James Moore

RETURN TO THE STORYTELLERS HOMEPAGE

I’m going to go over one of my favorite subjects yet again. Oh, we’ve visited here before, you and I, assuming of course that you bother to read what I write here. Still, some places need to be seen more than once, don’t they? Some subjects seem to need a fresh viewing from time to time.

Not all that long ago a few of my peers were talking about one of the big boys. Mostly what they had to say was pleasant enough. A few people seemed puzzled by the gent’s actions, but not shocked. The person in question had turned them down for blurbs.

Yes, you in the back with your hand held high? ‘What’s a blurb?’ A blurb is that little sentence or two that writers ask their peers and those they admire or envy to give to them regarding their latest books. Just what their value is seems to be a very serious question to a lot of people, but the basic notion is that these little quotes could potentially help sell books. As a point of fact I’m exceedingly fond of selling books, so I recommend that if you can get blurbs, you do so.

Now, I’d like to put this into perspective if I may. If we work under the assumption that the level of popularity and sales attained is a quantifiable issue, and we then work under the belief that this issue can be studied and used to our advantage, then it’s safe to assume that someone like Stephen King, Dean Koontz or J.K. Rowling are likely to get substantially more requests for blurbs than someone like yours truly. Why? Because they are household names. True, not every person on the planet knows who they are, but millions do and that says something substantial. Thousands might know who the hell I am, which means that using the earlier assumptions, the aforementioned authors probably get (to keep with my so far scintillating numerical analogy) butt loads more requests for blurbs than I do. I get enough that I have to regretfully turn down far more than I can accept. It’s become a necessity. I have to write, you see, and I have a day job, and a family and, well, a life. I can’t spend all of my time reading, much as I might want to, and I insist on actually READING anything I might be asked to blurb. Damned rude of me, I know, but there it is. My point here being that the folks who do the asking of some of the bigger names run the same risk of getting a “so sorry, no time right now” as anyone else.

But I digress (maybe). We were talking about politics.

Oh, now I remember.

I made a comment amidst the very small and private group. I pointed out that I was fairly certain the author they were discussing pretty much didn’t like me. A few others clarified who they knew that this author likes and doesn’t like.

And here we go. According to most sources, there is only one other writer that this particular writer actively dislikes. Examples were given. I nodded and listened.

Now, I bet a few of you are annoyed with me because I haven’t mentioned a single name regarding this conversation. In fact the only names I’ve mentioned at all were three that I used to show the difference in magnitudes between my success and that of authors who have become “name brands.”

Guess what? That’s the best you’re going to get out of me.

Why?

Politics.

I don’t like them. I never have. They merely make things murkier than they need to be. I may not like an author. An author may not like me. It doesn’t matter. We don’t have to collaborate on a novel any time soon and even if we did, I think the professionals would set aside egos and differences long enough to get the job done.

See? There I go again, pointing out that this is my job. My career. Like that should make any difference at all.

It does, of course. I’m in it, as the saying goes, to win it. Yes, I love writing. Yes, I would still write if I never sold another piece. I will, however, do my damnedest to sell every piece that I write, or barring that, I’ll figure out why I couldn’t sell it. Just like other professional writers do. Just like comic artists and actors and even the occasional poet does. It’s called professionalism.

There are probably a lot of people who can say things about my writing that are negative. Hell, a lot of them already have and unless a miracle occurs, a good number more will in the future. There are a lot of folks who could probably debate my personal grooming habits and whether or not my deodorant fails in the height of the summer should they be bored enough.

Most of the time, however, what they can’t legitimately accuse me of is saying anything nasty about my peers. (Hey, I’m not a saint. I’ve slipped up a few times).

Why? Because I’m a nice guy? Well, I am, but that isn’t the point. The point is I keep my mouth shut. If I have a problem with someone, I take it up with that person alone and in private. I don’t post it on a bulletin board, nor do I email a few thousand of my closest friends and then wonder how it is that someone mysteriously heard words I would have never said in front of them.

It doesn’t take much for a simple comment to get blown way the hell out of proportion. No, I’m not pointing fingers here, I’m just reflecting on something my mother once told me. Something I’ve tried to keep close to my heart ever since I got old enough to understand politics.

She said “the wisest person at a party is the one who keeps his opinions to himself.”

Think back on the last four cases of serious drama at work or amongst your peers and see if you can disagree with that.

It’s called professionalism.

How do I know that the big name author doesn’t much like me?

He made it clear on a phone message that I wasn’t supposed to hear.

I heard it.

I deleted it.

The person who was supposed to hear it never heard it, by the way. That person would have been embarrassed and put into an awkward situation.

No harm. No foul. No arguments.

Just that simple.

I know that certain friends of mine do not like others. I know that certain editors I deal with don’t much like certain writers and vice versa. It doesn’t matter. I know it. That knowledge does not change my dealings with the individuals in question. When I am around that big name who could take or leave me, I give no indication that I overheard something I was never meant to hear, because it’s no one’s business but my own and I intend to keep it that way. There’s no reason to make two peers of mine feel the least bit awkward over a tidbit I was never meant to hear. It serves no agenda that is worthwhile and it most certainly wouldn’t get me a blurb from said author. Okay, neither does NOT spreading that news around but that isn’t the point, now is it?

Politics suck. They don’t help your career and if they do, you’d do well to remember that political climates change all the time.

Just something to consider before you open your mouth at a convention, or make a post on a bulletin board, or say something to a casual acquaintance at a book signing.

James A. Moore

What is love?

 

So, we’re a couple of days away from Valentine’s Day, that celebration of all things romantic.  Personally, I’ve always been rather fond of the occasion, at least as long as I have a significant other. Without that, the whole thing stinks on ice.

 

But that’s neither here nor there. This is an essay about writing, after all. How do we, as writers, define love, and how important is it to the stories we write? That’s what I’m here to jabber about.

 

Love is a motivating factor in real life and at least as often in fiction. I’d dare say that aside from money/power it is the number one motivational tool used by writers. Whether the story is a tale of revenge or a gothic romance, love is a contributor to the end results.

 

Let’s go over a few examples, and here I’ll likely lean on my knowledge of comic books and pop culture, just because I’m in that sort of mood.

 

Love is the number one cause of superheroes in the DC and Marvel

universes. Seriously. I wouldn’t joke about a thing like that.

 

First, let’s look at Superman. He fights for truth, justice and the American way because he was raised in the heartlands and taught by his parents to treat the people around him and the world at large with respect. He defends the earth instead of trying to conquer it primarily because of love for his parents and the people he was raised with. And now, of course, because of his love of Metropolis and Lois Lane.

 

Spider Man pretty much does it for the same reason. Well, that and guilt caused by letting the man who raised him, a man he loved, get murdered when he could have stopped the killer before the death occurred. “With great power comes great responsibility,” and with guilt comes a web covered costume.

 

The Punisher? He fights for revenge against  the criminal underworld that murdered his loved ones. They were collateral damage in a mob feud. Love leads us to vengeance.

 

Another slightly less homicidal version of that very formula takes to the night time skies in Gotham City in the form of the Batman. Bruce Wayne’s family was murdered before his eyes and the rage he felt, the helplessness he felt, have been the guiding reasons for cleaning up the town ever since.

 

The point is that love as a motivating factor is pretty intense stuff. In one form or another, by one cause or another, love works its way into damned near every tale there is to tell.

 

I’m not arguing semantics. I realize that there are other points to most tales. Hell, with the exception of one review that claimed I had a pretty good love story going in BLOOD RED, I can hardly be accused of being a romance writer. But behind every hero and a good number of the villains, the four letter word can be found pushing and prodding characters into directions they might not take otherwise. I don’t just mean in my own work, but in the vast majority of the works out there. Either as a motivator or as the crippling curse that has altered entire life paths. Look at Ebenezer Scrooge for a moment. Back in his youth he had a chance to marry and he pushed it aside to pursue material wealth. Why? Because he wanted to prove himself worthy of the very woman he cast aside in his ambitions. Hardly the love story for the ages, granted, but an excellent example of how love inspired his decisions and brought about his moral ruination.

 

Of course, romances cover their own spectrum regarding love as motivation, but as I am not, in fact, a romance writer or much of a romance reader, I’ll leave that mostly alone.

 

Mostly. Gothic romances have a special place in my heart, primarily because it’s love gone wrong that inspires most of the tales. Be it unrequited love or lost love, the Gothic romance often has one or another of our star struck lovers who is, in fact, in love with a third party. Just thinking of the potential for chaos along those lines warms the cockles of my cold soul.

 

Because it’s love gone wrong that gives us easily half of our villains, isn’t it? Be it love destroyed by happenstance—Frank Herbert’s THE WHITE PLAGUE is a stunning example of revenge for a love lost—or love unreturned, the darkness of the soul festers beautifully when left without love to balance out sorrow and pain.

 

Using my own work as an example again (and believe it or not, I genuinely hate using my own work, but digging up sources at this time of night is unholy effort that I can ill afford)I’ll point to a recurring villain, Albert Miles. Albert seems perfectly nice and downright pleasant to most people, but that didn’t stop him from laying out a particularly savage curse on the town of Serenity Falls. The curse took almost three hundred years to bring to fruition and he had to learn sorcery before he could even start throwing down the negative mojo, but he was glad to do all of that as payback for the people of the town killing his wife after accusing her of witchcraft.

 

On the other end of the spectrum my forthcoming Vendetta deals with revenge again, this time from the good guy’s perspective as Jonathan Crowley, a normally detached individual, goes on the hunt for the creature that murdered his family and made him watch their deaths. To be kind, the murders have left Mr. Crowley rather scarred.

 

In both cases, it’s the loss of love that is the deciding factor, not only in how the characters act throughout the story, but how they act in general. Love isn’t just a blessing or a curse, my fellow writers, it’s a tool to use for the purpose of shaping your tales. Like every emotional response, it can and often does alter a tale drastically when it’s added into the equation, just as it does in life.

 

 

Just a little thought for your consideration.

Have a wonderful and happy Valentine’s Day!

 

James A. Moore

 

Hardback vs Mass Market (pick a format, any format)

First, Happy New Year! May your year be prosperous, bring you good health and many reasons to smile.

Second, ow. Man, I learned an important lesson with that last article: namely, I learned that I should try to remember to sleep now and then and not write these on the 11th when they post on the 12th and I am sleep deprived. Sorry for the calamity. There actually was a point to that ramble, by the way, which was basically that you should be prepared to cover your own butt copyright wise as in the long run it’s your copyright, and that the market is in a state of flux that is more drastic than usual.

Having said all of that, let’s get back to basics for a moment, shall we? Let’s look at the format your work might show up in, the pros and the cons. Keep in mind, as always, that these are primarily my impressions and may or may not actually do you the least bit of good.

One of the biggest questions out there is what sort of market you should aim for. My answer: a paying one. Yes, that makes me a mercenary. It also makes me a businessman. Of course, after that initial answer there are a few others. For example you could also answer “any market that will publish me” and you wouldn’t be too far off. There are a lot of different variables.
Read more…

So, here  it is, another month gone by. It’s been an interesting month for me, too. First, there’s a new short story of mine up on the web. Yes, I got paid for it, so stop thinking you can catch me breaking one of my own rules. How much I got paid is no business of yours, but it was professional rates.

 

Second, for the first time ever, I have signed a movie option. You can chalk that up on the list of things I never thought would happen. Oh, sure, I have the same ambitions as everyone else, that doesn’t mean I ever expect them to come to fruition.

 

I have sold the option rights to my novel, DEEPER, for the sum of one dollar.

 

You read that right. One dollar.  Me, the guy who is most likely to bite your head off if you tell me you gave away a story, or if you decide to self-publish a short story collection. Madness, right?

 

Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. If you told me you’d sold a short story for a dollar, I’d either congratulate you (first timer and potentially very, very naive), castigate you (apprentice) or call you many names and tell you to grow a pair (seasoned writer without a damned good excuse.).

 

Hollywood is a different beast. It’s not at all uncommon to sell a movie option for one dollar. It’s really a formality. What you’re doing when you sell a movie option, you see, is effectively giving other people permission to pursue the idea of getting your novel made into a movie. In this case, my first option is for one dollar. Second and third options are for substantially more. Each option is good for precisely one year, no more, no less. The only reason you get any money on the first option is to ensure that there is a legal and binding contract.

 

So far, that first option has cost substantially more than a dollar, by the way. Financially, it’s cost me personally nothing at all. For the potential producers, it’s cost a great deal more. See, first they had to hire a lawyer or perhaps a dozen for all I know, and have said

 

attorney(s) write a twenty-two page (just over ten thousand words, and I bet if the lawyers got paid by the word, they got a hell of a lot more than the standard minimum accepted per word rate that the HWA defines as professional) document in Legalese. Said document to be read and reread by me (and if I had an agent, said agent would have earned every penny of the fifteen percent on that contract, believe it) before I signed it.

 

Because they didn’t really want to inconvenience me, the guys I’m dealing with had the kindness to send me the contracts and pay the return postage. There are four copies of the contract and two had to be sent back. So, somewhere around twenty dollars in postage.

 

 You’re looking at a decent chunk of change before so much as a penny has changed hands.

 

Because the book in question is a signed, limited edition and one of the men involved wanted to make sure that the reading experience was pleasurable for his partners, he ordered a few extra copies. Three, to be exact. Count in the initial book and we’re looking at $180.00 for the four copies of the novel, give or take any discounts, and any postage and insurance.

 

The contract is very, very specific. The deal I had with the publisher was not so specific. There’s a small matter of the copyright numbers from the Library of Congress. Now, let’s understand each other: the book is already copyrighted. But it’s not copyrighted enough to satisfy Hollywood standards. So, after a little wrangling, we can add in the cost of three more books, priority postage for the delivery to me and then my copyright fees plus the postage to send the required number of copies of the finished product along with the requisite filing fees to the Copyright offices in D.C.  Legalese, boys and girls, legalese. Hollywood deals, often, with outrageous amounts of money. They also deal with preposterous numbers of frivolous and not-so-frivolous lawsuits that I have no doubt at all would send most of the lawyers in the United States running for dear life. There’s an entire industry of lawyers who deal exclusively with entertainment contracts, and the ones I’ve met almost always have the same haunted eyes as long time combat veterans.

 

If by some freakish miracle the book in question should be seriously considered by Hollywood, and I don’t have the right Copyright Number for the contracts, absolutely nothing happens.

 

 

Let me clarify. Nothing happens at all. No one starts preproduction, no one works on the script rewrites, no one calls for a good casting round up or checks into locations where the movie might be shot. Nothing at all. No sound tracks being scored and recorded, no monsters and special effects get designed. Nothing. Get the picture? It’s that significant a thing.

 

So, yes, the copyright is mostly handled. At this point I wait for the powers that be to get back to me.

 

While all of this is going on, the world continues to exist. Eight days ago as I write this, Black Wednesday occurred. That was the phrase the media and likely a few publishers immediately came up with for the job cuts, wage and hiring freezes and general culling of excess spending that body slammed the larger publishing houses on the day in question. A hefty number of executives lost their jobs, and more than likely a few sure thing deals that didn’t have contracts yet might stay that way.  Among my peers a lot of people were calling on their contacts to make sure that the editors and people they deal with in the industry (who are quite often friends as well as business associates) still had their jobs and their backs.

 

I know a lot of people who were stunned into silence. I know a few less that panicked, and I know a few people who lost their jobs in the face of the current economy. It’s not a happy thing, and the odds are decent that a few more cuts will be made before the entire thing stabilizes. IF it stabilizes.

 

And the deal I made for that digital edition of a forthcoming novel?  In the cureent marketplace, I’m glad for it. I’m glad for any chance to make a living. Who knows? Digital mnight one  day be the only available format, because the cost is so very much cheaper and right now the publishers are all trying to cut corners where they can.

 

That’s not meant to start any panics. Frankly the market could swing back around in five months and everyone could be living on easy street and merely choosing the McMansion of their choice.

 

The point here, I suppose, is that not6hng is written in stone. For every editor or person in the publishing field who is suddenly unemployed, there are probably a few dozen who kept their jobs and are very grateful for that fact. If it was ONLY the publishing industry, I might feel a reason to panic, but it’s damned near every company big and small who is risking a financial meltdown.  The publishers are, at least in a few cases, certainly more solvent than the big automotive giants who are even slower to pay attention to trends (a subject for another time,  that one is).

 

I could  be a LOT richer in the near future if the movie deal works out. Or, I could be a lot worse off if my editors get fired or move on. There are no guarantees at this time. Then again, there were none when I started writing, either. Some things never change.

Stay calm in the troubled times, folks. Accept that now and then something might get rejected and prepare it to send on the next publisher who strikes your fancy.

 

 Should anyone feel a sudden need to read fiction of mine, there’s a new short story online. It’s called “The Spiders of Hanover Street,” and is avialble until the end of December at Horrorworld.org under the Fiction section.

It’s December and the end of the year. I am guardedly optimistiuc aout the next one.

If I don’t hear from you before then, a very merry Chistmas and a happy Hannukah as well. We’ll see you next year!

James A. Moore

 

 

 

It’s not the writing that’s the problem. It’s finding the time to write. Oh, I know a lot of people have troubles with writer’s block, but not me. Not most of the time. There are always a few exceptions, of course.

 

I know I’ve probably gone over this before. Hey, what can you expect? It’s one of the things that I believe is important, so I’m going to cover it repeatedly for as long as I’m writing these articles.

 

There are tools for any trade and that includes writing. Obviously you need something to write on, be it a computer or a pad of paper with a number 2 pencil. You need the basic comprehensive skills that allow you to read and write in the English language (or choose the tongue of your choice) and you need the drive.

 

But all of that is useless without the time to write. I’ve met a lot of would-be writers who lamented that they never had the time. Most of them were either exaggerating their daily grind or simply lacked the actual desire to make the necessary sacrifices. Meet up with me in person sometime and I’ll go into details. Understand me, I’m not talking about every writer here. I’m not referring to the occasional short story author or book reviewer. I’m talking about writers. The ones who live and breathe this stuff and who can’t get a decent night’s sleep because the damned ideas are bouncing around in their heads and want to be out on paper NOW and not later. I’m talking about the ones who’ve decided that this insanity isn’t just a hobby, but what they want to do with the rest of their lives. Because, and I mean this with absolute sincerity, anyone can find the time to write a short story. Anyone can scrounge enough minutes to do a casual examination of his or her latest movie or book. Not everyone can dedicate the weeks, months or years it requires to write a novel. (Side note: Yes, I said years. Apparently there are a lot of people who take years to write a novel. The longest I’ve ever taken was one year and that was a novel that was later broken into a trilogy and I was working on other projects along the way. But that’s me. I accept that some people might actually need years.)

 

It’s November. That means it’s also the time of year when a substantial number of people decide to write an entire novel in a month. There’re contests for this. I think the minimum is something along the lines of 45-50,000 words in a one-month span. I also think it’s a great concept. I might actually participate if I had to prove to myself that I could do it, but I have already written a 127,000-word novel in three weeks before. Not because I wanted to test myself, but basically because it had to be written that fast. That’s what I mean when I say there isn’t always enough time. There’s never enough time, because for me and most full time writers (yes, I acknowledge there are exceptions) it isn’t about writing one novel a year. It’s about writing three or four novels worth of words in that span of time. Those words may not all go into novels, but they have to be put down anyway, and getting behind on one project means getting behind on all of the work that’s expected. As I write this column, I am also working on two short stories, a novel proposal (collaborative), a novel outline (solo) and a novel that, in a perfect world, I’ll have done by the end of November. No way in Hell is that happening, but that’s what I’d like to see. Because I also have to get to work on an anthology that has finally been green lighted after two years of hurry-up-and-wait sales pitches. The anthology, by the way, is what I consider a “fun” project. It’ll eat away my time, and that of my coeditors, and we will probably hate ourselves for coming up with the idea and then deciding to actually act on it. It will pay us roughly nothing when you consider the editing time that will go into it and when it’s all said and done, we’ll remember it fondly and remember that it was fun to do. But it won’t pay any bills. Okay, it might pay for me and the missus to go to the local cinema and maybe even pick up a large popcorn and a cola to wash down the preposterous salt content. It will not, however, do much more than that.

 

While I’m working on all of that, I’m in negotiations with a few publishers for other projects that are either finished, or are finished proposals (Side note, again: See, a LOT of writers are smarter than me and prefer to write outlines and a few sample chapters before finishing a novel. I’m a moron and usually finish a novel before I think about selling it. Not because it’s smarter, but because that’s the way I’m wired. I’m currently trying to UN-wire myself or get reprogrammed, because their way makes much more sense.) I’m also doing edits, line edits and rewrites on several projects, talking with publishes about what extras they might need, signing signature sheets for the limited editions of my stuff, working as an associate editor for a publisher, dealing with an agent (Side note: Yes, I know, I said I’d never deal with an agent again, and this is a trial run. If all goes well, I’ll have officially changed my mind in the near future, which will give me more free time.) and doing my best to keep up with the market.

 

Oh, and I still have a day job. And a family. And there are health issues for a few loved ones that are taking more of my time than I like to think about.

 

People, I’m hardly unusual in that respect. Life can, does and WILL get in the way of your writing time. You can either deal with it or let it knock you down and keep you down. I’ll deal with it. I’m still not designed to sit on my butt and do nothing. If I’m sitting on my derriere, it’s normally because I’m either writing or getting ready to handle the business of writing. Now and then it’s because I’m gabbing with another writer, but mostly it’s the first two.

 

As busy as I am, I could easily point out a dozen writers who stay just as busy or even busier and some of them who are actually successful enough to only work as a writer. Most of the professionals I know also have another job or enough other responsibilities (parenthood, family or health issues, etc.) to qualify as second jobs.

 

I’ve pointed out before that I know a lot of writers. I’m willing to bet that at least eighty percent of them know a dozen stories about would-be writers who complain about not having enough time.

 

There’s never enough time. You have to make up the difference where you can. I haven’t played a video game in over ten years. I would love to. I don’t have the time. I’m not complaining, I’m just explaining. I could make the time for the latest Playstation system and game, but if I did, I’d lose writing time. Or I’d lose sleep time. Both are really far too precious to me. So, video games go to the wayside. If I suddenly find gaming companies asking me to write for them, then I’ll make the time, do the research and get my butt in gear. Until then, I’ll have to experience Halo vicariously.

 

Recently I pointed out to a writer on a bulletin board that I don’t post much because I have more substantial writing to do. He took that as a veiled barb. I guess that’s fair, because it was to a certain extent. His response was to applaud my wit and explain that he considered ALL of his writing, including what he does on bulletin boards, etc. as part of his career goal.

 

More power to him. Me? I still have a novel to finish before the end of the year. I’m getting paid for it. I don’t get paid to post my opinions on who was a better Superman, Christopher or George Reeves. (Side note: Nope, just an example and nothing to do with the subject that was being discussed. For the record, though, Christopher Reeves was the one I’d have picked as the better Superman.)

 

There are a thousand distractions out there. I find myself falling victim to a few of them almost every day. That doesn’t change the fact that I have deadlines. The distractions aren’t allowed to win, because they don’t pay my bills. And yes, as I’ve stated before, this is a business. It’s also my passion, which is a wonderful combination and I’m damned grateful to be able to make a living with it, but I wouldn’t be making that living if the distractions were allowed to take over.

 

I don’t have high-speed Internet access at home. I know myself. There are a trillion movie trailers, music downloads and pictures of cute cats in silly positions with amusing slogans out there just waiting to chew up my writing time and spit it out. And I’m just exactly stupid enough to let them. So, no DSL or Wi-Fi at my house, thanks just the same.

 

You want to write? Write. Don’t let excuses get in the way. Regardless of how crappy my day has been how much my feet hurt from being on them at the day job or how strained my eyes are from reading and dealing with computer screens, I still have deadlines and I take care of those before I take care of sleep. There are a lot of writers on this board (go figure) and I bet most of them would agree with me about how to make the time for writing.

 

Remember how I always say get paid for the work you’re doing? That’s why. Because you’re working. You’re giving up free time and video games or that concert you really, really wanted to go to. You have to sacrifice bowling night with your buddies, or you decided you could wait to see the latest James Bond movie. You made the time. You worked it out and busted your rear end to get it done and that means you deserve to be paid for your hard work (With the standard provisos: It doesn’t suck, you managed to get a publisher who wants it, you are fulfilling a contractual agreement, etc.).

 

All work and no play may make me a dull boy, but it also puts bread on the table. Later. I can relax later. Right now, there are deadlines.

 

And I couldn’t be happier about it.

 

James A. Moore

It’s almost Halloween so I thought I’d cover a scary subject. Well, scary for me and most writers.

I’m writing a novel right now. Yeah, I know, not exactly a huge surprise there. Every time we’ve spoken I’m writing one. Sometimes they’re even the same one I wrote about the time before.

So what makes this one different? That would be the scary part. It’s going with one of my previous publishers, Bloodletting Press in this case, and it will eventually come out as a signed, limited edition. But before that, it’s going to come out as a serialized e-novel.

Oh, close your mouths.

For those that don’t understand the term, I’ll clarify. A serialized novel is a novel that comes out in parts. This one will either be 4 parts or 6. That hasn’t been decided yet. The E part of the equation is that the novel will come out in the form of PDF files to be downloaded to either a person’s computer or a reader. There is a lot of discussion about how to ask for payment, but it’s looking likely that there will be one payment and then a new chunk of novel every week for either four or six weeks, delivered to the email address of certain folks. Or possibly they’ve have to go online and download it.

I’m not really sure about all of the finer details.

I am a willing guinea pig. I will be paid a handsome portion of every copy that sells.

Okay, that laughing thing you’re doing? It’s rude. Yes, I know all about the likelihood of the book selling in this format. Yes, I fully understand the risks of piracy, etc.

I also understand that things have changed substantially since the dawning of PDF files and downloadable fiction. There are new security measures, new ways to track copies that are printed from a particular person’s computer and of course there are new laws that are being better regulated than ever before regarding copyright infringement.
Again, I’m fully aware of the risks. There’s a real chance that five people in the world will scrape up the money to buy a copy of this novel, meaning that I will have put a lot of time and effort into a story that will almost never be downloaded.

But maybe I’ll get lucky and a million people will try it. You never know if you don’t take the risks.

Three years ago, I’d have laughed at anyone telling me everything I just wrote down. I’d have been justified, too.

Let me give you a fun summary of events which might enlighten a few people. Not all that long ago a major Hollywood studio put a preposterous amount of money into making Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings into a movie trilogy. They filmed the entire thing up front, paid for it and got to work with special effects, editing and the whole nine yards, working their collective asses off to make a masterpiece and a financial blockbuster of a trilogy that no one really believed could be pulled off.

And when they were done, they sent out promotional DVDs of the first movie to every member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (I think that’s the proper title: I’m too busy with a novel to double check) with the idea in mind of garnering a few nominations for an Academy Award to fifty. They’d certainly put enough into the movie to warrant a good attempt.

And one of the people in that prestigious gathering of Hollywood’s finest decided he should share his treasure with everyone around the world and promptly uploaded his copy to a movie site that allows illegal downloads.

You could literally download the movie onto your computer the same day it went into theatres. There was a legend at the bottom of the video that stated it was for private use only, for consideration of the Academy and that it was illegal to copy and distribute it. That legend popped up about every five minutes or so for the entire length of the movie. When the second movie came out a year later (Or was it six months? It’s been a while.) The same member of the Academy did it again. And then the third movie came out and he did it a third time.

And shortly after that, he was arrested by the FBI. And While I don’t know all the details, I understand he’s not only lost his membership in the Academy, but that there were impossible to match financial restitutions and a good bit of jail time offered as the closest thing he would ever get to a plea bargain.

See, what the makers of those DVDs did not announce was that there was a “fingerprint” on each of the DVDs that they sent out. It took a while, but they found out which copy of the discs had been ripped and set up as downloadable files.

And then they came down with all the biblical wrath they and an army of lawyers could achieve, which was considerable.

I understand the technologies involved in the electronic files work along the same lines: Easily identified, impossible to remove (or at least damned hard to remove and rather costly in time and monies alike) and unique for each file that goes out.

Neat. Prosecute away as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never believed anyone should get away with copyright infringement. I supported Metallica when they went after Napster and I support the rights of the music industry to waffle stomp people who’ve downloaded preposterous amounts of music for free from sites that shouldn’t have the stuff up in the first place.

Times are changing. The book as we know it is not dead, not by a long shot, but Kindles and Readers are becoming more commonplace all the time and working better than they did in the past. But there’s another reason I think the electronic media isn’t exactly a bad thing. It’s called “overhead.”

Books cost money. One of the smallest costs is actually what is paid to the authors (and yes, I acknowledge there are exceptions to that rule.). Paper costs a fortune. Layout isn’t exactly cheap in a lot of cases. Editing takes time and money. You pick an artist, you pay the artist, you send the entire laid out, edited and prettied up manuscript out to the printers, who then charge a great deal of money to make the books and send them back to you. It’s a tried and true method.

It’s also costly.

In addition to the actual cost of manufacturing the books, there’s also the cost of shipping them, storing them and making sure they get where they are going. Throw in the middle man distributors and the cost goes up just so the publisher can make a few pennies per copy. Also, don’t forget that Mass Market Paper Backs (MMPBs for short) are designed with the understanding that if copies don’t sell quickly enough, they’ll be thrown away after the cover is stripped off to be shipped back fpor credit from the publisher. That cost has to be factored in, too. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, I’m still pretty sure the big houses in New York are making more on a book than I am. I’m hardly as dumb as I look, after all.

But there’s a lot of cost involved.

Oh and here’s a fun tidbit. All of that stuff gets moved around on vehicles that use gasoline or diesel fuel. You know, the stuff that the oil companies insist costs them so much that they can justify raping our wallets to fill the tanks. That cost rolls downhill too.

You can cut all of that out with the electronic format, and then you can sell it for a much more reasonable price. It’s not meant to take the place of books, this new format. But it’s a damned fine option for the electronically savvy who want to go that route. Kind of like I-Pods seem to work in place of CD players. Cheap, portable, downloadable. Hell for a lot of people I know it just makes sense to have the files on their computers. I personally prefer to read a book in my hands, but on the other hand how many of the people reading this article are taking the time to print it out and bind it first? See my point? Changing technologies and changing mentalities means it’s a matter of time before new formats grow more comfortable. I’d rather be stepping forward now than missing the opportunity completely.

So I’m taking a chance and changing with the times. Worst case scenario, the book will be coming out when the serialized e-novel has had a chance to run around for a while.

What? I mentioned that, didn’t I? I do believe in trying new things, but I still believe in getting PAID for work. So I worked out a deal with the publishers, and the hardback signed limited edition will come out later.

And I’m good with that. Like I’ve said before, I expect to get paid for my work. It’s called being a professional. Listen, I wouldn’t even consider this with a few of the publishers I know. I’d hem and I’d haw and I’d talk my way out of it because I don’t know that a lot of publishers would have thought this out carefully enough for my satisfaction. Before I said yes to this proposition, we talked over all of the details and worked out a tentative schedule. Since then we’ve discussed who’s dong the artwork (yes, there will be cover art and everything) and we discussed what might be a reasonable amount to charge. Ask too little and a few people will lose money. Ask too much and a lot of people will simply walk away.

Even the decision to serialize the work had to be considered. The idea is to deliver the electronic novel in easy to handle chunks and make sure it comes out fast enough that people don’t get too antsy waiting for the next part. There’re a lot of factors. Most of them are out of my hands, but at least I was asked for input.

So that’s my Halloween fright for the year. Well, that and the cost of the candy I’m handing out.

James A. Moore

On a side note: The very same publisher, Bloodletting Press, wil be releasing a collection of related novels by yours truly: The Jonathan Crowley Library, which will have the vast majority of the novels involving the character Jonathan Crowley (not to be mistaken with the author by the same name) and several short stories and novellas as well. I’m delighted by that anouncement because until now all of the books have tneded to come out from various publishers and now the collectors out there will be able to get a matching set. Also, I’ve always wanted to see the books come out in hardcover and now they will.

I recently started a new novel. It’s a mystery as opposed to horror, and while there may be supernatural aspects, it’s meant to be a very different sort of thing for me. Why? Because I’ve been circling around the idea of writing a crime novel for a while and the time is right. I figure, what the heck. I also recently joined the International Thriller Writers on the recommendation of several writers I respect and admire, I’m just wrapping up the latest horror piece and even in that I can see the start of a mystery novel that wants to be written.

So there it is. Something new to write and enough of a twist for me that it takes precedence over the other dozen or so that want to be written. That’s hardly unusual for me, by the way, I always have about half a dozen things I’d like to be writing and they all have to wait their turns.

So I got to cooking and I was writing as religiously as always-remember kiddies, write every day-and in short order I had the first 20,000 words done. There was just one problem: they didn’t feel right.

Now, I’ve said before and I’ll say again that writers are lousy editors…for their own work. I can read someone else who I know and normally pinpoint where they might be missing the mark. I can’t edit my own work for at least six months. I need to have a little distance before I can see clearly, because I KNOW what I’m trying to say and that hides the flaws I can see with someone else’s stuff. I can’t guarantee that everyone has that problem, but I suspect the majority do.

So, what does one do when one can’t find the problem but remains sure that there is a problem? One asks for help. No, I don’t mean call up one of the numerous editing services that advertise in the back of Writer’s Digest. They remain, by and large, rip-off companies that will charge far too much for any help they might offer and in many cases they employ people who have no legitimate reason to even consider editing.

Instead, I called on my friend Tom Piccirilli, author of the recently released THE COLD SPOT and the forthcoming sequel, THE COLDEST MILE (the latter coming out next February.). For those of you who do not know him, he’s a multiple award-winning author. He’s won four Bram Stoker awards-it might be more now-he’s won the Thriller Award, he’s won roughly a trillion awards and earned every last one of them. He’s also as different a writer from me as you’re ever likely to meet. I asked him if he would mind looking over my latest and he agreed. Then he politely crucified me. He was gentle as he tapped the nails in place, and even apologized a few times.

Let me explain that last part. Tom is my friend. He’s also a professional writer. He’s also been known to read my stuff and even buy copies of my books. We’ve been peers for a long time, though I’m the first one to say he’s twice the writer I am. He’s one of several writers I respect enough to listen to and is simultaneously enough of a friend to know that I expect him to be brutally honest with me, because I would most assuredly return the favor without hesitation.

To summarize: I was overly wordy, I was stating the obvious, I was repeating myself AND being redundant and I was doing a poor imitation of every cliché that has ever existed in mysteries. I was doing a lot of telling and remarkably little showing-which has always been one of my weaknesses, for the record.

Keep in mind that Tom was being kind.

When I was done staggering around like a punch drunk boxer, I sat down and looked at his notes and considered the words he had written very carefully. Now, the easiest thing in the world would be to shake my fist, call Tom several colorful names and go back to my writing. I mean, really, what the hell does HE know about writing? Our styles are damned near night and day. I’m a storyteller, he’s a wordsmith. He’s concentrating on different things with his writing than I am with mine. I could give a hundred different excuses for why he was wrong and I was right.

Except that I’d be lying to myself. The simple fact of the matter is that I dropped the proverbial ball and Tom was the one who caught it and told me how to hold the damned thing.

It’s exactly that simple. I screwed up. All Tom did was remind me that I’m a writer. I don’t need to emulate others when I’m telling a story, I have my own voice and it’s been working just fine for me so far. Or at least well enough to let me make a living at this writing gig.

Trust me when I say this: it’s hardly a first.

Contrary to any comments I might make from time to time, I do not consider myself the end all be all of writing knowledge. In fact I still find myself wondering exactly what the hell was going through Joe Nassise’s head when he invited me to join this particular group-and I think the only honest answer is desperation.

I do consider myself a professional writer. That does not mean I’m anywhere near the most knowledgeable person to be giving advice. It just means now and then I might have a clue and that I will almost always have an opinion.

I decided to write a mystery and in the process, I promptly threw out my common sense and all of my writing experience. Tom was good enough to remind me of that fact as gently as he could while not avoiding the issues.

First and foremost, I was no longer writing what I wanted to write, which is tantamount to a cardinal sin in my book. I don’t mean that the story wasn’t mine. It was and it is. What I mean is that I was unconsciously imitating the style of writers who were incredibly important to the mystery genre. I wasn’t aware of it (thus the use of the word “unconsciously”) but it was happening. I wasn’t writing in my voice and when you get down to it, that isn’t just a disservice to me and any potential fans of mine, but also to the writers I was echoing.

Tom didn’t point out anything to me that I wouldn’t have seen in anyone else I was familiar with, but I could not see it in my own work, and especially not in a work in progress. I was aware that something was wrong, something big enough to make me pause and reread my words again and again and to finally send the file to Tom with a plea for assistance, but all of those damned trees were in the way of me seeing the forest.

I had 20,000 words written. Most of them got tossed out the window. A few scenes are being rewritten, a few of them simply discarded and several more altered so drastically that they bear no resemblance to the original drafts. I’m currently around 11,000 words into the rewrite.

I’ve lost a few manuscripts in the past, mostly due to not being smart enough to back up the writing (mostly I’m better about that these days) and on one previous occasion I simply realized that what I had written sucked raw eggs, but it’s rare for me to throw away words I’ve written. It’s painful. I’ll do you one better, I positively hate it. Sometimes, however, it’s a necessary evil. The story I was trying to write was not what was coming out on paper, because I let myself get too bogged down in the genre I was looking at. Mysteries, science fiction tales, horror stories or romances, the genre should not matter. What should be significant is the story, and I forgot that for a moment. I got lost in the worries of the mystery market. Not as it exists, but as I was thinking it might exist. Bad move on my part and that’s all there is to it. I’ve always written for me first and worried about the market after the fact. This time I tried to write for a market that I don’t know. I actively TRIED TO WRITE FOR A MARKET.

You have to work at your skills, folks. I believe that. I think that if you stop working at writing, you risk losing all that you have struggled to achieve. Having said that, you also have to have just a little faith in yourself. Yes, I’m best known as a horror writer, but I’ve dabbled in science fiction and fantasy and I’ve even done a few pieces that were simply stories, not supernatural or even overly suspenseful. In every case I wrote the story that wanted to be written and in every case I managed to sell those tales. Not because I wrote to a market, but because I did a good enough job to catch an editor’s attention in a favorable way. That means I at least have a modicum of talent and the ability to tell a story. The genre shouldn’t matter. When you get down to it, the story is what matters most. I’ve said before that I’ll let the editors decide where to categorize a tale and that is exactly what I should have remembered before I started writing my mystery. Tom was kind to me and pointed out that I’ve never written a mystery before, and he also stated that the words were solely his opinion and that he could be wrong. Well, yes and no. It IS a market I’ve never written for before, that part is true, and it IS only his opinion, but first, his opinion is very well educated on the subject and second it’s supposed to be MY mystery, not a mystery custom designed to fit comfortably into any particular format. Since I started writing I’ve held to that rule and I managed to forget it. Happily, I had Tom Piccirilli to remind me of what I should have already known.

James A. Moore

So, here we have it, a look into my glass house. Yes, I’ve thrown my fair share of stones in the past and I likely will again. I try not to condemn anyone for the mistakes they make for that very reason: “people in glass houses should not throw stones.” I’m human. I make mistakes.

So kick back for a while and consider that if you’d like. Me? It’s time for dinner. Tonight’s main course? Crow. A nice, heaping plate of it. My mystery is back on track and I’ll likely shoot it to Tom again if he can stomach the notion. He’ll probably find a dozen other things that I’m doing differently than he would, but hopefully nothing quite as glaring the second time around.

Either way, I can’t thank him enough for his honest criticism of the piece. Criticism can be a good thing, folks. Best not to ignore the critics you know you can trust.

There are certain things that will drive you out of a story as a reader. It might be an interjection by the author that breaks the from the tone of the book or a really bad run of punctuation errors or even something as offbeat as a character using dialogue that seems completely false to you. It happens. As a reader you either get on with it or you set the book aside. Me? I’ve never once in my life started a book and failed to finish it. I’ve been sorely tempted a few times, but I feel obligated once I’ve started. And yes, I am likely the exception and not the rule. But I can tell you this without any guilt; when the writing is bad enough, I give up the writer.

The thing is, as a writer, you have to understand that not everything you do is going to work for every reader. It’s inevitable. Stephen King sells millions of copies of his novels, most of them have been made into movies and so have a damn substantial number of his short stories and yet there are people who still swear they’ve never read anything by him that they liked and some of those making the claim work in the genre (I’m thinking there’s a bit of sour grapes in a lot of those claims). Me? I love his stuff, but that’s not what this article is about. It’s about pet peeves and stranger things and how they relate to you the writer not you the reader.

I recently saw a series of discussions on a board about what amounts to cardinal sins in the eyes of a handful of writers. One person couldn’t stand the idea of an exclamation point and a question mark being used together. Another felt that there was never a reason for an exclamation point in a novel. Still another felt that short sentences were annoying, in direct contrast to another who felt that long sentences should be made shorter. According to another writer, the word “was” should be stricken from the English language, thus assuring that no sentence ever be passive again.

Um. Yeah, about that…. You’re wrong. Sorry, but there it is. Sometimes “was” is needed to explain past tense.

Now, where was I? (Sorry, couldn’t resist)

Ah yes, pet peeves. Grammatically speaking, fiction breaks most of the rules of the English language. Even if the descriptions, etc, are spot on with proper English, the dialogue is likely to either destroy all rules or sound completely false. People very seldom speak proper English in conversation. It happens, don’t misunderstand me, but not nearly all the time. As an observation I’ll point out that a lot more people who speak English as a second language speak it properly than those who speak it as their native tongue. Why? Because the people who learned English as a second language often have to translate from their native tongue, which means actually THINKING before you speak, and because they were more formally trained in the use of the English language. I suspect the same is often true in the reverse as well, but speaking only one language myself, I couldn’t hope to back up that argument. And of course, the preceding is strictly observational and the accuracy is questionable at best.

There I go wandering off again. The rules of the English language are there for a reason. The rules of Grammar are there for a reason. If you want to be a writer, you should understand both. You should use them, too. When it serves your purpose. Ah, here I go stepping into the lion’s den. Ready? It’s okay to break the rules occasionally. It’s called dramatic license. Well, that’s what I call it at any rate. I’ve been known to use one word sentences. I’ve been known to use several of them in a row to make my point. Punctuation serves a purpose when you’re reading. Part of the purpose is to help you set the pace. Commas and periods both cause a reader to pause for entirely different reasons, but they both cause a pause. Ellipses do the same thing. Exclamation points are there to let us know that someone is screaming, or speaking very loudly without adding “he shouted” at the end of a sentence. What an amazing concept(He exclaimed dramatically)! They all serve their purposes and they have all been beaten into new shapes and forms by writers who are better than I will ever be. Why? Because for writers of fiction (and nonfiction, I suppose) words are not merely tools but also a form of expression. Just as an artist who works in water colors might decide to throw in a little India ink or even go crazy and use oils now and then, writers sometimes like to experiment. It’s what makes writers unique and how they discover their voices. Oh, sure, we’re all telling stories, but I’m willing to bet if you read fifteen different authors you would find that few of them sounded exactly like the others, at least if they’re successful authors. It’s part of the job description, folks. We’re supposed to entertain our readers and in order to do that we have to experiment. Strunk and White might disagree with me, but there it is.

Now let me make something clear here. You need to actually comprehend the rules of the English language and the rules of Grammar if you want to be successful. The world is overloaded with people who fail to understand the rules well enough to sell a novel or a short story. There are some people out there who are simply so bad that not even the most patient editors on the planet are willing to put up with them. Some writers will see changes made by an editor and simply make every change suggested. Others will be a wee bit more contentious about the situation and will point out to editors that in this one case, this single situation on page 103 of the manuscript, the comma splice was deliberate. They will fight tooth and nail to keep that damned splice, too, because it’s there for a reason. Believe me, I’ve had a few polite but firm discussions in my time. I’m the first to concede when I make a mistake, but now and then I like to experiment. Not too often, because it gets annoying as all hell to the editors. I know, because I also happen to work as an editor. You can normally differentiate the mistakes from the deliberate screw ups.

I’ve long contended it’s okay to break the rules as long as you actually know them first and do it deliberately. And within reason should be added as a proviso to that statement.

If you like exclamation points, by all means. They have a long history and have been used for many years to make their point known. If you like ellipses…help yourself. If you want your characters to speak in broken English or you feel some insane desire to spell out their phonetic pronunciations, who am I to stop you? It’s your story; write it the way you want to.

Just remember, the editors who look it over might have pet peeves of their own, and while they are going to work with you, they are also going to consider their likes and dislikes when it comes to whether or not they feel like publishing you. Unless you happen to be an international best selling author, in which case they’ll probably give you a little more leeway. Not always, but most of the time.

If you’re thinking of diagramming every sentence in here to prove that I don’t understand grammar, you’ll be wasting your time. I’m sticking to my guns on this one and I do understand grammar, I just sometimes choose to ignore it.

And now for my moment on the soapbox: People, I understand the desire to get published, I do. I also understand that some people, often those whose unique take on grammar’s rules and whether or not they should ever be followed, will inevitably decide it’s best to go ahead and self-publish. Fair enough, but remember you’ve been warned and not just by me, but by a lot of other authors and professionals as well.

Fine. I tried, but you didn’t want to listen.

That doesn’t mean you should set up an anthology. Even if you do, that doesn’t mean that once you’ve decided to edit and self-publish an anthology that you should then include your own stories in said anthology. There are a few occasions where an editor is in an anthology and no one looks askance at that editor afterwards. Gary Braunbeck and Hank Schwaeble recently edited an anthology called Five Strokes to Midnight. It did well enough to get amazing reviews and several nominations for awards. It also won two Bram Stoker Awards from the Horror Writers Association. Both editors also have stories in the anthology. It came out from a brand new small press. It also included an introduction by multiple award-winning author Tim Lebbon and additional stories by multiple-award winning authors Christopher Golden, Deborah LeBlanc and Tom Piccirilli. Believe me, very few people looked at any of the performers askance and if they did, it was only for a moment or two. This is the exception, not the rule. Most of the time the writers I’ve spoken to look down on an editor adding his or her own story to an anthology unless that editor is already a well-recognized and established author or maybe the collection is non-fiction.

Come out with your own small press, come out with an anthology of stories, add yourself to the table of contents and put that puppy out for sale and the odds are remarkably good that you’ll end up looking like you edited a charity anthology and took every damned story people tossed in your direction and forgot to even consider a decent layout for the interiors. Yeah, I went there. Deal with it.

Professionalism is still going to require a few standards and failing to meet them just makes you look, well, painfully unprofessional.

Okay, that’s all. I’m off my soapbox and out of your hair for another month. Try to remember to write. It’s what we’re all here to do. Get at least a little “me” time to do your work and the rest should be easy as long as you stay off the Internet and cell phone and actually write.

Seems one of the things I keep running across endlessly is writers who don’t quite know how to finish what they’ve started.

Oh, they have the ideas, they have the energy, and they have the determination, but when it comes to actually writing down the words and making them work, the writers in question falter and then simply stop. A good number of them have quit writing after a few attempts and others simply start on the next project and run across the same situation again.

It seems they can’t keep their focus on the projects they’ve started. It’s not that they don’t have the desire, because with some of them the need is almost a physical thing. They want it so badly they should have scars on the veins from attempting to mainline the muse.

What is it that separates these writers from the successful ones? What makes the difference between being a writer (professional or not, successful is a different beast) and a wannabe?

If I had to put it down to one thing, it would be attention span.

Listen it’s easy in this day and age to settle down with your laptop, your cell phone, your I-pod and a dozen other gadgets in preparation for writing. All that means is you’ve got the electronics. It doesn’t mean you’ve got the tools to handle the job. Aside from the obvious need for a little talent, you also have to employ the skills you learn from practicing the fine art of writing. That means you have a basic grasp of grammar, you can write a sentence that is coherent and then use the same skill to make paragraphs, pages, chapters and eventually complete stories. Even of you never write a novel, even if you prefer to write short stories and flash fiction, you have to have a certain level of talent and you most assuredly need to have a bit of discipline. Without those things all the gadgets in the world will fail you.

I recently watched one of my regulars at the coffee shop come in with every intention of getting some writing done. She knows I’m a writer and we talk from time to time. She set up her lap top, got herself a nice, big latte the better to keep her energized and ready to write, had her notebook full of scribbled outlines, etc ready to go, and then answered her phone as soon as it rang. Fifteen minutes later, she hangs up the phone and actually has her hands over the keyboard when the phone rings again. Then one of her neighbors came in, settled down at her table, completely ignoring the laptop and notes, etc, and long story short, I think she managed around two paragraphs in close to four hours. That phone was ringing off the hook and she was answering every single call, because she felt bad if she didn’t answer a call. It didn’t seem to matter if the call was important or not, but every call needed to be answered.

Yeah. I’ve got an answering machine and caller ID. I need to talk to someone calling here, I’ll play the messages and then I’ll make my callbacks. AFTER I’ve finished with my writing for the day.

The fact that she was sitting in a Starbucks and expecting to get any writing done is also, frankly, a near guarantee that nothing will get accomplished. I like Starbucks. In addition to working at one, I am exceedinglyu fond of the caffeine and tend to go out of my way to have some before I write on most occasions. Yes, I know it might not be the healthiest thing in the world for me. I also gave up smoking after 2o odd years last October, so only one vice at a time goes off the list. That point is neither here nor there. The point is, much as I love coffee and enjoy the atmosphere at Starbucks. I don’t even consider writing at one. There are too many distractions. There are WAAAAAAAY too many things I can do to keep myself from writing.

I still have dial up on my computer. I could have DSL and or high speed etc, but I choose not to, because I know myself. If I have the sort of speed that allows me to download trailers for movies like THE DARK KNIGHT, what I’m going to do is, by God, sit down and download endless trailers, and watch them. Or what the heck, I could live on the edge and download a good number of episodes from my favorite TV shows. I will do these things in a heartbeat, and then I will scratch my head and wonder why I haven’t gotten any writing done. I know, because I’ve done that sort of thing to myself before. In the long run, I can live without the trailers. I use the Internet mostly for hitting a few websites and to e-mail my manuscripts out to editors.

I’m a movie junkie. I have a weakness. I know that from time to time I have to curb my desire to watch every damned movie made, or I will never manage to finish a thing.

You have to have a routine and stick to it. It doesn’t have to be full time hours if you can’t spare the time, but if you can and you have the time, knock yourselves out.

Two hours a day can let you get a lot accomplished if you leave the video games in a different room, switch the TV off and only answer he phone when you know the person calling isn’t going to want to tell you their life’s story just because they’ve had a lousy day and need to talk.

Discipline.

It stops me from answering every interesting comment on a bulletin board, and it keeps me from hiding in the corner when a story goes south. I can’t speak for everyone, obviously, but I’m guessing you could ask around and find that a lot of novelists have mastered the fine art of taking care of writing before damned near anything else.

Finishing what you start isn’t that hard, folks, provided you set your mind to it. Save the Play station games for later, after you’ve written and saved the scenes you’ve had planned out for the last three months and then check how long it takes you to finish a story. You might be surprised how much of a difference it makes.

James A. Moore

Now and then I ponder what, exactly, I intend to talk about in these essays and sometimes it comes easily. Well, folks, this time it’s pretty easy. Last time in, I had a bit of a rant regarding charity anthologies and whether or not they were the best way in the world to get your name out there, to help a cause and to offer up your stories.

Touched a few nerves on that one. Hell, I’ll do you one better. I just plan offended a few folks. Now, let’s be honest here. I’ve never much been the sort to feel that my advice is the end all be all. I’ve said that more than one and I stick by it. If you find something useful in my suggestions, I’m glad to be of assistance. If you don’t, I certainly don’t take offense. In the long run it’s just my opinion. I haven’t gone to college to master the English language, nor have I studied the nuances of the publishing field or worked as an agent at one of the more prestigious agencies. Hell, on that last part my track record with agents leaves a bit to be desired.

Despite that, I’ve managed a few sales and I normally exceed the established average for a professional writer by a few thousand a year. I make, dare I say it, a living as a writer. Sometimes not a great living, granted, but a living just the same.

There are plenty out there who are doing better and there are plenty who are doing worse is my point here. That and, as I have already stated, the simple fact that my opinions are merely that. They are my opinions. You don’t have to agree with them. You don’t have to read them for that matter. The decision, just like the choice as to whether or not you want to be a professional writer, is entirely in your hands. At the end of the day, it’s still just advice from a source that is dubious at best.

It is also advice from a professional writer. Let’s get that clear. Same as the vast majority of the columnists here at Storytellers Unplugged, I’m a professional. That means, among other things, that I try to behave by a certain acceptable code of ethics and standards. I try to make sure that I write works of fiction (and sometimes nonfiction) and I sell them for money, or sometimes offer them up as I do here, for free.

Along with that comes a certain level of celebrity (not a very high level, I can assure you) and a perception as time goes on that I’m somehow intertwined with the lives and beliefs of some sort of secret society of writers. Now, not everyone seems to take on this belief, but oddly enough a lot of people do. And it isn’t just me. I imagine several of the other writers on this very board will nod their heads regarding my comments, because they’ve fallen victim to them as well, or watched others fall victim to the syndrome.

Just this last month I received more comments than ever before about one of my essays. Made more comments back than I normally do, too. Not only on this site but in personal e-mails with several people who ranged from curious to positively offended by my stance. Those who asked questions got answers. Those who wanted to tell me what a heartless bastard I am for daring to disagree with the noble and just cause of charity anthologies got a brief comment or got ignored, depending solely on how much attitude was thrown in my direction. And to be fair, I responded a few times when I probably should have left well enough alone.

What can I say? I’m human.

To get this out of the way: No. There was no secret or hidden agenda to my previous essay. It was just what struck my fancy at the time. There is no cabal of sinister scribes dictating what I should say on Storytellers Unplugged, nor is anyone holding my family hostage until I comply with their demands. I do not now, nor have I ever, felt a need to work as the crony for another writer or group of writers. You may rest assured that they could likely find better and more reliable cronies if such a group existed, and I can guarantee you that the vast majority of writers out there don’t hesitate to state their opinions for themselves.

Got it? Good. Now, onto the subject of professionalism.

We’ve gone over this before. I’ll probably write about it again. Professionalism isn’t just about the money. That’s a part of it, to be sure. If I sell a novel I expect professional rates. If I fail to get those rates, I have to deal with the consequences.

Here’s a fact that some of the newer writers seem to miss sometimes. Everything that you do as a writer is with you for the duration of your career. All of it. The good and the bad alike. I’ve mentioned in the distant past a writer who attended his very first professional convention at the same time that I did. I’ve also mentioned that I had not one but two separate editors from major publishing houses point out that I managed to behave myself more professionally than he did. See, while he was knocking back drinks at the bar and trying to cop feels off the editors in question, I was listening to the advice of other professionals and trying to learn the ropes of the industry. Yes, you read that right. He was getting sauced and trying to get lucky at a convention for professional writers.

Two years later when we happened across each other again, he was talking about how he was going to genuflect at the feet of a rather well known author if the man showed up. He was also once again calming his nerves with a few dozen vodka and tonics. Later, he once again made an ass of himself with several females. Later still, he lamented that none of the publishers seemed to take his work seriously and explained that he was considering going the self-publication route. Oddly I haven’t seen him in a while. Perhaps he’s managed to find his niche at Publish America. More power to him. Perhaps you’ve even heard of him. Frankly, I doubt it.

But there’s more to professionalism than that. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. So I’m going to list a few things you might want to avoid if you’d actually like to get anywhere in this business. The significance of this advice is solely dependant on your personal experience, or to quote Brian Keene (inside joke for those of you who’ve followed the whole crony angle from last time around) “You mileage may vary.”

Friends and peers. I love ‘em. I have several writers I am delighted to call my friends. I have plenty more than I’ve never met but whom I admire. On a few occasions I’ve even stepped away from the shadows to defend one or two of them from the lunatic fringe that often seems to come with writing genre fiction. I have made clear on a few boards that there are certain people whom, should I meet them in a public forum anywhere near a few of my friends and peers, I will gleefully punt across the room before I bother to introduce myself. Those particular individuals have made threats in the past that some people take as mere eccentricities. I tend to take them seriously. Aside from that one exception, I do not feel the need to leap to the defense of my friends and peers. Should one of my friends state an opinion that causes said friend a large amount of flack on the bulletin boards, I remain absolutely convinced that said individual is likely capable of backing that statement without my assistance. Why? Because my friends and peers in the industry are professionals. They can take care of themselves, just like real grown ups do. As always, there might be a few minor exceptions, but that’s one of the rules I try to live by. In the event that I simple cannot resist defending said peer, rest assured that I will first check the facts of the situation before making declarations. You may also rest assured that I will restrain myself from making judgments about people I’ve never met or dealt with in those circumstances.

I love a good, lively debate on the boards. Most of the time I find myself agreeing with a few friends and peers and disagreeing with others. That fact does not change my opinions of the writers in question or their ability to write. What does and will continue to color that perception is how they handle themselves in a rousing debate. Act like a child and I’ll treat you like one. Act like an adult, and the same rule applies. The simple fact of the matter is that I haven’t even met half of the people I deal with in person. I may never meet some of them because I just don’t do that many conventions. That’s okay with me. I can accept that. But the way you behave on a bulletin board might be the only interaction I have with you as a fellow writer. So if you throw tantrums online you may rest assured it will alter how I think of you when it comes to any possible future dealings.

Passive Aggressive Behavior is self-explanatory and will be met with prompt dismissal. Once again the idea is to be a professional. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Look it up.

Professionalism is more than just sending a self addressed stamped envelope and writing a good introductory letter. It’s about how you carry yourself not only in person but in public forums. The Internet has made this a much smaller world in a lot of ways. Act like an ass and not only will you make the wrong impression, but I can almost guarantee you that someone, somewhere will not only have saved the comments you’ve made, but they’ll be glad to quote ad nauseum whenever they feel the need. The Internet is a lovely way to guarantee that your cock-ups are a part of the permanent record.

Now, a few people are surely shaking their heads. They can think of a few occasions where a dazzlingly witty comment or a truly savage attack on a writer has gained a certain level of celebrity. Celerity should not be confused with either professionalism or success. You doubt that? How often have you heard someone say that Britney Spears is the perfect example of not only motherhood but success lately? How many people have accused Paris Hilton of self-restraint. True, both of them have money and both of the ladies I’ve mentioned certainly have fans. Neither of them is an example of how life works for most people. Most people don’t have a platinum album or two in their pasts or a family worth slightly less than God to turn to for financial success and if any of the exceptions to those rules is actually reading this with an eye towards taking my advice to heart, I’m deeply shocked. Want another example? Everyone knows who Michael Jackson is. Not many of them are going to ask him to baby-sit their kids any time soon. There is a difference between celebrity and professionalism and there is a difference between celebrity and notoriety. If you can’t make the distinction, then please feel free to go about getting a reputation for yourself. Who am I to stand in your way?

In the long run my words here are merely my opinion. Follow my advice or shove it aside as you see fit. Just do yourselves the kindness of looking up professionalism in the dictionary before you post on a board or respond in a public forum. It could be your career that you save in the process.

  

James A. Moore