About
Writing
by: Michael
LaRocca
In this free email course,
I'll tell you everything I know about
improving your writing, publishing it electronically and
in print, and promoting it after the sale.
Two questions you should ask:
(1) What will it cost me?
(2) What does this Michael LaRocca
guy know about it?
Answer #1 -- It won't cost you a thing.
The single most important bit of advice I can give you,
and I say it often, is don't pay for publication.
My successes have come from investing
time. Some of it was well spent, but most of it was wasted.
It costs me nothing to share what I've learned. It costs
you nothing to read it except some of your time.
Answer #2 -- "Michael LaRocca has
been researching the publishing field for over ten years."
This quote, from an ezine (electronic
newsletter) called Authors Wordsmith, was a kind way of
saying I've received a lot of rejections. Also, my "research"
required 20 years.
But in my "breakout" year (2000),
I finished writing four books and scheduled them
all for publication in 2001. Then I spent almost a year
as an editor and Author Development Specialist for one of
my publishers.
After my first book was published,
both my publishers closed. Two weeks and three publishers
later, I was back on track. All four books were republished,
and a fifth will be released in 2004. Written in 2003, no
rejections.
See how much faster it was the second
time around? That's because I learned a lot.
2004 EPPIE Award finalist. 2002 EPPIE
Award finalist. Listed by Writers Digest as one of The Best
101 Websites For Writers in 2001 and 2002. Sime-Gen Readers
Choice Awards for Favorite Author (Nonfiction & Writing)
and Favorite Book (Nonfiction & Writing). 1982 Who's Who
In American Writing.
Excuse me for bragging, but it beats
having you think I'm unqualified.
Also, I found more editing jobs. That's
what I do when I'm not writing, doing legal transcription,
or teaching English in China (my new home). But the thing
is, if I'd become an editor before learning how to write,
I'd have stunk.
I'll tell you what's missing from
this course. What to write about, where I get my ideas from,
stuff like that. Maybe I don't answer this question because
I think you should do it your way, not mine. Or maybe because
I don't know how I do it. Or maybe both.
Once you've done your writing
bit, this course will help you with all the other stuff
involved in being a writer. Writing involves wearing at
least four different hats. Writer, editor, publication seeker,
post-sale self-promoter.
Here's what I can tell you about
my writing.
Sometimes a story idea just comes
to me out of nowhere and refuses to leave me alone until
I write it. So, I do.
And, whenever I read a book that really
fires me up, I find myself thinking, "I wish I could write
like that." So, I just keep trying. I'll never write the
best, but I'll always write my best. And get better every
time. That's the "secret" of the writing "business,"
same as any other business. Always deliver the goods.
I read voraciously, a habit I recommend
to any author who doesn't already have it. You'll subconsciously
pick up on what does and doesn't work. Characterization,
dialogue, pacing, plot, story, setting, description, etc.
But more importantly, someone who doesn't enjoy reading
will never write something that someone else will enjoy
reading.
I don't write "for the market." I
know I can't, so I just write for me and then try to find
readers who like what I like. I'm not trying to whip up
the next bestseller and get rich. Not that I'd complain.
Nope, I have to write what's in my heart, then go find a
market later. It makes marketing a challenge at times, but
I wouldn't have it any other way.
When you write, be a dreamer. Go nuts.
Know that you're writing pure gold. That fire is
why we write.
An author who I truly admire, Kurt
Vonnegut, sweats out each individual sentence. He writes
it, rewrites it, and doesn't leave it alone until it's perfect.
Then when he's done, he's done.
I doubt most of write like that. I
don't. I let it fly as fast as my fingers can move across
the paper or keyboard, rushing to capture my ideas before
they get away. Later, I change and shuffle and slice.
James Michener claims that he writes
the last sentence first, then has his goal before him as
he writes his way to it.
Then there's me. No outline whatsoever.
I create characters and conflict, spending days and weeks
on that task, until the first chapter really leaves me wondering
"How will this end?" Then my characters take over, and I'm
as surprised as the reader when I finish my story.
Some authors set aside a certain
number of hours every day for writing, or a certain number
of words. In short, a writing schedule.
Then there's me. No writing
for three or six months, then a flurry of activity where
I forget to eat, sleep, bathe, change the cat's litter...
I'm a walking stereotype. To assuage the guilt, I tell myself
that my unconscious is hard at work. As Hemingway would
say, long periods of thinking and short periods of writing.
I've shown you the extremes in writing
styles. I think most authors fall in the middle somewhere.
But my point is, find out what works for you. You can read
about how other writers do it, and if that works
for you, great. But in the end, find your own way. That's
what writers do.
Just don't do it halfway.
If you're doing what I do, writing
a story that entertains and moves you, then you will find
readers who share your tastes. For some of us that means
a niche market and for others it means regular appearances
on the bestseller list.
Writing is a calling, but publishing
is a business. Remember that AFTER you've written your manuscript.
Not during.
I've told you how I write. For me.
The next step is self-editing. Fixing
all the mistakes I made, that I can identify, in my rush
to write it before my Muse took a holiday. Several rewrites.
Running through it repeatedly with a fine-toothed comb.
Then what?
There are stories that get rejected
because the potential publisher hates them, but far more
are shot down for other reasons. Stilted dialogue. Boring
descriptions. Weak characters. Underdeveloped story. Unbelievable
or inconsistent plot. Sloppy writing.
That's what you have to fix.
After my fifteen-year hiatus from
writing, I started by using Free Online Creative Writing
Workshops. What I needed most was input from strangers.
After all, once you're published, your readers will be strangers.
Every publisher you submit to will be a stranger. What will
they think? I was far too close to my writing to
answer that.
Whenever I got some advice, I considered
it. Some I just threw out as wrong, or because I couldn't
make the changes without abandoning part of what made the
story special to me. Some I embraced. But the point is,
I decided. It was my writing.
After a time, I didn't feel the need
for the workshops anymore. I'm fortunate enough to have
a wife whose advice I will always treasure, and after a
while that was all I needed. But early on, it would've been
unfair to ask her to read my drivel. (Not that I didn't
anyway.)
I don't know how far along you are
in your writing, but if you've never used a workshop, I
keep a list of them at http://freereads.topcities.com/creativewritingonline.html.
Your goal when you self-edit is to
get your book as close to "ready to read" as you possibly
can. You want your editor to find what you overlooked, not
what you didn't know about.
To that end, I offer two resources.
http://freereads.topcities.com/usefullinksforauthors.html
contains links to online quotations, grammar and style guides,
dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauruses, scam warnings,
writer groups, copyright stuff, etc.
http://freereads.topcities.com/commonwritingmistakes.html
contains a list of the most common mistakes I've seen in
my years as an editor. I still reread it from time to time
just so I don't forget.
Your story is your story. You write
it from your heart, and when it looks like something you'd
enjoy reading, you set out to find a publisher who shares
your tastes. What you don't want is for that first reader
to lose sight of what makes your story special because you've
bogged it down with silly mistakes.
Authors don't pay to be published.
They are paid for publication. Always. It's just that simple.
And later, I'll tell you where to get some free editing.
But there's a limit to how much editing
you can get without paying for it. Do you need more than
that? I don't know because I've never seen your writing.
But if you evaluate it honestly, I Think you'll know the
answer.
As an editor, I've worked with some
authors who simply couldn't self-edit. A non-native
English speaker, a guy who slept through English class,
whatever. To them, maybe paying for editing was an option.
This isn't paying for publication. This is paying for a
service, training. Just like paying to take a Creative Writing
class at the local community college.
By the way, I don't believe creativity
can be taught. Writing, certainly. I took my Creative Writing
class in high school, free, and treasure it. But I already
had the creativity, or else it would've been a waste of
the teacher's time and mine.
If you hire an editor worthy of the
name, you should learn from that editor how to self-edit
in the future. In my case it took two tries, because the
first editor was a rip-off artist charging over ten times
market value for incomplete advice.
That editor, incidentally, is named
Edit Ink, and they're listed on many of the "scam warning"
sites mentioned at Useful Links For Authors. They took kickbacks
from every fake agent who sent them a client. (I'll talk
about fake agents later.)
If you choose to hire an editor, check
price and reputation. And consider that you might never
make enough selling your books to get back what you pay
that editor. Do you care? That's your decision.
The first, most important step on
the road to publication is to make your writing the
best it can be.
** PUBLICATION **
My goal is to be published in both
mediums, ebook and print. There are some readers who prefer
ebooks, and some who prefer print books. The latter group
is much larger, but those publishers are harder to sell
your writing to. I want both, because I want all
the readers I can get.
Thus, I advocate something of a stepping-stone
approach. Publish electronically with a quality place, enjoy
the benefits of free editing and almost instant gratification
regarding publishing time.
Later, if you think you can sell your
book to a traditional print publisher, you have a professionally
edited manuscript to submit.
Before you epublish, check the contract
to be sure you can publish the edited work in print later.
If you know your book just plain won't
ever make it into traditional print, print-on-demand (POD)
is an option. Some of my books fall into this category.
The best epublishers will simultaneously publish your work
electronically and in POD format, at no cost to you.
A lot of authors swear by self-publication,
but the prospect just plain scares me. All that promo, all
that self-editing, maybe driving around the countryside
with a back seat full of books. I'm a writer, not a salesman.
But, maybe you're different.
I self-published once, in the pre-POD
days. Mom handled the sales. I had fun and broke even. With
POD, at least it's cheaper to self-publish than it was in
1989.
If you're flying solo, POD can range
anywhere from US$99 to over $1000. Don't pay the higher
price! Price shop. Also, remember that POD places publish
any author who pays, and do no marketing.
Print Publishing vs Electronic Publishing
http://freereads.topcities.com/printpublishing_electronicpublishing.html
This site provides a comparison of the two mediums. Each
has plusses and minuses. Even if you already know what epublishing
is, take a look.
Electronic Publishers
http://freereads.topcities.com/onlinefictionbooks.html
A list of the ones I believe are reputable and my criteria
for selecting them. Plus, a link to award-winning author
Piers Anthony's totally excellent in-depth analysis of many
more epublishers than I'll ever list.
How To Break Into Print Publishing
http://freereads.topcities.com/printpublishing.html
If you're at the beginning of my stepping-stone approach,
seeking an epublisher, you'll probably just want to bookmark
this one for a year or two. That's fine, because it's not
going anywhere. I plan to use it myself in a year or two.
If, on the other hand, you're ready for traditional print,
use it now and I wish you success!
Print-On-Demand Publishing
http://freereads.topcities.com/printondemand.html
What is it? Should you use it? If so, how? What to beware
of if you do.
** PROMOTING YOUR PUBLISHED WRITING
**
It doesn't matter how you publish
your book. Self-published, epublished, POD, or traditional
print publishing from an absolute powerhouse. Marketing
falls largely on you, and the same things always work. Book
signings, interviews in the local newspapers and on radio.
Start with http://www.kidon.com/media-link/index.shtml.
It will allow you to look up all the local media outlets
in your area that have websites.
If you write to them all, you're a
spammer. Plus, it'll take ages. Look for the ones with a
legitimate interest and fire away.
If you find a stale URL, and I think
you will, look for the name of that media outlet at some
place like Google. Spend some time looking for the right
press contacts, spend some time writing your press
release, and do what you can.
Most of these sites list email, snail
mail, and phone calls. Since I live in China, I've only
used email.
Book reviews, author interviews, book
listing sites, and book contests are something we can all
do, regardless of where we live. Again, I'm going to give
you some web pages to visit. Pages where I keep my resources,
so I don't lose them. Some of the sites I mention do ebooks,
and some do not. The POD option can help e-authors here,
but balance cost vs. likelihood of gaining enough readers
to offset that.
Some are ezines and some are websites.
Some are printed newsletters, some are printed magazines,
and some are newspapers. This is just a starting point.
If you visit them all, and you have time for more promotion,
you can find many more.
Book Reviewers, Author Interviews,
Book Listing Sites http://freereads.topcities.com/bookreview.html
Book Contests http://freereads.topcities.com/bookcontests.html
Okay, let's get back to my overseas
angle. Aside from two radio interviews and a seminar in
Hong Kong, and some emailed press releases to the LOCAL
media back in the US which may or may not have succeeded
in anything, my marketing has come from the Internet.
I have a website. I have a newsletter.
I'm giving away a free ebook, the essence of which
you're reading now. You found me somehow, right?
Here's the type of message I receive
often in email. To be more precise, in spam.
If a million people see your ad, and
you get 1% of them, that's 10,000 readers and therefore
$15,000 profit and you only paid $1000 for those million
addresses.
NO!! It doesn't work that way. Need
I use the words dot-com bust?
My website is free. My newsletter
is free. I don't buy mailing lists, I don't harvest email
addresses, and I don't spam. I want interested traffic,
not just sheer numbers.
Do you think the Phoenicians tried
to sell sails to people a thousand miles from the water?
Internet marketing isn't a replacement
for the methods mentioned above, but a complement to them.
And by using it, I got you here.
Your goal in marketing is this. There
are certainly people in the world who like what you like.
And since you like your book, they probably will too.
But you have to find those readers
and make them interested, without spamming them and without
just "playing the numbers game."
If you're an e-author, let me state
the obvious. Nobody buys ebooks who doesn't have Internet
access. Do they? So you definitely need a website.
Traditional print authors need
websites too. Even blockbuster authors like J.R.
Rowling and Stephen King, who I doubt could garner any more
name recognition, have websites. So does every long-established
inescapable monstro-business like McDonalds and Coke.
Okay, those folks pay web designers.
I'm not doing that. I can't generate those kinds of sales
figures. And yes, I've formerly been employed as an HTML
programmer. But you can write your own website without even
learning HTML if you want. It's no harder than writing
a manuscript with a word processor.
It won't be super-flashy like the
big boys, but it'll communicate the information. Remember,
you can communicate. You're an author! And that's what keeps
people coming back to a website after the thrill of the
flash wears off. Information. Content. Your specialty.
I consider my website and my newsletter
to be successful, and I've created a free email course
to analyze how they got that way. Yes, there are legitimate
ways to bring traffic to your website and your newsletter.
Not massive numbers overnight, but slow steady growth over
the long term.
** CLOSING THOUGHTS **
We've been talking about soft
sell.
Now, at the end of my free
workshop, I'll tell you about 2 URLs that I think
will help you and one that won't. You can decide if any
are worth a visit.
After that, I'll get back to the lesson.
Books OnLine Directory
http://freereads.topcities.com/
You've been to parts of it already and seen that it delivers
something you're looking for. (I hope.) Don't forget to
go back from time to time.
Mad About Books
http://freereads.topcities.com/archive.html
My free weekly email newsletter will keep you up-to-date
on the latest info as I find it. Plus, it has a certain
goofy charm that the website lacks.
Both URLs mention my books, but in
the background. I hope you'll look one day out of curiosity
or because you really like my generous nature, but it's
not mandatory. Soft sell.
From Watha, NC, USA to Shaoxing, Zhejiang,
China
http://michaeljan.topcities.com
This site doesn't mention writing at all. I wrote
it for my students. I teach English in China, and this is
where I tell all about it. Along with a hefty helping
of personal history and photos. How I got here, how I quit
a job via email to marry a lovely Australian, dog and cat
photos, stuff like that. Just for fun. It won't help you
a bit.
Now let's get back to your writing.
That's why you're here.
Here's something you've heard before.
When your manuscript is rejected -- and it will be -- remember
that you aren't being rejected. Your manuscript is.
One reader took me to task for that
statement, claiming he'd never been rejected in his life.
I'm very happy for him. But why, if I may be so bold as
to ask, would he need advice on How To Get Published? I'd
rather he write some advice so I can hang up my "helper
guy" hat and learn from a master.
But I digress. You aren't being rejected,
I was saying. Your manuscript is.
Did you ever hang up the phone on
a telemarketer, delete spam, or close the door in the face
of a salesman? Of course, and yet that salesman just moves
on to the next potential customer. He knows you're rejecting
his product, not him.
Okay, in my case I'm rejecting both,
but I'd never do that to an author. Neither will a publisher
or an agent. All authors tell other authors
not to take rejection personally, and yet we all do. Consider
it a target to shoot for, then. Just keep submitting, and
just keep writing.
The best way to cope with waiting
times is to "submit and forget," writing or editing
other stuff while the time passes.
And finally, feel free to send
an e-mail to me anytime. michaellarocca@yawweb.org. I'll
gladly share what I know with you, and it won't cost you
a cent.
I would wish you luck in your publishing
endeavors, but I know there's no luck involved. It's all
skill and diligence.
Congratulations on completing the
course! No ceremonies, no degrees, and no diplomas. But
on the bright side, no student loan to repay.
Best regards,
Michael LaRocca http://freereads.topcities.com/archive.html
About The Author
Michael was born in North Carolina,
USA. He teaches English at a university in Shaoxing, Zhejiang
Province, China. Five of his books were published in 2002,
and another is scheduled for publication in 2004. One of
his novels is an EPPIE 2004 finalist in the Mainstream category.
One of his novels was an EPPIE 2002 finalist in the Thriller
category. He’s also won two Sime~Gen Readers Choice Awards
for nonfiction. He’s proud of the fact that he rarely writes
in the same genre twice. He’s listed in the 1982 Who’s Who
In American Writing, but that impresses him even less than
it impresses you. Michael has worked as an editor for the
past thirteen years. For ten years he was responsible for
all the tech manuals and sales literature produced by an
R&D firm. He also wrote their website. Then he moved to
China in 1999 and began editing and reviewing fiction for
several U.S. publishers via the Internet. He has been involved
with the publication of almost 200 novels. He also works
as a legal transcriptionist for a Hong Kong firm. When he
should be squeezing writing into his schedule, he
is usually enjoying the company of his wife and their cat
instead, or sweating through Chinese lessons. In July he
finished obtaining his TEFL qualification, so maybe now
he’ll find time to write. For more information about
Michael and his books, visit his website at http://freereads.topcities.com
which was listed in Writers Digest’s The 101 Best Websites
For Writers in 2001 and 2002. His email address is michaellarocca@yawweb.org
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