Juliana Haygert

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Categories: My writing, On Writing, Publishing

Which route to follow?

I thought about naming this post “Traditional vs Self-Publishing”, but then I reconsidered seeing I’m going to talk about small presses too, and, to some, that’s not exactly going the traditional route since you don’t need an agent to submit to a small press.

Also, it took me a long time to write this post since my thoughts about this subject are many (and not necessarily in order) and they bring up more aspects and more subjects to the table.

Well, now on to the original post:

 

I still have my doubts of which way to follow about the publishing part of my books …

There are so many different ideas and discussions around the web about going trad or indie and, while reading them, I find myself divided.

Sometimes, I wake up and think “okay, I can do this. I’ll self-publish.”

Then, I stumble across a nice book from a big publisher and think how I would love the prestige of having my name under their wings.

Later, I read articles that feature Maya Banks and Moira Rogers (aka Donna and Bree) and some other authors that are published through small presses, without agents, and like it. They like the handling, the covers, the support, the sales.

Through it all, I think and think and think …  and can’t decide!

In an ideal world, my ideal world,  I would self-publish some works, have a series with a small press, and a series with a big-six. And from there I would decide which route is best for me, for my style, for my speed … or I could keep publishing the three ways forever. But that’s only a dream …

 

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT TRAD PUBLISHING:

  • Having an agent that can help me with my career, help me plan ahead, think and see big.
  • The prestige.
  • Having my books on almost any bookstore out there.

WHAT I DON’T LIKE ABOUT TRAD PUBLISHING:

  • The price of e-books.
  • If I don’t like my cover, there isn’t much I can do about it.
  • If an editor wants to cut a scene I love, there isn’t much I can do about it.
  • I don’t know what is the future of trad pub in these agitated waters. Will the trad publisher survive?

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT INDIE:

  • Control over cover.
  • Control over price.
  • Higher royalties.

WHAT I DON”T LIKE ABOUT INDIE:

  • Marketing. (I know it’s necessary to have an author platform today in trad pub too, but, if the publisher is putting money down on you, chances are they are going to invest a little in marketing too. Little = better than nothing).
  • Editing. I hired an editor, who first critiqued then line edited then copy edited my MS, but is it enough?
  • Writing crap. Deep down I know I don’t write crap, but what if my instincts are wrong? The editor said my MS was really good, but that’s one person. Alright, my beta readers also liked it, but they are my friends, they will never say my work is crap. How do I know for sure I wont make a full of myself publishing my MS?
  • Again, marketing. Really, it scares the hell away from me. I’m not sure how to self-promote my work.
  • Can I say marketing once more?

SMALL PRESSES: I actually don’t see a lot of talk about working with small presses. I know I would get cover art, editing, formatting, a little marketing (very little in some cases) … something else? Tempting …

 

Author Dean Wesley Smith suggests going indie for now, and later, when the turmoil swirling around the writing industry calms down (in a few years), try going the traditional route, if one so desires it yet.

In a blog post, write L.M. May suggests going both ways at the same time to optimize outlet and income, which is an awesome strategy, if you can land a deal with a trad publisher (we all know that’s not that easy).

Agent Kristin Nelson emphasizes, in her blog, that being successful in indie or trad publishing is like winning the lottery. And I agree with her. We see it everyday, indie authors who do great and others who don’t sell a thing. And the same applies to traditional published authors. There is no way of predicting what will happen, which novel will be a next NYT Bestseller.

These three articles have valid points I agree with, which adds to my agony of not being able to decide what to do.

This evening, talking with my DH about publishing, I mentioned I want to write for the sake of writing, not for money. Of course, as an engineer, he shook his head and said, “This is your job, you can’t think only about doing what pleases you. Now imagine if everyone thought like that about their jobs. Would anyone get anything done?” I hate to agree with him, but he is right. Yes, I would love to think about writing only what I love and think about my readers, not the money that will come in with every sale. However, my husband is a modern man and he wants his woman to help with the family income (thank God for that, btw, but that discussion is not for this post).

When I decided to try the writing route for real (before I wrote as a hobby), we’ve talked a lot about it. I quit my day job and began writing. Most important, we came with a deadline. If by the end of 2012, I still don’t have a deal or selling reasonably well  as an indie (or enough to contribute in the household. Reasonably well may vary from family to family, as for state to state), I’ll quit writing full time and find a day job. I cringe every time I think of that. Thanks Heaven that deadline is still far away. Nevertheless, with each day that goes by, the due date gets closer, and I can’t let it gnaw my insides, otherwise I won’t be able to concentrate and do what I love: to write.

And, with each day that goes by, I’m still not sure about what to do.

How come I have a MS ready, fully critiqued and edited, and still don’t know what to do? I doubt it happens often. I guess I’m waiting for Jesus Christ to come knock on my door and tell me he got my dream deal for me! LOL

And you, what do you think I should do?

 

Cheers,

Categories: On Writing, Querying

Rejection Insights

 

Yesterday, Angela James, the Executive Editor from Carina Press, shared a few insightful sentences from the rejection report she was working on with her followers on twitter.

I’ve used copy and paste and saved almost all of her #editreport tweets. After considering more people who missed it yesterday might benefit from the tips, I’ve decided to post the tweets on my blog.

Also, I think these tips may serve not only those who plan to submit Carina Press, but every writer on the process of querying agents and/or publishers, seeing as they may reject submissions for the same reasons.

 

First, let me point out a few things:

James shared two links with her followers: one that explained about the reasons for rejection and one about Revise and Resubmit. Also, I found this post called Things we don’t reject books for. You should check them out as they clarify a lot of questions all of us have.

James also shared the link for her Before You Hit Send workshop (an “intensive three-week workshop where she shares some of the common pitfalls she’s seen in submissions and contest entries.”)

 

Second, here are some of the questions people (including me) asked James during the #editreport tweets:

(note the answers come before the questions)

Last calculations: accepting 5% of slush. Abt 8% overall subs. RT @Juliana_Haygert: Can you share the acceptance/rejection rate with us?

Around 75/week. RT @Juliana_Haygert: @angelajames Another question: how many subs per week or month @CarinaPress receives?

Maybe… 10-15%. Pretty high # bcuz of # of editors reading subs MT @ros_clarke: Do you have an idea how many books get read to the end?

Yes we do. Too much depends on story. RT @ixtumea: @angelajames Do you see a lot of the back story dump? When is too much in your opinion?

Not really. Must just be able to manage schedule. RT @NadiaLee: @angelajames Is there a limit on how many books your editors can acquire?

16 in last 2 months RT @LuannaN_Grace: @angelajames do you get many revise and resubmit recommendations from your editors? #editreport

Usually only get 25% back. Acquire half of those. RT @sarahtanner: @angelajames How many R&R eventually result in a contract? Thanks!

 

Now the actual tweets (in chronological order):

“Stilted and adverb-heavy”#editreport

“feels like a Message Book, & the message…is not subtle, it’s overwhelming the narrative” #editreport

“an opportunity for rich, vivid worldbuilding, but it fell flat” #editreport

“Passive voice, tense shifts, flat. Not ready for submission.” #editreport

“The voice is off…trying too hard…doesn’t feel authentic, too much tell” #editreport

“The synopsis doesn’t promise anything compelling enough to keep reading” #editreport

“suffering from dialogue that is spoken and then is described in tone and detail with extended speech tags” #editreport

“3rd person omniscient, so I feel distant, head-hopping is more jarring than helpfully informative of everyone’s states of mind” #editreport

“Tell-y infodump right up front…Redundant info, not engaging.” #editreport

“moved quickly & prose was okay, but it felt like it was treading pretty common ground…wasn’t any discernible, real conflict” #editreport

“but I didn’t find myself invested in this.” #editreport

“the writing just isn’t tight or polished enough, and the voice doesn’t always feel consistent or assured” #editreport

“a little slow to get going, doesn’t have quite enough energy or line by line tension.” #editreport

“some overwriting, getting characters from point A to point B…characterizations are heavy-handed” #editreport

“some witty banter & good characterization, but am passing because story does not have the sizzle it needs & has forced conflict” #editreport

“In the end it’s an okay story, but it fails to go beyond that to be a truly publishable one.” #editreport

“filled with cliché stereotypes” #editreport

“(too much) Backstory, a lack of compelling action, and some relationship building that tries too hard” #editreport

“could be considerably shortened…too many scenes do not serve a purpose, contribute neither to character development nor plot” #editreport

“X needs to be a more fully developed character in order to make this story really work” #editreport

“The setting and characters really pulled me into this novel” #editreports (thought I’d share a few positive comments as well)

“nice description & action-driven opening propelled novel forward despite some passive voice & rather unclear motivation” #editreport

“opening chapters filled w/dull, daily details that get across sense of pervading discontent but don’t encrage extended reading” #editreport

“dialogue is snappy and the pacing zips along…writing has intelligence and good energy” #editreport

“There’s too much boring setup in the first chapter” #editreport

“By end of 2nd chapter this story was starting to sound familiar, then I realized we’ve rejected this before, under diff. title” #editreport

“love this story’s premise but…dialogue doesn’t sound authentic, there’s too much telling vs. showing.” #editreport

“I kept noticing the writing instead of getting lost in the story” #editreport

“This contemporary romance was never really compelling enough to keep reading” #editreport

“The synopsis for this story was excellent but the story did not hold up” #editreport

“There was no connection between the two main characters and their interaction did not ring true” #editreport

“author made real effort not to use exposition…instead relied on simplistic & stilted dialogue to explain what was happening” #editreport

“There were moments that sparkled,but also scenes that dragged, prose plagued by grammatical errors, & a long, contrived ending” #editreport

“There’s not a strong hook to this women’s fiction novel” #editreport

“this storyline is overdone in this genre and needs a great voice or a fresh angle to pull it off–this novel had neither” #editreport

“overall it was overwritten and I felt…I was slogging through stilted, adverb-laden narrative to get to the story” #editreport

“writing lacks depth. Lots and lots of narrative. Action doesn’t start fast enough. POV wobbles” #editreport

“I was initially so excited to read this. I adore XXX stories & the promise of a trilogy hooked my interest immediately. ” #editreport

“story had many holes & loose threads at the end. Pages would be devoted to an issue that wld disappear…never mentioned again” #editreport

“characters would repeat conversations from previous chapters, nearly word for word” #editreport

“characters never moved past 2D, and the secondary characters were more caricatures than anything else” #editreport

“the multiple POV’s were often times unnecessary and jarring to the plot” #editreport

“Overall, I loved the hook for this. Yet, I couldn’t engage in the characters or the plot. ” #editreport

“It’s a fairly common plot and nothing about the writing stands out” #editreport (is this one starting to look familiar?)

“An interesting premise, yet I don’t think the author has quite developed her craft.” #editreport

“There was an initial promise for deep, intriguing characters. Yet, the author gives away way too much, way too soon” #editreport ½

“Within the first fifty pages, readers have already gone over the same memories, info-dumps, and backstory multiple times.” #editreport 2/3

“One hundred pages in, and the same information is being revisited and analyzed yet again” #editreport 3/3 (ended up being 3 tweets!)

“ending is too easy and the author breezes over the significant moments—” #editreport ½

“instead filling the narration with telling that distances the reader from achieving any emotional connection” #editreport 2/2

“romance has zero sizzle and reads as though the author is simply going through the motions” #editreport

“romance has zero sizzle and reads as though the author is simply going through the motions” #editreport

“Pace moves too quick, rather than allowing the reader to feel the emotion and heartbreak, the author skims over them” #editreport

“I think the author shows talent for capturing the historical atmosphere” #editreport

“The writing in this novella is so clean it hurts to reject it, but the plot does not grow to be more compelling” #editreport

“This contemp romance feels like it needs a LOT of craft work.” #editreport

“I really wanted to like this, but ultimately after the first couple of chapters I found it too jarring. ” #editreport

“the stakes didn’t feel big enough to engage me” #editreport

“I really wanted to like it and found the sexual tension between the characters very sexy and compelling” #editreport

“I have no idea what’s going on in this story” #editreport

“I found this so implausible it almost offended me” (editor describing a scene where the heroine has insta-lust) #editreport

“wasn’t badly written, but the characters were rather bland” #editreport

 

Note: I didn’t copy the positive tweets since I was only interested in the negative aspects of each rejection.

 

I hope this helps you (and me) on the nervous-wrecking submission process!

 

Cheers,

 

Categories: My writing, On Writing

Staying Focused

 

I’ve found out about Focus Booster on Amanda Hocking’s blog back in March.

On the post where she talks about Focus Booster, Amanda Hocking said it helped her … and it is helping me.

Focus Booster is an application that counts time. Yes, like a timer. It stays over your doc file, or whatever other window you have open on your computer, and counts time. You can set it for how long you want and you can pause if needed.

Why it helps?

Normally, I start writing, and after every scene or chapter or, sometimes even in between paragraphs, I check the internet … emails, twitter, Facebook, my website, GoodReads, whatever … and that steals my writing time and disturbs my concentration.

With Focus Booster over my doc file, I managed to stay offline. Really. The timer is counting and I’m like “okay, I gotta get this done. Till the time is over, I need to write and write and write.”

I know, the app is simple and it sounds almost stupid, but it really helped me. Really. Last Friday, I got down 5k words in 3 hours. To me, that was awesome!

Yesterday (Monday) was a bit more complicated because, since I don’t write during weekends, it gets me a couple of tries to get down focused on my story again. So, yesterday, I got 2.5k words in 2 hours (not counting here the hours spent in research and outlining–just the plain, old hands-on-keyboard writing).

I turned off TweetDeck and closed my Google chrome page and wrote. If I needed something off the internet, like a research item or the name of a place, I highlighted it and searched for it later, so I would not stop writing. I felt like I was in an exam, with a hard-shelf teacher, where the time was limited to answer all the hundreds of questions and I needed to pass. Just awesome!

How about you? What do you do to stay focused? What helps you stay focused and off the addicting internet?

Cheers,

 

Categories: My writing, On Writing

The Terrifying First Blank Page

 

 

I started a new story last week.

Each time I start a new story, with that first blank page staring at me with its terrifying brightness (laptop screen!), I feel like I can’t do it. I can’t write anymore.

How do I start? What if my story is lame? What if my first pages are trash? What if my characters are not intriguing and relatable?

And the possibilities? Gosh, it’s endless. You can right ANYTHING about ANYTHING! For example, you could write about a polar bear who lives in a suburban house in the middle of humans–and that would be normal in your story. And he has a porcupine girlfriend who is a socialite and hate animals. The polar bear could love to cruise in his convertible and do a little magic in which he makes coke bottles appear (coke ads?). Then, a comet could crash right in his backyard and little aliens could come out of it. You see? ANY crazy shit could happen. It’s your imagination, after all …

Anyway, back to the topic …

Then, I think my writing is not that wonderful yet, that I should take more workshops, watch more webminars, read more books about writing. If I surrender to that, I won’t ever write. There are too many books about writing out there, too many websites giving tips and promising to make you a better writer … If I let myself believe I’m not ready and postpone my writing because I think it’s not ready and I need to study before actually writing, then it sure won’t ever be.

My writing will only get better once I start writing. To become a better writer, I must write, write, write, read, read, read, write, write, write and so on. And, even when my manuscript is ready and good to be published, I won’t be done. My writing, like any other writer’s, will keep evolving and getting better forever.

Did you ever notice how the Harry Potter books get thicker and thicker and thicker? It’s not only the complexity of the plot. It’s the fact that J.K. Rowling got better at writing each time she wrote her books. And it’s easy to notice her writing improving from book one to book two to book three … At least I noticed it (perhaps only one with a writer’s mind would notice that?).

So, after a few moments of panicking while staring at the first blank page of a new project, I shake it off and just write … whatever scene comes to mind, or, if I have a set outline, I try to follow that … later, I come back and tweak the beginning since it won’t be terrifying anymore.

And, once I get started and move past the second page, I relax and my writing comes out naturally …

… till the next first blank page!

Cheers,

Categories: My writing, On Writing, Reading

Writing time vs. Reading time

 

 

I came across Nathan Bransford’s post about Writing Time vs. Reading Time … and that got me thinking …

May was a writing month to me … while June was a reading one.

Well, June is not over yet, but I barely wrote–anything new at least. I did work on my book (a lot), with edits and revision and I’ve been working with an editor, and, while she revises my manuscript, I decided I should catch up with my reading. My to-read list is enormous and it gets bigger and bigger by the minute …

Though, what got me thinking was the reading time … I’ve been following some very interesting and informative people and organizations in Twitter and they post links to articles they wrote or read. And, if it sounds interesting, I open it up and read it.

I also follow many blogs and most of them post new articles daily.

Then we have emails, news (which I read online), and other social media (facebook, goodreads, orkut, etc).

And books. We all read books, don’t we?

So, with so much reading to do, is there time to write? Ah, yeah, that’s a good question.

Internet and social media made our lives easier … I shop mostly online, I do all kinds of research, search maps and places, watch new music videos by my fave bands and singers … I got to reconnect with friends I had not seen for many, many years! And I also follow my favorite writers and talk to readers and fellow aspiring authors and much more. It’s fast, easy and fun!

But it’s also easy to get carried away and forget about time when surfing the net …

As a writer, it’s necessary to turn off the internet for a few hours each day, literally, otherwise I won’t get any writing done. And that’s good because, when I get engaged in my story, I write really fast (in a good day, I can get about 8k words … but that’s for another post).

Also, I need time to read the books in my long to-read list, after all, a good writer is also a good reader.

 

And you? How do you balance your “reading” time and your writing (or your job, if you’re not a writer)?

 

Cheers,

Categories: On Writing, Reading

New Adult Fiction

 

That’s what I write!

Well, till a few days ago, I wasn’t sure where my manuscripts fit in this wide publishing world … now I know.

Apparently, in 2009, St. Martins “created” the New Adult category because many adults were reading Young Adults books and they felt like those adults would like a more mature protagonist, but not as mature as the protagonists of the adult session (that’s what I read on the web, at least).

And that’s exactly my case.

My first serious manuscript featured a 20 yo protagonist. Where would I place her? She is not in the teens anymore, but she isn’t quite a fulfilled adult, with job, successful career, hubby and such.

So I tried writing my girls with 17 to 18 … it didn’t work. You know why? Because I just can’t sound like a teenager anymore. I just don’t know how. My writing and dialogue sound too mature for YA and I just couldn’t have my heroines stand there while popular, shallow bitches humiliated them in the school gym. Normally, my temper would rise with the scene and, as consequence, my heroine would end up punching the bitch in the face and step over her (which I did when I was 15 btw, but that’s another story). Besides, HS is too much drama over too little … I didn’t want to relive those days. My protagonists were way too mature for HS. And I like my heroes, the male side of my story, a little older than my heroines … so, even with a 17 yo heroine, my hero was about 23-26. Still out of the YA range, right? Yeah, I know.

I went back to the 20s.

Actually, my fourth manuscript features a 19 yo heroine. She will be 20 in the sequel.

My protagonist are all around 19-25–which is the range of the New Adult category.

MG is 9-12, YA is 12-18, sometimes 14-19, and adult is over that. Of course, this is not set in stone and readers’ age vary a lot. I, for example, graduated from HS almost 12 years ago and read a lot of YA and some MG. This numbers and categories names are just references for the readers, to make it easy to find a book that may interest them.

But isn’t 19-25 yo an adult?, you may ask, and I’ll answer: yes, in some sense. I think that the main difference, in a novel, is where the protagonist is in her life, the writing tone, the word choice, and the heat level. Normally, adult books have an almost formal writing (more than YA, at least), a high usage of the F-word, and pretty detailed sex scenes. I also don’t write like that. My protagonists don’t sound so formal, I don’t write too many dirty curses (you’ll find a lot of “damn” though) and my sex scenes are more sensual than detailed.

And, like I mentioned before, many adults were seeking YA books to read (one of the reasons why the YA market is so popular these days), so now these readers can find books where the main characters are in college instead of high school, who are more mature and away from home and don’t need to follow their parents rules.

I’m sure these category didn’t just popped out of nowhere and I’m sure authors have been writing about 19-25 heroines and heroes for a long time, but now these books can be categorized and separated from the YA shelves–at least on our minds, since bookstores don’t seem to carry a New Adult shelf … yet.

I know, many authors won’t like that distinction. Many want to be in the YA shelves since those shelves are getting a lot of attention lately, but I am pretty happy about it. I don’t want readers to tag my books as purely YA, because they are not. I don’t want to write YA. Not because I don’t like it. I do like it. I read YA a lot! But I can’t write YA. It’s not for the writer in me.

Now the writer here will go back to writing =)
Cheers,

 

Categories: On Writing

Plotter or pantser?

 

Since I saw many posts about it this past week, I decided to write my own.

First, for my friends who are not in the writing world, the definition of each:

Plotter–a writer who plots, meaning that, before writing the novel, the writer comes up with an outline of the novel.

Pantser–a writer who wings it! A writer who just sits at his chair and let his mind run free while jotting down everything.

Second, I think that there are more categories in between a heavy-plotter and a free-pantser. Many more.

I’m in the middle, for example. More to the plotter side, I confess. Well, truth be told, if you ask me, I’ll tell you I’m a plotter.

This is how I normally do it: I create an outline … sometimes it’s detailed (but not more than 4 or 5 typed pages) with some dialogue sentences that already popped into my mind or an specific setting, sometimes my outline is per chapter or scene, and sometimes it’s just a direction from where it begins and where it has to end, with a few bridges along the way.

Then I begin writing.

And I let my writing to take me where it wants to go. If a scene takes off and escapes me all of a sudden but it has a good promise and I like it, I follow it–though I keep in my mind where, in the end, I want to get with it, or where it has to lead me.

Ninety-five percent of the time I know the ending of my novel. The other five showed up when I let the scenes reign over, and I didn’t regret it.

Yes, if I have a sequel planned and change the end of the previous volume, I’ll have to rework the sequel’s plot outline, but that is always fun.

I like creating plots. It’s nice to see where your story goes and add twists and surprises along the road.

On an article on the web about this same topic, I read that plotters may lose their interest in the story because it’s not fresh anymore. Since they already know where they are going and what their character will come up with, it’s not fun to write about it anymore and the writing becomes dull, with boring scenes.

Perhaps that’s why I let the excitement take me over when a dialogue I did not foresee suddenly leads to a heated argument? If it is, it’s not a conscious choice.

I think plotting is like life. You prepare for it, you organize everything and everyone around you for it, you plan for it (sometimes many years ahead), but you’re never really ready for it. Life comes with many surprises we do not and cannot predict and we just wing it! We wing it, adapting the new curves and twists to our previous plans.

And that’s exactly how I write.
Cheers,