the underground press

A Life Changing Event - Leukemia

2012-01-24T18:36:00.000-08:00

Monday last we brought our son Joshua home from college. He was suffering flu-like symptoms and had a persistent nosebleed. We took him to our family doctor. He sent us to the local hospital after a blood test showing extremely high white cell and low platelet counts.

After a day full of tests Joshua was diagnosed on Tuesday evening with Acute T-cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia. He began chemotherapy on Wednesday and early Thursday morning his heart stopped, overwhelmed by the toxins created as the leukemia cells were destroyed by chemo. But the amazing doctors, nurses, and technicians in the intensive care unit brought him back.

It was the dramatic beginning of a very long week. Surprisingly, when the oncologist told us our son had leukemia I wasn't shocked. Somehow, in my heart I already knew - even before the blood test. The nose bleed was the give-away. The extent of his disease did surprise me. The cancer has invaded every part of his body: from brain, to spleen, to liver, to lymph nodes, to a mass in his chest.

I knew the diagnosis was a life changer. I knew nothing would ever be the same and our lives would be consumed in helping our son fight the disease. But when Joshua's heart stopped that morning my world crashed as well.

My son is twenty-one years old with three-and-a-half years of a 4.0 GPA toward a degree in philosophy. He is the most brilliant man I've ever met, and that isn't a father talking. His peers and professors agree. His first question when told the course of chemo was, "How will I go to class?" His oncologist informed him he would not be returning to school.

Joshua was devastated as much, I think, that he would not be graduating this semester as he was by the prospect of facing the impending battle with leukemia. My life is now focused like a laser on my son. Writing, publishing, and promoting my books seems trivial and honestly irrelevant.

My son, like many his age, has amassed a huge debt in college loans. Though helped by our insurance, Joshua faces the staggering cost of prolonged cancer treatment. He asked me in ICU how much all of this would cost. I told him it wouldn't cost a penny - just get well. But he knows better. We are a working class family. Joshua would have been the first person in my family to graduate college.

I am putting all the proceeds from sell of my books into a fund to pay for Joshua's treatment. I am also setting up a donation link on all of my websites that will go to that fund. Any donations beyond the cost of his treatment will go toward paying his student loans. He asked that anything beyond that go to leukemia research.

My son is facing his illness as he faces life - with strength, poise, and determination - though as his father I know he's scared. Twenty-one is a difficult age to face death - old enough to fully understand the possibility, but in many ways too young. I am proud and amazed by the man he has become.

If you would like to offer encouragement to Joshua you can post on his Facebook Wall. He is keeping up with his friends on his smart-phone and had me post updates while he was in ICU. He is currently continuing chemotherapy. If you can donate to help cover his treatment you can do so through PayPal - you don't need a PayPal account to donate. And as I said, all royalties from books purchased will also go into that account.

I obviously will not be spending much time on social media for awhile, but I truly appreciate all of my friends, fellow writers, and readers. Please leave me messages and I will respond when I can. Above all, we need your prayers.

We've witnessed a series of miracles already, from his acceptance to participate in a special clinical trial aimed at his particular cancer to a trauma doctor who was standing by when Joshua's heart stopped. That doctor immediately began CPR and continued until they lowered his potassium levels and got his heart beating again.

Joshua is determined to win this battle and return to school as soon as possible. As a family we are determined to stand with him in every way we can, and trust that God is there too - every step of the way.

Please stand with us.

New Marketing - Old Wisdom

2012-01-01T13:35:00.000-08:00

Maxwell Cynn -

Welcome to 2012 and the new publishing. Okay, it's not so new anymore. There's been Indie authors on the New York Times best seller list, eBooks have been added to most of the popular lists of best sellers, and getting to the top of Amazon's lists is the new Holy Grail for many authors. We are in the age of eBooks, print books are lagging in sales, and Indies are no longer considered less than legitimate (ie traditionally published) authors. But the landscape is still untamed territory and many are scrambling to map out the new normal of publishing.

But as the old song says, "everything old is new again." History tends to repeat itself and the new wave of ePublishing is little different than the rise of mass market paperbacks decades ago or, for that matter, the revolution started by the printing press centuries ago. Each quantum leap in publishing technology has made publishing books faster, cheaper, and easier. Today we have eBooks, POD books, and even vending machines that print books while you wait. It's a great time for authors - or is it? With each step forward in publishing technology we also see a decline in income for authors.

A flood of .99 cent, and even free, eBooks requires authors to sell more copies to make the same revenue enjoyed under traditional publishing models. The market has changed for printed books as well with printing costs driving up the price of books and down the author's royalties. An average paperback cost around $10.00 to produce, leaving little room for author royalties and publisher's profits. With eBooks selling for anywhere between .99 and 9.99 it's hard for print books to compete, and hard for publisher's and authors to make a profit. Average print book prices are around $12.99 - 19.99.

The way books are marketed and sold is also changing. Online sales of printed books have eclipsed physical store sales, and eBooks are outselling paperbacks. The game has changed and publishers are playing catch-up. But again, let's look at the present model and the historic model.

Traditional Publishing - late 20^th century publishing - is based on a few large publishing houses who dominate the industry by marketing books to large "Big Box" bookstores. They can advance sell so many copies of a popular author's book to the big chains that the books are instant "Best Sellers" before they ever hit the shelf. The stores then put up big displays and fill their advertising with the newest "Best Seller" and thus create a best selling book. Popular authors enjoy huge advances and any author lucky enough to break into "the big time" enjoys a good advance on almost guaranteed sales to the large chain stores.

After that initial stocking of the nationwide chain stores a book has about three months to live. If it sells well, there could be reorders. If it doesn't, returns flood back and that author is unlikely to ever publish another book. Each quarter a new line of books emerge. The whole scheme is based on mass marketing and one time flood of books. But that is a fairly new phenomenon created by the merging of the big publishing houses in New York and the advent of large chain bookstores. In days gone by a book would slowly build momentum through thousands of small bookstores, one or two copies at a time. A "Best Seller" might take months or even years to reach that level.

The new ePublishing and POD revolution is allowing authors to publish their works outside the traditional channels of New York. Yet without the big budgets of the New York publishing houses, and access to the big chain bookstores, their books don't receive the big initial surge of orders at release. The new publishing requires old wisdom for marketing. Small presses, Indie publishers, and Indie authors must rely on time tested forms of marketing and a slow, methodical growth in sales.

The internet helps, with social media and global reach, but even with the new tools an Indie cannot roll out a pre-order best seller like New York does. Indies simply do not have the sales and distribution channels available to the Six Sisters. Yet with the failing of the big box stores, the rise of online sales, and the advent of the eBook, the big boys are quickly losing that edge themselves. In my opinion the field will level soon and we will return to slow sustainable growth in sales for both Indies and established authors.

Of course the big publishers, with their big budgets, will continue to outspend Indies in advertising. But they will be forced to sell books one at a time through independent and online outlets. And the nature of social media allows for the viral phenomenon to catapult an author to the best seller list without spending the big bucks on ad campaigns. As is shown in many industries, the agility of small independents in adapting to emerging trends often trumps the money of the big corporate giants who react slowly to any change.

My advice to emerging authors, which at one time was conventional wisdom, is simple: Put away the idea of grabbing the brass ring with an instant best seller. Keep it in your hope chest, but don't measure your success by it. Stay realistic. Build your fan base and work toward slow, sustainable growth in sales. Keep writing and keep publishing. Every book you have in your catalog is a potential first sell to a new fan who may then read your other works. Publish free stories or low priced novellas to introduce new readers to your writing.

You may not be able to quit your day job anytime soon, perhaps never, but why are you writing? If you are writing to pay the bills I would suggest a journalism degree and a job with a newspaper or magazine. If you are a poet or novelist, you are probably writing for the love of writing itself and will continue whether you make money or not. Don't stress over rankings on Amazon or how many fans you have on Facebook. Write the best you possibly can and enjoy the friends, fans, and fellow writers you connect with along the way. For an artist it's all about the art, not the paycheck.

Lastly, encourage your fellow writers with a comment, a "like," or even a review of their work. There's an old saying, "to have a friend you must first be a friend." The best way to increase your social media presence, and thereby promote yourself and your work, is to support and encourage fellow writers in their work and to honestly and sincerely interact with your readers. In life, whether you make it to the best seller list or not, the relationships you build along the way are what make you truly rich and successful.

Keeping it Simple - Keeping it Real

2011-12-04T10:46:00.000-08:00

I haven't written a tech piece in awhile. I've recently been updating my website and trying to organize my social media presence. Yeah, as if. Didn't I just do this? I'm on more social media networks than I can count. I'm sure I'm on some I've forgotten I signed up for. I try to keep up with the big ones: Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, Google+, deviantArt.... This could take awhile.

Writers can spend so much time on their social media and promotion that they stop writing. I've seen it happen. It's happened to me. It's easy to become stretched thin in the age of social media, but with a little thought and planning I think an author can be available to readers, promote their books, and still have time to pen that next great novel or short story the fans are waiting for.

The first step is an anchor. If you don't want to get lost in the raging sea of social media you need to be tied to something. It can be your favorite spot - Twitter, Blog, Facebook - or your website, but you need a base and then you can tie it all together and optimize your time online. I've decided that my anchor is my website. That's where I'm building my platform and connecting the web of tether lines.

As I said, it can be anything, but you need a hub - a base of operations, a headquarters, or an "evil lair" (voice of Dr. Evil). I spend most of my social time online on Twitter. I link my twitter feed everywhere. Next would be my blog where I review great books and write stuff like this. But I want to be wherever readers look for me. So I need to tie it all together. Twitter doesn't let me list all of my social media connections in my short profile. I could use the blog but...

My strategy is simple - I create a hub website with links to everything. I cross link what I can (twitter feed and blog to facebook for example) and post my main page url everywhere I can. Visitors come to my webpage and find links and info for all of my books, links to all of my networks so they can friend/like/follow me if they want. I even have my twitter feed running on the sidebar. But I'm not trying to pull it all onto one page, that would take days to load.

One problem in the age of widgets and apps is how easy it is to add content to a webpage or blog or social profile. Just copy and paste or in some cases point and click. You can have all of this cool stuff for your visitors to interact with. Problem - data rates and load time. If you fill your page with gorgeous graphics, cute animations, and awesome widgets your page takes forever to load and eats up data on small devices like phones. Your visitor just left before the page loaded.

I'm old school, like back in the day when everything was text and we still used DOS and batch files on our desktops and social networks were IRC. Do you remember Dial-up? I couldn't believe how fast my first 56k modem loaded pages. One thing mobile devices have done is turn back the clock. That awesome page that loads in a few seconds on your Alien Ware game computer just lost another visitor logging in from Droid. If you really need all those graphics and widgets you should at least set up a page for mobile users.

I've decided to keep it simple. Who needs flashing text and revolving graphics? What users want is information, not multi-media entertainment. If they wanted to rent a movie why are they looking at your books? The audience we are after are people who actually READ. I know, not many of us left. But we are readers and writers and text is our stock and trade. If you need all of those bells and whistles on your webpage how are you going to keep someone interested in your book?

It's not hard to optimize a page for small devices while continuing to be appealing on larger screens. Again, I don't need the cute little mouse pointer that sprinkles snow across the page when I move it around. That is so last century. And that music or video that auto-loads is annoying. If I want to watch your awesome book trailer I will click on it (don't get me started on book trailers - but yes I made one for The Collective). But maybe I don't want it loading on my Droid right now. Okay? I'll watch it later. I want to load your book into my Kindle App.

Text based web design is coming back. It may go all graphic and widgety when phones are more powerful than Big Blue in a few years, but for now simple is good. So my "hub" will have a lot of text links users can click on - easy to tab through and quick load times. I also have dynamic load items that visitors can click to load additional content without loading a new page - small data cost. I'm leveraging xhtml and xml and server side controls to keep it fast and simple. The new website will go live with the release of .45 Caliber Jitterbug before Christmas.

Thanksgiving : #GivingThanks to Readers

2011-11-20T05:53:00.000-08:00

The underground press is #GivingThanks to readers this Holiday Season by pricing all of our eBooks at .99 cent until the end on November. Grab a copy of Maxwell Cynn's latest political thriller THE COLLECTIVE now for only .99 cent. It's available in all eReader formats on Smashwords. And while you're there pick up CybrGrrl for the hottest Erotic Science Fiction available. eBooks make great gifts and you don't need an eReader to read them. You can read on your computer, smart phone, and a huge variety of electronic devises.

Give the gift of literature this Holiday Season!

New Release: Maxwell Cynn - THE COLLECTIVE on Kindle

2011-10-21T19:44:00.000-07:00

News Release 10/22/11 underground press publishing

THE COLLECTIVE now available at the Amazon Kindle Store

The Collective by Maxwell Cynn, already #1 Best Seller in the mystery-detective-general category on Smashwords.com, debuts on Kindle 10/22/11. This Psychological Techno-Thriller hit #1 on Smashwords within 24 hours of release.

Here's what some have said about THE COLLECTIVE:

"...technical and intellectual battle that had me anxiously holding on to my Kindle a little too tightly at times... fast paced, intriguing, scary and totally unique."
Ann Mauren: author of Mayne Attraction - In the Spotlight

"Finished the Collective! Great! I was on the side of the bad guys at one point...sneaky."
Denise Main: author of A Cold Day in Hell and Wolf

"The entire time I'm reading I keep thinking, this could really be happening!"
Casey Sheridan: author of Ruby Red Metallic

Visit the Kindle store now to Buy, Like, Read, and Review THE COLLECTIVE

Book Release Events - The Collective

2011-10-15T05:09:00.000-07:00

October 17th starts the Blog Tour de Force: Masquerade. 12 authors, 12 blogs, 12 books, and 6 days of mystery. One of the mystery authors will be posting on my blog. It's up to you to guess which one. I'll be giving away advance copies of THE COLLECTIVE, background wallpapers based on the novel, and if you are really naughty I might send you a FREE copy of CybrGrrl. Don't miss it!

While my blog is taken over by an unnamed author, I'll be interviewed by Amilia James on her blog Trashy Treasures. And at some point during the week I will be the mystery poster on one of the other blogs in the Masquerade Tour. So come find me, if you can.

October 20th while you are out searching blogs and trying to unmask authors in the Masquerade stop by Trashy Treasures again for my Halloween short story Virtual Touch. It is sure to get you in the mood for a little social networking.

October 21st The day before release of THE COLLECTIVE you can hear me live on Shark Radio and The Eclectic Artist's Cave with Joann Buchanan. We'll be talking about the book and who knows what else. I tend to ramble.

October 22nd: I turn 50 and THE COLLECTIVE releases on the sweet new family of Kindles. But you don't need a Kindle to read eBooks. It will also be available on Nook, and every other eReader you can imagine. I read Kindle titles on my cell phone with the nice little FREE Kindle app. So go buy my book, and enjoy.

October 24th I'll be guest posting on Rachel in the OC. Yes, we're gonna talk about some #mancode, baby. After 50 years I've got this whole #chickspeak thing figured out. Come by and see what I have to say on the Queen of Snark's page.

October 25th Rachel will get me back by posting secrets about me on her twitter stream under the hashtag #TellItTuesday. I will also be back on Shark Radio, but this time with the lovely Tami Snow hosting Lyrical Lip Service Live. We're going to talk conspiracy, mind control, and maybe BDSM--who knows. Tune in and listen.

October 26th I'll be guest posting on Eden Baylee's blog talking about the psychology behind THE COLLECTIVE and what was in my mind when I wrote it. Eden interviewed me awhile back and I'm sure there'll be a link to that as well. There will also be all kinds of links here on my blog to book-bloggers who are reviewing my book the week after release.

November 2nd Since it wouldn't all fit into one month, I'll be guest posting on Carrie Ann Ryan's blog to end up the month of Something Wicked.

But that's just the highlights of the scheduled activities. There will something going on my blog, on twitter, and across the social network every day of the month. So stay connected.

xoxox

max

Trailer for The Collective - Buy it October 22nd

2011-10-15T05:08:00.000-07:00

New Release: Maxwell Cynn - THE COLLECTIVE

2011-10-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

October will be an exciting month for underground press publishing as we roll out the latest novel by author Maxwell Cynn - THE COLLECTIVE - October 22, 2011

Imagine... You have a virus on your computer. It's tracking everything you do and sending that information to the Collective. It can't be detected by any virus scan or blocked by any firewall. If you have a microphone, they are listening. If you have a webcam, they are watching you. But they aren't just watching. Flashes of light from your monitor are communicating with your subconscious. You are being brainwashed.

Dr. John Peterson discovers the Nemesis virus and embarks on a mind altering search for the origins of the infection driving his patients mad. He discovers the Collective, and they discover him. A battle rages between the Nemesis virus and the ArchAngel network with the fate of mankind in the balance. Will man succumb to Nemesis and become drones of the Collective or rise as billions of individual archangels to light the world with freedom? One man, one woman, and a network of hackers hold the key.

We are kicking off a blog tour in mid October leading up to release. Maxwell Cynn will guest post on multiple blogs, give interviews throughout October, and appear live on internet radio broadcasts. After release, early reviews are scheduled to post on a number of popular book blogs. Follow @MaxwellCynn on twitter and visit his blog at http://maxwellcynn.blogspot.com for schedules, extras, giveaways, contests, and more.

Early Comments on THE COLLECTIVE:

"...technical and intellectual battle that had me anxiously holding on to my Kindle a little too tightly at times... fast paced, intriguing, scary and totally unique."
Ann Mauren: author of Mayne Attraction - In the Spotlight

"Finished the Collective! Great! I was on the side of the bad guys at one point...sneaky."
Denise Main: author of A Cold Day in Hell and Wolf

Simple self-publishing services for authors

2011-04-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

If you are investigating your publishing options, and thinking about taking the plunge into self-publishing, Underground Press Publishing can help. We offer custom designed solutions based on individual authors. You could use one of the big services, pay a set fee for a standard package, and have your manuscript printed and/or ePubbed. But you will likely pay for services you don't want or need, and the service may or may not be satisfactory.

Your manuscript is important. You have poured your soul onto the page, and we understand that. Why release your work to a service whose main interest is in collecting fees? Underground Press Publishing is interested in your book as a work of literary art. As much care should be spent on designing and formatting your book, designing the cover, editing the text, and promoting your work, as you have invested in writing. We can help.

Underground Press Publishing offers services you need, when you need them, without bloated standard packages. You decide what you need and what you want to pay for. We can help with copy editing your text, designing your book-block for print, cover design, web-design, social media presence, and coding your eBook for the various distributors. But above all, you are in charge of your literary masterpiece. Whether you need a brief consultation on your options as you venture into self-publishing, a complete cover-to-cover book and author package, or anything in-between, we are there for you and your book.

Send us an email and tell us what we can do for you. No queries, no run-around, no hidden fees - what you need, when you need it.

Email Us Now

eBook eXplosion - the new publishing

2011-04-10T05:51:00.000-07:00

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We've been around since the 90's, so we've seen a lot of changes and a lot of trends rise and fall. When we first started, the World Wide Web was much smaller - dare I say intimate. Back then web pages were text files, with very little graphics, and games (text based) were played over telnet. Social networks were Internet Relay Chat, bulletin boards, and newsgroups. It was a simpler time.

Today everyone is plugged in, connected with multiple social networks via their computers, eReaders, and cell phones. There is talk of digital overload, digital saturation, social addiction. The internet has become a crucial and defining aspect of our daily lives. A generation has grown and matured with Google, Wikipedia, and Amazon at their fingertips.

The underground press began, back in the day, building web pages in simple HTML code and dreaming of new ways to connect and communicate via the web. We continue. The rise in eBooks have freed authors from the chains of traditional publishing and given them a direct connection with their readers. Indie authors publish directly to their readers on Smashwords, Kindle, Nook, and a host of outlets.

Underground Press Publishing is here to help in that revolution. We provide advice, consulting, and solutions for writers and artists who wish to connect directly with their fans. Underground Press Publishing has actively coded websites for over ten years, and now provides social network management, eBook coding, website enhancement, custom apps, and whatever that next trend happens to be.

If you are an author, aspiring writer, or artist, contact us and find out how we can help. We are a full service Indie publisher offering eBook design and coding, print book design, freelance editing, web design and site building, network image optimization, social and market management, SEO site content, anything an author or artist might need. We are not a traditional "query us and we might respond" publisher, we are a "tell us what we can do for you" publisher.

You may ask, "why not use one of the many ePublishing services available?" You can, and some of them are good at what they do, others, not so much, but most are staffed by old-school business pros who see writers and artists as a way to make THEM money. I'm a writer, a coder, an Indie author myself. I envision your publishing experience as YOUR way to connect with YOUR audience. Hopefully we will both make a little money along the way.

Contact us and let me know what Underground Press Publishing can do for you.

A Brave New World for Writers, Readers, and Publishers

2011-03-04T03:31:00.000-08:00

The publishing industry today is divided between a handful of mega-houses in New York, with hundreds of imprints, and the thousands of independent and small regional publishers scattered around the country. Though the huge conglomerates which control publishing in the US have tried to put a strangle hold on the industry, advances in digital publishing technology have fueled an increase in small presses.

Publishing, the actual printing and binding of books, is an expensive proposition. Add to that the costs of marketing and distribution, and it is plain to see why the big houses have prospered and small independents have struggled. Once it was necessary to have the backing of a large publishing house in order to reach a wide mainstream audience as nationwide bookstores stocked their shelves with books purchased exclusively from the big publishers.

Because of their growing power through corporate consolidation, and a firm hold on the biggest markets, publishers were able to demand more, and give less, to their authors. Agents, meant to represent the interests of authors, are inevitably beholding to the big publishing houses to whom they must sell. They have become more a filter between author and publisher, sifting through the great sea of writers to pluck out those the big publishers desire. This has brought them closer to the big publishers, who pay their wages, than the writers for whom they advocate.

But the rise of internet marketing, ePublishing, and POD services have altered the field of play. Authors can now upload their work to Kindle, Nook, and a variety of eReaders, for little or no cost and reach millions of potential readers. With the convenience of POD services, small Indie publishers no longer need to stock large quantities of books. And with sales online growing, and sales at the local mall failing, those books can be promoted and distributed via the internet with no real inventory.

While Borders struggles through bankruptcy, sites like Amazon.com report record sales. One recent poll shows sales of printed books from online outlets have surpassed those bought from traditional store shelves. The countries biggest bookseller, Barnes & Noble, has not only embraced the eStore, they recently announced a major campaign to promote independent publishers and self-published Nook authors with physical in-store events.

Even with the growing opportunities today the big publishers demand more from authors and their agents while offering lower advances and smaller royalties. They are putting less money into marketing, leaving more of the promotional burden on authors, while demanding more control of the author's rights at signing. Yet if an author is to be a major force of marketing for their book, and they can receive up to 70% royalties from eBook sales, why do they need the big publisher?

Traditionally, publishers offered something the author couldn't. Their work was professionally edited, marketed, and the publisher printed, promoted, and distributed the final work. Today the work needs to be virtually print ready just to attract an agent. Authors are paying freelance editors to polish their manuscripts, spending hours online promoting their work, and having video "book trailers" produced. They could easily take the next step and self-publish.

There was once a stigma to self-publishing, created and propagated by the big publishing industry and indirectly supported by agents. Yet today there are self-published, and Indie-published books hitting the best seller lists without New York publishers or even agents involved. The Indie movement is shaking the foundation of big publishing, and empowering authors as never before. Yet it is not only authors who benefit. Readers are being given more options on how they access literature, and more diverse material to enjoy.

Underground Press Publishing is a small independent publisher riding the curve of innovation. Our first experiments in ePublishing, over ten years ago, were web journals before the age of blogs or web 2.0 apps. UPP was an early adopter of eBooks, nearly a decade ago, with MobiPocket and later Kindle. We are now embracing Nook and venturing into print with Lightning Source, an innovator in POD.

Underground Press Publishing doesn't aspire to be a big publisher, our mission is helping authors find their way in the new world of publishing. Some still reach for the brass ring of New York publishing, and some are ready to be their own publisher, but all authors today are required to take a much larger role in publishing their work than simply writing it. We are always happy to answer your questions. Drop us a note or leave a comment on our blog.

10th Anniversary Sale on eBooks

2011-02-20T05:20:00.000-08:00

The Underground Press is celebrating 10 years of online publishing by slashing the price of our eBooks, available on MobiPocket and Amazon Kindle. Our most popular title, CybrGrrl, is now 50% off its regular price, and our debut title, the best selling eBook ArchAngelxx, is available for only .99 cent. Download an eBook today, and see what the buzz is all about. New titles coming soon!

How to write a simple and powerful query

2011-01-27T17:47:00.000-08:00

In my last post I mentioned creating a powerful pitch/query/synopsis for your novel. You can read that post, or not. I also wrote a post awhile back on short story writing for novelists, you should read that. But we are here to talk pitches and queries.

Most novelists cringe at the thought of crushing their manuscript into a single page or even a four or five page synopsis. I feel your fear. But it isn't that hard. All literature comes down to plot. Your novel has one, or should. Some writers spend a lot of time on plot, others let the story write itself, but either way you know your plot.

But plot isn't as complex as you think. All romance novels can be reduced to boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. You can play with the genders involved, even make one a space alien, but the plot stands. Simple, one line plot. All genre fiction have basic plots. You may have sub-plots, dead ends, red herrings, but those aren't your true, basic plot.

Look at Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. This novel was originally five books in one huge volume. The American publisher divided it into a trilogy because it was too long to market. How about its one line plot? Unlikely hero overcomes insurmountable difficulties and saves the world. Less than ten words. And that is the plot of most adventure novels. Simple, succinct.

So we have our plot, now to query our epic we first tell a little about Frodo and why he is an unlikely hero. Next we elaborate on those insurmountable difficulties. Last we give the resolution. We don't need to get into Boromir's betrayal, or the unlikely friendship between Gimli and Legolas. We are tempted to drag in the entire Silmarillion as backstory, but this is a pitch. Short and sweet.

If we keep the pitch succinct then we'll have room to explain any pertinent themes we develop or issues we address that give our story market appeal; love, honor, loyalty, diversity, strong female characters; just pick a few. Then we still have room for the author's awesomeness. So here's a sample.

Frodo Baggins is a hobbit, and adventure to a hobbit is cutting through the wood on the way to a friend's house for tea. But dark and powerful magic is rising and Frodo holds the one object that can destroy it. He is soon embroiled in world changing affairs and dangers beyond his imagination. With the help of friends he passes through terrors which would overcome the bravest of men and succeeds where others would fail.

Lord of the Rings is an epic tale filled with mythical monsters, legendary heroes, and powerful men and women engaged in a battle against ultimate evil. Loyalties and honor are tested as some rise to become heroes and others fall to greed and a thirst for power. Friendships are forged, kingdoms rise and fall, and with the destruction of evil a new king ascends the thrown.

J.R.R. Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University from 1925 to 1945 and Merton Professor of English Language and Literature there from 1945 to 1959 and has researched and written extensively on literature and mythology.

There, three paragraphs, and it gives the necessary detail for an agent to want more. The agent will read through the long "party" scenes knowing epic adventure will ensue soon enough. We don't need to move Bilbo's disappearance or the first terrifying appearance of a Ring Wraith to page one as an attention grabber (which I ranted about in my last post). The agent knows she is reading epic literature.

Now, look at your manuscript, find the basic plot which you should be able to state in one sentence, then craft your query. Lead with the hero, or protag, and why they are in this plot line. Then expand a little on plot and themes. Next wow them with your credits or why you wrote this. If you are unpublished you still have an anecdote that led you to write this novel; not why you write, why you wrote this novel.

Now you're done. Edit, edit, edit, and get someone else to read it. Edit and revise some more. The example above is a first draft, it could be polished. Polish you're query until it jumps off the page. This one page is your chance to be published. It should make anyone who reads it want to read your manuscript. That, after all, is the point.

Your synopsis, if the agent wants one, will allow you to offer more; to expand the themes you mention in the query. Tell the story, but stick with the hero/protag. That's who we fall in love with, or who piques our interest. When we read, characters spice the narrative just like setting and mood, but the main character is why we care. I may love Eowyn, but I read LotR because of Frodo.

Okay, you are prepared to impress. Sit down, write a query, and get your manuscript ready for the agent or publisher who will fall in love with your protag. She's out there, waiting for your story. Don't disappoint her. Keep it short, sweet, and succinct. Stay on task and forget the cliché gimmicks.

Good luck,
max

*Please leave your comments. Was this helpful? Have a question? I'd be happy to answer or direct you to someone who can. You can also share this article on your favorite network with the buttons below.

Writers, be true to your story

2011-01-24T18:02:00.000-08:00

I was preparing my submission for this year's ABNA contest and realized that the excerpt they requested, the first 3000-5000 words, barely reached the first action scene in my novel. If an agent, and this is most agents, want only the first few pages or even the first chapter, they would never make it to the action. So what's a writer to do?

Once upon a time there were great books that started like, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." These days that would get a quick rejection. And J.R.R. Tolkien, a true master storyteller, prattled on forever about Hobbits and their quirkiness before anything actually happened in the story. It was great literature, grand storytelling.

In the world of the blurb, the sound bite, and the movie tie in, that is so last century. Today we start with, "The bullet ripped through flesh like peeling the skin off a rotten tomato." Let's get right into the action. We can find out who has the gun and who is getting shot later. Give us visual, grab us and don't let go. We want to see the story, now.... Get a movie ticket.

Books aren't movies. Even movies made from books are never as good as the books and I've even read books, written after the movie, that were better than the movie. Literature is to be read, savored, imagined, not viewed. If you want to sit back and watch, rent a vid. But I digress in my chosen rant...

It is simple marketing, which is the business of agents and publishers by the way, to sell books. Books sell by cover, blurb, and first page. It's simple, really. Think about being at the book store. You see a book - the cover art - you pick it up and check the back - the blurb and review bites - you open it up and start reading. If you turn to page two you will probably buy the book. You might even buy it without ever opening it, if the cover and blurb are good enough.

At that point the publisher has made a sale, and the agent has made a commission. But to the author what happens next is the most important. Does the reader actually like the book they bought? Do they give it, or recommend it to friends? Do they look for other books by the author? Or do the throw it on a shelf unfinished and forgotten. The business side doesn't care. Sale made, profit made, done deal.

You might think that it would matter. An unsatisfied customer and all that. But the reader doesn't shy away from the publisher's next book, they stay away from the author. They will eagerly buy the publisher's next over-hyped stack of pulp, but they will remember they didn't like "that author." So why should the business side care about great literature? It doesn't make any more money than hype-literature.

Back to my original question, what's a writer to do? Many today grab a scene from the story, doesn't really matter where, beginning-middle-end, doesn't even matter if it's all that relevant to the overall story, as long as it will grab readers. Put it right up front, get the agent, get the sale, then start the actual story in chapter two. I know you've read those books. Hell, Twilight started at the end, with a little prolog, and jumped back to the beginning.

So what am I to do with my novel, ruin the flow of the story by throwing in some dramatic scene from halfway through the book? It would be like the Hobbit starting with Smog, then Bilbo thinking back on how he got there, or A Christmas Carol starting with the Ghost of Christmas-yet-to-come and the grave scene. But to get an agent or publisher, who will only look at a few pages, that's the literature we end up with.

So, again I ask, what is a writer to do? My present course of action, short of selling out my art, is very simple. Knock their socks off with the query and synopsis. Make your overall story jump off the page and bitch-slap 'em before they even read page one. If the cover and blurb carry enough punch that readers will buy without opening a book. If the query/synopsis is good enough the agent/publisher should (notice I said should. This is an untested theory) read the manuscript to see how you worked it all out and if the prose matches the hype.

So my advice, and I'm following it until it proves worthwhile or worthless, is to stick to your story. No bait and switch with a little action scene stuck in on page one that should be on page ninety-five. Be true to yourself and your story, then learn to kick ass with your query/synopsis. I know, novelist HATE writing queries, and dread a synopsis. Tell you what, in my next post I'll talk about writing short and succinct blurbs and queries. You can hit hard with just a few lines.

See you then,

max

Social Networking: overload for writers

2011-01-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

I sat down the other day and made a list of my online presence. o.0

I'm on facebook, Myspace, Steampunk Empire, deviantArt, Goodreads, Helium, and Twitter. I contribute to four blogs, post flash fiction and poetry to dA, write articles on Helium, do book reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and my own blog. I also have a website and manage two more. I'm doing a huge amount of writing before I even get started on short stories or my WIP.

Then of course there is the infamous time sink of the social networks themselves. Tweeting, status updates, commenting, random banter, reading other peoples' posts, journals, blogs, etc. and commenting on them... I spend hours just catching up every day. That's hours I'm not writing, editing, submitting, and promoting my own work. So, is it worth it?

There are many benefits to the online world of social networking. Top of the list, of course, is the cliché of writers as hermits. The process of writing is an individual effort. It's not something that can really be shared with anyone, as most of it happens inside the writer. The product is shared, but then the writing is complete. Writing is a lonely, individual effort.

Social networks, shared over the writer's main tool (their computer) give writers a link to the outside world, even while writing. I can be working on a short story or novel and have twitter up at the same time, or facebook, or a chat program. I am connected to other writers who are working on their stories. The trouble comes when the interaction becomes a distraction and nothing gets done. It is much like going to the library to study, and all your friends are there, so no studying gets done.

Writing is hard work. It requires a strong imagination and focus. It is much easier, and seductively simple these days, to banter with friends about writing rather than actually write. One minute you are being productive and the next you get sucked into the time sink of social networking. On the flip side, however, there is that moment that you are stuck for a word, a turn of a phrase, and your writer friends are there to save you. So it is not the available media, but the discipline of the writer that is at the heart of the issue.

Social networks are a boon to writers in so many ways; from the simple interaction with fellow writers, to meeting agents, editors, and publishers, to interacting with readers. The days of Hemingway hiding out in a cottage writing a novel are in the past. It is all about connections and social media these days. But we must have the discipline to manage our time and our networks.

I've looked over what I do, and what I want to do online and tried to bring some order to the chaos. I want to blog more, I want to write more reviews, and I want to spend time with my friends and make more connections. The first thing I did was delete Myspace - I don't need Myspace and facebook. I knew the process would take some cutting back in order to focus on what is more important.

Next is using the available tools to get more from each post - mirroring my blog posts on several networks, doing the same with reviews I write. I looked at my various networks with an eye to diversity and use. That's why Myspace got the axe, too much like facebook. But deviantArt is completely different, so it complements, as does Goodreads. I rarely visit Steampunk Empire, but it's a niche network and worth keeping. Helium is on the fence. I haven't decided if it is worth the time and effort that could go to other things.

As you see, I have begun to organize and prioritize. That is the first step in getting control of the social network monster and freeing more time to do what we do - Write. Blogs and reviews are writing, so they go to the top of the list. Then writing I do for other outlets, dA for instance, and Helium if I decide to keep it. That puts writing first, and all of that feeds to facebook and twitter with a click of a button.

In the end, it all comes down to discipline, organization, and focus. Decide what you want from your social network then use it to the best advantage. Just remember to save some time for the real priority - Writing. After all, that's what writers do.

* this post was written for "the underground press" blog, mirrored on my literary blog which mirrors on my facebook and Goodreads profiles. I will also tweet the link. ;-)

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Writing Short: A novelist's guide to short fiction

2010-12-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

Many novelists find it hard to write short stories, just as many short story writers cannot imagine writing an 80k story. But writing is writing and one form can actually improve the other. Many of the greatest names in literature wrote short stories; H.G. Wells, Edgar Allen Poe, Samuel Clemons, Earnest Hemingway, and more recently Stephen King. As we all know, Hemingway also wrote non-fiction as a journalist. He would say that a writer should be able to write anything well. And King, known for his very long novels, started out writing short fiction for magazines.

You may ask, why write short? Valid question. There are a host of benefits to writing short fiction and even trying your hand at journalism. First and foremost it will improve your writing. I'll get into that as we proceed. Second, and equally important, the short story market is much more open to aspiring writers and your chances of being published are much better. That gets your name, and your voice, out where readers, agents, and publishers can discover it. First let's look at how your writing will improve when you slim it down to 5k words.

The same rules that apply to long fiction apply to short fiction. But to get into that limited word count the writer must be more selective and succinct with their prose. You can't, obviously, write a two page description of your character's new dress, and you can't pick War and Peace as your plot. Writing short is a practice in precision and getting the most kick out of every word. Let's start with plot.

Like any story, you need a beginning, a middle, and an end. Writing 101, right. But many would-be writers tend to cut one out to get under the word count. They will start right in the middle, wrap it up in one sentence at the end, or rip out the all-important middle. But a short story still has to be a complete story. The protag should also show some progression through the story, the events should have some effect on the characters. If the events mean nothing to the characters why would they have meaning to the reader?

Keep the plot simple and straight forward. You can't slip in side plots and peripheral intrigue like you can in a novel. Stay on point. Novelist's often have trouble writing a good synopsis of their work, writing short will improve that skill tremendously. Find the core of the story you want to tell, then stay focused. Think beginning, middle, end. Where does the character start, what happens, what is the effect? Even the epic “Lord of the Rings” can be summarized as: Young hobbit is thrown into a difficult situation, is whisked away into world changing events, but finds the inner strength to rise beyond what he and others thought were insurmountable odds to complete his task.

I recently wrote a short, short story for a contest; 1500 words or less. Very short for me. My short stories generally run 5-8k words. My guide was the words of Hemingway. “I've seen the marlin mate and know about that. So I leave that out. I've seen a school of over fifty sperm whales in the same stretch of water and once harpooned one over nearly sixty feet in length and lost him. So I left that out. All the stories I know from the fishing village I leave out. But the knowledge is what makes the underwater part of the iceberg.” (from George Plimpton, “An Interview with Earnest Hemingway”)

What we leave out is provided by the reader. Readers are very imaginative, short story readers even more so. When they read a well written story they see every detail, feel every emotion, hear every sound. The writer doesn't need to explain it all. In “Death in the Afternoon” Hemingway tells us, “If a writer of prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them.” but... “A writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.”

A short story can be rich and poignant, just look at some of the great short stories in classic literature. The writer knows the grand, epic tale which surrounds the short story and the reader senses it in every line. In short fiction much is left to the very adequate imagination of the reader. Unlike modern novels, filled with elaborate descriptions and convoluted side plots, short fiction drafts the reader into an active role of filling in the blanks. In my recent story, published in Fissure Magazine, I could simply say a Victorian character wore a waistcoat. The reader knows what Victorian men's fashion looked like. It required no description.

Likewise I described the heroine in my recent ultra-short story, not in a long-winded paragraph, but by simple key phrases slipped into the story line: “Her long gown flowed weightlessly as she moved through the jovial crowd and across the dance floor, her corset showing no sign of respiration, her eyes showing no hint of emotion behind the brightly feathered mask she wore.” The reader can picture a woman in an elegant Victorian gown entering the room, and a host of other character information is given in a very short scene. The reader is left to imagine an elaborate Victorian masked ball and the heroine briskly passing through the crowd.

Beyond training the writer to be more succinct and purposeful in there prose, writing short teaches us to be vicious editors. In the 1500 word short, I originally wrote over 2500 words. I edited entire paragraphs from the text. That would be equivalent to trimming a 100k manuscript down to 60k, deleting entire chapters. But I kept asking myself, as Hemingway demands, “does the reader already know this? Do they need to know? Can they guess?”

Yet, what is left in the end must be a complete story; beginning, middle, and end. I was a little worried I had gone too far, so I sent it off to a couple of authors I respect for a quick read. One told me I had hurried the ending, leaving it flat. A quick rewrite of the ending solved the problem. I can't say it enough, don't forget to keep the story a complete story. Beginning, middle, end, and the characters progress in some way. Leave your readers wanting another story, not wanting more from that story. It's a thin line, but it will make your prose stronger and your editing more focused.

As I alluded to earlier, the market for short fiction is growing even as the novel market shrinks. It is pure economics. Editors are more willing to risk one short story in a magazine from an unknown writer than risk rolling out a complete novel. Publishing short stories in magazines and anthologies gives readers a taste of your writing, helps you get comfortable working with editors and meeting deadlines, makes your writing stronger and more professional, and the credits look good on your queries. So give it a try. It's also a great distraction between novels, and keeps your creative juices flowing.

Keep writing,

max

Upstate Steampunk Extravaganza

2010-11-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

Author Maxwell Cynn will be apearing at the Upstate Steampunk Extravaganza Saturday, November 20. He will be there to promote the latest issue of Fissure Magazine and his short story "Rodger's Curious Holiday." Max will sit on a writers panel organized by Fissure Magazine.

Maxwell Cynn in Fissure Magazine

2010-11-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

Fissure Magazine, published by Shadow Archer Press, has a special Steampunk edition this month which will be released at the Upstate Steampunk Extravaganza in Greenville, SC. (November 20th, 2010). My short story, "Rodger's Curious Holiday," will be included, along with fiction by Tom Brennan, Kimberley Collier, Matthew Delman, Gillian Daniels, K.G. McAbee, Shane McElveen, Brian K. Ladd, Gypsey Teague, William Wood and poetry by George Anderson, Jack Frey, Paul Handley, Kim Keith, David S. Pointer, and Charles F. Thielman. I will also be taking part in a writer's panel at the convention. The Extravaganza begins on Friday night (11/19/10) and ends with the Steampunk Ball Saturday night (11/20/10). A host of musical guests will play at the ball.

max

Code Kitty can has cheezburger

2010-06-05T17:03:00.000-07:00

Work on the new website for underground press publishing is going well. We had Code Kitty up on the front page for awhile as a placeholder for this blog's RSS feed, but it is up and running now. Visitors can now view the blog feed from the main page. Thanks Code Kitty.

While we were at it we added Maxwell Cynn's twitter feed to his website. The twitter feed was a snap. You can pick the widget up on twitter.com. But using the tools in Visual Web Developer to process the RSS feed from blogger.com and add it to the asp.net page was just as easy.

We added an XmlDataSource control from the tools menu, configured the data file entry to the RSS feed for the blog, then added a DataList control to display the content. We added two Labels in the item template of the DataList control and configured their data binding to the items we wanted by setting the custom binding of their text fields to xpath(“item/title”) and xpath(“item/description”) respectfully.

The only formatting we did was to make the title text bold using the control's property menu and added some spacing between the labels. We are trying to keep styling to a minimum while we build, then add it later in a global Style Sheet, which is good W3C practice. It also keeps a styles consistent and makes updating multiple pages much simpler.

The bare bones of undergroundpresspublishing.com is complete, so we will be working on styling and tracking down any bad links or other debugging now that it is active on the remote server. There is always something that works fine on the test server then breaks on the remote server. Styling often takes longer than coding a site and even when it's done there are constant changes and updates.

Next time I'll focus on style issues as we build our global Style Sheet.

Writing the Web -- Publishing the Cloud

2010-05-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

These days everyone has, or is thinking about getting, a website. Our footprint in cyberspace is becoming as important as our presence in the physical world. It has become a normal, even expected, part of who we are: your phone number, your address, your URL. It's how we connect, how we communicate, how we express ourselves to the world.

Today businesses set up a web presence as a matter or routine, like getting business cards and letterhead. Writers and publishers are no different. Publishing is, after all, a business. Authors get their business cards, their promotional bookmarks, their fliers, and their website. It can be as simple and tentative as a profile on Facebook or starting a blog, or as complex as an eCommerce site where readers can purchase their books and track their personal appearances.

One of the most basic principles of marketing is connecting with the buyers and letting them know what's available. The Internet is how we communicate, and the more connected we are the larger our potential market. A business can still buy a billboard or newspaper ad where thousands may see it locally, or they can post online and potentially be seen internationally.

Now it is true that a billboard on a busy highway during rush hour traffic is probably going to have more views than an average website, but there is also cost and, more importantly, target audience to consider. Most of those people driving by a billboard don't give it a second glance, or even a first. If someone arrives at a website they are likely looking for something that company could offer. And the website could have been set up free, or very inexpensively.

The underground press is in the process of building a new website. We use a very reasonable hosting service, GoDaddy.com, and though they offer a wide range of premium services, undergroundpresspublishing.com is being built from the code up using the free Microsoft Visual Web Developer – part of Visual Studio.net.

We will be blogging about the process, with tips and tricks for authors and publishers who want to build their own websites. It's really not that hard, or expensive, to create a professional quality website that can act as a focus for divergent social networks and promotions. Come by and check out the progress.

Harsh Realities of the Publishing Business

2010-05-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

As authors we like to think of writing as a craft, an art, a noble vocation. We talk about out muse, discuss plots, conflicts, characters. Writing is, of course, all that and more, but publishing – putting that written word out there for the reading public to view – is a business. Without that business, no one outside our circle of friends and family would ever see the wonderful prose we bleed onto the page.

From a publisher's POV, a manuscript is an investment, and a very risky one. Unless they are working with someone who can guarantee a market – a celebrity, a best selling author, or someone with a known following – they must weigh the risk-to-profit ratio very carefully. It's a gamble.

When a publisher buys rights to a manuscript, the advance paid to the writer is only the first of many expenses incurred before a single book can be sold. By the time the first copies of a book reach the store shelves the publisher has invested thousands of dollars and hours in the publication. There are no guarantees that even a single copy will be sold, much less that enough will sell for the publisher to see a return on investment.

Advertising and promotion increase sales, but also add to the initial expense of production. One of the biggest complaints by authors and publishers is the level of promotion any given title receives. Authors blame lack of promotion for poor sales, but publishers are reluctant to invest even more money when they may not gain a return on their investment.

For perfectly valid economic reasons many large publishers will not even consider a manuscript, no matter how compelling the prose, if the writer doesn't have a clearly defined market base. That's a hard reality for unpublished writers to face, though sensible from a business POV. Large publishers also rely more and more on literary agents to find and cultivate marketable writers. But again, agents have bills to pay as well.

Many large agencies, and well know agents, set the bar as high as the big publishers. They can not afford to take on clients who have little or no market base. For their business model they need writers who can consistently produce marketable works. They are reluctant to spend time cultivating a writer's skills and potential market base without active income from sales.

As distasteful as it may be, as writers we must look at what we produce as a marketable commodity. If we would be serious about our craft, and want to be taken seriously as writers, we must look at writing as a business and our prose as a product to sell. We must seek and find our readers, our market base. After all, we write to be read. What are we without our readers?

Experience Illustrated

2010-04-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

Much of the work of a writer is in describing people, things, actions. We are scolded again and again “show don't tell” but to a lot of writers that statement makes about as much sense as a blind painter. Telling stories is what we do. Movie producers show a story, we put words on a page. I think the meaning might be more clear if we say, “don't tell, lead.”

Recently I took part in a creative writing course and this question came up. The professor asked if anyone could tell her what “show don't tell” meant. The class was stumped. None of my classmates would offer an explanation of the concept. I tentatively raised my hand, not one to usually take the center of attention willingly. My answer? Saying “the girl cried” is telling and saying “tears rolled down her face as her body shook in pitiful sobs” is showing.

It's all in the description. Technically both are “telling.” In the first case we tell the reader in simple terms that the girl cried. In the second case we tell the reader what the scene looked like, they can figure out from the description that she was crying. Thus we lead the reader into making conclusions and we “show” them the girl crying. The real problem then with understanding “show don't tell” is teachers, professors, agents, and editors, not taking their own advice. “Show don't tell” is telling us not showing us.

Readers are an intelligent and imaginative lot. They don't need to be spoon feed the obvious. If we describe the scene well, they can figure out what is going on for themselves. That's part of the joy of reading. Between scene description and dialog the reader should have everything they need to deduce plot. You should not need to tell the reader that Simon Legree is a cruel and evil man, describing his mannerisms, his actions, even his dialog should convince the reader he's a scoundrel.

Another point that generally gets the generic “show don't tell” admonition are info dumps. Okay you've done it, don't try to deny it. You've got a ton of info you want to convey in a short time so you go into a multi-paragraph long summation. Maybe you try to hid it in dialog, but it still comes across as a lecture. You are telling, not leading. That is lazy writing and we're all guilty of it. The craft of a writer is to describe the characters and scene, transcribe the dialog, report the actions, and let the story tell itself.

When we do it right we are no longer mere storytellers, we are reporters of fictional events that, as Hemingway said, are more real than real. How we describe things will naturally lead the reader to make conclusions, judgments, and the all important inferences needed to convey plot. Much of this comes down to trust, we aren't sure the reader will get it unless we spell it out. Either we underestimate our reader's intelligence, or we are unsure of our own skill. Trust the reader, and trust yourself. Another word of wisdom from Hemingway, what we leave out is as important as what we put in.

When I make my first edit of the first draft I look at everything and wonder, how can I give that to the reader without saying it. Instead of “he said, suspiciously.” How about “he said, raising an eyebrow.” That not only conveys the idea, but also adds to the character's personality. It's those little things that really make a story sing with the angels and not drown with the fishes. Forget “show don't tell.” Lead your reader into your world and let them experience it for themselves.

max

News Release 05/17/09

2009-05-17T08:56:00.000-07:00

Author Maxwell Cynn has updated the release of his popular eBook "CybrGrrl" under his own name. The book was originally released under the pen name "Jasmine Bale", a character from Mr. Cynn's "Ezekiel Strong" series. Both the MobiPocket and Kindle versions of the eBook have been updated with a new cover. The release was made under he same efile as the original so that anyone who has previously purchased the eBook through Mobi or Amazon can download the new version. The text has not changed - only the cover art and author.

Friends with benefits

2009-05-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

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Writing is a lonely thing at times. We toil in obscurity pouring our hearts out on the page. No one can help us do it. The words are in us, and must come through our hands. Friends can encourage us, offer suggestions, read our rough drafts, but they can not tell our story. We do that alone.

In days gone by it was even more so. A writer had only a few friends and family members to turn to for much needed criticism and help editing her work. We all love these people, they are our greatest support – our strength. Yet this help is only beneficial to a point. They read our drafts, praise our efforts, boost our egos, but unless you are in the English department of a university your friends are probably not the best qualified to edit your work and offer impartial criticism.

Today we have the Internet, and social networking. Writers are coming together as never before with an ease not even dreamed of by writers a generation ago. We have online crit groups with people from all walks of life, from all over the world, people we would otherwise never meet in a lifetime of conferences. The new togetherness is available to us 24/7, whenever we need it.

There are some pitfalls to our new togetherness. As I said before, we write alone. We need that alone time for plots to develop in our minds, characters to come to life within us. Like kids at a candy store, we are tempted to gorge ourselves on our newfound social group. Then we are on facebook, or tweeter, or AgentQuery, instead of writing.

We need balance. I have meet some wonderful new friends online – fellow writers at every level from beginner to published authors. All have helped me along the path, and I try to help them all I can. We are a family, a fraternity of artists working to perfect our craft. Their critiques and inspiration are priceless. It is the single most important asset we can develop, friendships with fellow writers.

If you aspire to write, whether you dream of the New York Times Best Seller List or plan to self publish an eBook, those connections are critical. No one can critique your work better than a fellow writer. No one else can understand your passion, share in your pain at rejection or your joy over a good review. These distant acquaintances can become your greatest allies and dearest friends.

Use our network. Build it. Nurture it. But beware the seduction of the womb. We are not writing if we are all on facebook playing Vampires, or Mafia Wars. And as these friendships grow closer, their benefits change as well. A tight nit group, even a crit group, can fall into praising and supporting each other, and the criticism becomes less impartial.

New acquaintances are invaluable as reality checks. The criticism, or praise, from a writer you hardly know is a great boon. So keep reaching out, keep meeting new writers – offer critique, encouragement, invite them to your crit group. New eyes are the sharpest. The more eyes that see your work – before an agent, editor, or it is self published – the better.

One more little caveat about the eyes of strangers, or even friends. It is a mantra of publishing that – say it with me - Publishing is a very subjective business. Everyone has different tastes and styles. Each writer is unique, or should be. Again, at the end of the day, you write alone.

When you receive criticism or praise, consider the source. If I show a regency romance to a horror writer I will get totally different feedback than if the writer is a sci-fi or fellow romance writer. All crit is beneficial, not all carry equal weight. Your mother saying it's the best thing ever may not mean a lot, especially if she doesn't know Orwell from O'Henry from Obama.

The Internet has opened a new world for writers – from networking with fellow writers, to meeting fans, to self publishing your work. Use the tools wisely. Just because you can self publish doesn't mean you are ready, and just because Aunt Martha cried at the ending doesn't mean it's a best seller. Use the tools, and polish, polish, polish. All your writer friends are here to help.

max

#queryfail > #agentfail > writers self publish

2009-04-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

With all the current bad blood between agents and writers, and the belt tightening at publishers, the industry seems to be at a cross roads. Many writers are giving up on the quest for an agent and querying small presses directly. The big houses still demand to work through agents. This is good news for the small presses, great manuscripts with lower advances. Some small presses could break into the best seller list. Perhaps we will see the days of "Breakout Novel"s again, not manufactured best sellers that owe more to marketing than literary excellence.

I'm not going to get involved in the mud slinging. To be honest, I am currently seeking representation. I still think there are good agents out there. There are good agents and bad agents, good publishers and bad publishers, good writers and bad writers. I'm not painting anyone, or any group, with a broad brush. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, our tastes and opinions.

One option for those who are frustrated with the query-go-round is self publishing. It has always been an option, but these times of eBooks and POD it has never been easier. The days of the maligned "Vanity Press" are, for the most part, behind us. The buzz now is Indie and Viral. Put it out there and see if it flies. I can see a day when a breakout novel hits the best seller list from a POD press or when eBooks are as common as paperbacks.

Self publishing has never been easier. With very little computer skill - no more than it takes to learn your favorite word processing program - you can publish a very professional product. With Amazon, and many other outlets, you can market your work to the world. The only drawback of the easy publishing is the huge amount of responsibility placed on the author/publisher.

When you self publish, it is all you. You write the ms, edit, and format. You need cover art, ads for marketing, etc. You are saddled with all of the book's production from start to finish. You don't have an agent to do leg work for you, editors to check your work, designers to make it all look good - you're on your own. Daunting, but liberating. You have complete control. If you sell one copy or a million you have yourself to blame or praise.

There are also a variety of new presses opening their doors that offer very flexible assistance with the process. These buffet presses offer anything from simply POD of your formatted files to complete publishing - editing to marketing. You can get the services you need and still do all the things you are capable of, and/or willing to do. Flexibility is the current trend - do all you can yourself then contract the things you are not comfortable with. This is breaking publishing up into a thousand little parts.

More and more options for getting your work, your art, out into public view is always a good thing. Most writers are more interested in being read than being rich. We write to share our gift with the world. That is why writers have trouble understanding the business of publishing. We just want our work published so people can read it. Agents and Publishers are in the business of making money. It is the same in all of the arts, and artists have always struggled to have their art seen by the masses.

As writers I think we need to take a serious look at ourselves and out aspirations. If all you really want is to be read, maybe get some praise or awards for our work, there are hundreds of options to get your work out there. Publish a website for you novel, offer it free as an eBook, print it with a POD press, enter it in contests or for awards. Marketing, to make money, is where it gets complicated. That's the domain of agents and traditional publishers.

As I said, I'm still on the query-go-round because I think I have a marketable ms, but not the expertise to market it. I want a best seller someday, I want to sit in a bookstore and sign books, and I would love to quit the day job and spend the rest of my life writing and interacting with readers. So I continue to assail the "gatekeepers" for entrance into the halls of commercial publishing.

2009-04-16T17:12:00.000-07:00

From Amazon:

One hundred semifinalists have been selected for the next round of the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Each entry in the Top 100 has received a full manuscript review from Publishers Weekly, in addition to early customer reviews of excerpts posted during the quarterfinals. We will announce three finalists for the Grand Prize on May 15--begin reading and reviewing excerpts today and see if your favorite reads make it to the Final Three.

The competition tightens as Amazon, and Penguin, sift through the top 100 semifinalists. Several of my friends on Blogger and Facebook are among them. Of course I want them all to win, but now the field will be cut to three finalists. Then readers, reviewers, and anyone with an account on Amazon will be able to vote on their favorite.

I'm not about to pick any front runners, the excerpts I've read are too good to chose between. This contest could go to any of the 100 chosen. Once the field is cut to three I might voice a favorite. Then again I may not. I can see all three very easily being three of my new friends, and if that is the case I will vote in silence and pull for all three.

Good luck to all my friends, and to the others that I haven't had the pleasure to meet yet. 100 wonderful excerpts, now I need to decide which to read. I think I have already read and reviewed the excerpts for everyone I know in the contest. If I missed you let me know and I'll put yours at the top of my list.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards: Quarter-Final Round

2009-03-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

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March 16, 2009 (Monday) Amazon.com will post the excerpts presented by the 500 writers who made the quarter-final round. There were approximately 10,000 entries in ABNA this year, so it is a huge achievement to make this cut. It was decided based on the writers' pitches of their novels and the strength of their excerpt.

Between March 16 and April 14 Excerpts and associated reviews will be posted at http://www.amazon.com/abna where Amazon customers can download the excerpts and write their own reviews. (Information on submitting reviews on Amazon.com can be found at http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/guidelines.html )

On April 15, 2009 Penguin will select 100 semi-finalists based on those reviews, among other things. Between now and April they all need your help. Get in there and read those excerpts, rate them, comment, make your voice heard, and support your favorites.

There will be 500 excerpts from the best of the 10,000 writers who entered. This will be some great writing. You may be reading the first chapter(s) of the next Best Selling Novel. ABNA has been compared to the American Idol of writing because you, dear reader, not only get to review and critique the top writers – on May 15, 2009 you will get to vote on the winner. More on that later.

For now, get ready for some great reading over the next few weeks. Visit Amazon.com, sign up as a customer or log in if you are already a customer, review the guidelines, and get ready to read. You can also friend one of our authors, Maxwell Cynn, on Amazon.com through your customer profile.

Http://www.amazon.com/abna

2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

2009-02-14T17:07:00.000-08:00

The 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award has begun in earnest. February 8, 2009 was the official deadline for submissions. We won't know the 500 quarter finalist until March, so about 10,000 writers are on pins and needles until then.

Good luck to all the entrants. The grand prize is a publishing contract with Penguin, but I am sure many great new writers will get a boost in their careers through participation. We will keep a close look on contest news and announce when the quarterfinals commence.

Why Kindle

2009-01-02T05:32:00.000-08:00

Many of the new literary social networks that are popping up use the Amazon.com database to fill their book list, their author list, get cover art for your books, etc. If it is on Kindle it will be listed on all of those sites. They also give “buy” links to your book. Free advertising of your eBook without you doing a thing. It is better than high page rank on google.

Publishing your eBook on Kindle is free and easy. If you produced an HTML version of your manuscript for using in the MobiPocket creator you can use that same file on Kindle. Kindle uses the MobiPocket API so it also uses the same tags in your HTML for linking etc. The same file you fed into the MobiPocket creator to make your eBook can be uploaded to Amazon.com to create a Kindle version of your book. You can also use the same cover you used for your MobiPocket eBook.

Once your eBook is uploaded to Amazon.com your eBook will appear on the various literary social networks, and any other sites that rely on Amazon.com's database. You are automatically listed on dozens of sites. It only took minutes in my test. We hadn't published Jasmine Bale's book on Amazon yet so I grabbed the HTML file and uploaded it. I went to Goodreads and there it was, already available for people to find and add to their profiles.

If you are ePublishing, on any format, I highly recommend you also publish a Kindle version. My sales have been better on MobiPocket than Kindle but you can't beat the free advertising. Even if the Kindle version never sells one copy the name recognition is priceless.

New Year at The Underground Press

2008-12-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

2008

It's been a great year. In 2008 the underground press stepped into the literary world with the release of my first book, ArchAngelxx. We set up an ASP.net 2.0 website, an on-line version of the book, and published an eBook through MobiPocket Books and Amazon.com's new Kindle Reader. We also set up pages on MySpace, Virb, and Helium to promote my writing.

ArchAngelxx quickly became a best seller on the MobiPocket Books web site, and remained there for several months. Since then I've been working on another manuscript, Ezekiel Strong : Haunted. It is the first in a series of suspense/paranormal romance with a hardboiled feel. I also edited CybrGrrl, by Jasmine Bale, which was then published by the underground press on MobiPocket Books and Kindle.

The underground press also published an anthology of sermons this year for Christian Underground Ministries. The sermons were originally presented in the 1990's as part of the underground church, one of the first churches on the burgeoning Internet. Neolythic also completed an overall face-lift of Christian Underground Ministries' web site.

It's been a busy and productive year for me and for the underground press. I have Ezekiel Strong : Haunted complete and I'm currently looking for an agent or publisher to help get it into print. Book two of the series, Ezekiel Strong : Lilith, is also complete and ready for publication. Book three is under way. I'm also working on editing some more of Jasmine Bale's erotic stories for publication through the underground press.

The new year looks to be even busier than the last. I'm looking forward to big things in '09. The underground press will be putting out more eBooks on MobiPocket Books and Kindle, and I hope '09 will be my year to see that big New York book deal. I'll also be putting out a few eBooks with the underground press and continuing to edit and write articles for various sources.

Hope you all have a great New Year. Keep writing, reading, and buying books. Everyone is worried about the failing economy but literature is still the biggest bang for your entertainment dollar. Nothing can bring more enjoyment for less money than a good book. Remember to support your local book seller and your favorite authors.

Max

CybrGrrl Cover

2008-11-19T16:54:00.000-08:00

We have the cover art complete for the eBook edition of CybrGrrl. The artist, and model, chosen is a photographer and entrepreneur in Second Life named Stella Stapleton: owner of Stella's Mall on Stella Island in Second Life. She is also a fellow blogger. http://stellasmall.blogspot.com/ and photographer for the eZine Sexy Second. Maxwell Cynn, who edited CybrGrrl, found Stella's Mall searching for a good image to use on the cover. Ms. Stapleton's SL in-world photography is some of the best we have seen. You can see all of her work on her flickr page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stellastapleton/

Author : Jasmine Bale

2008-11-10T15:32:00.000-08:00

We are proud to announce an upcoming release from the underground press. We will soon be publishing the first of the CybrGrrl series by Jasmine Bale. Ms. Bale has written a very hot, very cutting edge novel about an emerging Artificial Lifeform: a sexy virtual companion who reaches the level of self awareness. The plot is intriguing, following the emergence of the Artificial Intelligence, and steamy. Some of the smoking hot love scenes run the gamut from wild three way sex to romantic and sweet first time love. The eBook, which will be available on MobiPocket and Amazon Kindle Reader, will release in the next few weeks.

Antivirus XP 2008

2008-09-14T05:02:00.000-07:00

My son picked up a nasty little piece of malware the other day. It popped up like a normal windows warning message, the kind you see all the time. You click anything - ignore, OK, X, anywhere on the screen - it downloads and installs. Once you click the link to go to a web page with the virus you are caught, before you can do anything. It was a Google link, nothing suspicious.

The program is called Antivirus XP 2008. The hacker has spent a lot of time and effort to spoof a legit windows app. The graphics are nice - professional. The program claims to be an antivirus scanner and begins scanning. It reports a host of system files infected and offers to remove the infestation of viruses, worms, and Trojans... for a fee. It wants you to purchase and register for the full version.

I hate to think what happens to the poor sap who registers and gives the hacker their credit card number. The program will not close and your system is tied up and useless. You can cntrl+alt+delete and stop the process, but the malware digs in deep. It also replaces your screensaver with a fake blue screen of death and your background image with a screen size virus warning.

Symantec has a write up on it, but it was hard to find. I found a lot of information googling but not much help. Here is the Symantec link, it will tell you how to remove all of the files the maleware drops on your system.

http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2008-071613-4343-99&tabid=2

You need to either reboot in safe mode, or as i did use msconfig.exe to restart without loading the startup files. Then remove all of the files listed in Symantec's article, and make the registry edits. The version I had to deal with went the extra step, as mentioned above, of overwriting the screensaver and background and then locking them out. Even after getting rid of the infection we could not reset them.

I found the screen saver file in the system32 folder. It has a random name, so you have to look for a screensaver file with a random name. You can look in the registry to see what that random string is on your system. Then I had to edit the registry to allow access to the screensaver and background tabs on the properties control.

Here is the regedit. Keys added through the cmd prompt:

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v NoDispScrSavPage /t REG_DWORD /d 0

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v NoDispScrSavPage /t REG_DWORD /d 0

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v NoDispBackgroundPage /t REG_DWORD /d 0

REG ADD "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System" /v NoDispBackgroundPage /t REG_DWORD /d 0

That gets the tabs back on the properties control so you can set your background and screensaver.

WARNING: If you are not comfortable poking around in the registry... DON'T!! You can quickly do more harm than good. I have not been very descriptive on how to do the registry edits on purpose. If you are familiar with regedits the information will be all you need. If you are lost at this point, get some help.

Good luck

neo

ePublishing with PDF

2008-08-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

One of the simplest ways to ePublish your manuscript is by saving it as a PDF document. These files can be uploaded to many of the websites that sell eBooks, they are compatible with most of the eBook Readers available, and they can easily be attached to an email or offered for free download from your existing website or blog.

PDF files are as simple to work with as typing your manuscript. If you use Open Office, which I highly suggest, converting your manuscript to a PDF file is simple. Just choose "export as .pdf" from the file menu.

PDF files are not as reflowable as documents based on the Open eBook specifications, such as MobiPocket, which makes them a little less mobile friendly. There are ways to set up your PDF file to make it more friendly to smaller screens, and some versions of the Adobe Reader software do the conversions for you. The only problem with that is editorial control. It is hard to predict how the text might appear on different devices.

If your target readers will be printing the manuscript or viewing it on a standard screen, then PDF is a very simple solution to provide your manuscript to reviewers. As eBooks become more popular I am sure Adobe will update the PDF format to make it even more user friendly and device friendly. For now I prefer MobiPocket for my finished eBooks, but PDF is a good, quick way to offer the manuscript to friends and others who will help polish it.

Hypertext Links in your eBook

2008-08-17T04:46:00.000-07:00

The most basic structure of any HTML file is the division of paragraphs, the <p> tags. Next we divide sections and chapters with Headings, <h>. Simple enough. You can also use specific headings and set their style in a stylesheet by using numbers <h1>,<h2>,etc. Now we get into the good stuff. Linking all those headings into a clickable Table of Contents.

First we have to anchor our headings. Remember the <a> tag? That is how we make links. You simply add an anchor element "name" to your heading so you can refer to it from the Table of Contents links. Thus: <h1><a name="somekey"></a>HeadingText</h1> The "somekey" in the code must be unique to the document. Using the chapter number or name is a good way to keep it straight.

In MobiPocket there is a standard format for setting your keys so that the "somekey" in the code would be replaced by "mbp_toc_01" with each heading having a unique number: o1, 02, 03, etc. I make the number my chapter number to make things simpler. You can actually use anything for your anchor "name" as long as it is unique to the file.

After we have named our chapters, sections, etc. we can build our TOC (table of contents). I like using list tags to make a simple list of links. To do this you first nest your entire list in <ul> </ul> tags. That creates a bulleted list. You can also make a numbered list with <ol>. Each line in the list is wraped in <li> </li> tags. Inside these tags we have our anchor tags and our link text.

We create our links just like any other HTML link but our href element is set to one of the anchors we have named in our document. So a simple TOC, if we have used the MobiPocket format for naming our chapters would look like this:

<ul>
<li><a href="#mbp_toc_01">Chapter One</a></li>
<li><a href="#mbp_toc_02">Chapter Two</a></li>
<li><a href="#mbp_toc_03">Chapter Three</a></li>
<li><a href="#mbp_toc_04">Chapter Four</a></li>
</ul>

Each link will then take us to the heading with the matching name:

<h1><a name="mbp_toc_01"></a>Chapter One</h1>
<h1><a name="mbp_toc_02"></a>Chapter Two</h1>

This same linking can be used for internal links within your eBook as well. Linking to notes, definitions, other sections, etc. allowing your eBook to come alive. You can set an anchor anywhere in your book, name it, then refer to it in the href of your link. Just remember to put the # symbol followed by the name as your href in the link. It is really simple and once you play with it a bit it gets very easy.

Links are what can make eBooks shine above being just electronic copies of printed books. With links you can make your eBooks very interactive. Something you can not do in other media.

Basic HTML tags

2008-08-10T17:26:00.000-07:00

If you convert your manuscript into an HTML file, and then open it in a basic text editor, you will notice a lot of confusing tags - those things within the <>. Most are not at all necessary to a basic web page. They are formatting tags. In HTML all formating of the text must be specified in the code: location, font, font size, color, etc.

Most of this formating is there to mirror the formating of your manuscript in your word processor, of little use for a web page or a mobi file. The only tags you really need to properly format your text is the Heading <h>, Paragraph <p>, and link <a> tags. Other tags can be used for more advanced formating, but we shall get into that in a future post. For now let's start with the basics.

HTML tags must come in pairs. An opening and closing tag. The text between the tags will take on the characteristics specified by the tag. The closing tag is the same as the opening with a / added before the tag text thus: <p> and </p> The attributes of the opening tag will be applied until a closing tag is reached. If you forget the closing tag that will be the end of the document.

The Header tag tells a web browser, or an eBook reader, that the text is not just normal text. It is a heading or a title. There are standard headings which default to a particular size and font unless they are changed (this is more advanced). They are specified by using a number after the letter in the tag: <h1> <h2> and so on. These are used as chapter and section titles. The mobipocket creator will use these to create a table of contents.

The <p> and </p> tags surround your paragraphs. Browsers and readers have default settings for how to display the text, indention, space between paragraphs, etc. It is best to leave those formating decisions up to the browser or reader being used. Some devices have limits and settings you specify may not look the same on the device used by the reader.

The anchor tag, <a> and </a>, is the most powerful tag you will use for now. It can create a hyper link or a place where another link will come to. The most basic use is to create a link to another resource or web page. When this is done parameters are set for the links destination. An example sends a web browser to my home page when clicked: <a href="http://neolythics.com/"> some text </a> Let's look at the elements.

First is the inclusion of the href attribute. This tells the browser where the link leads to. This should be followed by and equal sign and the destination url in quotes. All of this should remain within the tag, the < and >. Any text between the opening tag and the closing tag will appear as clickable text. If you forget to close this tag the remainder of your text will be one long hyper link. Always close your tags.

In later posts I will get into other ways the anchor tag can be used. It can provide links within your manuscript for references, added content, and for a clickable table of contents. You can set the links to open not just at the beginning of a specified file but at a specific heading that has been set as an anchor. So anchors are launch points and destinations. They can make your manuscript come alive.

Simple ePublishing

2008-08-08T06:15:00.000-07:00

If you want to get your manuscript out to a wider audience it has never been easier to do. The most simple way is to post it here on Blogger. Sign up for a free blog, copy and paste your manuscript into the compose frame, hit publish, and you are on the Internet. Blogs are not really designed for presenting novel length posts, but it can be done.

With very little knowledge of HTML you can create your own web page. Many free services have site builders that will also let you copy and past into a compose frame, no code required. If your service does require you to upload HTML files, that is not a problem either. MSWord, or Open Office - which is what I use - makes it as simple as a click to create HTML documents. All you have to do is save your manuscript as a .html file.

You can also easily publish an eBook online. The free MobiPocket tool will convert the HTML file into an eBook with digital rights management built right it. You can upload the file to their website and start selling your book online. But you may want to have a little more control over the formatting. That takes only the most basic knowledge of code, little more than paragraph, header and link tags.

In the MobiPocket creator, if you simple break your manuscript into a file for each chapter, then convert these to HTML files. The creator will recognize each file as a separate chapter, and even create a table of contents for you all linked up and ready to go. There is, of course, much more you can do with web pages and eBooks if you learn a little code behind.

Over the next few weeks we will look at some really simple tags that can make your eBooks and web pages much more professional, and readable. You want your work to be as user friendly as possible. Even if the plot and characters are great, people will not read it unless it is presented well. It is bad enough reading long sections of text on a monitor, if the layout is confusing, inconsistent or hard to read, people will surf on to somewhere else.

I will be talking mostly about using the MobiPocket tools for creating eBooks, but these tips are based on basic HTML and can be applied to web pages as well, or one of the other eBook formats like the Kindle Reader from Amazon.com. There has never been so many ways you can present, and sell, your work online, and it is easier than ever.

neolythic

Get New Eyes: Lots of Them

2008-08-05T18:58:00.000-07:00

After you have perfected your manuscript, and it is as perfectly wonderful as you can make it, it is time for some new eyes. Yours are probably a bit blood shot by now. You have read your manuscript a hundred times. It gets to the point where you are really not reading it anymore, you have it memorized.

Our brains are very conservative. We can not possibly process the enormous amount of data our world presents to us every second of the day. Our brains only process what is necessary. When you walk into a familiar room your brain doesn't process all of the data available – it has done so before. Your brain looks for differences, changes from the last time you were there. That is why, searching for your keys, you can look right at something and never see it. Someone else looks and laughs. “If it had been a snake it would have bit you.”

Your manuscript is like that familiar room. You wrote it, you edited it, your brain knows it. Your eyes can see “he” and your brain can process “she”. It knows the story, knows that you meant to type she, and corrects. So consciously you miss the typo. Every time you pass over the printed mistake reinforces the mental correction. You never see it.

In “How to Get a Literary Agent”, author Michael Larsen gives three tips for proof reading your manuscript. His first suggestion, “Try proofreading your manuscript backwards so you will proof the manuscript, not read it.” That forces your brain to process each word. That will catch a lot of common mistakes, but you still may miss the “he” mentioned above because you are not processing the context of the word's placement. There is only so much a writer can do alone.

There is also more to polishing your manuscript than fixing typos and misspellings. The is also consistency, clarity, and a host of other things to check. As the writer you know the plot, the characters, the whole manuscript better than anyone: better than what is actually written. What may seem obviously apparent to you may be mysterious to the reader. You know unstated background and motives, plot twists and details, that may need to be written out for the reader.

It is time to let the baby leave the nest. Someone else needs to read and critique your masterpiece. A fresh pair of eyes. Print it up and give it to friends and family. Be ready for good and bad reviews and be ready to make revisions. Then expand your circle to people you don't know. Find a crit group, have those you gave the manuscript to pass it on to someone else.

When I first started I thought what I wrote needed to be locked away until it was sent to a publisher. I thought once it was out in the public it was used, done, unpublishable. In reality the opposite is true. Agents, editors, and publishers want to know what others think about your work. They know you love it and assume your friends and family will say they love it too. They know you need some unbiased, honest criticism: theirs shouldn't be the first you get.

Ebooks are exploding on the Internet. Anyone who can manage some basic HTML can publish one. After you have gone through all of your available reader/critics you can upload you manuscript to the net and see how it does. You can give it away free or even sell it, that is up to you. You can even put an email link at the end and ask readers to provide feedback.

I was worried that publishing an eBook might hurt your chances with traditional publishers so I asked Michael Larsen, a top Literary Agent and best selling author, “Is a manuscript salable after it has been published as an eBook?” and “Would a successful eBook make a manuscript more or less desirable to publishers.”

His response, “Yes, if you sell enough copies of your ebook, at a good velocity, then yes, publishers will come after you and propose publication. This is a great way to test market your book and your idea.”

Mr. Larsen is the co-founder of Larsen/Pomada Literary Agency, a very prestigious agency located in San Francisco, California. He is also the author of How to Get a Literary Agent, co-founder of the San Francisco Writers Conference, and a member of the Association of Author's Representatives.

One concern when test marketing your manuscript through ePublishing is your Intellectual Property Rights. Be very careful that you retain all rights to your work. You can't sell what you don't own. I use Mobipocket Books. Their agreement is a straightforward, non-exclusive right to sell the files you publish. They don't tie up your rights so you are free to publish your work elsewhere, sell to a publisher, or even publish with other online vendors.

There are “ePublishers” who will prep and publish your manuscript as an eBook for you, but they are expensive or tie up your rights while offering small royalties. If you want to test market your manuscript as an eBook it is best to do it yourself. It is easy to be your own publisher online.

In the past, many authors have paid to have a limited run of books printed to help test market their work. Today, with a little Internet savvy, you can test market your manuscript and maybe even make a little money along the way, while you wait on your best seller to be published.

Maxwell Cynn

Welcome

2008-08-03T03:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the underground press blog. Here you will find news and opinions on the literary world: publishing, writing, reviews, comments, and tips. If you are a new writer trying to break into the industry, or an old pro, there is something here for you. I don't want this to be all onesided, so post some comments. We are all in this together: authors, agents, publishers, editors, and readers. Tell me what you like, and what you don't; what helps, and what doesn't.