by Louis Bertrand Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
He reached with his hand for the doorknob.
He reached for the doorknob.
Inside of his head he was thinking, “What is going on with Fred?”
“What is going on with Fred?” he wondered.
John arrived at the farmhouse, where he found there were no vehicles in the driveway or parked out front, although he couldn’t say for sure if there were any in the barn, so he approached cautiously.
Arriving at the farmhouse, no vehicles were visible. The barn was locked shut. John couldn’t see in the windows. His spine crawled. It was too quiet and there was no guarantee the place was deserted. *
* The obvious conclusion here is that some words are simply unnecessary. It seems clear that more information is being conveyed using the same approximate number of words in the second example. Not so immediately obvious from the third example is ‘pacing.’ Look closely and you will see the story has advanced about the same amount. He arrives at the same place. We're getting a lot more work done.
What is different is the mood of the story. It is more ‘suspenseful.’ The impression is that the speed of the story is 'faster.' It's not--it just feels faster-paced when each and every word advances the story, describes, or sets mood.
‘His spine crawled,’ and ‘it was too quiet,’ are cliches. In the previous sentence there was no room to put ‘extra stuff’ in; because it was too wordy and poorly organized to begin with.
So now we have this:
Arriving at Fred’s place, the barn was locked shut. The half-rotten old plank door rattled in the breeze, despite the new brass padlock. He was almost sure someone was watching from the house.
Reaching with his hand for the doorknob on the door of the house, inside of his head he was thinking the thought, ‘I wonder what the heck is up with old Fred?” (Sorry. –ed.)
Next Time: semi-colons and where you can stick them.
Notes: First, I do edit online when I could simply use the preview feature. If the screen jumps on you, send me an e-mail at louisbshalako@cogeco.ca.
Secondly, there is some method here. It is analytical. Look at the following sentence:
Brendan was angry and didn’t want to take it anymore.
I have a similar sentence in a blurb on Lulu.com and maybe a few other places.
Is 'anymore' a real word? I just typed it into a document file and used Word's 'spelling and grammar check' feature. The word 'didn't' was underlined in green because it is a contraction. The word 'anymore' was not underlined in green or red. Somebody somewhere thinks it is a word.
In a previous blog post I think I noted that Word's spelling and grammar check may become some kind of international standard. No doubt there will still be local variations...in the absence of any other quick help, it will have to do.
Note to Self: 'french fries' should be capitalized, i.e., 'French fries.'
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
The Future of the Book
by Louis Bertrand Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
The future of the book has never looked healthier. Books are available to more people in more venues and more formats than ever before. This new access to freedom of information will create vast social upheavals. Not just for repressive states, where Egypt immediately springs to mind, but for our own country as well.
Every big media conglomerate will continue to produce paper and ink books in hardcover, paperbacks, limited editions and boxed sets. They will all enter the e-book field, but then they all make audiobooks and produce the things on CD. They have global distribution and they will use it.
These books will tie in to existing media operations, like Oprah's book club and Stephen Colbert's renouwned science fiction books, especially the Tech Hansen series.
It's just merchandising. Several authorities have noted there is no 'morality' in this industry.
That is why they call it 'an industry.'
What will change is that the specialty houses will for the most part disappear or be bought out by the conglomerates. There will be mergers and acquisitions.
It is debt and the inability to repay that killed them. It is lack of leadership and foresight that killed them. In Canada, a dependence on subsidies will kill them.
The recession that never could affect Canada because we're immune according to CTV News Channel is what killed them.
What this means to human freedom and dignity in the long term is still up to us, or at least we the writers might have some input. The better people among us will make sure of that.
To the entry-level author, you either just got the last contract going, or you don't have one at all. In the first case, you got a different deal than someone two or three years ago. In the second case, you do not know the difference, and now are in the same boat as any other author looking at self-publishing. Your other option is to polish your skills and keep submitting. This might take years, or you might get, 'lucky.'
For most, it is not in their best interest to disparage self-publishing no matter who does it, because this is now the normal working environment.
But what is really going to happen in a big way, is that the predators will flourish. That is absolutely, dead-certain in the short term. That's because all the people are still looking for reassurance. They're looking for praise, and they're looking for someone to promote them, and instruct them, and baby them, and they're looking for validation of the dream they hold.
"What a great read! And so beautifully written," one such acceptance letter might read. "Thank God you haven't signed a contract with someone else. All we want is all rights in all media and all languages and all formats for five years with an automatic renewal for four years clause and if we come out with another edition it extends the contract accordingly."
(Similar letter and contract on file. -ed.)
Just what a new author wants to hear, isn't it? A little too good to be true, isn't it? Kind of like all those self-published books with the five-star ratings three days after they appear online.
We heard that 'everyone has at least one good book in them,' and it's true, isn't it?
If you sign that, they will own your book or a piece of it for the rest of your life.
Check with a lawyer, all right? Someone sends you a contract, call a lawyer. It is a fact of life. Just do it.
Vanity publishing will flourish for those who cannot handle the truth. This is a job. You have to get training and you have to work at it. When I tell people I am training as an editor they think I am the one that is crazy? Hah!
Good writing will flourish for those with the patience to pursue it and the work ethic to continue on when everyone else thinks you have already failed, and is ashamed of your stubbornly holding on to what is not just a goal, but a higher aspiration.
Realistically, the enthusiastic amateurs will publish some books, make no money, find they are unable to take the heat or the kidding, and drop by the wayside. They will cherish the dream, and maybe come back to it when they are older and more mature.
The future of the book is healthier than ever. The industry will somehow adapt, improvise and overcome.
What is really new is that guys like me now stand a chance. That's new. That's different.
It is not social mobility that is the big threat to the established order.
It's debt, and some new ideas.
c2010
All Rights Reserved
The future of the book has never looked healthier. Books are available to more people in more venues and more formats than ever before. This new access to freedom of information will create vast social upheavals. Not just for repressive states, where Egypt immediately springs to mind, but for our own country as well.
Every big media conglomerate will continue to produce paper and ink books in hardcover, paperbacks, limited editions and boxed sets. They will all enter the e-book field, but then they all make audiobooks and produce the things on CD. They have global distribution and they will use it.
These books will tie in to existing media operations, like Oprah's book club and Stephen Colbert's renouwned science fiction books, especially the Tech Hansen series.
It's just merchandising. Several authorities have noted there is no 'morality' in this industry.
That is why they call it 'an industry.'
What will change is that the specialty houses will for the most part disappear or be bought out by the conglomerates. There will be mergers and acquisitions.
It is debt and the inability to repay that killed them. It is lack of leadership and foresight that killed them. In Canada, a dependence on subsidies will kill them.
The recession that never could affect Canada because we're immune according to CTV News Channel is what killed them.
What this means to human freedom and dignity in the long term is still up to us, or at least we the writers might have some input. The better people among us will make sure of that.
To the entry-level author, you either just got the last contract going, or you don't have one at all. In the first case, you got a different deal than someone two or three years ago. In the second case, you do not know the difference, and now are in the same boat as any other author looking at self-publishing. Your other option is to polish your skills and keep submitting. This might take years, or you might get, 'lucky.'
For most, it is not in their best interest to disparage self-publishing no matter who does it, because this is now the normal working environment.
But what is really going to happen in a big way, is that the predators will flourish. That is absolutely, dead-certain in the short term. That's because all the people are still looking for reassurance. They're looking for praise, and they're looking for someone to promote them, and instruct them, and baby them, and they're looking for validation of the dream they hold.
"What a great read! And so beautifully written," one such acceptance letter might read. "Thank God you haven't signed a contract with someone else. All we want is all rights in all media and all languages and all formats for five years with an automatic renewal for four years clause and if we come out with another edition it extends the contract accordingly."
(Similar letter and contract on file. -ed.)
Just what a new author wants to hear, isn't it? A little too good to be true, isn't it? Kind of like all those self-published books with the five-star ratings three days after they appear online.
We heard that 'everyone has at least one good book in them,' and it's true, isn't it?
If you sign that, they will own your book or a piece of it for the rest of your life.
Check with a lawyer, all right? Someone sends you a contract, call a lawyer. It is a fact of life. Just do it.
Vanity publishing will flourish for those who cannot handle the truth. This is a job. You have to get training and you have to work at it. When I tell people I am training as an editor they think I am the one that is crazy? Hah!
Good writing will flourish for those with the patience to pursue it and the work ethic to continue on when everyone else thinks you have already failed, and is ashamed of your stubbornly holding on to what is not just a goal, but a higher aspiration.
Realistically, the enthusiastic amateurs will publish some books, make no money, find they are unable to take the heat or the kidding, and drop by the wayside. They will cherish the dream, and maybe come back to it when they are older and more mature.
The future of the book is healthier than ever. The industry will somehow adapt, improvise and overcome.
What is really new is that guys like me now stand a chance. That's new. That's different.
It is not social mobility that is the big threat to the established order.
It's debt, and some new ideas.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Strategy and Tactics.
by Louis Bertrand Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
I just got a rejection and according to the rules of engagement, the thing to do is to resubmit it immediately.
Checking the preferred market, I noted that their upper word limit is 4,000 words and my story, the best thing that I have available, is over 5,000 words. It would be bad tactics to submit the story to this market.
The simple strategy is to search the listings for another market. It should be a market where the story has not been subbed before, and it should be comparable in terms of pay or the next notch down the totem pole.
***
I have a story which in some ways is kind of lame. Difficult to define, I guess maybe it doesn't belong in Clarkesworld right beside Dr. Peter Watts, who I suspect would not be particularly pleased.
The problem is, to submit it to a fledgling market, or try to take five or ten bucks off some poor schmuck; all the while convinced that I really love the guy like a brother and I'm doing him a favour is bullshit. If it is a lame story, that ain't his fault.
All that being said, I can still take a lame story, and use it in a blog, especially if I had art to go with it, or submit it after some stiff rewriting to a more appropriate market. Here again, I keep coming back to youth markets, Christian markets, or whatever. Just remember, the classic science fiction of the Golden Age created stories and characters that we remembered with little explicit sex, and gore. Even now, it seems that 'language' is a kind of a deal breaker in certain markets. (Even my own blog, for the most part.)
***
Strategy is different than tactics. Tactics are short-term, dealing with a crisis or implementing a plan.
Strategy is long term. My strategy of submitting good stories to good markets, working patiently to earn my entry into the Science Fiction Writers of America, to read every 'bleeping' thing that I can get on the industry, is a good strategy. It holds true for anyone.
The story I just submitted might be crap! The strategy is still good. Assuming a story gets placed, then having my books self-published and out there, all ready to go, in all formats is a good one.
The strategy of teaching myself how to edit is a good one. The strategy of learning how to format my own work is a good one.
Tactics take a certain situational awareness and a flair for the dramatic.
Strategy takes patience, and wisdom, and total comprehension of the operating environment.
c2010
All Rights Reserved
I just got a rejection and according to the rules of engagement, the thing to do is to resubmit it immediately.
Checking the preferred market, I noted that their upper word limit is 4,000 words and my story, the best thing that I have available, is over 5,000 words. It would be bad tactics to submit the story to this market.
The simple strategy is to search the listings for another market. It should be a market where the story has not been subbed before, and it should be comparable in terms of pay or the next notch down the totem pole.
***
I have a story which in some ways is kind of lame. Difficult to define, I guess maybe it doesn't belong in Clarkesworld right beside Dr. Peter Watts, who I suspect would not be particularly pleased.
The problem is, to submit it to a fledgling market, or try to take five or ten bucks off some poor schmuck; all the while convinced that I really love the guy like a brother and I'm doing him a favour is bullshit. If it is a lame story, that ain't his fault.
All that being said, I can still take a lame story, and use it in a blog, especially if I had art to go with it, or submit it after some stiff rewriting to a more appropriate market. Here again, I keep coming back to youth markets, Christian markets, or whatever. Just remember, the classic science fiction of the Golden Age created stories and characters that we remembered with little explicit sex, and gore. Even now, it seems that 'language' is a kind of a deal breaker in certain markets. (Even my own blog, for the most part.)
***
Strategy is different than tactics. Tactics are short-term, dealing with a crisis or implementing a plan.
Strategy is long term. My strategy of submitting good stories to good markets, working patiently to earn my entry into the Science Fiction Writers of America, to read every 'bleeping' thing that I can get on the industry, is a good strategy. It holds true for anyone.
The story I just submitted might be crap! The strategy is still good. Assuming a story gets placed, then having my books self-published and out there, all ready to go, in all formats is a good one.
The strategy of teaching myself how to edit is a good one. The strategy of learning how to format my own work is a good one.
Tactics take a certain situational awareness and a flair for the dramatic.
Strategy takes patience, and wisdom, and total comprehension of the operating environment.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Ebook 'Covers'
by Louis Bertrand Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
If none of my books are ever released as print books, then the standards and concerns that apply to print books do not apply.
If people are shopping for books using an iPad, phone, Kindle, etc, then first of all the screen size is small. While some people have big screen computer monitors at home, the most popular accessories are portable. They are, after all, status symbols as well as practical devices. The people who buy them are mobile, and pressed for time. If you are at home, why do you need an ebook at all, is one way of looking at it.
For that reason, it might be wise to have different versions of a cover, one for electronic, where the thumbnails might be quite small, and one for a print version.
Small text, blurbs, all of that can go on the webpage where it is sold. The image is merely a marketing image rather than a 'cover.' Do people judge a book by a cover? No, but they do judge whether to look inside the first time by its cover. Of all the things I would like change, the cover of 'Core Values' is one of them! I have no ideas. That's the real problem, and I suppose I am stuck with it.
An ebook doesn't need rear cover art unless previously published in print, and then it is either a courtesy or a convention.
The point is that tiny little images that barely work on a paperback might not be too good for ebooks, and for that reason we experiment with short titles, big text and big images.
There is no doubt that a free giveaway product would benefit from a really attractive 'cover.' The basic file or product is the same.
Many have remarked over the centuries, how seldom do the pictures on book covers resemble the stuff that actually happened in the book. That never stopped anyone from buying them.
If I had a really good cover image in mind, one that I thought I could produce very well, then I would be more likely to publish another novel. As it is, I'm not even really submitting the things around.
There are some good reasons for that which I might talk about later.
***
Notes: I have two stories to be submittted tomorrow. Having something on the desk for the morning kind of helps me to get going. By later in the day, something has been 'produced,' and then maybe I kind of wing it a little more and follow my interest and see where it leads. The one story is a fragment of something I abandoned back in November, and the other is an old story, re-polished in the light of newly-acquired skills. It is more prosaically written than my recent stuff, but that's okay. The thing is to polish it and take out unnecesary words. I can maybe submit it somewhere for a younger group of readers.
Children's literature is anything but easy, and it's a very competitive field.
Anyway, it can't hurt to try. It's also lucrative, incidentally. (Or so I've heard.)
***
I woke up this morning and thought I had broken my left heel! Man does that hurt, and I have no idea how it happened. This is actually a good thing, as surely I would have remembered any major physical trauma from the day before. Maybe it's just a tendon pull.
It really makes going up a set of stairs a kind of misery...let me tell you. The problem there is no hand rails into the basement, and now my right knee is packing it in. Old injuries. Lower back all stiff and sore!
It's just too negative to blog about!
So the hell with it.
UPDATE: the chat with horror author Jeremy C. Shipp at #sffwrtcht went very well, and a big thumbs-up to Bryan Thomas Schmidt for hosting. That's Wednesdays at nine p.m. and Bryan's on facebook if you want more data.
I think I have the hang of TweetDeck now.
c2010
All Rights Reserved
If none of my books are ever released as print books, then the standards and concerns that apply to print books do not apply.
If people are shopping for books using an iPad, phone, Kindle, etc, then first of all the screen size is small. While some people have big screen computer monitors at home, the most popular accessories are portable. They are, after all, status symbols as well as practical devices. The people who buy them are mobile, and pressed for time. If you are at home, why do you need an ebook at all, is one way of looking at it.
For that reason, it might be wise to have different versions of a cover, one for electronic, where the thumbnails might be quite small, and one for a print version.
Small text, blurbs, all of that can go on the webpage where it is sold. The image is merely a marketing image rather than a 'cover.' Do people judge a book by a cover? No, but they do judge whether to look inside the first time by its cover. Of all the things I would like change, the cover of 'Core Values' is one of them! I have no ideas. That's the real problem, and I suppose I am stuck with it.
An ebook doesn't need rear cover art unless previously published in print, and then it is either a courtesy or a convention.
The point is that tiny little images that barely work on a paperback might not be too good for ebooks, and for that reason we experiment with short titles, big text and big images.
There is no doubt that a free giveaway product would benefit from a really attractive 'cover.' The basic file or product is the same.
Many have remarked over the centuries, how seldom do the pictures on book covers resemble the stuff that actually happened in the book. That never stopped anyone from buying them.
If I had a really good cover image in mind, one that I thought I could produce very well, then I would be more likely to publish another novel. As it is, I'm not even really submitting the things around.
There are some good reasons for that which I might talk about later.
***
Notes: I have two stories to be submittted tomorrow. Having something on the desk for the morning kind of helps me to get going. By later in the day, something has been 'produced,' and then maybe I kind of wing it a little more and follow my interest and see where it leads. The one story is a fragment of something I abandoned back in November, and the other is an old story, re-polished in the light of newly-acquired skills. It is more prosaically written than my recent stuff, but that's okay. The thing is to polish it and take out unnecesary words. I can maybe submit it somewhere for a younger group of readers.
Children's literature is anything but easy, and it's a very competitive field.
Anyway, it can't hurt to try. It's also lucrative, incidentally. (Or so I've heard.)
***
I woke up this morning and thought I had broken my left heel! Man does that hurt, and I have no idea how it happened. This is actually a good thing, as surely I would have remembered any major physical trauma from the day before. Maybe it's just a tendon pull.
It really makes going up a set of stairs a kind of misery...let me tell you. The problem there is no hand rails into the basement, and now my right knee is packing it in. Old injuries. Lower back all stiff and sore!
It's just too negative to blog about!
So the hell with it.
UPDATE: the chat with horror author Jeremy C. Shipp at #sffwrtcht went very well, and a big thumbs-up to Bryan Thomas Schmidt for hosting. That's Wednesdays at nine p.m. and Bryan's on facebook if you want more data.
I think I have the hang of TweetDeck now.
Persistence.
by Louis Bertrand Shalako
c2010
All Rights Reserved
First of all, the best promotion for our books and stories is to place good stories in good markets.
Back in November, when I finally got the time to write more material, after e-publishing my first four titles, I managed to smash out about 44,000 words. It was 'nano month.' I participated without really competing.
One thing I did was to experiment with a western. The three or four pages I did looked okay, but with no major plot, or conflict, or 'gag' in mind, I didn't complete it.
All righty then. So two months later, after not writing much, I dug the thing out and finished it. What I did was to think of Mike Resnick, and his 'weird westerns,' and I realized that hard science wasn't always necessary to write a good story.
By throwing in telepathy, an alien horse, a plastic planet and the Evil Dr. Schmitt-Rotluff, and by focusing on word choice and 'patter,' (or rythm, maybe,) I came up with something new for me.
That is the value of persistence. I had one file with a bunch of titles in it. One of those was basically a blank document file. Just a title and a byline! I must have been hard up that day.
Anyhow, again, the title was enough to get me going, and there must have been some idea there in my brain the first time around. Sure enough, another story, only 550 words, but I like what I have.
So now, I'm going through all the pro markets on ralan.com. There aren't a lot of them, and I have subs in at quite a few already.
The thing to do now is to take out and polish every previously unpublished story. To really think about what's there. Is it just plain lame? Is it badly written, or a bunch of political bull-crap wrapped up in an otherwise interesting premise? Is it the start of a pretty good novel that I just didn't feel like writing?
Today I took about 430 words out of a story that was only about a year old. It's been subbed out maybe five or six times and I never had any luck. At the time, I didn't think it was too badly-written. Only one guy gave any real serious discussion, the rest were all form rejections. By cutting out words that were simply unnecessary, I figure that story has a much better chance.
I don't know if I could ever submit a story 65 times like a friend says. Who knows; maybe if we live long enough...but seriously folks, one has to wonder if we have seriously pissed off an editor, or what. Sooner or later, someone else will piss them off, and that makes it easier to forget about me!
Ultimately persistence does pay off, if you keep coming back with better and better stories.
c2010
All Rights Reserved
First of all, the best promotion for our books and stories is to place good stories in good markets.
Back in November, when I finally got the time to write more material, after e-publishing my first four titles, I managed to smash out about 44,000 words. It was 'nano month.' I participated without really competing.
One thing I did was to experiment with a western. The three or four pages I did looked okay, but with no major plot, or conflict, or 'gag' in mind, I didn't complete it.
All righty then. So two months later, after not writing much, I dug the thing out and finished it. What I did was to think of Mike Resnick, and his 'weird westerns,' and I realized that hard science wasn't always necessary to write a good story.
By throwing in telepathy, an alien horse, a plastic planet and the Evil Dr. Schmitt-Rotluff, and by focusing on word choice and 'patter,' (or rythm, maybe,) I came up with something new for me.
That is the value of persistence. I had one file with a bunch of titles in it. One of those was basically a blank document file. Just a title and a byline! I must have been hard up that day.
Anyhow, again, the title was enough to get me going, and there must have been some idea there in my brain the first time around. Sure enough, another story, only 550 words, but I like what I have.
So now, I'm going through all the pro markets on ralan.com. There aren't a lot of them, and I have subs in at quite a few already.
The thing to do now is to take out and polish every previously unpublished story. To really think about what's there. Is it just plain lame? Is it badly written, or a bunch of political bull-crap wrapped up in an otherwise interesting premise? Is it the start of a pretty good novel that I just didn't feel like writing?
Today I took about 430 words out of a story that was only about a year old. It's been subbed out maybe five or six times and I never had any luck. At the time, I didn't think it was too badly-written. Only one guy gave any real serious discussion, the rest were all form rejections. By cutting out words that were simply unnecessary, I figure that story has a much better chance.
I don't know if I could ever submit a story 65 times like a friend says. Who knows; maybe if we live long enough...but seriously folks, one has to wonder if we have seriously pissed off an editor, or what. Sooner or later, someone else will piss them off, and that makes it easier to forget about me!
Ultimately persistence does pay off, if you keep coming back with better and better stories.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
A Crawling Sensation Between the Shoulder Blades.
What is it about this work that means we can't take a day off once in a while? You really do have to love it.
A few brief notes on the day's impressions.
I signed up for Tweetdeck last night, set it up, fooled around with it a while, and then shut it down. This morning, I fired the thing up and was learning the system, which as anyone who has used it knows, is actually fairly simple.
I noted that Gary Moore, the guitarist for 'Thin Lizzie,' died in his sleep in Spain or whatever, and like a dummy I clicked on the thing and began a 'new search.'
Oh, wow. Holy, crap! The updates were flying in thick as flies on a fresh baby blanket...the little doo-wop alarm was going boing-boing-boing, boing-boing-boing, BOING!
The effin' pane or window that popped up each and every time was right over the upper right-hand tool icons....boing-boing-POP! It's one thing to just turn the audio down, but...
I had to click on the 'x' in the left hand corner of each and every new pane, and then quickly try to get at my wrench and them updates were just going like sick. Just sick.
...and I could't shut the effin' thing down. It was like trying to break missile lock and maybe you left it a bit too late already....oh, Jesus, I don't know what happened, but I broke the lock and went into silent running. As soon as I popped my effin' head back up over the horizon, the bastards locked me right up again, and I had to go nap-of-the-earth for a while. Effin' piss me off!
I took that thing all apart, disinstalled it, and set it up all again, but it started right up as soon as I launched. Note: should have gone to the home page and deleted my account, but it's okay because I eventually managed to zap the friggin' thing. Deleting my account might have entailed using some variation on my name, a different password. I don't know. (Who knows?)
To make a long story short, all I had to do was to delete that particular column...and I don't know, ah; maybe make an appointment with the optometrist.
I don't know what the hell happened there, ladies and gentlemen, but ah; I figure epileptics have gone 'grand mal' and died in that thing...
The last three or four days were actually kind of relaxing, but some real stress is lurking below the surface.
I have to go and get some tea bags or something.
A vacation would be ever so nice.
UPDATE: Yeah, I just found a missing word in one of my own recent submissions. That irks me, but I am definitely working too hard. It's already next week. (00:13 a.m. Monday morning.)
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