Patricia J. Parsons

The beauty of a deadline… (OK, don’t shoot me!)

Posted on 30 May 201230 May 2012 by Patricia J. Parsons

A few weeks ago I picked up a book that I didn’t realize was about deadlines. Okay, I now recognize that Chris Baty’s entertaining little book No Plot? No Problem isn’t supposed to be about deadlines, but it is. Baty, the creator of the National Novel Writing Month says this in the first chapter:

Deadlines are the dynamos of the modern age. They’ve built every city, won every contest, and helped all of us to pay our taxes reasonably close to on time…a deadline is…optimism in its most ass-kicking form…a potent force… (p. 26)

…and it occurs to me that I’ve been sympathetic to this point of view for many years. Just ask my students!

A deadline changes everything about any project that you plan to implement. It moves you past the planning stage and drops you head first into the implementation phase, forcing you to consider milestones along the way. And when the deadline is imposed by an external force (like your boss or your professor or your editor) those deadlines take on even greater importance. Or do they?

I have about a dozen writing projects on the go right now. Some of them are actually academic (low on the priority list at this point in my career), some of them are creative, and some of them are strictly personal. The one project that gets done every week is my contribution to the travel blog I write with my husband. Why? Because I have a self-imposed deadline. I made a personal commitment to a certain number of posts at certain intervals when we started on this project (which will become a book in due course) last fall, and I have neither looked back nor shirked my deadlines since. The truth is that I have never missed an externally-imposed writing deadline, and now it occurs to me that when I have actually taken the time to create personal deadlines, my work has progressed faster and more efficiently than the more organic, artistic approach to work schedules that seem to be common among the ‘creatives’ of the world.

Case in point: I had almost forgotten, but a number of years ago I decided that I’d take a foray into screen-writing. I think it’s because I see plot and dialogue as a kind of film running through my head when I write narrative, so I thought I might capitalize on that tendency. I registered for a script-writing course, and set about learning the nuts and bolts of the process (not to mention learning about the paranoia that seems to run rampant through the film industry: no one wanted to share their ideas for fear of them being stolen – this never seems to happen in the world of books!). After the course was finished, I had a notion of script framework, ideas and scraps of dialogue, but not much else. So, I did what I always do, I bought a book on script-writing.

In fact, I bought several, but the one that really got me to a different level is not Robert McKee’s classic (and wonderful) book titled Story; rather it is a small book called How to Write Movie in 21 Days by Viki King. I followed her framework for getting to a finished 90-minute script in 21 days and it worked. I have the proof of it sitting in a drawer just waiting for a producer/director to snatch up Something I’m Supposed to Do. But I had not noticed that her admonitions about deadlines really got inside my head. In fact she says, “…your deadline…is your friend. Focus to reach your deadline. Make it your priority. Sleep, food and phone are secondary to the deadline…” Okay, this was published in 1988. These days she would have had to add a list of social networking sites to avoid – but I digress.

The bottom line is that if I impose a deadline on myself, I get it done. It’s time I stopped flailing about trying to get the parts of my new novel (actually novels, and articles, and blog posts) perfect, and just get them finished. There will always be time for editing later – with an editing deadline, of course!

Novelist Rita Mae Brown said: “A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.”

Book contests, Book promotion, Self-Publishing

Writers’ contests: The good, the bad & the very ugly (& a few tips)

Posted on 15 May 201215 May 2012 by Patricia J. Parsons

I opened my email the other day to find a note from the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Congratulations, it read, …your book has been named a Finalist in the GENERAL FICTION/NOVEL (Over 80,000 words) category…

Oh, I thought. What’s that? Did I enter that contest? Immediately my skeptic kicked in until I remembered, yes, I did enter this contest many months ago when I was fixated on book marketing. But now I found myself researching it again just to see if there was any legitimacy to it, and for that matter, any legitimacy to any of the contests designed to part independently and small-press published authors from their money (most have entry fees).

Grace Note Cover Paperback — An award winner? Just wish the publisher had given it a cover I like more than this one!

What’s the point of giving awards for books? It used to be – back in the day as they say – that book awards recognized truly gifted authors whose work has or is destined to make a difference. Of course, that presupposes that those judging for the awards have the capability to distinguish the very best – whatever that might be at any given point in time.

These days, however, in addition to these long-standing, prestigious awards (at least they’re prestigious in some circles), there is an absolute glut of awards and contests for writers.

The Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America posted a terrific description of awards and award scams here. They differentiate among outright scams, contest mills, award mills, fake contests etc. The list is long and very dispiriting. But why would a writer enter a contest anyway?

If your book is published by a traditional publisher, that traditional publisher just might decide to enter your book in an appropriate award contest. Or not. If your book is independently published, then watch out. You are going to be vulnerable to every possible attempt to get you to enter a contest. Why would you even consider that, anyway?

In a word: publicity. This is the promise. Your book will be read by others who might, just might, like it. Or at least they might – just might – actually read it. They might like it enough that you might win an award. And that award will mean publicity (not the New York Times kind of publicity, though).

Lots of other people have researched these contests, so I thought I’d take a slightly different tack. I hypothesized that if a book award is so credible, then the books awarded must be of high quality.

I took a random sample (albeit a convenience sample for all of you researchers out there), to get a bit of anecdotal evidence to support or discredit my thesis.

I started with the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards which bills themselves as the “World’s largest international and regional book awards competition” and selected their first-place winner in the popular fiction category, Vertical, by Rex Pickett (Loose Gravel Press — Pickett is co-owner). Surfing over to Amazon, I read inside the book, as I would do if I were at a book store trying to decide whether or not I wanted to read the book. In case you didn’t pick it up – and I certainly did not – Pickett’s first book was Sideways, which later morphed into the film Sideways. So, I read. My conclusion: I’m ordering this book. He writes in an accessible and entertaining way: this just might be my summer schlock reading for this year.

Next on my list was the Writer’s Digest Award for self-published authors. They charge $100 to enter and offer the following: chance to win $3,000 in cash, national exposure for your work, the opportunity to catch the attention of prospective editors and publishers, and a paid trip to the ever-popular Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City![1] Well, after more online research than I care to mention, I could not identify even one of their winners. I’m sure they’re listed somewhere, but I can’t seem to find them – or at least I’m not willing to do spend any more time on it. Onward!

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award is a highly visible award for self-published authors. Their prize is a publishing contract with Penguin with whom they are partnered. I selected Bill Warrington’s Last Chance: A Novel by James King which won in 2010. A multi-generational saga, the book is not really my personal cup of tea. I started to read it, and it’s as good as any “coming-of-age” “road-trip” novel, so it’s mainstream. Just not my thing. But the reader reviews on the site are really quite good. Given the number of their finalists who are published on their own Createspace, though, I have a few questions.

At this point I’m beginning to think that the high-profile of these awards really do have some substance to them. Obviously, there will always be scams, but in the grand scheme of things if you do your research, entering a contest like this just might get you what you’re looking for: recognition and a bit of publicity — a bit. But beware; there are more scams than there are legitimate contests.

I have a few suggestions to authors who are interested in entering their work in book contests:

Before doing anything, sit down and decide what your objective is. If it’s to get onto the NYT best-seller list, you might be a wee bit unrealistic. If you want publicity, it’s possible. If you’d like a bit more exposure, you’ll likely get it. At least your work will be read by someone.
Decide how much money you’re willing or able to cough up. Many of these contests, even some of the more credible, do charge for entries.
Do an online search for contests that fit your particular genre, just as you would when seeking a compatible publisher.
Select four or five that impress you the most and research them. Look at what bloggers or independent writers are saying apart from what is on the web site.
Read the contest’s web site very carefully. Look at every bit of the fine print. Then go back to the blog I linked to above from the Science Fiction Writers and check to make sure that none of the red flags are there.
Make a decision on one or two contests.
Read the entry requirements carefully.
Follow the instructions to the letter – and make sure your entry is in before the deadline.
Then wait.

Oh…it might be worthwhile to make a note of contests you enter. See my opening sentence! And what’s my conclusion about that contest? Still don’t know what to think. I’ll let you know.

[1] http://www.writersdigest.com/competitions/selfpublished

Book publishers, Self-Publishing

Holding self-published writers to account for quality

Posted on 25 Apr 2012 by Patricia J. Parsons

At the same time as I was contemplating what to do with my book that has reverted to me from a [now-defunct] publisher, I was preparing for my spring semester of teaching at MSVU.

One of the courses I’m currently teaching is related to my original area of specialization in communication: namely health communication. I’ve written a lot in that area – including some four or five books – and had included a magazine health feature writing assignment for the undergraduate students in the course (there are also some Masters-level students who will do an analysis and critique rather than write a piece). Since it’s been some years since I personally did medical feature writing, I thought that I’d update my reference materials so that I might be able to offer to the students a selection of recommended resources. To that end, I began my book search where I usually begin: Amazon. To my surprise, the up-to-date offerings are slim. Of course, that always makes me see a trade literature gap; which makes me consider how to fill that gap; which makes me wonder if I have the expertise to write such a book…but I digress.

As I made my way through the list in search of what might be a useful book, I came upon one titled Popular Health & Medical Writing for Magazines. I thought, well, that sounds just like what the students might need, so I ordered a copy to review it. I evidently was remiss in my usual vetting of online book offerings.

I usually “look inside” reviewing the title page, table of contents, copyright page to see who published it and author bio to check for credentials. I failed in my due diligence. Published by iUniverse, the book turns out to be one of many (and I do mean many) books that this author has self-published. Now, I’d be the last one to dismiss a book simply because it was self-published – many very worthy books have been published by the authors themselves over the years and I have dabbled in it myself as I’ve revealed in earlier posts – but when I began to look closely at the credentials of this “popular science journalist” (as per the book description and her web site which I have sadly subsequently perused), I was hard-pressed to find those credentials that would lead me to recommend her work.

Her other books include such things as How to write plays, monologues, or skits from life stories, social issues, current events: For all ages, How to start personal history and genealogy journalism businesses: Genealogy course templates…, Creating family newsletters and time capsules: How to publish multi-media genealogy periodicals or gift booklets, and Middle eastern honor killings in the USA (a novel, I believe), among many others. In fact, at the top of the author’s web site it says that she has published 80 paperback books, and half way down the front page it says 65+. Okay, I guess that could mean 80. Hmm…

I have no quibble with writers having wide interests – I suffer from that myself, so can identify – but I think that there needs to be some area of expertise that can be identified if we look closely. And for someone to be writing a book about how to write health and medical pieces for popular media – well, let’s just say that I expect to be able to see that they have a grasp both of medical science and of journalism. That was not evident – and I’m very sad to report that the self-published book that I paid for is bewildering at best.

Why I didn’t look at the first chapter title and get a clue is beyond me: “Making medical language specialists; Turning medical transcribers into medical writers and editors.” The idea that all you need to be a medical writer or editor is to have experience as a transcriptionist made me see red. Then sandwiched between a chapter titled “What to emphasize in medical writing…” and “Writing the self-help article” is a chapter titled “Writing about DNA and gene hunters.” This made me begin to question both the framework and the agenda of the book. Then the last chapter in this medical writing primer puzzled me even more: “Medical writing about pets: Care, food, travel, adventures, history, genres…” What the h***?

So, I decided to actually read the book. If I thought that the framework didn’t make a lot of sense, the individual chapters had something of a flight of ideas as well. Then when I came upon this particular piece of advice: “…medical writers can also sell (or represent) the product discussed in the research and writing…” I slammed the book shut, realizing that there was a serious dearth of ethical considerations among the pearls of wisdom. This led me to consider the following question: Should I write a review on Amazon to save other bona fide budding medical writers from buying this book? Or should I just let it go?

I had a sense that I didn’t want to hurt the writer’s feelings. Where did that thought come from? If self-publishing is to be thought of as a legitimate route to authorship, then writers need to be held to the same standards and measured by the same yardsticks as those published via the more traditional routes. In these days of “everyone is a writer” and “everyone is a publisher” we do need some quality controls and if writers themselves are not prepared to do this, then writing and publishing is doomed to mediocrity or worse.

Clearly, the self-publishing model as it stands now is in serious need of reconsideration. The problem is that the really well-written and edited self-published books do hold their own against anything that a more traditional publisher can produce. Sadly, there is no way to figure this out unless you do what I did – and you buy it. By then it’s too late.

So, it’s back to the drawing board to find another book for my students.