What Advice Can You Give Independent Authors?

[JayScore]

Fiction writing I know little about, (reading it, I know a lot) but the only way to see if it's any good is to get opinions from others - interested others. It's no good getting a critique about a science fiction novel from someone who never reads the genre.

Diana Gabaldon, who wrote the excellent Outlander series, was, from the beginning of her writing career a member of a writers group/forum/network. So, join such a club, but join sincerely hoping that fellow members are brutally honest. The X Factor TV prog clearly shows the dangers of friends and family not being honest. (And, if you are ever asked your opinion on someone's work, whatever the field, you be honest, too. Anything else will just end in tears.) Criticism can be hard to take at first, but once you get to know those who are giving good and valid criticisms, it not only gets easier to take, but becomes positively sought. I think to be successful, in any field, requires the ability to recognise the huge value of accepting criticism. It is a pity that many, many people are frightened to criticise negatively, and think you want to hear only the good. If you do, then you will fail.

If all is well, and you've got through the pain of hearing your baby maligned, offer it to reviewers at any newspaper or magazine, and especially genre-specific magazines, and haul it around the bookshops, and send it to distributors. The latter two make a lot of money from selling your book - even as author AND publisher your cut is small - distributors want around 60%, bookshops a little less. They will know (probably) if it's likely to sell. If they think it's got a chance, then it probably has. But don't forget that many of the best writers got mountains of rejection letters before being published. So you can't rely totally on anyone's judgement. Those trusted critics really are hugely important, and will help you continue to present and present again, and again.

Yes, the editing and proof-reading is crucial, but the quality of that is related to the quality of those doing the work. In a free English-language newspaper on the Costa del Sol, I read an article wherein the author used, "could of" and "should of". Authors do not have to be highly literate; their role is purely that of the story-teller, but editors and proof-readers absolutely must be. I've encountered much more, obviously, but that one irked. I have little time for whinges about usage and spelling - split any infinitive you want, boldly go wherever you like, even spell honour, "honor", I won't bat an eyelid, but the incorrectness of "should of" grates massively. (And now every subsequent poster here is going to use "should of", "could of", "might of", "must of", etc., etc., just to annoy me. Children. Water, duck, back.)

And, there are quirks. Stephen King only ever uses, "awhile", when what he means is
"a while" - space between the indefinite article and the "while". I am aware that some US dialects use the single word, but it is not correct in every circumstance. He is the only US writer I read who does this. It's his quirk, and the editor lets it go. It annoys me, but on a scale of one to ten it's about a sixteenth annoyance. (For those interested, another thing that annoys me is such as, "He looked round." What, he appeared circular in shape? Choose your words carefully. "He turned round." is even better as it involves him changing shape, magically.)

I don't go along with the idea that one cannot edit and proofread ones own work. It depends entirely on the individual. I'm pushing sixty, and I absolutely know what I am good at, and what I am crap at. I am excellent at writing instructions, instruction manuals, and editing and proofreading, and my literacy level is very high, and I adore creating alphabetical lists. However, I have the maths skills of a meerkat - simples, the diplomacy of an alligator, and the gardening skills of a swarm of locusts. Know yourself. Don't argue, accept. We are all different, and we all have different skills and abilities. Recognise this. Makes life much easier.

It also helps if you're a celeb. Read Pamela Stephenson's biog of Billy Connolly. Awful writing. Juvenile. But it got published, and sold well. What was the editor doing there, I ask. Didn't matter, Billy's always been big and hot, and Pam was well-known, and the content was more important than the prose. Selection is difficult to explain. The plot of, "The boy in striped pyjamas" was likewise juvenile, and the story involved, throughout, a pun that only works in the English language - in a novel set in Germany, and featured a concentration camp perimeter fence that was never patrolled, and the security of which was compromised so that a boy could climb under it. Seems luck plays a big part in everything, even writing and getting published. (Good example there of a too-long, too many claused sentence, but never mind, eh? - (As Nietzsche once remarked.) )

The diary of Adrian Mole is a good read for aspiring authors. Adrian's attempts at writing, producing only purple prose, are both funny and eductional.

Also, get "The writers and artists yearbook", a thesaurus, a dictionary (use it), and see if you can find a copy of Keith Waterhouse's, "The aberrant apostrophe." Thus armed, talent and skill remain your only potential adversaries.

Write on.

[randyflycaster]

Study grammer. There's a shortage of good proofreaders out there. When I was writing articles I guess I relied on editors to correct my mistakes. Now I don't have editors to fall back on; and the proofreaders I've hired have been poor, at best.

Sadly, I haven't studied grammar for some time, but I'm doing it now, and I just bought a used copy of the Chicago Manual of Style.

Randy

[Mayzshon]

Don't rely entirely on Spellcheck. It won't catch everything, for example if you leave the "d" off "and".
Or on homophones, as I learned the hard way when I kept typing "Dual" when what i should have used was "Duel".

[jrlewis]

I guess I'm in the self-editor camp. It helps that my degree is in English Lit and I work professionally as a writer/editor, but my general thought is this:

If you want to call yourself a professional anything, you should be able to do the whole job yourself. A lawyer should be able to write a whole contract, a barber should be able to cut all your hair, and a writer should be able to write a finished (polished) book.

If you need a story-editor, then you aren't a solid story-teller. If you need a lot of proofreading, then you're not a very good user of the English language. So, if you're a poor story-teller with a weak command of English, then you're just not a good writer. Period.

Fortunately, education and practice can fix both of those problems.

I do use beta readers to give me general feedback, but I'm not looking for professional guidance from them, just some intelligent opinions to let me know where I was most successful and where I have room for improvement. After all, I'm only human and I want to keep improving.

My writer friends who pay editors have not had much success with them. Anyone can charge you for "editing services" and your edited book may still be full of problems, large and small.

*I should point out that lots of books that sell well (traditionally published and self-published) are poorly edited. It's not a complete barrier to success, only a big stumbling block.

[James_Wilde]

Originally Posted by randyflycaster

Sadly, I haven't studied grammar for some time, but I'm doing it now, and I just bought a used copy of the Chicago Manual of Style.

Be careful with the CMS. Don't follow it slavishly unless you're writing a manual or a scientific paper.

Otherwise use it for checking up on a specific point, like whether to hyphenate a particular phrase.

[JayScore]

Before reading and writing was finally wrested from the hands of monks, and became universal, most communication was, obviously, word of mouth. This is true for story tellers, common in many cultures throughout history, and held in high esteem - by the people, if not the monks. Most were likely illiterate. But that did not stop them telling the tales, and, usefully, keeping the history of their culture.

Also, literacy is a continuum. At one end - unable to read or write a single word, at the other - perhaps a professor of language at an Oxford uni, (or Harvard, for those living across the pond.) We all fall somewhere along that line, and there is nothing that says we must reach a certain point along that line in order to write. There are many good musicians who can't read a single dot on a stave.

Those who don't understand grammar, or who cannot spell, but who want to write, should perhaps educate themselves, but even while learning, they should not be excluded from producing stuff, and if their stuff has any merit, they should seek the help they need to give it the final polish, without shame.

As for the hairdresser analogy. I doubt many authors having completed the writing then go on to design the covers and spine and get the ISBN and produce the barcode and convert the whole into a pdf for the printing thereof.

[JayScore]

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[G J Lau]

Interesting thread. Appreciate the good tips on promotion. I'm realizing that as a self-publisher I am a small businessman who must spend a considerable amount of time growing the business when he would much rather be making widgets.

As for editing, I did it for 20 years and have had several people read my novel and I have read and reread, written and rewritten every word but after putting it down for a couple of weeks and reading it again I still found things to fix. So it goes.

[durkinrobinson]

My biggest piece of advice to new writers is to get a therapist. A good one. ;-)

[James_Wilde]

Originally Posted by durkinrobinson

My biggest piece of advice to new writers is to get a therapist. A good one. ;-)

I'd rather spend the time writing!