This installment of Industry News opens with information and advice gleaned by RWA-WF members who attended RWA 2012 in Anaheim last month. (Big thanks to the chapter members who shared intel and ah ha! moments.) Following the information out of Anaheim, you’ll find publishing and writing news from points beyond Disneyland.
HEARD IN ANAHEIM
Harlequin will roll out HEARTWARMING, a new line that’s “inspirational” but not necessarily evangelical Protestant. Pam Morsi, who reported the news, wrote, “Somebody described it as Inspirational for Buddhists. I’m not sure that’s accurate, but I do think that the intent is to do a story that’s more spiritual and less dogmatic. Women’s fiction writers who are considering Inspirational might want to check it out.” The line’s first books will debut in July, 2013. Here are the guidelines.
“Don’t blog about writing. Everyone knows you’re a writer. Readers want to know about you.” That tip came from Kristen Painter’s workshop and made so much sense to Vicki Batman, she’s sharing it.
Linda Avellar‘s lightbulb moment came during the Margie Lawson workshop on Deep Editing Power at the WF mini con. Here’s Linda: “I’ve been lucky enough to hear her before and she’s great. What I came away with this time was a new understanding of ‘fresh’ writing. We hear agents and editors say all the time that they’re looking for fresh writing, and I thought I understood what it meant, but Margie gave such great examples that it made me look at the concept in a new way – not just avoiding cliches, but going further to surprise the reader.
“She talked about turning expectations upside down. Is the setting blah? Give it a boost with something interesting and unexpected. In a scene, show what’s not there. The absence is noteworthy and deepens the scene and character. The reader experiences these surprises along with the characters. Now as I write, I try to think about whether the plot and the writing is fresh, or whether I’ve seen it this way before.
“Here’s an example I thought was great from a Lisa Unger novel: ‘My mother liked to drink. It was a mad dog she kept on a chain. When it got loose it chewed through our lives.’ Margie made the point that Lisa’s sentence is so much better than something ordinary like this: ‘My mother was like a mad dog when she drank.’
“Here’s another example, although I don’t have the name of the writer. ‘… the kind of presence that leaves heat streaks behind on the air where he’s been.’ (such a great line!)
“I wish I had more examples, but I couldn’t write fast enough! I hope this is helpful. It was for me.”
Judy Hudson shared her lightbulb moment on the RWA-WF loop, but I’m reprinting it here because of the oh-so-important questions writers should ask themselves at the end of a scene. Here’s Judy: “The workshop was Erin Quinn‘s Simple Organic Structure, which turned out to be a lot about her writing method. She recommended making one worksheet per scene on three ring binder paper and putting it in a binder (last time I tried it with 4×6 cards but didn’t know what to write, too much too little? and didn’t keep it up. It seems like a waste of paper, but I am following her advice nonetheless.)
“On this page you write the chapter, scene, scene name, then underneath in bullet points, the goal, what happens. At the bottom put, Do they get what they want? No – and even worse… or Yes – but to complicate matters…thus setting up the rising conflict leading to the next scene.
“Simple right? A no brainer. But I started to do it, just like that, and soon got to the scene where the male love interest is introduced. Important scene. First from his POV, and I immediately realized HE HAD NO GOAL. The goal was the female protagonist’s, she wanted him to rent her the cabin, but the POV was his. And, when I thought about it, he did have a goal, to get out of there fast because he was late to pick up his daughter. I just hadn’t stated it clearly. This was foremost in his mind and, with a bit of tweaking, I think it now shows more
about his story and shows it more clearly. Small thing, but they add up. I’m sure I’ll find more flaws in the story as I proceed with this technique.”
Susan Dunn treasures a plot tip she picked up from Michael Hauge. “In a well-written love story, the reason the hero is the heroine’s destiny is because he is the ONLY person who sees beneath the heroine’s identity (what she projects to the
world – her armor) and connects with her at the level of her essence (who she really is).” (Susan added the parentheses.)
Laura Drake also cites the Michael Hauge workshop as a conference highlight and points non-attendees to blog posts about it by paranormal writer Jami Gold. Gold divvied her posts according to Hauge’s areas of emphasis. The first is “An Antidote to Love at First Sight.” Next up is “Are These Characters the Perfect Match?” The third installment is “Combining Emotional Journey and External Plots.”
Susan Dunn supplied Industry News with a second tidbit, this time, it’s in the form of advice from a publicist: “After a website, it’s more important to have a Facebook page than a blog or to do Twitter.”
R.R. Bowker LLC (a company that provides analytical tools to the publishing industry and serves as the official ISBN Agency in the U.S.) impressed Sylvia McDaniel with the results of a readers’ survey (shared with attendees at a PAN workshop). Here’s what she had to say about the information: “Romance leading genre in ecommerce. Thirty-one percent of avid readers almost always are reading a romance. The number one criteria for a romance reader is a happy ending (I wanted to say duh, on this one). Slides will be available on RWA’s website and I recommend that we all go out and look at them. ”
YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED INDUSTRY NEWS
Tech Crunch reports Goodreads now has ten million members.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch predicts self publishing will force writers to take responsibility for their books and become competent businesspeople in order to succeed. “They’re actually doing what millions of other business owners do. They invest in themselves and their ideas, take those ideas as products to market, and do the best they can to make the products sell.”
Two book designers offer theories about why certain kinds of covers lure readers. (Caution: You will lose all track of time while gazing at the image of a cute kitten.)
Dear Author‘s Jane Litte, who’s a lawyer, writes about the DoJ’s responses to statements filed by Apple, Penguin, and Macmillan in opposition to the proposed settlement with Hachette, HarperCollins, and Simon & Schuster. (Follow her link to writer and lawyer Courtney Milan’s post on the subject.)
At Writers’ Digest‘s “Guide to Literary Agents,” Brittany Roshelle Davis interviews Adrienne Rosado of Nancy Yost Literary Agency. Rosado is looking for upmarket women’s fiction.
Don’t miss the latest installment of Porter Anderson‘s Writing on the Ether.
Here are two different–but not dueling–perspectives on authors and their audiences. The first is from Chuck Wendig. The second is from social-media expert Dan Blank.
Laura Drake passed along a link to the keynote speech comedian Patton Oswalt delivered last month at Montreal’s Just for Laugh’s 2012 Conference. The keynote is in the form of two letters: one to comics and one to gatekeepers. Laura points out the keynotes translates well to publishing. If you doubt that, reread Kristine Kathryn’s Rusch’s post.
May the sound of a gate slammed shut galvanize you and your writing. Industry News will return September 9.
