WANT TO KNOW HOW TO WRITE A BESTSELLER?

http://www.amazon.com/THE-THREE-SPIRIT-KNIGHT-ebook/dp/B00AD94EQE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375663580&sr=8-1&keywords=three+spirit+knight

{Victor's Mother courtesy of the fabulous Leonora Roy}

 

Struggling authors will be the most rabid readers of James Hall’s new book, “Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the 20th Century’s Biggest Bestsellers,” and they may well learn from it.

I know I am struggling to understand it and the yearning that inspired it.

Hall, a creative-writing professor and crime novelist,

teaches a course on “megabestsellers,” books that have sold in the “multiple millions”

and that have gone on selling for decades after they were originally published.

Would you call Dan Brown a “good writer?”

 Yet many very successful novelists are not: Stieg Larsson some would say is not.

 A book doesn’t have to be especially well-written, plausible or original to be a bestseller.

The characters don’t have to be particularly interesting, as John Grisham proves again and again. In fact, if there is one trait that all of the bestsellers Hall considers absolutely share:

 A lot of people like them.

Duh!

Yet, advertising and begging cannot make someone like you.  I know.  Cate Blanchett remains immune to my charm!

At least half the books on any given week’s bestseller list are there to the immense surprise and puzzlement of their publishers.

So why does the public fall in love with some crappy books but not others?

Most bestsellers combine familiar elements in less familiar ways —

the recipe for successful genre fiction.

“Gone With the Wind” transported the career-woman melodramas of its time into a historical romance.

“The Godfather” is a family saga grafted onto a gangster story.

The sensational historical-religious conspiracy theory at the center of “The Da Vinci Code” had already appeared in a nonfiction bestseller:

Brown’s brainstorm was to change the delivery mechanism to a fast-paced thriller.

Lesson:
YOU HAVE TO BE THE FIRST TO TWIST THE FAMILIAR IN AN UNFAMILIAR WAY.

50 SHADES OF GREY has spawned a tidal wave of erotica, none of whose titles have caught on in a wild-fire way.  THERE IS ONLY ONE FIRST.

E. L. James emerged from the word-of-mouth factory that is Twilight fandom,

and as a result her books introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to a genre they didn’t know existed,

much as Stephenie Meyers had introduced them to the vampire romance novel a few years before.

Lesson:
YOU CANNOT CONTROL WORD OF MOUTH;

YOU CAN ONLY BE PREPARED TO RIDE THE WAVE

SHOULD YOU FIND YOURSELF ATOP IT.

(Have several books already written before you publish the first.)

The one predictive factor that readers consistently rely on is brand loyalty:

an author who has done it once, they assume, is likely to do it again.

That’s why the most consistent aspect of the bestseller lists is the reappearance of the same names, over and over.

Last Lesson:
WRITE THE BOOK YOU WOULD ENJOY READING.

Your heart will be in it, and it will show. 

Your time will have been spent with a smile on your face.  And is that such a bad thing?

WANT TO MAKE AN AUDIOBOOK OF YOUR NOVEL?

http://www.amazon.com/FRENCH-QUARTER-NOCTURNE/dp/B00DO912C4/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_audd?ie=UTF8&qid=1375577418&sr=8-1&keywords=french+quarter+nocturne+roland+yeomans

Walter Knight emailed me:

I loved your blog article on audio books, but I don't know the technical aspects of self publishing an audio book.  Was there much expense for you in doing it?

 When I approached my publisher about audio books, they thought it would be too expensive to hire a professional actor, and to rent a sound-proof recording studio that could produce a quality product.  I responded I could use my own voice, and that technology has probably improved to the point it could be done at home.  How did you self publish?  Is that something you could assist me with?

I thought if Walter had questions, many of you might have as well.  So here goes:

It can be expensive --

Some actors will take a royalty share but most want a fee as there is significant work involved producing an audiobook. Typically they charge a fee that includes the editing –

so you get a price per finished hour of audio – which can vary from $200-$400.

So for a 90,000 word book, this would come out at around 10 hours of finished audio – costing between $2000 and $4000.

This may sound steep –

{Only $1.99 if buy the Kindle book}

but a 10 hour finished book will have at least 75 hours of solid work behind it – recording, editing and final quality check (it takes 10 hours just to listen to it!).

If you divide it out, this is paying the actor about $27 per hour on the lower rate – which is not not excessive for a professional running a business.  

You shake your head, "How hard could this editing be?"

Editing an audiobook is a painstaking job –

removing the errors from the recording and maybe adding in pauses for effect or cutting long gaps to smooth out dialogue.

In addition you have to be listening out for and then remove, all the strange wheezes and pops, coughs and clunks and stomach gurgles that somehow get onto the track.

Add to this the removal of odd external street noises (police sirens, dogs barking etc) which are inevitable if you do not record in a sound-proofed room or have a directional mic.

There is some art involved in this –

deciding to leave a noisy breath in the middle of a sentence or removing one from the beginning of a phrase will depend on the flow and context of the passage.

Many authors have not planned in advance for a paragraph to be read aloud and this makes the job of the recording artist quite a challenge. Frequently there are gaspings as the poor actor struggles to get in enough air after a long sentence with many sub-clauses or commas!

DON'T STOP READING IN DISMAY!

THERE IS ACX!

(Walter ask your publisher if you have the audio rights to your books.  If not, ask them if they could grant them to you since they are not going to use them.  To use ACX you must own the audio rights to your book.)

For those of you who haven’t visited ACX – you should –

it is a brilliant uploading service for independent producers and authors.

They allow authors to advertise for the type of narrator they would like (accent, age, style etc) and provide an audition text for any interested party to use to record a sound test. The auditions come in, the author selects the one they like best and then the narrator goes off to do the work.

  It is a really simple utility to use and it marries authors and producers up and handles contracts, payments, sign offs etc and then gets the finished job up onto Amazon, Audible and iTunes.

They offer all sorts of payment options for producers –

including royalty splits and they then handle the payments to you when the book sales start flooding in….

With this option your outlay is minimal – you are just sacrificing half your future royalties.

But since the narrator is looking at continuing to be paid, she/he is motivated to do her or his very best work to spread "word of mouth." -- so to speak.

So for authors thinking about audiobooks - using an ACX narrator on the split-royalty deal will give you an audiobook for no up-front outlay, that brings in at least the same yield as your Kindle version and the added bonus of an additional medium in which to expose your work.

HOW TO USE ACX?

1. Go to https://www.acx.com/

2. Create an account (click on the big Get Started button after admiring Neil Gaiman for a minute)

3. This account works with your Amazon account - so you'll have the same sign in and password

4. Creating an account here is very similar to creating an account on any e-book platform - just follow the directions and fill in the info

5. Confirm you own the rights to your titles. This is similar to adding your books to your Author Central account, sort of an is this book yours? within ACX and then you confirm if it is or isn't.

6. Next comes the bit I found the most tedious - creating your title profile

a. Post a cover photo (don't worry, it's not the FINAL cover art)

b. Post a description

c. Post an excerpt for narrators to audition with

d. Post a write up of anything else potential narrators and producers need to know -

for example, I stated that I needed a female narrator that could handle doing a proper British accent.

e. Post word count, territories (most will be Worldwide like with e-books)

f. Choose your royalty sitch.

 This is where you decide if you are going to pay an upfront hourly rate or royalty share.

Obviously, if you pay upfront...it's going to cost something.

If you do the royalty share, you don't pay anything upfront, but you do split all of your royalties with the narrator/producer 50/50.

 I chose to share my royalties, and in fact am happy to share my royalties. I honestly feel like my narrators put just as much work into creating the audiobooks as I did writing the books!

 7. Now your title profiles are listed on ACX for narrators and producers to peruse. (A lot of the narrators are also the producers.)

You can wait for them to come to you, but I have no patience, so I started listening to narrator auditions right away. (Go up to Search and click on Narrators for hire.)

If you have any more questions, friends, just email me.  :-)

THE SILK ROAD

William Faulkner, ghost, here.

Roland is off bringing rare blood to the ailing, so I am here to stand in his stead tonight:


Why do I title my article, THE SILK ROAD?


The Silk Road (from German: Seidenstraße) or Silk Route


 is a modern term referring to a historical network of interlinking trade routes


across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia


 with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa.


 Extending 4,000 miles, the Silk Road got its name from the lucrative Chinese silk trade along it, which began during the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD).


Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of the civilizations of China, India, Persia, Europe and Arabia.


Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, many other goods were traded, and various technologies, religions and philosophies,


as well as the bubonic plague (the "Black Death"), also traveled along the Silk Routes.


The path you take in the quest for your novel is the Silk Road for you.  It is both a short path and a long one:


from the head to the heart to the fingers.


But most writers run afoul of a roadblock from the head to the heart. 


Or if they traverse that perilous plain, they will find only staleness at the end of their fingers.


My advice for that?

Get it down.

 

Take chances.

It may be bad, but it is the only way you can do anything good. 




The Silk Road to your novel will demand bravery of you.

You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.  

It will lead you places you never expected to go, bringing you wisdom or the death of your dreams,


depending on the choices you make, the people with whom you converse.


We writers are a lonely group as Roland often points out. 

Dreams have only one owner at a time.

 

That's why dreamers are lonely.

We are drawn to those who understand the fire in our souls ... even though sometimes we deny that attraction.

In the '20's, two cities called out to yearning writers:

Paris and New Orleans.

I told myself I was going to New Orleans to get a job on a ship going to Europe.  I was lying to myself.  Why, we lie so much to ourselves, we could do it for a living.


I wanted to be with people with the same problems and interests as my own,


who would not laugh as I told of what I was trying to accomplish with my prose as so many of the Philistines did back then.


To succeed on the original Silk Road, you had to learn the languages of the nations along that route.


Your own Silk Road will demand you learn the languages of those of whom you write.


It helps if you like people, for you will listen beneath their words


to the aches and longings that they cannot or dare not bring into the light of conversation.


I spent a lot of time with my uncle. And every 4 years, he would have to barn-storm to get re-elected as judge.  I did not nor do I care about politics.  But I cared about the lined faces I saw in my uncle's audiences.


Theirs were not regional problems. A man from there had the same struggles as do we all:


the struggle against his own heart, against the hearts of his fellows


And the struggle to stay the course of the truths by which we must all live.

Truth.

That is a much mocked word in this modern world of greys.

"Oh," people say, "what makes something a truth for you does not work for me."

Really? 

Courage, honor, compassion, pity. 

Not for you?

We do not practice those to be good


but practicing them has allowed us not to pass away as with the Mastodon despite our fragility. 


One is honest, not to be good, but that is how we get along with one another, to know where we stand in regards to those around us. 


Without compassion, the weak would not endure to grow strong enough to stand on their own.

Love like truth is beyond reason. You don’t love because:

you love despite;

not for the virtues, but despite the faults. 

To get anywhere along your Silk Road of writing you need a compass. 

Here is the one I used:

Unless your characters are in trouble,

it is your novel that is in trouble.

 

And not just trouble alone.  The struggle to endure must rivet the reader. Why is a reader riveted?


Because he has grown to care about the protagonist due to some resonance that character strikes within the heart of the reader.


Not that the protagonist must be a saint, for who relates to perfection? 


Indeed, maybe the hero has no morality at all, only an integrity to stay true to what he believes to be facts of human behavior. 


But your hero will do what a man or woman will naturally do, not what man should do, but what he will do ... maybe what he can't help but do.


Labor to bring your page to life:

The aim of every writer is to arrest motion, which is life, by the artificial means of prose 

 

and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later,

 

when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life. 

As a writer, always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do.

Do not bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors.

Try to be better than yourself.

I do not expect you to remember what I say here, only to perhaps be hit like a tuning fork by something that spoke directly to you.   

Memory believes before knowing remembers. Believes longer than recollects,

longer than knowing even wonders. 

If you take nothing else from this lesson of mine, take this:

The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time to read reviews.  

HOW TO BE THE NEW J K ROWLING

 

Ghost of Samuel Clemens here --

 

So there I was making the ghost of Nikola Tesla chuckle as I used his static electricity gizmo

to make the hair of the sleeping Roland first stand on end and then ripple like a stormy sea.

 

Hey, we're his friends -- we get to amuse ourselves at his expense --

 

it's what friends do to  one another.

 

Nikola, "eavesdropping" on the boy's email --

 

What?  You think Nikola can't make passwords sit up and beg to be broken?

 

Anway, Nikola says,

"Samuel, perhaps Roland should go to this convention of which this email speaks?"

 

"I don't know, Nik.  Roland's not all that conventional."

 

"No, no, man.  It is a gathering of fellow authors learning how to be the next J K Rowling, that woman who is in all the headlines recently for wearing a man's name."

 

 

I raised an eyebrow, and he read from Roland's email:

 

"What do J.K. Rowling, Dan Brown and Lee Child all have in common? They all wrote bestselling novels that were then turned into feature films!
 

If you can visualize your book as a film or television series, then take advantage of this convention!"

 

 I frowned, "That pretty gal, JK, and those other authors going to be at that there convention?"

 

Nikola read further and sighed.
"No.  This announcement only lists speakers of whom I have never heard."

 

I snorted,
"Well, if they had the know-how as to how to write novels that would be made into fandangled 3D messes, you and I would have heard of them!"

 

Tiring of my little hair game with Roland, I sat down next to Nikola, lighting up a ghost cigar. 

"Tarnation, even that JK gal is clueless as to how she got struck by lightning."

 

Nikola straightened behind Roland's laptop.  "Really?"

 

"Yep."

 

I made a face. 
"That Rowling gal!  Why I read what she replied to a reporter asking her how a writer could get published today."

 

Nikola asked, "What did she say?"

 

"Her answer? Lord, if she didn't have such pretty legs, I'd strangle her!"

Nikola smiled wryly,
"Which means you cannot remember what she said."

"Oh, I remember what she said all right: "Why, they should write something that the publishers wish to publish."
I sputtered, "You think?!

That reporter might as well have asked a man hit by lightning how to predict the rain.

I was a reporter long before I was a writer, and a reporter learns:

Don't pay no mind to what they say, study on what they do.

So let's study on the 4 things that Rowling gal did write, ah, I mean right :

1.) Planning

This is by far the most underrated of the steps in the writing process. And in the final wash up it is absolutely the most important.

It was 1990 and Jo Rowling was on a train between Manchester and London.

 

Harry literally strolled fully formed into her mind while she was gazing out the train window at a field full of cows.

 

(I am too much a gentleman to use the line that occurs to me.)

She spent the next four hours (the train was delayed)
imagining Harry,
the world he inhabited,
the friends and enemies he had there
and the dangers and joys he might encounter there.

 

She had nothing to write on so had to be content to play this all out in her imagination.

 

By the time she got off the train in London, the central cast of characters were already cemented in her mind.

But did she go home and immediately begin scribbling a story with these characters?

No, she didn’t.

She spent five years,

yes that’s right FIVE YEARS

 

creating and developing every last detail of the wizarding world, including government and education systems,

 

how the wizarding world stood shoulder to shoulder with the muggle world,

 

and she devised a highly sophisticated system of magic that would eventually form the backbone of her own special brand of writing magic.

On top of this she sculpted out the entire story, planning the details and events of all the seven books, before she put pen to paper to begin writing the first.

Would you set sail on the seas without a compass?

 

Well, children, writing is as rough a sea as I've traversed!

JK Rowling planned the Harry Potter series for five years before she put pen to paper on the first book.

 

 She wrote the entire first book,

and felt as though she were “carving it out of this mass of notes”.

All the planning was worth it.

 

She was able to devote herself to the actual task of writing, knowing that all the story and character elements she needed were covered.

2.) Writing

When you are writing, you are just writing.

 

You are not planning, you are not editing.

 

You are writing.

 

Once you have planned your story,

it is time to sit down and write it.

She was able to devote herself to the actual task of writing, knowing that all the story and character elements

she needed were covered.

 

When you do that, children, the words just flow.

3.) Rewriting

Jo Rowling rewrote the opening chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

 

a total of 15 times.

Her mother died just 6 months after her first attempt at Chapter One of that book,

 

and that sent her into a frenzy of rewriting, essentially changing everything.

The Potter books are about death,

there is no doubt about that,

and they are driven particularly

by the death of Harry’s parents

and his miraculous survival.

When Jo Rowling experienced such a major turning point in her own life, she rewrote the story to reflect and process her own pain.

Ernest Hemingway keeps telling me that you only write to rewrite.

 

DH Lawrence even said that he wrote his entire first draft, threw it away and then started again from scratch.

4.) Editing

Editing is the process of refining and polishing your manuscript.

 

This part of the process may be done by you,

or by a professional editor.

 

It is often wise to have an editor look over your work

before submitting it for publication

as it is extremely difficult to get the distance you need

from your own work to see where it can be improved.


Writing a book is a process, never forget that, fellow dreamers.

 

 

 Each step in the process is unique but necessary.

 

Don’t mix 'em,

 

and certainly don’t attempt to skip any steps.

Do that at your own peril.

J K Rowling, bless her heart,

meant well with that reporter.

 

But before you attempt your next novel,

don't listen to the little lady.

Follow the four steps she took in her own writing process:

planning, writing, rewriting and editing,

and be sure you give each step its due.

Who knows? The lightning may strike you!
**
***
To read how Roland and I first met
get GHOST OF A CHANCE
(Only 99 cents!)
http://www.amazon.com/GHOST-OF-A-CHANCE-ebook/dp/B0097Z99YM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375455865&sr=8-1&keywords=ghost+of+a+chance+roland+yeomans

 

WHY LISTEN TO A BOOK?

WHY LISTEN TO A BOOK?

1.) Our Subconscious -

According to The Observer, ‘revenue for downloaded audiobooks has risen by 32.7% since last year,’ which clearly shows a sudden thirst for listening.

It seems people want to revert back to that old nostalgic tradition of reading aloud.

Remember those times at school sitting on the carpet listening intently to your teacher reading the latest exciting children’s novel?

It was a time to relax and drift into your own world, without the pressure of having to take everything in.

Doris Julian (age 70), a lady attending a storytelling session, remarked on how hearing the story read aloud “took me right back to being a child and being read to in the library”.

 Speech, of course, was the means by which stories were conveyed long before the written word came into play.   Hearing a novel told triggers deep unconscious pleasure from when we were very young.

2.) You can multitask when listening toan audiobook

Audiobooks can be seen as a saviour to the modern day multitasker.

We no longer have the time to relax for a few hours with a book, as that takes up valuable time. People often listen to an audiobook because it saves time and doesn’t put a halt to the daily routine.

Many people have talked about how audiobooks have helped them happily complete mindless tasks, as they can switch onto autopilot and let the story take them somewhere else.

3.)  They’re great to listen to on your commute

Now that Smartphones, tablets and MP3 players are the norm, we have a way of instantly accessing audio files.

Audiobooks also give people the chance listen to titles such as ‘The Art of Succeeding at Interviews’, or other motivational audiobooks whilst driving to an interview or an appointment, allowing extra preparation and making good use of the free time in the car.

4.) It increases the number of books you can read from your TBR list!

Audio books increases number of books kids, teens, and adults read. If you listened to two or more audio books a week, you’ll have at least 8 books read in a month. That's more than most people read in a year! Can you imagine?

5.) It can be a better way to read!

Audio books may be a better way to read books because of the reader's voices.

When I listen to audio books I comprehend it more when the narrator changes his or her inflections for the characters and doesn't just read but acts!

A voice can reveal so much more context than merely print. Sarcasm for instance.

Audio books also have the advantage of being read by professional narrators. The best narrators (also called actors) add something new to the book as they read it, making it even more enjoyable.

• Perhaps it’s the way they phrase Shakespeare’s old-English. For the first time you understand what the famous Bard was writing about.
• The Mystery is more mysterious, the thriller more thrilling, and the comedy is funnier because the voice and timing is just right.

6.) Our awareness of words increases -

When you listen to audio books you know how to pronounce every word in them because the reader says them first.

It's fun to compare American readers/books to British readers/books. (e.g. Ha-rass-ment vs Hara-ssment.)

7.) Your vocabulary broadens:

When you listen to audio books it helps with vocabulary. More words listened to in context, more words learned!

8.) Audiobooks are accessible -

 You can get them at the library, from Amazon, through Audible.

The growing choices in smart phones and mp3 players that are available to everyone,

the increasing wealth of digital download audiobook titles, and

 new intelligent book player software make finding and listening to an audiobook easier today than ever before.

9.) You can "read" in total darkness!

You can listen to audio books at night on your iPhone, tablet, ormp3 player without waking anybody else in the room!

Lights out? No problem! Not like with a print book where you'd have to turn on a lamp.

10.) Cut TV time in half:

Trust me it's worth it! Books become good friends.

ODD THOMAS , CHRIS SNOW, and HARRY DRESDEN have become good, reliable friends to share long drives with.  Who ever heard of a TV show becoming a best friend?

AFFORDABLE AUDIOBOOKS!

Only $6.08!

The deadliest enemy is within:

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Will-Tell/dp/B00E7UTGLS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375321661&sr=8-1&keywords=blood+will+tell+audiobook+roland+yeomans

All things change.

Not everything survives.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Last-Shaman/dp/B00DO91AIU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1375321816&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+shaman+audiobook+roland+yeomans