7 Questions: Author Keith Robinson

Keith Robinson is an independent author whose work I've admired for years.  A transplant from across the pond, he began cranking out quality YA reads almost as soon as he got here. He's currently doing a giveaway of Island of Fog over on his Kindle page so check it out if you want to get a great book at a great price (free!).

Here now, seven questions for Keith Robinson:

Keith Robinson

1) I know you're originally from the UK. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to the US?

I spent fourteen years working in an office in England drawing floor plans and organizing office refurbishments and relocations. It was a different life, wearing a suit, carrying a briefcase, driving or flying to offices all around the UK. It was during this time that I met my future wife from America. We were penpals for five years between 1990 and 1995 -- the traditional sort, sending handwritten letters by mail -- and then she decided to come and visit me in England for a short visit. We hit it off and, six months later, I went to visit her in Georgia, USA, and we got engaged. As you do.

She moved to England and we bought a house, and in 1999 (with an eye on the future) I left my job and became a self-employed website designer. I made half the money but was twice as happy. In 2001 we sold the house at profit and moved to America, and I took my website design business with me. Thus, our five-year plan came to fruition!

2) What made you decide to take the plunge and write your first novel?

Looking back, this probably came out of loneliness. I'd left my family and friends back in England, and while I was very happy living in Georgia, in a house with more yard than I ever dreamed of owning, I was pretty isolated as well. I continued building my website design business while my wife went to work, which invariably left me alone, often with very little work to do. So I started writing "seriously," something I'd only done as a hobby from time to time. I decided I'd make a go of selling short stories. That didn't work out at all, because selling short stories is really, really hard... and I found that I preferred writing novels. There were a few projects on the go, but ISLAND OF FOG (or ISLAND OF MIST as it was originally called) came into existence around February 2002.

3) I always like hearing about an author's process. What's involved in taking one of your books from idea to publication?

The first in the FOG series took a long, long time. Six years, to be exact, finally published in April 2009 -- although that was mostly because I still wasn't taking myself seriously as a writer and only writing as a hobby. This particular book went through numerous revisions before I even got to Chapter Nine. Then, once I'd pushed though, I got to Chapter Thirteen and realized it wasn't going where I expected, so I rewrote that last section as well. This was when I started learning that a detailed chapter summary is probably a good thing to have. Subsequently, all my other books have had a detailed chapter summary that allows me to explore and write the novel without actually writing it. It's a no-brainer. The long-term thinking process is the same, only with fewer words. Why write eight full chapters and then realize I'm going wrong when I can write eight paragraphs and come to the same conclusion? So now I always use chapter summaries, and I end up saving a lot of time.

Once the first draft is written, I go through a slow, detailed edit. This is like rewriting everything I've written, one paragraph at a time. Sometimes I think "Gah!" and delete a whole page of pointless drivel. Other times I'll go through half a page without a single correction and think I'm a genius. But mostly I correct and tighten and reword and flesh out and generally do it better.

Then it's time to print it out. I find a lot more typos when reading printed text, and that sweep is well worth doing. After that, I send the manuscript (now Version 3) to a few proofreader types who are willing to not only look for typos but suggest improvements and generally mention anything they feel is worth mentioning. After all those edits are complete, Version 4 is ready. This version is for a bigger selection of ARC readers, those who don't look for typos and just want to breeze through it and enjoy it as a finished book. Sometimes I'll get back some comments that suggest I fix something, and then I'll do some rewrites as necessary.

Finally it's ready, and I'm sick to death of it. I publish it with a sense of pride and excitement, but at the same time I'm SO over it already and moving on to the next project.

4) Who are some of your favorite fantasy/sf authors and what, if anything, about their style has influenced your own writing?

I enjoyed Piers Anthony when I was around 16-20. I read most of his back then. I also read Terry Brooks' first three Shannara books. I soon realized that I hate reading "high fantasy" with the weird made-up names and thousand-year-old back history and traditional medieval (middle-earth) setting. It's all too serious and plodding for me. I love the Game of Thrones HBO series but could never read the books. It's the same with Tolkien. I've actually read very few "famous" fantasy books; I prefer to read the facts about the myths and legends and make up my own versions of them in my own way, and I prefer starting out in a contemporary world with characters we can all identify with who are thrown into fantastically weird settings. So I guess that's Urban Fantasy.

On the flip side, I used to read a lot of hardcore sci-fi from Stephen Baxter and Asimov, and lighter sci-fi from Harry Harrison. In fact, Harry Harrison (creator of the Stainless Steel Rat series) probably sent me to more places than any other author. Stephen Baxter, though, is something of a genius (brilliant physicist, etc) and I'm frequently mind-boggled by his expansive ideas.

And then there's Douglas Adams. Who isn't inspired by him? Of course, I also read Dean Koontz and Stephen King and all those other authors that everybody else reads.

5) On a related note, I know you're a devotee of Enid Blyton. Who was Enid Blyton and why should folks outside the UK know about her?

Ah, yes. I grew up on Enid Blyton books. She died in 1968 after a very long, very successful career. Some of her most popular series were like England's answer to the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Three Investigators. The difference is that Blyton wrote all her own stories and churned out something like 185 novels in her career, not to mention ten thousand short stories. She's world famous, just strangely absent from America, because although she did have some books here a few decades ago, her stories were in direct competition with the aforementioned Hardy Boys. Oddly enough, despite her fame, the only award she ever got was for MYSTERY ISLAND -- the American edition of THE ISLAND OF ADVENTURE. How ironic!

Was I inspired by her? Yes, but not in terms of genre. I loved playing at "mystery solving" when I was young, as did all my Blyton-reading friends, and I still like the idea of a set of mystery novels beginning with "The Mystery of..." -- but it's been done to death, and besides, I like to inject some weird stuff in my writing. So I grew up on children's mystery and adventure, moved on to light (and some heavy) fantasy, read a lot of hard sci-fi and horror, and ended up writing my own brand of fantasy.

6) You've had a very successful run with your Island of Fog novels. Can you give us a thumbnail of what happens over the course of these books and talk about the challenges of writing a multi-book YA series?

Short answer: kids turn into monsters, kids save the world. The longer answer is that there are a group of children living on a perpetually foggy island with their parents, and now that they're twelve-years-old, they're starting to question what's Out There beyond the fog. Is the rest of the world really "dead" as they've been told? Best friends Hal and Robbie build a raft to sail out to the hidden mainland... but don't quite make it. Things really start to happen when one of the "annoying" girls, Abigail, shows Hal her secret -- that she's growing wings! She says they're all turning into monsters. So the question becomes, "Are we freaks of nature? Or subjects of a sinister experiment?"

The arrival of a stranger -- itself a remarkable thing since there's supposedly nobody left alive in the world outside the island -- sets everything in motion. Now the kids are mad. They're determined to find out the truth no matter how much trouble they get in.

This is all in the first book, and it sets the stage for a 6-book series in which they get to test their shapeshifting abilities against real fantasy creatures and uncover deeper truths about what went wrong with the world. And Hal and Abigail find that they actually like each other a little bit.

Writing for a younger audience is, frankly, not a problem. I firmly believe that writers have a niche, and mine is to write for a young-ish audience but with adults in mind as well. In other words, edgy but clean, dark but not graphic, fun but not childish. I don't talk down to my readers, but I keep it family-oriented.

7) What are you working on these days?

The sixth and final FOG book. Actually, it's the final book for now but not necessarily forever. I'll be starting on a prequel in a few months, plus a series of short stories. In a year or so I might yearn to come back with Book 7.

But aside from that, right now I'm working on a collaboration novel called FRACTURED with author Brian Clopper. Then I have a novel called QUINCY'S WORLD that I want to finish editing and put out for publication. And I have a whole slew of ideas for future projects, which my fingers can't keep up with. If only I was famous and rich so my wife and I could give up work, hire a nanny, cleaner, and gardener.... oh, and pool girl for the pool we'd install. My wife insists on a pool boy, but I vote for a pool girl. A show of hands, please? Roger? Help me out here.

###

Thanks, Keith! Personally, I'd go for a pool robot, but that's how I roll.

If you'd like to learn more about Keith, check out his website, Unearthly Tales, or his Facebook author fan page.

Wassup, King Arthur?

Over at io9, Lauren Davis shares some interesting writing advice in her article, "How to make sure the language in your historical fantasy novel is period-accurate." She references The Jane Austen Word List created by fantasy author Mary Robinette Kowal to help her weed out period-inaccurate words for her novel, Glamour in Glass, set in the same time period as Jane Austen's books. To build the list MRK assembled "all the words that are in the collected works of Jane Austen to use for my spellcheck dictionary."

While I have to admit I didn't go too crazy about this in Dragonfriend, preferring to come down on the side of middle-grade "readability" rather than being overly concerned about historically accurate Old English vocabulary, I did ask my editor, Darren Robinson, to flag any eye-poking anachronisms.

A few of the words Kowal ended up pulling out of her book "because they either didn’t exist in 1815 or that didn’t mean what they mean now" are: "cliquish," "mannequin," "laundry," "titanium white," and "wastepaper basket" (for which she writes, "Weird note. Trashcans, wastepaper baskets, garbage cans… none of these exist even as a concept. Everything got reused, fed to the pigs, or burned in the fire.")

For me, it was more a case of catching myself wanting to put in modern (American) slang words like "okay" and having Darren flag things like "biz," "Father Christmas," and "halfpenny" which he correctly points out, "only dates back some 700 years, long after Arthurian times." 

How about you? Any vocabulary challenges in your own work of historical fiction (fantasy or otherwise)? Or a case of being derailed by anachronistic word choice in a book you were reading? Let us know in the comments.

This Time I Am the One Being Interviewed

Author Scott Bury interviews me and fellow iAi member Gary Henry about our writing styles. I call mine "cinematic" while Gary describes his thusly:

"I like to think of my writing style as “snappy” — using active voice and vivid verbs to the best of my ability. I try to vary sentence length and incorporate colorful description."

Wait a minute. I like "snappy," too. Head on over to the Guild of Dreams and check out the full post (and insert "snappy" everywhere I use "cinematic").

To Scrivener or Not to Scrivener?

Currently using MS Word for the bulk of my manuscript work and Dramatica Pro for outlining. On occasion, I'll also use the novel template in my screenwriting software, Screenwriter 2000. All of these are perfectly good programs (and I'm definitely not looking to "replace" my screenwriting software), but on the other hand I'm always willing to add worthwhile software to my writer's toolkit.

Lately, I've been hearing about Scrivener. The appeal seems to be that it unites a lot of the varied applications an author might use to create content. What do you, my writer friends, have to say about it? If you're using Scrivener, what do you like? What are its strengths and limitations?  Is it worth buying? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

7 Questions: Author Mark Tierno

As part of the Magic Appreciation Tour, I was given the opportunity to interview Mark Tierno, author of two epic fantasy works, Maldene (Volumes One and Two).  A blend of science and sorcery, these books are set in "a world of magic and ancient secrets" where a band of mercenaries find themselves at odds with a dark wizard who may just be "the most evil being ever known."

Volume One

Mark lives in Monrovia California and has earned a Masters in Physics and a second degree in Math. He's a lifelong reader of fantasy and SciFi and started writing his books with the help of his "trusty old Amiga computer." Talk about old school!

I found him to be a very interesting fellow and I'm quite sure you will, too.

Here now, my 7 Questions for Mark Tierno:

Your Maldene novels are a mix of science and fantasy. What inspired you to blend the two genres?

Mark Tierno

I've always loved reading both SF and Fantasy.  Couple that with a mind that's always asking "What if?" and it wasn't long before I began asking myself "Why can't you combine the two?"   After all, a high enough level of technology begins to look like magic anyway.  Magic plus Science, Fantasy plus SF; such a combination could yield some very interesting environments.  The trick is avoid the sledge hammer approach in combining the two; something more subtle than just "He's got the blaster and the other guy has the magic wand."  A more subtle blend is required.

Maldene starts off as looking like pure high fantasy; the SF elements begin to peek through as the series develops until by the last books you would be hard put to tell where one ends and the other begins.  And yet, even in this first book there are clues, subtle hints that something beyond the norm of mere Fantasy may be at work.

There's enough people that write either straight SF or straight Fantasy.  I'll leave that to them and handle the mixed genre stuff.

Does your background in science and math affect how magic works in your stories?

My background gives me a logical and informed mind.  So when it comes to magic, I treat it as just another force in the universe, though one that allows quite the range of fantastic capabilities.  Nevertheless, like any force it would have its rules, as well as its own logic.  For instance, a wizard uses his mind to channel the forces behind magic, which means he can get tired after a while and would need to rest.  And if a magic spell conjures forth something physical then the normal physical laws would still apply.  A conjured lightning bolt is still electricity and could be conducted away by something like a lightning rod.  If there is a cave in which the conjuring of magic is prevented, one could still conjure forth a ball of fire from outside the cave then hurl it inside; it's simple fire at that point and not magic and would still burn even with the magic-nullifying field present.

It is this insistence on logic and the remembering that there are other physical laws present that the laws of magic must interact with that can make even a world of magic believable within its own context; provide that suspension of belief required for a reader to believe in the circumstances, feel as the characters would, and enjoy the story.

Are you still using your trusty old Amiga? If not, what hardware and software do you use to write your novels?

Volume Two

My Amiga still lives, though two years ago I had an offer from a friend to buy off his G5 MAC tower.  Having a need to interact with the real world a bit more- in such things as being able to read the PDFs my publisher gave me as the galleys for my book, and having web browsers that can actually fully load up thew social media sights that I need to promote Maldene with- I took him up on the offer.  Currently my trusty old Amiga lies silent but simply because I need to re-seat the graphics board and don't want to do it when I'm in a hurry lest I let something slip the wrong way and find myself in need of a very expensive repair.

For the record, it's an Amiga 4000/060.  During the course of writing the Maldene series I went through three keyboards and two motherboards.  Just wore them out from the pace of my typing.

What are your thoughts on the overall trend toward digital publishing?

Digital publishing will make it possible for the unknown author to at least get a start and have a chance at becoming known.  However, like in any field, there are both the good and bad.  One has to beware of a poor quality product in something as new as digital publishing with its dozen different formats and lack of any real industry standards.  Likewise for the digital publishers themselves, most of them with a track record of no more than 3-5 years instead of being spawned off an older traditional publisher with more publishing experience in general.

I also do not think that the traditional published novel is dead (at least not yet).  There are still some of us that like walking into a bookstore, taking one glance at a wall full of 50 or 60 books, and spotting that one that stands out enough for us to pull it down.  You still can't do that with even the best broadband (not to mention you'd need a screen the size of a wall to get the same view).  Tablets are getting pretty good, but they aren't flexible enough to stuff in a back pocket like an old paperback, not to mention if you ever lost it on the buss you'd be out a bit more than 2 dollars.

What's a typical writing day like for you?

I have a three day cycle for each chapter.  Day One begins the new chapter; I start at 7:30 in the morning and finish someplace around 5PM, give or take.  I will have written between 12,000-13,000 words in that time.  Then it's off to the length club for a bit (must maintain the body supporting the brain) then back for dinner, at which point I edit what I wrote that day.  Usually finish up around midnight.  on Day Two, I finish up whatever's left of that chapter; usually around 3000-5000 words.  Done by Noon (leaving me enough time to run those mundane daily errands), edit what I wrote later on.  Day Three is what I call a Chapter Edit.  I go through the entire chapter one more time, checking for plot and character stuff, then run the spell checker.  Once done with that chapter I then outline the next one that I'll be starting, so the day after that it's back to Day One on the next chapter.

My books are typically divided up into three sections, so at the end of a given section I also give the whole thing the once over to make sure that the plot elements from one chapter to the next are consistent and flow properly.  Likewise at the end of the book, I give the entire novel one last once over.

Who are the authors on your "inspired by" list and what about their lives or works inspired you?

Growing up I read quite a few; from Robert Heinlein and Issac Asimov, to Andre Norton and A.E. Van Voght, from Frank Herbert to Greg Bear.  From each one's works I took a little something; it could have been some element of style of writing or the way the story was constructed, or something about their world as written or one of the characters.  I have been inspired by many authors, and taken something from all of them.  To get a full view of how I developed my own style, from whence come all my ideas of story and character, you would have to read through about a hundred different books, twenty different authors (some rather obscure), and have seen a selection of as many movies.

Any "wish I would've known that when I started" advice you'd like to share with beginning authors?

I know writers are a solitary lot, but learn to socialize, to "network".  Agents are lazy by nature and will usually reject a new author because it's too much work and risk to promote them.  Publishers too are usually rather conservative and need a better reason than "but it's a really good book".  Now in this day and age of online networking, a writer can start forming useful contacts from the comfort of his own home and maybe drum up enough interest amongst the right parties to have a potential publisher by the time he's finished his book.

You will also need one of two things.  Either a supportive family or patron that knows you'll be a starving artist for a while before succeeding, or a day job that works with your writing schedule.

###

Thanks, Mark!

Guest Blogger Scott Bury Talks Editing

Author Scott Bury can be found at his blog, Written Words. He can also be found in Canada which explains why he spells "favor" funny. I've got a guest post on his blog called "How to Fund Your Novel" so make sure you check that out, too. 

Part one of Scott's excellent fantasy novel, The Bones of the Earth, can be found online in the usual places.  It's got a really cool cover and even cooler words inside.

And now, please, a round of respectfully exuberant applause as Mr. Bury talks about his process...

Scott Bury

First, I want to thank Roger for inviting me to contribute to his blog. He asked me to write about my own editing process in writing my novel.

Right now, I am putting the final touches on my first-published novel, The Bones of the Earth. Part 1 is available on e-book retailers now, but before I could bring myself to put the whole thing up, I thought I would take one more look.

I have written about the four steps every writer, professional or otherwise, needs to take before starting any document.  I call it “getting a GRIP,” for goal, reader, idea and plan.

I call the plan, or outline, the best favour writers can do for themselves. Not only does it help you make sure that your report, story or novel makes sense, when you have one you don’t have to start writing at the beginning.

What I need to edit

Like every big job, preparation makes the actual work much easier. Once you’ve finished writing your draft, you have to re-write, revise, change and edit several times.

Every writer should have an editor. You need that second set of eyes, because you just don’t see what’s on the page — you see what you intended to write. An editor is a frank appraiser of your work. But the responsibility to make the changes, to polish the work and make it as good as it can be, stays with the author.

Scott's Cool Cover

I edit while I’m writing, correcting typos and silly errors, changing phrases and sentences as I change my mind. It’s so much easier with a computer than with a pen and paper.

But really editing requires some time. I need to put my work aside for a while. With my fiction, I find that I need at least a week in between drafts. I also need to edit it at least twice before I show it to anyone else, whether a friend, a beta-reader, a critic or an editor.

It’s important to leave time between drafts. It allows you to detach from the work. You don’t feel so much like every word is your baby. Work on something else in the meantime. Every sentence you write improves your writing ability, so that you’re a better writer when you come back to your earlier work.

What do I need to edit out? Excess description. Readers don’t need to have every single twitch described. They need to read a story that’s moving along. Here are some examples from my own work:

“Some of the older nuns were trying to explain away the dragon as an illusion of the devil.”

becomes

“Some of the nuns said the dragon was an illusion.”

“He rose, and the others of the kobold council rose, too. Goldemar said something in the kobold tongue to Krum Chimmek, and they all walked across the hall.”

becomes

“The council stood and led the visitors across the hall.”

“Javor was the first to spotting the ancient jetties that projected into the river. Austinus decided to stop for the night before they came to the town, and found a campsite near the river, downstream from the crumbling city walls.”

becomes

“Austinus decided to camp near the river, downstream from an abandoned town.”

The leaner text moves the action along. You have to leave some room for the reader’s own imagination to fill in the details. Just give enough for a sketch and let the reader’s imagination do the rest.

Your job is not to paint pictures—that’s the painter’s job. Your job is to tell a story.

I hope I’ve succeeded.

##

Thanks, Scott!

How about you? Any "must do" editing tips? Feel free to share them in the comments.

"Fortune and Love Favor the Bold" aka "Go For It!"

Ovid

I think every author knows that a nice blurb, praise from a well-respected peer, can help potential readers make up their minds about whether it's worth taking a chance on a book. Because of this, I asked two mg/ya fantasy authors, whose work I greatly admire, to blurb Dragonfriend and was delighted when they agreed. I hope they don't mind me sharing their blurbs prior to publication.

Keith Robinson (author of the awesome Island of Fog series) wrote:

"Dragonfriend starts with a chuckle then quickly develops into a brave quest, climaxing in a truly epic battle between knights, dragons and fiends from Hell. Honestly, what more could you want?"

Wow. And as far as blurbs go, there's absolutely nothing more I could want!

Carolyn Hennesy (author of the delightful Pandora series) wrote:

"A clever, witty and wonderfully written side story to the Arthurian legend. Eschbacher has given never-considered twists, turns, fun details and tremendous heart to a world so often painted with a chivalrous but rather drab brush. Leonard is a marvelous hero-in-the-making and Mantooth is the first dragon in a long time who really deserves a hug."

Wow, again. Humbling praise!

The thing is, I wouldn't have gotten these great blurbs if I hadn't pushed aside my reticent nature, swallowed my congenital discomfort at requesting a favor from a "stranger," and just asked (in an extremely polite and professional manner).

Traditionally published books have the advantage in this area in that the publisher is the one responsible for securing blurbs from relevant authors. Obviously, we independent authors don't have this advantage and have to do the footwork ourselves. This can get kind of tricky and downright uncomfortable for the prospective "blurber" as they are dealing directly with the book's author, the "blurb-ee." What if they end up hating the book and don't want to give a blurb? Awkward? To say the least! The blurbers have every right to say "no thanks" and would be quite justified in doing so.

That being said...

"Fortune and love favor the bold," is one of the quotes I use to motivate myself to attempt to accomplish good things that make me feel uncomfortable (see the above congenital defect). It's from Ovid, the Roman poet, and is basically a fancy way of saying, "Go for it!" Independent authors have to do this time and time again during the arduous process of bringing their book to publication. Heck, the very decision to self-publish is a major "Go for it!" moment. So, while I'm not saying you should start bugging authors for blurbs in a creepy, stalker-ish manner, I am saying that if you've developed a sincere and honest online relationship with an author whose work you respect, there's nothing wrong with asking them for a blurb. Just don't take it personally if they say "No, thanks."

Any thoughts or tips on the art of the blurb? From both sides of the equation? Share them in the comments!

Good Grief, I'm a Font Nerd

I came to that (possibly sad) conclusion yesterday after spending most of the day trying to decide which font I'll use for my novel, Leonard the Great: Dragonfriend. As I've mentioned before, when you self-publish, you have to do everything -- including formatting and choosing the font for the interior pages of your book. There are very talented professionals in traditional publishing whose only job is to do just that so you know the importance the big guys attach to this part of the publishing process. They're called Book Designers and they (the good ones, anyway) live for their craft, delighting in choosing just the right font for a particular book. Check out this cool little collection of video shorts from Penguin to get an idea of what I'm talking about. These folks are passionate!

While I'm not as energized by the subtle differences between Arial, Helvetica, or Georgia, I did totally key in to the importance of font choice. A lot of the pros use pricey custom fonts with names like Minion, Bembo, and Gotham that are purchased from font or type "foundries." These days custom fonts are largely designed at corporate entities like Adobe or Apple, but a surprising number are still created by much smaller companies and individuals. To give an idea of the costs involved, Adobe currently lists their "Font Folio 11" (with over 2300 fonts) for $2599.00. An individual font like "Adobe Caslon Pro" currently costs $169.00. Why so expensive? I'm guessing it's because the designers not only had to create individual numbers and letters for each font in its "regular" form, they also had to do their complete alphabet in italics, bold, bold italics, and so forth. That's a lot of design work.

A large publishing company can justify dropping that kind of cash to make their books look "just right," but that's definitely out of my league. The good thing is that even the lowly Microsoft Word foundry has a fairly impressive array of fonts to choose from -- for free (well, not technically, but you know what I mean).

Conventional wisdom holds that large blocks of printed text are easier to read when in "serif" form. With a serif font (Times New Roman, Bookman Old Style, etc.) you get letters with little flourishes or "semi-structural details," a letter with "feet," for example. Sans serif fonts (like the aforementioned Helvetica), on the other hand, have none of these embellishments and are considered easier to read on your computer screen because of their simplicity. Side Note: This blog's composition font (what I see when I'm writing it) is serif but its display font (what you see when reading it) is sans serif. I have no idea why Google does it this way.

Since I was choosing the text font for a printed book (which includes the Kindle edition with its "virtual ink" technology that, even though it's digital, is seen by your eyes as a regular printed page and not a "screen"), I stuck with the numerous serif fonts available. I formatted my novel in a 6x9 configuration (the eventual "trim" or final size), single spaced, and "justified" on both sides. I have to say that it was no small thrill to see my little manuscript properly formatted for print -- it looked just like a "real" book! Next I did "select all" and applied the serif fonts to the manuscript pages, one at a time. Wow! Talk about cool. Yes, it was about this time that the "font nerd" term came to mind.

The differences were subtle yet impressive. MS Word's default font is "Times New Roman" and using this one, the manuscript came out to 248 pages. Because of seemingly insignificant attributes like letter size and spacing between characters, other fonts dropped it down to as low as 234 or pushed it all the way up to 309! I had done a little internet hunting to see what fonts professional book designers and other self-pubbed authors were using and if those fonts were listed in Word, I gave them a shot.

I chose eight serif finalists that seemed to offer visual appeal and that elusive "readability" factor. If you think I'm making too big a deal about this, think about the times you may have had difficulty getting through a book even though you were enjoying the content. This usually happens to me with sci fi paperbacks from low-end publishers who end up reducing their fonts to the smallest readable size possible with minimal spacing between characters, sentences, and paragraphs. They do this to save money as more pages means higher production costs, but the end result is a high degree of unreadability that sometimes makes it seem like I'm looking at a solid page of side by side letters rather than words and sentences. That's what readability is all about -- a pleasant-to-look-at font on a properly formatted page.

The finalists included Book Antigua, Goudy Old Style, Bookman Old Style, Georgia, Century Schoolbook, Baskerville Old Face, and Palatino, but, ultimately, I went with Garamond (created by sixteenth century type designer, Claude Garamond), 12 pt with 1.15 spacing between lines. Here's a sample:

"Leonard felt that he had truly lost his mind when he found himself jumping over the bridge wall and sliding down the muddy banks of the Smellet River toward a very large dragon that he really didn’t know at all."

As you can see, it's a "friendly" font with good spacing between individual letters/words and a high degree of readability. I really like it.

Should this post be taken as an expert treatise on font selection? Heck no! I basically stumbled around until I found something that worked for me. But if you're an independent author who's having to design your own book's interior, I do hope that you'll give font selection the attention it's due.

By the way, after all that exploration and experimentation I decided to see what font was used in the Harry Potter books since they have the same target readership as Leonard. 12pt. Adobe Garamond! I'm not sure how Adobe's Garamond differs from Microsoft's (enough to be proprietary, obviously), but I couldn't tell the difference and as far as I'm concerned, what's good enough for Ms. Rowling's little trifle is good enough for mine!

Got any font or formatting love to share? Leave your thoughts and tips in the comments.

Getting It Right the First Time

YA author/blogger Angela Scott has a great post on why it's so very vital to make the best first impression possible with your self-published novel. She says:

"I would think, with the prejudice that self-publishing experiences, that someone contemplating that route would do EVERYTHING, going above and beyond what is even necessary, to prove people wrong and produce a perfect, polished piece of work. But they’re not."

I couldn't agree more and probably err on the side of over-caution for fear of putting out something that looks amateurish.

Angela also offers a few tips on what to keep in mind before pushing the "publish" button. Check out the full post on her blog.

Personally, I'm a big fan of beta-readers (asking writerly/well-read types whose work I respect to take a look and gives notes - which I'm then smart and humble enough to follow). Even with all their help, I still recognize the importance of hiring someone who has the sole responsibility of catching all the dumb mistakes that I know still exist in my manuscript (even after some 10+ self-edits). That's why my first-to-be-self-published manuscript is currently with a professional editing/proofreading service.

Got any tips of your own? What kind of things do you try to take care of before putting your manuscript out there on the open market?

How to Get a Writing Agent for TV/Film/Animation

In this recent post, television comedy great Ken Levine responds to the most common question he's asked, "How do you get an agent?" Some of the tips are just for fun (date Anne Hathaway) but there's some good practical stuff, too. Such as:

"Of course, connecting with an agent means nothing if you don’t have the goods. Most agencies want three writing samples – two current show specs and original material like a pilot, play, or screenplay. If you are lucky enough to have an agent consider your scripts, make sure they’re the very best work you’ve ever written. Sometimes you only get one chance."

Go over and check out the full post for some professional-grade insight into what can be one of the more challenging aspects to having a career as a working writer.

Still Working It

I feel obligated to report that I've not been posting due to overall busy-ness. As in...

• Finished another big edit on LTG: Dragonfriend. Cut out close to 6k words, caught more punctuation/grammatical/typographical errors. Lots of fat was tossed. Glow of overall positiveness now envelops me with regard to this manuscript. SIDE NOTE: Recommend using MS Word's "read text aloud" feature. It helped me catch many errors such as repeated/dropped words and clunky (poorly constructed) sentences.
• Prepping above manuscript and support materials for 2011 ABNA.
• Finished the first draft of a live-action spec pilot for kids, ala Wizards of Waverly Place. My reader's taking a look at it and I hope to be able to send it to my agents soon. I think it's a unique premise and is funny. We'll see.
• Added some animation and kid's book FAQ's at the top of this page. Stuff I've been asked over the years which I hope you'll find of interest.
• Minor revamp of this and my other blog.

Still chugging along toward the eventual publishing of Leonard on Amazon (via Createspace) but, as mentioned in a previous post, I'm going to shut up about my progress in that arena until  I'm close to pulling the trigger.

That is all.

UPDATE: I knew there was something else. Wrote an episode of a popular animated half-hour and just got another assignment for the same show. The pickup hasn't been announced yet so I can't reveal the name at this time. Yay, work!

Are You a Thief?

Author Saundra Mitchell lays out a compelling argument for why "free books aren't free" and how "fans" with an overblown sense of entitlement might actually be killing the careers of (mid-list) authors whose work they claim to love. Here's a quote from her post. The parenthetical addition is mine:

"I’ve been very open about the money I’ve made and not made, to help give the writing community some perspective. So I’m going to be very open about money today. I’ve told you before that I made a $15,000 advance on SHADOWED SUMMER. In two years, I’ve managed to earn back $12,000 of that.

It’s going out of print in hardcover because demand for it has dwindled to 10 or so copies a month. This means I will never get a royalty check for this book. By all appearances, nobody wants it anymore.

But those appearances are deceiving. According to one download site’s stats, people are (illegally) downloading SHADOWED SUMMER at a rate of 800 copies a week. When the book first came out, it topped out at 3000+ downloads a week.

If even HALF of those people who downloaded my book that week had bought it, I would have hit the New York Times Bestseller list."

 I'm going to go all Lars from Metallica on this one. If you illegally download "free" copies of books, music, films -- whatever, from a torrent site or anywhere else, you are a thief. No matter what your reasoning may be -- lack of funds, not available in your region, laziness -- you are literally taking food out of the mouths of creative types who depend on royalties/residuals to earn a living.  Stop doing that and start buying the product! It's the right thing to do (a thousand blessings on those who support their favorite artists) and the career you help to save will thank you by continuing to churn out the books you love to read.

Some Get It, Some Don't

Here's a snarky anti-Nano article from a snob at Salon who doesn't get it, and here's a well-reasoned response from an editor at Orbit Books, who does.

Bottom line, while we all hope our NaNo project gets picked up by a major editing house and sells a bazillion copies, the main reasons we do NaNoWriMo are:

1. It's fun.
2. It helps improve your writing.
3. You meet some very nice people through the forums and elsewhere online. 
4. It forces you to get off your butt and give writing a novel a shot.
5. It helps you learn what it feels like to write on a regular basis. And,
6. It's fun.

That's good enough for me. What do you think?

It's the Writing, Stupid

John Scalzi, one of my favorite sf/f writers, has posted an inspirational exhortation for those who complain about not finding the time to write. Fortunately/unfortunately, I'm afflicted with a severe case of "has-to-write-itis" so I'm compelled to find the time to do so. However, not everyone is so lucky/cursed and for those Scalzi offers a vigorous kick in the pants of the "shut up and write" variety.

My favorite pull quote from his post:

"But if you want to be a writer, than be a writer, for god’s sake. It’s not that hard, and it doesn’t require that much effort on a day to day basis. Find the time or make the time. Sit down, shut up and put your words together. Work at it and keep working at it. And if you need inspiration, think of yourself on your deathbed saying “well, at least I watched a lot of TV.” If saying such a thing as your life ebbs away fills you with existential horror, well, then. I think you know what to do."

Amen.

 

Neil Gaiman Profile

The New Yorker is running a fascinating profile of Neil Gaiman, easily one of my very favorite living authors. Here's an interesting pull quote that touches on an aspect of children's publishing that's been bugging me for some time:

"...when he showed an early draft to an editor in 1991, he was told it was unpublishable: far too frightening for kids. (Gaiman maintains that adults are more afraid of “Coraline” than children are.)"

Unpublishable. Yup. Here's hoping that Gaiman's popularity and high sales will help editors rethink silly notions about what constitutes a literary threat "to the children". I loved "dark tales" as a boy and have a sneaking suspicion that kids these days still do.

My Writing Toolkit

"I was curious what software you use for writing your books."

-- Brian I., CA

For years I've been using plain old MS Word for my picture books, my spec chapter books, and even my spec novels. With very minor tweaks, you can set it up to produce a very respectable-looking manuscript. The generally accepted format for all of these is double-spaced and indented at each new block of dialogue or descriptive text. One inch margins all around seems pretty standard, too.

I use a dedicated script program (Movie Magic Screenwriter 6) for my spec screenplays and sitcoms as the formatting in those is a little more complicated than book manuscripts -- dialogue/action/parenthetical/shots and transitions, etc. This software also includes a novel template and that's what I used to write my 2009 NaNo project -- just to mix things up. It worked fine but I wouldn't advise authors to purchase MMS 6 just for the novel template -- Word will do and you probably already own that.

As an aside, I use Final Draft 5 for my animation scripts as that program seems to be a requirement for a lot of shows in this genre. These scripts are almost always written in screenplay format although, obviously, not nearly as long. My copy of FD is ancient and creaky and I should probably upgrade soon but, hey, it's still readable by the newer versions and even the upgrades of these dedicated script apps can be pricey. That said, they really make cranking out a script a lot easier so I'd recommend investing in one if you're serious about a career in features, sitcoms, or animation. Final Draft also has a built-in novel template, but I haven't used it.

Finally, I use an outlining program for my novels and screenplays called Dramatica Pro. It's primarily an organizational tool and I like it because it helps me focus and deepen my story early on, making the actual writing a lot easier. Is a program like this a necessity? No. You can definitely get by with your own personal (and free) outlining method.

There you have it, the complete Novel Project writing toolkit. Now get to work.

On Writers and Money

Author John Scalzi has a very interesting post on why writers seem to have a hard time managing their money and aren't all crazy rich.

Vampires and Sex

Author Neil Gaiman has some interesting thoughts on the subject in this EW interview.

Should We Even Bother Trying to Get Published?

The answer is yes according to this inspirational post from Evil Editor. He says it's well worth putting in the effort at a time when publishers aren't buying anything.

Myth of the Tortured Writer

Here's a great post from sf author John Scalzi about "What You Have to Give Up to Write".

(hint: not much if you apply a little discipline)