WRITING CONTESTS REVISITED
Back in 2011, I did a piece on writing contests. I didn’t hold a very high opinion of them. It’s been a few years. Have things changed? Lately, I’ve been reminded of them as they’ll pop up once in a while on our Henderson Writer’s Group Facebook page. Someone will hear about another contest and post it. I want to say something, but usually bite my tongue.
Before I go further, I’d better let you see the original article.
THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Step right up! Pay your $10, your $20, your $50. Submit your story to our writing contest. See your name in print! Win big!
Ahem…
How many of you have been tempted by writing contests? How many of you have seen them advertised? If you’re a writer, you’ve seen them around. They’re as tempting as heroin. A naked girl to a horny teenager. New shoes to a girl! A sports car to a middle-aged guy! Pick your metaphor.
To put this bluntly, most writing contests, especially when they ask for money are a great way to spend money. Period. I could’ve used a much more graphic metaphor, but you get the point, and I have to keep this family friendly (more or less).
I made the mistake of being drawn in to one of those boondoggles once and got burned. I lost $10 in the process. Luckily, it was only $10 but it could’ve been worse. What was the result? I’m getting ahead of myself.
This contest was from a no-name publisher out of Orange County, California. They were just starting out and wanted to sponsor a contest for full manuscripts to find “the next big thing.” Since most contests were for short stories, I figured $10 wasn’t much to charge for a full MS, so what the heck! After all, the sponsors have their costs too, don’t they?
Said contest organizers probably received several hundred manuscripts. Whether they actually made any money off of it, I have no idea. Let’s just say that every single submitter lost their money except for one. That one got the publishing deal. The prize? A published book by a firm that failed almost immediately. The book? Uh… I can’t even remember and I’m pretty sure it dropped like a lead balloon. Since the publisher went belly up within a few months of publication, the poor author probably got stuck with a garage full of books unless they managed to slip into a deal with someone else. What it boiled down to is that one author got something for his $10, but every other author just donated $10 to that author’s publishing contract. Is it starting to become clear now?
Short story contests are almost as bad. The fees vary, but when you consider how many people submit to them, then consider who the judges might be. If you don’t make the cut, you’re just helping to pay for the winners publishing fees. Now consider if you happen to be one of the lucky ones. What do you really think you’re going to get? Sure, maybe a publishing credit, but consider my thoughts:
I’d rather spend that $10-$50 on postage and printing to submit my short story (or novel) to legitimate publishers on the off-chance they might actually like my story. If so, it might be published in a legitimate publication that will actually be seen by the public.
Think also of this. How often do you go to the book store and see a short story compilation or anthology (or a novel) on the shelf that came from a writing contest?
Okay, I’m waiting…
What would you rather spend your money on?
BACK TO THE PRESENT – WRITER’S BLOC
Every year, or when I feel like it, I submit a story to the annual (it used to be every two years) short story anthology put out by the Henderson Writer’s Group. The stories are submitted to a judging system and the best ones are picked for publication in whichever version of Writer’s Bloc is set for publication that year. In a way, that’s sort of a contest, but I don’t really consider it that way. I certainly don’t pay any money for it. I also don’t consider it a competition either. Not really. Maybe it’s because I’m not a jock. It’s like submitting a story to a magazine. If they like it or have room for it, fine. If not, oh well, on to the next thing.
ART AS SPORT
Another thing that rubs me wrong about writing contests, or singing contests, or battle of the bands, or anything that involves competition and art, is that people are taking something artistic and potentially beautiful, and turning it into something ugly and competitive. That’s something that just rubs me wrong. It goes fundamentally against my nature as a human being. Art is in the eye of the beholder and what art touches one person, may not be the same for anyone else. Sure, a story that touches more people has the potential for more sales, so in that respect, it “wins” the contest of a competition. Then again, I have yet to see anyone who has won one of these story competitions go on to be a best seller. I’m sure some best-selling authors have won story contests. However, that’s no different than from the thousands of them that never got anywhere near a contest. Or, the authors that won lots of contests but never sold a handful of novels.
FINALLY
If you must enter a writing contest and subject your art to sport, at least don’t pay for it, except maybe postage if they don’t accept e-mail submissions! If you have to pay a fee to submit, think of those alarm bells that should be ringing in the back of your head. Think of all the excuses people are probably going to tell you about how they have to pay for the staff to edit, judge and pay for this and that. Get highly suspicious. Then move on to the next free one.
You’ll save a lot of money.
One more thing. I’ve seen a few “wins” mentioned in author bios and have never had an urge to look them up. I was more interested in what I was holding in my hand. They didn’t always live up to their hype!
Happy writing!
AUTOBIOGRAPHIES – HOW MUCH DO YOU TELL?
I do a weekly column for www.letstalknevada. I’ll admit they’re autobiographical stories about my life, which started with us living overseas and evolved into just about everything. What started as a few goofy stories from Turkey ended up going back to when I first joined the Air Force, then working forward again. Since people enjoy them and the site wants me to continue, I figured I might as well start from the beginning and do my memoir on the cheap. No restrictions, no rules, just tell what I want. I have no publisher no editors except myself, and no restrictions on how I tell it except myself. That got me thinking about those of you considering, and those that have done memoirs.
How much do you tell, what do you tell, how do you limit yourselves and why?
WHY?
The most compelling thing about doing an autobiography (same as memoir), is why are you doing one and what do you except to get out of it? Is it to make money, set the record straight, entertain people, set a legacy or a combination?
Unless you’re a celebrity or have a super-compelling life, the chances are you’re going to have a garage full of books. Your shot at landing a commercial publisher are slim if you don’t fit those two categories. I know I’m neither. I just got lucky with Let’s Talk Nevada. I happen to write in a way that makes the stories mildly interesting. That’s good enough to do without pay! I neither expect nor demand it. My legacy is more to entertain than for anything else. I’m not trying to set any record straight because I haven’t been wronged anywhere… well enough to compel me to tempt fate and lawsuits. I’m certainly no celebrity, though if any of my published books skyrocket in sales, well…even then, I’ll keep plugging along.
Why do you want to tell your story? Is it compelling? Will others buy it? Only a select few? Is it just for the legacy? Set the story straight? Once that whatever is decided, what and how much are you going to tell? What risks are you going to take? How much do you want to embarrass yourself, put yourself at legal risk or at the expense of hurting others?
NAMES
Whenever anyone is relating a personal account of something that’s true, or basically true from their memory, whether exactly as they see it, or colored for entertainment purposes, there’s usually someone else involved. Because of that, there are issues of dragging someone else’s name into the equation. In this litigious world of ours, are you ready to get sued? What constitutes sue-worthy material or just being mentioned as a participant? How far can you go without crossing the line into slander?
How much do you tell, do you want to tell and how much do you change the real story to keep it real yet keep you safe from the others coming after you. Do you even need to worry about it?
Depending on the particular story, you can tell most things without, or by just changing the names of the others. In some cases, especially if the stories are complimentary and non-controversial, you can use real names.
In my stories, unless they’re already a celebrity or a family member, I change the names, unless I have explicit permission from them to use their real names. Since I’m not making any money from this autobiography, there are no funds involved either.
INCIDENTS
Famous or infamous incidents can get dicey. If you were involved in something newsworthy or something say…classified as in military, would that be something to tell? How about something legal? How can you talk about it without getting your butt in a wringer? How much far can you go? What if your whole autobiography is based on that one incident?
I guess it’s time to hire a bevvy of lawyers on that one!
With my stories, I’ve had a lot of stuff I can’t talk about. There are so many things I’d like to tell about but either I can’t or won’t because of the possibility, no matter how remote, it might violate the uniform code of military justice. I won’t even go there. There are some civilian things I’ve been involved in that I won’t touch for similar reasons. How much do I tell? I know where I’d stop!
LIMITS
You have a new autobiography you’re dying to tell, but you start thinking of how much you can tell. Those nasty little limits get in the way. How far do you go? How much do you tell? You have to know your limits. Whatever your goal is, the last thing you want to do is end up in court! That’s where you may need to bone up on your research, legal or otherwise.
Happy writing!
UPDATING A LEGACY
It’s already happened in movies. I haven’t read it in books yet, with one glaring exception that I’ll discuss later. Updating a legacy, a popular series. I know it’s been done in books, just not by any authors I’m personally interested in.
TV
I’ll start with TV examples I’ve seen. The results are not always pretty. Though some of you might disagree with me, I never liked the updated Twilight Zone remakes. They were popular for quite a while and were remade not once, but twice. Hey folks, once was enough. They did it right the first time, but to keep bringing it back while adding nothing new, fixing something that wasn’t broke didn’t help.
Another example was The Outer Limits. Now that one was a big favorite. I personally loved the “monster of the week” concept. The new series, filmed in Canada, wanted to break away from that and get all fancy and intellectual with extended story lines. They lasted a lot longer than the original, but at the same time, completely lost the charm and fun of the classic episodes. Those remakes turned into a different animal.
MOVIES
I won’t name the bad series simply because I didn’t watch them. On the other hand, I’ll talk about the two biggies that I’ve been faithful to… well mostly, from the beginning. Star Trek and Star Wars. One started as a TV series while the other was just movies.
Now Star Trek started as an original TV series then evolved into first, the movies then several TV offshoots. Though each TV offshoot had their good and bad points, I treated each as completely different shows with the Star Trek name as merely a starting off point and in no way a remake. My favorite was the Captain Picard version.
As for the Star Trek movies, they started sort of okay but by far, the best of the bunch was number four, the “save the whales” one. Before and after, they kind of drifted to me. After that, the actors got too old, Bones died and then Scotty (in real life). Then along came JJ Abrams. I dreaded what this new reboot might be like. However, I was not only shocked, but pleasantly surprised at the outcome. The reboot not only kept the tradition and spirit of the original, but it was just a plain good movie.
As for Star Wars, I just saw The Force Awakens. The first three movies were pretty good, but especially the first one which was killer. After that, those other three, four five and six were so awful, I can hardly talk about them. What’s so bad is that the creator, George Lucas made them himself. When JJ Abrams took over, I had to wonder what he’d do with the franchise. Turns out he went old school and back to number one again. He kept with the spirit of the original and did such a great job, what modernization he might have done blended seamlessly with the legacy. Now that’s the way to update a legacy!
BOOKS
I don’t know of any book legacies that have been done right, probably because of the subject matter or genre which didn’t interest me. I do know of one that was done horribly wrong. The Hardy Boys. Though I’ll admit the original series, written in the 1930’s was not only arcane, but contained some heavy political incorrectness. However, the way the present owners of the publishing rights slaughtered the books by ahem…updating them and politically correcting them and modernizing them in the new adventures. Well, I hate to say it, they cut the nuts right out of them and ruined a good thing. I know my memory isn’t that bad. The last time I read a Hardy Boys book was during one of my fantasy periods in the early 1970’s in Spain when I was a single airman living in the barracks. I had a penchant for nostalgia, besides the fact that the bookstore didn’t have anything else I wanted to read. So, I went through the old Hardy Boys collection. That was forty plus years ago. I picked up a recent Hardy Boys book in Barnes & Noble and was horrified at what I read. ‘Nuff said.
I’ve heard of other authors taking up where an original left off. How did they do? Do you know of any? If I’ve read any of those stories, I can’t remember right now. I’d like to hear from you.
Legacies are important. Reboots, rewrites, revamps are fine but I think it’s vital to keep the spirit of the original. I think JJ Abrams is one person who gets that idea. I don’t know of any authors that do.
Happy writing!
CO-AUTHORS
I’ve said it quite a bit in my weekly articles. I read a lot. With the quantity of books I come across, a good number of them have authors who share the credit with co-authors. Do you ever wonder about who actually does the work? Is it really shared or what?
THE CELEBRITY
I’m not much on autobiographies. In fact, I usually scan them in the bookstore and jump right to the good parts. The ones I’ve actually bought and read are because I know the people and bought the books from them or pre-bought them and then had them personally autograph them such as Felix Meyerhofer and John “Drumbo” French. Then there are a very few I read like the one by wrestler Mankind Mick Foley. In that case, I believe he actually wrote it. Many are ghost written—co-authored so to speak. I feel for those co-authors who have to sit down with the celebrity and probably take on lots of ramblings and put them in some kind of logical order. On the other hand, maybe they’re dictated with an iron fist.
Then there are the autobiographers who write the autobiographies without any input from the celebrities. Those are not true co-authoring or ghost writing tomes. Another story.
The other celebrity case is in fiction. A well-known person decides to take up fiction and slaps their name on the book. It sells well while the schlub that does all the writing gets and microscopic mention on the cover. Hey, it’s a foot in the door! Maybe it’s even a bio at the back of the book. You have to wonder how much the celebrity had to do with the actual story.
The typical case might be that the celebrity does not have the writing skills but is brimming with ideas and wants to dabble into the world of books. So they hire a writer to express their ideas through the skilled writer. Nothing wrong with that. It’s worked for some of them who I won’t name because they took too much credit for the writing. On the other hand, there are those celebrities that just have too many pans in the fire and need the co-author to do the busy work. Nothing wrong with that either when the books are great.
NON-CELEBRITY PARTNERSHIPS
The non-celebrity partnerships are where the chances are that both authors are most likely to be equal participants. In this case, each author contributes based on their strengths and expertise. For any successful partnership, each author has to be comfortable in the arrangement. That means they have to be able to share the work and be able to communicate. Without that, there is no partnership. The example I read the most is the Preston & Child series of Agent Pendergast novels. They’ve written a successful series as a partnership starting with Relic which was turned into a movie back in the late 80s. I just read Crimson Shore a few months ago. That’s a pretty good run!
I just read a spy novel by Valerie Plame and her co-author Sarah Lovett. Anyone remember Valerie Plame? Of the outed CIA agent fame? She has taken her five minutes of fame and turned it into a successful role as an author. In this case, I have no idea how much she participates in the actual writing versus supplying the CIA expertise. I’d be interested in seeing an interview one day to find out how these two work.
I can’t forget to mention two of the greats, Clive Cussler and James Patterson. Already well-established authors, they’re brimming with ideas and not enough time to write them all. In my estimation, by starting a sort-of mentoring program, they’ve taken on co-authors to do the grunt work and run with their ideas, different stories than what they’re known for. This not only keeps them in the forefront, but also gives these other authors a huge foot up front. I admire that.
Through my writer’s group, I know of several writing partnerships. Non-celebrities, these people just work well together. Neither has dominance over the other for writing credit. They share the roles. I’ve been asked to co-author books before, but I prefer to stick to my own worlds for now, though I’ve been tempted.
It takes a cooperative spirit, an agreement of ideas, an ability to say no and to take no from your partner and the ability to accept when your partner doesn’t like what you’ve done. You two need to agree to compromise if your ideas clash. Like anything else, if you’re going to work with someone else, you must have similar writing styles and methods or it will never work.
How about you?
Happy writing!
THE BOOK IS HERE – NOW WHAT?
It finally happened. The book went live and there was a burst of sales on Amazon. I saw it show up and watched the three sales numbers vary from day to day throughout the week. If I’m not careful, I could get addicted to those damn numbers! Of course, they range from slightly encouraging to devastating in the blink of an eye. I have to wonder how many other authors go through the same process when their first book comes out. With life just starting for Treasure Of The Umbrunna, it could become an obsession, if I let it. However, I know that I have to take those numbers with a grain of salt because there will be bursts of buying as people discover the book based on what I do next.
WHAT TO DO NEXT?
That’s a great question. My publisher sent me a huge list of things I can do, many I should do to market my book. The ones I actually do all have to fall within the limits of the fact that I also have a real job and the physical and practical limitations of where I live. I mean, it’s not like I can just pack up and do a national book tour! Most just-starting authors would never consider that anyway. However, I haven’t got anywhere near to steps like that yet. Things are much more simple at this point.
FINALLY CONTACTED THE PRINTER
I finally talked to the printer and got a good e-mail contact where I can sent the templates for my business cards, bookmarks and book flyers. I now have quotes and he printed samples I’m going to look at this weekend. I’ll go with what I can afford. I’m pretty sure the quality will be good because I’ve see their work before. I’ll need all that for any future book signings. The business cards I can give out willy-nilly when my book comes up in conversations, which it does quite a bit.
AUTHOR PAGES
Once my book hit Amazon, I was finally able to create my author page. When I did that, I also discovered a pleasant surprise, which also meant I might’ve been able to create my author page earlier than I thought. All of those short story anthologies I have been included in are already on Amazon (except one). Though my name wasn’t listed on any of them, all I had to do was submit to their corrections department and voila! Now every one of those anthologies are listed on my author page! In fact, when you pull up my page, the books run off the side and you have to scroll to see them all.
I also added the bio from inside Treasure, updated of course. Then I added a photo. Now as for the photo, to tell the truth, I don’t like those generic posed pictures that everyone does. First off, they don’t look real to me. Many times, when you meet the author in person, they don’t look anything like that. I’d rather see a photo of someone in a real-life setting. The one I chose was a tradeoff. I wanted one with me standing next to my telescope, but my publisher has nixed those in the past. Instead, I picked one of me standing in front of the bottomless lake in Palmdale, Calee’fornia. It will eventually be the subject of a future novel in my Gold series.
Next, I added my outstanding new animated video. If you haven’t seen it yet, you need to because it rocks! It’s probably the best marketing tool in my arsenal.
I also have an interview video but I haven’t posted it to my author page yet.
I also completed the author page on GoodReads. It was a bit different and I wasn’t able to add the anthologies because in GoodReads, my name doesn’t show up in their database. I’d have to become a librarian for their site to make corrections. I’m not to that point yet so I just let it go.
SELLING BOOKS
My case of books came in and now comes the predicament of how to sell them. I asked for advice on that and was told that though I could sell them for any price I wanted, I should sell them for the sticker price (which is on the bar code block). I especially need to do this during the initial stages of the book launch. I have to keep track of each sale because after all, this is a business now and I need good records for tax purposes. Maybe later down the road, I can sell them for discounted prices. I have a few reserved copies to give away to family and very close friends. Those I’ll write off.
SLOWY BUT SURELY (AND DON’T CALL ME SHIRLEY)
A whole different world is now opening up. In twenty years, I should be more prepared for this inevitable step, but it’s still very new to me.
Folks, I’m now a published author!
Happy writing!
GETTING READY FOR MY BOOK LAUNCH
After twenty some years, six hundred and eighty-odd rejections, things are finally falling into place. Folks, this is it. Someone finally believed in me enough to put the effort into one of my stories. It’s almost launch time!
As I type this, I have a lot to think about. Things are slowly but surely (and don’t call me Shirley) coming together. By the time this article posts, the book will already be two days available on Amazon. Woohoo!
THE PRINTER
The book has long been done, edited and has been at the printers. There was a slight delay with some issues with the color balance of the cover. With that in the can, the book is now rolling off the presses. I ordered a case (26 books) for my own use and they should arrive soon.
There are certain marketing strategies involved also, but I’m not sure if I can go into them at this point. Sometime soon, there will be a book launch, probably at a bookstore or library, or some other venue, but my publisher hasn’t set that up yet (part of the reason I ordered the case of books).
VIDEOS
As part of the marketing, though a lot of writers don’t do this, my publisher recommended I create a video interview. The first version we trashed because of some issues with distractions in the background and the audio. I wrote a script and had my daughter interview me sitting next to my computer, which showed the book cover on both screens. Though it isn’t perfect, the second one is much better and gets the point across.
Through the company, we also produced an outstanding animated video which I’m going to put up right after I post this article. I was intimately involved in the process, though I had nothing to do with the programming of it. I love it! I can’t wait for everyone to see it. It’s awesome!
PUBLICITY PACKET
My publisher created templates for bookmarks, business cards and publicity sheets for the book. With those templates, I can go to a local printer and have them produced to give out at book signings and to shove into everyone’s face that I meet! Each of the cards and book marks has the cover of the book on them plus vitals. This info is essential to get the word out. I contacted a printer and am waiting for him to get back with me.
PSYCHING UP
For those of you keeping track, you will have noticed last week’s post about speaking in public. Well, guess what you are going to be doing if you ever publish a book? Don’t think you are going to just get a book printed and expect it to sell on its own without any input from you!
Think interviews, book signings, book launches, talking to people about it!
Speaking of interviews. When I announced the availability of my book on Amazon on my Facebook page, I was contacted by a radio show host. Guess what I’ll be doing soon?
Are you psyched up? Have you barfed in the bucket before going on stage? (I love that joke).
It’s coming, so get ready!
Happy writing!
