| janfields |
November 30, Friday
Night Open Forum begins in five minutes. This is open topic, so all
writing-related questions are welcome. What have you been wanting to
know? Ask your questions in five minutes.
|
| janfields |
November 30, Friday
Night Open Forum begins in two minutes. All writing-related
questions are welcome -- so what are you wondering about? In two
minutes.
|
| janfields |
Welcome to Friday Night
Open Forum. I hope y'all have come with questions. I'm web editor
Jan Fields, and I'll try to answer whatever you might want to
know.
|
| janfields |
I have a couple
questions from email all ready in que.
|
| janfields |
But I hope we'll get a
few from our bustling studio audience :-)
|
| janfields |
So, let me get there
email folks...so they know they're loved.
|
| jan_fields |
LISA: With so many ezines
folding -- WEE ONES and now FANDANGLE being the most recent. Do you
think ezines are still a good place to be
published?
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| janfields |
Well, I think even
really good ezines like WEE ONES and now the new IMAGINATION
CAFE
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| janfields |
don't have quite the
"cred" in the business of a print magazine.
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| janfields |
The truth is that we
love paper, the feel, the solidity...it just feels more
real.
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| janfields |
And print generally
pays better.
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| janfields |
The problem with any
ezine is funding.
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| janfields |
Without money coming
in, it's hard for it to go out.
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| janfields |
And it's hard for the
publisher to justify the time spent on it.
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| janfields |
So, sometimes you see
lesser editorial standards.
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| janfields |
Or lesser production
values.
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| janfields |
Though some of the top
ezines are certainly lovely and nicely edited.
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| janfields |
But at a huge cost to
the editor/publisher.
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| janfields |
So, most eventually hit
the wall in terms of what they can put in
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| janfields |
And the ezine
folds.
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| janfields |
Still, in that open
time...you had readers
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| janfields |
you may have been
paid.
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| janfields |
you experienced the
process of being edited
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| janfields |
And you got
accepted...all worthwhile things.
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| janfields |
But for me...I'll
generally not offer anything to an ezine until after I've run out of
print options.
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| janfields |
Just because I'm in
this for the career long haul, so I always start high and work down
in terms of money and prestige.
|
| coloradokate |
My writing group has this
discussion topic this week: "How likely do you think it is that
you'll eventually have a novel published?
|
| janfields |
Here's my view...since
I know y'all wanna know :-)
|
| janfields |
I think a solid writer
who continues to work on skills, continues to polish, and doesn't
give up on any book too soon
|
| janfields |
will eventually get
published.
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| janfields |
Period.
|
| janfields |
But eventually can be a
long time.
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| janfields |
And hurt like the
dickens.
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| janfields |
And many folks just
can't handle the wait...we see a lot of folks fall by the wayside
before they could have been published.
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| janfields |
They quit
entirely.
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| janfields |
Or they
self-publish.
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| janfields |
Or they go with ...
publishers who can't really do much to sell books.
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| janfields |
I think the key is
saying...I'll never give up, period.
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| janfields |
And I'll never quit
learning and growing.
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| janfields |
If you hold on to those
two...both equally...then I think you WILL have a
novel.
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| janfields |
But it might not be the
novel you've just written.
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| janfields |
I don't think every
good manuscript gets published.
|
| janfields |
But every good writer
who doesn't give up...yes, I believe they do.
|
| coloradokate |
Here's the rest of the
question: "Along those lines, at what point would you decide to pack
it in?"
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| janfields |
Never, I would NEVER
pack it in.
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| janfields |
Unless someone could
prove to me that my writing stunk
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| janfields |
and I could never get
better.
|
| janfields |
Honestly, some folks
can't write.
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| janfields |
They like the idea of
writing.
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| janfields |
They want to
write.
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| janfields |
But they are so far
from the skill base (and usually they don't read)
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| janfields |
that they won't ever
get up to the bar.
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| janfields |
But, I've seen folks I
thought were pretty far from publishable who just plain would not
quit working, polishing and learning.
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| janfields |
And dang if they didn't
go ahead and do something wonderful.
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| janfields |
And get
published.
|
| rainchain |
If you subbed a rebus
with matching sidebar and the sidebar
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| rainchain |
is accepted as a short
non fiction article but the rebus is
|
| rainchain |
passed on. Can you market
the rebus elsewhere?
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| janfields |
Absolutely.
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| janfields |
I've created "groups of
things" for publishers where I thought the story and activities went
together.
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| janfields |
And sometimes they buy
them all -- but run them in different issues.
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| janfields |
And sometimes they buy
just part...and I sell the rest elsewhere.
|
| janfields |
Teddy Bear and Friends
bought some things from me that "went together" and when they
published them in separate issues...um, one of the articles sounded
a little odd without the activity.
|
| janfields |
But, they paid so I was
happy.
|
| rainchain |
If you use fragments or
add extra 'ands' on purpose for
|
| rainchain |
rhythm in a picture book
and you can't punctuate normally
|
| rainchain |
How do you sub it knowing
the editor will know you know the
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| rainchain |
correct way but broke
rules purposely?
|
| janfields |
"Breaking the rules"
needs to work on several levels
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| janfields |
If you are JUST
breaking the rules to make meter work
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| janfields |
and editor is probably
not going to like that.
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| janfields |
But if you break the
rules to make the meter work
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| janfields |
AND add an extra
dimension of voice
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| janfields |
or do it to make meter
work AND move the plot along
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| janfields |
Then the editor will
"get" it and be good.
|
| janfields |
The editor is going to
understand anyway...she's going to know you had to fidgit to make
the meter work
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| janfields |
But odds are pretty
good, she's not going to like it.
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| janfields |
Especially if it's
really noticable or messes with clarity AT ALL.
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| janfields |
Because communication
is KEY in writing.
|
| janfields |
If you have the
loveliest sound in the world but aren't communicating
clearly
|
| janfields |
and editor is going to
ask for a rewrite or pass it over.
|
| janfields |
If you're not sure if
the lines are a little tooooo rule breakerish, you can email and let
me see them
|
| janfields |
and I can tell you how
an editor would feel about it.
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| jan_fields |
BOOMER: I'm working on a
novel, when should I begin sending queries to agents and publishers?
I have a pretty decent high concept.
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| janfields |
It's interesting how
many folks wonder about this.
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| janfields |
Really, I get a lot of
emails.
|
| janfields |
If you are a celebrity
-- you can sell a novel with a concept and a proposal...heck, you
can sell it with a vague concept.
|
| janfields |
If you are well
published with books that sold is lovely high numbers, then you can
sell a novel with a proposal
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| janfields |
If you are published
many times with the same house, even if the sales numbers are only
good and not great
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| janfields |
you can sell with a
proposal.
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| janfields |
For all the rest of us
in the world.
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| janfields |
We need a well-polished
novel manuscript in hand.
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| janfields |
So you do NOT query
when you are half done, 3/4 done, almost done.
|
| janfields |
Or even done and
beginning revisions.
|
| janfields |
Especially if you have
a really good concept line...because you don't want to query, get a
request for you manuscript
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| janfields |
and then send them
something half done or poorly written.
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| janfields |
Nor do you want to make
them wait while you finish...cause they'll forget
you.
|
| janfields |
Once in a while someone
gets away with this, but in virtually every case the person had
'platform'
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| janfields |
meaning something sold
the book other than the book manuscript.
|
| janfields |
For us...all we have is
product. So finish the book.
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| jan_fields |
patricia stiehr: If I am
writing a story about a friend who is a Holocaust survivor and she
has given me verbal permission to write her story, do I need to get
permission in writing? Thanks.
|
| janfields |
You probably
should.
|
| janfields |
If you're working on a
novel instead of a magazine piece,
|
| janfields |
then there is always
the chance that you're friend might not live to see the publication
(which sounds grim, but you never know)
|
| janfields |
and *technically* her
story would be something her heirs might
|
| janfields |
want money for. And
without written permission from the friend
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| janfields |
there is always the
chance that you could be facing a big snarling hairball legally down
the road.
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| janfields |
A letter signed by her
would be sufficient for legal purposes.
|
| janfields |
The court isn't going
to need some complex document, just clear indication that it was her
wish to share her story through you.
|
| coloradokate |
If one has the good
fortune to have a publisher acquire one's novel, how long does it
take then before it's in print and one can hold it in one's hot
little hands? Or is the range so great that this really is an
unanswerable question? Thing is, I'm not getting any
younger...
|
| janfields |
Well, considering I'm
still waiting on my novel and it's with a packager (an entity known
for it's speed)
|
| janfields |
Actually it depends
(don't you hate answers like that).
|
| janfields |
Books normally take
about a year.
|
| janfields |
But all kinds of things
can hold them up.
|
| janfields |
And picture books take
a lot longer (because there are more things to hold them up -- just
throwing the in so folks don't email to say...hey, Jan, my pb took 6
years)
|
| janfields |
But you can probably
assume it'll be about a year from acceptance
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| janfields |
to book in
hand.
|
| janfields |
depending
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| janfields |
If they think your book
would work better at a specfic time or with specific promotional
efforts.
|
| janfields |
It can end up waiting
another year but probably not more than that.
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| jan_fields |
patricia: Would this
novel about my Holocaust survivor friend be considered a historical
novel since I don't know every little thing that happened to her and
I want to add some scenes with Hitler and his top
men.
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| janfields |
Yes, if you are going
to create things that go beyond what she has told
you
|
| janfields |
then it becomes
historical fiction.
|
| janfields |
You can say that it is
based on fact.
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| janfields |
And you can add an
afterword with exactly what you do know to be true.
|
| janfields |
But you can't call it
nonfiction because nonfiction must be sourced for every
fact
|
| janfields |
A good example of this
kind of thing is a novel I just read
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| janfields |
about mill kids...the
title escapes me, though GRACE was in it.
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| janfields |
The author saw a photo
of a little girl who worked in a mill
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| janfields |
and was so taken by the
photo that she wrote a historical novel about the
girl.
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| janfields |
At the end, she put an
afterword telling what she had learned by trying to track down info
on the photo subject -- the real girl.
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| janfields |
It was really
fascinating.
|
| janfields |
So, editors like
fiction based on fact.
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| janfields |
But she'll need a new
name in the novel.
|
| janfields |
Because it isn't your
friend's REAL story anymore.
|
| coloradokate |
What is "creative
nonfiction?" I keep seeing that phrase, and I haven't a
clue.
|
| janfields |
Creative nonfiction is
nonfiction -- sourced nonfiction -- but it is written using a
fiction sound.
|
| janfields |
For example, if you
know a historical figure faced an angry crowd.
|
| janfields |
You could describe an
angry crowd as if you're right there seeing it.
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| janfields |
The grumbling, the cat
calls, the crush of the bodies.
|
| janfields |
Those specific details
add to the creative feel of the moment
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| janfields |
but they are totally
based on what you know to be fact -- that he faced an angry
mob.
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| janfields |
It's a delicate
business because you cannot, for example, have one of the
grumblers
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| janfields |
throw fruit...because
you don't know that fruit was thrown.
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| janfields |
But you know that ANY
angry mob will have grumbling, shouting, and the press of bodies by
definition.
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| janfields |
In historical fiction,
you might read a source that says -- he faced a lot of
criticism.
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| janfields |
And from that line, you
create an angry mob scene with thrown fruit
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| janfields |
and
spitting
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| janfields |
And you are really just
making stuff up...the "facts" don't support it.
|
| janfields |
So it would be
fiction.
|
| janfields |
NORMALLY, historical
fiction goes even further and creates fiction characters
too.
|
| janfields |
It can be a real
tightrope to walk...which is why creative nonfiction comes under so
much fire so often.
|
| rainchain |
Did Rainbow Rumpus want
straight authors? I went to their
|
| rainchain |
site and it looked like
everyone was of the 'community'
|
| janfields |
I suspect they would
wonder if a "straight" author could write something to serve the
kids of gay etc parents.
|
| janfields |
But the email the
editor sent me didn't say anything about only wanting stories from
those within the community.
|
| janfields |
I got the distinct
impression she was looking for folks outside the
community
|
| janfields |
since most of the
readers are going to be straight kids of gay etc
parents.
|
| janfields |
She just doesn't want
"lets hate your parents for what they are" type stories, for
sure.
|
| janfields |
Thanks everyone for
coming...a short transcript but hopefully a goodie.
|
| janfields |
See you next Tuesday
for an afternoon open
forum.
|
