Loose Change

I was requested to discuss writing in passive voice. What is passive voice? Passive voice is what I did in the first sentence. Who requested it? You don't know, do you.

Why is it bad? First of all, it's not necessarily wrong, as in ungrammatical. Second, it's not necessarily wrong as in avoid at all costs. Third, using the "to be" forms do not necessarily create passive voice.

What passive voice does tend to do is send warning signals to readers - even if they don't know why -- because it doesn't tell you things like who requested the discussion in my example above. (Another publisher and editor, actually.) It's great for legal writing where who did it may not be something you want to get into. It's great when you are deliberately setting up something in fiction where you don't want to tell the reader who or what is going on in great detail. But generally it signals a lack of clear, concise action, which most fiction does require. (By the way, my fav passive voice line may be from George Orwell - Mistakes were made. That wasn't wrong or 'bad" taken in context. That was the author showing a society where no one took responsibility.)

Examples:

Her heart was broken by the mysterious stranger. VS

The mysterious stranger broke her heart.

And so reader, he was married to me. VS
And so, reader, I married him.

I often fall into passive voice in fiction writing when I'm feeling lazy or unsure where I want my characters to go. It tends to happen when you summarize things, rather than showing action. But telling not showing is another issue -- one that passive voice can highlight because they often trot along together, making readers fall asleep.

Tell me who did what up front, make the actor act and not be acted upon. That doesn't mean the sentences have to be simplistic -- it makes them sharper and more dynamic and often makes the characters and their actions sharper and more dynamic as well.

Treva Harte
www.Loose-Id.com

When your very first book is published, it's an exciting event. Then you start learning about marketing and promoting yourself and your book, and it may all start to go from exciting to nerve-wracking.

One way to market yourself is to have a reliable backlist of stories out there so your name is mentioned more than once and you develop a fan base.

Of course that’s easy to say. How to you get from one book to more when you aren’t sure how to make your book stand out?

* Write a hell of a good story. Make your fans come looking for more!

* Develop an on-line writer presence before you publish your first book. Not an obnoxious, look at me writer presence. One that reflects you or at least the you that you can project for years and seems friendly and approachable and interesting. Then when you modestly admit you have a book out, people will have an interest.

* Experiment with what marketing you feel comfortable doing and do it.

* Listen to what your publisher, editor, and/or agent tells you to do. (Sounds easy, huh? And yet it’s not universally followed.)

* Finally, keep writing. Marketing one book for years will only get you diminishing results. You need more out there to keep sparking interest

As an editor, I have several pet peeves. Almost none of them are spelling related, since I'm dyslexic. I take that back. One major spelling thing. RUN SPELL CHECK. DUH? Not really. My authors and critique partners who can spell tend to turn spell check off. They find all the little red lines distracting. Hence their MS come to me with far more wrong spellings than my dyslexic authors. (I get the dyslexic authors 'cause we understand one another.)

When you run spell check, add your characters' names to your database ONLY ONCE. Then you'll know when you've spelled them wrong the next six times. Keep a list of the words yuo [like now-TH] routinely misspell and do a search for them. Mine's every form of thou words. Thought, though, through... I know the meanings, I routinely type them wrong. Oh, and YOU.

Other than that, I'm at war with repetitive sentence structure. N-V, N-V-N, ad infinitum. He opened the door. He looked out into the hallway. He took a step. He fell over dead. (I cheered.) Some variety, please!

Since I was happily on a rant, I decided to ask our proofing loop about their favorite pet peeves.

M: What are some of your pet peeves? What makes you cringe?

Lil: From a proofer's POV? Well... honestly? OK, here goes.

Words that are two words put together as one, or hyphenated incorrectly. It irks me when "alright" is used instead of "all right." Numbers used when they should not have been, i.e., 7th grade instead of seventh grade.

There's also incorrect word usage. Inconspicuous in place of conspicuous, "then" instead of "than" (and vice versa). Improper usage of tense also bugs me. "There were also the other ten people who were murdered." Or maybe it's the way the past tense usage is worded. I asked that it be changed to "had been murdered."

Maybe I'm too picky. Maybe I'm not picky enough. Some things, like those I named, just irk me to no end. I've seen books from big New York publishers that I've found so many errors in, it's not even funny.

OK, guess I need to get off my soapbox!

Pat: Spelling/word confusion errors. Loose/lose, altar/alter, their/they're/there, hear/here, from/form, though/thought, through/thru/threw, bared/barred, lightning/lightening, of/off, definitely/defiantly and then/than are often confused.

Another real pet peeve is repetitive words -- i.e. and, that, but. I almost always make my authors remove at least half if not more of them. I hate those words. I'm not crazy about run on sentences either. Recently I edited a book containing the word and over 2000 times, the word that almost 3000 times... I asked one author if he thought his characters were bobble heads. All they did was nod, smile, or grin -- he had a tag for every dialogue.

Vicki: While on dialogue tags -- chuckled, giggled, sighed, snorted...

Or when an author only knows two dialogue tags -- said and asked.

Jean: All the aforementioned errors, plus:

Some authors try to use words that are not in their vocabulary. That is, they know there's a word that means what they want to say, but they're not quite sure which word it is. They end up using a word that sounds similar, but isn't quite it. For instance, "vicious" for "viscous" or "lathe" for "lave." Ouch! I can always tell when an author went to the thesaurus and looked for different words to mean "sexy" -- the new words are used in a way that is tone-deaf to their connotations.

(A final comment on tone-deafness to word meanings -- I hate the word "smirk" and I think authors use it way too much. To me, it means a little quirk of the lips with a malicious intent. Many authors use it as a synonym for "smile.")

I've pretty much decided that some people are gifted with storytelling talent, and others are gifted with a sense of language, but that only a very few people have both.

Lea: You have no idea how many times I have come across that problem. I think it is worsened by people's dependence upon spell check. I have noticed that if a word is not in spell check's dictionary, it will make suggestions that can be really off track. And if you take its word for it, you can come up with some really weird sentences. I came across one where the nun went up the hill and entered the "convenient." Yikes! Another problem with spell check is that if you misspell a word, and the word you accidentally formed is a real word, spell check will NOT catch it.

I'm one of those people who has absolutely no ability to tell a story. But the wrong word stops me like running into a brick wall. All my books have places where I felt it necessary to "fix" them.

Christina: I agree completely with all the previous posts about peeves, especially the homophones/homonyms. Also, the dreaded run-on sentence. And they..., and then she..., and..., and... ACK! Occasionally they work. Most times they don't.

Em: I'd love to see what other proofers say about what they found in a book. There are times when I know something is wrong, and I know how to fix it, but I don't remember the grammatical term for why it was wrong. Also, I'll think something like "improper use of a possessive," and then comment "Put an apostrophe there," or "Take out this apostrophe," or just write it correctly in the comment. I figure it's probably pretty clear why I've marked a grammatical mistake.

One that I seem to be seeing relatively often lately is "free reign" instead of "free rein" -- it's a term related to horseback riding or carriage driving, thus the use of reins. Another one that gets me is "may" instead of "might." Even if much of the rest of the story is in past tense, the author goes into present tense there. Sometimes it could more or less work in the context, sometimes not so much. Like, "He may be small, but he was feisty" just isn't right.

Another one I've seen a couple of times is "climatic" instead of "climactic." In the context, it had to be relating to "climax," not "climate." There's always lie/lay/had lain versus lay/laid/had laid -- and of course lie/lied/had lied. I've seen some where the writer put an unneeded "ed," like "she decided to sneaked" instead of "she decided to sneak."

I don't remember an exact example, but I've seen several uses of passive verbs which completely altered the meaning of the sentence. I do remember "The door was opened" either being "The door was open" or "The door opened." It wasn't really clear which one the author meant.


Chrissie: I have a few peeves.
You can add AS and THEN to Pat's list of repetitive words. I've had over 400 of each in a single manuscript.
"Letting/allowing" body parts to move.
Body parts moving on their own.
Eyes meeting.
The womb featuring heavily during sex.
Shattered into a million pieces (yes, still used).
"Core" being used instead of "pussy."
"Uttered" as a speech tag.
I had one author who insisted "he bore his teeth" was correct...
[M: Maybe they were removable? And heavy?]

Jess: A pet peeve of mine that I've been seeing a lot of lately (at another press, not so much at Changeling) is unnecessary quotation marks. I've had authors who put every cliché, idiom, figure of speech, or word they just want to emphasize in quotation marks. This really "drives me crazy" and makes it hard to "keep my head in the game" and focus on the more "important" issues. ;-) On a related note, have you guys seen this Web site? http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/ -- Check out the "Greatest Hits" list on the right side of the page.

Kym from Loose Id: The two biggest problems I have at LI that weren't mentioned already are incorrectly attributed (or dangling) participles and simultaneous action. For the first, an example is "Unbuttoning his shirt, her eyes looked up to see his reaction." There's more than one thing wrong with that sentence, but for this example, it's that her eyes are unbuttoning his shirt, not her. I'd suggest something like "As she unbuttoned his shirt, she looked up to see his reaction" or "Unbuttoning his shirt, she looked up to see his reaction." For the second, a good example would be "He raced to get her a drink, returning immediately with a glass of water." As written, he's running away and coming back at the same time, which isn't possible. It should be something like "After racing to get her a drink, he returned with a glass of water" or "He raced to get her a drink, then returned with a glass of water."

Otherwise, I wholeheartedly agree with the ambiguously moving body parts, or the idea that our body parts have a will of their own, e.g., "Her hands reached up to touch his face." They might have, but it wasn't of their own volition. It's that she lifted her hands to touch his face. And finally, you shouldn't rely on spell check, and whenever possible, turn off the Auto Correct feature. In my experience, it introduces more errors than it fixes.

This article did make me happy. What a nice way to start the day.

Bill: One really basic complaint. Manuscripts with no NAME on them. We're not really all that psychic. And commas. People really need to learn how to use commas. Or  how, not, to use, commas.

Treva: Oooh! Oooh! I got one, though it isn't a proofing error. Manuscript submissions with no email address on them. We can usually hunt down an address but it wastes precious time in accepting. Can that count? [Sure! It's an editing error, isn't it? -M]

Margaret Riley
Dyslexic Editor par excellence
Changeling Press LLC

With commentary from Treva, as always...

E-book readers have been around for over a decade, slowly evolving from really expensive and highly proprietary devices like the old Reb 1000 that sold for nearly $1000 to the newer Multi-functional devices like the iPod. You can still spend $1000 if you want to between accessories -- gadgets for your gadget-- and software “apps” but now you get a lot more bang for your buck.

There are still a lot of proprietary devices on the market, like Amazon’s Kindle, Sony’s e-book reader, and the coming BN Reader. The intent of most of these e-readers would seem to be lock readers in to a specific reseller or format.

By the early part of this decade, independent resellers like Fictionwise were offering readers a choice -- more formats, more publishers to choose from, and a wider variety of subject matter. While companies like Amazon and Sony struggle to create their own market for their e-reader, BN’s approach seems more logical. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, why not buy the bus? They bought Fictionwise.  They also came out with a new proprietary e-reader, of course.

While Amazon’s Kindles and Sony’s Readers have their own followings, many e-book consumers still prefer to read on multi-functional devices like computers, laptops, notebooks, PDAs, netbooks, and iPods. Consumer demand for a larger variety of formats and a wider range of subject matter has paralleled the growth of online bookstores that cater to their broad range of tastes. While “brick and mortar” stores like Borders are reportedly struggling to stay afloat, the online community appears to be flourishing. There are still good independent resellers, like All Romance E-Books, one of our personal favorites, and Fictionwise continues to sell directly from their own website. (BN.com offers a mirror site as an opt-in option to Fictionwise content providers.)

How does all this affect authors?

While once an author’s royalties came mostly from the publisher’s onsite sales, consumers who’ve joined the e-book community in the last year or two may not even be aware that they can buy direct from independent e-book publishers. More offsite sales may mean larger overall numbers, but it also means more middlemen taking their cut. Sales may go up, but the royalties per copy will go down. It also means a change in the way authors promote. There are more authors competing for the spotlight in a broader market. The immediacy we once expected in e-book sales has changed, as well. The lag between when the author’s book hits multiple markets will likely be longer, so the optimum marketing time is lengthened but also spread out over many different sites.

And most noticeably, for many authors, there’s a real change in when you finally get to see your sales figures. Instead of reading a report within forty-five days of release that tells you how well your book was received, you may only get part of the picture. In an economy where readers are looking for every advantage they can get and larger resellers will work to provide advantages and entice readers, you may have to wait as long as six to nine months to find out how your book sold off-site. A book that releases in January on the publisher’s site probably won’t release off-site for sixty to ninety days after that, and that royalty report won’t reach you till the end of the following quarter.

All of which might make you wonder, what are the advantages to e-publishing again?

Well, in that same six to nine months, your print book from a major New York publisher might -- MIGHT -- be ready to hit the shelves. And the brick and mortar stores it was headed to might still be in business. And in another six to nine months, you may receive royalties on that book (less the reserves they hold in case they don’t get paid for the paperbacks that get shipped out.) Assuming you can find a home in New York for what you want to write in the first place. Many e-book authors -- and most readers -- come over to the dark side for reasons that haven’t changed -- we’re just not mainstreamers. We adapt because we don’t want or expect the old ways of doing business.

 

Margaret Riley
Changeling Press

Treva Harte
Loose Id LLC

It’s a perennial question for most writers and usually the first one asked me.  There are all kinds of answers that could be given.  These are mine, in no particular order of importance:

--     I have to.  That’s what I do. 

--     It’s one of my top priorities, so I don’t do many other things like television, movies, long trips to the spa, gardening, or pretty much anything outside my family and my other work.

--      I’ve used many different ways to get myself writing and stay focused on writing.  The writing goes slower as I’ve written more.  It’s difficult to not repeat yourself (or at least not repeat yourself boringly.)  Lately I’ve set myself a goal of 500 words a day.  That doesn’t sound like a lot but it does sound do-able and if you just keep on doing it every day, you do actually amass a pile of words that turn into a story.  Of course while I do edit and revise my stuff – constantly and annoyingly – I’m the type of writer that usually needs to add more to a finished product, not delete.  So usually my 500 words are all used in the finished story, one way or another.  And yes, when 500 words a day doesn’t work any more for me, I’ll find something else that will.

--      And, finally, I manage to write because no one else will manage it for me. 

Treva Harte, EiC
Loose Id, LLC

Treva: What do awards mean for an author? I'm not counting the feel good fuzzies you get from an award. Authors ask whether the contests are worth entering, and I'm never sure what to say. I even asked Margaret what I should say about what awards could help authors with. She said "Nothing." That was a succinct answer, but I'm compelled to add more for those who like to win awards.

Awards mean nothing directly in sales. Loose Id has award winners - all kinds of award winners--who have wonderful sales and those who don't. There's not much correlation. It may have some intangible effect for name recognition with readers or if you are shopping a book with a publisher or agent who knows little about you. It will make your publisher happy, which is never a bad thing.

It doesn't hurt and if you like contests and you're good at them, use awards as another tool in your marketing strategy. If you don't, that's just fine as well. Use something else to market yourself.

M: I should differentiate between awards. I was thinking contests, as you clearly were, too, Treva. And there I speak from experience, having accumulated a fair number of contest awards. They were all learning experiences, both the ones I won, and particularly the ones I didn't. Contests with acquiring editor comments may give you good feedback to improve your skills as an author. Then again, they may not. But I've never seen any correlation between winning awards and sales.

The only awards I set any real store behind are the second type -- ones given by review sites. Reviewer's choice, and particularly reader's choice, are awards I make an effort to get posted to my website and my author page. But I still can't say definitively whether they have any impact on sales. Often our "best" books -- the ones that win all kinds of awards -- are just not our best sellers.

Treva Harte
Publisher, www.loose-id.com

Margaret Riley
Publisher, www.ChangelingPress.com

Treva: What do you see when you look at an E-book? The author's name, title, and cover. After that, there's a blurb, and if they get that far, an excerpt. But the very first thing a reader sees will usually be the cover art.

So what happens if the author’s thin and geeky hero turns into "Tall, Muscular, and Handsome" on the cover?  After recovering from his or her shock, the author may have to face the awful truth -- while cover artists work from the information they get from the author, the most important thing about cover art is that it is a marketing tool. Perhaps muscular sells better.  Perhaps that worked best with the rest of the art on the cover.

Marketing looks for readability -- can you see the author’s name, title, etc.?-- clarity -- can a reader look at the postage stamp sized thumbnail version and see what's going on (no mass orgies, please, too hard to see),  a clear sense of what the book is about, and yumminess -- my word, not marketing’s. Every cover needs something that will catch your attention, in a good way.

Ultimately, the reader may buy that book just because something about the cover calls to them. Ideally the cover will convey a good sense of what the book is -- which may or may not mean every detail is the same as in the book.

M: For once, we're pretty much in agreement. I try to explain it this way -- the cover doesn't illustrate the book. It's a sales tool. Our marketing research tells us readers buy based on three primary points -- Author, Title, and Blurb. So if they see your name and love your work, they're going to head straight for the buy button -- especially if the title's one they've been looking for.

But if they don't know your name, what attracts them to try a new book? Well, first they've got to want to find out about the book -- and that's where the cover comes in. While a bad cover won't kill a book's sales, an ideal cover conveys a sense of genre and theme to the reader, hopefully piquing their interest enough to go read the blurb.

So what makes a good cover? While we don't expect the cover to illustrate the book -- there's no way the artist is going to get every detail exactly as it's pictured in the author's mind, and authors often ask for things that are simply impossible -- we don't want to mislead readers, either. We need just the right amount of visual information.

A picture of a gorgeous man doesn't tell me all that much. But a hot guy with a gun in his hand and a woman I can relate to at his side? Now I want to know what's going on. Show me a vampire about to bite or a werewolf or a yeti -- or another man -- and I know I'm in for something a little less ordinary. The uncommitted reader is looking for genres and themes that work for them -- Paranormal, IR, BBW, M/M -- the cover can tell the reader all those things, at a glance.

What I don't want to see is a muddy mess with too many ideas going on, too much attention paid to trying to make the hero look EXACTLY like the character, or a title that's in 6 point type because it's too long to fit. If our Cover Art Director vetos an idea, chances are it's because it's got one of those issues.

The cover can't help your sales unless we can read the messages it's trying to convey.

Treva Harte
www.Loose-ID.com

Margaret Riley
www.ChangelingPress.com

From Tina @ TRS Studios

Good morning. As many of you are aware, our very good friends at Coffee Time Romance and More were hacked last week. It was a very serious incident that required the entire site go down and they are still working around the clock to restore it. Coffee Time Romance and More has the full support of all of us here at TRS and we hope yours as well. Like you, we're really looking forward to having them back.

BUT the incident isn't an isolated one. Within the last week, another site that I help a client with -- TRS/Psyche Designs doesn't host the site -- met the same fate. What the hackers are doing is new, there is nothing that can be done to prevent it. I won't go into a lot of technical jargon but these incidents made me think that I really wanted to put some information out there to our community -- anyone with a web site or blog even if it doesn't pertain to romance.

In simple terms, the hackers find a way to get into your web site and then post their wares on it -- usually links to sites where you can illegally purchase prescription drugs, porn sites, and other sites where more than likely, there is malware that can infect your computer if you click on the links. Chances are you won't. That being said, they can also load malware onto your site so that when a visitor arrives to visit you, their computer will be infected with a trojan/virus etc. that can either damage their computer or give the hacker access to that computer remotely. These tactics can be used for many reasons including identity theft.

Add to that the fact that Google bots, the ones that normally crawl your site at regular intervals to index you for the Google search engine, are now looking for malware and if they find it on your site, they will report it to Google. It will also appear as a warning tied to your site on the Google search engine. If this happened to TRS for example, when people googled us, they would see The Romance Studio with the line under the title reading -- "This site may harm your computer." Once your site has been cleared of any malware, you can request for Google to review your site and have that message removed.  But it's still another time consuming process and in the meantime, new visitors are told that your site is harmful and chances are they won't come back. Waiting for Google to review your site again can take days or weeks.

What can you do to help keep your site safe? Many of you work with good, reputable web hosting companies and they likely are aware of these things already. But if you maintain your own web site or blog, here are some things you should know and can do to help keep your site as safe as possible.

1) Check your site regularly. I know from visiting many author web sites each day in the running of TRS, I'll see sites that haven't been update for weeks or months -- even when I am in the way of knowing that author has new books out. =) If you aren't paying attention to your site, you have no way of knowing if someone is trying to get in. Pay attention in particular to any area where there is outside user content -- forums, blogs, guestbooks, etc. These are what spammers want to use to post their ill intended junk. These are usually the scripts they can find a hole in to give them access to your entire site. I've seen people get hacked through guestbook scripts mostly but now they are really hitting on site blogs like WordPress and forums very hard.

2) Check your statistics regularly. I have some web clients who are so good at keeping an eye on their stats. This will often give you a warning that someone is looking at your site. Maybe they are really really interested in your books or product but often an abnormal spike in hits can mean hackers are taking a very close look at your site and considering how they may use it. If you see such a spike, keep a close eye on your site and maybe consider changing your passwords. If someone manages your site, let them know immediately.

3) If you use a script on your site like WordPress or any type of web forum or guestbook, please check at least once a week for updates to the script. This is extremely important. Some updates are made because a vulnerability was discovered that a hacker can exploit. When updates come along, install them immediately.

4) Passwords. Even if you change your password often, please don't make it easy for hackers by using a pet name with a number tacked on the end. Any hacker worth his salt can decode FLUFFY09 in less than a minute. A good password should be at least 8 characters long, should be a mix of upper and lower case letters, include numbers, and other symbols if allowed. I know people want to have passwords they can remember but in this day and age, simple passwords are a risk. Come up with a complex password (ex. Mh?>1h#ggAs) and simply write it down and keep this in a safe place. Change your passwords often. Don't share your password with anyone not involved with the management of your site.

5) Check your site to see if Google has picked up malware. As a disclaimer, this isn't to be used as a way to check your site at once quick and easy glance. If you submit your URL using the utility here, it will simply tell you if Google found anything suspicious on your site within the last 90 days. Check this periodically but don't rely on it as a way to keep your site safe. If this utility tells you that your site has been reported for suspicious activity, you've already got a problem. http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-05-23-n62.html

6) Back up your site. Many hosting companies will tell you that you get backups. Sometimes it doesn't mean a complete and full copy of your site that you can use to restore it if a hacker gets it. Sometimes it means an image you can look at. Often you CAN get a backup of your complete site from a hosting company but it will cost you extra -- I've seen amounts from $50 - $100. You can take away this worry pretty easily by making a backup of your site on a regular basis. It doesn't take long. If I can back up TRS using plain FTP in about an hour, and it's a pretty large site, you might be able to back up your site in a matter of moments. Backing up your site once a week or once every other week can be a life saver. Also considering keeping a periodic copy on a disk. If you're like me, bad things happen in groups. It would be my luck to have my site hacked and then my computer crash before I could restore it. Take no chances. Make sure you have a viable copy of your site at all times. The more up-to-date, the better.

7) Spam/Spoofing. I get a lot of email from folks interested in our web services asking what they can do about spam and wondering how they got an email from themselves that they didn't send selling Viagra.

How do spammers get your email in the first place? They get them from your site. You'd think this would take a lot of effort but it takes actually very little effort. They use programs called spiders. The programs crawl sites looking for things like @ symbols and <a href="mailto:"></a> tags. They know there's a good chance they'll grab an email address from either of those instances. The program finds that and grabs your email. Your email then goes on the spammer's list. Then it can be shared with other spammers but is often sold on lists to people marketing stuff you don't want (or other spammers). So in a very short period of time, your email can be placed on literally thousands of spammer email lists. And you're right to worry that may mean viruses and harmful things. Only it's not just for your site and your email. What about your visitors? Which brings me to bad thing #2

Spoofing. What's that? Well, once spammers have your email, they don't just use it to send you hundreds of emails. They send out emails saying they are from YOU! They'll send out thousands of emails in a single second peddling viagra and the email might say its from tina@tinapavlik.com. This is very easy to do. They don't need access to your email or your web site. They just plug that email into their program as the "sent by" email. Maybe they'll put in Tina Pavlik as the name or maybe not. That part doesn't matter. What matters is that they are sending emails claiming to be you and there's nothing you can do to stop them. They set things up so they can't be easily traced or reported. That's why they lie and use other people's emails.

Once you're being spoofed, people can report the spam that says its from you. Only ISPs won't take the time to look into the matter to see if you really sent it. Some have automatic reporting systems that are rarely looked at by actual people. The end result? Enough people reporting these emails saying they are from you will get your domain black listed. Black listed means that if AOL black lists you because enough people at aol reported spam that you didn't send but says it's from you, they can keep anyone using AOL as a service or aol browsers from even being able to visit your site or receiving your emails. That's bad. Very bad. And it can take months to get a site white listed again once this happens.

You want to have email without worry? I would suggest doing two things.

First, reconsider having a domain name email. I know that's probably not what you want but if you get another email address (gmail, hotmail, etc), if someone spoofs it as I explained above, it won't have an impact on your web site. They won't black list gmail. TRS got rid of all of its @theromancestudio.com emails last year for this reason. Now if any of our gmail accounts get spoofed or reported? The worst thing that can happen is that we have to get a new email. But TRS itself, the site, won't be reported. It's safe. That's not to say that spoofers can't send out hacker@theromancestudio.com emails anyway and get us reported but we've found that these spoofing incidents dropped dramatically for us when we stopped using a domain name email.

I'd recommend a good free email account from gmail.com, yahoo.com, or hotmail.com. Gmail is my favorite. It's free, offers limitless space, and has a pretty wonderful spam filter. It's very user friendly.

Second, consider getting your email off the site if it is posted there. Does your current web host offer an email form you can place on your site? If so, that's really the way to go. We use forms like this one at Psyche: http://psychedesigns.com/contact.php?firstname=Psyche&lastname=Designs and at TRS. Basically, the script hides the email from the spiders so they can't grab it. Using a secure email form for your new email will start you off right. Since we went to this method, we maybe see 10-15 spam emails in a day. Still annoying but it's a low number all things considered. And with gmail's spam filter, you don't have to sort through the spam to get to the emails you want -- unless you want to. It's still a good idea to eyeball it every couple of days.

Anyway, I hope you find some of this information useful. In the next few days, today we'll be busy changing TRS over for October and we're also scanning all of the sites we take care of in light of these events, we'll be starting a new section of our forums dedicated to hacking issues. I'll bet there are some of you out there with some other good information to offer and I think that sharing of these ideas helps keep us all a little safer.

Remember any of us can hacked at any time. I've heard from 5 authors since I made these posts this morning -- none from CP yet -- who've had this happen and/or lost their sites completely. Be vigilant. And let's work together to help keep our sites -- romance or otherwise -- safe.

Tina
TRS Studios

Treva: I took an informal survey of my editors about pet peeves, and the number one was explaining and correcting a mistake to an author in one manuscript, only to encounter the exact same mistake in the next manuscript the author turns in.

Editors spend hours on a manuscript to get it ready for publication. Most editors would much prefer to spend that time polishing content to correcting punctuation, spelling and similar items. It’s particularly discouraging when the same things happen over again. Editors aren't Freshman Comp professors. They're interested in helping an author get better with each story, not teaching the same lessons over and over again.

An author's words are his or her tools. Using a tool that doesn't work over and over again wastes the author's time as well as the editor's. Finding the correct word, phrase, or punctuation is all part of the job.
 
M: I do a good bit of editing myself. I'm dyslexic, and for some reason I've ended up editing several dyslexic authors. Maybe this works because I don't  get overly upset about spelling or homonyms -- I use good proofers. Dyslexic or not, I do get upset if you turn in a manuscript full of typos because you never  bothered to run spell check on it. If I can see the spelling errors, it’s really bad, people.

I suspect Treva’s editors are talking about slightly more complicated problems, like run on sentences, comma splices, pronouns with no  antecedents, and the continuing use of sentences starting with HE and SHE.

I do, however, have a personal pet peeve.

Half a story. Do not send me a file to edit that has holes in it marked ”Add Sex Here.” Don't send me a file, and then send me another file an hour later marked “No, use this one.” Three times. Odds are good I'm going to edit the wrong file. And if I find that out after I've spent 20 plus hours editing the wrong file, I don't care. I'm not starting over.

Don't send me files that are ALMOST done. I can't read and not edit, and when I get to the last page, sixty comments and corrections later, and the story  quits mid sentence, mid paragraph, mid thought, or says “Chapter Eight to  follow!” odds are good I'm going to call you at 3 AM and sing you The Moose  Song. All 30 verses.

Don't ask me if it’s OK to send a partial at 3 AM in IM and think I'll remember. Don't sneak it in the cover letter in carefully couched phrases like “Let me know what you think so far.” If I've got the file to edit, it better be the final file, because that’s the one you're getting back. If you made changes after you submitted the work, be prepared to make them again -- in my file. With comments, explaining what you changed. It doesn't matter if they're great changes. I edit the file you submit. The one marked "FINAL FILE."

Once you turn in the file, leave it alone. Don't even LOOK at it till I send your edits back. It’s like an essay exam in college -- once it’s submitted it’s too late to rewrite the thing. Bell rings. Time’s up. Let it go. Once you title that file "FINAL" -- it's final.

Need something to fidget with while you wait on edits?

Start the next book.

Treva:  Someone is a big old grumpybutt this morning.  Spent too long editing the night before?

Although I hate to admit it  (Treva WOULD hate to admit I’m right) I agree with the “don’t change the file while someone is editing.”  If you think of vital new stuff while it’s being edited, put the additions in the “to be added the next time” folder and make sure it’s clearly marked.  That’s during first edits, not finals.  And as to the Sex Added Here (we both know who YOU are) -- no.  This is an erotic romance.  The sex isn’t just something to be added.  It’s supposed to be an important part of the story.

Treva Harte
EiC
Loose Id, LLC

Margaret Riley
Editor
Changeling Press  LLC

Treva Harte
Publisher, Loose Id Publishing:

Until recently, I had never given much thought to how Loose Id was structured compared to other independent e-publishing companies. But after a look around, I realize that generally independent e-publishing companies don't start with four people. One or two is usually the norm, probably because e-publishers are independent types and also because it’s not the easiest way to make a living for even one person.

I don't think that occurred to any of us when we first began to make plans for the LLC. We were aware that huge profits weren't going to happen for years, if ever, with any e-publishing company. All of us were prepared to essentially volunteer our time for a long time to get the company running. So, if anything, I figured four people meant that much more free labor. Because none of us were passive partners. We each had areas of expertise and interests that could overlap but complemented, not duplicated each other.

It would never have occurred to me to do a start up on my own. My technophobia isn't just a joke. I do what I have to do, but I doubt I'll ever be at the comfort level needed to take on all the technology you need for an e-based industry. But I don't need to, because I have partners who understand technology -- and marketing, finance and production -- in ways I don't.

We're fortunate that, despite all of us having very strong and sometimes divergent opinions on many things, the LI partners all believe in our company and what’s best for it. It can be difficult to come to a consensus when you have three other people to consult. But the good ideas can be used and bad ideas can be shot down – and all of them are kicked around to be made better. We stay on each other, too, even though we each are in charge of different areas of the company and tend to let each partner make the decisions in that area. In this case the sum of Loose Id’s parts -- and partnership -- is greater than the whole.

Treva Harte,
EiC, www.Loose-Id.com

Counterpoint:
Margaret Riley
Publisher, Changeling Press LLC:

I'm the public face of Changeling. My husband, Bill, is my business partner. Bill manages Author and Staff Payroll Distribution, Vendor Distribution, ISBN Assignment and Registrations, the Federal, State, County, and City tax forms, and a few dozen other types of paperwork that would drive me to anxiety attacks if I had to deal with them.

Unlike Treva, I came at this with a good understanding of what was needed technically to produce both the website and the books themselves. That didn't bother me. What scared the crap out of me was my innate lack of organization. Fortunately my partner’s my exact opposite. The man’s so organized he knows what I'm looking for before I do. He was trained by the best -- ex-Air Force. I wouldn't have done this on my own. Bill convinced me that, together, we could make it work. Six years later, I still think he's right.

Unlike Treva’s rule by committee, all it takes us to make a decision is a few steps across the office. “Hey, look at this. Do you think we should…” “Yes.” Or the occasional “Are you out of your mind?” (Bill also makes coffee. And COOKS. Did I mention I married very well?)

Seriously though, there are drawbacks to our lack of redundancy. While each of Treva’s partners has someone else who could do their job, Bill and I have each had to train our own backups. We can do this, because we have a staff, spread out all over the country (Those little IM windows ARE our office mates!) and we delegate and departmentalize. In addition to Authors, Editors, Artists, and Proofers, we have an Editor in Chief, Cover Art Director, Web Designer, Production Manager, Layout Designer, Marketing Director, E-Zine/Newsletter Publisher, Review Coordinator, and our extremely awesome Customer Service/Gal Friday, without whom the entire world would cease to turn.

So is one model more efficient than the other? Is one faster to respond to a crisis? Quicker to adapt to a changing market? Are they really all that different at all? No matter what you call them, every small press needs the same basic jobs done. Whether 2 people, 4, or a dozen do the jobs, making a company run is, more than anything else, a process of selecting the right people for the right jobs, and being able to trust them to DO their jobs. Whatever the magic is that makes the equations work, it’s easy to see when it works -- people stay with the company.

And when it doesn't, readers get more of an education than they ever bargained for --  especially when new companies go belly up before they ever publish their first book... or when drunken brawls break out in public at national events.
 
Margaret Riley
Publisher,
www.ChangelingPress.com

Recently authors on another group were commenting on how meeting print book deadlines is becoming increasingly important in a world where authors aren't guaranteed a follow up contract. What happens with e-books is clearer than that. In that world, where there are a lot of authors who are writing for e-pubs and deadlines are tighter, if you miss your deadline, your book will be bumped back. Since most e-pubs use the royalty model, rather than the advance model, the consequences -- no money until books are sold -- are a lot more direct and immediate.

Since books are often released at a certain time for particular marketing reasons -- a match for other books that week, time constraints, a need for that genre right then -- it may take a longer than expected for the magic combination to be right once again for the bumped book. Not to mention the damage to your reputation -- once your book's been bumped due to a missed date, the odds of that publisher giving you another date without a final MS in hand go downhill rapidly. Chances are, your fellow authors, whose work is suddenly being moved up just because they did make their deadlines, aren't going to be too impressed, either.

Treva Harte
www.Trevaharte.com

So after fighting with this damn thing for several days trying to get in (Treva occasionally forgets to tell me when she resets the password) -- I can finally share my current annoyance with you: bad marketing.

Many of you may, like me, are seeing a banner ad across the top of this site for Tate Publishing. In case you're tempted to go check them out, don't. Well, not if you happen to write for either Loose Id or Changeling.

Why?

“Have you written a book? Are you looking for a publisher? Have you searched out and submitted your manuscript to dozens of publishing companies only to be turned away, time and time again? If you've answered yes to any of these questions, Tate Publishing could be your answer. Tate Publishing & Enterprises, LLC, is a Christian-based, family-owned, mainline publishing organization with a mission to discover and market unknown authors…”

OK, right about now your brain should be screaming RUN! RUN AWAY! -- if it’s not, you're missing some vital self-preservation instinct. But never fear, I'm sure it'll kick in before you actually write that $4000 author’s investment check…

Still, if I were this uber-Christian We're-So-Friggin-Great publisher, I'd be plenty pissed about my banner running on a blog about the ins and outs of publishing Erotica. Bottom line, if you're going to pay for advertising, target your markets.

Otherwise you'll get people like me clicking away just to bill you the extra half a cent for click-thrus -- for the sheer aggravation factor.

Margaret Riley
She of the Target Marketing Director on Staff
Publisher, www.ChangelingPress.com

In a mad burst of creativity this weekend, I finished up the very rough draft of a story, thought I saved it and… I couldn't pull it up the next morning.  After trying to figure out what to do (not my major talent), asking for help and then realizing all might be lost, I spent some time alternating between depression and thinking very nasty words. I did have the story up to the last several thousand words, ending right before the writing streak.

What to do?  Being me, I started to write it all over again.  I got to the end, convinced the original was better, but resigned. Of course then I got a brainstorm and figured out – at last – how to pull up the original file.

While I wouldn't recommend doing this as a writing exercise, the ending I originally wrote and what I wrote a second time without seeing the original make for some interesting compare and contrast. The original one isn't nearly as good as I remembered it -- or at least the second one has some details I definitely want to incorporate in the first. I had two different endings, with different nuances to the story, although they had similarities.
 
Of course some people just edit the original version to create what they want (how boring when instead you can write another draft while feeling like you were kicked in the stomach) but it was fascinating to see what details the writer mind remembers and what it doesn't.
 
I learned:

--I know a lot more bad words than I used to

 

--Flash Drives change their drive letters when you plug them into different USB ports
 
--Sometimes your flash drive is not your friend.

    M: Perfectly good flash drives can mysteriously hide files from you. Especially early in the morning. 
 
--It’s good to send drafts of stories to friends who can send them back to you when needed

--No two sex scenes are really the same, even when you write them for the same 2 -- or more -- characters

 

--I don't remember details well, much less climatic turning points
 
--Both creative flashes and more reasoned re-writing work, but differently

--I need to back things up a lot better, in more than one place.

 

 

M Advice: Save Early. Save Often. Save Everywhere.

Addendum: Do not trust Flash Drives as your primary storage device.

Treva Harte

She of the glorious new website

www.TrevaHarte.com 

 

While publishers do have goals and plans for submissions each year, including having well-written, profitable releases that reflect their market, we're dependent on what comes to us from authors.

I commented a long time ago on submission fertile and not-so-fertile seasons.  Apparently there are times when authors write and others when they submit their writing.  All of the writers.  All at the same time.

If the publisher has a submissions call out with a deadline to meet, that makes sense.  But that’s not the only time it happens.  In my experience, our publishing company will be deluged one month and have comparatively little the next.  The start of the new year is one time we get a lot of submissions. (Writers working during the holidays?  Making good on a New Year’s resolution?  I don't know.)

Of course if one kind of story is seen to sell well or get good reviews, we may find a lot of similar stories arrive in our email box… but not for a few months and not in a bunch. Sometimes I have the suspicion authors have all been to the same workshop or critique group because  inexplicably we'll get several submissions that are similar within a month.  Not just in plot, but perhaps they may have some have similar, unusual occupations or names or genres. It can be a struggle to decide what to do when you see three very good stories arrive that all sound somewhat alike.

Sometimes what we release isn't part of a huge master plan, other than the profitable, well-written releases plan I mentioned before… when we're faced with a wall of too similar submissions, we may often send many of them back for revision, but even when we spread the stories out, there's still more than we like of one genre, theme, etc. for awhile. So next time you hear more than one person saying "XXX is REALLY hot right now!" -- don't be too sure of that.

Treva Harte
She of the Gorgeous newly redesigned web site
Available for your viewing pleasure at www.TrevaHarte.com


*Note all the coherent parts of this blog were contributed by Treva.  The were sloths subtitle and discussion about my website were contributed by the other so-called blogger on this team.

 

I went to an interesting marketing survey sponsored by Romance Writers of America (RWA) last week.  There were lots of tidbits – many of which should not surprise you, like over 90 percent of all romance readers are women.  But one result from the survey did puzzle me.

About 2/3 of all readers said they wanted to know about new books a week ahead of time, no sooner.   I've thought about that a lot, since so many readers ask us to let them know when a book will be released.  I’m wondering if some of this is from print publand, where the next book in a series might not be out for a year or so.  Maybe I wouldn’t want to know an author’s new book will be out in Winter of next year.  It would be too cruel.

But what if – like Harlequin or e-books – there is a regular schedule of books that come out every week?  What if the wait isn’t that long…maybe a month or two?  Would readers want to know then?

If not, is a week really soon enough? How often do you visit a publisher's Coming Soon page?
 

Treva Harte
www.TrevaHarte.com
M: And you certainly won't find out from Treva's web site. But we're working on that. Honest. /rolls eyes

WHAT YOU DO FOR NEWSPAPER, MAGAZINE, RADIO, AND TV INTERVIEWS
Remember what you want to tell the reporter. The reporter may want to hear about other things. You may or may not talk about the other things but be sure to give them what you want to tell. If you don't want to talk about certain subjects, say so -- ahead of time -- not on camera! Stick to your "script."

M: Remember, your answer to any given question may -- and probably will -- be taken out of context. A reporter's job is to get you to talk. They can and will edit the interview, changing the questions as it suits them. That works in reverse, of course. There's no reason the question you answer has to be the one the reporter actually asked. There's no reason you can't answer the questions you wish they'd asked. You can also restate each question with your own personal twist before you answer it. Not that they can't edit that out, of course. But it's a nice frame of reference.

If the reporter has a video camera and or microphone along, it's not for their archives. The recording will be aired. Somewhere. Keep an eye on the red "Recording" light.

If they come to your house, don't believe them when they say don't clean it up.

WHAT YOU DO WHEN SOMEONE SAYS SOMETHING NASTY ABOUT YOU ON A BLOG OR IN A GROUP
Nothing.
Well, you can cry to your best buddies, totally off record.
That's it.

WHAT YOU DO WHEN SOMEONE GIVES YOU A BAD REVIEW
Say thank you if you can.
Try to learn something from it.
Write more.
That's it.

WHAT YOU DO WHEN SOMEONE REFUSES TO PUBLISH YOUR MS
See What You Do When Someone Gives You a Bad Review.

WHAT YOU DO FOR BOOKSIGNINGS
Dress comfortably but nicely.
Bring Sharpie markers to sign things and an extra copy or so of your books plus promo materials.
Smile, whether you have a huge line of people or no one.
Thank people.
Take the aspirin after the signing not during, if possible.

M: At any public event, do your drinking in private. Anything said at the bar can and will come back to bite you in the ass.

Treva Harte
www.loose-id.com
Margaret Riley
www.ChangelingPress.com

Since we're in the middle of writer convention season, it may be time to remind authors about pitches.  I did discuss pitches in a general sense before (no, editors won't hurt you and yes, you are a worthwhile human being whether we say yes or no) but it couldn't hurt to get into specifics.
 
Have the basics down – title, genre, number of words.  Not only does every editor want to know, it gets your vocal chords going and more words can follow.  (I remember scoffing at someone who carefully wrote their name down for the pitch until she asked, “Are you going to introduce yourself by your pen name or real name?”  I sat and puzzled over that for a few minutes.)

Make sure your story is going to the right market.  If you aren't sure, do you have alternatives to suggest to the editor?  I had an editor who said no to Story 1, no to half-written Story Idea 2 and finally (we were probably both desperate by then) yes to the half-baked Story Idea 3 I came up with on the spot.  Another one couldn't use the one I thought I would pitch but was interested in another one I was sure she'd hate.  Now that I'm on the other side of the fence I'd be particularly interested in an author who has a lot of solid ideas to offer or the ability to revise the original story.
 
Interact.  Answer the questions. Ask questions. Get up when your time is over because there is probably either another eager author or lunch waiting for the editor when you are done.
 
At the end, ask what you should send them and be sure to 1) pick up the editor’s business card or address and 2) do NOT lose the card.  I had a self-destructive streak that had me losing business cards right and left after a pitch.

 

For print houses, check to see if the editor's card has an email address on it, and ask if it's all right to send your submission electronically -- don't assume she'll accept an electronic submissions just because she uses email.

 

And be sure to thank the editor for her time.

 

Treva Harte

www.loose-id.com
www.trevaharte.com