Tuesday 28 August 2018

CanCon 2017: Writing and Self-Publishing

This is a recap of two panels that took place at CanCon 2017 (Oct 13-15) on Sunday morning. The first (at 10am) was “Snakes and Ladders of Self-Publishing”. The second was “Writing Life: Past, Present, and Future.” What advice would be useful to you as a new or seasoned writer? And what about that self-publishing? Read on.


SELF-PUBLISHING


The panelists were Glynn Stewart, Rebecca Diem, Nicole Burton, and the moderator was Linda Poitevin. Linda began by noting how she runs panels; a few questions with 20 minutes at the end for Q&A with the audience (try to refrain from making comments). Brief introductions were accompanied by information about the stage they are in their career.


Self-Publishing Panel

Linda: I’m Linda, moderator. Have six books out in print and ebook, one novella in ebook, and one audio book not associated with the previous ones. It’s audio first, weird story behind it, ask later. Urban fantasy and romance genres, both self published and traditionally.
Nicole: Nicole Marie Burton, based here in Ottawa. Mostly a comic book illustrator as well as children’s books with comic elements. Also a publisher and illustrator with Ad Astra Comix, doing social justice themes.
Rebecca: Rebecca, author of Tales of Captain Duke, steampunk adventures. Written three books in the series so far, editing the fourth book.
Glynn: Launched his 20th novel this morning. Have 5 or 6 series’ ongoing, can’t actually keep count, cycling. Most famous is Starship’s Mage. Last night sold 460,000, “so odds are I’m Canada’s best selling indie author, if not best indie SciFi”.

Linda: There’s lots of ups and downs to getting yourself out there. Deadlines and motivation - set yourself, how to maintain them?
Nicole: Self-induced cold hard fear. Well, it’s a complicated question. Coming from a traditional working environment, I was used to having a boss over me. Motivation was fear of trouble, or upsetting boss, or carrot of paycheque after two weeks. I think it’s an ongoing thing. I’m working in a genre I always wanted to, social justice and social change, also loved comics since being a kid. Knowing I’m working in my medium striving for excellence.
Rebecca: Sure, starting with easy questions. I intended to have the fourth book done earlier than I did this year, but a combination of starting a new job with much different schedule, relatives getting married, big life events, it took away from writing time. In addition, finishing my first series which is incredibly intimidating. Especially with fans tweeting at you about excitement for the next book. You want to do a great job but are petrified of putting it out there. My usual modus operandi is to set a date for book launch, then it has to be done. This year’s different, Fan Expo as an arching deadline, was stressed out over summer. The great thing about indie is you need deadlines, and to meet commitments, but you also have flexibility and a relationship with fans. You can say I have had lots of personal issues, but here’s some great cover art and there’s a big party in December. Without a book, can connect with people and set things up better for release. Still, good to be communicating a schedule, and honour it or provide a really good excuse.
Linda: Excuse?
Rebecca: Yeah, don’t like to use the word, but yeah. (clarifies)
Glynn: I only tell the month when things come out. My copy editor’s in the audience, I book a year or more from the target deadline. If I’m late, other people are in trouble, like cover artist, and I don’t want to get them in trouble.
Audience: Guilt motivating.

Linda: One thing we’re concerned about is quality control, that the product’s good when it goes out. There are things we wish we could take down, but what do you do to maintain quality control for your product.
Glynn: That guy. [copy editor]
Linda: Just that guy.
Glynn: A lot of notes for consistency. The process of switching between series’ and genres is integral for keeping things fresh. Since I switch between, I don’t burn out on any series or genre, it’s still new and fresh. I go to my notes to be sure I’m not forgetting things.
Linda: So how many layers in terms of editing, colour design, etc.
Glynn: Richard does edits, have an in-house person, cover art is outsourced. I used to do layout, but these days I use Vellum for a tenth of the time, and layout that’s 95% as good as me.
Nicole: Publishing is relatively new to me. When I started Ad Astra Comix in 2013, I wore all hats and did everything. Being a copy editor and a graphic designer and keeping things in-house since I don’t have a budget, that’s where I’m at with this. Each of the five books we’ve put out has been a learning process, I’ve tried to create a different process for each book. It’s a bit terrifying at times but gives a sense of what actually works. One example, “War in the Neighbourhood”, about an artist in tenants right movements of the late 1980s, I found that the process was the best one that we had done. I went through the entire book before sending final files with the author. He noticed things like on a page the levels weren’t quite right. That full on consultation we felt happy with. On deadlines, they only matter if they matter to us, we’re not holding anyone up, it’s all in house. It’s more important to have a happy creator than to avoid having a printer delay 48 hours.

Rebecca: It’s been different from beginning to now. Artwork’s still sourced from my little sister, who is talented and a marine biologist. There’s an editor who does the look and title plates for consistency in design; some things have changed. Same editor and beta readers from book 1, that helps to retain consistency through the series; some new beta readers for the 4th book who marathon the first three, to have it be clear in their minds, see if something’s lost going through the process. A nice thing about being indie is getting better, when I first did this was super broke, negative monies, relied on friends and networking and favours. Artwork was a gift from my sister. I wanted a porthole in the centre, called up an elementary school friend for the cover. I know things about MS Word formatting that would shock you, like section break versus continuous section break. Two pages or zero pages, for 8 hours, uploading and reuploading. And that’s sometimes what it takes until you can afford to pay someone to do it for you.
Glynn: And sometimes you’re still too much of a control freak to pay someone to do it for you.

Linda: On the topic of doing it yourself, the marketing and self promotion. That’s a steep learning curve, a lot involved, how to target a new release now.
Rebecca: It’s reaching out to different bloggers, book tubers, people I’ve made connections with over the years. Reach out to Toronto Steampunk society and people through fan conventions. Buy some Facebook ads, themes on Twitter and have FB for the book and series as a whole. First book promotion is where it’s free for a limited time. I’m still learning the process, could do better online than I am. What works for me is in person events, when I’m there and dressed up steampunk and engaging with people. So I try to meet in person, at bookstores and such.
Nicole: Ad Astra is only doing social justice in comics, so a niche we’ve built for ourselves. There’s different events, radical teacher conferences, to talk about colonization or racism, or heavy topics like bullying. Involves occupying a couple different worlds, striking up conversations with thousands of people I’ve never met - which works for me personally, is more of a struggle for other people. It’s all about finding people interested in the themes in our books for their daily lives and books. “Drawing the Line” was about gender discrimination in India. Looked at themes in the book, reached out. Other topics like Shadeism. Those already talking about the issues, ask can this comic help you in any of your work. Many said this is amazing, never seen in North America. That’s the intangible piece. We start all projects with a Crowdfunder to earmark getting copy of the book.
Glynn: Apparently I’m atypical. All marketing has been online. Project of launching novellas every 3 months, all ads the internet offered, banner ads, etc. These days it’s different, constant ads on Amazon, I do a Facebook page discussion, have snippets of book as writing, a graphic designer who pretties them up, a mailing list. Find most is everything, there’s 4000 people who got an email this morning about the book launch, most will buy, which boosts me to the top on Amazon, which sells more copies. That is what we’ve done in the past, recently we’re taking on a publicist and graphic designer. So book touring, I’m not going to pretend I’m fully in the loop on that. A company that we own, functional midsize press, at this point is dedicated to my book.

Linda: On presales, anyone doing it yourself?
Rebecca: Usually presale and hype with the last one, and more realistic deadlines going to try and do the period.
Glynn: I’ve tested presales, and on all platforms we use, like Amazon, it’s not worth the effort. People know the book is coming, I don’t do presale set up. And from book to launch is only 3 weeks or less, not much worth it for that length of a preorder.

Linda: Would you be interested in traditionally publishing, if so why, if not why not. Bests? Worse? What you miss?
Nicole: I think the thing that concerns me about mainstream is that if the focus of every conversation comes on the bottom line, don’t publish me. I’m not going to sell that many books. Subject matter in that niche is more important to me. I’d rather sell 1500 books about a topic I’d love to have, than getting a major book deal. But who knows, check back in five years.
Linda: Major pro is doing what you want?
Nicole: Actually it’s control. When I was younger I really wanted to go to art school. Took art incredibly seriously in the States. When I was a senior, many came back from it who were very cynical about their work, perhaps deep depression about second year. But felt like “will just design Starbucks cups”. I think it’s untrue now, can do what you want, but I worried that if I couldn’t control my content, I didn’t want to be an artist. I realized content was as important as the form, which informs how I do publishing.

Rebecca: I got in through a combination of realism and fear. The realism was, I wanted to be an author and take work seriously, but I was writing a novella. First book of 21,000 words but it was a whole story. Wanted to submit, looked at industry, novellas weren’t a thing... that’s changed. Still wanted to share it, put it online, sold 7 copies, was happy about that. Then did print books, mini launch, and that’s how things got rolling. Came into it almost by accident. Never actually submitted things traditionally. But have been doing research, talking to other authors and agents to see where it might fit in. While Steampunk will always be indie, other books will have a better fit, literary magical realism. Genre books are very easy to push online, easily marketable. Whereas literary ones, I want the additional support in Chapters that you get from publishers. Not always the marketing side of things. Being jam packed is not realistic, they’ll have a number of books on their docket, and unless you advocate for yourself, you don’t get the push you need. Need indie hustle, but nice to have traditional backing you up, navigating the industry together.
Glynn: Do you need to ask the question for me? No, no, get it away. I’ve looked at traditional deals, non-competition clauses, you can’t see things for a year either side. Takes 3 years to get around to publishing, I’m not doing that. Have a book that I was asked for, my agent asked for a manuscript. After 16 months of not hearing a peep, I told them two more weeks or I’m pulling it, and then I did. They’re not going to do anything for me that I can’t at this point. I have better covers, and the same editors and publicists, I have no real need. I continually look at those in self-publishing who are frankly bigger names than I am, who are scrabbling to keep a roof over their head. I’m not scrabbling, we will have put out 10 books at the end of this year.

Linda: For those starting out in self publishing, biggest pitfalls? Give me two.
Nicole: I work with a lot of younger people, those interested in creating comics, so speaking from that. Two main pitfalls is followthrough, with so many different pieces. Comics is an assembly line, not a work of art. First you’re storyboarding, etc. If you’re not ready to run a lap multiple times, it can feel discouraging. I try to help people think about what that looks like ahead of time, for endurance. I will also say for young creators, you can have a lot of feelings when you’re getting in for the first time, which can make you doubt yourself. It’s good to put a name on that, not concrete advice, as resolving it looks different for different people. It’s a tumultuous time, the followthrough is what’s important.
Glynn: My two points are somewhat contradictory, using the same person as a reference. The first point is that your first book is basically going to flop. You’re going to sell 7 copies. And that’s not a bad thing, and there’s ways to increase visibility and get yourself out there. You don’t need a best seller if you’ve got 20 books out there, if you’re putting out something of decent quality, 20 is enough to live on. The flip side is you have to release more than one book, especially if you’re moving into genre fiction, where the rapid release cycle’s with a hard audience to reach. I write a book every 6 weeks. This is a full time job. It’s almost a burnout pace. You cannot match the pace of production of us if you have a full time job. The worst thing to do is push yourself, fast productivity, you need to figure out what you can maintain in your current lifestyle. Might hurt if you show 0 sales after the second day, so it’s a treadmill, but it’s a marathon too. Don’t burn out.

Rebecca: This is why I do one book a year. I think that Nicole and Glynn covered it really well. One thing I will add is, invest in yourself, but not overstrip current needs. Now I have a better job, helping me pay off my student loans, but takes away from writing. Please do not overstrip your budget and go into debt, you won’t make the money back for a number of years, you but still need to invest in yourself. Whether that’s relying on friends, or kickstarters, if you have $1000 to invest in yourself. You decide, cover art, or editing, or promotion, or just a vacation to write for yourself. Do it in a way that matches your life.
Glynn: Something else on that, to watch for as indie has grown, is shark infested waters. People offering “the magic solution”, pay me $2000 to be in my box set. If it sounds too good to be true, probably is. A “specialty offer website” that is a canned Wordpress, that’s terrifying. It’s selling to people who want to be successful.
Rebecca: The magic pill is write more, let it suck, and get better and better.
Glynn: I have entire novels no one will ever see.
Linda: That said, the audio book I did is a bottom drawer novel. Dusted it off, did a rewrite and an edit, and put it on Wattpad, where it caught attention. So don’t entirely give up on options.
Glynn: One of my ideas is being written by a coauthor.
(As promised, the last 21 minutes was for questions.)


PUBLISHING Q&A


Audience: Nicole, marginalized identities, I’m squeeing.
Glynn: I have none, I’m squeeing too.
Audience: Around the quality control, how do you handle sensitivity?
Nicole: When we were first putting definitions around, it started as me, now it’s a four person collective. We tried to lay these things out, our mission statement and boundaries. The ways we try to choose projects that come to us, we look to centre the marginalized voices and dismantle racism, sexism, etc. If there’s a topic, we try to find someone with firsthand experience. That’s one piece, another is being an illustrator. Have done first nations issues, it’s important that they’re written by first nations people. If not, that there’s a heavy consultation piece.

Audience: How long a timeline roughly between first book, and started seeing sales where you thought it would work?

Glynn: I started with a series of 5 novellas. First one sold 53 copies in 3 months, I almost gave up. Wife and business partner told me to continue. My fourth novella was the first one to clear 1000 units, I realized this was something I could do. Fourth novel told me I could do it full time, so took about 9 months for me realizing it as more than a hobby, and 18 months until I realized it was better doing this than being an accountant in Calgary.


Audience: About copyright on work?
Rebecca: Hope it’s accurate - register with archives in Canada and can get ISBN numbers, which means that you submit two copies of your work to library and archives. Copyright is automatic in Canada.
Nicole: In case that doesn’t seem complex enough, here’s how copyright changes. For all published works, we get it on editions. We have one for special edition, north american edition asked for from creators. I feel weird when I hear about major publishers who say “you can’t do this” or have creative right to do whatever. We also function as an in-house studio. Team up with academics to disseminate research, receiving royalties. And for illustration I work with Manitoba First Nations, a national publishing house. They buy the rights. At end of day, there’s lots of options.

Audience: Logistics of sales. Is everything ebook? Physical copies?
Glynn: It’s a lot to juggle.
Rebecca: Yeah.
Glynn: Mine is all ebook, with print on demand. Everything’s createspace and ebooks.
Rebecca: I use a combination. Lots of sales have been print copies, still use createspace. What I usually do is order in batches of 100-150 at a time, shipped to parents because UPS in Downtown Toronto is *winces*. Time these around different events, like appearance schedule. I try not to have too many on hand at once, I have a one bedroom apt. I find doing small batch is best. For distribution, building relationships with bookstores is huge, in my hometown, incredible supporters. Going in and building relationships, so they know you’re legitimate and serious. With Baka Phoenix, this is a real book bookstore, but I built that relationship up - I’m always in there buying books. After a couple years at FanExpo to establish myself, they actually invited me, if any books after this convention, we’d love to carry them. Support at Ad Astra convention as well. Builds up trust at both ends, I got to see how they build up authors, they got to see me serious. Friend sent me a picture, I was in the store window next to Margaret Atwood. Relationships.

I asked something!
Me: Where do you see your sales, inside versus outside Canada? Do you even know online?
Glynn: US is my biggest market, then UK. Then 3-way, Australia/Canada/Germany. Print sales you can’t track it as easily, but ebook I know.
Rebecca: My digital is biggest in US and UK. Print books in Canada.
Linda: Because of conferences?
Rebecca: And word of mouth, yes.
Nicole: We’re sold in 13 different countries, but one-offs to Belize, for example. Sell more in US, but it’s a larger population and we have a distributor in the US. More by Ingram, so more bookstore shelves there.

Audience: (Question to Rebecca, missed specifics - covers?)
Rebecca: Createspace covers I enjoy, but with their cover art I get a batch of 100 books and the cover is slightly askew. Spine bleeds into the front, or book being slender, half of this spine is brown, it looks bad on a shelf. When you’re an indie, quality is so critical. Have to be picky. So when I order from createspace, I will line them up and see which are slightly crooked. There were 30 books crooked, and they’ll send replacements, and some of those are crooked as well. It’s mostly the covers, but for some the text is askew. It’s print on demand, so they’re not as invested in quality control. BUT createspace is going to be a lot cheaper.
Glynn: Is yours a custom size?
Rebecca: No, 5 by 8 regular.
Audience: Gauvin Press(?) in Hull does amazing work, you can get features you wouldn’t with createspace, like foiling. They do small batch runs.
Linda: Everybody’s taking notes on that one. Any other questions, we’ve time for one quick?

(Someone made a comment about a friend who got a self-publish for Chapters, all the text was upside down, so it’s not unique to traditional?)
Glynn’s Copy Editor: I’d say what you’re doing here? Do this. Go online, go to forums.
Linda: Blog posts, do research.
Glynn’s Copy Editor: And know that what works here may not work for you.
Glynn: The market changes fast. What worked for me before will not work today.
Linda: It’s five minutes to eleven, we’re out, thanks.
Rebecca: I have bookmarks.


WRITING LIFE


This was a panel of one - Robert J. Sawyer. He suggested people sit close, in the spit zone, as his “voice is going, sang the theme to Star Trek yesterday”. Robert’s been writing Science Fiction professionally since 1980, so for 37 years, with his first novel having come out in 1990.


Robert J Sawyer
(From his "Readings" panel on Sat)
The idea was to look at the Past, Present and Future of his writing journey. “Things I’ve learned, mostly things to avoid, to save you some errors.” Regarding the future, “I have the rare lifetime Chapters/Indigo card”. Because he bought so many books when they first introduced the card, and they were giving this to their best members - according to the “lifetime” expiration date, he will die December 31st, 2028.

TIP #1: 
As soon as I started getting published, immediately offers started appearing to work in other peoples’ universes. Courted by Ace, current publisher, who wanted a trilogy that was eventually published as George Lucas’s Alien Chronicles. (Backstories of alien races in the Star Wars Cantina and Jabba’s Palace.) “You didn’t even think I knew any Star Wars trivia.” Everybody thought I should do this, even my agent. I said no, I do not want to be known as anything other than a creator of my own worlds.

Later on, Tor wanted me to do the first of their “Earth: Final Conflict” novels. Agent said if they’ll pay him like a regular novel, they weren’t willing. Peter David, prolific, has worked in television, co-created “Space Cases”, was saying “I hope they make Orville novels” - what sort of BS is that? It’s in production now, a contract with every show requires a freelance script per year. Why be merchandising, which will not be canonical, when you can be part of the production? I wrote the Star Trek Continues fan film, because I’m friends with a bunch of the guys, love star trek, and it was my chance to write something being produced that had dialogue for Kirk and Spock. But it’s separate from my publishing and writing career.

Many authors started off well, and got leveraged into producing media tie ins, which is lucrative for publishers, not authors. Some friends became millionaires writing Star Wars novels, as nobody knew how well they’d sell, so they got full royalties. Then Lucasfilm said wait a minute, they’re making more than full time employees at Industrial Light and Magic. Clawed back, and clawed back, even to a flat fee, or 2% on only sales in the US. Not even translation sales. The money spigot is turned off.

All the names of my cohort (who started in ’88 to ’92) who were sucked into this, or were sucked to the right hand side of an ampersand (Larry Niven &, trying to think of names, Mercedes Lackey)... Stephen Michael Stirling has lost a decade of his career, writing money for the other side of the ampersand. No one remembers the right side. Larry Niven’s publisher was Tor, Stirling came with a book, they said it was great, we can give a small four figure advance... “everyone knows money’s for Larry’s name not yours”. If we put Larry’s name on it, even though he hasn’t written a word, we’ll give you more.

TIP #2:
My parents had to move into an assisted living home and had to clean out their house. One joyous moment, 3 years ago, 24 years after my first novel was out in 1990, I found 8 mint condition copies that I’d wrapped in plastic and stored in their basement, in case of fire at my place. No matter how many copies you have of first novel, there will never be enough.

Demand of first editions of your first book. Many books are printed to make pyramids of books, no one will dig down to take the one on the bottom. They’re eventually remaindered, but are as pristine as any other copy. Acquire them, you get them at manufacturing cost. Book is $30, but at Tor (manufacturer) it’s $1.75. Buy hundreds at that price, once they go out, they get black dots on them. As many as you can have.

TIP #3:
Awards matter. People say no one pays attention, but they matter enormously to advancement. It’s hugely significant, it makes and breaks authors. I was very fortunate, my 5th novel - no 6th - won the Nebular award, best novel of the year. It’s the reason I’m here today as a full time SF writer. As my editor at HarperCollins said, you went overnight to a bankable name.

It happens from ambition in what you write, not in the award. Recognizes authors who are trying to do something that is difficult for them, and has rarely been accomplished. One of an endless string of urban fantasies will not go anywhere, you’re stuck at four figure advances for rest of your career. Not too bad in 1998, but advances tend not to go up, even though the cover price has doubled. The royalty becomes effectively larger, but write something that’s going to make a splash.

Don’t take a step backwards, don’t write something that isn’t surprising and new. The publishing industry will pigeonhole you as fast as possible, “He’s a hack”. My friend Kevin J Anderson has sold way more, has over 100 books to my 23, he writes not just Star Wars stuff but Dune novels. Two years ago, he finally had his first Hugo nomination, a benefit of the Sad Puppy movement to bring down what they were about. The movement will not last, and a single career boost you can get is by winning major awards. I hold the world all-time record for number of wins as SF, 60 to my record. Earlier this year, the Robert A Heinlein award. But only goes to writers who write ambitious stuff.

TIP #4 (they stopped being numbered):
Get tied into writing your stories, your voice, not writing other peoples’ work. You cannot mistake a certain book for any other book that came out that year. Make a splash at the beginning, as you don’t get to make a splash later on. If your idea is to write “Buffy” style, you’ll never make a living off it. Don’t expect an obituary in the New York Times or Globe & Mail. The books will be considered an interchangeable commodity. Next month we publish another one, and yours is forgotten.

Here’s a painful lesson from me. Beware of “Para” writing activities. Things “similar to” or “like” writing, things that make you feel like you’re part of the community, but you’re not writing. Attending conventions, critiquing other peoples’ manuscripts, or in my case, getting involved in political publications. I’m the first person to resign the post of president of the SFWA (Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America), after 6 months, realizing I had done no writing of my own. Full time work as a volunteer for something mean-spirited. Whether as big as SFWA, or region here in Canada, or local writers group - organizing writers groups, editing newsletters - none of that is pounding characters from your keyboard. Nothing else counts.

When Jerry Pournelle died two weeks ago, there was no obituary, past president wasn’t even mentioned (and he did it at the worst possible time, in his first year when he emerged on the scene). He became a right hand side of Larry Niven, was involved in politics when young. Very few writers do breakthrough work after 40 years of age. They may hone their work, people might say later Heinlein work is self indulgent and repetitive. “I write because I aspire”? BS, you’re not a priest simply because you go to church.

Any Non-Canadians? Dual citizen? Me too.

Ignore the fact that you’re American. You get big fish in a small pond here; all of my success and wealth comes from being a big fish in a small pond. In this country, no one was writing Canadian science fiction. William Gibson was here before me, but he wasn’t doing anything demonstrably Canadian, never embraced this country. A niche for me to come in, here and in the US.

Never do a book signing in LA, it’s always movie stars and you can’t compete with Shania Twain and her memoir. The only authors who get consistent media attention are actors, or politicians. In Canada? That’s not the case. Margaret Atwood is the classic example of big fish, small pond. Literary fiction in the US, who is a household name? You can only name commercial writers, like Nora Roberts or Stephen King. Atwood in Canada is a superstar. I just got recognized in the elevator by someone not attending the convention, as a daughter-in-law’s fave writer, because I’m on TV or the radio all the time.

NPR (National Public Radio) in the States has a general policy of only interviewing non-fiction writers. You get negligible attention in the United States. In Canada, find a way, define yourself. This guy, cognitive science, you’re well set because the media loves something other than “I’ve written a novel.”. (“Well, tell your mother, the world doesn’t need to know that.”) But saying I’m a cognitive scientist who has written a novel about how something will boost your memory in ways never seen in history of time... the word novel falls by the wayside, you’re on the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). It is way easier.

I’ll tell you, you want to write science fiction (versus fantasy). The media is receptive, if it is serious and tries to address a real world problem, or is prognosticative about the future. “This magic system, learning that she is noble born and her powers awaken”, no one will interview you. Want something to tie into issues, say automated cars, or something about how cities will look twenty years down the road. The best you can hope for is Canada Council rate, if you do joint, you get half - can say 20 times as much if you say “futurist” rather than SF writer. Whereas unless you literally say you are magic, there is no upsell for fantasy. And horror, forget it, doomed. Every year my friend Mark organizes a book tour around Halloween, knows the lore, has me in, can say Mark Leslie is also the author. So you have one day per year. But you might make more if you trick or treat with a UNICEF box and keep the money, not that I’m advising it.

When you look outside of SF, who is the biggest seller in the field? John Grisham. With every book, he finds an issue. “The Chamber” is about the death penalty. “I have a novel that argues, even in the case of an unrepentant murderer, the death policy should be abolished”, and you have something to talk about that’s not the novel. Or his book “Runaway Jury” about suing big tobacco. He had a story to tell, and evidence to back it up. If you want to be a big fish, be an expert in a field people are talking about, or in an issue where you’re the go-to guy. “Neuromancer” was written on a manual typewriter and William Gibson gets to talk about internet online; learned it well and became known as a commentator.
(Audience member chimes in, for horror, become an expert in true crime.)
“That is true. He could kill somebody today.”


THE SECOND DECADE


We’re only through the first decade here, in the second decade I wrote “Calculating God”. This is huge, I want to tell every dealer in the room: **Your book is not for everybody.** Maybe it’s the most important thing in your life, it may not interest me one iota. It’s not what I would normally read, you have your schtick. This is a huge thing to recognize. Most authors are whistling their book all the time to everybody. It’s a turnoff, you can become a pariah. Websites with a “May I shamelessly attempt to sell you a book” button. In the culture of positive consent now, it should mean you get to say no, but it’s a warning. When I extract from you, I’ll move on.



Used to be that dealers rooms had dealers, not individual authors. When looking at browsing, no one was hustling you. “I can read the back, thank you”. “That’s the wrong version of knight”. “Comma’s in wrong place”... let somebody be. Whatever the topic of the month is, the 40th anniversary of Planet of the Apes, don’t twist that to be about your book. “In my book, the princess --“  I was never a hustler in that sense, but what you learn is some people actively DISLIKE your books.

Biggest formula to success, related to big fish, your job is not to be blandly acceptable to whole of reading published. “Read every so often.” You want to be the favourite author of a narrow segment of the reading public. We have the biggest reader literacy in the history of homosapiens, you don’t need all 8 million. Can make a fine living if 80,000 in a dozen or more languages will reliably buy your book instantly, because you’re their favourite author. You don’t have to care, you round to the nearest million, then 0 million humans care about your work. Service that narrow set, and you’re doing well.

About book reviews on Amazon, a friend of mine while a house guest said they gave 3 stars on Goodreads. I said there’s only two rankings, five stars, or dead to me for life. They went to revise it. You see thousands of 5 star reviews, and very few authors will average that except in erotica or romance, where the bar is low. But if you look, convincing Audible to adopt histograms instead of the aggregate star ratings, there’s a world of difference. Lots of 2.5 star books, but between a book that has a bar chart [all equal], and “lots of people hate and love” [average to 2.5] - that’s an interesting book. Epic quest, I’m out, fairy princess, I’m out, but something could be a five star book for ME. Population could be interesting, versus only the middle is up (middle finger).

In my case, sometimes I hate it because of politics. Liberal, secular Canadian. Negative reviews say I American bash (yet I’m an American citizen, and they’re oblivious when I do the same to Canadians) and the other thing is my atheism (one of them said I used Christ as a swear word, so one star). You’ve got to recognize that. Stop trying to cater to anybody except your core audience. “If I only added a love interest or a military battle.” NO, they have whole books, a main course of what they want, and they won’t respond to a soupçon.

In 1985, CBC hired me to write documentaries of the history of SF. “Here is money, go to New York, and interview writers.” That same year, the International Festival was in Toronto, and in New York was Asimov, Gardner, Judith Merril, Spider Robinson. What echoes the most, Asimov, and people who don’t like his books. “If I make myself and my readers happy, in that order, I am content.” Write the books you do, don’t pander to the marketplace. I like philosophically rich things as social commentary. If you don’t like that, I can recommend other authors. Star Wars, then colour books by Tanya Huff - not to my taste, but wonderful for that audience. Don’t try to be any writer other than yourself.

Took me years to tell FlashForward [book 1999, TV series 2009]. I have too much money, how did that happen. Said to Vince [Gerardis], it’s great that this is selling, but how come this, and not the one that came before? This one survived the elevator pitch. Some may remember the TV show, opening: “On Oct 6th, the planet blacked out, everyone saw the future” - that’s the pitch. Someone sees others, and they see me, so knowing the fixed future, we can change it. An engine for a TV show, if you want Hollywood’s attention, is what are the one or two sentences.

If you can’t boil it down, that’s not bad, for my favourite novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, that’s impossible to do. It only became a movie, as so many complex ones do, because the book was a runaway success. We can’t “Hollywood-ize” this, so we’ll have to do it scene for scene. An Oscar for screenplay, for basically sitting there and saying I type up everything in quotation from books. Same for Maltese Falcon. If you want to crack Hollywood, have a high concept story, with one or two lines to describe it. If you can’t, be content. You set out to be a novelist, no one set out to be a Hollywood producer. No one said to Michelangelo, looking at David, “when is it going to be an action figure”. He set out to make a sculpture. If you want books adapted, what I said is true.

Next, look after yourself! It is very easy to put on weight. A pound per year for 30 years and you’re 30 pounds overweight. You need to write to be a writer, so the more time spent sitting increases. I have a treadmill, some friends use standing desks. My friend has a treadmill desk, he’s in terrific shape.

Nobody’s going to follow this next piece of advice, not even me: Stay offline. Don’t spend time on Facebook or Twitter, and don’t spend time arguing. There’s always somebody wrong on the internet. Of course, if in business, and professional writers are in business, be timely in your emails. There are browsers that can be shut off during work hours. LeechBlock. If you feel you have to access wikipedia or email, those can be your only two sites, or other combinations.

Have a computer that isn’t connected to the internet, take out all browsers. It’s down in the DNA, in the bare bones, windows updates, but you don’t need Mozilla or a font of MS Edge to be accessible. Intelligent keyboards with a memory for use, they can do nothing else. They’re dirt cheap, essentially obsolete. AlphaSmart 3000 word processor, much better than your laptop these days, just dump stuff out if it with a USB and it puts things into Word or whatever. No distractions. AlphaSmart Neo II has more memory, $50-60. I have three now, one in my car, others in rooms of my house. All the online fights doesn’t make difference. What about Scully? They were the early adopters of making a platform online, the jobs are filled. Many have interesting blogs and tweets and have no appreciable uptick in sales.
(Robert checks his notes)


"No."   "Yeah, what was I thinking..."
We’ll stop in one minute, we’ll keep this last one. I have few serious regrets. One is SFWA president. Another is, took several books, to learn to say no to the editor. Your name is on the cover. I had suggestions that harmed my novel “Mindscan”, it did go on to win an award, but every time I look at that book that came out in 2005, I cringe. I know it was a better book before. He tried again with “Rollback”, I called my agent, what do I do. “Oh, you say no.” So I said I’m not going to do that.

David himself said, “In the end it is your name on the cover. A year from now, I’ll still be an editor, it’s up for grabs if you’ll still be an author, but if you’re sure.” If there’s something that’s the whole eff-ing point, stick to your guns, you’re the author, you went in to tell your stories your way.

It was 11:50, but Robert took a quick question about international sales: Dismal. Very few copies sold internationally, much to my surprise. I’ve been told by some I should have priced it higher. Need $2.99 local currency for Amazon to qualify for discount, but some say put it higher ($4.99) or people don’t think it’s as good. Think it’s some lack of awareness that a new Sawyer is out there, working on rectifying that. The Neanderthal Parallax trilogy, Quantum Night as only J. Sawyer, the more you have as ebooks, the better they all sell. We’ll see if I have new data in a year.

That was how the panel wrapped up, though in the process of my online research (for spelling, etc) I also found Robert J. Sawyer’s Letter to Beginning Writers: https://www.sfwriter.com/beginner.htm Maybe you’ll find that to be of use too?
***

Those were two of the three panels I went to on Sunday; see the main CanCon post (when it goes up) for the full convention. A reminder that attributions/quotations may have errors due to my typing speed, so don’t take them as fact, and mind the context. If you have something to add, do leave a comment for me! Thanks for reading.

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