Hide and Create

This week on Hide and Create, Joshua Essoe, Jordan Ellinger, Michael J. Sullivan and Debbie Viguie are joined by Robin Sullivan to discuss book contracts. This is a deep subject, and so to do it some modicum of justice, we’re starting off a three-part series on contracts today. I can easily see us revisiting the overall subject again in the future, but today we’re going to touch on tie-ins, options, negotiation rights, and non-compete clauses.

This week on Hide and Create Jordan Ellinger, Joshua Essoe, Debbie Viguie, and Michael J. Sullivan talk about the genres we are least likely to write, what would get us to write in those genres, and about pen names. The genres will take care of themselves in the episode, so let’s talk a moment about some guidelines for choosing a good pen name. 1. Ask yourself if anyone famous has a similar name, especially any other published authors. 2.  Consider names that people can take seriously; a name that won’t immediately be discounted as a joke or a stunt, or relate to another genre. 3. Is the name easy to remember, but still stands out? Will readers be able to read it and spell it with ease? 4. If you’re a traditional author, pay attention to where your name lands on the bookshelves. You don’t want to be buried on the bottom somewhere, so pick a name that lands you at eye-level. 5. Make sure that the name you choose is one you think you will still want to be called a decade from now. How about twenty years from now? 6. Make sure you can purchase the domain, get the twitter handle, and the Facebook profile.

This week on Hide and Create, Jordan Ellinger, Michael J. Sullivan, Debbie Viguie, and Joshua Essoe tell some personal stories about their lives in the publishing industry. If there is something that you want, go for it. Take risks. Devise plans. Make strategies, then go out and make things happen for yourself. But remember, always treat people with respect, courtesy, and professionalism. As Kevin Anderson says, be nice to everybody. You never know if that poorly chosen word, or that flare of temper, or that bite of impatience is going to bite you back harder. And just like that, just by doing this, you already meet two point on the triangle of success — nice, and work hard. All you’ve got left is skill. So practice, practice, practice. You might have a great story idea, but not the sufficient skill to express it yet. Set aside your unpolished gem and keep working at your craft. When you’ve improved, have another go at it. Don’t give up. If you believe in a story you’re telling–tell it. Someone at some point will see it and believe in it too.

This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie, Joshua Essoe, Jordan Ellinger, and Michael J. Sullivan continue their discussion about killing characters. During this two-part episode we talk about reasons to kill your characters and reasons why you should not. We talk about how to do it well and ways we’ve seen it done poorly. Also, beware of a few spoilers along the way. In addition to what we say there, I’d like to add a couple more thoughts. If you want to really create a strong emotional impact with your readers, try offing your character after they have been well developed. We’re not talking red-shirts here, we’re talking about a character who in some way is integral to the story. No matter how many babies and puppies you kill, you will never achieve the same emotional experience you can with a character your readers have an investment in and an attachment to. Try killing a character that has become superfluous. First make sure that this character should be in the story at all — there is no reason to have extra characters wandering around. In fact a good exercise is to look at your cast and see who can and should be combined into a single character. But for those that are necessary, sometimes they become not so necessary at some point. Some characters who are integral in a first book, for example, finish up their arc and are no longer needed as the series continues. This is a great kind of character to have lying around if you’re the kind of author who really likes to gut your readers, because you’ve got all this depth and emotional investment built up in this now unnecessary character that you can use to make your readers even more invested in your story and other characters. Remember, when you’re killing an important character off, make it count. Go for the heart.

Or, “I Woke Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed and Someone is Going to Die.” This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie (who coined that title), Joshua Essoe, Jordan Ellinger, and Michael J. Sullivan talk about killing characters. I love killing characters. I just love the moving, exquisite pain of it. I really like to feel those deaths, and I want to make readers feel those deaths too, and in that shared emotional reaction we grow virtually closer to each other. Like a big cuddle pile of sad puppies. There’s something very moving about a hero giving his life for his companions, of taking up his sword and shield, and turning and facing impossible odds knowing that he’ll never make it out alive, but content that in so doing he gives those he cares about a chance to continue on. That, of course, is just one of many, many ways to kill off a character; by no means is it the best or the only. During this episode we talk about reasons to kill your characters and reasons why you should not. We talk about how to do it well and ways we’ve seen it done poorly. Also, beware of a few spoilers along the way.  

This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie, Michael J. Sullivan, Jordan Ellinger, and Joshua Essoe, finish off their (first) discussion about their favorite movies and what makes them great. More on Star Wars, Harry Potter, Die Hard, and Fight Club . . . but here’s the blow-mind of this discussion. The Lone Ranger is an amazing film. Debbie wins this episode.

Welcome to 2015 and Season 3 of Hide and Create, dear listeners! This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie, Michael J. Sullivan, Jordan Ellinger, and Joshua Essoe talk about their favorite movies and what we can take away from them in terms of story-telling. What makes your favorite movies your favorites? What in them speaks to you, moves you, resonates with you? Because determining these things is a powerful exercise in figuring out appeal, and storytelling, and even in helping you determine what kind of stories you’d be good at writing. They provide a wonderful template, when dissected, of how to make that emotional connection with an audience–what did the movie do right to get your blood racing, to make you cheer,  or to make you cry? Now take those things and go put them in your writing.

This week on Hide and Create, Joshua Essoe, Jordan Ellinger, Debbie Viguie, and Michael J. Sullivan continue their conversation with slushmaster, Richard Salter about the slush pile. Here are some technical gripes or red flags that a slush reader might have that you can keep an eye out for. 1. Slush readers find that mistakes like typos and misspellings indicate a writer’s lack of experience — so avoid them if you can. One or two mistakes in the entire story won’t necessarily mean a rejection, but a few in the first two paragraphs will! 2. “It was.” I get a little worried when I see a story start like that. If numerous sentences start out with “It was,” then the slusher is going to think, “lazy writing” and pass on to something else. 3. If everything happens “suddenly” — hell, if only a few things happen suddenly. Don’t tell me how suddenly something happened, just tell me that it happened. If it is sudden, I’ll figure that out if it’s well written. Taking the time to tell me that it is sudden kind of makes it not so sudden anymore. It’s a quite overused word. This is our season closer, everyone, so have a safe, fulfilling and wonderful holiday! We’ll be back in January. Talk at you next year!

This week on Hide and Create, Joshua Essoe, Jordan Ellinger, Debbie Viguie, and Michael J. Sullivan talk with Richard Salter, slushmaster at Urban Fantasy Magazine about slush. So who slush reads? Some editors, some agents, mostly assistants of both of those, or outside contractors better known as mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha minions. Sometimes they’re called a publisher’s readers or first readers — note that’s a lot different than what writers mean when they talk about their first readers. Kinda. Why slush read? Slush readers’ job is to pan for gold. When they come across an MS that interests them, they pass it up the chain to the editor or the agent to make a final decision on whether that story should be purchased. What do editors look for in the slush? I want to quote Catherynne Valente, Apex’s former editor-n-chief: “We do not want hackneyed, clichéd plots or neat, tidy stories that take no risks. We do not want Idea Stories without character development or prose style, nor do we want derivative fantasy with Tolkien’s serial numbers filed off. “What we want is sheer, unvarnished awesomeness. We want the stories it scared you to write. We want stories full of marrow and passion, stories that are twisted, strange, and beautiful. We want science fiction, fantasy, horror, and mash-ups of all three—the dark, weird stuff down at the bottom of your little literary heart. This magazine is not a publication credit, it is a place to put your secret places and dreams on display. Just so long as they have a dark speculative fiction element—we aren’t here for the quotidian. “Keep in mind that the search for awesome stories is as difficult as writing them. If you are rejected, don’t get angry—instead, become more awesome. Write something better, and better, until we have to accept you, because we have been laid low by your tale. It really is that simple.”

This week on Hide and Create Debbie Viguie, Jordan Ellinger. Joshua Essoe, and Michael J. Sullivan talk about audio books. Audiobooks have really taken off in the last number of years and the industry is expected to continue its growth. Recording an audiobook could very well provide another income stream on your book. Why you should: When people see you have an audiobook, they see your book as even more credible. It stands out from the run-of-the-mill indie book (if you’re an indie author) when you have an e-book, a print book, and an audiobook. The audio book costs more to buy, so I have heard that you can make decent money even though there are fewer sales. Successful audiobooks lead to more print and digital sales. More sales, plus, you open up your book to a whole new market — non-readers! Having an audiobook makes you easier to find. Consider this: on Amazon there are millions of books to compete with. On Audible, there are only hundreds of thousands to compete with. You might hear things in your writing that you never would have noticed if you weren’t reading them aloud. It could lead to edits that really improve your book. And, as promised in the episode, here is Mary Robinette Kowal’s string of tutorials on reading aloud.  

This week on Hide and Create, Joshua Essoe, Jordan Ellinger, Michael J. Sullivan, and Debbie Viguie continue their conversation with Coordinating Judge of Writers of the Future, David Farland. This week Dave gets into the things he looks for and wants to see in the entries he reads. We also talk about what he does not like to see. So take notes, writers! The tips that Dave gives for the contest are applicable, and should be applied, to any story you write. Learn also some of the things that happen behind the scenes. What can winners expect, what happens when they win . . . does Scientology have anything to do with it? Another fantastic resource to connect with other entrants, find beta readers, get all the contest news, meet present and future finalists and winners, and generally make yourself crazy as quarterly results start rolling in and people start calling off their results is the Writers of the Future Forum. For David Farland’s workshops please check out http://mystorydoctor.com/.

This week on Hide and Create Joshua Essoe, Debbie Viguie, Michael Sullivan and Jordan Ellinger discuss different kinds of magic systems! Witchery and necromancy and mojo and hoodoo, no matter what you call it, magic is integral to many stories in fiction. We’ve spoken about detailed magic systems that are thoroughly explained. But what about softer magic systems? Magic systems don’t always have to be hyper-detailed, many authors prefer a much more vague system used mainly for mood, and setting, and backdrop, creating the illusion about how it might be possible rather than explaining it like a science. Using soft magic systems like that are just as effective and evocative as any hard system; it just depends on what kind of story you want to tell. Happy Hallow’s Eve, dear listeners! Don’t use up all the fireballs and bat wings this weekend!

This week on Hide and Create, Jordan Ellinger, Joshua Essoe, Debbie Viguie, and Michael Sullivan talk about Kobo with Mark Lefebvre of Kobo Writing Life! Kobo Writing Life (KWL) is a growing, and dynamic electronic publisher. It is free to join, and sells your books worldwide. They don’t take rights. You get access to a dashboard that loads you down with detailed sales data. What about the money? KWL offers 70% for books priced at $2.99 USD or higher and 45% for books priced under $2.99 USD, and they don’t have a cap on the 70%. KWL also allows you to control your pricing in eight different currencies. Eight. That means that you can control your pricing as determined by individual markets. You can also put your book up for pre-order, and give it away for free whenever you want for as long as you want — no exclusivity required. You can even schedule a price change for your book or books in advance. What it comes down to is this: if you are self publishing and your books are not for sale on all platforms available . . . why aren’t they?    

This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie, Jordan Ellinger, Joshua Essoe, and Michael J. Sullivan (and Robin Sullivan) discuss Goodreads. Goodreads, like any other social platform, can be a powerful tool if it is used correctly. This week Mike (and Robin) give us a lot of tips on how they have successfully employed Goodreads to improve Mike’s presence, his sales, and his popularity. On top of all that, he is sharing with our listeners his spectacular, information-dense Goodreads presentation from his appearance at the Writer’s Digest Annual Conference. Michael J. Sullivan-Author-Goodreads Writer’s Digest Annual Conference 2014

This week on Hide and Create, Debbie Viguie, Michael Sullivan, Joshua Essoe, and Jordan Ellinger continue to talk with Robin Sullivan about pulling together an indie book and putting it on the market. This is part three in our three-part series about the strategies and behind-the-scenes thinking of how to create a successful indie book.