I was going to do a post on anthologies today, but I just found out about Amazon's bid for complete coverage in the POD world. There are a couple large Print On Demand (POD) printers - BookSurge (now owned by Amazon), LightningSource (owned by Ingram book distributor), and a few medium sized ones. Print on Demand allows for lower costs for small publishers as well as self-publishing authors.

Now, however, Amazon is using its leverage as a retail giant to force publishers to use BookSurge. The result if they don't? Amazon will turn off the "Buy" button on their book listings. This means that potential customers can see the book on Amazon, but can't buy it. But, if the author/publisher switches over to BookSurge--viola!--the "Buy" button returns. Read about it in detail at Angel Hoy's Writers Weekly.

According to Publisher's Weekly:

Neither Amazon nor BookSurge returned calls, although spokesperson Tammy Hovey told the Wall Street Journal the move is a “strategic decision. What we’re looking to do is have a print-on-demand business that better serves our customers and authors. When we work with some other publishers, it’s not truly a print-on-demand business.” 

What? You're serious? So, you want to have an apparel business and if the designers don't use your manufacturing company, you can't truly be an apparel business? That must be one of the most asinine comments I've ever seen.

Amazon, you've totally screwed up this time. Your company was built on the words of authors. Books got you where you are today. And now, you're holding POD books hostage until the authors/publishers pay the BookSurge ransom. Shame on you!

WARNING: Content may be incoherent or otherwise unintelligible due to fever. By proceeding further, you agree not to hold author accountable for anything she might say in this posting. (Unless it's good. Then she gets all credit.) You have been warned!

Yes, you read it right. I'm sick. Well, it's possible that it's exhaustion. I came home from work today and realized I had a sore throat. Took my temp and sure enough, I have a small fever. Made soup for dinner and here it is 9:30 and I'm about to go to bed. But I hadn't made a post in much longer than normal, so I wanted to at least pop in so you know I'm not actually dead or anything.

I've been busting my tail on the revision for Soul Cavern. I've completed through chapter 21 (I think the status bar on the left is off by a chapter). Unfortunately, I'm stuck on chapter 22. I'm waiting for the muse to figure out what the hell I need to do. She needs to hurry her musely butt up, because I don't have much time left!

I did get in touch with an old writing friend of mine today and I'm absolutely ecstatic to be in communication with her again. If you're observant, you might notice two new links down in the link section on the left. If you're not observant, you'll just have to wait til later, when I blog about her and the accomplishments she's made in the last 6 years. That's what you get for not paying attention! :)

Okay, off to bed. My muse better visit me in the night and let me know what I'm supposed to do for chapter 22.

Hey, if she doesn't make it, can I borrow your muse for awhile?

Okay, if you've ever tried to write a synopsis, you know that the title of this post is a big, fat lie. Synopses are hard to write. How do you whittle a 400 page book down to a few pages? How can you convey the brilliance of your characters in such little space?

I detest trying to write synopses. Hate them! But, like spam and taxes, they seem to be a part of life, particularly if you're interested in getting a novel-length work published. Well, the publishing gods have named today Synopsis Day and there will be much rejoicing in the streets! Okay, maybe a little joyous reading in the blogosphere. Either way, today, 22 published authors write about how to create an effective synopsis. Want to read along? Here they are:

Maria V. Snyder: http://blog.myspace.com/mariavsnyder

Patricia Bray: http://www.sff.net/people/patriciabray/synopsis.html

Chaz Brenchley: http://desperance.livejournal.com

Mike Brotherton: http://www.mikebrotherton.com

Tobias Buckell: http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2008/02/01/ask-me-a-question-was-crystal-rain-sold-as-part-of-a-series

S.C.Butler: http://scbutler.livejournal.com

Barbara Campbell: www.barbara-campbell.com/inside.htm

David B. Coe: http://davidbcoe.livejournal.com

Jennifer Dunne: http://jennifer_dunne.livejournal.com

S.L. Farrell: http://sleigh.livejournal.com

Diana Francis: http://difrancis.livejournal.com

Gregory Frost: http://frostokovich.livejournal.com

Felix Gilman: http://www.felixgilman.com/wordpress

Jim C. Hines: http://jimhines.livejournal.com

Jackie Kessler: http://www.jackiekessler.com/blog

Mindy Klasky: http://mindyklasky.livejournal.com

Misty Massey: http://madkestrel.livejournal.com

C.E. Murphy: http://mizkit.livejournal.com

Naomi Novik: http://naominovik.livejournal.com

Joshua Palmatier: http://jpsorrow.livejournal.com

Jennifer Stevenson: http://smokingpigeon.livejournal.com

Michelle West: http://msagara.livejournal.com

Sean Williams: http://ladnews.livejournal.com

Read and learn! :)

Welcome to another SoJ post! Since I'm mired, waist-deep, in the revision of Soul Cavern, I thought this would be an appropriate entry for SoJ today.

If you only buy two writing books (you're already buying Strunk & White's Elements of Style, remember), Self-Editing for Fiction Writers needs to be the second one.

The days are gone when an editor was able to take a chance on a green writer and help him polish his work, edit his voice and develop his message. Now, writers must be their own editors.

If you've ever had any issues with telling instead of showing, internal monologues (I have to re-read that chapter!), points of view, dialogue or just how to put it all together, then you'll want this book. Brown and King take the hidden mechanics of writing, shine a light on them and then show you exactly how to get the most out of your writing.

Of particular interest to beginning and intermediate writers (aren't we all?), will be Chapter 11: Sophistication. In this chapter, the authors draw our attention to typical sentence constructs which dilute good writing. And they explain why it weakens the prose. This forearms writers to be on the watch for certain flaws, not only in the editing process, but in the writing process as well.

Recommendation:
Any writer who aspires to be published will benefit from this book. Editing is now the domain of the writer. This book will teach you how to do it with clear language and effective examples.

Happy "Wear Green or Get Pinched" Day! I'm working from home today, so I don't have to worry about random pinches from co-workers. But I've always loved the festivity of St Patty's Day. It's a no-pressure holiday. Unlike the winter celebrations, Valentine's Day, Halloween (my own personal favorite) and other holidays, there's no stress to put on big feasts, to be in a relationship, to honor gods. Even though it's a celebration of a Christian saint, it's  not a particularly religious holiday. And there's no stress about getting the perfect gift for Uncle Guido.

So I like St. Patrick's Day. (Uncle Guido's hard to buy for.)

Here's something a lot of folks don't know: St. Patrick wasn't actually Irish. He was English. As a teen, he was captured and taken to Ireland as a slave. After several years, he ended up back in Britain and went into the church. Then he came back to Ireland to convert the Irish to Christianity. Interesting, huh?

Later today, I should have another SoJ for you. Things are coming down to the wire for my revisions for SHU, so posts may become a little more sporadic for awhile. The final due date is April 10, I think. I suspect I may have a heart attack before then. But we'll see!

Yesterday, my first ever guest blog post was published at Raivyn's Idiot's Guide to Blogging! I found Raivyn at PostOnFire and found her blog to be pretty cool. She was looking for guest bloggers, so I dropped her an e-mail and proposed a post about improving the writing on your blog. And so there it is! Raivyn's pretty cool and easy to work with. And, as I said, her blog's awesome! Thanks Raivyn, for giving me the opportunity to blog for you!

So I'm working on my book. Still. It feels like forever. But that's okay. I'm making it better and so that will be worthwhile, in the end. I'm adding a new scene to chapter 12, which might take a portion of the story off in a different direction. I've still got a lot of big rewrites to do later. I'm hoping I'm going to have enough time for them!

Once I've graduated, one of the many projects I want to work on is putting up an eZine. I'd really like to do a print magazine, but I think starting off with an eZine might be the better way to go. I can determine whether I'm cut out to be an editor of a publication or not. That's really the big thing. Everything else can be dealt with.

It seems as though the number of paying venues accepting short fiction are diminishing. (I have a whole post in me about people who want writers to work for no pay, but I'll save that for another day.) I think adding a paying venue, even if it's not print, initially, is a good thing. There aren't enough places for new fiction writers to get their feet wet and possibly make a name for themselves.

So now I've let you in on one of my secret ambitions. The one that doesn't involve big, froofy feathers and a spotlight.

Oh. Wait. Was that my outside voice?

You may have noticed a distinct lack of updates the last couple days. Yesterday I had a deadline for SHU, so I was pretty bogged down all weekend. Actually, I'm bogged down pretty much every day. But I'm chugging along, so that's good!

If you look in the sidebar on the left, you can see the status of my novel Soul Cavern. I'm done through Chapter 11. I'll try to keep it updated as I go along. I'm doing major revisions to some chapters, so I might not have the page count correct for each chapter til it's done.

I've still got a WIL halfway done, in the wings, but I'm not sure when I'll get to finish it. But when I do, it'll go up!

Now, for something different! Maria Snyder -- you may remember the interview we did here recently -- shared some fantastic news! Fire Study made the NY Times Best Seller List! Scroll on down to number 34 and you'll see it there in black and white! A huge congratulations to Maria for such a great accomplishment!

And on that inspiring note, I'm getting back to Soul Cavern! Happy writing!

The books we've been looking at so far have been books about the craft of writing and how to improve it. Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon is a little different. It's a little bit of a craft book, but it's more of a sourcebook or a reference book. You'll find a character questionnaire that you can use as a jumping-off point toward creating your characters. But by far, the more important part of this book is the "thesaurus" of character traits.

In my writing, the most challenging part for me is description. I don't pay much attention to hair color or eye color when I read, so when I write, character descriptions tend to suffer because I don't really care. I have to struggle to convey what the character might look like (I often don't have it nailed down in my own head, really) without sounding boring or monotonous. I mean, how many different ways can there be to convey that a character has blonde hair and blue eyes?

Apparently, a couple dozen. A blonde haired character can have bleach blonde, honey, golden, flaxen, peroxide blonde, tawny (though that could be brown too, I suspect), platinum blonde, vanilla, washed-out, sandy, straw or ash blonde hair. Blue eyes? How about azure, cornflower, ice blue, indigo, baby blue, blue jay, snow shadow, teal, Prussian blue, sapphire or misty blue. And trust me, there are a lot more blues.

Body types, face shapes, facial expressions, mental disorders, personality types, even ways of dressing and historic fashion styles can be found in this book. It's a wonderful tool for adding dimension to your writing.

One word of caution: Some of the suggestions for phrasing in the book are cliches, which you will want to avoid, of course. Example: eyes become saucers. Also, in the dialogue section, the book gives a list of ways to convey emotion within a speech tag and most of the list contains adverbs. Example:: she said, acidly. Most experienced writers know to avoid adverbs as much as possible, so you should keep that in mind when using this book.

Recommendation:
This is a great book, especially during the rewrite portion, when you're polishing your prose and working to make your writing more vivid.

So, some of you may have noticed the little widget over there on the right, beneath my RSS feed. The one with the 125x125 graphic that changes regularly and says "Get Yours" on the gold bar beneath it (unless you've already got one, then it says either "Drop" or, even better "Thanks!"). That's Entrecard. It's a new-ish social networking site for blogs. But I'm really not going to talk about it specifically.

Through Entrecard, I've met lots of cool people and I've discovered some really great blogs! Among them is the blog of a guy who goes by Saphrym. So you can blame all this on him.

Saphrym said, in his most recent blog, "So, I’m going to challenge every blogger that reads this to tell your readers something about yourself." And, dammit, I read it. And I guess I count as a blogger. Damn you, Saphrym!

Sorry, had to get the melodrama out so it doesn't end up in my revision! Anyway, so I have to tell you something about myself that you don't know.

Well, you already know the obvious stuff. And you know I have a motorcycle. And you know I go to SHU. You also know what I like to read, because it's in the sidebar down below (What? You never scrolled down that far? Shame on you!). Hmmm... what else is there? ;)

Okay, here's something I know you don't know. I am a Durannie. That's right! You heard me!

Now, those of you who're of the younger persuasion might not have any clue what that means. Most folks over about thirty five will know. I've been a fan of the band Duran Duran for over 25 years. Of course, as a teenager and later a college student, I was broke, so I hardly ever got to see them. But in 2000, they reunited, all the original members. And in 2005, they did a huge, national tour. I went to eleven shows in ten states over the course of about two months. It was incredible! I actually won a meet and greet in Chicago and got to meet the band for all of three minutes.

Tampa was the best show. We had 5th row seats and the floor section was only 5 rows long. Simon's mom (Simon's the lead singer) was there and when they had technical difficulties for about twenty minutes, we went over and chitchatted with her a bit. She's a very gracious lady.

The tour ended with a stint and Madison Square Garden. The energy at a Duran show is amazing, to begin with. It's been known to convert non-Durannies (seriously, I've never met someone who didn't become a fan after seeing them live). But the energy at the MSG show was off the hook. Incredible stuff!

So there's my dirty little secret.

Bet you thought it was gonna be something raunchy, didn't ya? Pfft!

I'm a little down today. Things have really been busy, but last night I got a lot of work done on my revision of Soul Cavern. I was feeling pretty good about it. Then today, I read a critique I got from a close writer friend of the first 80 or so pages. Now, I know the first 80 pages have some weak spots, as I rearranged some things, fiddled around with them, etc. I had a lot of trouble reading this critique, mainly because everything in the line edit portion was negative (things I'd done wrong, done badly, overdone, underdone... you get the idea) with the exception of one sentence. And the summary portion at the end essentially said, "The dialogue was good, but the rest of it sucked." Okay, that might be the interpretation of my very cruel internal editor. It was neither that stark nor that mean. And please don't think the critiquer is bad or that I have any anger or anything in regards to it. It just really got me down. I'm usually good at taking criticism, particularly if I think it's warranted. But, probably like a lot of other people, I like to hear the good bits too. Tell me what I'm doing right, as well. I don't need a ticker tape parade, but I do need a counter balance to, "Man, this sucks, you should change it." -- Even if it really does suck and needs to be changed. So now, I'm completely down on myself and my writing because it's such a huge undertaking, revising a novel. And I find that I really hate it. I mean, I REALLY hate it. Maybe I'm just not really cut out for it. But, either way, it has to be done and it has to be done rather quickly, because I have to have it in to my mentors at SHU around the first week of April. And now I need to go back and look at the first 80 because it sucks even more than I originally thought. But tonight, I have to find a way to get through this grey fog and go back to Chapter 7 and work on the revisions and try to convince myself that they don't suck too. Because, for me, if something is just going to come out crappy, I don't see a reason to waste time on it. Blah! So, how do you keep going when you're convinced that everything you're putting down on paper sucks?