Writing 101: The Brave New World of Self-Published Comics

More ebookstores are appearing on smartphones, and even the public library is starting to distribute Kindle books for lending. Now, comic book writers get to join in on the fun, too. Got a great idea for a comic book? It's time to start self-publishing.

Self-Publishing Comes to Comics

Comixology has developed Submit, a comic book publishing platform designed for indies.  Beta trials began last year, and now the system is ready for the general public.

It's a pretty simple system. After content is uploaded and approved, it's added to the catalog. Authors get their own strorefront and have their work formatted for Comixology mobile apps. The app converts the comic book into panel-by-panel view screens. 

It costs nothing to self-publish through the platform, but you only get to keep half of what you earn. The rest goes to Comixology. This is the newest platform for comic book writers, but not the only one. It's possible to publish graphic novels with iBooks Author, and Graphicly is a well-established self-publishing platform for indies.

If you create comics and you haven't already joined the ranks of self-published indie authors, now is just as good a time to start as any, right?

Writing 101: Can You Write a Story with Many Main Characters?

It's happened very rarely, but it has been done. An author comes forward with a style or an idea that's so unusual, so outside-the-box, they distinguish themselves for ever. Lewis Carroll invented words. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote about what it was really like to be a black American...in the 1860s. And Jane Austen, single and never married, wrote so beautifully about love that girls still flock to read her boots 160 years after the fact. So can you do something unusual and interesting, too? Can you write a story with many main characters...or with no main character?

Thinking Outside the Box

The first time I saw The Neverending Story, I thought it was the most amazing movie ever made. I immediately loved it and wanted to watch it again and again (and I did). Now, ask me why.

Because I identified with, and immediately liked, Bastian. He's the little boy who's reading the book. I also read books! I'm not a little boy, and I didn't live in a big city like him, and I sure as heck would never have gone into any scary school store room by myself with a piece of fruit in the middle of a storm...but yeah, I know what it is to get swept up in a story, so carried away that it becomes the most important thing. Bastian was a main character, and he was the glue that held that whole story together. Eliminate him from The Neverending Story, and you've just got a weirdo in a loincloth talking to rocks. I definitely can't identify with any of that.

I like a single main character, and this is what works for a goodly amount of stories. But there are other ways to write a book.

• Many main characters

If your story has no main character, maybe it's because you have several main characters. Maybe you're telling several seemingly separate stories revolving around small casts of characters, and in the end these disparate plots merge into one mind-blowing experience. But here's the problem: I'm not a group of people or an entire cast. I am one person. I want to read about one person that I can latch onto. I want to love them, or hate them, cheer for them or actively root against them. I'm an individual, and I want to put my focus on an individual in your book.

If you divide my attention between several main characters, I may be unable to adequately drum up enough big emotion for any one of them. The worst thing you can do for your book is to create any sense of ambivalence. Get me passionate, get me laughing, get me crying -- get me feeling anything but apathetic. If you stretch my attentions and my emotions too thin among a big ensemble cast, the end result is that I won't really give a crap about any of them. So tread lightly if you're taking a many-character approach.

• No main characters

Taking a we-are-the-world approach, are we? Maybe you envision a brave new world of writing with no main character. Maybe you're detailing a catastrophic event in your story, and switching POV to different people with every new chapter. I visit with each, but never really linger. It's a bold plan.

Once again, I need someone to latch onto in order to develop the necessary emotion. If I know that you're just going to introduce me to someone new soon, what difference does it really make to me that Carol just died in Chapter 5? Now I'm hearing all about Jim, and he's pretty cool, so that's a do-over. You're basically hitting the reset button on your story over and over, and my emotions are getting engaged only briefly or not at all. If there's no longevity and no character development, what difference does any of it make? 

There are pitfalls to this approach, but if it's done well you can get me to care about something to make your story stick. If the people aren't touching me, maybe it's the setting that holds the story together. It's very possible to make human readers care about an inanimate object -- I wasn't the only person who cried when Wilson drowned in Cast Away, I know I'm not. 

• A small group

It's very common to see stories that revolve around a small group of main characters; two to five is just about right for a small, close-knit cast of characters. If these characters are linked in some way, this is an interesting way to show different sides of your characters. The reader gets the chance to see each character through the other's eyes, and the changing perspectives can add a rich new dimension to the story. 

Building a story around a few main characters is a good way to make your book identifiable to a broad range of readers. Think Sex & the City. Women of all ages love deciding which one of the four women they are (clearly I'm a Carrie) -- and you can see how it goes.

The answer to the question is yes. You can do whatever you like in your own book, and you should do whatever feels right to you to tell the story that you need to tell. A character doesn't have to be a stand-alone star, and you don't have to write your book using a certain formula. No matter how many characters you write, they simply need to be strong, well-crafted characters. Make them fully dimensional, real people, and that will make them more identifiable.

Praise for The Tower

"If there's one book that deserves to be in the bestsellers list I think it's this one because Jade Varden did an absolutely flawless job in executing the story."

"While the previous book was good, this one was excellent, brilliant and honestly? I can't praise it enough."

The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2) has been reviewed at Reading 24x7 by friend of the blog Josheka Chauhan. Read the whole thing before you get your copy of the book!

Review: Empire Zero Act I: Tinder and Tear

I didn't know what Empire Zero (Act I: Tinder and Tear) was about when I began reading it, and after the first few paragraphs didn't care. It was written so well, I was ready to just go along for the ride.

But it wasn't always a smooth journey. At the beginning the story threw me into the life of a young man on a quest, going through a strange world. Dangers abound here, in a land where humans, dwarves and ogres dwell...but do not really coexist. The races are at odds, and the journey is fraught with peril.

I'd have happily stayed with that tale, but the author began to introduce different, concurrent storylines. Three main stories create Act I of Empire Zero, and it gets pretty confusing pretty quickly. The author makes it easier by naming chapters after each main story, dividing them into Brother, Monster and Thief.

The Brother story revolves around Castor, who must travel across the dangerous world to procure medicine. Monster tells us the story of two ogre brothers, and Thief introduces us to Maeve.

The chapter names made it easier to keep the divergent stories sorted, but didn't improve the disjointed feeling of the narrative. I wanted to stay with Castor and the somewhat motley crew he assembled around himself. I wanted to know if he would complete his mission. I did get some answers, but lots of extra stuff also.

And as for Castor...there's not much resolution. It's clear that his adventure will continue in the next book, and I'm anxious to see what else will happen to him. Others stories do find more of an ending, though not necessarily satisfaction.

The writing itself is descriptive but not overly so. It flows well and has a perfect pace. I was hoping something less tragic would develop between Castor and Raine, but perhaps there's still time for that. Left without much of an ending, there's not much else to do but wait for more of the story and see what else will develop. The narrative was a little disorganized and hard to follow, but the quality of the writing makes Empire Zero's first act a totally worthwhile read. I'll definitely stick it out for the next book.

"He decided he would write not of the future, but of the present, and how lost he felt in this world—but he was relegated to committing everything to memory..."

Get the book free at Smashwords with the coupon code UM57K.

Writing 101: Are You Really Ready to Self-Publish?

You've studied the craft of writing. You know all about formatting. You know how to edit. You've got a great blurb. You're a born storyteller. But are you really ready to self-publish? The job is about a lot more than writing, and it can be very overwhelming.

My Other Job is Not Sleeping

It takes a lot of time and study to write a book, any book. You've got to think about the plot, figure out the ending, complete the research, develop the characters, decide upon the setting...well, you know it takes a lot. When the book is finished, you have to edit it and format it for mass distribution. 

Once that's all done, the real work begins. It's not enough to put a book out there into the world, even if it's a great book. Even if it's the greatest book ever penned by the hand of man, it's not enough to simply self-publish it.

Now you have to market it. You have to slip into the role of indie author. And the problem with that is, it's a full time job. 

Once you decide to make a go of self-publishing, you have to start marketing. It's never too early to start. As an indie author, you should use all the available tools at your disposal. You need to get active on social media. You need to establish a presence in reader and writer forums. You should blog, and establish a brand for your audience to identify with. Oh and by the way, you need to publish more books. The more you publish, the more credible you become as a self-published author. 

And when you aren't doing all of that, chances are very strong that you're also working a normal "day" job in order to continue putting food in your mouth, maybe attending school to broaden your horizons, tending to a family that you love and attempting to maintain some sort of social life on top of it all. 

Your free time is going to be spent working on your next book, or answering Tweets, or combing through your author inbox. I work 7 days a week, every week, on some project or another. I count myself lucky to get a full 6 hours of sleep a night. I am an indie author. And that means I've got two full-time jobs.

So are you ready to take all of that on? If so, then go ahead and self-publish. It's rewarding to see that first review, and all the reviews after that. It's thrilling to get a tweet from someone who's read your book. It's exciting...but it's very hard work, and it's going to consume a huge chunk of your life if it's going to work. So are you ready? Only you can find the answer.

Writing 101: Social Marketing

Social marketing serves a lot of different purposes. It's a great way to stay connected with friends and family, or to re-connect with them. It's wonderful for learning more about people, for getting the inside scoop on celebrities and TV shows, it's a great distraction when you want to be entertained. But social media sites are popular, and that makes them good for something else: marketing. As a self-published author, you pretty much need to do it. But as a self-published author, you've got to play to your own strengths.

Socially Spamming

If you can get a lot of followers on Twitter, you have a great platform from which to tout your books. It's a good idea to post snippets of text, pieces of reviews and parts of your blurb to pique the interest of potential readers. But you can't do that too much, or else you'll be regarded as a spammer.

And it's not really the most effective means of social media marketing, anyway. Social media is supposed to be social, so that's where you've got to put your focus when you want to hawk more books. 

Social Social Media

Unless you are already an established personality in some medium, you are not going to build a fan base as a self-published author overnight. It's a very slow and steady process, especially where social media is concerned. The best marketing you can do is to simply be active. Show them you're a real person. Comment on other people's posts, make random comments of your own, give out likes and always respond when someone has something to say to you.

 

As a self-published author, being an everyday person is your strength. Show it off, show your personality, and reach out to others through social media. Join in on discussions, and get involved. This is a slow way to build your fan base, but you'll be building a strong one.

Writing 101: Add Your eBooks to the Library

How do you know you're a "real" author? For some, it's seeing their book or books available at the public library. Now that many libraries have added ebook collections to their spanking-new virtual shelves, it's a possibility. Add your ebooks to your local library's database, and join all the other big-time authors who loan their books out for free.

Amazon at the Library

Amazon released many of their electronic titles for lending at libraries all over the United States, and you can join the list of available books.  Many of the ebooks available at local libraries can be found on a central database which distributes the books.

From the OverDrive site, readers can type in their zip code to find the ebooks available at their local libraries. It's even got an app.

To get your books listed on OverDrive, and subsequently at libraries across the country, you'll have to apply for a publisher account with the site. If you're with a small press, contact them about potentially becoming publishers with OverDrive to offer your titles for lending. 

Listing your ebooks at local libraries makes them more available to readers, and free books are much easier to share. Run promotions to share lending links, and get more readers.

Writing 101: What Makes a Story Great?

Everyone who wants to be an author thinks about writing a great novel, not just a massive bestseller but something that lasts through the ages. Think Pride and Prejudice, Gone With the Wind, A Christmas Carol. Then you start writing...and realize you'll settle for just getting the damn book finished. But after you write three or four, it might not be out of line to try and reach for greatness again. So I've got to ask: what makes a story great?

All the Earmarks of a Great Novel

We've all read great books...and we've all read bad books. The differences between the two can be very minute indeed -- the wrong word, the wrong ending, a missed opportunity can be the determining factor in a brilliant story and a horrible one. But truly great stories do tend to have a few things in common. Master them, and you may find your greatness.

• Strong main character: Notice the adjective. Great main characters do not have to be good, and they do not have to be heroic. They do not have to be beautiful. They don't even have to be likable. But they have to be strong. Make that character come alive and leap off the page. You don't necessarily root for Scarlett O'Hara to get what she wants, but you can't stop reading about her. 
• Clear narrative: You don't have to tell a linear story, and you don't have to tell it in the past tense. You do have to tell me a story that I can understand. Make sure I can follow it.
• Plot: Stuff has to happen. Make sure you're adding love scenes, action sequences, other exciting stuff to keep readers engaged. Remember that all these plot developments should serve the story; each scene should be taking us closer to the end.
• Flow: The way the words flow is arguably the most important aspect of any book. The writing should be smooth, and it should be easy to understand. You don't have to pull out the five-syllable adjectives or wow me with the most uncommon irregular verbs in the English language. Simple words allow the story to shine through. 

And that's about it. The setting, the genre, the theme -- all that stuff is important, but it can be changed at will and won't make your book any less great. Weak characters, confusing wording, a messy story and a boring plot are things that will kill your story. Put your focus where it matters, and write a great one.