Janell Robisch — Book Designer, Cover Designer, Editor, and Self-Publishing Expert
A teaser…
I am a big fan of the original seven Harry Potter books, so I was eager to read this. As a member of my local community theater, I wasn’t put off by the fact that it was a script either. However…
Read the rest at Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – J. Elizabeth Vincent
Comments closedI have this bad habit of jumping into National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) experiences at the last minute. Last Halloween, I decided to do my first NaNoWriMo, which started November 1, without any real preparation and only an idea. Then, I went and did it again for this April’s Camp NaNoWriMo when some Twitter friends asked me to join their cabin (What Are Cabins?).
I was already working on a rewrite of my urban fantasy novel, Blood Mastery, so I figured I could just add another tracking form to my month and get some extra support in the meanwhile. It didn’t turn out to be that easy, and here I’ll discuss why.
Camp NaNoWriMo is not set up the same as November’s NaNoWriMo. To win regular NaNoWriMo, you must write at least 50,000 words within the 30-day month of November. With Camp NaNoWriMo, you set your own goal.
In the end, although I technically won, I had written only 20,184 words on Blood Mastery in April versus the 52,359 words I wrote on my other novel in November.
I started out with a goal of 25,000 words. It quickly became clear that I wouldn’t be able to write that many, at least not on my novel. Before April 20, when people were allowed to start validating their writing for a “win,” I was allowed to change my goal in Camp NaNoWriMo, and that’s what I did, although I didn’t feel so hot about it.
I ended up feeling more scattered and stressed during Camp NaNoWriMo that I had during NaNoWriMo, even though my goal was lower. The reason was that during November’s NaNoWriMo, I was working on a single project, one novel. By the time April rolled around, I was working on several projects, each of which needed my attention.
In addition to my novel, I was writing and editing four weekly blog posts, a one-act play, and a nonfiction booklet for authors. Because I couldn’t put any of them off, my 20k words for Camp NaNoWriMo had to be done on top of all these other things.
Although I had a rough outline for my book, by about the middle of the month, I realized that my rewrite wasn’t going to be long enough to qualify as a novel. I was quickly approaching the climax, and I was only about 25,000 words in.
I had a brainstorming session with my cabin mates, and I was able to come up with some ideas. I would add more conflict and subplots to my book. However, obsessive that I am, I went back to the beginning and edited the book right away before going any further. Of course, that slowed my writing speed down a lot.
One of my children injured her foot at gymnastics, and we had to go to multiple appointments to make sure that it wasn’t broken. Life happens, and I don’t regret taking the time out to see to it, but it wasn’t any good for my Camp NaNoWriMo progress.
I write basically every day, participating in the Twitter monthly writing challenge and allowing very few things to stop me.
The extra incentive that Camp NaNoWriMo provided helped me to write 20,184 words of my novel in April. Even with my small goal of 500 words a day, I had added only 10,432 words in March, even with the same extra projects. That’s almost double.
As I mentioned before, I reduced my goal part way through the month. That flexibility was an advantage, even though I didn’t feel good about using it. Camp NaNoWriMo lets you set your own goal, and before winning begins, you can adjust it up or down.
You can’t do that with regular NaNoWriMo: it’s 50,000 words no matter what. It’s more about proving to yourself that you can write a novel than meeting your own personal goals, although those two interests might intersect.
Our cabin, the little group of writers that was my community during Camp NaNoWriMo, came mostly from people I know on Twitter and the monthly writing challenge. However, in this new forum, we were able to share and support one another more deeply than we normally can with the limited 140 characters or less per post allowed on Twitter.
There were questions and conversations about general writing topics but also real, nitty-gritty problem solving and feedback that helped us all keep moving forward. The one-thread forum format was a little difficult to navigate, but we managed.
By about halfway through the month, I had pretty much given up any hope of winning Camp NaNoWriMo. My distractions—a.k.a. my other projects—were taking away too much of my attention. However, as the last week rolled around, I realized that I was now in a place to put them aside for at least a week and work only on the novel. It wasn’t as easy as it sounded since I was out of town on two of those days for a kid-related activity.
Despite all that, I ended up writing more than 2000 words on each of the last two days of Camp NaNoWriMo, just barely clearing my goal. One of those days, I dictated them, and on the other, I typed them in a hotel room with two of my children playing nearby.
In any case, I impressed myself a little. It’s not that I’ve never written 2000 words in a day, but it’s pretty rare for me. This full-time editor thing, homeschooling my kids, etc., keep me pretty busy.
Would I Do Camp NaNoWriMo Again?I honestly don’t know if I will take part in Camp NaNoWriMo again or even in NaNoWriMo in November. I will just have to see where I am at that point with each of my projects.
Despite my lack of preparation, last November turned out to be the perfect time to start a new novel. I had just finished the first draft of Blood Mastery. I really needed to put it aside, and working on a new novel was the best distraction.
If I do either NaNoWriMo event in the future, I will not only start with a rough outline but also clear my schedule as much as possible. I’ll write and schedule extra blog posts the month before and move other writing projects around as necessary. The extra stress from those extra projects was just a little too much, and I wouldn’t want to repeat that experience.
I want to say thanks to the writers in my cabin for all the great support! And congratulations for accomplishing the impossible!
Did you do Camp NaNoWriMo this year? What was your experience like? Will you do it again?
Leave a CommentMany of us grew up loving the experience of going into the bookstore or library, perusing all of the covers, and choosing just the right one. Many of us still do, and the thrill of possibly seeing our own covers on those same shelves is just too great to pass up. So, it’s no wonder expanded distribution is a hot topic among indie authors.
Expanded distribution is a self-publishing choice that gives you the chance to get your book into bookstores and libraries, places that are usually off limits to indie authors. Actually, extended distribution only makes your book available to these places. There is no guarantee. Each bookstore and library must decide on its own which books to include in its collection.
The two major players in print-on-demand publishing are Amazon’s CreateSpace and IngramSpark, a part of Ingram Content Group and a long-time major player in the book distribution game.
One author client of mine chose to publish his book through CreateSpace. Like many authors, he wanted expanded distribution, that is, until he learned the cost. CreateSpace is free to use, but once a book is put into CreateSpace’s expanded distribution program, the base price, or cost of producing and distributing the book, goes up. This leaves the author with a much lower royalty and/or a higher priced book. Higher prices often lead to fewer sales and, thus, less money earned.
For illustration purposes, I used CreateSpace’s Royalty Calculator (in the Royalties tab) to figure out the approximate royalties for a 200-page 6 × 9 book priced at $9.99. Here are the results:
I had to price the book at $9.99 to get any positive royalty at all through expanded distribution channels. At first, I thought this was ridiculous, but when I looked into IngramSpark’s program, I found much the same thing.
IngramSpark has a different way to approach the same situation. The company charges a setup fee of $49 to publish a print book, and all of its books go through expanded distribution.
Its books are made available to “just about anyone on the planet who sells (or is even thinking about selling) a book in any format.”
On the surface, this seems like a better deal. Just pay a setup fee and keep more of the royalties to yourself! However, because of discounts, this isn’t the case after all.
When I used IngramSpark’s Publisher Compensation Calculator (their version of a royalty calculator) for the same 200-page 6 × 9 book, these were the results:
The royalties, or publisher compensation, were 10 cents lower. Why? The answer comes in the form of discounts to retailers, wholesalers, and distributors.
According to Joel Friedlander, retailers such as your local bookstore generally demand at least a 40% discount on the list price of books. The wholesaler (such as Ingram or Baker and Taylor) take its cut, too, about 15%. Then, the distributor takes a chunk. In the end, “as a publisher you will have to give up 65-70% of the retail price to get the benefits of full distribution.”
In a curious twist, CreateSpace’s expanded distribution uses Ingram to distribute your books, and IngramSpark distributes through Amazon as well as other retailers.
The only difference that I found was the rumor that some brick-and-mortar stores refuse to order from Amazon, which they rightly view as competition. In addition, if your book is distributed through Ingram, it may show up as available from a “third-party seller” on Amazon.
In the end, it seems that you’re getting much the same service for a similar price, except for Ingram’s $49 setup fee. So, you have to ask yourself whether the $49 fee is worth forgoing certain retailers’ aversion to Amazon.
Some experts, such as Joanna Penn, advocate publishing “wide,” or using as many platforms as you can to publish your book. For example, you could publish your print book on CreateSpace without expanded distribution and earn a higher royalty through Amazon’s channels. At the same time, you could use IngramSpark to cover all of your other bases and make your book available to brick-and-mortar stores, libraries, and other retailers.
If you are an author wishing to keep your initial investment low, you may wish to forgo expanded distribution for your print book. You can start out by sticking to CreateSpace and grabbing your chunk of Amazon’s massive market share.
Alternatively, you might want to skip the print market altogether, at least as a beginning strategy. Ebooks are a massive part of the market. According to the “Top Ten Trends in Publishing Every Author Needs to Know in 2017,” “70% of adult fiction sales were digital” in 2016.
Once you’ve established yourself as an indie author and started to build a platform with plenty of positive reviews, you can explore your options with expanded distribution.
What options have worked best for you? What are your plans for publishing your print book?
Please note that the conclusions in this article have been drawn from my own research and experience. It is essential that you do your own research and draw your own conclusions because the publishing world is constantly changing and, to stay competitive as an indie author, you have to keep up.
4 CommentsJust how important is the opening chapter of your novel? Traditionally published authors depend on it to gain the interest of agents and editors. For both indie authors or traditionally published authors, a strong opening chapter translates into sales (through book excerpts and previews), page views on services such as Kindle Unlimited, a larger author platform, and increased income.
The following tips for creating a strong opening chapter should help you whether you are writing or revising the opening to your book.
If your book is to be successful, it is essential that your opening chapter be interesting and intriguing enough that your readers feel compelled to turn the page and continue the story. Opening chapters with an overabundance of narrative description, dull characters, or unessential backstory may leave your book unfinished—forgotten on an e-reader or gathering dust on a shelf.
Let’s say our main character is a woman named Charlie. Should the chapter start with Charlie brushing her teeth, taking a shower, and avoiding calls from bill collectors, or should it start with Charlie in the middle of trying to rob her neighborhood bank?
Your story should start out strong from the very first line. It should cause the reader to ask questions. For example, “Charlie pushed open the glass door to the bank, one hand shoved into her coat pocket, her fingers wrapped around the handle of her Smith & Wesson revolver.”
Immediately, the reader is asking questions: “Who is this?” “Is Charlie going to rob the bank?” “Is she a cop? Maybe a spy?”
Your readers are hooked. Now, keep it going.
It can be tempting to pull off #1 by using minor characters, or unrelated themes or plot devices in your opening chapter to hook readers before starting the main story in Chapter 2. Don’t do it. This is called the bait and switch, and it will leave your readers feeling betrayed and misled.
If the story is about Charlie, the opening chapter should be about her as well.
Don’t hold back important details that let your readers know from the first chapter what your story is about. Establishing tone and theme in your opening chapter let your readers settle in and get ready for the escapades ahead. Being overly vague and mysterious will only annoy them.
For example, don’t fail to mention that your main character is a werewolf or a police detective (or both). Showing Charlie’s fangs and fur early on lets readers know that they are in for a paranormal adventure (your cover and book description should do this as well).
On the other hand, don’t be so obvious in your opening about what is going to happen that your readers have no reason to continue. If you already let slip that your protagonist will lose this battle, what is their reason for continuing the story?
In your opening, begin telling your story, not your character’s or setting’s history. Show readers an interesting character with an interesting dilemma. History can come later when it is needed to push the story forward. Although it can be tempting, you wouldn’t tell a new acquaintance your entire life story before becoming friends. You get to know each other one experience at a time, occasionally sharing histories when the situation is relevant. Let readers get to know your story and your characters in the same way.
The reader doesn’t need to know that Charlie got a B on her third-grade spelling test and it scarred her for life, at least not now. Wait until these details can serve to clue readers in to specific evens and decisions in the course of your character’s story.
Along the same lines as #5, let your readers know where they are and give them enough detail to keep things from getting confusing, but don’t bog them down in narrative detail.
Letting them know that Charlie is standing in the middle of the Bells Largo Bank lobby in the middle of the afternoon may be enough. A little more, just to set the scene, may be fine, but don’t get so enamored with the white marble floors and crown molding that you forget (and let the readers forget) what the story is about.
It can be tempting to open your first chapter by leading the reader up to the story. But why not start them right in the story?
Instead of sharing the events leading up to Charlie robbing a bank, why not open with her wearing a ski mask and holding a gun on everyone’s favorite bank teller? Which opening would you prefer? The other details can and will come later.
If you want readers to turn to Chapter 2, make sure that you establish your character’s stakes early on. Your protagonist should want something, something big and important (at least to her). Bad things will happen if she doesn’t get it. Make your readers care enough about what happens to turn those pages to find out.
In our bank robbery example, Charlie needs to successfully get the money and get out. If she doesn’t, she could be arrested or, worse, gunned down by police. If you just show her robbing the bank but give readers no idea why she is doing it and what will happen if she doesn’t, they may quickly become confused, annoyed, and maybe even frustrated.
Don’t make it easy on your character. An inherent conflict for our Charlie is that she’s a police detective robbing a bank. What happens if a little old lady in the back, who turns out to be Charlie’s grandmother, suddenly says, “Charlie, darling, is that you?”
More Conflict = Higher Stakes = More Interest
You’ve got your readers hooked. Now, you need to get them to turn the page. The art of writing a cliffhanger is a subtle one, however. You not only want to leave your readers hanging on edge of the cliff with your character, but you also want to give them a tiny sneak peek of what’s on the other side. Like with the opening line, you want your readers to have not only a strong emotional response to your chapter ending but also questions that they need answers to.
For example, with Charlie, you could end the chapter with the following:
“Charlie slid into the front seat and started the engine. As she hit the gas, she looked up at the rearview mirror and saw someone in her backseat.”
This definitely leaves the reader with some vague questions: “Who is in the car with Charlie?” “Has she been caught?” “Is someone going to rob her?”
Using the sneak-peek method, you might end the chapter this way instead:
“Charlie slid into the front seat and started the engine. As she hit the gas, she looked up at the rearview mirror and saw someone in her backseat. It was her partner, Detective Evan Jones.”
This sets readers down a whole different path of specific thought, ramping up their expectations and excitement. “Oh, no! What is her straight-laced partner doing in the backseat of her car? But wait, if he was going to arrest her, wouldn’t he have done it at the bank? …”
That little kernel of knowledge that you’ve given them creates new conflict, ups the stakes, and drives the reader on to the next chapter with more urgency.
What is your favorite tip or trick for creating a strong opening chapter?
“8 Ways to Write a 5-Star Chapter One,” Elizabeth Sims, Writer’s Digest
“4 Approaches for the First Chapter of Your Novel,” by Jeff Gerke, Writer’s Digest
“25 Things to Know about Writing the First Chapter of Your Novel,” by Chuck Wendig, Terrible Minds
Leave a CommentDo you want to publish more books, blog posts, or short stories? I’ve heard indie authors time and time again report that their overall sales start to pick up around book three or four. Finding ways to increase your writing speed can be a key step in becoming a productive, selling writer.
This is the best time ever to use dictation to increase your writing speed. Writing recognition software such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking has improved immensely (I am dictating this post with Dragon now). These programs may not be perfect, but I have found that I can get many more words out in the same amount of time when I am dictating instead of typing. Sure, you might have some funny errors to correct later, but you’re going to be editing anyway. You can also dictate to more and more programs and mobile apps. You can even dictate scenes on your phone and then add them to your Word or Scrivener file later. For more details, see Monica Leonell’s Dictate Your Book: How to Write Your Book Faster, Better, and Smarter.
Do some experimenting and figure out when you’re most alert, most energized, and least distracted. Then, schedule your writing for that time every day. There is a reason that the #5amwritersclub is a thing. Many people find that they do their best writing first thing in the morning, coffee in hand, before the stresses and responsibilities of the day take hold in their minds. Maybe you write best at 11 o’clock at night. Find your time, and stick to it.
It’s a lot easier to increase your writing speed and get more done if you’re not being constantly interrupted by children, pets, or just the allure of ever-present social media. So before you start to write, use the bathroom, check your email if you must, and get a drink. Don’t take too long. Then, put up your Do Not Disturb sign, mute your phone (or better yet, shut it off), and close your door. Exit your browser, and get to work.
If you have more than one writing project going on, work on the one that you’re feeling most enthusiastic about right now. If you’re excited about your work, it will go faster. I used to think having multiple writing projects at once would be too distracting, but when you need a day to mull on a problem in your book, you can still work on a blog post, your short story, or even a different book.
If you have a plan for your writing time before you start, you’ll write faster than if you have to figure out what you’re going to write about first. Separate your writing time from your research, brainstorming, and planning times. Do your outlining and research before you sit down to write. If you don’t have or want an outline, increase your writing speed by planning out the next day’s scenes after each writing session or by leaving yourself some breadcrumbs at the end of your last scene to pick up on the next day. If you have some fill-in research to do, try to do it before you sit down to write for the day.
Don’t worry about writing perfect scenes. Worry about writing more scenes. The time for editing will come, but first focus on getting words down on paper.
7. Try Writing SprintsWriting sprints are short periods of time when you do nothing but write. Pick a time (for example, 20 minutes), set a timer, and write. Don’t stop until the timer goes off. Don’t stop to edit, Google something, or pet your cat. You can even do this in a virtual group by inviting some others to join you via the hashtag #writingsprint on Twitter. Just don’t let tweeting distract you from your task.
If the details aren’t coming naturally, don’t waste time trying to elaborate now. Increase your writing speed by just laying down the framework for your story. You can fill in details and descriptions later during revisions.
Practice, practice, practice. Take these techniques and keep using them. As with anything else, you’ll get better at it, and you’ll increase your writing speed over time.
Keep a log. Seeing your progress day by day—whether it’s 100 words a day or 5000 words an hour—will inspire you to keep writing every day and increase your writing speed even more.
What are your favorite tips for increasing your writing speed?
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