The Day Came Sooner For Me
Written by Harley Samson / Illustrated by Michael Murdock
From the August 2011 issue of Underneath The Juniper Tree
The UNDERNEATH THE JUNIPER TREE anthology will be out soon!
WRITERS: MIND YOUR MANNERS!
A MESSAGE FROM JON BARD, MANAGING EDITOR OF CHILDREN’S BOOK INSIDER:
“If you spend a fair amount of time online, perhaps you’ve noticed it:
People are becoming ruder. And angrier. And more entitled.
Really, I’m simply amazed at some of what appears in my e-mail inbox. Folks with whom I’ve never corresponded are sending me demanding messages such as “SEND ME THE EBOOK!!!!” and “I WANT TO GET PUBLISHED. TELL ME WHAT TO DO!”
People (non-customers) send us long, detailed questions out of the blue and expect immediate responses. If they don’t get one, we often receive an abusive message as a follow up.
And then there’s the magic words that many people seem to be using as a justification for curt, nicety-free missives:
“Sent via my iPhone.”
Look, I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve got a pretty thick skin. So I raise this not to prevent my feelings from being hurt, but rather as a cautionary message about how *not* to sabotage your writing career.
As a 21st century author, your ability to communicate is paramount to your success. Editors, agents, bloggers, book reviewers, distributors, promotional partners and readers are just some of the people who are important to your career. For goodness sake, treat them with more respect than “Here’s my new book. Write a review!”.
Here then, are my tips to help you be seen as a courteous author worthy of consideration:
• “Dear”, “Thank you”, “Please” and “Sincerely/All the Best/Yours Truly” aren’t archaic leftovers from the distant past. They’re still as important as ever. Use them. Please.
• Composing a message from your phone or tablet is not an excuse for overly-direct curtness. If you have a business message to send, wait until you have the time to write it properly.
• If you’re contacting someone for the first time, make the effort to introduce yourself, and clearly state the purpose of your message.
• If someone doesn’t get right back to you, don’t fire off an angry e-mail accusing them of ignoring you. Perhaps the message got lost. Maybe they’re on vacation. Perhaps they’re ill. Calmly send another friendly message restating your request or comment.
• Remember that you’re dealing with human beings. In our case, every piece of e-mail is read either by me or by Laura. We don’t have a building full of underlings to take care of that for us. When you send us kind words (and many of you do — thank you!), it feels great. When you’re rude or angry, it stings. Treat me with respect — I think I’ve earned at least that.
The vast majority of you are nothing but gracious in your communications with us. That bodes well for your future success. Keep at it, and gently work to correct those who aren’t minding your manners.
For the few of you who may have let your etiquette slip, please take heed of the points I’ve laid out, and make a resolution to make the online world just a little bit more courteous.
That’s it — venting over! Onward….”
THANKS, JON!
Dawn Pisturino
TOO MANY BOOKS, TOO MUCH COMPETITION
In an interview with the blog SIX QUESTIONS, John Raab, Publisher/CEO/Editor-in-Chief of Suspense Magazine, answered the following question:
“What can you truly expect to get out of your writing?”
“I feel that many authors have false expectations and think they are writing the next NY Times Bestseller. Here is the problem with that. Just because your book is not high on a list or selling that great, doesn’t mean you can’t write. Authors have to remember that anybody can now publish an EBook on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. What does that mean? That means that readers now have to navigate through thousands of more books to find one they like and readers only have a certain amount of money to spend. If you don’t have thousands of marketing dollars behind your work, then you have to spend triple the amount of time marketing to fans than it took you to write the book. Writing the book is the easy part, getting paid from it is the difficult part. Authors should expect to not retire off their work, but instead write for the love of it, because it is your passion. Writing and music are the same thing, you see a great band in a bar and say ‘They are better than anything I hear on the radio, why aren’t they signed?’ Writing is the same way.”
Is it true? Are there too many books on the market? Writers don’t just write for the love of writing, they write to make a living. But if thousands of self-proclaimed authors are flooding the market with books, how can someone achieve that goal?
For myself, I stopped buying books because I was tired of wasting my money on mediocre crap that was marketed as best-seller material. A slick cover and a wide audience do not a-book-worth-reading make. Extensive marketing will not salvage a poorly crafted commodity. Readers might buy from you once, but they won’t come back again.
The book market is, in fact, overwhelming. Every time I go into Barnes & Noble, the stacks of unread (and unbought) books makes me want to swoon. Scanning through Amazon and Goodreads makes me feel the same way.
The books shout in my head: READ ME! READ ME!
It’s the same on Facebook. Thousands of self-proclaimed authors scream at me: BUY MY BOOK! BUY MY BOOK!
Millions of blogs and online publications float around in Internet outer space, vying for attention.
TV, movies, and video games also provide tough competition. And to top it off, a recent poll suggested that only 75% of the population ever reads a book (print or digital.)
So, what’s a writer (and reader) to do in an age of information overload?
1. Write the best damned book you can, using original ideas.
2. Don’t write derivative material because thousands of others are doing the same thing. We don’t need anymore books about vampires and wizards unless the slant is so original, and the characters so unforgettable, that the world just can’t live without them.
3. Define your goals realistically. If you are only writing out of love for the craft, then be content to do so. But if you dream of making a living as a writer, then treat it as a business.
Personally, I think the publishing industry bubble is going to burst, just like the dot.com bubble and the housing bubble. Too many books means too many choices and a flattened market. After all, people don’t have the time or the money to spend on reading all the books out there. And traditional publishing houses depend on blockbuster best-sellers to keep themselves afloat.
I will continue to write because I love to write. But don’t be fooled: I want to make a living off of my writing as much as any other writer. The question is: can I beat the competition?
5 Reasons Novelists Should Write Short Stories
Now that I have more time to write (Toddler started preschool), I have been trying my hand at short stories. This is a new format for me, but I am enjoying learning the new skills for this format. Even as a novelist, I am finding many benefits to exploring short fiction:
1. Experimentation.
I can play around with things I would not be able to with a novel-length work.
Writing short fiction has definitely improved my writing. I wholeheartedly agree with this advice.
Would you like to have a literary agent's knowledge at your fingertips for two weeks?
I've had enough experience with writers to know that they almost always feel like this when writing their query letter:
Because they know that agents are like this almost every day:
You want agents fighting over your query and manuscript like it's the freaking Ring of Mordor. If you are stuck, feel like you just can't figure out how to write that winning query letter, think about…
Bree Ogden, literary agent extraordinaire, is making herself available for all you aspiring authors out there! Check out her class!
Post Teens Only Want to Read if it Involves Crazy Amounts of Sex
In 1912, Henry Gilbert released his epic novel, Robin Hood.
In 1922, released was the stunning Ulysses by James Joyce.
Aldous Huxley published the ground breaking Brave New World in 1932.
Albert Camus brought us Existentialism with The Stranger and The Myth of Sisyphus in the year 1942.
1952, had us all crying over a spider with E.B. White's Charlotte's Web.
Right on, Bree Ogden!
We work hard. We often work for nothing. But we are rewarded.
It's moments like these that remind me why I work hard on my passions for no money and little recognition. Moments like these:
It's coming, friends.
The Underneath the Juniper Tree Anthology is coming soon! Can't wait!
Neil Gaiman's All Hallow's Read
The prolific and terrifyingly talented (ingenious, I might add) Neil Gaiman has started a new tradition called All Hallow's Read. Watch the video below for details, straight from Gaiman himself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1tYtLeWN5NQ
Here at Underneath the Juniper Tree, we think this is just splendid. BEYOND splendid. We encourage everyone to partake in Gaiman's tradition.
Inspire reading and inspire terror.
If you need a few suggestions of books to gift, the website for All Hallow's Read offers many (even a…
Lots of good things out there to read for Halloween!
A Writer 24/7
by Dawn Pisturino
Adopting the writer’s mantle places us instantly in the spotlight. Everything we say, write, and do is being evaluated and judged by people we don’t even know.
With this in mind, it’s important to display our best writing at every opportunity.
I recently read a blog post by an English writer that was poorly formatted, riddled with errors, and unprofessional-looking. The purpose of the blog was to dispense writing advice to budding young authors. But what can a young author learn from run-on sentences and words that blend into one another with no punctuation or spaces? Needless to say, I no longer follow that blog.
Many self-proclaimed authors haunt Facebook and other social media sites. They promote their books with quickly-composed, ungrammatical sales pitches that reflect poorly on their abilities as writers. My thought is this: if they can’t write a simple post on Facebook, how can they write the next Great American novel? The answer is obvious.
E-mail tends to be a casual form of communication, but some people take it for granted that it’s okay to write in texting jargon and incomplete sentences. Clear, concise communication should be even more important when writing e-mails. I check my grammar and spelling every time I send out an e-mail because I want my readers to see me as a real writer.
My elderly aunt in Michigan fills her hand-written letters with poetic descriptions of the seasons and countryside where she lives. She’s not a writer, but she knows how to write. She knows how to turn a phrase and color a description so that it sticks in my head. She makes me imagine that once upon a time she wrote poetry in some dark garrett. That reminds me–I need to ask her!
Writing is a 24/7 job. And everything we compose should reflect our abilities as a writer. Our readers expect it. Our profession demands it.
Published in the July-August 2012 issue of Working Writer.
Copyright 2012 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.
