Aunt Noony's Inside Look at Publishing

It’s funny, I don’t really think of myself as being “inside publishing,” or inside the ebook publishing industry, but since I have a book out with a major digital-first press I suppose to others that I might be considered at least “published,” if not on the “inside track.”

So how’s the view from here?

The more I know, the more I learn that I need to know. As much as I know about writing (active voice, action tags, story craft), I find I still have more to practice. Each time I go through a manuscript to edit, I think, “This is the time, it’ll be so clean I won’t have to touch a thing.”

I’m wrong. Routinely.

Humbling experience, that.

Each time I think I “know about the ebook publishing industry,” someone will mention a new-to-me publisher that’s been in business for years. It’s not that they’re so small I’ve never heard of them, it’s that I’m not well versed enough on the businesses playing in the industry yet.

So here’s what I do know:

Concentrate on the basics and on what you can control.

1. Write daily or as often as you can. There are many prompts available on the internet (type “writing prompts” into Google and poke around). Experiment with a new one every day for a month. Write with a pen and write on the computer, see how the different mechanics work with your creative process.

2. Practice your writing skills. Get a book on grammar from the library or buy yourself a copy of Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss. Wrestle with comma usage and the dreaded semicolon; become an expert in verb tenses. Learn about the “story arc” and the seven traditional plots. Get yourself a copy of Fiction Writers Workshop by Josip Novakovich or take a fiction class through a local writing group.

3. Meet other writers. Find writing friends online through magazines like Writer’s Digest or The Writer, and make local connections using your local newspaper or Meetup. Exposure to others working on the same things you are is helpful for the learning process and can also inspire you to try new things.

4. Attend regional writing conferences or even a national one. My own writing organization, Evanston Writers Workshop, holds our annual conference very year during the third weekend of August. We bring in authors, publishers, agents, and have an awesome time learning and playing with words for three days.  There's a lot you can learn about traditional publishing and the ebook publishing industry, and how the interrelate and augment each other from the authors' perspective.  It's no longer enough to ignore ebooks; we as authors need to understand it because that's how a lot of newer authors are being published.

5. Stay humble. No matter how much you know or learn, remember there’s always someone out there that can teach you something. Be teachable.

6. Keep writing. Through it all, remember to keep writing. This is surprisingly easy to forget, in fact. I meet writers through Evanston Writers Workshop who have all sorts of dearly-held opinions about publishing and writing, but when asked what they’re working on, the answers “oh, this manuscript I’ve been writing for twenty years.” One manuscript for twenty years is not a good track record for knowing the publishing industry. One of our speakers, author Jody Lynn Nye, has published over forty books and over a hundred short stories.  I think THAT is the track record of someone who knows the publishing industry, don't you?  Everyone has opinions, and it’s easy to forget that our job description is “writer,” not “pontificator” or “prognosticator.” If you have the urge to do either of the latter two things, DO IT ON THE PAGE! Whatever you do, write.

Lots.

Write on!

Love to the CPs

I have the best kick-butt critique partners in the world. No really, I do.

For those of you who don’t know, a critique partner (CP) is the rarest of individuals who works countless hours, giving up sleep and sanity, to read my chapters over, and over again to tell me what’s not working in them. She might make me cry, cuss a little, and stomp my feet in protest, but she will not let me quit, or give up on my dream.

Think: Drill Sergeant with a red pen and heels.

As a reader, I want to say thank you to all the CPs out there. Because of you, we have great books to read. Because of you, authors keep writing.

I am blessed to have a group of CPs. These ladies are phenomenal authors who give up chunks of their time to help ME write better. It’s like having a treasure chest of precious jewels, each one dazzling and brilliant. Together they help my stories sparkle. They kick my butt, watch my back and lift my heart. In a word, they are: priceless.

A CPs job is hard. Mine are not there to tell me how gorgeous, wonderful, and fantastic I am. That’s my mom’s job. No, they are supposed to tell me where I am falling down on MY job—holes in the plot, not digging deep enough, characters too flat, characters gone wild…

My CPs are not the kind of friends who let me go outside with underwear on my head and tell me the cotton matches my eyes. They will say, kindly mind you, that underwear on my head is stupid, whether is matches my eyes or not, and tell me to move it to where it belongs. This keeps me from sending a story into the world before it's ready, which means that readers won't see the ugly holes in the waistband or the strings pulling away from the seams.

While I try to give back by being a CP to each of these amazing writers, at times I feel like Michelangelo’s assistant, standing by, offering advice while he creates David.

“Um, Michelangelo, you missed that little spot right there, might want to smooth it out a bit.”

Here's to the CPs. Hug one today.

And if you have a great critique story, I’d like to hear it! Post your comments and questions here.

www.kimberleytroutte.com