Learn Writing with Uncle Jim, Volume 2

James D. Macdonald

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Ms. Gardner seems to represent romance and non-fiction. Maybe that's the way it is over in romancelandia.

I note that several of her clients have Youtube videos. I note that none of them (of the ones I checked) were uploaded before the author had a book for sale.
 

jinkang

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OK, since there is a couple of people interested, I have scheduled my demise for June 3, 3031, the day I pay my credit cards off. How about the 4th of June 3031 for our meeting. Anyone already have a conflict?

On a serious note, there is a short video advertising a way to help eliminate breast cancer while getting to wear some cool clothes. Please click and then surf over. You are going to wear a shirt anyway. This just prolongs laundry for another day. (sorry to derail this discussion. my bad.)

Hmm... I think my mortgage will need another 100 years.

By the way, I'm hearing a lot about Skip-Enders campaign nowadays...and the movie isn't coming out until November!

Regardless of the reasoning behind the campaign, I wonder if such a negative publicity is a good thing (as in any publicity is a good publicity)
 

allenparker

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I don't believe that any publicity is good publicity.

But I don't believe this campaign will have any effect, either.


If one person stands up and says they bought my book and hated it, I would be concerned.

If one million people stand up and say they bought my book and they hated it, I would celebrate.

Not the same, but you can see the point.
 

PandaMan

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If one person stands up and says they bought my book and hated it, I would be concerned.

If one million people stand up and say they bought my book and they hated it, I would celebrate.

Not the same, but you can see the point.


What would be even better is if another million bought your book and adamantly loved it, and the media latched onto the controversy for ages and ages. You'd become a household name ($$$$$$$) my friend.
 

James D. Macdonald

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Why fact-checking is important; or, we all need copy editors:

Alas, Stephen King!

I'll never forget the botched opening lines of A. E. Van Vogt -- a German science fiction writer, long dead, who liked to effuse a little bit. His book Slan was actually the basis of the Alien films -- they basically stole them to do that, and ended up paying his estate some money -- but he was just a terrible, terrible writer.
Opinions on Van Vogt's writing may differ (though he was immensely popular at the time), but facts ... don't.

1) Van Vogt was Canadian.
2) Slan does not resemble the Alien films in any way whatever.
3) His estate didn't sue.

The Van Vogt story was "The Black Destroyer," which later became part of a fix-up novel, The Voyage of the Space Beagle. His estate didn't sue because Van Vogt himself was still alive--he did sue and settled out of court.
 
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PandaMan

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Why fact-checking is important; or, we all need copy editors:

Alas, Steven King!



Opinions on Van Vogt's writing may differ (though he was immensely popular at the time), but facts ... don't.

1) Van Vogt was Canadian.
2) Slan does not resemble the Alien films in any way whatever.
3) His estate didn't sue.

The Van Vogt story was "The Black Destroyer," which later became part of a fix-up novel, The Voyage of the Space Beagle. His estate didn't sue because Van Vogt himself was still alive--he did sue and settled out of court.

Poorly researched and poorly edited to boot.

He's a basically a drifter, someone on the outskirts, someone who's going to steal and filch to get by.


Don't they have editors anymore at these magazines?
 

James D. Macdonald

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Originally published elsewhere at AW:

Okay, time to talk about what packagers are and how they work.

You know those annoying people at conventions who come up to you and say, "I have a great idea for a book! You write it and we'll split the money!"

That's what packagers do.

Except that packagers really do have an idea, and there really is money, and the book really will be published.

Packagers approach publishers with (wait for it) packages of cover art, fully edited text, and a guaranteed delivery schedule. All the publisher needs to do it put their logo on it, print, and distribute it. These are often, but not always, series. So the publisher knows that they can have a new book every month for six months or a year, usually under the same author name, and not have to worry about authors being late and throwing the entire schedule out of whack.

After the packager sells a package to a publisher, then they go out and find writers (who can write fast to specification) and cover artists (who can paint fast). The publisher gives the packager the same advance that they'd give some other book of the same kind -- call it $5K/title -- and pays the same royalties -- call it 10% of cover. The packager gives half of each to the actual author, and keeps the rest. So the author gets a $2.5K advance and 5% royalties.

What the author also gets is a "bible" for the series, which can be surprisingly slight. The author often gets to come up with their own outline for their book, though it will have to be approved by the packager. Deadlines can be quite tight. Six months is common, though I've seen twenty days (that was an odd case, where the editor at the packager who was supposed to assign the titles to authors went on maternity leave, and it fell through the cracks). Six authors working on six books for six months gives you six books for next year.

Suppose that concept that they sell is a series called Chess Camp by "Brixton Mays." The pitch: "Teens learn about life, love, and the Nimzo-Indian Defense at Chess Camp!"

HarperCollins thinks this is a swell idea, and buys a six-book series, to be published two years from now (which is the schedule they're working on this morning). The packager rounds up six authors--often writers who they've worked with before and know can reliably turn in a professional-level manuscript on time and on length, or sometimes newcomers who have published a few stories in magazines or anthologies (and thus are known to be able to write on a professional level), and look like they might be hungry. This is work-for-hire; the copyright is in the packager's name.

Each author gets assigned one particular chess gambit, and some one-page character sheets detailing the kids who are at Chess Camp. Say Roxie Romaine (writing as Brixton Mays) gets the first volume: The Four Knights Game. The characters she has to work with are Chrissy, a sassy black teen from inner-city Detroit, her goal is to go to New York and become a model; Franz, the stoic German, blond, who keeps his feelings under wraps; Genevieve, the redheaded hippy-dippy back-to-nature free spirit who finds the discipline of Chess Camp doesn't fit with her life-style; and brown-haired Claude, the studious, brilliant, but achingly lonely child whose father insisted that he come to Chess Camp even though his heart is really in woodwinds. Chess Camp, set high in the Berkshires, has a staff of world-champion chess players, led by Madame Zughoff, whose crusty exterior hides a heart of custard.

We need 80,000 words. Go, young writer!

This doesn't save the publisher any money -- they're paying the same advance they'd pay to a first-time author, and paying the same royalties. But it does save them the hassle of finding the books to keep their pipelines full while waiting for works of heartstopping beauty to come in from agents or over the transom. They only need to send one royalty report, and they only need to deal with one person. What they're buying is ease, reliability, and scheduling.

Suppose, then, that some other writer comes up with a brilliant idea about four teens who learn to play chess together. That book isn't going to get bought, because it's too similar to something they've already got in the pipeline.

The odds that the editor who bought the packaged series and the editor who saw the author's submission are the same person are small. The odds that the packager saw the author's submitted story before pitching the series are smaller still. That the actual author had seen the other author's work the odds are essentially nil. The authors working for the packager are lucky if they see the manuscripts of the other authors working on the same series they are.

In the current case, the one who came up with the concept for the series was undoubtedly the packager. How long they'd been shopping the series around I'm sure they could prove from correspondence.
 

FOTSGreg

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Hey, Uncle Jim - did they base the 1950s movie about the ship that picks up a critter on Mars that gets loose and tries to kill everybody onboard on Van Vogt's story too? I've always thought the similarities between that movie and Alien was a little too close to just be parallels.
 

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There is indeed.

I think they must have derived a good bit of the script for It! The Terror From Beyond Space (had to research the name of the thing even though I've watched it at least half a dozen times) from Voyage of The Space Beagle. There are so many precursors to Alien in the film as well.

It's a fairly tight plot, clocking in at around 70 minutes according to online sources - ship picks of crash survivor of previous expedition to Mars (plus an unknown passenger). Ship heads back home and crew members start disappearing. Source of disappearance revealed to be an alien "monster". Crew fights to survive.

Samuel Arkoff produced and the effects are pretty darned good for their day. Lots of little tropes and details thrown in. Like I said, the plot's actually pretty tight (as in, if there's a gun shown, it's used later on, they mention a slight weight discrepancy when they're taking off and that comes into play with the monster, etc.).

Looking back on it, that script might not be a bad one to look at for plotting a tight little story set almost anywhere.
 

James D. Macdonald

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Back to packaging for a moment: From Varieties of insanity known to affect authors we find this item:

Picking up a quickie work-for-hire gig writing a media tie-in novel isn’t going to affect my productivity on the ongoing series I have under contract at another house.

Also, this (archived by the Wayback Machine) dealing with the bizarre intrusion of packaging into the Kaavya Viswanathan scandal.
 

Komnena

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I finally finished a very rough draft. It came in at a bit more than 61,000 words. I think I need to add more stuff.
 

RussPostHoc

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Huh. I'd always heard that "with an army" bit as the difference between a cult and a religion. You learn something new every day.
 

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Hey everyone - I'm not in AW as often as I'd like, but I hope you don't mind me poking my head into the AW/LWWUJ thread for just a moment to tell you a story?

You see, I have a good friend who gives me advice on writing, and on being a professional writer, and on how to not hide under my couch when the going gets squirrelly. This friend has provided insights general and specific on plot and character. He's told me when I'm writing about the wrong characters (still working on that story), and when I've actually stuck my landing. He's given of his time to make this carefree writer's life a little less laced with boils and pits of despair. And he doesn't mind repeating a point until I learn it (ie the everloving difference between further and farther.). He's dared me to try things I thought impossible, and he's cheered for me when I managed them.

I'm grateful in quiet ways often, but I came in here to tell you this story for a couple of reasons. Because, first, he's doing the same thing for everyone who ventures into this corner of AW. And second, because I just sold a story to one of my dream markets. Time to thank my mentors.

So, Uncle Jim, thank you again and again. Your generosity, support, and friendship is invaluable. What you do here at AW impacts people in ways you might not know about. What you and the faculty and staff do at Viable Paradise has a ripple effect.

There, I've embarrassed him enough. For now.

Thanks for listening.
 

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Suss, he is a good friend to many of us, even the ones he hasn't met, couldn't pick out of a lineup, or doesn't even know our names.

The mark of a true friend is someone who makes his mark on your life before he even knows who you are. just a thought...
 

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Suss, he is a good friend to many of us, even the ones he hasn't met, couldn't pick out of a lineup, or doesn't even know our names.

The mark of a true friend is someone who makes his mark on your life before he even knows who you are. just a thought...

I second that motion. Uncle Jim has had a big impact on my motivation to keep writing. This thread contains more kernels of truth on the nuts and bolts of writing than any writing course you could ever take.

The drinks are on me. Cheers.
 
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Ta-Nehisi Coates said English is "a dialect with an army."

In any case, it's what I speak, so I figure I might get some tips on what to do with it here. Thanks for opining.

That's a classic definition of any language. It's got a whole Wikipedia entry.


Just popping in to say "dialects, and linguistic jokes, they are awesome."



Also, congrats on the sale suss. :partyguy: