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About a Book (Panicking and Pitches)

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Photo by Victor Bezrukov

This happens more often than I’d like to admit: I’m sitting around with friends or acquaintances or random strangers, and the fact that I’m a writer comes up. (I never noticed before just how often people say, “What do you do for living?” until I started answering that question with “I’m a writer.”) From there the conversation usually moves to what genre I write, what I’ve published, when my next book is coming out, and then like a hand grenade tossed into my lap: “What’s your book about?”

I freeze. My brain sets off alarms that sound all over my body. Panic sets in. I try to buy time by saying, “Wellllll,” and “Uuuuummm,” and “Okay, sooooo.” My first book was published seven years ago, my fourth novel is coming in August, and this still happens every time someone asks me what my book is about. When I received a PR Q&A from my publisher with the question “what is your book about?” I may have yelled out loud, “Don’t you people have a whole sales department to tell me what my book is about?”

Part of this difficulty is related to many writers’ struggles with query letters and elevator pitches. After you’ve spent months or years crafting a complex and nuanced story, now you’re supposed to boil it down to a few sentences? I’m terrible at this in part for the same reason I write novels instead of flash fiction.

The other part of why this question is so hard for me is about the panic and how my brain responds to it. More than one person has suggested that I should just memorize my official pitch word for word. Sadly most of the time the panic wipes my brain clean, and all I can find in my Things I’ve Memorized file is a few random Bible verses and the Pledge of Allegiance. Even on the occasions when I successfully regurgitate what I’ve memorized, I just sound like a malfunctioning robot. If I’m supposed to be selling my book to potential readers, that is not the way to do it.

I wish I could tell you that I have found the solution to this problem, and that you can read about it after the jump, but the truth is I choked on my one and only attempt to pitch a novel to an agent in person twenty years ago, and I choked again this last week.

I was at a gathering of booksellers and inevitably I was asked the question about my forthcoming novel. Cue panic, followed by me opening my mouth and having a few hundred words fall out in no particular order. I’m here to tell you that this is not ideal, but it’s also not a complete catastrophe. After all The Princess Bride has been successfully selling itself with a pile of random words for many years: “Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escape. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.”

All this to say that my wisdom is much more philosophical than practical. Over the years of being asked what my books are about, I have learned to accept two things: [Read more…]

Which Scrivener Features Do You Really Need?

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Young Black woman wearing a pink sweater, giving skeptical look to the laptop in her hand. Title to her left reads, "Which Scrivener Features Do You Really Need?" Words floating to the right read: "Styles, Snapshots, Corkboard, Labels, Keywords, Annotations, Split Screen, Composition Mode."

I recently started a Scrivener Q&A column for my newsletter subscribers. One reader, Avril, asked how to determine which features you really need and which ones are distractions.

For example, she’d color coded her scene documents with Labels at one point because she learned how and it looked cool, but it didn’t really serve her process other than to make the Binder (list of scenes/chapters) look pretty.

Binder displaying documents in folders, with their icons colored blue, pink, or gray

Obviously, which of Scrivener’s tools are useful—or only useful for procrastination—depends on what and how you write. And it may change from project to project.

To help you figure out what’s right for you, I’ve developed a Writer Unboxed-exclusive, not-so-scientific, three-stage plan for getting the most out of Scrivener without getting overwhelmed. It’s what I preach to my private students and in my workshops, and I hope you find it useful for learning anything new.

1. Start by learning the basics so you can at least use Scrivener to write.

This requires a little time and discomfort upfront, but you’ll be better able to judge Scrivener’s value if you can actually use it. To get started, check out the free tutorial that comes with the software, but don’t worry about memorizing everything or even finishing the tutorial right now. Think of it as a nice introduction to what Scrivener can do, not something you must commit to memory before you can start working.

2. Learn the features that got you excited to switch to Scrivener in the first place.

Maybe it was the Corkboard for storyboarding, maybe it was tracking your progress, or maybe it was just being able to see the structure of your story in the Binder as you build it. Whatever it was, learn those functions as soon as possible so you’ll be able to get what you wanted out of Scrivener in the first place and be happy with your choice to switch .

3. Add more tools to your repertoire as your comfort level builds, or as needs dictate.

It’s good to focus only on what you need so Scrivener doesn’t become a distraction from what really matters: writing. But, it’s also helpful to know what Scrivener can do so that when you want a capability, you already know there’s a solution. Honestly, if you think it should exist, there’s a 91% chance (totally made up number that reflects my anecdotal experience) that it does exist.

In my blog posts, workshops, and classes, I try to highlight what I think are the most useful features. Not so you feel like you have to know/use all of them—I sure don’t—but so you know they exist in case you ever want them.

Avril didn’t find color coding helpful in her past projects, but what if her next one requires her to submit and then edit portions of the manuscript while she’s still writing other chapters? A quick visual aid for the status of each section might save her sanity. (I speak from experience.)

So, stage 3 is for those who say, “I’ve been using Scrivener for months/years, and I like it, [Read more…]

Whose Character Is It Anyway?

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Photo by Pexels via Pixabay Free License

Recently my latest creative pursuit, a departure from my stalled work in progress, has started bumping against a writerly controversy about which I had previously been only vaguely aware, that of authors receiving sharp pushback on their characters and in some cases their entire story concept because of perceived cultural disrespect or disregard. And though my pursuit has to date been a personal one, I still found myself chafing under what at first seemed arbitrary and potentially insurmountable barriers. You see, my current exercises involve crafting scenes in which I seek to embody characters unlike myself, with life experiences far removed from my own. In doing so I imagine their worlds, borne of research and admittedly from instinct too, as with any fiction. On one level the exercise is simply a creative challenge. But it is has also become an emotional touchstone since my attempts to “walk a mile in their shoes” have reawakened my empathy in an increasingly isolating world. Makes for good stuff, huh?

You would think so, or at least I did. But my joy in this new pursuit has since tempered. You see, last week I stumbled upon a New York Times article about author Amélie Wen Zhao withdrawing her debut novel, Blood Heir, from publication following accusations of insensitivity and outright racism in her portrayal of a fantasy world in which characters born with special powers are enslaved. Though Zhao, a Chinese immigrant, has explained the inspiration for the novel stemmed in part from largely overlooked indentured servitude prevalent across Asia as well as her personal experience as an outsider, criticisms soon overtook the initial positive reception of advance readers, leading to her decision to withdraw the novel prior to its scheduled June release.

Not having an advance copy myself, I cannot assess the full veracity of the complaints. Yet the situation immediately struck me as unfair. After all, an author chose to forego a publishing dream pursued for most of her young life right at the cusp of its fruition. In the days since, I have devoured reports of other recent works withdrawn from publication, both before and after their market releases. And though I now have more insight into the issues at play, my feelings remain torn. So I turn to you, fellow Unboxers, to help unravel the decidedly thorny matter of the degree to which writers should shape their creations to meet the expectations – or demands? – of potential readers.
[Read more…]

How to Prepare and Use a DMCA Takedown Notice

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Flickr Creative Commons: Noirathsi’s Eye

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) is a U.S. law designed to protect content creators (and Internet Service Providers), and to “maintain a balance between the rights of authors and the larger public interest.”

I could write a book (and people have) describing the DMCA in detail, but the part of the law most relevant to authors – and the topic of today’s post – is the DMCA Takedown Notice. 

(Advance apologies for the length of this post, but it takes a little space to describe the process in a useful way.)

Under the DMCA, website hosts and ISPs must promptly investigate and resolve copyright infringement claims, provided the claims are presented in a DMCA-compliant notice (normally called a “DMCA Takedown Notice”). The legal requirements for this notice are established in 17 U.S. Code Section 512 (c)(3). In practical English:

To put an ISP on notice of copyright-infringing material on a hosted website, the person claiming infringement (or his/her representative) must send the ISP a written notice (many ISPs accept these notices in electronic format, and many websites post a DMCA submission form) containing the following information:

  1. Identification of the infringing material that the owner is asking the ISP to remove (or disable access to), along with enough information for the ISP to locate the material. (Normally, a URL or link to the infringing content on the hosted website.)
  2. Identification of the copyrighted work the owner claims has been infringed. (If multiple works by one author are involved, the owner can send a single notice that lists all of the works.)
  3. Sufficient information for the ISP or website to contact the author of the DMCA complaint. (Generally, a physical address, telephone number, and valid email address.)
  4. A statement that the complaining party (you, if you’re preparing the notice) has a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted material is not authorized by the copyright owner, any agent of the owner (such as a publisher), or the law.
  5. A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notice is accurate and that the complaining party (you, if you’re sending it) is the copyright owner or legally authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.
  6. The physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner (or an authorized representative, like an attorney, agent, or publisher).

Before you send a DMCA notice to a website or ISP you should:

  • Make sure the website doesn’t have permission to post the material. Check your contracts, licenses, and grants of rights (and check with your publisher, if you have one) to make sure the use is actually a copyright infringement. It’s embarrassing to send a DMCA notice and get a response that says, “We have a license.”
  • Make sure the use is not “Fair Use.” Generally, offering free access to a copyrighted work, in its entirety, without permission, is copyright infringement – but if the use is only an excerpt, or if you’re not certain about fair use, contact a lawyer before proceeding with a DMCA notice.
  • Confirm the proper recipient of the notice. If the website doesn’t include a copyright agent or administrator’s contact information, you can generally send the notice to the website host (the ISP that hosts the website on its servers).

Be aware: a DMCA Notice is only legally operative within the United States, in countries that are signatories to the copyright treaty that prompted the DMCA’s enactment in the United States, and in countries that have enacted laws similar to the DMCA (with similar notice requirements).  

And now for the bad news: [Read more…]

Book Brush: An Image Creation Tool Specifically For Authors

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We at Book Brush are super excited to let all of you know about a new marketing product for authors. Are you an author that has ever struggled with creating great images to use on social media or for ads you are running? I know this can be a daunting task. Book Brush has made this task easy! You can try out their limited plan for free and start making great looking images within minutes.

Here are some of the key benefits…….

  •  Create ads with 3D cover images (30+ templates) in minutes

  •  Includes pre-made templates for Amazon ads, BookBub ads, Facebook ads, and more…

  •  Choose from over 1 million royalty-free images and book stamps

  •  A Video Creator to easily create Video Effects behind a Promotion Image

  •  Community Templates to help create a quick image when in a time crunch

Scroll to the bottom of the home page to sign up for the Limited (free) Plan → Book Brush

Here are a few sample images for you to check out….

P.S. For those of you that are scrolling quickly, here is the link again…… Book Brush

 

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