Authors–most of them, anyway–work very hard to promote their books and enhance their sales. They go to events around their community, their region, and, sometimes, nationally, travelling cross-country in planes, trains, or cars, boxes of books in tow. They hold readings and book signings at stores, in their churches (if they belong to one), virtually, and [...]

Writing a novel based, even in part, on true events or real people is a very tricky affair.  If a novel is based on facts, the facts are never good enough as they stand, simply because the motives behind the acts that made the facts rarely make sense, at least to rational people. And the [...]

Nothing seems to get writers butting heads so much as suggesting that they might need to brush up on proper grammar and punctuation.  Mention the “right” way–traditionally speaking, of course, as per The Elements of Style–and the fight is on. On one side, you have those who know enough about good grammar and punctuation to [...]

It’s scary the number of young writers who, though they may never publish, write extraordinarily gruesome stories and novels. Pain, torture, and cruelty seem to be, not just acceptable, but celebrated. Purposefully sadistic and, in some cases, masochistic, as well, the writing demonstrates, not just a disregard for decency, but a willful, even joyous delight, in the suffering of self and others.

Am I alone in considering this an extremely disturbing phenomena? To me it seems, if they can write this sadism/masochism, not with condemnation, but with such a sense of acceptance, delivering this as if it were a just and normal, approved and even satisfying, state of being and living, that we have a very large proportion of very disturbed psychopathic and sociopathic individuals populating our nation.

Now, I’m sure that conservatives and fundamentalists, especially the sort who embrace Limbaugh and Palin, might point and cry out that this is the fault of the decline of family values, the decline of religious influence, and the influence of liberal perspectives. However, many who are creating these startlingly gruesome treatises embrace both the neo-conservative perspective and Christian fundamentalism. Not all, but certainly a provable great many.

Fiction carries its author’s overt or sublimated perspectives, views, philosophies, and ideologies. If gruesome treatment of others and self is considered acceptable behavior, not condemned, but expected and delivered as normal, what does this say of our culture? I shudder to think what it means to our future.

Having mostly ignored Twitter, though I signed up months ago, I happened over to the place to block a hussy who was advertising her “wares” from following me…not that there’s much to follow, mind you. In the process, I happened upon some old, unread messages from authors directed at me and checked out a couple of their novels. Lo, many were quite good. Others were well-written, but too obviously a very visceral kind of horror.

I do not understand people who enjoy reading gore, explicitly violent, and visceral novels–graphic cruelty, gore, sex, or perverse violence. I mean, okay, graphic scenes are part of a book when needed, as is the intimate sex scene…when the story calls for it. But this stuff was uncalled for, in my opinion, because the violence wasn’t an integral part of the plot and story, but rather added for titillating the reader’s senses…if one can call gore and cruelty titillating (which I can’t).

If something happens in the violent scene that is key to the story climax or subsequent crises, then the scene belongs. But does the scene–any scene–belong when nothing happens in it other than graphic incidents, incidents that don’t have any pertinence to anything later in the story?

I don’t think so.

So, when applying the rule of “Cut everything that doesn’t forward plot and story” in writing and editing fiction, why are these scenes populating so many books? Are readers that hungry for blood, gore, and perversion?

I really don’t think so. Those who do aren’t the fiction reading majority, else these sorts of books would top the best sellers lists, and they don’t.

(…And, no, Liz, I’m not talking about Under the Bridge, which is very tame by comparison to some of this stuff.)

I have a searing record for disdaining self-publishing. Now, I must recant my previous position.

One week in, and the relief is palpable. No longer must I sit on manuscripts and stories, no longer must I think about pleasing editors, marketeers, and literary agents, no longer must I suffer spending an entire day composing yet another query letter, only to have a literary agent say, yes, they’d love to read it, then turn around and tell me that, yes, it’s very well written, intense, engaging, riveting…BUT. But what? But they can’t figure out how to place it or market it.

I’m FREE. I can write for readers, not traditional publishing moguls.

This is the very best thing to have happened to me when it comes to my career as an author.

Why? Because I call the shots, now. And that’s a pleasure. It means I can say what I want, how I want, when I want, and, if someone doesn’t like it, they can say so, but it’s not going to come back to me via frowns from my literary agent or house editor.

Thank you. And apologies to all you independent authors out there who are worth your salt as novelists and short story writers. To you I own a bow and beg your forgiveness for my previous attitude. HOWEVER, to those independent “authors” who write tripe and trash and stuff that should never see print, I wish you’d all go play with your cell phones and your various sex toys instead of pushing your pulp on the fiction world.

Well, much as I don’t particularly care for the title “independent author,” I’m tired of playing blind man’s bluff with literary agents. A look at publishers accepting unagented manuscript submissions and queries shows that I would be spending about 2 years waiting around for an answer for them, too. After a couple of high end agents read the book and said, “clean, excellent plot, excellent characters, but I just don’t know how to market this,” I’m done. If it’s that good, and it’s a break-out book, what’s the problem? I’ll tell you the problem. It isn’t something that would appeal to Twilight-swooning teens.

So I’m done. I’ve quit the game. No more Blind Man’s Bluff with literary agents anymore. Now I’ll simply write and publish, write and publish.

I’m also pretty much done with magazine submissions of short stories, as well. The only reason I write a short story is when one “pops” into existence on its own, so to speak — the creative Muse dictates, in other words. Submitting them, though, is always a pain…because it requires I steal time away from other things…like novel writing.

I’m tired of all of it. I’m just not interested in literary blind man’s bluff with me the blinded and them twittering as they evade me finding “the right niche:, be that an agent or publishing venture. You want to read me, come and get it. My stories and novels will be availabe through The Deepening, from me here, or from various other websites around the Net.

If you want it from the library or a book store, ask at the desk. If you want it from Amazon.com, you’ll have to wait till the hard copy releases.

I just read a very atrocious excerpt from someone’s hysterical…er…historical manuscript, a story destined for self-publishing. With these kinds of works moving through the self-published ranks, I dare say more and more people who number themselves fiction readers will have the same abhorrence to a self-published or “indie author” work as do professionals in publishing.

There really has to be a way to sift out the dross (‘dross’ means worthless material that should be removed). There really does.

Help. We’re drowning in sewage.

There are several discussions (and fights) going on across various writer’s venues around the Net concerning self-publishing verses traditional publishing. I’m afraid, I’m one of those who desires the traditional publisher, mainly because I cannot see where self-publishing isn’t just a way to keep me busy doing everything except writing.

Now, it is true that traditional publishing requires a lot of marketing effort from the author. Compared to the work a self-publishing author has to do, though, it is relatively painless.

It seems to me that self-publishing requires way, way too much effort and time devoted. A self-published author not only has to write the book, but s/he also has to:
1) create the book (typesetting, cover art and design, etc.)
2) create or contract for creation of the promotional materials,
3) place the promotional materials,
4) negotiate openings for marketing the book.

Only then can the author take advantage of those marketing opportunities, doing the interviews and appearances that will hopefully sell the books.

Then we come to the distribution and bean counting, all basically on the author’s shoulders, as well. It takes effort to even get your book listed in Amazon, or on B&N, never mind onto the shelves of chain and independent bookstores.

The established big publisher already has a means to create the book package and promo materials, has a good reputation among the media that matters, owns all the gateways to getting the book into distribution chains as well as coordinating marketing opportunities with the book’s release. All the author has to do is help, and then show up and do a good job presenting themselves in a charismatic way to the audience.

The very thought of having to write letters or make phone calls, much less do walk-in sales pitches designed to convince a radio station, a book store, or even local television to feature a self-published author and their book is summarily unattractive to me. This is the work of a publicist.

So the author who self-publishes wears all the hats normally worn by a team of people, normally paid experts in their fields who are very good at their jobs. I can’t possibly do the same kind of justice to those jobs, and the time required is at least as much it took to write the book in the first place.

Then there’s the income problem. If all I’m going to sell is a couple thousand copies of this book as a self-published author, the time and money laid out to publish and market, then distribute the book just isn’t going to give me a return worth sneezing at. In fact, it is probably going to cost me money.

So, nope. I don’t think self-publishing fiction is a good investment, unless I’ve already got an audience and a production and promotion team at hand.

That said, I can say that what I will do is allow The Deepening to record the audio of any book I write that doesn’t net me an agent and, ultimately, a publisher after submitting it for a year or two. If I can develop an audience for that book, then, I’ve got more ammunition to convince someone to take a hard look at that book as well as my other work — someone who counts in the real world of literature, that is, agents, editors, and big publishing.

Teapots, though, are especially representative of a writer. Inside the writer is a similar repository. And it acts in a very similar fashion: it steeps.