Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

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JimMorcombe

Pen Names

Uncle Jim

Firstly,
Authors often write books under different Pen Names so they can write in different genres.

If someone has successfully published under one name, does that make it easier to publish under a second name or is it just as hard as getting the first book published?

Secondly,
Robert Jordan wrote some Connan books. I picked up a copy of one of them last night. I think it was "Connan the Magnificent". It was from Random Houses "Legend" Imprint.

The Copyright notice said "Terry Brooks" claims authorship.

If Robert Jordan really Terry Brooks?

Doesn't it destroy the benefits of using a Pen Name if the publisher goes and puts the real name in the Copyright statement?


Nephew Jim
 

HConn

Re: Prologues

I read prologues and quotes, though the fake ones have to be just as good as real ones would be, or they make me roll my eyes.
 

Kate Nepveu

Re: Pen Names

Robert Jordan is not really Terry Brooks; he is James Oliver Rigney Jr.

Can't help you with the rest of it.
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Pen Names

There are two different books with the title "Conan the Magnificent." One was by Steve Perry, the other by Robert Jordan. Both were from Tor Books.

Robert Jordan and Terry Brooks are two different people; I've seen them both in the same room at the same time.

(To answer your question: there are all kinds of ways to avoid having your real name show up on the copyright page of your book. Let your publisher handle this.)
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Definitions

I know that there are a lot of questions hanging fire and discussions that I've promised, and I will get to them.

In the meantime: some definitions to help push through the jungle.

Print on Demand

<UL>
<LI>A business model
<LI>Prints after orders are received
<LI>Non-returnable books
</ul>

Trade Paperback

<UL>
<LI>Whole-copy returnable paperback
<LI>Usually 6"x9" trim size, but can be the same size as mass-market paperback ("rack-size trade paperback")
<LI>Intended for bookstore sales
</ul>

Mass-Market Paperback

<UL>
<LI>Stripped rather than returned
<LI>Intended for non-bookstore outlets (news stand, grocery store, etc.)
<LI>Distributed in the same way (and often by the same companies) as magazines and newspapers
</ul>

Digital Printing

<UL>
<LI>A technology
<LI>Converts a digital file to a finished book one at a time using a machine such as a Xerox Docutech
<LI>Low setup cost
<LI>High per-unit cost
<LI>No economy of scale
</ul>

Offset Printing

<UL>
<LI>A technology
<LI>Uses large presses and photographic plates to create many books rapidly
<LI>High setup cost
<LI>Low per-unit cost
<LI>Major economy of scale
</ul>

Vanity Publication

<UL>
<LI>A business model
<LI>Author pays the cost of publication plus a percentage to the publisher
<LI>Publisher has title to the physical books on the day they're printed
</ul>

Self Publication

<UL>
<LI>A business model
<LI>Author pays the cost of publication
<LI>Author has title to the physical books on the day they're printed
</ul>

Traditional Publishing

<UL>
<LI>A business model
<LI>Prints before orders are received
<LI>Returnable/strippable books
<LI>Publisher pays author for rights to publish
<LI>Publisher has title to the physical books on the day they're printed
</ul>
 

wwwatcher

Re: Prologues

"I guess I'm in the minority because I read them. I figure if the writer wrote them, he/she had to have a reason."

Just so you don't feel alone Eraser. I read them too. Maybe it's because I'm a "Mystery" writer according to that quiz we took. I read them mainly because I figure there is something there that I'll need to know later on (and also because I wouldn't write one unless it was important to the story I was telling.).


Faye
 

JimMorcombe

Re: Pen Names

Uncle Jim

I seem to have stumbled onto a conspiracy. I have a book allegedly written by Robert Jordan but copyright to Terry Brooks.

The publishing world goes to the extreme of hiring actors to impersonate Terry Brooks whenever Robert Jordon is present. Even Uncle Jim is in on the scheme.

Did Robert Jordan's publisher really assasinate Terry Brooks to get his hands on Brooks' manuscript? Is the book I have in my possession the last bit of evidence that has yet to be swept under the carpet?

I look over my shoulder as I drive home, check for unexpected vehicles in my driveway. The hit men from Tor will never take me by surprise...

By the way, what are the implications of an incorrect Copyright statement in a book and do I have some kind of collector's piece on my hands?

Nephew Jim
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Pen Names

By the way, what are the implications of an incorrect Copyright statement in a book and do I have some kind of collector's piece on my hands?

Dunno -- but you might have a novel plot on your hands....
 

JuliePgh

Re: Sentence Fragments

Are sentence fragments considered bad grammar (outisde of dialogue)?
 

maestrowork

Re: Prologues

I consider it a stylistic choice. Most authors I know use sentence fragments to great effects.
 

JimMorcombe

Re: Sentence Fragments

Sentence fragments are definitely "in". I think it is something to do with how our literary tastes have been changed by television.

You can track the changes though the years. In the beginning there were sentences that were long and cumbersome - try reading a book in ancient greek. They didn't even have "periods" so they had to run everything together with "and" or some other preposition conecting every "sentence".

Sentence fragments seem to have first come in to "dialogue" in books. Then they crept into the really tense fast moving narrative sections to make it move faster.

Now some modern action authors seem to use it so much you wonder whether they forgot their grammar and whether it still has the same effect.
 

JimMorcombe

Re: Prologues

Still researching Prologues...

In the "Last of the Renshei", Mickey Zucker-reichart actually has ten pages that are "Pre-proplogue" although they really do form a Prologue in the classical sense.

She then has a 34 page "Prologue" so it is 44 pages before the book begins.

I guess she has demonstrated two tricks to ensure that the reader doesn't skip the prologue. First, don't let the reader know it is a prologue. The reader only finds out when he gets to the next section. Secondly, if the Prologue is long enough, the reader can't skip it.
 

wwwatcher

Help!

Uncle Jim

I've got a story that I've honed and honed and sent to betas readers and I've made it as ready as I can make it. I've researched a market, Boy's Life, and I think the story is a good fit for them. But....

The story is 1846 words and their limit is 1500 words. Will you take a look at it and tell me which 300 to 400 words to take out? If I post it on "share your work" will you get out your machetee and help me?

Faye
 

PixelFish

Re: Pen Names

JimMorcombe: Sometimes that backfires though, as when the prologue is about a completely different set of characters than those that are completing the main actions. It really irks me to no end to be set up with a story, and then, wham! taken to a completely different time and place.
 

ammolsb

Hello

Whew! Finally made it... Thanks to all of you for your wonderful knowledge and inspiration.

I'm on page 84 of my first draft, and very excited to be there!

Now for the burning question I've waited until now to ask: I'm considering retirement next year but would like to supplement my income. I've read about the advances you've mentioned, but how much could I expect from writing a couple books a year, assuming they were decent and published? What could one expect from royalties?:money :shrug
 

sc211

Re: Prologues

Hey everyone. I just found this forum a week ago, and I'm up to page 12 of this opus of great advice, so it's going to take me a while to get caught up, but I thought I'd jump in and get in on the fun while I can.

About prologues, I agree that no one likes to read them. Some, though, are done well, as with Lynn Flewelling's Luck in the Shadows, which is just a page and a half and hooks you in like a TV show does - it shows you something sinister happening, cuts to the opening credits, and then begins with the main character.

My question on prologues is what do you call those italicized paragraphs that lead off an opening chapter?

Carl Sagan's Contact starts off with one. "By human standards it could not possibly have been artificial: It was the size of a world." It goes on for a full paragraph and then cuts to the birth of the character who'll discover the message sent from that object. He even keeps it up through the first four chapters, showing the signal being sent and streaming through space as Ellie grows up.

Stephen King's The Body (Stand By Me), starts off the same. He numbers it as the opening chapter, but it's only two paragraphs and italicized. Speaking outside the story. He talks about the tales one never tells and then brings up "the nights I wake up from dreams where the hail falls into his open eyes."

He follows this with five pages of a card game in a treehouse until Vern arrives and says, "You guys want to see a dead body?"

So is this... Well, I was going to ask if it was a valid and acceptable technique, but from all I've read here, I'm sure you'll say that of course it is - it's there and it works. Sorry - I studied literary writing in college, and the rust of the shackles still scratches at times. But I'm learning. As Bruce Lee once said, "Efficiency is anything that scores."

Still, what are those mini-prologues called?
 

James D Macdonald

Re: Prologues

I know I've been slacking, and I owe a whole bunch of replies here (as well as the Firedoor Theory of Novel Construction), but:

For ammolsb ...

You might as well ask me "How long is a piece of rope?" Being able to write and publish two novels per year is a heck of an ambition. Sure, it can be done (I've done it), but I can't say how much you'll earn. What genre? What publisher? How are your sales?

Short answer: Plan on zero. That way you'll only get happy surprises.
 

evanaharris

Re: Prologues

Still, what are those mini-prologues called?

"Mini-prologue" sounds nice. "Interlude" sounds better. I seriously doubt there's a technical name, but I like the device.

Contact and Stand By Me are excellent stories.
 

ChunkyC

Re: Hello

My question on prologues is what do you call those italicized paragraphs that lead off an opening chapter
There's bound to be a technical name for anything, Evan. sc211, if you are referring to a short paragraph that leads off a chapter, that is sometimes a quote or other such, then it's called an 'epigraph'.
 

sc211

Re: Prologues

Thanks. I actually keep a list of possible epigraphs, I like them so much, but what I'm talking about is more like one of those voice-overs you have at the beginning of a film. Where the author or narrator steps in and says something about what's going to happen later on.

After posting, I checked David Morrell's "Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing," since I remembered him mentioning doing something similar with "First Blood":

How can I assure the reader that everything at the start is going to pay off later, that there are plenty of exciting events about to happen? In desperation, I added the following first paragraph:

His name was Rambo, and he was just some nothing kid for all anybody knew [...] Certainly you could not have guessed that by Thursday he would be running from the Kentucky National Guard and the police of six counties and a good many private citizens who liked to shoot.

Morrell writes, "This looks suspiciously like an omniscient narrator directly addressing the reader. The technique is intrusive. But for the life of me, I couldn't think of another way to start the narrative. Because it promises excitement, I got away with it.... The device is called dramatic irony - the omnicient narrator tells the reader something that a character can't possibly know, and the reader, armed with insider information, waits with interest to learn how the character will react."

That's what I want to do with a mini-prologue - to use a bit of foreshadowing to hook in the readers even before the first paragraph. To give a clue of what's going to happen, which the narrator wouldn't know in first person or limited third as the story begins. I just don't want it to look cheap, like some plastic "Read Me!" tag where one isn't needed.
 
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