Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 1

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James D. Macdonald

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That's pretty much it, Mark. A book that isn't written is never sold and never read.


============

Pretty soon now I'm going to drop back to Page 105 and look at some more of those samples, to see what the authors were doing.
 

azbikergirl

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What would your advice be to a writer who has two novels vying for BIC time?

One is a SF, the other's a fantasy. The SF is one I've been wanting to write for years and only now am finding the words for. The fantasy just started coming out. Because the two stories are so different, trying to write both is leaving me feeling a bit scattered. I'd ditch the fantasy (for now) and work on the SF, except that I'd started posting the fantasy for my crit group, and apparently the critters like it and want me to keep going. I want to write it, and it's coming out more easily than the SF story, but I'm more drawn to the SF story right now, intellectually and emotionally.

:Headbang: (why is this happening?!)
 

James D. Macdonald

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I'd BIC 'em alternately. Or two days on one, then one day on the other. When it's your BIC time, just open up your wordprocessor and see how you feel right then. What's the top thought in your mind?

Sometimes having two on the fire helps both.
 

bag

Book Publishing Stats

UJ or anyone with a good source...
Where do you go to find information on stats/trends in publishing ? I've used Bookwire.com but would like any other suggestions.
Thanks.
 

zornhau

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For what it's worth, here are some comments from my beta reader. I've chosen him with great care, and in the opening stages, was very careful to made sure he understood that I really was after honest feedback.



He's well versed in my chosen genre, likes my ideas, but understands that the best way to be supportive is to point out the holes! It also helps that his knowledge fills some of the gaps in mine....
this chaper was seriously NOT work safe .... pity I'm finding that out this morning! :eek:)

this read well with good pace - will need to go over it again as a lot to take in but here are my first thoughts.
hope some of the below helps - if the MG stuff is/are too complicated for a medievalist like yourself :eek:p let me know :eek:)

typo: The Tolmecs half-edged, hald tumbled down the pyramids steps

goat-abusing translation bit - Ranulph too quick and sure of plot device (like the author told him in advance :eek:). How about the following with more uncertainty ie
Lord Obsidian-Death's eyes narrowed. "You have more than one language?" he asked, still in Western.
"Yes....." then as a thought hammered into his skull, Ranulph took a chance, '...you goat-abusing mother-fc*ker," he finished in Northern.
Lord Obsidian-Death's expression didn't change. Evidently his magic had limits and seemed to give him master of just one at a time or perhaps just western. That could be vital to their survival.


30mm isn't a machine gun!!!!!!!! thats the calibre the USAF's A10 warthog uses to kill tanks!
12.7/15mm would be better for AA/general purpose. these would be similar to the Mg's you see on top of a modern tank ie a heavy machine gun

american M2 50 calibre - one round will blow a human body apart!
Builder: Saco Defense
Numerous manufacturers originally produced the M2 Heavy Machine Gun.
Length: 61.42 inches (156 centimeters)
Weight:
Gun: 84 pounds (38 kilograms)
M3 Tripod (Complete): 44 pounds (19.98 kilograms)
Total: 128 pounds (58 kilograms)
Bore diameter: .50 inches (12.7mm)
Maximum effective range: 2000 meters with tripod mount
Maximum range: 4.22 miles (6.8 kilometers)
Maximum effective range: is 1,830 meters
Cyclic rate of fire: 550 rounds per minute BUT CANNOT FIRE SUSTAINED - you cant hose it!!!!!!!!!
Unit Replacement Cost: $14,002


[SNIP: MORE SPECS FOR MGs HERE]

Rate of fire of a 30mm would be pants ie about 50rounds a minute, ammo would weigh a ton literally.
30mm ground attack cannon loaded with HE makes sense but would point straight down through the floor probably pointing sternwards (not in a turret) so not need travese blocks. also wouldn't be useable in Jasmines position due to back blast.

also where did they get millimeters from?

 

azbikergirl

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I have two beta readers whose input is crucial. One is a detail-oriented grammar guru with an ear for rhythm. She also has a head for logic ("how can this happen when that hasn't happened yet?"), and is visually oriented (I tend to 'forget' to set the scene). The other reads deeply and picks out all the subtle things I try to put into the story. She has an amazing ability to understand what I want to do with a scene and point out the places where I need to rework it.
 

Dawno

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James D. Macdonald said:
Someone else once said that the ideal beta reader is a highly intelligent but dirty-minded twelve-year-old.


I'll see what I can do about reading via my "inner child" :)

Thanks Zornhau and Azbikergirl, I want to do a good job as a beta reader, it helps to hear your input, too.
 

Mike Martyn

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I'm puting my first ms in final form. I recall earlier in this post that Uncle Jim put up some submission guidelines ie; put the title half way down the first page, put name, title and page number on the top right hand corner etc. I can't find that post. Could anyone direct me to it?

And yes Uncle Jim your a helluva guy.

I'm not nearly as eloquent as Mark!
 

Ardellis

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Wow! I've now read this thread all the way from the beginning, and I feel as though I've been sitting in on a really good class.
It's been said dozens of times already, but THANK YOU, UNCLE JIM! And everyone else, too!
 

Dick Eney

QUOTE=James D Macdonald]
After I've done two hours of writing, there's a solid 22 more hours in the day for revising other material.

Uncle Jim, you sound like you've been trained by Admiral Tirpitz: "If 24 hours isn't a long enough day for you, put on a night shift!"

-- Dick Eney
 

Ken Schneider

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Okay, now...

I've been sitting on my last book for a couple months. I started another.

I know I should print it out, and have.

Sent it out to Beta's. Dawno, if it stinks, tell me. She's the only one who hasn't replied yet.

I assume it is time to do a re-write?

I still haven't written a query letter. I'll research that here, I know there are post concerning queries.

What if I don't know all the things I need to know to re-write-right. I'll loose before I begin because of my minimal knowledge.

Do I just do the best I can and ship it out?

I am humble and honest in that I know I don't know enough yet to garner an offer to publish.

I might,(or most likely) will make a fool of myself when I submit.

Yes, I know I have a few skills where my story telling is concerned.

Proper sentence structure,keeping with the right pov, and other worries haunt me.

Do I just go for it, keep plugging away until one day when the light gets through the ear wax and I have an ah-ha moment.

I feel like leaving it in the drawer and writing another and another until I am confident in my abilities.

About to waste postage in Ohio.
 

James D. Macdonald

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The question is probably going to come up, so I might as well explain it now.

When a normal publisher publishes a book, and it's offered for sale through bookstores, that book isn't really sold until it goes out the door under a customer's arm. The other books are returned, to make way for still newer releases.

So ... how does the publisher handle paying royalties when the publisher doesn't know how many will come back to the warehouse?

This is handled with a process called "reserve against returns." The reserve is the number that you don't get paid for, just in case they come back.

Publishers don't tell you exactly what their reserves are -- but as it happens I know at least one publisher uses this formula:

The first royalty period after the book is released, the reserve against returns is 100%. Maybe they printed 30,000 copies, and maybe bookstores ordered 20,000 of them -- but they aren't going to cut a check to you for royalties on 20,000 copies. They assume that ever single one of them will be returned.

Let's say that royalty months are April and November (which again is pretty standard). Let's say the book came out in July, that the cover price is $10, and the royalty rate is 10%. And let's say the author get a $5,000 advance against 10%. (I'm choosing these numbers for ease of math, not because they're necessarily real.)

And let's say that 10,000 copies sold (actually went out the door with customers, 50% sell-through) of the 20,000 that shipped.

Right, then.

Comes November, and those 10,000 copies would be a $5,000 check for Joe Author ($10,000 in royalties minus the $5,000 advance) but he gets a royalty statement showing $0.00 due, because of the reserve against returns.

At this particular publisher the reserve against returns is 100% in the first royalty period, and 75% in the second. And let's say that another 5,000 copies of Joe's book sold in the six months from November through April. So ... Joe would have $15K coming, but .... reserve against returns is 75%, so only $3,750 is credited to him. Subtract that from the advance, and his royalty statement says that he still has $1,250 in unearned advance.

From May through October, books get returned by one bookstore, ordered by another, and an additional 5,000 that have gone out the bookstore door in a shopping bag.

Total actually sold, to date: 20,000. This time around the publisher's reserve against returns is 25%. 25% of 20,000 is 5,000 books. So the publisher only reports a total to date of 15,000 sold, for total royalties of $15,000, minus the $3,750 already credited to him, minus the $1,250 in unearned advance, so Joe gets a check for $10,000. Happy day! He's earned out!

Now in the fourth royalty period after the book came out, the reserve against returns is 0%. Books have gone out, been returned, been redistributed, sold, and another 5,000 have been bought and paid for by readers.

So far: 25,000 sold. Royalties due, $25,000. Finally, we've gotten out from under the dead horse. In April two years after his book came out, Joe Author gets paid $25,000 minus the $10,000 he was already paid, for a nice $15,000 royalty check.

After this, the reserve against returns continues at 0% -- if 5,000 books ship during those six months, the publisher pays royalties for 5,000. (And by this point they have a pretty fair idea of how many will sell, because they have a history, and at this point, with 25,000 sold out of an initial press run of 30,000 they'll probably have gone back to press. Do you know what a 100% sell-through means? It means the publisher didn't print enough copies.)

So, reserve against returns at this one publisher: 100%, 75%, 25%, 0%. It takes you two solid years to get to the place where you're getting royalties as they happen. Normally, since you got an advance, this isn't that major a problem. You're living off the advance while the reserve against returns is catching up. It protects the publisher, and you do want to protect the publisher: If they stay in business that means they'll buy more of your books.

(Among other unrealistic things in this story: I set the advance low for a book that was going to sell those numbers. I wanted to show a book earning out because I'm a sucker for happy endings.)
 

MystiAnne

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In my opinion, if you don't LOVE that book, don't send it out! It's great that you are clear about the fact that some of your skills are in place (and be proud of them!), but when you say things like "proper sentence structure and POV" are still a concern, it seems likely that you have some more learning to do. A very few writers are overly critical of their abilities. But I also believe new writers have to be BETTER than average to get attention of publishers. Anyway, best of luck with all your writing!

My first novel is as yet unpublished, but I've done a ton of writing and have worked hard on my basics while honing my storytelling craft, and there is a point where you can see the difference in your own work.

Listen to the helpful inner voice, not the mean one ;)

Good LUCK!

Mysti Berry
P.S. You can find online versions of my first published work (Todd Point Review) here:
http://www.mcwc.org/05_winners.htm You'll see that I can use some improvement in manipulating point of view to make the story sharper too...
 

James D. Macdonald

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Hardcover novels don't go above $28.00, generally speaking, because the public won't buy them. Not even from authors they know and like. Because the public won't buy them, the bookstores won't stock them. The bookstores will fill that same rack space with a book that will sell.

A newer author with a long book -- won't get bought, generally, if the printing costs for the print run that a new author is likely to get would push the retail price above $28.00. Grisham can do it because his books sell well enough that the publisher can print a ton and a half of them, and push the per-unit printing price down.

(How far down? Far enough down that the bookstore can get the book at a 65% discount, and the publisher can still make money. That's how you see Times Best Sellers in bookstores discounted by 50%, and the bookstore still makes money. Don't worry about Grisham, though -- he's still getting his royalty based on the whole $27.95 cover price.)

There's the genius exception: Susanna Clarke's debut novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, is a hefty 800 pages. Notice, please, that the cover price is $27.95. Notice too that Bloomsbury marketed the heck out of that novel, in an attempt to ship as many copies as they had printed, because they had to print a heck of a lot to make that price. Notice also that Ms. Clarke's book, in trade paperback, is listing at $15.95.

Why $15.95?

While it isn't as fixed at rule as $28.00 among hardcover novels, the equivalent price among trade paperbacks is $16.00. Customers leave the more expensive books right on the shelf. Even from authors they know and like.

Don't forget that the cover price and the cash register price of books is often different -- and the latter is usually quite a bit lower than the former.
 

James D. Macdonald

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Do I just go for it, keep plugging away until one day when the light gets through the ear wax and I have an ah-ha moment.

Yes, Ken, go for it. Write the book as well as you can. Keep learning! Read other writers, see how they solved the problems that you're facing in your own writing.

Read other authors with your writer mind. You'll be reading, not for plot and story, but for the mechanics of that plot and story. "Nice save!" you'll say to yourself. "Ohhh.... that was tricky!" you'll say somewhere else. "Gee, you flubbed that; real clumsy" you'll say elsewhere. Writers read other writers with different eyes than do regular readers. That's why you need beta readers -- who aren't writers themselves.

That's why the Nebula Awards (given by writers to writers) seldom select the same winners as the Hugo awards (given by readers to writers).
 

James D. Macdonald

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On the subject of when to send the novel out:

Once you've made it as good as you can make it -- send it out. Start high and work down.

How else will you ever know that you've reached a publishable level of writing? More: It will get you used to the next part of the process, the endless submission and rejection cycle. The first time is horrid. The twentieth time is "So what?"

Once again, let me recommend The Unstrung Harp; or, Mr. Earbrass Writes A Novel. That short book contains the real truth about publishing.
 

Nangleator

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I've been polishing my turd for a few years now, and my beta readers agree it's more than good enough. Unfortunately, I tried sending it out before it was polished and now I'm wondering how big a mistake I've made.

If an editor sees a new version of a story he didn't like before, how predisposed is he to reject?

How likely is it that any offer would be lessened if the editor saw a naked, ugly form of the novel? (That sounds like a silly question, but I don't imagine any first novels that earned big advances were shopped around in incrementally improved forms for years.)
 

James D. Macdonald

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Lessee....

We're talking about a novel here, right?

You've made significant changes, right?

If it's been years, the same editor may not even be there any more.

Just be up front in your cover letter, and don't worry too much. What really matters is the words on the page. Meanwhile start work on your next novel.
 
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