Sold!

Mid-term exams are over! I got 9 out of 10 for the one I took today (it was online multiple choice only, which is why I already know the outcome). Not bad for phonetics ^.^

Anyway, I wanted to know if any of you have bought a book for the sake of the cover? I'm seriously considering buying Matched, if I don't win it. I've heard the story itself is so-and-so, but the cover itself is art! I'm even considering buying the hard cover and place it front-out on my book shelf.

I don't think I've ever done this before. The covers of House of Night, Sookie Stackhouse Novels, and Vampire Academy are just...bleh (except for the NEW Sookie novels, which features the cast of True Blood - drooooools over Eric). Eragon I bought for the story, although the covers are nice. The Harry Potter covers are also just bleh, although a little fun, I suppose. 

Oh! And I'm going to shamelessy plug Sara's ARCs giveaway, because one of the books being given is a signed Matched! The other one I want is A Tale Dark and Grim. That cover also looks nice, though not nice enough to buy just for the sake of the cover.

So, have you ever bought a book for the sake of the cover, even if you've heard the book is only so-and-so?

Grammar Hampers Voice

Lips borrowed from: http://www.faqs.org/photo-dict/phrase/637/lips.html

I got my first peer review for my character sketch today (I‘m taking Creative Writing at Uni). My hands shook with excitement as I waited for my internet to download the document. My eyes tuned out and in focus before I started reading. Clear description of character...dialogues are clear...use less emphasis on the narrator...good development...good pacing at the beginning, needs to slow down at the end...tenses kept changing back and forth (Me: What? No way! Of course it‘s past when he‘s thinking back and present when he‘s in the now. The distinction is clear!)...There were some grammatical errors!

Grammatical errors? Okay, so I haven’t learned as much English at the Uni as the other students in this class (it’s a master’s degree class, but I got an exception because of my enthusiasm), but, in my opinion, there was nothing wrong with the grammar. I even posted the character sketch on my crit-group forum and no one said anything.

That leaves me with the question: Should novels be strictly grammatically correct? And (like the debate on TV/videogame violence) is it the author’s responsibility to provide reading material that is grammatically correct?

My answer is no and heck no! Misspellings and non-intended errors should be eliminated, of course, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with flexing grammar a little to provide a good story. The author’s purpose is to provide the reader with entertainment and emotional experience. At least that’s what Randy Ingermanson says, and I hereby take that up as my motto. If that means bending the rules of grammar to better suit the holy purpose, then authors should do that!

I’m also a strong believer in “grammar interferes with Voice” (yes, capital V). Which has more voice in it? “I don’t want to be here!” or “I so don’t want to be here!” I’m gonna say the second and break the grammar in this sentence to inject some voice into my blog. Most people speak with grammatical errors, so why shouldn’t the people whose PoV we’re reading from do so as well? And I’m not just talking about dialogues – internal monologue and overall action as well. Doesn’t that make them more real to us?

I’ll be the first to admit that I read the Twilight series in 10 days and fell in love with it. I didn’t know anything about writing until long after that, and I have read countless books since then. Looking back, I see that the grammatical correctness of Twilight is enough to put an insomniac to sleep, whereas series such as Sookie Stackhouse and House of Night would keep the insomniac entertained during his hours of suffering. There’s a reason those series have the most memorable characters! Those books are packed with grammatical errors – probably all intentional – and I don’t care one bit. I don’t even care much about most of the unnecessary adverbs and the occasional passive tense, even though I try all I can to exclude those  in my own writing. The books are entertaining, emotional and fantastic.

If I want to learn “proper English” I’ll read books on English grammar!

Derivative and Series

The Harry Potter Series

As many of you know, I'm writing a trilogy. It was supposed to be one book, but I realized early that I would never fit the whole thing into one book. I'm even wondering if I should write four books instead of three. I'm not so overly hung on advances if I'd get a deal, but the one thing I would absolutely insist on would be to keep the rights of all derivative works. 

I'm not sure how common it is to negotiate the derivative rights, but according to Morris Rosenthal, it's very common that authors loose those rights. In the section about Grant of Rights, he says:

"Here the author grants the publisher the right to publish the work, as protected by copyright law. For most authors this means the exclusive worldwide rights, including all derivative works, etc. While it's not in the interests of the author to give up anything without negotiation, the publisher is frequently in a better position than the author to exploit these rights (such as publishing translations), which will result in further payments to the author. If the author believes the work is likely to become a smash TV hit or the next big Christmas toy, the derivative rights could be the plum of the book contract." 

Now, I'm not really thinking about Myrkvera action-heroes or stuff like that, but I want to be able to write more books in the fantasy land I created, even if the publisher doesn't want to publish more. I want to use the characters, creatures, and towns. I also want to be able to put deleted scenes and such on my website after the series have been published. The thought of someone owning my creation in a way that denies me the right to play with it without the consent of a publishing house just scares me. Cut the advance, cut the marketing budget, but let me keep the rights to the derivative works.

Okay, I sort of lunged into that, but it wasn't what I was going to write at all! This is what sometimes  happens when my fingers touch the magical keyboard. I meant to write about standalones in series. The Lord of the Rings are not standalone books. You have to read the first before you read the second. A month ago I thought my series would end up that way. I mean, I have four teenagers trapped in another world, and they don't get home at the end of first book (I'm not really giving away any spoilers by saying this). How can that be a standalone book?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the whole concept of standalone books in a series. The way I understand it, it's like the Harry Potter books. Harry goes to school in each book (except for the last one), follows the plot thread, completes the task at the end, and then goes back to the Dursley's. They all have a solid ending. You don't get the whole details and hints from the first books if you haven't read them, but you generally get the idea if you start by reading The Goblet of Fire. 

Then there are books like the House of Night series, where Zoey goes to a school for fledgling vampires. At the start of every single book after the first, Zoey lists up things that have happened in the past books and it irritates me so much. Possibly because I read the first five books in one sitting. Still, it bugged me. Will I have to do that to make my books standalones? I mean, who picks up a book in a middle of a series and reads it before reading book nr. 1?

Michelle Zink, author of Prophecy of the Sisters, wrote an article for WriteOnCon on the subject. She has the same kind of thoughts I've been having about ending each book. She even talks about Lord of the Rings and how her books had to be a continuation of the book before. Exactly like my musings. 

She talks about how some readers send her an angry email because of an unsatisfied ending, even though many readers just take it as it is. She says she's come to terms with it and it doesn't bother her so much anymore. That gives me time to prepare and expect the expected, since she ended the article with this:

"And honestly? If I have to choose between giving a reader an ending that makes them go, “ Wow. Cool,” and one that makes them go, “WHAT?!”, I will take the latter every time. I guess you could say that with books – as in life – I will happily choose the mysterious and winding road over the straight and narrow path. Even if it means the occasional angry email."

When I was at the conference, I kind of held my breath while I was reading that article. I thought she'd preach about how you have to have a satisfying ending to each novel in the series. I had no idea how to have such an ending (don't get me wrong: it has an ending, a good one, but at the very end I leave the reader at a bit of a cliffy - nothing huge, but it left my editor wondering if she'd gotten the whole manuscript or if there was a chapter I'd left out). I was so relieved when I read what she wrote.

How cool is it to be able to learn from published authors?

Anyway, in case the future agent/publisher would prefer the House of Night style, I did weave important details from the first book into the first chapter of the second book (Book of White). It didn't turn out too badly. It was fluent. It made sense. I'm going to keep it until I've made a final decision on how to deal with this matter.

One last note, completely unrelated: I pre-ordered a Kindle reader! I'm so excited, but I have no idea when I'll get it. I also bought a leather case - that way it'll be protected and have a booky feel to it when I flip it open to read.

I decided to purchase a Kindle because it costs so much to order a book from Amazon and have it shipped to Iceland. For a normal paperback costing $7, they'll add roughly $8 dollars for shipping and handling. Then there's 10% import tax, and 7% VAT (they're considering raising it to 25% on books to try to get us out of the recession. Hello! Common sense here. Higher VAT = less buying). That makes one measly paperback a little under 18 dollars! If I buy more books in one shipping, I have to pay extra $4 for each book. Compare that to buying the same book for a final price of 5-6 dollars.

I bought a Kindle for $140 + roughly $8 for shipping and handling. 10% tax + 25% VAT (for electronic products) makes $204 the final price. I'm taking English (BA) at uni and there are a lot of old books to read (all of whom are free for Kindle!). This semester alone I have to read Jane Eyre (already read it - looooved it) and A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. That's $16 saved :) There are even more old books to read next year.

It'll pay off in no time ;)

The Fat in the Book

By Mytrueblood "Sookie is Mine"

A weekend out in the country is over. The sun was way too hot (something we don't get a lot here, and also something I don't thrive well in), and I saw five--FIVE-- spiders! Eugh! I suppose that with the weather warming, the number of insects increase. I don't mind flies so much (even the bees I used to be terrified of before I became a mother), but spiders, even though they're tiny = a squeal and a shudder + warily looking about everywhere I go and feeling tiny little itches everywhere.

Back on subject:

There are two things I'd like to talk about today: Cutting the fat out of the book and short endings.

As I've talked about before, I wrote my first manuscript without having read a word about how to write a book. I wrote it as I would like to read it. It was, after all, originally a book forme from my fantasy world. After reading several books on writing, I learned to stick to the plot and cut out trivial information that were just for fun. By doing that, I severely reduced my word count (which was way too high for a YA novel), and the story became faster. But! I have been reading a lot of YA books since, and there are books, like the House of Night series, where there is a lot (and I mean a LOT) of little things that could be cut out, but if they had, the story would be missing a lot of its charm. The plots in those books are relatively simple, but essential to further the series along (there are going to be 12 books), so I get that the authors have to put a lot of fat on the meat. They have Zoey (the heroin) eat breakfast, get snacks before watching a movie, having conversations with her friends that have nothing to do with the plot, and even a lot of interaction with her cat (that, for now, has very little to do with the plot).

Charleine Harris's books, The Sookie Stackhouse Series (True Blood), is also like that. The series is for adults. Sookie does her hair in a certain way, gets dressed in this or that, puts on makeup, does yard work, cooks, cleans. And I love it all. The books wouldn't be the same without it.

I wonder if adults prefer reading books that get right to the point, and in doing so, loose a lot of the little things that the teenagers might be more eager to read. Most (if not all) books about how to write books are written by adults. I wonder if the "How to Write YA Books" were different if they were written by teenagers.

And then there's the endings... I've noticed that in most of the books I've read, the final plot reveals itself when there's only a handful of pages left. It is natural to have it at the very end, but I always feel a bit cheated when, after the plot is revealed and the hero/heroin has saved the day, there are only 2-3 pages left for the aftermath. I want more. I want to read about everyones reaction and discussions about what happened. I want to read about what they're going to do next. I want to read about how they go on with their lives after the big event is done.

I'm writing a series myself (3 books, but could possibly become more), and there's a whole chapter dealing with the aftermath (my chapters are very long, around 8,000 words). In that final chapter, more is revealed about the big event: questions asked and answered, and then decisions are made. The heroin struggles with decisions, feelings about the big event, and one of her fellow travelers develops as a character. Some other characters deepen as well and there are hints to what will happen in the next book. I don't think the book is complete without all of this, and I'm going to fight for this chapter if I get a contract, because it is essential to further the series as a whole.

What are your opinions on this? Do you prefer a direct line to the plot, or more fat on the meat? Do you prefer curt endings, or do you like to see the aftermath?

Task for the day: Play with twins.

The Calm before the Storm

http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/calm/ © TONIVC

I have completed the majority of my agency list. Phew, it was a lot of work! I recommend people start on their lists early if they intend to send out queries to many at a time. It took me at least 30 hours all in all to find the agencies, read through their submission guidelines and choose the agent I wanted (by reading the profile of each agent). I also wrote down their email addresses.

--> Start on your agency list early.

I had a whole Word page with names of last-minute agents that I found last Friday and decided to go through it yesterday. I’m so glad that I did! I ended up with 56 agencies, and that’s excluding the one-man ones and the snail-mail ones. Going through that list increased the number in my snail-mail folder though. Why do agents still request forests of queries/manuscripts? I simply love the agencies who request emails only, because they don’t want paper wasted.

--> Prioritize.

I haven’t personalized the query letters yet, but I intend to. They have very different requirements: some request the query letter only, some want 5-10 pages, some 50 pages, one wanted the entire manuscript as an attachment, and some want 1-2 page synopsis, etc. Most don't accept any attachments, but a couple do. I’ll have to read each guidelines very carefully to have a chance.

--> Read the submission guidelines carefully and personalize the query letters. Don't send out mass-queries (Cc's and Bcc's).

Some agencies request exclusive queries, and I decided to ignore those agencies. I might try them if all the others decline. There was actually one agency that said something like “We request that you query more than us. Writers shouldn’t query exclusively.” That made me laugh and the agency earned my respect immediately.

--> Query more than one at a time.

Some agencies forbid querying more than one agent at their agency (no from one means no from all), but some only forbid to query more than one at a time. Janet Reid says to query the others regardless. I suppose I might try it if the agency is big.

--> Query one agent within the agency at a time.

I have also decided to include a line in my queries saying that I’m sending out multiple queries, just to have everything upfront. Some specifically say they want to be told, but others don’t mention it. At first I thought that they’d put those queries aside and focus on the ones submitted exclusively (as some claim to do), but now I’ve come to a different conclusion. I think that they want to read the multi-submitted ones to be able to snatch up the writer before anyone else does, if the query letter sounds promising. I haven’t been able to verify this, but in at least three guidelines there was a text asking writers to let them know if they’ve gotten proposition of representation elsewhere, so that they might make a counter-offer. That means that, say, if I got an offer from Agency X and I also queried Agency Y some time ago, but hadn't heard from them, I’m supposed to send an email to Agency Y and tell them about the offer in case Agency Y wants to have a go. Maybe I'll ask Janet, Rachelle, or Kristin about it.

--> Let the agencies know that you're querying others, too.

The reason I checked the submission guidelines first was to put aside the snail-mail ones. I bookmarked them to list them later. Obviously I’ll try the email-ones first, because they're faster and don't cost anything, but there’s one in particular I’ll want to snail-mail, and that’s the agent of the House of Night series, since that’s my genre.

I also bookmarked in a separate folder “one-man agencies”. That doesn’t mean that I prefer the bigger agencies, it just means that I’ll do more background search on them, and that’s work I’ll have to put aside for a bit.

So what I did was I made five folders in my bookmarks and five Word sheets. I used the same names on the sheets and the folders (Contact 1, Contact 2, etc.) and bookmarked all the ones on Contact 1 sheet in Contact 1 folder. This is to help me later when I have to work my way through the submission guidelines of each agency. I didn’t write the agencies down in any specific order; I intend to query them all. Of course some seemed more like a perfect match for me, but it won’t hurt to send to others to see if they’re interested.

--> Keep a good, organized list on your agencies.

I searched through my genre on PublishersMarketplace, QueryTracker, and AgentQuery and listed them all down. Then I had a webpage of Predators & Editors open and checked each agency to see if they were legit, or had any specific warnings. There were only a few that I took off my list because they seemed iffy. I also eliminated those that take reading fees. I could have done this if they contacted me back to offer representation, but I decided to save myself time so that I won’t have to work my way through their submission guidelines only to learn that they’re dishonest.

--> Check your agencies in Predators & Editors.

So, what’s next? I got back the critique on my query letter and first five pages. I wanted to have the query letter edited to be absolutely error-free, and I got a few pointers with it. I also decided to send the first five pages, because I've made a lot of changes to it since I had the whole manuscript edited. Next up is to apply those changes and then my letter will be ready.

--> Make sure your letter + material is error free.

I have made a full proposal as well and wanted to be able to offer it in the query letter, but since something came up with the editor, I might have to give it a pass. It’s no big deal, really. The agencies only request a query letter, sample chapters/pages, and possibly a synopsis, but never a full proposal for fiction. I just wanted to show that I’d worked hard on the proposal, so less time would go into that after I’m signed.

--> Full proposals are not necessary, but nice.

Task for the day: Apply changes to the query letter and personalize 2-3 letters, but don’t send yet.