book based on your scintillating prose! Does your protagonist belong to any group or organization? Write something for their newsletter and mention why you chose them for your character. Where does your book take place? Many states and cities have their own magazines; write a piece on what fictional characters live there, including your own. You get the drift.

8) Send out press releases. Two online services - PRWeb and Newswire.com - are free; others ask for a fee. You'll also want to contact local publications with ARCs of your book and a press release. ALWAYS note that you are a local author; that is definitely the foot in the door with local newspapers, more so than your topic or publisher.

9) Get extra copies of your book for promotional purposes, and give a signed copy as a thank you to everyone who interviews you. Make a list of people not necessarily in media whose opinions might influence others - teachers, local religious figures and/or politicians, bookstore owners and booksellers, and leaders of community organizations. Send a free copy of the book and your press kit to these people.

10) Finally, talk about your book. All the time. To everybody you meet. Make sure you don't annoy people by getting it down to one or two sentences: "My new book is about..." and keep reiterating it, again and again, on the bus, at the haridresser's, at the gym. Remember that word of mouth starts with you, and you'll find yourself... beyond the elements of style!

There are a lot of books about writing out there. This list doesn't pretend to be exhaustive; in fact, it's my hope that you'll use the "comments" section of this blog entry to tell about what books have helped you, and why!

Stay tuned; later on, I'll share some books about style, grammar, and the nuts and bolts of writing correctly with you.

But to start things off, and in no particular order, here's what I recommend:

• Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing by Claire K. Cook
  
• Story by Robert McKee
  
• Thinking Like Your Editor by Susan Rabiner et. al.
  
• On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
  
• Beginnings, Middles, and Ends by Nancy Kress
  
• Guerrilla Marketing for Writers By Jay Conrad Levinson et. al.
  
• How To Write A Book Proposal by Michael Larsen
  
• The well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman
  
• Publicize Your Book! by Jacqueline Deval
  

I have found all of these books to be useful; they all have a place on my bookshelf and I hope you'll consider giving them a place on yours.

And they all belong, of course... beyond the elements of style!

Writing has changed over the past 50 years. Authors used to have the luxury of spending time introducing each character, moving them gently into a story. We don't have that luxury anymore: editors and readers alike are less tolerant about anything that slows the story down or interferes with it.

So how does backstory happen?

If we can't spend ten pages explaining all about the character's past (these days, that's known as an infodump and is to be avoided at all costs), there are still ways to bring the backstory into the book. The difference is that modern authors have to be more subtle about it.

In fact, we may be on to something intriguing – there are a lot of good reasons to be subtle about introducing your characters' backstories. You can use the backstory to tease the reader, giving out information in small subtle ways until the reader starts thinking, "Wait? How did that happen?" or "Why can't he do that?" When a reader starts to ask this kind of question, they're hooked – they're yours. That's when you drop the information in. Just a little of it. Enough to keep them reading.

You have to have a sense of when to do it, however. Wait too long and you'll frustrate your readers – never a good idea. You want the book in their hands, not flung across the room!

Be careful with flashbacks. They destroy the pace, eliminating the momentum that you've been carefully building as you go along. They can also confuse readers who are no longer sure if the scene is in the past or the present. Flashbacks can be provided through a prologue, thus keeping it separate from the rest of the story. And never provide any more information than is absolutely necessary.

Experiment with various ways of telling your backstory, and you'll find yourself writing beyond the elements of style!

Help! I need a literary agent! What do I do?

Here are a few tips on how not to get a literary agent:

1. Choose an agent based on the famous wealthy authors they already represent: if Agent X can negotiate multi-million deals for John Grisham or Stephen King or Anne Rice (insert your favorite Famous Author here), then I'll probably get the same deal. Right? Wrong. Said agent is spending a lot of time and energy representing Famous Author, and consequently will have less time and energy for you. Selecting someone fairly early in their career, or in mid-career, is going to be better for you in the long run.


2. Don't worry about what kinds of books a given agent currently represents, they'll probably take yours on anyway: here's a great way to waste your time and energy. If an agent specializes, it's for a reason: that's where their passion is, and that's where their contacts are. Moreover, querying them with something that they clearly will not take on only demonstrates that you don't know how to read – that information is readily available. Possibly not the best first impression to make.


3. Send an agent a query and follow it up with a phone call:Go to the blackboard and write 100 times: I will not call an agent. I will not call an agent. I will not call an agent. Chances are, it's going to take any agent a while – and I mean a while – to get to your query, much less to give it any serious thought. There's an etiquette, archaic but real, that you must follow: first contacts are always in writing. If you haven't heard back in, say, two or three months (yep: you heard that right), then you may send another letter, politely asking about the status of your query. That's it. No calls, not until an agent calls you.


4. Query an agent and then wait to hear back before querying another: Do you have a decade or so to waste? If not, then remember that this is your business, just as it is theirs, and do what makes the most sense for you. Send your initial query out to as many agents as you can (after having identified them as being potentially a good match for your manuscript). Send a short letter introducing your manuscript and yourself, and then wait. You'll receive a lot of rejections, guaranteed. You'll have some show some interest, ask to see more. Unless the agent is asking for exclusive viewing rights, continue sending out queries to others. (If the agent wants exclusive viewing rights, grant them, but only for a set period of time – a month, for example.) Keep trying; it can take years to find the right fit.
   

Never give up. Getting published is one of the most difficult things you'll ever do, and finding an agent is a difficult part of that difficult process. According to Wallace Stegner, it takes most people 10 years of serious writing before they get published. If you cannot find an agent, then hone your craft more, send your manuscript to an editor or writer's group, improve your writing... and try again.

Want to learn more? Visit Customline Wordware's Web and read more about agents there.

Finding an agent is definitely a task... beyond the elements of style!

"The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile." (Robert Cormier)

So you've finished your book. That's what it feels like, isn't it? You've gotten it all down, finally, your opus, and it's finished. What you probably don't want to hear at this point is that it's not; but that's the truth. The first draft is finished; and that's well worth celebrating. But a lot of the real work has just begun.

Many authors dread rewrites, but I'd like to suggest that it's not something to be avoided or done under duress, like a visit to the dentist. No: a rewrite is your opportunity to take your story or article and make it shine.

While every rewrite is going to be different, there are a few nuts and bolts that you can look for in any manuscript:

• Look for patterns: If you have a tendency to write in threes ("her hair was soft, vibrant, and beautiful"), you'll want to alternate those descriptions with other ways of saying the same thing. If you constantly use sentence fragments, break that up a little. Always write in long sentences? Throw in a few shorter ones. Patterns tend to make readers' eyes glaze over; always keep them wondering what you'll be up to next, and you'll keep them turning the pages.
  
• Watch out for the misplaced apostrophe! Look for words that end in "s" and determine which are plurals, which are possessives, and which are contractions; then apply the appropriate rule. (In general, plurals do not take an apostrophe while possessives do, the most notable exception being "its" as a possessive – "it's" is a contraction of "it is.")
  
• Don't let MS Word be the boss!The spellchecker in your word processing program will no doubt help you find the most egregious errors; but make sure that you go beyond them, and especially take the built-in grammar checker with a very large grain of salt.
  
• If you're writing fiction, is the story arc clear? Are timelines correct? Did you check to see that someone who has blue eyes in chapter one does not suddenly switch to brown in chapter eighteen?
  
• If you're writing nonfiction, is your point clear? Do you have an introduction, several main points, and conclusion?
  
• Are you using the same vocabulary over and over again? (Most of us do) Remember, your thesaurus is your friend. Don't try to sound too pedantic or exotic, but as is true of other patterns, the same word usage becomes tiring and may cause your book to be less appreciated than it should be!
  

You should do at least one rewrite before your manuscript leaves your desk. Knowing that you'll do a rewrite leaves you free to relax and just write the first time around, knowing that you'll have plenty of time to clean it up later.

It's also important to let as much time as possible elapse between your first and second drafts. When you wrote your first draft, you were caught up in the experience and in the content; you need time and distance to be able to assess your work with an impartial eye.

Once you're comfortable with your rewrite(s), it's time to send it out. To a potential agent or publisher? No, no, a thousand times no! Now is the time for a workshop (see links for two online possibilities) or a local writer's group. Have other people look at your work, critique it, tear it apart if necessary; then you can regroup and do (gulp!) yet another rewrite. But don't skip the first one: you are wasting the resources of the group if you have them fixing the nuts and bolts mentioned here – fixing things that you easily could have fixed yourself.

Some people prefer not to go the workshop route but rather directly to a freelance editor. Again, I urge you to send your second or third draft, not your first one, to the editor you choose. I cannot tell you how many manuscripts sent to Customline Wordware for editing that would have been far less expensive had the author first done a second draft and fixed the obvious errors! I don't mind, particularly; but I expect that saving money is something we'd all like to do.

Remember to approach rewrites as you might a friend who is about to give you advice that may be annoying, but that you know to be true. The advice is what matters... and it will bring you beyond the elements of style!

WARNING: Reprint Alert! This article was originally published on my company's Web site at Customline Wordware. What is so cool about it, though, is that it's being used as part of the curriculum in a creative writing class at Murray State College in Tishomingo, Oklahoma!

Every novel needs to have a beginning, middle, and end. Elementary, my dear Watson! But what are the functions of each of these components, and how do you make them work best for you?

The beginning of your story or novel is crucial. You must catch your reader's attention, do it well and do it quickly, or he or she will just put the book down. There are three standard methods authors use to catch the reader's attention, to "hook" the reader into wanting to read more:

• action
  
• character
  
• style
  

The action opening: Essentially, something exciting and unexpected happens withint the first few paragraphs or pages that makes the reader sit up and take notice.

"The first thing the groundskeeper saw when he went to tend to the small cemetery behind St. Sebastian's was the body that someone had forgotten to bury." (Jodi Picoult, Picture Perfect)

The character opening: There is something so interesting - in either a positive or a negative sense - about the first character introduced (often but not always the protagonist) that the reader wants to hear more from/about him or her.

"He did not have the look of a man who frightened easily. But what made him afraid, in a way no bar bully or snarling dog could, was snow. Ordinary snow. The kind that dusts and occasionally blitzes New York City between November and April. Jonathan Corbin saw things in the snow. Things that could not have been there. Things that could not have been living." (John R. Maxim, Time Out of Mind)

The style opening: Usually seen in longer works of fiction, this opening is simply so beautifully written that the reader wants more of that sort of prose.

"It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York (...) It had nothing to do with me, but I couldn't help wondering what it would be like, being burned alive all along your nerves." (Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar)

Besides catching the reader's attention, your story beginning is also an implicit contract between you and your reader, a promise that the rest of the piece or book will have to fulfill. You're promising to deliver a story that will not disappoint the reader once he or she has read your opening: the rest, you're saying, will be good, too.

Finally, no matter which type of opening you choose, be sure that it generates forward momentum. There must be enough detail and description to orient the reader, but that's all: keep focused at the beginning so that the story can move forward. More detail and description are generally welcome later on.

The ending of a story is often trickier than the beginning, because it has to be just as strong and, besides that, manage to tie up all the loose ends that might still be scattered to and fro. These can seem like mutually exclusive alternatives.

The strength issue is clear. You want your reader to close the book while wishing that he or she didn't have to - to be sad that it's over, to be wanting to read more. You want him or her to think or say, "That was a great book!" So your ending has to deliver enough punch (in much the same ways as the beginning does, via action, character, or style) to do that for you.

Yet at the same time some denouement is necessary. Readers want to know how things end, how issues got resolved, why characters did certain things. Make sure that you leave people wondering, but satisfied.

And that will, of course, bring you a step closer to being... beyond the elements of style!

It used to be called a short-short. Or even a short-short-short (though I'll be the first to admit that the latter sounds a little too silly). These days it's called flash fiction: a (very!) short storytelling form.

How many words is short? That depends on the publication. Generally anything under 1,000 words is considered flash fiction, though some purists put the number at 100. Others push the envelope at 25. You get the drift.

Do not be seduced by the length, however: good flash fiction is extremely difficult to write. When you're dealing with so few words, every one of them has to count, every one of them has to be just right.

Believe it or not, you still need a story arc: a beginning, a middle, and an end. This is how flash differs from a vignette: you still need to tell a story, make a point; and the fact that you need to do it with so few tools – words – means that you have to be concise, clear, on topic, and... well, yes: elegant. It still needs to be readable, after all.

What do you need to watch out for? Adverbs and adjectives! Ask yourself whether they are really necessary in getting your story told. My guess is that you'll end up eliminating most if not all of them. In fact, ask youself whether any of your words are necessary... you may be surprised at what you find!

Exercise: Feeling inspired? Then let's get going! Try out the flash fiction genre now and see how it works. Your assignment is to write a story in 25 words. Exactly 25 words – not 24 or 26.

Markets: There are a number of online literary journals that accept flash fiction submissions; included here are a few that specialize in flash (feel free to add more in the Comments thread if you know of any!).

• The Vestal Review is the oldest journal devoted to flash fiction.
  
• Smokelong Quarterly
  
• Flashquake (Flashquake also runs a flash fiction class; more information is available here.
  
• Skive Magazine.
  
• Quickfiction.
  
• Flash Me!
  
• Espresso Fiction (cool idea, they deliver short fiction on a subscription basis to people's email boxes!)
  

But wait, there's more! Here's a great side effect to trying it out: even if you never publish any flash fiction, the very act of writing it, as an exercise, will help you develop a critical eye toward all of your writing. Once you get used to asking yourself whether this word or that word is absolutely necessary, you'll be able to clear away a lot of the overwriting that's such a common pitfall for beginning writers. And it will take you a step closer to moving... beyond the elements of style!

Admit it: that's what first caught your eye. After all, the Web is all about graphics, color, flash. It's so entertaining that we can easily get lost in it.

Perhaps that's the point. At some level the Web has perhaps become too entertaining. At some level, the medium threatens to become more important than the message. There's so much "stuff" to see and do and interact with that we forget why we're there.

And that's not what this blog is about. This blog is all about words. I don't want you to look at pretty graphics or fancy flash presentations; I want you to join me in thinking about words.

So it's in black and white.

Of course, you realize that I'm playing with you here. Of course the visuals matter: by being in black and white, this blog really stands out on the Web. Graphically, I'm contrasting the elegance of the font used in "beyond" with the plainness of the "Elements of Style" – in other words, beyond the elements of style is... elegance.

Which brings us back to words. Hopefully throughout this blog you'll learn something, disagree with me about something, be challenged to think about something, and all of it a step beyond what you were taught in English class.

So please join me... beyond the elements of style!