Ch-ch-changes

You may notice some features missing on the blog this weekend while I work on a brand-new design. That's right: everything around here is changing. The blog is getting a makeover to help me celebrate the release of my newest book, Hope's Rebellion. Keep checking back to see the new design and the upcoming cover reveal! 

Writing 101: What's Different About Your Book?

Digital books have sparked a self-publishing revolution that allows anyone to become an indie author, and this is what's so fantastic about it. But this is also what's bad about it, because there are a lot of indie books out there. No matter how hard you work on yours, it could easily get swamped in a bunch of books that didn't get the same time and attention. So when you write, when you publish, when you promote, you've got to ask yourself a question: what's different about your book? 

The Cheese Stands Alone

Go look for a vampire novel on Amazon -- only wait until you read this blog post. You might be busy doing that for hours, because there are so many to choose from. And if you also write a vampire novel because you love vampires and you've been thinking about them since you were a kid, your book could easily get lost in the shuffle. 

You might focus on the fact that it's a vampire novel, like Twilight and so many other popular novels. You might think this will help you gain readers. But the truth is, because of its popularity there are a ton of Twilight-like novels out there. It's not enough to mention a popular book and the genre you write in. It's not good enough for your book to be like another book -- because in many ways, your book is a lot like a lot of other books out there. That's the nature of the writing business.

So don't tell me how your book is similar to other books. Tell me how it's different. As an indie author, it's your job to make your books stand out. You've got to paint them fluorescent orange, add some new twist, and launch an insane marketing campaign that includes hatching live chickens.

Okay, so no you don't have to do exactly that, but I'm trying to make a point. You have to be unique. You have to stand out. So focus on what makes your book different from all those others, and build your marketing platform around that. You'll have a lot more success with this approach than with telling readers that your book is like someone else's. Give me a great reason to read your book, and that's the best marketing you can do.

Writing 101: Perfect Isn't Possible

I've been posting Facebook updates about my newest book...for many, many months now. It's not quite 60 thousand words and it's consuming me. And the other day I finally figured out what's been taking me so long to just finish it already: I've been trying to make it perfect. But here's the truth about that: perfect isn't possible. And I don't mean that it's not possible for indie authors...it's possible for no author.

Imperfect

I have never read a perfect book. In every story there is a typo, punctuation out of place, mixed-up names. Some errors are even more grievous -- a ridiculous character, an unbelievable plot, a horrible cliche. Even the books that millions love have their flaws.

Read your books again and again, and you'll keep finding stuff to change. Scenes to shift. Sentences to shorten. Punctuation to perfect. Keep looking for errors, and you will find them. Because writing is never going to be perfect. It's the unique phrasing and punctuation that you bring to the table that helps to create your unique voice. And you can spend so much time editing that you completely lose your natural voice in the flow of things. 

There's always something more to add, a character to flesh out, a scene to shorten or another twist to throw in. You can make yourself crazy with it without half-trying, because authors by nature are detail-oriented people. But when they say the devil is in the details, they were definitely talking about editing a book. 

Get rid of the errors, but don't edit out all the flavor of the story. It's not possible to be perfect, and there's always something more to do. But once you feel that the story adequately stirs the emotions you had hoped to engage, and you're quite certain that the book is as 100 percent error-free as is it can be, cut yourself off. Don't keep tweaking pages and messing with what you've got. At some point, you have to stop and you have to call your project done. 

The perfect book is the one that you feel good about. So feel good about your editing, but don't strive for ultimate perfection...because you won't get there. Authors tend to be picky people, too.

Writing 101: Who Should You Follow on Twitter?

If you want to get more followers, you have to follow more people. It's one of the basic tenants of Twitter that everyone knows, but it still leaves so much to desire. Like, who the heck should you be following? 

It's not as easy as you might think to find people who are into books on a site that's driven by misspelled words, random phrases, and very little punctuation. Go figure. But don't worry: I have the answer. Let me tell you who you should follow on Twitter, and you can put an end to your weird hashtag searches.

A Follow for a Follow

Following people on Twitter is only effective if you're following specific targets. Just start following anyone you can find, and your account will get flagged for spam -- and you won't gain that many more followers, to boot. You can follow random people if you like, but the whole point is that you want to sell books. So apply a bit more strategy, and you'll get a lot more results. 

• Books. Twitter is chock-full of book lovers of all kinds. Search for book blogs, book bloggers, review blogs and book lovers. These phrases will yield a ton of positive results.
• Genre. Do you primarily write in a specific genre? Search for it. I follow all kinds of people with YA and mystery in their Twitter profiles.
• Age group. Do you write children's books? YA novels? Adult novels? Search by age group, not just by genre, to get more readers. For example, I search for stuff that teens are into (like One Direction). Adults are more likely to be interested in news and politics, while young kids are into certain TV shows (do they still have Sesame Street?). Use your knowledge of your target age group to search for music, TV shows, actors and books that you audience is likely interested in, and start searching.
• Followers. Don't limit yourself to keyword searches on Twitter. Seek out popular accounts that are likely to be followed by your audience. My books contain a lot of stuff about fashion for younger people, so I might follow people who follow Seventeen magazine. Look for popular accounts, look at their followers, and get to work. 

Twitter helps you discover new accounts to follow, but you have to do some of the work on your own. Search for followers of popular accounts, use keywords and target your searches to the people who are most likely to read your book. Follow new people every single day to get more followers, and sell more books.

Writing 101: The Fine Line Between Marketing and Exploiting

Everyone's got a story to tell, and I'm not just talking about the ones in your self-published books. As an indie author, you also have your own personal story of tragedy and triumph. If you use that to sell more books, are you marketing yourself...or exploiting yourself?

Walking the Line

The question is a hard one, and I know because I had to face it head-on. I was randomly following people back on Twitter one day when I caught one profile that stood out. It was an author (I get followed by a lot of authors) who mentioned, in the same sentence, a terrible personal tragedy and a book she wrote about it.

Now, all authors draw from personal experience. If you write a book about your own personal tragedy, you're within your rights to promote that book for what it is. But you have to be sensitive about the way you choose to promote. Because if you start out by hitting me in the face with your tragedy, it feels a little insincere. It reads a little like "My daughter was murdered -- buy my book!" and that's not the greatest marketing message you can put out there. Take a more sensitive approach. That's hard to do in a Twitter profile, I know...but there's no rule that you have to announce your tragedy in your Twitter profile. When you do, it does begin to feel a little exploitative.

Take a more subtle approach with your marketing...or at least with your tragedies. Sometimes, in-your-face isn't the most effective means of selling a book.

Indie News: Goodreads Gets Polite

Notice a change in the Goodreads forums lately? The moderation policy for the site has changed, and with it a lot of discussions. But how do these changes affect indie authors? 

Goodreads Manners

According to an announcement released by the site, the new changes will now prohibit discussion threads and "reviews that were created primarily to talk about author behavior."

Salon.com says it all stems from a conflict that arose last summer when indie author Lauren Pippa (Lauren Howard) challenged a Goodreads reviewer for a 2-star rating. She took her complaints to the Goodreads forums, sparking a heated debate that led several Goodreads members to flag Pippa's book with low ratings and "do not read" lists memberships. 

She aired her grievances on Twitter, which just fueled the flames of the fire. Apparently she then took to her blog to say she was bullied into canceling the release of her book.She later reconsidered. 

I advocate that all authors act with professionalism at all times, and I must gently remind all authors that everyone gets bad reviews. My favorite book, Gone With the Wind, unarguably a masterpiece and a classic, has lots of scathing 1-star reviews. It happens...but rarely do websites with 20 million members change their policies because of it. 

The point of this particular bit of news? That yes, a lone indie author can make a big splash with a book...and I hope your experience is a more positive one.

Books on Film: Planet of the Apes

I've always found Planet of the Apes to be a rather frightening story. I don't want a forced lobotomy, after all, and I just can't live in a cage. I like to pace when I think, and that would be maddening. But I didn't know that one of my favorite classic sci-fi movies was actually based on a French book. Did you?

The Book

La Planète des Singes, or Monkey Planet, was released in France in 1963. Pierre Boulle, the author, was already familiar with writing for American audiences. His other best-known novel is Bridge on the River Kwai.

The story isn't about America, anyway, it's about the entire world. It opens with three astronauts who are visiting a planet near the star Betelgeuse. They discover that the atmosphere is somewhat Earth-like, so they name the planet Soror. The water is drinkable, the air is breathable and the vegetation is tasty. So everything looks pretty good...at first. 

Then the astronauts go swimming and see a young woman. She kills their companion, a chimp named Hector. Things go downhill from there as far as the local population is concerned. The planet is populated by human-like creatures, but they are frighteningly primitive in nature. In fact, the astronauts are briefly captured. 

That's when they see the other occupants of the planet, ape-like creatures who wear clothing and carry guns. Several of the human-like creatures are killed, including one of the astronauts, by an ape hunting party. Ulysse, the main character, is captured by the apes.

He's taken to a research facility in a large city. Tests are conducted, and one of the researchers (Zira) becomes interested in the new test subject. Things happen, and there are a few twists and turns toward the end. The book has been translated, so you don't need to be fluent in French to read it. But you can also watch the movie if you like...and it is thoroughly American.

The Film

The first (and greatest) film version of Planet of the Apes was released in 1968 and it stars Charleton Heston -- so really, it's just not going to get any better than that. The movie was a gigantic hit right away, spawning a franchise that's still quite alive and kicking. Watch it today and the film looks dated, but in 1968 the special effects and makeup tricks were absolutely dazzling.

The lead character's name is changed to Taylor (good call) but much of the story and characters from the original book are still intact on film. Plus, Charleton Heston runs around in a loincloth practically the entire time. The movie also completely invents my favorite moment of the film, which you've probably seen spoofed a hundred times, when Heston screams "take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape." The insult is regrettable, but the delivery of the line is masterful.

If you've never seen it, see it. The ending of Planet of the Apes is utterly mind-blowing. This movie has been done and re-done and done again in skit shows, cartoons and on film, but this is the definitive version.

However, a newer one was made in 2001. It's a "loose" remake that was directed by Tim Burton, so you can probably guess how closely this version of the story mirrors the original (or even reality). Mark Wahlberg stars in it, Burton's wife is on board as usual and everything is different. But the fact that a film got made at all is a credit to the entire cast and crew.

The remake was put into development in 1988, after all. It was scrapped just before pre-production. Had it not been, you might be reading about Return of the Apes starring Arnold Schwarzenegger instead. Alas, the scriptwriter got into a dispute with Fox and the project was forgotten for a long, long time.

Wahlberg plays Leo Davidson in this version and he's on a US space station. This time, he ends up in a space pod chasing a chimpanzee named Pericles. The story pretty much goes off on a dozen different tangents from there, and it's quite different from any other version. 

What Got Adapted?

Planet of the Apes is one of those stories that everyone's sort of familiar with, but it all started with just one book. There have been numerous sequels, prequels, remakes and spoofs, but there is just one original story.  The really big twist is the ending of the book -- which is different on film. You'll have to read it to see what I mean.

Dr. Zaius has a bigger role on film, but it's well worth it because he becomes more of a true villain as well. There's more to the story in the novel, and the theme of man vs. animal much more strongly pronounced. Read the book, watch the movie and see what you think of them both.

Writing 101: Are You Talking About Your Book?

You're a self-published author, so of course you're on Goodreads, and you've got a blog and you Tweet about your book all the time. So when I ask you if you're talking about your book, I'm not talking about all your online efforts. I'm talking about your daily interactions. Every single person you know, every store clerk and everyone you ride in an elevator with ought to know you're an author. Talking to someone face-to-face is the type of marketing that absolutely can't be overestimated in value.

Hello, My Name Is...

I'm bringing this up right now because the season for holiday parties is approaching. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's -- you've got several chances to get invited to a get-together, a party or a soiree. I want you to spend some of the evening talking about your book. If you happen to have some business cards, bookmarks and signed promotional materials with you...well, that's just good luck. 

Talking to people, looking them in the eye and telling them about your book is some of the best marketing you can ever hope to do. No one loves or understands that book better than you, so you're clearly an expert on the subject. This should make you feel confident when you're talking about it, because you can't possibly be incorrect. Tell them what you love about the book, why you think they'll love it, and make sure to say the title very articulately...more than once. 

You don't have to be obnoxious about it, but you should try to bring up your book when you can and discuss it. Don't turn it into an all-night affair and talk about your book for hours, but mention it. Chances are, people will start asking you questions and naturally lead you through the conversation. Through the normal flow of talking, you'll drift into other subjects. But maybe later that night, some of those people you spoke with will download your book. Some of them might do it at the party (thank you, smart phones).

If all your friends and family don't know about your book by the end of the holiday season, you're clearly not talking enough. So if you aren't already gabbing, get started. You can never sell too many books.