Writing 101: Turn Yourself into a Brand

If I say the name J.K. Rowling to you, what do you think of? I'll bet you don't think of a British mum who lives in the country, though that's who she is as a person. You probably think of Harry Potter right away. J.K. Rowling is a brand name to us readers; she's only a person to her family members. And if you want to make it in the literary game, you've got to learn how to turn yourself into a brand, too. 

The Professional Mask

That's right. I'm about to tell you to stop being a person, and start being a commodity. You can be a person when you're with your friends and family members. You're a person when you're sitting on your couch. But when you're on social media and when you're self-publishing books, you're a brand. From now on, the pen name you use is your brand name. And you'd better start building it.

Tightrope

Being a full-time writer and a self-published author is a balancing act, and today I feel a little like I'm walking on a tightrope. 

Walk the Line

Freelance writers already have a lot of tasks to juggle, because it's common for them to work several gigs at a time. That means that multiple projects have to be completed in a single day; multiple editors and overseers must be appeased. And, if those writers are anything like me, multiple email accounts must be checked.

I check four different email accounts every single day for three different names. And here's the rub: they're all my inboxes. The only way I can manage it all is to compartmentalize. But when you're juggling all sorts of daily writing tasks and you're an indie author, too, things can get a little hectic in spite of your best efforts.

Self-Published Books: Getter Bigger Than the Big 5?

Data from AuthorEarnings.com shows that self-published book titles make up 31 percent of Amazon Kindle's book sales, and that's a lot. In fact, it suggests that indie authors are growing as powerful as the Big 5. This is the moniker given to the country's 5 biggest publishing companies, the old guard who for so long dictated popular literature in the United States. Those days might be over. 

Mr. Big Stuff

The "Big 5" publishing companies can lay claim to just 38 percent of Kindle book sales. Not only are self-published books taking up a piece of the market that's almost as big, self-published authors get bigger royalties than their traditionally-published counterparts. According to AuthorEarnings, self-published authors earn almost 40 percent of all ebook royalties paid out by Amazon.

Writing 101: Using Incorrect Grammar on Purpose

All books should be perfectly polished, well-edited, presentable in every way. But there are times when authors might be using incorrect grammar...on purpose. When is it not only okay to break the rules of language, but necessary? 

When Bad Writing is Good

Sometimes, bad writing is needed in order to bring the setting to life. Ever read Gone With the Wind? Mammy's voice is clear and strong throughout the novel, and Margaret Mitchell does it with a lot of misspellings and incorrect grammar. 

Writing 101: And Then...

There are a whole lot of rules in the English language, and we know this to be true because I write about these rules all the time. And as an author, it's part of my job to follow those rules -- strictly. I must cling to them so passionately, in fact, that I actively and aggressively try to get other people to follow those rules. So it may come as a surprise to some blog readers that there's one rule I break...no matter how many times the automatic grammar checker tells me to fix it. Because when it comes to the phrase "and then," I just don't use it. Nope...not at all. 

Born to Be Bad

Microsoft is totally against the way I write. My word processor completely believes that the word "then" cannot be used unless its buddy "and" is also involved. I'll give you some examples of sentences that are sure to be flagged:

She reached across the table, then grabbed my hand in a show of support.

He lifted his hand as if to touch me, then let it fall back down to his side.

Writing 101: Guilds, Groups and Other People

As an author, you need support. You need honest feedback. You may even need help figuring out certain writing techniques and double-checking your ideas. It's attractive to start joining guilds and groups, and plenty of writers advocate that. But when you mix with other people, you're always going to wind up with a mixed bag. Joining groups and getting involved has a good side...but plenty of writers will tell you about that. I'm going to flip the coin, and talk about the dark side of sharing your writing with other people before you've finished with it.

Team Players

I have often mentioned my childhood fantasy of being a writer. I would be sitting in a quiet room -- maybe in an attic, somewhere, or some book-lined room -- all alone just typing away. That, to me, is truly living the dream. Why? Because writing is solitary. You do it alone. To me, the idea of joining up with other writers has always seemed...damned counter-productive, to put it mildly.

But even I can see the merits in it. Writer groups can be helpful if you've got questions or want to test your ideas. Joining a group can help you find beta readers and review buddies and, I guess, lifelong friends. 

Writing 101: First Draft Questions

Finishing a first draft is an amazing feeling, and I want you to enjoy it...for a little while. But once that moment of joy is good and done, it's time to get down to the real work. Because up until now, you've been having fun. Now you have to edit your work, and that means you have to ask yourself the dreaded first draft questions. 

Don't have first draft questions? It's time to get some. Otherwise, how will you make sure your story is air-tight? 

That's My Interrogative 

First drafts are meant to be a bit frenzied. You've got a outline but you're not always following it, because the story ends up going somewhere you didn't quite expect. You're not sure if pineapples grow in Hawaii but you think so and you're going to check it later so that's fine. You haven't finished that one scene with the green plate because you can't quite figure it out, but you're getting back to that later so who cares. 

It's okay to do that in a first draft. You've got to just get the story on the page, and the little details will get filled in later if they're missing.

Well, hello -- and welcome to later. Because while it's good to play the part of the free-spirited artist while you're writing the first draft, you've got to get serious and become the boss as soon as you begin editing the very first page. No more playing it by ear or skipping over it for now. You've got to double-check facts, tighten up that sentence structure and become the drill sergeant of the book. Make Chapter 11 do those push-ups, or else. 

Writing 101: Roman a Clef, or How to Beat the System

I'm personally fascinated by history, but it's difficult for me to use this passionate love affair in my writing because I'm interested in real history and real historical figures. And if you write about real people in your books, even those who are long dead, you may experience backlash in all sorts of different forms. But other authors have learned how to beat the system, and they've done it so well there's an entire literary technique named for this sort of savvy trickery. It's called roman a clef, and you don't even have to be French to use it to avoid lawsuits and other author troubles. 

At Their Own Game

Want to write about something real, but fear reprisal? Don't shrink from the story you want to tell. Pull a fast one on them, and use roman a clef. 

This French term is used to describe a novel that is about real life -- real events and real people. This type of novel, however, is very thinly disguised as fiction. The trick is that the names are changed, and a key is added to the back of the book showing which "characters" represent which real people.

It's just that easy to beat the system. And it's been done time and time again by countless authors for all sorts of reasons.